Uh, Carla said it is, though. What exactly is your basis for saying it isn’t? I mean.. Carla said it is. So it must be. Wait, did Billie say something different? I mean, it’s not time for the Ruthless Ramble yet, so it should still be Carla Time.
Does. Does Mary just say that shit to every person she passes? She isn’t even looking at Lucy. That’s a hell of a thing to say to someone you’ve never even met before
Remember, according to her toxic theology, anyone who doesn’t believe exactly the same way that she does is going to Hell. So from her own vile perspective, the odds are overwhelming that she’s right in saying it to everyone she meets.
I’d be more worried about the integrity and airworthiness (due to lack of maintenance) of a flying car in the hands of John Q. Public. Consider some of the vehicles one already sees on the road; now imagine a flying car in the same condition. At least when your Chevy or Toyota craps out on you now, you’re already on terra firma and only have to pull off to the side of the road.
I doubt racism is involved. Mary no doubt thinks 99.99999 percent of humanity is destined for Hell. Late at night, when she’s most lonely and vulnerable, she probably thinks that this includes her.
Yeah, Mary probably has some giant thing she thinks is a problem that she keeps hidden. She keeps hoping God will make it go away if she’s devout and judgemental enough.
But we’re talking about a character in this case. She may in fact be just nasty, but she may also have reason for her nastiness related to whatever storyline Willis has planned for her. And saying that she has a specific reason for her nastiness doesn’t mean it’s legitimate.
It doesn’t have to merit sympathy, but most people do have reasons for acting the way they do. I wouldn’t be surprised if this was the case. She should still be less of a garbage person, though.
Ed: Evil is having reason, always, many and many. If hunter beats mate, has reason, always. Mate is lazy, burning food, is stupid, is speaking on and on. Is always being a reason.
Digger: But Ed, those aren’t good reasons!
Ed: No, but evil is still being — is having reason — being reasonable! Mousie understands? Is always being reason. Is punishing world for not being…like in head. Is always reason. World should be different, is reason. Is only good is not having reason. Little one hugs, not reason. Digger-mousie is giving name to nameless, say ‘Ed’, no reason. Skin-painter paints skin of child, no reason. Just is.
As much as I adore Ed, I don’t really agree there. He’s calling them reasons, but those are more excuses. Though “Is punishing world for not being … like in head” is probably closer to the real reason far more often.
And good has reasons too, just not excuses so often, so they may not be articulated.
I know it’s just semantics but an excuse is a kind of reason. Any attempt to explain why someone did something is a reason even if it also tacks on an attempt to absolve them of guilt for doing that thing.
Except the excuse is generally not the actual reason.
To take the abusive partner example Ed is referring to in that quote, the hunter isn’t actually beating her mate because she’s lazy (or burns the food or speaks on and on, etc). We know this, because in an abusive relationship, changing the behavior doesn’t actually stop the abuse.
That just means it’s not THE reason in that case. It’s still A reason it’s just not the one that actually explains that behaviour. A reason is just an explanation for a thing it doesn’t actually have to be correct for a given circumstance to be a reason it just has to be a possible explanation.
Exactly. Regardless if Lucy is damned to hell or not, Mary is just a jerk to everyone. Regardless if Skin-painted was a poor housekeeper or not, he was still in an abusive relationship. Evil has reasons because people don’t like to think of themselves as evil so they create reasons to justify their behavior. Doing good shouldn’t need further justification.
Wait. So reasons are the same as excuses? Just justifications.
You don’t do things, even good things, for actual reasons?
Is there a word you would use, instead of reason for the actual reasons people do things? Good or bad?
I was going to drop this, because I’m mostly sure it’s just semantics, but it’s just really weird to me.
(As a side note – people do sometimes invent justifications for doing good things. Generally it’s a self-denigration kind of thing. See Carla only checking on Ruth for the cookies. Or fixing Joyce’s shower to “own her”.)
Excuse and reason aren’t interchangeable. A reason is an explanation for why something happened/why someone did something. It’s not even necessarily correct. An excuse is an attempt to absolve someone of responsibility for something they did (or didn’t do as the case may be). An excuse almost always incorporates a reason but a reason is not on its own an excuse. One can provide an explanation of an action without trying to mitigate blame (for example when the action doesn’t warrant blame in the first place).
I, of course, believe good actions are done for reasons because I’m pretty sure literally everything everyone does is done for a reason even if that reason is completely incomprehensible to anyone but the person doing the thing and sometimes even to them.
While I think using “the reason” is perfectly adequate for expressing the true reason a person did something as opposed to a simply possible one “motivation/motive” is another option.
Now now, she thinks everyone she meets is “probably going to hell”.
She’s still super probably racist, this is just not altogether different than she treats anyone else, she’s just being a bit more explicit about it here.
She absolutely is not. She may think pretty much everyone else is going to hell, but you’ll notice she holds extra venom in reserve for certain kinds of people.
You know, for things like misgendering or blackmail.
What evidence do we have that Mary is racist? Given the culture she comes out of and the fact that she’s pretty gleeful about exercising other sorts of intolerance and bigotry it’s not a bad guess, but have we ever seen it directly? I’m trying to remember if race figured into her disliking Robin, but all I can remember is her prejudice to Robin’s Catholicism and being unmarried when already in her late twenties or thirties.
From what I’ve seen, people who work at being really bad people are seldom only one kind of bad. So the likelihood of Mary being a racist is actually pretty high.
Billie being half-Asian never came up in their conflicts.
Like you, I don’t recall any mention of Roz or Robin’s race, though it’s worth pointing out that prejudice against Catholics was long directly tied to ethnic prejudices. Not so much anymore as the European Catholic ethnicities have merged into mainstream American whiteness.
It’s just as well. There is the possibility Lucy might think Mary was a good person at first. Joyce thought so too once, but now Lucy is spared time that would be wasted upon realizing how ghastly Mary really is.
