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Always be careful not to let your antipasto and your pasta touch each other. If they do, they will cause a huge annihilation explosion and give off gamma rays.
Y’know, Amber, that mask hardly covers any of your face. If people weren’t recognizing you with it, it’s not surprising that they wouldn’t recognize you without it either.
I think that it’s more likely the concept of Amazi-girl was something she dreamed up and talked about with Ethan in high school, so when he reads the paper, it’s obvious that she went and DID it.
There was also this one comic were Ethan and Danny both stood in the elevator and talked about that and it being a secret and them being happy they finally had someone else they could talk to about it. So I always assumed Ethan basically knew from the start.
I think. Searching for the comic in question, hoping my brain didn’t make that up…
..
Found it! (I always forget how long this comic actually is. I applaud Willis for being able to keep it going like that and it becoming even more interesting and investing): This one!
(I hope this worked, I’m not well versed in using links here)
Basically write it like this, but use greater-than and less-than signs instead of brackets. (I just used brackets so the site wouldn’t parse the example.)
[a href=”http://www.dumbingofage.com”]Text goes here![/a]
Yes this was the one I meant. Dammit!
But thanks for Needfuldoer for explaining, I looked at plain old html code, but I must’ve done something wrong. Well, one time in the future I’ll get it right – hopefully.
So I have a friend who I think might be interested in asking some questions here; she doesn’t read the comic (yet) but if I get her to post here…that’s who that is and why she’s asking here.
Not really, I was just referring to your earlier comment being kinda vague.
Also, we likely wouldn’t have minded her asking, even without knowin she’s your friend. Hell, look at all the random questions I ask without getting torch-and-pitchfork’d outta here.
Sure. I was in part just providing her with a space to reply to, and also noting that she doesn’t read the comic (yet), so something like, “Well, look at when Danny and Ethan…” would mean nothing to her.
It’s interesting, and sad, really. Amber grew up under a microscope, every action, every emotion, every word criticized by her father. Add in the everyone knows everyone environment of public school and Amber genuinely doesn’t understand that to people she’s just a random face in the crowd now.
I think you mean high school/grade school my understanding is public school is on average more likely to have kids asking who than private school. But yea she was never taught the joy of knowing most people don’t care about your embarrassing moments.
My experiences support that: My public high schools each had 2000~ students; Even the most socially active of us couldn’t manage to get to know everyone, much less keep track of them, on top of all the other demands high school threw at us. Knowing everyone is more of a small-town or upper class thing, so it’d be primarily be restricted to rural or private schools.
Oh, come on. Before Killmaster’s death, the novels were just basic teenage drama mysteries. After his death is when things got legitimately interesting.
I mean, it went from her moping about her murdered dad, to her focusing on the psychological impact of her allowing Killmaster to die- especially with the revelation that Killmaster was her father all along, and that her best friend Madaline Fowler, who had pushed her to allow the death, was actually the real big bad all along. Besides, love interests Davan Winters and Jacques Clementine really started being more than just fluff after that- we got actual relationship formation, not just Tuxedo Mask-style interactions with Davan and Jacques always running off to do his own thing.
Seriously, next you’ll say Dexter & Monkey Master was a better cartoon than Ultra Car.
It just meant they made even more of it. Shouldn’t surprise you, just look at how much Dean & Sam Winchester fanfic there is and we knew they were brothers from the start.
I can’t say I’ve been following that. Though, I do know that one person plagiarized one of the most popular of such fanfics, and very crudely rewrote it, releasing it under the title “50 Shades of Greg”. I hear it’s being turned into a movie soon.
You know, as funny as this is, I don’t blame Walky for not knowing who Amber is. I didn’t even talk to 90% of the kids in my Freshman dorm and didn’t know their names by the end of the year, much less in October.
to be fair, you can also be the kid who knows almost no one but who apparently everyone knows (cough the kid renowned for handing out candy and generally being weird and in a daze)
Probably a combination of the two, plus Joe also thought Dorothy when meeting Amber initially, worrying Danny just moved in on an equivalent due their breakup, so I imagine people consider them as looking a bit alike sometimes. Taking the glasses away removes a big identifier.
Considering the depth of romance between O’Malley and Duchess, didja ever wonder who the kittens’ father was? They’re obviously not purebred, so the pregnancy presumably wasn’t human-directed.
I wouldn’t really see the 2 of them fitting in well together.
Amber needs support and help. Walky is just too much of a goof to provide that (even if he somehow became interested in doing so). Yes, I know they’re bonding over their mutual self-loathing, but that’s not exactly something to build a romantic relationship on.
Plus, you have all the other differences… Amber has more ‘geeky’ interests (Transformers, Fan-fic, etc.), Walkey is more child-like (Dexter and Monkey Master). Amber seems attracted to homosexual/bisexual men (e.g. her own writings), Walkey seems almost homophobic. (He’s not, but I’m thinking of when he made a comment about how Joe having multiple pairs of shoes made him less than masculine). Amber is a decent computer science student, Walkey seems to be flunking out.
For the record, *looks up* was in reference to the previous comment, bot the strip itself. I don’t particularly ship them, personally– at least not anymore than the default levels to which I ship most things.
Yeah, I know, Ruth and Billy have a relationship that’s self destructive.
