SFP

sfp-5-151-for-web

 

Thanks so much for voting, guys – we won an Autostraddle Comics Award for Best Webcomic! We love that site (Mey Rude recommends the BEST comics, including everyone nominated for an award) and are super honored to be chosen.

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  • Rod

    “Is it considerate or really presumptuous to pack up someone’s dorm room for them?”

    Both? More presumptuous though.

    • Abe

      Pretty inconsiderate, IMO; you’re handling someone else’s stuff in a way that might damage it or make it hard for them to find things later.

      • SpoonyViking

        Plus, it’s a violation of privacy.

        • MrSokar

          This whole thing was probably one of the few ways to actually put a dent in Al. Not only does she have to face the guilt but this kind of invasion of privacy as well.

    • Iarei

      Helping someone pack is considerate.
      Not asking them if they want help packing is presumptuous, among other things.

    • Kid Chaos

      You say “presumptuous”, I say “Are you f***ing kidding me???!!!” 🙁

    • It’s annoying, that’s what it is! How are you meant to find anything? How can you be sure that they found all your stuff? This is unacceptable!

  • shereadstoomuch

    Wow. In the past I’ve gone back and forth on whether Violet is a terrible person or just not a great friend, and this about cinches it. Yes, her friend (or friend of a friend) was murdered and then revealed to be a serial rapist, which of course is shaking, but it sure as hell isn’t Allison’s fault! And the fact that she doesn’t say anything this whole page, just sits there sadly… Fuck that. If you’re going to kick someone out of their room, you should at least have the nerve to look them in the face when you do it.

    • Daniel Martin

      Wait, I think I missed something. Where was boy-who-Allison-lifted-into-the-air revealed to be a serial rapist? I mean, I guess it’s obvious that Moonshadow found him guilty of something and after the recently-completed story arc we see that she does in fact endeavor not to kill innocents, but I missed or don’t remember the reveal.

      • p75369

        • I want to just point out those are allegations and not even of being a serial rapist, which is far from proof of that. For all we know he was innocent. Mary is a bit too unstable to really trust that he was guilty in the end, especially when she tortures her suspects.

          • p75369

            Checkov’s Allegations. Unless they’re levied against the, or someone sympathetic to the, protagonist, they’re true.

            Where’re you getting that she tortures her suspects though? From what seen of her, Furnace was the exception, not the rule. Normally it’s: speak to victim, suggest something to perp’ to guage reaction, execute.

          • Yes, I am saying that she does because she actually did with Furnace and the soldier who she tortured before his death. There’s two instances of proof that she’s absolutely willing to do it and has gone through with it.

            I agree that it’s not the norm compared to what we’ve seen, but it does happen. I would say that the normal operation is as follows:

            1. See story of alleged rapist.
            2. Make sure story from victim at least holds some water.
            3. Cut his throat.

          • ReNoLuK

            We saw him attempt to rape someone in the comic. I don’t think he deserves the benefit of the doubt.

          • You absolutely can’t say that someone is guilty of alleged crimes because you think he could have potentially committed one in the past. Was the party thing shady as all get out? Yes it was, but that holds no bearing on what allegedly happened years ago which may have already been dealt with in court and proven false considering the date (although sometimes those types of cases go on forever). We all know how sensationalist news goes. He could have been found innocent, but they would say he was accused because he technically was … it just turned out now to be true. I’ve seen that happen for a rape case as recently as a few months ago. It’s only an accusation, but the media blew it up like the guy was already guilty and receiving “justice” when in fact he was just taken in to get the legal process started and nothing had even happened yet.

          • Rumble in the Tumble

            He was drunk. He wasn’t responsible for his actions. Or are you saying he was asking to be vigilante murdered?

          • Sarah

            Remember kids, get drunk before going around raping people to prevent being held responsible for the stuff you do.

          • SpoonyViking

            There were also the victim’s e-mails that Moonshadow left open on his computer.

          • Yes, it’s possible he was just browsing those at the moment, but it’s incredibly likely that Moonshadow left those open because she was messing around with his laptop. I may be reading too much in to the art, but what concerns me is that it seems like he has already been dead for a while, meaning that Moonshadow was looking through all of this stuff after the murder and happened to come across this email chain. I can’t think of a good reason for doing this unless you were looking for further evidence against him (which means you weren’t confident in what you knew already), and/or you were looking for more potential rapists he may have associated with. It seems to me that she was interrupted while looking through all of this when the door opened.

          • MrSokar

            I think also due to Al’s involvement it was an extremely visible case, So Mary would have chosen him due to the exposure even if he wasn’t the highest priority otherwise.

          • AlpineBob

            Another possible reason? Trying to make it obvious to the cops investigating exactly what the killer’s motivation was…

            Mary can be invisible and form illusions of just about anything – I’m pretty sure she could be a “fly on the wall” of her potential targets long enough to gather enough incriminating “hearsay” to satisfy her desire to only hit the ‘guilty’.
            Which isn’t to say she might not misinterpret something or make a mistake – despite her powers she is still human enough in that regard.

          • Lexkat13

            Sorry, but he was a serial rapists. Just because a court finds you innocent does make your crimes not happen. There have been plenty of cases where guilty people have gotten away with their crimes due to lack of evidence or a witness ‘disappearing’. It doesn’t mean they didn’t due the crime, just that they got away with it.
            The allegation of what was in the news is that one of his previous victims likely hired Mary because he was going to get away with what he had done. And if it wasn’t for Alison being at that party, he would have done so again, and gotten away with it due to none of the witnesses stepping forward and him claiming the girl wanted it.
            You are defending a rapist, plain and simple.

          • This is kind of funny. That’s almost word-for-word what was told to me during a case quite a while ago by a family member of the prosecution. During that time anyone who stood on the side of the defense was lambasted as someone “defending a rapist,” “advocating rape” and all sorts of nastiness; like you were scum of the earth for even thinking he could be innocent.

            During the proceedings it came to light that the victim had lied about what happened – and there was proof. She was fooling around with someone she shouldn’t have, got scared when questioned about events, and lied to cover up what she was doing.

            She lied about something like that; made someone else’s life a living hell for almost a year. It absolutely happens and I feel terrible for people who have to go through it. It’s so easy to ruin someone’s life because society automatically views anyone accused as instantly guilty and the worst person imaginable. They plaster your face up on the news with “RAPIST BROUGHT TO JUSTICE” as if you’re already guilty.

            I’m not saying it can never happen; that someone can’t get away with a crime even if they did commit it. What I’m saying is that your presumptuous and nasty attitude is poisonous to yourself and society as a whole and helps no one – not even the victim.

      • Garrulous

        Not necessarily a serial rapist, but he did have previous allegations of sexual assault against him.
        http://strongfemaleprotagonist.com/issue-5/2308/

        • SpoonyViking

          Clevin does say “girlS”, not “girl”. Seems like Miles did it more than once.

      • Sarah

        Yes, he’s a serial rapist for all we know. People are splitting hairs here about the previous allegations “not proven in court” or the “didn’t get to rape the girl at the party” but come on, are you asking for a rape scene in the comic?
        If you want to get angry at Mary, do it because you disagree with vigilante-style justice, for not believing rape warrants death penalty or because, as Alison said, some day she will make a mistake.
        But so far she seems to have been quite rigorous with her research, and better at it than the justice system.
        I love this comic.

  • Arthur Frayn

    Mary only thinks about use of force with Alison; true that you can’t put her in jail if she doesn’t want to, but you can PC her right out the door with passive aggression and a touch of guilt.

    • Only as long as she lets you do it. If she said “screw that”, who’s gonna stop her?

      • Andrew Cole

        I mean, but that’s true of almost everyone, not just Allison. Admittedly, the manhunt would have to involve much higher ordinance, but if she steps outside of society that’s still where things are going to end up. She’s physically powerful, but she still has things she wants from society.

        The bigger issue her is how much cultural capital she has. The biggest threat she poses isn’t because she can beat the crap out of someone but because she’s FAMOUS. They didn’t fire her professor because they were worried she would throw a car through the college.

      • Then we shun her, maybe make a few comments about her not really understanding normal humans. It’s her kryptonite.

        • I meant if she just stopped caring about it.

          • StClair

            I doubt she will / can.

            Of course, if she ever does get pushed to that breaking point, we will probably hear about it (to quote a certain comic series) not on CNN, but on the Richter scale.

    • Oooo, so damn true…

  • Greg E Downing

    I don’t understand. What just happened? When was Violet ever going to move out? Last thing I remember was her apologizing for the video that got out at the party.

    • Some guy

      She kinda sorta moved out when Chill Bro Miles got killed.

    • Thraxishunter

      A few past after that their room was lacking all of Violets stuff like if someone had moved out in a hurry.

    • MacDiver

      I was about to ask the same thing. I don’t remember Violet ever moving out, either.
      Also, not giving her a chance to tell her parents or giving her time to find a new place? What the heck is wrong with them?

    • p75369

      http://strongfemaleprotagonist.com/issue-5/page-93/

      I don’t remember anything in the text prior to this, but she’s clearly moved out by this point.

      • Dove

        Thanks for tracking that down – it was easy to miss if you were focused on reading the messages, and I couldn’t find any explicit references to it anywhere else!

