That...that makes much more sense... [6/13/2012]

[Bardlp]

Well, you got one thing right, Ronnie. Meeting you is ugly.

[LadyObvious23]

And yes, she did look at him in horror. Because he's a complete stranger who used what could be easily interpreted as a rude greeting, who just handed her a note asking for sex. Wouldn't YOU be horrified? (And yes, Ronnie can misinterpret her look, but since she could be smiling and friendly and he could STILL misinterpret that for the negative, how is this Lisa's fault?)

I would have asked who it was from first and I might not have given the same horrified look cuz I wouldn't want to make Ronnie feel bad. (I'm kind of a chicken sometimes when it comes to hurting someone's feelings even if it's not on purpose.)

And here's two things that should have been said before Lisa read it.

Ronnie: Here's a note from Jade.

Or from Lisa so she'd have less awkwardness-

Lisa: So who's this from? :/

Though you gotta wonder why he didn't say it was from Jade in the first place. :/

[Freemage]

And yes, she did look at him in horror. Because he's a complete stranger who used what could be easily interpreted as a rude greeting, who just handed her a note asking for sex. Wouldn't YOU be horrified? (And yes, Ronnie can misinterpret her look, but since she could be smiling and friendly and he could STILL misinterpret that for the negative, how is this Lisa's fault?)

Ok here's two things that should have been said before Lisa read it. That's what I would have done and I might not have given the same horrified look cuz I wouldn't want to make Ronnie feel bad. (I'm kind of a chicken sometimes when it comes to hurting someone's feelings even if it's not on purpose.)

Ronnie: Here's a note from Jade.

Or from Lisa so she'd have less awkwardness-

Lisa: So who's this from? :/

Though you gotta wonder why he didn't say it was from Jade in the first place. :/

Except that there's no reason for Lisa to assume that the note he's handing her is not, in fact, from him.

[LadyObvious23]

:/ I did say Ronnie should have said something before handing it over. Cuz that wasn't a smart move on his part.

[Captain LeBubbles]

And yes, she did look at him in horror. Because he's a complete stranger who used what could be easily interpreted as a rude greeting, who just handed her a note asking for sex. Wouldn't YOU be horrified? (And yes, Ronnie can misinterpret her look, but since she could be smiling and friendly and he could STILL misinterpret that for the negative, how is this Lisa's fault?)

Ok here's two things that should have been said before Lisa read it. That's what I would have done and I might not have given the same horrified look cuz I wouldn't want to make Ronnie feel bad. (I'm kind of a chicken sometimes when it comes to hurting someone's feelings even if it's not on purpose.)

Ronnie: Here's a note from Jade.

Or from Lisa so she'd have less awkwardness-

Lisa: So who's this from? :/

Though you gotta wonder why he didn't say it was from Jade in the first place. :/

I think he got thrown off when his joke didn't get taken in its intended context. I don't know about Lisa, maybe she was confused by the joke and that threw her off as well? (Or, as Freemage said above while I was typing; I didn't think of that one.) It's true that the misunderstanding could have been prevented by either of them, yes.

@NS: I reread my comment and I phrased it badly, I think. I meant that while Ronnie was joking, it was a joke that could be misinterpreted as being rude. Since Ronnie has misinterpreted pretty much everything that's been said to him thus far of what we've seen, I fail to understand why he's to be pitied for misunderstanding but Lisa is horrible for doing the same.

[Gholateg]

Sooo... Jade makes one mistake and suddenly she's the worst person in the world and doesn't deserve a relationship, even a casual fuckbuddy one, but Ronnie has been NOTHING but unpleasant in all the strips we've seen him in (despite the fact that we actually have yet to see any situation where he's been mistreated) and we're supposed to pity him? Jade isn't empathic because she tried to be friendly despite the death glare she was being sent, but Ronnie doesn't realize that everyone he's talked to (in the strips we've seen him in) has actually been perfectly friendly to him, and this is justified?

