*: We have the lowest prices, and underpaid workers. We have neat stuff that comes from factories where the workers are paid even less, in horrible conditions! Walmart come to our store at midnight and see the REAL side of it, depression and insominia!
Which makes this Malaya the even -more- useless, unliked member of the gang (than she usually is), then. Also, I love how Amber took her down easy and fair and square, and in true whiny-girl fashion, she proclaims it “cheap shot.” Mr. Willis – THANK YOU. I’ve wanted to see -any- Malaya get her comeuppance for a while now.
Yeah, I really like panel four; y’can see she’s realizing “Waiiit….Maybe I didn’t think this through well enough”, as the idea dawns that to win she’ll need to fight dirty…And the current deck (4 vs. 1 in Sal’s favor) isn’t exactly stacked to Amber’s advantage for dirty-fighting.
I totally don’t think that’s what is going on here though. That face isn’t because she’s afraid of the odds. It’s because she was remembering the first fight she had with Sal.
In other words, she’s remembering that she didn’t actually beat Sal before, she came up from behind and stabbed her in the hand while she was already restrained by the police, which means she (Amber) has no actual reason for the confidence with which she approached this fight?
The juxtaposition with your previous “+1” comment combined with the fact that I was thinking exactly the same thing as I read Seraph’s comment made this extremely funny. Well played, Mr. Willis, well played.
I think Amber’s actually questioning her own motives here – that’s why she looks uncertain. She remembers their first ‘fight’, which wasn’t fair at all. Sal’s being reasonable, trying to avoid a fight, which Amber wasn’t expecting – she expected the same loud, violent teenager that so terrified her, before. Maybe she shouldn’t be –
And then Malaya jumps her. If the others move in (even if it’s to remove Malaya, which many are hoping), Amazi-Girl may interpret that as hostile, as well. In which case, motives become meaningless, and it’s a fight for survival. Battle rage kicks in. Pavement gets bloody.
Many here think Amber is in trouble. I think they’re underestimating Amazi-Girl.
Actually, I think the odds would only be 2 to 1 at the worst. I can’t see Marcie getting involved, and I don’t think Carla figures this is any concern of hers either.
So far I don’t have many people to ship her with.
I could try Sierra but I already ship her and Marcie.
Now we could get all 3 of them in on it, I suppose. But meh.
Malaya will just be benched for now until
I thought that was a challenge. Like saying “come and get me. I’ll take all of you!” But it was a challenge that was phrased as an attempt at insulting them.
Yes. Of course there have. Like, calling her ‘psycho,’ maybe, I could understand, just because of how the term tends to get thrown around so loosely to describe people who specifically react to things with instability and violence? But Amber is no psychopath.
Being a psychopath is a lot more complex than simply having a personality disorder and being violent.
Even if you had no evidence or knowledge of Amber beyond this one strip, her expression in panel 4 pretty much proves she’s not psychopathic.
Amber has been giving me a really obsessive and creepy vibe ever since she ran into Sal and her father. I don’t know if she can really tell how absolutely fucked up what she’s doing right now is.
Two different ‘she’ referred to here. Sal never took out Blaine that I can recall. Amber/Amazi-Girl did. Sal had sexy hostility with the TA, though, which is something Amber/Amazi-Girl did not have.
Maya’s back up and swinging!
Sal is great in this too. Mostly, I kind of want to see Amber get in a fair fight? Like, I love her, but she has really started to vastly overestimate herself and she is going to get hurt. She needs help more than anything else. For god’s sake, she stabbed Sal in the freaking hand. That’s a serious injury to inflict, and she also seriously assaulted her father. (I’m not sorry over that, more sorry for what it says for Amber) She is teetering on the edge and really needs help right now.
I’m not sure how it applies to the characters. We’ve seen Amber cracking into pieces as Amazigirl, and in flashbacks, see that her violent outbursts aren’t new, and how they are an effect of her abusive upbringing. But she has yet to fully accept that, and is really asking for trouble with this vigilante thing. She is going to get hurt and fall right back into her damaged mindset.
Sal too is reacting like her experiences dictate, and is certainly not wrong in wanting what she sees as a slightly mad person getting the hell away from her as soon as possible, including laying down some threats. She is an experienced brawler and she outnumbers this perceived weirdo. And since what she knows is that Amber put an unknown man in the hospital, and she herself has bad experiences with authority, her disdain is understandable.
So I’m not sure what the joke is. We know Amber needs help from previous storylines. We know why Sal is going to fight back from established character structure. This is just knowing the characters.
I think he/she’s going on the assumption that much of the school would be talking about how a man was nearly beat to death and put in the hospital and someone short, wearing a cape was seen running from the scene of the crime. I think it seems kind of reasonable to assume that the rumor mill at school is going about Amazi-Girl beating the crap out of some man. And it’s also reasonable to assume that at least one of these 4 girls heard about it, or even that they all did.
“Girl, ya need to calm DOWN.”
“I know, I know… it’s just, MY DAD’S AN ASSHOLE.”
“Ah hear that. Mah parents shipped me off ta Tennessee.”
“YOU POOR THING!”
*group hugs and Chunky Monkey ice cream*
no, if its a proper neck hold you really don’t want to do that, or esle your just adding the pressure on your neck as you swing back. your oen choke reflex will stop it from connecting
use the elbows. their the hardest and pointiest bone in the body.
She’s not saying she wants a fair fight now, she was remembering “wait, she didn’t win when I… stabbed her… shit, that wasn’t a fair fight, it was a cheap shot.”
I wanna believe that when Sal inevitably learns who Amazi-girl is, she’s gonna have a “For me it was Tuesday” moment, but I also wanna believe that the incident where she got stabbed in the hand sticks out pretty clearly in her memory.
Is there a trope for when a character remembers a specific event, but not a specific person from that event?
It got really bad recently. Like entire comment sections were nothing but that. It’s just been the same joke over and over since the initial flashback started about the robbery.
Sounds related to what TVTropes calls “But For Me, It Was Tuesday,” which is when the villain doesn’t remember doing whatever they did to the hero way back when.
Malaya is like that scruffy little dog that after being kicked will just go for the ankles, determined to get her own and having the time of her life. Getting in a fight with a super hero, even having been clothes-lined right off, must make this the best night of her week.
At least, I am interpreting that D:< face in panel five as also containing joy in the face of a fight. I could be wrong.
Suck it everyone who thought Malaya would get knocked out from one hit. Or give up. Or run away. bongo is stubborn and tough as nails.
And it’s nice to see Amazi-Girl’s confidence waiver in the face of Sal’s confidence. She’s way too full of herself and completely out of control and she needs to realise that.
I think the only possible sorta-good outcome is if they subdue Amber/Amazigirl enough for Sal and Amber to have a conversation. Sal doesn’t seem like she wants to get her own hands dirty yet, so maybe they could exchange some witty banter that actually helps? ::grasping at straws::
Beating her into the pavement could theoretically be beneficial. Those who have been made to feel powerless will often overcompensate when they get a taste of power. Often this overcompensation leads to them crossing the line and abusing this power and doing something they’ll regret. Amber’s been on a bit of a power trip with her Amazi-Girl identity so having it lose could be good for her.
Bad for us, though. Nobody wants to see Amber convalesce in a hospital for the next two years.
In-universe, she thinks she’s about to lose her AG identity anyway, because she assumes that Dorothy’s gonna run and publish. Getting unmasked here would also do it, although that’s kinda overkill.
Ah, then we’re just disagreeing on semantics. I figured that being subdued means that you’ve already lost the physical fight (because you can’t punch anymore), whereas being “beaten into the pavement” was, like, hospital-level injury. (Like you are taken and then you are physically beaten into the cement until bits that were your face or body are now part of the pavement instead.)
I think we both basically want AG to lose, but lose well.
They could both be pretty good influences on eachother.
Right now Sal’s problems with her parents drive her towards self-improvement. Unfortunately sometimes that takes the form of extra studying and sometimes that takes the form of bending over backwards trying to shape herself to the satisfaction of people who show no interest in accepting her.
Amber’s problems with her parents drive her to try and separate herself from them, unfortunately this means inflicting acts of violence upon the community for her.
Sal could probably benefit from adopting a bit of Amber’s “Fuck’em, I’ll do my own thing” attitude, while Amber could benefit from adopting self-betterment as a less destructive means of setting herself apart from her father.
Of course, that’s probably an incredibly optimistic view of the matter. A best case scenario.
Ain’t never lost a fight, huh? Out of how many? And against what kind of opponents?
Doubt Sal ever brawled with anyone near Amber’s physical condition……..Mentally, however, Sal’s already won. Amber could be able to kill Sal with a single punch to the head, but if she’s too busy freezing due to traumatizing flashblacks or whatever to even notice that Sal’s clocking her, so what?
It also shows she developed an insightful understanding about the true nature of physical fights by this point, at least. Amber, well……….She may want to put down the comic books and manga. They to exaggerate how reliable being the most skilled/ meanest/ smartest/ toughest/ most one of a kind/ best/ any other ‘est’ participant in the room is.
“Cheap” as in “inexpensive”? Definitely – Amazi-Girl used almost no effort in bringing Malaya down with it. Very efficient counterattack against a charging opponent.
More in Sal’s favor. She seems to have picked up on how this Amazagirl not only is relying on them attacking her first to get her and her friends into a fight they don’t need or want cause they see it as the n**ga moment it is, but fails to understand just how unpredictable real fights actually are: Cue Malaya.
Chess represents a philosophical ideal for the players to pursue, not the reality of what the pieces are equivalent to that the players can expect. Everybody in Code Geass cheated with a least 2 generations worth of mass perception control magicks.
Sal, from simple experience most likely, seems to get its more like keeping your head above water, where controlling the field has more to do with observing and adapting to whatever the reality is, than what we see in the movies, comics, and so on with a more chess-like logic to it that makes you the center of so much, x-factors are predictable and few, doing everything ‘right’ will win the day, blah blah BLAH. Amber’s just learned how to pull off being a real life ‘super normal’, which is more of a feat of athleticism than anything else.
Do we know where Amber learned to fight, or what style? If it’s a few years of Krav Maga, Sal and co. are in for a beating. If it’s YouTube videos and video games, she’s screwed.
Yeah, Amber screwed up this fight in every possible way, from her motivation for getting into it in the first place, to her decidedly non-Batman planning, to in-battle tactics (make sure your opponent stays down.)
Anger. It makes you stupid. (Emotions in general, but especially anger.)
Thanks for giving it another tick on the “phrases to get blocked” meter!
[j/k, there are far too many permutations for that to work]
[[until Willis proves me wrong]]
[[[though it’s not like I regurgitate the same jokes everyone else has used enough to tell when something gets blocked]]]
I guess Amazi girl throws her fists at the speed of plot. Sometimes that’s fast enough to beat up a bunch of dudes at the same time, sometimes it’s too slow to keep from getting her butt kicked by regular girls?
Most of the dudes she beats up don’t fight back. These girls aren’t impressed by her appearance or reputation and her initial physical assault has proved less effective than intended. Plus Sal’s presence does bad things to Amber’s mind.
