Blond kid, tall, fought aliens in an alternate timeline, died and came back to life in that alternate timeline, had a relationship with one of the main characters in the alt, first showed up in Dumbing of Age on October 8th, 2010.
I think we saw a glimpse of him in the hospital and that flashback to him and Amazi-Girl before he slipped into the coma. But yeah, I’m definitely concerned too.
We haven’t seen any glimpse of Mike in the hospital. Blaine said he was, but he could be lying. Mike told Amazi-Girl not to call 911 because of possible mob threats, which leaves out getting paramedics in time (unless they completely coincidentally happened to pass by right then).
Yeah, he was flat on his back where he landed in that one.
It would have been a really bad idea for Amazi-Girl to try and move him on her own. Don’t try to move people with neck and/or spinal injuries without proper knowledge and equipment.
Maybe AG could have called him in using her normal (Amber-white-bubble) voice, as a possible suicide attempt? He needed proper medical care after that fall. If she normally wears her street clothes under the boiler suit, she could have taken the suit off and hid it.
Ah, the vision of balanced and reasonable people, who despite their flaws can take a step back and understand different people will not want the same things.
Well, I might have (and I did half way through), but the sobering point is that Ross has now talked to Becky.on the phone and says she’s on the way their. Becky has traded her safety for Joyce’s before.
Counter-point, Toedad was recently hospitalized with a neck brace he almost certainly took off too soon and has a noted glass jaw.
Also Blaine has mobsters at his disposal .
Nah, my bet is he’s dead (or at least beaten until that ball peen plays a song on his rib cage) by Sunday, he needs to realize he should start begging sooner rather than later.
I’m not sure what Blaine was expecting really, the plan as told to ToeDad couldn’t possibly work if they were really holding Amazigirl. And even if one of the hostages fooled him in an early release, they were still likely to go get Amazigirl anyway.
Yeah, but Blaine knows who said she was Amazigirl. He doesn’t believe it, but either way he wouldn’t have wanted Amber released. Amber is half of who he wants. He just didn’t realize that Amber is also the other half of who he wants. Now he thinks Amber got away and he is going to have to hunt her down after trapping Amazigirl. If he knew that Amber is Amazigirl, he would have betrayed Toedad sooner than he planned since he would have everything he wanted at that point.
I don’t think Blaine wanted Amber in the same sense Ross wants Becky. Blaine just wants to traumatize Amber to the point that she’ll drop out of college so he doesn’t need to pay for it anymore (that’s what he has to pay to the court instead of alimony). Blaine was probably also hoping that using Amber and her friends as bait for Amazi-Girl would also work to traumatize her too. Especially if he got his way and killed Amazi-Girl.
THAT MOMENT … when you realize that stupid dupe you’ve been manipulating did something stupider than you could have possibly imagined and just f**ked up all your plans…
The annoying thing is that Ross is right and releasing Amber is necessary to get AG. This is a beautiful wedge in the dads’ plans but it will likely come and bite us at some point because of the writer liking to torment his readers
No, but he knows who Ross was talking about and isn’t happy Amber escaped because he thinks he has to go to the trouble of going after her again after trapping Amazigirl
I think Blaine’s idea was for one of the people here to contact Amazi-Girl, lure her here ostensibly to get her to kidnap Becky, but to actually kidnap Amazi-Girl once she showed her face.
That sort of sounds like the plan. But, how exactly were any of the people that were kidnapped supposed to actually contact Amazi-Girl? they were kidnapped, which kind of limits their ability actually contact anyone, and I assume they were without phones (otherwise they would just call the cops).
The only ways i could see it working is if;
– They allow one person to go (and follow them), and/or allow one use of the phone
– They interrogate everyone to find contact info for Amazi-Girl (such as ‘call this number’ or ’email this address’) and do it themselves. But that only works if one of them HAS contact information. (True, Dorothy and Ethan do, but Blaine had no way to know for sure)
– They hold them and wait for Amazi-girl to find them once she notices they are gone. But then they would be relying on amazi-girl to figure out their location before the cops would
He knew some of them had connections to her and thought at least one would have a way to contact her. If he has to let one of them go to do so, he’ll threaten to hurt/kill the others if they don’t follow instructions. Which is the same threat that’s supposed to get AG to bring them Becky.
Using AG to get Becky was always the plan, Blaine just
A: Refuses to believe (except maybe on a hindbrain level) that Amber is Amazi-Girl, despite WITNESSING HER STAB SOMEONE IN THE HAND after he goaded her into it, put her in self-defense classes rather than therapy after that, and who, last time he intruded on her life, floored him with a single punch and then booked it. And if he’s been investigating her life he HAS to know about the Ryan thing, right? He can’t possibly have gotten the Ross stuff and not the ‘repeatedly stabbed a dude on campus who was threatening her’. I have to assume he’s disregarding this because he’s so caught up in his image of Amber the Potato he can cognitive dissonance away the fact she’s actually a threat to him, 100% because of him.
B: Wants, I think even more than he wants AG humiliated/dead, (assuming he does still actively and truly believe they’re separate entities, and not in the dissociative way,) Amber back under his control and not costing him money he could be spending on more body armor. Becky’s a means to an end for him, providing some scary muscle and a way to get AG arrested if ‘getting her and killing her himself’ doesn’t work out. Amber’s his goal. AG in his clutches is his goal.
(Side note, why did it not connect with me until now that the reason Blaine somehow got Amber off without charges for taking a knife from police custody and stabbing a disarmed person with it, and got off with SELF-DEFENSE CLASSES of all fucking things except therapy, is because he’s a mob stooge and some of those cops were on the take, too? Yeah, that is DEFINITELY how Mike knows they have people in the police force. He wouldn’t have known who or the Bloomington ones, but it could well inspire him to do some digging later.)
I think Amber’s psychological issues might be genetic and Blaine is slowly breaking and turning into a comic book villains to compete with comic book superhero Amazi-Girl…
Well, Toedad, you’re about to find out why you shouldn’t ally yourself with a mob stooge with delusions of grandeur. I’d say it was nice knowing you, but *laughs for a straight minute* No.
Pretty sure Blaine was using the “get her to bring Becky here” thing just to get AG there in the first place, which… of course he wouldn’t tell toedad but this lack of communication has blown up spectacularly and I love it.
