Discussion (172) ¬
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David M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 11h
Joshua J. Friedman @joshuajfriedman.com ⋅ 12h
trash panzer @panzertron.bsky.social ⋅ 18h
Meredith Rose @mrose.ink ⋅ 1d
Alex Wayne @aawayne.bsky.social ⋅ 1d
David F Walker a.k.a. BadAzz MoFo @davidfwalker.bsky.social ⋅ 2d
Arren @arrenm.bsky.social ⋅ 3m
David M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 2d
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“I could also just stand here and get hypothermia instead”
“Especially in these finger-less gloves!”
Hey hypothermia might be fun. It can lead to hallucinations and spontaneous self-destructive nudity, which, from what I gather, is the whole point of party drugs.
It can also result in dying and being abandoned as route marker whose identity of which no-one is entirely sure.
But then a guy with a beard will come along and steal her sharp’s rifle, prying it from her cold dead fingers….
Actually, it was a Hawkins, which Jeremiah really appreciated.
half expected a Gray Fullbuster reference here for some reason
Wait, are you talking about hypothermia or party drugs there?
Sarah, just because you can’t handle relationships for shit and completely blew it up with Jacob yesterday doesn’t mean you have to take it out on people who do sorta better at it.
That’s not the reason she’s mean.
She’s mean because it is her way of life. Sarah is actually the same character as Mike in that she thinks she’s a supporter with her constant neverending cynicism and bad attitude.
Ah yes, let us just ignore all those times she goes out of her comfort zone to help Joyce than, shall we?
Yes, actually. It’s funnier that way.
Mike never had a bad attitude. He just helped other people with theirs.
I have no opinion on Mike any deeper than “He was a boring one-note rude boy”.
He became so problematic since his creation that he literally needed to be killed off.
Or just a tune Willis got tired of writing.
OK
I remember someone in a different comic (forget where) once being compared to a kitten that only knows how to scratch. I think that fits Sarah’s personality, too used to expressing cynicism to beable to just say congrats.
@arch that’s qc and faye lol
Thanks, was wondering where I remembeted that from.
Ugh. Not this pair. They’re not fun together.
Judging Lucy’s expression, something tells me she’ll want to get revenge for Sarah’s previous comments.
Worst case for Sarah we see next comic that Radiah is with Lucy (possibly just to ness with Sarah?) Best case Lucy admits that Sarah had a point about the sitcom dinner plan being a terrible idea.
Yeah, she looks so angry.
Interesting to see Lucy here though. Normally we’d be expecting her to come here to walk to class with the group and specifically with Walky. She did say she’d see Walky in class, but if she’s serious about breaking up with him, coming to walk to class with him and his friend group is a pretty aggressive move.
I feel the exact opposite. The last time we saw them on panel together Sarah really got under Lucy’s skin, she was pretty horrible but also ended up being pretty correct in her points that
A) Walky wasn’t really good for her
B) Lucy needed to stand up for herself more.
I’m curious to see what Lucy’s feelings on her are now.
Personally I’d enjoy Lucy going off on Sarah. I like them hating each other and Lucy embracing the dark side. The potential comment section war would kind of take some of the fun out of it though.
Yeah, that has me kind of hoping that we’re about to see a subversion.
Lucy is feeling kind of weird about Sarah. Sarah was *right*, and may have been trying to help in her own dysfunctional neurodivergent/traumabrained terrible communicator way.
Sarah is feeling lonely. She *just* chased two people off by asking a rude, blunt question as her way of making conversation. She’s missing Joyce and off-balance.
Maybe both of them are in a place to extend a rare olive branch. They both need more authentic friends.
Lucy seems like the type to go sweetly passive-aggressive, rather than overtly mean-girl.
I feel like with Sarah Lucy is pretty blunt and straight forward, but it’s because of what she heard from Raidah. It has me wondering if Lucy is about to try to prove that she’s not just Walky’s +1 or if shes about to say she was right before about Sarah being awful
Post-Walky Lucy might have interesting things to say to her. Probably not nice, but interesting
Setting up lots of: characters for this day. The difference in pacing is shocking.
