I wonder how much of this feeds into her insufferability? I mean, this is certainly a factor with Jennifer, whose parents are also well-off. And it certainly contributed to her mental well-being, enabling her to transition with relative ease. And financially privileged people tend to behave as if they’re above critique. Everyone around them is of lesser importance and thus unable to shame them. I like Carla for who she is, but her behavior fits a pattern that makes me rethink what she represents.
We have good reason to believe that Carla’s transition was in fact, massively stressful. Jacob’s brother made his name fighting transphobic legislation, knows Carla on a first name basis, and Carla assumes everyone knows who she is.
It really seems like her transition was litigated in a prominent court case, and even if you win that fight that was still probably not a great experience.
Yeah, a lot of trans people deal with a lot of shit already in their lives during transition, so many of them kind of have to end up becoming their own hype-person and act with a ton of faked self-confidence and importance, because everybody else (it feels like) is already working to bring them down. Some can end up being a bit insufferable to other people who aren’t close to them as a result.
Carla’s coming out ended up on the cover of Newsweek, because she’s the child of kazillionaires and Carla explicitly thanked Jacob’s brother for his help with the court case, so it was definitely related to her.
There is a possibility that Harrison assisting Carla in court and Harrison helping defeat anti-trans legislation are two distinct cases. Which I kinda hope, since the combination would certainly have been more stressful for Carla than just the litigation against the magazine.
Honestly, even if the parents are 100% supportive, and also you’re Carla, having your transition on the cover of Newsweek does not sound like a fun time.
Honestly and like I know Jennifer is half white but I genuinely think that a lot of crap that Jennifer gets from the fan base is because she’s an Asian woman that doesn’t act overly submissive/docile/servile towards other characters. :/
Naw, Jennifer is just not very nice. She has good qualities, but they’re buried deep and only occasionally break to the surface. Like Walky, she was designed as a “white” character and was only perceived as non-white by the audience, until Willis decided to lean into that perception to diversivy his cast. As a result, Jennifer being of Asian descent is still very much an informed aspect instead of somehow integral to the character, while Dina much more closely resembles the stereotype you describe, albeit not for cultural reasons. The funny thing is I don’t resent Malaya for her behavior, since she’s equally unpleasant towards almost everybody, while I think Jennifer is a bongo who is capable of being a much better person.
Naw. I can’t speak for everyone else, but I forget she’s supposed to half-asian until someone brings it up. It’s not brought up enough to really stand out about her.
I think a decent percentage of Carla’s behaviour can be explained by a combination of immense privilege and intense oppression. She’s in a really weird place intersectionality-wise, and it’s going to have some weird effects.
I think in Jennifer’s case it was specifically the money in combination with the emotional neglect from her parents that led to her being so superficial and egotistical
Based on what we’ve witnessed from them thus far, I bet they could “get over” any latent transphobia real fuckin’ quick once they realized their little social climber was schtuppin’ a billionaire heiress!
Also if they found out about Carla being trans (does Walky actually know that?) well Carla doesn’t deserve to hear the shit that might spill out Linda’s mouth about that.
Walky seems to think Linda would be fine with him bringing home a white guy but being fine with you son being gay/bi isn’t necessarily the same as being fine with your son dating a trans woman.
Also, I’d like to point out that Linda was on a warpath to get Amber expelled not too long ago. When they call her the “worst white girl,” it’s probably because of that. Still a terrible idea, but possibly not as disrespectful as it seems
Omg it’s Sal’s boyfriend’s ex girlfriend who stabbed her and she’s going to show up right now when Sal’s parents are finally approving of her. I want to watch this actually.
She hates the morons who let a kidnapper who brought a gun to her kids school out so he could kidnap her precious angel and Sal.
I don’t recall any other evidence she hates fandamentalists as a rule though.
Because A, Mary isn’t likely to agree to be the “bad example”, and B, she might not display the absurd christian fundie judgementalism/hypocrisy that makes her the worst. It’s sad, but you can’t necessarily count on a shitty person to display their shittiest qualities at the most convenient times unless you’ve pre-arranged it with them, and I get the feeling Mary wouldn’t be particularly amenable to that. She might decide to be genuinely delightful just to spite them.
Also Mary’s got a boyfriend. While she’s the kind of person would justify to herself seeing another man behind his back, publically being seen pretending to date someone else would be cheating!
Also I don’t think Walky has any idea who Mary is. She could be “the other fundie who went further into the deep end as opposed to Joyce who’s trying to get out” or possibly “the anime fan who thinks she’s an artist”, but definitely not “the bigot tried to get the girls’ RA to kill herself”.
she’s into girls, kind of a deal breaker.
also, if she’s anything like her walkyverse counterpart, she’s probably ace too, tho that one doesn’t really affect anything.
Some people are grand to begin with, others have grandness thrust upon them. But were she my mom, there’s not a snow ball’s chance she’d ever get to be unsupervised around my kids.
As amazing as the thought of “Walky and Mary are forced to team up and pretend to date for some reason” is, none of Mary’s flaws are dealbreakers to the Walkertons.
At this point, Linda would have been too young to have voted for Regan, which seems worse. As a kid, the president is often presented to you in an idealized way. It can be jarring to grow up and realize “oh, this person sucked,” and many people don’t go the route that includes that happening.
See, this is something I thought about and specifically recalled differently. There was some awareness of poking fun at him, but nowhere near what was happening in things for adult audiences. And the idea that he should be respected was emphasized.
Really? I watched a lotta adult cartoons and comedy specials as a kid the vast majority of media shit on bush relentlessly. I know more about him from jokes at his expense than anything he actually did in office.
Eh, it depends on how old we’re talking when we say “as a kid.” Also, the “respect the president” narrative tells you shit about what they actually did, so that’s not in conflict with anything you’re saying.
The Walkertons seem to think they’re good progressive liberals who would be rightfully repulsed by Mary’s open bigotry, and just not self-reflective enough to recognize it in themselves.
Yeah I’d completely forgotten about that! Kinda hoping now that that is the angle Walky’s taking here and it’s not just because Amber’s not doing great right now.
Well you have to appreciate the irony of Walky picking his ex-girlfriend as the worst white person to introduce to her parents after just saying he’s been doing a bang up job picking girlfriends.
Doesn’t that make it a better choice? (Not for Amber, this is a teeeeerrrriible scenario for her, but in terms of Amber’s effectiveness as a less-preferable alternative to Lucy)
I’m sure this will go horribly if it goes at all, but honestly if I was Amber I’d love the opportunity to burn some bridges I don’t even care about in the first place.
…except unlike Amber, I know these people were already planning to get her expelled for a while, and Jennifer barely talked them out of it (and then they assumed she couldn’t afford to come back and left it)
Yeah, and Walky knows about the DID but I don’t think he gets how fragile Amber can be emotionally. He knows she’s damaged but I think he sees the snark and similar choices in deflecting concern to the ones he himself makes combined with her being able to be open about her garbage aspects at times and thinks she’s stronger than she is, if he thinks she can do this without taking on serious damage…
-Introduce Amber as, in addition to all the other ways they know her, “the last girl I dated.”
-Watch Linda try and struggle to position Amber as a better option than Lucy.
-???
-Profit.
Amber’s (alter’s) other ex-boyfriend who hates Walky for reasons both related and not to things with Amber. If Walky’s trying to present Amber as a “bad option,” I could def see Danny being like, “What, you think *you’re* too good for *her*?” And I imagine a whole mess following, which hopefully wouldn’t be enough to break up Sal and Danny, but could put a bit of a strain on their relationship.
I was trying to wrap my head around that Animedingo is on the right tracks. Walky will likely still bring Lucy, but also invite Amber to come with so that Amber can be turbo-Amber and Lucy can sit at the table with a smile, as a sort of “see? See?! I could have brought Amber to ya! I actually did a little over the clothes hanky pankin with her too!”
I’d say there are definitely worse options to run with, but Linda hates Amber specifically. As a teen she stabbed Sal and after Blaine kidnapped her baby boy she tried to retaliate against Amber for her father’s actions.
