Page 1 of 4

So, I'm confused

Posted: Tue Mar 19, 2013 3:04 am
by JageshemashFTW
This recent story arc changed some things with the status quo, ar least as far as pairings are concerned. And that got me thinking, can someone explain just what's going on between Grape and Peanut? Last I remember, she told him she knew about his crush and that he's earned the right to 'be mushy' with her... But it was never brought up again and as far as I know, their still with Tarot and Max. Are they together in secret or did they just decide to be friends? I'm not a shipper, I'm just a little confused on what's what.

Re: So, I'm confused

Posted: Tue Mar 19, 2013 3:40 am
by Dissension
Peanut and Grape are friends. You can be "mushy" with friends without crossing lines or "cheating" on your significant other.

Re: So, I'm confused

Posted: Tue Mar 19, 2013 6:21 am
by Silly Zealot
Am I the only one that gets te creeps when reading Grape and Peanut being "mushy"?

Re: So, I'm confused

Posted: Tue Mar 19, 2013 6:53 am
by Dissension
Yes. Remember the rating and tone of the comic and you'll be fine.

Re: So, I'm confused

Posted: Tue Mar 19, 2013 7:34 am
by valerio
Silly Zealot wrote:Am I the only one that gets te creeps when reading Grape and Peanut being "mushy"?
definitely so.

Re: So, I'm confused

Posted: Tue Mar 19, 2013 9:58 am
by Teh Brawler
Silly Zealot wrote:Am I the only one that gets te creeps when reading Grape and Peanut being "mushy"?
It bugs me a little bit, to be honest. It's not that I have any real issue with general intimacy among friends, I'm a huge hugger and patter by nature, but for the context, it does feel a bit off, like there's a physical aspect that's too intense for the circumstance (not in a sexual way, mind you).

Re: So, I'm confused

Posted: Tue Mar 19, 2013 10:16 am
by GameCobra
To me, pets snuggling regardless of gender is something normal. However, from a human's perspective; snuggling is depicted mostly as either a romantic intent or a family intent.

I think the idea is just that between Peanut and Grape. they practically grew up together to the point they like to be near each other all the time and they grew into what's known as the family version of a snuggle. But how can you tell the difference between a family snuggle or a romantic snuggle when it's a male dog and a female cat in a cartoon comic? =P

Personally, I'm convinced they are family than lovers.

Re: So, I'm confused

Posted: Tue Mar 19, 2013 10:28 am
by Sinder
friends with mushifits

Re: So, I'm confused

Posted: Tue Mar 19, 2013 10:34 am
by GameCobra
Sinder wrote:friends with mushifits
Indeed. *nods*

Re: So, I'm confused

Posted: Tue Mar 19, 2013 10:45 am
by valerio
Sinder wrote:friends with mushifits
I reluctantly agree.

Re: So, I'm confused

Posted: Tue Mar 19, 2013 11:06 am
by Teh Brawler
Sinder wrote:friends with mushifits
Starring Meowla Kunis and Justin Timberwolf.

Re: So, I'm confused

Posted: Tue Mar 19, 2013 11:33 am
by valerio
*buys AWESOME movie ticket*

Re: So, I'm confused

Posted: Tue Mar 19, 2013 1:19 pm
by RandomGeekNamedBrent
honestly, while I'm fine with Grapenut shipping in general, I do also know it's a bit weird. They both call the same two people Mom and Dad, so shouldn't they be more like brother and sister?

Re: So, I'm confused

Posted: Tue Mar 19, 2013 3:30 pm
by Sleet
Well they're adopted anyway. Considering in the real world, the closest equivalent to spouses pets have often have the same owner, I'm pretty sure there's not much of a taboo in the HP! world for not-actually-related animals with the same owners being romantically involved.

