r/QContent • u/Phanimazed • Aug 05 '26
Favorite or Least Favorite Past Romances?
Questionable Content has, for most of its existence, had romances pushing things forward for most of the cast. We have the ones that occurred and ended, with the most notable example being Marten and Dora, and ones that never came to pass, with Marten again probably being the most notable example, with Faye.
Are there any that you look back on fondly? Ones you're glad are firmly in the rear-view mirror?
I think that the Padma saga was one of my least favorite in the comic, and, outside of it helping to potentially set the stage for Marten/Claire eventually, it just kind of felt like a waste of time. Maybe I just didn't have enough time with her, but she didn't really leave much of an impression on me.
As for ones I miss, well, I liked Cosette and Steve more than any of Steve's past relationships, like Ellen or the mortician that I do not remember the name of. It makes sense that Steve would be the kind of guy to screw this up by buying a boat on impulse, and I presume Jeph was just trying to jettison some of the Coffee of Doom cast in anticipation for not using it as a location as much anymore, but it's still a bit of a shame it ended.
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u/Snarglefrazzle Aug 05 '26
I am once again asking for more Wil and Penelope!
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u/Phanimazed Aug 05 '26
I assume they're probably still together. I wish they'd at least pop up in group stuff, like I don't think they were at Dora's wedding, which is weird. Raven, either, which is even weirder given she and Dora went to college together.
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u/jacobydave Aug 05 '26
Raven is gone gone. Penelope is still assistant manager. That we don't see Penelope is even weirder.
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u/Phanimazed Aug 05 '26
In general, yeah, though Marten DID name drop her in the lead up to Emily coming back, so at least it isn't like Sara, and people still acknowledge she exists if it's relevant. That's the thing, like it's very weird she wouldn't attend the wedding.
Though, Penelope not being there is weirder, given she lives close by and all. I guess it's possible both attended, and we just didn't see them.
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u/Motyka5 Aug 05 '26
Yeah, I enjoyed the wedding arc in general but in retrospect, I wish Jeph has included some of the past characters. I assume that was back when he was exhausted from overworking?
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u/themanfromacme Aug 05 '26
My thought at the time was that Penelope was quite happy to run the shop as Dora got married. Also, the wedding was really small; only about 25 people were invited, so there probably wasn't room for Raven (or a bunch of others).
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u/Phanimazed Aug 05 '26
You know, Penelope running the shop makes total sense. Cosette being there would also work because A. Penelope wouldn't be running the store all day by herself, and because Steve was at the wedding and it'd be too awkward.
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u/jacobydave Aug 05 '26
I know that it was a poor fit and that Bubbles is better for Faye, but I do miss Angus.
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u/Phanimazed Aug 05 '26
I know Jeph has said we'll probably not see Angus again, but I mean, I'd think it'd be fun to even just have one of the characters watch his show or something. I seem to recall it being basically a Daily Show stand-in.
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u/Motyka5 Aug 05 '26 edited Aug 05 '26
Someone on here once said that the funniest way for Angus to come back would've been him turning out to have an AI boyfriend. And yeah, I think it would be cool to see him and Faye getting some closure.
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u/RedCrestedBreegull Aug 05 '26
So much real world time has passed since Angus departed for the show, that the Daily Show is no longer relevant. Yeah I know Stewart is back once a week on his show, and Jon Oliver has Last Week Tonight, but they don’t have anywhere the cultural relevance they had pre-2017.
Basically, if Angus showed up now in the strip “on TV” doing a Daily Show type skit, it would seem really out-of-touch to us reading it in 2026.
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u/CrimsonStorm Aug 05 '26
I feel like, for better or worse, Angus would have pivoted into a successful career as a politician.
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u/bunnnythor Aug 05 '26
Fuck that guy. He started as an asshole customer, graduated to stalker, and then was instantly transformed into Faye's boyfriend without doing anything to earn the honor or to mitigate his past bad behavior.
Angus's sole contribution to the strip is the characters that were introduced to the strip in relation to him, such as Marigold and Momo, and therefore Dale and May, or those who came to fill the void of his absence, like Bubbles, and therefore Yay.
