[11 Oct 11] You taste like math

[Kamino Neko]

The line doesn't sound particularly Cyndi-ish to me.

By which I don't mean I couldn't see Cyndi saying it - I totally could.

However, I could also see any number of other characters (including some of the main cast) saying it.

It's more indicative of arrogance or a certain naive cynicism than it is psychopathy.

[Tamar]

Kamino Neko, you are the wind beneath my wings. Well, the other wind beneath them. *remembers to watch her words <1 week before the ceremony*

[danslepoubelle]

Yeah, if Quiltbag has to have a villain, that villain should be more Charlotte than Cyndi. Someone who doesn't approve of all the freaks, not someone trying to "push people into the pool".

I'd be more interested in a Cyndi type. Not necessarily sociopathic but a wolf in sheeps clothing. Someone who seems like a friend but is slowly picking away at the casts insecurities. I suspect conflict created by that person would show more about the cast than conflict with someone who flatly and openly opposes their sexuality.

[Hexr]

All this Cyndi discussion feels somewhat disturbing. See, I could clearly see myself saying that. And I am not completely kidding when I say it.
Mind you, I am not completely serious, either. So no need to run, none at all.

[Adrishiana]

I think part of it is that they were in a private school. From what experience I've had (Catholic school until 8th grade, public school after), well... It's not really a secret that the education tends to be better at private schools, and knowledge certainly isn't everything, but I can honestly tell you that most of the eighth-graders from the Catholic school were more mature than a lot of the ninth-graders in the public schools. I assume it's related. *shrugs*

That can vary a lot depending on both the public and the private schools in a given area. I have a friend who was in parochial education from k-8th due to what her parents perceived (apparently with good reason) to be a lacking education at the local public schools. She moved into a new district and the public high school she landed at regularly beat the pants off the local private schools in academic competitions. Her experience re: maturity of private school 8th graders vs. public school 9th graders was pretty much the exact opposite of yours.

As it is, since Belleville appears to be a reasonably wealthy town, the differences in the quality of private vs. public school in their area may not be as stark as you might think - and if there is, the difference may not necessarily favor the private schools.

("So why would parents spend the money to send their kids to private schools if the public school is just as good or better?" In my experience, it's usually been that either there is an impression of prestige, the impression that everybody at public school ends up beaten up or pregnant, or the hope of keeping the kid separate from what the parent views as bad influences. Religion and the requirement of uniforms do often figure in, as well, but since neither of those appeared to be present at P&A's school that's less of a thing here.)

[Azrael44]

The line doesn't sound particularly Cyndi-ish to me.

By which I don't mean I couldn't see Cyndi saying it - I totally could.

However, I could also see any number of other characters (including some of the main cast) saying it.

It's more indicative of arrogance or a certain naive cynicism than it is psychopathy.

My first thought was Stan actually.

[MimsyBorogove]

The line doesn't sound particularly Cyndi-ish to me.

By which I don't mean I couldn't see Cyndi saying it - I totally could.

However, I could also see any number of other characters (including some of the main cast) saying it.

It's more indicative of arrogance or a certain naive cynicism than it is psychopathy.

My first thought was Stan actually.

If it's either of the two (Stan or Cyndi) I will be freakishly happy. Watching Penny and Aggie come to terms with their thing? That's a story. Watching Stan and/or Cyndi struggle with bursts of feelings against the darkness of Stan's apathetic ambitions and Cyndi's sociopathy? That's high, epic, Faustian, amazing drama. I loved those two.

[Louisa]

That "There's something missing in me" line sounds like Cyndi. Oh god is Cyndi back?

Huh, I assumed that line's speaker represented the "A" of QUILTBAG. People often act stupid when sexual attraction is involved, and I can imagine an asexual looking at that from the outside and going, "huh, that thing I lack sure does make people dumb. So I'm fairly cool with the fact that I don't have it, even if other people think I'm missing out."

[Mec]

"Tastes like math" would look awesome on a tee shirt.

[Mr. Brightside]

Yeah, if Quiltbag has to have a villain, that villain should be more Charlotte than Cyndi. Someone who doesn't approve of all the freaks, not someone trying to "push people into the pool".

BO-ring!

I mean, every comic has a fundie asshole, but how many have someone like Cyndi?

(I remember Googling her full name once and coming across a support blog for sociopaths citing her as a "positive example"...)

[TCampbell]

Yeah, it's real interesting to count among your readers someone who says, "The truth is that sociopaths are largely harmless." With all due respect, I think the author's definitions differ from mine.

[Valerie]

I think the author's definitions differ from mine.

I was about to point that out, but you already did it.

I might be getting my terms mixed up (we studied this when I was in 11th grade, so it's been a minute), but "sociopath" can be generally used to mean something like "someone who lacks empathy/normal human emotion." And most people who fit that will still try to do what's right, not necessarily because it's right, but because they're still human and need society as much as the rest of us.

As much as I love Cyndi to itsy bitsy pieces as a character, she wouldn't last long in the real world. I mean, even in the story, she ends up in a mental hospital at age seventeen. She's too arrogant to accept that she needs other people and should play by the rules.

[Tamar]

Ha, I remember coming across that blog post myself last winter.

As a senior-year psych major (planning to make clinical psychology a career), all I can say is this. Certainly, not all people with antisocial personality disorder (or whichever of several labels one chooses to give the cluster of beliefs and behaviours) end up lethally dangerous like Cyndi, nor do they all inevitably end up in jail or hospital. However, they do make workplaces miserable places to be for many people, and they do cause a great deal of emotional pain, and often financial loss as well, for relatives, romantic/sexual partners, and anyone else to whom they're able to get close enough to manipulate and use.

At best, persons with APD who recognize that they have a disorder in the first place, and care/are motivated enough to do something about it, can learn to act as if they have a conscience, as if they believe in some sort of personal moral code, and thereby get along functionally well with others. But that's very rare among persons with APD, and it involves their internalizing the belief that it's in their own best interest to do so, since that's the only motivation that means anything to them. But most such individuals, like those with other personality disorders (borderline, narcissistic, paranoid and others) don't respond well to therapy at all, because they just can't accept that it's their thinking and behaviour that's the problem.

[Kamino Neko]

My first thought was Stan actually.

Stan is one of the characters I can't see saying it, personally.

Believing it? Sure.

Saying it? No. He's certainly arrogant, but the last thing he wants is for people to realise that.

[Alice Macher]

Could be a thought balloon.

That said, it appears the question is moot:

...Man, it just hit me that we probably have presented Stan fully on-panel for the last time already. I thought he might show up in this one scene in the coda, but it doesn't really make sense for him to appear personally there. Nor is there a good story reason to bring him back in the spin-off, or even to do a little one-shot with him. "Mister Smiles" said what really needed to be said.