Unbelievable! I just lost my best frickin’ customer! Trailcutter is now as sober as a Tyrannian Sea Slug, thanks to getting smacked upside the head by Mr. “Excuse-Me-Optimus-But-I’d-Like-To-Change-My-Plea-to-Not-Guilty”! How does that even work? Smacking someone on their head and now their Fuel Intake Modifier can’t be shut down? And how do you learn to do that? How many drunken Decepticons do you suppose Megatron had to practice on before he perfected the art of smacking sobriety into someone? I suppose never being able to get drunk beats a visit from the Decepticon Justice Division any solar cycle.
Speaking of not being allowed to enjoy getting drunk… Hmm, I somehow don’t think Sal’s argument would fly if some cops were to have caught them. A better argument would be: “Excuse me, why do you care? You’re not a cop!” (Speaking of cops, guess who got a promotion! Trailcutter! He’s the Lost Light’s new security officer! Congrats, I guess. Considering he was promoted by Megatron, he’s probably missing the ability to get drunk real fast.) Fictional vigilantes (or at least the successful ones) do not make the mistakes Amber’s made. She’s come primed for a fight, despite having psychological baggage about Sal. Successful fictional vigilantes either don’t let criminals see them coming until it’s too late (see: Batman, Spider-Man, Daredevil, Captain America, Wolverine) or shoot them with a high powered sniper rifle (The Punisher, Deadpool, Deathstroke). Furthermore, Amazi-Girl didn’t make sure Malaya was down for the count. Bad idea. I’ve read every datalog of “Wreckers Declassified” to know what Ironfist would have thought about that move. (I’m not sure what the actual Wreckers think; I’ll try and remember to ask Roadbuster when I see him.)
Anyway, gotta go. We’re gonna play darts with the corpse of a Legislator.
They tend to post much shorter and sensible comments. And even barring that, both are much more recognizable than Swerve (who I’m assuming is a transformer?)
Posting short and sensible posts would kind of defeat the point of posting as Swerve. There’s “garrulous”, there’s “verbose”, and then there’s “Swerve please shut up”.
Swerve is an Autobot from the 1986 series of mini-cars (he is a repaint of Gears) who has recently become a prominent character in the IDW Transformers comics. He is a part-time metallurgist, part-time bartender, and he never shuts up.
Sounds to me like you picked a character to RP that has the right combination of “Who the heck is this?” and “Oh man is he annoying” to get exactly the sorts of responses you’ve been getting then.
The thing about being a victim of severe abuse is that sometimes you are so angry that you take out that anger on others. Sometimes you rationalize it by doing stupid stuff like Amber is doing right now. My father was exactly like her father Blaine. To top off the anger, I had my virginity violently stolen from me by a guy friend who I’ve known since I was 12 at the age of twenty. I had so much anger and rage against men. I did some serious damage to guys who tried to mess with me whilst drunk when I was at I.U. Bloomington. The rage against men got so bad that I actually went to frat parties or places where frat boys hung out just so I can get into a fight and beat them up. Looking back at this twenty years later, I can see just how fucked up that mindframe actually is and how it made me a really shitty person back then.
This is why I like Willis’s work so much. He gets human psychology and behavior. He really is great at observing that late teens to early twenties mindframe and how dangerous it can be to just be plopped in the middle of a college town with other clueless idiots your age.
Girls like Amber NEED therapy ASAP or they will self destruct.
I was thinking about commenting on how this is just Amber’s way of processing her trauma, and here you’ve done it and so much better.
There’s definitely a lot of abusers in the world, and sadly, lots of abused who never constructively get beyond their shame and anger, perhaps through a psychologist. It happens to boys as well as girls, even the violently stolen virginity, usually by trusted adults who make them feel powerless to stop it.
But yeah, Willis’s comics are excellent on so many levels. I can identify with some aspect of pretty much every character or what they’ve been through. Certainly everyone in this current storyline.
Yes. Men can be raped and abused as well. It is SO important to get help to deal with the trauma so it doesn’t turn you into a monster yourself.
Willis is doing a really great service with this comic and having such an honest look about the not so fun bits of being in your first year of college.
Wow, sorry to hear you were assaulted. It sucks that pretty much the best, fun part of being an adult was ruined for you. I hope you managed to find appropriate help.
It was a really hard journey. I still do have moments that are difficult. The thing is, the earlier you get help after a trauma the much better off you will be. I do hope that somebody who sees him/herself in Amber will use this as an inspiration to get help. =)
I’m rooting for no-one. This must stop now. It can’t end well for any of the five, specially the two deeply scarred and troubled girls in the center of the conflict.
I’m rooting for them both, for the same reason — which means I hope they don’t end up fighting. Amber is more likely to get hurt than she knows (not to underestimate her skills!), and whether she wins or loses, Sal risks getting in trouble for the drinking. (I don’t think she should be breaking the law, but it’s a common activity for college students — just with disproportionate consequences for her, because of her past…).
And also for them to come to terms with what has happened to them. Amber with her abusive father and Sal with feeling like she couldn’t measure up to Walky and being sent away to that school. Both girls have a lot of anger in them that needs to be processed.
The tag still says, “Amazi-Girl.” But Amber is the crazy one … which could be good or bad. Good for her if she goes berserk and beats all of them down (at least any who get involved), but bad if she goes all “deer in the headlights” like she did back during the robbery.
Honestly, I’m not gonna feel sorry for Amber if this goes south on her.
While I sympathize and understand where she comes from when it comes to an abusive family and all, what she’s doing right here? Not cool.
I mean, I guess it was all fun and games when she was going around putting the whomp on d-bags and the like on campus grounds.
And eventually getting to thrash her father was certainly a…. cathartic moment, to say the least.
But this? This is petty vengeance. And why? The incident that Amber’s been internalizing and festering over happened ages ago. Sal probably wouldn’t even make the connection to it at all unless it was specifically pointed out to her, and even then, Sal did her time (and, y’know, got stabbed in the hand for it, too).
And Sal is probably also correct in her assessment that Amber wouldn’t be able to take her in a fight. Amber almost always gets the drop on the bullies she confronted. Or at least, had some minor element of surprise on her side. But she doesn’t have that here. And she probably doesn’t have the actual fighting experience Sal probably has from being in more “traditional” fisticuffs.
I dunno, I feel like this is the point where Amazi-Girl kinda loses her focus and makes a bad call and gets the crap kicked out of her.
I know she’s been in her gymnastics and associated extracurriculars, so if she does indeed have some kinda fighting training, than it has slipped my mind.
But that doesn’t negate anything else I said, and it doesn’t give me any kind of confidence in her ability to get out of this scrape.
Uh… didn’t anyone else think that Amber *wants* to screw this one up? She *wants* to have the crap beaten out of her because she feels guilty for what she did all those years ago?
And she’s not? I mean Sal’s not a vicious killer or anything but she friggin’ traumatized Amber when they were younger and held her at knife point and threatened her breast friend.
Amber can play the victim card regarding that incident all she wants, but Amber ran up and stabbed her AFTER Sal was no longer a threat and Amber saw her being held by the police. I know she was a traumatized thirteen-year-old, but the fact that years later she still wants attack Sal unprovoked is pretty damning in my eyes.
Not necessarily, but everyone seems to think she did it out of rage at Sal, when her dad was the one pushing her buttons to make her go at her to ‘prove herself’ or whichever thing he said. (I think that she just stood there pr was useless. Something to that effect.) I just think we need to consider that as a point of her attack, not just blind rage at Sal.
But the context that this conversation is happening in is that she’s now a fucked up adult, hunting down the person she knows she already stabbed over some perceived slight from years ago. Right here, right now, she’s unprovoked.
I quote from the post you responded to “the fact that years later she still wants attack Sal unprovoked is pretty damning in my eyes”
That’s the damnation. Not the stab in itself, but the fact that years later, with full memory of her stabbing, here we are.
I was more focused on the first part. I agree going after her now is damning, but what I focused on was that everyone thinks back when the stabbing first happened amber just freaked for no reason and stabbed Sal in the hand, by the way they phrase the argument against her.
“Amber can play the victim card regarding that incident all she wants, but Amber ran up and stabbed her AFTER Sal was no longer a threat and Amber saw her being held by the police.”
That part? Doesn’t really seem to imply anything about why Amber did it. Simply that it illigitimizes her past victimization as an excuse for present-day violence.
What, no. Pretty sure Ethan was held at knife point. Amber just had to watch, then stabbed Sal for the trouble, while Ethan moved on without his victimization becoming a reason to inflict violence on anybody else. Almost as if this is less about anything Sal did and more about how fucked up Amber already was before Sal ever walked into that store.
Anger is never proportional. Anger isn’t the part of us that says, “OK, you’ve suffered as much as I have, I’m gonna stop hurting you now.” Anger is the part that says “HE TOOK THE LAST SODA?? HIS ENTIRE FAMILY MUST BURN!! I WILL MAKE HIM SCREAM FOREVER!!” When anger is in control, the idea is to make your enemy, and anyone else who witnesses him, regret ever crossing you. EVER.
Sure, objectively. But, I have no skin in this game. From her perspective, Sal is still out there, threatening Amber’s well-being (in her head). Anger dictates that she and all associated with her must rue the day they messed with her.
In fact, tying back to Eva and timemonkey’s original points, Amber doesn’t care if she loses. She has little to lose, at this point. She cares only about hurting Sal, as a deterrent to Sal hurting her or her friends again. It’s horridly illogical, but that’s how anger works.
Is it too much to hope for Sal & crew to “get” Malaya, pull her off a half-choked Amazi-Girl, and continue their peaceful disobedience? Or just leave?
A lot of people are speculating on whether getting beaten would help Amber in the end. But I think getting saved by Sal would be more mind blowing to her. Also, it’s not like getting beaten down by Blaine (mostly emotionally) put her in her place and helped her.
Ooh, yeah, it would be great if Sal saves Amber/AG. (Plus a worthy plot twist – I keep wondering how Willis is gonna get our antiheroes out of this without hospital time or a jarring distraction.)
So now I’m hoping for that instead. Blow her mind, Sal!
Ya But probably after a great one on one battle between them after everyone has been layer out and they grow to have mutual respect for each other…keep in mind I’m using the warriors mind set here.
Actually, I’m thinking MarioKart. Danny and Amazi-Girl played MK on their DS’ together. Now, Sal is playing MK, on Danny’s DS. Sal VS Amazi-Girl on MK could be very therapeutic.
Are we really, absolutely sure that Sal’s talking about Amazi-Girl in the last panel, and not Malaya? Because that would be a lovely twist.
Also, it strikes me that a fight with four people is probably one time when you really don’t want to be wearing a cape, even if it’s weighed down with shows. Things get in the way.
If you think there’s going to be a happy ending coming out of this, you haven’t been paying attention. (Please forgive the paraphrasing)
As satisfying as it is seeing Malaya get pounded by Amber, I can’t help thinking that no matter who wins this fight, Amber is going to be worse off than before. Hopefully she hits bottom soon, otherwise things are going to get REALLY bad.
Malaya is not in this for anything but pure cussedness and her ownself. This is not a person with feelings of social interaction with any group.
I did expect her to stay out of it, back up, and watch how things went and then maybe jump on the survivors. Girls got no loyalty. Like a bulldog.
