Ménage à 3 Universe Comics

New Ma3

Wherever is this going?

Tracy's place, evidently.

One would think it was more sensible to get Gary's buy-in before dragging him off like that. But never mind, genre convention.

= Spindriver =

I really liked that Sandra strip.

The sad, REAL American dichotomy

New Ma3. Tracy has a cunning plan.

= Spindriver =

Another new Ma3 strip. I'm afraid that we have a runaway Idiot Plot at the moment.

= Spindriver =

In this comic, when did we not?

edited 22nd Oct '16 3:45:11 AM by Medinoc

"And as long as a sack of shit is not a good thing to be, chivalry will never die."

... Didn't she already tell him that she does such webcam stuff? Why is she trying to trick him into it?

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

Because in a farce, sensible people doing sensible things sensibly only makes sense when it would be utterly senseless.

That is, when you've become so inured to the farcical happenings that someone being reasonable has shock value, or at least throws everything into sharp relief.

Creed of the Happy Pessimist:Always expect the worst. Then, when it happens, it was only what you expected. All else is a happy surprise.

But she's one of the most sensible characters in the cast! This seems unusually unsensible from what I've seen of her.

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

It really does. Dammit Gary, how stupid are you? And Tracy, a little honesty can actually go a long way.

The sad, REAL American dichotomy

Time was when you the comic's plots were at least partially character-driven, and yes, Tracy for one seemed like a moderately smart woman. This is just raw Idiot Plot.

I suspect that Dave01 is doing all the writing at the moment, while Giz is busy with her mainstream comicus art work. This is the sort of nonsense we expect from Sandra on the Rocks at its weakest, not from something like Sticky Dilly Buns.

edited 22nd Oct '16 11:08:04 AM by Spindriver

= Spindriver =

Tracy is sensible at work, mostly, but when it comes to play or sexytime she's as out there as everyone else in wackyland.

Creed of the Happy Pessimist:Always expect the worst. Then, when it happens, it was only what you expected. All else is a happy surprise.

She's sometimes a bit wacky, but not usually stupidly so. And on her first appearance, she cured Gary's paralysis and tamed Eulice. She's gone downhill from that.

= Spindriver =

1. Maybe she thinks Gary would refuse, freeze up, or get bad stage fright if he knew? (None of which is a decent excuse, since Gary would have his privacy incredibly invaded by being put on the net without knowing it.)

2. In this comic, Sex > Funny > Characterization > Plot

| Wandering, but not lost. | If people bring so much courage to this world...◊ |

What did you mean by that last sentence? Because SOTR is the best strip. SDB is ...not.

The sad, REAL American dichotomy

Sez you. For me, SDB is a coherent story with characters I've actually come to care about, a little. SotR is amusing, but is a sprawling mess with major plotlines that go forgotten for months at a time (remember that "infiltrating the school" thing?) and characters who are wildly over-exaggerated for comic effect.

edited 23rd Oct '16 3:06:40 AM by Spindriver

= Spindriver =

Why even do this ? As far as she knows Gary is a guy who once offered to blow her boyfriend out of the blue, why not just ask if he'll help ? And how stupid do you have to be to not realise that the pants you're wearing are assless ?

I think he knows quite well they are, he's just trying to understand why he's wearing them.

Fresh-eyed movie blog

For me:

• SOTR is the best strip. It's the most "fun", with mostly likeable characters and interesting stories. The thing about it is that it rarely strays away from the main character, which is a small part of my issue with SDB. So while yes, that one overly complicated revenge plot stalled, it was never meant to be a main plot, so I'm fine with it being on the back burner. My biggest issue is that Senna, part of the catalyst for this strip starting, basically disappeared, but even then, eh.
• ma3 is the middle stripe for me. It's the original and what got me into the verse, but it has been a lot less fun lately, adding more characters, lines, and waiting, little actual story development (though there is some), and Gary, the main character, is a spineless idiot whose flaws begin to erode at the likeable parts of him. Meanwhile, the more likeable main characters Zii and Didi get less time compared to the beginning, in part because of Gary and all the new characters (most of whom are alright in cameo roles) combined eating at their opportunities.
• SDB is the worst, for me. Dillon and Ruby are mostly unlikeable, for different reasons. Ruby is effectively the main character, so much so that when that one color image of "It's Ruby" appeared on the site, that could've easily been used to justify a rename of the strip. Amber is the best character in the strip by a large margin, but doesn't have a lot to do. Unlike the other spinoff SOTR, SDB also is more reliant on the original ma3 cast, since they're still in the same city. The plots are among the worst of the three strips, except occasionally for Gary's Idiot Plot du jour. I just plain didn't find it fun, and honestly like the fact that it has been on hiatus for a couple of months, since I was mostly just reading it out of habit.

