It’s possible, but I’m not sure it’s been established. This night – the one interrupted by kidnapping – was the first time she deliberately tried to stay up. We saw Amber wake up the previous morning (after AG’s fight with Blaine and Ross) and we know Amazi-Girl’s been going out at night fairly regularly, but I don’t recall any previous signs of exhaustion or even that AG’s been more active at night than before.
Even when they were talking (or earlier when less divided) AG was still out patrolling at night.
And is an awful home rule I hate, which is so punishing to multi hit attackers when dms think its fun to have it in combat.
Fighter rolling 4 attacks per turn has nearly a 20% chance of attacking a teammate each round. If each fight only lasts 5 rounds, that’s a 67% chance of happening every single encounter ~yayyy fun
It’s a horrible, horrible house rule that fucks with classes that make more attacks. With the nat 1 = bad stuff rule a level 20 fighter is more likely to hit himself than a commoner.
If you are the DM and you like this house rule, you understand nothing of game design.
That said, a DM that sets up a house rule and doesn’t tweak it understands nothing of game design either way. I’m sure there are plenty of ways to make it fair. From “add a saving throw, or even two, for critical failures if there are many checks” to “there’s a feat you can take that removes critical failures”
See, the DM gets to PICK the bad thing…
This came up in a game of Exalted I run last Friday. Critical Failures are actually part of the rules, and someone managed to crit-fail in combat( a phrase which here means “you have more 1’s than 7’s, 8’s, and 9’s”): The result: “Your bowstring came loose. As you are a chosen of the Unconquered Sun, I say that you can spend an attack action fixing that, and then take your final shot in your three-arrow flurry attack.”
In my 5E games, I use proficiency dice instead of flat modifiers (per Unearthed Arcana), so a level 1-4 character rolls 1d20+1d4, going up to +1d6 at 5-8, +1d8 at 9-12, +1d10 at 13-16 and +1d12 at 17-20, with expertise adding an additional die (so, for example, d20+2d6). A fumble only happens when the d20 and *all* proficiency/expertise dice roll ‘1’s. For multi-attacks, this actually makes the chance of mishap scale *down* with level rather than up, as the probability of rolling ‘1’ on successively larger dice tends to outscale the number of attacks being made.
I use that rule, but with the addition that a Natural 1 in and of itself is not necessarily TOO bad. Getting 1 means that you roll again. Missing the target again means that something went wrong; you either hit the person next to them (which could be an ally, or another enemy). Getting a SECOND 1 means that something went VERY wrong, like you stabbed yourself in the leg.
I have only played a game for 10 minutes, I was passing through a house where a game was going on and died a few turns after my first encounter.
With a flower, of all things.
It seems, to me in my total ignorance, that these events occur as opportunities for experience points for other players. And to give high powered characters problems that need some other solution other than force.
Depending on your actions the story changes course. Maybe the dragon can talk. And has no interest in the loot in the cave. He’s just crashing in the cave for the weekend, he’s on his way north to spawn.
He tells you of the dragon life cycle.
After being spawned onto a volcano they form oyster like shells
These hatch out tiny dragons , many of which are eaten by birds and other creatures.
Maybe one in a thousand will survive till adulthood.
After spawning it dies.
It says, for being so kind as to share the deer you killed fo dinner it will repay you in allowing you to loot its corpse.
It informs you that, because it is giving you itself willingly, armour made of its scales will give the wearer the power to fly.
Or you can fight it and get 1000 gold each, or a chance at throwing a natural 1 and being a liability.
…I think dotty’s jacket would fit amber. If Walky switched shoes with her the blue boots would disappear into his ensemble.
Then she’s just a tired girl In yellow pants passed out from shock.
Commenting on the art (“creative”) this is about the best example of “exhausted” face I have seen in comics in a long time. And has been established I’m Old with a capital “Ohhh”.
She still has to be physically capable of throwing the hook. It looks like her technique was okay, but that van must be going close to 50 MPH and still gaining speed. Even if she wasn’t so tired, there’s no way that would connect.
The last couple strips have just been acts of desperation. Blaine got away as soon as he started the van.
No, but the van had a bumper sticker that said “My Daughter Is An Honor Student” except “Honor Student” was crossed out with sharpie and replaced with “miserable failure who will never amount to anything and I bet she ends up being some low ranking stooge for the Korean mob and her glasses look stupid and I’m not projecting, you’re projecting!”.
There can’t be more than, like, two or three of those on the road.
Dumbing of Age book 10: My Daughter is a Miserable Failure Who Will Never Amount to Anything and I Bet She Ends Up Being Some Low Ranking Stooge for the Korean Mob and Her Glasses Look Stupid and I’m Not Projecting, You’re Projecting!
This is a comic where two of the characters routinely jump out of windows, one attackes a man with a rifle by pretending to be a raptor, and college freshmen are smarter than other adults, and you’re worried about “realism”?
I’ve been concerned about realism since Blaine got kicked in the chest by Amber and physics got totally disregarded because he was wearing a bulletproof vest.
Bulletproof doesn’t mean kickproof. Kevlar is designed to disperse the kinetic energy of bullets, not kicks or punches. Unless he somehow managed to get the ceramic plates, but even then, it’s still not really designed for that. He’d still get most of the impact.
I think it’s probably an armored, Kevlar-reinforced motorcycle jacket. Not bulletproof, but designed to protect against abrasion and (to an extent) spread blunt impacts out over a larger area. They’re also readily available, reasonably priced, and easy to get hold of.
Pretty sure this has never been slice of life. This has been about Joyce and her overcoming her religious brainwashing, with a smorgasbord of other fucked up kids trying to figure their shit out.
Jeez Dark, it’s a comic strip not a freakin reality TV show. Does Superman being able to fly make sense to you? Or the fact he can get hit in the chest by a tank gun and not even be knocked back a step make sense to you? Cause it doesn’t to me, but I seem to manage to enjoy the stories anyway.
Superman isn’t billed as a “Semi Normal” comic. It’s billed as a superhero universe, which is why we don’t flip out when Superman catches somebody at the last second and doesn’t kill them anyway due to inertia.
When you start blatantly ignoring physics and reality in a comic that’s attempting to play closer to reality, it can be jarring to the readers.
DoA usually has real life physics and deals with a lot of issues we see in real life – racism, homophobia, religious upbringing, etc. So yes, people’s mindsets are tuned to the idea that most of the things happening in DoA are things you’d expect to be able to happen in real life. Even Amber’s superhero antics are usually explained in-story; she took self-defense classes, her trauma has a backstory, and so on.
So when Amazi-Girl sequences happen and most of those ‘realistic’ things get thrown out the window, yes, people are going to notice that shift, and it’s going to affect them. This isn’t new – it happened during the car chase when Becky was kidnapped, but people gave it a slight pass. This time though, it’s going on for a much longer period of time and it’s going to be bothering people more, especially since for half of this stuff to happen a lot of the characters are holding the idiot ball.
Um, wow, that’s pretty harsh. I kinda feel like Dark has a bit of a point?
I’m a-okay with suspending my disbelief, I just wanna be aware of when I should be suspending it.
That said, it doesn’t detract much from the comic for me personally.
I agree. I understand folks saying this isn’t usual, but Willis literally said as much at the beginning of the arc and even told folks when to come back if it wasn’t going to be their bag. I don’t find this less realistic than hanging onto a car via a bat-hook.
I think people expected the warning to be more ‘hey this may be a little distressing, it’s okay to come back later’ and less ‘hey this might throw physics out the window’.
