#arc 67 Love and War

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Re: #arc 67 Love and War

Post by Dissension »

Alternately, the dogs actually like Bino. Or maybe the answer is as simple as 'dogs are loyal.' The dogs in the comic are, after all, dogs.

I haven't seen the kind of random and inexplicable character changes or plot issues you're alleging. Perhaps there's an issue of preconceived notions and some cultural differences impacting how you interpret the comic?
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Re: #arc 67 Love and War

Post by Seth »

It always amuses me how seriously some people take this comic. Bino is meant to be an over the top jerk. That's what makes his character and a bunch of the gags funny, which is kinda the purpose of the comic. Some people have wayyyyyyyy too much animosity for someone's fictional comedic creation.
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Re: #arc 67 Love and War

Post by angelusbr »

Dissension wrote:Alternately, the dogs actually like Bino. Or maybe the answer is as simple as 'dogs are loyal.' The dogs in the comic are, after all, dogs.

I haven't seen the kind of random and inexplicable character changes or plot issues you're alleging. Perhaps there's an issue of preconceived notions and some cultural differences impacting how you interpret the comic?
Maybe cutural barriers are the reason of why it's hard to understand the motives of some characters. But again, I never talked to a dog and dogs do attack those who constantly do harm to them. Plus, I've said it before and I'll say it again: any story that recquires the readers to: constantly read side notes, go to wikipedia, recquire the writer him/herself to come to the public and explain what is going on, is failing on a story-telling perspective. Tell INSIDE of the story the whys and hows.

edit:
Seth wrote:It always amuses me how seriously some people take this comic. Bino is meant to be an over the top jerk. That's what makes his character and a bunch of the gags funny, which is kinda the purpose of the comic. Some people have wayyyyyyyy too much animosity for someone's fictional comedic creation.
If that's the case, then the comic isn't trying to tell a story while making the readers laugh during the ride, but make readers laugh while throwing random stuff to be the plot of the laugh.

edit2: Sorry if what I say sounds harsh, it's just that I take story telling seriously.
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Re: #arc 67 Love and War

Post by Dissension »

I assure you the author takes storytelling seriously, too.
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Re: #arc 67 Love and War

Post by Seth »

angelusbr wrote:.

edit:
Seth wrote:It always amuses me how seriously some people take this comic. Bino is meant to be an over the top jerk. That's what makes his character and a bunch of the gags funny, which is kinda the purpose of the comic. Some people have wayyyyyyyy too much animosity for someone's fictional comedic creation.
If that's the case, then the comic isn't trying to tell a story while making the readers laugh during the ride, but make readers laugh while throwing random stuff to be the plot of the laugh.
I really don't see what's so random about it. Throughout the strip Bino has been a jerk but the other dogs have let him run the club despite (or perhaps because of) that character flaw. THere is a difference between not liking the story and the story not being coherent. I feel like a lot of readers want to see Bino lose and that's understandable he's a fairly well written bully/badguy/whatever and when he doesn't they get salty about it because it's not the ending they wanted. But the fact that the outcome may not be exactly what a reader wants does not mean the story doesn't make sense.
Bino is kind of the linch-pin that makes a lot of the story lines work. Without him the story would lack a lot of the conflict neccesary to drive the plot. If he was to have a change of heart or get kicked out of the club/shunned the comic loses the force that drives a lot of the story line. "And then everyone in babylon gardens was happy and best friends" would make a pretty lame story.
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Re: #arc 67 Love and War

Post by valerio »

Well, the good thing about Housepets! is that there *is* evolution of characters.
peanut and Grape relationship
King and Bailey
There's surely room for Fido and Sabrina
The cosmic nerds... heck, even Bino has a chance to change without giving up being basically a...Bino.
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Re: #arc 67 Love and War

Post by Duster »

valerio wrote:Well, the good thing about Housepets! is that there *is* evolution of characters.
peanut and Grape relationship
King and Bailey
There's surely room for Fido and Sabrina
The cosmic nerds... heck, even Bino has a chance to change without giving up being basically a...Bino.
I agree with you Valerio, the nice thing about using a webcomic strip format as a story telling medium IS the ability for change, evolution or what have you.
Some people may find it difficult to follow a comic and keep up with it, but I for one really like to see just how the Author/Artist/Writer is going to continue the story from one week to the next.
I believe that using this method of storytelling keeps things in the Housepets universe dynamic, interesting and fresh. (a couple of good reasons why I like to read Housepets! each week.)
For example, Rick could decide he REALLY wants to show us what Fido has been up to lately and follow through for a few weeks with that or post some one-offs or decide that Daisy needs a backstory, etc, etc...
Sure maybe I don't like every story arc or maybe I just want to follow Joey's story, honestly that's perfectly fine because I like what I like.
Heck maybe one day Rick may put an end to the Cosmic Nerds Story and pick up somewhere else with new characters or a new setting?
But that is one of the fun things about comics, who really knows for sure?
You just have to be patient and wait until the next strip comes out.
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Re: #arc 67 Love and War

Post by Radio Blue Heart »

I agree with Seth. Bino is such a well written jerk that it makes it so much more amusing when something terrible happens to him!
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Re: #arc 67 Love and War

Post by Gren »

I agree with @angelusbr in some things, specially the part that involve the plot. I said a bit of this on the past, but nothing more than make a suggestion because I didn't wanted to cause an argument. The thing is there's no plot in the story except for the Cosmic Game that only involves King, Tarot, Sabrina and the cosmic nerds. The others characters don't have any purpose in this comic except for make us laugh. That is what bothers me a little. I would like to see that every protagonist have their own and continuous plot, or at least that exist a big plot able to involve everyone. But it's seems is just a privilege for King.

