30-06-18 SDB-Started to heat up

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30-06-18 SDB-Started to heat up

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OllieOrOlly
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Re: 30-06-18 SDB-Started to heat up

Post by OllieOrOlly »

Ruby should be seen as beautiful, or at least, cute for her own merits. While being the "frumpy little sister," she does share genes with Amber, who is considered one of the most attractive adult movie stars; siblings aren't necessarily alike, however, both sisters appear to be attractive in their own rights.
I think someone else probably explored this idea before, so please bear with me - Ruby and Amber also seem similar in their interest in sex; Amber is obviously more overt and has a far higher libido. The similarity is in their passion: Amber becomes enthralled by the physical action, whereas Ruby is comparably intrigued in imagining it, bordering on voyeurism, although mainly when it is yaoi (Ruby seems really shy when met with the reality of sex, yet she becomes enraptured by fantasising about sort-of-bishoujo yaoi).

Ol' Dilly appears to have lost his knack for comforting friends... Perhaps he wasn't ever that proficient at it, but he is more *clumsy* than I recall.

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Re: 30-06-18 SDB-Started to heat up

Post by Spidrift »

Dillon has always been an idiot; as with most idiots, the precise degree of his idiocy varies from incident to incident. (Doubly so for comedy idiots in comedies.) This is a particularly bad case, admittedly -- though Ruby might realise that asking a gay man to reassure her about her sexual attractiveness could be a mistake. However much reassurance she clearly needs.

And there's no need to analyse why Ruby "should" be seen as attractive; just look at how she's drawn. She has killer legs, a nice figure (on the slim side, but undeniably feminine), and a pleasant face that lights up when she smiles. I'm pretty sure that most straight men looking at the comic will allow that she's an attractive woman. Equally, it's been acknowledged in-story; Dillon used her legs as a male heterosexuality detector, and Zii's first response to her was to describe her as a "fine young woman". For any narrative purpose, she is attractive.

Anyhow -- okay, we now know that Ruby and Andy didn't get there. Not a huge surprise, though I suspect we're now leading into a sequence wherein Ruby does the work of getting him into bed. On the other hand, objectively, one could say that Andy has now destroyed the only point that his relationship with Ruby ever had. If he can't either make her feel secure or resolve the sexual impulses that have been building ever since she first appeared in the comic, why should she bother with him? It's not because of any self-evident emotional compatibility, that's for certain. They have nothing identifiable in common.

I assume that Andy was not only not thinking about sex, but was so unnerved at the idea that he ran away from her, emotionally speaking. Oh gods, he's not being written as such a '50s throwback that he thinks that Nice Girls Don't, is he? He does rather give the impression of living in a bubble of unreality in relation to the rest of the setting...

Well, we can always hope for print bonus strips in which we see exactly what Ruby does to overcome his resistance. That'd be worth seeing, Ruby's problems suppressing her embarrassment notwithstanding.
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Re: 30-06-18 SDB-Started to heat up

Post by LegendaryKroc »

I am confused. Dillon knows perfectly well how to compliment girls. Remember this strip? Yeah, I've always half-thought he was kidding and it could just be the DiDi effect, but I'm just saying him being this inept at giving girls an attractiveness compliment makes me scratch my head.

Also, even if Ruby is sexually attractive (I don't read enough of SDB to know, form my own opinion or pass comment on her would-be relationship with Andy), that wouldn't stop her, or anyone really, from worrying about whether or not she is, or whether or not she's sufficiently sexually attractive for the purposes of a prospective boyfriend. Just ask any lady who's had boob envy, hips envy or any other kind of envy towards DiDi. Especially if, as this may be suggesting, she's coming off a failed attempt to copulate with him; in such a situation, feelings of inadequacy in more than one department are a frequent thing to angst over.

(Sidebar: That strip's dated for 25/01/2010. Howzat for a blast from the past? Also, how long did it take me to track it down? Longer than I'd like, but not as long as I thought it would. Thank God for working archives.)
Last edited by LegendaryKroc on Sat Jun 30, 2018 11:07 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: 30-06-18 SDB-Started to heat up

Post by dmra »

Annoyingly that strip also shows that Didi could be a lot more of a character than just somebody obsessed with getting daily (hourly?) orgasms. It reminded me why I used to like her .