Carla plays at being a jerk, probably as a self-defense mode after all the prejudiced behavior she’s had to put up with, but underneath, she’s a good person and wouldn’t do anything to hurt you.
Except, to be fair, knock you down in the hallway because she’s not being careful enough and then insult you for getting in her way. (while very likely checking to be sure you weren’t actually hurt. Not that she cares. Of course.)
I can’t hate Carla for it because extolling her own awesomeness and calling everyone else inferior is how she tells the world she’s proud to be herself. Which is pretty admirable in its own way. Am I giving her a freebie because she’s marginalized? Absolutely. Does that make me feel bad? Nope!
Nah, being a minority doesn’t justify being a bully. Belittling others to make yourself feel better about yourself is actually even worse coming from minority groups because they should damn well know better than to subject people to the same kind of mistreatment they’re trying to overcome as a coping mechanism. Carla could have actually hurt Lucy and her response is to fucking berate and belittle her? She can fuck off.
This does seem worse than Carla’s normal skating behavior. We’ve never seen her actually knock anyone over before or any real signs that anyone had to take extreme precautions to avoid it. Maybe the “parkour!” strip?
Knowing Carla though, she is both berating and belittling Lucy and checking to make sure she’s okay. Not that she cares.
Because you’re morality is based on your personal feelings about a person rather than on the morality of their actions which is a terrible way to apply morals.
I guess the idea is a culture develops. Ruth set a tone early, and the rest germinated on its own through shared experiences, like the reign of the Whiteboard Ding-Dong Bandit.
Under a better RA they would have supported each other, not be hostile with new people, and accept differences. Sseing your RA blackmail the ex cheerleader because of a misunderstanding, and her being manipulated by a Christian bigot makes an aura of dread that spreads like a Japanese curse from a movie.
The US Strategic Command just tweeted they’re “ready to drop something much, much bigger” than the Times Square ball – with a link to Bunker Buster footage.
Ugh. You know how, when you see a massive lifted pickup truck, you say, “Big car, small p*nis”? It’s like that, only more so. And… character flows downhill.
Also, like, we barely interact with the rest of the floor. If she met Sierra or Dotty or Joyce or Other Rachel it would be a better experience. She’s met almost exclusively some of the more…colorful characters on the floor. Rachel did say sorry though.
It probs is a combo of Ruth setting the tone/lvl of acceptability and peoples already established personalities slightly shifting to the group dynamic. Happens w/ most groups, especially (kinda) forced/random groups like College dorms or clubs. My freshman floor was the first that year to need an ambulance or meet the RD and that set the tone, haha!
I figured they chose where they stayed, it’s that way at my University, so Hall’s do develop their own personality. One hall is for creative people and also gay, the all male hall is arrogant and competitive (read: assholes), the all female hall is half feminist half…not that
Etc
So far I have received the impression that Billie’s old dorm is full of people that are unsociable at first but when you make friends with them it is a strong bond, where as in Lucy’s dorm they are amicable, but Shallow.
No one said you had to, but when you share a living space with someone sometimes things just happen, like with Sarah. She was very resistant to Joyce trying to make friends but she also defended her from a potential rapist with a baseball bat.
I don’t think of it as a rule, that there are only those two ways a person can be, nor do I think it’s the message the comic is trying to deliver. I mean joyce isn’t shallow ans she stuck by her friend in harsh times while being peppy all the way, it’s just the impression I have received of the dorm’s over all culture
Yeah, I don’t read them as shallow. They’re less interesting, but I think they’re genuine. And I ran into plenty of groups like that in college. (I was in the art majors’ dorm, which was hippie-ish and a bit dysfunctional. My room-mate didn’t quite fit and made friends with the gender studies majors, who were all super nice but never held my interest.)
They are objectively shallow. Their fixation on Billie is solely based on her having been a cheerleader and even something as superficial as her wearing glasses is enough to change their view of her.
So Billie’s old dorm is full of entitled jerks, and her new dorm is full of insecure nerds that follow a queen bee. Sometimes I wonder what kind of youth Willis had to write cynical stories that can only achieve bittersweet endings where many people died for achieving the best result.
Willis has, so I hear, been fairly explicit about “what kind of youth” he had, but the two extremes you describe are not untypical among groups of not-as-mentally-socially-or-emotionally-developed-as-they-might-think-they-are young people on their own and developing their own norms for the first time.
Hunh. Now, what’s Lucy doing over on this floor all of a sudden? I mean, my guess is that it’s something to do with figuring out why everyone on your floor is fawning over Billie, but I’m really not sure!
Let’s see, am I more angry with Carla (presented in a cute way or not, the hallway is still not for rollerblading for just this reason!) or with Mary (Just… just… just fuck you, Mary.)
Based on what we know of the both of them, Mary. Yet, were I in Lucy’s shoes, I’d be WAY more mad at Carla because she actually assaulted me and then has the gall to yell at me as if it’s my fault when SHE’S the one doing an unsafe activity inside a building.
I’ve known WAY too many jerks in real life who have little to no consideration for the welfare and safety of others yet act like the world is against them when called out on it.
Yeah, Lucy has good call to be angry with Carla over this. This is obviously dangerous and it’s not on other people to adjust for the danger. And, for her, Mary is just a momentary insult.
But, for me… Mary is being harmful in a way that’s subtler and more damaging spread out in ways both subtle and overt, but with a mentality that will blind her to any damage.
I’m more angry at Carla because Carla took Mary’s “”be a rude, demeaning asshole” and prefaced it with “almost injured her doing something she absolutely shouldn’t be doing then acted like it was her fault.”
I really hope Lucy isn’t just coming to Billie’s old dorm just to get dirt on her to crush Billie’s “power” over her current dorm mates. I get Lucy is probably frustrated that all her dorm friends are following Billie like drones but it’s not a good look to try to make someone else look bad to get control back. Let’s not kid ourselves, Lucy is sweet but she also had a lot of pull with her dorm mates up until Billie showed up.