It’s also had a superhero doing superhero stunts and using superhero tropes practically as long. It lacks the Walkyverse’s aliens and powers, so it’s certainly more realistic in that sense, but it’s never been a strictly slice of college life strip.
Plus at this point, telling Willis it’s bad and you don’t like it is just..silly, the buffer is huge, and he’s proven time and time again that he knows people might not like it, but damn it he’s telling his story anyways.
He’s not just gonna read a comment and go ‘Oh dang they’re right this is getting a little crazy cakes, time to start re writing the plot”
I seriously doubt Blaine will hurt Joyce if only because he needs a living hostage. Either way, fleeing the scene is only a temporary solution. What is Blaine going to do next?
Unfortunately, it’s KILLING her that deprives him of a living hostage. A hostage who has had, say, her arm broken or her kneecap ballpeened in order to make her behave is still a living hostage.
Come back in the next scene with an even bigger and more coordinated “Evil Villain Plan”. Because being in the Hospital for cracked ribs or being gunned down in a state wide manhunt for Kidnapping and Murder is boring.
Nah, this will certainly traumatize her and make her even angrier when her mother says he Ross and Blaine had good intentions. But it won’t kill her, I’m willing to bet at least 10 dollars on that.
As of today, Joyce has appeared in 1210 comic strips. Fuckface has appeared in 22. That means Fuckface would have appear in every strip, every day – while completely ignoring Joyce – for the next 39 months just to catch up.
She’s probably get an inkling that Joyce’s faith is shaky, and then it will be Joyce’s fault because she doubted Jesus and God was punishing her or testing her.
I don’t think it’s hope, I think it’s the morbid anticipation when you slowly drive along a car crash. You want to see what’s there, even though there’s nothing good about it.
“We never could’ve guessed!” “He fooled us all!” “That’s not the man he used to be!” All while refusing to acknowledge their contribution and enabling of the situation.
I’m guessing she’ll claim she was a victim. That Blaine was a conman promising to free Ross, “A good Christian man” whose too dead now to be held responsible for the crimes he participated in and will likely be seen as a hero by the church for dying “protecting” the students. I’d like her to claim some responsibility in this but that’s wishful thinking.
“…Granted, she’s probably the type who can rationalize away anything bad as someone else’s fault…”
This is one of the many reasons why fundagelical christianity is becoming so despised. Blaming the victims of their actions for “making them” attack them.
In this case, it’d be “Becky, YOU’RE at fault for making your father who wanted to kidnap you, team up with the bad man who killed him because you wanted to live your life sin.”
I like one guy’s way to look at it though. It may have been from the Sam and Fuzzy universe… He said he really likes the idea of sin. It means he can be an asshole to literally anyone and he can righteously assume they did something to deserve it. To me, that’s the best way to describe why it’s a wrong way of thinking.
“…Granted, she’s probably the type who can rationalize away anything bad as someone else’s fault…”
The type who can do this is called human. This is a very common and well documented feature of humans. There is an entire scientific literature about experiments that confirm this. Hoping for something else is expecting more than most people are capable of. No religion or non-religion is exempt.
Oh, I think she’ll be perfectly willing to blame Ross and Blaine. I mean they were so NICE, so how was she supposed to know better? Truly, the devil can deceive anyone, so she needs to start being extra-wary about such demonic influences.
Ah, luckily I know the recipe: six handfuls of red berries, four orange berries, three purple berries, four blue berries, three green berries and one yellow berry.
Wait, that might be something else. Could still help in this situation though.
I don’t know, I kinda feel like if Amber had maybe used her freedom as an opportunity to oh I don’t know ASK FOR HELP from anybody maybe this would’ve turned out differently.
I’m still holding out hope that Becky did ask for help. Does Becky have Sal’s number? I figure since she roomed with her briefly in Billie’s spot, it’s a possibility she could have called her.
I can only IMAGINE how many years of intensive therapy all these characters are going to need after this.
Good for Becky with the tweet, but someone needs to call the police with a description of the van and the direction in which it went IMMEDIATELY. I understand and respect Sarah’s concerns about involving the police. However, if she leaves immediately she can get out of there so she’s not on the scene when they arrive. The police *will* pay attention to the abduction of an upper-middle-class white woman. (I’m sorry for that last sentence, but it’s true in the U.S.)
I know Amber’s dad is supposedly in league with the mob, but I think a kidnapping case would concern more than the local, maybe corrupt, P.D. and I doubt any ties he has would extend to the federal level.
Yeah, PTSD is a real thing even for kids. This will take years to overcome, but they won’t recover. Seriously if they’re lucky they might be able to complete school at Indiana, some time in their 30s, without stumbling on too many triggers, but probably they’ll have to go to another school to avoid situations/locations that bring back the trauma. BTDT.
These kids are the same age as many of the soldier sent to Iraq. Partially formed brains, plastic personality, inexperienced. They are much more vulnerable than someone over 25.
So, I’m think that Panels 3 and 5 are Amber (in among other things) deciding that Dorothy’s decision to trust her in addition to Amazi-Girl was stupid.
I see it more as Amber thinking she has failed again, not that she is thinking about Dorothy, and is beating herself up over it. Even though there was no reasonable way for her to catch the van.
Logic isn’t going to stop her from beating herself up second-guessing every decision she’s made in the last 72 hours, though. Scars from Blaine’s mental abuse will make it even worse…
Guess this is what we’re doing for the next 30 strips.
Because a protracted hostage crisis is why I bought into this damn strip.
Remember when this guy made a parents’ weekend the most riveting webcomic writing around and Amber’s arc wasn’t overtaken by her superhero gimmick like a metastasizing plot cancer?
Also remember when this comic used to be about college students coming of age, instead of going through hell on earth?
Or frankly, when the characters weren’t so consistently dumb?
No, because none of those things have ever been true. Not liking Amber’s arc is fair as it just might not be for you especially if you don’t have DID or any interest in superheroes, but serious occurrences have been happening since book 1 and characters have been shown to not be the brightest or always making the best decisions since book 1. Unbelievably, when you are high on adrenaline and in the middle of a kidnapping situation, you don’t become smarter and instead are more likely to act on whatever dumb impulse comes to mind that might help you survive.
For the people complaining about the lack of reality remember there are people in the comments that have survived getting hit by cars that had to be scrapped after the wreck. Who have survived getting set on fire, who have been shot at on numerous occaisions, who have delivered babies at home, and some that all of the above are true. That has happened in real life, how can what has happened in this comic be unrealistic?
Yeah, my life is a byproduct of someone taking the Heart of Gold for a joyride through our universe. My life should never be used as a yardstick for something that happens in the real world.
My apologies, Opus, my redaction was due to me realizing you were referring to your own experiences. I’m guilty of skimming your comic and thinking you were using past events in the comic to justify this arc.
OK, maybe don’t use my life as an example. I just tried to calculate the odds against a small part of my life and my calculator had an overflow error because the numbers got bigger than 9.999999X10^99. That was just for the first 2 wrecks, not even including what happened after high school, the odds against my surviving long enough to graduate are an overflow error. I think maybe I’m a fictional character in some universe, because the odds of all of this happening to one person are beyond astronomical, much less the odds of living long enough to have kids and grandchildren, OK grandchild. Throw in the revolution, the getting set on fire, going to Boy’s State, being allowed to go to one of the best schools in the state…
Seriously, I can’t believe it, why should anyone else?
In the universal quantum superposition you only get to reflect on it online in those small sections of Hilbert Space where you survived and did well enough to have access to the Internet. It’s not that unlikely because you’re looking at an inherently biased sample.
This is a common point of contention with writing.
Events in a story can’t just be plausible, they need to be narratively satisfying.
