Personally, while I don’t particularly care for plaid myself (except on skirts/kilts, not that I *dislike* it on other garments, it just doesn’t do it for me), I am a big fan of the idea that motley fashion and pied outfits might be finally making a comeback and am willing to accept plaid as the vehicle by which it gets here.
depending on how soft the materials made of and his top being hooded it almost looks like pjs to me tbh lol, ‘gingham’ is cute on dresses tho i suppose it’s pretty similar
tho at least it’sn ot too bright/flashy, sometimes stripes give me a headache but not as bad when it’s two toned rather than like thin black stripes
He’s about to stumble his way through series of awkward, foot-in-mouth apologies accompanied by insincere regrets for Mike’s death. Of course Danny’s dressed for delivering plaiditudes.
I wouldn’t either. I feel that Danny got screwed, both by trope-y writing and by short-sighted characters. Mike was such an asshole to him, and Mike’s supposed “redemption” before he died is probably my least favorite thing to ever have happened in this comic. I’ve known people who were awful to me and yeah, I was not upset when they passed. I don’t think I should feel guilty about it either. Just because Mike died does not give his friends a pass to give him a pass for his behavior…I know that sounds a bit convoluted, but that’s my take.
Everyone is entitled to their emotions but in grief neglect to respect others. This debate has been had multiple times, Mike was jerk, but he was Ethan’s jerk and Amber’s jerk, and Ethan could and would make excuses and exceptions for him even when he bullied Danny.
If someone hurts me and my friends consistently during each interaction and does so for years, then I get to express an opinion on that. And if my friends can’t even accept that the asshole they know and love is seen as an asshole by others, then they’re probably just gaslit out the wazoo and I am under no obligation to support the gaslighting works of a dead guy.
Nah, I think you’re valid to feel that. I think this comic tries to handle it as best it can, ’cause we’ve seen that Mike has meant well & a good chunk of them considered him a great friend. Danny, however, really only had bad moments with him & I can’t blame him for thinking how he felt about Mike, but its also why I can’t blame Ethan for feeling how HE does about Mike & getting upset at what Danny said.
For me personally, it helps Mike never did anything truly atrocious (atleast not that I can remember, otherwise the emotion would’ve stuck) & while he was a jerk, he was still shown to have good moments & (badly) give advice that truly was helpful… provided you parsed how he said it.
Mike himself said he spend years “poking Amber’s bear” to turn her into a time bomb to use against Blaine. When he heard Blaine rant about “tough love”, he saw himself doing the same thing.
I think the writing around Mike in general is just pretty bad (despite a lot of the rest of the writing on DoA being really rather good). Frankly, it doesn’t add up to me that Ethan, and particularly Amber, liked him. He was generally just terrible to them and their affection just seems entirely unnatural to me.
I think of Ethan and Amber as essentially codependent abuse victims. They clung to Mike because of their own flaws, that he deliberately amplified to keep them tied to him.
I think it’s very good writing, just not a real friendship.
Mike is a cartoon comedy asshole who was good for punchlines but struggled as an actual character with plot significance. That’s probably why he died, he had limited utility and was difficult to write for, which made him expendable.
Okay, but maybe don’t say it to someone who clearly does care about them. Like I’m pretty comfortable saying I’m glad Ronald Reagan is dead, but I’m not tracking down Nancy Reagan to tell her because that would be a dick move.
I’d argue, largely based on what he said at the birthday party before, that Danny wasn’t bothered so much by anything Mike did to him, but by how he’d treated Ethan (and probably Amber).
Like even if you hate Mike, he was going out of his way to hurt someone who was in a sensitive emotional state. Mike would have been proud of that move from Danny, that’s how wrong it was.
Wait hold the phone. I legit had to check the Danny and Mike combination tags. What exactly did Mike do to Danny?
Like Mike was an asshole but there’s a clear difference between being an asshole you wouldn’t want to spend time with and “literally wishing death on someone as they are dying in front of you”
Like listing out Mike’s crimes against Danny. What he did is “pretend to be Dorothy’s boyfriend because Walky was struggling to admit that he was Dorothy’s boyfriend” and “admit he slept with Ethan, his long time friend”.
That’s it and once again I am saying Mike was an asshole to Danny but that was not a proportional response.
I think Danny’s complaint was that Mike was often mean to Amber and Ethan, but they weren’t willing to stand up to him.
And while it seems like Mike may have had some genuine feelings for Ethan, seducing him was originally a plan to upset Danny. A plan that was hatched because Ethan asked him not to bully Danny, and Mike decided to obey only the letter of the law.
As teenagers with little experience of death, most of them did not realize how bad Mike’s situation actually was. Ethan intended to tell Mike’s parents that he would recover because he was still young. Danny reacted to the news as though Mike were dropping out of school, thinking mainly of getting a reprieve from a deeply unpleasant person. That’s why his comment is “something he might regret”. Now that Mike is dead it looks incredibly callous.
Yeah, honestly in almost every situation Danny was being just as much of an asshole on the Danny+Mike tags (or they weren’t even in the same room as each other).
