͚͎̖̞̤̐̀͑but it is so awesome. ̠̳̜̞̟̮͕̮͓̯͕͇͍̏ͭ̆ͩ͌̒
̢̼̗̤̗͉̫͚͚͊͐͋̊̿̀̚͟͠͡w̗͚̹͎̦̹͎̞̱̋ͦ͆̔̌ͥͭͧͬͦ̀̍́̀h̸͂ͪͨ͂̈ͤ̎ͧͦͤ̄ͬ͑̌̋̅̒ͮ̆҉̸͙͓̫̻̰̦̘̮̣͇͍͎͙̫͍̀ã̸̪͈̩̮̔́͛͞͠tͯ̓͑̿ͬͧ̉҉̪̹̻͇̼͇̤̘̥͓̜̳̠̤͈̥̗͚̀͜͡ ̻̳̦̞̭͍͉͊ͧ͌̾̎̑ͭͨ̐̆ͧ͜͠w̃̂ͥ̾̿̓̊ͪͩͯ̑̾ͫ̑͑̏͆̚͏̹̹͖̯͇̤̮̫̯̮̤̤̪͝hͪ̑̊̈̓͗͗́̄ͥ́͑͗̿̂͏̷̥͙̜͍͎̦̰̬͓͠ā̴̞̮̜͇͈͎ͯ͋ͣͭ̔̋ͬͪ̔ͨ̚͞t̴͍̩͉͖͚̻̻̜̮͔ͮ̑̆̍̈́̽͒͐̽̑̌ͮ̃͢ ̸̴̡̫̘̗̖͔̬̣̯̘̯̳̹̇̽̑ͯ̈́̄̑̊͛̉ͩ̅ͅw̛̜͓͇̜̦̝͇͔̳͎͊͋̓ͮͨͧ̓̒̅͂ͤ͞h̵̨͉̰͔͓̟̼̭̥̬̥̫̹͓̦̜̜̲̥ͪ̆̔̈͒̄̓͊ͭ̾̋ͩ̅̚͟ͅa̴̢̡̨̢̜̥̲͚̣̘̟̪̜̅ͤ̊͒͗́̓̀͒̐̽̏̿t̸ͥͪ͆̀̂̓̽̾̑͏̶̢̭͈̖͍̼̮͍̠̩͈̗͍͎̼ͅ ̑͊̀̓̅̈͐̃̌͊ͪ̒̎ͫ̉͑̑̍̚҉̡̢͇̜̩̖͚̩̱̼͈͕͇͎̙̬̀ͅͅw̷̡̖͇̲͙̺̤͎̥̝̬̺ͭͦ̅͒̑̓̿̏ͩ́͋̀̎ͬͯ͡ͅh̨̔̈́͊̇̒̈ͤͮ̑͌̀͘҉̞̬͍̱̩̰͉̮̫a͇̦͔̰̘͚̠̰͎̜̰̯̤͚̩̠͗̈̎̈́̉̆̓̓̓̽̏ͫͧͧ́͘͜ͅṯ̹͔̭͈̰͙͈͓̤̻̖̞̭̟̋̓ͤͩ͆̑̄͊ͣ́͘͞ ̧̡̟̙̦͇̙͓̱͈͓̞ͫͫͧͥͭͩ͞͝͠ͅ
mad respect
Missingno is great. I’m really dissapointed they didn’t make an official version of it. I mean, it even has a few already existing evolutions and it’s part of the original…208, I believe?
There’s actually a bunch of variations on the glitch that cause weird effects, including corrupted name data (instead of just “missingno” which I think is what it defaults to when it identifies a bad lookup for the name). Interesting stuff to look up, kinda creepy.
Also, I don’t know much, but, it was 151 in generation 1 (counting the mostly-ungettable #151, Mew).
Scoops and LeslieBean4Shizzle, sitting in a tree
Questioning the choice of not choosing to sit on a couch instead, as they realise that it’s almost impossible to do anything but very careful k-i-s-s-i-n-g
Then they fall down and break their legs
And now this poem, that never scanned to begin with, will no longer even rhyme.
With apologies to Scoops, LeslieBean4Shizzle, and everyone reading this.
I tried, Norton. God help me, I tried. I’m a little more unhinged for it.
My doctor just told me the resulting medical bill will run me about… $4000. I take cash or check. But no money order, I still don’t know how the hell that works.
Things with typing? What could you possibly mean, all the typing looks perfectly normal to me. You are clearly just going insane. Go get some sleep or something.
…aw, I can’t actually stand to gaslight somebody. The squares are totally a typing thing.
The reason for that is because Copy starts with C, X is a reasonable letter to associate with Cut, and they happen to be right next to each other on a QWERTY keyboard, so why not go for the trifecta?
“Windows 10 does not support Old Enochian (AKA Cthulhu-speak) metagrammer. Any user modifications to this end will result in your warrantry being voided, also your soul.”
There are various places in the US named Paris, Rome etc, where white people without imagination forgot to ask the natives where they were before killing them.
Is it that they’ve never run into each other, or the Amazigirl costume falling out of her basket in front of Sal? Her nemesis might know her secret identity now!
I’m fairly certain the costume wasn’t in there. A zippered one-piece is pretty bulky, and the biggest stuff we saw in the scattered laundry was jeans and t-shirts.
Not to mention it would b pretty stupid to have it with her regular laundry. What if this happened? What if someone was watching her do laundry? Or with her?
You assume either of them would show up at a meeting. Amber is a well known recluse who never leaves her room (Cause she’s either being actully reclusive or out being a super hero) and sal is too cool to show up and just leaves though a window instead.
There are a few more named characters in that wing since then: Carla, other Rachel, and I can’t remember if we know who Sierra’s roommate is. We still don’t know who Agatha’s notorious bongowad roommate is.
Sierra’s roommate is Dorothy. We’ve seen Sierra be both sexiled and weenus pointed.
Perhaps that’s why she doesn’t show up in the room with Dorothy too often.
I went to a religious high school in Imladris. They insisted that the black speech not be uttered there. One guy tried to hold a speech-in, but the provost went all “Never before has any one dared utter the words of that tongue here!” on him.
As near as I can tell…
Panel 2: “Ah know, yer wonderin’ why Ah’m apologizin’…”
Panel 4: “It’s prolly” [I don’t even know- looks like ‘kill Paula assaulted her the youthless.’ But that doesn’t make sense. ‘Cause Hulk assigned her the YouTubes’? I can’t tell. Something about what she thinks of Carla, at any rate.]
Panel 6: “Ah mean, not nice really, but…”
somehow i’m sure a few commenters will say this is all Sal’s fault, but can we at least come together and for once try to blame this all on Obama instead?
There was a subreddit dedicated to blaming the problems in one of the women’s dorms at Indiana University on Obama? Can’t picture that getting much traffic. But something are just outside my scope.
They shut down r/ThanksObama after the man himself released a video of him trying to dunk a too-large cookie into a glass of milk. It didn’t fit, he said “Thanks, Obama,” and they closed the subreddit.
Given that a lot of the issues that triggered the robbery and subsequent handstabs were caused by parental neglect/abuse, I’m going going to go straight to the source:
Fuck you, Mr. O’Malley.
Fuck you, Mrs. Walkerton.
Y’all fucked up a pair of perfectly good kids. Nice fucking going, you fucking fucks.
LOL, why do I feel like Sal’s just following Carla at a discreet distance and apologizing for the parkour? That’s Sal’s day today. “Yeah, Ah showed her the Youtubes, sorry. Sorry!”
I think Sal, like Carla and Becky is an internalizing pain and disguising it outwardly sort of person. For Carla and Becky, the external mask is exuberant and big, but I think Sal might internalize being hurt by just retreating into herself. She was basically told in her “gift” that she was so worthless and wrong that she didn’t even rate above her brother’s week and a half long girlfriend.
She doesn’t believe that, but she still feels the need to apologize for something, and showing Carla youtubes of parkour serves that function.
I don’t really see Sal as having much of a character arch. Oh, she’s a well-developed character, but she’s matured and resilient. Yeah, she’s dealing with crap, but it’s crap she’s experienced in dealing with, and she’s not facing anything that’s challenging her or forcing her to grow. Most of her panel-time has been either as foil for, support of, or challenge to the other characters. Aside from her boning up on math…
…. oh, wait, her only friend Marcie is looking to broaden her horizons to romance with Malaya, and Sal realizes she might need a broader pool of friends to cover for their private time. Maybe that’s it.
Nah, Sal has major trust issues. She’s even said it before when talking to the math TA at the bar – Marcie’s the only one she trusts enough to open up to normally.
Sal’s arc, if she has one, is going to be learning to let go of her cool, reserved armor and trust people a bit.
I do agree though with Reltzik that she’s also clearly matured and experienced with processing through a lot of crap without going off the deep end. After all, she’s admitted with Amazi-girl that her old methods of handling this sort of alienation was anger and violence. And I do think that what’s going on internally with Sal is a lot more subtle than say the obvious masks that Carla and Becky put on.
But I dunno, there’s something in her relationship with her family that doesn’t feel resolved. Whether it be internalizing the notion that her natural hair is “wrong”, her polite meekness at being directly ignored at parent’s night and her doing the reaching out thing unbidden here and leading with an apology for something not her fault, when she usually gives a token protestation before helping someone. I’m not fully sure what it is yet, but it feels like there’s something that hasn’t really been fully brought out into the open yet.
Its been much longer than a week and a half. If you call Choosing My Religion to be the start of their relationship, and you could argue that back or forth a couple chapters, but it’s been almost 4 weeks since then, about 27 days.
Looking back, yeah, you’re right. Huh, wonder where I was getting the week and a half from… ah, I think my brain was randomly thinking back to the “Walky Performs a Sex” interlude which would have been about 2 weeks ago.
Also, can I just say, that I absolute love Willis’s character searching algorithms for the archive as it makes looking back at past character interactions way easier and saves my poor swiss cheese memory from having to do all the work.
“Ah know, yer wonderin’ why Ah’m apologizing… it’s partially my fault, Ah showed her the YouTubes. Ah mean, it’s not really, but… but sometimes ya can’t help but blame yerself.”?
I guess Carla learned parkour the same way Amazi-Girl did.
Plot twist: Sal is a creation of Amber’s mind so she wouldn’t have to deal with the fact that she was the one who robbed that store. Sal is speaking in tongues because the illusion is breaking.
Plot Twist: Amber robbed the place, successfully blaming Sal, and Ethan is covering for her because Amber had a mental break and honestly believes it was Sal who did it…
Like I’ve said before, my money is it ending with the law, either involuntary commitment or more likely suffering without mental care in a woman’s prison.
I really don’t think so, if only because that would kick Amber out of the cast for years on end. I think it’s fairly likely that she never gets caught being Amazi-Girl, and for that to happen, she can’t ever do anything too bad.
And I don’t think Amber ever will ever hurt someone who doesn’t “deserve it”, since the last time she tried with Sal, she was a completely ineffectual clown who knocked Malaya over and then got kneed in the gut. Otherwise she just beats up dudes that it’s okay to beat up, because they have no character, agency, or drama besides being Thug McHenchman.
Like, we’re not going to see the point where Amber becomes what she fears most. That’s like expecting Dorothy to say “man screw Yale, time to be a housewife” or for Becky to go “Maybe my dad had a point after all.”
By deserve it, I mean scum like the Toe That Walks or Blaine. There’s plenty of people that could get on her bad side and still be fairly decent. I’ve got good odds on another showdown with Sal, possibly ending in one or both parties being seriously hurt.
And I just don’t really see that happening, because if Amber does something really awful, then she has to go to jail because we don’t have the justification of it being wacky fantasy action anymore.
Like, the absolute worst she could do is pick a fight with Sal, and even then I’m convinced that would end in Amber breaking down instead of actually causing any damage.
I mean, it’s hard to say, since there’s not really going to be an ending for at least another 10 years, and I doubt the characters will still be going through the exact same issues then as they are now. Even in the last five years the entire cast has significantly developed.
Amber especially, I really can’t see her storyline ending with her realizing that she’s as terrible as she thought and doomed to become an abuser.
I dunno. I have a bad suspicion that if Amber’s life collapses to the point where she finally relents to getting the help she needs, we’re going to see a “college psychologists tend to be awful” style plotline rather than an Amber gets genuine help plotline. Which is bad, because girl’s on a bad road and it’s only going to get bumpier from here.
Eugh, I hope not. It’s tough enough for people to get help when they aren’t reading a storyline about how getting help is sucky and ineffective. I’d be okay with ‘getting help is hard work and takes much longer than you wish it would’, but I’d be very wary of ‘help is totally not worth it at all, you should just give up.’
I think it’s inevitable that Amber starts healing, and I think that can very easily involve professional help. The problem is that therapy is kind of hard to write into a sliding timescale (see how QC eventually dropped it), and also that, if Amber comes to understand that Amazi-Girl is a violent fantasy construct and she stops, we don’t get anymore Amazi-Girl stories.
Yeah, we like having AG comics! Even if she got help, though, Amber has a whole lot to unpack; therapy could well take longer than the comic will run.
The easy way to handle getting a therapist would be showing Amber finally going to the counseling office, but keeping all the actual counseling offscreen. She might react to a tough counseling session by masking up, for example. However, having an adult monitoring the situation would remove the immediacy of Danny drowning in Amber’s problems all alone (except for Ethan).
Also, since my headcanon is that Ninja Rick is the campus counselor, and since Ninja Rick won’t be appearing in this comic (by Word of God, he’s based on a real person, which really just raises more questions), therefore, she won’t go to the conuselor. QED.
And also, since the comic is going to be in one semester for all eternity, we can’t ever see her heal from her trauma the way we did in Shortpacked, where we saw her grow in real time for 10 years.
So, if anything, we’ll occasionally see Amber getting professional help, but I imagine most of her development will come from dealing with Danny, Sal, and Ethan. I’m not sure how to balance Amber getting therapy and Amber still being Amazi-Girl, though, so I imagine that she eventually will stop, if only because the last two years have been really clear that Amazi-Girl is not a good thing for Amber to pursue.
Well, since she seems to be DID, Amazi-girl and Amber will need to resolve their attempts to split fully from each other and deny the other and start integrating eventually including allowing each to have some of the emotions of the other (fear and vulnerability for Amazi-girl, love and acceptance for Amber). And that’s a long process that would definitely last over a semester.
I don’t know if we’ll see that plotline, but I don’t think we’ll see “no more Amazi-girl” not only because of the DID stuff, but also because writing Amazi-girl and her gravity defying weirdness is how Willis gets out his sci-fi/action storywriting needs while keeping everything else grounded deeply in reality (and a reality that is often personally affecting for him).
Honestly, I don’t like them because (A) dangerously mentally ill person running around and threatening to beat people – no matter how much you wrap that in funny, that’s still the core of the matter, and (B) I’m always wondering when we’ll get the pyche and she badly hurts someone arguably undeserving.
In theory, her Amazi-Girl thing could become an excuse to go and and do real, non-vigilante good while costumed. Like those people who take kids in the hospital on trips to be superhero for a day, or the spandex equivalent of Bikers Against Child Abuse. Or something more low-key.
I have noooo idea where this is actually gonna go, though…
Speaking as someone training to be a counsellor, a good counsellor would probably not say “you should stop being Amazigirl”. A good counsellor should say “we want you to be able to choose to be Amazigirl because you believe it’s a positive thing to do, not because you feel like you need to”- with the understanding that it will take a LONG TIME before Amber would feel able to stop.
I can’t see a good therapist basically kicking out their client’s emotional crutch and telling them to get up and act like nothing’s wrong.
Right? At this point it almost feels like we’re watching someone’s life fall completely apart and we’re powerless to do anything about it. It’s watching a car crash. Or torture porn. Watching Amber feels kinda like torture porn. Because you want to GET HER HELP OMG but you can’t because she’s not a real person. It’s very difficult that we have to be patient and wait for someone in-comic to notice and get her help.
Well, Danny kinda did last time. He gets that her “cute dodge” is actually symbolic of far greater issues and repeatedly insisted that she was Amber when she tried separating her identities again. It’s a start, at least.
Yeah, I actually really liked that from Danny. I hope he keeps this up or some other characters get involved. I’m really hoping for a nice cathartic moment with Amber and Ethan, because he’ll be the only one who’d truly get it because he was there.
Yeah, I can see that metaphor. For me, it’s been like seeing someone make all the mistakes in treating their condition that I did when I was in middle and high school, just a slow-motion train wreck you know is coming, but you also know that the character will need to be crushed by before they can continue forward.
Amber should seek treatment for her involuntary flashbacks, disconnection from her own identity, and mood swings into panic or violent rage. Also she should not live in the same building as Sal.
She should also seek treatment off campus because in my experience college counseling already works on a Dumbing of Age snail’s pace and you don’t want to double down on that.
Counselling for issues like Amber’s would be a slow, slow process anyway. It’s not like this started with Sal- her issues run very deep indeed.
(Speaking as someone with a similar history, somewhat similar manifestation of PTSD, some training as a counsellor under his belt and maybe six years of undergoing counselling.)
Yeah, I explained how well this captured PTSD, and how my own worked, on the Patreon, and found that doing so upset me enough that I had to take an anti-anxiety pill and go lay down. It’s… really effectively done.
Yeah, this is probably the best comic depiction of PTSD I’ve ever seen, right down to the barely hearing the words coming out of another person’s mouth because you’re flashbacking too hard.
I think my biggest problem with Ambers character is that I can’t relate to any aspect of her psychology. I have no experience with what’s she’s experiencing above, or her need to compartmentalise herself, or her damage from her dad. Which is great for me, I guess, but makes her very frustrating for me to read.
Well, I also see Amber as extremely mentally ill (I think the author is trying to write her as gradually developing multiple personalities, which is a fabricated mental issue and wouldn’t pan out in MPD-esque cases as Amber is written). She clearly has severe anxiety and I would argue she shows signs of delusion. I can say assertively that her experiences do not make this kind of person. Honestly, she seems almost like a borderline personality disorder case, but I think that’s more a messy inflection from the character writing than from character design.
I know it’s dissociative identity disorder, I referenced the archaic term because to me it’s closer to the misconception than the highly controversial diagnosis.
I dunno, I’m not so sure we’re seeing “gradually developing multiple alters” as we’re seeing alters who were close to being integrated being pushed further and further way in a misguided attempt at compartmentalization and avoidance of “bad emotions” and “bad selves”.
It’s a lot of things that resonate with my own experiences growing up with DID. And she’s definitely making similar mistakes to what I used to do and we’re seeing the fallout of this attempt at pushing the alters away from each other in order to “trap the bad”.
I doubt that’s the only thing she has though, especially since she, at the least, also has severe anxiety and PTSD.
Stara, it took me until today to realize Amber’s reacting to most of her stuff just like my case of BD works, minus less cartoon exaggeration than you’d think. ‘Course, I probably won’t remember that tomorrow. It’s a little jangly on my nerves right now so the realization will probably have its own little file in my personal hard drive and encrypted by the time I wake up tomorrow…
Steve: interesting, and I hope you’re okay (sounds like you’re freaking out a bit? I might have mis-read). Yeah, I do think that a psychological profile of Amber’s would have to have an axis I or axis II consideration, it ain’t all just axis IV. Anxiety is def a large part of her character writing in social circs, and instability plus the deep, it-doesn’t-need-a-trigger complications of dealing with anxiety seem to be a rational explanation for why she’s reacting in such a way to something a lot of peeps have experienced without dissociating into a superhero or turning into a quivering jelly.
