Flashback Time
TWO YEARS AGO...
Comments (78)
I feel the goblining!
Rereading, panel 5: The choice was that, or start crying uncontrollably.
Am, am I seeing representation for short people?!
I am 110% sure Elizabeth will get along great with Claire. I’m all here for it and I’m really looking forward to seeing her grow.
Appleboom?
She will become a supervillain whose main weapon is exploding apples.
well,... that explains A LOT.
Hmm... wonder what else had happened two years prior with a similar disposition? https://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=4670
Ooof, that introduction, and the way Moray acts, it's some serious "yes we're a capitalist corporation but we're _good_ and _family_" cursed vibes.
Very rude of Moray to steal one of my three brain cells in panel four 😤
Cubetown: We're Book Smart and People Skills Deficient. I know I'd feel right at home.
I'm gonna cut Moray some slack and figure Elizabeth really was a child prodigy, years ago, right? But the way Moray presents this info to the assembled Cubetown is really confusing. It could only be less pleasant if Moray said: Hey, she looks like a thirteen-year-old but...
If there was EVER a supervillain in the making, whoah. I mean, no evident parents, access to massive amounts of resources, alienated from peers (such as they are), unusual surroundings in dire need of order... All she needs is a title like Doctor Hubris and a secret lab and we're set.
Elizabeth AppleGru
Wow, she’s insufferable.
I love her Bill Cipher eyes.
How it started...how it's going...
Villain Origin Story
If one gets simultaneous PhDs from two separate institutions, does that mean two entirely different dissertations, or perhaps the same project, looked at from two different angles?
Messy supervisor divorse
Is there a HR because I feel if there is Moray has a decent file, mainly because of Elizabeth
If there ever was an HR person they're probably still getting free drinks based on their stories of Cubetown, but I suspect there isn't and never was.
Dual PhDs in Goblin Science and Quantum Mischief.
That last panel, those are the eyes of someone tapping into full goblin mode. That or she's gonna burn Cubetown to the ground.
Ah! There're the goblin eyes!
Goblin mode activated and motivated
And that thunderous welcome from the crowd just did wonders for her, I'm sure.
She has Yay eyes and a Yay complex!
But without the omniscience and power of Yay!
I think Harvard and MIT do have joint PhD programs in medicine. Maybe she's like Frankenstein (though she actually graduated). Then again, in a world where people can create sentient AIs, Frankenstein isn't super impressive.
Being a child prodigy is ass. I wouldn't wish it on anyone.
I think there are quite a lot of us who would up getting stellar grades and advanced degrees but NOT getting therapy when what we actually needed was quite a lot of therapy.
Why do I get the feeling she had a secret lab in her childhood home and an idiot older brother who wouldn't keep out?
I bet she’s not on Patreon.
A cartoonist I know had a button she wore to events where there were fans. "Hug me and die."
I'd ask her where -I- could buy that button. Or (and this is brilliant), a large and comfortable t-shirt with that message on it. One WITHOUT a cactus, thank you. (I AM the plant murderer.)
For all the people who are going "well why doesn't she have better social skills", I can speak as someone who experienced a less extreme version of the same thing - I entered a prestige college at 15, started working in computers at 16, graduated at 20 after a year off for a nervous breakdown. When a kid or teen is set up as a child prodigy, child genius, whatever, remember: 1) they're still a kid, and it wasn't actually the kid's choice even if they thought it was; 2) they're a kid and aren't going to be remotely near having the social skills to navigate a situation like this; 3) they're a kid, and their brain, let alone their understanding, isn't yet developed enough to make complex decisions understanding the ramifications of their choices; and 4) once they're no longer a kid, as an adult they're going to be *years* coming to terms with the fact that they're not a child prodigy any more. (Because when you're in that position, it gets forced on you as your primary identity and your value to others.) I was fortunate enough to work through that part pretty fast, by my mid-20s, but I've met people who apparently never do and it crushes them. So she's young, even if she's now an adult, she's been badly traumatized, and given no time to develop social skills or boundaries. It's no wonder she's awkward and pushy and difficult.
