El Goonish Shive

That's a problem that can be solved as simply as looking in a different direction when she's changing back, or just plain leaving the room.

Tedd started flipping out when Nanase's pants dropped, despite the fact that - as she rightfully pointed out - she's basically wearing the top as a dress. She's not naked, and if he's bothered by the possibility that she will briefly be bottomless in the future, then he can just not be present while she's getting dressed.

He's overreacting to a non-issue.

edited 20th Oct '14 10:40:16 AM by TobiasDrake

Or he could give her a pair of pants that haven't been size-shifted.

Long story short: Tedd has issues and he should probably be seeing a shrink. Because the cousin thing? Not healthy.

Cousin and attractive female version of best friend in lesbian relationship that Tedd was most likely fantasizing about and quickly yelled "ugly cousin" to dissuade his thoughts....

Jesus Christ, all these kids need therapy.

{nods} As much fun as it is for people to pigpile on Tedd and insist that he's a horrible no-good boy, I think that's jumping to conclusions. As for the over-reaction... have you been reading this comic at all? Tedd is very much a child of extremes. He's very excitable and prone to yelling things out when he does get agitated. There's probably a lot more fertile ground for people to psychoanalyze him on why he's that way rather than invent new problems for him based on suppositions.

And yeah, the romantic hookups are kind of gauged to make him gouge out his third eye for brief mental imagery...

Huh, you know, it kind of struck me that another potential issue is if this is not characteristic of Nanase, being this non-body-conscious. We know that morphs can affect peoples' minds. Tedd knows this too. But, then again, that would be me testing out theories based off of isolated incidents and my own personal bias. :-P

In either his tumblr or twitter Shive mentioned that, yes, Nanase's underwear are also on the floor. They weren't shown to us for ratings reasons, but it's highly probable Tedd saw them coming off.

As for me, I'm used to the idea of cousins as mates not only being permissible, but often preferable, clan connections being a thing. Total non-issue here. But rather than thinking Tedd is weird, it seems the idea is just as creepy to him as to most of the posters here. Otherwise he wouldn't have to build mental defenses against his undeniably hot cousin entering his consciousness that way.

As for overreacting, this is a comedy. Tedd ignoring his hot cousin suddenly going bottomless wouldn't be funny at all, unless she started flashing him to get a reaction, and while I would find that hilarious, I can just imagine the shitstorm that would cause. Like Scataggedon, man.

Out of curiosity, where are you from, Daremo, if you don't mind me asking?

The Nanase situation is further complicated by a strong family resemblance. Tedd thinks his girl form is hot, has a lot of fetishes related to it, and has to persuade himself that Nanase does not resemble it in the slightest.

Currently I reside in America, but I've been around and about, and kind of lost the idea that there's any one way for people to live.

As liberal as I am this is still a country that thankfully isn't that obsessed with stupid needless clan hangups anymore.... Mostly (Lookin' you, Appalachian Mountains), so incest? Still a big nono.

edited 21st Oct '14 4:23:08 AM by MousaThe14

The thing is that places where cousin marriage is ok don't consider it incest at all.

Explanations of vampire goodness and Sarah is losing the plot thread in her story...

The question is, will this rattle her enough that her story-based skills will take a dive?

Okay, the first 2 panels are really Animesque, and it's adorable. Also, last panel Sarah is adorable too.

Is Dan drawing her differently? Because dang it she is such a cutie in this comic.

Uh huh, uh huh, oh sorry, what was that? Justin was extremely distracting for that one panel.

Well, she is very noticeably bustier here, if that's what you mean.

What is better: To be born good, or to overcome your evil nature through great effort?

edited 21st Oct '14 6:15:27 AM by GethKnight

Obviously the latter.

I think the first panel looks like Akira Toriyama's artwork (Dragon Ball).

Which option gets me the best stuff?

Do you want to work for it, or instant gratification?

Also, I like Sam. I hope she sticks around.

He. You hope he sticks around.

And yeah, Sam seems cool, but, I am not a fan of Shive's whole "he has character therefore I will reveal their eyes!" Thing. I liked Tedd's obscured glasses thing more, and I liked Sam's obscured glasses thing more.

Unrelated note: if you ever want to discover new levels of stress, take a toddler to get booster shots all by yourself. You also discover new shades of red that a face can turn.

For Those Two Idiots: at this point, I think Shive isn't going to do anyone any good by continuing to feature them.

For those of us who agree with Shive's point, it's belaboring something we already agree with. And it's doing so by focusing more and more on characters that most of us absolutely hate (I say "most of us" because Larry is becoming somewhat redeemed in some eyes - I still want him to go away).

For those that don't agree with Shive's point, they're not reconsidering their position; they're feeling demonized (which, to be honest, they are). Regardless of whether or not you feel they deserve it or not, they're going to feel bullied by Shive in that representation, which only causes them to respond by doubling down on their bad attitudes. We don't really need to go into why this is a bad move on their part (it just reinforces the criticism Shive and others have of them); the important point is that the calls to change are going to fall on deaf ears.

For the last two strips... while I still find the card games to be utterly boring, it's amazing how better those strips read if you've just been subjected to Larry and Rich. "Well, this is boring me out of my skull, but at least it isn't making me want to strangle fictional characters."

@17940 Neither is better. Being good is its own reward, regardless of whether you've always been good or had to work at it. Now, if you're asking about what makes for a better story, it's almost always the story of redemption. But to say one person is better than the other when both end up good is doing a disservice to both.

Sam's a he.

Yes, sorry. Some reason, I thought Sam was mTf. And yes, I forgot about the goatee.

Depends on how you define "better". From the perspective of which is more indicative of a strong moral belief, the latter. From the perspective of which is more trustworthy, the former; for those overcoming their evil nature through great effort, all it takes is one slip, one moment of questioning whether this is really worth it.

Being good is hard, it's tiring, and it's frequently unrewarding. The main reward of Good is that other people are happy at great cost to you, personally, which can be a reward in and of itself for those born good, but if a person considered selflessly bettering the lives of others by sacrificing their own personal desires to be a valuable reward in and of itself, they wouldn't have an evil nature, now would they?

Someone with an evil nature, such as a vampire, who chooses to try and do good is making an exemplary life choice, but will always have to deal with the temptation to return to a far easier and more personally rewarding path.

It should be noted that this is something of a Fantastic Aesop as humans are neither born good nor possessing of an evil nature; unlike vampires, we have three-dimensional personalities for which good and evil are personal choices.

edited 21st Oct '14 7:09:46 AM by TobiasDrake

Arguably, we are unsure as to Sam's sex or gender. They might just be a guy. They might be fTm. They might be a Drag King. Based on the beard, it's probably reasonably safe to go for "he", but I've also known a transitioning mTf who felt that everyone needed to ignore the beard and masculine clothing and call them "she". I don't think anyone has used a pronoun to correct in-strip yet...