Problem is, there not really Jerks, people just fail to realize that their friends are like that as well, especially 18 year olds. Problem is we can’t look over what our friends say and analyze it in same way we can do with a comic.
I’m just as likely to analyze what my friends say, and if I think they’re being jerks, I’m a bit more likely to comment. I think people in general are more likely to take criticism from someone with whom they share mutual affection and respect, than anyone else. In that sense, you are uniquely able to help your friends to be better…..and I am uniquely motivated to extend the effort for friends, as opposed to strangers 😉
Detriment might be a strong word. I think most people have a sweet spot between quality and quantity of relationships.
I for one have never despaired of being able to do so, when it comes to making decisions about how I should behave in turn when engaged in social dealings with those I have connections to.
However, when I observe people who are in relationships with one another, who are behaving like jerks *to one another*, usually there is a combination of factors in one or both individuals that has entrapped them in such behavior patterns (or possibly even their relationship) in the first place.
Lack of experience dealing with the *outcome* of being “jerkish” is a common factor, as well as a lack of desire or care for following a *different* path (possibly due to high levels of obliviousness to the fact there even *can* be a different path, or that it would benefit them to seek one), strong opinions about frivolities, and excessive optimism or even faith that everything will turn out alright regardless of what they do and how they act. All of these factors reside in the minds of… frankly, most people I know who aren’t reclusive and detached like me.
Often, these people are strongly gendered (in the sense of how they think their biological sex should somehow be represented in their personalities and thereby dictate their social behavior) – and are often, therefore, not following the most favorable path to a desirable status quo, and thus also avoidance of future conflicts.
To me, it seems an addiction of sorts: they become addicted to the response to virtually any of their attempts to garner positive feedback by mimicking the behavior of others.
I suppose what I’m saying in a very roundabout way is that most “jerks” make the mistake of clinging to role models who are less than ideal and far from personable.
It is kinda funny having one person who just unabashedly hates Sal so much where it isn’t a crippling character flaw, given how near everyone in comic thinks the world of her and implicitly trusts her. Malaya just brings out the worst in Sal, and it makes for great character beats.
Sal was kinda grating on me for a while because it seemed like her storyline was a long list of people being wrong at her.
Which is still fine, especially given the material Sal is dealing with, but I also like the acknowledgement that someone can be kind of a douche sometimes and still deserve basic human decency. So seeing her pull an Amazi-Girl and try to beat the hell out of Malaya for a stupid reason, I thought, was a nice moment.
That’s twice in one week that the Walkertwins have suddenly developed sclera for particular expressions. I… like it? But I can’t figure out quite what the pattern is.
Maybe they stole Ruth’s from that panel a while back.
‘Forget it, I’ll just sign the message…’ ‘Don’t be stupid, Malaya, we both know ya can’t s–‘ *Malaya rattles off a perfectly signed message* ‘… She said that?’
Again, there are ten virtues that are required for a Buddhist to possess in order to attain Nirvana, and if Malaya has any of them, it might be one too many.
Not true, I don’t know anyone not currently in prison that does not have at least two of the ten. Donald Trump is an exception to that, but then there are some that say the only reason he’s not in prison or under it is money buys silence and good lawyers.
Man, the Walktertons have had the best Grumpy Faces this month, haven’t they? First Walky being sour about the thank-you note, and now the last panel of this comic.
I really hope it was “I Banged the hot, brown, freckled girl’s brains out” http://i.imgur.com/2CZTEBp.png
(This is an oldie but Malaya and Marcie are some favorites of mine)
i dunno why everybody hates on malaya. she’s great! she’s probs either my favorite DoA character or a very close second to carla. heck, those figures hold for the walkyverse too.
And despite her bad qualities she does pretty well for herself. Takes her studies seriously, is on the team and has caught the eyes of Marcie. Also, in the conflict with Sal she comes out looking like the less petty, less vindictive and generally less dumb person, which is pretty funny given how cool Sal manage to be in most other interactions. Malaya is the brat Sal deserves.
Another thing that makes Malaya not only tolerable but enjoyable for me is that very few people come out worse from their interaction with her.
Amaziegirl: Malaya falls on her butt.
Carla: Malaya is snarked.
Lucy: Same sunny self (and I strongly suspects she dials it up a bit just to annoy Malaya)
Marcie: Genuine positive relationship, if not EXACTLY what Marcie hopes for. Yet.
Sal… yeah, Sal suffers from interacting with Malaya, but that is just as much on her as on Malaya.
For me it depends on who she’s interacting with. If she’s in the company of fellow jerkasses then she’s incredibly entertaining but when she’s being a horse’s ass to perfectly pleasant people she’s much more unlikable.
Me neither, but only because I don’t see how they’ve seen enough of her to even form an opinion one way or the other. The only reason I even remember she exists is because she’s Marcie’s girlfriend, and Marcie is herself a secondary character, who I only know of as Sal’s signing friend.
I mean, it seriously took me until I saw her name to be sure who she was. And, even then, a lot of that has to do with Sal knowing her name and then them talking about Marcie.
I mean, maybe she was in that group who were jerks to Sarah and Dina that everyone acted like we should know but I’d never seen before? I assumed they were basically cameos from an earlier comic, thrown in just to let you know what they were doing in this reboot, but I seem to remember at least one showing up in other situations.
Yes, out-of-universe prejudice is coming into play. She was a major character at the end of Shortpacked!, in which she often defined herself as somebody who hated on everyone and everything (with one notable exception, but that’s a spoiler).
In this ‘verse, we haven’t seen her much, but we know she likes skating, and both of these changes are major improvements.
Raidah and posse are new characters in DoA. (Dana and Carl aren’t, but they were perhaps even less notable in Roomies! than in DoA.)
Malaya was, as Leorale says, a major character in the latter part of Shortpacked!. And she was awful. Dumbiverse Malaya doesn’t seem nearly as bad, really – I think she hasn’t yet had the experiences that led her to being a bitter, hateful jerk doomed to working in retail (though Sal’s working on it) – but it’s difficult to separate them.
