We'll, we've seen him do standup twice before. One was before the comic started, chronologically, and the other had him get along pretty well with the audience. I don't think he would still be doing stand-up with an audience like this, because how would it be any different from his life at Shortpacked!?
I think that's the point, while he obviously got very tired of the whole thing day in day out at Shortpacked he enjoys it (and to be honest, who doesn't enjoy pointing out other people's wrong opinions and ideas) and stand-up is a place where he can argue with people on his own terms.
edited 22nd Apr '13 2:51:31 AM by Gvzbgul
Yeah, I don't think any comic, no matter how good, will always be in a heckler-free environment, especially when testing new material. Ethan's audience may mostly cooperate but that's a coincidence, not something that can be helped.
Maybe you'd be less disappointed if you stopped expecting things to be Carmen Sandiego movies.edited 22nd Apr '13 9:44:53 PM by Wackd
Maybe you'd be less disappointed if you stopped expecting things to be Carmen Sandiego movies.He's seriously not going to be in Shortpacked anymore? I kind of figured even if he was leaving the store, at least he'd be staying in the other cast members' social circles.
...eventually, we will reach a maximum entropy state where nobody has their own socks or underwear, or knows who to ask to get them back.I think the difference is that Amber has serious issues that she needed to get over to live a fulfilling life. Her meekness was holding her back to an absurd degree and it was only when she learned to interact with the world more on her own terms that she really became happy.
But Ethan's never really seemed unhappy or unfulfilled. Frustrated, sure, but there was never any quirk of his personality that needed to be excised beyond, perhaps, his self-righteousness—and here he is, learning that conflict is not a constant and that he doesn't need to listen to every misinformed opinion that comes out of someone's mouth.
Multiplex author Gordon McAlpin once said of his main character Jason that "his arc is never going to be that he stops being a jerk, but that he becomes a more open-minded jerk. People don't change that radically."* That same logic applies to Ethan—he's never going to "evolve" beyond his toy obsession, or any of the other things that make Ethan Ethan. It just doesn't work.
I feel this conclusion is pretty satisfactory. I mean, I take a bit of issue with the fact that the build-up happened mostly in one-off comics that seemed to come in after weeks of Ethan being completely sidelined, but I deeply suspect it's the sort of thing that'll work better for me in an Archive Binge.
Maybe you'd be less disappointed if you stopped expecting things to be Carmen Sandiego movies.That guy's history is terrible.
Homosexuals weren't invented until the '70s. And Lincoln didn't die on a battlefield in World War Two, he died when he rode a nuclear bomb into Moscow and killed Hitler.
X-Men X-Pert, my blog where I talk about X-Men comics.
Well, yeah. If you're constructing a strawman argument you're making up the opposition's argument. Therefore if the argument is something someone actually said, it's not a strawman.
Yeah, this whole discussion is silly. I want to say the complainers are probably just purists, instead of racists, but I actually seem them talking.
Incidentally, I really hope they do make Sue black as well. I have the feeling they might not too, however, which would be infuriating. And it would kinda prove the "dangers of tokenism" guys right.
Has Johnny even actually been confirmed as black? I thought that was still just a rumour.
For my part, the purist in me wants to object, but then the more rational side of me says, "Shut the fuck up, it's not a big deal. It's no worse than making Jane Foster a scientist instead of a nurse."
X-Men X-Pert, my blog where I talk about X-Men comics.

That's not how I understood it. From the comic it looks like he always had a love/hate relationship with his audience, and just lampshaded it.
"And as long as a sack of shit is not a good thing to be, chivalry will never die."