Helen in S*P

[Mung]

Yeah. the hair is kinda out there. I like the tats, because I've always wanted a huge tattoo like that. Problem is, tattoo = NEEDLES INTO YOUR FLESH, so I don't get a tattoo.

I always think of the Frank Zappa album "Weasels Rip My Flesh" whenever anyone says the word "flesh". I can't help it.
Great album. Loves me my FZ (& the Mothers).

[Alice Macher]

I always think of the Frank Zappa album "Weasels Rip My Flesh" whenever anyone says the word "flesh". I can't help it.
Great album. Loves me my FZ (& the Mothers).

OMG me too. One of the all-time best (and grossest) album covers, as well.

[Mung]

Alice, if you tell me you like Captain Beefheart, I'll have to start stalking you.

I do have to say, after owning ferrets (essentially large weasels), I don't find that cover so gross. I've lived it.

-- yes they hurt you sometimes, but they're soooooooooo damned cute.
I still have an extensive collection of FZ & the Mothers on Vinyl, but I don't have anything to play Vinyl on.

[Alice Macher]

Alice, if you tell me you like Captain Beefheart, I'll have to start stalking you.

Heehee! Well then, I guess I'm safe from you, because although I did give Captain Beefheart a fair chance, listening and re-listening to Trout Mask Replica, I just couldn't get into him. I do like his early band's rendition of "Diddy-Wah-Diddy" on the Nuggets compilation, though.

[Mung]

Good - that's a relief. I really don't have the time for stalking these days.

Of course, the Nuggets Compilation thing keeps you on my "short list".

[Twitcher]

Good Lord, Helen! What's with the reinvention into a dipstick? Oh... you're eighteen. Well, what's with the acting as stupid as you look right now? Oh... you haven't gotten smacked with the clue-by-four yet, have you? I kind of assume that Helen's going to have to hitch a ride with Kharisma, alias Nancy, and head along with her straight to Rock Bottom before she finds some intelligence. I look forward to it.

[sun tzu]

Good Lord, Helen! What's with the reinvention into a dipstick?

Reinvention? Helen's been a dipstick for a pretty long while now.

[Twitcher]

I mean fashionwise. She looks like Lady Gaga and Katy Perry drank a bottle of ipecac, threw up, ate that, then threw up again, only this time on her.

[Freemage]

Funny thing--I'm one of those who actually kind of dig the look. If she weren't obviously also OD'ing on Idiot Pills (she must've stolen Daph's supply before leaving town), I'd say that punk-nouveau is a good way for her to go, at least now while she's young enough to get away with it. As long as that tattoo isn't something completely hideous below the cleavage-line, it's a more healthy expression of her general anger than a lot of what she's done.

[Kamino Neko]

Funny thing--I'm one of those who actually kind of dig the look.

I really, really like the look - except the hair, mostly because I can't figure out what the heck is going on with it.

I dig ink and piercings* (though I have none myself, for a variety of reasons), think her choices in the matter of that are pretty nice, and find the clothing choices rather neat, if interestingly retro. And the hair looks like it may be in the general genre of styles I think are pretty awesome, but I'm not sure exactly where in that set, and she doesn't seem to be carrying it off well. (I think she either shaved too much or too little.)

For those that don't like it...rest assured, she apparently decides to get rid of the ink in the next few years, based on the flash-forward at the end of P&A. (The piercings might have been removed just for the reunion, but the ink wouldn't have been covered in what she was wearing, and unless it's some sort of uber-futurey ink which somehow made its way into the present, she can't exactly take the tat off for the night, then put it back, later.)

* Facial, ear, and navel, anyway...more...intimate piercings, and stuff like corset piercings kinda squick me out.

[Alice Macher]

What's a corset piercing?

[Kamino Neko]

I tried to explain without a link, but I couldn't word it right. Luckily Wikipedia's entry on them has a relatively un-squick-inducing picture. (That one actually looks pretty cool...it's the ones that use laced rings that really bother me, especially when the lacing's tightened to pull on the rings.)

[Alice Macher]

Thanks!

One of the many many things I love about this forum: I learn something new almost every day.

[brasca]

The answer is obvious: Randy is stalking Brasca.

I think I would remember that, but now that I'm living in a major metropolitan area I can stalk Randy whenever a convention is in town.

It's tough to defend Helen some times especially when she's being unarguably stupid, but even hopeless people on Something Positive mature. After all just a few strips ago you had Aubrey carry on a friendly conversation with Mike Dowden, a guy who everyone hated 10 years ago. Then there's Nancy who wasn't as bad as Helen is now, but she's gradually become a mature adult too. I find Kharisma to be a different case since her circumstances are nearly supernatural at this point. And prior to that she never had any wherewithall to realize just how narcisistic she was. I think Helen knows, but she seems to have some impulse control problems.

As for the disclaimer about Helen being on loan from Penny & Aggie keep in mind that Randy doesn't have complete control over her future. Since she's alive and seemingly well in the not too distant future Randy can't kill her. He can make her relapse a few times before he's done with her story, but ultimately she will grow up.

[Alice Macher]

I think Helen knows, but she seems to have some impulse control problems.

Agreed. Even at this juncture in her life, when she's actively in aggressive, "It's everyone else's fault" denial mode, there's some part of her that still shows self-awareness. As we see in her sheepish dialogue in the last couple of panels in the latest strip.

Since she's alive and seemingly well in the not too distant future Randy can't kill her. He can make her relapse a few times before he's done with her story, but ultimately she will grow up.

Yes, that's what makes reading her ongoing S*P arc, for me (and, I imagine, many readers), a basically pleasant experience as opposed to a "God, what a train wreck; I can't look" experience: that we know she'll turn out okay six years later.

Also, although I should know better by now than to second-guess T, I can't help but wonder whether part of his reason for writing Helen a brighter future in "Six Septembers Later" was as a favour to Randy, who as we know has had to deal with so much shit from a small but disgustingly vocal and persistent contingent over his handling of Helen. That is, I wonder whether this was, in part, T's way of saying, "Look, Helen's going to turn out fine in the end, so lay off Randy kthx."