I’m not saying I don’t think that an Amber/Walky relationship could happen. Its certainly possible. I’m not even saying it wouldn’t make a bad story line.
I’m saying i wouldn’t want it of the 2 characters were actually real people.
I could see them working pretty well. Walky isn’t the worst at being supportive. He’s already demonstrated he can listen and be very attentive to the needs of others. He himself needs support that Amber would probably be good at providing. And their interests really don’t need to be identical. They’ve got enough in common to find activities and topics they both like.
Walky may occasionally listen, but he has demonstrated on multiple occasions that he likes to take the “easy way out” and avoid problems (e.g. avoiding math class by pretending he was raptured). Since Amber is rather withdrawn, its likely Walky would avoid trying to push her to help fix her problems.
Amber could help walky a bit, but remember, she kind of has her own distractions in her life (not just being Amazigirl but also her video games, her fanfic, etc.) So its not like she has great study habits that Walky could learn from.
And what exactly do they have in common? Different areas of study, different types of fun activities, different attitudes towards exercise. So, what DO they have in common? (Other than perhaps the fact that they’re both mammals.)
We’ve seen how Amber responded to her friends pushing her. They all pushed too hard or too insistently, and she pushed them away and even shut them out entirely. Walky’s low pressure nudging is the first thing to get her to open up even slightly about how she’s feeling, and even got her to genuinely smile. Of course he wouldn’t be able to solve all her problems, but that’s not something any relationship is likely to accomplish on its own. It’d still be good for her, and might even help her get closer to a place where she might accept or even seek out the kind of professional help she needs.
Walky might take the easy route with his studies, but that’s not the case with his relationships. It used to be (the easy route being “girls are dumb I don’t want a relationship”), but that’s one area where he’s been able to rise to the occasion and grow as a person. With Dorothy, with Sal, with Billie, even with Joyce. He goofs up (especially at first), but learned quickly (see his attempt to check with Billie the morning after Ruth was hospitalized, where he quickly recognized Billie needed space and backed off, while Joyce walked right onto a landmine)
Amber doesn’t need to teach Walky study habits herself to be able to help him, though we don’t actually know that she lacks the skills he needs since the only class of hers that we’ve seen is one where she clearly knows the material very well already. But more than anything else, Walky needs to not avoid that problem. He needs to realize that failing the class won’t be the end of the world. At this point, learning the study skills he needs in order to pass is more important than actually passing. If he can do that (or even make significant headway there) it will be a praiseworthy success, even if he can’t do it in time to salvage his grade. Amber can provide the kind of gentle-but-firm encouragement he needs to keep trying and stop panicking and shutting down.
As far as what they have in common, I don’t think he and Amber are any more dissimilar than he and Dorothy are. Dorothy’s interests are even different in all the ways you mentioned. She’s up at 5 am jogging, remember? They just both like the same cartoon. Amber is also a nerd who enjoys escapism the way Walky does. I’d be surprised if there wasn’t some fandom or hobby they both enjoyed.
Would they make a better couple than Walky and Dorothy? Would it work for more than a few weeks? I have no idea. It definitely feels like they have potential. If not romantically, they definitely work as friends
The word you are looking for is “heteronormative.” Walky sees the world through the “men are masculine and straight” lens. It’s not that he fears or dislikes homosexuals, he just doesn’t have the capacity (mostly through disinterest in taking the effort to learn) of understanding anything outside of that view. It’s the same way that Christians tend to take the inundation of Christmas symbolism everywhere at this time of year and don’t understand why people of other faiths can get annoyed. Christmas decorations and carols are just normal for the culture we were raised in and we don’t really think much about it.
homophobic? Are we talking about the same Walky? The guy who’s come to the LGBT+ meetup for free pizza and proclaimed he didn’t mind if he had to go down on a dude for it, the guy who offered Jason sexual favors in exchange for better marks, the guy who gleefully roleplayed a married couple with Joe? I mean, yeah, all of those were jokes, but Walky jokes about everything in his life, and if he were actually homophobic, don’t you think?…
I’ve long seen him as bi, the kind where he casually doesn’t mind that society expects him to shack up with women, but sees the other option as a possibility as well. He just happens to have crushed on Dorothy and got a very good relationship out of it.
Sure, he’s got a lot of masculinity hangups, but… orientation doesn’t HAVE to be part of those. Hell, there’s a ‘be gay to avoid women’ misogynistic position, which is surreal and yet existent.
It seems to be a fairly common observation about Amber – which makes sense, as it seems like she’s drawn in a series of circles and ovals, whereas Dorothy’s bonier.
Well, technically Ryan referred to her as “fat”. (During their fight at the political rally, he commented about how nobody wanted “to drug your fat ass”.)
Curvy still means fat, it just means fat in a way that doesn’t hide body accents, but instead adds to them. You’re perhaps thinking big-boned, which means the body structure itself is thicker and/or wider. Besides, nothing prevents someone from being both overweight and fit- in fact, plenty of regimes (notably, sumo diets) rely on that contrast for building up strength.
Fat people can be pretty agile. Walking through campus last month I saw a very overweight fellow doing cartwheels. He was packing at least an extra 80 lbs. Now is that gonna be a problem for him when he’s my age? Speaking from experience, yup. But not at Amber’s age and she isn’t nearly that overweight anyway.
