Dina got a bunch of those in ‘Walking with Dina’. I don’t remember any other occasions. Normally these kids just talk to themselves instead – which wouldn’t work here, with Walky actively waiting for her reply.
Kind of rare I guess. They’re usually color coded, especially after Walking with Dina, extra especially if there’s more than one character with thought bubbles in the strip.
I think this is true in general, NOT showing a character’s thoughts is generally better than showing them, unless there’s a plot-related reason to know what the character’s thinking
even at college age idk if i’d go on more than one date with someone that laughed so easily at mcnutt if we weren’t already friends, or like i’d be friends but not necessarily as infatuated with how lucy seems to be with walky lol
I don’t think that’s how she’s thinking it? She understands “we” to refer to Walky’s existing family– him, Sal, their parents– and sees it as him cautioning her about becoming part of it, with the caution based on her maybe not wanting to be part of it (but not on him excluding her from it).
I agree with Yumi’s statement on how she’s seeing it- the warning that they’re problematic is only of use if you acknowledge the possibility of her being involved with them at length.
I don’t know. Panel 3 is difficult to interpret as making complete sense except that on some level Walky *is* thinking that she is potentially part of the family. Why else caution her that it can be pretty rough. Yes, Lucy is over-reading into it, but she isn’t completely wrong.
Oh I don’t know, he knows she’s thinking about this being serious, and is talking in terms of that potentially becoming the case, not that it potentially is now. He’s talking future tense, she’s thinking present.
I mean, “we’re a pretty rough family to be a part of” is clearly implying an “if you ever become a part of it, it could be tough.” That’s pretty clear potential to become part of it
is she tho? i mean, at least she can look back on it as personal growth as opposed to doubling down and refusing to break up with walky no matter what, or even, get dumped and trying to get back with him (if this was a psych horror someone who has an ‘innocent’/naive view of love/relationships like lucy could easily spiral into some unhinged stalker lol)
Honestly? Signs point to the answer being “no, she isn’t”. She seems to have a very blinkered view of many aspects of the social world and is going to have a painful awakening when this relationship ends. Possibly, depending on how it ends, one which will help her long term, but I can’t see any way for this to end without her getting hurt… and it’s mostly her own fault, for fooling herself into things that aren’t there.
walky seems to be the equivalent of like junk food, you know it’s bad for you but sometimes you either indulge or binge, but seems like he’d be better for something casual/a fling than anything serious/long term. Or something that’d be better if you were like 12-13 as a ‘first bf’ and looking back like “ah he was a goofball” but not something a 21 year old might necessarily find appealing then again some ppl are still mentally tween even at their age or get drunk and make more mistakes, or like hooking up with ppl twice their age (which isn’t inherently bad but def not any major life decisions should be made with that)
But at least shes’ not in a relationship where he’s actively treating her badly but yeah i dont’ think any of us expect this relationship to work out in the long run
After an issue with Walky the night before and a fight with Sal today, will Linda be on her best behavior or her worst?
I’m voting worst; she seems the type to double down.
probably another passive aggressive jab liek “at least YOU showed up” or like “It seems your sister thinks that we’re not worth putting in effort to spend time with”
she did say “oh joyce is a white bisexual version of me?” or so and then walky laughed and said ‘i love you’ even way back then too lol, so i’m surprised she took his accidental ‘i loveyou’ so seriously but oh well
I can’t tell if by “early strip” you mean early Dumbing of Age or early Roomies/It’s Walky, but the latter is definitely the vibe I got from that last panel.
Which is unfair of me to do to Lucy, Roomies!Joyce was a special flavor of bonkers, but if Lucy has a dream sequence coming up about furry Walky asking for help burying his comically oversized bone then vindication will be mine
He doesn’t give her a lot to go on. She has it bad, and she’s filling in blanks, but he’s leaving things blank he shouldn’t be. I think he realizes it too, at least to some extent. https://www.dumbingofage.com/normalthing/
It’s a not an unreasonable way to interpret what he said. If anything, I think this mostly comes down to Walky not thinking through the implications of the words that come out of his mouth.
Eh. She is just taking focusing on the positive to its natural, not great, conclusion. She positive thought her way into a relationship! If she just ignores the complete lack of chemistry and enthusiasm from Walky, everything will work out! If she’s just good enough, racist people will accept her! Sadface.
… Still less in denial than Ethan’s mom, Walkertons’ dad, and probably some others. But being better than some parents is a very low bar in this strip. XD
I’m guessing that Lucy is going to have a hard time when she finds out Walky says things without actually thinking. I feel like this relationship is not going to last, but I don’t want either of them to get hurt.
well i think the goofball aspect is what appeals to lucy as opposed to someone a bit more emotionally mature (maybe if ethan were bi that might’ve worked. tho i guess she did date ken in shortpacked i think)
I have a feeling that Lucy may be one of those people who keep doing this and end up with a long string of relationships that were serious only on one side.
I now have a pre-movie warning playing in my head with someone trashing a theater by mixing popcorn and m&ms and exploding their bucket everywhere while a grim faced Hoyt’s or Regal emoyee looks on with a broom and trash can.
