Revenge of Ask T Questions

[Fen]

T, I would first like to thank you for such a fantastic comic. I look forward to Wednesday, and the spin-off, and following whatever other projects you may have. I'd also like to mention how much I loved the blanks that you filled in about Lisa and Stan's relationship - that was just amazing.

+1

[Twitcher]

Meg is disappointed? What was she hoping for? Or is the problem that she doesn't even know?

[Ele]

I don't expect an answer, but I have to ask... will we EVER find out what becomes of our heroines or is it something that will eternally be left to our imagination?

[TCampbell]

"us"? So you're involved?

Jason is involved.

[TCampbell]

T, I would first like to thank you for such a fantastic comic. I look forward to Wednesday, and the spin-off, and following whatever other projects you may have. I'd also like to mention how much I loved the blanks that you filled in about Lisa and Stan's relationship - that was just amazing.

I was just wondering - what's Karen doing now? I apologize if this was already answered, but I don't believe I've seen it.

Also, during the Popsicle Wars days, Karen latched on to so many people from Penny and Aggie's school. Did she ever end up with any friends from her own school, or did her unpopularity pre-makeover prevent her from gaining influence?

Define "friends."

We did see, briefly, that Karen had defined herself as an alpha at her own school, lording it over some of her former tormentors. But you can have a sort of default "popularity" without anyone actually really liking you all that much. In a way, the Injustice Gang were as close as she got to friends, because they at least shared legitimate common interests.

These days, Karen is a party planner, and a reasonably successful one (and no, she hasn't planned any parties as shady as her own were). But she is still not a well-liked individual. Her story is one of a failure to overcome one's past grievances and insecurities, and I don't think it would retain its meaning if she grew out of all that, despite Aggie's best efforts.

[Alice Macher]

Who was the class valedictorian for the main cast's year?

[TCampbell]

Meg is disappointed? What was she hoping for? Or is the problem that she doesn't even know?

Meg's superiority complex made regular disappointment in her life pretty much inevitable.

[TCampbell]

T, were you laughing maniacally when you saw how our reactions kept doing a roller-coaster all over the place?

I've been trying to compose an answer to Zanosuke Kurosaki, but I really don't think I can without giving spoilers. I'll just say that I do like to surprise you, but that's probably obvious.

Well! Now that the strip's done, you can answer this one, yah?

Honestly, I spent most of "The Last Summer of Youth" nervous as hell that I was doing it all wrong, and the roller-coaster of emotions, while part of the plan, didn't allay those fears.

[TCampbell]

I don't expect an answer, but I have to ask... will we EVER find out what becomes of our heroines or is it something that will eternally be left to our imagination?

Well, you saw what became of the heroines we knew: Penny and Aggie had an experimental summer romance that fell apart in their senior year, but it left them stronger and more well-balanced, and able to reconnect in later years as friends and perhaps once again as romantic partners.

But the answer you're probably looking for here is "imagination." This is, chronologically at least, Penny and Aggie's last appearance. It's not a coincidence that a lot of my work is a celebration of possibility, and "possibility" was the note I wanted to end the relationship on. (Or to put it another way, yes, I do love the open endings. Though next time I may have to do a closed one, just to keep you all off balance.)

The whole last story. and maybe the whole series, was a bit of exercise in misdirection. It's the story of a relationship, sure, but it's even more importantly the story of self-discovery a deux. The reason not many high school relationships endure is that most high schoolers haven't entirely figured out who they are and what they want in life. Penny and Aggie were always agents of change in each other, pushing the other, by virtue of their presence, to become things they never expected to be. Now they're largely successful adults, fulfilled in their work even if without a romantic partner, and more mature about relationships as well.

This is the point, for me. It's an aspect of the series that's present in the very first story, well before the shippers had any ammunition at all. You can't entirely separate it from the romance. But it supersedes the romance.

There is a similarity to the open ending of Cool Cat Studio in particular-- both of them end with a decision to pursue which tells us something about the character deciding. In Liz's case, she finally commits to sharing her history with someone, and to risking a deep, true connection where she's not hiding behind her mysterious airs. In Aggie's case, she thinks over who she is now... is satisfied that Penny isn't merely clinging to the past... and opens the door to a date. Such a decision seems to me like a much more critical turning point than kissing or sexing, which would feel incredibly rushed, and it'd be hard to say whether that was true love or a one-night mistake. This is a statement about who they have become.

[TCampbell]

Who was the class valedictorian for the main cast's year?

Duane.

[NobodySpecial]

T, were you laughing maniacally when you saw how our reactions kept doing a roller-coaster all over the place?