A lack of communication born out of the fact that he does not trust Toedad, and Toedad would not go along with this shit if Blaine said outright he gives zero shits about Toedad OR Becky, and they do not matter to him whatsoever!
Blaine’s terrible plan is already blowing up in his face because he picked a mook who’s too bullheaded to manipulate as well as he wants and Blaine feels nothing but contempt for him and his goals! Wonderful.
I think he’s so hung up on his image of Amber as a traumatized, deeply anxious ‘Potato’ that he’s actively overlooking the overwhelming evidence that she is by now a deeply traumatized, deeply anxious, but also VERY VOLATILE young woman raised on superheroes and the threat of violence, responding with the shitty tools she’s been given.
That said, he may also be lying on that front to cover for the fact that he thinks Toedad can go fuck himself and all he wants is Amber defenseless and under his control. Maybe he’s figured it out by now.
Third option, he finally found out what happened to the LAST supervillain that crossed Amber’s path and realizes he is not stabproof.
This is why villanous partnerships never work well: each villain has their own agenda. Organized criminals are able to work because there’s a hierarchy of power and the main families have quasi unified goals and seek profit; corrupt politicians have parties focused on big goals and profit. With supervillain teams there’s no unified goal nor unified profit, but many selfish individuals making a compromise that can be destroyed at any moment.
These two are going to kill each other before Becky gets help.
I mean.. What was the guy thinking really in this whole situation?
Also. I still assume neckless-trash dad is gonna be murdered by him and that’ll ultimately solve Becky’s narritive issue. In a not great way. but still a solidified way. As well as provide a breaking point for Joyce’s and her dad’s narratives.
As well as provide Amazigirl with a true “no turning back” moment to contrast Amber’s “no turning back” moment with Mike.
I’m kind of pleased with Ross here, probably because I’m rather conservative leaning.
He’s a piece of shit, but he believes in something and he doesn’t dance around his actions to seem more appealing to someone who doesn’t share his view. If he HAS a deceptive bone in his body, it’s reserved for fooling himself.
It’s a very twisted kind of respect, but I’ll take it.
Believing in what he does is actively and directly why he’s effing with Becky’s life. Having conviction in beliefs that are objectively terrible is in no way worthy of respect.
That… seems like a odd thing to say.
Fucking with his daughter’s life is directly related to an integral part of his character. For him to stop that, he’d first have to question the things he believes in – such as him being the head of “his” household and basically owning his daughter. And for that, I think he’d have to be a different person altogether.
I kinda get the “not dancing around his actions” appeal in general, but I think there’s better examples for that than Ross MacIntyre.
Okay, I get what everyone is saying. I simplified rather much in terms of What he’d need to do to stop messing with Becky. Asking to “Just” do it really simplifies what it would mean for him to do, which humanizes him in a way he frankly doesn’t deserve(and it also kinda sells his problem short, for those who care to extend sympathies to him, which I wouldn’t at this stage).
Replying to the Better Example thing Bean is saying, though…generally, Even the Conservatives Who Think This Way do NOT go as far as he does, frequently because they are torn between the idea of individual freedom(a conservative staple in itself) and their brand of family.
Other things that conservatives do with this belief system that are either, Reasonable, or still bad but not This much, Include:
– Not forcing your beliefs on other people. I know, Amazing, right? Even with the weird brand of protestantism the US got going on, this can still be done. Especially since protestantism basically boils down to “the bible means whatever you want it to mean”. This is objectively the best option. Obviously it’ll hurt his feelings that he can’t be the macho family provider he sees himself as while his daughter is going through her self-discovery into Lesbian Land. But your feelings aren’t that important. I know this version must sound to a community this left leaning like a unicorn, but I see plenty of people at least try and Fail to be this guy.
– Accepting the “deviant” family member As Long As They Don’t See Them Do the “Deviant” Thing. The rationalization for that typically goes like this: ‘If I don’t see it, it’s Possible they are not doing it Right this Moment, so I can ignore it. If I see it, I have no excuse and have to speak out.’ It’s Dysfunctional and unstable, relationship-wise, but it allows them to live in the same Building and even be an actual Family for most parts of the day.
-Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. You know why this is bad, tens of thousands have told you that on the internet alone. Still not shooting people with a gun, or kidnapping them. Also, you can live and be a family together and stuff. Supposed to be important to these guys.
-Frustrated shouting matches. This happens especially when the conservative has no understanding of the other’s worldview so no attempt is made to cross the bridge. Will definitely devolve into something much worse later, but at least it’s not terrible Yet.
– When the “deviant” member is just…fucking done with this bullshit, and they leave on their own…Let Them? This one was practically handed to this idiot.
– Fuckin’… throw the “deviant” out of the family unit themselves. This can mean passing them off to a relative, through some sort of care service, to tossing them out on the street. Doing this makes you a Raging fucking asshole, and it’s comparable to manslaughter out of negligence if toss them out into the winter up north or something. Still better.
I’m probably missing a bunch. Fill out the gaps you see in the list as you see fit.
Point is the guy not only had options aside of this many of his peers took, but he had practically gone from ‘zero’ to “holy shit, is that a Gun?!’ from the moment Becky bolted from home.
There are a lot more problems with this guy than what he believes in.
And his Honesty is… whether that stems from his belief system or not, isn’t really related to the above. His honesty is at, genuinely admirable levels, completely removed from this bullshit. I can respect that and still call out the bullshit. Crossing bridges and whatnot. Because frothing at each other never solved anything and if I Can respect, I Will.
TL, DR: Even for his peer group, which is a low effin bar, Ross’ moral fiber is negligible, to the point of being comparable to the amount of neck he has. He hit every branch falling from the bullshit tree, sacrificing many morals his folk hold in the name of the family that, quite frankly, his flailing attempts have only served to further ruin.
And I say I like his honesty recognizing all of that. I hope that’s cool with everyone.
If your definition of his peer group means ‘his church’, then I can see why you’d say that.
Getting him out on Bail though because they see his “point” is different from agreeing with him, though. They are Responsible for what he is pretty predictably gone to do as soon as he was out, but they aren’t Complicit.
We don’t know how much they agreed with him going off to on a Becky hunt again. Did he actually talk to any of them since he’s been out? I mean, if any of them directly Helped him with this stupid, stupid plan, then fuck them. But getting a bad person out of prison? I hate punitive incarceration, “I” want to get bad people out of prison. So I say the jury is still out on how much they agree and how far they’d go to support him.
