She does have one fairly significant flaw we’ve seen – she helped Sarah plot the Raidah Vengeance Breakup Plan (such as it was) out of spite for Raidah’s ableism at the mall. Which, yeah, perfectly justified in disliking Raidah for, but that does suggest some serious ability for spite and the breakup plot was unconnected to Raidah being ableist. (We know it was ableism, specifically, that bothered Dina – ‘She was not kind to me, though I think she thought she was.’) She also has a tendency to be more lax with Sarah (who she likes) even when Sarah’s calling her weird for her more noticeably neurodivergent behavior, so there’s a bit of a double standard. Of course, Sarah’s never called her ‘mentally challenged’ and I’m pretty sure everyone at the party apologized for the ‘Dina kissing just seems weird and wrong’ infantilization, so she probably just has a longer fuse than I would on that front.
Note: None of this is me saying I dislike Dina. Not in the slightest! She’s one of my favorites. But I appreciate that she can be petty because it makes her more of a real character and not a perfect caricature of autistic loveliness, and as a petty autistic bongo myself I will point it out. Representation that’s not allowed flaws is boring, and I kind of grate against discussion of the autistic ace character as ‘pure’ – especially in the context of romance and sex, but also in general – because it feels a bit like infantilization. Which is something Dina herself has repeatedly brought up in her arc, though mostly focused on romance. (That’s not any commentators’ faults, just that we get that. A lot. Both as an ace and an autistic person, I have encountered those attitudes as active judging and they are unpleasant.)
There’s a reasonably strong evolutionary argument for revenge feeling good. As such I can see it being not just acceptable but also regarded as socially necessary in Dina’s eyes, in order to discourage errant behaviour.
Reasonable! But I would perhaps suggest making sure the cause and effect are clear.
In other words, once Jacob broke up with Raidah Joyce should have been on hand to say ‘Dina Saruyama sends her regards.’ Then it’s not petty at all! ^^
Hey Regalli, are you on Polygon? I saw a comment with your username on an article, and I was wondering if that was you, or if someone else randomly picked that handle.
Yep, that would be me! Been using a variant of this handle for years now, especially as my non-online handle name has been co-opted by an Amazon speaker.
Man, I wish I could have found a place near my campus that sold salad wraps at midnight.
I worked nights my last couple years of college, 11-7, and while during the day you could find all sorts of healthy foods, at night the only things available were pizza and burritos. My “freshman fifteen” wound up becoming my “senior shitload”.
As for why I didn’t prepare my own meals ahead of time like a responsible adult, the answer is shut up.
The reason you didn’t prepare your own meals ahead of time was because you were working nights and taking classes during the day. When the hell would you have had time to meal prep?
As a college student, I was fully aware of the subjective nature of time and the exploitation of such. How else did I once write a five thousand word essay in a single shift?!
Preparing your own meals like “a responsible adult” requires a LOT of spoons. Working a night shift job while also taking college courses takes AN IMMENSE AMOUNT OF SPOONS.
If it’s possible for you to do so, please give yourself a little bit of a break 🙂
The reason nutritious, home-cooked meals are a standardized part of American expectations is that they were built upon one worker’s income being sufficient to feed a family of four or five. This allowed one parent to stay at home, and devote the entire day to planning and assembling these perfect meals. In today’s economy, that’s no longer feasible. For a student with no income AND a full courseload to pull it off may never have been.
it’s fake, she doesn’t actually hate her in any way and only acts like there’s bad blood because she’s afraid to admit that Joyce might have found new friends…jealousy and hate aren’t the same, they just seem like it at times
IMO:
No, it’s real. But lately she’s been a little too obvious about it, risking that other people besides Dorothy might notice – and that would mean consequences for her. (Think of it as your “stealth meter” creeping upward in a game, when you make too much noise, get too close to a guard or the target you’re tailing, etc.) She fears discovery/rejection and wants to remain in the good graces of everyone besides Dorothy, especially Joyce (and Dina).
tl;dr the feelings are real, she’s only dialing it back a little so she doesn’t get caught.
Well, subtlety about some things isn’t at least. She can be deceptive when she wants to be because she lets enough other things slip out. It’s a trade off.
Becky can be very subtle. Think back to when she first came back to campus. Even Joyce didn’t realize there was anything wrong until the kiss and the breakdown.
Or her taking over Robin’s phone and social media during the intervention at Leslie’s.
It’s not even a trade off. The loudness gives cover to the subtlety.
It is a trade off to me as the things she is loud about make her obnoxious and she is frequently oversharing with strangers e.g. that her parents are both dead. She is sacrificing privacy of events in her life so often and regularly that people genuinely think she can’t be hiding things because she would overshare them.
But this then means much of her sneaky behaviours go unnoticed and her inner turmoil can be hidden. It gives people a false trust in her being open when she is a lot more closed off than they know and I see this as a flaw because it means she rarely relies on people and not even Joyce knows how much she is ever really hurting.
She is sacrificing the protection of privacy so she doesn’t have to often be truly vulnerable and open. Which is a survival technique, but it is no longer as helpful when surrounded by people that actually care about her and want to support her.
Honestly, I’ve always felt there’s something a bit performative about her dislike of Dorothy – people are supposed to know. I’d say it’s about a 50/50 split between “I’m mean to Dorothy because genuinely I don’t like her” and “I’m mean to Dorothy because that’s a thing I’ve established that I do”.
But you can not particularly like someone and still not really want to upset them, and I think Saturday’s strip, where Dorothy was arguably a bit snappy with her — the first time ever that she’s indicated this is getting to her — was where Becky realised she’d crossed a line.
I think you’re mistaking jealousy for hate. everything that she has done so far has been reactionary based on Dorothy’s being friendly with Joyce, only when Dorothy does something does Becky put on the hate act. she says that she hates Dorothy, yet if she hated her why is she going out of her way to be by Dorothy’s side with Joyce instead of forcing the two apart? And when she’s with Joyce alone, why doesn’t she try to get Joyce to see that Dorothy isn’t a good person for her? This isn’t actions of someone who hate someone, it’s been almost always reactions based on jealousy. She’s jealous, just under the surface she actually likes Dorothy.
I think that’s closer to the true situation. With a dose of Daihbid C’s performative dislike. It’s mostly a bit, with some real jealousy behind it and she’s been stressed and let it spill over more onto Dorothy than she really wanted.
