Oh, well. If the dig fits.

Listen, guys…I’m trying not to be the typical troll here, anyway…I made a huge mistake by posting in the first place. Rude, shithead behavior in general. The Snark-Blocker is not a challenge! But then I reacted to Sluggo’s flames of holy judgment exactly the way he wanted me to, so I came off even worse. That was my second mistake.

I come to you contrite. I’d just like everyone to consider the slim possibility that maybe I simply made a mistake and said something really out of place in a very stupid way this morning. Maybe I don’t really hate mentally ill strangers. I know it’s more fun (fun? maybe just easier?) to think that, though, so after this I’ll leave you to it. You can send me hate mail at the address above, and I will take it, because I deserve it! Or maybe you know it was only a mistake, but you just want to harp on it some more…please go ahead and email me that, too. No sense making the thread I turned ugly into something even uglier.

I’ve always thought that Faith and Drusila made such excellent role models.

Faith actually does, when you look at the big picture. She made some huge mistakes, but she eventually took responsibility for them, accepted her punishment, and has tried to do good since.

Thanks for the post! I haven’t picked up this series yet since I only caught one or two episodes of the show, but this issue has a decent enough hook to get me to check it out.

Apodaca, I don’t buy the “sales tactic” BS.

There’s nothing for you to “buy”. It’s not BS, it’s a matter of fact. They held a contest to sell more copies of the book. They picked a story accordingly. Notice how the story was on CBR’s front page. That’s pure advertising.

Comics fans have been FURIOUSLY debating Marvel’s recent “One More Day” storyline without people calling each other assholes just because THEY are wrapped up in a fictional story.

Uh, what? People have been calling each other EVERYTHING, just because they’re wrapped up in a fictional story. This very blog just had a comedy article based on calling people on both sides names for being so wrapped up in OMD.

I suppose all those geeks and losers who spend small fortunes just to win a stupid costume contest at a Con or spend hours and days lined up to watch a stupid movie (liek Star Wars) can be excused from their being so deeply wrapped up in their fictional stories because they’re somehow “better” than Buffy?

Again, I’m totally confused. I think you’re making assumptions about people based on what you want to argue against. If you knew Paul or me, you’d know that we’ve both ridiculed those people you mention without restraint. With less mercy, even. I don’t understand why you seem to think I or Paul represent cosplayers and line-sitters.

You want to avoid the asshole label? Don’t act like you’re somehow “better” than fans of something which doesn’t affect you as strongly. If you’re a fan of comics, you’ve got SOMETHING that gets to you, that will cause you to gush with wild praise or scream furiously in condemnation at some point, that will find some affect on you at a personal level.

I don’t really care about being labeled an asshole. That’s why I allowed that I might be one, first thing. And I find your argument that being a fan of anything is equal to being a fan of anything else totally absurd. Being a fan of The Office is better than being a fan of The Bachelor. One show is smarter than the other, and more respectable. Being a fan of Mark Waid is better than being a fna of Jim Balent. I don’t think I have to explain that one.

Otherwise, you’re just a reader and you really shouldn’t give a **** over a comment at a website.

I said my piece. You’re the one who’s responding to a comment at a website. Paul said his piece, and people freaked out about a comment at a website.

So, yeah, I don’t know what you’re talking about, there. Maybe you should take a few breaths.

I’m bad, I know, I know.

Anyway, I’ll apologize for tossing out my own brand of scorn and moral condemnation here. I disagree with what Joe and km and Paul have respectively posted, but really, who cares if I do?

Well, I do, for starters; at least about my bit. I know I said I was ending it, but the ensuing comments are a little too much to let pass.

Honestly, Omar, I’m not quite sure you understand what I wrote. One more time: I do not begrudge this woman her coping mechanisms in the slightest; I know far too much about how necessary they are. Hell, some of my own media security blankets have involved Idol shows, I’ve got no place to heap scorn from.

I simply don’t see this woman’s story as a springboard to begin celebrating anything larger than that – I should’ve said ‘importance’, rather than ‘Meaning’, perhaps that would’ve made things a little clearer. (The capitalization, BTW, wasn’t deliberately ironic. I’m a wannabe writer, I like to play around with words and different ways to get their meanings across. That’s all.)

If I misread that as the intent of the initial post, then that’s one more thing to apologise to Brian for. Believe me when I say I am now entirely sorry for posting at all, in what was supposed to be a feel-good thread. That was a bit of pointlessly ironic posturing.

I thank you for taking the time to educate me and others on the realities of schizophrenia. And oh, incidentally…I’m not a fella.

If the property in question was BAYWATCH or CSI: MIAMI or TAROT, my view of the story would be no different, because what I think of those stories DOESN’T MATTER.

Don’t forget for one second that this is a sales tactic. They chose the story they did, because it’s seemingly bulletproof. Regardless of the quality of the story, if people don’t talk about how touching and powerful it is, they’re ostracized and called an asshole.

“The Buffy comic is doing something nice for a person with big problems.”

“And charging you money to come watch.”

“Don’t ruin this for me, asshole!”

One more time, I apologize for ruining the thread. I’m actually not a bad human being, however I came off. Just a guy who made a mistake opening his fat mouth when he shouldn’t have. Please take a page out of Omar’s book and don’t let one guy’s thoughtlessness get to you.

Really?

I think most people would find these things scornful:

“It’s always at least a little weird to hear about a grown woman with her walls covered in posters of any kind.”

“You can’t overvalue it as it sounds like this couple may have.”
(Yes, he overvalued the fact that it appealed to the small part of her brain that was still the woman he married. GET SOME PERSPECTIVE MISTER HUSBAND!)

“I just don’t necessarily believe indulging a sick woman’s fantasy life is automatically the right thing to do.”

“I can’t really blame the guy for taking whatever he could get, but at the same time, that doesn’t make it the right thing to do.”
[For somebody who (a) repeatedly says "I don't know these people", and (b) I'm not a mental health professional, you sure seem to dwell on the idea that this is a bad idea, and make assumptions (such as Buffy-in-lieu-of-therapy) to "prove" your beliefs]

“We’re talking about a very sick woman, one who requires treatment, not coping mechanisms.”
(That comes off as scornful to anybody who knows that there is no treatment of schizophrenia which is particularly successful, certainly not in any guaranteed way, and that coping mechanisms can be all these poor people have)

That’s just one post.

You should walk away. You’re coming off as a bad human being.

I’m pretty sure that the part where she’s falling deeper and deeper into schizophrenia is the “real” problem, Paul.

Not here — here, the “real” problem is that you’re deliberately being an asshole to no end, and even after you agree there’s no reason for you to be posting here, you keep doing it.

But, in the story, I’m pretty sure that the part that’s the “real” problem is that she’s a schizophrenic and getting worse. The thing that highlights the real problem is when she’s incapable of carrying on any sort of conversation because her mind doesn’t work that way anymore.

Admiring a fictional character? Shit, if that’s all it took to be schizophrenic, most of the posters on this website would be in the booby hatch.