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Do ceilings count as walls? i’ve been watching ghosts cbs and in that they can “go through the wall but not fall through the floor” (but still able to sit on furniture but can’t interact with other objects unless theyh ave a specific ‘power’ to interact with the world that way lol)
Imagine if it was someone’s dorm room and she ended up barging into another room of a couple having sex anyways XD
I figure it depends. A ghost probably can go through the floor if they want to, but they’re too attached to the idea of floors working like floors to manage it very often. Same with chairs: when a ghost wants to walk through a chair, that’s one thing; when a ghost approaches a chair as a chair with the intent of sitting down in it, that’s another.
Ghosts aren’t subject to gravity. They float. People on the Enterprise who are “out of phase” are, so it’s hilarious that they can walk through walls but not fall through the floor.
I’ve had trouble grocking that in the past. However, the ship does not have gravity. It has gravity plating that magically attracts whatever is above it at about 1G, but does not attract through the ceiling to the next floor. So, the phased characters are attracted to the gravity plates in the floor but no farther. None of which really holds up to scrutiny since it defies physics. Plus, different writers had different conceptualizations from episode to episode, season to season, and series to series. And the science advisors, once they had they, hand waved artificial gravity since it was dictated by the nature of shooting the shows in a gravity well.
@ eh : i guess it depensd, the ghosts in the specific show/series i was talking about doesn’t rly having them ‘levitating/floating’ or so versus just walking through doors (but they still need sleep. or at least choose to b/c i guess if you’re around for 100 years you wouldn’t wanna be awake every moment or so)
i’d like to think someone years ago added that and it’s a known secret for ppl who wanna make exists like these, as opposed to amber/amazigirl installing them herself
But the cheap drop in ceilings aren’t really something you can crawl in – the panels won’t hold your weight and I don’t think even the supports really will.
Depends on the state’s building codes. In mine, in one of the schools I worked in, yeah, a 200# adult could crawl around up in there safely enough, as long as care was taken.
(speakin’ from very dirty and dusty personal experience)
I mean it is a webcomic but it would be amusing yet concerning if it was basedo n the real example/college of something like this happening, if there aren’t ‘quirky’ colleges trying to be extra weird on purpose
It’s common (and easy to install). Mind you Mythbusters proved that ceiling and duct access is far from sneaky. But of course, AmaziGirl is prepared for anything!
When I was in high school, my piano teacher told me that she used to have a cat who would go through the unfinished storage room to get on top of those ceiling tiles, and explore around in the ceiling, and that one day, during a lesson, she suddenly came crashing down from inside the ceiling, and upon landing on the ground, nonchalantly said “meow” and just walked away like it was no big deal.
We had three cats, which were feral cats my parents (mostly my mom) took in before I was born. They took a very long time to adjust to being house cats– all at different rates, too. Anyway, they mostly lived in our basement, and people could come to our house to feed them and such when we were out of town and never end up seeing a single cat.
And they frequently hung out in the basement ceiling. There was a main way they entered through, an opening by the basement window in my play area. They’d take a running start, jump on a sofa, and jump up the wall into the ceiling.
I’m reminded of the Mythbusters episode where they were testing the actual difficulty of herding cats, and ended up having to cut a hole in one of the shop walls to extract a cat from inside it.
It depends, but I mean, depending on how the duct work’s done, someone had to go in there at some point. A friend of mine used to work in building material sourcing, and sometimes got roped into going into walls and ceilings because they are 5’1. Built not unlike Amber, too, for that matter, but not as muscular, so probably a fair bit lighter.
Booster is the kind of person that just gets off on drama, feeds off of it, a Jerry Springer with a psychology degree. They see a car crash about to happen and they just have to rubber neck.
Amber just leaped through a hole in the ceiling to escape the conversation. They may not think of what they’re doing as “weaponization”, but it absolutely is.
Booster likes messes, and likes pushing buttons, but all things equal, I don’t think they ultimately want serious damage. It didn’t take long for them to show legitimate concern about Ethan’s situation, and they did express remorse the last time they seriously pissed Amber off and crossed too many boundaries even for Amber to tolerate. Booster’s more terminally smug than dangerous.
Yeahhhh, the excitement gives “I understood you! Did you see how I got it? Yay, I’m having an interaction with someone I’m understanding!” right before y’know. Fumbling hardcore. I OOF’d irl and all
I would genuinely be surprised if that were the case since they’re roommates with Walky who is clearly going through A Hell Of A Time dealing with his roommate’s death.
idk I feel like them talking to Ethan about not going to classes & kind of helping him to get out more again was pretty empathetic? they’re also generally nice to Walky (including being careful around Mike’s death).
I get hating on a character, whatever, but at least be correct with your blanket statements!
Walky famously doesn’t like talking about Mike, or his feelings in general; and by the time second semester started, bringing Booster along, it had been several months since the murder/kidnapping.
It wasn’t even the first kidnapping in those dorms. And everyone was pre-traumatized before the start of college anyway :’DD
I still read Booster as autistic. Like, the kind of autistic who learned to “read between the lines” of social interactions by studying psychology and got good at one part of that equation, but not the shutting up and not saying things outright part. Either they got so used to looking at people as specimen they need to study to understand that they still can’t interact in a socially acceptable way, or they genuinely think this is a Normal and Okay form of socialisation because it’s worked for them up to this point, and they don’t know how to adapt to this different social setting with its new rules and mix of people.
(All of which was my experience first time at uni)
I legit think it’s the only reading that makes sense (and also, hi5 because this happened to me too.)
They’re very enthusiastic about “showing their work” — a lot of the worst faux pases they’ve made is because they need to tell other characters what led them to their conclusions, and right after they’ve been told Doing An Analysis is expected of them.
Given that Booster is genetically related to Charlie, and Charlie’s seeming spectrum traits, oh, yeah, Booster is gonna have some spectrum traits, too. Spectrum people _can_ have insights and perceptions regarding psychological and social traits in people.
Like, THIS Booster? The one in the comic above this comment section? The one who was just visibly stunned into silence by the sudden evidence that Amber wasn’t enjoying this conversation?
I feel like someone who was actually any good at observing social cues would not need their conversation partner to flee into a ceiling panel before they realized they had misstepped.
Booster is good at reading people, which is not the same as reading social situations. I been watching the show Elementary the past few weeks and it’s pretty much like that show Sherlock, great at understanding and reading people motives and flaws, not so great at realizing when it is or isn’t appropriate to say certain things.
They’ve literally explained it (Yumi linked the comic, a conversation with Ethan) as having had to develop hypervigilance to survive life in a small town as themself.
And several folks have now expressly said: “I am autistic and Booster reminds me of me.”
This is totally fair, but yeah, a fair few folks both autistic and not and maybe (me) have been noting that they seem socially clueless and hyperanalytical of other people’s behavior in a way that rings true for us.
Like others said- autistic folk can be outgoing and social.
As a teenager my SpIn was “people” and I read everything I could about body language and psychology so I could be more human. I even had a notebook for keeping notes on other people and what they talked about so I could figure out the Key To Conversation. I wasn’t as outgoing as Booster (because I was horrendously depressed and suffered severe social anxiety) but when I did try to make friends at uni I was obnoxious, irritating, pointed out things I shouldn’t have, overstepped boundaries and ended up hating myself 10x more because of how isolated I was because my (all star autistic gay) friends went to a different school and the (all star autistic gay) social habits I formed were WAY out of bounds.
Like, I can still cold read a bongo well enough to make bank as a psychic (I don’t, but I was offered a job recently) but once Ive put my foot in my mouth I’m going full ouroboros.
It’s darn near a rite of passage, that most Psyc majors need to get through. No, they can _not_ get a 100% quickie cold read on people that fast and that deep. They’re just learning the iceberg’s tip in their classes, and they’re just barely seeing the iceberg’s tip in any given person’s personality. Accurate analysis takes some intensive study and training (plus time, tears, etc).
Honestly, it hadn’t occurred to me that this would be Amber’s potential motivation initially. I knew from the disastrous “dinner date with the parents” that Amber does obviously have feelings for Walky still, but she still maintains feelings about Danny, too, and that doesn’t translate into trying to undermine his relationships for her own personal gain. This is fresher, though, so… it’s not implausible, Booster has a point, but I am not fully convinced that was the plan.
I also think Amber would have encouraged a little bit of messy sexual chaos out of most any of her friends who came to her about this, out of her own fanfic-brained motivations. Dina would probably be an exception, but otherwise? Fair game.
Plenty of potential angles here, and also, love the meta gag of this one.
Booster is awesome. They’re a lot less fun as “quietly smarmy”, but they’re REALLY fun in strips like this one where it’s more of a high energy mania about things other people hate. Getting extremely open-mouth grin excited while accusing someone of the exact awful thing they’re doing but want to avoid? That’s such a gift to have as a writer
Yes. They’re being a dick in an exaggerated and entertaining way. This is a comic entirely about big personalities having over the top interpersonal conflict. The punchline of nearly every strip is someone being a dick. I’m talking about booster being an enjoyable character to read about.
Amber needs to be called out on the actual bad things she does, like when she openly talks about her sexual fantasies about her friends having sex in front of them while they have made it clear it’s uncomfortable.
I’m not sure what’s accomplished in calling her out in the neutral to nice things she does. If she was genuinely pushing Walky away from Dorothy, it seems even she wasn’t aware until this moment
Amber needs to be forced to confront something that makes her uncomfortable with herself for the sake of the arc, and characters like Mike and Booster are usually the people who instigate conflict when characters aren’t being honest with themselves.
“I’m not sure what’s accomplished in calling her out in the neutral to nice things she does. If she was genuinely pushing Walky away from Dorothy, it seems even she wasn’t aware until this moment”
Well, this is a comic. With an author. So ‘what’s accomplished’ is likely a progression of the storyline where it was necessary that Amber realize her motivations for what she did.
Also, what Dorothy came to her for was help deleting them off the Cloud. Amber talked her into sending a response – which admittedly wasn’t hard, but it kills the “she came to me for help. What was I supposed to do?” defense.
Even if it wasn’t consciously trying to break Dorothy and Walky up, it was at best her “trash goblin who craves mess” side, so neutral to nice seems a bit of a stretch.
I don’t think they’re awesome. If I encountered someone IRL who behaved towards me like Booster does towards all the other characters in this comic, I would find them annoying and want to avoid being around them.
Booster oh my god you ridiculous kid. Like, Amber may be “YOU LET THEM MAKE OUT OR I’LL BRICK YOUR PHONE FROM HERE” messy, and she def needs to admit what she wants so she can pursue it, but… What were you trying to even do X’DDD
Excited they were right, but also interpersonal conflict is joyous. They were delighting in the messiness of forcing Joyce and Walky apart so he would be ruined enough for her to take back.
Let’s assume that the ceiling here is just about 2.5m high.
It looks like the ceiling panel has fallen about the height of Booster, and let’s assume that booster is around 1.8m tall.
Given that gravity is 9.8m/s^2, and that acceleration = distance / (time^2), we can calculate
9.8 = 1.8/(t^2)
t^2 = 1.8/9.8
t = sqrt(1.8/9.8)
t = 0.429s
So Amber managed to get almost entirely inside the ceiling tile, starting from when she moved it out of the way, in just under half a second.
nah,entirely wrong vibe. people who /write/ callout posts are either really mad or just hateful. people who /read/ callout posts however… I could give you that, MAYBE.