      • SpoonyViking

        Huh. I’ll be damned, I completely missed that. Thanks!

  • Nightsbridge

    I’m having trouble parsing what I’m seeing

    • They’re afraid that Alison’s presence will bring up trouble.

      • weedgoku

        Kind of a valid fear considering it wasn’t too long ago a giant invincible monster man with knife arms came after her.

  • Mechwarrior

    Wow. Grade A bitch there.

    • Thraxishunter

      Alison was her token biodynamic friend (all her fame aside.) it’s obvious from the moment Violet gets introduced that she takes advantage of Alisons’ abilities. Friends should be willing to hear things out but nope Alison “Looks like you could use a pick me up!” Green sees some nasty shenanigans in the works and tries to stop it and boom shes the big biobully stamping on the less special. Over simplifications aside I wonder if Bros before Bios is a thing in universe.

  • Dartangn

    Just wind that spring up a little further…

    • Pol Subanajouy

      I know, right?

  • Liz

    People who misuse terms like “safe space” and “trigger” are a special kind of awful. Discomfort != trauma, and conflating the two makes it that much harder for PTSD sufferers to get the accommodations they need. I think the problem’s not nearly as widespread as the people who decry “PC culture!” claim, but when it happens, it just makes me so angry.

    • peregon

      I dunno. Being linked to a murder is pretty traumatic.

    • Mechwarrior

      Especially when they’re using it as a passive-aggressive way to toss someone out of her own room.

    • karleenamarx

      I agree. My school has a feminist facebook page that’s mostly great, but damn, some of the people on there use feminist language to be assholes. One person was being aggressively mean to people, and when others called them out on it, they said that everyone was trying to “homogenize” their behavior, and that rudeness was a “fixture of kyriarchy.”

      • weedgoku

        Huh, for some reason I can’t reply to the original comment. Anyway, I think the weird thing is it is, and possibly always has been, more widespread than the original commenter might think. “This isn’t allowed because it might upset other people.” Is a favorite excuse of several generalized groups of people when they want to get rid of a person, idea or thing that they personally dislike but are too passive to say so. And it’s always frustrating to be on either side of it, whether someone’s talking for you or taking something from you on behalf of someone else. It’s just that more recently with places like Tumblr there’s been a specific set of terms to go around for this sort of thing.

        That being said, your main point that over saturation of these ideas, Trigger Warnings in particular are an excellent example of how something gets so diluted by misuse that almost no one actually uses them in proper context anymore. It’s a shame because at their core they are decent ideas.

        • Columbine

          I don’t tend to participate in online discussions of feminism anymore. I’ve had these sorts of tactics used a bit too often to shout me down. I grew up in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia. My outlook and ideas don’t always line up with Western ones and I find some of the ‘feminist’ language white Western women use flat out offensive. I guess after a while trying to get your point of view across just seems like more hassle than it’s worth.

          • weedgoku

            I try to avoid discussing a lot of activist topics these days too, both sides have just become unpleasent. On one side you have people more steeped then ever, it feels at least, in willful ignorance and the obstinance that accompanies anonymity online. But the side I usually agree with is just so aggressive towards even their allies with a perpetual persecution complex and competing to prove who is the most downtrodden that even trying to support people has become a hassle and you wind up being chased out of groups by people you were supporting, for not indulging the most infantile of their whims.

            That being said, the middle east issues are perhaps one of the most prime examples of this in even serious groups. I’m of the belief that, say, white middle and upper class people from america, really shouldn’t try to force their lifestyles and views on the middle east. Are there issues over there? Sure but it shouldn’t be up to foreigners to storm in and tell them to change. Instead they should be supporting the people risking everything to bring about the change they need most of all, not complaining that they’re not trying to instill the right kind of changes.

            But of course mentioning that point of view is a very quick way to get yourself silenced and excluded from “open” and “tolerant” groups.

          • Columbine

            There isn’t, honestly, a easy answer about how and what to change anywhere. I see the temptation towards….that idea that you could sweep in and just make everything better. But frankly that’s the same mindset as the people blowing everything up. And anger makes it a lot easier to think all of that is a good idea, or the only idea. If there is one thing we have in abundance it is anger.

            What I tend to run into trouble for is, essentially, insisting that Western problems and intolerances are far from the worst in the world. There seems to be a tendency within some groups at least to dismiss or ignore everything outside the West and use….language designed to shock, language designed to say ‘our chosen issue is terrible and demands immediate attention.’ I grew up segregated. I grew up in a place that, in a very real and literal way, still has slavery. I live in Western Europe now. And I sympathise with the problems people face here and in America but suggesting they’re somehow more important and more difficult than the struggles of immigrant workers in the Gulf States is (to me) an insane level of self centered stupidity. Oh and the obsession people here have with the veil or the ban on women driving. In a place where women can get turned away from hospitals for not having a male relative with them-

            Sorry. I have some rather strong feelings about this. I come from a lot of places and I don’t understand how anyone, esspecially people who say they care about the world, can seem to ignore the majority of it. Or for that matter how anyone can look at this and still insist that the issues in the richest countries in the world are the most important ones.

          • weedgoku

            I’ll be honest, it’s refreshing to see someone who still has strong feelings about something other than their isolated world view based on a bunch of jargon their insular online community comes up with. You raise the very real issue of activist tunnel vision, it’s not uncommon for groups to pick a cause and stand that up as the most important cause in the world no matter what. There are still loads of places in the world where sex slavery and trafficking is still a thing even though they have otherwise stamped out other forms of slavery. But yet even in those places so many groups will completely ignore real, severe issues like that to throw stones at TV for portraying women in stereotypical ways.
            Even then, in places like America and Europe there are charities and groups dedicated to these issues, even if they don’t get anywhere near the attention or support that the groups rallying against the media do. What do the women in the same situations in other parts of the world get? Not just always just women either. Children suffer too but a lot of the world’s issues get ignored as do the people who try to change them in their own native countries.

          • Columbine

            It’s refreshing to see someone who doesn’t dismiss it out of hand. Or use the get out clause of ‘well I’m not from x group and I’ve never been to y place so I can’t possibly comment.’

            A good friend of mine works in the NHS. She recently had to report a family for (possibly) subjecting their daughters to FGM. And that is mentioned as an issue and there are finally, slowly, cases that are getting to court. I really appreciate the people who do fight over those sorts of issues, wherever they are. But I honestly don’t understand the amount of attention given to using words like ‘bitch’ in comparison. To me it seems like a serious case of misplaced priorities/values.

            I mean….Mali. Malians must be the most stubborn badasses on the face of the planet. Because I can’t think of another explanation for their music. The north of the country occupied by a terrorist group dealing out death and mutilation left right and center. A ban on music and a very real and present threat of violence- and they just won’t stop playing, recording, performing. That to me is courage. Not online campaigns or street protests in a country where your right to do so is rigorously protected by law. I sometimes think I’ve set up my goal posts so differently that half the people I talk to don’t realise we’re playing the same sport.

          • Sarah

            I also come from a thirld world country (and now live in Western Europe) and also sometimes get this Eurocentrism and ‘you don’t know how good you have it’ feel. But I also understand that it’s hard to grasp the realities of countries so different culturally, people want to work to improve their communities and societies (even if not affected by the ‘most terrible’ problems), and the opposite extreme, the white saviour complex, is also not desirable.
            As I see it (I don’t come from a muslim country) the veil and the driving prohibition are “less terrible” than other things but shockingly effective to convey a crazy situation for the western sensitivities, and that’s why it gets more talk.

          • Columbine

            I know it’s hard for other people to grasp, I sometimes feel like I spend half my life explaining it. (The ‘oh where do you come from?’ conversations-) And I don’t mean this to be a critique of people who are trying to improve their community. It’s the ignorance and the dismissal that make me angry:as if it’s not important or relevant unless it’s happening to people in the same country/from the same culture. I’m not saying that I know the answer, or what the balance is, but I’d like to feel I could talk to people without being- I don’t know. I suppose it’s that I currently feel like activist sites on feminism, human rights, etc are not safe spaces for me. I feel like I’m not welcome there. How can that be right?

            As for the veil/driving- I don’t see how it can be more effective or shocking than the segregation itself. A woman legally needs a male relative’s permission, in writing, to leave the house. And that law is enforced. Then there’s the slavery and women getting arrested for trying to visit friends trapped in abusive relationships. It just seems….such a trivial thing to focus on, and that by being the focus it diminishes everything else hiding the true scale of injustice.

          • Mishyana

            Never really liked that particular train of thought at all. Dismissing legitimate critique as cultural imperialism isn’t an argument, it’s an excuse. Saudi women being stoned for being in the same car as a man isn’t, by any stretch of the imagination, part of a Rich Cultural Heritage ™, it’s just plain shitty and evil. And you don’t need to be part of that society to call it out.

          • Columbine

            ‘Saudi women being stoned for being in the same car as a man isn’t’ I grew up there and that’s a new one to me, is that a reference to ‘Death of a Princess’?

            And yes I agree completely with calling these sorts of barbaric acts out, whatever the culture. Please continue to do it. The less ignorance there is about all of these things all over the world the better. My country is, unfortunately, a complete shithole full of injustice and inequality. But I don’t think invading it is the answer, I don’t think that brings lasting cultural change.

