20-02-15 Totally at ease around any man

Discuss SDB here!

Moderators: Shouri, Giz

wi1dfire
Posts: 112
Joined: Mon Jan 10, 2011 8:59 pm

Re: 20-02-15 Totally at ease around any man

Post by wi1dfire »

Spidrift wrote:TCampbell keeps saying that Amber has problems, which we'll see in due course, but honestly, as of now, what are they? She got swirly'd one night and the next morning, then banged enthusiastically by a good-natured guy the next night, and he's prepared to hang around. And she's still got the job, the apartment, and the friends. Ruby seems fully entitled to feel that she got handed the shitty end of the stick in that family.
Quite frankly, I would hope that my 6-7 years older sister would be at least on the surface a lot more put together and settled in their life. Especially when I was comparing them to my first few weeks out of college. If Ruby truly felt that she deserved to have more of Maslow's needs checked off than Amber right at this moment, then it isn't proof of anything except that Ruby is a self-absorbed jerk that feels entitled to things she hasn't earned.

Which, since I like Ruby, I'm not of the opinion she feels that way. Annoyed and exasperated by her older sister, yes, but I haven't seen any evidence that she thinks Amber should have a crappy life. I'm willing to listen to your arguments that Ruby feels Amber caused her to have a crappy life, but those aren't quite the same opinions.

I think more conversation passed between Ruby and Ray before Dillon came out. Maybe not a lot more, but enough that Ruby had fully come into the hallway in the meantime. So perhaps they already acknowledged his state of dress, or Ray simply noticed that Ruby was having trouble meeting his eyes, and decided not to put her on the spot for it. That's all guess though, and it does seem odd that he didn't acknowledge her when he left. Maybe, like someone said, it had more to do with the number of words that could fit in the bubble rather than rudeness on Ray's part, but maybe not too. I guess we'll see.

User avatar
brasca
Posts: 3848
Joined: Wed Jul 13, 2011 6:04 am

Re: 20-02-15 Totally at ease around any man

Post by brasca »

Spidrift wrote:And Dillon gets further confirmation that Ruby has a working libido, if he needed it. This gives him a little more excuse for trying to persuade her to relax and loosen up a bit - but it's not like he needed that.

Oh, and Ray seems to have realised that, in this apartment, Ruby's opinions don't matter. He apologises to Dillon, his old school friend, for wandering round in a towel - but not to Ruby, the girl he barely knows and who he believes has a jealous boyfriend (and who he prevented from sleeping in her normal room last night). Bros before hos, eh, dude?
I think most women who accept that they have a working libido would find it hard to look away. I doubt Peggy's behavior would be any different.

Ray knows that Ruby is Dillon's roommate and not much else. Seeing as how Amber is also his roommate and he just got acquainted with her... repeatedly he might be assuming that if Ruby is anything like Amber she is probably accustomed to the sight of naked men. Keep in mind his perception of Dillon is still largely based on high school when he was shy, introverted, and in the closet.

User avatar
Spidrift
Posts: 13180
Joined: Fri Jan 27, 2012 6:11 pm

Re: 20-02-15 Totally at ease around any man

Post by Spidrift »

wi1dfire wrote:Quite frankly, I would hope that my 6-7 years older sister would be at least on the surface a lot more put together and settled in their life. Especially when I was comparing them to my first few weeks out of college. If Ruby truly felt that she deserved to have more of Maslow's needs checked off than Amber right at this moment, then it isn't proof of anything except that Ruby is a self-absorbed jerk that feels entitled to things she hasn't earned.
If they were broadly similar characters on broadly similar paths, I'd agree with you. I'd expect a vaguely reasonable Ruby to be asking Amber for advice on life strategies, in that case. But Ruby defines herself as the not-Amber; the self-disciplined, respectable one, who's done the hard work and acquired the education and the qualifications. Which is why I suspect that Amber's (seemingly?) comfortable, successful life is part (just part) of what makes Amber perpetually angry at Amber (as Amber has noticed).

