03-02-15 Truly believable

[Qwertz]

....was my first reaction, and also my comment on the utter failure of Ruby's and Dillon's plan to get the situation back on their own tracks

And Ray's being very lucky indeed! I wonder what his follow-up thought process might be, considering he did kiss Dillon and found it to be quite hot, but apparently never thought about his sexuality as something non-straightforward [pun not intended ] before.

Sadly Amber, as others have pointed out, hasn't quite been considerate to the other two (in the sense that, after all, they do live together, and are also bonded by ties of friendship/family), though really their attitude at the moment (Ruby's more than Dillon's, I think) isn't exactly exemplary either, and I much prefer Ray seducing Amber away (and vice versa) to Ruby scheming to get her live-action yaoi dose through him without his awareness.



Also, can I just say thaaaaaank you Don (and the rest of the team worrying about these things) for keeping these forums a nice place to be!!
And I'm very sorry to see that you even needed to use these measures; it's never pleasant to have to be a harsh judge of others' behaviour when you'd mostly just like to have a nice time sharing opinions and discussing characters, possibilities, etc. with other people, but someone unfortunately has to be sometimes, and you're doing a great job!

[Spidrift]

....was my first reaction, and also my comment on the utter failure of Ruby's and Dillon's plan to get the situation back on their own tracks

Be fair; Dillon pretty much gave up on trying to seduce Ray, and told Ruby flatly that Ray needed to be kissing Amber rather than him. The guy really has made some progress. He's just a bit distracted and confused in this strip, probably mostly because comedy. Once he acknowledges what Amber and Ray are doing, he'll presumably continue to accept the situation, even if he does sigh and shed another tear or two along the way.

(I wouldn't put it past him to offer to help Ray to explore his newly-discovered bisexual side, if the chance arises, mind you. That would be just too tempting.)

Ironically, it's Ruby, who nudged Dillon into making that moral progress, who's displaying the bad attitude just now, largely because of the massive blind spots in her self-awareness, and the huge amount of denial she's managed to lay over her desires. Plus, it's clear that she thinks that Amber gets all the fun while she does all the hard work, with some evidence for the belief, and this is just another example. The question is whether Dillon recognises that she's more than a little confused and messed up, and how well he can help her get out of that hole.

At first, it seemed that Dillon would be helping Ruby by helping her out of her shell and persuading her to stretch her comfort zone a little - but this could be far more important. Especially for Amber, who needs a snark knight kid sister who can point out her mistakes, not a prude who's always snarling at her.

[Artemisia]

*Breaks into "If you've got it, flaunt it"

Talk about getting swept up in the moment. I can't say that I approve, but you know, as long as they follow Dr. Frank'n'furter's advice about wearing a condom....

[Spidrift]

A minor irony just hit me; Amber claims to have met impressive, attractive women who think that they can take whatever they like, and she despises them. And yet she can't see that that is exactly how she appears to Ruby.

[Artemisia]

Well, sometimes people despise the traits in others that they show themselves and never really see. So, it actually makes some sense that Amber's like that.

[The Omnipotent One]

A minor irony just hit me; Amber claims to have met impressive, attractive women who think that they can take whatever they like, and she despises them. And yet she can't see that that is exactly how she appears to Ruby.

I think the reason is because Ruby is her sister and she never registered in her head that she was upsetting Ruby growing up. Maybe not, but I do understand that Amber's reaction to DiDi is because she thought that DiDi was Yuki, who was dating Gary, who Amber saw as her only means of getting "the swirly".
Or maybe I'm just thinking too much. All I know is how confusing Amber truly is: first she wants to be with Gary because he can do some incredible *ahem* "tongue action", then when she gets what she wants she almost immediately forgets the past day or two and shags this guy she just met. I get that Amber is a former porn star, but if she is so insistent on changing her life, then what's the point of banging complete strangers?

[Spidrift]

Oh, I get why Amber can't see how she looks to Ruby. I just think it's ironic that she (like so many human beings) can't see that she seems guilty of the very thing she excoriates.

