No One Cares 2015-08-21

[TheDOCTOR]

^I find it difficult not to care about someone, even if it's "just a character." Especially when they aren't happy. Needless to say, I can really get into stories.

Also: hey, that looks lie my school!
AlsoAlso: oh, look, an Art Shift! Color Backgrounds? Is that significant?

ANYTIME Paul uses color either for dramatic effect, or shock-value especially Red somethings about to 'hit the fan'. I hope Atsali can introduce Devyn to her Aunt Acacia or - better still Introduce this little Geek to the little Geek that started it all...Aunt Monica.

[chicgeek]

Depression is often brushed off as just teenaged angst. And depression often really latches on good and tight during the teenage years, remember, brain chemistry is still changing and developing. Not just a phase. Not just what every teenager goes through. I hid mine well, and when I got the nerve to confide to a close friend that I was depressed, she looked me straight in the eye and said, "I don't believe you."
It's watching all the plants in your room die because getting up to water them is too much effort.
It doesn't mean friendless-you can have one or two close friends that you can laugh with. But laughing with them doesn't make you normal and that you can be that way all the time, and being depressed doesn;t mean you can never laugh and have a friend. Not mutually exclusive.
And it is soul crushing to always be the last one chosen in gym. Or anything else, but gym seems to be the constant. The point of gym is exercise, physical fitness, and teamwork. No reason a gym teacher can't divide the class in half alphabetically, rather than have two pets chose one at a time. The popular, the athletic, the eh, they're okay, and the oh, god, we're stuck with her? Over and over. If you're randomly set as a team from the beginning, you'd learn more about working together then, wouldn't you?
People can be very, very, good at hiding just how bad they feel. People just think you're quiet, or shy. Or maybe you joke to hide it-people like Robin Williams who are the class clowns.
It's wondering what's wrong with you-because it would make sense to feel bad when something bad happened, everyone does. But when you feel like you've fallen into a deep black pit, when the depression crashes over you like a wave and sweeps you away, and everything is fine in your life? You can feel bad about feeling bad when there's no accepted reason for it. And there is a stigma attached to admitting it, let alone getting help. People think you just need cheering up, you just need a dose of self esteem, look how good life is! have you tried yoga? But it's brain chemistry. It's as physical an ailment as a broken leg. Would you tell them, 'I know you can run if you just believe in yourself!"
So, yeah. I'll get off my soapbox now.
Maybe it is just teen malaise. But I'm not going to brush this off as, 'pff, teenagers!' just yet.
And we've done a lot of speculating about Devyn, but we don't really know anything yet. We know about her uncles, we've seen her stand up for someone being bullied, we've seen her with a friend, she has a mom that we've only seen as word balloons. Bits and pieces.
Enough to make me curious.

[Dave]

Bits and pieces.
Enough to make me curious.

And that, for me, is the key. Characters in a comic aren''t the same as people we meet in real life... but in both cases, we "meet" them and start out knowing nothing at all about them. We always learn about them by bits and pieces. The more curious we are, and the more actively we try to "see through their eyes" based on what we know of them, the faster we learn who they really are.

Do people somehow change, and become more worthy of being cared about, by the mere fact that we know more about them and understand them better? No, I don't think so. We change, we grow, we become richer people, when we make that effort.

[AmriloJim]

oh, look, an Art Shift!

I thought Art was a used car salesman with the same fashion sense as Herb Tarlek.

[meisdadoo]

Wow, you leave the discussion for a few days and it becomes 'the Lord of the Flies' -- or maybe it always was and I just didn't notice until I took a break?
I was briefly tempted to rant and start a flame war, but that would just make things worse--so no.

More likely than not some of the snarky comments just hit a nerve, the one that is just beneath a massive scar, right next to the painful memories . . .yeah, been there done that. Buried friends and relatives that couldn't handle the so called "teenage angst" aka depression. So yes, I can be a little over sensitive to--sorry not going to rant.

(takes deep cleansing breath---and exhale) The one character most needed at this very instant is Pickle. Because in spite of anything Devyn could say or do to hide it, Pickle well smell the problem and bring it out into the open where it can be properly addressed. Then Auntie Monica can shepherd those pesky Demons that are plaguing Devyn. But first, more backstory and character development. ^_^

You did notice the background color shift, yes? Did you see anyone else in the hallway? No you did not, those were the voices of Devyns personal Demons, and unless someone helps her get them under control, the quality of her life experience will continue to degrade--which is a really bad thing for a powerful paranormal--and every mortal within a 10 block radius.

[Thor]

Give us something, anything. I need character-specific insights before I can care about a specific character.

Genetically, she is a member of mtDNA haplogroup T, with mutations 16126C, 16169Y, 16294T, 16296T, 73G, 263G, and 315.1C. This either indicates some interesting human ancestry in her family tree, or an even more interesting case of convergent evolution.

[snip]

Please feel free to care now, if you wish (or not). You're welcome.

Fan fiction isn't canonical details. Actually fanfiction is more like spitting in canon's face. If it isn't said in works created, commissioned, or blessed by the author, it isn't relevant, meaningful, or useful.