As for Amber, she can fight, she has training. But, not street smarts or she would know that only in Kung Fu movies do the advisories stand around in a polite circle, while the hero beats them all to Hell-one at a time.
Sal is a bad ass. She may not have training but she’s likely a street fighter. I still think she and Amber are pretty well matched, one on one.
Marcie may not want to be there but she is Sal’s friend, I figure she will stay.
Carla is an unknown, but based on the ‘pay me half and I’ll just go” statement, I don’t think she owes any loyalty to the group.
And as said, maybe Sal is referring to peeling Malaya off Amazi-girls back. Sal is a bad ass, but not a bad person I think. I just don’t feel right about her being happy to go 4 on 1.
I’m thinking Amazi-Girl’s brief stutter in the 4th panel is what allowed Malaya to catch AG off-guard. I expect AG to recover quickly and poor Malaya will find herself making another impact with the planet. Or like you said, be removed by Sal’s cohorts. I agree with pretty much all you said. It’s very possible Sal wants it non-violent, and/or just her vs AG, one-on-one.
I admit, I thought she’d be out longer. She’s a fierce one, that Malaya. However, I think AG will make short work of her, possibly throw her into the others. Malaya is small and sharp, works well as a missile.
Oh dear. I wonder if Amber is, perhaps, not expecting to win this fight, but to go to the police while the wounds are fresh and finger Sal as the culprit.
If her goal is to get Sal off the campus, that might actually work…
What exactly is she ruining? Amber’s irrational attack on somebody for something they did when they were like thirteen? AFTER stabbing the person in the hand at the time, and after the person spent the years since in Juvie and then boarding school? I feel for the girl, but seriously, at this point, she kinda deserves a whuppin.
If Malaya weren’t so insistent on fighting Amazi-Girl, this might have ended non-violently. A-G’s obviously reluctant to actually attack Sal unprovoked (or she would’ve done it already) and doesn’t really care about the others, and Sal just wants to relax, so, “What happens if you just ignore her?” And the longer the interaction stays civil, the more difficult it is to psych up to escalating to violence (if you’re not actually a psychopath, which Amber, despite having more issues than a periodicals department, isn’t). As long as they kept talking, there was a chance Amber could actually work out some of her problems without hitting anybody. Maybe Sal too.
But, no, Malaya has to fuck it up. And so here we are.
Especially after everything she’s done.
Remember, just because it’s a valid defense in court (This is debatable but besides the point) doesn’t generally throw the need for a court case out. Especially given that what she could PLAUSIBLY claim is an affirmative defense in every case.
Gal’s gotta defend her actions on SOME level, even if innocent until proven guilty says doubt’s on her side.
Amber (to Dina): I’ve done violent stuff in that suit. Stuff that could get me into deep trouble. So keep an eye out for authority figures.
I guess you could read that a couple ways, but it seems to indicate that Amber fears legal repercussions if it’s discovered that she’s Amazigirl.
The way things are going her last act as Amazigirl could be putting her foot down on how The Law is Absolute on the subject of Underage Drinking before getting dragged off to grown-up prison for all the violent crimes she commits.
If anything that displays that in that moment she’s not worked up about the letter of the law. Perfectly acceptable to take a sign down so you can clean it up and put it right back where it belongs.
Unless you’re assuming that had she found some nere-do-wells cleaning up street signs she would’ve responded with threats of violence, but that’s not really how I read that scene.
It’s interesting Amber is so determined to justify her crimes she misses that underage drinking is a misdemeanor so minor no one cares about it but she’s committing felony assault.
Yeah, I think it’s “so much easier” in the sense that it’s easier for Amber to get into vigilante-headspace because these kids are nominally breaking the law — not that it’ll be easier for Amber to get out of legal trouble afterwards.
Their facial expressions look reluctant, though. I doubt that Amber will come to blows with Sal’s whole group. Sal can be (and has been) talked out of violence before (by Walky, no less), and Marcie has acted as a kind of straightman and conscience to Sal in the past as well.
Your comment made me check the comic again — I definitely saw “determined”, especially from Marcie (and Marcie would be more likely than Carla to provide moral reasoning).
I’m thinking whatever Sal does, Marcie will back to the hilt. Sal’s her Peppermint Patty. (But Sal should’ve gone with the “give A-G a medal” plan. C’mon, Sal, look at Marcie when she’s talking.)
Carla doesn’t look so sure about the whole thing. I gather she just met the others, and doesn’t like Malaya anyway, so she probably isn’t real big on the idea of fighting a superhero for them.
And if there’s going to be a fight, Malaya’s going to be in it. (If there’s not going to be a fight, Malaya’ll start one.)
Honestly, I’m on Sal’s side here. Amber’s there to pick a fight because of past trauma, and Sal offered to let her walk away. I hope Sal’s friends beat her ass.
Agreed. Amber is not even slightly justified in this matter. I’m hoping Amber doesn’t get seriously hurt, but if she really does beat the hell out of Sal and her friends im gonna lose a LOT of sympathy for her.
Honestly, Amber, what was your endgame here? Commit felony assault so you could turn in your victims for a misdemeanor? Beat Sal up in the hopes that it would be a better revenge than stabbing her in the hand? Kill her? Seriously, where were you going with this?
I don’t think she even has a plan in such concrete terms. She doesn’t feel safe with Sal walking around campus and is looking for a way to fix that. Probably exacerbated by her father’s recent intrusions into her life and the looming threat of her identity being revealed forcing her to go to trial for the things she’s done in the Amazigirl outfit, but certainly even independent of all that it really just seems to fuck her up seeing Sal walking around campus.
Though certainly I’m not prepared to rule out the possibility that she has a very specific plan, and it seems pretty clear that even without a plan she definitely came with violent intentions.
Normally, Amazi-girl is “prepared for anything” but she didn’t even have the time to make a proper plan, because “it has to be tonight”.
I’m pretty sure Amber’s plan is
1. show up dramatically as AG
2. throw punches
3: ???
4: feel better
I guess it’s possible that she already had a cunning plan to face Sal, and just hadn’t set the date, but so far I’m not seeing a whole lot of cunning going on.
I’m facing a dilemma here. I don’t know who to root for.
On one hand, yeah, Sal’s delinquant antics seem to have messed up Amber good since childhood. Poor girl.
On the other hand, Amber’s superhero shenanigans are getting old. Also, attacking people for breaking stupid laws that shouldn’t be there? I’m with Sal here.
I think we can blame Blaine for most of Amber being screwed up. Most people don’t react to a robbery by stabbing the person in the hand after they’re already in police custody.
Saying Sal messed up Amber good is kind of like saying Amber screwed up Sal’s relationship with her parents. Visible scar might’ve hurt matters a bit but only because of pre-existing problems with the relationship completely outside of Amber.
I think in both scenarios we can blame the parents for creating a situation where this is such a big deal, and just chalk it up to unforeseeable consequences when looking at Amber/Sal’s part in it. Certainly they both bear responsibility for the robbing/stabbing, but neither should be expected to answer for all the butterfly effect six degrees of separation type stuff that came of it.
I’m wondering about Ethan. He knows about Amber’s plans or at least her concerns on the Sal front, and his involvement in the initial Sal incident would give more validity to his voice as he works to resolve the conflict. Might be hard to keep feeling like your rage is righteous when the man who Sal’s violence was directed against is standing there saying “Geez, chill.”
I’ve never understood laws like the one about the drinking age. There is nothing special about some arbitrary age limit that makes you suddenly capable of handling your alcohol when you couldn’t before. You could be 17yrs and 364 days, or 18yrs and a day, you’ll get drunk just about the same
Well that just seems like a silly way of looking at it. Laws by nature have to be precise. It wouldn’t work to pass a law saying “You can’t drink until you’re somewhere in the general eighteenish area”.
What would happen if they treated the voting age that way? Some jerk at the door just eyeballing people to decide if they look responsible enough to vote.
Precise and inarguable definitions help ensure that citizens are treated equally. Makes it harder for a local police force to just decide that the drinking age is 17 if you’re white but 24 if you’re an aboriginee, and easier for the people to point out in definite terms how they’re being discriminated against if anything like that does become an issue.
It’s to establish some level of maturity, but yes, the ages are somewhat arbitrary. It can even be different within a country, like by state or province. For example in the US, there’s voting age (was 21 until 1971), age of adulthood (18 except 3 states are higher), start driving (14-17), age of consent (16-18), age to run for higher elected offices (25-35).
We should get the Buckets of Blood guy in this comic to guest strip and have Amazi-Girl kill them all. Then Willis comes back, beats him up, and retcons it all away.
How many of these people are wearing roller blades? Because I didn’t know that Malaya was until Amazi-girl called her “skates” or whatever in the last strip.
I have to confess, I’m not totally sure what Amber was even hoping to achieve here. A revenge beating? She already stabbed her in the hand last time.
Anyway, hopefully she won’t get hurt too bad, but at the same time hopefully she doesn’t thrash them all – that’d just be silly, unless she’s a legit super-heroine.
Amber’s not trying to accomplish anything. She’s not moved past that day while, for Sal, it was just yet another day of disappointments. Amber hates Sal but Sal thinks of Amber as some random girl who stabbed her.
The thing about making Joe related to Carla is that it’s kind of unfair to Rachel. I mean, Rachel is Ultra Car’s mom in the other universe — why do people always ask if she’s related to Joe but not Rachel?
And she can’t be related to both, because that would mean Joe and Rachel are related, so. Um. No.
Carla has two completely different parents. She is an alternate being.
This is less about Joe being more prominent as the parent (which he wouldn’t be) than the fact Joe is an established character in the comic while Rachel isn’t (yet). While I’m taking you at your word, Joe being the most alpha male character and his dad being sleazy offers interesting insights for a trans female character as a close relative.
I think there are a few different layers to it. I wouldn’t rule out a little internalized misogyny, but it’s also true that for a lot of Shortpacked! readers, Joe is more familiar as UC’s parent than Rachel is.
I -read- It’s Walky, in a binge, a long time ago, but I never got into the subscription stuff, and I had forgotten a -lot- about Rachel by the time she came back to SP!. Joe, on the other hand, had made a few appearances by that point, and had been referred to more often aside from that. Add to that the fact that Joe is more of a fixture in DoA, and it doesn’t seem that surprising that people have his connection to Carla in mind more than Rachel’s.
Oh and there’s another answer too. Robin is awesome, so is Amber, so are many characters. However….Rachel is really-really down my list. Joe is like 3rd on my list of favorite SP! characters after Robin and Amber.
Rachel is more like 30.
This isn’t a complaint. It’s just saying Joe is like the Green Lantern.
Rachel is more….Ice. I love Ice. I do. Not thinking she’s GL levels of recognizable. I mean, everyone knows GL. He’s black, a Marine, and awesome!
Carla should totally be a character from a university-slice-of-life cartoon show in the walkyverse, that UC likes. Then we would have the awesome symmetry of DoA Carla patterning her personality after the fictional cartoon character Ultra Car, while SP! Ultra Car has patterned her appearance after the fictional cartoon character Carla.
What I meant was that Sal may be instructing the others to restrain Malaya to prevent further conflict. Sal seems to want to change her life. She should get better friends.
