The DUMBING OF AGE BOOK 9 KICKSTARTER has entered the plodding, tumbleweedy middle portion where essentially the needle doesn’t move! That’s fine. It’s all part of the circle of life. But at the … end of the tunnel oh god too many metaphors … we’ve got a pledge tier to add a MIKE MAGNET unlocking at $55k. That’ll probably be a while from now. But here’s a fancy graphic showing all that we’ve unlocked so far anyway!!!!
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so wait
Faz overpowered Walky?
In fairness, Walky claimed to be garbage.
I think Faz just freed Blaine, and Blaine overpowered Walky. Faz doesn’t give me the impression he’s been in a fight.
The great Faz has emerged unscathed from every fight he has been in*, as you can see by this chart.
*That number just so happens to be zero.
Perfect!
We’re talking Sally here. He probably saw something shiny and wandered off for a few.minutes.
Sally?? I meant Walky. I should just get “Curse you autocorrect!!” printed on a T-shirt and have done with it.
Curse you, Otto Korrect! He really hates it when people misspell his name.
He said he’d be back! https://www.dumbingofage.com/2018/comic/book-8/03-faz-is-great/yuri/
That was unexpected!
Was it tho? But really I suspect they thought Faz was one of the kidnapped not one of the assailants. Sleepless super heroine amazi-amber – I mean Amazi-Girl™ might have noticed if she wasn’t about to fall asleep any second now, though…
What’s unexpected is that Blaine somehow managed to get blood on the ball peen hammer that probably isn’t his own.
Also: Faz with scissors and what looks to be Amazi-Girl costume material. Is he being drafted into also assuming an alter ego?
Amazigirl had trapped Blaine in her cape. Faz, evidently, cut him free.
Wait, actually, I think it was Blaine’s cape. A cape of some sort.
It was Amazing-Girl’s cape – we haven’t seen he wear one since that strip (including in today’s strip).
And I now see that my phone’s autocorrect completely mangled that post.
What I meant to say is that it was Amazi-Girl’s cape; she hasn’t been seen wearing a cape since this strip, where she used it to trap Blaine: https://www.dumbingofage.com/2020/comic/book-10/03-when-it-crumbles/whammf/
The blood is from killing Ross. Blaine is not a tidy villain.
Effin’ Faz?!
EFFIN’ FAZ!!
I was going to make this exact post but with harsher language, but yes.
We saw his silhouette in this comic.
Of note, he wasn’t tagged there before but now is.
So we did. And he was tagged too, but most of us missed it.
Well, I did, anyway.
Willis has been known to add tags in retroactively – he certainly wasn’t tagged at the time, though a few people suspected his presence anyway from the silhouette.
That silhouette could easily have been Head Alien. >_>
Fair point.
Nope, it’s clearly on the left, and in this universe HA is Dexter.
So you’re saying the Head Alien is … Sinister?
/FACEPALM/
My mistake, you’re saying _FAZ_ is … Sinister?
/eyeroll/
No, dig UP stupid.
I’d call him a devious little shitgoblin, but in our house, shitgoblin is a term used only to describe foster kittens too young to have the litterbox figured out, and I refuse to compare Faz to a kitten, no matter how seemingly incontinent said kitten is (seriously kitty, my feet??). <–True, if somewhat icky, story.
oh huh, she reverted to Amber
Happened partway through last strip
Ah, thanks! I see the cheek color now
I’m 100% gonna predict that Blaine is going to have a mental breakdown over Amazi-Girl actually being Amber. Amber is going to defeat her father not through violence, but by being herself.
Blaine has hithertofor fought Amazigirl. Ryan fought Amber. Think about it.
It wasn’t Amazi-Girl who broke Blaine’s ribs and hospitalized him the first time.
Right again. But I think the “think about it” still stands.
Nobody expects the Fazquizition…?
Inquifazion
Infazquition?
Fazquisition
Fazfazfazion
Fazathon.
A mess
Iniquitoushitfaz.
vikingsincafeteria.gif
Some Faz? In this storyline?
At this time of year? Localized entirely within this Airbnb?
Inconceivable!
Or, wait, is this a Casablanca cue?
I’m shocked, shocked!
Faz is … inevitable.
Are you surprised? I’m unfazed.
If this scenario was unFazed, we’d all be much better off.
Did you just explain my joke back to me? ^^
It’s more likely than you think.
Faz in your storylines?
It is more likely than you think!
Click to find out more!
People who were uneasy about Walky on guard duty were right.
I also said, “Fucking Faz” aloud to myself upon reading this strip.
Ha! Called it. Say what you will about Ethan as a fighter but I would bet money on Faz being unable to overpower him like he apparently could Walky.
Also the fact that Blaine has access to a pair of scissors but instead chooses to hold his hammer like a knife means he has fully adopted the Ball-Peen identity
To be fair, we don’t know that Faz overpowered Walky. In fact, it seems unlikely as that would have at least given Walky time to cry out.
Now, if Faz distracted Walky (say, caused something to make noise in another room or area) and Walky went to check, Faz could have freed Blaine who then snuck up on Walky and grabbed him.
One flaw with that line of thinking, that would imply that Faz thought of something without female genitalia being involved and that obviously can’t happen.
I’m sure that when he cut Blaine free, he was thinking about scissoring.
Is it just me, or does it look like Faz is using the scissors to cut a strip out of Amber’s cape to make a mask for himself too?
I’d say Faz cut the cape up to get it off Blaine.
Dorothy gave Ethan Mike’s wallet and cellphone, and he left to go find Mike at the hospital. Assuming Walky had Blaine under control, Dorothy also dismissed Sarah while saying that she herself was going to stay to help the police with their report. So there’s still some hope that she is outside on the porch and both Blaine and Faz have (so far) overlooked her.
