i don’t know if she associates ‘bad boys’ with the ‘f*ck boys’ tho, other than him also being ‘out of his league’ idk if she’d be alright as being one of many hanging off him as arm candy/a mini harem or whatever even if she might be up for some 3 ways
at least Billie and Ruth’s relationship started cuz they really need to be loved by someone and to be held together through difficult times, here the relationship is starting out right off the bat with pure greed
I like it tho, Ethan grew some balls, even if he isn’t using it correctly
What’d Asher do again that people think he’s this soulless asshole with no redeeming qualities? Is it the mobster family? or the killing the lunatic? or being thirteen years old and giving the Walkertons the reason they needed to get rid of Sal?
I think most people are using the death of Blaine as evidence that he’s actually lying about being out/at least trying to be out of the mob.
I’m of the persuasion that he fucked up real bad when he was a teen, was also born into a shitty situation, is probably mostly being honest, and if he reached back into whatever ties remained to get rid of someone who was actually wantonly abusing, kidnapping, and murdering, and who was possibly/probably a pedophile (noted by Amber about Faz’s mom’s age), good riddance.
I think his position is “people will be hurt anyway, might as well enjoy it.” Not caring is not the same as believing that caring won’t make any difference.
Even if it’s just fucking, it’s not off to a good start, seeing as it’s starting by Asher cheating on his gf. Also, I didn’t say “romantic relationship”. Fuck buddies are still a type of relationship
Billie already told them they were over since he was so amazingly uncool as to make the wrong friend. They are over. If Asher had an self-respect they would be over, that is.
To be clear Ethan kissed Asher, as soon as his brain caught up to what was happening Asher’s immediate response is to push him away and tell him to stop
No he is not, holy shit he is not. Asher is climbing out of a very deep pit and while Jennifer isn’t helping, Ethan is beckoning him to slide back down.
Sure, but… Asher’s still in a relationship with Jennifer at the moment. If Asher is tired of Jennifer and wants some angsty emo lovin’, pretty much all he needs to do is break if off with Jennifer.
Note his words. He’s trying to be good for her sake, sure, but also for himself. The kid whose little silly prank during a petty crime spree got his friend shipped off to boarding school might be harboring some feelings about backstabbing friends right now, particularly after his semi-relapse with the Evil Dad Squad.
Ethan knew Mike differently than we did. He thinks of Mike as a genuinely good person with a harsh exterior. He’s not being generous in saying this, he’s speaking his true feelings. Whether those feelings reflect the reality of Mike is an altogether different question.
to an outsider who doesn’t know your situation, it’d give off the same vibe as being ‘aloof/don’t give an f” attitude some ppl would be attracted to as long as you stay relatively hygenic
also i guess tehre’s been cynical teens/young adults who say stuff like “life sucks then you die” or just simply being reckless/ no impulse control that haven’t been through
im not sure which possibility i like more, A) asher already knew he was bi and it just didnt come up in conversation before, or B) asher has just now discovered hes bi and has immediately accepted this
On the one hand, Ethan already played that role for Danny, so it probably won’t repeat itself. On the other hand, the idea that Ethan is The Bi Whisperer is pretty funny.
Time for a friendly reminder that the ‘non-Euclidian geometry’ that Lovecraft speaks of as if it is terrifying is any geometry not on a flat surface. Like, say, any geometry done in 3d space on the planet Earth.
It tickles my heart that Lovecraft was afraid of curves.
“The evil that men do lives after them;
The good is oft interred with their bones.”
–Shakespeare, Julius Caesar
It’s true. “Good”, at least meaningful good, usually requires effort to perpetuate. Evil holds its momentum, unless arrested by some force. That’s why so often, abuse victims become abusers. Ottowa, IL, still has a contaminated site from the freakin’ 1920s when the Radium Girls worked in the factories there (and the Radium Girls themselves still glow in their graves).
The decision we all have to make is whether to give into despair over this fact, or to flip off the universe and entropy, and keep fighting. Right now, Asher’s finally clicking for me as a character; Ethan, sadly, is bottoming out hard.
I mean indulging in some bad habits probably would be better than being cooped up in his room as long as he doesn’t take it too far tho i’d assume booster would hopefully keep an eye on him to a point
I think Crow is referring to Dumb Adults, a DoA fan server. They particularly weary of putting the link out in public, plus the folk there bite Willis’s head off at an intensity and frequency that isn’t exactly everyone’s cut of tea. 0_0
Everything good dies? Ethan, I thought you were depressed because of what happened to Mike, not somebody good.
I am one of the biggest Mike fans out there, for the record, I just have no misconceptions about where he falls on the morality scale. The dude chaotic neutral at best.
In Ethan’s defense, he’s not wrong. He’s just not completely right yet. Everything that lives dies. Everything good is just a fairly tiny subset of that.
well, the mid 2000s had a lot of emo gay boys aesthetic, tho a bit more concerning if you know that/why ethan’s grieving as opposed to some edgy young teen that’s just going through a phase/scene /alt/punk aesthetic
How dare he!
Cheating especially with a guy would have been hot and drama filled but almost cheating.