My last callout post ended with me being harassed for several months on end until I attempted to kill myself and deleted all my social media accounts, which were tied to my income. I have been homeless ever since.
Willis I beg, could you look into whatever the hell is going with Bruno? I am pretty sure whatever happening here isn’t good. Gonna self report just make sure.
I didn’t really think so. I brought up structural transmisogyny in the queer community (such that it is) and you became very defensive and made many decisions that revealed what you thought of me doing that.
I’m not calling for your comments to be removed or anything, because I prefer to try to handle this problem through discussion and education and the way multiple people are attacking me (very directly in Taffy’s case) and rushing to your side and literally calling for my comments to be removed is very much an example of the exact point I was making.
I reported the comments that I felt were assuming Booster’s assigned-sex-at-birth before everything went… the direction it went. I didn’t report anything else.
Thanks for saying my name unprovoked as part of a lie. Every time you do that, I get $5. I’m flattered to feature in your constant drug-induced hallucinations.
I’m also confused on what was supposed to be accomplished with this interaction. Like it kinda reads that Booster just went and harassed Amber for sport. I thought we were believing they would help her as a friend? I feel bad for Amber now. She was minding her own business and didn’t deserve this. I also don’t think she was purposefully trying to sabotage Dorothy and Walky. These kids are really quick to make themselves villains for just being teens.
I think Booster just got excited that there was a mystery to solve and they solved it.
Of course even if Amber didn’t consciously do this, something something subconscious something something ego something something cigars are penises. At least that’s how Booster probably sees it (and how we, the audience, are being led to see it)
Not to mention that she walked up to Ruth trying to start a conversation about her feelings. Amber was just hoping that she’d act accordingly so that she could deflect and continue avoid thinking about it.
This isn’t the first comment I’ve seen being puzzled about the point of checking in on Amber here, but I for one am not willing to assume we’re done with the scene yet. Even if we switch back to Dorothy or Joyce tomorrow, I’m sure we’ll come back to Amber and/or Booster soon.
I don’t mind checking in on Amber. I guess I just expected more from Booster. Last strips comments lead me to believe they were the right person to help Amber, a friend. Instead they just made her feel bad for no reason. Was that the intention?
Both I guess? I’m just gonna see how this plays out without making any more assumptions. I just felt like for example if we cut to a random character just to watch them get punched in the face unprompted. Like what was it for? But I trust this is all leading to something.
I really don’t think this was them punching her in the face. At most, I would say it’s more like they bumped into each other and Booster accidentally got an blow in an existing bruise. There’s no malice here, no intended attack.
I wonder if Booster won’t take this abrupt retreat to mean they were totally wrong in their read of how okay Amber was with the conversation and apologize.
Yeah Booster definitely reads as excited about it all. I think they would have eventually gotten to a real conversation that might have resulted in Booster being Booster tier helpful. But Booster was extremely excited. And well uh, well, when you trigger a cat’s fight or flight sometimes they are going to end up in the ceiling….
I’m hoping they have the chance to talk to Amber again soon and if so, I am personally wagering like a nickel (I’m not much of a gambler) that they apologize for freaking Amber out, because I really doubt it was their intent.
Yah, this is just “this specific interaction is over, drama will continue at a later date.”
Unless Booster has a heat detector on them and pursues. Which would somehow outcreep the whole “you wanted to break Joe/Joyce to free up Walky so you can bone him again” thing.
Taking a comment from nymph up there:
“Well, this is a comic. With an author. So ‘what’s accomplished’ is likely a progression of the storyline where it was necessary that Amber realize her motivations for what she did.”
I mean I hope so, I kept trying to read something other than “a joke about preteens in 2004 getting their lives ruined” and I was struggling. I don’t think that’s what anyone would actually say but???
All my preteen friendships were like this in 2004. I don’t know what else you’re reading for here. House was currently airing and we were just like that.
I don’t know how this is pathologising? They aren’t assigned anything Amber to any kind of condition, if anything they are just pointing that flawed human decision making. Unless you are working under a different definition that i am.
Literally panel 5 and all of this is coming from a place of Booster looking at her like a specimen rather than a person as the context and framing. You are free to read it differently but this is the way it comes off and I’m really not about that vibe.
Seriously Booster, shut up – I’d say “take an ethics class” but you’d probably interpret the class to mean that ethics and morals are just more things you can ignore by pretending to be a scientific observer rather than a human being interacting with people that have emotions that you, in fact, affect
only normal response to booster. in a comic about an 18yo girl being a vigilante as a coping mechanism, a homeschooled ex christian keeps pulling meat mountain men, and evil dads in a mob, you cant have equally silly and zany characters? this is a comic! and booster is hilarious!
The worst thing possible: Being perceivable when somebody else might not feel specifically inclined to perceive you. If I walk through a person’s yard and look in their window and see they’ve spilled spaghetti sauce on their countertop, it’s my moral imperative to physically harm them.
Again…torn about Booster. They just, well, are, they are right here, and unlike Mike who was publicly right when he had a plan in place and wanted to set people up, Booster is just RIGHT in the moment. Unfiltered, inappropriate, intrusive, invasive, blunt, but right without an ulterior motive for personal gain to tell Amber this, the way Mike would deploy information to get something he wanted in advance. And as a character, that’s actually fun to watch? No tiptoing around the obvious trash fire, no snide comments to twist people, Booster just sees the trashfire and says, “A trashfire! Sweet!!!!” I can’t hate Booster. Honestly, Booster’s insight is frequently even helpful. Other characters hate them, Amber included, because they are RIGHT, and also because characters keep coming to Booster for insight/help/emotional dissection, and then getting mad when Booster does exactly that but it isn’t the answer they want. Amber, Walky, Joyce, Ruth, Carla, they’ve all had moments where they’re mad at Booster just because Booster did what they wanted Booster to do, but not the way they wanted it to end. That isn’t Booster’s fault, frankly, whether the characters don’t like it or the audience doesn’t.
But also….stop it, Booster. They’re right. But they don’t have to be so happy about it. That’s where the stumbling block it. However right they are, their self-validation seems so egotistical at times like this. “Ha, I’m right, I’m brilliant, I solved the puzzle, teehee, go me!” Except those are people, Booster. At least when Mike wrought havoc, you could safely hate him for intentionally being an asshole. He knew he was an asshole, he knew he was awful, so people could call him on it without ambiguity. Booster plays both sides, “Oh, I’m just a psychology major interested in human minds, this is just how I think, I’m just observing, I love a good mess, but don’t hate me, I’m not malicious.” But you’re still ultimately enjoying human suffering, Booster. Mike was upfront: more often than not, he WANTED to hurt you, out of malice or twisted machiavelian plans. Booster wants to see the emotional fallout, but puts a nice “insight” spin on it. And it feels…gross and voyeuristic and exploitative….even if Booster doesn’t MEAN IT that way. But I really do want to see where Booster tries to steer this. They clearly know it’s “horrible”, but will they try to guide it out of “horrible” or just rubberneck for psychological intrigue?
Fair, very fair. By “right”, I suppose I mean “Booster’s insight is meant to be a somewhat accurate assessment of Amber’s behavior.” Booster’s words are not absurd or useless. Amber’s reactions in the last two comics seem to indicate that Booster’s observations are correct. Even if Amber didn’t do it all consciously, Booster has hit on something deeper down that we, as readers, and Amber, as the character Booster is addressing, are meant to take as significant and uncomfortably close to home. So in that sense, as in many instances before, Booster is “right” in what they are saying about another character’s faults or hidden mental/emotional state. But that certainly doesn’t mean they are right to do this.
It’s the difference between dealing with a supervillain vs dealing with a news reporter who’s trying to reveal super heroes’ secret identities – one you know is on some Evil bs and may or may not have a convoluted plan to achieve their goals, but the other is doing Evil by dint of the harm the otherwise-neutral act causes in-context rather than the act itself being directly Evil
I miss Mike. Never understood the assertion that he “didn’t work” in the context of Dumbing of Age; I thought he was at his best here. I don’t have anything against Booster but they just don’t have the stuff the same way he did.
Booster fills the same narrative role that Mike once filled. They are a truthful provcateur.
It is narratively useful to have someone who is decidedly not an antagonist, who you can use to interact with your main characters to make them self-reflect. This is the sort of thing that you wouldn’t necessarily need in first person prose, because the incident which causes a person to self-reflect could be anything and the conflict could be narrated internally – but in a visual medium like comics, or film, it’s best done by an individual.
This person sees everyone for who they are, and they are driven to interact with them, expressing their viewpoint and forcing the other to confront it. The other might feel angry at this expression, or deny it initially, or begrudgingly accept it, or accept and change course. In any case, interaction with the truthful provocateur inspires change and keeps the story well-lubricated so that it doesn’t get held up anywhere.
Mike and Booster are different kinds of assholes. We eventually learned that Mike cared about people, but in an actively toxic and sometimes abusive way. He often intentionally made himself the villain so that his friends would fight against him and thus make themselves better. Booster, on the other hand, seemingly sees other people as entertainment only, and displays little to no empathy for their actual feelings. To Booster, their friends are like reality TV, only ten times more exciting because they can interact and sometimes meddle. People get (rightfully) upset with Mike for his abusive actions… but I’m not certain that in this moment, what Booster is doing is much different.
What is abuse? Cruel treatment of another person, often repeatedly. And cruelty is willfully causing pain to others without concern for that pain. Booster’s elated “And you are a horrible person!” here is absolutely cruel, and they’ve already identified Amber as the short round hot mess, so this isn’t really an isolated incident. Can we honestly say that Booster, savvy enough with what is going on with every other person, is so oblivious to themself? Is it really different because Mike would say it with a scowl and give sarcastic praise, and Booster is saying it with a smile and giving encouraging praise?
Because there’s no doubt in my mind that Booster, as savvy as they are in how people think and function and work together, is aware that they’re causing serious distress and pain at times, and rather than try to adjust their behavior to consider the other’s feelings, they revel in that feeling, seemingly for their own pleasure.
Booster’s one saving grace, in my mind, is that we don’t know their history or backstory, so it means that it’s hard to see them as a sympathetic character. We didn’t see that with Mike until we started seeing backstory. I hope that Willis eventually gives us a bit more about Booster, because as it stands, Mike was made slightly, slightly less of a horrible person because deep down inside, he was a hurt, scarred person who still cared about others. If Booster’s cruelty is just because they don’t really care about anything other than their own entertainment, in my mind, it makes them far worse than Mike.
Well, it’s definitely not a socially awkward kid saying “Yes! Yes! Haha,” no matter how annoying you find them.
Booster’s elated “And you are a horrible person!” here is absolutely cruel, and they’ve already identified Amber as the short round hot mess, so this isn’t really an isolated incident.
I mean, that was Willis. Willis is the one who called Amber a short round hot mess in alt text. Booster has never said that.
You’re also omitting a ton of context. You’re forgetting or ignoring Garbage Roof. Amber has never been a person who responded very positively to people arguing with her that she’s not awful; she has always responded much better to people who have said “your awfulness is not a turn-off”.
Can we honestly say that Booster, savvy enough with what is going on with every other person, is so oblivious to themself?