Or she’s just a malicious evil monster. One of the two.
She’s right there admitting to Dina that she’s been a dick to Dorothy. Dina suggests a solution to apologise. Becky says yep, that’s what I should do. Feel free to speculate about where the story is going, but you don’t need to assign the worst motivations to a cartoon character. There is literally nothing happening behind their eyes. Any of them.
I love that as I scrolled by I half saw your comment as:
“So Dorothy isn’t real?”
I’m kind of happy, kind of disappointed in my use of brainspace that I had no doubt at my read of your comment and thought to myself, oh no: Dorothy is quite real.
Jealousy and hate aren’t the same, she hasn’t realized that yet. she puts on a false facade but in reality she doesn’t mind Dorothy at all and knows that it’s right for Joyce to go to a third party who only wants what’s best for her
Heh, I now foresee Becky recalibrating her running gag to be ‘nice’ in a sitcom way and being much more annoying that way than when she tried to be mean.
and I assume Dorothy will see through that bullshit just as easily as she did the ‘mean’ act.
IMHO Dina “nails” a lot of social interactions because she has no expectation of success or sense of self worth around nailing social interactions. Which makes her profoundly humble in an accepting and supporting way.
She might have way less social savvy than say a student like Joe, Billy, or Malaya. But all those characters have a high expectation of being savvy and understanding/hearing other people. It’s wrapped up in their self worth. Which means that no matter how much those characters “succeed” at social perception they often fail catastrophically because they bank on the belief that they know what others want. Meanwhile Dina just guesses, asks questions, and listens. Meaning that when she’s wrong she loses nothing, and when she’s right the audience celebrates her for getting it right.
Not being wrapped up in the expectations of social interactions because you don’t know or understand them, makes it actually a lot easier to nail them because you’re not trying to fit into the ‘accepted mold’ of them, but rather just reacting to things as they happen in the way you think is best. Sometimes anxiety can get in the way but just being straightforward tends to work pretty well regardless.
“get on our coats”? Odd word choice, I would say “put on our coats”.
Hmm, given panel 2, I wonder if Becky was lashing out at Dorothy and Joyce telling her to go ahead and have sex with Dina. With Dorothy taking Joyce’s share.
What throws me off about it is the direction they’re walking–they’re walking back toward Read, implying that they went even farther before turning around!
She’s showing at least a little self awareness, so that’s a good sign. Now if she drastically dial back on the jerkishness, she’ll be much more likable.
Does anyone like salads, or just eat them to stay thin?
That’s why “I’ll just have a salad” is a genuinely sad phrasing, by the way. It makes it clear that the person is forcing themselves not to eat more, and actually wishes they could have something else.
(Oh, and to clarify my statement: If somebody likes salads, I imagine they’ll say “I’ll have a salad!” or something. The phrasing “I’ll just have a salad” makes it sound like they don’t think a salad is anything to write home about, IMO.)
100% lettuce with salad dressing isn’t very beneficial and when spelled sideways is La Sad. OTOH a real salad is good for your gut-biom.
“I’ll just have a salad.” Sounds like NEVER getting the Tiara, just 5 or 6 tired tulips and the “Miss Congeniality” ribbon…
Sometimes I crave a salad…with a tub of Ranch dressing on top. I often crave vegetables … because I imagine the salty, bacon-laden vegetables my mom fed me.
It also kinda depends on the salad. There are hearty ones full of meat and cheese and egg and fruit and nuts and they are not what people who say that usually mean but they are amazing.
Lots of people like salads. My dad’s been enjoying them more and more lately. Lots of people enjoy the taste of a variety of vegetables and for people who don’t mind their food touching, like I do, they can taste great! Plus, again, many have protein, fruit, dressing, etc.
Nah, lots of places I’ve been will give you vinegar, esp. malt vinegar, to put on your French fries. And fried fish. And Balsamic is just the king of vinegars.
Hey, if you’re the one eating it, you get to decide what goes on it. One friend of mine thought it was incredibly bizarre that I put horseradish sauce on my roast beef sandwich, but after a few meals with various members of his family, nothing that anyone puts on their food surprises me. (And if putting horseradish on your roast beef is so strange, why does Arby’s have Horsey Sauce?)
there’s plenty of pizzas that substitute the tomato sauce as well as feature french fries and steaks with balsamic glazes, so you’re just not looking in the right place 😉
I love love love a good salad (which for me consists of a variety of tastes, colours and textures) but I’m vegan so sometimes the only thing I can eat is a “just a salad” salad which is made of sad lettuce, tomato and /maybe/ carrot if the place is feeling extra saucy….. except with no sauce…
That is sad. I’m a red meat omnivore but wouldn’t have any trouble making a filling vegan salad. Romaine or colored leaf lettuce, maybe chips/rice/pasta if someone wants a starchy base, black beans and/or chickpeas, firm tofu, cherry tomatoes, green onion. Olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper, maybe mustard or garlic powder. For extra sweetness, raisins. For extra decadence, crushed cashews or other nuts. I guess celery but I never have celery handy.
I might have trouble making meal salads that weren’t minor variations on that, but hey.
I know vegans who, when driving across Texas, like to stop at steakhouses to eat out. The steak is useless to them but they can fill up at the salad bar.
I genuinely like big tasty salads.
(They also don’t have to be boring or covered in other foods to be tasty times. You’re allowed to use spices and avacadoes and all kinds of cronchy fresh vegetables. Experiment, be free!)
Most people who say they’ll just have a salad are probably imitating women from previous generations, who were trying to sound like they had demure ladylike small appetites. But alternately, it can be because salads are usually considered an appetizer, especially at restaurants — like saying “I’ll just have an egg roll”.
IMO a nice big salad with lots of juicy things in it and vinegar dressing is particularly magnificent when you’re feeling kinda dehydrated, e.g. after a plane ride or working outside in dry weather. There’s a good reason why all the good salads are from places with hot climates.
(dang I just talked myself into wanting some Arabic salad and I’m out of cucumbers)
Romaine, green onion, yellow tomato (if you can get a good tomato at all), avacado, canola oil, Progresso balsamic vinegar, salt, tellicherry pepper, parsley flakes, thyme, sumac seeds… mm-mm-Mmh!
