1) I suspect that Brad spent way too much time around Alison when they were both in their early teens (and probably vice versa) to be interested. It sounds like she was not super appealing right then.

Mind you, I am all in favor of more Brad, because Brad is clearly awesome.

2) Hello?!! Can we NOT have yet another cute girl goes after the non-standardly attractive guy retelling of Beauty and the Beast? Because really? So, so, done, and do we need to feed those particular gendered archetypes anymore?

If anyone non-standardly attractive people are getting awesome mates, I want the story to be about Amanda. All in favor?

(Though “Amanda finds happiness through something else other than love and then gets hooked up more or less by accident,” would be just awesome – because women’s lives don’t revolve around romance, y’know?”)

Hey! Hot guys aren’t all bad!

Well, one of them was a bigot who ended up literally exploding at her, but my point still stands.

uh, he’s some kind of aardvark person. I don’t think he’s what she’s looking for.

Why do you think Brad is interested in her?

Honestly? After what’s happened this week, even the mention of shipping makes me flinch.

You’ve never recognized the voice of a friend or family member in a crowd? And presumably tracking his teammates’ locations and conditions by listening to their vital signs is something he picked up while fighting alongside them for years (an undoubtedly noisy activity).

Convention attendees aren’t attending merely to express emotion, but instead want to participate in a community forum. The issues facing this community are broad and systematic. Anger in the face of such injustice is entirely reasonable. The community is made up of people who are angry about how they are being treated. To attempt to censor or stifle that anger would only serve to inhibit the sort of community bonds being sought. It is a fundamental shared characteristic of the biodynamorphic community that they are treated unfairly. Insisting that nobody mention their raw-deal would strike me as very counterproductive.

I think it’s a mistake to conflate expressing rage with shouting down presenters or insulting other patrons. There are a lot of ways of expressing rage. Some are more pro-social than others.

This is a forum where rage gets expressed, but not a forum for expressing rage. The angry guests we have seen were not supported in their rage by the holders of the event, and where either taken aside or asked not to attack other guests. I do not feel that that is a license for angry guests to let their worst sides out, nor do I feel that the angry guests that do come here invalidate the value of the event.

This comic neither explores nor even brings that idea up.
I’m of the opinion that producing such a forum would be ripe for exploiting the pain of others for the sake of personal enrichment by encouraging people to engage in anti-critical thinking and to simply go wherever the mood of the crowd takes them (or is led, for that matter).

This convention affords people a freedom from death threats & (further) unhinged social ostracism should they express that rage, then fairly immediately focuses on allowing these people the chance to appreciate that their behavior indicates that their emotions require addressing for a healthier life.
It’s a freedom that some express in an impulsive manner and others don’t. But it’s not encouraged, merely allowed so it can later be criticized in a constructive & healthy fashion. Because as you said, bottling it up is bad. Presumably, those depicted expressing rage have bottled it up for too long or in such extreme ways that to be in an environment where they’re no longer forced to do so results in a potent equalizing emotional expression. But note that while they exist, they are still depicted as a minority of convention-goers.

I think expressing rage in a safe, supportive place is the exact way we *stop* ourselves from acting on our worst inpulses. And sure, coming to a convention with the express purpose of shouting at or insulting people is messed up, but I don’t think that’s what this is.

Remember, this isn’t a typical con, but a collective helping people accepting a vital part of their identity. This isn’t people shouting about an episode of tv or a comic they didn’t like: they’re shouting about being legitimately disenfranchised or dehumanized. I think that’s a reasonable thing to be upset about, so long as it is expressed and addressed in a non-violent way.

Sometimes rage is the exactly appropriate emotion.

Its not actually a pejorative. Both pots and kettles back in the day were black due to being constantly burned/seasoned whatever the proper phrase was. So the pot calling the kettle black would be like me trying to call you an internet commentor. Its like, “Yeah? So are you buddy.”

Our Bandinis were Spanish, briefly by way of Peru, so perhaps not, then – or only very distantly. (I’ve been poking at the history there a bit, as I’ll be in San Diego this fall for a conference, and am thinking of skiving off and visiting the old family place, which has apparently been made into a restaurant and hotel.)