“This is so nice/I just might sleep with the same girl twice/They say it’s better the second time/They say you get to do the weird stuff.” – Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog
So what? He still played Caleb and Captain Hammer well enough, he could play Richard. Heck, considering Caleb, he could probably play Toedad. *Shudders.*
It depends on how you interpret the word ‘consecutively’. To me, the fact that it is a completely separate stipulation aside from ‘multiple times’ implies that it is intended to convey ‘multiple times without other banging events between them’. As in, of the 100 times he’s banged in the past year, 50 consecutive banging events were with the same person.
That all depends on whether you define sexual partner to mean “person I am currently engaged in sexual intercourse with, right at this moment exactly” vs “person with whom I have an established sexual (and possibly romantic) relationship”
Sexual partners are people who engage in sexual activity together. The sexual partners can be of any number, sex, gender, or sexual orientation. The sexual partners may be in a committed relationship, either on an exclusive basis or not, or engage in the sexual activity on a casual basis
Or for that matter a romantic, but not sexual relationship. Someone could easily be exclusively dating a partner, but not (yet) fucking – or other explicitly sexual activities.
Monogamy definitely implies some kind of commitment to be exclusive, not just “I had sex with this person twice without happening to have sex with someone else in between” or even “I’ve only been having sex with this person for an extended period of time, but only because I haven’t found any other willing partners”.
If you have sex with Alice one week, then have sex with Brandon the next three weeks, you’re not automatically monogamous with Brandon just because you haven’t had sex with Alice again. Unless the relationship with Brandon is explicitly said to be exclusive, it’s not necessarily monogamous by default.
On another note, Amber is much more bold about dropping references and her own personal little verbal quirks into conversation now that she’s become more of a human shield. It’s almost a little endearing but I’m still very worried for that girl.
We saw in the Walkyverse that Joe can grow into a decent human being, and are seeing signs of him attempting to leave his less desirable traits behind here. Faz we never saw growing into a decent human being.
Here’s the upside. If you were Amber, and Joe’s dad married your mom… he would presumably be in there with you on the Faz thing. Sure he wouldn’t technically be step-anything with Faz, but I imagine he wouldn’t be any keener on Faz being himself around him than you were.
On the other hand, if you’re actually explaining it in terms of “rather than just having lots of sex with random women, which you know full well is what I’ve been doing since(?) the divorce”, you’ve probably already screwed it up beyond help.
Perhaps I’m the only person over 30 in North America who did not ever watch Episodes 1-3.
When I saw a picture of Jar Jar and read a transcript of his dialog, I knew I wanted nothing to do with any of those movies. How much more blatant can a racist stereotype get? (Though I guess the Ferengi are in the same league.)
So anyway, I totally didn’t recognize whatever-that-name-was as a Star Wars thing.
Remember Boba Fett the bounty hunter? He got a backstory in ep 2: his dad, Jango Fett, also a bounty hunter, was hired to provide genetic material for a clone army for…well, that’s a bit complicated, but part of his payment was a cloned son for himself. That being the future Sarlacc snack we all know and love.
So my rambling aside, Amber’s saying Joe looks like a clone of his dad.
Also, I feel like Joe/Richard share a vague relative head shape with Temuera Morrison, who played Jango (and also redubbed all of Bobas lines for DVD releases of the OT).
Nope, still alive. Popularity saved him in the original timeline, it saved him in the new one as well. It’d be a stupid choice to just toss aside one of the series most popular characters.
I will never accept the way Disney fucked up the continuity. In the EC, there was no connection between Boba and Jango, and this is how I will always remember.
I thought that connection was established long before Disney. In the Clone Wars, and in the Prequels, IIRC.
Did Jango even exist before the connection was made?
Approximately 200 miles, or as Americans put it, 4 hours of driving. At least that’s how I remember my Trek from Mishawaka to Bloomington when I was a student.
Goddamn it, Joe 2.0/Janjoe/Richard is basically Joe doing the Old!Joe stuff forever, and seriously fucked up in the head because of it. He’s worried about Amber but because of toxic masculinity bullshit he has to hide it.
Man, I’m really tired. I read Dick’s last speach bubble multiple times as “I’m banging more than one person at the same time.” Joe’s reaction made sense, but it made for a really boring punchline.
Yeah – but he did make a (as suggested above) three hour-drive for Amber’s mom to talk to Amber (and don’t forget the three hour-trip back), so one could argue that it does at least look a little bit like they are dating, or somewhere in between.
A friend of mine hates the word dating (because too much expectations go with it) so she and her bf kinda developed into a relationship without calling meet-ups dates or each other bf or gf, until friends etc. asked them things like “Will your gf/bf come too?” That’s when they realised that they are actually together. (well, it worked out for them)
‘Dating’ is the precursor to an extended monogamous dependency (aka ‘relationship’) on a single person for sex! Rosenthals are like bees, flitting quickly from flower to flower! Sex with the same woman, multiple times? Sounds almost like l-. L-. Luuu-
Richard calm down, take deep breaths Banging one person even if exclusively for a while it’s not the end the of the world, also doing stuff like this, that is actually nice. Good job.