I thought she was Sarah!
(No idea if this will work…)
Yay!
Nice formatting.
Reminds me of this one:
“Surely, you’re joking!”
“Hey! Don’t call me Shirley!”
You can’t be serious.
No, no, Sirius is the other guy…
Ok but who’s on first?
Really, are you paying attention at all?
Reilly? Naw, Reilly left a while ago.
I’m Yu. This is my son, Yu II. Yup, we’re paying attention.
Sorry, sorry, sorry…
🫣
Surly to bed and surly to rise…
For someone fresh out of a relationship, Lucy sure is smug.
Villains typically are. I hope she woke up choosing evil today.
She’s smug BECAUSE she’s fresh out of a relationship. She feels better being the dump-er than the dump-ee.
Is it smugness? I can’t really tell, though her attitude is a lot higher than I expected.
Maybe she is trying to prove something. Sarah said she was only hanging out with them because of Walky. I don’t think that’s true now, but I think the person she’s next closest to is Becky, who doesn’t walk with them for Calc.
Maybe she wants to show off her “new self”
I was a little taken aback too, I’m pretty sure their last interaction was when she and Sarah fought because Sarah suggested she do the thing she just did. I’d be feeling pretty abashed in that situation personally but I suppose Lucy’s responding differently.
She said “good morning”, what the fuck?
What exactly has been good about it for Sarah, so far?
That’s none of my business, and it’s not my responsibility to quantify the amount of good/bad that’s happened to a given character. It’s unpaid emotional labor and I refuse to participate.
Damn, a bongo can’t smile with a greeting anymore?
I think this is why these two don’t get along and why the commentary gets heated when they appear together.
Lucy and Sarah don’t like each other’s company. Lucy is acting cheerful and friendly. Superficial friendliness is a widespread custom in the US (at least). Sarah feels grouchy and she’s not hiding it, and she’s not feigning happiness to see Lucy.
So greeting someone with a smile can be welcome or it can be off-putting.
Lucy is oddly chipper for someone that doesn’t like Sarah, and just broke up with someone.
She problaly wants to brag about his one-day personal reinvention.
I wouldn’t be surprised if, rather than that, it’s her showing an intention to be around with or without Walky, after Sarah basically saying Lucy’s only tie to the group was due to Walky.
(Which isn’t actually accurate, given she independently has been friends with Becky for a while now given they are both Christian and coworkers, but Sarah’s only sparingly in Becky’s orbit, I guess.)
Good point, I think it would be interesting to see more of her interactions with Becky, that is, they only interact on the Christian side, although to be honest, there was a moment where I thought that Lucy would be Becky’s accomplice to make Joyce become a believer again. Yes, it would have been interesting to see that drama and besides the way Becky and Joyce settled their differences, it didn’t seem very convincing.
So I looked up sarah+danny and other than various group scenes they haven’t directly interacted since 2012. It’s wild how random pairings of main characters don’t know or barely know each other.
So makes no reason for Sarah to dunk on Danny
It probably isn’t especially personal and is moreso Sarah just observing a “mismatch”, though I don’t really think Sal and Danny are one once you get past initial appearances.
I think it’s also probably since Danny is Joe’s best friend, and Joe is someone Sarah’s got a certain level of enmity for, even if it’s nowhere near where it once was.
I don’t think it has anything to do with Danny being friends with Joe, just Sarah not knowing how to give a noncommittal congratulations to the new couple and remembering too late that not everyone in the friend group has to same tolerance threshold for her cynicism as Joycec.
For those of you who remember our discussion about Sarah’s tiny backpack last week (and, like, where now confused that she seems to have a much more appropriately sized satchel, but no backpack), I figured it out.
It turns out Sarah never had a tiny backpack, it was the black hood of her sweatshirt. We just could not see the bottom of the string hanging over her shoulder, and therefore from context (she was talking about going ahead to class), I assumed that the hood was her backpack. Sorry about that.
