…Huh, maybe Jennifer had a “Fred Flintstone gets hit with a bowling ball” incident, and if she gets hit again she’ll go back to being Billie and get her shit (somewhat) together.
…I know a couple of characters who would gladly volunteer to test this hypothesis.
Too much time in the Radiah echo chamber I suspect, she’s operating under the assumption that everyone looks a Sarah the same way her new social group does.
isnt “punchable Face” already a word in the language that is used for “Backpfeifengesicht”? i am german so i knew the latter one, but i could have sworn slapable or Punchable Face is something that is also commonly used in english.
There are a fair few German words that need to be introduced into English, like the aforementioned schadenfreude. I’ve also been using Weltschmerz an awful lot, since around 2016 or so (and I expect to continue using it an awful lot more over the next four years, at least).
Concussions don’t cause CTE. Repeated sub-cuncussive blows cause CTE. It’s not the big, frame rattling impacts that cause the damage. It’s the small, casual impacts that happen every down.
Yes, the big concussions surely don’t do more of what the small concussions do…
That’s like saying if you put a lot of salt into your food at once, it won’t be as salty as if you salt it a dozen times just a tiny bit. Either way, your food is getting salty and your brain is getting trauma.
Yeah. The problem with it is you can’t diagnose it until after death and the brain can be removed and examined. I love football, not as much as hockey, but I do love it…there’s a lot more that could be done to help with CTE. There is a helmet they use in practice. It looks ridiculous but it really helps with both the body shaking blows and the mini every down blows to cushion the impact. No idea why they don’t use it in every day play. You’d think looks wouldn’t be as important as not causing life altering injury but here we are.
I hear ya completely. It is difficult to make it mandatory…but hockey pulled it off with visors. It would take a lot of doing and some negotiations with the players union but I bet football could pull it off too. I know they are highly paid professional athletes but I really hate reading about these debilitating things they have to deal with later in life. If they can, I hope the league requires them but like you said it would take some doing. Particularly to QB’s and Kickers. They are really touchy about their helmets.
I mean I’m just going by Jennifer’s history, the slipshines alone suggest she experiences many more micro-concussions than even your average college football player
I’d say in Jennifer’s case, being neglected by those parents to the point where she turned to the Walkertons for substitute parents probably had more effect than them being bourgeois bloats.
That’s definitely there, but most of her interpersonal stuff is based at least as much in desperately seeking external affirmation of her worth as any kind of inflated ego. She needs to be valued as a cheerleader, because she’s got nothing else.
Even in that scene, she’d basically just oblivious. Reeking of privilege, but it’s the privilege of not having to think about what it means, not of knowing and approving.
I mean that’s literally the biggest part of what privilege IS — it’s the privilege to NOT have to think about your social standing, of your ignorance of the condition of others (willful or otherwise) being of no consequence to your own, because the society in which you are part was built to confer disproportionate power upon you, and this order being treated as a universal human default.
Even without the cheerleader part specifically, she does what she does because she seeks to maintain the position of Alpha Bongo among people she will always perceive as having some form or another of Pecking Order.
In her schema, it’s not that she’s got nothing else — but that having to be at the top of some kind of social pyramid and putting people into their “proper places” below has literally always been her Everything.
I mean yeah, that’s a good part of privilege.
But Jennifer explicitly doesn’t have the privilege to not think about her social standing. Her whole thing is that she’s emotionally neglected to the point of abuse by her parents. She seeks popularity, not as Raidah does as a means of gaining control over others, but of getting the approval she doesn’t get from her family.
Some of the form of her behavior is shaped by her parents being rich, but the real damage is done by the neglect not the money.
the irony is that her parent’s neglectful tendencies are likely a result of their motivations putting wealth and status and appearance front and center, i.e. “they might show up to meet [my boyfriend] if he personally crashed the stock market”
Ehhhh, that’s very debatable at best. And yes, this is me defending my namesake a bit, but both the 1 Timothy and 1 Corinthians verses that people tend to cite are suspect of not being written by Paul. 1 Timothy is considered by most scholars as having been written after Paul’s death, and the 1 Corinthians verse may potentially be an addition by a later author, which has historically happened a lot. There are pretty strong contradictions to the whole “silent women” thing in Romans and throughout 1 Corinthians when referring to Phoebe, Junia, Chloe, and Priscilla, so I’d be hesitant at best to frame Saint Paul as having a negative view towards women.
Debatable, yes. Nonetheless it had a huge influence on Christian views towards women and sex. While the historical St. Paul is probably salvageable, the damage is already done & still continues.
See, from where I come from, every time I heard the name “Carl” I think of Winslow, the most “Lawful Good” character in 90s television. I didn’t even know “Llamas With Hats” existed until almost a decade after I graduated college.
I meant towards the ‘incelerator’/paul guy, he def doesn’t deserve it but i guess 50/50 on him getting laid either chilling him out or making him even worse
Billifer is a bit overhormoned around Tony, so she ain’t smooth atm.
I think she’d be much smoother with Paul; no overhormoning there. Yeah, she might try to seduce Paul into whatever nonsense. And he’d probably fall for it, long as she used the right words.
While the hormones are very much part of it, she has multiple identities clashing for control at the moment and that definitely isn’t helping. You can kinda see it in that the presence of a sports jock briefly caused her to introduce herself with the name she used as Head Cheerleader, yesterday. Her highschool alpha mentality is blending with her college in-crowd mentality and it’s making her an amazingly horrible mess because they aren’t fully compatible. Good to watch with popcorn, though.
There’s gotta be some level of irony in that someone with this kind of identity issue is pursuing someone else with much greater identity issues (Amber/Amazi-Girl) and the latter has adapted to it much more effectively with years of experience. It’s like one of those shitty mobile game ads from like six years ago: “NOOB VS PRO”
Daisy wanted to give the amazi girl stories to Dorothy but Jennifer insisted, assuming Dorothy is still writing for the paper she would probably be daisy’s replacement pick.
I’d completely forgotten that. Activist-journalist would be a great new path for Dorothy if she wants it, especially if she attends and covers the protest.
Hey that is not fair, she makes an effort of not thinking of her subordinates naked, not matter how much she wants to. Which, yeah it’s a low bar but sadly not a lot of bosses clear it.
Don’t think it’s part of a class, just an extracurricular bur her terrible interviewing skills aren’t pointing towards a successful journalism major overall.
Nah, she’s not white enough for Fox News, at least as a full-timer. She could have a recurring role as a token “good” minority if she’s willing to badmouth other minorities regularly.
Does she even want to be in journalism? I mean, seriously, she’s got the gig with the paper, but she’s terrible at it and it seems like an excuse to meddle even more than she already would. Her interest in the actual subject seems, well, on a part with Walky’s, really.
You all talking about different things. The narcissism Ian means is the actual personality disorder, what you are talking about referring to Trump is the way people call someone an self absorbed asshole.
Probably because he doesn’t actually have NPD. The kind of people that pop psychology labels “narcissists” generally don’t–they’re just privileged assholes who’ve never met a consequence
Narcissist. That is the name of an actual personality disorder that is often demonized, I don’t think you actually knew that, many people use the word in the common way to call someone self absorbed so it gets mixed up.
Huh. If one grows up knowing there’s no objective right or truth, only appearances and winning, then one might need coping mechanisms which, if they spiral out of control, are diagnosable as narcism. Pointing out ways that narcissists want validation more than reality is not ableist, it’s listing symptoms. I am all for narcissists who want to stop hurting people to get help to stop hurting people. Victims of narcissists are not the place to look for that help. To any narcissists reading this and upset by it, consider: it isn’t always about you.
People who believe in “narcissistic abuse” ARE ableist, because there’s no such thing as a mental illness that inherently makes someone a bad person. It’s down to someone’s choices. You wouldn’t say you were a victim of “autistic abuse” or “anxious abuse”* if you were abused by someone with those conditions–you’d call it emotional abuse, physical abuse, or what it ACTUALLY was. There is no *unique* kind of abuse that only people with NPD can perpetuate, and thinking so will never contribute to true healing, only stigmatizing a marginalized group
(because that’s what people with NPD are, and in fact, a group so stigmatized that even most leftists have drunk the pop psychology koolaid and are now convinced that there’s an Abuser Disorder. The hard truth is: many people with NPD haven’t abused anyone. Most of them are, however, abuse victims themselves. To conflate them with their abusers regardless of their actions is victim-blaming bigotry)
I understand wanting a simple answer to why we were abused. “Narc abuse” sounds like a simple answer, but it’s not a correct one. It’s just another “Evil Mental Disorder du jour,” and just like all the people who told you to demonize schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, autism, etc.* it’s just plain wrong. Both factually and morally.
*inb4 someone jumps down my throat about it, I either have these conditions or someone in my immediate family does and agrees with what I said here. (so fuck off <3)
Imagine if you had a disorder where, if you tried to google your condition TO SEEK HELP (as you insist), all you got were hundreds of results about why you're irredeemable trash, why everyone should cut you off, how to manipulate your mental condition for their own gain, or why you should be eugenics'd out of existence. When all you did was exist (and get seriously traumatized in childhood).
And you really think that's NOT unfair? I feel for the narcs who *do* lash out at people, because even if it isn't right, it's a trauma response to all of society lashing out at them first. Like there's literally twice the support out there for me being *trans* than people with Cluster B disorders–do you know how sad that is in this current political climate?