He doesn’t need to do monogamy from now on but helping the people he is involved in ways diferents to achieving orgasms would be great XD
Depends. It’s possible that it will shift her into a super-depressed do-nothing-but-transform-one-toy-back-and-forth-for-hours funk.
…….
People who know about modern Transformers toys (including what knowledge of comics and other media you think Amber might include), please rank for me choices of individual Transformer for this task, from mildest to most severe warning flags.
Masterpiece Megatron. (That said, I once threw Generations Wheeljack across the room. ^^; He’s not actually that difficult, but I was in bed sick and my daughter had asked me to transform him for her. There are a couple points that are weird when you have head fog. ^^; I gave his mangled carcass to my husband to figure out. XD)
* I should qualify this with the comment that I have not played with any Baybots. The closest I’ve come is a couple of Transformers Prime bots my daughter owns. :p
Revenge of the fallen Optimus Prime Leader Class. That guy will make you shed tears in frustration trying to get his chestplates and forearms together.
Stacy and Richard…might actually be an okay couple. Joe and Amber as (here’s looking ahead to the maybe future) step-siblings? I mean, they all might work out as a family! (a weird family, after much therapy, far after the comic ends)
Hmmmm, seems things are taking a different turn than I expected, it seems almost as if Richard has his own character growth going on where he might actually be easing off the sleaziness due to legitimately liking Amber’s mom and stuff. That’s super optimistic thinking there but idk, apart from his initial introduction to Amber his sleaziness levels have been… kinda low really, he keeps slipping in little comments that betray a bit of his selfish personality traits, but they’ve all been small and overshadowed by other things.
He’s also talking about having a talk with Joe, which gives me the sense that maybe Richard is looking to give the “committed relationship” thing another go, which would understandably be rough on Joe because separated parents remarrying is rough.
I kinda hope things continue down this path, because it’ll be a great help to Joe if his father, the one who set him down his original crappy path, straightens out and starts being good to women. Or at the very least it won’t do any damage.
It is especially rough in this instance considering:
a) He knows his father tends to stray and flirt with other women. That is something he did even before the divorce occurred according to Joe.
b) There may have been other instances where he tried dating again before which did not pan out.
c) Tbh in general, Richard has set himself up as someone who is just going to disappoint Joe by failing in his romantic relationships which is likely why this slightly more serious relationship is what he was afraid of. Because he expects it to fail and for the woman to get hurt by his dad screwing up somehow.
Joe and Joe-dad stuff aside, I just feel really bad for Momma Amber right now. It hurts when you know someone you care about is in in a bad place and they shut down completely, and I imagine it’s that much more so when they’re your kid.
Not that I blame Amber. It’s just a really tough situation all around.
The couple of times I have been there, it was a generic, pleasant, leaning conservative, medium sized (40,000 pop.) Midwest town. Rumors are in the 1990s Arnold Schwarzenegger ran his businesses from there and lived there several months a year to get away from Hollywood.
Now that Joe knows his dad is actively seeing Amber’s mom, my hope is that he recognizes the need to get along with Amber and checks out some Transformers stuff so he’ll know what the hell she’s talking about next time. And THAT’S how he unlocks his massive potential for nerdery.
I mean, it’s possible. He already has expressed some interest in transformers before, just not to the level of Ethan and Amber. Maybe he’ll pick it up a bit more as an outlet.
At least he’s not likely to be abusive? Just unfaithful?
He’d probably be a tonne of fun so long as one didn’t actually expect a monogamous relationship (or any real maturity, not that the one is necessarily dependent upon the other). And I doubt he’s the kind to be all jealous when someone he’s banging has someone else on the side as well, when he does too. He doesn’t really seem like that kind of a hypocrite. So I doubt he’d care (or at least, doubt he’d expect to care) much if she wasn’t exclusive with him.
Something lighthearted and undemanding with a guy who seems like he’d be reasonably kind, and fun out of the sack as well as in it, might be just what Stacy needs right now. Something further might grow from it, or not; we don’t know whether Stacy is looking for anything exclusive, either, here.
But honestly, so long as it was all consensual and open and honest, these guys might do really well in an open relationship.
Not sure Richard could manage to stay faithful to one person long term, though; and I’m not sure Stacy would want to be legally tied to someone else, either. I imagine being married to Blaine would make anyone a bit gun-shy. :/
Stacey was talking about “getting serious”. Anything is possible, but without further clues, I’m not going to assume she’s talking about an open relationship or even just casual fun.
I’m also, given Richard’s track record, not going to give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he’s been completely open about his habits and intentions.
And, while we don’t know a lot about Richard, but it’s pretty common for PUAs and cheaters to be very possessive of their women.
Joe thinks he’s being a better man than his father by always being clear that he’s only talking to women for sex. I’m willing to believe him. I’m going to assume that Dick isn’t completely honest about where he stands with the women he dates or at best does not correct them if they don’t believe him. I don’t know if he’s possessive or not.
Looking at him telling Amber to talk to her mother and even explaining to Joe that the thing with Stacey is steadyish it feels like he actually cares, but this could also be very self serving. Amber blew up because she doubted Dicks intentions and I could see him deciding that making a show of actually caring could win over Amber before Stacey decides that her relationship with him is not worth worrying Amber or questioning whether she’s willing to risk Amber being right.