Anyone can say “I’d die for you”. Meaning it is another thing. Meaning it in the sense of ‘I’d die for you, even if you do not want me to, you do not agree with my cause, I force you to cooperate with me on it, and I endanger you by risking it’ is yet another thing.
They don’t think he’s a bad person. “At least he thought he was doing the right thing.”, “He was just worried about his daughter.” “considering how little Ross actually did.” “They could come after any one of us next, just for wanting to raise our kids right.”
Most of those are Joyce’s mother. After Ross threatened her with a gun.
Did they help plan this? No. But this was all after his first armed kidnapping. Nor apparently did any of them bother to ask him what he’d do if he got out, while they were trying to get him out.
There’s also “It’s between you and God and I’ve got plenty of moats and beams in my own eyes, so as long as you aren’t trying to force me to act against my own beliefs, we’re cool.” That requires you to consider your family as independent rather your possession, but yeah.
I don’t mean to make you feel bad, but Carol did say he was just doing what he thought was right, and you said “he believes in something” as if people who opposed him did not. Those are very similar sentiments.
That said, I’m gonna read your comments again just in case i missed something. Anyway if you have not been reading long, welcome!
I’ve been here for a while. I just talk rarely. People here scare me a li’l bit sometimes.
Like with that. That’s a scary connection to make. I’m not even sure where to begin unpacking it.
Okay, so context: I’m on board with what Carol’s saying panel 4. Like, in isolation, if what she says in the next panels aren’t following it. I’m not on board with her saying what she says in panel 4 At That Time. Talking to the victim of a crime right as they are coming down from the shock of being hurt to …extol the virtues of the criminal’s convictions? It’s nice to have that perspective and all, but geez liberal Jesus Christ, couldn’t you wait a couple effin days, lady?
And then panel 5 and 6 she goes off the deep end. Taking any philosophical stance to a logical conclusion like that is, In a Word, Extreme. In many words, it’d be best described with expletives I’m not comfortable sharing in quick succession of each other.
But let me do what Carol asked Joyce to do there. “Put yourself in his shoes”.
Sure. I’ll try not to vom and imagine I am Ross for a second. Same religion and all, and as much understanding what life must have been like for him up to that poin as I can manage.
-picking up a firearm during peacetime as the aggressor is questionable at the best of times. I’m not saying crazy new age shit here, even the NRA would back me on that one.
– This is purely for the sake of my family, from a Ross perspective. (From a sane perspective it’s purely selfish but I digress). So, not one of the aforementioned best of times. Because this religion doesn’t really acknowledge the idea of moral compromise per se, he cannot even argue that he’s making a sacrifice by doing what he sees as the lesser evil. Dishing out god’s judgement is not his job.
– There is a high likelihood that going gun-toting into a public place will get me killed. It did almost get Him killed.
– If I Die, I can’t be a family person at all, because then I’ll be Dead. In Ross’ religion, that mistake wouldn’t bar him from heaven or anything, but he’d fail to save his Daughter, which is supposed to be the fucking point — unless he on some level already considers that an acceptable loss if he gets to go up there.
As for panel 6 I strongly prefer that you Live for your family over dying for them when you have the option, flat, thanks
No. I am most decidedly not saying what Carol is saying. They are similar only in the most trite and superficial ways.
In fact, let me go back to panel 4 a little, I’m not done eviscerating it. Saying you forgive what he did, saying you understand, saying you see where he’s coming from – that’s all fine.
And we’ll forget the sheer tactlessness of doing it in the heat of the moment like that for a second.
Why the fuck would you need to tell that to Joyce in the first place? Does she not know who’s she Talking to? She isn’t saying that for Joyce’s benefit. She isn’t trying to help her come around to forgiving the guy. She’s saying it to Cover Her Own Bases. She wants it on the record that if she, Carol, ever did anything like that, in a certain situation, she believes it would be justified.
And Joyce notices that. Joyce gets Scared. Because Joyce was just taken for a fucking Ride, and one of her mom’s first priorities is to open herself up for doing the same thing if she ever wanted to.
Pfuj.
Since the middle of the first chapter. I only commented sporadically however.
Again, kinda nervous to. I’m not exactly the target demographic for this comic. It’s easy to say things that set off the community, because I do have a conservative mindset, and understandably, the US being what it is, people are liable to go ballistic due to how high the tensions there are.
There was this time when we talked about treating mental issues in the comment section, and I brought up how diagnoses are imperfect in psychology, aren’t meant to be final, and that there is an unhealthy culture among psychologists to favor more popularly assigned diagnoses over the less common ones so their peers don’t look at them funny.
Now a lot of these are systemic issues and left-wing talking points. I thought it was the least controversial thing I’m ever going to say in my life considering where I am.
All one person got out of that is I hate psychologists and think everyone who has a mental illness can only blame themselves.
Nuance is in short supply when you think the other side is out to get you. It doesn’t even always matter if you are on the same side supporting the same thing – if you so much as approach it from a different direction, warning bells go off and they aren’t listening anymore.
So I try to only open my mouth when I’m sure I can say it without pissing somebody off, lately.
Some part of me hopes it will be respectable, but this isn’t that kind of comic. He’ll probably be a huge, irredeemable idiot. But even in that case, it will be funny.
It was ridiculous for Blaine to expect Ross to keep Amber prisoner if he thought Amber was the one he wanted to help “save” his daughter its not like Ross really cares about Blaines mad up money problems. On the other hand Ross knew Blaine only really cared about Amber and Becky was just a bonus. The thing is what did Blaine tell Ross his plan was, and what was his plan?
Okay, wait a minute. What’s Blaine’s logic here? I thought the plan was to get AG to send her after Becky. So, how do you do that without releasing her?
Remember that, in Blaine’s mind, Amber cannot be Amazi-Girl. Because she can’t be.
If Ross released AG, she must be one of the other hostages. She’s obviously not Sarah, Walky, or Ethan, and he doesn’t know about Dina yet. Joyce and Dorothy are still there.
I bet Blaine’s going to fry some synapses trying to assemble the evidence around his preconceived notions.
While its true Becky was never anything but a way to pin his crimes completely on Ross, and a way to hurt Amazigirl.
