Walky told Ethan he was gonna kill Mike on purpose. Amber shoved him into Dorothy, who was texting Joyce about macaroni and cheese, the text saying “It’s done”, and she accidentally sent it to Asher also (they share a class, it just hasn’t come up). During all the confusion, Mike was killed by an innocent cop.
Then on Halloween, Amber found out and called him a rude jerk for pwning Mike to death.
Walky wasn’t just being a flippant smartass. Like, “Y’know what’s silent? My fuckin’ dorm room.” seems like it came from a place of genuine anger about how he alone of the whole friend group is confronted with the reality that Mike is gone 24/7, and he can’t even have a moment away from that.
Yeah… That always struck me as “I’m in denial because it fucking hurts” instead of “I’m a conspiracy theorist”. The entire sequence, starting from Dorothy intruding into something she shouldn’t have, was horribly uncomfortable to watch. He shouldn’t have doubled down on it but it’s not strange he did.
I was looking for a comment like this. They started mentioning Mike during the halloween party and I can understand the frustration of Walky who came to the party not a wake
He still messed up by bombing it on purpose with his immaturity rather than being honest and saying “can we please stop talking about Mike for one second.” Apologizing for sabotaging it is the right call.
Domestic abuse is what happened, but everyone in the comment section invariably tries to ignore the fact that Amber committed (legal) assault against Walky. Not defending Walky’s own behavior in the slightest, but I’m glad that the strip, unlike a good portion of the fanbase, finally looks like it might be addressing it with that last panel.
There’ve been a lot of legal assaults in the comic. Most of them, like that one, on the lower end of the scale. As is fairly common with young people, they get ignored as long as there’s no real injury and no pattern.
Not only the comment section, but the narrative itself didn’t treat it too seriously.
It wouldn’t surprise me to see it addressed a bit – with her apologizing or something. Probably going too deep into self-loathing over it, if anything. But still not treating it as seriously as “domestic abuse” implies.
The narrative not taking it too seriously is actually a big part of my issue with it.
Outside of that incident, for Amber in particular, violence has stemmed from one of two things:
1: Intervening in an ongoing criminal event. While vigilanteeism is illegal, and for good reasons, it doesn’t have the same sort of problematic baggage.
2: A direct fight-or-flight response in which she is responding to an actual threat. Again, sometimes she goes further than the law would like (see: Ryan, or even her fight with Sal). But again, it’s not, “I lost control of my temper and hit someone who was no threat to me, hard enough to knock them off their feet into a card table, which they hit hard enough to knock over on their way to the floor.”
That designation is Halloween-only. Amber is absolutely much stronger, more combat-capable and more dangerous than Walky. Her reaction to his misconduct pole-vaulted across the line.
Don’t get me wrong, here–Amber is one of my favorite characters in the strip. I want her well and happy, and I do think there are roads that get her there. But so long as she isn’t confronting that episode for what it was, she’s not going anyplace better.
Short version (too late, I know): Every abuser has a ‘first time’. And they always talk about how they were provoked into it. That’s a narrative that’s ugly as hell, and carries a lot of dark things with it.
Yes, but Amber’s in a bad place, psychologically. She needs to address it, not ignore it, or else it could spiral. Again, I like Amber, she’s one of my faves in the strip. I wouldn’t feel that way about her if I was certain that she’d become like her father.
*DID* he get dumped by Lucy? The way she ended that conversation seemed ambiguous, sure, ending the relationship is A valid way to interpret what she said, but it’s not the only way, personally it seemed more like she was ending the moment and going off to think about what she wants and whether Walky can give it. Like, from the way that interaction ended, the relationship is DEFINITELY in rocky waters, but I don’t think it’s sunk.
She said they would see each other tomorrow…hmmm, I don’t want to sound too negative, but I have a feeling that this conversation and tomorrow’s episode, Walkerton will do something to make everything worse.
He did, there was nothing ambiguous about it. “Fuck you for leading me on and not defending me to your shitty racist parents, our whole relationship has been an unbalanced lie and I deserve so much better than this. I’m gonna start putting me first.” is pretty definitive.
Notably, after being kinda ambiguously dumped by Lucy. Maybe I’m misinterpreting, but what Lucy said to Walky didn’t really feel like a “We’re definitely over forever” goodbye, that was an “I’ve got a lot of intense and complicated feelings right now that I need to spend a few days away from you unpacking” goodbye.
It would be only natural for Walky to think they are broken up. She destroyed him. Of course he is going to go off to his ex-girlfriends for solace and probably get drunk too. Only …she might snap back from this insightful introspective mood to her usual twee fantasy land of make believe.
I don’t think he is trying to get with her, I think it’s maybe more the thing with Lucy is making him want to reexamine ways in which he has failed people, in his estimation, and put things to rest.
To make it even better, make sure Dorothy is walking in the hall outside, so that she becomes aware that Walky decided to break up with Lucy for an older model, but it wasn’t her.
I think that would complete our drama requirements for the semester, really.
I’m slowly developing a horrible realization that he’s not just going to have sex with Amber after getting dumped by Lucy — they aren’t actually broken up yet and he’s going to do it *before* they broke up.
