[0709] Pandering To The Audience
└ posted on Thursday, 13 August 2015, by Novil
It’s So Meta, Even This Acronym!
- Zoey: Ugh! This author is the worst!
- Michelle: I thought you liked his books?
- Zoey: I liked the lively world and interesting characters in his early stuff, but now he’s just pandering to his audience in the worst way possible.
- Michelle: In what way?
- Zoey: The newest book in his series contains nothing but corny wish-fulfilling fantasies, as if it were lousy fanfiction.
- Zoey: What makes an author betray all his ideals like that?
- Michelle: Don’t let it bother you. There’ll always be spineless worms who easily succumb to the temptation of quick fame and money.
![[0709] Pandering To The Audience](/comics/2015-08-13-0709-pandering-to-the-audience.png "[0709] Pandering To The Audience")
stop the other characters and stories.
qt yuri is all we need.
And then, there’s Stephanie Meyer, who STARTED at Panel 3.@ ChibiRaccoon:
Book 4? I was thinking the entire Twilight series.
So, you’re talking about yourself with this comic I guess? And this’d be a pretty mean dream sequence joke.
Metahumor dream sequence is my bet.
I’m shocked no one has pointed this out yet. However, something tells me a certain comic strip writer may have watched a little Steven Universe. I mean, the Parallels of this situation of that episode surprisingly well.
Also, WOOOOOO The cheek kiss happened! *holds the ship* We’re never letting this go.
I actually thought I missed some part where Michelle changed her mind about Zoey, and had franticly looked through the archive for it. Do patrons get bonus comics, and maybe their story was put there?
@ Kaevik:
Or maybe you missed the joke?
The look on Michelle’s face in Panel 2… damn. I think almost everyone wants someone to look at them like that.
@ Kaevik:
We do see them quite friendly, indicating that they have come to terms one way or the other. We have not been shown anything to imply they are a couple.
Nooo, i dont want them to be together. Not now. Give us a nice little backstory with ups and downs. Please let this just be a joke because of the reference. I want to know more and the main charakters should be involved to. That would be so nice… wait a second…
Doing bad things is still bad even if you’re doing them ironically.
I like the way “fanfiction” in the German version is “fanfiction.”
Wait, I’m confused. When did they hook up? I mean, not htat I’m upset, but their was no forshadowing and little character build up to bring this about. Just baseless reader pander… Ooooohhhhh, I get now.
@ Steven:
Folks with the creativity and discipline to produce good stories do seem to tend towards a somewhat trollish sense of humor.
Them getting together was more likely than I thought initially. After the kiss happened, Michelle was visibly torn. Her disgust was more likely a defense. They’re friendship was ruined after that anyway. I would hope this is canon and not a cruel joke… I’d love to see the story of them getting together.
I love it when you are getting so obviously trolled, and the comic even essentially tells you it is just pandering and not being true to itself, and people have it sail right over their heads
@ John Merklinghaus:
well thats cool cause he just lost a patron follower also. god bad enough this shis is all over the news now my comics to
@ Kotih:
I know right? That could blow someones head off.
Michelle may have softened to the idea of a romantic relationship with Zoey since the kiss. Remember the conversation she had with Landons mother and her demeanour around Zoey at the time?
@ Threadnaught:
I said softened, not performed a complete u-turn.
I do not believe this to be canon unless proven otherwise.
@ Richard:
I am going to assume this is all just pandering ti us and it will all be explained in due time. Which is probably the next strip, considering Novils reputation of messing with our heads.
mittfh wrote:
But…Yuna is so adorable, and her mother is by far the best character…
Hhhuh… Okay, that’s very cute and all but I don’t quite know how to interpret this strip… First of all, well, this affection is coming very out of no-where (I kinda thought that Michelle had made it clear enough that she’s straight, what with her giving Cloud and Sir James Eglamore longing looks, and just wants to be friends with Zoey). Frankly, this feels very much like a dream or an imagine spot to me…
On the meta side of things, it almost feels like we’re being berated for wanting to know how things are working out on Zoey and Michelle’s side of things… It’s very tongue-in-cheek by way of self-deprecation, but still, that very self-deprecation (harshly criticizing an author who panders to his fans and makes his otherwise great story come across as lousy fanfiction) makes it so that I do not expect Oliver & Powree to play this pandering straight…
Next strip: A bit of continuation of this, and then Michelle waking up, rustling her hair.
I vote cute yuri but I predict sad Zoey. Michelle was rather blatantly into guys before. The dream theory might fit.
That said, THROW PANDAS! It’s very effective! Remember Carnival Phantasm, MLP Ep 100, Stargate Ep 200, Fumoffu, … :3
I guess I’m not the audience that is being pandered too then, as I’m indifferent to this.