To all the "narc abuse" believers reading this and upset by it, consider: sometimes, you buy into a societal narrative and have some unlearning to do. That doesn't mean you're irredeemable, but you do have a responsibility to not perpetuate harm on an already traumatized, stigmatized group of people. Or else maybe you're the asshole.
furthermore, many therapists won’t even accept patients with Cluster B personality disorders such as NPD, because there’s even a heavy stigma in the field of psychology–preventing most people with PDs from having access to “get help” like all the bigots scream at them to do. A lot of people are trying, but the system itself is stacked against them, denying them support or resources. And ofc, like I mentioned up there, it’s nigh impossible to find resources online.
On the subject of psych stigma: even the “treatments” for NPD often demonize the person themselves, breaking them down instead of actually offering them help or healing. Whereas in the rare cases where the professional treated it more like they’d treat C-PTSD instead, the patients were actually able to make progress and heal more. The psych field has a lot of reevaluating to do themselves before they’re any help to ANYONE with a stigmatized disorder.
So basically, what you get is: no support from licensed professionals, no support from online sources (and the few that exist usually get dogpiled by “narc abuse” believers), and people IRL and online constantly saying people with your disorder should be eradicated. Which only reinforces the trauma, and therefore the trauma response (the disorder). Even if you desperately want “help.”
tl;dr: “getting help” is a lot easier said than done, sadly.
Wow, OK, Bryy and me weren’t even being that negative. I meant it when I said that narcissism is coping mechanisms for instability, still being used when the situation is no longer right for it. Just as many other dramatic personality disorders, many anxiety disorders, and dependent personality disorder. These are not rooted in a single traumatic event (hence PTSD tech doesn’t always work), but in a pattern of not getting what’s needed to become ‘well adjusted’ (that always seemed like a moving target to me).
Everyone is a little narcicistic sometimes (except for people with dependent personality disorder) it isn’t a disorder until it causes distress. But you have the power to be the change you want to see in the world! Start a “recovering narcicist” group on reddit, facebook, or your own website! When people talk about abuse, send them to the groups you pointed out, that are full of people who aren’t going to help you anyways. No need to try to win conversations with people who are more worried about themselves than you, amirite?
I was angry before. That makes it hard to get past my tone and actually communicate. Sorry about that. I had a reply with a bunch of links that’s in moderation, that does no one any good.
You’re having trouble finding resources for people with narcissism? How to Stop Being a Narcissist by Erika Parks is useful. Has 2 chapters on childhood. There’s also a podcast named Recovery For The Narcissist. There’s already a reddit group r/NPD, that’s a support group for people with NPD who want to overcome it.
Hope that helps, google’s just a tool you can bypass it if you don’t need to search for information because you know where it is. Spread the word to those who have NPD symptoms.
Honestly, I wouldn’t trust something titled “How to Stop Being a Narcissist” to provide useful, compassionate resources. If it does contain genuine help, I’m glad, but the title feels so aggressive and stigmatizing. You don’t truly “stop” having a disorder that’s rooted in trauma, because you don’t “stop” having trauma. You can’t “overcome” it as you said. You learn to live with it, heal as best you can to minimize the pain it causes (to yourself included!).
Also, starting FB groups is a great way to attract toxic people. You can have entry questions to “filter out” the bigots, but people lie all the time. I’ve seen it in social justice groups all the time, even like, basic feminism groups. And Reddit is a cancer on the internet. While r/NPD is supposed to be decent, there’s some incredibly shitty takes and “advice” on there.
Same thing happens on Tumblr when pwNPD try to make spaces to support each other–they get dogpiled bc “narc abuse” believers claiming they’re being toxic just for existing. pwNPD make their own posts and people come into their space, claiming they’re “looking for validation from victims of narcissists” even when it isn’t true. (Honestly, that’s why I got set off to go on that whole rant–which, while I was just trying to spread information, admittedly got quite long.)
When I say “there is no support for Cluster Bs, and in this case, specifically NPD” that doesn’t mean I’ve somehow missed basic social media sites. I mean “assholes and ignorant people flood them and dilute any usefulness into nonexistence.” I do appreciate you trying to help. It’s just… I really do feel like the best way to help is by trying to end the stigma/demonization of people with PDs. Only then will doing things like you suggested be able to help.
Also, a random side note: a person *can* have both DPD and NPD. It’s rare, and it’s probably going to be the “vulnerable” subtype of NPD, but it actually does happen. Funnily enough, I know at least one (maybe 2*) people who have both DPD and have NPD traits. (*I don’t believe in armchair diagnosing people as “narcissists” as I’m not their psych.; that’s kind of the whole issue I was ranting about. BUT the potential 2nd is the parent of the 1st and the place where the 1st learned the behaviors, so the 1st really wonders sometimes.)
You’re not wrong. Jennifer is Billie, but flanderized, with all actual character depth excised in the service of a couple of easy jokes at her expense.
I’m not saying she was a good person, but in the first semester, you could see how she could see herself that way. Now she’s just unapologetically awful, and not even consistent in that.
I’d accept that line if it weren’t for the “Sal = Amazi-girl” thing. If Sal was simply always picking the wrong person as A-G, that would be one thing. But the fixation that it has to be Sal, despite all the evidence she’s seen with her own eyes that it couldn’t possibly be, pretty much makes it impossible to take her remotely seriously as a character.
And really, I’m not talking about ‘development’. Flanderization is de-evolution, removing traits to make the character simpler and more one-dimensional. Season 1 Billie had good traits; they simply often got lost under her narcissistic worldview. Jennifer, OTOH, has no particular
It’s funny because it’s not that long ago we talking about how much better Jennifer was at helping Joyce with birth control while everyone else was just trying to control her.
Sure, Jennifer’s flawed. She’s still a deep character with good aspects. There’s a point to this arc, even if she seems awful in places.
Now Daisy is going to jump on her for not getting photos, when there is video surveillance of the lobby and they can just pull a frame grab from the security video.
Seeing how disordered her speech is, it seems her limbic system is taking all the bandwidth just now — gratitude circuits, and pretty much everything else, are offline.
Also I love that he outright says “we were having a moment”, I just wanna fast forward to them getting to know each other and chatting, really hope they’ve got more in common then just thinking “people are garbage” 😂
People love dunking on Jen, but I still believe in her. When her head is in the game she’s shown some of the most emotional intelligence and compassion of any character. I predict Jen stocks will rise one day and I have invested. That day will come. Then who will be laughing?! Y’all still..probably.
Oh I also believe in her capacity to improve and her ability for good. But right now that hasn’t happened yet so I will continue to enjoy making fun of her.
Jennifer has regressed in some ways since Ruth dumped her.
I think something is coming to give her another jolt of self-reflection and hopefully she can do something other than run on high school inertia, denial and delusion.
That is one of the biggest problems. It’s part of why the comic is so good, but it makes it really easy to view the characters as only the problem they’re displaying right now – since “right now” lasts for weeks, even if it’s only a single scene or years if the characters need a few weeks to show change.
I do wonder a bit if this is going to really get the ball rolling on “Jennifer gets exiled from the cool kids”, which has already begun with them courting Walky, Raidah chastising Jennifer for her split with Asher, and hell, probably Lucy getting pulled in if Raidah wants Jacob’s presence.
It would be hilarious if Radiah exiled Jennifer, continued to try to win Walky over for his Dean connection, only for Walky to reveal that he’s not on good terms with Linda right now and she should really be talking to Jennifer about that.
Definitely, the only question is will Jennifer reach the point of not caring by that point or not? she seems to be already subconsciously looking for excuses to hangout with her old friends.
I still don’t know just what the fuck is going to happen when Raidah hears about Jacob and Lucy, considering the *entire reason* she is putting her evil plan into motion is because Joyce got with Jacon.
If Sarah and Tony become a thing I could she radiah trying too hard to break up both couples and failing at both. She’s so invested in transactional relationships I don’t think she fully realizes her relationship failed ultimately because Jacob didn’t have any romantic feelings for her and realized it.
Joyce might have not gotten with Jason but by his own admission she made him realize what made him happy in a relationship which is why he ended thing with radiah instead of trying to kerp the relationship going
I think I’m going to stop worrying about Raidah now. It seems to me now that she and Jennifer are really cut from the same cloth in terms of social skills and general incompetence. Maybe they deserve each other. For all her schemes, what has Raidah really accomplished? She targeted Jennifer and Walky, people that weren’t even really friends with Sarah (or Joyce) to begin with, and she didn’t even recruit Walky. Even Lucy still speaks to Sarah, because Lucy is, “everybody’s friend.” It wouldn’t surprise me now if even Carl broke ties with Raidah just for getting nothing done. Though I do kind of want Ethan to meet Raidah; I feel like he could cut through a lot of her bs.
it will be interning when radiah realizing the current state of her failed networking if it keeps on this route. her trying to snag walky caused Jennifer to sabotage her relationship with Asher, now she and him are both hanging out with people in Joyce and Sarah’s circle so why woukd walky even feel the need to talk to her? it’s funny because Sarah wasn’t trying to bring Lucy and Asher over to her side, it’s just happening because Sarah actually acknowledges Lucy and her friend group does actual fun stuff life though parties with booze. Ethan would probably be blunt about only hanging out with them to rub it in Jennifer’s face.