He originally got mad at Mike for pretending to be the person Dorothy was banging (it was Walky) because he (Danny) felt like Dorothy “wouldn’t do that to me”
Other than that it’s all just sniping at each other and then complaining at Mike during a party that Amber and Ethan know him well and let him slide on his bullshit (a party where Mike is notably jealous of Ethan having guys-who-aren’t-Mike and pouting about it).
So yeah, I disagree with the people saying Danny did nothing wrong. Feel how you wanna feel about people, but “sometimes he’s a jerk” shouldn’t equate to “it wouldn’t be the worst thing if he died”. Especially not to his childhood bestie who is actively grieving.
It was gross and selfish and thoughtless. Danny fucked up.
My brain kind of agrees with you, but man, on a gut level it’s hard to balance gross and selfish with Mike’s seemingly genuine malevolence. Mike kept an actual notebook of blackmail information to extort people with, and I believe Mike once said he only extorted Blaine into helping his daughter with something only because it would torture the both of them. And I think I believed him.
Wait, that was Mike’s origin story, wasnt it? Blaine was threatening to make Amber and Ethan for Mike getting in his way. Mike was literally saying that because he thought it would get Blaine to back off. Literally he is shown to have been a perfectly nice person before that.
Even if it was all one sided with Mike doing everything the person he wronged here isn’t Mike, it’s Ethan. He knew Ethan was upset about his friend and did something that frankly you’d expect more of Mike.
Like he was literally smack talking someone’s loved one while they’re in a fragile emotional state. If it’d be wrong if Mike did it, it’s wrong for Danny to do it too. This goes well beyond basic tact, this straight out callousness directed at someone who supposedly at the time he cared about.
You can say Danny lacked tact yes I’d agree with that. He hurt Ethan in those moments, but the debate is should he regret it? Which he shouldn’t. To me it’s mainly because in that conversation Ethan stated in an admittedly unfair hypothetical that he would let Mike speak ill of Danny if Danny were the one in a coma. So there’s no moral high ground for any of them.
Ethan’s emotions are just as valid as Danny’s in that moment. Grief doesn’t give you some social advantage. His argument that Mike redeemed himself through sacrifice and that knowing Mike and loving him means Mike could treat people like dirt is a selfish one that disregards the emotions of Mike’s victims the same way Danny disregarded Ethan’s grief to dunk on Mike in the first place.
Even now, Ethan implying Danny should or might have said something he regrets forever still puts Mike on this pedestal above his abuse victims. Like, trying telling that guy Mike pimped out to his teacher to get her fired he shouldn’t talk shit about Mike now. Hell even Walky still has some sort of ptsd from Mikes psychological torment. Saying it’s not the right time means it will never be the right time.
This isn’t directed at you are anyone. I just have thoughts on this.
No I think hurting someone you care about (specifically Danny hurting Ethan here) is something that should be reasonably regretted. And any arguments that came as a result of that completely inappropriate statement do not change that fact.
It’s also absolutely not the case that Ethan saying that is putting Mike on a pedestal above his abuse victims. The entire point of the whole “Don’t speak ill of the dead” thing is with respect to the people who care about them. It’s not Danny’s job, responsibility, or place to say things about Mike to Ethan. He can quite fairly and reasonably say all manner of things to other people, but when it comes to the people who cared about Mike, the only appropriate thing for Danny to say to them regarding Mike is nothing.
And Walky should absolutely be talking to someone about that. Frankly so should Ethan and Amber. But Danny isn’t even remotely in the vicinity of those people. All of those characters need professional help, because Mike absolutely treated them terribly but they all have very complicated and difficult emotions about it. Danny should have absolutely nothing to say about Mike to any of them.
Unfortunately I don’t recall Danny seeing Mike interacting with Amber or Ethan or even seeing them upset with him so when I read that It came across as kind of empty.
I couldnt help but read it more as jealousy because Mike slept with the guy Danny liked but didn’t want to make moves on.
Unfortunately, I think some of that might have happened off camera. But Danny was friends or more with both Amber and Ethan so it’s fairly reasonable that he knew more about Mike than we saw. I can imagine Amber telling Danny something similar to what she told ghost-Mike, “You saved my life one time, and you kicked my legs out from under me so many others. So many.”
I mean, I think he regrets saying to TO Ethan. Like if it came up while he was hanging out with sal or something I don’t think it’d be remotely as much of an issue. He didn’t do it intentionally to be hurtful, it just sorta slipped out. But it still caused hurt to someone he cared about, who was in deep anxiety over his loved ones health and pre-emptive grief. If he said it a few years after it wouldn’t have been as damaging either. It’d be weird not to regret that a little, even if he fully stands by the sentiment itself.
I understand why people have different opinions on this but to me the timing seems arbitrary. The person grieving will always feel bad regardless. Ethan will always feel bad that Mike died because he loved him. Look at what happened to Ethan post time skip. Even in a scenario where Danny hadn’t spoken up, and they stayed friends I still think this falling out would’ve happened. So why regret it? To me it was pulling the band aid off a relationship that was doomed. Mike living was the only thing that could make it okay to Ethan.