Was she wearing a sweatshirt though? The black thing with strings looked more like a durag i thought. Guess we’ll see when she takes of her coat.
The best part about this, is that Willis completely redrew Sarah in a new outfit between updates. She’s not even wearing the same thing anymore.
It’s happeniiiiing! (Again)
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/a4/29/f2/a429f231d95f83b46492f89ddfabfde8.gif
Sal has really grown as a character and the way she handled Sarah was just right
She already deserved a great moment and now she has it
Agreed
It wouldn’t have been that long ago Sal might have thrown down with Sarah but instead does the right thing and leaves
One of the side effects of living in close proximity to Malaya is that Sal has decided she no longer has got time for that. Her confrontation quota is full before breakfast, no more energy for gaslightibg moms or critical side friends.
I’d think it is a side effect of being genuinely happy, but yeah, living with Malaya would do that too.
i agree being genuinely happy is the big factor. Repeated Malaya exposure just made her hyper aware of the type of attitude and talk that can lead to unhappines.
Agreed, well done Sal.
The thing about the comic format is that sometimes one character has to be insufferable to give others the chance to shine.
Sometimes one character has to be insufferable to give others the chance to be insufferable.
Fixed that for you.
No, being an awful asshole who barely toes the line here to abuse the lack of a block function is your schtick.
Takes one to know one 🤭
Lucy? Willis, I will damn you today, tomorrow and forever. Especially tomorrow!
Beck House, so full of perdedors
For some reason, a lot of people’s comments are garbled today, I can’t make any sense out of them. But just the people who are wrong, it’s so weird.
Contacting Hiveworks uses they/them pronouns on my browser.
Garbled? Garbled garbled garbled.
o hey I remember that Shortpacked! strip
–Dave, so, I tagged Willis on the Tiktok of Batman and a triptych mirror singing along with Bohemian Rhapsody on Twitter. the right thing to do, or the only thing to do?
There was a time when I liked Sarah.
What’s not to like about someone laying out a rapist with a baseball bat
Nothing. That’s why she was likeable back then, as opposed to now when she reserves her hostility for making verbal attacks on people who don’t really deserve it.
There’s only so many heads you can get away with bashing with a baseball bat.
She’s been riding her handful of good deeds for awhile, the tiny boat of good deeds she has built is about to topple over in the ocean of bad personality.
I mean, I like Sarah, but I think I just kinda like assholes as fictional characters so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I usually do too but I dunno. Sarah’s particular brand of being an asshole turns me off. Gimmie a Bender type character and forget about it. I love him. But a curmugeon who assumes everyone’s as miserable as they are. BLEGH. I don’t need a Bill Deutrive.
*Sips from can*
Yep.
Okay, but I’d love for Sarah to have a full-blown arc where her lifestyle gradually devolves into that of one William Fontaine de la Tour Dauterive. I’m imagining her in a dirty white tank top and some old boxer shorts, sitting on a beat-up couch and eating Beefaroni directly out of the can. The TV is on, but it’s only static because she hasn’t paid the cable bill and doesn’t have the will to change to one of the free channels, even though the remote is right next to her beer.
There are more ceaselessly acrimonious characters in DOA than non (and they tend to get the most screen time). I think what makes Sarah so painful to read, at least on a personal level, is that it hits so close to home. Her special brand of prickliness reminds me too much of what I was like about that age and her motivations (bad experiences with earlier social groups) make it all the more believable. Sarah is a bitter pill.
(…hot, tho)
Same for me. Jennifer too honestly. We gotta embrace our faves becoming worse people. And remember there are better sides to these characters that just aren’t having much opportunity to shine right now.
soft reset between semesters means showing the moments where characters* are at their worst, to highlight the progress they’re making / going to be making.
* Sarah, Lucy, Walky, Carla, Dorothy, and Jennifer
anyways, it’s like 9:45 on a Monday in January and it’s freezing out. I would find Sarah’s bitterness a lot more charming than Lucy’s supposedly cheerful attitude.
