Tip sounds like he doesn’t have enough neurons still firing to be of much use for this experiment. He seems to have been spiraling downhill — and accelerating — ever since he lost his lady clothes.
Maybe we’ll get lucky and the experiment will actually swap Tip’s and Sweetheart’s brains, and Sweetheart will have an actual meat body and not need the drone, and Tip will be stuck in a dog’s body, where being useless doesn’t matter so much.
Sort of irrelevant. Last time he was in a dog’s body, he was A) useful, and B) in charge. But that doesn’t mean that being in a dog’s body would make him either useful or in charge. At the moment, he is neither. Since most dogs I know are useless the vast majority of the time, it would be a good fit for him right now.
Damn it, Tip! Go out and buy some new female clothes! (And don’t give us that “not enough money” nonsense. It will take at least a month for you to starve to death as long as you keep yourself adequately hydrated and don’t move around too much.)
He’s STOLEN clothes before. No reason he couldn’t do it again.
We’ve also seen him MAKE HIS OWN clothes, so unless part of the bet was to give up any and all sewing supplies he owned in addition to his wardrobe of actually complete clothes, he could just spend a couple hours to put together a custom dress in whatever style he feels like.
That would mean being able to motivate himself to get up and actually do it. With the state he’s in at the moment, I think he’d have to be prodded pretty hard.
Someone call Artie, he can use his mojo to romance some world famous fashion designer, and they can have a rack of outfits for Tip to pick from lickety split.
We’ve got a zillion solutions to Tip’s problem written right into the very fabric of the story, and yet, as usual, no one even lifts a finger.
Seriously, this is just bad writing. There’s nothing interesting or dramatic about characters sitting around not attempting to solve problems which have trivial solutions.
Tip not being able to function because he doesn’t have fancy dresses which he makes zero effort to replace is like Superman not being able to fight villainy because he’s hungry but can’t be bothered to get up and make a sandwich.
Bingo. Tip himself spelled it out that it’s not so much that he sacrificed his wardrobe, it’s that he gave up his wardrobe and it did nothing.
Probably also doesn’t help that he caved and wore clothes he’d fought against for years and still looked objectively good *and* had his mojo work arguably better than usual.
I disagree strongly, Walker. Yes, we can think of a bunch of seemingly-plausible “easy” solutions. But, first off, half of those wouldn’t work or could be easily made unfeasible, and secondly, it’s just a proper portrayal of a depression or deep funk – there being plenty of solutions that just aren’t possible because they require a mental fortitude/will/power/self that just isn’t there at the moment.
Thirdly, how much time has even passed? A day? Someone will solve this eventually, but that’ll probably be a while down the road – I don’t think this ‘ll be solved on the ship.
This could be very important to Tip’s character growth. Or not. We’ll see. But claiming “bad writing”is a pretty harsh statement. Maybe after it’s all over I’ll agree out was drawn out or didn’t go anywhere…But let’s wait and see.
Thank you for that. Assuming that someone’s depression is easily solved is easy for someone to say, but it demonstrates great ignorance.
This is not ‘bad writing’ — it’s actually a pretty accurate representation of someone suffering mild depression.
As for how much time has passed since Tip lost his lady clothes, I’m guessing it’s probably been about a week by now, just based on all that’s transpired since they returned to the office. They were on their way back from Vermont when they got diverted to rescue Jonah after he fell out of Shelby’s car. Then they were on the ship for only a day or two. And they’ve been back at the office for at least a couple days — long enough for Virginia to rig up Sweetheart’s drone, and then for Sweetheart to visit the TGL and return, and then for Unity to create the dual-helmet system. As for when the depression actually hit Tip, it’s hard to say. I’d say it probably began when he realized that sacrificing his entire wardrobe for non-human rights turned out to be a complete waste, due to the sudden reality blindness. He seemed reasonably normal on the ship, aside from the fact that he didn’t hit on ANY of the females on board. But since they got back to the office, he’s been in pretty bad shape.
There’s nothing realistic about a professional psychologist with both military and CIA training becoming deeply and paralyzingly depressed OVERNIGHT just because he willingly chose to trade his favorite luxury possessions in a bid to perform a noble act of justice that ultimately failed. That is NOT how depression works.
