Hey, hey, being aroused by violence isn’t definitely indicative of serial killer-ness. Lots of us sadists are not as disgusting as Faz and play in safe sane and consensual ways instead of being… fucking disgusting.
Just in terms of ehm…terms, wouldn’t it be that Faz refers to violence against himself (aka being tied up) arousing him specifically, so technically I’d consider him to be a masochist…?
There is an erotic visual novel style game called “Ladykiller in a Bind”. It was made by Christine Love, which, as Tim mentioned, Willis is a friend of.
Yep, this is about how he was. All the time. To Amber. Who, in fairness, he didn’t realize was his half-sister. (Yes, half-sister. Blaine got around in Shortpacked!)
Faz is bad, but let’s not put him in the same category as someone who kidnapped his own daughter at gunpoint so he could subject her to torture and brainwashing.
To be fair, Paul’s comment doesn’t necessarily mean “I think Toe Dad is a better person than Faz.” It could be “I really don’t like comics with Faz in them for a variety of reasons; here is how I will express how strong that is.”
Idk, I’m interested to see how this goes, but I personally would rather see strips with Mary in them, and I still think Mary sucks.
Amazingly, I find myself feeling that Mary doesn’t deserve to be afflicted with Faz. I had no idea I felt that way, as I have previously despised Mary, but…here we are. Maybe it is because at present Mary is more “human” than Faz to me. I mean, I look forward to Faz being fleshed out and such, but right now he’s behaving less like a person and more like a robot programmed to be creepy.
Howard wanted to watch Game of Thrones by any means necessary, but at least he’d participate in conversation. The creepiest he got was ogling Billie that time.
More like Mary, IMO. Doesn’t have the religious element, of course, but there’s the unearned smugness and the inflicting his sexuality on people who don’t want any part of it…
Yes, this is what I mean. As a fictional character in a story Faz is the least interesting character in the strip, he annoys me. If this were reality, I would hold a different opinion.
Oh it did, technically. It’s just how the comment system works. When in doubt, put your mouse pointer on the left corner of your username and then scroll up and down.
Toe Dad is “better” in that as he’s an armed adult kidnapping an adult from a college campus you would get no repurcussions from beating the sh!t outta him with any available club-type object. Faz is an unarmed minor engaging in borderline misdemeanor behavior, so levels of physical violence have to be restricted to preventing escape without breaking bones or causing concussions.
Only if you are embarrassed by the possibility that other people might notice that you have a boner in public. Which any marginally normal boner-possessing person would be, but this is Faz we’re talking about.
turns out to be a movie clip of Jason Statham running, talking on a cellphone, in a polka-dot hospital gown. dialogue not quite safe for work, but visuals are.
–Dave, Google Images was quite informative on him, yum!
Yeah, my son is “sexually assaulted” by a fellow kindergartner almost daily. She is always kissing him. Part of me wants to step in and say “Hey now, consent blah blah these actions are not welcome blah blah” but the other part of me realizes that these are just kids and so long as my son understands that this is not appropriate behavior then I did my job.
It’d probably be a good idea to step in. That’s an age when people are teaching kids about asking permission and would-you-like-it-if-someone-did-it-to-you on every other subject, so why not this one? That girl will learn the lesson, your son will understand WHY it’s wrong and that the rules apply consistently to everyone and know that you support him, and no one at all will call you a wet blanket or a party pooper for not letting kids be kids.
I mean, so long as you don’t get cops involved* or threaten to press charges, that shouldn’t be the result. A good talking-to with both kids should sort it out, if it’s done properly.
*Do not get the law involved when schoolchildren are misbehaving. It’s excessive, it needlessly escalates the situation, and it can seriously scar a kid.
I just woke up from faz-inspired nightmares (the second-worst kind of nightmare).