We can also hope that Sarah hung around anyway and, with bat at the ready, is sneaking up behind Ball Peener and the Munchkin (a/k/a Faz).
I actually said “FAAAAAAZ” the way Kirk says “Khan”
I had my misgivings about Walky being assigned that role too. I’d have put Sarah on that, but I appreciate that Sarah has her reasons for not wanting to stick around where the police are involved.
I have misgivings about Walky being assigned to ANY role. If it was really important, I don’t think I would count on him converting oxygen to carbon dioxide.
Oh no 🙁 Becky my girl ;o;
And it’s my birthday damn it BLAINE GO BACK TO BEING TIED UP YOU SHIFTY BASTARD.
Happy birthday?
Haha thank you!
Ok, officially this version of Faz is worse than the Shortpacked one
Yep. I was willing to give benefit of the doubt for the USB, and I think there is still an element of “Faz has limited ability to say no to Blaine because fucking Blaine,” but at the same time: literal fucking kidnapping felony/murder.
I mean Shortpacked Faz did do some collaborating with villains, I think, but they were always on the Sydney Yus level and not this.
… The slash there should have been between kidnapping and felony, obviously.
But yeah, I haven’t written Faz off entirely just yet but he has objectively committed a worse crime than his Shortpacked counterpart. (His Shortpacked counterpart is GROSSER, because you should know better dude you are an ADULT, but again: never participated in a felony murder is a low bar to clear!)
still plenty of time for him to gain sympathy https://www.dumbingofage.com/2018/comic/book-8/03-faz-is-great/liked/
…Okay I’m trying to figure out how Faz overpowered Walky.
I mean yeah, Walky’s a coward, but I didn’t think he’d be that intimidated by a short (14, 16?) year old with a pair of scissors.
He maybe wasn’t paying attention. Or his mom is there too.
I doubt Faz’s mom is there. She would’ve already called for extra help, especially after Toedead got smashed.
I meant that they might have arrived together but you’re probably still right
Given the fact that Walky has ADD, its not too difficult to imagine a scenario where he got distracted, allowing Faz to free Blaine.
if Walky is like me, he’d easily be distracted if Faz’s mom is there.
It actually puzzles me more that it was silent. There is light coming from the stairs a few strips past, so the door was open. Walky didn’t scream a warning and there apparently were no fighting sounds.
Oh well. We’ll see.
I know Amazi-Girl storylines tend to bend physics and realism but.. bleh.
I remember being similarly frustrated with the car chase, too.
Sneaking up and cutting Blaines arms free is possible. From there on out, walky had no advantage.
Faz is the evil Dina.
That seems very accurate.
Hm. Where is Dina, anyway?
Nvm, found her. Blaine doesn’t know who is and isn’t there though.
Faz you are 14 why on earth is your dad pulling you into this? What does he think a 14 year old can do?
Cut some duct tape with scissors, I guess.
I guess that does fall under the list of things children can do. Though how a kid managed to overpower walky is still in question.
I dunno, I would’ve thought scissors might have too many moving parts for Faz to use safely
He’s still 13. It hasn’t been two weeks since he first appeared
oh right 13. Though wasn’t there at least a one month time skip, so it’s been two weeks and a month?
Either option leaves Blaine as adding obvious child endangerment to his charges for this.
I thought this strip implied that he was currently 15? The age of consent in Indiana (which Faz says he’ll reach in two weeks’ time) is sixteen: https://www.dumbingofage.com/2018/comic/book-8/03-faz-is-great/stepdad/
But it says in that strip that the law allows 14 year olds to bang someone up to 4 years older than them, and that he would qualify in 2 weeks. It’s not about age of consent, it’s romeo and Juliette laws, that make it so someone a bit over the age of consent can bone someone a bit under it.
I recall Willis saying somewhere that Faz’s last line was him responding in the belief that Rachel simply found the “Romeo and Juliet law” (which he already qualifies for, being 15) gross, hence Faz asking if she would consider him when he reaches the actual age of consent in two weeks’ time. “Romeo and Juliet laws” specifically apply to people under the age of consent.
Huh, if that’s the case it was somewhat unclear. I totally read that at him saying that he would qualify for the law in 2 weeks. Plus considering someone later said fazes mom was 25 if he’s 15 that’s even more terrible.
Sarah was the one who gave the off-the-top-of-her-head estimate of “twenty-five, tops” – and in this strip, Amber all but confirms that Yuri was, at least, a teenager when she had Faz. Which means that at most, she’d currently be in her early thirties or so, possibly younger.
Just another reason to loathe Blaine.
Seriously, death by being fed to pigs is unkind to the pigs. They have standards.
I would accept the dumping him in a vat of acid plan, provided he actually dies! I even have just the accompaniment prepared for the occasion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ld0uIhst3TA
“You’re always gonna have problems lifting a body in one piece. Apparently the best thing to do is cut up a corpse into six pieces and pile it all together.
And when you got your six pieces, you gotta get rid of them, because it’s no good leaving it in the deep freeze for your mum to discover, now is it? Then I hear the best thing to do is feed them to pigs. You got to starve the pigs for a few days, then the sight of a chopped-up body will look like [racist slur deleted] … They will go through bone like butter. You need at least sixteen pigs to finish the job in one sitting, so be wary of any man who keeps a pig farm. They will go through a body that weighs 200 pounds in about eight minutes. That means that a single pig can consume two pounds of uncooked flesh every minute. Hence the expression, “as greedy as a pig”. ”
(Brick Top, from the movie “Snatch”)
Here’s the Word of God comment on it: https://www.dumbingofage.com/2018/comic/book-8/03-faz-is-great/handle-2/#comment-1309754
(affirms King Daniel, if you don’t feel like clicking)
Also just looked at the chapters between Faz is Great and now, and it doesn’t look like there’s been any timeskips recently – we certainly haven’t had any month-long skips during the comic’s run – so we’re currently about six days away from Faz’s birthday, if the “two weeks” thing is taken at its most literal to mean fourteen days precisely.
