Daily Strip: January 17, 2005

[Drudwyn]

It's not as cool as yesterday's, which had me going "HOLY CRAP!"... and Torg's joke was a incredibly badly judged attempt to bring the tension levels down...

But I can't blame him for what he's gonna do. Zoe feels understandabky betrayed, and she can't work out why... tragic.

Roll on tomorrow!

[Baethan]

Art is okay, but this arc is feeling really rushed. There's a lot of important emotion going on here, but Pete doesn't seem to be giving it as much attention as it needs. Hopefully the rest of this story will balance it out.

Sam is exactly what we need now!

[mouriana]

Well, I have to give fair warning. Anything relationship-progressing, even if it's just angsty stuff like this where Zoe is showing that she DOES indeed care, is to me what sugar is to Kiki. Do not be surprised to find me spinning in circles yelling 'eeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEEEee!!!!!' There, fair warning done. :)

That being said, I feel this 'need to be funny' hurt this particular strip. The extremes with Torg's extreme silliness (particularly when the silliness involved fake shock and anger), then simply bowing his head out of not wanting to tell....well, it doesn't work at all. It's very difficult to go from painful self-induced solitude (yesterday) to goofy, loud silliness, back to painful, self-induced solitude in a minute's time. I don't know anyone IRL that can do it, and I don't think it works in this comic at all. It's okay, Pete, you don't HAVE to be funny every time! Sometimes it's better if you are not!

OK, done.
eeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeee!

[DSCrankshaw]

I have to disagree with everybody who didn't like this strip. I thought it worked: the art was fine, the emotion appropriate, Torg trying and failing to lighten things up with a joke, even Kiki's obliviousness. In my opinion it works.

Now, if Torg doesn't stop Zoe and tell her something, then I'll be upset.

[Rchanen]

I have to disagree with everybody who didn't like this strip. I thought it worked: the art was fine, the emotion appropriate, Torg trying and failing to lighten things up with a joke, even Kiki's obliviousness. In my opinion it works.

Now, if Torg doesn't stop Zoe and tell her something, then I'll be upset.

And actually I have to agree and disagree with that. I think that the strip was just fine. The forced attempt at humor actually perfectly fits a person with PTSD. Torg is trying to pretend that everything is fine, but he just can't pull it off.

What I disagree with is that I don't think Torg should stop Zoe and tell her something. Because I think to do so would minimize the suffering Torg has been through as well as the process of self-elightenment that Torg both was and still is going through. I just don't think it rings true for a person who has gone through what Torg has gone through and I think it would cheapen the storyline. Sure it would be a happy ending, but what I like about Pete is that we don't always get the happy endings. Because life (which is not sluggy, I know, I know) is not a happy ending.

Anybody reminded of the last few chapters in LOTR? Torg reminds me of Frodo. "I did save the Shire, but not for me." Of course Tolkien was intimately familiar with PTSD so it probably not a coincidence.

Go Torg

[RCG]

I guess I read this strip diffrently then most of eveyone else. The joke was that Torg wasn't jokeing! He really did leave $5 out on the table and now it's gone(along with he's wallet). And I don't think Zoe is leaving the gang or the house, just the room(or Torg's presence if you will).
I do think that Zoe's crying should prove to Torg that Zoe does have strong feelings for him. +

[Shadowkiller]

Here Pete goes building up the Torg/Zoe relationship bit. I hope it goes somewhere, it really, really needs too. I know I am not the only one that wants the Zoe/Torg relationship angst to be over and them finally together.

The forced humor was alright, but I think what might make a break this comic is how the next one goes. I liked the comic. And I couldn't stay the week away as I thought I should. I just like Sluggy to much not to check it everyday.

[legato723]

this strip neds some to end the troubles of torg. will put torg in his place

[LadyBlanc]

This scene was almost inevitable. Zoe has made several sacrifices to try and help Torg since he got back, everything from not going home to see her family over the holidays to breaking up with Leo. (She finally decided that relationship was not the right one for her, and it was Torg returning home that triggered it; you do the math.)

Now, not only has Torg not told any of them what happened to him, but he appears to be leaving them all. From Zoe's point of view, she was opening herself up and making herself vulnerable to Torg and got rejected. Of COURSE she's hurt and angry. And Torg has zero resources to devote to his friends' problems. He can barely even deal with his own right now. (Not even his long-standing defense mechanism of averting the negative with humor is working for him right now.) He can't even begin to address Zoe's hurt and anger; to him, it just seems like another demand on him. This is all pretty much what could be expected to happen.

In other words, those who have deducted that he has Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder are probably pretty close to the truth. He has to find his own path through that before he can again begin to have meaningful relationships with even his closest friends. Which is why he's (intending to) leave; I don't think he intends it to be permanent, he just needs to work some things out before he can go on with normal life.

Edit: Spelling; because the Grammer Nazis had me up on charges.

[relax]

I think Zoe is emotional mostly because she wanted to be close to him when he wanted lots of space.

I'm reading between the lines a "But don't you love me?" thing from Zoe, whether it's planonic or romantic it's there.