I adore salads with fruit and nuts as the main attraction. They’re genuinely delicious. Strawberries and walnuts/pecans especially. I also happen to hate lettuce though (way too watery for all that crunch?!) so almost all of my salads involve spinach or watercress/other forms of fresh greens.
I prefer to have salads on the side along with something a bit more meaty though just in case the salad is shoddily made. I have yet to work up the motivation to buy the stuff to make my own salads but I might just get there with how bad my eating habits have gotten lately, lol.
I am an obese man, and I must say, A good salad is extremely choice. My pitfall (which is probably true of many others) is that “salad” can include a lot of high calorie ingredients like dressing, croutons, cheeses, meats and oils. The trick is to include just enough of these ingredients to make the salad interesting and palatable, without going overboard.
#thestruggleisreal
That being said, I have found a LOT of success substituting a salad for a sandwich that contains pretty much the same ingredients, without the calorie-dense bread products.
I go through a couple bags of store brand pre-chopped salad per week. (It’s mostly iceberg, cabbage, and carrot.) It’s cheap (and so am I), easy (I’m too lazy to chop things), versatile (use the lettuce for chicken wraps, etc), and is filling without being fat- and calorie-dense.
I definitely recommend dried cranberries if you’re doing feta and balsamic. They generally are right next to the raisins.
Also, pre-covid some places had sweet trail mixes that you can add to your salad that include nuts, coconut flake, chocolate/peanutbutter chips, yogurt covered raisins, ect… so salad CAN be a dessert if you’re creative enough.
Salads, when well made, are wonderful. The problem is that so many people think putting ranch dressing on soggy lettuce makes a salad. If you’re a meat lover, imagine someone saying they hate steak and finding out they’ve been eating extra-well-done eye of round their whole life.
As someone who used to work at a grocery store salad bar, “I’ll just have a salad” can be a terrifying phrase. Even now I think of the mile-high plates people would make, loaded with all the fixings, and then they would add a mountain of dressing on top.
Even without the fancy ingredients though, sometimes you just want to toss together a salad instead of spending time cooking. Stores make it so easy to have a varied salad that you can just dump into a bowl and eat.
How about aggressively saying I’ll just have the salad after one too many pushy serving staff/friends? I rarely get the salad but I do remember one time I became a little grrrr because somehow I should have been more famished (it was a ahi tuna teriyaki salad and it was bigger than any plate I have at home. NO. NO MORE FOOD.)
Two girls, out walking alone at midnight. It shouldn’t make any difference, but this is the real world in 20-something. so we shall learn one of two things —
whether or not Amazi-Girl has really gone into retirement, or whether or not Dina COULD disembowel someone with her toes.
I’m going to guess Trident, to maintain her immaculate teeth. My second instinct would be Orbit, but I doubt Dorothy has had a dirty mouth in her entire existence.
The guy from the Lucy comic had a brownish-colored jacket and purple cap. The person in this comic has a purplish jacket and a brown cap. Plus, they also seem to be wearing a hood on their jacket (something missing in the other comic).
I need a comic that is just about these two being together. they are so fucking cute together and if anything happens to them im gonna have a criminal record of some kind (nothing to bad, maybe just get caught stealing a twizzler out of rage.)
I mean, we haven’t seen her interact with most of them that much, but everyone was willing to hide her back when that was a thing and seemed to get along with her well enough.
Helping someone in need because they’re Joyce’s friend and actually liking and wanting to spend time with them because you like their company are two different things
I think the hiding her wasn’t ‘because she’s Joyce’s friend’ so much as ‘the queer women in the dorm sticking up for her because she was a homeless lesbian whose father just attempted to kidnap her at gunpoint, so they weren’t hanging her out to dry.’ Still not necessarily a thing based on very strong personal opinions of Becky, but it was a thing about Becky herself and Becky was in fact grateful for it. For obvious reasons.
I do guarantee Mary hates her, though, and as a result there’s a nonzero chance the rest of the hall likes her more for that alone. We don’t see Becky as capable of quoting scripture as Joyce is, but I don’t think you can be Joyce Brown’s best friend through childhood without having SOME that can refute bad arguments.
Like, we are seeing Becky at peak obnoxiousness of late, but we’re seeing her mostly played against DOROTHY at her most insecure, and she seems to have gotten worse over the timeskip. You know, after her dad was murdered trying to kidnap her again, and the congregation she was already tense with but still fine attending helped bail him out. And Joyce got kidnapped TWICE in short succession. And then the murderer ‘committed suicide’* in the hospital, which as Robin so unartfully points out ties into Becky’s recent trauma about her mother attempting suicide and dying later in the hospital, and also he’s a friend’s shitty, abusive dad. (We do know Becky and Amber have some degree of relationship beyond their connections to Dina and Joyce. Speaking of, when Becky heard the news her very first thought was concern for Amber, and Becky gave genuine ‘even if your feelings about this moment change, and they might not but they might, those new feelings don’t invalidate these ones and you’re allowed to feel them all’ advice. Which Amber recognized as real advice and said she hadn’t steeled herself for it, which suggests to me she did appreciate it on some level.) Oh, and both their shitty abusive dads also killed a peer. Who only died after the two dads had, which is probably its own complicated layer of weirdness.
Amber’s been acting pretty terrible in what we’ve seen of her since timeskip, but we all recognize that’s in no small part because the pile-on of trauma has set her back. Pretty sure Becky’s in a similar place. It’s hard to watch and she’s still being a total asshat about it, but we have absolutely seen Becky be better than she is right now. It is not unbelievable to think other people genuinely like her.
* I think there’s a nonzero chance Amber’s shared with her close friends that she suspects foul play because Blaine was a mob stooge. There’s also every chance she HASN’T, because that’s potentially dangerous information (by implying the cop in question was also in with the mob – if she heard the ‘hello, Lester’ she may well have evidence and not just suspicions.) Either way, that first moment of hearing it was itself likely triggering. Even ROBIN recognized that.
Call up your frenemy and ask her about her treat choices, Becks. It can be your v. brave moment for the night, because I get it, letting Dina use her “killing claw” on you is a bit too Big and Scary right now.
You know, I’ve got the feeling that Becky has been so focussed on disliking Dorothy for so long that she’s never actually bothered to know who she is and what she is. Right now, she’s answering Dina with ‘safe guess’ answers: The sort of things that she imagines are true about girls like Dorothy.