I'm not saying that Ruby consciously wants Amber to suffer; she takes family loyalty too seriously for that. But if Amber was visibly suffering in some way, or at least admitting to being discontented with her life, it would confirm Ruby's ideas about how the world is supposed to work. From Ruby's point of view, she's had seven years of hard work, lying to her parents, and possibly becoming boring - and what has it got her? Not a tenth of what Amber seems to have. That's going to niggle, at least until Ruby lands a job.
wi1dfire wrote:Which, since I like Ruby, I'm not of the opinion she feels that way. Annoyed and exasperated by her older sister, yes, but I haven't seen any evidence that she thinks Amber should have a crappy life. I'm willing to listen to your arguments that Ruby feels Amber caused her to have a crappy life, but those aren't quite the same opinions.
Ruby is frequently angry at Amber, for reasons that she doesn't seem to understand herself, or at least that she can't express to Amber. A lot of that is going to be about the lying to their parents, and her belief that Amber is those parents' favourite; I suspect that in turn is part of a broader sense that Amber (the pretty extrovert) gets all the attention and popularity from people in general. But if Amber's life had its own complications and difficulties, Ruby might be fair-minded enough to acknowledge that everything comes with a price. It's the sense that Amber gets it all, without any visible effort, that's going to offend Ruby's sense of propriety, as much as anything.
wi1dfire wrote:I think more conversation passed between Ruby and Ray before Dillon came out. Maybe not a lot more, but enough that Ruby had fully come into the hallway in the meantime. So perhaps they already acknowledged his state of dress, or Ray simply noticed that Ruby was having trouble meeting his eyes, and decided not to put her on the spot for it.
That's perfectly possible, but in that case, I think that the writers would have done better to have acknowledged it in some way, by at least a throwaway line in this strip or the preceding one. Ray apologising for his state of undress, and Ruby hysterically claiming that she wasn't worried by it, would have worked; after all, Ruby desperately trying to seem cool and sophisticated is one of the standard jokes for her. Without it, Ray does seem rather inconsiderate, to say the least.

(And yes, that in turn may be a matter of available space. Still, solving these problems is why writers get paid the big bucks.*)
brasca wrote:I think most women who accept that they have a working libido would find it hard to look away. I doubt Peggy's behavior would be any different.
Uh, yes? Not sure how that relates to or contradicts what I said.
brasca wrote:Ray knows that Ruby is Dillon's roommate and not much else. Seeing as how Amber is also his roommate and he just got acquainted with her... repeatedly he might be assuming that if Ruby is anything like Amber she is probably accustomed to the sight of naked men.
For one thing, Ruby simply doesn't act that way - and assuming that someone you've just met must think exactly like her sister, when that sister is something of an extreme personality, is a bit rude in itself. And for another, Ruby told him - twice - that she has a very jealous boyfriend, and was visibly nervous at the idea of kissing him. He really should have noticed that she has a rather strong tendency to propriety, if he's making assumptions about her. And honestly, if I was staying in someone's home, and I bumped into someone I hardly knew while I was wearing just a skimpy towel, I'd feel obliged to apologise even if I thought she was a part-time nudist.


*Joke.
---------
Spidrift
"Brevior vita est quam pro futumentibus negotium agendo."
-- Motto of Hogshead Publishing of fond memory, and wise words to set your Foes List by.
Avatar misappropriated from the wonderful XKCD.

User avatar
FlashD81
Posts: 1217
Joined: Tue Oct 08, 2013 3:40 am
Location: Not the Normanday

Re: 20-02-15 Totally at ease around any man

Post by FlashD81 »

Ruby with some eye candy is holding up fairly... until the last panel. :))

These two are pretty much friends now and I like it. The possibilities for increased banter between the two of them is good.

Like some of you here I am a bit annoyed that Ray ignored Ruby but I'm willing to chalk it up to being thoughtless.
Artemisia wrote:Dillon- proving that there really isn't enough blood for both ends...
=)) =)) =))
I'm Commander Shepard and this is my favorite store on the Citadel
We'll Bang, OK

TCampbell
Posts: 157
Joined: Fri Jul 11, 2008 10:46 pm

Re: 20-02-15 Totally at ease around any man

Post by TCampbell »

Spidrift wrote:
Bambikles wrote:I admit that Ray totally ignoring Ruby once Dillon appears feels weird.
I imagine it's just a glitch in the writing, to be honest. But if it's a deliberate bit of characterisation, it makes Ray look a bit of a jerk, frankly. And it puts his eagerness to get Ruby to help with the kissing practise in more of a bad light, too. He's beginning to look like someone who doesn't take women entirely seriously. He's not in the Yvan league, but he may be a bit of an arrogant jock. Which may mean that he does eventually walk away from Amber without a backward glance, too.

Or, like I said, this may be reading too much into things.
Bambikles wrote:He seems very comfortable with nudity, at least.
That I'd take as realism. Professional sportsman; a lot of time in changing rooms and stuff.
In my experience, when you don't seem focused on what people are saying, conversation tends to roll on without you. Ray may not understand what DOES have Ruby's attention, and Dillon understands only half of it, but both of them seem to vaguely register that Ruby's not really listening with her ears anymore as they talk.

