Questionable Content

No business in the QC-verse has a particularly good name. Coffee of Doom and Secret Bakery are both kind of awful.

oh reeeaaallllllyyyyyyyy -sideeye-

Wait, I'm confused. Is this a Marten-centric arc that's starting? Does this comic still do that?

This seems like one of those QC things where something that's meant to come across as quirky or endearingly snarky comes across as grating instead.

Yeah, I'm with you on that. Combined with the facial expression, the words indicate "you know what, I don't really know anything, but I love causing trouble. So let me spread some really vicious rumors that might hurt your relationship."

Especially because he didn't actually do anything!

They had plans to go out, she cancelled on him last minute, proceeded to ghost him for a week, and when she finally called him the day before she left, he (pretty justifiably) didn't want to see her.

And then later than that he emailed her and they got closure and moved on with their lives.

Like...what the actual fuck? Does Jeph actually want us to hate Renee?

Ehhhhhhh.

Marten did kind of fuck up the whole Padme thing. Like, not in a vacuum, it was a two person fuck up, and neither really acted all that mature or adultish in it. But still, this seems like something that, given how deep Martin and Claire's relationship runs lately, he should have told her about.

Marten wasn't a saint about it, he was kinda bitter as far as I remember - he was upset that his cool new lady was going to exit his life and decided not to see her off with a kind of cold, petulant phone call. I think it was after that that he got drunk and acted a royal c-word towards Faye and got flattened. Not that Renee would know anything about the last part.

With that being said, I really don't want this to devolve into relationship drama. "Hmm no I think I'll stay and listen to how you royally fucked up your last relationship" sounds endlessly nosy, like an episode of Everybody Loves Raymond. I mean Marten is now 100% more interesting than he has been for the last year or more, but the reasons for such are rubbing me the wrong way.

Marten definitely didn't handle that well, but Bad Wolf's right in that Padma has her fair share of the blame for how things blew up, and I hope that Marten calls Renee out if she gets too snide about it.

When was the last time Marten called out anyone on anything? Discounting that time when he made a mildly annoyed comment at his mom and was made to apologize immediately.

in which we learn there is a social group within the comic dedicated to talking shit about Marten

Huh. That resolved itself much more quickly than I'd thought. I mean, I was reasonably sure Claire/Marten would be okay sooner or later, but given Jeph's usual pacing with this sort of situation I thought Claire would be pissed off for a few strips before they had this talk.

Ehhhhhhhh.

I feel like this is something Marten should have told Claire about, I really do. Given the stage of their relationship, talking about/being honest about previous relationships seems like a pretty standard trust thing? And kind ot shitty to dodge, since this is the first time Claire's even heard of Padme, which was a pretty heavy thing for Marten.

It's clearly not the first time she heard of Padma, because she recognized who Renee was talking about, although she clearly hasn't been told very much.

And I don't necessarily think that how a previous relationship ended is something you absolutely need to tell your partner. Why, sure. But how is something that not everyone wants to talk about or hear, necessarily.

I disagree. While I don't actively think he SHOULD have hidden it, "Here's a list of shitty things I've done in past relationships, especially the parts I'm uncomfortable talking about in general" is weird territory to get into unsolicited. You could argue it's worse to dodge, but in context it's dodging talking to some acquaintance who clearly sides against you about it versus dodging talking to a partner about it privately.

edited 21st Jun '17 8:17:29 PM by SomeName

If it never comes up, is that info something Marten is supposed to just offer up? Like I don't see how it's something that's "supposed" to happen in a relationship.

"Hey babe, now that I've said 'I love you', you should listen to all my serious break-up stories." Yeah right

@Badwolf She knows there was a girl Marten was dating before her, but clearly dosen't know this story specifically (she questions who Padme is and has to ask for confirmation that this was indeed his previous relationship), and I disagree, relationships fail for a lot of reasons, and being aware of those reasons is something you share with a partner especially one you are at the I-love-you stage with, it information your current partner deserves to know, to avoid...well being blindsided with it in public, but also to be aware of the issues and to work past them.

@Some Name I don't know man, talking about your previous relationships, especially your directly preceding relationship seems pretty boilerplate stuff, especially for someone you already in a long term committed relationship with. While the timeline is vague, we've been through at least two time skips (Most memorably the Faye-gets-buff one) that indicate seasons/months going by, this feels like something Claire should already know about.

@frosty Ehhhh, given they've been together for...wow, nearly a thousand comics, I feel like it's a natural thing to come up in a relationship, 'I've been through some negative stuff and this is whta it is' is well...pretty boiler plate.

So basically you're saying that in a relationship this long, the topic should've come up by now, and the first time it does is the time to have that conversation.

Clin-ton finally got past Elliott and entered the bar. It only took five minutes of Elliott patiently waiting for Clin-ton to say something.

Clin-ton and Elliott seem more interested in each other than Brun

edited 25th Jun '17 7:40:49 PM by oppyu

Am I the only one who sees some sort of poly relationship coming out of this?

yes?

Not anymore you aren't. Since you said it and it seems logical to me.

edited 25th Jun '17 9:28:01 PM by phantom1

> jury's still out

Go fuck yourself, Renee.

Yeah, Renee does rather tip over the line from "cutely cynical" to "just plain tiresome".