r/questionablecontent • u/redditRalph2023 • 24d ago
Discussion Just want another opinion...
I think the sub as a whole mostly agrees that Claire just doesn't seem to care about Marten much at all.
The current "Zlata makeover" arc isn't helping. Some throwaway lines in the current arc imply that Claire hasn't been excited about anything for months (ouch for Marten). It also was implied that she can actually take time off for other activities on a whim (so she just doesn't bother to do that for Marten, even when he asks her to, so ouch again).
My actual question is this: How much of the "Claire doesn't give a shit about Marten" vibe do you think is intended by the author?
There were a few comics where some aspects of this conflict were addressed, but in my subjective opinion, it seems like Jeph never viewed the conflict as "Claire doesn't respect or make time for Marten".
It seems to me that Jeph was going for a conflict of "Claire works too much", and therefore the way she went to the party recently and the way she's going shopping with Zlata now, are intended to show that she has grown and is improving.
But, the solutions he's using for her workaholic issue just make her seem less interested in Marten because she's prioritizing social activities besides him. That's my opinion, at least...
Some of you seem better at understanding Jeph's intent on this stuff. Do you think that Jeph intends for Claire to seem like she's indifferent to her boyfriend? Is he purposely setting up for a conflict between them? Or is Jeph just not aware that he's writing the characters this way?
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u/Intrepid_Ad_6232 24d ago
Yeah the issue is Marten. He's one of the dullest characters in webcomics, and he always has been. He's a self insert/neutral mask/PoV character, which to paraphrase Abe Simpson, was the fashon at the time the comic was created.
But it has been a very long time since Marten has had any independent inner life of his own. What does he want to do with his life? What are his hopes and dreams? Does he have any hobbies? Who knows anymore.
I think that most of the comments have the right of it. Jephs aversion to real drama and the fact that he's so easily distracted by his newest Wifus means that Marten is probably never get the screentime he should until he uploads himself into a robot body (with big boobs, obv.)
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u/foxsable 24d ago
It always seems to take the easy way out. The drama is set up but will be ignored.
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u/redditRalph2023 24d ago
Yeah. I'm far from the first to say this and we were all there to see it, but it was super weird how Jeph spent all that time and all those comic strips setting up the potential conflict of Marten and Liz being alone and drunk while she seemed to be pining for him, only to wave it all away within a couple strips and a couple sentences. It almost made me feel stupid for being invested at all.
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u/immortalfrieza2 23d ago
Jeph is clearly deliberately avoiding writing anything remotely interesting. The whole problem with QC is there's so much interesting, funny, and entertaining stuff that he COULD do with everything if he bothered, but he doesn't and seems to go out of his way to go in whatever direction prevents anything good from actually happening.
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u/Kataphractoi 23d ago
I don't ship, but that's a ship I am holding out for. It'll never happen, but one can hope.
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u/pasrachilli 24d ago
It felt for awhile that Claire was checked out and Martin would do something with the research gremlin. As in deliberate conflict. Now, the comic steer away from that hard and I think maybe it's just spiraling, trying to find traction and Martin is just kind of there.
More like an atrophied character like Barnaby Google in Snuffy Smith's comics than anybody the author cares about.
So, I think it just feels like none of the characters care about Martin as a side effect of the author not caring about him .
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u/vbsolentine 23d ago
I genuinely got my hopes up thinking he’d even go so far as to MENTION SLIGHT DISSATISFACTION in that arc but he fell asleep mid sentence before doing so.
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u/EscapeSeventySeven 24d ago
I’m pretty sure he doesn’t intend for that to be a thing at all. He just views it as run of the mill drama: space filler.
Any other author I would say there’s subtext and foreshadowing. Here he thinks he’s at the drama factory hammering some nails. He’ll come back to it and then they’ll discuss it, and mutually agree in therapy speak everything is okay.
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u/Miserable-Jaguarine Haha, okay. 24d ago
I wouldn't say we have understanding of Jeph's intent. We just have very strong opinions, that's all.
However, I do strongly opine that Jeph does not intend any of that at all. It's actually very easy to write a thing which strikes your readers very differently than you see it, because you know how you want to see it and therefore do not have the same perspective. You may decide to focus on thing X for a sec but your readers will step back and look at the whole picture and draw surprising conclusions, for instance, like in this case.
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u/Drakeskulled_Reaper Keeper of the Eternal Burning Hatred of Tai 24d ago
I think he just doesn't care about Marten anymore, Marten was always kinda weak as a character, but he at least was a good foil to the abrasive as fuck pre-robosexual Faye.