Because he hurt someone he cared about at a time in that person’s life when they were already hurting about something momentous and traumatizing.
It’s possible to care about the feelings of others while still honoring your own. You don’t actually have to choose either/or. You can say something, mean it, and still care that it caused pain.
The question is, will it go horribly wrong at the party, or will the party just set up some event in the future where the horrible wrongness will do its going?
Something was going to go horribly wrong at this party the moment Dina returned with the jug of hooch and they started planning the party. It was just a matter of who, when, and how badly.
Everyone keeps wanting Jennifer the alcoholic to show up at this party specifically for drinking. I get that there’s juicy potential dating drama with Ethan and Asher but they can still do that tomorrow likely hungover instead of risking the one character that really shouldn’t be here tonight.
It’s *faaaaar* more dramatic for her to go to Asher’s dorm room in the morning, to find Ethan in his bed, nursing a hangover, wearing only Asher’s boxers on his head as a sleeping mask.
… living in a tardis might explain both Dina’s teleporting powers and interest in the distant past. I don’t think that’s the actual explanation, but it is a thing that could go in the spot where explanations normally go.
I think it’d be less trading more Asher taking barbs without complaint. He doesn’t have a reason to be mad after all and he’s been pretty “yeah I deserved that” about the whole thing
having short civil convos is a bit diff from spending a while in a a dorm room with alcohol lol tho nothing’s really stopping danny from being like “ah i’m gonna go over there now…” and talk to someone else or step ou lol
They never stopped being friends, but Ethan just had some stuff to work through. and Amber just doesn’t have the tools (Both mentally and psychically) to help him.
I don’t think Danny does regret it. He’s never shown any real sign of remorse for what he said. This is why he’s been stuck on my shit-list for years now. Because he refuses to acknowledge that saying what he did in that context was unacceptable.
Please note, I am not saying that he should feel obligated to be sad about Mike’s death. I am saying that what he said is disgusting because of when, where, and to whom he said it, and he has never really acknowledged that.
I think he realized it was horrible, then felt that he needed to justify what he’d said. He knows it was a bad thing to say, but he doesn’t 100% disagree with his own sentiment about Mike. I get that Mike wasn’t the best person but Danny was out of line with what he said and his defense of using friggin DARTH VADER as an example to justify what he had said was… bad form.
An analogy can be used to compare the morality of two situations rather than equating them. Danny was looking for a way to explain that redemption at the end of your life doesn’t erase all the bad things you’ve done. Being a geek, what came to mind was darth vader. Of course Mike being an edgelord isn’t the same thing as committing war crimes, and that’s not what Danny was getting at.
Do we even have him saying anything about it since then? His only other real interaction with Ethan since then had him thinking about how his dumb mouth just blurts things out, Ethan making a reference like he does here and Danny making an excuse to leave.
Actually, I hope Danny has had enough liquid courage to turn around and apologize/talk to Ethan next strip. I think it’d be good for both of them to talk it out. And the fact that Ethan said hi first gives me some hope that he’s actually open to a reconciliation.
if we consider that Mike’s loss in the game for Ethan’s affections because of Danny and caused him to become emotionally self-destructive. Then yes, videoDanny killed Mikestar
In the last episode of Soap: Does Sal know Danny is Bi? Does she care? Will she consider it cheating? Will she want to join? Confused? You won’t be, after this episode of Soap.
Brought to you by one bag of Karmel Kettle® Popcorn, makers of the hulls that grip!
Sal knows, she’s fine with him being bi, unclear if she’d be fine with an open relationship but given that she’s exploring the joys of more traditional romance I think it would run counter to the relationship she and Danny have right now, and also she doesn’t do throuples.
I’m pretty sure she explicitly vetoed an open relationship in this exact context (Amber asking if they had an open relationship so Danny could kiss Ethan)
It’s more likely than you think! Thankfully not an issue for Sal, but an alarming number of people think that being bi means you have to have a partner of each gender and are incapable of a monogamous relationship, or more broadly that finding people other than your partner is attractive is cheating (bisexuals openly acknowledging they’re attracted to both genders at all times creates an issue for the later category, who can otherwise fool themselves into believing that a monogamous straight or gay person is only attracted to the *one* person they’re currently dating rather than a category of people)
If you’re so insecure that your partner finding anyone else attractive counts as “cheating” to you, it’s time to grow the hell up. I’ve seen people like that in my life, and they’ve pretty uniformly been complete trash fires.
Once, while trying to impress another girl, I took a swing of Devil’s Springs straight from the bottle. Luckily we were in the kitchen next to the sink because it went right out my nose. It burns sooo much. Only thing that felt worse was when I accidentally huffed amonia.
Agreed. I understand comic book wise it’s only been a few months since Mike died so this is well within the normal grieving period but real life he’s just been the worst for years now.