He is right about this comic is not as entertaining as it used to be. And you can check it if you observe the number of comments in the blog and post in the forum. Before people was more active because they felt more attached to the comic. I think the "golden age" of this comic was between the 30th and 50th arcs. After "Show business" arc began to decline little by little. The only moments I felt very attracted after that was in "the trial in heaven" and "temple crashers" because involved the Cosmic plot and made me being interested and expectant.
Bino is kind of the linch-pin that makes a lot of the story lines work. Without him the story would lack a lot of the conflict neccesary to drive the plot. If he was to have a change of heart or get kicked out of the club/shunned the comic loses the force that drives a lot of the story line. "And then everyone in babylon gardens was happy and best friends" would make a pretty lame story.
AMEN to that. But to make a perfect storyline Bino needs someone to face him, and in this arc is no one. The best moments of him was the moments when he had conflicts with Fido, Max, Grape or King.
Well, the good thing about Housepets! is that there *is* evolution of characters.
peanut and Grape relationship
King and Bailey
There's surely room for Fido and Sabrina
1- Grapenut is dead since "Imaginate, too". Others things showed after that was pure FANSERVICE.
2- There wasn't any evolution only after Bailey was dragged to BG in last Christmas.
3- I wouldn't say that, because they didn't appear together since "Not all dogs" (more than two years ago)
Alternately, the dogs actually like Bino. Or maybe the answer is as simple as 'dogs are loyal.' The dogs in the comic are, after all, dogs.
If that is your answer and "dogs are loyal no matter what" then why Fido has the necessity to hide his relationship with Sabrina if they are gonna be "loyal" with him no matter how mad they could be?
What I'm saying is that the character's personalities sometimes feel odd or contradictory
Totally agreed with this. And no one is more contradictory than Peanut and Grape.
Peanut -> sometimes too energetic and silly, and other times when he is more normal, calmed and very smart.
Grape -> there's times when she is aggressive, cold and lazy, but there's moments when she is really active, sentimental and naive.

And Fox too. Some moments he could be as jerk as Bino, but mostly he behaves as the guy who cares about everyone.

However I don't give too much importance to that because it's just a minor detail.
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Re: #arc 67 Love and War

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Gren wrote:I agree with @angelusbr in some things, specially the part that involve the plot. I said a bit of this on the past, but nothing more than make a suggestion because I didn't wanted to cause an argument. The thing is there's no plot in the story except for the Cosmic Game that only involves King, Tarot, Sabrina and the cosmic nerds. The others characters don't have any purpose in this comic except for make us laugh. That is what bothers me a little. I would like to see that every protagonist have their own and continuous plot, or at least that exist a big plot able to involve everyone. But it's seems is just a privilege for King.
I will agree with this, I do think the one glaring weakness of this comic is the fact that there is no secondary plot running along side the Nerds stuff; and IIRC Rick did admit that he focused way to much on the Nerds stuff and should have done something like that. I also do get the feeling that the little involvement that Peanut and Grape have in the Nerds Arc is going to end up amounting to nothing they are likely going to do absolutely nothing of any worth in that arc; (in fact I can't think of anything they actually did in the Nerds arc at all. It was Zach who pushed the button to free Pete, and that was the closes they came to doing anything. You could take them out and it would be the same story really, because them being Dream Sunderes was taking out of Play before Pete was free so that part of it never mattered at all. Ok so they introduced Pete which could have been done by anyone, that is all they ever did.) but maybe Rick does have some kind of plan or something.
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Re: #arc 67 Love and War

Post by Saturn381 »

Grapenut is dead since "Imaginate, too". Others things showed after that was pure FANSERVICE.
But didn't Rick say in an recent interview that he left it as "not completely finished"? So it's not dead, just put on hold.
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Re: #arc 67 Love and War

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The one thing I get annoyed with fans about the most is that many of them seem to be treating the comic as if it were a finished piece. Such that whatever happens in the most recent update is treated as the last word on the comic, as if it is now set in stone as is.

I know no one actually thinks that, but the comments lead me to this line of thinking on many occasions.
For instance, most people saw Dragon representing "good" and Pete representing "evil" (to varying degrees). Then suddenly when she pulled the curse of the mysterious temple on Pete the entire comments section was burning with fire about how evil Dragon was. The change was dramatic and ridiculous, to the point where next update Pete said that he had screwed himself over. Then, amazingly, the comments went back to Dragon being neutral or good again.

I just can't stand that people do that.
How can you comment on an uncompleted arc as if you now know exactly how it's going to end and the exact personalities of the characters, when the comic is planned to last indefinitely and evolve for years and years.

GrapeNut hasn't appeared in a long time? Yes. Why does this make it dead? If it came back 10 years from now, that means it was apparently alive all this time.