I mean they sort I’m messed up way work together and I know Walky was a bongo on Halloween but he was dealing with the trauma of losing his roommate and not fullu processing it which he now realized.
i imagine amber fully hung up the amazigirl cape/persona but would be hilairious if it somehow circled around to taking walky ‘under her wing’ and training him or so XD
Long form webcomics are wayyyy too spread out for this to be dropped without a link. There’s no telling even which *year* this apocryphal party was documented.
On the other hand, this Halloween arc was foreshadowed for what felt like years before we got to see it in flashbacks, so seeing a reference to Halloween and not knowing quite what it was about is basically what Halloween came to be about, for me at least
And this isn’t a gag-a-day strip, the audience is expected to have read the back catalogue and if you’re telling a long form story, there are some events you can expect regular readers to remember. A major event where couples break up is one of them.
Yes, but as plot convolutions pile up, it can sometimes be tricky to remember the details of particular events that you weren’t as deeply invested in as some of the other drama going on. So an easier look-up would definitely be helpful. Maybe a link dropped by Our Damnable Author to key strips to get caught up–El Goonish Shive does this, constantly, and it’s a pretty huge help.
So you just lurk and wait for someone to volunteer an explanation and post a link. This is the main feature of comment sections for me, for some comics.
You can also get sneaky with it and try to do a comment that makes it seem like you know what you’re talking about while inspiring someone to elaborate in their own followup and fill in the details for you, but it’s real high risk low reward
If people don’t know how to hover over links to see which website they go to, they deserve to get Rickrolled. I can’t even get mad at seeing Rick Astley anymore; he’s such a good sport about it.
Oh, bro, the Youngsters know. They set the song to play in the middle of their talent show performance. They color pictures on his birthday. They say, “I’m going to ask you a series of questions. First, what’s the the opposite of always?” and you can cut to the chase by saying, “Never gonna give you up.” Someone will start the song on the bus heading on the class field trip.
this is how you check for strips in which both (or more) characters appear. https://www.dumbingofage.com/tag/walky+amber/ “This was Halloween” is the blue strips, currently on pages 4 and 3.
I do love how EGS includes links to previous relevant strips with each update commentary.
I mean, it destroys hours of my life on the regular, but I love it.
Wait, I just noticed the convention appearances box! I went to TCAF back in 2019, and it was really cool. And I was literally saying to a friend earlier tonight that I want to go back to Toronto sometime… hm…
The world is still covered in death, but it’s okay because we’ve gotten used to it. Now it kills mostly old people who were going to die shortly anyway.
Normally I’d cheer but this isn’t right. It’s too fast. In fact the fact that he’s here right now makes it more likely the Garbage Scow WON’T leave the port.
I know in my heart they’ll get together again. When? I’m not sure, but I trust the Willis.
Right now, it’s a Sunday and they’re finally talking about The Breakup – Meanwhile the Walkertons (and the sitcom scheme) only happened on Friday. They had barely interacted between Halloween and then, and as much as they’re both prone to speed-running stuff… it feels like they’ve learned a little since October.
Walky will do better with his next girlfriend because he is finally discussing breakups and trying to be a better person. Sniff, so good. He really rushed things with both Amber and Lucy.
I’ll keep saying I’m actually pretty proud of him. Sometimes he fumbles shit damn hard but, who doesn’t? Flawed and all he does try his best, and considering his Achilles’ Heel is emotional vulnerability, he’s grown a lot.
It Was Halloween and they fucked up so badly. And Dorothy. And Ruth. And Billy. And… (so on)
But yeah, second panel Walky is relating hardcore to Amber’s “don’t read depth where there’s none”, and… At last. They’ll talk about the thing that drove them apart.
I’m probably being pedantic but isn’t it happening in life make it not a test? Like…having to do math on a worksheet is a test. Having to figure out how much your bill adds up to isn’t a test. It’s the real world application of the skill you learned. If you run a red light and get pulled over you didn’t fail a driving test, you just failed at driving.
Those things still serve as a test, though. Just not in as a formal test in a preparatory setting. For example, you can find your patience tested by a lot of things that aren’t intentionally trying to test your patience. If you or someone else can learn something about X based on how X performs in a situation, it can be used as a test, even if without that being the purpose of the situation.
Listen…I will accept narratively my ship’s just sorta dead in the water. There is absolutely NO way whatever this is pivots into a couple anytime soon. It’s too soon, it’s too weird, and both of them are wallowing in self pity
(then again never stopped them before)
the reason she makes a better romantic partner for him than Dorothy or Lucy is the same reason they can just be friends easier than him and his other exes.
Again I feel like maybe I’m talking out of my ass but I feel like Amber…makes Walky seem more mature. Lucy and Dorothy kinda coddle him. They lead him around and tell him to do the grown up thing. Amber doesn’t do that which forces Walky to figure out the grown up thing and do it himself.
Wow, I never realized that, but you’re right, Amber is Walky’s equal, whereas Lucy put him on a pedestal and he put Dorothy on a pedestal.
Or, to borrow the words of an insightful asshole, he lost himself in Dorothy, and Lucy lost herself in him, but he and Amber are diametrically-opposed garbage.