Yeah i can see how that could be a sensory nightmare for some folk, myself included. (I’m the kinda autista who can’t live without hand sanitizer within reach, I’ve descended into rubbing alcoholism at multiple points in my life)
No it does not melt the m&ms from the time you get the popcorn from concession to the theatre the popcorn will have cooled down, with homemade wait 2 min before putting it in
We got to work on this a with Lucy, if walky cracks a joke about wedding cake or something she going to take it as him proposing to her right then and there
At some point, the other shoe is going to drop. Well, rather, someone is going to chuck that shoe, and it’s a steel-toed boot. The steel has broken through the leather, so some of the metal is sticking out and it’s sharp. You wonder why you chose that shoe, but it’s too late; there’s far too much snow and you’ve let your shoe drop, so your feet are wet. You accidentally stab yourself on the metal part sticking out, so you need to go to the emergency room. However, there’s a guy in front of you with a bone sticking out of his shoulder. The hospital takes your insurance, but you’ve already reached your deductible. The only thing to read while you wait is a 7-year-old Time magazine about a potential Trump presidency, and the vending machine doesn’t have M&Ms or Skittles.
Do you see what can happen Walky you need to sit down have conversation with Lucy,otherwise your going to end up in the emergency room without Skittles and M&
Walky, one week later in comics time: “well shit, I TOTALLY thought that UrsulaDavina’s thing was a metaphor but I guess I was wrong…ow ow ow I need to stop putting weight on this foot”
Funny, I actually feel the opposite. To me Lucy is like early Joyce will all the roughest edges smoothed off. Given that old Joyce was a Young Earth creationist, homophobic, ignorant about other groups of people, etc. Lucy’s not nearly as off-putting as old Joyce was in a lotta ways, the main difference is I just haven’t had the time to build up as much fondness for her as a character.
Still, I wish her well, but I don’t think her and Walky are meant to be at all.
I’m not sure i get it. Are you saying you prefer your characters to not be off-putting??? I love how we can be reading the same comic but for diametrically opposite reasons
Yeah dude she’s early Joyce without all the awfulness. Calling her early Joyce but worse is crazy. Early Joyce was insane, homophobic, planned weddings after first meetings, slut shamed everyone around her, planned that whole violent disaster date with Joe (who was also Awful back then, in other ways). I think she wanted to turn joe/Ethan Christian? Like that’s the whole point of the comic, Joyce was a terrible person who wanted to be better. I’ve been friends with an early strip Joyce (down to being a dirty blonde with a huge smile and a name starting with Jo) and she was psychotic! Only difference was she didn’t wanna change.
Lucy’s just eager and naive. Shes acting like a teenager who didn’t get much of a social life in highschool- because that’s what she is. Shes not malicious, she’s not being harmful, she’s just naive. Like, seriously that hatred is insanely unreasonable. And calling her worse than early Joyce means at best you don’t remember what early Joyce was like
be outta chara but would be interesting if they broke up and hooked up /after/ that like “shame we never had sex at least once” or so after time has passed and they’re both fairly emotionally stable/mature about it for a one night stand and then move on lol
well, maybe a /little/ time passing might be necessary since he doesn’t seem to want to as far as we’ve seen, even by walky standards it’d be kinda sucky if it’s like “hey i know we broke up two days ago and i’m not ready for a serious relationship but i’m down if you want a one night stand”
I get the impression the reason he doesn’t want to is because she doesn’t understand the different levels of attraction they’re feeling. But I guess I’m thinking about it more from Lucy’s end.
Somehow, I can now really really vividly picture Walky and Lucy as on-again-off-again exes who keep hooking up at bars immediately after one or both of them got dumped for being too clingy and then regretting it immensely the morning after
She is reading into it, yeah, though that’s also NOT not what he’s saying here. That said, yeah, Walky’s never said he doesn’t feel things about Lucy, just yeah, she’s getting ahead of herself here. Understandable given he’s her first anything, here.
Walky basically says: “You don’t have to be in a relationship with me.” He cares enough for Lucy’s feelings to not break up with her, but his heart is not in it. This thing can’t last.
Also, he’s more insightful about their family dynamics than Charles. All three of them need to see the light about the reality of their relationships.
wonder if it’ll be family issues that starts to crack their relationship if not walky blurting out “so yeah basically dorothy hit on me the other day” even if he didn’t do anything
Wait what
Walky is not saying “you don’t have to be in a relationship with me”.
He’s saying “you don’t have to hang with my parents”.
There is no subtextual soft break-up to pick up on here????
He says both things at once. It’s ostensibly about dinner, but it addresses their underlying issue at the same time …and Lucy takes it in the furthest opposite direction.
Yeah I don’t believe W means it that way. Is he in denial about what he actually wants? Maybe. Is the plot setting Lucy up for a hard awakening? Most probably. But is W subtly putting it to L that them breaking up would be for the best? I dont buy it. This is the guy who said this like, yesterday
Also directly turned down Dorothy and said he was Lucy’s boyfriend. I think people are kinda doing the opposite of Lucy and downplaying his displayed affections rather than inflating them potentially, because the notion he is not at all into Lucy is directly contradicted by the webcomic on numerous occasions.
Honestly, I hope they don’t “do” any meals. I’m kinda fed up with all these Big Important Meals, like Linda thinks she’s constantly meeting with a big Hollywood agent who’s gonna sign her kids on to star in the Next Big Show. It’s fucking strange.
maybe she’ll run into raidah and try to set her up with walky b/c ‘connections’ and such lol, tho at the very least hopefully they get some good free food or so
It’s the greenest one I could find! I was gonna go for a similar-looking Squier, but the Kramer had better reviews and looks better with the Final Fantasy decal. It’s hard to tell from the tiny image, but I also grabbed a strap with a space alien pattern, for extra brand.
No meals?
Do you think Linda is the type of person who spends time with her children outside of meals or trying to expose them to opportunities?