Yes, and even if we hadn’t, this is a modern day mostly realistic comic strip that isn’t likely to have bionic hands and the like, and since her hands both seem fully articulated, I think we could write off that possiblity anyway.
Can someone explain to me why anyone supports/defends Amber? She’s a mentally ill and very violent individual who’s just beaten a man into the hospital, then went out to try to provoke a fight.
Just get over it, already. Sal scared you once as a kid. Ethan got over it. It’s not like she shot your parents in an alley. You have NO REASON to be obsessed like this. I hope Sal kicks your ribs in.
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uh oh
For some reason that goddamn Walmart star makes it look like Amber is either drunk or has just had the best brainstorm ever
And now nobody in this thread will unsee.
I already saw.
its not a star its a spark….. i worked for walmart for a minute
Asterisk LOL
Walmart* Get ready for summer and save!
*: We have the lowest prices, and underpaid workers. We have neat stuff that comes from factories where the workers are paid even less, in horrible conditions! Walmart come to our store at midnight and see the REAL side of it, depression and insominia!
It might be that part of the reason I hate going to Walmart is that I only ever go at midnight, to avoid the crowds and pick up boxes. >_>
Back in Bumfuck, TN, Walmart was pretty awesome BECAUSE as a nocturnal college student, being able to get shitty doughnuts at 3a was sweet.
Now that I’m up north, Walmart is just another shithole “poor white trash” trap. And closes at like 11.
I always thought it was a sphincter
It’s an asshole.
She thinks she has.
She’s obviously drunk on power.
I thought it was a mark of angryness manifesting outside her temple… you know, like a vein popping or something XD
its a spark and it has six points.
Amber’s choking. All the way or go away, Amber (you should probs choose the go away one)!
Is it just me or is Sal coming off as a mob boss, and Amber as a psycho?
That’s literally exactly what is happening.
And I can’t look away.
Which makes this Malaya the even -more- useless, unliked member of the gang (than she usually is), then. Also, I love how Amber took her down easy and fair and square, and in true whiny-girl fashion, she proclaims it “cheap shot.” Mr. Willis – THANK YOU. I’ve wanted to see -any- Malaya get her comeuppance for a while now.
Amazi-Girl should have never messed with Scar-Hand.
Ooh, nice. I was calling her Black Bandit, but Scar-Hand works, too.
I want there to be a big Dinobot-esque battle sequence that folds out like a poster in the print edition =D
Okay, ‘cept Dina’s not here for Amber to ride around on…
Wait, Malaya’s kind of raptor-like, maybe Sal can ride her around…
Hey, Batman is a psycho too, what’s your problem with them, huh?
What made you think this would be fair, Amazigirl?
Want to play dirty, OK we can play dirty
Want to play dirty, OK we can play dirty
This is gonna suck (for Amber).
The look on her faaaaaace in the fourth panel seems to agree with your statement.
Yeah, I really like panel four; y’can see she’s realizing “Waiiit….Maybe I didn’t think this through well enough”, as the idea dawns that to win she’ll need to fight dirty…And the current deck (4 vs. 1 in Sal’s favor) isn’t exactly stacked to Amber’s advantage for dirty-fighting.
I totally don’t think that’s what is going on here though. That face isn’t because she’s afraid of the odds. It’s because she was remembering the first fight she had with Sal.
+1
In other words, she’s remembering that she didn’t actually beat Sal before, she came up from behind and stabbed her in the hand while she was already restrained by the police, which means she (Amber) has no actual reason for the confidence with which she approached this fight?
-1
…Is she starting to think of herself as very unheroic because of it? Intellestink (I don’t think I’m right, I think the situation is interesting).
The juxtaposition with your previous “+1” comment combined with the fact that I was thinking exactly the same thing as I read Seraph’s comment made this extremely funny. Well played, Mr. Willis, well played.
I think Amber’s actually questioning her own motives here – that’s why she looks uncertain. She remembers their first ‘fight’, which wasn’t fair at all. Sal’s being reasonable, trying to avoid a fight, which Amber wasn’t expecting – she expected the same loud, violent teenager that so terrified her, before. Maybe she shouldn’t be –
And then Malaya jumps her. If the others move in (even if it’s to remove Malaya, which many are hoping), Amazi-Girl may interpret that as hostile, as well. In which case, motives become meaningless, and it’s a fight for survival. Battle rage kicks in. Pavement gets bloody.
Many here think Amber is in trouble. I think they’re underestimating Amazi-Girl.
In a battle of wills Amazi-Girl is woefully underpowered.
You notice that Sal never actually criticizes her.
I read this as “In a battle of Willis”. Still technically true.
Actually, I think the odds would only be 2 to 1 at the worst. I can’t see Marcie getting involved, and I don’t think Carla figures this is any concern of hers either.
Amazi-Girl has threatened them all and isn’t backing down, that makes it all their problem.
“GRAARGH!”
And then Malaya’s mutant power manifests as she transforms into a gigantic monster. A were-Malaya, if you will.
Meaning that the monster is the more human of the forms?
“I have an immunity to criticism.”
“We have a Malaya.”
But Malaya is ALL about criticizing others. That makes Amazigirl the nega-Malaya …
Doesn’t seem to extend to sneak attacks.
Other way around – Mayala is the Anti-Amazi-Girl.
OTOH, it means Amazi-Girl should be immune to Malaya’s main attack.
Wasn’t Negaduck basically a perfect counter for Darkwing Duck?
Zombie Malaya: “BRAAAAAAINS”
The one thing that would have helped her innitial attack. Some brains.
Or at least knowing how to fight.
Malaya’s tougher than I expected. I wonder if she’ll defeat Amazi Girl. Of course, she probably has brain damage after being hit so hard.
The brain damage will make her easily confused and very cranky.
So she’ll be the same?
+1, exactly what I was going to say.
Apparently she does roller derby; she’s probably quite accustomed to being knocked on her ass (usually while wearing a helmet, admittedly).
Only after being hit so hard?
…sorry, sorry, just… it was wide open.
Eh, it’s not like she uses her head for anything but making annoying noises come out.
In Shortpacked Malaya wrestled a sentient car with her bare hands.
She had a knife.
And now they’re dating. I think that fight was foreplay.
You’ve just described the courtship of Max and Miriya Sterling (Jenius).
Careful, you seem to be alluding to something that Harmony Gold is likely to sue you over 😉
This will get ugly. Book 4 will be an exciting installment.
THE MALAYA TRAIN KEEPS ON GOIN’!!
I thought it was a ship, for you… 🙂
So far I don’t have many people to ship her with.
I could try Sierra but I already ship her and Marcie.
Now we could get all 3 of them in on it, I suppose. But meh.
Malaya will just be benched for now until
Not Carla?
“Amazo”?! That means Amber has all their powers combined!
She’s a quadruple delinquent!
At least it’s not Captain Planet.
Let our powers combine. Vulgarity! Assholitue! violence! illegal action! With your powers combined, I am AMAZOWHATEVER! Go Amazo!
Amazowhatever – she’s a “hero”!
Gonna fight some teens for drinkin’ beero!
She’s childhood trauma magnified
And Sal’s gonna whup her backside!
I lol’d.
Amber makes me so sad in the third panel .-.
Don’t know when to quit does she?
Malaya’s tenacity is one of her more tolerable traits.
She has tolerable traits?
… Are you referring to Amber or Malaya?
Malaya
Good things never happen in Walmart parking lots at four in the morning. You should know that, Amazi-Girl.
And then they all get hit by a car spinning donuts.
Some of my favorite episodes of were filmed at a Walmart at 4 a.m….
noooooooo amber nooooooooo…
I love how she says one at a time. Like she has become so immersed in her crime fighting persona that she forgets that they could just….jump her.
A bad case of Wrong Genre Savvy and Tempting Fate.
I think she was more mocking Malaya’s tactical acumen.
… though she should keep in mind that the time for critiquing the enemy’s tactics is after you’ve pwned them.
Obviousely. You’re not Anime-zigirl, Amber.
The trouble is that some enemies are too dumb to realize they’ve been pwned, and will continue to jump up and get in the way.
Smart enemies are fine, it’s the stupid ones that are really dangerous.
If you’ve actually pwned them properly, their opinion on the matter stops being relevant.
I thought that was a challenge. Like saying “come and get me. I’ll take all of you!” But it was a challenge that was phrased as an attempt at insulting them.
That shit-eating grin in panel 3.
Good. Teach that psychopath a lesson, Sal.
…how on earth do you get ‘psychopath’ from amber of all people
There have been some disturbing psychological things happening with Amber recently.
Yes. Of course there have. Like, calling her ‘psycho,’ maybe, I could understand, just because of how the term tends to get thrown around so loosely to describe people who specifically react to things with instability and violence? But Amber is no psychopath.
“things” was really not the word i was going for there wow great job me
Yeah, she clearly is just a person with a mental disorder with violent social behavior. Oh wait. That is a definition of psychopath.
Umm… it’s really not.
Being a psychopath is a lot more complex than simply having a personality disorder and being violent.
Even if you had no evidence or knowledge of Amber beyond this one strip, her expression in panel 4 pretty much proves she’s not psychopathic.
Amber has been giving me a really obsessive and creepy vibe ever since she ran into Sal and her father. I don’t know if she can really tell how absolutely fucked up what she’s doing right now is.
It’s her grin in panel 3. That’s an, “I am going to wear your skin as a hat” grin.
Dude, Amazi-Girl. You got Malaya on that person’s car.
Careful, or she’ll fall in love with it!
You got car on that Malaya.
Hey! You got Car on my Malaya! Hey! You got Malaya on my Car!
And that’s how the Malaya/UC ship was born!
Dude, Malaya’s my car!
So you ride Malaya everywhere you go?
and thus the worst tasting candy ever was born.
Pez?
There goes my theory that Sal in this world isn’t a fighter. Good luck amazi girl, you’ll need it.
Actually, the time she took out Blaine or any of her sexy hostility with the TA could have also clued you in. She’s clearly the fighting type.
Two different ‘she’ referred to here. Sal never took out Blaine that I can recall. Amber/Amazi-Girl did. Sal had sexy hostility with the TA, though, which is something Amber/Amazi-Girl did not have.
Maya’s back up and swinging!
Sal is great in this too. Mostly, I kind of want to see Amber get in a fair fight? Like, I love her, but she has really started to vastly overestimate herself and she is going to get hurt. She needs help more than anything else. For god’s sake, she stabbed Sal in the freaking hand. That’s a serious injury to inflict, and she also seriously assaulted her father. (I’m not sorry over that, more sorry for what it says for Amber) She is teetering on the edge and really needs help right now.
“She is teetering on the edge and really needs help right now.” I wish you’d stop be in’ so good to me, cap’n.
Is there a joke I’m missing? I’m always missing the joke.
(Two people see victim of violent crime lying on the ground)
Liberal one says, “The person who did this needs our help!”
The joke is older than I am.
I’m not sure how it applies to the characters. We’ve seen Amber cracking into pieces as Amazigirl, and in flashbacks, see that her violent outbursts aren’t new, and how they are an effect of her abusive upbringing. But she has yet to fully accept that, and is really asking for trouble with this vigilante thing. She is going to get hurt and fall right back into her damaged mindset.