X character hasn't appeared in a long time? Yes. But Rick has personally said he's trying to start a new "jumping on" point for people, so he's likely going to have to cycle through the other characters that haven't come out in a while. It's a large cast. I know that can make it difficult for people who like a character that hasn't seen the light of day in a while, but hang in there.

There's a lack of underlying plot aside from the cosmic nerds? Yes, but it was really the first underlying plot that Rick introduced and has lasted a little over 3 years giving us 7-8 arcs each last 1-2 months (12-24 strips). Arguably short in the grand scheme of things, and a pretty good underlying plot for Rick's first (though it didn't include most of the characters from Babylon Gardens, so there's room for improvement for the next).

Alternatively, Babylon Gardens is the underlying plot, and that would be OK with me as well. Though I would understand if it was not enough for others.

The personalities are inconsistent? ...Not really, no.
Specifically, Fido has no need to fear his brother. But if you re-read the arc, there is no mention of him being afraid of Bino. Yes, he's clearly making excuses to stay out of this; but I am personally of the type of personality that tries to avoid conflict (especially with family or close friends), so I understand exactly how he feels there.
I wonder if the entertainment of our age has just made it hard for people to see multifaceted characters. Why must someone be good or bad? (Or even mostly good or mostly bad?) People do things they later regret. People do mean things to others for various reasons, and almost never because they are horrible people with no goodness inside. (Rick wrote a really good piece on that recently). Remember, (almost) no one is the villain of their own story.
More interestingly, is that real people are sometimes contradictory, and sometimes their attitudes toward certain things change (sometimes over time, sometimes rapidly: though I would assume most story tellers would like to emphasize such changes such that they don't happen off-screen).
Even if there has been deviation of character, I feel it has been minor and mostly may be attributed to keeping the comic's status quo. (Note that if something changes, it's either an insertion or there is usually a counter change later to balance it back out to normal.)

I have personally witnessed 3 or 4 times where people became upset over the direction Rick was taking his comic, only to discover at the end that he knew what he was doing (surprise, surprise). So it makes no sense to me to say that an arc is only redeemable if Rick has one specific thing in mind, when clearly Rick has done this several times before and has never conformed to the "one thing" that some commenter was sure he would not be satisfied without.

Now why are the dogs sticking their neck out for Bino? Good question. If you don't know, you can either assume that Rick has a good feeling for his characters personalities and it somehow makes sense (you just don't know everything yet); or you can assume that it makes no sense and Rick is a terrible story-teller (or perhaps somewhere in between).
1. People like the status quo. History repeats itself so much mostly due to this one tendency.
2. Dogs are loyal. Maybe this augments some things. It's also not a cop-out to use this logic, as it becomes an interesting character point that all dogs are loyal but still have to be their own unique personality as well.
3. Bino has a take-charge attitude that makes him easy to respond to. Adding this bit in with the other two makes a solid case in my opinion, but again, we may be revealed some other plot point later that makes more clear.

All of this to say: Wait for the arc to end before you judge it. And remember that all characters have good characteristics, all have flaws, and none see themselves as a bad person.

PS. I have a feeling everyone already knows all of this, which makes it really confusing to me that people don't act like they know.
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Re: #arc 67 Love and War

Post by RandomGeekNamedBrent »

IceKitsune wrote:
Gren wrote:I agree with @angelusbr in some things, specially the part that involve the plot. I said a bit of this on the past, but nothing more than make a suggestion because I didn't wanted to cause an argument. The thing is there's no plot in the story except for the Cosmic Game that only involves King, Tarot, Sabrina and the cosmic nerds. The others characters don't have any purpose in this comic except for make us laugh. That is what bothers me a little. I would like to see that every protagonist have their own and continuous plot, or at least that exist a big plot able to involve everyone. But it's seems is just a privilege for King.
I will agree with this, I do think the one glaring weakness of this comic is the fact that there is no secondary plot running along side the Nerds stuff; and IIRC Rick did admit that he focused way to much on the Nerds stuff and should have done something like that. I also do get the feeling that the little involvement that Peanut and Grape have in the Nerds Arc is going to end up amounting to nothing they are likely going to do absolutely nothing of any worth in that arc; (in fact I can't think of anything they actually did in the Nerds arc at all. It was Zach who pushed the button to free Pete, and that was the closes they came to doing anything. You could take them out and it would be the same story really, because them being Dream Sunderes was taking out of Play before Pete was free so that part of it never mattered at all. Ok so they introduced Pete which could have been done by anyone, that is all they ever did.) but maybe Rick does have some kind of plan or something.
don't forget that one of the reasons Tarot is with Peanut is specifically so he wouldn't be a viable avatar for Pete. Also, they may be Dragon's followers, which could prove important in the end game of the game arc.

and I full agree with Obbl. Think of these arcs as episodes of a TV show. Do you judge those before you know how they end, or do wait until you know everything to make your opinions public? Personally, I go with the former, but maybe you're the type to go on forums and scream "worst episode ever" when the first commercial break starts. I don't know you enough to assume you aren't. but I just say wait until the arc's over before you truly judge it.
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Re: #arc 67 Love and War

Post by IceKitsune »