Tbh, I agree, but in different words. I’d say that Dorothy and Lucy both objectify him in subtle ways that agree with him that he’s not really his own person. It’s what Linda does to him: he’s a golden boy with so much potential to all of them.
Amber instead throws his shit back at him, maybe because she can see her mom’s pliancy in him. She makes it plain that if he wants to be friends with her, it’s his choice. She refuses to take control. So he has to work for her attention in a way that he never really did for anyone else. And she makes it plain that he can have it if, but only if, he earns it. (I’m hyperbolizing a bit for succinctness.)
This is an interesting point, bc I think it illustrates some things.
1. Dorothy is, I’d say, naturally prone to taking charge. Walky looks more passive standing next to her even when everything she initiates is something he’d want to do on his own, too, because she gets there first. She was also quite experienced and sure of what she wanted out of relationships, while for Walky it was all new and he had to learn what he liked and what he didn’t like.
2. I think Walkyverse!Amber with Mike, and Dumbiverse!Amazi-Girl-and-Amber with Danny, show that Amber can also be that sort of take-charge partner; she just isn’t with Walky, whether because he’s into different things (tbqh Willis writes a lot of guys who give off Big Sub Energy in the romance department) or because she’s in a different headspace.
3. Lucy, I think, was more… take charge by default? Not because that’s what she wanted or what came naturally to her, but because Walky was so much more passive in their relationship.
Scene at the end of season 2 where Hordak confronts Catra about Shadow Weaver being missing, and he drains the air from the room, and right before Catra passes out he says, “This was a test. And you failed.”
Or…. ….maybe, just maybe, Walky actually isn’t trying to immediately get back into Amber’s pants again and really does just want to talk about Mike, as stated. Just a thought.
I don’t wanna agree with you bc you’re a dick 90% of the time but. it is legitimately upsetting how walky trying to seek comfort and talk through his trauma with the one person he’s comfortable with who will get it, and apologize for being hurtful, is being framed as trying to get back with his ex. Bc of shippers or otherwise. It feels gross to me, idk
I’m surprised by the number of suspicions of worse behavior than the original Joe? In my simulations, it turns out that Walky is too simple-minded for such a thing. Of course, later it will turn out that it could have been interpreted this way and that’s how he will be assessed, but initially that’s definitely not what he had in mind. besides, if Walky was in need of an emotional crutch, he would run to Dorothy
awwww..
I think?
I like these too together as friends (Or a couple, I don’t care really, I just like them interacting). They have the potential to be good for each other.
That was an inappropriate time and place and PERSON to bring it up. She wasn’t friends with Mike. She hadn’t known him long. She hadn’t lived with him. She has her grief and absolutely has a right to that, but to hijack a party to bring up a grief for which she is obviously not the most affected? Intensely rude and unkind.
I’ll reiterate my comment from back then: Dorothy bummed everyone out by bringing up the death of someone who was not close to her but was close to at least three people in the room; and then was suprised that her dumb little speech provoked an extremely negative reaction.
I don’t have a lot of patience for people who want others to “get over” their feelings (be it grief or anger) on a schedule they made up in their head.
Her theory, which didn’t seem to work out, is that everyone was already thinking about it but not wanting to say anything and that getting it out in the open might clear the air. She was wrong, but I don’t see it as her thinking everyone should get over it on a schedule.
It came from her confidence that she always knows whats best in a given situation, in spite of what other people do and say. This is also causing her spiral. She believes she is wise beyond her years, and she keeps seeing evidence to the contrary. She needs to believe in herself less, enough to be more considerate. To realize she’s ordinary and that’s ok.
Frankly yeah I hate the shit out of this couple but I do like them as friends. So kinda hoping they never get back together or anything. Walky needs to be single for a while and he needs an emotional support who he isn’t also fucking/dating. I can also feel the ace in me getting pissed at people seeing this scene of attempted healing and being like “omg he’s trying to/going to fuck her right after getting dumped!” Like. Guys. Not the point. Time and place, priorities. Come on now. Someone can seek comfort and understanding, yes even from their ex, without it being a sexual/romantic thing.
I’m really surprised by this strip. Walky finally seems to be able to admit his mistakes and seriously apologize. The speech that Lucy gave him is really having a great effect on his whole being, a very positive effects. Let’s hope getting back to being friends with Walky and talking to him frequently will help Amber too.
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“WE CAN BE FAILURES TOGETHER… IN GARBAGE CAFETERIA”
Five Stars. Would Garbage Here Again.
But mainly because it’s heartwarming to see Walky following his father’s advice.
I don’t remember what happened in halloween. Any reminders?
I was just rereading some of those strips earlier today!
Ruth was Kylo Ren.
Relevant section
And here I am, making the same mistake as Dorothy. I thought Thag Simmons was dead.
More importantly, Thag’s link doesn’t reference Kylo Ren at all.
As a term of my parole I am not allowed to discuss the Sequel Trilogy on the internet in any form
By saying that, you discussed the sequel trilogy.
The cops are en route to your location, please remain where you are.
And they’re equiped with Stegosaurs.
I understood that reference dot gif.
Also, thanks.
Huh. I … completely forgot we saw all of that. Hoo boy.