There’s also nothing realistic about all of his friends or coworkers doing absolutely nothing to help rectify the situation. They work for the Shadow Government, and one of their field agents has been compromised emotionally, and they just ignore it entirely.
Nothing about this is realistic. Nothing about this makes any sense – either in the logic of the real world, nor even in the sometimes highly twisted logic of the Narboniverse.
This is a problem that should be trivial to overcome, but it gets treated as this insurmountable obstacle that they just have to live with, because the plot demands it.
Very perceptive. Clearly the lack of concern for Tip’s welfare is related to the reality blindness. Which itself is being ignored in favor of limited palliatives. Dr. Lee should be investigating the source, not beta testing scrap drones! As for Tip himself, his mojo has been drained away but even he doesn’t grasp the nature of the problem…
D. Walker, you really need to educate yourself before you continue to spout off on a subject you obviously know very little about. It is clear that you have never suffered from depression, or had to care for someone who has. The causes of depression are myriad, and Tip’s behaviour is classic for someone suffering from situational depression. Being a trained psychologist and military does not make anyone immune to that, because it is caused by a significant event. Until he acknowledges his situation and realizes that he is better than that, he’s not going to get out of it.
It’s also very realistic that all his coworkers are ignoring him. He’s always been a drama queen, so they naturally assume that that’s all he’s doing now. He’s the Boy Who Cried Wolf.
And it’s easy for you to say that his problem is trivial, because you’re seeing it from the outside. You’ve seen what caused it, and you’ve seen it develop. So it’s nothing for you to say that he should just snap out of it. But when you’re the one going through it, nothing is that obvious.
Tip’s problem, as I see it, is not merely that he sold his wardrobe, but that he did so in vain. Had he struck a resounding blow for transgenic rights, he’d be back to his old self.
Also it isn’t just his wardrobe it”s his gender identity and the way he expresses gender. These are much more serious alterations than loss of luxury goods. Plenty of military officers enter depression just about all the ones that enter a prolonged life threatening mission. There are plenty of aspect of his life that are conclusive to depression Tip avoids serious romantic relationships. Has few meaningful friendships as he has dated and dumped likely every androphilic woman in Skinhorse or adjacent areas. His longest term accuientence just set him up to identity denial. Finaly knowing how to treat mental illness is a double edge sword as most treatments are most effective in the absence of the direct awarnece of the client as far as my sibling has informed. All in all tip is having a rough time. We can always allow the story to progress to find out if this will truely be insightful or just a reversion.
Yes, I’m surprised Sweetheart hasn’t already ordered him to do so, especially given that Tip is one of the few remaining employees that can understand her. I guess she’s just gotten too wrapped up in her own problem that she hasn’t realized she needs to start by at least taking charge of those she can.
It scarcely matters. What’s clashing is that it’s a colander. Nothing goes well with a colander.
I do rather worry about Tip, though. This is an awfully deep funk for him.
I’m not sure how long I can take nihilist Tip before I take a pilgirmage to wherever this strip is made and march outside with a placard demanding a brief storyline detailing a week long tryst in the Swiss Alps between Tip and Dr. Jones.
Clinical depression is a recognized medical condition which seems to be at least partially biological in origin and can torment people over a lifetime.
Situational depression. It’s a real thing, and it’s very different from biological depression. And since you cited a youtube video, I’ll go ahead and do it too.
I think that Tip’s been having some kind of issue for a while, but he’s been avoiding facing it by focusing on being even shallower than he was to begin with. This was just the last straw.
Since no one has mentioned it poor UNITY she is smart enough to notice how much it hurts to have sweetheart avoid her and too disingunues to do something about it.
Nihilist Tip FTW!
Tip sounds like he doesn’t have enough neurons still firing to be of much use for this experiment. He seems to have been spiraling downhill — and accelerating — ever since he lost his lady clothes.
Maybe we’ll get lucky and the experiment will actually swap Tip’s and Sweetheart’s brains, and Sweetheart will have an actual meat body and not need the drone, and Tip will be stuck in a dog’s body, where being useless doesn’t matter so much.
Stop giving the authors ideas!
You seem to be forgetting what happened the last time Tip was stuck in a dog’s body (Criswell, this comic is weird).