Thanks for pointing this out. I was hoping that Walky had a good reason for calling Amber and wasn’t just exploiting the fact that Amber has a had a hard time of it recently. That is a much better look than immediately equating “just absolute disaster of a human being” with his ex-girlfriend.
Can we take a moment to appreciate that Lucy isn’t holding Walkys parents against him and is in fact immediately on board with being a troll? Lucy is a little needy but is otherwise best-girl, imo.
it’s the funniest way to loosely adapt the shortpacked storyline where lucy became the second amazigirl – obviously she can’t literally be amazigirl in dumbing of age, but amber being a horrible influence on lucy would be the next best thing!
I more mean in the sense that, despite their best efforts, his parents are going to LOVE Amber and ask why he can’t be dating someone like her instead, and then Amber revealing he was and SHE dumped HIM. A catastrophic mess of Drama that is going to leave Sal and Danny utterly stunned that they’re not the cause of. Or, heck, maybe they blame Sal for it anyway as a bad influence on him?
Also I mean. Becky? would be worse?
Joyce has experience pretending to be a gf, and experience being an off-putting fundamentalist, I think Joyce would be a good option here.
I have not read the other willisverse comics.
I guess Amber IS the reason they were all kidnapped, and mum walkerton DID want to get her expelled from school. yeh ok.
I’m going to say early on here: Walky is not a jerk. I fully, no sarcasm, expect him to explain the situation to Amber before anything else goes on, so that Amber can play it correctly. Calling her up and introducing her to his parents as a backup GF specifically because he thinks she’s a trashfire would be mean in a way that Walky has not shown before.
(BTW if you didn’t see it last strip, would you like us to continue brainstorming in Discord or Tumblr DMs, i think your idea for a stealth DoA game is awesome)
Problem is, don’t fake dating plots usually end with them real dating by the end of the story? That’s why I said it’s a problem that Walky knows his cartoon and sitcom tropes but Amber knows Fake Dating AU.
I did just watch one series that featured fake dating that won’t end that way! But I could see Amber being like, “No go, I’m not interested in getting back together when playing this out inevitably reignites your feelings for me.” And maybe she hasn’t showered in a bit or something, so Walky’s like, “I’m pretty sure we can avoid that happening.”
*Obviously* the correct choice is Becky, who is less of a wreck than Amber but much more willing to act like a goddamn lunatic because she’d find it funny.
Eh, Linda and Chuck both seem like social climbers, I wouldn’t be surprised if they’ve got a pretty deep classist streak.
The problem with Becky is that she was running a congressional campaign in college, and they only lost because her girl forfeit. She’s got a resume and connections.
True. Although it would help explain why her assailant was never prosecuted. If the parents were afraid to press charges, out of fear for their status.
…Which is ironic, given that (at least at this point in the shifting timeline) U visas would have been available for exactly that reason. That requires a cooperative police force, though.
Plus there are scheduling problems, like making sure all of the females are off their periods on their day to get jiggy. That can be a problem if there is enough interaction between them to get them in sync. Source: BTDT. Several times.
I am kinda for this, even though part of me wishes my idea, where Lucy embraces being the “bad girl” for once, was the direction this was going. I do kind of dig it, though, in a way. It’s going to be odd, though, given their kinda-but-not-actually exes status, and Amber probably holding a grudge over the Mike stuff, but then again, we’ve seen her forgive more relatively easily, and she might be down to fuck with the Walkertons a bit.
I’m kind of more curious if Sal would approve or not. After the Malaya/Marcie thing, she has some pretty recent experience knowing this kind of thing can backfire big time.
Lucy is the kinda girl where if she tired to be bad she’d do good on accident like if she punched a random stranger in the gut. She’s cure his six week bout of Hiccups.
Well, she went through Bargaining and Anger in this strip, two more stages and she’ll be ready for the Acceptance of not being liked by Walky’s parents through no fault of her own
…He’s still trying to maintain his position ahead of Sal.
The problem is not that his GIRLFRIEND deserves better. It’s that HE deserves parental approval.
According to him.
I mean, they didn’t ever actually date. They kissed some, they dry-humped until he jizzed his pants canonically, but it was a non-starter to go beyond that because he couldn’t reconcile the “stabbed Sal” thing, and then later, his crass handling of Mike’s death because he was evading dealing with it.
It also just feels less mean-spirited when, dollars to donuts, Amber would readily accept this labeling. Besides, after Naomi Segal, I doubt she’s remotely intimidated by any other shitty mom.
The worst white woman he could introduce to LINDA.
Given her history with Sal and how Linda tried to get her expelled because her dad’s a piece of shit and only stopped because she thought she wouldn’t be able to get tuition, he’s probably not wrong Amber is the worst white woman he could specifically introduce to Linda. I don’t think it’s a slam on her personally.
I truly was away from my phone and computer last night, about to do another task, when I thought, “Oh shit, we forgot about Danny!” and had to rush back to the internet to be like, “Hey, remember Danny?”
At the current point in the story I’d say Dorothy’s worse because she’s spiraling but 1) I think she’d be able to hide it from parents for a day and 2) I don’t think even Walky really realizes how bad it is. Ruth is probably the only one who is more than 5% aware of how bad Dorothy’s losing it, and even then I’m not sure she’s that aware.
(if Jennifer knows its not because of good observations its because it’d be convenient for her ego if Dorothy was falling apart so she’ll just believe it because it feels nice”
Dorothy would be REEALLLY horribly sadistic to ask. Worse than Amber. She still very obviously has feelings for Walky, and this would be rubbing salt in the wound 100%. And she does know how to present to parents.
Also like a lot of people in the comments section Dorty’s spiral might not even read as a spiral to them. She’s in a tailspin the engine’s on fire and there are still people who think she can fix her problems by going to Yale.
Depends on what you’re looking for, I guess. They’re falling into a version of the trap that wastes so much reformist zeal: the impulse to Do Something that feels good instead of planning and executing something boring that advances toward the objective.
Other acceptable choices:
Joyce: because nostalgia
Becky: because irony and she wound find her instructions of “be whiter than bleach” to be funny
Roz or Robin: white enough, would do it for free food
I kinda wish Booster was a choice because I feel it’d be explosive. Booster knows just how to be anrasive enough.
The flipside however is that they already have a transactional relationship going on (Amber going “You like fixer uppers? Go fix my friend Ethan up!”) I feel it’d be unfair on them
Probably an unpopular opinion but I realllyyyyyy hate this story beat so far and I doubt it’s going anywhere I’m going to like. It’s not even like I hate the parents; I’m fine seeing shitty characters but this weirdly cavalier way that Walky approaches me rubs me all the wrong way for some reason.
Walky has taken a turn for the villainous with his desperate social climber girlfriend and his breezily overconfident “popular kid” jerkiness. I really dislike both of them right now.
I think part of it for Walky is he finds it hard to stop deflecting. Like, near impossible hard to just say how he feels..so we either have OTT gesticulating quickly rising into “let’s set them up with shenanigans” or him just bottling up and insisting everything is fine. It’s in character for him, and the way it’s built, he and Lucy are reassuring and comforting each other and this plan just sort of happens.
Even if Amber doesn’t want to play ball because she’s still annoyed about him trying to insist Mike’s alive and in Witness Protection because he just didn’t want to be sad and lonely for one evening and obnoxious denial seemed his best route there – his saying at the end, after really upsetting everybody else that’s what he was doing, was kinda the most genuine he’d been with a lot of those people.
From Wikipedia:
“A YouTube poop is a type of video mashup or edit created by remixing/editing pre-existing media sources often carrying subcultural significance into a new video for humorous, satirical, obscene, absurd, and profane—as well as annoying, confusing, or dramatic purposes.”
From me:
Basically you take something like a documentary about bumblebees and shuffle things around until you get something like this. Now, this example is deliberately one of the lower-key ones to avoid dropping a noise grenade on you, but a lot of them are extremely obnoxious. The creator of the linked video has a particular talent for “sentence mixing”, shuffling a person’s words and syllables around to make new ones. It’s a whole medium of its own, with subgenres and distinct editing styles between “Poopers”. Some of the longer-lasting creators even have “lore” in their videos, where they’ll add an edit from a previous video to their new ones, sometimes even mutating the edit to fit the new source.
