I don’t think it’s actually reverting back. Jennifer’s always been like this and ultimately the changes we saw last semester where maybe a brief moment in her life. And frankly that moment in particular was a pretty emotionally taxing one, dating Ruth, so it makes sense she’d go back to her old priorities, minus the stress of that relationship.
Okay but Becky’s a big stupid idiot dumb dumb because she saw two people who don’t want to talk to each other and decided they’ll definitely fall in love again and kill themselves, so she harassed them a whole bunch in class in front of their teacher so one or them would drop out.
So like maybe Becky’s opinion is worthless and only correct in the sense that these two people who don’t want to date are still not dating, and to solve this she forcibly outed them in a public space in front of their new teacher.
Whatever the very real problems with that relationship, those old priorities were pretty messed up as well. The obsession with popularity and status, especially based on past glories as a cheerleader. Not to mention the alcoholism.
And I’m not sure I see the difference between “go back to her old priorities” and “reverting back”.
That said, we don’t know how much she’s reverted back – the uniform went up on the wall when she first moved into the new dorm, so it’s not really a sign of any change.
I don’t think it was ever framed, just pinned up on the corkboard (that also explains how Ruth was able to get her hands on it so easily).
Custom-framing something can run into some serious money. I once had a panoramic picture (about 36″ by 11″) mounted and custom-framed and it cost me pver $200 – and that was just a picture. For something like a skirt and top the overall dimensions would be huge by comparison, and because of the thickness would need to be something more like a shadow-box – and that could run into beaucoup bucks.
Yeah it’s not actually framed, but I may have a bad habit of using frame to refer to any sort of deliberate placement because my brain is so used to talking about things that exist within frames.
I’m not sure this is a healthy dynamic? Walky’s cool but Jennifer’s been pretty clear she doesn’t to interact with him so I don’t know how to feel here.
For now, no, but like 6 months-ish back, it was his bunk she was retreating to when she wanted a comforting presence. I kinda get the feeling she appreciates that the option remains open.
True, but I can only go by what Jennifer’s said and her actions depicted. So trying to respect that it’s clear she’s put a lot of work into trying to redefine herself and have a fresh start this semester. Even if the whole reinventing thing is a regular occurrence for her she might relapse on, and Walky might know her better than we do, it’s still a little weird to me.
Most of what she’s said and done seems to indicate that this semester is a take two on the same attempt she made in the first semester, which is to say redefine herself as a cool kid. The fact that she’s been marginally more successful so far and has found a group to feed into a sense of superiority does not change the fact that not all reinventions are created equal, or that she’s expressed no actual grievance with Walky, and we’ve seen nothing that indicates she’s not just cutting him off because he’s a dork and she feels like she’s moved up in the world.
If nothing else, she seems to have absolutely no justification to have sufficient boundaries drawn to bar Lucy from bringing her boyfriend to their room. Sure Walky is needling her here, but she definitely made the first shot in that exchange.
Well he’s kind of immature and annoying, and gets a big kick out of teasing her. I think a couple days ago in-comic he followed her around calling her “Babe” to make fun of an endearment she uses with her boyfriend. I can understand why she’s not thrilled to see him here.
Sure, but she’s hassled him far worse in the past and she’s still turned to him and he’s tried to support her in her worst moments. On a surface level it’s understandable, but it’s also part of an unhealthy pattern for her.
That’s completely fair. She doesn’t want to see him or interact with him until she’s in crisis and needs emotional support. But I disagree with the idea that she doesn’t want to associate with him only because of social status. Walky is a lot sometimes and people may need a break.
That might be why you wouldn’t want to associate with him. Who knows, maybe she’s changed her reasons too. She’s been pretty clear about it in the past.
I mean, Jennifer hasn’t ever implied he did any sort of hurt to her that would mean he’s crossing any lines by being in her room when invited by her roommate. He’s not there to stalk her or anything, he’s there to spend time with his girlfriend. Jennifer is the one who initiated annoyed sibling style conversation. She may be re-inventing herself, but Walky is still allowed to make an effort to continue being her friend and to try to find a way that she’s still willing to have him in her life. And I think it’s being a good friend to remind her that there were some good parts of Billie that he loved. Maybe I’m reading a lot into “Hey, Buttface!” but I have siblings and friends who are like siblings, and that’s what I’d read into it if Walky were one of my sibling-friends.