She also may be literally “big boned” in the sense of high bone density and cross-section. Judging from the scrapes she’s been in without breaking anything.
Her having a broader bone structure was my impression as well, though her mother does give the appearance of tending toward “plushness”. I’d assume weight training combined with junk food eating for the rest, but on the other hand, we’ve *seen* she does a lot of cardio, so it may be that she just tends toward obesity and is keeping it in check with her regular activities. That interpretation lends itself to her being so fit under the “curves”.
On the other hand, given how vague Willis’ art style is on such details, all we really can determine as being “fat” is displayed in her chest, posterior, and upper legs, and the fact that her waist doesn’t seem to indent. All of that may just be a reflection of how her natural body shape trends.
Really, the only two things we can determine firmly are, there’s really no inherent reason she can’t have the shape she does and still be as fit as she seems to be, and she’s not overweight to the point of it being a clear issue.
In fact, Billie seems to have a body shape with more flesh/fat density (over bone-structure-derived breadth), and she’s pretty darn fit herself. Willis’ tendency to avoid larger phenotypes may just be leading us to overestimate his size distinctions on other characters- and certainly, Ryan isn’t exactly the best reference point for any factual interpretations on such matters, so it isn’t as if we’ve had any reliable data sources thus far.
Oh come on, no it’s not. It’s perfectly fine manners, fat =/= bad, and I’m really glad Walky uses it as a completely neutral descriptor, specifically picking out a non-charged word. Let’s not, please.
I mean, I don’t because I’m sure people work hard on it, and I’m sure it’d be swell to be able to have nice things, but also if we’re still waiting on everything to come crashing and burning to the ground…at least the goat can get a head start?
I for one think that after this year, we deserve ONE symbol of constructive cooperation and building – even when threatened with destruction. The goat is as good as any.
For a moment I honestly wondered if people were supposed to set the Yule goat on fire. I mean, there’s plenty of weird fire stuff around winter festivals, since as Terry Pratchett said, they started out as a fear the sun wouldn’t come up.
(Next month, some of my countrymen will be burning a longboat they spent three months building. Why? Because it’s traditional.)
With Christmas traditions anything goes, but no, it’s not supposed to be set on fire. That was just some random act of vandalism that caught on.
…thing is, the only reason anyone cares about the goat at all is the fire. Christmas goats is a pretty standard decoration all over Sweden, and cities building big versions is not uncommon either.
No one in Gävle WANTS it to burn…. but everyone is very aware of all the attention i gets the city. Curating that attention is a delicate balancing act.
Seasons Greetings to all, especially those who are not among friends these days (or just are not into any of the holidays and celebrations and still feel the drag of “everyone is with their nearest and dearest but me”).
Be kind to yourselves, y’all.
I was kind of like Amber in high school – somewhat under the impression that people care a lot more than they really do. It’s a realistic anxiety that I still have but also no one really cares as much anymore after high school and it’s just me having insomnia as a rather young adult b.c now i can’t not obsess over every slightly weird thing i’ve done instead of the whole shebang but younger.
Seperate note: who needs sleep when you can review the fact that you were a lonely person who wanted to be noticed but not really over and over and over and just obsess over how much of a somewhat self aware chunnibyou you have been up until this point in your short, short life, amiright?
You’re not alone in this. It’s common enough to have a name: the spotlight effect. Most people feel that others are more aware of them than they really are, to some extent. I think introverts might get it worse because we tend to be very prone to over analyzing our every action.
I mean, in my middle school I was legitimately 100% not-anxiety-but-reality a bullying target for everyone in the school. Like, maybe not everyone-everyone, I’m sure lots of people didn’t find it a worthwhile activity, but every time I went through a corridor it was a 50/50 that I’d be called “Wig” by some random I don’t know, often kids younger than me too – and of course high schoolers, including one guy who lived in the same apartment building as me, and I still don’t want to say hi to him when I bump into him (thank god we moved). I was 100% absolutely a constant target for hostile attention. Even when for high school I changed to a different one, I still had to constantly mind that if I did weird things, people would notice and it’d be a Thing, instead of me just doing whatever I want as long as it didn’t concern others without anybody caring.
In the uni, too – we’re organized into groups the same size as school classes that we stick with for the entire 4 years, and while people are older and thus smarter, at least within the group everyone still knows each other, and the more social ones know everyone within the ‘stream’ (a collection of groups who all study the same thing just have different schedule for seminars and labs bc not everyone can fit at the same time) too. Lots of people knowing me without me knowing who they are (I have a really hard time remembering faces which leads to a cascading effect of me avoiding interaction out of embarrassment of not knowing people when I think I should, and so the problem compounds itself).
My ideal social environment is like, a resort, where I come for a week without knowing anyone, and there are lots of people around that I -could- chat with but wouldn’t be expected to know or remember, and could get the luxury of a fresh impression every time. Or even better – a train, where the timeframe for getting to know someone is even shorter – 1 day. You don’t even have to learn each other’s names!
You know next time Walky sees Amber with her glasses he is going to go “You remind me of someone for some reason … but I can’t quite put my finger on it … “
I’m confused. The tag says there’s supposed to be someone named “Amber” in this comic, but I don’t see any Amber here. There’ only Walky and that girl… it’s on the tip of my tongue… Annie O’Mallet?
