Candy Hearts Vs New Love

“So, y’all wanna go rollerskating tonight? With me? And my new girlfriend who you’ve had firmly categorized as An Enemy for, like, years? IT’LL BE FUN-“

33 Comments

Honey only ever made the barest effort to hide how gay she was for Turpentine, didn’t she?

She didn’t really know herself, so she wasn’t able to hide it from others, but she did manage to hide it from herself for a long time.

Turp is already dressed perfectly adequately for when they’ll go to the hospital to see on the X-ray if she has broken any bone.

seconded. speaking as someone who bruised her tailbone at the rink last week `:D

Coco is such a lovely and caring friend!!!! Meanwhile, Cherry is…trying. In her own way.

You can even sorta see where she’s coming from; for so long Honey was all “grr, that scoundrel, Turpentine, keeps showing up to make trouble” and seemingly from one day to the other she’s now “I love and cherish this woman, she is my sunshine”, because unlike Coco, Cherry never picked up on the undercurrent of romantic tension, just the tension.

She’ll probably come around once she sees them interacting more and the situation becomes less surreal for her. I hope. Dang, I don’t want this band and friendship to crumble. 🙁

“You cannot decide matters of the heart. It is madness to try.”

Oh very well played, there.

Honey helping Turpentine stay calm and grounded is so sweet and good I am actually crying. Thank you. Thank you.

A little disappointing that all that earlier build-up about Coco’s reaction kinda went nowhere. It seemed like she was ready to leave the band and this would have been the tipping point.

Coco did make a point of seemingly getting over it. I what I thought was a very adult way. I was veeeery worried it was all show, but though some of her expressions have shown her emotions, she does indeed seem to have gotten over it and be a true pal. Which is nice as Coco is one of the best Hearts.

I disagree. If anything, this writing direction shows a lack of maturity. It gives Honey an out and prevents her from growing because it lets her completely off the hook without any repercussion or need to take responsibility for her obliviously cruel actions. Honey’s the main character here; she’s the one who needs to be maturing for the story to move forward. The one point of potential conflict in the story is now gone. Is there even a point to keep reading the comic when all the conflict is removed? No more external conflict in the form of Honey/Turpentine rivalry now that the romance is solid and no more internal conflict… Honey accepted herself and Coco’s heartache has just been glossed over and erased with Honey none the wiser and never needing to face a painful or uncomfortable conversation with Coco. I understand the desire to have a lesbian story that isn’t tragic and that this is an idealized world, but a story that has absolutely no conflict is boring for the reader.

??? i don’t see the story as boring at all. not all readers like reading Perpetual Conflict, some like reading about characters they like/identify with having good lives and healthy relationships !! i know i do !!

I didn’t say Honey is off the hook. Cherry is being a dick from the get go.
It’s Coco who is teh hero in this.
She is immediately not acting like Honey is ‘hers’. She loves Honey in an in love way, but Honey doesn’t feel the same. There is no bull shit griping about friend zones or if HER why not ME? She is accepting while being honest and getting passed her own jealousies and prejudices.
People are going to be arse holes about this, Cherry’s already started, but Coco isn’t.
And the fact that there is one character who is being awesome is in itself awesome. I’m not very queer, but i love the world the story is in, because being queer is just as an every day thing as being not so queer. People are being judged and indeed challenged on character. It’s a world I long to live in.
Turpentine has been a bit of an arsehole and rubs people the wrong way, sometimes just for the hell of it, but the point of true anarchy is self responsibility, which means compromise or stagnation. We have found that Turp is a complex character who is more three dimensional than just a rebel without a clue who has been hiding a pretty badly broken heart.
Honey is far more than a vacuous goody too shoes and knows that there are darker sides to life that can crush the best of souls, she is embarking on a brave new adventure and even the best of adventures leave scars.
Everyone else is getting a good dose of gonna have to compromise because things change people, grow.
It’s just kinda nice some new tropes are being explored as well as the ones we are used to, it’s why Band Vs Band is so gosh darn brilliant!

i did get a bunch out of watching coco see the situation, internalize and synthesize and deal with her feelings and finally (mostly!) get over all that — pretty much without even saying anything out loud! coco is SO low-key. [i wasn’t necessarily gonna go there but … that was some MASTERFUL writing.]

Not boring for me. Stories do not require conflict.
https://www.marxists.org/subject/art/lit_crit/works/leguin/carrier-bag.htm

I know we’re all chatting about stories not needing conflict, but I am very into the idea that the Candy Hearts and the Sourballs will have to team up to defeat another band.

Oh, I like this!

It’s a cool idea for a short arc but I’m looking forward to the ways their two groups of friends pull in different directions. And a crazy attempt to have both bands collaborate. That’s too big a comedic pile-up to not have. (And on that note, I’ve got to finish my fanfic review of one such.)

