something male something something angry. It’s clearly not right since there’s multiple broken images there, The rest of the lines miraculously agree with you (as in, I can’t believe I actually have all of those symbols, while missing so many from the top line. How did that happen?!? It could only be a Festivus miracle.)
Bird, hazard sign, tapir, tapir, tapir, wristwatch, tapir, upward pointing hand with partially formed sixth finger, Unwritten Sigil of A’otma, glass of milk, semicolon, tapir, supplementary private use area A character U+10FFFE, your exact car with barely legible but nevertheless correct license plate, tapir…. sheepish grin
You know, people used to write in hieroglyphics, but then they developed a written language with letters that made words that had meaning. And it was generally considered by all and sundry to be an improvement.
So why the rush to go back to an archaic system of pictures that aren’t all that clear to everyone? We might as well say, “Who needs cars with automatic transmissions and fuel injection — let’s all go back to ‘three on the tree’ and carburetors”, or “who needs air conditioning in the summer and central heating in the winter — let’s all go back to sweating like a farmhand when it’s hot and shoveling coal or chopping wood for the furnace in the basement when it’s not”.
(You’re probably thinking of pictographs. Hieroglyphics were for-real a combination of images and language, arranged sequentially across a surface to tell a narrative. Again, comics.)
Pictographs, hieroglyphics, whatever … I didn’t use that as an example to start an argument. But yesterday in the comments Doctor_Who posted a non-canon conversation between Amber and Ethan in which Amber replied to Ethan with a golfer symbol — which I was advised is supposed to represent “FORE” and would thus be the answer “four” to Ethan’s question about how much sleep she got. But if you see the symbol only as a golfer and not make the connection between that, the word “Fore”, and the number “four”, you might as well be trying to read a coded message without the correct “A = (letter)” key.
Most things are done and refined for their efficiency. Using unique symbols and forming words with them is a good example of that. But thankfully not everything is done for efficiency, some are done for fun… Perhaps this might be one such case?
In addition to Willis’s comment on you mixing up hieroglyphs and pictographs, pictographs have the potential benefit of communicating a sentiment in any language.
I forget which Olympic Summer Games it was, but they commissioned a graphic designer to make all the direction signs, so instead of writing “swimming” in 50ish languages, it was just a pictograph of someone swimming and an arrow, and everybody got it regardless of what language they spoke.
Of course, there’s still room for misinterpretations. A thumbs up can mean something completely different across cultures, for example.
One could argue that all language is nothing but an archaic system of symbols which aren’t clear to everyone. One won’t and wouldn’t argue that, but one could.
I think having met Sal since, he’s at least aware NOW that she’s a decent person and regrets her actions to the point of genuine awkwardness. (That said, he’s also aware now that she could cause him physical harm should she have actual cause for it.) Five years is also enough time to look back at your younger self (or someone you know’s) and go ‘oh you poor child you know nothing’. So I can see him currently drawing a distinction between Sal (capable of regret, depending on how much detail he remembers of the incident he might recognize she was terrified, in general a fellow 13-year-old,) and Blaine (who feels no remorse whatsoever and whose only regret is that he got caught, and who is a mob stooge who murdered his co-conspirator.)
At the time, though, it sounds like he was kind of in shock during the incident/immediate aftermath? So I can buy him NOT processing how fucked up it was to be in that situation, at least not immediately. (I may have been optimistic in thinking maybe Naomi considered therapy.) Pretty sure he’d react in about the same way to Blaine taking him hostage at 13 as he did to Sal, with maybe some actual ‘why is Amber’s Dad doing this?’ thoughts involved.
He had a knife at his throat. He was in danger. Don’t minimize that.
Sal didn’t want to hurt him, but she was freaked out and panicking. He could very easily have been hurt or even killed there. Something startles her and her hand slips. He tries to struggle and gets cut in the process.
It’s like the “don’t point a gun at someone you don’t intend to shoot”. Just doing so massively increases the risk of harm – even if you don’t want to.
Plus of course any trauma he got out of that doesn’t not happen because she didn’t really want to hurt or go away now that he meets her and realizes she regrets it.
One can have sympathy for Sal in that situation without downplaying how bad it was.
All true, fair enough. I think the fact that it seems like he hasn’t fully processed the trauma (based off what he’s saying here) makes it seem like there are a lot fewer hard feelings there in general? If it hits like an anvil now I would not be surprised, and any distinction he’d draw is less about Sal’s threat level at the time (because yeah. Either of them could have moved and it would have been bad, he was actually in more direct danger there than with Blaine,) and more about having some sympathy for Sal where Blaine merits none.
