El Goonish Shive

Geez, the amount of self-righteousness going around in the comic today... people need to learn how to take someone being silly. These guys must be the worst at parties.

...oh, wait.

Ugh. So. Ethics in magic casting is my fucking JAM so I feel it's saying something when I did not enjoy this explaining of ethics at all.

Read my stories!

That's because it's not ethics. It's Shive feeling overly conscious about the concept of consent when magic is cast upon someone, and creating a tortured scenario where characters go out of their way to make sure they're all informed an consent to whatever happens next.

As if the fact that they're all longtime friends in a party having fun and making goofs wasn't enough to make that clear.

This is new. Also, I'm with Elliot: you couldn't let him call Ellen or give you her number?

And now, shenanigans begin.

So, Grace is actually an alien?

I chuckled at this.

Tensaided? Like, a ten-sided die?

Hey, Star Trek V was amazing to watch! It's not a good movie, no, but it's amazing.

Male homosexuals, madness. Female homosexuals, o.k? This doesn't even feel like a sexual thing.

Your blank-background of a room is ginormous! No, I'm not getting over that.

'K.

"I stand by my ridiculous claim". I'm starting to like Susan.

So, that's why.

Good for you, Elley?

Goddamn teenage drama.

You had other theories, Justin? And we conclude with ominous silhouette of I think is Hedgehog? Hey, I'm coming up to ''Painted Black''.

Edited by fredhot16 on Jan 22nd 2020 at 11:22:58 AM

Trans rights are human rights. TV Tropes is not a place for bigotry, cruelty, or dickishness, no matter who or their position.

Because it isn't. It's more "Men of all people would know how awful men are. Why would they want to date one?" Or at least, that's how reading it feels to me.

Edited by Medinoc on Jan 22nd 2020 at 9:46:22 PM

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

She thinks dating men is dumb, regardless of gender.

At the time of writing, I forgot about Susan's backstory with the adultery and abandonment so when her mom scoffed at a gay dude but was weirdly O.K with her daughter "catching the gay" and becoming a lesbian, my first (admittedly knee-jerk) response to the confusion of being against male homosexuality but not against female homosexuality was the sexual angle, which it often is.

Typing it, it seems kinda fucked-up considering that it's her own daughter but, having remembered the backstory, it does make more sense that it's not about homosexuality but about filthy, betraying, think-with-the-lower-head men.

I'm mostly binging, as you can tell. I got through to "Q&A 2" from "Elliot's Crew" in a day so the thoughts that get written down are mostly the first ones.

Edit: So, that's why this is called "El Goonish Shive".

I saw some talk yesterday about Shive's writing process, this looks relevant.

Edited by fredhot16 on Jan 22nd 2020 at 6:15:50 AM

Trans rights are human rights. TV Tropes is not a place for bigotry, cruelty, or dickishness, no matter who or their position.

NP Parable 059

Next time, Gadget! Next tiiiime!

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.

Comic Party 113

Warning: Panel 2 lays bare the face of perversion...

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.

I'm just "randomly" going to quote myself here and leave it at that.

Honestly I think the problem is largely how Nanase was so damn serious when she suggested it.

Compare:

"Sarah tried to transform you without your consent and needs to be punished >:("

vs

"Sarah tried to transform you without your consent and needs to be punished ;)" *waggles eyebrows*

Edited by Elfive on Jan 24th 2020 at 10:28:09 AM

Eh, if I'm being honest, I'm just making fun of those last three panels and how clearly they played into my point about characters making it explicitly clear that they consent.

Anyhow, this is clearly about to turn into the NP again, so I'm going to be bowing out once more. See you all for this storyline's one year birthday in about two months.

Edited by TheLovecraftian on Jan 24th 2020 at 8:36:21 AM

The last couple of comics irked me for judicial philosophy reasons.

Hmm... to me, it feels mildly realistic for one person to suddenly be very firm on the idea of consent, whether it's because they recently learned it's an issue or because it became an issue recently (to give a personal example, I was at a party at one point where tickling was a thing, and one of the attendants suddenly flashed back to an assault some years ago. And so, I was very sensitive for a while about tickling people spontaneously (I'd joke about how non-spontaneous tickling doesn't really do much, except that I've found that anticipation can sometimes work as well as surprise). Everyone chiming in kind of makes sense too, peer pressure and all that to seem "woke" and attentive to the winds of social change.

I just have some issues with ideas of needing to punish people as a method of deterrence, especially with how serious Nanase took it. This is mitigated by how *not* serious it actually is.

Tedd has really changed, huh? Just thinking back to the beginning and all.

As for the rest, get on with it!

Writer, or something. And... a button? 🖲️

While I'm not going to accuse Shive of reading this forum, this does strongly hint at him hearing and responding to complaints that some have had here and elsewhere about consent in regards to the comic. I'll give kudos for that.

Now, about editing and a more organic storytelling...

Reminder: Offscreen Villainy does not count towards Complete Monster.

Wait, is Tedd implying there's not a gender spell?

...where is Tedd, and who is this impostor?!

My posts make considerably more sense read in the voice of John Ratzenberger.

The impostor is Tedd himself, disguised as not-so-pervert Tedd.

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

DEEP QUESTION: I mean, if you really get down to it, is not everyone disguised as a less shitty version of themselves?

DEEP ANSWER: No, that's stupid, and I reject your cynical misanthropy's attempt to disguise itself as thought-provoking complex wisdom.

My Tumblr. Currently liveblogging Haruhi Suzumiya and revisiting Danganronpa V3.

Quite true, not everyone is disguised as a less shitty version of themselves. A lot of people are openly just as shitty as they appear to be.

Edited by Daremo on Jan 25th 2020 at 9:07:39 AM

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.

I'm disguised as a worse version of myself. I'd take the disguise off, but the me I'm disguised as doesn't know how.

Trouble Cube continues to be a general-purpose forum for those who desire such a thing.

Comic Party 114

Frank Castle would be proud. Theoretically.

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.

...The Punisher? I am very confused over what you mean.

Flitwick woke up in a cold sweat.

Joke? Why are you calling it a joke? You drew a picture of two dudes hugging and wrote "I love hugs!" on it.