03/09/07 [#759] Feelings

[Psy-Kosh]

The notion of "adventuring school" is interesting--I think that's the first official reference to it, although we all know these guys had to learn their Creature-slaying skills from somewhere. Given the heavy Creature domination of Furrae's political and economic landscape, though, one wonders how such organizations would survive in public...

Well, SAIA would presumably have similar problems sticking around due to the Being side of politics...

[Amber Williams]

I thought we knew Devin was gay, but not necessarily Xander.  The ``Oh, Xander, I'm sorry I never told you that...'' seemed to only have one interpretation.  I mean, they're your characters, so I guess whatever you say is right.

seemed to only have one interpretation.

seemed

[Zedd]

*pokes Ambers nose* See what you done...Made her go into a super giant evil laughing fit..I pinch?

[superluser]

seemed

Well, I do believe that that's new information.  *updates wiki*.

[Nino]

Wow, I could have SWORN that Max Powers himself said he was gay, and that dating Jade was B.C. -- before canon. Kind of like how some of Amber's really early arcs seems to have certain things in them that don't hold true for today's DMFA (i.e. Furcadia references). I clearly have made a big oversight; sometimes things just tend to go over my head.

Amber, you tell us that you create such elaborate backstories stories for your characters and yet we will not ever know them? Evil!

Anyway, I'm not talking about including gay characters in your strip, but having your entire strip revolve around them if you're not gay yourself, well, I do think it is very hard to make it realistic. One of the things about creativity is that yeah, in theory people should expand their horizons, but almost never do you find a book about a black main character written by a white person that focuses on realistic life as a black person growing up in a society close to our's (and vice versa -- all of the great literature from african americans has an african american main character and genrally has a lot of cultural influence). The truth is, we just don't know how it must feel to them. There are some things that personal experience teaches us. The same is true I feel for hetero people trying to understand gay relationships -- one of the criticisms that we get is that we try to think of them as exactly the same as hetero ones, and a lot of gays say that that is just not how it is.

Most video games feature white heterosexual leads because those are what developers are. Almost all books are written from the same cultural standpoint as the author, as are most movies. I guess you either have to go with what you know or settle for being unrealistic. For me though, the trends a lot of art and comics have really bug me, that is: 1.The gay couple either has a perfect realtionship OR that the relationship has a buttload of problems but with, without fail, work out in the end (this bugs me with hetero couples too when the reader knows there is clearly a "right" couple that will predictably end up together -- Alien Dice kind of bugs me for this reason with Lexx and Chel). 2. Every gay character is handsome and romantic, and either ultra-feminine or ultra-masculine 3. The traditional "good angel/bad demon" motif (a softspoken delicate blonde-haired blue-eyed nice guy and the dark, angsty guy)

I've thought about it and that's why I retracted my statement about Jyrras earlier, as there is no reason I should have a problem with him being a gay character. Actually, the things above apply to all couples, though they're just seen mostly in gay couples created by women from what I've seen.

Anyway, my take on "token" characters. "Token" characters are either made to be stereotypical or the antithesis of the stereotype because that is what an outsider views a group as and either is okay with the stereotype or wants to completely oppose it (the fairly odd parents, Ned's school survival guide, and that one cartoon with the white-haired ghost guy both have near-genius, nerdy black characters for this very reason), and the end result of either one are almost completely unrealistic (this is probably okay for cartoons) (I watch them when I babysit my little brother before anyone says anything about my age).

That's all I have to say. I've got a ton of work to do now. Ho hum...

[Aurawyn]

I still don't see a Tigger reference in #759... Anyone care to enlighten me?

[superluser]

I still don't see a Tigger reference in #759... Anyone care to enlighten me?

Did you read the thread?  I'm pretty sure it's the following:

Wasn't there a bit about ``Bouncing...it's what Tiggers do best?''  I would have expected something like ``Killing!  It's what Demon-mares do best!''

Of course, I think I'd feel better if I were wrong.

[Aurawyn]

I still don't see a Tigger reference in #759... Anyone care to enlighten me?

Did you read the thread?  I'm pretty sure it's the following:

Wasn't there a bit about ``Bouncing...it's what Tiggers do best?''  I would have expected something like ``Killing!  It's what Demon-mares do best!''

Of course, I think I'd feel better if I were wrong.

Ahh.. I  see, I musta missed it... I miss a lot of stuff trying to read web comic and read their forums on a Dial-up connection