I read Dina as making it very clear that she is sneering at Ruth: no sentence there has any emphasis, so I’m reading it as if she’s pretending to do a very bad reading of a line: “Oh. No. It. is. Ruthless. I. am. frightened.” She just called Ruth by her nickname — a name she is known to dislike.
Dina is socially inept and may be borderline autistic. She’s not profoundly affected, though: she *can* look into people’s eyes, she can express sympathy at an appropriate time by touching someone, etc. Ruthle — I mean, Ruth — is the one who’s missing social cues here.
Not quite. Dina doesn’t seem like a “sneering” type. Ruth just said earlier that Dina should still be afraid of her. Dina, of course, isn’t, but she’s trying to follow Ruth’s wishes anyway since she doesn’t seem to care either way.
We Aspies feel sympathy., it’s empathy we have a hard time with. Detecting someone’s emotions or intentions is something we can do as well, it’s expressing those ourselves and how deal with them. I’d say that the way she is not profoundly affected by Autism would be that we’ve never seen her break down or yell. She’s hardly socially inept, either.
That being said, It may be sarcasm, but it’s more likely she simply doesn’t care but doesn’t want to upset Ruth further, so gives a half-assed attempt at acting scared.
Couldn’t have said it better myself, Wafflington. There’s not nearly enough awareness in the world of what Autism actually *is.* Understanding emotion isn’t the problem. Expression of emotion is more difficult, but can be mitigated with experience.
See? Told you I couldn’t have said it better myself 😛
Agreed on the awareness thing. Of course the terms people use when referring to it don’t exactly help (Please don’t use them. Also, I can’t spell, so of course I spelled it wrong). Terms such as “Disorder” and “Disease” (no seriously, I’ve heard it called that) carry the wrong message. Just so people are aware moving forward, the number one thing with aspergers or autism is over-stimulation, which leads to the aspie blocking out the world. THIS is the cause of basically everything else, as not partaking in the world (which explains why we are not as skilled socially), the capability to hyperfocous, “stimming” (think pacing or tapping when stressed) and attachment to a single niche instead of a wide range of interests (like Dina’s Dinosaurs).
In other words: Dina is one of us, only much better at tying people up with a grappling hook!
Dina is socially clueless but wants to learn. Last time, Ruth said she should fear her, so Dina adopted that as social propriety. Dina isn’t quite emotionless, but so far she seems to actually have no fear of anything.
My monie is on Joyce getting all up is Ruth’s business. Dictating how others can dress is the most disrespectful I think Ruth has been!
Ruth’s dickey VS Joyce’s sence of entitlement. GO!
So, from the dialog, I surmise we are now averaging about 1 week’s worth of storyline covered over the course of 1 year. Is that about right?
Talk about your suspended animation (oh, sorry, this strip isn’t animated….yet)!
Some think she should sound like Nagato (Yuki), but to me that’s way too monotone and slow. She can at least express wonder and annoyance, but here she’s neither frightened nor being sarcastic. Maybe she’s just saying that to reassure Ruth she remembers how she was instructed to behave around her.
We skipped three days waiting for pajama jeans, and two with Dorothy studying. Those were the only lengthy timeskips.
Today is Tuesday of their fourth week of classes. I’m not sure exactly when IU classes begin, but I figure it’s mid-to-late September now.
(My freshman year, we had several inches of snow by this point. But I went to college atop a hill in central Vermont a couple decades of global warming ago.)
I seriously don’t get how Ruth is still an RA with the way she abuses her parents. Surely at least one of the first years would complain about her, either to the Student Life office, their parents, or someone else. Older students like Sarah can just ignore Ruth’s crap, as can people who really don’t care about authority like Sal, but what about rational people like Dorothy? Part of me wants the humor to continue, but it’d be nice to see Joyce grow a spine here and stand up to Ruth.
[read: unless EVERYONE has the photographic memory they use in movies to show flashback sequences, the residents most likely got the gist of “I have the authority to do whatever I want to get results” and haven’t been keeping perfect tabs to realize that the fire alarm would in fact be a ding against her, so effectively she still holds sway over them]
Joyce, you have to know that you don’t say no to Ruth. Even when she’s in a good mood, you just don’t do it.
(Actually, Ruth is doing her a favor here, if Joyce thought she was laughed at for the strap-on deal, wait until classes break and someone actually see’s her. ‘We’ might think she’s cute, but….think about it, if you saw this in your dorm…)
I’m not really sure what you’re reading or how, but…
Dorothy is a freshman, though at 19 she’s a little older than the average freshman. Sarah is a sophomore. We haven’t been told specifically which year Ruth is in, but they don’t typically let freshmen be RAs, and she’s 20, so probably a junior. Billie’s a freshman, 18-ish, so a couple years younger than Ruth.
