Which is why Sarah reacts like this. This has left “destructive but kinda legitimate criticism” territory and is just meant to hurt. They’re both lashing out.
Other people have pointed out bringing up Dana is a sore point for Sarah; Lucy doesn’t know the whole story, so she doesn’t know how low a blow it is. Sarah is absolutely making what to her is an equal and opposite reaction, but since she’s kind of an asshole to begin with and Lucy doesn’t know the full story, it comes across as an out-of-nowhere, wholly unmerited Nuclear Bongo strike in retaliation to what, as far as Lucy knows, is calling Sarah out on entirely legitimate bullshit.
Good discussion discipline means sticking to the topic at hand. Lucy doesn’t. She’s dragging an old story into it, thus signalling disdain for Sarah. Since Lucy is a positive person who kind of likes everyone, I think this counts as lashing out for her.
At a guess, Joyce tries to learn and grow even if she’d really prefer not to. Lucy has perfected the rose tinted glasses approach and will dogmatically believe any explanation to allow the world around her to slot into her world view. She didn’t have any real problems with Sarah before Raidah (The cool girl who can’t be wrong) called it out and then she had strong opinions on it. Her saving grace is that her world view is typically positive and nice but Sarah is absolutely outside of that and Lucy’s inability/refusal to consider inconvenient information would absolutely push all of Sarah’s buttons hard. Sarah’s being more unga bunga than usual admittedly and that’s probably the Raidah influence on the situation putting Sarah into a defensive lash out that is not making things better. That’s my interpretation of the situation anywho.
TLDR Sarah’s defensive nastiness due to Raidah’s influence on things is butting up against Lucy’s refusal to think critically about things she wants to believe.
Well, her and Joyce are roommates. Most of the time that she’s been mean to Joyce, Joyce has just ignored it not to rock the boat. She was raised hyper-fundamentalist, and Lucy looks like she was raised in a more liberal setting.
And there was conflict between her and Joyce during the start of the comic. I don’t remember the exact comic, but Joyce accused her of not caring and Sarah reminded her of the fact she saved her from a potential rapist.
yeah i’m sure in an alternate timeline if lucy and sarah were originally roommates, she would’ve warmed up to her even if lucy didn’t necessarily bond through tough times like with joyce
I’m going to be honest, Lucy is the one judging a friend group for one of their friends while coming outside it and is almost completely in the wrong here. Sarah is being rude to her now, but not only did Lucy start it, she started it with no real social understanding of the friendships Sarah has. Joyce at the very least has given her explicit permission to be a sassy ass and the others at least acknowledge it and don’t seem bothered by it, with Walky in particular playing into it sometimes because he can also be a sassy ass.
If Sarah saw Lucy as an outsider that doesn’t have a right to comment on things, why did she decide to share Joyce’s masturbation habits with her?
Why, because it’s *extra mean* to share such private details with an outsider, right?
Lucy’s presence sure was convenientg when Sarah can use her as extra mortification points in her sadistic malicious abuse that she calls “friendship”, but Lucy should know her place and just stand there as a prop when she’s used for another person’s mortification, right?
Is the patient person off panel? Because Lucy isn’t patient, she recently started dating Walky and is now trying to push Sarah out of the social circle. Like a day after Raidah “don’t jettison people” told her to.
I don’t see Lucy doing ANYTHING to Sarah that Sarah isn’t doing to herself. Sarah isn’t friends with the group because of what she did, she’s friends with them IN SPITE of what she did.
You don’t understand friendships, nor do you understand Sarah, if you think that. Sarah isn’t trying to be friends with anyone (but Joyce), but that doesn’t mean she’s overstepped any bounds. Walky literally does the exact same thing with a more likeable attitude and people love it, razzing on friends, and Joyce has given Sarah explicit permission to be like this several times.
Meanwhile Lucy is a brand new girlfriend stepping into a social dynamic she doesn’t understand and judging Sarah for how Sarah acts with her own friends and acquaintances. Lucy is being a judgemental little prick here, partially by Raidah’s influence and partially by just being a naturally judgemental and prejudicial person who never thinks threw her initial impressions of anyone. Usually that’s to the persons benefit (Jennifer and Walky).
It is very in character of Lucy to simply not care what people are actually likely, she goes based on the perception she has of them and ignores anything that would alter those perceptions.
I think people should stop claiming that we don’t understand friendships, just because we don’t approve one very particularly abusive and toxic version thereof.
Sarah overstepped the bounds, and we know that because Joyce was mortified and humiliated. We saw Joyce being mortified and humiliated. We saw Sarah be happy at Joyce being mortified and humiliated.
Is Lucy being judgmental towards her? Good! That’s exactly how she should be, because Lucy just saw Sarah mortify and humiliate another friend for the lolz. I wish more people were like Lucy, because then we’d have fewer toxic and abusive friendships being enabled by friend groups.
did you forget that sarah immediately asked if she overstepped boundaries with joyce after lucy said she was being too mean and, instead of saying yes, joyce then turned around and teased sarah in turn?
She is currently being a judgemental little prick toward Sarah, but only when none of the others are in ear shot. It’s a classic power play to try and sow doubt and annoyance and a total Raidah move, albeit she is an amateur at it and probably isn’t doing it on purpose.
She is definitely NOT sticking up for anyone here though, she’s just commenting on something outside of her new boyfriends hearing because she knows Walky would probably defend Sarah on some level, given that he himself is also a razzer.
Except Sarah has been to hell and back with her friend group. They’ve had people die and been grave danger, and Lucy just waltzes in plays her cards from an enemy of Sarah and Joyce.
Lucy is an outsider. And she’s bringing more mess with what she an Walky just concocted.
In this exact scenario where someone just called her an awful person and she fired back? Sarah isn’t a bongo.
A moment ago when Sarah gave some REAL ADVICE that kids don’t want to hear, about how not every relationship needs to be a ride or die and how going to sitcom levels of length to make a point is dumb and silly? Sarah is still not a bongo.
In a scenario where a girl is desperately in love with a guy she barely knows, has been idolizing her roommate for months without any basis for anything she believes of Jennifer and has a tendency to be a prejudicial, judgmental girl who never rethinks her first impressions of anyone is going out of her way to only speak meanly to someone when none of the friend group she is only just barely becoming a part of can here and Sarah defends herself? Sarah is not a bongo.
The world where she thinks “This is a stupid idea. You should dump him.” is good friendly advice. The world where she thinks being arbitrarily mean makes her lovable.
Honestly? Lucy deserved this. She just insulted Sarah, without knowing the whole story, by specifically triggering one of the hardest decisions Sarah has had to make. LUCY was being mean. She was using information she gained from someone else to HURT Sarah’s feelings. She deserved this. I would argue SARAH has been patient with her up to this point.
Lucy is normally wonderful but she is making a huge miscalculation (twice in one day!) and Sarah is finally calling out her naivity and ignorance. Is she being mean about it and shitting on Lucy’s choice of who she dates? Absolutely. But Lucy shot back with all she had against Sarah, and I think she’s learned that Sarah has bigger guns.
Man, now I*know* we’re not reading the same comic…
Because Sarah’s been WAAAAAY out of line, even by her already pretty harsh standards… And this one just takes the cake. There’s ‘honesty’, then there’s ‘cruel honesty’. She’s not *wrong* (except that she continues to dump on Walky for literally no reason at every chance)… But she’s wrong in actually bringing it up.
Sarah’s one of the core members of the social group, and not only one of them- but also one of the more important ones (the group protector/watchdog personality)… And Lucy’s just a member’s significant other…
BUT it’s entirely clique-ish and rude to talk about it. It reeks of ‘no true Scotsman’.
I dunno mano, Lucy already came in last time swinging. Last time they interacted, Sarah made a jab at Joyce (that Walky even was involved in joking about), and Lucy went “you’re not nice to your so-called friends” -> implying that Sarah and Joyce weren’t as close as they are, and that she believes Raidah. Lucy keeps pushing Sarah’s buttons. Was it harsh? Yeah. Was saying “I don’t jettison people” to Sarah ALSO harsh? I’d argue yes.
Sarah abso-fucking-lutely needs to learn that she doesn’t NEED to insert herself into every situation. She could have just ignored Lucy and Walky. BUT…. if Lucy is gonna keep swinging punches, she needs to brace for a swing back. And Sarah, as we have learned with Raidah, doesn’t hold her punches well.
Calling a tourist a tourist isn’t exactly the same as No True Scotsman. She’s not saying Lucy CAN’T be part of the friend group, just that it’s pretty clear that that isn’t Lucy’s agenda.
You are definitely not reading the same comic we are. Sarah has explicit permission from some of the group (Joyce, Becky, etc) and implied permission from others (Walky) to act like a sassy ass toward them and razz them in her own way. Walky has fired back when it happens to him (if I recall correctly) and is absolutely a razzer himself so sees no harm in it. Sarah is hanging with her friends and this random new girl that JUST started hanging out with them is judging her for how she does that.
Meanwhile Lucy has regularly made snap judgements about people based on first impressions (Walky and Jennifer) that she never rethinks no matter how much evidence there is, going out of her way to only firm up the sometimes insane levels of fantasy she has created surrounding them rather than assess, adjust and adapt to new information. She’s doing the same with Sarah, ignoring ALL THE EVIDENCE that Sarah’s friend group is totally okay with it, and than went a step further. When she got told off by the group for trying to call out Sarah in front of them, she decided to wait until they were alone.
Same. Because she’s not wrong (Lucy only there cuz she wants Walky’s three-date-determined sex time/dating), and Lucy’s been barbing at her all day. Even if Sarah deserved to be talked to about flouting sensitive info to joke at Joyce’s expense, Lucy was NOT the person who should have done it.
Also she’s really easily led by the nose (I.E Raidah) Despite the fact her own boyfriend seemed put off by her comments.
Not necessarily, like we have seen her go to church with Becky, for instance, which makes sense as they are coworkers. But yeah, she could probably stand to get to know the others some more, sure.
No objective reason? Lucy has been judgy with Sarah and bringing up one of if not the most painful memories she has every chance she gets. She heard one thing from Raidah and instead of asking Sarah her side decided to just passive aggressively bring it up all the time like it was established fact. Sarah is being more of a dick to Lucy than to others, but Lucy started the escalation.
I mean when it really comes down to it Joyce is kind of her only actual friend isn’t she? Maybe Dina as well, but the rest she tolerates for Joyce’s sake
Walky and Becky, sure, but Sarah gets along very well with Dina, who’s also stated pretty clearly that she appreciates the fact that Sarah is blunt and honest with her regardless of how ‘nice’ she is about it. She’s also always had a pretty decent relationship with Dorothy. I wouldn’t call them close, especially post-time skip, but she’s not usually as acerbic with her.
In long? It wasn’t a single act of bravery. Sarah has been there for more shit than lucy can ever catch up with. Sarah is part of the group whether she wants to be or not.
You mean like calling someone you just met a future war criminal? Because Lucy doesn’t seem to think insulting random people is particularly bad, so long as it’s a popular person doing the insulting.
Sarah regularly goes out of her way to help Joyce, even if half the time she is delegating. Sarah regularly steps outside of her comfort zone for Joyce, even when she hates doing it. Sarah wasn’t even trying to be Joyce’s friend and still was a great person for Joyce to rely on and Sarah almost never fails to assist when Joyce asks for help, save when it would be extremely comical too or Joyce is being ridiculous.
Joyce has literally in comic called out that all Sarah does to show love are occasional grand gestures but never does the kind little things day to day that tell you she actually cares. That comic itself as pointed this out as a flaw
I can probably find at least a dozen times that Sarah herself goes out of her way and emotional comfort zone to help Joyce specifically. Sarah doesn’t show affection the way others do, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t show affection or care. You’re just kind of an ass for assuming everyone has to be all hugs and kisses and niceness. Some friends raz each other. Some friends do it to show affection. Sarah IS regularly going out of her way to be a better friend to Joyce just by interacting with her, and is in her own way doing far more than almost anyone else in the comic to be a good friend.
This is all within the circumstance of them interning her comfort zone or them just so happening to have a class together, or her just being around. For instance If she was making an effort go out of her way to know people personally she would have come to Sarah personally about her past with Dana instead instead of this.
Is it? By that metric, Sarah has made more of an effort to avoid knowing anyone in the group. At every instance of inclusion, she bemoans the fact that she’s there. The only person she’s remotely close to is Joyce.
The nexus of the friend group is Joyce. Joyce considers Sarah the big sister she never had. Joyce is crazy about Sal, but Sal really isn’t interested in being part of her group. Joyce adores Dorothy. Joyce and Becky grew up together. Walky is one of the first people she met on campus, Sal’s bother, and Dorothy’s ex. Dina is Becky’s girlfriend (and, incidentally, Sarah’s friend.) Lucy and Joyce don’t really have a connection. Maybe Lucy and Becky are friends, but from what we’ve seen that’s based mostly on a shared faith which is a nonstarter for Joyce these days.
Sarah is even more right about Lucy being an outsider than she realizes.
Sal cares about Joyce. At least when they were discussing the whole spiked drink at the party she stepped in to stop them from going to the cops. She also regularly walks in with them and hangs out with her
Don’t really know how this is relevant to my comment. My point was, if the main cast is considered a friend group, Sarah is only there for and because of Joyce. In that sense, she’s no more part of “the group” than Lucy is, who’s only there for and because of Walky, yet she’s talking as if the rest of the group would consider her a friend, and I’m not sure they would.
Sarah didn’t go too far. Lucy went to far and is a judgemental little prick who ignores everything in favor of her own little world view. She did it with Jennifer, she’s doing it with Walky and now she’s doing it to Sarah.
It’s a trope because people think themselves as nice, and wish they are nice because they choose to and not because they are powerless, seeing “nice” people hulking out is making people feel good. It’s marketing that become a cultural stand point.
I can confirm based on a few occasions that being a nice person doesn’t give you a George McFly moment. It usually means someone who’s not afraid of a fight will lay you out.
Honestly, I know I’m not supposed to be on Sarah’s side, but this is basically how I feel every time I encounter someone born west of about Harrisburg.
Gasp! How dare you good sir!
Lucy ain’t about that. Heck, she recently had Walky in bed but refrained to not annoy Billie. Meanwhile Roz, Malaya, and Mike would do it just to spite her.
Unless you are referring to the outsider bit, which is true. Also sad.
You can be both! And frankly I would prefer an asshole that would tell me how it is than a friend who would either lie to my face or cover up the truth with pointless platitudes/omission.
cor·rect
adjective
adjective: correct
free from error; in accordance with fact or truth.
“make sure you have been given the correct information”
Synonyms: right, accurate, true, veracious, exact, precise, unerring
That, is the most reddit ass response I could think of.
You’re correct I was obviously only talking about literal definitions and wasn’t making a point about how true doesn’t always mean necessary and brutal honesty is just about being a dick. I was being wrong about fucking synonyms
Thank you! Since i have been blessed with this random sarah gravatar i am trying to be the most snarky and sarcastic replier i can be until it randomly changes again.
I’ve been thinking about these two a lot since the last argument, Lucy feels like a perfect foil to Sarah.
Lucy seems to confuse being popular with what she really wants, which is to be valued as a friend. It’s not really asking for much but those two things are the same thing. It’s a shame because Lucy tries her hardest to be nice to come off as friend material.
Sarah on the other hand, yeah it’s true she has a serious mean streak in her many of times and she’s not desperate to be everyones friend, which is why she doesn’t care if not everyone finds her anti-social tendencies appealing. But at the same though when she does find what she believes to be a genuine friend, she won’t be in a rush pushed them away despite what past acquaintances say about her.
Seeing this situation I can see why these two are clashing. On one hand all Sarah needs to do dial back the mean remarks with certain friends joking or not, since not everyone would have the same tolerance for it. On the other hand, as much effort Lucy puts into being friendly she has to do more here. The best thing to do was to With hold judgment until she gets both sides of the story then compare and contrast to see who’s more valid. A genuine friend would have done that much.
Though after this, I don’t know how much effort these two will want o make for each other as friends…but maybe they should try since I think they can anker each other in a way.
Ah. You already went on.
Hm. Huh.
Interesting analysis. I think I would like to hear you expand more upon Lucy, because your idea that she conflagrates popularity with value is an interesting interpretation I would like to hear more on.
Well has she said to walky after a movie date that in high-school she didn’t have that many friendships and connections so she was hoping that would change in her College days. We see her both idolize/envy Jennifer for how she became everyone’s new favorite in her dorm when she moved in, probably because that’s exactly how she wanted things to play out in her journey to make real friends. But as we know that wasn’t real friendship because they weren’t enamored by the real her.
There’s also her eagerness to have brunch with Raidahs click because she said it herself “it’s a brunch date with popular people, we should totally go.” It makes it very clear she wanted to be apart of what she believed to be a part of the in crowd.
I think this might be another reason I adore Sarah but can’t stand Lucy a lot of the time (outside of not finding her interesting), it’s because she comes off as not being genuine with people. Just blandly friendly, and gets frustrated when interactions require more than that.
If shes not in the center, she causes trouble so she can insert herself, and play play maker. Its a dominance move.
She went to Billies old floor deliberberately to get dirt on how she could control Billie better. She inserted herself between Billie and her floormates and Billy and Ruth.
I think this is going to push Lucy to do something stupid and sabotage her relationship with walky. ( i dont think walky can tolerate being lower status than Billy ( with walky parents ) and sarah.
if Lucy allies with Raidah i dont think walky will tolerate it.
At the end of the day I don’t think she will because they’re doing it for very different reasons. I get the feeling that Lucy does it out of both a sense of insecurity (you see how she kind of unraveled when Billie’s rep made her more important) and obligation (she thinks that’s what she has to do for Reasons) whereas Raidah is doing it strictly because she wants to obtain power and influence (the networking focus, her reasons for being friends with Billie being straight up that she’s rich, etc.)
Lucy might be naive, but Raidah’s gonna slip up and Lucy’s television brain will kick in.
I think the same contrast could also be argued for Malaya and to a lesser extent Sal but Lucy has only registered Sarahs attitude as a problem because someone she looks up to told her Sarah was bad news so she’s seeing every abrasive thing Sarah says with a streak of malic that isn’t there.
And this is especially important because this is someone Lucy holds dear. It’s not like some unknown person that Sarah is being specifically mean about.
The first doesn’t apply to her interactions with Lucy and was more retaliation. Second is her saying she should confront the parents themselves and if she’s not comfortable with that then she’s needs a different boyfriend who doesnt come with that baggage, abrasive yes. Malicious no.
She specifically said that “No Walky” was the bonus, which is a direct insult to somebody that Lucy cares about. I don’t blame Lucy for taking that harshly.
I mean that has also been something Joyce communicated infront of his parents and Lucy with no harsh reaction combined with Booster it does seem a bit double standard to only take it harshly when it’s Sarah saying it about Walky.
also, as pointed out here, ribbing walky is just kind of part of the dynamic of the group. like sarah is not unique to this, and walky hasn’t said anything about it upsetting him
Yeah, pretty sure almost everyone has told Lucy “You can do better” but really only Dorothy has said “You can’t do better” to Walky when it comes to Lucy, if I’m remembering correctly.
He doesn’t have to, Raidah tore down Dorothy right in front of him. Plus she was super transparent about seeing him as a ticket to influence over the dean. Also on some level there the new mean girls who stole Billie from him.
With all this he he was well primed to see every little dig and put down they gave to his loved ones at the breakfast.
Part of why Sarah directed Joyce to Jacob was she thought she’d be doing Joyce a favor. Indeed, they might have worked out as a couple if Joyce hadn’t screwed it up big time.
Thinking about this, I wonder whether Jacob and Joyce would’ve worked out as a couple if Joyce was in the process of losing her faith. Would she have gone full atheist if she had a more middle-ground Christian like Jacob to bounce her ideas off of? Or would the strength of her convictions have carried her to atheism anyway? Would Jacob mind being with an atheist? He certainly didn’t mind Raidah’s Muslim faith. Would Joyce mind being with a Christian, especially one like Jacob, who doesn’t seem highly attached to specific interpretations of spiritual experiences (e.g. when Joyce asks if he feels God when he prays)? If I still wrote fan fic this could be an interesting idea to explore.
I don’t think I’ve read much about Sarah caring about Walky at all, but Walky and Lucy are not a good couple either way because one is only there because he thinks he should have a girlfriend and the other is only there because she is putting Walky on a pedestal. I think Sarah has called that out several times but I don’t read any animosity into it.
More over, Sarah definitely was a dick, and had malice toward Raidah, but definitely no malice toward Joyce and if I remember correctly even ended up learning to regret her choice to do that to Joyce.
Malaya outright told Sal she hated Lucy so i’m surprised she’d even bother being polite or trying to ignore malaya versus just being friendly to everyone (unless there were some off screen moments where malaya tolerated her that she interpreted as ‘bonding’)
I forgot she roomed with Malaya! Yeah, she was still all cheery about that hate wasn’t she? Couldn’t stand not being liked. But Maylaya hated everyone and didn’t have close friends. Sarah’s annoying because she’s abrasive and has friends but she doesn’t have pretty privilege like Jennifer to deserve it. Interestin…interesting.
Interesting points. I’d almost speculate that Sarah is far less *likely* to get along with a random person than Lucy, but at the same time, since she doesn’t care if anyone likes her and is just honest about important thinks, she’s in a better place to form much *deeper* friendships with the few people who like her.
I mean, do we know anyone Lucy is truly close with? In her dorm she rather seemed to be on friendly-aquaintance level with everyone…
You know what, I might try trying less hard to be nice and see how that goes.
I’d honestly put us not knowing anyone Lucy is super close with up to Lucy having less screen time than Sarah. Sarah’s had triple the appearances of Lucy, and also had a deliberately forgiving roomie, while Lucy had Malaya.
I think part of it with Lucy, is Lucy sees friendship as THE ultimate, most amazing thing. She idolizes the idea of having a big friend group that “gets” you and that she can be a part of. And then she thinks Sarah “betrayed” a friend (when of course, Sarah actually likely saved her friend/roommate) – therefor, Sarah is evil and wrong, and has no true friendships and is JUST mean for the sake of being mean, and she can’t fathom why anyone puts up with her.
Which is why Sarah hits her where it hurts by pointing out that Sarah has the thing Lucy has been searching for, a group that gets that her being mean isn’t a personal insult, its just how Sarah communicates. So Sarah already has the thing Lucy wants, and Lucy lashed out I think in part due to jealousy, and Sarah then responded.
Also, looking back I don’t think Sarah was always this mean. But then the ONE time she kind of had friends, and she wasn’t mean but just not social, she ended up having to make a hard choice and instead of listening to her, all her “friends” turned on her. The “mean” retorts are now a test of “Will you hang around if I am the mean honest one” and if you can’t handle that, well then her mean retorts are going to do their job of keeping you away.