I’m honestly just waiting for Sarah to accost Jennifer verbally. Part of me wishes she’d accost her physically by decking her, but Sarah is too mature for that, and Jennifer is essentially going a backwards ass bout with trauma, so it wouldn’t help.
Couldn’t really stick the finish on the mental gymnastics there, huh? With how often she performs, you’d think she’d at least be able to achieve bronze.
She never actually asked him that, he just thinks that’s why she’s hitting on him. (Check his tag to see the first instance of this really early on in the comic.)
Comparatively minor misconception, though.
i mean unless he’s desperate for a scholarship or no other choice somehow, i would hope some kinda head injury that serious would warrant some kinda break or so even if he doesn’t completely with draw from the team
So unfortunately there’s evidence that it’s just the repeated head impacts, not concussions, that cause CTE. https://www.bumc.bu.edu/camed/2018/01/18/study-hits-not-concussions-cause-cte/
So pretty much: Do you play a position where you bang into the other people and/or get tackled? You are potententially on the road to CTE’s.
I would also hope that, but RL evidence is that college and professional (and in many cases high school) football players are at serious risk of developing CTE. Which, as Felgraf has explained, is not a single serious injury that would warrant a break but a series of small impacts we wouldn’t consider injuring at all. Just a frequency thing, rather than a severity thing, but it turns into something awful.
It’s amazing, I’ve never seen someone be so wrong about so many things in the space of like five seconds. Jennifer is not charming, Tony is not an idiot, Sarah is not impossible to be around and Amazi-Girl is not Sal, but none of all these misconceptions penetrate.
I was trying to figure out why Tony’s mistake where he keeps thinking Jennifer wants him to get beer is so understandable in comparison, but really where is the comparison.
It’s lucky for her she wasn’t around for Paul’s rampage, or she might have noticed how familiar his behaviour seemed.
(“SOME people are just better than others, and should receive sexual favours as a result. No I’m not deaperately lonely, why would I be desperately lonely?!”)
Omg those two could project their own insecurities so bad on each other, “got kicked off the team for something stupid? your such a loser!” they must never meet, this is the kind if guy Jennifer will end up with if she stays on the toxic route.
Look, Ruth, all I’m saying is that Tony elbow-checked someone who was being a creep towards you. You could REALLY do him a solid here and return the favor.
I’m thinking the Billie who had somewhat realised that she’s not more special than anyone else, the one who was building a real relationship with Ruth.
You’re right that start-of-semester Billie was also like this.
She was actually developing, and then she went back to where she started apparently.
It’s familiar territory. Change is uncertain, but she was on top of her world in high school, therefore she should regress to the way she was in high school so she’ll be back on top of her world again!
Jennifer was finally moving beyond being Billie and alcohol to building what she assumed were healthy lasting relationships. Then she decided she want some drama in her life and negged Asher with a fake breakup.
This resulted in a complete spiral that has her returning to Billiedom.
You forgot the part where she told Asher at the beggining of the post time skip “Inject unnecessary drama directly in into my vein”? The claim she was becoming a healthier and more mature person was always paper thin. Yes even if she is sober doesn’t really change that she didn’t actually improved any of her many other toxic traits.
Yes, please!
I really don’t want to know what Jennifer thought that sentence was going to be, but at least she had the sense not to finish it. Went downhill from there.
This is a more extreme version of an aspect of her we saw in the first semester, actually. Remember her basically throwing herself at Danny? Billifer has always had a strong libido, and sometimes sating it is more important to her than other business. However, whereas before her lustiness just helped her make bad decisions, now it gives her aphasia.
I see that Jennifer is playing matchmaker again, and this is actually some of her finest work. She’s certainly getting Sarah and Tony on the same page. And any bystander in a football field sized perimeter, so let’s hope there are not too many of them.
Now that you mention it, this is indeed some 4D chess moves she’s pulling off here. 😉 But regardless, I’m rather pleased to hear that Tony doesn’t want to be rescued from Sarah. I hope the two of them work out. :3
Granted, what happened immediately after that (Alice calling her poison and encouraging Billie’s friends to abandon her, followed by Billie ralphing and retreating into a lesbian suicide pact) wasn’t great, but man, it’s been real frustrating that the character arc and development that led up to that point has meant bupkis since the second semester started.
…on the other hand, everything surrounding the lesbian suicide pact was probably traumatizing as fuck and maybe she’s just forgotten the one good lesson that came from it. And I can’t deny that being an asshole is just part of that distinct Billie flavor. Still, though: come ON girl
This doesn’t just feel like a ‘relapse’ though. She not only went back to bad habits (like obsessing over popularity), but she’s actively being worse about it.
This may also be a case of “Reality is unrealistic”. Sure, in real life, people do, in fact, backslide, or even just refuse to change in the first place. But reading about that just gets repetitive if there’s no true growth or development.
But that is a thing specific to Jennifer that is in character and fit the kind of person she is. The vast majority of major characters in the strip actually stick with their character development. Sometimes people get worse, it’s sad but true. Negative character development is a term for a reason.
What’s fascinating is that Jennifer is having a breakdown from two months of sobriety and normalcy. So she artificially tries to generate drama by negging Asher and that blows up in her face, torpedoes her social circle, and now has her degenerating into word salad.
Also, Jennifer apparently didn’t realize Kit Fisto sex is a thing you don’t talk about among cool kids if Raidah is anything to go by.
Jennifer absolutely realised that — she was in complete denial of it up until relatively recently. What she didn’t realise was that Raidah’s circle count as “the cool kids” for this purpose — she thought they were mature adults who accepted people’s quirks.
The one time she didn’t treat college like it’s high school and she has an Alpha Cheerleader Reputation to maintain, and it turns out she should have… (Not that I think maintaining a friendship with Raidah is a goal anyone should work particularly hard at.)
I don’t think denying Paul the title of “supervillain” is redeeming him, just trying not to make it A THING. Because that means it will happen again, let’s not encourage this behavior.
Man, the amound of bull that Tony has to go through in this comic. He appeared in, like, ten strips so far, and for what?
Billie hitting on him just for being a football player. Danny (trying to get beaten up) assuming him to be an homophobe. Robin trying to tie him in an arranged marriage. Walky dragging him in his nonsense and dropping some parents cringey lore. His former friend becoming an incel agitator. And now Billiefer again.
How sweet to see Sarah and Tony become more and more closer thanks to their shared dislikes of Jennifer! What I fear is that the irrational Jennifer decides to take revenge on Sarah and helping Raidah in some scam for frame her.
Man Jenny very rarely actually irritates me but this one got me. And it honestly shouldn’t bc she and Sarah always hated each other and now she’s in with Sarah’s biggest op so there’s no reason she’d be courteous. And it’s funny making Tony hate her more with every word, and nice seeing him stand ten toes down on his attraction to Sarah. Just, idk. Fuck off bill, let Sarah get paid finally.
It doesn’t bother me as much because she’s so obviously just not thinking clearly. This isn’t her being malicious or even like rationalizing reasons why Tony should be with her not Sarah. There’s no actual thought going on at all.
I think it’s been too long since she’s been laid, and has taken that for granted for such a long time that she forgot how to masturbate so she’s suffering horny induced brain rot
It’s a fairly correct term for a villain who dresses up in a costume and take a descriptive name. It’s as correct for The Incelerator as “superhero” is for Amazi-Girl.
Plenty of comic book super-heroes don’t have superpowers, if that’s the difference.
I think there’s a lot of debate if Billie becoming Jennifer was an improvement or if there’s any real differentiation at all. She’s backsliding in some respects but what she wanted from her change is something that is always up to interpretation.
Jennifer getting off alcohol and suicidal self-destruction is a good thing, though.
Yeah, its like, Jennifer’s been a significant downgrade in every single department except for the whole “crippling alcoholism” and “trying to kill herself” departments.
I still consider that an improvement overall, but she really does make it hard sometimes >_>.
It’s definitely a step back from where she’d gotten right before the timeskip, but still better in many ways than than the start of the semester.
The break up hit her hard I think. (And it seems like she fell off the wagon for a bit as well, if we take the “two months sober” literally.) And then Raidah latched onto that vulnerability.
But this is slow burn plot. At some point she’s going to find out that her new clique doesn’t actually like her and then we’ll see the payoff.
These comments confuse me. Why is everyone acting like she’s a real person? Of course she’s saying things that are inappropriate and silly. This is a comedy strip. It’s funny.
No one is treating her like an actual person tho? We are all treating her as a character and reacting to the way she acts, which is the intention behind Writting her acting like this.
Or possibility become a less competent Lois Lane for Incelerator thinking he’s a misunderstood hero. Hope thats wrong for Jennifers sake but she’s taking so many extra wrong turns in life lately it’s hard to tell where it will end.
I would love to see Tony and Sarah get together and for him to just like… advocate for her. Like Raidah tries to tell him why she’s a bad person and he’s like “oh yeah. She told me about that. I think she should have just told the RA about her constant smoking and gotten her kicked out of school because hot boxing a dorm room is fucking bullshit but she was too nice for that” and not give a shit about what anyone else thinks and just be happy as a curmudgeon with Sarah. Just want that for her and for me lmao
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First of all Jennifer, you’ve literally experienced more concussions just last semester than Tony has in his entire life.
Second of all…
Just, fuck all the way off 🖕🏽🙄
…Huh, maybe Jennifer had a “Fred Flintstone gets hit with a bowling ball” incident, and if she gets hit again she’ll go back to being Billie and get her shit (somewhat) together.