At least at Walky’s age and with his interests, do you think Linda is going to watch some Dexter and Monkey Master with them, or any pop culture for that matter?
Unless Linda is a die hard fan of Karaoke or laser tag, I’m relatively sure it’s meals or nothing to spend any moment of significance with her.
can’t rly imagine jen tolerating that versus a one night stand, at least not at this age versus them being 35 and ‘settling down’ (not that that age is necessarily old but yeah)
Jennifer is going to have to go through a whole lot of change before that becomes even a remote possibility, and she’s been extremely resistant to actual change, she’s just been papering over.
I grant you there’s the possibility of everything falling apart and change happening drastically and rapidly, but until I see that I don’t see them ever being a thing.
I don’t like Forest Hall’s wall color. This is Forest right? It’s unnerving.
I think this relationship is doomed, but only because Walky is bad at communication and good at procrastination, otherwise they’d have a slim chance. But because of the procrastination, it’s probably going to take forever for it to fizzle, train wreck, or even get on track enough to see if it could go somewhere. It feels like the walls have a higher chance of being painted something less unnerving first.
crossing fingers for Linda to disaster this dinner into accidentally changing Lucy and Walky’s dynamic.
maybe a lighter shade would be nice but it doesn’t bother me but i love shades of blue so i’m biased (indiana university is a real thing so maybe it’s based on the real hall assuming it hasn’t changed since lol)
and yeah this is going to lead to a break up eventually but it would be a pleasant surprise if it was like “we’re both better ppl now, maybe we can give it another shot?” but i wouldn’t mind a clean break with them both moving on
even among platonic hangouts/friend groups ppl have joked about being each others family and stuff, and dorothy assigning herself the ‘mom friend’ and all
at the risk of getting too personal, like a psych 101 student showing off their powers of observation, I read something recently about the psychology of “cringe”. How and why vicarious embarrassment inspires either compassion or contempt. And on reflection, it does match why I find Lucy annoying. It’s vicarious embarrassment, over behavior and thoughts that I would not want other people to think I would do or have. Made worse because it is more like young me than I would like, and might even be more like current me than I would like, if I were in that kind of situation now.
… found the link
Every scene these two have had together since lunch with Lyle (? Lucy’s brother) has made me like them as a couple less and see it more as a bad thing for both of them. Walky might come out of this with a decent amount of guilty feelings (depending on how explosively it ends) but Lucy has no romantic experience and has deluded herself into thinking Walky has told her he loves her and wants her to be part of his family. I suspect she’s going to be hurt by this.
And I can’t even root for them as a couple to work things out. I don’t feel chemistry between them, I don’t feel a real romantic connection or a bond, and I just… don’t see it. At all. At first I thought they were cute together but not for long.
Until he throws a toy at her head, I won’t believe this relationship will ever last, even if they’re 35 with 2.5 children, a dog, and a white picket fence.
What half do they have of that other kid? Left, right, top, bottom? And what happened to the other half? Or does one of the other kids have 50% more kid, or do they each have 25% more? Where’s that 0.5th kid coming from?
The Far Side, “OK, one more time and it’s off to bed for the both of you. … ‘Hey, Bob. Think there are any bears in this old cave?’ … ‘I dunno, Jim. Let’s take a look.'”
I love seeing Walky care so much about Lucy’s happiness. He don’t want her to get hurt and is able to see his parents for who they truly are. Maybe they’ll be horrible to Lucy and Walky will take her hand and walk away, just like Sal did, leaving them to think about their behavior.
Sadly I don’t think Walky is all that into her. He likes her fine, but I don’t think there’s much passion. It’s of course nice to be wanted, but I feel there is a big mismatch of expectations here.
Walky has a lot of growing up yet to do. I don’t think he knows what he wants yet. I sure didn’t at that age.
We have seen Walky being very determined to fit into the mold of a Good Boyfriend, and I think his idea of what that means is not half bad. We’ve also seen him be protective of Lucy’s feelings from his parents (as seen even in this strip) as well as an ability to stand up to his parents at least in some situations.
I don’t think Rabisch’s proposed scenario is necessarily about how into her he is. It seems at least plausible to me.
But on the other hand I think what would be required to force the Walkertons to really sit and think about their behavior in a meaningful way is more drastic than either Sal or Walky can manage while they’re depending on their parents to pay their tuition. That’s a hell of a lot of leverage that I don’t think Linda would hesitate to make use of.
I’m not saying that Walky is madly in love with her, but it’s undeniable that he cares a lot about Lucy and doesn’t want her to suffer because of his parents.
Prediction — Walky is now the trouble kid and he’s on the receiving end of how Sal has been treated and it tarnishes the way he views his parents forever, forcing a confrontation.
Very likely since Linda was only pretending to value Sals opinion on Lucy and now that Sal has had the audacity to not have Danny joined at her hip that promise to give Lucy a chance is probably gone.
Despite all the well meaning and fondness, I just don’t see this relationship lasting for very long. It’s not easy being ~18 and getting to do choices as an almost adult for the first time.
Walky just isn’t that into her. He wasn’t really into Amber either. Both just kinda happened to him. Dorothy was the only one where he too the initiative.
Aw, buddy. This whole storyline is excruciating – good job, Willis.
Sarah for me is pushing the bounds other cartoon medium for me, where I just don’t know how to take it. I mean, negatively, but it’s just also not doing it for me to read.
This… Walky’s incredible lack of actual attraction to Lucy, Lucy just trying her best!, the realism in the racism, Lucy’s complete inability to anticipate getting treated like shit (but passive-aggressively)… well, it is certainly well done. Anticipating extended torture here, whee.