I suspect we might be about to see a change in attitude from her. At first I thought this bit was just a chance for Sal to overcome a challenge, but the focus has stayed on Sarah. In the middle and second-to-last panel we see that her surface grumpiness is at odds with a genuine desire for company.
If I were Danny, I’d absolutely demand she stop calling me “Wonderbread.” Show a little respect, Sal.
Speaking as someone so pale he could hide in a snowdrift (if I ever deigned to be within 50 miles of naturally occurring snow), I’m reading it as an affectionate nickname at this point. It’s a little rude, and hopefully Sal gets tired of it, but its not exactly said with any animosity at this point, and Danny’s kinda leaning into the Dorkus Supreme status.
If it bothered him, he’d probably say so.
No, that’s fucking stupid. The less somebody objects to something, the more upset they actually are. He’s in fucking agony right now.
If you were Danny, it would absolutely be your right to make that demand, and if Danny ever does make that demand, Sal should certainly respect it.
All evidence, however, suggests that Sal means it and Danny takes it as a term of endearment between the two of them as a callback to their history together, and that being the case there is nothing wrong with continuing.
Idk, if I were Danny I might like it.
I have some weird nicknames because they just kind of developed over time… E.g. a friend made a variation to an existing nickname by adding a word, then eventually left out the nickname and just used the new word, and now it’s established enough that I answer to that without even noticing.
If you had asked me in advance, I would have said “don’t call me that, it’s stupid and annoying”, but now I don’t mind and it’s more like “yeah, that’s what friend X calls me” and it’s part of our friendship that he has an individual nickname for me that nobody else uses.
Sal has a thing about addressing everyone by nicknames she chooses. She’ll use names, but only reluctantly and if absolutely necessary.
https://www.dumbingofage.com/absurdly/
https://www.dumbingofage.com/teachme/
If there’s any conflict over her calling him “Wonderbread”, I hope it acts as the gateway to exploring this habit. Is it to keep people at arm’s length? Is she just bad at remembering peoples’ names?
She uses nicknames for people she doesn’t know well, and later as more of an endearment (she does the same thing with ‘kid’ with Joyce or ‘red’ with Becky). I think the only person she has a lot of affection for that she never uses nicknames for is Marcie.
I know it makes no sense but it’d be really funny if Jacob and Lucy got together
It’s interesting to me that people want this ship. Is it just to spite Sarah? We just saw what Lucy is like in a relationship and at least for me until she learns to analyze her faults in that I wouldn’t wish her on anyone.
After she became aware of how things were with Walky, you’d think she’d finally made progress…but I think that’s far from the truth, especially with Lucy.
Definitely spite and a touch of karma
I’d rather see Jacob and Raidah back together (or Jacob with just about anyone else, or nobody at all) than to see Jacob with Lucy, and I like both Lucy and Jacob (separately).
But I’d rather see Jacob with Lucy forever, until the end of the comic, than to see Jacob with Sarah.
I can see it if only because Joyce has said herself that she sees a lot of herself in Lucy and Jacob has said he’d want a lot of Joyce’s characteristics in his next girlfriend.
They’re alike in superficial ways like cheerfulness and (formerly) religion, but I think what Jacob admires is Joyce’s courage and strength of character. He specifically mentioned the wrist brace from Joyce punching a kidnapper. No offense to Lucy, but I don’t exactly see her doing that.
Jacob + A.G.
Lucy + Ken
Sarah, otoh, laid out a rapist with a baseball bat. Jacob might be into that.
She did that one time, she can’t coast on it forever.
“but you lay out ONE rapist with a baseball bat, and it’s ‘Hey there, Bat-girl!’ forever after”
–Dave, not Barbara Gordon saying the above, or Kathy Kane
Sal is misbehaving by using a nickname for her boyfriend.
Sarah is misbehaving by deliberately driving people away.
Lucy is misbehaving by greeting a human being she recognises.
Danny is misbehaving by not talking. (He’d also be misbehaving if he said anything at all.)