            I also like the Spider icon

          • Mishyana

            Oh, certainly not advocating invasion, disastrous and foregone results of US ‘interventionism’ overseas notwithstanding. Change, when it does come, and as history has shown time and again, is better when it comes from within. The US trying to play the hero has been shown repeatedly to not even kind of sorta work. I think outside agitation can help play a role, though. Or at the least draw attention to various issues.

            To be perfectly honest, I could have sworn I remembered a news story about a Saudi woman being sentenced to stoning for having been seen in a car with a man who wasn’t her husband from about 6, 7 years or so ago. But now I can’t find hide or hair of it. There is the more recent story of the 19-year old sentenced to 200 lashes for being gang raped, and the other teen on the verge of being crucified for having criticized the government (as Saudi Arabia is on the verge of chairing the UN Human Rights Council, naturally).

            As to the icon, ty =) Transmet is one of my favorite comics of all time.

          • I’m sorry to hear this and can completely understand how it might have happened – white-led feminism can be a huge frustration and the internet is a place of very little consequence. Still, if you ever see this post, I’d like to share with you my hope that someday and perhaps in some better forum for debate you might raise your voice once again. We need to hear from more people like you so that the movement becomes more inclusive over time, less exclusionary or biased against ideas that the more privileged are familiar with, and so that others in that position receive support and a place to stand and speak in turn. It’s not right or fair that you should have to endanger yourself to add to that – so please don’t take this as some sort of demand or onus. I just hope you’re able to find a platform sometime soon that accepts and broadcasts your underrepresented experiences. Maybe an overtly intersectional chapter would be a good start?

          • Columbine

            In case it wasn’t entirely clear from what I said before (it has been a while since I wrote this), I’m not ethnically Arabic. Felt I should make that clear since race rather than experience is coming up. And I am privileged. I have seen children begging for water at traffic stops, we had servants growing up- So it’s pretty hard to think I’m anything other than privileged.

            It’s………. OK you say ‘It’s not right or fair that you should have to endanger yourself’ and while I think I understand what you’re trying to say I also think that shows a very different understanding of what ‘endangered’ means. I am not endangered by people not appreciating my point of view or not wanting to hear it. Endangered to me was wondering whether I’d be able to go back to uni after the holidays or if my Dad would take my passport away. Endangered is laws that stop women getting into hospitals or that deny there’s such a thing as a right to a defense lawyer and translator in court.

            Recently a friend asked if I got ‘othered’ in Saudi and (after she’d explained what she meant by that) I explained that that was basically the law. Complete with physically sectioned private and public spaces.

            There’s a language gap, a translation gap, between my experience (the experience of many people around the world) and the way feminist discussion is framed because it’s dominated by Western people. ‘Rape culture’ to you means (correct me if I’m wrong) a system of cultural factors that make it hard to both recognise and punish sexual harassment and rape. It doesn’t mean ‘some kinds of rape are legal’. It doesn’t mean ‘a tacitly supported system of raping lesbians to ‘correct’ their sexuality’. The language that I see used in the West seems to cut out other experiences, lessen them, because it’s focused on trying to get the real problems in the West to be taken seriously.

            I’m sorry if I’m coming across harsh here. I don’t want to get at you and I can see and appreciate that you want a diverse environment where we can discuss the different ways things like patriarchy work.

            I guess the root of it for me is…..there’s a language barrier within English around these discussions. And a lot of the people I interact with, whether it’s about feminism, or culture, or immigration, don’t seem to realise it’s there. That makes it harder. When ‘women only’ spaces become a Western feminist thing it gets harder to talk about purdah. When ‘rape culture’ becomes common parlance it gets harder to talk about ‘corrective rape’ in South Africa.

            But I don’t think it’s a barrier that’s insurmountable. I think we can find ways to talk. But we do all have different……focuses, different things that are important to us and affect us. Different women have different goals. And at the moment I think that’s the thing feminism is failing to articulate. Just how varied womanhood is.

            Damn that’s a long ass ramble. Sorry about that. I hope it made sense and doesn’t come off preachy or angry. It’s not meant to be. I’m just, like everyone else, still trying to figure this stuff out.

        • Liz

          I think we start getting into dangerous territory when the “American women are complaining about catcalls when Indian women are being murdered!” language comes out, because neither should be happening, and the which-is-worse discussion is far less productive than the how-do-we-dismantle-the-patriarchal-power-structures-underlying-both-of-these conversation. Plus, telling women to shut up about the more subtle appearances of the giant patriarchal shitbag we’re all fighting, just because women somewhere else are fighting a way worse manifestation of aforesaid shitbag is neither productive nor useful. I’m not going to shut up about getting groped because women in the DRC are being raped, just like I’m not going to stop advocating for a higher minimum wage in the U.S. even though there are people living on less than a dollar a day elsewhere. Giant oppressive systems are worth fighting in any context.

          Of course, lots of you have also brought up that western feminism has a TERRIBLE track record of actually helping WOC in foreign countries, which is why it is super hella crazy important to actually listen to what women in different cultures actually want, and to contribute more with things like resources and money, and less with stepping in and doing the shouting and advocating. I will not deny that there are still a lot of crappy feminists out there who do not understand this, and it’s something we have to keep talking about.

          But like Sarah said, wanting to improve your community for women isn’t a bad thing just because somewhere else there’s a worse community for women. Advocating for one change doesn’t have to mean denigrating advocating for another.

          • Columbine

            ‘Advocating for one change doesn’t have to mean denigrating advocating for another.’ No it doesn’t, my complaint isn’t that advocating for change and improvement in rich Western countries shouldn’t be happening. Everywhere world over has a long way to go and I understand that we’ve still got a lot to fight for in the West.

            It’s not that I think, to use your example, American women shouldn’t complain about catcalls when Indian women are being murdered. It’s that when American women compare catcalls to murder I believe Indian women have a right to be offended. And when I see that kind of language used by feminists I definitely don’t feel like they’d support me, understand me or help me. It feels, basically, like being told to shut up because you’ve seen worse. That’s my opinion. As a woman, from a different culture.

  • Markus

    On the one hand, Violets a scheister who completely used Alison for the proxy fame and social power. On the other, from Sakura and Blondie’s perspective Alison’s an invincible killing machine who threatened to strangle a stranger at a party.

    Also, Violet with her hair a few shades different, less stuff in her face, and no more perpetual grin-scowl manages to look a lot less like a dick.

    • Abe

      Except that Violet herself didn’t get that upset after the party; it wasn’t until after the murders that she moved out.

      • EpsilonRose

        When did she move out? I missed that part.

        • William Lancaster

          I think in this page,

          http://strongfemaleprotagonist.com/issue-5/page-93/

          It shows that Alison is living alone now.

          I have to say I think this entire violet situation is really confusing.

          what I think happened is that after the murder Violet got upset and moved out and blamed Alison and now she wants to come back and kick Alison out. But most of this is inferred and I had to search the archives until it made sense.

          I think we need a page focused on Violet to see what is happening inside her head. Before this page I didn’t even realize she was distraught.

  • Wait, why does Violet need a safe space? She has some problem with Allison now? Shoot, I need to go reread this comic…

    • Markus

      I figure Alison being physically invulnerable makes the other two roommates assume she’s emotionally invulnerable as well, so Violet slots mentally into their mental wronged party/victim role by default.

      • Catherine Kehl

        I agree, but I also the resources comment is telling. Everyone has seen that the school will rearrange everything for Alison’s pleasure – even if it isn’t really her pleasure at all. If Violet is afraid of Alison – or worried that disagreeing with Alison will come down on her head (and even if this isn’t really fair to Alison, it’s a valid concern, considering how crazy the school is) it’s pretty clear that the school will make sure Alison will have somewhere to live. Violet probably really only does have her friends looking out for her.

        So it’s complicated – it’s totally unfair to Alison, and yet there’s some basic sense underneath it.

    • Catherine Kehl

      Well, my read is this:

      First, she has the whole altercation with Alison about how Miles is her super chill friend. And then Allison goes to see Miles with Clevin, and Miles is dead, and Clevin gets hurt (to keep Alison distracted from doing anything about Miles’ killer.)*

      So now Violet is all wrapped up in her own set of emotional reactions – she thought of Miles as a friend, Alison called her out for overlooking his trying to haul off the drugged/drunk Daphne. And then Miles was dead, and Clevin was hurt, and Alison was involved in that too. So she’s probably grieving, guilty, angry and resentful… and her friends have decided that she is the vulnerable one whose feelings need to be protected, and that they’re willing to throw Alison out on her ass because, hey, Alison is strong and has all these resources** and Violet needs it more.

      While I totally did not see this plot twist coming, let me go on record as saying that I see this as more than entirely plausible. I mean, it would be plausible if Alison was just socially coded as “strong” and Violet coded as “vulnerable”. But a hell of a lot more than that is weighting this interaction. When you’re coded as “other”, even when the connotations of that “other” as theoretically mostly positive, and generally seen as making you strong and wise, this is pretty much the expected social outcome – because other people need the support and understanding more. And hey, you’re not even really human.

