Penny and Aggie: Difference between revisions

 

 

 

The comic mainly focuses on the titular teenagers: Penny, a cross between [[Lovable Alpha Bitch]] and the [[Naive Everygirl]], and Aggie, a [[Soapbox Sadie|wanna-be activist]] who torments Penny for no particular reason [[Cool People Rebel Against Authority|aside from Penny being the most popular girl in school.]] Penny leads a life of affluence, stability, and popularity, while Aggie's still recovering from the death of her mother and the concept of her widowed father possibly dating again. The comic grew to an extremely large cast, mostly consisting of Penny's clique, Penny's enemies, and later even Aggie's own clique of weirdos and oddballs. The comic's plot tends to revolve around how all these people mesh and conflict with each other in the savage jungle of high school. Plus a large amount of [[Ship Tease]] over whether the titular characters are also into each other.

 

 

A spin-off/sequel starring Sara and Lisa, ''[[QUILTBAG]]'', began running on the ''Penny and Aggie'' website in October 2011 a few weeks after the conclusion of its predecessor, then moved to its own [http://quiltbag.keenspot.com subdomain] on [[Keenspot]] in January 2012.

 

{{tropelist}}

 

** A number of characters that didn't show up in the series finale had their epilogs dealt with during "Ask T" posts on the forums. Though with a sequel running, there's always a chance that some of these characters could potentially get a proper shout-out in ''Quiltbag''.

* [[Alpha Bitch]]: Penny is seen this way by Aggie early on and the Omega Sisters. Meg apparently ''was'' one of these before Penny took her out.

* [[Animesque]]: Lagacé's art style was a blend between [[Archie Comics]] and anime with it being closer on the anime spectrum. Waltrip's art still keeps a mild animeish theme, but stays closer to the western cartoon style.

* [[Art Evolution]]: Lagacé's style started out cartoonish before morphing into a more realistic style during her tenure on the strip. When Waltrip took her place as artist, his style, though similar to Lagacé's by design, gave many of the female characters larger lips and bigger busts.

* [[The Beard]]: Fred and Daphne are both gay, and they spend enough time together that they could easily be mistaken for boyfriend-girlfriend. Fred later jokes about doing the same for {{spoiler|Penny}} during Meg's graduation ceremony.

* [[Beautiful All Along]]: Heavily subverted with Karen.

* [[Betty and Veronica]]: In early strips, Penny, Aggie, and Duane were obvious pastiches of Veronica, Betty, and Archie.

* [[Blonde, Brunette, Redhead]]: The Pennies, the Aggies/[[Fan Nickname|Scoobies]], and the Omegas ''all'' have this.

* [[Continuity Lock Out]]: The comic attempted to address this by having the homepage display a summary of the plot and character descriptions for the key players; this only appeared for a few weeks. It's still more appropriately read with an [[Archive Binge]]. The current archive page encourages the latter, while also pointing out some key arcs to give new fans some background if they're too impatient.

* [[Contrived Coincidence]]: Penny knows the ''exact place and time'' to drive by and find Aggie crying in a heap and having suicidal thoughts because of an argument she started with Marshall over Karen. Penny even knows the exact contents of a telephone conversation Aggie ''just had'' with Karen, in which Aggie said nothing. A few pages later, Penny explained that Sara told her where to find Aggie, but that doesn't explain the precision - or why nobody ever noticed Penny driving around the block and stalking Aggie by car. The car does not appear until the moment of the phone conversation.

* [[Dan Browned]]: Fans with experience with Islam and Scientology have pointed out some ''major'' errors in T's depiction of them. T's response was that he only showed two individuals; he felt he'd portrayed the Scientologist as clearly insane, while the Muslim student is still closeted and only a recent convert trying to learn the religion on his own time.

* [[Defrosting Ice Queen]]: Penny, while she certainly likes male attention, has trouble early on with actual intimacy.By the end of the comic, {{spoiler|she turns a shouting match with Aggie into violently passionate rage sex that demolishes a room and most of the girls' clothes. It's safe to say she's well past this trope now.}}

* [[Deus Angst Machina]]: The Popsicle Wars lasted for over a year and piled on drama after drama after drama, sometimes, some readers felt, completely out of the blue and often with no proper resolution.

* [[Distant Finale]]: The final twelve strips take place six years after the last chapter of "The Last Summer of Youth" and explain what happened to the cast after high school.

* [[Dork Horse Candidate]]: Aggie and Duane both have to do this, though Duane is closer to the typical archetype. Duane goes through this ''again'' when he runs for re-election.

* [[Dreaming of Things to Come]]: Aggie's dream about being in love with a female mannequin.

* [[For the Evulz]]: Everything Cyndi does. {{spoiler|Her parents eventually realize she's a genuine sociopath and have her committed to a mental institution.}}

* [[Four Lines, All Waiting]]: The cast of regulars was downright monstrous by the time of The Popsicle Wars and veered from plot to plot at breakneck speed. Though they were dramatically pared down after the conclusion of the arc, it slowly crept back up in the years afterward.