Yep, seen this many times while reading the history. It’s a bit silly reading people referring to avatars that are completely different now. Like chains of Ruth fans crowing about their Ruth avatars… who don’t have Ruth avatars anymore.
Walky: Hey, newspaper lady! I know who Amazi-Girl is!
Alice: REALLY? Is she hot? I mean, what’s her name?
Walky: Um…
Alice: … You DO know her name, right?
Walky: … Sure! It’s… Alice! Alice… Mc.. Monkey…Master?
Alice: …What.
Walky: No! Wait. Amb…lin… O’Mc.. Nuggets!
Alice: Kid…
Walky: Hang on, I know this… Am..ber… O’Malley!
Alice: You’re just making names up! Get out of my office!
Walky: Wait, I can remember th-
*Alice slams door in his face*
In my line of work, I often look at legally/medical confidential information.
99% of the time, it vanishes completely from my memory within 30 seconds of leaving my sight.
(I’ve got another hundred records to process before lunch, don’t talk to me.)
Has the title text been broken on mobile for a while now or is it just me? I can’t get the little buttons right below the comic to bring it up anymore.
Have a safe and happy Christmas, everyone – or whatever Solstice celebration you prefer. May you be safe and warm with people you love during the darkest and coldest days of the year. Remember, the light will return.
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Ambulance O’Rutabaga
Aminoacid McHobgoblin
Antipasto McMargarine
Atomic deMetropolis
Armadillo O’Melet
Antipasto Oldsmobile
Always be careful not to let your antipasto and your pasta touch each other. If they do, they will cause a huge annihilation explosion and give off gamma rays.
Antiquated Malaria
No, Malaria is Sal’s new roommate, sheesh.
Ambrosia Metamucil
Amygdala OMG
Ambien Finale
Amway Omelette
Bob Johnson (No, wait…)
Nope. Chuck Testa.
Are you sure it’s not Benedict Cumberbatch?
Bernadette Crumblebutter?
Benadryl Canklesnitch?
Benjamin Crankersnatch?
Abstract Onomatopoeia
Amnesiac O’Mageddon
Amiga O’Macintosh
Aviary Ombudsman
Bulk Slabchest
Artic Opioid
Arctic Outdoorsman
Actionhero Oblong.
Ameboid O’MalDeMer
Awesome McCoolname.
Wait, isn’t that a different trope…? xD
You mean like Sal Walker?
Ambrosia O’Hara
Amber McAmberface
Amanda O’Reilly
Teenage Wasteland
Susan?
Oh, now you’re just doing it on purpose. How juvenile.
Good job, Thingley
It’s the lack of glasses, Walky.
Y’know, Amber, that mask hardly covers any of your face. If people weren’t recognizing you with it, it’s not surprising that they wouldn’t recognize you without it either.
Superhero rules, plus wearing a costume like this is probably going to keep people from staring at your face too much, anyhow.
That’s what the boob window is for.
Oh please. It’s not superhero rules. They’re just dumb.
In fairness, Danny didn’t recognize her.
Although in even more fairness, Ethan said “I know what keeps you busy, I read the papers” which suggests she didn’t actually tell him.
Could also be that she did tell Ethan, but Ethan uses the papers to track her activity, because they don’t talk that much.
I think that it’s more likely the concept of Amazi-girl was something she dreamed up and talked about with Ethan in high school, so when he reads the paper, it’s obvious that she went and DID it.
There was also this one comic were Ethan and Danny both stood in the elevator and talked about that and it being a secret and them being happy they finally had someone else they could talk to about it. So I always assumed Ethan basically knew from the start.
I think. Searching for the comic in question, hoping my brain didn’t make that up…
..
Found it! (I always forget how long this comic actually is. I applaud Willis for being able to keep it going like that and it becoming even more interesting and investing): This one!
(I hope this worked, I’m not well versed in using links here)
(Ron Howard voice) It did not.
It’s plain old HTML markup.
Basically write it like this, but use greater-than and less-than signs instead of brackets. (I just used brackets so the site wouldn’t parse the example.)
[a href=”http://www.dumbingofage.com”]Text goes here![/a]
This becomes:
Text goes here!
Here:
Nightclass
Yes this was the one I meant. Dammit!
But thanks for Needfuldoer for explaining, I looked at plain old html code, but I must’ve done something wrong. Well, one time in the future I’ll get it right – hopefully.
Is Walky the SNL Alex Moffat version of Eric Trump?
Make Agnes McMarshmallow canon
That’d be Carla who would do that.
…. well, it would be SOMEONE in Engineering, and I don’t think Rachel is the sort to make a marshmallow cannon.
I wouldn’t trust Agnes with a McMarshmallow Cannon, anyway. I mean, Agnes with a McFlurry was destructive enough.
Dorothy alternate version 2.0
Bizarro Dorothy.
Palette-shifted Dorothy.
So I have a friend who I think might be interested in asking some questions here; she doesn’t read the comic (yet) but if I get her to post here…that’s who that is and why she’s asking here.
….That doesn’t explain anythin…
Is there something you need explained?
Not really, I was just referring to your earlier comment being kinda vague.
Also, we likely wouldn’t have minded her asking, even without knowin she’s your friend. Hell, look at all the random questions I ask without getting torch-and-pitchfork’d outta here.
