Mina

From Candypedia
Mina
GenderFemale
GradeSophomore as of Table for One
SpeciesDog
OccupationStudent
AffiliationSophomore table
DebutLove My Way, page 11
June 27, 2007 (2007-06-27)

Mina is a brown dog with her ears tied back like a ponytail, a year behind the main cast at Roseville High School and usually found with Jasmine or Cassidy. Loud, lazy and delighted by other people’s business, she is equal parts friend, heckler and matchmaker. Her one-sided crush on Abbey goes nowhere, while her grudge against a stingy Halloween house ends with an egg in Lucy’s mother’s face.

Personality

Mina has already reduced Jasmine’s environmental dream to old Coke cans.

Mina treats high school as the thing that happens between video games. She turns up wherever Jasmine is, ready to shriek about movie night, size up any older boy who sits down at the table, and argue that free candy is a right rather than a privilege. Veronica described her as a more immature, self-centred kind of bouncy than the comic’s other excitable dogs.[1]

Ask Mina to do anything after the last bell and you will get a flat no. When Jasmine signs up for Environmental Club again in Clean Slate, Mina cannot understand how anyone enjoys picking up other people’s trash. Jasmine daydreams about helping beach animals, and Mina reduces the dream to old Coke cans around the playground.[2] Her own after-school plan is video games, and she refuses to spend one more minute at school than required.[3] Veronica’s commentary simply says Mina has her priorities straight.[3] Even so, she is happy to sit beside Jasmine at the Friendship Roses fundraiser in Take Heart, contributing a pleasant smile while the principal asks what the money is for.[4]

Mina defines fairness strictly in her own favour. On Halloween in Good Egg she declares herself unashamed to go trick-or-treating at any age, then calls taking free candy “wealth redistribution”.[5] The eggs she has brought along have no purpose until she remembers a house that “ran out” of chocolate bars on her turn the year before, at which point they have a very clear one.[6] When Paulo secretly pays for the girls’ whole movie night in Payback, Jasmine feels rotten about it and Mina beams “Cool” before talking her around with “Better a guilty ex than a mean one!”[7][8]

For all the noise she makes, Mina’s bravado does not survive consequences particularly well. Her finger-jabbing boyfriend warning to Paulo in Back and Forth was a performance scripted by Jasmine.[9] On Halloween she is the one who proposes egging a house and throws the egg, but the instant the front door opens on Carol’s face she drops the carton and bolts, yelling “SPLIT UP, GANG!”[6] Veronica has toyed with the idea of Mina being part bloodhound, which she called “A terrifying breed for a.. not so terrifying girl”.[10]

Appearance

Mina’s unusual ears come with unusually firm opinions.

Mina is a brown dog of no particular breed, with long ears that she wears tied back so that they hang like a ponytail.[11][12] That ponytail is how the comic identifies her among the three freshmen in Back and Forth before anyone says her name.[13] Veronica said the design was something she doodled on the first go and kept because she liked it, while admitting in hindsight that a dog wearing her ears up like a ponytail is a “kinda odd” look.[12]

For Halloween in Good Egg, Mina dresses as Hannah Montana, complete with a blond wig.[14]

Significant events

Freshman year

Mina technically appears before she is in high school. The current version of Love My Way places her and Cassidy in the roller-coaster car behind Sue and Alec McCain at the carnival, a full school year before Mina’s freshman year; Oliver’s commentary notes that “lots of little details” on the page were updated.[15] She is next seen silently chatting with Jasmine in the school plaza on the first morning of A Distance Apart.[16] Her real introduction comes in Back and Forth, where David shoves Paulo toward three freshman girls and Paulo picks Jasmine out of the trio.[17] Later that day Mina gets Paulo out of a hallway full of angry girls with the boyfriend warning Jasmine wrote for her.[13][9]

A run of quieter appearances keeps Mina around Jasmine for the rest of freshman year. She turns up in Paulo’s memory of Jasmine spending time with friends in Pillow Talk,[18] chats with Cassidy in the yard in Call Waiting,[19] and is about to take Jasmine to the mall with Cassidy in Carry Me.[11] She later sits beside Jasmine at the Friendship Roses table in Take Heart.[4] Payback gives the three girls a proper outing at the cinema, where they discover Paulo has quietly paid for everything.[7]

Sophomore year

Mina makes a strong first impression at the sophomore lunch table in High Expectations.