His interaction with her also sounded a bit like someone who completely hasn’t earned it trying to force his way into the parent role. Which is a bit of a red flag for me. On first contact. Without her mother there. To a technical adult, not a young child.
Joe is trying to turn over a new leaf. However, he doesn’t belief his father is capable of having an actual relationship with a woman without hurting eventually hurting her (Joe’s experience with his parents getting divorced because his dad was a cheater). Joe wants to change, but he also believes his dad is incapable of changing and is worried his dad is going to emotionally hurt someone again.
In Joe’s head Dick going steady lady or any form of that is code for going to cheat on lady.
Joe’s new leaf is about respecting women more and trying to relate with them sometimes with no expectation or hope of sex ever. It is not about being more tolerant of cheaters or giving other men the benefit of the doubt. If anything his current growth would just make what his father is most likely doing seem worse to him.
I know yesterday everyone was talking about how Richard was clearly an awful father and sleezy and such… But honestly, this redeems him a lot in my mind. Yeah, there was some comments he made that he probably shouldn’t be making to Amber, but he also just drove a significant distance to help Amber’s mother through anxiety, and by extension, to also help Amber.
I’m willing to toss the sleezy comments aside to “He’s nervous in his own right, and hiding it the best way he knows how to,” seeing as the actions he took are a significant amount of good.
Cheating on Joe’s mom. Hitting on Sarah. Raising Joe to be the horndog he was. Joe thought his father was a creep.
Nah, he’s not Blaine or Toedad, but I’m not cutting him too much slack for coming to help Stacey. It’s provisionally a good deed, but …
Indeed, Richard’s philosophy about women and relationships was communicated to and, seemingly, wholly adopted by Joe. That will only make it more difficult for him when he realises that it was all a lie.
“Mishawaka, the Princess City, lies nestled along the meandering path of the St. Joseph River. The city is named after Princess Mishawaka, daughter of Shawnee Chief Elkhart. The legend of her romance with white trapper Deadshot, and abduction by her jealous Indian suitor Grey Wolf, characterizes the mixture of romance and history still found in Mishawaka today.”
What Joe isn’t saying out loud in panel six: Dammit you’re going to end up hurting this woman just like you hurt mom! I can’t believe something like this is happening again! What’s wrong with you?
For Richard, the concept of actually falling for someone and wanting to be in a relationship with them must be a difficult and disturbing thing to experience. It will be more difficult for Joe who is about to have his lifestyle exemplar tell him everything that he taught him about how to live his life was a lie!
Yes. It’s not just Walkyverse Joe; it’s Roomie’s Era Joe. Back before our most awesome Willis had realized that sexual assault isn’t a good punchline. The amount he’s learned over the years is awe-inspiring.
It’s too good. Between that and the wrong grail, I now crave a new clever reference every time Amber and Richard interact. But will there actually be? And if there are, does that mean I’m looking forward to more A&R strips? That doesn’t seem the right thing to hope for.
Amber makes a real metacomment there. Richard provided the original model for GI Joe, see http://www.the-scuttle.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Joe-reminisces_sm.jpg . So he has millions of plastic coated clones around. As a reward, they made an actual clone and named him Joe, after the smaller plastic ones. Star Wars just copied the idea from Hasbro, who is the real evil empire.
I too get the sense of something. Like a tragedy. Knowing the comic I wanna say Blaine died, but I have a feeling it was another family member that Amber might actually like.
Well, her daughter got attacked by a rapist, had to put him in the hospital, thinks she’s a monster and hasn’t been responding to texts since got back to campus.
Stacy’s gotta be worried sick, and is probably being really hard on herself for not knowing how to help Amber 🙁
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IT’S A SIGN
THE END OF TIMES IS NIGH
*Looks outside and there are 5 horseman* Ah, Monogamy. I see you’ve made it.
So I take it Monogamy stole Conquest’s horse?
spoiler alert. as someone who monogamises i can tell you monogamy IS Kaos
I thought he quit and became a milkman?
Shared. They’re very close, these days.
Much to Galasso’s displeasure.
“As you wish.” – The Princess Bride
“The greatest thing you’ll ever learn is just to love, and be loved in return.” – Moulin Rouge
“What do you want? You want the moon? Just say the word and I’ll throw a lasso around it and pull it down.” – It’s a Wonderful Life
“Here’s looking at you, kid” – Casablanca
“Without you, today’s emotions would be the scurf of yesterday’s” – Amelie
“I love you” , “I know” – The Empire Strikes Back
“I am banging the same person more than once, consecutively” – Dumbing of Age
Next book title?
“This is so nice/I just might sleep with the same girl twice/They say it’s better the second time/They say you get to do the weird stuff.” – Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog
Am I doing this right?
It occurs to me that if Nathan Fillion grew a beard, he’d make a damn good Richard.
Naah, Nathan Fillion is a nice guy.
Please don’t jinx it. With everything going on in Hollywood right now, you never know who might turn out to be a creep.
There were rumours that he’d bullied Stana Katic on the set of Castle, but they’re unsubstantiated so take with grains of salt.
So what? He still played Caleb and Captain Hammer well enough, he could play Richard. Heck, considering Caleb, he could probably play Toedad. *Shudders.*
He’ll always be The Preacher.
Testify!
“Where the hell are we?” – Johnny Dangerously
Great Romantic Lines from literature.
