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kyrio — CC - What is a Family?
Published: 2010-05-03 05:32:35 +0000 UTC; Views: 998; Favourites: 6; Downloads: 15
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Most of my life, "family" didn't mean what it does to a lot of people. My father is an obsessed lout that doesn't give a f#%@ about me. Mom, well, she never really did anything about that...Not that there's really anything she could have done, I guess...But now, I'm being dragged against my will with some kid all around the countryside. A kid that cares about me. One that's willing to be responsible for my well being, even if I never asked him to. Someone that's accepted me into his family. And suddenly...I don't know how to react....
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Oh god, the emo-ness! I try my best to keep Cole from being too emo to function. But he has his moments of severe introspection that really make him seem kinda whiny. But I like to think that his situation kind of warrants things like this.
At any rate, this is a random idea that I had a few minutes ago that I thought I'd doodle. I'm not calling it completely canonical, but it lays out a pretty basic version of the comic's main theme.
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Comments: 31
I know Cole is 17, and although he acts mature, I always think of him as younger.
Great comic.. thanks for sharing.
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Thanks. He doesn't quite look so old as a charmander, because he kind of under went a small age regression during the transformation. His charmander self is actually only around 10. But he's actually 18.
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Er.. 17.. 18.. heh. Missed his birthday somewhere in the comic. He does look younger as a Charmander. Well, hard to tell, cause pokemon evolving has little to do with age. Great comic either way. Would be interesting to have a short arc where he becomes human again.. for a short time.. barely long enough to maybe send a message to his family, and then turns back to a pokemon.
Bah.. I gotta stop thinking this stuff up when I've been drinking. I'm sure you have much better stuff already in the works.
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Oddly enough you're not the first person to suggest something like that.
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Before (glass half empty), Now (glass half full) but at a cost and hes having issuse making that dission.
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Yup, that's pretty much it! Of course there's more to it than this in the actual comic, but yeah.
decision* by the way!
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True but still.
And yes I know I can't spell worth a damn.... (sigh)
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Different people have different reactions to this. The confusion lasts a different amount of time in each case, but the final reaction is always unique to the individual.
I'm still not sure entirely what he'll do.
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Cole currently regards Brian as an idiot. Albeit a well intentioned one. He bears no suspicion toward him, but still doesn't completely trust him. As such, he often brushes Brian's affections aside, or sometimes rebounds on them thinking it degrading. He often feels patronized, and will not accept anything unless it's strictly necessary (like food every now and then). So he probably can't react until he's able to reconcile the very possibility that someone can honestly care for him. He likely hasn't even realized the conundrum presented in this image, yet.
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I'm just trying to study the similarities and differences between the kind of parents Cole had and the kind of Parents Robert had, and their reactions when these things happened to them.
I guess what I'm seeing is that Cole still wanted his parents to care more for him, and Robert was just so sick of his, he didn't care anymore. Both wound up looking for some form of affection in one way or another, and while Cole is reluctant to respond to it, Robert (although confused at first) preferred taking what amount of it he could get to returning home.
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Well, I haven't really explicitly shown it in the comic yet, but Cole's parents aren't entirely neglectful. Theo's pretty much useless whenever he's in Professor Mode, but Saff is pretty good at picking up the slack. Still, Cole's usually too pissed off at dad to notice and even goes out of his way to avoid his father. Coupled with Theo's "out-of-sight-out-of-mind" tendencies leads to them simply not connecting.
That said, his and Robert's situations are far from equal. Robert was transported to an alternate universe where he has superpowers, a girlfriend and can actually communicate effectively. Cole's pretty much on his own with very few options when it comes to communication, as well as the fact that he doesn't have the freedom to do whatever he wants. Robert's situation may not exactly be ideal, but it's still hell of a lot better than what Cole's got to choose from.
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I suppose I can relate to that conclusion.
Though what I'm seeing now makes more sense. Cole seems to have been thrown from a mismanaged but relatively mundane situation and into a far less favorable one, Where Robert was simply tossed from one frying pan and into an entirely different new one. I guess, overall Robert's luck hadn't changed all too much from one side to the other, hence the rather accepting nature of his response to it. Cole on the other hand... He seems that he understands that he may have lost something that was worth something to him in his predicament.
The true differences show themselves to me at last. Though, it gets me wondering why they were so hard for me to see in the first place.
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Yeah, that's pretty much it. Although, the entire point of the comic was to create a situation where one choice didn't seem more favorable than the other. At least not to the main character, anyway.
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So you're saying (or even admitting) that he doesn't necessarily care one way or the other anymore as to whether or not he gets his old life back? You aren't getting him lost in it, are you? XD
I'll find it slightly ironic if you succeed in doing that anyway XP
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No, what I mean is that it shouldn't be obviously clear which direction he'll go in if and when the time comes to finally choose. The point is to actually have a dilemma instead of just saying "this is obviously the best choice"
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Not exactly the response I thought I'd eventually get out of you, but okay XP
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Well what did you expect? Now I'm curious.
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I seem to remember you objecting a bit to my own character's initial indecision on whether of not to return home, and even showed a slight disapproval to the notion that he would even consider abandoning his former life. In fact, I recall quite a lecture about how you couldn't imagine going in that direction in the first place. Though, at that point I could assume that the full circumstances of his situation hadn't quite sunk in yet, I find it amusing that you know seem to show that the possibility exists even in your own storyline.