Re: So, I'm confused

Posted: Tue Mar 19, 2013 3:45 pm
by IceKitsune
Sleet wrote:Well they're adopted anyway. Considering in the real world, the closest equivalent to spouses pets have often have the same owner, I'm pretty sure there's not much of a taboo in the HP! world for not-actually-related animals with the same owners being romantically involved.
This is true, remember a few of the Bigglesworths date each other (or at least tried) and its likely Fiddler and Keys have the same owner as well.

Re: So, I'm confused

Posted: Tue Mar 19, 2013 5:01 pm
by Silly Zealot
Even though I know they are adoptive siblings, I think that makes it even wierder, since siblings are natural enemies and never snuggle. I should know, I have a brother and sister.

Also, why aren't there pet marriages in the housepets! universe? And does that mean that "gasp" Miles and Lucretia are living in sin?! "faints"

Re: So, I'm confused

Posted: Tue Mar 19, 2013 5:11 pm
by Dissension
Don't be creepy.

Re: So, I'm confused

Posted: Tue Mar 19, 2013 6:07 pm
by Serence Frostbite
if I remember correctly , bailey said nobody consider pet marriage seriously , so I guess being in love and decide to live together is good enough for them. Beside Miles and Lucretia are ferals , so i really doubt they would know anything about marriage ritual , which is a human thing imo .
....wait no scratch that ,the first time we see those 2 , in a flashback , they're already a family (pack? :? ) so how would you know they didn't......i should stop now ain't I

Re: So, I'm confused

Posted: Tue Mar 19, 2013 6:32 pm
by Silly Zealot
Precisely becase of Bailey's statement I ask, why are pet marriages in housepets! seen like not being the real deal? I mean, it's not like it's a far-fetched concept, being talking pets and all.

Re: So, I'm confused

Posted: Tue Mar 19, 2013 6:42 pm
by RandomGeekNamedBrent
Silly Zealot wrote:Precisely becase of Bailey's statement I ask, why are pet marriages in housepets! seen like not being the real deal? I mean, it's not like it's a far-fetched concept, being talking pets and all.
probably because humans view it along the same lines as when two little kids say they're going to get married in our world. It's cute and all, but it's not really serious.

Re: So, I'm confused

Posted: Tue Mar 19, 2013 11:40 pm
by Teh Brawler
The Housepets fandom is definitely the most psychoanalytical fandom of which I've been a part.

Re: So, I'm confused

Posted: Tue Mar 19, 2013 11:41 pm
by GameCobra
A colorful cast with a meaningful story will do that to you.

Re: So, I'm confused

Posted: Wed Mar 20, 2013 12:46 am
by Serence Frostbite
GameCobra wrote:a meaningful story
yes , yes , then Steve appears in his one-off and that part go flying out the window :lol:

Re: So, I'm confused

Posted: Wed Mar 20, 2013 10:45 am
by Sleet
Considering animals in the HP! universe are based partially on people and partially on animals, from what I can understand from the comic is that marriages are human-only but animals can still commit similarly. If animal marriages actually existed, I'm sure Miles and Lucretia in all their attempts at human domestic life would have gotten one.

Re: So, I'm confused

Posted: Wed Mar 20, 2013 9:53 pm
by copper
Teh Brawler wrote:The Housepets fandom is definitely the most psychoanalytical fandom of which I've been a part.
I tend to prefer such good company. Sometimes it is great indulging in such matters.


I would think pet marriages are not considered seriously for a few reasons. It is a human institution for one, pets do not have the same level of maturity as adult humans, as has been said, and it may be that pets have never really shown any real commitment toward one another in that sense, basically being property to be given and taken, owned and such. Not conducive to a long term commitment.