…yes, we can. What a silly question. Most people are much better at analyzing others than they are at analyzing themselves. It’s not even a little be difficult to believe.
Flabbergasted by these questions tbh. And I say that as someone who liked Mike.
Yeah, dropping “self-admittedly” and everything else, really makes it sound like BOOSTER is the one calling Amber a fuck-up, and they’re not. They just haven’t disagreed with her! They keep expressing interest in her both despite and because of all her flaws, instead of arguing with her about them. That’s about it.
FYI – I think the reason Mike never worked in Dumbing of Age was because the focus was mostly on Joyce instead of Ethan and Amber. There’s a reason all of Mike’s notable DOA stuff is Amber related.
Simply put, Mike never became friends with any of the main cast.
Another data point of commonality between Booster and Dorothy: an awful lot of the commentariat treating present trends as constants and that who they are at 18 is who they’ll still be ten years from now when they might or might not have stuck with the career aspirations they had now, heh.
Also: no opinion just yet on whether Booster is right or not.
At the very least, I take Amber’s horrified reaction to mean she wasn’t consciously trying to break Dorothy and Walky up. I also think Amber is someone who’s very prone to thinking the worst of herself, and now that this possibility has been suggested to her, she’s going to worry it’s true and castigate herself appropriately. I wonder if this escape is less from Booster and more towards Dorothy? Like, maybe she’s going to try to correct her “mistake” (whether it was one or not).
… I think I’m leaning “no, Booster isn’t actually right about this”? Specifically because I don’t think Amber actually knew Dorothy had feelings for Joyce, and if you don’t know that, you can’t really expect encouraging her to send A Lewd TM to Joyce to end her relationship with Walky.
Put simply, I don’t think Amber… knows Dorothy well enough?
But I guess Joe might have said some off-panel stuff about Dorothy while he was venting to Amber about his Joyce feelings…
Yeah, I think you have a good point. It wouldn’t be the first time an arc had booster suggest a negative self image into Amber, only for her to have to learn to be able to say “no, I don’t think that’s true”.
Okay, but let me stress that I don’t at all subscribe to the idea that Booster is doing any of it maliciously, and they definitely aren’t being a supervillain, heh.
Booster’s wording yesterday did make me pause a bit bc “why would you nudge Joyce […]” sounds like they thought any action taken from the pictures would come from Joyce rather than Dorothy – & everyone knows Joyce loves Dorothy / generally says that Walky isn’t good enough for her.
I don’t think she has to know how actually romantic/serious/whatever or not those feelings might be (from Joyce’s or Dorothy’s side) bc it was a spur of the moment thing, and probably not a conscious plan, like you said. It’s not like it has to be a good plan!
Like I do think it’s a bit convoluted (and I don’t want to Booster to be 100% right bc that’s less interesting to me for them as a character) but it’s a direction of thought that makes an amount of sense for Amber, who’s been known to basically write RPF about her friends in her head.
I absolutely think that a big part of her reaction to the idea was “yes! Extremely tropey, do it! Next, book a vacation together at a hotel where there’s only one bed!” — and that even then, she wouldn’t have to be consciously thinking “so that Walky will dump you for cheating on him”.
Honestly, more than anything else, it reminds me of Lucy and Walky’s mutual glee over the idea of Walky fake-dating Amber to trick his mom out of racism, which was also a terrible idea but had a certain sitcom hijinx-y appeal.
I don’t think there was a lot of consciously plotting to break up Dorothy and Walky…
But if there was even a subconscious glimmer of an idea, Amber will beat herself up over it anyway.
I definitely agree that Amber wasn’t consciously trying to break Dorothy and Walky up, especially because the idea of nudging Dorothy towards Joyce kinda requires the knowledge (which even Joyce and Dorothy either don’t have or are just learning) that they’d be open to a relationship with each other. Dorothy may be horrified that sending sexy pics to Joyce counts as cheating, but we haven’t seen yet if Walky sees it that way.
I think that Amber’s reasoning is exactly what she told Dorothy, she’s a trash goblin and she enjoys a mess. I doubt she was banking on the idea of a break up, but I do imagine she figured any mess to come out of the scenario would be popcorn worthy. In hindsight she might reflect and think “why did I think that was a good idea” or “was I trying to break them up” but I think if that thought ever crossed her mind it’d be an unintended ‘bonus’ rather than her main motivation.
“Commentariat” XD I’m just imagining a character getting dragged in front of a Soviet-style Kangaroo court and they get sentenced to 30 years in Gulag for crimes against People
One thing that I wonder is if Booster’s current plan even is to be a therapist. They’re majoring in psychology, but that doesn’t mean they want to go the therapy route. I looked through all the strips they’re in, and this was the closest I could find: https://www.dumbingofage.com/2023/comic/book-13/02-turning-saints-into-the-sea/punish/
But it seems the objection started with being called a bad psychologist, which Ethan equated with being a shrink, but those aren’t necessarily the same.
This strip has Booster excitedly get up in Amber’s face, laying out something she doesn’t want to admit with genuine excitement and glee. They’re borderline taunting her like a supervillain. Every time Amber tries to defend herself, Booster has an even more cutting counterattack.
Booster is admiring Ambers tactics, not criticizing. Amber doesn’t want to talk about it or acknowledge it. This makes me happy because I too am a trash goblin, an excellent term I didn’t know I needed.
I think it’s awesome, but I recognise that it’s probably mostly because of my unfounded disdain for Amber.
I think poopy behaviour should be called out, and if someone’s smug about it, I don’t care cause it’s a comic. In real life I need people who are willing to be a friend and let me know in a constructive way what I’m doing wrong, in a comic I think explosions are fun.
I like seeing Amber squirm. Once again, I don’t know why she specifically gets on my nerves so much. It might be because she’s been shown to do nothing but hurtful and self-serving things outside of her heroine life. Maybe she reminds me of myself? I dunno, I just think she’s gross.
Wait, no. I know why I dislike her so much. It’s because she keeps using her self-hatred as an excuse to be even WORSE. She uses it as a shield. ”I can give terrible advice cause I’m a terrible person” ”What’s the point of trying if I’m the worst anyway” type ish. Yeah, that’s definitely why I hate her. I’ve known people like that. Cowards who think the world owes them healing before they are willing to even TRY to be kind. That’s a mentality I will NEVER accept.
I think she deserved to be called out, she deserves to be uncomfortable, and also Booster is being kind of a prick. And I might have some things to discuss in therapy. This page was really fun to read.
Amber doesn’t think the world owes her healing. She thinks she can’t be healed, all is lost, all is pointless, she’s a Complete Monster, and so on. That’s another annoying mentality, not the one you describe.
I think Booster is someone that thinks this is all in good fun and college drama that isn’t really hurting anyone. They’re a very funny gadfly who assumes they’re in a soap opera sort of world (and are).
But Amber is someone coping with DID, hallucinations, a stabbing criminal record (two of them), lawsuit from a rapist, and the MURDER (possible suicide) of her best friend.
In short, I don’t think Booster realizes Amber doesn’t need this shit.
Seconding Clif! But if you must know, I was actually cringing a little.
I like Booster and Amber, the interaction is fun because both fictional characters are diametrically opposed types of mess, I like to think I understand both of them, and also the plot twist makes sense. Great gag, too! But I wasn’t looking forward to the reaction from the comment section, wherein a lot of people would go “wow character xyz is ACTUALLY IRREDEEMABLY EVIL and I must insist on it at great length, also if you like them you’re worse” — Meanwhile this is a “oh god you’re both so dumb” situation at worst ^^;;;
I don’t like it because I don’t think Amber deserves it. The idea Amber did something bad in a scheme to undermine Dorothy and Walky’s relationship feels just as uncharitable an interpretation of events as saying Dorothy was trying to seduce Joyce with the photo. It was a fun, silly moment that both girls have looked back on and applied sinister intent to that I don’t think was there during it. And Booster coming in and pulling out a confirmation that Amber is indeed an asshole feels like a lot to put on anyone.
I viscerally dislike Booster, and after spending time reflecting why, this is what I’ve come up with:
I’ve spent my entire life being different and not understood by my family and friends. It’s lonely. The idea of someone having the ability to pierce that veil between a person’s true self and the world around them, and to then weaponize that for their own entertainment infuriates me so much.
Now THATS a reply I didn’t expect. The comment section seems extremely polarized about Booster in a way I didn’t expect, so I wanted to identify the part I liked the most and see how it made other people feel. What’s weird about that?
I think it’s a an unnecessary dichotomy to make and looks like it is purposefully leaning people into a negative reaction and arguments. Maybe I read you wrong but I learned not to give many people here the benefit of the doubt.
I find it pretty funny. I assume from the presentation of the comic that Booster is right, which makes this “gotcha” feel pretty warranted. Their expressions picture into it too. They seem so genuinely at ease, an affable card-carrying villain it’s easy to root for on the screen, and that fifth panel is gold. Temerity is a great word too. It’s not paladin-like Good Person behavior, but that’s not something I need or expect from everyone all the time.
The only thing Amber didn’t do was throw down a smoke bomb before her escape.
Also, that’s a very impressive vertical jump height. Either that, or the ceiling is much lower in the dorm halls.
Might not have been purely vertical jumping. We’ve seen A-G do a leap by climb-jumping off a wall. Either way, though, is impressive athleticism. Which we know their body has, regardless of who’s driving.
Having had “””friends””” in Uni who tried to pull shenanigans such as this on me – i.e. attempting to trick me into a relationship I didn’t want – it is cathartic to see Amber get called out on her BS.
Yeah. Comments like this remind me to be aware of my tendency to treat the protagonists as better and more likable than they are. I like Amber as a character, but I’m not sure I’d be her biggest fan if she was real and I knew her.
Wow, you lot comment early, yeah? At least if you’re Americans. I’ll have to get on it sooner next time : – )
:sits in armchair: Booster, you’re only making Amber feel guilty about this because you’ve previously said Amber is hot and you’re into her, and you want torpedo her feelings for Walky. Physician heal thyself. /s
Hey comment section, it’s me again! I really appreciate the efforts put in to report (and therefore cause to disappear) the comments where Booster is being misgendered. There were quite a few on today’s page, and while I do wonder if it gets worse when Booster is more annoying to the commentariat, or if it just tempts people who don’t usually comment to offer up an opinion, I don’t actually have data on that.
All I have is a huge thank-you to people helping me in weeding the comment section to make it less harmful to binary and nonbinary trans people reading it. I was pretty sure I would get backlash on these efforts, but I’ve only gotten help.
So, yeah, thank you bunches! Keep up the good work!!
Okay, ACTUALLY, Booster reminds me very heavily of Scooby-Doo!, from a purely visual standpoint. It’s mainly their usual colors, I think. Muted browns from their natural skin and hair color, mixed with their loud-ass tie dye wardrobe, which I feel suits their deduction-adjacent personality and vibe. I could easily see Booster traveling across the country in a garish vehicle with their assortment of interesting friends.
I like Booster’s shirt here. It’s so swag. It reminds me that I tried to do some clothes shopping this weekend but my usual clothing store, the spring collection was just so…feminine and it really wasn’t what I was looking for. I need to find nice tops like Booster’s…
I don’t comment much, but there’s a lot of very strong Booster opinions here. I’m not entirely sure there’s a correct way to act if you move dorms in college and then meet horny college batman. How could you not excitedly try and figure out what the fuck is going on with everyone when you realise (correctly) that you’ve suddenly become a comic character? Booster basically got isekaied.