You are trolling us!! It is some kind of wishful fantasy!! You are toying with my feelings!! I really want Zoey to have her love reciprocated!! You are tearing me apart Novil!!! T.T
@ The Watcher:
I was able to stomach most of the first three though how anyone could enjoy knowing a dry character like Bella is an anomaly I don’t care to study. But the fourth was the worst. It was almost as if they took every low rated fanfiction from the internet and strung them together in book form. Hilarious but certainly not worth reading.
Cue the alarm clock — and Michelle waking up with a shocked expression.
No, I DON’T believe that’s what’ll happen, but it’s fun to imagine all of your reactions if it did.
noname wrote:
It’s a meta joke based off a large chunk of the community who wanted to see more of Michelle and Zoey.
Zoey hates authors who pander to their audience even if it goes against the character’s personality and makes no sense. Powree is playing off this by pandering to his audience (MichellexZoey ship) despite the fact that it goes against the character’s personality (namely Michelle’s) and makes no sense (there was no follow up to the story arc).
when did they get together?
@ Melkior:
Who the hell wants that? A slower resolution is much better.
But a resolution is usually (not always) preferable to none.
TehTimmah wrote:
It was a good joke and I got a good chuckle out of it. ^_^ And I’m sure it does sail right over the heads of some readers.
However, just maybe, some fans are shipping so hard for those two that they’re either pretending they didn’t get the joke -or- they are so blinded by this ship so they only see what they want to see?
Oh sorry, I stopped reading after the second panel and started melting in bliss, what was the strip about?
To be fair, I just opened the page, saw the kiss and started screaming with joy. I am so disappointed in myself after reading the strip…
*chuckle* That was a masterstroke. And yes, I had to go back and cruise through half the archive before I finally got it. I’m dense that way. Nicely done. There are, however, gonna be some folks less than happy when it finally dawns on them…
Am I the only person who noted that the very first commenter delivered a criticism that was (probably) tongue in cheek but lacked a smiley, and that seems to have soured Novil’s enjoyment of what I think was a really well-aimed joke? Unless Novil’s sad face was also tongue in cheek, which I suppose is possible, since sarcasm thresholds change markedly from culture to culture…
I just want everyone to be happy. (Except the shippers. They should suffer, because they LIKE suffering — unrequited hopes are the whole point of shipping.) 🙂
i’m trying to figure out where i missed them reconciling that kiss way back when. anyone able to source that one? or was it conveniently skipped.
@ Kyran:
Since Yuna’s managed to create a worm-hole in her carpet, as a side effect of her experiments, maybe the change in reality is a side effect of another of her experiments
*George Takei voice*: Ooooohhhhhhhhh mmmyyyyyyyyy! 😀
My body wasn’t designed for these levels of trolling.
@ maarvarq:
*Two windows open, containing thirty tabs a piece, and counting.
Wait… so are they dating now? Or was Zory just distracted by her anger towards the book to notice Melissa coming on to her?
InsaneTacoz wrote:
It’s Zoey, not “Zory” and Michelle, not “Melissa”.
To answer your question: The author wrote this strip to poke fun at the readers who were begging him to bring these two together. As such, it is terribly unlikely that this is canon. Most readers – even those who didn’t get the joke – would be able to understand this if they only bothered to read the comments before posting their own.
maarvarq wrote:
In this case, Fans of Sherlock Holmes wouldn’t Need the link.
Mostly because this IS NOT a “TV Trope”.
You can find all you need to know by searching Google for “Sherlocck Holmes Death”.
That Search will take you to the Wikipedia Page for “The Final Problem”. It is a short story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle featuring his detective character Sherlock Holmes.
From Wikipedia:
Conan Doyle meant to stop writing about his famous detective after this short story; he felt the Sherlock Holmes stories were distracting him from more serious literary efforts and that “killing” Holmes off was the only way of getting his career back on track. “I must save my mind for better things,” he wrote to his mother, “even if it means I must bury my pocketbook with him.”
Conan Doyle sought to sweeten the pill by letting Holmes go in a blaze of glory, having rid the world of a criminal so powerful and dangerous that any further task would be trivial in comparison (Holmes says as much in the story).
…
While I am very happy that these two did apparantly become a thing…
Kinda wish we saw the process of that happening :I instead of just
“SHIT I KISSED HER”
“SHIT SHE KISSED ME”
“Okay guess we’re a couple now”
or maybe we’ll see how it happened later? Iunno :T just my thoughts
In the words of Socrates, “I perceive what you have allowed to transpire at this moment in time.”
Umm… Naruto?
I think it’s funniest that Zoey doesn’t even notice this time! 🙂
Ah yes, fan service.
I am saddened that no one has referred to the origin of the acronym. Also, a little bit insulted. Hey author! Not the one in the story, you! Yeah, Novil! I really like your work. But you should give credit where credit is due! You didn’t make that acronym, and you didn’t say who did. Fix it!
Krosis wrote:
Wrong. Go read the comments again.