There, tally up your imaginary behavior points according, ya goddamn scolds.
Walky is misbehaving by showing up late, smelling like Dorothy.
i don’t rly think sal is rly ‘misbehaving’ for using that nickname unless it legitimately bothers danny to be called that
Mmmmnope. All behavior is misbehavior, in the land of fiction. You’re just not trying hard enough.
*really
C’mon PJ! Anon also used the wrong quotation mark, that one was right there and you missed it! Also didn’t capitalize Danny’s name or the I (which is also the first word of the sentence), and didn’t use a period! There was so many corrections you coulda done! Are you even really being pedantic?
Cry about it.
The comments section is misbehaving by having opinions about fictional characters.
Okay, that was probably unnecessary. Sorry.
Taffy is misbehaving!!!
You’re misbehaving by saying that about Taffy.
Wait, now I’m misbehaving.
Throws Ain’t Misbehavin’ on the hacked muzak
It’s always a little off-putting when I Ctrl+F my name to find comment threads I’m in (fuck off, the excessive ads make scrolling a chore), and then have some instances of it be other people mentioning me.
Come to think of it, having other people say any of my names, in any context, feels strange.
say their name
say their name
–Dave, weave a circle round them thrice
Between the parents fiasco and living with Malaya I can understand why Sal isn’t eager to hear someone elses opinion on her relationship right now, I think she really does just want a nice walk with Danny right now.
Sorry, I’m pretty new to the comment section, but just to clarify:
Sarah is like Malaya right? A character I’m not supposed to like.
Rather than, say, Mike and Carla, who were/are irritating but witty.
Sarah and Malaya have their good and bad points. It’s okay to like either. Carla is witty and self centered. Mike was funny at your expense, but never bothered to be witty.
No, there are a few characters you’re textually meant to despise: the evil moms, Mary, people like that.
All others, you are free to empathize, sympathize, neutralthize or despicathize at your discretion, and then make sure to fight for your champion in the comments!!!
Every character has at least one dedicated hater.
For instance, Sirksome hates Walky.
You mispelled “shitty,” there’s no “w” in it.
New to the comment section? Oh boy. Welcome to hell, kiddo, buckle up and get ready for chaos!
In all seriousness, I would advise that you let go of the “which character am I supposed to like” mindset ASAP, @Terrh! That is an extremely good way to drive yourself insane when reading this comment section. Just accept that people are weird, the comic is weird, and pretty much every character is going to have some people who hate them and some people who love them – yes, even that one. And that one. And – ok, maybe not Blaine, Ross, and Mary. Outright hateful bigotry and misogyny, at least, isn’t actually permitted in this fandom. Literally anything else, though, you’re free to judge however you wish. And be horrified by other people’s judgements, of course. Sorry, but that’s just the way it is.
I’d say that all of the main cast* characters are ultimately supposed to be likeable. They’re all flawed and sometimes some flaws get emphasized more than others, especially when they come into conflict. Like and dislike whoever you want, but they’re all at least secondary protagonists, not antagonists.
*Main cast being those on the cast page.
Nah, Mary DEFINITELY had her supporters, especially when she was clashing with Carla. People were so upset when she finally misgendered Carla directly, thus indicating to the readership that maybe they weren’t supposed to be siding with one of the worst characters Willis has ever created over the somewhat annoying trans girl.
Oops I should add I otherwise fully agree with you! Heh, apparently that went without saying.
Mary has artistic talent and can be persuaded to share it with others. She can put a lot of creative effort to Lead people to the Light.
“now be very quiet,
for it goes without saying”
– The Phantom Tollbooth
As a very intermittent commenter: I think overall Willis is crafting us complex characters, which can sometimes clash with the cartoon medium.
Lots of people like Malaya, for some reason (they straight up attempt to bully Sal IMO so I find zero of their schtick endearing personally), and I think Sarah is probably meant to sit in a similar place? Very divisive?