And Lucy, in her pure view of friendship, already doesn’t like Sarah’s way of maintaining friendships, is jealous of Sarah’s friend group, and now has reason to believe (reason, but not truth) Sarah betrays her friends. She thinks she’s defending the group from Big Meanie, but she’s just misunderstanding and miscalculating the situation.
Solid analysis.
I think Sarah might also be mildly allergic to social climbers and their hangers-on given, well, what we know of her entire previous year.
Trying to be popular (but actually valued) isn’t exactly social climbing in the same sense as Raidah but it’s probably close enough to give Sarah some heebies, jeebies optional.
Lucy’s experience of Sarah is largely how she reacts to that and to people she’s not close with, so it’s not surprising they bounce off each other so bad.
Well, some people choose not to cllick the button because they’d rather not be tantalized by incomplete information and then have to wait for the rest. So it’s kind of like having that choice taken away.
I understand that others enjoy partly-informed anticipation. Let it be so.
Finally, someone who gets that Sarah is 100% responding appropriately to a girl who not only doesnt know the whole story, but ALSO regurgitates insults without any sense of context. Sarah definitely has the right to dislike lucy, especially with how transparent her whole “please like me” deal is. Maybe it’s because ive been reading this commentary since high school, but i will forever appreciate Sarah more in almost any situation.
I feel like Sarah has sensed Lucy’s “I’M A FRIEND TO EVERYONE” and I think Sarah doesn’t like people like that.
I think Raidah ALSO gives off that vibe, but it’s a much more malicious “I’m a friend to everyone I think I can use”, whereas Lucy’s is more naïve.
Also, yeah while I wasn’t be as mean as Sarah, I certainly have had people spread rumors (not that it’s a rumor that Sarah got Whatsherface sent home, but the way Raidah presented it was manipulative and rumor-esque) behind my back and then heard it regurgitated by someone else and I just kinda went “Yeah nah, fuck this” internally and did not go out of my way to be friendly. I don’t need to show kindness or niceness to someone who has already made their decision about who I am and what I do. Lucy has inserted herself into the group, arguably just in an effort to get to know Walky, not even to know anyone else, and I think Sarah is calling her out on it is fair. Mean af, but kinda fair.
Based on Patreon “preview”, you’re half safe to come back tomorrow. There’s very clearly a Danny, which means Sal and parents. Just not sure if there will be Walky and Amber, so disaster still might be happening.
I mean, probably as mean as a young black woman worried about not being accepted by her boyfriend’s parents being told that their relationship is doomed. Oh and that her boyfriend is scum.
Finally, someone who gets that Sarah is 100% responding appropriately to a girl who not only doesnt know the whole story, but ALSO regurgitates insults without any sense of context. Sarah definitely has the right to dislike lucy, especially with how transparent her whole “please like me” deal is. Maybe it’s because ive been reading this commentary since high school, but i will forever appreciate Sarah more in almost any situation.
Yeaaaaaahhhhhh. Lucy didn’t realize how severe that crack about jettisoning people would be. Sarah responds to the actual severity though and so, yeah. She’ll come for your whole life right by the jugular.
I’ve often said to my friends that I definitely come across way meaner to the people I love. If I’m super polite and nice to you that means I don’t think we’re particularly close. Don’t know the boundries. If I give ya the business, that means we’re buds.
friends roast each other the hardest after all, there may be a line/landmine you shouldn’t step on in some cases but for the most part it’d be ideal if it’s a backand forth rather than an asshole ‘friend’ in the group saying offensive shit 90% of the time and just being like “you guys can’t take a joke” or so
And how many friends has Sarah kept other than Joyce herself, the person who from an early age has learned to take abuse (that calls itself love) as if it was candy?
Because it seems to me that she has lost every single one of every other friend she has ever made.
For someone who really dislikes Joe, they (Sarah and he) kind of have their need to use an ugly mask and hurt people to protect themselves in common. And she’s made progress, but really has not faced that growth down yet in the same way.
I think might worst part of this is that she describes Lucy’s relationship with Walky as purely physical – which given Lucy’s Christian sensibilities and how much this first relationship means to her that is likely deeply upsetting. I mean its true the physicality seems to play a not insignificant part of their relationship, but Lucy really seems to like Walky for who he is. I mean they have not even “boned” yet.
True. I just think Lucy wants Walky for more than just his body (and that she is probably in denial about and ashamed of how much of her wanting him is just physical).
PS. I like the number of puns (allusions?) you worked into your reply. I imagine that takes some skill. Are you a writer?
True i do think lucy DOES care about walky but like, it feels every other walky lucy interaction is lucy being super horny for him and its kinda annoying.
In response to the p.s. yes I am but those puns were entirely coincidental i didn’t realize i was doing it
The irony is that Sarah is completely wrong. Walky is actually the one uncomfortable with it moving on from being frinedship based on cartoons and hanging out.
Lucy wants it to be physical but she was friends with him first.
I mean, was she friends with Walky?
She was always interested in him and when someone hangs around someone almost entirely out of romantic/sexual interest that’s not exactly a real friendship.
It’s relationship-zoning someone.
In this case, Walky was okay with it (once prompted), but imagine if he wasn’t; would they still be hanging out once it came out?
This is true, But I’m sure Walky would ve went for it much, much earlier.
If she ever showed a greater interest.
But its been so long i think hes having trouble adjusting. She waited too long, friendzoned herself. i think walky likes the Idea of dating lucy more than actually doing it.
Sure, she was interested in him from the start, but the entire reason she was is that they have a ton of common interests. You take away the romantic angle and they’d still have things in common. Lucy’s obviously a lot like Joyce, and those two still hang out despite the thought of a romantic relationship being anathema to both of them.
Theres also the fact that Lucy’s Christian ideals might make the idea of extramarital boning ending a relationship early sound likely, conflicting with her desire to get intimate.
Thank you as always for being so supportive Laura! 😭🥹
I am just exasperated at what’s become of Twitter, seeing the userbase there spit on your gender identity for sick kicks.
It ain’t gonna get better there, I am not obligated to stay and neither is anyone else here. Leaving ain’t gonna make the Right stronger, it’s functionally an echo-chamber for far-right fools you will NEVER win over.
Just throwing it out there, reactionaries never won by winning over US, while you busy bickering with bigots, they off elsewhere radicalizing normies to their cause.
Time and effort is better spent elsewhere. Stop wasting your time over at the Twitter tire fire, IT’S NOT WORTH IT.
Here’s some happy enby-related info:
– Tomorrow is a local nonbinary pride festival/market
– They have a blahåj pool (ball pit of shark stuffies)
– I am a performer and it’ll be my first on-stage performance including the song “you’re not the only bear Ive fisted’ by schmekel
Musk decided to go ahead and by Twitter in order to turn it into an alt-right/fascist propaganda fountain and disinformation machine. He literally recruited fascists and other alt-rightists and also literally pays them money to drive hate.
And if we’re gonna talk about this, I’m gonna say it: anybody who’s still active there is helping him with his little fascist project. Monetarily, as well as otherwise. I ran the numbers a while ago, using Elon’s own statements, and while I was already gone I was sure as hell glad I’d left.
Most of his “crazy” “bullshit” makes a hell of a lot more sense once you recognise what he’s actually doing.
Again, if Sarah wants people to stop assuming that Raidah is 100% right about the story she tells about what happened with Dana, maybe she shouldn’t constantly be acting in a manner that is entirely consistent with the stories Raidah tells.
If you’re being an asshole, then yeah, people are going to believe that you were a somewhat larger asshole at a point in the past.
Because, uh, fuck no, being an asshole is not a perk one gets for being part of the group. Sarah didn’t take that crap from Mike, its a cost you put on others that is hopefully made up for by your better attributes. And Sarah’s struggling to show any of those better attributes.
Side note: Is it true that Lucy is super-thirsty for Walky’s D? Obviously.
Is that the absolute entirety of her feelings towards him? Probably not. We’ve seen them interacting enough that, while virginial lust is almost certainly a factor, she also just enjoys who Walky is, she finds him funny, he’s been a stand-up boyfriend when tested. This isn’t “telling harsh truths”, this is just spouting off bullshit first-opinions and assuming they’re true.
Other-side-note: One thing that’s making me smile is Sarah’s face in Panel 5, because it does look like she gets that she’s pushed things too far here. She’s backpedaling with her words, albeit a weak “…ha ha just a joke right buddy…” variant, but it does show that she does get some of it.
That’s why I was pounding refresh on the page tonight. Because while the characters act like assholes, they’re ***interesting*** assholes, damn it!
I mean, that’s the thing, Sarah IS actually responsible for a lot of horrible shit. She’s someone who will go after a rapist with a baseball bat but she’s also someone who will deliberately attempt to break up a rival’s long-term relationship with her best friend as a honey pot out of spite.
Sarah has some pretty awful qualities to go along with her fantastic good ones.
Tbf with the Jacob thing if I’m remembering this correctly: Sarah did realize what she was doing, backed off and apologized. Not because it was mean to Raidah but because she felt she was manipulating Joyce.
Then Joyce ended up making out with Jacob anyway.
Ultimately I feel like Sarah’s meanness is ultimately just talk . This is probably the cruelest she’s been and I personally think it’s justified.
Was what Sarah said cruel? Yeah, just a bit. Was it true? To an extent yes. Did it need to be said? (As much heat as I might get from this I haft to say it) yes it did.
She started walking with them in the morning to get close to Walky, hanging out with them was a bonus but not the adjective. Also, it’s kinda of worrying that she’s based her dynamic of her relationship with her boyfriend as being a Walky cling on. “I look good because I’m standing next to you” made me think a little.
And most importantly, she can be kind of insisting about how she becomes close with certain with a brief amount of time spent but and not having a significant moment or two that builds bonds. Lucy interpreting insignificant things as Walky says as “I love you” is one thing but asking where she fits on the favorite Walkerton child rankings only meeting their parents within an a single hour is worrying.
>Was what Sarah said cruel? Yeah, just a bit. Was it true? To an extent yes. Did it need to be said? (As much heat as I might get from this I haft to say it) yes it did.
I’d argue that unsolicited shit talking a person’s boyfriend and advice to break up is actually something that doesn’t need to be said.
I was referring to mostly about today’s strip but that aside , Lucy would have gotten the same advice from multiple other people in this circle, one being her own roommate, the other being said boyfriends sister, and another being Joyce.
I honestly feel like she’s decided anyone who’s going to believe Raidah’s snipy, manipulative two-faced bullshit is not worth her time, and whether or not Lucy specifically deserves this, I honestly get it. You can’t spend your whole life playing defense against someone like that and their unknowing flying monkeys. It’ll take up all your time and emotional energy.
It’s broader than that, its likely Sarah’s defense mechanism, piss them off and push them away before you can get close enough to be hurt by rejection. Even if the others in the friend group tell her to get bent, she still has that distance from them that she can stand the blow. Its really only Joyce that Sarah’s close to and would feel hurt by.
Of course, putting up all the walls like that isn’t a great long-term solution, just tends to create a lot of loneliness and bitter cynicism…
Outside of the Raidah incident we really don’t know much about what made Sarah the way she is. We know she’s not there because she can afford it – she’s on a scholarship deal and that’s about it.
We know she has a poor relationship with her parent/step-parent (I can’t recall which is the step), an awkward one with her half(?)sister, and her granny is close enough to buy her sextoys.
>Other-side-note: One thing that’s making me smile is Sarah’s face in Panel 5, because it does look like she gets that she’s pushed things too far here. She’s backpedaling with her words, albeit a weak “…ha ha just a joke right buddy…” variant, but it does show that she does get some of it.
I actually took that more as a “Yeah, see I won that right there.” additional jab than as backpeddling. More like the finisher to a combo, because by saying “if we were friends” she is iterating that Lucy ISNT part of the group, and that she will eventually not be at all.
I mean, she did ask what Lucy had heard from Raidah and she implied that this wasn’t about hearing re: Dana, it was her drawing her own conclusions. Which makes sense, because a.) Sarah is an asshole as an objective, empirical fact, and b.) Lucy knows the friction between Sarah and Raidah, and has concluded, reasonably, that her position sounds stronger if it sounds like her own rather than just echoing Raidah.
Of course, if Lucy said “she told me about Dana and you getting her kicked out when her mom died” and they actually talked and hashed out more of the facts, then…well, it’s not like they’d make peace because Sarah is still Sarah, but it wouldn’t be so damned painful to watch them talk past each other when they aren’t driving words into each others guts.
Friends do give leeway with certain things, sarah doesn’t seem to care about her reputation, which shouldn’t rly matter in college as long as you aren’t actively hostile to ppl but if she’s aiming to be a lawyer too she should probably work on building connections even if she doesn’t do it in the same manner as raidah (unless she’s just amazingly charming and able to have a good conversation when she has to)
she also saw dorothy as one of the few with a good head on her shoulders/assumed it was a fling , which it more or less was even tho they did end up caring about each other more than expected
Sarah, darling, I love you, but “I’m an asshole, it’s my personality, it’s how I show love, my real friends get it” is suuuuuuuuuuuuuch a bad look. I know, that’s to a T how I behaved in college. I literally said to someone “I’m making fun of you because we’re friends!” once, and I still feel remorse about it.
From a more meta perspective, I am really enjoying seeing Sarah and Lucy conflict. It’s similar to Joyce/Becky conflict, but without the emotional and historical baggage. I almost feel like Sarah and Lucy can take the gloves off and really go for it, which should be fun (NB: tragic)!
I just compared it to Joyce/Becky to my boyfriend – two of the few times where the comment section divided down the middle compared to the typical opinion bell curve with outliers.
Man, Sarah. Like, yeah, I honestly don’t think she’s usually *that* bad, like I think her poking the bear with Joyce is usually fine, but that’s because Joyce knows her well.
Lucy doesn’t, and Lucy has honestly tried to show her a fair amount of respect in the past, probably in part since Sarah takes her studies seriously and due to seniority, but this is just… really mean-spirited even if I feel like Sarah probably has at least enough sense to know this is way too much.
I think the thing to understand about Sarah is that she’s a jerk with a heart of gold. But the jerk parts are not coverage. They are sincere nastiness.
Like, for no reason, she’s decided she hates Walky. His personality just offends her.
Sarah had to work hard to get into college on scholarships, and has to work hard to retain them; Walky comes across as bone-idle and coasting on his ‘golden child’ status. I know there is a lot more to Walky and his life than this, but I can see how he would rub Sarah up the wrong way.
The last time we see them hang out before the more biting angle towards Walky was the Halloween flashback where he derailed the entire party by saying Mike hadn’t died after what they all went through. Might also be a part of that…
Man, that stuff wouldn’t have been tolerable if she had said that to Roz or Malaya. For whom it was true and they would be proud of it.
But I do like her reactions.
Panel 3: Mean statement
Panel 4: Anger
Panel 5: Saying that the mean thing is a sign of friendship
Panel 6: Double anger (also at being outside the friend group)
Personally, I know all too well about wanting to be a part of a certain friend group and feeling down because they’re not really interested in having me be a part of the circle. But I don’t emphasize that much because I wouldn’t be doing it how Lucy is right.
I’d take every opportunity to know about certain people I’m trying to hang around by interacting with them personally, not base a opinion after hearing second hand gossip and observing their behavior from just being in vicinity for a short period of time.
Sarah is categorically wrong and full of shit. Sarah was mean to Lucy right when they first met. She called Lucy “overly creepy” and Lucy took it in stride.
Lucy’s was first trying to be friends with Jennifer, but Jennifer pretty much sees her as a dweeb and dismisses her.
Yes, most of her friendships overlap with Walky, and he’s her main connection, but it’s not like she hasn’t made an effort with other people. Most of the time, she’s been put to the sidelines and kept at arm’s length. And honestly not for very good reasons.
I really like Lucy standing up for herself here. It was about time she had some REAL conflict in the story.
Lucy’s not just there because of her desire to bone Walky. She likes Walky, but it’s not the only reason she is trying to be friends with everyone. If she were just talking to Walky, I could maybe see the point there, but she really doesn’t do that.
Sarah is saying most of this stuff because she has her guard up. She is automatically suspicious of someone who is “overly friendly”, and basically stated those suspicions when she equated Lucy to Raidah.
Also, she has enough comic time that she’s not going to fall off the face of the Earth when she dumps Walky or vice versa. She’s part of the main cast at this point.
I’m not so sure myself, I’m not 100% certain she would have insisted on walking with them to class if Walky wasn’t hanging around them and and also he’s half the reason she kept showing up at their dorm ( if we were talking about pre-time skip and how she went to their dorm to ask about Jennifer and starting hanging with Ruth and Carla that would be a different )
Also, she kind of proves those suspicions of her to overly happy and nice right here, she gets very little information about Sarah past with Raidah & Dana and it changes her attitude tawords her completely. It energy to it as self proclaimed nice guy not actually being nice underneath.
Yeah, but it’s not like her dislike of Sarah is unfounded. Sarah is a complete jerk to her and Walky. Every interaction with both of them has been negative. And it’s not like she feels she’s entitled to Walky. It’s not really Lucy’s fault that people aren’t as close with her yet when she’s made every effort to befriend them. And it’s not like she holds it against them. Lucy’s the furthest thing from a nice girl. Raidah just made her realize what she felt under the surface. Plus, Sarah kind of went out of her way to be a dick here.
Searching the Lucy+Sarah tag really kind of puts it in perspective.
On hand I get the sentiment here, on the other a lot of them are jerks Lucy bf included, only difference is most of them balance it out with charm while Sarah is a bit more Jerky than charming.
Also, people aren’t NPC’s in a Sims game dude, spending time hanging around in the same vicinity with particular people doesn’t equate friendship. Showing enough care to form bonds through understanding each other however is a good start. Sarah is being an ass about it but her feelings tawords Lucy is valid given how little effort she put in to getting to now her personally 1 on 1.
I think Sarah put explicitly for Lucy what she was feeling under the surface. Much of the relationship is performative. She wanted to have sex but had to go through the motions of being a ‘girlfriend’.
controlling self image is important, and it’s normal that she’s a mess right now, but their whole relationship revolves around her sorting through her baggage. It needs to get done and Walky is game, but she needs to confront her feelings.
She’s roomates with Jennifer, not friends, not even close. She wants to be but Jennifer is not having it. She doesn’t even want them there at the hangouts with Raidah and that probably wouldn’t change even if Walky wasn’t coming.
Lucy and Becky go to church together, okay that’s a starting a point for building a connection but still not a lot. But fine we’ll say they’re for sure friends.
Dorothy and Lucy are aware that the other exists and that’s about it.
I’m not sure what criteria you’re using because the only for sure friendship you listed was Walky. The fact you tried to list Jennifer as being her friend was strange too, because they don’t have the same kind of relationship as Sarah and Joyce.
I don’t think this is about her not having veto power, but because she’s literally just hearing a smaller version of Raidah right now, which while doesn’t justify being an asshole explains why she is.
Sarah is only there because of Joyce, who was merely assigned to her as roommate, and if that friendship is ever over, her membership in “the group” will be done even more definitively than Lucy’s.
Atleast Lucy pursued Walky because she liked him, rather than merely being assigned to him and ending up part of the “group” just by luck.
So Sarah feels entitled to insult Lucy because she’s an outsider, and she feels entitled to insult insiders of the group too because they’re insider, and she feels entitled to also decide who’s part of the group or not, and she feels entitled to push people out as well.
All this summarizes to just “Sarah feels entitled to be an asshole to absolutely everyone”
No, being “mean” isn’t a perk awarded to being part of the group, because when if someone decides to be mean to Sarah, Sarah sure wouldn’t take it well, regardless of group membership. She didn’t accept Joyce being mean to *other* people over her atheism, and that didn’t even affect Sarah.
This is Sarah being an asshole because she thinks Sarah herself and only herself is allowed to be an asshole, and everything else is an abuser’s excuses.
I don’t understand people saying Sarah is correct. Lucy’s under no obligation to join Walky’s friend group just because she’s dating him, and Sarah’s turning into a fucking Sith Lord with this “You’re not one of us” stuff, which even by DoA’s standards is melodramatic bullshit.
Friendly reminder that Sarah walked up to Lucy and started this argument. Just butted right the fuck in on something that had nothing to do with her because she felt like hurting Lucy. Who should be minding themselves, again?
I’m not saying Sarah is totally wrong in her analysis of Lucy but she started this. For all her talk of how being mean is a privilege in her friend group, you cannot give that same treatment to someone who is not your friend and expect them to take it well. I don’t think Sarah’s reasoning about why the plan is stupid had anything to do with Lucy saying she was “being mean”, Sarah was going to go on that rant no matter how Lucy initially reacted.
Like, I just don’t think people are giving Lucy enough credit here. Do we really all take the time to get to know the potential antagonists in our lives? When your friend tells you about someone they don’t like, do you go “well what’s THEIR side of the story” or do you go “yeah that person sounds like they suck” because someone you trust is telling you they’re bad? I don’t think many people instinctually do the former. Raidah has told Lucy about Sarah, and Sarah has done nothing to dispel that image of herself in Lucy’s eyes. Which is not me saying that Sarah HAS to do that, if she gave more than a minimum effort to based on her interactions with Lucy so far that’d be pretty out of character. But if we’re judging Lucy’s perception of Sarah, based on everything she’s heard and personally witnessed, it’s not that outlandish for her to have this perspective.
And like, I agree with Sarah about Walky’s plan being dumb. But also, it’s like, damn, who asked you? You were not part of this conversation. And you are NOT friends. If you actually give a damn, try talking Walky and Amber out of it instead of antagonizing the girl you don’t have any connection with. Even if Sarah is genuinely trying to help in her own thorny way, she just doesn’t have to clout with Lucy to roll up and speak to her like that.
Sarah told her to dump her boyfriend, umprompted and unsolicited, to entertain herself. Sarah’s 1,000 percent the instigator here by like, virtually any metric.
No! She rightly said – face the music or if your relationship isn’t worth that, dump him. She’s going to have to face the racists so do it without the bad plan that might backfire or realize it’s a bad match because you won’t ever feel good enough.
She “rightly said” all that jazz very conveniently directly AFTER Walky fucked off to do it. If she genuinely thought this was a bad idea and cared about stopping it to make sure people wouldn’t be hurt, she could have interjected far, far earlier. There are many parts of this conversation that, if what Sarah was concerned with was giving good advice, she could have tweaked, but Sarah right now is enjoying maximizing the hurt feelings she can inflict, and the “good advice” is merely a vehicle for that.
I think it’s fair to state your opinion on how someone treats their friends if you see something concerning. Lucy has a certain idea about what is right in terms of how you treat people – you speak to them with kindness – and she isn’t afraid to speak on what she thinks is right.
Oof. I thought Sarah was just gonna tell her to fuck off but this is way worse. Like what is happening with her? This feels a little out of character for Sarah. Like her teasing wasn’t as blatantly cruel. I know Lucy pissed her off, but she can’t actually believe some of her comments lately have been friendly jokes.