Blaine has the weird entitled anger where you can’t help but wonder what the L were you thinking.
Its like of course Ross was never going to put the plan that you didn’t even say out loud because no sane person would agree to that above his own plan which is closer to the stated plan.
I love the subtlety in the body language and expressions here. Toedad standing there oblivious as Blaine slowly clenches his fist in rage, and is shocked when Blaine shows up behind him in angry in the last panel.
2.A: It did have information about Amazi-Girl, but all from after the dissociation happened, so it’s all written in the third person from Amber’s perspective. Therefore, since Amber is clearly writing about a different person, she can’t be A-G.
This story line might be the end of Amazing-Girl. She survived involvement in one kidnapping but the legal system will want a word with her after this. Amber won’t be able to avoid being questioned, as she’s too heavily involved.
Which makes me wonder what’ll happen to the AG alter if she’s no longer able to costume up. She presumably won’t just stop existing. Maybe her two minds will start to reintegrate? Would that even be desirable for either of them?
I also think this storyline will be the end of Amazi-Girl, but I believe it will be at the hands of Amber, not any authority figure. And I hope it will be in a good way, but I wouldn’t bet on that.
I see that Willis is choosing magnets for the next Kickstarter. I’d like to declare that it’s high time for Mary and Raidah to get magnets. After all, how am I supposed to play with my DoA action figures if I don’t have any proper antagonists?
I’m starting to realize just how much to what extent Blaine played a role in Amber’s self-loathing issues.
Also this is interesting, Blaine thinks Amber was just telling a cowardly lie to get set free and run away. But when amazi-girl does show up it’ll prove he was wrong whether he believes she Amazi-girl or not…. and as a bonus it seems that Blaine has the exact same low opinion of Amber as she does herself. So that also proves she’s not in tirely as bad as she think she is. I like it.
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Finally. I was wondering when we’d get another meanwhile. Sure would be nice if we got one that had SOMETHING TO DO WITH MIKE
Who?
Blond kid, tall, fought aliens in an alternate timeline, died and came back to life in that alternate timeline, had a relationship with one of the main characters in the alt, first showed up in Dumbing of Age on October 8th, 2010.
claps slowly
Not ringing any bells. Guess I’ll take your word for it.
(psst – that description doesn’t refer to Amber’s Walkyverse husband)
(#explainedthejoke)
Well, to actually explain the joke, you have to link to the October 8th strip. https://www.dumbingofage.com/2010/comic/book-1/01-move-in-day/card/
Oh, is that Mike?
Notice the family resemblance. You can tell Mike and Walky are brothers immediately.
Sounds like a jerk.
Amber’s hallucination. I don’t know what the fuss is though, we just saw him.
I think we saw a glimpse of him in the hospital and that flashback to him and Amazi-Girl before he slipped into the coma. But yeah, I’m definitely concerned too.
We haven’t seen any glimpse of Mike in the hospital. Blaine said he was, but he could be lying. Mike told Amazi-Girl not to call 911 because of possible mob threats, which leaves out getting paramedics in time (unless they completely coincidentally happened to pass by right then).
Yeah, he was flat on his back where he landed in that one.
It would have been a really bad idea for Amazi-Girl to try and move him on her own. Don’t try to move people with neck and/or spinal injuries without proper knowledge and equipment.
Maybe AG could have called him in using her normal (Amber-white-bubble) voice, as a possible suicide attempt? He needed proper medical care after that fall. If she normally wears her street clothes under the boiler suit, she could have taken the suit off and hid it.
“DID I STUTTER??”
wait no
“DID I EFFING STUTTER?”
Did you effing WHAT?
“You fail me yet again, Toe-Dad!”
Oh no, he’s gonna get the boot!
Socked, at the very least.
Tibia honest I love these puns.
I’ve been stocking up.
There’s tomfoolery afoot.
Yup, we’re hosed.
Is Ruth the hoser?
Nope, Ruth is a Hoosier.
ITYM ‘toe-foolery’.
I guess you toed us.
Garter get some more.
Say what again!
What.
What again.
I dare you. I DOUBLE DARE YOU, MOTHERFUCKER
THEY SPEAK ENGLISH IN WHAT!
“It has Becky.”
Oh boy, neither’s the sharpest tool in the shed, but what else can you do?
Now would be a good time for some Velociraptor activities.
Let’s hope that it turns out that velociraptors aren’t very good at tying themselves up.
The real threat of the Velociraptor isn’t the hand–it’s the foot.
hahaha
THIS IS GONNA BE GOOD!
“i said i released her” “oh sorry, didn’t hear you the first time” “it’s chill”
Ah, the vision of balanced and reasonable people, who despite their flaws can take a step back and understand different people will not want the same things.
Not in this comic
And thus, making this comic all the more realistic, I’m sorry to say.
For real, tho, did anyone else laugh ridiculously hard at this?
Well, I might have (and I did half way through), but the sobering point is that Ross has now talked to Becky.on the phone and says she’s on the way their. Becky has traded her safety for Joyce’s before.
there. Why wrongly autocorrect their?
Aghh!!!
There, there…
ITYM they’re, their
As a grammatical correction, yes.
As an expression of consolation, no.
I did. I loved the look on Ross’s face in the last panel
His “Lord have mercy!” look, yes. A professional stone-thrower whose glass house already has cracks in it if there ever was one.
Also, what was he supposed to do regarding Amazi-Girl?
also:
“Which word didn’t you understand?”
“Every word except Jesus”
I do say that I LOL’d in real life.
Like that Far Side cartoon: What dogs hear: blah blah Fluffy blah blah blah Fluffy blah blah…
Who wants to bet there’s a Blaine vs. Toedad? Unless They unfortunately make up in seconds and Blaine goes after Amazi-Girl himself.
Not much of a fight. Based on Blaine’s demeanor earlier, a strong wind could probably push him over right now.
Counter-point, Toedad was recently hospitalized with a neck brace he almost certainly took off too soon and has a noted glass jaw.
Also Blaine has mobsters at his disposal .
Uh oh. Blaine has achieved Flash Step.
Next thing you know he’ll unleash his bankai in no time.
His hammer’s true form!
But! It takes years of training to learn your hammer’s true name!
Unless you’re Kempachi Zaraki. Then you don’t need to know any true names.
Welp, Ross just realized he fucked up.
