The current story arc started with this strip: Hit-Boy.
Cloud’s mom is, without a doubt, the complete opposite of a helicopter mom. While I think that it is a very bad idea to watch every step of your children (assuming you’re not living in Ciudad Juarez or a similar hellish place), not letting them make their own experiences, she’s probably even too extreme in the opposite direction. But I guess this is what you get when you’re dealing with a geeky real-life rebel…
Nonetheless, I think this is a good opportunity to recommend the Free-range kids movement of Lenore Skenazy against the excesses of helicopter parenting prevalent (mostly) in the U.S. and U.K. Some of the stuff on that blog would be pure comedy gold (example headline: “Law Forbids Kids to Witness Wine Tasting”) if kids and sane adults would not actually have to suffer from it.
I want to recall what I have written on 27 May:
My tip for the winning team of the World Cup is Spain. Spain does not only have some of the best individual players, but they also work together brilliantly as a team, as can be seen by their Euro 2008 title and their impressive record during the World Cup qualification round. They won all 10 games in their group, which included such strong teams as Bosnia and Turkey.
I just wish I had bet some money on them now. 😉 Spain is a worthy World Cup winner in my eyes. Apart from Germany they played the best football. So congrats to all fans of the Spanish team!
- Cloud: I don’t think this is a good idea. All sorts of things could go wrong.
- Ye Thuza: Pussy.
- Cloud: Hey! It’s pretty damn dangerous…!
- Ye Thuza: Pussy.
- Cloud: You could do it just fine on your own!
- Yuna: Pussy.
- Cloud: I’m soooo going to regret this…
- Ye Thuza: Be ready at 8 pm!
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what are they planning?
Younger sisters: always there to boost your self-confidence XD”’ And to convince you to… stuff.
What ever Ye Thuza planned, I’m looking forward to it and I’m very curios for the next strip o.ô
Especially for what Cloud is worried about XD’
Must have something to do with Ralphs brother though since Cloud already was on a “scouting mission”.
also@Novel
Even though I’m not a fan of soccer I’m happy that Spain won.
The last game was not so much soccer as it was… well, I don’t know what it was but I saw a lot of yellow cards (and one red i think)… and Spain was not responsible for that…
And now germany lost against the world champion 😉
But to be honest I’m relieved that the WorldCup is finally over ^^’
Um…what’s a helicopter parent?
Also,
OMG! Are they gonna do what I think they’re gonna do? If she does than Ye Thuza will officially be the most badass mother I know, even beating that one from Kill Bill.
Men, you are a Psych you beat Octopus Paul! LOL
Spain, first time world champion and the first champion to win the cup after losing their first match, incredible.
And I bet Ye Thuza is the best Mom to have if you live in east berlin. Anyway if It isnt mortal danger (or anthing to lose an arm or a leg… Hey hospitals are expensive) then count me on it, thats the moto.
I remember that the grandmother of a friend s from poland swim across a river with her husband in her back to escape from a Nazi Camp. After the childs grow up they divorce… ¿How can you divorce from some one like that? yep here in Latin America we recive evrything from the godl old Germany
@Strife: A “helicopter” parent constantly hovers over their child, constantly commanding, never quite satisfied, and is both irritating to watch and to experience. Kevin and Kell has an amusing comic about it… http://www.kevinandkell.com/2010/kk0421.html
she truly is a scary lady.
I dunno how I feel about Ye Thuza’s choice of words here. Even ignoring the fact that an insult does not a valid argument make, calling your twelve-year-old son (often an age were one’s concepts of masculinity and manhood come into question, and usually tied to a boy’s sense of self-worth) a pussy is bordering on verbal abuse.
Also, the double meaning of the word pussy makes it even worse. I’ve always taken it as a personal insult against females in general, and anyone who uses it as a derogatory term tends to drop a couple notches in my book.
Then again, I’m looking at this from my own cultural standpoint. Does this word not carry the same connotation in Europe?
On the subject of world cup, how about a strip with Woo and Paul the Octopus? And… yay, Furia!
But German, with a team full of 20-years-olds, is a clinch to steal the show in 2014.
And loving to see Cloud’s family. Must be hard to be a kid and be the voice of reason around at the same time
oh damn, I think a certain drug dealer is gonna get his daily dose of “life lesson” at the hands of our favorite homicidal video game loving parent of the year and her final fantasy hero in training son!!
PRIDE: It gets the best of us.
aww little baby hit boy wont go out with big momma boo who…..pussy
Ye Thuza….she’s being to polite like that character on WANTED (The Comic)…but Cloud don’t need more fighting, so it’s dangerous and…xD why looking his sister…?
I so love his mom (yea i know i repet myself)
His Mother is my favorite person ever.
Right next to Cloud.
Heh what coulcd she be planning again that made Cloud go like that? Typical right? XD
Sorry don’ care much for football, but congrats on the winning team. 🙂
Helicopter parents are the worst, there was a show on one in witch they showed that the mom didn’ let the kid hold a pencil in his hand cuz he could hurt himself woth it… or he couldn’t make himself a sandwitch cuz the buttering knife could cut him… Poor kids. XP
Great comic, Not sure of the plans ahead, but I bet they’re good.