A good physiologist should avoid saying that out loud and in front of the one doing that. But Booster is not one of them. Maybe they will never be one of them. Amber’s actions were bad, but let’s be honest, Dorothy and Walky’s breakup is just a matter of time.
I mean, they’re not a psychologist of any kind. And I think that’s okay.
I don’t think Dotty and Walky being with each other is great for either of them long term, at least as they are right now. I don’t think they draw out each others’ best qualities. Maybe that will change.
I think I’d like Booster a lot more if we got any sort of insight into their own deepseated motivations. They’re always presented as an external force upon the other characters, but we don’t know what Booster’s past is, or why they feel so drawn to armchair psychoanalysis. I’d like to know where they’re coming from.
Without that information, they just feel like a less potent knockoff of Mike, with 120% more smarminess and the superpower to reveal which of the commenters conveniently forget about they/them pronouns when they’re mad at someone.
Jokes on Amber; Mythbusters showed that those airducts were not made to support the weight of a full-grown adult. Next strip shows a piece of airduct crashing through the ceiling, onto Bosster.
I think I would probably like Booster if they didn’t always seem so happy when they’re psychoanalyzing other students and pointing out all their flaws so gleefully like this.
I dunno, if they weren’t having fun doing it, they wouldn’t be Booster I think. They’re certainly an unusual and clear sort, and I think that’s neat. I get if you don’t like them as much, though.
Look, it’s not logically impossible, but if you think about it, it relies on Joyce AND Dorothy behaving very very atypically.
Joyce: Dorothy! You sent me a sext! Do you harbor perverse sexual lust for me?
Dorothy: Why, yes, Joyce, I actually do!
Joyce: And I harbor perverse sexual lust for you! Oh, wow! Let’s break up with our boyfriends and become sexbuddies!
Dorothy: Absolutely! Let us do just that!
Did Amber really think that was going to happen, even subconsciously?
Dorothy: Walky, I am breaking up with you to become sexbuddies with Joyce!
Walky: Wah, I has a sad! I am all alone!
Amber: Walky, I am all alone too!
Walky: But Amber, you broke up with me because I said wrong things about Mike!
Amber: No, Walky, it is all OK now! You have gotten over saying wrong things about Mike, and I have gotten over being mad at you for saying wrong things about Mike!
Walky: I am dumb! You must be more clear than that!
Amber: We can be sexbuddies again!
Walky: Yay!
She has to manipulate at least four sockpuppets to get to this outcome . . .
I don’t think the intention was that they both break up and get together but that Dorothy sending it pics to Joyce would create tension and make things weird between her and Walky.
The worst part is, all Amber really had to do was wait. Now that Dorothy has resumed her life course, I can’t imagine she and Walky will stay together much longer. The situation is right back to where it was the first time they broke up.
About half of the commenters really like Booster, and the other half of us find them annoying. So this is what we get when they appear in the comic for a few strips.
I mean I’m a bit on the fence about them, but only because of how little time they had on screen for character development, at the very least they have my respect for being anti-billionaire and caring about their sister.
Being annoyed at them for unsolicited psychoanalysis is valid, not so much when expressed annoyance is used as an excuse for espousing enby hate :/
Aside from a few misgendering, most of which I assume is accidental, I’ve seen very little hate on Booster for being nonbinary here. I’ve seen lots of people defending and/or liking them for their behavior, which I don’t understand because they seem to be acting like an asshole to me.
Really regretting not commenting at how amazing Amber’s reaction to all this is right about now. The whole thing. Like man all the focus is on Booster but we are just going to leave the cat like tred on this one on the ceiling? Completely rationale response across the board. If she has Amazigirls powers at all times it really (couldn’t really figure out how to phrase it properly. But I mean like when their identities and self perceptions become one)
I really appreciate the alt text here, as a hamster owner myself the lil fuckers really could escape into a ceiling panel if they needed to.
Sorry amber, but it’s actually pretty hard to render yourself only a drama loving bystander (as unto, say, a shipper with slash) in your own life. You might still have your own motives! Fucked up, isnt it.
honestly i dont even know if its intentional (nor do i care) but boosters approach is kind of brilliant. by enjoying peoples bad habits so much, it makes them actively want to change, just to spite them. its genius
as a psych student, i’d imagine every phrase/wording they choose would be intentional lol
tho it would be funny in a messed up way if a handful of psych students studied really hard while in college only to end up being like, the worst therapists eever. there’s a sitcom in there somewhere, otherwise it’d be life ruining in o ther fiction, if not like accidentally encouraging/creating some serialkillers lol
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she’s in the walls…
SHE’S IN THE GODDAMN WALLS!!! XD
Do ceilings count as walls? i’ve been watching ghosts cbs and in that they can “go through the wall but not fall through the floor” (but still able to sit on furniture but can’t interact with other objects unless theyh ave a specific ‘power’ to interact with the world that way lol)
Imagine if it was someone’s dorm room and she ended up barging into another room of a couple having sex anyways XD
They’re like walls…. on their sides!
(This revelation should leave you totally floored.)
We’re going to have to put a ceiling on the puns.
Was gonna say “I ceiling what you did there” but yours is better!
I figure it depends. A ghost probably can go through the floor if they want to, but they’re too attached to the idea of floors working like floors to manage it very often. Same with chairs: when a ghost wants to walk through a chair, that’s one thing; when a ghost approaches a chair as a chair with the intent of sitting down in it, that’s another.
Ghosts aren’t subject to gravity. They float. People on the Enterprise who are “out of phase” are, so it’s hilarious that they can walk through walls but not fall through the floor.
I’ve had trouble grocking that in the past. However, the ship does not have gravity. It has gravity plating that magically attracts whatever is above it at about 1G, but does not attract through the ceiling to the next floor. So, the phased characters are attracted to the gravity plates in the floor but no farther. None of which really holds up to scrutiny since it defies physics. Plus, different writers had different conceptualizations from episode to episode, season to season, and series to series. And the science advisors, once they had they, hand waved artificial gravity since it was dictated by the nature of shooting the shows in a gravity well.
@ eh : i guess it depensd, the ghosts in the specific show/series i was talking about doesn’t rly having them ‘levitating/floating’ or so versus just walking through doors (but they still need sleep. or at least choose to b/c i guess if you’re around for 100 years you wouldn’t wanna be awake every moment or so)
That entire clip from “Blark and Son” fits this scenario weirdly well, if we are being honest.
i’d like to think someone years ago added that and it’s a known secret for ppl who wanna make exists like these, as opposed to amber/amazigirl installing them herself
The ceilings have panels?
I feel like cheap panel ceilings are the classic look of most school environments.
They’re easier to replace when they’re inevitably damaged by college student shenanigans.
But the cheap drop in ceilings aren’t really something you can crawl in – the panels won’t hold your weight and I don’t think even the supports really will.
Depends on the state’s building codes. In mine, in one of the schools I worked in, yeah, a 200# adult could crawl around up in there safely enough, as long as care was taken.
(speakin’ from very dirty and dusty personal experience)
The Amazi-utility belt includes a hand-saw.
I mean it is a webcomic but it would be amusing yet concerning if it was basedo n the real example/college of something like this happening, if there aren’t ‘quirky’ colleges trying to be extra weird on purpose
Its common in buildings with sheetrock ceilings
Ceiling Cat meme comes to mind :’3
They do now.
It’s common (and easy to install). Mind you Mythbusters proved that ceiling and duct access is far from sneaky. But of course, AmaziGirl is prepared for anything!
She reminds me of my childhood cats.
They sound great. Would you mind sharing a story about them?
When I was in high school, my piano teacher told me that she used to have a cat who would go through the unfinished storage room to get on top of those ceiling tiles, and explore around in the ceiling, and that one day, during a lesson, she suddenly came crashing down from inside the ceiling, and upon landing on the ground, nonchalantly said “meow” and just walked away like it was no big deal.
We had three cats, which were feral cats my parents (mostly my mom) took in before I was born. They took a very long time to adjust to being house cats– all at different rates, too. Anyway, they mostly lived in our basement, and people could come to our house to feed them and such when we were out of town and never end up seeing a single cat.
And they frequently hung out in the basement ceiling. There was a main way they entered through, an opening by the basement window in my play area. They’d take a running start, jump on a sofa, and jump up the wall into the ceiling.
Those were great stories. Thank you guys for sharing.
I’m reminded of the Mythbusters episode where they were testing the actual difficulty of herding cats, and ended up having to cut a hole in one of the shop walls to extract a cat from inside it.
Haha, of course the ceiling would be that shitty panel construction.
I don’t think ceilings would support a person’s weight.
Could be sheetrock with an access door
It depends, but I mean, depending on how the duct work’s done, someone had to go in there at some point. A friend of mine used to work in building material sourcing, and sometimes got roped into going into walls and ceilings because they are 5’1. Built not unlike Amber, too, for that matter, but not as muscular, so probably a fair bit lighter.
If you stay on the ceiling joists, they’ll hold your weight perfectly well.
You have to be careful, but it’s doable.
Don’t ask me how I know.
Appropriate gravatar is appropriate.
Maybe there’s cable trays for networking cables.
Depends on the age of the building. That university dorm…maybe.
That’s actually impressive that she can jump up, and climb through the ceiling panels without any assistance.
I love Amazi-Girl keeps their body trained for defense and vigilante justice, while Amber takes advantage of this to escape her life.
it’d be hilarious if she had something in her pocket that we just didn’t see that made the ceiling tile come apart while booster was talking
Or she keeps a grappling hook secreted about her person.
I like that Willis didn’t bother to draw the other ceiling panels, it makes it look like Amber is escaping through a portal to the square dimension.
Ceiling hamster is writing fic about you masturbating
{grins} Only when ceiling cat stops chasing it {/grins}
is writing fic about you, and is masturbating
is masturbating about you writing fic
woah.
Once again Booster is proven accurate.
Thats pocket sand level tech
SH-SHAA!!!
Seems as good a time as any to reenact Die Hard.
Is Booster psychopathic, or just excited by the idea of knowing one?
Either way, not a good look.
While the fourth panel payoff is good for us, Booster WTH?!!
Booster is the kind of person that just gets off on drama, feeds off of it, a Jerry Springer with a psychology degree. They see a car crash about to happen and they just have to rubber neck.
They don’t even have a psychology degree. They’re just a random douchenozzle who weaponizes being good at reading people.
that seems pretty extreme. i don’t think they’re weaponizing anything. i think they’re just an overzealous teenager.
Amber just leaped through a hole in the ceiling to escape the conversation. They may not think of what they’re doing as “weaponization”, but it absolutely is.
See also: The floor meeting.
We call that, “being a horrible person”
And booster definitly is one.
Booster likes messes, and likes pushing buttons, but all things equal, I don’t think they ultimately want serious damage. It didn’t take long for them to show legitimate concern about Ethan’s situation, and they did express remorse the last time they seriously pissed Amber off and crossed too many boundaries even for Amber to tolerate. Booster’s more terminally smug than dangerous.
terminally smug can sometimes be dangerous.
Yeahhhh, the excitement gives “I understood you! Did you see how I got it? Yay, I’m having an interaction with someone I’m understanding!” right before y’know. Fumbling hardcore. I OOF’d irl and all
I think Booster is not aware how deeply damaged and traumatized the cast is.
