9 Chickweed Lane/YMMV

"Seth: She was young and passionately, unwaveringly-- : Out of wedlock.
 * Angst? What Angst?: Juliette and Edda are actually pretty excited that they're a lovechild and -grandchild, respectively; even Gran's pleased that her first child was with the passionate and artistic Kiesl rather then the conservative and possibly brain-damaged Bill. Subverted when.
 * Averted with :

Seth: I was going to say "in love".

(All said in a very calm/blank surmise.)"


 * Seth doesn't seem to be having an issue with.
 * He seems to be very deeply in denial about that, what bothers some readers more is that he cheated on his longtime partner and no one seems to think this is wrong.
 * Are They Still In Belgium?
 * Soon followed by "Are They Still In The Fifties?" Apparently someone told Brooke to wrap it up so we don't see hear anything about Bill and Edna's relationship other that he was a good man.
 * Crowning Moment of Heartwarming: After Sister Steve helps Diane with childbirth, Diane gave her newborn daughter the name "Florence Anne" (which was Sister Steve's name before she joined the novitiate); Sister Steve asks for ten more boxes of tissues and the door be closed behind her.
 * Ending Fatigue: Every time it seemed that the WWII flashback would end, another complication appears to extend things further. One would think it ended when, but then.
 * Family-Unfriendly Aesop: Last year's story arc had God (who, for some reason, insisted on being called Monty) seriously contemplate turning mankind into giant cockroaches because he didn't like that we looked like him ...Starting with Diane's unborn child.
 * To add to that: Diane is an ex-nun and her baby-daddy is an ex-priest who both worked at Edda's old high school.
 * Fan Hater: Brooke McEldowney has a long-standing history of loathing critical fans, even taking on critics on wikipedia and comics.com, and frequently takes jabs at them in the commentary of his other comic, Pibgorn.
 * Fetish Retardant: A critic, wondering why the faces bothered him, suddenly realized that all the women looked like Gadget Hackwrench minus the mouse ears. There's also the toothy grins sported by the women when they're in the mood.
 * Nightmare Fuel: To some readers, Brooke's art style is such that whenever a character opens their mouth wide it results in this -- "this" being pitch-black holes with rows of teeth -- teeth which outright refuse to acknowledge anything even remotely resembling the actual anatomy of the human mouth.
 * Squick: Even among people as close as Juliette and Edda, is it normal for mothers and daughters to ask if they're wearing the sexy-print bras they bought each other? Also, Gran telling her sexual past to her daughter, with her granddaughter and her entire ballet class listening in. And now Juliette and Edda swapping masturbation aides]] I mean fantasies about Seth in various historical settings while he's standing right there (he should have never brought up his "Have I Mentioned I Am Heterosexual Today?, 'cause I'm totally dating all these hot chicks" phase to Edda).
 * Brooke is his own hand-jive model and Edda is based on his daughter, who is a ballerina and allegedly as wordy as her dad.
 * Strangled by the Red String: Actually subverted with Edna and Bill. The outward trope signs are there (Bill and Edna end up together despite her spending most of her time and affection with Peter Kiesl), but it's clear that this supposed to be a massive mistake on all their parts: Edna choosing Bill because of a promise, Kiesl letting her do so without even a token fight, and Bill not making himself known to her for a decade, then accepting her (and her unborn child), rather than sending her off to be with the man she truly loved.
 * Unfortunate Implications: Regardless of 's sexuality, it seems that what everyone believes is your real self is the truth and you must confirm what everyone thinks or you'll never be truly happy (if you think you're happy it's just denial).
 * Edda's fantasies about Seth: It's not "sexual harassment" if it's complimentary! Are you saying you're not attractive and sexy?
 * If you can't talk/write as if you were born in a thesaurus -- I mean conceived within the vaunted pages of an elegant compendium of synonymous writings, you clearly have nothing to talk about.
 * Seth, who is gay, can develop an adoration for people's talents regardless of their age or gender. Unfortunately they decided to describe this as falling in love, so Seth has "fallen" for an elderly female oboe player and his former gay-basher Fernanda.
 * Seth joins Edda on her modeling adventure because Edda's pictures are for the men so now the ladies need something too. Yeah, Seth, because there are no ladies who'd look at Edda and no men who'd look at him.
 * Seth practically forcing Edda to marry Amos and have his (Amos') child (no abortions!) because it's impossible to be openly gay, get married, and raise a family in New York City in 2012 (though gay marriage might not be legal yet due to comic-book-time and it'd be pretty hard to raise a family while being a(n apparently) single, professional ballet dancer).
 * A Straw Feminist saying that all unplanned pregnancies must be aborted, as if to imply this is the only option and this is what pro-choice people actually believe. May or may not be a Take-That to fans/critics who wondered if there would be an abortion arc, possibly a response to Doonesburys pro-choice/anti-shaming painful intrusive sonogram abortion arc. Also troubling is this woman's resemblance to Pibgorns Grim Reaper Mildred (short, dark hair; glasses; conservative clothes; contempt for others, and of course a penchant for big words).
 * Despite being a grown woman with loving, affluent relatives and a loving (possibly) affluent boyfriend Edda is so stupid and cowardly about possibly being pregnant that a gay man has to practically threaten her to take a test she could've gotten from any pharmacy the minute she woke up feeling sick rather then traveling all over the place and making her loved ones worry.
 * Values Dissonance: Juliette's (and Edda's) reaction to finding out she's the love child of a Nazi soldier(Yes, Kiesl considered himself a Austrian officer who's superiors just happened to be Nazis, but how many readers would really make that distinction, much less characters in-universe during the 40s-50s?) boils down to "Really? Cool!"
 * The above straw-feminist "preaching pro-choice when she's actually no-choice" (to paraphrase the author).
 * Viewer Gender Confusion / Gender Blender Name: A lot of casual readers seem to be unaware that Brooke is a man. One critic thought that this was the only reason he hasn't been completely removed from syndication since readers would protest the canceling of a strong, creative, and sexually-independent female author.
 * The above straw-feminist "preaching pro-choice when she's actually no-choice" (to paraphrase the author).
 * Viewer Gender Confusion / Gender Blender Name: A lot of casual readers seem to be unaware that Brooke is a man. One critic thought that this was the only reason he hasn't been completely removed from syndication since readers would protest the canceling of a strong, creative, and sexually-independent female author.
 * Viewer Gender Confusion / Gender Blender Name: A lot of casual readers seem to be unaware that Brooke is a man. One critic thought that this was the only reason he hasn't been completely removed from syndication since readers would protest the canceling of a strong, creative, and sexually-independent female author.