Sure, maybe an apology to Ruby too would be the 100% correct thing to do, but I don't think it's that rude an omission on his part-- Dillon is his old friend and thus always going to command a bit more attention. Between wondering about his sexual identity, finding a new sex partner, feeling out where he stands with Dillon right now (accidental bare-chested encounters STILL okay y/n?), AND specifically worrying about Dillon's reaction to his "dating" Dillon's roomie, the guy already has a ton on his mind.

Plus, he was polite enough to Ruby in the last strip-- sometimes the best thing to do in that situation is to talk about something else entirely instead of fixating on what might be a source of discomfort. Plus, I'm pretty sure it never exactly came up in Ray and Amber's conversation last night that Ruby normally sleeps in Amber's bed.

TCampbell
Posts: 157
Joined: Fri Jul 11, 2008 10:46 pm

Re: 20-02-15 Totally at ease around any man

Post by TCampbell »

(On top of all this, Ray seems nice enough, but I'm not exactly getting the "Sherlock Holmes of 2015" vibe from him, even by the somewhat generous standards of the Pixie Trix cast, if you know what I mean.)

User avatar
The Omnipotent One
Posts: 117
Joined: Mon Jan 19, 2015 7:13 pm
Location: Sealed within a lost prison somewhere forgotten in the Cosmos

Re: 20-02-15 Totally at ease around any man

Post by The Omnipotent One »

"Acting lessons" with Amber huh? I'm sure there was as much acting involved as there is one in a Michael Bay or a M. Night Shyalaman film
We sealed him not out of fear of what he was, but out of fear of what he could do. So much power and knowledge at his disposal...he could destroy all of existence and remake it instantaneously

With his soul and energy torn from his flesh, it took little effort to contain him. We made his prison on to a burning planet, an world unfit for life. Even when the seals are unlocked, no vessel will be there for him to take

A rift in the Cosmos mark his return
Upon his resurrection the Universe will burn



— excerpts from the Scrolls of Ancients' Time

User avatar
Spidrift
Posts: 13180
Joined: Fri Jan 27, 2012 6:11 pm

Re: 20-02-15 Totally at ease around any man

Post by Spidrift »

TCampbell wrote:(On top of all this, Ray seems nice enough, but I'm not exactly getting the "Sherlock Holmes of 2015" vibe from him, even by the somewhat generous standards of the Pixie Trix cast, if you know what I mean.)
That I'll certainly agree with. Though he hasn't said or done anything ostentatiously dumb yet, unlike many of them, so he may seem passably average for brains, by default.
The Omnipotent One wrote:"Acting lessons" with Amber huh? I'm sure there was as much acting involved as there is one in a Michael Bay or a M. Night Shyalaman film
Well, there seem to have been as many loud bangs as in a Bay movie...
---------
Spidrift
"Brevior vita est quam pro futumentibus negotium agendo."
-- Motto of Hogshead Publishing of fond memory, and wise words to set your Foes List by.
Avatar misappropriated from the wonderful XKCD.

User avatar
brasca
Posts: 3848
Joined: Wed Jul 13, 2011 6:04 am

Re: 20-02-15 Totally at ease around any man

Post by brasca »

The Omnipotent One wrote:"Acting lessons" with Amber huh? I'm sure there was as much acting involved as there is one in a Michael Bay or a M. Night Shyalaman film
But I would rather watch their acting lessons. Sorry Ruby.

User avatar
Spidrift
Posts: 13180
Joined: Fri Jan 27, 2012 6:11 pm

Re: 20-02-15 Totally at ease around any man

Post by Spidrift »

Incidentally, it's tempting but doubtless unfair to analyse what makes TCampbell jump in here to comment on discussions. However, the fact that he came into defend Ray presumably means that the script didn't actually have a note on it saying RAY IS BEING A JERK HERE next to today's dialogue.

Which kind of brings one round to another question that may be but probably isn't significant; Why did Ray sound so nervous and uncertain when Dillon asked about him and girlfriends? After all, he's good-looking, fairly charming, and apparently comfortably functional in his sexuality; it's hard to imagine that his love life has been that skimpy over the years. If he's between girlfriends at the moment, why not just say so?

One almost wonders if Amber is about to emerge from her room and whisper to Dillon that Ray was a bit crap in bed. But no, I doubt that somehow.
---------
Spidrift
"Brevior vita est quam pro futumentibus negotium agendo."
-- Motto of Hogshead Publishing of fond memory, and wise words to set your Foes List by.
Avatar misappropriated from the wonderful XKCD.

Post Reply