Possible that he feels guilty for how things ended and wants a second chance. Even if the relationship fails again, he would have it end on better terms.
I don’t know, their relationship seemed good to me, when they had it. It didn’t end for actual reasons, but because they were both grieving what was ultimately the same thing. Sure, Walky was trying to deny it through humor and obliviousness to reality, but they were both upset about the same thing.
They had no clear fundamental incompatibilities, misunderstandings about each others’ level of interest, massively conflicting life goals, etc.
I don’t know that seemed like a very charged argument parting of ways, feels like those two aren’t done. Or at least not done stumbling into some form of relationship.
Like, definitely not saying it’s not gonna happen EVENTUALLY, but it’s better for the long-term future of the ‘ship that it not happen in this specific way. /sage nods
In fairness to Amber, Walky did ask if she sabotaged the thing with Lucy in order to get him back. Her assumption that this was also a relationship talk didn’t come completely out of nowhere.
I don’t even see her statement as that much “This conversation is because you want to get with me”– she talks about how it went down, in the past, when they were bordering on being a couple. And what happened pushed them away from that, which she thinks is best for them.
I don’t necessarily think she’s shooting down Walky in the now the way he thinks she is (when he’s saying he wasn’t looking for that anyway).
2 strips ago he asked (in his can’t-tell-how-serious way) if she sabotaged him and Lucy. Today’s strip he interprets “its better we split up back then” as her imagining he’s trying to get together and turning him down.
I wonder if he’s thinking about Dorothy but still hasn’t taken her off the pedestal so he’s projecting that onto Amber.
True, though my point was that Walkys anger in panels 4 and 5 seems to stem from an unspoken attempt to get back with Amber which he is now denying in a ‘thou protest too much’ manner.
Eh, sometimes you do get that mad when someone assume you mean something you really didn’t or have some ulterior motive that you really don’t. (I would know, I had fell that a few times.)
I don’t want to assume that. This is a touchy subject and there’s a lot of things that could have set him off, especially since he just broke up with his girlfriend.
I’d be pretty pissed too if i was trying to work out my complicated feelings of grief with a friend and it felt like they were suddenly accusing me of having ulterior motives. It’s pretty offensive
I think his shoes just automatically untie as soon as he’s not looking. Like the way Pig-Pen doesn’t try to get dirty, it just happens because the cosmos is out of balance when he’s all cleaned up.
I don’t remember how old I was when I started reading DOA, but as the years go on I just wanna give half these characters hugs and adopt the other half, poor kids.
I think he’s been needing this for a while. It sucks when you bottle everything up and have the bottle shaken by one more major event. He needs a good cry in his room and a good talk with somebody whom he can trust with his grief. Idk who he could seek out for that purpose though.
Listen there’s a lotta ships I love in this comic. Joe and Joyce are so cute. Sal and Danny are adorable. Becky and Dina….
But like Walky and Amber are the one I REALLY REALLY want to work out. I daresay I would sacrifice ALL of those other couplings for them.
People are all seeing this completely negative, honestly both these characters just feel like they have this dynamic with each other. I mean they’re both basically joking as they’re yelling and parting ways. I’m not sure this doesn’t make me more sure these two are going to keep having something between them.
I don’t think she did. She didn’t accuse him of coming on to her. She just stated as a fact that it was good they broke up back then. I think he might be acting a bit defensive because he doesn’t like being shot down and he could have easily slid back into their comfortable coupled state.
wrote a huge comment yesterday and it is still “awaiting moderation”, if it gets released from moderation jail at this point no one will see it anyway; might as well pull the trigger on it Mr Willis
He does want to get back con her, I think, BUT! He didn’t approach her with ulterior motives. Both Things Can Be True, y’all. Garbage Scow sails on.
… Also come on Amber, Walky and Ethan were never friends. Maybe they should be, but I can’t remember them ever interacting solo. Can’t go knocking “HAVE YOU GOT A MOMENT TO TALK ABOUT MIKE” uninvited.
Walky saw Ethan in the cafeteria a couple weeks ago and asked if he always had so much black in his wardrobe or if he needed to buy some.
Relatively sure that’s the extent of their solo interactions.
Doing a search for Walky and Ethan in the same strip, that is actually their only solo interaction.
They do have a surprisingly larger number of interactions (or at least shared screen time) than I thought, though were always others involved aside from the one I mentioned.
Noticeably, Walky did join in when Ethan introduced Joyce to the joy of Dexter and Monkey Master, so they were at least friendly.