I say help your son set that boundary if *he* wants to. I have plenty of horrible memories of kids refusing to leave me alone (even in the bathroom!!) and me not having any idea what to do about it 🙁
Yeah, Faz comes across pretty creepy here, especially since he’s…Faz, but honestly he doesn’t seem unrealistic in it. He reminds me of just another inappropriate teenager who is sexually inexperienced but still wants to make everything about sex– while also still being a kid who runs through the hall to the annoyance of his step-sister. Ah, adolescence.
He didn’t, but I remember there being this one comic strip where Hazel and Jamie did use charts to explain sex to him, after he wouldn’t stop with his inappropriate comments, which indeed left him shocked.
And then, they continued to sex ed his mother, if I remember correctly.
I wish I could edit the second sentence of my above post to something along the lines of: he seems to have multiple paths to sexual gratification, and each of those paths is completely acceptable to him.
Panel 6: …he screamed, sprinting uninvited into multiple women’s living spaces. I think someone should sit that kid down for a long talk, before he winds up on a registry and/or watch list.
It’s a bit hard to tell but in the last panel it looks like Ruth is gingerly holding the hand that touched Faz, like it’s contaminated now. Which of course it is. A nice touch imo
Sadly… given Faz’ complete lack of distinction between inner and outer voice I’m pretty sure he means exactly what he’s saying. When you are as… Faz as Faz, truth is just as effective as any lie.
Faz doesn’t play mind games like that, because Faz doesn’t comprehend and/or care about people not wanting his sexual advances or announcements. He just says what he says out of either truth or puffery. He also doesn’t care enough about people’s preferences to intentionally manipulate them or trigger them.
I just want to add at this point that I’m impressed about how well Willis has shown he can write ‘teenage boy’ in the characters of Howie and Faz. Right down to the lewd ad-libs and total self-absorption. When you think about it, the only way to import Faz into the Dumbingverse was as a bratty teen!
It’s been a long time, but neither Howard nor Faz seem at all like normal teenage boys to me. From what I remember, while the self-absorption and obsession with sex were there, there was also a huge self-consciousness about it all, which both of them are missing.
That’s where we see the creepiness and the damage.
Most of the characters in this strip are teenagers. All the regulars have self-control. Despite what the fanbase thinks of Joe even he keeps things consensual
His definition of “consensual” isn’t (though, hopefully now that’s changed) exactly the best, though – he’s on record in this comic as saying that “alcohol really helps with facilitating threesomes”, for example.
He’s also admitted he’s never actually had a threesome, implying most of his “conquests”, including that line about alcohol were posturing – maintaining his image, not actual practice.
He always was better than he pretended to be.
Oh, Pat is actually completely spot on here. Old Joe genuinely gets upset that Danny said “no” to having sex. It is in fact completely out of his mind of reference that a guy can turn down sex simply because he doesn’t want to have sex.
Sure, Danny then reveals in the next strip he was lying about not wanting to take advantage of Billie… Because he knew, he -knew- that Joe would not accept the truth. Danny knew that Joe simply does not respect his agency of turning down sex*, so Danny’s only hope was to do the “didn’t want to take advantage” card, knowing that Joe at least has heard about how “no means no” and about not taking advantage of women.
And Joe’s counters are of course all about that… And incidentally, not a single question of his indicates he knows about “yes means yes”, AKA enthusiastic consent.
And when Danny does fess up and tells the truth on why he turned down the sex… Well, he’s proven right, isn’t he. Joe immediately leaves because he couldn’t give less of a fuck about Danny’s actual feelings on the subject. He leaves the room because Danny saying no to a girl upsets him.
But by all means, please tell me how that sequence of strips shows how Joe’s respecting Danny’s consent.
*I mean, the very fact that Joe says “So you’re telling me some chick wanted to casual bang you and you didn’t want to.” in tones of clear disbelief is a pretty big fucking clue.
Well, what someone intends to portray and what actually ends up being the finished product might not always be a perfect circle in a Venn diagram.
But fact is, it’s not just once that Joe’s been putting down Danny for his sexual choices. Danny wants to be in a relationship and have the sex being meaningful, and Joe… doesn’t, to say the least.
