Hard to sum this one up now - it was such a specific feeling at the time - and it fills my face with hot blood to reread. I'll always be a little embarrassed. There's just no dressing up these painful, vulnerable moments where everything changes. Better to push into them, declare a point of no return, repeat the words until they no longer trigger shame. In the past her shame (sort of) protected Eve from repeating her mistakes. But she has something better now: a collaborator in the same struggle. Lacan says love is giving what you don't have. Eve's unrequited love for Park only laid bare how incomplete she is. Will on the other hand offers to fill that lack, and reveals his own missing piece in the process.
13 thoughts on “#949 + 950 – different, permanently”
Scott
I've said it before and I'll say it again: thank for your inspiring work and dedication, Meredith. A real gift. Wish I had something more insightful to comment like the other dope fans of OP. I'm gonna go ride my bike to the park and stare at a sunset.
TRA
That's very good!
I think it's hilarious how they sneak in, "I love you", as if they are a afraid that that sentence will bite them, or something.
Good show! 😀
cwbuecheler
I feel like I comment here too often and it's a little weird, but Octopus Pie was really important to me for a variety of reasons and I just want to say that this is probably my single favorite page (okay, two pages) of the entire series, which is high praise because there are a lot of them that are amazing. There are others that are more technically complex and I guess … bigger? In their scope, and maybe some that have even more to say on the human condition, but Eve finally finding the strength to say "I love you" and then her complete inability to STOP saying it kills me every time.
cjmaloof
Octopus Pie gives me many feelings, but I rarely manage to put them into words. I really appreciate people like you, and Meredith, who share yours!
aheritagelife
I remember being on the subway coming home from work and reading this page when it first updated. I was so excited about these two characters, who we'd been following for so long, finally coming together. The culmination of the two journeys it took to bring each of them here.
Jooam
"Fills my face with hot blood" is a great way to describe the feeling I get when I read Octopus Pie. My feeling is not embarrassment though, more like I'm always on the verge of happy tears.
Tangerine
cwbuecheler, not only do I frequently read and enjoy your comments, but the entire comments community here is amazing–as been amazing, both rounds–which I don't think has ever been the case on any other webcomic I've followed.
I just read the funny and cute "Fangs" by Sarah Andersen, and I quickly found that I needed to scroll down and avert my eyes from the comments, because they routinely were a crass or reductionist or so-obvious-as-to-be-utterly-unnecessary take. And that reminded me of how I nearly always find the comments on webcomics to be maddening in their shallow reductionism.
Here though?
I own all 5 collections, and actually really prefer reading a book instead of reading a comic online–except here. The comments point out so much I missed! Sometimes they share the life experience I haven't had that makes a comic that mystifies me resonate for them. All sorts of details I didn't notice in the art are illuminated in the discussion. Disagreements about interpretation of a panel or interaction highlight the depth and nuance of the comic, its quite extraordinary artistic merit in storytelling and in visual rendition.
My enjoyment of Octopus Pie is magnified *so much* by the commentary; I frequently wish there was a way to preserve them in hard copy–I'd definitely buy that "Collector's Edition"!–but when I experience that desire I try to appreciate them as a form of time-based art that will eventually disappear.
cwbuecheler
Seconded, I've had nothing but positive interactions in this comment section during both runs, and the others who've contributed have definitely helped me appreciate the comic in ways I might otherwise have not. Glad I could help contribute!
Jay Petrequin
Jesus. I was 16 or 17 when I got into OP and am now reading this at 25, and this is one of several points that has punched me in the gut in a whole different way as I've grown up a tiny bit more.
Amy
BUHHH so cute. Hehe aww, this page is so sweet, so nice, so calm, even with Eve's adorbs jitteriness. Awww Meredith you still get embarrassed by this? I think that makes sense. It is a very vulnerable page, but it is so sweet and so very Eve!!! And so nice to see both Will and Eve finally arriving at each other.
EB Berman
Was this the end of the whole OP shebang?
Everest A.
I know that these reruns are long past done but I just needed to talk about it. This comic, especially this page are just so important to me. Enough to inspire a stylist tattoo..and my new name. I'm so thankful that you did this, all of these stories I cherish
expirequiem
god, i love this comic.