Re: So, I'm confused

Posted: Thu Mar 21, 2013 2:01 am
by valerio
Disagree on that.
HP! pets had shown several degrees of attitude towards life, according to age and education.
Peanut is like a young boy and couldn't be considered fit for marriage. But Sabrina is quite mature and so is Tarot. Fido is a responsible dog and so is Ralph.
Bino or Joey...nevermind!
Bailey is definitely a responsible girl.
Potentially, every pet is capable of commitment, just like Miles and Lucretia (they're FERALS, for Pete's sake!) are committed to each other. And yes, even Bruce and Roosevelt are commited to each other.
The problem with being a pet doesn't lay in psychological setup: it lays in the fact that they're treated as property, they can be given or taken to one's whim. When you grow up with this knowledge, it's difficult to think of 'settling down for life' -in this case, avoiding commitment among pets is more a cultural attitude, a way to avoid being hurt.

Re: So, I'm confused

Posted: Thu Mar 21, 2013 10:52 am
by Sleet
We haven't really seen the effects of aging, though. It hasn't been seen yet that just because a pet behaves like a young teenager, they'll grow up eventually like a young teenager. That could be how they always will be.

Re: So, I'm confused

Posted: Thu Mar 21, 2013 11:08 am
by D-Rock
It's not rare for friends to be that close to one another. They also act like siblings, in which how close they are is also more common than you'd think. Can it get weird? It can, but I don't see them doing anything like that, especially considering that they have been happy with their respective other for a while now.

Re: So, I'm confused

Posted: Thu Mar 21, 2013 11:36 am
by Frank
valerio wrote:HP! pets had shown several degrees of attitude towards life, according to age and education.
Peanut is like a young boy and couldn't be considered fit for marriage.
Image
Um... I'd argue that (what was it you called it?) "commitment capabilities" are more a thing of personality, than age. Peanut is older than Grape, and has definitely read more than her. Heck, from what we saw in the "Housepets babies" arc, he may be older than Fox, Max, and Bino too. Yet you were quick to put him down as "unfit for marriage" (and I don't think you'll get much argument on that point; I doubt we'll get this sort of agreement for the other characters I mentioned)

Peanut is just... Peanut. *shrugs*

Re: So, I'm confused

Posted: Fri Mar 22, 2013 10:09 am
by Gren
Well, It seems this kind of discussions will never end. :lol:

About Grape and Peanut, I have to admit there was a time when I felt a bit weird thinking in those two being together because sometimes they both act like me and my sis. However, after analize the whole comic you can see that they never seen each other as brother and sister, that's why they always says they are friends. Honestly I always be a Grapenut shipper, after all if it wasn't by that Two_Twig fan art I found in Deviantart, I think I would never had read Housepets, and most probably I wouldn't be here posting this right now. However, since it passed so much time since last time something between them happened, I just get over it and then another couples started to get more of my attention and being my new favorites. Of course I'll be a Grapenut shipper forever since they were the reason I started to read the comic, but that doesn't mean I shall become one of that creepy fans, who are always altering images just because they can't accept how the things turned to be.

I think the reason of this love triangle problem it wasn't because Grape wasn't sure to choose between Max and Peanut as a lot of people believe. The thing started because Peanut and Max couldn't tell she was a girl, implicitly saying she wasn't femenine at all. And what it makes it worst was that one of the barn cats tell her the truth: She was spending all her time with dogs instead of cats. That's was the detonating that made her to have a date with practically the only cat she ever knew. She started dating with Max not for love but because she wasn't sure of herself. The same happened with Peanut and the “mushy benefits”. If she did this to him, it wasn't for pity or because she secret loved him, but because she still wasn't sure. Otherwise I think it would be too cruel give fake hopes to your best friend, something that a best friend would never do (come on, if she was so sure, then she should been forthright with him and tell him something like “It's not you, it's just I would NEVER date with a dog EVER” and nothing of mushy stuff, because this only makes it hard for him to get over her [and feeds the hopes of obsesive fans with overloads of fanservice XD] ) . The point is that instead of a love dilema, Grape have an identity crisis. She's worried because she seems totally opposite of herself: a male dog instead of a female cat. She's violent, prefer to face dogs instead of running away from them, she likes to hang out with them and likes some dog things like biscuits. After the arc of the farm, Grape started to worring about the image she was giving to people, so she then decided to change all of that. That's probably the reason why we haven't seen her hanging out with other dogs except for Peanut and Tarot since then. She avoids all of this because she wants to be more feline and femenine. And seen her reaction about what Res said in “Housepets babies” arc, it seems she still hasn't got over this crisis at all.