Honestly this is the most I’ve enjoyed Ethan in years. His gay awakening felt too much like a redo of Shortpacked but moreso, I absolutely love him being so self-destructive that he only makes bad decisions for himself. I really can’t wait to see how/if he digs himself out of this pity-hole he dug.
Why is it nobody in this strip can never admit their attraction for someone until the other person is in a relationship? Did someone pull the drama tag?
Danny can and should have regrets. Just because he was partly right, it was the wrong time and place. He should have known how hurtful it was to Ethan. It wasn’t like speaking truth to power. It was like kicking a wounded dog. If Danny’s a good egg he’ll do better now.
I miss Mike too. He was my favourite: complex, compelling to consider, and a necessary catalyst for change at the sake of his own standing in the group.
I said it at the time and I guess I will repeat it now.
Danny and Ethan’s argument was one of the best instances of character development for Danny.
The time and place was poor –made terroble in retrospect with Mike actually dieing– but it was an argument that needed to happen.
Ethan going to kiss Danny to prove to Amber he’s a bad friend AND sabotage his thing with Asher (or make himself hotter to Asher by proving what a mess he is?)?
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“What was that, Danny? I couldn’t hear you over how LOUD your SHIRT is”
lol plaid seems common/popular but i think it’s the first time where i’ve seen like one half of the shirt being a darker color
Personally, while I don’t particularly care for plaid myself (except on skirts/kilts, not that I *dislike* it on other garments, it just doesn’t do it for me), I am a big fan of the idea that motley fashion and pied outfits might be finally making a comeback and am willing to accept plaid as the vehicle by which it gets here.
depending on how soft the materials made of and his top being hooded it almost looks like pjs to me tbh lol, ‘gingham’ is cute on dresses tho i suppose it’s pretty similar
tho at least it’sn ot too bright/flashy, sometimes stripes give me a headache but not as bad when it’s two toned rather than like thin black stripes
He’s about to stumble his way through series of awkward, foot-in-mouth apologies accompanied by insincere regrets for Mike’s death. Of course Danny’s dressed for delivering plaiditudes.
Applause.
Thank you for the smile and excellent punmenship. You’ve earned your stripes around here.
… so I’m getting some backlash?
*flees for dear punning life*
Should he have worn darker shade of blue? I mean I’d wear it but that’s just me.
Danny is wearing all the shades. Thataways, he has plenty to throw.
ooooh it’s gonna be that kinda party
Meh. I don’t think Danny regrets it. At least I wouldn’t, but I’m jaded.
I wouldn’t either. I feel that Danny got screwed, both by trope-y writing and by short-sighted characters. Mike was such an asshole to him, and Mike’s supposed “redemption” before he died is probably my least favorite thing to ever have happened in this comic. I’ve known people who were awful to me and yeah, I was not upset when they passed. I don’t think I should feel guilty about it either. Just because Mike died does not give his friends a pass to give him a pass for his behavior…I know that sounds a bit convoluted, but that’s my take.
Insult the dead with integrity; no regrets.
Everyone is entitled to their emotions but in grief neglect to respect others. This debate has been had multiple times, Mike was jerk, but he was Ethan’s jerk and Amber’s jerk, and Ethan could and would make excuses and exceptions for him even when he bullied Danny.
If someone hurts me and my friends consistently during each interaction and does so for years, then I get to express an opinion on that. And if my friends can’t even accept that the asshole they know and love is seen as an asshole by others, then they’re probably just gaslit out the wazoo and I am under no obligation to support the gaslighting works of a dead guy.
Abby Morgan was a bongo.
An itchy bongo.
Okay but if you seek out that person and just start smack talking them knowing they’re upset, then congrats you are an asshole.
Bingo
Nah, I think you’re valid to feel that. I think this comic tries to handle it as best it can, ’cause we’ve seen that Mike has meant well & a good chunk of them considered him a great friend. Danny, however, really only had bad moments with him & I can’t blame him for thinking how he felt about Mike, but its also why I can’t blame Ethan for feeling how HE does about Mike & getting upset at what Danny said.
For me personally, it helps Mike never did anything truly atrocious (atleast not that I can remember, otherwise the emotion would’ve stuck) & while he was a jerk, he was still shown to have good moments & (badly) give advice that truly was helpful… provided you parsed how he said it.
Mike himself said he spend years “poking Amber’s bear” to turn her into a time bomb to use against Blaine. When he heard Blaine rant about “tough love”, he saw himself doing the same thing.
I think the writing around Mike in general is just pretty bad (despite a lot of the rest of the writing on DoA being really rather good). Frankly, it doesn’t add up to me that Ethan, and particularly Amber, liked him. He was generally just terrible to them and their affection just seems entirely unnatural to me.
I think of Ethan and Amber as essentially codependent abuse victims. They clung to Mike because of their own flaws, that he deliberately amplified to keep them tied to him.
I think it’s very good writing, just not a real friendship.
I get that interpretation, but I don’t see it evidenced in the text – which still makes it bad writing. It reads as a very post-hoc explanation to me.
