Copyright notice: It probably hardly needs pointing out the webcomic Strong Female Protagonist discussed and linked here is owned by the authors Molly Ostertag and Brendan Lee Mulligan.
Well well well. I've taken a break from rereading for a full day because I didn't know what I should say about this exchange. In my limbo, I have been reading the comic Powers, playing Clicker Heroes, watching some potent streams of A Highland Song, thinking about catching up on the X-Files i left behind three decades ago, and watching the reality TV reinvention show Strip Search, but this reread and the multiple browser tabs I keep open for it never left my mind.
Ironically the trouble is me having the same white girl problem as Alison does here: Thinking that I need to have an opinion.
And more than that, she thinks she needs to be the one to solve the problem of Tara's elective perpetual surgical torture. Before, she was in pain because of sympathy for the terrible thing her friend is poised to endure. I'm sure she still is. But here is also the pain of cognitive dissonance because she feels the need to save Tara and can't accept that Tara is allowed to make this decision to be in pain in order to help a lot of people all by herself.
Is it a good or a bad decision? Maybe it's worth it to Tara, or maybe once she's in surgery she will feel forced to keep it up even though she wants to pull the brakes just because it's better than admitting she was wrong and it was a bad idea. The thing I'm realizing is, because I'm not in a position to decide if I want to have my organs painfully harvested while I'm still alive to help other people stay alive and healthy and I never will be, I'm not entitled to have an opinion about Tara's choice in the matter.
That's not an argument about abortion rights on purpose, it just happened that way.
Oh and Patrick was there too. (Tee hee.)
43
In which Patrick arrives at the diagnosis of Ms Green that the rest of us already have.
44
Going by these last pages alone, a lot of this chapter may be just me catching up to the comic saying things I have already talked about and/or have made notes about needing to talk about later. But at any rate, I do think we as a society don't give enough credit to the things that SFP does, including this scene of the hero and the villain sitting in a hotel room eating icecream and discussing how to save a life.
45
The most relatable villain origin.
46, 47
Just a grown man experiencing cartoon comedy for the first time
There's a theory Patrick's verbosity is a way to deal with his problem of keeping track of his own body that I like. He sometimes comes across as Explaining Things Without Provocation Man but if we take it how much he talks is more about how agitated he is than how relevant he thinks the things he's saying are it's rather understandable.
Also, it's cool to be demonstrative about liking the things you like.
48, 49
It only becomes real when you become aware of it happening, eh.
50
Of course the vending machine is a victim of misdirected aggression and all that serious stuff, but this is still hilarious.
51
Not sure if this page does anything but build tension and show how annoying Patrick can be under time pressure.
52, 53
I think it's never explained why "NEF" is a slur. These bigots remind me a lot of trans exclusionists who get so wrapped up in their cult-like jargon they fail to realize normal people don't know that they think they're insulting you by using the word "TRA", or that they attach a bunch of implications about the horrors of runaway decency to the word "pronouns".
And yes these people make no sense. Tara killed this guy Wyatt, alright, so she should. . .not donate organs because. . .Wyatt might have donated his? And that's about the most reasonable of these protests. Conservatives could save us all so much energy if they cut out all the bad faith bullshit arguments and just said "the people I like can never be wrong and the people I don't like can never be right." Cause, you know, it doesn't matter to these people what Tara has done or what she will do, how good or bad it is, the only thing that matters is she's one of the lessers, the out-group, the Other. Biodynamic AND gay AND a violent criminal? Irredemable.
54
The "Former Mrs Girl" line really helps when everything's so bleak and tense and fraught. Good joke, Johnny. Oh you were serious? I'm sorry.
Does Alison ever lie except to keep Patrick's secrets? Yeah, yeah, it's easy to have principles when you're invincible and all, but it's fun that she has this one thing that matters more than truth. The Great Conspiracy which, remember, she really only has his word that it exists. It's maybe easy to see he's earnest about it and he probably isn't deluding himself (we know that he isn't, but the point is Alison doesn't), but she's based the direction of her life on the word of one person and that seems a bit much.
Of course she also wants to get in his pants.
Johnny clearly hasn't read What We Owe to Each Other. He's practically evangelical about selfishness and I'm glad he's going away.
Meanwhile Tara presents a stupid person's idea of a smart person in such an ingenious way I have to respect it. If you like to present yourself as a smarty, you're trapped - you can't argue that being smart is more than just being all talk because then you're talking. Do something nice for someone who isn't yourself and then maybe you've got a point.