15 it is!
ah – makes sense given that Rachel is 20
Remember: Blaine is a piece of fucking shit who probably doesn’t care that much about Faz’s wellbeing.
And by “that much”, I mean “at all”, effectively.
I mean I don’t expect Blaine to give a shit about his childrens safety but at the very least I’d assume he’d consider a child in this kind of situation more of a liability than an asset.
I don’t get it either. Faz DID demonstrate some good stealth abilities on the USB theft, I guess, so if he’s only there to be this kind of contingency plan (scissors, duct tape, wait til his back is turned, maybe checking on the other goons) it almost makes sense, assuming you’re a sack of shit?
But also, we do not possess the tactical minds of Blaine O’Malley. And thank fucking God for that.
Oh so when BATMAN has an underage kid running interference it’s all hunky-dory, but when BALL-PEEN does it suddenly everyone’s a military tactician. /s
He won’t even let Faz call him Dad, so yeah, spot on.
What can a young boy do? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqFhvKarYjU
Hey, if Blaine could have sex with Faz’ mom at 14, then 14 is old enough to be an accomplice to murder. At least in Blaine’s mind.
Fuckin’ Faz.
I still don’t get why anyone would go along with this. I know I am too neutral good to understand…
It’s all about the amount of info you get. If you have a grudge against AG and someone offers you a swing at her at the cost of something that can be passed off as a prank, it’s easy to realize. The whole Ross situation was more conplex, but the same rules applied. In Faz’s case I think it was more Blaines control over his child. Theres a bit over on Shortpacked! About how much he controlled Amber, so that’s not unlikely.
Dammit Faz, I never had high expectations for you, but I thought better of you than this!
Where the hell are the emergency responders, I thought they’d be hear by now.
Maybe they thought it was a prank call and gave it low priority
Perhaps they aren’t due until after Ruth, Billie, and Sal.
If Sal suspects the police are on there way, she ain’t coming. To paraphrase her back from the Toedad shooting incident, “This place [will be] crawlin’ with cops, an’ ah’m way too smart to be the black kid with a record caught up in some school [kidnapping] deal.”
(Words in brackets my own substitutions for the situation-specific words Sal used for that previous incident.)
…don’t I hate it when I make simple typos, like “there/their”.
Dude, you are always quick to make all of these correct references with links and all and you think anyone minds your typos?
…yes, kind of?
(thanks, irrational brain)
Do you KNOW that you made a typo?
If you have spell-check/autocorrect turned on, it may have made the switch when you were looking elsewhere?
Their ewe half IT.
I have autocorrect enabled posting from my phone, but not on my laptop.
AG and Joyce probably got downstairs and on the line pretty shortly before Becky arrived, is my guess. (Ruth may have called beforehand but didn’t have anything to work off of, like say, an address, so her ability to do anything was extremely limited.)
We still don’t know exactly where they are in relation to the campus, or to any other dispatchers, so that might be an issue. I also can’t find any information about average response time for Bloomington, Indiana police (fire department’s much shorter, but for police the only data I can find is that they’re not in the top ten fastest nationwide, and number ten ranking there is 9 1/2 minutes.) So it could be… anywhere past that.
https://www.asecurelife.com/average-police-response-time/
They are close enough to the campus that Dina could follow the minivan on foot, and so that Ambazi-Girl could run from the undisclosed location to Becky’s flat, then to campus, then back to the undisclosed location, without becoming two exhausted to beat up six men.
Note that the average police response time is an average over 911 calls of all priorities. Aggravated kidnappings in progress, hostage situations, and men unconscious and bleeding from multiple hammer-blows to the head presumably rate a high priority, student pranks a low one.
This is true. Context matters.
The fact that we also have the ‘do we have any idea how much Blaine let on to other mobster associates that he was up to something, if not what and how unspeakably stupid it was’ question may also be a factor? Who knows. There’s still about forty days of this storyline to go, which leaves plenty of time for that thread to show up as well.
Who knows. Forty more days of this just says to me ‘more opportunities for Sal and Ruth and Carla to show up’ because I like superhero action.
We don’t know how long Becky waiting’s taken, but I’m going to assume she’s been there for well under twenty minutes. Maybe fifteen? There was definitely a time skip during that strip where Ethan left for AG to hang up, and that time likely included either a “several minutes have passed since he stopped breathing, it’s okay, you can hang up now” or a “paramedics are still X minutes away, you’ve done all you can” or something. (I know NOTHING about emergency medical procedures, but my limited understanding of CPR is that it’s used for situations where whatever’s stopped their heart is a less… ongoing nature than massive head trauma and blood loss.) And then a couple minutes for Joyce’s freakout and the Whiteboard Dingdong Bandit story. But I still think it’s been a relatively short period of time all told.
Yeah it would be nice if they would show up soon.
Saying things like this is exactly what will make you say “Damn you, Willis” in a few days.
Inb4 Blaine blames it all on Amber and she internalizes it
No, I think it’s going to go the other way around. Amber’s been dropping the voice, and she’s been empowered by her friends.
This was delivered to us in error. Please return it. https://www.dumbingofage.com/2013/comic/book-3/04-just-hangin-out-with-my-family/return/
Does Faz actually count as “men” though? (And to all those confused, Faz didn’t have to overpower Walky, just distract him and then free Major Tool.)
So Blaine has involved his stepson and made him guilty of murder (such is the nature of being involved in a conspiracy that involves murder). If his mobster father-in-law wasn’t prone to having him disposed of previously, then I’d say it’s almost a guarantee now.