…I know a couple of characters who would gladly volunteer to test this hypothesis.
Billie had her details, but let’s be honest, there was more tolerance with her.
Too much time in the Radiah echo chamber I suspect, she’s operating under the assumption that everyone looks a Sarah the same way her new social group does.
Even when Jennifer was still going as Billie, she would say shit like “Dinah’s not a real person”.
It took me until this strip to realize she was being literal.
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2022/comic/book-12/04-dont-stop-billie-ving/lessreal/
this the one you talkin about?
I *swear* there’s a strip where Jennifer says Dina doesn’t matter, but this is close.
Are you thinking of this (Joyce, not Jennifer) maybe?
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2022/comic/book-12/03-trial-and-sarah/notweirdatall/
I could have sworn it was word balloon chaos of Jennifer up close.
There was one where becky is hitting on dina and someone says something about her being “like 12” ?
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-5/03-the-butterflies-fly-away/safe-2/
Found it?
Oh God, her smile in that strip is a backpfeifengesicht if ever I saw one. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Backpfeifengesicht
This is a word that needs enter the English language.
Start using it and it will. Just like schadenfreude did.
isnt “punchable Face” already a word in the language that is used for “Backpfeifengesicht”? i am german so i knew the latter one, but i could have sworn slapable or Punchable Face is something that is also commonly used in english.
There are a fair few German words that need to be introduced into English, like the aforementioned schadenfreude. I’ve also been using Weltschmerz an awful lot, since around 2016 or so (and I expect to continue using it an awful lot more over the next four years, at least).
I read that as “get her shirt together” and it made perfect sense.
The first point is almost certainly untrue given how american football works, but nonetheless, the second point stands.
CTE its an epic problem.
Concussions don’t cause CTE. Repeated sub-cuncussive blows cause CTE. It’s not the big, frame rattling impacts that cause the damage. It’s the small, casual impacts that happen every down.
Yes, the big concussions surely don’t do more of what the small concussions do…
That’s like saying if you put a lot of salt into your food at once, it won’t be as salty as if you salt it a dozen times just a tiny bit. Either way, your food is getting salty and your brain is getting trauma.
Oh that’s what CTE is.
Yeah, took me a minute. In my former profession, CTE means Career and Technical Education. I was a bit confused.
(probably all the cte…)
Yeah. The problem with it is you can’t diagnose it until after death and the brain can be removed and examined. I love football, not as much as hockey, but I do love it…there’s a lot more that could be done to help with CTE. There is a helmet they use in practice. It looks ridiculous but it really helps with both the body shaking blows and the mini every down blows to cushion the impact. No idea why they don’t use it in every day play. You’d think looks wouldn’t be as important as not causing life altering injury but here we are.
Right now some players use the Guardian Cap in real games. Achane on the Dolphins is one off the top of my head.
Hard to make it mandatory though. Helmets types are very personal to a player. Personally wish more would use tje Guardian though.
I hear ya completely. It is difficult to make it mandatory…but hockey pulled it off with visors. It would take a lot of doing and some negotiations with the players union but I bet football could pull it off too. I know they are highly paid professional athletes but I really hate reading about these debilitating things they have to deal with later in life. If they can, I hope the league requires them but like you said it would take some doing. Particularly to QB’s and Kickers. They are really touchy about their helmets.
That’s unlikely to be true. In football players experience pretty regular microconcussions, sometimes hundreds a season.
It’s still being studied, but it’s a likely contributer to CTE.
I mean I’m just going by Jennifer’s history, the slipshines alone suggest she experiences many more micro-concussions than even your average college football player
say what you want, them bongo likes it ROUGH 👀
also I can’t believe I JUST noticed your avatar is Black Dynamite! SMASH! ^^
Is Billie getting (even) worse? Is that even possible? She has always been really nasty.
Does this happen IRL, when you have looks and nice boobs, and never have to become a decent person?
being raised by bourgeois bloats is also a contributor which cannot be overstated, especially not in Jennifer’s case
I’d say in Jennifer’s case, being neglected by those parents to the point where she turned to the Walkertons for substitute parents probably had more effect than them being bourgeois bloats.
ain’t gonna deny that, but like her blatant classism and strong dismissiveness to those she sees as beneath her had to come from *somewhere*
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2016/comic/book-6/04-it-all-returns/nina/
That’s definitely there, but most of her interpersonal stuff is based at least as much in desperately seeking external affirmation of her worth as any kind of inflated ego. She needs to be valued as a cheerleader, because she’s got nothing else.
Even in that scene, she’d basically just oblivious. Reeking of privilege, but it’s the privilege of not having to think about what it means, not of knowing and approving.
I mean that’s literally the biggest part of what privilege IS — it’s the privilege to NOT have to think about your social standing, of your ignorance of the condition of others (willful or otherwise) being of no consequence to your own, because the society in which you are part was built to confer disproportionate power upon you, and this order being treated as a universal human default.
Even without the cheerleader part specifically, she does what she does because she seeks to maintain the position of Alpha Bongo among people she will always perceive as having some form or another of Pecking Order.
In her schema, it’s not that she’s got nothing else — but that having to be at the top of some kind of social pyramid and putting people into their “proper places” below has literally always been her Everything.
I mean yeah, that’s a good part of privilege.
But Jennifer explicitly doesn’t have the privilege to not think about her social standing. Her whole thing is that she’s emotionally neglected to the point of abuse by her parents. She seeks popularity, not as Raidah does as a means of gaining control over others, but of getting the approval she doesn’t get from her family.
Some of the form of her behavior is shaped by her parents being rich, but the real damage is done by the neglect not the money.
the irony is that her parent’s neglectful tendencies are likely a result of their motivations putting wealth and status and appearance front and center, i.e. “they might show up to meet [my boyfriend] if he personally crashed the stock market”
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2023/comic/book-14/02-its-the-love-i-havent-got/stockmarket/
all that is solid melts into air, all that is holy, profaned…
paul is a villain, alright
just not a super one
I dunno, I think he has the PRESENTATION.
Did you see the font change when he introduced himself?
“paul” isn’t a very good name for an evil guy
now if his name was Carl…
Paul is named after Saint Paul – traditionally admired for his negative views towards women and sex. Surely this is no coincidence.
(In fairness I should add that a more nuanced reading of Paul is possible & seems to have become generally accepted.)
Ehhhh, that’s very debatable at best. And yes, this is me defending my namesake a bit, but both the 1 Timothy and 1 Corinthians verses that people tend to cite are suspect of not being written by Paul. 1 Timothy is considered by most scholars as having been written after Paul’s death, and the 1 Corinthians verse may potentially be an addition by a later author, which has historically happened a lot. There are pretty strong contradictions to the whole “silent women” thing in Romans and throughout 1 Corinthians when referring to Phoebe, Junia, Chloe, and Priscilla, so I’d be hesitant at best to frame Saint Paul as having a negative view towards women.
Debatable, yes. Nonetheless it had a huge influence on Christian views towards women and sex. While the historical St. Paul is probably salvageable, the damage is already done & still continues.
I dunno, Paul managed to take Peter Parker’s wife from him.
He may be the single most effective Spider-Man villain ever.
“Carl! That kills people!”
See, from where I come from, every time I heard the name “Carl” I think of Winslow, the most “Lawful Good” character in 90s television. I didn’t even know “Llamas With Hats” existed until almost a decade after I graduated college.
Paul may have some basic presentations skills, but he is certainly nowhere near the likes of…
OTHAR TRYGGVASSEN!
(Gentleman Adventurer!)
Nah his presentation is about on par with Titan’s. Not nearly the amount of effort or swag megamind put in
Imagine if Billiefer /had/ been there and offered to fuck him for an interview idk if his brain would short circuit
Jennifer offered to take her shirt off for an interview in her gibberish.
I think Tony has no shortage of freshmen women looking to hook up.
No, she offered to take his shirt off.
“So, Shirt, let’s take off your football” = “So, Football, let’s take off your shirt”
I’m not sure the implications are that different.
I meant towards the ‘incelerator’/paul guy, he def doesn’t deserve it but i guess 50/50 on him getting laid either chilling him out or making him even worse
Billifer is a bit overhormoned around Tony, so she ain’t smooth atm.
I think she’d be much smoother with Paul; no overhormoning there. Yeah, she might try to seduce Paul into whatever nonsense. And he’d probably fall for it, long as she used the right words.
(still might try it, if she finds him)
While the hormones are very much part of it, she has multiple identities clashing for control at the moment and that definitely isn’t helping. You can kinda see it in that the presence of a sports jock briefly caused her to introduce herself with the name she used as Head Cheerleader, yesterday. Her highschool alpha mentality is blending with her college in-crowd mentality and it’s making her an amazingly horrible mess because they aren’t fully compatible. Good to watch with popcorn, though.
There’s gotta be some level of irony in that someone with this kind of identity issue is pursuing someone else with much greater identity issues (Amber/Amazi-Girl) and the latter has adapted to it much more effectively with years of experience. It’s like one of those shitty mobile game ads from like six years ago: “NOOB VS PRO”
KING
Absolutely. I love nothing more than seeing Jennifer being taken down a peg.
Sadly it seems impossible to make her realise it really happened. She’ll just brush it off as ”your loss, loser”, and move on having learned nothing.
