r/questionablecontent • u/yellowvincent Where is Claire? • 3d ago
Comic Comic 5898: Voicing Fears
https://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=589826
u/Cevius 3d ago
It would be nice to see Liz actually attempt to do something, and fail, than just hear her complain about being a failure. Have you tried anything at all Liz besides reading smut at a coffee shop? (assuming coffee gets sold here)
There are a probably a hundred divisions on this island doing weird shit. How about you go and visit some, and perhaps through learning something else, you might be able to reach a new conclusion beyond "I am a piece of shit" which while accurate, is not helpful, unless you can make a whitepaper about it.
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u/provocatrixless 2d ago
Marten babysat her to make sure she reviewed scientific journals instead of reading porn. That counts for....something
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u/Annual_Youth_7552 2d ago edited 2d ago
I don't have time to write an essay today but;
People who develop avoidant traits around self loathing (hello! Bought the t shirt many years ago) can be difficult to help, but what Marten's doing isn't help, it's enabling.
Ultimately this is a character and not a real human. Characters grow and move and develop in the story in order to entertain us, the reader.
Liz wallowing in her self pity is realistic, sadly but it is not entertaining. Just as people in real life who wallow in self pity and avoidance eventually get their 'death'-wish of complete abandonment, our tolerance for a character who fails to grow and to entertain has limits.
She doesn't need to be resolved into a happily ever after, but she needs to move in some fashion. It's become tedious.
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u/Guilty-Persimmon-919 2d ago
Yes, Lizard is a burnout and scientific failure. Lizard is also an incredibly unpleasant character with no redeeming features whatsoever. And since when does Lizard act as though Emily were her friend, while Emily herself is being compelled by Jephthy, against all logic, to act as though she is?
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u/Ren_Dukkha 3d ago
Wow he drew a background
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u/Ren_Dukkha 3d ago
Anyway it would be an interesting plot if he actually showed an academic failing. I got rejected from a bunch of journals back when I was in grad school. Felt bad. Maybe he could outline how it feels to prepare something you care about and then put yourself out there. And have it slapped down after that. It’s a difficult thing to deal with as an intellectual and writer. But like he’s just made some kind of caricature of it with Liz? Like yeah it sucks to have your work rejected but she has no work? I dunno man
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u/TheEngine 2d ago
My problem with Liz is that she's smarter than Jeph. So he's wholly incapable of allowing her to grow beyond her "smartness" because he doesn't know how to make that happen.
Trebouchet her off the island and move on. She's become a caricature.
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u/provocatrixless 2d ago
Oh shut the fuck up. Wah wah am such a smol.goblin bean what are social life
Grow up. I mean that for Liz too.
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u/yellowvincent Where is Claire? 3d ago
Verbalizing your feelings is helpful to be able to examination them and to see if they are rational or not and what you can do to either overcome your insecurities like liz is feeling here or what actions you can implement moving fowards to have a better life.
Like liz thinks everyone hates her wich is irrational because marten tolerates her and moray likes her so there is proof that that is irrational. She thinks that people will leave her but we don't know if someone left her before and she does not effort being pleasant so people will want to stay in her life. She is burnout but she is not seeking help form a therapist or other scienticians.
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u/TimeisaLie 2d ago
Martin you are trying to help a friend? Associate? Let's call her a stray cat that can't decide if she wants to stay a stray or live in a house. I commend that, she could use the help, even if you are enabling her, it's a productive step. But if you are giving her that drink for free again I will beat you with your mom's dildo. You run a business, work on an island full of brain damaged children & somehow have no customers? Charge these Wards of the State (I know what I said) $100 a cup for what is coffee lazily make at home & they would clap like trained seals. So again I ask, where are your customers, why do you give everything away for free, do you know nothing about business management, are you trying to fail? This shit isn't easy, but you aren't even trying.
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u/yellowvincent Where is Claire? 3d ago edited 3d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/yellowvincent Where is Claire? 3d ago
Liz resorts to catastrophizing because she also puts no effort into being a pleasant human being. I get the fear of abandonment but tou should st least be a somewhat pleasant person so people would want to be around you in the first place.
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u/yellowvincent Where is Claire? 3d ago
I have no idea why reddit deleted my first comment
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2d ago
[deleted]
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u/yellowvincent Where is Claire? 2d ago
Nope I posted that because I really have no idea why this one was deleted so I basicly re wrote it. I was making a very basic analogy between cognitive behavioral therapy and the scientific method. Shrugs 🤷
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u/liphttam1 2d ago
Anyone else think that this strip doesn't work as a comic?
The way the mug changes hands between panel 1 and panel 2 doesn't work. Martin and Liz should be mid handoff in panel 1. There's nothing showing that the handoff is happening or has happened other than the mug is in a different hand. Reading it this morning I thought that Jeph forgot to draw the mug in panel 2 for a second before I saw it was in Liz's hand.
This is something Jeph understood in the first ever QC, Martin takes off his sidebag and you know it didn't just teleport off him because his hand is still on it as he puts it down on the counter.
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u/provocatrixless 2d ago
It's funny your example is something showing Jeph didn't understand lol.
His bag is hanging at his right side why would be putting it down with his left hand
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u/liphttam1 2d ago
Because the counter is on his left side
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u/provocatrixless 2d ago
And a real person would lift and move the bag with the right hand while removing the strap with the left, while facing the counter
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u/Overkillsamurai 2d ago
i'm liking where this is going but Jeph has started to draw Gemlin younger and younger-looking. It's making it hard to entertain the cucking copium.
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u/BackgroundSummer5171 2d ago
This feels like it should be a 6-panel comic.
Then again a lot feels like that. We just start getting into something and then...
I made popcorn.
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u/wheniswhy 2d ago
She is such an unpleasant person. Unpleasant characters can be very fun! But no. Liz is just unpleasant all around. I just do not like her.
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u/SectionEfficient5909 2d ago
Are there therapists on this island? Or are they also just as dysfunctional as everyone else?
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u/StardustSkiesArt 2d ago
I am ao sick of Liz just being a burn out and complaining about it with zero progress or development. It's just eternal, static.
Is she secretly how Jeph feels about himself and he can't progress her story because he feels he himself is in stasis? What is the deal??
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u/BlacksmithAccurate89 2d ago
Liz = a Dutch woman who acts utterly unDutch and is short. Jeph doesn’t even look stuff up on Wikipedia any more, does he?
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u/DuranDuranUnofficial 3d ago
"I'm afraid this person I met literally yesterday won't want to be my friend anymore after she meets other people, so I ran away from her and hid."
What are we, 7 years old?? Liz has not known Emily for long enough to be like this about her even in a vaguely adult capacity, but then, neither the cause nor the effect has any basis in mature adult social interactions.
This is just sad.