Sure. I was in part just providing her with a space to reply to, and also noting that she doesn’t read the comic (yet), so something like, “Well, look at when Danny and Ethan…” would mean nothing to her.
We considered it, but shoving anything at blowjob cat- even pitchforks- just got too weird, too fast.
It’s interesting, and sad, really. Amber grew up under a microscope, every action, every emotion, every word criticized by her father. Add in the everyone knows everyone environment of public school and Amber genuinely doesn’t understand that to people she’s just a random face in the crowd now.
I think you mean high school/grade school my understanding is public school is on average more likely to have kids asking who than private school. But yea she was never taught the joy of knowing most people don’t care about your embarrassing moments.
My experiences support that: My public high schools each had 2000~ students; Even the most socially active of us couldn’t manage to get to know everyone, much less keep track of them, on top of all the other demands high school threw at us. Knowing everyone is more of a small-town or upper class thing, so it’d be primarily be restricted to rural or private schools.
How could he confuse Amber in a costume with the great private detective Agnes McMarshmallow?
The Agnes McMarshmallow detective novels went downhill after they killed of Greg Killmaster.
Oh, come on. Before Killmaster’s death, the novels were just basic teenage drama mysteries. After his death is when things got legitimately interesting.
I mean, it went from her moping about her murdered dad, to her focusing on the psychological impact of her allowing Killmaster to die- especially with the
revelation that Killmaster was her father all along, and that her best friend Madaline Fowler, who had pushed her to allow the death, was actually the real big bad all along. Besides, love interests Davan Winters and Jacques Clementine really started being more than just fluff after that- we got actual relationship formation, not just Tuxedo Mask-style interactions with Davan and Jacques always running off to do his own thing.Seriously, next you’ll say Dexter & Monkey Master was a better cartoon than Ultra Car.
Wait. Killmaster was her father? What did that do to all the Agnes/Greg fanfic?
It just meant they made even more of it. Shouldn’t surprise you, just look at how much Dean & Sam Winchester fanfic there is and we knew they were brothers from the start.
I can’t say I’ve been following that. Though, I do know that one person plagiarized one of the most popular of such fanfics, and very crudely rewrote it, releasing it under the title “50 Shades of Greg”. I hear it’s being turned into a movie soon.
You know, as funny as this is, I don’t blame Walky for not knowing who Amber is. I didn’t even talk to 90% of the kids in my Freshman dorm and didn’t know their names by the end of the year, much less in October.
to be fair, you can also be the kid who knows almost no one but who apparently everyone knows (cough the kid renowned for handing out candy and generally being weird and in a daze)
I think after Amber literally saved his girlfriend’s life, Walky probably ought to at least know her name even if he doesn’t recognize her on sight.
“Agnes McMarshmallow” is a fantastic nickname.
Don’t encourage her. She doesn’t need a third identity.
It’s too late.
Agnes has a fondness for knitting quilts and roasting s’mores.
And if the police ever catch up with Amazi-Girl, Agnes is the one who knows how to take it on the lamb.
That was baaaad.
Wool I get the chop if I sheepishly admit to ewe that I have no idea what is being referred to here?
You might not, but it’d be a gambol.
But would it be an actual identity? I’ve got mutton.
Man, these puns come in all sheeps and sizes…
Oh, ewe guys are incorrigible!
I wonder if he’d recognize her better if she was wearing her glasses, or if it’s just that they haven’t seen each other that much.
Probably a combination of the two, plus Joe also thought Dorothy when meeting Amber initially, worrying Danny just moved in on an equivalent due their breakup, so I imagine people consider them as looking a bit alike sometimes. Taking the glasses away removes a big identifier.
Does anyone else always get the O’Malley the Alleycat song stuck in their head whenever Amber’s last name is mentioned?
I know someone whose last name is O’Malley who is friends with someone whose honest name is Ally Katz, so I need to know this song…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRET1vsfiJM
Enjoy!
Considering the depth of romance between O’Malley and Duchess, didja ever wonder who the kittens’ father was? They’re obviously not purebred, so the pregnancy presumably wasn’t human-directed.
This friendship is S-Rank
If fire emblemm has taught me anything it is that S-Rank means Boning Ensues.
Ships have been birthed on rougher waves. I’m holding out hope for the future Slipshine special
I think that if the waves were any rougher, then shipping would be guaranteed on that basis alone.
Just looking at the strip title, I think this is no time for love.
Willis is doing this specifically so we won’t ship them, isn’t he.
*looks up*
If so, he’s failing miserably.
I wouldn’t really see the 2 of them fitting in well together.
Amber needs support and help. Walky is just too much of a goof to provide that (even if he somehow became interested in doing so). Yes, I know they’re bonding over their mutual self-loathing, but that’s not exactly something to build a romantic relationship on.
Plus, you have all the other differences… Amber has more ‘geeky’ interests (Transformers, Fan-fic, etc.), Walkey is more child-like (Dexter and Monkey Master). Amber seems attracted to homosexual/bisexual men (e.g. her own writings), Walkey seems almost homophobic. (He’s not, but I’m thinking of when he made a comment about how Joe having multiple pairs of shoes made him less than masculine). Amber is a decent computer science student, Walkey seems to be flunking out.
For the record, *looks up* was in reference to the previous comment, bot the strip itself. I don’t particularly ship them, personally– at least not anymore than the default levels to which I ship most things.