I don’t *really* care if the events that happen in this comic are physically plausible, I care if the story is satisfying and builds on what I came here for. Willis is a master of writing character drama, and in the right environment he’s good at action too, but trying to write a hostage thriller in the middle of a comedy/drama series causes a ton of problems, both narratively, and in audience expectations.
The only precedent for this sort of narrative is when Becky was kidnapped. That, in comparison, lasted less than three weeks from when the action started to when it began, and wasn’t nearly as focused on the mechanics of navigating an intense action scene.
Asking an audience to accept a major genre switch for two full months, going on three, and to just accept that the tropes, storytelling conventions, and rules of the universe are going to be very different for an extended stretch of time is a big sell.
Pretty much this, thank you for wording it so clearly. Just because something can happen in reality, that doesn’t mean it’s narratively satisfying.
To everyone else, if this is working for you, great, I’m happy you’re able to enjoy this storyline, but don’t go after the people who have problems with this arc.
I’m really not enjoying the current arc either, but I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop after all this. If the next arc is also a high-stakes action sequence, then I’m going to need a breather from the comic, my suspension of disbelief needs to recharge.
(Realistically everyone in this thing should be going to weeks or months of therapy, but we won’t get that.)
I certainly find this narrative continually interesting and emotionally engaging enough to come back day after day. Sometimes the comment section is almost as entertaining and engaging as the strip itself. The very small subsection of the comments spent whining that the comic doesn’t meet preconceived expectations is personally annoying, but certainly not enough to keep me away. Though it obviously bothers me enough to whine in turn.
It’s funny, because what drew me to follow Willis’ comics was precisely his ability to challenge my expectations as reader. He is continually doing micro- meso- and macro-dissonance within his comics and that’s what I like the most, maybe because I tend to find that also in my real life.
I get that this is not everybody’s favorite dish, but it has been part of Willis’ characteristic style for many years. Heck, I believe that even Wikipedia notes this about Willis’ works.
It was established when she was talking to Ruth that Amber is verklempt.
Someone else needs to do their thing, if anyone can think of a thing to do.
All of them have made significant contributions to this fight so far.
Maybe some of them can synergize and come up with something.
I think Sarah and Walky are due for ideas at this point. And Walky really needs to redeem himself for letting Blaine get loose, so it would be helpful for an idea/redemption arc about now.
Sarah and Walky need to get out of there, RIGHT NOW before the police show up.
Them leaving could be explained later; for example, they were scared and once Amber’s dad left they just ran to safety. But the last thing we need is police officers blaming this on the people of colour (especially because Sarah is tecnically carrying a weapon).
No they don’t, what they need to do, in fact what all of them need to do (black, white, Asian, male or female), is get together in a group and wait for the police to arrive and let Dorothy speak to the police
Unless you think the police will arrive, expecting to see someone like Blaine and deciding that instead of the older, white, male kidnapper they’ll settle for the young, black female friend instead
I mean this with all respect, but do you follow the news about Black and Brown people being disproportionately killed by police for even minor offences? In the city where I live, Eric Garner was put in a non-NYPD-approved chokehold by police and killed for the crime of selling loose cigarettes. Philando Castil was shot to death by a police officer who pulled him over, in front of his partner and her child. He disclosed that he was carrying a weapon but said he was reaching for his license and registration, not the weapon. He was shot seven times as soon as he moved.
All of the police officers in these cases have been acquitted. And these are only two examples – a quick online search will find you far, far more.
Yes, the police are required at this point. But Sarah is a Black woman holding a bat. Walky is a man of colour. Again, I’m so sorry to type this sentence, but when it comes down to a person of colour saying “a white man did this and I’m innocent,” a lot of police officers will assume that the person of colour is lying.
I know that that this is a sensitive topic but none of those examples are anywhere close to situation
The cops description is that of a an older, white man (again I’m assuming Dorothy described Blaine) not of a young, black girl or boy
Eric Garner and Philando Castil were being questioned for alleged crimes, Sarah is the complete opposite of who the cops are looking for, again you’re asking me to believe that the cops will drag Sarah and Walky off (in front of their white friends) because they’ll think something like “well they said a middle aged white man but maybe they really meant these black kids even though they’re wearing pajamas and they’re saying the black kids are their friends”
The Black schoolgirl getting body-slammed out of her chair in front of her mixed-race class.
The Black kids getting beat up by cops simply for standing around in public.
The … You know what, I don’t think I can continue. Please understand that there are far, far more examples out there, and you can either choose to explain them all away one by one, or you can choose to CHANGE YOUR MIND for once because all the people who disagree with you might possibly know something you don’t.
Im not talking about every single piece interaction because there are also positive ones as well but in this particular, unique situation then no I do not accept the premise being offered.
Too much information on Blaine, too many witnesses, extremely public setting and then what if some black cops turn up instead of racist cops
As I say im not saying it doesnt appen, I’m saying in this situation that Sarah was in more danger from Blaine than she was from the cops
I’m not sure what the odds are that a particular random sample of cops will contain a trigger-happy racist, but I’m pretty certain that pretty much 100% of them are going to be anti-costumed-vigilante.
I know that the US has a massive problem of cops acting out against black people with little or no excuse. Usually, those things don’t happen in front of a social media savvy congresswoman‘s campaign manager for a reason:
Like all bullies, they only bully when they think no one will, take them to task for it.
This situation is different, and they will all be preening like hell to look good in the eye of people in power.
It isn’t even always a matter of “bullying”. More often than not it’s just implicit bias. Cops tend to just assume the PoC is a threat. There have been multiple incidents of the cops showing up and killing the PoC who called them for help, even after having been given a description of the suspect.
I hope not! O.o In a collision between a van and a motorcycle, the motorcycle rider is going to come off faaaaaar worse, just going by the difference in mass between the two vehicles.
Why is Amber holding her right arm? You mean in panel #2?
To me, it looks like she’s holding her side/ribs. She’s already got what looks like a bruise under her right eye which wasn’t there prior to Dina’s ineffective attack in the kitchen, and she’s again holding her right arm/side in panel #3 of this strip when Blaine, Faz, and everybody else comes out of the house… so I think it’s safe to assume that she took a hit (or two) – maybe Blaine landed a blow with the hammer? – and sustained some damage during the (unshown) melee that ended with Joyce becoming Blaine’s human shield.
Van beats people running on foot but man we are in a bad position. I’m sure we’ll have our deus ex machina tomorrow with Tuesday fixing everything though so none of this matters*
*I am bluffing hard and I’m actually fairly worried
Come on, people, Joyce has just about the thickest plot armor of anyone in fiction. Yes this is a sucky situation in-comic. And in real life Joyce would be in massive danger. But right now, for the first time in many weeks of strips, Joyce is the only one in peril – and she’s not in very much peril. Things won’t get actually stressful again until one of her friends tries to rescue her.
Just noticed how Sarah is carrying the bat … on her left shoulder, which makes me think she is left-handed. And I think it has been pretty much determined that Sal and several others in the main cast are also southpaws, even though in real life only about 10% of the population is left-handed.
Which makes me wonder, so I’ll ask of anyone who may have met Willis at a show or convention or book-signing or whatever — since he draws so many of his characters as lefties, is he a left-hander himself?
If you look back at beginning of that flashback series (starting with this strip) when Sal tries to hold up the convenience store and takes Ethan hostage, she has the knife in her left hand, which leads me to assume that this was her dominant hand at the time.
In addition, I also noticed that in the flashback scene during that same chapter that showed the incident between Leland and Marcie, Leland was holding the rock in his left hand. So my suspicion still stands … Willis is himself left-handed and, whether consciously or not, that trait seems to manifest itself in several of the characters.