And of course, some people just make Hank Hill say “Yup” a few dozen times and add in a clip of someone screaming a slur. But some of them will make a TV-length Breaking Bad parody where Hank becomes a drug dealer, kills somebody, and goes to prison. It’s sort of a coin flip.
If that link doesn’t work cuz I fucked up the HTML, go on YouTube and look up “Oh Yes! Love The Bees!”.
He should ask Becky, to be honest. Not because Becky’s a trashfire, but because she knows exactly how to push people’s buttons and relishes in it. If he asks her, she would be totally 100% in, just because she can do it.
The only worry is technically it would have to be okay with Dina, but Dina would probably be chill with it because she would have no real reason not to be. It’s not like she’s interested in Walky at all.
And then Becky just gradually starts dropping not at all subtle hints that she’s a lesbian and watches their reactions whenever she points out a hot girl in Walky’s vicinity.
Honestly, I think you’re joking, but I wonder whether pretending to date an obvious lesbian might actually work. Better than Amber, at least, whose issues are more subtle.
I don’t get how the logistics here are going to work though. Is Walky really going to say “oh I dumped my girlfriend, here is my new girlfriend” all by this evening and expect his parents to buy it?
First i think the same but it have more sense now. Mother i read your reaction for my previous girlfriend so I straight my path and behold my gilfriend 2.0
Intrigued as hell tbh. I didn’t expect this of Lucy (but it makes so much sense, and makes her actually interesting!), it’s just that. Man, I hope Walky explains clearly this is for the sake of shenanigans, and not because he actually thinks she’s a trash fire, omg 8’DD Like. His parents fucking loathe Amber, it’s enough of a motive.
Also this is, as some people have said, a Fake Dating AU – Which… All three of them deal with life by processing it through tropes. I’m not holding my hopes up, but my brain immediately went “holy shit policule??” and I know (fandom enby that I am) it’s not going to leave.
Correct. If you’re writing a story about a group of indistinguishable males who work at a local coffee shop and get up to various dating-type shenanigans, you’d call that a My Chemical Romance coffee shop AU.
A non facetious answer here: You’re absolutely correct! In fanfiction terminology, an AUNit’s when you grab a bunch of characters from one canon (say, DOA), and place it in another kind of universe (for example, fantasy). A “fake dating” AU is usually (not always) place them in a low stakes universe for this kind of shenanigans. It usually ends with the couple who’s doing the fake dating together :33
(Fun fact: Sometimes you can apply it to canon! DOA is It’s Walky as a College AU ;33)
All Walky has to do is introduce her as his ex and then let her explain, at length, the plot of whatever slashfic she’s working on right now. Or the real life slash between Ethan and Asher (and/or Booster?) that she’s encouraging.
Dante has a point, it’s not about Amber being the worst person ever, it’s about Amber being the worst white girl *for Walky’s parents* ! I had forgotten that plot point, now I’m expecting a lot of laughs from this storyline.
You know, i was kind of uncertain whether Lucy and Walky getting together was the best thing for them. There’s definitely still certain questions between the two of them (the whole premature ‘i love you’ thing, Walky’s ‘sudden realisation’ that Lucy is a good match for him).
But moments like this make me realise that they kind of work for each other. Moments that could be used as insecure drama are bypassed because the two of them are genre savvy in the geekiest of ways, and they bounce off each other adorably.
Though like with Sal and Danny, i am full of anxiety over the inevitable Willis-esque destruction of their relationship.
Is there gonna be some sitcom-esque stuff following this decision wherein someone not in on the plan sees Walky and Amber together and assumes they’re back together or something and even more drama ensues? I could see something like that happening but I’m hoping the plan isn’t to pretend to be dating Amber but to just show his parents a comparison? I guess I’m not too clear on the whole plan, is all.
If I had to predict how these shenanigans will ensue, Walky’s parents will see Amber for all her Amber-ness, still think she’d be a better match for Walky than Lucy, which will result in Walky chewing them out for their racism, since as someone here in the comments recently pointed out, this chapter appears to be focusing a lot on characters calling out their parents for their downright asinine behaviour.
Well yeah, not so much has happened yet, so we need to guess where it could go, form opinions about those possible directions, and then talk about them in the present like they’ve already occurred.
If you want to be able to say you “called it” in the future, you need to get in now, ideally with like five different guesses so as to cover your bases.
What, and pick someone who doesn’t know you for the scheme? Sounds like hiring an electrician to work in a bistro. Sure, it could work, but the electrician probably hasn’t seen the cook’s dick.
If the goal is to be a bad impression for the parents, I don’t think knowing Walky well is needed. However, he does have other friends that are girls and white.
I like how Lucy says “awful terrible white girls” and we all understand she’s not actually calling white girls awful and terrible, but is instead indicating that a white girl, no matter how awful, would potentially be seen more favorably by the Walkerparents.
I also like how weirdly compatible these two are, if they’d just get on the same wavelength. (Still waiting on the Walkman to clear up that little “I love you too” misunderstanding. “I’m not quite there just yet but let’s keep at it and I could be”, that’s all he’d need to say.)
Wow! Yes, okay, awesome. My face is now going to be set in a permanent cringe until this storyline is done.
Yes, let’s call the emotionally devastated mentally fractured ex-girlfriend who didn’t want to end her relationship with you to come meet your parent, possibly either pretending to still be your girlfriend or with your current girlfriend in tow. I’m sure this will go super well?
seeing people mention Linda previously trying to get Amber expelled in other comments so uh wanna say I don’t want *that* to be the backfire. just the goofy hijinks thx.
This plan will surely backfire in a very painful way. But is nice to see how similar Walky and Lucy are. The have a spectacular chemistry made of pop culture and bad decisions.
This will end in disaster. Walky’s parents will buy into this because no matter how much of a disaster she is, she is a white girl and Walky will be trapped in this made up relationship.
Well, they hate Amber for very specific reasons. She stabbed their daughter, and her dad kidnapped their son. They wanted her kicked out of the school, and only left it mainly because her dad’s dead.
Just getting this out here–but I predict that Walky will be extremely transparent about his intentions here and Amber will be like “sure, I’ll fuck with the heads of your racist parents”
well i was thinking more malaya or mary but neither of them would agree, carla might’ve for the lulz but that’d be too much effort on her part lol (or her rich status might be even more appealing to his parents)
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Bzzt bzzt
This will end well.
And the comic once again earns its name….
how is it not Carla
“she’s loaded”
…oh yeah
There is almost nothing Carla could do to or around Linda that Linda wouldn’t put a brave face on, yeah
She’s basically the American version of a princess.
An heiress who’s already financially set for life and she KNOWS it.
I wonder how much of this feeds into her insufferability? I mean, this is certainly a factor with Jennifer, whose parents are also well-off. And it certainly contributed to her mental well-being, enabling her to transition with relative ease. And financially privileged people tend to behave as if they’re above critique. Everyone around them is of lesser importance and thus unable to shame them. I like Carla for who she is, but her behavior fits a pattern that makes me rethink what she represents.
We have good reason to believe that Carla’s transition was in fact, massively stressful. Jacob’s brother made his name fighting transphobic legislation, knows Carla on a first name basis, and Carla assumes everyone knows who she is.
It really seems like her transition was litigated in a prominent court case, and even if you win that fight that was still probably not a great experience.
Yeah, a lot of trans people deal with a lot of shit already in their lives during transition, so many of them kind of have to end up becoming their own hype-person and act with a ton of faked self-confidence and importance, because everybody else (it feels like) is already working to bring them down. Some can end up being a bit insufferable to other people who aren’t close to them as a result.
I am so glad that Amber dumped this man.
Sorry that was intended as a root comment.
Carla’s coming out ended up on the cover of Newsweek, because she’s the child of kazillionaires and Carla explicitly thanked Jacob’s brother for his help with the court case, so it was definitely related to her.
There is a possibility that Harrison assisting Carla in court and Harrison helping defeat anti-trans legislation are two distinct cases. Which I kinda hope, since the combination would certainly have been more stressful for Carla than just the litigation against the magazine.
