Commentary from February 16, 2016
This is the first strip I did at the new size, and it was nice to stretch out a little bit. For Valentine’s Day I usually have something about love and this year was no different, and Wren and Robin were such an obvious choice.
Perhaps a little too obvious. In these kinds of strips, it seems that Wren is 100% involved in this relationship while Robin is not exactly the greatest giver to this relationship. It’s starting to seem incredibly one-sided, and I’m going to have to reevaluate this series before I continue. It will have to shift to Wren’s point of view, because we need to know how the hell she is keeping this up. The series at one point did this, but didn’t continue it because their relationship was used more or less to inject a bit of sunshine into the strip and didn’t have room for negativity.
There’s a little bit going on here which reinforces this imbalance. Here, Wren is the loving caregiver grooming Robin, smiling while completely out of line of Robin’s range of sight. Robin is looking away, seeing nothing and feeling nothing, and seemingly a little self-centered. “Why do people love me?” then ignoring the answer, choosing to embrace the question rather than the answer. How does Wren feel about this? This is an important question and I regret not giving Wren the chance to show. In becoming The Perfect Understanding Partner, she has probably had to make some sacrifices in terms of expectations in a relationship, and there are more than likely doubts and frustrations. When reading the comments, I see a lot of “I wish I had a relationship with someone like Wren” but no one says that about Robin, which is telling.
This didn’t get as many likes as usual on Facebook and Tumblr, so it’s a little disappointing, even when I think this is one of the best drawn strips of the series so far. Maybe people are sick of the status quo on this strip.
Perhaps a little too obvious. In these kinds of strips, it seems that Wren is 100% involved in this relationship while Robin is not exactly the greatest giver to this relationship. It’s starting to seem incredibly one-sided, and I’m going to have to reevaluate this series before I continue. It will have to shift to Wren’s point of view, because we need to know how the hell she is keeping this up. The series at one point did this, but didn’t continue it because their relationship was used more or less to inject a bit of sunshine into the strip and didn’t have room for negativity.
There’s a little bit going on here which reinforces this imbalance. Here, Wren is the loving caregiver grooming Robin, smiling while completely out of line of Robin’s range of sight. Robin is looking away, seeing nothing and feeling nothing, and seemingly a little self-centered. “Why do people love me?” then ignoring the answer, choosing to embrace the question rather than the answer. How does Wren feel about this? This is an important question and I regret not giving Wren the chance to show. In becoming The Perfect Understanding Partner, she has probably had to make some sacrifices in terms of expectations in a relationship, and there are more than likely doubts and frustrations. When reading the comments, I see a lot of “I wish I had a relationship with someone like Wren” but no one says that about Robin, which is telling.
This didn’t get as many likes as usual on Facebook and Tumblr, so it’s a little disappointing, even when I think this is one of the best drawn strips of the series so far. Maybe people are sick of the status quo on this strip.
Not so much the selective hearing, but the hearing the bad stuff my brain spews out so much more. Like every minute of every day. Then, when someone is nice to me, or says something nice, I don’t believe it.
I hear you. When someone says something nice to you, a voice in your head says, “You may think you like me or care about me, but that just means you don’t really know me. If you knew me, you would know that I’m unlikeable and that no one could ever really care about me. I don’t deserve kindness from anyone.” It’s an irrational thought that people only believe because they experience strong negative emotions that reinforce it. Feeling that something is true does not make it true, no matter how strongly you feel it.
Once you convince yourself that no one cares about you, it’s confusing when people apparently do so anyway. You may suspect them of having ulterior motives for pretending to care. You ask yourself, “Why is this person being nice to me? Are they trying to take advantage of me?”. That way lies paranoia.
I love the freckled woman. She’s so good for the other gal. And this one was funny, Clay!
Good reply. 🙂 I agree, it’s nice that people are commenting on the content and characters. 🙂
It sad when you’re so depressed that positivity doesnt register. But Wren grooming Robin is the epitome of cute and romantic ( took me forever to remember their names)
<3
Every time I see those two together I wish I had a relationship like this. But then it’s just fiction.
It’s actually a fairly unbalanced relationship, which will be addressed in a future comic.
These are very accurate comics and I’m thankful for the support they give. Still I must wonder, how it is that so many has some kind of relationship while they are completely dysfunctional soocially? I mean, I’ve never had a relationship and it really seems that I am incapable to start one ever. Like not even ever asking anyone out or anything like that because I don’t feel I would be good enough for them. Not that I had any close friends anyway though, only some acquittances.. Please help, if anything might
Depression has a way of shutting down opportunities before they can happen, kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy. If depression has you believing that you are worthless, then you present yourself as worthless. If you believe if you are incapable of starting a relationship, then you never will. If you think you are not good enough for other people, then the prospect of meeting other people becomes irrelevant. This is part of how depression isolates you to further consolidate its grip on you. The best advice I can say is get help so you have a better understanding of what is true and what depression has been whispering in your ear for so long.
I like fleckled girl, but I kind of hate it when people say “Oh, this is cute” when I tell them I’m feeling sad over something small or almost dying to do some other thing because of anxiety. Cute my ass.
“Compliment!” “Compliment!” “Compliment!”
“I thought you loved me.”
“I do! That’s why I’m saying compliments!”
“Stop. It just proves you don’t even know me.”
it’s kind of like selective hearing … positive things will go away like you exhale and negative things will remain as your blood veins keep beating with every single second