“A little too mean to Dorothy” seems like an understatement to me. I think it’s time for Becky to drop the stupid “rivalry” with Dorothy thing entirely.
Becky, you were so obnoxious the last 10-100 strips that the only way you could save your likeability quotient would be a 5-star menu for dorothy. but hey, you are still not as bad as Malaya.
Honest question: is it okay if she blames her recent change of attitude on sex being an option in her relationship? Cause given how sudden her mood shift was and how much HAS happened, is it okay to blame it on THIS of all things?
I’m not even sure what the question means? Is it okay? What does that mean?
Is she right? Is this the stress that was making her meaner to Dorothy? Is it okay if it was?
Also remember that it’s been months for them, so everything that happened was awhile back and it’s not clear how sudden the mood shift was.
Probably more like ‘with how mean she has been being, can she really blame it all on this one specific thing as her reason for why she has been acting up?’ Both because it sidesteps responsibility a bit as she chose to act meaner and also because it is very likely NOT the only reason, as she is the process of processing multiple traumas, and this might just be the easiest problem out of all the things to blame and address while leaving the rest locked in the closet.
That’s quite possible, though since it leads to addressing her behavior I’m thinking it’s still a good step, even if there are still plenty of other things to unpack.
Interesting. I wonder what counts as “the deed” for Becky. There are a lot of fundamentalists who manage to get around their prohibitions by defining sex strictly as PiV (cue Garfunkel & Oates); what are the limits here?
On the reverse, there is joyce who thinks you get tummy pregnant. I went to a catholic school with an odd venn diagram of there is only 1 true sex and all else can be ignored and anything physical with anyone is suspect and you being over familiar with them… it was… painful.
Jocelyne!!!
EXTRA hooray! (76%, 2,505 Votes)
wait who's jocelyne i didn't read the first ten years of the strip (13%, 433 Votes)
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Dina is too perfect
is that possible?
It’s her one flaw!
According to The Good Place, it’s possible for something to be up to 104% perfect.
I think Dina probably qualifies at this point.
Dina hits 105%.
I got lucky on the reshuffle.
“I got lucky” is rather amusing phrasing for a Dina avatar to pop out with, considering the topic and context of the recent strips. 😛
That makes it 106% perfect!
She does have one fairly significant flaw we’ve seen – she helped Sarah plot the Raidah Vengeance Breakup Plan (such as it was) out of spite for Raidah’s ableism at the mall. Which, yeah, perfectly justified in disliking Raidah for, but that does suggest some serious ability for spite and the breakup plot was unconnected to Raidah being ableist. (We know it was ableism, specifically, that bothered Dina – ‘She was not kind to me, though I think she thought she was.’) She also has a tendency to be more lax with Sarah (who she likes) even when Sarah’s calling her weird for her more noticeably neurodivergent behavior, so there’s a bit of a double standard. Of course, Sarah’s never called her ‘mentally challenged’ and I’m pretty sure everyone at the party apologized for the ‘Dina kissing just seems weird and wrong’ infantilization, so she probably just has a longer fuse than I would on that front.
Note: None of this is me saying I dislike Dina. Not in the slightest! She’s one of my favorites. But I appreciate that she can be petty because it makes her more of a real character and not a perfect caricature of autistic loveliness, and as a petty autistic bongo myself I will point it out. Representation that’s not allowed flaws is boring, and I kind of grate against discussion of the autistic ace character as ‘pure’ – especially in the context of romance and sex, but also in general – because it feels a bit like infantilization. Which is something Dina herself has repeatedly brought up in her arc, though mostly focused on romance. (That’s not any commentators’ faults, just that we get that. A lot. Both as an ace and an autistic person, I have encountered those attitudes as active judging and they are unpleasant.)
There’s a reasonably strong evolutionary argument for revenge feeling good. As such I can see it being not just acceptable but also regarded as socially necessary in Dina’s eyes, in order to discourage errant behaviour.
Reasonable! But I would perhaps suggest making sure the cause and effect are clear.
In other words, once Jacob broke up with Raidah Joyce should have been on hand to say ‘Dina Saruyama sends her regards.’ Then it’s not petty at all! ^^
Hey Regalli, are you on Polygon? I saw a comment with your username on an article, and I was wondering if that was you, or if someone else randomly picked that handle.
Yep, that would be me! Been using a variant of this handle for years now, especially as my non-online handle name has been co-opted by an Amazon speaker.
Cool. Didn’t realize you’re a Winx fan, though your Amethyst avatar should’ve clued me in.
DANGIT I forgot my comment that this is sushi erasure!!
technically we never saw Dorothy eating sushi, perhaps she was merely sustained by the schadenfreude of making Joyce and Walky eat it
Man, I wish I could have found a place near my campus that sold salad wraps at midnight.
I worked nights my last couple years of college, 11-7, and while during the day you could find all sorts of healthy foods, at night the only things available were pizza and burritos. My “freshman fifteen” wound up becoming my “senior shitload”.
As for why I didn’t prepare my own meals ahead of time like a responsible adult, the answer is shut up.
My town has 24/7 corner stores that do it, they taste like shit but it’s semi food
The reason you didn’t prepare your own meals ahead of time was because you were working nights and taking classes during the day. When the hell would you have had time to meal prep?
As a college student, I was fully aware of the subjective nature of time and the exploitation of such. How else did I once write a five thousand word essay in a single shift?!
I initially read this as “in a single shit” and thought you meant you composed it on the toilet.
You’re welcome.
I don’t know if you chose the expression on you avatar to go with this one comment, but the result is pure genius.
Preparing your own meals like “a responsible adult” requires a LOT of spoons. Working a night shift job while also taking college courses takes AN IMMENSE AMOUNT OF SPOONS.
If it’s possible for you to do so, please give yourself a little bit of a break 🙂
(No pressure haha)
The reason nutritious, home-cooked meals are a standardized part of American expectations is that they were built upon one worker’s income being sufficient to feed a family of four or five. This allowed one parent to stay at home, and devote the entire day to planning and assembling these perfect meals. In today’s economy, that’s no longer feasible. For a student with no income AND a full courseload to pull it off may never have been.
Smooch that salad wrap
So her hate for Dorothy isn’t entirely real?
So it would seem.
But not completely fake. She latched onto it regardless because it’s easy and controllable.
it’s fake, she doesn’t actually hate her in any way and only acts like there’s bad blood because she’s afraid to admit that Joyce might have found new friends…jealousy and hate aren’t the same, they just seem like it at times
Not even real frenemies.
