Unsolved Mysteries of Susan and Diane

[Scotty 1,061]

6 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:

Wouldn't she be blocking the woman's face, then?

Like I said, if looking in the mirror reminds her of the woman that she caught her dad with, it'd be impossible to block out that face.

In that page, we see Susan in a rare moment of happiness about how her hair looks, but then is suddenly reminded of why she was dying it in the first place and the happiness goes out the window.

[Tom Sewell 268]

Susan Is the Only Main Character Who Has Killed

And Susan has only been in one fight, killing the first vampire. In the second fight with the Goo, she does call a sword, but never uses it. Grace did not kill Damien; he suicided.

I guess we'll see Susan fight in the current arc, since vampires are probably going to be a major feature. But Susan would seem to be ill-equipped. As far as we know, she hasn't been training for combat, unless you count all the practice she's gotten hammering obnoxious males. I guess her best tactic if she has to fight a vampire like the spider-guy would be to use exploding fairies as a standoff weapon, move in with hammers to daze it more, and finally finish it off with a magic sword. Or several swords, since they'd vanish after each solid hit.

And if the vampire can fly, maybe Tedd's dad has a Stinger missile for Susan's treasure chest. Or how about a toy phaser? Perhaps it's magical copy would work. And it is so appropriate!

Shouldn't Susan Be Guarding Diane?

As limited as her vampire-killing skills and abilities appear to be, she's the only proven vampire-killer in Moperville. The most practical method would be for one to move into with the other and transfer schools. It even has a viable cover story: “I want to spend more time with my sister.”

[Tom Sewell 268]

Why was Jerry watching Diane at that party?

The easy answer: The whole plot of Family Ties depends on Jerry looking out for Susan, Nanase, and Ellen at that party.

The definitive answer: Unknown, possibly never to be known.

Will happily hear any crackpot theory explaining this as something more than a plot hole.

 

[The Old Hack 2,448]

23 minutes ago, Tom Sewell said:

Why was Jerry watching Diane at that party?

The easy answer: The whole plot of Family Ties depends on Jerry looking out for Susan, Nanase, and Ellen at that party.

The definitive answer: Unknown, possibly never to be known.

Will happily hear any crackpot theory explaining this as something more than a plot hole.

 

Jerry said Diane was Susan's sister. He never said she was her twin.

[CritterKeeper 1,102]

I would assume he came to the party watching Nanase.  Whether he already knew about Diane or met her at the party is unknown,

[chridd 31]

Not sure where to post this, but some speculation about Susan and Diane: Susan and Diane were born on different days, which seems like a setup for a plot where characters think they can't be twins for a while until they realize that they could have been born around midnight—a plot that, of course, never happened. But what if someone in-universe was trying to cause such a plot, to hide the connection between them, someone who had the ability to choose or change either their actual or official birth times?  (In which case, they could actually be twins, or it could be that "they're twins" is their alternative cover story after "they have no connection" fails.)

Even more speculative: If this is the case, then perhaps the woman with Susan's face is also part of this plan (perhaps she's transformed to look like Susan); that incident caused Susan to change her appearance, making her look less like Diane. Of course, that would require someone who could predict something like that and wouldn't care about other consequences (an old immortal?).

[ijuin 572]

Technically, Susan and Diane were born in different years despite being only twenty minutes apart, since it was 31 December/01 January.

[Tom Sewell 268]

Do Susan and Diane have the same fingerprints?

Actually, if they do, they are NOT "normal" identical twins!

Fingerprint patterns aren't entirely dependent on genetics in real life, so all those stories depending on twins having the exactly the same fingerprints are pretty much bogus. They tend to be very similar, but even genetically identical twins sharing the same womb don't occupy exactly the same place in the womb.

So if they do have exactly the same fingerprints, they have a stranger origin than "normal" twins, presumably, although as Professor Nanase explained to Lady Andrea, the laws of physics are more like polite suggestions in the Moperverse.

Which brings up another question: Do Elliot and Ellen have exactly the same fingerprints? Mirror-images?

[Scotty 1,061]

7 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:

Which brings up another question: Do Elliot and Ellen have exactly the same fingerprints? Mirror-images?

