I’m still tossing up over whether this is Dotty having an anxiety dream about not being as competent as she likes to think she is, or Joyce having a dream about falling to shit and then Dotty will swoop in and save the day as her knight in shiny armour?
I think it is all of that and also a refusal to let go of the versions of Joyce that were more dependent on her, while not fully accepting the Joyce who has grown and changed and is figuring herself out more.
Given that as Dorothy starts to feel like she is losing control, she switches to her outfit from the night of the kidnaping, I strongly suspect this is Dorothy’s dream.
It’s actually both having a psychic link established by Galasso. It connects them with their true past selves so from here they can actually CHANGE THE PAST. This is the start of the saving Mike arc, and the Joyrothy infinite love arc.
Aside: Tossing up is vomiting. Tossing out is throwing away garbage or suggesting ideas. Tossing around is similar, kind of juggling ideas. (Maybe see rolling over/rolling around) And tossing is throwing a thing somewhere or engaging in sexual congress.
Shared cause I’m genuinely curious if you meant you were sick to your stomach over whether it’s Joyce or Dorothy dreaming.
Saying you’re tossing up between a set of choices is a really common turn of phrase here, but I don’t think you’d ever describe vomiting as tossing up (we do use synonyms though, like throwing up or chucking, hurl is recognised but distinctly American, you only hear that one on movies).
This is all imaginary, but the difference between real and imaginary can collapse to nothing.
Suppose you have a right triangle. Suppose one of the sides is a single unit long and 90 degrees to it you have a side which is an imaginary unit. What is the length of the hypotenuse that connects them?
I was gonna say that side is 1+i long, which has an absolute value of sqrt(2).
But Yumi’s approach gives me acute confusion. All I come up with is “Pythagoras holds no power over here in the complex plane”.
Three points determine a plane, whatever set of dimensions you happen to be enjoying. So Pythagoras is good everywhere. Now if you want to go non-Euclidean…
@pergola
yeahhh that makes good gut sense. oh, what a prankster that clif *shakes fist* (…i’m still not quite clear what the joke is) (like why) (although, why not) (sometimes, it’s just time for a math joke)
Which makes me wonder – how do you guys deal with things mentally connected to a trauma? I tend to try the ‘it’s just a shirt, get over it’ approach, and yet it always feels so very good when I get around to donating the thing.
Mm, “it’s just x, get over it” very seldom works. And the deeper rooted something is, the less likely it will work- and the more likely it’ll backfire when attempted, instead adding in shame or guilt or even potentially further trauma on top of the issue, because “it’s just x, why am I not getting over it?”
There’s no single- or simple- answer. For me personally, avoidance when reasonably possible (for example, avoiding living in places where I’ll regularly hear car doors slamming- not a physical item but relevant), over a decade of therapy, and self-awareness and self-forgiveness. Sometimes reclaiming stuff, concepts, etc, but mostly once I was well enough to do so, consciously separating from things tied to the trauma.
It’s definitely Dorothy’s nightmare, and I’d be horrified if a crush saw me this way in her dreams. Joyce comes across as a burden and a source of endless guilt here. Not saying you’re wrong, just…ouch
Pretty sure Dorothy. See the door in panel four? That’s the door amber closed to protect her from Ryan. The book is wedged in the corner. That door means a lot to Dorothy and nothing to joyce. I’m not even sure joyce knows that book amber used to lock the door was lilac.
This dream is about the fear of losing control, I think. About not being able to do something. That’s why her trauma makes an appearance, she had no control whatsoever over that situation. I think she’s processing her yale-breakdown
She isn’t seeing Joyce as a burden, she’s seeing *herself* as abandoning Joyce in favor of recentering her priorities. Y’know, the *thing she just started doing.* This is basically her subconcious saying “Dotty. Joyce *is* your priority.”
Saw someone else say it and I don’t feel like fact checking, but in the last panels Dotty’s outfit also changed to the one she was wearing during the kidnapping.
Dotty WAS getting therapy, but I’m guessing she’s keeping things from her therapist or stopped going altogether. Considering she’s gone into overachiever overdrive, chances are she decided “therapy is superfluous and I already have all the tools myself, I will not burn out.”
The one on the far right in the last panel was when she was trying to seduce Jacob, which was a really bad idea that Dorothy was late to know about. So maybe she’s claiming some responsibility over that. Her outfit yesterday is more akin to what she used to wear. She still does vests and buttonups but she’s been more casual since the time skip. The vest also changed in the last panel yesterday from closed black to the open brown ik walkyverse Joyce was known for. I remember her wearing it in doa too but i don’t remember the context. I think yesterday’s Joyce is generally more representative of the old Joyce Dorothy’s been clinging on to. Today she’s shifted to her pink long sleeve which is a more iconic Joyce 2.0 outfit, representing i think the growth she’s gone through. The Joyce on the horse has been questioning Dorothy this whole time, which with the shift to a more current outfit cements that Joyce has been drifting away from Dorothy as an authority figure
Interestingly enough, a lot of THC can actually prevent REM sleep and therefore prevent dreaming, but I guess it does depend a lot on the individual user and strain, the ratios of cannabinoids in the strain, etc.