Sophomore year opens with Mina walking the halls in Clean Slate and refusing Jasmine’s Environmental Club invitation.[2][3] In Love Again, Jasmine waves a freshly dumped Abbey over to the sophomore lunch table, and Mina immediately flirts with him.[1] By High Expectations the two of them are laughing together at lunch.[20]

On Halloween in Volume Seven’s Good Egg, Mina goes trick-or-treating with Jasmine, Cassidy, Abbey and Molly. She produces a box of eggs, picks a house she still resents for running out of chocolate the year before, and hits Carol in the face when Carol opens the door.[21][6] Mina flees immediately; afterwards, Abbey and Molly are the ones who insist on apologising.[22] Lucy later confronts Abbey and Jasmine about the egging only to approve and tell them to keep up the good work.[23] In Fuel Economy, Mina and Cassidy arrive at lunch just in time to catch Jasmine with a hand on Abbey’s arm, which Mina takes as vindication for a romance she has already decided is happening.[24]

Major relationships

Jasmine

Mina provides moral support while Jasmine attempts to sell friendship roses.

Jasmine writes the script and Mina performs it, at roughly twice the recommended volume. Their debut scene in Back and Forth is exactly that: Jasmine hugs a cornered Paulo, and Mina charges in behind her to jab a finger at him and demand he behave himself, because she wants only the best for “my Jazzie”.[13] A page later Jasmine admits she told Mina to say all of it, and begs Paulo not to think her friends are scary.[9] The friendship is quieter elsewhere: Mina and Cassidy take Jasmine to the mall,[11] and Mina sits beside her fundraiser table in Take Heart.[4]

Mina’s other job is to puncture Jasmine’s earnestness, and Jasmine mostly lets her. She opens Payback relieved to be at a real cinema, since another lecture from Jasmine’s father was not on her wish list,[25] and in Clean Slate talks straight over Jasmine’s beach-animal daydreams before refusing point blank to join her club.[2][3] Yet when Paulo’s secret generosity leaves Jasmine feeling guilty at the movies, Mina is also the one who reassures her until Jasmine admits she cannot really argue.[8]

Once Abbey arrives at the lunch table, Mina appoints herself commentator on a romance Jasmine insists is not happening. In Love Again Jasmine has to tell Mina to back off Abbey, incorrectly declaring him taken in the process,[1] and in Fuel Economy Mina catches Jasmine’s hand on Abbey’s arm and crows “I TOLD you it was happening!”[24] Even Abbey’s refusal to egg a house in Good Egg becomes a remark about how much work Jasmine has ahead of her.[6]

Abbey

Mina cups her cheeks and checks whether Abbey is an older boy in Love Again.

Mina takes an immediate interest in Abbey. He arrives at the sophomore table in Love Again shortly after Daisy has dumped him, which nobody at the table knows yet, and Mina’s opening line is a cheek-cupping “Sooo, yer an older boy, huh~?”[1] Jasmine tells her he is taken, and Abbey’s stammer is him correcting the record rather than taking Mina up on anything. Veronica’s commentary is explicit that he is being factual, not flirting back.[1]

Mina keeps the crush anyway. In High Expectations she and Abbey laugh together at lunch,[20] and in Fuel Economy she pokes his cheek while the two laugh.[26] Veronica describes Mina there as “obsessed with Abbey” despite Mina herself expecting Abbey and Jasmine to become a couple, an unintentional echo of the Paulo and Rachel setup.[26] Their biggest disagreement is Good Egg: Abbey objects that lightening up should not require vandalism, Mina eggs the house anyway, and his immediate concern afterwards is whether Carol saw their faces.[6][22]

Cassidy

Cassidy’s sympathy for Mina’s priorities has limits in Clean Slate.

Cassidy often supplies the eyebrow while Mina does the bit. The current comic even places them together in the retroactive carnival cameo in Love My Way,[15] and later appearances repeatedly show them as a pair: chatting in the yard, taking Jasmine to the mall, or arriving at lunch together.[19][11][24] Payback gives the dynamic dialogue. Mina announces the zombie movie and Cassidy calls it “The obvious choice”;[27] Mina turns up with the biggest share of the snacks and Cassidy answers, “Always so generous.”[28]

Sometimes Mina gets a proper reaction out of her. In Clean Slate Cassidy pouts when Mina cites video games as her reason for skipping Environmental Club.[3] On Halloween in Good Egg, Mina laughs when Molly tells Cassidy she is too old to trick-or-treat, then decides the same jab somehow does not apply to herself; Cassidy’s “WHAT?!” when the eggs come out is the closest anyone gets to stopping the idea.[5][21] Whatever Mina is about to blurt, Cassidy is very often standing beside her when she does it.

