You know, evil-Sara just isn't the same without the sparkly lipstick.


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"That would be a good thing for them to cut on my tombstone: Wherever she went, including here, it was against her better judgment." --Dorothy Parker

Uh...wha in the huh??

This is rather an abrupt jump in mood and plot from the last two strips. How ever did Sara go from nervous collapse and sobbing in Rich's arms, to "Mwahaha! I've got 'em all figured out! They're all playin' in my world now"?

If I didn't know any better, I'd wonder whether T had, in tonight's upload, skipped a few strips by mistake. As it is, this just doesn't follow from the previous two "depths of despair" strips. At all.

T occasionally enjoys "skipping the boring parts" as far as I can tell.

Sara needed a good cry. She NEEDED a really good cry. She cried. Now that that's out of her system, she collected herself, analyzed the situation (as she is known to do), and proceeded to implement a plan to help her survive the rest of the show.


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"That would be a good thing for them to cut on my tombstone: Wherever she went, including here, it was against her better judgment." --Dorothy Parker

T also has an occasional habit of skipping too much, and if this wasn't an accident (or if things won't be cleared up in several strips), I agree this is quite abrupt.

I like the juxtaposition of 'good word' with Martin praying. And the use of the silhouette- it's not real prayer, it's just the symbol of prayer, because Martin is a fake.

And way to keep your cool, Martin. Are you sure you're an actor?


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"I am the spirit that denies. All that you call sin and destruction-- or evil, if you will-- that is my proper element."

No--I agree. It feels out-of-place since we jumped from Meighan's office to Sara's room to seeing Rich to here in two weeks, but when I think about it I can't really imagine what T could have put in between the jumped pages. And as a fan of minimizing, if there's nothing important to include, then inclusion is a waste of time. So while it's a bit unsettling, I don't know how more strips in-between would be worth-while. It also picks up the story's pace nicely.


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"That would be a good thing for them to cut on my tombstone: Wherever she went, including here, it was against her better judgment." --Dorothy Parker

Okay, I've stepped back and thought about this for a few minutes.

CJ, you're right that Sara needed a good cry. Boy, did she ever. That still leaves the question of why Rich was needed for that point in the story, when Sara could've shut herself in a public washroom somewhere and cried her heart out, away from the moles and possible moles and cameras.

So here's my theory. Maybe in the "boring parts," as you put it, in between Wednesday's strip and today's, Rich did more than offer a shoulder to cry on. Maybe he advised her on how to "play the game," how to be cunning, manipulative and single-pointed to get what she wants. That is, after all, how Rich first got Penny to go out with him. He began by pretending to be as disdainful of her as she was of him, while dangling his "yo, I'm dangerously sexy and sexily dangerous" persona in front of Penny and her friends, like single women used to do with handkerchiefs in the olden days. Then he wooed Michelle, Penny's yes-woman, for as long as it took to undermine Penny's standing in front of her friends ("She's not that gutless") and give her something to prove by going riding with him, which led in short order to her becoming genuinely interested in him, and Bob's your uncle.

Back to the present story: Sara told Rich she could help him by throwing a little attention his way. Perhaps that consisted of her asking "Rich, how do I play others and stay on top like you've done in the past?" If so, that would be a big help to Rich, in terms of restoring his self-confidence by tapping into the alpha male he used to be. Just a theory. Probably wrong, but hey.



Last edited by Shadrach on Thu Jul 29, 2010 9:51 pm; edited 2 times in total

I think maybe the sudden scene switches is what's getting to me. In the other story arcs I was able to orient myself much easier as to what was happening. It's a school setting with teenagers--pretty easy. But this reality show business is very confusing.


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My online fiction

this jumping around is really getting to me as well. i understand the cyndi cliffhanger but i feel like we're reading an exquisite corpse version of the plot now

This does seem abrupt like the time T accidentally posted the strip of Charlotte going balistic on Karen before the proceeding cause, but I think it would've been corrected by now if it was a mistake.

I was right about Martin being a fake. There was the possibility that he'd parlay his God boy image to ingratiate him with the likes of Kirk Cameron, but I had a feeling it was all an act. She didn't include Lucy in her plans so I wonder if that omission is due to her incompetence or suspicion that's not as dumb as she acts too.

brasca wrote:

This does seem abrupt like the time T accidentally posted the strip of Charlotte going balistic on Karen before the proceeding cause

Haha yes, that was exactly what I thought on first reading tonight's strip. But yeah, it's unlikely T would make the same mistake twice, so we gotta deal with what we have.

Confuzzled. So are J'Cru and Martin both moles?


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MeganKoumori's Hunchback Fansite Here

I can't help but feel we've jumped from "save me, Superman!" to "nothing can stop me from building my great empire in Metropolis!"

That said, I'm glad to see the ball is in play. Action will be ramping up now.

MeganKoumori wrote:

Confuzzled. So are J'Cru and Martin both moles?

They gotta be--J'Cru probably doesn't do all that stuff he said he did. He just made those comments to Sara so Sara would go to Martin and tell him he was being played, creating a Sara-Martin alliance where Martin would then stab Sara in the back for reality-show purposes.


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"That would be a good thing for them to cut on my tombstone: Wherever she went, including here, it was against her better judgment." --Dorothy Parker

Shadrach wrote:

Uh...wha in the huh??

This is rather an abrupt jump in mood and plot from the last two strips. How ever did Sara go from nervous collapse and sobbing in Rich's arms, to "Mwahaha! I've got 'em all figured out! They're all playin' in my world now"?

Once she had a plan and had Rich as her ace in the hole, she had no reason to be crying any more. And we had to skip forward past his agreeing and her telling him what she needs him to do at the right moment because if we didn't she would fail. Since we didn't hear the plan, it will succeed. http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/UnspokenPlanGuarantee