#896 – some unbearable itch

27 thoughts on “#896 – some unbearable itch

  1. I love how consistently Octopus Pie casts an accurate light on modern adult life and on life in general, (possibly intentionally) referencing Rilke in the process!

    "“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.”

    1. Thank you for that quote! My church loves to throw around the phrase "Live the Questions Now" but I've never seen the surrounding context.

  2. Eve is super cute in the first panel!

  3. "…who really knows me like nobody else does"

    um, Hanna's standing right there Eve.

    and Hanna did you not JUST have Marek in your cooking palace some days ago?

    1. To be fair marek is in hanna's friend group and lives in the same city. It also wasn't years. I think the circumstances of the break up are different as well. Cutting out marek completely is harder to do because of friendships and the recent nature of the breakup. Eve doesn't have to see park, he doesn't live in her city either. Eve has also spent tons of time idealizing park and thinking about what it would be like to get back together. Hanna knows where she stands with marek and doesn't have those intentions. Park is the type of ex I'd avoid seeing if I were eve. I have others where it would be completely different.

    2. I think Eve is lying to herself a little bit.

      I don't think Park "really knows me like nobody else does" and I definitely don't buy that she still isn't mad at him.

      Hell I'm still mad at him. He always seemed like a cold emotionless bastard.

  4. Look at how Hanna just comes straight out of the shower and onto the carpet.
    Do you think she gives a fuck, dude?
    You think this is a game?

    1. A fuck about what? The carpet. Nope. Eve? Hell, yes.

  5. Eve and Hanna are so goddamn perfect. I love how strongly established their relationship is, even amongst all the jumbled and fragmented relationships around them. I mean sure, life with other people is just like that, because personalities and situations are always shifting. But it's just comforting to see those times when yeah, this is a person you know full well you can lean on, through everything that's already transpired.

    Especially when you can throw a line like Eve did in that last panel and you know it's all good. 😛

    Another note: Eve and Hanna's exchange is too real for words, and I have been on both sides of those kinds of conversations. "Indignant and agitated justification of my own actions/opinions because theoretically I know the stakes" and "I don't agree with the shortsightedness of your decisions but I can't stop you so do what makes you happy" are just a bit too familiar to me in a lot of ways. Which again is why I appreciate Eve and Hanna's friendship so much, it reflects a lot of aspects of my own personal life.

    I also feel like in some capacity Hanna is heavily refraining from just up and basically saying "Yo Eve, Park is an asshole, why would you even give him the time of day"

    Hmmmm BUT HANNA WHAT ABOUT WHEN MAREK *DID* SHOW UP

    (Marek is not an asshole tho. Park is an asshole.)

    tl;dr Octopie too good, too real, too damn deep

  6. I feel like Hanna's grown so much! Old Hanna would be all schemes at this point. Or at least trying harder to talk Eve out of it. It's really nice that's she's just letting her make this terrible mistake. (j/k.)

  7. I HATE Park so much. He's just the typical awful ex. That just appears out of the blue after not even asking for news. Just to ruin everything you've had to rebuild. HATE him.

    1. Only if you let them. I've had a couple pull that. Did it make a little crazy? Yep. Did it ruin things? Nope. As much as it would have been nice to hook up with them a little voice told me it wasn't worth it. Hopefully Eve has that figured out by now.

  8. The drama, the suspense, the tension, the unknowable unknowables… and I'm just sat her stressing out about Hanna just trailing her soggy feet all over the damn place!

    I just wanna get a mop and very deliberately mop all around her as she sloshes through the house.

  9. Just curious (I have not read all of the archive—which I must). Why do people hate Park so much?

    1. It's all there.

      Short version:

      While they were doing the long distance thing in college, park cheated on her and was dating other girls before breaking up.

      When they got back together, park was a little controlling and tended to shit all over eve's friends. He also tended to look down on eve for working in a grocery store and kept trying to encourage her to do something "better."

      Like anyone on OP, he wasn't really a bad guy, and had many facets to his personality, and I think a lot of it just comes from eve/will shippers and the feeling that eve was just with him because he was comfortable rather than them truly being meant for each other.

      1. Okay, I thought so. He doesn't seem awful or evil to me, but not compatible with Eve. I like the way he is written. The cheating is actually understandable when you are college-aged and in a long distance relationship. A lot of people have trouble settling when they are in their early 20s (for the record, I was cheated on twice…been tempted myself, but never done it), but I don't agree with "once a cheater always a cheater." There are some people like that, but sometimes there are circumstances where people who aren't like that will cheat. Being young and in a long distance relationship is one of those. Being incompatible and not having the ability/time to properly communicate and breakup is another. Maybe Eve is just being friends with him?

      2. Some of it comes from the will stuff but his controlling nature and disapproval was enough for me to not like him. Its hard for me to want eve to be someone who disapproves of most portions of her life outside of him and his friends.

      3. I guess we're forgetting about when Eve's friends (aka Hanna) were a little controlling and shitting all over Park? 2 way st

        1. I see your point, and respect it, but I disagree. I don't think Hannah is being controlling at all. She isn't name calling, or insulting Park, she was simply giving Eve valuable advice intended to keep Eve from getting hurt–something good friends should do. To be honest, I feel of all the characters in the story, Hannah seems to know Eve best, and is doing nothing more than looking out for her. (Hannah does have her flaws, but all characters in the story do, which is what makes them complex and lifelike. She is not, however a bad person or friend.) Park, however, has actually (in previous strips) insulted Eve's friends, and has chided her for spending time with them. As many other readers have said, he belittled and judged Eve's job choice. Proving that Park is judgmental, while Hannah was simply offering advice and warning Eve.

  10. PARK PLEASE GO FUCK YOURSELF

    AHGHGHGHG GODDAMMIT WHY

  11. Not to criticize my favorite comic, but I hope the climatic arc, which I know is coming soon, isn't about Eve's relationship to Park, whatever it turns out to be. Hopefully this is just tying up that loose end before going on to something else, but then again, what subplot has been prevalent enough throughout the entirety of the story to conclude with? Bleh. I love the comic.

  12. I'm the minority who really likes Park. I see a lot of myself in him, more than any other character. Do I think he and Eve are at all good together? No. But I really like him as a character and I really hope that things end well between him and Eve so neither of them continue to pick at this loose thread.

    1. I agree. I don't think they are compatible nor do they have a healthy relationship as lovers, but I don't he's evil. He made some mistakes and hurt her (and should apologize for that), but so far he's not a complete jerk (yet). They both just should except they are very different people who don't work together.

  13. Is Eve being sarcastic or genuine in the last panel? Either is funny, but for totally different reasons.

  14. I really don't understand the Park hate. He seems like a…normal guy…
    He seems to be a fairly decent person if a little too focused on career success as a way at winning at life. I don't see him being controlling so much as making the assumption that Eve would want to be on the same career/success path that he's on.
    Basically, he thought/wanted Eve to be with him, invited her to go with him and she turned that offer down… so he moved out of her life.

    As to the cheating thing. He was super young and broke up with her in person… didn't tell her about the cheating initially because Eve was already depressed and isolated.

    He doesn't seem bad… just maybe not compatible in terms of what he wanted in his future.

    anyway… we shall see if he deserves the vitriol soon!

  15. Not saying Park-haters are racist… but I wonder how much of the dislike for him (and how much of my own dislike for him) is based on internalized stereotypes and biases against Asian guys.

    I don't know – Does that ring true for anybody else?

    I realize Eve is Chinese, and nobody hates HER, but a) Asian men and Asian women are stereotyped in very different ways, and b) we've gotten to know Eve much better than Park, so we're less apt to judge her on appearance.

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