RandomGeekNamedBrent wrote:
IceKitsune wrote:
Gren wrote:I agree with @angelusbr in some things, specially the part that involve the plot. I said a bit of this on the past, but nothing more than make a suggestion because I didn't wanted to cause an argument. The thing is there's no plot in the story except for the Cosmic Game that only involves King, Tarot, Sabrina and the cosmic nerds. The others characters don't have any purpose in this comic except for make us laugh. That is what bothers me a little. I would like to see that every protagonist have their own and continuous plot, or at least that exist a big plot able to involve everyone. But it's seems is just a privilege for King.
I will agree with this, I do think the one glaring weakness of this comic is the fact that there is no secondary plot running along side the Nerds stuff; and IIRC Rick did admit that he focused way to much on the Nerds stuff and should have done something like that. I also do get the feeling that the little involvement that Peanut and Grape have in the Nerds Arc is going to end up amounting to nothing they are likely going to do absolutely nothing of any worth in that arc; (in fact I can't think of anything they actually did in the Nerds arc at all. It was Zach who pushed the button to free Pete, and that was the closes they came to doing anything. You could take them out and it would be the same story really, because them being Dream Sunderes was taking out of Play before Pete was free so that part of it never mattered at all. Ok so they introduced Pete which could have been done by anyone, that is all they ever did.) but maybe Rick does have some kind of plan or something.
don't forget that one of the reasons Tarot is with Peanut is specifically so he wouldn't be a viable avatar for Pete. Also, they may be Dragon's followers, which could prove important in the end game of the game arc.
Yes which is my problem with it it makes him being a possible avatar pointless because it was taken off the playing field before we even knew what was going on. Its not like it was any kind of Red Herring or Chekhov Gun and you can't argue that the relationship between the two of them matter because Rick has never done anything with them. As for them being Followers I'm almost positive we know what those do, they give power to the player that they are aligned. Also Rick said that the whole end game for the U&U game is a fight between the two avatars outside of passively powering them up I don't see what else they could do considering how Pete described them. That is the point I'm trying to make here you could replace them with say Marvin and Tiger and it wouldn't matter.
RandomGeekNamedBrent wrote:and I full agree with Obbl. Think of these arcs as episodes of a TV show. Do you judge those before you know how they end, or do wait until you know everything to make your opinions public? Personally, I go with the former, but maybe you're the type to go on forums and scream "worst episode ever" when the first commercial break starts. I don't know you enough to assume you aren't. but I just say wait until the arc's over before you truly judge it.
I don't know if you are still addressing me or the people who are judge this arc that we are currently on but I will take it as you are talking to me. Considering that Rick has said if he wanted to he could wrap the whole Cosmic Nerds arc up in two more arcs and its been going on for 5ish years I think its pretty safe to say I have enough to judge that arc.
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Re: #arc 67 Love and War

Post by RandomGeekNamedBrent »

IceKitsune wrote:
RandomGeekNamedBrent wrote:and I full agree with Obbl. Think of these arcs as episodes of a TV show. Do you judge those before you know how they end, or do wait until you know everything to make your opinions public? Personally, I go with the former, but maybe you're the type to go on forums and scream "worst episode ever" when the first commercial break starts. I don't know you enough to assume you aren't. but I just say wait until the arc's over before you truly judge it.
I don't know if you are still addressing me or the people who are judge this arc that we are currently on but I will take it as you are talking to me. Considering that Rick has said if he wanted to he could wrap the whole Cosmic Nerds arc up in two more arcs and its been going on for 5ish years I think its pretty safe to say I have enough to judge that arc.
no, that w=one was directed at the people who are judging the current arc. people watching TV shows are fully justified in judging over-arcing plot lines, especially after a few seasons.
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Re: #arc 67 Love and War

Post by IceKitsune »

RandomGeekNamedBrent wrote:
IceKitsune wrote:
RandomGeekNamedBrent wrote:and I full agree with Obbl. Think of these arcs as episodes of a TV show. Do you judge those before you know how they end, or do wait until you know everything to make your opinions public? Personally, I go with the former, but maybe you're the type to go on forums and scream "worst episode ever" when the first commercial break starts. I don't know you enough to assume you aren't. but I just say wait until the arc's over before you truly judge it.
I don't know if you are still addressing me or the people who are judge this arc that we are currently on but I will take it as you are talking to me. Considering that Rick has said if he wanted to he could wrap the whole Cosmic Nerds arc up in two more arcs and its been going on for 5ish years I think its pretty safe to say I have enough to judge that arc.
no, that w=one was directed at the people who are judging the current arc. people watching TV shows are fully justified in judging over-arcing plot lines, especially after a few seasons.
Ok I had a feeling that was the case but I didn't want to leave it unaddressed just in case I was wrong.
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Re: #arc 67 Love and War

Post by angelusbr »

