>>150053861
>Lucy returning and being just as mean as she ever was, Sandy ghostingdespite her texts and calls taking up more panels than they ever did prior/cheating, Mike and Paulo being at each other's throats
The really frustrating thing is that most or even all of these examples could have worked well if done with some competence. It is easy to imagine Lucy, for example, trying to put up a strong front to protect herself from Mike, who had shown he could tear her emotional guts out. Being Lucy, her strategy is to act like a frigid cunt. Fine, that's regression but reasonably in-character. But it was treated as a good thing and hence the execution was bad. Likewise, Mike and Sandy could have drifted apart as time went on just because they live in two different worlds. I might even be okay with her cheating on Mike so long as Sandy was still treated like her old self. It's more tragic when a sympathetic character royally fucks up and regrets it but cannot undo the damage and accidentally makes it worse by trying. As for Paulo and Mike being at each other's throats, I can see Paulo reverting to Lucy simp mode just because of that damn reset button. But that also presents a good opportunity for permanent character growth once she knifes him in the gut. Sperg Mike is not something I have ever been happy about because cold cutting Mike would have been more in-character, but it's also easy to imagine him getting more and more cynical when--as he predicted--all of his friends end up siding with Lucy while they butt heads.