Vierzig is a nickname
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I was thinking about the fact that houndour and houndoom don’t particularly resemble hounds.
Then this happened.
I was thinking about the fact that houndour and houndoom don’t particularly resemble hounds.
Then this happened.
Faces are perfectly valid places to dispose Taekwondo gear…
…huh
Ah! Looks like everything turned out just fine!
“40″ is a weird nickname for 42. But I guess Mr. Frohlich is a weird guy.
Why does he call her 40 and not 42?
And Ben how did you think she would respond to your calling her gay?
Well Zweiundvierzig is even longer than Forty-two, so I can see him abbreviating it like that…
Well according to the internet, 42 in German is zweiundvierzig. (Someone correct me if I’m wrong. Seriously.) So I imagine it’s more or less like saying “Ben” instead of Benzene.
It’s a nickname – He’s calling her Forty as a shortened version of her full name, zwei-und-vierzig.
Oh! I get it, the second part is treated as a given name because she’s Japanese! Thanks, that was really bugging me a few seconds ago.
Um the word vierzig is German, not Japanese.
It’s a giant multi-lingual trainwreck. She’s japanese, named in english, and he’s translating the english to japanese and applying japanese name ordering to it!
MADNESS, I SAY!
Yes, but since German numbers state the ones digit before the tens digit, to a Japenese speaker it sounds like “zweiund” is the family name and “vierzig” sounds like the given name. Or, y’know, Heinrich might just be lazy and I might be blowing this out of proportion to annoy you all.
Lol no one cares what Benzene thinks
Just wanted to say that I found this place from the Trenches, and it is amazing! I picked up from the beginning (luckily a slow day at work) and I am hooked. Great job on everything!
Alright! Sounds like we’re going to get some Kiwibot action soon!
Perhaps the bot will be redmodeled?
Gotta say, I like the coloring in the background.
Even if the Kiwibot DOES goes three times faster after the upgrades, I don’t think Heinrich would change up the color scheme without input from Steffi.
Oops, haha -how did that ‘d’ get in there?? I guess I really do need to look over my comments before I post them.
I wanted to say ‘remodeled.’ Like an altered body and legs to compensate for new gear and tech.
Keep up the good work I have enjoyed this comic a lot. Great art work and nice coloring.
Well, I was wondering how she’d react…I guess now we know.
COUPLE FIGHT ENSUES AS WELL AS HILLARATY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yup. She mad. Or hormones. Probably both. Ben,you silly young man,why must you INSIST on stepping in it an putting your foot in your mouth? Ever hear of tact? It’s a nice thing to have.
Well, some of us are incapable of tact, and thus believe everything should be crystal clear.
Capable of it or not, dancing around an issue isn’t terribly practical. Chalk up another vote for crystal clarity.
Ben was very tactful. Steffi is at fault for being so opaque about her feelings for Ben. He was just respecting her. Her getting mad at him is just more unfairness. For cripes sakes, Steffi never showed any even approaching interest in him, and she shows such interest in girls, Ben made a perfectly logical assumption.
Ehh, he was being honest, but I don’t think he was being tactful at all. If he had wanted to be tactful he could have said something like, “I didn’t think you were interested in me.” without mentioning that he thought she was gay. (Especially after she had just said she liked him, which proves that she isn’t.) Personally, I think he definitely said a little too much this time. xD At least Steffi is trying to control her frustration for now. Not sure how long that will last, though. Haha…
What interest in girls? Either I’m completely oblivious, or you’re imagining things. Possibly both (I admit it’s likely that I am completely oblivious).
Yeah, I call shipping goggles/fan yay. A girl tending making friends with other girls is not an indicator of being “interested” in girls. Feels kinda weird to have to point that out.
As much of a yuri fangirl as I am, the only canon lovey-dovey interests in anyone we’ve seen so far are as follows:
Jones > Reed
Chandra > Steffi
Well, plus Gear having spades for Steffi.
After the conversation on the last page, it’s hilarious that you’d accuse McBob of having shipping goggles.
What do you mean by “having spades for”? That’s not a phrase I’ve seen before, and I’m having no luck with Google.
@Seth: There were a lot of conversations last page, none of which I was a part of, or previously read. I tried scrolling through just now, looking for posts by McBob, and I’m not seeing the joke. I mean, I see that he’s usually defending a more conservative stance towards making character assumptions, but I don’t see how that reflects on me noticing his wild and wacky assumption above. Any “hilarious” irony here would seem to be entirely his own.