This is more depressing than I needed for today. I can only hope that Sal and Ruth plotted something between them, and maybe Asher, because if it gets known he aided a mass kidnapping, his dream of normal life goes down the drain.
Becky seem to have anticipated that police would get notified once her tweet got published. She wanted to make sure the situation didnt escalate until her friends were released
I’m going to go out on a limb and make a prediction now. Faz is going to save Joyce. I’m not quite sure of the specifics of how it’s going to happen, but when it comes down to it, I think Faz will let Joyce go when Blaine isn’t watching, because she’s one of the few people who actually empathized with him, which brings the arc of Joyce’s emotional development back full circle and how she will reconcile her doubts about her faith. People can be redeemed/saved, if you simply have compassion for them. (Which, ultimately, is at the heart of Christian teachings.)
Michael Behenna, unpremeditated murder UCMJ, Mathew L. Golsteyn, unpremeditated murder UCMJ, Clint Lorance Murder UCMJ. All of the murderers were tried under military law for crimes in a war zone.
Which basically means Blaine is SOL, not military and criming against white people.
Entirely unrelated but I don’t mind being more light hearted rn, I’m taking Willi’s countdown to the new book release as a personal count down to my birthday
Loading ...
what, extreme exhaustion doesn’t grant inhuman second wind superpowers?? D=
I feel like my night owl strategy has some flaws
I guess it doesn’t…. Well shit.
My brother: “We need to make Rivendell by nightfall.”
Me: “I am already Knight, fallen.”
I haven’t counted, but I think Amber/Amazigirl‘s body hasn’t rested in days, so ist most likely already the fifth wind leaving.
It’s possible, but I’m not sure it’s been established. This night – the one interrupted by kidnapping – was the first time she deliberately tried to stay up. We saw Amber wake up the previous morning (after AG’s fight with Blaine and Ross) and we know Amazi-Girl’s been going out at night fairly regularly, but I don’t recall any previous signs of exhaustion or even that AG’s been more active at night than before.
Even when they were talking (or earlier when less divided) AG was still out patrolling at night.
Amazi-girl is grappling…with failure. But not with that van. xD
It’s more like that’s not Amazi-Girl but Amber.
You need to pick the right class for the second wind feat
aw
Bad time for a Natural 1.
If it had been a 1 then Amazi-girl/Amber would have managed to hit herself or someone else with the hook.
Yeah, this is more like a 3 against a TN of 18.
That is not really a rule that exists in most versions of D&D. It’s more something some GMs are really fond of and think is in the rules.
Or know very well is not in the books/SRD, but put it in their games anyway, at which point it *is* part of the local rules. Rule 0 trumps all.
And is an awful home rule I hate, which is so punishing to multi hit attackers when dms think its fun to have it in combat.
Fighter rolling 4 attacks per turn has nearly a 20% chance of attacking a teammate each round. If each fight only lasts 5 rounds, that’s a 67% chance of happening every single encounter ~yayyy fun
It’s a horrible, horrible house rule that fucks with classes that make more attacks. With the nat 1 = bad stuff rule a level 20 fighter is more likely to hit himself than a commoner.
If you are the DM and you like this house rule, you understand nothing of game design.
That said, a DM that sets up a house rule and doesn’t tweak it understands nothing of game design either way. I’m sure there are plenty of ways to make it fair. From “add a saving throw, or even two, for critical failures if there are many checks” to “there’s a feat you can take that removes critical failures”
See, the DM gets to PICK the bad thing…
This came up in a game of Exalted I run last Friday. Critical Failures are actually part of the rules, and someone managed to crit-fail in combat( a phrase which here means “you have more 1’s than 7’s, 8’s, and 9’s”): The result: “Your bowstring came loose. As you are a chosen of the Unconquered Sun, I say that you can spend an attack action fixing that, and then take your final shot in your three-arrow flurry attack.”
In my 5E games, I use proficiency dice instead of flat modifiers (per Unearthed Arcana), so a level 1-4 character rolls 1d20+1d4, going up to +1d6 at 5-8, +1d8 at 9-12, +1d10 at 13-16 and +1d12 at 17-20, with expertise adding an additional die (so, for example, d20+2d6). A fumble only happens when the d20 and *all* proficiency/expertise dice roll ‘1’s. For multi-attacks, this actually makes the chance of mishap scale *down* with level rather than up, as the probability of rolling ‘1’ on successively larger dice tends to outscale the number of attacks being made.
5e Dungeon Master’s Guide, page 242: “Critical Success or Faliures”
Sure, it’s optional and suggested only for saving throws and ability checks, but i IS in the books.
I use that rule, but with the addition that a Natural 1 in and of itself is not necessarily TOO bad. Getting 1 means that you roll again. Missing the target again means that something went wrong; you either hit the person next to them (which could be an ally, or another enemy). Getting a SECOND 1 means that something went VERY wrong, like you stabbed yourself in the leg.
I have only played a game for 10 minutes, I was passing through a house where a game was going on and died a few turns after my first encounter.
With a flower, of all things.
It seems, to me in my total ignorance, that these events occur as opportunities for experience points for other players. And to give high powered characters problems that need some other solution other than force.
Depending on your actions the story changes course. Maybe the dragon can talk. And has no interest in the loot in the cave. He’s just crashing in the cave for the weekend, he’s on his way north to spawn.
He tells you of the dragon life cycle.
After being spawned onto a volcano they form oyster like shells
These hatch out tiny dragons , many of which are eaten by birds and other creatures.
Maybe one in a thousand will survive till adulthood.
After spawning it dies.
It says, for being so kind as to share the deer you killed fo dinner it will repay you in allowing you to loot its corpse.
It informs you that, because it is giving you itself willingly, armour made of its scales will give the wearer the power to fly.
Or you can fight it and get 1000 gold each, or a chance at throwing a natural 1 and being a liability.
…I think dotty’s jacket would fit amber. If Walky switched shoes with her the blue boots would disappear into his ensemble.
Then she’s just a tired girl In yellow pants passed out from shock.
looks like a Doc Ock arm.
shit
I have no creative comments at this point
Commenting on the art (“creative”) this is about the best example of “exhausted” face I have seen in comics in a long time. And has been established I’m Old with a capital “Ohhh”.
Sleep deprivation is catching up to her.
‘Bout the only thing catching up in this strip.
Well, and this is Amber, not AG; she’s not the one trained for this, is she?
She still has to be physically capable of throwing the hook. It looks like her technique was okay, but that van must be going close to 50 MPH and still gaining speed. Even if she wasn’t so tired, there’s no way that would connect.
The last couple strips have just been acts of desperation. Blaine got away as soon as he started the van.
Yep. If it’s going 50mph, she has to throw it faster than 75 feet per second. That’s a heck of distance and speed with a grappling hook.
That’s about what I expected. Good show.
Yeah, and probably the best-case scenario.
I don’t suppose anyone caught the licence plate?
No, but the van had a bumper sticker that said “My Daughter Is An Honor Student” except “Honor Student” was crossed out with sharpie and replaced with “miserable failure who will never amount to anything and I bet she ends up being some low ranking stooge for the Korean mob and her glasses look stupid and I’m not projecting, you’re projecting!”.
There can’t be more than, like, two or three of those on the road.
Unfortunately it’s kinda hard to make out that distinguishing feature, given how small the writing is.
Dumbing of Age book 10: My Daughter is a Miserable Failure Who Will Never Amount to Anything and I Bet She Ends Up Being Some Low Ranking Stooge for the Korean Mob and Her Glasses Look Stupid and I’m Not Projecting, You’re Projecting!