Walky made a couple of tasteless jokes about Mike having faked his death and still being alive somewhere.
Jokes at the least appropriate time
Walky told Ethan he was gonna kill Mike on purpose. Amber shoved him into Dorothy, who was texting Joyce about macaroni and cheese, the text saying “It’s done”, and she accidentally sent it to Asher also (they share a class, it just hasn’t come up). During all the confusion, Mike was killed by an innocent cop.
Then on Halloween, Amber found out and called him a rude jerk for pwning Mike to death.
I like your universe. Let’s visit there once in a really great while.
i like how you specified the cop who killed Mike is innocent
just walky being a flippant smartass
although weird for him to consider a ‘test’ b/c its not as if amber was the one that brought mike up versus dorothy suggesting a ‘moment of silence’
Tests don’t have to be given by Amber. The universe can test you.
No, no, Dorothy gives you the test. It’s always Dorothy.
Dorothy was only acting in self defense. Her social media was full of Walky and Amber and she had to do something.
The test NEVER STOPS
I think he means it more like, a metaphorical test from the universe about his level of maturity and ability to handle difficult emotions.
Walky wasn’t just being a flippant smartass. Like, “Y’know what’s silent? My fuckin’ dorm room.” seems like it came from a place of genuine anger about how he alone of the whole friend group is confronted with the reality that Mike is gone 24/7, and he can’t even have a moment away from that.
Yeah… That always struck me as “I’m in denial because it fucking hurts” instead of “I’m a conspiracy theorist”. The entire sequence, starting from Dorothy intruding into something she shouldn’t have, was horribly uncomfortable to watch. He shouldn’t have doubled down on it but it’s not strange he did.
This is the correct take
I was looking for a comment like this. They started mentioning Mike during the halloween party and I can understand the frustration of Walky who came to the party not a wake
He still messed up by bombing it on purpose with his immaturity rather than being honest and saying “can we please stop talking about Mike for one second.” Apologizing for sabotaging it is the right call.
This is also the correct take
Yeah, that’s fair, but remembering that it was his own trauma that led to it, rather than just him joking around should change how we see him.
Pumpkins screamed in the dead of night.
Some kids Trick or Treated until the neighbors all died of fright.
Pumpkins screaming in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly
hallowBEST
–Dave, don’t give Seanan McGuire any ideas
Domestic abuse is what happened, but everyone in the comment section invariably tries to ignore the fact that Amber committed (legal) assault against Walky. Not defending Walky’s own behavior in the slightest, but I’m glad that the strip, unlike a good portion of the fanbase, finally looks like it might be addressing it with that last panel.
There’ve been a lot of legal assaults in the comic. Most of them, like that one, on the lower end of the scale. As is fairly common with young people, they get ignored as long as there’s no real injury and no pattern.
Not only the comment section, but the narrative itself didn’t treat it too seriously.
It wouldn’t surprise me to see it addressed a bit – with her apologizing or something. Probably going too deep into self-loathing over it, if anything. But still not treating it as seriously as “domestic abuse” implies.
I’m half expecting Amber to also refer to it as domestic abuse; she’s always been worried about turning into her dad.
The narrative not taking it too seriously is actually a big part of my issue with it.
Outside of that incident, for Amber in particular, violence has stemmed from one of two things:
1: Intervening in an ongoing criminal event. While vigilanteeism is illegal, and for good reasons, it doesn’t have the same sort of problematic baggage.
2: A direct fight-or-flight response in which she is responding to an actual threat. Again, sometimes she goes further than the law would like (see: Ryan, or even her fight with Sal). But again, it’s not, “I lost control of my temper and hit someone who was no threat to me, hard enough to knock them off their feet into a card table, which they hit hard enough to knock over on their way to the floor.”
That designation is Halloween-only. Amber is absolutely much stronger, more combat-capable and more dangerous than Walky. Her reaction to his misconduct pole-vaulted across the line.
Don’t get me wrong, here–Amber is one of my favorite characters in the strip. I want her well and happy, and I do think there are roads that get her there. But so long as she isn’t confronting that episode for what it was, she’s not going anyplace better.
Short version (too late, I know): Every abuser has a ‘first time’. And they always talk about how they were provoked into it. That’s a narrative that’s ugly as hell, and carries a lot of dark things with it.
Every abuser has a first time. That’s true.
Not every “first time” is the start of a pattern of abuse.
Yes, but Amber’s in a bad place, psychologically. She needs to address it, not ignore it, or else it could spiral. Again, I like Amber, she’s one of my faves in the strip. I wouldn’t feel that way about her if I was certain that she’d become like her father.
Is Walky dumb enough to start dating Amber less than an hour after getting dumped by Lucy? Inquiring minds want to know
If they have sex today, I will find it so funny. Go to church –> get laid will have taken a rather indirect path.
… I’d be okay with it.
**whispers**
Garbage skow rides again…
Like garbage, we ride along, following it in its blazing glory.
(Very willingly, too ;33c)
Let it’s name not be lost to the knowledge of men
all those who loved her best, and were with her till the end
will make the Merry Scow of Garbage rise again
fom the wreck of the Gar-bage Fitz-geraaald
-Go to church
-Hate it
-Immediately commit Adultery
Would be pretty funny. And very college.