Mike is a cartoon comedy asshole who was good for punchlines but struggled as an actual character with plot significance. That’s probably why he died, he had limited utility and was difficult to write for, which made him expendable.
Honestly this is the first boy explanation I’ve heard that makes sense- him being expendable as a character.
Okay, but maybe don’t say it to someone who clearly does care about them. Like I’m pretty comfortable saying I’m glad Ronald Reagan is dead, but I’m not tracking down Nancy Reagan to tell her because that would be a dick move.
I’d argue, largely based on what he said at the birthday party before, that Danny wasn’t bothered so much by anything Mike did to him, but by how he’d treated Ethan (and probably Amber).
Frankly Danny did nothing wrong, he had literally only known Mike as an asshole manipulator
His only crime was having the worst possible timing known to man
And shoving his foot in his mouth. Can’t forget that!
Uh… he absolutely did do something wrong. Yikes.
Like even if you hate Mike, he was going out of his way to hurt someone who was in a sensitive emotional state. Mike would have been proud of that move from Danny, that’s how wrong it was.
You say that like he intended to hurt Ethan. That really doesn’t seem to be the way the story was written.
I think he may regret it. Looks like he was already regretting it as he stormed off. Scene starts here: https://www.dumbingofage.com/2020/comic/book-10/04-is-a-song-forever/losthim/
Wait hold the phone. I legit had to check the Danny and Mike combination tags. What exactly did Mike do to Danny?
Like Mike was an asshole but there’s a clear difference between being an asshole you wouldn’t want to spend time with and “literally wishing death on someone as they are dying in front of you”
Like listing out Mike’s crimes against Danny. What he did is “pretend to be Dorothy’s boyfriend because Walky was struggling to admit that he was Dorothy’s boyfriend” and “admit he slept with Ethan, his long time friend”.
That’s it and once again I am saying Mike was an asshole to Danny but that was not a proportional response.
I think Danny’s complaint was that Mike was often mean to Amber and Ethan, but they weren’t willing to stand up to him.
And while it seems like Mike may have had some genuine feelings for Ethan, seducing him was originally a plan to upset Danny. A plan that was hatched because Ethan asked him not to bully Danny, and Mike decided to obey only the letter of the law.
As teenagers with little experience of death, most of them did not realize how bad Mike’s situation actually was. Ethan intended to tell Mike’s parents that he would recover because he was still young. Danny reacted to the news as though Mike were dropping out of school, thinking mainly of getting a reprieve from a deeply unpleasant person. That’s why his comment is “something he might regret”. Now that Mike is dead it looks incredibly callous.
Yeah, honestly in almost every situation Danny was being just as much of an asshole on the Danny+Mike tags (or they weren’t even in the same room as each other).
He originally got mad at Mike for pretending to be the person Dorothy was banging (it was Walky) because he (Danny) felt like Dorothy “wouldn’t do that to me”
Other than that it’s all just sniping at each other and then complaining at Mike during a party that Amber and Ethan know him well and let him slide on his bullshit (a party where Mike is notably jealous of Ethan having guys-who-aren’t-Mike and pouting about it).
So yeah, I disagree with the people saying Danny did nothing wrong. Feel how you wanna feel about people, but “sometimes he’s a jerk” shouldn’t equate to “it wouldn’t be the worst thing if he died”. Especially not to his childhood bestie who is actively grieving.
It was gross and selfish and thoughtless. Danny fucked up.
My brain kind of agrees with you, but man, on a gut level it’s hard to balance gross and selfish with Mike’s seemingly genuine malevolence. Mike kept an actual notebook of blackmail information to extort people with, and I believe Mike once said he only extorted Blaine into helping his daughter with something only because it would torture the both of them. And I think I believed him.
Wait, that was Mike’s origin story, wasnt it? Blaine was threatening to make Amber and Ethan for Mike getting in his way. Mike was literally saying that because he thought it would get Blaine to back off. Literally he is shown to have been a perfectly nice person before that.
It doesn’t have to be a balance for it to be messed up to say “would that be so bad” about someone not waking up from a coma.
“for awhile”
Which doesn’t make it good, but is a big difference from “not waking up”
Even if it was all one sided with Mike doing everything the person he wronged here isn’t Mike, it’s Ethan. He knew Ethan was upset about his friend and did something that frankly you’d expect more of Mike.
Like he was literally smack talking someone’s loved one while they’re in a fragile emotional state. If it’d be wrong if Mike did it, it’s wrong for Danny to do it too. This goes well beyond basic tact, this straight out callousness directed at someone who supposedly at the time he cared about.
You can say Danny lacked tact yes I’d agree with that. He hurt Ethan in those moments, but the debate is should he regret it? Which he shouldn’t. To me it’s mainly because in that conversation Ethan stated in an admittedly unfair hypothetical that he would let Mike speak ill of Danny if Danny were the one in a coma. So there’s no moral high ground for any of them.
