Hi everyone! I’ve been following SSSS on and off since 2015-ish. Never commented on the comics themselves, and frequently lurked on the forum but never made an account. Reading through this thread has finally given me the push to articulate my thoughts on LP, which had been percolating in the back of my mind since the comic first dropped.
Like many, LP left me with a deep sense of betrayal and loss. I’ve never met Minna, but I still found myself grieving* for her, or really, I grieved the loss of the person I thought she was. And I grieved for her future, which will likely take place in a bigoted echo chamber. Her beautiful art will probably be confined to a very narrow audience.
Minna hurt a lot of people with LP, but to me, it seems like the person she hurt most is herself. She’s driven off a good chunk of her audience, and will she really be able to live off Christian comics with no add revenue? She may have hampered her ability to make friends and connect with people irl, too – people are going to find LP when they google her name. Hell, even LP itself is so badly executed that it damages/defeats its own purpose. Minna’s said that her talents are a gift from God and that she intends to use them to share her religion, but you don’t win converts by punching people in the throat.
Since March of 2021, I’ve probably read LP a dozen times, just studying the details and emotionally processing everything. During those re-readings, I found a new kind of grief, grief for what might have been. Because (unpopular opinion here) LP could’ve been a fantastic comic. Make some changes to the writing and plot, add infinitely more sensitivity and tact, and Minna might’ve created something that christian and non-christians could genuinely enjoy. It might even provided a nudge to someone sitting on the fence and considering chrisitanity.
So, because I have no life and my time has no value, I wrote out all the changes I would’ve made if I were LP’s author and/or editor. The resulting story might not be great, but I’m certain it’s better than the existing one. They say you can’t polish a turd, but that’s because turds aren’t meant for polishing. If life hands you a turd, you might as well use it as fertilizer and grow some flowers, y’know?
Details under spoilers because this is gonna be loooooog.
*Probably too strong of a word, but I can’t think of a better one.
Proposed edits
Give Marigold’s husband some personality
This seems small, but it bothered me an inordinate amount. I genuinely have no idea what Minna was going for when she wrote Marigold’s husband. He seems completely checked out and emotionally detached. It’s also strange that he seems to know NOTHING about christianity prior to reading the bible on the train. Most deeply religious people (that I’ve met) prefer a spouse who shares their faith, or at least understands the basics or it. And I know many people (my parents included) that make religion an important part of their relationship.
Give Marigold a church
Seriously, I found it so strange that the main christian character in a christian comic doesn’t seem to be affiliated with any kind of church. And it’s not implied that the WC closed all the churches, either. They had one WC-approved christian appear on a talk show and allowed her to talk about how she approved of the Bible 2.0 update, so there’s probably some state-allowed churches around somewhere, but they’re never mentioned or alluded to.
A church could do so much for plot and character development. Marigold and her husband could be active in the community, and Cinnamon could be one of their church friends. I’d also like to see Lavender (Peppermint’s daughter) as a member, going to services with her “aunt.” Lavender could be a convert, one of those people who are raised in secular families but join religion for their own spiritual satisfaction. Minna converted as an adult, so she should be able to write that kind of character well.
A church could show WHY religion is so important to these bunnies. We could see them going to services, with doughnuts in the basement afterwards, spending time as a community. Maybe someone talks about how their faith helped them through hard times. Maybe the congregation volunteers for a food pantry or clothing drive. This could provide a way to Lavender to meet the homeless bunny and get to know her backstory.
Have the WC push "acceptable christianity" that relies on prosperity gospel
Many other commenters have pointed out (correctly) that Christians are not being systematically persecuted in any modern western countries. With that being said, the WC isn’t shown to want to get rid of all Chrisitans – it just wants all christains to follow a doctrine they approve of. The WC could’ve deleted the bibles from everyone’s tablets, but they didn’t. They updated it instead.
The idea of losing points for reading the original un-updated bible isn’t particularly realistic or relatable, but many totalitarian regimes have manipulated doctrine for political purposes. And there is one aspect of christianty* that I think the WC love to push on its citizens: prosperity gospel. Prosperity gospel is the belief that if you’re a good christian, god will bless you with wealth and material comfort. Prosperity gospel is intimately tied up with the just world fallacy (ie, the belief that bad things mostly/only happen to bad people who did something to deserve it.)
The WC explicits endorses the just world fallacy. Peppermint (speaking as a teacher and therefore an instrument of the state) says that bunnies have to be deliberately bad to wreck their scores. She later tells Lavender that the homeless bunny could have all her rights back if she would just behave. This narrative leaves no room for systematic inequalities, bad luck, or accidents and I think it’s pretty safe to say that the just world fallacy is a large part of the WC’s manner of operation.
*Not all christian groups accept the prosperity gospel, but it’s common enough to be lumped in as broadly christian.
The church runs afoul of the WC’s “just world”
I think that Marigold’s faith and church could believably run afoul of the WC. Not because of Christianity in and of itself, but because Christianity could lead the bunnies to doubt/question the WC. If the church is helping the poor, they’d probably get to know some bunnies that have been un-person’d and learn their backstories. Those backstories probably involve persecution and discimination, and that the un-people did not bring their fate upon themselves. If that’s true, then the world is not just, and that’s directly contradictory to the official WC party line and therefore must be suppressed.
There are lots of different ways the WC could crack down on the church. Maybe the pastor suddenly disappears and is related with a state-endorsed newcomer. Suddenly, the sermons aren’t about forgiveness and loving your neighbor, they’re about how wealth means you’re specially chosen by god, unlike the sinful poor. Or maybe the WC tries to shut down the church’s charitable work, saying that giving things to the “undeserving” is wrong and probably bad for the economy. There’s lots of possibilities.
