Thinking about Clerks and Mallrats

Thought the reputed fall-off in quality was overrated but at this distance I actually remember the character arc of Clerks – Dante has a dead-end life but has an earnestly caring girlfriend promoting his self-improvement… into what, the normie morons who populate his store as customers and remember her from high school as an orgasm dispenser?

Whereas Mallrats, uh, his girlfriend’s pissed he plays NHL on Genesis instead of making an effort so he… goes to the mall… then goes to the dirt mall… then Silent Bob Batmans in to expose Ben Affleck fucking a high schooler? I have no memory what the lesson was, what wisdom Silent Bob, Stan Lee OR the topless fortune teller passed on

Also from Clerks, Dante the iconic loser has

• his own place
• a job
• a car
• a girlfriend
• work friends
• a crew of guys to play hockey games with

Just saying

Uhh from Mallrats a lot of the good guy/bad guy gradient comes from Ben Affleck being into painal. If in that elevator scene he’s like “yeah, I keep up a good appearance, and then I find girls who’ve been disappointed by their men, and then, I stick my penis in their vaginas”? Like yeah dude, that’s heterosexuality, “being better than the other guy” is the move by which the protagonist wins here