One would think that a dewitchery diamond duplicate would mean that aside from gender, Elliot and Ellen would be identical, although they do have height difference to be able to claim to be fraternal twins rather than identical twins. The real question is whether the TFG and even transformation magic goes that far when changing a person's physical structure. Elliot's superhero spell might be that thorough, but standard morphs might still run the risk of leaving fingerprints that could be traced back to Elliot or Ellen.

[Tom Sewell 268]

Did a homosexual relationship break up Diane's parents?

This is more of a "wouldn't it be a nice plot twist" idea, but I do have a plausible excuses for it: It would make Rhoda even more reluctant to reveal her sexuality to Diane for fear of losing her friendship. And it would help to explain why Diane is so hostile to Justin the first time they are shown together, and why Diane is shown spreading gossip about Justin in this flashback. Was Diane's adoptive father another "defective male companion?"

Following this even further, Diane's attachment to Rick might fit the pattern. Rick is casually open about his relationship with Elijah, just like he seems to be about everything. Diane's earlier relationship with Rick might have been somewhat similar to Justin's with Melissa, although the age difference could have made it more like a little sister-big brother thing. And it really goes well with Diane being upset about finding out about Elliot--and still wondering if she wants to continue trying to land him! 

[Scotty 1,061]

Just now, Tom Sewell said:

and why Diane is shown spreading gossip about Justin in this flashback

Huh, I never noticed that was Diane, the "tattoo" on her arm should have been a give away. It is kinda odd that she'd treat Justin that way, but when the rumours of Elliot being gay were going around, she refused to jump on that bandwagon and even went at trying to derail it. The easiest explanation would be because she was infatuated with Elliot and she saw the rumours as a threat to her chances of getting him, but it's possible that her views on homosexual people changed, maybe after she found out that Nanase was a lesbian, Diane never really showed it in school but I think the moments where Diane stated how cool Nanase is, I think is something she had always felt. Diane's treatment of Justin I don't think is necessarily homophobic but rather going along with it to avoid damaging her image, and she's recently realized that it was wrong.

Just now, Tom Sewell said:

Following this even further, Diane's attachment to Rick might fit the pattern. Rick is casually open about his relationship with Elijah, just like he seems to be about everything. Diane's earlier relationship with Rick might have been somewhat similar to Justin's with Melissa, although the age difference could have made it more like a little sister-big brother thing. And it really goes well with Diane being upset about finding out about Elliot--and still wondering if she wants to continue trying to land him! 

Diane still cares about Rick, so I think they always had a big brother/little sister relationship, but there really isn't a whole lot of background info beyond the fact that Diane and Rhea are adopted. As for what Diane's feeling about Elliot, well it is understandable that she's upset because she believed Ashley beat her to Elliot, but at the same time, she now knows that Elliot is able to transform into girls and it seems that having a superhero form probably would have been cooler to Diane if Elliot stayed male, but she was seriously questioning if it was something she would be in to. It's hard to say if she'll keep trying to win over Elliot or if she'll go the route Larry took.

[ijuin 572]

Diane might also have felt guilty about tearing into Justin after the fact, and her defending Elliot online (where she is safely anonymous) is her way of dealing with that guilt.

[Scotty 1,061]

4 hours ago, ijuin said:

Diane might also have felt guilty about tearing into Justin after the fact, and her defending Elliot online (where she is safely anonymous) is her way of dealing with that guilt.

Justin was outed in freshman year apparently so Diane would have been treating him as "defective" for a couple years, but like I said, knowing that Nanase is gay might have given Diane a reason to rethink her behaviour, also as was address in the recent Q&A, Diane is looking for something new. So it does strengthen the idea that Diane's behaviour in the early comic and "previous years", was all just an "act tough, be popular, play hard to get" phase and now she's distancing herself from that image, and looking for actual friends and relationships.

I just thought of something to add to this:

 

Susan's Log:

Susan kept a log during Grace's birthday party where she wrote about how it felt to be male, what she felt about her dad whether or not to forgive him or fully blame him for his actions and how she might never completely sort it out.

I wonder if this log will make an appearance again, maybe meeting Diane and learning that her father had been with more women while married to her mom might remind her of what she wrote. Maybe Diane discovers the log though I'm not sure what she would think about the non-father related stuff in it.