The sad, REAL American dichotomy

Each to their own. I don't disagree that SotR can be fun, but it's a sprawling mess (not helped by the irregular update schedule, obviously) that depends on broad cartoon characters and a lot of video game in-jokes (which aren't my thing). And the problem with throwing stuff at the wall and seeing what sticks is that you just end up with a wall and floor covered in sticky stuff. I don't care whether or not a comic's title character is actually the chief protagonist, so I don't see that as a virtue here either. Equally, while Senna often works as a joke character, it doesn't worry me that she's not around. It's not like she's a paragon of consistency when she does appear.

It sounds like we mostly agree about Ma3 (which was not only the starting-place for all this, but the only comic of the three that existed when I started reading it). But I remember saying from quite early in my reading time that the comic's main problem was that Gary was a personality-free black hole in the middle of the story, and instead of actually fixing that, the writers have just thrown more and more secondary and tertiary characters at him in an attempt to make him interesting. They seem scared of even trying to give him any depth.

As for SDB — well, as someone with no great fondness for Dillon from his days in Ma3, it caused me no pain at all when Ruby took over the lead role. I like Ruby, a lot, because she's an absolutely classic hardcore nerd, and she reminds me a little of my younger self and a lot of various people close to me. It'd be weird and hypocritical of me to dislike her, any flaws notwithstanding. Equally, while Dillon retains many of the flaws that made him so damn irritating in Ma3, the writers set out to show him getting over his worst habits and genuinely developing and improving as a person (partly through his interactions with Ruby), and because they've handled that fairly well, I can't be bothered to dislike him these days.

What I don't get is how someone can see Amber as the "best character" there, because I barely see her as a character at all. She's mostly just a sexy plot device for Gary and an annoyance for Ruby. (She used to be a friend for Dillon, but Ruby does that job much more interestingly.) We had broad hints back when SDB started that she'd have her own fairly serious plot threads, covering her desire for a serious relationship (resolved in seconds float, as it turned out) and her communications problems with Ruby (that have gone precisely nowhere, and which will probably be fixed from Ruby's side if they're ever fixed at all). She doesn't change or face challenges that demand any effort on her part. It seems a bit of a waste, but it's evidently too late to expect a sudden surge of Amber-based plots; I'd rather the supposed one last wrap-up chapter decided what to do wit hRuby and the Dillon-Jerzy-Angel triangle.

(Now, if you want a character who I can hold in contempt, try Jerzy...)

= Spindriver =

New SotR. A physically impossible conversation.

New Ma3. The pathetic geek identification character is, we are reminded, a sex god who is irresistible to women.

= Spindriver =

You sure? I could've sworn I've seen skydiving videos where you could hear the skydiver talking, albeit with considerable difficulty.

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

I suspect that getting close enough to another skydiver for conversational speech to be heard over the passing wind, at freefall velocities, without even deliberately linking up, is some way past "difficult". Those recordings you saw may have involved the people wearing headset mikes.

edited 25th Oct '16 7:07:21 AM by Spindriver

= Spindriver =

There was an episode of Mythbusters about that. If I recall, without a headset you need to scream to be heard.

I have to agree, Ruby is my most liked character in SDB and enjoy her lead role. Gary is a total moron more often than not lately. Still, I enjoy SOTR more because of the injokes and the cartoony characterization is more fun.