I thought it was that other kids grampa who was in charge of the mob, the guy who tattled on sal, Fazes mom may be involved in the mob but we don’t really know if any member of her family is high up enough in it to matter.
Asher’s Gramps is the known high-ranking mobster.
Yuri’s mob connections have been an assumption (explains where Blaine met her in a way that’s marginally less horrifying in the implications than “cruising for teenage girls”; Shortpacked carryover with his mob involvement’s been a thing before now and that involves Faz; Yuri is implied to have known he was a mobster before this point,) but it’s not at all PROVEN. Can’t imagine any given mobster’d be thrilled to know one of the money launderers impregnated his teenage daughter,* and if they didn’t realize it at the time they’ve probably had reason to suspect since, which is all a point against it in my eyes. If she is, I’m sure we’re going to find out, but that’s still an “if” and there’s plenty of reasons for Blaine’s employers to be sizing him up for the *insert mob elimination method of your choice here* without adding her into the mix. I just hope she is, because then maybe she’ll get to be the one to kill him. That’s pretty much my ideal scenario. And then yeah, if she does have ties, we have no idea what they actually ARE.
* It is also not confirmed that Blaine is Faz’s biological father. The way it’s been implied and the way Willis admitted to forgetting previous Word of God that Amber was Blaine’s only biological child mean we’ve all assumed it – because you don’t make the implication a character groomed and had sex with a teenage girl lightly – but that one’s still not confirmed canon either.
Faz refers to Blaine as “Father” (and is immediately and curtly corrected by Blaine) when he gives him the flashdrive he stole from Amber’s laptop — https://www.dumbingofage.com/2018/comic/book-8/03-faz-is-great/stepfather/
Blaine is indifferent to the truth. All that this tells us is that he *wants* not to be Faz’s actual father, not that he isn’t.
Or that he wants not to be acknowledged as Faz’s father, since Yuri was underage and that would be evidence.
Seriously, Blaine lies whenever it suits him under way less ‘oh, you’re fucking DEAD’ circumstances than admitting he’s a statutory rapist would be.
Well, if a minor gets dragged into a crime by his parent, most reasonable judges (especially family court judges) would recognize that he had very little free will in the matter and thus wouldn’t let him be charged as an acc-
… wait, Indiana’s a red state.
Nevermind.
god fucking dammit, faz
What has happened to Dorothy?
She’s probably still outside
She’s still out on the porch, as far as we know.
Blaine smacked her with a hammer. She’s going to get lasting brain damage and her newfound confidence and leadership ability will disappear :\
Well, having brain damage seems to be excellent qualifications for the PoTUS title right now.
Dorothy’s still outside. Hopefully Faz hasn’t busted ALL the kidnappers out yet. And there’s four of them coming out the basement, and injured Blaine and Faz make about one whole person between them (generously)… They might still pull a victory.
It isn’t as though Captain Ball-Peen’s hammer presents a credible “one move and the ****** gets it” threat.
Normally it wouldn’t, but it’s kinda got some established credibility splattered all over it right now.
Oh, and Blaine and his posse are up to seven counts of kidnapping. This counts as a second one.
I have been right about several things in this storyline and I have not been brought joy by any of them.
So the cops are definitely gonna be dicks.
It’s my expectation as well. Especially since the call contained “we have them under control” or something like that. If Blaine is the one in control when the cops arrive, they will turn on the kids.
Grrr, Faz. What the hell.
Man, I can’t wait for Becky to overhear there’s terrible things happening upstairs and murder Blaine in a rage from him killing her father. (Please let me be wrong, I wanna be wrong, I don’t want Becky going to jail instead, even if she’s not a liked character for me, I don’t wish that for her)
Given that Blaine is actively threatening people, it wouldn’t be murder.
Also I don’t think I can see Becky raging in that way over that.
You don’t see Becky raging at the man who kidnapped her best friend, and murdered her father? Becky’s got a lot of passion, and even with her father being a jerk, for a light way of putting it, she still loved him. Even when she was kidnapped the first time and he threatened Joyce with a gun, she was just sad that this was how her father was taking her being a lesbian, and wouldn’t accept her as is. Overall, she still loved her father in the end, because I highly doubt someone would start crying over him once alone if there was only hatred. And if I saw the same person who killed my dad was now threatening my best friend and girlfriend, there’s very little rationalization that could make me not murder them.
I think the crying is very complicated. The death of anyone who has been in your life, good or bad, is a shock. And one hopes there is at least one good memory in their somewhere. Or it maybe sadness of what he should of been as a father – more like Joyce’s for example.
But I’m with SuperZero – even if it is in defence of her friends, I don’t want Becky to take a life – she has a zest for life that survived her childhood and taking a life, even a dangerous and fairly worthless one, can only hurt her.
It’s possible, but we haven’t ever seen Becky go into any kind of violent rage. No real signs of temper at all.
Obviously, we’ve also never seen anyone she cared about get murdered, so it’s possible, but she’s low on the list of people I’d expect it from.
I’m sure there’s a lot to say here but the main takeaway is that Walky couldn’t even overpower Faz. Think about that.
Or Blaine hit him and let Faz take the credit
Blaine was bound with his cape over his head and hands and feet tied so tightly and with so much duct tape Sarah questioned if he could breathe. So how did Faz free him? Either Walky wasn’t watching Blaine giving Faz an opportunity which is incredibly incompetent even considering the villains here or Faz subdued him long enough to free Blaine. What was Walky taking a piss break? Hold it dude. Piss on the floor even!
Piss on Blaine, even.
Faz distracted him – lured him away, then cut Blaine free.
That still doesn’t look good for Walky. Short of Faz threatening him with some sort of weapon, Walky looks like an incompitent weeny here.
Conveniently, Faz does in fact have some sort of weapon that he’s brandishing there.