Theoretically, but narratively it just isn’t going to happen.
Yeah, I had always assumed he just helped her out with the name change paperwork
Honestly, even if the parents are 100% supportive, and also you’re Carla, having your transition on the cover of Newsweek does not sound like a fun time.
Honestly and like I know Jennifer is half white but I genuinely think that a lot of crap that Jennifer gets from the fan base is because she’s an Asian woman that doesn’t act overly submissive/docile/servile towards other characters. :/
Naw, Jennifer is just not very nice. She has good qualities, but they’re buried deep and only occasionally break to the surface. Like Walky, she was designed as a “white” character and was only perceived as non-white by the audience, until Willis decided to lean into that perception to diversivy his cast. As a result, Jennifer being of Asian descent is still very much an informed aspect instead of somehow integral to the character, while Dina much more closely resembles the stereotype you describe, albeit not for cultural reasons. The funny thing is I don’t resent Malaya for her behavior, since she’s equally unpleasant towards almost everybody, while I think Jennifer is a bongo who is capable of being a much better person.
Naw. I can’t speak for everyone else, but I forget she’s supposed to half-asian until someone brings it up. It’s not brought up enough to really stand out about her.
I think a decent percentage of Carla’s behaviour can be explained by a combination of immense privilege and intense oppression. She’s in a really weird place intersectionality-wise, and it’s going to have some weird effects.
I think in Jennifer’s case it was specifically the money in combination with the emotional neglect from her parents that led to her being so superficial and egotistical
Not to mention alcoholic and depressed.
Based on what we’ve witnessed from them thus far, I bet they could “get over” any latent transphobia real fuckin’ quick once they realized their little social climber was schtuppin’ a billionaire heiress!
That would probably help though. Although that might lead to her trying to meddle to make sure Walky winds up married to Carla.
Also if they found out about Carla being trans (does Walky actually know that?) well Carla doesn’t deserve to hear the shit that might spill out Linda’s mouth about that.
Walky seems to think Linda would be fine with him bringing home a white guy but being fine with you son being gay/bi isn’t necessarily the same as being fine with your son dating a trans woman.
Linda might know Carla is trans if she follows local politics or reads Newsweek.
Carla’s transition is implied to have been the subject of a pretty high profile lawsuit, so it’s not hard to imagine Linda knowing.
Carla is large and in charge.
Why not Mary.
Just what I was thinking.
That is it! Mary. I suddenly despise both Walky and Lucy for a) disrespecting Amber like this b) pulling this cheap trick like sitcom-addled idiots.
Amber loudly and proudly proclaimed herself to be garbage, and Walky was there with her on that particular train ride.
He’s not disrespecting her, but the ways she’s “bad girlfriend material” are all safe for him to interact. Unlike actual garbage people like Mary
and he’s calling Amber, and likely to explain the situation to her.
I can imagine him opening with “Wanna prank my mom?”
Are they not sitcom-addled idiots though?
Also, I’d like to point out that Linda was on a warpath to get Amber expelled not too long ago. When they call her the “worst white girl,” it’s probably because of that. Still a terrible idea, but possibly not as disrespectful as it seems
Omg it’s Sal’s boyfriend’s ex girlfriend who stabbed her and she’s going to show up right now when Sal’s parents are finally approving of her. I want to watch this actually.
Walky definitely is.
Mary would never help without an angle, tho.
i did think it was rude to amber 😢
but other people have pointed out that linda hates amber specifically, so
Because she’s terrible in a way his mom might approve of.
His mom, as far as I remember, hates religious fundamentalists, so I think it would probably work better than Amber.
She very specifically hates Amber, because of the stabby-stabby and kidnapping stuff.
https://www.dumbingofage.com/justify-2/
Question is, will she know who Amber is on sight?
Great memory, thank you!
She hates the morons who let a kidnapper who brought a gun to her kids school out so he could kidnap her precious angel and Sal.
I don’t recall any other evidence she hates fandamentalists as a rule though.
DING DING DING tell ’em what they’ve won!
Because A, Mary isn’t likely to agree to be the “bad example”, and B, she might not display the absurd christian fundie judgementalism/hypocrisy that makes her the worst. It’s sad, but you can’t necessarily count on a shitty person to display their shittiest qualities at the most convenient times unless you’ve pre-arranged it with them, and I get the feeling Mary wouldn’t be particularly amenable to that. She might decide to be genuinely delightful just to spite them.
Plus, Linda would probably *like* Mary.
Also Mary’s got a boyfriend. While she’s the kind of person would justify to herself seeing another man behind his back, publically being seen pretending to date someone else would be cheating!
Also I don’t think Walky has any idea who Mary is. She could be “the other fundie who went further into the deep end as opposed to Joyce who’s trying to get out” or possibly “the anime fan who thinks she’s an artist”, but definitely not “the bigot tried to get the girls’ RA to kill herself”.
Walky was there for “the bigot tried to get the girls’ RA to kill herself”
Must have forgotten that. Though I’m more annoyed about forgetting the “who” in that sentence.
Mary is the annoying girl with the scarf that his self-critical inner voice escaped into.
Because not only would Mary say “no”, she’d insist on explaining why she refused.
Isn’t Mary engaged?
To be fair, Carla didn’t stab Sal and her dad didn’t kidnap Walky.
i’d say ‘how is it not ruth’ but ruth would probably murder him for considering it
she’s into girls, kind of a deal breaker.
also, if she’s anything like her walkyverse counterpart, she’s probably ace too, tho that one doesn’t really affect anything.
plus carla and walky aren’t exactly friends lol
GARBAGESKOW!
i’m not saying the walky/amber tows garbage, i’m saying it should be towed away AS garbage
Wow, unexpected Star Trek: TOS reference! Nice!
Why, it’s Mary, of course!
Carol might still be lurking around.
So true, bestie. Walky could totally be into conservative GILFs.
Like father like son.
Not a GILF. Carol’s just an old lady. Nothing grand about her unfortunately.
Some people are grand to begin with, others have grandness thrust upon them. But were she my mom, there’s not a snow ball’s chance she’d ever get to be unsupervised around my kids.
“She’s not technically a granny and she’s actually quite sore about it.”
That rules out any appearances by Auntie-Joyce, too.
Walky’s obviously just texting Amber to get her to go ask Mary to participate.
Turns out Amber monitors Mary’s texts, and that’s why she’s in the last panel.
This one gets it. 😀
I didn’t realize that Amber wants to punish herself quite to that extent. It’s all just Mary and Peter’s furious holier-than-thou sexting.
As amazing as the thought of “Walky and Mary are forced to team up and pretend to date for some reason” is, none of Mary’s flaws are dealbreakers to the Walkertons.
And Walky hasn’t done anything to deserve making him put up with Mary for an hour or two.
I don’t think the Reagan worship would go over particularly well.
You sure Linda isn’t a “Regan Democrat”? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reagan_Democrat
At this point, Linda would have been too young to have voted for Regan, which seems worse. As a kid, the president is often presented to you in an idealized way. It can be jarring to grow up and realize “oh, this person sucked,” and many people don’t go the route that includes that happening.
Eh even as a kid growing up I distinctly remember George W Bush being treated as a joke.
See, this is something I thought about and specifically recalled differently. There was some awareness of poking fun at him, but nowhere near what was happening in things for adult audiences. And the idea that he should be respected was emphasized.
Really? I watched a lotta adult cartoons and comedy specials as a kid the vast majority of media shit on bush relentlessly. I know more about him from jokes at his expense than anything he actually did in office.
Eh, it depends on how old we’re talking when we say “as a kid.” Also, the “respect the president” narrative tells you shit about what they actually did, so that’s not in conflict with anything you’re saying.
The Walkertons seem to think they’re good progressive liberals who would be rightfully repulsed by Mary’s open bigotry, and just not self-reflective enough to recognize it in themselves.
Damn. We’re really not gonna win over the Yotomoe audience with this storyline.
A strong part of the comments electoral college to be sure but can it be made up with the Hijinks Coalition?
Hijinks Coalition demands dating nonsense!
*throws tea into harbor*
Agreed. I got the impression they disapproved of Joyce’s former cult.