“The Lions that eat people’s faces off surely won’t eat my face off even though the lions’ children are warning me that they eat the faces off of people who look like me.”
Seriously, Lucy is not “naive.” “Not all skinfolk are kinfolk” is a mantra. That she’s actively ignoring that warning is weird. She is actively deluding herself and ignoring red flags, thinking she’s going to be a nice little pick me, because she’s “different.”
Also, once again, Lucy is not real. Her behavior isn’t real. So the outcome will be unreal and over the top. Unless it fizzles. Who knows.
Didn’t think about this early enough for anyone to notice (and I might repeat it tomorrow if we stay in this scene): Anyone remember how last week we were all attacking Walky for blowing off Lucy to play games with Amber?
Well here he is, a couple hours later with Lucy off to the planned/dreaded meeting with the parents. His sin was just spending part of the morning with someone other than his girlfriend.
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classic rookie mistake
she believes Walky thinks
Next thing you know, Lucy will be getting into a land war in Asia.
That’s inconceivable.
Dealin Walky’s parents is basically the same thing.
well she did think he said ‘i love you’ to her way sooner than even 11 yo students ‘playing’ couples would XD
speaking of thinking, I am not sure how often I have ever seen DYW! use thought bubbles…
Dina got a bunch of those in ‘Walking with Dina’. I don’t remember any other occasions. Normally these kids just talk to themselves instead – which wouldn’t work here, with Walky actively waiting for her reply.
Kind of rare I guess. They’re usually color coded, especially after Walking with Dina, extra especially if there’s more than one character with thought bubbles in the strip.
I think this is true in general, NOT showing a character’s thoughts is generally better than showing them, unless there’s a plot-related reason to know what the character’s thinking
example: Silent Garfield
Lucy’s view on Red Flags is the same as a bull’s: just charge straight toward ’em.
Plays “Red Flags” by Tom Cardy in the muzak
That line from Bojack Horseman “When you look at someone through rose-colored glasses, all the red flags just look like flags.”
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2019/comic/book-9-comic/02-but-the-sun-still-shines/mundane/
not necessarily a red flag but you’d think walky’s immaturity would put more girls off than be endearing lol versus just being a himbo
even at college age idk if i’d go on more than one date with someone that laughed so easily at mcnutt if we weren’t already friends, or like i’d be friends but not necessarily as infatuated with how lucy seems to be with walky lol
the heart (or hard-on) wants what it wants
I’m pretty sure the “we” in Walky’s statement isn’t referring to you, Lucy
Exactly this. Lucy can be so daft
Sadly, she’s got the wrong sibling if she wants to compliment her “Daft” with “Punk”.
Somehow I don’t think “Daft Covered-In-Nachitos-Dust” would make for a very popular electronic duo. Maybe a New Wave act.
She’s not.
She just has a lot of Mean Girl in her, and a prerequisite for that is an unhealthy belief in a proper order of reality.
I don’t think that’s how she’s thinking it? She understands “we” to refer to Walky’s existing family– him, Sal, their parents– and sees it as him cautioning her about becoming part of it, with the caution based on her maybe not wanting to be part of it (but not on him excluding her from it).
I agree with Yumi’s statement on how she’s seeing it- the warning that they’re problematic is only of use if you acknowledge the possibility of her being involved with them at length.
I don’t know. Panel 3 is difficult to interpret as making complete sense except that on some level Walky *is* thinking that she is potentially part of the family. Why else caution her that it can be pretty rough. Yes, Lucy is over-reading into it, but she isn’t completely wrong.
Oh I don’t know, he knows she’s thinking about this being serious, and is talking in terms of that potentially becoming the case, not that it potentially is now. He’s talking future tense, she’s thinking present.
Maybe, but she did use the word “potential” in her thought bubble.
“Not YET!”
– Lucy, probably
I mean, “we’re a pretty rough family to be a part of” is clearly implying an “if you ever become a part of it, it could be tough.” That’s pretty clear potential to become part of it
Lucy.
No, you’re better than this.
is she tho? i mean, at least she can look back on it as personal growth as opposed to doubling down and refusing to break up with walky no matter what, or even, get dumped and trying to get back with him (if this was a psych horror someone who has an ‘innocent’/naive view of love/relationships like lucy could easily spiral into some unhinged stalker lol)
Honestly? Signs point to the answer being “no, she isn’t”. She seems to have a very blinkered view of many aspects of the social world and is going to have a painful awakening when this relationship ends. Possibly, depending on how it ends, one which will help her long term, but I can’t see any way for this to end without her getting hurt… and it’s mostly her own fault, for fooling herself into things that aren’t there.
walky seems to be the equivalent of like junk food, you know it’s bad for you but sometimes you either indulge or binge, but seems like he’d be better for something casual/a fling than anything serious/long term. Or something that’d be better if you were like 12-13 as a ‘first bf’ and looking back like “ah he was a goofball” but not something a 21 year old might necessarily find appealing then again some ppl are still mentally tween even at their age or get drunk and make more mistakes, or like hooking up with ppl twice their age (which isn’t inherently bad but def not any major life decisions should be made with that)
But at least shes’ not in a relationship where he’s actively treating her badly but yeah i dont’ think any of us expect this relationship to work out in the long run
This is too much
Imagine if they start an order with the waiter/waitress like “I’m great, having lunch with my *Fiance*”
Yes, that’s exactly what she will do.
Resulting in Linda accusing Sal of “putting Walky up to it”.