Cherry is a Foe

also: i feel like “slow motion trainwreck” is, um, not *not* a harbinger of conflict? i teach story writing & this is a good story! #argumentfromauthority

also: it is mean to come on someone’s comment section and snap on them for ideas you have about The Nature of Writing and Conflict! that is not the candy hearts way, nor even the sourballs way! THE FATE OF SURGERY NURSE PART IX IS NOT DETERMINED BY THE NATURE OF SURGERY NURSE PART IV: keep reading!

I thought Surgery Nurse IX was kind of a let-down, myself.

Jeanne, you are my fave, and I’m totally certain that talking with you about writing over the years is something that’s improved my comic.

So! I feel like I ought to say something here. It does make me sad (and kind of stressed) to hear that I’ve disappointed anyone – but heck, if that’s how you feel, I’m not going to debate about it or anything. Talking about my intentions or future plans doesn’t change how readers have their own responses to what’s actually on the page. If you enjoy these characters and their world, you’re welcome to see where it goes from here – and if you decide it’s not for you, I’m sorry to see you go, but I get that it’s not always going to be to everyone’s taste.

This is sort of in line with criticisms I’ve heard on and off over the years: not enough action, not enough conflict, too soft-edged, too low-stakes, too meandering as opposed to having a really structured Overall Plot aiming towards a definite ending for the whole thing – and all of this does make me think about What I’m Doing And Why, even if I ultimately disagree and/or it kinda ruins my day.

There’s plenty of conflict in these stories. Honey and Turpentine are both full of their own conflicts. Damon and the Celestials just broke up. I just read a report from Adam West Day in Walla Walla, Washington where the 1966 Batman was described as The Bright Knight. More conflicts like that, please. It doesn’t have to be blood all the time.

As for having readers, I’ve recommended this comic to quite a few people who like their conflict gentle, and I’ve seen at least two of them comment here. Please yourself and you’ll please enough of your audience.

heh, whoops, I think I messed up re: which comments were threaded together , and didn’t reply in the most logical spot. In my own god dang system!

Honestly every now and then I’m like “…maybe I shouldn’t have comments on this main site anyway”, and then I see like a really sweet or kind one and my heart melts.

you are a hero making an awesome comic. it has helped me through some of my darkest days and god knows i’ve had some pretty dark ones lately. i cannot tell you enough to please not let the haters get to you. alan moore says that storytellers are magicians and their stories are their spells. you cast the most magnificent sparkliest magicalgirl meets riotgrrrl filled with love and hope and references to goth bands that i’ve been listening to for ages megaspells that i have ever seen. you are an op spellcaster of hope and doom!. one day when it is finished i hope to buy the entire story in several hardcover volumes and they will be proudly on display in my bookcase. do not concern yourself with the opinions of people who think that there are any hard and fast rules to writing as if it where some kind of mathametics. it’s thinking like that that has made me lose all interest in romances in tv land, because the second your otp finally gets together after seasons of will they or wont they you know they will instantly run in to trouble because god forbid people manage to have a functioning relationship. it’s as if people think that getting together or falling apart are the only interesting things about relationships. fuck that, if anything is bad writing it’s that. in conclusion: i will forever be gratefull for your story. you have made my world a brighter place. thank you.

DANG. Honey has got HIPS. I guess I never noticed because of all the lovely, poofy skirts. She defs looks like hse never skips leg day ^_^

coco’s is being really chill for this situation. shes a good friend! i hope she finds a girlfriend too

For what it’s worth, I’m pretty sure that other slice of life comic writers like Jeff Jacques , Kate Beaton, Los Bros Hernandez and Marguerite Abouet have received similar criticisms about conflict, low stakes, meandering, etcetera. So like them, don’t worry about the bad criticism. I mean, it’s going to sting, but you’re doing well all the same.

Man, the lack of intense conflict is why I’m a regular reader! The level of drama is absolutely perfect — it seems like so many LGBT stories are tragic and conflict-filled, so this wonderful land of bands is an oasis I keep coming back to. The feeling of “everything is going to be alright” that suffuses the BvB world is so important to me when the world is getting me down and I feel like my gay dreams have been shattered (which can happen alarmingly regularly).
I love this comic and I love you 🙂

YES!!!

The biggest appeal of this comic was the more realistic way drama happens. It’s not constant things happening and never a breathing moment or two like some stories try to make it happen, in here we get breathing moments, maybe even a day or two of tranquility before things happen. Sometimes the drama is low key, not the end of the world and the shatterer of relationships. And I think some miss the biggest draw of the comic, it’s a pair of scooby doo like bands and what happens between them, not exactly Megadeth VS Metallica here, and the more light hearted tone and style always felt so connected and makes me happy.

Yeah fangirling here, but I’m glad to see another with the same ideas.

How come Foxy ( who is in a roller derby team) hasn’t given Turpentine a lesson or two in roller skating prior to this date?

Probably because Turpentine was too stubborn to ask for help!

SHE CALLED HER BABYYYY