Cordelia’s character was very unpleasant, but not stupid. The point was made several times in the series that she had no trouble getting good grades, and she got accepted to Columbia (but then couldn’t go because daddy turned out to be a crook, got caught, and then the family were broke — deus ex machina to keep her character from leaving Sunnydale).
The reason they went for Cordelia’s brain was because they were building a Frankensteinian Bride for a reanimated guy she had history with, he chose her because he still had feelings for her (and for what it’s worth so did Cordelia).
Just for the sake of future generations (who can’t deduce a chain of responses well or something) I feel I must clarify that I was making an “I need a butt too” joke. But Plasma Mongoose got there first with a chainsaw, so c’est la mamacopulatin’ vie, future generations
Everyone needs a butt. There should be a convention for asses- wait. Okay, good thing I stopped myself there, I was about to call a meeting of the rumps.
I’d ask for details, but I think I catch your drift there. Eeeeewww. (And that’s not with regards to A Certain Act in general, but it tasting like an ashtray.)
Or a Harley, those things are just vibrators on wheels. Put a upturned lip on the front of the saddle and you would never get a girl off one before she got off (nudge, nudge, wink, wink) on one.
Joker doesn’t care about Harley. I mean, sure, he doesn’t like when she doesn’t do what he wants, but if somebody killed her, he’d probably laugh. Or kill them because he’s the only one who gets to break his toys. Anyway, it wouldn’t matter because he’d be impaled by a tree or something by week’s end.
“I CAN’T be a lesbian!”
“How would you know? Would you even be aware of it?
…
You’re still staring at them, you know.”
“I could crawl up into them and be safe forever…”
Since when is angrily browbeating someone for light-hearted teasing something worthy of commendation? Especially when coupled with overtly sexist tones?
Since Walky really should know better than to overstep the personal boundaries (established by “leave me alone” of panel 1 of today’s page) of a person he knows was nearly raped a few weeks ago (rape being one of the most severe violations of personal boundaries in existence). http://www.dumbingofage.com/2011/comic/book-2/01-pajama-jeans/diversion/
This is way more serious than their usual bickering, mostly because Joyce is usually arguing right back. Right now she clearly does not want to put up with him right now, and he’s making uncomfortable comments about his sexuality.
I understand what you’re trying to say but it doesn’t really apply here.
Walky is being a complete dickhole here, and Sal is entirely right to call him out on it. It stopped being “light-hearted teasing” and started being harassment when Joyce told Walky in no uncertain terms to stop, and harassment with sexual overtones against a girl who was drugged, assaulted, and almost raped three weeks ago, and Walky knows that, and Sal knows that he knows.
And “overtly sexist” what the fuck? You think “NO means NO” is “overtly sexist”?
And that’s not “angrily browbeating”. That’s a single firmly delivered statement that Walky’s out of line (which he totally is), and a quiet reminder of why what he was doing is out of line.
Basically what you’re saying is not a thing that happened.
Pretty much. I get that some webcomics play the “men getting beat up by women is hilarious” trope a little harsh sometimes, but that’s absolutely not what’s happening here. Walky is being himself and doesn’t realize how awful his words are, but the minute Joyce said “leave me alone” instead of calling him a jerky buttface and getting red faced about Dorothy, he needed to back off and he wasn’t. Sal getting in his face is pretty light compared to what most people would do in that situation.
Well we don’t know Jocelyne’s status on many things much less if she has any thoughts on SRS to begin with. That said, I meant other trans girls specifically ones who are out and open about it and not related to her.
Can we please not compare trans women to men like that? Firstly, trans women’s relationship with their genitals tend to be different. Secondly, if they’re on HRT stuff works differently, and I’m sure Joyce’s comment doesn’t just refer to genitals otherwise a strapon would work just as well.
Trans people are not a novelty and should not be treated as such. I understand what you are saying, but this is something that could trigger dysphoria in trans readers who have come across this comment. Trans women ARE women. Joyce has plainly stated she is interested in men. I doubt she would date a trans woman simply because the woman in question has chosen not to change her genitals.
Yeah I can see how my comment was worded poorly. Joyce has expressed interest in women just not interest physical intimacy with ones that have physiology like her own. Rather than a novelty or loophole I’m saying that she might find she can be physically intimate with a woman who is non-op (by choice) who has the personality traits she is attracted to. Basically I’m saying she hasn’t seen enough of what’s out there to claim attraction only to men especially given that she has expressed emotional attraction to women. Again I reiterate, if her only pitfall is physiology then she might find some women fall within her acceptable boundaries. I hope that clears up what I meant.
But the great Faz is clearly the best character. If you look at this chart you can see penis size correlates to a character’s greatness, and then you see this chart depicting the size of Faz’s member you will see that he is by association, the best character.
Char is seriously annoying as well. But for worst of all it would be hard to beat Ryan or Blaine, with some of the other parents close. In addition to those mentioned, I’d nominate Joyce’s and Ethan’s mothers.
No question that Becky’s father is one of the worst. However, Blaine has been at least psychologically abusing Amber for years, and Ryan was planning to physically abuse Joyce. Ethan’s mother, apart from the obvious refusal to accept her son’s sexual orientation, blames Amber for it, and told Ethan in effect to rape Joyce. Repeatedly.
BTW, it’s just short of three weeks in-comic since that party. I wonder if Ryan has recovered from the injuries he got from Joyce and Sarah. The latter in particular beat him down pretty thoroughly.
I don’t think I’d say that Naomi told Ethan to rape Joyce. She wants Ethan to have sex with Joyce, which he doesn’t want to do, but I don’t think there was any indication that she intended that it be non-consensual on Joyce’s part. She hadn’t yet met Joyce at that point, and knew nothing about her hangups, and was probably just assuming that, as a 21st-century college girl, she’s going to want to have sex with her boyfriend sooner or later.
(And I’m not entirely sure it would be non-consensual for Joyce, anyway. Joyce certainly wants to move the physical part of their relationship along further and faster than Ethan does. Maybe not to actual sex yet, but she’d certainly be down for some makeouts, and then it’d just be a matter of time before she got to, “Well, we’re married in our hearts, so that’s close enough, right?”)
Anyway, basically Naomi was telling her son to rape himself using Joyce. Which is still terrible, but not quite the same kind of terrible.
He’s really not. He’s just grown up a certain way, and he’s starting to unlearn all the bad behaviors he’s learnt. Each time he encounters something that needs changing, he changes. He’d only be the worst if, knowing better, he still continued those terrible behaviors.
I’m pretty sure that wasn’t his intention. I think he was trying to make a point about how stupid and self-hurtful it would be using sarcasm, and Ethan just took it and ran with it non-ironically. Mike seemed pretty disbelieving when it happened.
Anybody with an even base amount of empathy would realize that telling a teenager whose entire life was flipped upside down because of his sexuality would realize that saying “you know what would be great? If you lied about that for the rest of your life” is completely awful.
Mike uses sarcasm as a method to express what he believes is the truth, unlike many who uses it when they don’t intend to be serious. I can tell because I’m often guilty of that too, although I try to make an effort to not hurt people when I do it.