Then the goose will come out asking what “it” is.
only because “sweet babboo” isn’t a thing that’s said anymore.
Was that actually said outside of Sally and Linus?
I said that to mine only a few days ago.
I just read “Roomies!” for the first time in book form and am flashing back to Joyce and Danny’s “engagement.”
That’s all she needed to hear!
I worry that this is going to be a difficult day for her. Interactions with the Walkerton parents seem to only be damaging in the long term.
After an issue with Walky the night before and a fight with Sal today, will Linda be on her best behavior or her worst?
I’m voting worst; she seems the type to double down.
probably another passive aggressive jab liek “at least YOU showed up” or like “It seems your sister thinks that we’re not worth putting in effort to spend time with”
Remember that Lucy is basically another version of (early strip) Joyce.
Yeah really not surprised her mind jumps straight to marriage….
I knew it, I knew I wasn’t the only one who noticed that.
she did say “oh joyce is a white bisexual version of me?” or so and then walky laughed and said ‘i love you’ even way back then too lol, so i’m surprised she took his accidental ‘i loveyou’ so seriously but oh well
Oh right, I remember.
And to think that “I love you” would be the prelude to this.
A good thing to remember is how religious the area actually is.
I can’t tell if by “early strip” you mean early Dumbing of Age or early Roomies/It’s Walky, but the latter is definitely the vibe I got from that last panel.
Which is unfair of me to do to Lucy, Roomies!Joyce was a special flavor of bonkers, but if Lucy has a dream sequence coming up about furry Walky asking for help burying his comically oversized bone then vindication will be mine
Joyce was basically thinking of taking Ethan’s last name after like one conversation in the elevator in this universe.
Maybe this is an overstatement, but Lucy comes across as fully delusional in this strip IMO
Oh, if anything this is an understatement
He doesn’t give her a lot to go on. She has it bad, and she’s filling in blanks, but he’s leaving things blank he shouldn’t be. I think he realizes it too, at least to some extent. https://www.dumbingofage.com/normalthing/
It’s a not an unreasonable way to interpret what he said. If anything, I think this mostly comes down to Walky not thinking through the implications of the words that come out of his mouth.
Yeah, I mean, I feel like that’s literally what he’s saying, whether he means it or not
You’re right, that’s a massive overstatement. Wholly incorrectly even
Eh. She is just taking focusing on the positive to its natural, not great, conclusion. She positive thought her way into a relationship! If she just ignores the complete lack of chemistry and enthusiasm from Walky, everything will work out! If she’s just good enough, racist people will accept her! Sadface.
… Still less in denial than Ethan’s mom, Walkertons’ dad, and probably some others. But being better than some parents is a very low bar in this strip. XD
I’m guessing that Lucy is going to have a hard time when she finds out Walky says things without actually thinking. I feel like this relationship is not going to last, but I don’t want either of them to get hurt.
Made worse by Lucy’s tendency toLucy tends to dwell on Walky’s words and then overthinks them.
Dammit In attempt to respond I wrote my statment and samsung notes qnd copied and pasted it without deleting the orignal response, phones suck.
Point is Lucy dwells on Walkys words and then overthinks. WAS THAT HARD BRAIN! (my brain)
well i think the goofball aspect is what appeals to lucy as opposed to someone a bit more emotionally mature (maybe if ethan were bi that might’ve worked. tho i guess she did date ken in shortpacked i think)
I think she’s delirious. Deliciously delirious.
oh, to be young. I wonder if it’d have been better if she would’ve had 2-3 ‘serious’ relationships before meeting walky
I have a feeling that Lucy may be one of those people who keep doing this and end up with a long string of relationships that were serious only on one side.
Hoo boy, better get some popcorn ready.
Snacks are always essential for drama
MnMs, coke and hotdogs too!
exactly
You pour the M&Ms in the popcorn.
Is that like the mentos in coke thing from way back then?
No it’s just a nice salty and sweet treat.
The fact that popcorn is savory in this part of the world still trips me up. Back in my home country, popcorn is sweet by default.
And the warmth of the popcorn melts the M&Ms inside their shells.
I now have a pre-movie warning playing in my head with someone trashing a theater by mixing popcorn and m&ms and exploding their bucket everywhere while a grim faced Hoyt’s or Regal emoyee looks on with a broom and trash can.
That sounds nightmarish and overwhelming.
Depends on whether or not the temperature between the kernels is 98.6° F i guess
I’m assuming the idea is to melt the chocolate on the corn?
Yeah i can see how that could be a sensory nightmare for some folk, myself included. (I’m the kinda autista who can’t live without hand sanitizer within reach, I’ve descended into rubbing alcoholism at multiple points in my life)
No it does not melt the m&ms from the time you get the popcorn from concession to the theatre the popcorn will have cooled down, with homemade wait 2 min before putting it in
I don’t recommend skittles Starburst or anything with a tangy or sour taste but anything with a chocolate late or carmel base will taste good.
Oh no
We got to work on this a with Lucy, if walky cracks a joke about wedding cake or something she going to take it as him proposing to her right then and there
Or any cake really
At some point, the other shoe is going to drop. Well, rather, someone is going to chuck that shoe, and it’s a steel-toed boot. The steel has broken through the leather, so some of the metal is sticking out and it’s sharp. You wonder why you chose that shoe, but it’s too late; there’s far too much snow and you’ve let your shoe drop, so your feet are wet. You accidentally stab yourself on the metal part sticking out, so you need to go to the emergency room. However, there’s a guy in front of you with a bone sticking out of his shoulder. The hospital takes your insurance, but you’ve already reached your deductible. The only thing to read while you wait is a 7-year-old Time magazine about a potential Trump presidency, and the vending machine doesn’t have M&Ms or Skittles.
