El Goonish Shive

Hmm... I'd read it more as "we'll be spending 2/3 of our time walking from hole to hole and waiting for other people instead of playing". Which is not really a dating thing so much as a general frustration (especially if you have a large group ahead of you with kids and/or drunk people who don't enforce a maximum number of strokes before moving on to the next hole. Arguably, it's more time to talk and/or canoodle, but it can be annoying and less fun when it's poorer weather and you're just stuck out there, with little to no cover, waiting for the people in front of you.

Personally, I've found minigolf just tends to suffer a bit from people being overly competitive about it. All it takes is one person taking offense to a house-ruled "club length" rule or someone not taking the required two stroke penalty for going out of bounds and the mood is ruined. Of course, maybe better to learn they're like that right away...

The last mini golf place I remember going to was indoors, so that is probably partly coloring my view. Also, none of us knew how to play golf, so it was probably all house rules tbh

Hope 44. Jay doesn't look bothered.

My guess is that Grace thinks Susan is outting Jay for being transgender per Grace's encounter with Sam.

ditto

And Susan will have to explain herself, being all "No, I just have this vivid image of this girl, boobs and all, going by 'Jack'. And I have no idea where it's from."

https://www.egscomics.com/egsnp/parable-154 - "Jack" and Susan had a confrontation. Is that strong enough to remember?

https://www.egscomics.com/egsnp/party-161 - "Jack" thought about the magic in the dream. Could she remember more soon?

NP Double Date #02

Bowl for your soul.

Grace is probably reacting like that because she can remember dreams well, and realises that Susan must have had the same dream as her.

Names

You know, if (unlike Susan) I remembered the circumstances in which I heard the name "Jack", I'd then have suspected Jay of being the dead name (or, well, weekend-at-bernie's closet name).

Shive. Buddy. Please understand that I say this with love. But.

• Panel 5: Grace points out that deadnaming people is not cool.
• Panel 8: Susan expressly refuses to give a name she does not identify with, so the narrator gives it for her.
• Panel 9: Grace argues with Susan about how much she likes Susan's other name.

It may not technically qualify as deadnaming for a non-trans person, but you don't have to be trans in order to be uncomfortable being associated with your birthname. And I don't think you should need to be trans to have that feeling respected by others.

Susan has as much right to have her preferred name respected as Jay does. "Please refer to me the way I identify and not in this other way that I don't" is a conversation that started with trans people, but it should become a standard of decency that can be applied to anyone.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Mar 22nd 2024 at 2:53:19 AM

Double Date 3

If bowling is your “comfort food”…

- Hmm... There's something weird about this take... Maybe because it's a narrative and not real life? And so narration is more like a historical document than an actual conversation? There's all that Dramatic Irony and stuff? Do you understand what I'm getting at? I'm not sure I'm explaining all that well.

Edit: I guess the direct name stating could've been replaced by "Refer to [X] strip for what the name is?" But as a textual medium, giving a pointer instead of the info directly is being extremely deliberately unhelpful and jarringly out of character for a narrator?

- Lol if this date ends up with Diane thinking the main group knows that Catalina and Rhoda have magic, when they actually only highly suspect.

Edited by Malady on Mar 23rd 2024 at 5:40:12 AM

I agree, in this particular instance that the narrator identified Susan by her birthname does no harm to her nor the readers. It is for the reader's benefit to know her old name and why she didn't like it, which you can go back and read in the archives yes, but every comic is someone's first.

Also the comic medium in all of it's forms is littered with notes when a previous comic is mentioned. Like whenever a popular villain returns and superhero goes "I thought you were dead! [EN: See issue 122, Excelsior!]]

Grace Is Having A Good Time

Awww...it is sweet that Grace likes seeing her friends happy. I'm hoping it goes somewhere and she sees Sarah and Sam at this event.

Catalina and Rhoda Are Also Having A Good Time.

Edited by HeraldAlberich on Mar 25th 2024 at 2:21:20 PM

Catalina is Awakened. I suppose we already knew that, but this is the first confirmation that she has a new spell.

Comic Hope 47

Ah, that sweet nostalgia for 2014...

I legit love this Call-Back.

Ditto! It's sorta obvious in hindsight! So, Sarah and Sam come in together! Hmm!

- YES!

Edited by Malady on Mar 27th 2024 at 8:39:14 AM

More importantly, the return of Some Guy!

I resent Sam for sinking the Tedd/Grace/Sarah trio that the comic had been developing, for the same reason that I resent Ashley for sinking the Elliot/Susan ship that the comic had been developing. I don't like it when a story takes time to build investment in Ship Tease and then takes an axe to it and goes "NOPE JOKE'S ON YOU We're doing THIS SHIP instead!"

But at least Sam's interesting so I can tentatively support it.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Mar 27th 2024 at 12:02:14 PM

I'm loving Sarah's enthusiasm at being included in the late rush.