I have similar issues with Carla. Her Walkyverse counterpart, Ultra Car, was seriously the worst. Like Mike but without the creativity or insight. She got some character development towards the end of Shortpacked!, but it didn’t get her much past “tolerable” before the strip ended.
I like Carla more the more we see of her. It gets easier to separate her from Ultra Car, and she seems more likeable in this universe. I suspect the same will happen with Malaya when we see more of her. (Carla’s had just over twice Malaya’s appearances at this point.)
There’s maybe three or (at most) four characters I really “like” in this strip. The vast majority of them, I just find to have interesting enough stories to want to see them followed through.
*Starts singing.*
Rorschach and Deadpool!
A nut and a fool!
He’s a mental case,
music’s not his thing.
So, I wrote the theme.
I’m so talented!
Copyright Deadpool!
Copy and I’ll sue!
I think that the song should end right here!
“…off all the ways to wake you up, that polled as my favorite”.
———————–
“Plus, I could do it from the other side of the table, where I was safely out of your immediate reach.”
Once my dog was sleeping parallel to me and my mom called her and she kicked me, full strength in the stomach and ran away. The worst part is I can’t even get mad at her! She doesn’t understand what she did.
Malaya is her usual snarky self I see. Wonder what she’d be like if she ever decided to be nice to someone for a change; probably give ’em a heart attack ;). Gotta admit she is does liven the place up.
Good question why Marcie didn’t text Sal. Cells set on vibrate work really well to get your attention if in your pocket. Mine bounces itself right off the table.
Huh. I think I figured out my opinion of Malaya finally. I only like her if she’s in a comic with chars who like her. She’s good with UC in SP!, or around Marcie in DoA, because she actually puts in effort with them. Around chars who dislike her, so do I, because she reacts to the dislike by being as aggravating as possible whether the situation warrants it or not.
Sometimes, I think maybe Sal wants to hate-fuck Malaya, and is a bit thrown off by the fact Marcie wants to be with Malaya, and so the hate-fucking will never happen.
She’s said she’s never lost one before, and when she was drunk with Jason she was insistent on finding someone to fight, so I think she’s been in some.
Something I like with her is how half her posing is on her own expense “Fuck if I know”. She tries so hard to play up the “too cool to care” persona, and when she overcompensates it’s just hilarious.
Don’t really see much wrong with the book slam to wake her up, really. Sure, the attitude after that isn’t nice, but neither of them like each other. It’s not like Sal was ever nice to her, either.
Like I said above, there just doesn’t seem to be enough info to get a read on her–at least, in this universe. I do not want who someone is in another universe to get in the way of how I see people here.
In other words, I have no idea what they are like. I found trying to read comics set in different universes with the same characters to be way too confusing. I can handle different mediums, and sometimes vastly different art styles, but not two web comics with characters that look the same.
I’m going to be honest here, I actually haven’t read any of Willis’s other comics. And so far I really like Malaya. Apparently other versions of her have some major baggage attached, but this version has done nothing to garner my dislike. This is kinda a round about way of saying that I agree with you about characters and the multiverse.
Well, given that the only massive changes in who characters are, is that Mike can’t really demonstrate benevolence, and Carla is not a robot, the other universe is relevant. And waking Sal when you can’t actually deliver a message is pretty dickish. It strongly leads me to believe that she’s the same abrasive dick who is often wrong that she was in Shortpacked!
That was my AP Art History teacher’s favorite way of waking up people who fell asleep in class back in senior year of high school. As soon as he noticed he’d just non-chalantely continue lecturing while going to where he kept it, taking it out of it’s case, assemble it, and then walk up to the desk of his victim and just blow that trombone as loudly as possible. It was a very good class.
Caravaggio was a complete dick, romanticism style painting is boring, Impressionism isn’t my thing, Gothic cathedral’s borrow from Islamic architecture, never say a woman is Rubenesque, and Giotto is massively under appreciated in the art community. Also, Islamic poetry and calligraphy is a amazing. Like I said, good class. Wacky/crazy teacher, but he made the lessons stick and was quite entertaining.
Malaya hasn’t been rude to anyone who isn’t Sal, who is an enormous jerk to her for no reason other than vindictive jealousy, so I don’t actually have any problems with her in this reality.
Well, there was her attitude towards Carla when she only bought a six pack of beer for their group of four. And I’ve got a hunch that that wasn’t a very exceptional moment.
Yes, but it’s also her being an ingrate and a jackass. I mean, I *like* Malaya, but part of liking her is acknowledging these things. She’s been on camera with 5 people – Sal, Carla, Malaya, Amazi-girl, and Lucy. She’s been a jerk to or about at least 3 of them (Ain’t got nothing against her for defending herself from violence with violence)
Since Sal has been in a private school since she was a small girl and she was just posing when she robbed that store, I’m fairly certain she’s never been in an actual fight. Malaya by contrast strikes me as someone who has been fighting since adolescence.
A) private schools can be worse in many regards, and “hazing” can turn deadly B) Sal was sent to boarding school AFTER the robbery, to “straighten her out C) that’s where she got tattooes and lost her virginity.
She didn’t go to a private school, she went to a Catholic school. Private schools are privately owned, Catholic schools are owned by the Catholic Church, which not usually considered a private entity. There’s even a term (parochial school) solely developed to differentiate church-owned schools (of any denomination) from privately-owned schools.
Also, having been enrolled in a private school myself, I can assure you they can be just as violent as public schools. They’re just more secret about it because the grounds for expulsion are more stringent.
This depends upon where you are. Lots of eastern Canada institutionalised Catholic schools as parochial schools, for example, but here in our part of Cascadia, they are private schools, with a religious affiliation.