Ethan’s emotions are just as valid as Danny’s in that moment. Grief doesn’t give you some social advantage. His argument that Mike redeemed himself through sacrifice and that knowing Mike and loving him means Mike could treat people like dirt is a selfish one that disregards the emotions of Mike’s victims the same way Danny disregarded Ethan’s grief to dunk on Mike in the first place.
Even now, Ethan implying Danny should or might have said something he regrets forever still puts Mike on this pedestal above his abuse victims. Like, trying telling that guy Mike pimped out to his teacher to get her fired he shouldn’t talk shit about Mike now. Hell even Walky still has some sort of ptsd from Mikes psychological torment. Saying it’s not the right time means it will never be the right time.
This isn’t directed at you are anyone. I just have thoughts on this.
No I think hurting someone you care about (specifically Danny hurting Ethan here) is something that should be reasonably regretted. And any arguments that came as a result of that completely inappropriate statement do not change that fact.
It’s also absolutely not the case that Ethan saying that is putting Mike on a pedestal above his abuse victims. The entire point of the whole “Don’t speak ill of the dead” thing is with respect to the people who care about them. It’s not Danny’s job, responsibility, or place to say things about Mike to Ethan. He can quite fairly and reasonably say all manner of things to other people, but when it comes to the people who cared about Mike, the only appropriate thing for Danny to say to them regarding Mike is nothing.
And Walky should absolutely be talking to someone about that. Frankly so should Ethan and Amber. But Danny isn’t even remotely in the vicinity of those people. All of those characters need professional help, because Mike absolutely treated them terribly but they all have very complicated and difficult emotions about it. Danny should have absolutely nothing to say about Mike to any of them.
Danny isn’t remotely in Amber’s vicinity?
He isn’t remotely in the vicinity of the type of person they should be talking to about these issues.
It wasn’t about what Mike did to Danny. It was about how Mike treated Ethan and Amber.
Unfortunately I don’t recall Danny seeing Mike interacting with Amber or Ethan or even seeing them upset with him so when I read that It came across as kind of empty.
I couldnt help but read it more as jealousy because Mike slept with the guy Danny liked but didn’t want to make moves on.
Unfortunately, I think some of that might have happened off camera. But Danny was friends or more with both Amber and Ethan so it’s fairly reasonable that he knew more about Mike than we saw. I can imagine Amber telling Danny something similar to what she told ghost-Mike, “You saved my life one time, and you kicked my legs out from under me so many others. So many.”
I mean, I think he regrets saying to TO Ethan. Like if it came up while he was hanging out with sal or something I don’t think it’d be remotely as much of an issue. He didn’t do it intentionally to be hurtful, it just sorta slipped out. But it still caused hurt to someone he cared about, who was in deep anxiety over his loved ones health and pre-emptive grief. If he said it a few years after it wouldn’t have been as damaging either. It’d be weird not to regret that a little, even if he fully stands by the sentiment itself.
I understand why people have different opinions on this but to me the timing seems arbitrary. The person grieving will always feel bad regardless. Ethan will always feel bad that Mike died because he loved him. Look at what happened to Ethan post time skip. Even in a scenario where Danny hadn’t spoken up, and they stayed friends I still think this falling out would’ve happened. So why regret it? To me it was pulling the band aid off a relationship that was doomed. Mike living was the only thing that could make it okay to Ethan.
“So why regret it?”
Because he hurt someone he cared about at a time in that person’s life when they were already hurting about something momentous and traumatizing.
It’s possible to care about the feelings of others while still honoring your own. You don’t actually have to choose either/or. You can say something, mean it, and still care that it caused pain.
Why do I get the feeling something is about to go horribly wrong at this party?
Is it just my anxiet6, or am I not alone in this?
Anxiety*
Not just you. The wave is building and when it breaks, all party goers will be helpless against the Drama Wipeout. Surf’s up
Small print on the label: Drama fluid.
Judging by the comments from the past couple of weeks? You’re not alone in this.
Well, i assume no deaths or so (unless joyce or another person gets a call saying their parent/relative is hospitalized)
but i can’t imagine anyone considering an ‘underage drinking party’ to really sail smoothly as they say lol
It’s a Willis comic. Of course it’s going to go horribly wrong.
Of course it’s going to go horribly wrong.
The question is, will it go horribly wrong at the party, or will the party just set up some event in the future where the horrible wrongness will do its going?
This is what healing looks like.
Until it isn’t.
Also… Aptly phrased, Relzik. You’re on a roll.
So now Willis has got everyone expecting the worst, just how long can he drag this out before ending the party without anything having gone wrong?
Nah. Much like the current state of US politics interesting times are afoot and it’s most likely to end, even if not immediately, in a giant cluster….
it feels like halloween all over again, with drinking this time
Wishful thinking.
Something was going to go horribly wrong at this party the moment Dina returned with the jug of hooch and they started planning the party. It was just a matter of who, when, and how badly.
Honestly hope not because Dorothy would probably get a mental breakdown if something traumatic happened at another party she was at.
