Sir, Butler and Boy ~ Sins of the Father ~ Page 9
The angsty hands are back! I’ve had a couple of re-writes of this story to make it work, mainly to do with how John reacts to James being fierce. It’s hard writing arguments between characters as on the one hand you want them to say awful things to each other, but on the other hand you still want people to want them to be together at the end of it…
” It’s hard writing arguments between characters as on the one hand you want them to say awful things to each other, but on the other hand you still want people to want them to be together at the end of it…”
Amen. It’s the hardest part of any Romance. You *know* they need to have the fight and it has to be believable, but you don’t want them to be too mean or how do they get together at the end? It’s a struggle.
Hoo boy. I’m sorry James, after not showing any curiosity or concern about one of your lovers disappearing for his day off once a week until this late into the relationship, you have very much lost the moral high ground.
He’s still very much a boy and self-awareness and awareness of others comes with maturity. If you want a relationship with somebody that you know is at a certain maturity level, then you need to give them opportunities to grow and make allowances for them as they learn. Right now I feel that John is being patient. Perhaps condescendingly patient, but we’ll see how the argument develops.
Btw, maturity has nothing to do with age. But this isn’t a life experience that James has had before, and maturity has a lot to do with experience and empathizing with others’ experiences. As long as John doesn’t shut him out as an ignorant child, they’ll probably be ok.
On top of what Surka said, James is also John’s employer. There’s a “nunya business” barrier there usually to give the employee some space.
Ohhhh yeah. When he said “You can go back to her tonight,” I tended up. Combining a relationship and real-life power dynamics is never a good idea.
There’s multiple things that make my heart hurt in this short. That look in the third panel from John to James is so interesting: it indicates that John is close to placing the blame on James for not asking about his private life. Yet in previous comics John has made it clear that James is his employer and doesn’t have any rights to his private life. This shows an evolution in their relationship that needs clearer communication. If John wishes for James to engage in a fuller relationship with him, where they talk about themselves and their lives more deeply, then why has he never engaged in that himself, either? James is immature but it takes two people to move a relationship forward. I think it is perhaps more convenient for John to never engage in those conversations with James.
It all seems a little unfair to me that James is being perceived as somehow being in the wrong for being hurt by this. He’s not reacting maturely but I’m not sure many people can claim to be calm and composed in this type of situation.
James needs to try and understand where John is coming from but John has to try and do the same. Ultimately, I think they need to have a little chat about what they want from this relationship.
The layout of this page is gorgeous. Everything is so symmetrical between John and James with first the hands and then the large panel and then ending with the headshots side by side. The fifth panel with James is also just beautiful. That profile! Damn boy!