Has he? I agree he’s on the way there, but it may still take him a while.
I give it 2-3 more strips.
Nah, my bet is he’s dead (or at least beaten until that ball peen plays a song on his rib cage) by Sunday, he needs to realize he should start begging sooner rather than later.
Doubtful. Blaine MIGHT lose his temper, but he’s also suddenly got a need for as much dumb muscle as he can surround himself with.
Does he actually need Ross specifically at this point, because he has other muscle available now.
Take him a while to return to his Don Quixote reality, you mean.
Oh no! It looks like ToeDad has ruined BallPeen(tm)’s carefully laid plans. What an unforunate, totally unforseeable unfolding of events.
side remark: really love the alliteration in your comment!
Thank you 🙂 It was a spur of the moment thing, but I like how it turned out.
… Dary.
ISWYD
I’m not sure what Blaine was expecting really, the plan as told to ToeDad couldn’t possibly work if they were really holding Amazigirl. And even if one of the hostages fooled him in an early release, they were still likely to go get Amazigirl anyway.
Yeah, but Blaine knows who said she was Amazigirl. He doesn’t believe it, but either way he wouldn’t have wanted Amber released. Amber is half of who he wants. He just didn’t realize that Amber is also the other half of who he wants. Now he thinks Amber got away and he is going to have to hunt her down after trapping Amazigirl. If he knew that Amber is Amazigirl, he would have betrayed Toedad sooner than he planned since he would have everything he wanted at that point.
I think he’s too stubborn and proud of himself to ever admit Amber ‘is’ Amazi-Girl.
That would mean he’d have to admit he got his ass handed to him by the meek, cowardly, submissive Amber he perceives to be real.
I don’t think Blaine wanted Amber in the same sense Ross wants Becky. Blaine just wants to traumatize Amber to the point that she’ll drop out of college so he doesn’t need to pay for it anymore (that’s what he has to pay to the court instead of alimony). Blaine was probably also hoping that using Amber and her friends as bait for Amazi-Girl would also work to traumatize her too. Especially if he got his way and killed Amazi-Girl.
Blaine moving quick for a dude with some fucked up ribs, I hope he’ll feel that later.
Blaine moving quick for a dude with some fucked up ribs, I hope he’ll feel that later.
THAT MOMENT … when you realize that stupid dupe you’ve been manipulating did something stupider than you could have possibly imagined and just f**ked up all your plans…
Who could have guessed?
The annoying thing is that Ross is right and releasing Amber is necessary to get AG. This is a beautiful wedge in the dads’ plans but it will likely come and bite us at some point because of the writer liking to torment his readers
So he DOES think Amber is Amazi-Girl.
No, but he knows who Ross was talking about and isn’t happy Amber escaped because he thinks he has to go to the trouble of going after her again after trapping Amazigirl
dadfight! to the death!
That would be a short fight. Ross is really strong and Blaine is badly injured. So, yeah!
Sorry, what was the original plan, and why did Ross change it?
I think Blaine’s idea was for one of the people here to contact Amazi-Girl, lure her here ostensibly to get her to kidnap Becky, but to actually kidnap Amazi-Girl once she showed her face.
I think.
That sort of sounds like the plan. But, how exactly were any of the people that were kidnapped supposed to actually contact Amazi-Girl? they were kidnapped, which kind of limits their ability actually contact anyone, and I assume they were without phones (otherwise they would just call the cops).
The only ways i could see it working is if;
– They allow one person to go (and follow them), and/or allow one use of the phone
– They interrogate everyone to find contact info for Amazi-Girl (such as ‘call this number’ or ’email this address’) and do it themselves. But that only works if one of them HAS contact information. (True, Dorothy and Ethan do, but Blaine had no way to know for sure)
– They hold them and wait for Amazi-girl to find them once she notices they are gone. But then they would be relying on amazi-girl to figure out their location before the cops would
He knew some of them had connections to her and thought at least one would have a way to contact her. If he has to let one of them go to do so, he’ll threaten to hurt/kill the others if they don’t follow instructions. Which is the same threat that’s supposed to get AG to bring them Becky.
Using AG to get Becky was always the plan, Blaine just
A: Refuses to believe (except maybe on a hindbrain level) that Amber is Amazi-Girl, despite WITNESSING HER STAB SOMEONE IN THE HAND after he goaded her into it, put her in self-defense classes rather than therapy after that, and who, last time he intruded on her life, floored him with a single punch and then booked it. And if he’s been investigating her life he HAS to know about the Ryan thing, right? He can’t possibly have gotten the Ross stuff and not the ‘repeatedly stabbed a dude on campus who was threatening her’. I have to assume he’s disregarding this because he’s so caught up in his image of Amber the Potato he can cognitive dissonance away the fact she’s actually a threat to him, 100% because of him.
B: Wants, I think even more than he wants AG humiliated/dead, (assuming he does still actively and truly believe they’re separate entities, and not in the dissociative way,) Amber back under his control and not costing him money he could be spending on more body armor. Becky’s a means to an end for him, providing some scary muscle and a way to get AG arrested if ‘getting her and killing her himself’ doesn’t work out. Amber’s his goal. AG in his clutches is his goal.
(Side note, why did it not connect with me until now that the reason Blaine somehow got Amber off without charges for taking a knife from police custody and stabbing a disarmed person with it, and got off with SELF-DEFENSE CLASSES of all fucking things except therapy, is because he’s a mob stooge and some of those cops were on the take, too? Yeah, that is DEFINITELY how Mike knows they have people in the police force. He wouldn’t have known who or the Bloomington ones, but it could well inspire him to do some digging later.)
I think Amber’s psychological issues might be genetic and Blaine is slowly breaking and turning into a comic book villains to compete with comic book superhero Amazi-Girl…
This.
Well, Toedad, you’re about to find out why you shouldn’t ally yourself with a mob stooge with delusions of grandeur. I’d say it was nice knowing you, but *laughs for a straight minute* No.
Pretty sure Blaine was using the “get her to bring Becky here” thing just to get AG there in the first place, which… of course he wouldn’t tell toedad but this lack of communication has blown up spectacularly and I love it.
A lack of communication born out of the fact that he does not trust Toedad, and Toedad would not go along with this shit if Blaine said outright he gives zero shits about Toedad OR Becky, and they do not matter to him whatsoever!