[Tom Sewell 268]

2 hours ago, Scotty said:

I wonder if this log will make an appearance again

Diane's forte in her own words is sneaking, and it isn't much of a stretch to snooping. But Susan's log is almost certainly in Susan's room, quite probably locked up in the chest with her swords, baseball bat, tools, spellbook, dolls, etc. So, Diane really has to meet Susan before the log comes into play.

I'd bet on Tedd being the next of the eight to meet Diane because his dad will want to use that noisy wand to check on Diane's magic.

[Scotty 1,061]

6 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:

Diane's forte in her own words is sneaking, and it isn't much of a stretch to snooping. But Susan's log is almost certainly in Susan's room, quite probably locked up in the chest with her swords, baseball bat, tools, spellbook, dolls, etc. So, Diane really has to meet Susan before the log comes into play.

Wouldn't it be funny if, despite not being twins, the fact that Diane and Susan are a fair bit alike, if Diane did get a spell at some point that it's also a summon item spell and just happens to be able to summon the items from Susan's chest? Accidentally summoning the log?

7 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:

I'd bet on Tedd being the next of the eight to meet Diane because his dad will want to use that noisy wand to check on Diane's magic.

That said, at the current point in the story, Diane hasn't awakened or even been marked, Tara's glance at Diane said she has the potential, but the spider vampire stated that she wasn't anywhere near the capability. Edward likely would feel there's no reason to check her magic unless he believed she might have awakened.

[Tom Sewell 268]

On 9/2/2016 at 5:00 AM, Scotty said:

That said, at the current point in the story, Diane hasn't awakened or even been marked, Tara's glance at Diane said she has the potential, but the spider vampire stated that she wasn't anywhere near the capability. Edward likely would feel there's no reason to check her magic unless he believed she might have awakened.

Edward didn't seem to know much about Diane at all until Nanase told him this morning. He'd want to know as much as possible about her magic potential now, and maybe also to confirm that Susan and Diane are not twins.

Edited September 9, 2016 by Tom Sewell
Correct my screwup

[Scotty 1,061]

1 hour ago, Tom Sewell said:

Edward didn't seem to know about Diane at all until Nanase told him this morning. He'd want to know as much as possible about her magic potential, and maybe also to confirm that Susan and Diane are not twins.

Edward met Diane New Years. He's seen her face, heard her voice, maybe he hasn't been around Susan enough to notice the similarities, Nanase and Justin didn't notice until Ellen pointed it out but still he had known about her for a couple weeks.

[Tom Sewell 268]

38 minutes ago, Scotty said:

Edward met Diane New Years. He's seen her face, heard her voice, maybe he hasn't been around Susan enough to notice the similarities, Nanase and Justin didn't notice until Ellen pointed it out but still he had known about her for a couple weeks.

Yeah, I realized that and edited my last posting on that subject. But it seems clear enough that Nanase has put off telling Uncle Edward about her suspicions about Diane until this morning. Edward's concern about Diane would have been mostly about whether she would keep The Secret, and since Diane agreed with him about keeping the last incident secret from Rhea, it would have been low on his list of priority worries. Now that Edward knows that Diane has magic potential, he'll should want to test her to find out how great her potential is. He might even be required to do it and (of course) send in a report.

[Scotty 1,061]

59 minutes ago, Tom Sewell said:

Yeah, I realized that and edited my last posting on that subject. But it seems clear enough that Nanase has put off telling Uncle Edward about her suspicions about Diane until this morning. Edward's concern about Diane would have been mostly about whether she would keep The Secret, and since Diane agreed with him about keeping the last incident secret from Rhea, it would have been low on his list of priority worries. Now that Edward knows that Diane has magic potential, he'll should want to test her to find out how great her potential is. He might even be required to do it and (of course) send in a report.

Nanase and Ellen had agreed to not act on it because they didn't know for sure if Susan was adopted or not and if she was, just turning 18 would mean her mom would likely tell her soon. The spider vampire attack and the possibility of more vampires coming to Moperville spooked Nanase into acting because she was afraid of something happening to Diane before Susan had a chance to know she had a sister.

This has of course changed, but not by much, Susan isn't adopted so there's no fear of hurting her relationship with her mom, her relationship with her dad is already damaged pretty badly so it can't get much worse, Diane's already realized that she may be Susan's sister and has already told Nanase that she's aware of it.