Actually, it’s because Lucy inserted herself into the group, said Sarah wasn’t “nice to her so-called friends” (implying she isn’t actually close to Joyce, who she was being very mean to at the time), and then used the one piece of info she knows about Sarah to try and hurt her.
To be fair, Sarah didn’t need to insert herself into this convo, but she’s Sarah so here she goes refusing to learn that sometimes being nice to people is what friendship is instead of being a bongo to them.
Lucy saw Sarah deliberately mortify Joyce for the lolz, and she saw Sarah take joy in Joyce’s humiliation. Since then Sarah insulted Walky behind his back and tried to tell Lucy to ditch him for someone who’s less work.
Everything Sarah says about Raidah poisoning Lucy against her is a distraction from what Lucy saw Sarah do to her “friends” with her own two eyes.
Guess it depends if you’re someone who struggled to relate to others without a bit of sardonic wit or jaded cynicism, or you’re someone who just can’t help but want to be everyone’s friend. This is the meeting of two people who struggle to be accepted but from different approaches that clash considerably, and people will in some ways root for the one they feel most kin to.
But also Lucy is objectively naive in a way that doesn’t get blatantly called out as much as Joyce’s zany activities do. What she’s doing here with Wally is infinitely meaner and less considerate to pretty much anyone involved (and also emblematic of why I think Wally is genuinely garbage) than anything Sarah has done in the strip, and yes that includes Sarah sending Joyce off to seduce Jacob because she liked Jacob and hates Raidah. She had no real ability to make Jacob or Joyce do anything there, all her sin was was wanting Raidah to suffer, which is consistent with her character. I said it then and I’ll say it again here, Raidah didn’t own Jacob, this is University not marriage, and Jacob has complete autonomy, besides that it is -Jouce-, who has all the grace and capacity for duplicity of a sledgehammer.
For those who bring this up as reason why she’s awful, be honest that the reason you don’t like Sarah is because she’s abrasive. She is just human and living her life otherwise. Meanwhile, Lucy and Wally repeatedly show no deeper will to care about the people in their peripheral or willingness to approach others with empathy.
Her ability to swing a bat at people who deserve it? I dunno, that’s about all I’ve ever seen. Useful trait to have but it really doesn’t tip the scales as much as it used to.
Man I JUST said yesterday that Sarah wasn’t gonna let Lucy’s parroting bother her but it seems it bothered her a lot. Like this was just mean. I do think Lucy is a bit of a plus one to the group of people the comic focuses on, but that’s all the more reason why she can objectively say Sarah is mean. Like, everyone else might put up with it because they all just accept that they’re friends. Lucy has no leg to stand on talking about how Sarah abandons people, still, but I think it’s fair for her to call her mean.
But it’s not really due to lack of effort on Lucy’s part. Lucy has been trying hard to get to know them for a while, but most of them keep her at arm’s length. That’s why Lucy reacted to Sarah’s comment.
To be fair, Lucy literally used one of the hardest decisions Sarah’s ever had to make, the ONE piece of info she knows about Sarah, and just TRIED to get under her skin. I think Lucy deserved that.
It’s really ironic that Raidah keeps telling people that “we don’t throw people away just because they’re convenient” when she exclusively picks people she believes are convenient based on their connections. Like I understand networking but she’s a user who wants to ingratiate herself to as many people who can get her ahead as possible and clearly only sees the value of people based on what they can do for her. This implies that she would most definitely toss someone aside as soon as they are no longer valuable
Yep, if Jennifer’s alcohol problems rear their head again, is it more likely that Raidah will take the time and effort to genuinely help her, or distance herself/encourage Asher to break up with her/do exactly what Sarah did to Dana?
It was a joke because what Sarah did to Dana was genuinely help her, she realised no one around her was equipped to do so, so she did the one thing she could, get Dana to people who could help her.
Ignore the problem until Jennifer either sinks or swims.
Or someone else throws her a life preserver, than either take all the credit or blame the thrower depending.
Honestly? Lucy you kinda deserved that. Using the one thing you know about Sarah, gained from someone who OBVIOUSLY has a bias, to get under her skin? Yeah if you’re going to throw punches, you’d better be ready to catch some right back.
I don’t think malaya considers lucy a friend either and has been more hostile even when unprovoked so i’m surprised she hasn’t gotten a tough skin about it and just ignore sarah but she is currently emotional/anxious about the walky/parents situation
Malaya actively moved away because she couldn’t stand Lucy. The fact Lucy still thinks she’s going to wear down Maylaya and Sarah is considered a bongo is just strange. Not that she doesn’t have her moments but how is she worse than maylaya!?!
The difference is, I believe LUCY considered Sarah to be a friend, and part of her anger/upset here is discovering that Sarah did not feel the same.
Now, in fairness, I do sympathize a lot with Lucy on this. To realize that people you considered friends, possibly even good friends, still think of you as “an outsider” is extremely upsetting and demoralizing. On the other hand, I’m also kinda like Sarah in that it takes quite a long time for me to really consider somebody as a friend. Lucy is someone who makes friends quickly and easily, but her threshold for what constitutes a friend is much lower compared to people like me and Sarah. The cause of this conflict is essentially two people who have very different ideals on a) what makes a friend?, and b) how should friends treat one another?
I think despite her outgoing personality Lucy has shown to have difficulty making friends which is another reason what Sarah said hit hard. She’s getting to that point with Becky I think as a church friend first but aside from that we haven’t seen her hanging out with any other people recently that aren’t a walky connection. Remember not too long ago she seriously wanted her brother to order a table full of people to be her friends because she was frustrated with her lack of results.
Weird how a lot of people thought Walky and Lucy were making a terrible mistake asking Amber to pose as his girlfriend or something (the plan doesn’t make sense). And then Sarah tells Lucy that, and she shouldn’t put up with the situation, that’s genuinely good advice. But Sarah’s the villain for it because Lucy rejected the advice by saying something mean to Sarah, and Sarah responded in kind.
Sarah was eavesdropping and walked up and basically said “Hey, so I was eavesdropping,” and then started insulting her. And talked about Walky like he’s an object she can discard.
Yes, during the course of that she said this is a stupid plan. That’s true. Saying a true thing doesn’t means she didn’t do all that other stuff.
I’m usually pretty slack about accusations of “eavesdropping” in the dorm setting, but it kind of fits here – she had to have overheard a decent amount of the conversation to know what was going on, but still didn’t approach and give her advice while it was still happening, but waited until Amber and Walky had left to approach Lucy.
I actually don’t think that jab was about Walky himself as much as the baggage Walky is (which they all have). Either ditch the plan and go meet the racists, or if he isn’t worth that then find someone else who is. Could be delivered better, but it was delivered with correct concern
even if someone else gently suggested it was a bad idea i think lucy is determined to want her parents to like her in comparison to whatever “disaster” amber plans to do for them
Sarah says Lucy is an outsider who will not stay in the group because her being with Walky won’t last. That’s a mean thing to say and it also underlines a fundamental difference between these two. Sarah’s been burned by her experience with Raidah’s group and has become cynical about the staying power of friendship. Lucy’s been shut out of groups before -which is why Sarah’s remark hits home – but is still a wide-eyed optimist who hasn’t adopted any of Sarah’s cynicism. For what it’s worth, I’m with Sarah on the staying power of relationships in their stage in life. The situation is transitional and so are a significant part of the flings and friendships. Thing is, you don’t say that out loud, because people won’t like you for it.
Even if Joyce considers walky a friend, other than being in the same math class and being a part of like a lunch or small get together/party i never rly associated walky and sarah in the same ‘group’ together or so tho i suppose walky goes with the flow/more or less does his ow n thing
i don’t expect it to last too much longer but i imagine it’d be more because of drama or walky’s issue with parents and such or him figuring out that he doesn’t love lucy as much as she does him, as opposed to her getting ‘bored’ of the relationship
Well Sarah may have won the argument, but still fails to convince the jury and that’s not good for a future lawyer. She managed to achieve what Malaya and Jennifer have been actively doing for weeks in just a few minutes. That’s no mean feat. Pun intended. Of course if Lucy and Wally bone it will be more sexual activity than Sarah had during her tenure at Indianapolis so the joke will be on her.
it might feel like the same speed, relatively, like Dorothy as far as we know hasn’t had any physical/mental breakdowns from her studies before joining college so it might affect her more as opposed than stumbling and struggling all the way through since like middle school or whatever
Can’t say i like Lucy parroting exactly what Raidah told her without actually knowing the situation at all, and i don’t think it’s good of her, but to be fair, Sarah is basically doing all the worst things she could possibly do in this context and if i were in Lucy’s place, I’d be pissed too
Sarah’s doing it because Lucy started shit. Lucy has been passive aggressively bringing up the bullshit that Raidah told her without even bothering to ask ANYONE their opinion, much less asking Sarah for her side. And in DoA time haven’t Lucy and Walks only been together like a week? Little early for her to be so aggressive about challenging members of the group.
Billie confirmed it (to a certain value of that, but she said that Sarah told her this happened), and Walky gave aggreement she’s like that. Following this, Sarah came up to Lucy and told her to jettison Walky cause he’s inconvenient. And just doubled down today that that means Lucy is gone as well.
Point and Match, Sarah. Way to go for the throat. Lucy had that coming. And if she was hit this hard, I can’t wait to see Raidah get her (eventual) share.
All my chips on Sarah though Lucy doesnt have it in her, is younger, and there’s a height advantage. I could see her getting a great (and probably the first) hit in though.
As someone who likes Lucy and actually likes her relationship with Walky.
Sarah’s in the right.
Lucy’s just puppeting someone else’s opinion with no context. It’s isn’t as if no one has told her a relationship with Walky was a bad idea, there’s been people stating it from jump but she’s only biting at Sarah for it. She wants to be in a group and that includes the group’s drama and she’s making the wrong call about it.
Sarah had conversations to regulate how mean she should be, she makes sure that everyone is ultimately alright, has stopped when she thought she’s gone too far and at this point trust that people around her will call her out if they get uncomfortable.
This is something that Lucy mightve picked up on if she bothered to get to know any of Walky’s friends instead of assuming she was automatically friends with them by association. Or at the very least she mightve heard out Sarah’s side on what was clearly a heated topic.
And we all know what Sarah knows that Lucy is being played by Raidah like a fiddle.
i’m not sure if they’d be compatable even if raidah didn’t ‘poison the well’ against sarah and frame the narrative to make her seem like the bad guy for having an adult/parent step into dana’s situation
surprised sarah’s getting under her skin after having malaya as a roommate (tho she still seems peppy or willingly ignorant of malaya’s extreme dislike of her? even if i were young and cheerful introducing myself, after a day or two of seeing malaya’s personality/being told to f*ck off [even marcie flipped her off undeservedly], i’d def distance myself from malaya/anyone that obviously disliked me that much)
Malaya is more just dismissive, not really putting in the effort to make the insults hurt. I think Lucy judges Sarah more harshly because her ‘jocular ribbing’ is often very hurtful and personal. I don’t think they were ever going to like each other, Raidah just used that and added the whole Dana thing to the mix.
In order for Lucy to “hear out Sarah’s side”, she would’ve had to have been told Sarah’s side. When confronted by someone who only knows Raidah’s slanted retelling of events, Sarah only rebuts with “oh great, she got to you too” and a dismissive eyeroll. That… doesn’t exactly sway opinion.
There’s a difference between someone asking you about an event and someone who already decided that you were in the wrong before you can get a word in.
See Joyce is sat down with Sarah and asked her why she was acting up vs Lucy who never asked and used an insult that obviously proved she was talking about her behind her back and committed to it.
Sarah doesn’t have to trust her with personal information and I don’t think that Lucy earned that trust.
Sarah shouldn’t be obligated to plead her case everytime someone knew wants to bring up the Dana situation, that would be her being on defensive her whole life. If Lucy is so keen on giving her two cents on this SHE should be the one to ask HER for more context.
She inserted herself into a conversation and said that Walky wasn’t treating Lucy right.
After Lucy did the same calling out Sarah for making fun of Joyce.
Sarah also said that Lucy doesn’t really care about the group because she’s here for Walky.
Right after Lucy poked her multiple times by saying she throws people away.
If you want to call out characters for bullying Lucy there are plenty of valid targets like Mayala, Jennifer, her dorm mates, even Marcie had been mean to her unprovoked.
Everything Sarah has done to Lucy however Lucy has fired the first shot.
Lucy spoke immediately, in front of Sarah, to Sarah.
Sarah went behind Walky’s back, to advise his girlfriend to ditch him, because Walky supposedly sucks and Lucy can do better. Before pivoting to saying that Lucy sucks.
Do you think that Sarah will admit in her next meeting with Walky “Btw, I told Lucy to break up with you?”
She also talks a bunch about Walky’s racist parents and how it’s so much work, and then pivots to implying that Lucy’s relationship with Walky is a short-term thing, so if it’s a short-term thing what the fuck do the parents even matter?
All in all, Sarah just attempts to say the most hurtful thing she can think of, and then when one thing doesn’t work she pivots to a different and contradictory thing. As long as it maximizes the hurt, she doesn’t care about truthfulness or even consistency.
I think you’re missing she said that she’d go or give up. Like Licy, if you liked him more than boning him you’d go face up to the racists than do this dumb idea and if you just want to bone then it isn’t worth it.
The funny part is how her statement literally isn’t true. “The statement once you’re done with Walky we won’t have to put up with you anymore.” Only works because of the Not Friends part. If they were friends, her cruel statement literally wouldn’t apply anymore, so no potential for it to be funny.
Honestly I’d give up the entire fucking ghost here if I was Lucy. None of…whatever this drama is is worth it. And I know it’s a fictional story with dramatic beats to built tension and provide entertainment and stories, but like…this…isn’t that fun?
It’s utterly fascinating to see how many people are willing to overlook Sarah’s LONG history of being a dickhead to people (including instigating this fight in the first place), while Lucy is “sort of” mean by pointing out how Sarah is being a dickhead ONE TIME.
“Oh but she’s parroting Raidah-“
Yeah and she had 2.5 people back Raidah up, including Billie, who WAS Sarah’s friend (or at least part of the group). Walky is the .5 who said that Sarah isn’t a people person, which is absolutely correct.
And then Lucy visits Sarah, and sees Sarah embarrass Joyce in public by bringing up the masturbation (and when Lucy calls her out on it, Sarah actually apologizes much to Joyce’s joy), which is a bit off.
And while this was a stupid romcom plan, the fact that Sarah goes up to Lucy and basically shit talks Walky to her face!? Like, no one fucking asked you Sarah!
And now you are gatekeeping this girl and calling her an outsider who doesn’t belong, when she has TRIED to be nice to you in the past, as if you know anything about what her relationship with Walky is (including how he defended her from a brother that he felt was hurting her feelings?).
this is the same group that mourns Mike and Mike was exponentially more “mean” than Sarah is. Sarah overtly cares about people and even asked joyce a few weeks of strips back if she was too mean. Mike wouldn’t even think of thinking that.
I think that Mike’s meanness is why Willis basically killed Mike off. Because he couldn’t keep Mike’s horribleness in the comic anymore and have any other character still accepting him without consequences be reasonable to their characters in any way.
Except a lot of other people have told Lucy a relationship with Walky is a bad idea, she has interacted with people who are much meaner then Sarah (Mayala, Jennifer, etc) so she knows that type of person and thr last time she called Sarah out, Sarah paused and asked Joyce if she was fine and Joyce said “yes” ultimately proving that not only is Sarah not the complete asshole Lucy is making her out to be but that Lucy doesn’t understand Sarah’s dynamic with her friends.
On one hand I did think Sarah’s comment about Joyces personal buisness needed to be called out but on the other I also think that Lucy accusing Sarah of disliking her friends was an overly judgmental conclusion and there is some truth to what Sarah said about Lucy not understanding her as the group outsider.
Sarah’s right, but this is super charged and emotional because Raidah is wrong about Sarah and wants her (and joyce) to be miserable. Lucy bought her hook line and sinker and is about to lose Walky not only to Amber, but to her own lashing out that’s about to occur by the looks of it.
And suddenly I’m reminded of Dan & Mab’s Furry Adventure, when Abel and Wildy first met. Abel admits he’s a newcomer to the group and doesn’t fully grasp their connections. But he does see Wildy is the kind of person who manipulates other for her own amusement and he wants none of it. And if she kept trying her tricks on him, he would literally destroy her.
After he leaves, Wildy just giggles and says Able seems like he’ll be fun.
It’s wild to me that so many of the comments don’t sense the affection Willis has for Sarah in the way they write her. She’s clearly not written to be hated. In any case, this clash is another Raidah win—with both Sarah & Lucy losing at least potential friendships—which makes me sad.
Yeah. Willis clearly has a soft spot for their most complicated characters because they’re also the most interesting ones. I do appreciate how this comic is full of characters who come across as annoying to abrasive — Sal, Amber, Carla, Becky, Malaya, Mike (RIP), Billie, Ruth, and of course Sarah. It’s because they don’t play nice with everyone like Lucy does that their softness, when it comes out, feels earned. They’re more entertaining and they feel more real. This is likely my own bias for a certain type of spicy personality showing but I think it’s one that Willis shares.
When Lucy challenged Sarah’s behaviour towards Joyce, that was fine, and I thought I was on the same page as the creator about the horribleness and toxicity of Sarah’s behaviour.
But then Willis has Joyce get over mortification in half a second, Sarah offer a half-panel of half-hearted apology that doesn’t change anything about her nasty behaviour, and it’s clear that the author doesn’t perceive Sarah’s behaviour as nearly as horrible and toxic as I do. So by this point the comic, any moment Sarah is on panel, has transformed for me to a comic that offers excuses for a horrible toxic person being horrible and toxic at their supposed friends.
In most other case of people doing stupid and/or nasty things, I tend to get that the author is on my side in believing them stupid and/or nasty. But not in regards to Sarah.
Part of the problem, I think, is that Sarah’s expressing this as it being okay to be mean, rather than arguing it wasn’t mean in the first place. She doesn’t say “I know how to say certain things so that those things aren’t mean because they don’t hurt them”, but rather as if she’s entitled to hurt her friends as a privilege of friendship.
You talk about Joyce’s boundaries, but we actually saw Joyce being mortified, we saw Joyce frantically trying to deny what Sarah was saying. The incident did violate Joyce’s boundaries, or she wouldn’t have been mortified.
Joyce just somehow didn’t care about this violation half-a-second later. Which… I dunno, Joyce just would forgive Sarah of anything, no matter how bad? In that case Sarah knows she can take advantage of Joyce’s infinite amounts of forgiveness?
People talk about having acted like Sarah, but if they actually mean that they mortified and humiliated their friends in front of others (including non-members of “the group”, as Sarah believes Lucy to be), then I’ll stand by saying that they mustn’t have been good friends in the first place.
I think I would argue that some people are okay with some amount of that in their friendships. I have definitely had people in my life enjoy flustering me to uncomfortable degrees, but like. That was fine? I did set boundaries when I actually needed to set boundaries during or afterwards. The rest of the time it was kind of funny afterwards. There’s like a tone thing. There’s a tone of voice you used to say shut the fuck up right now versus oh no totally don’t do that. And you’re right that it’s a very fuzzy line. But I don’t think it feels out of character for Joyce not to have drawn it in that scenario. Joyce has explicitly told us that she likes it that Becky tries to fluster her and make fun of her, even if to me Becky’s behavior feels like a bit much. Very clearly her lines are different from mine. And that’s normal and human? It’s not out of character or bad writing for a character to be pretty different from you in terms of where they set their boundaries and what behaviors they actually want directed at them.
This is a very short-sighted and honestly harmful view on writing if you think that just because the conflict wasn’t resolved within a single scene that that means the author personally condones the actions of their characters.
it is never an author’s job to align with your personal desires or ethics. and if you want that from every author who’s work you engage with you’re going to run out of stuff to read real fast. people are complex, including yourself.
You know, random thought, but if Dorothy sees Walky fake dating Amber again, that may be the straw the breaks the camel’s back, since she was rejected because he’s real dating Lucy.
for feck’s sake sarah you can’t go that far just because someone won’t get back in their box when you ask them to
for feck’s sake lucy just ask for more context on what raidah said if it’s that big a deal to you and maybe consider how it clearly didn’t bother your boyfriend all that much
The Raidah thing is unimportant, Sarah is a complete and utter malicious asshole, regardless of anything about Raidah and her own beliefs about Sarah’s horribleness.
Sarah is downright evil in this comic, she’s even trying to gaslight Lucy that people are friends only if they are assholes to each other.
Violate your friends’ privacy! Mortify them in front of other friends! Insult them behind theiRrbacks to their girlfriends, and try to tell their girlfriends that they should break up with them! And when that doesn’t work because their girlfriends are too loyal to take that well, just pivot to insulting the girlfriends instead.
She’s an abusive and toxic “friend”, who in quick succession took joy in hurting Lucy, trying to hurt Walky and now hurting Lucy. She’s malicioua and horrible and I definitely hope nobody here has ever acted like her towards their own “friends”.
Oh good lord, she’s definitely been a dickhead. But no, not even remotely evil.
And the Raidah thing is important because its just as nasty to keep poking her with it as everything you complained about Sarah doing, but without any actual familiarity or connection.
Also stop abusing the word gaslight. That’s not what’s happening here.
Shut the fuck up, you do NOT get to claim Walky as part of “your” group when you clearly dislike him as much as you do and insult him constantly. You have the luck of rooming with someone who is actually likeable who insists on bring YOU into the fold.
If you want people to know what actually happened, fucking tell them. Or if not, don’t. But fuck all the way off with “This person I abuse in every interaction who clearly is more attached to you is one of us, you’re the interloper.”
Or you know maybe Lucy should stop poking her with it based on one side. Its obviously something she doesn’t like discussing with people she doesn’t know well.
“Walky, hey sorry to call like this, and maybe don’t tell your parents, but I just gobsmacked your friend Sarah with a steel pipe, and it’d be nice if you could bail me out after dinner”
Technically she has a point. Lucy is only really close to Walky at this point. She and Jennifer never got around to being bosom buddies….But if Sarah really wanted Lucy as an enemy, mission accomplished. Yeesh…
I had a “friend” like Sarah once during my formative years and that friendship left me with crippling social anxiety that lasts to this day, and an inability to believe that the friends I have now like me.
The fact that so many people seem to like her has me convinced that I’m reading a different comic from y’all. It’s fine to enjoy her as a character, of course, but defending her actions is just too much.
Sarah’s likeable because of the opposite of moments like this. For every moment like this there are several more of her being a kind and supportive friend. Not just beating people up with bats either. Like helping Joyce with her dead toenail because she knew Joyce couldn’t do it. Or her genuine friendship with Dina that’s not buried under a layer of protective cynicism. Post winter break we’ve been seeing less of that Sarah and her usually playful jabs have been crueler. I personally think most of the cast have been slightly meaner post winter break.