Personally I want Ireland to win the next world cup, but being Half Irish I have a bias.
Being Half American I also can root for the US though. European Football (Soccer) is not that popular here in the states.
I’m actually not really happy with Spain winning, even if that means that Germany lost against the “Champion” instead of the second place.
The problem I saw with Spain was, that even though they were a good team, they usually played pretty bad… and still won.
I don’t know whether you remember it/watched it, but there was an episode of “The Simpsons” in which Soccer reached Springfield and everybody was all exited about it.
Then the game started and one team shoved the ball from one of their players to the next, for 5 minutes, without anything actually happening.
And THAT is why Soccer has such a bad reputation in the US. It’s, sometimes, really boring.
And Spain was the best team involved in this World Cup to show just how boring it was. Imagine, they even set a negative record!
1994 Brasil became Champion with only 11 goals made in the whole world cup. 2010, Spain made 8 goals.
8 goals in 7 games… 4 of them in the preliminaries.
All in all, this World Cup was pretty much the complete opposite of the one in 2006:
Empty stadiums, annoying vuvuzelas, bad refereees, a badly playing champion, all in all a terrible World Cup.
So… You think I could talk Cloud into trading parents? 😀
Novil, you’re a psychic. Finally some world cup in Spain to brag about!
I do feel very sorry for Cloud. I know being forced into things is something all children face, but Cloud’s situation seems to be… unique.
Plus having peer pressure from a little sister who likely won’t have to involve herself in the same activities is a bad thing.
(I have yet to see any indication little sister is being trained like Cloud is, but I could be wrong.)
i’m not sure what a “free range” kid is, but i suspect its what i was back in the 1940s and early 50s, though back then we didn’t call it anything special. i had an old army surplus bicycle and roamed all over the county where i lived and parts on the neighboring one over in new jersey, and when a little older, when i could scrape together ten cents for the round trip fare i might take a ride on the ferry to manhattan to see the ships in new york harbour.some of my other playgrounds were the along the waterfront where they parked worn out city buses and lifeboats fron wrecked ships. it was “being a kid” finding/making my own adventures. staten island, where i grew up, was part of new york city, but was still semi-rural then, before they built the “verrazano-narrows” bridge, and there were also woods and a park with a lake., so i was something between a “country kid” and a “city kid” with the advantantages of both. not a bad way to grow up i think.
I think a helicopter mom is the kind thats always looming over everything you do.. Like protective 😀
I lovee your comics. AGHHH.
I completely second Wolf, and I’m surprised more people haven’t commented on it. ”Pussy” is a lewd name to call anyone, let alone a motner to her twelve year old boy. I would like to think a woman as awesome and intelligent as Ye Thuza has better ways of convincing someone (esp. her son) to do what she wants them to. Name calling is rather petty, and if Cloud was actually the strong kid I thought he was he wouldn’t answer to it.. Sorry Novil, but this strip gave me some serious doubts about these characters.
To be fait Quiet, he didn’t stand down until his sister chimed in. I’m assuming he’s used to this from his mother (who, let’s remember, is pretty immature compared to most adults) but it probably was quite a blow to hear it from his sister
The insult there is pretty vulgar in American culture, so it’s startling that a mother would use it to her own son. I forget; are you a native German-speaker?
I’m also surprised neither of them said, “It’s dangerous to go alone!”
Are you keeping in mind that this family isn’t exactly the Cleavers? That their family dynamic is presented in this fashion is not the same as condoning this behavior. I highly doubt Novil condones pyromania and arson, but Larisa is still in the strip.
Novil has mentioned before this isn’t a G-rated family strip, despite the fact it is usually fairly tame. I also recall mention that most if not all of the characters will have their flaws, even the great Ye Thuza. I can see her taking a drill sargeant type of tactic like this.
I’m going to have to chime in with surprise at Ye Thuza’s language. I’ve been on this Earth almost 40 years, and I’ve NEVER seen a female of our species use that term as an insult. It’s the sort of thing a “jock” would use to question the sexuality of another man here in the States…
Might I also add, Yuna’s expression is priceless. She’ll certainly be an interesting character when she gets to be Cloud’s age.. Perhaps a troublemaker like Larisa?
@Wormwood: You may have been “on this Earth almost 40 years” but you apparently don’t get out much. I’ve heard women say it almost as much as men. Hell, I’ve even heard my GRANDMOTHER say it.
All these people complaining over insults, I’ll say this much, come to England and go for a night out in a pub or a club, insults will be the LEAST of your worries! (I’m not taking a dig at the english here as I am english myself this is more a reference to our abundance of happy slapping, violent stabbing, first throwing, hoodies and chavs that populate the average friday night out)
Comparing Sandra and Woo to an English pub is just about right.
Oh wait, it’s not.
Kick-Ass is a fun movie and all, but making Ye Thuza start swearing at her kid just because you thought Hit Girl’s over the top cussing was cool is kind of dumb.