Finally, some realism.
Far too late, but y’know. Take what we can get.
This is a comic where two of the characters routinely jump out of windows, one attackes a man with a rifle by pretending to be a raptor, and college freshmen are smarter than other adults, and you’re worried about “realism”?
Me, thinking about many of the college freshman and many of the adults I know: eh, I’ll allow it.
I’ve been concerned about realism since Blaine got kicked in the chest by Amber and physics got totally disregarded because he was wearing a bulletproof vest.
Bulletproof doesn’t mean kickproof. Kevlar is designed to disperse the kinetic energy of bullets, not kicks or punches. Unless he somehow managed to get the ceramic plates, but even then, it’s still not really designed for that. He’d still get most of the impact.
I think it’s probably an armored, Kevlar-reinforced motorcycle jacket. Not bulletproof, but designed to protect against abrasion and (to an extent) spread blunt impacts out over a larger area. They’re also readily available, reasonably priced, and easy to get hold of.
Yep, and the kick would still knock him back, and that vest wouldn’t do much for him slamming into the wall/ground, especially if he hit his head.
Go write a story about slowly dying while breathing out of a ventilator or something, geez.
…What?
I think they’re implying if you want a more gritty and realistic story to make it yourself.
I don’t want a gritty realistic story. I want a story that makes sense and doesn’t just throw logic and reason out the window.
Y’know. A slice-of-life story.
Pretty sure this has never been slice of life. This has been about Joyce and her overcoming her religious brainwashing, with a smorgasbord of other fucked up kids trying to figure their shit out.
That’s also a great story idea. Jesus, I wonder where it went?
It’s still around, don’t worry. It’s just not exactly this arc.
Though we’ll see it tie in when Joyce talks to her mom about her kidnapping.
Jeez Dark, it’s a comic strip not a freakin reality TV show. Does Superman being able to fly make sense to you? Or the fact he can get hit in the chest by a tank gun and not even be knocked back a step make sense to you? Cause it doesn’t to me, but I seem to manage to enjoy the stories anyway.
Superman isn’t billed as a “Semi Normal” comic. It’s billed as a superhero universe, which is why we don’t flip out when Superman catches somebody at the last second and doesn’t kill them anyway due to inertia.
When you start blatantly ignoring physics and reality in a comic that’s attempting to play closer to reality, it can be jarring to the readers.
DoA usually has real life physics and deals with a lot of issues we see in real life – racism, homophobia, religious upbringing, etc. So yes, people’s mindsets are tuned to the idea that most of the things happening in DoA are things you’d expect to be able to happen in real life. Even Amber’s superhero antics are usually explained in-story; she took self-defense classes, her trauma has a backstory, and so on.
So when Amazi-Girl sequences happen and most of those ‘realistic’ things get thrown out the window, yes, people are going to notice that shift, and it’s going to affect them. This isn’t new – it happened during the car chase when Becky was kidnapped, but people gave it a slight pass. This time though, it’s going on for a much longer period of time and it’s going to be bothering people more, especially since for half of this stuff to happen a lot of the characters are holding the idiot ball.
Slice-of-superhero-life is kind of a little bit different.
Realism, for this reality.
Um, wow, that’s pretty harsh. I kinda feel like Dark has a bit of a point?
I’m a-okay with suspending my disbelief, I just wanna be aware of when I should be suspending it.
That said, it doesn’t detract much from the comic for me personally.
Why are you expecting gritty realism? This isn’t a DC comic where no fun is allowed..
I agree. I understand folks saying this isn’t usual, but Willis literally said as much at the beginning of the arc and even told folks when to come back if it wasn’t going to be their bag. I don’t find this less realistic than hanging onto a car via a bat-hook.
I think people expected the warning to be more ‘hey this may be a little distressing, it’s okay to come back later’ and less ‘hey this might throw physics out the window’.
Does anyone know what happens when you throw physics out the window?
Do it’s own laws apply to itself at that point,
The laws no longer apply within the framework from which they have been thrown.
Or are they like a phone, they only stop working when they hit the ground,
(Sorry been reading a comic about metaphysics….)
I always thought the people in comics could do all that stuff because they were two dimensional and made of ink.
As was shown in the slice of life documentary film “who framed roger rabbit?”
DoA was originally billed as a more realistic take compared to Roomies and Shortpacked. It’s been realistic for a long time.
It’s also had a superhero doing superhero stunts and using superhero tropes practically as long. It lacks the Walkyverse’s aliens and powers, so it’s certainly more realistic in that sense, but it’s never been a strictly slice of college life strip.
Plus at this point, telling Willis it’s bad and you don’t like it is just..silly, the buffer is huge, and he’s proven time and time again that he knows people might not like it, but damn it he’s telling his story anyways.
He’s not just gonna read a comment and go ‘Oh dang they’re right this is getting a little crazy cakes, time to start re writing the plot”
Oh no.
Well … ☹️
All together now…..
DAMN YOU, WILLIS!!
I AM NOT GIVING HIM THE SATTISFACTION.
FUCK YOU WILLIS!!!!
I seriously doubt Blaine will hurt Joyce if only because he needs a living hostage. Either way, fleeing the scene is only a temporary solution. What is Blaine going to do next?
I don’t think much forethought was put into this action
Yeah, basically nothing we’ve seen so far has painted Blaine as someone who carefully considers the consequences of his actions.
Or someone capable of making a quick and correct decision…
While my idea is unlikely… What if he did it to take her home to her mother?
I also find your idea unlikely but if he did I imagine Joyce would tell her parents what he did and Hank would call the police.
Given his track reckord I assuma he will poop on someone’s dog.
That’s about the right level of petty evilness and chance of profit for him.
Unfortunately, it’s KILLING her that deprives him of a living hostage. A hostage who has had, say, her arm broken or her kneecap ballpeened in order to make her behave is still a living hostage.
Come back in the next scene with an even bigger and more coordinated “Evil Villain Plan”. Because being in the Hospital for cracked ribs or being gunned down in a state wide manhunt for Kidnapping and Murder is boring.
Well fuck. Time for a new main character.
Nah, this will certainly traumatize her and make her even angrier when her mother says he Ross and Blaine had good intentions. But it won’t kill her, I’m willing to bet at least 10 dollars on that.
Willis once said he was gonna get Fuckface more appearances than Joyce
As of today, Joyce has appeared in 1210 comic strips. Fuckface has appeared in 22. That means Fuckface would have appear in every strip, every day – while completely ignoring Joyce – for the next 39 months just to catch up.
Yeah, like that’s gonna happen.
Don’t tempt Willis!
Joyce is my favorite character, please don’t give Willis any ideas
I nominate Rachel
What if this is just the last comic. Tomorrow Willis announces Dumbing of Age is ending forever and that he is moving to Malta.
Or pull a Scott Kurtz and do a time jump 😅
And the next comic is a reboot of “It’s Walky.” Only mobsters and religious fundamentalists instead of Head Alien and his goons.
We still get British Ninjas, though.
Next strip: Jason lands on the roof of the van.
Part of me is convinced Jason’s dad is secretly bankrolling the Mob and will be the final antagonist.
I think I would prefer aliens et al.
As a Patreon supporter I can tell you that you’re actually…sorry, what was that Willis? You’d have to shoot me? Damn, sorry guys, you’re on your own.
Willis might not like Malta. Heavily Catholic.
Better Catholic than evangelical, and this is a former Lutheran speaking.
Wonder how Joyce’s mom is gonna react when she finds out that her actions directly contributed to her daughter being abducted.