That’s like if Danny wanted credit for the time he almost bought Sal flowers.
idk how serious jen considered them before she saw asher having overlapping qualities with walky, because after ruth i’d assume she’d propose something more ‘casual’
Raidah ‘adopted’ her into her own friend group and i guess they connected with each other during group hangouts (even if jen did technically know asher as one of sal’s ‘delinquent’ group)
“lemme call her over so she can watch” or so XD: i guess, in a way that would be a power move to invite her and not warn her about ethan but that would be kinda a bit sleazy
Tho i suppose it’s better than ethan geting into drugs/cheating
Ethan has an interesting definition of “good,” judging by the current list of characters who’ve died in this comic. Like yeah, I can understand including Mike in that category, but the only other people who’ve died were 1) an irredeemable monster and 2) a myopic fundamentalist whose attempts to cling to his deeply toxic ideal of family drove his wife to commit suicide and drove himself to hold his daughter at gunpoint.
…oh right, it’s currently Spring 2023 until the timescale slides again, which means Kevin Conroy died during the timeskip, never mind it all makes sense
Did they also ever confirm if Ryan is dead? Or at least shivved to such a state he might as well be? I really don’t want him getting a return-villain arc as “Caesar” or “The Pin Cushion”
Your girlfriend doesn’t like you and is mostly dating you so that your ex thinks she’s moved on, Asher. Please do something that blows this up.
I feel like last semester the characters tended to make really chaotic bad decisions, but this semester there’s been a pattern of people stagnating in stable but unfulfilling situations because they’ve already committed to those choices and now they don’t want to be chaotic (a lot of this being deeply mediocre relationships, but some being things like Dorothy not really feeling like she’s allowed to actually explore whether she wants to change). This makes sense and is really realistic for undergrads but please, these characters, be a little more chaotic. Clinging too hard to a safe but unfulfilling status quo is just as dumb as any of the things these characters were doing last semester.
Yeah, this parts worries me. The “take what you want while it’s still here” is… It really feels like he’s going “take me while I’m still alive”, between his mental state and his spiel about death.
Some suicidal people may go through a Do All The Things manic phase wherein they follow they impulses, fulfill a couple of wants off their bucket list… and use the rest of the energy to follow through with their death wish.
Man dude, take a hint. Jennifer doesn’t respect you or want you or even particularly like you. Also, props to Ethan for working on his supervillain schtick.
I am actually rooting for Asher to keep on trying to be better at least for himself and hopefully that he doesn’t make life harder for everything else. (An honestly I don’t think him calling his family and mention Blaine is being a pain in the behind was a bad call. )
Hey Asher solved the Blaine problem. I totally give him points for that. Every group needs an anti hero / villain protagonist ally that’s willing to do the dirty work that nobody else is up for.
I have an evil catholic aunt by marriage who doesn’t believe in divorce (literally disowned one of her children for marrying a divorcee) but she herself got her first marriage annulled after 3 kids because she found out her first husband was mafia. It’s like a get out of jail free card for Catholics. Definitely tempting for the marys of this world.
Some of his strips have actually given me Ruth vibes, which might be the, y’know, absolute depression both of them have gone/are going through. But never Mary?? Just because the suicidal guy is having what looks like the start of a manic episode?? Come on.
Asher doesn’t seem like that bad of a person in the first place. I don’t have much disdain for this guy who has criminal parents he didn’t ask for and did a shitty thing when he was, like, 12.
…huh, I thought we learned the lesson about how “this relationship has problematic elements therefore its totally fine for the less-shitty part of the relationship to fuck whoever they want” is a really shitty attitude after the Raidah/Jacob/Joyce debacle.
Yeah, Asher and Jennifer’s relationship is not great. Asher should either get out of it or confront Jennifer about how she’s being an ass. But he’d still be a dang dick for cheating on her with Ethan.
Either shit or get off the pot, basically. Asher’s right to say no here, even though Ethan’s Smoldering Emo Angst is hitting all of Asher’s buttons. All Asher has to do to be in the clear is to break up with Jennifer, this is not a rigid structural barrier that is mountainous to overcome or anything.
To me it seems like Jennifer/Asher is pretty close to being over. Even if Jennifer doesn’t break up with Asher, he might want to break up with her for reasons unrelated to Ethan
Indeed, things are likely headed that way, and Asher should recognize that.
But at the current point in the story, Asher’s right to go “I’m not cheating on my girlfriend, I don’t want to be that kind of person”, no matter how shitty that girlfriend is.
Break up first, wild debauchery after. The order is important! 😀
Yeah, I respect that he doesn’t want to cheat. But OP was comparing this to Jacob and Raidah, and I think that was a lot different because Raidah wanted to continue the relationship. Jennifer seems pretty done with Asher.
And if Asher goes and breaks up with her and then this happens tomorrow, it’s fine. If he does it right here right now, he’s a cheater. and that’s bad for him. It’s the kind of move somebody he doesn’t want to be anymore does.
Alternatively “being a cheater” for the handful of hours between banging a hot boy and breaking up the next time he sees Billie would be a meaningless technicality
Alternatively alternatively, Asher doesn’t know whether Billie would be ok with non-exclusivity but he is willing to risk it and will check in with her later and it’ll be her call then whether she’s fine with it or not
Ethan: “Nothing is real but loss, pain and putrefaction. Existence is a sordid joke, life a drawn-out agony, as the knife of solitude slowly twists inside the crusty, pus-filled gashes of sorrow”
Asher, pulling off his clothes: “just fuck me right here on this doorstep”
Ok, so what happens if Asher “formally” breaks up with Jennifer and THEN he hooks up with Ethan (assuming he’s still interested after being told “no” at first)?