@Obbl: I for one, started to dislike the dragon the same way I dislike Pete after we discovered her true intention. I do agree that the HP cast is big and it's very hard to give everyone a good development.
If we can't comment on the situation as the updates are released then the comment section should be opened only when an arc is done or when the comic itself is complete.
As for characters motives and behavior, I'll only analyze what is seen inside of content (comic/book/movie/etc). I refuse to read character profiles that detail backstory and personalities that are not explained inside of the work itself (not saying this happens here, this is just an example. Like in Final Fantasy XIII). If I'm not mistaken Ricky gave an official explanation of why Fido acted that way, but I don't remember exactly what it was, but in case my memory is failing me on this one (or even if it isn't), I'll still judge the character for what it is shown in the comic.
Also this dog loyalty thing still bugs me. What is the base line for their loyalty? If they act like real dogs, then did Bino win by fighting with others and proclaming himself alpha male? Was he elected through election (given their human-ish inteligence)? Fox did hurt Bino a few times when he was a big Jerk and there was no repercution. Real dogs to have limits before they snap and start to attack back, so how much can the other dogs can endure from Bino?
I recently re-read soem of the comics and realized one thing: Bino actually really like Sasha, maybe it's true love that he can't express it well. And it does annoy me that Sasha is...kinda...weird. She always seems to want to date other dogs. I don't know about other females dogs (if I'm not mistaken we only have Dutchess and Bailey as reference and I don't know which one should be considered the example of the normal dog beavior. I'm cheering for Bailey). I don't know. Maybe Bino is better off with another girlfriend or have a straight talk with Sasha and talk about his feelings.
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Re: #arc 67 Love and War

Post by Gren »

Obbl wrote: I just can't stand that people do that.
How can you comment on an uncompleted arc as if you now know exactly how it's going to end and the exact personalities of the characters, when the comic is planned to last indefinitely and evolve for years and years.
Personally I never said this arc was bad, I just don't like it too much because is centered in romance and this kind of stuff not amuse me too much unless it have a bit of drama. But I said it before, it was just MY preferences, and I think all of us shouldn't complain for such a matter, because what matter the most is the author preferences. Besides we have to be tolerant because each one have their own preferences and Rick can't please everyone.
Obbl wrote:GrapeNut hasn't appeared in a long time? Yes. Why does this make it dead? If it came back 10 years from now, that means it was apparently alive all this time.
I think no. If something happens between them in the future is going to be like a restart of this matter and not as you say, because in all of the time passed until this moment nothing was happened.
I put it this way: If you are dating with someone but then you break up and after 10 years you reconcile, you couldn't say that in all that time you're love was still alive because nothing happened between you two until that right moment.
So then I am right and Grapenut is still dead until something new happen and restart the thing (of course if that ever happens)
Obbl wrote:X character hasn't appeared in a long time? Yes. But Rick has personally said he's trying to start a new "jumping on" point for people, so he's likely going to have to cycle through the other characters that haven't come out in a while. It's a large cast. I know that can make it difficult for people who like a character that hasn't seen the light of day in a while, but hang in there.
I never complained about this. The point is in that answer he was only referring to the main characters and not all the cast. There's a lot of secondary characters and extras that most likely never going to have any important role in any arc, so that's why I made that suggestion, because at least it would be nice if they appear in one-off or mini-arcs instead of just leaving them forgotten in the past.
Alternatively, Babylon Gardens is the underlying plot, and that would be OK with me as well. Though I would understand if it was not enough for others.
Oh come on, I am not against this, I just suggested that for a one-off or a mini-arc it shouldn't be extremely necessary that a character has to be in BG. I am totally agree with the main plot has to be developed in this city because is in this place where the main characters are living.
I wonder if the entertainment of our age has just made it hard for people to see multifaceted characters. Why must someone be good or bad? (Or even mostly good or mostly bad?) People do things they later regret. People do mean things to others for various reasons, and almost never because they are horrible people with no goodness inside. (Rick wrote a really good piece on that recently). Remember, (almost) no one is the villain of their own story.
Totally agreed with this, that's why I never said anything about this before. It's good to see them being multifaceted because that makes them more realistic and more similar to us.
I have personally witnessed 3 or 4 times where people became upset over the direction Rick was taking his comic, only to discover at the end that he knew what he was doing (surprise, surprise). So it makes no sense to me to say that an arc is only redeemable if Rick has one specific thing in mind, when clearly Rick has done this several times before and has never conformed to the "one thing" that some commenter was sure he would not be satisfied without.
That is a thing that annoy me a lot. You know, I like when a story have a little of drama, but in this comic is almost impossible seen any of this because people complains ALWAYS for the most stupids of reasons. Some people are really stupid or simply take things too seriously, because they can't understand the fact that no matter how bad something could seems, always is gonna have a happy ending. But no, they just start being paranoid instead of just shut up and enjoy the moment. They feel offended for nothing and because of this they think it's correctly attack the author and offend him, and all of this happen just because a fictional character suffer for two or three strips and then he return to be as happy as ever. This must be the reason Rick practically never adds drama in the story arcs
Now why are the dogs sticking their neck out for Bino?
Stop frying your brain for such a petty matter. The answer is easy: Because they are friends, nothing else. I think Bino (as another multifaceted character) is not a jerk all the time, and he can be a good friend who care for others. That's why they support him in his jerkish moments. I think we saw a bit of this here
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Re: #arc 67 Love and War

Post by RandomGeekNamedBrent »

angelusbr wrote:If we can't comment on the situation as the updates are released then the comment section should be opened only when an arc is done or when the comic itself is complete.
I didn't mean you shouldn't be able to express your thoughts as the arc is still going on, just that you shouldn't judge the entire arc until it's done.
to return to my TV analogy, you can judge scenes that have already happened and share theories on what'll happen next at any point during an episode, or even express worries that it might be leading somewhere you don't like, but you shouldn't judge the episode as a whole until it's over. in the case of the comic, you should judge the strips you've seen, and express your worry that the arc won't turn out in a way you like, but don't discount the possibility that Rick will throw some curve ball in that will turn it completely around and make you like it.
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Re: #arc 67 Love and War

Post by Karl »

Sleet wrote:
Karlos wrote:
Kitch wrote:I just noticed Rick decided to depict Yeltsin with his right eye put out.
He has a cybernetic eye with micro nuclear drive.
What kind of a ridiculous excuse for a dog has a cybernetic eye?

