Well, that went pretty much as this sort of thing usually does.
Next step in the playbook: “Oh, Lucas said that? He’s trying to drive a wedge between us, you can’t trust him, for your own happiness time to cut toxic people out of your life.”
Nuuh, I don’t believe that. Ethan with all his quirkiness will not “tell on Lucas” and not to Emily of all people. I’d rather believe he’d go to Scott.
I have a theoretical social life, and I am not that naive.
People who see others make forward steps in their growth, will subconsciously wonder “Why can’t I?” So when they get to make the same steps, they will latch on like a leech, because they are trying to answer that subconscious question.
This will drive Ethan away from Lucas for a while. He is blind to the situation he is in, because we see it from a clinical perspective, but Ethan is blinded by the desire to fit in.
He won’t see it as “tell on him”. Communication in relationship is surely important, right? When he’ll feel uncomfortable he’ll finally try to express his doubts to her, while she’ll immediately go “Who told you to feel that way? Don’t trust him. He’s a threat”
Darkhorse
6 hours ago
Ethan and Lucas are too tightly woven together. Nicole can’t possibly destroy it in such a short time. It’s mostly Ethan’s loneliness and pain talking here.
It’s not harmless, but I have a hard time thinking this will break the relationship.
DahrAmahr
6 hours ago
Oh setup and pay off…I checked on the previous panel he already had those pants. So you had that all planned out!
I mean sure, it’s not a finale to a year long mystery… but still fun.
Daniel
4 hours ago
As expected. Yet, not matter how toxic and manipulative Nicole will be, she can’t truly isolate Ethan from Lucas and Scott. Having a shared business aside, their friendship is just too strong: Ethan forgave Lucas for keeping a bomb in his robot friend’s head, for god sake. Not to mention the alter ego she doesn’t know about and cannot reach (yet!)
John
4 hours ago
No one is able to teach you except for yourself.
says me trying to learn electrolyte norms for nursing lol cough
Austin Mills
4 hours ago
I feel like at the end of this Ethan is going to admit Lucas was right, and he’s just going to add a tally to a board they have together of all the times he was right and all the times Ethan was right (Ethan’s side of course having very few). Then he’s going to give him a controller for some Helldivers.
That or she tries to kill him and afterward, Ethan, with his quirky insanity, will say something like, “Hey Lucas! You were wrong, she wasn’t trying to control me. She was trying drive a wedge between us so she can kill me.”
nsimic
2 hours ago
In other news, Sony is planing to slowly move away from hardware business. Is this the end of console wars?
Tim already mentioned the series was on it’s way out. This only solidifies it.
ChaosSepher
2 hours ago
At least now that Lucas has said something it will be in Ethan’s head and he might actually give some thought to Nicole’s controlling behavior and see what happens when he pushes back.
Last edited 2 hours ago by ChaosSepher
Jamie
2 hours ago
I really appreciate that you still manage to inject some brevity into these heavier scenes. That last panel made me chuckle, despite everything before it. Love the squeaky pants!
Strong Bad: Check out mah squeaky-pants dance! SQUEAK-SQUAW SQUEAK-SQUAW!
Phire
1 hour ago
Yeah, this is why you just let people crash and burn for themselves. Everyone always has to learn the hard way, humans simply aren’t smart enough to figure stuff out beforehand.
I think people who believe this can’t actually drive a deep wedge between Lucas and Ethan fail to realize this isn’t just about Ethan’s loneliness.
It’s also about his trauma of “failing” Emily. That can push a person to do things they wouldn’t. He’s clearly still trying to atone for that.
Obviously Lucas and Ethan will be okay in the end, but it wouldn’t surprise me if this ended up being a long journey.
Chris
13 minutes ago
That’s why you don’t immediately tell them that the other one is controlling them. You start softly with other topics, like why are they letting someone else stop them from their favorite activities, but don’t even mention the other party, just the activity itself. Like “why are you not doing your favorite things anymore”, and “it doesn’t seem happy to avoid playing your favorite stuff”. Mentioning the other party if they are of this exact controlling quality is setting them up to put your friend against you by saying “see, they are against our happiness”, or similar such tactics.
