Misfile/Headscratchers


 * How is it that Dr. Upton has not evicted Rumisiel and Vashiel yet? They're pretending to be the same age as Ash and therefore legal minors - not to mention citizens of another country. Ash's father puts up with them like they're his own dumbass sons instead of asking why they haven't gone home after over a year of sleeping on his couch. At some point even the most laid-back parent is going to start poking into the question of where their parents are.
 * Well he thinks Rumi and Ash are an item to the point of fantasizing about their wedding in on strip, so that probably explains Rumisiel's presence. Vashiel's is more complex. Or, they are just male versions of Pretty Freeloaders.
 * Vashiel will pretty much do anything someone asks him to. Re-roofing the roof, normal household chores, and can be trusted to keep Rumi in line... Plus recently helping out with Dr Upton at the office, which is both helpful and pretty damn funny at the same time. Rumi still gets no help. Dr Upton is a pretty laid back guy. Ash gets super drunk and he just tells her that she'll have to pay for the booze she drank.
 * Not a bad attitude really on that one though. Ash had pretty much scared herself silly at the thought of possibly having had unprotected sex with Vashiel while drunk, so any further punishment would pretty much be redundant and petty on the score. Lesson learnt all on its own. Paying for the booze she drunk is just reinforcing the idea of adult responsibility.
 * Actually, Dr Upton knows Vashiel is an adult. He asked Vashiel to call him Edward. And I keep good track of the timeline for Misfile; it's up to December 2004 as of January 2012; Rumisiel has been staying with the Uptons for about 9 months. Less for Vashiel.
 * If they're pretending to be around the same age as Ash, then they wouldn't be seen as legal minors. Ash is in high school, and about to graduate. Most people at that point are 18. And everybody knows Vashiel is older than Rumsiel, so there ya go.
 * Before hiring Vashiel, Dr. Upton actually asks him, "You're over 18, right?", to which Vashiel replies: "Oh yes, quite a bit!"
 * That's probably referring to the angels' immortality/ReallySevenHundredYearsOld, rather than Vashiel's assumed age, knowing that he's incapable of lying. Rusumiel once stated he's somewhere in his 370's.
 * Yes. We know.


 * It's been asked in-comic, but how has Doctor Upton really not been sued? Or at least had all his patients leave for a less creepy/borderline molester OBGYN?
 * He's just that good.
 * Not buying it, just, so not buying it. Especially after this strip.
 * Or this one.
 * Rule of Funny?
 * I always assumed he only acted that way in public, not when actually working, so most patients didn't have a reason to sue. Other than that, maybe he's just hot and only acts perverted around girls he knows won't get angry?
 * Although I always assumed the above troper's point about acting professional while working before, he's canonically viewed as "Freaky-creepy" by at least some of the residents of Tempest, it seems: see this strip.


 * Early in the strip, why does Ash need to adjust the pedals on his car for his "little girly feet" when he's always been a girl, always has raced, and everything else fits him perfectly? (is this The Infamous Pedal Question?)
 * It's a Plot Hole brought on by poor storytelling early on and a lack of Chekhov's Gun regarding Ash's changes. There is some frantic Hand Waving in the forum by the author, but it isn't terribly convincing. I wouldn't bring it up there though.
 * The adjustable parts of that car (seat, mirrors, maybe steering column) that are naturally adjustable were, of course, adjusted to Ash's liking. Pedals aren't so adjustable (unless your car has that feature specifically), so we all adjust our pedal technique to fit the pedals. I adjust my technique when going from sneakers to snow boots. Ash learned how to fit his male feet to the pedals before the misfile, but never learned the technique that post-misfile Ash's feet would need. But since she doesn't want to adjust her technique (which would remind her of her new gender), she instead went through the process to fit the pedals to her pre-misfile style.
 * Which is only explained on the forums or the liner notes and not done in the comic. It's either retconning a Plot Hole or just a poor piece of storytelling to start with.
 * This troper actually figured out the smaller feet thing almost immediately and couldn't understand why everyone else couldn't get it. It is common knowledge women tend to have smaller feet than men.
 * The bottom line: It's driving style. boy!Ash had bigger feet than Girl Ash, so they pushed the pedals in different ways. Girl!Ash learned to drive with the pedals in the original position, but like the heel-walking lessons and, boy!Ash didn't remember the technique.
 * Okay, I can see that.