What if it becomes a polycule?
The Yotomoe Party will withhold judgement until such time.
The Yotomoe party will withhold judgement on a sexy polycule? I can’t believe I’m hearing this.
How far the Overton window has shifted… SMH my head.
walky, you’ve had a lot of bad ideas in your time, and this is definitely one of them
yeah this does not sound like something that’s going to go over well in the end.
Go well*
To be fair, this was kind of Lucy’s idea.
Just an objectively terrible horrible awful no-good very bad idea. *Facepalm* *SMDH*
See, e.g.:
https://www.cnet.com/a/img/resize/d85df57a1aa5881be3bfb4256a181aaf58d4d9ff/hub/2019/05/22/1b710a6b-5f4d-4987-a046-c23674b221a3/picard-meme-facepalm.jpg
D’oh! Epic fail on my attempt at posting an “epic fail” meme.
Shaka, when the walls fell.
Laura when the meme post failed.
X-D
EXACTLY!
Oh this is gonna end super well.
What’s the worst case scenario, “Oh we’ll let you raise our grandkid but we want amber to be the surrogate/be the dna”?
Ha ha ha, hijinks!
… and hilarity ensues …
tbh probably exactly what this comic needs right now
…I took that personally.
This is the best smash cut this comic has ever had, right? Well done.
I have a special soft spot for the “three days later” pajama jeans strip
I can’t tell if this plan is stupid or brilliant. Sturilliant?
Brilliantly stupid.
them finding out she was also danny’s ex would be another delicious piece of drama lol
ok hurtful.
“No, no, it’s not that you *are* terrible, it’s just that we want you to *act* terrible!”
“Okay, well, how do I do that?”
“Just be yourself!”
Haha yeah, definitely wondering how that conversation goes
She doesn’t have to act terrible. Linda already wanted her thrown out of school on account of her father.
Yeah I’d completely forgotten about that! Kinda hoping now that that is the angle Walky’s taking here and it’s not just because Amber’s not doing great right now.
Dang, not even tapping Ruth for the job.
Yeah, Mary is something, but she’d still somehow get a pass from them
The Walkertons didn’t want to get Ruth expelled from IU.
More like, there’s no way Mary would humour Walky and do anything
The Walkertons would be mad Walky stole Jennifer’s girlfriend
Well you have to appreciate the irony of Walky picking his ex-girlfriend as the worst white person to introduce to her parents after just saying he’s been doing a bang up job picking girlfriends.
well ruth is also dating jason still i think
but they might respect her status as an ra too lol
I sense that COMEDY will soon ensue!
*plays Julie Brown’s “Trapped in the Body of a White Girl” on the hacked Muzak*
Not “Valley Girl”?
Absolutely not.
If this proves their bias I will love it
It will.
But it’s also a terrible choice given they want her expelled.
Doesn’t that make it a better choice? (Not for Amber, this is a teeeeerrrriible scenario for her, but in terms of Amber’s effectiveness as a less-preferable alternative to Lucy)
No, because Linda has an in with the dean, so this just ups the risk of Amber getting expelled.
I’m sure this will go horribly if it goes at all, but honestly if I was Amber I’d love the opportunity to burn some bridges I don’t even care about in the first place.
…except unlike Amber, I know these people were already planning to get her expelled for a while, and Jennifer barely talked them out of it (and then they assumed she couldn’t afford to come back and left it)
Yeah, and Walky knows about the DID but I don’t think he gets how fragile Amber can be emotionally. He knows she’s damaged but I think he sees the snark and similar choices in deflecting concern to the ones he himself makes combined with her being able to be open about her garbage aspects at times and thinks she’s stronger than she is, if he thinks she can do this without taking on serious damage…
This is a terrible idea :/
It sure is! 😀
lmao
it is called dumbingofage after all, when else to make terrible ideas if not during your college years lol
I’m not even sure how this plan will work. They already met Lucy. Who walky pretty heavily implied is his GF that he wants to fuck.
I dont think the plan is to make them think hes dating her. They just want the side by side comparison
-Introduce Amber as, in addition to all the other ways they know her, “the last girl I dated.”
-Watch Linda try and struggle to position Amber as a better option than Lucy.
-???
-Profit.
Profit in what possible currency
Well, I assume step three is secretly “wait for them to die and inherit their money,” so
An aneurysm would certainly speed the process.
Bonus: Amber’s (alter’s) other ex boyfriend is there also
This gave me an almost grinch like grin.
Amber’s (alter’s) other ex-boyfriend who hates Walky for reasons both related and not to things with Amber. If Walky’s trying to present Amber as a “bad option,” I could def see Danny being like, “What, you think *you’re* too good for *her*?” And I imagine a whole mess following, which hopefully wouldn’t be enough to break up Sal and Danny, but could put a bit of a strain on their relationship.
I was trying to wrap my head around that Animedingo is on the right tracks. Walky will likely still bring Lucy, but also invite Amber to come with so that Amber can be turbo-Amber and Lucy can sit at the table with a smile, as a sort of “see? See?! I could have brought Amber to ya! I actually did a little over the clothes hanky pankin with her too!”
Over the clothes? I’m pretty sure the two of them got some roof burn.
then it’s a very good thing ‘garbage roof’ is a metaphorical description rather than a literal one
“After the way you treated Lucy we got into a huge fight and I got back together with the girl I was dating before her.”
Alternatively: “This is my other girlfriend, Amber, it’s cool if she joins us too, right?”
Sometimes you’re in the mood for chocolate and other times you’re in the mood for Rocky Road.
…
I just ate but now I want chocolate and/or rocky road 😛
Wait they know who amber is they tried to get her expelled
That’s a point in Walky and Lucy’s favor then. (I know the blame is all on Blaine, but the Walkertons don’t know better).
They know who Amber is, but would they recognize her on sight?
I’d say there are definitely worse options to run with, but Linda hates Amber specifically. As a teen she stabbed Sal and after Blaine kidnapped her baby boy she tried to retaliate against Amber for her father’s actions.
Thanks for pointing this out. I was hoping that Walky had a good reason for calling Amber and wasn’t just exploiting the fact that Amber has a had a hard time of it recently. That is a much better look than immediately equating “just absolute disaster of a human being” with his ex-girlfriend.
Can we take a moment to appreciate that Lucy isn’t holding Walkys parents against him and is in fact immediately on board with being a troll? Lucy is a little needy but is otherwise best-girl, imo.
lol walky’s adorkable/nerdiness is part of the charm, i’m sure she would’ve wanted to go on more ‘lower stakes’ hijinks with him otherwise as well
I hope Amber makes Lucy worse. 🙂
If done right, that could be a very comedic story line.
it’s the funniest way to loosely adapt the shortpacked storyline where lucy became the second amazigirl – obviously she can’t literally be amazigirl in dumbing of age, but amber being a horrible influence on lucy would be the next best thing!
Walky’s been Night Guy, so I could see Lucy playing along somehow.
This is going to backfire so badly, and I am so excited to see how.
I know, right?
I hope it doesn’t end with Amber expelled or on suicide watch…
I more mean in the sense that, despite their best efforts, his parents are going to LOVE Amber and ask why he can’t be dating someone like her instead, and then Amber revealing he was and SHE dumped HIM. A catastrophic mess of Drama that is going to leave Sal and Danny utterly stunned that they’re not the cause of. Or, heck, maybe they blame Sal for it anyway as a bad influence on him?
i mean if amber can handle her own father than walky’s parents should be a walk in the park
was not expecting this lmfao
Also I mean. Becky? would be worse?
Joyce has experience pretending to be a gf, and experience being an off-putting fundamentalist, I think Joyce would be a good option here.
I have not read the other willisverse comics.
I guess Amber IS the reason they were all kidnapped, and mum walkerton DID want to get her expelled from school. yeh ok.
Except earlier in the day, Joyce and Walky very explicitly denied being together in front of Linda and Charles.
This is going to backfire so hard. Walky knows his cartoon and sitcom memes, but Amber knows Fake Dating AU.
Why did I type memes? I meant tropes.
AU…
Alternate Universe?
African Union?
Symbol for gold?
I’m puzzled.