I wonder if it’s the kidnapping issue. Like everyone in the cast involved has either had at least one instance of ‘what the flying fuck dude’ or at least such instances becoming more frequent/more intense than previous to the incident.
It’s like Walky being flippant over Mike to Ethan kind of made me go ‘what the fuck’ in my head but Halloween flashbacks kind of put it into context: this is his assholish coping mechanism. The kidnapping also got Dorothy into Yale but she rejected it for the same reason and she’s spiralling. Even before this issue with Lucy Sarah was really fucking weird about Joyce even at points during the Joyce/Becky drama. Which itself probably was more intense because of said incident at least on Joyce’s end.
Damn. Sure does suck to see people are still falling over themselves to defend someone as terrible as Sarah. I genuinely don’t understand why anyone would like or defend her here when Sarah is the one who butted in completely unsolicited just to be a bongo to Lucy.
I’ve yet to see anyone say she isn’t being a dickhead here, just that Lucy has definitely been prodding at her with something she knows nothing about.
She actually butted in to tell her the plan was a bad idea and insult Walky. The being a dickhead to Lucy part started because of the aforementioned prodding, which was definitely not any better than what Sarah is doing.
I want to point out that Sarah also never really bonded with this friend group. She’s definitely part of the main cast, but Sarah’s only reason to talk to any of these people is being Joyce’s roommate. I cant think of any strong personal bonds she shares with, say, Dorothy, Becky, Joe, Billy, Danny, Sal, Amber, Walky, Ethan, Carla… like, she shares panels with them, but they don’t usually have a strong personal dynamic unique to her. If they do, that dynamic is usually “Sarah has a different view of friendship and says something really mean unprompted”, which only lasts as the punchline needs.
Sarah, by her own preference, pushes everyone away. I think she does consider those people in the cast friends- that’s why she’s shitty to them- but I doubt they feel that strongly about her beyond “Joyce’s bitter roommate that we’ve interacted with a million times”.
Lucy might’ve hit a sore spot talking to Sarah. But Sarah is hitting her sore spots without a shred of empathy. Why shouldn’t people use Raidah’s talking points on Sarah, when she lives up to them so readily?
Makes you wonder if Sarah is maybe feeling threatened.
She throws it in Lucy’s face that she is in it only to bang Walky but she is a really nice kid and she’s been part this group for only a short while. Give her time and she will integrate while Sarah will remain her bitter, loner self. Sarah knows this and is angry that people will like Lucy while they will only Tolerate her.
I kinda disagree with this. Some of the people Sarah does actively hate, like Joe, or Walky, or Billie I think, but some she has formed true bonds with. Bonds close enough she was worth kidnapping. She truly loves Joyce and has gotten close to Dorothy and Becky as well. Dina is a true, genuine friend to Sarah and they both enjoy the time they spend together. She went to Becky’s mom birthday. Other characters like Ethan or Carla or Danny barely interact with the Joyce group much.
Has she gotten close to Dorothy and Becky? Those I have not seen. They share screentime but I dont think they have a rapport beyond “acquaintances”. I do think Sarah has built a decent friendship with Dina, who appreciates her upfront honesty. But even with Dina, Sarah has been cruel, like when she bluntly told Dina that her relationship with Becky was a rebound, which, while it felt true at the time due to Becky’s infatuation with Joyce, really did not give Becky enough credit and potentially heightened Dina’s insecurity’s to no real benefit.
I don’t think Sarah’s friends resent her- they accept her for the bitter, hateful, but well-meaning person she is. But it doesn’t give her the right to gatekeep who else they are friends with, like Lucy.
She has formed a sort of sisterhood with both Dorothy and Becky in a group effort to make sure Joyce stays alive/doesn’t have a mental breakdown. They comment on this all the time, technically even Jennifer considers herself part of that effort in a Batman sort of “I”m not technically part of the league but I’ll be there if you need me.” way. I can’t argue if she’s gatekeeping Lucy or just doesn’t like her. Both have validity at this point.
To be fair this kind of proves that she doesn’t really bond with people. Her only connection with others is Joyce and that’s only because Joyce is too friendly and oblivious to be deterred by Sarah’s grumpiness. Joyce basically dragged her, kicking and screaming, into interacting with other people.
Overall Sarah favours brutal honesty but unfortunately really often enjoys the brutal part most of all.
Damn girl.
Also as uncomfortable as it is this arc seems to finally making Lucy interesting to me. Like she’s rescued from the same character pile of ‘boring’ that even Danny’s verbal diarrhoea about Mike in front of Ethan couldn’t really lift him from.
Back in college I was the Sarah of my group. (“but you’re *our* asshole!” and all that). Ditched my roommate freshman year because they were doing LSD. Made a bunch of new friends. And then I started hating on my best friend’s girlfriend. The reckoning was interesting because I lost my best friend but everyone else was on my side. It felt awful, because I never really forgave myself for what I did to my best friend by being so awful to his GF.
Anyway, I see this road in Sarah, and I hope it goes better for her than it did for me.
It seems a bit like revisionist history to me. Joyce pulled Sarah into the group, and Sarah was grouchy to everyone because she (supposedly) never wanted to be there in the first place.
Both of them have been swerving way out of their lane, but both of them are right.
Lucy’s not wrong to point out someone going a bit overboard, but there are ways to do that (eg: “I don’t appreciate you doing blah”, “That’s going a bit far”) and she’s gone the dismissive insults path instead. Plus using ammo from the rumor mill is just going to make someone hate you. She can’t be an asshole to Sarah and then get offended when Sarah says “we aren’t friends.”
Sarah’s an asshole. She can’t be an asshole and then complain when people call her out on it. Trauma may have brought her here, but that’s frankly not Lucy’s problem. However, if Lucy considers herself enough of a friend to call Sarah out, she’s also subject to being told a thing she is doing is stupid.
Of course, the fact that Sarah’s being this mean while not thinking of Lucy as a friend, either that means Sarah’s being extra dickish here or the previous comic was a genuine attempt to bring Lucy into the fold. Both are pretty bad!
I mean, Lucy was the one who decided to shift this to taking shots at each other. Previously, Sarah was criticizing the plan Lucy and Walky came up with. Rightly so, since it is a terrible, terrible plan.
Lucy responded by criticizing Sarah personally, with the implication that Sarah ditches people who are inconvenient, and treats her friends badly. Once Lucy did that, Sarah responded in kind. More aggressively, it’s true, but Lucy was the one who decided to take things in that direction.
Only to quickly discover in a game of “let’s say mean things about each other”, Sarah is the reigning champion now that Mike’s retired.
Keep in mind Lucy is telling Sarah she doesn’t really care about a woman who is her only really close friend and who she has risked her life to protect. Knowingly or not, that’s just incredibly nasty. And Sarah is very prickly about this, and is also a black woman with a strong sense of justice so quite likely deeply, deeply revolted with the plan rather than simply thinking it’s stupid.
Shitty asshole dickhead shitdick assfuck shit fuck fuck asshole gaslight shit shitty shittiness ass ass ass ass asshole shithole fuckhole ass shit dick dick dick ass shitty fuck fuck
Sarah is the one “main” character that i can’t stand.
“You’re not part of the group, you’re just the latest sl*t for walky to b*ng and ditch.”
“being mean is a perk afforded to me as one of the group” (im allowed to be mean to you)
“that’d be hilarious if we were friends”
Raidah may be a user, but she isn’t wrong about sarah.
She somehow feels like a less pleasant version of mike.
I mean, Raidah isn’t right. But she knows how to take advantage of Sarah’s surly nature to APPEAR right.
Sarah doesn’t ditch people for being mildly inconvenient/difficult. But she is difficult to get along with, expresses herself poorly and it is fair if people don’t want to be friends with her for that.
It also isn’t weird for them to believe Raidah’s words without the context of the addiction + grief, because it is easy to believe someone unpleasant is unpleasant in multiple ways.
Sarah IS however clearly triggered by Lucy’s choice of words on the last strip and has gone into ‘the best defense is a great offense’ behaviour. She felt hurt so now she’s turned around to act genuinely mean and cruel whereas before, she was trying to be helpful, but expressed herself very poorly.
Which while understandable, really doesn’t help her. Raidah is wrong in her specific claim of how ‘Sarah is the worst’ even if she’s not wrong in general that Sarah isn’t easy to be friends with. Because Sarah’s lack of willingness to be vulnerable and open up to protect herself, also works against her, as people like Lucy don’t see how sensitive she is and just that she went from being an ass to being MORE of an ass.
“just saying, if I had a boyfriend with racist parents, I’d face them MYSELF or, better, Find an entirely new man who’s not so much trouble”
1 page ago she literally told her that she would ditch Walky to get someone that isn’t so much trouble, Literally telling her to get rid of him because he is inconvenient
Racist parents aren’t just an ‘inconvenience’, they’re a reasonable dealbreaker when you are in a very new relationship, you know that they will be around for 3-4 years at minimum, and it honestly would be a lot less effort to get a new boyfriend with non-racist parents.
It isn’t actually horribly unreasonable to point out to a friend that ‘you do know that you’re allowed to find racist parents to be a dealbreaker for a relationship right?’
I don’t blame Lucy for taking it badly as how Sarah said it was rude and Sarah is terrible at communicating but there is a significant difference between suggesting racist parents can be a dealbreaker and that you should drop people over any slightly inconvenient thing they do, which is how Raidah tries to paint her, as if someone spiraling into drug addiction is not a reasonable dealbreaker.
If Sarah legitimately dropped people for being even slightly inconvenient, she wouldn’t tolerate Joyce, Becky or Dina, who literally get her dragged into drama and even into danger for being associated with them. Heck, the kidnapping would have been a reasonable dealbreaker as well to go ‘danger is following you, and I don’t want to be in it’, but Sarah didn’t ditch of them for that.
I mean, that’s not remotely what Sarah did. I think we can accept it was not a good natured piece of advice but deliberately done because she wanted to take the time to insult Walky.
Nope. She wanted to insult Walky AND point out that racist parents can be a deal-breaker. And Walky is a bit of a prat and has earned the dislike people have of him, even if I don’t particularly mind him.
She’s not a friend though, by her own words. She can’t have her cake and eat it. She can’t be like “Oh you’re not my friend” and then deliver advice a friend would give. If she’s not a friend than what she said is bloody rude.
It’s so weird to me that people are saying “oh she’s just parroting Raidah” about Lucy. I feel like Lucy would have the exact same opinion about Sarah if she had never even met Raidah. As an audience we know Sarah has redeeming qualities, but Lucy has no reason to believe that she does. Lucy has legitimately never had a positive interaction with Sarah, and it’s down to Sarah being an asshole.
I’m hoping that I’m seeing the run-up to a good screaming match. These two need to shout all of their misapprehensions at each other until they actually hear what’s being said and go “what?” “wait, what?” and then (I hope) really communicate for the first time.
I really doubt Sarah and Lucy will ever resolve this or be on speaking terms. Sarah probably doesn’t have the social graces to make peace and Lucy probably won’t really want it. I wouldn’t be surprised if the argument ends here with Lucy just walking off.
I have no social skills and am wrong about everything–and Sarah is also my favorite character so I’m biased–but I do think she’s being too mean here, but also that she was 100% right about everything in the situation with Dana and Raidah sucks for poisoning people against her. I also think she’s right that Lucy doesn’t get that Joyce’s dramatic reactions to what Sarah said were mostly part of the game they were playing. Sarah never really goes out of her way to nicely explain everything, but she wouldn’t be being soooo mean here if Lucy wasn’t already on the “oh, Raidah told me about you so I’m going to interpret everything you say and do in the worst possible light and vocalize it” train
I find it really bizarre either for or against Sarah, people viewed yesterday as her being insulting. She delivered it harshly, but I went back and re-reas and what I got was: this is a stupid plan, she’d goeet the racists, and if that’s too much work than get someone not walky. Sarah doesn’t think the racist baggage is worth Walky, but if Lucy does she better put up with it or get out because it’s not going to be worth it. Needed to be better phrased but… pretty much exactly like most of my close friends would communicate if they were trying to get through to me how serious they are about something that I’ve been lalaing over.
I completely agree, that was how I’d read it too. Sarah’s still a bit unsavory about how she delivered it maybe, but the message of what she was saying “if you’re serious about this you need to face it head on or just break up”, isn’t wrong.
In fairness, Lucy doesn’t really see nor accept the totality of what it really means to be with walky, including that he has low emotional intelligence (or at least is emotionally lazy), as this situation is clear indication of. Lucy has a lot of naivete and optimism and it is both obscuring her clarity on walky and on the morality of the situation she’s entering into here.
with the amount of vitriolic hate some characters get in the comments I’m kind of baffled why some of you even read this thing. if the characters are that abhorrent why are you even here?
See, I do think Raidah and company probably misjudged Sarah’s actions. And Raidah is hardly a good person herself. But things like this really make me look askance at Sarah’s version of events. After all: we only really have her word that things went down they way they did. She sees it as self-preservation and doing what was best for her roommate – but she also is the hero of her own story, as we all are. I hate to say it, but maybe Raidah’s perspective on those events isn’t as far from the truth as Sarah would like to admit.
I mean Raidah’s still terrible, but that doesn’t make Sarah any better.
Plus the part about Danah abusing harmful possibly Illegal substances seemed to be something Raidah didn’t deny the first time she appeared in this comic.
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“Friendship is the shield that blunts the sting of my poisonous barbs”
The Friendship buff grants a +3 against Barbs
In case you need to defend yourself against Barbarella or the Barbie legion.
this might be the sign that I’ve been watching too much dimension 20
I read this comment and thought “WHO IS SARAH GIVING ADVANTAGE TO”
This and yesterday’s strip is jam packed with a lot of cruel brutal honesty.
Perfect time to pick tonight unload a lot of speculations I’ve had
**raises curious eyebrow**
Go on…
(apologies if this double posts – had a weird server glitch)
People who love being brutally honest are usually way more dedicated to brutality than honesty.
That’s the most real thing I’ve heard in years.
Accept this +1 in lieu of an upvote button.
Consider this reply an upvote. I’m saving this pearl of wisdom for a rainy day.
Oh, yeah. Leorale’s comment is now officially public domain and part of the wisdom of the ages.
Sarah, you’re about to learn the true meaning behind the phrase “Beware the fury of a patient person”.
It’s kind of funny because Sarah had great luck with Joyce, who is basically 90% Lucy.
However, Lucy doesn’t need Raidah to HATE Sarah.
Sarah is doing that all on her own.
Oh yeah. Not sure what Lucy did to earn that Ire honestly. Maybe she reminds Sarah too much of her stepsister or something.
Pretty sure it’s about raidah. Sarah never responded well to people siding with her.
Nah, Sarah’s been a jerk to Lucy before that. Lucy usually kept her mouth shut. This is Lucy running out of patience for her.
Which is why Sarah reacts like this. This has left “destructive but kinda legitimate criticism” territory and is just meant to hurt. They’re both lashing out.
Funny, I don’t see Lucy doing any lashing out
Other people have pointed out bringing up Dana is a sore point for Sarah; Lucy doesn’t know the whole story, so she doesn’t know how low a blow it is. Sarah is absolutely making what to her is an equal and opposite reaction, but since she’s kind of an asshole to begin with and Lucy doesn’t know the full story, it comes across as an out-of-nowhere, wholly unmerited Nuclear Bongo strike in retaliation to what, as far as Lucy knows, is calling Sarah out on entirely legitimate bullshit.
And from Sarah’s perspective Lucy just decided she doesn’t want Sarah’s side of the story so she gets no mercy for not knowing.
Good discussion discipline means sticking to the topic at hand. Lucy doesn’t. She’s dragging an old story into it, thus signalling disdain for Sarah. Since Lucy is a positive person who kind of likes everyone, I think this counts as lashing out for her.
At a guess, Joyce tries to learn and grow even if she’d really prefer not to. Lucy has perfected the rose tinted glasses approach and will dogmatically believe any explanation to allow the world around her to slot into her world view. She didn’t have any real problems with Sarah before Raidah (The cool girl who can’t be wrong) called it out and then she had strong opinions on it. Her saving grace is that her world view is typically positive and nice but Sarah is absolutely outside of that and Lucy’s inability/refusal to consider inconvenient information would absolutely push all of Sarah’s buttons hard. Sarah’s being more unga bunga than usual admittedly and that’s probably the Raidah influence on the situation putting Sarah into a defensive lash out that is not making things better. That’s my interpretation of the situation anywho.
TLDR Sarah’s defensive nastiness due to Raidah’s influence on things is butting up against Lucy’s refusal to think critically about things she wants to believe.
I have a hail mary prediction that this ends up pushing Lucy to be assertive and crash the dinner.
The dinner that Walky and Amber are already crashing.
It’s a dinner pile-up!
Ya, that’s my read of the situation.
Well, her and Joyce are roommates. Most of the time that she’s been mean to Joyce, Joyce has just ignored it not to rock the boat. She was raised hyper-fundamentalist, and Lucy looks like she was raised in a more liberal setting.
And there was conflict between her and Joyce during the start of the comic. I don’t remember the exact comic, but Joyce accused her of not caring and Sarah reminded her of the fact she saved her from a potential rapist.
Yup, and Joyce gave her a perfectly acceptable answer in that she should show she cares in little gestures, not just grandiose ones.
yeah i’m sure in an alternate timeline if lucy and sarah were originally roommates, she would’ve warmed up to her even if lucy didn’t necessarily bond through tough times like with joyce
I’m going to be honest, Lucy is the one judging a friend group for one of their friends while coming outside it and is almost completely in the wrong here. Sarah is being rude to her now, but not only did Lucy start it, she started it with no real social understanding of the friendships Sarah has. Joyce at the very least has given her explicit permission to be a sassy ass and the others at least acknowledge it and don’t seem bothered by it, with Walky in particular playing into it sometimes because he can also be a sassy ass.
If Sarah saw Lucy as an outsider that doesn’t have a right to comment on things, why did she decide to share Joyce’s masturbation habits with her?
Why, because it’s *extra mean* to share such private details with an outsider, right?
Lucy’s presence sure was convenientg when Sarah can use her as extra mortification points in her sadistic malicious abuse that she calls “friendship”, but Lucy should know her place and just stand there as a prop when she’s used for another person’s mortification, right?
Is the patient person off panel? Because Lucy isn’t patient, she recently started dating Walky and is now trying to push Sarah out of the social circle. Like a day after Raidah “don’t jettison people” told her to.
I don’t see Lucy doing ANYTHING to Sarah that Sarah isn’t doing to herself. Sarah isn’t friends with the group because of what she did, she’s friends with them IN SPITE of what she did.
You don’t understand friendships, nor do you understand Sarah, if you think that. Sarah isn’t trying to be friends with anyone (but Joyce), but that doesn’t mean she’s overstepped any bounds. Walky literally does the exact same thing with a more likeable attitude and people love it, razzing on friends, and Joyce has given Sarah explicit permission to be like this several times.
Meanwhile Lucy is a brand new girlfriend stepping into a social dynamic she doesn’t understand and judging Sarah for how Sarah acts with her own friends and acquaintances. Lucy is being a judgemental little prick here, partially by Raidah’s influence and partially by just being a naturally judgemental and prejudicial person who never thinks threw her initial impressions of anyone. Usually that’s to the persons benefit (Jennifer and Walky).
It is very in character of Lucy to simply not care what people are actually likely, she goes based on the perception she has of them and ignores anything that would alter those perceptions.
I think people should stop claiming that we don’t understand friendships, just because we don’t approve one very particularly abusive and toxic version thereof.
Sarah overstepped the bounds, and we know that because Joyce was mortified and humiliated. We saw Joyce being mortified and humiliated. We saw Sarah be happy at Joyce being mortified and humiliated.
Is Lucy being judgmental towards her? Good! That’s exactly how she should be, because Lucy just saw Sarah mortify and humiliate another friend for the lolz. I wish more people were like Lucy, because then we’d have fewer toxic and abusive friendships being enabled by friend groups.
did you forget that sarah immediately asked if she overstepped boundaries with joyce after lucy said she was being too mean and, instead of saying yes, joyce then turned around and teased sarah in turn?
How exactly has Lucy tried to push Sarah out of the social circle?
She is currently being a judgemental little prick toward Sarah, but only when none of the others are in ear shot. It’s a classic power play to try and sow doubt and annoyance and a total Raidah move, albeit she is an amateur at it and probably isn’t doing it on purpose.
She is definitely NOT sticking up for anyone here though, she’s just commenting on something outside of her new boyfriends hearing because she knows Walky would probably defend Sarah on some level, given that he himself is also a razzer.
Except Sarah has been to hell and back with her friend group. They’ve had people die and been grave danger, and Lucy just waltzes in plays her cards from an enemy of Sarah and Joyce.
Lucy is an outsider. And she’s bringing more mess with what she an Walky just concocted.
So how does that make Sarah in any way less of a bongo in THIS scenario?
In this exact scenario where someone just called her an awful person and she fired back? Sarah isn’t a bongo.
A moment ago when Sarah gave some REAL ADVICE that kids don’t want to hear, about how not every relationship needs to be a ride or die and how going to sitcom levels of length to make a point is dumb and silly? Sarah is still not a bongo.
In a scenario where a girl is desperately in love with a guy she barely knows, has been idolizing her roommate for months without any basis for anything she believes of Jennifer and has a tendency to be a prejudicial, judgmental girl who never rethinks her first impressions of anyone is going out of her way to only speak meanly to someone when none of the friend group she is only just barely becoming a part of can here and Sarah defends herself? Sarah is not a bongo.
Better question, in what world IS Sarah a bongo?
The world where she thinks “This is a stupid idea. You should dump him.” is good friendly advice. The world where she thinks being arbitrarily mean makes her lovable.
Honestly? Lucy deserved this. She just insulted Sarah, without knowing the whole story, by specifically triggering one of the hardest decisions Sarah has had to make. LUCY was being mean. She was using information she gained from someone else to HURT Sarah’s feelings. She deserved this. I would argue SARAH has been patient with her up to this point.
Lucy is normally wonderful but she is making a huge miscalculation (twice in one day!) and Sarah is finally calling out her naivity and ignorance. Is she being mean about it and shitting on Lucy’s choice of who she dates? Absolutely. But Lucy shot back with all she had against Sarah, and I think she’s learned that Sarah has bigger guns.
Man, now I*know* we’re not reading the same comic…
Because Sarah’s been WAAAAAY out of line, even by her already pretty harsh standards… And this one just takes the cake. There’s ‘honesty’, then there’s ‘cruel honesty’. She’s not *wrong* (except that she continues to dump on Walky for literally no reason at every chance)… But she’s wrong in actually bringing it up.