I know this is the less parsimonious outcome, but hey
I support this course of action. Asher does seem to genuinely care for Jennifer, but I’m honestly not sure if Jennifer feels the same way about Asher. (She’s attracted to him, definitely, but her behaviour thus far suggests she likes him more for what he does for her image and self-esteem rather than liking him and wanting what’s best for him.) So, since the match is likely not to work out long-term, but cheating is icky and wrong, Asher needs to break up with Jennifer and then go mash body parts with Ethan if he still wants to. 😉
Am I missing something? Was the only sign that Asher was BI the fact that he smiled at Ethan outside a couple panels ago? Talk about a huge fucking risk Ethan just took. I feel like a bunch of steps were missed here, possibly for the convenience of the story.
Booster and Amber had a conversation about Asher walking Ethan to class, and implied a degree of flirtatiousness, so I think we can assume that Ethan and Asher developed a connection off screen.
To be fair, Asher is 1) not a main character so at no point would he realistically have a chance to reveal that he’s bi and 2) showing attraction to two women (Jennifer and Sal) obviously doesn’t exclude the possibility that he’s bi and 3) I feel it’s pretty realistic, honestly. What other possible signs are there supposed to be? Asher doesn’t seem the type to wear a pride pin, and he may not have much experience with men but seems to have enough to recognize ‘wow, hot guy’ and that’s completely valid.
Plus with Ethan’s mindset I don’t feel like him taking a huge risk like that is outside the realm of possibility for his character. Unfortunately, he’s depressed and is trying to self-destruct (hence not caring if being with Asher would be cheating) so I think if Asher were to react violently or even just yell at Ethan, he’d be just as ‘meh’ about it. Kinda comes off like Ethan’s trying to do SOMETHING to feel alive, and unfortunately risky business is a path to do that on.
Hmm. Am I the only one who thought Billie might like a bisexual trophy boyfriend? Like she might be into it? Perhaps as her whole self-hating homosexual messing around isn’t serious complex, perhaps just because she’s already objectifying Asher so why not?
DO you have a girlfriend, Asher? She didn’t literally say “I’m leaving you” onscreen but she’s not really acting particularly girlfriendy, all walking off and being like “yeah no I don’t want to be with this”.
I applaud the instinct to avoid being a cheating dick but I feel like you needed the instinct to check in with her on your actual status a while ago.
rn i want these silly hotties to bang to the point where i have a hard time investing any brainpower in the #Discourse today, however i will say i am puzzled by people discussing AshxJen like it’s pretty much as good as over??? I mean, Jennifer’s been on her usual Jennifer bullshit the whole time. She’s histrionic, self-centered, and extremely preoccupied by some whacky code of cool no one else can decipher. I think that’s funny and part of her charm and whatever, don’t @me, but my point is, they’ve been fine this whole time apparently, so like. what do we think has changed??
(Unrelatedly, i super don’t care if Asher cheats on her, also afaik they might not be exclusive to begin with)
I didn’t say it’s as good as over, I said he should’ve checked that it wasn’t given what happened
what I think changed (there is no “we”) is the walky parallels mostly. Might be a bridge too far for jen.
but sure, I’m just repeating memes everyone
I feel for Ethan – I went through the exact same pattern of impulsivity after my ex died a few years ago (she was only 23). The shock of grief really puts everything else into perspective and makes you realise how short life can be.
Not gonna lie but I was just posting how that was my subconscious approach to life from a child hood of people vanishing from my life in a few weeks or days because Cold War military brats families were transferred from base to base sometimes after only a few weeks, usually after a year or two. I went to 14 different schools by 10th grade…
easy solution here: call jennifer and establish whether or not this would actually be cheating.
*ring ring*
jennifer: what do you want?
asher: am i your boyfriend?
jennifer: ugh, not with that attitude, dweeb. get cooler.
asher: so that’s a no? great. im gonna go fuck a hot dude now. bye
I could be into this ship long term. After Asher’s pretty inevitable breakup with Jennifer, there could be a little more time, then falling into something with Ethan (or, an immediate hookup that ends up becoming more with some time). Picturing it being fairly lowkey/private, like mostly an alone in their dorms thing rather than a holding hands and kissing in the halls thing, despite being committed.
(looks like this comment didn’t send earlier (I ctrl+f ed a few different terms including my name), but sorry if I posted almost exactly the same thing earlier)
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“That’s an incredibly hot BUTT”
“Are you sure that’s right, Jerry? Because, I’m not sure we can say that on YouTube.”
Zefrank reference spotted
I was thinking of a completely different reference… “A brimful of Asher on a – 45…” xD
Dumbing of Age Book 13: Everything Good Dies
Cover image: Dina weeping
I mean she loves dinosaurs so its probably low-key what she’s been thinking alol this time.
Plot twist: Dina has been secretly emo this whole time
I mean Jennifer wanted him to be a worse boyfriend. Cheating on her would definitely fulfill that role.