About King, I think I said it before, but it's really creeps me out how fast his relationship with Bailey is evolving, to the point to scare me. I mean, he was human not long ago, he had spent more than twenty years as human, he have moral and ethics than dogs didn't have, he was raised to likes women and probably had dated with some, but it just seems he forgot all of that. Honestly, I found it a bit disgusting, because he just gave up to instincts, ignoring the powerful human conscience that should be drilling his head every time he thinks in Bailey. However, maybe I am the only one who thinks this way so it's better I cut it out.

And for last, about pets marriage, well, it's obvious they can't be taken seriously because it's not usual they get serious in a relationship. When they think in have a relationship, they just want to have a partner with whom spend time and have fun. They never even plan to have children, they just comes (as happened with Rodney). They only lives the present, the here and now, never able to look into the future. That's why I said before their relationships are like high school romances. They didn't think in such things like “eternal love” and “the right one”. No matter how stable a couple seems to be, they could break up and be dating with someone else at the next day.

Re: So, I'm confused

Posted: Fri Mar 22, 2013 12:15 pm
by Silly Zealot
Gren wrote:
About King, I think I said it before, but it's really creeps me out how fast his relationship with Bailey is evolving, to the point to scare me. I mean, he was human not long ago, he had spent more than twenty years as human, he have moral and ethics than dogs didn't have, he was raised to likes women and probably had dated with some, but it just seems he forgot all of that. Honestly, I found it a bit disgusting, because he just gave up to instincts, ignoring the powerful human conscience that should be drilling his head every time he thinks in Bailey. However, maybe I am the only one who thinks this way so it's better I cut it out.

And for last, about pets marriage, well, it's obvious they can't be taken seriously because it's not usual they get serious in a relationship. When they think in have a relationship, they just want to have a partner with whom spend time and have fun. They never even plan to have children, they just comes (as happened with Rodney). They only lives the present, the here and now, never able to look into the future. That's why I said before their relationships are like high school romances. They didn't think in such things like “eternal love” and “the right one”. No matter how stable a couple seems to be, they could break up and be dating with someone else at the next day.
You aren't alone on that respect, I also think Joel/King went on to fall in love rather quickly. Then again, they live in U.S.A., the land of oportunity and freedom, right? Hehehehe... ugh :?

And, yes, the animals from housepets! defenetly HAVE to posess less intelligence, if only in a subtle way, in order to have been turned to pets that don't get taken seriously often.

Re: So, I'm confused

Posted: Fri Mar 22, 2013 12:28 pm
by Argent
The thing about King is, he's had a series of huge shocks one after the other, enough to unmoor anyone's self image. Not just the whole being turned into a dog thing, there's all the revelations about his soul, and on top of that Pete's been systematically applying "deprogramming" / "boot camp" psychological pressure... and then there's the wolf-cubs.

And he's been "going native" for a while... consider the orange soda incident.

Re: So, I'm confused

Posted: Fri Mar 22, 2013 12:39 pm
by Render
I think King is presently quite happy to be a dog. I doubt he want to be changed back at the end of the U&U-game (based on the present situation).

Re: So, I'm confused

Posted: Fri Mar 22, 2013 1:10 pm
by Saturn381
To be honest you guys pretty much said anything I could have said and probably even better. So I don't have anything to say in the matter except a question based on what Gren said about Grape. Do you guys think in some weird way that Grape is very similar to Jeri from Digimon Tamers?

Re: So, I'm confused

Posted: Fri Mar 22, 2013 1:12 pm
by Gren
Thats justify the unjustifiable. It doesn't matter how many psychological traumas he has suffered, he still having a human brain, a human conscience, and that's something pretty hard to ignore. It amazes me how Joel just shrugs about his former life. It's almost like he say to himself "well, since now I have a dog body, it's my duty to forget all about how I was raised, my manners, my customs, my education, and start acting like a dog". And you can see this in how fast he overcame being naked.