Now, admittedly, what Joe might have had as an initial motivation could indeed be that Danny has had some rather hopeless idea about what love and romance is; and Joe wanted to root out those ideas. I’m totally on board with that, because Old Danny’s ideas were… Not really taking into consideration the other person’s dreams for the future, for one thing. Far less predatory, but still pretty toxic in their ways.
But this initial motivation, this good intention gets lost because Joe is Joe-ing it up as much as Danny was Danny-ing it up. He basically tried to “teach” Danny over and over that Danny -must- be having casual sex if he wants Joe to talk to him with full respect. That whenever he meets a girl who wants to bang him, Danny should never say no. That when Danny’s being a tutor to a woman who rides a motorcycle and doesn’t wear much clothes, the (rather immediate) goal must be sex.
Sure, Joe may not have been saying all of these things outright. But it’s what he pretty much demonstrated with his own behaviour.
Of course, thankfully this is (hopefully) Old Joe. And also thankfully, Danny’s managed to get past some of his bad ideas about relationships, but without turning into Joe in the process.
Intentional fallacy notwithstanding, I’ve gotta side with the crowd on this one. It doesn’t matter what his motivations are, or whether those motivations are good or not – if he doesn’t want to, he doesn’t have to. End of.
Who doesn’t have to what now? I think this whole thread went off the rails a while back, and I’d be surprised if any two people have the same opinion on what’s being argued any more…
I don’t think that we’re going to be focussing on Faz at all. I think that we’re going to be focussing on others as Faz and then Amber run by. Probably (at least in my case) with the Scooby-Doo chase music playing in the background.
Normally I’d say this is the normal count of strips before Willis switches to someone else, but he might be going for a montage of a bunch of different character interactions with Faz running around in the background.
Ugh. Faz has never had a single positive male role model in his life, has he. Also the way he made Ruth react is gross. He’s like a smiley, creepy Mike. You keep punching and he just stays the same. It’s infuriating in exactly that way, you know?
I remember liking him a little more once he got a little growth after Blaine died in SP! (ain’t tagging the spoiler because people deserve to know that the monster dies). At least he wasn’t creepy enough to hit on Amber once he knew the truth, and he forgave her for keeping it from him. Heck, even once he found Wen it was nice, because no matter how much of a little weirdo Faz is, everyone should get to feel love.
I note that given panel 3, even with “Talking Is a Free Action”, Amber shoulda been able to grab Faz in panel 4 or 5 easily and do the carry-him-off thing again. She may have thought “Oh, Ruth will handle this easily” and stopped?
–Dave, the Benny Hill chase music is feeling more and more appropriate
ps: also, considering panel 2 carefully, I’m pretty sure Faz is stopped and talking so easily BECAUSE of where Ruth’s hand smacked him. cue chorus of “ew” from anyone still reading the comments
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hey, that makes it win-win!
(well, after first putting on a hazmat suit)
What, no one else is going to say it?
Better make it a fazmat suit
Shoot I was waiting to make that fazmat joke for a week. Glad someone did so “snooze I lose” and all that.
You… can go to heck.
And thus Faz became Too Kinky to Torture.
I think Ruth might still.
Gosh I hope Faz is exaggerating. That’s future serial killer talk right there.
Also it casts a disturbing light on why he decided to roll up and annoy his stepsister who recently stabbed a guy.
Hey, hey, being aroused by violence isn’t definitely indicative of serial killer-ness. Lots of us sadists are not as disgusting as Faz and play in safe sane and consensual ways instead of being… fucking disgusting.
Just in terms of ehm…terms, wouldn’t it be that Faz refers to violence against himself (aka being tied up) arousing him specifically, so technically I’d consider him to be a masochist…?
They probably meant sadomasochists in general (either sadism or masochism).
Psh, that’s future bdsm talk right there. Alternatively, it’s a great way to avoid a beating. “No, no! Don’t punch me; you’ll give me an erection!”
Did you just make Stephen Fry reference?
