Rodrigo

From Candypedia
Rodrigo
GenderMale
SpeciesCat
BreedSomali
Family
OccupationConstruction worker
DebutAnother Shoulder, page 14
March 14, 2010 (2010-03-14)

Rodrigo is Paulo’s father and the parent who raised him after separating from Rose Muir. Father and son moved to Roseville during Paulo’s fifth-grade year. Rodrigo works late, speaks in sentences of about four words, and keeps a well-stocked liquor cabinet. Paulo is perfectly aware of how much unsupervised freedom he has. Rodrigo also wears his hard hat to the breakfast table.

Personality

The birthday breakfast is overdone, but Rodrigo’s affection is not.

Rodrigo is a man of very few words, and most of them get delivered from behind a newspaper. He lets Paulo run his own life, rarely asks where he’s been, and shows affection with a hand on the head rather than anything resembling a speech. When he does attempt something demonstrative, like cooking a birthday breakfast, he burns every item on the plate.

The very first scene he gets shows just how little he interferes. Paulo and Lucy walk into his kitchen holding hands and late for school, having spent the night under the same roof, and his whole response is “You’re gonna be late.” before he hides a smirk behind the sports page.[1] Veronica’s commentary counts this as being understanding rather than throwing a shoe at the boy.[1] The pattern holds in Piece of Cake, where Paulo works up the nerve to ask a tangled question about whether something counts as cheating and gets a “Sure, why not” without his father ever lowering the paper.[2] Phone calls are handed over with “Son. Phone.” and nothing more.[3] Paulo knows the score, too, and tells a sleeping Lucy that his dad never really checks on him.[4]

Still, there are a handful of rules he does keep, and he states them in the same flat voice. The cordless phone goes back on the charger when Paulo is done with it.[5] When he’s working late, Paulo is not to stay out too late.[3] He won’t lend Paulo the car, but he does give him driving lessons.[6] A fifth-grade Paulo who got into a fight at school comes home to a lecture,[7] and a sixteen-year-old Paulo who wants a job is reminded, over coffee, that school still comes first.[8]

Night work leaves Rodrigo with only the essentials to say.

There are signs that Rodrigo is stretched thin. Paulo describes him coming home late, and on another evening Rodrigo heads out to work.[4][3] The house has a squat wooden cabinet full of bottles that Paulo helps himself to the moment his father is out the door in Happy Hour.[9] Veronica has said Rodrigo probably never noticed the theft, since he has plenty in there.[10] Paulo, drunk on the proceeds later that night, decides he understands why his dad drinks.[11]

Appearance

Rodrigo is an adult male cat. Paulo identifies himself as a Somali and immediately describes his dad as more on the “lion-ish” side.[12] Rodrigo is a good deal bigger and broader than the boys. Veronica has singled him out alongside Matt as one of the male characters whose build was drawn deliberately differently from the teenagers’ similar frames.[13]

His most distinctive outfit is work clothes and a hard hat, which he keeps on at the breakfast table in his debut,[1] and his props are a newspaper and a coffee mug.[2][8] The eight-years-later what-if Family Planning puts glasses on him; he does not wear them in his main-comic appearances.[14]

Significant events

Rodrigo tries to shield Paulo from the argument, with limited success.

Mother’s Day takes place during Paulo’s fifth-grade year. Sitting alone at school, Paulo remembers Rodrigo telling him it’s just the two of them tonight, followed by the argument in which Rose calls Rodrigo worthless and finally tells him to keep Paulo.[15] Father and son moved from Maraschino to Roseville that school year.[16] The chapter ends with Rodrigo beginning a lecture over Paulo’s schoolyard fight; Paulo hands him the card he made in class, and the lecture gives way to a hand on the head and “Thanks, kid.”[7]

His first on-panel appearance comes years later in Another Shoulder, at the breakfast table of Paulo’s house, where his son and Lucy walk in hand in hand and get sent off to school without so much as a question.[1] Over the following chapters he stays mostly at the edges of Paulo’s life. In Piece of Cake, he fields a question about cheating and a phone call from a girl.[2][5] In Happy Hour, he heads out to work while Paulo raids the liquor cabinet behind him.[3][9]