I've been trying to compose an answer to Zanosuke Kurosaki, but I really don't think I can without giving spoilers. I'll just say that I do like to surprise you, but that's probably obvious.

Well! Now that the strip's done, you can answer this one, yah?

Honestly, I spent most of "The Last Summer of Youth" nervous as hell that I was doing it all wrong, and the roller-coaster of emotions, while part of the plan, didn't allay those fears.

Do you feel vindicated now, or do you think you just got lucky? Serious question, since I know many authors consider some of their best works to be mistakes or flawed in some elemental fashion.

Put another way, do you think you did your story the justice you felt it deserved? Or is it too early to ask that?

[TCampbell]

T, were you laughing maniacally when you saw how our reactions kept doing a roller-coaster all over the place?

I've been trying to compose an answer to Zanosuke Kurosaki, but I really don't think I can without giving spoilers. I'll just say that I do like to surprise you, but that's probably obvious.

Well! Now that the strip's done, you can answer this one, yah?

Honestly, I spent most of "The Last Summer of Youth" nervous as hell that I was doing it all wrong, and the roller-coaster of emotions, while part of the plan, didn't allay those fears.

Do you feel vindicated now, or do you think you just got lucky? Serious question, since I know many authors consider some of their best works to be mistakes or flawed in some elemental fashion.

Put another way, do you think you did your story the justice you felt it deserved? Or is it too early to ask that?

I'd say it's a combination of the two, although I think it's probably too early to see the real mistakes in this last story. Much as I love the readership and its enthusiasm, it's taken an effort to "hear" exactly what was right for the characters at any given point, once I started provoking squeals by playing up the romance angle. Not that I didn't know I was going to provoke them, but you get what I mean. There was a temptation to resolve things between them more neatly and easily, and a smaller temptation to really annihilate their relationship and leave nothing but scorched earth just to say "sometimes that's what happens." But I think this is the ending truest to them. They could never have made their romance work much longer than they did, but they could also never have not tried. And Aggie's penultimate speech balloon, I hope, guides the reader to the real point of the story and the series, without being preachy about it. So, yeah. I think it works, and that's the best I can hope for.

[Mung]

I thought the ending was spot on for our heroines.
They were always works in progress, and that doesn't stop after high school. It should finish "in process".

[rebochan]

I liked it.

Y'all know I'm of the "this isn't going to work" side, but I like the idea of them giving it a try again. As adults. They have their last date, they realize they're really not the same people anymore. But they don't need each other either. They can move on amicably, setting the last part of their high school selves aside with confidence.

That's what I like to think. Fortunately, the ending lets the people who were really rooting for them imagine the next panel was them tearing each other's clothes off right then and there.

[Alice Macher]

Fortunately, the ending lets the people who were really rooting for them imagine the next panel was them tearing each other's clothes off right then and there.

Hee hee hee! I know you're exaggerating, but this provides me with an opportunity to say that I think Aggie's encouraging smile in the final panel suggests the following is possible:

They will agree to give dating another try, but taking it slow, not necessarily sexually, but commitment-wise. After all, they're now adults. They've matured and are well on the way to understanding and actualizing who they are. On the other hand, they're still in their early twenties. So there's no rush, no need for "OMG if I don't partner up nownowNOW I'll be infertile," nor for "OMG if I don't partner up nownowNOW I'll be faced with a dwindling pool of eligible people I'd want to be with." Rather, they can take their time, get reacclimatized to each other's day-to-day accomplishments, stressors, concerns, to their values and goals as they stand now, and then decide if they want to spend the rest of their lives together.

It's possible that with greater life experience, Aggie's developed both a more realistic view of her skills in various areas, as well as a thicker skin in response to criticism. It's also possible that Penny, even if not able magically to transform into Ms. Empathy 2017, has nonetheless learned not to say the first thing that comes to her mind in awkward situations. And with greater maturity, there's a very good chance they'll avoid the intimacy mistakes they made when dating as teenagers, such as jumping to conclusions about each other's sexual preferences or having sex while fighting. To those here who are into kink: I'm not saying they'll decide anything and everything of that sort is evil and wrong and disgusting. They may well find they still like some form of BDSM. If so, what I suspect would be different this time is that they'd be more informed, more communicative and thus more likely to keep it always "safe, sane and consensual."

It's called maturity. If Tamar and I had met at age 16 and decided after a few months we just had to make a commitment, would it have worked out? Probably not. But five years (we're 21 and started seeing each other when we were 20, having met and become friends at 19 going on 20) can make a big difference. And Penny and Aggie are now six years older. At 23, they've got two years on us. Can they make it work this time? I say if that's what they really want...yes!