OTOH, not doing what she wants makes him a worse boyfriend right there, no?
The secret is,
she’s always angry at herselfnothing will satisfy her.Must make it difficult in the bedroom.
i don’t know if she associates ‘bad boys’ with the ‘f*ck boys’ tho, other than him also being ‘out of his league’ idk if she’d be alright as being one of many hanging off him as arm candy/a mini harem or whatever even if she might be up for some 3 ways
hey
Wow Ethan is bad for Asher…Ethan is bad for Asher holy shit that’s wild.
ISN’T IT? I’m trying to wrap my brain about it too!!
your gravitar is perfect for this.
“I did not anticipate this from our sessions, ok. I was shook! Also I can’t look away. It’s a fascinating hot mess, emphasis on both.”
(djsfkjs thank you, I’m into wordy character analysis and I love Booster, so I held onto them when the Gravatar Roulette threw them at me! :3)
“Hey Jennifer, what if I went and tried having a relationship even worse than your last one!?”
at least Billie and Ruth’s relationship started cuz they really need to be loved by someone and to be held together through difficult times, here the relationship is starting out right off the bat with pure greed
I like it tho, Ethan grew some balls, even if he isn’t using it correctly
What’d Asher do again that people think he’s this soulless asshole with no redeeming qualities? Is it the mobster family? or the killing the lunatic? or being thirteen years old and giving the Walkertons the reason they needed to get rid of Sal?
Being ex-mob but still invoking his mob status when it suits him, I think.
Has he ever envoked it aside from when blaine black mailed bim with info thay could’ve had him killed
Don’t forget aiding Blaine with the kidnapping/potential murder scheme. Not entirely voluntary, but still.
Going to college on stolen money. Which is why Blaine could blackmail him.
I think most people are using the death of Blaine as evidence that he’s actually lying about being out/at least trying to be out of the mob.
I’m of the persuasion that he fucked up real bad when he was a teen, was also born into a shitty situation, is probably mostly being honest, and if he reached back into whatever ties remained to get rid of someone who was actually wantonly abusing, kidnapping, and murdering, and who was possibly/probably a pedophile (noted by Amber about Faz’s mom’s age), good riddance.
Glad I’m not the only one to see how INSANELY toxic this shit is. Ethan flat out said “I don’t give a fuck who I hurt as long as I am satisfied.”
I think his position is “people will be hurt anyway, might as well enjoy it.” Not caring is not the same as believing that caring won’t make any difference.
Both lead to the same terrible places, though.
Ethan you have no idea what you’re talking about
Your girlfriend treats you like an accessory, you’re better off, Asher.
Is he, though? This isn’t exactly the start of a healthy relationship
We’ve seen worse (??)
Doesn’t need to be a relationship. It can just be fucking.
Even if it’s just fucking, it’s not off to a good start, seeing as it’s starting by Asher cheating on his gf. Also, I didn’t say “romantic relationship”. Fuck buddies are still a type of relationship
It doesn’t start off with him cheating on her if he calls her and breaks up with her first.
They’ve already kissed
He just stopped and didn’t continue and go further
Billie already told them they were over since he was so amazingly uncool as to make the wrong friend. They are over. If Asher had an self-respect they would be over, that is.
She didn’t say that.
Sometimes what people hear is only vaguely connected to what was said.
Sometimes they hear correctly even though it still wasn’t what was said. The trick is knowing which is which.
To be clear Ethan kissed Asher, as soon as his brain caught up to what was happening Asher’s immediate response is to push him away and tell him to stop
No, Asher got kissed and broke it off because it was wrong. Big difference between that and “they’ve” kissed.
I was trying to think how to say that. “Just fucking.” Go with it,Asher.
Does that make him Ken to her Barbie?
No he is not, holy shit he is not. Asher is climbing out of a very deep pit and while Jennifer isn’t helping, Ethan is beckoning him to slide back down.
Sure, but… Asher’s still in a relationship with Jennifer at the moment. If Asher is tired of Jennifer and wants some angsty emo lovin’, pretty much all he needs to do is break if off with Jennifer.
Note his words. He’s trying to be good for her sake, sure, but also for himself. The kid whose little silly prank during a petty crime spree got his friend shipped off to boarding school might be harboring some feelings about backstabbing friends right now, particularly after his semi-relapse with the Evil Dad Squad.
Everything good dies, and Ambers dad.
Given Ethan is almost certainly saying this in relation to Mike’s death, it feels *incredibly” generous
Ethan knew Mike differently than we did. He thinks of Mike as a genuinely good person with a harsh exterior. He’s not being generous in saying this, he’s speaking his true feelings. Whether those feelings reflect the reality of Mike is an altogether different question.
Why is being depressing hot? That would just make me question whether I want to or not.
to an outsider who doesn’t know your situation, it’d give off the same vibe as being ‘aloof/don’t give an f” attitude some ppl would be attracted to as long as you stay relatively hygenic
also i guess tehre’s been cynical teens/young adults who say stuff like “life sucks then you die” or just simply being reckless/ no impulse control that haven’t been through
Because teenagers. Strip ain’t called Smarting of Age, after all :D.
I wanna give a thumbs up. Why can’t I give a thumbs up?
+1
because we got nothing to loose…
Or tight for that matter.