Minor relationships

Paulo

Mina appoints herself Paulo’s relationship supervisor in Back and Forth.

Paulo gets Mina flustered in her first speaking scene. In Back and Forth she stares at him wide-eyed and answers his “First years?” with an awestruck “YES SIR”,[17] right before he picks Jasmine and dismisses her friends as “like, kids”.[29] Later that day the positions reverse: Mina’s scripted boyfriend warning leaves Paulo sweating and promising to be good.[13] By Payback he is Jasmine’s ex, and Mina’s main opinion of him is that his paying for movie night is excellent news.[7][8]

Quotes

YOU! Boyfriend! Mina, pointing at a cornered Paulo in Back and Forth

Better a guilty ex than a mean one! Mina, reassuring Jasmine in Payback[8]

It is SO not! How can you enjoy picking up people’s trash! Mina, reviewing Environmental Club in Clean Slate

I am NOT spending any of my after-school time AT SCHOOL! Mina, getting her priorities straight in Clean Slate

It’s called wealth redistribution. Mina, defending trick-or-treating at any age in Good Egg[5]

Sooo, yer an older boy, huh~? Mina, to a newly single Abbey in Love Again

I TOLD you it was happening! Mina, catching Jasmine’s hand on Abbey’s arm in Fuel Economy

Trivia

  • Mina is often mistaken for a rabbit. Veronica’s official position on the matter is “SHE’S NOT A BUNNY”.[30]
  • Veronica nearly gave the flirt with Abbey in Love Again to Cassidy, since the comic already had two excitable dogs, but decided Mina’s brand of bouncy was different enough to keep it.[1]
  • On her debut page, Veronica noted that Mina came second to Jasmine in reader popularity among the three freshmen.[29]
  • A panel from Payback was shared on Tumblr in July 2015, more than a year before Volume Four printed the chapter.[12][31]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Chapter 95: Love Again, page 19
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Chapter 93: Clean Slate, page 1
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Chapter 93: Clean Slate, page 2
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Chapter 81: Take Heart, page 19
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Bittersweet Candy Bowl: Volume Seven, “Good Egg”, page 2
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 Bittersweet Candy Bowl: Volume Seven, “Good Egg”, page 4
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Bittersweet Candy Bowl: Volume Four, “Payback”, page 4
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 Bittersweet Candy Bowl: Volume Four, “Payback”, page 5
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Chapter 54: Back and Forth, page 33
  10. ↑ “Ask response on whether Mina is a bloodhound”. 2017-01-02.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 Chapter 64: Carry Me, page 1
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 “Ask response on Mina’s design and breed”. 2015-07-18.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 Chapter 54: Back and Forth, page 32
  14. ↑ Bittersweet Candy Bowl: Volume Seven, “Good Egg”, page 1
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 Chapter 39: Love My Way, page 11
  16. ↑ Chapter 50: A Distance Apart, page 4
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 Chapter 54: Back and Forth, page 20
  18. ↑ Chapter 61: Pillow Talk, page 16
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 Chapter 62: Call Waiting, page 3
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 Chapter 100: High Expectations, page 16
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 Bittersweet Candy Bowl: Volume Seven, “Good Egg”, page 3
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 Bittersweet Candy Bowl: Volume Seven, “Good Egg”, page 5
  23. ↑ Bittersweet Candy Bowl: Volume Seven, “Good Egg”, page 6
  24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 24.2 Chapter 112: Fuel Economy, page 7
  25. ↑ Bittersweet Candy Bowl: Volume Four, “Payback”, page 1
  26. ↑ 26.0 26.1 Chapter 112: Fuel Economy, page 8
  27. ↑ Bittersweet Candy Bowl: Volume Four, “Payback”, page 2
  28. ↑ Bittersweet Candy Bowl: Volume Four, “Payback”, page 3
  29. ↑ 29.0 29.1 Chapter 54: Back and Forth, page 21
  30. ↑ “Ask response insisting Mina is not a bunny”. 2017-03-13.
  31. ↑ Bittersweet Candy Bowl: Volume Four, “Payback”, page 3
Retrieved from “https://wiki.bittersweetcandybowl.com/index.php?title=Mina&oldid=8068”