She Blinded Me With Science

First of all, I always understood that Classic Jug’s hatred of romance was obviously not intended to be queer representation. These comics are super old! I knew it was just a running joke that only happened to be extremely validating for a lot of people. But through this joke there is a ton of evidence for the aromantic “headcanon,” and occasionally it’s more than just comedy. If Jug had spent decades expressing interest in boys as a “joke”, we wouldn’t assume he’s straight even if he had a girlfriend era, so surely decades of expressing a total disinterest in romance has to count for something. Perhaps it is irresponsible of me to assign modern ideas to the intentions of vintage media, but is it so wrong to put those ideas onto the content itself? Aspec people have always existed, and a lot of us have seen ourselves reflected in this character. The comics’ creators may not have realized they provided this representation, but I firmly believe that they did, so it was disappointing to me to see that taken away.

If it wasn’t for the girlfriend era, there would probably be a lot less debate here, but an era of extremely abnormal writing choices doesn’t erase the character’s history, even if it contradicts it. This universe isn’t meant to have consistency. These comics have seen too many changes and contradictions over the decades for every bit of canon to be correct at once, so you sort of have to choose what pieces you want to use, and I can’t help feeling like majority rules in an averaged-out understanding of a character. Sure aspec can’t ever be proven in media so inconsistent and long (and old—classic Jug was never going to say flat-out that he’s aro and/or ace), but it doesn’t need to be on the official wiki or anything. I simply think I’m justified in considering it more than a headcanon, and I don’t think I’m hurting anyone else by being so wholly convinced.

Even if the girlfriend era isn’t a queer issue, it’s still a character issue, which is still very frustrating to me. (Hence why I’m “mad” about it.) As I understand him, Jug has always been antithetical to society’s expectations, including the expectation that everyone needs to feel and express love in a certain specific way, so it’s disappointing to see him made more quote-unquote “normal.” (Again, by the standards of the people around him, don’t come after me.) It’s amazing to see a character from such old media repeatedly defy the tropes of his universe, so for him to suddenly start following those tropes was a disappointment. Seemingly everyone else in these comics is completely lost in romance, so Jug provides an interesting outside perspective on the matter. Why, from a writer’s point of view, would anyone want to put him in a role that’s already being fulfilled by many others, thereby removing his unique role, and limiting the types of storylines you can write? I’m not arguing whether this era of his character existed, I’m simply of the opinion that it was a bad writing choice (and one which I can choose to ignore). And judging by the fact that later comics and reprints did away with it, many people agree with me, even if it’s for different reasons.

There are a lot of things I simply don’t understand about these comics and characters, it’s a hazard of being a novice here. I don’t know the different writers and artists, or the historical context for most things, or many of the characters outside the main cast, or tons of other stuff. But as much as I want to learn more of the lore, I’m perfectly satisfied discovering it naturally and at my own very slow pace. I don’t want to have to do tons of second-guessing and research before I can post a doodle or write down some thoughts about the comic books I’m reading. (It’s not like I’m pretending to be any kind of authority on the subject.) As interesting as the real-world context is, I’m not particularly interested in becoming an expert on it—I just want to play around with the world of the comic itself, or at least the parts of it I’m aware of.

TLDR, at least read this one paragraph:

I accept that most of my ideas are half-baked and faulty, because my understanding of the comics is piecemeal, but I’m having fun with them anyway, and I don’t want this to stop being fun. Please don’t take me too seriously. A lot of my posts are written in a jokey or exaggerated manner, and my ramblings about my opinions and first impressions of things are meant to be fairly casual. I’m just hanging out in my own space and talking to myself, and sometimes other people stop to listen and like the things I say. And if they don’t like them, then frankly I can’t blame them, but I’m happy doing my own thing, and I don’t think it’s hurting anyone. If I go forward with the exact same opinions and net-zero character development, does it really matter that much in the grand scheme of things? Either my opinions will change naturally over time as I discover more content, or they won’t, but where better to ramble about my subjective opinions than on my own blog?

While that conversation in the comments was extremely civil and patient, it still made me feel deeply guilty for days afterwards. (I am not blaming anyone, I just tend to overreact about being wrong about things. Hence the fact that I felt the need to write all this.) I began to doubt whether much of my art and writing was “right” for me to have made (and shared) at all, and I felt I had lost a source of representation that had come to mean a lot to me, especially as something “canon.” I got very disproportionately stressed about it all, and afraid that anything else I made might also be wrong in some way. I feel better about it now, because I’m no longer worrying (too much) about whether I’m interpreting anything “correctly.” In any community, it is important to accept criticism and listen to those who are more experienced, and I did definitely listen, but in this particular situation I feel it’s not necessary to agree. These comics aren’t supposed to be complicated. The main point is just to have fun. So that’s what I’m going back to doing. And that may occasionally involve stating very strong unfounded opinions without much objective evidence, but again, where better to do so than on my own blog?