Does that make him any less of an asshole? No, of course not. He’s spiteful and doesn’t seem to mind people getting hurt and certainly doesn’t care if they’re offended. But that doesn’t make what he says any less accurate.
I read that comic as printed word without any voice inflections to tip me off it was sarcastic and I managed to work this out. Mike may well be asshole but that situations is entirely down to Ethan being denser than a lead lined safe.
That Amber can be (which is ‘is’, for certain values of is) an angry and controlling individual who uses violence both physical and verbal in an attempt to control those she professes to love? (Example: Ethan.)
Yeah, ok. Chaotic Neutral it is. “Good” is really pushing it.
But I can’t think of anything he’s done so far that was actually evil (and for the love of fuck, no, sarcastically suggesting Ethan go back in the closet does not count) except for punching Joe in the face, I guess.
If we are defining “good” as funny… then okay. Otherwise unprovoked violence is actually kinda the original “dick move,” and is thoroughly wrong-hearted (Mission Hill reference whoop whoop) and that’s without even resorting to the categorical imperative bullshit.
How is Chaotic Neutral lower than Chaotic Good? Oh, you have them in order of morality… I always organize them by fun: 1. Chaotic Neutral, 2. Chaotic Good and Chaotic Evil, 3. True Neutral, 4. Neutal Evil, 5. Neutral good, 6. Lawful Evil, 7.Lawful Neutral, 8. Lawful Good.
As if Joyce would ever assume anyone’s gay. She’s one of those people who forgets it exists until someone personally comes up to her. She’d automatically Sal’s straight.
I don’t know. having an old best friend kiss her may make Joyce examine her relationships to other people. I think she might be having a serious conversation with Dorothy soon about the nature of their relationship.
Sal’s referring to the party where Joyce was drugged. She’s been shown to have serious issues over it, so Walky teasing her about her sexuality is already a lot douchier than it already is.
“If I were Lesbian for anybody it’d be-”
Becky. Joyce loves Becky so much, just not in that way. If she could be, she would be a lesbian for Becky. But it’s not a choice, and the irony is that Joyce realized this because she can’t be one for Becky. She can’t ask others to “not be gay” because she can’t make herself “be gay.” No darn you, just nice job Willis for making Joyce realize this in a believable way.
Called this a while ago. Not specifically from Sal though, and I was hoping for more physical harm (at least a slap in the face). I’ll take it though, that last panel won me over.
Pretender suit so I look human for me, followed by commando as you Humans call it. Daniel the Human prefers jocks, he says they “keep everything where they’re needed & away from where they’ll receive much pain”. Guess it’s a human thing…
Do we know what Sal is referencing when she’s saying “unless you’ve forgotten”? My brain is fried and I can’t think of why she is saying that. Forgotten what?
Yes, she and Walky ended up in the room the day after when they were all discussing what to do about it, and then all went to the beach to make Joyce feel better.
I would expect a story like that to get around very quickly. Sal wasn’t at the party, but she’s probably heard about it from Sarah or someone else in their wing.
So is someone going to make an oral sex joke? Something about only needing the head.Hopefully someone will make one by the time I post this comment. I wouldn’t do it justice.
Sal: Casually beating up annoying little brother, defending traumatized friends, tempting straight girls with below-the-neck-stuff, being generally awesome. Yup, just a business as usual filler strip today.
From what I’ve seen of Human behavior, he’ll most likely remember about it later & just start worrying, with only a mild-medium chance of freak out. Unless it’s Dorothy asking him how he went, then panic & horrid cover-up attempts chances go beyond high levels…
I admit that I’m not the biggest Sal fan (I found her incredibly irritating and quite the jerk prior to the reveal in the Family Weekend arc, and sleeping with Jason was such a scumbag move), but this was so cool of her. Go overprotective Sal.
Sal and Jason have had sex twice. The first time she wanted him to give her an A, and the other time I’m not really sure but whatevs, not really a big deal.
I sympathize with Sal’s learning difficulties, and also having a shitty teacher like Jason, but with sleeping with a teacher for a good grade is just awful.
I find her fling with Jason a little less bad because of their second encounter. I mean they clearly have a thing for each other beyond “give me good grades,” or I don’t see why there would have been a second time.
I’m actually pretty sure she’s saying ‘Hey, idiot, don’t sexually harass the girl you know for a fact to have been drugged and sexually assaulted. ESPECIALLY don’t continue to do it after she’s told you to leave her alone.’
Why do you feel the need to explain where it came from this time? I can never figure out where you get your gravatars. I’d ask, but I assumed you got tired of answering that question along time ago.
Sal has always been cool. Stupid move sleeping with Jason but gee I guess he’s not a scumbag is he> Asshole is the teacher, he should have called the shots maybe, hum?
As to Joyce’s reaction to Sal. Since the day she first saw Sal ride onto campus on her cycle, she has been totally star struck.
As to Mike. He hates everybody equally, except Joyce. For some reason he has never leaned on her quite as hard as he does others. I think it is because he accepts that Joyce is an real pita, but that she tries to think things out most of the time. It’s an uphill battle half the time with the fundie background and her clinginess to friends. But, she tries. And no, I’m not a fan-I would not hang around Joyce under any conditions.
But a lot of the crap she gets into is not something she goes looking for, like Becky, falling into her bed.
Whereas Mike sees most everybody as idiots, and has a knack for knowing just what they are pulling down on themselves and sometimes assists it because he is bored or whatever he is, he is for the most part not evil.
Haha! I kinda feel like – from what I can see – Mike may not feel the need to troll Joyce because she practically trolls herself with a lot of the stuff she says and does.
Mike hasn’t leaned on quite a few people actually; Sal, Sarah, Rox, Joe, Jacob… Just to name a few I don’t remember seeing him really go in on. Out of all of them, he spent the most time with Sal, but I don’t remember him going in on her. On contrary, he seemed moee impressed by her bike then anything.
That’s just a list of people that would probably be less impressed by his cheap shots. Like any predator, Mike can smell weakness and goes in. As for the others, I’m sure he’s just biding his time, looking for the perfect moment.
I’d be all for that, be she doesn’t say or imply that anywhere here…
Anyway in the last panel she is talking about Sal. It isn’t 100% clear who she was talking about before Mike spoke up.
“I am straight. And now I know for certain ’cause if I were lesbian for anybody it’d be –”
The emphasis on “now” suggests that this certainty is due to something recent, and what else would she be referring to than being kissed by her best friend?
Her problem was with “anything below the kneck”. Becky’s mouth is drawn to be above the kneck. Based on Joyce’s statement, everything above the kneck is good for Joyce to date. Thus, Joyce liked Becky’s mouth. Suggesting she liked the kiss, and ran off because she couldn’t handle the kiss and Becky’s female body at the same time.
Anyone who has read the entirety of the Walkyverse think that majority of the relationships in this comic series ironic (or whatever the proper term is)?
Other way around for me. I sometimes think it’s amusing when people who were couples in the Walkyverse interact in non-coupley ways in the Dumbiverse. Of course, many of them interacted in non-coupley ways in the Walkyverse too, before they became couples.