Not buying it. I think Walky’s fighting himself here. He knows he likes Amber and they get along great and Lucy isn’t working and he’s trying not to listen to his dad.
He does protest a little much. Amber did not say that anyone was trying to be a couple now.
At the same time, I do not think he had ulterior motives for this talk.
Again, I like these two together as friends, I like seeing them interact positively. I have no feelings about them as a couple, apart from now would be awful timing, a bad thing for their friendship and also not fair to Lucy. I like seeing them be supportive of each other.
We will see where this goes. I really want them to be friends through.
Which means he’s now primed to run into Dorothy, yell at her incoherently, and storm off. Leaving her bewildered and hurt. You know just to pile on more for both of them.
Three breakups is plenty for freshman year. There’s gotta be other things he can spend his time on. I guess he didn’t realize Lucy was crushing on him so that was sort of single Walky time. But still.
My ace ass relates to this weird hetero thing.
WHO’S TRYNA BE A COUPLE? JUST LET ME BE ATTACHED TO YOU IN WAYS THAT MAKE NO SENSE TO ANYONE ELSE OR, APPARENTLY, YOU
Loljks, I’ve never taken this risk on anyone cos what if they think I’m tryna be a couple. I’m tryna make friends with a guy who has repeatedly referenced his homosexuality and idk if it’s a ‘hey lady back off’ but like, my guy, y’ain’t even TRIED to suss out my flavour of queer, can we just.
Sounds to me like he likes you enough to want to make sure you won’t get hurt. This is a long distance diagnosis based on insufficient information and so it’s accuracy is a real crap shoot.
Next time he mentions his homosexuality, tell him yeah, that’s one of many things I like about you and pause and see where the conversation goes from there.
With ambers prolly to them spending time together before then rather than being like “we should give this another chance”, i’d imagine if he wasn’t a flippant jerk about it on halloween something would’ve happened the same way it did with him and lucy (tho idk if they considered it a ‘couple status’ versus like, friends with benefits during the halloween flashback)
at the very least he could prolly offer him and apology
And do something to ‘make it up to him’ the same way sal helped vote in some kinda poll or whatever after sal apologized to ethan for holding him hostage XD
When you’re near her,
You should fear her,
You’re in trouble if you jeer her.
She’s ferocious,
And she knows just,
How to harness her neurosis.
She’s got Mike Warner in her head to chastise,
She’s got plenty murder eyes.
All the boys, they think they might die,
She’s got plenty murder eyes.
I’m happy to see that both of them are well aware that getting back together would be a HUGE mistake. I wonder if they will be able to keep their purpose.
No no no, not murder eyes from some one who might actually murder somebody. Emo murder eyes. So much worse. The eyes of the puppy what is eternally kicked and resents it and will keep letting you know but not murder you because they are a puppy, metaphorically, and so will also just say its because they don’t want to let out of your suffering.
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Heh. Murder eyes?
Venom venom something something…
Amber, determined to prove she’s in possession of sufficient murder eyes, heads upstairs to fetch the display case.
Well, she has murder somethings. I’m doing an archive crawl and she just threw the “doorstop” down the stairwell after her mask.
man, if looks could kill
*gasp* you’re 3rd today!
I’d stare deeply into her eyes.
Yeah, sure Yoto. Her “eyes”.
😉
Nice use of Oglaf.
God I’ve made SO many Gorgon characters just cuz I find them very hot.
He’d be lying on the floor?
Willis continues to demonstrate their ability to anticipate the comment section.
He sees and knows everything
it’s the “months in advance” part that gets me.
We’re honestly pretty predictable on the whole.
And it helps that, as the author, he’s guiding us around.
Yes…that’s scary
I see a great eye, lidless, wreathed in flame
Like a chocolate starfish, wreathed in fur.
*
Now I’ll never be able to look a chocolate starfish in the eye the same way again.
It’s one of their most impressive skills.
Bad decision averted, or at least delayed
Garbage scow continues to slowly crumble into scale
Worst decision averted I’d say. From Walkys reaction it seems like he was low key taking his father’s advice on getting back with Amber.
It seems that Linda assigns the duty to Charles when she is not available.
Possible that he feels guilty for how things ended and wants a second chance. Even if the relationship fails again, he would have it end on better terms.
I don’t know, their relationship seemed good to me, when they had it. It didn’t end for actual reasons, but because they were both grieving what was ultimately the same thing. Sure, Walky was trying to deny it through humor and obliviousness to reality, but they were both upset about the same thing.
