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[Rolan7]

It's not like it's confirmed that Faye is even robo-lesbian.  If she is, it's pretty subtle compared to her love of dudes.

I mean, there are no straight people left in the comic except Martin, and to make up for that he's dating a trans woman.

The reason it's weird is that I don't think there's a single neurotypical straight person left besides Martin who we rarely see any more, which is statistically whack.

Edit: I'd also be more willing to give Jeph the benefit of the doubt if it weren't for the dumpster fire of a privilege arc.

I guess you mean main characters, which is open to interpretation of course.  In the current arc about Faye and a robot, Marten's been the only human guy at all involved (in a straight relationship, but sure, involving a trans person). 

If I had to choose 4 main character's it'd be Marten, Faye, Dora, and Hannelore.  At least two of them are straight, and the only one we know is on the spectrum prefers heterosex.

Claire's straight trans, fine, but Clinton's presumably heterosexual.  Elliot's bi, Brun and her friend seem straight.  Marigold, Angus, Dale?  Straight.  So were Sven and Steve, rather abundantly.

That's without even involving the various AIs, which I would consider outside normal gender.  Though they strongly tend hetero, when it comes up at all.

I'm just not seeing how this is some sudden LGBT shift.  Dora was always bi, so getting with Tai made sense.  Marten isn't put off by Claire's biology...  He grew up around sex work, and actually believes in transpeople, big woop.  Faye's lesbian sister was introduced many years ago, she was long due for a visit.

And now the final straw is that Faye *might* be forming a deep connection with a female robot?  After her experiences with men I'd expect her to try women...  Which isn't even what she's consciously doing.
This is mostly unusual for being human-robot, something that's apparently rare for various reasons.  Bubbles isn't a human woman, more like a space alien.

I kinda hope Jeph does an interlude of Steve getting more spy-booty, Marigold and Dale living out their kinky nerd dreams, and Clinton reiterating how much he wants to see Brun again.
Which would all be repeats of relatively recent strips   This comic has been going for 15 years, and story arcs focus on certain characters at a time.

(The privilege arc felt pretty artificial and uncomfortable though, I admit)
Oh wait, we did just have a nonbinary character didn't we?  Shot into space but yeah, dang, this is practically Khaos Komix or Dumbing Of Age I guess

[Tack]

People have been describing Martin as “straight but it’s trans”
But all I can think is a guy who said “no peepee in the poopoo” is now putting his peepee in a poopoo.
I mean pre-op is basically just a relationship with a crossdresser, anatomically speaking.

Also Hannelore I would say is asexual.
... so far.

[Reelya]

Claire's straight trans, fine, but Clinton's presumably heterosexual.  Elliot's bi, Brun and her friend seem straight.  Marigold, Angus, Dale?  Straight.  So were Sven and Steve, rather abundantly.

The point is exactly that all those characters were pretty much written out. When's the last time e.g. Steve was actually in the comic?

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

When talking about how the comic has evolved it's not valid to point out that characters from the start of the comic don't fit what we're saying now. Because that is, in fact, the entire point me and Arx are making. You're never going to see another Steve or Sven, or even Angus in that universe at all: people like that just don't exist anymore in-universe. Hannalore was just marched off on some soul-searching journey too, which was sparked by her meeting a same-sex person who uses gender-non-specific pronouns. And said non-binary girl is the first person Hannelore actually hugged.

If there was a webcomic about a bunch of gay/non-binary 20 somethings then it would not be noteworthy that 3000 pages later, it's still about a bunch of gay/non-binary 20 somethings. But when you have something that's basically "Friends" about a bunch of 20-something straight characters, but with pet robots and indie-rock references, and 3000 pages later, all the characters have either been replaced by gay people, or turned gay by some degree/measure, then it's weird. It's not necessarily a bad thing, but it's definitely something that happened to the comic, so it seems weird to bring up "Steve" as a counter-example, since dudes like Steve disappearing is in fact the point we're making.

