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Comic 553 – “The Woman”

Posted on by • 129 Comments

DAE_130208_553F_TheWoman

Errol: Poor Debs, I sent off this and another song to her as well. She really should have rethought that whole “I’ll sing on your songs” thing… 😀 In my defense, they ARE D&E songs.

Debs: Errol said that I should watch the BBC series. I told him he had to watch BSG first.

129 Responses to Comic 553 – “The Woman”

  1. I still need to watch season 2 of Sherlock. I might find time tomorrow… possibly today if my TAD doesn’t take too long (and my errands don’t take too long).

    But yay more D &E songs! XD

  2. I’m just gonna say it…Sherlock is better than BSG :D, and I’m a fan of BSG. So I can’t back up Debs on her declaration :D.

    • Oh… I agree. 😀 I mean, I have watched the first season and most of the second season of BSG.

      And Sherlock blows its doors off. 😀

      • I suppose we have to get you started on Doctor Who next, considering that it currently shares a showrunner with Sherlock…

      • Oh, I want to watch it. I mean, it’s not that I’m avoiding watching any of these shows. It’s a time issue.

        And I always liked British humour…

      • My solution to the time issue- as previously suggested with BSG- is to watch them whilst knitting (after all, you seem to have plenty of time for that)… With Doctor Who you don’t even have to find time for this when the kids aren’t around like you would with BSG…

    • I can’t judge on which is better since I haven’t seen Sherlock; but if I’m not going to watch something just because Errol tells me too when he won’t do the same. 😛

      • *laugh* The thing is… I’m not NOT Watching BSG out of spite. It’s time.

        You, my dear, are doing it out of spite. 😀

        If someone tells me something is awesome and desperately wants me to see it.. I WILL see it because I don’t want to miss out. 😀 It will just take time.

      • Naw, it’s just not about spite. It’s really, really rare that I watch TV for longer than 22 minutes at a time while I’m eating something.

  3. I agree with ManPans. I was going to comment saying the same thing.. Sherlock is better then BSG. I can’t wait to hear the song. and also now you can understand why I really did not like the second Sherlock Holmes movie compared to Sherlock the series. the first movie did Adler right. In the second movie they just did Adler wrong.

  4. I don’t feel that any recent Holmes adaptation has done Adler right. Much as I love Sherlock, it too misses the point. The movies turn her into a love interest, Sherlock ramps up the sex and doesn’t allow her to beat Holmes in the end, and frickin’ Elementary makes her a Dead True Love. If you want the real Adler, read the one Holmes story in which she appears, “A Scandal in Bohemia.”

    But yes, I would agree that Sherlock trumps BSG as far as urgent viewing order is concerned.

    • Yeah, that part is very true Kari I’ll admit. While I did enjoy Adler a lot more in the series and their chemistry, people always seem to feel that to make a woman confident they have to ramp up her sexiness/sex drive failing to notice that confidence is in and of itself sexy. I’d say a couple more things, but it would spoil the episode so I’ll hold back for now :D.

    • I’d have to say you’re right on that and I’m surprised that it’s something that hadn’t bothered me about Sherlock, but it didn’t. I’d reread the short story just before seeing that episode the first time. I will say they gave some wonderful nods to “A Scandal in Bohemia.”, Yet it is a different tale isn’t it?

      I include here, for your enjoyment, the first paragraph of “A Scandal in Bohemia.”:
      “To Sherlock Holmes she is always the woman. I have seldom heard him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that one particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise but admirably balanced mind. He was, I take it, the most perfect reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as a lover he would have placed himself in a false position. He never spoke of the softer passions, save with a gibe and a sneer. They were admirable things for the observer — excellent for drawing the veil from men’s motives and actions. But for the trained reasoner to admit such intrusions into his own delicate and finely adjusted temperament was to introduce a distracting factor which might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. Grit in a sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power lenses, would not be more disturbing than a strong emotion in a nature such as his. And yet there was but one woman to him, and that woman was the late Irene Adler, of dubious and questionable memory.” – Arthur Conan Doyle – A Scandal In Bohemia – 1891 – http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/ScanBohe.shtml

      • Yes, I’ve always loved that opening. I quote it incessantly at people who think that Irene Adler is Sherlock Holmes’s love interest.

      • Totally remember this. 😀

        I don’t mind that much about BBC Adler because she is still crazy intelligent and conniving throughout.

        And the whole sexual tone is toned down in the second half when it gets even more interesting. 😀

    • Oh, I agree. I was trying to explain to Debs that the REAL Adler is nothing like BBC Adler.