She just assumes it is a dorm full of normal drama and not kidnappings or murders.
Dammit, They!
I am so sorry.
Appreciate you correcting yourself! Would love to see more of this from other people misgendering them
I would genuinely be surprised if that were the case since they’re roommates with Walky who is clearly going through A Hell Of A Time dealing with his roommate’s death.
There are fish with more developed empathy than Booster.
idk I feel like them talking to Ethan about not going to classes & kind of helping him to get out more again was pretty empathetic? they’re also generally nice to Walky (including being careful around Mike’s death).
I get hating on a character, whatever, but at least be correct with your blanket statements!
Walky famously doesn’t like talking about Mike, or his feelings in general; and by the time second semester started, bringing Booster along, it had been several months since the murder/kidnapping.
It wasn’t even the first kidnapping in those dorms. And everyone was pre-traumatized before the start of college anyway :’DD
Booster is Mike 2.0
But without the “doing your Mom for a nickel” aspects.
I still read Booster as autistic. Like, the kind of autistic who learned to “read between the lines” of social interactions by studying psychology and got good at one part of that equation, but not the shutting up and not saying things outright part. Either they got so used to looking at people as specimen they need to study to understand that they still can’t interact in a socially acceptable way, or they genuinely think this is a Normal and Okay form of socialisation because it’s worked for them up to this point, and they don’t know how to adapt to this different social setting with its new rules and mix of people.
(All of which was my experience first time at uni)
I legit think it’s the only reading that makes sense (and also, hi5 because this happened to me too.)
They’re very enthusiastic about “showing their work” — a lot of the worst faux pases they’ve made is because they need to tell other characters what led them to their conclusions, and right after they’ve been told Doing An Analysis is expected of them.
Given that Booster is genetically related to Charlie, and Charlie’s seeming spectrum traits, oh, yeah, Booster is gonna have some spectrum traits, too. Spectrum people _can_ have insights and perceptions regarding psychological and social traits in people.
Booster is outgoing, gregarious, and extremely observant of social cues.
They’re actually one of the ones I least think reads as autistic in the cast. I say this as someone neuroatypical.
…I am going to say this gently: autistic people can be outgoing and gregarious.
I am going to say this disbelievingly: you think Booster is extremely observant of social cues?
Like, THIS Booster? The one in the comic above this comment section? The one who was just visibly stunned into silence by the sudden evidence that Amber wasn’t enjoying this conversation?
I feel like someone who was actually any good at observing social cues would not need their conversation partner to flee into a ceiling panel before they realized they had misstepped.
Booster is good at reading people, which is not the same as reading social situations. I been watching the show Elementary the past few weeks and it’s pretty much like that show Sherlock, great at understanding and reading people motives and flaws, not so great at realizing when it is or isn’t appropriate to say certain things.
Yep.
Yes, it is literally their primary ability that they understand everyone looking at them.
They’ve literally explained it (Yumi linked the comic, a conversation with Ethan) as having had to develop hypervigilance to survive life in a small town as themself.
And several folks have now expressly said: “I am autistic and Booster reminds me of me.”
I am also autistic and going that Booster reminds me of a lot of people who are very much not so.
Not saying they can’t be. Just saying that my experience is far more with Dina, Joyce, and Charlie types.
Okay, your experiences are not universal, just saying.
This is totally fair, but yeah, a fair few folks both autistic and not and maybe (me) have been noting that they seem socially clueless and hyperanalytical of other people’s behavior in a way that rings true for us.
Li is correct. Autistic people can be outgoing and gregarious.
Booster doesn’t read neurotypical to me.
Not too much further down in the conversation, you also say you’re autistic, which is confusing.
I had the same reaction bc I misread but Charles Phipps said neruoatypical.
Like others said- autistic folk can be outgoing and social.
As a teenager my SpIn was “people” and I read everything I could about body language and psychology so I could be more human. I even had a notebook for keeping notes on other people and what they talked about so I could figure out the Key To Conversation. I wasn’t as outgoing as Booster (because I was horrendously depressed and suffered severe social anxiety) but when I did try to make friends at uni I was obnoxious, irritating, pointed out things I shouldn’t have, overstepped boundaries and ended up hating myself 10x more because of how isolated I was because my (all star autistic gay) friends went to a different school and the (all star autistic gay) social habits I formed were WAY out of bounds.
Like, I can still cold read a bongo well enough to make bank as a psychic (I don’t, but I was offered a job recently) but once Ive put my foot in my mouth I’m going full ouroboros.
They’re every pompous psych major who thinks they can “hard read” everyone around them with 100% accuracy.
It’s darn near a rite of passage, that most Psyc majors need to get through. No, they can _not_ get a 100% quickie cold read on people that fast and that deep. They’re just learning the iceberg’s tip in their classes, and they’re just barely seeing the iceberg’s tip in any given person’s personality. Accurate analysis takes some intensive study and training (plus time, tears, etc).
Weird pathologising there.
Honestly, it hadn’t occurred to me that this would be Amber’s potential motivation initially. I knew from the disastrous “dinner date with the parents” that Amber does obviously have feelings for Walky still, but she still maintains feelings about Danny, too, and that doesn’t translate into trying to undermine his relationships for her own personal gain. This is fresher, though, so… it’s not implausible, Booster has a point, but I am not fully convinced that was the plan.
I also think Amber would have encouraged a little bit of messy sexual chaos out of most any of her friends who came to her about this, out of her own fanfic-brained motivations. Dina would probably be an exception, but otherwise? Fair game.
Plenty of potential angles here, and also, love the meta gag of this one.
I don’t think that’s what they meant by calling them ‘drop ceilings’, Amber!
Grrrr they’re such an asshole
And not even in a fun way!! Mike at least KNEW he was a heel.
re: the alt text:
a friend of mine made this image a while ago. feels appropriate LOL
lmao brilliant
You’d think Booster would be used to people fleeing their cliche psychoanalysis by now.
Booster is awesome. They’re a lot less fun as “quietly smarmy”, but they’re REALLY fun in strips like this one where it’s more of a high energy mania about things other people hate. Getting extremely open-mouth grin excited while accusing someone of the exact awful thing they’re doing but want to avoid? That’s such a gift to have as a writer
You misspelled “a terrible person” – Booster’s not being fun, they’re being a dick
Literally sob into your hands until you need a glass of water about it.
Yes. They’re being a dick in an exaggerated and entertaining way. This is a comic entirely about big personalities having over the top interpersonal conflict. The punchline of nearly every strip is someone being a dick. I’m talking about booster being an enjoyable character to read about.
I think booster is being fun. I’m having fun reading about them. Maybe other people find things fun that you don’t. GASP!
Amber needs to be called out on the actual bad things she does, like when she openly talks about her sexual fantasies about her friends having sex in front of them while they have made it clear it’s uncomfortable.
I’m not sure what’s accomplished in calling her out in the neutral to nice things she does. If she was genuinely pushing Walky away from Dorothy, it seems even she wasn’t aware until this moment
Amber needs to be forced to confront something that makes her uncomfortable with herself for the sake of the arc, and characters like Mike and Booster are usually the people who instigate conflict when characters aren’t being honest with themselves.
“I’m not sure what’s accomplished in calling her out in the neutral to nice things she does. If she was genuinely pushing Walky away from Dorothy, it seems even she wasn’t aware until this moment”
Well, this is a comic. With an author. So ‘what’s accomplished’ is likely a progression of the storyline where it was necessary that Amber realize her motivations for what she did.
Just a thought…
Also, what Dorothy came to her for was help deleting them off the Cloud. Amber talked her into sending a response – which admittedly wasn’t hard, but it kills the “she came to me for help. What was I supposed to do?” defense.
Even if it wasn’t consciously trying to break Dorothy and Walky up, it was at best her “trash goblin who craves mess” side, so neutral to nice seems a bit of a stretch.
I don’t think they’re awesome. If I encountered someone IRL who behaved towards me like Booster does towards all the other characters in this comic, I would find them annoying and want to avoid being around them.
Ahahaha Booster sucks so bad, I like them now
Pictured: Not Beating The Accusation.
panel 5 fgsfds
This is the most amazing joke that you’ve ever made, David Willis.
What joke?
“Haha you avoid things boldly”
*Exits through the fucking ceiling”
Multiple levels.
Okay, this was a good Booster comic.
Booster, this is one of the times you’ve won the battle but lost the war.
I’d kinda say the opposite? Amber has fled the encounter, but Booster’s right.
Are they? I don’t think they were but Booster has projected an awful motivation on Amber.
Because Booster wants DRAMA.
Drama? In _this_ cast? Shirley, you can’t be Sirius!
10 years from now Willis is going to name another strip Temerity and be very confused it isn’t the first one
Amber got her temerity badge
I think this talk was good for Amber. She really needed to vent.
(Quick, call a meeting! … no one’s meming that game anymore, are they?)
It’s not good for her to be sealing away her feelings like that
ceiling away her feelings?
Case in point.
You’re not beating the allegations here, Amber.
“Girl, you’re a messy bench who loves drama — And I’m into it~”
Booster oh my god you ridiculous kid. Like, Amber may be “YOU LET THEM MAKE OUT OR I’LL BRICK YOUR PHONE FROM HERE” messy, and she def needs to admit what she wants so she can pursue it, but… What were you trying to even do X’DDD
I think the comment that said Booster is excited they were right is correct.
I’ll +1 this.
There is a certain joy to solving a puzzle!
Excited they were right, but also interpersonal conflict is joyous. They were delighting in the messiness of forcing Joyce and Walky apart so he would be ruined enough for her to take back.
Asher: “If there’s unnecessary drama…”
Jennifer: “Hook it directly into my veins!”
…Some reason that comment got deleted yesterday.
Okay, so quick bit of math here:
Let’s assume that the ceiling here is just about 2.5m high.
It looks like the ceiling panel has fallen about the height of Booster, and let’s assume that booster is around 1.8m tall.
Given that gravity is 9.8m/s^2, and that acceleration = distance / (time^2), we can calculate
9.8 = 1.8/(t^2)
t^2 = 1.8/9.8
t = sqrt(1.8/9.8)
t = 0.429s
So Amber managed to get almost entirely inside the ceiling tile, starting from when she moved it out of the way, in just under half a second.
Girl’s insane.
She’s amazing.
Yes, but she didn’t start throwing the panel down when she was still standing on the ground; she had already jumped pretty high up at that point.
…and actively throwing the panel down may have accelerated her even more.
Yes, but, consider — rule of funny.
If it’s funnier for Booster to not notice Amber did a seven foot standing jump into the ceiling in record time because it makes a better punchline.
skills include: EIGHT FOOT VERTICAL LEAP
Booster would be a terrible therapist. Unless you wanted to torture whoever was getting therapy, then Booster would be a GREAT therapist.
Like a queer Hannibal Lecter.
So, like Hannibal Lecter from the TV series, but non-binary.
They don’t want to heal. They want to drama llama.
drama lama
ddrama llama
I feel like Booster’s current trajectory is more analyst than therapist. Sort of person you call to diagnose a problem but not treat it
I’d climb into the ceiling to avoid this douche too.
For real. This is such a rude accusation out of fucking nowhere. Callout post tier shit.