I hope so too. Lucy actually seems like a very nice girl but she comes off to me as the kind of nice girl who needs that to be validated in some way. Not in a selfish-way, just that she needs to be thanked in a way so she knows she did good. Billie has been kind of unintentionally stepping on Lucy’s “game” lately (exhibit A: http://www.dumbingofage.com/2017/comic/book-8/02-this-is-the-way-that-we-love/zaph/ ).
That’s a hell of a greeting, Mary. Ain’t you supposed to be a shepherd to the flock to spread the good word? No one wants to join a religion of assholes.
Right. It’s one thing to notify about the path, but reveal a solution to escape from said path.
It’s another thing to be a bongo about it and condemn everyone to hell. Meanwhile, God be like, “Um, excuse me. You don’t get to judge. That’s my job.”
It’s no different from any other position of authority or perceived superiority. Some people want it for the help they can give, some people want it for the judging.
When Lucy meets Joyce, the resulting supernova of sunshine and optimism will engulf and incinerate the universe, leaving nothing but a kilo of ashes behind.
I’d love to see Lucy actually annoy Joyce. Joyce has changed so much but she’s surrounded by so many strong personalities and less peppy people. Lucy is a great foil in that regard.
Oh its coming. Once a character is disliked enough, they will be shown as human and fallible and everyone who disliked them will feel bad. Love that about doa
The more I see of Carla the less I like her because every new appearance seems to be focused around her being really uncool. Being trans doesn’t mean you get to treat everyone around you like crap but then she’s a rich white girl so the massive entitlement probably comes naturally.
yah ime “this person is trans” translates to “this person is less likely to be a dick about my weird gender shit” not “this person is less likely to be a dick just, in general”
that said wrt “being trans doesn’t mean you get to […]” i don’t think it’s Being Trans that carla thinks gives her a pass on that shit, i think it’s just Being Carla
In Carla’s case though, I think it’s been made pretty clear that she doesn’t think she gets a pass on anything, but rather that she’d rather be hated for being a jerk than because she’s trans.
“We sometimes forget you’re an asshole.” It’s a pose and she’s not actually very good at being an asshole, which is why we see her doing things like checking in on Ruth again and again, while proclaiming she doesn’t care. Or cleaning Amber’s head wound, without asking questions.
You don’t have to be incapable of doing good things to be an asshole. Not being indifferent to someone they know drinking themselves to death is far too low a bar to set for considering someone not an asshole. Doing the right thing in a crisis situation doesn’t change that she’s a jerkass who regularly treats others with little to no respect whether or not they’ve actually done anything to deserve that treatment.
i never liked that Rachel kid, butting into other people’s drama and not giving a shit about how they feel(ok, not exactly, but i still don’t like her)
Carla in Dumbing of Age is a base breaking character because unless she’s against Mary, she reminds a lot of people of loud dormmates they really really were frustrated with.
Carla isn’t just loud she is actively dangerous to everyone else on her floor as evidenced by this strip. No amount of trans solidarity would have stopped me from reporting her for this bullshit.
Mind you, I think it’s part of her character she thinks she’s the lovable jerk in a comedy television show. It’s just that she’s in a dramedy where everyone is suffering severe issues that her attitude kind of poorly bounces off.
You have to be a white dude to pull off that archetype because it’s a shitty archetype created by white dudes to excuse their bad behaviour in real life.
It’s also worth remembering that she was a jerk in the Walkyverse as well.
Dumbing of Age is what happens if you drop wacky hijinks characters into a more realistic settings – suddenly their quirks become somewhat less charming.
So Carla’s all “Building rules don’t apply to meeeee!” and Lucy ends up on the floor. Trans or not, you’re going to fit right in with other rich people, Carla.
Mary, well… she ought to read Jesus’ words on religious hypocrisy.
On another note, I literally woke up this morning and thought; “I know Willis isn’t gonna have all his characters waving at the fourth wall, saying ‘Happy New Year!'” And so it was.
“Dons” feels like an awkward term for cool people, but the only other alliterative term I could think of was “doms”, which while appropriate in some areas sent the wrong message.
And tomorrow, she will run into Ruth and Billie being nice to each other and her head will explode. Or Billie’s.
Happy new year everyone. May things go well for you.
I really want Lucy to meet Joyce. I can’t lie and say that I don’t see them as a potential crack ship because cute?? And don’t worry Lucy, Dorothy is nice to everyone!!
Sarah I imagine is just going to yell when she meets her and go hide in the box chairs to study.
I want Lucy to meet Joyce and I’m hoping that this will also result in her meeting Sal because I reaaaalllllllly want Sal to make friends with someone Marcie doesn’t like so we can see Marcie trying to decide between ‘I told her to make more friends’ vs ‘this person is the FUCKING WORST why’. 😛
Yeah, and that’s part of why I like her. With that look on her face, I can’t help but hear it as a sort of ‘Ah, sorry, kid, heads up, I roller skate everywhere. It’s my thing.’
No, Carla is being an asshole. However, from what we’ve seen of Carla before and the look on her face now, I think there’s going to be more to this. It’s happened pretty often that when Carla says something crappy, she turns around and forces out some sort of apology. Even if I am right, that doesn’t make it an actual apology.
Maybe, but she’s not gonna stop skating around the halls endangering and annoying everyone else who is forced to live with her because she’s an entitled rich kid who apparently thinks the rules don’t apply to her. I’d rather deal with a Mary than a Carla, at least a Mary is just a transphobic pain in the ass and not an actual danger to my physical well being.
I honestly don’t care if Carla skates inside, but I agree that she was going way too fast here. If it’s too fast to stop quickly, it’s too fast for a hallway.
Seriously fuck off with that.
Carla might run into you and knock you down.