Uhh... it makes him... look cooler? ^^'
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Re: #arc 67 Love and War

Post by Dissension »

angelusbr wrote:Also this dog loyalty thing still bugs me. What is the base line for their loyalty? If they act like real dogs, then did Bino win by fighting with others and proclaming himself alpha male? Was he elected through election (given their human-ish inteligence)?
Bino and Fido founded the Good Ol' Dogs Club together.
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Re: #arc 67 Love and War

Post by angelusbr »

Dissension wrote:
angelusbr wrote:Also this dog loyalty thing still bugs me. What is the base line for their loyalty? If they act like real dogs, then did Bino win by fighting with others and proclaming himself alpha male? Was he elected through election (given their human-ish inteligence)?
Bino and Fido founded the Good Ol' Dogs Club together.
:? I didn't remember that. I guess this does explain it.
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Re: #arc 67 Love and War

Post by Gren »

angelusbr wrote:
Dissension wrote:
angelusbr wrote:Also this dog loyalty thing still bugs me. What is the base line for their loyalty? If they act like real dogs, then did Bino win by fighting with others and proclaming himself alpha male? Was he elected through election (given their human-ish inteligence)?
Bino and Fido founded the Good Ol' Dogs Club together.
:? I didn't remember that. I guess this does explain it.
Bino said it here. However as you said, this fact didn't explain anything. But just shrug with it, it's not the big deal. After all is true what obbl said, some characters tends to be multifaceted.
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Re: #arc 67 Love and War

Post by Obbl »

Ah, sorry, Gren. I wasn't specifically pointing at you.
And I do agree that more of the characters should star in an arc. There's so much personality in this cast, it would be fun to see.

Angelusbr, what makes dogs being generally more inclined to loyalty an interesting character trait is precisely because there has to be a balancing act between their dog instincts and their human level intelligence. It's always interesting to see how an author handles these things.
For instance, all the cats in this cast act like cats, yet clearly are more than just the cats in the real world.
The same is true with the dogs. They maintain their instincts for loyalty and pack-mindedness, but they don't fight for alpha position. They have an election, or follow the charismatic leader who co-founded the club. (Dog-like, but Human-like) And if they're a good foil for the reader, they'll show us our own dog-like tendencies.
Also, I haven't seen Bino directly hurt very many dogs in the club throughout the entire comic's lifetime.
He picks on Tiger (Tiger hates him), he picks on Peanut (Peanut's good-natured about it, but still doesn't like him much), maybe Joey a bit too. King is the only one he's really hurt (and King really doesn't like him at all). So your thing about dogs only taking so much crap still holds. Arguably he's been a bad boyfriend to Sasha, but Sasha makes me think of those dogs who take the abuse and never fight back. Those make me sad.
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Re: #arc 67 Love and War

Post by IceKitsune »

I could totally see Fox getting together with Sasha out of sympathy for her crying. Either that or using this as a way to talk her back into being with Bino. Also yay new characters! I think the first is a bit more likely given how the arc started with Fox not having a girlfriend.
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Re: #arc 67 Love and War

Post by RandomGeekNamedBrent »

using the tag to identify Devo, am I to assume you listed them in order of appearance?

and Sasha and Fox... I could see that being a thing. They both have big hearts. and like King.
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Re: #arc 67 Love and War

Post by Sleet »

I was going to comment that the tag really looks like the Devo hat thing. Then I read his name. Oh.
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Re: #arc 67 Love and War

Post by valerio »

IceKitsune wrote:I could totally see Fox getting together with Sasha out of sympathy for her crying. Either that or using this as a way to talk her back into being with Bino. Also yay new characters! I think the first is a bit more likely given how the arc started with Fox not having a girlfriend.
This may be a turning point in someone's personal lives, a very nice touch if I dare say so.
At least, hopefully, this will be the last time Fox will agree to a plan of Bino when it comes to messing with someone else's life.
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Re: #arc 67 Love and War

Post by JohnWillow »

JohnWillow wrote:The last few strips would have you believe that Fox would be next in line but I notice there are three white streaks next to "WOO YEAH!"

https://www.housepetscomic.com/2013/02/ ... alentines/

I think Rick's about to introduce a new character
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valerio wrote:
IceKitsune wrote:I could totally see Fox getting together with Sasha out of sympathy for her crying. Either that or using this as a way to talk her back into being with Bino. Also yay new characters! I think the first is a bit more likely given how the arc started with Fox not having a girlfriend.
This may be a turning point in someone's personal lives, a very nice touch if I dare say so.
At least, hopefully, this will be the last time Fox will agree to a plan of Bino when it comes to messing with someone else's life.
Yea, I have a feeling that Bino has gone one step too far on this one. I know that when people can't find dates it's difficult for them to get their confidence up, when people have a run of bad dates they go off men for a while, but having the worst dates ever in a single night....If it were me I'd rather watch be home watching The Invention of Lying
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Re: #arc 67 Love and War

Post by PhoenixAsper »

Panel 1: Huh, boy. A regular casanova, this guy. He seems the type that would be going out with Duchess...