IMO:
No, it’s real. But lately she’s been a little too obvious about it, risking that other people besides Dorothy might notice – and that would mean consequences for her. (Think of it as your “stealth meter” creeping upward in a game, when you make too much noise, get too close to a guard or the target you’re tailing, etc.) She fears discovery/rejection and wants to remain in the good graces of everyone besides Dorothy, especially Joyce (and Dina).
tl;dr the feelings are real, she’s only dialing it back a little so she doesn’t get caught.
Sarah already knows. Walky’s sharp enough that he more likely than not knows. Becky is many things, but subtlety is not her forte.
The real question is why Joyce hasn’t said anything about it.
Well, subtlety about some things isn’t at least. She can be deceptive when she wants to be because she lets enough other things slip out. It’s a trade off.
Becky can be very subtle. Think back to when she first came back to campus. Even Joyce didn’t realize there was anything wrong until the kiss and the breakdown.
Or her taking over Robin’s phone and social media during the intervention at Leslie’s.
It’s not even a trade off. The loudness gives cover to the subtlety.
A lifetime’s experience at hiding her true feelings…
It is a trade off to me as the things she is loud about make her obnoxious and she is frequently oversharing with strangers e.g. that her parents are both dead. She is sacrificing privacy of events in her life so often and regularly that people genuinely think she can’t be hiding things because she would overshare them.
But this then means much of her sneaky behaviours go unnoticed and her inner turmoil can be hidden. It gives people a false trust in her being open when she is a lot more closed off than they know and I see this as a flaw because it means she rarely relies on people and not even Joyce knows how much she is ever really hurting.
She is sacrificing the protection of privacy so she doesn’t have to often be truly vulnerable and open. Which is a survival technique, but it is no longer as helpful when surrounded by people that actually care about her and want to support her.
Honestly, I’ve always felt there’s something a bit performative about her dislike of Dorothy – people are supposed to know. I’d say it’s about a 50/50 split between “I’m mean to Dorothy because genuinely I don’t like her” and “I’m mean to Dorothy because that’s a thing I’ve established that I do”.
But you can not particularly like someone and still not really want to upset them, and I think Saturday’s strip, where Dorothy was arguably a bit snappy with her — the first time ever that she’s indicated this is getting to her — was where Becky realised she’d crossed a line.
Beware, fool, the eye of the Yiga.
I think you’re mistaking jealousy for hate. everything that she has done so far has been reactionary based on Dorothy’s being friendly with Joyce, only when Dorothy does something does Becky put on the hate act. she says that she hates Dorothy, yet if she hated her why is she going out of her way to be by Dorothy’s side with Joyce instead of forcing the two apart? And when she’s with Joyce alone, why doesn’t she try to get Joyce to see that Dorothy isn’t a good person for her? This isn’t actions of someone who hate someone, it’s been almost always reactions based on jealousy. She’s jealous, just under the surface she actually likes Dorothy.
I think that’s closer to the true situation. With a dose of Daihbid C’s performative dislike. It’s mostly a bit, with some real jealousy behind it and she’s been stressed and let it spill over more onto Dorothy than she really wanted.
Or she’s just a malicious evil monster. One of the two.
Yeah, definitely (real) jealousy, semi-hidden behind a performative layer of “sure, I’m just doing a bit, that’s me, wacky likeable Becky.”
Well, if you want to take the worst possible interpretation, sure.
She’s right there admitting to Dina that she’s been a dick to Dorothy. Dina suggests a solution to apologise. Becky says yep, that’s what I should do. Feel free to speculate about where the story is going, but you don’t need to assign the worst motivations to a cartoon character. There is literally nothing happening behind their eyes. Any of them.
I love that as I scrolled by I half saw your comment as:
“So Dorothy isn’t real?”
I’m kind of happy, kind of disappointed in my use of brainspace that I had no doubt at my read of your comment and thought to myself, oh no: Dorothy is quite real.
Jealousy and hate aren’t the same, she hasn’t realized that yet. she puts on a false facade but in reality she doesn’t mind Dorothy at all and knows that it’s right for Joyce to go to a third party who only wants what’s best for her
Awwww. They ARE very good at being cute girlfriends ^_^
She also enjoys sushi and pudding cups!
Dina is the best out of all of us
Stay likeable, Becky.
I’m a little worried that line means she is still afraid of being rejected unless she maintains the “right presentation”.
It’s pretty reasonable to worry about people stopping liking you if you treat them like shit
appropriate avatar is appropriate
Yeees. It’s time to be nice to Dorothy.
Stay good, Riff!
Heh, I now foresee Becky recalibrating her running gag to be ‘nice’ in a sitcom way and being much more annoying that way than when she tried to be mean.
and I assume Dorothy will see through that bullshit just as easily as she did the ‘mean’ act.
Dina: “I do not understand social interactions”
also Dina: * Consistently nails social interactions *
Sometimes the best perspective is the one from outside.
Yeah, Dina, I get it too. It’s really confusing to see everyone screw everything up.
Came down here to say exactly that
IMHO Dina “nails” a lot of social interactions because she has no expectation of success or sense of self worth around nailing social interactions. Which makes her profoundly humble in an accepting and supporting way.
She might have way less social savvy than say a student like Joe, Billy, or Malaya. But all those characters have a high expectation of being savvy and understanding/hearing other people. It’s wrapped up in their self worth. Which means that no matter how much those characters “succeed” at social perception they often fail catastrophically because they bank on the belief that they know what others want. Meanwhile Dina just guesses, asks questions, and listens. Meaning that when she’s wrong she loses nothing, and when she’s right the audience celebrates her for getting it right.
Not being wrapped up in the expectations of social interactions because you don’t know or understand them, makes it actually a lot easier to nail them because you’re not trying to fit into the ‘accepted mold’ of them, but rather just reacting to things as they happen in the way you think is best. Sometimes anxiety can get in the way but just being straightforward tends to work pretty well regardless.
If Becky is in the polls, her approval rating has been tanking. Maybe.
Then again, salad shops are all I see open at midnight.
Finally yes Becky is capable of introspection good we can maybe start to like her again HUZZAH
And she apparently likes Starbursts.
Everyone likes starbursts
I know a guy who swears they are like eating wax.