Dude, Daisy’s gonna kill you for losing two prime witnesses.
Not necessarily kill but the chances of Jennifer no longer being trusted to get the amazi girl pic is now very high.
I think if Daisy had anything resembling a viable replacement on the bench she’d already have done it
Daisy wanted to give the amazi girl stories to Dorothy but Jennifer insisted, assuming Dorothy is still writing for the paper she would probably be daisy’s replacement pick.
Dorothy did get the Amazi-Girl beat for a bit, but IIRC she stopped writing for the paper when her grades started to slip
I’d completely forgotten that. Activist-journalist would be a great new path for Dorothy if she wants it, especially if she attends and covers the protest.
It’s something Dorothy is actually pretty good at too
Maybe this arch is setting up Dorothy getting back into journalism.
Can’t be many Journalism majors nowadays at that campus. Or any.
The Media School lists 56 graduate students alone, so: how many is “many”?
Think you forgot Daisy’s priorities. Jennifer did indirectly get her “nudes of Ruth”
I will agree with Jennifer at least in that Tony should take his shirt off.
That doesn’t make any sense, did you mean taking his football off? That is clearly the more coherent sentence.
No, his football needs to take its shirt off. That thing’s really messing up the aerodynamics.
it’s our god-given right to see tony’s boobs.
Dorothy needs them for her phone.
Jennifer isn’t the journalist Daisy needs but the one she deserves!
Hey that is not fair, she makes an effort of not thinking of her subordinates naked, not matter how much she wants to. Which, yeah it’s a low bar but sadly not a lot of bosses clear it.
Jesus Christ Billie what in the actual fuck
Listen, you just need to understand Tony must be literally brain damaged to want to date Sarah.
Oh yeah, she’s been swimming in Raidah’s Flavor-Ade for a few months…
Or she’s seen how things went with Sarah and Jacob. Or she knows Sarah.
But this time looks to me like something different. We’ll see….
While I’m not going to discount Raidah being a huge influence on her, she’s currently on the outs with her.
It’s hard to tell, given how the Walky Luncheon was only a few days ago. Weeks?
I’m just thinking about how last semester she was the one pointing out to Walky that people don’t have to be supervillains to be racist
Jennifer’s really looking to Flunk that Journalism Major, huh?
Seriously, i’ve seen more consistent tact from WALKY.
Maybe she can pivot to showbiz, the only thing she seems to like about journalism is the drama.
is it even part of her class? i’d assume working for the school paper was like a bonus or so
Don’t think it’s part of a class, just an extracurricular bur her terrible interviewing skills aren’t pointing towards a successful journalism major overall.
They’re probably just fine for TV journalism, mind.
Her skillset of “mindlessly speculate based on bad assumptions/information” would fit the bill.
All she needs to do to make FOX news is a blonde dye-job…..
Nah, she’s not white enough for Fox News, at least as a full-timer. She could have a recurring role as a token “good” minority if she’s willing to badmouth other minorities regularly.
Hey now, network TV journalism has some standards. It’s the fringe cable channels and podcast circuit that sculpt the facts to suit a narrative.
Very sorry! Broken glasses, accidentally hit report while scrolling.
Does she even want to be in journalism? I mean, seriously, she’s got the gig with the paper, but she’s terrible at it and it seems like an excuse to meddle even more than she already would. Her interest in the actual subject seems, well, on a part with Walky’s, really.
God Jennifer you suck so much, I love you.
I love how similar Sarah and Tony’s expressions are panel-by-panel.
Truly a match made in… I mean, not heaven, but somewhere!
The hallway adjacent to the cafeteria?
Synchronized eyebrows.
I’m reminded of Mai and Zuko.
“You’re so beautiful when you hate the world.”
Thanks for reminding me about much Jennifer sucks.
I think there was a time it used to be endearing? Oh well, that’s gone now.
It is still endering to me! I can’t wait to see in what way she will be the worse next!
Was there? I’ve always found this side of her obnoxious.
People only thought it was endearing when she was in a weird gay…mutual death pact…and internet people thought that was sweet.
You know what? It was. It was also fucked up. But sweat too. Like a life like sculpture of a human heart made out of chocolate.
It was bittersweet and twisted. I’m a sucker for that.
Still a fan of them getting back together. They made each other better.
I think she helped pull Ruth out of her spiral, but I don’t think Ruth made Jennifer better.
It wasn’t the healthiest but it was… beneficial for Ruth.
I think she did. Jennifer was in much better shape right before the timeskip.
Going to therapy, not drinking, being more open to her dorm, etc.
Ruth dumping her threw her off track and then Raidah got her claws into her.
I have genuinely only liked her when she did actually nice things for Ruth and at precisely no other times.
I’m sure she’s fun to write. But for me personally, always been more annoying than entertaining even if she can be a good plot device for conflict.
Nah, I’ve never found this side of her endearing. It’s basically a LARP, except no one else is playing and she’s angry about it.
holy fuck this is the best way to describe how narcissists think.
Wow, how about we DON’T be incredibly ableist toward people with personality disorders rooted in childhood trauma?
I had no idea that was found to be the cause. Just think of the childhood trauma Trump must have suffered.
Not enough honeycomb with his clotted cream?
You all talking about different things. The narcissism Ian means is the actual personality disorder, what you are talking about referring to Trump is the way people call someone an self absorbed asshole.
Probably because he doesn’t actually have NPD. The kind of people that pop psychology labels “narcissists” generally don’t–they’re just privileged assholes who’ve never met a consequence
What exactly was the offense here? The use of the word “best”?
Narcissist. That is the name of an actual personality disorder that is often demonized, I don’t think you actually knew that, many people use the word in the common way to call someone self absorbed so it gets mixed up.
I know what it means, I was raised by one.
Huh. If one grows up knowing there’s no objective right or truth, only appearances and winning, then one might need coping mechanisms which, if they spiral out of control, are diagnosable as narcism. Pointing out ways that narcissists want validation more than reality is not ableist, it’s listing symptoms. I am all for narcissists who want to stop hurting people to get help to stop hurting people. Victims of narcissists are not the place to look for that help. To any narcissists reading this and upset by it, consider: it isn’t always about you.
People who believe in “narcissistic abuse” ARE ableist, because there’s no such thing as a mental illness that inherently makes someone a bad person. It’s down to someone’s choices. You wouldn’t say you were a victim of “autistic abuse” or “anxious abuse”* if you were abused by someone with those conditions–you’d call it emotional abuse, physical abuse, or what it ACTUALLY was. There is no *unique* kind of abuse that only people with NPD can perpetuate, and thinking so will never contribute to true healing, only stigmatizing a marginalized group
(because that’s what people with NPD are, and in fact, a group so stigmatized that even most leftists have drunk the pop psychology koolaid and are now convinced that there’s an Abuser Disorder. The hard truth is: many people with NPD haven’t abused anyone. Most of them are, however, abuse victims themselves. To conflate them with their abusers regardless of their actions is victim-blaming bigotry)
I understand wanting a simple answer to why we were abused. “Narc abuse” sounds like a simple answer, but it’s not a correct one. It’s just another “Evil Mental Disorder du jour,” and just like all the people who told you to demonize schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, autism, etc.* it’s just plain wrong. Both factually and morally.
*inb4 someone jumps down my throat about it, I either have these conditions or someone in my immediate family does and agrees with what I said here. (so fuck off <3)
Imagine if you had a disorder where, if you tried to google your condition TO SEEK HELP (as you insist), all you got were hundreds of results about why you're irredeemable trash, why everyone should cut you off, how to manipulate your mental condition for their own gain, or why you should be eugenics'd out of existence. When all you did was exist (and get seriously traumatized in childhood).
And you really think that's NOT unfair? I feel for the narcs who *do* lash out at people, because even if it isn't right, it's a trauma response to all of society lashing out at them first. Like there's literally twice the support out there for me being *trans* than people with Cluster B disorders–do you know how sad that is in this current political climate?
To all the "narc abuse" believers reading this and upset by it, consider: sometimes, you buy into a societal narrative and have some unlearning to do. That doesn't mean you're irredeemable, but you do have a responsibility to not perpetuate harm on an already traumatized, stigmatized group of people. Or else maybe you're the asshole.
furthermore, many therapists won’t even accept patients with Cluster B personality disorders such as NPD, because there’s even a heavy stigma in the field of psychology–preventing most people with PDs from having access to “get help” like all the bigots scream at them to do. A lot of people are trying, but the system itself is stacked against them, denying them support or resources. And ofc, like I mentioned up there, it’s nigh impossible to find resources online.
On the subject of psych stigma: even the “treatments” for NPD often demonize the person themselves, breaking them down instead of actually offering them help or healing. Whereas in the rare cases where the professional treated it more like they’d treat C-PTSD instead, the patients were actually able to make progress and heal more. The psych field has a lot of reevaluating to do themselves before they’re any help to ANYONE with a stigmatized disorder.
So basically, what you get is: no support from licensed professionals, no support from online sources (and the few that exist usually get dogpiled by “narc abuse” believers), and people IRL and online constantly saying people with your disorder should be eradicated. Which only reinforces the trauma, and therefore the trauma response (the disorder). Even if you desperately want “help.”
tl;dr: “getting help” is a lot easier said than done, sadly.