      * Let me state again for the record – I’m not team Moonshadow here, I just find blithe dismissals of the ethical issues she is dealing with troubling, and people who are sympathetic to Furnace and death on Moonshadow pretty deeply disturbing, like whoa.
      ** I’m not sure if this translates directly into money, but her government support probably amounts to more or less the same thing, if perhaps in a more regulated way.

      • Nightsbridge

        Something that’s interesting is how little violet talks. It’s hard to guess how involved she was in this whole shit

        • Catherine Kehl

          Also that she apparently moved out before without calling any attention to it… and without Al apparently going “Oh, shit, Violet moved out, hey, I should go find out what’s going on with her?” or whatever.

          I’m a little bothered by how many people seem to attribute this whole eviction entirely to Violet despite textual support (mostly because the idea that women are secretly manipulating everyone to do this or that is such a trope.) I’m not even convinced it’s the worst idea ever, really – just poorly executed, and phenomenally ill-timed.

      • Walter

        I generally find your read to be spot on.

        *you don’t have to justify your opinions. Free speech brah! You can be pro Moonshadow, or anti Moonshadow, or whatevs. Myself I’m pretty much the opposite, Moonshadow defenders weird me out. I mean, the creator had her rant about her body count. She’s a wound in the world.

        ** Money and Alison is pretty funny anyway. Who is really going to tell her she can’t have something? If she desperately needs money for whatever reason she can go ask the mind reader for some.

        • Kid Chaos

          Yeah, but right now she kind of hates Patrick and doesn’t want his money. Anyway, she’s still getting residuals from “Mega-Girl” merchandising and whatnot, so she’s not really hurting when it comes to cash.

        • Happyroach

          Personally, I tend to think that if only Moonshadow was male and had a t-shirt with a big skull on it, a lot of people would be enthusiastically cheering on the “awesome vigilante”. The overlap between that population and those who criticize Moonshadw’s ethics would be interesting to see.

      • OMG I so appreciate the existence of this comment thread.

      • Rumble in the Tumble

        >people who are sympathetic to Furnace and death on Moonshadow pretty deeply disturbing, like whoa

        Yes, only some child soldiers are deserving of compassion and sympathy. Preferably those whose ideals we share.
        Also, people cheering on an invisible vigilante murderer trouble me deeply, too.

        • Sarah

          Those people who sympathize with ideals like being anti rape. Weird!

    • Michael Ben

      I’ve reread it twice trying to figure out this page and the last time we saw her she was telling Alison that Miles was going to be expelled. I’m assuming that off-panel we’re supposed to understand that Miles and Violet were really close friends? It’s hard to tell, especially because it seemed like she thought it was funny that Miles was being expelled, that she would be more traumatized by the events of the next day more than anyone else. Honestly, I don’t know!

      • Oh good, so it’s not just me. You’d think that Allison would be more confused about the whole thing, assuming she hasn’t had some off-screen contact with Violet in the interim.

  • peregon

    This is utterly wrong, but at the same time completely understandable. Violet was assaulted, had herself gaslighted by those around her, and the person who tried to take advantage was murdered. None of this is Al’s fault, but Violet really does have the most to lose here. I… Christ.

    Sometimes, there is no happy ending.

    • Pol Subanajouy

      Ah, a Silver Ladder. I’m more an Arrow boy, myself.

      And yeah, this is just the final thing to round out a really rough day for Al. 🙁

    • Catherine Kehl

      Violet wasn’t assaulted, Daphne was assaulted. A friend of Violet’s did the assaulting. (And then was killed, and another friend was hurt, and Al was in the middle of everything, and probably made Violet feel like a total ass.)

      • peregon

        Oh, my bad! But yeah – I still get it. Still sucks for everyone.

    • Johnathan

      When was Violet assaulted? Who tried to take advantage of her? Am I missing something here? Violet was friends with Miles, who tried to take advantage of a girl named Daphne (http://strongfemaleprotagonist.com/issue-5/page-22-4/ that page and the next). Miles was murdered by Moonshadow for sexual assault he committed but was not convicted for (according to an article here: http://strongfemaleprotagonist.com/issue-5/2308/) in the past.

      Violet brushed off Mile’s attempted sexual assault of Daphne completely. She remained friends with Miles. Then Miles was killed. Violet lost a friend, and also discovered that he had very likely sexually assaulted a number of people, even though she had ignored his predatory behaviour and remained friends with him. If Violet suffered anything more than that (such as the things you mentioned: assault, gas lighting, being taken advantage of) can you point me to the correct pages?

  • Just reread the whole of Issue 5 to make sure, but I believe nothing was said before about Violet moving out. This was surprising as a reader, yet I think it would have made more sense if it was shown before.

    • KatherineMW

      The room was showed with Vi’s stuff no longer in it, when Allison was contacting Patrick.

    • Francisco

      We see things from Alison’s (and in this chapter, Mary’s) point of view. Therefore, I suspect it’s something that happened whilst Alison was not around (probably whilst she was at the hospital).

    • It was shown in the art but not explicitly explained in the text.

  • Sebastián Rodoni Figueras

    When did Violet ever moved out? I’m missing something here.

  • Joshua Taylor

    That extreme close-up panel says it all, Allison is pretty much done with everyone’s shit but she can’t do anything about it.
    But about the last panel, is she standing outside and someone is looking through a window or is it about to rain on her?

  • I hate the flu

    Why does this college not have a system for people switching rooms? I’m sure there’s a single either Allison or Violet could move into.

    • NCD

      I think the idea is that Violet’s friends thing that she should get her room back because it’s “fair” and that Alison should leave the dorms altogether so that Violet can “feel safe.”

      • 3-I

        Because Alison is invulnerable to physical harm, and therefore, they think, invulnerable to emotions.

        Or, to put it another way, because they’re jerks. =/

    • Daniel Vogelsong

      I know at my university, it was a long and arduous process of either switching your own room or being assigned a new roommate. Anybody could pack up and leave their room, certainly, but most dorms are sardine cans… unless someone else did the exact same thing, there wasn’t more rooms available (or not rooms they would place her in, such as a boys room… esp a chill dude named Miles)

  • Gus

    OK, I had to go back and re-read some of this. I’ve got no sympathy for Violet and her friends here. Alison went a tiny smidge overboard when she did the choke lift on the attempted rapist who was getting saucy with her, but given that there was no serious injury when she could have popped his head clean off accidentally, I’d say she showed admirable restraint under the circumstances. Basically, she did pretty much everything right, and Violet didn’t seem all that upset. I can sort of get why she might want to move out, but forcing Alison out is bogus. She did nothing wrong, you’re not comfortable with her, you move out. And resources? seems like Alison doesn’t really have that many around campus. Violet has friends she can move in with. Maybe her friends don’t like living with her and that’s why they’re getting her to kick Alison out? Or maybe they’re dynaphobic?

    And do we know who really made it blow up with the video? Maybe Violet’s not comfortable with Alison because of her own sense of guilt.

    anyway, for those who need to recap, try these two points:

    1. http://strongfemaleprotagonist.com/issue-5/page-14-6/

    2. http://strongfemaleprotagonist.com/issue-5/page-75-2/

    • Mechwarrior

      I always got the sense that Violet only liked Alison because it gave her a lame claim to fame anyway.

      • Prodigal

        Not to mention how she seemed to view Alison as her personal “Get out of being held responsible for my own actions” card: http://strongfemaleprotagonist.com/issue-1/page-6/

        • Kid Chaos

          You just had to bring Furnace into it, didn’t you? 😉 [Still, good point. ;)]

        • Random832

          There really *shouldn’t* be inevitable consequences for throwing a coffee cup at a tank, and the fact that we view the idea that she’d be (what, arrested? beaten up? shot? immolated?) if Alison weren’t there as acceptable and natural is kind of screwed up.

          • masterofbones

            Attacking a military vehicle is pretty good grounds for an arrest IMO.

          • Rumble in the Tumble

            Dude, you don’t throw shit at cops, especially at riots/protests. One chucklesnort throws a coffe cup, another sees this, gets pumped and throws a brick. A minute later 20% of the people are violently rioting, 80% try to get the hell out making it even more chaotic, and cops get authorised to use tear gas and rubber bullets.

            There *should* be inevitable consequences for assaulting police officers. How can you even argue with that?

          • Sarah

            What will the humanity do without punishments for people who throw paper cups at tanks.

          • Prodigal

            There should at least be the consequence of being told “Hey, don’t throw coffee at me”, but Vi was taking advantage of Al by using her as a shield against even as little of a reaction as that.

          • Rod

            I think “confronted” might have sufficed; much more would have been overkill.

            Point is, she would likely have done more and then ran to using Alison as a shield, had she had the nerve to.

    • Ian

      I don’t actually agree that Allison only went “a tiny smidge overboard”. Her immediate reaction to a sketchy situation was to take control of it with physical violence, and between the context of her earlier scuffle and her overwhelming physical strength she might as well have pointed a gun at him. She wasn’t wrong to intervene, but I think Violet actually was right: Allison is essentially a recovering child soldier and her way of reacting to situations and controlling her environment reflects that. Allison knows it, too; it’s all she feels she’s good at, and when all you have is a hammer everything looks like a nail.