Blaine’s terrible plan is already blowing up in his face because he picked a mook who’s too bullheaded to manipulate as well as he wants and Blaine feels nothing but contempt for him and his goals! Wonderful.
He picked a mook who’s too much like himself, in that Ross doesn’t care about any goals except his own.
Wait. Does this mean Blaine SERIOUSLY had no idea his DAUGHTER is Amazi-Girl?
Which means he backed off from that panel after Amber said she kicked her dad’s ass and didn’t put two and two together at that point?
I think he’s so hung up on his image of Amber as a traumatized, deeply anxious ‘Potato’ that he’s actively overlooking the overwhelming evidence that she is by now a deeply traumatized, deeply anxious, but also VERY VOLATILE young woman raised on superheroes and the threat of violence, responding with the shitty tools she’s been given.
That said, he may also be lying on that front to cover for the fact that he thinks Toedad can go fuck himself and all he wants is Amber defenseless and under his control. Maybe he’s figured it out by now.
Third option, he finally found out what happened to the LAST supervillain that crossed Amber’s path and realizes he is not stabproof.
Except she actually did kick his ass from his perspective. She punched him once as Amber. https://www.dumbingofage.com/2013/comic/book-3/04-just-hangin-out-with-my-family/strength/
The very next page, he dismissed it as “a lucky shot [which] changes nothing”, still calling her weak.
True, but from his perspective the hit is a thing that happened. He probably just dismissed her claim again as a lucky shot and ignored it.
I still maintain that what she said next,
“I’m not *enough* like my mother you fucking gorilla. No, I’m *saddled* with your stupid violent petty rage.”
is one of the best lines in this entire comic. And there are a lot of good lines.
In full and reluctant fairness to Blaine, Amber CLEARLY didn’t know about last night’s fight, and so clearly can’t be Amazi-Girl.
… I think that means we have to resume speculating about AG’s real identity.
I’m still waiting for Lucy to show up dressed as Amazi-Girl, but with the blue and yellow parts of the suit opposite colors.
https://www.shortpacked.com/comic/waste-of-carbon
zoop
I cackled at the last panel.
“You asked for a *couple* of kidnapped teenagers… and I only kidnapped one!”
Sorry I didn’t mean to reply to you, but at least it kind of works
Third panel is the funniest.
This is why villanous partnerships never work well: each villain has their own agenda. Organized criminals are able to work because there’s a hierarchy of power and the main families have quasi unified goals and seek profit; corrupt politicians have parties focused on big goals and profit. With supervillain teams there’s no unified goal nor unified profit, but many selfish individuals making a compromise that can be destroyed at any moment.
These two are going to kill each other before Becky gets help.
also, they are both really dumb.
TBF, most of the cast is.
Not to compared to those two.
Just give them time, they are still young, they can unlearn.
Unless they are all bound by a Dark Mark and forced to cooperate. Just ask Quirinus Quirrell (HPMOR version).
Or unless they have The One Ring, …yessssssssss.
I mean.. What was the guy thinking really in this whole situation?
Also. I still assume neckless-trash dad is gonna be murdered by him and that’ll ultimately solve Becky’s narritive issue. In a not great way. but still a solidified way. As well as provide a breaking point for Joyce’s and her dad’s narratives.
As well as provide Amazigirl with a true “no turning back” moment to contrast Amber’s “no turning back” moment with Mike.
I’m kind of pleased with Ross here, probably because I’m rather conservative leaning.
He’s a piece of shit, but he believes in something and he doesn’t dance around his actions to seem more appealing to someone who doesn’t share his view. If he HAS a deceptive bone in his body, it’s reserved for fooling himself.
It’s a very twisted kind of respect, but I’ll take it.
Just stop fucking with your daughter’s life, man. That’s all I’d need to start actually liking you.
Believing in what he does is actively and directly why he’s effing with Becky’s life. Having conviction in beliefs that are objectively terrible is in no way worthy of respect.
That… seems like a odd thing to say.
Fucking with his daughter’s life is directly related to an integral part of his character. For him to stop that, he’d first have to question the things he believes in – such as him being the head of “his” household and basically owning his daughter. And for that, I think he’d have to be a different person altogether.
I kinda get the “not dancing around his actions” appeal in general, but I think there’s better examples for that than Ross MacIntyre.
Ah, dammit, James was faster than me and also put the thing I wanted to say in more concise words 🙁
Okay, I get what everyone is saying. I simplified rather much in terms of What he’d need to do to stop messing with Becky. Asking to “Just” do it really simplifies what it would mean for him to do, which humanizes him in a way he frankly doesn’t deserve(and it also kinda sells his problem short, for those who care to extend sympathies to him, which I wouldn’t at this stage).
Replying to the Better Example thing Bean is saying, though…generally, Even the Conservatives Who Think This Way do NOT go as far as he does, frequently because they are torn between the idea of individual freedom(a conservative staple in itself) and their brand of family.
Other things that conservatives do with this belief system that are either, Reasonable, or still bad but not This much, Include:
– Not forcing your beliefs on other people. I know, Amazing, right? Even with the weird brand of protestantism the US got going on, this can still be done. Especially since protestantism basically boils down to “the bible means whatever you want it to mean”. This is objectively the best option. Obviously it’ll hurt his feelings that he can’t be the macho family provider he sees himself as while his daughter is going through her self-discovery into Lesbian Land. But your feelings aren’t that important. I know this version must sound to a community this left leaning like a unicorn, but I see plenty of people at least try and Fail to be this guy.
– Accepting the “deviant” family member As Long As They Don’t See Them Do the “Deviant” Thing. The rationalization for that typically goes like this: ‘If I don’t see it, it’s Possible they are not doing it Right this Moment, so I can ignore it. If I see it, I have no excuse and have to speak out.’ It’s Dysfunctional and unstable, relationship-wise, but it allows them to live in the same Building and even be an actual Family for most parts of the day.
-Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. You know why this is bad, tens of thousands have told you that on the internet alone. Still not shooting people with a gun, or kidnapping them. Also, you can live and be a family together and stuff. Supposed to be important to these guys.
-Frustrated shouting matches. This happens especially when the conservative has no understanding of the other’s worldview so no attempt is made to cross the bridge. Will definitely devolve into something much worse later, but at least it’s not terrible Yet.
