El Goonish Shive

I maintain that it's not about confidence, it's about investment. Shive wants Justin to have a happy romance but he's not too invested in actually depicting it. That's why it took so long for Justin to even get a romance interest in the first place. Meanwhile, Elliot's on his third girlfriend.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Aug 12th 2019 at 8:36:42 AM

I've come to the conclusion that it's both things, feeding one another. He doesn't feel very confident in depicting the dates nor does he think it'll be worth the time spent trying because he believes the story should be focusing elsewhere, so he doesn't invest in them, which leads him to think that, because he doesn't have much experience depicting them, he doesn't have the ability to do so, which leads to... you get the idea.

Edited by TheLovecraftian on Aug 12th 2019 at 12:20:18 PM

To some extent, I'll grant that Elliot being on his third relationship while Justin is on his first (well, technically second, if we're counting Justin's Last Het Romance which was discussed in flashback) is somewhat realistic in my experience as An Old; at one point, it was much more common for gay kids to have a lot less dating experience because societal pressures generally made it much harder (more gay people were closeted, so even ones with supportive families felt societal pressure to stay low-key, and they also had fewer people open enough to go with).

That said, that was the not-so-good old days; I have to imagine that it's much less of an issue today in many areas (though not universal, since there are still some less accepting areas all over even today). So I guess it feels like it makes sense to me that Elliot has had more relationship history... but at the same time, it also feels like it shouldn't.

Tangentially, to some extent... it occurs to me that, for all that Elliot has spent very little time unattached in the comic, it really doesn't show him in a relationship dynamic much. Heck, in a way, the whole thing with Ashley feels like a retread of Elliot's relationship with Sarah, except faster (sudden but cordial breakup with ex, followed by rapid entry into relationship, date night wrecked by a powerful entity that turns out to be an Anti-Villain, and now a party at Tedd's place where a part of the strip's weirdness is made a central theme). Heck, it occurs to me that Sarah even got some bashing for being a bad character early on too (although the complaints about her were more geared towards her being a Satellite Love Interest as opposed to a canonical Relationship Sue)... I guess that means those of us who don't like Ashley can take comfort in knowing that a) she'll probably eventually become a better character, and b) she'll break up with Elliot, if we're going to hit ''all' the major story beats that Sarah hit.

New NP. In which... nothing really happens.

New Story Comic

Susan asks all the questions we are wondering

And showcases her own development a little bit, too - maybe talking with Diane will help her work through some of her own issues.

Yep, still on Susan's side on this one.

RSD^Hey! Rejection-Sensitive Dysphoria, a symptom of my ADHD caused me to spend my teenage years like Susan. But I regret not spending them like Diane.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Aug 14th 2019 at 8:04:48 AM

Comic Party 49

Welcome to your fantasy...

Also, commentary is insightful.

After this conversation, we'd better see male Ashley.

I'm fine with a simple hand wave that Tedd gave Elliot permission to tell ahead of time. This seems reasonable and we really don't need to dwell further on it.

Also, if Shive wants to be precise, the proper label should be (omg 2005-2006? Wow). It was over 16 months long (first comic - May 23, 2005 to last comic September 29, 2006). Also, my comment about the Ashley relationship being an accelerated version of the Sarah relationship looks ever so more on point.

Watch her be turned into a catgirl by accident, and stay mad at Tedd for a while.

New NP ...which I'm just going to completely ignore.

Hmm.

I expect nothing's going to come from this, and that's annoying. If something does come of this, unless both Ashley and Grace are involved, that's worse. Even if they are, that's kind of annoying (especially if they both stay female), but less than if nothing.

Edited by TwinBird on Aug 16th 2019 at 8:04:14 AM

Friendly reminder that this NP storyline hasn't been declared canon (no pirate-Grace-on-a-cannon badge at the start), even if Tedd and Elliot aren't wildly out of character.

So it seems like after years of being irrelevant, the TF gun is going to make an appearance.

For me, it feels too early to try and predict what sort of effect it'll have on the plot, but since I haven't gotten a chance to use the WMG emoticon on this forum yet...

Ashley will become more and more curious about transformations after seeing the main eight's transformations. She will try to use the TF gun on herself but will back out when her anxienties bundle up and come a' knockin'. But then Elliot will swoop in and save the day by using his signature Elliot charm to assure her that transformations are totally safe.

Come to think of it, why is this interesting? I'd somehow forgotten, but weren't they just cuddling? So what's the big deal if they kiss now?

Generally, lip-to-lip kissing is considered decidedly less... platonic. And until proven otherwise, they both have people who would be rather cross with them for kissing other people.

Well, maybe not Grace.

Edited by SalFishFin on Aug 17th 2019 at 2:22:10 PM

Elliot isn't THAT comfortable as a female yet.

Comic Party 50, in which Jeremy is the best character.

Edited by thok on Aug 18th 2019 at 9:14:21 AM

This guy knows what's up. If only this were Reddit than I could give you a golden medal.

This will have to do:

Okay, yeah, that cracked me up

New NP.

I'm going to start hoping this is some in-universe fanfic, because Elliot is going wildly off-character right now.

Doesn't one of his secret identity morphs have a crush on Justin? Maybe some lines are crossed. Really, really crossed.

Cheerleadra!Elliot, at least, never seemed to show any signs of this.