Panel 2: Okay, as socially tactless as I can be, I have to say, "Dude, no. :| ".

Panel 3: :shock: ...............Okaaaaaaay, that's............ positively disgusting.

Panel 4: "I'm the only one left"? NICE going, Fox. :roll: That's a GREAT pick-up line.



Poor Sasha. :( I hope she's still the same by the end of this.
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Re: #arc 67 Love and War

Post by Aticston »

Fox "Even so, we're not trying to hurt her. I don't actually think anything we say could kill her spirit"

*Two pages later of purposely destructive dates destroying her spirit*

Fox "I'm the only one left so if you want to.....Um Sasha? You might want to get your eyes looked at"

Lo and behold, my whole post everyone dismissed comes to pass.

FYI - If you want to laugh at me bringing -REAL WORLD PSYCHOLOGY- into a comic feel free, but all in all the hyper baseline of it is that we can only relate to characters that act in the least, semi realistically. Rick showing that Sasha's hyper bubbly self is but a shield to protect herself from harm is -EXACTLY- what abused people do.

Everything up to this point shows Sasha to show the classic signs of abused spouse patterns, and like I said before, her dumping Bino was actually her trying to fix things in her life, and now all these bad dates in a row (How sabotaged they are I don't know) has finally cracked that shield and her inner self is starting to show.

This either ends up one of two ways:

1. Sasha's shield completely and utterly shatters, and she becomes a self loathing mess. That all she does is attract the worst people around her, and because she is only around terrible people its somehow some aspect of her herself, that she's a terrible/awful person, and she attracts these jerks to her herself. Worst part is that these psychotic breaks take nearly forever to recover from because these people end up believing they are at fault for all the bad around them. FYI - IRL these are the type that ends up often very suicidal cause they view life as "No way out"

2. Sasha's shield cracks, but rebuilds itself slightly stronger in realizing she's hanging around with jerks, and she's better then them. This results in her trying to fix her life as well as she possibly can, that she deserves better. She'll end up very self defensive around other people because she'll be incredibly quick to judge peoples characters harshly based on the abuse she's suffered from her owner, Bino and now these others. Over time she'll learn that since she is now letting herself feel upset over things people do to her, she'll learn to be more self sufficient and independent, and she'll start to be able to see when her owner actually loves her vs. keeps her around as a chick magnet/maid.

This will also carry over to her relationships with others, she'll be able to tell King when he's being upset that he's upset, and not just "Grump face", she'll be able to tell Duchess when she's displeased with her when they don't agree on something. She'll be able to tell those around her, if not tell be able to react properly to reactions around her in a safe non-destructive manner. She'll learn that we are allowed to let ourselves feel upset at times, and its not wrong.

Whew

Now with that said, Fox if his character is very much the person I have watched over all these comics, his caring and nurturing nature and looking out for people's well being, if Sasha's "Eye thing" is indeed her in the middle of a psychotic break, the only reaction I can assume, logically anyways, is extreme guilt.

Why?

Guilt he assumed Sasha couldn't be hurt, because he didn't pay attention to her properly

Guilt because he treated Sasha not as a person, but a prize for Bino to get back

Guilt because instead of thinking of her, he thought of Bino, Bino being one of the worst people in BG.

Guilt because he inflicted all this pain on her.

If he's anything like the character I assume he is, he would be confessing right now entirely about this whole thing, why they set up the speed dates, and he's sorry about all of it. He had never intended to hurt her, because he only looked at her shield and didn't believe she could be possibly hurt, and now that he see's she's vulnerable like everyone else if he had any sort of soul/self respect for himself he would be fessing up to the entire thing.

I know that's a long read, and I -KNOW- a lot of you are probably upset at me bringing real world psychology into this, but FYI the only time we attach ourselves to characters is -WHEN- they are believable. We don't attach ourselves to characters that we know are acting stupid/fake/silly.

I mean really, have any of you attached an emotional relationship to Ronnie from WHOMP!, he's written as pure satire/slapstick/comical fashion, we can laugh at Ronnie, but we could never, ever feel bad for Ronnie.

I've not seen that out of Housepets, I've seen a very wide range of emotional facets from these characters, about the only character I have seen a long, long, long time "Slapstick comical" venue out of is Kari the fox, but given the rest of this comics subplots, it looks like he's some greater underlying cosmic force at work here, and his mischief is helping these other characters grow.
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Re: #arc 67 Love and War

Post by GameCobra »

Aticston wrote:FYI - If you want to laugh at me bringing -REAL WORLD PSYCHOLOGY- into a comic feel free, but all in all the hyper baseline of it is that we can only relate to characters that act in the least, semi realistically. Rick showing that Sasha's hyper bubbly self is but a shield to protect herself from harm is -EXACTLY- what abused people do.