Admittedly, he’s not doing so threateningly, and he’s probably just showing off that he just used it for its intended nonviolent purpose. He could have threatened Walky first, though… but in that case I’d think he’d have shouted.
… I forgot Faz was here.
I wish my forgetting he was there had simply erased him from existence.
We didn’t “forget”, we didn’t know he was here until just now. Although there were suspicions before now, until Willis retroactively tagged him into a previous strip of this storyline Faz’s last tagged in-person appearance was almost two years ago.
Just wondering — how can you make such an emphatic statement that Willis went back and tagged Faz retroactively (although we know he has done this before, e.g., all the ‘Joshua’ tags becoming ‘Jocelyne’)? Do you people keep a file of the strips so you can quickly look back to see what changes/corrections/alterations Willis does?
Not running off of archive files in my case at least, unless you count my memory – that (plus carefully combing the comments section on that strip, specifically; the talk there is about “untagged silhouettes” presumed, and now confirmed, to have been Blaine and Faz) serves to tell me that neither Faz nor Blaine were originally tagged in that strip.
The Internet Archive is pretty useful, here. There are only snapshots for a few days of the strip in question, but in the most recent one, from 04-26, you can see that Faz is NOT tagged.
http://web.archive.org/web/20200426231604/https://www.dumbingofage.com/2020/comic/book-10/03-when-it-crumbles/smol/
The Internet Archive of various strips lets you see what the site’s layout used to look like, the previous tags of “joshua” on the early Jocelyne strips, and what the DoA gravatars used to look like, and other changes perhaps of interest.
Oh, and you can see that Blaine was originally not tagged on 03-26 when the strip first posted (as noted above), but the “blaine” tag appears in at least the 04-01 strip.
Willis strikes me as being pretty well organized, so it wouldn’t surprise me if he has actual reminders or notes saying “go back and tag earlier silhouettes/fragments after the comic for this date posts”.
OTOH, the link to Shortpacked! on the right side of the main page has been broken for a few months now (checks archive – last one where it was ok was 2020-02-03), so even Willis nods.
I’m not going off of tags, though. I distinctly recall a shadow that closely resembled him appearing in an earlier strip, although perhaps I’m either mistaken or misremembering.
So…would Faz go to Juvi or jail for freeing a murderer/kidnapper and being totally cool with being part of hostage situation? Just saying that when Blaine no doubt escapes from this he probably won’t go out of his way to bring Faz along and just leave him with the police. He’s definitely in high school and both parents are equally involved in this conspiracy.
My guess is that the DA would choose not to prosecute Faz. Faz is a minor acting under the close attention of his abusive and violent stepfather, so at least one person on any jury is likely to buy a defence that he was acting under duress.
Yeah. And I really doubt Faz did this with completely malicious intent anyway. This screams a bit of manipulation. He probably doesn’t know what’s actually happened and to him it looks like these guys just beat up his dad.
Faz was there earlier in the kidnapping scenes – in silhouette and originally untagged, but definitely there.
He knows what’s going on.
Personally I hope he does end up incarcerated in some way. People have ended up going to jail for less and regardless he is old enough to know what he was doing was wrong otherwise he’d have told Amber the truth when he was sent to steal her flash drive. (and I know it’s a minor but theft of private property is another thing we can add to his criminal record)
Minors don’t get jury trials unless they’re tried as adults. Usually the go in front of a family court judge, who is supposed to take things like domineering-stepfather-leading-him-into-it into account.
Besides, Faz is odd enough that a DA might consider him incapable of understanding what he was taking part in. I wouldn’t be surprised if a court appointed psychologist spends the next few years pulling his hair out dealing with Faz.
Psychologist: He’s like Mike Myers but with boobs instead of stabbing!
Faz is a victim.
Yes, he is. That does not, however, mean he can’t also be an aggressor.
He’s a victim who was very likely forced into committing this crime. Although he also seems cool with it. Which is probably self-defensive.
It’s complicated.
Ah, this is why the ambulance was delayed
Wait, so… Did Walky somehow fail to stop a 15 year old child from untying the broken and bloodied man he was sitting on?
Dude, how do you suck that much?
Dorothy, Ethan, and Sarah leaving Walky alone suck as much.
Willis says “finally,” but it already looks like there’s too much Faz in this strip. What is Faz, anyway? Korean for douchebag?
It is now.
Also while I wouldn’t discount that there’s a backdoor, there’s also the aspect of Faz somehow making it into the house without getting spotted by Dorothy, Sarah or Ethan.
And even if Faz was smart enough to notice the kids standing outside and sneak in the back door, how and when and why did Blaine call a 15 year old for backup
Faz has been retroactively tagged into at least one strip of this storyline, so he’s been here the whole time.
That’s also incredibly dumb.
Let’s see that consent form Yuri signed to let her teenage kid be an accessory to murder.
hahahahaha that implies consent has anything to do with that relationship *sobs*
(Seriously, the fact that “Amber, who has more reason to know than the rest of our main cast, is pretty sure Faz was born when Yuri was a teenager” exists as an implication AT ALL in conjunction with her suspicions about Blaine as Faz’s biological father is… very much a thing that colors my impression of the relationship even more than the garbage fire I already assumed it was, because that’s not an implication you write in lightly.)
I don’t know about tags, but we certainly saw his silhouette earlier on.
That’s the strip I was talking about. He wasn’t tagged there previously (presumably for spoiler reasons), but as of today he is now tagged in that strip.
I don’t think Blaine was originally tagged in the strip, either, and was only added in after we got his reveal? (Even though it was a very safe assumption, it definitely set up precedent for those silhouettes.)
The good news is, I THINK all the remaining silhouettes are accounted for? I hope? Please.
Blaine indeed was not tagged before being revealed.
Blaine’s an idiot. If he had any common sense he’d run for it and hope to make another attempt later.
Audacity, more audacity, always audacity.