I use it for evil all the time. I no longer post my more controversial ones because there was one commenter who wouldn’t let it go for MONTHS AND MONTHS after the fact. I’d rather everyone either tell me they like it or don’t and leave it at that. (Plus of all the places on the internet that I frequent, this is the place with the most easily offended people.)
(Plus of all the places on the internet that I frequent, this is the place with the most easily offended people.)
————————
Yotomoe, obviously you and I do not visit all the same places on the internet. Generally, this place is positively laid-back compared to some of the places I frequent.
Eh, I’ve long held that being offended by something isn’t grounds for someone automatically being a tumblr pandering Ess Jay Dub with a loose definition of the word “trigger”, and is inherently worth of mockery and that one abused Stephen Fry quote. Being offended by art is a valid reaction.
Folks just have shit that bugs them. That’s okay. Whoever this commenter was could have learned to drop it, though.
I’ll make a deal, since I do love showing people my art. I’ll post a bulk imgur link of all the DOA related stuff I’ve drawn over the past 4 months or so, under the rule that y’all don’t hold anything against me or bug me about it offending you or something. I mean if you don’t like something you can just say so and leave it alone but I’m not a fan of walking on eggshells around people. I wear my heart on my sleeve.
I don’t want to dissuade you from sharing your art, but I think it’s unfair to say that people aren’t allowed to get angry at something that’s offensive to them. Within reason, I mean. Being offended isn’t carte blanche to be a total douchenozzle, but I feel someone going “hey that’s not cool” isn’t unreasonable, if only because you’re not under obligation to take what they say to heart.
Yeah. I even said you can tell me “I don’t like this, that’s not cool, etc.”
After that, we’re done. I don’t need you bringing it up at a later date. I don’t need you responding to every comment I make bringing it up. I don’t need messages to me about it. You have a right to not like something. I’m just saying I have no desire to argue or constantly defend my art. I just want to share it with the handful of people who might also like it :3.
In the last three strips we’ve seen the whites of their eyes for both Sal and Walky. I’m going to pretend this is a sign of future bonding between them.
You remind me of Tucker in The Chorus Trilogy of Red Vs. Blue.
“I hate my life.
(Washington yells at him)
You know what, I take it back, I hate everyone else’s lives. Wish they didn’t have ’em. Oh my God, am I turning into Church?”
I dunno. She states a few strips after the one I linked to that she did love Leslie, she just wasn’t attracted to women.
As far as UC was concerned – Malaya was very into the fact that UC was not human (in a way that can’t carry over into the dumbiverse) : http://www.shortpacked.com/index.php?id=2070
I think that emotional connection she had with Ultra Car, that she connected with her on a level she never had and then felt immense sexual attraction to her, is more than just Malaya being into robots. Malaya isn’t into girls or guys; she’s into people.
Eh, the sexual attraction kicked in pretty much the exact moment that UC got her new chasis. In fact. It did. The same strip in which UC reveals the new chasis is the same one where Malaya starts wondering about whether it’s ‘fully functional’.
Unless you’re suggesting that Malaya’s sexual attraction developed while UC was still a car?
And the point at which Malaya became overtly sexually interested.
The whole attraction for Malaya is that UC isn’t people. She says it more than once. Her inhumanity is the crux of the understanding and a component of the attraction….which doesn’t pop up until UC has a humanoid chasis that can do things humans can’t.
And I ain’t showing ya! It isn’t my thing either, but it’s not even all that rare, you’re being unnecessarily negative and stigmatizing towards what is, all things considered, is a pretty damned harmless kink and most-defnitely-a-thing-that-exists.
It will be sad but I doubt that Willis will drag it out too much. He’s already basically already written the arc only with Malaya and Leslie instead of Marcie.
I really like the idea that most people don’t give that much of a shit about Malaya, like there’s maybe a joke about how she’s a bit of a callous jerk, but they still hang out with her, and Sal’s the only one who takes any of it seriously.
Like from everyone else’s perspective Sal has this cartoonishly rivalry with Malaya for no reason.
Yeah, I really think so. Apart from Sal and Marcie, we have seen her with Carla (who sneers at her just as much as at anyone else), Amazie-girl who barely registered her as a hang around to Sal (I’m SURE Malaya appreciated that) and Lucy who have such a mom/teenage brat-dynamic with her that it is adorable.
Sal is the only one who seem to take her jerkiness seriously, and for anyone else it is just silly.
and Lucy who have such a mom/teenage brat-dynamic with her that it is adorable.
More of a little sister/big sister. Lucy didn’t offer refreshments and periodically check that they were OK (standard mom behaviour), she tried to engage them, both by approaching them and by trying to draw them into what she was doing (classic little sister behaviour).
Oh my god, this is so fudging hilarious and the comment section just makes it even better
That said, plaid dress shirt one size too small so you can show off your midriff? Seriously? Malaya should become friends with Sal just so Sal can be her fashion mentor. She’s just crying out for help and she could really rock the biker look Sal’s got going.
Loading ...
she says “people who like her” as though it’s more than just Marcie
Are you saying there are people other than Sal who DON’T like her?
Thank you Gravatar Deity.
Yep. Totally guilty, right here!
Most characters, I imagine. It wouldn’t be Malaya if she were liked by people who actually deal with her XD
Well, Willis seems to like her, but he sure does love those acerbic jerky characters.
Different strokes.
Problem is, there not really Jerks, people just fail to realize that their friends are like that as well, especially 18 year olds. Problem is we can’t look over what our friends say and analyze it in same way we can do with a comic.
Actually, some of us can…to the considerable detriment of our social relationships. >_<
I’m just as likely to analyze what my friends say, and if I think they’re being jerks, I’m a bit more likely to comment. I think people in general are more likely to take criticism from someone with whom they share mutual affection and respect, than anyone else. In that sense, you are uniquely able to help your friends to be better…..and I am uniquely motivated to extend the effort for friends, as opposed to strangers 😉
Detriment might be a strong word. I think most people have a sweet spot between quality and quantity of relationships.