I did! Ha ha, thanks for telling me his name – I learned his joke from a gifset or something without retaining it
Mike pulled that on Amazi-Girl, back in the Whiteboard Dingdong Bandit Caper.
“Would you faz me? I’d faz me … I’d faz me so hard.”
Would you Faz Faz? Faz would Faz Faz. Faz would Faz Faz so hard.
© Peyo
the title text puns are a+
Plus it’s nice that someone else acknowledges the greatest video game of all time.
Willow for NES?
Considering Willis is friends with Christine Love…I think it’s fair he gives her game a plug.
Faz is aroused by all forms of plug.
Oh good lord…
I happen to be playing it now and thus Understood That Reference and am delighted slash smug!
How about explaining it for those of us who don’t?
There is an erotic visual novel style game called “Ladykiller in a Bind”. It was made by Christine Love, which, as Tim mentioned, Willis is a friend of.
This is starting to look like a job for Mike.
Mike will take one look at Faz, shrug his shoulders, and say “Meh, I needed a day off today anyways.”
Dumbing of Age Episode VII: The Faz Awakens
Panel four, The Faz Awakens.
curses, beaten to the joke
And that’s why you’re merely a king, and no emperor.
Ye gods, A male Cheryl Tunt.
“YOU ARE NOT FAZ’S SUPERVISOR!”
That… was not a comparison I wanted stuck in my head. Eugh. What has been mentally seen cannot be mentally unseen
Was Faz always like this? Damn maybe I haven’t read Shortpacked! in a while, I remember him being awful but not this…. I don’t even know what this is
Faz has always had an over inflated sense of undsevered pride. This is the younger and more spry version that hasn’t met Mike yet.
I think they’re talking about his creepiness.
he was less “hella creepy high schooler” and more “legitimately evil stalker/sexual harasser/general felon”
Yep, this is about how he was. All the time. To Amber. Who, in fairness, he didn’t realize was his half-sister. (Yes, half-sister. Blaine got around in Shortpacked!)
As you can see by this chart, Faz’s ego, and sexual talk as a percentage of dialogue, have been consistent across universes.
WIlliis you’ve somehow made Faz creepier
The creepiness was inside of him all along.
+1 Internet
Faz is the worst. I would welcome Toe Dad back over him any day.
I wouldn’t.
Yeah, at least Faz only relies on weaponized ickiness so far.
Faz is bad, but let’s not put him in the same category as someone who kidnapped his own daughter at gunpoint so he could subject her to torture and brainwashing.
true
I don’t normally say this, but that’s dumb. Toe Dad brought a gun onto campus and kidnapped his daughter. Faz has been mildly creepy.
To be fair, Paul’s comment doesn’t necessarily mean “I think Toe Dad is a better person than Faz.” It could be “I really don’t like comics with Faz in them for a variety of reasons; here is how I will express how strong that is.”
Idk, I’m interested to see how this goes, but I personally would rather see strips with Mary in them, and I still think Mary sucks.
I want to see Mary meet Faz. It would be like the unstoppable force meets the immovable object.
Amazingly, I find myself feeling that Mary doesn’t deserve to be afflicted with Faz. I had no idea I felt that way, as I have previously despised Mary, but…here we are. Maybe it is because at present Mary is more “human” than Faz to me. I mean, I look forward to Faz being fleshed out and such, but right now he’s behaving less like a person and more like a robot programmed to be creepy.
Faz is depicted very similarly to Howard.
Howard wanted to watch Game of Thrones by any means necessary, but at least he’d participate in conversation. The creepiest he got was ogling Billie that time.
And Howard has displayed a genuine sense of caring for Ruth. Faz has displayed no such affection toward Amber.
More like Mary, IMO. Doesn’t have the religious element, of course, but there’s the unearned smugness and the inflicting his sexuality on people who don’t want any part of it…
And I argue that Faz doesn’t deserve to be afflicted with Mary.
Yes, this is what I mean. As a fictional character in a story Faz is the least interesting character in the strip, he annoys me. If this were reality, I would hold a different opinion.
