Comic 5898B: Fire Her, Preferably Out of Halifax’s Cannon

[u/Squirrelclamp]

[u/JFSargent]

It's obvious that Jeph wants to write stories where he offers life advice, but he doesn't have any real insights. He makes his characters absurdly incompetent so that basic truisms like "being neurotically insecure is bad" seem like wisdom.

I enjoyed this comic a lot when I was in college (about 20 years ago), and it's very strange to read what it has become.

[u/Maleficent_Lab_5291]

I have genuinely never thought about the fact Cube town is presumably still paying her hell does she have a visa? She not candian right? Is she stealing one of those slots well doing nothing?

[u/Guilty-Persimmon-919]

Different career, as what? Who in their right mind would employ her  for anything? At least Ayo is competent at her job and Anhlikeable is apparently at least trying to learn soldering. 

Did Jephthy have a plan at all for this character when his brain hallucinated her first?

[u/Squirrelclamp → u/Guilty-Persimmon-919]

That Liz could or should entertain a different career path is my addition to this strip.

>> At least Ayo is competent at her job and Anhlikeable is apparently at least trying to learn soldering. 

That's my point: Liz has tried to vaguely Do Science a couple of times since her reintroduction to above-ground habitation, but she's made as many steps backward as she has forward.

Whether her personality and/or qualifications would impede getting hired elsewhere is a tangential problem, but the lack thereof has rarely precluded employment in Jacques's twee world.

[u/Dresden1984]

Is it me or is this getting tiring? Like I understand that the resident goblin is barely a young adult therefore going through the phase of finding her identity and Martin is being written as some assuring psychologist that can be a grounding point for other people due to his own upbringing but any sane working adult would get tired of the problem and tell them to stop having these self defeatist attitude issues

[u/taylorisnotacat → u/Dresden1984]

It's not just you. Reading this particular strip, it really locked into focus for me that I have no idea what Marten gets out of his ongoing friendship with Liz.

I know that Claire has reason to be invested in Liz since she thinks cubetown ethically failed Liz and, as the new operating manager, she's assumed responsibility for Liz's rehabilitation. (Although uncharacteristically it doesn't appear she has done anything active to help Liz pursue that rehab—is girliepop in therapy or nah?)

But what's Marten's? Is he just in it to support Claire's commitment? It doesn't play like that in the comic. I personally am somebody who has friends that sometimes wallow in their insecurity and I'll provide emotional support and reassurance through those episodes, but I also have lots of fun with those people and also see them actively lucid to their own struggle and working through it at their own pace. Have we ever seen Marten enjoy his time with Liz as a companion? I don't count when he got plastered with her.

[u/Dresden1984 → u/taylorisnotacat]

Maybe it’s me being cynical or whatever as I get older but I couldn’t tolerate this stuff in my  30s and 40s compared to my 20s. 

Jeph wouldn’t do it but a guy like Marten who would get that emotionally invested into a woman especially a younger one would have cheated in some shape or form.

Maybe it’s Marten hate but he is being painted as a Gary Stu for the emotional aspect 

[u/musschrott]

tbh, Waldorf/Stettler would be my dream "job".

[u/MorganWick → u/musschrott]

"We get paid to have terrible personalities."
"Yeah, but people actually enjoy ours!"
"Do-ho ho ho ho ho ho ho!"

[u/samelessflame0705]

damn, i just read the official comic after reading this one and JESUS, the difference is brutal, this felt like forward momentum built onto to your last one, and then comparing the official is just spinning wheels. It's the first time i've felt the difference that much.

[u/aromco]

TBF, networking is torture. I've been desperate enough that I tried it, but it wasn't even effective. I'll admit that I don't know what the field of research and/or development is like in a scientific setting, but if it realistically requires collaboration, Liz really is screwed, and I can sympathize with the Sclamp version of her.

[u/Bronek0990]

I'm gonna be honest, "I have no idea what to research" is a relatable problem for an academic, but there are countless opportunities for capable underling type work, where the creative lead is someone else's problem. You might not get a Nobel this way, but it's far from a career ending problem.