Sal too is reacting like her experiences dictate, and is certainly not wrong in wanting what she sees as a slightly mad person getting the hell away from her as soon as possible, including laying down some threats. She is an experienced brawler and she outnumbers this perceived weirdo. And since what she knows is that Amber put an unknown man in the hospital, and she herself has bad experiences with authority, her disdain is understandable.
So I’m not sure what the joke is. We know Amber needs help from previous storylines. We know why Sal is going to fight back from established character structure. This is just knowing the characters.
Sal doesn’t know anything about Amber or Amazi-Girl.
I think he/she’s going on the assumption that much of the school would be talking about how a man was nearly beat to death and put in the hospital and someone short, wearing a cape was seen running from the scene of the crime. I think it seems kind of reasonable to assume that the rumor mill at school is going about Amazi-Girl beating the crap out of some man. And it’s also reasonable to assume that at least one of these 4 girls heard about it, or even that they all did.
Sal pointed out just yesterday she was completely unfamiliar with Amazi-Girl.
People who inflict senseless harm on others need help to sort their lives out, not just incarceration in the company of like-minded individuals.
A good joke.
*Malaya. Autocorrect got me, sorry.
I’ve got to say, Amazi-Girl’s grin is… well, pretty damn scary.
“Get her”? That’s what the villain says shortly before the smokebomb obliterates their vision.
“Get her… a Twinkie.”
[later]
“Girl, ya need to calm DOWN.”
“I know, I know… it’s just, MY DAD’S AN ASSHOLE.”
“Ah hear that. Mah parents shipped me off ta Tennessee.”
“YOU POOR THING!”
*group hugs and Chunky Monkey ice cream*
Twinkies??
I can’t help but be reminded of this.
Good, clean, wholesome fun!
In the words of Hattie Hatterson: Clench your butt, this is gonna hurt!
Perfect avatar
She still got this, there’s plenty of ways to get out of that like a simple juto throw into one of the other guys I mean gals.
Depends on how well-executed that chokehold is. If it’s a proper rear naked choke it’s less easily shaken.
Easily solved with a powerful back words head butt to the face leaving her dazed long enough to throw her.
no, if its a proper neck hold you really don’t want to do that, or esle your just adding the pressure on your neck as you swing back. your oen choke reflex will stop it from connecting
use the elbows. their the hardest and pointiest bone in the body.
Stomp on foot. Reach back for eyes, etc. ELbows to whatever, grab groin… there’s always something.
Since it’s Malaya, I’m not worried about the neck hold being well-executed. She fights with her temper, not her head.
And don’t forget she is on wheels, not the most stable platform to fight on.
Also We have to hope that Amber’s on balance. You need that center of gravity to perform Any kind of throw.
If her feets off the ground that be easier.
Fair duels my dear Amazi-Girl are only for Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander novels.
In the streets anything goes.
She’s not saying she wants a fair fight now, she was remembering “wait, she didn’t win when I… stabbed her… shit, that wasn’t a fair fight, it was a cheap shot.”
Either way its time to cue the 1966 Batman fight theme music and get the “Pow!” “Bam!” and “Kapows!” ready.
I wanna believe that when Sal inevitably learns who Amazi-girl is, she’s gonna have a “For me it was Tuesday” moment, but I also wanna believe that the incident where she got stabbed in the hand sticks out pretty clearly in her memory.
Is there a trope for when a character remembers a specific event, but not a specific person from that event?
No idea. But I also feel like this is a seriously suck moment, so if there isn’t then I’m kind of glad.
“For me, it was Tuesday,” though that’s ore of an “I don’t remember it at all.”
Is there a word filter on “it was tuesday”? why?
I seriously don’t remember people saying i-t wa-s tue-sday, let alone the kind of overuse that would get it ultra-cared.
It got really bad recently. Like entire comment sections were nothing but that. It’s just been the same joke over and over since the initial flashback started about the robbery.
I definitely must have missed something. How is that statement a joke in the first place?
Exactly, it’s not even funny. Just a reference, made over and over and over and over and over.
It’s a quote from a movie.
It’s a reference to the (terrible) Street Fighter movie.
Bison said it, to, IIRC, Chun-Li, referring to when he destroyed her home village.
The awesomely terrible Street Fighter movie, you mean.
Sounds related to what TVTropes calls “But For Me, It Was Tuesday,” which is when the villain doesn’t remember doing whatever they did to the hero way back when.
Can’t keep an okay Malaya down.
Malaya is like that scruffy little dog that after being kicked will just go for the ankles, determined to get her own and having the time of her life. Getting in a fight with a super hero, even having been clothes-lined right off, must make this the best night of her week.
At least, I am interpreting that D:< face in panel five as also containing joy in the face of a fight. I could be wrong.
I’ve seen like 3 pornos start off this way
Thank you so much for breaking the tension 😀
Only 3?
Sorry that’s a typo. I meant 33.
Best icon for that.
Hello, roller derby!
Watch Danny be waiting in the wings or something. Granted, that’s not really gonna help, but hey, be rather interesting.
“Amazi-Girl! I’m here to sa-WAUGH!” *Danny trips over his own feet, breaks his neck.*
And then he gets run over by a truck.
And a steamroller.
And a marching band.
*sniff* My father went the same way…
Did your dad work on a construction sight by a high school or something?
Either that or he was a major fan of The Naked Gun.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQts7E1FvrE
The police chief says my exact line right after this video cuts off.
Poor Danny. He died that day for being a Danny. He may be missed. We aren’t 100% on that…
Hey we all know every character in this comic is watching this fight off screen, I can picture mike and Joe on this rite now.
Just as Amazi-girl gets the upperhand he comes in and distracts her long enough to get a malaya elbow to the face.
Quick, do the flex that somehow throws everyone off of you.
Stop…
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5R82B_WwHoI
That’s exactly what I thought of. or this.
http://youtu.be/pqLvFfwcqfw?t=11m35s
I think a new episode just got out to.
Suck it everyone who thought Malaya would get knocked out from one hit. Or give up. Or run away. bongo is stubborn and tough as nails.
And it’s nice to see Amazi-Girl’s confidence waiver in the face of Sal’s confidence. She’s way too full of herself and completely out of control and she needs to realise that.
I underestimated her I’ll admit it, but I doubt that’s actually enough to keep her still.
It might have been, if a resurgent Malaya hadn’t jumped her. Now, it’s on like Donkey Kong.
I wouldn’t go that far, more like Diddy Kong.
AG : “But … Teenage-delinquents are supposed to be a superstitious and cowardly lot … did Batman lies to me ???”
Nah. It’s just that bats are scarier than amazis.
Whatever those are.
Google says Amazi is a company, so she’s like Walmart-Boy.
Which would be awful.
I think the only possible sorta-good outcome is if they subdue Amber/Amazigirl enough for Sal and Amber to have a conversation. Sal doesn’t seem like she wants to get her own hands dirty yet, so maybe they could exchange some witty banter that actually helps? ::grasping at straws::
Yeah. Beating up Amber will only result in more issues (and maybe a stabbing/shooting). amber beating up Sal will also result in more issues.
I’m guessing Amazi-Girl will be forced into a retreat. Then Amber will have to deal with her coping mechanism failing her when she needed it most.
So, issues all around!
I meant that I want them to subdue and deescalate Amber, not beat her into the pavement.
Beating her into the pavement could theoretically be beneficial. Those who have been made to feel powerless will often overcompensate when they get a taste of power. Often this overcompensation leads to them crossing the line and abusing this power and doing something they’ll regret. Amber’s been on a bit of a power trip with her Amazi-Girl identity so having it lose could be good for her.
Bad for us, though. Nobody wants to see Amber convalesce in a hospital for the next two years.
In-universe, she thinks she’s about to lose her AG identity anyway, because she assumes that Dorothy’s gonna run and publish. Getting unmasked here would also do it, although that’s kinda overkill.
She doesn’t need to be hospitalised. Just needs to lose.
Ah, then we’re just disagreeing on semantics. I figured that being subdued means that you’ve already lost the physical fight (because you can’t punch anymore), whereas being “beaten into the pavement” was, like, hospital-level injury. (Like you are taken and then you are physically beaten into the cement until bits that were your face or body are now part of the pavement instead.)
I think we both basically want AG to lose, but lose well.
Decibite would not settle for less though.
Hexadecimal.
Malaya strikes me as a strictly beat-into-the-pavement type.
Curious if any of the other three would intervene to stop her.
The best outcome is subdue Amazi-girl and Sal and Amber look into each other’s eyes and kiss.
Romantic!
Somehow I think it would end up being an awful relationship, and Amber would be worse off for it.
But WE would be better off
They could both be pretty good influences on eachother.
Right now Sal’s problems with her parents drive her towards self-improvement. Unfortunately sometimes that takes the form of extra studying and sometimes that takes the form of bending over backwards trying to shape herself to the satisfaction of people who show no interest in accepting her.
Amber’s problems with her parents drive her to try and separate herself from them, unfortunately this means inflicting acts of violence upon the community for her.
Sal could probably benefit from adopting a bit of Amber’s “Fuck’em, I’ll do my own thing” attitude, while Amber could benefit from adopting self-betterment as a less destructive means of setting herself apart from her father.
Of course, that’s probably an incredibly optimistic view of the matter. A best case scenario.
Amber, honey, your statement in panel four isn;t really intimidation. in fact all your saying is sal has only lost in unfair fights
this is 4 on 1, if what you say is true, then… well, I hope blood dosen’t show to well on the amazi-suit 😛
I make it 3 on 1. Carla was already leaving and she looks keen to bug out.
Is her an idea of an unfair fight “I stabbed you while the police had you restrained”? Can’t think of what else she could be referencing.
The only result for this will be pain. Even if Amber and Sal have a somewhat peaceful talk after this, it’s gonna end in lots and lots of pain.
Ain’t never lost a fight, huh? Out of how many? And against what kind of opponents?
Doubt Sal ever brawled with anyone near Amber’s physical condition……..Mentally, however, Sal’s already won. Amber could be able to kill Sal with a single punch to the head, but if she’s too busy freezing due to traumatizing flashblacks or whatever to even notice that Sal’s clocking her, so what?
def.
I think we can assume she got into some scrapes in juvie.
And probably in school before that. Robberies are not usually the first sign of a troubled adolescent acting out.
It also shows she developed an insightful understanding about the true nature of physical fights by this point, at least. Amber, well……….She may want to put down the comic books and manga. They to exaggerate how reliable being the most skilled/ meanest/ smartest/ toughest/ most one of a kind/ best/ any other ‘est’ participant in the room is.
The drinking age in Ontario is 19, Sal.
18 in Quebec.
yes, a clothesline is a cheap shot.
Especially if you run into it.
TOTALLY cheap.
“Cheap” as in “inexpensive”? Definitely – Amazi-Girl used almost no effort in bringing Malaya down with it. Very efficient counterattack against a charging opponent.
Oh dear… she might have watched too much TV. Or played too many videogames.
No one really attacks you one at a time like that.
Amber…honey… G.I Joe is not an accurate representation of combat.
Most visual media period is not an accurate representation of combat!
More in Sal’s favor. She seems to have picked up on how this Amazagirl not only is relying on them attacking her first to get her and her friends into a fight they don’t need or want cause they see it as the n**ga moment it is, but fails to understand just how unpredictable real fights actually are: Cue Malaya.