I never said jade didn't deserve a relationship, I meant Lisa can do better, and shouldn't casual bang Jade. I also never said to pity Ronnie. I said I dislike Ronnie, but I understand him. Jade's mannerisms with both Ronnie and her roommate paint her as someone who's rather self absorbed, In a clueless way yes, but its still there. She doesn't seem to grasp how her actions effect other people, and that irks me bunches.

I do feel sorry for Ronnie, because as someone said, feelings like that aren't created in a vacuum. But so far all we've seen is that he wants people to be his friends without actually putting any effort into the process himself. He's extremely unpleasant to the people he's around, whether they're nice to him or not, and then acts like he's the victim when they don't want to be around that.

The only person we've seen him be rude too is Jade. Who demanded (in his messed up mind) he play messenger boy for her casual sex, while insulting his intelligence (again, in his messed up mind). Outside of this forced interaction, where has he been rude? He seemed to be at most apathetic during his "filtering montage."

And yes, I can empathize with that; I went through it myself. I was a deeply unpleasant person to be around in high school and guess what? That made people not want to be around me. I get that he's paranoid, I get that he's obviously been kicked a lot, but that doesn't mean that his attitude is justified and that doesn't make Jade a terrible person.

As for being rude: She asked him to give it to Lisa when he had the chance, not 'drop what you're doing and go give this to Lisa now'. Presumably, he's in a position to see her first; perhaps she's even unwilling to give the note in person and give Lisa a chance to reject her to her face. Whatever her reason, all she asked was a small favor, one that he could have refused fairly easily and probably she would have just shrugged, said okay, and gone off to find someone else.

On the next page, she realizes that she's somehow offended him, she rushes to apologize- that is not the action of someone who is oblivious to anyone else's feelings.

Getting a raging tantrum to the face will make even a brick understand it's done something wrong. And we don't hear what she actually says to him, we hear Ronnie's filtering, sadly. Her "Oh you wouldn't get it" hand wave is nothing but dismissive as well. Again, I don't think she's *conscious* of how her actions can register, but she is an annoyance factory.

And yes, she did look at him in horror. Because he's a complete stranger who used what could be easily interpreted as a rude greeting, who just handed her a note asking for sex. Wouldn't YOU be horrified? (And yes, Ronnie can misinterpret her look, but since she could be smiling and friendly and he could STILL misinterpret that for the negative, how is this Lisa's fault?)

It's not Lisa's fault persea, she could have masked that a tad better, but my bit regarding her reaction was pointed more for people saying it was just pure shock without the "ugh" flash reaction. She knows Ronnie at least in passing, as they live in the same building. If she didn't know of Ronnie, Jade's giving him the note makes even less sense.

[Glishara]

The weight loss thing someone brought up before, is REALLY hard without a support group if you're that big. Gyms are TERRIBLE for big people. You feel like your surrounded by good looking people, the gym bunnies always titter and snark at you. You can't last as long as others do who have been actually working out. It's kind of built around making you feel like a failure.
And what's the point? Even if you power through it all, drop the weight and put on muscle, they're still going to see you as an outsider, you'll still be shunned. You'll just be hungry and shunned and look like THEM. And even if they don't shun you.. do you really want to be like them? Making fun of some other poor sod who hates their life like you do, to make yourself feel better? That's what you'll be, just another asshole in a sea of assholes, so why bother putting in the work when I'm already a terrible person?

I just want to add to this that there is a mounting pile of evidence that weight loss is actually nearly impossible for MOST people in the long run, full stop. 95% of people who go on diets gain back all the weight within 5 years: of those 95%, 1/3 -2/3 (depending on the weight loss plan), gain more back, many without ever deviating from the diet rules. The body has a weight it wants to be, and it doesn't want to gain weight or lose weight in the long term. Weight yo-yoing has proven to be dangerous to your health, so what we do by saying "just lose the weight" is frequently make people fatter and less healthy, without any evidence at all that the goal is realistic or, when it comes to it, going to help with anything other than appearance.

