13-02-15 You are the target audience

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13-02-15 You are the target audience

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Re: 13-02-15 You are the target audience

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Re: 13-02-15 You are the target audience

Post by wiseguy »

maybe Amber is pretending to sleep :ymdevil: :ymdevil: :ymdevil: :ymdevil: :ymdevil: :ymdevil: :-$
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Re: 13-02-15 You are the target audience

Post by tanonev »

I guess in terms of personal growth, the cast member that Ruby would benefit the most from meeting would be Peggy. She holds a traditionally serious, respectable job (not saying that Amber's job isn't serious or respectable, but rather that Peggy's job is much closer to Ruby's idea of serious), but she also treats herself to sexual encounters and isn't embarrassed about them, and maybe seeing someone like that in person would help Ruby realize that she doesn't have to give up her professional identity just because she explores her sexuality. In terms of comedic opportunities, though, I don't see much of a future there...

On the flip side, speaking from personal experience, repression can actually be a powerful professional motivator (not a healthy one, mind you, but powerful nonetheless), and if Ruby's been tapping into that in order to power her way through school, she might not be willing to let that go so easily.

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Re: 13-02-15 You are the target audience

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he's got your number, ruby.
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Re: 13-02-15 You are the target audience

Post by Spidrift »

Okay, so Dillon is still reining back the impulse to act like a jackass. Now, will he double down by asking why Ruby is so scared of Amber finding out the faintest thing embarrassing about her? Because he's had evidence before this, and it's really a much more interesting and important issue than Ruby just being a bit prudish and worried about respectability. That's pretty ordinary; major hang-ups about your own sister are actually unusual.

And I'm now trying to think if we've seen Ruby admitting vulnerability to Dillon before, as she does in panel 3. I think she's shown something like the expression from the inset frame there once or twice, but not often . She now just about trusts him, despite herself.

Anyway, I note that I was right about the walls being thin. Any bets on that being a Chekhovian gun?

(Oh, and Dillon's second speech bubble would work better as "And repressed to stress?", wouldn't it?)
tanonev wrote:I guess in terms of personal growth, the cast member that Ruby would benefit the most from meeting would be Peggy.
I said a while back that one optimum end-state for these comics would involve Ruby and Peggy sharing an apartment. Peggy is the big sister that Ruby needed, instead of being stuck with Amber, and could indeed talk Ruby through a few issues - while Ruby would make damn sure to cover her side of the rent, give Peggy someone rational to bounce ideas off, and not get in the way when Peggy hits the door at a dead run yelling "Emergency Call-Out".

But as you say, lack of comedy potential. The same goes for Ruby meeting Kiley. Ruby's problems aren't actually terribly complicated, and Kiley could probably get her through them in one session.
tanonev wrote:On the flip side, speaking from personal experience, repression can actually be a powerful professional motivator (not a healthy one, mind you, but powerful nonetheless), and if Ruby's been tapping into that in order to power her way through school, she might not be willing to let that go so easily.
Ruby has made lemonade from the lemons that life (or rather Amber) handed her, certainly. Her problem at the moment is that it isn't doing her much good; she's job-hunting (and a little bit desperate, according to the print bonus strips), while Amber is the one with the apartment, the loud orgasms, and the job. Jealousy and bitterness aren't pretty, but they're sometimes unavoidable.

And as Dillon would note, the repression currently has Ruby so tightly wound that it may make her less competent in her job search. But she needs to admit that to herself.
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Re: 13-02-15 You are the target audience

Post by Bambikles »

Adorable Ruby faces in that one ! :ymhug:
Spidrift wrote:Okay, so Dillon is still reining back the impulse to act like a jackass. Now, will he double down by asking why Ruby is so scared of Amber finding out the faintest thing embarrassing about her? Because he's had evidence before this, and it's really a much more interesting and important issue than Ruby just being a bit prudish and worried about respectability. That's pretty ordinary; major hang-ups about your own sister are actually unusual.
I think you'll be disappointed. Today's gag feels like a closure for the sequence. Sisterly problems may come later, probably 'preferably ?) between them.

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Re: 13-02-15 You are the target audience

Post by Spidrift »

Bambikles wrote:Adorable Ruby faces in that one !
Yeah, I should have noted that she continues to have the best range of facial expressions in Giz's collection, when Giz draws her as a person rather than as a cartoon doodle. She needs to take care about the duck pout, though.
Bambikles wrote:I think you'll be disappointed. Today's gag feels like a closure for the sequence.
You may well be right - though one possibility for the next strip is another dream sequence, introducing new issues trawled out of the bits of Ruby's backstory that she prefers not to think about. (Or possibly something about Dillon's past, though I'm not sure that there's much left to play with there for now.) However, more than one crucial dream sequence per volume might be overdoing it.
Bambikles wrote:Sisterly problems may come later, probably 'preferably ?) between them.
TCampbell hinted kind of heavily that we'd see Ruby cutting loose and bad-mouthing Amber's sexual morality some time soon. I thought that might just involve Ruby telling Dillon that she doesn't want to be like her sister, and explaining why - which might still happen, but if you're right about this being a scene break, it may be a direct confrontation instead.

So Ruby may start firing up in the next strip, if it's set the morning after this one (especially if Ray has slipped away promptly). Quite what would set her off, beyond general irritation, remains to be seen - Amber complaining that Ray left without giving her his number would be one possibility...

The boys all say "You look so fine",
They don't come back for a second time -
Oh you can't hide, from the turning of the tide...