And even if Jennifer makes it clear she doesn’t want to be friends with Walky, he’s still allowed to be there. He hasn’t done anything to cross her other than be geeky and maybe kind of annoying. She doesn’t have to give him the time of day, but she also doesn’t get to ban her roommate from inviting people over just because Jennifer arbitrarily doesn’t want to see them anymore.
I’m not sure it was ever a completely healthy dynamic, but at least they were friends who were close enough that they were almost siblings for a while there. Now that she’s with Asher, Jennifer seems to want to avoid Walky and all the people she befriended in the first semester of college, and I’m hoping we find out what caused that since I really don’t trust Asher.
I’m willing to be surprised, but at this point I’m expecting the only cause to be the end of hers and Ruth’s relationship, because this behavior is consistent with what she was trying to do in the very beginning of DoA. Just seems like a return to form to me.
So the consensus is that Jennifer has made no indication she doesn’t want to interact with Walky, except for just now, when she implied exactly that, which was a “first shot” that justifies Walky deliberately winding her up.
As an annoying brother myself, I really want to be on Walky’s side here, but my goodness, people are making it difficult…
I mean yeah what you said exactly but without being sarcastic.
Walky’s dating Lucy, he’s gonna be in her room sometimes. Also it’s probably really difficult to suddenly abandon a lifelong friend and probably worth at least some questioning as to why it’s happened, especially since Walky is one of like two people in the whole series she’s ever let herself be genuinely, entirely vulnerable towards.
In highschool my locker was next to this upper class man who was soon gorgeous to me and my friend. Until he started talking. Then he suddenly looked like his face was smashed in from the center.
…he got expelled for selling weed gummy bears to 7th graders a while later
I’m really struggling to get a good read on post-time-skip Jennifer. I’m hoping the upcoming Halloween flashback arc will shed some light on where she’s coming from now.
And after that is This Was Halloween, a chapter in which we do not only not get a Halloween flashback, but in which Halloween is never actually mentioned.
Much as I always think of Billie as the Lucy van Pelt of this comic strip, I just realized that Walky is essentially the Snoopy.
(Lucy herself is perhaps the Sally. Joyce is sort of the Charlie Brown by default. And Dorothy … is the atheist Linus. Becky is a lot like Peppermint Patty, but does that make Dina Marcie? She’s perhaps more of a Schroeder. I do like the joke of making Sal Peppermint Patty, which makes Marcie … Marcie.)
Nah, that IS his upper lip. You can also notice it on other characters.
I think Willis has started drawing those ever since the time skip, but I may be wrong on that. It’s not that noticeable unless you have a close-up like here or are looking out for it.
Jennifer now seems to want to be nothing more than half of a relationship. Can’t wait to see more of her and Asher. Especially to see more about the ways in which Asher was definitely deeply involved in getting everybody kidnapped and Blaine killed, despite being officially “out” of the mob.
(This is why no one trusts people who leave the mob, Asher. I mean, not even mobsters trust them, they usually just kill them rather than letting them leave.)
But anyway, this is going to blow up so badly and it’s scary because we don’t know how anybody in the comic is going to even suspect Asher’s crimes. I’ve speculated Jennifer was going to do a journalism on the town police corruption, that could make for some nice dramatics. . .
Jennifer seems to primarily define herself in terms of other people. Who she’s in a relationship with is a big aspect of it, but she’s spent a huge chunk of her time in this comic trying to redefine herself as one of the cool kids. She really needs that external validation, it seems.
Oh yeah, people aren’t gonna take that well, even if he was only tangentially involved and no one planned to murder those guys.
Well, he might get a pass for Ross, the gay hating family destroyin school shootin jackass. But people liked Mike. Okay, a few people. Okay, “liked” is a strong word. *cough*
Just don’t involve yourself in businesses that profit from killing people, Asher.