      Possibly, A&E series with Jeremy Brett does the Adler correctly, because it’s as faithful an adaptation I have found. I loved that series when I was younger… because I am a huge Sherlock Holmes fan. 😀

      • I do believe I’ve missed that episode of the Brett series, or more likely didn’t quite grasp the significant nature of it at the time. It was stretching me intellectually to grasp everything about the episodes when I watched them.. I was only 13 after all, but I was disappointed when I didn’t know who’d dun it by the end no matter how hard I tried..

  5. Sherlock is also a LOT shorter than BSG.

    But it introduces fewer swear words, so everything is a balance.

  6. I have never been a Holmes fan, and I was told not to watch Sherlock (by the same person who first spent four months telling me I *have* to watch it) so, I’m going to sit here quietly out of the way.

      • I’ve never read the books (well, I’ve started to in the last year) but I loved the show when I first watched it. I don’t think you have to be a fan of the books to be a fan of the show. If you don’t like the GENRE, that’s another story 😀

      • Actually, it was the Sherlock Holmes stories that turned me off of the mystery genre in the first place. One of the reasons that I *HATE* spoilers is that half the fun of watching ANYTHING with a suspense element (same goes for reading, of course) is trying to figure out what will happen, what had happened, why things happened and will happened. The Holmes stories were all “Mystery mystery mystery, and now Holmes makes you feel stupid for not connecting clues the author NEVER GAVE YOU” It ticked me off. There was no chance to beat Holmes to the answer when he solved it because the boot prints were clearly made by someone walking with a limp making the left side of the shoe print more predominant when half the time we weren’t even told there WERE shoe prints, let alone any details about them. It would be like being in a song genre contest where you got to see the lyrics only, and the other person got to hear the music, read the lyrics and see the artist bios. It felt rigged, and I felt jipped and cheated. I’ll grant, I was a child when I read them, but I was still turned off of the whole genre from it. My dad insists I should look at them as police procedural stories, not as mysteries, but they still hold little appeal for me. I’d rather read Elantra, if I want a who done it that I never will have the information to figure out. At least the fantasy element makes me feel less dumb about not getting it, and provides a hook to bring me along. If a story doesn’t have some fantasy or sci-fi element to it, it is hard for me to get into it in the first place. It has to really hook me. So something like Homes, that seems to shove me away…

      • Heh, I’m quite happy not to try and figure things out while I watch things.

        I want to be lost in it. That’s the hard thing about stop motion animation… when I watch it, I start to analyze it. But I don’t want to analyze it… I want to watch and not engage my brain. *LAUGH*

      • I have a few things I’ll watch/read for mindless fluff, but not many, and not often. I like to think, to keep thinking, learning, figuring out… And when I find a broken plot… I like to go and tinker, to fix it. But I love things that make me work. Possibly why the American movie/TV industry frustrates me so much despite my wanting to be a part of it. Watching a Disney movie, for example, you KNOW it will be a happy ending. That it will all work out, all be YAY! I like not knowing, having to figure it out, guessing what will happen, what the writers chose. Romcoms bore me out of my skull because ultimately, they’re all the same. But give me something where the creators aren’t afraid to let the main characters die, where bad things can and do happen, where the danger feels more… real. Part of why I liked early Buffy. And they killed her off, and it was sad, and we all sat back and wondered what in the world they’d do with that. And then they… well not going to spoil for the three people in this world who care but have not finished. But between that, and the whole dawn tangle… there were good moments, before they decided to just do fanservice and forget the plot.

        But look at shows like Next Gen. characters died or went away. Tasha for crying out loud. And look at Amanda Rodgers… There was no “humanity wins out, the human spirit triumphs, we can do anything!” there. She wasn’t going to become a main character, just because she was interesting and awesome.

        Sometimes the hero looses, and that’s okay, that’s FUN! Because then I actually have to think, to figure out, I get to analyze and guess. Which is why, also, things like DBZ (besides being insanely boring) bother me. (Oh yeah, and Saint Seiya had it in SPADES) “He’s dead! No he’s alive! But now he’s dead again! He’s alive.” Double cursed jitating Excel Saga…. ::gets stabby angry look in eyes::

        Right. Sorry, calming down. Maybe I should just go take a walk….

      • That’s why I liked asian cinema… a lot of it predictable… but then… you had NO idea what was going to happen. 😀

        BTW, if you want a movie where you just don’t know and it’s totally messed up?

        Watch the Korean Film: “Save the Green Planet”

        Romcom Korean film I liked: “My Sassy Girl”

        And of course, I never know what’s going to happen in a Ghibli film. 😀

        Oh, a french director I like: Jean Pierre Jeunet. “City of Lost children” was amazing.