Honestly, I thought Joyce was referring to wanting to be with sal, not becky. I’m happy with either, but wondering if I’m missing something after reading through all these posts xp
I think it’s pretty obviously Becky, although I suppose it’s not completely certain. Since Walky wasn’t even saying something when Sal jerked him away, the implication is that she did so the moment she got near enough, which means that she wasn’t around while Joyce was talking about ‘and now’ (thanks to the passage of time in comics that means that people are frozen at any position they were in at any point during the dialogue; in this case, at the end), so Joyce was probably referring to ‘now’ as in ‘after the recent events that have taken place’ (i.e. Becky coming out as lesbian and kissing Joyce and wanting Joyce to return the feelings) rather than ‘at this very moment’, because ‘at this very moment’ wouldn’t make sense. The other meaning would make sense, because of course Joyce would have liked to not break Becky’s heart. If she’s a good friend, she hasn’t forgotten how Becky reacted after Joyce rejected her.
I know I’m opening up a can of worms and then running away to watch the fireworks (wait…what? apparently the worms are loaded with explosives!), but do rape victims or attempted rape victims resent people treating them special and walking on eggshells when talking to or around them? Like here with Sal, if Joyce knew that people have been protecting her from particular topics, as has happened a few times now, would she feel insulted? I figure that it depends from person to person, but I have no basis for that guess, and it seems that either option, to shield or not to shield, is presumptuous.
Joyce might have been a lot worse mentally if Ryan was able to rape her, but as for your question, it’s a hard question to answer, Willis should know but answering said question might entail spoilers.
I think it’s more of a “She’s had her personal boundries smashed already, so we WANT her to be able to trust us, so when she says “Leave me alone’ don’t be like that jerk from before, and LEAVE her alone”
Yes and no. Here’s the thing–certain things can be triggering, and can lead to re-living the experience, thus leading into panic attacks, or mental break downs. As you move on with your PTSD, (because that’s what often happens) you learn what your triggers, and how to avoid them. Before you or your friends know your triggers, it’s kind of hard to know what’s okay and what’s not.
*discussion of my triggers below, please tread lightly*
For instance, rape jokes give me panic attacks, as do discussions of hard core drugs or drug abuse, alcoholism, jokes about domestic violence, pictures of self mutilation, people sexually dominating me, and jokes about suicide. I had to discover these all on my own. It’s easy to tell people now, and they are easy to avoid. But yeah, it’s appreciated. But we also want you to treat us normally as well! Just be aware of things that are MOST LIKELY to be triggering to us, and avoid ’em! That’s what good friends do.
The type of teasing that Walky was doing was something that Joyce would NEVER have been happy with/comfortable with. The way I see it, Sal’s intervention was not so much a case of “don’t bring up bad memories” as much as “Don’t give her more problems”.
Generally students refer to a year meaning a school year. I’ve definitley confused people with that terminology on both ends. When I said I was planning on going to Scotland for a year, my friends had to ask if I meant 10 months or 12.
But it would’ve made more sense to say “all term,” but “all year” basically means the same thing at this point in school year.
I’ve heard people referring to what has been of this month as “all year”, though often involving the lines “Haven’t seen you all year”. Does that count?
It took me a few minutes to figure out what Sal was talking about when she said, “Especially that girl.” It’s amazing how little time has passed in this strip.
1. Between this and worrying about Billie I feel like Sal has kinda stealth grown as a character on us. Also nice to see her actually acting like a big sister to Walky, even if its with threats of physical violence (what else would it be really?).
2. Does MIKE have a thing for Sal. Holy shit, I think Mike has a thing for Sal.
OK, where was the twins birth order confirmed? This is, like, the third post in these comics saying Sal’s the older one, but I don’t remember that ever coming up.
I don’t think it was, its just assumed based on the situation.
1. Sal seems to be the more adapt one of the two. I was originally going to say mature, but there isn’t much evidence towards her being more mature, just more of the antisocial one.
2. Walky seems to be the favored child. Being the youngest brother of two different brothers, I personally can’t co-sign onto what I’m about to say. . . to my understanding, the youngest child is usually the favored or more spoiled because he is the baby. I’ve got two friends who are twins and being twins doesn’t seem to erase this concept. Now like I said, I can’t co-sign onto this seeing how with my mother, it was my older brother who was the “spoiled” child. He always got the namebrand stuff, got his first car at 15, and always had mom standing by him even if he was in the wrong when in trouble.
I on the other hand was the golden child who was the complete opposite; never really wanted clothes ore shoes, still haven’t didn’t get a car, and just tried not to be any uneeded stress for moms, even when I was becoming more and more depressed, or having problems I knew nothing about
I’m the younger of two brothers and I’m totally the favored child.
…But my older brother happens to actually be a huge jerk, so maybe it’s not a great example. Then again, maybe he became a huge jerk because I ended up being the favored child? He’s not a huge jerk to me specifically, though, he’s just a huge jerk in general.
…Anyway, Sal and Walky are twins. Sal just had to grow up faster.
Yeah, I think it’s a positive sign for Sal’s emotional growth and attachment to her peers that she a) stands up for Joyce and b) has started to trust that even if Walky can be kind of a turd, it’s worth it to try and correct his behavior, and he’ll listen to her (at least, that’s how I interpret this – though I’m not denying she’s being rougher than she has to be).
I think he/she/[insert pronoun here] is referring to the same forums on which the Billie/Joyce fanfic you shared around the time DoA started was found.
about a month and a half. there was a calendar going around on tumblr months ago that i don’t feel like finding, but the gist of it is that we’ve had two or three time skips that jump thru the week, and with the night to day to night progression it amounts to something like 4 or 5 weeks. maybe 6, idk. but i do remember book one is sometime in august (per word of willis), and book four iirc is sometime in september (per word of ruth)
There was also a graph going around of real time vs comic time, someone worked out the ratio and it was like 53 comics per day or something… any chance you found that while looking for the other thing/
It’s Friday of Week Four, which makes it sometime in late September, year unspecified.
Most storylines are a day, though they sometimes slop a little over the midnight boundary, and we skipped Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday of Week Two waiting for pajama jeans at the beginning of “Time Keeps On Slippin'”, and Thursday and Friday of Week Three studying with Dorothy at the end of “Answers in Hennessy”.
We’ve been running around an in-comic week per real-world year, though I think it’s slowing down lately.
hmm, that thought crossed my mind too cos of joyce’s wording. but she probably just meant that she would be gay for becky to keep her from grief and in the path of god. also, id-rly-k how sensual romantic orientations are, but maybe she would’ve reacted differently to the kiss if she were?
Romantic attractions can vary a lot. I am particularly interested in them for personal reasons but neither me or anybody I know really seems able to define a line where a romantic interaction ends and a sexual one begins. For instance, I am a-ok with kissing but shy away from contact involving genitalia. Other ace romantic folks are kind of meh about kissing.
The thing about Becky’s kiss that makes it seem inconclusive to me was that it was unsolicited and Joyce was given almost no time to prepare for it. I don’t know how other people feel about unsolicited contact but it’s very rarely positive for me.