My comment about Faz being My least favorite character in this fictional universe (in my opinion) should have appeared under @Yumi
Oh it did, technically. It’s just how the comment system works. When in doubt, put your mouse pointer on the left corner of your username and then scroll up and down.
Toe Dad is “better” in that as he’s an armed adult kidnapping an adult from a college campus you would get no repurcussions from beating the sh!t outta him with any available club-type object. Faz is an unarmed minor engaging in borderline misdemeanor behavior, so levels of physical violence have to be restricted to preventing escape without breaking bones or causing concussions.
Well I mean if you arouse him, his boner will certainly hinder his sprinting capability…
Not to dwell on that thought, but would it really?
Have you ever tried to run with a boner? It is not easy.
The trick is to take your hand off of it, zip your pants, and then start running.
IN. THAT. ORDER.
I don’t know. The reverse order sounds interesting.
Now I wonder what that story is
Only if you are embarrassed by the possibility that other people might notice that you have a boner in public. Which any marginally normal boner-possessing person would be, but this is Faz we’re talking about.
I dunno; Jason Stratham seems to be managing just fine, ha ha
https://youtu.be/gDFR4iC9bOc?t=1m10s
Yeah, you know, I think I’m going to pass on that link.
turns out to be a movie clip of Jason Statham running, talking on a cellphone, in a polka-dot hospital gown. dialogue not quite safe for work, but visuals are.
–Dave, Google Images was quite informative on him, yum!
Faz turns being creepy into a *superpower*, wow.
In all fairness “I might just have to tie you up again to help me make a positive identification” is a fairly sexual sounding line.
I’m into it.
Yeah, that would merit a “How YOU doin’?”
Or at least a “Hello nurse!”
….you had better not be, with that icon
Avatar is very appropriate for that comment.
Ohhhh human contact, nice /me flashes back to highschool… Oh God was in Faz?
I randomly kissed a girl in kindergarten. Making me one of the few people to technically commit sexual assault before turning seven.
That’s a heavy technicality.
Yeah, my son is “sexually assaulted” by a fellow kindergartner almost daily. She is always kissing him. Part of me wants to step in and say “Hey now, consent blah blah these actions are not welcome blah blah” but the other part of me realizes that these are just kids and so long as my son understands that this is not appropriate behavior then I did my job.
If you don’t step in to stop it, how do you expect your son to truly understand that this is not appropriate behaviour?
It’d probably be a good idea to step in. That’s an age when people are teaching kids about asking permission and would-you-like-it-if-someone-did-it-to-you on every other subject, so why not this one? That girl will learn the lesson, your son will understand WHY it’s wrong and that the rules apply consistently to everyone and know that you support him, and no one at all will call you a wet blanket or a party pooper for not letting kids be kids.
No one. At all. *shiftyeyes*
And by all means, let’s put her on a sexual offenders list so that everyone learns a lesson.
《/fail attempt to exit sarcasm mode》
I mean, so long as you don’t get cops involved* or threaten to press charges, that shouldn’t be the result. A good talking-to with both kids should sort it out, if it’s done properly.
*Do not get the law involved when schoolchildren are misbehaving. It’s excessive, it needlessly escalates the situation, and it can seriously scar a kid.
I just woke up from faz-inspired nightmares (the second-worst kind of nightmare).
I say help your son set that boundary if *he* wants to. I have plenty of horrible memories of kids refusing to leave me alone (even in the bathroom!!) and me not having any idea what to do about it 🙁
Yeah, Faz comes across pretty creepy here, especially since he’s…Faz, but honestly he doesn’t seem unrealistic in it. He reminds me of just another inappropriate teenager who is sexually inexperienced but still wants to make everything about sex– while also still being a kid who runs through the hall to the annoyance of his step-sister. Ah, adolescence.
Is Faz like the boooobs kid in Girls with Slingshots?
The boooobs kid in GwS didn’t have charts.