I for one have never despaired of being able to do so, when it comes to making decisions about how I should behave in turn when engaged in social dealings with those I have connections to.
However, when I observe people who are in relationships with one another, who are behaving like jerks *to one another*, usually there is a combination of factors in one or both individuals that has entrapped them in such behavior patterns (or possibly even their relationship) in the first place.
Lack of experience dealing with the *outcome* of being “jerkish” is a common factor, as well as a lack of desire or care for following a *different* path (possibly due to high levels of obliviousness to the fact there even *can* be a different path, or that it would benefit them to seek one), strong opinions about frivolities, and excessive optimism or even faith that everything will turn out alright regardless of what they do and how they act. All of these factors reside in the minds of… frankly, most people I know who aren’t reclusive and detached like me.
Often, these people are strongly gendered (in the sense of how they think their biological sex should somehow be represented in their personalities and thereby dictate their social behavior) – and are often, therefore, not following the most favorable path to a desirable status quo, and thus also avoidance of future conflicts.
To me, it seems an addiction of sorts: they become addicted to the response to virtually any of their attempts to garner positive feedback by mimicking the behavior of others.
I suppose what I’m saying in a very roundabout way is that most “jerks” make the mistake of clinging to role models who are less than ideal and far from personable.
Most people in general are jerks, friend or foe alike. Your mileage may vary on how many jerks, and what kinds, you may tolerate.
Maybe she knows that through the 4th wall, a jerkass named Yoto loves her.
There are at least 552 of us suffering in solidarity, according to the latest poll.
561
I’m proud to be one of them.
Your not a jerk Yotomoe! I probably like you the best out of everyone here, you give us free sexy shit!
So what you’re saying is…I could start charging?
Yeah, but no more than a nickel.
Curses. Foiled again by the Gravatar deities.
Aaaaand Kim!
I love Kim? No one told me about that!
that’s cause she’s the best character
Once again mistaking her own dumb opinion for everyone else’s, I guess.
I like her whenever she’s bugging the crap out of Sal.
It is kinda funny having one person who just unabashedly hates Sal so much where it isn’t a crippling character flaw, given how near everyone in comic thinks the world of her and implicitly trusts her. Malaya just brings out the worst in Sal, and it makes for great character beats.
For a second I thought your were referring to me and not Malaya because we both have pretty much the exact same opinion of Sal.
Sal was kinda grating on me for a while because it seemed like her storyline was a long list of people being wrong at her.
Which is still fine, especially given the material Sal is dealing with, but I also like the acknowledgement that someone can be kind of a douche sometimes and still deserve basic human decency. So seeing her pull an Amazi-Girl and try to beat the hell out of Malaya for a stupid reason, I thought, was a nice moment.
As far as that goes, those two idiots want a fight, it’s Marcie who doesn’t, and they respect that.
And even Marcie mostly only likes her because she wants to bone her, seems.
That’s not a bad reason to like someone!
SLAMP!
Malaya looks like she only realized she didn’t understand the message at that moment.
If she was distracted when they parted, that might be a good sign for the M&M ship.
M&M : “melt in your mouth, not in your hand” ?
The last panel has my new favorite expressions for both these characters. It is all in the eyes.
That’s twice in one week that the Walkertwins have suddenly developed sclera for particular expressions. I… like it? But I can’t figure out quite what the pattern is.
Maybe they stole Ruth’s from that panel a while back.
Anger and shock have both done it so far.
Yes. That is, by far, the best part.
Also, I’d love the followup to be thus:
‘Forget it, I’ll just sign the message…’ ‘Don’t be stupid, Malaya, we both know ya can’t s–‘ *Malaya rattles off a perfectly signed message* ‘… She said that?’
Here’s hoping they go a few rounds this time. 😉
Did we, alt-text? Did we really?
Sort of.
[insert tired joke about the quality of our aim]
I’ve missed you, Malaya. But I’ll warn you, my aim is improving.
We missed you, Malaya. But don’t worry, I have LOTS more bullets.
+1 for sprucing up a tired meme
Well I kinda like the little misanthrope.
Eh, I’m indifferent.
I definitely not part of that “We”. Maybe it’s a “Royal We” from the god-king of the WalkyVerse.
557 of us did, as far as the poll says.
yay, Malaya !
“I think Marcie asked me if I wanted to have spex. I don’t know why, my vision is 20/20.”
“She also said ‘Purple Monkey Dishwasher.’ Fuck if I know why– guess she just really like The Simpsons.”
Wow, that is an unfortunate name for a brand of eyeglasses
Why unfortunate? Spex -> Specs -> Spectacles. Makes sense to me.
The only possible response to that is “apparently not.”
Yay, Malaya! Also now she’s being kind of a bongo, but to be fair Sal has that coming to her.
And just like a percussion instrument, she’s about to get beat on!
Marcie wants to hit that bongo.
So does Sal. Just in a different way.
…so you’re saying she’d like to bang her like a drum?
Malaya is congenially incapable of NOT being a bongo.
It was “Fuck if you know.” Unfortunately, Malaya didn’t know.
Marcie (signing quickly): PersonWhoWantsToHookUpSaysWhat?
Malaya: What?
Marcie: No backsies.
You didn’t even sign that time!
Oh my god, Malaya, you actually really made me laugh in that last panel.
And the expression on her face makes it even funnier.
It looks like she’s having flashbacks to the war.
Again, there are ten virtues that are required for a Buddhist to possess in order to attain Nirvana, and if Malaya has any of them, it might be one too many.
Not true, I don’t know anyone not currently in prison that does not have at least two of the ten. Donald Trump is an exception to that, but then there are some that say the only reason he’s not in prison or under it is money buys silence and good lawyers.
Um, why would Malaya wish to attain Nirvana?
Does she wish an end to suffering?
Or to make others suffer?
She just really likes “Smells Like Teen Spirit.”
Shoot, I must have missed that poll.