[Rolan7]

I almost didn't mention Steve or Sven, because sure, they're hetero and mostly-retired.  Why did they get retired instead of some LGBT character?  Because there basically WERE no LGBT characters at that point!  There was Dora's sexy bicurious flirting as she latched onto the male protagonist, and Faye's sister (a ditz in a one off story who only just returned).

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

3000 pages later, all the characters have either been replaced by gay people, or turned gay by some degree/measure, then it's weird.

Nobody has turned gay.  I guess you mean Marten, and potentially Faye- Oh wait you're counting *Hannelore* because she platonically hugged a nonbinary person.  I'll agree to disagree.

My point is that characters leave over 15 years, and most of the "replacement" characters have been straight.  The most recent storylines have been totally straight, with the exception of Elliot getting a crush (he doesn't act on) and Claire existing I guess.

But more importantly than demographics "being realistic" or not, I'm excited to see Jeph's take on human-AI romance.  He clearly takes a lot of pride in his concept of AI, and they're very fundamental inhuman.
I really don't think Faye's physically interested, while Bubbles is, and that's an exciting conflict to me.

[Arx]

I concede that my post was exaggerated. I shouldn't post right before I rush off to work, haha. It was also mostly a counterpoint to what Dozebom said - the demographics themselves don't bother me, it's just a bit silly to say that they're not statistically a bit off.

But I still have nearly zero faith in Jeph's ability to write characters for themselves not for whatever he wants them to do, which is what I was originally saying. Maybe he'll pull out what sometimes feels like the actual unicorn in LGBT-conscious fiction and have an unrequited homosexual crush, though! Or something else good! I'm just... not expecting it. :/

[Rolan7]

Yeah fair, LGBT are statistically over-represented to some extent, heh.

I hope we do see that unicorn!  (I'm reminded of that one guest comic where Bubbles saw Faye as a weird sexy unicorn, now).  It'll probably resolve as a nonsexual romance, which is... I mean, kinda confusing ground.  Probably good sitcom material though, particularly if Bubbles wants more.

(unrequited-wise, I'm betting Clinton has to turn down Elliot at some point.  I could be wrong though)

[RAM]

human-AI romance
AI, they're very fundamental inhuman.
physically interested, Bubbles is

How does a very fundamentally inhuman robot end up with a human-subject sexual drive? I guess... What makes them inhuman?
I am genuinely interested in inhuman characters and I just never got any of that from the little I have seen of Questionable Content. The little thing was extremely obsessive, but that is nothing that hasn't been seen in human comedy-characters before and seems to be taking the standard template of human elements taken to extremes. Other than that... they seem to be coupling(Now I am kind of interested in how the fanbase would handle a one-male + many-females relationship, assuming that all participants are presented as all being entirely contented with that aspect of the arrangement. Especially if they got on well with one significant member of the established cast. Beautiful depiction of polyamory or sex-cult abducting our babies? Ugh, they need pills for mad-science... Maybe they would work on trolls too! MWAHAHA- oh...)- meh, this is just diluting the query at this point... transparent powers activate!

[Rolan7]

Jeph actually kinda covered that question last week!  http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3662
And Momo (Marigold's AI-friend) has tried to explain AI-motivations to humans, as well as their IC-mysterious origin.  IIRC nobody's quite sure why AIs work, just how to make them.  Which I think leads to certain amounts of religion/spirituality in AIs so inclined.

Momo also hangs out with a rude blue ex-felon AI, and their conversations also get into the AI condition.

Honestly I do enjoy all the sitcom drama stuff, but I feel like he's getting more confident about focusing on these AI.  Which are really more like an alien species than typical AI, imho.  They have amazing powers but seem obsessed with experiencing, and helping, humans.  Compassionate, inhuman observers who willingly serve humanity...  Kinda like angels, hrm.  Including that there are... exceptions.