Next Halloween, I need to get him some wax lips so he can see there’s no comparison.
that guy is an actual communist
I bought a bag of “fun size” Starburst (basically two-packs of the things) after Halloween. You’d expect a mix of flavors, right?
NOPE. They’re ALL watermelon. That’s nowhere near strong enough to mask the chemical base.
My dad likes honey. For a special treat: honey with beeswax.
So waxy Starburst might not be a complaint.
Starburst jelly beans are better. This is a fact.
Vegetarian here. No Starbursts for me, unless they nixed the gelatin since I last checked.
Nope, they still have gelatin. And palm oil.
Does the oil come from monkeys’ palms?
That’s why the monkey’s paw squeaks when it grants wishes; we took away all its oil.
unless it’s a hard candy or chocolate you can bet your ass that there’s gelatin in it…
and FYI: avoid pill capsules. They’re made from gelatin.
“get on our coats”? Odd word choice, I would say “put on our coats”.
Hmm, given panel 2, I wonder if Becky was lashing out at Dorothy and Joyce telling her to go ahead and have sex with Dina. With Dorothy taking Joyce’s share.
Becky’s still been a jerk.
Also unless things have changed a lot, looks like they’ve left campus by the last panel. Also I have no idea where they are.
Looks like they’re at Kirkwood & College.
https://www.google.com/maps/@39.1666344,-86.5344003,3a,69.9y,170.06h,93.4t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sSfaYQMPL47zwZdSa2Jv5sw!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?hl=en
Man, that’s over a mile in a straight line from Read Hall.
It’s the same row of stores Ruth and Billiefer walked by that one time.
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2018/comic/book-8/02-this-is-the-way-that-we-love/antagonizing/
What throws me off about it is the direction they’re walking–they’re walking back toward Read, implying that they went even farther before turning around!
“Get on our coats”, “get your shoes on”, and the like were used in West Virginia, and Indiana isn’t that far away.
I think it’s a Midwest thing. I grew up in Northern Illinois and my wife grew up in northern Michigan (not the UP). We still use that construction.
Midwesterners ride their coats like mighty steeds into the night, searching for their next meal. Such is life on the frontier.
I heard it both ways in PNW and CO… maybe generational too?
She’s showing at least a little self awareness, so that’s a good sign. Now if she drastically dial back on the jerkishness, she’ll be much more likable.
Well, Dina could ‘put on her coat’, but Becky is not in her own room. So she would have to ‘go get her coat’ from her own room before she put it on.
Does anyone like salads, or just eat them to stay thin?
That’s why “I’ll just have a salad” is a genuinely sad phrasing, by the way. It makes it clear that the person is forcing themselves not to eat more, and actually wishes they could have something else.
Yes, people like salads.
(Oh, and to clarify my statement: If somebody likes salads, I imagine they’ll say “I’ll have a salad!” or something. The phrasing “I’ll just have a salad” makes it sound like they don’t think a salad is anything to write home about, IMO.)
100% lettuce with salad dressing isn’t very beneficial and when spelled sideways is La Sad. OTOH a real salad is good for your gut-biom.
“I’ll just have a salad.” Sounds like NEVER getting the Tiara, just 5 or 6 tired tulips and the “Miss Congeniality” ribbon…
Sometimes I crave a salad…with a tub of Ranch dressing on top. I often crave vegetables … because I imagine the salty, bacon-laden vegetables my mom fed me.
It also kinda depends on the salad. There are hearty ones full of meat and cheese and egg and fruit and nuts and they are not what people who say that usually mean but they are amazing.
Lots of people like salads. My dad’s been enjoying them more and more lately. Lots of people enjoy the taste of a variety of vegetables and for people who don’t mind their food touching, like I do, they can taste great! Plus, again, many have protein, fruit, dressing, etc.
‘salad’ comes from the Roman “herba salata”, greens with oil, vinegar, and salt or brine. It’s a very old dish. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salad#Etymology
Salads are amazing because they are an excuse to pour balsamic vinegar on something.
Most other foods, that’s inexplicably frowned upon. Pizza, steaks, french fries, these are taboo. People are fools.
Nah, lots of places I’ve been will give you vinegar, esp. malt vinegar, to put on your French fries. And fried fish. And Balsamic is just the king of vinegars.
Hi neighbor! Have a ‘gansett!
Hey, if you’re the one eating it, you get to decide what goes on it. One friend of mine thought it was incredibly bizarre that I put horseradish sauce on my roast beef sandwich, but after a few meals with various members of his family, nothing that anyone puts on their food surprises me. (And if putting horseradish on your roast beef is so strange, why does Arby’s have Horsey Sauce?)
To put on your horsemeat sandwich, obviously!
there’s plenty of pizzas that substitute the tomato sauce as well as feature french fries and steaks with balsamic glazes, so you’re just not looking in the right place 😉
I had balsamic vinegar on pizza once and no food has ever quite compared.
I love love love a good salad (which for me consists of a variety of tastes, colours and textures) but I’m vegan so sometimes the only thing I can eat is a “just a salad” salad which is made of sad lettuce, tomato and /maybe/ carrot if the place is feeling extra saucy….. except with no sauce…
That is sad. I’m a red meat omnivore but wouldn’t have any trouble making a filling vegan salad. Romaine or colored leaf lettuce, maybe chips/rice/pasta if someone wants a starchy base, black beans and/or chickpeas, firm tofu, cherry tomatoes, green onion. Olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper, maybe mustard or garlic powder. For extra sweetness, raisins. For extra decadence, crushed cashews or other nuts. I guess celery but I never have celery handy.
I might have trouble making meal salads that weren’t minor variations on that, but hey.
I know vegans who, when driving across Texas, like to stop at steakhouses to eat out. The steak is useless to them but they can fill up at the salad bar.
I genuinely like big tasty salads.
(They also don’t have to be boring or covered in other foods to be tasty times. You’re allowed to use spices and avacadoes and all kinds of cronchy fresh vegetables. Experiment, be free!)
Most people who say they’ll just have a salad are probably imitating women from previous generations, who were trying to sound like they had demure ladylike small appetites. But alternately, it can be because salads are usually considered an appetizer, especially at restaurants — like saying “I’ll just have an egg roll”.