Man, the Walktertons have had the best Grumpy Faces this month, haven’t they? First Walky being sour about the thank-you note, and now the last panel of this comic.
I love it.
I kinda like how only their grumpy faces cause the whites of their eyes to show.
I really hope it was “I Banged the hot, brown, freckled girl’s brains out”
http://i.imgur.com/2CZTEBp.png
(This is an oldie but Malaya and Marcie are some favorites of mine)
Pretty sure Marcie use that sign here
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-5/03-the-butterflies-fly-away/fuck/
Can’t Marcie just text Sal? *Shakes head*
Now that’s a good question.
She could, but where’s the fun in that?
Besides, If Marcilaya works out, Sal is going to have to get used to it, and there’s is no other way to do it, really.
The fact that she sends Malaya IS the message.
She’d rather Sext Malaya
Malaya would be rather surprised if she knew what all those signs she didn’t understand REALLY mean.
i dunno why everybody hates on malaya. she’s great! she’s probs either my favorite DoA character or a very close second to carla. heck, those figures hold for the walkyverse too.
She’s pretty abrasive. Some folks don’t find rudeness charming.
The rest of us tend to think she’s hilarious.
Yeah, I’m in camp hilarious!
And despite her bad qualities she does pretty well for herself. Takes her studies seriously, is on the team and has caught the eyes of Marcie. Also, in the conflict with Sal she comes out looking like the less petty, less vindictive and generally less dumb person, which is pretty funny given how cool Sal manage to be in most other interactions. Malaya is the brat Sal deserves.
Another thing that makes Malaya not only tolerable but enjoyable for me is that very few people come out worse from their interaction with her.
Amaziegirl: Malaya falls on her butt.
Carla: Malaya is snarked.
Lucy: Same sunny self (and I strongly suspects she dials it up a bit just to annoy Malaya)
Marcie: Genuine positive relationship, if not EXACTLY what Marcie hopes for. Yet.
Sal… yeah, Sal suffers from interacting with Malaya, but that is just as much on her as on Malaya.
For me it depends on who she’s interacting with. If she’s in the company of fellow jerkasses then she’s incredibly entertaining but when she’s being a horse’s ass to perfectly pleasant people she’s much more unlikable.
I still find that funny, but I read the joke as “Man Malaya’s a complete asshole”.
I’d like to see Lucy on her own merits though, not just to make Malaya look like a heel.
Generally speaking, when interacting with people she largely ignores anything which anyone other than her cares about.
Because she’s kinda mean and petty, and so far, she hasn’t really got any positive qualities or interesting stories happening that make up for it.
I might change my mind if and when she goes on a RAD ADVENTURE, but so far she hasn’t, so, meh.
(I’ll still enjoy the comic, obviously, just Malaya’s really unlikely to ever be my favourite character.)
I dunno, I find her easier to read than Carla or Mike. Maybe because some of her points re: Sal are actually valid.
Me neither, but only because I don’t see how they’ve seen enough of her to even form an opinion one way or the other. The only reason I even remember she exists is because she’s Marcie’s girlfriend, and Marcie is herself a secondary character, who I only know of as Sal’s signing friend.
I mean, it seriously took me until I saw her name to be sure who she was. And, even then, a lot of that has to do with Sal knowing her name and then them talking about Marcie.
I mean, maybe she was in that group who were jerks to Sarah and Dina that everyone acted like we should know but I’d never seen before? I assumed they were basically cameos from an earlier comic, thrown in just to let you know what they were doing in this reboot, but I seem to remember at least one showing up in other situations.
Yes, out-of-universe prejudice is coming into play. She was a major character at the end of Shortpacked!, in which she often defined herself as somebody who hated on everyone and everything (with one notable exception, but that’s a spoiler).
In this ‘verse, we haven’t seen her much, but we know she likes skating, and both of these changes are major improvements.
Raidah and posse are new characters in DoA. (Dana and Carl aren’t, but they were perhaps even less notable in Roomies! than in DoA.)
Malaya was, as Leorale says, a major character in the latter part of Shortpacked!. And she was awful. Dumbiverse Malaya doesn’t seem nearly as bad, really – I think she hasn’t yet had the experiences that led her to being a bitter, hateful jerk doomed to working in retail (though Sal’s working on it) – but it’s difficult to separate them.
I have similar issues with Carla. Her Walkyverse counterpart, Ultra Car, was seriously the worst. Like Mike but without the creativity or insight. She got some character development towards the end of Shortpacked!, but it didn’t get her much past “tolerable” before the strip ended.
I like Carla more the more we see of her. It gets easier to separate her from Ultra Car, and she seems more likeable in this universe. I suspect the same will happen with Malaya when we see more of her. (Carla’s had just over twice Malaya’s appearances at this point.)
There’s maybe three or (at most) four characters I really “like” in this strip. The vast majority of them, I just find to have interesting enough stories to want to see them followed through.
Malaya is not one of those 3-4 characters.
This, right here.
I love Malaya! Woo Malaya’s back!
I like to see Malaya back. It means she’s walking away.
i smell sitco~m!
*Starts singing.*
Rorschach and Deadpool!
A nut and a fool!
He’s a mental case,
music’s not his thing.
So, I wrote the theme.
I’m so talented!
Copyright Deadpool!
Copy and I’ll sue!
I think that the song should end right here!
Slamp bamp thank you ma’amp get on the ~floor~ table we JAMP
You know, I’m starting to see how she and Carla got together in another universe. I find them completely exasperating for largely the same reason.
They made such a cute couple.
Seeing this strip made me realize that I actually did miss Malaya
Malaya totally deflats Sals ego in the fourth panel
“…off all the ways to wake you up, that polled as my favorite”.
———————–
“Plus, I could do it from the other side of the table, where I was safely out of your immediate reach.”
To be fair, it’s startling but not the worst way to wake up. Anyone who’s ever been woken up by tickling can testify to that.
