I am almost equally confused by your response as you apparently are to mine. Ruby's primary method of interaction seems to be to judge other people. Chiefly with Amber, of course, but as you said that's her bugaboo, and can be set aside as an anomaly. But she's also exasperated with her mom when we meet her. She assumed Dillon was a pervert before she even knew his name, and it took her catching him in the act of him and Jerzy screwing around before she changed her mind. I think she actually likes Dillon by now, but she is also visibly annoyed and short-tempered by his antics, even when they have no effect on her. There are other examples where she automatically assume the worst about someone, either because she assumes they are terrible or assumes they think she's terrible, and winds up looking like a moron because of it.
I'm also not sure I'd describe someone who thinks everything will be terrible and make her look bad as very open-minded, but it is to her credit she does the new things anyways. Grumbling the entire time and loudly proclaiming she'll never do any of it again, but she does go on that date and does help Dillon with his schemes.
I realize I'm being uncharitable toward Ruby, and seeing her actions in a negative light even after we know she has a tragic backstory. But it is my estimation, given what we know about her and what we can infer from her dialogue (again, given that I'm not inclined to cut her any slack), that many of her difficulties in life are her own fault. Her "friends" forced her to watch an Amber-Amber video at some point; it was her decision to take that and decide to never even think about sex again. No one is holding a gun to her head forcing her to keep Amber's secret from her parents, she doesn't even think it will be as big of a deal to them as Amber seems to. She's anti-social by inclination, and buried herself in her studies by choice. Her parents, despite being apparently quite successful and presumably driven individuals, seem disinclined to pile pressure onto their daughters, or Amber wouldn't still be their favorite (in Ruby's words, which means there must be at least some evidence for it).
Edit: Missed this.
No, that interpretation doesn't work for me. As I said, I'm not inclined to cut her any slack, so the way she acts under pressure is equally valid to me as the way she acts when Dillon cries at her and forces her out of her comfort zone. Plus, her obvious impatience with Dillon when he does succeed at getting under her skin speaks volumes.CFT wrote:*obviously you can find sentences of things Ruby said that taken out of context seem to contradict what I just claimed, but to me it is clear as day that all of those instances is Ruby being "backed in a corner" (pressured emotionally) and wildly "lashing out" without understanding what she's saying or -especially- actually believing the things she says. It's obvious (from the facial expressions the writing team gives her and the other scenes where she's not under pressure and behaves 100% differently) that this is the "canon" interpretation of her character, though maybe it doesn't work for you?
Further, tightly wound as she is (and being a protagonist in a comedy comic), she seems to be constantly in a state of emotional pressure aside from when she's distracted by Minew. So since "under pressure" is her default state, looking only at how she acts when she isn't under that pressure doesn't paint the full picture for me.