Keep doing it and you learn it’s a great strategy… up until the moment it fails, and when it does it fails so bad that you don’t get to take any lessons away from it.
That was my thought. This almost seems out of character for Blaine, who seems like he would have survival instinct above all. I would’ve thought he’d just abandon the dudebros and run for it.
DAMN YOU WILLIS.
Seconding the Damn You Willis.
The motion to Damn Willis has been made and seconded.
Any discussion?
Seeing none, I call the vote. All those in favour to Damn Willis say ‘Aye’
Those opposed?
The Aye’s have it, and the motion is passed.
‘Damn you Willis’ is now the official position of the board.
Dammit Walky, you had one job!
But it was boooorrring!!
We should have seen this coming. Faz was an active contributor/participant to what has gone down ever since he swiped the flashdrive from Amber’s laptop and turned it over to Blaine HERE — although at that time I put it down to merely trying to please a parent rather than outright maliciousness.
Guess I was wrong.
This could still be him trying to please his father.
Yeah, it’s possible Faz is just kind of awful, but let’s not discount the fact that he’s a teenager with an emotionally abusive and manipulative father figure here.
OTOH, Faz telling Joyce – Joyce, whom he had no reason to disclose this to, especially since they were alone with each other – that Amber was his favorite family member “because she is nicest to [him]” tells me that if anyone on Team Blaine is going to pull a Heel-Face Turn, it’s gonna be Faz.
…Faz wants Amber to come home
He…he might just be doing this because Blaine told him this is how he can get Amber to come home
… Oh god I’m almost certain you’re right.
And of course Amber never lived with them but Faz remembers her as a presence from babysitting and Blaine’s a fucking liar and god. Yes. That seems like a very likely angle.
Oh, ffs. Let the police come already.
Yeah… I’m seriously so sick of this storyline right now. Maybe should have expected this, but this strip ist just… ugh. I don’t want to see Blaine get up again, I don’t want to see his shitty son (who, as several commenters have pointed out, can’t really be blamed for being shitty but still) and I don’t want this Ball-Peen drama to be dragged out for the rest of the month.
All I want to see is Joyce verbally tearing down her horrible mother, is that too much to ask 🙁
…I actually did like the last few strips, but this one feels so frustrating. Maybe I should just stop reading the comic for a week or two.
^ Parents are visiting next storyline. I’m sure we’ll see PLENTY of Joyce and her mom then. This storyline goes until June 23rd.
There might be a phone call though.
Yeahhh…
No, this is good. Amazigirl would subdue him. Amber will beat the living crap out of him. There’s a fair chance that two deserving dads will bite the big one before the morning is over.
Then we get the angst.
And that’s the moment the police show up.
Yeah that was the squeaky wheel that needed the grease
Didn’t miscount without a reason
Again, no shocker, but Blaine’s gotta bring up about the flash drive soon.
Yeah, I was wondering about the flash drive and what it might have on there, other than Amber’s extracurriculars, some degree of hacking materials, or a lot of slashfic. I don’t really see him caring about slashfic (if he didn’t already know), and as far as I know she’s not doing any terribly exciting hacking (except for Walky’s grades which, if he’s got proof of that on the flash drive, he could use as leverage to get her out of school – that’s actually a reasonable possibility), and he didn’t know about Amazi-Girl. So I’m really curious to see what ammunition he found in that particular Chekhov’s Gun.
Hello, Faz.
Walky would make a lousy security guard.
Okay, Blaine is not thinking clearly here: what’s he going to do with that hammer? If he tries to swing it at Walky from that angle he’s just as likely to lose himself another tooth, if he can even get any power behind the swing with his arm bent like that.
Meanwhile, Walky! Just elbow him in the ribs!
FUCK YOU FAZ!!!! FUCK YOU!!!!!!!!!!! I THOUGHT YOU WERE JUST A A GENERIC PERVERT, BUT YOU BECAME THE GORO AKECHI OF THIS STORY!!!!! FUCK YOU AND YOUR KOREAN MOBSTER MOM! I HOPE IN THIS UNIVERSE YOU DON’T GET A GIRLFRIEND AND DIE ALONE AND UNLOVED BECAUSE YOU CROSSED THE LINE!!!!!!
Jesus, I needed that out of my system. I haven’t seen such a betrayal since Xiolin Showdown.
There is still hope for faz. He may choose to side with his “favorite family member”, Amber.
I think he will, or at least I hope he will. My guess is that he’s only siding with Blaine to have a chance to get closer to Amber (so she’ll “finally come home”), and actually seeing Amber might cause him to switch sides.
Maybe he’s just a piece of shit, but I have a feeling that’s not entirely the case.
I know the game has been out for a long time but I just got my socks blown off by the “goro akechi of this story” revelation. I’m a freakin spoiler magnet. Now if you’ll excuse me I’m gonna go mourn and never use the internet again!!
Oh for Cyric’s sake
The chart points UP
Called it.
Yeah, a half-asleep kid and an emotionally traumatized kid, unsupported by their friends in that house… did anyone count the bros this time? Who wants to bet on whether Becky runs in to find Joyce held at knife-point?
Becky is, of course, promptly captured as well. Dorothy, walking inside with the cops, is also captured, as are the cops.
This leaves Amber’s hallucination of Mike Warner, emerging from the basement with a single nickel…
A single nickel is all Mike needs.
Ah yes, someone Amber cares about being held hostage with a dangerous weapon, this is sure to go well.
It didn’t went well last time.
He has a hammer, she might take it from him, put it where it belongs, sort of thing.
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2017/comic/book-7/04-the-do-list/proved/
‘Work well’ is relative, here, and depends entirely on whose wellbeing we’re worried about.
Blaine’s? Fuck him. My only concern if he dies is what him dying in this encounter does to AmbG’s already-fragile psyche.