IMO a nice big salad with lots of juicy things in it and vinegar dressing is particularly magnificent when you’re feeling kinda dehydrated, e.g. after a plane ride or working outside in dry weather. There’s a good reason why all the good salads are from places with hot climates.
(dang I just talked myself into wanting some Arabic salad and I’m out of cucumbers)
Mmmm. Arabic salad.
I love salad! Potato salad, macaroni salad, egg salad, bean salad, tabouli salad…
…. oh, you mean that stuff with leaves in it. Blech.
Anything containing mayo is blech for me.
Romaine, green onion, yellow tomato (if you can get a good tomato at all), avacado, canola oil, Progresso balsamic vinegar, salt, tellicherry pepper, parsley flakes, thyme, sumac seeds… mm-mm-Mmh!
I adore salads with fruit and nuts as the main attraction. They’re genuinely delicious. Strawberries and walnuts/pecans especially. I also happen to hate lettuce though (way too watery for all that crunch?!) so almost all of my salads involve spinach or watercress/other forms of fresh greens.
I prefer to have salads on the side along with something a bit more meaty though just in case the salad is shoddily made. I have yet to work up the motivation to buy the stuff to make my own salads but I might just get there with how bad my eating habits have gotten lately, lol.
I am an obese man, and I must say, A good salad is extremely choice. My pitfall (which is probably true of many others) is that “salad” can include a lot of high calorie ingredients like dressing, croutons, cheeses, meats and oils. The trick is to include just enough of these ingredients to make the salad interesting and palatable, without going overboard.
#thestruggleisreal
That being said, I have found a LOT of success substituting a salad for a sandwich that contains pretty much the same ingredients, without the calorie-dense bread products.
“There’s been a mistake. You’ve accidentally given my the food that my food eats.” -Ron Swanson
Some salds yes, some other nah
I go through a couple bags of store brand pre-chopped salad per week. (It’s mostly iceberg, cabbage, and carrot.) It’s cheap (and so am I), easy (I’m too lazy to chop things), versatile (use the lettuce for chicken wraps, etc), and is filling without being fat- and calorie-dense.
I prefer mine with spinach, topped with feta, balsamic, and maybe some meat. Raisins are a great idea, I should try that.
I definitely recommend dried cranberries if you’re doing feta and balsamic. They generally are right next to the raisins.
Also, pre-covid some places had sweet trail mixes that you can add to your salad that include nuts, coconut flake, chocolate/peanutbutter chips, yogurt covered raisins, ect… so salad CAN be a dessert if you’re creative enough.
Yep. Dried cranberries are also excellent in Waldorf salad.
Salads, when well made, are wonderful. The problem is that so many people think putting ranch dressing on soggy lettuce makes a salad. If you’re a meat lover, imagine someone saying they hate steak and finding out they’ve been eating extra-well-done eye of round their whole life.
Uuuuuuuugh. I know someone who “loves steak”; they get nice cuts of meat, but then over-season and cook them over gas until they bounce.
Salt, pepper, charcoal, medium-well at the most.
As someone who used to work at a grocery store salad bar, “I’ll just have a salad” can be a terrifying phrase. Even now I think of the mile-high plates people would make, loaded with all the fixings, and then they would add a mountain of dressing on top.
Even without the fancy ingredients though, sometimes you just want to toss together a salad instead of spending time cooking. Stores make it so easy to have a varied salad that you can just dump into a bowl and eat.
How about aggressively saying I’ll just have the salad after one too many pushy serving staff/friends? I rarely get the salad but I do remember one time I became a little grrrr because somehow I should have been more famished (it was a ahi tuna teriyaki salad and it was bigger than any plate I have at home. NO. NO MORE FOOD.)
I don’t think I’ve seen Dorothy eat anything unhealthy ever. Ever.
With all those McNuggets, I can’t imagine Walky’s that healthy.
She’s gotten pizza.
*plays Frank Zappa’s “Room Service” on a PA speaker*
Two girls, out walking alone at midnight. It shouldn’t make any difference, but this is the real world in 20-something. so we shall learn one of two things —
whether or not Amazi-Girl has really gone into retirement, or whether or not Dina COULD disembowel someone with her toes.
I think the crime rate around DoA IU is way higher than in the real world. Like Gotham to real NYC.
I just had a big ol’ tooth yanked out and lived on pudding cups and yogurt for a couple days. Yum yum.
Had my jaw broken and didn’t chew anything for six weeks. Whipped yoghurt and spreadable cheese. Things from a blender. Salads were nice after that.
I wonder what kind of gum it was. Fruit Stripe, perhaps, to prove that Dorothy’s *unpredictable*!
Yipes! Stripes! Fruit Stripe’s got ’em!
I’m going to guess Trident, to maintain her immaculate teeth. My second instinct would be Orbit, but I doubt Dorothy has had a dirty mouth in her entire existence.
It was probably Trident White or Dentyne.
Dina truly is best girl. Who knew?
OK, fine, Becky knew. and like 99% of the readers.
I can totally see Salad wraps being Dorothys favorite food and desert.
Nah her favorite dessert is probably Tic-Tacs, or maybe Breath Savers.
Tiwoli looks kinda like I lov vit, only backwards. Sounds like a McDonalds slogan.
Is that guy behind them the same asshole that assaulted Lucy?
I’m guessing not, but who knows?
No, its not.
The guy from the Lucy comic had a brownish-colored jacket and purple cap. The person in this comic has a purplish jacket and a brown cap. Plus, they also seem to be wearing a hood on their jacket (something missing in the other comic).
The cataracts are getting on top of me. I could swear this guy’s jacket is brown.
Wait. That really WAS what it was all about?
… HUG BECKY.
I need a comic that is just about these two being together. they are so fucking cute together and if anything happens to them im gonna have a criminal record of some kind (nothing to bad, maybe just get caught stealing a twizzler out of rage.)
In the meantime, abstaining from the poll because (even though its cribbing from how Colbert used to discuss Bush), “Professor DeSanto” is still bull.
“Just don’t get her mac and cheese, it makes her cry for some reason”
“I threw the box at her head, and she just started bawling. I didn’t throw it that hard!”
Keep the likeability up? Apart from the otherworldly perfect Dina and Dorothy and Joyce is there anyone in the student cast that actually likes Becky?
Mind you if she uses this sudden realization as a spring board to become a better person then that’ll be a good thing
Hopefully the apology is sincere though
Walky does. They both have a similar sense of humour and similarly take things too far at times.
