With so many of the TDC-eligible girls committed to the 2015 TitFight Tourney, big burly Paul finds himself facing the remaining eligible, diminutive Mackenzie for the BWL Title. Mack feels his offer of an oil ring sexfight is condescending and insulting, so to prove that she’s truly worthy of the Belt, she insists that they meet in the unforgiving Pit, with its mandatory KO outcome. Megan and Eduardo are on hand to provide the commentary.
.. Yesssss! … I agree with Foreshadow… spot on boys … and guess what … mine won’t be the longest comment for once !!!!!! … there’s a HUGE amount of storytelling packed into this one … and even more than Foreshadow mentioned !!…Mack doesn’t win… (..that would have been pushing it too far… thank you boys … !!) …but just look at what Mack does … she gets him in the balls … she kicks his head into the wall… she’s HURTING him !! …and she’s taking his punches… even Paul realises what that will look like… he can’t protect his balls … he can’t dodge her kicks … his punches are not as devastating as they should be… and he doesn’t have anything else… ok….OK! …yes he won but if the other girls have seen what Mack did to him …. wow.!! …will they rate their chances …. even if we forget Megan and Mimi …how is he going to handle Jenn… Caribe… Sophie … Regine … France… or that witch Cindy ????? … so much story arc set up for future … please don’t cut it short boys … let’s see him struggling to win a few before a really skilful girl takes him down…
I have to admit I like the mixed match (and the other ones, too of course) and glad the gals give the guys a run for the money. As Mack is one of the fittest, was hoping she’d win as she has to have some power. Next time love to see her show off by giving the guys a ‘lift’! And agree with ForeShadow, excellent story telling with background/romance, etc.
While not a fan of the mixed matches, this was a good one in terms of storytelling and both plot and character advancement.
It was a novel idea to have Megan and Ed, the current romantic interests of both players, commenting, particularly since Megan has such a complicated relationship with young MacKenzie. Megan and MacKenzie are both mentor and student to each other, but also rivals, which puts Megan in an interesting place as an observer of this match because she’s both proud of her pupil, but also rooting against her and giving Paul insight into how to beat her, but also jealous and weary of MacKenzie’s making untoward advances towards Paul.
Meanwhile, this is also an interesting place for Paul to be in because of the pressure Megan being an observer puts on him. He’s aware of her jealousy, and aware that her last relationship with Korey failed because of his disloyalty. Paul is one of the more honorable and respectable of the male BWL characters, and he seems to be making a real effort to not betray that trust…but the BWL has conditioned him to expect a certain level of freedom. Even when he was attached to Regine, she allowed him to have his trysts. The BWL is a world of sexual freedom…which is why it’s compelling to have a character like Megan who goes against that world. Story comes from conflict…from putting up roadblocks between characters and their desires, so we can see them struggle to get around them. Megan’s relationship with Paul is full of such conflict, because Megan herself is conflicted. She’s in lust with Paul, but raised Irish-Catholic, so her adherence to traditional gender, sexual, and monogamous roles are very rigid, even as she finds those beliefs slowly breaking down as they are challenged. It’ll be interesting to see how this affects her and Paul’s relationship…will Megan becomes competitive to defend her relationship, or controlling, which will drive a wedge between her and Paul, who is used to a certain level of freedom, even while in a relationship?
Meanwhile on the MacKenzie/Eduardo side, we see another thing that the BWL/BSF does well; economy of storytelling. Unlike other comics/stories/narratives, the BWL is a series of bottle episodes; stories that take place in a single location and show a single event. We do not follow the characters home (well, the BSF has more freedom than the BWL in this regard) so we generally don’t get to see what their lives are like and how that affects their characters unless they tell us directly in the preambles or their internal monologues. This match is a great example of how Sherlock and Entropy are able to communicate a lot of information very simply, and advance story arcs and plot without having to show us. By having Megan and Eduardo commentating, they’ve filled us in about the current status of both relationships, and by putting Megan and Eduardo together, they also demonstrate WHY MacKenzie and Ed’s relationship is falling apart…and I also find the pairing of Megan and Ed compelling because they’re a great Two-Headed chorus; Megan is monogomous and loyal while in a relationship, while Ed is about having an open relationship because of his roving eye. They are opposites, so putting them in the same room creates an interesting dynamic of Ed hitting on Megan, and Megan shooting him down. So not only are we told that Mack and Ed are either breaking or broken up, but we’re shown WHY they are. It’s some nice economy of storytelling. We can see where everyones motivations lie, and get a good amount of backstory and character development.
Overall, this was a solid piece of storytelling, and was an enjoyable read! Thanks for the great work!
I would argue that the reason of Megan failed relationship to Korey was due to her disloyalty to HIM. Her wanting wins was why she screwed around on Korey with Theo, she wasn’t able to keep her trap shut though (Mack & Kim), & ironically Theo got the boot but she got zero repercussions.
The new ref so far isn’t Theo & is trying to keep all matches on the straight & narrow. How long will that last though, Theo was honest once upon a time too, after all.
I thought the mixed matches would take a hiatus during the tournament, glad to see I was wrong.
In Tania’s announcement she said that they should continue to alternate.