I am deeply dissapointed in the direction David Willis is taking the comic, and this panel is the exact reason why. This is what, the third, fourth instance of items of clothing being thrown? Obviously David Willis is just trying to push an agenda here, and it literally sickens me to it.
I mean, I was fine when it was hidden away in subtext– you know, throwing toys. Even tho the subtext was very thin, but at least then it was IN YOUR FACE like this constant throwing of clothes is.
I mean, I’m not one of those people, but I just think it’s funny (not really funny) that suddenly everyone is throwing clothes. Not just one character. Everyone one. He even forced it into a plot point! Way to twist the plot just to fit in your agenda, David Willis.
This comic was so much better during it’s earlier run, before clothes throwing became it’s one-note joke. =(
I’ve been reading this comic for twenty years, but I’m done. Done. Unless you stop this clothes throwing agenda (and you shuld to keep me as a reader).
Upon sighting a predator species approaching, the wise herbivore quietly retreats the area just in case one victim is not enough to sate the hunter’s hunger.
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Bye Dina.
“I am now getting lunch. I hope they have cereal. They do, I am now happy.”
“Oh hey you just missed it! Some guy just chugged all the milk in the cafe! Lady said they needed an hour to refill the milk.”
Refill the milk from what? A nak?
Mike…
I read Dina as making it very clear that she is sneering at Ruth: no sentence there has any emphasis, so I’m reading it as if she’s pretending to do a very bad reading of a line: “Oh. No. It. is. Ruthless. I. am. frightened.” She just called Ruth by her nickname — a name she is known to dislike.
Dina is socially inept and may be borderline autistic. She’s not profoundly affected, though: she *can* look into people’s eyes, she can express sympathy at an appropriate time by touching someone, etc. Ruthle — I mean, Ruth — is the one who’s missing social cues here.
Not quite. Dina doesn’t seem like a “sneering” type. Ruth just said earlier that Dina should still be afraid of her. Dina, of course, isn’t, but she’s trying to follow Ruth’s wishes anyway since she doesn’t seem to care either way.
We Aspies feel sympathy., it’s empathy we have a hard time with. Detecting someone’s emotions or intentions is something we can do as well, it’s expressing those ourselves and how deal with them. I’d say that the way she is not profoundly affected by Autism would be that we’ve never seen her break down or yell. She’s hardly socially inept, either.
That being said, It may be sarcasm, but it’s more likely she simply doesn’t care but doesn’t want to upset Ruth further, so gives a half-assed attempt at acting scared.
Couldn’t have said it better myself, Wafflington. There’s not nearly enough awareness in the world of what Autism actually *is.* Understanding emotion isn’t the problem. Expression of emotion is more difficult, but can be mitigated with experience.
See? Told you I couldn’t have said it better myself 😛
Agreed on the awareness thing. Of course the terms people use when referring to it don’t exactly help (Please don’t use them. Also, I can’t spell, so of course I spelled it wrong). Terms such as “Disorder” and “Disease” (no seriously, I’ve heard it called that) carry the wrong message. Just so people are aware moving forward, the number one thing with aspergers or autism is over-stimulation, which leads to the aspie blocking out the world. THIS is the cause of basically everything else, as not partaking in the world (which explains why we are not as skilled socially), the capability to hyperfocous, “stimming” (think pacing or tapping when stressed) and attachment to a single niche instead of a wide range of interests (like Dina’s Dinosaurs).
In other words: Dina is one of us, only much better at tying people up with a grappling hook!
6th panel is Joyce being thrown out of that window.
And there was much rejoycing.
Oh god that pun… why? Must we throw you out a window too?
RE: Joyce
“How can he be ‘rejoycing’? He hasn’t done me yet.
A quote uttered by my friend Joyce in college.
I’d throw money to another kickstarter for that.
Ruth isn’t THAT ruthless…okay, maybe moreso to the likes of Blaine, but Joyce?
Joyce is learning there are consequences to rebellion.
Maybe that should be a recurring thing, though not limited to Joyce.
No, not being thrown, Joyce jumps out the window both to get his gloves back, and also to imitate Sal who always enters and leaves through a window.
And then breaks her neck.
Leaving via the window will just make her MORE like Sal.
Yes.
The word you’re looking for is defenestrated
Dina knows sarcasm. I learn something new about her in every appearance.