Oh, and now that the recent strips are inked, we get the terrible truth about Dillon's pyjamas. Just as well the comic isn't in colour, I guess.

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Last edited by Spidrift on Thu Feb 19, 2015 5:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: 13-02-15 You are the target audience

Post by Artemisia »

I'm usually seen as the most respectable and staid person around and yet I know all the lyrics to "Sit On My Face" by Monty Python. . .

Looks can be very deceiving.

Problem is, most of what I know is centered on lesbians and lesbianism...I get clueless beyond that :p
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Re: 13-02-15 You are the target audience

Post by FlashD81 »

Dillon is behaving and Ruby is starting to trust him. I think I like how the friendship is progressing between these two.
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Re: 13-02-15 You are the target audience

Post by Spidrift »

Like it or not, they need each other. They've only got one superego between them.

Actually, I now want to see their shoulder sprites. I bet that Dillon will suddenly find that his shoulder angel has a power bob, glasses, and a ra-ra skirt, while Ruby's shoulder devil will drag itself into the light of day for the first time in years and turn out to be tall and blonde, with a suspiciously deep voice but camp mannerisms.
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Re: 13-02-15 You are the target audience

Post by brasca »

Spidrift wrote:
Bambikles wrote:Sisterly problems may come later, probably 'preferably ?) between them.
TCampbell hinted kind of heavily that we'd see Ruby cutting loose and bad-mouthing Amber's sexual morality some time soon. I thought that might just involve Ruby telling Dillon that she doesn't want to be like her sister, and explaining why - which might still happen, but if you're right about this being a scene break, it may be a direct confrontation instead.

So Ruby may start firing up in the next strip, if it's set the morning after this one (especially if Ray has slipped away promptly). Quite what would set her off, beyond general irritation, remains to be seen - Amber complaining that Ray left without giving her his number would be one possibility...
And everyone will have to be on their best behavior when discussing that. Amber and Ruby are a great example of the paths people take each with advantages and disadvantages. There is nothing wrong with Amber's sex positive attitude, but there are consequences in that it is difficult to establish a steady relationship and people prejudging her past experiences. There is nothing wrong with Ruby being goal oriented and focused, but without some outlet for basic needs it is beginning to take its toll and leaving her in a state of constant agitation.

What is notable is that she knew nothing about yaoi. Ruby may be repressed, but I would think she would have heard something mentioned by her peers. If not that then soap operas or romance novels. I know most of that concerns heterosexual coupling, but I would think someone might have mentioned it once and she would be curious enough to investigate.

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Re: 13-02-15 You are the target audience

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Ruby is very innocent and naive, especially in anything related to sex, to the point of wilful ignorance. This would be partly comedy and partly her hang-ups meaning that she'd have a fingers-in-her-ears response to anything she did hear concerning sexuality. On top of that, frankly, the characters in these comics often seem a couple of decades or more out of date in all sorts of ways (the use of snail mail to send photos, a lot of the musical references), and the pervasiveness of manga/anime in geek culture, let alone the wider world, is actually a modern phenomenon; someone Ruby's age might be expected to have heard the term these days, but a few years back, not so much.

Okay, I admit it, I think I may first have heard the term "yaoi" from these comics. Now, just to be indelicate and ungentlemanly - I'm apparently a few years older than Giz, but not that many, and writers tend to impose their own cultural assumptions onto their characters.

Oh, and one other thing; people tend to pick up pop culture references and information about sexual behaviour, not so much from their peers as from their friends. And we have significant evidence that Ruby doesn't have many friends. She frequently teeters on the brink of being a tragic character, remember. Her own pop-cultural references tend to be from classic TV. That suggests a lot of Saturday nights spent watching the box on her own or with her parents.

Anyway, if and when Ruby does detonate at Amber - I just hope that the trigger involves her having something accurate to say about Amber's mistakes. It'd be very easy for Ruby to go off on a jealous, slut-shaming rant at her sister, but that would just make her look like an unpleasant person, give Amber a sense of self-righteousness, and alienate Dillon. But Ruby could likewise have gone off at Dillon many times, but she didn't until he apparently started boasting about multiple counts of boyfriend-stealing - at which point, Ruby ended up giving him some good advice about his dumb mistakes. Ruby's world-view is flawed, but as you say, it has its advantages. I doubt that she'll be quite so inclined to give Amber constructive advice, but I'd like to see her at least land some blows that sting.
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Re: 13-02-15 You are the target audience

Post by Don Alexander »

Spidrift wrote:And we have significant evidence that Ruby doesn't have many friends.
I think there's an excessive "m" in that sentence.

Also, I'm pretty sure if it wasn't for you perverse people on this perverse comic's forum, I'd have never heard of yaoi either... O:-)
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Re: 13-02-15 You are the target audience

Post by Spidrift »

Ruby isn't the sort to have many friends; she's a prickly introvert. The number may even fall to zero from time to time, between stages in her life. But she's not totally incapable of friendship; that takes something approaching mental illness. There'll usually be one or two people around Ruby who feel enough of a combination of pity and curiosity that they'll try talking to her - and she probably won't block them, because even she feels some need for conversation, and anyway she's polite.

Then, those people will discover that she's not a bad person to know. She's smart, she's honest, and she's kind of sweet when she lets her guard down.

Case in point: she's lumbered herself with a friend at the moment. It's a warped sort of friendship, but it's looking increasingly real.
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"Brevior vita est quam pro futumentibus negotium agendo."
-- Motto of Hogshead Publishing of fond memory, and wise words to set your Foes List by.
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