They had no clear fundamental incompatibilities, misunderstandings about each others’ level of interest, massively conflicting life goals, etc.
I don’t know that seemed like a very charged argument parting of ways, feels like those two aren’t done. Or at least not done stumbling into some form of relationship.
“or at least stabby hands”
D’aww, the ship oofed itself. Carry on.
I knew it would but it won’t stop me. I’ll be on deck. Awaiting Captain’s orders.
I’d suggest getting under deck, this is about to turn into a submarine
It’s been a pleasure playing with you all.
*Plays the violin*
Captain Murderer?
Sanctum of Unspoken Grabass Feels is one of my favourite phrases of all time.
Impressive ship destruction
It’s a garbage scow. I doubt it’s destroyed. I think it just looks like that.
I mean, yeah, it’s on fire with gobbets dripping off, but isn’t it always?
imagine it leading to an ethan/walky ship XD; tho i doubt it b/c they were barely acquaintainces even before all the mike drama
♫Ain’t no way to hide your murder eyes♫
Yea, but Amber’s eyes undress you before the kill
“Alright Amber, there’s no need to be intimidated. Just picture him in his underwear. OH NO HE’S HOT.”
See, I called it. I told ya. Didn’t I tell ya? And when did I tell ya? I few days ago? And what did I say would happen. Exactly what had happened!
Good thing my damn-you-Willis’s were all prepared.
DAMN YOU WILLIS!!! Shakes fist at sky.
Like, definitely not saying it’s not gonna happen EVENTUALLY, but it’s better for the long-term future of the ‘ship that it not happen in this specific way. /sage nods
Yes, you’re very smart. Shut up. 😉
*side-eyes Yotomoe*
you’re not … on the Patreon are ya
In fairness to Amber, Walky did ask if she sabotaged the thing with Lucy in order to get him back. Her assumption that this was also a relationship talk didn’t come completely out of nowhere.
I don’t even see her statement as that much “This conversation is because you want to get with me”– she talks about how it went down, in the past, when they were bordering on being a couple. And what happened pushed them away from that, which she thinks is best for them.
I don’t necessarily think she’s shooting down Walky in the now the way he thinks she is (when he’s saying he wasn’t looking for that anyway).
+1
They just wanted to vent.
But seriously, Walky, blaming Amber for a plan that you made and that you thought worked…seriously, Walkerton?
2 strips ago he asked (in his can’t-tell-how-serious way) if she sabotaged him and Lucy. Today’s strip he interprets “its better we split up back then” as her imagining he’s trying to get together and turning him down.
I wonder if he’s thinking about Dorothy but still hasn’t taken her off the pedestal so he’s projecting that onto Amber.
He needs to go to Dorothy for advice on how. To proceed withwith Amber.
Just keep poking until she finally cracks, is that it?
Not wanting to get back together with Amber would sound a whole lot more convincing without the angery defensiveness Walky.
Well, Amber tends to get too defensive and it’s clear that she doesn’t want to repeat certain cycles.
True, though my point was that Walkys anger in panels 4 and 5 seems to stem from an unspoken attempt to get back with Amber which he is now denying in a ‘thou protest too much’ manner.
Eh, sometimes you do get that mad when someone assume you mean something you really didn’t or have some ulterior motive that you really don’t. (I would know, I had fell that a few times.)
I just read them again, and I think that from here on, the boy will be alone.
I don’t want to assume that. This is a touchy subject and there’s a lot of things that could have set him off, especially since he just broke up with his girlfriend.
For real, as someone who really does not want them getting together, all of their too-strong protests about not getting back together is worrying.
I’d be pretty pissed too if i was trying to work out my complicated feelings of grief with a friend and it felt like they were suddenly accusing me of having ulterior motives. It’s pretty offensive
I’m somewhat disappointed that Amber×Walky is not returning, but it makes sense, and I’m hoping they can at least be friends again.
That being said, I’m still taking bets on the next horizontal tango. Who will it be? Place your bets now.
I mean, they Hung out, ate chips and played Video Games in Amber’s room. I think that qualifies as friends.
I think they’re still friends
In the 5th panel, are Walky’s shoes untied? If they are, how does he go around without tripping?
his shoes are always untied. he thinks its charming.
