Assume It Went Pretty Badly (4/16/15)

[SAGG]

Katia...just...forget it...

[tounces7]

Holy shit, she's turning into a rather manipulative bitch.

A lot like Linda, indeed.

[Lasenna]

Hahaha! As much as I can respect Thad's desire to not talk about it regardless or whether it went badly or really well, I think Katia's assumption is spot-on. It would be weird of him to go into the nitty gritty details of the date with her no matter what happened. If he tried that I would assume they were all lies, because normal people don't usually do that. However, he didn't even want to say, "Oh yeah, it was lots of fun" or just a simple "It was good" to her first question make me suspect it didn't go over all that well.

[UnstoppableTaboo]

^ Yeah, I feel like she's on to something. When has Thad passed up the opportuntiy to talk about himself?

Though I think 'manipulative bitch' is a bit much. This is the kind of strip where we're going to need the context provided by the following strip to see if Katia's teasing, being blunt and unaware, or legitimately trying to coerce him into talking about it. The Linda parallels are interesting, to be sure, but I'm not quite ready to lump the two of them together.

[PaulJones202718]

Well, we can't fault her reasoning. If things go well, people tend to hint that they did; if they don't, they tend to change the subject.

[Rosebud]

My expectation is the date went well and that Katia is about to suffer some well deserved and self induced pain because Thad still likes her, too. But Katia still pushed when she was asked not to, and she needs to learn to respect boundaries.

[LadyObvious23]

Gonna need the jaws of life to save that leg.

[BenjaminT]

Well, she already confessed to both Candi AND Thad that she's jealous. I can imagine Thad not wanting to even vaguely say that things went well if he can avoid it, knowing that she's jealous. Remember, he was hesitant to tell Katia even before he went on the date. That's before he found out if it would go well or not.

My guess is that it went bad, but mostly because Thad is in such a slump that he couldn't put his heart into it and maybe the girl felt that (or at the very least, Thad did). It might actually have gone well in the sense that the girl liked him, was reasonably attractive, and seemed interested in a second date...but Thad might not feel that good about it even with all that went well if he's still hung up on Katia. And THAT might be a hard thing to explain to Katia.

But the way Katia is needling his ego, he may end up spitting it out in an undiplomatic way that leaves one or both hurt and/or feeling awkward.

One thing that feels weird about this strip is how all the unrequited lovers are male. Jon crushing on Candi and Nate crushing on Bianca are the two who have totally one-sided feelings. But then you have Thad who had lob-sided feelings toward Katia, Chris who wanted more from Jess, Jon now seems to want more from Jess, and Alex wanted more from Katia.

But from the girls side... I guess we have Candi at one point wanting more from Alex... and that's it. But that one feels much different to me because they had a relationship together where they both wanted each other for a significant amount of time before things changed. It wasn't lob-sided from the start...or rather, it was, but at THAT time it was Alex wanting more than Candi.

I'd love to see the other side of the coin at some point. Perhaps that would require introducing some new characters. How does the female Jon handle the lack of interest from the male Candi? Although I wouldn't really want it to be a perfect parallel. It'd be more fun to see a nuanced girl who has some similarities to Jon but is her own unique self. Or show Jess obsessing over the next Chris, only this new guy really has no interest in being bedded by her. How would Jess handle that? I'd love to see that happen when/if Jon moves out and is replaced by some other guy. Maybe another hot guy that Jess, Katia, Laura, and possibly even Candi fawn over. haha.

[Prestwick]

[Sylvanaerie]

I think Katia is closer to the truth than she realizes, but it's a logical conclusion to come to considering how under normal circumstances Thad won't shut up about himself. It looks manipulative (like she's pulling his string to get him to talk), but it feels more like she's just stating aloud her assumption since he doesn't want to discuss it.

Whether she's right or wrong, I'm still curious. I wonder if it did go badly?

[UnstoppableTaboo]

Well, she already confessed to both Candi AND Thad that she's jealous. I can imagine Thad not wanting to even vaguely say that things went well if he can avoid it, knowing that she's jealous. Remember, he was hesitant to tell Katia even before he went on the date. That's before he found out if it would go well or not.

My guess is that it went bad, but mostly because Thad is in such a slump that he couldn't put his heart into it and maybe the girl felt that (or at the very least, Thad did). It might actually have gone well in the sense that the girl liked him, was reasonably attractive, and seemed interested in a second date...but Thad might not feel that good about it even with all that went well if he's still hung up on Katia. And THAT might be a hard thing to explain to Katia.