I’m no expert on religion, I was raised heathen, but I believe technically it would be fornication not adultery since neither if them is married.
It’s okay, it’s a legally defined term in America, too.
And … Google says it was enforced until 2003.
Why did I google this.
Wait, are we talking adultery or fornication here?
So that you’d be prepared if you ever find / build a time machine? (That’s why I’d be looking it up.)
I’m with Queezle, adultery is something you have to be married to do, pre-marital sex is fornication.
/pedant mode
The real question is, is Amber dumb enough to accept him dating her an hour after getting dumped by Lucy? Inquiring minds want to know.
All these guys have done stupid things, but I think that at this point, they should reconsider a little and I think Amber wouldn’t do such a thing.
Well, I’m certainly hoping she will, and I have all my “Damn You Willis”‘s ready in case it doesn’t work out.
We can’t know until Lucy actually dumps him. Couples have gone through worse incidents than this and turned out to be long-term stable.
[Points at the title of the webcomic (?)]
Nah, it’s a great question. I certainly hope so, because it’d be a disaster, but it’d also… be a huger damn disaster, if that makes sense?
*DID* he get dumped by Lucy? The way she ended that conversation seemed ambiguous, sure, ending the relationship is A valid way to interpret what she said, but it’s not the only way, personally it seemed more like she was ending the moment and going off to think about what she wants and whether Walky can give it. Like, from the way that interaction ended, the relationship is DEFINITELY in rocky waters, but I don’t think it’s sunk.
She said they would see each other tomorrow…hmmm, I don’t want to sound too negative, but I have a feeling that this conversation and tomorrow’s episode, Walkerton will do something to make everything worse.
Ah, so you have read the comic and the title before.
Oh god are we about to get the WE WERE ON A BREAK of DoA?
Cue Walky’s “WE WERE ON A BREAK!” protests.
Seriously, though, “I need to be brave enough to know when I deserve better” sounds pretty final to me.
He did, there was nothing ambiguous about it. “Fuck you for leading me on and not defending me to your shitty racist parents, our whole relationship has been an unbalanced lie and I deserve so much better than this. I’m gonna start putting me first.” is pretty definitive.
That’s a lot less ambiguous than her actual words.
Notably, after being kinda ambiguously dumped by Lucy. Maybe I’m misinterpreting, but what Lucy said to Walky didn’t really feel like a “We’re definitely over forever” goodbye, that was an “I’ve got a lot of intense and complicated feelings right now that I need to spend a few days away from you unpacking” goodbye.
It would be only natural for Walky to think they are broken up. She destroyed him. Of course he is going to go off to his ex-girlfriends for solace and probably get drunk too. Only …she might snap back from this insightful introspective mood to her usual twee fantasy land of make believe.
I don’t think he is trying to get with her, I think it’s maybe more the thing with Lucy is making him want to reexamine ways in which he has failed people, in his estimation, and put things to rest.
Might happen anyway. They are bonding nicely.
Yeah but, sometimes you open up some feelings and act out. He isn’t good at this and though he’s doing really well he could let them overtake him.
Watch Lucy try “one more time” to make the relationship work, only to find him with Amber.
Walky will make that “d’oh, no…” sound from all the “Oversimplified” history videos on YouTube.
To make it even better, make sure Dorothy is walking in the hall outside, so that she becomes aware that Walky decided to break up with Lucy for an older model, but it wasn’t her.
I think that would complete our drama requirements for the semester, really.
I’m slowly developing a horrible realization that he’s not just going to have sex with Amber after getting dumped by Lucy — they aren’t actually broken up yet and he’s going to do it *before* they broke up.
“WE WERE ON A BREAK!”
poor Dorothy
I mean they sort I’m messed up way work together and I know Walky was a bongo on Halloween but he was dealing with the trauma of losing his roommate and not fullu processing it which he now realized.
Dumbing of Age Book 14: My Whole Life is–
goddammit
My exact reaction. Curse you Willis and your hover text
Well, yes, but I wasn’t going to admit it.
Yay, we’re bonding ^^
i imagine amber fully hung up the amazigirl cape/persona but would be hilairious if it somehow circled around to taking walky ‘under her wing’ and training him or so XD
Amazigirl is alive and well and playing Roller Derby.
one of the few games named after a hat.
Another being baseball.
Long form webcomics are wayyyy too spread out for this to be dropped without a link. There’s no telling even which *year* this apocryphal party was documented.
On the other hand, this Halloween arc was foreshadowed for what felt like years before we got to see it in flashbacks, so seeing a reference to Halloween and not knowing quite what it was about is basically what Halloween came to be about, for me at least
Congratulations on finding the true meaning of Halloween.
This happened like two books ago, in a chapter called “This was Halloween”
And this isn’t a gag-a-day strip, the audience is expected to have read the back catalogue and if you’re telling a long form story, there are some events you can expect regular readers to remember. A major event where couples break up is one of them.
Yes, but as plot convolutions pile up, it can sometimes be tricky to remember the details of particular events that you weren’t as deeply invested in as some of the other drama going on. So an easier look-up would definitely be helpful. Maybe a link dropped by Our Damnable Author to key strips to get caught up–El Goonish Shive does this, constantly, and it’s a pretty huge help.