After the WC gets involved with the church, I can imagine Cinnamon and her family becoming dissatisfied and planning to run away. Marigold is probably too anxious to join, but Cinnamon could give her the map.
Peppermint’s character arc and escape from propaganda
In the beginning of the comic, Peppermint is shown to be deep in the just world kool-aid. Her sincere belief in the just world is probably an important part of her morals and almost certainly essential for her job security. Granted, she does ditch her faith in the WC after Lavender tanks her score, but it happens too quickly to be believable.
Instead, Peppermint could change her views in a much longer (and more conflicted) timeframe. Peppermint is a good citizen, but Lavender’s been going to Marigold’s church and seeing and experiencing things that suggest the world is not so just. Maybe Lavender talks about the un-people she’s met. Maybe Peppermint doesn’t believe that such things really happen, maybe she wants Lavender to stop helping the un-people for the sake of Lavender’s newly minted account. Either way, there’s lots of room for mother-daughter tension and character development.
While this is going on, Peppermint could learn that Sunspot’s family has a low score. She meets the parents, expecting them to be bad people, but is surprised at how “good” and “relatable” they seem. Ideally, Sunspot’s parents would be considered social undesirables for a reason not related to christianity, because it doesn’t make sense for christians to be the only group that’s targeted by the WC.
Marigold and Lavender tank their scores
As LP stands, neither score tanking makes a lot of sense. Marigold’s husband apparently starts reading the bible and wrecks his score without any consideration of the consequences in his day-to-day life. (Nor does he tell Marigold that he’s going to do something so score-wrecking, which strikes me as a serious communication issue) Lavender never provides much motivation for why she hates the world council, nor does she ever consider undermining them in any way other than bashing them online. It’s illogical and incredibly alienating for the reader. If a character loses their life savings to a ponzi scheme because they didn’t know better, the reader might feel sorry for them. If a character takes their life’s savings to the middle of a field, soaks it in gasoline, and sets it on fire, the reader’s just going to think they’re a moron.
Obviously, there are endless plot-related possibilities for how Marigold and Lavender could tank their scores, but my personal preference would be this: Marigold and Lavender are texting each other about the crackdown at church and it turns into criticizing the WC. This makes sense because it’s implied that (or the bunnies think that) scores are only affected by things that are posted publicly, not private conversations. (For example, in the first scene, Peony admits to “pretending to believe” what she writes in order to get more points. She says this in a crowded restaurant, without any apparent fear of being overheard.) Anyway, despite the belief that the conversation is private, the WC is monitoring the phones of these possibly-subversive charity-working churchgoes and uses that as an excuse to make them unpeople.
Peony and the role of the socially privileged
I’ve seen a couple people with the opinion that Peony is a superfluous character who could be cut from LP with any major impact on the plot. And while I certainly see where they’re coming from, I actually really like Peony. Her character illustrates an important point; in a totalitarian regime, some people will be privileged, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that the privileged people are evil.
Privilege is usually (and rightfully) thought of in terms of demographics – a person’s race, sex, sexual ortientation, etc. But an individual’s natural personality can also provide them with a degree of (dis)privilege. Someone who is naturally excitable and prefers to wear their heart on their sleeve might struggle in a culture that values endurance and stoicism, y’know?
Peony is an excellent example of personality-based privilege. She manages to be exactly what the WC wants, without even trying. She’s extroverted and charismatic, with a flair for showmanship. She’s ambitious – building a brand as an influencer can be akin to starting a small business. When she sets the goal of reaching gold-verified status, she pursues it wholeheartedly. Her interest in makeup art aligns with WC’s ideas about gender.
At the same time , Peony’s privilege never quite pushes her into selfishness. She’s eager to invite her friends to the super-VIP section and takes pride in the fact that her score will improve theirs. When she unfriends Marigold and Peppermint (an arguably logical move in terms of self-preservation) she does so with more sadness than self-righteousness.
Furthermore, privilege means that Peony has the least to gain and the most to lose. She’s the only main character whose hand the WC never really forces (at least until she rants about them online.) She hasn’t seen her religion disrupted or her daughter punished; she would’ve been perfectly free to move on from Peppermint and Marigold and continue with all the benefits of gold-verified super-VIP. But that’s not what she does. She walks away from everything (and no doubt taking a serious hit in terms of material prosperity) because she knows it’s the right thing to do. That’s the main moral of Peony’s arc. People should stand up against oppression and injustice, even if that oppression and injustice benefit them personally.
Plot Climax and Bible Scenes
If asked to point out LP’s plot climax, I’m not sure what I’d say, because there are several contenders. One of them is the moment when Marigold and her husband talk about Matthew 26 (Peter denying that he knows Jesus.) Now, I personally think that a bible cutscene is distracting and unnecessary, even in a christian comic, but if there really needed to be a bible story, here’s how I would do it:
After Peony wrecks her score, she runs to meet the others and begs for their forgiveness. Marigold says that she forgives Peony, and that she’s just glad that Peony made the right choice. Then cut to a scene of the bunnies walking away from society, and as they do, Marigold remembers Matthew 9:10-13 and takes comfort in it.
As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector's booth. "Follow me," he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him. While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?" On hearing this, Jesus said, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.
In other words, Matthew, who was privileged and benefited from Roman corruption, realized couldn't continue living the way he was. Jesus forgave him and welcomed him as a disciple. This story would tie right into the rejection of materialism and the prosperity gospel. IT encourages the reader to notice what’s going on around them, reflect on their own sins (whatever they may be) and focus on doing better in the future. I think that would be a fitting way to conclude the comic.
..
So there you have it, my proposed “edits” to the comic that hardly anybody read and even fewer people liked. As I said previously, LP could’ve been a decent story, even a good one, and I’m mostly sad that it fails the way it does.