“Yes, I know they’re bonding over their mutual self-loathing, but that’s not exactly something to build a romantic relationship on.”
Points silently to Ruth & Billie. It’s not a healthy thing to build a relationship on, but in the DOAverse it’s probably the most likely.
Yeah, I know, Ruth and Billy have a relationship that’s self destructive.
I’m not saying I don’t think that an Amber/Walky relationship could happen. Its certainly possible. I’m not even saying it wouldn’t make a bad story line.
I’m saying i wouldn’t want it of the 2 characters were actually real people.
I could see them working pretty well. Walky isn’t the worst at being supportive. He’s already demonstrated he can listen and be very attentive to the needs of others. He himself needs support that Amber would probably be good at providing. And their interests really don’t need to be identical. They’ve got enough in common to find activities and topics they both like.
Walky may occasionally listen, but he has demonstrated on multiple occasions that he likes to take the “easy way out” and avoid problems (e.g. avoiding math class by pretending he was raptured). Since Amber is rather withdrawn, its likely Walky would avoid trying to push her to help fix her problems.
Amber could help walky a bit, but remember, she kind of has her own distractions in her life (not just being Amazigirl but also her video games, her fanfic, etc.) So its not like she has great study habits that Walky could learn from.
And what exactly do they have in common? Different areas of study, different types of fun activities, different attitudes towards exercise. So, what DO they have in common? (Other than perhaps the fact that they’re both mammals.)
We’ve seen how Amber responded to her friends pushing her. They all pushed too hard or too insistently, and she pushed them away and even shut them out entirely. Walky’s low pressure nudging is the first thing to get her to open up even slightly about how she’s feeling, and even got her to genuinely smile. Of course he wouldn’t be able to solve all her problems, but that’s not something any relationship is likely to accomplish on its own. It’d still be good for her, and might even help her get closer to a place where she might accept or even seek out the kind of professional help she needs.
Walky might take the easy route with his studies, but that’s not the case with his relationships. It used to be (the easy route being “girls are dumb I don’t want a relationship”), but that’s one area where he’s been able to rise to the occasion and grow as a person. With Dorothy, with Sal, with Billie, even with Joyce. He goofs up (especially at first), but learned quickly (see his attempt to check with Billie the morning after Ruth was hospitalized, where he quickly recognized Billie needed space and backed off, while Joyce walked right onto a landmine)
Amber doesn’t need to teach Walky study habits herself to be able to help him, though we don’t actually know that she lacks the skills he needs since the only class of hers that we’ve seen is one where she clearly knows the material very well already. But more than anything else, Walky needs to not avoid that problem. He needs to realize that failing the class won’t be the end of the world. At this point, learning the study skills he needs in order to pass is more important than actually passing. If he can do that (or even make significant headway there) it will be a praiseworthy success, even if he can’t do it in time to salvage his grade. Amber can provide the kind of gentle-but-firm encouragement he needs to keep trying and stop panicking and shutting down.
As far as what they have in common, I don’t think he and Amber are any more dissimilar than he and Dorothy are. Dorothy’s interests are even different in all the ways you mentioned. She’s up at 5 am jogging, remember? They just both like the same cartoon. Amber is also a nerd who enjoys escapism the way Walky does. I’d be surprised if there wasn’t some fandom or hobby they both enjoyed.
Would they make a better couple than Walky and Dorothy? Would it work for more than a few weeks? I have no idea. It definitely feels like they have potential. If not romantically, they definitely work as friends
The word you are looking for is “heteronormative.” Walky sees the world through the “men are masculine and straight” lens. It’s not that he fears or dislikes homosexuals, he just doesn’t have the capacity (mostly through disinterest in taking the effort to learn) of understanding anything outside of that view. It’s the same way that Christians tend to take the inundation of Christmas symbolism everywhere at this time of year and don’t understand why people of other faiths can get annoyed. Christmas decorations and carols are just normal for the culture we were raised in and we don’t really think much about it.
homophobic? Are we talking about the same Walky? The guy who’s come to the LGBT+ meetup for free pizza and proclaimed he didn’t mind if he had to go down on a dude for it, the guy who offered Jason sexual favors in exchange for better marks, the guy who gleefully roleplayed a married couple with Joe? I mean, yeah, all of those were jokes, but Walky jokes about everything in his life, and if he were actually homophobic, don’t you think?…
I’ve long seen him as bi, the kind where he casually doesn’t mind that society expects him to shack up with women, but sees the other option as a possibility as well. He just happens to have crushed on Dorothy and got a very good relationship out of it.
Sure, he’s got a lot of masculinity hangups, but… orientation doesn’t HAVE to be part of those. Hell, there’s a ‘be gay to avoid women’ misogynistic position, which is surreal and yet existent.
Watch there be someone else on Campus named Agnes Mcmarshmallow.
They live in McAwes – I mean, Forrest Quad.
It seems like Amber isn’t really taking offense to it, but calling someone “rounder” isn’t exactly good manners, Walky.
He means it as a compliment, given how much effort Dotty puts into looking well rounded for Yale.
It seems to be a fairly common observation about Amber – which makes sense, as it seems like she’s drawn in a series of circles and ovals, whereas Dorothy’s bonier.
Truth is heresy, didn’t you know?