Sort of irrelevant. Last time he was in a dog’s body, he was A) useful, and B) in charge. But that doesn’t mean that being in a dog’s body would make him either useful or in charge. At the moment, he is neither. Since most dogs I know are useless the vast majority of the time, it would be a good fit for him right now.
But he was a male dog then!
Damn it, Tip! Go out and buy some new female clothes! (And don’t give us that “not enough money” nonsense. It will take at least a month for you to starve to death as long as you keep yourself adequately hydrated and don’t move around too much.)
He’s STOLEN clothes before. No reason he couldn’t do it again.
We’ve also seen him MAKE HIS OWN clothes, so unless part of the bet was to give up any and all sewing supplies he owned in addition to his wardrobe of actually complete clothes, he could just spend a couple hours to put together a custom dress in whatever style he feels like.
That would mean being able to motivate himself to get up and actually do it. With the state he’s in at the moment, I think he’d have to be prodded pretty hard.
Someone call Artie, he can use his mojo to romance some world famous fashion designer, and they can have a rack of outfits for Tip to pick from lickety split.
We’ve got a zillion solutions to Tip’s problem written right into the very fabric of the story, and yet, as usual, no one even lifts a finger.
Seriously, this is just bad writing. There’s nothing interesting or dramatic about characters sitting around not attempting to solve problems which have trivial solutions.
Tip not being able to function because he doesn’t have fancy dresses which he makes zero effort to replace is like Superman not being able to fight villainy because he’s hungry but can’t be bothered to get up and make a sandwich.
Accurately depicted depression makes for poor drama.
Family strip… must… not… riff..on romance statement…
Look at the chapter title; Fearless Leader has something in mind…
Bingo. Tip himself spelled it out that it’s not so much that he sacrificed his wardrobe, it’s that he gave up his wardrobe and it did nothing.
Probably also doesn’t help that he caved and wore clothes he’d fought against for years and still looked objectively good *and* had his mojo work arguably better than usual.
I disagree strongly, Walker. Yes, we can think of a bunch of seemingly-plausible “easy” solutions. But, first off, half of those wouldn’t work or could be easily made unfeasible, and secondly, it’s just a proper portrayal of a depression or deep funk – there being plenty of solutions that just aren’t possible because they require a mental fortitude/will/power/self that just isn’t there at the moment.
Thirdly, how much time has even passed? A day? Someone will solve this eventually, but that’ll probably be a while down the road – I don’t think this ‘ll be solved on the ship.
This could be very important to Tip’s character growth. Or not. We’ll see. But claiming “bad writing”is a pretty harsh statement. Maybe after it’s all over I’ll agree out was drawn out or didn’t go anywhere…But let’s wait and see.
Thank you for that. Assuming that someone’s depression is easily solved is easy for someone to say, but it demonstrates great ignorance.
This is not ‘bad writing’ — it’s actually a pretty accurate representation of someone suffering mild depression.
As for how much time has passed since Tip lost his lady clothes, I’m guessing it’s probably been about a week by now, just based on all that’s transpired since they returned to the office. They were on their way back from Vermont when they got diverted to rescue Jonah after he fell out of Shelby’s car. Then they were on the ship for only a day or two. And they’ve been back at the office for at least a couple days — long enough for Virginia to rig up Sweetheart’s drone, and then for Sweetheart to visit the TGL and return, and then for Unity to create the dual-helmet system. As for when the depression actually hit Tip, it’s hard to say. I’d say it probably began when he realized that sacrificing his entire wardrobe for non-human rights turned out to be a complete waste, due to the sudden reality blindness. He seemed reasonably normal on the ship, aside from the fact that he didn’t hit on ANY of the females on board. But since they got back to the office, he’s been in pretty bad shape.
Realistic depression?
There’s nothing realistic about a professional psychologist with both military and CIA training becoming deeply and paralyzingly depressed OVERNIGHT just because he willingly chose to trade his favorite luxury possessions in a bid to perform a noble act of justice that ultimately failed. That is NOT how depression works.
There’s also nothing realistic about all of his friends or coworkers doing absolutely nothing to help rectify the situation. They work for the Shadow Government, and one of their field agents has been compromised emotionally, and they just ignore it entirely.
Nothing about this is realistic. Nothing about this makes any sense – either in the logic of the real world, nor even in the sometimes highly twisted logic of the Narboniverse.
