This … highlights another frustrating aspect of the story for me. Dean can be naive yes, it’s been a trait of his in both runs of the strip. But he’s not STUPID. Like Dean was suspcious about this whole thing. While i’ts consistent that Charlotte never bought into it, Dean knew SOMETHING was up. Again this COULD have been used for intresting tension in the tournament itself, having Dean and Charlotte fight but it end up being fully for real, with Charlotte wanting to expose what she rightly thinks is a scam and Dean genuinely wanting the card, perhaps with dumb and dumber manipulating both to pit them against one another. Seeing the probable future couple fight for legit reasons, and at odds for the first time since the early arc of Dean accepting he dosen’t have to be the nerdesit and getting past some minor toxic masculinity. This arc just feels like one long missed opportunity, with a lot of the setup being wasted and nothing really coming out of it. I’m so hard on it because I both was expecting more and I expect more from Steenz, as most arcs feel like they have a point and move the story as a whole forward: For example the Ravens arc, while fairly light on story progression if still charming and relatable, has Heart and Lee really bond for the first time. It’s not heavily focused on but it shows the two having a common intrest, both being really into this series, and Heart gladly going all in to help her. Before this the two were just aquantinces because Kat will probably date Lee at some point and she drifted into the ground as a result. Here it feels like the two could be genuine friends going foward. It could go nowhere but for the moment it at least feels like something happened. here it feels like I wasted several weeks of my life carring about an arc that had no real payoff. It COULD change, but it’s getting late enough I doubt it. Can’t win em all.
This … highlights another frustrating aspect of the story for me. Dean can be naive yes, it’s been a trait of his in both runs of the strip. But he’s not STUPID. Like Dean was suspcious about this whole thing. While i’ts consistent that Charlotte never bought into it, Dean knew SOMETHING was up. Again this COULD have been used for intresting tension in the tournament itself, having Dean and Charlotte fight but it end up being fully for real, with Charlotte wanting to expose what she rightly thinks is a scam and Dean genuinely wanting the card, perhaps with dumb and dumber manipulating both to pit them against one another. Seeing the probable future couple fight for legit reasons, and at odds for the first time since the early arc of Dean accepting he dosen’t have to be the nerdesit and getting past some minor toxic masculinity. This arc just feels like one long missed opportunity, with a lot of the setup being wasted and nothing really coming out of it. I’m so hard on it because I both was expecting more and I expect more from Steenz, as most arcs feel like they have a point and move the story as a whole forward: For example the Ravens arc, while fairly light on story progression if still charming and relatable, has Heart and Lee really bond for the first time. It’s not heavily focused on but it shows the two having a common intrest, both being really into this series, and Heart gladly going all in to help her. Before this the two were just aquantinces because Kat will probably date Lee at some point and she drifted into the ground as a result. Here it feels like the two could be genuine friends going foward. It could go nowhere but for the moment it at least feels like something happened. here it feels like I wasted several weeks of my life carring about an arc that had no real payoff. It COULD change, but it’s getting late enough I doubt it. Can’t win em all.