Granted, she’s probably the type who can rationalize away anything bad as someone else’s fault.
She’ll probably say something along the lines of, “If you hadn’t resisted then no one would have gotten hurt” or some other bullshit.
She’s probably get an inkling that Joyce’s faith is shaky, and then it will be Joyce’s fault because she doubted Jesus and God was punishing her or testing her.
What are you talking about? It’s clearly all Becky’s fault.
why does everyone keep holding out hope for Joyce’s mom
that road will only lead to disappointment
I’m saving my hope for Hank.
I don’t think it’s hope, I think it’s the morbid anticipation when you slowly drive along a car crash. You want to see what’s there, even though there’s nothing good about it.
She will be shocked to discover that Ross was not a True Christian(TM).
“We never could’ve guessed!” “He fooled us all!” “That’s not the man he used to be!” All while refusing to acknowledge their contribution and enabling of the situation.
I’m guessing she’ll claim she was a victim. That Blaine was a conman promising to free Ross, “A good Christian man” whose too dead now to be held responsible for the crimes he participated in and will likely be seen as a hero by the church for dying “protecting” the students. I’d like her to claim some responsibility in this but that’s wishful thinking.
“Blaine led him astray! Ross was a Good Christian Man who only wanted to help his troubled daughter. He gave his life for you kids.”
It’s all Becky’s fault for choosing to be a sinful lesbian.
“…Granted, she’s probably the type who can rationalize away anything bad as someone else’s fault…”
This is one of the many reasons why fundagelical christianity is becoming so despised. Blaming the victims of their actions for “making them” attack them.
In this case, it’d be “Becky, YOU’RE at fault for making your father who wanted to kidnap you, team up with the bad man who killed him because you wanted to
live your lifesin.”I like one guy’s way to look at it though. It may have been from the Sam and Fuzzy universe… He said he really likes the idea of sin. It means he can be an asshole to literally anyone and he can righteously assume they did something to deserve it. To me, that’s the best way to describe why it’s a wrong way of thinking.
“…Granted, she’s probably the type who can rationalize away anything bad as someone else’s fault…”
The type who can do this is called human. This is a very common and well documented feature of humans. There is an entire scientific literature about experiments that confirm this. Hoping for something else is expecting more than most people are capable of. No religion or non-religion is exempt.
Though fundies double down exponentially on it.
Oh, I think she’ll be perfectly willing to blame Ross and Blaine. I mean they were so NICE, so how was she supposed to know better? Truly, the devil can deceive anyone, so she needs to start being extra-wary about such demonic influences.
Not saying she won’t ALSO blame Becky for being the one who started it. I’m sure Carol can multitask.
Yeah, this development is gonna make the next interaction with her parents very interesting.
Carol will twist the facts and reason away the situation to fit into her worldview.
Because her interpretation of her religion cannot be wrong, and therefore she cannot be wrong.
Of course, but I feel like Willis is pushing things as far as they can possibly go.
No one thought she’d make that grapple but I was really hoping for an Amazi-vehicle.
well, uh
fuck
Note the tag says “Amber” and not “Amazi-girl”. I think Amber might have ran out of Amazi juice.
The switch happened a bit ago, when Dina was talking to her on the stairs.
Amber doesn’t lack Amazi-Girl’s skillset.
She just lacks Amazi-Girl’s complete self-assurance she’s a good person.
Ah, luckily I know the recipe: six handfuls of red berries, four orange berries, three purple berries, four blue berries, three green berries and one yellow berry.
Wait, that might be something else. Could still help in this situation though.
If that recipe’s what I think it is, I’m pretty sure she’d be bouncin’ off the walls…
It may be early, but I believe that the Internet is yours today.
Pfft, that recipe only works if you’re dashing and daring, courageous and caring, faithful and friendly with stories to share…
So – Joyce, maybe.
I will be honest: If Joyce suddenly turn out to be a gummy bear and bounces away from her predicament I will not ask too many questions about it.
You know, this makes me in the mood for high adventure that’s beyond compare.
He took our girl!!!!
This Avatar does not convey my sincerity lol
It really doesn’t!
I don’t know, I kinda feel like if Amber had maybe used her freedom as an opportunity to oh I don’t know ASK FOR HELP from anybody maybe this would’ve turned out differently.
I’m still holding out hope that Becky did ask for help. Does Becky have Sal’s number? I figure since she roomed with her briefly in Billie’s spot, it’s a possibility she could have called her.
Amber messages her via Nintendo DS, interrupting an otherwise perfect Mario Kart hot streak.
Well, that wasn’t very amazing…
I can only IMAGINE how many years of intensive therapy all these characters are going to need after this.
Good for Becky with the tweet, but someone needs to call the police with a description of the van and the direction in which it went IMMEDIATELY. I understand and respect Sarah’s concerns about involving the police. However, if she leaves immediately she can get out of there so she’s not on the scene when they arrive. The police *will* pay attention to the abduction of an upper-middle-class white woman. (I’m sorry for that last sentence, but it’s true in the U.S.)
I know Amber’s dad is supposedly in league with the mob, but I think a kidnapping case would concern more than the local, maybe corrupt, P.D. and I doubt any ties he has would extend to the federal level.
Years?
It’s never goin’ away.
Some of ’em will be pushing their centennials and be waking up screaming.
Except Walky. He refuses to be traumatized by this.
100+ is still a number of years.
Without the plus, yes, but as you set it it, “100+” will always also describe a higher number than one you can think up. Therefore it’s infinite.
I can easily think up a number. 103 is 100+.
Yeah, PTSD is a real thing even for kids. This will take years to overcome, but they won’t recover. Seriously if they’re lucky they might be able to complete school at Indiana, some time in their 30s, without stumbling on too many triggers, but probably they’ll have to go to another school to avoid situations/locations that bring back the trauma. BTDT.
These kids are the same age as many of the soldier sent to Iraq. Partially formed brains, plastic personality, inexperienced. They are much more vulnerable than someone over 25.
So, I’m think that Panels 3 and 5 are Amber (in among other things) deciding that Dorothy’s decision to trust her in addition to Amazi-Girl was stupid.
I see it more as Amber thinking she has failed again, not that she is thinking about Dorothy, and is beating herself up over it. Even though there was no reasonable way for her to catch the van.
Logic isn’t going to stop her from beating herself up second-guessing every decision she’s made in the last 72 hours, though. Scars from Blaine’s mental abuse will make it even worse…
This strip is a metaphor for Walky’s sex-life.
#Sorry
#NotSorry
#KindaSorry
No, I am not going to say goddammit Willis.
FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK YOU WILLIS!!!!
There was an attempt. Good job, Amber.
Now, cue the police.
Roooooxxxxaannnnee!
Though I don’t see the relevance.
You don’t have to put on the red light!
Sending out an S.O.S.
To the world
“When The World Is Running Down, You Make The Best Of What’s Still Around”
+1 for finding the deep cut.
Okay guys, time to call 911 and let them know a gangster has kidnapped a lil white Christian girl. That’ll at least get a move on.
Guess this is what we’re doing for the next 30 strips.
Because a protracted hostage crisis is why I bought into this damn strip.
Remember when this guy made a parents’ weekend the most riveting webcomic writing around and Amber’s arc wasn’t overtaken by her superhero gimmick like a metastasizing plot cancer?
Also remember when this comic used to be about college students coming of age, instead of going through hell on earth?
Or frankly, when the characters weren’t so consistently dumb?
No, I don’t.