You did notice the background color shift, yes? Did you see anyone else in the hallway? No you did not, those were the voices of Devyns personal Demons, and unless someone helps her get them under control, the quality of her life experience will continue to degrade--which is a really bad thing for a powerful paranormal--and every mortal within a 10 block radius.

Maybe. It could be the prelude to something momentous, or it could simply be a characterization vignette that may or may not be referred to again in later strips. Wapsi is full of these brief glimpses into characters' lives that seem to be leading up to something, but are really there for their own sakes. No way to tell until possibly Monday.

[GlytchMeister]

Fan fiction isn't canonical details. Actually fanfiction is more like spitting in canon's face. If it isn't said in works created, commissioned, or blessed by the author, it isn't relevant, meaningful, or useful.

I respectfully disagree.

I believe fanfiction to be a tribute. A song sung by a tribute band may not be the same... but if it's done right, it is far from an insult to the original. Often, a tribute can be a compliment, a praise.
Imitation is the sincerest/highest form of flattery.
Indeed, some tribute art, be it musical, literary, or visual; can be insulting.
But what feels more insulting, at the very least to me, is having one's tribute work called a spit in the face of the original story... and then hearing it referred to as irrelevant, meaningless, and useless.

This is my subjective opinion. I recognize that I am heavily biased in this matter. Take what you will from what I have said here.

[Julie]

Give us something, anything. I need character-specific insights before I can care about a specific character.

Genetically, she is a member of mtDNA haplogroup T, with mutations 16126C, 16169Y, 16294T, 16296T, 73G, 263G, and 315.1C. This either indicates some interesting human ancestry in her family tree, or an even more interesting case of convergent evolution.

[snip]

Please feel free to care now, if you wish (or not). You're welcome.

Fan fiction isn't canonical details. Actually fanfiction is more like spitting in canon's face. If it isn't said in works created, commissioned, or blessed by the author, it isn't relevant, meaningful, or useful.

I'm pretty sure what Dave posted wasn't so much fan fiction as it was giving you extra details (that he specifically pointed out were not canon) since you seem to require them to care about a character. Obviously they won't be all that helpful if you're trying to be a purist in your reading, but you could also consider those randomly accumulated snippets as placeholder details until Devyn has had more time "on screen" as it were. It might help you get through this slump of having to read about a character you wouldn't otherwise care about.

For many of us (as has already been pointed out) it's easy to care about Devyn because we've felt the way she seems to feel...we can empathize with her situation even without knowing that many details about her simply because her situation is, if not universal, quite pervasive. That said, it can be argued that we actually have gotten enough insight into the character to know that she's intelligent, passionate, protective, connected, and lonely. That's actually a fairly well fleshed out character profile given the limited access we've had to her thus far. Hopefully you'll be able to bear with Paul (and the rest of us who are already attached to her) until he can get enough story going around her to give you the depth you need to see what the rest of us are already feeling.

P.S. I can understand your lack of interest in fan fiction. It's not a genre I've ever really had an inclination to read because I only trusted the original author to truly understand his/her characters and the world in which they lived. Until recently, I had no desire to sully my awareness of my beloved fictional realms and characters with stories that "didn't really happen." However, I think it's exceptionally unfair to imply that fan fiction is spitting in canon's face (because that is only true if the fan fiction's author has no interest in being as true to canon as possible), and it's downright hurtful to suggest that anything related to Wapsi that isn't coming directly from Paul has no meaning. If it had no meaning, the fan fiction wouldn't be written in the first place. Even though they are not the original creators, fan fiction writers are still artists...and they only create when inspired to do so...which automatically gives their creations meaning by virtue of originating in their hearts and souls. It may have no personal value to some, but all art has meaning to someone.

[Gyrrakavian]

Fan fiction isn't canonical details. Actually fanfiction is more like spitting in canon's face. If it isn't said in works created, commissioned, or blessed by the author, it isn't relevant, meaningful, or useful.

That's certainly true in in some cases, especially the erotica (two straight characters, who want nothing more but to kill each other, turn gay and now want to have sex). But there's also the stuff that's canon that the fandom categorically rejects. The ending of Quantum Leap. The ending of Evangelion (and several other bits from it). Gargoyles: the Goliath Chronicles (by way of technicality it's canon).

Sometimes the show gets cancelled or an incredibly integral part of the series is released as a movie and some regions don't get said movie until a decade or more later (Transformers: The Movie wasn't released in Japan until the late 90s).

That's where fan fiction comes in. Or infinitely better comic books written by the show's creator.

[tophoo]

Oo! Ooo! What're getting next? Cutting? Suicide?
Suicide is probably the author's only hope for topping Atsali's absolutely-impossible-collection-of-psychological-disorders. Since the siren is somehow not catatonic with her Costco-sized brain-drama nonsense, at this point I think he'd need to write Devyn's suicide and ensuing ghostification so she could follow characters (y'know- those people in the story that the reader is interested in?) around, adding extra angst to everything. Oo- I've got it! Devyn's ghost could partially possess Atsali! That way, she's got another amazing mental disorder that didn't involve her parents detonating tiny explosive charges in different parts of her brain!