Fair enough. Never mind, then.
It’s a Homestuck term for sort of “hate love”.
Thanks. That explains why I hadn’t seen it before. I tried reading MSPaint Adventures once and became bored with it (shocking, I know).
I tried reading it back when there were only like 15 pages to Homestuck, thought it was mind-numbingly stupid, and gave up on it. Fast-forward two years later, and everyone is raving about how awesome it is, so I suffered through the archive of 4000 pages. If you like time travel shenanigans and don’t mind reading 8000+ pages, it’s pretty good? Not as good as KB though.
Huh. ‘Mind-numbingly stupid’ is a fair description of what I remember reading. Maybe I’ll eventually give it a second chance.
Benzene doesn’t see it as a matter of tact. Steffi has no logical reason to be this mad at him and he will use debate her into seeing reason. Whether that’s a good approach however…
Hmm… she could be mad because she’s offended, or she could be getting angry at Ben to defend herself…
Although it’s probably the first one.
She’s mad because she knows that Benzine’s answer is her own fault.
Don’t you just hate it when the situations you get in are entirely your own fault? Let’s lash out at other people in frustration and pretend it’s their doing!
Expected
She’s so gay.
Whoever said that honesty is the best policy was a liar. it’s not always.
It is the best policy but as you know, policies have their exceptions.
42 seems to simulate modesty just fine, though!
Well that was tamer than I was expecting.
Oof. So much for Steffi showing a little maturity.
I don’t know, it seems pretty mature to return your sparring partner’s loaned equipment.
To his face!
FAAAAAAA-
Wait, wrong webcomic meme.
heheh love DOA
Heh, well, most male teens are stupid. The good thing is USUALLY people don’t hold your stupidity as a teen against you when you’re older.
Steffi = Gay person in denial
Even if she wasn’t actually attracted to Ben, she’s still clearly not homosexual, based on her interest in the matter, so she’s mad that Ben assumed she was. It’s a bit uncalled for to get that bent out of shape over such a thing, yes, but this is Steffi, so getting high-tempered is perfectly in-character for her.
There’s no reason to deny yourself, especially in a world where no one cares.
She’s either gay and in the closet, or perfectly straight. She just isn’t a gossipy girl looking for love, like many others may be.
But I’m pretty sure that from such a strong response, she isn’t bisexual. I would be fine if she was, but now we can see these two kids’ relationship develop, whether Steffi likes or will like Ben eventually or not.
It’s not a story without conflict.
(I just hope everyone stays in character like they have been, but I don’t have much a reason to think that the contrary would ever happen.)
There’s more sexualities than bi-, hetero-, and homo-.
Really? I didn’t know. Kind of a weird discussion, but what are those?
The only other types that humans can perform are pretty nasty.. it’s not a study I really cared to research…
Oops, sorry, typo:
*The only other types that humans can perform, that I can think of, are pretty nasty..
There are two more major sexual orientations: pan- and a-. There are other variations and labels, of course, but those are the big ones. I’m guessing Shockpulse was hinting at the possibility that Steffi’s ace.
The “a-” in that comment was supposed to link to AVEN. Let’s try that again: http://www.asexuality.org.
So Seth, if I got this right, being ace is when you aren’t sexually attracted to others or at least fairly not as much as the majority is? (In my perspective I would find this more as a lack of sexual orientation, not one in itself, but it’s still an individual orientation of itself.)
And pansexuality ..is that just a more unbiased form of bisexuality? Where gender does not matter at all and sex is sex?
Am I understanding that correctly?
I would then say that the possibility that Steffi is ace is legitimate.
The major difference between bisexuality and pansexuality is bisexuality’s restriction to two choices. Pansexuality refers to the possibility for attraction to any human, regardless of things like gender.
My common sense also can’t let that “other sexualities are nasty” comment slide, either. Pretty darn offensive.
Asexuality is DEFINITELY a sexuality, not “the absence of one”. More-importantly, sexuality and romantic attraction, like any identiy issue, is an immensely complex subject, and frequently cannot be boiled down to a single term. For example, there’s not really a simple way to explain “I’m an agender person who’s technically pansexual, but effectively asexual ’cause I can’t stand people being near me, let alone touching me” is there?
For the record, I had never come across ther term “ace” in my researching days, but it’s a pretty neat one!