      I can see how someone would see Allison as a bit of a time bomb.

      Of course, Violet is also an asshole, and a bit of a coward. It looks like this whole eviction thing is her friends idea, and are maybe even pressuring her into it, but she’s not even making eye contact or saying the words herself.

      • Boojum

        No, that wasn’t her immediate reaction, her immediate action was to confront him and ask questions, and he gave shady non-answers and was still trying to get by with an incapacitated girl whose name he did not know. At that point, there’s definitely reasonable cause to suggest that the girl was in potential danger.

    • Rumble in the Tumble

      Now, you see, her alleged-rapist-classmate was just murdered, and it all blew up at her party.

      The only question relevant to Violet is “How can I make this whole situation about MEEEee~?”

  • MisterTeatime

    It looks like we last saw Violet on page 22, and we can see in the most recent shot of Alison’s room, on page 93, that she and all her stuff are gone (in sharp contrast to the view on page 4).
    There are no explicit references to Violet moving out or the reasons behind it (only some speculation in the comments on page 93, from people more attentive than me), but it was likely one of the things Alison was thinking of when she told her family she’d had a hard few days, on page 118.

    My best guess is that Violet moved out in order to feel safe from unwanted reminders of the whole chain of events with Miles and Alison (including the part where she nearly allowed a violent crime to take place and was called on it and/or the part where a guy she knew was violently murdered), and while that’s still important, her other housing options have turned out badly in other ways.
    (The as-yet-unnamed girl with the glasses describes Violet’s situation to Alison as not being fair, but that doesn’t mean she’s implying Alison had anything to do with it, in the same way that “I’m sorry” doesn’t always mean “I apologize for my role in creating your shitty situation.”)

  • Some guy

    I know this is supposed to show that Alison is having a hard time, but never having to be friends with Violet again is a huge net win.

    Also since the college completely caves for Alison’s whims, she should imply that she felt insulted by these three and get them permanently expelled and probably deported.

    • Walter

      I don’t think Alison would deliberately do that. If she was angry enough to do something about them I think she’d shout at them. I can’t imagine Alison deliberately sicking the world on them. That was an accident last time, and she’s probably pretty traumatized about the whole chain of events.

  • MisterTeatime

    Other, shorter comments:
    – I think the answer to the alt-text depends on a) whether you get their approval first and b) how well you pack it.
    – If you interpret panel 1 as sunrise and not sunset (probably wrong, but bear with me), Alison just got back to her dorm room in the morning wearing the same clothes she had on yesterday. If not for everything that’s happened, it’d be easy to imagine Violet reacting with “oh my god, you FINALLY got laid, tell me everything.”
    – I wonder what Alison’s next living arrangement will be like. The most reasonable possibility I can think of that’s already been introduced is Daphne’s place– those girls seem pretty all right, including Probably Not America Chavez (But I Can Dream).
    – Congratulations to Molly and Brennan on the Autostraddle award! You guys make great stuff; I’m glad you’re getting recognized.

  • Mike Elsner

    Could you guys put in some kind of chapter index or “start of chapter” button?

    • Kid Chaos

      What’s wrong with the archive as it is?

  • Thraxishunter

    Alisons’ circle of of friends just keeps getting smaller Hectors all mad, Ferals in surgery forever, She maybe broke Patrick all we need is Paladin to give her the business and she might go over the edge. He might not have been the best joker but the one from The Batman put it best “You know what separates the freaks from the normals? Just one rotten day. Ever had a really rotten day, Batman?”. it’s important to note that that was Clayface quoting Joker but it still works I think more so because Clayface was originally a regular fellow until the Joker got a hold of him .

    At the end of the day Alison seems to be treated like an unstoppable machine but even a machine can breakdown i hope for the best but for the sake of drama expect the worst.

    • Graeme Sutton

      That line is actually originally from the killing joke

      • Kid Chaos
        • Thraxishunter

          I drawing a blank holy shit I’m an awful fan.

      • Thraxishunter

        Huh i’ll have to re-read it then i can’t for the life of me remember it I suppose I associate it with the The Batman because it leads to Clayface. I love Clayface the animated series Clayface was the best in my opinion but Ethan Bennett’s a close second.

        • Graeme Sutton

          They might have been quoting from the Killing Joke, I haven’t seen The Batman.

          • Thraxishunter

            I wouldn’t doubt they were i’d recommend it its enjoyable to a point nothing amazing but i found it to be good.

  • MrSing

    Panel five. Alison feels the full brunt of being invisible.
    They don’t see a woman that’s been hurt fundamentally and needs understanding, all they see is a strong force of violence that never could understand suffering. Someone who should take it when they shuff her away because she’s “unsafe”. Strong people don’t suffer. Strong people can’t understand.
    And Alison doesn’t speak up against this weapons grade nonsense, she just nods and leaves. Too tired to deal with it. They would just brush her of, or acuse her of abusing or being blinded by her power.
    They can see her standing there just fine, but they can’t see the person standing there, only their idea of what she is and how she fits in society.
    That is a cruel kind of invisibility.

    • Pol Subanajouy

      Well said.

    • Anonymous

      Is there some gender-roles subtext here or am I reading too deeply into this?

      • thebombzen

        It’s a reference to when Mary says that women feel invisible for the very same reason.

      • Oren Leifer

        Inherent in this comic and its writing appears to be the inability to read “too” deeply into it, which is one of my favorite parts of it.

      • Catherine Kehl

        Though I do wonder if the OP is attempting to subvert the original reference regarding its gender content. This gets kind of sticky, as there is a cultural script that says that men, particularly strong men, aren’t supposed to express certain emotions. Or at least not express them openly. And yet, “man pain” is idolized and given great and central importance, especially in the entertainment industry – it’s kind of the super loud and idolized sub text. One of the things I found most cunningly subversive about Fury Road was Furiosa’s enactment of Man Pain – because in terms of all the tropes, that was so very much what it was.

        • Dartangn

          I was going to say, the original post could have quite a different context with a word of two’s difference.

          Either way, it needed saying. Reductionism happens in both directions when it comes to a lot of social issues. And that includes, in this case, the violent impulsive morally righeous power figure.

      • MrSing

        Mostly what thebombzen said, but it transcends gender roles.
        Alison isn’t being thrown out because she is a woman, they don’t even see her as a woman while doing this.
        She’s a danger/strong first, a hero second, a woman third, and a hurt person as a distant fourth. That is the invisibility I’m talking about.
        People don’t see a person when they are looking at her, they see danger at worst and a person that can take it when they brush her off at best.
        It’s a complete disregard of the full human being she is, they only see the parts of her they want to see.
        This can and does happen to every single human very frequently. Sometimes this works out to your advantage, sometimes it’s something you can grin and bear. But there are those times where it just cuts too deep and you realize that people just don’t see you and most likely never will.

        • dragonus45

          I would say that it doesn’t entirely transcend gender roles, the idea that she is a physical danger first and a real person as a distant last for no really valid reason is a very male experience.

    • MrSokar

      I think it might be more a look of pure exhaustion after an insane experience. And on top of that she just got kicked out of her home.

    • Silva

      “all they see is a strong force of violence that never could understand suffering.” – like a vocal minority of feminists sees men, and a vocal minority of activists for non-whites (many often white, actually) sees whites (obviously especially white men)? 🙂

    • masterofbones

      How is this invisibility? She was acknowledged and kicked outintentionally. It wasn’t that they didn’t see her, it was that her difficulties were not priorities for them.

      Mistreatment is not the same thing as invisibility.

      • MrSing

        The invisibility thing is a metaphor.
        It means they don’t see her as a person. They only see her as a danger/problem. Alison as a person is invisible to them.

        • masterofbones

          But failing to prioritize Alison is not ignoring her or failing to notice her situation. It isn’t that they don’t see that Alison is a person, they just don’t care.

          Its like saying that someone you are debating with isn’t listening to you, solely because they still disagree with you. The more likely possibility is that they *are* listening, they just disagree.

          Homeless people are metaphorically invisible. A rowdy drunk on the other hand is actively avoided.

      • Ryan Thompson

        Alison is invisible, hidden in Mega Girl’s shadow.

  • Retrikaethan

    this is one of those moments where alison is way too accommodating to other people and their bullshit. at this point, freaking the fuck out at the trio of asshats here would have been perfectly justifiable as none of them have the fucking authority to kick her out the dorm. no sound logic justifies what they’re doing to her and she absolutely should not have to put up with it. yet, she is.

    • Skylar Green

      Alison has few people left outside of family she can even vent to. I think at this point Henry back in lockup is all who’s left. Recall she told him, basically, that what separates the two of them isn’t that he was the only one who wanted to hurt a bunch of random people but that he was the only one who gave into that urge. The problem Alison has is that there’s no degrees with her… people walk on eggshells around calm/stoic/strong Alison because they’re afraid that she could flip out and hurt someone. So if she does show emotion, then people’s fears are basically confirmed in their own minds and so now they’re ducking for cover.

      Showing emotion = losing control of one’s emotions is sadly something that gets applied a lot to women in general. So imagine that getting compounded on top of people worrying that if you lose control your emotions you’ll rip their heads off and throw them into orbit? Some people will give you everything they think you want, some people will try to take advantage of you for their own benefit, and some people just won’t want to be around you. And since “strong Alison” is, thanks to her superhero career, synonymous with “do what we need you to do, your needs are irrelevant” that means that there’s really only two ways most people interact with her: placation or dictation.