24
Well, that went pretty much as this sort of thing usually does.
Next step in the playbook: “Oh, Lucas said that? He’s trying to drive a wedge between us, you can’t trust him, for your own happiness time to cut toxic people out of your life.”
Nuuh, I don’t believe that. Ethan with all his quirkiness will not “tell on Lucas” and not to Emily of all people. I’d rather believe he’d go to Scott.
I have a theoretical social life, and I am not that naive.
People who see others make forward steps in their growth, will subconsciously wonder “Why can’t I?” So when they get to make the same steps, they will latch on like a leech, because they are trying to answer that subconscious question.
This will drive Ethan away from Lucas for a while. He is blind to the situation he is in, because we see it from a clinical perspective, but Ethan is blinded by the desire to fit in.
He won’t see it as “tell on him”. Communication in relationship is surely important, right? When he’ll feel uncomfortable he’ll finally try to express his doubts to her, while she’ll immediately go “Who told you to feel that way? Don’t trust him. He’s a threat”
Ethan and Lucas are too tightly woven together. Nicole can’t possibly destroy it in such a short time. It’s mostly Ethan’s loneliness and pain talking here.
It’s not harmless, but I have a hard time thinking this will break the relationship.
Oh setup and pay off…I checked on the previous panel he already had those pants. So you had that all planned out!
I mean sure, it’s not a finale to a year long mystery… but still fun.
As expected. Yet, not matter how toxic and manipulative Nicole will be, she can’t truly isolate Ethan from Lucas and Scott. Having a shared business aside, their friendship is just too strong: Ethan forgave Lucas for keeping a bomb in his robot friend’s head, for god sake. Not to mention the alter ego she doesn’t know about and cannot reach (yet!)
No one is able to teach you except for yourself.
says me trying to learn electrolyte norms for nursing lol cough
I feel like at the end of this Ethan is going to admit Lucas was right, and he’s just going to add a tally to a board they have together of all the times he was right and all the times Ethan was right (Ethan’s side of course having very few). Then he’s going to give him a controller for some Helldivers.
That or she tries to kill him and afterward, Ethan, with his quirky insanity, will say something like, “Hey Lucas! You were wrong, she wasn’t trying to control me. She was trying drive a wedge between us so she can kill me.”
In other news, Sony is planing to slowly move away from hardware business. Is this the end of console wars?
Tim already mentioned the series was on it’s way out. This only solidifies it.
At least now that Lucas has said something it will be in Ethan’s head and he might actually give some thought to Nicole’s controlling behavior and see what happens when he pushes back.
I really appreciate that you still manage to inject some brevity into these heavier scenes. That last panel made me chuckle, despite everything before it. Love the squeaky pants!
Strong Bad: Check out mah squeaky-pants dance! SQUEAK-SQUAW SQUEAK-SQUAW!
Yeah, this is why you just let people crash and burn for themselves. Everyone always has to learn the hard way, humans simply aren’t smart enough to figure stuff out beforehand.
that is the worst advice ever
I think people who believe this can’t actually drive a deep wedge between Lucas and Ethan fail to realize this isn’t just about Ethan’s loneliness.
It’s also about his trauma of “failing” Emily. That can push a person to do things they wouldn’t. He’s clearly still trying to atone for that.
Obviously Lucas and Ethan will be okay in the end, but it wouldn’t surprise me if this ended up being a long journey.
That’s why you don’t immediately tell them that the other one is controlling them. You start softly with other topics, like why are they letting someone else stop them from their favorite activities, but don’t even mention the other party, just the activity itself. Like “why are you not doing your favorite things anymore”, and “it doesn’t seem happy to avoid playing your favorite stuff”. Mentioning the other party if they are of this exact controlling quality is setting them up to put your friend against you by saying “see, they are against our happiness”, or similar such tactics.