He didn’t, but I remember there being this one comic strip where Hazel and Jamie did use charts to explain sex to him, after he wouldn’t stop with his inappropriate comments, which indeed left him shocked.
And then, they continued to sex ed his mother, if I remember correctly.
Yep,
Can I get an email for when Faz is gone? His presence is more annoying than ToeDad and Mary combined.
Or can someone snap his head back until he resembles a Pez dispenser?
I’m good either way.
And I think with that, I’m finally starting to warm up to Ruthless.
Appropriately enough, Rachel probably also would have a moment of sympathy with Ruth right now, given how she had to deal with Faz just a minute ago.
I swear everything arouses Faz.
A half-opened can of sardines would arouse him.
Well, maybe you should pick a less sexy example.
Good point. Except …
You know, I was right there with you until I tried to come up with an example Faz would find less sexy.
That does seem to be common in male adolescents (in fiction, anyway).
“I’m 17. Looking at linoleum makes me wanna have sex.”
– Xander, BtVS
Ruth almost stopped him, but then Faz creeped her out enough to escape.
It’s Faz’s special ability. Lets him escape all trapping moves. Sadly it also makes Attract if used by him instantly fail
WHERe is the hovertext?
It’s always been there since the strip went up? It says, “This lady killer will have you in a bind”.
Alt text hasn’t been working for me for a while, so thanks for posting it.
That is a brilliant alt text.
Well, his first appearance had him talking about guides teaching him how to “dominate a lady”. Now he’s sounding more sub.
He’s pretty much always had a switch vibe? More precisely, an anything-to-get-laid vibe.
I wish I could edit the second sentence of my above post to something along the lines of: he seems to have multiple paths to sexual gratification, and each of those paths is completely acceptable to him.
Faz has turned has issues to worked out, bottled into a road runner parody
to BE worked out
Faz is a dark entity that can’t be handled by conventional means
Well-played alt-text, well-played.
No, -you- are supposed to play it well.
Okay, show of hands: who went Beauty route and who went Stalker route first playthrough?
I went for the Beauty. I have…inclinations.
I have actually yet to play it, but you make me more interested in playing it now.
I had no idea what you were all talking about, and had to go do some research.
I haven’t finished it but Beauty first
She is rather… persuasive♥
I’m with Roborat, except I *still* have no idea what you guys are talking about.
Yeah… Faz won that one.
Panel 6: …he screamed, sprinting uninvited into multiple women’s living spaces. I think someone should sit that kid down for a long talk, before he winds up on a registry and/or watch list.
We still don’t even know why he’s there, we just know his only intentions are to creep on college girls.
I don’t think being sat down for a long talk will work on Faz.
Never mind what I said yesterday apparently Faz is Ruth’s new Kryptonite.
Ruth: “If you don’t calm the hell down, I’ll break your femurs!”
Faz: “May I call you ‘Mistress’?”
Ruth is slightly at a loss when her threats are encouraged.
It’s a bit hard to tell but in the last panel it looks like Ruth is gingerly holding the hand that touched Faz, like it’s contaminated now. Which of course it is. A nice touch imo
Oh i just noticed, good eye.
More like a slimy, contaminating touch.
She is probably starting to feel a mild burning sensation.
Faz is destined to be a super-villain. His power is ultra creepiness. The extremely overdeveloped confidence is just junior evil villain norm.
Faz’s last line explains a lot. Explains more than I wanted to know, really.
So, is Faz serious about being into the BDSM scene now or did he just say that to gross out Ruth? 😉
A little of column A, a little of column B maybe?
I think mostly B, but he probably wouldn’t complain too hard about A, at least at first.
It’s highly unlikely that Faz knows anything about a consensual BDSM-scene.
Sadly… given Faz’ complete lack of distinction between inner and outer voice I’m pretty sure he means exactly what he’s saying. When you are as… Faz as Faz, truth is just as effective as any lie.