Sarah’s one of the core members of the social group, and not only one of them- but also one of the more important ones (the group protector/watchdog personality)… And Lucy’s just a member’s significant other…
BUT it’s entirely clique-ish and rude to talk about it. It reeks of ‘no true Scotsman’.
I dunno mano, Lucy already came in last time swinging. Last time they interacted, Sarah made a jab at Joyce (that Walky even was involved in joking about), and Lucy went “you’re not nice to your so-called friends” -> implying that Sarah and Joyce weren’t as close as they are, and that she believes Raidah. Lucy keeps pushing Sarah’s buttons. Was it harsh? Yeah. Was saying “I don’t jettison people” to Sarah ALSO harsh? I’d argue yes.
Sarah abso-fucking-lutely needs to learn that she doesn’t NEED to insert herself into every situation. She could have just ignored Lucy and Walky. BUT…. if Lucy is gonna keep swinging punches, she needs to brace for a swing back. And Sarah, as we have learned with Raidah, doesn’t hold her punches well.
Calling a tourist a tourist isn’t exactly the same as No True Scotsman. She’s not saying Lucy CAN’T be part of the friend group, just that it’s pretty clear that that isn’t Lucy’s agenda.
You are definitely not reading the same comic we are. Sarah has explicit permission from some of the group (Joyce, Becky, etc) and implied permission from others (Walky) to act like a sassy ass toward them and razz them in her own way. Walky has fired back when it happens to him (if I recall correctly) and is absolutely a razzer himself so sees no harm in it. Sarah is hanging with her friends and this random new girl that JUST started hanging out with them is judging her for how she does that.
Meanwhile Lucy has regularly made snap judgements about people based on first impressions (Walky and Jennifer) that she never rethinks no matter how much evidence there is, going out of her way to only firm up the sometimes insane levels of fantasy she has created surrounding them rather than assess, adjust and adapt to new information. She’s doing the same with Sarah, ignoring ALL THE EVIDENCE that Sarah’s friend group is totally okay with it, and than went a step further. When she got told off by the group for trying to call out Sarah in front of them, she decided to wait until they were alone.
Oh boy today’s comments section will be fun!
I kind of feel I should be upset with Sarah, but I’m not.
Same. Because she’s not wrong (Lucy only there cuz she wants Walky’s three-date-determined sex time/dating), and Lucy’s been barbing at her all day. Even if Sarah deserved to be talked to about flouting sensitive info to joke at Joyce’s expense, Lucy was NOT the person who should have done it.
Also she’s really easily led by the nose (I.E Raidah) Despite the fact her own boyfriend seemed put off by her comments.
Yeah the person that should be around to check Sarah is Dorothy, but she’s off losing her mind somewhere.
It is…Very brutal but it’s also…kinda true? It’s not like she’s made an effort to know anyone outside of forcing the issue of being with Walky?
Not necessarily, like we have seen her go to church with Becky, for instance, which makes sense as they are coworkers. But yeah, she could probably stand to get to know the others some more, sure.
Yeah she and becky seemingly get along well enough to go to church together, i’d love to see some wholesome lucy/dina interactions or so
Eh, she invited Joyce to go to church with her. She’s been going to church with Becky. She’s in math class with Joyce and Walky and Sal.
She’s been in the dorm enough to recognise some of the other residents like Agatha.
She’s not quite a FRIEND friend, but she’s made more of an effort than… well, Sarah.
Sarah fought their kidnappers with a baseball bat. They can never truly reject her after that.
Why not? Does one act of bravery mean that everyone else has to put up with a person’s insufferable attitude indefinitely?
Sarah did a good thing. They were no doubt very grateful. But that doesn’t last forever, and doesn’t give her carte blanche to do whatever forever.
Joyce and Sarah are best friends. Joyce knows Sarah will be there for all of their horrible moments as well as losing her faith.
Sarah just seems to be someone determined to shit on Lucy’s life choices for no objective reason other than spite.
Everything Sarah did that Joyce found endearing or helpful, Lucy just hates.
No objective reason? Lucy has been judgy with Sarah and bringing up one of if not the most painful memories she has every chance she gets. She heard one thing from Raidah and instead of asking Sarah her side decided to just passive aggressively bring it up all the time like it was established fact. Sarah is being more of a dick to Lucy than to others, but Lucy started the escalation.
This is my take away too.
Two acts of bravery, at least – Sarah has multiple baseball-bat-related defense of Joyce.
For Joyce, yes, and it would take a metric fuckton for Joyce to cut ties with Sarah, fully agreed.
But for Dorothy, Walky, Dina, Becky, and the rest? Less there, and they tend to get a lot more vicious barbs than sisterly affection from Sarah…
I mean when it really comes down to it Joyce is kind of her only actual friend isn’t she? Maybe Dina as well, but the rest she tolerates for Joyce’s sake
Walky and Becky, sure, but Sarah gets along very well with Dina, who’s also stated pretty clearly that she appreciates the fact that Sarah is blunt and honest with her regardless of how ‘nice’ she is about it. She’s also always had a pretty decent relationship with Dorothy. I wouldn’t call them close, especially post-time skip, but she’s not usually as acerbic with her.
In short? Yes.
In long? It wasn’t a single act of bravery. Sarah has been there for more shit than lucy can ever catch up with. Sarah is part of the group whether she wants to be or not.
I don’t think this entitles you to insult random people and or their boyfriends
You mean like calling someone you just met a future war criminal? Because Lucy doesn’t seem to think insulting random people is particularly bad, so long as it’s a popular person doing the insulting.
Sarah regularly goes out of her way to help Joyce, even if half the time she is delegating. Sarah regularly steps outside of her comfort zone for Joyce, even when she hates doing it. Sarah wasn’t even trying to be Joyce’s friend and still was a great person for Joyce to rely on and Sarah almost never fails to assist when Joyce asks for help, save when it would be extremely comical too or Joyce is being ridiculous.
Joyce has literally in comic called out that all Sarah does to show love are occasional grand gestures but never does the kind little things day to day that tell you she actually cares. That comic itself as pointed this out as a flaw
I can probably find at least a dozen times that Sarah herself goes out of her way and emotional comfort zone to help Joyce specifically. Sarah doesn’t show affection the way others do, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t show affection or care. You’re just kind of an ass for assuming everyone has to be all hugs and kisses and niceness. Some friends raz each other. Some friends do it to show affection. Sarah IS regularly going out of her way to be a better friend to Joyce just by interacting with her, and is in her own way doing far more than almost anyone else in the comic to be a good friend.
This is all within the circumstance of them interning her comfort zone or them just so happening to have a class together, or her just being around. For instance If she was making an effort go out of her way to know people personally she would have come to Sarah personally about her past with Dana instead instead of this.
Is it? By that metric, Sarah has made more of an effort to avoid knowing anyone in the group. At every instance of inclusion, she bemoans the fact that she’s there. The only person she’s remotely close to is Joyce.
The nexus of the friend group is Joyce. Joyce considers Sarah the big sister she never had. Joyce is crazy about Sal, but Sal really isn’t interested in being part of her group. Joyce adores Dorothy. Joyce and Becky grew up together. Walky is one of the first people she met on campus, Sal’s bother, and Dorothy’s ex. Dina is Becky’s girlfriend (and, incidentally, Sarah’s friend.) Lucy and Joyce don’t really have a connection. Maybe Lucy and Becky are friends, but from what we’ve seen that’s based mostly on a shared faith which is a nonstarter for Joyce these days.
Sarah is even more right about Lucy being an outsider than she realizes.
Sal cares about Joyce. At least when they were discussing the whole spiked drink at the party she stepped in to stop them from going to the cops. She also regularly walks in with them and hangs out with her
Don’t really know how this is relevant to my comment. My point was, if the main cast is considered a friend group, Sarah is only there for and because of Joyce. In that sense, she’s no more part of “the group” than Lucy is, who’s only there for and because of Walky, yet she’s talking as if the rest of the group would consider her a friend, and I’m not sure they would.
I think Dina is friends with Sarah p independently from Joyce, really
Brutal or not, Sarah’s cruisin’ for a bruisin’, and from that final panel, it looks like Lucy is more than willing and ready to oblige herl
im putting my money on sarah in that fight
Or she might cry.
I think that would actually be more effective than anything at getting Sarah to realise she’s gone too far.
That’s what I’m thinking. I hope she does. Sarah bounces well off of anger. I don’t think she could take making Joyce’s doppelganger cry easily
Sarah didn’t go too far. Lucy went to far and is a judgemental little prick who ignores everything in favor of her own little world view. She did it with Jennifer, she’s doing it with Walky and now she’s doing it to Sarah.
Brutal or not, Sarah’s cruisin’ for a bruisin’, and from that final panel, it looks like Lucy is more than willing and ready to oblige her.
In that case, Lucy is going to be on her butt, unless she’s about to become Amazi-Girl 2 in this timeline.
“Beware The Nice Ones” is a trope for a reason.
At a minimum, if they got into it Lucy would scare the hell out of Sarah.
It’s a trope because people think themselves as nice, and wish they are nice because they choose to and not because they are powerless, seeing “nice” people hulking out is making people feel good. It’s marketing that become a cultural stand point.
I can confirm based on a few occasions that being a nice person doesn’t give you a George McFly moment. It usually means someone who’s not afraid of a fight will lay you out.
Honestly, I know I’m not supposed to be on Sarah’s side, but this is basically how I feel every time I encounter someone born west of about Harrisburg.
Walky gets around lot, huh
That’s pretty damn mean ngl.
But also she’s correct.
Gasp! How dare you good sir!
Lucy ain’t about that. Heck, she recently had Walky in bed but refrained to not annoy Billie. Meanwhile Roz, Malaya, and Mike would do it just to spite her.
Unless you are referring to the outsider bit, which is true. Also sad.
Pretty sure that was more Walky grasping for excuses to not have sex with Lucy.
Thank you. she isn’t wrong is pretty much what i was thinking despite how mean she put it.
I mean, that doesn’t make her not an asshole.
You can be both! And frankly I would prefer an asshole that would tell me how it is than a friend who would either lie to my face or cover up the truth with pointless platitudes/omission.
If being mean is a perk afforded by being one of the group, how does she justify using it against Lucy who she considers an outsider?
i think she just realized that, and tried but failed to walk it back
Just cuz you’re correct doesn’t mean you’re right
cor·rect
adjective
adjective: correct
free from error; in accordance with fact or truth.
“make sure you have been given the correct information”
Synonyms: right, accurate, true, veracious, exact, precise, unerring
That, is the most reddit ass response I could think of.
You’re correct I was obviously only talking about literal definitions and wasn’t making a point about how true doesn’t always mean necessary and brutal honesty is just about being a dick. I was being wrong about fucking synonyms
Thank you! Since i have been blessed with this random sarah gravatar i am trying to be the most snarky and sarcastic replier i can be until it randomly changes again.
God i miss my Ruthless gravatar.
I’ve been thinking about these two a lot since the last argument, Lucy feels like a perfect foil to Sarah.
Lucy seems to confuse being popular with what she really wants, which is to be valued as a friend. It’s not really asking for much but those two things are the same thing. It’s a shame because Lucy tries her hardest to be nice to come off as friend material.
Sarah on the other hand, yeah it’s true she has a serious mean streak in her many of times and she’s not desperate to be everyones friend, which is why she doesn’t care if not everyone finds her anti-social tendencies appealing. But at the same though when she does find what she believes to be a genuine friend, she won’t be in a rush pushed them away despite what past acquaintances say about her.
Seeing this situation I can see why these two are clashing. On one hand all Sarah needs to do dial back the mean remarks with certain friends joking or not, since not everyone would have the same tolerance for it. On the other hand, as much effort Lucy puts into being friendly she has to do more here. The best thing to do was to With hold judgment until she gets both sides of the story then compare and contrast to see who’s more valid. A genuine friend would have done that much.
Though after this, I don’t know how much effort these two will want o make for each other as friends…but maybe they should try since I think they can anker each other in a way.
Ah. You already went on.
Hm. Huh.
Interesting analysis. I think I would like to hear you expand more upon Lucy, because your idea that she conflagrates popularity with value is an interesting interpretation I would like to hear more on.
Well has she said to walky after a movie date that in high-school she didn’t have that many friendships and connections so she was hoping that would change in her College days. We see her both idolize/envy Jennifer for how she became everyone’s new favorite in her dorm when she moved in, probably because that’s exactly how she wanted things to play out in her journey to make real friends. But as we know that wasn’t real friendship because they weren’t enamored by the real her.
There’s also her eagerness to have brunch with Raidahs click because she said it herself “it’s a brunch date with popular people, we should totally go.” It makes it very clear she wanted to be apart of what she believed to be a part of the in crowd.
I think this might be another reason I adore Sarah but can’t stand Lucy a lot of the time (outside of not finding her interesting), it’s because she comes off as not being genuine with people. Just blandly friendly, and gets frustrated when interactions require more than that.
Yeah, she has an Ugly trait as a social climber.
If shes not in the center, she causes trouble so she can insert herself, and play play maker. Its a dominance move.
She went to Billies old floor deliberberately to get dirt on how she could control Billie better. She inserted herself between Billie and her floormates and Billy and Ruth.
I think this is going to push Lucy to do something stupid and sabotage her relationship with walky. ( i dont think walky can tolerate being lower status than Billy ( with walky parents ) and sarah.
if Lucy allies with Raidah i dont think walky will tolerate it.
At the end of the day I don’t think she will because they’re doing it for very different reasons. I get the feeling that Lucy does it out of both a sense of insecurity (you see how she kind of unraveled when Billie’s rep made her more important) and obligation (she thinks that’s what she has to do for Reasons) whereas Raidah is doing it strictly because she wants to obtain power and influence (the networking focus, her reasons for being friends with Billie being straight up that she’s rich, etc.)
Lucy might be naive, but Raidah’s gonna slip up and Lucy’s television brain will kick in.
I think the same contrast could also be argued for Malaya and to a lesser extent Sal but Lucy has only registered Sarahs attitude as a problem because someone she looks up to told her Sarah was bad news so she’s seeing every abrasive thing Sarah says with a streak of malic that isn’t there.
I mean the malice is actually there.
* Sarah sent Joyce to seduce Jacob.
* Sarah says that she wants Lucy to break up with Walky because she hates Walky.
And this is especially important because this is someone Lucy holds dear. It’s not like some unknown person that Sarah is being specifically mean about.
The first doesn’t apply to her interactions with Lucy and was more retaliation. Second is her saying she should confront the parents themselves and if she’s not comfortable with that then she’s needs a different boyfriend who doesnt come with that baggage, abrasive yes. Malicious no.
She specifically said that “No Walky” was the bonus, which is a direct insult to somebody that Lucy cares about. I don’t blame Lucy for taking that harshly.
I mean that has also been something Joyce communicated infront of his parents and Lucy with no harsh reaction combined with Booster it does seem a bit double standard to only take it harshly when it’s Sarah saying it about Walky.
also, as pointed out here, ribbing walky is just kind of part of the dynamic of the group. like sarah is not unique to this, and walky hasn’t said anything about it upsetting him
Only Malices to Raidah in that first example, the second example again she have gotten that same advice from Multiple other people they mutually know.
Yeah, pretty sure almost everyone has told Lucy “You can do better” but really only Dorothy has said “You can’t do better” to Walky when it comes to Lucy, if I’m remembering correctly.
I’d like to know which comic that is.
Well, Dorothy did offer herself as an alternative…..
I don’t think she hated Walky before he went to have breakfast with Raidah
I don’t remember that Walky heard about Raidah from Sarah before tho he’d have plenty of opportunities
He doesn’t have to, Raidah tore down Dorothy right in front of him. Plus she was super transparent about seeing him as a ticket to influence over the dean. Also on some level there the new mean girls who stole Billie from him.
With all this he he was well primed to see every little dig and put down they gave to his loved ones at the breakfast.
I don’t think Walky really internalized how much that hurt Dorothy
like he made a joke about it and then moved on
it didn’t seem like a big insult to Dorothy. He then went on to have breakfast with Raidah anyway and didn’t seem like upset with her
Part of why Sarah directed Joyce to Jacob was she thought she’d be doing Joyce a favor. Indeed, they might have worked out as a couple if Joyce hadn’t screwed it up big time.
To be fair Joyce’s screw up was trying to steal Jacob. I know sort of a catch 22.
Thinking about this, I wonder whether Jacob and Joyce would’ve worked out as a couple if Joyce was in the process of losing her faith. Would she have gone full atheist if she had a more middle-ground Christian like Jacob to bounce her ideas off of? Or would the strength of her convictions have carried her to atheism anyway? Would Jacob mind being with an atheist? He certainly didn’t mind Raidah’s Muslim faith. Would Joyce mind being with a Christian, especially one like Jacob, who doesn’t seem highly attached to specific interpretations of spiritual experiences (e.g. when Joyce asks if he feels God when he prays)? If I still wrote fan fic this could be an interesting idea to explore.
I don’t think I’ve read much about Sarah caring about Walky at all, but Walky and Lucy are not a good couple either way because one is only there because he thinks he should have a girlfriend and the other is only there because she is putting Walky on a pedestal. I think Sarah has called that out several times but I don’t read any animosity into it.
More over, Sarah definitely was a dick, and had malice toward Raidah, but definitely no malice toward Joyce and if I remember correctly even ended up learning to regret her choice to do that to Joyce.
Malaya outright told Sal she hated Lucy so i’m surprised she’d even bother being polite or trying to ignore malaya versus just being friendly to everyone (unless there were some off screen moments where malaya tolerated her that she interpreted as ‘bonding’)
I forgot she roomed with Malaya! Yeah, she was still all cheery about that hate wasn’t she? Couldn’t stand not being liked. But Maylaya hated everyone and didn’t have close friends. Sarah’s annoying because she’s abrasive and has friends but she doesn’t have pretty privilege like Jennifer to deserve it. Interestin…interesting.
Interesting points. I’d almost speculate that Sarah is far less *likely* to get along with a random person than Lucy, but at the same time, since she doesn’t care if anyone likes her and is just honest about important thinks, she’s in a better place to form much *deeper* friendships with the few people who like her.
I mean, do we know anyone Lucy is truly close with? In her dorm she rather seemed to be on friendly-aquaintance level with everyone…
You know what, I might try trying less hard to be nice and see how that goes.
that’s just Sarah being lucky that Joyce fell on her lap, really
Lucy is basically another Joyce, she could be the little sister to Sarah if dorms had been assigned differently
I’d honestly put us not knowing anyone Lucy is super close with up to Lucy having less screen time than Sarah. Sarah’s had triple the appearances of Lucy, and also had a deliberately forgiving roomie, while Lucy had Malaya.
I think part of it with Lucy, is Lucy sees friendship as THE ultimate, most amazing thing. She idolizes the idea of having a big friend group that “gets” you and that she can be a part of. And then she thinks Sarah “betrayed” a friend (when of course, Sarah actually likely saved her friend/roommate) – therefor, Sarah is evil and wrong, and has no true friendships and is JUST mean for the sake of being mean, and she can’t fathom why anyone puts up with her.
Which is why Sarah hits her where it hurts by pointing out that Sarah has the thing Lucy has been searching for, a group that gets that her being mean isn’t a personal insult, its just how Sarah communicates. So Sarah already has the thing Lucy wants, and Lucy lashed out I think in part due to jealousy, and Sarah then responded.
Also, looking back I don’t think Sarah was always this mean. But then the ONE time she kind of had friends, and she wasn’t mean but just not social, she ended up having to make a hard choice and instead of listening to her, all her “friends” turned on her. The “mean” retorts are now a test of “Will you hang around if I am the mean honest one” and if you can’t handle that, well then her mean retorts are going to do their job of keeping you away.
And Lucy, in her pure view of friendship, already doesn’t like Sarah’s way of maintaining friendships, is jealous of Sarah’s friend group, and now has reason to believe (reason, but not truth) Sarah betrays her friends. She thinks she’s defending the group from Big Meanie, but she’s just misunderstanding and miscalculating the situation.
Just wanted to pop in and say I think this is a really good analysis of the situation, so thank you for sharing your thoughts 🙂
Indeed. Many thanks to Suzi.
this is not wrong but
this is still a shitty thing to do to someone
it’s not like Sarah will live with Joyce forever; she will need to be social at some point in her life and people just won’t need to accomodate her
I love you metaphorically and platonically for this awesome analysis.
Solid analysis.
I think Sarah might also be mildly allergic to social climbers and their hangers-on given, well, what we know of her entire previous year.
Trying to be popular (but actually valued) isn’t exactly social climbing in the same sense as Raidah but it’s probably close enough to give Sarah some heebies, jeebies optional.
Lucy’s experience of Sarah is largely how she reacts to that and to people she’s not close with, so it’s not surprising they bounce off each other so bad.
I’m eating my hat y’all.
I hear salt adds flavor.
🤯 It’s your funeral, Sarah.
Oh yeah. Next strip should be fuuuuuuuuuuuun.
It’s not a really big deal, but I’d prefer not to know what’s coming up on the preview.
Hey, could you kindly not, please, thank you. Patreon spoilers do not belong in this comments section.
I meant like the blurry preview available in the top right by clicking the Patreon button, but okay.
Well, some people choose not to cllick the button because they’d rather not be tantalized by incomplete information and then have to wait for the rest. So it’s kind of like having that choice taken away.
I understand that others enjoy partly-informed anticipation. Let it be so.
Sarah, the fuck?
Y’know what, no. Lucy doesn’t know how bad she’s fucked up, but that doesn’t stop Sarah from feeling it. Lucy needs to learn about verifying sources.
As someone who has been on both sides of this exchange, I feel Lucy should go Angry Iron Giant. For the good of both parties.
She’s not wrong. Lucy’s only other contribution so far has been *checks notes* go along with a plot to re-convert a trauma victim.
But hopefully this leads to some soul-searching from Lucy. Or at least an arc where she hilariously tries to over-learn about The Group.
Finally, someone who gets that Sarah is 100% responding appropriately to a girl who not only doesnt know the whole story, but ALSO regurgitates insults without any sense of context. Sarah definitely has the right to dislike lucy, especially with how transparent her whole “please like me” deal is. Maybe it’s because ive been reading this commentary since high school, but i will forever appreciate Sarah more in almost any situation.
I feel like Sarah has sensed Lucy’s “I’M A FRIEND TO EVERYONE” and I think Sarah doesn’t like people like that.
I think Raidah ALSO gives off that vibe, but it’s a much more malicious “I’m a friend to everyone I think I can use”, whereas Lucy’s is more naïve.
Also, yeah while I wasn’t be as mean as Sarah, I certainly have had people spread rumors (not that it’s a rumor that Sarah got Whatsherface sent home, but the way Raidah presented it was manipulative and rumor-esque) behind my back and then heard it regurgitated by someone else and I just kinda went “Yeah nah, fuck this” internally and did not go out of my way to be friendly. I don’t need to show kindness or niceness to someone who has already made their decision about who I am and what I do. Lucy has inserted herself into the group, arguably just in an effort to get to know Walky, not even to know anyone else, and I think Sarah is calling her out on it is fair. Mean af, but kinda fair.