Wow, OK, Bryy and me weren’t even being that negative. I meant it when I said that narcissism is coping mechanisms for instability, still being used when the situation is no longer right for it. Just as many other dramatic personality disorders, many anxiety disorders, and dependent personality disorder. These are not rooted in a single traumatic event (hence PTSD tech doesn’t always work), but in a pattern of not getting what’s needed to become ‘well adjusted’ (that always seemed like a moving target to me).
Everyone is a little narcicistic sometimes (except for people with dependent personality disorder) it isn’t a disorder until it causes distress. But you have the power to be the change you want to see in the world! Start a “recovering narcicist” group on reddit, facebook, or your own website! When people talk about abuse, send them to the groups you pointed out, that are full of people who aren’t going to help you anyways. No need to try to win conversations with people who are more worried about themselves than you, amirite?
I was angry before. That makes it hard to get past my tone and actually communicate. Sorry about that. I had a reply with a bunch of links that’s in moderation, that does no one any good.
You’re having trouble finding resources for people with narcissism? How to Stop Being a Narcissist by Erika Parks is useful. Has 2 chapters on childhood. There’s also a podcast named Recovery For The Narcissist. There’s already a reddit group r/NPD, that’s a support group for people with NPD who want to overcome it.
Hope that helps, google’s just a tool you can bypass it if you don’t need to search for information because you know where it is. Spread the word to those who have NPD symptoms.
Honestly, I wouldn’t trust something titled “How to Stop Being a Narcissist” to provide useful, compassionate resources. If it does contain genuine help, I’m glad, but the title feels so aggressive and stigmatizing. You don’t truly “stop” having a disorder that’s rooted in trauma, because you don’t “stop” having trauma. You can’t “overcome” it as you said. You learn to live with it, heal as best you can to minimize the pain it causes (to yourself included!).
Also, starting FB groups is a great way to attract toxic people. You can have entry questions to “filter out” the bigots, but people lie all the time. I’ve seen it in social justice groups all the time, even like, basic feminism groups. And Reddit is a cancer on the internet. While r/NPD is supposed to be decent, there’s some incredibly shitty takes and “advice” on there.
Same thing happens on Tumblr when pwNPD try to make spaces to support each other–they get dogpiled bc “narc abuse” believers claiming they’re being toxic just for existing. pwNPD make their own posts and people come into their space, claiming they’re “looking for validation from victims of narcissists” even when it isn’t true. (Honestly, that’s why I got set off to go on that whole rant–which, while I was just trying to spread information, admittedly got quite long.)
When I say “there is no support for Cluster Bs, and in this case, specifically NPD” that doesn’t mean I’ve somehow missed basic social media sites. I mean “assholes and ignorant people flood them and dilute any usefulness into nonexistence.” I do appreciate you trying to help. It’s just… I really do feel like the best way to help is by trying to end the stigma/demonization of people with PDs. Only then will doing things like you suggested be able to help.
Also, a random side note: a person *can* have both DPD and NPD. It’s rare, and it’s probably going to be the “vulnerable” subtype of NPD, but it actually does happen. Funnily enough, I know at least one (maybe 2*) people who have both DPD and have NPD traits. (*I don’t believe in armchair diagnosing people as “narcissists” as I’m not their psych.; that’s kind of the whole issue I was ranting about. BUT the potential 2nd is the parent of the 1st and the place where the 1st learned the behaviors, so the 1st really wonders sometimes.)
You’re not wrong. Jennifer is Billie, but flanderized, with all actual character depth excised in the service of a couple of easy jokes at her expense.
I’m not saying she was a good person, but in the first semester, you could see how she could see herself that way. Now she’s just unapologetically awful, and not even consistent in that.
I don’t the depth is gone.
I do, however, think Billiefer herself very much wants it gone. Character development? That’s for NERDS.
* don’t think
I’d accept that line if it weren’t for the “Sal = Amazi-girl” thing. If Sal was simply always picking the wrong person as A-G, that would be one thing. But the fixation that it has to be Sal, despite all the evidence she’s seen with her own eyes that it couldn’t possibly be, pretty much makes it impossible to take her remotely seriously as a character.
And really, I’m not talking about ‘development’. Flanderization is de-evolution, removing traits to make the character simpler and more one-dimensional. Season 1 Billie had good traits; they simply often got lost under her narcissistic worldview. Jennifer, OTOH, has no particular
Error: “If JENNIFER were always picking…”
That was an active choice on her part, to get rid of her own good qualities in order to live her fantasty of being “popular”.
It’s funny because it’s not that long ago we talking about how much better Jennifer was at helping Joyce with birth control while everyone else was just trying to control her.
Sure, Jennifer’s flawed. She’s still a deep character with good aspects. There’s a point to this arc, even if she seems awful in places.
Now Daisy is going to jump on her for not getting photos, when there is video surveillance of the lobby and they can just pull a frame grab from the security video.
Isn’t that Amber a hacker? Ask her to hack the surveillance cameras to help us prove Sal is Amazi-Girl!
The resolution won’t be great, but I’m sure Amber can just whip out some quick AI zoom-and-enhance magic and get those quality pics right away.
Would be funny if some random person brought their phone pics to daisy and got the amazi girl jobs from then on.
Then Jennifer can obsess over destroying that person and bond with an alien symbiote.
That must be how one of the nameless extras from a few days ago get written into the story!
https://www.dumbingofage.com/situationended/
We need a poll about Catchphrase Girl so we can settle on her name and move on. Closure (openure?) is important.
Someone threw “Lauren” out in the comments, and that’s canon as far as I’m concerned.
Sadly for Daisy, there’s still no chest window.
Ha! The politest and most well deserved “fuck off”
I like Tony. Got nothing much else to add, but I vibe with him.
Cock and Tall Eorture?
HAHAHA XD
if only :/
Tony is doing us a big favor in the last panel, thank you
Including Jennifer so she will stop making a fool of herself. (At least in this specific place)
Sarah and Tony have both been trying to help Jennifer be less cringe worthy and she is being completely ungrateful.
Seeing how disordered her speech is, it seems her limbic system is taking all the bandwidth just now — gratitude circuits, and pretty much everything else, are offline.
Jennifer that is no way to talk about Sarah after she tried to save you from embarrasing yourself further last strip.
Please go away, Jennifer
Jennifer, go away and eat your crow
Something about that phrase feels vaguely racist, but I can’t put my finger on why.
As far as I can tell it isn’t racist in origin
Nah they didn’t say eat dog. A google search says eating crow means admitting you’re wrong, used in English speaking countries.
I know what it means.
You’re just thinking of those racist Disney crows
I promise you I’m never thinking of racist Disney crows.
The crows don’t seem to have any racial animus. They’re quite friendly and accepting to everybody AFAICT.
JimCrow?
Ewwww wtf Jennifer?? Just straight harassing Tony
Also I love that he outright says “we were having a moment”, I just wanna fast forward to them getting to know each other and chatting, really hope they’ve got more in common then just thinking “people are garbage” 😂
It seems Jennifer genuinely isn’t registering the words coming out of her mouth.
I think Sarah and Tony seem to have genuine chemistry and compatible personalities.
People love dunking on Jen, but I still believe in her. When her head is in the game she’s shown some of the most emotional intelligence and compassion of any character. I predict Jen stocks will rise one day and I have invested. That day will come. Then who will be laughing?! Y’all still..probably.
Oh I also believe in her capacity to improve and her ability for good. But right now that hasn’t happened yet so I will continue to enjoy making fun of her.
Jennifer has regressed in some ways since Ruth dumped her.
I think something is coming to give her another jolt of self-reflection and hopefully she can do something other than run on high school inertia, denial and delusion.
She needs more of a electrical fire of self reflection.
Getting to be a transformer substation explosion at this rate.
Too bad this comic moves in Willis Time. Any meaningful character development is, like, three years away.
That is one of the biggest problems. It’s part of why the comic is so good, but it makes it really easy to view the characters as only the problem they’re displaying right now – since “right now” lasts for weeks, even if it’s only a single scene or years if the characters need a few weeks to show change.
Sarah is what? Not fun because she has a low tolerance for bull and think people are stupid?…which they are.
Also plus it just feels like this strip is made for those who don’t necessarily hate Jennifer but are not really all that impressed.
That’s me! 😁
Probably something along the lines of Sarah not being in Tony’s leauge, seems even Jennifer realized how bad that sounded.
Today’s moment of clarity was strong enough to break through all the high school clique bullshit.
Don’t fucking grab people by the shirt you fucking dimwit asshole butthead.
But when Dorothy does it, it’s fine.
Dorothy will wear the dunce hat when it’s HER turn.
It’s fine.
I’m honestly impressed I still like Bilenifer at all. Every time she shows up she somehow keeps making herself seem worse and worse.
Eh, trainwrecks are fun. Bisexual ones doubly so, in most cases.
Just embrace the trainwreck of her character arc, grab a seat, drink something tasty and watch the pretty fires.
God, Jennifer is totally rattled.
I do wonder a bit if this is going to really get the ball rolling on “Jennifer gets exiled from the cool kids”, which has already begun with them courting Walky, Raidah chastising Jennifer for her split with Asher, and hell, probably Lucy getting pulled in if Raidah wants Jacob’s presence.
Lucy and Jacob…that would be the straw that broke the camel’s back and could easily happen.
It would be hilarious if Radiah exiled Jennifer, continued to try to win Walky over for his Dean connection, only for Walky to reveal that he’s not on good terms with Linda right now and she should really be talking to Jennifer about that.