I like hugs and am OK with kissing, cuddling when I expect it is also good, but I do not like unsolicited or random physical contact to the point where I am only barely OK with handholding with my (romantic but not sexual) girlfriend, and then only for a few minutes before I want my hand and space back.
She seemed quite attracted to Billie’s.
(But then, who isn’t?)
Some of it, I think, is that she’s still filtering her desires through the familiar, established forms of intimacy she already knows – in this case, brushing another girl’s hair.
Me too! I want them to give it a second shot, this time, without Mike. I don’t know how in the hell the story would lead to that happening, but I hope it does.
Pretty sure Joyce was going to say Becky. Because she never wanted to hurt Becky with her rejection and so on. Plus Joyce trusts Becky and cares about her so much and yeah. I promise I don’t ship it, I just have been there, where I wanted a romance to work between myself and my best friend, but it didn’t work out.
Actually I kind of hope we see a slipshine with Mike, considering that he has already mention that he’s a sub in the bedroom, and likes being tied up. Damn a bondage slipshine from Willis would be hot as fuck.
Unless Mike was lying and was just saying that to make Amazi-girl uncomfortable. In that case, I will have to somehow enter the DOA world and pummel Mike for getting my hopes up.
Also: If only? Wow Joyce! That was offhand and casual! Somebody’s growing up, and learning to take a joke! Well I mean, he wasn’t JOKING, but pre-outed Becky Joyce (wow that was weird) would have spluttered, turned red, and gotten angry.
No one should ever think Joyce is unrealistic. I mean, even if you ignore the fact that David Willis says she’s semi-autobiographical, this is sort of me at 18. Religious, but still in that “but the bible should be about love” mode and questioning everything because I can’t bring myself to see people who are gay as doing something wrong. It’s a fast downhill slide, man. I went from SDA who was in the school bible reading club to agnostic to bisexual atheist XDD
Not really, Joyce has set herself for it and Walky was taking the shot, maybe not as well as Mike could have but really Joyce has brought it on herself
Well, their relationship has been a lot like this all along. Joyce just isn’t taking it as well today as she has in the past, in large part I think because Becky pulled the rug out from under her last night and she hasn’t gotten herself reoriented. On previous occasions her reaction has been pretty much, “You’re so stupid and annoying! I hate you! What are we doing for lunch today?” This is the first time she’s actually told him to stop, and also the first time she’s actually denied being a lesbian. I think Walky just failed to recognize the situation changing, until Sal clued him in.
Food for thought. Joyce tries very hard to be a good person – even if some of things she believes are utterly irrational. She stood up for Dorothy against her parents, and she took in her other best friend. When has Walky ever done anything good?
I dunno, seems to me the stuff above the neck is (at least on Sal) even more likely to smell of cigarettes.
(On the other hand, there is a small part of me that cannot currently see a “for her” with potentially-ambiguous antecedent without bringing up Rose Quartz.)
i find this hilarious because a few years ago i said basically the same thing Joyce did but let me tell u i have been attracted to girls this entire time and was just so far in denial i had myself completely convinced. Everyone else knew though.
Give her a year at most. Hopefully in comic it’d happen sooner so we can see it
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“well, DOROTHY, clearly
or Billie(‘s boobs)
or Amber would look hot with Amazi-Girl hair
or you know fuck it I’m a lesbian”
I support this
oh my god your avatar
Kelly has the best avatar ever.
Quite appropriate to the situation.
It’s those sky-high eyebrows.
Thank you 😀
Why am I not surprised Kelly? 😀
Because the situation fell within your expectations. Anything else we can help you with?
Joyce is constructing a girl Voltron (Girltron) in her mind, with Sal’s hair, Dorothy’s brain, Becky’s personality, Billie’s boobs, and Amber’s butt.
Yes, I know she’s never really interacted much with Amber. I just needed a butt.
All she needs is access to a chainsaw.
Well that’s a horrifying thought if there ever was one.
Isn’t it though? 😀
Wasn’t there an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer like that? What cracked me up about that was that they grabbed Cordelia for her brain…
Cordelia’s character was very unpleasant, but not stupid. The point was made several times in the series that she had no trouble getting good grades, and she got accepted to Columbia (but then couldn’t go because daddy turned out to be a crook, got caught, and then the family were broke — deus ex machina to keep her character from leaving Sunnydale).
Liked her better on Angel anyway.
The reason they went for Cordelia’s brain was because they were building a Frankensteinian Bride for a reanimated guy she had history with, he chose her because he still had feelings for her (and for what it’s worth so did Cordelia).
Precisely. Cordy was far from stupid. Very far from it. Just mean spirited. At least until Angel when she really changed.
Loved “Angel”. Great show. Terrible last scene ever, though.
Has anyone else noticed that the final comic of Shortpacked! is basically that final scene of Angel?
Angel had a great theme, though. Gods, I love cellos.
She does not. The work could be accomplished with a regular saw.
Or, more preferably, a bonesaw, since precise cuts would make assembly go more smoothly.
You and me both, brother
Just for the sake of future generations (who can’t deduce a chain of responses well or something) I feel I must clarify that I was making an “I need a butt too” joke. But Plasma Mongoose got there first with a chainsaw, so c’est la mamacopulatin’ vie, future generations
Gotta have a low center of gravity for adequate strength, after all.
Cesium is fun when dropped into a beaker of water… Just sayin!
Everyone needs a butt. There should be a convention for asses- wait. Okay, good thing I stopped myself there, I was about to call a meeting of the rumps.
I ship JoycexGirltron.
Or, do I ship CarlaxGirltron? Robots gotta stick together…
well she did deal with amazy girl ^-^
close enough
If we can get Starscream’s high heels in there, I’d be 900% on board!
And I’ll form the Butt!
C’mon. We’re all gay for Billie’s boobs.
No, I’m straight for Billie’s boobs.
That is the best direction to get them. Being devious just gets you slapped.
No argument from me.
I dunno what I am, but I do like Billie and her boobs.
Here’s you free +2 Internet. Enjoy, you deserve it…
Is that including the hair?
Is that including the cigarette flavored mouth?
Yeah that part would be kinda off-putting.
If they’re a heavy smoker, it’s not just the mouth that is cigarette flavored.
True that, it affects her skin and hair as well.
Mmm, cigarette flavored human.
I’d ask for details, but I think I catch your drift there. Eeeeewww. (And that’s not with regards to A Certain Act in general, but it tasting like an ashtray.)
her hair goes way below her neck though, does that count?
Yes, I’m sure she has hair below the neck, if you get what I mean wokka wokka
As long as the hair originates above the neck, then it counts as above the neck.
Seriously, Anti-Joyce is gonna be all over EVERYBODY.
So many smooches. SO MANY.
Doubt Anti-Joyce will make an appearance, but if it were possible in this universe, yes. Yes should would.
“If only she were the one girl I would hypothetically be lesbian for if I were so inclined. If only…”
THANK YOU, SAL!
All these wonderful ladies will mind-clobber some thoughtfullness-mojo into Walky’s brain-unit yet, I tells ya
One of my votes was for Sal so DOUBLE POINTS!!!!!