Though technically, Asher’s only action in the affair came after Mike’s injury. He apparently pulled the fire alarm that allowed the kidnapping. The fight between Mike and Amazi-Girl and Ross and Blaine was the night before.
It’s hard to pin responsibility for Mike’s death on him.
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Thanks for filling out last survey everyone!!!
As surprised as a few of you may have been of the results, the data will be a BIG help to me!!! 😁
A few more of these and I’ll be well on my way to making a DOA GAME!!! 😆
Now, tell me….
What device(s) do you use for gaming THE MOST 🕹️
https://strawpoll.com/polls/LVyKx0zL7n0
Does a chess board count?
I doubt it’d count much less than my Super NES… xD
Huh, she fixed and framed her old uniform. That seems an ominous symbol.
didn’t she do that before the timeskip?
Maybe? Yes, yes. You are correct. Never mind.
Anyway, its funny because in frame it reads ‘Drag’ which is what Jennifer is being.
How? It’s been established from the start of the comic that Jen is very proud of her past cheerleading status.
I just figured that it was sort of her reverting towards her old-self where she was obsessed with popularity and superficial status.
I don’t think it’s actually reverting back. Jennifer’s always been like this and ultimately the changes we saw last semester where maybe a brief moment in her life. And frankly that moment in particular was a pretty emotionally taxing one, dating Ruth, so it makes sense she’d go back to her old priorities, minus the stress of that relationship.
I think it’s telling that Becky, the ultimate shipper, thinks Jennifer and Ruth should stay the Hell away from one another.
Okay but Becky’s a big stupid idiot dumb dumb because she saw two people who don’t want to talk to each other and decided they’ll definitely fall in love again and kill themselves, so she harassed them a whole bunch in class in front of their teacher so one or them would drop out.
So like maybe Becky’s opinion is worthless and only correct in the sense that these two people who don’t want to date are still not dating, and to solve this she forcibly outed them in a public space in front of their new teacher.
Whatever the very real problems with that relationship, those old priorities were pretty messed up as well. The obsession with popularity and status, especially based on past glories as a cheerleader. Not to mention the alcoholism.
And I’m not sure I see the difference between “go back to her old priorities” and “reverting back”.
That said, we don’t know how much she’s reverted back – the uniform went up on the wall when she first moved into the new dorm, so it’s not really a sign of any change.
The last tim we saw her phone the avatar was still a picture of her in the uniform.
I wonder if she’s changed it.
She’s always had her uniform framed. Her fixing the damage Ruth did might be a sign but I can’t tell if she has.
I don’t think it was ever framed, just pinned up on the corkboard (that also explains how Ruth was able to get her hands on it so easily).
Custom-framing something can run into some serious money. I once had a panoramic picture (about 36″ by 11″) mounted and custom-framed and it cost me pver $200 – and that was just a picture. For something like a skirt and top the overall dimensions would be huge by comparison, and because of the thickness would need to be something more like a shadow-box – and that could run into beaucoup bucks.
Billie’s family is rich, remember.
Jennifer herself has a habit of handing $20 bills to multiple characters just to get them to stop talking.
Yeah it’s not actually framed, but I may have a bad habit of using frame to refer to any sort of deliberate placement because my brain is so used to talking about things that exist within frames.
Love their dynamic, tbh.
Yeah, it’s one of my favorites, in its way.
…Yeah, that tracks.
Siblings in all but blood.
If Walky gives her enough shit, we might see that, too.
Honestly, even if Jennifer’s doing her own thing these days, I do think she’d miss it if Walky went all David instead.
Last panel: Jennifer wondering which of them she should name her oncoming migraine after.
You missed a panel. The last one is Walky.
The Doctor operates on a different plane thanst thee, and can see a panel otherwise hidden.
Thanst!!!
I’m not sure this is a healthy dynamic? Walky’s cool but Jennifer’s been pretty clear she doesn’t to interact with him so I don’t know how to feel here.