Small Fry opens on Paulo’s sixteenth birthday with Rodrigo cooking, badly, and then meeting his son’s latest push to start job-hunting with a reminder that he still has school.[8] After that he is mostly talked about rather than seen. Paulo sends half his Burger-Tron wages to him in Table for One,[17] and in Fuel Economy Paulo says his dad covered the shortfall on his car.[18] His one later appearance is at Mike’s family New Year’s party in New Year’s Resolution, laughing on the sofa with David’s mom while David plays matchmaker.[19]

Major relationships

Paulo

Rodrigo’s birthday breakfast is burnt, but Paulo’s enthusiasm remains perfectly intact.

Paulo gets very little supervision and a great deal of trust, but Rodrigo is still the adult he turns to. The card he makes in a Mother’s Day craft class goes to his dad, who is mid-lecture about a schoolyard fight when he gets it and stops short with a hand on Paulo’s head and a “Thanks, kid.”[7] Asked by David whether his dad is cool, fifth-grade Paulo says he is.[20] The cheating question and a long campaign to be allowed a job land on Rodrigo too. Mike’s surprise that his dad is “finally” letting him work gives some idea how long the campaign ran.[21]

Rodrigo shows his love in gestures that are a little burnt around the edges. In Small Fry he attempts eggs, bacon and waffles for Paulo’s sixteenth, smokes the lot, and serves it with a hand on his son’s shoulder and a “Happy birthday, son.”[22][8] Paulo eats it cheerfully. When Paulo’s savings fall short of a car in Fuel Economy, his dad quietly makes up the difference as an early Christmas present.[18] Veronica reads the man behind the phone handoffs as secretly proud of his popular son and very concerned for him at the same time.[5]

Paulo worries about looking after his father in return. In Table for One he says half of every Burger-Tron paycheque goes to his dad,[17] and when he explains why he wants a job, it comes down to earning his own money and “helping my dad”.[23] He keeps his troubles to himself so as not to stress his father out,[24] and he believes his mother thought the two of them were “losers” and wanted a better family.[25] The alternate-continuity Relative Strangers lets Rodrigo answer that fear out loud. Eulogising his son, he admits he never wanted Paulo to end up like him, then says that with a goal in mind the boy always found a way and he couldn’t be prouder.[26]

Rose Muir

In Paulo’s memory of their breakup, Rose Muir speaks to Rodrigo with open contempt while he mostly pleads with her to stop arguing in front of their son. She calls him worthless, a stupid lazy slob, and says growing up in his house will make Paulo just like him. Rodrigo gets in “Come on, not in front of the boy..” and “Me an’ Paulo get along fine!” before she ends it with “Keep him, then!”[15] Veronica’s commentary calls it a pretty easy custody battle and asks Paulo’s mom why she didn’t even try.[15] Rose divorced him, remarried, and stayed in Maraschino.[27] Paulo later says that since moving to Roseville she has made no calls and sent him no birthday presents or cards.[28] He eventually finds her new family on Facebook in New Year’s Resolution.[29]

The alternate-continuity Relative Strangers gives Rose a much longer version of the marriage. She remembers Rodrigo dropping out of college and not applying himself, and accuses him of making her keep the pregnancy and wasting their money drinking.[30] Years later, she still calls him “Spineless as always” when he quietly asks her to let Paulo’s grieving friends be.[31]

Minor relationships

David’s mom

David spots a love connection in New Year’s Resolution.