Yeah my alien parasite senses have been tingling nonstop this arc.
This comic is surely no stranger to highlighting the explosive potential of alcohol and college students.
It’s going to be an orgy, a battle royal, or both.
imagine danny ending up somehow making out with /asher/ and then jen walking in
Everyone keeps wanting Jennifer the alcoholic to show up at this party specifically for drinking. I get that there’s juicy potential dating drama with Ethan and Asher but they can still do that tomorrow likely hungover instead of risking the one character that really shouldn’t be here tonight.
It’s *faaaaar* more dramatic for her to go to Asher’s dorm room in the morning, to find Ethan in his bed, nursing a hangover, wearing only Asher’s boxers on his head as a sleeping mask.
This is somehow both the biggest and smallest dorm room ever.
… living in a tardis might explain both Dina’s teleporting powers and interest in the distant past. I don’t think that’s the actual explanation, but it is a thing that could go in the spot where explanations normally go.
Breakfast at Tiffany’s party type of situation lol
Oh my, that was wall-to-wall fashionable drunks! Lots of shouting I think too.
putting it in the regret collection, to be mortified 20 years later when trying to fall asleep.
I feel dumb for not stopping to consider this interaction.
mean while sal and asher might be trading barbs lol. or somehow ‘getting along’ again tho idk if they’d necessarily ever be ‘friends’ again
Sal and Asher have had many times to reconcile and I feel like they’re getting past it. The beef Ethan has with Danny is still fresh though.
I think it’d be less trading more Asher taking barbs without complaint. He doesn’t have a reason to be mad after all and he’s been pretty “yeah I deserved that” about the whole thing
I like that the two have interacted post-timeskip before this, but this is still somehow considerably more awkward, maybe by virtue of spit-take.
having short civil convos is a bit diff from spending a while in a a dorm room with alcohol lol tho nothing’s really stopping danny from being like “ah i’m gonna go over there now…” and talk to someone else or step ou lol
I hope that is just a dig at a certain comment Danny made and not foreshadowing.
Also: Awww he is hugging her back. I missed these two being friends.
They never stopped being friends, but Ethan just had some stuff to work through. and Amber just doesn’t have the tools (Both mentally and psychically) to help him.
Ethan seemed pretty done with her for a while.
Sigh. I’m more interested in what Jacob has to say to Lucy.
I’m interested in whether Becky’s shirt is still on Joe’s face.
We know it isn’t, we’ve seen him several times since?
Curse your dark powers of observation.
Yeah, wouldn’t wanna do something awkward like that.
You call that awkward? Danny hasn’t even been trying to awkward.
For a bi guy who hasn’t even kissed another guy, Danny sure has done a few spit takes in this comic.
Is the alt text a song title?
It should be.
Strange opening line there, Danny. NO ONE talks like that. What is this, a manga? Are you suddenly the tsundere character?
Try one of these lines instead: “Ethan?!?!” *stares with mouth agape* or “Ethan?! What are YOU doing here?!?!” Much smoother, dude.
Please let this not have any drama?
“With this comic? NO WAY!”
I hear that Willis makes a fortune buying and selling popcorn futures.
“Take chances. Make mistakes. Get messy!”
I don’t think Danny does regret it. He’s never shown any real sign of remorse for what he said. This is why he’s been stuck on my shit-list for years now. Because he refuses to acknowledge that saying what he did in that context was unacceptable.
Please note, I am not saying that he should feel obligated to be sad about Mike’s death. I am saying that what he said is disgusting because of when, where, and to whom he said it, and he has never really acknowledged that.
I was about to comment that I’m not sure Danny even knows what he said to upset Ethan
He does seem pretty embarrassed and ashamed here. It IS possible he is just horny for the hot emo dude though.
Has there been a context in which he might examine his feelings about what he said?
The weird part is that he Immediately recognized(or at least part of him did) what an absolutely disastrous thing he just said.
Maybe he’s denying it because he faced the darkness inside of him that moment, and he blinked. Apologizing would mean admitting it’s in there.
I mean, he seemingly realized it was horrible, then doubled down
I think he realized it was horrible, then felt that he needed to justify what he’d said. He knows it was a bad thing to say, but he doesn’t 100% disagree with his own sentiment about Mike. I get that Mike wasn’t the best person but Danny was out of line with what he said and his defense of using friggin DARTH VADER as an example to justify what he had said was… bad form.
An analogy can be used to compare the morality of two situations rather than equating them. Danny was looking for a way to explain that redemption at the end of your life doesn’t erase all the bad things you’ve done. Being a geek, what came to mind was darth vader. Of course Mike being an edgelord isn’t the same thing as committing war crimes, and that’s not what Danny was getting at.
Has he denied it?
Do we even have him saying anything about it since then? His only other real interaction with Ethan since then had him thinking about how his dumb mouth just blurts things out, Ethan making a reference like he does here and Danny making an excuse to leave.
It’s like there’s two versions of the comic, and a bunch of you aren’t seeing the same one I’m seeing.
Only two?