MONOGAMY! DON’T YOU KNOW WHAT I’VE TOLD YOU ABOUT THAT! >:O
Tbf, banging the same person consecutively doesn’t necessarily imply monogamy…
Actually it does, albeit only for the span of time between the first consecutive bang and the latest one.
Er, no. If I’m fucking one of my partners, it doesn’t mean I magically stop dating the rest of them. Even if it happens multiple times consecutively.
How unprincipled. You are not taking polygamy serious.
It depends on how you interpret the word ‘consecutively’. To me, the fact that it is a completely separate stipulation aside from ‘multiple times’ implies that it is intended to convey ‘multiple times without other banging events between them’. As in, of the 100 times he’s banged in the past year, 50 consecutive banging events were with the same person.
Monogamy isn’t defined by sex. Your comment is a tad insulting to people in poly relationships.
Actual it is.
Definition of monogamy
1 archaic :the practice of marrying only once during a lifetime
2 a :the state or custom of being married to only one person at a time
b :the state or practice of having only one sexual partner at a time.
c zoology :the condition or practice of having a single mate during a period of time.
Monogamy is common among birds.
If we’re going to get technical, “banging” is slang for sexual intercourse, and intercourse is defined by penetration.
It is absolutely possible to have multiple sexual partners, while only ‘banging’ one of them.
So, while monogamy may be defined by sex, it is not defined on the terms of sexual intercourse, or ‘banging’. Shiro’s original comments hold true.
That all depends on whether you define sexual partner to mean “person I am currently engaged in sexual intercourse with, right at this moment exactly” vs “person with whom I have an established sexual (and possibly romantic) relationship”
Erhm.
Sexual partners are people who engage in sexual activity together. The sexual partners can be of any number, sex, gender, or sexual orientation. The sexual partners may be in a committed relationship, either on an exclusive basis or not, or engage in the sexual activity on a casual basis
Or for that matter a romantic, but not sexual relationship. Someone could easily be exclusively dating a partner, but not (yet) fucking – or other explicitly sexual activities.
Monogamy definitely implies some kind of commitment to be exclusive, not just “I had sex with this person twice without happening to have sex with someone else in between” or even “I’ve only been having sex with this person for an extended period of time, but only because I haven’t found any other willing partners”.
That’s literally not at all how monogamy works.
If you have sex with Alice one week, then have sex with Brandon the next three weeks, you’re not automatically monogamous with Brandon just because you haven’t had sex with Alice again. Unless the relationship with Brandon is explicitly said to be exclusive, it’s not necessarily monogamous by default.
It does for Dr. Rosenthal.
On another note, Amber is much more bold about dropping references and her own personal little verbal quirks into conversation now that she’s become more of a human shield. It’s almost a little endearing but I’m still very worried for that girl.
I LEARNED IT FROM YOU!
“Monogamy is Latin for one-gamey, which is just one step removed from NO GAME AT ALL!”
“Son, that’s not how-”
“THAT’S AN EXACT QUOTE! You gave me flash cards and everything!”
Best laugh in at least a week, maybe three. Thank you!
It’s Greek.
Just sayin’.
I refrained with difficulty from pointing that out. Thanks for taking one for the team.
Richard feels rightfully awkward for trying to help one child get along with their parents, right in front of his own child he doesn’t get along with.
Oh no! Richard and Stacey are… are…
FUCKBUDDIES! *dramatic kazoo noises*
They may even be Friends With Benefits!
Or worse… LOVERS.
*Dun dun DUUUUUN*
So, which is worse…having Faz as a half-brother, or Joe as a step-brother?
Faz. Always and forever Faz.
In any hypothetical “which is worse” situation, you can stop as soon as you hear the word “Faz” and declare it the victor.
Unless the next thing was gonna be “Two Fazzes”. (Fazes? Fazii? Or is Faz its own plural, like moose?)
Which is worse? Faz just being Faz, or Blaine/Toedad team-up?
Trick question. Blaine and Toedad would get into a fight over best child abduction techniques and mutually destroy each other, thus canceling out.
Whereas Faz just is.
I agree, I see no interaction between those two assholes not ending in mutual destruction
Not just team up. Blaine/Toedad ship! I’d ship that in a “what a beautiful trainwreck” kind of way.
Obviously it’s Faz/Fez, like goose/geese. *Sarge nods.*
The plural of Sarge is Serge?
It is now! Thanks to one of the many Devid. (In other words: it’s your fault.)
Two sergeants in the same room become a vengeful seal cub?
Well, find another sergeant, and I guess we’ll find out.
Close.
One Faz, two Fez, three or more Fezzes.
Nope. Can’t be. Fezzes are cool.
one faz two faz red faz blue faz
Rapey McStabbedtwice is a greater evil than Faz.
What is worse? One Faz given superpowers, or a Faz equivalent of the Yugioh card Jam Breeding Machine (it makes a new Fax at the start of each day)?
Depends on the superpowers, but usually the eventual horde would win worst choice.
Definitely depends on the powers. One of powers could be duplication!
I still wanna see Faz tied up by Dina’s rope and returned to.sender. Joe has potential we didn’t know a few days (in-universe) ago.