It’s just like all those times my dad would grab us roughly and threaten to put us in the hospital but then assured us later he’d NEVER really hurt us…
Definitely erases all trauma when you find out later the person very credibly threatening you wasn’t really going to do it!
*Crying laughing poo emoji*
As somebody who lost AND regained Internet service today, I think Amber needs to unplug, and replug again after at least thirty seconds…possibly six to seven hours.
(iPhone) To get it to work I usually press on the space to the right and beneath the strip. Above the hive works banner, due right of the arrow controls.
Last we saw, he didn’t seem to be angry with Sal about the gas station incident. So he’d either need more time to process it, or he’d have to change his mind despite Sal having nothing to do with executing Blaine’s plan.
So, I know it’s a bit late now, but THEORY TIME: Becky isn’t actually as together as she wants anyone to think, and she is in fact running on fumes and due for a breakdown that will absolutely happen if she stops to think about her life.
… Honestly, I kind of do provided she’s still at the hospital when it happens. Linda may not change her mind in response to the public shaming that would ensue (because Ethan would get the Warners, or they’d overhear, and I cannot imagine them taking well to her trying to get one of their son’s best friends expelled – the best friend he got injured saving from the father they already know to be a garbage bag – on his supposed behalf, for things the garbage bag father did,) but she sure as hell would have to change tacks in response to it.
Yeah, I really like to think that the Warners would go full Mama/Papa Bear over Amber right now. Tho tbh I imagined them doing it to Naomi, but Linda is also deserving. (The idea of the two of them getting angry scares me.)
Hopefully Amber’s emoji speak doesn’t last too long, I imagine she’ll need more articulate communication in the near future. Especially if Linda decides to confront Amber directly, although that seems unlikely at the moment.
Also, what has happened to the goons working for Blaine? Are they also arrested and thus missingnout on midterms? Or did they get away scot free?
Does Linda really deserve better than emoji-speak, though? I like the idea of her being a complete asshole to Amber and Amber just not even looking at her or saying anything remotely articulate.
When’s the first time Amber was taken hostage? I mean, at the convenience store, it was pretty clearly only Ethan. Sal even specified “A hostage” when she grabbed the kid. What am I forgetting? (Assuming we agree that her being kept hostage for years by her dad, both literally and psychologically, don’t count.)
Ethan was the one held at knifepoint, Amber and Ethan both clearly consider her also a hostage in that situation since she was so close by and Sal wouldn’t have responded well to Amber trying to do anything – including leave. There was also no reason but proximity for Sal to grab Ethan over Amber – had she been so inclined (and also not a terrified 13-year-old in far over her head, obviously,) she could have attacked either or both of them.
I’ve never seen Amber this unhinged in resting mode. Girl definitely needs extensive therapy and should have been getting it since right after Daddy moved out.
It’s less ‘unhinged,’ more ‘completely and totally drained.’ Coming up with words and describing how Mike’s parents are right now is a lot harder than she’s up for, so: Emotions, relying on their mutually understood meanings to convey subjects that would take more words. Unusual but I can see it.
(Then again, I’m autistic and this strikes me as a step between ‘overwhelmed by emotions past the point of words’ and ‘straight up nonverbal due to stress.’)
She does ABSOLUTELY need a competent and supportive therapist, though, and probably should have started seeing one right after the convenience store incident.
“I’m not an expert on mom-shaggin economic, but if I had a nickel for every time I was held hostage, I have it on good authority I’d have shagged two dudes’ mom’s by now.”
To be fair, the first time was accidental – but the second time was intentional on the part of the hostage-taker, which really makes it suck that much worse.
It was less actively malicious and less planned out and from what we’ve seen on Ethan’s part, the first time doesn’t seem to have traumatised him much or he was mostly over it even before talking to Sal as he seemed to believe Amber was overreacting and being a bit paranoid when she learned Sal was nearby and tried to warn him.
The POTENTIAL trauma isn’t any less but I don’t think it really hit him until now how much the first time actually sucked until it happened a second time whereas before it was kind of just ‘this bad thing that happened’ for him while Amber was heavily traumatised by it.
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🦹♂️🦶🪢👩👩👧👧🤬
🙇🙆♀️🙅♂️🏃♀️💃💥🕵️♂️
🚗💥🤛🏍️
🧒🏻🚏
Translation, please.
Especially since the 3rd image in the first line doesn’t show up/can’t be displayed on my computer anyway.
It’s supposed to be the “knot” emoji.