Do you see what can happen Walky you need to sit down have conversation with Lucy,otherwise your going to end up in the emergency room without Skittles and M&
Was that a metaphor for something?
Walky, one week later in comics time: “well shit, I TOTALLY thought that UrsulaDavina’s thing was a metaphor but I guess I was wrong…ow ow ow I need to stop putting weight on this foot”
The free-associative midnight screen-yelling i come to this section for <3
I have no idea what I just read, but I’m here for it.
One conversation with a recently angered Linda and Lucy’s family fantasies are gonna be dashed.
Or she becomes determined to change the narrative. “I can win them over!”
or like “poor walky, i need to stay by his side/support him!” or so lol
“Walky, let me take you away from all this!”
Her language regarding Amber was really, really, REALLY delusionally bad.
And Amber is white.
God I hope they break up.
saaame, she’s like 10-years-ago joyce in the worst ways 🙁
Funny, I actually feel the opposite. To me Lucy is like early Joyce will all the roughest edges smoothed off. Given that old Joyce was a Young Earth creationist, homophobic, ignorant about other groups of people, etc. Lucy’s not nearly as off-putting as old Joyce was in a lotta ways, the main difference is I just haven’t had the time to build up as much fondness for her as a character.
Still, I wish her well, but I don’t think her and Walky are meant to be at all.
I’m not sure i get it. Are you saying you prefer your characters to not be off-putting??? I love how we can be reading the same comic but for diametrically opposite reasons
Yeah dude she’s early Joyce without all the awfulness. Calling her early Joyce but worse is crazy. Early Joyce was insane, homophobic, planned weddings after first meetings, slut shamed everyone around her, planned that whole violent disaster date with Joe (who was also Awful back then, in other ways). I think she wanted to turn joe/Ethan Christian? Like that’s the whole point of the comic, Joyce was a terrible person who wanted to be better. I’ve been friends with an early strip Joyce (down to being a dirty blonde with a huge smile and a name starting with Jo) and she was psychotic! Only difference was she didn’t wanna change.
Lucy’s just eager and naive. Shes acting like a teenager who didn’t get much of a social life in highschool- because that’s what she is. Shes not malicious, she’s not being harmful, she’s just naive. Like, seriously that hatred is insanely unreasonable. And calling her worse than early Joyce means at best you don’t remember what early Joyce was like
be outta chara but would be interesting if they broke up and hooked up /after/ that like “shame we never had sex at least once” or so after time has passed and they’re both fairly emotionally stable/mature about it for a one night stand and then move on lol
time passing is not actually required. But Walky would have to learn to communicate first.
well, maybe a /little/ time passing might be necessary since he doesn’t seem to want to as far as we’ve seen, even by walky standards it’d be kinda sucky if it’s like “hey i know we broke up two days ago and i’m not ready for a serious relationship but i’m down if you want a one night stand”
I get the impression the reason he doesn’t want to is because she doesn’t understand the different levels of attraction they’re feeling. But I guess I’m thinking about it more from Lucy’s end.
Well, that’s not ironic.
Somehow, I can now really really vividly picture Walky and Lucy as on-again-off-again exes who keep hooking up at bars immediately after one or both of them got dumped for being too clingy and then regretting it immensely the morning after
Yes, but a same time I love low key characters deserving good things. (AKA Walky)
Shit, Lucy should have, at least, a kiss from him…
Lucy, I love you dearly, but that was not the point he was trying to make and you are more than smart enough to know it!
love makes you see things in rose colored glasses/gets you past obvious things.
but luckily it’s not like it’s a red flag/toxic relationship if walky isn’t necessarily a fit for her in the long run
she’s in the wrong comic for her smartness to be aware of this unfortunately lol
She has a very bad case of “Wrong Genre-savvy”.
She is reading into it, yeah, though that’s also NOT not what he’s saying here. That said, yeah, Walky’s never said he doesn’t feel things about Lucy, just yeah, she’s getting ahead of herself here. Understandable given he’s her first anything, here.
Walky basically says: “You don’t have to be in a relationship with me.” He cares enough for Lucy’s feelings to not break up with her, but his heart is not in it. This thing can’t last.
Also, he’s more insightful about their family dynamics than Charles. All three of them need to see the light about the reality of their relationships.
wonder if it’ll be family issues that starts to crack their relationship if not walky blurting out “so yeah basically dorothy hit on me the other day” even if he didn’t do anything
Considering literally not even 12 hours(?) ago, she was directly acknowledging Walky’s parents racism…. yeah…..
Wait what
Walky is not saying “you don’t have to be in a relationship with me”.
He’s saying “you don’t have to hang with my parents”.
There is no subtextual soft break-up to pick up on here????
Some of the reads today are orbital i swear
He says both things at once. It’s ostensibly about dinner, but it addresses their underlying issue at the same time …and Lucy takes it in the furthest opposite direction.
Yeah I don’t believe W means it that way. Is he in denial about what he actually wants? Maybe. Is the plot setting Lucy up for a hard awakening? Most probably. But is W subtly putting it to L that them breaking up would be for the best? I dont buy it. This is the guy who said this like, yesterday
Also directly turned down Dorothy and said he was Lucy’s boyfriend. I think people are kinda doing the opposite of Lucy and downplaying his displayed affections rather than inflating them potentially, because the notion he is not at all into Lucy is directly contradicted by the webcomic on numerous occasions.
lucy no
Honestly, I hope they don’t “do” any meals. I’m kinda fed up with all these Big Important Meals, like Linda thinks she’s constantly meeting with a big Hollywood agent who’s gonna sign her kids on to star in the Next Big Show. It’s fucking strange.
maybe she’ll run into raidah and try to set her up with walky b/c ‘connections’ and such lol, tho at the very least hopefully they get some good free food or so
R u showing off your guitar Taffy? That is a pretty guitar.