This is a problem that should be trivial to overcome, but it gets treated as this insurmountable obstacle that they just have to live with, because the plot demands it.
Very perceptive. Clearly the lack of concern for Tip’s welfare is related to the reality blindness. Which itself is being ignored in favor of limited palliatives. Dr. Lee should be investigating the source, not beta testing scrap drones! As for Tip himself, his mojo has been drained away but even he doesn’t grasp the nature of the problem…
D. Walker, you really need to educate yourself before you continue to spout off on a subject you obviously know very little about. It is clear that you have never suffered from depression, or had to care for someone who has. The causes of depression are myriad, and Tip’s behaviour is classic for someone suffering from situational depression. Being a trained psychologist and military does not make anyone immune to that, because it is caused by a significant event. Until he acknowledges his situation and realizes that he is better than that, he’s not going to get out of it.
It’s also very realistic that all his coworkers are ignoring him. He’s always been a drama queen, so they naturally assume that that’s all he’s doing now. He’s the Boy Who Cried Wolf.
And it’s easy for you to say that his problem is trivial, because you’re seeing it from the outside. You’ve seen what caused it, and you’ve seen it develop. So it’s nothing for you to say that he should just snap out of it. But when you’re the one going through it, nothing is that obvious.
Tip’s problem, as I see it, is not merely that he sold his wardrobe, but that he did so in vain. Had he struck a resounding blow for transgenic rights, he’d be back to his old self.
Also it isn’t just his wardrobe it”s his gender identity and the way he expresses gender. These are much more serious alterations than loss of luxury goods. Plenty of military officers enter depression just about all the ones that enter a prolonged life threatening mission. There are plenty of aspect of his life that are conclusive to depression Tip avoids serious romantic relationships. Has few meaningful friendships as he has dated and dumped likely every androphilic woman in Skinhorse or adjacent areas. His longest term accuientence just set him up to identity denial. Finaly knowing how to treat mental illness is a double edge sword as most treatments are most effective in the absence of the direct awarnece of the client as far as my sibling has informed. All in all tip is having a rough time. We can always allow the story to progress to find out if this will truely be insightful or just a reversion.
At least they were able to find room in their colanders for the date.
But did it have to be a man date?
Absolutely. You might say it was mandatory.
But who knows what will manifest?
I never thought I’d say this, but…Tip, go bathe and shave and put on a dress.
Why did I “hear” that in Henry Blake’s voice?
I was thinking Hawkeye, at the end of the episode “Chief Surgeon Who?”
Yes, I’m surprised Sweetheart hasn’t already ordered him to do so, especially given that Tip is one of the few remaining employees that can understand her. I guess she’s just gotten too wrapped up in her own problem that she hasn’t realized she needs to start by at least taking charge of those she can.
Clashes? It’s a gray hat with a gray shirt! It’s the perfect matching outfit!
Yes, but the colander is dowdy, old ocean gray while the shirt is clearly military gray… or is it the other way round?
Does it matter? It’s just going to get redone anyway.
It scarcely matters. What’s clashing is that it’s a colander. Nothing goes well with a colander.
I do rather worry about Tip, though. This is an awfully deep funk for him.
I’m not sure how long I can take nihilist Tip before I take a pilgirmage to wherever this strip is made and march outside with a placard demanding a brief storyline detailing a week long tryst in the Swiss Alps between Tip and Dr. Jones.
Oh, now I really want to know how Shaenon would take that!
Sweetheart is being such a Guy!
One might even say, she’s the Man.
Clinical depression is a recognized medical condition which seems to be at least partially biological in origin and can torment people over a lifetime.
This is not what Tip has.
Tip is being _comically_ depressed.
Tip is being a drama queen. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRhovNlNck4
Tip is being self centered. Which is pretty _normal_ for Tip.
Situational depression. It’s a real thing, and it’s very different from biological depression. And since you cited a youtube video, I’ll go ahead and do it too.
I think that Tip’s been having some kind of issue for a while, but he’s been avoiding facing it by focusing on being even shallower than he was to begin with. This was just the last straw.
Agree
Since no one has mentioned it poor UNITY she is smart enough to notice how much it hurts to have sweetheart avoid her and too disingunues to do something about it.
On the other hand, getting through a terrible date is way more stressful than getting through a good one, so a much more realistic test!