Chess represents a philosophical ideal for the players to pursue, not the reality of what the pieces are equivalent to that the players can expect. Everybody in Code Geass cheated with a least 2 generations worth of mass perception control magicks.
Sal, from simple experience most likely, seems to get its more like keeping your head above water, where controlling the field has more to do with observing and adapting to whatever the reality is, than what we see in the movies, comics, and so on with a more chess-like logic to it that makes you the center of so much, x-factors are predictable and few, doing everything ‘right’ will win the day, blah blah BLAH. Amber’s just learned how to pull off being a real life ‘super normal’, which is more of a feat of athleticism than anything else.
The more you know…
She knows this, you guys, she’s totally being sarcastic there. But then, it did work on one of them.
Do we know where Amber learned to fight, or what style? If it’s a few years of Krav Maga, Sal and co. are in for a beating. If it’s YouTube videos and video games, she’s screwed.
I heard something about Willis talking about Amber and MMA, but can’t seem to find it anywhere.
Anybody got any links?
Yeah, Amber screwed up this fight in every possible way, from her motivation for getting into it in the first place, to her decidedly non-Batman planning, to in-battle tactics (make sure your opponent stays down.)
Anger. It makes you stupid. (Emotions in general, but especially anger.)
Anger leads to stupidity. Stupidity, to poor tactics. Beware the Stupid Side.
And poor tactics leads to suffering.
This could still go either way. We’ve seen Amber jump on moving vehicles and destroy a full grown man.
Ya that’s right people are asking if she knows how to fight but did they already forget that barrage of ass whooping she gave Blaine?
Blaine didn’t really fight back though, Amazi-Girl just rage beat him until she got dragged off.
Still shows that she can fight, and I think Blaine just didn’t have enough time to throw a punch
Actually you see him try to throw a few, but Amber just dominated him the whole time.
But if Sal is Amazi-girl… then who is Sal? (Hey, I only just caught up… I’m allowed to make this joke at least once, right?)
Should have saved it for when Billie finds out about this.
No.
Thanks for giving it another tick on the “phrases to get blocked” meter!
[j/k, there are far too many permutations for that to work]
[[until Willis proves me wrong]]
[[[though it’s not like I regurgitate the same jokes everyone else has used enough to tell when something gets blocked]]]
If he got annoyed enough to block it it would only take a few minutes to type in the various varients to wipe it out.
Gah, I’m a horrible person… I take it all back T_T
We would welcome a joke about femurs, or perhaps with your penis?
How many instances of FA*CE would he need to enter?? [up to A*100??]
I’m sure he could set his filters up with regex, and block all possible permutations with a single string.
A joke about femurs? BAM! weenus-pointed!
I guess Amazi girl throws her fists at the speed of plot. Sometimes that’s fast enough to beat up a bunch of dudes at the same time, sometimes it’s too slow to keep from getting her butt kicked by regular girls?
Most of the dudes she beats up don’t fight back. These girls aren’t impressed by her appearance or reputation and her initial physical assault has proved less effective than intended. Plus Sal’s presence does bad things to Amber’s mind.
Yes, and especially a yes to the fact that seeing Sal is seriously slowing her down.
We also have no indication that those dudes knew how to fight or had the will to really go full-force. These girls seem to be all brawlers.
Okay, I can’t help it “You mess with a rat, you better fight dirty.”
Unbelievable! I just lost my best frickin’ customer! Trailcutter is now as sober as a Tyrannian Sea Slug, thanks to getting smacked upside the head by Mr. “Excuse-Me-Optimus-But-I’d-Like-To-Change-My-Plea-to-Not-Guilty”! How does that even work? Smacking someone on their head and now their Fuel Intake Modifier can’t be shut down? And how do you learn to do that? How many drunken Decepticons do you suppose Megatron had to practice on before he perfected the art of smacking sobriety into someone? I suppose never being able to get drunk beats a visit from the Decepticon Justice Division any solar cycle.
Speaking of not being allowed to enjoy getting drunk… Hmm, I somehow don’t think Sal’s argument would fly if some cops were to have caught them. A better argument would be: “Excuse me, why do you care? You’re not a cop!” (Speaking of cops, guess who got a promotion! Trailcutter! He’s the Lost Light’s new security officer! Congrats, I guess. Considering he was promoted by Megatron, he’s probably missing the ability to get drunk real fast.) Fictional vigilantes (or at least the successful ones) do not make the mistakes Amber’s made. She’s come primed for a fight, despite having psychological baggage about Sal. Successful fictional vigilantes either don’t let criminals see them coming until it’s too late (see: Batman, Spider-Man, Daredevil, Captain America, Wolverine) or shoot them with a high powered sniper rifle (The Punisher, Deadpool, Deathstroke). Furthermore, Amazi-Girl didn’t make sure Malaya was down for the count. Bad idea. I’ve read every datalog of “Wreckers Declassified” to know what Ironfist would have thought about that move. (I’m not sure what the actual Wreckers think; I’ll try and remember to ask Roadbuster when I see him.)
Anyway, gotta go. We’re gonna play darts with the corpse of a Legislator.
Man, I never know what this dude is talking about.
Personally I just ignore RP accounts.
I put on my wizard hat and cloak.
I still wanna know how Cragalanche can type without fingers.
You are missing out. Megatron, at least, is an amazing commenter.
Oh come on! You never see anyone complain about The Doctor! Or Batman!
Then again, it’s hard to argue with Batman. He’s Batman and he can breathe in space!
They tend to post much shorter and sensible comments. And even barring that, both are much more recognizable than Swerve (who I’m assuming is a transformer?)
Posting short and sensible posts would kind of defeat the point of posting as Swerve. There’s “garrulous”, there’s “verbose”, and then there’s “Swerve please shut up”.
Swerve is an Autobot from the 1986 series of mini-cars (he is a repaint of Gears) who has recently become a prominent character in the IDW Transformers comics. He is a part-time metallurgist, part-time bartender, and he never shuts up.
Sounds to me like you picked a character to RP that has the right combination of “Who the heck is this?” and “Oh man is he annoying” to get exactly the sorts of responses you’ve been getting then.
….Ily Swerve!
-poofs away to bed-
The thing about being a victim of severe abuse is that sometimes you are so angry that you take out that anger on others. Sometimes you rationalize it by doing stupid stuff like Amber is doing right now. My father was exactly like her father Blaine. To top off the anger, I had my virginity violently stolen from me by a guy friend who I’ve known since I was 12 at the age of twenty. I had so much anger and rage against men. I did some serious damage to guys who tried to mess with me whilst drunk when I was at I.U. Bloomington. The rage against men got so bad that I actually went to frat parties or places where frat boys hung out just so I can get into a fight and beat them up. Looking back at this twenty years later, I can see just how fucked up that mindframe actually is and how it made me a really shitty person back then.
This is why I like Willis’s work so much. He gets human psychology and behavior. He really is great at observing that late teens to early twenties mindframe and how dangerous it can be to just be plopped in the middle of a college town with other clueless idiots your age.
Girls like Amber NEED therapy ASAP or they will self destruct.
I can’t think of a non-corny way to thank you for sharing your personal experience/insight.
Oh wow, he’s just writing your biography, huh D= Sucks you had to go through all that, but glad you’re in a better place!
=) Thanks. I think it would be nice if some girl saw herself in Amber and uses it as a wake up call to get help.
I was thinking about commenting on how this is just Amber’s way of processing her trauma, and here you’ve done it and so much better.
There’s definitely a lot of abusers in the world, and sadly, lots of abused who never constructively get beyond their shame and anger, perhaps through a psychologist. It happens to boys as well as girls, even the violently stolen virginity, usually by trusted adults who make them feel powerless to stop it.
But yeah, Willis’s comics are excellent on so many levels. I can identify with some aspect of pretty much every character or what they’ve been through. Certainly everyone in this current storyline.
Yes. Men can be raped and abused as well. It is SO important to get help to deal with the trauma so it doesn’t turn you into a monster yourself.
Willis is doing a really great service with this comic and having such an honest look about the not so fun bits of being in your first year of college.
Wow, sorry to hear you were assaulted. It sucks that pretty much the best, fun part of being an adult was ruined for you. I hope you managed to find appropriate help.
It was a really hard journey. I still do have moments that are difficult. The thing is, the earlier you get help after a trauma the much better off you will be. I do hope that somebody who sees him/herself in Amber will use this as an inspiration to get help. =)
I have no clue who to root for. I love both Sal and Amazi-girl!
It will all work out in the end…unless a certain someone tries to pull something.
I’m rooting for no-one. This must stop now. It can’t end well for any of the five, specially the two deeply scarred and troubled girls in the center of the conflict.
I’m rooting for them both, for the same reason — which means I hope they don’t end up fighting. Amber is more likely to get hurt than she knows (not to underestimate her skills!), and whether she wins or loses, Sal risks getting in trouble for the drinking. (I don’t think she should be breaking the law, but it’s a common activity for college students — just with disproportionate consequences for her, because of her past…).
And also for them to come to terms with what has happened to them. Amber with her abusive father and Sal with feeling like she couldn’t measure up to Walky and being sent away to that school. Both girls have a lot of anger in them that needs to be processed.
Never lost a fight? First time for everything.
The tag still says, “Amazi-Girl.” But Amber is the crazy one … which could be good or bad. Good for her if she goes berserk and beats all of them down (at least any who get involved), but bad if she goes all “deer in the headlights” like she did back during the robbery.
Maybe I’m alone here. . .but I was rooting for Malaya XDD
I meant to put this comment on the last comic. . .now everything has changed o_o
So you are no longer team Malaya? I still am.
I’m always on Team Malaya.
Honestly, I’m not gonna feel sorry for Amber if this goes south on her.
While I sympathize and understand where she comes from when it comes to an abusive family and all, what she’s doing right here? Not cool.
I mean, I guess it was all fun and games when she was going around putting the whomp on d-bags and the like on campus grounds.
And eventually getting to thrash her father was certainly a…. cathartic moment, to say the least.
But this? This is petty vengeance. And why? The incident that Amber’s been internalizing and festering over happened ages ago. Sal probably wouldn’t even make the connection to it at all unless it was specifically pointed out to her, and even then, Sal did her time (and, y’know, got stabbed in the hand for it, too).
And Sal is probably also correct in her assessment that Amber wouldn’t be able to take her in a fight. Amber almost always gets the drop on the bullies she confronted. Or at least, had some minor element of surprise on her side. But she doesn’t have that here. And she probably doesn’t have the actual fighting experience Sal probably has from being in more “traditional” fisticuffs.
I dunno, I feel like this is the point where Amazi-Girl kinda loses her focus and makes a bad call and gets the crap kicked out of her.
Amber has been trained to fight. Willis has said so repeatedly. Not sure how skilled she is but she does know how.
I know she’s been in her gymnastics and associated extracurriculars, so if she does indeed have some kinda fighting training, than it has slipped my mind.
But that doesn’t negate anything else I said, and it doesn’t give me any kind of confidence in her ability to get out of this scrape.
I wasn’t trying to counter your argument, merely correcting misinformation.