The general hostages’? Are likely to be traumatized if they watch their FRIEND kill someone, regardless of the self-defense angle (Dorothy’s thoughts about Ryan’s stabbing are relevant here,) but are also going to be relieved and while that would definitely change how they act around Amber, they will still understand WHY she did it and will probably support her.
Amber’s? Yeah if EITHER side of AmbG is responsible for his death (and with the significant reminders Blaine’s fight with AG and Mike did a serious number on him, very possibly including broken ribs, even if AG doesn’t come out again now she can still be a cause of death,) it’s gonna fucking psychologically BRUTALIZE them.
Ah, the other shoe, finally. That’s a relief.
Who else thinks that everyone is the group is dumb as Fuck?
Not for this situation, just in general…
But the Faz situation doesn’t surprise me, he literally was raised by Blaine and kinda has personal reasons to dislike Amber (his family being monetrilly limited cause everything, even if its not her fault it makes sense he would hate her)…thou the whole thing is a lie if he is really a gangster(blaine)
Yeah I mean, let’s leave Walky alone with a freaking murderer while we all chat over ToeDead, what bad could ever happen?
…Also, is it normal for the cops to take ages to arrive?
In this universe the forces of order take too long.
Or go at high speed in the wrong direction.
Or, if you consider Chloe’s supervision of Ruth, the university’s indulgence of Clinton, the pastor and parish committee of Ruth’s church, the faculty that fired whatsiface the incompetent tutor without any credible complaint, the standard of teaching depicted, Robin’s political campaigning…. This comic consistently depicts everyone in authority (including nearly all parents) as lazy, negligent, incompetent, unjust, tyrannical, and/or cruel. That is this story.
If there’s a worst moment for them to arrive, they’ll find it…
Charge him. At that distance, Blaine doesn’t have time to get the hammer any kind of momentum, And can barely stand. You knock both hiM and Walking to the floor, Walky’s weight impact causes even more structural damage to Blaine’s injuries. Three people on top of him? We’re talking hemorrhages galore. Take the hammer, delete if necessary, or convenient, or amusing (depending on your personality type.)
Faz has standard scissors, painful if wielded skillfully but not an immediate existential threat. Squash him. 5-2 advantage unless… did Faz free the others?
Curse my autocorrect.
Poor Becky. Left yet again to cry over a dead or dying parent.I’m glad she takes this opportunity to leave nothing else to be said. She can cry, she can grieve, she can move on. Like I said yesterday, the Toe won’t have any power over her, even in death.
And suddenly Blaine succumbed to his internal injuries and Faz went on to get some better influences in his life and nothing else tragic happened and everything was awesome
While leprechauns dance with tiny fairies and unicorns fly overhead farting rainbows and glitter.
Yeah, sure.
Hey, have you ever had to clean up glitter? Goddamn unicorns…
and then somehow nothing bad ever happens, despite this being amber’s life. the end.
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2018/comic/book-9-comic/01-flyin-to-the-red/organically/
the REAL villain is here
Well, Faz made his choice but, I suppose, when one has been pushed in a certain direction (to hate someone) all their lives, then one good experience with them isn’t enough to change their direction.
I am ANGRY, I am DISAPPOINTED, I am VERY TIRED, so I’m going to go to sleep, but when I wake up, OHHHH Faz is IN FOR IT.
Between a mob-stooge father and an implied-to-be-a-mobster’s-daughter mother, it’s not like Faz has had many good role models. And he’s still a minor, too.
🙁
SAID NO ONE EVER DAVID 🙁 🙁 🙁
I might not love the wtorylinex but the art is amazing. Love the lighting in this one!!! The last panel isnam absolute joy to watch
Yeah time for a break for me. The story is just going over the top for oppressively bad stuff continuing to happen for what I can deal with at the moment. Thanks for all the comics so far Willis.
What the fuck does Blaine actually expect to achieve here right now? Unless he has also already freed all of the goon-bros as well?
Ah, I knew he came down too easily…
I guess it’s time for the final Amber / Blaine showdown. Will it end with Amber killing Blaine? Or Amber receiving Batman’s Knightfall fate – she kind of follows his steps in that storyline?
am I terrible for hoping Faz gets punched for this? And through this learns to never, ever mess with Amber again? Because screw that little brat.
Throw him into the lion pit at the zoo.
Yeah, that’ll turn out well.
OHhhhhhh
Dammit Walky!
😛
OHhhhhhh
Dammit Willis!
Fixed that for you.
Faz? What do you think you’re doing?
Calling it now. Sarah learns what’s happened, goes inside to help deal with it, and is in the building in an active hostage situation when the cops arrive. I don’t know if the cops will actually shoot her (non-lethally, we assume/hope) or just threaten/abuse her.
Oh, FUCK OFF, FAZ.
Look at that. Suddenly a rescue is needed again. I still think piece-of-shit asher will be given a chance to redeem himself before this storyline is over.
I seem to remember Ross was found incompetent to stand trial. If so that sets a strong precedent for Faz. So, maybe it’ll be the lion pit for him. (Okay no he’s probably not so dangerous he has to be removed from the plot and without Blaine he may even become a little tolerable.)
Ross was still awaiting trial when Blaine bailed him out (that is, in fact, the intended purpose of bail – to let someone out of jail pre-trial); there was never any mention of him being found incompetent to stand trial.
Huh, I might have fantasized that.
“Incompetent to stand trial” generally goes along with “involuntary commitment”. If someone has done something that would generally be a crime, and is unable to understand why they are being charged, they are usually not just set free to do whatever they want.
look, I don’t advocate hitting kids…..but Walky needs to put Faz through window.
What no one asked for… ever.
what the FUCK, Faz.
I don’t think Amber has it in her to kill him. Neither of them do. Too bad Sarah is taking a nap. She’s bash his smug eyeless face in.