      This is dictation. Very tender, “if-you-please” dictation.

      • Mechwarrior

        Actually, I think that Alison’s point was that the only thing that was really different between her and Henry was that she didn’t have abusive parents like he did- she had someone who taught her how to not give into that urge and he didn’t.

    • Sabriel

      They really don’t. I was an RA when I was in college, and I would have been furious if this had happened in my house. Housing is handled through the school. Students pay rent. You can’t kick somebody out of their dorm room.

      (The school can. You can’t.)

  • Pol Subanajouy

    Well, isn’t that just the perfect end to a perfect day. It’s even beginning to rain the in the last panel. Al’s gonna look like a kicked puppy by the time this is over.

    I don’t blame Violet. We keep talking about how Al is a child soldier. If that’s the case, Violet is very much a civilian and being even tangentially connected to the death of a former friend has to be scary.

    Just…ugh…timing.

  • Jeremy

    The art is wonderful – Allison radiates exhaustion.

    Not that this helps in the short term, but I don’t think living with Violet is healthy for Allison. So Allison getting away from Violet is hopefully a good thing.

    However, packing Allison’s stuff without her permission, and expecting her to leave immediately, without any notice seems incredibly inappropriate. They don’t actually have the right to evict her – if she leaves it is because she decided to. Giving her time to actually make the decision, and make some alternative arrangements, is just the decent thing to do.

  • Perlite

    Shit, and I thought that this was going to be a “Sorry for being a dick, using you, and for everything that’s been going on” page. Not a “I’m going let my friends kick you out because I either don’t have the guts to tell them otherwise or I’m being completely spineless and letting them do the dirty work”. I understand Violet not wanting to get caught in the crossfire, but then again communication is for dumbasses.
    Either she’s a bully or a pushover, Alison can’t win.

    • masterofbones

      >Either she’s a bully or a pushover, Alison can’t win.

      She could try being neither. That might be a good strategy.

      • Perlite

        I meant that’s how she’s perceived. With her powers she can easily over step her boundaries as well as be guilty of not using her powers for good. With everything that’s been going on, I think that now would not be a good time to debate on whether or not she should stay in the room.

  • Catherine Kehl

    Maybe it’s too obvious, but it seems like a lot of folks are willing to dismiss Violet as being a bad friend – and maybe so, but a) she’s a flipping college freshman* and b) she’s Alisons’s first biostable friend since middle school, that being the opening place for this whole piece.

    I think it might be more useful to do a bit less fist waving about how people ought to be acting, and think a bit more about how people generally really do act. Because people get really used to certain kinds of behavior, and only can deal with behavior outside of those bounds if you know just how to present it, which isn’t Al’s skill set yet.** And when people are weirded out by things, they will come up with stories that they find palatable if they don’t want to look at the unpalatable aspects of their behavior. It’s not really about Alison being scary or disruptive, it’s that she overreacted and was a bitch. It’s about jumping to conclusions. (It’s about ethics in journalism!) It’s easy to sit back at the remove of a spectator and say that no one is treating Alison fairly – and it’s true. Sort of.

    But it’s also more complicated. Think about how much the school, and probably whatever branch of the government is involved with biodynamic relations (or maybe just Alison’s handlers, because it’s not clear the general sort of biodynamic individuals are being protected, and I don’t know if it’s fame as much as it is fear, really) totally set Al up for this. Everyone know that students will get expelled and teachers will get fired for pissing her off in minor-ish ways (remember, Miles was expelled for posting crap about Al on the internet, not for intent to assault Daphne or whatever.)

    I don’t know what’s going on with Violet. I posted my best guess elsewhere, but keep in mind that if she’s on the outs with Alison or just feels weird about that relationship (again, hello, she’s pretty young) being worried about being retaliated against is a very valid concern. Hard enough to have a super strong invulnerable friend, but to have one who is treated blatantly unfairly? In a weird sort of way I have to respect Sakura and the other, for making Violet their priority when even in Al didn’t want to retaliate the school might because, well, they have. Everyone is being horribly unfair to Al, but a lot of those actions are also horribly unfair to a lot of the other people around.

    * I just spend the first half of today with my office full of college freshman, mind you, freshman who were being super nice to me because they’re still auditioning for being my research assistants (or maybe being farmed out to my friends).
    ** Patrick’s, maybe, the poor little fuck head.

    • Mechwarrior

      The thing about Violet is that ever single interaction we’ve seen between her and Alison has been her either using Alison as a way to get special treatment (or a shield to hide behind), or her wanting to drag Alison into something without asking for Alison’s opinion. Her entire characterization as Alison’s “friend” is that it’s been an all take and no give relationship. She’s never actually done anything for Alison.

      • Catherine Kehl

        We’ve also seen her inviting Alison to parties, and trying to include her in things. I think you could at least make a case that in her own frame of reference, Violet has tried to be a good friend – and has gotten pulled into Al’s weird and dangerous life because of it. (Argument, I said. Truth is generally more complicated that any argument, which is, if anything the point I’m really aiming at.)

        I’m not arguing that she’s actually a good friend in an absolute sense, more that her friendship is maybe more important than many people seem to credit it because it’s fairly rare – Alison has been having trouble making connections with people. (Maybe she should hang out with first responders more.) Losing her may well matter – unless Al has pretty much given up on her already, and is mostly all “Fuck this, and I can’t even crash now?” And that a lot of what is going on with Vi is probably pretty normal – I mean, the most unusual thing we know about her is that she was willing to try to be friends with Alison. Which apparently few others were. Yeah, she was probably doing so at least in part for fucked up and shallow reasons. Still, why her and no one else? She might even has been something like a real friend, under that, under different circumstances. From the standpoint of someone who isn’t used to having their world shaken up and being exposed to trauma, she has been through an awful lot. (And as others have mentioned, I think it’s important that she was silent through the whole thing, and often with her head down.)

        Worldview is probably a huge issue. Even as confused and frustrated as Al has been about the superheroing gig, she’d been dealing with big, scary, life and death sort of issues – and a lot of the issues that normal college students her age or a bit younger are focused on are probably super hard for her to relate to.

        • Mechwarrior

          Violet invited Alison to parties so she could show off her famous roommate. That’s not anywhere close to friendship.

        • Rens

          Violet invited Alison to a protest, then immediately used her as a shield against the police.

          Violet invited Alison to a ‘superhero cosplay’ party just to show off a “real” superhero — and then gave her absolutely zero support when Alison called out a would-be date rapist beyond saying that all her friends “should just be cool about this”

          I mentioned this before at each of those occasions, but Violet is a fair weather friend at /best/ and a parasitic cape-chaser at worst.

    • Prodigal

      Violet has not been a good friend to Al, though – the first time we see her is at the protest where she throws her coffee at the police, and when Al objects Vi says “They won’t do anything with you here!”

    • Lostman

      But here the problem: Alison is the protagonist, we all sympathies with her.

      • Catherine Kehl

        But of course.

        And yet strangely, I expect people to transcend being fans and have grown up critical discussions as well. 🙂 Oh, wait, it’s because I’ve been hanging out here and seen it.

        This one hit me a little personally. Once upon a time I’d realized that the majority of people I thought of as close friends had told me in as many words that they thought that I wasn’t really human. Mostly I think they thought they meant it kindly. And, y’know, I was just bright, focused, and from their perspective kind of weird (also, we were in our mid twenties to early thirties. I learned some more things about make makes for enduring friendships.)

        And yet in this context, so many of the barriers between Alison and the others are imposed overtly by outside factors. I guess I just feel like they’ve all been set up. And Vi has just as much right to her heartache and confusion and trauma as Alison does to her exhaustion – and that can be a really hard thing to learn, because really, by what standard isn’t Alison’s life way more interesting than Vi’s? But Vi isn’t an NPC in her own life. (Even if she probably is immature and self absorbed and who the hell knows what else.)

  • Lostman

    Well… there are a few lessons that
    Alison/we can learn from this with the foremost being never fly half way around
    the world to track a crazy person unless you’re going to kill them, like really
    what has Alison achieved on this little adventure: she broke her arm, she got
    no roof over her head, Mary still running around killing people, and the world
    still falling apart (as always).

    Meanwhile Lightbulb is still to create her
    A.I and can’t wait for her to move on to anger, Feral is still getting gutted repeatedly,
    and Patrick is going to find some way around Alison ultimatum…

    OH?

    We still have that Conspiracy to deal
    with… Alison is in theory the golden/silver age Superman, but when dealing
    with reality the superman ideas fall apart, why; because as we know reality is
    more complicated then punching… However killing Mary would have solved problems
    that would come down the line; this how see; I’m pretty sure that radicals think
    mediates should do more for the cause and solely believe what their leaders are
    saying, meanwhile some mediates faces palm at what the radicals are doing believing they are making things
    worse. Alison in my analysis I have called her a golden age hero; she trying change
    the system from within, however that takes time. Meanwhile Mary who I called Dark
    Age hero; to hell with the system!