Seconding that request. I just see a bunch of error boxes because my tablet doesn’t have two thirds of the characters you used…
🚏🦁
Superhero, foot, knot, family, angry
Bow/sweat, arms making ‘O’, arms making ‘X’, run, dance, POW, detective
Car, POW, fist punching left, motorcycle
Smirk, bus stop
For the first line, I have
something male something something angry. It’s clearly not right since there’s multiple broken images there, The rest of the lines miraculously agree with you (as in, I can’t believe I actually have all of those symbols, while missing so many from the top line. How did that happen?!? It could only be a Festivus miracle.)
Twitter failed me, I was using that to pick emojis
it’s “male supervillain” in the first line, (small asian child) in the last line, but yeah
actually, maybe Facebake, bc I used that to make the “Asian” smirk
I read this and had to scroll back up because what the fuck is a Prisoner Of War emoji?
but no it’s pow like Tai QC’s elbow
Bird, hazard sign, tapir, tapir, tapir, wristwatch, tapir, upward pointing hand with partially formed sixth finger, Unwritten Sigil of A’otma, glass of milk, semicolon, tapir, supplementary private use area A character U+10FFFE, your exact car with barely legible but nevertheless correct license plate, tapir…. sheepish grin
You know, people used to write in hieroglyphics, but then they developed a written language with letters that made words that had meaning. And it was generally considered by all and sundry to be an improvement.
So why the rush to go back to an archaic system of pictures that aren’t all that clear to everyone? We might as well say, “Who needs cars with automatic transmissions and fuel injection — let’s all go back to ‘three on the tree’ and carburetors”, or “who needs air conditioning in the summer and central heating in the winter — let’s all go back to sweating like a farmhand when it’s hot and shoveling coal or chopping wood for the furnace in the basement when it’s not”.
Hieroglyphics are basically comics, so this is a weird place to complain about ’em!
(You’re probably thinking of pictographs. Hieroglyphics were for-real a combination of images and language, arranged sequentially across a surface to tell a narrative. Again, comics.)
Pictographs, hieroglyphics, whatever … I didn’t use that as an example to start an argument. But yesterday in the comments Doctor_Who posted a non-canon conversation between Amber and Ethan in which Amber replied to Ethan with a golfer symbol — which I was advised is supposed to represent “FORE” and would thus be the answer “four” to Ethan’s question about how much sleep she got. But if you see the symbol only as a golfer and not make the connection between that, the word “Fore”, and the number “four”, you might as well be trying to read a coded message without the correct “A = (letter)” key.
People’s brains work differently. For some people expressing and even understanding emojis makes more sense than words.
I am not one of them. I find emojis to be ambiguous and confusing. But I understand that many people feel that way about words, too.
Most things are done and refined for their efficiency. Using unique symbols and forming words with them is a good example of that. But thankfully not everything is done for efficiency, some are done for fun… Perhaps this might be one such case?
In addition to Willis’s comment on you mixing up hieroglyphs and pictographs, pictographs have the potential benefit of communicating a sentiment in any language.
I forget which Olympic Summer Games it was, but they commissioned a graphic designer to make all the direction signs, so instead of writing “swimming” in 50ish languages, it was just a pictograph of someone swimming and an arrow, and everybody got it regardless of what language they spoke.
Of course, there’s still room for misinterpretations. A thumbs up can mean something completely different across cultures, for example.
One could argue that all language is nothing but an archaic system of symbols which aren’t clear to everyone. One won’t and wouldn’t argue that, but one could.
Huh, and yesterday I thought I was joking by having Amber speak in emojis.
Although “Poop” is a perectly valid way to describe this whole situation.
Poop with sunglasses……..
Egglpant emoji?
1/5 stars
(stupid rating system, won’t let me rate less)
1 small asteroid /5 stars
Only difference is the people holding you captive this time Around was actually considering hurting everybody.
I’m not sure he is aware of the difference though. He was held at knife point. That’s usually a situation where people think they are in danger.
I think having met Sal since, he’s at least aware NOW that she’s a decent person and regrets her actions to the point of genuine awkwardness. (That said, he’s also aware now that she could cause him physical harm should she have actual cause for it.) Five years is also enough time to look back at your younger self (or someone you know’s) and go ‘oh you poor child you know nothing’. So I can see him currently drawing a distinction between Sal (capable of regret, depending on how much detail he remembers of the incident he might recognize she was terrified, in general a fellow 13-year-old,) and Blaine (who feels no remorse whatsoever and whose only regret is that he got caught, and who is a mob stooge who murdered his co-conspirator.)