2AM, can’t help about misspelling…
Homophones are nothing but trouble.
Imagine if your crush showed up at your door, kissed you, and said he wanted you enough to do something reckless. It’s hot to feel desired like that.
Fair enough; I wish one of my crushes would have done this.
im not sure which possibility i like more, A) asher already knew he was bi and it just didnt come up in conversation before, or B) asher has just now discovered hes bi and has immediately accepted this
I think he’s known he’s been bi for a long while, it’s probably one of the reasons he’s trying to distance himself from his Capitol F family.
On the one hand, Ethan already played that role for Danny, so it probably won’t repeat itself. On the other hand, the idea that Ethan is The Bi Whisperer is pretty funny.
don’t think! just kiss!!
🎵Sha-la-la-la-la-la
Don’t be scared
You got di mood prepared🎵
Technically speaking everything Evil dies too. Also everything Neutral. And upon such strange aeons even death may die.
Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn.
alright Lovecraft, back into the crypts with you…
And stay there.
Time for a friendly reminder that the ‘non-Euclidian geometry’ that Lovecraft speaks of as if it is terrifying is any geometry not on a flat surface. Like, say, any geometry done in 3d space on the planet Earth.
It tickles my heart that Lovecraft was afraid of curves.
The guy was a nervous wreck basically all the time. Bubbles, math, penguins, Welsh people, the list goes on and on.
Feckin Air Conditioning terrified the shit out of him lol
Technically Lovecraft was afraid of angular space, not curved space.
Personally I am terrified of jello. Have you ever seen it quiver ominously?
When the Jell-O quivers ominously, you need to assert your place as the dominant species and vore it.
You can hook an EEG to it and it’ll read brain activity, because jello is that sensitive to vibrations around it.
Lovecraft was afraid of anything that wasn’t a straight line. He was unwilling to bend in any direction.
Weirdly, “curves” is also the only way hounds of Tindalos can’t fuck you up.
Wasn’t it Lovecraft that used the Didache as a reference for ancient evil? It’s just old Christian bullsh–
Wait….
Qapla’
Not Gnome Ann. Time and tide stop for Gnome Ann.
“The evil that men do lives after them;
The good is oft interred with their bones.”
–Shakespeare, Julius Caesar
It’s true. “Good”, at least meaningful good, usually requires effort to perpetuate. Evil holds its momentum, unless arrested by some force. That’s why so often, abuse victims become abusers. Ottowa, IL, still has a contaminated site from the freakin’ 1920s when the Radium Girls worked in the factories there (and the Radium Girls themselves still glow in their graves).
The decision we all have to make is whether to give into despair over this fact, or to flip off the universe and entropy, and keep fighting. Right now, Asher’s finally clicking for me as a character; Ethan, sadly, is bottoming out hard.
So you just embracing full on nihilism Ethan? Beacuse I don’t see any purpose in that.
What’s the purpose of anything really?
I mean indulging in some bad habits probably would be better than being cooped up in his room as long as he doesn’t take it too far tho i’d assume booster would hopefully keep an eye on him to a point
nihilism isn’t a problem per se. Only when it’s coupled with depression.
not having any purpose is, one might say, the point
Yeah that’s the joke.
Ethan, you exchanged names and walked together for a few minutes. Gods, but this boy moves fast.
Ethan being THIS DRAMATIC and Asher going “that’s incredibly hot” in response shows us what he saw in Jennifer, isn’t it :’DD
Can someone post the Discord invite? I deleted it and want to rejoin.
Wait what? There’s a willis discord? 😮 😱
I think Crow is referring to Dumb Adults, a DoA fan server. They particularly weary of putting the link out in public, plus the folk there bite Willis’s head off at an intensity and frequency that isn’t exactly everyone’s cut of tea. 0_0
I don’t think Willis is on Discord tho?
I would imagine he’s on every transformers discord on the platform at the very least.
Simultaneously.
Can someone give me cryptic instructions on how to find the discord link?
Do you have means by which they can DM it to you directly? They probs ain’t gonna put it out in public 😗
My throwaway email is tinabelcher35@gmail.com
RIP your throwaway inbox
I love how accurate the webcomic name continues to be
Everything good dies? Ethan, I thought you were depressed because of what happened to Mike, not somebody good.
I am one of the biggest Mike fans out there, for the record, I just have no misconceptions about where he falls on the morality scale. The dude chaotic neutral at best.
But Mike was his bestfriend
See the new bonus strip.
No Patreon, so no such luck.
Me either, but the preview panel may suffice?
Ethan is recontextualizing Mike as a good guy in his grief. It’s pretty normal to romanticize things after someone dies.
In Ethan’s defense, he’s not wrong. He’s just not completely right yet. Everything that lives dies. Everything good is just a fairly tiny subset of that.
“i havent thought of an extremely convenient excuse yet maybe if you pull down my pants it’ll give me time to think one up!…”
In my experience losing my pants actually significantly impairs my ability to think.
^ This.
Wait is he letting Billie bully him because he’s like genuinely trying to turn over a new leaf or something
Apparently so! He must have some serious Mommy issues.
Thats….been his whole character?
I’m sorry are people just blatantly ignoring ashers story just cause they dont WANT him to change?
wait, does hooking up with a guy he barely knows qualify as being the bad boy she wanted?