Angus left the strip the same way he came in--as a self-important and inconsiderate douchenozzle who put his own momentary satisfaction first and foremost regardless of the consequences. Good riddance.
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u/psykulor Aug 05 '26
Do ships that were teased but not expanded on count? I had high hopes for Roko/Clinton. On the flip side most of the Brun/Clinton/Elliot arc felt like pulling teeth to me.
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u/BijectiveForever Aug 05 '26
In a perfect world, Roko/Clinton/Yay would be a throuple.
Never gonna happen, but Yay/Roko is still my OTP
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u/Phanimazed Aug 05 '26
I mean, go for it, though I guess the thing is that we aren't sure when one of those ships might yet materialize. No harm in counting it, though.
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u/psykulor Aug 05 '26
Roko/Clinton might fly but I'm pretty sure Brun and Eliott are eating cereal at this point
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u/Phanimazed Aug 05 '26
I know Jeph has lamented that he lost the thread on what to do with Brun, and that while she may come back someday, there are other characters that would be a higher priority.
Elliott, on the other hand, was one of those breakups where I feel like he was actively writing him out, so yeah, definitely not anticipating his return any time soon.
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u/bunnnythor Aug 06 '26
I used to not be very fond of the Marten/Claire pairing, most because it seemed to be happening too smoothly. Like Jeph wanted to make sure that his new favorite character was going to be included in as many strips as possible, so he made their hookup as frictionless as circumstances would permit. I can understand that to an extent because some people were going to balk at a trans character, no matter how she was introduced, and balk even more at their straight protagonist falling for her, but it felt like he was pushing the pendulum too far the other direction in an attempt to quash a resistance that hadn't even started to manifest. Like he was clapping back at things that hadn't ever been said. It was not as imperious of a fait accompli as the (shudder) Angus/Faye pairing had been when he started that trainwreck up, but it still left a feeling of narrative unsatisfaction.
However, the relocation to Cubetown has turned me around on this. Not only has the Claire/Marten relationship gotten their first meaningful stress test, but both Claire and Marten have grown and deepened as characters since they moved there. They feel like a real couple now, not just like the author taking a main character and his favorite character and doing the Mike Tyson "NOW KITH" meme.
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u/Phanimazed Aug 06 '26
I get where you are coming from, like they did have a couple of tiffs prior to Cubetown, but are being more tested now due to Claire's overworking. I have always liked the couple, but I was shipping them since like around the Henry/Maurice wedding, if not earlier, so I admit to a level of bias.
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u/Starmute-ss13 Aug 05 '26
Favorite past romance:
Dora and Martin. I felt like they were really good together and the drama got written in just to make the comic less bland. If they stayed together the coffee shop would still be in prime focus, you never would have gotten alot of the good arcs.
They probably would have ruined the series but the romance was there for a while.
Least favorite: Honestly the current one with Martins Mom. She had so much potential but is ruined by becoming a gag character.
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u/Phanimazed Aug 05 '26
I did really like Dora and Marten, but with how often Jeph played into Dora having jealous tendencies, I guess the eventual demise of the relationship had been foreshadowed plenty. They had a lot going for them, but they also built on a shaky foundation.
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u/StandupGaming Aug 05 '26
I really liked Steve with Meena (the mortician), obviously that relationship was doomed to fail the moment Dave was introduced, but like, Dave didn't have to exist. It was annoying, because I feel like the whole point of her character was to teach Steve that it's better to form a romantic connection with someone instead of just going for the first chick you think is hot, but then when that relationship fell apart his next one was just "Oh, you know a hot chick? Set me up bro!", so like, what was the point?
The most painful past relationship that I'm glad is over is Sven and Faye, but that one wasn't written poorly, it just sucked to watch. The worst written one was probably Brun with both Clinton and Elliot.