Mary actually tried to blackmail a suicidally depressed girl to death and very nearly succeeded. And she was trying to keep that up right until the end, even once the suicidal part was clear.
Fine, Carla’s an asshole, but Mary is not just a “pain in the ass”. She’s dangerous and she was nearly successful.
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2019 comes in like a Carla
Happy New Year, Lucy.
I can only hope so….
Violently and with no consideration for the safety or emotional well being of others?
Zigackly.
Poor Lucy.
Please say she knocks on Amber’s door next. I want her to meet the Security Dinosaur.
I hope her reply is something like Devil Dinosaur or Old Lace 😀
I’m in favor of Yoshi.
How about Godzilla?
Or alternatively mixing up dinosaur with dragon, and saying something like Gorbash? xD
I really hope she meets Dina! For real, I want Lucy to have a real friend.
It seems like Lucy only exists to make me dislike other characters for how they treat her.
It seems the whole arc is gonna be a bad day for her, haha
I doubt Lucy has had a good day since she started college because every day has included either Malaya or Billie.
In retrospect, it was a bad idea to decide that I would set the mood for 2019 based on today’s comic strip. But it could have been worse!
your 2019 will be Carla
2019’s gonna
knocksweep you off your feet?sweepCARLA you off your feet . . .“hello, i’m lucy, you killed my father, prepare to die”
“Hello, I’m Lucy, and I’m seeking revenge.”
“Hello, I’m Lucy; I’m here to chew bubblegum and kick ass. And I’m all out of bubblegum.”
And she ain’t got much in the way of ass. Carla could flip her down the hall like a marble.
Nah, I’m of the belief that Carla would respect her and take her under her wing by teaching her the ways of Ultracar
Pies in the face?
“Hello, my name’s Lucy! I’m here to chew bubblegum and kick ass.
And, well, I don’t have ANY kick-ass, so let’s chew bubblegum!!”
Hello, I am Lucy of Motunui. You will board my boat and restore the heart to Te Fiti.
man mary sucks
What kind of a-hole just opens up with that line?!
You didn’t go to a Christian college, did you?
No, it’s not, Carla. Fuck sake.
It is now.
Uh, Carla said it is, though. What exactly is your basis for saying it isn’t? I mean.. Carla said it is. So it must be. Wait, did Billie say something different? I mean, it’s not time for the Ruthless Ramble yet, so it should still be Carla Time.
Imma assume that on that floor, it is, haha! When in Rome.
Body check the Romans.
Wait is this a set up for Joyce meeting Lucy?
Discovering Billie’s secrets, I expect.
Or she’s seeking out Malaya. Both are similarly bizarre choices.
Am excite
For the twosome to be known as “Juicy”.
That sounds like too much. I can’t wait.
I hope so, I really wanna see what happens when those two meet each other.
Carla’s sound effect is infringing on my trademark!
Carla should have a car horn attached to her.
No, she most certainly should NOT.
I feel like if Carla were to carry anything to announce her presence, it’d be one of those annoying vuvuzelas…
I’m thinking power metal Star Wars themes, done with trumpets.
“Ride Of The Valkyries”?
Does. Does Mary just say that shit to every person she passes? She isn’t even looking at Lucy. That’s a hell of a thing to say to someone you’ve never even met before
Mary is a hater and a destroyer. She’d destroy your life at the first chance.
Remember, according to her toxic theology, anyone who doesn’t believe exactly the same way that she does is going to Hell. So from her own vile perspective, the odds are overwhelming that she’s right in saying it to everyone she meets.
Also, what BarerMender said.
Did I already quote that Mike Nesmith song?
Too bad “This is diet?” was only a slogan and not made into a jingle.
Can you do the sideways shimmy to it?
Can YOU?
With Carla reserving most of the hall, maybe.
I guess it’s time for Lucy’s preconceived ideas about how Billie is to be crushed.
On another note, Happy New Years for all y’all already living in the far flung future of 2019 already.
It’s 2:25AM over here and let me you that here in the future… people have really loud parties next door.
We get flying cars yet?
Our soggy masters are far too benevolent to allow us flying cars.
Think about some of the idiots that you’ve encountered behind the wheel. You really want those people to have access to flying cars?
I’d be more worried about the integrity and airworthiness (due to lack of maintenance) of a flying car in the hands of John Q. Public. Consider some of the vehicles one already sees on the road; now imagine a flying car in the same condition. At least when your Chevy or Toyota craps out on you now, you’re already on terra firma and only have to pull off to the side of the road.
Not to mention what happens if you forget to keep your tank/power cell topped up and you run out mid-air…
No worries on that score. Human-operated cars will be illegal long before they take to the air! Self-driving cars can’t come soon enough for me…
No, but we still have loud on-going parties even though it’s almost 7am, what the hell.
Considering the way Lucy reacted, I’m pretty sure Lucy’s preconceived ideas are about to be confirmed.
Lucy is the only one who *doesn’t* idolise Billie
Mary is a loser. She’s also possibly racist, since this is the first time she’s ever seen Lucy.
I doubt racism is involved. Mary no doubt thinks 99.99999 percent of humanity is destined for Hell. Late at night, when she’s most lonely and vulnerable, she probably thinks that this includes her.
Honestly, it feels like that’s why I can’t bring myself to hate her. She already seems to hate herself more than I possibly could.
What the fuck gave you that impression
Yeah, Mary probably has some giant thing she thinks is a problem that she keeps hidden. She keeps hoping God will make it go away if she’s devout and judgemental enough.
Yeah no. Just because somebody is a colossal asshole doesn’t necessarily mean they have to have some secret sympathetic reason for acting that way.
But Mike.
But we’re talking about a character in this case. She may in fact be just nasty, but she may also have reason for her nastiness related to whatever storyline Willis has planned for her. And saying that she has a specific reason for her nastiness doesn’t mean it’s legitimate.
It doesn’t have to merit sympathy, but most people do have reasons for acting the way they do. I wouldn’t be surprised if this was the case. She should still be less of a garbage person, though.
