Oct 8/10 strip clarifications

[Panchocheesecake]

So EC is a lot more innocent, but still raunchy in just the right way to be believable as a story about high-school. You can laugh about it and remember that period in your own life, as well as the hormonal hell and sexual explorations that were part of it

Ha, EC is more tame than my high school years.

[badwolf]

The one comment of Giz's which I particularly agreed with, upon reflection, was that the strip had suffered the "loss of a little bit of its innocence." While we know that Blair is a letch and that his behavior is ALWAYS pretty obnoxious (he wouldn't be Blair, otherwise!), and with the caveat that I found the original scene pretty hot, I have to agree that this one left the EC universe and entered the Ma3 universe briefly. And those have been and should be two separate universes, IMO.

The original strip was funny, the new scene is funny

FWIW I agree with this. I just reread the entire arc, and I think that either strip works fine as far as story-internal justifications. I can't really say that I have the same "blair couldn't be redeemed after the original strip" feeling that others do, but the original one felt to me like an Ma3 strip rather than an EC strip. It was too sexually-charged for the type of strip that EC was making itself out to be so far, regardless of how reasonable it was in terms of the story and characters. When I first read the original strip, when I got to the 4th panel even without looking at the forum my initial thought was "Wow, is this ma3 or EC?"

Yep, I didn't understand the Blair thing, either. We were just seeing Blair in his full, unfettered nastiness there for a brief while, and his excesses shouldn't have surprised anyone. We just have a better idea of what's bubbling wickedly under his surface now, that's all. And that's good - and (potentially) funny!

I'll say it here as i said it in the other - the "new" and "old" last panels both felt forced

I don't necessarily disagree, but don't you think that's the product of Blair's control of the orb? Isn't their behavior, whatever it is, supposed to feel a bit forced? He's like an evil puppetmaster manipulating students to support his sexual fantasies, after all...

[AdaElizabeth]

Hey all,

I just noticed the post about the Oct. 8th strip. I checked out the old strip in extras and then looked in the archive at the new strip. Then I read a bunch of posts about it in the forum to clarify things - because I cannot see any difference between the two strips. All of the posts were pretty vague about it. They look exactly the same to me.

What exactly was the problem and how was it changed? Am I totally blind for not seeing any difference?

Ada

Merged topic into here. The DAMNed

[Don Alexander]

So, the new, official strip is this one.

And this is the old version.

I'm pretty sure you will see the last panel is very different. ;)

Hm, directly comparing the two, I see the pink influence of the orb is much less present in the new version (especially see to the right of the door) - very nice touch!! ;)

[TakerFoxx]

The original strip ended with Brooke and Nina heavily making out in a manner that implied they were going to progress to sex. Some people thought this was taking things too far, so it was changed to Brooke becoming a cheerleader.

EDIT: Damn it, ninja'd

[WCRI]

Taker... please tell me that was your idea of a joke. Cause if it isn't, then I kind of have to wonder. If the dispute in three threads was TL;DR to you, then how do you keep up to date with the comic?

What Taker failed to convey is that the scene in which mentally emptied, Valley Girl Nina, and Valley Girl Brooke forcefully kissing each other was argued as Blair forcing the two do something both out of character for the two, and against their wills. Even if it was indirectly through effect of the orb turning any female it could into what Blair 'thought' to be the perfect female. Some even went so far as to say that in effect, with the orb robbing all that it transformed of their sense of self and identity, thus any one doing what Blair wanted was none consensual coercion, and by extension rape.

Then, when the scene was changed, there was a big stink from the "lol its fantasy, get a life" crowd about the authors "caving in to what a few who thought that was not how the comic should play out." And then we picked up people who didn't even look at what the argument was, and they started yelling "homophobic assholes, homos are people too!" (their words, not mine) Which further prompted the artist to have to put up a disclaiming clarification.

Or the the TL;DR version, three groups of wanks took pot shots at each other, and worried the authors about what sort of trouble would get started up if measures weren't taken to try and calm people down.

[AdaElizabeth]

No, I don't see! I don't get it! In both last panels, the girls are making out heavily. There's no cheerleader or anything!

Are you sure your links were to two different strips?

Ada

[Kamino Neko]

Clear your cache, it's stuck.

[WCRI]

Ada... when I clicked the links they show two different strips for me. Are you sure you clicked both links instead of the same one twice?

Or like Kamino said, it might be stuck. Sometimes simply hitting refresh will clear that problem up.

[TakerFoxx]

Taker... please tell me that was your idea of a joke. Cause if it isn't, then I kind of have to wonder. If the dispute in three threads was TL;DR to you, then how do you keep up to date with the comic?

I am well aware of the ensuing drama and the numerous potshots that resulted, thank you very much. However, seen how I'm sure Giz doesn't want yet another flamewar to result from a matter that should be dead and buried by now, I decided to give AdaElizabeth the cliffnotes of what happened instead of digging up all that insanity yet again and potentially setting off the argument all over again.

[Don Alexander]

Indeed. Locked unless Giz wants me to open it again. WCRI, consider this your doing.

The DAMNed

But otherwise, Ada, both KN and WCRI are right. This sounds like a cache problem. Try it on another comp, or with another browser. If you check the links I made, you should see they lead to two different filenames.