But the way Katia is needling his ego, he may end up spitting it out in an undiplomatic way that leaves one or both hurt and/or feeling awkward.

One thing that feels weird about this strip is how all the unrequited lovers are male. Jon crushing on Candi and Nate crushing on Bianca are the two who have totally one-sided feelings. But then you have Thad who had lob-sided feelings toward Katia, Chris who wanted more from Jess, Jon now seems to want more from Jess, and Alex wanted more from Katia.

But from the girls side... I guess we have Candi at one point wanting more from Alex... and that's it. But that one feels much different to me because they had a relationship together where they both wanted each other for a significant amount of time before things changed. It wasn't lob-sided from the start...or rather, it was, but at THAT time it was Alex wanting more than Candi.

I'd love to see the other side of the coin at some point. Perhaps that would require introducing some new characters. How does the female Jon handle the lack of interest from the male Candi? Although I wouldn't really want it to be a perfect parallel. It'd be more fun to see a nuanced girl who has some similarities to Jon but is her own unique self. Or show Jess obsessing over the next Chris, only this new guy really has no interest in being bedded by her. How would Jess handle that? I'd love to see that happen when/if Jon moves out and is replaced by some other guy. Maybe another hot guy that Jess, Katia, Laura, and possibly even Candi fawn over. haha.

Early on there was Laura's pining for Trevor, right about when Trevor got into a relationship with Matt. And Becca's love for Jon was arguably unrequited, even if they were in a relationship. Neither is exactly what you're describing, but I think they do illustrate that the comic's been pretty fair in its distribution of one-sided romantic woes.

Although your reading of it being largely dumped on the men could be Starline's attempt at highlighting the pervasive sense of male entitlement that abounds in a significant portion of young men (see the rhetoric surrounding "friendzoning").

[batsu-sama]

Given the look on Thad's face in the final panel, I wouldn't be surprised if she was right on the money, even if it was unintentional.

[MorrisCat]

Katia may be right on the money with that comment as a few have said, but she has really pulled out the manipulative bitch fangs. This really is none of her business she isn't asking as a friend and has been politely told to back off. I don't really have enough of a feel for Thad to know what he is going to do, but at this point if it were me I would tell her to assume whatever the hell she wants and find some other guy to talk to because I don't have time for manipulative bullshit.

[Attalus]

Got it in one, smart girl.

[BenjaminT]

Early on there was Laura's pining for Trevor, right about when Trevor got into a relationship with Matt. And Becca's love for Jon was arguably unrequited, even if they were in a relationship. Neither is exactly what you're describing, but I think they do illustrate that the comic's been pretty fair in its distribution of one-sided romantic woes.

Although your reading of it being largely dumped on the men could be Starline's attempt at highlighting the pervasive sense of male entitlement that abounds in a significant portion of young men (see the rhetoric surrounding "friendzoning").

Good call. I'd forgotten about Laura/Trevor. There was also that date that Laura went on where she wanted to sleep with the guy but he turned her down...although that isn't quite what I was talking about either.

I'll admit I did think of Becca/Jon but decided not to list it. The reason was that we saw Becca feel jealousy and "ownership" but never really the yearning of wanting Jon. I imagine she felt some but it's hard to know how much. I think it's a bit of a toss up on who actually cared for the other more. They were both pretty dysfunctional from the start. The same goes for Linda/Nate. Were there signs that at least at some point Linda wanted whatever it is they had more than Nate? Sure, I can buy that...but it's an entirely different thing they both wanted compared to a "normal" relationship and the heartache that attends an imbalanced desire for each other in one.

I may have been unfair to Starline or reading too much into her work. I see her character development much greater among the female cast, generally. This one area stands out a bit because it seems different in contrast.

Yeah, there is that male entitlement she might be exploring (over a long period of time) but the feelings these guys are going through are hardly gender specific. A lot of women go through similar feelings due to society's past expectation (that still exists to some extent) that guys should be the one to ask a girl out and not the other way around. That leaves a lot of women liking guys and dropping hints and hoping to gain interest. I'm not saying that Starline needs to explore that area if it doesn't interest her. I'm just a bit surprised when she does show so many parallels in different people's lives (currently we're seeing a lot of talk about Linda and Katia but really you can pick nearly any two characters and Starline's gone there on at least some aspect of their life at some point.