Haha, I think she wants him to be just like Ruth.
The bad boy she wanted was someone that is stereotypically hot and mysterious, not someone that cheats.
People are still allowed to thinking college?
Asher has some weird turn-ons.
But hey, whatever gets him to dump whatever toxic trainwreck he’s got going on with Jennifer and to get onto THIS toxic trainwreck.
I wonder if Ethan’s going to be as disappointed as her that Asher’s a huge dork and not some smooth badass.
I don’t think Ethan’s seen “Cool biker” Asher ever, so he *should* be fine with dork turtleneck bisexual asher.
Yeah, tbh that’s the thing that still makes me see this as a step up for Asher. I’m shipping it hardcore! It’s also going to be a toxic mess! But…
At least he will get to be himself, y’know? Hopefully?
well, the mid 2000s had a lot of emo gay boys aesthetic, tho a bit more concerning if you know that/why ethan’s grieving as opposed to some edgy young teen that’s just going through a phase/scene /alt/punk aesthetic
He thinks he still has a girlfriend?
Haha, now I want to hear what she thinks when he confesses to her that he *almost* cheated with a boy.
How dare he!
Cheating especially with a guy would have been hot and drama filled but almost cheating.
That’s like if Danny wanted credit for the time he almost bought Sal flowers.
I was more thinking of her assertion that “bisexual is a porn word.”
Did she say that? Isn’t she bisexual?
Nope. Jennifer’s straight. She just likes girls sometimes, like everyone does.
At least that was her stance early last semester.
idk how serious jen considered them before she saw asher having overlapping qualities with walky, because after ruth i’d assume she’d propose something more ‘casual’
And does Jennifer/Billie think she’s dumped him already?
Trying to be good for other people never works.
I do wonder why he latched onto Jennifer, of all people.
Raidah ‘adopted’ her into her own friend group and i guess they connected with each other during group hangouts (even if jen did technically know asher as one of sal’s ‘delinquent’ group)
Why Jennifer? Could it be because she’s hot as all get out?
Probably for the same reason Walky attached to her.
“lemme call her over so she can watch” or so XD: i guess, in a way that would be a power move to invite her and not warn her about ethan but that would be kinda a bit sleazy
Tho i suppose it’s better than ethan geting into drugs/cheating
Amber would be so heartbroken if people were being invited to spectate birthday she WASN’T one of them.
I mean she say ethan sprint away so she could’ve followed him if she rly wanted to lol
Ethan has an interesting definition of “good,” judging by the current list of characters who’ve died in this comic. Like yeah, I can understand including Mike in that category, but the only other people who’ve died were 1) an irredeemable monster and 2) a myopic fundamentalist whose attempts to cling to his deeply toxic ideal of family drove his wife to commit suicide and drove himself to hold his daughter at gunpoint.
…oh right, it’s currently Spring 2023 until the timescale slides again, which means Kevin Conroy died during the timeskip, never mind it all makes sense
One is enough.
Did they also ever confirm if Ryan is dead? Or at least shivved to such a state he might as well be? I really don’t want him getting a return-villain arc as “Caesar” or “The Pin Cushion”
He doesn’t seem to have, we’d know if he died of Amber’s wounds, so he’s probably alive unless he like got hit by a truck somehow.
I am not entirely sure Becky’s mum died due to her wife as much as she might just have been suicidally depressed.
tbf he probably only rly cares about mike, even if he wasnt necessarily ‘good’ he did care for him to be affected that much
I’m…not sure you really DO have a girlfriend anymore, Asher.
Billie seems grumpy and surly enough to think even lower of him for refusing some hot sex.
He’s a nihilist! And he’s a recovering sociopath!
Together, they cause, I mean SOLVE crimes! Sexily!
Your girlfriend doesn’t like you and is mostly dating you so that your ex thinks she’s moved on, Asher. Please do something that blows this up.
I feel like last semester the characters tended to make really chaotic bad decisions, but this semester there’s been a pattern of people stagnating in stable but unfulfilling situations because they’ve already committed to those choices and now they don’t want to be chaotic (a lot of this being deeply mediocre relationships, but some being things like Dorothy not really feeling like she’s allowed to actually explore whether she wants to change). This makes sense and is really realistic for undergrads but please, these characters, be a little more chaotic. Clinging too hard to a safe but unfulfilling status quo is just as dumb as any of the things these characters were doing last semester.
Ohhhhh, WORD. You’re absolutely right O_O!! Not all of the characters (Joyce is an exception imho) but certainly most of them?
Wow Asher/Billie is so background i totally forgot it exists. Good thing Asher remember
If everything good dies then why is Mike dead?
Checkmate
Also Ross, Blaine. Ethan needs to readjust his standards.
Also note how Ethan lumps himself in that category. Dude expressed a dead wish.
Yeah, this parts worries me. The “take what you want while it’s still here” is… It really feels like he’s going “take me while I’m still alive”, between his mental state and his spiel about death.
Some suicidal people may go through a Do All The Things manic phase wherein they follow they impulses, fulfill a couple of wants off their bucket list… and use the rest of the energy to follow through with their death wish.
Bad thing happen to bad person no make bad thing stop happen to good person
Wow this storyline really is just everyone’s self-destructive spiral, isn’t it?