Ed: Evil is having reason, always, many and many. If hunter beats mate, has reason, always. Mate is lazy, burning food, is stupid, is speaking on and on. Is always being a reason.
Digger: But Ed, those aren’t good reasons!
Ed: No, but evil is still being — is having reason — being reasonable! Mousie understands? Is always being reason. Is punishing world for not being…like in head. Is always reason. World should be different, is reason. Is only good is not having reason. Little one hugs, not reason. Digger-mousie is giving name to nameless, say ‘Ed’, no reason. Skin-painter paints skin of child, no reason. Just is.
As much as I adore Ed, I don’t really agree there. He’s calling them reasons, but those are more excuses. Though “Is punishing world for not being … like in head” is probably closer to the real reason far more often.
And good has reasons too, just not excuses so often, so they may not be articulated.
I know it’s just semantics but an excuse is a kind of reason. Any attempt to explain why someone did something is a reason even if it also tacks on an attempt to absolve them of guilt for doing that thing.
Except the excuse is generally not the actual reason.
To take the abusive partner example Ed is referring to in that quote, the hunter isn’t actually beating her mate because she’s lazy (or burns the food or speaks on and on, etc). We know this, because in an abusive relationship, changing the behavior doesn’t actually stop the abuse.
That just means it’s not THE reason in that case. It’s still A reason it’s just not the one that actually explains that behaviour. A reason is just an explanation for a thing it doesn’t actually have to be correct for a given circumstance to be a reason it just has to be a possible explanation.
Exactly. Regardless if Lucy is damned to hell or not, Mary is just a jerk to everyone. Regardless if Skin-painted was a poor housekeeper or not, he was still in an abusive relationship. Evil has reasons because people don’t like to think of themselves as evil so they create reasons to justify their behavior. Doing good shouldn’t need further justification.
Wait. So reasons are the same as excuses? Just justifications.
You don’t do things, even good things, for actual reasons?
Is there a word you would use, instead of reason for the actual reasons people do things? Good or bad?
I was going to drop this, because I’m mostly sure it’s just semantics, but it’s just really weird to me.
(As a side note – people do sometimes invent justifications for doing good things. Generally it’s a self-denigration kind of thing. See Carla only checking on Ruth for the cookies. Or fixing Joyce’s shower to “own her”.)
@thejeff
Excuse and reason aren’t interchangeable. A reason is an explanation for why something happened/why someone did something. It’s not even necessarily correct. An excuse is an attempt to absolve someone of responsibility for something they did (or didn’t do as the case may be). An excuse almost always incorporates a reason but a reason is not on its own an excuse. One can provide an explanation of an action without trying to mitigate blame (for example when the action doesn’t warrant blame in the first place).
I, of course, believe good actions are done for reasons because I’m pretty sure literally everything everyone does is done for a reason even if that reason is completely incomprehensible to anyone but the person doing the thing and sometimes even to them.
While I think using “the reason” is perfectly adequate for expressing the true reason a person did something as opposed to a simply possible one “motivation/motive” is another option.
Oh yeah this is all like just pure semantics.
Even if that were true, Mary can’t possibly hate herself as much as she deserves
She already has claimed along with her bigot boyfriend that she wishes other people to go to hell.
In fairness, I think “going to hell” is Mary’s first impression of most people, regardless of race.
Now now, she thinks everyone she meets is “probably going to hell”.
She’s still super probably racist, this is just not altogether different than she treats anyone else, she’s just being a bit more explicit about it here.
this one. Almost definitely racist, but also not acting out of the ordinary (yet).
Mary is an equal opportunity hater.
Unless your gay or trans…or Catholic.
She absolutely is not. She may think pretty much everyone else is going to hell, but you’ll notice she holds extra venom in reserve for certain kinds of people.
You know, for things like misgendering or blackmail.
What evidence do we have that Mary is racist? Given the culture she comes out of and the fact that she’s pretty gleeful about exercising other sorts of intolerance and bigotry it’s not a bad guess, but have we ever seen it directly? I’m trying to remember if race figured into her disliking Robin, but all I can remember is her prejudice to Robin’s Catholicism and being unmarried when already in her late twenties or thirties.
From what I’ve seen, people who work at being really bad people are seldom only one kind of bad. So the likelihood of Mary being a racist is actually pretty high.
Billie being half-Asian never came up in their conflicts.
Like you, I don’t recall any mention of Roz or Robin’s race, though it’s worth pointing out that prejudice against Catholics was long directly tied to ethnic prejudices. Not so much anymore as the European Catholic ethnicities have merged into mainstream American whiteness.
Mary seems to be a black hole of fundamentalist qualities Willis loathed in people he grew up around.
It’s just as well. There is the possibility Lucy might think Mary was a good person at first. Joyce thought so too once, but now Lucy is spared time that would be wasted upon realizing how ghastly Mary really is.
IIRC, Joyce realized pretty quickly that Mary was a b-word.
Why do I hate it when any other character is an asshole but love it when Carla is
She’s got moxie.
Carla’s standard behavior is being a jerk. If she really meant to be a worse jerk we would notice it and be scared of her.
We would hate her if she tried to escape from her lovable jerk box.
Carla plays at being a jerk, probably as a self-defense mode after all the prejudiced behavior she’s had to put up with, but underneath, she’s a good person and wouldn’t do anything to hurt you.
Except, to be fair, knock you down in the hallway because she’s not being careful enough and then insult you for getting in her way. (while very likely checking to be sure you weren’t actually hurt. Not that she cares. Of course.)
What DailyBrad said. She is at least a jerk with style. Witness her over-the-top “Cold, Swift, and Absolutely Ridiculous Revenge Against Mary” contraption.
Damn… messed up the link. Try this one,
Carla doesn’t rub me the right way, but I am a sucker for MALAYA’S brand of asshole.