I have PTSD, and I do get it. I’ve blacked out some of my trauma but for the stuff I do feel…. Triggers are hard. You literally know the moment you are in, but my face gets flushI start reliving the past and am doing everything I can to stay present
Maybe just take it as a character study in that psychology? Could help it be less frustrating.
But yeah, not every character is going to resonate with everyone. Though for the theoretical person for whom every character resonates… I’m so so sorry for how life has treated you.
Oh gosh. A gay half black Amber with natural hair, fighting her way out of the church which is fighting back with a literal gun, all while running into the first real roadblocks of college studying and having her first relationship with a sweet but odd kid instead of the girl of her fantasies, who she still pines for and sees every day. Oh, and those racist parents were actually foster parents, because her real parents died in a car accident, and Dina is an ambitious, kinda experienced, but still awkward alcoholic who alternates between pulling her up and dragging her down.
That’s as much as I can handle, Sal/Amber/Becky/Walky/Ruth dating Dorothy/Dina/Billie/Danny. And I didn’t really get much Danny in there. It’s too much for one person, far too much.
Huh. It’s kinda weird that I didn’t fit in any Joyce. I don’t think there’s any more room, and most of her problems are faced to a bigger extent by the other cast members.
Amber’s easy for me to relate to because I know that feeling where being angry about something makes you a piece of shit, the idea of not being able to healthily express that anger for fear that you hurt somebody, blaming yourself for abuse, and the need to prove that you’re not the single worst person without realizing that nobody but you is judging by that metric but yourself.
I’m completely inexperienced in the matter, but Amber’s need to compartmentalize her identities stems from her fears that she, as Amber, cannot healthily express anger, and she needs to take it out on people she can justify as deserving it, and now it’s become a separate identity she uses to run away from herself.
The situation she went through is not objectively so bad that it necessarily merits her extremely traumatised, almost histrionic reaction (note, I am not calling Amber histrionic, she’s just drawn in an over-the-top way). Her father was also, in all frankness, not bad enough that this is a typical clinical response. He hit her mother and was verbally abusive to Amber. It was not severe abuse either– you guys can disagree if you want, I have yet to see Blaine’s behaviour towards Amber be as psychologically damaging in real-life cases of emotional abuse from parents involved in shady activities, even when they pull their child into lying for them.
(I don’t like the storylines that involve Amber’s PTSD very much, though. It seems disingenuous to me, like someone’s idea of how a Real-Life, Gritty Story works. I love the Amazi-girl plots, though, even when they handle the same material or bleed into Amber. My own life circs have been was more involved than Amber’s, in every dimension used to craft her traumatised sides, and I have been in so many different environments where I’ve met and been in sessions with people who’ve been in really rough places, and I just don’t see the writing surrounding her as realistic)
(Hence my being like “yeah, she’s definitely very mentally ill in a way that would exist with or without her personal circumstances. Amber, as a person, would in any event have an unstable personality disorder because that is the simplest way to explain how over-the-top this is.”)
Amazi-Girl’s problem (I consider Amber just a disguise she wears) is she has been projecting her anger and helplessness on Sal for literal years. She’s an incarnation of anxiety and self-hatred versus anything real. I don’t think she’s mentally ill so much as having severe roleplaying problems.
I mean… to be honest, tough shit? Trauma doesn’t really care if you ‘objectively’ had things bad enough to deserve it, y’know? If I’m a little prickly, it’s because I’ve seen too many good people get told that other people don’t think their history warrants their trauma, because their parents *only* emotionally abused them every single hour of the day, rather than *also* beating them into the hospital.
Yeah, I was verbally and emotionally abused a lot as a kid but very rarely hit, so I eventually started telling myself to stop whining because other kids have it worse.
But at the same time, are you developing DID and pulling frozen faces of extreme shock and horror when you run into your triggers? Hence my saying it’s not just what she’s lived through. I’d compare to Becky; I feel that if you switched the two characters, B would be a more stable and less asocial, anxious person under Amber’s life experiences. Amber, I imagine, would be incredibly damaged by Becky’s last few days.
Actually, yes, I did develop DID from the trauma of being emotionally abused by my father for more than twenty years. Thanks for fucking asking, Stara, and in a way that lets me know you considered it so very unlikely.
I don’t see how directing it at someone else makes it any less offensive, and your endearment at someone who’s angry and hurt by your skepticism is condescending.
DID like PTSD flashbacks is/are weird. What triggers it can sometimes be random as all hell. Fuck, I still don’t know what triggered my first split even if the second and third are a lot more obvious to me (and yes, involved periods of my life of intense and persistent emotional abuse along with other mental stuff clanging into things). As far as I know, I’ve had it since I was at least 5.
And also with regards to your final sentence. Oh hell yes, I agree. Already coming in wounded to something like that leaves you even more battered and I can easily see her developing more alters with new traumas. Especially since that’s a thing I’ve definitely done.
Oh, brains, you fragile, squishy ball of neurons and emotions…
Right, I think it’s fair to stay that since Stara saw dad killed as a child, there’s a decidedly patronising tone here. Don’t see any attacking of anyone’s disorders, except you being dismissive, Cerb.
And I think it’s fair to say that it’s not friggin’ cool to post pretending to be somebody else in defense of yourself, Stara. I can see IPs, you know.
And, furthermore, no, I don’t get like that currently, when confronted by my triggers, but that’s because of significant amounts of counseling and the assistance of anti-anxiolytic medications to break the physical connection between my PTSD and my anxiety attacks. ‘Frozen in place, unable to speak or react’ is actually a pretty good summary of what it looks like on the outside when I get triggered so badly that it causes an attack, which would happen if I was suddenly and unexpectedly presented with an extreme form of my trigger, like, say, my abuser yelling at me. Just like it happened to Amber, here, when she saw Sal’s fingers closing on fabric that looked just like Ethan’s shirt that day.
Seriously, where do you get off?! I said more than once that Amber probably has an underlying condition exacerbating the issue and now YOU ACTUALLY SAID IN YOUR OWN COMMENT THAT YOU HAVE ANXIETY, WHICH I AM ASSERTING IS LIKELY TO BE PLAYING A KEY ROLE IN HER HISTRIONIC RESPONSES.
AND YES, I have been and am in psychiatric and therapeutic environments, I have met a lot of people from diverse circumstances, SO BIG FUCKING SURPRISE THAT A DISSOCIATIVE IDENTITY IS PROMOTED FROM PTSD INTERTWINED WITH ANXIETY.
But I’m not sure any of us benefits from making hierarchies of who has it worse than who (and thus has earned their traumas), whether in fiction or in life.
Cerebus, I’m really sorry, but I hate hearing “I’m sorry for your loss.” In my mind, it diminishes the events and isolates everything to one suitcase item that can be misplaced or lost– or a sudden one-off, like death through natural illness. Please, read what I say and comment on that instead.
Regarding hierarchies: I would rather not have a pissing-contest. It seems that without divulging things, commenters tend to take remarks here very personally, or think someone’s the equivalent of an entitled white middle-class commenting on structural racism from their all-white suburban area.
Back to say I don’t hate you, your response made me feel angry. :p Because we’re internet strangers who don’t know each other, and words can sometimes cause a spiral of bad feelings that last for a day or touches the tipping point a person’s been sitting on for weeks/months/years. So, I don’t hate you, and I’m sorry I said I did. <3
Yeah, I understand, Stara, and I’m sorry I snapped like I did too. Your words just accidentally touched off a bad reaction because they came across like some unpleasant things that had been said to us, and friends, all throughout our life. I know you didn’t intend that, and I don’t bear any hard feelings at all. Thank you so much for coming back to say that. I’d offer hugs, but I try to ask before doing that. <3
OTOH, while Becky certainly had a odd childhood that’s left its scars, she didn’t have a constantly deliberately emotionally abusive parent, so the comparison is rather moot. They’ve both been shaped by both their innate personality and their experiences. You can’t take the characters we know and swap them.
What would Amber be like if she was raised in a fundamentalist Christian, apparently loving, if conditional and homophobic, household? Damned if I know. What would Becky have been like if she was raised by Blaine? Again, damned if I know.
It’s easy to look at them and say, well Becky seems so resilient and Amber so fragile that Becky would have been fine anyway and Amber would still be troubled, just not so bad, but we don’t know that, because that resilience and fragility are still partly the result of those experiences.
It really seems to me that you’re looking at Amber and thinking “She didn’t have it as bad as me, so if she has problems, they’re her fault.” Which really isn’t fair.
Scars are just that, scars. Maybe it means a life-long mark, maybe it causes deeper tissue damage, including nerve damage or impaired action. And it’s the same for brain stuff. Same experiences, different person might have similar or different ends, but it wouldn’t be because of any inherent quality of one over the other. Simply how each has adapted to the scars life has given them and dealt with the impositions to daily life.
Except that Stara is not saying any of this is Amber’s fault. Just that they believe that the kind of mental health impact that Amber’s exhibiting would correspond to the level and type of abuse she’s been exposed to unless there are other disorders or circumstances which are contributing.
I’m not seeing where she’s doing any kind of victim blaming or trying to undermine the legitimacy or reality of anyone’s trauma based on not having been abused ‘badly enough.’ Am I missing something…?
Yeah, I know, trauma is subjective; that’s why I think Amber’s severe anxiety plays such a big role in how she’s responding. I’m not saying an average person in her circs wouldn’t need counselling; I’m saying that the severity of how Amber feels about everything is disproportionate to what is depicted and an underlying (obvious, often depicted) condition is probably what’s inflamed things.
Also, a lot of what I’m saying boils down to “I think she’s badly written.” Her father is an almost exact crossover from his cartoony shortpacked! character. It’s ridiculous what a caricature he is. I like the how-do-you-get-irl-Batman but, but the PTSD and the run-ins with her triggers, the writing seems inauthentic/amateur to me.
Um, politely, that’s still very dismissive to people who’ve had a Blaine in their lives. I’ve been lucky enough to not, but Blaine talks almost exactly like my girlfriend’s dad, right down to the statements about how “ungrateful” she’s being not following his every whim in the times where he financially contributes in any way to her life.
Stara, look: gas lighting is the go-to for emotionally abusive persons. We’re told we’re over reacting. We’re told we must have mental health problems because we have a strong response to being abused. We’re told to stop being so dramatic. Statements that our responses to abuse are overblown *is part of the cycle of abuse*. I understand you got angry at an internet stranger, but consider the above and know that those who are emotionally abused feel like the schrodinger’s cat of abuse victims. Always questioning whether the problem is the abuser or them. That uncertainty forms the baseline for abuse, and is the ultimate tool for the abuser.
OTOH…. as a member of this group, I don’t find Stara’s analytical perspective is particularly dismissive. She’s not saying the trauma isn’t real. She’s not saying the response to trauma isn’t legitimate. She’s rightly saying that Amber’s anxiety disorder is playing a pretty big role in the severity of Amber’s PTSD and dysfunctional coping mechanisms. But then, I don’t have a problem with acknowledging that there are levels of severity in what is done to a person so long as we all can agree that it doesn’t in any way detract from the legitimacy of anyone’s subjective experience of trauma.
I’d certainly agree her anxiety disorder played a huge role in her reaction to the robbery and likely the development of her coping mechanisms.
But is her anxiety disorder a pre-existing, innate thing or is it itself a result of a childhood full of Blaine’s emotional abuse?
Classic question of nature vs. nurture. Probably a little of both.
(support: Anxiety disorders run in families, even if the anxious people weren’t raised together, so that strongly suggests that there’s some genetic stuff at play, but environmental factors and traumas also make a big difference, so it’s both.)
Hey, I know. One of my comments remarked on the kinds of experiences that my life has involved; it was removed (which I’m glad for, as I was angry and ended with “I hate you” to Mika). You’ve read correctly what I wrote. Thanks for that.
Different people react to trauma in completely different ways. If you’re more resilient, then that’s lucky for you! That’s like Becky, who can get through a kidnapping/carcrash and come out cheering. Or like Ethan, who generally just takes things like a rock (including this very same event that extra-traumatized Amber). Amber is not highly resilient, nor is Joyce, and that’s no problem or fault of theirs, they just need some more help to get to an obvious equilibrium. All trauma is worthy of help.
I made the mistake of commenting without reading all the responses that people already wrote. Sorry to repeat what’s already been covered.
Yes, Amber in particular may well have a differently-wired brain, as exemplified by her childhood anxiety, which then exacerbates everything that happens to her (particularly since Blaine has never let her treat said anxiety). Nobody’s disagreeing there.
Instead, I think people are not digging the idea that a trauma can be ‘objectively’ not so bad, or not bad enough to warrant a very big reaction from a neurotypical person. Trauma just isn’t objective, and some people react a lot, and that’s not bad writing or bad people in any way. A trauma doesn’t have to be ‘big enough’ to be worthy of a big reaction, even if the person is basically neurotypical.
If it hits you like a trauma, that makes it really important and sufficient. You know it’s sufficient, because it is currently hitting you in the face. So it’s hurtful when somebody suggests that a trauma has to be big enough to be worthy, as though somebody is hitting you in the face and your pal is like, “Well, that guy isn’t really that muscular, he’s not punching you that hard, what’s your problem, really.” Like, dude, face hurts!
People don’t want to be traumatized. If somebody is acting traumatized, then their trauma was sufficient for them. They’re not gonna be making it up.
Anyway. I think you might have meant to be getting at resilience, which is a particularly nifty area of study. We don’t really know why some kids from terrible backgrounds still manage to succeed against the odds, for example. Like their faces are iron! It’s special. If we could figure out why some people are basically fine after a trauma (like Ethan), and some people really really aren’t (like Amber), well, that would be exciting, we could maybe teach people to become more resilient! That would be rad! But we don’t know enough about it, and we haven’t figured out whether we can increase it, or how. Maybe someday.
— PS clarification: when I said “it’s hurtful when somebody suggests that a trauma has to be big enough to be worthy” I meant, worthy of a big dramatic reaction. (Pretty sure we all know that everyone’s worthy of, say, help, or food/shelter.)
When I started to talk about people not making up their traumas, that was a bit of a tangent. I know you didn’t say that Amber was making things up. I was reacting to the classification of ‘histrionic’, which is often lobbed at women as a way of saying they’re making things up, but I think you weren’t using it that way today, so it’s probably not relevant to the conversation.
Basically I wish I could delete my last three paragraphs because I kinda got distracted, there! /novel
I like your last three paragraphs. They say good stuff. To “histrionic”, you’re right in thinking that I used it in a different context; removed from the concept of Amber, more on the way Amber is being conveys (since Amber O’Malley is totes fictitious, everything she says and does is written by someone, and I have opinions on that). http://www.dictionary.com/browse/histrionic <– You might not agree with me at all, of course, but you can see I used it more as a writing critic than as a character response.
I’m sure I must annoy the author with my occasional sniffs (it’s not the first time I’ve written that I find something melodramatic). The depiction clearly resonates with a number of people. I’m just a cold person.
Amber feels like me.
Just let me restate that. Amber feels like me. AG aside she is an uncanny reflection of myself at her age.
Trauma affects everyone differently and we were all given different coping mechanisms starting at birth- the early years are more important than I can state. Blaine reminds me of my own parents combined- they did NOT equip me with coping mechanisms beyond “blame self”. Then there was a bunch of other stuff that happened when I got a bit older (which has fewer parallels with Amber).
I have spent ten years learning that it’s okay to have been so traumatised. That it’s not my fault. That I’m not inherently weak. That I deserved and do deserve to have my experiences treated with respect.
And to hell with ANYONE who says otherwise.
Obviously, Amber recognizes Sal from the robbery at the gas station…
But does Sal recognize Amber? (I read too many webcomix – I can’t keep all the details straight).
This. I mean, in the flashback, Amber is hiding the whole time and taking Ethan hostage is a spur-of-the-moment decision. And when she stabs her, she approaches from behind and to the side and Sal closes her eyes in pain while the cops drag Amber away from her.
So she probably didn’t much see Amber at the time to remember her. Not to mention that that moment for Sal was probably just the capstone on a day that was shitty for a lot more reasons than that and preceding a lot of awful after it, so I don’t know if she’d care all that much, even if she did recognize her as the person who stabbed her hand.
So replies to the questioning of why Sal doesn’t recognize Amber we so oversaturated with that quote that he full-stopped the phrase? I take it that particular horse got beat 7 feet into the ground then. I don’t think I was reading the comments then. Thank you.
Yeah. Eventually I think it got used in response to other things as well but I’m pretty sure the robbery is where it started and it’s banned because it got out of control.
It’s kinda like how in the beginning everyone made the same ‘UC is Amazi-Girl’ comments and it became really annoying^^ (don’t worry, I’m not bringing this back, I’m just using it as an example xD)
That ran it’s course over in Shortpacked if I recall correctly. That did get annoying. Though it does make me wonder if Willis may do a future storyline where someone states that Carla is Amaza-Girl, and she runs with it. I’d think that be interesting. You’d have to say arrivederci to the comment section first though.
It’s not a specific comic (for the sake of an explanation, anyways). It’s a line from a Street Fighter movie. One of the good guys home town/village/thing was destroyed/terrorized by the Big Bad, and she trains to make herself stronger, to take out said BB. Upon challenging him, she discovered that the he doesn’t even know who she is, and he comments on how when he went to her town, it was the most important day in her life, but it was just another day for him. The direct quote of that last part, what day of the week it was, is what is specifically banned.
A proper write-up is on it’s TvTrope page. I’m gonna try to post a roundabout way of saying it, if you want to look it up. It contains the words ‘it’, as well as ‘was’, and finally the day of the week that comes after Monday.
Thanks you guys! Haaaa I guess an artist so active in his comics’ comment sections would get tired of seeing the same low-lying comedic fruit whizzing by on the daily. But damn if it isn’t a great scene. 😀
As best as I can tell she does not. Sal may be a fairly collected individual for the most part, but I can see her flying into one of her towering rages if she ever recognized Amber as the girl that put a knife through her hand.
I dunno whether or not she’d really consider Ethan a hostage or threatened in her head but assumed not here, and Amber yes, scared (so much that it caused trauma, but she didn’t do anything -to- Amber, and I think she’d consider it very minor compared to hand stabbing).
Of course Sal could also be over her hand and be like ‘you were that person?’ and apologetic, because the hand stab is the only reason she’d have anything against Amber.
That’s a good point, but it might also be a Walkerton thing she inherited like the “straight hair = right hair” thing. Sort of a “keeping the sense of propriety” sort of deal, where you hide away the ignoble proofs of your past away.
Plus, even if she’s no longer mad or anything about it, she probably prefers not to be asked about it every time someone sees it.
(But I can totally see ‘put your gloves back on, no one wants to see that horrible scar!’ being a thing with family, especially given she sleeps with them. Alternative: she doesn’t want Walky to find out (or has had it demanded that she don’t tell), and given she’s rooming with Billie that means concealing even moreso)
We already know Sal doesn’t recognise Ethan, who she got a much better look at during the whole robbery. It’s even less likely she’d recognise Amber, who was either hiding or attacking her from behind for much of the incident.
Well, she’s showing up at least until March 18th before moving onto some Carla focus at around the 22nd.
There’s been a pretty consistent pattern of Amber reacting to Sal this way since late 2013, so I think we’re soon going to see this train start moving.
It’s interesting Amber is completely irretrievably unable to process confronting Sal. I was really hoping the fact Sal dismissed Amazi-Girl would force her to confront some things.
I think the Amber personality is pretty unhealthy. I don’t think real-life psychology corresponds to any of this so it’s important Amazi-Girl drops her human disguise to become the person she truly can be.
Amber knew Sal was on campus before. Is there any reason why this incident is frying her so bad? She’s even confronted her a couple of times as Amazi-Girl.