The normal way to ask for a link is to say “I forgot the details, does anybody have the link to the strip?”
and then you get Rick rolled.
So you just lurk and wait for someone to volunteer an explanation and post a link. This is the main feature of comment sections for me, for some comics.
The dead Thag Simmons posted the link up near the top.
Alternate strategy: Post an inaccurate summary and wait for someone to “um actshewally” correct you.
(Note that this may not work here, depending on your shitposting reputation.)
You can also get sneaky with it and try to do a comment that makes it seem like you know what you’re talking about while inspiring someone to elaborate in their own followup and fill in the details for you, but it’s real high risk low reward
If people don’t know how to hover over links to see which website they go to, they deserve to get Rickrolled. I can’t even get mad at seeing Rick Astley anymore; he’s such a good sport about it.
It’s also a banger of a song! And tbh Rickrolling should get popular again if only to teach Them Youngsters to not click on sketchy links :’DD
Oh, bro, the Youngsters know. They set the song to play in the middle of their talent show performance. They color pictures on his birthday. They say, “I’m going to ask you a series of questions. First, what’s the the opposite of always?” and you can cut to the chase by saying, “Never gonna give you up.” Someone will start the song on the bus heading on the class field trip.
They know.
But but but do they know THE FEAR of clicking on the wrong link? HOW WILL THEY LEARN IF THEY DON’T FEAR?
(That’s delightful info, Yumi omg ;ww;)
If you send them The Link and they click on it, you can tell them, “you know the rules, and so do I.”
no, that’s for the video of ‘Singing in the Rain’ on Twitter
–Dave, if you do not stare deeply into the meme, you will become the meme
My husband and I had our entire wedding pretend to click a button, to start our romantic First Dance song together, and rickrolled them all.
🙂
People have memorized the URL by now. Once saw it as part of a meme quiz on a podcast
this is how you check for strips in which both (or more) characters appear. https://www.dumbingofage.com/tag/walky+amber/ “This was Halloween” is the blue strips, currently on pages 4 and 3.
also, the chapter name is listed in the archive drop down.
I honestly never knew how to tag more than one character, so thanks for that.
I do love how EGS includes links to previous relevant strips with each update commentary.
I mean, it destroys hours of my life on the regular, but I love it.
Wait, I just noticed the convention appearances box! I went to TCAF back in 2019, and it was really cool. And I was literally saying to a friend earlier tonight that I want to go back to Toronto sometime… hm…
I noticed it too! The world is no longer 100% death covered! (just still kind of mostly partly in some ways covered)
The world is still covered in death, but it’s okay because we’ve gotten used to it. Now it kills mostly old people who were going to die shortly anyway.
Okay, well, other sources tell me the world is a dead thing, filled with nothing anyway, so
Eat at Arby’s.
I wouldn’t trust that dissembling little creep of a ghost as far as I could spit Ysengrim.
‘Gunnerkrigg Court’ ref BTW.
Wow, the crew betting on “Walky beelines to Amber” called it!
GAR-BAGE ROOF. GAR-BAGE ROOF.
Normally I’d cheer but this isn’t right. It’s too fast. In fact the fact that he’s here right now makes it more likely the Garbage Scow WON’T leave the port.
You have constantly shown your love for this ship and yet you are aware that it is too early to raise hopes….very good
I know in my heart they’ll get together again. When? I’m not sure, but I trust the Willis.
Right now, it’s a Sunday and they’re finally talking about The Breakup – Meanwhile the Walkertons (and the sitcom scheme) only happened on Friday. They had barely interacted between Halloween and then, and as much as they’re both prone to speed-running stuff… it feels like they’ve learned a little since October.
Walky will do better with his next girlfriend because he is finally discussing breakups and trying to be a better person. Sniff, so good. He really rushed things with both Amber and Lucy.
I’ll keep saying I’m actually pretty proud of him. Sometimes he fumbles shit damn hard but, who doesn’t? Flawed and all he does try his best, and considering his Achilles’ Heel is emotional vulnerability, he’s grown a lot.
Yup. They’re acting like buddies. That could develop into something more, but I don’t think it’s even started that yet.
I’m not sure they ever were anything more than buddies, with an agreement to distract each other from their feelings of worthlessness.
Really does seem like the Garbage Scow might rise again
It Was Halloween and they fucked up so badly. And Dorothy. And Ruth. And Billy. And… (so on)
But yeah, second panel Walky is relating hardcore to Amber’s “don’t read depth where there’s none”, and… At last. They’ll talk about the thing that drove them apart.
That’s not a test, Walky. That’s just plain old livin’. A test implies she set out to gauge your response. You just sorta made a bad choice.
and he didn’t need to be ready. he just handled having a surprise memorial service at a halloween party less than elegantly.
Some tests in life are administered to you by others, and other tests in life are just life being trying. This was the latter.