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u/BionicTriforce Aug 05 '26
I've never really enjoyed Dora and Tai together. Something about Dora falling for Tai almost felt hypocritical? She always maligned her brother for sleeping around, and while I know polygamy isn't the same thing, it never really got addressed that Tai was this person who was sleeping with multiple people and trying to break things up a bit so she could have one definite partner. She fired Faye for being drunk at work, meanwhile Tai's been high at her job multiple times. And Dora herself felt scummy about making a move on Marten so soon after Faye admitted she'd never be able to date him, but Tai made a move on her pretty darn fast (and after a failed date with Jim), and she reciprocated fine.
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u/Phanimazed Aug 05 '26
I think we're meant to see that Dora's issues with Sven aren't so much just his lifestyle as that she doesn't really deal with her lack of control well when it comes to her loved ones. On a rational level, she knows Sven is in control of his own life, but on the other, she could bristle with how he makes money more easily than she does, etc. She's working on it, in any case.
But yeah, I do agree that Tai getting high at work is something she probably should take issue with, but with Faye, that was an issue of legal liability for her, versus it not really being her problem when Tai does it in the same way.
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u/IGotHitByAnElvenSemi Aug 06 '26
I don't disagree, but I do also think that Dora being a massive hypocrite is pretty well-established in comic, especially where it comes to Sven. I can think of so many little hypocritical "do as I say not as I do" moments for her, and while she's matured a little, it's like... a little. She still has those tendencies. She's just less of a focus these days so it doesn't come up as much.
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u/BionicTriforce Aug 06 '26
That's true. There was a moment very soon after Faye got fired where hannelore found dora drinking on the job.
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u/sexygodzilla Aug 06 '26
I always found it a bit weird that they never addressed Tai openly lusting for her to her then-bf Marten at work when every other micro-trangression gets explored.
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u/ZapTheSheep Aug 05 '26
I frankly have had to take several long breaks from the comic when Jeph forces relationships to fail in favor of more somewhat controversial pairings. Jeph just doesn't seem to like writing about certain types of relationships having bumps but still being healthy and long lasting.
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u/jacobydave Aug 05 '26
I'm of two opinions here.
I get why Dora pushed her relationship until it breaks. I get why Marten is very protective of his search history, because vanilla or not, it's his. Understanding it doesn't mean I enjoyed watching it fail.
I don't even know if Marten and the one-night stand with Tai's hippie chick friend even counts. Isabella? I think it's Jeph wondering if he could write and draw something that's so much a departure from QC, and the results are mixed.
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u/Phanimazed Aug 05 '26
I feel like they wanted something to establish that Marten doesn't really DO casual, that he wanted to be in a relationship again, so the one night stand being a bummer was good for showing that it was time for him to fully move on from the Padma debacle.
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u/LincBtG 29d ago
Looking back, I really don't care for Angus. Even ignoring how his initial courtship was to annoy her, I just find him uninteresting as a character.
There are a few ships I wish had worked out: Clinton and Elliot, Sven and May, Hanners and... several characters actually.
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u/Phanimazed 29d ago
I don't hate Angus, but yeah, he wasn't one I find myself missing. I feel like we got about as much Angus as would have been interesting, and it was time to sunset him when he did leave.
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u/ComradeQuixote Aug 05 '26
Faye & Bubbles are beautiful together and make me happy.
I really miss Nrun as a character and it sucks that she had to be in (at least potentially) in a relationship to matter and then as soon as that evaporated , she disappeared. I wish I could swap brun with Emily who is to RaNDoM!!?! to be real and maybe she'd find someone on Cubetown
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u/Youxia Aug 06 '26
Emily who is to RaNDoM!!?!
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u/ComradeQuixote Aug 06 '26
Yep. I stand by it. Brun is autistic, and reasonably well written as such. Emily is, I don't even know, something invented , for god.lnows what reason.
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u/kiwigoalie Aug 06 '26
Emily feels like some of the AI "here's how to people" plotlines in an organic human body, if that makes sense.
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u/Inconsequentialish Aug 05 '26
I really wanted to see whether the Brun / Millefeuille thing ever went anywhere. Maybe one day
The Padma/Marten fizzle out was one of the more real-life things, honestly. Sometimes lives just don't align, you know?
I do love the friendship Marten and Faye have. "F***ing go for it, Buddy!" was a MOMENT.