@DDT: Pussy is not, has never been and probably never will be a curse word. Honestly, what the hell is wrong with you people? I guess you think the Simpsons is X-rated to, huh?
huh, nothing like a six-eight year-old girl challenging your masculinity to make you want to do what could possibly be the stupidest, most dangerous, bat-shit insane “training exercises” and operations.
Despite that bit of un-constructive criticism, still a good comic. Really, I do enjoy the characters and plot-lines quite a bit. My hat’s off to you!
HAHAHAHA. This one made me laugh probably more than any other. Hooray for profanity! =D
Shippou-chan – Thanks for your point. I really do understand that this isn’t the average ‘Cleaver’ family (although if anyone is, I haven’t known them). But I also think I have a right as a reader to a personal reaction to the strip. Perhaps my last statement wasn’t as well written as it could have been — let me clarify myself a little. It’s not that I don’t think characters should curse or lead troubled lives or make bad decisions. It could hardly be a good story without some, if not all, of the above. It’s that to me (with my own understanding of the characters and the development tthey have seen thus far) the word ‘pussy’ didn’t seem to fit, and I was disappointed. Ye Thuza is strict, a little crazy, and hding/not hiding a haunted past – but she’s also a loving mother. I dunno, another insult or a differet way of goading perhaps, but (obviously) I’m not the writer. All I can do is express my opinion and reaction. 🙂
P.S. Other commenters – I’m a little sad that you rated my comment so far down. I honestly don’t mind if you don’t agree with it. However, I didn’t say anything offensive or irrelevant, and now it’s hidden. Isn’t it a little childish to beat down those whose opinion differers from yours?
im having flash backs to when my brother tryed to get me to go in the bear cave.
Eh…so they are going to do like, big-mum and hit-boy?
“Pussy” is, in the sense I see it being used, not lewd or something to gasp at. Where I’m from it’s just a more extreme way of calling someone a wuss, which is what she’s doing: calling Cloud a wuss. No masculinity questioned, no overtly sexual or sexist context in that usage, just calling someone a wuss or chicken in a more strenuous manner than using those words to do it. For those of you getting all upset over it, just sub in one of those words and move on.
Is it just me, or is anyone else noticing that everyone only seems to have one parent?
@ Blahahahaha, we saw Cloud’s father at least twice on previous comics
@Quintessence
Cry some more. It is a curse word. I remember when gay used to mean happy and now look what happened to it.
I have to agree with a prior comment – I think the choice of the word “pussy” was horrible. That is a swear word in my house, and a VERY derogatory word for a part of a female anatomy. I’m by NO MEANS a feminist, but even *I* was taken back by the choice of words!
I would not want children reading that word, and until now, this has been a comic that has been much appropriate for children under 13 to read!
I’ve been reading this from almost day 1 (I think there were either 3 or 5 posted when I found it via a link from Kevin and Kell) and I am just shocked and dissapointed.
@DDt: Gay still means happy. It’s original meaning did not change simply because it has a second meaning now. And the way you say that makes it sound like the word has developed a negative connotation when it has not. You should be careful how you word things so as to not offend the homosexual community. As Herod said, the word is not being used in a sexual or sexist way and therefore is not being used as vulgarity. It’s just a more forceful way of calling someone a wimp. The word used in this way is not, has never been and never will be a curse word. I’m not the one “crying” here. I’m perfectly okay with this strip. It’s you guys who are “crying” about it.
First – congratulations on predicting the World Cup outcome.
I am shocked and just as amazed that on one hand we talk about overanxious overprotective helicopter parents who don’t trust their kids not to kill themselves with a peanut butter sandwich and then the discussion spirals into peoples misguided hysterical rantings about cursing or perceived cussing.
A word is not a curse word unless YOU use it as such. A fine example is the French-Canadian habit of using various religious icons and terms as curses and those who do so are frowned upon yet the F-bomb doesn’t cause even the bat of an eyelash. Long statement short. The problem with the word as a curse is YOU and not the word itself.
I have issues with pussies in my neighborhood as well, since they seem to be decimating the local songbird population.
‘Pussy’ actually comes from old French; it means flea-ridden lol ^^ In general, English people don’t consider it to be worse than ‘crap’ or ‘damn’ and a number of the older generation still refer to their cat as ‘pussy’ or ‘puss’ (not realising what it actually means, of course!)
While I don’t think helecopter parenting is all that healthy, especially when the poor kids spend every waking moment in some extracurricular class or other, I think Cloud’s mum crosses the line between being reckless and helping a kid to become self-sufficient and capable of coping in any situation. (However, I have no doubt that Yuna is treated much the same)
When even your kid sister calls you a pussy… xD
Ye Thuza IS a Helicopter Mom. She’s an AH-64 Apache armed with Hellfires and Hydras ready to blast the faces off fools.
I was pretty surprised that Ye Thuza called her son a pussy. I don’t care where you’re from, that is just wrong in most situations. Ye Thuza has never been immature, from what I’ve seen, and this was just a shocker.
Especially when Cloud’s sister chimed in.
I found none of it funny.
I love this comic, but this page was a sore disappointment.