Gold is Au, never AU.
Oh, yes. Thank you!
What did the chemist shout when the mugger stole her gold watch?
” ‘Ey! You!”
We hella sitcom plot now
I’m going to say early on here: Walky is not a jerk. I fully, no sarcasm, expect him to explain the situation to Amber before anything else goes on, so that Amber can play it correctly. Calling her up and introducing her to his parents as a backup GF specifically because he thinks she’s a trashfire would be mean in a way that Walky has not shown before.
Yeah, he’s going to ask her if she’s down for some shenanigans.
Absolute worst!?
And here I was thinking that Amber was an amazing girl, an “Amazi-Girl“, if you will!
An Amazing Girl who assaulted his sister and stabbed her hand, even before her father kidnapped him.
So stoked for all the shenanigans that are about to ensue, NGL
Looks like it’s time yet again for Amber (and possibly AG as well) to take on another Inside Job! ✌️😏
*plays “pa$$ the time” by Bronze on freshly hacked muzak*
A like a pregnant JFK, a show taken out before its time…
Speaking of which, in the words of the one human being who will be spared (though in an literal and not at all sexy way): “How you doing?”
I’m doing alright, thanks for asking! 😊
(BTW if you didn’t see it last strip, would you like us to continue brainstorming in Discord or Tumblr DMs, i think your idea for a stealth DoA game is awesome)
(of course if ya just wanna chat with me that’s fine too)
Look, if you’re gonna do a fake dating gambit, Amber is your GIRL she’s GOTTA know this one in and out
Problem is, don’t fake dating plots usually end with them real dating by the end of the story? That’s why I said it’s a problem that Walky knows his cartoon and sitcom tropes but Amber knows Fake Dating AU.
I did just watch one series that featured fake dating that won’t end that way! But I could see Amber being like, “No go, I’m not interested in getting back together when playing this out inevitably reignites your feelings for me.” And maybe she hasn’t showered in a bit or something, so Walky’s like, “I’m pretty sure we can avoid that happening.”
I’ve been loving the chances for Lucy to get more attention, and to explore her character more!!
Everything about this is terrible, and I’m absolutely here for it!
Alt text: No he didn’t, Ao3 is down.
Anyway I love that they’re sharing a braincell wrt this terrible, terrible idea. It’s gonna be great.
Please, you think someone as tech savvy as Amber doesn’t back up her favorite fics to her computer?
I’ve got a ton saved as epub files on my ereader.
Holy shit the timing is incredible 😳
(for reference lots of AO3 stories are on archive.org, ain’t no way cyber-terrorists are gonna stop us!) 😤
What is AO3?
Archive Of Our Own, a popular fanfic site
Archive of Our Own, a fanfiction website. It’s kind of a confusing shorthand at first as well.
This is a absurd plan from Walky.
*Obviously* the correct choice is Becky, who is less of a wreck than Amber but much more willing to act like a goddamn lunatic because she’d find it funny.
And Becky’s poor! Another strike against her, if Linda’s attitude towards Marcie is anything to go by
Marcie is brown, being poor was an easy excuse.
Eh, Linda and Chuck both seem like social climbers, I wouldn’t be surprised if they’ve got a pretty deep classist streak.
The problem with Becky is that she was running a congressional campaign in college, and they only lost because her girl forfeit. She’s got a resume and connections.
…and apparently a DREAM-er, at least according to Charles.
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2018/comic/book-9-comic/01-flyin-to-the-red/cowgirl/
Marcie, I mean. Which, hopefully, at this point in the shifting timeline, might mean she could get a DACA work permit, if she met the criteria.
We don’t know for certain if that’s based in fact, or if he was making assumptions.
True. Although it would help explain why her assailant was never prosecuted. If the parents were afraid to press charges, out of fear for their status.
…Which is ironic, given that (at least at this point in the shifting timeline) U visas would have been available for exactly that reason. That requires a cooperative police force, though.
My guess is that Leland’s family had the economic high ground, and Marcie’s family didn’t have the resources to fight that uphill battle.
That makes sense, too.
He is from a “good family” according to the asshole principal there.
And there’s no chance that Becky would actually catch feelings so it’s the perfect ruse.
But getting Becky in on this plot would require her to go five seconds without talking about being a lesbian.
She’d definitely overcompensate by talking about Walky’s dick to his parents.
Why must you taunt me with what I cannot have?
to keep you on the edge.
Yeah, there is no way Becky is going back in the closet for even a moment. Even as pretend for shenanigans.
She’d just talk endlessly about how she has to pretend Walky is trans when they have sex. Occasionally she might ask if Walky has a sister.
They’d get thangomized before dessert. Dina knows people.
The correct plan is *Danny*. Best worst girlfriend.
It’s just plainly obvious once you’ve said it.
This is gonna end with Walky and Amber doin’ it, isn’t it?
Possibly right there on the table.
Yep. I mean if everyone’s lucky maybe Amber and Lucy are willing to share.
I doubt Lucy would be ok with it. Amber might, with all the literature she has both created and read, but the odds aren’t very high.
Would be hilarious if something genuinely sparked between Lucy and Amber.
And maybe just maybe we can work this into a 3-way polycule. Right? I’m desperate y’all.
I have to admit, as unlikely as it is; I’m still hoping it will happen. Then he could add Dorothy and get a harem started.
I actually had(have?) a dream of one day having a harem, but chances are slim. Oh well, that is what fantasies are for I suppose.
Living with one other person takes some effort. Three others probably makes a better fantasy than a reality.
That’s a good point. Besides, I’m not rich enough to support a harem lifestyle.
Plus there are scheduling problems, like making sure all of the females are off their periods on their day to get jiggy. That can be a problem if there is enough interaction between them to get them in sync. Source: BTDT. Several times.
I am kinda for this, even though part of me wishes my idea, where Lucy embraces being the “bad girl” for once, was the direction this was going. I do kind of dig it, though, in a way. It’s going to be odd, though, given their kinda-but-not-actually exes status, and Amber probably holding a grudge over the Mike stuff, but then again, we’ve seen her forgive more relatively easily, and she might be down to fuck with the Walkertons a bit.
I’m kind of more curious if Sal would approve or not. After the Malaya/Marcie thing, she has some pretty recent experience knowing this kind of thing can backfire big time.
Lucy is the kinda girl where if she tired to be bad she’d do good on accident like if she punched a random stranger in the gut. She’s cure his six week bout of Hiccups.
Perfection.
Well, she went through Bargaining and Anger in this strip, two more stages and she’ll be ready for the Acceptance of not being liked by Walky’s parents through no fault of her own
Lucy acting like a “bad girl” would only be moderately more convincing than that time Joyce tried to emulate Sal.
https://www.dumbingofage.com/rebelstyle/
I’m surprised she kept his number after the Halloween incident.
He has hers, we don’t know about the other way around… though some people are very averse to totally dropping people
She seems like the type to never delete contacts. Batman’s prepared for every eventuality, y’see.
That would take precious seconds away from vital Internet stuff.
Oh yes and OH NO.
I am always here for the chaos decision. Hijinx Division, reporting for duty
Oh boy, we’re in for a ride
Dammmit whyyyyy. Why any of this 3s company shit. Just bring Lucy and be proud of it and sit at the front of the bus
Oh gods above and below, no no no
I approve of this, because I want to see Linda squirm
Yes three’s company type shennanigans!
Ring ring. Oh sorry, thought this was Clara’s number. My bad!
Two steps forward, one step back…..
This feels like 3 steps back. Damn Walky.
Damn Walky is the comic that follows Dumbing of Age. But only in the time-line where we get radical life-extension.
Also, the freaking irony of patting himself on the back for picking the best girlfriends and going “my ex is the worst white woman I know”
To be fair, his line of thought is more specific to what his parents would disapprove of rather than what’s objectively bad, but still…
Yeah, that rubs me the wrong way:
“I deserve to be commended for the women I select! They go so nicely with my furniture!”
Just reminds me of this old comic:
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2018/comic/book-9-comic/01-flyin-to-the-red/confirmed/
…He’s still trying to maintain his position ahead of Sal.