Perhaps it was because she was Amazi-Girl? Criticism immunity give a bonus to Will Saves? As her alter-ego she wasn’t mentally prepared to interact with mental anguish?
Yup, that’s DID in a nutshell, 2 distinct alters, one body. They can cozy up and share minds and integrate or they can do what they’ve been doing. Which is a great way to cause the media-focused side of DID where the alters are so not communicating that they don’t even share much of their short-term memory.
I’m guessing that’s the effect of Amber’s split personality. The part of her that’s Amazi-girl is able to keep herself composed in front of Sal, if for a while, but the other part of Amber is stuck in that moment in time.
Remember when she first woke up after being saved from that semi when Ross abducted Becky. She freaked the hell out before reinternalizing that she was Amazigirl at the moment and stood her ground.
I think this is scaring her because she didn’t have time to notice it was Sal from far away, since no glasses, and has also had to deal with realizing that Sal might not be a terrible person. It’s easy to justify what she did that day if Sal is a criminal, not someone who helps save Becky or who helps someone who’s dropped their laundry.
Yep. Amber doesn’t care who Sal is, she cares about what Sal represents. Sal is capital C Crime in Amber’s mind, the monster in the dark that terrified her, the threat she failed to overcome because she was too much of a coward, and the first example of Amber’s rage being uncontrollable.
It’d be like if Batman found Joe Chill after 20 years only to find that he turned over a new leaf and opened up an orphanage for disabled puppies.
Hell, having the superhero genre do more to grapple with the economic and racial issues that often create crime and with the idea that most “criminals” do indeed reform or are just kids who made a mistake would be great.
Fuck, our whole society could do more grappling with that reality instead of using the easy and often racist shorthand of “arrested for a crime” = bad person who will always be a bad person.
The lettering in panels 2,4 and 6 reminds me of the early Xerox machines that would do that to copies when various things would often go wrong with the machine’s insides. It was easier to send multiple copies out to a job printer.
Any noun can be verbed. Standard English move. Works the other way too. Talking about verbification may get you criticized but no one will wonder what the hell you’re trying to say.
I feel you. I was triggered earlier today (about something else, my trigger isn’t ptsd, it’s suicide/suicide attempts), I watched a movie where it was really incredinly well done and sensitively handled and really cathartic for me – I sobbed for a good long time afterwards. Man, it’s really SO IMPORTANT to see this stuff done well in any type of media. Because you feel like someone really *gets* it, y’know? I feel this. It’s amazing.
When at the end you decide which of the three ending to pick, Help the Few, Many, or Self. I had already done the Few and went to pick another one (for achievement), I broke down for at least 15 minutes.
Actually, no, not tons. She needs a good trauma-therapist who first helps her digest the robbery and surrounding events and who then get’s her to deal with what her non-father did. With the robbery making so obvious symptoms, a not-so-good therapist might miss that.
Hmm. Speaking as someone training to be a counsellor I think you have it the wrong way around. I think the foundations set by her parents/father need to be dealt with before the robbery can truly be processed. Some of the weight of the robbery can be alleviated but more than that, I feel, involves going much deeper.
…I spend too much time imagining the process of counselling fictional characters.
The moment I read this my Cthulhu POP figure fell over and rolled about on the carpet. It’s more of a BRICK of a figure and has never done that before. The fuck Willis? Are you a witch dude? Can you teach me that trick?
Given how much of a physical specimen Amber is – forget Ruth, she’s the most physically powerful person in the female dorm though that musculature is hidden under fat – if her blood was up and in full rage… I would have my money on her. Between how unstable and strong she is, she’s the most dangerous personage in the main cast.
Incredible good representation of a backflash.
The actual stuff doesn’t get through the memory it triggers and she’s as wrung out as if the robbery just happened. Awesome.
just got back from the bar. super drunk right now but “It’s probably my fault. Ah showed her the youtubes. Ah mean, it’s not really but…” I’m to drunk to understand this
Sal was apologizing for Carla performing “PARKOUR!” Sal showed Carla some YouTube videos of it so she’s decided to run around the halls jumping off walls and junk, and Sal is doing a little damage control.
On that note, how sweet is the moment that apology is hinting at? Like, so far, with Carla and Sal standing around strips, we’ve just seen Sal trying to remain emotionally distanced from anyone not named Marcie while Carla does her whole “hey, are we just chilling, that’s cool, this is totally coincidental and not because I have a little bit of a romantic crush, but anyways, what we doin’? Watching Marcie hit on Malaya? Cool, cool” shtick.
But with this, we get the first hint that Sal has reached out to someone who isn’t Marcie, at least enough to show her some youtube videos of parkour on her phone.
And it makes me excited to see more Sal and Carla interactions, especially if Carla decides to let her know about the Mary incident.
Shes scared of herself, AND she is scared of how Sal triggers her.
Between those two shes so overwhelmed RSOD ( Red screen of Death ),
she seems to have a massive Blindspot for how she Victimized Sal.
But in her day-to-day life, I dont shes worries about Sal or even has general fear.
At first, I was going to criticise Sal for not realising how badly in distress Amber was. Then I remembered that, every time they’ve met, Amber has been like this: Pale, trembling, struck dumb and crying. Simply put Sal has no basis whatsoever for expecting Amber to behave any differently from how she’s doing so here.
Worth noting that she’s not actually crying – even Sal might pause if she saw that happening.
I’m mostly Interested in the fact that the flashback is to the bit of the whole incident where Amber is attacking Sal rather than the part of the incident where Sal was threatening people with a knife. Not sure what that means.
That’s the point where her nightmare began – The moment when she convinced herself that there’s a homicidal monster inside her that makes her unworthy of love and that it was necessary for her to create some manner of safety valve to let out that anger at bad people lest she become a serial killer.
No-one ever said that it was rational but, yes, it wasn’t Sal attacking Ethan that caused Amber’s DID, it was her attacking Sal.
That’s probably true, now that I think about it. Whenever she flashes back to that event, it’s always her stabbing Sal. That’s the moment she defines as the traumatic part of the night.
Something of the lines of “It’s my fault, really, I showed her the Youtubes [of people doing parkour]”. John and Spencer were the first commenters who figured it out, I believe.
Can someone give me a hand here? Somewhere along the line of this comic I seem to have gotten lost. What exactly happened between these two, when did it happen and how is it involved in Amber’s assumption of the Amazi-Girl personality? I suppose I could start back at the beginning but I’m just to lazy…
1.Sal held up a convenience store with a knife where Amber, Ethan and Blaine stopped by
2.Took Ethan hostage while Amber still suffering from major social anxiety issues did nothing
3.Cops come situation’s resolved because holding up a store with a knife is really stupid
4. Father of the year Blaine berates Amber for doing nothing while her only friend was in danger
Amber loses her shit and stabs Sal in the hand with her own knife
5. Amber realizes she has some serious repressed anger issues and becomes Amazi-Girl for a constructive outlet to her violent tendebies. Sal has a scar on her hand and adopts wearing gloves all the time
6. Amber recognizes Sal because that was probably one of the most important days of her life and freaks everytime they make eye contact. Sal either doesn’t recognize Amber because it’s been years and she’s been actively trying to moved past her troubled youth or she doesn’t care.
#6 brings up what interests me most about Sal. Does she recognize Amber and not care? Does she not recognize Amber? Does she recognize Amber AND Amazi-Girl, AND is presenting herself as she has done in the past year (of real time) in an attempt to collapse the dual personality of Amber/Amazi-Girl?
It does seem a little strange though. You’d think that would be a pretty traumatic event for all three of them, but Ethan doesn’t recognize Sal either so maybe it wasn’t as big a deal to either of them as it was to Amber.
Ethan, I think, had a healthy support network in his parents, and Amber did not, so Ethan pulled double duty of dealing with his trauma so he could try and help Amber, which didn’t work.
Sal, meanwhile, is trying to put that behind her and move on with her life. I don’t think she thinks about it too much anymore, or really cares who those kids were, let alone the crazy one who stabbed her in the hand.
Like, if 13 year old Danny and Dorothy were there, and Danny was the one taken hostage by Sal, he and Dorothy would have a healthy support network of friends and family pointedly not telling them that being victim to a crime was their fault.
While instead Amber wasn’t even left alone without a supportive network, she was left with Blaine telling her how bad and weak and pathetic she was for not even standing up for Ethan, the only friend who could tolerate her.
She spent the day psyching up for a robbery. Attempted to rob somebody. Threatened someone else, and was then stabbed by them.
It’s not PARTICULARLY weird that she doesn’t necessarily remember the mousey white girl that stabbed her, or assume that the mousey white girl she runs into once in a while around the dorms is coincidentally the same person.
Frankly, if somebody stabbed me most of my memories from that evening would be “OW! I’VE BEEN STABBED. MY HAND IS IN SO MUCH PAIN.”
Honestly, I kinda doubt that. While Sal might gain some peace of mind because Ethan forgives her, I feel like there are worlds of difference between Amber and Sal’s view and recollection of that day. So much so that I suspect the interaction is as (or more) likely to break Amber even more than it is to help her.
Happened before the start of this comic. Sal attempted to rob a grocery store, Amber and Ethan were in said grocery store. Sal was already being arrested by the time Amber stabbed her hand though (goaded by her father, in part).
Amber is flashing back to a convenience store robbery from when she was 13(? not sure of age). This piece of backstory involves Amber, Ethan, Blaine, and Sal. Basically what happened is Amber was at the convenience store Sal held up. Ethan got taken hostage during that, and after the police showed up Blaine was insulting her fear and her inability to protect Ethan and basically goaded her to the point where she snapped and stabbed Sal’s hand when she was in custody (this is the reason Sal always wears her gloves). And then instead of getting therapy of any sort after, wound up getting put in self-defense classes (Blaine’s idea). I’m not sure if it’s ever been outright stated, but it was probably a substantial part of what drove her to come up with Amazigirl.
I think the first time the flashback appears in full is when she sees Danny talking to Sal in ‘The Only Dope For Me Is You’, but we see a panel from it earlier in ‘Just Hanging Out With My Family’, shortly after she punched Blaine.
I’m not the best one to explain this properly, so I apologise in advance for any mistakes or lack of clarity.
I’m surprised no one’s beaten me to this comment yet.. but final panel dialog plus Sal’s expression, makes me think she’s kinda talking about how her Mom treats her. Like she kinda blames herself for her parents’ neglect, even though she logically knows she shouldn’t. Which is so sad. 🙁
I hadn’t thought of that, if only because I think Sal understands how much she suffers because she’s always going to be “the shameful criminal” to them. She knows she did something stupid, but she’s decided to stop guilting herself over it.
It’s also an important indicator of Amber’s thought process; that Sal’s actions are Amber’s fault, and Amber needs to feel guilt because she didn’t stop her.
Sal showed Carla youtube videos, so obviously it’s her fault that Carla’s bouncing off walls, like how it’s Amber’s fault that Sal had a knife to Ethan’s throat.
To be fair, I didn’t think of it until after rereading the strip again immediately after a different comment brought up the care packages again… I could be off, but it seems to fit to me. 🙂
I’m not sure I understand your second paragraph. Are you referring to Amber feeling guilty about not stopping her from taking Ethan during the robbery?
Yes. Amber blames herself for not saving Ethan from Sal, even though that’s not fair to herself because Sal had a knife, and Amber’s inaction isn’t responsible for Sal’s actions.
I love how Sal and Amber’s conflict largely stems from how similar they are. It’s also the reason I love Sarah and Raidah’s conflict. Two people, similar values, same inciting event, but just being at odds in that starts a long bitter rivalry that just creates its own reasons to never be able to heal.
Mostly I like how, to keep banging on about the Batman comparison, Sal is basically if Joe Chill was an actual person. There’s never any kind of hint that Amber’s actions against Sal are justified or acceptable, the way Joe Chill dies but it’s okay because he caused Batman’s origin story and he’s The Criminal Scum, and Amber is purely in the wrong for how she’s dealing with that anger.
I think that’s totally what’s going on. “But sometimes ya can’t help but blame yerself” is absolutely about that, and knowing better, and doing it anyway.
I’m going to get a stress ulcer from these commenters who think Amber shouldn’t have PTSD or DID because they didn’t have it as ~horrible~ as they did. You didn’t see the full extent of Amber’s father’s abuse, and stabbing another person’s hand in blind rage and fear because you’re afraid to lose your only friend absolutely affects you. It definitely qualifies as a traumatic event, especially in light of how afraid Amber was to use violence the way her father did to solve problems. Fuck’s sake.
She definitely needs therapy, but can we stop pretending her psychological state is “unjustified”? You try telling someone with MDD (depression) that it’s nothing because your life is worse than theirs.
I think people are confusing “cartoonishly evil” and “not given enough exposition to sympathize with”. Compared to Blaine even Toedad is a fleshed-out character: We can at least extrapolate why he is the way he is. With Blaine the best we can do is speculate.
I’m wary of that game. “Let’s Psychoanalyze Your Abuser So That Way His Abuse is Understandable” only got me more abuse till I threw up my hands and walked away with the conclusion that abusive sociopathic assholes aren’t always some poor, misunderstood flower with a tragic backstory and redemption in their future. And it’s not worth investing the time into them to find that out. FWIW I thought that’s exactly how Toedad was portrayed; he just feels like a higher power is endorsing his abuse. That doesn’t make him sympathetic to me, it just makes him a bigger asshole.
Sympathize was a poor choice of words by me. My point was just that we know Toedad’s motivation, even if it is nuts, while Blaine’s is still “He’s just a petty and abusive asshole for no known reason”. Which in a story is pretty hard to distinguish from poor characterization even if it isn’t necessarily unrealistic. It’s one of those things were readers are sometimes less forgiving about fictional characters than actual people.
As for real-life abusive partners not being worth investing time in, I totally agree. Even if you become privy to some tragic backstory an abusive person will just use your sympathy as another way to blackmail you. I lost a handful of years down that road.
I’m content with the ‘some people are just jerks‘ angle for Blaine, since it kinda oddly makes him more realistic for me. I notice that trope a lot, the villain with the sympathetic backstory. But I totally see what you were getting at now; it does make for a more compelling or complex story.
OK, so first of all: I have not had any of the issues Amber’s had, so the odds are pretty damn good that my following interpretation will be me talking completely out of my stupid ass. Anyone that knows what they’re talking about and thinks I do indeed perform a rectal speech, feel free to lay the heavy smackdown upon me.
Anyway, so like many others, I reckognise another PTSD episode happening here. However, I am a bit more optimistic than many people. Because of the last panel.
Amber is actually hearing what Sal’s saying again.
To me, that moment is actually very significant, enough to warrant its own paragraph. Amber’s episode ends before Sal’s left. She’s starting to realise something new about Sal. Exactly what this is is (for now) unclear; but whether it’s that Sal still doesn’t reckognise her as AG, or that Sal probably knows who she is and won’t care, or one of any other such things… I think it all leads back to the following:
Amber could be realising that Sal may not be such a horrible person these days. Sal has changed. Sal may not care about laws, but she does care (in her own “pretending to be too aloof to care” way, of course) about people.
That, and the last words is resonating with Amber, who is obviously -still- blaming herself for not stopping Sal before Sal took Ethan hostage that day (Because beating up Blaine sure as hell didn’t take that away). Hearing Sal of all people say those words may, just may, have reached through to Amber in a way that most other people telling it to her could not.
And that is quite likely because Sal is talking about herself still blaming herself. Hearing other people -people that seem to be in complete control of themselves, unlike Amber- also go through the “I blame myself even when I know I shouldn’t” phase of things… That can be more powerful than anyone telling Amber she shouldn’t blame herself, because let’s face it, that does often sound somehow forced and trite. And if you’re feeling particularly stubborn, you may even end up thinking “OK, so they’re telling me it’s -wrong- to have these feelings. Great, another thing that’s wrong with me. I can never be a normal human being.”
To have someone else sharing that they get the same feeling (and yeah, the circumstances are of course -very- different, but the end feelings are still the same) is showing that hey, maybe that feeling is in fact quite normal among human beings. “Huh, so I’m not the only one who does that? Maybe it’s something a lot of people do… Maybe I’m not a hopeless case after all…”
Anyway, that’s my super-optimistic (probably to the point of being hopelessly naive) take on things.
Huh, I read that moment a bit more of the focus moving back from Amber’s trauma to the reality an observer or Sal might see including the reality of her words.
But I like your optimistic interpretation. Largely because I’d really love to see Amber starting to work through some of her stuff or at least start recognizing the shape of the damage she’s working with and the role Sal could play in helping her get through it.
I think she has to, and maybe sooner than we think. This plotline’s been going on for two and a half years now and Amber’s only gotten worse. We’re gonna see her pull out of the darkness eventually.
I still hope I am right. Unfortunately, I think it is probably more likely that you -with your rather excellent track record of understanding what is really going on- are right, Cerberus.
Still, if the day finally comes to prove you wrong, then it would be a worse thing to be wrong about than this, right?
I think she heard Sal’s last words, if only because hearing the one thing she needs to hear from the one person she doesn’t want to is just too perfect.
I also thought this was Amber coming out of the flashback when Sal was still talking, which is probably yes, good for her. I’m not a brain expert, but I think that way her brain can slowly start getting used to Sal being around and kind of start associating her with things other than the robbery. Like, if she blacked this out with flashback entirely, next time she meets Sal she still has robbery as the only clear memory of her, but this way, next time she’ll also probably have remembered this encounter, however dimly.
Interesting how the part of the whole experience she’s flashing to were HER actions, not how Sal pulled the knife and tried to rob the place. Was it Amber that traumatized herself more than Sal’s actions?
It’s possible. Amber hates herself more than she hates Sal, I think, and it’s her own actions, her inability to save Ethan and her actually stabbing Sal, that she seems to hold herself to.
Amber’s tragedy (well, one of them, I guess) is that she’s always, always blaming herself for everything bad, -even when she logically knows it’s other people’s fault-.
If f.ex. Danny had been caught drinking and got himself expelled? Yep, Amber would have been all “If only I had imprinted in him the importance of not drinking on campus before this happened!”
Yes! And her own anger; I think she’s actually more afraid of what she can do and of the Blaine in her. Note how she self-triggered after losing her temper at Danny.
… I’m assuming this is one of those things that would make sense if I weren’t reading just the new strips? … I have no idea why I’m doing that, but I can’t stop, and want a refresher on Walkyverse before I jump into the archives.
When they were all 13, Sal held up a convenience store that Amber and Ethan were stopped at, and Sal took Ethan hostage with a knife while Amber hid in the corner.
After Sal was arrested, Blaine told Amber she was a useless coward for not defending Ethan, causing Amber to violently snap and stab Sal in the palm. That’s what Amber’s flashing back to right now.
The fact that it is independent is precisely why I am avoiding the author’s other works. Since they use the same characters it seems like it would just be confusing to have to try to keep the two story lines separate.
I’d heard of and already spotted a good number of hidden jokes and references and parallels, even though they’re independent, and I’d likely miss many of them at this point and, at best, have to reread later. But… you do have a point.
Best part has got to be the comments, from the guy who straight up echoes a villain from Shortpacked! to the guy crying censorship because he’s not allowed to go on a giant homophobic rant when he wanted to.
What’s the statement about how you can tell something about the quality of a work by the type of people who hate it?
I guess because being repressed was, in their eyes, the main focus of her personality and/or the story? So maybe not “ruined” in a “terrible person” kind of way, more a “Jumped the shark” kind of way?