At the time, though, it sounds like he was kind of in shock during the incident/immediate aftermath? So I can buy him NOT processing how fucked up it was to be in that situation, at least not immediately. (I may have been optimistic in thinking maybe Naomi considered therapy.) Pretty sure he’d react in about the same way to Blaine taking him hostage at 13 as he did to Sal, with maybe some actual ‘why is Amber’s Dad doing this?’ thoughts involved.
He had a knife at his throat. He was in danger. Don’t minimize that.
Sal didn’t want to hurt him, but she was freaked out and panicking. He could very easily have been hurt or even killed there. Something startles her and her hand slips. He tries to struggle and gets cut in the process.
It’s like the “don’t point a gun at someone you don’t intend to shoot”. Just doing so massively increases the risk of harm – even if you don’t want to.
Plus of course any trauma he got out of that doesn’t not happen because she didn’t really want to hurt or go away now that he meets her and realizes she regrets it.
One can have sympathy for Sal in that situation without downplaying how bad it was.
All true, fair enough. I think the fact that it seems like he hasn’t fully processed the trauma (based off what he’s saying here) makes it seem like there are a lot fewer hard feelings there in general? If it hits like an anvil now I would not be surprised, and any distinction he’d draw is less about Sal’s threat level at the time (because yeah. Either of them could have moved and it would have been bad, he was actually in more direct danger there than with Blaine,) and more about having some sympathy for Sal where Blaine merits none.
It’s just like all those times my dad would grab us roughly and threaten to put us in the hospital but then assured us later he’d NEVER really hurt us…
Definitely erases all trauma when you find out later the person very credibly threatening you wasn’t really going to do it!
*Crying laughing poo emoji*
You’re supposed to do that in the toilet, Amber.
As somebody who lost AND regained Internet service today, I think Amber needs to unplug, and replug again after at least thirty seconds…possibly six to seven hours.
Is anyone else struggling to bring up the hovertext on a phone? It usually works for me.
Seconded!
The hovertext today is “would not recommend, downvoted”
(I am on desktop, so I cannot vouch for the workings or non- of mobile. Just trying to be helpful.)
Thanks Tan! (Not showing up for me either although it usually does!)
Thank you for letting those of us on mobile know.
It never has worked for me
(iPhone) To get it to work I usually press on the space to the right and beneath the strip. Above the hive works banner, due right of the arrow controls.
Not today!
It usually works for me and isn’t here, as well.
Thank the gods I’m not the only one, I was starting to go crazy.
Me too!
I thought maybe my phone was just being uncooperative, but I guess it isn’t just me.
It’s not just today’s strip. Previous comics also no longer show hover text when pressing the invisible button
Oh no, is Ethan gonna be mean to Sal.
I can’t really imagine Ethan being mean to anyone.
Maybe he’ll try to revert all her TFWiki edits, realize she doesn’t have any, and then just not know what else to do.
Also, Sal was kinda instrumental in saving the day just now, so I doubt Ethan’s going to suddenly be mad at her for what happened years ago.
tbf, Ethan was not around for that part, although I am sure he knows about it by now.
Last we saw, he didn’t seem to be angry with Sal about the gas station incident. So he’d either need more time to process it, or he’d have to change his mind despite Sal having nothing to do with executing Blaine’s plan.
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2018/comic/book-9-comic/01-flyin-to-the-red/puberty/
(And the following strip.)
Remember Ethan, this is not the new normal
So, I know it’s a bit late now, but THEORY TIME: Becky isn’t actually as together as she wants anyone to think, and she is in fact running on fumes and due for a breakdown that will absolutely happen if she stops to think about her life.
That sounds really far-fetched.
Becky not as together as she wants people to think? Nah, that can’t be right.
wow, you’re right
What were you thinking?
Sympathetic face. 🙁
I hope Linda does not try to confront Amber while she is still like this,
… Honestly, I kind of do provided she’s still at the hospital when it happens. Linda may not change her mind in response to the public shaming that would ensue (because Ethan would get the Warners, or they’d overhear, and I cannot imagine them taking well to her trying to get one of their son’s best friends expelled – the best friend he got injured saving from the father they already know to be a garbage bag – on his supposed behalf, for things the garbage bag father did,) but she sure as hell would have to change tacks in response to it.
Yeah, I really like to think that the Warners would go full Mama/Papa Bear over Amber right now. Tho tbh I imagined them doing it to Naomi, but Linda is also deserving. (The idea of the two of them getting angry scares me.)
“Middle finger lollipop eggplant middle finger.”
-Amber when that happens, probably
Thanks Mike for ruining being taken hostage!
Does this mean that they are each “The Daphne”?
(Yes, I KNOW that Amber is closer to being “The Velma”, but, that’s too close to being cliche’.)