[TalonisWolf]

Gonna throw these out there:

Darths and Droids
What if Star Wars was a DnD Campaign created by a group of nerds in a universe where Sci-Fi never got big?
The source of "Summon Bigger Fish", among other things.

Stick in the Mud
After a break-up, the protagonist gets drunk. The next day, he finds he now owns a bar. A bar which is a portal to Hell. Eh, as long as they keep their trouble out of the bar...  Mildly NSFW occasionally.

[RAM]

Jeph actually kinda covered that question last week!  http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3662
...
Which are really more like an alien species than typical AI, imho.  They have amazing powers but seem obsessed with experiencing, and helping, humans.  Compassionate, inhuman observers who willingly serve humanity...  Kinda like angels, hrm.  Including that there are... exceptions.

What I got from that link was that robots are capable of experiencing pleasure on demand(which humans can also do, but with fewer options), but choose to do it only occasionally because it loses its impact if it becomes familiar(as opposed to losing its impact due to tolerance building). It completely fails to convey why robots would form romantic couplings which could potentially fail rather than just running someone-special's_someone-special.exe for the same buzz with the freedom to ally with people regardless of personal affection. Which leaves one to assume that A.I.s share humanity's obsession with "real" stimuli... I am really not seeing any practical difference in action or motive.

As for the latter. If you like the idea of helper aliens, you could try the "harbourmaster webcomic". It is about spacefaring humans who met aliens that transformed themselves to resemble humans. The aliens hang around gently trying to help humans develop for whatever mysterious reasons...

[Rolan7]

Stick in the Mud
After a break-up, the protagonist gets drunk. The next day, he finds he now owns a bar. A bar which is a portal to Hell. Eh, as long as they keep their trouble out of the bar...  Mildly NSFW occasionally.

Thanks for this!  Characters which start as recognizable stereotypes, but develop depth as they interact with the supernatural...  Right up my alley.
I eventually recognized the style from one of his other works.  Honestly, I like this one even more!


I'd like to plug Not Drunk Enough.  True to its name, the apathetic protagonist is unprepared for the situation:  At the end of a long night, becoming trapped with a few other survivors in a some nightmarish biotech lab.
I like stories where the villains have understandable motivations.  Nobody thinks themselves evil.  And if they have doubts, there's sunk cost fallacy...
There's also an unrepentant asshole on the protagonist team, and I think he's well done.  (That might be vague.  I mean the one who isn't the main character)

Edit:  I'm also a big fan of Darths and Droids, and his earlier LoTR comic along the same lines.  It's a good mix of cinema humor with DND tropes.
Edit2: Not Drunk Enough has a lot of medium body-horror.  I've certainly seen much worse, but it gets pretty visceral at times.

[Egan_BW]

Edit2: Not Drunk Enough has a lot of medium body-horror.  I've certainly seen much worse, but it gets pretty visceral at times.

Only medium? Aw well, I guess I'll check it out anyway. ;P

[Rolan7]

I almost made a third edit to adjust that, as I browsed the most recent comics.
Medium by my standards, but I've seen some shit comics-wise.  This comic is not happy times for the integrity of flesh.

[Reelya]

Darths and Droids
What if Star Wars was a DnD Campaign created by a group of nerds in a universe where Sci-Fi never got big?
The source of "Summon Bigger Fish", among other things.

Gotta second this, the beggining parts with the prequels are a blast (by far the most enjoyable way to sit through Phantom Menace), the main humor is that the DM had a much more straight-forward plot planned out but the players keep derailing it, forcing the DM to wing it. Basically anything remotely "star wars-y" was caused by the players not following the plot hooks, and other typical niggles that happen in RPG campaigns. It's actually a brilliant piece of meta-fiction. Also, one each page, they relate the action to a common issue that can arise while running an RPG campaign: those notes are in a comments section below the comic. Basically some good tips for story writing in general there.

[Blood_Librarian]

I binged about a third of Darths and Droids before I stopped, like a month ago. yesterday I reread Avas demon and it's pretty neat.