Nitpicking
on November 29, 2013 at 12:01 amDanny requires some pretty extreme collateral damage to learn simple lessons about not being self-righteous.
Danny requires some pretty extreme collateral damage to learn simple lessons about not being self-righteous.
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Is it possible that Danny has a point, about nit pickers not knowing what they are talking about? in his case no one who had not been there could know what he is going thru right now.
Joe’s had time to think about what he’s saying.
Not very sympathetic, what he’s saying, but real as he sees it.
Hiding from Howard will not help. Joe is bumbling his way thru tying to tell Danny that, I think. That he has to go out and face the world, sometime.
In theory never interacting with howard again could work. It’d be simple, just go somewhere else.
Maybe, but I can imagine having some time to sort through things before interacting with Howard might help Danny a bit. And I can’t imagine Howard is too keen on seeing Danny any time soon anyway.
I was about to nitpick the use of the word “nitpicking” in this comment, and then I realized what I was doing.
Comic, not comment.
And now you’re nitpicking yourself!
I do not understand why the comcis creator is always ragging on Danny and calling him ‘self-rioteous.’ I’m new to this (got hooked on shortpakced a couple years back, and jumped on this to get the mythology from the beginning) but Danny doesn’t seem like that horrendous a person to me. Sure, he made a huge mistake drinking and driving but prior to that he seemed like the reasonable one to me. I can’t shake the feeling there is some Mary Sue baggae here – is Danny who Willis was when he started college, and he dislikes who he was now?
Well, if you come back to this, here’s the answer.
Willis actually identifies more with Joyce, and her going through college. Something that’s shown a lot in DoA. However, Danny was made, in essence to be an author avatar. In doing this, Willis used Danny to always be right, always tell people the right thing to do. Which, given enough time, characterized him as the type of person who did this constantly. So while, yes, he is mostly in the right, he always made sure it was said, mostly within the four panels. The reason for his creation, combined with the spatial restrictions, and the constant issues that Willis felt like addressing, made Danny self-righteous, and self-centered. Not obviously, but the undercurrent of the character can be felt if you look more closely.
Now this is all specualtion.
The reason Willis seems so hard on Danny is probably because he sees him as a early writing mistake. And as what he thought was a good person at the time.
He wanted to be Danny but as time went on, he started to see the flaws with this.
Think of it as Willis not liking his mindset back then.
Now this is working as character development for Danny. It does seem specifically targeted at Danny’s nitpicking himself, so I must question, since when did you notice the flaws you gave Danny?
Because up until now, he seems to have been portrayed as in the right for the majority of the comic’s run.
Thanks for the insightful reply, Mr. Random! Frankly, I think Danny was usually right, and when he was wrong, as in this drinking/driving deal, it was because he didn’t follow his own instincts. This whole thread basically confirms Danny’s earlier dislike of Ruthless’ drinking friends. I don’t know, in college I always hated all the damn drinking and partying (I went to Ohio State). It was damn annoying, immature, and obviously dangerous. And I wasn’t super religious. I think Willis’ hatred of Danny is misguided. Even if its just his feelings towards a previous writing mistake, which sounds right to me, this writing led to the success he has since enjoyed. Must admit, I tend to enjoy DoA more, the robots and aliens are the ones who bug me. But not enough to stop reading! Thanks for creating such a fascinating universe, Willis.
Drinking and partying aren’t evil acts, or sins. Not everybody likes to party the same way but that doesn’t make people who enjoy things you don’t bad or wrong.
Now I don’t go from there to saying that any and all behaviour is all right as long as you call it “partying”, or that drinking can never be a bad idea, but the treatment of the subject in Roomies! up to now has, shall we say, lacked some nuance. Certainly anybody who does NOT think drinking is the door to all evil and sadness will have been put off by Danny’s apparent belief that it does and contempt for those who disagree; I know I certainly was.
How about they are just all fucking young, stupid, and irresponsible, regardless of personal beliefs.
Originally posted:
May 8, 1999