Joe’s true potential is to return Faz to the sender at long last. Ruth no longer must conceal him in her closet and pretend he isn’t there.
We haven’t seen all of Ruth’s room. Could the still-tied-up Faz (with duct-taped mouth) be mounted on a plaque on her wall?
Pinned there by his own femurs.
Murphy’s Law says, the worst scenario is whichever one we’re getting.
So, both.
Yeah I’m sorry it’s gonna be Faz forever.
It’s Fazes all the way down.
We saw in the Walkyverse that Joe can grow into a decent human being, and are seeing signs of him attempting to leave his less desirable traits behind here. Faz we never saw growing into a decent human being.
So I’m going with Faz being worse.
That depends, is Amber dating Joe when their parents get married?
Here’s the upside. If you were Amber, and Joe’s dad married your mom… he would presumably be in there with you on the Faz thing. Sure he wouldn’t technically be step-anything with Faz, but I imagine he wouldn’t be any keener on Faz being himself around him than you were.
Actually, I wouldn’t mind Joe for a brother. And it might do him some good, too.
Without any shred of doubt, it’s Faz. Joe’s a decent guy under his many layers of sexism etc and he’s working to be a better person. Slowly.
Faz on the other hand is all of Joe’s worst traits turned up to 12 and minus any charm.
Please refer to this chart, which clearly quantifies that Faz is great.
Telling the kids after a divorce that you’re dating is gonna be hard, tricky, and depend on who your family is and how they see you…
but that’s probably the wrong way to do it.
On the other hand, if you’re actually explaining it in terms of “rather than just having lots of sex with random women, which you know full well is what I’ve been doing since(?) the divorce”, you’ve probably already screwed it up beyond help.
Star Wars clone joke, fantastic 😀 That genuinely made me smile.
Feelings imminent for everyone in this strip, in 3, 2, 1…
…I didn’t get it. I still don’t.
Perhaps I’m the only person over 30 in North America who did not ever watch Episodes 1-3.
When I saw a picture of Jar Jar and read a transcript of his dialog, I knew I wanted nothing to do with any of those movies. How much more blatant can a racist stereotype get? (Though I guess the Ferengi are in the same league.)
So anyway, I totally didn’t recognize whatever-that-name-was as a Star Wars thing.
Remember Boba Fett the bounty hunter? He got a backstory in ep 2: his dad, Jango Fett, also a bounty hunter, was hired to provide genetic material for a clone army for…well, that’s a bit complicated, but part of his payment was a cloned son for himself. That being the future Sarlacc snack we all know and love.
So my rambling aside, Amber’s saying Joe looks like a clone of his dad.
Also, I feel like Joe/Richard share a vague relative head shape with Temuera Morrison, who played Jango (and also redubbed all of Bobas lines for DVD releases of the OT).
Btw. what’s the new canon for Boba? In the old canon he escaped from Sarlac. Is he dead in Disney canon?
Nope, still alive. Popularity saved him in the original timeline, it saved him in the new one as well. It’d be a stupid choice to just toss aside one of the series most popular characters.
Sweet 😀 I was hoping so. He was one of my very first baby crushes.
Awesome.
I will never accept the way Disney fucked up the continuity. In the EC, there was no connection between Boba and Jango, and this is how I will always remember.
what the what
I thought that connection was established long before Disney. In the Clone Wars, and in the Prequels, IIRC.
Did Jango even exist before the connection was made?
No, he didn’t. His first appearance was in Attack of the Clones, which is also where he adopted Boba.
The connection between Boba and Jango is like 10 years pre-Disney.
You can still dislike the prequels/SW:TCW/Rebels/the sequels and go by the EU canon, it’s just kind of weird to blame that particular thing on Disney
Oh good other people were as confused as me. I should have reloaded before posting.
*GASP*
…also, for europeans like me : how far is Mishawaka ?
Google maps says it’s about three hours.
Approximately 200 miles, or as Americans put it, 4 hours of driving. At least that’s how I remember my Trek from Mishawaka to Bloomington when I was a student.
Just looking at the map, I’d guess about 3 hours. I know it’s about an hour from Bloomington to Indianapolis, and Mishiwaka looks 3x as far.
3 and a half hours, once you factor in traffic on 465.
About 280 km as the crow flies.
What about a sparrow?
European or african ?
More importantly, is it laden or unladen?
I don’t know that! *Waaauuugh!*
Too bad, Waaauuughluigi time
and did he drive to pick up Stacey on his way.
*plays the pop version of the theme to THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK on the hacked Muzak*
…gonna need links
I’m assuming you mean something like this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b78HpmEdvGw
Aww yeah, MECO!
Goddamn it, Joe 2.0/Janjoe/Richard is basically Joe doing the Old!Joe stuff forever, and seriously fucked up in the head because of it. He’s worried about Amber but because of toxic masculinity bullshit he has to hide it.
Wouldn’t Richard be Joe 0.9?
Or Joe Richard 2.0?
Or Joe House Blumenthal Issue 0139131?
I think he’s more worried about not getting laid.
The horror, the horror!
Extra bonus feint in panel one!
“I didn’t think I’m have to have this talk today” sounds so much like a preamble to The Talk.
When Richard gives the Talk, it’s full of useful tips and techniques.
Pun not intended but I’m not sorry.