Oh you’re so right. Booster was totally typing up insane parasocial callout posts at age 16. Pessimistically, they might still be.
nah,entirely wrong vibe. people who /write/ callout posts are either really mad or just hateful. people who /read/ callout posts however… I could give you that, MAYBE.
The only callout post that matters is the one Eggman posted about Shadow the Hedgehog, anyway.
My last callout post ended with me being harassed for several months on end until I attempted to kill myself and deleted all my social media accounts, which were tied to my income. I have been homeless ever since.
Okay, but you didn’t piss on the moon, so I don’t give a fuck.
Not sure if joking or oversharing.
Willis I beg, could you look into whatever the hell is going with Bruno? I am pretty sure whatever happening here isn’t good. Gonna self report just make sure.
Does David Willis personally moderate the comment section?
Would also like to apologize for my half of it. I got really upset, and none of it belonged in your comment section, Willis.
You were perfectly fine, you tried your best to be reasonable and getting upset about all of THAT was completely understandable.
I didn’t really think so. I brought up structural transmisogyny in the queer community (such that it is) and you became very defensive and made many decisions that revealed what you thought of me doing that.
I’m not calling for your comments to be removed or anything, because I prefer to try to handle this problem through discussion and education and the way multiple people are attacking me (very directly in Taffy’s case) and rushing to your side and literally calling for my comments to be removed is very much an example of the exact point I was making.
I reported the comments that I felt were assuming Booster’s assigned-sex-at-birth before everything went… the direction it went. I didn’t report anything else.
I will again ask you to leave me alone, Bruno.
Thanks for saying my name unprovoked as part of a lie. Every time you do that, I get $5. I’m flattered to feature in your constant drug-induced hallucinations.
Belatedly: thank you, Jeremiah.
I didn’t want to further aggravate tensions by saying anything yesterday but I really appreciated you saying this.
I’m also confused on what was supposed to be accomplished with this interaction. Like it kinda reads that Booster just went and harassed Amber for sport. I thought we were believing they would help her as a friend? I feel bad for Amber now. She was minding her own business and didn’t deserve this. I also don’t think she was purposefully trying to sabotage Dorothy and Walky. These kids are really quick to make themselves villains for just being teens.
I think Booster just got excited that there was a mystery to solve and they solved it.
Of course even if Amber didn’t consciously do this, something something subconscious something something ego something something cigars are penises. At least that’s how Booster probably sees it (and how we, the audience, are being led to see it)
Not to mention that she walked up to Ruth trying to start a conversation about her feelings. Amber was just hoping that she’d act accordingly so that she could deflect and continue avoid thinking about it.
This isn’t the first comment I’ve seen being puzzled about the point of checking in on Amber here, but I for one am not willing to assume we’re done with the scene yet. Even if we switch back to Dorothy or Joyce tomorrow, I’m sure we’ll come back to Amber and/or Booster soon.
I don’t mind checking in on Amber. I guess I just expected more from Booster. Last strips comments lead me to believe they were the right person to help Amber, a friend. Instead they just made her feel bad for no reason. Was that the intention?
The intention from who? Booster or the Willis?
Both I guess? I’m just gonna see how this plays out without making any more assumptions. I just felt like for example if we cut to a random character just to watch them get punched in the face unprompted. Like what was it for? But I trust this is all leading to something.
I really don’t think this was them punching her in the face. At most, I would say it’s more like they bumped into each other and Booster accidentally got an blow in an existing bruise. There’s no malice here, no intended attack.
I wonder if Booster won’t take this abrupt retreat to mean they were totally wrong in their read of how okay Amber was with the conversation and apologize.
Yeah Booster definitely reads as excited about it all. I think they would have eventually gotten to a real conversation that might have resulted in Booster being Booster tier helpful. But Booster was extremely excited. And well uh, well, when you trigger a cat’s fight or flight sometimes they are going to end up in the ceiling….
I’m hoping they have the chance to talk to Amber again soon and if so, I am personally wagering like a nickel (I’m not much of a gambler) that they apologize for freaking Amber out, because I really doubt it was their intent.
Yah, this is just “this specific interaction is over, drama will continue at a later date.”
Unless Booster has a heat detector on them and pursues. Which would somehow outcreep the whole “you wanted to break Joe/Joyce to free up Walky so you can bone him again” thing.
Taking a comment from nymph up there:
“Well, this is a comic. With an author. So ‘what’s accomplished’ is likely a progression of the storyline where it was necessary that Amber realize her motivations for what she did.”
Y’know, with a little bit of editing it can really look like Amber just climbed into the Website’s Background.
Maybe she did? Saw an unclosed tag in the HTML somewhere and just went for it
FTW
Tomorrow we see Amber climbing up or down the comments section.
oh my god, booster is such a douche. i continue to fall deeper in love with them. would let them ruin my life and be grateful for it
You would have loved being a preteen in 2004.
What does this mean?
Literally nothing.
I mean I hope so, I kept trying to read something other than “a joke about preteens in 2004 getting their lives ruined” and I was struggling. I don’t think that’s what anyone would actually say but???
All my preteen friendships were like this in 2004. I don’t know what else you’re reading for here. House was currently airing and we were just like that.
Case in point.
Also: I bet he goes to her room and hides out there until she exits the ventilation.
Or she gets stuck.
Honestly I’m okay with either.
Reporting for misgendering, Booster uses they/them pronouns!
You’re right and it was a mistake.
Pathologizing normal flawed human decision making always kind of irks me.
I don’t know how this is pathologising? They aren’t assigned anything Amber to any kind of condition, if anything they are just pointing that flawed human decision making. Unless you are working under a different definition that i am.
Literally panel 5 and all of this is coming from a place of Booster looking at her like a specimen rather than a person as the context and framing. You are free to read it differently but this is the way it comes off and I’m really not about that vibe.
I’ll add that I find the entire thing funny. It irks me but the punchline of Amber in the ceiling is probably worth the irk.
Case in point:
Seriously Booster, shut up – I’d say “take an ethics class” but you’d probably interpret the class to mean that ethics and morals are just more things you can ignore by pretending to be a scientific observer rather than a human being interacting with people that have emotions that you, in fact, affect
Booster rules. They’re just so happy to be here and surrounded by a batshit insane cast of characters. Kid in a candy store.
only normal response to booster. in a comic about an 18yo girl being a vigilante as a coping mechanism, a homeschooled ex christian keeps pulling meat mountain men, and evil dads in a mob, you cant have equally silly and zany characters? this is a comic! and booster is hilarious!
To be fair, they weren’t necessarily wrong about that last part.
They’re still a jerk, but they were right that Amber can scurry when she puts her mind to it.
Appropriate gravatar be appropriate.
Exit stage ceiling.
A reverse deux-ex-machina descending, if you will.
Dea in machina, perhaps.
“That’d be horrible!” Amber, you didn’t just help Dorothy, you encouraged her.
Which is fine if you can manage to ignore your motive.
I mean trash goblin is a perfect front for social engineering.
Amber is destroying school property. Directly to the electric chair with her. It’s apparently the only valid response to minor inconvenience.
Dunno. The panel looks intact to me. I’m not sure anything was actually destroyed.
Maybe thirty lashes instead of the death penalty.
But she’s upsetting societal order
How can we deal if not by making a proper example of her?
She is literally tearing apart the foundation of education!
Like critical race theory! According to racist, it is the greatest threat to children’s education, just before trans people in bathrooms!
Well hang on now, what if a trans person pees and the pee forms an inescapably powerful cloud that shrouds nearby cissies and TFs them into Obamacare?
…that would be rad as hell actually
C’mon Taffy be reasonable
It’s not like she was being loud at an unsociable hour.
That guy yesterday was so weird.
The worst thing possible: Being perceivable when somebody else might not feel specifically inclined to perceive you. If I walk through a person’s yard and look in their window and see they’ve spilled spaghetti sauce on their countertop, it’s my moral imperative to physically harm them.
Again…torn about Booster. They just, well, are, they are right here, and unlike Mike who was publicly right when he had a plan in place and wanted to set people up, Booster is just RIGHT in the moment. Unfiltered, inappropriate, intrusive, invasive, blunt, but right without an ulterior motive for personal gain to tell Amber this, the way Mike would deploy information to get something he wanted in advance. And as a character, that’s actually fun to watch? No tiptoing around the obvious trash fire, no snide comments to twist people, Booster just sees the trashfire and says, “A trashfire! Sweet!!!!” I can’t hate Booster. Honestly, Booster’s insight is frequently even helpful. Other characters hate them, Amber included, because they are RIGHT, and also because characters keep coming to Booster for insight/help/emotional dissection, and then getting mad when Booster does exactly that but it isn’t the answer they want. Amber, Walky, Joyce, Ruth, Carla, they’ve all had moments where they’re mad at Booster just because Booster did what they wanted Booster to do, but not the way they wanted it to end. That isn’t Booster’s fault, frankly, whether the characters don’t like it or the audience doesn’t.
But also….stop it, Booster. They’re right. But they don’t have to be so happy about it. That’s where the stumbling block it. However right they are, their self-validation seems so egotistical at times like this. “Ha, I’m right, I’m brilliant, I solved the puzzle, teehee, go me!” Except those are people, Booster. At least when Mike wrought havoc, you could safely hate him for intentionally being an asshole. He knew he was an asshole, he knew he was awful, so people could call him on it without ambiguity. Booster plays both sides, “Oh, I’m just a psychology major interested in human minds, this is just how I think, I’m just observing, I love a good mess, but don’t hate me, I’m not malicious.” But you’re still ultimately enjoying human suffering, Booster. Mike was upfront: more often than not, he WANTED to hurt you, out of malice or twisted machiavelian plans. Booster wants to see the emotional fallout, but puts a nice “insight” spin on it. And it feels…gross and voyeuristic and exploitative….even if Booster doesn’t MEAN IT that way. But I really do want to see where Booster tries to steer this. They clearly know it’s “horrible”, but will they try to guide it out of “horrible” or just rubberneck for psychological intrigue?
Being correct isn’t the same thing as being right.
Fair, very fair. By “right”, I suppose I mean “Booster’s insight is meant to be a somewhat accurate assessment of Amber’s behavior.” Booster’s words are not absurd or useless. Amber’s reactions in the last two comics seem to indicate that Booster’s observations are correct. Even if Amber didn’t do it all consciously, Booster has hit on something deeper down that we, as readers, and Amber, as the character Booster is addressing, are meant to take as significant and uncomfortably close to home. So in that sense, as in many instances before, Booster is “right” in what they are saying about another character’s faults or hidden mental/emotional state. But that certainly doesn’t mean they are right to do this.
It’s the difference between dealing with a supervillain vs dealing with a news reporter who’s trying to reveal super heroes’ secret identities – one you know is on some Evil bs and may or may not have a convoluted plan to achieve their goals, but the other is doing Evil by dint of the harm the otherwise-neutral act causes in-context rather than the act itself being directly Evil
Waow. (Based based based.)
I miss Mike. Never understood the assertion that he “didn’t work” in the context of Dumbing of Age; I thought he was at his best here. I don’t have anything against Booster but they just don’t have the stuff the same way he did.
Booster fills the same narrative role that Mike once filled. They are a truthful provcateur.