And while she wants out of the porn business, she clearly doesn't see that as any reason to change her enthusiastic off-duty sexual behaviour. Why should she? There's nothing inherently "porny" about enjoying sex... So, given that she doesn't see herself as being in a relationship with Gary (though she might like to get there eventually), she wouldn't see anything wrong with having sex with Ray, even if she was thinking straight just now, which she isn't because passionate snog from hunky guy phwoah woah.

Now, actually, if she wants to relate comfortably to people outside the porn biz, and not be seen as Amber the Porn Girl, she does need to slow down a bit. She doesn't have to give up sex, by any means, but other people do take the subject a bit less casually. She needs to learn to negotiate, to sort out what the other person will think, and to understand when they're a bit prudish or cautious. But that's going to be difficult, because habits.

[MuchachoNL]

There's nothing inherently "porny" about enjoying sex...

Nor slutty... but unfortunately: that's the stigma it gets.

[Spidrift]

Yes, yes, and calming it down a bit would get Amber slightly less frequently slut-shamed (in her reality or on discussion boards). Not much, though; she's a sexually active single woman and an ex-porn star, and there's not much can be done about the idiots. That's not the point, though. It's not slut-shaming she really has to worry about; it's forming social relationships with people who just have slightly different attitudes to sex than herself.

Ruby may be about to cut loose with something amounting to slut-shaming, to Amber's face or just about her to Dillon, and people will doubtless say that the problem there will be with Ruby and not Amber. And maybe that's true, although Amber doesn't seem to understand that those problems even exist until somebody like Ruby explodes at her. But if and when, say, Ray never calls her, because despite being a nice guy, he can't think of her as anything but a casual shag, she needs to understand what's going on before she can do anything about it.

[Cortez]

Sighs

So the c authors are ssetting up Zii and Gary by 1: trying to show Zii cares as more than just a friend and 2: making the fanbase dislike Amber for stomping on Gary's feelings by hooking up with a guy she just met


Lovely....

Hell of a double standard there buddy. You forget that Gary and Amber aren't a couple and that Gary flirts with other women too.

Oh, but it's bad when Amber does it. Even though she's still single.

Speaking of Amber, she doesn't know about Dillon's crush on his childhood friend either. So she shouldn't feel bad about this either.

Please do point out where I identified Amber as the culprit....?


Also, Gary is picking up a girl for his job not to sex it up with her ( that we know of) so there WOULD be a difference IF I was blaming her

It seems like you were when you were complaining about her hooking up with Ray, even though, as has been said, Gary and Amber aren't a couple.

If you weren't identifying her as "the culprit", why are you saying she's hooking up with Ray to hurt Gary's feelings?

And the groupie isn't the only person Gary has flirted with recently.

[Spidrift]

Gary's a sponge. He doesn't really have much idea what might or might not be an appropriate way to behave, so he just acts like the people around him. Funnily enough, he has once or twice noticed that some things that those people do might actually be questionable, but he lacks the courage of his convictions, so he surrenders any moral high ground he encounters.

All of which said, no, nobody has any actual claim on him (and he has no claim on anyone else) just now.

[crimzontearz]

It seems like you were when you were complaining about her hooking up with Ray, even though, as has been said, Gary and Amber aren't a couple.

If you weren't identifying her as "the culprit", why are you saying she's hooking up with Ray to hurt Gary's feelings?

And the groupie isn't the only person Gary has flirted with recently.

read my post Cortez

I am annoyed the authors are setting up Amber and Gary for a possible distancing (after making it look like Amber cared about him enough to be truly an item with him) by having her randomly hook up with a stranger and setting Zii up to "strangely having feelings for him all of a sudden"

I never said "gee Amber is such a bad person"

[MuchachoNL]

I think Zii just wants to know how he's getting so much attention lately and is secretly jealous about it.

[Don Alexander]

Ruby may be about to cut loose with something amounting to slut-shaming

Oooooh, then I get to ban her!

[Spidrift]

Sorry dude, you heard the boss-man; fictional characters get a pass.

(Which raises the question of whether T sees Ruby's anger with Amber as being on a par with beating people up or being Yvan. But then, as Ruby herself would probably say, blood relatives may get to say stuff to each other that strangers aren't allowed.)