welcome to the fest

Progress

These past few comics have been SO good from a writing perspective. Tats has really been on a roll this year when it comes to impactful minimalist story telling.

Honestly, I still have a bad feeling Slick is going to get mixed up in the Pimp 'royal' line of succession, but I think for once character development of Slick stuck. Yeah Slick is still addicted to porn and clearly a member of the patriarchy in just about every way, but as a PERSON Slick has grown. Slick lost Monique. They grew far apart for logical reasons, but still Slick felt that loss hard. He alienated himself by not being mindful enough of what his friends care about. This is probably the first time we see Slick being mindful of someone else in such a deeply meaningful way. It's BECAUSE he's still so tangled up with values counter to what his longest friend has been growing closer to, that this makes a difference.

Unlike a lot of points in the past where we thought Tats was showing Slicks progress, only to have Sleaze walk everything back, I don't think this one can be 'walked back' in the same way. Yeah he can probably put his foot in his mouth as usual and alienate his friend even more, and that... Would probably put him on a pretty grim path. Out of love for the character I hope that doesn't happen, but it still wouldn't be 'taking back Slick's progression to becoming a better person.' At least not in the short term. It's hard to 'take back actions'.

Ishida has been derided a lot for walking Slick's progress back in the past and in some ways I don't blame the critics and in others I don't even really blame Ishida for doing so. I mean, Slick is probably the most tense and interesting to write character in Sinfest. If you let ALL his problems be solved, there isn't a lot to write. However, if he does it this time I'd be pretty surprised. Because out of all the ways Slick had improved before, this was probably the most 'actions speak louder than words' moments. Slick chose respect for his friend, realizing earlier that he may have in fact alienated him, and did something his friend will probably never find out about. There was no 'reward' here. There was only 'being a good friend'. Being mindful of his friends change in values. Being supportive in the quietest ways possible. Honestly I'm a little teary-eyed from the wholesomeness. FRIENDSHIP you guys T_T

Slick isn't throwing away porn because he's anti-porn, he's throwing away porn because Squig doesn't want it and Slick respects Squig's decision.

Slick's always been willing to be a good person if it doesn't require any introspection on his part

ESM wrote:Slick isn't throwing away porn because he's anti-porn, he's throwing away porn because Squig doesn't want it and Slick respects Squig's decision.

Slick's always been willing to be a good person if it doesn't require any introspection on his part

It could also be because he already has a copy of that or he doesn't like that one.

Archivolt wrote:

ESM wrote:Slick's always been willing to be a good person if it doesn't require any introspection on his part

It could also be because he already has a copy of that or he doesn't like that one.

At the risk of being pedantic, my take on the Sleaze reaction bubble(!?) was that this isn't the case.

I like ESM's comment that pits goodness against introspection. My inclination is to say this is Tat showing a character edging up on introspection by degrees ( as opposed to Squig's jumping in with both feet ).

I can't predict where Tat's going with either character, which is why I enjoy reading the strip. I'd sort of be delighted to know he doesn't have anything firmly mapped out for any of his characters and is just interested in letting them evolve by degrees.

ESM wrote:Slick isn't throwing away porn because he's anti-porn, he's throwing away porn because Squig doesn't want it and Slick respects Squig's decision.

Slick's always been willing to be a good person if it doesn't require any introspection on his part

you're right