She’s running away there.i don’t think she was being sarcastic.
I think she’s just emulating everyone else.
Yeah, that IS what she was doing last time the two interacted.
Ooh nice catch Giga. I had forgotten that interraction.
Doesn’t look like she’s running. Plus, the phrasing indicates she isn’t sincere about being frightened
In NORMAL PEOPLE, yes.
This is DINA we’re talking about.
She’s looked into the eyes of Ruth and saw her own demise.
Or the demise of her clothes.
If I recall correctly, a previous strip showed Ruth informing Dina that she should be scared of her. I believe that is what this is about.
I don’t think she’s being sarcastic, she’s trying to be polite bc this is what Ruth wants.
Dina is socially clueless but wants to learn. Last time, Ruth said she should fear her, so Dina adopted that as social propriety. Dina isn’t quite emotionless, but so far she seems to actually have no fear of anything.
Right, I forgot about that.
But the big question is, did Joyce take them off first or did Ruth rip her hands off?
And then the rest of the comic Joyce has CYBORG HANDS.
Courtesy of Mann Co.
Damn.. she was having so much fun.
What’s girl gotta do to get a little glove around here?
No glove, no love??
The glove is extra. $5 extra for some glove love.
An additional fee of $5 if these gloves are used.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6r7edRmXl0
Warehouse 13 FTW
Oh God, now I’m picturing Joyce as an agent.
FX: *Buzzer*
SPORTSCASTERS (in unison): DE-FEN-ES-TRA-TED!
YES! You used my favorite word! I offer you an internet cookie.
I’m surprise she didn’t throw Joyce out the window…then again that would help her to be even MORE like Sal.
Only Sal throws Sal out of windows.
Its funny I actually tried to imagine her doing that.
Sal grabbing her ass and then propelled herself towards a window.
I saw that in a porno once.
Like the Lorax
Sorry Dina, but Ruth has no time for your patronising attempts at showing fear.
Its weird she understands the concept but she just doesn’t know a good example to assimilate it.
She needs moar borg-technology.
Everyone needs moar Borg technology!
It was a bad concept to learn. Don’t do it Dina! Be totally disaffected by Ruth. It drains her power…
Thought one:
Oh thank God Ruth is okay.
Thought two: This is the man always keeping us down! Help Help I’m being oppressed!
Oh and now we see the thievery inherent in the system!
Bloody peasant.
I was wondering if anyone else was going to be happy to see Ruth alive and apparently healthy.
Glad I wasn’t the only one.
Amazi-Girl said she was fine!
The gloves were followed by her femurs. Which she needs to live.
Joyce has a condition where her lungs and kidneys are in her femurs.
That’s funny, I only need my femurs to walk and ride my bike. I was able to live without them, well survive. Wasn’t much fun…
The nearest that will get to happening is if someone throws an Optimus Prime Truck plushie at her.
Or a model truck. The tiny model truck.
No, those big metal Tonka trucks, those suckers hurt.
Ruth smacking Joyce with a rolled up newspaper? Bad Joyce. Now go sit in the corner and think about your life.
“But… but I’m cool now… I’m cool…”
I’m the one that’s cool!
Now Ruth, what do you have against winter gloves? You’re Canadian!
Even a good Canadian knows you need to ration those gloves until you need them.
Unseen in Ruth’s room: a WW2-style propaganda poster illustrating this idea.
We can Ruth it?
Yeah…but Joyce is American.
Winter glove love is universal, y’all.
What self respecting Canadian requires gloves?
The kind of Canadian who lives in Canada.
I barely even need pants let alone gloves.
IT IS RUTHLESS
HIDE YOU FOOLS
Adorable little dork.
Adorkable little door.
A donkable little fork.
Is Ruth just pissed right now and is looking for people to lash out at?
http://bbsimg.ngfiles.com/1/24508000/ngbbs51255359f0b71.jpg
Dude, it’s one of those old-school SWATbots! That takes me back.
Joyce…when Ruth asks you to not do something, you listen. The last poor sod who didn’t listen is now eating food through a straw.
Only because she’s an alcoholic.
No that’s the who lied to her and has now lost their chance to get some Ruth loven.
RIP winter gloves: 2014-2014
When respect for authority fails, use force! Repeat until respect is reinstated.
Yes that has always been effective in instilling respect for authority, right up until someone else has more force. Then it’s civil war.
I can’t tell if your hat is diminutive or authoritative.
“The beatings will continue until morale improves.”
Hey, my uncle has that poster.
Ruth’s totally alive!
Also drink lots of water!