So is Carla.
I still have no idea what that was about.
I can’t hate Carla for it because extolling her own awesomeness and calling everyone else inferior is how she tells the world she’s proud to be herself. Which is pretty admirable in its own way. Am I giving her a freebie because she’s marginalized? Absolutely. Does that make me feel bad? Nope!
Nah, being a minority doesn’t justify being a bully. Belittling others to make yourself feel better about yourself is actually even worse coming from minority groups because they should damn well know better than to subject people to the same kind of mistreatment they’re trying to overcome as a coping mechanism. Carla could have actually hurt Lucy and her response is to fucking berate and belittle her? She can fuck off.
This does seem worse than Carla’s normal skating behavior. We’ve never seen her actually knock anyone over before or any real signs that anyone had to take extreme precautions to avoid it. Maybe the “parkour!” strip?
Knowing Carla though, she is both berating and belittling Lucy and checking to make sure she’s okay. Not that she cares.
Because you’re morality is based on your personal feelings about a person rather than on the morality of their actions which is a terrible way to apply morals.
Fair, I guess
I can dislike both Mary and Carla, while noting Mary is someone who is genuinely evil while Carla is someone I would just do my best to avoid.
How can entire dorms have such personality traits? I thought the student’s assigned there were largely random.
I guess the idea is a culture develops. Ruth set a tone early, and the rest germinated on its own through shared experiences, like the reign of the Whiteboard Ding-Dong Bandit.
Maybe. Or maybe random is what they want you to think.
Character flows downhill. Sad to think what this dorm could have been…
Under a better RA they would have supported each other, not be hostile with new people, and accept differences. Sseing your RA blackmail the ex cheerleader because of a misunderstanding, and her being manipulated by a Christian bigot makes an aura of dread that spreads like a Japanese curse from a movie.
OK, and 90 seconds later I saw this:
https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/31/politics/us-military-new-years-eve-bomb-tweet/index.html
The US Strategic Command just tweeted they’re “ready to drop something much, much bigger” than the Times Square ball – with a link to Bunker Buster footage.
Ugh. You know how, when you see a massive lifted pickup truck, you say, “Big car, small p*nis”? It’s like that, only more so. And… character flows downhill.
I have an awful lot of people uphill from me. Does that mean my character isn’t my fault? (Good to know)
Also, like, we barely interact with the rest of the floor. If she met Sierra or Dotty or Joyce or Other Rachel it would be a better experience. She’s met almost exclusively some of the more…colorful characters on the floor. Rachel did say sorry though.
It probs is a combo of Ruth setting the tone/lvl of acceptability and peoples already established personalities slightly shifting to the group dynamic. Happens w/ most groups, especially (kinda) forced/random groups like College dorms or clubs. My freshman floor was the first that year to need an ambulance or meet the RD and that set the tone, haha!
According to an earlier strip, Billie’s old dorm is stereotypically known for being full of music major antisocial headcases.
I figured they chose where they stayed, it’s that way at my University, so Hall’s do develop their own personality. One hall is for creative people and also gay, the all male hall is arrogant and competitive (read: assholes), the all female hall is half feminist half…not that
Etc
So far I have received the impression that Billie’s old dorm is full of people that are unsociable at first but when you make friends with them it is a strong bond, where as in Lucy’s dorm they are amicable, but Shallow.
Who has time to make friends with someone unsociable? I’m not gonna do that
No one said you had to, but when you share a living space with someone sometimes things just happen, like with Sarah. She was very resistant to Joyce trying to make friends but she also defended her from a potential rapist with a baseball bat.
I hope that’s not the message here. I’m really not a fan of the “if you aren’t abrasive for no reason it’s because you’re Fake” trope.
I don’t think of it as a rule, that there are only those two ways a person can be, nor do I think it’s the message the comic is trying to deliver. I mean joyce isn’t shallow ans she stuck by her friend in harsh times while being peppy all the way, it’s just the impression I have received of the dorm’s over all culture
Yeah, I don’t read them as shallow. They’re less interesting, but I think they’re genuine. And I ran into plenty of groups like that in college. (I was in the art majors’ dorm, which was hippie-ish and a bit dysfunctional. My room-mate didn’t quite fit and made friends with the gender studies majors, who were all super nice but never held my interest.)
They are objectively shallow. Their fixation on Billie is solely based on her having been a cheerleader and even something as superficial as her wearing glasses is enough to change their view of her.
If Carla’s so good at skating she should be better at maneuvering around obstacles
She is better, she just doesn’t feel like it.
Also, those are the opposite reflexes you need for roller derby. (as far as I know).
So that’s what it takes to get Lucy’s glasses off.
Don’t kink shame Lucy’s glasses!
Hee hee. I’m not, actually I share Willis’ “author appeal” for women in glasses.
So Billie’s old dorm is full of entitled jerks, and her new dorm is full of insecure nerds that follow a queen bee. Sometimes I wonder what kind of youth Willis had to write cynical stories that can only achieve bittersweet endings where many people died for achieving the best result.
Willis has, so I hear, been fairly explicit about “what kind of youth” he had, but the two extremes you describe are not untypical among groups of not-as-mentally-socially-or-emotionally-developed-as-they-might-think-they-are young people on their own and developing their own norms for the first time.
I mean that’s pretty par for the course in groups of teenagers
TBF if I had to choose tho I’d rather have the jerks. It’s easier to tell them to fuck off and they’ll actually leave you alone.
I read CARLA’D in Strongbad voice a la Teen Girl Squad.
Me too!
Likewise.
Why did you send me back there??? (So right.)
…even for Mary, that was a bit much. At least follow it up with the usual “…unless you learn this ONE NEAT TRICK….”
I can only assume she just had the worst morning around these heathens, and that thought warms the pitted shriveled cockles of my heart.~
Mary’s never really been one to try to convert the sinners. I can’t really think of any examples.