Someone pointed out that door is clearly the Ryan door, when Amber locked her inside using a book to wedge the door shut to deal with the knifewielding fucker.
Joyce wouldn’t have even known what that scenario LOOKED like.
I’d imagine it’s dorothy given how stressed she’s been lately and with joyce just getting into a relationship with joe and overall in a better mood, mom aside she wouldn’t probably imagine multiple versions of herself needing help (if anything she’d probably dream about her mom/family)
Right now I’m laying the coding and organizational backwork for a series of web games (“flash games”) based on the comic, recruiting collaborators like some kind of Yippee D. Luffy.
Also, I just finished rewatching Encanto a little bit ago, so now this is playing my head:
Under the surface
I hide my nerves, and it worsens, I worry something is gonna hurt us
Under the surface
The ship doesn’t swerve as it heard how big the iceberg is
Under the surface
I think about my purpose, can I somehow preserve this?
Line up the dominoes
A light wind blows
You try to stop it tumbling
But on and on it goes
I admit I was a little dubious about that movie in the first few scenes, but then the Pressure song started and my jaw dropped with the realization “oh wow, this movie UNDERSTANDS”
Never leaving? That’s kind of a big promise. Surely not never. Like what if Joyce has to take a dump? You gonna be right there for emotional support, Dorothy?
Dina would be pleased at the mention of dinosaurs. She would then point out the incongruence of naming a dairy product after a bird ancestor. Also, she wouldn’t eat it, being lactose intolerant – like 90% of Asian people. Which is also why she eats her breakfast cereal without milk. She’s not being weird.
She would roar, but instead of screeching like the JP T. rex she would end up sounding like Perry the Platypus because irl dinosaur roars were probably more akin to a crocodile’s below than a deer’s call
Dina would be pleased at the mention of dinosaurs. She would then point out the incongruence of naming a dairy product after a bird ancestor. Also, she would not drink it, on account of being lactose-intolerant – like 90% of Asian people. Which is also why she eats her cereal without milk.
When you skip three comics back to January 9th 2015, she says she’s bored of eating just cereal and brings a glass of Mountain Dew. I take that as Dina not having milk with her cereal.
Dorothy was only trying her best, trying to separate Good Joyce from Bad Joyce away but due to stress and lack of sleep she messed up and put the transmogrifier sideways =/
So Dorothy sees literally every issue Joyce has as a different person.
Symbolizing how she wants to help every person by being a better leader.
And if she can’t help one person, how can she help the world full of people LIKE Joyce who have so many issues and need help.
In the last panel you can see the outline of giant hands.
maybe this is the moment when the the nightmarish scene fades away and the dreamer sees their real outstretched arms, flailing frantically, grasping at nothing
but occasionally, for comedic purposes, they will suddenly seize something in real life.
i’m calling it now, the dreamer (aka Dorothy) grabs Joyce’s face. it’s funny cuz you get to see Joyce trying to do The Triangle through Dorothy’s firm, two-handed, full-face squeeze
Oooooh, it’s Dorothy’s nightmare. After reading this one, I started leaning this direction and then I noticed that in this one, the second Joyce is wearing the sweater she was wearing when she was roofied and attacked, which Dorothy felt incredibly responsible for. So yeah, that’s a guilt-anxiety dream right there.
Interesting to see that the gray horse has disappeared but a gray Joyce has appeared. Was the horse Joyce from the start? Did it symbolize how strong their friendship is? The energy of their relationship? A love that runs more and more fast and can’t be stopped anymore?
I’m always amazed at how dreams are portrayed in stories, as amazing, disorienting, with deep and convoluted meanings.
I dreamt I ate a Snicker’s Bar. Took me half a day to realize I hadn’t violated my diet, as I hadn’t actually eaten the Snicker’s Bar. I don’t even like Snickers.
Also as someone who has bizarrely symbolic nightmares it’s pretty easy to interpret the door as the door that Dorothy was behind when the pastor’s son of a wannabe serial killer went for her and amber, and that sweater is the one that Joyce was wearing during the roofie incident. This dream is specifically about that trauma and how she’s been coping with it so far.
It could also be seen as her leaving behind present Joyce to focus on past Joyce. “I’m never leaving you!”
