Pixie Trix Comix & Hiveworks Community

Makes one realize that, with not only SDB but ME3 coming to a close, it would be kind of nice to have a curtain call for the characters after the last strip. Led by everyone’s favorite character...Rob the Neighbor!

Spidrift wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 17, 2019 4:26 pm

rogermart wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 17, 2019 3:54 pm

Dillon can appear from time to time, but I don't really feel the need to see him again.

The problem is, well, SDB actually existed because Giz likes Dillon. The clue is in the title, and it’s never been a secret. Amber obviously came with the deal, and then, Giz evidently felt the need for someone who could actually play off Dillon, and as you say, the most interesting character in the comic came into existence. And then the problem was, just because the writer likes a character doesn’t guarantee that they can create especially good plots for that character. Nor did Amber provide any sort of balance, because all her problems — finding a boyfriend, telling her parents about her porn career, discovering why Ruby didn’t seem to like her — turned out to be ones that could be fixed in a single strip each, and she never had much of a personality beyond that. So Ruby took over.

I was sort of thinking of something similar, in regards to Ruby. She is genuinely an interesting character with complexities beyond superficial levels, who had an arc and continuing elements that could serve as either comedic fodder or dramatic contrast (i.e. her exterior manner of being quite prudish, yet still having an interest in sex and a fangirl-ish love of BL).
Though the main reason I'm echoing the Ruby love is to ponder: is there a name for the phenomena in which a supporting character becomes far more interesting and likeable than the ostensible main character? I suppose TVTropes probably has a few options describing such a concept. Also, it is somewhat fascinating to see how author-favoured and reader-favoured elements can coexist, if occasionally precariously.

Milnoc wrote: ↑

Sat Jan 19, 2019 8:32 pm

While Sticky Dilly Buns was funny, I'll be glad to see Mà3 come back. I really want to see what happens between Gary and Peggy!

Same here but I also want to find out what happens to the rest of the cast as well. But with only ~11 updates to go it's probably going to be rushed. As for the "curve ball" that Giz hinted at in the questions thread, I'm now betting on a surprise pregnancy. And no, I don't mean the TV Trope I mean one of the heterosexually active women in the cast discovering that she's pregnant because of a missed period and/or a positive pregnancy test. Peggy and Yuki are the only women that are heterosexually active in the story right now so that narrows it down.

OllieOrOlly wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 21, 2019 3:49 am

I was sort of thinking of something similar, in regards to Ruby. She is genuinely an interesting character with complexities beyond superficial levels, who had an arc and continuing elements that could serve as either comedic fodder or dramatic contrast (i.e. her exterior manner of being quite prudish, yet still having an interest in sex and a fangirl-ish love of BL).
Though the main reason I'm echoing the Ruby love is to ponder: is there a name for the phenomena in which a supporting character becomes far more interesting and likeable than the ostensible main character? I suppose TVTropes probably has a few options describing such a concept.

The TV Tropes term is Spotlight-Stealing Squad (for some reason it assumes that an ensemble usually grabs the spotlight), and Ruby may or may not rate as an Ensemble Dark Horse. An extreme case, more than has really happened with Ruby, would be a Breakout Character. The opposite, which to an extent happened to Amber, is Demoted to Extra.

By the way, let’s be honest here; there was nothing amazingly innovative about Ruby. Cynically, she might be called just an annoying repressed kid who really needed to get laid, eventually did, and grew up a bit in the process. Quite a cliché, really. But she was well-written, cute, and had one or two modern character quirks, such as the addiction to Google. And I suspect that she made a much better reader-identification character for the real nerds in the readership than some of them wanted to admit. Whereas Gary started out with a couple of friends and the body of an Adonis, and learned an amazing sexual party trick by accident, Ruby started out solitary and miserable, and actually had to work for her victories.

samtheman wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 17, 2019 10:08 pm

Farewell, SDB. Now to see how Ma3 wraps up. I don't think the ending to Ma3 will be as cut and dried as the ending to SDB was.

Hoping with Zii getting run over by a semi truck with a vanity plate that says KARMA.

Spidrift wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 21, 2019 8:49 am

OllieOrOlly wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 21, 2019 3:49 am

I was sort of thinking of something similar, in regards to Ruby. She is genuinely an interesting character with complexities beyond superficial levels, who had an arc and continuing elements that could serve as either comedic fodder or dramatic contrast (i.e. her exterior manner of being quite prudish, yet still having an interest in sex and a fangirl-ish love of BL).
Though the main reason I'm echoing the Ruby love is to ponder: is there a name for the phenomena in which a supporting character becomes far more interesting and likeable than the ostensible main character? I suppose TVTropes probably has a few options describing such a concept.

The TV Tropes term is Spotlight-Stealing Squad (for some reason it assumes that an ensemble usually grabs the spotlight), and Ruby may or may not rate as an Ensemble Dark Horse. An extreme case, more than has really happened with Ruby, would be a Breakout Character. The opposite, which to an extent happened to Amber, is Demoted to Extra.

By the way, let’s be honest here; there was nothing amazingly innovative about Ruby. Cynically, she might be called just an annoying repressed kid who really needed to get laid, eventually did, and grew up a bit in the process. Quite a cliché, really. But she was well-written, cute, and had one or two modern character quirks, such as the addiction to Google. And I suspect that she made a much better reader-identification character for the real nerds in the readership than some of them wanted to admit. Whereas Gary started out with a couple of friends and the body of an Adonis, and learned an amazing sexual party trick by accident, Ruby started out solitary and miserable, and actually had to work for her victories.

Unless you have every TV Tropes page bookmarked, I commend your work in finding the terms. Haha!

Well, I wouldn't apply such cynical analysis to Ruby, but still agree more or less with your assessment. Although, a bit of a tangential issue is that being cliché doesn't automatically equate to bad; basically everything is cliché, so trying to dissect every single character trait can undermine the simply joy of liking a cute, quirky, and actually developed character - that said, I'm not saying it shouldn't be done at all.
To be blunt, I related to Ruby more before she started socialising and developing sexually, but in spite of not identifying with her as much as I initially had, I could still emphasise with her development, which I think shows the strength in her writing (that may have just been originally to serve as simple foil to Dillon, yet still managed to become more engaging than he ever was, so at worst is a fortunate accident).

The trope you're looking for is Tropes Are Tools...

I don't have everything on TV Tropes bookmarked, but I'm fairly well acquainted with it. And anyway, Ruby's entry already includes Spotlight-Stealing Squad, which in turn references those other related entries.

But anyway, whether or not Ruby is a cliché, the point is, as you imply, that she not only had a personality, she actually had a story built in; she didn't just have random stuff happen to her, she actually had a start point and places where she or the readers wanted her to go. Which puts her well ahead of most of the characters in the setting, to be frank, fun though most of them are.

And Ruby's basic character arc is actually, from what I've observed, quite common to nerds, myself included, though not universal. (And she got there a couple of years later than many nerds.) There's all the petty grief at school, the social difficulties, the sense that other people (including siblings) have worked out how to do stuff that remains incomprehensible to the young nerd... But then you get away from the social environment that consists largely of your past mistakes and people who remember your youthful stupidity, and discover that there are people out there who'll decide that they like you for yourself, and that the nerd impulse to analyse and read about everything can actually be quite useful if you learn to play it right, and that you can quietly dump a few of the sillier nerd pretensions and social fallacies, and hey, odds are you can get a decent job which allows a bit of living well as the best revenge... I always wanted Dillon to give someone the gay "it gets better" speech, only for Ruby to realise that it applied to her even more.

So yes, she's relatable.