Joe really sounds happy to see his dad.
No?
No, I didn’t think so either.
Holy Mackeral that Mishawaka drive is no joke.
Man, I’m really tired. I read Dick’s last speach bubble multiple times as “I’m banging more than one person at the same time.” Joe’s reaction made sense, but it made for a really boring punchline.
Its called dating.
Dating and banging are not the same thing.
Not to say you can’t always do one while doing the other, but they’re different things.
See, dates are this little fruit, and bangs are a sound you make with pans while pretending to cook dinner. They have differences, is what I’m saying.
I guess i’ve been tenderizing my porkchops wrong.
Yeah – but he did make a (as suggested above) three hour-drive for Amber’s mom to talk to Amber (and don’t forget the three hour-trip back), so one could argue that it does at least look a little bit like they are dating, or somewhere in between.
A friend of mine hates the word dating (because too much expectations go with it) so she and her bf kinda developed into a relationship without calling meet-ups dates or each other bf or gf, until friends etc. asked them things like “Will your gf/bf come too?” That’s when they realised that they are actually together. (well, it worked out for them)
But… Rosenthals Don’t Date.
‘Dating’ is the precursor to an extended monogamous dependency (aka ‘relationship’) on a single person for sex! Rosenthals are like bees, flitting quickly from flower to flower! Sex with the same woman, multiple times? Sounds almost like l-. L-. Luuu-
-It’s Okay, Dad. You don’t have to say That Word.
-Thanks, Son.
Richard calm down, take deep breaths Banging one person even if exclusively for a while it’s not the end the of the world, also doing stuff like this, that is actually nice. Good job.
He doesn’t need to do monogamy from now on but helping the people he is involved in ways diferents to achieving orgasms would be great XD
So this isn’t going to do much to help Amber’s whole “I want to stab everything” problem, is it?
Depends. It’s possible that it will shift her into a super-depressed do-nothing-but-transform-one-toy-back-and-forth-for-hours funk.
…….
People who know about modern Transformers toys (including what knowledge of comics and other media you think Amber might include), please rank for me choices of individual Transformer for this task, from mildest to most severe warning flags.
Masterpiece Megatron. (That said, I once threw Generations Wheeljack across the room. ^^; He’s not actually that difficult, but I was in bed sick and my daughter had asked me to transform him for her. There are a couple points that are weird when you have head fog. ^^; I gave his mangled carcass to my husband to figure out. XD)
* I should qualify this with the comment that I have not played with any Baybots. The closest I’ve come is a couple of Transformers Prime bots my daughter owns. :p
Revenge of the fallen Optimus Prime Leader Class. That guy will make you shed tears in frustration trying to get his chestplates and forearms together.
“commitment??”
“yeah”
“*Joe’s reality collapses in horror/surprise*”
(yes this is an exaggeration, hopefully evidently)
horprise, if you will.
Dammit, Richard, this is how your last disastrously-ended marriage started!
That he seems unaware there’s even a term for it checks out.
All I understood was Star Wars references…. Also somehow Joe-Dad exists now. Good job Willis.
eh? Richard’s been in the comic before.
Oh, he’s existed since family weekend. When he first banged Stacy, the Mom.
Say it ain’t so, Joe, er, Dick!
Dammit, I just realized.
My name for Blaine was Dickdad.
I’m going to have to change that now.
Stacy and Richard…might actually be an okay couple. Joe and Amber as (here’s looking ahead to the maybe future) step-siblings? I mean, they all might work out as a family! (a weird family, after much therapy, far after the comic ends)
Hmmmm, seems things are taking a different turn than I expected, it seems almost as if Richard has his own character growth going on where he might actually be easing off the sleaziness due to legitimately liking Amber’s mom and stuff. That’s super optimistic thinking there but idk, apart from his initial introduction to Amber his sleaziness levels have been… kinda low really, he keeps slipping in little comments that betray a bit of his selfish personality traits, but they’ve all been small and overshadowed by other things.
He’s also talking about having a talk with Joe, which gives me the sense that maybe Richard is looking to give the “committed relationship” thing another go, which would understandably be rough on Joe because separated parents remarrying is rough.
I kinda hope things continue down this path, because it’ll be a great help to Joe if his father, the one who set him down his original crappy path, straightens out and starts being good to women. Or at the very least it won’t do any damage.
It is especially rough in this instance considering:
a) He knows his father tends to stray and flirt with other women. That is something he did even before the divorce occurred according to Joe.
b) There may have been other instances where he tried dating again before which did not pan out.
c) Tbh in general, Richard has set himself up as someone who is just going to disappoint Joe by failing in his romantic relationships which is likely why this slightly more serious relationship is what he was afraid of. Because he expects it to fail and for the woman to get hurt by his dad screwing up somehow.
Joe and Joe-dad stuff aside, I just feel really bad for Momma Amber right now. It hurts when you know someone you care about is in in a bad place and they shut down completely, and I imagine it’s that much more so when they’re your kid.
Not that I blame Amber. It’s just a really tough situation all around.
Banging the same person?
Isn’t that a sin or something?
Jesus, Joe’s dad lives in Mishawaka? Now I actually feel bad for him.
What’s Mishawaka like exactly?
