Yarp, I’m digging where this is going. And I’m glad Faye is finally getting some ass! I was getting worried.
Update!
Sven seems completely aware of the consequences of his actions, and Faye seems remarkably calm, so far.
Dammit. Why must it be Friday? I’ve never wanted a weekend to be over before. Questionable Content has broken the parts of my brain where sanity and logic live.
P.S. What Exit?, you might try Looking for Group, which is another D&D/roleplaying game-based comic. I’m not really a fan of those things, but I think LfG is wickedly funny.
OK, like apparently many others here, I have burned through the QC archives in the past couple of weeks.
My read is that Faye is not that into Sven, just finally wanted it bad enough to push her boundaries. Sven, I think, is much more into Faye than that, and is actually going to be hurt when she is not interested in a relationship–a first for him. I have no idea who Faye will wind up with, but judging by past results it will take another 500 strips minimum.
You could also through Tai and her girlfriend in there, I guess. For me, Penelope all the way.
It seems to be VERY loosely based on World of Warcraft (A troll priest, tauren, undead warlock (with imp), blood elf), but doesn’t appear to have any plot, history or geographic connections to that world.
At least Jeph makes a 500-strip journey to the next plot point fun! Unlike some cartoonists I could name (I’m lookin’ at you, Abrams…)!
Yeah, well, I am probably on for the long haul, also. Freudian Slit, by introducing this to us all you are the timewastesaur. You are a distractodon.
I had meant to mention this earlier, but I forgot.
Time will tell, but I think Faye is into Sven, but is in deep denial about it. That’s why she keeps treating Sven as if he’s still a sex-compulsive, despite ample evidence that he’s reformed.
When I saw this the other day I went through hundreds of those strips until I got numbed and started skipping around but I have gotten most of the strip read at this point up to the current happenings.
My take on few things.
The strip is very clever culture commentary wise especially WRT to music snobbery and gaming culture. I love the AnthroPC.
I realize Faye striking people, especially Marten is supposed to be cute in some fashion and the cartoonist is just in love with this meme, but after about the 100th arm punch, and threatened beat down of someone it got to the point that it’s just not that cute and is insanely annoying.
Marten is “cute”, but as a man is a real passive sad sack of a human being and is more like some woman’s gay pal than a heterosexual man.
Faye, even with the plot-line trying to explain her behavior as issues due to her father’s death, is really (as depicted) kind of remorselessly self pitying. Her continually prick teasing Marten goes beyond someone with “issues” and paints her more as a “dance puppets dance” bit of a self centered controlling bully. The strip tries to make her sympathetic, but she fundamentally is not a nice person.
I was trying to wrap my head around the overall context, as the plot conceits re the characters behavior seemed so childish and repetitive, when I realized this is not a strip meant to grokked by adults. This is supposed to be for 20 somethings and teenagers and reflects their sensibilities.
A good comic for what it is and very cleverly written, but the characters are sllloooooowwwwww to develop.
I’m going to disagree in part. I think the distinction is that the strip is ABOUT 20somethings, not necessarily FOR 20somethings. I’m 36 and I love the strip. I don’t know what that necessarily says about my maturity, but there ya go.
When has Faye ever been a prick tease to Marten, or to any character? Everyone says she has done this, but I’ve read every strip and I can’t remember any scenes to that effect.
Indeed, this is one of my problems with the strip. It’s taken for granted that Marten carried a torch for Faye and she kept cockblocking him, but until the big scene where she revealed her issues, I can’t remember a single scene where Marten expressed a strong interest, beyond the rudimentary “I’m alone and you’re female.”
The characters are under-written, I guess is what I’m trying to say. Jeph told us where things stood between Faye and Marten; he didn’t show us.
I’ll leave the “prick teasing” to Fiver, above, and also disagree with the rest as well, at least as the strip has gone up to the present arc – I think Faye had realized she was being unfair to Marten, and therefore a not-nice-person, at the point where they had their talk. She’s changed fundamentally since that point, as well as punched (or threatened to) quite a bit less.