Joyce, the motorcycle is below the neck.
Hurr-hurr? (Not sure if innuendo or not)
I doubt it is because I can think of nothing motorcycle could refer to past her actual motorcycle.
Sal: Too cool for innuendo.
I thought of motorboating, but I guess that’s not really the same…
Have you never been on a motorcycle? They are definitely sexual things. Especially the faster ones.
Or a Harley, those things are just vibrators on wheels. Put a upturned lip on the front of the saddle and you would never get a girl off one before she got off (nudge, nudge, wink, wink) on one.
You have to be careful with Harleys. You don’t want to get on some joker’s bad side.
Joker doesn’t care about Harley. I mean, sure, he doesn’t like when she doesn’t do what he wants, but if somebody killed her, he’d probably laugh. Or kill them because he’s the only one who gets to break his toys. Anyway, it wouldn’t matter because he’d be impaled by a tree or something by week’s end.
What was my point again?
Below the neck, you meant below the belt right, Joyce?
Well, she’s probably not that keen on breasts either.
But she is…especially Billie’s
?
“I CAN’T be a lesbian!”
“How would you know? Would you even be aware of it?
…
You’re still staring at them, you know.”
“I could crawl up into them and be safe forever…”
Ah, Dave+Jeph… they’re so in love.
How did this comment wind up here? I thought I’d started a new comment stream.
Belt, neck, they both are four letters, start with a consonant, end with two consonants, have an ‘e’ in them…so yeah basically the same thing.
You go, Sal.
I’m surprised though: how does Walky know anything about the Ryan-pocalypse? Or is Sal referring to something else?
Walky and Sal were both there for the post-party strategery meeting.
ooooh, right, thanks! I totally forgot Walky was there too!
Since when is angrily browbeating someone for light-hearted teasing something worthy of commendation? Especially when coupled with overtly sexist tones?
Since Walky really should know better than to overstep the personal boundaries (established by “leave me alone” of panel 1 of today’s page) of a person he knows was nearly raped a few weeks ago (rape being one of the most severe violations of personal boundaries in existence).
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2011/comic/book-2/01-pajama-jeans/diversion/
Its not sexism to tell a guy to leave alone a girl who asks to be left alone. Its a lesson that plenty of guys still need to learn IMO.
This is way more serious than their usual bickering, mostly because Joyce is usually arguing right back. Right now she clearly does not want to put up with him right now, and he’s making uncomfortable comments about his sexuality.
I understand what you’re trying to say but it doesn’t really apply here.
Oh for God’s sake that was awful. My Kingdom for an edit button!
Walky is being a complete dickhole here, and Sal is entirely right to call him out on it. It stopped being “light-hearted teasing” and started being harassment when Joyce told Walky in no uncertain terms to stop, and harassment with sexual overtones against a girl who was drugged, assaulted, and almost raped three weeks ago, and Walky knows that, and Sal knows that he knows.
And “overtly sexist” what the fuck? You think “NO means NO” is “overtly sexist”?
And that’s not “angrily browbeating”. That’s a single firmly delivered statement that Walky’s out of line (which he totally is), and a quiet reminder of why what he was doing is out of line.
Basically what you’re saying is not a thing that happened.
Pretty much. I get that some webcomics play the “men getting beat up by women is hilarious” trope a little harsh sometimes, but that’s absolutely not what’s happening here. Walky is being himself and doesn’t realize how awful his words are, but the minute Joyce said “leave me alone” instead of calling him a jerky buttface and getting red faced about Dorothy, he needed to back off and he wasn’t. Sal getting in his face is pretty light compared to what most people would do in that situation.
Yes, this is the best Sal.
Sal is best.
Joyce is going to be very shocked (Maybe pleasantly surprised?) once she learns about non-op transgender girls.
You mean like her sibling?
Pretty sure Walky’s a dude, so no.
Poor Shrugs never met Jocelyne.
Ohhhhhhh, I though Plasma meant Sal’s sibling, not Joyce’s.
Incest is wincest.
Wincest as in win-cest or wince-st?
I dunno. I did wince at that comment, though, so good job with that.
Well we don’t know Jocelyne’s status on many things much less if she has any thoughts on SRS to begin with. That said, I meant other trans girls specifically ones who are out and open about it and not related to her.
I think that is like…semantics level of loophole, if we’re all being completely honest.
“pleasantly surprised”… You do know this is Joyce were talking about? At best, She’ll feel mildly uncomfortable.
Can we please not compare trans women to men like that? Firstly, trans women’s relationship with their genitals tend to be different. Secondly, if they’re on HRT stuff works differently, and I’m sure Joyce’s comment doesn’t just refer to genitals otherwise a strapon would work just as well.
Trans people are not a novelty and should not be treated as such. I understand what you are saying, but this is something that could trigger dysphoria in trans readers who have come across this comment. Trans women ARE women. Joyce has plainly stated she is interested in men. I doubt she would date a trans woman simply because the woman in question has chosen not to change her genitals.
Yeah I can see how my comment was worded poorly. Joyce has expressed interest in women just not interest physical intimacy with ones that have physiology like her own. Rather than a novelty or loophole I’m saying that she might find she can be physically intimate with a woman who is non-op (by choice) who has the personality traits she is attracted to. Basically I’m saying she hasn’t seen enough of what’s out there to claim attraction only to men especially given that she has expressed emotional attraction to women. Again I reiterate, if her only pitfall is physiology then she might find some women fall within her acceptable boundaries. I hope that clears up what I meant.
Joyce: If only there were a boy version of Sa….OH POOP!
Careful joyce. Your AU self is showing. 😉
Nah, she’s safe as long as Walky doesn’t grow his hair out and become cool.
They may be twins, but they are completely different in almost every way.
Well, but they’re fraternal twins, not identical ones. So basically just a regular brother and sister who share the same birthday.
Uuuugh walky is just the worst person.
I’m a bit hesitant to say that while Blaine’s still out there…
Walky is insufferable but the bar for the worst is set pretty high.
Yeah. You have to be Blaine or Ryan to register as a potential “worst”. Mr. “Toe” MacIntyre is usually #3 awful, as well.
“Toe”?
Becky’s dad is a stubby looking guy with little jawline and even less of a neck, so he looks like a toe.
He’s also only 18 or 19. I’m sure he’ll mature sooner or later, esp with the people he surrounds himself with.
Haha I identify with Walky more than any other character so you probably wouldn’t like me very much.
In general, or when you get angry?
In general. I’m more like Amber when I’m angry.
You dress up as Amazi-Girl as well?
Don’t we all?
Hey, I look good in spandex!
We’ll like you when you’re angry?
I feel compelled at this time to direct everyone’s attention to this chart, which clearly shows that the great Faz still exists.
I was going to ask why you had a chart for that, but, it’s Faz. He has a chart for everything.
But the great Faz is clearly the best character. If you look at this chart you can see penis size correlates to a character’s greatness, and then you see this chart depicting the size of Faz’s member you will see that he is by association, the best character.
What about Ass-Queen Mary? She’s a strong contender.