I feel that the not wearing pants symbolism from the previous strip is pretty self explanatory. She has feelings for Joyce. Even if she 100% got over her internalized biphobia literally overnight she’s still someone who say Joyce go through all of that and is afraid of hurting her. Dorothy hasn’t been okay for a while.
I think though that there’s also the teaching Joyce to wank it on the washing machines, she may have gone pantsless there and that’s filtering into her dream as a situation she tried to take control and be there for joy I (that objectively may have been a bit much)
She kept basically asking Joyce if she wanted to back out of it and Joyce was like no no no it’s fine it’s fine and then acted like it would be unfaithful to Joe to continue and I get the vibe that the attraction is mutual actually. Also I think you’re right but it’s a very clutzy “not out to myself yet” vibe which is why I think it’s endearing.
Can someone remind me the significance of the door? I remember that’s the sweater she was wearing the night of Ryan but don’t remember what happened with the door.
That said, it is really nice to finally see the depths of her accrued trauma. She’s been working hard to keep it all under control for a long time, but of course it’s not something that can just be hard work-ed away.
After I got contact lenses I got a pattern of dreams so repetitive it allowed me to achieve lucid dreaming because of how much of a dead giveaway it was. It went:
1) I’m going about my day
2) Oops ! Lost my contact lenses ! Oh dear how shall I find such tiny transparent things when half-blind ?
3) Oh good, found one ! But where’s the other ?
4) Found the second one, great!
5) Found a third! Good, nice to have a spare but then was the second one I found actually my second lens? The shapes are a bit off, these look more like soft lenses than the hard ones I have, I need to keep looking
6) Found a fourth… But the shape is still wrong! Where are my ACTUAL contact lenses??????
…
456) OK I’m finding squiggly contact lenses now, at least I know THOSE aren’t mine
….
Infinity) The world is contact lenses of infinite shapes and sizes but I can’t find MINE.
It’s adorable how much Dorothy cares about Joyce tbh.
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Each Joyce is some mistake that brings more and more guilty to Dorothy.
I’m still tossing up over whether this is Dotty having an anxiety dream about not being as competent as she likes to think she is, or Joyce having a dream about falling to shit and then Dotty will swoop in and save the day as her knight in shiny armour?
Taking bets now, folks! 😀
I think it is all of that and also a refusal to let go of the versions of Joyce that were more dependent on her, while not fully accepting the Joyce who has grown and changed and is figuring herself out more.
Given that as Dorothy starts to feel like she is losing control, she switches to her outfit from the night of the kidnaping, I strongly suspect this is Dorothy’s dream.
Gotta be Dotty: panels four and six show the door she couldn’t open when Amber was disemboweling Scarface.
Neither. This isn’t a dream. We’ve gone Into the Joyceverse.
Oop should have looked one more reply down, I was beaten to it
It’s actually both having a psychic link established by Galasso. It connects them with their true past selves so from here they can actually CHANGE THE PAST. This is the start of the saving Mike arc, and the Joyrothy infinite love arc.
Aside: Tossing up is vomiting. Tossing out is throwing away garbage or suggesting ideas. Tossing around is similar, kind of juggling ideas. (Maybe see rolling over/rolling around) And tossing is throwing a thing somewhere or engaging in sexual congress.
Shared cause I’m genuinely curious if you meant you were sick to your stomach over whether it’s Joyce or Dorothy dreaming.
“Tossing up different ideas” can be a legitimate if slightly odd turn of phrase – as in throwing both ideas in the air and seeing which one “lands”. 🙂
That’s how I’ve always used it anyways; and I’m 41. xD
It sounds like an unusual take on “toss up”. As in “I think it’s a toss up whether it’s Joyce or Dorothy dreaming.”
Saying you’re tossing up between a set of choices is a really common turn of phrase here, but I don’t think you’d ever describe vomiting as tossing up (we do use synonyms though, like throwing up or chucking, hurl is recognised but distinctly American, you only hear that one on movies).
Plot twist: This is actually Joe’s dream.
He doesn’t get it either…
This is very clearly a Dorothy’s Dream Sequence
This is Mike’s dream.
SpiDor-Woman: Across the Joyce-Verse
Captain Julia Grey: Joyces, assemble!
EveryJoyce, Everywhere, All At Horse.
Dottenheimer: for I am become Joyce, the destroyer of Dots.
Dottie™: do you ever think about Joyce?
This is all imaginary, but the difference between real and imaginary can collapse to nothing.
Suppose you have a right triangle. Suppose one of the sides is a single unit long and 90 degrees to it you have a side which is an imaginary unit. What is the length of the hypotenuse that connects them?
is it sqrt(1+i)?
i’m worried because i feel like this should be funny and i can’t see it
A^2+B^2=C^2
1^2+i^2=C^2
i is the square root of -1, so i^2 would be -1.