To Carla’d lang syne, my dear!
To Carla’d lang syne!
Hunh. Now, what’s Lucy doing over on this floor all of a sudden? I mean, my guess is that it’s something to do with figuring out why everyone on your floor is fawning over Billie, but I’m really not sure!
I’m sure that Lucy’s motives are purely benevolent.
Maybe she’s doing a welfare check on Billie, who did leave in her underwear. Or maybe she wants to apologize for being such a jerk.
Yeah, maybe she wants Billie to apologize for being such a jerk.
It’s obvious! She misses Fuckface!
Theory accepted.
Leave and never come back Lucy your too pure for this place
Let’s see, am I more angry with Carla (presented in a cute way or not, the hallway is still not for rollerblading for just this reason!) or with Mary (Just… just… just fuck you, Mary.)
I think Mary.
Good call.
Based on what we know of the both of them, Mary. Yet, were I in Lucy’s shoes, I’d be WAY more mad at Carla because she actually assaulted me and then has the gall to yell at me as if it’s my fault when SHE’S the one doing an unsafe activity inside a building.
I’ve known WAY too many jerks in real life who have little to no consideration for the welfare and safety of others yet act like the world is against them when called out on it.
Yeah, Lucy has good call to be angry with Carla over this. This is obviously dangerous and it’s not on other people to adjust for the danger. And, for her, Mary is just a momentary insult.
But, for me… Mary is being harmful in a way that’s subtler and more damaging spread out in ways both subtle and overt, but with a mentality that will blind her to any damage.
I’m more angry at Carla because Carla took Mary’s “”be a rude, demeaning asshole” and prefaced it with “almost injured her doing something she absolutely shouldn’t be doing then acted like it was her fault.”
You know there’s an old saying Mary should know. “If you don’t have anything nice to say then shut the fuck up.”
I quit this comic in December 2017.
What am I doing back here?
Oh wait, the shennanigans. Nevermind.
Also, I need to get a gravitar, because I am not being fucking Mary.
You’re…not?
Was until I signed up for a gravitar.
Naw, dude, you were Meredith. Different character.
http://www.dumbingofage.com/tag/meredith/
I really hope Lucy isn’t just coming to Billie’s old dorm just to get dirt on her to crush Billie’s “power” over her current dorm mates. I get Lucy is probably frustrated that all her dorm friends are following Billie like drones but it’s not a good look to try to make someone else look bad to get control back. Let’s not kid ourselves, Lucy is sweet but she also had a lot of pull with her dorm mates up until Billie showed up.
My best guess is that she just came here to reluctantly beg Billie to come to Movie Night.
I hope so too. Lucy actually seems like a very nice girl but she comes off to me as the kind of nice girl who needs that to be validated in some way. Not in a selfish-way, just that she needs to be thanked in a way so she knows she did good. Billie has been kind of unintentionally stepping on Lucy’s “game” lately (exhibit A: http://www.dumbingofage.com/2017/comic/book-8/02-this-is-the-way-that-we-love/zaph/ ).
That’s a hell of a greeting, Mary. Ain’t you supposed to be a shepherd to the flock to spread the good word? No one wants to join a religion of assholes.
You’ve got it backwards, that’s a greeting to hell. Easy mistake!
Mary is doing Christianity wrong. Mind you, a lot of Christians get it wrong.
Wait, you mean there are some that get it right?
They should speak up, the assholes should not be screaming so loud.
Right. It’s one thing to notify about the path, but reveal a solution to escape from said path.
It’s another thing to be a bongo about it and condemn everyone to hell. Meanwhile, God be like, “Um, excuse me. You don’t get to judge. That’s my job.”
That one word turned into bongo.
Okay. Not even mad.
Because of puppies gendered nature and the fact that it was way over used that one time it got filtered.
It’s no different from any other position of authority or perceived superiority. Some people want it for the help they can give, some people want it for the judging.
Wow! Mary is in a bad mood today! She didn’t even try to make Lucy think that she is a pure and pious paragon before denouncing her!
Yea right now I think she just skipped the parts between Christmas and Easter Including Christmass and Easter.
I think by now she’s comfortable enough on the floor to drop all pretenses.
Well, she’s subject to blackmail by Billie to be nice to the people on the floor, so she’s taking it out on the stranger. As Christians do.
Not so much comfortable as they all know what she is, so why bother pretending to be nice.
Carla’d! into 2019!
I like this 😀
O, Shimmy Ya…
Content Warning for Muppets:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2BUO1gjVLI
Time Was, thiz comment section was so cool There would be **no way** id get to post this first…
Slippin ma Nerdlettes , slipping .
Happy New Year!
That’s a bit unfair. We also need to see Dorothy clipboarding and Joyce with a giant smile to get the full Clark experience.
Of course, she also hasn’t met Ruth yet…
When Lucy meets Joyce, the resulting supernova of sunshine and optimism will engulf and incinerate the universe, leaving nothing but a kilo of ashes behind.
And one of the last things that will remain of this word will be Sarah screaming “I friggin’ knew it!”
I’d love to see Lucy actually annoy Joyce. Joyce has changed so much but she’s surrounded by so many strong personalities and less peppy people. Lucy is a great foil in that regard.
I’m afraid that when Lucy finds Billie and Ruth, Billie will throw Ruth under the bus to maintain her standing back at her current dorm.
I hope nothing to terrible ever happens to Mary. If something horrible happened to her I couldn’t hate her so much without feeling guilty.
Oh its coming. Once a character is disliked enough, they will be shown as human and fallible and everyone who disliked them will feel bad. Love that about doa
The more I see of Carla the less I like her because every new appearance seems to be focused around her being really uncool. Being trans doesn’t mean you get to treat everyone around you like crap but then she’s a rich white girl so the massive entitlement probably comes naturally.