    My Question is this: What happen when
    Actors methods began to clash?

  • Natsumeg

    Wow. I really want to throw furniture around right now and break something, and I don’t even have any superpowers. Hang in there, Allison.

  • FlashNeko

    The emotional wringer Alison is being put through does make me wonder about something. Namely, while they’ve said they’ve been considering options should she turn violent against the world, do they have anything in place should she turn violent against herself?

    And to make this perfectly clear, if ANYONE was being subjected to the prolonged emotional torture Alison has been put through today, I would want some kind of top of the line psychological counseling on-hand. Frankly, I would not trust her social worker to do anything but give a smug, “Well, I told you so” speech if Alison went to her right now about this so you’d really want someone more specialized for it.

    (That may just be me being overly cynical but this arc has had a lot of the most cynical outcome possible happening more often than not, so I suppose I’m just bracing myself for more.)

    This does also raise the question of if Alison could hurt herself even if she wanted to. I mean, I guess if she wanted to end it all she could just fly fast enough that an impact with a mountain would be fatal and that’s only if “more flight speed = less invincibility” and not something else going on.

    Sorry for the suddenly dark thoughts and the long post but this comic makes me think and have feelings, so it deserves the awards it gets for being awesome.

    • Rumble in the Tumble

      If we’re talking suicide, I guess drowning/suffocation always works. I wonder if she could actually break the atmosphere and go to space by jumping/flying.

  • Skylar Green

    A thought occurs that I don’t see in discussion down below.

    How did Violet even get in?

    If she moved out, why did she keep a
    key? Or did Alison leave the door unlocked because she’s Mega Girl and
    who’s going to rob her? If the first, Alison’s actions there help prove
    some people’s point about Alison not understanding how fortunate she is
    that she can get away with behaviors (even benign behaviors) that
    others can’t.

    If the second, though, did Violet always intend
    to return? Was she coming back to just make peace? Did her other
    friends convince her that she should kick Alison out? Violet’s not
    saying anything likely means not only was she not comfortable saying
    those words (they weren’t encouraging Violet to say anything for
    herself) but they might not even have been her words to begin with. In
    that case, that would open up a whole new dimension to Violet’s
    friendship with Alison. Violet had always seemed manipulative, be it
    big things like when she threw a bottle at the police because she knew
    nobody would do anything to her with Alison standing next to her, or
    small things like burning through all of Alison’s printer ink without offering to
    refill it or using the campus computer lab. How messed up would it be if Violet was using Alison, not simply because Violet was a jerk by nature, but because Alison was the only person Violet could assert herself to and she abused that like crazy?

  • TheGonzoMD .

    The writer is quite deftly building up our animosity towards Violet as a toxic, shitty person. So I can’t wait to see how that image of her gets torn to itty bitty pieces later in the story.

    • And then she gets murdered, based on current trends.

  • Steele

    Wait, when did Violet move out?

    Going back to just before Al left for Patrick’s, Violet’s side of the room is empty… and before that, the last we see of her is showing Al the video of the party, but I don’t think she said anything about moving, so, I’m confused…?

  • kalmia

    There are lots of really good points here about the very real things Violet has to fear. Allison does tend to attract some bad attention from other biodynamics. But you know what really sucks?

    What really sucks is when you know someone whiny and entitled who complains and takes advantage all the time, and you let it slide because you don’t have the energy to fight those battles, but the annoyance builds up, and just as you’re about to reach the limit of your patience, finally, the person complains about something THAT ACTUALLY HAS SOME JUSTICE TO IT. And then you STILL can’t say anything, even though you’ve put up with unreasonable shit for a long time, because then YOU’LL be the bitch.

    Conclusion: Violet is still the worst, and she possibly has the biodynamic power of manipulative timing.

  • Mechwarrior

    Violet is the kind of friend who invites you out to the club after seeing that you’ve had a terrible day… and expects you to buy all the drinks.

  • JUnit4321

    Taking any bets to when see finally snaps or break down

    • Happyroach

      Another day, another no medal for not snapping and slaughtering thousands of people.

  • JUnit4321

    She I mean she

  • JUnit4321

    You know the should really be glad that this is not Taylor they are speaking to

  • Sendaz

    I guess the best bit is how the roommates repeatedly go on about how it not being fair and such, but how ‘fair’ was it to do all this while Alison was out, rather than say waiting until she got back to sit down and discuss it like, oh you know, adults.
    That word, I don’t think it means what they think it means.

  • Wikimancer

    Alison’s tired eyes in panel 5 made me think of something: Does Alison’s anomaly extend to sleep? In particular, if Alison turned out to have fatal familial insomnia, then would she basically never need to sleep? Could an invulnerable super get gene therapy to receive the condition?
    Also: Would that be totally OP? 😉

    • Darkoneko Hellsing

      I think it mainly mean she is really, really tired with their crap.

    • Daniel Vogelsong

      “I’m indestructable, effectively unkillable, nigh unstoppable…

      But right now, I literally can’t even”

  • I respectfully disagree with you about lying and it being effective research she was doing. The impression that I got was that she never really tried hard to confirm any of these rapes beyond hearing the allegations against them and deciding that they were “bad people” after seeing them in person. I’m incredibly skeptical that the self confessed crazy person is doing effective enough research on these cases to really know if they’re true or not based on the time she spends on it, how early on a lot of these cases are, and the claims she’s made to Alice these past few pages. It’s seems to pretty much just be a holy war where she lets god sort ’em out after killing anyone who could potentially be a rapist.

    Covering up a lie can be a powerful thing. While I have no doubt most wouldn’t want them to be murdered, we can only guess as to what someone would say when in a dangerous situation and being forced to confess to lying about an incredibly serious topic. I’ve seen these kind of lies carried on for years and years (two on this exact same topic), so while someone’s actual life wasn’t on the line, their ability to actually have a life for the next few decades was. It’s incredible how much someone will go out of their way to carry on their lie. Whether for revenge, being scared of the consequences, or just a combination of a lot of stuff. It’s unfortunate, but it happens, so I’m not ruling out that they would lie about this.

    • Thomas Hood

      And this is why we have an impersonal criminal justice system. Yes it sometimes fails, but at least you have confidence that there was a process involved. Then the question of whether that process was followed or not becomes more than an expression of faith in an individual, but in the system.

  • Yeah, the whole moving out bit reeks of other people trying a (poor) method to address the situation. Violet obviously doesn’t have any part of this and is being kicked along to do this. I’ve seen this before, and what almost always happens is that they’ll never talk to each other again and everyone will look back on this experience as a terrible one, will never learn anything, and will be all the worse for it.

    The author is doing a good job of portraying this. The expressions of everyone are spot on. Violet is really not liking this whole turn, but she’s there because others are saying “it’s the best” for her and she ends up in a better situation than she was before, plus Allison won’t be around there to force her to confront the situation – she can just eventually push it out of her mind.

    Allison … she’s just tired of this and wants a break. Maybe if it were another day she’d push back … but not right now.

    People who split up friends like this are the worst. There are situations when you should break off association with certain people, but this is far from any of those.

    • Mechwarrior

      I’d agree with you if it weren’t for how consistently Violet has been portrayed as taking advantage of Alison and being horrible at taking responsibility for anything. It’s not that Violet doesn’t have the guts to stand up to her friends, I think she’s using them to get what she wants (Alison out) and doesn’t have the guts to look at Alison because that would be owning up to the fact that she’s the guilty party.

      • True, I mean, she does want this, I just don’t think this idea came from her or would be something she’d be willing to attempt herself even if she did come up with it.

  • SpoonyViking

    Hey, I must have missed something, but when did we see Violet moving out of their dorm room?

  • everyone seems quick to attack and condemn Violet, so I’ve got to balance the scales. this is obviously a bad situation, and one that is not really Alison’s fault.

    still: everyone deserves a safe place.

    Violet is obviously affected by the murder of her friend, and learning about his history of sexual assault. and yes, she may also be upset because of Alison’s role in what happened (but I don’t think that weighs as heavily as everything else.) all of that is SUPER COMPLICATED AND UPSETTING to deal with. it’s really, really, really not fun to learn that a friend has sexually assaulted someone, let alone that his throat was slit for it. Violet deserves a safe place to work this out.

    Alison deserves a safe place, too. part of this arc is the argument that every space is physically safe for Alison, and so she can’t know what everyone else deals with, bla bla bla. but Alison deserves a safe emotional space too.

    the dorm room cannot be a safe place for both of them. it’s super shitty that Alison gets kicked out, especially after the day that she has. but that doesn’t mean that Violet is “co-opting feminist language to be an asshole” or being a “bitch”. you don’t have to like Violet as a character or agree with any of her actions to realize that she deserves a safe space.

    • Mechwarrior

      Alison hadn’t done anything wrong. She had just as much right to that room as Violet did, and if Violet was uncomfortable the onus was on her to leave, not Alison. Yes, she deserves a safe space, but she doesn’t have the right to toss Alison, who wasn’t doing anything wrong or against school rules, out of hers to achieve it. That’s where she’s co-opting feminist language to be an asshole. She’s no more justified in her claims than if she were demanding Alison be kicked out of the room due to race or sexual preferences.