1+ -1=C^2
C=sqrt(1+-1)
We don’t say “1+-1” We say 1-1. Which is zero, which was Clif’s point.
Sorry for trying to make things clear. But yes, I got what clif’s point was.
aaah ty @yumi!! I’d forgotten about this i=sqrt(-1) bit!
Heheh. Cheeky =)
A little over 1.4, unless you forget the second order Pythagorean correction
I was gonna say that side is 1+i long, which has an absolute value of sqrt(2).
But Yumi’s approach gives me acute confusion. All I come up with is “Pythagoras holds no power over here in the complex plane”.
Well, for the joke to work, you need a way of ending up at zero.
Three points determine a plane, whatever set of dimensions you happen to be enjoying. So Pythagoras is good everywhere. Now if you want to go non-Euclidean…
@pergola
yeahhh that makes good gut sense. oh, what a prankster that clif *shakes fist* (…i’m still not quite clear what the joke is) (like why) (although, why not) (sometimes, it’s just time for a math joke)
Apparently Raidah slamming Dorothy’s presidential dreams was her canon event.
Hey, she found pants!
not the presidential ones, unfortunately
Just gotta stay behind the podium, it’ll be fine!
Yep, the ones she was wearing when she was kidnapped.
Probably wearing them now, outside the dream. I think awakening is imminent.
Which makes me wonder – how do you guys deal with things mentally connected to a trauma? I tend to try the ‘it’s just a shirt, get over it’ approach, and yet it always feels so very good when I get around to donating the thing.
Mm, “it’s just x, get over it” very seldom works. And the deeper rooted something is, the less likely it will work- and the more likely it’ll backfire when attempted, instead adding in shame or guilt or even potentially further trauma on top of the issue, because “it’s just x, why am I not getting over it?”
There’s no single- or simple- answer. For me personally, avoidance when reasonably possible (for example, avoiding living in places where I’ll regularly hear car doors slamming- not a physical item but relevant), over a decade of therapy, and self-awareness and self-forgiveness. Sometimes reclaiming stuff, concepts, etc, but mostly once I was well enough to do so, consciously separating from things tied to the trauma.
A mix of exposure therapy and time. And, honestly, there are some things I just live with as triggers and it doesn’t really affect my life
It’s very unconfortable bareback ride a horse.
Oh fun swerve
I think someone is having a sexual awakening.
I’m honestly not sure which one, but someone is about to have a realization about a lesbian crush they’ve been unwilling to previously acknowledge.
It’s definitely Dorothy’s nightmare, and I’d be horrified if a crush saw me this way in her dreams. Joyce comes across as a burden and a source of endless guilt here. Not saying you’re wrong, just…ouch
Pretty sure Dorothy. See the door in panel four? That’s the door amber closed to protect her from Ryan. The book is wedged in the corner. That door means a lot to Dorothy and nothing to joyce. I’m not even sure joyce knows that book amber used to lock the door was lilac.
This dream is about the fear of losing control, I think. About not being able to do something. That’s why her trauma makes an appearance, she had no control whatsoever over that situation. I think she’s processing her yale-breakdown
yup. I saw that door and my subconscious was like “shouldn’t that panel be red?”
She isn’t seeing Joyce as a burden, she’s seeing *herself* as abandoning Joyce in favor of recentering her priorities. Y’know, the *thing she just started doing.* This is basically her subconcious saying “Dotty. Joyce *is* your priority.”
(that said I’m pretty sure I’m part of the first generation of Joyrathy shippers, so I am not claiming to be unbiased in this regard.)
Or “Joyce is *supposed* to be your priority.”
I think the Joyces each represent a different point where Dorothy feels she “could have” made a “better” decision in hindsight.
No, I think Dorothy’s subconscious is just being overwhelmed by the many responsibilities she has assigned herself. S’probably fine.
I got that impression, too. Don’t know if I can credit it.
Joyce really fell off.
Damn, what an L
I dont think Dorothy is in Arizona anymore
she sure is in a state
This made my night. Thanks.
once again, milu wins the Internet.
She sure dropped the blonde
oh my god, sweater joyce on the other side of the door from the “ryan”-amber incident…
Hadn’t caught that detail. Yeah, this is looking more and more like Dorothy’s dream.
Saw someone else say it and I don’t feel like fact checking, but in the last panels Dotty’s outfit also changed to the one she was wearing during the kidnapping.
I knew Dorothy needed therapy, but HOLY FUCK. This is verging on psychotic narcissism.