She’s a spoiled, rich, white kid who happens to be trans. I’m sure she’d be a jerk regardless.
yah ime “this person is trans” translates to “this person is less likely to be a dick about my weird gender shit” not “this person is less likely to be a dick just, in general”
that said wrt “being trans doesn’t mean you get to […]” i don’t think it’s Being Trans that carla thinks gives her a pass on that shit, i think it’s just Being Carla
I suppose “this person is trans” best translates to “this person is less likely to HAVE a dick.”
I prefer not to speculate, but I’d say Carla is actually more likely to have a dick than the average girl.
In Carla’s case though, I think it’s been made pretty clear that she doesn’t think she gets a pass on anything, but rather that she’d rather be hated for being a jerk than because she’s trans.
“We sometimes forget you’re an asshole.” It’s a pose and she’s not actually very good at being an asshole, which is why we see her doing things like checking in on Ruth again and again, while proclaiming she doesn’t care. Or cleaning Amber’s head wound, without asking questions.
You don’t have to be incapable of doing good things to be an asshole. Not being indifferent to someone they know drinking themselves to death is far too low a bar to set for considering someone not an asshole. Doing the right thing in a crisis situation doesn’t change that she’s a jerkass who regularly treats others with little to no respect whether or not they’ve actually done anything to deserve that treatment.
Well uh… at least Rachel wasn’t really an asshole
i never liked that Rachel kid, butting into other people’s drama and not giving a shit about how they feel(ok, not exactly, but i still don’t like her)
Carla in Dumbing of Age is a base breaking character because unless she’s against Mary, she reminds a lot of people of loud dormmates they really really were frustrated with.
Carla isn’t just loud she is actively dangerous to everyone else on her floor as evidenced by this strip. No amount of trans solidarity would have stopped me from reporting her for this bullshit.
Mind you, I think it’s part of her character she thinks she’s the lovable jerk in a comedy television show. It’s just that she’s in a dramedy where everyone is suffering severe issues that her attitude kind of poorly bounces off.
You have to be a white dude to pull off that archetype because it’s a shitty archetype created by white dudes to excuse their bad behaviour in real life.
It’s also worth remembering that she was a jerk in the Walkyverse as well.
Dumbing of Age is what happens if you drop wacky hijinks characters into a more realistic settings – suddenly their quirks become somewhat less charming.
Case in point: Mike and Walky.
I like Carla a lot better here than in SP! At least until near the end, when she’d mellowed a little bit.
Because we’ve seen more beneath the mask here. We’ve seen her help and care for others, despite all her protests.
So Carla’s all “Building rules don’t apply to meeeee!” and Lucy ends up on the floor. Trans or not, you’re going to fit right in with other rich people, Carla.
Mary, well… she ought to read Jesus’ words on religious hypocrisy.
On another note, I literally woke up this morning and thought; “I know Willis isn’t gonna have all his characters waving at the fourth wall, saying ‘Happy New Year!'” And so it was.
Mary follows Supply Side Jesus, who is a white man without a blue sash and rewards you with great wealth if you hate sinners.
So Lucy’s going to (unwittingly?) counteract Billie’s cheerleaderness by inviting the dorks and dons she used to hang out with?
If Sal and Amber show up, it’s an automatic win.
But more importantly, HAPPY NEW YEAR COMMENTS SECTION! Hope 2019 is marginally less of a garbage fire for you!
“Dons” feels like an awkward term for cool people, but the only other alliterative term I could think of was “doms”, which while appropriate in some areas sent the wrong message.
I continue to feel bad that everyone is mean to Lucy.
Oh, Carla, you asshole. Why do I love you so much?
And tomorrow, she will run into Ruth and Billie being nice to each other and her head will explode. Or Billie’s.
Happy new year everyone. May things go well for you.
I really want Lucy to meet Joyce. I can’t lie and say that I don’t see them as a potential crack ship because cute?? And don’t worry Lucy, Dorothy is nice to everyone!!
Sarah I imagine is just going to yell when she meets her and go hide in the box chairs to study.
I don’t ship them, but only because I have a pet theory that they’re twins separated at birth.
I want Lucy to meet Joyce and I’m hoping that this will also result in her meeting Sal because I reaaaalllllllly want Sal to make friends with someone Marcie doesn’t like so we can see Marcie trying to decide between ‘I told her to make more friends’ vs ‘this person is the FUCKING WORST why’. 😛
2019 begins with Lucy! Yay!
Funny way of saying ‘sorry’ ya got there, Carla.
Doesn’t she.
Yeah, and that’s part of why I like her. With that look on her face, I can’t help but hear it as a sort of ‘Ah, sorry, kid, heads up, I roller skate everywhere. It’s my thing.’
Am I in some kind of Twilight Zone where non-apologies that put responsibility for your fuck-ups onto others are endearing and not really gross?
No, Carla is being an asshole. However, from what we’ve seen of Carla before and the look on her face now, I think there’s going to be more to this. It’s happened pretty often that when Carla says something crappy, she turns around and forces out some sort of apology. Even if I am right, that doesn’t make it an actual apology.
Maybe, but she’s not gonna stop skating around the halls endangering and annoying everyone else who is forced to live with her because she’s an entitled rich kid who apparently thinks the rules don’t apply to her. I’d rather deal with a Mary than a Carla, at least a Mary is just a transphobic pain in the ass and not an actual danger to my physical well being.
I honestly don’t care if Carla skates inside, but I agree that she was going way too fast here. If it’s too fast to stop quickly, it’s too fast for a hallway.
Seriously fuck off with that.
Carla might run into you and knock you down.
Mary actually tried to blackmail a suicidally depressed girl to death and very nearly succeeded. And she was trying to keep that up right until the end, even once the suicidal part was clear.
Fine, Carla’s an asshole, but Mary is not just a “pain in the ass”. She’s dangerous and she was nearly successful.
Am I really going to have to be the one to point out that the out of focus Ultra Car door deco looks a bit like Rodimus Prime?
Reall?