 * Okay, I can buy Ash not claiming lesbianism because, well, that wouldn't stop the guys. But why not tell James? He'd understand, and he'd probably take it better than "There was nothing really there, by the way I have a boyfriend now."
 * Probably felt too awkward.
 * Or perhaps it would make it way too hard to explain Rumisiel living with her.
 * I read somewhere (on the topic page for the comic, maybe) that a possible reason for not telling anyone about it is that if S/he did, her file would read as "her" coming out as transgendered, which might carry over when Rumisiel corrected the misfile, in which case S/he'd be a woman trapped (non-magically) in a man's body.


 * If Ash is actually in a feminine body, then eventually she should flush out her testosterone hormones through natural biology and replace them with estrogen hormones. While this seems to be happening, somewhat, it is happening WAY slower than it should.
 * Girl!Ash never had higher than normal levels of testosterone (normal human women generate some, but nowhere near as much as men do). She had always been female, and that includes the past tense -- the files correct for paradox. Her mind, however, remembers being a guy. Her personality is changing a bit, since The Mind Is a Plaything of the Body, but it's not because the brain's flushed out testosterone.
 * The comic itself seems to be following this transformation. Early on, it was still very much about the racing as well as the adjustment to the new body, but lately, all of the Cool Cars have been phased out in favor of more Wangst. The only explanation is that since Ash is the main character, the focus of the story gradually shifts to a more female one as s/he becomes more female.
 * That or Cerebus Syndrome.
 * Definitely Cerebus Syndrome. Also the cool cars are still there, it's just not the focus as much as it used to be. Ash is still very much a guy inside at any rate.


 * Why doesn't Rumisiel just tell Vashiel about the error in filing, and have him just go fix it? He isn't in trouble; HE can get in.
 * Rumisiel can't trust Vashiel not to tell anyone else about and he doesn't want to be out of Heaven permanently.
 * Rumisiel also explained that if anyone in Heaven learned of the misfile (as they would if he told Vashiel, since Vashiel can't lie or even be deceptive) that it would be corrected by making things match the way they are now. Thus, Emily would forget those two years of her life completely, and Ash would forget s/he was ever a boy. Neither of them consider this a good thing.
 * It would be a better solution than what's happening now (a whole lot of nothing) and the story could have ended hundreds of strips ago instead of becoming incredibly long in the tooth. Both Emily and Ash are having much better lives due to the various changes made to events through the misfile, but at the same time they're tormented by the knowledge of what was and no longer is. After all, what you don't know can't hurt you...
 * Who is going to follow that logic? Rumi won't do it because it means getting kicked out of heaven for good. Ash won't do it because it borders on suicide; boy-Ash truly ceases to exist at that point. Accepting the new body -- which is still obviously a stretch for Ash -- is pretty far off from accepting getting your memories of your entire life rewritten. Emily might not mind it for herself, but presumably wouldn't want that to happen to Ash.
 * It is mentioned that due to Vashiel's ranking, he is completely incapable of lying (pointed out when he blurts out that he loves Ash).


 * It was explained early on that Ash still remembers having been male because that's what his file said when switched to the Female drawer. Emily, however, is missing two years of her life from her folder. Why does she remember those two years? One would think that she either would have woken up not remembering anything from her junior or senior years of high school, but it makes no sense that she would be two years younger when her folder was supposedly replaced properly, just with missing pages.
 * Well, the pages are still a part of the file, even if they are missing. If the pages got destroyed, Emily would forget.
 * It's because the first page contains a summary of some sort that gives Emily's premisfile age.
 * There's an explanation in the summary of the heavenly filing system. Basically, Emily and Ash's souls are out of synch with the rest of the universe, so they don't get "updated" when things change.


 * This one's more only bugged me on a "Is it a coincidence, an in-joke, a plot thing, or what?" level -- Missi Fuller. It's pretty clear that her name bares a definite resemblance to the title, but is that going to come up or what? Was it even on purpose?
 * While we're on the subject of Meaningful Names, Rumisiel is an alcoholic.


