Under the assumption that the character descriptions have to be in sync with the story arcs, then Gunther and Bets are still in a relationship. The differentiator is that Bets’ description says that her social media activity is a risk factor in the sustainability of the relationship. The request from G&K suggests that the developmental path of their relationship is far from linear, but is still continuous.
Also, the school year is about to resume, so if they choose to deescalate the romance but not terminate the relationship, then that would make sense. It would also make sense that both are maturing into adulthood and the realization that the associated stressors are right around the corner and neither has an idea of how that looks for them as individuals and as a couple. I can see Gunther getting frustrated because he is too old to be a child, but not positioned to be an independent man. Moreover, he may be dealing with a Peter Pan desire to never grow up; his self-worth as a man may be seriously in question.
What I would like to see is the introduction of a campus therapist, and have all of the major student characters spend time on the couch, revealing to the readers what is going on with them. Young people are so stressed out that I can see that addition as enhancing the strip. Especially if their narratives give us insights on who or what is impacting them. G&K could get a therapist to help them write the questions and explore a range of answers based on how their current life event are intersecting with who they are. In real life, student suicides cause students to visit grief counselors. Or, there could be an arc, where an emergency gets called into the firehouse, Brad leads the team into a dorm room where a student is found. Then over a course of a couple of weeks, we see the counseling.
But for now, I will assume that the character descriptions are the leading indicators of the story arc, and that Gunther and Bets are bending but not breaking.
This dialogue has potential for a good “girls’ talk” segment. Undesired singleness is a current issue for 20 somethings. The limitations of online dating, collective low self-esteem, the fear of being incomplete without a life mate or in Tiff’s case, total self-delusion – a lot of ways this segment could go. And by the time, they come to a place of consensus, Kip is out of the pool (or Stef has made a surprise visit and the pool has turned into the privacy room). Or they hear a crash from an attempted break in (actually a bottle falls over) and Kip comes to the rescue and creates a very uncomfortable encounter with the ladies. Looking forward to seeing how this ends.
Actually your point is well taken. There may be two cohorts of readers – the daily and “the certain-days”. The daily readers will find the pace of plot development as slow as a two turtles racing in peanut butter. However, there may be an intentional pacing and spacing of the development so that the certain-days readers can get a gist of what is going on while hopefully not boring the daily readers.
What would be a good plot twist is to have them go down and see that it’s Stef creating the other splashes.
If we step back for a moment, it appears that Gunther is getting a free ride in two ways. First as an adult, he gets free room and board without the obligation of being self-supportive. Second, he gets unlimited conjugal comfort without the commitment of being a fiancé or a spouse. For a young man, that is the best of both worlds.
So as this arc unfolds, I hope that this encounter pushes Gunther’s character development toward maturity and the responsibilities that come with it. While this is a comic strip, we still have the situation where a grown man is being taken care of instead of getting out there and being his own man.
Under the assumption that the character descriptions have to be in sync with the story arcs, then Gunther and Bets are still in a relationship. The differentiator is that Bets’ description says that her social media activity is a risk factor in the sustainability of the relationship. The request from G&K suggests that the developmental path of their relationship is far from linear, but is still continuous.
Also, the school year is about to resume, so if they choose to deescalate the romance but not terminate the relationship, then that would make sense. It would also make sense that both are maturing into adulthood and the realization that the associated stressors are right around the corner and neither has an idea of how that looks for them as individuals and as a couple. I can see Gunther getting frustrated because he is too old to be a child, but not positioned to be an independent man. Moreover, he may be dealing with a Peter Pan desire to never grow up; his self-worth as a man may be seriously in question.
What I would like to see is the introduction of a campus therapist, and have all of the major student characters spend time on the couch, revealing to the readers what is going on with them. Young people are so stressed out that I can see that addition as enhancing the strip. Especially if their narratives give us insights on who or what is impacting them. G&K could get a therapist to help them write the questions and explore a range of answers based on how their current life event are intersecting with who they are. In real life, student suicides cause students to visit grief counselors. Or, there could be an arc, where an emergency gets called into the firehouse, Brad leads the team into a dorm room where a student is found. Then over a course of a couple of weeks, we see the counseling.
But for now, I will assume that the character descriptions are the leading indicators of the story arc, and that Gunther and Bets are bending but not breaking.