Hopefully Amber’s emoji speak doesn’t last too long, I imagine she’ll need more articulate communication in the near future. Especially if Linda decides to confront Amber directly, although that seems unlikely at the moment.
Also, what has happened to the goons working for Blaine? Are they also arrested and thus missingnout on midterms? Or did they get away scot free?
We know they didn’t get away, because we saw Malaya talking to the cops at the scene about the one who tried unsuccessfully to flee
Does Linda really deserve better than emoji-speak, though? I like the idea of her being a complete asshole to Amber and Amber just not even looking at her or saying anything remotely articulate.
When’s the first time Amber was taken hostage? I mean, at the convenience store, it was pretty clearly only Ethan. Sal even specified “A hostage” when she grabbed the kid. What am I forgetting? (Assuming we agree that her being kept hostage for years by her dad, both literally and psychologically, don’t count.)
Just because Ethan was the only one grabbed and directly threatened with stabby doesn’t mean that Amber was not also present and menaced.
Ethan was the one held at knifepoint, Amber and Ethan both clearly consider her also a hostage in that situation since she was so close by and Sal wouldn’t have responded well to Amber trying to do anything – including leave. There was also no reason but proximity for Sal to grab Ethan over Amber – had she been so inclined (and also not a terrified 13-year-old in far over her head, obviously,) she could have attacked either or both of them.
Reported.
Reported?
(As a social-media thingie Amber might communicate in, not something here in the comments that I actually reported.)
Is Ethan about to sidekick up?
Put on the mask Ethan.
Poop emoji’s still kinda positive
It promotes new growth!
Yeah, ‘Poop’ seems about right. There’s times that’s about all I can articulate, too.
Thumbs down
Facepalm, facepalm, poop.
Amber, when the walls fell.
Mike, his eyes open!
Amber in the basement.
Amazi-Girl in the basement.
Amber and Amazi-Girl at Becky’s apartment.
Amber and Amazi-Girl on the van.
Wayne Farmer & Needful Doer: Thanks! You have made me VERY happy.
so very poop
As the day wears on, Amber gradually works her way up to doge memes.
such mike
many injure
very sad
wow
why does Ethan – in panel 4 – remind me of F**kface?
I think it’s his expression; the furrowed brow and mouth line are very Fuckface-esque.
I’ve never seen Amber this unhinged in resting mode. Girl definitely needs extensive therapy and should have been getting it since right after Daddy moved out.
It’s less ‘unhinged,’ more ‘completely and totally drained.’ Coming up with words and describing how Mike’s parents are right now is a lot harder than she’s up for, so: Emotions, relying on their mutually understood meanings to convey subjects that would take more words. Unusual but I can see it.
(Then again, I’m autistic and this strikes me as a step between ‘overwhelmed by emotions past the point of words’ and ‘straight up nonverbal due to stress.’)
She does ABSOLUTELY need a competent and supportive therapist, though, and probably should have started seeing one right after the convenience store incident.
What does left looking eyes convey again? 👀
Discomfort, awkwardness, guilt, avoidance.
The mouseover text for yesterday’s comic is <_< <_<
Oh!!! So avoiding eye contact. It must have been this emoji 😒
“Wow, if I had a nickel for every time I was held hostage, I’d have two nickels – which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice.”
“I’m not an expert on mom-shaggin economic, but if I had a nickel for every time I was held hostage, I have it on good authority I’d have shagged two dudes’ mom’s by now.”
He snogged Mike at least twice, so he’d have lost those nickels by now.
wow so apparently i treat traumatic situations in much the same ways that both Walky AND Ethan do
To be fair, the first time was accidental – but the second time was intentional on the part of the hostage-taker, which really makes it suck that much worse.
Not really accidental – not sure how you’d take someone hostage accidentally.
Not premeditated, perhaps.
And I doubt the trauma from the experience is really any less if it wasn’t planned.
It was less actively malicious and less planned out and from what we’ve seen on Ethan’s part, the first time doesn’t seem to have traumatised him much or he was mostly over it even before talking to Sal as he seemed to believe Amber was overreacting and being a bit paranoid when she learned Sal was nearby and tried to warn him.
The POTENTIAL trauma isn’t any less but I don’t think it really hit him until now how much the first time actually sucked until it happened a second time whereas before it was kind of just ‘this bad thing that happened’ for him while Amber was heavily traumatised by it.
Downvoting? Now THAT is truly evil!
don’t put your fingers on your glaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaasses
Ethan in panel five: “This might as well happen.” – John Mulaney
It’s hard to take this seriously with Amber taking like that