I don’t agree, but some readers preferring the status quo to some development happens to pretty much every piece of fiction.
why is she running to her room to change to amazi girl outfit if she grabbed the mask out of the laundry basket and the suit is in there too? i think her amazi girl suit is in her room, and she keeps the mask with her at all times for comfort
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w̻̳͖̥͓͕̫͞h̺͔̹̖̯͙a͉t
w͈̱h̦̞̻a̡̻̮ͅţ ̖̟̭̩͖̤w̷͖h̦͓̰͖̫͢ạt̯̘͙
͚͎̖̞̤̐̀͑w̺͕͎̫ͣ̊̎̒͗̎̑h̫̼̯͔̪̤͙̲̲ͪ̅̋̓ͭa̰̹̖̰̼̲ͫ͊̽̒͛̆t̩̮̪͓̓͑ͥ̍͂͗ͭ ̺̟̦̞̳͉̪̝̿̈w̼̹̭̩̱͉͈ͫͣͨ̄h͈͙̥̿͌ͫ̐̏̒a̫̻ͥͬ̍͗̉ͣ̓t̞͓̩̋͂̍ ̼̗̟͈̖͔̠̖̪ͨ͐͋̀̋̓̾̚w̬͙̦̮͒̓̍̈͒̈́ͯḫ̩̲̝̗͛͐ͮ̔ạ̭͕̱͑ͦ̈͑̈t͔̹̹͖̥̫̓͑̀̂ͩ
̞̝̠̮̣̲̼̗̠̯͙̰̩̰̣̏̌͌̀̓̌̍ͯw͕̩̹̦̺̜ͧ̀̆̂h͎̺̭͈͖̝̰͎͖͉̥͉͚̆͌͂͂̈ͪ̑͐ͦ̇a̰̩̫͉̮͖̹͙̯̜̮͓͎̮̳̼̘̞̎͑͐̒͑̈̽̐̋̇ͬ̑ͤ̓t̮̠͈̺̤ͧͨ͗͋ͪ̾͐͗̀ ̼͔̮̺̣ͫ̆͛ͪͨ̿ͬͩ̎͑ͨ̆̏w̼̰̼̩̳̱̜̟͕̫̝͚̟̥͙̰͇̲̾̎ͭ̏͑ͮͮ͛ͦͯͩ̔͌ḫ̮̼̤̰̱̗̞͉̒̐ͭ̈́́a̯̗͇͓̣͎͓̯̺̭̣̟̲̜ͤ̀͌͂̇ͪͥͮ̓̍ͅt̲̗͍͕̝̰̫̭͔̝̯͎͇̫͔̼̱̤̦ͯͮ̒͋͒ͨ͆̒ͫ̍͒̄̚ ̤̪̘͖̪̥̺̬̝͓͑̎̔̓̔̆̆ͤ̂̾̌̾̃̀͛ͅw̙̩̹͔̜͉͎̲͚̺̘̘͚̘̘̪̽͋̏̉ͪͩ̈͊͛̾ͥ̎ḫ̮̦͕̪̦̘̲̝̠̤̳̼̅̉̓ͯ̿͗ͥ͆a͈̱̗̠͙̱̩̫̜̮͇ͭ̈́ͯ͛̃͗͂t̤̟̦̞̝̲͍̳̼̪̱̖͈͕̓̈́ͪ̿ͤͦ̔̑ ͍̣̬̺̱̤͍͎̹͙̬̺̊ͯ͌ͥ̌̒ͅw͈̗͚̼̫̼̝̝͙͍̲̞̯͓͇͓͔̭̠̆̄̀̀̓̄̽ͫ̂ͫ͑̚h͔̦̝͖̪͚̲̳͎͖̳͖͖͈̹̲̣̳̜͐̽͑̾̔̓̽͌ͬ̀̈͗̾̚a͈̖͖͍͚̤̖̮̮̺͚̳̯̗̺̹̟̠͒ͬ̅̉̈́͗͐͆͗ͮt̙̲̩̗̗̲̠̱̲̤̅ͫ̓̋̒́͗̆̿ͥ͒̒̈ͤͦ͆͌̈́ ̠̳̜̞̟̮͕̮͓̯͕͇͍̏ͭ̆ͩ͌̒
̢̼̗̤̗͉̫͚͚͊͐͋̊̿̀̚͟͠͡w̷̷̢͖̟͔͇̞̟̘̳̫̳͍͎͙͐ͣͤ̿ͧ̑̅̊ͩͪ̎̌̓ͨͪͫ̾́̚͡ͅh̸̠̮̟͖ͦ͐͋̚͘a̷̴̶̡̹͔̠̪ͪ͊̄̽ͪ͊́̿͝ţ̪̜̭̫̱̠̩̜̼̙͙̾̈́̒ͥ͐ͣ̽̀̈̓ͪ͊͗̏͋̑̂͆̀͠ ̧͓̰͍̤̥̖̼͎͙̠̳̹̝̲̥͇̦̞̈ͥ͗̈̇ͯ̾͒ͤ̓͂͌̚͠͡w̗͚̹͎̦̹͎̞̱̋ͦ͆̔̌ͥͭͧͬͦ̀̍́̀h̸͂ͪͨ͂̈ͤ̎ͧͦͤ̄ͬ͑̌̋̅̒ͮ̆҉̸͙͓̫̻̰̦̘̮̣͇͍͎͙̫͍̀ã̸̪͈̩̮̔́͛͞͠tͯ̓͑̿ͬͧ̉҉̪̹̻͇̼͇̤̘̥͓̜̳̠̤͈̥̗͚̀͜͡ ̻̳̦̞̭͍͉͊ͧ͌̾̎̑ͭͨ̐̆ͧ͜͠w̃̂ͥ̾̿̓̊ͪͩͯ̑̾ͫ̑͑̏͆̚͏̹̹͖̯͇̤̮̫̯̮̤̤̪͝hͪ̑̊̈̓͗͗́̄ͥ́͑͗̿̂͏̷̥͙̜͍͎̦̰̬͓͠ā̴̞̮̜͇͈͎ͯ͋ͣͭ̔̋ͬͪ̔ͨ̚͞t̴͍̩͉͖͚̻̻̜̮͔ͮ̑̆̍̈́̽͒͐̽̑̌ͮ̃͢ ̸̴̡̫̘̗̖͔̬̣̯̘̯̳̹̇̽̑ͯ̈́̄̑̊͛̉ͩ̅ͅw̛̜͓͇̜̦̝͇͔̳͎͊͋̓ͮͨͧ̓̒̅͂ͤ͞h̵̨͉̰͔͓̟̼̭̥̬̥̫̹͓̦̜̜̲̥ͪ̆̔̈͒̄̓͊ͭ̾̋ͩ̅̚͟ͅa̴̢̡̨̢̜̥̲͚̣̘̟̪̜̅ͤ̊͒͗́̓̀͒̐̽̏̿t̸ͥͪ͆̀̂̓̽̾̑͏̶̢̭͈̖͍̼̮͍̠̩͈̗͍͎̼ͅ ̑͊̀̓̅̈͐̃̌͊ͪ̒̎ͫ̉͑̑̍̚҉̡̢͇̜̩̖͚̩̱̼͈͕͇͎̙̬̀ͅͅw̷̡̖͇̲͙̺̤͎̥̝̬̺ͭͦ̅͒̑̓̿̏ͩ́͋̀̎ͬͯ͡ͅh̨̔̈́͊̇̒̈ͤͮ̑͌̀͘҉̞̬͍̱̩̰͉̮̫a͇̦͔̰̘͚̠̰͎̜̰̯̤͚̩̠͗̈̎̈́̉̆̓̓̓̽̏ͫͧͧ́͘͜ͅṯ̹͔̭͈̰͙͈͓̤̻̖̞̭̟̋̓ͤͩ͆̑̄͊ͣ́͘͞ ̧̡̟̙̦͇̙͓̱͈͓̞ͫͫͧͥͭͩ͞͝͠ͅ
that turned out a bit more gibberish than expected
What what what what what?
͚͎̖̞̤̐̀͑but it is so awesome. ̠̳̜̞̟̮͕̮͓̯͕͇͍̏ͭ̆ͩ͌̒
̢̼̗̤̗͉̫͚͚͊͐͋̊̿̀̚͟͠͡w̗͚̹͎̦̹͎̞̱̋ͦ͆̔̌ͥͭͧͬͦ̀̍́̀h̸͂ͪͨ͂̈ͤ̎ͧͦͤ̄ͬ͑̌̋̅̒ͮ̆҉̸͙͓̫̻̰̦̘̮̣͇͍͎͙̫͍̀ã̸̪͈̩̮̔́͛͞͠tͯ̓͑̿ͬͧ̉҉̪̹̻͇̼͇̤̘̥͓̜̳̠̤͈̥̗͚̀͜͡ ̻̳̦̞̭͍͉͊ͧ͌̾̎̑ͭͨ̐̆ͧ͜͠w̃̂ͥ̾̿̓̊ͪͩͯ̑̾ͫ̑͑̏͆̚͏̹̹͖̯͇̤̮̫̯̮̤̤̪͝hͪ̑̊̈̓͗͗́̄ͥ́͑͗̿̂͏̷̥͙̜͍͎̦̰̬͓͠ā̴̞̮̜͇͈͎ͯ͋ͣͭ̔̋ͬͪ̔ͨ̚͞t̴͍̩͉͖͚̻̻̜̮͔ͮ̑̆̍̈́̽͒͐̽̑̌ͮ̃͢ ̸̴̡̫̘̗̖͔̬̣̯̘̯̳̹̇̽̑ͯ̈́̄̑̊͛̉ͩ̅ͅw̛̜͓͇̜̦̝͇͔̳͎͊͋̓ͮͨͧ̓̒̅͂ͤ͞h̵̨͉̰͔͓̟̼̭̥̬̥̫̹͓̦̜̜̲̥ͪ̆̔̈͒̄̓͊ͭ̾̋ͩ̅̚͟ͅa̴̢̡̨̢̜̥̲͚̣̘̟̪̜̅ͤ̊͒͗́̓̀͒̐̽̏̿t̸ͥͪ͆̀̂̓̽̾̑͏̶̢̭͈̖͍̼̮͍̠̩͈̗͍͎̼ͅ ̑͊̀̓̅̈͐̃̌͊ͪ̒̎ͫ̉͑̑̍̚҉̡̢͇̜̩̖͚̩̱̼͈͕͇͎̙̬̀ͅͅw̷̡̖͇̲͙̺̤͎̥̝̬̺ͭͦ̅͒̑̓̿̏ͩ́͋̀̎ͬͯ͡ͅh̨̔̈́͊̇̒̈ͤͮ̑͌̀͘҉̞̬͍̱̩̰͉̮̫a͇̦͔̰̘͚̠̰͎̜̰̯̤͚̩̠͗̈̎̈́̉̆̓̓̓̽̏ͫͧͧ́͘͜ͅṯ̹͔̭͈̰͙͈͓̤̻̖̞̭̟̋̓ͤͩ͆̑̄͊ͣ́͘͞ ̧̡̟̙̦͇̙͓̱͈͓̞ͫͫͧͥͭͩ͞͝͠ͅ
mad respect
A wild Missingno appeared!
I guess that means that AnvilPro’s comment will be duplicated.
That reference is some Oxford shit, it was so old school. Kudos.
Kudos to you. That’s the only bit so far to make me burst out actually laughing.
Missingno is great. I’m really dissapointed they didn’t make an official version of it. I mean, it even has a few already existing evolutions and it’s part of the original…208, I believe?
There’s actually a bunch of variations on the glitch that cause weird effects, including corrupted name data (instead of just “missingno” which I think is what it defaults to when it identifies a bad lookup for the name). Interesting stuff to look up, kinda creepy.
Also, I don’t know much, but, it was 151 in generation 1 (counting the mostly-ungettable #151, Mew).
I know this is really late to be talking about this, but I’m pretty sure there were like 50+ Missingno variants, bringing the total up to 200+.
Heh! Missingno! Approval.
w̷̦̹̰͕̘̼̟̠ͥͪ̆ͩ̊͂ͯ́̚h̛̞̲̮̰̭ͬ̒ͥ̒̿́͠a̘̎̔ͣ̔́͞ͅt͚͙̎̉ͧ͛́͜͟ ̧̰̯̥͔͖̮͉̼̿̀͡w̙͎͗͌ͯ͋ͨ͟h̵̢͎̱̦̲͙̿̐̇̽͆̅̀̑a̗̞͎̪̫͖̩̎̐̍́̕͢t̴̛̪̖̥̯̖̗̩͈͚̋͗͂ͣ̃ͨ͟,͒̌͗͑҉̷̩͍͔͉ ̡̖̤̲̫̐ͧ͞i̵̸̫̳̘̣̳ͮ̔n̷̠̮̯̊̓̅̅ͧ̏̅ͭ̚ ̡͔͖ͥ̎̊͛̽t̺̬ͧh̬̹͖͆͊̃̕͡e̩̪̭̬̦̒̆ ̻̟͕͚̫͕̞͈̳̈́̏̆̓b̧̪̞͚̉̊͘u̸ͮ͋ͪ́͑͒͋̓͏̘̘̘͍ț̻̜͍̬͔̮͛̌ͦ͊̀̕͢ţ̗̪̝̳̩͓̪ͧ̓͜?̩̰̪̞͓̱͔͉̓͊͛́͆͜͢͝
You wanna do it in my butt?
Um, that was supposed to be:
Y̷̜͚̝̜̰̭̖͌͗͝o̻͈̘ͤ̎ͧ̍͒ͦͥͦ̕ȗ͔̦̙̯̻̼̖͒ ̛͌̆̍͐̓ͦ͆҉̹̗͚͍͈͙̜w̳̞̞̺̤͎͑̉̀̕a̸̹͕̫̓ͩͤn̖͔̈̃ͩ̚n̷̺̟̟̞̽̈́́ͥ̇ͥ̊̃̀ȁ̪̣̞͔̦͖̜̭ͪ̀ ̖͍̞̖̫̿ͥ̂̅̓d̲͓̬̼̭̋̏̀o̸̶͔̳͆ͣͭͫ͠ͅ ̨͓͔̖̘̖̣̾̓͌̓͐ͮ̈́ͯ̑į̻͖̩̰̣͒͗̽̍̏͗̍͞t̹͓̾ͬ̌ ̢̣͚̓ͩ͑̏̕͡i̝̦͒̂̋ͥ̓ͭͤͦ͜n͖̼͓͉̮̑ͪͫ͆ͩͥ͢ͅ ̰̺̜̽͂̅m̹̠̈́̾̋ͥ́y̢̛͚̤̺ͣ̉̐̂͛̇͂̐̽ͅ ̷͇̱̫̾ͧ̄b̝̜̦͑̽̉ͫ̆̉ͮͅų̮̩̘̮̬̤̗̏ͥ͂̓̄̇͆ͨt̗̼ͮ́ͅt̞͍̤͚͙ͯ͑͠?͓͚̯̤̳͊ͦ̌͗͆̊́̚͘͜
I ship it
Scoops and LeslieBean4Shizzle, sitting in a tree
Questioning the choice of not choosing to sit on a couch instead, as they realise that it’s almost impossible to do anything but very careful k-i-s-s-i-n-g
Then they fall down and break their legs
And now this poem, that never scanned to begin with, will no longer even rhyme.
With apologies to Scoops, LeslieBean4Shizzle, and everyone reading this.
I tried, Norton. God help me, I tried. I’m a little more unhinged for it.
My doctor just told me the resulting medical bill will run me about… $4000. I take cash or check. But no money order, I still don’t know how the hell that works.
This is where I proclaim “My job here is done!” and leave the room, isn’t it?
I’ve been shipped! Horrah! That is no something that I can say has happened to me before (to my knowledge).
JESUS CHRIST.
NO. HE HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS.
Let’s hope not.
Hello, I’m Lucifer Morningstar and messing with your is what I do best, and now a burning bush to tell you about the weather.
D̩̣̝̰͛̈́̍ͭ͒̚͜o̫̦̿͛ͭͧ̄ͩ́͗n͙͔̼̫̰͓͔ͩ̓̈́̈̕’̲̲ͬͭͤ͛t̲̭̣̩̝̬͇̄̅̕ ̥̅̎̂͊̌͗͆͡b̬̬̙̹̬̳͊ĺ̙̥̯̹̟͉̰ͦͭ̊͠í̷͖͈̠̘͎̱̺̗͔̇n̴ͦͦ́ͭͮ̔ͤ҉̵͕̩̜̫̦̟k͓̱̬̱̝͔̬̭̆̈̚̕ͅ.̶̪̒ͧͭͣͯ͆͛ͩ ̸̣̪̗̻̝͓̱ͪͬͤ̿̎̚
̗̹̙̥͔̮̪͛ͅB̯̬͉̞̜ͬͬͭ̉̄̐ͤ̕͡l̨̡̬͖͐ͯȋ̷̫̪͍͔͘ṅ̨͙̝̩̝̇ͪ̇̈́͛̔̊̿k̓͑̈̒ͦ̿̈̚̚͏̴̜͕̙͉͓̹͉ ̠̼̺͈͈̭̭̎͛̀͗͊͗͞ả̢̙͉͕͍̜̝͂̍͛̌͡ņ̗͇̈́̊̓ͫͦͧ̀͟d̡̞̭̦͎̹͍͙̥͕͒́͒͐ͦͩ́ ͕̜̊͌́͡y̙̝̖͉̦̝ͪ̐ͯ̒̄̕o̵̸̺̰̽̊͌͊͢ṷ̢̞̳̘̃ͫ̀ͅ’͚̗̜͈͎ͦͮ̊r͉̮͇͑̏͜e͕̩̯̳͑̿̀̈͗ ̮̱̞͎͎̃̉̌̅ͣ̀̓̔̕ͅd̵̛̼̙̜̥͕̠̱͖̏̋͋ͣͥ̃ͯę̶̙̟̝̬̭̤͙͉̭́͟ā̷̩̣̮̺͙͕̊͗͒ͣͨͣ͢͠d̸̺͈̖̝̣͉͕̀̿ͬ̓ͥͨ͐̀.̢̢̫̩͔̙͍͗͒̉͜ ̫̟̲̘ͨ̋̀̏͒ͪ̀
̹̺̙̣̹̿ͧͨ̍ͥ̚͞D͈̹̲̯͚ͣ́ͩͥ͢o̵̷̭̦̮͙̰͕̣͂n̗̰͈̬̣̔̃̂’̭̫̺͐ͮt͕͚͙͈̹̬̪͇̎ͤ̃ͪ̍̍̄ͨ̀̚ ̯͕̹̗̜̪͆̄͑ͮͥ̊̆̚t̸̲̺̺̫ͫͧͩ̋̀͟u̥̬͈̦̥̓̓́r̡̯̳͖̽̌ͭ̎̆ǹ̵͔̭͙̤̓̿͒̈́̒͗̈͢͟ ̴̩̘̲͉̟͕̻̈̈͟ÿ̴̨̧͕̱͈̬̠̝͖̺́̓ͅo̓͋̑̎̓ͪ͐͠͝͏̱͎̯ủ͍͙̳̘̒͛ͭ̏̚͢r̛̗ͮ͑͞ ͚̯̾̋̐͛͢b̪̮̺ͫ́͜ͅa̸͔̝̰̰̭̙̰̗̼̒ͯ̅̕c̪̼̺̯̱̠͉͔ͥͭͨ̾̕k̴͙̜͈̗̩̗ͩͬ̏͜.̲̘̜̝̲̪̇̔̊ͭͧ̃̔͜ ̷̲̲ͥ͜͠
̵̨̪͖͙͕͚͇̳̦̓͌̂ͫͥ̀D̴͓̮̰̃͗̎̀͛ͥ͝o̹̯̙̦̒ͩ̊̀ͣͮͫ̀͘͟n̶̶̩̮̜̖͚̖̩͉̈́ͥͩͨ͟’̮̻̝̰̬̳͍̘̼̔̀̾̈ͣ͐͜͡ṱ̴̨̯͓͕́̐̌̃ ̵̮̤͂̚l̢͈͓̰̠̮̻̥ͣ̃͂̽ͭͨͯͧ͜ö̥̭̘̜͔͖́̇́͝ȍ̸̰̞̖͖̤̻̩̺̤͂́k̵͓̞̱͋̂ͦ̎ͪ̂ͦ̇̕ͅ ̨͎͎͚̞̲͆̑̊̇͑͜͜ͅa̶̠̭̫̜͎͍ͧͫŵ̥̟̺̠͉̘̖̗͒̑̈́ͫ͂͝ͅå̡͔̲̦̙̔̈ͯ͑̓̉̾̏ÿ̻̟̘̼͕͎̣́̓͂͢͡.̸́̂ͥ̌̐͂̑͗͐͝҉̰͕͓̙͈ ̛͙̯̯͕̅̓̇̉͟
̷̟̩̻̯̼̳́̀Ǎ͇̠̺̺͇͙̻̓́ͩ̊̇̉ͥ̎͘͜͞ͅn̩̬̤̜̭̦̑̌͆̑̄ͧ͘d̨̖̖́͌ͬͩ͒ͥ́ ̸̛͉̬̹̻̳̈ͩ̆ͅd̫̤̯̘̍ͣ͗̑ͮ̈̓̽ͅo̶̰̙̖͓ͤ̑͛̽͂ͮ͑̚͟n̗̳̼̰̤͊ͣ͒ͣͣͪ͋ͯ͘’̗̖̝̟͕͙̗ͥͦ̾͛̒̿͗̚͘͡t̤̭̞͉͇͊ͫ͞ ̷̸̣̫̠͇͆̓̄ͫͯ̎̊b̡̳̻͛̂̏̾̾͋̀l̛̛̖͎͍͎̜̻͇͕̿̾̏ͦ̿̑͊͐͟ï̛̳̞͓̟̝̜̪ͬͪ͑͡n̴ͮ̇̀͏͔̠͇̭̯̲̥k̇̀҉̩̲̞́ͅ.͙̤̣͚͈͛̈ͧ ̗̈̂͜
̷͉̲̥̟̟̳ͦͬ̑̈́ͪ͜͠G̲̻̔͊̏ͤ͋̊̐̚o̬̭͎̳ͩ͗͠o̜̟͓̝͎̫̿͊ͪ͑ͧ̏͋́d̵̤̳ͯ̒ͫ ̵͉̬̰̦̗̣ͫ̍ͧ̆̄ͩ͢L̬̰̘̝̳͈̱͔̎͂̓̀͑ͦ͢ͅṷ̵̮̻̫͕̬ͤͧ̈́̕c̶̠͕̘͑̓ͩ̊̃ͣ̓̕̕k̰͙͍̱̥͍͔̙̭̉̇.̵̱̗̩͖̳͎̟̀͝ͅ
ZALGO!