The couple of times I have been there, it was a generic, pleasant, leaning conservative, medium sized (40,000 pop.) Midwest town. Rumors are in the 1990s Arnold Schwarzenegger ran his businesses from there and lived there several months a year to get away from Hollywood.
Ah. Quaint town, but too quaint for people who prefer the hustle and bustle.
Now that Joe knows his dad is actively seeing Amber’s mom, my hope is that he recognizes the need to get along with Amber and checks out some Transformers stuff so he’ll know what the hell she’s talking about next time. And THAT’S how he unlocks his massive potential for nerdery.
I mean, it’s possible. He already has expressed some interest in transformers before, just not to the level of Ethan and Amber. Maybe he’ll pick it up a bit more as an outlet.
I hope Richard took something away from his divorce to help him prevent a similar disaster. I feel like its something about honesty.
My optimist side says hopefully but my realist side says not likely…maybe the universe will decree Stacey’s suffered enough, though.
This universe is run by the Willis. I don’t think “suffered enough” is a meaningful concept.
At least he’s not likely to be abusive? Just unfaithful?
He’d probably be a tonne of fun so long as one didn’t actually expect a monogamous relationship (or any real maturity, not that the one is necessarily dependent upon the other). And I doubt he’s the kind to be all jealous when someone he’s banging has someone else on the side as well, when he does too. He doesn’t really seem like that kind of a hypocrite. So I doubt he’d care (or at least, doubt he’d expect to care) much if she wasn’t exclusive with him.
Something lighthearted and undemanding with a guy who seems like he’d be reasonably kind, and fun out of the sack as well as in it, might be just what Stacy needs right now. Something further might grow from it, or not; we don’t know whether Stacy is looking for anything exclusive, either, here.
But honestly, so long as it was all consensual and open and honest, these guys might do really well in an open relationship.
Not sure Richard could manage to stay faithful to one person long term, though; and I’m not sure Stacy would want to be legally tied to someone else, either. I imagine being married to Blaine would make anyone a bit gun-shy. :/
Stacey was talking about “getting serious”. Anything is possible, but without further clues, I’m not going to assume she’s talking about an open relationship or even just casual fun.
I’m also, given Richard’s track record, not going to give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he’s been completely open about his habits and intentions.
And, while we don’t know a lot about Richard, but it’s pretty common for PUAs and cheaters to be very possessive of their women.
Joe thinks he’s being a better man than his father by always being clear that he’s only talking to women for sex. I’m willing to believe him. I’m going to assume that Dick isn’t completely honest about where he stands with the women he dates or at best does not correct them if they don’t believe him. I don’t know if he’s possessive or not.
Looking at him telling Amber to talk to her mother and even explaining to Joe that the thing with Stacey is steadyish it feels like he actually cares, but this could also be very self serving. Amber blew up because she doubted Dicks intentions and I could see him deciding that making a show of actually caring could win over Amber before Stacey decides that her relationship with him is not worth worrying Amber or questioning whether she’s willing to risk Amber being right.
That sounds about right.
His interaction with her also sounded a bit like someone who completely hasn’t earned it trying to force his way into the parent role. Which is a bit of a red flag for me. On first contact. Without her mother there. To a technical adult, not a young child.
Is there anyone else who, when they see the name Mishawaka, immediately thinks of the default font used by Eudora on Macs?
…I spent a lot of time doing email back then.
Ok Joe I don’t get you, are you trying to turn over a new leaf or not ?
Joe is trying to turn over a new leaf. However, he doesn’t belief his father is capable of having an actual relationship with a woman without hurting eventually hurting her (Joe’s experience with his parents getting divorced because his dad was a cheater). Joe wants to change, but he also believes his dad is incapable of changing and is worried his dad is going to emotionally hurt someone again.
In Joe’s head Dick going steady lady or any form of that is code for going to cheat on lady.
Joe’s new leaf is about respecting women more and trying to relate with them sometimes with no expectation or hope of sex ever. It is not about being more tolerant of cheaters or giving other men the benefit of the doubt. If anything his current growth would just make what his father is most likely doing seem worse to him.
I see where Joe gets it from.
That said, I’m kinda… happy for his dad? I mean, he seems to really care about Amber’s mom, despite all his uh, family traits still being there.
I’m sure he really cared about his ex-wife, too. At least at the beginning.
Wow. Richard really wasn’t joking in Panel 5. He really has no idea how to say this stuff.
I know yesterday everyone was talking about how Richard was clearly an awful father and sleezy and such… But honestly, this redeems him a lot in my mind. Yeah, there was some comments he made that he probably shouldn’t be making to Amber, but he also just drove a significant distance to help Amber’s mother through anxiety, and by extension, to also help Amber.
I’m willing to toss the sleezy comments aside to “He’s nervous in his own right, and hiding it the best way he knows how to,” seeing as the actions he took are a significant amount of good.
I mean cheating on Joe’s mom was pretty bad, but yeah this comment section doesn’t really differentiate between evil and bad very well.
Cheating on Joe’s mom. Hitting on Sarah. Raising Joe to be the horndog he was. Joe thought his father was a creep.
Nah, he’s not Blaine or Toedad, but I’m not cutting him too much slack for coming to help Stacey. It’s provisionally a good deed, but …
Like Father like son I suppose
Indeed, Richard’s philosophy about women and relationships was communicated to and, seemingly, wholly adopted by Joe. That will only make it more difficult for him when he realises that it was all a lie.