I think quite a bit of Marten’s interest in Faye was revealed through his conversations with Steve at several points during the run-up to Faye’s “I can’t do this” revelation to Marten.
I think astro is correct, though. Fundamentally, Faye isn’t a nice person. I think the story-arc about what happened with her dad did explain it, but like real life it didn’t excuse it. I also think her talking it over with Marten helped her to realize that as well.
I think the fundamental change in Faye is that she’s realized that her behavior doesn’t have an excuse, and I think she’s working toward changing it. However, she’s also not comfortable with real change, which is why the present story-arc is so good. Hannalore has more obvious issues than Faye does, but she’s more brave than Faye in dealing with them or using them to her advantage as well. I actually suspect that we’re going to find out (possibly over a very long time, even for Jeph) that Hanners has been something of a role-model for Faye for awhile now, not just during karaoke night.
And now I’ve put a lot more thought into a comic strip than is at all warranted, and must go to bed.
Heh. I’m not really up on the finer distinctions of RPGs. All I knew is that there were warlock-y characters and mythical beasts. I just find the orphanage jokes madly entertaining. (Yes, I laugh at the idea of blowing up an orphanage in “self-defense.” I don’t know what that says about me.)
I agree with this. I think Faye keeps people at an emotional distance via her unpleasantness (the aforementioned punching, her temper, the threats). So now that Sven is changing/has changed, she’s got some rethinking to do.
I also agree with whoever it was who said Sven’s probably going to take this more seriously than Faye (in the sense that he’ll be more willing to try a relationship), just because I think he changed because of what Faye was saying. I think they might have a conversation that starts, “So, I heard about this thing called monogamy, and I thought it sounded interesting.”
When I first scanned over this I read, “…I think Faye is into Raven” 
I was 40 when I found it, and I’ve been loving it for almost two years now.
Good point. If you really want to analyze it, consider this: Hanners is completely different from the kinds of people Faye usually associates with, and as such she takes Faye out of her comfort zone. While it’s not explicitly shown, I believe Faye actually has to stop and think about how she talks to/acts toward Hanners. And that stopping and thinking is starting to carry over to how she deals with other people. It also helps that Hanners is obviously harmless - Faye is able to lower her defense mechanisms around her … and as a side effect she’s no longer so defensive around the others. For example, one of her biggest defense mechanisms is her biting sarcasm, which is completely lost on Hannelore the Literalist. Now Faye is discovering that she doesn’t need to be so sarcastic when she talks to other people, and it’s something of a relief to her.
ETA: And all that is helping with her drinking. Faye was a bitch, and she (perhaps unconsciously) drank to numb the pain of knowing she was a bitch. Less bitchiness means less pain which means less need to drink.
We see what we want to see.
Interesting. Anybody suspect today’s comment in the sidebar is a hint?
Phase42, I think it’s a really good point that Faye both can’t and doesn’t need to be so defensive around Hanners. However, Hanners being the third person aware of what’s going on is going to be quite straining on the relationship.
Okay, off to go be productive again!
Actually, I suspect that’s not so much a hint as a commentary on today’s comic. Faye’s reputation is causing Hanners to have fits about her assumed upcoming beatdown, which fits are causing Faye’s exasperation to rise, making a beatdown or aggressively suppressed beatdown urge more and more likely.
If I knew anything about Yotsuba&! , I’d probably have an opinion on what Jeph meant.
Ah, Yotsuba&. Truly an interesting manga. A strange fusion of Peanuts and japanese culture, but it works quite well. Worth reading.
Terribly sweet, and it does make me laugh. (I rather suspect someone had re-read the bits with the water pistol)
Faye is taking this pretty well, considering how riddled with insecurities and hang ups she is. She hasn’t tweaked out and slugged anyone, she’s been remarkably considerate (for her, anyway) with Hanners, and she had the foresight to call her shrink before melting into a pile of neurosis riddled ooze.
Now, I can’t wait to see how things play out when you add Dora and Marten to the mix.