It is narratively useful to have someone who is decidedly not an antagonist, who you can use to interact with your main characters to make them self-reflect. This is the sort of thing that you wouldn’t necessarily need in first person prose, because the incident which causes a person to self-reflect could be anything and the conflict could be narrated internally – but in a visual medium like comics, or film, it’s best done by an individual.
This person sees everyone for who they are, and they are driven to interact with them, expressing their viewpoint and forcing the other to confront it. The other might feel angry at this expression, or deny it initially, or begrudgingly accept it, or accept and change course. In any case, interaction with the truthful provocateur inspires change and keeps the story well-lubricated so that it doesn’t get held up anywhere.
Mike and Booster are different kinds of assholes. We eventually learned that Mike cared about people, but in an actively toxic and sometimes abusive way. He often intentionally made himself the villain so that his friends would fight against him and thus make themselves better. Booster, on the other hand, seemingly sees other people as entertainment only, and displays little to no empathy for their actual feelings. To Booster, their friends are like reality TV, only ten times more exciting because they can interact and sometimes meddle. People get (rightfully) upset with Mike for his abusive actions… but I’m not certain that in this moment, what Booster is doing is much different.
What is abuse? Cruel treatment of another person, often repeatedly. And cruelty is willfully causing pain to others without concern for that pain. Booster’s elated “And you are a horrible person!” here is absolutely cruel, and they’ve already identified Amber as the short round hot mess, so this isn’t really an isolated incident. Can we honestly say that Booster, savvy enough with what is going on with every other person, is so oblivious to themself? Is it really different because Mike would say it with a scowl and give sarcastic praise, and Booster is saying it with a smile and giving encouraging praise?
Because there’s no doubt in my mind that Booster, as savvy as they are in how people think and function and work together, is aware that they’re causing serious distress and pain at times, and rather than try to adjust their behavior to consider the other’s feelings, they revel in that feeling, seemingly for their own pleasure.
Booster’s one saving grace, in my mind, is that we don’t know their history or backstory, so it means that it’s hard to see them as a sympathetic character. We didn’t see that with Mike until we started seeing backstory. I hope that Willis eventually gives us a bit more about Booster, because as it stands, Mike was made slightly, slightly less of a horrible person because deep down inside, he was a hurt, scarred person who still cared about others. If Booster’s cruelty is just because they don’t really care about anything other than their own entertainment, in my mind, it makes them far worse than Mike.
Well, it’s definitely not a socially awkward kid saying “Yes! Yes! Haha,” no matter how annoying you find them.
I mean, that was Willis. Willis is the one who called Amber a short round hot mess in alt text. Booster has never said that.
You’re also omitting a ton of context. You’re forgetting or ignoring Garbage Roof. Amber has never been a person who responded very positively to people arguing with her that she’s not awful; she has always responded much better to people who have said “your awfulness is not a turn-off”.
…yes, we can. What a silly question. Most people are much better at analyzing others than they are at analyzing themselves. It’s not even a little be difficult to believe.
Flabbergasted by these questions tbh. And I say that as someone who liked Mike.
You forgot the “self admitted” part, which is abso6true, Amber has in many occasions talked about how awful she think she is.
Yeah, dropping “self-admittedly” and everything else, really makes it sound like BOOSTER is the one calling Amber a fuck-up, and they’re not. They just haven’t disagreed with her! They keep expressing interest in her both despite and because of all her flaws, instead of arguing with her about them. That’s about it.
Short and round, but very athletic.
didn’t realize that was the ceiling panel falling and was trying to figure out why she had (and abandoned) a poster board
FYI – I think the reason Mike never worked in Dumbing of Age was because the focus was mostly on Joyce instead of Ethan and Amber. There’s a reason all of Mike’s notable DOA stuff is Amber related.
Simply put, Mike never became friends with any of the main cast.
Which was a shame.
Another data point of commonality between Booster and Dorothy: an awful lot of the commentariat treating present trends as constants and that who they are at 18 is who they’ll still be ten years from now when they might or might not have stuck with the career aspirations they had now, heh.
That pesky Aura of Maturity strikes again!!
Also: no opinion just yet on whether Booster is right or not.
At the very least, I take Amber’s horrified reaction to mean she wasn’t consciously trying to break Dorothy and Walky up. I also think Amber is someone who’s very prone to thinking the worst of herself, and now that this possibility has been suggested to her, she’s going to worry it’s true and castigate herself appropriately. I wonder if this escape is less from Booster and more towards Dorothy? Like, maybe she’s going to try to correct her “mistake” (whether it was one or not).
…
I think I’m leaning “no, Booster isn’t actually right about this”? Specifically because I don’t think Amber actually knew Dorothy had feelings for Joyce, and if you don’t know that, you can’t really expect encouraging her to send A Lewd TM to Joyce to end her relationship with Walky.
Put simply, I don’t think Amber… knows Dorothy well enough?
But I guess Joe might have said some off-panel stuff about Dorothy while he was venting to Amber about his Joyce feelings…
We’ll find out
Yeah, I think you have a good point. It wouldn’t be the first time an arc had booster suggest a negative self image into Amber, only for her to have to learn to be able to say “no, I don’t think that’s true”.
Okay, but let me stress that I don’t at all subscribe to the idea that Booster is doing any of it maliciously, and they definitely aren’t being a supervillain, heh.
Booster’s wording yesterday did make me pause a bit bc “why would you nudge Joyce […]” sounds like they thought any action taken from the pictures would come from Joyce rather than Dorothy – & everyone knows Joyce loves Dorothy / generally says that Walky isn’t good enough for her.
I don’t think she has to know how actually romantic/serious/whatever or not those feelings might be (from Joyce’s or Dorothy’s side) bc it was a spur of the moment thing, and probably not a conscious plan, like you said. It’s not like it has to be a good plan!
Like I do think it’s a bit convoluted (and I don’t want to Booster to be 100% right bc that’s less interesting to me for them as a character) but it’s a direction of thought that makes an amount of sense for Amber, who’s been known to basically write RPF about her friends in her head.
I absolutely think that a big part of her reaction to the idea was “yes! Extremely tropey, do it! Next, book a vacation together at a hotel where there’s only one bed!” — and that even then, she wouldn’t have to be consciously thinking “so that Walky will dump you for cheating on him”.
Honestly, more than anything else, it reminds me of Lucy and Walky’s mutual glee over the idea of Walky fake-dating Amber to trick his mom out of racism, which was also a terrible idea but had a certain sitcom hijinx-y appeal.
I don’t think there was a lot of consciously plotting to break up Dorothy and Walky…
But if there was even a subconscious glimmer of an idea, Amber will beat herself up over it anyway.
I definitely agree that Amber wasn’t consciously trying to break Dorothy and Walky up, especially because the idea of nudging Dorothy towards Joyce kinda requires the knowledge (which even Joyce and Dorothy either don’t have or are just learning) that they’d be open to a relationship with each other. Dorothy may be horrified that sending sexy pics to Joyce counts as cheating, but we haven’t seen yet if Walky sees it that way.
I think that Amber’s reasoning is exactly what she told Dorothy, she’s a trash goblin and she enjoys a mess. I doubt she was banking on the idea of a break up, but I do imagine she figured any mess to come out of the scenario would be popcorn worthy. In hindsight she might reflect and think “why did I think that was a good idea” or “was I trying to break them up” but I think if that thought ever crossed her mind it’d be an unintended ‘bonus’ rather than her main motivation.
Yep!
“Commentariat” XD I’m just imagining a character getting dragged in front of a Soviet-style Kangaroo court and they get sentenced to 30 years in Gulag for crimes against People
It’s such a fun word to type and say, though…
Oh I’m not complaining, I’m loving it XD
One thing that I wonder is if Booster’s current plan even is to be a therapist. They’re majoring in psychology, but that doesn’t mean they want to go the therapy route. I looked through all the strips they’re in, and this was the closest I could find: https://www.dumbingofage.com/2023/comic/book-13/02-turning-saints-into-the-sea/punish/
But it seems the objection started with being called a bad psychologist, which Ethan equated with being a shrink, but those aren’t necessarily the same.
“Friends are therapists who deflect with jokes. As I understand it.”
And somehow people keep saying Booster is supposed to be socially adept…
A question for the comment section –
This strip has Booster excitedly get up in Amber’s face, laying out something she doesn’t want to admit with genuine excitement and glee. They’re borderline taunting her like a supervillain. Every time Amber tries to defend herself, Booster has an even more cutting counterattack.
Does this make you happy, or upset? Why is that?
Booster is admiring Ambers tactics, not criticizing. Amber doesn’t want to talk about it or acknowledge it. This makes me happy because I too am a trash goblin, an excellent term I didn’t know I needed.
I think it’s awesome, but I recognise that it’s probably mostly because of my unfounded disdain for Amber.
I think poopy behaviour should be called out, and if someone’s smug about it, I don’t care cause it’s a comic. In real life I need people who are willing to be a friend and let me know in a constructive way what I’m doing wrong, in a comic I think explosions are fun.
I like seeing Amber squirm. Once again, I don’t know why she specifically gets on my nerves so much. It might be because she’s been shown to do nothing but hurtful and self-serving things outside of her heroine life. Maybe she reminds me of myself? I dunno, I just think she’s gross.
Wait, no. I know why I dislike her so much. It’s because she keeps using her self-hatred as an excuse to be even WORSE. She uses it as a shield. ”I can give terrible advice cause I’m a terrible person” ”What’s the point of trying if I’m the worst anyway” type ish. Yeah, that’s definitely why I hate her. I’ve known people like that. Cowards who think the world owes them healing before they are willing to even TRY to be kind. That’s a mentality I will NEVER accept.
I think she deserved to be called out, she deserves to be uncomfortable, and also Booster is being kind of a prick. And I might have some things to discuss in therapy. This page was really fun to read.
Amber doesn’t think the world owes her healing. She thinks she can’t be healed, all is lost, all is pointless, she’s a Complete Monster, and so on. That’s another annoying mentality, not the one you describe.
I think Booster is someone that thinks this is all in good fun and college drama that isn’t really hurting anyone. They’re a very funny gadfly who assumes they’re in a soap opera sort of world (and are).
But Amber is someone coping with DID, hallucinations, a stabbing criminal record (two of them), lawsuit from a rapist, and the MURDER (possible suicide) of her best friend.
In short, I don’t think Booster realizes Amber doesn’t need this shit.
Seconding Clif! But if you must know, I was actually cringing a little.
I like Booster and Amber, the interaction is fun because both fictional characters are diametrically opposed types of mess, I like to think I understand both of them, and also the plot twist makes sense. Great gag, too! But I wasn’t looking forward to the reaction from the comment section, wherein a lot of people would go “wow character xyz is ACTUALLY IRREDEEMABLY EVIL and I must insist on it at great length, also if you like them you’re worse” — Meanwhile this is a “oh god you’re both so dumb” situation at worst ^^;;;
+1 from me.
I don’t like it because I don’t think Amber deserves it. The idea Amber did something bad in a scheme to undermine Dorothy and Walky’s relationship feels just as uncharitable an interpretation of events as saying Dorothy was trying to seduce Joyce with the photo. It was a fun, silly moment that both girls have looked back on and applied sinister intent to that I don’t think was there during it. And Booster coming in and pulling out a confirmation that Amber is indeed an asshole feels like a lot to put on anyone.