No, because none of those things have ever been true. Not liking Amber’s arc is fair as it just might not be for you especially if you don’t have DID or any interest in superheroes, but serious occurrences have been happening since book 1 and characters have been shown to not be the brightest or always making the best decisions since book 1. Unbelievably, when you are high on adrenaline and in the middle of a kidnapping situation, you don’t become smarter and instead are more likely to act on whatever dumb impulse comes to mind that might help you survive.
It’s called Dumbing of Age, Rani.
For the people complaining about the lack of reality remember there are people in the comments that have survived getting hit by cars that had to be scrapped after the wreck. Who have survived getting set on fire, who have been shot at on numerous occaisions, who have delivered babies at home, and some that all of the above are true. That has happened in real life, how can what has happened in this comic be unrealistic?
Yeah tbh I wasnt down for those plot developments either. I just assumed they’d be the exception. Not, as you’ve demonstrated, the rule.
Nevermind, redact that. Thought you were arguing sth different.
Yeah, my life is a byproduct of someone taking the Heart of Gold for a joyride through our universe. My life should never be used as a yardstick for something that happens in the real world.
My apologies, Opus, my redaction was due to me realizing you were referring to your own experiences. I’m guilty of skimming your comic and thinking you were using past events in the comic to justify this arc.
My bad, dude. 🙁
*comment
So reincarnation isn’t serial.
(I am also aagrajag)
OK, maybe don’t use my life as an example. I just tried to calculate the odds against a small part of my life and my calculator had an overflow error because the numbers got bigger than 9.999999X10^99. That was just for the first 2 wrecks, not even including what happened after high school, the odds against my surviving long enough to graduate are an overflow error. I think maybe I’m a fictional character in some universe, because the odds of all of this happening to one person are beyond astronomical, much less the odds of living long enough to have kids and grandchildren, OK grandchild. Throw in the revolution, the getting set on fire, going to Boy’s State, being allowed to go to one of the best schools in the state…
Seriously, I can’t believe it, why should anyone else?
In the universal quantum superposition you only get to reflect on it online in those small sections of Hilbert Space where you survived and did well enough to have access to the Internet. It’s not that unlikely because you’re looking at an inherently biased sample.
I mean it’s either that or God put you on this earth specifically for the purpose of being Opus the Poet.
I will admit that subjectively it’s hard to tell the difference.
This is a common point of contention with writing.
Events in a story can’t just be plausible, they need to be narratively satisfying.
I don’t *really* care if the events that happen in this comic are physically plausible, I care if the story is satisfying and builds on what I came here for. Willis is a master of writing character drama, and in the right environment he’s good at action too, but trying to write a hostage thriller in the middle of a comedy/drama series causes a ton of problems, both narratively, and in audience expectations.
The only precedent for this sort of narrative is when Becky was kidnapped. That, in comparison, lasted less than three weeks from when the action started to when it began, and wasn’t nearly as focused on the mechanics of navigating an intense action scene.
Asking an audience to accept a major genre switch for two full months, going on three, and to just accept that the tropes, storytelling conventions, and rules of the universe are going to be very different for an extended stretch of time is a big sell.
Pretty much this, thank you for wording it so clearly. Just because something can happen in reality, that doesn’t mean it’s narratively satisfying.
To everyone else, if this is working for you, great, I’m happy you’re able to enjoy this storyline, but don’t go after the people who have problems with this arc.
I’m really not enjoying the current arc either, but I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop after all this. If the next arc is also a high-stakes action sequence, then I’m going to need a breather from the comic, my suspension of disbelief needs to recharge.
(Realistically everyone in this thing should be going to weeks or months of therapy, but we won’t get that.)
I certainly find this narrative continually interesting and emotionally engaging enough to come back day after day. Sometimes the comment section is almost as entertaining and engaging as the strip itself. The very small subsection of the comments spent whining that the comic doesn’t meet preconceived expectations is personally annoying, but certainly not enough to keep me away. Though it obviously bothers me enough to whine in turn.
It’s funny, because what drew me to follow Willis’ comics was precisely his ability to challenge my expectations as reader. He is continually doing micro- meso- and macro-dissonance within his comics and that’s what I like the most, maybe because I tend to find that also in my real life.
I get that this is not everybody’s favorite dish, but it has been part of Willis’ characteristic style for many years. Heck, I believe that even Wikipedia notes this about Willis’ works.
There’s a Wikipedia article about Willis? Of course there will be! Why did I not realize this? Pardon me while I go away for a little while.
It was established when she was talking to Ruth that Amber is verklempt.
Someone else needs to do their thing, if anyone can think of a thing to do.
All of them have made significant contributions to this fight so far.
Maybe some of them can synergize and come up with something.
I think Sarah and Walky are due for ideas at this point. And Walky really needs to redeem himself for letting Blaine get loose, so it would be helpful for an idea/redemption arc about now.
Back when I said I was gonna be done reading until this all resolved, I lied and I wish I had stuck to my original plan.
*Cries in panic attack*
You don’t have to put on the red light.
Posted in wrong place – sorry!
Where’s Ethan?
He went to the hospital to check on Mike.
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2020/comic/book-10/03-when-it-crumbles/wallet/
Welp, it’s up to Faz now.
Oh wait. It gets better. In the next strip the police arrive and forgo shooting Sarah in favor of capturing the vigilante.
Sarah and Walky need to get out of there, RIGHT NOW before the police show up.
Them leaving could be explained later; for example, they were scared and once Amber’s dad left they just ran to safety. But the last thing we need is police officers blaming this on the people of colour (especially because Sarah is tecnically carrying a weapon).
No they don’t, what they need to do, in fact what all of them need to do (black, white, Asian, male or female), is get together in a group and wait for the police to arrive and let Dorothy speak to the police
Unless you think the police will arrive, expecting to see someone like Blaine and deciding that instead of the older, white, male kidnapper they’ll settle for the young, black female friend instead
I mean this with all respect, but do you follow the news about Black and Brown people being disproportionately killed by police for even minor offences? In the city where I live, Eric Garner was put in a non-NYPD-approved chokehold by police and killed for the crime of selling loose cigarettes. Philando Castil was shot to death by a police officer who pulled him over, in front of his partner and her child. He disclosed that he was carrying a weapon but said he was reaching for his license and registration, not the weapon. He was shot seven times as soon as he moved.
All of the police officers in these cases have been acquitted. And these are only two examples – a quick online search will find you far, far more.
Yes, the police are required at this point. But Sarah is a Black woman holding a bat. Walky is a man of colour. Again, I’m so sorry to type this sentence, but when it comes down to a person of colour saying “a white man did this and I’m innocent,” a lot of police officers will assume that the person of colour is lying.
I know that that this is a sensitive topic but none of those examples are anywhere close to situation
The cops description is that of a an older, white man (again I’m assuming Dorothy described Blaine) not of a young, black girl or boy
Eric Garner and Philando Castil were being questioned for alleged crimes, Sarah is the complete opposite of who the cops are looking for, again you’re asking me to believe that the cops will drag Sarah and Walky off (in front of their white friends) because they’ll think something like “well they said a middle aged white man but maybe they really meant these black kids even though they’re wearing pajamas and they’re saying the black kids are their friends”
The Black schoolgirl getting body-slammed out of her chair in front of her mixed-race class.
The Black kids getting beat up by cops simply for standing around in public.
The … You know what, I don’t think I can continue. Please understand that there are far, far more examples out there, and you can either choose to explain them all away one by one, or you can choose to CHANGE YOUR MIND for once because all the people who disagree with you might possibly know something you don’t.
Im not talking about every single piece interaction because there are also positive ones as well but in this particular, unique situation then no I do not accept the premise being offered.