People always think that’s so funny….until my foot hits their stomach and they learn otherwise.
The worst way to wake up, IME, is a toddler leaping knees-first onto your junk.
Once my dog was sleeping parallel to me and my mom called her and she kicked me, full strength in the stomach and ran away. The worst part is I can’t even get mad at her! She doesn’t understand what she did.
I think that the guy woken up by a mouthful of Wasabi can argue against tickling being the worst.
Malaya is her usual snarky self I see. Wonder what she’d be like if she ever decided to be nice to someone for a change; probably give ’em a heart attack ;). Gotta admit she is does liven the place up.
Good question why Marcie didn’t text Sal. Cells set on vibrate work really well to get your attention if in your pocket. Mine bounces itself right off the table.
Malaya polls are so methodologically terrible Nate Silver doesn’t even use them in his projection models
/me breaks his finger trying to click nonexistent like button.
Panel 6 Sal face is my new favorite Sal face.
hmmmm mild passive aggression by not asking for her to write the note down if you didn’t get it, but i know those two aren’t the closest so…..
Huh. I think I figured out my opinion of Malaya finally. I only like her if she’s in a comic with chars who like her. She’s good with UC in SP!, or around Marcie in DoA, because she actually puts in effort with them. Around chars who dislike her, so do I, because she reacts to the dislike by being as aggravating as possible whether the situation warrants it or not.
I would very much like Ken to be here. Then again, I enjoyed him more than Ethan.
1. That’s kinda meta of Malaya.
2. Hey, the whites of Sal’s eyes are showing up in that last panel.
Sal’s eyes in that last panel have me absolutely cackling.
She’s ready to rip out the jugular.
Sal really really resents having to share Marcie.
Sometimes, I think maybe Sal wants to hate-fuck Malaya, and is a bit thrown off by the fact Marcie wants to be with Malaya, and so the hate-fucking will never happen.
Shipping it
How did Malaya know where she was?
Probably just ran into her. Either that or Sal has picked that spot for day-sleeping before and Marcie told Malaya where to look.
I don’t think she has picked up enough sign language for Marcie to give her that type of specific information.
Maybe she pointed it out on a map? Heck, I might do that rather than come up with an unambiguous way to describe the location.
I really do think it would work wonders for Sal to start a fight with Malaya and then get her ass kicked.
I was all for it the first time, I’m all for it now.
I’m reasonably certain that if that fight continued Malaya would have gotten her ass kicked.
Sal’s not naturally vicious….and Malaya really really is. Has Sal ever BEEN in a fight?
She’s said she’s never lost one before, and when she was drunk with Jason she was insistent on finding someone to fight, so I think she’s been in some.
So if we get Malaya drunk…
I said Sal should have fallen asleep on the grass underneath a tree. If she had, Malaya couldn’t have used the book slam to wake her up.
Sure she could. Just drop the books on her face >.>
Bad planning on Sal’s part.
Malaya!!!!
Something I like with her is how half her posing is on her own expense “Fuck if I know”. She tries so hard to play up the “too cool to care” persona, and when she overcompensates it’s just hilarious.
She spent the whole page with her arms crossed. Body language talk “urgh, do not want ; bracing myself”
“Tell you what, Malaya, let’s pretend that’s what she did say. AARRGGHHHH!” “EEEEEK!”
Don’t really see much wrong with the book slam to wake her up, really. Sure, the attitude after that isn’t nice, but neither of them like each other. It’s not like Sal was ever nice to her, either.
Like I said above, there just doesn’t seem to be enough info to get a read on her–at least, in this universe. I do not want who someone is in another universe to get in the way of how I see people here.
In other words, I have no idea what they are like. I found trying to read comics set in different universes with the same characters to be way too confusing. I can handle different mediums, and sometimes vastly different art styles, but not two web comics with characters that look the same.
Take it from someone who’s read Shortpacked and Dumbing of Age in their entireties: Malaya’s largely the same between universes.
Although she never interacts with Sal (who is very different between universes).
Fair ’nuff.
Sal keeps wanting to drive Malaya off but the problem is the latter isn’t remotely scared or impressed.
I’m going to be honest here, I actually haven’t read any of Willis’s other comics. And so far I really like Malaya. Apparently other versions of her have some major baggage attached, but this version has done nothing to garner my dislike. This is kinda a round about way of saying that I agree with you about characters and the multiverse.
The other version of her is basically the same. She’s hated for being a jerk and a woman at the same time.
Out-of-setting. In-setting,s he was hated because /have you seen how she acts/. But character feelings don’t have to color my own.
Well, given that the only massive changes in who characters are, is that Mike can’t really demonstrate benevolence, and Carla is not a robot, the other universe is relevant. And waking Sal when you can’t actually deliver a message is pretty dickish. It strongly leads me to believe that she’s the same abrasive dick who is often wrong that she was in Shortpacked!
This makes me happy, because I adored Malaya.
[to panel 4]
No, Malaya, she isn’t.
I once woke a friend by blowing trombone at his face. He’s still mad and that was like…8 years ago.
Well, I mean…did you apologize?
What was there to apologize for?
(no but honestly there’s no way I could remember that, but probably)
Being a jackass?
He was my friend in middle school. By that point he was already aware I was a jackass. I don’t have to apologize for continuing to be one!
Was it with Sad Trombone noise? Because it should’ve been with Sad Trombone noise.
That was my AP Art History teacher’s favorite way of waking up people who fell asleep in class back in senior year of high school. As soon as he noticed he’d just non-chalantely continue lecturing while going to where he kept it, taking it out of it’s case, assemble it, and then walk up to the desk of his victim and just blow that trombone as loudly as possible. It was a very good class.
But what did you learn?
I mean what elsedid you learn?
Caravaggio was a complete dick, romanticism style painting is boring, Impressionism isn’t my thing, Gothic cathedral’s borrow from Islamic architecture, never say a woman is Rubenesque, and Giotto is massively under appreciated in the art community. Also, Islamic poetry and calligraphy is a amazing. Like I said, good class. Wacky/crazy teacher, but he made the lessons stick and was quite entertaining.