I viscerally dislike Booster, and after spending time reflecting why, this is what I’ve come up with:
I’ve spent my entire life being different and not understood by my family and friends. It’s lonely. The idea of someone having the ability to pierce that veil between a person’s true self and the world around them, and to then weaponize that for their own entertainment infuriates me so much.
This question is weird and I think you are weird for making it.
Now THATS a reply I didn’t expect. The comment section seems extremely polarized about Booster in a way I didn’t expect, so I wanted to identify the part I liked the most and see how it made other people feel. What’s weird about that?
I think it’s a an unnecessary dichotomy to make and looks like it is purposefully leaning people into a negative reaction and arguments. Maybe I read you wrong but I learned not to give many people here the benefit of the doubt.
I dunno this is pretty much Booster being Booster
It makes me hungry. Let’s see you do something with that, False Dichotomy Franklin.
I’m listing examples of feelings, not forcing you to pick one. I think we pretty clearly have same opinion about the strip
This strip makes you hungry? If not, you’re projecting something fake onto me.
I find it pretty funny. I assume from the presentation of the comic that Booster is right, which makes this “gotcha” feel pretty warranted. Their expressions picture into it too. They seem so genuinely at ease, an affable card-carrying villain it’s easy to root for on the screen, and that fifth panel is gold. Temerity is a great word too. It’s not paladin-like Good Person behavior, but that’s not something I need or expect from everyone all the time.
…I mean you just gave her permission at that point, what did you expect
“For example…”
The only thing Amber didn’t do was throw down a smoke bomb before her escape.
Also, that’s a very impressive vertical jump height. Either that, or the ceiling is much lower in the dorm halls.
Might not have been purely vertical jumping. We’ve seen A-G do a leap by climb-jumping off a wall. Either way, though, is impressive athleticism. Which we know their body has, regardless of who’s driving.
Having had “””friends””” in Uni who tried to pull shenanigans such as this on me – i.e. attempting to trick me into a relationship I didn’t want – it is cathartic to see Amber get called out on her BS.
Yeah. Comments like this remind me to be aware of my tendency to treat the protagonists as better and more likable than they are. I like Amber as a character, but I’m not sure I’d be her biggest fan if she was real and I knew her.
Wow, you lot comment early, yeah? At least if you’re Americans. I’ll have to get on it sooner next time : – )
Anyone believe Booster is just projecting because they assume everyone else is playing relationship chess?
No? Because we never saw them do that?
I can only say: ?????
and that’s why they’re called “unintended consequences“
a lil’ this and that too– Booster, what did we say about cold reads
Not a big fan of Booster.
Totally agreed. Great comment.
There wasnt even a vent there Amber just ripped up part of the ceiling
Not hard to do when the ceiling is just these individual panels on a metal frame.
:sits in armchair: Booster, you’re only making Amber feel guilty about this because you’ve previously said Amber is hot and you’re into her, and you want torpedo her feelings for Walky. Physician heal thyself. /s
Booster’s totally negging Amber right now, you’re right.
With a vertical leap like that, why isn’t Amber on the basketball team?
Too much social interaction. College athletes definitely work together in a hundred team-interactions nigh-daily.
Now we will find out how much temerity BOOSTER has
A lot. They have a lot of temerity.
Hey comment section, it’s me again! I really appreciate the efforts put in to report (and therefore cause to disappear) the comments where Booster is being misgendered. There were quite a few on today’s page, and while I do wonder if it gets worse when Booster is more annoying to the commentariat, or if it just tempts people who don’t usually comment to offer up an opinion, I don’t actually have data on that.
All I have is a huge thank-you to people helping me in weeding the comment section to make it less harmful to binary and nonbinary trans people reading it. I was pretty sure I would get backlash on these efforts, but I’ve only gotten help.
So, yeah, thank you bunches! Keep up the good work!!
I hope they are all permanently banned for this.
Yee, is good to keep this community a safe space for trans & NB folk alike ^^
caught you monologuing
Sly dog indeed.
Okay, ACTUALLY, Booster reminds me very heavily of Scooby-Doo!, from a purely visual standpoint. It’s mainly their usual colors, I think. Muted browns from their natural skin and hair color, mixed with their loud-ass tie dye wardrobe, which I feel suits their deduction-adjacent personality and vibe. I could easily see Booster traveling across the country in a garish vehicle with their assortment of interesting friends.
I like Booster’s shirt here. It’s so swag. It reminds me that I tried to do some clothes shopping this weekend but my usual clothing store, the spring collection was just so…feminine and it really wasn’t what I was looking for. I need to find nice tops like Booster’s…
Booster: Huh, I didn’t know what else I expected.
I don’t comment much, but there’s a lot of very strong Booster opinions here. I’m not entirely sure there’s a correct way to act if you move dorms in college and then meet horny college batman. How could you not excitedly try and figure out what the fuck is going on with everyone when you realise (correctly) that you’ve suddenly become a comic character? Booster basically got isekaied.
A good physiologist should avoid saying that out loud and in front of the one doing that. But Booster is not one of them. Maybe they will never be one of them. Amber’s actions were bad, but let’s be honest, Dorothy and Walky’s breakup is just a matter of time.
I hope not.
I mean, they’re not a psychologist of any kind. And I think that’s okay.
I don’t think Dotty and Walky being with each other is great for either of them long term, at least as they are right now. I don’t think they draw out each others’ best qualities. Maybe that will change.
The Great Amberini, renowned escape artist!
I think I’d like Booster a lot more if we got any sort of insight into their own deepseated motivations. They’re always presented as an external force upon the other characters, but we don’t know what Booster’s past is, or why they feel so drawn to armchair psychoanalysis. I’d like to know where they’re coming from.
Without that information, they just feel like a less potent knockoff of Mike, with 120% more smarminess and the superpower to reveal which of the commenters conveniently forget about they/them pronouns when they’re mad at someone.
Honestly, with how internalized Charlie is, I wouldn’t be surprised if Booster had to develop such honed insight just to connect with her.
I like this idea a lot. It’s touching and humanizing.
I mean we kind of know from this conversation with Ethan that they grew up in a small probably rural town, and due to their gender presentation they developed their observational skill as form of defense mechanism
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2023/comic/book-13/02-turning-saints-into-the-sea/hyper/
Oh hey, it’s exactly what I was saying but canon. Totally forgot they’d laid it out!
We didn’t know jack squat about Mike for the longest time, either.
Jokes on Amber; Mythbusters showed that those airducts were not made to support the weight of a full-grown adult. Next strip shows a piece of airduct crashing through the ceiling, onto Bosster.
That’s a ceiling.
OK, but that’s real life; this is a comic strip. Amber didn’t disappear into an air duct; she disappeared into Read Hall’s hammerspace.
I think I would probably like Booster if they didn’t always seem so happy when they’re psychoanalyzing other students and pointing out all their flaws so gleefully like this.
Funny that is exactly why I like them so much.
I dunno, if they weren’t having fun doing it, they wouldn’t be Booster I think. They’re certainly an unusual and clear sort, and I think that’s neat. I get if you don’t like them as much, though.
oh god it’s worse in here than it was yesterday. booster get behind me
lmaooo literally though.
This is the correct response to Booster. Just get away from the nuisance, by whatever means necessary.
I am really not sure that Booster is correct.
Look, it’s not logically impossible, but if you think about it, it relies on Joyce AND Dorothy behaving very very atypically.
Joyce: Dorothy! You sent me a sext! Do you harbor perverse sexual lust for me?
Dorothy: Why, yes, Joyce, I actually do!
Joyce: And I harbor perverse sexual lust for you! Oh, wow! Let’s break up with our boyfriends and become sexbuddies!
Dorothy: Absolutely! Let us do just that!
Did Amber really think that was going to happen, even subconsciously?
(And a presumable coda:)
Dorothy: Walky, I am breaking up with you to become sexbuddies with Joyce!
Walky: Wah, I has a sad! I am all alone!
Amber: Walky, I am all alone too!
Walky: But Amber, you broke up with me because I said wrong things about Mike!
Amber: No, Walky, it is all OK now! You have gotten over saying wrong things about Mike, and I have gotten over being mad at you for saying wrong things about Mike!
Walky: I am dumb! You must be more clear than that!
Amber: We can be sexbuddies again!
Walky: Yay!
She has to manipulate at least four sockpuppets to get to this outcome . . .
I don’t think the intention was that they both break up and get together but that Dorothy sending it pics to Joyce would create tension and make things weird between her and Walky.
I mean that does sound like a lot of fanfiction logic…
The worst part is, all Amber really had to do was wait. Now that Dorothy has resumed her life course, I can’t imagine she and Walky will stay together much longer. The situation is right back to where it was the first time they broke up.
Alternatively:
Dorothy sends boob pics to Joyce
Walky finds out and gets upset
Amber is there to comfort him with HER boobs (pics or real thing)
Less convoluted, and therefore not fanfic-y enough!
Is there a full moon? This comment section is wild
Sadly this what happened whever booster is around. Their power is too much for us mortals to handle.
I like this take on it and I will be adopting it going forward and hopefully being a lot more zen.
Google says Waning Crescent
I wish.
I love the full moon, but will accept rain and thunderstorms T_T
About half of the commenters really like Booster, and the other half of us find them annoying. So this is what we get when they appear in the comic for a few strips.
I mean I’m a bit on the fence about them, but only because of how little time they had on screen for character development, at the very least they have my respect for being anti-billionaire and caring about their sister.
Being annoyed at them for unsolicited psychoanalysis is valid, not so much when expressed annoyance is used as an excuse for espousing enby hate :/
Aside from a few misgendering, most of which I assume is accidental, I’ve seen very little hate on Booster for being nonbinary here. I’ve seen lots of people defending and/or liking them for their behavior, which I don’t understand because they seem to be acting like an asshole to me.
An entertaining asshole!
As all the best are.
“… but this isn’t even a tiled ceiling”
Booster saying Amber doesn’t socialize is the first sign they don’t know what they’re talking about.
Amber has been socializing against her will for multiple semesters.
Really regretting not commenting at how amazing Amber’s reaction to all this is right about now. The whole thing. Like man all the focus is on Booster but we are just going to leave the cat like tred on this one on the ceiling? Completely rationale response across the board. If she has Amazigirls powers at all times it really (couldn’t really figure out how to phrase it properly. But I mean like when their identities and self perceptions become one)
Wow didn’t finish my sentence by getting self tangented whoops. All I meant was it really makes you think. >_>;
I really appreciate the alt text here, as a hamster owner myself the lil fuckers really could escape into a ceiling panel if they needed to.
Sorry amber, but it’s actually pretty hard to render yourself only a drama loving bystander (as unto, say, a shipper with slash) in your own life. You might still have your own motives! Fucked up, isnt it.
Also i adore them both.
that reminsd me of the text thread this girl had with her lawyer(?) dad about their escaped pet and he was so concerned or so lol
honestly i dont even know if its intentional (nor do i care) but boosters approach is kind of brilliant. by enjoying peoples bad habits so much, it makes them actively want to change, just to spite them. its genius
as a psych student, i’d imagine every phrase/wording they choose would be intentional lol
tho it would be funny in a messed up way if a handful of psych students studied really hard while in college only to end up being like, the worst therapists eever. there’s a sitcom in there somewhere, otherwise it’d be life ruining in o ther fiction, if not like accidentally encouraging/creating some serialkillers lol