11/09/11 - HAHAHAHAHAHA!

[Valerie]

I don't wanna start a fight or anything, but I really have to ask. How is Sara like Cyndi? They're both decent planners, sure, but I think the similarities stop there.

[Zanosuke Kurosaki]

I don't wanna start a fight or anything, but I really have to ask. How is Sara like Cyndi? They're both decent planners, sure, but I think the similarities stop there.

Sara is a bit of an untrained Cyndi. She's got the potential to manipulate and use, and she's also got a bit of the uncaring heart going on. You could almost say that at this point in her life, she's kind of between light and dark, with dark being "more like Cyndi", and light being "learning to stop being so proud to be a bitch." (Note: with that last bit, I am para-phrasing what Penny herself said shortly after Sara came out, not shooting for insults. There we go.)

[Alice Macher]

Mm. Sara does have a snarky side, mostly seen in her earlier, closeted period, as was her "detached observer" side, noted by Karen here. But Penny's affectionate labelling of her BFF and herself notwithstanding, I've never seen Sara as a bitch or uncaring or any such thing. Even the manipulative bit...she didn't really get good at that until towards the climax of "The New Reality" when she realized, with help from Rich's pep-talk, she could turn the drama-mongering, wheeling-and-dealing aspect of the show to her own advantage.

Her main failings, I think, have been: an initial rush to judgement of others she later has cause to regret (something she has in common with Daphne, not to mention Aggie); a "wandering eye" (as Penny put it); and at times a certain cowardice when it came to facing up to difficult decisions (seen especially with how she handled her having fallen out of love with Daph). But even at her worst, I don't see Sara as anywhere near uncaring or malicious.

Quite the opposite: Sara, when not preoccupied with her own troubles, can be very compassionate. Look at how quickly she went from a dismissal of Lucy as "dumb as a bag of broken hammers" to feeling empathy for her suffering under Hilary's bullying, standing up for her to Hilary, and offering to switch rooms. Yes, she later let those feelings carry her away into imagining she and Lucy were an OTP and that she'd be Lucy's protector throughout life, but that doesn't negate the world of good she did Lucy during the show taping.

[Zanosuke Kurosaki]

Quite the opposite: Sara, when not preoccupied with her own troubles, can be very compassionate. Look at how quickly she went from a dismissal of Lucy as "dumb as a bag of broken hammers" to feeling empathy for her suffering under Hilary's bullying, standing up for her to Hilary, and offering to switch rooms. Yes, she later let those feelings carry her away into imagining she and Lucy were an OTP and that she'd be Lucy's protector throughout life, but that doesn't negate the world of good she did Lucy during the show taping.

My only issue with that example is pretty simple. How much of that was genuine compassion, and how much of it was her growing attraction to Lucy? Note, her growing attraction to Lucy while still in that relationship she'd so recently told Daphne she wanted to be in with her. Which then brings us right back to her "wandering eye." Oh, and she can be a bit oblivious in a bad way - here we go. Here's Daphne in a very good mood, obviously thinking about "maybe someday...?", and there Sara goes, making a snarky comment about the Facebook founder. Which brings up a huge "?" over my head, because other than a clumsy attempt at misdirection, I can't see where Sara was going with that one.

I have agree with lokisdottir on this one. She's going to be interesting to watch, but until Sara realizes she's not been nearly the awesome person she thought she was, I don't really know that I'd want to be friends with her.

[Kamino Neko]

Here's Daphne in a very good mood, obviously thinking about "maybe someday...?", and there Sara goes, making a snarky comment about the Facebook founder. Which brings up a huge "?" over my head, because other than a clumsy attempt at misdirection, I can't see where Sara was going with that one.

Seems a pretty clear 'yeah, but it ain't gonna happen'. Building a house, replacing Zuckerberg, and coming clean about Lucy...all no goes.

[Ollie]

I don't think that Sara and Cyndi can really be called similar in anyway way, for the same reason that saying they could almost be twins because they both have have light skin tones and black hair.

You know, I would really like to see what Lisa in love would be like.

True. We've seen her with crushes, but...

We did? Who?

[Tamar]

I don't think that Sara and Cyndi can really be called similar in anyway way, for the same reason that saying they could almost be twins because they both have have light skin tones and black hair.

Thank you. Couldn't have put it better myself.

As for "crushes," I believe sun tzu meant Lisa's ever-changing celebrity crushes. Apart from that, we know from T's post about their FWB relationship that she came to like Stan a lot, but drew the line at allowing herself to fall in love with him, and asked him to do the same. Also that she had an easier time with sticking to that rule than he did.

[weirdfish13]

I'm feeling dumb, but could someone explain why Sara looks so sad over what looks like an extremely mundane social interaction?

[Alice Macher]

Sara's look in that panel seems ambiguous to me at this juncture. So far, what people here have speculated is this: She could be sad, maybe over Lisa getting all the attention, maybe over having failed to make a good impression on Temperance. She could be puzzled, as she was in the last strip, over her assumptions about Lisa being turned upside down. Or, she could be looking at that open door down the hall, maybe because it's Temperance's room and she's gathering the nerve to approach her and try again to break the ice. (The "Go ahead, I'll catch up" line might support that. If she were feeling blue, I'd have expected her to offer an excuse for why she couldn't join the others.) I guess we'll find out Friday.

[Zanosuke Kurosaki]

I guess we'll find out Friday.

T's the master at that, making us wait, with all our theories and crazy ideas buzzing around in our heads and posts. I still say there have to be some points where he does like the principal, and relishes in our suffering.