Always happy to see Malaya.
Malaya hasn’t been rude to anyone who isn’t Sal, who is an enormous jerk to her for no reason other than vindictive jealousy, so I don’t actually have any problems with her in this reality.
Well, there was her attitude towards Carla when she only bought a six pack of beer for their group of four. And I’ve got a hunch that that wasn’t a very exceptional moment.
The difference was it was due to lack of beer, not Carla.
Yes, but it’s also her being an ingrate and a jackass. I mean, I *like* Malaya, but part of liking her is acknowledging these things. She’s been on camera with 5 people – Sal, Carla, Malaya, Amazi-girl, and Lucy. She’s been a jerk to or about at least 3 of them (Ain’t got nothing against her for defending herself from violence with violence)
Yeah, of all people, Malaya probably deserves to think poorly of Sal, and Amazi-Girl, for that matter. People need to stop trying to beat her up.
Or more people need to try. I dunno.
Since Sal has been in a private school since she was a small girl and she was just posing when she robbed that store, I’m fairly certain she’s never been in an actual fight. Malaya by contrast strikes me as someone who has been fighting since adolescence.
A) private schools can be worse in many regards, and “hazing” can turn deadly B) Sal was sent to boarding school AFTER the robbery, to “straighten her out C) that’s where she got tattooes and lost her virginity.
She didn’t go to a private school, she went to a Catholic school. Private schools are privately owned, Catholic schools are owned by the Catholic Church, which not usually considered a private entity. There’s even a term (parochial school) solely developed to differentiate church-owned schools (of any denomination) from privately-owned schools.
Also, having been enrolled in a private school myself, I can assure you they can be just as violent as public schools. They’re just more secret about it because the grounds for expulsion are more stringent.
I have always heard Catholic, and other religious schools, described as private schools.
This depends upon where you are. Lots of eastern Canada institutionalised Catholic schools as parochial schools, for example, but here in our part of Cascadia, they are private schools, with a religious affiliation.
I can help attest to this. For the most part in the states they are just referred to as private schools, at least in California and Michigan anyway.
I really hope we’re not gonna be expected to view either of these two as “in the right”.
What is up with that “Z” Bubble in the second panel though?
Tis the “startled-awake-Z-bubble.”
I’m surprised that Sal didn’t choke her. That’s usually her habit when somebody wakes her up.
Malaya’s in the wrong position for easy choking.
It may be the very reason why should chose a “no touching” approach
How do we solve a problem like Ma-lay-ya?
How do you catch her off-guard and pin her down?
Malaya rules.
Malaya is cute
Loving Malaya. Like, there’s something to say about her tactlessness, but she’s too honest for me to hate.
And hope Malaya at least memorized the hand signs Marcie used so she could replicate them.
Y’know what. I wanna do another.
http://i.imgur.com/8gXMLTk.png
See, this is why I like you.
I heartily appreciate this!! God help us all if you ever use your drawing and shipping skills for evil instead of good Yotomoe.
I use it for evil all the time. I no longer post my more controversial ones because there was one commenter who wouldn’t let it go for MONTHS AND MONTHS after the fact. I’d rather everyone either tell me they like it or don’t and leave it at that. (Plus of all the places on the internet that I frequent, this is the place with the most easily offended people.)
No we’re not! How dare you say such a thing! I take offense to that!
/s
(Seriously though, nice work as always!)
*Blush*
(Plus of all the places on the internet that I frequent, this is the place with the most easily offended people.)
————————
Yotomoe, obviously you and I do not visit all the same places on the internet. Generally, this place is positively laid-back compared to some of the places I frequent.
I don’t envy you.
Eh, I’ve long held that being offended by something isn’t grounds for someone automatically being a tumblr pandering Ess Jay Dub with a loose definition of the word “trigger”, and is inherently worth of mockery and that one abused Stephen Fry quote. Being offended by art is a valid reaction.
Folks just have shit that bugs them. That’s okay. Whoever this commenter was could have learned to drop it, though.
Dammit, Yotomoe, now I want to see the evil stuff!!
I’ll make a deal, since I do love showing people my art. I’ll post a bulk imgur link of all the DOA related stuff I’ve drawn over the past 4 months or so, under the rule that y’all don’t hold anything against me or bug me about it offending you or something. I mean if you don’t like something you can just say so and leave it alone but I’m not a fan of walking on eggshells around people. I wear my heart on my sleeve.
I don’t want to dissuade you from sharing your art, but I think it’s unfair to say that people aren’t allowed to get angry at something that’s offensive to them. Within reason, I mean. Being offended isn’t carte blanche to be a total douchenozzle, but I feel someone going “hey that’s not cool” isn’t unreasonable, if only because you’re not under obligation to take what they say to heart.
Yeah. I even said you can tell me “I don’t like this, that’s not cool, etc.”
After that, we’re done. I don’t need you bringing it up at a later date. I don’t need you responding to every comment I make bringing it up. I don’t need messages to me about it. You have a right to not like something. I’m just saying I have no desire to argue or constantly defend my art. I just want to share it with the handful of people who might also like it :3.
“not a fan of walking on eggshells”
But eggshells are crunchy!
Oooooh! Sexytimes!
One for the road.
“Why’s Marcie actin all weird. We’re just hangin’ out!”
“Huh, what does that sign mean, Marcie?”
[“NOTHING, YOU SAW NOTHING, THAT MEANS NOTHING!!!”]
Have you ever considered doing your own series? Cause man, I’d read the hell out of it.
Yes. But I’m lazy.
Can I write it? Cause I would really like to write it.
Malaya, did it seriously not occur to you to ask Marcie to write a note?
Well, that would require for her to care about Sal receiving the message (which she doesn’t) and think ahead (which she is too cool for), so no.