“It’s a choice”?
correction, they were tied when he wore Danny’s shoes. https://www.dumbingofage.com/emasculated/
https://www.dumbingofage.com/earreach/ https://www.dumbingofage.com/buttbuttbus Charles doesn’t tie his either
Well those aren’t his shoes, they’re Danny’s, so your original point still stands
Good catch.
I think his shoes just automatically untie as soon as he’s not looking. Like the way Pig-Pen doesn’t try to get dirty, it just happens because the cosmos is out of balance when he’s all cleaned up.
Oh, Walky 😕.
I don’t remember how old I was when I started reading DOA, but as the years go on I just wanna give half these characters hugs and adopt the other half, poor kids.
I think he’s been needing this for a while. It sucks when you bottle everything up and have the bottle shaken by one more major event. He needs a good cry in his room and a good talk with somebody whom he can trust with his grief. Idk who he could seek out for that purpose though.
I think at the moment, he’s alone for now.
Sal basically. everyone else has basically been using him, barring Lucy who wanted to be used by him.
Sweet dreams are made of this…
I started reading in 2010 when I was a college kid.
I mean i still am because I took a gap 10 years.
Not with Walky you don’t, generally!
Listen there’s a lotta ships I love in this comic. Joe and Joyce are so cute. Sal and Danny are adorable. Becky and Dina….
But like Walky and Amber are the one I REALLY REALLY want to work out. I daresay I would sacrifice ALL of those other couplings for them.
amber and walky is always a welcome dynamic
But not Dorothy and Arnold, right?
Agree that they are my favorite, but I will not sacrifice Becky and Dina
People are all seeing this completely negative, honestly both these characters just feel like they have this dynamic with each other. I mean they’re both basically joking as they’re yelling and parting ways. I’m not sure this doesn’t make me more sure these two are going to keep having something between them.
Feeling for Walky on this one. It really sucks to approach someone with vulnerability and have them interpret it as you having some ulterior motive.
Did she though?
I don’t think she did. She didn’t accuse him of coming on to her. She just stated as a fact that it was good they broke up back then. I think he might be acting a bit defensive because he doesn’t like being shot down and he could have easily slid back into their comfortable coupled state.
“We shouldn’t be a couple” has that implication.
He could infer that because his dad mentioned the possibility and then Dorothy implied it. But it’s on his mind, not necessarily Amber’s.
Lots of feelings spilling out of Walky now and he doesn’t want any of them to do it because feels bad, man
Oh no not feelings! He’s been trying so hard to avoid them!
wrote a huge comment yesterday and it is still “awaiting moderation”, if it gets released from moderation jail at this point no one will see it anyway; might as well pull the trigger on it Mr Willis
Yeah, Willis definitely has nothing better to do this time of year than moderate comments.
I meant he can go ahead and delete it if he wants
if you include more than one link in a comment, it gets moderated.
I thought it was more than two links, and it doesn’t matter whether they’re internal links to other DoA strips or external links to other sites.
ooooooh yeah that would do it
Starting to think they’re not gonna fuck on the table.
There’s still time. Maybe Walky’s just getting a running start.
woop, did not mean to flag that sorry
was actually going to be a comment about the heads of the tiny Peds in background turning and !!! appearing above them
I flagged you seventeen times because it’s fun.
flagged you BAAaack!
–Dave, exits stage up
did Walky have any thoughts about the fact that he was practically a side hustle to relieve stress for both of his ex-girlfriends?
Stressballs
Dumbing of Age, Book 17: Sanctum of Unspoken Grabass Feelings
i am so here for it!
He does want to get back con her, I think, BUT! He didn’t approach her with ulterior motives. Both Things Can Be True, y’all. Garbage Scow sails on.
… Also come on Amber, Walky and Ethan were never friends. Maybe they should be, but I can’t remember them ever interacting solo. Can’t go knocking “HAVE YOU GOT A MOMENT TO TALK ABOUT MIKE” uninvited.
Maybe they could bang though. Ethan would probably agree with everyone else that Walky is hot.
That would just give Danny one more reason to hate him, for dating another of his “exes”.
Walky saw Ethan in the cafeteria a couple weeks ago and asked if he always had so much black in his wardrobe or if he needed to buy some.
Relatively sure that’s the extent of their solo interactions.
Doing a search for Walky and Ethan in the same strip, that is actually their only solo interaction.
They do have a surprisingly larger number of interactions (or at least shared screen time) than I thought, though were always others involved aside from the one I mentioned.
Noticeably, Walky did join in when Ethan introduced Joyce to the joy of Dexter and Monkey Master, so they were at least friendly.
wait is there a way to search for two tags at once??