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Re: 30-06-18 SDB-Started to heat up

Post by LegendaryKroc »

Yeah, ain't that the truth. If only the writers hadn't decided that her chasing an orgasm all the damn time at the expense of everything and everyone else wasn't the most hilarious thing in the world and all readers must be in on the joke.

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Re: 30-06-18 SDB-Started to heat up

Post by dmra »

And going back to a recent MA3 debate it would have been a lot easier to believe that Zii and Didi had a genuine attraction and meaningful relationship if we'd seen a bit more of that Didi and Zii interacting.

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Re: 30-06-18 SDB-Started to heat up

Post by Spidrift »

LegendaryKroc wrote:
Sat Jun 30, 2018 10:57 am
I am confused. Dillon knows perfectly well how to compliment girls. Remember this strip? Yeah, I've always half-thought he was kidding and it could just be the DiDi effect, but I'm just saying him being this inept at giving girls an attractiveness compliment makes me scratch my head.
As I said, Dillon is a comedy idiot, which means that he becomes exactly as idiotic as the joke requires. But to be fair, I think that Ruby confuses him; from his point of view, she doesn’t generate or respond to the standard cues. Well, she reacts to yaoi imagery, which he exploits mercilessly, but he can’t use silly flirting or the like. So perhaps we can say that he’s trying to be reassuring on Ruby’s cerebral, analytical level — and bollixing that up completely.
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Re: 30-06-18 SDB-Started to heat up

Post by brasca »

Yes Ruby! Yes you are sexually attractive, but the man you're dating seems to be as socially clueless at dating as you.
Spidrift wrote:
Sat Jun 30, 2018 10:12 am
I assume that Andy was not only not thinking about sex, but was so unnerved at the idea that he ran away from her, emotionally speaking. Oh gods, he's not being written as such a '50s throwback that he thinks that Nice Girls Don't, is he? He does rather give the impression of living in a bubble of unreality in relation to the rest of the setting...
Keep in mind that on their first date he was lead to believe she was a porn star and while this case of mistaken identity was further exacerbated by giving her a cock ring he didn't act like a man thinking he just had to buy dinner just to get sex. As such his attitude towards Ruby is no different than before. The world of Menage a 3, Sandra on the Rocks, and Sticky Dilly Buns has introduced us to a lot of atypical characters. Andy is an attractive man who everyone would assume doesn't have a problem getting a date, but since he's the man he has to do most of the work when it comes to presenting himself, flirting, and courting. If he doesn't know what he's doing it doesn't matter how attractive he is unless the woman he's with is so forward she doesn't care about convention and just wants to jump his bones. If that's the case then he's not a virgin, but the kind of guy will occasionally get sex until his sexual partner gets bored. This may leave him feeling perplexed because no one ever tells him what they want and doesn't know how to ask.

There is also the possibility that he can read enough clues to know that Ruby didn't really want sex. She only wanted to lose her virginity just to get that out of the way and not because she genuinely desired to be with Andy. That may be reaching since so far he's been very clueless, but he could be a savant about this. I'm eager for flashbacks or exposition to explain what happened because it's more character evolution. Ruby never cared about anyone thinking of her as sexually desirable until now. Perhaps she was relieved that Andy wasn't interested in sex, but now questioning why he wasn't and thinking it's how she looks and I'm hoping that doesn't lead to desperate makeovers.

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Re: 30-06-18 SDB-Started to heat up

Post by Spidrift »

But for one thing, I think that a truly perceptive observer would see that Ruby did want sex. She was nervous, sure, but it seemed increasingly obvious to me that she actually quite liked the idea, really, once she got past Dillon’s previous tactless waffling about the first inch. And for another, if he turned her down because he didn’t want her feeling obliged to be nice to him, a genuinely nice guy would make it clear that was why, because otherwise she’d be very likely to feel hurt or confused.

Note also that when he thought Ruby was a porn star, he thought of that as someone who “enjoyed taking her clothes off for money” — a rather naïvely innocent description of working in porn, really. I think we can assume that Andy isn’t meant to be any kind of quiet sophisticate.

I dunno. We may well see on Tuesday; I think it’s very likely that we’ll get a flashback then.

(And Ruby attempting a seductive makeover might be fun, really. A little embarrassing, but she showed with Rudy that roleplaying someone a bit more extrovert can help her cut loose a little.)
brasca wrote:
Sat Jun 30, 2018 1:38 pm
Yes Ruby! Yes you are sexually attractive, but the man you're dating seems to be as socially clueless at dating as you.
Worse, actually. Ruby has been fairly clear and sensible about what's going on and how she wants to handle it. Inexperienced, but not clueless. Andy just seems to be a comedy dummkopf.