I’m honestly afraid for Raidah’s fall.
She has absolutely no idea what she wants, just that she wants MORE.
Nope. I’ll be back in a week. and hope we’ve changed to other people by then.
Based on Patreon “preview”, you’re half safe to come back tomorrow. There’s very clearly a Danny, which means Sal and parents. Just not sure if there will be Walky and Amber, so disaster still might be happening.
She’s right tho
Sarah is, potentially, about to learn a very serious lesson about Knowing Your Audience.
I don’t think she’s trying to joke with her here. I think she’s DEFINITELY being mean. Exactly as mean as the crack about Dana was.
The problem, of course, is that Lucy doesn’t realize how mean that was.
I mean, probably as mean as a young black woman worried about not being accepted by her boyfriend’s parents being told that their relationship is doomed. Oh and that her boyfriend is scum.
Finally, someone who gets that Sarah is 100% responding appropriately to a girl who not only doesnt know the whole story, but ALSO regurgitates insults without any sense of context. Sarah definitely has the right to dislike lucy, especially with how transparent her whole “please like me” deal is. Maybe it’s because ive been reading this commentary since high school, but i will forever appreciate Sarah more in almost any situation.
And the ironic avatars just keep popping up. : D
I would never be friends with Sarah is the thing. She’s far too inconvenient. Best jettisoned. Just like she wants.
Yeaaaaaahhhhhh. Lucy didn’t realize how severe that crack about jettisoning people would be. Sarah responds to the actual severity though and so, yeah. She’ll come for your whole life right by the jugular.
I’ve often said to my friends that I definitely come across way meaner to the people I love. If I’m super polite and nice to you that means I don’t think we’re particularly close. Don’t know the boundries. If I give ya the business, that means we’re buds.
friends roast each other the hardest after all, there may be a line/landmine you shouldn’t step on in some cases but for the most part it’d be ideal if it’s a backand forth rather than an asshole ‘friend’ in the group saying offensive shit 90% of the time and just being like “you guys can’t take a joke” or so
The is that you can’t really do that until you know where the lines and landmines are, so you can avoid them.
And how many friends has Sarah kept other than Joyce herself, the person who from an early age has learned to take abuse (that calls itself love) as if it was candy?
Because it seems to me that she has lost every single one of every other friend she has ever made.
…jeeeeessuuuuuuuuusssssss
approves her imminent boning of Walky with her aforementioned requirements, apparently
Wait… how do we know? Is Historical Jesus in the dumbverse? 0o;
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2023/comic/book-13/04-but-dont-give-yourself-away/sportings/
For someone who really dislikes Joe, they (Sarah and he) kind of have their need to use an ugly mask and hurt people to protect themselves in common. And she’s made progress, but really has not faced that growth down yet in the same way.
I think might worst part of this is that she describes Lucy’s relationship with Walky as purely physical – which given Lucy’s Christian sensibilities and how much this first relationship means to her that is likely deeply upsetting. I mean its true the physicality seems to play a not insignificant part of their relationship, but Lucy really seems to like Walky for who he is. I mean they have not even “boned” yet.
They havent boned yet but thats only cause lucy hasnt loopholed her way around it yet.
Hell their last date was literally just a failed excuse to fuck walky
True. I just think Lucy wants Walky for more than just his body (and that she is probably in denial about and ashamed of how much of her wanting him is just physical).
PS. I like the number of puns (allusions?) you worked into your reply. I imagine that takes some skill. Are you a writer?
True i do think lucy DOES care about walky but like, it feels every other walky lucy interaction is lucy being super horny for him and its kinda annoying.
In response to the p.s. yes I am but those puns were entirely coincidental i didn’t realize i was doing it
The irony is that Sarah is completely wrong. Walky is actually the one uncomfortable with it moving on from being frinedship based on cartoons and hanging out.
Lucy wants it to be physical but she was friends with him first.
I mean, was she friends with Walky?
She was always interested in him and when someone hangs around someone almost entirely out of romantic/sexual interest that’s not exactly a real friendship.
It’s relationship-zoning someone.
In this case, Walky was okay with it (once prompted), but imagine if he wasn’t; would they still be hanging out once it came out?
This is true, But I’m sure Walky would ve went for it much, much earlier.
If she ever showed a greater interest.
But its been so long i think hes having trouble adjusting. She waited too long, friendzoned herself. i think walky likes the Idea of dating lucy more than actually doing it.
Tough question.
Sure, she was interested in him from the start, but the entire reason she was is that they have a ton of common interests. You take away the romantic angle and they’d still have things in common. Lucy’s obviously a lot like Joyce, and those two still hang out despite the thought of a romantic relationship being anathema to both of them.
Theres also the fact that Lucy’s Christian ideals might make the idea of extramarital boning ending a relationship early sound likely, conflicting with her desire to get intimate.
I know she hit a sore spot, but fuuuuuuck off Sarah.
The fact it’s Sarah’s avatar saying that to her is hilarious.
Or what is actually going on inside Sarah’s head.
Batten down the hatches, boys, there’s a big shitstorm coming
*see’s hate speech towards NBs on Twitter*
LAST STRAW IM DONE
I’ll be on Tumblr and Bluesky from now on, replying to Willis just ain’t worth it 😤😔😭
I’m so sorry you’re so sad, NG.
Thank you as always for being so supportive Laura! 😭🥹
I am just exasperated at what’s become of Twitter, seeing the userbase there spit on your gender identity for sick kicks.
It ain’t gonna get better there, I am not obligated to stay and neither is anyone else here. Leaving ain’t gonna make the Right stronger, it’s functionally an echo-chamber for far-right fools you will NEVER win over.
Just throwing it out there, reactionaries never won by winning over US, while you busy bickering with bigots, they off elsewhere radicalizing normies to their cause.
Time and effort is better spent elsewhere. Stop wasting your time over at the Twitter tire fire, IT’S NOT WORTH IT.
I’m sorry, NG.
You are valid.
( Bluesky has a prominant dominant Trans Positive user base. for Now )
I’ve bailed on tiktok for the same reason.
Here’s some happy enby-related info:
– Tomorrow is a local nonbinary pride festival/market
– They have a blahåj pool (ball pit of shark stuffies)
– I am a performer and it’ll be my first on-stage performance including the song “you’re not the only bear Ive fisted’ by schmekel
🥹🌈 Thank you! That sounds so sweet.
Will it be on Tumblr and other sites?
NO WAAAAAY Ive had that song in my head all day
good luck!!
Musk decided to go ahead and by Twitter in order to turn it into an alt-right/fascist propaganda fountain and disinformation machine. He literally recruited fascists and other alt-rightists and also literally pays them money to drive hate.
And if we’re gonna talk about this, I’m gonna say it: anybody who’s still active there is helping him with his little fascist project. Monetarily, as well as otherwise. I ran the numbers a while ago, using Elon’s own statements, and while I was already gone I was sure as hell glad I’d left.
Most of his “crazy” “bullshit” makes a hell of a lot more sense once you recognise what he’s actually doing.
Here, have a collection of sources for Elon Musk paying fascists and other alt-rightists thousands to tens of thousands of dollars to be active on Twitter. If you don’t want to go to a collection, here’s the Washington Post article.
The fash have been publishing their payouts. None of this is in dispute. It’s just facts.
Twitter was a great thing, once.
It is now no better than, if not worse than, the Daily Stormer.
Holy FUCK it’s a Multi-Level Marketing scheme 😵☠️
I wonder if Willis already knows….
Again, if Sarah wants people to stop assuming that Raidah is 100% right about the story she tells about what happened with Dana, maybe she shouldn’t constantly be acting in a manner that is entirely consistent with the stories Raidah tells.
If you’re being an asshole, then yeah, people are going to believe that you were a somewhat larger asshole at a point in the past.
Because, uh, fuck no, being an asshole is not a perk one gets for being part of the group. Sarah didn’t take that crap from Mike, its a cost you put on others that is hopefully made up for by your better attributes. And Sarah’s struggling to show any of those better attributes.
Side note: Is it true that Lucy is super-thirsty for Walky’s D? Obviously.
Is that the absolute entirety of her feelings towards him? Probably not. We’ve seen them interacting enough that, while virginial lust is almost certainly a factor, she also just enjoys who Walky is, she finds him funny, he’s been a stand-up boyfriend when tested. This isn’t “telling harsh truths”, this is just spouting off bullshit first-opinions and assuming they’re true.
Other-side-note: One thing that’s making me smile is Sarah’s face in Panel 5, because it does look like she gets that she’s pushed things too far here. She’s backpedaling with her words, albeit a weak “…ha ha just a joke right buddy…” variant, but it does show that she does get some of it.
That’s why I was pounding refresh on the page tonight. Because while the characters act like assholes, they’re ***interesting*** assholes, damn it!
I mean, that’s the thing, Sarah IS actually responsible for a lot of horrible shit. She’s someone who will go after a rapist with a baseball bat but she’s also someone who will deliberately attempt to break up a rival’s long-term relationship with her best friend as a honey pot out of spite.
Sarah has some pretty awful qualities to go along with her fantastic good ones.
She really IS spiteful and angry.
Yes…she is the true Mike.
She heeded the call, she knew there always had to be a mike
When falling off a rooftop creates a void.
Nature will fill it with a Mike.
For a nickel.
Tbf with the Jacob thing if I’m remembering this correctly: Sarah did realize what she was doing, backed off and apologized. Not because it was mean to Raidah but because she felt she was manipulating Joyce.
Then Joyce ended up making out with Jacob anyway.
Ultimately I feel like Sarah’s meanness is ultimately just talk . This is probably the cruelest she’s been and I personally think it’s justified.
Was what Sarah said cruel? Yeah, just a bit. Was it true? To an extent yes. Did it need to be said? (As much heat as I might get from this I haft to say it) yes it did.
She started walking with them in the morning to get close to Walky, hanging out with them was a bonus but not the adjective. Also, it’s kinda of worrying that she’s based her dynamic of her relationship with her boyfriend as being a Walky cling on. “I look good because I’m standing next to you” made me think a little.
And most importantly, she can be kind of insisting about how she becomes close with certain with a brief amount of time spent but and not having a significant moment or two that builds bonds. Lucy interpreting insignificant things as Walky says as “I love you” is one thing but asking where she fits on the favorite Walkerton child rankings only meeting their parents within an a single hour is worrying.
*This was supposed to be it’s own post not a reply.
>Was what Sarah said cruel? Yeah, just a bit. Was it true? To an extent yes. Did it need to be said? (As much heat as I might get from this I haft to say it) yes it did.
I’d argue that unsolicited shit talking a person’s boyfriend and advice to break up is actually something that doesn’t need to be said.
I was referring to mostly about today’s strip but that aside , Lucy would have gotten the same advice from multiple other people in this circle, one being her own roommate, the other being said boyfriends sister, and another being Joyce.
Yeah, Sarah is lashing out, and none of this needed to be said.
I agree. And Sarah was being mean.
I honestly feel like she’s decided anyone who’s going to believe Raidah’s snipy, manipulative two-faced bullshit is not worth her time, and whether or not Lucy specifically deserves this, I honestly get it. You can’t spend your whole life playing defense against someone like that and their unknowing flying monkeys. It’ll take up all your time and emotional energy.
It’s broader than that, its likely Sarah’s defense mechanism, piss them off and push them away before you can get close enough to be hurt by rejection. Even if the others in the friend group tell her to get bent, she still has that distance from them that she can stand the blow. Its really only Joyce that Sarah’s close to and would feel hurt by.
Of course, putting up all the walls like that isn’t a great long-term solution, just tends to create a lot of loneliness and bitter cynicism…
Outside of the Raidah incident we really don’t know much about what made Sarah the way she is. We know she’s not there because she can afford it – she’s on a scholarship deal and that’s about it.
We know she has a poor relationship with her parent/step-parent (I can’t recall which is the step), an awkward one with her half(?)sister, and her granny is close enough to buy her sextoys.
>Other-side-note: One thing that’s making me smile is Sarah’s face in Panel 5, because it does look like she gets that she’s pushed things too far here. She’s backpedaling with her words, albeit a weak “…ha ha just a joke right buddy…” variant, but it does show that she does get some of it.
I actually took that more as a “Yeah, see I won that right there.” additional jab than as backpeddling. More like the finisher to a combo, because by saying “if we were friends” she is iterating that Lucy ISNT part of the group, and that she will eventually not be at all.
Think Lucy will point out that she’s the one being endured by the group?
This is how I read it also.
I honestly think Sarah doesn’t know just how badly she fucked up here. Lucy’s going to eviscerate her verbally.
I mean, she did ask what Lucy had heard from Raidah and she implied that this wasn’t about hearing re: Dana, it was her drawing her own conclusions. Which makes sense, because a.) Sarah is an asshole as an objective, empirical fact, and b.) Lucy knows the friction between Sarah and Raidah, and has concluded, reasonably, that her position sounds stronger if it sounds like her own rather than just echoing Raidah.
Of course, if Lucy said “she told me about Dana and you getting her kicked out when her mom died” and they actually talked and hashed out more of the facts, then…well, it’s not like they’d make peace because Sarah is still Sarah, but it wouldn’t be so damned painful to watch them talk past each other when they aren’t driving words into each others guts.
Again, Smarting of Age this ain’t.
Friends do give leeway with certain things, sarah doesn’t seem to care about her reputation, which shouldn’t rly matter in college as long as you aren’t actively hostile to ppl but if she’s aiming to be a lawyer too she should probably work on building connections even if she doesn’t do it in the same manner as raidah (unless she’s just amazingly charming and able to have a good conversation when she has to)
Sarah never really spoke about Walky like this when he was dating Dorothy
then again Walky didn’t really socialize with Raidah back then
she also saw dorothy as one of the few with a good head on her shoulders/assumed it was a fling , which it more or less was even tho they did end up caring about each other more than expected
Sarah, darling, I love you, but “I’m an asshole, it’s my personality, it’s how I show love, my real friends get it” is suuuuuuuuuuuuuch a bad look. I know, that’s to a T how I behaved in college. I literally said to someone “I’m making fun of you because we’re friends!” once, and I still feel remorse about it.
From a more meta perspective, I am really enjoying seeing Sarah and Lucy conflict. It’s similar to Joyce/Becky conflict, but without the emotional and historical baggage. I almost feel like Sarah and Lucy can take the gloves off and really go for it, which should be fun (NB: tragic)!
“I mean, Raidah was the one who went after me!”
“She said you hired a hooker to seduce her boyfriend.”
“Joyce is not a hooker!”
I just compared it to Joyce/Becky to my boyfriend – two of the few times where the comment section divided down the middle compared to the typical opinion bell curve with outliers.
Man, Sarah. Like, yeah, I honestly don’t think she’s usually *that* bad, like I think her poking the bear with Joyce is usually fine, but that’s because Joyce knows her well.
Lucy doesn’t, and Lucy has honestly tried to show her a fair amount of respect in the past, probably in part since Sarah takes her studies seriously and due to seniority, but this is just… really mean-spirited even if I feel like Sarah probably has at least enough sense to know this is way too much.
I think the thing to understand about Sarah is that she’s a jerk with a heart of gold. But the jerk parts are not coverage. They are sincere nastiness.
Like, for no reason, she’s decided she hates Walky. His personality just offends her.
Sarah had to work hard to get into college on scholarships, and has to work hard to retain them; Walky comes across as bone-idle and coasting on his ‘golden child’ status. I know there is a lot more to Walky and his life than this, but I can see how he would rub Sarah up the wrong way.
The last time we see them hang out before the more biting angle towards Walky was the Halloween flashback where he derailed the entire party by saying Mike hadn’t died after what they all went through. Might also be a part of that…
They’ve both gotten in critical hits!
Man, that stuff wouldn’t have been tolerable if she had said that to Roz or Malaya. For whom it was true and they would be proud of it.
But I do like her reactions.
Panel 3: Mean statement
Panel 4: Anger
Panel 5: Saying that the mean thing is a sign of friendship
Panel 6: Double anger (also at being outside the friend group)
Personally, I know all too well about wanting to be a part of a certain friend group and feeling down because they’re not really interested in having me be a part of the circle. But I don’t emphasize that much because I wouldn’t be doing it how Lucy is right.
I’d take every opportunity to know about certain people I’m trying to hang around by interacting with them personally, not base a opinion after hearing second hand gossip and observing their behavior from just being in vicinity for a short period of time.
Sarah is categorically wrong and full of shit. Sarah was mean to Lucy right when they first met. She called Lucy “overly creepy” and Lucy took it in stride.
Lucy’s was first trying to be friends with Jennifer, but Jennifer pretty much sees her as a dweeb and dismisses her.
Yes, most of her friendships overlap with Walky, and he’s her main connection, but it’s not like she hasn’t made an effort with other people. Most of the time, she’s been put to the sidelines and kept at arm’s length. And honestly not for very good reasons.
I really like Lucy standing up for herself here. It was about time she had some REAL conflict in the story.
Lucy tried to befriend everyone in McAwesome’s and they brushed her off.
that’s because they’re creepy fucking weirdoes and Lucy is better off without them
All you said just proved Sarahs right. She’s not a part of the group. She’s just here cause of walky and when thats over she’ll be gone
Lucy’s not just there because of her desire to bone Walky. She likes Walky, but it’s not the only reason she is trying to be friends with everyone. If she were just talking to Walky, I could maybe see the point there, but she really doesn’t do that.
Sarah is saying most of this stuff because she has her guard up. She is automatically suspicious of someone who is “overly friendly”, and basically stated those suspicions when she equated Lucy to Raidah.
Also, she has enough comic time that she’s not going to fall off the face of the Earth when she dumps Walky or vice versa. She’s part of the main cast at this point.
I’m not so sure myself, I’m not 100% certain she would have insisted on walking with them to class if Walky wasn’t hanging around them and and also he’s half the reason she kept showing up at their dorm ( if we were talking about pre-time skip and how she went to their dorm to ask about Jennifer and starting hanging with Ruth and Carla that would be a different )
Also, she kind of proves those suspicions of her to overly happy and nice right here, she gets very little information about Sarah past with Raidah & Dana and it changes her attitude tawords her completely. It energy to it as self proclaimed nice guy not actually being nice underneath.
Yeah, but it’s not like her dislike of Sarah is unfounded. Sarah is a complete jerk to her and Walky. Every interaction with both of them has been negative. And it’s not like she feels she’s entitled to Walky. It’s not really Lucy’s fault that people aren’t as close with her yet when she’s made every effort to befriend them. And it’s not like she holds it against them. Lucy’s the furthest thing from a nice girl. Raidah just made her realize what she felt under the surface. Plus, Sarah kind of went out of her way to be a dick here.
Searching the Lucy+Sarah tag really kind of puts it in perspective.
On hand I get the sentiment here, on the other a lot of them are jerks Lucy bf included, only difference is most of them balance it out with charm while Sarah is a bit more Jerky than charming.
Also, people aren’t NPC’s in a Sims game dude, spending time hanging around in the same vicinity with particular people doesn’t equate friendship. Showing enough care to form bonds through understanding each other however is a good start. Sarah is being an ass about it but her feelings tawords Lucy is valid given how little effort she put in to getting to now her personally 1 on 1.
I think Sarah put explicitly for Lucy what she was feeling under the surface. Much of the relationship is performative. She wanted to have sex but had to go through the motions of being a ‘girlfriend’.
controlling self image is important, and it’s normal that she’s a mess right now, but their whole relationship revolves around her sorting through her baggage. It needs to get done and Walky is game, but she needs to confront her feelings.
I think Lucy likes Walky as a person. She’s not interested in just sex.
She just ALSO wants sex.
Except Lucy is friends with Billie before Walky.
So she’s friends with Jennifer, Walky, Becky, and probably Dorothy.
Sarah just hates that she didn’t get veto power.
She’s roomates with Jennifer, not friends, not even close. She wants to be but Jennifer is not having it. She doesn’t even want them there at the hangouts with Raidah and that probably wouldn’t change even if Walky wasn’t coming.
Lucy and Becky go to church together, okay that’s a starting a point for building a connection but still not a lot. But fine we’ll say they’re for sure friends.
Dorothy and Lucy are aware that the other exists and that’s about it.
I’m not sure what criteria you’re using because the only for sure friendship you listed was Walky. The fact you tried to list Jennifer as being her friend was strange too, because they don’t have the same kind of relationship as Sarah and Joyce.
I don’t think this is about her not having veto power, but because she’s literally just hearing a smaller version of Raidah right now, which while doesn’t justify being an asshole explains why she is.
Sarah is only there because of Joyce, who was merely assigned to her as roommate, and if that friendship is ever over, her membership in “the group” will be done even more definitively than Lucy’s.
Atleast Lucy pursued Walky because she liked him, rather than merely being assigned to him and ending up part of the “group” just by luck.
So Sarah feels entitled to insult Lucy because she’s an outsider, and she feels entitled to insult insiders of the group too because they’re insider, and she feels entitled to also decide who’s part of the group or not, and she feels entitled to push people out as well.
All this summarizes to just “Sarah feels entitled to be an asshole to absolutely everyone”
No, being “mean” isn’t a perk awarded to being part of the group, because when if someone decides to be mean to Sarah, Sarah sure wouldn’t take it well, regardless of group membership. She didn’t accept Joyce being mean to *other* people over her atheism, and that didn’t even affect Sarah.
This is Sarah being an asshole because she thinks Sarah herself and only herself is allowed to be an asshole, and everything else is an abuser’s excuses.
I know you’re saying this because she touched a nerve, Sarah, but… I’m going to go with “don’t.”
I don’t understand people saying Sarah is correct. Lucy’s under no obligation to join Walky’s friend group just because she’s dating him, and Sarah’s turning into a fucking Sith Lord with this “You’re not one of us” stuff, which even by DoA’s standards is melodramatic bullshit.
Then maaaaaaybe Lucy should mind her Ps and Qs and stop bongoing about how Sarah interacts with her friends?
Friendly reminder that Sarah walked up to Lucy and started this argument. Just butted right the fuck in on something that had nothing to do with her because she felt like hurting Lucy. Who should be minding themselves, again?
Finally, someone brings that up.
I’m not saying Sarah is totally wrong in her analysis of Lucy but she started this. For all her talk of how being mean is a privilege in her friend group, you cannot give that same treatment to someone who is not your friend and expect them to take it well. I don’t think Sarah’s reasoning about why the plan is stupid had anything to do with Lucy saying she was “being mean”, Sarah was going to go on that rant no matter how Lucy initially reacted.