For now, no, but like 6 months-ish back, it was his bunk she was retreating to when she wanted a comforting presence. I kinda get the feeling she appreciates that the option remains open.
True, but I can only go by what Jennifer’s said and her actions depicted. So trying to respect that it’s clear she’s put a lot of work into trying to redefine herself and have a fresh start this semester. Even if the whole reinventing thing is a regular occurrence for her she might relapse on, and Walky might know her better than we do, it’s still a little weird to me.
Most of what she’s said and done seems to indicate that this semester is a take two on the same attempt she made in the first semester, which is to say redefine herself as a cool kid. The fact that she’s been marginally more successful so far and has found a group to feed into a sense of superiority does not change the fact that not all reinventions are created equal, or that she’s expressed no actual grievance with Walky, and we’ve seen nothing that indicates she’s not just cutting him off because he’s a dork and she feels like she’s moved up in the world.
If nothing else, she seems to have absolutely no justification to have sufficient boundaries drawn to bar Lucy from bringing her boyfriend to their room. Sure Walky is needling her here, but she definitely made the first shot in that exchange.
Well he’s kind of immature and annoying, and gets a big kick out of teasing her. I think a couple days ago in-comic he followed her around calling her “Babe” to make fun of an endearment she uses with her boyfriend. I can understand why she’s not thrilled to see him here.
Sure, but she’s hassled him far worse in the past and she’s still turned to him and he’s tried to support her in her worst moments. On a surface level it’s understandable, but it’s also part of an unhealthy pattern for her.
Unhealthy pseudo-sibling bickering.
That’s completely fair. She doesn’t want to see him or interact with him until she’s in crisis and needs emotional support. But I disagree with the idea that she doesn’t want to associate with him only because of social status. Walky is a lot sometimes and people may need a break.
That might be why you wouldn’t want to associate with him. Who knows, maybe she’s changed her reasons too. She’s been pretty clear about it in the past.
I’ll also remind you that she could have ignored him here, or just said nothing. Jennifer is the one who started this exchange with a snipe at Walky.
I mean, Jennifer hasn’t ever implied he did any sort of hurt to her that would mean he’s crossing any lines by being in her room when invited by her roommate. He’s not there to stalk her or anything, he’s there to spend time with his girlfriend. Jennifer is the one who initiated annoyed sibling style conversation. She may be re-inventing herself, but Walky is still allowed to make an effort to continue being her friend and to try to find a way that she’s still willing to have him in her life. And I think it’s being a good friend to remind her that there were some good parts of Billie that he loved. Maybe I’m reading a lot into “Hey, Buttface!” but I have siblings and friends who are like siblings, and that’s what I’d read into it if Walky were one of my sibling-friends.
And even if Jennifer makes it clear she doesn’t want to be friends with Walky, he’s still allowed to be there. He hasn’t done anything to cross her other than be geeky and maybe kind of annoying. She doesn’t have to give him the time of day, but she also doesn’t get to ban her roommate from inviting people over just because Jennifer arbitrarily doesn’t want to see them anymore.
I’m going to go with reaction formation.
I have the feeling if someone says “healthy” in this room everyone will look at them like “are we making up words now?”
Oh, oh, i’ve got one! “well-adjusted”!
I’m not sure it was ever a completely healthy dynamic, but at least they were friends who were close enough that they were almost siblings for a while there. Now that she’s with Asher, Jennifer seems to want to avoid Walky and all the people she befriended in the first semester of college, and I’m hoping we find out what caused that since I really don’t trust Asher.
I’m willing to be surprised, but at this point I’m expecting the only cause to be the end of hers and Ruth’s relationship, because this behavior is consistent with what she was trying to do in the very beginning of DoA. Just seems like a return to form to me.
Returning to form, but labeling it as progress.
So the consensus is that Jennifer has made no indication she doesn’t want to interact with Walky, except for just now, when she implied exactly that, which was a “first shot” that justifies Walky deliberately winding her up.
As an annoying brother myself, I really want to be on Walky’s side here, but my goodness, people are making it difficult…
I mean yeah what you said exactly but without being sarcastic.