 * So, this one's bugged me for a while: Ash's reason for breaking up with Missi. To me, having him break up with her because he "wasn't the man" in the relationship came across as whiny and ridiculous - there were infinitely better reasons to go about it (sheer discomfort with his body, for example), but no, we get a kowtow to stereotyped gender roles: Ash can't be "the man" unless he desperately wants his girlfriend all the time, when in fact his lack of desire could have just been a sign that they weren't meant to be a couple. What made it even worse is that Emily, the usual voice of reason for when Ash makes a boneheaded comment like that, didn't object to Ash's reasoning...and had plenty of motivation to hold her thoughts even if she did think it was stupid, therefore making the whole thing come across as completely straight instead of the comic's previous attempts to maneuver around stereotypes with stuck-in-his-ways Ash and mildly-reasonable Emily. To me, this is the exact point where the comic started leaping straight over a shark, because it marks the point where Ash's definition of masculinity became unreasonable.
 * If you wanted to be charitable, you could assume that one of those better reasons like discomfort with his body is the real reason, and 'not being the man' is just how Ash interprets his discomfort.
 * It seemed a valid reason to this male troper. It fits Ash's mentality to want to be "the man", though it's a bit hard to explain beyond that.
 * It was kind of stupid, but that's the point. Ash is getting more and more unreasonable with this sort of thing as time goes on. Just recently, for example a classmate tried to help "her" with "her" classwork, and he perceived it as a blow to his masculinity. Though, one can hardly blame him for desperately trying to hold on to his rapidly decreasing manliness. Lots of guys in his situation would probably act the same.
 * Say what you will about Ash's reaction here, but Emily not providing the voice of reason makes perfect sense: She loves Ash and hates Missi (even if she's in a bit of denial about the first one). She's not going to go out of her way to keep them together.
 * Well, aside from incredibly (deleted) condescending statements about teenagers, people don't always act rationally. Ash isn't shown to be particularly mature for any age-set, and the fact that he has problems understanding his feelings is a plot point for god's sake. Seriously, people in the real world do things for ludicrous and illogical reasons all the time; why are we expecting a manga character to be perfectly rational? It's not even in Ash's character to be rational, he's neither particularly smart nor down to earth nor street smart.
 * To me it wasn't really ridiculous, since I've felt that way and I'm a girl. I went on a date with a girl that was younger than me and she was someone that would offer to buy me things and initiate everything. I know that it's really stupid, but I was kinda bugged for being treated like the 'girl' as well. It's possible that Ash just would prefer to initiate things and Missi being so aggressive in the relationship made him feel like he was just being pulled around.


 * What got to me, and was the reason I eventually stopped reading, was all the fanservice. It would be bad enough on its own, but every female character is under 18 (with the possible exception of Ash, given what someone said above, but I was pretty sure she was supposed to be 17). Missi is 15, for Christ's sake! Ew.
 * If you don't mind answering them, I have two questions for you: How old are you?, and How many teenagers do you know very well? Here's a hint: real teens often dress like this.
 * I honestly don't find the fanservice to be all that bad. The one who is really Ms. Fanservice would be Cassiel—who is centuries old—or Kate, who seems to be in her twenties. Occasionally Ash does it as well. But Missi and Emily don't show that much flesh. There was the pool scene, but that was actually relevant to the plot as it involved Ash coming to grips with being a girl, and Emily slowly falling in love.
 * And to nip the next example in the bud, I would like to point out that I, as a straight male troper in his late teens, found the bathtub scene not at all sexy.
 * The fanservice level has gone down recently, as well as the "We're on the point of solving a sub plot, let's throw in an interruption" events.
 * What's wrong with teenage fanservice? Well, I'm only 20, but I find some high schoolers attractive (I probably wouldn't date one though) and I don't see what the hell the problem is; the youngest character is 15. That's consent-age in many countries (though not the USA, where it varies by state from 16-18). In many times and places 30 year olds would date 13 year olds, there are scholars who think Romeo from Romeo and Juliet was like 10 years older than Juliet. I just don't get what's wrong with fanservice involving post-puberty girls, I mean sure if it was Lolicon, but it's not. Hell my appearance hasn't really changed since I was 14 (I could already grow a beard by then).
 * Some annoying prude has obviously never watched an anime (or has, but is still being a prude). At least the Misfile girls have realistic body proportions.