It’s the greenest one I could find! I was gonna go for a similar-looking Squier, but the Kramer had better reviews and looks better with the Final Fantasy decal. It’s hard to tell from the tiny image, but I also grabbed a strap with a space alien pattern, for extra brand.
Hot diggity! I wish you much happy noising 🥰
No meals?
Do you think Linda is the type of person who spends time with her children outside of meals or trying to expose them to opportunities?
At least at Walky’s age and with his interests, do you think Linda is going to watch some Dexter and Monkey Master with them, or any pop culture for that matter?
Unless Linda is a die hard fan of Karaoke or laser tag, I’m relatively sure it’s meals or nothing to spend any moment of significance with her.
Then she can starve.
Don’t know why but I feel like Walky will end up with Jennifer in this universe.
can’t rly imagine jen tolerating that versus a one night stand, at least not at this age versus them being 35 and ‘settling down’ (not that that age is necessarily old but yeah)
Jennifer is going to have to go through a whole lot of change before that becomes even a remote possibility, and she’s been extremely resistant to actual change, she’s just been papering over.
I grant you there’s the possibility of everything falling apart and change happening drastically and rapidly, but until I see that I don’t see them ever being a thing.
I think if that were the case Jennifer would explode with pure anger and tear Walky’s head off at the neck.
I’d kinda love it if Walky had some kinda breakdown and relapse, but Dorothy &/or Amber seem way more likely at this point
Then the Roomies version of Danny will be complaint about Walky dating the same women he’s dated.
They seem too sibling like for that to work.
I don’t like Forest Hall’s wall color. This is Forest right? It’s unnerving.
I think this relationship is doomed, but only because Walky is bad at communication and good at procrastination, otherwise they’d have a slim chance. But because of the procrastination, it’s probably going to take forever for it to fizzle, train wreck, or even get on track enough to see if it could go somewhere. It feels like the walls have a higher chance of being painted something less unnerving first.
crossing fingers for Linda to disaster this dinner into accidentally changing Lucy and Walky’s dynamic.
I worry that there isn’t going to be a big catalyst that causes them to break up, and they just sort of coast forever.
maybe a lighter shade would be nice but it doesn’t bother me but i love shades of blue so i’m biased (indiana university is a real thing so maybe it’s based on the real hall assuming it hasn’t changed since lol)
and yeah this is going to lead to a break up eventually but it would be a pleasant surprise if it was like “we’re both better ppl now, maybe we can give it another shot?” but i wouldn’t mind a clean break with them both moving on
People are for sure going out of their way to find ways to hate Lucy. That is a perfectly reasonable way to interpret Walky’s statement
even among platonic hangouts/friend groups ppl have joked about being each others family and stuff, and dorothy assigning herself the ‘mom friend’ and all
He did specifically say “be a part of” and not “get along with”. It’s hardly a proposal but it does imply a serious relationship.
oh, there are many reasons to side-eye Lucy.
She’s definitely taking it too seriously. It’s a character flaw, but not a fatal one.
A problem dealing with Walky, who rarely thinks through his phrasing or says anything too seriously.
!!!!!!
It’s so disproportionate. I made a joke about it having to do with misogynoir months ago but now I’m seriously starting to give the side eye
at the risk of getting too personal, like a psych 101 student showing off their powers of observation, I read something recently about the psychology of “cringe”. How and why vicarious embarrassment inspires either compassion or contempt. And on reflection, it does match why I find Lucy annoying. It’s vicarious embarrassment, over behavior and thoughts that I would not want other people to think I would do or have. Made worse because it is more like young me than I would like, and might even be more like current me than I would like, if I were in that kind of situation now.
… found the link
Lucy, he’s specifically telling you that being part of his family is bad
Every scene these two have had together since lunch with Lyle (? Lucy’s brother) has made me like them as a couple less and see it more as a bad thing for both of them. Walky might come out of this with a decent amount of guilty feelings (depending on how explosively it ends) but Lucy has no romantic experience and has deluded herself into thinking Walky has told her he loves her and wants her to be part of his family. I suspect she’s going to be hurt by this.
And I can’t even root for them as a couple to work things out. I don’t feel chemistry between them, I don’t feel a real romantic connection or a bond, and I just… don’t see it. At all. At first I thought they were cute together but not for long.
Until he throws a toy at her head, I won’t believe this relationship will ever last, even if they’re 35 with 2.5 children, a dog, and a white picket fence.
What half do they have of that other kid? Left, right, top, bottom? And what happened to the other half? Or does one of the other kids have 50% more kid, or do they each have 25% more? Where’s that 0.5th kid coming from?
I assume the dog ate the other half, but it was so cute that they didn’t blame it and kept it anyway.
Transporter malfunction.
The Far Side, “What Dogs Hear”
The Far Side, “Cow Tools”
The Far Side, “OK, one more time and it’s off to bed for the both of you. … ‘Hey, Bob. Think there are any bears in this old cave?’ … ‘I dunno, Jim. Let’s take a look.'”
Hrngh this is going to be so painful.
Meet em. Look em in the eye. Be you. Bout time.
