Story: Friday, November 12, 2021

[ProfessorTomoe 1,308]

https://www.egscomics.com/comic/balance-082

Remember, all criticism is to be aimed at Arthur. No one else.

[ProfessorTomoe 1,308]

Possibly coming soon from Tedd ...

"The TF gun didn't do this to me! You didn't do this to me, Dad! I was always this way!"

...???

[The Old Hack 2,448]

I am not completely sure about this. What stands out to me is that perhaps Edward's worst mistake was to not speak to Tedd about his concerns and listen to their explanation. I agree that talking things out between them might help, I just worry whether Tedd might be too afraid to make the first move. I would not blame them in that case -- and frankly, Edward himself should have done it long ago.

[ProfessorTomoe 1,308]

4 hours ago, The Old Hack said:

and frankly, Edward himself should have done it long ago.

Agreed. Even Arthur sort of implied this. Still, I foresee a day when Edward is going to sigh at Tedd's female form one time too often, and Tedd is going to feel compelled to start the conversation. It's just the Way of The Dan. He's laid a Chekov's Gun on the table now, I believe. Will Tedd pick it up and use it? I vote yes.

[mlooney 3,417]

At least this explains why Tedd told Elliot that Arthur is a good guy.  Edward is going to be gone for a few days, talking to the turtle.  The question to ask is will Tedd have their talk with Edward before the party or during this week?  As I recall, we are only up to Wednesday in the non-flash back timeline. 

[Darth Fluffy 302]

Edward is said to be very open and diplomatic, yet Arthur seems to be the one who is good at this sort of thing, at least among humans. It might be noteworthy that Arthur holds Edward in higher regard than Edward holds Arthur; that might say Edward is more judgemental.

I believe there have been hints before that if Edward has not seen something for himself, he does not accept that it is real; some offhand comment about space whales, maybe? 

We have seen recently that he is as willing to mislead for his own ends as his agency is.

Meta stuff that might have a bearing:

Edward is essentially a protagonist, so reconciling with Tedd seems to be in the cards.

This all seems to be very personal for Dan, and it may play out according to things he's experienced or extrapolated.

[mlooney 3,417]

3 hours ago, Darth Fluffy said:

Edward is essentially a protagonist, so reconciling with Tedd seems to be in the cards.

I hope so.  Having family issues is something I had to deal with in real life, I don't need it in my comedy web comics.

[Pharaoh RutinTutin 1,586]

3 hours ago, Darth Fluffy said:

This all seems to be very personal for Dan, and it may play out according to things he's experienced or extrapolated.

This seems most likely

To be specific, I am thinking that Dan had a situation that was in some way similar to Tedd's and Dan wants to use this story arc to either dramatize what happened or illustrate what he thinks should have happened

[mlooney 3,417]

2 minutes ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

To be specific, I am thinking that Dan had a situation that was in some way similar to Tedd's and Dan wants to use this story arc to either dramatize what happened or illustrate what he thinks should have happened

Tedd, and to a lesser extent Susan, do seem to self inserts of The Dan.  Not saying that there is any thing wrong with that, as they don't seem to be Mary Sues, but a general note.

[Darth Fluffy 302]

25 minutes ago, mlooney said:

Tedd, and to a lesser extent Susan, do seem to self inserts of The Dan.  Not saying that there is any thing wrong with that, as they don't seem to be Mary Sues, but a general note.

Tedd has a bit of the, I guess in their case, Marty Sue going on. Not more than the other characters, though, so, I suppose not really.

The nature of the comic has changed much since the first pages.

[mlooney 3,417]

4 hours ago, Darth Fluffy said:

The nature of the comic has changed much since the first pages.

That's one way of putting it.

[Darth Fluffy 302]

15 minutes ago, mlooney said:

That's one way of putting it.

Dan 1 from our universe has been swapped with Dan 2 from another realm would be another way.

[mlooney 3,417]

Nah, if you do an archive binge you can see the art getting better in slow increments.  There really isn't a sudden change of the art. 

[Aura Guardian 57]

I've suspected something like this for years. Though not as coherently as Arthur just phrased it.