Too much information on Blaine, too many witnesses, extremely public setting and then what if some black cops turn up instead of racist cops
As I say im not saying it doesnt appen, I’m saying in this situation that Sarah was in more danger from Blaine than she was from the cops
I’m not sure what the odds are that a particular random sample of cops will contain a trigger-happy racist, but I’m pretty certain that pretty much 100% of them are going to be anti-costumed-vigilante.
But they may be less likely to shoot her unprovoked, though they’ll certainly want to question her.
The Black therapist who was talking down one of his patients when a cop got twitchy and shot the Black guy. Then handcuffed him before rendering aid.
I know that the US has a massive problem of cops acting out against black people with little or no excuse. Usually, those things don’t happen in front of a social media savvy congresswoman‘s campaign manager for a reason:
Like all bullies, they only bully when they think no one will, take them to task for it.
This situation is different, and they will all be preening like hell to look good in the eye of people in power.
It isn’t even always a matter of “bullying”. More often than not it’s just implicit bias. Cops tend to just assume the PoC is a threat. There have been multiple incidents of the cops showing up and killing the PoC who called them for help, even after having been given a description of the suspect.
Since we’re already entertaining catastrophic thinking:
“Two armed black teens fleeing the scene of a murder gunned down by police en route to investigate.”
Dina is taking this opportunity to practice her miming skills. Here’s ‘sitting in a chair’!
Whomp whomp whomp waaaAAAAAAAAaaaaaaah!
SAL! We need you!
I sure hope she’s right at the van’s path with a motorcycle.
I hope not! O.o In a collision between a van and a motorcycle, the motorcycle rider is going to come off faaaaaar worse, just going by the difference in mass between the two vehicles.
Knowing Sal, she’ll somehow hijack the van and punch Hulk-Blaine off the driver’s seat.
Yeah, I know. This isn’t Walky-verse Sal.
definetly not a good moment.
Quick! Call for Amber Alert!
There we go.
Oh Godammit
Unlike everyone else, This doesn’t surprise me at all.
My surprise happened 5 pages back
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2020/comic/book-10/03-when-it-crumbles/eventful/
while Amber was frozen letting all this happen. i
is this physical exhaustion?
why is amber holding her right arm?
is this Amazigirl teaching Amber a lesson that she is needed?
Why is Amber holding her right arm? You mean in panel #2?
To me, it looks like she’s holding her side/ribs. She’s already got what looks like a bruise under her right eye which wasn’t there prior to Dina’s ineffective attack in the kitchen, and she’s again holding her right arm/side in panel #3 of this strip when Blaine, Faz, and everybody else comes out of the house… so I think it’s safe to assume that she took a hit (or two) – maybe Blaine landed a blow with the hammer? – and sustained some damage during the (unshown) melee that ended with Joyce becoming Blaine’s human shield.
Which is weird, since the simplest assumption is that melee consisted of Joyce trying to attack and Blaine grabbing her and heading for the door.
Weird thing to skip over between strips without even cutting away.
Van beats people running on foot but man we are in a bad position. I’m sure we’ll have our deus ex machina tomorrow with Tuesday fixing everything though so none of this matters*
*I am bluffing hard and I’m actually fairly worried
A for effort lol
I hope one of them remembered that van’s license plate or something.
Becky has it tweeted on the cell-phone she lied about.
Come on, people, Joyce has just about the thickest plot armor of anyone in fiction. Yes this is a sucky situation in-comic. And in real life Joyce would be in massive danger. But right now, for the first time in many weeks of strips, Joyce is the only one in peril – and she’s not in very much peril. Things won’t get actually stressful again until one of her friends tries to rescue her.
Just noticed how Sarah is carrying the bat … on her left shoulder, which makes me think she is left-handed. And I think it has been pretty much determined that Sal and several others in the main cast are also southpaws, even though in real life only about 10% of the population is left-handed.
Which makes me wonder, so I’ll ask of anyone who may have met Willis at a show or convention or book-signing or whatever — since he draws so many of his characters as lefties, is he a left-hander himself?
I’m not sure Sal is naturally left-handed or if she had to learn to be left-handed due to injuries. Reminder that Amber stabbed through her right hand. https://www.dumbingofage.com/2018/comic/book-9-comic/01-flyin-to-the-red/knows/
If you look back at beginning of that flashback series (starting with this strip) when Sal tries to hold up the convenience store and takes Ethan hostage, she has the knife in her left hand, which leads me to assume that this was her dominant hand at the time.
In addition, I also noticed that in the flashback scene during that same chapter that showed the incident between Leland and Marcie, Leland was holding the rock in his left hand. So my suspicion still stands … Willis is himself left-handed and, whether consciously or not, that trait seems to manifest itself in several of the characters.
I’m right-handed!
Does that make the characters mirror images? Seriously, stick figures are hard for me, so I don’t know if it’s easier to draw a mirror image or not.
This is more depressing than I needed for today. I can only hope that Sal and Ruth plotted something between them, and maybe Asher, because if it gets known he aided a mass kidnapping, his dream of normal life goes down the drain.
I guess the gang will be wondering now whether not calling the cops sooner was such a good idea…
I thought they called as soon as they safely could, back when Blaine and the bros were subdued. This is probably just a few minutes later.
Well Amber did try to tell Becky not to call the police, hopefully Becky ignored her
Becky seem to have anticipated that police would get notified once her tweet got published. She wanted to make sure the situation didnt escalate until her friends were released
Yeah that worked out well didn’t it
I’m going to go out on a limb and make a prediction now. Faz is going to save Joyce. I’m not quite sure of the specifics of how it’s going to happen, but when it comes down to it, I think Faz will let Joyce go when Blaine isn’t watching, because she’s one of the few people who actually empathized with him, which brings the arc of Joyce’s emotional development back full circle and how she will reconcile her doubts about her faith. People can be redeemed/saved, if you simply have compassion for them. (Which, ultimately, is at the heart of Christian teachings.)
Okay let’s see … kidnapping, murder, threatening, hostage-taking … yeah, the only thing gonna save Blaine now is a presidential pardon.
Which, considering who occupies the Oval right now, is depressingly likely.
Has the CheeTUS pardoned any murderers yet? Or just his friends?
Michael Behenna, unpremeditated murder UCMJ, Mathew L. Golsteyn, unpremeditated murder UCMJ, Clint Lorance Murder UCMJ. All of the murderers were tried under military law for crimes in a war zone.
Which basically means Blaine is SOL, not military and criming against white people.
And they never saw Joyce again.
*is hit with dozens of thrown shoes*
Go Amber. This is the perfect time to pass out from fatigue.
No alt text :O
Alt text is “Grappling”
Oh Faz, Blaine left you behind. After you freed him. Shocker, bud.
look, he’s just getting hard lessons in how society teaches men to treat other men
Faz is in the van, as far as we know. Certainly hasn’t been seen outside it since before it started moving.
Entirely unrelated but I don’t mind being more light hearted rn, I’m taking Willi’s countdown to the new book release as a personal count down to my birthday
Did they just get Joyce killed?
Abducted and shaken up, but not killed.
Nah, Joyce is the main character of the series. She has plot armor.
They didn’t cause it, so there’s literally zero way that could happen.
I’m going to say the unpopular opinion:
Where is the .458 SOCOM or .500 Beowulf AR-15 conversion to take out the engine block?
What would be great now for the next strip would be the same wide-lens panels showing the van coming back for some dumb reason.
“Sorry, I forgot my mobile”.
“You know what? You can keep the little brat. The girl alone is annoying enough”.
Make it happen, Willis buffer!