While wearing gloves!
RUTH’S ALIVE?
Ruth! Ruth, I love you! But we only have fourteen hours to save the Earth!
Savior of the Universe!
What do you mean “Ruth Lessick approaching!?”
My monie is on Joyce getting all up is Ruth’s business. Dictating how others can dress is the most disrespectful I think Ruth has been!
Ruth’s dickey VS Joyce’s sence of entitlement. GO!
A dickey? They still make those?
Dickerry. Damn spellcheck
Haha, I was gonna say, it looks like Ruth’s wearing a WHOLE shirt under that!
Did my post disappear?
No, I ate it.
You really shouldn’t eat those things, they contain a lot more calories than you’d expect.
I don’t think Ruth has the authority to do that but I don’t care.
Ruth only has one rule: Don’t fuck with Ruth.
And no gloves, as seen here.
Two; her two rules are Don’t @#$% with Ruth, No Gloves, and Dina get lost…
…wait, let me go out and try it again.
I half expected Joyce to be the one thrown out the window
And that makes 3
So, from the dialog, I surmise we are now averaging about 1 week’s worth of storyline covered over the course of 1 year. Is that about right?
Talk about your suspended animation (oh, sorry, this strip isn’t animated….yet)!
I love you, Ruth.
We all love Ruth.
Yeah, Joyce. Cool people wear fingerless gloves.
Joyce, you ain’t hardcore enough honey! Ya gotta mutilate those gloves first. Come back when you’re wearing PROPER cool-woman gear.
I wish there were animated shorts. I would want to here how Dina saying that would sound.
Some think she should sound like Nagato (Yuki), but to me that’s way too monotone and slow. She can at least express wonder and annoyance, but here she’s neither frightened nor being sarcastic. Maybe she’s just saying that to reassure Ruth she remembers how she was instructed to behave around her.
This is surprisingly petty even for her.
Next thing going out the window is the pair of sunglasses.
And what happened to the pencil? Did Joyce swallow it?
Her name is Ruthless remember? Joyce learned a whole new usage for that pencil.
“Wanna see a magic trick?”
“MAGIC ISN’T REAL, YOU IDIOT read a book MAGIC ISN’T REAL YOU IDIOT”
Isn’t that usually done with a pointy hat?
Dina, you and Ruth should be bestest friends, because I <3 you both together.
It’s still september? I would’ve figured we’d be to october by now. I thought there was a couple week time skip, although I might have imagined that.
Man, I’m really looking forward to seeing Dorothy Dinkley sometime in 2017.
We skipped three days waiting for pajama jeans, and two with Dorothy studying. Those were the only lengthy timeskips.
Today is Tuesday of their fourth week of classes. I’m not sure exactly when IU classes begin, but I figure it’s mid-to-late September now.
(My freshman year, we had several inches of snow by this point. But I went to college atop a hill in central Vermont a couple decades of global warming ago.)
Window is wrong — that kind of window opens bottom-out top-in, so that rain doesn’t get inside. But I agree with ruthless: “No.”
She pulled out the entire pane of glass to ditch the gloves.
I’ve seen them that open as depicted here, and it’s a real building that Willis actually lived in, so I’ll trust him on the architectural details.
But Ruth does appear to have thrown at least one of those gloves directly through the glass…
I seriously don’t get how Ruth is still an RA with the way she abuses her parents. Surely at least one of the first years would complain about her, either to the Student Life office, their parents, or someone else. Older students like Sarah can just ignore Ruth’s crap, as can people who really don’t care about authority like Sal, but what about rational people like Dorothy? Part of me wants the humor to continue, but it’d be nice to see Joyce grow a spine here and stand up to Ruth.
Abuses her residents, not her parents. Doh! =)
Pretty sure she covered that: the ends justify the means, so “no rules broken” = carte blanche to do whatever it takes to keep things that way
[broken femurs aren’t against the rules lololololol]
There’s already been a fire alarm pulled this year though, so who knows, they might start cracking down on her a bit more harshly.
“Yeah, but Dudley doesn’t know that!”
[read: unless EVERYONE has the photographic memory they use in movies to show flashback sequences, the residents most likely got the gist of “I have the authority to do whatever I want to get results” and haven’t been keeping perfect tabs to realize that the fire alarm would in fact be a ding against her, so effectively she still holds sway over them]
Next out the window will be the pencil.
Ruth probably already showed Joyce a Ruthless way of disposing of that…..
Joyce cried.
I picture Joyce crying very much like Usagi in Sailor Moon. ^_^
……
……
……
Man, Ruth really needs to loosen up. She should get herself a girlfriend.