Uh… didn’t anyone else think that Amber *wants* to screw this one up? She *wants* to have the crap beaten out of her because she feels guilty for what she did all those years ago?
Like she says: not a fair one.
Amber sees herself as the victim, so no.
And she’s not? I mean Sal’s not a vicious killer or anything but she friggin’ traumatized Amber when they were younger and held her at knife point and threatened her breast friend.
Oh f$#@ I wrote breast friend.
You should be abreasted and sent to the punitentiary.
*hangs head in shame*
Why the f$#@ did the avatars have to match so well.
Amber can play the victim card regarding that incident all she wants, but Amber ran up and stabbed her AFTER Sal was no longer a threat and Amber saw her being held by the police. I know she was a traumatized thirteen-year-old, but the fact that years later she still wants attack Sal unprovoked is pretty damning in my eyes.
Am I the only one that remembers that Blaine egged her on to do that?
Oh my fucking god my icon.
Does that make it less damning in your eyes?
Not necessarily, but everyone seems to think she did it out of rage at Sal, when her dad was the one pushing her buttons to make her go at her to ‘prove herself’ or whichever thing he said. (I think that she just stood there pr was useless. Something to that effect.) I just think we need to consider that as a point of her attack, not just blind rage at Sal.
Also that she wasn’t unprovoked. She was provoked, just not by the person she attacked.
Yeah, sure. She was a kid with a fucked up dad.
But the context that this conversation is happening in is that she’s now a fucked up adult, hunting down the person she knows she already stabbed over some perceived slight from years ago. Right here, right now, she’s unprovoked.
I quote from the post you responded to “the fact that years later she still wants attack Sal unprovoked is pretty damning in my eyes”
That’s the damnation. Not the stab in itself, but the fact that years later, with full memory of her stabbing, here we are.
I was more focused on the first part. I agree going after her now is damning, but what I focused on was that everyone thinks back when the stabbing first happened amber just freaked for no reason and stabbed Sal in the hand, by the way they phrase the argument against her.
“Amber can play the victim card regarding that incident all she wants, but Amber ran up and stabbed her AFTER Sal was no longer a threat and Amber saw her being held by the police.”
That part? Doesn’t really seem to imply anything about why Amber did it. Simply that it illigitimizes her past victimization as an excuse for present-day violence.
Again, the context.
Yeah, then Amber STABBED HER IN THE FRIGGING HAND. I’d say that at least puts them even, and makes this assault pretty reprehensible.
What, no. Pretty sure Ethan was held at knife point. Amber just had to watch, then stabbed Sal for the trouble, while Ethan moved on without his victimization becoming a reason to inflict violence on anybody else. Almost as if this is less about anything Sal did and more about how fucked up Amber already was before Sal ever walked into that store.
Anger is never proportional. Anger isn’t the part of us that says, “OK, you’ve suffered as much as I have, I’m gonna stop hurting you now.” Anger is the part that says “HE TOOK THE LAST SODA?? HIS ENTIRE FAMILY MUST BURN!! I WILL MAKE HIM SCREAM FOREVER!!” When anger is in control, the idea is to make your enemy, and anyone else who witnesses him, regret ever crossing you. EVER.
Yeah, sure, but if you actually go and burn a family over soda you’re not the victim anymore. Can we agree on that?
Sure, objectively. But, I have no skin in this game. From her perspective, Sal is still out there, threatening Amber’s well-being (in her head). Anger dictates that she and all associated with her must rue the day they messed with her.
In fact, tying back to Eva and timemonkey’s original points, Amber doesn’t care if she loses. She has little to lose, at this point. She cares only about hurting Sal, as a deterrent to Sal hurting her or her friends again. It’s horridly illogical, but that’s how anger works.
Is it too much to hope for Sal & crew to “get” Malaya, pull her off a half-choked Amazi-Girl, and continue their peaceful disobedience? Or just leave?
A lot of people are speculating on whether getting beaten would help Amber in the end. But I think getting saved by Sal would be more mind blowing to her. Also, it’s not like getting beaten down by Blaine (mostly emotionally) put her in her place and helped her.
If Sal saves her I can see her committing suicide, Javert-style.
Is he from heaven or from hell?
And does he know,
That granting me my life today,
This man has killed me even so…
I was thinking (hoping) the exact same thing.
Ooh, yeah, it would be great if Sal saves Amber/AG. (Plus a worthy plot twist – I keep wondering how Willis is gonna get our antiheroes out of this without hospital time or a jarring distraction.)
So now I’m hoping for that instead. Blow her mind, Sal!
I think under the right circumstances Amber and Sal could be great friends. I’m hoping the fight leads to a conversation between them.
Ya But probably after a great one on one battle between them after everyone has been layer out and they grow to have mutual respect for each other…keep in mind I’m using the warriors mind set here.
Actually, I’m thinking MarioKart. Danny and Amazi-Girl played MK on their DS’ together. Now, Sal is playing MK, on Danny’s DS. Sal VS Amazi-Girl on MK could be very therapeutic.
Are we really, absolutely sure that Sal’s talking about Amazi-Girl in the last panel, and not Malaya? Because that would be a lovely twist.
Also, it strikes me that a fight with four people is probably one time when you really don’t want to be wearing a cape, even if it’s weighed down with shows. Things get in the way.
Shit what if Mike and Dina show up in costume next and this all turns into West Side Story.
Needs moar “PLEASE KILL MY LONELY”
I want to live as Ama-zi-girl
Hands for to shiv as Ama-zi-girl
Oh here we go:
I will spend time as Ama-zi-girl
Buildings to climb as Ama-zi-girl
Fighting street crime as Ama-zi-girl
My dad’s a slime as Ama-zi-girl
Encore!
haha
“Am-a-zi… I just met a Girl who’s Amazi-…”
I think Amber has now reached near-Danny levels of Dannyness. I take it back. Those assholes are MADE for each other.
Danny fucks everything up by accident. Amazi-Girl fucks everything up on purpose. She’s much worse than Danny.
If you think there’s going to be a happy ending coming out of this, you haven’t been paying attention. (Please forgive the paraphrasing)
As satisfying as it is seeing Malaya get pounded by Amber, I can’t help thinking that no matter who wins this fight, Amber is going to be worse off than before. Hopefully she hits bottom soon, otherwise things are going to get REALLY bad.
$20 on Sal.
Uh-oh indeed, Mr. Willis.
Malaya is not in this for anything but pure cussedness and her ownself. This is not a person with feelings of social interaction with any group.
I did expect her to stay out of it, back up, and watch how things went and then maybe jump on the survivors. Girls got no loyalty. Like a bulldog.
As for Amber, she can fight, she has training. But, not street smarts or she would know that only in Kung Fu movies do the advisories stand around in a polite circle, while the hero beats them all to Hell-one at a time.
Sal is a bad ass. She may not have training but she’s likely a street fighter. I still think she and Amber are pretty well matched, one on one.
Marcie may not want to be there but she is Sal’s friend, I figure she will stay.
Carla is an unknown, but based on the ‘pay me half and I’ll just go” statement, I don’t think she owes any loyalty to the group.
And as said, maybe Sal is referring to peeling Malaya off Amazi-girls back. Sal is a bad ass, but not a bad person I think. I just don’t feel right about her being happy to go 4 on 1.
I’m thinking Amazi-Girl’s brief stutter in the 4th panel is what allowed Malaya to catch AG off-guard. I expect AG to recover quickly and poor Malaya will find herself making another impact with the planet. Or like you said, be removed by Sal’s cohorts. I agree with pretty much all you said. It’s very possible Sal wants it non-violent, and/or just her vs AG, one-on-one.
Amazi-powers, activate!
Now, if they both joined roller derby with Malaya and Carla, everyone would be happier.
…What? I can dream.
Crap, that gravatar makes what I wrote seem gross and pervy.
You say this like it is a bad thing.
And you doubters from yesterday thought Malaya was out of this right. Pffft
I admit, I thought she’d be out longer. She’s a fierce one, that Malaya. However, I think AG will make short work of her, possibly throw her into the others. Malaya is small and sharp, works well as a missile.
Oh dear. I wonder if Amber is, perhaps, not expecting to win this fight, but to go to the police while the wounds are fresh and finger Sal as the culprit.
If her goal is to get Sal off the campus, that might actually work…
No way is Amber thinking this through that far.
Plus, Amazigirl is a vigilante, not a litigator.
Dammit, even in this universe, Malaya just ruins everything
What exactly is she ruining? Amber’s irrational attack on somebody for something they did when they were like thirteen? AFTER stabbing the person in the hand at the time, and after the person spent the years since in Juvie and then boarding school? I feel for the girl, but seriously, at this point, she kinda deserves a whuppin.
I agree, but it should be her vs Sal
No. Amber should go home and think about her grudge for a while and there should be no fight at all.
I’m so very reminded of teaching preschool. Use your words!
Why? Amber might want a one-on-one with Sal, but Sal just wants to enjoy her night. Why should Amber be the one who gets what she wants?
If Malaya weren’t so insistent on fighting Amazi-Girl, this might have ended non-violently. A-G’s obviously reluctant to actually attack Sal unprovoked (or she would’ve done it already) and doesn’t really care about the others, and Sal just wants to relax, so, “What happens if you just ignore her?” And the longer the interaction stays civil, the more difficult it is to psych up to escalating to violence (if you’re not actually a psychopath, which Amber, despite having more issues than a periodicals department, isn’t). As long as they kept talking, there was a chance Amber could actually work out some of her problems without hitting anybody. Maybe Sal too.
But, no, Malaya has to fuck it up. And so here we are.
(“That was your plan? ‘Get her!’?!”)
All this, and the fact that Malaya is already the Cousin Oliver of Shortpacked, and now she is here too
This smug obsession with the law really does seem new for her. What’s she gonna do next, assault people for their unpaid library fines?
Especially after everything she’s done.
Remember, just because it’s a valid defense in court (This is debatable but besides the point) doesn’t generally throw the need for a court case out. Especially given that what she could PLAUSIBLY claim is an affirmative defense in every case.
Gal’s gotta defend her actions on SOME level, even if innocent until proven guilty says doubt’s on her side.
Amber (to Dina): I’ve done violent stuff in that suit. Stuff that could get me into deep trouble. So keep an eye out for authority figures.
I guess you could read that a couple ways, but it seems to indicate that Amber fears legal repercussions if it’s discovered that she’s Amazigirl.
The way things are going her last act as Amazigirl could be putting her foot down on how The Law is Absolute on the subject of Underage Drinking before getting dragged off to grown-up prison for all the violent crimes she commits.
She committed vandalism and theft in order to… stop vandalism. This isn’t new behaviour.
If anything that displays that in that moment she’s not worked up about the letter of the law. Perfectly acceptable to take a sign down so you can clean it up and put it right back where it belongs.
Unless you’re assuming that had she found some nere-do-wells cleaning up street signs she would’ve responded with threats of violence, but that’s not really how I read that scene.
I’m imagining the “get her” isn’t meaning “get amazi-girl” but rather “get malaya, cause ah still don’t like her”
It’s interesting Amber is so determined to justify her crimes she misses that underage drinking is a misdemeanor so minor no one cares about it but she’s committing felony assault.
