Revenge of Ask T Questions

[TCampbell]

So while we're at it (FOrgive me T, Forgive me!);
What happened to Mrs. Simms? Did she ever forgive her daughter for all her actions? Did they ever make any contact afterwards?

And Cyndi; Charlotte...

Helen.
I wonder, did Helen ever know about what happened to Cyndi and Charlotte? Did it have any effect to her mentality; knowing that at least some people who treated her like trash -are- insane, to say the least? (although I guess timeline-wise, she'd probably still struggled with a missing wallet and a fake application. So..)

And I don't know if this has been asked or not...and especially due to where she is now,
but what did she learn during her life in the Boston / S*P world? From what we'd seen, some of the viciousness have clung on her... that would also imply a certain directness and a certain willingness to speak her own mind. Are there any other (significant) things she learned during her time there?

Mrs. Simms did contact her daughter. In time, the sin of attempted murder became much less of a problem for her than Charlotte's differing views and quiet but firm grip on them. After a childhood of desperately trying to placate her mother wherever possible, Charlotte had simply lost all fear of her, and there wasn't much to their relationship without that.

Randy has carte blanche with Helen, yes. I have to imagine the official Cyndi story reached her at some point, but that official story is that Charlotte went crazy and kidnapped her, then nearly committed suicide, and poor Cyndi was so traumatized that she was left in a mental institution. There's not much about that story that wouldn't say to Helen, "Good thing you got out of that burg while the getting was good."

[TCampbell]

And I don't know if this has been asked or not...and especially due to where she is now,
but what did she learn during her life in the Boston / S*P world? From what we'd seen, some of the viciousness have clung on her... that would also imply a certain directness and a certain willingness to speak her own mind. Are there any other (significant) things she learned during her time there?

Pardon my jumping in here: T has said before that he's leaving what happens to Helen while in Boston entirely up to Randy Milholland. And those of us who've been following Something Positive know that Randy still has a lot of her misadventures to tell, whenever he chooses to do so. So I wouldn't be surprised if T himself has no idea what Randy specifically has planned for her. Randy even strongly implied, in a tweet in reply to me, that he doesn't even feel bound by Helen's apparently happy ending in "Six Septembers Later." Take that as you will.

Yeah, I tried to coordinate "SSL" with Randy a bit, but the way he works, that's just not possible.

[Trefle]

Yes.

OOOooooooOOOooh.

Pardon my jumping in here: T has said before that he's leaving what happens to Helen while in Boston entirely up to Randy Milholland. And those of us who've been following Something Positive know that Randy still has a lot of her misadventures to tell, whenever he chooses to do so. So I wouldn't be surprised if T himself has no idea what Randy specifically has planned for her. Randy even strongly implied, in a tweet in reply to me, that he doesn't even feel bound by Helen's apparently happy ending in "Six Septembers Later." Take that as you will.

Randy has carte blanche with Helen, yes. I have to imagine the official Cyndi story reached her at some point, but that official story is that Charlotte went crazy and kidnapped her, then nearly committed suicide, and poor Cyndi was so traumatized that she was left in a mental institution. There's not much about that story that wouldn't say to Helen, "Good thing you got out of that burg while the getting was good."

Yeah, I'd still love to see where Randy will bring her to. But I guess I don't know the degree of the rein RKM has, which apparently, everything.

And for all its worth, SSL's incarnation of Helen might just be her going back to her original looks, before going home, putting off the wig, donning her superhero outfit and back to haunting the streets of Boston. Or Belleville. Either way, Glad that she could find some (....admittedly screwed up) degree of relief.

T, IINM I remembered you saying that Helen's issues are something even you cannot handle. -If- this is not personal (if so, feel free not to answer), what is it about her that you found harder to handle, than Charlotte and Cyndi's issues, which is... IMHO, several layers more messed up?

[TCampbell]

It was more like I couldn't resolve the issues in the context of Penny and Aggie. Helen's issues were centered on popular teens in general and Penny in particular. After "The Popsicle War," there was no one in the cast who was not popular, not aligned with the popular folks, and capable of saying anything about Helen's issues. What she really needed was a "big sister" or parent figure who'd take her in hand, but no one in the cast would qualify and adding a new character for that purpose felt forced and lame.

