#omgcp_critical

[lexpistachio]

Now that Bitty and Jack are 99.99% gonna come out. Kent’s gonna get dragged into to the whole situation. And guess whose gonna come out of the situation looking like crap?

It bothers me so much that their consequence-free romance comes at the expense of this LGBT character that didn’t have all the privileges afforded to them. Kent gets the privilege of suffering all the outcomes of being immersed in a hypermasculine, extremely competitive, and homophobic sport, while in the same universe, Jack and Bitty are pretty much immune from it.

[lexpistachio]

If Jack buys Bitty a bakery as a graduation gift I’ll flip a table.

idek if that happens, i’ll probably laugh for 30 mins. and then cry

[lexpistachio]

Oh my so after that last update, I feel like year 4 is gonna end up with Parse on the falconers or some other random plot twist that brings him and Jack together. And Parse is gonna have to apologize a ton. And bitty will stop being shady too him. And he’ll have this entire redemption arc where he becomes happy because Jack and Bitty forgive him. And is it petty of me? Because I really want him to learn how to be okay on his own terms instead of his character becoming validated because of others

IT ISN’T PETTY AT ALL and hard same, i’m so bitter.

I want him to thrive and be happy of his personal achievements despite of his surroundings. Why does he need the approval of these two blokes who seem impervious to the laws of the universe anyway? 

[lexpistachio]

wow in the new update we FINALLY see an INKLING OF HOMOPHOBIA in the sport RIDDLED WITH TOXIC MASCULINITY, and of course it has to be in front of our main 'villain', who is showing more fear at that statement in one panel than anyone in the rest of the comic ever has. i really hope that this is going to actually create some conflict in the otherwise completely sterile and cheery storyline.

oh yeah, that’s kent “antagonist” parson to you, sitting in a dark bar in June with some homophobic buds. While gay. While his ex is outing himself on national tv.

rip kent, he just wanted to be quietly gay

i agree with you that the comic needs its conflict though. even with their Coming Out Live, I feel like the narrative never waivers from its love conquers all rhetoric that’s been on repeat since forever, without actually discussing their issues as a couple, or tbh, the repercussions of their actions. They’re impulsive and they’re insular and they don’t even get Kent the benefit of a warning, so (fuck that). Now it’s a You and Me vs.The World thing, and maybe that’s enough conflict they have to deal with without dragging Kent along pls

[lexpistachio]

Look Kent is not a perfect person. He’s made decisions and hurt people he cared about. But he does not deserve this bs.

He doesn’t. He’s being made the poster boy for How to Gay Wrong, all miserable and alone despite his achievements just because he chose to continue his career and not out himself in a homophobic league. When you think about it, the same as every active gay athlete out there. To portray him like that is like, making a value judgment about how they choose to live their lives and that hurts my soul. 

[lexpistachio]

Jack had the winning goal to the Stanley Cup finals game 7 and then they outed themselves on the ice....... Ahahahahahha I'm so sad about it

When you think about it, what was supposed to be proven there, exactly? That Jack can prove his critics wrong? When the comic basically blew off any valid concern about Jack’s play:  showed zero struggle in his part from adjusting to the NHL from college hockey, from the level of play to the grueling schedule,  his half-assed panic attacks were curable by the power of love?

I’ve also mentioned before that last update about Jack missing out on a very important lesson about playing as a team. And it’s ironic, because that was his initial arc?!? But he never relies on his teammates, not really. It was his success alone, his goal that wins it for them, his story that gets validated. And now he gets to take the media’s attention away from his team’s success, right? It’s not as if the Stanley Cup is a team achievement or anything.

[lexpistachio]

Check please annoys me so much. Because on one hand, I’m still really invested in it, so I still read it. But each update pisses me off so freaking much! And no I don’t hate happiness, I just find it kind of ridiculous

I’m sticking with my gas leaks theory. All the events in current canon is Bitty’s imagination in his heightened state of consciousness due to having inhaled all the fumes from a leaking gas tank at the Haus kitchen.

[lexpistachio]

one of the top five saddest things about check please is that it's supposed to be a ""queer"" comic but it only has three white guys who all like guys and the only character I feel vaguely connected to is a closeted villain and I'm bitter

Not gonna lie, those are my saddest things about check please numbers one two three

3. Jack is bi but only when it serves to create ~angst~ to Bitty being insecure in the closet. :(

2. Bitty is, for all intents and purposes, a yaoi uke--the bubbly, effeminate, virginal bottom in the relationship with an idealized, tilted power dynamics :(

1. THE CLOSETED EVIL VILLAIN WHO GETS BLAMED FOR EVERYTHING :(

That’s your queer cast, folks! What a subversive, queer comic this is! I feel you so hard on this.