– When the “deviant” member is just…fucking done with this bullshit, and they leave on their own…Let Them? This one was practically handed to this idiot.
– Fuckin’… throw the “deviant” out of the family unit themselves. This can mean passing them off to a relative, through some sort of care service, to tossing them out on the street. Doing this makes you a Raging fucking asshole, and it’s comparable to manslaughter out of negligence if toss them out into the winter up north or something. Still better.
I’m probably missing a bunch. Fill out the gaps you see in the list as you see fit.
Point is the guy not only had options aside of this many of his peers took, but he had practically gone from ‘zero’ to “holy shit, is that a Gun?!’ from the moment Becky bolted from home.
There are a lot more problems with this guy than what he believes in.
And his Honesty is… whether that stems from his belief system or not, isn’t really related to the above. His honesty is at, genuinely admirable levels, completely removed from this bullshit. I can respect that and still call out the bullshit. Crossing bridges and whatnot. Because frothing at each other never solved anything and if I Can respect, I Will.
TL, DR: Even for his peer group, which is a low effin bar, Ross’ moral fiber is negligible, to the point of being comparable to the amount of neck he has. He hit every branch falling from the bullshit tree, sacrificing many morals his folk hold in the name of the family that, quite frankly, his flailing attempts have only served to further ruin.
And I say I like his honesty recognizing all of that. I hope that’s cool with everyone.
I mean basically everything we’ve seen suggests that Ross is in fact a pretty standard example of his peer group, but okay.
Glad we are at peace.
If your definition of his peer group means ‘his church’, then I can see why you’d say that.
Getting him out on Bail though because they see his “point” is different from agreeing with him, though. They are Responsible for what he is pretty predictably gone to do as soon as he was out, but they aren’t Complicit.
We don’t know how much they agreed with him going off to on a Becky hunt again. Did he actually talk to any of them since he’s been out? I mean, if any of them directly Helped him with this stupid, stupid plan, then fuck them. But getting a bad person out of prison? I hate punitive incarceration, “I” want to get bad people out of prison. So I say the jury is still out on how much they agree and how far they’d go to support him.
Anyone can say “I’d die for you”. Meaning it is another thing. Meaning it in the sense of ‘I’d die for you, even if you do not want me to, you do not agree with my cause, I force you to cooperate with me on it, and I endanger you by risking it’ is yet another thing.
(Just a side note, I do realize they think he is a good person overall. Presenting more my view than theirs, here.)
(Also I realize he was still in just jail. Expect general terms for this post at large over dictionary accuracy, really.)
They don’t think he’s a bad person. “At least he thought he was doing the right thing.”, “He was just worried about his daughter.” “considering how little Ross actually did.” “They could come after any one of us next, just for wanting to raise our kids right.”
Most of those are Joyce’s mother. After Ross threatened her with a gun.
Did they help plan this? No. But this was all after his first armed kidnapping. Nor apparently did any of them bother to ask him what he’d do if he got out, while they were trying to get him out.
Different view points are all good
Listening to them is a mark of distinction.
There’s also “It’s between you and God and I’ve got plenty of moats and beams in my own eyes, so as long as you aren’t trying to force me to act against my own beliefs, we’re cool.” That requires you to consider your family as independent rather your possession, but yeah.
The things he believes in are bad.
Not a point of contention.
That’s… almost exactly what Carol said
Gosh, I hope not.
It really isn’t.
Thanks, that makes me feel better. Not sure I’d have been in the mental space for seriously examining that right now.
I don’t mean to make you feel bad, but Carol did say he was just doing what he thought was right, and you said “he believes in something” as if people who opposed him did not. Those are very similar sentiments.
That said, I’m gonna read your comments again just in case i missed something. Anyway if you have not been reading long, welcome!
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-6/01-to-those-whod-ground-me/sweetie/
I’ve been here for a while. I just talk rarely. People here scare me a li’l bit sometimes.
Like with that. That’s a scary connection to make. I’m not even sure where to begin unpacking it.
Okay, so context: I’m on board with what Carol’s saying panel 4. Like, in isolation, if what she says in the next panels aren’t following it. I’m not on board with her saying what she says in panel 4 At That Time. Talking to the victim of a crime right as they are coming down from the shock of being hurt to …extol the virtues of the criminal’s convictions? It’s nice to have that perspective and all, but geez liberal Jesus Christ, couldn’t you wait a couple effin days, lady?
And then panel 5 and 6 she goes off the deep end. Taking any philosophical stance to a logical conclusion like that is, In a Word, Extreme. In many words, it’d be best described with expletives I’m not comfortable sharing in quick succession of each other.
But let me do what Carol asked Joyce to do there. “Put yourself in his shoes”.
Sure. I’ll try not to vom and imagine I am Ross for a second. Same religion and all, and as much understanding what life must have been like for him up to that poin as I can manage.
-picking up a firearm during peacetime as the aggressor is questionable at the best of times. I’m not saying crazy new age shit here, even the NRA would back me on that one.
– This is purely for the sake of my family, from a Ross perspective. (From a sane perspective it’s purely selfish but I digress). So, not one of the aforementioned best of times. Because this religion doesn’t really acknowledge the idea of moral compromise per se, he cannot even argue that he’s making a sacrifice by doing what he sees as the lesser evil. Dishing out god’s judgement is not his job.
– There is a high likelihood that going gun-toting into a public place will get me killed. It did almost get Him killed.
– If I Die, I can’t be a family person at all, because then I’ll be Dead. In Ross’ religion, that mistake wouldn’t bar him from heaven or anything, but he’d fail to save his Daughter, which is supposed to be the fucking point — unless he on some level already considers that an acceptable loss if he gets to go up there.
As for panel 6 I strongly prefer that you Live for your family over dying for them when you have the option, flat, thanks
No. I am most decidedly not saying what Carol is saying. They are similar only in the most trite and superficial ways.
In fact, let me go back to panel 4 a little, I’m not done eviscerating it. Saying you forgive what he did, saying you understand, saying you see where he’s coming from – that’s all fine.
And we’ll forget the sheer tactlessness of doing it in the heat of the moment like that for a second.
Why the fuck would you need to tell that to Joyce in the first place? Does she not know who’s she Talking to? She isn’t saying that for Joyce’s benefit. She isn’t trying to help her come around to forgiving the guy. She’s saying it to Cover Her Own Bases. She wants it on the record that if she, Carol, ever did anything like that, in a certain situation, she believes it would be justified.
