Comic for Monday, Jul 17, 2023

[Darth Fluffy 302]

Comic for Monday, Jul 17, 2023

I feel like Edward is trapped by a retcon here.

I wonder how much of what he''s felling has to do with friction with Arthur? Like 'X wasn't a problem until Arthur . . .' Arthur seems to work well with Tedd, and with the others he's interacted with. Magus is the only one he's cut no slack with.

 

 

[Pharaoh RutinTutin 1,586]

 

Happy Tedd is one of the saddest things we have seen in this comic.

If Tedd said "What you did hurt me.  I know you regret it.  I know you are taking steps to keep that from happening again. I forgive you."  Edward could have acknowledged his wrong and they could have begun healing.

But Tedd treated this as entirely good news. Not admitting to the pain.  Tedd may remind Edward of a mistreated puppy who, despite the pain, showers it's human with love & affection at the slightest attention.

Edward knows he hurt Tedd.  If Tedd won't admit to the pain, Edward can not apologize, ask Tedd's forgiveness, or forgive himself.

[mlooney 3,417]

Yeah, Edward still may have _issues_ with Tedd being gender fluid.  I suspect that the recent change that we have seen (well, Tedd has seen) is related to Edward starting to seriously date Lavender.

https://www.egscomics.com/comic/balance-189  

[Darth Fluffy 302]

2 hours ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

 

Happy Tedd is one of the saddest things we have seen in this comic.

If Tedd said "What you did hurt me.  I know you regret it.  I know you are taking steps to keep that from happening again. I forgive you."  Edward could have acknowledged his wrong and they could have begun healing.

But Tedd treated this as entirely good news. Not admitting to the pain.  Tedd may remind Edward of a mistreated puppy who, despite the pain, showers it's human with love & affection at the slightest attention.

Edward knows he hurt Tedd.  If Tedd won't admit to the pain, Edward can not apologize, ask Tedd's forgiveness, or forgive himself.

While this seems to be going on, there has to be more too it. Tedd is not that dense. He may be hiding his negative feelings due to Lavender being present - "I don't want to rain on her parade" and "Dad needs this, Mom hurt him".

As far as sharing information with Tedd, that's tough. If you work in an environment with restricted information, you do not share that information with loved ones, including a spouse, and certainly children. It is a strain, but it is necessary. That Tedd had contributed so much indeed makes it awkward. OTOH, from the organization's POV, reading Tedd into the program as a minor is too risky. Presumably, Tedd's age, no longer a minor, is part of why Arthur was willing to dialog with him.

[Darth Fluffy 302]

1 hour ago, mlooney said:

Yeah, Edward still may have _issues_ with Tedd being gender fluid.  I suspect that the recent change that we have seen (well, Tedd has seen) is related to Edward starting to seriously date Lavender.

https://www.egscomics.com/comic/balance-189  

Tedd's thought balloons in that comic (lower left panel) are inconsistent, which I think is the point Dan is making.

"Surprised his dad is marrying someone whose species is asexual." stands out, it does seem odd that Edward is doing that. Still, I don't see a connection to Edward being more understanding of Tedd being gender fluid, other than perhaps an unseen dialog with Lavender helping him process his issues.

The Uryuoms reproduce asexually (although, how is the egg produced is a TBD, and it may take more from one partner), but the interactions we've seen do not preclude gender interactions. With Will and Gill, that became a hammer joke. I'm not seeing Edward's attraction to Lavender being the gestalt that opened his mind up. She presents as very female in every situation we've seen her.

OTOH, most real world places I've seen frown on supervisors dating people that work for them. I could see them holding off on a relationship until something changed that allowed it. I assumed Edward's status change after the incident with him zapping Abraham and being relieved of his then current position had something to do with him being able to pursue this further.

Lavender is not stupid, and presumable has some understanding of human biology, so I'm assuming that somehow she is accommodating Edward and not planning on living asexually. Tedd's transformation gun, at the birthday party, was able to change the males and females, and while no one was shown as taking that to its conclusion, it was presented as a possibility. Would that not also create a sexuality for Lavender? SO, presumably, she's actually female when Tedd and Grace are meeting her.

In any case, Lavender seems to be very understanding, and should be an overall positive influence.

Both Tedd and his dad are not showing all their cards.

 

 

[mlooney 3,417]

55 minutes ago, Darth Fluffy said:

In any case, Lavender seems to be very understanding, and should be an overall positive influence.

Both Tedd and his dad are not showing all their cards.

Edward may, in fact, have national security reasons for not showing all his cards.  On the other hand, becoming accepting of Tedd's gender fluid status isn't something that affects national security.  There was a time that having a gay offspring might effect your security clearance if they weren't out, but I think that time as passed and I'm fairly sure it's not in place in the EGS world.

 

[Darth Fluffy 302]

4 hours ago, mlooney said:

Edward may, in fact, have national security reasons for not showing all his cards.  On the other hand, becoming accepting of Tedd's gender fluid status isn't something that affects national security. 

Edward's thinking of Tedd as magically anemic based on testing him with the testing wand as an infant might be more germane to not telling him much. When he learned he was in error, he became more open. It might just be a "We don't talk to the muggles about magic" thing.

 

4 hours ago, mlooney said:

There was a time that having a gay offspring might effect your security clearance if they weren't out, but I think that time as passed . . .

Dick Cheney would, presumably, agree with you.

 

[ijuin 572]

8 hours ago, Darth Fluffy said:

Presumably, Tedd's age, no longer a minor, is part of why Arthur was willing to dialog with him.

Arthur has also stated that Tedd is the only Seer whom he knows that he can trust. He probably wants to set up a sort of Seer-to-Seer mentorship, so that he can pass on what he himself has learned as a Seer.

[mlooney 3,417]

3 hours ago, Darth Fluffy said:

When he learned he was in error, he became more open. It might just be a "We don't talk to the muggles about magic" thing.

Yeah, that seems to be the case.

[Darth Fluffy 302]

13 hours ago, ijuin said:

Arthur has also stated that Tedd is the only Seer whom he knows that he can trust. He probably wants to set up a sort of Seer-to-Seer mentorship, so that he can pass on what he himself has learned as a Seer.

Yeah, seems he's contrasting Tedd with his granddaughter, Jay.

[ijuin 572]

26 minutes ago, Darth Fluffy said:

Yeah, seems he's contrasting Tedd with his granddaughter, Jay.

Jay’s a Wizard, but not a Seer. She’s also not interested in learning from her grandfather.

[Pharaoh RutinTutin 1,586]

 

More than most, Tedd seems to understand & appreciate the spooky side of government work.

 

[Don Edwards 548]

36 minutes ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

More than most, Tedd seems to understand & appreciate the spooky side of government work.

More than most people his age, Tedd has been hiding things from most people for years.

[mlooney 3,417]

1 hour ago, Don Edwards said:

1 hour ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

More than most, Tedd seems to understand & appreciate the spooky side of government work.

More than most people his age, Tedd has been hiding things from most people for years.

Between his own personal hiding things and some basic awareness of secrecy that he picked up from Edward, he does seem to be a prime choice for intelligence work.  But they needs to air out all the skeletons in their closet if and when he starts to work full time for DGB, at least to DGB.  While 3 letter agencies don't have a "no gay" rule anymore, they would really like to not have agents that can be blackmailed.