That’s the thing, nobody has ever remarked on Ambe being fat, and taking her AG escapades in accoconga, she should be pretty fit.
What I mean to say is that Amber is not likely fat as much as she is Curvy.
Or as the kids say today THHICCC
I don’t think she’s fat so much as has a round body shape – as in a round head, round face, etc. Sal called her ’round’ too.
Well, technically Ryan referred to her as “fat”. (During their fight at the political rally, he commented about how nobody wanted “to drug your fat ass”.)
Not that his opinion should mean anything.
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2016/comic/book-7/01-glower-vacuum/decisions/
Curvy still means fat, it just means fat in a way that doesn’t hide body accents, but instead adds to them. You’re perhaps thinking big-boned, which means the body structure itself is thicker and/or wider. Besides, nothing prevents someone from being both overweight and fit- in fact, plenty of regimes (notably, sumo diets) rely on that contrast for building up strength.
*regimens.
Fat people can be pretty agile. Walking through campus last month I saw a very overweight fellow doing cartwheels. He was packing at least an extra 80 lbs. Now is that gonna be a problem for him when he’s my age? Speaking from experience, yup. But not at Amber’s age and she isn’t nearly that overweight anyway.
She also may be literally “big boned” in the sense of high bone density and cross-section. Judging from the scrapes she’s been in without breaking anything.
Her having a broader bone structure was my impression as well, though her mother does give the appearance of tending toward “plushness”. I’d assume weight training combined with junk food eating for the rest, but on the other hand, we’ve *seen* she does a lot of cardio, so it may be that she just tends toward obesity and is keeping it in check with her regular activities. That interpretation lends itself to her being so fit under the “curves”.
On the other hand, given how vague Willis’ art style is on such details, all we really can determine as being “fat” is displayed in her chest, posterior, and upper legs, and the fact that her waist doesn’t seem to indent. All of that may just be a reflection of how her natural body shape trends.
Really, the only two things we can determine firmly are, there’s really no inherent reason she can’t have the shape she does and still be as fit as she seems to be, and she’s not overweight to the point of it being a clear issue.
In fact, Billie seems to have a body shape with more flesh/fat density (over bone-structure-derived breadth), and she’s pretty darn fit herself. Willis’ tendency to avoid larger phenotypes may just be leading us to overestimate his size distinctions on other characters- and certainly, Ryan isn’t exactly the best reference point for any factual interpretations on such matters, so it isn’t as if we’ve had any reliable data sources thus far.
Accoconga???
Everything Walky says in this strip makes it a good thing they are on the Garbage Roof.
Oh come on, no it’s not. It’s perfectly fine manners, fat =/= bad, and I’m really glad Walky uses it as a completely neutral descriptor, specifically picking out a non-charged word. Let’s not, please.
Merry Christmas, everyone!!!!
…what do you mean only Swedes celebrate the 24th? Eh, your loss. Time to check if the goat is OK.
Norway reporting in, Happy Yule.
God Jul, Norge! Hoppas jultorsken och lutfisken smakar!
God I hope it’s on fire.
I mean, I don’t because I’m sure people work hard on it, and I’m sure it’d be swell to be able to have nice things, but also if we’re still waiting on everything to come crashing and burning to the ground…at least the goat can get a head start?
Hasn’t burnt so far
I for one think that after this year, we deserve ONE symbol of constructive cooperation and building – even when threatened with destruction. The goat is as good as any.
Checking the webcam…. yup, still OK
http://www.visitgavle.se/en/gavle-goat
For a moment I honestly wondered if people were supposed to set the Yule goat on fire. I mean, there’s plenty of weird fire stuff around winter festivals, since as Terry Pratchett said, they started out as a fear the sun wouldn’t come up.
(Next month, some of my countrymen will be burning a longboat they spent three months building. Why? Because it’s traditional.)
With Christmas traditions anything goes, but no, it’s not supposed to be set on fire. That was just some random act of vandalism that caught on.
…thing is, the only reason anyone cares about the goat at all is the fire. Christmas goats is a pretty standard decoration all over Sweden, and cities building big versions is not uncommon either.
No one in Gävle WANTS it to burn…. but everyone is very aware of all the attention i gets the city. Curating that attention is a delicate balancing act.
Frohen Heiligabend from Germany!
Ich wünche ihre eine sehr gut Heiligabend!
Seasons greetings to you!!
Seasons Greetings to all, especially those who are not among friends these days (or just are not into any of the holidays and celebrations and still feel the drag of “everyone is with their nearest and dearest but me”).
Be kind to yourselves, y’all.
Merry Christmas to you, early-celebrater. May we never forget the gift of Calculus He gave us!
…
Wait, this ISN’T about Isaac Newton?
No, Christmas is the celebration of Hans Gruber falling off of Nakatomi Plaza.
Got to be a Temple of Doom joke in here somewhere after that strip title.
I was kind of like Amber in high school – somewhat under the impression that people care a lot more than they really do. It’s a realistic anxiety that I still have but also no one really cares as much anymore after high school and it’s just me having insomnia as a rather young adult b.c now i can’t not obsess over every slightly weird thing i’ve done instead of the whole shebang but younger.
Seperate note: who needs sleep when you can review the fact that you were a lonely person who wanted to be noticed but not really over and over and over and just obsess over how much of a somewhat self aware chunnibyou you have been up until this point in your short, short life, amiright?