Dotty WAS getting therapy, but I’m guessing she’s keeping things from her therapist or stopped going altogether. Considering she’s gone into overachiever overdrive, chances are she decided “therapy is superfluous and I already have all the tools myself, I will not burn out.”
If I’m right then she chose… poorly…
Didn’t she explicitly say at one point she was avoiding things in therapy because “they don’t let you be president” if you have certain problems?
What’s the outfit the other Joyce is wearing? Does that tie to anything specific?
Or the other outfits, since none of today’s Joyce’s are wearing what yesterday’s was.
The one on the far right in the last panel was when she was trying to seduce Jacob, which was a really bad idea that Dorothy was late to know about. So maybe she’s claiming some responsibility over that. Her outfit yesterday is more akin to what she used to wear. She still does vests and buttonups but she’s been more casual since the time skip. The vest also changed in the last panel yesterday from closed black to the open brown ik walkyverse Joyce was known for. I remember her wearing it in doa too but i don’t remember the context. I think yesterday’s Joyce is generally more representative of the old Joyce Dorothy’s been clinging on to. Today she’s shifted to her pink long sleeve which is a more iconic Joyce 2.0 outfit, representing i think the growth she’s gone through. The Joyce on the horse has been questioning Dorothy this whole time, which with the shift to a more current outfit cements that Joyce has been drifting away from Dorothy as an authority figure
I suspect there’s something specific for yesterday’s too, but I don’t know what.
The pink long sleeve outfit was what she was wearing when Dorothy took her to get her eyes checked.
Someone got into a LOT of Joes weed gummies before bed!
LOL XD
Interestingly enough, a lot of THC can actually prevent REM sleep and therefore prevent dreaming, but I guess it does depend a lot on the individual user and strain, the ratios of cannabinoids in the strain, etc.
yeah was about to say if I can’t smoke weed I usually take CBD drops to *prevent* myself from having crazy dreams.
“These edibles ain’t sh-”
O_O
You can tell that i’m on top of this situation by the fact that i’m yelling “i’m in charge!”
Oh Dorothy! This is definitely her nightmare. Poor girl. Joyce will be just fine.
simple mistake, she’s actually signifying that she is a top in this situation
Rule 1 of S&M: the bottom is in charge.
Hey, it worked for Alexander Haig.
as you can see from today’s strip, Dumbing of Age is a comic about college kids at college doing college things
also, horse
Amazing.
I certainly did this in college a lot
Me too, but I never got a horse.
Plot twist, this isn’t a dream sequence.
Dorothy: “Alright, time to get SERIOUS again…” *puts the pants back on*
HAHA UH OH!
Fourteen Joyce and a will to be merry…
Strangely perfect use of bob welch, I salute you
Ooof, the Trauma Door.
Okay, definitely Dorothy’s dream then.
Yeah, definitely.
Yup.
“I can SAVE her! I can save EVERYONE!”
Just so long as she doesn’t end up on the “A life I could have saved. A life that I didn’t save. A life just like all the other ones!” express.
So do Dorothy and Joyce may need some couples counseling?
Dorothy and Joyces. so polycule counseling
If it’s multiple Joyces in a romantic polycule doesn’t constitute incest? Also what is a gathering of Joyces called?
it’s called selfcest, and while it feels like it shouldn’t be, it’s actually legal in every state!!!
“a Laundromat of Joyces”.
Not everyone in a polycule has to be sexually involved with each other.
quite true. maybe some of the Joyces are not all that into each other
In the last panel: Joyce is actually a bunch of cats wanting attention.
Haha, the zero-gravity kittens from that Captain Marvel preview!
Man, I still am not entirely such whose dream this is. I am leaning Dorothy, but, not positive.
(it’s Dorothy)
((Either that, or it’s Willis’s and their mining their own dreams for material.))
Someone pointed out that door is clearly the Ryan door, when Amber locked her inside using a book to wedge the door shut to deal with the knifewielding fucker.
Joyce wouldn’t have even known what that scenario LOOKED like.
I’m pretty sure it’s Dorothy’s dream now, but not 100%. Still could be Joyce’s or maybe the horse’s dreams.
I’d imagine it’s dorothy given how stressed she’s been lately and with joyce just getting into a relationship with joe and overall in a better mood, mom aside she wouldn’t probably imagine multiple versions of herself needing help (if anything she’d probably dream about her mom/family)
Oooo unlockable Joyce outfits for the game!!! 😍🌈🎮
*frantically scribbles down notes as it’s practically raining Dumbing of Age video game material*
Is anxiety an achievement? Because I think this is an anxiety achievement.
Can I help it if I still wanna make something sweet outta this?
It’s as earthlings sometimes say, “when life gives you lemons, make lemonade”.