I too have found myself losing patience with Sarah, however. There’s abrasive, and there’s this level of abrasive. To me, some of it just does not ring true to me, even as a maladaptive coping mechanism. But it is what it is.
Sarah was one of my favorite characters, but I feel like when a lot of people say they like mean characters (like me) They mean when they’re mean for the right reasons. Or snarky.
Sarah is just mean to strangers for no reason than to vent her own annoyances. She was fun when her anger felt like it was contstructive to the plot, or gave her something to work against for a goal.
Recently it feels like she’s just being mean to the only person who genuinely likes her and cares about her, overtly so to the point of trying to manipulate her boyfriend into cheating on her and getting mad when she fails/borderline fails.
Like… I wanna know what her deal is because I at least trust Willis enough to think he has a reason she’s been unbearable as opposed to just prickly
In Sarah’s head, constantly making snarky jabs is just how friendship works, and trying to break up Joe and Joyce isn’t being mean to Joyce, it’s saving her!
She got mad when the manipulation didn’t work, because that suggests she was wrong about Joe, and that can’t possibly be right.
She’s been in a bad mood for a while, but I also think her patience might be shorter after she was kidnapped last semester.
I usually take the kidnapping with a side of… idk trauma salt? Willis has said in the past part of the reason he didn’t wanna kill anyone was because of how long everyone would be grieving/experiencing stuff right?
Surly she’s joking
This is no laughing matter, @Arianod! And don’t call me Surly!
Lucy seems oddly smug despite standing next to someone who was 100% right about Walky the whole time.
My guess is that she saw the interaction from afar, and the smugness relates to knowing Sarah being deliberately unlikable is biting her.
Damn it, Sarah. I’m normally on your side, but … man, fuck off with your excuses this morning.
I love Sarah 🫀
She’s grand
“Oh, look, if it isn’t the consequences of my hesitation.”
<MAKE LOVE NOT WAR, part 12 (NSFW)
Freckles! Cuteness! Boobs! Shenanigans!
Enjoy, perhaps!
I do enjoy these, when I remember to look at them. That Anduin site hates my phone so I have to refresh constantly, but the art is fun enough to ignore that.
Looking forward to the new and improved version of Lucy. Looks like she slept on it and is ready for some changes. She’s showing up to walk with a group of friends and may not care if Walky is there.
To be honest, that’s a pretty bold move for anyone. Breaking up with someone and showing up to walk to class with them the next day without so much as a word.
I get the “doesn’t want to lose the friend group” side, but it really seems aimed at provoking a confrontation.
sal with the extremely correct reaction
…So close, and yet so far, Sarah.
One of these days, I swear, Sarah is going to deliberately hold her tongue in order to avoid offending someone she cares about. But today is not that day.
when the misanthrope doesn’t want to admit she’s lonely
Fake kawai is back.
Oh hey, it’s Captain Widdershins! Time for a crossover with Widdershins?
I wonder if Lucy’s arrive will make Sarah’s day better or make her go down into a nightmare. Maybe this will be the beginning of a beautiful friendship?
Shields up Sarah! Cling-on cruiser at your six!
I initially read that as “Group A Folks” and was wondering how they differ from “Group B Folks”, etc.
Really intrigued by this development.
I don’t know that I’d call Lucy’s expression smug, but I do think it’s a weird smile. The eyebrows, man.
Feelings so mixed about facing this friend group now that she and Walky have broken up that Lucy herself doesn’t even completely know whether she wants to smile or not?
Raidah right next to her off panel, having bucked her up in the intervening time? (I hope not because I’d want to see that on screen, but Lucy is a minor enough character that it wouldn’t shock me if it got skipped…)
I guess we’ll see tomorrow!
Sal made the right call, because as annoying Sarah was to them, she was going to be the least annoying of Group A.
Sarah gets infuriating fast without Joyce around
that is NOT how you SPELL “Lucy”, Sarah
“It’s an anagram, Janet!” “….oooooh!”
Lursy?
Yeah Sarah like you need an excuse to be surly.
Nice to see you again, Lucy