Yay! Malaya! 🙂
In the last three strips we’ve seen the whites of their eyes for both Sal and Walky. I’m going to pretend this is a sign of future bonding between them.
I for one have not missed Malaya, and not necessarily because she’s annoying, but because every time she shows up everyone whines how annoying she is.
Also I really wanna get back to Joyce’s storyline, with Jocelyne, because I love her.
The more of my life I live, the more of MYSELF I see in Malaya.
This is disturbing, and yet I can’t help but love her more because of it.
F@#k the world, Malaya. They all suck anyway.
You remind me of Tucker in The Chorus Trilogy of Red Vs. Blue.
“I hate my life.
(Washington yells at him)
You know what, I take it back, I hate everyone else’s lives. Wish they didn’t have ’em. Oh my God, am I turning into Church?”
Better to be Caboose.
Maybe she was supposed to give a massage, not a message.
Seeing taping on Sal’s shoulder may have resulted in strangulation or a broken arm, I can’t really blame Malaya for staying clear.
Hey, it’s an opinion I share…
Is that Z from sally made up of tiny elphants? What’s the elephant connection with Sally?
Her name is Sal, not Sally. Sally is what her mother calls her.
And only her mother.
Not…quite: http://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-5/03-the-butterflies-fly-away/bimbo/
I thought they were ducks?
So if the sexualities carry over between universes, I’m really not looking forward to Marcie having this moment with Malaya: http://www.shortpacked.com/index.php?id=1584
Well, her girlfriend was Ultra Car, remember, and she was hella into Ultra Car’s chasis.
Personally, I think Malaya is demisexual. I don’t think she’ll be into Marcie, though.
I dunno. She states a few strips after the one I linked to that she did love Leslie, she just wasn’t attracted to women.
As far as UC was concerned – Malaya was very into the fact that UC was not human (in a way that can’t carry over into the dumbiverse) : http://www.shortpacked.com/index.php?id=2070
I mean, she does make it very clear that her attraction is specific to UC: http://www.shortpacked.com/index.php?id=1994
I think that emotional connection she had with Ultra Car, that she connected with her on a level she never had and then felt immense sexual attraction to her, is more than just Malaya being into robots. Malaya isn’t into girls or guys; she’s into people.
Then why isn’t she into me?
Eh, the sexual attraction kicked in pretty much the exact moment that UC got her new chasis. In fact. It did. The same strip in which UC reveals the new chasis is the same one where Malaya starts wondering about whether it’s ‘fully functional’.
Unless you’re suggesting that Malaya’s sexual attraction developed while UC was still a car?
No, that’s just the point where the only being on the planet Malaya could relate to suddenly became a cute robot girl with an extendo arm.
And the point at which Malaya became overtly sexually interested.
The whole attraction for Malaya is that UC isn’t people. She says it more than once. Her inhumanity is the crux of the understanding and a component of the attraction….which doesn’t pop up until UC has a humanoid chasis that can do things humans can’t.
Of course she only became attracted to Ultra Car after she got her new chassis. She used to be a car! You can’t bang a car!
Anyway, I’m fine theorizing Malaya as demi, if only because robosexual and misanthropesexual aren’t real things.
Oh you sweet summer child.
People are into all sorts of things. Even things that aren’t people.
*stands with jaw working for a minute*
….the links I could dig out for you!
I’m okay, thanks.
I’d like to retain at least some measure of normalcy.
Exposure to diverse interests is pretty normal…
I don’t wanna see robosexual porn! I didn’t want to think of it as a thing that existed!
And I ain’t showing ya! It isn’t my thing either, but it’s not even all that rare, you’re being unnecessarily negative and stigmatizing towards what is, all things considered, is a pretty damned harmless kink and most-defnitely-a-thing-that-exists.
You’re reading a comic whose creator is a semi-major figure in Transformers fandom, how could you not be aware of the existence of such things?
It will be sad but I doubt that Willis will drag it out too much. He’s already basically already written the arc only with Malaya and Leslie instead of Marcie.
I really like the idea that most people don’t give that much of a shit about Malaya, like there’s maybe a joke about how she’s a bit of a callous jerk, but they still hang out with her, and Sal’s the only one who takes any of it seriously.
Like from everyone else’s perspective Sal has this cartoonishly rivalry with Malaya for no reason.
Yeah, I really think so. Apart from Sal and Marcie, we have seen her with Carla (who sneers at her just as much as at anyone else), Amazie-girl who barely registered her as a hang around to Sal (I’m SURE Malaya appreciated that) and Lucy who have such a mom/teenage brat-dynamic with her that it is adorable.
Sal is the only one who seem to take her jerkiness seriously, and for anyone else it is just silly.
More of a little sister/big sister. Lucy didn’t offer refreshments and periodically check that they were OK (standard mom behaviour), she tried to engage them, both by approaching them and by trying to draw them into what she was doing (classic little sister behaviour).
That’s completely true. Still adorable!
What does Malaya have that Sal doesn’t?
Freckles!
I like Malaya. XD
Nobody likes you, Malaya…. I CAN LOVE YOU WITHOUT LIKING YOU.
Can Malaya get into an adorable/hilarious relationship so I can start liking her again
I liked liking Malaya at the end of shortpacked. I don’t want her to be the scrappy again.
And of course right after I say that it’s made clear Marcie has the hots for malaya
Well played, Willis.
Oh my god, this is so fudging hilarious and the comment section just makes it even better
That said, plaid dress shirt one size too small so you can show off your midriff? Seriously? Malaya should become friends with Sal just so Sal can be her fashion mentor. She’s just crying out for help and she could really rock the biker look Sal’s got going.
Sal has awful fashion sense. I like Malaya’s much better.
different strokes for different folks
Though I admit to not liking that outfit where her underpants were pretty much on-display for everyone.
Also, what exactly does Marcie see in her? Maybe it’s just the art style, but she’s got nothing that Carla ain’t got in spades