Char is seriously annoying as well. But for worst of all it would be hard to beat Ryan or Blaine, with some of the other parents close. In addition to those mentioned, I’d nominate Joyce’s and Ethan’s mothers.
Becky’s dad almost seemed worse than Ryan. At least Ryan wasn’t convinced he was doing a good thing.
No question that Becky’s father is one of the worst. However, Blaine has been at least psychologically abusing Amber for years, and Ryan was planning to physically abuse Joyce. Ethan’s mother, apart from the obvious refusal to accept her son’s sexual orientation, blames Amber for it, and told Ethan in effect to rape Joyce. Repeatedly.
BTW, it’s just short of three weeks in-comic since that party. I wonder if Ryan has recovered from the injuries he got from Joyce and Sarah. The latter in particular beat him down pretty thoroughly.
I don’t think I’d say that Naomi told Ethan to rape Joyce. She wants Ethan to have sex with Joyce, which he doesn’t want to do, but I don’t think there was any indication that she intended that it be non-consensual on Joyce’s part. She hadn’t yet met Joyce at that point, and knew nothing about her hangups, and was probably just assuming that, as a 21st-century college girl, she’s going to want to have sex with her boyfriend sooner or later.
(And I’m not entirely sure it would be non-consensual for Joyce, anyway. Joyce certainly wants to move the physical part of their relationship along further and faster than Ethan does. Maybe not to actual sex yet, but she’d certainly be down for some makeouts, and then it’d just be a matter of time before she got to, “Well, we’re married in our hearts, so that’s close enough, right?”)
Anyway, basically Naomi was telling her son to rape himself using Joyce. Which is still terrible, but not quite the same kind of terrible.
He’s really not. He’s just grown up a certain way, and he’s starting to unlearn all the bad behaviors he’s learnt. Each time he encounters something that needs changing, he changes. He’d only be the worst if, knowing better, he still continued those terrible behaviors.
Huh, Mike said something not overtly assholish, even in a “getting you to confront the truth” way. He must be building to something.
He’s been in a wired slump of being a normal person. Still my fave
My working theory is that he got drunk last in-universe night and he’s still a little hung over.
Mike seems kinda Chaotic Good-ish in this iteration. Like a drunken hooligan of a fairy godmother or something, assholish for the greater good.
Besides the part where he convinced Ethan to go back into the closet?
I hate the idea bandering around that Mike’s being such an asshole for everyone’s good or something. It’s gross.
He was being sarcastic, Ethan decided to be an idiot. Not Mike’s fault.
I’m pretty sure that wasn’t his intention. I think he was trying to make a point about how stupid and self-hurtful it would be using sarcasm, and Ethan just took it and ran with it non-ironically. Mike seemed pretty disbelieving when it happened.
Anybody with an even base amount of empathy would realize that telling a teenager whose entire life was flipped upside down because of his sexuality would realize that saying “you know what would be great? If you lied about that for the rest of your life” is completely awful.
Mike’s an asshole through and through.
I really need to start proofreading before I post.
Mike uses sarcasm as a method to express what he believes is the truth, unlike many who uses it when they don’t intend to be serious. I can tell because I’m often guilty of that too, although I try to make an effort to not hurt people when I do it.
Does that make him any less of an asshole? No, of course not. He’s spiteful and doesn’t seem to mind people getting hurt and certainly doesn’t care if they’re offended. But that doesn’t make what he says any less accurate.
I read that comic as printed word without any voice inflections to tip me off it was sarcastic and I managed to work this out. Mike may well be asshole but that situations is entirely down to Ethan being denser than a lead lined safe.
I don’t think it’s even Ethan being dense. It’s that that’s what he wanted to do anyway.
And when he said in no uncertain words that Amber was like her father? What lesson was he trying to teach there?
That wearing a mask doesn’t make being unstable and violent with anger issues a good thing.
That Amber can be (which is ‘is’, for certain values of is) an angry and controlling individual who uses violence both physical and verbal in an attempt to control those she professes to love? (Example: Ethan.)
I wouldn’t give him higher than Chaotic Neutral. He still is an asshole for primarily his own amusement. Doing good is just a random effect.
Yeah, ok. Chaotic Neutral it is. “Good” is really pushing it.
But I can’t think of anything he’s done so far that was actually evil (and for the love of fuck, no, sarcastically suggesting Ethan go back in the closet does not count) except for punching Joe in the face, I guess.
Punching Joe in the face was good, though.
If we are defining “good” as funny… then okay. Otherwise unprovoked violence is actually kinda the original “dick move,” and is thoroughly wrong-hearted (Mission Hill reference whoop whoop) and that’s without even resorting to the categorical imperative bullshit.
How is Chaotic Neutral lower than Chaotic Good? Oh, you have them in order of morality… I always organize them by fun: 1. Chaotic Neutral, 2. Chaotic Good and Chaotic Evil, 3. True Neutral, 4. Neutal Evil, 5. Neutral good, 6. Lawful Evil, 7.Lawful Neutral, 8. Lawful Good.
He’s inching eerily close to actually having emotions. His alternate universe self is showing.
Thank you Sal, he seems to listen to you.
Or he fears you. Either or.
I’d put my money on fear.
Well that’s really just cause and effect, isn’t it?
Clearly she was going to say Sal.
So she’d be into Sal except for the parts below the neck. Basically if Sal were a guy.
Gee, too bad she doesn’t have a twin brother. ^_~
Hehehe 😀
but what about the luxurious chocolate river
Walky’s just gonna have to grow it out a bit then. That said, she didn’t mind in the Walkyverse… 😛
…I know, I know, HE said HE didn’t want to repeat the same relationships as the Walkyverse, it’s just a random thought…
*Watches several Fan-Ships set out to see once more…*
Too bad her twin brother is an asshole :/ They may be twins, but Walky has hardly any of the qualities that make Sal attractive to Joyce.
So this means Joyce is going to try to set up Becky with Sal and live vicariously through her, right?
I’m sure Sal is also straight.
I think you’re right, but Joyce doesn’t know that.
As if Joyce would ever assume anyone’s gay. She’s one of those people who forgets it exists until someone personally comes up to her. She’d automatically Sal’s straight.
I don’t know. having an old best friend kiss her may make Joyce examine her relationships to other people. I think she might be having a serious conversation with Dorothy soon about the nature of their relationship.
And by vicariously, we’re talking about hidden cameras right.
needs more mike
Wait, why especially that girl?
I’m confused too.
Prolly cuz she was all molested and junk.
Yeah I really feel like I’ve forgotten something important.
Oh, now I get it. It’s because of what happened to Joyce at the partty; Sal and Walky are very much aware of that.
Sal’s referring to the party where Joyce was drugged. She’s been shown to have serious issues over it, so Walky teasing her about her sexuality is already a lot douchier than it already is.
Because she was recently (in comic time it was only a few weeks ago) almost raped by a guy. Walky harassing her could trigger memories of that.
but… I remember Sal knowing and giving advice as to how to deal with the situation (basically: do NOT go to ze police), but what about Walky?
BobWalky was there too.Because Joyce has been fawning over Sal since the beginning of this strip.