Don't get me wrong, I am not criticizing you on this. I'm more commenting that (and perhaps I'm wrong) your perspective seems to have shifted ever so "slightly".
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Well, my griping about Robert's choice doesn't necessarily mean I'm adverse to the choice of leaving everything behind for something new. I just get annoyed when the "choice" is made far more easily than it realistically should be. Robert was presented with "Human, and in a house full of assholes, or fire breathing dragon/secret agent/fighter pilot?" The choice wasn't so hard to make, obviously. And as much as I'm sure it annoys you, the first PMD game did the exact same thing, though instead of having a dead end life prior to transformation, he was given a mind-wipe. So obviously he was going to stick with what he more familiar with. Cole's got just as much to lose in either direction and while he's still leaning toward the possibility of his transformation being permanent, he's realizing it's not all fun and games. Especially since Maoh's thrown his instincts onto a crazy train.
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Interesting.
Though I think what should be noted, however, is the difference between someone who lives their life way ahead of themselves and one who lives one day at a time.
The one who's constantly trying to foresee their future goes apeshit when things fall apart like things do in my story. Characteristics often include being a whiner and expecting things (or someone else) to work themselves out for them. This, of course is not a survival attitude, and won't fare someone very well in one of these situations.
The other type (day by day) lives as they do as a necessity, or even just to survive. I think it is a perspective that is misunderstood by many people... To such an individual, if the events of the story were to actually happen, sure, it will be quite shocking at first. But eventually, it just turns to "picking up the pieces" and moving on with life, and the "hand you're dealt." To such a person, it isn't unusual to become accustomed to whatever happens and even becoming comfortable with it. Those with any hopes of survival will develop this mindset, given the conditions warrant. Live and Let Die.
What I see too often, though, is people viewing this as "resigning to their fate", so-to-speak. Honestly, I don't think the person in question being judged this way (The "Victim" as some people would call them) really cares. That is just the way they live. It isn't denial, it is adaptation and a characteristic of survivability. It could be harder for some people to grasp than others, but for this individual, the "choice" we have been discussing here really isn't as hard to make as you might think it is--For that particular person.
When you're presented with a choice of which hell to live in, "A" or "B", and you've found yourself marooned in "B"-hell for a while and seem to be making do for the time being, why move back to "A"?
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Yes I understand all that, and I think I'm not being very clear. My problem wasn't so much with the actual choice but how the choice itself was presented. I'm annoyed by the situation in its entirety not the reaction of the characters' to it. It's obvious anyone would choose to survive rather than die and to adapt rather than go back to something hellish simply because it's familiar. My annoyance stems from the fact that no one actually explores the choice itself and instead use it as an ultimatum at the end of the story (or in your case a launchpad for the beginning). The "choice" is presented with one option being obviously more favorable than the other from any perspective. Thus there really is no choice at all. I wanted to make that choice the foundation of the story itself and explore how a character would react to not having a cut and dry response because I don't think anyone's really done anything like that before.
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It wasn't nearly as one-sided as you seem to have seen. Perhaps I failed to portray it properly. The signs are very subtle, but they are there.
A good way to point this out is when they forced him to go back due to "uncertainty with the meteorite"... That situation is not entirely what it seems in the first place.
Andrew wanted to make sure that Robert really understood what he was thinking about doing. Not once did he actually indicate that he thought it was a great idea for Robert to abandon his old life. He knew damn well that the meteorite posed no danger to him but lied about it anyway, after discussing this entire thing with Dr. Caverez. By sending him home, he forced Robert to consciously think about it from back in his home environment, from where the decision was ultimately in his hands and his alone.
What you certainly do see a lot of -at face value- is Robert's rationalizing about the whole thing to maintain his sanity, particularly since most of this was from his perspective. I'm not all to sure how else I could have done it, to be honest. Perhaps I could have made him more of a whiner and more emotional, but even you objected to that notion. Not to mention he would be even more out of character than he gets already at times XP
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Well I don't want you to think I'm criticizing your story, because I'm really not. I use it as an example because it's relevant, but for the most part I enjoy the way the story is as it is now. I'm just trying to tell you the motivation behind my creating the comic and Cole's thought process XD Sorry if my first mention of this subject was preachy, I didn't mean it like that. Really I don't see any other way for Robert to have reacted either.
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Lol, this conversation was no bother from the start. I rather enjoy arguing with others on philosophical matters. It makes me think. I'm more worried about pissing the other person off, which with you seems unlikely. Understanding how my readers think when they read is key to my ability to develop plots. An apology is unnecessary, really.
Sometimes comparing apples and oranges helps a person figure out exactly what they are in the first place.
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Well I can help there! The orange one is the orange XP
But yeah I just wanted to make it clear that I don't think you need to change anything with the story as it is now. The choice you presented did annoy me a little at first, but it's okay because I realized that the choice wasn't the point of the story. If it was then your main character would angst and emo about it as much as Cole does XP.
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"What is a family? *tosses glass* A miserable pile of relatives. But enough talk.... Have at you!"
Sorry. I had to
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Despite my better judgement, I think Cole being introverted is kind of... y'know...
...cute. ._.
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Well this sounds like quite the dillemma XD (Oh what oh what will you do now, Cole? XD)
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