That at some point Raidah is going to exclude her is a fact.
Definitely, the only question is will Jennifer reach the point of not caring by that point or not? she seems to be already subconsciously looking for excuses to hangout with her old friends.
I still don’t know just what the fuck is going to happen when Raidah hears about Jacob and Lucy, considering the *entire reason* she is putting her evil plan into motion is because Joyce got with Jacon.
If Sarah and Tony become a thing I could she radiah trying too hard to break up both couples and failing at both. She’s so invested in transactional relationships I don’t think she fully realizes her relationship failed ultimately because Jacob didn’t have any romantic feelings for her and realized it.
You know, I doubt she actually cares about actual romantic feelings.
she doesn’t and that, along with her general aversion to fun is really not helping win people over.
Joyce didn’t get with Jacon, he kissed her and foreshadowed getting with Lucy.
True, but it’s still the entire reason Raidah put her evil plan in motion.
Wait, I thought Jaçon was with Ruth?
Joyce might have not gotten with Jason but by his own admission she made him realize what made him happy in a relationship which is why he ended thing with radiah instead of trying to kerp the relationship going
I think I’m going to stop worrying about Raidah now. It seems to me now that she and Jennifer are really cut from the same cloth in terms of social skills and general incompetence. Maybe they deserve each other. For all her schemes, what has Raidah really accomplished? She targeted Jennifer and Walky, people that weren’t even really friends with Sarah (or Joyce) to begin with, and she didn’t even recruit Walky. Even Lucy still speaks to Sarah, because Lucy is, “everybody’s friend.” It wouldn’t surprise me now if even Carl broke ties with Raidah just for getting nothing done. Though I do kind of want Ethan to meet Raidah; I feel like he could cut through a lot of her bs.
it will be interning when radiah realizing the current state of her failed networking if it keeps on this route. her trying to snag walky caused Jennifer to sabotage her relationship with Asher, now she and him are both hanging out with people in Joyce and Sarah’s circle so why woukd walky even feel the need to talk to her? it’s funny because Sarah wasn’t trying to bring Lucy and Asher over to her side, it’s just happening because Sarah actually acknowledges Lucy and her friend group does actual fun stuff life though parties with booze. Ethan would probably be blunt about only hanging out with them to rub it in Jennifer’s face.
There’s friction between them because they’re too much alike.
indeed, Radiah pulls rank on Jennifer because it was her friend group first and Jennifer hates it.
As if Jennifer wouldn’t have done exactly the same thing if their roles were reversed.
Some people never leave high school.
Maybe. I don’t think Jennifer would have done the “pretend we like her” think Raidah has going on.
And we’ve seen redeeming traits with Jennifer, despite her issues. She takes care of her people.
Carl won’t leave until he finds someone who seems more powerful.
Love how Sarah and Tony have the same eyebrows throughout.
They are sync-ing in their vibe-ing right well.
I’m honestly just waiting for Sarah to accost Jennifer verbally. Part of me wishes she’d accost her physically by decking her, but Sarah is too mature for that, and Jennifer is essentially going a backwards ass bout with trauma, so it wouldn’t help.
Couldn’t really stick the finish on the mental gymnastics there, huh? With how often she performs, you’d think she’d at least be able to achieve bronze.
I just realized that, in the previous strip, Tony said he was not going to get Jennifer beer, implying she’s asked him before.
But then she also acts like she doesn’t know his name.
Which is on brand.
She asked him in one of the first trips and as far as I know they never exchanged names lol.
I mean even if he’s on a team i doubt she knows all the players names or whatever lol
She knows he’s the Dean’s son. So her not knowing his name but knowing this is an especially bad look.
She called him Tony yesterday, she’s just pretending to be aloof.
I feel like she does know his name, she just thinks she’s being cool and flirty by calling him a quirky nickname.
She may think so, but mostly she’s being flustered and incoherent. The sentences where she tries to call him “football” don’t even make sense.
More that she’s thinking “hot football guy” and “football” is all that slips out.
Does she know he’s the Dean’s son? She knows he’s a football player, but hasn’t said anything about the Dean.
She might since Radiahs been talking about getting connected with the dean.
Might, but there’s at least no reason to think that’s what she’s thinking about. She’s focused on “football star”, not his dad.
She never actually asked him that, he just thinks that’s why she’s hitting on him. (Check his tag to see the first instance of this really early on in the comic.)
Comparatively minor misconception, though.
cte? Lol pretty offensive to imply he has head trauma. if anything i’m surprised sarah wasn’t like “most ppl would need a cte to deal with you” lol
Offensive, yes. Probably true, though. Given his position in a college football team and the everything about that.
i mean unless he’s desperate for a scholarship or no other choice somehow, i would hope some kinda head injury that serious would warrant some kinda break or so even if he doesn’t completely with draw from the team
So unfortunately there’s evidence that it’s just the repeated head impacts, not concussions, that cause CTE.
https://www.bumc.bu.edu/camed/2018/01/18/study-hits-not-concussions-cause-cte/
So pretty much: Do you play a position where you bang into the other people and/or get tackled? You are potententially on the road to CTE’s.
I would also hope that, but RL evidence is that college and professional (and in many cases high school) football players are at serious risk of developing CTE. Which, as Felgraf has explained, is not a single serious injury that would warrant a break but a series of small impacts we wouldn’t consider injuring at all. Just a frequency thing, rather than a severity thing, but it turns into something awful.
Ok i need to ask: what does jennifer’s last line mean? What is a CTE?
Chronic traumatic encephalopathy; a disorder caused by repeated head injuries such as, for eg, banging into things while playing shirt.
And no, Jennifer doesn’t see anything wrong with asking this.
She’s struggling to rationalize how she’s not getting with the football star right now, she’s supposed to have the plot according to her.
It’s amazing, I’ve never seen someone be so wrong about so many things in the space of like five seconds. Jennifer is not charming, Tony is not an idiot, Sarah is not impossible to be around and Amazi-Girl is not Sal, but none of all these misconceptions penetrate.
I was trying to figure out why Tony’s mistake where he keeps thinking Jennifer wants him to get beer is so understandable in comparison, but really where is the comparison.
Honestly y if you ask me from this strip alone I would assume she is already drunk.
….what the fuck, jennie
classic insult unrequited crush, that will show him what he’s missing out on!
Wow. That is an impressive number of ways to be awful, all in such a small window of time.
For a moment, before I caught myself, I wondered how someone could be so awful unintentionally.
But no. I should know better. Apathy and wilful ignorance cause suffering like no other.
I know, it is glorious! Truly a prodigy of the arts of sucking.
Yeesh Jen. The CTE talk is especially rich considering your, um, high school DUI.
You know.
Never thought of that. But it could be Jennifer trying to normalize this shit.
Billie! Stop spiraling!
Jesus H., Billie, PLEASE walk away from this convo
Never! When the world tells her to stop digging herself a hole, she comes back with even bigger earth-moving equipment.
It’s lucky for her she wasn’t around for Paul’s rampage, or she might have noticed how familiar his behaviour seemed.
(“SOME people are just better than others, and should receive sexual favours as a result. No I’m not deaperately lonely, why would I be desperately lonely?!”)
Omg those two could project their own insecurities so bad on each other, “got kicked off the team for something stupid? your such a loser!” they must never meet, this is the kind if guy Jennifer will end up with if she stays on the toxic route.
Look, Ruth, all I’m saying is that Tony elbow-checked someone who was being a creep towards you. You could REALLY do him a solid here and return the favor.
You mean Sarah?
… Yes, Sarah. Though Ruth could come outta nowhere and elbow-check Jennifer and that too would be just fine.
Damn can we get Billie back? She had her flaws but she wasn’t this bad.
That’s what’s called character growth.
Love your new gravatar, Taffy!
This one is comparatively ancient. Joyce was wearing the outfit still when I made it.
I am sorry to tell you this but this is Billie as her billiest. There never was any real distinction.
I’m thinking the Billie who had somewhat realised that she’s not more special than anyone else, the one who was building a real relationship with Ruth.
You’re right that start-of-semester Billie was also like this.
She was actually developing, and then she went back to where she started apparently.
It’s familiar territory. Change is uncertain, but she was on top of her world in high school, therefore she should regress to the way she was in high school so she’ll be back on top of her world again!
Jennifer was finally moving beyond being Billie and alcohol to building what she assumed were healthy lasting relationships. Then she decided she want some drama in her life and negged Asher with a fake breakup.
This resulted in a complete spiral that has her returning to Billiedom.
You forgot the part where she told Asher at the beggining of the post time skip “Inject unnecessary drama directly in into my vein”? The claim she was becoming a healthier and more mature person was always paper thin. Yes even if she is sober doesn’t really change that she didn’t actually improved any of her many other toxic traits.
She’s sober now though, so that’s a big step up from the start of first semester.
She was suicidally sober.
So this is a big improvement.
And she hasn’t tried to give anybody money to get them to like her since last semester so a few improvements are consistent.
Yes, please!
I really don’t want to know what Jennifer thought that sentence was going to be, but at least she had the sense not to finish it. Went downhill from there.
Jennifer is the WORST and I actually kind of love it
Yes you get proof!
At this point I’d be concerned about Billie’s health because she’s talking like she’s either had a stroke or a concussion
I think she’s too dumbfounded by Tony’s physique (or the fact that he’s choosing Sarah over her) to think or talk straight.