Paulo and David’s friendship means Rodrigo and David’s mom cross paths plenty, and David has never once been subtle about wanting more. Back in fifth grade he offers to have his mom bake an extra tray so Paulo and his dad have something for the sale.[16] By the New Year’s party in New Year’s Resolution he is openly rooting for the two of them to make a love connection while they laugh together on the sofa, and Paulo’s reaction is a single disgusted syllable.[19] Veronica has settled it for now: they’re not together, but they’re certainly getting along, and in the current story they are just friends.[32] The Ships Ahoy, Season Three gag strip has David’s mom thanking him for years of letting Davie stay over while David bellows at them to “GET MARRIED”.[33]

Quotes

You’re gonna be late. Rodrigo, to Paulo and Lucy, who have just walked into the kitchen holding hands, in Another Shoulder

Me an’ Paulo get along fine! Rodrigo, to Rose, in the memory that ends with her leaving, in Mother’s Day

Thanks, kid. Rodrigo, accepting a hand-made card in the middle of a lecture in Mother’s Day

Sure, why not Rodrigo, answering Paulo’s cheating question without lowering the newspaper in Piece of Cake

Remember, back on the charger when yer done. Rodrigo, handing Paulo the phone in Piece of Cake

I’ll be working tonight, but don’t stay out too late. Rodrigo, leaving Paulo alone with the liquor cabinet in Happy Hour

You still need to go to school today, you know. Rodrigo, shutting down the job campaign over a burnt birthday breakfast in Small Fry

Trivia

  • Veronica greeted his debut with “Hey, look! Parents DO exist.”[1]
  • The name “Rodrigo” is never spoken in main-comic dialogue. Rose uses it in the alternate-continuity Relative Strangers.[34]
  • He smokes. The cigarette butt lying around Paulo’s living room in Guest of Honor is his, according to Veronica.[35]
  • Veronica imagines he fields calls from various girls asking for Paulo, and notes that he announces a “girl” on the line rather than bothering with a name.[5]
  • He headlines two of the ten Ships Ahoy, Season Three strips, one with David’s mom[36] and one with Lani Amalu, whose attention leaves him thoroughly flushed.[37]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Chapter 52: Another Shoulder, page 14
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Chapter 70: Piece of Cake, page 12
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Chapter 80: Happy Hour, page 4
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Chapter 52: Another Shoulder, page 9
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Chapter 70: Piece of Cake, page 13
  6. ↑ Chapter 54: Back and Forth, page 22
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Chapter 58: Mother’s Day, page 12
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 Chapter 83: Small Fry, page 2
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Chapter 80: Happy Hour, page 5
  10. ↑ “Ask response on whether Paulo’s dad noticed the missing bottle”. 2015-10-07.
  11. ↑ Chapter 80: Happy Hour, page 15
  12. ↑ Chapter 9: Show and Tell, page 4
  13. ↑ “Ask response on male body types in the comic”. 2015-06-29.
  14. ↑ Family Planning, page 24 🔒 (members only)
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 Chapter 58: Mother’s Day, page 6
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 Chapter 58: Mother’s Day, page 11
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 Chapter 92: Table for One, page 7
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 Chapter 112: Fuel Economy, page 3
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 Chapter 119: New Year’s Resolution, page 5
  20. ↑ Chapter 58: Mother’s Day, page 10
  21. ↑ Chapter 83: Small Fry, page 3
  22. ↑ Chapter 83: Small Fry, page 1
  23. ↑ Chapter 83: Small Fry, page 11
  24. ↑ Chapter 108: Time Out, page 20
  25. ↑ Chapter 108: Time Out, page 22
  26. ↑ Relative Strangers, page 18 🔒 (members only)
  27. ↑ “Ask response on what happened to Paulo’s mother”. 2015-03-29.
  28. ↑ Chapter 108: Time Out, page 19
  29. ↑ Chapter 119: New Year’s Resolution, page 10
  30. ↑ Relative Strangers, page 8 🔒 (members only)
  31. ↑ Relative Strangers, page 25 🔒 (members only)
  32. ↑ “Ask response on Paulo’s dad and David’s mom after New Year’s”. 2026-02-09.
  33. ↑ Ships Ahoy, Season Three, page 9 🔒 (members only)
  34. ↑ Relative Strangers, page 7 🔒 (members only)
  35. ↑ “Ask response on the cigarette butt in Paulo’s house”. 2016-03-19.
  36. ↑ Ships Ahoy, Season Three, page 9 🔒 (members only)
  37. ↑ Ships Ahoy, Season Three, page 4 🔒 (members only)
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