…Except Joe and Joyce, they’re being surprisngly adult about their issues…
Joe and Joyce’s is self-destructive, in a sense, when you consider what the lifelong standard of self was for each of them.
Man dude, take a hint. Jennifer doesn’t respect you or want you or even particularly like you. Also, props to Ethan for working on his supervillain schtick.
I am actually rooting for Asher to keep on trying to be better at least for himself and hopefully that he doesn’t make life harder for everything else. (An honestly I don’t think him calling his family and mention Blaine is being a pain in the behind was a bad call. )
Asher is doing his best. Ethan needs serious help.
Geez, Ethan. You’re making Asher look GOOD. If Ethan keeps spiraling down this fast, he’s going to be in the Mary Tier. No one wants that.
When hasn’t Asher looked good? Even when he was texting the Evil Parent Brigade he had a certain angsty smolder going on.
No! Stop! You are falling for the Morally Problematic Character! Turn back before it’s too late!
Hey Asher solved the Blaine problem. I totally give him points for that. Every group needs an anti hero / villain protagonist ally that’s willing to do the dirty work that nobody else is up for.
No! You are just making Asher hotter! Ethan will stand no chance XD
… ETHAN X MARY.
NOW I WANT IT SO BAD.
I have an evil catholic aunt by marriage who doesn’t believe in divorce (literally disowned one of her children for marrying a divorcee) but she herself got her first marriage annulled after 3 kids because she found out her first husband was mafia. It’s like a get out of jail free card for Catholics. Definitely tempting for the marys of this world.
Wow, hell no.
Some of his strips have actually given me Ruth vibes, which might be the, y’know, absolute depression both of them have gone/are going through. But never Mary?? Just because the suicidal guy is having what looks like the start of a manic episode?? Come on.
Asher doesn’t seem like that bad of a person in the first place. I don’t have much disdain for this guy who has criminal parents he didn’t ask for and did a shitty thing when he was, like, 12.
Jennifer has placed herself in an interesting predicament, and she doesn’t even know it.
Asher rejecting Ethan fully would be the most Walky thing he’d done yet. So, she either gets a faithful boyfriend or her wish fulfilled.
*looks at the comments*
…huh, I thought we learned the lesson about how “this relationship has problematic elements therefore its totally fine for the less-shitty part of the relationship to fuck whoever they want” is a really shitty attitude after the Raidah/Jacob/Joyce debacle.
Yeah, Asher and Jennifer’s relationship is not great. Asher should either get out of it or confront Jennifer about how she’s being an ass. But he’d still be a dang dick for cheating on her with Ethan.
Either shit or get off the pot, basically. Asher’s right to say no here, even though Ethan’s Smoldering Emo Angst is hitting all of Asher’s buttons. All Asher has to do to be in the clear is to break up with Jennifer, this is not a rigid structural barrier that is mountainous to overcome or anything.
To me it seems like Jennifer/Asher is pretty close to being over. Even if Jennifer doesn’t break up with Asher, he might want to break up with her for reasons unrelated to Ethan
Indeed, things are likely headed that way, and Asher should recognize that.
But at the current point in the story, Asher’s right to go “I’m not cheating on my girlfriend, I don’t want to be that kind of person”, no matter how shitty that girlfriend is.
Break up first, wild debauchery after. The order is important! 😀
Yeah, I respect that he doesn’t want to cheat. But OP was comparing this to Jacob and Raidah, and I think that was a lot different because Raidah wanted to continue the relationship. Jennifer seems pretty done with Asher.
Order? I dunno. “I’ve found someone else” is pretty common.
And if Asher goes and breaks up with her and then this happens tomorrow, it’s fine. If he does it right here right now, he’s a cheater. and that’s bad for him. It’s the kind of move somebody he doesn’t want to be anymore does.
Alternatively “being a cheater” for the handful of hours between banging a hot boy and breaking up the next time he sees Billie would be a meaningless technicality
Alternatively alternatively, Asher doesn’t know whether Billie would be ok with non-exclusivity but he is willing to risk it and will check in with her later and it’ll be her call then whether she’s fine with it or not
No Asher! No! Don’t listen to the Nihilist McEdgelord. Remember you are the Bad Boy, you don’t fall for Other Bad Boys even if they are hot!
Ethan: “Nothing is real but loss, pain and putrefaction. Existence is a sordid joke, life a drawn-out agony, as the knife of solitude slowly twists inside the crusty, pus-filled gashes of sorrow”
Asher, pulling off his clothes: “just fuck me right here on this doorstep”
Right under the sign that says Arby’s?
That’s not about Jennifer. That’s about himself, Asher.
To be a better guy. Someone who have improved as a human being, and as a man.
Could we say this storyline is having boys trying to be better? Joe too, for example. (in his case, the entire book)
Ok, so what happens if Asher “formally” breaks up with Jennifer and THEN he hooks up with Ethan (assuming he’s still interested after being told “no” at first)?