It's probably unfair to insult Alison's intelligence as she does, but she's clearly entirely done with debates.
56
Hmm maybe Johnny is good to have around just now cause it means Alison isn't the most annoying person even when she continues to have forceful opinions at Tara after Tara explicitly says she doesn't want to hear them.
I'm making Alison sound like a monster for disagreeing, but she's not that bad. Just caring about her friend without reason or measure. It would probably be a sweet memory to hold on to for the torture, friends showing up to try and talk you out of it.
And of all the impossible things going on in this story, the one I have the most trouble believing is Tara's hometown Hot Coffee.
57
She slapped the shades off his face with her words, and it's almost pure comedy. Go home Johnny nobody likes you.
Aah, feelings! I knew it was coming, I've read this scene and gone over it in my head so many times, and it's buried under silly jokes and frustrating arguments where everyone has the best intentions and it's hidden in a single low key panel at the tail end of the page and it still hits like a twist of the knife.
59
Yaay, they made up. (Now if we could get in a little kissing too.) (Haha just kidding we know Alison is straighter than the ground of Nebraska) (unless ...?)
60, 61
And back to the murder plot. Yes we're ignoring you Johnny.
62
I feel like you're just baiting me now .(She said to a fictional character written years before.)
Okay fine, where's he getting this idea that Alison failing to change Tara's mind makes Tara's decision Alison's fault? It's so nonsensical I could believe he's just a hallucination giving voice to her feeling of guilt.
Also, nice reality check for Mr Why Do People Ever Do Things For Each Other. I hope he's a little freaked out.
63
Speaking of people not making sense, maybe they thought Tara could be killed with the flamethrower, but I doubt it. Guy murders a whole team of chromosomically stable doctors and slows down their plans to save a shitload of chromosomically stable sick people just to make a point about how much he hates biodynamics. Sure he's decided all those people he's making suffer are immoral just because of their association with the enemy but the math is so absurdly faulty. At a certain point he'd have to take a look at who's helping the people he professes to care about and who's harming them and have a "Are we the baddies?" moment.
64
In my headcanon, that punch was never going to hit. Just a gesture to get Johnny to teleport away. Of course the body count of the day isn't finished yet. . .
65
Alas, killing the shit out of murdering bigots is often going to take precedence over giving them time for self-reflection and growth.
Trying to have a useful exchange with an angry mob was probably a bad idea under any circumstance but this mob is just ridiculous. They're so sure she's not going to kill more of them, they feel safe to keep yelling slurs at her? Or did they all show up here for reals ready to be martyrs?
67
Well, there's a more reasonable reaction to finding out you pissed off Superman, just a bit slow.
Also, chuckles at Patrick's giant sign. Did he put that together in what, three seconds?
68, 69
Wild that everyone re so ready to try and restrain Alison when she noticeably loses her temper for probably the first time ever. Maybe they're always low key afraid of how she might hurt people. (Note however no one's scared to be alone with her, just scared for other, third party people. Whatever that means.)
70
This whole prison, with the meters-thick walls and guards armed with tanks and anti-aircraft guns, is possibly built just for Daniel. Very Kung Fu Panda, especially with the restraints stopping him from moving one hair blade and the complete lack of anything for him to do or see - except it's not presented like we're supposed to predict how he's going to escape.
71
Building bridges, not complicated work, but it's difficult, it takes effort.
72
So mean to make a guy cry when he doesn't even have hands to hide the tears.
73
Actually, the prison DJ could be real. I choose to believe Daniel at least gets music and we just don't hear it cause it's not important to the comic. And the needle skip from the DJ being shocked could be real. Okay fine Alison probably wouldn't be this honest if the DJ could hear her.
Change "probably" to "definitely," damn.
75
The density of good words on these pages make me speechless.
There's more that unites you and me, dear reader, than there is that divides us. Doesn't matter who you are or what you do or where you go, you can always form meaningful connections with people if you want to. We can just look for the things we have in common, and they are there. The comic isn't unique in delivering this message, but it's a good message, one of many the comic has to tell us.
76
Aah such good words.
77
I mentioned making effort. Like how hard do you think it is for Alison to say even half of these things?
78
Maybe it's more the cumulative weight of all these words, but for some reason "they deserve better" was the part that got me.
I need a cigarette now.
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