There IS evidence that while obesity is a sometimes a symptom of unhealthy habits, people who are overweight with healthy habits are no worse off in terms of health than "normal-weight" people, with similar life expectancies, statistically. I have heard some well-reasoned arguments based on the evidence I'm linking here which suggests the real reason we're all gaining so much weight is that we're all trying to lose it.

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/sue-tho ... 56126.html
http://danceswithfat.wordpress.com/2012 ... y-fatties/
http://weightfocus.blogspot.com/2009/08 ... study.html

[Artemisia]

Glishara,

There is more. I have a feeling that a lot of people have mild problems with a lot of the junk that we put into the foods like the fillers of wheat and corn that you find is so much food.

[Adrishiana]

An additional point is that it can be very difficult to eat healthily on a college campus, regardless of whether or not you're trying to lose weight, and especially if you have no or limited access to cooking facilities.

[Doc Harleen]

It just hit me - Lisa nearly put her foot so deep in her mouth here that she would have been gnawing on her thigh. And that expression in panel 3. Oh, Lisa. Could you be broadcasting your horror any more clearly? *facepalm* (Yes, an argument could be made more for "startled", but that looks more like her expression in 4.)

To be fair, horror is an appropriate response to the message "I'm ugly. Have sex with me." Even when it's from someone who is more attractive than average.

I've got to agree with Lia, CJ, LeBubbles, Freemage, and anyone else who said it. Being handed an invitation to shag someone you've never met is pretty shocking. There is no reason, if someone hands you something without explanatory preamble, to assume it's from someone else. Also, that kind of a random (and forward) invitation being perceived as coming from someone you don't even know is shocking. A shocked expression seems natural enough.

And, at the risk of sounding like a linguistic prescriptivist, technically Lisa would have had to have said something to have "put her foot in her mouth." She didn't say anything at all; she just looked stunned. I do understand the perspective that it could be interpreted as "horror" and thus insulting to Ronnie, but I still think the reaction was well within normal for that kind of a situation. If I'm being honest, I'd be more likely to put my foot in my mouth if I found myself in that scenario (which, of course, I haven't) than Lisa did.

[NobodySpecial]

For maximum comic effect, he should have given the note to Marie or Michael, since it's a puzzle.

As it is now, this being a T. production, Ronnie will shortly hang himself in the community bathroom, a guilt ridden Lisa will fall apart and be committed, and she will finally heal herself and learn the power of sharing. She'll do this by fighting against the person REALLY running the asylum (Cyndi), which will culminate in a three week battle scene ended with Lisa impaling Cyndi on a wooden stake and jumping the wall carrying a swooning Charlotte.

[CEOIII]

An additional point is that it can be very difficult to eat healthily on a college campus, regardless of whether or not you're trying to lose weight, and especially if you have no or limited access to cooking facilities.

There is a reason why the "Freshman 15" exists.

Knew a guy who thought it meant he had to have sex with 15 people during his freshman year, or he'd be kicked off campus. Seriously. How his dumb ass got into college is a mystery for the ages. (And no, I don't know if he "made his quota".)

[Gholateg]

For maximum comic effect, he should have given the note to Marie or Michael, since it's a puzzle.

As it is now, this being a T. production, Ronnie will shortly hang himself in the community bathroom, a guilt ridden Lisa will fall apart and be committed, and she will finally heal herself and learn the power of sharing. She'll do this by fighting against the person REALLY running the asylum (Cyndi), which will culminate in a three week battle scene ended with Lisa impaling Cyndi on a wooden stake and jumping the wall carrying a swooning Charlotte.

Can it be a popsicle stick? And can Ronnie be a FtoM trans as a shocker for the end of the "Season"?

[child-of-fae]

Knew a guy who thought it meant he had to have sex with 15 people during his freshman year, or he'd be kicked off campus. Seriously. How his dumb ass got into college is a mystery for the ages. (And no, I don't know if he "made his quota".)

that's the best thing i've heard all day