[GlytchMeister]

Oo! Ooo! What're getting next? Cutting? Suicide?
Suicide is probably the author's only hope for topping Atsali's absolutely-impossible-collection-of-psychological-disorders. Since the siren is somehow not catatonic with her Costco-sized brain-drama nonsense, at this point I think he'd need to write Devyn's suicide and ensuing ghostification so she could follow characters (y'know- those people in the story that the reader is interested in?) around, adding extra angst to everything. Oo- I've got it! Devyn's ghost could partially possess Atsali! That way, she's got another amazing mental disorder that didn't involve her parents detonating tiny explosive charges in different parts of her brain!

Chill, man...

[DilyV]

It's a lonely place to be when everyone looks at you like a geek or worse because you don't smoke, drink, do anything the cool kids do.

I'll bet that none of those things are even true. Her internal dialogue could have been mine on any given day of high school. At my 35th HS reunion (after a couple of decades of psycho- and pharmacotherapy) , I was astounded to learn just how cool others perceived me to be.

I don't think that this is teenage angst, Thor. Paul has done an excellent job of depicting bona fide depression.

Granted the phrase "geek" has taken on a new meaning... for adults. For kids, is a lot different. Now, with my skillset, Military, Law Enforcement, firearms, computers, law in general, yeah, I can accept the fact that geek might be a term of endearment... even dork to a certain extent because I can be kind of silly at times still but when I was in school those words hurt. Funny how going forward in time a decade or so changes the meanings of words.

+1 on the reunion thing... I made it to my five year reunion and when they found out I was in the military, I became the cool kid I never was in school. People who never gave me the time of day in school were wanting to keep in touch and stuff. It all boiled down more to who I became and what I made of myself than who I was in school. I was a success story to them. If they only knew the physical and mental scars my service left on me.

The main thing is, at the end of the day, I'm okay with who and what I am. I'm happy that I survived some of the worst things a person could experience and it made me see and live life differently. I guess for others, that makes me cool. Maybe they're jealous or ashamed they didn't serve too.

I look at the strip and just want to hug the stuffin out of Devyn. I have to wonder though... is her being treated that way because she isn't as coordinated or maybe socially awkward? Or is it because the other kids are afraid to get too close because of who her relatives are?

[Dave]

Funny how going forward in time a decade or so changes the meanings of words.

...

The main thing is, at the end of the day, I'm okay with who and what I am. I'm happy that I survived some of the worst things a person could experience and it made me see and live life differently.

And, I suspect, the latter is a big part of why the former is true.

High school is a difficult and often-painful time, in part because we're not yet adults. We don't know who we really are or what we can do or what we value. We're trying to learn our way in the world, and a lot of that comes through our peer-groups and the group values. So, being excluded from acceptance, and labeled, hurts a lot, and often tends to make us feel quite hopeless about the future.

Now, you know who you are, and what you can do, and what you have survived. You can look back at the path you have walked, and you can see that the dorky, geeky, nerdy kid you were, was the one who was strong enough to survive and achieve. You can wear those formerly-scornful labels as a badge of pride and honor now.

I guess for others, that makes me cool. Maybe they're jealous or ashamed they didn't serve too.

Others can look back, too, and see the origin of the strong survivor you are today in their memory of the kid you once were.

I look at the strip and just want to hug the stuffin out of Devyn. I have to wonder though... is her being treated that way because she isn't as coordinated or maybe socially awkward? Or is it because the other kids are afraid to get too close because of who her relatives are?

All possible, I guess.

A big part of it, though, may be that it's just standard-issue high school behavior. She's a freshman, a newcomer, doesn't know many of the other students... hence an outsider and a "lower classman". By definition she's not part of any one of the existing social cliques in the high school. And, the thing about cliques is that they draw their value from being exclusive... they don't work for "us" unless there's a big group of "them" that "we" can exclude, and feel superior to. Freshmen are the common, easy targets for being excluded.

"Earning" acceptance into this sort of environment can be tough... tougher if you're introverted, bookish, nonathletic, not-rich, not-glamorous, and not interested in playing the social-status-and-ranking games.

[AnotherFairportfan]

Interesting how different this one looks without the background.

[Drakkenmensch]

She needs hugs and true friends who love her for the wonderful girl she is.

Lots of hugs!

[jwhouk]

Interesting how different this one looks without the background.

Wow.

[Akeche]

Oo! Ooo! What're getting next? Cutting? Suicide?
Suicide is probably the author's only hope for topping Atsali's absolutely-impossible-collection-of-psychological-disorders. Since the siren is somehow not catatonic with her Costco-sized brain-drama nonsense, at this point I think he'd need to write Devyn's suicide and ensuing ghostification so she could follow characters (y'know- those people in the story that the reader is interested in?) around, adding extra angst to everything. Oo- I've got it! Devyn's ghost could partially possess Atsali! That way, she's got another amazing mental disorder that didn't involve her parents detonating tiny explosive charges in different parts of her brain!

Chill, man...

Personally hoping Paul doesn't pull that particular card myself.

[Dave]

Interesting how different this one looks without the background.

Wow.

It certainly seems to have resonated with someone, even without the background.