This is a more extreme version of an aspect of her we saw in the first semester, actually. Remember her basically throwing herself at Danny? Billifer has always had a strong libido, and sometimes sating it is more important to her than other business. However, whereas before her lustiness just helped her make bad decisions, now it gives her aphasia.
A lot of isn’t just libido though, but her seeking affirmation of her worth.
She threw herself at Danny after he talked about her being out of his league. Here it’s tied to the chance of hooking up with the football star.
I see that Jennifer is playing matchmaker again, and this is actually some of her finest work. She’s certainly getting Sarah and Tony on the same page. And any bystander in a football field sized perimeter, so let’s hope there are not too many of them.
Now that you mention it, this is indeed some 4D chess moves she’s pulling off here. 😉 But regardless, I’m rather pleased to hear that Tony doesn’t want to be rescued from Sarah. I hope the two of them work out. :3
This could be self-destructive spiralling
Looks like Jennifer’s reverted back to her high-school cheerleader days.
“You want to be with her instead of me ?! But I’m ME !”
Remember when Billie had a moment of clarity about how shitty she was being to her “uncool” friends in the name of chasing clout and said right then and there that she wanted to be different?
Granted, what happened immediately after that (Alice calling her poison and encouraging Billie’s friends to abandon her, followed by Billie ralphing and retreating into a lesbian suicide pact) wasn’t great, but man, it’s been real frustrating that the character arc and development that led up to that point has meant bupkis since the second semester started.
…on the other hand, everything surrounding the lesbian suicide pact was probably traumatizing as fuck and maybe she’s just forgotten the one good lesson that came from it. And I can’t deny that being an asshole is just part of that distinct Billie flavor. Still, though: come ON girl
this comic loves to have the character forget their own character development to streeeeeeeetch the drama
People in real life never relapse. One moment of revelation and all your problems resolve.
This doesn’t just feel like a ‘relapse’ though. She not only went back to bad habits (like obsessing over popularity), but she’s actively being worse about it.
This may also be a case of “Reality is unrealistic”. Sure, in real life, people do, in fact, backslide, or even just refuse to change in the first place. But reading about that just gets repetitive if there’s no true growth or development.
But that is a thing specific to Jennifer that is in character and fit the kind of person she is. The vast majority of major characters in the strip actually stick with their character development. Sometimes people get worse, it’s sad but true. Negative character development is a term for a reason.
It’s a shame we never saw Alice again.
Tony use your Football Powers and Punt her across the field
Jennifer, please let Sarah have something potentially good for once.
What’s fascinating is that Jennifer is having a breakdown from two months of sobriety and normalcy. So she artificially tries to generate drama by negging Asher and that blows up in her face, torpedoes her social circle, and now has her degenerating into word salad.
Also, Jennifer apparently didn’t realize Kit Fisto sex is a thing you don’t talk about among cool kids if Raidah is anything to go by.
Jennifer absolutely realised that — she was in complete denial of it up until relatively recently. What she didn’t realise was that Raidah’s circle count as “the cool kids” for this purpose — she thought they were mature adults who accepted people’s quirks.
The one time she didn’t treat college like it’s high school and she has an Alpha Cheerleader Reputation to maintain, and it turns out she should have… (Not that I think maintaining a friendship with Raidah is a goal anyone should work particularly hard at.)
Keepin it classy as always, Jennifer.
Sarah just heard those four little words she’s always hated to hear. Someone flatly telling a bothersome peer to get out of here.
Hated? No, wanted. Ugh. New phone, who dis.
Why do I feel like the last line of Jennifer’s sentence might be “unpopular”…
Man, Tony keeps wanting to redeem Paul.
Which can only mean one thing….Tony is ALSO a superhero.
He was there when Incelerator got his powers in a lab accident.
Is Tony secretly FOOTBALLMAN?
I don’t think denying Paul the title of “supervillain” is redeeming him, just trying not to make it A THING. Because that means it will happen again, let’s not encourage this behavior.
I mean he went out of his way to find the guy, grab him, and tell him to get off the internet. That shows a level of concern.
Man, the amound of bull that Tony has to go through in this comic. He appeared in, like, ten strips so far, and for what?
Billie hitting on him just for being a football player. Danny (trying to get beaten up) assuming him to be an homophobe. Robin trying to tie him in an arranged marriage. Walky dragging him in his nonsense and dropping some parents cringey lore. His former friend becoming an incel agitator. And now Billiefer again.
The poor guy can’t have a moment of peace.
Running around on the field, dodging 230 pound guys trying to bodyslam him, gotta be more relaxing and stress-free.
Walky drops the bombshell that he may be his brother.
How would that work? I’m assuming Tony’s mother is whoever Dean got with after the divorce so there’s not even a half or step relation
How sweet to see Sarah and Tony become more and more closer thanks to their shared dislikes of Jennifer! What I fear is that the irrational Jennifer decides to take revenge on Sarah and helping Raidah in some scam for frame her.
Every word she says makes her more punchable
By Tony of by Sarah?
Every word she says makes her more fuckable.
Man Jenny very rarely actually irritates me but this one got me. And it honestly shouldn’t bc she and Sarah always hated each other and now she’s in with Sarah’s biggest op so there’s no reason she’d be courteous. And it’s funny making Tony hate her more with every word, and nice seeing him stand ten toes down on his attraction to Sarah. Just, idk. Fuck off bill, let Sarah get paid finally.
It doesn’t bother me as much because she’s so obviously just not thinking clearly. This isn’t her being malicious or even like rationalizing reasons why Tony should be with her not Sarah. There’s no actual thought going on at all.
I think it’s been too long since she’s been laid, and has taken that for granted for such a long time that she forgot how to masturbate so she’s suffering horny induced brain rot
I mean she had sex with Asher like two days ago.
Aaaaand? In DoA time, that’s a long time!
yes Jennie, calling a romantic interest “idiot” is the surest way to endear yourself to them
I mean, she’s probably someone raised on Toonami.
Sadly she still genuinely believes that it is and thinks Tony’s irritation with her presence is romantic chemistry.
Did not think of this either.
look it’s worked before
50% success rate is still a success rate.
of course to Jennifer, negging and love bombing Just Work™
Billie is such a good wingman. Really taking one for the team here.
Tony is my new favourite character. Watching Jennifer get called out on her bullshit feels good
I want to take the word “supervillain” and put it in a box out of reach of all these characters until they know how to use it correctly.
It’s a fairly correct term for a villain who dresses up in a costume and take a descriptive name. It’s as correct for The Incelerator as “superhero” is for Amazi-Girl.
Plenty of comic book super-heroes don’t have superpowers, if that’s the difference.
To quote Megamind “Presentation!”
And I have to say that Incelerator’s outfit looked pretty dope. Shame it’s wasted on such a lame guy.
I think there’s a lot of debate if Billie becoming Jennifer was an improvement or if there’s any real differentiation at all. She’s backsliding in some respects but what she wanted from her change is something that is always up to interpretation.
Jennifer getting off alcohol and suicidal self-destruction is a good thing, though.
Yeah, its like, Jennifer’s been a significant downgrade in every single department except for the whole “crippling alcoholism” and “trying to kill herself” departments.
I still consider that an improvement overall, but she really does make it hard sometimes >_>.
It’s definitely a step back from where she’d gotten right before the timeskip, but still better in many ways than than the start of the semester.
The break up hit her hard I think. (And it seems like she fell off the wagon for a bit as well, if we take the “two months sober” literally.) And then Raidah latched onto that vulnerability.
But this is slow burn plot. At some point she’s going to find out that her new clique doesn’t actually like her and then we’ll see the payoff.
These comments confuse me. Why is everyone acting like she’s a real person? Of course she’s saying things that are inappropriate and silly. This is a comedy strip. It’s funny.
Hyperbole is not allowed on the internet lmao
Although she really is being a horse’s ass here despite the hyperbole
No one is treating her like an actual person tho? We are all treating her as a character and reacting to the way she acts, which is the intention behind Writting her acting like this.
You’re allowed to engage with the story on more levels than “its funny.”
Oh fuck I just had a freak brainwave.
Jennifer is going to become a supervillain in an attempt to lure out amazigirl so she can get photos for the journalism thing.
This may end up as unintentionally allying with Incelerator.
Or possibility become a less competent Lois Lane for Incelerator thinking he’s a misunderstood hero. Hope thats wrong for Jennifers sake but she’s taking so many extra wrong turns in life lately it’s hard to tell where it will end.
Someone should buy her a J. Jonah Jameson mask
Leave it to Billie to need the same reality check twice. (Yeah, sorry, she’s Billie right now.)
Oh look, she’s Jennifering all over the place.
That’s right, Danny is no longer the name of the failure verb, now it’s Jennifer
God, she’s just the fucking worst isn’t she
This is certainly a low.
I would love to see Tony and Sarah get together and for him to just like… advocate for her. Like Raidah tries to tell him why she’s a bad person and he’s like “oh yeah. She told me about that. I think she should have just told the RA about her constant smoking and gotten her kicked out of school because hot boxing a dorm room is fucking bullshit but she was too nice for that” and not give a shit about what anyone else thinks and just be happy as a curmudgeon with Sarah. Just want that for her and for me lmao
You think you make progress and then you see the embodiment of your past self’s desires and you regress so hard.