      • There’s a lot of anime that isn’t predictable too, though I do know some of the ones Lore used as examples. I can’t hate DBZ but I do agree that that weeks of watching Goku fly along a dragon so he could come back to life (again) was tedious. The action parts were fun though.. and Vegeta he was fun too. XD

      • Actually, it’s weird but the tv show might be more enjoyable in that sense. Not that you should go watching it or anything, but it’s kind of interesting to think about what the show could offer what a book could not. In your case, you didn’t like the books because it withheld vital clues to the mystery and kept the reader in the dark. Books can choose not to reveal information. More often than not, television and movies can’t help but give away visual clues. The joy of A Scandal In Belgravia (and many of the episodes) was that at the end of it, you realize that for most of it, the clues were in fact there for us to see. Mind you, if they’re really clever with making the clues not obvious, you also can’t help but feel foolish for not having spotted them, but it’s less apparent than when it’s in the books.

        Watson is good to have around too. He’s the one the audience actually identifies with. He’s actually in the dark like the rest of us. Poor Watson :D.

      • I’m not great at the whole audio listening.

        I seriously think I have some Aural deficiency… (manpans would attest to my ability to not listen).

        My mind strays when I listen to audio books, even if I’m interested. I think I’m a bit better now.

      • I can’t do audio books, I’ve tried. Not only do I miss the feel of the book in my hands (or e-reader, now), and the sight of words on the page, I am the type to go back and reread an earlier passage, to flip back to try and remind myself of something. Very much the “wait, but didn’t they say..” flip flip flip “OH! that’s what they meant! COOL!” type. I love going back to reread a section, which is harder to do (I’ll admit, not impossible) with an audio book. Plus, I love the simple act of reading. Something about words on a page makes my heart sing.

      • I do the same thing with audio books. It’s just scroll bar right? and you can have as many bookmarks as you want. Audiobooks add another dimension to the stories too as I can feel what I was doing as I was listening to them. I remember where I was, what the atmosphere was like and it becomes part of the story.

    • Did they say why? Just curious since I’m not remembering anything extreme that would usually cause you to be warned away from something. Again I’ve only seen the first season though.

      I’ve never read the books either, or seen any of the other incarnations of Holmes. I may watch the movies one day (I’m not that big on movies to begin with) but I do like what I’ve seen of the BBC one so far with the little knowledge I have of the characters. XD

      • Not really. It has to be SUPER interesting to me to go see it and even then sometimes I don’t wind up going. That being said there are a few I do want to see… I just need to wait until Netflix has them. I think the last movie I saw in the theaters was…. Transformers: Dark of the Moon. XD

      • Oh bah. To me movies are too predictable and they all follow mostly the same few plot points so why should I waste money to see a similar story again? I had wanted to see Rise of the Guardians (I just never made it to the theater for that one) and I will probably torture myself by watching Star Wars Ep 7, 8, and 9. Oh and the Boba Fett movie! I’ll go see those most likely. Now that I’ve seen the Avengers and associated movies I’ll most likely go to see the next ones also. *shrug* Most movies just don’t interest me though.

      • Come back here, then the movies are free! You know the bosses would love to have you back. 🙂

      • ….. DO I even need to give that a response? Aside form where I would live… I don’t miss snow! XD

      • I don’t remember being adored… I wasn’t there long. I don’t think I actually ever quit either… lol

      • There was a bit of controversy with S02E01 because of Adler’s profession as a dominatrix (revealed (heh) early on and so that’s not a spoiler) and her chosen attire in, perhaps, three scenes. So it moves into areas beyond what season 1 had contained, but that said, it is rather restrained compared to what is otherwise allowed in BBC shows.

      • They didn’t like it for the character? Or they didn’t like cause they’re prudes? Probably prudes :D. Personally I have no problem with that stuff it’s done well and not just for the sake of shock value, and I think in this case they did manage to balance the elements very well. It was never a HUGE issue that kept coming up. In fact as Errol said it mattered very little later in the episode except for the occasional comment from Adler.

      • I think, in the end, it was more of the shock of it. The way it was described, I was expecting full on frontal nudity, and that was certainly not the case.

      • Whatever it is I know it won’t bother me (little does unless family happens to be in the room watching it with me) though I could understand how it WOULD bother people. Especially since there was none of that in the first season. *shrug* To each their own and all.

      • Yes, believe it or not, I don’t really try all that hard to get people to watch/do the same stuff that I like. 😀

        If they try and don’t like it, then they don’t like it. 😀 Perfectly fine by me. My wife doesn’t like a LOT of things I like.

        Heck, she hates the walkthrough song. *LAUGH* I love it.

      • I’m guilty that way. I want people I talk to, to at least experience what I like, so I have someone to rant with. Of course, my dad and I have settled into an uneasy truce about Le Mis. We still feel strongly about our personal opinions on one character, and find ourselves arguing whenever he comes up.

      • Now I want to know.

        And the thing is, I’m fortunate enough to know a lot of people that like the same thing I like.