Where we are going we won’t need eyes to read.
How? How do you do these amazing things with typing?
http://eeemo.net/
Things with typing? What could you possibly mean, all the typing looks perfectly normal to me. You are clearly just going insane. Go get some sleep or something.
…aw, I can’t actually stand to gaslight somebody. The squares are totally a typing thing.
There is no Sal, only Zuul!
Are you a God?
Huh? Oh, right! Uh… Yes! Yes I am!
Oh Glob. Is this how you summon Shub-Niggurath?
ZALGO. HE COMES.
HE COMES!
HE WHO WAITS BEHIND THE WALL.
HE WHO IS THE TERROR THAT FLAPS IN THE NIGHT!
HE IS THE BATTERIES THAT ARE NOT INCLUDED!
HE IS THE INCOMPLETE BREAKFAST
HE IS THAT WHICH IS SOLD SEPARATELY
HE WHO IS NOT GAURANTEED OR DOUBLE YOUR MONEY BACK.
HE THAT IS SOLD BY VOLUME AND NOT WEIGHT.
SHE WHO HIDES BEHIND THE DOOR
no that’s me, when anna is getting back from work 😀
Dana?
Click drag-ctrl c-ctrl p in a text file 😛
Ctrl-p is Print, Ctrl-v is Paste.
The reason for that is because Copy starts with C, X is a reasonable letter to associate with Cut, and they happen to be right next to each other on a QWERTY keyboard, so why not go for the trifecta?
the cannot hold it is too late
(Ooh, that sounded different when I typed it.)
Okay…
the [center] cannot hold it is too late
But the quarterback can always get off a pass anyway.
[scream internally] where did those 2 minutes go ?
IA! IA! Sal fthagn!
*fhtagn, it’s spelled FHTAGN DAMN IT
You’d think spellcheck would pick that up.
It does. For all of our sakes, it intentionally gets it wrong.
Clearly the Laundry at work.
“Windows 10 does not support Old Enochian (AKA Cthulhu-speak) metagrammer. Any user modifications to this end will result in your warrantry being voided, also your soul.”
Hah, typical Microsoft dumbing down! Win 7 and earlier fully support it, and you don’t even have to install a language pack.
How can we properly worship the elder gods if we can’t spell our closest approximation to their language right?!
You want to summon an eldritch abomination here in the comments? Say you like Mary.
“Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Mary Indiana wgah’nagl fhtagn”
“Ah crap, we summoned the wrong demon! Quick, give the phone! Good thing I have the exorciser’s number on speed dial.”
Not Louisiana, New York, Paris France, or Rome.
Isn’t Paris in France? Or is this a quote and I’m not getting the reference?
There are various places in the US named Paris, Rome etc, where white people without imagination forgot to ask the natives where they were before killing them.
There’s a Paris, Texas
Paris TX has a miniature Eiffel Tower.
It’s Gary, Indiana
Gary, Indiana
Gary, Indiana
My Home sweet home.
(If you are into musical theatre)
You’d think Amber would have noticed that Sal lives on the same floor as she does by now.
Is it that they’ve never run into each other, or the Amazigirl costume falling out of her basket in front of Sal? Her nemesis might know her secret identity now!
I’m fairly certain the costume wasn’t in there. A zippered one-piece is pretty bulky, and the biggest stuff we saw in the scattered laundry was jeans and t-shirts.
Ah, yeah, I think I misread the yellow thing yesterday. Oops.
Not to mention it would b pretty stupid to have it with her regular laundry. What if this happened? What if someone was watching her do laundry? Or with her?
She definitely knows.
She’s noticed, she just freaks out every time she runs into her.
Amber’s a Hikkomori. She knows more about her MMO guild members then the rest of her neighbors.
No, she’s an einsiedler.
Shut-in. Recluse. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE ALREADY HAS WORDS FOR THIS. >.<#
English might have the denotation, but it doesn’t have the connotation.
Have they not been at floor meetings together?
You assume either of them would show up at a meeting. Amber is a well known recluse who never leaves her room (Cause she’s either being actully reclusive or out being a super hero) and sal is too cool to show up and just leaves though a window instead.
Yes they have. hello every named character in joyce’s wing of the dorm building
There are a few more named characters in that wing since then: Carla, other Rachel, and I can’t remember if we know who Sierra’s roommate is. We still don’t know who Agatha’s notorious bongowad roommate is.
Sierra’s roommate is Dorothy. We’ve seen Sierra be both sexiled and weenus pointed.
Perhaps that’s why she doesn’t show up in the room with Dorothy too often.
amber has sooooooo muuuuuch eeeeeeeyes!!!
Yeah, usually her sclerae disappear when her glasses are off. Seeing Sal is just that shocking.
Conflict resolved! Conflict resolved!
Why couldn’t you of been a Masterball? or maybe Prozac.
Goddammit, what she said?
What, they don’t cover the Black Speech in school these days? How are you going to cope when all the jobs get outsourced to Mordor?
I went to a religious high school in Imladris. They insisted that the black speech not be uttered there. One guy tried to hold a speech-in, but the provost went all “Never before has any one dared utter the words of that tongue here!” on him.
Common public outhouse graffiti in Lothlorien: “Ash nazg thrakataluk” followed by someone else’s phone number.
As near as I can tell…
Panel 2: “Ah know, yer wonderin’ why Ah’m apologizin’…”
Panel 4: “It’s prolly” [I don’t even know- looks like ‘kill Paula assaulted her the youthless.’ But that doesn’t make sense. ‘Cause Hulk assigned her the YouTubes’? I can’t tell. Something about what she thinks of Carla, at any rate.]
Panel 6: “Ah mean, not nice really, but…”
Disregard that, John and Spencer sorted it out.
Well, disregard unless you get a kick out of confused gibberish.
Apparently, she was accepting the blame for Carla being disruptive. The burden of being the floor’s Token Sane One.
Panel 2: apologizing
Panel 4: Its probably my fault since i showed her the you tubes
panel 6: Ah yeah, no not really, but
panel 7 but
I thought that pain and truth were things that really mattered/But you can’t stay here with every little hope you had shattered…
I… Dang. Serious high-fives for that one.
Great, now I have an earwurm.
(At least it’s a good song.)
Amber’s going to go through a total John Smith moment, and rather soon I shouldn’t wager.
I thought you said Joseph Smith, and I was wondering what Mormonism had to do with this.
Well, I have no idea what Pocahontas has to do with it, so…
On thing I can think of is when Kyon decides to blow up the universe.
That scene in the movie where he tells her she’s a savage and she flips out on him…
Yeah, that was as well as it could’ve gone, really. Good job, freeze response.
Dammit Amber, you’ll need to talk to her sooner or later.
I don’t know what exactly I was expecting here, but that was not it. It’s probably what I should have expected, but that’s never the same thing.
Ditto.
somehow i’m sure a few commenters will say this is all Sal’s fault, but can we at least come together and for once try to blame this all on Obama instead?
Can’t, they shut down that subreddit.
There was a subreddit dedicated to blaming the problems in one of the women’s dorms at Indiana University on Obama? Can’t picture that getting much traffic. But something are just outside my scope.
They shut down r/ThanksObama after the man himself released a video of him trying to dunk a too-large cookie into a glass of milk. It didn’t fit, he said “Thanks, Obama,” and they closed the subreddit.
I saw that video. Fitting end, really.
Well, really, what’s left to say, after that?
The man himself? Obama?
Yep. The man himself.
I’m glad I perused the comments section purely to have found this.
I mean, it’s 90% Amber’s dad at fault here.
The distorted text looks like Sal at least partially consider Carla jumping off walls her fault: “Ah showed her the Youtubes”
dab
Glad I wasn’t the only one.
Today’s strip is really making it clear who has read the last page of Shortpacked.
I prefer to think of it as ‘latest’. But then again, I prefer salt and pepper on my mac & cheese, so I’m clearly insane.
Don’t you’ll summon the Willis.
“Beware the Willis, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Ana, and shun
The frumious Plasma!”
The unreadable words look perfect for this feeling; how did you make them?
Unreadable? Challenge accepted, I’m already halfway done translating as it is.
Panel 2: apologizing
Panel 4: Its probably my fault since i showed her the you tubes
panel 6: Ah yeah, no not really, but
panel 7 but
I was wondering the same. I assume The Willis freehanded them?
yeah, drawing over the letters
Given that a lot of the issues that triggered the robbery and subsequent handstabs were caused by parental neglect/abuse, I’m going going to go straight to the source:
Fuck you, Mr. O’Malley.
Fuck you, Mrs. Walkerton.
Y’all fucked up a pair of perfectly good kids. Nice fucking going, you fucking fucks.
Fuck.
Looks good to me.
Fudge indeed.
I approve.
So much this.
Well you certainly demonstrated the versatility of the word.
Oh, and I agree as well.
A Knight’s Tale reference? Or just happy chance? :3
Boondock Saints, I think. Excellent movie, though I cared not at all for the sequel.
And the deleted scenes almost surpass the movie itself.
Saints.
Yeah, you’re right way too much “Sal Vs. Amber”. Not enough “Blaine/Linda
Vs. Amber/Salsuck”.You either used too many F-bombs or too few.
I’m going to go with too few. Fucking fuck the fucking fuckers.
They fucked up a perfectly good kid is what they did. Look at her, she’s got anxiety.
“You fucked up a perfectly good pair of kids is what you did. Look at them. They’ve got severe internalization and parent issues.”
Dab dab dab dab …
d̻̳͖̥͓͕̫͞a̺͔̹̖̯͙bd̻̳͖̥͓͕̫͞a̺͔̹̖̯͙bd̻̳͖̥͓͕̫͞a̺͔̹̖̯͙b
STAB STAB STAB STAB
Mister Stabby, tutu-rurututuuu, he’s mister stabby:
http://www.weebls-stuff.com/other-toons/video/Mr-Stabby.html
Thought you were making a Buffy reference.
Willis needs to get a new font.
*dodges rolled-up newspapers*
It’s not the font, he just needs a new nib on the pen he uses for lettering the dialogue. I think the one he’s been using has just about had it.
It’s the font we need, not the font we deserve.
LOL, why do I feel like Sal’s just following Carla at a discreet distance and apologizing for the parkour? That’s Sal’s day today. “Yeah, Ah showed her the Youtubes, sorry. Sorry!”
Yup. I don’t think Amber is the first person to get an excuse today.
I think Sal, like Carla and Becky is an internalizing pain and disguising it outwardly sort of person. For Carla and Becky, the external mask is exuberant and big, but I think Sal might internalize being hurt by just retreating into herself. She was basically told in her “gift” that she was so worthless and wrong that she didn’t even rate above her brother’s week and a half long girlfriend.
She doesn’t believe that, but she still feels the need to apologize for something, and showing Carla youtubes of parkour serves that function.
Or I dunno. I might be really off on this one.
I dunno.
I don’t really see Sal as having much of a character arch. Oh, she’s a well-developed character, but she’s matured and resilient. Yeah, she’s dealing with crap, but it’s crap she’s experienced in dealing with, and she’s not facing anything that’s challenging her or forcing her to grow. Most of her panel-time has been either as foil for, support of, or challenge to the other characters. Aside from her boning up on math…
…. oh, wait, her only friend Marcie is looking to broaden her horizons to romance with Malaya, and Sal realizes she might need a broader pool of friends to cover for their private time. Maybe that’s it.
Nah, Sal has major trust issues. She’s even said it before when talking to the math TA at the bar – Marcie’s the only one she trusts enough to open up to normally.
Sal’s arc, if she has one, is going to be learning to let go of her cool, reserved armor and trust people a bit.
Yeah, in the interactions with Marcie, she seems to express a wider range of emotions, or at least that’s my impression.
Beaming with pride about her test, yet showing some vulnerability as well:
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-5/02-threes-a-crowd/dontcare/
Angry argument that’s not the full-on “ah’m about ta puch ya” mode she sometimes gets:
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-5/02-threes-a-crowd/teachin/
This lovely bit of platonic intimacy:
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-5/03-the-butterflies-fly-away/erase/
And the places she admits (while sober) genuine emotionality and vulnerability and expressing the fact that she actually does need people in her life tend to be with Marcie:
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-6/01-to-those-whod-ground-me/lateshift/
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-5/03-the-butterflies-fly-away/fuck/
I do agree though with Reltzik that she’s also clearly matured and experienced with processing through a lot of crap without going off the deep end. After all, she’s admitted with Amazi-girl that her old methods of handling this sort of alienation was anger and violence. And I do think that what’s going on internally with Sal is a lot more subtle than say the obvious masks that Carla and Becky put on.
But I dunno, there’s something in her relationship with her family that doesn’t feel resolved. Whether it be internalizing the notion that her natural hair is “wrong”, her polite meekness at being directly ignored at parent’s night and her doing the reaching out thing unbidden here and leading with an apology for something not her fault, when she usually gives a token protestation before helping someone. I’m not fully sure what it is yet, but it feels like there’s something that hasn’t really been fully brought out into the open yet.
Its been much longer than a week and a half. If you call Choosing My Religion to be the start of their relationship, and you could argue that back or forth a couple chapters, but it’s been almost 4 weeks since then, about 27 days.
I agree with the rest, though.
Looking back, yeah, you’re right. Huh, wonder where I was getting the week and a half from… ah, I think my brain was randomly thinking back to the “Walky Performs a Sex” interlude which would have been about 2 weeks ago.
Also, can I just say, that I absolute love Willis’s character searching algorithms for the archive as it makes looking back at past character interactions way easier and saves my poor swiss cheese memory from having to do all the work.
I must admit, I assumed you had bookmarked significant strips so you could easily find them whenever you needed back-up to your arguments.
But come to think of it, such a list would probably soon grow too extensive to be of much use.
Ha! No, that would be the smart way of doing it.
lol that’s kind of a cute mental image though.
“Ah know, yer wonderin’ why Ah’m apologizing… it’s partially my fault, Ah showed her the YouTubes. Ah mean, it’s not really, but… but sometimes ya can’t help but blame yerself.”?
I guess Carla learned parkour the same way Amazi-Girl did.
Too much internet?
I think Amber stated she took gymnastics at some point.
Blasphemy.
Ah, that’s it. Thanks.
Haha! Thank you!
Thank-You Kindly Sir….
Thank you SO much. That’d bug me for the entire evening…
Plot twist: Sal is a creation of Amber’s mind so she wouldn’t have to deal with the fact that she was the one who robbed that store. Sal is speaking in tongues because the illusion is breaking.
So the Walkertons only had a son, and Sal is just a telepathic illusion?
Well, no wonder they prefer him so much.
You know, I would be interested in reading that comic but I much prefer this one .
New Heister Amazi-Girl confirmed.
Carla would work better.
She has skates.
So what’s the explanation for Joyce’s fascination with Sal’s hair in this scenario? Because whatever it is, it’s going to be fun.
Amber has psychic powers that she isn’t aware of, so Sal does have a physical presence.
Sal is a Stand.
Sal has awesome long, thick luxurious curly hair.
And Joyce is very Homosocial ( Thanks Becky, Bodacious lesbian best-friend )
with a child-like naivete and absent normal adult personal boundaries.
And quite possibly closeted bisexuality.
Plot Twist: Amber robbed the place, successfully blaming Sal, and Ethan is covering for her because Amber had a mental break and honestly believes it was Sal who did it…
Last time I switched browsers I wound up with Carla. Now I get Mary?
If this doesn’t work exorcising her I give up!
“It’s prolly mah fault, I showed her the youtubes. Ah mean, no, not really, but…”
Dammit! Beaten by seconds.
Thank you. And to you up there to, John.
So say we all.
Ah know, you’re wondering why Ah’m apologizin…
It’s really my fault, Ah showed her the Youtubes.
Ah mean, it’s not really, but…
After much effort and hours of decryption, I was able to translate the scrambled dialogue:
“Drink more Ovaltine”
Jean Shepherd for the win.
The secret ingredient is love? You stupid piece of…
I’m really wondering how much more Amber can/has to fall apart before she or someone else gets her some damn HELP.
Like I’ve said before, my money is it ending with the law, either involuntary commitment or more likely suffering without mental care in a woman’s prison.
I really don’t think so, if only because that would kick Amber out of the cast for years on end. I think it’s fairly likely that she never gets caught being Amazi-Girl, and for that to happen, she can’t ever do anything too bad.
I was thinking it would be part of the final arc, when DoA is finishing up.
I mean, given what she gets up to it’s a wonder someone less deserving than Blaine hasn’t been beaten yet.
I don’t think that’s going to happen either.
And I don’t think Amber ever will ever hurt someone who doesn’t “deserve it”, since the last time she tried with Sal, she was a completely ineffectual clown who knocked Malaya over and then got kneed in the gut. Otherwise she just beats up dudes that it’s okay to beat up, because they have no character, agency, or drama besides being Thug McHenchman.