 * One thing that bugs me is the question of just how immortal are the angels? While all indications are that they'll never die of old age, that leaves the question of what can kill them? Ash and Emily are under the impression that they wouldn't be able to kill angels, and both reference that they consider Rumisiel immortal (usually to threaten violence well beyond what they could do to another human). That said, we've already seen one dead angel, and even before that point it was acknowledged that angels could, in fact, die. So just what is the boundary? You need power at least on par with an angel to kill one? Are they potentially vulnerable to mortals and it's just assumed otherwise? Do they have some sort of Kryptonite Factor but are otherwise immortal?
 * For what I've seen, it seems to require a certain amount of power. One of the main reasons Rumisel suspected that Vashiel might have killed the dead angel is because Vashiel had earned some ranks because of his power as an angel, and so earned that particularly powerful sword we've seen once. I believe angels having that sword should be capable of killing other angels.
 * I think it would require one of those holy swords that Vashiel has. Car crashes apparently wouldn't do anything, since Rumsiel doesn't care about the lack of seatbelts. Unknown what something like a handgun would do, but my Genre Savvy radar would say they are Immune to Bullets, since most things like that are.


 * One thing that bugs me is how no one has called out Missi on her selfish nature. She belittles Ash, ignoring his opinions when they conflict with hers; pesters everyone to do what she wants, which usually happens; and even bitched at Kate about Heather on Kate's wedding day. Points to Kate for calling her out on this and threatening harm, but it doesn't seem to have done any good.
 * As you just pointed out, Missi tends to ignore other people's opinions. Trying to call her out on anything is unlikely to work.
 * Missi's the youngest, she had Tom for a brother, and she's one of the few people Ash relates to well. Still, some further character development would be nice.


 * Speaking of Missi, how is it that Missi makes a point of pointing out that Ash is a terrible liar, but she accepts Ash's "I'm having my period" excuse? So, the more Missi gets to know Ash the less she knows...I call shenanigans!


 * Ok, this has been bugging me for a long time: both the 'boy' and 'girl' Ashs seem to be heterosexual (by Ash's admission and girl!Ash's night with James respectively), but somehow Ash manages to end up attracted to girls out of the whole deal. While it's certainly a blessing for both Ash and the readers, it seems odd that an answer hasn't come up in the comic.
 * Seems pretty simple to me—Ash still has the mind, personality, and memories of the heterosexual male version despite the misfile, so he/she kept that version's sexual preferences.
 * The only problem I have with that argument is that, according to The Other Wiki, sexual preference is biological, not psychological. So then the misfile would need to have left Ash's brain chemistry mostly unchanged; it seemingly didn't, given the night with James and the magazines. Therefore, the world changed on the assumption that Ash was a heterosexual girl, and Ash's body was recreated on the assumption that Ash should have been a heterosexual boy, but wasn't. But then it would make sense for the world to change on the same information, but it doesn't. I know I'm going to get a Mystery Science Theater 3000 mantra link or a hot debate for all this, but it just bugs me.
 * Er, the Other Wiki seems to be a bit biased on this one. There is considerable debate on whether sexual orientation is psychological or biological . At any rate, how you should be imagining it is this: there is boy!Ash and girl!Ash, in two separate universes. One day day girl!Ash's brain is replaced with boy!Ash's brain. Cue boy!Ash's confusion.
 * Furthermore, the most common biological explanations for homosexuality are neurological and not purely hormonal (at least by that stage of physical development). Ash has a boy's brain, not a girl's, or otherwise he'd be girl!Ash.
 * He remembers his life as a boy, so he remembers his attraction to females, while refusing to accept that his new body is (or would be) attracted to males. Problem solved.
 * From a different perspective, the James incident does not actually mean that Girl!Ash was straight. It's entirely possible that both Ashes were attracted to girls and female-Ash was just repressed. Or bi.
 * Alternatively, Ash's file might list his orientation as "likes girls" instead of "straight."


 * Is Ash ever going to realize that his gender had nothing to do with how much he liked racing? It's been more or less confirmed that the female Ash was just as much a racer, and that 'they' both strongly identify/identified with it. Here's hoping it doesn't come at too Wangsty a moment.
 * Huh? Ash got over this part of her femininity a long time ago, within the first couple volumes even. In fact, racing seems to be the one thing that never changed between his/her two lives, which is probably why s/he holds to it so dearly.


 * Not to do with the comic, more the production behind it: Chris manages to update a quality comic five times a week, offers books, merchandise and commissions, gets hundreds of thousands hits a day and has been going for years. Why isn't the comic making him more money?
 * People are greedy bastards and don't donate. Or they, like me, have no ability to donate. Hell if I could I'd have him draw a few commissions.
 * Hundreds of Thousands? Is Misfile really that popular? With that traffic he'd have to make quite a bit to pay the hosting fees. Do we know how much money he makes? Since he's releasing a comic 5 days a week, I'm assuming it is his full time job, so if he has a comfortable living that is nice, even if he isn't rich. If he wanted to be rich, his best hope would be to sell the rights to make an anime off of it or something like that.
 * IIRC, Chris works as a mechanic full-time, and over the course of the comic, there have been times where he's had considerable financial difficulty.
 * If writing webcomics was his full-time job, I'd expect a much higher output than five pages a week.
 * Why? Other webcomic authors whose comics really are their full-time jobs have about the same per-week output or even much less.