        Heck, Manpans likes a LOT of the same things I like. It’s crazy the number of things we both enjoy that are similar.

        She doesn’t like my wife’s bum as much as I do though.

      • Javier. Or however his name is spelled. I think he’s a good villain, that while I can disagree strongly with what he chooses, which side he is aligned with, I can see an integrity there worth respecting. What he does at the end shows me the depth of his beliefs and how hard he works to uphold his vows. If pushed, I’d say lawful neutral. My father, however, feels he is the embodiment of all that is evil, he is a horrible villain with no redeeming qualities, who should have been shot in the first act, who Val John should have killed and never tried to deal with. He thinks Val should have made him look the fool when he proved the other man innocent, and not hung himself to do it.

      • Oh, I agree with you, Lore.

        I see Javier as… Rorschach. His world view is totally black and white, and knows no other way to bend. He is being true to his beliefs, which is more than most at times. He doesn’t strike me as a hypocrite…

      • It’s perhaps a little easier to reconcile Javert’s actions when you realize he hasn’t seen any of backstory we have on Valjean.

        To him Valjean is a parole who immediately commits a crime worse than the one for which he served time, who sets himself up a long con as a business man and eventually mayor, during which time he cons Javert into not arresting a prostitute who is later found dead, ValJean is caught doing something with a poor little girl, he is later accused of kidnapping and then joins a bunch of rioters who have no problem killing police.

        Javert has a very different view of Valjean than we do. It’s not surprising that he’s conflicted about letting him go just for a personal debt.

      • I agree wholeheartedly, and honestly, the give and take between the two of them is one of the things I most enjoy in the first act. My dad, however, as I said, disagrees most vehemently. I can’t ever agree with Javert (and thank you for the proper spelling), but I can get where he is coming from, and I enjoy watching villains who think they are the heroes. There is a certain extra oomph a story can find when all sides think clearly that they are in the right. It can be fun, and really makes you think about how you see the world, and makes me at least more aware, reminds me that not everyone sees things the way that I do.

    • This is a bit unusual to have so many so early but yeah… XD

      I’m off for errands, haircut and color, and sushi! And hopefully I’ll get my TAD done.. sometime today.

      • Nope. I was working on it last night, and I was so tired that I kept falling asleep over it. That was relatively early in the evening; I don’t know what was going on. I’m finished it now, but I ALSO realised yesterday that I had forgotten to do a Valentine’s Day header this year. I’m working on that at the moment (it’s a good thing I’m getting a snow day). The comic IS up on the secondary site, http://westofbathurst.comicgenesis.com. It will soon be up on the primary site as well, along with the new banner. I’m sorry for the delay.

      • Yep. Slightly misguided attempt to get involved in an actual webcomics community. I learned all about cliques! It was fantastic. But I do still keep up the site. I just don’t do much with it because of the strange belief of the people who run the service that HTML is God. I tried to upload some secondary pages once; I couldn’t get the images to show. There was a banner at one point, but it’s vanished now.

      • Some places it should be hard to break into- bank vaults for example… *looks around shifty-eyed*

      • …..Casey……

        Not sure if I love him for that or hate him. All I can really say is ….Casey….

      • Wow…there are so many replies in this thread that I am actually UNABLE to reply to your final message. Apparently, there’s a limit to how teeny the site is willing to make the font. At any rate: that’s really the only thing anyone ever CAN say to Casey, really.

      • The only color difference I see is the glaring yellow when Errol types. There are differences?

      • Well, I can see the Yellow. If I look REALLY closely, I can almost kind of see a difference otherwise. Maybe. I’m not sure if I’m seeing it, or if I am convincing myself I should however.

      • You might have to adjust your contrast…
        One color is #F8F8F8 and the other is #FFFFFF.

        These are not to be confused with the color in the forums which is a close, but darker #F6F6F6.. I’m just sayin…

    • It’s awesome.

      I just came back from shovelling (1 and a half hours) and it was up to 80 comments. good grief! 😀 😀

  8. @ Kari – because we cannot make anymore replies in that chain –

    Yeaaaaaah….. Still annoyed with him over the whole making Marie think she’s nuts… well… more nuts… thing. But I’m letting myself like him again. Which I know means he’ll be ripping out my heart and stomping it on it once more soon enough. Le Sigh.

  9. Comment the 101st- I think… Have we ever had this many comments on a strip before?

    Edit: Apparently 104th

  10. Oh geez.. I come back and its 112 comments. I just started from the beginning and went down until I saw something new.

  11. Can’t really see the cut and color, but that’s fine. It’s me, I wouldn’t be able to really see it if it were billboard size either.

    The TAD looks cool, though.

    And I discovered I still lack Is and Js. I need to just finish this already.