Like, we’re not going to see the point where Amber becomes what she fears most. That’s like expecting Dorothy to say “man screw Yale, time to be a housewife” or for Becky to go “Maybe my dad had a point after all.”
By deserve it, I mean scum like the Toe That Walks or Blaine. There’s plenty of people that could get on her bad side and still be fairly decent. I’ve got good odds on another showdown with Sal, possibly ending in one or both parties being seriously hurt.
And I just don’t really see that happening, because if Amber does something really awful, then she has to go to jail because we don’t have the justification of it being wacky fantasy action anymore.
Like, the absolute worst she could do is pick a fight with Sal, and even then I’m convinced that would end in Amber breaking down instead of actually causing any damage.
I honestly don’t know if every character is going to get a happy ending though. There’s only so many times lightning can be dodged.
I mean, it’s hard to say, since there’s not really going to be an ending for at least another 10 years, and I doubt the characters will still be going through the exact same issues then as they are now. Even in the last five years the entire cast has significantly developed.
Amber especially, I really can’t see her storyline ending with her realizing that she’s as terrible as she thought and doomed to become an abuser.
I’m not saying she’d become an abuser, I’m saying that she’ll have one too many PSTD fight or flight rages and hurt someone.
Herself.
I dunno. I have a bad suspicion that if Amber’s life collapses to the point where she finally relents to getting the help she needs, we’re going to see a “college psychologists tend to be awful” style plotline rather than an Amber gets genuine help plotline. Which is bad, because girl’s on a bad road and it’s only going to get bumpier from here.
Eugh, I hope not. It’s tough enough for people to get help when they aren’t reading a storyline about how getting help is sucky and ineffective. I’d be okay with ‘getting help is hard work and takes much longer than you wish it would’, but I’d be very wary of ‘help is totally not worth it at all, you should just give up.’
I think it’s inevitable that Amber starts healing, and I think that can very easily involve professional help. The problem is that therapy is kind of hard to write into a sliding timescale (see how QC eventually dropped it), and also that, if Amber comes to understand that Amazi-Girl is a violent fantasy construct and she stops, we don’t get anymore Amazi-Girl stories.
Yeah, we like having AG comics! Even if she got help, though, Amber has a whole lot to unpack; therapy could well take longer than the comic will run.
The easy way to handle getting a therapist would be showing Amber finally going to the counseling office, but keeping all the actual counseling offscreen. She might react to a tough counseling session by masking up, for example. However, having an adult monitoring the situation would remove the immediacy of Danny drowning in Amber’s problems all alone (except for Ethan).
Also, since my headcanon is that Ninja Rick is the campus counselor, and since Ninja Rick won’t be appearing in this comic (by Word of God, he’s based on a real person, which really just raises more questions), therefore, she won’t go to the conuselor. QED.
And also, since the comic is going to be in one semester for all eternity, we can’t ever see her heal from her trauma the way we did in Shortpacked, where we saw her grow in real time for 10 years.
So, if anything, we’ll occasionally see Amber getting professional help, but I imagine most of her development will come from dealing with Danny, Sal, and Ethan. I’m not sure how to balance Amber getting therapy and Amber still being Amazi-Girl, though, so I imagine that she eventually will stop, if only because the last two years have been really clear that Amazi-Girl is not a good thing for Amber to pursue.
Well, since she seems to be DID, Amazi-girl and Amber will need to resolve their attempts to split fully from each other and deny the other and start integrating eventually including allowing each to have some of the emotions of the other (fear and vulnerability for Amazi-girl, love and acceptance for Amber). And that’s a long process that would definitely last over a semester.
I don’t know if we’ll see that plotline, but I don’t think we’ll see “no more Amazi-girl” not only because of the DID stuff, but also because writing Amazi-girl and her gravity defying weirdness is how Willis gets out his sci-fi/action storywriting needs while keeping everything else grounded deeply in reality (and a reality that is often personally affecting for him).
Honestly, I don’t like them because (A) dangerously mentally ill person running around and threatening to beat people – no matter how much you wrap that in funny, that’s still the core of the matter, and (B) I’m always wondering when we’ll get the pyche and she badly hurts someone arguably undeserving.
In theory, her Amazi-Girl thing could become an excuse to go and and do real, non-vigilante good while costumed. Like those people who take kids in the hospital on trips to be superhero for a day, or the spandex equivalent of Bikers Against Child Abuse. Or something more low-key.
I have noooo idea where this is actually gonna go, though…
Speaking as someone training to be a counsellor, a good counsellor would probably not say “you should stop being Amazigirl”. A good counsellor should say “we want you to be able to choose to be Amazigirl because you believe it’s a positive thing to do, not because you feel like you need to”- with the understanding that it will take a LONG TIME before Amber would feel able to stop.
I can’t see a good therapist basically kicking out their client’s emotional crutch and telling them to get up and act like nothing’s wrong.
Unfortunately it may have to be pretty severe, since her two closest friends, Ethan and Mike, don’t seem to know how badly she’s already doing.
Right? At this point it almost feels like we’re watching someone’s life fall completely apart and we’re powerless to do anything about it. It’s watching a car crash. Or torture porn. Watching Amber feels kinda like torture porn. Because you want to GET HER HELP OMG but you can’t because she’s not a real person. It’s very difficult that we have to be patient and wait for someone in-comic to notice and get her help.
Well, Danny kinda did last time. He gets that her “cute dodge” is actually symbolic of far greater issues and repeatedly insisted that she was Amber when she tried separating her identities again. It’s a start, at least.
Yeah, I actually really liked that from Danny. I hope he keeps this up or some other characters get involved. I’m really hoping for a nice cathartic moment with Amber and Ethan, because he’ll be the only one who’d truly get it because he was there.
Yeah, I can see that metaphor. For me, it’s been like seeing someone make all the mistakes in treating their condition that I did when I was in middle and high school, just a slow-motion train wreck you know is coming, but you also know that the character will need to be crushed by before they can continue forward.
Amber should seek treatment for her involuntary flashbacks, disconnection from her own identity, and mood swings into panic or violent rage. Also she should not live in the same building as Sal.
She should also seek treatment off campus because in my experience college counseling already works on a Dumbing of Age snail’s pace and you don’t want to double down on that.
Don’t forget about those sudden bouts of red background.
And the transient cheek blush.
Counselling for issues like Amber’s would be a slow, slow process anyway. It’s not like this started with Sal- her issues run very deep indeed.
(Speaking as someone with a similar history, somewhat similar manifestation of PTSD, some training as a counsellor under his belt and maybe six years of undergoing counselling.)
Okay, but this is…. such a perfect visual representation of PTSD? This was really well done, and I’m incredibly upset about it.
*hugs*
Yeah, I explained how well this captured PTSD, and how my own worked, on the Patreon, and found that doing so upset me enough that I had to take an anti-anxiety pill and go lay down. It’s… really effectively done.
BPD works better. Compartmentalization has no side effect warning on teh side panel!
I’ve got enough mental issues from CPTSD, quite honestly, I don’t need to go looking for more 😛
It makes me sad too. It is well done, and it is so so sad to see someone suffering like that and not being able to do anything.
Yeah, this is probably the best comic depiction of PTSD I’ve ever seen, right down to the barely hearing the words coming out of another person’s mouth because you’re flashbacking too hard.
I’m gonna spend the next 30 minutes trying to figure out what Sal is saying aren’t I? Goddammit… -_-
Ah know, yer wonderin’ why AH’M apologizin’…
It’s prolly my fault ah showed her the Youtubes.
Ah mean, it’s not REALLY, but…
…but sometimes ya can’t help but blame yerself.
are you a wizard
no, my dad’s a doctor =B
When you are as cool as Sal, helping a random geek is cause for a dramatic monologue.
I think my biggest problem with Ambers character is that I can’t relate to any aspect of her psychology. I have no experience with what’s she’s experiencing above, or her need to compartmentalise herself, or her damage from her dad. Which is great for me, I guess, but makes her very frustrating for me to read.
Well, I also see Amber as extremely mentally ill (I think the author is trying to write her as gradually developing multiple personalities, which is a fabricated mental issue and wouldn’t pan out in MPD-esque cases as Amber is written). She clearly has severe anxiety and I would argue she shows signs of delusion. I can say assertively that her experiences do not make this kind of person. Honestly, she seems almost like a borderline personality disorder case, but I think that’s more a messy inflection from the character writing than from character design.
Not MPD. DID.
I know it’s dissociative identity disorder, I referenced the archaic term because to me it’s closer to the misconception than the highly controversial diagnosis.
I dunno, I’m not so sure we’re seeing “gradually developing multiple alters” as we’re seeing alters who were close to being integrated being pushed further and further way in a misguided attempt at compartmentalization and avoidance of “bad emotions” and “bad selves”.
It’s a lot of things that resonate with my own experiences growing up with DID. And she’s definitely making similar mistakes to what I used to do and we’re seeing the fallout of this attempt at pushing the alters away from each other in order to “trap the bad”.
I doubt that’s the only thing she has though, especially since she, at the least, also has severe anxiety and PTSD.
Stara, it took me until today to realize Amber’s reacting to most of her stuff just like my case of BD works, minus less cartoon exaggeration than you’d think. ‘Course, I probably won’t remember that tomorrow. It’s a little jangly on my nerves right now so the realization will probably have its own little file in my personal hard drive and encrypted by the time I wake up tomorrow…
Huh. Now I have to wonder if I’ve realized that about Amber and my BPD before. Typing this out feels like an anxiety attack in miniature so…maybe?
Steve: interesting, and I hope you’re okay (sounds like you’re freaking out a bit? I might have mis-read). Yeah, I do think that a psychological profile of Amber’s would have to have an axis I or axis II consideration, it ain’t all just axis IV. Anxiety is def a large part of her character writing in social circs, and instability plus the deep, it-doesn’t-need-a-trigger complications of dealing with anxiety seem to be a rational explanation for why she’s reacting in such a way to something a lot of peeps have experienced without dissociating into a superhero or turning into a quivering jelly.
*appropriate gesture of support*
I have PTSD, and I do get it. I’ve blacked out some of my trauma but for the stuff I do feel…. Triggers are hard. You literally know the moment you are in, but my face gets flushI start reliving the past and am doing everything I can to stay present
Maybe just take it as a character study in that psychology? Could help it be less frustrating.
But yeah, not every character is going to resonate with everyone. Though for the theoretical person for whom every character resonates… I’m so so sorry for how life has treated you.
Oh gosh. A gay half black Amber with natural hair, fighting her way out of the church which is fighting back with a literal gun, all while running into the first real roadblocks of college studying and having her first relationship with a sweet but odd kid instead of the girl of her fantasies, who she still pines for and sees every day. Oh, and those racist parents were actually foster parents, because her real parents died in a car accident, and Dina is an ambitious, kinda experienced, but still awkward alcoholic who alternates between pulling her up and dragging her down.
That’s as much as I can handle, Sal/Amber/Becky/Walky/Ruth dating Dorothy/Dina/Billie/Danny. And I didn’t really get much Danny in there. It’s too much for one person, far too much.
Huh. It’s kinda weird that I didn’t fit in any Joyce. I don’t think there’s any more room, and most of her problems are faced to a bigger extent by the other cast members.
Amber’s easy for me to relate to because I know that feeling where being angry about something makes you a piece of shit, the idea of not being able to healthily express that anger for fear that you hurt somebody, blaming yourself for abuse, and the need to prove that you’re not the single worst person without realizing that nobody but you is judging by that metric but yourself.
I’m completely inexperienced in the matter, but Amber’s need to compartmentalize her identities stems from her fears that she, as Amber, cannot healthily express anger, and she needs to take it out on people she can justify as deserving it, and now it’s become a separate identity she uses to run away from herself.
Ayup on that whole first paragraph.
The situation she went through is not objectively so bad that it necessarily merits her extremely traumatised, almost histrionic reaction (note, I am not calling Amber histrionic, she’s just drawn in an over-the-top way). Her father was also, in all frankness, not bad enough that this is a typical clinical response. He hit her mother and was verbally abusive to Amber. It was not severe abuse either– you guys can disagree if you want, I have yet to see Blaine’s behaviour towards Amber be as psychologically damaging in real-life cases of emotional abuse from parents involved in shady activities, even when they pull their child into lying for them.
(I don’t like the storylines that involve Amber’s PTSD very much, though. It seems disingenuous to me, like someone’s idea of how a Real-Life, Gritty Story works. I love the Amazi-girl plots, though, even when they handle the same material or bleed into Amber. My own life circs have been was more involved than Amber’s, in every dimension used to craft her traumatised sides, and I have been in so many different environments where I’ve met and been in sessions with people who’ve been in really rough places, and I just don’t see the writing surrounding her as realistic)
(Hence my being like “yeah, she’s definitely very mentally ill in a way that would exist with or without her personal circumstances. Amber, as a person, would in any event have an unstable personality disorder because that is the simplest way to explain how over-the-top this is.”)
Amazi-Girl’s problem (I consider Amber just a disguise she wears) is she has been projecting her anger and helplessness on Sal for literal years. She’s an incarnation of anxiety and self-hatred versus anything real. I don’t think she’s mentally ill so much as having severe roleplaying problems.
A personality disorder rather than a mental disorder; both are called mental illnesses.
I mean… to be honest, tough shit? Trauma doesn’t really care if you ‘objectively’ had things bad enough to deserve it, y’know? If I’m a little prickly, it’s because I’ve seen too many good people get told that other people don’t think their history warrants their trauma, because their parents *only* emotionally abused them every single hour of the day, rather than *also* beating them into the hospital.
Yeah, I was verbally and emotionally abused a lot as a kid but very rarely hit, so I eventually started telling myself to stop whining because other kids have it worse.
But at the same time, are you developing DID and pulling frozen faces of extreme shock and horror when you run into your triggers? Hence my saying it’s not just what she’s lived through. I’d compare to Becky; I feel that if you switched the two characters, B would be a more stable and less asocial, anxious person under Amber’s life experiences. Amber, I imagine, would be incredibly damaged by Becky’s last few days.
Actually, yes, I did develop DID from the trauma of being emotionally abused by my father for more than twenty years. Thanks for fucking asking, Stara, and in a way that lets me know you considered it so very unlikely.
That was to Spencer, love.
I don’t see how directing it at someone else makes it any less offensive, and your endearment at someone who’s angry and hurt by your skepticism is condescending.
So many *hugs* to Mika.
And to Stara-
DID like PTSD flashbacks is/are weird. What triggers it can sometimes be random as all hell. Fuck, I still don’t know what triggered my first split even if the second and third are a lot more obvious to me (and yes, involved periods of my life of intense and persistent emotional abuse along with other mental stuff clanging into things). As far as I know, I’ve had it since I was at least 5.
And also with regards to your final sentence. Oh hell yes, I agree. Already coming in wounded to something like that leaves you even more battered and I can easily see her developing more alters with new traumas. Especially since that’s a thing I’ve definitely done.
Oh, brains, you fragile, squishy ball of neurons and emotions…
Right, I think it’s fair to stay that since Stara saw dad killed as a child, there’s a decidedly patronising tone here. Don’t see any attacking of anyone’s disorders, except you being dismissive, Cerb.
And I think it’s fair to say that it’s not friggin’ cool to post pretending to be somebody else in defense of yourself, Stara. I can see IPs, you know.
And, furthermore, no, I don’t get like that currently, when confronted by my triggers, but that’s because of significant amounts of counseling and the assistance of anti-anxiolytic medications to break the physical connection between my PTSD and my anxiety attacks. ‘Frozen in place, unable to speak or react’ is actually a pretty good summary of what it looks like on the outside when I get triggered so badly that it causes an attack, which would happen if I was suddenly and unexpectedly presented with an extreme form of my trigger, like, say, my abuser yelling at me. Just like it happened to Amber, here, when she saw Sal’s fingers closing on fabric that looked just like Ethan’s shirt that day.
Seriously, where do you get off?! I said more than once that Amber probably has an underlying condition exacerbating the issue and now YOU ACTUALLY SAID IN YOUR OWN COMMENT THAT YOU HAVE ANXIETY, WHICH I AM ASSERTING IS LIKELY TO BE PLAYING A KEY ROLE IN HER HISTRIONIC RESPONSES.
AND YES, I have been and am in psychiatric and therapeutic environments, I have met a lot of people from diverse circumstances, SO BIG FUCKING SURPRISE THAT A DISSOCIATIVE IDENTITY IS PROMOTED FROM PTSD INTERTWINED WITH ANXIETY.
*appropriate gesture of support*
That’s really rough and I’m sorry for your loss.
But I’m not sure any of us benefits from making hierarchies of who has it worse than who (and thus has earned their traumas), whether in fiction or in life.
Cerebus, I’m really sorry, but I hate hearing “I’m sorry for your loss.” In my mind, it diminishes the events and isolates everything to one suitcase item that can be misplaced or lost– or a sudden one-off, like death through natural illness. Please, read what I say and comment on that instead.
Regarding hierarchies: I would rather not have a pissing-contest. It seems that without divulging things, commenters tend to take remarks here very personally, or think someone’s the equivalent of an entitled white middle-class commenting on structural racism from their all-white suburban area.
Back to say I don’t hate you, your response made me feel angry. :p Because we’re internet strangers who don’t know each other, and words can sometimes cause a spiral of bad feelings that last for a day or touches the tipping point a person’s been sitting on for weeks/months/years. So, I don’t hate you, and I’m sorry I said I did. <3
Yeah, I understand, Stara, and I’m sorry I snapped like I did too. Your words just accidentally touched off a bad reaction because they came across like some unpleasant things that had been said to us, and friends, all throughout our life. I know you didn’t intend that, and I don’t bear any hard feelings at all. Thank you so much for coming back to say that. I’d offer hugs, but I try to ask before doing that. <3
D’aw, hearts. :3
OTOH, while Becky certainly had a odd childhood that’s left its scars, she didn’t have a constantly deliberately emotionally abusive parent, so the comparison is rather moot. They’ve both been shaped by both their innate personality and their experiences. You can’t take the characters we know and swap them.
What would Amber be like if she was raised in a fundamentalist Christian, apparently loving, if conditional and homophobic, household? Damned if I know. What would Becky have been like if she was raised by Blaine? Again, damned if I know.
It’s easy to look at them and say, well Becky seems so resilient and Amber so fragile that Becky would have been fine anyway and Amber would still be troubled, just not so bad, but we don’t know that, because that resilience and fragility are still partly the result of those experiences.
It really seems to me that you’re looking at Amber and thinking “She didn’t have it as bad as me, so if she has problems, they’re her fault.” Which really isn’t fair.
This.
Scars are just that, scars. Maybe it means a life-long mark, maybe it causes deeper tissue damage, including nerve damage or impaired action. And it’s the same for brain stuff. Same experiences, different person might have similar or different ends, but it wouldn’t be because of any inherent quality of one over the other. Simply how each has adapted to the scars life has given them and dealt with the impositions to daily life.
Except that Stara is not saying any of this is Amber’s fault. Just that they believe that the kind of mental health impact that Amber’s exhibiting would correspond to the level and type of abuse she’s been exposed to unless there are other disorders or circumstances which are contributing.
I’m not seeing where she’s doing any kind of victim blaming or trying to undermine the legitimacy or reality of anyone’s trauma based on not having been abused ‘badly enough.’ Am I missing something…?
🙂 Thanks, JQuire, you hit it better than I did.