    • telk

      Everyone may or may not “deserve” a safe space (I don’t really know what that means), but even if we grant that necessity, that doesn’t mean you can create said safe space by whatever means you chose. Clearly, the means chosen here are bullshit.

    • masterofbones

      There are ways violet could have done this that would have been acceptable, but this way just makes her come off as a prick.

      • Catherine Kehl

        Why is this being attributed (not just by you, by any means) to Violet?

        Violet *had already moved out* – and she probably didn’t have any long term stable situation to run to, hence the comment about lack of resources. Seriously, I’m thinking couch-surfing. Note that she’s silent during this entire exchange, and with her head down during most of it. Note that it’s the other student who is presenting this as their idea. (Note that we never really saw Alison take note of Violet’s disappearance or try to figure out what happened to her friend, for that matter.)

        The formalist read would be that the other students either came across Violent or went out and found her, and once they figured out her situation, they realized they had a really bad situation on their hands, and decided to go for the least bad solution – and they decided that Violet was in a more vulnerable situation than was Alison (which is probably correct.) And really, I think they might have the least bad solution – the timing and execution suck, but then I don’t have a great feel for how long Al’s been gone, and they were working with incomplete information at best.

        • Mechwarrior

          If Violet had a problem, she should have gone to the school’s housing administration and seen if she could have been transferred to another room. That sort of thing happens all the time in colleges.

        • Rod

          Violet always had the option of returning to the dorm room and just putting up with the oh-so-horrible option of crossing paths with Alison regularly. If Alison didn’t really even notice her leave, surely she wouldn’t have cared.

          Between the options of (1) leaving and having nowhere to stay, (2) kicking Alison out to create her “safe space” (safe from what, exactly?), or (3) being an adult and staying in your perfectly fine dorm room with an at-least tolerable roommate until you have other options, anyone in that universe advocating option (2) over (3) likely has a pretty spoiled worldview.

  • Para

    I think that’s reaching, actually.

    If you’re lying about someone raping you, you’re already committing your victim to a lifetime of suspicion, ostracism, and potentially jail or violent attacks on them. This is a common result. (bias alert: I knew a man who went to jail for 15 years on a false accusation, and another man (boy, really, he was barely 18) who did his level best to kill himself after a rumor about him being a rapist started floating around.) If you’re willing to commit to those sorts of consequences – or simply don’t care – then condoning their murder is a much shorter trip than you’re suggesting.

  • Random832

    If you’re being interrogated by someone capable of murder, what do you think will happen if you don’t tell them what they want to hear?

  • masterofbones

    Unless you want them murdered for other reasons.

  • RobNiner

    ‘Nothing to do with anything that happened’ except for stick her head in the sand and pretend it didn’t happen, until she couldn’t and then refuse to take responsibility for any of it.

    Violet sees herself as a victim, but she’s part of the problem.

    I hope this isn’t Alison’s ‘one bad day’. This comic could become dark verrrry quickly if it was. Not that I believe this comic would ever be crass or gratuitous about it.

  • Catherine Kehl

    And there is kind of the slow reveal taking place on the board – hey, wait, what happened to Violet? Wait, she moved out? Alison never really seemed to pay any real attention to her moving out as such?

    You are, of course, correct. Alison is quite justifiably wrapped up in her own life, as we have been seeing it. Closer examination hints that Violet has been having her own crisis, off stage, but we don’t know the details, and it has not been Alison’s concern. As observers, I could wish we could separate ourselves enough from Alison’s viewpoint to see that other things are unfolding here, off stage, as it were, but the reaction is not surprising.

    But I am a little frustrated that after Violet moved out – apparently with no drama or fanfare – and then moves back in apparently at the behest of the roommates and with it being their idea, it’s all portrayed as Violet being passive aggressive. Um, really? Does anything in how Violet is portrayed give you the impression that this was her plan or that she’s comfortable about how it affects Alison? Why do we default to she’s a scheming bitch – hell, most of what we’ve seen from her would indicate a default direct approach, I’d think.

    • Lostman

      Well… we have find out later what happening with her, mostly what we get is what the creators show us. But right now Alison needs to solve one of her manly (I made a whole list, it’s somewhere down below) her housing problem, after wards she needs to work out her priorities; is she going to be a student or a solider. My biggest issue with the whole Mary situation is that Alison lost a lot and gained nothing in turn.

  • Santiago Tórtora

    False accusations can also be sincere cases of mistaken identification.

  • MrSokar

    On a side note I still don’t know who’s the worst. Violet or Furnace.

  • Sarah

    Even if Violet (or the others) have their reasons (I think they do, Vi is likely to be traumatized by the whole story and it’s been established that stuff gets broken and people get killed around Al), packing up people’s stuff and kicking them out of the door without giving them time to process it/find a new place is incredibly shitty.

  • Sarah

    Even if Violet (or the others) have their reasons (I think they do, Vi is likely to be traumatized by the whole story and it’s been established that stuff gets broken and people get killed around Al), packing up people’s stuff and kicking them out of the door without giving them time to process it/find a new place is incredibly shitty

  • Dirka

    Regardless whether anyone’s being a dick or a victim or whatever: I cannot get over how stupid they are.

    I mean sure, you’ve just been a major inconvenience to someone who can pulverize your spleen with their pinkie. And they’re being extremely cool about it. Not a word of protest or anything. So why the hell would you deny them such a simple request? That’s not a safe, sane choice.

    Why, if they’re so terrified of Al, do they not take this easy step to appease her?

  • anon

    This makes no sense. You can’t just kick your roommate out of a dorm room. If that were the case, freshman-year roommates wouldn’t be so widely regarded as hellish. Roommate not clean enough?
    Kick ’em out! Hell, just kick ’em out pre-emptively and get yourself a large room all to yourself.

  • dragonus45

    Depends on why you lied, also there are several cases of vigilante justice resulting in the death of an accused rapist who turned out to be innocent so some people would rather let that happen then admit they lied about something. Also if all of her “Research” involved sodium pentathol then there are some serious unavoidable concerns because that drug leaves the person being tortured very very suggestible and prone to falling answering yes to a question if the person asking it is assuming guilt or even just phrases the question and tone wrong.

  • dragonus45

    An expert in information gathering would never use sodium thiopental.

    • Daniel Martin

      We don’t know whether actual accurate truth serum is a thing in the universe SFP happens in. After all, all sorts of counter-factual things (like invisibility, telepaths, invisible young women) already exist there, so if Moonshadow used sodium thiopental I’ll just assume that “sodium thiopental actually works and lives up to the hype” is part of the setting.

  • MrSokar

    You can do it! Just image what Al might have to say about it.

  • chaosvii

    Alison = Mega Girl = A protagonist that is dealing with problems that don’t need punching

  • Worn-Storm

    My bad. Not Allison the other girl.

  • Catherine Kehl

    That seems like a reasonable interpretation.

    Though “Don’t kill him,” is one of those things that people say, often pretty cluelessly. As in “This guy who I don’t know came up behind me, gave me a ‘hug’ and grabbed and squeezed one breast, and now I’ve put him in a position where he only is even going to hurt worth mentioning if he struggles and I’m not even close to dislocating his shoulder or doing anything like real damage,” and people are all “Don’t kill him!”

    I think a lot of people are pretty clueless about violence, and have some kind of messed up priorities. (Discussing this with a very good male friend I was all “What, am I just too quick on the trigger? I think I’m pretty mellow unless someone really pushes it.” My friend pointed out that if you tried such crap on a guy, there’s a pretty good chance he’d just haul off and punch you in the face.)

  • masterofbones

    If she sat on a streetcorner and begged, yes she would become invisible. People would go out of their way not to notice her or make eye contact.

    Beggars on the street are invisible. Alison has never been and will never be invisible. She is too powerful for that.

    …

    You are confusing “doesn’t see” with “doesn’t care”. Only the first is invisibility. The second is just being part of society.

  • Sorry, does anyone remember in what chapter Violet moved out? I thought they were roommates, but Alison seems surprised to see her stuff there. I feel like there’s a scene I’ve forgotten/missed.

  • Ever Díaz

    Hi, I kinda lost here :/ I’m aware of all the Miles’ thing, from the fight at the party to the Miles’ murderer, but I really don’t remember when or why exactly Violet moved. Did that happen? I just skipped it? or it was just implied? Also, I totally agree with ‘masterofbones’, it’s not the same that someone be invisible for me and that I totally put that person aside because I disagree with him/her or because that’s convenient for me or for my interests. I think Allison was not exactly invisible here, it is not like she was unnoticed, more like she was discarded or dismissed. Thanks for answer my question!

  • Clearly they were shit friends. Fuck ’em, she’s better off without them.

  • Charles Cameron Olson

    I think a quote from Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children applies to this use of “safe”: “We don’t need you to make us feel safe, Jake. Because you made us feel brave. And that’s even better.”

    Some amount of self-preservation is wise, but at some point, usually quite quickly, it becomes destructive and cowardly. Compassion requires exposing oneself to injury. Healing from major injuries requires painful rehab. Self-control is better than other-control.

  • And yet she absolutely refused to kill him, going so far as to injure herself instead of seeing him harmed before she was sure. I’m fairly certain she hasn’t crossed that line. (Yet.)