Like, I just don’t think people are giving Lucy enough credit here. Do we really all take the time to get to know the potential antagonists in our lives? When your friend tells you about someone they don’t like, do you go “well what’s THEIR side of the story” or do you go “yeah that person sounds like they suck” because someone you trust is telling you they’re bad? I don’t think many people instinctually do the former. Raidah has told Lucy about Sarah, and Sarah has done nothing to dispel that image of herself in Lucy’s eyes. Which is not me saying that Sarah HAS to do that, if she gave more than a minimum effort to based on her interactions with Lucy so far that’d be pretty out of character. But if we’re judging Lucy’s perception of Sarah, based on everything she’s heard and personally witnessed, it’s not that outlandish for her to have this perspective.
And like, I agree with Sarah about Walky’s plan being dumb. But also, it’s like, damn, who asked you? You were not part of this conversation. And you are NOT friends. If you actually give a damn, try talking Walky and Amber out of it instead of antagonizing the girl you don’t have any connection with. Even if Sarah is genuinely trying to help in her own thorny way, she just doesn’t have to clout with Lucy to roll up and speak to her like that.
Sarah told her to dump her boyfriend, umprompted and unsolicited, to entertain herself. Sarah’s 1,000 percent the instigator here by like, virtually any metric.
No! She rightly said – face the music or if your relationship isn’t worth that, dump him. She’s going to have to face the racists so do it without the bad plan that might backfire or realize it’s a bad match because you won’t ever feel good enough.
She “rightly said” all that jazz very conveniently directly AFTER Walky fucked off to do it. If she genuinely thought this was a bad idea and cared about stopping it to make sure people wouldn’t be hurt, she could have interjected far, far earlier. There are many parts of this conversation that, if what Sarah was concerned with was giving good advice, she could have tweaked, but Sarah right now is enjoying maximizing the hurt feelings she can inflict, and the “good advice” is merely a vehicle for that.
I think it’s fair to state your opinion on how someone treats their friends if you see something concerning. Lucy has a certain idea about what is right in terms of how you treat people – you speak to them with kindness – and she isn’t afraid to speak on what she thinks is right.
Uh-oh. Sarah has pissed off Lucy. Now we’ll see Lucy’s real power of evil.
I’m gonna lean on “they both went too far” for now. Lucy doesn’t know the situation well enough, but Sarah needs to chill.
Sarah is gatekeeping and still doesn’t understand what being a friend is…
Oof. I thought Sarah was just gonna tell her to fuck off but this is way worse. Like what is happening with her? This feels a little out of character for Sarah. Like her teasing wasn’t as blatantly cruel. I know Lucy pissed her off, but she can’t actually believe some of her comments lately have been friendly jokes.
They aren’t. Sarah really hates Lucy just because Lucy is nice to Raidah.
Actually, it’s because Lucy inserted herself into the group, said Sarah wasn’t “nice to her so-called friends” (implying she isn’t actually close to Joyce, who she was being very mean to at the time), and then used the one piece of info she knows about Sarah to try and hurt her.
To be fair, Sarah didn’t need to insert herself into this convo, but she’s Sarah so here she goes refusing to learn that sometimes being nice to people is what friendship is instead of being a bongo to them.
Lucy saw Sarah deliberately mortify Joyce for the lolz, and she saw Sarah take joy in Joyce’s humiliation. Since then Sarah insulted Walky behind his back and tried to tell Lucy to ditch him for someone who’s less work.
Everything Sarah says about Raidah poisoning Lucy against her is a distraction from what Lucy saw Sarah do to her “friends” with her own two eyes.
Remind me why we are supposed to like Sarah again?
I think there’s no real obligation to like her, either do or you don’t.
Sarah is like mustard. You either like her or hate her.
Guess it depends if you’re someone who struggled to relate to others without a bit of sardonic wit or jaded cynicism, or you’re someone who just can’t help but want to be everyone’s friend. This is the meeting of two people who struggle to be accepted but from different approaches that clash considerably, and people will in some ways root for the one they feel most kin to.
But also Lucy is objectively naive in a way that doesn’t get blatantly called out as much as Joyce’s zany activities do. What she’s doing here with Wally is infinitely meaner and less considerate to pretty much anyone involved (and also emblematic of why I think Wally is genuinely garbage) than anything Sarah has done in the strip, and yes that includes Sarah sending Joyce off to seduce Jacob because she liked Jacob and hates Raidah. She had no real ability to make Jacob or Joyce do anything there, all her sin was was wanting Raidah to suffer, which is consistent with her character. I said it then and I’ll say it again here, Raidah didn’t own Jacob, this is University not marriage, and Jacob has complete autonomy, besides that it is -Jouce-, who has all the grace and capacity for duplicity of a sledgehammer.
For those who bring this up as reason why she’s awful, be honest that the reason you don’t like Sarah is because she’s abrasive. She is just human and living her life otherwise. Meanwhile, Lucy and Wally repeatedly show no deeper will to care about the people in their peripheral or willingness to approach others with empathy.
Also my apologies, all the Wally’s in my reply were originally Walkys, but because autocorrect believes Wally is the only name, it had a field day.
Her ability to swing a bat at people who deserve it? I dunno, that’s about all I’ve ever seen. Useful trait to have but it really doesn’t tip the scales as much as it used to.
She’s present more so we’re supposed to give her more of a pass for being an asshole. But she is downright shitty here
SOMETIMES her blunt truths are both accurate and necessary.
This is not one of those times.
Her ability to do violence to rapists?
Man I JUST said yesterday that Sarah wasn’t gonna let Lucy’s parroting bother her but it seems it bothered her a lot. Like this was just mean. I do think Lucy is a bit of a plus one to the group of people the comic focuses on, but that’s all the more reason why she can objectively say Sarah is mean. Like, everyone else might put up with it because they all just accept that they’re friends. Lucy has no leg to stand on talking about how Sarah abandons people, still, but I think it’s fair for her to call her mean.
But it’s not really due to lack of effort on Lucy’s part. Lucy has been trying hard to get to know them for a while, but most of them keep her at arm’s length. That’s why Lucy reacted to Sarah’s comment.
Sarah is one of those characters people assume has a thick skin because she’s so misanthropic.
But no, Sarah has an EXTREMELY thin skin and really lashes out harsh.
To be fair, Lucy literally used one of the hardest decisions Sarah’s ever had to make, the ONE piece of info she knows about Sarah, and just TRIED to get under her skin. I think Lucy deserved that.
Time for another Raidah-lization of a Dorothy type.
I’ll be in the bunker made out of four lobby chairs.
Raidah-lization is so good wtf
SARAH NO YOU HAD A POINT AND THEN SHOVED ALL THE FEET IN YOUR MOUTH AND WENT TOK DAMN FAR
Lucy will decide that Sarah is one of the Heartless and slay her with her keyblade.
Sarah will wonder what the hell Lucy is talking about.
Damn. I mean. DAMN.
Lucy lands a jab!
Sarah activates Hyper-Combo.
When your little sibling takes a stock off so you go full flawless combo on their ass
It’s really ironic that Raidah keeps telling people that “we don’t throw people away just because they’re convenient” when she exclusively picks people she believes are convenient based on their connections. Like I understand networking but she’s a user who wants to ingratiate herself to as many people who can get her ahead as possible and clearly only sees the value of people based on what they can do for her. This implies that she would most definitely toss someone aside as soon as they are no longer valuable
Yep, if Jennifer’s alcohol problems rear their head again, is it more likely that Raidah will take the time and effort to genuinely help her, or distance herself/encourage Asher to break up with her/do exactly what Sarah did to Dana?
Why’d you say “take the time and effort to genuinely help her” twice?
No?
It was a joke because what Sarah did to Dana was genuinely help her, she realised no one around her was equipped to do so, so she did the one thing she could, get Dana to people who could help her.
Ignore the problem until Jennifer either sinks or swims.
Or someone else throws her a life preserver, than either take all the credit or blame the thrower depending.
Depends. Which approach can she weaponize to hurt Sarah and Joyce?
Pretty clear she’s not pretending to like Jennifer (or Walky) just for their connections.
Dude fuck you Sarah
Honestly? Lucy you kinda deserved that. Using the one thing you know about Sarah, gained from someone who OBVIOUSLY has a bias, to get under her skin? Yeah if you’re going to throw punches, you’d better be ready to catch some right back.
Ah, so Sarah sucks and Raidah sucks
And Lucy sucks… plenty of suck to go around.
i mean, that’s pretty harsh, but to be fair. they’re not friends
I don’t think malaya considers lucy a friend either and has been more hostile even when unprovoked so i’m surprised she hasn’t gotten a tough skin about it and just ignore sarah but she is currently emotional/anxious about the walky/parents situation
Malaya actively moved away because she couldn’t stand Lucy. The fact Lucy still thinks she’s going to wear down Maylaya and Sarah is considered a bongo is just strange. Not that she doesn’t have her moments but how is she worse than maylaya!?!
The difference is, I believe LUCY considered Sarah to be a friend, and part of her anger/upset here is discovering that Sarah did not feel the same.
Now, in fairness, I do sympathize a lot with Lucy on this. To realize that people you considered friends, possibly even good friends, still think of you as “an outsider” is extremely upsetting and demoralizing. On the other hand, I’m also kinda like Sarah in that it takes quite a long time for me to really consider somebody as a friend. Lucy is someone who makes friends quickly and easily, but her threshold for what constitutes a friend is much lower compared to people like me and Sarah. The cause of this conflict is essentially two people who have very different ideals on a) what makes a friend?, and b) how should friends treat one another?
I think despite her outgoing personality Lucy has shown to have difficulty making friends which is another reason what Sarah said hit hard. She’s getting to that point with Becky I think as a church friend first but aside from that we haven’t seen her hanging out with any other people recently that aren’t a walky connection. Remember not too long ago she seriously wanted her brother to order a table full of people to be her friends because she was frustrated with her lack of results.
Line crossed. Line crossed!!
Weird how a lot of people thought Walky and Lucy were making a terrible mistake asking Amber to pose as his girlfriend or something (the plan doesn’t make sense). And then Sarah tells Lucy that, and she shouldn’t put up with the situation, that’s genuinely good advice. But Sarah’s the villain for it because Lucy rejected the advice by saying something mean to Sarah, and Sarah responded in kind.
Sarah was eavesdropping and walked up and basically said “Hey, so I was eavesdropping,” and then started insulting her. And talked about Walky like he’s an object she can discard.
Yes, during the course of that she said this is a stupid plan. That’s true. Saying a true thing doesn’t means she didn’t do all that other stuff.
“eavesdropping”
I’m usually pretty slack about accusations of “eavesdropping” in the dorm setting, but it kind of fits here – she had to have overheard a decent amount of the conversation to know what was going on, but still didn’t approach and give her advice while it was still happening, but waited until Amber and Walky had left to approach Lucy.
I actually don’t think that jab was about Walky himself as much as the baggage Walky is (which they all have). Either ditch the plan and go meet the racists, or if he isn’t worth that then find someone else who is. Could be delivered better, but it was delivered with correct concern
even if someone else gently suggested it was a bad idea i think lucy is determined to want her parents to like her in comparison to whatever “disaster” amber plans to do for them
Sarah says Lucy is an outsider who will not stay in the group because her being with Walky won’t last. That’s a mean thing to say and it also underlines a fundamental difference between these two. Sarah’s been burned by her experience with Raidah’s group and has become cynical about the staying power of friendship. Lucy’s been shut out of groups before -which is why Sarah’s remark hits home – but is still a wide-eyed optimist who hasn’t adopted any of Sarah’s cynicism. For what it’s worth, I’m with Sarah on the staying power of relationships in their stage in life. The situation is transitional and so are a significant part of the flings and friendships. Thing is, you don’t say that out loud, because people won’t like you for it.
Even if Joyce considers walky a friend, other than being in the same math class and being a part of like a lunch or small get together/party i never rly associated walky and sarah in the same ‘group’ together or so tho i suppose walky goes with the flow/more or less does his ow n thing
i don’t expect it to last too much longer but i imagine it’d be more because of drama or walky’s issue with parents and such or him figuring out that he doesn’t love lucy as much as she does him, as opposed to her getting ‘bored’ of the relationship
Well Sarah may have won the argument, but still fails to convince the jury and that’s not good for a future lawyer. She managed to achieve what Malaya and Jennifer have been actively doing for weeks in just a few minutes. That’s no mean feat. Pun intended. Of course if Lucy and Wally bone it will be more sexual activity than Sarah had during her tenure at Indianapolis so the joke will be on her.
Dorothy is taking a lot of time to break down.
Lucy is newer to trope and will break earlier.
it might feel like the same speed, relatively, like Dorothy as far as we know hasn’t had any physical/mental breakdowns from her studies before joining college so it might affect her more as opposed than stumbling and struggling all the way through since like middle school or whatever
Can’t say i like Lucy parroting exactly what Raidah told her without actually knowing the situation at all, and i don’t think it’s good of her, but to be fair, Sarah is basically doing all the worst things she could possibly do in this context and if i were in Lucy’s place, I’d be pissed too
Sarah’s doing it because Lucy started shit. Lucy has been passive aggressively bringing up the bullshit that Raidah told her without even bothering to ask ANYONE their opinion, much less asking Sarah for her side. And in DoA time haven’t Lucy and Walks only been together like a week? Little early for her to be so aggressive about challenging members of the group.
She asked Jennifer.
She’s also not even bothered to consider that Sarah may have context that Raidah and Jennifer are missing or refusing to share with her
Jennifer was refusing to share some, yeah. She was told explicitly Sarah saw herself as daving Dana.
Billie confirmed it (to a certain value of that, but she said that Sarah told her this happened), and Walky gave aggreement she’s like that. Following this, Sarah came up to Lucy and told her to jettison Walky cause he’s inconvenient. And just doubled down today that that means Lucy is gone as well.
Jen did back Raidah up and she technically did hear ‘both sides’ of the story
“She’s out of line, but she’s right!”
Point and Match, Sarah. Way to go for the throat. Lucy had that coming. And if she was hit this hard, I can’t wait to see Raidah get her (eventual) share.
Since this strip is stressful, let us do something else.
https://www.inomnom.com/cdn/shop/products/Print-Appliancemon_540x.jpg?v=1662257199
Which one would you pick?
Personally I want Kettlesaur for tea all the time.
Credit goes to the Derpymon created by inomnom
Baobasaur as my Partner Derpymon, I love Bao. 😋
*plays “Pokemon Indigo Theme Song” because why not*
Toastersaur doesn’t looks like it’ll stay in place long enough to keep it plugged
Toastersaur is the Pikachu of the group. Hard to pin down, doesn’t like being contained, could shock you, and is clearly the electric type of these 4.
Fight fight fight fight.
All my chips on Sarah though Lucy doesnt have it in her, is younger, and there’s a height advantage. I could see her getting a great (and probably the first) hit in though.
Sarah play that Walkys relative who is againts marriage and believes that all this is just a temporary whim of his relative.
Wow… I actually hate Sarah so much.
As someone who likes Lucy and actually likes her relationship with Walky.
Sarah’s in the right.
Lucy’s just puppeting someone else’s opinion with no context. It’s isn’t as if no one has told her a relationship with Walky was a bad idea, there’s been people stating it from jump but she’s only biting at Sarah for it. She wants to be in a group and that includes the group’s drama and she’s making the wrong call about it.
Sarah had conversations to regulate how mean she should be, she makes sure that everyone is ultimately alright, has stopped when she thought she’s gone too far and at this point trust that people around her will call her out if they get uncomfortable.
This is something that Lucy mightve picked up on if she bothered to get to know any of Walky’s friends instead of assuming she was automatically friends with them by association. Or at the very least she mightve heard out Sarah’s side on what was clearly a heated topic.
And we all know what Sarah knows that Lucy is being played by Raidah like a fiddle.
i’m not sure if they’d be compatable even if raidah didn’t ‘poison the well’ against sarah and frame the narrative to make her seem like the bad guy for having an adult/parent step into dana’s situation
surprised sarah’s getting under her skin after having malaya as a roommate (tho she still seems peppy or willingly ignorant of malaya’s extreme dislike of her? even if i were young and cheerful introducing myself, after a day or two of seeing malaya’s personality/being told to f*ck off [even marcie flipped her off undeservedly], i’d def distance myself from malaya/anyone that obviously disliked me that much)
Malaya is more just dismissive, not really putting in the effort to make the insults hurt. I think Lucy judges Sarah more harshly because her ‘jocular ribbing’ is often very hurtful and personal. I don’t think they were ever going to like each other, Raidah just used that and added the whole Dana thing to the mix.
👏This is the best take I’ve heard about this situation yet. With this I’m satisfied with tonight’s comment thread.
In order for Lucy to “hear out Sarah’s side”, she would’ve had to have been told Sarah’s side. When confronted by someone who only knows Raidah’s slanted retelling of events, Sarah only rebuts with “oh great, she got to you too” and a dismissive eyeroll. That… doesn’t exactly sway opinion.
There’s a difference between someone asking you about an event and someone who already decided that you were in the wrong before you can get a word in.
See Joyce is sat down with Sarah and asked her why she was acting up vs Lucy who never asked and used an insult that obviously proved she was talking about her behind her back and committed to it.
Sarah doesn’t have to trust her with personal information and I don’t think that Lucy earned that trust.
I think Lucy just shut down Sarah’s attempt to talk about her side of the story.
Sarah shouldn’t be obligated to plead her case everytime someone knew wants to bring up the Dana situation, that would be her being on defensive her whole life. If Lucy is so keen on giving her two cents on this SHE should be the one to ask HER for more context.
Damn, haven’t seen anyone this wrong in a while.
Ultimately what has Sarah done?
She inserted herself into a conversation and said that Walky wasn’t treating Lucy right.
After Lucy did the same calling out Sarah for making fun of Joyce.
Sarah also said that Lucy doesn’t really care about the group because she’s here for Walky.
Right after Lucy poked her multiple times by saying she throws people away.
If you want to call out characters for bullying Lucy there are plenty of valid targets like Mayala, Jennifer, her dorm mates, even Marcie had been mean to her unprovoked.
Everything Sarah has done to Lucy however Lucy has fired the first shot.
Lucy spoke immediately, in front of Sarah, to Sarah.
Sarah went behind Walky’s back, to advise his girlfriend to ditch him, because Walky supposedly sucks and Lucy can do better. Before pivoting to saying that Lucy sucks.
Do you think that Sarah will admit in her next meeting with Walky “Btw, I told Lucy to break up with you?”
She also talks a bunch about Walky’s racist parents and how it’s so much work, and then pivots to implying that Lucy’s relationship with Walky is a short-term thing, so if it’s a short-term thing what the fuck do the parents even matter?
All in all, Sarah just attempts to say the most hurtful thing she can think of, and then when one thing doesn’t work she pivots to a different and contradictory thing. As long as it maximizes the hurt, she doesn’t care about truthfulness or even consistency.
I think you’re missing she said that she’d go or give up. Like Licy, if you liked him more than boning him you’d go face up to the racists than do this dumb idea and if you just want to bone then it isn’t worth it.
…uuuh
You’re overestimating your boundaries, Sarah. And not with Lucy.
I’ve generally been a Sarah apologist, but this crosses a line.
Yeah.
“iF We WeRe FrIeNdS mY cRuElTy WoUlD bE fUnNy!!1!”
The funny part is how her statement literally isn’t true. “The statement once you’re done with Walky we won’t have to put up with you anymore.” Only works because of the Not Friends part. If they were friends, her cruel statement literally wouldn’t apply anymore, so no potential for it to be funny.
It’s really fucking not.
Honestly I’d give up the entire fucking ghost here if I was Lucy. None of…whatever this drama is is worth it. And I know it’s a fictional story with dramatic beats to built tension and provide entertainment and stories, but like…this…isn’t that fun?
It’s utterly fascinating to see how many people are willing to overlook Sarah’s LONG history of being a dickhead to people (including instigating this fight in the first place), while Lucy is “sort of” mean by pointing out how Sarah is being a dickhead ONE TIME.
“Oh but she’s parroting Raidah-“
Yeah and she had 2.5 people back Raidah up, including Billie, who WAS Sarah’s friend (or at least part of the group). Walky is the .5 who said that Sarah isn’t a people person, which is absolutely correct.
And then Lucy visits Sarah, and sees Sarah embarrass Joyce in public by bringing up the masturbation (and when Lucy calls her out on it, Sarah actually apologizes much to Joyce’s joy), which is a bit off.
And while this was a stupid romcom plan, the fact that Sarah goes up to Lucy and basically shit talks Walky to her face!? Like, no one fucking asked you Sarah!
And now you are gatekeeping this girl and calling her an outsider who doesn’t belong, when she has TRIED to be nice to you in the past, as if you know anything about what her relationship with Walky is (including how he defended her from a brother that he felt was hurting her feelings?).
Sarah fucking sucks
this is the same group that mourns Mike and Mike was exponentially more “mean” than Sarah is. Sarah overtly cares about people and even asked joyce a few weeks of strips back if she was too mean. Mike wouldn’t even think of thinking that.
I think that Mike’s meanness is why Willis basically killed Mike off. Because he couldn’t keep Mike’s horribleness in the comic anymore and have any other character still accepting him without consequences be reasonable to their characters in any way.
Except a lot of other people have told Lucy a relationship with Walky is a bad idea, she has interacted with people who are much meaner then Sarah (Mayala, Jennifer, etc) so she knows that type of person and thr last time she called Sarah out, Sarah paused and asked Joyce if she was fine and Joyce said “yes” ultimately proving that not only is Sarah not the complete asshole Lucy is making her out to be but that Lucy doesn’t understand Sarah’s dynamic with her friends.
On one hand I did think Sarah’s comment about Joyces personal buisness needed to be called out but on the other I also think that Lucy accusing Sarah of disliking her friends was an overly judgmental conclusion and there is some truth to what Sarah said about Lucy not understanding her as the group outsider.
Sarah apologises and Joyce says it was okay. But Lucy somehow ignores that.
Probably because it was a quiet bit between Sarah and Joyce while Lucy and Walky were talking a little bit ahead.
Sarah’s right, but this is super charged and emotional because Raidah is wrong about Sarah and wants her (and joyce) to be miserable. Lucy bought her hook line and sinker and is about to lose Walky not only to Amber, but to her own lashing out that’s about to occur by the looks of it.
haha i like this writing
“There are three things all wise men fear: The sea in a storm, a night with no moon, and the anger of a gentle [wo]man.”
Sarah, you, IDIOT!
And suddenly I’m reminded of Dan & Mab’s Furry Adventure, when Abel and Wildy first met. Abel admits he’s a newcomer to the group and doesn’t fully grasp their connections. But he does see Wildy is the kind of person who manipulates other for her own amusement and he wants none of it. And if she kept trying her tricks on him, he would literally destroy her.
After he leaves, Wildy just giggles and says Able seems like he’ll be fun.
Sarah giving off very strong “Yorokobe Shonen” vibes.