Incidentally, in some stories, if a woman asked this question, it'd suggest that she and a guy had actually gone to bed together, but the guy had failed to perform. But I very much doubt that this is the case here -- it'd get into subtle and complicated psychological territory which isn't really this comic's style.

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Re: 30-06-18 SDB-Started to heat up

Post by rogermart »

I love Ruby, she is one of the best-written characters in the Ma3-verse, but I never thought if people found her sexually attractive. Not in my opinion, because I find her hot (I mean, just look at her). I'm talking about In-Comic opinion, because I've seen so many shows where there is this character described by everyone as "plain", "normal looking", even "ugly", but is played by really hot actors/actresses, so knowing that almost everyone is insanely hot in the Ma3 Universe, Ruby could be this "plain" character even though I find her really hot...

Turns out, people like what they see...

Exhibit A. Dillon used her on jeans to check if people were gay or not, that means people think she has a nice behind.

Exhibit B. We know Andy likes Ruby so this is just to add to the evidence: Andy thought Ruby was the porn star, not her sister, he even gave her a cock ring. Unless he thought she was filling a weird niche, he obviously thinks she is sexually attractive.

Exhibit C. Zii told her that she grew into a very fine young woman, and Zii is not the bullshiter type, if she says Ruby is very fine, she really means it.
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Re: 30-06-18 SDB-Started to heat up

Post by Spidrift »

...and Zii later essayed a pass at Ruby, so sure, she’s cool with Ruby’s looks. As, apparently, was the sleazy Prof. Conried. And Amber said she looked fine in that borrowed dress (though personally I thought that was a misstep). Then she absolutely killed it in that tight miniskirt after getting the PA job...*

But anyway, insecurity aside, Ruby herself knows it. Remember that selfie she still keeps trying to forget? She knows she’s got legs to die for.



* Okay, that one’s just my opinion. But no woman who really lacked confidence in her own legs could wear that skirt.
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Re: 30-06-18 SDB-Started to heat up

Post by Opus the Poet »

What I find unrealistic is almost every gay man I know loves boobies, even if they're not on the Didi level of majesticity, except for men who had breasts removed on the way to becoming men. Our society has made a fetish about boobs to the point that even gay men are turned on by them.
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Re: 30-06-18 SDB-Started to heat up

Post by rogermart »

Spidrift wrote:
Sat Jun 30, 2018 10:58 pm
...and Zii later essayed a pass at Ruby, so sure, she’s cool with Ruby’s looks. As, apparently, was the sleazy Prof. Conried. And Amber said she looked fine in that borrowed dress (though personally I thought that was a misstep). Then she absolutely killed it in that tight miniskirt after getting the PA job...*

But anyway, insecurity aside, Ruby herself knows it. Remember that selfie she still keeps trying to forget? She knows she’s got legs to die for.



* Okay, that one’s just my opinion. But no woman who really lacked confidence in her own legs could wear that skirt.
Oh yeah, that skirt that made some of us check Ruby out when Amber was right there in her underwear... So it's not just your opinion :-bd

But it's true, insecurity aside, she knows what she has.
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Re: 30-06-18 SDB-Started to heat up

Post by Spidrift »

Thinking more on what Brasca suggested -- I still think that Ruby, rather clearly, wants to go to bed with Andy, and he should have seen that. But the simplest (and potentially rather boring) explanation here may be a simple communication failure. If she said "We could, you know, have sex. If you'd like that.", from her nervous virginal point of view, that's one small step short of flashing him and yelling "TAKE ME NOW LONG AND HARD YOU MAGNIFICENT BASTARD". After all, everyone knows that all men are gagging for it, right? So any willing offer has to imply genuine commitment.

But from his nervous virginal point of view, he'd hear that as "I don't really want sex, but I'll do it if you insist" -- after all, true consent should be enthusiastic, right? And a gentleman doesn't push a lady into something she doesn't want, right? So of course he'd say "no thanks".

In which case, Dillon just has to persuade Ruby to tell Andy clearly that she actively wants sex. Though for comedy/fanservice purposes, this may require a cunning plan, black lace lingerie, and some gratuitous nudity in the print version.
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-- Motto of Hogshead Publishing of fond memory, and wise words to set your Foes List by.
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