Walky’s dating Lucy, he’s gonna be in her room sometimes. Also it’s probably really difficult to suddenly abandon a lifelong friend and probably worth at least some questioning as to why it’s happened, especially since Walky is one of like two people in the whole series she’s ever let herself be genuinely, entirely vulnerable towards.
She will never admit she’s kinda in love with him. Still.
I am with Joyce in shipping them!
Ugh. Jennifer. 😒
Oh. Jennifer. 😒
If she wasn’t such a bourgeois prick, I might just call her hot.
I’m almost willing to send my parasite spores to rescue that beautiful body from that repugnant brain. 👾 🧠 👾
Too bad I’m busy.
I can’t tell you how many people i was attracted to – until they started talking.
In highschool my locker was next to this upper class man who was soon gorgeous to me and my friend. Until he started talking. Then he suddenly looked like his face was smashed in from the center.
…he got expelled for selling weed gummy bears to 7th graders a while later
I’d call her hot in addition to be a bourgeois prick. In fact, it makes her hotter.
Purely purely hypothetically speaking…. how much hotter would she be if she were possessed by parasite spores?
Not at all, actually.
Not even if they made her throw yourself on you? 😛
Naw. Free Will is the sexiest thing in the world.
Does that mean you’d turn down a sex robot?
Probably. Unless it had a highly sophisticated AI that allowed it to make its own decisions. I want my lover to be free.
Alright then! All the more reason for me to learn Python!!! 🐍
Kinda fitting isn’t it? Making a robotic Eve with the help of a talking snake… 😈
Ah yes, the elusive Walky Triangle Smile.
All is well with the world.
Ooo! Speaking of which, always great to see you here Regalli!!! 😆
Did you recover any more of your spoons since you were last here?
Also, did you see the new Slipshine?
*plays Peter Gabriel’s “Steam” on the hacked Muzak*
Hmm… Good Talk…
Damn it! I forgot to include an option for Guns as a game character! 😅
Sorry maybe next time!
Well, that completely invalidates the previous poll. You’ll have to start over.
literally nobody would vote for her
Nah, I might add her anyway.
She could be like a boss or something and have the power to grow guns out of her arms and legs! 😆
Despite her name, Guns never struck me as a particularly skilled gunslinger
I would definitely vote for her.
I’m really struggling to get a good read on post-time-skip Jennifer. I’m hoping the upcoming Halloween flashback arc will shed some light on where she’s coming from now.
Might be sooner than that—the next chapter, debuting in a week or so, is titled “Don’t Stop Billie-ving”.
And after that is This Was Halloween, a chapter in which we do not only not get a Halloween flashback, but in which Halloween is never actually mentioned.
If Halloween the movie is mentioned, does that count?
Yep, sounds about right from my experiences as a sibling. Sounds exactly right.
Panel 3: You’re so annoying.
Panel 4: I know.
Panel 5: I’m doing fine without you.
Panel 6: I know.
Panel 7: …I missed you too, I guess.
Panel 3: “Did you just describe our conversations as ‘witty?'”
Panel 4: “Yep!”
Panel 5: “I’m just waiting for the punchline after you realize that’s not true.”
Panel 6: “What a swell interaction we’re having!”
Panel 7: “You’re… you’re not actually thinking about what you said, are you.”
Panel 8: “Hey, Buttface!”
This whole thing was your idea at the beginning Billie you can’t pretend to be mad when you were the original shipper.
in addition to which, she was the one who advised Lucy to close the deal.
*scrolls down*…… I am well aware that it’s my own fault for believing there was a not 0% chance Jennifer’s tag was changed to “Buttface”
And when you click on it, it cues the laughtrack.
i want to be walky’s friend tbh
Me too.
Yeah bruh! 🥰
Tbh I’ve had friends who were waaay more annoying, atleast walky is funny at times.
I miss Billie. She was a more fun variety of jerk.
Billie x Jennifer…I ship it.