Yeah, I know, trauma is subjective; that’s why I think Amber’s severe anxiety plays such a big role in how she’s responding. I’m not saying an average person in her circs wouldn’t need counselling; I’m saying that the severity of how Amber feels about everything is disproportionate to what is depicted and an underlying (obvious, often depicted) condition is probably what’s inflamed things.
Also, a lot of what I’m saying boils down to “I think she’s badly written.” Her father is an almost exact crossover from his cartoony shortpacked! character. It’s ridiculous what a caricature he is. I like the how-do-you-get-irl-Batman but, but the PTSD and the run-ins with her triggers, the writing seems inauthentic/amateur to me.
All of which is in the comment you replied “tough shit” to, having apparently digested only the first line. -.-
Um, politely, that’s still very dismissive to people who’ve had a Blaine in their lives. I’ve been lucky enough to not, but Blaine talks almost exactly like my girlfriend’s dad, right down to the statements about how “ungrateful” she’s being not following his every whim in the times where he financially contributes in any way to her life.
Stara, look: gas lighting is the go-to for emotionally abusive persons. We’re told we’re over reacting. We’re told we must have mental health problems because we have a strong response to being abused. We’re told to stop being so dramatic. Statements that our responses to abuse are overblown *is part of the cycle of abuse*. I understand you got angry at an internet stranger, but consider the above and know that those who are emotionally abused feel like the schrodinger’s cat of abuse victims. Always questioning whether the problem is the abuser or them. That uncertainty forms the baseline for abuse, and is the ultimate tool for the abuser.
OTOH…. as a member of this group, I don’t find Stara’s analytical perspective is particularly dismissive. She’s not saying the trauma isn’t real. She’s not saying the response to trauma isn’t legitimate. She’s rightly saying that Amber’s anxiety disorder is playing a pretty big role in the severity of Amber’s PTSD and dysfunctional coping mechanisms. But then, I don’t have a problem with acknowledging that there are levels of severity in what is done to a person so long as we all can agree that it doesn’t in any way detract from the legitimacy of anyone’s subjective experience of trauma.
You know, it may have been helpful if I’d proof read before posting. *sigh*
I’d certainly agree her anxiety disorder played a huge role in her reaction to the robbery and likely the development of her coping mechanisms.
But is her anxiety disorder a pre-existing, innate thing or is it itself a result of a childhood full of Blaine’s emotional abuse?
I don’t know enough about the sources of anxiety disorders to speculate. I’m sure the abuse didn’t help, though.
Classic question of nature vs. nurture. Probably a little of both.
(support: Anxiety disorders run in families, even if the anxious people weren’t raised together, so that strongly suggests that there’s some genetic stuff at play, but environmental factors and traumas also make a big difference, so it’s both.)
Hey, I know. One of my comments remarked on the kinds of experiences that my life has involved; it was removed (which I’m glad for, as I was angry and ended with “I hate you” to Mika). You’ve read correctly what I wrote. Thanks for that.
Thank you, Cerberus <3 As always, you say what I want to, with more patience, kindness, and eloquence.
Blaine’s not a caricature. He’s a depressingly common sort of guy, really.
Different people react to trauma in completely different ways. If you’re more resilient, then that’s lucky for you! That’s like Becky, who can get through a kidnapping/carcrash and come out cheering. Or like Ethan, who generally just takes things like a rock (including this very same event that extra-traumatized Amber). Amber is not highly resilient, nor is Joyce, and that’s no problem or fault of theirs, they just need some more help to get to an obvious equilibrium. All trauma is worthy of help.
I made the mistake of commenting without reading all the responses that people already wrote. Sorry to repeat what’s already been covered.
Yes, Amber in particular may well have a differently-wired brain, as exemplified by her childhood anxiety, which then exacerbates everything that happens to her (particularly since Blaine has never let her treat said anxiety). Nobody’s disagreeing there.
Instead, I think people are not digging the idea that a trauma can be ‘objectively’ not so bad, or not bad enough to warrant a very big reaction from a neurotypical person. Trauma just isn’t objective, and some people react a lot, and that’s not bad writing or bad people in any way. A trauma doesn’t have to be ‘big enough’ to be worthy of a big reaction, even if the person is basically neurotypical.
If it hits you like a trauma, that makes it really important and sufficient. You know it’s sufficient, because it is currently hitting you in the face. So it’s hurtful when somebody suggests that a trauma has to be big enough to be worthy, as though somebody is hitting you in the face and your pal is like, “Well, that guy isn’t really that muscular, he’s not punching you that hard, what’s your problem, really.” Like, dude, face hurts!
People don’t want to be traumatized. If somebody is acting traumatized, then their trauma was sufficient for them. They’re not gonna be making it up.
Anyway. I think you might have meant to be getting at resilience, which is a particularly nifty area of study. We don’t really know why some kids from terrible backgrounds still manage to succeed against the odds, for example. Like their faces are iron! It’s special. If we could figure out why some people are basically fine after a trauma (like Ethan), and some people really really aren’t (like Amber), well, that would be exciting, we could maybe teach people to become more resilient! That would be rad! But we don’t know enough about it, and we haven’t figured out whether we can increase it, or how. Maybe someday.
— PS clarification: when I said “it’s hurtful when somebody suggests that a trauma has to be big enough to be worthy” I meant, worthy of a big dramatic reaction. (Pretty sure we all know that everyone’s worthy of, say, help, or food/shelter.)
When I started to talk about people not making up their traumas, that was a bit of a tangent. I know you didn’t say that Amber was making things up. I was reacting to the classification of ‘histrionic’, which is often lobbed at women as a way of saying they’re making things up, but I think you weren’t using it that way today, so it’s probably not relevant to the conversation.
Basically I wish I could delete my last three paragraphs because I kinda got distracted, there! /novel
I like your last three paragraphs. They say good stuff. To “histrionic”, you’re right in thinking that I used it in a different context; removed from the concept of Amber, more on the way Amber is being conveys (since Amber O’Malley is totes fictitious, everything she says and does is written by someone, and I have opinions on that). http://www.dictionary.com/browse/histrionic <– You might not agree with me at all, of course, but you can see I used it more as a writing critic than as a character response.
I’m sure I must annoy the author with my occasional sniffs (it’s not the first time I’ve written that I find something melodramatic). The depiction clearly resonates with a number of people. I’m just a cold person.
Amber feels like me.
Just let me restate that. Amber feels like me. AG aside she is an uncanny reflection of myself at her age.
Trauma affects everyone differently and we were all given different coping mechanisms starting at birth- the early years are more important than I can state. Blaine reminds me of my own parents combined- they did NOT equip me with coping mechanisms beyond “blame self”. Then there was a bunch of other stuff that happened when I got a bit older (which has fewer parallels with Amber).
I have spent ten years learning that it’s okay to have been so traumatised. That it’s not my fault. That I’m not inherently weak. That I deserved and do deserve to have my experiences treated with respect.
And to hell with ANYONE who says otherwise.
Amber should really see a doctor about her severe case of Tragic Hero Flashback Syndrome.
Yeah the last thing we want is dumbing of age turning into some “edgey” 90 superhero
Yeah the last thing we want is dumbing of age turning into some “edgey” 90 superhero movie
Obviously, Amber recognizes Sal from the robbery at the gas station…
But does Sal recognize Amber? (I read too many webcomix – I can’t keep all the details straight).
Thanks
Nope.
This. I mean, in the flashback, Amber is hiding the whole time and taking Ethan hostage is a spur-of-the-moment decision. And when she stabs her, she approaches from behind and to the side and Sal closes her eyes in pain while the cops drag Amber away from her.
So she probably didn’t much see Amber at the time to remember her. Not to mention that that moment for Sal was probably just the capstone on a day that was shitty for a lot more reasons than that and preceding a lot of awful after it, so I don’t know if she’d care all that much, even if she did recognize her as the person who stabbed her hand.
It was Tuesday for Sal.
I typed something, and it didn’t show. Was it a filter change? I’m gonna type what is missing in quoted to see if it happens again.
“It was Tuesday” for Sal.
Interesting. Sorry Willis, didn’t know that was a forbidden comment.
Well that’s interesting.
It is. I wonder what prompted it.
This exact thing prompted it. People were quoting the line over and over. So Willis stopped it.
So replies to the questioning of why Sal doesn’t recognize Amber we so oversaturated with that quote that he full-stopped the phrase? I take it that particular horse got beat 7 feet into the ground then. I don’t think I was reading the comments then. Thank you.
Yeah. Eventually I think it got used in response to other things as well but I’m pretty sure the robbery is where it started and it’s banned because it got out of control.
It’s kinda like how in the beginning everyone made the same ‘UC is Amazi-Girl’ comments and it became really annoying^^ (don’t worry, I’m not bringing this back, I’m just using it as an example xD)
That ran it’s course over in Shortpacked if I recall correctly. That did get annoying. Though it does make me wonder if Willis may do a future storyline where someone states that Carla is Amaza-Girl, and she runs with it. I’d think that be interesting. You’d have to say arrivederci to the comment section first though.
Closer to 12 feet.
We are not a fandom that can let a joke go.
Beat it dead twice? Now that’s dedication.
I like that quote. You so very rarely get to use it.
Can us n00bs get a link to the comic in question? I am DYING of curiosity right about now. And always interested in avoiding fandom faux pas.
It’s not a specific comic (for the sake of an explanation, anyways). It’s a line from a Street Fighter movie. One of the good guys home town/village/thing was destroyed/terrorized by the Big Bad, and she trains to make herself stronger, to take out said BB. Upon challenging him, she discovered that the he doesn’t even know who she is, and he comments on how when he went to her town, it was the most important day in her life, but it was just another day for him. The direct quote of that last part, what day of the week it was, is what is specifically banned.
A proper write-up is on it’s TvTrope page. I’m gonna try to post a roundabout way of saying it, if you want to look it up. It contains the words ‘it’, as well as ‘was’, and finally the day of the week that comes after Monday.
Well, Orion Fury already described it, but you asked for a link.
Link!
Thanks you guys! Haaaa I guess an artist so active in his comics’ comment sections would get tired of seeing the same low-lying comedic fruit whizzing by on the daily. But damn if it isn’t a great scene. 😀
As best as I can tell she does not. Sal may be a fairly collected individual for the most part, but I can see her flying into one of her towering rages if she ever recognized Amber as the girl that put a knife through her hand.
I’ve been thinking that. I don’t think she would just from remembering Amber, but if Amber tried to call Sal out somehow…
Like “Oh, I grabbed your friend and scared you? You STABBED MY FUCKING HAND.”
“Grabbed your friend and scared you?”
UM WUT.
I dunno whether or not she’d really consider Ethan a hostage or threatened in her head but assumed not here, and Amber yes, scared (so much that it caused trauma, but she didn’t do anything -to- Amber, and I think she’d consider it very minor compared to hand stabbing).
Of course Sal could also be over her hand and be like ‘you were that person?’ and apologetic, because the hand stab is the only reason she’d have anything against Amber.
She’s not really over it if she wears gloves to hide the scar.
That’s a good point, but it might also be a Walkerton thing she inherited like the “straight hair = right hair” thing. Sort of a “keeping the sense of propriety” sort of deal, where you hide away the ignoble proofs of your past away.
Plus, even if she’s no longer mad or anything about it, she probably prefers not to be asked about it every time someone sees it.
(But I can totally see ‘put your gloves back on, no one wants to see that horrible scar!’ being a thing with family, especially given she sleeps with them. Alternative: she doesn’t want Walky to find out (or has had it demanded that she don’t tell), and given she’s rooming with Billie that means concealing even moreso)
I dunno. I think Sal would be more guilt-stricken than angry at Amber. Though I’m not ruling out her guilt expressing itself as anger…
Nope, Sal doesn’t recognize Amber or Ethan.
We already know Sal doesn’t recognise Ethan, who she got a much better look at during the whole robbery. It’s even less likely she’d recognise Amber, who was either hiding or attacking her from behind for much of the incident.
Dammit eyes work better! You can almost make out what Sal is saying! C’mon, focus eyes! Focus!
Dab dab
We have a situation here, people: the penny has dropped.
So, eggs anyone?
Don’t forget the bacon. Oh and the coffee.
Breakfast with the family. Answering questions about what you’ve been doing. Good times, right?
Till somebody asks something awkward and there’s total silence for nearly 5-10 minutes. That’s how breakfast or dinner were usually in my family.
Ya just keep teasing us with this.
Holy traumatic flashback, Batman.
WE GATTA GOE SAVE TEH COMMISHINER!
Ok guys I’m back
Oh.
Ok guys I’m going on vacation again
I brought the snacks!
*Brings refrigerator*
Wait, flashbacks?
*Gets flashbacks to that convenience store robbery*
Welp I’m going on vacation
*Been on vacation*
Oh. I have to go back.
The DAB has infected Sal! The end is nigh.
Yeah Dab, I thought dab would dab dab dab dab.
d̻̳͖̥͓͕̫͞a̺͔̹̖̯͙b
Aaaaaand that’s the last we hear of this plot thread for 6 months.
Well, no, there will be some follow-up discussion with Ethan or someone, but this is the closest we’ll be to advancing or resolving it for six months.
Well, she’s showing up at least until March 18th before moving onto some Carla focus at around the 22nd.
There’s been a pretty consistent pattern of Amber reacting to Sal this way since late 2013, so I think we’re soon going to see this train start moving.
It’s interesting Amber is completely irretrievably unable to process confronting Sal. I was really hoping the fact Sal dismissed Amazi-Girl would force her to confront some things.
I think this is unhealthy.
I think the Amber personality is pretty unhealthy. I don’t think real-life psychology corresponds to any of this so it’s important Amazi-Girl drops her human disguise to become the person she truly can be.
Like what I’m doing right now.
Amber knew Sal was on campus before. Is there any reason why this incident is frying her so bad? She’s even confronted her a couple of times as Amazi-Girl.
Perhaps it was because she was Amazi-Girl? Criticism immunity give a bonus to Will Saves? As her alter-ego she wasn’t mentally prepared to interact with mental anguish?
She seems to treat Amazi-Girl and Amber as two different people in 1 body or something.
Yup, that’s DID in a nutshell, 2 distinct alters, one body. They can cozy up and share minds and integrate or they can do what they’ve been doing. Which is a great way to cause the media-focused side of DID where the alters are so not communicating that they don’t even share much of their short-term memory.
I’m guessing that’s the effect of Amber’s split personality. The part of her that’s Amazi-girl is able to keep herself composed in front of Sal, if for a while, but the other part of Amber is stuck in that moment in time.
Remember when she first woke up after being saved from that semi when Ross abducted Becky. She freaked the hell out before reinternalizing that she was Amazigirl at the moment and stood her ground.
I think this is scaring her because she didn’t have time to notice it was Sal from far away, since no glasses, and has also had to deal with realizing that Sal might not be a terrible person. It’s easy to justify what she did that day if Sal is a criminal, not someone who helps save Becky or who helps someone who’s dropped their laundry.
Yep. Amber doesn’t care who Sal is, she cares about what Sal represents. Sal is capital C Crime in Amber’s mind, the monster in the dark that terrified her, the threat she failed to overcome because she was too much of a coward, and the first example of Amber’s rage being uncontrollable.
It’d be like if Batman found Joe Chill after 20 years only to find that he turned over a new leaf and opened up an orphanage for disabled puppies.
Ok, is it weird that I REALLY want to read a Batman story like that? Cuz that sounds right up my alley.
Ditto.
Hell, having the superhero genre do more to grapple with the economic and racial issues that often create crime and with the idea that most “criminals” do indeed reform or are just kids who made a mistake would be great.
Fuck, our whole society could do more grappling with that reality instead of using the easy and often racist shorthand of “arrested for a crime” = bad person who will always be a bad person.
The lettering in panels 2,4 and 6 reminds me of the early Xerox machines that would do that to copies when various things would often go wrong with the machine’s insides. It was easier to send multiple copies out to a job printer.
Y HELO THAR PTSD
TRIGGER? O WHY THE HECK NOT
I HAD NOTHING TO DO THIS EVENING
JUST LAUNDRY
AND
YOU KNOW
MY LIFE
(But seriously, that’s the best representation of fight-or-flight shutting off the ability to word that I’ve ever seen.)
I thought I saw a discussion about not verbing nouns yesterday…
If that’s the local custom, then OK, I won’t do it anymore.
I could be wrong. I’ve only started commenting recently. Reading around a decade, but actually interacting..
Any noun can be verbed. Standard English move. Works the other way too. Talking about verbification may get you criticized but no one will wonder what the hell you’re trying to say.
Perhaps it was another fandom then. These things tend to bleed together at 2 in the morning.
…….Seriously? Who the fuck does that hurt? smdh
*hugs*
I feel you. I was triggered earlier today (about something else, my trigger isn’t ptsd, it’s suicide/suicide attempts), I watched a movie where it was really incredinly well done and sensitively handled and really cathartic for me – I sobbed for a good long time afterwards. Man, it’s really SO IMPORTANT to see this stuff done well in any type of media. Because you feel like someone really *gets* it, y’know? I feel this. It’s amazing.
Mine is seeing separation of family of someway.
[Fable 2 spoiler]
When at the end you decide which of the three ending to pick, Help the Few, Many, or Self. I had already done the Few and went to pick another one (for achievement), I broke down for at least 15 minutes.
[End spoiler]
Amber needs like a metric ton of therapy.
Srsly.
Too bad she is in the US, where we don’t do metric.
I believe Imperial is a greater amount as well, so maybe it’s a good thing?
You mean the same system that says a pound of feathers weighs more than a pound of gold? Imperial is too crazy to be a psychologist.
….. er, wait.
Isn’t metric more a measure of mass? been a couple of decades since my science classes and I’ve not had a real need to use non-imperial systems.
It is also used to measure distance,length,volume and temperature.
More for the purpose of weight than the other things. Granted, I look at Celsius and wonder how that’s a good scale for basic usage.
Actually, no, not tons. She needs a good trauma-therapist who first helps her digest the robbery and surrounding events and who then get’s her to deal with what her non-father did. With the robbery making so obvious symptoms, a not-so-good therapist might miss that.
MORBO HELP YOU DIGEST NON-FATHER AND FATHER.
Hmm. Speaking as someone training to be a counsellor I think you have it the wrong way around. I think the foundations set by her parents/father need to be dealt with before the robbery can truly be processed. Some of the weight of the robbery can be alleviated but more than that, I feel, involves going much deeper.
…I spend too much time imagining the process of counselling fictional characters.
And now the weather
The moment I read this my Cthulhu POP figure fell over and rolled about on the carpet. It’s more of a BRICK of a figure and has never done that before. The fuck Willis? Are you a witch dude? Can you teach me that trick?
Oh hey, I’ve got one of those too.
I’m not a fan of the brand, but the Cthulhu one was really good.
Amazi-Girl! Look, it’s your arch enemy!
KILL HER. YOU MUST DO IT.
So when do you think there’ll ACTUALLY be a confrontation between amber and sal? I’m guessing ~2020
I’m not complaining, stories shouldn’t be rushed but goddamn… SO CLOSE
Sunny with a chance of b͐̐̔̚͏̨͇̻̭ľ̷̠̜̫̰̹̩̰̒͂ͅa̫̖ͪͥ͌ͪ̔́͡g̤̼̖̲͙͒̇͢.
Another opportunity lost forever.
I wonder what would happen if Amber finally picked a fight with Sal and got completely curbstomped.
Atonement. What she’s looking for.
Given how much of a physical specimen Amber is – forget Ruth, she’s the most physically powerful person in the female dorm though that musculature is hidden under fat – if her blood was up and in full rage… I would have my money on her. Between how unstable and strong she is, she’s the most dangerous personage in the main cast.