“If I were Lesbian for anybody it’d be-”
Becky. Joyce loves Becky so much, just not in that way. If she could be, she would be a lesbian for Becky. But it’s not a choice, and the irony is that Joyce realized this because she can’t be one for Becky. She can’t ask others to “not be gay” because she can’t make herself “be gay.” No darn you, just nice job Willis for making Joyce realize this in a believable way.
I’m a bit misty eyed myself.
Awww.
Amen.
+1!
Oh Joyce, you liar! You know you want to deal with those parts below the neck. You want to crawl into them and be safe and warm forever.
C’mon, you can’t compare the modest Becky rack to the Billie rack. It’s like…the Final Boss.
You can’t compare them really, no. I prefer Becky’s though.
Ruth’s limit break involves her tongue. It is amazing.
Thank you Sal, been waiting for someone to tell him to stop bothering her.
Called this a while ago. Not specifically from Sal though, and I was hoping for more physical harm (at least a slap in the face). I’ll take it though, that last panel won me over.
Aww, Sal. You’re the best.
Also Joyce in the last panel changed from referring to Becky, and referred to Sal instead, right? So cute.
Great, now the answer to that Question is going to be up in the air forever
Boxers or briefs?
…….one of the biggest decision in life, I will eternally pounder this.
The correct answer is commando!
Pretender suit so I look human for me, followed by commando as you Humans call it. Daniel the Human prefers jocks, he says they “keep everything where they’re needed & away from where they’ll receive much pain”. Guess it’s a human thing…
Both.
Boxer briefs are a thing.
I think Rezby literally meant both at the same time. Put on some boxers and then superman some briefs on top.
Then again we all know the answer so ,doesn’t fucking matter
I’d totally be busting Joyce’s Balls about it too. I’m kind of a dick like that.
Joyce has balls? That means that Joyce can be straight for any girl she wants now.
In the immortal words of Joan Jett, “Girls have got balls. They’re just a little higher up, that’s all.”
Tell Ethan the good news
dude, your Gravatar totally freaks me out, drunk Mike is creepy! XD
Except that trans women exist.
In think Plasma Mongoose means within Joyce’s worldview, though. She doesn’t know about Jocelyn yet, and has not idea about Carla.
Eh, I would have abused the fuck out of this joke until I found something new to harass her with.
Do we know what Sal is referencing when she’s saying “unless you’ve forgotten”? My brain is fried and I can’t think of why she is saying that. Forgotten what?
The night of the party.
Does Sal know about that?
She helped out the next morning with the “what do we do now” moment.
Ah, then that’s definitely it.
Yes, she and Walky ended up in the room the day after when they were all discussing what to do about it, and then all went to the beach to make Joyce feel better.
I believe she (as well as Walky) were part of a discussion the morning afterwards, about whether to report the incident.
I would expect a story like that to get around very quickly. Sal wasn’t at the party, but she’s probably heard about it from Sarah or someone else in their wing.
Oops, never mind!
Everyone involved is keeping tight lipped about it.
*Sigh* we’re not going to find closure on this until we find Ryan and lynch him in the street are we?
How does it go?
Grab you’re pichforks & torches people, it’s lynch-mobbing time… }:D
Forgotten that a dude pretended to be a preacher’s kid, drugged her drink, and assaulted her at a party?
I believe he was honest about being a preacher’s kid.
Not really. Many of us are conjecturing the party, but we’ll have to wait and see.
I am now ruing my decision not to vote for Sal in the character poll. Walky’s needed this wake-up call for a while. Yay, Sal!
Rue!!! Rue!!!
So is someone going to make an oral sex joke? Something about only needing the head.Hopefully someone will make one by the time I post this comment. I wouldn’t do it justice.
Sal: Casually beating up annoying little brother, defending traumatized friends, tempting straight girls with below-the-neck-stuff, being generally awesome. Yup, just a business as usual filler strip today.
I think you have to wait a few years before you can say it’s filler.
HEEERE SHE COMES TO SAVE THE DAAAAAAAAAAAY!
No, no, no. She’s like Mickey Mouse, not Mighty Mouse.
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2013/comic/book-4/01-the-only-dope-for-me-is-you/bunk/
She can be two things. It’s a free country.
But she can’t be three things. That’s a liberal myth.
i don’t know, she was only sharing that look with Micky Mouse. Never said she actually was…
Hush is four things!
Hey, Walky is over his test-trauma. That’s good, right?
Right?
I don’t think he’s over it, just distracted momentarily. He’ll probably remember and go back to freaking out any minute now.
From what I’ve seen of Human behavior, he’ll most likely remember about it later & just start worrying, with only a mild-medium chance of freak out. Unless it’s Dorothy asking him how he went, then panic & horrid cover-up attempts chances go beyond high levels…
Hopefully now that he’s over the shock he’ll actually do something about it.
I admit that I’m not the biggest Sal fan (I found her incredibly irritating and quite the jerk prior to the reveal in the Family Weekend arc, and sleeping with Jason was such a scumbag move), but this was so cool of her. Go overprotective Sal.
Why does the overprotective Sal part of your comment immediately make me think of POWER RANGERS?
Sal would be the best Green Ranger.
Have you seen her helmet? shes obviously the red ranger.
I meant she fit the trope of “badass loner who kicks everyone’s ass and eventually joins the group as the sixth member.” Like Tommy from season one.
And now I’m going to duck out before I let slip anymore of my embarrassingly large amount of Power Rangers knowledge.
Green is often the funny one.
I think Sal sleeping with Jason would be unlikely, and I doubt it ever happened. She just ‘gave him all her sexy’ in the supply closet a few times.
Sal and Jason have had sex twice. The first time she wanted him to give her an A, and the other time I’m not really sure but whatevs, not really a big deal.
I sympathize with Sal’s learning difficulties, and also having a shitty teacher like Jason, but with sleeping with a teacher for a good grade is just awful.
She did say she wouldn’t have done it if she didn’t also find him at least somewhat attractive. “Ah’m not gross.”
I find her fling with Jason a little less bad because of their second encounter. I mean they clearly have a thing for each other beyond “give me good grades,” or I don’t see why there would have been a second time.
Okay I just read all of It’s Walky and I take it back. Sal is the best ever at everything.
Hell I would be a lesbian for her!!(But… I am a guy YoHoHoHoHoHo!!)
Are you doing… Brook’s corny joke laugh?
Is Sal referring to a specific incident with that “in case you’ve [expletive] forgotten” reference? Or is this this mysterious?
Probably when Walky called Joyce ‘crazy brainwashed’ and offended *everyone*. I’m too lazy to find and link it.
Sal wasn’t there for that.
Probably the attempted rape. Both Sal and Walky were in the room the day after while they were all discussing it.
Ack! Never mind!
Is Sal alluding to the as yet ill defined connection between Walky and Joyce viz that terrible Christian cartoon? Me thinks so!
I’m actually pretty sure she’s saying ‘Hey, idiot, don’t sexually harass the girl you know for a fact to have been drugged and sexually assaulted. ESPECIALLY don’t continue to do it after she’s told you to leave her alone.’