 * How come the author hasn't made a potential soundtrack yet? For example, this song would very well fit the "72 Years" arc, and this would be good racing music, considering it appeared on a NASCAR compilation album.
 * He has, just wander to the forums and you'll be given a link to both the author''s preferences and several fan recommendations for a soundtrack as well.
 * One fan recommendation is "Casper (or, The Day That Never Comes)" for, you guessed it, the "72 Years" arc.


 * Ok, being suddenly trapped in an unknown body would be upsetting, so I can accept Ash's Wangsting most of the time. But this page really bugs me. Is winning an argument through talking really that upsetting, Ash? Why go all emo over winning an argument verbally?
 * Calm down. Ash is clearly being inmature there and the comic is obviously leading to make him/her learn that.
 * He/She learns his/her lesson here.
 * It's not the fact that it was verbals, it's that it was "whiny, bitchy put-downs" - a very "girly" way of winning an argument.


 * What was the point of the Halloween party? It was talked about for two books, then we spend about two weeks on it before Ash leaves. The Cassiel and Eponine moment was heartwarming, and Ash meeting Tom shows how much he (Ash) has grown. But aside from that, it seemed worthless story-wise. Nothing big was resolved, there were no new plots implemented and Ash and Em's conversation afterwards just pointed out the obvious and resolved nothing.
 * It wasn't worthless as a matter of character development given the two scenes you mentioned above, and it also sets up the following race story arc. The party wasn't meant to be a climax. It's just a one-night background event that teenagers might reasonably talk about for a couple of weeks (or months in webcomic time).


 * In various trope entries regarding Misfile, I keep seeing the phrase "Girl!Ash's life is so much better than Boy!Ash's was." Um... How? Granted, Ash's improved relationship with his mother and the presence of Emily are pretty big things. But those two alone don't make life "almost completely better." What else does Girl!Ash's life have that Boy!Ash's life didn't (or couldn't)?
 * Ash "him"self said he had a poor relationship with his father (to the point of feeling unwanted), and had no relationship at all with his mother (and was depressed about it). His only stated friend, James, was halfway across the country. He was pretty much alone, felt unwanted, and just raced cars and did nothing with his life with no real motivations and no goals. Since changing to a girl s/he has a good relationship with his father (spurred on by being broken out of his shell by Emily), a good relationship with his mother, a good friend who cares for him deeply, a host of other good friends, and a life that's on track with better grades in school. Ash's life is better in every way than the one he had before, and many people would kill to have a clean slate with all the errors they made corrected. He has friends, family and a borderline soulmate: something he never had before. The only thing I can think of that would make him want to go back is the idea that he just wants a standard (read: straight) adult relationship with Emily.
 * Really, after reading this comic for so many years and recently going back for a re-read, Ash's desire to go back to the way they were seem more like an illogical obsession based on discomfort (which will fade) and a drive to keep at his original decision without thinking on it properly. As if he just cannot realize he has a much better life and has made a mistake in his decision, something that wouldn't come early on but would be a good twist in the future of the comic. This troper would take Ash's supposed "curse" for a better life with all mistakes fixed with all his lost friends/family back in a heartbeat.
 * So basically, the answer is really "Ash's life is better with Emily in it."
 * Also the very fact that Ash's life is better as a girl is a source of angst for him.
 * So basically: "Ash's life would be so much easier if he'd just let go of his gender identity and enjoy being a girl fully?" I shudder to think what the reaction would be if the genderswap direction were switched.
 * And it's odd: A similar case can be made for Ming in The Wotch(who embraces her gender-bending as a fresh start). But most readers of that comic treat her situation as ongoing Fridge Horror.
 * What bugs me is how often Ash is called "she" or "he/she" on the wiki. We're talking about a comic with relatively realistic portrayal of gender dysphoria, dressed in a magical metaphor, not some kind of transformation fetish story. Show some respect for him, please.
 * Thank you for explaining it better than I have been able to.