And if they aren't allowed to progress normally from "kid" to "adult", various parts of their mind will be stuck at "kid" for years - even decades. I've met several people who still can't relate to people as an adult because they were rushed past that stage of their development, and no one ever considered that it might have been important.
I can see two ways this will go. I will either totally love Elizabeth Applebloom. And that is very possible. OR! I will start saying: "We got us another Corpse Witch here!" And THAT is very possible.
I'm banking on number 1.
that last pannel...my kid makes that face.
So, her thesis is that Cubetown turns people into goblins?
BLAART.
Nobody calls Dr. Appleboom "Lizzie," except maybe her father, and her sisters... and maybe someday Mr. Darcy.
Carl Fink asked a few days ago if our goblin had snake eyes. My response was (and this is a cut and paste): At the moment, no. At the moment... Well, those are snake eyes in the last panel, so Carl, you were PRESCIENT!
My unsolicited advice to Marten: before anything else, ask “What do you prefer to be called, and what are your pronouns?”
Good advice for everyone
Ok, I like her. :)
Well now I have to know how old she is, and what constitutes "adult" in her mind.
84. She just looks really young.
So, was she the last librarian? Or like the first victim of the lack of a librarian? This page is just reminding me of a character in a fiction book I read about how this spaceship had one of the crew disappear to secretly live in the cargo ducts gathering information on how bad script writers from a parallel universe is the reason his wife died.
You've GOT to tell me the name of that book.
Well she's just a nasty piece of work isn't she..... "I'm smarter than all of you". Even though she's addressing a room full of scientists....
A bit strong. She's obviously not very mature
So this is how Appleboom’s start of darkness began.
*squish*
Appleboom. Interesting name. The "apple" part makes me think of English names, but I think the ending "boom" is Dutch. Literally interpreted, it makes me think of the Great Depression, when lots of people tried selling apples as a last-ditch attempt not to die from poverty.
Makes me think apfelbaum, apple tree in German
I feel like a Wayne's World reference is needed here for the appropriate flashback effect.
Who would hug a non-child making her feel damn riled? That's-a Moray!
Golf clap
That's certainly a way to make friends and influence people; antagonize your new peers out of sheer nervousness.
That's not antagonism, that's suffering and emotional self-defense.
A note: this is the first instance of a pronoun used to describe them—but importantly it is from an unreliable source who got their preferred name incorrect and completely ignored their assertion that they disliked being infantilized.
Fair point, but on the other hand Elizabeth didn't object to the pronoun "she" even though she's clearly very eager to correct what needs correcting, which at least hints that she's fine with "she". Or to put it differently, I'm gonna do like I always do with fictional characters and go by the pronoun used in the comic unless/until I see some in-universe indication that it's wrong. EDIT: Rereading this post, I realize that my use of "she" all the time seems passive-aggressive. Unintentional, I promise you.
Butts disease is infecting even the non-Butts comics (first panel...)
I thought you were referring to a typo, then I saw it 😂
So, Elizabeth needs to meet Sam. Yesterday.
And Emmett - just think of the shenanigans!
Holy shit, a full comic that's a flashback. I honestly can't remember if we've ever seen that
Well, there kind of was Hanner's "flashforward"...
How does Moray hug without ingesting people?
non-newtonian material as previously stated in another comic page, control over their own viscosity. So solid when they want, less so when they don't etc.
Goblin eyes!
And that night, Cubetown brought an implacable enemy into their world. And I too love Elizabeth.
I used to think Moray would be fun to work with. Now I would immediately run away from any job with her.
Yeah, as an introvert, those "we're going to be great friends" type people who have no respect or recognition of boundaries are terrifying.
Jeph. I think I speak for a lot of us, when I say we love this little hobgoblin.