@Shockpulse: I’d say that’s right up there with “I’m somewhere between male and neutrois, and demiheteroromantic ace, but I only experience romantic attraction negatively.” At least “I’m ace” generally suffices.
@LuminousDecibel: Shockpulse is right. Lacking an orientation would imply not being oriented toward any particular gender (which sounds like pansexuality). We are definitely oriented away from everyone else.
First of all, Shockpulse, that first comment when I asked about other orientation, I accidentally forgot to type a part of my sentence -like when you have a full thought in your head but since you think faster than you write, you write the next part of the thought as you are thinking it and don’t write the next part of the sentence -refer to my comment directly after that one:
“Oops, sorry, typo:
*The only other types that humans can perform, THAT I CAN THINK OF, are pretty nasty..” (I know that ‘typo’ is not the right term, but I thought my message would still be understood.)
Pansexuality and asexuality aren’t known very well by the public -I am included. I appreciate you educating me, but I wasn’t saying “other sexualities are nasty,” I was saying “the other sexualities that I know of are nasty,” and if you need to know, I was referring to bestiality. That stuff IS nasty.
Secondly:
I think I understand pansexuality now, thank you both.
What I found, (which I admit, I didn’t take too much time to research) on asexuality is the absence of the attraction. I wasn’t sure if that was all that it is so I asked you a question to see if I got it right. I’m gonna do that again.
Is asexuality, then, not a simple lack of sexual desire or orientation, but a sort of orientation that is perhaps disgusted by, or wants nothing to do with, sexuality? Am I getting closer to understanding?
And yes, I realize that a single word can not completely describe a person’s individuality. But if we establish words with the main idea of the orientation, it is much easier to then pinpoint what is really going on.
I hate labeling. (Stereotyping, and thinking that there are only two political parties [in the US]: if you’re dem. you believe this and if you’re rep. you think that)
-This is a reason why I have some urge to always clarify in full, for I fear people will see me as something I’m not.
Oops. I can see how you’d think so after my explanation of why asexuality is an orientation (here are a couple others that are phrased better), but I didn’t mean to imply that asexuality means being repulsed by sex. Some aces are indeed repulsed, but some are merely indifferent, and some can even enjoy the act of having sex despite not feeling sexual attraction. It is fair to say, though, that when an ace does have sex, it’s typically more (or entirely) for their partner’s satisfaction rather than their own, and that aces are highly unlikely to initiate.
I didn’t fully answer your question, did I? To clarify: your original understanding was accurate. Being asexual simply means being sexually attracted to no one.
That comment went through automatically, but the one before it is awaiting moderation? Maybe Cube’s running a filter, but if so, it’s a bit weird that in a long thread that’s entirely about sexuality, only one of my comments got blocked.
Oh, ok, thank you.
At first I thought Shockpulse’s “effectively asexual ’cause I can’t stand people being near me, let alone touching me” was an element of being an ace, but now I see that she meant that her being that way is an element to why SHE is asexual. (-Am I right Shockpulse?) But her comment was very helpful; I didn’t know how definite the lack of attraction was, making it its own type of sexual orientation.
I got the false impression that asexuality was: “Eh, ‘don’t care.. it might be fun, but it doesn’t really appeal.” when it seems to really be: “No, I don’t want that at all. That wouldn’t make me happier in the slightest.”
It just feels weird calling asexuality a sexuality for in half of the meanings of sexuality, it would be an absence of sexuality. It is a sexuality in the sense that it is a sexual orientation. (The english language gives single words too many meanings..)
Am I staying on target or have I just impacted on the surface?
(Btw, sorry if that when I always come in, I start some long, off topic [of the comic] conversation that always involves misunderstandings that end up insulting someone. :/
Sexuality isn’t general Tuesday topic I have when my friends and I talk or anything…)
Yes, heterosexuals can be very, very nasty.
From what Shockpulse has said, it sounds like she’s grey-A.
It’s not really either of those. Attitudes can vary (see my previous comment once it gets through moderation); the common factor is not experiencing sexual attraction.
Asexuality is definitely not the absence of sexuality. That’s a myth arising in part from the etymology of the word ‘asexual’, which looks like it ought to mean ‘not sexual’, and indeed does mean that in other contexts. Consider, though, that none of the labels we have for sexual orientations make much etymological sense until you realize that the prefix in each term refers to the object of sexual attraction (which, in this case, is nothing). I do agree that overloaded words can be problematic (though they can also be fun).