Yeah, I think it’s “so much easier” in the sense that it’s easier for Amber to get into vigilante-headspace because these kids are nominally breaking the law — not that it’ll be easier for Amber to get out of legal trouble afterwards.
Between the first and last panel, the other two girls walked around to flank Sal. If it comes to a fight, they’re all in.
Their facial expressions look reluctant, though. I doubt that Amber will come to blows with Sal’s whole group. Sal can be (and has been) talked out of violence before (by Walky, no less), and Marcie has acted as a kind of straightman and conscience to Sal in the past as well.
Your comment made me check the comic again — I definitely saw “determined”, especially from Marcie (and Marcie would be more likely than Carla to provide moral reasoning).
I’m thinking whatever Sal does, Marcie will back to the hilt. Sal’s her Peppermint Patty. (But Sal should’ve gone with the “give A-G a medal” plan. C’mon, Sal, look at Marcie when she’s talking.)
Carla doesn’t look so sure about the whole thing. I gather she just met the others, and doesn’t like Malaya anyway, so she probably isn’t real big on the idea of fighting a superhero for them.
And if there’s going to be a fight, Malaya’s going to be in it. (If there’s not going to be a fight, Malaya’ll start one.)
Honestly, I’m on Sal’s side here. Amber’s there to pick a fight because of past trauma, and Sal offered to let her walk away. I hope Sal’s friends beat her ass.
Agreed. Amber is not even slightly justified in this matter. I’m hoping Amber doesn’t get seriously hurt, but if she really does beat the hell out of Sal and her friends im gonna lose a LOT of sympathy for her.
Honestly, Amber, what was your endgame here? Commit felony assault so you could turn in your victims for a misdemeanor? Beat Sal up in the hopes that it would be a better revenge than stabbing her in the hand? Kill her? Seriously, where were you going with this?
I don’t think she even has a plan in such concrete terms. She doesn’t feel safe with Sal walking around campus and is looking for a way to fix that. Probably exacerbated by her father’s recent intrusions into her life and the looming threat of her identity being revealed forcing her to go to trial for the things she’s done in the Amazigirl outfit, but certainly even independent of all that it really just seems to fuck her up seeing Sal walking around campus.
Though certainly I’m not prepared to rule out the possibility that she has a very specific plan, and it seems pretty clear that even without a plan she definitely came with violent intentions.
Normally, Amazi-girl is “prepared for anything” but she didn’t even have the time to make a proper plan, because “it has to be tonight”.
I’m pretty sure Amber’s plan is
1. show up dramatically as AG
2. throw punches
3: ???
4: feel better
I guess it’s possible that she already had a cunning plan to face Sal, and just hadn’t set the date, but so far I’m not seeing a whole lot of cunning going on.
Amber’s kind of channeling Blaine here. And looking about as crazed.
“We aren’t (in Canada), are we?”
“I’m not on Indiana University grounds.”
That’s true. Another tragic similarity.
Aw fuuuuuck….
Annnnd it’s like watching a train wreck in slow motion…
You know it’s not gonna end well, but you can’t really look away.
I’m facing a dilemma here. I don’t know who to root for.
On one hand, yeah, Sal’s delinquant antics seem to have messed up Amber good since childhood. Poor girl.
On the other hand, Amber’s superhero shenanigans are getting old. Also, attacking people for breaking stupid laws that shouldn’t be there? I’m with Sal here.
I think we can blame Blaine for most of Amber being screwed up. Most people don’t react to a robbery by stabbing the person in the hand after they’re already in police custody.
Saying Sal messed up Amber good is kind of like saying Amber screwed up Sal’s relationship with her parents. Visible scar might’ve hurt matters a bit but only because of pre-existing problems with the relationship completely outside of Amber.
I think in both scenarios we can blame the parents for creating a situation where this is such a big deal, and just chalk it up to unforeseeable consequences when looking at Amber/Sal’s part in it. Certainly they both bear responsibility for the robbing/stabbing, but neither should be expected to answer for all the butterfly effect six degrees of separation type stuff that came of it.
Danny may be able to pull this out of superhero vs. supervillain and back to reality.
I’m wondering about Ethan. He knows about Amber’s plans or at least her concerns on the Sal front, and his involvement in the initial Sal incident would give more validity to his voice as he works to resolve the conflict. Might be hard to keep feeling like your rage is righteous when the man who Sal’s violence was directed against is standing there saying “Geez, chill.”
We’re about to see so many red panels. Amber’s going to put at least one of these girls in the freakin’ hospital.
I’ve never understood laws like the one about the drinking age. There is nothing special about some arbitrary age limit that makes you suddenly capable of handling your alcohol when you couldn’t before. You could be 17yrs and 364 days, or 18yrs and a day, you’ll get drunk just about the same
And either way, it’s illegal in US soil.
Well that just seems like a silly way of looking at it. Laws by nature have to be precise. It wouldn’t work to pass a law saying “You can’t drink until you’re somewhere in the general eighteenish area”.
What would happen if they treated the voting age that way? Some jerk at the door just eyeballing people to decide if they look responsible enough to vote.
Precise and inarguable definitions help ensure that citizens are treated equally. Makes it harder for a local police force to just decide that the drinking age is 17 if you’re white but 24 if you’re an aboriginee, and easier for the people to point out in definite terms how they’re being discriminated against if anything like that does become an issue.
It’s to establish some level of maturity, but yes, the ages are somewhat arbitrary. It can even be different within a country, like by state or province. For example in the US, there’s voting age (was 21 until 1971), age of adulthood (18 except 3 states are higher), start driving (14-17), age of consent (16-18), age to run for higher elected offices (25-35).
It’s possible Sal’s “get ‘er” was referring to Malaya. I think it’s unlikely Sal is going to throw down with Amazi-Girl.
Ut oh indeed.
[sic]
I really hope Willis is trying to trick us and Sal is talking about Malaya. Maybe they could pummel her together; it would be a bonding experience…
We should get the Buckets of Blood guy in this comic to guest strip and have Amazi-Girl kill them all. Then Willis comes back, beats him up, and retcons it all away.
*pause*
Huh, just me?
needs moar “HOT HOT SEXENGS”
I’m picturing a baby with damnyouWillis’ face and BoB-G’s disturbing moustache.
Now that’s a thought, Mpreg could actually involve buckets of blood, so everybody would win.
I totally hoped Sal would first try to talk to her and she didn’t disappoint.
How many of these people are wearing roller blades? Because I didn’t know that Malaya was until Amazi-girl called her “skates” or whatever in the last strip.
Malaya and Carla are both wearing skates. Not sure about Sal and Marcie, but it seems unlikely.
BTW, AG wasn’t referring to her footwear. I’m pretty sure Malaya’s super-villain name is ‘SkHates’ (the H is silent).
Wait, panel 1 confirms, Sal is not wearing skates.
Nobody’s wearing roller blades. Carla and Malaya are wearing traditional roller skates, not inlines.
I have to confess, I’m not totally sure what Amber was even hoping to achieve here. A revenge beating? She already stabbed her in the hand last time.
Anyway, hopefully she won’t get hurt too bad, but at the same time hopefully she doesn’t thrash them all – that’d just be silly, unless she’s a legit super-heroine.
To answer your question:
For Amber, the day Sal graced that store was the most important day of her life. But for Sal, it was Tuesday.
it was Tuesday.
But for Sal…It was the day she got a fricking knife shoved through her hand.
How does that answer anything? And yes I know the reference you’re trying to make.
Amber’s not trying to accomplish anything. She’s not moved past that day while, for Sal, it was just yet another day of disappointments. Amber hates Sal but Sal thinks of Amber as some random girl who stabbed her.
How is Carla here when her parents have not even met yet? Is time travel going to be a part of DoA?
I think it’d be awesome if Carla is Joe Senior’s daughter. That would make an interesting relationship.
Would he still try to Joe her?
Joe being Carla’s sister rather than dad would be an interesting twist.
The thing about making Joe related to Carla is that it’s kind of unfair to Rachel. I mean, Rachel is Ultra Car’s mom in the other universe — why do people always ask if she’s related to Joe but not Rachel?
And she can’t be related to both, because that would mean Joe and Rachel are related, so. Um. No.
Carla has two completely different parents. She is an alternate being.
This is less about Joe being more prominent as the parent (which he wouldn’t be) than the fact Joe is an established character in the comic while Rachel isn’t (yet). While I’m taking you at your word, Joe being the most alpha male character and his dad being sleazy offers interesting insights for a trans female character as a close relative.
I think there are a few different layers to it. I wouldn’t rule out a little internalized misogyny, but it’s also true that for a lot of Shortpacked! readers, Joe is more familiar as UC’s parent than Rachel is.
I -read- It’s Walky, in a binge, a long time ago, but I never got into the subscription stuff, and I had forgotten a -lot- about Rachel by the time she came back to SP!. Joe, on the other hand, had made a few appearances by that point, and had been referred to more often aside from that. Add to that the fact that Joe is more of a fixture in DoA, and it doesn’t seem that surprising that people have his connection to Carla in mind more than Rachel’s.
I liked Rachel. I liked her return. I also liked her interactions with UC.
Honestly, though, I felt it didn’t make a good ending for Robin and Leslie.
I’d have preferred Robin choosing Leslie.
Which sucks for Rachel because that would mean she’s still dead.
Oh and there’s another answer too. Robin is awesome, so is Amber, so are many characters. However….Rachel is really-really down my list. Joe is like 3rd on my list of favorite SP! characters after Robin and Amber.
Rachel is more like 30.
This isn’t a complaint. It’s just saying Joe is like the Green Lantern.
Rachel is more….Ice. I love Ice. I do. Not thinking she’s GL levels of recognizable. I mean, everyone knows GL. He’s black, a Marine, and awesome!
🙂
Carla is not Ultra Car.
Odd thought. Is Ultra car’s appearance and demeanor based on the Carla of the Walkyverse?
Carla should totally be a character from a university-slice-of-life cartoon show in the walkyverse, that UC likes. Then we would have the awesome symmetry of DoA Carla patterning her personality after the fictional cartoon character Ultra Car, while SP! Ultra Car has patterned her appearance after the fictional cartoon character Carla.
What’s up the the blue speech balloon?
Amazi-Girl talks different than Amber does – lower, and huskier. It’s a visual representation of a different voice.
What I meant was that Sal may be instructing the others to restrain Malaya to prevent further conflict. Sal seems to want to change her life. She should get better friends.
Panel 1: That isn’t Malaya being accusatory. That’s her calling out her move, Street Fighter style. She’s just slow on the execution.
Well shit’s about to get real.
Hrm… I wonder if Sal actually has her left hand. Have we ever seen it uncovered?
Yes, and even if we hadn’t, this is a modern day mostly realistic comic strip that isn’t likely to have bionic hands and the like, and since her hands both seem fully articulated, I think we could write off that possiblity anyway.
Welp….this is going to be painful for somebody.
Can someone explain to me why anyone supports/defends Amber? She’s a mentally ill and very violent individual who’s just beaten a man into the hospital, then went out to try to provoke a fight.
I kind of hope Amber gets her ass kicked. Badly.
Just get over it, already. Sal scared you once as a kid. Ethan got over it. It’s not like she shot your parents in an alley. You have NO REASON to be obsessed like this. I hope Sal kicks your ribs in.