CJ: But I’m sure he knows the porn version…
Faz doesn’t play mind games like that, because Faz doesn’t comprehend and/or care about people not wanting his sexual advances or announcements. He just says what he says out of either truth or puffery. He also doesn’t care enough about people’s preferences to intentionally manipulate them or trigger them.
Do it Ruth.
I’ll leave it up to you to decide what I’m referring to.
I just want to add at this point that I’m impressed about how well Willis has shown he can write ‘teenage boy’ in the characters of Howie and Faz. Right down to the lewd ad-libs and total self-absorption. When you think about it, the only way to import Faz into the Dumbingverse was as a bratty teen!
It’s been a long time, but neither Howard nor Faz seem at all like normal teenage boys to me. From what I remember, while the self-absorption and obsession with sex were there, there was also a huge self-consciousness about it all, which both of them are missing.
That’s where we see the creepiness and the damage.
Howard does, to me. Reminds me of several guys I’ve met, both when I was a teenager myself, and after.
Most of the characters in this strip are teenagers. All the regulars have self-control. Despite what the fanbase thinks of Joe even he keeps things consensual
His definition of “consensual” isn’t (though, hopefully now that’s changed) exactly the best, though – he’s on record in this comic as saying that “alcohol really helps with facilitating threesomes”, for example.
He still does have self-control.
He’s also admitted he’s never actually had a threesome, implying most of his “conquests”, including that line about alcohol were posturing – maintaining his image, not actual practice.
He always was better than he pretended to be.
Also he only cares about women’s consent.
Remember how enraged he became when he learned Danny didn’t consent to Billie (and neither did she, actually, but he dismissed that)?
sometimes i feel like i can pinpoint when someone only read a certain strip removed from its neighboring strips on some other website
Oh, Pat is actually completely spot on here. Old Joe genuinely gets upset that Danny said “no” to having sex. It is in fact completely out of his mind of reference that a guy can turn down sex simply because he doesn’t want to have sex.
Sure, Danny then reveals in the next strip he was lying about not wanting to take advantage of Billie… Because he knew, he -knew- that Joe would not accept the truth. Danny knew that Joe simply does not respect his agency of turning down sex*, so Danny’s only hope was to do the “didn’t want to take advantage” card, knowing that Joe at least has heard about how “no means no” and about not taking advantage of women.
And Joe’s counters are of course all about that… And incidentally, not a single question of his indicates he knows about “yes means yes”, AKA enthusiastic consent.
And when Danny does fess up and tells the truth on why he turned down the sex… Well, he’s proven right, isn’t he. Joe immediately leaves because he couldn’t give less of a fuck about Danny’s actual feelings on the subject. He leaves the room because Danny saying no to a girl upsets him.
But by all means, please tell me how that sequence of strips shows how Joe’s respecting Danny’s consent.
*I mean, the very fact that Joe says “So you’re telling me some chick wanted to casual bang you and you didn’t want to.” in tones of clear disbelief is a pretty big fucking clue.
I mean, I had some different motivations in mind for the characters when I wrote it, but go on.
Well, what someone intends to portray and what actually ends up being the finished product might not always be a perfect circle in a Venn diagram.
But fact is, it’s not just once that Joe’s been putting down Danny for his sexual choices. Danny wants to be in a relationship and have the sex being meaningful, and Joe… doesn’t, to say the least.
Now, admittedly, what Joe might have had as an initial motivation could indeed be that Danny has had some rather hopeless idea about what love and romance is; and Joe wanted to root out those ideas. I’m totally on board with that, because Old Danny’s ideas were… Not really taking into consideration the other person’s dreams for the future, for one thing. Far less predatory, but still pretty toxic in their ways.
But this initial motivation, this good intention gets lost because Joe is Joe-ing it up as much as Danny was Danny-ing it up. He basically tried to “teach” Danny over and over that Danny -must- be having casual sex if he wants Joe to talk to him with full respect. That whenever he meets a girl who wants to bang him, Danny should never say no. That when Danny’s being a tutor to a woman who rides a motorcycle and doesn’t wear much clothes, the (rather immediate) goal must be sex.