The problem is not that his GIRLFRIEND deserves better. It’s that HE deserves parental approval.
According to him.
I mean, they didn’t ever actually date. They kissed some, they dry-humped until he jizzed his pants canonically, but it was a non-starter to go beyond that because he couldn’t reconcile the “stabbed Sal” thing, and then later, his crass handling of Mike’s death because he was evading dealing with it.
It also just feels less mean-spirited when, dollars to donuts, Amber would readily accept this labeling. Besides, after Naomi Segal, I doubt she’s remotely intimidated by any other shitty mom.
Who’s Naomi Segal?
Ethan’s mom.
Ah. Thank you!
The worst white woman he could introduce to LINDA.
Given her history with Sal and how Linda tried to get her expelled because her dad’s a piece of shit and only stopped because she thought she wouldn’t be able to get tuition, he’s probably not wrong Amber is the worst white woman he could specifically introduce to Linda. I don’t think it’s a slam on her personally.
oh no
Wait, I forgot to factor in the possibility that *Danny may be there* to my reaction re: this plan involving Amber…
Oh, gah. I didn’t even think of Danny.
You can bet they have not thought of this.
I truly was away from my phone and computer last night, about to do another task, when I thought, “Oh shit, we forgot about Danny!” and had to rush back to the internet to be like, “Hey, remember Danny?”
Don’t forget that his parents know Amber as the girl who stabbed Sal’s hand, and Linda wanted to get her kicked out of the school for her dad’s actions last semester: https://www.dumbingofage.com/2020/comic/book-10/04-is-a-song-forever/justify-2/
Hypothesis: Walky’s parents meet Amber and think she is *amazing* and suggest that Walky invite her to visit them at home sometime
Well, Amber is Amazing. *smirk*
This is just the absolute worst idea Walky has ever had and I want it to happen so goddamn bad.
Oh man this is a can of worms considering Halloween
I hate this idea but love that it’s a group effort.
At the current point in the story I’d say Dorothy’s worse because she’s spiraling but 1) I think she’d be able to hide it from parents for a day and 2) I don’t think even Walky really realizes how bad it is. Ruth is probably the only one who is more than 5% aware of how bad Dorothy’s losing it, and even then I’m not sure she’s that aware.
(if Jennifer knows its not because of good observations its because it’d be convenient for her ego if Dorothy was falling apart so she’ll just believe it because it feels nice”
Dorothy would be REEALLLY horribly sadistic to ask. Worse than Amber. She still very obviously has feelings for Walky, and this would be rubbing salt in the wound 100%. And she does know how to present to parents.
Also like a lot of people in the comments section Dorty’s spiral might not even read as a spiral to them. She’s in a tailspin the engine’s on fire and there are still people who think she can fix her problems by going to Yale.
Ahem, there are still people who think she can’t fix her problems by sawing the wings off.
Man, Lucy continues to hit on all cylinders. Such a great character, and she started so annoying!
Depends on what you’re looking for, I guess. They’re falling into a version of the trap that wastes so much reformist zeal: the impulse to Do Something that feels good instead of planning and executing something boring that advances toward the objective.
This is such a terrible idea and I’m gonna love it so much.
Other acceptable choices:
Joyce: because nostalgia
Becky: because irony and she wound find her instructions of “be whiter than bleach” to be funny
Roz or Robin: white enough, would do it for free food
Danny: He’s Walky’s now
Marcy is an interesting choice as well.
Booster would work beautifully too tbh
I kinda wish Booster was a choice because I feel it’d be explosive. Booster knows just how to be anrasive enough.
The flipside however is that they already have a transactional relationship going on (Amber going “You like fixer uppers? Go fix my friend Ethan up!”) I feel it’d be unfair on them
Probably an unpopular opinion but I realllyyyyyy hate this story beat so far and I doubt it’s going anywhere I’m going to like. It’s not even like I hate the parents; I’m fine seeing shitty characters but this weirdly cavalier way that Walky approaches me rubs me all the wrong way for some reason.
Oh well.
Please note that Cliff is not Clif, who is totally here for this story line. Slow motion train wrecks are the very best.
Walky has taken a turn for the villainous with his desperate social climber girlfriend and his breezily overconfident “popular kid” jerkiness. I really dislike both of them right now.
I think part of it for Walky is he finds it hard to stop deflecting. Like, near impossible hard to just say how he feels..so we either have OTT gesticulating quickly rising into “let’s set them up with shenanigans” or him just bottling up and insisting everything is fine. It’s in character for him, and the way it’s built, he and Lucy are reassuring and comforting each other and this plan just sort of happens.
Even if Amber doesn’t want to play ball because she’s still annoyed about him trying to insist Mike’s alive and in Witness Protection because he just didn’t want to be sad and lonely for one evening and obnoxious denial seemed his best route there – his saying at the end, after really upsetting everybody else that’s what he was doing, was kinda the most genuine he’d been with a lot of those people.
Amber didn’t need to be disrespected like this.
Agreed! Fingers crossed this doesn’t get Amber expelled! Now I’m worried!
this is… a bad idea. But it will be entertaining to watch so let’s gooooo
Walky doesn’t know Mary, I’m guessing.
I hate this kind of cringe comedy, please why
We have not yet begun the cringe, I’m sorry to tell you.
We have not yet begun to cringe! – John Paul Jones said that, but he was misquoted.
If you think this is cringe comedy, you’ve never seen a YTP.
A what?
YouTube Poop.
From Wikipedia:
“A YouTube poop is a type of video mashup or edit created by remixing/editing pre-existing media sources often carrying subcultural significance into a new video for humorous, satirical, obscene, absurd, and profane—as well as annoying, confusing, or dramatic purposes.”
From me:
Basically you take something like a documentary about bumblebees and shuffle things around until you get something like this. Now, this example is deliberately one of the lower-key ones to avoid dropping a noise grenade on you, but a lot of them are extremely obnoxious. The creator of the linked video has a particular talent for “sentence mixing”, shuffling a person’s words and syllables around to make new ones. It’s a whole medium of its own, with subgenres and distinct editing styles between “Poopers”. Some of the longer-lasting creators even have “lore” in their videos, where they’ll add an edit from a previous video to their new ones, sometimes even mutating the edit to fit the new source.
And of course, some people just make Hank Hill say “Yup” a few dozen times and add in a clip of someone screaming a slur. But some of them will make a TV-length Breaking Bad parody where Hank becomes a drug dealer, kills somebody, and goes to prison. It’s sort of a coin flip.
If that link doesn’t work cuz I fucked up the HTML, go on YouTube and look up “Oh Yes! Love The Bees!”.
He should ask Becky, to be honest. Not because Becky’s a trashfire, but because she knows exactly how to push people’s buttons and relishes in it. If he asks her, she would be totally 100% in, just because she can do it.
The only worry is technically it would have to be okay with Dina, but Dina would probably be chill with it because she would have no real reason not to be. It’s not like she’s interested in Walky at all.
And then Becky just gradually starts dropping not at all subtle hints that she’s a lesbian and watches their reactions whenever she points out a hot girl in Walky’s vicinity.
Bonus points if she somehow loops back around to Lucy by selling Linda on her personality without naming her, until they “run into” each other…
Too bad Lucy and Walky are looking for a dumpster fire instead of an agent of chaos.
Honestly, I think you’re joking, but I wonder whether pretending to date an obvious lesbian might actually work. Better than Amber, at least, whose issues are more subtle.
I don’t get how the logistics here are going to work though. Is Walky really going to say “oh I dumped my girlfriend, here is my new girlfriend” all by this evening and expect his parents to buy it?
That was the other girlfriend. This is the one who convinced me to cheat on her best friend.
No, Amber is going to pretend to be Lucy’s girlfriend. It’s foolproof.
First i think the same but it have more sense now. Mother i read your reaction for my previous girlfriend so I straight my path and behold my gilfriend 2.0
Seems to me a freshly medicated Ruth would be the worst choice. Pure “Careful what you wish for” for someone like Linda.