A bit of off-topic:
Silly Zealot, 'the land of dulce de leche' ... you're from my country?

Re: So, I'm confused

Posted: Fri Mar 22, 2013 1:30 pm
by valerio
Joel has been given an occasion that rarely happens to someone: rebuild one's life from scratch. Although Pete's intentions are far from being benign, in this context, it's clear that King has spent enough time in this shape to slowly grow fond of what he has.
So, what would you find it better, Gren? That King be a mini-Bino with a perpetual case of angst against animals and an attitude of crying daily a river all over himself? Now he has a friend, he has discovered love, he has a family...of sort. Heck, I'll bet his social life has improved A LOT since his former status (and there's a nice cell waiting for him). And he's still a very stubborn, polemic doggie, so it's not that he's a 2D character as of now.
Yes, he's still undecided, and that's good: he's not been brainwashed, he's just aware of the good he has made of this life. Why should that be a problem at all?

But, to break a lance in your favor: there's the chance that Joel is only working hard to earn himself some celestial credits. And by 'working hard', I mean doing everything that's objectively good so that when the time of the final choice comes he can take a decision with a clear conscience and little to regret.

Re: So, I'm confused

Posted: Fri Mar 22, 2013 1:35 pm
by Render
Gren wrote:Thats justify the unjustifiable. It doesn't matter how many psychological traumas he has suffered, he still having a human brain, a human conscience, and that's something pretty hard to ignore. It amazes me how Joel just shrugs about his former life. It's almost like he say to himself "well, since now I have a dog body, it's my duty to forget all about how I was raised, my manners, my customs, my education, and start acting like a dog". And you can see this in how fast he overcame being naked.
I suppose he doesn't thinks his former life will not matter anymore, but maybe he does not like his life as a human so much and believes the present one will be probably better. So in my opinion he made his choice to stay as a dog and started to enjoy it.

Re: So, I'm confused

Posted: Fri Mar 22, 2013 2:34 pm
by Argent
Gren wrote:Thats justify the unjustifiable. It doesn't matter how many psychological traumas he has suffered, he still having a human brain, a human conscience, and that's something pretty hard to ignore.
He's got human memories, but they're living in a dog's brain... and is there any reason to consider a dog's conscience in that world "lesser" than a human's?

Re: So, I'm confused

Posted: Fri Mar 22, 2013 2:39 pm
by Duster
Argent wrote:
Gren wrote:Thats justify the unjustifiable. It doesn't matter how many psychological traumas he has suffered, he still having a human brain, a human conscience, and that's something pretty hard to ignore.
He's got human memories, but they're living in a dog's brain... and is there any reason to consider a dog's conscience in that world "lesser" than a human's?
And he still has his soul, I'm not sure if dog and human souls (or just "souls" in general) are different or if King's soul is unique to King regardless of him being a human OR a dog?

Re: So, I'm confused

Posted: Fri Mar 22, 2013 2:57 pm
by Argent
Duster wrote:
Argent wrote:
Gren wrote:Thats justify the unjustifiable. It doesn't matter how many psychological traumas he has suffered, he still having a human brain, a human conscience, and that's something pretty hard to ignore.
He's got human memories, but they're living in a dog's brain... and is there any reason to consider a dog's conscience in that world "lesser" than a human's?
And he still has his soul, I'm not sure if dog and human souls (or just "souls" in general) are different or if King's soul is unique to King regardless of him being a human OR a dog?
His soul was in the animal's heaven, remember? Perhaps it got shipped over there Celestial Express when Pete transformed him?

I don't tend to think of humans and other animals as being fundamentally different orders of life, so the whole idea that there would be some deep difference between dog and human souls in the HP!verse just seems kind of weird to me.