Yeah, but, without the AnthroPCs, you wouldn’t get the new guy introduced today, with the metal hand.
You know, the guy who has a nice, shiny, *sterile *metal hand. The one who is clearly being set up for Hanners…
No… no, you’re not.
This thread got me started reading the comic, but I didn’t go back to the beginning - I just kind of picked up from wherever I was.
Who’s Hannelore’s father? Has he been mentioned before? Is this backstory that I should know about?
Go back to the beginning. Go.
Hannelore’s dad lives in an orbital space station and once built her a robot “boyfriend.”
A nickel says he’s responsible for this new guy’s prosthetic hand as well 
I disagree. I love the idea that this comic takes place in a crazy, sci-fi universe, but isn’t about a crazy, sci-fi universe, so those elements only touch on the protagonists lives occasionally. It’s a great conceit, that’s made all the stronger by how consistently Jacques underplays it.
I think the strip would work without the Anthros, but I’m not sure it’d be better. The Roomba-ghostriding comic was worth a week of relationship angst.
A quarter says Clinton is 100% anthro. Especially in light of Clinton’s survey question in panel 1.
Any Marten/Hanners 'shippers rooting for them after today’s strip? She is pretty rad.
I hope it happens just so Dora flips out and has a nervous breakdown. I love to hate that girl. Well, I kind of love to hate on all of them but her in particular.
Poor Hanners. 
I’m glad Marten spoke up.
Hanners needs to get some advice from Faye on this. Faye had a good relationship with her father, but he’s no longer here. Hanners does not, but hers is still around. It may lead to nothing but closure, but that’s what Hanners needs.
I was figuring Clinton was brought in as a potential love interest for Hanners.
Unfortunately, their first encounter ended up about the polar opposite of a “meet cute” setup. Any time the single girl’s roommate has to use an actual sword to hustle the fanboy-raving potential suitor outside, that’s not a good start to things.
Hanners/Martin would be kinda weird. Not due to the crazy or the touching issues (well, kinda due to that) but mostly because Marten and Dora were acting as her surrogate parents for what, like 1200 strips?
On the other hand, having a relationship failure with all three of the anime-love-interest archetypes would be a pretty good predecessor to a closure arc. And the “Hanners is a Marten-stalker” bit kind of just petered out. And really, who else is non-threatening enough for her to start with? AND there were some kinda-hinting tweets right after the breakup, so maybe.
–
Still not understanding the Dora-hate, but am additionally not understanding why this would be an expected end result of that scenario.
It’s Questionable Content, though. Meeting cute would be too normal. They’ve got to hipster it up. Make the first meet ironic, or something.
ETA: I dislike Dora mostly because of her irrational flip outs. If she were a guy flipping out every time his girlfriend didn’t tell him someone asked her out or something, this would be some serious Ike Turner type shit.
Re: Hanners, You really think the Dora we know and (sort of) love is emotionally secure enough to deal with Marten dating one of her good friends?
Right. Hanners could end up in a relationship containing a ***MENTALLY UNBALENCED STALKER!! *** That would be horrible!
Clinton would try to use her just to get to her dad. Or - try to disassemble her looking for upgrades. :eek:
The sci-fi stuff is there because he introduced Pintsize in the very first strip, before he really knew what direction the comic would go in, and has had to live with that decision ever since. It’s understated because it doesn’t really fit. That’s my theory.
That doesn’t mean it’s necessarily bad, though. At it’s best, it can add a bit of WTF quirkiness to what otherwise be a pretty conventional strip.