Ethan, you’re exhausting. Say something or go home and pout with your new boyfriend.
I like him here. I hope he stays 😀
ugh reconciliation pt2: not that much
fr danny absolutely cannot come back from saying that shit at the hospital
Actually, I hope Danny has had enough liquid courage to turn around and apologize/talk to Ethan next strip. I think it’d be good for both of them to talk it out. And the fact that Ethan said hi first gives me some hope that he’s actually open to a reconciliation.
Danny killed Mike.
if we consider that Mike’s loss in the game for Ethan’s affections because of Danny and caused him to become emotionally self-destructive. Then yes, videoDanny killed Mikestar
The twink behind the slaughter
Nooo! I haven’t read up to that part of the book you monster! D:
Which book is that and do you recommend it?
Shall we pass the hat and have a medal struck for Danny?
I don’t know what “pass the hat” means, and I’m not looking it up. It sounds dirty, though.
it is. You pass the hat to collect the filthy lucre.
Take up a collectionStart a GoFundMe.Mike killed your mom…for a nickel.
Repeatedly.
But she keeps coming back. She’s a mombie.
This is a true fact which cannot be debated.
Damn, Ethan… Grief killz gainz… 🙁
In the last episode of Soap: Does Sal know Danny is Bi? Does she care? Will she consider it cheating? Will she want to join? Confused? You won’t be, after this episode of Soap.
Brought to you by one bag of Karmel Kettle® Popcorn, makers of the hulls that grip!
Sal knows Danny is bi. He confirms Sayid is cute and that he could have seduced him if he wanted to.
Sal and Danny have never met.
You should introduce them.
Sal knows, she’s fine with him being bi, unclear if she’d be fine with an open relationship but given that she’s exploring the joys of more traditional romance I think it would run counter to the relationship she and Danny have right now, and also she doesn’t do throuples.
I’m pretty sure she explicitly vetoed an open relationship in this exact context (Amber asking if they had an open relationship so Danny could kiss Ethan)
Consider it cheating to…be bi?
It’s more likely than you think! Thankfully not an issue for Sal, but an alarming number of people think that being bi means you have to have a partner of each gender and are incapable of a monogamous relationship, or more broadly that finding people other than your partner is attractive is cheating (bisexuals openly acknowledging they’re attracted to both genders at all times creates an issue for the later category, who can otherwise fool themselves into believing that a monogamous straight or gay person is only attracted to the *one* person they’re currently dating rather than a category of people)
If you’re so insecure that your partner finding anyone else attractive counts as “cheating” to you, it’s time to grow the hell up. I’ve seen people like that in my life, and they’ve pretty uniformly been complete trash fires.
I’ve had to break up with folks because of them having that exact mentality about my sexuality.
I really hope they answer you, because so far it’s a weird comment.
Will she want to join? Is Danny surprisingly effective at spreading the bi agenda?
I really like the multicolored coughing. And did any of that go through Danny’s nose?
Alcohol going through the nose probberly burns like hell.
Once, while trying to impress another girl, I took a swing of Devil’s Springs straight from the bottle. Luckily we were in the kitchen next to the sink because it went right out my nose. It burns sooo much. Only thing that felt worse was when I accidentally huffed amonia.
The thing he’d regret saying forever is “I’ve recently started watching Steven Universe.”
Watch with integrity. No regrets.
can ethan just go away forever
Agreed. I understand comic book wise it’s only been a few months since Mike died so this is well within the normal grieving period but real life he’s just been the worst for years now.
he’s been trying to.
Honestly this is the most I’ve enjoyed Ethan in years. His gay awakening felt too much like a redo of Shortpacked but moreso, I absolutely love him being so self-destructive that he only makes bad decisions for himself. I really can’t wait to see how/if he digs himself out of this pity-hole he dug.
I love Ethan, I hope he stays forever.
Oh I’m getting the popcorn
Why is it nobody in this strip can never admit their attraction for someone until the other person is in a relationship? Did someone pull the drama tag?
I think Willis said, very early on, that DoA came with the Drama Tag pre-pulled.
Danny can and should have regrets. Just because he was partly right, it was the wrong time and place. He should have known how hurtful it was to Ethan. It wasn’t like speaking truth to power. It was like kicking a wounded dog. If Danny’s a good egg he’ll do better now.
Strips like these make me miss Mike even more.
I miss Mike too. He was my favourite: complex, compelling to consider, and a necessary catalyst for change at the sake of his own standing in the group.
Missing Mike as much as Mike missed Blaine.
I said it at the time and I guess I will repeat it now.
Danny and Ethan’s argument was one of the best instances of character development for Danny.
The time and place was poor –made terroble in retrospect with Mike actually dieing– but it was an argument that needed to happen.
Ethan going to kiss Danny to prove to Amber he’s a bad friend AND sabotage his thing with Asher (or make himself hotter to Asher by proving what a mess he is?)?
Would Sal be amused by this, or would she lay Ethan out Batman/Guy Gardner style?
Aww, Amber… :c