Uh, lots of possibilites for ending this storyline:
-External assistance (cops, etc.): Probably will arrive too late, this is a fairly realistic strip after all.
-Closure for Amber: Would probably finish her as a character (how much can this girl cope with?)
-Dorothy: Would be nice, so probably it won’t happen.
-Becky: The worst option for Blaine. He killed her father. He was shit, but still he was her father. But it wouldn’t be fair to Becky.
-Joyce/Dina: Can they work as a team?
-Ruth: Yay! Femurs!!
-Ruth + assorted team of awesome characters: Pray to Willis.
-Mike(real, imaginary or both): Still my favorite resolution.
You forgot a stealth attack by Dina, my favorite option.
Ruth has yet to make an appearance in this situation, so I have a feeling she’ll be showing up very soon.
The question we all have to ask ourselves right now: Has Becky seen Princess Bride?
as for predictions, my money is on piece-of-shit asher. Possibly together with Sal.
This was my original prediction months ago, but it seems that Asher did not grow from his child self after all. I mean, if it happens it will be more “Sal makes Asher an offer he can’t refuse” than “they do it together”.
Do we have any reason to believe Asher knows what Blaine’s plan was?
I can imagine that Blaine told him, pull the fire alarm the night before midterms, Amber will fail her midterms and drop out.
Simple, straight forward, and believable.
Given that asher is not stupid and that Blaine is a lousy liar*, I’m pretty sure asher knows exactly as much of Blaine’s plans as he wants to know. It might be him that asks Sal to help out.
*) We have seen him sucessfully fool Danny and Ross. I’m sure it takes a master fabricator of falsehood to fool Danny and Ross.
I say Mike walks in.
“I finished fucking your mom.”
Damn you, Willis!
Did we undercount the men? Did we really? Did we reallllllllllyyyyyyyyyyyyyy?
Joyce kicks Blaine into volcano: “I have had ENOUGH of YOU!!!”
Ugh, fucking faz. The knowledge that this version is a kid makes you hope he’ll get better, but until then:
ugh.
He is not enough of a kid to get a pass in my book. Especially not with his usual smug smile. He is a creep and creeps get no slack, especially not when they help commit felonies.
Not a pass, but with a 15 year old, there’s a hope he’ll grow up and learn. Unlike a Blaine or a Ross.
He gets slack from me only because he’s likely even more of Blaine’s victim than Amber was, with Yuri being either worse than Stacy or just more dominated by Blaine (as a teen herself when Faz was born.)
AN F.A.Z. OUTTA NOWHERE!!!
[/Jim Ross]
Uh oh. The shit is about to hit the Faz.
Oh no they forgot to factor in the Faz! Always remember to factor in the Faz!
So, Faz is officially on the evil side now. The terrible FazBoy!! Will Amber be able to beat her little step (or half) brother? He may be manipulate by the Evil dad. But Walky needs help, Amber’s help!
The only hope for Faz is that he turns on Blaine when he realizes Blaine wants to hurt Amber, who is Faz’s favorite. Maybe he believed the same story Ross did, they were kidnapping people who know AZ to get them to get AZ to grab Becky, so he didn’t realize that his sister was the true target.
If Faz helps out, he’ll still be a freaky little creep, but he won’t necessarily be an evil freaky little creep.
we were going so damn WELL!!!!!!!!
I foresee nothing but “I”s (incomplete) on most of the principal cast members’ report cards for this semester. They should likely need to skip the Spring semester as they will all need to be in heavy therapy for a while.
I must say that I think that is says quite a lot of both Blaine and Ross that the most competent person in their entire evil sceme so far has been fudging Faz
omg please tell me faz will do a double cross on his and ambers dad . for after all faz may be annoying but surely even he sees now that daddy dearest crossed the line. or maybe joyce winds up in a surprise move takes down faz
This is why you leave more than one guard. A guard with a very small attention span.
God damn it, we should have known things were going too well!
OK, so Dumbiverse Faz is OK with being an accessory to multiple felonies and a capital crime? Huh.
His mom is part of the Korean mafia. He was literally born into it. Of course he’s okay with it.
Aha! So Walky’s math struggles have come home to roost. Willis had some deep foreshadowing there.
Wow, so I am actually surprised how much rage that last panel filled me with
woosh
Uh, hey, I could have sworn there was a day where it showed Walky sitting on the tied-up Blaine but now I can’t find it in the archive. Am I stroking or does anyone have a link?
youre not having a stroke! it was just a patreon comic that willis showed a panel of under the actual strip.
i barely comment so im sorry if this doesnt work but:
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2020/comic/book-10/03-when-it-crumbles/breathing-2/
Most recent Patreon bonus strip.
There was a preview panel in this strip’s blog post:
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2020/comic/book-10/03-when-it-crumbles/breathing-2/
Ain’t it great when you can cut off a Mandela effect at the bud?
thanks guys!! <3
A thought occurs. Blaine is wearing a superhero costume in a world with no superheros (save Amazigirl). If Amber remains Amber and the cast edit out Amazigirl doing anything, Blaine will appear to be insane. The police will regard him with more trepidation. When the cast explain his connection to a violent felon (currently dead on the floor), he’ll seem even more dangerous because he’s competent (meaning he can get things done) and competent (to stand trial) but still fairly crazy. No bail for Blaine. Being as he’s laundering money for the Mafia, jail could be a very dangerous place for him.
No bail for Blaine because he committed murder. In Indiana, literally every other crime requires bail to be set.(At least to the best of my comprehension. I’m not a lawyer.)
DAMMIT FAZ
DON’T TOUCH MY BOY
“Always double-tap.”
This somehow makes me think of the beginning of Starkid’s A Very Potter Sequel, with Blaine singing “It’s Not Over Yet!”