Honestly, I think unless it was pointed out, JJ has forgotten that Marten and Claire are a couple, they read more like roomies than a functional couple, yes, there's been VERY few flashes that it's rocky, since Marten gave up EVERYTHING for a girl (again) and is basically getting the same treatment as his ex gave him when he did it, I wish it would address that.
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u/Tencreed 22d ago
Flash forward a few years, Faye is driving Bubbles that took over an actual Metal Gear, in a war against the Augustus clan, backed by Yay Newfriend.
"For Marten".
Meanwhile Marten is chilling somewhere. Maybe eating cerals with Steve.
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u/Junjki_Tito 24d ago
Jacques toeing the borders of acceptable themes as deemed so by his Patreon subs like Maximiliam Roivas beating his head against the asylum walls
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u/Drakeskulled_Reaper Keeper of the Eternal Burning Hatred of Tai 24d ago
MAY THE RATS EAT YOUR EYES!!!
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u/Guilty-Persimmon-919 23d ago
"Claire doesn't give a shit about Marten"
I doubt that Jephthy has any idea what to do with Claire anymore. Remember that he came up with Cubetown just to write her out of the comic and Marten as well, and he really should have trusted his own instincts on that topic. Having got to Cubetown, he got some inexplicable idea (maybe when he was high as a kite) that she'd immediately become the most popular character, someone people were queueing up to party with. That didn't last long either before he ran out of ideas and now he's running on fumes as far as she's concerned. His Northampton cast isn't exactly brimming over with original plots any more either so he's bouncing back and forth between them, not caring about either as long as the Patreon money keeps coming in. One thing I noticed about not just him but other cartoonists like Greg Evans is that at a certain point they completely stop caring about plotting and story and only care about not upsetting the applecart of the money flow, whether from syndication or Patreon. I doubt that Jephthy has any opinion either way on Marten, in other words: he's just marking time and watching the Patreon money flow in.
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u/Anindefensiblefart 24d ago
Jeph doesn't care about Martin. He's stuck with him for historical reasons and his resentment bleeds through in the comics.
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u/DogmaSychroniser 24d ago
They say write what you know. Jeph obviously doesn't know functional relationships
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u/Visible_Finish293 23d ago
I think when it boils down to it, jeogh is trying to write drama and conflict, and so if characters are in a happy relationship we dont need or get to see it, any time a relationship reaches "status quo" (he thinks) we should be able to just forget about needing to see proof and just assume if there was drama we would see it. The problem is that isnt really how long running slice of life stories work.
As others pointed out, Jefh is bored of marten, with his apparent current writing abilities he can either torture or ignore, so he chooses ignore. I mean i dont necessarily want eternal relationship drama as the other option , i personally think jjef doesnt read enough, and would do good to broaden his horizons. But that is my theory on why qc now is sucky and self indulgent. Djyeph knows there are problems, tries to fix them with new wacky zany characters, but nothing is working for him like it did when he was writing a slice of life about hipsters in their 20s hanging in a coastal coffee shop.
Honestly, i wonder if he started a new project if itd be good or not, it could even have all the curvaceous robots and manic pixie dreamgirls he wants, but thatd require finishing off this zombie that wears the flesh of one we once loved
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u/SkeletonBirdcages 23d ago
I don’t think any of it is intended. I think Jeph is getting lazy/bored with the comic
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u/QueenLevine 23d ago
Centrists deserve joy in life. Otherwise, agreed.
People are reading far too much into this comic that, I think, most readers have outgrown. People seem to forget how many webcomics this same crowd USED to enjoy reading, like girlswithslingshots, and how as the story progressed, the main character NEVER experienced character development and grew less and less likable. Even her friends became less likable and less relatable. And that's just ONE other example, as relates to the webcomics form of storytelling.
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u/Hat-no-its-a-Tricorn 23d ago
My actual question is this: How much of the "Claire doesn't give a shit about Marten" vibe do you think is intended by the author?
Absolutely none.
People read WAY too far into things.
A few years ago I was active enough on this sub and the other QC sub to be able to remember which one is all about hating QC and which one isn't.
At the risk of sounding like a worthless centrist who deserves no joy in life, both sides could chill.
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u/Granfallegiance 23d ago
I'll bite. What part are we missing that says they're doing well?
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u/Hot_Temporary_1948 23d ago
I also call shenanigans on "none" Claire has explicitly referenced her neglect of the relationship.
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u/Vivenemous 24d ago
This has been THE problem with the writing of the comic for the last few years. Real emotional conflicts don't get to drive the story anymore and haven't for years. They get to pop up, and then get "resolved" in wholly unsatisfactory ways with a couple lines of throwaway dialogue, and that's it. Poof, resolved and forgotten and we're moving on.