Looks like I was dead-wrong on this one. Also, Clinton is an asshole. We already knew that, but today’s strip seals the deal. Now, I can’t pretend to think what it’d be like to be in Clinton’s shoes at this moment. I haven’t been asked out by another guy before, and if I did, I’d be pretty sure that I wasn’t into it. It’s hard to put myself in those shoes. But if I did take that person up on their offer to spend an evening together to get to know each other, I wouldn’t fucking hit on their coworker.
Also, what’s up with Clinton and Elliot “hanging out” while Elliot is working? That’s a bad idea on so many levels. Not to mention that the last time we saw Elliot, he told Yay that “I’d rather not have to show him my intimidating side.”
Sven feels like it would be an ethical conflict to help pay for May’s new parts if they’re bangin’; as though he was basically spending money to build a better sex toy for himself rather than helping an independent person. Presumably if they were in a long term relationship prior to her upgrades that might be different but their entire relationship so far has consisted of weird sex. He ultimately decided to help her long-term by donating a substantial amount of money at the cost of the whole kinky sex thing.
You could argue that, if both were willing to shrug it off then hey why not. But that’s not how Sven feels and he wouldn’t be able to set aside the issue so it’s better to just let it go. May isn’t thrilled about it but understands the point; she wouldn’t want someone having that sort of leverage or presumed ownership over her and, even if it doesn’t come out now, who’s to say what happens in a fight or breakup?
If the issue is the amount of money Sven donated, May was quite rude to even ask him what the amount was, and I think even someone as transgressive as May would know this. So it’s basically Jeph writing this in so May can’t get laid because reasons.
I don’t know. I can see the dilemma. The amount of money is at issue because it was enough that May couldn’t have gotten the body she is in without it even if fundraising had continued for awhile longer.
Comic 4399 - “That’s a lotta fuckin’ money, clownboy”
Comic 4400 - “And… I am grateful. Gettin’ this body took every penny I got. So you directly helped make that happen, and…and I can’t thank you enough.”
Dora has issues with Sven based on when they were teenagers - IIRC, the basic gist was he kept using her friend group as his dating pool, which caused huge issues with her social life, because of the drama he kept causing among her friends.
And, of course, there was the time he blew up his relationship with Faye because he decided he wanted to fuck some random woman.
Eh, I think if it was $5 then May would have felt like “Fuck, you ain’t getting shit for five bucks” and would shrug off the ethical dilemma because there’s no “ownership” conflict for five dollars. But, since it was a game-changing amount of money, she can’t do so or reassure Sven that his contribution was irrelevant to the situation.
Yeah, but at that point, they both knew that the relationship had matured beyond just a casual hookup, they just hadn’t admitted it to each other yet. Sven was basically exploiting a loop hole: he knew their feelings towards each other were more complex than simple fuck buddies, but since they hadn’t explicitly renegotiated their relationship, he was still “allowed” to sleep around. He knew that, technicalities aside, Faye would be hurt if he slept with someone else, and wouldn’t want to continue their relationship, and he went ahead and slept with someone else anyway.
It’s definitely not the same as cheating - Faye would have ended him if he’d cheated - but it demonstrated that he didn’t value the idea of a more serious relationship as much as Faye did, and in a way that put satisfying his immediate wants above being considerate to Faye.
Sven’s aware that there’s a class of deeply shitty dudes who would do something like this for someone they’re sexually/romantically interested in, then later use it as emotional blackmail when there’s a conflict in the relationship. Sven’s a little worried that he might be that sort of dude. By breaking things off with May, he’s demonstrating - both to May and to himself - that he has no ulterior motives for helping her out.
May is hugely conflicted emotionally about accepting help from anyone, especially people she knows socially. She views personal relationships very transactionally, and is uncomfortable when it’s not a zero-sum balance. Probably, she has a lot of experience with people who try to leverage a social debt beyond what it’s worth - see the aforementioned shitty dudes Sven is concerned about. She’s still learning how to respond to genuine help and concern, and given that sex always makes everything more complicated, it’s a lot healthier for her to step back from her relationship with Sven until she can sort out how being the recipient of charity from her platonic friends makes her feel, before she tries to tackle how charity from someone she’s sleeping with makes her feel.