Lucy really is striking me as the new Joyce.
“Oh no
Oh nooooooooo”
She did it againnn
God dammit. Literally every comic she is in lucy becomes more unlikeable. Stop doing this willis
It’s her second special skill after thinking she’s a main character
Oy gevalt
I love seeing Walky care so much about Lucy’s happiness. He don’t want her to get hurt and is able to see his parents for who they truly are. Maybe they’ll be horrible to Lucy and Walky will take her hand and walk away, just like Sal did, leaving them to think about their behavior.
Sadly I don’t think Walky is all that into her. He likes her fine, but I don’t think there’s much passion. It’s of course nice to be wanted, but I feel there is a big mismatch of expectations here.
Walky has a lot of growing up yet to do. I don’t think he knows what he wants yet. I sure didn’t at that age.
We have seen Walky being very determined to fit into the mold of a Good Boyfriend, and I think his idea of what that means is not half bad. We’ve also seen him be protective of Lucy’s feelings from his parents (as seen even in this strip) as well as an ability to stand up to his parents at least in some situations.
I don’t think Rabisch’s proposed scenario is necessarily about how into her he is. It seems at least plausible to me.
But on the other hand I think what would be required to force the Walkertons to really sit and think about their behavior in a meaningful way is more drastic than either Sal or Walky can manage while they’re depending on their parents to pay their tuition. That’s a hell of a lot of leverage that I don’t think Linda would hesitate to make use of.
I’m not saying that Walky is madly in love with her, but it’s undeniable that he cares a lot about Lucy and doesn’t want her to suffer because of his parents.
Prediction — Walky is now the trouble kid and he’s on the receiving end of how Sal has been treated and it tarnishes the way he views his parents forever, forcing a confrontation.
Very likely since Linda was only pretending to value Sals opinion on Lucy and now that Sal has had the audacity to not have Danny joined at her hip that promise to give Lucy a chance is probably gone.
goddammit lucy
does she know walky was failing before? because that’s gonna come up
Awwww. Lucy is too cute….
and a little delusional.
She deserves better.
Sarah is mean to Lucy, and I hate her. But what she’d said about having a boyfriend with racist family is very true.
I’m on the opposite scale, I love Sarah, but I hate Lucy.
Sorry, I reading it again and I forget to complete the phrase : I hate her attitude towards Lucy.
I don’t hate Sarah at all.
Selective hearing is Lucy’s superpower.
Despite all the well meaning and fondness, I just don’t see this relationship lasting for very long. It’s not easy being ~18 and getting to do choices as an almost adult for the first time.
That’s only a small smile from her, she hasn’t gone full-on Joyce triangle… yet.
“Play it by ear”? This’ll be quite a dinner and a show
Walky just isn’t that into her. He wasn’t really into Amber either. Both just kinda happened to him. Dorothy was the only one where he too the initiative.
I see it more as a Goldilocks story. He was too into Dorothy, and not enough into Lucy, but into Amber the right amount.
Jeepers, Lucy. Is that what you took away from this exchange?
lol poor Lucy.
Fuck all y’all Lucy’s adorable. I’m setting up my fort on this hill and I ain’t moving from this spot
she’s essentially a more socially aware (early doa) Joyce, i don’t know why people hate her so much 😭😭
Aw, buddy. This whole storyline is excruciating – good job, Willis.
Sarah for me is pushing the bounds other cartoon medium for me, where I just don’t know how to take it. I mean, negatively, but it’s just also not doing it for me to read.
This… Walky’s incredible lack of actual attraction to Lucy, Lucy just trying her best!, the realism in the racism, Lucy’s complete inability to anticipate getting treated like shit (but passive-aggressively)… well, it is certainly well done. Anticipating extended torture here, whee.
this was always a disaster in the making but now I’m starting to consider the yandere potential of Lucy
Uuugh! Lucy is the most exhausting character, including Mary
well she is basically just a teen/young adult in love for the first time, i’m sure she’ll look back and facepalm at herself a decade from now
Name of the comic.
They’re all young adults. That doesn’t make her any more likeable
In the wise words of a certain red-colored anthropomorphic echidna…
“Oh no!”
Gods, she’s delusional. I hope she receives her wish for The Full Linda.
I don’t think she actually deserves to be subjected to racism and emotional manipulation because she’s too into her first boyfriend.
She’s not a real person, so I feel no guilt taking satisfaction in exaggerated comeuppance for exaggerated behavior.
Besides, she was warned.
How exactly is that “comeuppance”? What about this *deserves* any kind of negativity? Is being naive a punishable offence in your world?
“The Lions that eat people’s faces off surely won’t eat my face off even though the lions’ children are warning me that they eat the faces off of people who look like me.”
Seriously, Lucy is not “naive.” “Not all skinfolk are kinfolk” is a mantra. That she’s actively ignoring that warning is weird. She is actively deluding herself and ignoring red flags, thinking she’s going to be a nice little pick me, because she’s “different.”
Also, once again, Lucy is not real. Her behavior isn’t real. So the outcome will be unreal and over the top. Unless it fizzles. Who knows.
Didn’t think about this early enough for anyone to notice (and I might repeat it tomorrow if we stay in this scene): Anyone remember how last week we were all attacking Walky for blowing off Lucy to play games with Amber?
Well here he is, a couple hours later with Lucy off to the planned/dreaded meeting with the parents. His sin was just spending part of the morning with someone other than his girlfriend.
Soon, people will be accusing Willis of violating the consent of fictional characters by having them eat ice cream.