So she travels back in time and fucks herself? I dig it! 😆
Look it’s about time someone told her to go fuck herself 😛
I keep forgetting she trying to emphasize her actual name. Haven’t seen her in a while.
And she wasn’t actively trying to avoid all of the new friends she started making in college along with her old friend Walky.
Wait for it.
Much as I always think of Billie as the Lucy van Pelt of this comic strip, I just realized that Walky is essentially the Snoopy.
(Lucy herself is perhaps the Sally. Joyce is sort of the Charlie Brown by default. And Dorothy … is the atheist Linus. Becky is a lot like Peppermint Patty, but does that make Dina Marcie? She’s perhaps more of a Schroeder. I do like the joke of making Sal Peppermint Patty, which makes Marcie … Marcie.)
I think you might have Dina and Becky reversed. If one of them starts calling the other one Sir it’s not going to be Dina.
I mean Becky is as Peppermint Patty as they come.
It’s just Charlie Brown is Joyce.
EXACTLY
EW, NERD GERMS.
Get hot water! Get some disinfectant! Get some iodine!
Marcie was originally designed after the other Marcie, so
Jennifer is really more of a Charlie Brown. She’s definitely not the one holding the football
I really wouldn’t put it past her, if the one trying to kick was some nerd.
We’ve long established Marcie is Marcie so I think Sal has to be Peppermint Patty XD
I fought off the urge to post this…but.
I wouldn’t mind a butt on my face.You’ve drawn your fair share of butts so this wasn’t much of a surprise.
Never change Yoto
She has two cheeks and talks out of her ass. Checks out.
Full of shit so it checks out.
Walky, I think your rapier is overdue for a good stropping.
You’re forgetting the sophistication of Walky’s humor.
Butt-FAAAACE!
Does Walky have some peach fuzz on his upper lip?
It seems to be a recent development.
Nah, that IS his upper lip. You can also notice it on other characters.
I think Willis has started drawing those ever since the time skip, but I may be wrong on that. It’s not that noticeable unless you have a close-up like here or are looking out for it.
I think it’s a gradual stylistic change because he’s always had slightly defined lips but now it’s been quite a bit more prominent post timeskip.
I miss Billie
Then the next storyline seems tailor made for you. Keep it up!
I admit, I kind of like Jennifer more than I like Billie.
But I know the APPEARANCE of maturity and leaving behind toxic friendships/relationships hides what is undoubtedly a horrific snake pit of problems.
Because there’s no way she’s actually gotten better.
Kudos to Walky for still trying to be a good friend with her.
Jennifer now seems to want to be nothing more than half of a relationship. Can’t wait to see more of her and Asher. Especially to see more about the ways in which Asher was definitely deeply involved in getting everybody kidnapped and Blaine killed, despite being officially “out” of the mob.
(This is why no one trusts people who leave the mob, Asher. I mean, not even mobsters trust them, they usually just kill them rather than letting them leave.)
But anyway, this is going to blow up so badly and it’s scary because we don’t know how anybody in the comic is going to even suspect Asher’s crimes. I’ve speculated Jennifer was going to do a journalism on the town police corruption, that could make for some nice dramatics. . .
Jennifer seems to primarily define herself in terms of other people. Who she’s in a relationship with is a big aspect of it, but she’s spent a huge chunk of her time in this comic trying to redefine herself as one of the cool kids. She really needs that external validation, it seems.
in this way, Asher got Mike and Ross killed too. I really wonder how or when or if this is all gonna come out.
Oh yeah, people aren’t gonna take that well, even if he was only tangentially involved and no one planned to murder those guys.
Well, he might get a pass for Ross, the gay hating family destroyin school shootin jackass. But people liked Mike. Okay, a few people. Okay, “liked” is a strong word. *cough*
Just don’t involve yourself in businesses that profit from killing people, Asher.
Though technically, Asher’s only action in the affair came after Mike’s injury. He apparently pulled the fire alarm that allowed the kidnapping. The fight between Mike and Amazi-Girl and Ross and Blaine was the night before.
It’s hard to pin responsibility for Mike’s death on him.
Yup