Well, you found the right comment section to find fellow insomniacs, at least.
SLEEP IS FOR THE WEEK!
(And it’s the weekend.)
Plus, there are other time zones! It’s 8 AM! (And still dark.)
You’re not alone in this. It’s common enough to have a name: the spotlight effect. Most people feel that others are more aware of them than they really are, to some extent. I think introverts might get it worse because we tend to be very prone to over analyzing our every action.
I mean, in my middle school I was legitimately 100% not-anxiety-but-reality a bullying target for everyone in the school. Like, maybe not everyone-everyone, I’m sure lots of people didn’t find it a worthwhile activity, but every time I went through a corridor it was a 50/50 that I’d be called “Wig” by some random I don’t know, often kids younger than me too – and of course high schoolers, including one guy who lived in the same apartment building as me, and I still don’t want to say hi to him when I bump into him (thank god we moved). I was 100% absolutely a constant target for hostile attention. Even when for high school I changed to a different one, I still had to constantly mind that if I did weird things, people would notice and it’d be a Thing, instead of me just doing whatever I want as long as it didn’t concern others without anybody caring.
In the uni, too – we’re organized into groups the same size as school classes that we stick with for the entire 4 years, and while people are older and thus smarter, at least within the group everyone still knows each other, and the more social ones know everyone within the ‘stream’ (a collection of groups who all study the same thing just have different schedule for seminars and labs bc not everyone can fit at the same time) too. Lots of people knowing me without me knowing who they are (I have a really hard time remembering faces which leads to a cascading effect of me avoiding interaction out of embarrassment of not knowing people when I think I should, and so the problem compounds itself).
My ideal social environment is like, a resort, where I come for a week without knowing anyone, and there are lots of people around that I -could- chat with but wouldn’t be expected to know or remember, and could get the luxury of a fresh impression every time. Or even better – a train, where the timeframe for getting to know someone is even shorter – 1 day. You don’t even have to learn each other’s names!
Being an anxious autistic extrovert is fun :>
You know next time Walky sees Amber with her glasses he is going to go “You remind me of someone for some reason … but I can’t quite put my finger on it … “
I’m confused. The tag says there’s supposed to be someone named “Amber” in this comic, but I don’t see any Amber here. There’ only Walky and that girl… it’s on the tip of my tongue… Annie O’Mallet?
Panel 2 makes this strip for me. You can almost hear what Walky is thinking: “Oh god! Think man, think! You can’t be that oblivious, can you?!?“
The answer? Yes. Yes he can.
Just when he thought he couldn’t be more garbage
(hopefully the gravatar updated)
Panels 2, 3, and 4 are a delight just for the closeups. The dialogue is allllmost superfluous.
(well this is awkward)
Turns out when you update your gravatar it updates previous comments in retrograde??? WHAT IS THIS SORCERY.
The URL for the gravatar is the same, no matter what you have set – it’s a pointer to your current grav, whatever that be.
Yep, seen this many times while reading the history. It’s a bit silly reading people referring to avatars that are completely different now. Like chains of Ruth fans crowing about their Ruth avatars… who don’t have Ruth avatars anymore.
Or people commenting on Plasma’s current avatar.
Yeah, those are VERY weird.
“Shorter, rounder Dorothy with dye job” is Other Rachel’s nickname.
amber and doront ate the samw heiht
Angus McPhee?
Cues up The Who’s Substitute on the hi-fi.
At least this O’malley sees in colours
For reference
Huh, I thought you were making a Scott Pilgrim reference.
Your secret is safe with my indifference.
Walky: Hey, newspaper lady! I know who Amazi-Girl is!
Alice: REALLY? Is she hot? I mean, what’s her name?
Walky: Um…
Alice: … You DO know her name, right?
Walky: … Sure! It’s… Alice! Alice… Mc.. Monkey…Master?
Alice: …What.
Walky: No! Wait. Amb…lin… O’Mc.. Nuggets!
Alice: Kid…
Walky: Hang on, I know this… Am..ber… O’Malley!
Alice: You’re just making names up! Get out of my office!
Walky: Wait, I can remember th-
*Alice slams door in his face*
This is pretty much what we tell faculty and staff when they become weirded out that we can see their files on the network.
In my line of work, I often look at legally/medical confidential information.
99% of the time, it vanishes completely from my memory within 30 seconds of leaving my sight.
(I’ve got another hundred records to process before lunch, don’t talk to me.)
Walky you belong on garbage roof.
“I feel like I’ve heard that name before.”
Maaaaaybe because it was the name the cops said had stabbed your sister in the hand.
Has the title text been broken on mobile for a while now or is it just me? I can’t get the little buttons right below the comic to bring it up anymore.
Have a safe and happy Christmas, everyone – or whatever Solstice celebration you prefer. May you be safe and warm with people you love during the darkest and coldest days of the year. Remember, the light will return.
Why isn’t this strip tagged with “Agnes”?
Wait, no Short Round jokes?
“No time for love, Doctah Willis!”
Wait so she’s Amber O’Malley, Amazigirl, and Agnes McMarshmallow? She’s wracking up a lot of identities
She’s also Ultra-Car.
But what about Spider-Car? Who is that mysterious hero?
Miles Moranis.
‘s car
Agnes McMarshmallow!