Dumbing of Age Book 14: Sanctum of Unspoken Grabass Feelings
Oh goddammit. Now I’m seeing Walky as a Jehovah’s Witness-type going door-to-door to spread the word about the man who died for their sins.
Not buying it. I think Walky’s fighting himself here. He knows he likes Amber and they get along great and Lucy isn’t working and he’s trying not to listen to his dad.
He does protest a little much. Amber did not say that anyone was trying to be a couple now.
At the same time, I do not think he had ulterior motives for this talk.
His eyes got a little too puppy dog there for me to think this isn’t him struggling with something.
Yup. That’s his tell for when the feels are reals.
Walky, you’re talking to a shipper. Ship happens.
Again, I like these two together as friends, I like seeing them interact positively. I have no feelings about them as a couple, apart from now would be awful timing, a bad thing for their friendship and also not fair to Lucy. I like seeing them be supportive of each other.
We will see where this goes. I really want them to be friends through.
It is not how I interpreted, anyway. But I am bad at subtext, so what do I know.
A delicious amount of dumbing was done
Ah, Walky finally overloaded
Which means he’s now primed to run into Dorothy, yell at her incoherently, and storm off. Leaving her bewildered and hurt. You know just to pile on more for both of them.
Look, Walky can only be lucid about one feeling at a time.
Feelings, plural? Get outta here.
*plays _Bette Davis Eyes_ on the hacked Muzak*
–Dave, we are never ever getting back to-gether
Three breakups is plenty for freshman year. There’s gotta be other things he can spend his time on. I guess he didn’t realize Lucy was crushing on him so that was sort of single Walky time. But still.
And then a part of me is like… Ethan?
well, he could actually study but that wouldn’t make for good story telling unless he has a partner (platonic or otherwise) with him to banter with XD
My ace ass relates to this weird hetero thing.
WHO’S TRYNA BE A COUPLE? JUST LET ME BE ATTACHED TO YOU IN WAYS THAT MAKE NO SENSE TO ANYONE ELSE OR, APPARENTLY, YOU
Loljks, I’ve never taken this risk on anyone cos what if they think I’m tryna be a couple. I’m tryna make friends with a guy who has repeatedly referenced his homosexuality and idk if it’s a ‘hey lady back off’ but like, my guy, y’ain’t even TRIED to suss out my flavour of queer, can we just.
Sounds to me like he likes you enough to want to make sure you won’t get hurt. This is a long distance diagnosis based on insufficient information and so it’s accuracy is a real crap shoot.
Next time he mentions his homosexuality, tell him yeah, that’s one of many things I like about you and pause and see where the conversation goes from there.
just figured out this year that im somewhere in the aroace spectrum and this is so relateable 😄😄
With ambers prolly to them spending time together before then rather than being like “we should give this another chance”, i’d imagine if he wasn’t a flippant jerk about it on halloween something would’ve happened the same way it did with him and lucy (tho idk if they considered it a ‘couple status’ versus like, friends with benefits during the halloween flashback)
Walky, I am very proud of you for actually saying your feelings out loud and letting yourself be angry.
please!! make this convo between walky and ethan real!!
at the very least he could prolly offer him and apology
And do something to ‘make it up to him’ the same way sal helped vote in some kinda poll or whatever after sal apologized to ethan for holding him hostage XD
Oh hey, it’s the thing I was saying yesterday
Burning incense and praying they stay split up
*HAS* Walky talked to Ethan? Like that would be one hell of a first impression otherwise.
When you’re near her,
You should fear her,
You’re in trouble if you jeer her.
She’s ferocious,
And she knows just,
How to harness her neurosis.
She’s got Mike Warner in her head to chastise,
She’s got plenty murder eyes.
All the boys, they think they might die,
She’s got plenty murder eyes.
I’m happy to see that both of them are well aware that getting back together would be a HUGE mistake. I wonder if they will be able to keep their purpose.
This reaction would be a little extreme, but Walky has already been dumped once today, so i feel like it’s understandable, haha
No no no, not murder eyes from some one who might actually murder somebody. Emo murder eyes. So much worse. The eyes of the puppy what is eternally kicked and resents it and will keep letting you know but not murder you because they are a puppy, metaphorically, and so will also just say its because they don’t want to let out of your suffering.
I just had a breakup I wanted to do friend things not romance things, damnit
I really want to see Evolved Walky fight Raidah.