Combustible lemons, anyone?
*plays “Race for Sweets” from Adventure Time Commercials on hacked muzak*
They’re all Joyce outfits from previous chapters, if you need more detailed references.
im confused, did willis actually announce a Dumbing of Age video game, because if so i need to see what the hecky thats gonna look like
NGPZ made a fan game before, and may do it again.
yeah here’s the first one I made a year or so back:
https://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/830313
Right now I’m laying the coding and organizational backwork for a series of web games (“flash games”) based on the comic, recruiting collaborators like some kind of Yippee D. Luffy.
Ah, but which one are you not letting go of, hmmmmm???
That’s the sweater Joyce wore to the party where Ryan attacked her.
Bottom right is her outfit from the chapter where she tried to steal Jacob from Raidah.
Nice catch. Specifically the lunch that Dorothy was at.
The other one in today’s strip with the logo and striped arms is from when Dorothy helped get Joyce glasses.
I think we’ve seen yesterday’s plaid before, but I’m not sure when.
So glad to see Horse tagged here. I hope we see more, my vote for bonus strips!
He is exactly this size!
“She’s actual size but she seems much bigger to me”
honestly that bonus strip is probably done already. willis knows his dum-dum posse
Joyce harem lolwell that’s a lot to unpackAh, definitely Dottie’s dream, then.
Or Joyce’s. She’s changing so fast that she’s becoming a new “self” every week. Doubting Dorothy’s ability to keep her together.
I’m still leaning towards Dorothy’s dream but it really could be either
At this point we can eleminate it being Faz’s dream. Not only have the pants reappeared, more definitively there have been no accompanying charts.
After a detail someone pointed out–
it HAS to be Dorothy’s.
That door wedged closed with the book?
That’s how Amber wedged the door shut when she dealt with the knifewielding fucko, locking Dorothy inside.
Joyce wasn’t present for that.
Ah, right. The nightmare. The nightmare for Dorothy. The nightmare specially tailored to traumatize Dorothy. Dorothy’s nightmare.
… That nightmare?
This is relatable. Neat.
Oh Dotty <3
Ahh, good ol’ trauma dreams.
Also, I just finished rewatching Encanto a little bit ago, so now this is playing my head:
Under the surface
I hide my nerves, and it worsens, I worry something is gonna hurt us
Under the surface
The ship doesn’t swerve as it heard how big the iceberg is
Under the surface
I think about my purpose, can I somehow preserve this?
Line up the dominoes
A light wind blows
You try to stop it tumbling
But on and on it goes
I admit I was a little dubious about that movie in the first few scenes, but then the Pressure song started and my jaw dropped with the realization “oh wow, this movie UNDERSTANDS”
Never leaving? That’s kind of a big promise. Surely not never. Like what if Joyce has to take a dump? You gonna be right there for emotional support, Dorothy?
The real issue now that there’s multiple Joyces is two of them might be taking dumps at the same time. and there’s only one Dorothy! Oh no!
Well, she’s certainly not going to Yale.
This is how Wiliis will make sure we all breathe a sigh of relief when Dorothy goes to Yale.
Some dumps you need emotional support for. Like when you have someone holding your hand while giving birth
…sustained on a technicality
Who knew a nightmare revealing your self-doubts and insecurities could be so, so gay.
Completely not on-topic: Would Dina rawr for this? https://mothership.sg/2023/08/dinosaur-mcflurry-mcdonalds/
Mmm, milo!! Why can’t we experience the dinosaur mcflurry here!!
Can always make your own… kinda. xD
Dina would be pleased at the mention of dinosaurs. She would then point out the incongruence of naming a dairy product after a bird ancestor. Also, she wouldn’t eat it, being lactose intolerant – like 90% of Asian people. Which is also why she eats her breakfast cereal without milk. She’s not being weird.
Different username is me doing a Lovecraft reference & botching the title. Seemed funny in reply to the lurker above. Please ignore.
She would roar, but instead of screeching like the JP T. rex she would end up sounding like Perry the Platypus because irl dinosaur roars were probably more akin to a crocodile’s below than a deer’s call
The clerk doesn’t accept that as a “dinosaur roar” and charges her full price.
Dina, outraged, launches into a furious tirade.
The clerk gives her the McFlurry for free.
Both replies sound about right to me. xD
Dina would be pleased at the mention of dinosaurs. She would then point out the incongruence of naming a dairy product after a bird ancestor. Also, she would not drink it, on account of being lactose-intolerant – like 90% of Asian people. Which is also why she eats her cereal without milk.