** And more recently, {{spoiler|Stan and Lisa.}}

* [[Funbag Airbag]]: Aggie ran into Karen's breasts during "Dinner for Six"... and was worried because it turned her on a little bit. According to [[Word of God]], the fans were meant to take this as the clincher as to whether she liked girls - see ~Show, Don't Tell~

* [[In Vino Veritas]]: Jack goes from quiet to belligerent when he's drunk. Helen becomes ''extremely'' talkative and sexually active after getting drunk at Karen's parties. Katy Ann starts blurting out her repressed sexual urges the first time she gets drunk, finally begging for Jack (who isn't actually there) to ravish her as she starts to strip down.

* [[It Doesn't Mean Anything]]: Stan, out of habit, gives Penny a goodbye kiss when he winds up in her bedroom over night.

** T later explained on the forums that while Tharqa didn't receive any direct punishment for the events in high school, her general attitude from those events shaped her into a rather miserable and unloved individual as an adult. {{spoiler|This is hinted at in the epilog as ''nobody'' wanted to talk to her at the reunion while she desperately sought attention.}}

* [[Kick the Dog]]: While not depicted in the strip, in response to a question about whether or not {{spoiler|Cyndi}} tortured animals as a child, T. jokingly mentioned the history of her ant farm was troubling.

* [[Last-Minute Hookup]]: Plenty in the epilog, which takes place six years after the final high school strip and thus provides ''plenty'' of time for the characters to mix and mingle with each other and otherwise.

** {{spoiler|Michelle and Marshall are apparently at least involved with each other six years later. They never even ''spoke'' during the entire series.}}

** {{spoiler|Yun-Sung and Duane, who never even met on panel and lived in completely different parts of the world during the main series. Plus Yun-Sung hadn't been seen since her [[Aborted Arc]].}}

** {{spoiler|Daphne and Fred both got completely new characters as their respective significant others.}}

* [[Lipstick Lesbian]]: Daphne.

* [[Lipstick Mark]]: Nick, in an [[Imagine Spot]], imagines himself with a lipstick mark on his collar and trying to explain it to his daughter as he deals with his struggle over dating again.

* [[My Eyes Are Up Here]]: Rare male example with Karen and Marshall.

* [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero]]: When Stan confronts Cyndi about her attempt to deceive his best friend Jack, and other classmates, into thinking she wanted to sleep with them, he taunts her for not thinking big enough, so as to imply she's lost her touch and shake her confidence. Instead, she says "You're right. You're so right," and [[Evil Laugh|giggles ominously]]. Stan himself admits in the next strip that he made things worse.

* [[No More for Me]]: Nick's reaction to his coffee cup upon witnessing Penny and Aggie entering the house together. As friends.

* [[Odd-Shaped Panel]]: Brandi apparently hit Xena so hard that even the panel buckled from the force of the blow.

* [[Popular Is Dumb]]: Subverted with Penny, who is an extremely intelligent student with the same PPSAT score as Aggie.

* [[Precision F-Strike]]: The characters use strong language fairly frequently, but it's been seen uncensored only twice, both "fuck you," first from Helen to Penny, {{spoiler|while she's on the bus to Boston}}, then {{spoiler|Daphne to Sara after they break up}}.

** While that was the extent of it in ''[[Penny and Aggie]]'', the first strips of ''QUILTBAG'' reveal that the video is still haunting her enough that she's legally changed her surname to distance herself from it.

* [[Rape Is Love]]: Karen goes into a [[Shower of Love|locker room shower]] to have sex with Marshall, who has to push her out physically. She then begins to give him a hand job without his consent, and although he doesn't resist, he makes his discomfort clear; even so, he stays with her afterwards, and initiates sex a few months later. Both people are still implied to be incredibly messed up but depending on one's interpretation there may be an implication that Karen should be excused for it because she's insecure and Marshall's resistance is "only" because his mother was a poor role model and a neglectful parent.

* [[Reading the Stage Directions Out Loud]]: Penny does this while rehearsing Macbeth.

* [[Rebus Bubble]]: Either "Aggie likes girls" or "Aggie performs open-heart surgery on Venus."

* [[Revealing Hug]]: A strip with {{spoiler|Aggie hugging Lisa}} leads to that character suddenly realizing {{spoiler|she might like girls.}}

* [[Romantic False Lead]]: {{spoiler|Rich}} to Penny (as well as a few of her other early relationships). The best example is a bit complicated, but starts with him wanting her to run away with him. Twenty of Penny's possible future selves show up (ten who went with him, ten who didn't), and vote 13-6 (one opted out) ''not'' to go with him. Penny goes anyway. All but one of the possible future Pennies fade away, except for the one narrating the story to a future version of {{spoiler|Aggie, who is giving her a foot massage}}.

* [[Scenery Censor]]: Various pieces of clothing, stealthy panel frames, word balloons, and even the characters own carefully positioned (but not deliberately positioned) hands conceal {{spoiler|Penny and Aggie's bare crotches after their most powerful rage sex ever leaves them completely nude below the waist.}}

* [[School Play]]: ''[[Macbeth]]'', a clear metaphor for the course of "The Popsicle War."

** Charlotte's mother {{spoiler|when she finds out about her daughter's imprisonment.}}

* [[Slap Slap Kiss]]: {{spoiler|The title characters}}, [http://www.pennyandaggie.com/index.php?p=1224 here].

* [[Slipping a Mickey]]: Cyndi tries this twice on Stan, getting success the first time.

* [[Snow Means Death]]: The only time we see snow in the comic? During Aggie's [[Near-Death Experience]].

[[Category:Webcomics Long Runners]]

[[Category:Slice of Life Webcomics]]