Joe seems pretty clear that he never wanted to be as bad Richard about it.
Did he just call her a person??? WOW.
Mishawaka, knowing nothing about it, sounds like a nice place. Probably fishing.
“Mishawaka, the Princess City, lies nestled along the meandering path of the St. Joseph River. The city is named after Princess Mishawaka, daughter of Shawnee Chief Elkhart. The legend of her romance with white trapper Deadshot, and abduction by her jealous Indian suitor Grey Wolf, characterizes the mixture of romance and history still found in Mishawaka today.”
The white trapper was also, curiously enough, a robot in disguise. The More You Know (TM)
* Please don’t believe any of this. :p
Whenever the subject comes up about legends of white settler / first nation romance in Indiana, my mind goes straight to Pawnee .
Saying that the story of a woman being abducted characterizes the city is probably not the best advertisement one could write.
Nice place to bury bodies and forget.
What Joe isn’t saying out loud in panel six: Dammit you’re going to end up hurting this woman just like you hurt mom! I can’t believe something like this is happening again! What’s wrong with you?
Yeah that’s the subtext I assumed as well
Is that really the best he can do to describe dating
For Richard, the concept of actually falling for someone and wanting to be in a relationship with them must be a difficult and disturbing thing to experience. It will be more difficult for Joe who is about to have his lifestyle exemplar tell him everything that he taught him about how to live his life was a lie!
Don’t worry. It won’t last.
Well, considering he was married before, I would assume this isn’t the first time he’s felt the urge to be monogamous with someone.
We all know it didn’t last last time, though, of course, so we’ll see. But this is unlikely to be his first time with these feelings.
Give in to the monogamy, Richard… let the healthy romance flow through you…
I like how Joe’s dad is just Dumbiverse Joe before Rachel came back
Walkyverse Joe wasn’t this bad. He was a creep sure, but Joe’s dad being worse than Joe is a universal constant.
Someone needs to reread the early Walkyverse comics and remember what Joe was like.
Yes. It’s not just Walkyverse Joe; it’s Roomie’s Era Joe. Back before our most awesome Willis had realized that sexual assault isn’t a good punchline. The amount he’s learned over the years is awe-inspiring.
See for example: http://www.itswalky.com/comic/college-ho-page-6/
And so Dr. Rosenthal is now known as Dr. Monogamy.
dont fuck this up richard
But that’s all he’s good for
Soo are both Rosenthals having their arcs at the same time?
Like Jango, Like Boba
The question is, will Amazi-Girl need to cut off Richard’s head to set Joe on his path to becoming the galaxy’s most feared bounty-hunter?
That actually depends on Which head you mean [shudders at the thought]
Oh, this makes it sound like Richard is HELLA afraid of commitment…
So, I’m thinking that Amber is, in her adorably geekish manner, accusing Joe of being Richard’s mini-me. Can’t say that she’s wrong! 😀
Now, if he hadn’t opened with that big leering grin, he’d be well on the plus side now.
Also, Boba and Jango reference. That is AWESOME.
It’s too good. Between that and the wrong grail, I now crave a new clever reference every time Amber and Richard interact. But will there actually be? And if there are, does that mean I’m looking forward to more A&R strips? That doesn’t seem the right thing to hope for.
“Son, I’ve got The Feels.”
Mishawaka? Dang, yeah, I wouldn’t want to make that drive for nothing either. Always fun how I can find little reminders of home reading DoA
Agreeing with what others have said: that Jango/Boba reference was really well done. Instant smile.
*gasp*
He’s still skeevy but it’s nice to see him a relationship, I guess?
I dunno what to fully think yet.
“Mishawaka is a trip”
Hmm. For some of us it’s hard to avoid! Very wierd to think of Joe growing up 5-15 minutes from ‘here’.
Amber makes a real metacomment there. Richard provided the original model for GI Joe, see http://www.the-scuttle.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Joe-reminisces_sm.jpg . So he has millions of plastic coated clones around. As a reward, they made an actual clone and named him Joe, after the smaller plastic ones. Star Wars just copied the idea from Hasbro, who is the real evil empire.
Possible soundtrack for Amber https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAHi5sZZdeA
Agree? Disagree? Alternate suggestions?
“Son, I…I think I might be in a committed relationship.”
“You’re dead to me…”
More likely:
“Sure. Have you cheated on her yet?”
Am I the only one thinking something is happening with Amber and its not good
Dammit I mean Stacy
I too get the sense of something. Like a tragedy. Knowing the comic I wanna say Blaine died, but I have a feeling it was another family member that Amber might actually like.
Well, her daughter got attacked by a rapist, had to put him in the hospital, thinks she’s a monster and hasn’t been responding to texts since got back to campus.
Stacy’s gotta be worried sick, and is probably being really hard on herself for not knowing how to help Amber 🙁
This is the closest Richard can come to saying “I’m in a relationship”. Right?
Has anyone seen Cerb lately?
She was on Patreon just the other day.
Okay, thanks. Was starting to get worried.
Me too, so thanks for asking.
I tought Joe was hot.
But Richard is on another level.