Who in the cast actually dislikes her?
I mean, we haven’t seen her interact with most of them that much, but everyone was willing to hide her back when that was a thing and seemed to get along with her well enough.
Helping someone in need because they’re Joyce’s friend and actually liking and wanting to spend time with them because you like their company are two different things
Yeah, but again, who have we seen actually disliking her? Outside of the comment section, I mean.
Joe doesn’t seem too fond of her, though there’s context attached to their interaction post-time skip.
Evidence that they don’t doesn’t really exist though. As far as I can remember anyway.
I think the hiding her wasn’t ‘because she’s Joyce’s friend’ so much as ‘the queer women in the dorm sticking up for her because she was a homeless lesbian whose father just attempted to kidnap her at gunpoint, so they weren’t hanging her out to dry.’ Still not necessarily a thing based on very strong personal opinions of Becky, but it was a thing about Becky herself and Becky was in fact grateful for it. For obvious reasons.
I do guarantee Mary hates her, though, and as a result there’s a nonzero chance the rest of the hall likes her more for that alone. We don’t see Becky as capable of quoting scripture as Joyce is, but I don’t think you can be Joyce Brown’s best friend through childhood without having SOME that can refute bad arguments.
Like, we are seeing Becky at peak obnoxiousness of late, but we’re seeing her mostly played against DOROTHY at her most insecure, and she seems to have gotten worse over the timeskip. You know, after her dad was murdered trying to kidnap her again, and the congregation she was already tense with but still fine attending helped bail him out. And Joyce got kidnapped TWICE in short succession. And then the murderer ‘committed suicide’* in the hospital, which as Robin so unartfully points out ties into Becky’s recent trauma about her mother attempting suicide and dying later in the hospital, and also he’s a friend’s shitty, abusive dad. (We do know Becky and Amber have some degree of relationship beyond their connections to Dina and Joyce. Speaking of, when Becky heard the news her very first thought was concern for Amber, and Becky gave genuine ‘even if your feelings about this moment change, and they might not but they might, those new feelings don’t invalidate these ones and you’re allowed to feel them all’ advice. Which Amber recognized as real advice and said she hadn’t steeled herself for it, which suggests to me she did appreciate it on some level.) Oh, and both their shitty abusive dads also killed a peer. Who only died after the two dads had, which is probably its own complicated layer of weirdness.
Amber’s been acting pretty terrible in what we’ve seen of her since timeskip, but we all recognize that’s in no small part because the pile-on of trauma has set her back. Pretty sure Becky’s in a similar place. It’s hard to watch and she’s still being a total asshat about it, but we have absolutely seen Becky be better than she is right now. It is not unbelievable to think other people genuinely like her.
* I think there’s a nonzero chance Amber’s shared with her close friends that she suspects foul play because Blaine was a mob stooge. There’s also every chance she HASN’T, because that’s potentially dangerous information (by implying the cop in question was also in with the mob – if she heard the ‘hello, Lester’ she may well have evidence and not just suspicions.) Either way, that first moment of hearing it was itself likely triggering. Even ROBIN recognized that.
Dina is so sweet.
Call up your frenemy and ask her about her treat choices, Becks. It can be your v. brave moment for the night, because I get it, letting Dina use her “killing claw” on you is a bit too Big and Scary right now.
Dorothy likes sushi! I don’t know if they can find sushi at midnight, but it’s a college town, so I think the possibility exists at least.
Becky even knows that, cuz Dorothy bought her sushi a while back. She probably doesn’t remember though.
Or Becky considers vegetarian sushi a salad wrap and they are going to get here cucumber avaacado roll.
Midnight Grocery Store Sushi is actually the perfect frenemy/rival apology gift
It’s thoughtful, but barbed with RISK
(of stomach grossness)
You know, I’ve got the feeling that Becky has been so focussed on disliking Dorothy for so long that she’s never actually bothered to know who she is and what she is. Right now, she’s answering Dina with ‘safe guess’ answers: The sort of things that she imagines are true about girls like Dorothy.
Actually, that’s a good question, what DOES dotty eat?
Besides finger nails
overpriced sushi
Look, an oxymoron.
It’s not exactly in the same league as “jumbo shrimp”, “down escalator”, and “Microsoft Works” now is it.
“A little too mean to Dorothy” seems like an understatement to me. I think it’s time for Becky to drop the stupid “rivalry” with Dorothy thing entirely.
I may have been less than perfectly cordial.
Dorothy clearly likes Caramel
Becky, you were so obnoxious the last 10-100 strips that the only way you could save your likeability quotient would be a 5-star menu for dorothy. but hey, you are still not as bad as Malaya.
Sudden wholesomeness? In *my* Dumbing of Age???????
That is more or less what I think Dorothy eats as well. Wholesome and nutricious, and a little boring.
Honest question: is it okay if she blames her recent change of attitude on sex being an option in her relationship? Cause given how sudden her mood shift was and how much HAS happened, is it okay to blame it on THIS of all things?
I’m not even sure what the question means? Is it okay? What does that mean?
Is she right? Is this the stress that was making her meaner to Dorothy? Is it okay if it was?
Also remember that it’s been months for them, so everything that happened was awhile back and it’s not clear how sudden the mood shift was.
Probably more like ‘with how mean she has been being, can she really blame it all on this one specific thing as her reason for why she has been acting up?’ Both because it sidesteps responsibility a bit as she chose to act meaner and also because it is very likely NOT the only reason, as she is the process of processing multiple traumas, and this might just be the easiest problem out of all the things to blame and address while leaving the rest locked in the closet.
That’s quite possible, though since it leads to addressing her behavior I’m thinking it’s still a good step, even if there are still plenty of other things to unpack.
I love Becky right now♡.
Not mean enough, if you ask me.
Well Becky realized she overdid it with Dorothy at least. That’s a good first step.
Aack no, change my avatar back to Dorothy.
Interesting. I wonder what counts as “the deed” for Becky. There are a lot of fundamentalists who manage to get around their prohibitions by defining sex strictly as PiV (cue Garfunkel & Oates); what are the limits here?
On the reverse, there is joyce who thinks you get tummy pregnant. I went to a catholic school with an odd venn diagram of there is only 1 true sex and all else can be ignored and anything physical with anyone is suspect and you being over familiar with them… it was… painful.