Unresolved questions

[dbmag9]

I appreciate that Tailsteak left some things mysterious for a reason, but I thought it might be nice to have a thread for unresolved questions we want answered, from which the author might occasionally dip and gift us with some responses?

If nothing else, we can comisserate about wondering the same things.

I'll start: what's the deal with Jamie showing up with seemingly no human connections except a few coworkers?

[sundriedrainbow]

I wouldn't call it an unanswered question, per se, but in one of the gaming sessions (the scooby doo one?) Max has an outburst about how she can't understand why people are so put-off by her "bottoming", and no one ever really tells her, point blank, that she's still sexually harassing people even if she's offering to flash them/gargle their manchowder/whatever. Nicole says "you can't control what people want or how they react" but Max barely responds. To be fair, she's cut off by Lily and Jamie, but still.

I checked, and her exact words are "I am giving you a thing, you cannot be scared by that!" and that attitude is pretty fucking terrifying.

Shortly after is the panel where she's soooooooooo offended that Ellen would assume she's the Purple Pity Fucker and she's just sooooooo one-dimensional, which, snort, laugh, yes, Max, you are in fact that one-dimensional. But now I'm just complaining about a character I don't like.

[mustang6172]

I'll start: what's the deal with Jamie showing up with seemingly no human connections except a few coworkers?

Is that unusual?

[maarvarq]

I'll start: what's the deal with Jamie showing up with seemingly no human connections except a few coworkers?

Is that unusual?

Notably so. Humans are social animals.

[Darkfeather21]

Is that unusual?

Notably so. Humans are social animals.

Humans tend to be social animals. It's not all too unusual in the current day to meet someone who has no family and only speaks to people through the internet.

There's also people who tend to focus on their work so much that they just have no social life.

[KrenkoMobBoss]

what's the deal with Jamie showing up with seemingly no human connections except a few coworkers?

I was in Jamie's position a couple years ago: new weirdo in College Station Texas, basically no connections except someone I heard of online, no family, no other friends, no job. If you told the story of my first month and a half of being there, it would somewhat resemble Jamie's story. I didn't have much contact with my family back in Maine, except some trivial phone calls, and who's to say Jamie didn't have a few of those offscreen?

The most recent comic-snippet has a piece of very relevant information from Tailsteak about his perspective on storytelling. There is no "beginning," nor is there an "end." There's just a small section of the unending story called "life," and it's up to the storyteller to decide what is important enough to examine in detail, and what is not. We also never saw any of Ellen's family, or any of Max's besides her father, or Gina's sisters. What we're meant to take away from their exclusion is "There is nothing worth examining here"..... well, no, I feel like TS would scold me for thinking that. Perhaps just "I have chosen not to examine this"? "I feel that other things are more worth examining"?

[MitchellTF]

Definitely "I have chosen not to examine this."

The problem being, a story, to some extent, is judged by what it chose to, and did not choose, to examine. And, to some extent...how well of an 'arc' it has. It's one of the issues that I'm wondering about Leftover soup.


What did the characters learn, how did they grow, how did they change...and what meaning did they get from life. Off the top of my head...CHERYL is actually one of the more dynamic characters. And, Max is definitely one of the least...but, what did Ellen and Jamie learn, as well? Besides, in Jamie's case "I need to learn more"...which is actually pretty major...Lily learned almost nothing, Gina did make some first steps at, at the least, not being Lily's minion...

Huh. I think I just realized the "Arc" of Leftover soup. It was Jamie learning that HE NEEDS TO LEARN TO COMMUNICATE, and, to an extent, learning those first steps. Which makes it a VERY good comic for nerdy people.

[Killjoy]

We're being left with something of a trajectory for (at least some of) the characters -- rather than their "destination".

Gina, for example: her trajectory appears to be away from defining herself by the goal of marriage, and more defining herself as herself, and being happy within herself before trying to be happy with someone else. Or at least, that's how I read it.

[Piomicron]

I've got an unresolved question: If Max's potential partners have to go through a screening process, then why does she casually just sleep with that programmer who was not getting arrested?

[lemma]

I've got an unresolved question: If Max's potential partners have to go through a screening process, then why does she casually just sleep with that programmer who was not getting arrested?

When does that happen? What programmer?