Everything up to this point shows Sasha to show the classic signs of abused spouse patterns, and like I said before, her dumping Bino was actually her trying to fix things in her life, and now all these bad dates in a row (How sabotaged they are I don't know) has finally cracked that shield and her inner self is starting to show.
We're dealing with comic characters, and while the readers can freely emulate what they feel about the characters, you have to remember that they are being portrayed as realistic as dogs in real-life as well. Part of the problem is that apparantly the fans have trouble understanding the portrayal I find b ecause they emulate the pets too close to humans at times, which I know we want, but we have to remember that's not always the case here.

Sasha has been shown to have always been hard to read, but it's not to say she's abused or dumb ~ She's portrayed as the typical happy-go-lucky girl that wants to have a good time in life, but goes with the flow very often. It's pretty much written in her character description that she goes with others opinions alot rather than her own, which suggests she's not a victim of being abused, but rather having a case of confused, mixed-up feelings of what others want, which could possibly be a case from hanging out with Bino and the other dogs alot.
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Re: #arc 67 Love and War

Post by Aticston »

>Sasha is not a victim of being abused

Owner is an abusive alcoholic that treats her as a chick magnet and live in slave

Bino treats her like attractive wallpaper 99% of the time because the only reason he goes out with her is cause she's a social status -IE- "I'M GOING OUT WITH THE HOTTEST DOG AT BG, I HAVE TO GO BRAG TO EVERYONE AT ALL TIMES ABOUT THIS!!!"

Everyone disregards her as stupid, and treats her as such, when in my eyes she's just slightly naive and has a incredibly thick shield vs. all the other points above.

King is the -ONLY- character in the entire comic to ever treat her with self respect, that's it, everyone else has used or abused her in some way.

She is -DEFINITELY- a victim of abuse.

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Re: #arc 67 Love and War

Post by Dissension »

While you are, of course, completely entitled to hold that opinion, it is much, much darker than the tone of the comic. = P It is also rather one-sided. You once again neglect to acknowledge that Sasha is far from an innocent victim and has repeatedly left or cheated on Bino.
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Re: #arc 67 Love and War

Post by Radio Blue Heart »

Looking at those guys, Bino actually might be a good silver medal in this one.
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Re: #arc 67 Love and War

Post by Aticston »

Dissension wrote:While you are, of course, completely entitled to hold that opinion, it is much, much darker than the tone of the comic. = P It is also rather one-sided. You once again neglect to acknowledge that Sasha is far from an innocent victim and has repeatedly left or cheated on Bino.
Sasha's inability to form proper loving relationships in my eyes just further cements my view that she suffered from battered spouse syndrome, as she's incapable of understand what love is and isn't

And again, her dumping Bino is her moving forwards, she could very much have kept going on and off again, but she's realizing she needs to do better, thus dumping Bino.

Sasha flat out follows classic behavioral patterns for battered spouse syndrome. The one, -ONE- thing she hasn't expressed in a cut and dried clinical case of it is random uncontrolled emotional outbursts -IE- Manic happiness or manic depression over small things, but I assume she has expressed it, just not shown in the comic because she expresses the other side of this reaction of constantly trying to make everyone else around her happy.
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Re: #arc 67 Love and War

Post by Liam »

Erm, Atic, for obvious reasons I really don't think Rick ever intended to bring battered person syndrome into this comic...
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Re: #arc 67 Love and War

Post by Duster »

PhoenixAsper wrote:Panel 1: Huh, boy. A regular casanova, this guy. He seems the type that would be going out with Duchess...

Panel 2: Okay, as socially tactless as I can be, I have to say, "Dude, no. :| ".

Panel 3: :shock: ...............Okaaaaaaay, that's............ positively disgusting.

Panel 4: "I'm the only one left"? NICE going, Fox. :roll: That's a GREAT pick-up line.



Poor Sasha. :( I hope she's still the same by the end of this.
Oh I'm sure that she will be more or less the same bubbly pup she's always been, BUT that doesn't mean something won't happen during Bino's speed dating scheme!

I kinda like the new characters that Rick put in this Wednesdays strip. Although he does have me wondering, were they really acting.... Or not?
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Re: #arc 67 Love and War

Post by Sleet »

Nah I just think they're legitimately tactless.
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Re: #arc 67 Love and War

Post by Gren »

Nice, new characters! The first one (Griswold?) what a personality he has. I like him a lot XD
And that little chihuahua is adorable (and a bit disgusting XD). King should hang around him just to regain some self-esteem :lol:

Now I wonder if after so many bad dates with dogs Sasha will be the same. Perhaps instead of returning to Bino's arms she could try with "other species" :o
GameCobra wrote: We're dealing with comic characters, and while the readers can freely emulate what they feel about the characters, you have to remember that they are being portrayed as realistic as dogs in real-life as well. Part of the problem is that apparantly the fans have trouble understanding the portrayal I find b ecause they emulate the pets too close to humans at times, which I know we want, but we have to remember that's not always the case here.
Totally agree. People confuse this a lot (even I sometimes) because as you said, they act a lot like humans, but they are still having their animal essence. The easy way to remember this is watching how worries and irritates King by the dogs behavior. He was human so it's makes sense that he were the most intelligent and rational individual of the whole comic. He still have his human brain as well as his morals and ethics. I think to some of us it's so difficult to adapt to their animal nature as well as it is for King.
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