Editing 449: Things Fall Apart

{{comic
| number    = 449
| date      = July 14, 2008
| title     = Things Fall Apart
| image     = things_fall_apart.png
| titletext = 'I'm nothing without you' is a fucked-up sentiment.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Megan]] and [[Cueball]] are about to break up. Megan is trying to explain things, but Cueball is constantly saying "I love you," asserting that the fact that he loves her should be enough to keep her from breaking up with him. But while loving the other person is a necessary condition for sustainability, it is not a ''sufficient'' reason all on its own.

The title text says that 'I'm nothing without you' is a fucked-up sentiment. This could read to imply that that's what Cueball really means, and he isn't saying it that way because 'I love you' is a more acceptable way of expressing it. Saying it over and over again, like he is doing, has almost the same effect, though. Conventionally, it could be said that the mindset of someone believing that they are nothing without their partner&mdash;in other words, defining their identity in terms of the other person&mdash;is a dangerous and unhealthy sentiment. A person should have enough self-identity and sense of self-worth to know that they have value even outside the context of a relationship.

The title of the comic, "Things Fall Apart," could be a reference to the poem {{w|The Second Coming (poem)|''The Second Coming''}} by W.B. Yeats, which contains the line "Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold," implying that things between Megan and Cueball are falling apart, and the fact that Cueball is still in love with Megan (arguably, the "center" of the relationship) isn't enough to sustain them. It could also be a reference to the novel ''{{w|Things Fall Apart}}'' by Nigerian author Chinua Achebe.

==Transcript==
:[Megan and Cueball are holding hands. The speech is in bubbles with arrows pointing towards the two. Not as usual with text just written above a line from the speaker.]
:Megan: I wonder about us.
:Cueball: I love you.

:[Megan lets go of Cueball's hand. But he keeps his hand in the same position as before. Cueball's speech bubble covers the bottom of Megan's, indicating that he speaks partly over her sentence.]
:Megan: We don't have fun together.
:Cueball: I love you.

:[As Megan keeps her hands down, Cueball lifts his arm even more towards her. His speech bubble is covering the top part of his head, as well as the bottom of Megan's bubble.]
:Megan: It's like we're clinging to the "relationship" framework like it's all we got.
:Cueball: I love you.

:[Megan leans back from Cueball as he leans towards her, arms outstretched toward her. Cueball's speech bubble covers the lower right section of Megan's bubble, breaking her sentence off in the middle of her last word, clearly showing that he speaks in over her speech.]
:Megan: Who are you trying to reassur—
:Cueball: I love you I love you I love you I love you

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Romance]]