And Joyce notices that. Joyce gets Scared. Because Joyce was just taken for a fucking Ride, and one of her mom’s first priorities is to open herself up for doing the same thing if she ever wanted to.
Pfuj.
Have you been reading the comic long? I don’t remember you commenting before.
Since the middle of the first chapter. I only commented sporadically however.
Again, kinda nervous to. I’m not exactly the target demographic for this comic. It’s easy to say things that set off the community, because I do have a conservative mindset, and understandably, the US being what it is, people are liable to go ballistic due to how high the tensions there are.
There was this time when we talked about treating mental issues in the comment section, and I brought up how diagnoses are imperfect in psychology, aren’t meant to be final, and that there is an unhealthy culture among psychologists to favor more popularly assigned diagnoses over the less common ones so their peers don’t look at them funny.
Now a lot of these are systemic issues and left-wing talking points. I thought it was the least controversial thing I’m ever going to say in my life considering where I am.
All one person got out of that is I hate psychologists and think everyone who has a mental illness can only blame themselves.
Nuance is in short supply when you think the other side is out to get you. It doesn’t even always matter if you are on the same side supporting the same thing – if you so much as approach it from a different direction, warning bells go off and they aren’t listening anymore.
So I try to only open my mouth when I’m sure I can say it without pissing somebody off, lately.
It will be entertaining to see how Ross “God wills it” out of this. 😉
Oh, hell yeah! I’m looking forward to it!
Some part of me hopes it will be respectable, but this isn’t that kind of comic. He’ll probably be a huge, irredeemable idiot. But even in that case, it will be funny.
Whoops. I hate to be Ross now.
That’s a good thing to hate about yourself not gonna lie
Get neck extension surgery
Blaine tries his hardest to throttle him Homer Simpson style, but can’t get his hands around where Ross’s neck is supposed to be.
It was ridiculous for Blaine to expect Ross to keep Amber prisoner if he thought Amber was the one he wanted to help “save” his daughter its not like Ross really cares about Blaines mad up money problems. On the other hand Ross knew Blaine only really cared about Amber and Becky was just a bonus. The thing is what did Blaine tell Ross his plan was, and what was his plan?
HAHAHA Blaine’s so effing dumb ahaha
Okay, wait a minute. What’s Blaine’s logic here? I thought the plan was to get AG to send her after Becky. So, how do you do that without releasing her?
I’m fairly certain Blaine was planning a double cross.
Blaine did not believe they had captured Amazi-Girl. He wanted the hostages to tell him how to contact her.
Remember that, in Blaine’s mind, Amber cannot be Amazi-Girl. Because she can’t be.
If Ross released AG, she must be one of the other hostages. She’s obviously not Sarah, Walky, or Ethan, and he doesn’t know about Dina yet. Joyce and Dorothy are still there.
I bet Blaine’s going to fry some synapses trying to assemble the evidence around his preconceived notions.
Blaine doesn’t care about Becky. He actually wants Amber and Amazi-Girl.
Ross just released them both.
While its true Becky was never anything but a way to pin his crimes completely on Ross, and a way to hurt Amazigirl.
Blaine has the weird entitled anger where you can’t help but wonder what the L were you thinking.
Its like of course Ross was never going to put the plan that you didn’t even say out loud because no sane person would agree to that above his own plan which is closer to the stated plan.
I love the subtlety in the body language and expressions here. Toedad standing there oblivious as Blaine slowly clenches his fist in rage, and is shocked when Blaine shows up behind him in angry in the last panel.
The subtle shift of the emotions on his face is truly wonderful.
Feels like this might end badly for either Blaine or Ross, and I’m okay with that.
Why not both?
Blaine still insisting Amber isn’t Amazi-Girl reminds me we still don’t know what was on the USB drive he stole from Amber. So either:
1) That’s going to turn out to be hilarious when we learn it was all fan-fiction.
2) It did have information about Amazi-Girl and he somehow convinced himself that was a lie too.
3) He actually does know and believe Amber to be Amazi-Girl and is only pretending he doesn’t and this is all according to plan.
I hope it’s not 3, I want this to have genuinely gone wrong for him.
2.A: It did have information about Amazi-Girl, but all from after the dissociation happened, so it’s all written in the third person from Amber’s perspective. Therefore, since Amber is clearly writing about a different person, she can’t be A-G.
Not that hard to convince himself, in that case.
Ooh, good point. I’m betting on this one now.
In any event, it won’t be long now before Ross realizes Blaine’s been shitting him.
Maybe Amber has enough spare Amazi-suits to bring the rest of the dorm back with her in disguise?
Just picture a platoon of Amazi-Girls descending on the undisclosed location to kick Toedad and the Blaine’s asses.
News flash, Blaine; Ross cares as much about your obsession as you care about his.
This story line might be the end of Amazing-Girl. She survived involvement in one kidnapping but the legal system will want a word with her after this. Amber won’t be able to avoid being questioned, as she’s too heavily involved.
Which makes me wonder what’ll happen to the AG alter if she’s no longer able to costume up. She presumably won’t just stop existing. Maybe her two minds will start to reintegrate? Would that even be desirable for either of them?
I also think this storyline will be the end of Amazi-Girl, but I believe it will be at the hands of Amber, not any authority figure. And I hope it will be in a good way, but I wouldn’t bet on that.
I loved today’s “World’s Angriest Dog” static panel technique (save for panel 6 that is)
Next strip. Ross’ massacre.
You done goofed, ToeDerp.
Toedad?
More like ToeDead!
Blaine looks so ridiculous
“WHICH ONE WAS SHE!?!?”
I see that Willis is choosing magnets for the next Kickstarter. I’d like to declare that it’s high time for Mary and Raidah to get magnets. After all, how am I supposed to play with my DoA action figures if I don’t have any proper antagonists?
I’m starting to realize just how much to what extent Blaine played a role in Amber’s self-loathing issues.
Also this is interesting, Blaine thinks Amber was just telling a cowardly lie to get set free and run away. But when amazi-girl does show up it’ll prove he was wrong whether he believes she Amazi-girl or not…. and as a bonus it seems that Blaine has the exact same low opinion of Amber as she does herself. So that also proves she’s not in tirely as bad as she think she is. I like it.
u wot