We also have no idea what either’s fighting skills actually are. Amber may have studied some form of martial arts. Sal probably hasn’t.
One day I want Amber to be like, “Hey Sal… how’s your hand doing?”
And then Sal goes, “Oh it’s- wait, how did you know?”
And then Amber comes back with, “Cuz I’m the bongo that stabbed you!”
And then an epic fight commences.
Ma hand? What’dya mean, wha’s wrong with ma hand?
I have no hand.
Incredible good representation of a backflash.
The actual stuff doesn’t get through the memory it triggers and she’s as wrung out as if the robbery just happened. Awesome.
Again with the flashbacks?
just got back from the bar. super drunk right now but “It’s probably my fault. Ah showed her the youtubes. Ah mean, it’s not really but…” I’m to drunk to understand this
Sal was apologizing for Carla performing “PARKOUR!” Sal showed Carla some YouTube videos of it so she’s decided to run around the halls jumping off walls and junk, and Sal is doing a little damage control.
On that note, how sweet is the moment that apology is hinting at? Like, so far, with Carla and Sal standing around strips, we’ve just seen Sal trying to remain emotionally distanced from anyone not named Marcie while Carla does her whole “hey, are we just chilling, that’s cool, this is totally coincidental and not because I have a little bit of a romantic crush, but anyways, what we doin’? Watching Marcie hit on Malaya? Cool, cool” shtick.
But with this, we get the first hint that Sal has reached out to someone who isn’t Marcie, at least enough to show her some youtube videos of parkour on her phone.
And it makes me excited to see more Sal and Carla interactions, especially if Carla decides to let her know about the Mary incident.
I wonder if lecturing Joyce to reach out to her friends helped Sal to.
“Ah, damn, ah did say friends plural… welp, time ta get one other friend.”
Now I’m kind of picturing that being a standard Sal lecture, and she gives it to Carla. “Ah, damn, ah’m ‘er friend.”
Ouch! Poor Amber? I find myself wondering how long she’s just going to lie there, reliving that night over and over on a repeating loop?
Nerd!
(Is this another filtered out joke or did no-one feel like making it?)
I suppose ‘hey, I stabbed your right hand and consider you my rival’ would be a difficult discussion to start…
Come on! It’s your Joe Chill! It’s your six-fingered man! Don’t freeze up now!
is amber scared of sal or herself? im kinda leaning towards herself now actually. i always adsumed she was scared of sal and stuff
Sal is sort of an avatar of the very worst moment in her life. It isn’t so much Sal as all of the various bad associations.
Shes scared of herself, AND she is scared of how Sal triggers her.
Between those two shes so overwhelmed RSOD ( Red screen of Death ),
she seems to have a massive Blindspot for how she Victimized Sal.
But in her day-to-day life, I dont shes worries about Sal or even has general fear.
All of the above.
At first, I was going to criticise Sal for not realising how badly in distress Amber was. Then I remembered that, every time they’ve met, Amber has been like this: Pale, trembling, struck dumb and crying. Simply put Sal has no basis whatsoever for expecting Amber to behave any differently from how she’s doing so here.
Which is funny in a sad and terrible way.
Worth noting that she’s not actually crying – even Sal might pause if she saw that happening.
I’m mostly Interested in the fact that the flashback is to the bit of the whole incident where Amber is attacking Sal rather than the part of the incident where Sal was threatening people with a knife. Not sure what that means.
That’s the point where her nightmare began – The moment when she convinced herself that there’s a homicidal monster inside her that makes her unworthy of love and that it was necessary for her to create some manner of safety valve to let out that anger at bad people lest she become a serial killer.
No-one ever said that it was rational but, yes, it wasn’t Sal attacking Ethan that caused Amber’s DID, it was her attacking Sal.
That’s probably true, now that I think about it. Whenever she flashes back to that event, it’s always her stabbing Sal. That’s the moment she defines as the traumatic part of the night.
It’s the part where her internalized father gained control.
Huh, that’s actually really really true.
Plus, how much do most college kids REALLY care about random peers wandering the halls with laundry?
I never realized that’s why she always wears gloves :0
Did anybody catch what was said in panel 4?
Something of the lines of “It’s my fault, really, I showed her the Youtubes [of people doing parkour]”. John and Spencer were the first commenters who figured it out, I believe.
Can someone give me a hand here? Somewhere along the line of this comic I seem to have gotten lost. What exactly happened between these two, when did it happen and how is it involved in Amber’s assumption of the Amazi-Girl personality? I suppose I could start back at the beginning but I’m just to lazy…
1.Sal held up a convenience store with a knife where Amber, Ethan and Blaine stopped by
2.Took Ethan hostage while Amber still suffering from major social anxiety issues did nothing
3.Cops come situation’s resolved because holding up a store with a knife is really stupid
4. Father of the year Blaine berates Amber for doing nothing while her only friend was in danger
Amber loses her shit and stabs Sal in the hand with her own knife
5. Amber realizes she has some serious repressed anger issues and becomes Amazi-Girl for a constructive outlet to her violent tendebies. Sal has a scar on her hand and adopts wearing gloves all the time
6. Amber recognizes Sal because that was probably one of the most important days of her life and freaks everytime they make eye contact. Sal either doesn’t recognize Amber because it’s been years and she’s been actively trying to moved past her troubled youth or she doesn’t care.
Or you can read from…….http://www.dumbingofage.com/2014/comic/book-4/01-the-only-dope-for-me-is-you/hostage/ here. If this link works. I think this is the right place.
#6 brings up what interests me most about Sal. Does she recognize Amber and not care? Does she not recognize Amber? Does she recognize Amber AND Amazi-Girl, AND is presenting herself as she has done in the past year (of real time) in an attempt to collapse the dual personality of Amber/Amazi-Girl?
Sal doesn’t know that Amber and Amazi-Girl are the same person, or that she was the girl from the robbery who stabbed her in the hand.
It does seem a little strange though. You’d think that would be a pretty traumatic event for all three of them, but Ethan doesn’t recognize Sal either so maybe it wasn’t as big a deal to either of them as it was to Amber.
Ethan, I think, had a healthy support network in his parents, and Amber did not, so Ethan pulled double duty of dealing with his trauma so he could try and help Amber, which didn’t work.
Sal, meanwhile, is trying to put that behind her and move on with her life. I don’t think she thinks about it too much anymore, or really cares who those kids were, let alone the crazy one who stabbed her in the hand.
Like, if 13 year old Danny and Dorothy were there, and Danny was the one taken hostage by Sal, he and Dorothy would have a healthy support network of friends and family pointedly not telling them that being victim to a crime was their fault.
While instead Amber wasn’t even left alone without a supportive network, she was left with Blaine telling her how bad and weak and pathetic she was for not even standing up for Ethan, the only friend who could tolerate her.
…Why would any of that make sense?
She spent the day psyching up for a robbery. Attempted to rob somebody. Threatened someone else, and was then stabbed by them.
It’s not PARTICULARLY weird that she doesn’t necessarily remember the mousey white girl that stabbed her, or assume that the mousey white girl she runs into once in a while around the dorms is coincidentally the same person.
Frankly, if somebody stabbed me most of my memories from that evening would be “OW! I’VE BEEN STABBED. MY HAND IS IN SO MUCH PAIN.”
Along with a whole bunch of “What was I doing? Would I really have hurt that kid? I totally deserved to get stabbed for that.”
Sal being basically a good person, I’m sure she carries a lot of guilt for doing that, despite the cool facade.
The eventual reconciliation between her and Amber really will be good for both of them.
Honestly, I kinda doubt that. While Sal might gain some peace of mind because Ethan forgives her, I feel like there are worlds of difference between Amber and Sal’s view and recollection of that day. So much so that I suspect the interaction is as (or more) likely to break Amber even more than it is to help her.
Happened before the start of this comic. Sal attempted to rob a grocery store, Amber and Ethan were in said grocery store. Sal was already being arrested by the time Amber stabbed her hand though (goaded by her father, in part).
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2014/comic/book-4/01-the-only-dope-for-me-is-you/freezeup/
Amber is flashing back to a convenience store robbery from when she was 13(? not sure of age). This piece of backstory involves Amber, Ethan, Blaine, and Sal. Basically what happened is Amber was at the convenience store Sal held up. Ethan got taken hostage during that, and after the police showed up Blaine was insulting her fear and her inability to protect Ethan and basically goaded her to the point where she snapped and stabbed Sal’s hand when she was in custody (this is the reason Sal always wears her gloves). And then instead of getting therapy of any sort after, wound up getting put in self-defense classes (Blaine’s idea). I’m not sure if it’s ever been outright stated, but it was probably a substantial part of what drove her to come up with Amazigirl.
I think the first time the flashback appears in full is when she sees Danny talking to Sal in ‘The Only Dope For Me Is You’, but we see a panel from it earlier in ‘Just Hanging Out With My Family’, shortly after she punched Blaine.
I’m not the best one to explain this properly, so I apologise in advance for any mistakes or lack of clarity.
Thanks, now I remember. I thought I was having another “wait a minute. Carla is a transsexual?” moment.
What? Carla is trans?!?
I ked 😉
I’m surprised no one’s beaten me to this comment yet.. but final panel dialog plus Sal’s expression, makes me think she’s kinda talking about how her Mom treats her. Like she kinda blames herself for her parents’ neglect, even though she logically knows she shouldn’t. Which is so sad. 🙁
I hadn’t thought of that, if only because I think Sal understands how much she suffers because she’s always going to be “the shameful criminal” to them. She knows she did something stupid, but she’s decided to stop guilting herself over it.
It’s also an important indicator of Amber’s thought process; that Sal’s actions are Amber’s fault, and Amber needs to feel guilt because she didn’t stop her.
Sal showed Carla youtube videos, so obviously it’s her fault that Carla’s bouncing off walls, like how it’s Amber’s fault that Sal had a knife to Ethan’s throat.
To be fair, I didn’t think of it until after rereading the strip again immediately after a different comment brought up the care packages again… I could be off, but it seems to fit to me. 🙂
I’m not sure I understand your second paragraph. Are you referring to Amber feeling guilty about not stopping her from taking Ethan during the robbery?
Yes. Amber blames herself for not saving Ethan from Sal, even though that’s not fair to herself because Sal had a knife, and Amber’s inaction isn’t responsible for Sal’s actions.
I love how Sal and Amber’s conflict largely stems from how similar they are. It’s also the reason I love Sarah and Raidah’s conflict. Two people, similar values, same inciting event, but just being at odds in that starts a long bitter rivalry that just creates its own reasons to never be able to heal.
Mostly I like how, to keep banging on about the Batman comparison, Sal is basically if Joe Chill was an actual person. There’s never any kind of hint that Amber’s actions against Sal are justified or acceptable, the way Joe Chill dies but it’s okay because he caused Batman’s origin story and he’s The Criminal Scum, and Amber is purely in the wrong for how she’s dealing with that anger.
Yeah, I like that parallel too.
Oh okay somebody did get to it.
I think that’s totally what’s going on. “But sometimes ya can’t help but blame yerself” is absolutely about that, and knowing better, and doing it anyway.
I’m going to get a stress ulcer from these commenters who think Amber shouldn’t have PTSD or DID because they didn’t have it as ~horrible~ as they did. You didn’t see the full extent of Amber’s father’s abuse, and stabbing another person’s hand in blind rage and fear because you’re afraid to lose your only friend absolutely affects you. It definitely qualifies as a traumatic event, especially in light of how afraid Amber was to use violence the way her father did to solve problems. Fuck’s sake.
She definitely needs therapy, but can we stop pretending her psychological state is “unjustified”? You try telling someone with MDD (depression) that it’s nothing because your life is worse than theirs.
*friendly hug* Gaslighting is the worst.
On that same note, I’m sick of people saying Blaine is too cartoonishly evil to be realistic when he’s a carbon fucking copy of my ex.
I think people are confusing “cartoonishly evil” and “not given enough exposition to sympathize with”. Compared to Blaine even Toedad is a fleshed-out character: We can at least extrapolate why he is the way he is. With Blaine the best we can do is speculate.
I’m wary of that game. “Let’s Psychoanalyze Your Abuser So That Way His Abuse is Understandable” only got me more abuse till I threw up my hands and walked away with the conclusion that abusive sociopathic assholes aren’t always some poor, misunderstood flower with a tragic backstory and redemption in their future. And it’s not worth investing the time into them to find that out. FWIW I thought that’s exactly how Toedad was portrayed; he just feels like a higher power is endorsing his abuse. That doesn’t make him sympathetic to me, it just makes him a bigger asshole.
Sympathize was a poor choice of words by me. My point was just that we know Toedad’s motivation, even if it is nuts, while Blaine’s is still “He’s just a petty and abusive asshole for no known reason”. Which in a story is pretty hard to distinguish from poor characterization even if it isn’t necessarily unrealistic. It’s one of those things were readers are sometimes less forgiving about fictional characters than actual people.
As for real-life abusive partners not being worth investing time in, I totally agree. Even if you become privy to some tragic backstory an abusive person will just use your sympathy as another way to blackmail you. I lost a handful of years down that road.
Oof, same here. Sorry to hear that. 🙁
I’m content with the ‘some people are just jerks‘ angle for Blaine, since it kinda oddly makes him more realistic for me. I notice that trope a lot, the villain with the sympathetic backstory. But I totally see what you were getting at now; it does make for a more compelling or complex story.
That is definetly gonna require some intense psychological help at some point.
OK, so first of all: I have not had any of the issues Amber’s had, so the odds are pretty damn good that my following interpretation will be me talking completely out of my stupid ass. Anyone that knows what they’re talking about and thinks I do indeed perform a rectal speech, feel free to lay the heavy smackdown upon me.
Anyway, so like many others, I reckognise another PTSD episode happening here. However, I am a bit more optimistic than many people. Because of the last panel.
Amber is actually hearing what Sal’s saying again.
To me, that moment is actually very significant, enough to warrant its own paragraph. Amber’s episode ends before Sal’s left. She’s starting to realise something new about Sal. Exactly what this is is (for now) unclear; but whether it’s that Sal still doesn’t reckognise her as AG, or that Sal probably knows who she is and won’t care, or one of any other such things… I think it all leads back to the following:
Amber could be realising that Sal may not be such a horrible person these days. Sal has changed. Sal may not care about laws, but she does care (in her own “pretending to be too aloof to care” way, of course) about people.
That, and the last words is resonating with Amber, who is obviously -still- blaming herself for not stopping Sal before Sal took Ethan hostage that day (Because beating up Blaine sure as hell didn’t take that away). Hearing Sal of all people say those words may, just may, have reached through to Amber in a way that most other people telling it to her could not.
And that is quite likely because Sal is talking about herself still blaming herself. Hearing other people -people that seem to be in complete control of themselves, unlike Amber- also go through the “I blame myself even when I know I shouldn’t” phase of things… That can be more powerful than anyone telling Amber she shouldn’t blame herself, because let’s face it, that does often sound somehow forced and trite. And if you’re feeling particularly stubborn, you may even end up thinking “OK, so they’re telling me it’s -wrong- to have these feelings. Great, another thing that’s wrong with me. I can never be a normal human being.”
To have someone else sharing that they get the same feeling (and yeah, the circumstances are of course -very- different, but the end feelings are still the same) is showing that hey, maybe that feeling is in fact quite normal among human beings. “Huh, so I’m not the only one who does that? Maybe it’s something a lot of people do… Maybe I’m not a hopeless case after all…”
Anyway, that’s my super-optimistic (probably to the point of being hopelessly naive) take on things.
Huh, I read that moment a bit more of the focus moving back from Amber’s trauma to the reality an observer or Sal might see including the reality of her words.
But I like your optimistic interpretation. Largely because I’d really love to see Amber starting to work through some of her stuff or at least start recognizing the shape of the damage she’s working with and the role Sal could play in helping her get through it.
I think she has to, and maybe sooner than we think. This plotline’s been going on for two and a half years now and Amber’s only gotten worse. We’re gonna see her pull out of the darkness eventually.
I still hope I am right. Unfortunately, I think it is probably more likely that you -with your rather excellent track record of understanding what is really going on- are right, Cerberus.
Still, if the day finally comes to prove you wrong, then it would be a worse thing to be wrong about than this, right?
I think she heard Sal’s last words, if only because hearing the one thing she needs to hear from the one person she doesn’t want to is just too perfect.
Yes.
I also thought this was Amber coming out of the flashback when Sal was still talking, which is probably yes, good for her. I’m not a brain expert, but I think that way her brain can slowly start getting used to Sal being around and kind of start associating her with things other than the robbery. Like, if she blacked this out with flashback entirely, next time she meets Sal she still has robbery as the only clear memory of her, but this way, next time she’ll also probably have remembered this encounter, however dimly.
Dab dab dab dab dab dab dab dab dab dab dab
Interesting how the part of the whole experience she’s flashing to were HER actions, not how Sal pulled the knife and tried to rob the place. Was it Amber that traumatized herself more than Sal’s actions?
It’s possible. Amber hates herself more than she hates Sal, I think, and it’s her own actions, her inability to save Ethan and her actually stabbing Sal, that she seems to hold herself to.
I’ll just go ahead and say: Yeah, all of this.
Amber’s tragedy (well, one of them, I guess) is that she’s always, always blaming herself for everything bad, -even when she logically knows it’s other people’s fault-.
If f.ex. Danny had been caught drinking and got himself expelled? Yep, Amber would have been all “If only I had imprinted in him the importance of not drinking on campus before this happened!”
Yes! And her own anger; I think she’s actually more afraid of what she can do and of the Blaine in her. Note how she self-triggered after losing her temper at Danny.
… I’m assuming this is one of those things that would make sense if I weren’t reading just the new strips? … I have no idea why I’m doing that, but I can’t stop, and want a refresher on Walkyverse before I jump into the archives.
Probably not. I’ve read the whole thing and I have no idea what just happened there.
When they were all 13, Sal held up a convenience store that Amber and Ethan were stopped at, and Sal took Ethan hostage with a knife while Amber hid in the corner.
After Sal was arrested, Blaine told Amber she was a useless coward for not defending Ethan, causing Amber to violently snap and stab Sal in the palm. That’s what Amber’s flashing back to right now.
Oh, and Nezumi, go back and read the archives and then the Walkiverse. Dumbing really is independent.
The fact that it is independent is precisely why I am avoiding the author’s other works. Since they use the same characters it seems like it would just be confusing to have to try to keep the two story lines separate.
I’d heard of and already spotted a good number of hidden jokes and references and parallels, even though they’re independent, and I’d likely miss many of them at this point and, at best, have to reread later. But… you do have a point.
Happened to see the Comics Alliance post about the comic:
http://comicsalliance.com/dumbing-of-age-readers-guide/
Best part has got to be the comments, from the guy who straight up echoes a villain from Shortpacked! to the guy crying censorship because he’s not allowed to go on a giant homophobic rant when he wanted to.
What’s the statement about how you can tell something about the quality of a work by the type of people who hate it?
Referring to one of the comments in that article, folks said that IW!Joyce was ruined because she had sex?
wat
I guess because being repressed was, in their eyes, the main focus of her personality and/or the story? So maybe not “ruined” in a “terrible person” kind of way, more a “Jumped the shark” kind of way?
I don’t agree, but some readers preferring the status quo to some development happens to pretty much every piece of fiction.
430 Comment in 2 minutes?
Isn’t this the second time around for Amber having that flashback? I am sure I remember her going thru this long before today?
This is the short version. Just enough for us to reconstruct what’s going through her head.
why is she running to her room to change to amazi girl outfit if she grabbed the mask out of the laundry basket and the suit is in there too? i think her amazi girl suit is in her room, and she keeps the mask with her at all times for comfort