I’m probably being pedantic but isn’t it happening in life make it not a test? Like…having to do math on a worksheet is a test. Having to figure out how much your bill adds up to isn’t a test. It’s the real world application of the skill you learned. If you run a red light and get pulled over you didn’t fail a driving test, you just failed at driving.
gonna start another theological megathread with “life is not a test”.
sh-boom, sh-boom
Those things still serve as a test, though. Just not in as a formal test in a preparatory setting. For example, you can find your patience tested by a lot of things that aren’t intentionally trying to test your patience. If you or someone else can learn something about X based on how X performs in a situation, it can be used as a test, even if without that being the purpose of the situation.
Getting your nasty feet on those goddamn seats, David Walkerton
Fuck on the table, cowards.
Lucy can walk into the room when they’re going at it, and they can have a quick chat that explicitly confirms they’re broken up.
My gosh if Lucy has another explosion because she wasn’t done breaking up with Walky I will scream. Walky can’t read your mind, girl.
“And he’s not the only one.”
Listen…I will accept narratively my ship’s just sorta dead in the water. There is absolutely NO way whatever this is pivots into a couple anytime soon. It’s too soon, it’s too weird, and both of them are wallowing in self pity
(then again never stopped them before)
Points to name of strip.
Yeah, I know Willis is just raising our hopes just to dash them, but it’s working.
the reason she makes a better romantic partner for him than Dorothy or Lucy is the same reason they can just be friends easier than him and his other exes.
Again I feel like maybe I’m talking out of my ass but I feel like Amber…makes Walky seem more mature. Lucy and Dorothy kinda coddle him. They lead him around and tell him to do the grown up thing. Amber doesn’t do that which forces Walky to figure out the grown up thing and do it himself.
Eh, Walky’s been doing better for himself lately even opposite Dorothy and Lucy
Wow, I never realized that, but you’re right, Amber is Walky’s equal, whereas Lucy put him on a pedestal and he put Dorothy on a pedestal.
Or, to borrow the words of an insightful asshole, he lost himself in Dorothy, and Lucy lost herself in him, but he and Amber are diametrically-opposed garbage.
There must be a conservation law there somewhere.
Yas, this makes sense.
*Emmy Noether intensifies, right into Sigmund Freud, who falls over sideways*
He’s allergic to confronting his emotional issues, and that’s what Amber is on an atomic level.
Tbh, I agree, but in different words. I’d say that Dorothy and Lucy both objectify him in subtle ways that agree with him that he’s not really his own person. It’s what Linda does to him: he’s a golden boy with so much potential to all of them.
Amber instead throws his shit back at him, maybe because she can see her mom’s pliancy in him. She makes it plain that if he wants to be friends with her, it’s his choice. She refuses to take control. So he has to work for her attention in a way that he never really did for anyone else. And she makes it plain that he can have it if, but only if, he earns it. (I’m hyperbolizing a bit for succinctness.)
Amber’s also a damn mess so most people look great around her
This is an interesting point, bc I think it illustrates some things.
1. Dorothy is, I’d say, naturally prone to taking charge. Walky looks more passive standing next to her even when everything she initiates is something he’d want to do on his own, too, because she gets there first. She was also quite experienced and sure of what she wanted out of relationships, while for Walky it was all new and he had to learn what he liked and what he didn’t like.
2. I think Walkyverse!Amber with Mike, and Dumbiverse!Amazi-Girl-and-Amber with Danny, show that Amber can also be that sort of take-charge partner; she just isn’t with Walky, whether because he’s into different things (tbqh Willis writes a lot of guys who give off Big Sub Energy in the romance department) or because she’s in a different headspace.
3. Lucy, I think, was more… take charge by default? Not because that’s what she wanted or what came naturally to her, but because Walky was so much more passive in their relationship.
Ok but that title text would make for a great book title
Of course he wasn’t ready, his conspiracy stemming out of his sheer denial led him to be shoved</a< like it was 300— woah Walky should apologize more to JOYCE
"My whole life is 💩 posts" me describing pukicho, Jonny Sun, and Neil Cicierega.
Look daddy, teacher says every time I forgot to close tags, an angel’s wings get clipped.
…a test? of?
It was a test of if Walky was bouncy.
We have to test Walky’s bouncosity by dropping him from progressively taller buildings, recording whether or not he bounced.
For Science
Of course, doing that test with Mike was exactly how we got in this situation.
The insurance premiums for testing Mike would pale in comparison to Walky’s
with how close he is to the end of the booth, going over the back was the long way.
Can anyone else not read Walky’s last line in panel 3 without thinking about that one scene from Netflix’s She-Ra? Just me?
…FUCK, I don’t know what scene you’re talking about. Loved that show, but only did a complete watch of it once. Context, please?
You don’t remember the scene in She-Ra where Mike died?
Okay, but that was a running gag in the background of every episode, so I didn’t think it was what they were referring to as “that one scene.”
Scene at the end of season 2 where Hordak confronts Catra about Shadow Weaver being missing, and he drains the air from the room, and right before Catra passes out he says, “This was a test. And you failed.”
This is the best clip I could find of it on YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cg_-0547Q5k&ab_channel=SophieHatter
Here’s hoping this is just an earnest apology and not Walky trying to get back with Amber. That’d be kinda shitty of him.
Believe me, you’re not the only one who thinks the same.