Sure, Joe may not have been saying all of these things outright. But it’s what he pretty much demonstrated with his own behaviour.
Of course, thankfully this is (hopefully) Old Joe. And also thankfully, Danny’s managed to get past some of his bad ideas about relationships, but without turning into Joe in the process.
How many more paragraphs do you think you’ll need before I finally realize my memories of what I wrote and why are wrong?
I don’t know, how many do you want?
Intentional fallacy notwithstanding, I’ve gotta side with the crowd on this one. It doesn’t matter what his motivations are, or whether those motivations are good or not – if he doesn’t want to, he doesn’t have to. End of.
Who doesn’t have to what now? I think this whole thread went off the rails a while back, and I’d be surprised if any two people have the same opinion on what’s being argued any more…
he managed to squick Ruth out of immediately clobbering him. that’s almost impressive if it weren’t also so scummy
It’s…kind of weird, but…Faz is kind of fun now that he’s younger? Like everything that made him weird and creepy is just adorkable puberty now.
Faz makes puberty less fun.
….. and to be honest, puberty sucked to begin with.
Great, Faz is a masochist now. You can’t even threaten him with violence anymore…
I wonder… Has anyone thought to introduce him to Mike?
I’m reminded of that clip where a guy duct tapes a buttered slice of bread to a cat’s back and through that invents an infinite energy source.
Don’t know if Mike could mess with Faz, but if not, he could easily weaponize him.
You know what Ruth may want to clean that hand now that I think about it…with fire.
Or just cut it off, that’s also acceptable.
Yeah, I’m done with Faz now can we focus on someone else?
I don’t think that we’re going to be focussing on Faz at all. I think that we’re going to be focussing on others as Faz and then Amber run by. Probably (at least in my case) with the Scooby-Doo chase music playing in the background.
Normally I’d say this is the normal count of strips before Willis switches to someone else, but he might be going for a montage of a bunch of different character interactions with Faz running around in the background.
:/
No.
the idea of a montage of faz being chased by amber through the background of other characters interactions sounds much like a monty python theme 🙂
Ropes are nice…
CALLED IT.
That is all.
Oh no. That is upsetting.
He didn’t specify kinky violence directed at him, he just said ‘all forms of violence’ …
Willis, please don’t make Faz a serial killer or something like that. He is annoying, but jeez.
but if he commits murder and gets locked up in jail he won’t be a problem for people anymore
Yeah, but what about the murder-ee? They’d have a problem with it.
I like Ruths clothes. The colors really work together nicely.
Yes it is a very badass outfit, would play as her in a skating video game
Is… is faz the new mike??
No. A thousand times no. For all of Mike’s ways, he’s at the very least respectable, unlike the walking splooge that is…*shudders* Faz….
I require that Ruth repulsed image as an icon here.
Ugh. Faz has never had a single positive male role model in his life, has he. Also the way he made Ruth react is gross. He’s like a smiley, creepy Mike. You keep punching and he just stays the same. It’s infuriating in exactly that way, you know?
I remember liking him a little more once he got a little growth after Blaine died in SP! (ain’t tagging the spoiler because people deserve to know that the monster dies). At least he wasn’t creepy enough to hit on Amber once he knew the truth, and he forgave her for keeping it from him. Heck, even once he found Wen it was nice, because no matter how much of a little weirdo Faz is, everyone should get to feel love.
Faz is fucking adorable I love him
I never laughed so hard in my entire life!
I note that given panel 3, even with “Talking Is a Free Action”, Amber shoulda been able to grab Faz in panel 4 or 5 easily and do the carry-him-off thing again. She may have thought “Oh, Ruth will handle this easily” and stopped?
–Dave, the Benny Hill chase music is feeling more and more appropriate
ps: also, considering panel 2 carefully, I’m pretty sure Faz is stopped and talking so easily BECAUSE of where Ruth’s hand smacked him. cue chorus of “ew” from anyone still reading the comments