(I’m sorry. I’ll go now.)
You get all the thumbs up. =)
Umm, I was too old when I went to uni to be in halls, but it strikes me that Ruthless is paying more than average interest in Joyce’s, um, well-being.
You know, I think there’s a reporter out there somewhere that might be interested. . .
David, I didn’t think you could draw Joyce in a way to make me crush on her more.
Then I saw her eyes in panel 4.
Damn.
Yes… Ruth is back in the green shirt and black sweater vest! 😀
Dina keeps her promises.
For those unsure what desai is referring to (like I was) this is the strip being referenced:
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2014/comic/book-4/02-i-was-a-teenage-churchmouse/terms/
Poor Joyce. D:
For some reason, I really thought this was going to be Billie telling them No, but Ruth is just so so so much better
Good job Ruth. I approve.
Joyce, you have to know that you don’t say no to Ruth. Even when she’s in a good mood, you just don’t do it.
(Actually, Ruth is doing her a favor here, if Joyce thought she was laughed at for the strap-on deal, wait until classes break and someone actually see’s her. ‘We’ might think she’s cute, but….think about it, if you saw this in your dorm…)
Where’d the pencil go?
Love the sarcasm Dina, you are learning.
Doodled in book 3? Ok, I’m 2 hours past bedtime, so what in heck is this?
Ruth, Dorothy and Sarah are upperclassmen, I think. Can’t remember Billies age in relation to Ruth, but younger?
So does this mean they may not return?
Or am I totally reading all this wrong. (sorry, I’m tired)
The poll is just asking which character’s head is being hand-drawn by me on the inside of the third Dumbing of Age book.
I’m not really sure what you’re reading or how, but…
Dorothy is a freshman, though at 19 she’s a little older than the average freshman. Sarah is a sophomore. We haven’t been told specifically which year Ruth is in, but they don’t typically let freshmen be RAs, and she’s 20, so probably a junior. Billie’s a freshman, 18-ish, so a couple years younger than Ruth.
Poor Joyce, now her hands will be cold during the winter. (Luckly, the snow won’t start falling for at least another decade)
And Ruthless strikes back!
Fashion Police brutality!
Shit, now I’m going to have that old Boomtown Rats song stuck in my head all day. DAMN YOU WILLIS.
Now lets see Billie or Amber show up.
Ten years from now, when it’s actually winter, there will be a reference to Joyce not having any winter gloves. Because continuity is in play.
Yay, Ruth is ok!
Oh no, Ruth’s still a world-class asshole!
At least were getting a scale of ‘comic book time’ in this.
So, it’s not just her “attracted to drunk driver” issues with Billie; Ruth is a violent asshole in general. Sympathy… dropping.
You say it as if it wasn’t the first thing we learned about her.
well we don’t know it all yet, Ruth’s got other issues that have been hinted at, hence her drinking problem
“I will simulate that for you best I can”
– Dina
Right now I’d like to see Joyce channel Badass Joyce from It’s Walky and kick Ruth’s butt across the campus.
Damn it Ruth, this is why we can’t have cool things.
Gloves are SERIOUS BUSINESS.
No, Joyce. Just… no.
“Adhere to the status quo.”
I am deeply dissapointed in the direction David Willis is taking the comic, and this panel is the exact reason why. This is what, the third, fourth instance of items of clothing being thrown? Obviously David Willis is just trying to push an agenda here, and it literally sickens me to it.
I mean, I was fine when it was hidden away in subtext– you know, throwing toys. Even tho the subtext was very thin, but at least then it was IN YOUR FACE like this constant throwing of clothes is.
I mean, I’m not one of those people, but I just think it’s funny (not really funny) that suddenly everyone is throwing clothes. Not just one character. Everyone one. He even forced it into a plot point! Way to twist the plot just to fit in your agenda, David Willis.
This comic was so much better during it’s earlier run, before clothes throwing became it’s one-note joke. =(
I’ve been reading this comic for twenty years, but I’m done. Done. Unless you stop this clothes throwing agenda (and you shuld to keep me as a reader).
hahahaha
Of all the things for Ruth to flaunt her authoritah over, this seems rather petty.
Thank you for the answer to the doodle question 🙂
theyre still in september? dafuq
Upon sighting a predator species approaching, the wise herbivore quietly retreats the area just in case one victim is not enough to sate the hunter’s hunger.
Goddammit why is Dina always the funniest thing ever it is not fair
You may be super cool, but you’re dealing with Ruthless