[lexpistachio]

Tbh i dont know why ngozi tries to have cliffhangers anymore like omgcp has become so predictable that i can already tell what's going to happen. For example the new chapter she called a 'cliffhanger' but we all know that jacks going to make the shot is she really fooling anyone lmao

ayyy he’s gonna win it. hockey messiah ftw, happy holidays y���all lmao

[lexpistachio]

can I just say that I've gone from being okay with cp, to ambivalent, to actually hating it. I want to kill it with fire wikbdhcjk

i’ve already reached “Canon? What Canon?” the penultimate stage in the grieving process.

[lexpistachio]

I think it does pass the Bechdel test by having ford and lardo talk about ford's credentials but honestly that is soooo bare bones it might as well not count especially since there is less than 0 indication that ford and lardo will continue talking in the future but that does bring up a few questions like what about all the other people outside the SMH team like I get focusing on the team but does Bitty not spend ANY time with people in his major and what about the Women's Hockey team?

Oh yeaaaah, the job interview? You’re right, I forgot about that! but also maybe because it was so forgettable. 

I do get that this is, of course, a story that centers on a men’s hockey team. But for all its (and its fans’) talk of its progressiveness, aside from Lardo (hm maybe Georgia? barely), it didn’t think to make room for women who aren’t mothers and insignificant exes and ghosts who ogles guys’ asses. And who actually have feelings and affect the larger story.

But by god i’d have loved Bitty having other female friends who aren’t connected to the team??? And a Women’s Hockey Team that actually cooked their own meals and didn’t rely on one (1) person to win because it’s a team sport??? Wow

[lexpistachio]

Aren't there scenes/panels in omgcp that we shouldn't even see since the comic is meant to be from Bitty's POV/perspective? Like the Jack flashbacks, the time we see Kent will Jack is doing an interview, and there's some other bits and pieces that technically readers shouldn't actually be able to see, unless at some point the POV/perspective was changed or at least expanded so that readers also saw things from a narrator POV/perspective? Sorry this is kinda random, I only recently took notice

Oh but haven’t you heard, Jack and Bitty are one person now. They do errrything togetherrr

Kidding aside, you’re right, wow thanks for pointing that out! The Kent interview bit was really jarring to me (because Jack’s flashback was, i suppose, a shared POV when he was “revealing” what happened that night at the epikegster), although I thought the comic’s use of visual techniques to conceal/reveal parts of the story it wants to be told was awesome. But the story it wants to tell is that Kenny is a lil bitch who cried when his buddy didn’t want him back, and if you think about it, wow, the comic actually went out of its way from its established POV just to show that apparently Kent is a crybaby with a vendetta. I laughed

[lexpistachio]

Hi there! I've been reading your blog at work all day. You write so eloquently, and you've put words to a lot of my complicated feels about omgcp. Esp Kent. (God knows I love Tater, but the "throw him across the ice" comment Does Not Sit Well with me, for so many reasons.) Thanks for the excellent reading, and as someone who still reads the comic, has a love for Kent (& a wish for the initial plot arcs to return, & for Jack to acknowledge his assholery), I'm happy these posts (and you!) exist.

Hi there, and thank you so much!!! I’m just glad to hear from you and that I’m not alone in feeling the way I feel about things. A lot of the time, I’m just here to rationalize my frustrations, but thank you for thinking there’s any sense in them at all! :)

I love Kent too! And although I wasn’t invested in Tater, the trajectory that had gone just made my eyebrows rise. I don’t… really get? What the comic was trying to do there?

I mean obviously it was trying to make Kent appear assholish or desperate or more unlikeable. He was desperate, no mistake about it, but I don’t really see how that makes him a rat, or unlikeable or an asshole. As someone who has watched some hockey, i can tell you that happens a lot?  An ugly goal is a goal, and players park their asses in front of the net and make rebounds and greasy goals all the time. They whack their sticks against the goalie’s pads and make contact with the goalie inside the crease and not be actually in violation of any rules. Players crash the net and knock it off more often than you’d imagine. Scrums break out constantly. If he interfered with the goalie from making a save, he would have been called for interference and it would have been a no goal, or if it had been a dangerous play he would have gotten fined by DoPS or gotten a suspension. Hockey is a contact sport, and you see that as you watch more and more games. The vitriol that Kent supposedly gets because he “could have gotten the goalie injured” just makes me want to roll my eyes every time I remember that update. It just falls flat to me. The “throw him across the ice” is as far a comment you would expect to come from a player who deals with the physicality of hockey as a career. To me it just sounds like it’s pandering to fans to make cute comments about “protecting their boi” or whatnot while inciting them to hate the antagonist more, while sticking very little to the realities of the sport.