[lokisdottir]

Re Sara, of course she's a world apart from Cyndi--she knows right from wrong and does stand up for underdogs, at least in the somewhat ambiguous case of Lucy. The moral compass alone, not to mention the ability to form true relationships, puts her in a completely different category. However, they do share the qualities of reading people and using them for advantage, like pieces in a game. I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing, since the advantage can be for a good cause or a bad one. But I do think it's a quality that can keep her from engaging with people, and yes, even turn her bad. Put another way, I don't think Cyndi was wrong about recognizing something of herself in Sara.

Sara's defense to this part of herself seems to be creating a sort of paragon of light and sweetness who will her refuge from her own darker side. This was what she wanted of both Daphne and Lucy, who were her defenses against Cyndi and "Hollyworld" (and its own conniving women) respectively. Neither fit the mold, as Daphne had her own darkness and Lucy had (gasp) a mind of her own. I get the feeling Sara is going to try this route again with Temperance, and would like to see how she changes and what she learns abut herself in the process.

So yeah, I find Sara interesting, but so far I don't see what's especially great about her as a character or a person. She has heartfelt relationships, which is great but not that exciting in itself. She showed guts and honesty in dealing with the breakup with Daphne, which I saw as her best moment in Penny and Aggie. Other than that, I don't find her particularly endearing. Maybe the problem is that she was forced to suppress parts of herself or to be on the defensive for much of her life, about her sexuality, about the damn libel, and then her image and dignity. Now that she's out and about, so to speak, maybe she'll develop more fully as a person. I may like her better then, and I really would like to.

[Valerie]

All good counterpoints. I think I just misunderstood what you meant before. That said...

She showed guts and honesty in dealing with the breakup with Daphne

What.

[Alice Macher]

Yes, my defence of Sara notwithstanding, my impression of how Sara handled the breakup was just the opposite. She dithered for weeks about it, gave Daphne a somewhat specious reasoning for wanting to end things ("The problem is me. The problem is I don't trust you," "I always felt I had to choose between you and Penny"), rather than what was more or less the real reason, her falling in love with Lucy. And because she dithered and obfuscated so much, even during the breakup itself, Daphne jumped to the conclusion, from her having mentioned Penny, that Penny was still her "crush" after all these years, and stormed off with a "Fuck you" before Sara could correct her. None of this makes Sara a bad person, but it does suggest to me that she was anything but courageous and honest in this one case.

[sun tzu]

If it does become a recurring thing, I'm hoping Lisa--who can be quite good at reading people in between her attention-craving antics--will see what's going on and make an active effort to include her in socializing and maybe even play her up so that her new friends see what a great person Sara is too.

Is she? I like Sara, but so far I see her more as an interesting character than an awesome person. She's got game, definitely, as a strategist and planner, and her continuing efforts to find love make for a sympathetic and relateable story, but I can't think of a whole lot of redeeming qualities off the top of my head. Penny and Aggie were the ones with passion and leadership, Lisa has sensibility, insight, and compassion, Katy Ann was constantly seeking a moral and spiritual life, Brandi was both zesty and genuinely nice, Michelle lived with her issues by devoting herself to others, etc. Sara, though, I see as being very close to Cyndi except with some morals, and I wasn't surprised at their mutual attraction. It'll be interesting to see if Sara will continue to swivel between "raging (beep)holes" and "female Archie Andrews," trying to escape her attraction to the former by running to the latter. In a very real sense Sara is running from her own shadow, trying to reject it, and I'm interested in seeing where her story goes. I don't know if I'd want to be friends with her, though.

I gotta admit...Around the time of "The Popsicle Wars", I was getting the jarring impression that the population of Bellevile had spontaneously decided Sara was the best person ever, for no reason. So I do see a bit of what you're saying.
But she's not Cyndi. Cyndi is a human-shaped monster. Sara's an actual human being, and honestly, not a bad one.

[Adrishiana]

The problem with coming clean about Lucy, of course, is that:

1) Lucy was only one problem with a deeply flawed relationship - even without Lucy, Sara's experiences in Hollywood probably would have made her realize that she needs someone she can trust and that's not and has never been Daphne.
2) Coming clean about a wandering eye/emotional affair has a way of putting the burden on the party being come clean to instead of the person who actually did the deed (since now Sara gets to feel unburdened but Daphne has to live with the knowledge). Now, if Sara had actually slept with Lucy then honesty pre-resuming intimate relations with Daphne (if that actually happened) would be the best policy because otherwise it would be a matter of endangering Daphne's health. As it is, though, I don't think Sara was entirely incorrect in pointing out to Daphne that the problem is that Daphne is an untrustworthy POS, but adding in "oh, by the way, exactly the thing you were afraid of happened - I found somebody better than you (in about thirty seconds! it wasn't even all that hard!) while I was in Hollywood, and now it looks like you'll have to wait until college to get laid again after all :D" would have just been salt in the wound. Especially if Sara had added "AND NOW I NEVER HAVE TO LISTEN TO YOU RAMBLE ON POINTLESSLY ABOUT JOSS WHEDON BECAUSE YOU'RE SUCH A SELF-ABSORBED TWIT YOU DON'T CARE THAT NO ONE'S INTERESTED EVER AGAIN AHAHAHAHAHA."

Ahem.

(Now, there are several problems with how Sara did handle the relationship, starting with "she began it in the first place," and especially the end of it, but those have all been elucidated, so.)

In any case, Sara's a flawed person, but I don't think she's a bad one.