Model Girlfriend’s alternate ending

Model Girlfriend’s ending went through so many revisions. The sequence where Mike and Sandy played video games at home was quite different. Here’s a sketched sequence that was adjusted pretty significantly in the final product.

So that awkward moment eased into the “I’ll watch you play” part. Here are thumbnails for those pages, with unedited dialogue (if you can make it out):

After this, Sandy was to make her move on Mike, then cry, he’d hug her back, and she’d put her hand on his face to show that it’s all okay, then they’d walk downstairs with him to dinner. They’d have a nice dinner, you’d see how happy they are and that Sandy gets along well with Mike’s family, before she finally has to leave. Mike would give her a present, Sandy would smile, Mike would ask Sandy to text him when she gets home..

And Sandy would forget(???) to text him back.

It was meant to end on a HEARTBREAKING note. Mike was sitting on his bed staring at his phone, showing that the cycle has renewed. It was going to be bleak.

Souppy thought that was too obvious in hammering home how flawed Mike and Sandy’s relationship is. So in the image above, next to the sad panel of Mike lying around, you’ll see a few edited thumbnails of Mike getting a short “I love you” from Sandy and him being elated about it.

Because, Sandy WOULD throw him a bone! She’s not THAT careless! She can go back to ignoring him later, but for now she doesn’t really have much of an excuse to send him a sweet message and for Mike to immediately assume they are 100% OTP.

So why wasn’t it done this way? I had a few issues.

1. GOD DO I HAVE TO DESIGN MIKE’S DINING ROOM. OH MY GOD. I HAVE TO DESIGN A TABLE AND THE FOOD THEY HAVE TO EAT AND THE COUNTERS BEHIND IT AND I GOTTA DRAW CHRIS ON A HIGH-CHAIR AND DRAW SANDY’S DRIVER EATING ALONGSIDE THEM AND JUST.. SO MANY ESTABLISHING SHOTS. 
2. UGH THIS SEQUENCE IS SO BORING!!!!!! MIKE IS SMILING, SANDY IS SMILING, MIKE’S FAMILY IS SMILING. It feels like the scene is just there because in my head when I was scripting this chapter, I had the mindset that EVERY DETAIL NEEDED TO BE CAPTURED. From Sandy arriving to Sandy leaving, which includes the dinner. But why! It’s boring!! But then how can it end? What am I supposed to do?

I felt icky about the sequence, but I kept going and sketched out the sequence digitally. It got THAT far before it was scrapped.

I was happy changing the ending to not be so obviously depressing, but the sequence before it I was still annoyed by. 

So how do I bridge the gap between Sandy leaving and Mike getting a text?

Paulo came to mind.

Of COURSE Paulo would care about how the outing went. Paulo is the only one who really knows how much Mike has been struggling with his girlfriend, so Paulo would clearly call and ask Mike how it went. And it basically wrote itself!!

it’s funny how I pretty much did a “tell, don’t show” here instead of showing how the dinner went, but come onnnnnn. It woulda been so boringgggg to draw it all. You can even see in the thumbnails!! So many empty smiles, so much small talk. 

a little like MikexSandy 8-)

Anyway, that’s it! The abandoned alternate ending to Model Girlfriend. I’ll post more like this whenever similar significant changes are made to a chapter!