Dina totally has milk with her cereal? 😮
https://itswalky.tumblr.com/post/698872868774330368/does-dina-drink-the-leftover-milk-at-the-bottom-of
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-5/02-threes-a-crowd/issuesatlarge/
Note she also partook of Galasso’s Gay Pizza that one time, a sausage pizza specifically
When you skip three comics back to January 9th 2015, she says she’s bored of eating just cereal and brings a glass of Mountain Dew. I take that as Dina not having milk with her cereal.
Ooof trauma dream
it seems like more anxiety driven dream. Or it ends up being like Dona or Beckys or Joe’s dream or something then I don’t know what it is.
This isn’t even a dream; this is just the wall between dimensions finally breaking down.
In some kind of multi-dimensional timey-wimey sense, these strips are actually happening at the same time as SEMMF’s trip to Canada.
To thoroughly understand Dorothy’s trauma, we’ll have to talk about parallel universes…
Dorothy was only trying her best, trying to separate Good Joyce from Bad Joyce away but due to stress and lack of sleep she messed up and put the transmogrifier sideways =/
Oooh no this trauma dream is three layers deep…!
Well, at least she found her pants again.
If it’s Dorothy’s dream: oh no she’s going to conclude that Joyce is holding her back isn’t she?
If it’s Joyce’s dream: oh no she’s going to conclude that she’s holding Dorothy back isn’t she?
oh no.
Horse continues to be the most delightful and correctly-sized character in the whole of book 14
Ah, PTSD and guilt, an oldie but a classic combo!
…I GOT IT!
It’s the HORSE’S dream!
It will wake up in its stable, shake its head and go “I’m never munching on weed again.”
I like this art
It’s a good art.
So Dorothy sees literally every issue Joyce has as a different person.
Symbolizing how she wants to help every person by being a better leader.
And if she can’t help one person, how can she help the world full of people LIKE Joyce who have so many issues and need help.
Honestly as much as I like the Joyce X Dorothy ship I think this is my favorite interpretation of this strip.
The Perfect Leader is confronted with an indefinite number of Trolley Dilemmas. Then the knives come out.
In the last panel you can see the outline of giant hands.
maybe this is the moment when the the nightmarish scene fades away and the dreamer sees their real outstretched arms, flailing frantically, grasping at nothing
but occasionally, for comedic purposes, they will suddenly seize something in real life.
i’m calling it now, the dreamer (aka Dorothy) grabs Joyce’s face. it’s funny cuz you get to see Joyce trying to do The Triangle through Dorothy’s firm, two-handed, full-face squeeze
Ooh, I didn’t see the hands. Thanks, eagle-eye.
The Cheese will appear to Dorothy and explain she exists to have porn made of her.
Rule34: If we are on the Net, there will be cheese made of us.
Rule 35: some of that cheese will age finely. but not most of it.
Oooooh, it’s Dorothy’s nightmare. After reading this one, I started leaning this direction and then I noticed that in this one, the second Joyce is wearing the sweater she was wearing when she was roofied and attacked, which Dorothy felt incredibly responsible for. So yeah, that’s a guilt-anxiety dream right there.
Don’t be greedy Dorothy, you can’t have ALL the Joyces to yourself, you have to share.
If she were in charge, everyone would be fine. https://www.dumbingofage.com/unbound/
Weirdly, reminds me of Jesus Christ, Superstar:
“Save yourselves!”
Life of Brian, actually.
“You are all individuals!”
“not me”
Noticing how only Pajama Dotty doesn’t have glasses, Dotty’s perception of Joyce sure is something now.
In the two years and seven months of realtime, Joyce only wore glasses with the Indiana shirt – her first day of wearing them – and nothing else.
Pajama dorothy is the outfit she was wearing during the kidnapping – when she didn’t have glasses.
Yes!! Embrace the gay ship!!! Give into college experimentation and so Willis can make a new porno comic!!
Oooor, this is showing that Joyce has a much larger part in shaping her expectations than she’s willing to admit
Horse: “Wait if nobody is around to dream me into existence don’t I–“
I dunno why people think this is Joyce’s dream when Dorothy is so clearly the protagonist.
I mean, I assumed it was Joyce’s dream right up until panel 4 of this comic. Until that point, I just assumed it was the way Joyce saw Dorothy.
Don’t look at a fallen gift horse in the mouth
When Willis writes dreams…. he really goes out. :O
guess we figured out whose dream this is.
Willis only a few panels away from landing the first non-irritating dream sequence in human history. Kudos!
Who is Dotty’s room-mate again? Dina? And is she there? God, this must be awful to witness from the ‘outside’
It’s Becky.
If Dorothy is muttering Joyce’s name, won’t that be interesting!
…horse has a tag?
If animated movies taught me anything it’s that the horse is the most competent member of the party.
Yes, but the pharmacy lady don’t.