I know this is the less parsimonious outcome, but hey
I support this course of action. Asher does seem to genuinely care for Jennifer, but I’m honestly not sure if Jennifer feels the same way about Asher. (She’s attracted to him, definitely, but her behaviour thus far suggests she likes him more for what he does for her image and self-esteem rather than liking him and wanting what’s best for him.) So, since the match is likely not to work out long-term, but cheating is icky and wrong, Asher needs to break up with Jennifer and then go mash body parts with Ethan if he still wants to. 😉
Alternate panel 5:
“What? Oh no, I meant I’m trying to be a better boyfriend by not forgetting to give her a chance to watch when i fuck someone else”
It’s only polite.
Basic decency.
Anyway, FINALLY A SHIP THAT NIBBLES MY KNOBBLES
I’m so bored with all the straight romance lol
(…I hope they do fuck)
🙏
LET HIM COOK
Am I missing something? Was the only sign that Asher was BI the fact that he smiled at Ethan outside a couple panels ago? Talk about a huge fucking risk Ethan just took. I feel like a bunch of steps were missed here, possibly for the convenience of the story.
Booster and Amber had a conversation about Asher walking Ethan to class, and implied a degree of flirtatiousness, so I think we can assume that Ethan and Asher developed a connection off screen.
To be fair, Asher is 1) not a main character so at no point would he realistically have a chance to reveal that he’s bi and 2) showing attraction to two women (Jennifer and Sal) obviously doesn’t exclude the possibility that he’s bi and 3) I feel it’s pretty realistic, honestly. What other possible signs are there supposed to be? Asher doesn’t seem the type to wear a pride pin, and he may not have much experience with men but seems to have enough to recognize ‘wow, hot guy’ and that’s completely valid.
Plus with Ethan’s mindset I don’t feel like him taking a huge risk like that is outside the realm of possibility for his character. Unfortunately, he’s depressed and is trying to self-destruct (hence not caring if being with Asher would be cheating) so I think if Asher were to react violently or even just yell at Ethan, he’d be just as ‘meh’ about it. Kinda comes off like Ethan’s trying to do SOMETHING to feel alive, and unfortunately risky business is a path to do that on.
The man said get busy living or get busy dying, and Ethan went for B. The fact Asher thinks that’s hot is another red flag to me. . .
How is your takeaway from this strip that ASHER is the one with the red flags?!
Red flags are like sweater vests. Everyone is welcome to one, but woe betide a time when you see many of them.
Mike for a certain definition of “good”
Gotta say I thought Asher’s last line was going to be: “no, I mean she’s right here” as Jennifer’s face appears over his shoulder.
“This is a terrible decision.”
“So?”
“Your logic is compelling.”
Hmm. Am I the only one who thought Billie might like a bisexual trophy boyfriend? Like she might be into it? Perhaps as her whole self-hating homosexual messing around isn’t serious complex, perhaps just because she’s already objectifying Asher so why not?
It might cause her to confront her own bisexuality, so maybe not.
Ugggghhhhhhhghg
DO you have a girlfriend, Asher? She didn’t literally say “I’m leaving you” onscreen but she’s not really acting particularly girlfriendy, all walking off and being like “yeah no I don’t want to be with this”.
I applaud the instinct to avoid being a cheating dick but I feel like you needed the instinct to check in with her on your actual status a while ago.
Um, so,
rn i want these silly hotties to bang to the point where i have a hard time investing any brainpower in the #Discourse today, however i will say i am puzzled by people discussing AshxJen like it’s pretty much as good as over??? I mean, Jennifer’s been on her usual Jennifer bullshit the whole time. She’s histrionic, self-centered, and extremely preoccupied by some whacky code of cool no one else can decipher. I think that’s funny and part of her charm and whatever, don’t @me, but my point is, they’ve been fine this whole time apparently, so like. what do we think has changed??
(Unrelatedly, i super don’t care if Asher cheats on her, also afaik they might not be exclusive to begin with)
The “Asher and Jennifer are doomed” meme can die at any point and we’ll have lost nothing.
I didn’t say it’s as good as over, I said he should’ve checked that it wasn’t given what happened
what I think changed (there is no “we”) is the walky parallels mostly. Might be a bridge too far for jen.
but sure, I’m just repeating memes everyone
I am enjoying this plot line so much!
eveyones morality on cheating flying out the window when 2 cute boys kiss
hell yea
I feel for Ethan – I went through the exact same pattern of impulsivity after my ex died a few years ago (she was only 23). The shock of grief really puts everything else into perspective and makes you realise how short life can be.
Not gonna lie but I was just posting how that was my subconscious approach to life from a child hood of people vanishing from my life in a few weeks or days because Cold War military brats families were transferred from base to base sometimes after only a few weeks, usually after a year or two. I went to 14 different schools by 10th grade…
easy solution here: call jennifer and establish whether or not this would actually be cheating.
*ring ring*
jennifer: what do you want?
asher: am i your boyfriend?
jennifer: ugh, not with that attitude, dweeb. get cooler.
asher: so that’s a no? great. im gonna go fuck a hot dude now. bye
I could be into this ship long term. After Asher’s pretty inevitable breakup with Jennifer, there could be a little more time, then falling into something with Ethan (or, an immediate hookup that ends up becoming more with some time). Picturing it being fairly lowkey/private, like mostly an alone in their dorms thing rather than a holding hands and kissing in the halls thing, despite being committed.
(looks like this comment didn’t send earlier (I ctrl+f ed a few different terms including my name), but sorry if I posted almost exactly the same thing earlier)