And FYI, “rat” isn’t generic lingo, but actually a hockey nickname given to ex-Bruins Kenny “The Rat” Linseman, who was an agitator and who was known for his chippy plays and borderline hits and slashes. He was once charged for kicking a player in the head with his skates. “Rat” is what they call Brad Marchand, also of the Bruins, when comparing him to Linseman, as he’s had a history of dangerous plays and had been suspended/fined by the league 7 times. I’d hardly call someone who’d crashed the net in a momentum a rat. That’s just showcasing your ignorance about the sport you’re writing about.

Yeah, sometimes these posts are just me trying to DEAL, so I apologize for all the angry rants too. Thank you for your patience with me omg.

[lexpistachio]

Lex. Lex, Lex. Okay. So, I've decided that every time someone says Kent's behavior in the Q was toxic and it led to Jack's OD, they owe Kent fans a 2000 word essay. MLA format. An arguable and well stated thesis. With sources.

I APPROVE OF THIS

Though to be honest, that’s just veering off towards bad fanfic territory, so, y’know, I mostly just shake my head at how unimaginative that is.

But really, what kind of person are you to hold a, what, 16? 17? year old teen solely responsible for the mental health of another person when that teenager is also very much the victim of the same homophobic, ableist, sexist, and toxic culture?

This fandom just baffles me sometimes.

[lexpistachio]

Like people are saying Bitty and Jack should just kiss and I'm like REALLLYYY???? When Bitty hasn't told his PARENTS, when they haven't talked to their PR team, when they haven't set up safety protocols, when in just a few months Bitty will be ALONE at a public college away from parents he hasn't told so can't guarantee full support, when Bitty almost cries cause he thinks the Falconers not eating his whole pie means they hate him, when just trying of telling his mom causes a panic attack

Like if the comic even had a single grain of actual reality, consequences, consistency don’t they get how kissing at this moment would literally ruin this kid’s life, how is even one thing didn’t go absolutely perfect this kid would crash and burn?? Shoot even if there was no homophobia and Bitty was treated by the entire world as no different than another wife or girlfriend, just ten percent of the pressure wags of athletes face would break him and send him into death by baking.

Ahaha I was late to this ask, and I apologize sincerely.

Maybe some of your concerns were laid to rest after the update? Although I think the point remains; it was thoughtless, selfish, out of character for two closeted lgbt characters who know the repercussions of being out in professional sports.

I’m not nearly invested enough in that ship to examine it closely, but i think their choice and how they go about it is indicative of the nature of their relationship. It’s speedy, it’s impulsive, immature, and insular.

[lexpistachio]

Hello there! The fanfic you mentioned on that post on fiction that are better than omgcp caught my eye, and I've never read an RPF before but the things you said about it were spot on. I really liked it, thank you for recommending!

I’M SO GLAD YOU LIKED IT YOU HAVE NO IDEA. All the things deserve a read, tbh, but I have a soft spot for that fic in particular.

Let’s see

the main character does not exist to provide comfort for his millionaire professional athlete partner ✓ 

main character makes his own goddamned decisions

being gay and closeted in the NHL is an Actual Issue that is discussed and tackled, not just handwaved around and invalidated --”Why is there such a statistical anomaly? Either people don’t feel safe enough to be gay and play hockey, or people don’t feel safe enough to be openly gay while playing hockey. At least one of those is an absolute truth.” ✓

 the power dynamics, the disparity of the status between a pro athlete and a beat reporter who are in a relationship, financial and otherwise is addressed ✓

long and meaningful discussion about coming out and the consequences thereof, both to the pro athlete and the main character who is not ✓

“You are not the situation.” fuck me upppp

that A+ panic attack scene  ✓

witty and funny ✓ 

there is a pissy duck near the end, which is extra hilarious imo.

I can discuss that fic aaaall day, hmu over chat