“Sarah is secretly Kirei Kotomine” was not a take I was expecting but I’m fascinated by it
She sure seems to take joy in other people’s suffering. That smile in the next-to-last panel sure is full of delight.
It’s wild to me that so many of the comments don’t sense the affection Willis has for Sarah in the way they write her. She’s clearly not written to be hated. In any case, this clash is another Raidah win—with both Sarah & Lucy losing at least potential friendships—which makes me sad.
Yeah. Willis clearly has a soft spot for their most complicated characters because they’re also the most interesting ones. I do appreciate how this comic is full of characters who come across as annoying to abrasive — Sal, Amber, Carla, Becky, Malaya, Mike (RIP), Billie, Ruth, and of course Sarah. It’s because they don’t play nice with everyone like Lucy does that their softness, when it comes out, feels earned. They’re more entertaining and they feel more real. This is likely my own bias for a certain type of spicy personality showing but I think it’s one that Willis shares.
Yeah, that’s the problem.
When Lucy challenged Sarah’s behaviour towards Joyce, that was fine, and I thought I was on the same page as the creator about the horribleness and toxicity of Sarah’s behaviour.
But then Willis has Joyce get over mortification in half a second, Sarah offer a half-panel of half-hearted apology that doesn’t change anything about her nasty behaviour, and it’s clear that the author doesn’t perceive Sarah’s behaviour as nearly as horrible and toxic as I do. So by this point the comic, any moment Sarah is on panel, has transformed for me to a comic that offers excuses for a horrible toxic person being horrible and toxic at their supposed friends.
In most other case of people doing stupid and/or nasty things, I tend to get that the author is on my side in believing them stupid and/or nasty. But not in regards to Sarah.
She took a step back and rechecked that boundary. Ultimately that boundary is between Joyce and Sarah. Nothing changed because she didn’t overstep.
Its not something you would be comfortable with, but Joyce isn’t you. The thing that makes it horrible/toxic is dependent on the people involved.
Part of the problem, I think, is that Sarah’s expressing this as it being okay to be mean, rather than arguing it wasn’t mean in the first place. She doesn’t say “I know how to say certain things so that those things aren’t mean because they don’t hurt them”, but rather as if she’s entitled to hurt her friends as a privilege of friendship.
You talk about Joyce’s boundaries, but we actually saw Joyce being mortified, we saw Joyce frantically trying to deny what Sarah was saying. The incident did violate Joyce’s boundaries, or she wouldn’t have been mortified.
Joyce just somehow didn’t care about this violation half-a-second later. Which… I dunno, Joyce just would forgive Sarah of anything, no matter how bad? In that case Sarah knows she can take advantage of Joyce’s infinite amounts of forgiveness?
People talk about having acted like Sarah, but if they actually mean that they mortified and humiliated their friends in front of others (including non-members of “the group”, as Sarah believes Lucy to be), then I’ll stand by saying that they mustn’t have been good friends in the first place.
I think I would argue that some people are okay with some amount of that in their friendships. I have definitely had people in my life enjoy flustering me to uncomfortable degrees, but like. That was fine? I did set boundaries when I actually needed to set boundaries during or afterwards. The rest of the time it was kind of funny afterwards. There’s like a tone thing. There’s a tone of voice you used to say shut the fuck up right now versus oh no totally don’t do that. And you’re right that it’s a very fuzzy line. But I don’t think it feels out of character for Joyce not to have drawn it in that scenario. Joyce has explicitly told us that she likes it that Becky tries to fluster her and make fun of her, even if to me Becky’s behavior feels like a bit much. Very clearly her lines are different from mine. And that’s normal and human? It’s not out of character or bad writing for a character to be pretty different from you in terms of where they set their boundaries and what behaviors they actually want directed at them.
This is a very short-sighted and honestly harmful view on writing if you think that just because the conflict wasn’t resolved within a single scene that that means the author personally condones the actions of their characters.
it is never an author’s job to align with your personal desires or ethics. and if you want that from every author who’s work you engage with you’re going to run out of stuff to read real fast. people are complex, including yourself.
Just cause the author likes her doesn’t mean she’s not horrible.
You know, random thought, but if Dorothy sees Walky fake dating Amber again, that may be the straw the breaks the camel’s back, since she was rejected because he’s real dating Lucy.
for feck’s sake sarah you can’t go that far just because someone won’t get back in their box when you ask them to
for feck’s sake lucy just ask for more context on what raidah said if it’s that big a deal to you and maybe consider how it clearly didn’t bother your boyfriend all that much
The Raidah thing is unimportant, Sarah is a complete and utter malicious asshole, regardless of anything about Raidah and her own beliefs about Sarah’s horribleness.
Sarah is downright evil in this comic, she’s even trying to gaslight Lucy that people are friends only if they are assholes to each other.
Violate your friends’ privacy! Mortify them in front of other friends! Insult them behind theiRrbacks to their girlfriends, and try to tell their girlfriends that they should break up with them! And when that doesn’t work because their girlfriends are too loyal to take that well, just pivot to insulting the girlfriends instead.
She’s an abusive and toxic “friend”, who in quick succession took joy in hurting Lucy, trying to hurt Walky and now hurting Lucy. She’s malicioua and horrible and I definitely hope nobody here has ever acted like her towards their own “friends”.
That was meant to be “took joy in hurting Joyce, tried to hurt Walky, and is now hurting Lucy”
Oh good lord, she’s definitely been a dickhead. But no, not even remotely evil.
And the Raidah thing is important because its just as nasty to keep poking her with it as everything you complained about Sarah doing, but without any actual familiarity or connection.
Also stop abusing the word gaslight. That’s not what’s happening here.
That’s not what gaslighting means.
Either Lucy is about to burst into tears, or she’s about to give Sarah an almighty verbal berating. Probably both.
Hhhhh owwwww dare you, Detective Santiago
Did Sarah just smile?
Jocular is Sarah’s middle name.
My last roommate who pulled that kind of “jocular ribbing” left me suicidal, but nooo, Sarah’s TOTALLY okay right now.
Shut the fuck up, you do NOT get to claim Walky as part of “your” group when you clearly dislike him as much as you do and insult him constantly. You have the luck of rooming with someone who is actually likeable who insists on bring YOU into the fold.
If you want people to know what actually happened, fucking tell them. Or if not, don’t. But fuck all the way off with “This person I abuse in every interaction who clearly is more attached to you is one of us, you’re the interloper.”
Sometimes I think Willis forgets his own timejump.
She’s been Walkys main friend since Halloween, right?
Or you know maybe Lucy should stop poking her with it based on one side. Its obviously something she doesn’t like discussing with people she doesn’t know well.
“Walky, hey sorry to call like this, and maybe don’t tell your parents, but I just gobsmacked your friend Sarah with a steel pipe, and it’d be nice if you could bail me out after dinner”
Technically she has a point. Lucy is only really close to Walky at this point. She and Jennifer never got around to being bosom buddies….But if Sarah really wanted Lucy as an enemy, mission accomplished. Yeesh…
I had a “friend” like Sarah once during my formative years and that friendship left me with crippling social anxiety that lasts to this day, and an inability to believe that the friends I have now like me.
The fact that so many people seem to like her has me convinced that I’m reading a different comic from y’all. It’s fine to enjoy her as a character, of course, but defending her actions is just too much.
I really only like Sarah because of her actions with the baseball bat plus I really dislike Walky so I’m OK with this
Sarah’s likeable because of the opposite of moments like this. For every moment like this there are several more of her being a kind and supportive friend. Not just beating people up with bats either. Like helping Joyce with her dead toenail because she knew Joyce couldn’t do it. Or her genuine friendship with Dina that’s not buried under a layer of protective cynicism. Post winter break we’ve been seeing less of that Sarah and her usually playful jabs have been crueler. I personally think most of the cast have been slightly meaner post winter break.
I wonder if it’s the kidnapping issue. Like everyone in the cast involved has either had at least one instance of ‘what the flying fuck dude’ or at least such instances becoming more frequent/more intense than previous to the incident.
It’s like Walky being flippant over Mike to Ethan kind of made me go ‘what the fuck’ in my head but Halloween flashbacks kind of put it into context: this is his assholish coping mechanism. The kidnapping also got Dorothy into Yale but she rejected it for the same reason and she’s spiralling. Even before this issue with Lucy Sarah was really fucking weird about Joyce even at points during the Joyce/Becky drama. Which itself probably was more intense because of said incident at least on Joyce’s end.
The kids are not alright.
Mmmm trauma bonding.
Damn. Sure does suck to see people are still falling over themselves to defend someone as terrible as Sarah. I genuinely don’t understand why anyone would like or defend her here when Sarah is the one who butted in completely unsolicited just to be a bongo to Lucy.
I’ve yet to see anyone say she isn’t being a dickhead here, just that Lucy has definitely been prodding at her with something she knows nothing about.
She actually butted in to tell her the plan was a bad idea and insult Walky. The being a dickhead to Lucy part started because of the aforementioned prodding, which was definitely not any better than what Sarah is doing.
Reread the last page. Sarah starts shit
I think Shade is referring to this, and the fact that this previous interaction would’ve been recent, like that morning:
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2023/comic/book-13/04-but-dont-give-yourself-away/vile/
Butting in to tell someone their idea is really stupid and their boyfriend is a loser who isn’t worth the trouble is being a dickhead in my book.
Sarah is, deep down, a good person and I’m glad she has people she can be close to.
But here she’s being a grade-A Asshole.
You could say people don’t want to “jettison” Sarah just because she’s “inconvenient.”
All the characters are broken in some way. Sometimes their broken bits heal, other times, their broken bits break other people more.
After what happened yesterday I’m going to just let people have their opinions and ignore this comment section.
As for the comic itself, god DAMN is this cathartic.
I want to point out that Sarah also never really bonded with this friend group. She’s definitely part of the main cast, but Sarah’s only reason to talk to any of these people is being Joyce’s roommate. I cant think of any strong personal bonds she shares with, say, Dorothy, Becky, Joe, Billy, Danny, Sal, Amber, Walky, Ethan, Carla… like, she shares panels with them, but they don’t usually have a strong personal dynamic unique to her. If they do, that dynamic is usually “Sarah has a different view of friendship and says something really mean unprompted”, which only lasts as the punchline needs.
Sarah, by her own preference, pushes everyone away. I think she does consider those people in the cast friends- that’s why she’s shitty to them- but I doubt they feel that strongly about her beyond “Joyce’s bitter roommate that we’ve interacted with a million times”.
Lucy might’ve hit a sore spot talking to Sarah. But Sarah is hitting her sore spots without a shred of empathy. Why shouldn’t people use Raidah’s talking points on Sarah, when she lives up to them so readily?
Makes you wonder if Sarah is maybe feeling threatened.
She throws it in Lucy’s face that she is in it only to bang Walky but she is a really nice kid and she’s been part this group for only a short while. Give her time and she will integrate while Sarah will remain her bitter, loner self. Sarah knows this and is angry that people will like Lucy while they will only Tolerate her.
I kinda disagree with this. Some of the people Sarah does actively hate, like Joe, or Walky, or Billie I think, but some she has formed true bonds with. Bonds close enough she was worth kidnapping. She truly loves Joyce and has gotten close to Dorothy and Becky as well. Dina is a true, genuine friend to Sarah and they both enjoy the time they spend together. She went to Becky’s mom birthday. Other characters like Ethan or Carla or Danny barely interact with the Joyce group much.
Has she gotten close to Dorothy and Becky? Those I have not seen. They share screentime but I dont think they have a rapport beyond “acquaintances”. I do think Sarah has built a decent friendship with Dina, who appreciates her upfront honesty. But even with Dina, Sarah has been cruel, like when she bluntly told Dina that her relationship with Becky was a rebound, which, while it felt true at the time due to Becky’s infatuation with Joyce, really did not give Becky enough credit and potentially heightened Dina’s insecurity’s to no real benefit.
I don’t think Sarah’s friends resent her- they accept her for the bitter, hateful, but well-meaning person she is. But it doesn’t give her the right to gatekeep who else they are friends with, like Lucy.
She has formed a sort of sisterhood with both Dorothy and Becky in a group effort to make sure Joyce stays alive/doesn’t have a mental breakdown. They comment on this all the time, technically even Jennifer considers herself part of that effort in a Batman sort of “I”m not technically part of the league but I’ll be there if you need me.” way. I can’t argue if she’s gatekeeping Lucy or just doesn’t like her. Both have validity at this point.
To be fair this kind of proves that she doesn’t really bond with people. Her only connection with others is Joyce and that’s only because Joyce is too friendly and oblivious to be deterred by Sarah’s grumpiness. Joyce basically dragged her, kicking and screaming, into interacting with other people.
Overall Sarah favours brutal honesty but unfortunately really often enjoys the brutal part most of all.
Damn girl.
Also as uncomfortable as it is this arc seems to finally making Lucy interesting to me. Like she’s rescued from the same character pile of ‘boring’ that even Danny’s verbal diarrhoea about Mike in front of Ethan couldn’t really lift him from.
Oh my god, this is the first time I missed two comic pages unintentionally. Welp, just one more week of 60 hours of work
Back in college I was the Sarah of my group. (“but you’re *our* asshole!” and all that). Ditched my roommate freshman year because they were doing LSD. Made a bunch of new friends. And then I started hating on my best friend’s girlfriend. The reckoning was interesting because I lost my best friend but everyone else was on my side. It felt awful, because I never really forgave myself for what I did to my best friend by being so awful to his GF.
Anyway, I see this road in Sarah, and I hope it goes better for her than it did for me.
It seems a bit like revisionist history to me. Joyce pulled Sarah into the group, and Sarah was grouchy to everyone because she (supposedly) never wanted to be there in the first place.
Sarah went too far here, but she’s not totally wrong.
Both of them have been swerving way out of their lane, but both of them are right.
Lucy’s not wrong to point out someone going a bit overboard, but there are ways to do that (eg: “I don’t appreciate you doing blah”, “That’s going a bit far”) and she’s gone the dismissive insults path instead. Plus using ammo from the rumor mill is just going to make someone hate you. She can’t be an asshole to Sarah and then get offended when Sarah says “we aren’t friends.”
Sarah’s an asshole. She can’t be an asshole and then complain when people call her out on it. Trauma may have brought her here, but that’s frankly not Lucy’s problem. However, if Lucy considers herself enough of a friend to call Sarah out, she’s also subject to being told a thing she is doing is stupid.
Of course, the fact that Sarah’s being this mean while not thinking of Lucy as a friend, either that means Sarah’s being extra dickish here or the previous comic was a genuine attempt to bring Lucy into the fold. Both are pretty bad!
I mean, Lucy was the one who decided to shift this to taking shots at each other. Previously, Sarah was criticizing the plan Lucy and Walky came up with. Rightly so, since it is a terrible, terrible plan.
Lucy responded by criticizing Sarah personally, with the implication that Sarah ditches people who are inconvenient, and treats her friends badly. Once Lucy did that, Sarah responded in kind. More aggressively, it’s true, but Lucy was the one who decided to take things in that direction.
Only to quickly discover in a game of “let’s say mean things about each other”, Sarah is the reigning champion now that Mike’s retired.
Keep in mind Lucy is telling Sarah she doesn’t really care about a woman who is her only really close friend and who she has risked her life to protect. Knowingly or not, that’s just incredibly nasty. And Sarah is very prickly about this, and is also a black woman with a strong sense of justice so quite likely deeply, deeply revolted with the plan rather than simply thinking it’s stupid.
Just punch her, Lucy; we’ll all feel better afterwards. Well, maybe not Sarah.
Shitty asshole dickhead shitdick assfuck shit fuck fuck asshole gaslight shit shitty shittiness ass ass ass ass asshole shithole fuckhole ass shit dick dick dick ass shitty fuck fuck
In case anyone runs out, I brought extras.
Not everyone has to be friends I guess lol
Sarah is the one “main” character that i can’t stand.
“You’re not part of the group, you’re just the latest sl*t for walky to b*ng and ditch.”
“being mean is a perk afforded to me as one of the group” (im allowed to be mean to you)
“that’d be hilarious if we were friends”
Raidah may be a user, but she isn’t wrong about sarah.
She somehow feels like a less pleasant version of mike.
I mean, Raidah isn’t right. But she knows how to take advantage of Sarah’s surly nature to APPEAR right.
Sarah doesn’t ditch people for being mildly inconvenient/difficult. But she is difficult to get along with, expresses herself poorly and it is fair if people don’t want to be friends with her for that.
It also isn’t weird for them to believe Raidah’s words without the context of the addiction + grief, because it is easy to believe someone unpleasant is unpleasant in multiple ways.
Sarah IS however clearly triggered by Lucy’s choice of words on the last strip and has gone into ‘the best defense is a great offense’ behaviour. She felt hurt so now she’s turned around to act genuinely mean and cruel whereas before, she was trying to be helpful, but expressed herself very poorly.
Which while understandable, really doesn’t help her. Raidah is wrong in her specific claim of how ‘Sarah is the worst’ even if she’s not wrong in general that Sarah isn’t easy to be friends with. Because Sarah’s lack of willingness to be vulnerable and open up to protect herself, also works against her, as people like Lucy don’t see how sensitive she is and just that she went from being an ass to being MORE of an ass.
“just saying, if I had a boyfriend with racist parents, I’d face them MYSELF or, better, Find an entirely new man who’s not so much trouble”
1 page ago she literally told her that she would ditch Walky to get someone that isn’t so much trouble, Literally telling her to get rid of him because he is inconvenient
Racist parents aren’t just an ‘inconvenience’, they’re a reasonable dealbreaker when you are in a very new relationship, you know that they will be around for 3-4 years at minimum, and it honestly would be a lot less effort to get a new boyfriend with non-racist parents.
It isn’t actually horribly unreasonable to point out to a friend that ‘you do know that you’re allowed to find racist parents to be a dealbreaker for a relationship right?’
I don’t blame Lucy for taking it badly as how Sarah said it was rude and Sarah is terrible at communicating but there is a significant difference between suggesting racist parents can be a dealbreaker and that you should drop people over any slightly inconvenient thing they do, which is how Raidah tries to paint her, as if someone spiraling into drug addiction is not a reasonable dealbreaker.
If Sarah legitimately dropped people for being even slightly inconvenient, she wouldn’t tolerate Joyce, Becky or Dina, who literally get her dragged into drama and even into danger for being associated with them. Heck, the kidnapping would have been a reasonable dealbreaker as well to go ‘danger is following you, and I don’t want to be in it’, but Sarah didn’t ditch of them for that.
I mean, that’s not remotely what Sarah did. I think we can accept it was not a good natured piece of advice but deliberately done because she wanted to take the time to insult Walky.
Nope. She wanted to insult Walky AND point out that racist parents can be a deal-breaker. And Walky is a bit of a prat and has earned the dislike people have of him, even if I don’t particularly mind him.
She’s not a friend though, by her own words. She can’t have her cake and eat it. She can’t be like “Oh you’re not my friend” and then deliver advice a friend would give. If she’s not a friend than what she said is bloody rude.
Dumbing of Age Book 13: See, That’s EXACTLY The Kind Of Jocular Ribbing That Would Be Hilarious If We Were Friends
Lucy, pictured: fucking around and fighting out.
Augh.
sarah no 🙁
It’s so weird to me that people are saying “oh she’s just parroting Raidah” about Lucy. I feel like Lucy would have the exact same opinion about Sarah if she had never even met Raidah. As an audience we know Sarah has redeeming qualities, but Lucy has no reason to believe that she does. Lucy has legitimately never had a positive interaction with Sarah, and it’s down to Sarah being an asshole.
I’m not sure though, because Lucy lets Billie and Malaya insult the ever loving crap out of her and is oblivious to it
I’m hoping that I’m seeing the run-up to a good screaming match. These two need to shout all of their misapprehensions at each other until they actually hear what’s being said and go “what?” “wait, what?” and then (I hope) really communicate for the first time.
I really doubt Sarah and Lucy will ever resolve this or be on speaking terms. Sarah probably doesn’t have the social graces to make peace and Lucy probably won’t really want it. I wouldn’t be surprised if the argument ends here with Lucy just walking off.
I have no social skills and am wrong about everything–and Sarah is also my favorite character so I’m biased–but I do think she’s being too mean here, but also that she was 100% right about everything in the situation with Dana and Raidah sucks for poisoning people against her. I also think she’s right that Lucy doesn’t get that Joyce’s dramatic reactions to what Sarah said were mostly part of the game they were playing. Sarah never really goes out of her way to nicely explain everything, but she wouldn’t be being soooo mean here if Lucy wasn’t already on the “oh, Raidah told me about you so I’m going to interpret everything you say and do in the worst possible light and vocalize it” train
I find it really bizarre either for or against Sarah, people viewed yesterday as her being insulting. She delivered it harshly, but I went back and re-reas and what I got was: this is a stupid plan, she’d goeet the racists, and if that’s too much work than get someone not walky. Sarah doesn’t think the racist baggage is worth Walky, but if Lucy does she better put up with it or get out because it’s not going to be worth it. Needed to be better phrased but… pretty much exactly like most of my close friends would communicate if they were trying to get through to me how serious they are about something that I’ve been lalaing over.
I completely agree, that was how I’d read it too. Sarah’s still a bit unsavory about how she delivered it maybe, but the message of what she was saying “if you’re serious about this you need to face it head on or just break up”, isn’t wrong.
You forgot the ”Walky isn’t worth dating regardless” part.
In fairness, Lucy doesn’t really see nor accept the totality of what it really means to be with walky, including that he has low emotional intelligence (or at least is emotionally lazy), as this situation is clear indication of. Lucy has a lot of naivete and optimism and it is both obscuring her clarity on walky and on the morality of the situation she’s entering into here.
Lucy, getting into a “let’s say mean things to each other” competition with Sarah was never going to end well for you.
Poking bears and all that.
oof thats a lotta damage
Hm, this strip hasn’t loaded in two days….. anyone able to do a visual description…..
with the amount of vitriolic hate some characters get in the comments I’m kind of baffled why some of you even read this thing. if the characters are that abhorrent why are you even here?
See, I do think Raidah and company probably misjudged Sarah’s actions. And Raidah is hardly a good person herself. But things like this really make me look askance at Sarah’s version of events. After all: we only really have her word that things went down they way they did. She sees it as self-preservation and doing what was best for her roommate – but she also is the hero of her own story, as we all are. I hate to say it, but maybe Raidah’s perspective on those events isn’t as far from the truth as Sarah would like to admit.
I mean Raidah’s still terrible, but that doesn’t make Sarah any better.
We got Raidahs side of the story, the way she put it sounded only like half of what Sarah said.
Plus the part about Danah abusing harmful possibly Illegal substances seemed to be something Raidah didn’t deny the first time she appeared in this comic.
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2010/comic/book-1/02-uphill-from-here/taken/