Helen's a tough nut because she's got such developed self-defeating narratives. "They're only being nice to me to feel good about themselves," etc. It takes someone Helen has to admit is wiser than her to get past that. I wouldn't judge her issues as resolved at this point, but she has a chance now, which is interesting.

By comparison, Charlotte's issues were resolved by a combination of Duane's best efforts, a little bit of Katy-Ann's and a lot of luck. Cyndi's never were. (Although it's hard to say that they were "issues" exactly, since they didn't impair her happiness.

[LookingIn]

You beat me to it by the Duane and Katy Ann mention above, but if not for the kidnapping would Charlotte have developed into a different character beyond the bible-thumper, staunch conservatively dressed girl that she was previously?

[TCampbell]

You beat me to it by the Duane and Katy Ann mention above, but if not for the kidnapping would Charlotte have developed into a different character beyond the bible-thumper, staunch conservatively dressed girl that she was previously?

She already had.

[Valerie]

This may have been asked already, but how do Cyndi and Charlotte end up? We see in SSL that Charlotte is still in prison but that she'll be "released soon." And The Giver just popped into my head. Bonus points if anyone knows why. Does she end up happy? Married? Have a career? All the same questions for Cyndi. Does her stay at the mental institution help her any?

[TCampbell]

This may have been asked already, but how do Cyndi and Charlotte end up? We see in SSL that Charlotte is still in prison but that she'll be "released soon." And The Giver just popped into my head. Bonus points if anyone knows why. Does she end up happy? Married? Have a career? All the same questions for Cyndi. Does her stay at the mental institution help her any?

Charlotte has a good chance at a good post-prison life. Cyndi... I'm pessimistic that she'll ever truly be fixed. I'd rather not get more specific than that. Even in this backstory Q&A, you've got to leave off telling the story somewhere.

[Valerie]

Well, at least one of them ends up okay. Thank you, T.

Did Maritza ever write that Cyndi story?

[Twitcher]

I'm hesitant to even ask this question, but is Ronnie going to use his nonneurotypicality as an excuse for jerkassery? Then again, he doesn't even seem to realize that what he did was jerkassery. Does he understand that he doesn't understand? Does he understand that people could try to understand? (YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND! YOU ALL UNDERSTAND! I mean, don't understand. Dear Strong Bad... how do you type with boxing gloves on?!)

[TCampbell]

Well, at least one of them ends up okay. Thank you, T.

Did Maritza ever write that Cyndi story?

Not that I'm aware of.

[TCampbell]

I'm hesitant to even ask this question, but is Ronnie going to use his nonneurotypicality as an excuse for jerkassery? Then again, he doesn't even seem to realize that what he did was jerkassery. Does he understand that he doesn't understand? Does he understand that people could try to understand? (YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND! YOU ALL UNDERSTAND! I mean, don't understand. Dear Strong Bad... how do you type with boxing gloves on?!)

We're not done with Ronnie yet.

[Valerie]

I'm hesitant to even ask this question, but is Ronnie going to use his nonneurotypicality as an excuse for jerkassery? Then again, he doesn't even seem to realize that what he did was jerkassery. Does he understand that he doesn't understand? Does he understand that people could try to understand? (YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND! YOU ALL UNDERSTAND! I mean, don't understand. Dear Strong Bad... how do you type with boxing gloves on?!)

You have no idea how much I love you for that reference.

[thebitterfig]

This has probably been asked and answered, but I'm curious about what I'd consider the two oddest names in P&A. Tharqua and Braz. So where'd those names come from? Braz short for Fortinbras, cause that'd rule.

[TCampbell]

This has probably been asked and answered, but I'm curious about what I'd consider the two oddest names in P&A. Tharqua and Braz. So where'd those names come from? Braz short for Fortinbras, cause that'd rule.

Braz is the name of one of my old college friends, a big guy who has virtually nothing else in common with Braz-the-strip-character. I'm not sure what it's short for, but I always liked the sound of it.

Tharqa (no u) is the name of an Andean flute. At first I wanted a name with no preconceptions, but then I took some time to think about who would pick a name like that, and decided her parents were the sort of hippies not good at telling anybody "no." Tharqa's character started snowballing from there.