Actually, she's already changed. When Ruby first showed up, she had a bunch of hang-ups about sex, and acted disgusted at every mention of the subject. As of her last appearance, she'd consented to have sex with her boyfriend. She's gone from "bundle of sex-related neuroses" to "tolerably well-adjusted heterosexual, complete with boyfriend", as well as getting a job and a hobby, making several friends, changing her dress sense, helping fix Dillon's love life, and apparently developing a taste for Middle Eastern food, all within two volumes. That's probably the biggest bunch of character development to be undergone by any character in the setting (okay, except Sonya), for better or for worse. Actually, it makes treating Start-of-Volume-1 Ruby the same as Start-of-Volume-3 Ruby rather deceptive. It also makes a refreshing change from Ma3, where Gary, Ruby's nearest equivalent, utterly refuses to change. But anyway...Asellus wrote:There's one point I agree, Ruby is full of knots and complexes about sex and lesbianism and that porn thing, so lots of chara developing be needed before anything happens to change that.
Mayyyybeeee.Asellus wrote:But that aside, everything else Spidrift writes about Ruby is bs. Total bs.
Absolutely. No criticism of Amber (or Zii) for that. The problem, however, is how it felt to Ruby at the time. She didn't know what was going on - she's only worked that out very recently - but she felt excluded. Which is what's relevant to what I was actually talking about...Asellus wrote:Teen lovers want to have sex, they don't want the child sister watching them, so they lock the bedroom door. Okay. SO WHAT!? What's the damn problem? Everyone would do the same.
Again, if you actually look at what I was writing about originally, you'll see that the subject was Amber and Ruby's feelings about each other; whether Amber had any great affection for Ruby, and how Ruby felt about Amber. The answer is that Amber went off to chase her dreams in the porn business, and apparently mostly dropped out of touch with the family, including Ruby - so not much affection there - while Ruby felt deserted at a time when she could have used some sisterly support - so some bitterness there. Nobody's fault, really, but not a recipe for some grand lesbian incestual romance, I think you might agree.Asellus wrote:A woman of 18 leaves the nest. That's right, she bids her parents goodbye, leaves the house and goes into the big world outside, to make her own life and pursue her dreams. Okay, so? What's wrong with this!? Oh, there was a 12-year-old sister, she was sad? Too bad.
Actually, the very little evidence we have on the subject suggests that their parents aren't very good at parenting. Ruby claims to be convinced that Amber is their favourite, which may or may not be true, but certainly suggests that they aren't very good at being good-hearted. Meanwhile, Amber feels unable to tell them about her job in porn (which they apparently never discovered for themselves), even now that she's dropped of the business, which suggests that she's unsure of their generosity. She seems to have asked Ruby to keep the fact quiet, and Ruby isn't sure how they'd react if they did find out...Asellus wrote:Taking care of the child is a job for the parents, and, as far as we know, Ruby's parents were good-hearted and generous. It's up to them to explain to the angry little girl that Amber is doing the right thing.
Like I said, it's very limited evidence. But one daughter convinced that the other is the favourite? Failure to communicate comfortably with offspring? Those are both basic parenting mistakes. And on the flip side, we have no evidence of them doing much right.
And if they are a bit crap at this game, it'd help explain why Ruby's ten-year-old resentments are still festering quite so badly.
It's a weird-looking situation, but there's one way to explain it with both Ruby and Amber; somewhere along the way, they've both absorbed the idea that family is important. Ruby can ask for a bed, and Amber will provide it, and the idea that Amber might refuse just didn't occur to either of them. And just as importantly, it didn't occur to their mother, who pushed Ruby into this, according to Ruby.Asellus wrote:A relative I haven't seen in ten years comes to my door, dragging her luggage, and says she WILL be staying in my apartment from now on, for a long time, like weeks or months or years. Of course I'm baffled.
Likewise, Ruby kept Amber's porn work secret from their parents for the last seven or eight years. Why? She could have blabbed any time. It's not like she likes Amber, or owes her anything...
Ruby's position is that she's been Amber's bitch since the age of 14. The problem is that Amber doesn't understand that, or understand why. One thing that we keep getting about Ruby is that she's truthful - which is not the same as nice, of course, but she says she hates lying, and she's crap at it. And yet, she kept Amber's secret all those years. Because it'd hurt their parents? Because Amber is family, and you do not refuse direct requests from your family? Because Ruby likes having one thing that lets her feel superior to Amber? Possibly a bit of each. we may find out one day.Asellus wrote:"You shitting me, sister? Go stay at a f**king hotel!" And bam, she's out. I mean, really, she thinks I'm her bitch or what?
Timeis kind of vague in these comics, but best guess is a couple of weeks rather than months, actually. Which makes Ruby's start on job-hunting slow, but not that slow.Asellus wrote:Time passes, days, weeks, months.
Actually, Ruby appears to have been paying her way - she talked about her money reserves and how they were running down a couple of times - and she did apparently start job hunting, though we didn't see much of it. Slow start, but not no start.Asellus wrote:She hasn't found a job. She hasn't even started job hunting. All she does is play around all day long, like a lazy bum. There are no hints that this will change in the immediate future.
Not quite what happened. Ruby snagged the gig working for Dillon - rather aggressively, but you can't complain about her not job-hunting and then complain when she runs a job to ground. Then there were problems with Dillon paying her, so Rebecca suggested that he and Amber share her, and Amber jumped on that - not just as a favour to Ruby, but because Amber wanted a PA herself. Ruby complained about that, but Amber didn't seem to hear; Ruby addressed all her complaints to Dillon. It does seem that Amber doesn't listen to things she doesn't want to know. The one thing that Ruby said directly to Amber was the thing about sororicide, which Amber didn't understand. (A classic nerd sibling/extrovert sibling moment, that, I'm afraid; nerd sibling tries to dominate the conversation with long words, extrovert sibling doesn't understand enough to be dominated.) So if Ruby "loudly complained", it was't loud enough.Asellus wrote:Option 2: I give her a half-time job as my personal assistant. I'll pay her 15k a year. She loudly complains and accuses me of trying to drive her crazy.
Since when, despite the fact that Ruby still doesn't like Amber, we've seen her doing a competent professional job as Amber's PA - and AMber even looks happy about it. So despite everything, that bit seems to be working out.
Anyhow, you're defining Ruby entirely in terms of her relationship with Amber, which is a great way to show her worst side. Try, for example, looking at her relationship with the comic's title character. Yes, she was a bit of a pain in the butt to Dillon when she first appeared, but not so much that Dillon's attempts to make friends with her were implausible. And lo, he succeeded. Except that Ruby didn't just go along with his goofy games; she stuck her neck out to help him, did her best to comfort him despite his flakiness, called him on it when his bullshit went too far, and ended up advising him, usefully, on his love life. So Dillon has ended up treating her, not just as his new pet dress-up doll, but as his conscience. And he's not the only one who likes her; Angel clearly finds her amusing to be around, even if that is largely to mess with her head, Zii has really taken a shine to her, and Andy seems quite serious about her. Which is surely plausible; to them, she's energetic, polite, positive, cute, and always willing to learn.
In other words, Ruby is someone who's going through a complicated time at the moment, but who is generally depicted positively. Her relationship with her sister is a weird mess, held together by family loyalty rather than any actual affection on her side or understanding on Amber's, but may yet be salvaged, because the family loyalty at least keeps them talking. So yes, call me a fanboy -- but one with reasons.