@McBob: ‘Can be’ being the operative phrase. You finally chime in, and that’s all you have to say? For shame.
@Decibel
Fully on-target, more or less, in understanding correctly.
For those of you just watching the comments feed, my replies here are visible now (here and here).
Hey, Seth.
I now just looked back to this page and saw those two replies. (I wish this site gave me an email once I was replied to…)
I’m not understanding how my second understanding isn’t true in all politeness. -The “No, I don’t want that at all. That wouldn’t make me happier in the slightest.”
My infection on the sentence was intended to be deadpan, not that the act would be displeasing. Are you sure that isn’t true?
So asexuality is the lack of sexual desire but not the lack of sexual orientation. But for many “asexuals” it is not black and white. It varies as some “asexuals” just don’t have that much sexual desire?
From Steffi’s reaction, I think it’s safe to assume that in the world of KB, people unfortunately do care.
I’m not so sure it’s safe to assume that Steffi cares because other people care. She could care because Ben assumed the wrong thing about her. Kind of like assuming that a boy is a girl or vice versa; It wouldn’t matter which it is, but mistaking one for the other can be taken as an insult.
When put that way, I suddenly can understand! Yeah, gender confusion sucks, and can ruin your life if you get too upset my it.
I only hope Steffi learns to take things as glancing blows, so people like Gear won’t get her so easily-upset. As it is, she’s way too hotheaded for her own good.
Or in other words, even if no one cares what the answer is, it’s still upsetting for someone to misappropriate the answer for you, instead of asking.
Aw, I was hoping for some more character development, not a temper tantrum.
For Sefi, character developments are tantamount to temper tantrums. xD
“Mary screws with our heads” part 269.
That said, it’s either this or mumbling in silence and ignoring what everyone thinks. I don’t really see headstrong, hotblooded Steffi being the type to suffer silently though.
I love the idea that there’s a robot just buried in the Frolichs’ backyard.
I am glad that it was just a temporary psyche-out and not a total scene-shift. It woulda been pretty jarring not to have SOME resolution after the last page!
Yup. When I saw Heinrich in the first panel, my immediate reaction was, “DAMMIT, CUBE.” Then I saw the last panel and relaxed a little.
It wouldn’t be the first time, certainly!
…shes not mad AT ben…shes just mad <.<
Is this the part where ben trys to explain what happened and her dad goes “you mean you’re not?” ;P
I think Steffi’s dad probably assumed that she was a robosexual.
Well why else was he enabling her with all these robot fights?
Well, the fighting robots were his pet project prior to his parents getting killed. Also, she has stated that humanoid robots freak her out, though from what we know of him, he may have dismissed that as an initial shock.
Well, that ended well.
“THERE’S YOUR STUPID SPARTING GEAR, RIGHT BACK IN YOUR STUPID FACE, STUPID-FACE!”
The ship is now diamonds.
I told him to put the helmet back on…
Boy, that escalated in a normal matter given the line if questioning. I’m pretty sure she’s not gay by now, though I guess she still could be.
I just realized Steffi had the headphones on all the while during training. Sup with that?
But she has a girlfriend!
Well… at least Chandra wishes it were so.
Believe me, more than just Chandra wish it were so.
Is he really surprised she is throwing things at him when he said he thought she was gay, I mean come on, the guy your interested in thinks your gay… Yeah, if I was a girl I’d kill the guy myself…
Kiiiiind of expected that reaction. XD
Ben you idiot, there are times when you can use the gay word among friends and times when it is strictly red flag moment, this is the latter
Already with the spat. Ah, young lovers. ;Y
Well. That takes the term “In your face” to a whole new meaning.
For those unaware- “vierzig” means “forty” in German.
Can I fanart Steffi throwing the equipment at Ben? I feel like the expressions would be funny…
Cube generally gives a thumbs-up to any idea of fanart.
Yeaaaaah that didn’t go so well.
Wooow so many people commenting on this page ahhhh!!! I can’t even be bothered to read it all!!! Aghhhh cube u messing with mah head u kno? And also to u peeps that think Stef is over exaggerating, how did u think she would react? She is growing up and she’s… Well…. Steffi!! And also throwing things at people’s face is legit. GO STEFFI!!! And yes Ben, I live you too. BUT IN THE FUTURE NEVER SAY THAT TO A GIRLS FACE AGAIN!!! I think they both learnt something here
Why Gear???!!!!! I thought leightherainbow had a Steffi icon!!! Meh.