Live Blogs The Great Nitpicky Live Blog of El Goonish Shive

MrAHR

Cakman:

If Elliot and Nanase weren't meant to be together, why would a sex change help? It's still Elliot. It's just Elliot unchanged from the transformation!

e X:

I guess at this point she already randomly became an independent character, for some reason. But hey, we didn't had any explanation for her behavior before, why should we get one know?

As for your AHR, I am sure you had a lot of points, but I got distracted with banging my head against the wall, because Tedd an Grace have such a completely lack of chemistry. If it weren't for the almighty plot, there would be no chance this two would ever become a couple.

So, to the next arc, where we meet the most overblown character in this comic: Damien, the embodiment of Small Name N Big Ego.

Gilphon:

Hey, for once I have an issue with things that AHR didn't mention! Whee!

The Goo splashing is weird. Sarah has big splotch in the middle of her shirt, and nothing elsewhere. Somewhat odd, that. More jarring, though, is the way everyone else is completely untouched, despite not really being any distance from Sarah at all. What the hell's up with that?

AHR:

@e X: I touched upon that briefly, with the stoicness, but yeah, I like to pretend that my version is accurate, but it tends to be shattered everytime I actually read the strip.

@Gilphon: I actually noticed that, funnily enough, but forgot to comment.

Noxilicious:

"I call this proof that cursed form or not, Ellen still sees herself as a male. So, does Tedd try to be nice and zap her to a male form? Or, even MORE logically since that only lasts a month, does Ellen look into any transexual programs?" (How do you even do proper quotes on this thing?)

As far as proof is concerned, let's not forget her yelling "Booyah! Still one of the guys!" in the next proper story-arc. It really makes you think that Dan wanted to have Ellen deal with gender identity issues somewhere along the way, doesn't it?

Anyway, this is one of those things that Dan elaborated on in the forum. Apparently the Diamond makes it so that the manifested curse or however you wanna call it is attuned to its current form, so naturally Ellen is female in mind. You know, despite her mind, personality and memories all basically being copied from Elliot, a guy.

Also, and this might be getting a wee bit too far ahead for now, but there's one other case of forced/permanent transformation, and that time Dan side-steps the gender-identity issue by mentioning on the forum how the person in question never had a gender identity to begin with.

So yeah, no such thing as transsexuality or transgenderism in a comic whose single biggest prevailing theme is gender-bending.

AC Drawings:

Huh, you're right about the transsexualism thing .And I didn't think about Tedd transforming her.. In fact, he could do that! It would've made sense for him to find a way to extend the transformation life of the gun and changed Ellen! I mean they were already going to use the "Gave away the twin due to lack of money" thing anyway, it just... gah!

It's clear this only happened to get Nanase out of the closet.

AHR:

@Noxi: Ah, yeah, that makes sense, considering the wolf from the journal was as vicious as a normal wolf. But alas, the poor writing rather messed that part up.

Although, I am unsure how Elliot/Ellen never had a gender identity to begin with. Surely s/he would identify as something, and considering how she saw herself as Elliot, she might see herself has a man, or something to that extent. Maybe she would be both? Pangendered, or something. There are tropers like that, I know.

As for the quoteblocks, Fast Eddie does not like the idea of a simple quoting system, it's his one big thing, but you need to do two brackets, quoteblock, two end brackets, text, two brackets, /quoteblock, two end brackets.

@AC: No, you think?

AC Drawings:

Well excuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu- uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu- uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuse me little miss snarky, I didn't see all this, reading this comic in my pre-troper days and I was reading for fun. How was I supposed to know?

Goggle Fox:

Yup. Transgendered individuals don't exist in this comic, and sexuality is something that can be modified on a whim with a quick zap and produces no mental trauma or homicidal rage towards the one who fired it or invented it. Also, the added sexuality is always hetero. Also if you end up pregnant you get mode-locked as a female form until the term's up.

Supposedly all this is because the device was designed by some weird alien species to improve fertility chances in endangered species. It just happens to produce results that are in keeping with certain (primarily male) fetish interests. Yeeeeaaaaah.

Sorry if I spoiled anything.

AHR:

And the pregnancy one quells all the Ranma fans' fears.

Noxilicious:

Let's not forget that the wolf norm never had the original form's mind to begin with. It always had the mind of a vicious beast, or rather the a beast's lack of mind, so of course the manifested curse would be a vicious beast as well.

Meanwhile the zapped Elliot still had his own mind. I suppose calling foul on an explanation is exactly fair, but it's just that the explanation itself only serves to explain why the new chick doesn't hate being stuck with beasts.

Actually, no, it's probably fair to cry foul on that one. Ellen will eventually say that her attraction to men feel tacked on fake. So much for the Diamond adjusting the curse person to its new form, eh?

Oh, and I didn't mean to suggest that Dan ever said Elliot and Ellen had no gender identity, that was referring to another character. Although, and I might be misremembering things here so don't quote me on this, but I think he did say that they have a more, uhm, 'loose' gender-identity which just served to explain why Elliot's totally cool with growing a uterus half the time nowadays.