Hey, I was once a 13 year old boy, too! I’ve been there, my friends and I did many of the things Nate and his pals do in this strip- the jokes at each other’s expense etc. As I mentioned, though, the strip has become off balanced; if ALL you see is these “jokes”, it makes you wonder if there’s a real friendship there at all/if these really are just jokes. Back in the day, Francis was a GREAT friend, as he is in the books! Sure, he still joked like this- but it didn’t overshadow his clear supportive, kind friendship with Nate at its root. Now…eh, not so much imo
And that’s ALL we get from Francis now: these mean spirited “jokes”. If we got more of a balance of him being a decent friend now and then, sprinkled in with these “jokes”, it’d be different imo
When I compare the version of Francis in the books and the strip…wow, it’s unreal the difference
How…how did this start as one of the best arcs to just end like…this?