It’s nice to see him apologize for that. I think they could use a nice therapeutic talk about Mike.
*looks at the majority of the comments above*
Or…. ….maybe, just maybe, Walky actually isn’t trying to immediately get back into Amber’s pants again and really does just want to talk about Mike, as stated. Just a thought.
Look if I expect the worst than I can be pleasantly surprised if characters make the smart decision
Sometimes it’s not a decision, just something you find that you’ve done.
amd ehpomst among us hss not immediately tried to get back into Amber’s pants
costume
whatever
… …
*and whomst *has
–Dave, at this rate, my keyboarding will be completely incoherenter within a decade. bah.
That he isn’t trying doesn’t mean it won’t work.
I don’t wanna agree with you bc you’re a dick 90% of the time but. it is legitimately upsetting how walky trying to seek comfort and talk through his trauma with the one person he’s comfortable with who will get it, and apologize for being hurtful, is being framed as trying to get back with his ex. Bc of shippers or otherwise. It feels gross to me, idk
She’s talking about Dorothy, our little gauche angel.
She’s talking about all those math tests. He failed them and she knows. She knows who failed all the math tests.
I really like this Walky arc.
:c
Yeah. Yeah.
Oh, Walky.
between the scene with lucy and now that, that’s a lot of honest/mature conversation for Walky
He’s gonna need a lot of goof to compensate later. Well, once Carla eventually realize Walky bullshitted her earlier, she’ll be very happy to provide.
holy fuck going to church was the wakeup call walky actually needed.
Yee you can say that again
I’m surprised by the number of suspicions of worse behavior than the original Joe? In my simulations, it turns out that Walky is too simple-minded for such a thing. Of course, later it will turn out that it could have been interpreted this way and that’s how he will be assessed, but initially that’s definitely not what he had in mind. besides, if Walky was in need of an emotional crutch, he would run to Dorothy
Ehhhh… Dorothy wasn’t as emotionally there for him as much as Amber was.
Garbage roof had more emotional connection then “sex buddies until it wasn’t.”
awwww..
I think?
I like these too together as friends (Or a couple, I don’t care really, I just like them interacting). They have the potential to be good for each other.
I got to say this great writing kudos to Willis on Walkys character arc I know it’s not over but it’s just good character development.
Dorothy is the one who failed hardesr at Halloween.
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2022/comic/book-12/05-this-was-halloween/attention-2/
That was an inappropriate time and place and PERSON to bring it up. She wasn’t friends with Mike. She hadn’t known him long. She hadn’t lived with him. She has her grief and absolutely has a right to that, but to hijack a party to bring up a grief for which she is obviously not the most affected? Intensely rude and unkind.
her faux pas are the kind that incidentally people keep silent about, until one person doesn’t, and then they’re the bad guy.
Maybe she did, but the highest failing grade is still a fail
I’ll reiterate my comment from back then: Dorothy bummed everyone out by bringing up the death of someone who was not close to her but was close to at least three people in the room; and then was suprised that her dumb little speech provoked an extremely negative reaction.
I don’t have a lot of patience for people who want others to “get over” their feelings (be it grief or anger) on a schedule they made up in their head.
Her theory, which didn’t seem to work out, is that everyone was already thinking about it but not wanting to say anything and that getting it out in the open might clear the air. She was wrong, but I don’t see it as her thinking everyone should get over it on a schedule.
Indeed. She was being leader-ly. It was the wrong moment for leadership.
+1
It came from her confidence that she always knows whats best in a given situation, in spite of what other people do and say. This is also causing her spiral. She believes she is wise beyond her years, and she keeps seeing evidence to the contrary. She needs to believe in herself less, enough to be more considerate. To realize she’s ordinary and that’s ok.
Frankly yeah I hate the shit out of this couple but I do like them as friends. So kinda hoping they never get back together or anything. Walky needs to be single for a while and he needs an emotional support who he isn’t also fucking/dating. I can also feel the ace in me getting pissed at people seeing this scene of attempted healing and being like “omg he’s trying to/going to fuck her right after getting dumped!” Like. Guys. Not the point. Time and place, priorities. Come on now. Someone can seek comfort and understanding, yes even from their ex, without it being a sexual/romantic thing.
+1
No Walky. You cannot in any way shift blame from Amber. Not a quantum, not an iota, not some other vaguely Latin (or Greek) word for a small amount.
epsilon, minim, dra(ch)m, 1/omega
For those of you still suffering fallout from a terrible Christmas, I just want to let you know,
You’re not alone 😭😭😭
*e-hug* proffered
🫂 At least the bonus strip seems to match my mood 🥺
It’s about Joyce’s doggo. It’s really sad.
Just, what do you do when you’ve had a traumatic Xmas?
“Just, what do you do when you’ve had a traumatic Xmas?”
Eggnog pancakes and mimosas until the world spins the other direction mostly.
Geeze, I feel so bad for both these kids. :-<
I’m really surprised by this strip. Walky finally seems to be able to admit his mistakes and seriously apologize. The speech that Lucy gave him is really having a great effect on his whole being, a very positive effects. Let’s hope getting back to being friends with Walky and talking to him frequently will help Amber too.