Nor did Tag the cricket.
There was a squirrel tag though.
A bit surprised that Joe sensually embracing Joyce and making kissy faces at her isn’t part of this nightmare XD
Horse morphs into Centaur Joe, and the Joyce from the first chapter happily rides off on him while they make out.
Then Dorothy wakes up.
Nice
Oh no, that’s her kidnapping chapter outfit.
I’m a little disappointed Joyce is only tagged once…
Interesting to see that the gray horse has disappeared but a gray Joyce has appeared. Was the horse Joyce from the start? Did it symbolize how strong their friendship is? The energy of their relationship? A love that runs more and more fast and can’t be stopped anymore?
Hah
She fell off her high horse
I can’t wait for either Joe, Walky or even Lucy to make an appearance into this.
Looking forward to seeing _Dorothy In The DottyVerse_. Coming out in Phase VI!
This is a very heterosexual dream.
Super Heterosexual. So straight you could use it as a ruler.
Dr. HeteroNormative approves.
I’m always amazed at how dreams are portrayed in stories, as amazing, disorienting, with deep and convoluted meanings.
I dreamt I ate a Snicker’s Bar. Took me half a day to realize I hadn’t violated my diet, as I hadn’t actually eaten the Snicker’s Bar. I don’t even like Snickers.
No flying horses involved.
I think the weirder the dream, the less likely we are to remember it – since it’s so obviously not reality, the brain discards it quickly.
No Snicker’s for you tomorrow!
Oh shoot this is Dorothy’s dream
Also as someone who has bizarrely symbolic nightmares it’s pretty easy to interpret the door as the door that Dorothy was behind when the pastor’s son of a wannabe serial killer went for her and amber, and that sweater is the one that Joyce was wearing during the roofie incident. This dream is specifically about that trauma and how she’s been coping with it so far.
It could also be seen as her leaving behind present Joyce to focus on past Joyce. “I’m never leaving you!”
I feel that the not wearing pants symbolism from the previous strip is pretty self explanatory. She has feelings for Joyce. Even if she 100% got over her internalized biphobia literally overnight she’s still someone who say Joyce go through all of that and is afraid of hurting her. Dorothy hasn’t been okay for a while.
I think though that there’s also the teaching Joyce to wank it on the washing machines, she may have gone pantsless there and that’s filtering into her dream as a situation she tried to take control and be there for joy I (that objectively may have been a bit much)
She kept basically asking Joyce if she wanted to back out of it and Joyce was like no no no it’s fine it’s fine and then acted like it would be unfaithful to Joe to continue and I get the vibe that the attraction is mutual actually. Also I think you’re right but it’s a very clutzy “not out to myself yet” vibe which is why I think it’s endearing.
Over-Under on how many dream comics remain is 5 (to make it a full week of comics). Place your bets!
“I’m the real Fluttershy”
“How do I know which Joyce to shoot?????”
it would be really funny if this was actually dina’s dream and she was all “Unusually, I did not dream of dinosaurs or becky.”
Can someone remind me the significance of the door? I remember that’s the sweater she was wearing the night of Ryan but don’t remember what happened with the door.
Dorothy was locked inside the dorm building while Amber stabbed the ever loving crap out of Ryan
In the fourth panel you can even see the book Amber jammed into the door handles to jam them shut from the outside.
Different times, but both linked to Ryan.
Seems healthy
well holy shit, there’s a lot being said here
Man. I just really want Dorothy to be okay. 🙁
That said, it is really nice to finally see the depths of her accrued trauma. She’s been working hard to keep it all under control for a long time, but of course it’s not something that can just be hard work-ed away.
Horse. Door.
Doorse.
So…is part of this going to lead to Dorothy trying to steal Joyce from Joe, like she tried with Walky and Lucy?
The horse represents Arnold.
Oh god it’s my contact lenses dream.
After I got contact lenses I got a pattern of dreams so repetitive it allowed me to achieve lucid dreaming because of how much of a dead giveaway it was. It went:
1) I’m going about my day
2) Oops ! Lost my contact lenses ! Oh dear how shall I find such tiny transparent things when half-blind ?
3) Oh good, found one ! But where’s the other ?
4) Found the second one, great!
5) Found a third! Good, nice to have a spare but then was the second one I found actually my second lens? The shapes are a bit off, these look more like soft lenses than the hard ones I have, I need to keep looking
6) Found a fourth… But the shape is still wrong! Where are my ACTUAL contact lenses??????
…
456) OK I’m finding squiggly contact lenses now, at least I know THOSE aren’t mine
….
Infinity) The world is contact lenses of infinite shapes and sizes but I can’t find MINE.
It’s adorable how much Dorothy cares about Joyce tbh.