But she’d expect payment in femurs…
Intrigued as hell tbh. I didn’t expect this of Lucy (but it makes so much sense, and makes her actually interesting!), it’s just that. Man, I hope Walky explains clearly this is for the sake of shenanigans, and not because he actually thinks she’s a trash fire, omg 8’DD Like. His parents fucking loathe Amber, it’s enough of a motive.
Also this is, as some people have said, a Fake Dating AU – Which… All three of them deal with life by processing it through tropes. I’m not holding my hopes up, but my brain immediately went “holy shit policule??” and I know (fandom enby that I am) it’s not going to leave.
OK, since nobody actually answered above…AU = Alternate Universe?
Correct. If you’re writing a story about a group of indistinguishable males who work at a local coffee shop and get up to various dating-type shenanigans, you’d call that a My Chemical Romance coffee shop AU.
A non facetious answer here: You’re absolutely correct! In fanfiction terminology, an AUNit’s when you grab a bunch of characters from one canon (say, DOA), and place it in another kind of universe (for example, fantasy). A “fake dating” AU is usually (not always) place them in a low stakes universe for this kind of shenanigans. It usually ends with the couple who’s doing the fake dating together :33
(Fun fact: Sometimes you can apply it to canon! DOA is It’s Walky as a College AU ;33)
I feel slightly shaded here. My answer also wasn’t facetious, it was just much briefer.
… Wait… So… If Walky somehow manages to bring Amber… and Danny’s there with Sal… ohhhhh no.
That is an entirely new direction of wrong that this could go.
Amber already knew Danny and Sal were dating and already roller derbies with Sal all the time…
Just when I was starting to like Lucy…
Willis gave it fast…
Walky? NO.
Walky, yes!
This may backfire
All Walky has to do is introduce her as his ex and then let her explain, at length, the plot of whatever slashfic she’s working on right now. Or the real life slash between Ethan and Asher (and/or Booster?) that she’s encouraging.
Absolutely nothing could possibly go wrong with this plan, and I unreservedly endorse it.
Who you gonna call?
Well, it’s Christmas, we’re at the North Pole, and we’ve got dream crabs eating our brains, so…
I’m totally missing the dream crabs reference, but it sounds great anyway!
“This is what the refrance.”
Oooooh, looks terrific!! Thanks for the ref!!! So many Dr Who seasons, so little time…
The best laid schemes o’ Willis characters gang aft agley.
I have no words. I am the disappoint
Dante has a point, it’s not about Amber being the worst person ever, it’s about Amber being the worst white girl *for Walky’s parents* ! I had forgotten that plot point, now I’m expecting a lot of laughs from this storyline.
Oh please, the worst would be Mary.
I don’t know… Does Walky know Carla?
You know, i was kind of uncertain whether Lucy and Walky getting together was the best thing for them. There’s definitely still certain questions between the two of them (the whole premature ‘i love you’ thing, Walky’s ‘sudden realisation’ that Lucy is a good match for him).
But moments like this make me realise that they kind of work for each other. Moments that could be used as insecure drama are bypassed because the two of them are genre savvy in the geekiest of ways, and they bounce off each other adorably.
Though like with Sal and Danny, i am full of anxiety over the inevitable Willis-esque destruction of their relationship.
Willis seems to give most when accompanied by the threat of taking away.
I thought Amber hated Walky. What reason does she have to go along with this?
For the lulz.
What a terrible idea. There’s no way this ends well. I’m so ready for it.
So, it is how Lucy and Walky break up…
Is there gonna be some sitcom-esque stuff following this decision wherein someone not in on the plan sees Walky and Amber together and assumes they’re back together or something and even more drama ensues? I could see something like that happening but I’m hoping the plan isn’t to pretend to be dating Amber but to just show his parents a comparison? I guess I’m not too clear on the whole plan, is all.
If I had to predict how these shenanigans will ensue, Walky’s parents will see Amber for all her Amber-ness, still think she’d be a better match for Walky than Lucy, which will result in Walky chewing them out for their racism, since as someone here in the comments recently pointed out, this chapter appears to be focusing a lot on characters calling out their parents for their downright asinine behaviour.
A lot of comments for an uneventful strip.
Well yeah, not so much has happened yet, so we need to guess where it could go, form opinions about those possible directions, and then talk about them in the present like they’ve already occurred.
If you want to be able to say you “called it” in the future, you need to get in now, ideally with like five different guesses so as to cover your bases.
we’re all thirsty for eventful strips
You’re just sad/bored because it doesn’t advance your favored ship.
You’re not supposed to pick someone you’ve actually dated!
What, and pick someone who doesn’t know you for the scheme? Sounds like hiring an electrician to work in a bistro. Sure, it could work, but the electrician probably hasn’t seen the cook’s dick.
If the goal is to be a bad impression for the parents, I don’t think knowing Walky well is needed. However, he does have other friends that are girls and white.
This is going to be hilariously ironic if walky and amber ever get back together in the future.
Oh it can be worse then that. This is HOW Walky and Amber get back together.
This is a TERRIBLE plan, but I approve, because it’s funny.
She gonna use her autistic resonance to short-circuit a racist’s brain. What could go wrong?
I like how Lucy says “awful terrible white girls” and we all understand she’s not actually calling white girls awful and terrible, but is instead indicating that a white girl, no matter how awful, would potentially be seen more favorably by the Walkerparents.
I also like how weirdly compatible these two are, if they’d just get on the same wavelength. (Still waiting on the Walkman to clear up that little “I love you too” misunderstanding. “I’m not quite there just yet but let’s keep at it and I could be”, that’s all he’d need to say.)
Wow! Yes, okay, awesome. My face is now going to be set in a permanent cringe until this storyline is done.
Yes, let’s call the emotionally devastated mentally fractured ex-girlfriend who didn’t want to end her relationship with you to come meet your parent, possibly either pretending to still be your girlfriend or with your current girlfriend in tow. I’m sure this will go super well?
He’s kind of an ass to every woman to some extent I feel like
NOOOO Amber does not deserve that !!!! ToT rude little bongoes
jesus fucking christ walky and lucy you goons
you utter gobshites
you absolute toolboxes
…. okay but what are the chances she would go along with it iut of sheer boredom?
*out of
I love how on the same wavelength they are
oh good lord in heaven this is going to backfire and I am so here for it. love me some goofy ass hijinks!
seeing people mention Linda previously trying to get Amber expelled in other comments so uh wanna say I don’t want *that* to be the backfire. just the goofy hijinks thx.
That’s so mean. I mean, they are right, but it’s still so mean ^^’
I am so glad that Amber dumped this man.
This plan will surely backfire in a very painful way. But is nice to see how similar Walky and Lucy are. The have a spectacular chemistry made of pop culture and bad decisions.
That’s a bit harsh. Amber’s bloody great. I want my gravatar of her back.
Bzzzt, wrong, *CinemaSins ding* – bain’t nowt as can be done to make white trash not better than non-white treasure in their eyes
I get that she’s both white and self-identifies as trash, but the term “white trash” is a classist slur.
Is white, trash better?
I’m sure I wouldn’t know. I kinda just felt like being the scold for once.
“This is a terrible plan “ I say in earnest while failing to suppress an insidious grin,
This will end in disaster. Walky’s parents will buy into this because no matter how much of a disaster she is, she is a white girl and Walky will be trapped in this made up relationship.
Well, they hate Amber for very specific reasons. She stabbed their daughter, and her dad kidnapped their son. They wanted her kicked out of the school, and only left it mainly because her dad’s dead.
(And thus couldn’t pay her tuition, not out of sympathy for her situation)
Oh yeah I forgot that happened. I’m eager to see if their racism is stronger than their prejudice against her.
I suddenly like Lucy a lot more.
i was warming up to lucy, but not this ship
now i love them unconditionally and will fight to the death for them
Oooooh, sitcom hijinks in the works!
This feels mean to Amber… but it also gets her more in the strip.
<- known trainwreck
Not wrong
Just getting this out here–but I predict that Walky will be extremely transparent about his intentions here and Amber will be like “sure, I’ll fuck with the heads of your racist parents”
Just checking time xx:09
well i was thinking more malaya or mary but neither of them would agree, carla might’ve for the lulz but that’d be too much effort on her part lol (or her rich status might be even more appealing to his parents)