Have that many people seriously forgotten the party? I know it was a while ago but it was a PRETTY BIG MOMENT.
It seems the big confusion that keeps cropping up is: “Does Sal even know about that?”
To which the answer is yes.
Yes, but Sal and Walky weren’t at it. What people are forgetting is this sequence: http://www.dumbingofage.com/2011/comic/book-2/01-pajama-jeans/assault/
And more importantly, the strip two down: “We shouldn’t just leave her to deal with this alone”: http://www.dumbingofage.com/2011/comic/book-2/01-pajama-jeans/diversion/
Whoops! Sorry. Four strips later, but Rabid Rabbit’s posted the beginning of Sal’s involvement.
No really, All they need to do is get Ryan and beat him down to a bloody pulp…so ya my solution is violence.
It might just be the vague way it is referred to? I didn’t instantly connect it to the party either even though I still remembered it.
For them it was like three weeks ago, but for us it has been more than 3 years. 11/2011 to 01/2015 for the ones still interested.
In case someone is wondering about today’s gravatar, check out this link: http://tmblr.co/ZucXQt1bFbhbe
I was thinking Hellsing, that the version of her from the original anime?
As my grav of Integra is fanart, it’s hard to say.
Daniel the human says it looks more like the Manga version. I’ve spotted he’s got the whole series of Manga, but they’re “stored away” at the moment…
Why do you feel the need to explain where it came from this time? I can never figure out where you get your gravatars. I’d ask, but I assumed you got tired of answering that question along time ago.
I decided to explain what each gravatar I use from now on via tumblr.
You the one who made Amber a redhead and gave Riley A hat? That’s cool. You’re cool.
What can I say, when I still had Photoshop, I could edit a lot more.
I LOVE SAL AAAAAAAAAA <3 <3 <3
Sal has always been cool. Stupid move sleeping with Jason but gee I guess he’s not a scumbag is he> Asshole is the teacher, he should have called the shots maybe, hum?
As to Joyce’s reaction to Sal. Since the day she first saw Sal ride onto campus on her cycle, she has been totally star struck.
As to Mike. He hates everybody equally, except Joyce. For some reason he has never leaned on her quite as hard as he does others. I think it is because he accepts that Joyce is an real pita, but that she tries to think things out most of the time. It’s an uphill battle half the time with the fundie background and her clinginess to friends. But, she tries. And no, I’m not a fan-I would not hang around Joyce under any conditions.
But a lot of the crap she gets into is not something she goes looking for, like Becky, falling into her bed.
Whereas Mike sees most everybody as idiots, and has a knack for knowing just what they are pulling down on themselves and sometimes assists it because he is bored or whatever he is, he is for the most part not evil.
He’s the anti-Joyce. 🙂
Haha! I kinda feel like – from what I can see – Mike may not feel the need to troll Joyce because she practically trolls herself with a lot of the stuff she says and does.
Mike hasn’t leaned on quite a few people actually; Sal, Sarah, Rox, Joe, Jacob… Just to name a few I don’t remember seeing him really go in on. Out of all of them, he spent the most time with Sal, but I don’t remember him going in on her. On contrary, he seemed moee impressed by her bike then anything.
I think he’s afraid of getting turned on.
That’s just a list of people that would probably be less impressed by his cheap shots. Like any predator, Mike can smell weakness and goes in. As for the others, I’m sure he’s just biding his time, looking for the perfect moment.
She kissed Becky… AND LIKED IT?!?!?!
YAY! Joyce likes Becky Kisses! (Just not dealing with the female parts)
I’d be all for that, be she doesn’t say or imply that anywhere here…
Anyway in the last panel she is talking about Sal. It isn’t 100% clear who she was talking about before Mike spoke up.
Maybe not 100%, but in the high 90s, surely?
“I am straight. And now I know for certain ’cause if I were lesbian for anybody it’d be –”
The emphasis on “now” suggests that this certainty is due to something recent, and what else would she be referring to than being kissed by her best friend?
She was obviously talking about Becky.
I would say very likely Becky, yes. Then Mike jumped in and derailed her.
Her problem was with “anything below the kneck”. Becky’s mouth is drawn to be above the kneck. Based on Joyce’s statement, everything above the kneck is good for Joyce to date. Thus, Joyce liked Becky’s mouth. Suggesting she liked the kiss, and ran off because she couldn’t handle the kiss and Becky’s female body at the same time.
Everyone’s gay for Sal!
Speak for yourself, I’m gay for Mike.
…So Walky should grow his hair out and start smoking?
Anyone who has read the entirety of the Walkyverse think that majority of the relationships in this comic series ironic (or whatever the proper term is)?
Other way around for me. I sometimes think it’s amusing when people who were couples in the Walkyverse interact in non-coupley ways in the Dumbiverse. Of course, many of them interacted in non-coupley ways in the Walkyverse too, before they became couples.
I’m also talking about things like how Joyce interacts with Sal. Remember how that goes in the Walkyverse? Though this also might go south eventually.
Sal here, once again proving me right for voting for her in the ‘fave character’ poll. Atta girl.
Sal: despite difficulty with booklearnin’ and a chronic distrust/dislike of authority, has a lot to teach us.
Honestly, I thought Joyce was referring to wanting to be with sal, not becky. I’m happy with either, but wondering if I’m missing something after reading through all these posts xp
Well, in a homoromantic or I enjoy the idea but not the physical body kinda way I mean
I think it’s pretty obviously Becky, although I suppose it’s not completely certain. Since Walky wasn’t even saying something when Sal jerked him away, the implication is that she did so the moment she got near enough, which means that she wasn’t around while Joyce was talking about ‘and now’ (thanks to the passage of time in comics that means that people are frozen at any position they were in at any point during the dialogue; in this case, at the end), so Joyce was probably referring to ‘now’ as in ‘after the recent events that have taken place’ (i.e. Becky coming out as lesbian and kissing Joyce and wanting Joyce to return the feelings) rather than ‘at this very moment’, because ‘at this very moment’ wouldn’t make sense. The other meaning would make sense, because of course Joyce would have liked to not break Becky’s heart. If she’s a good friend, she hasn’t forgotten how Becky reacted after Joyce rejected her.
Yes, definitely Becky.
Bi Joyce? I’d buy that for a dollar
Smug, cross-armed Mike is my favorite character of all.
I know I’m opening up a can of worms and then running away to watch the fireworks (wait…what? apparently the worms are loaded with explosives!), but do rape victims or attempted rape victims resent people treating them special and walking on eggshells when talking to or around them? Like here with Sal, if Joyce knew that people have been protecting her from particular topics, as has happened a few times now, would she feel insulted? I figure that it depends from person to person, but I have no basis for that guess, and it seems that either option, to shield or not to shield, is presumptuous.
Joyce might have been a lot worse mentally if Ryan was able to rape her, but as for your question, it’s a hard question to answer, Willis should know but answering said question might entail spoilers.
I think it’s more of a “She’s had her personal boundries smashed already, so we WANT her to be able to trust us, so when she says “Leave me alone’ don’t be like that jerk from before, and LEAVE her alone”
Yes and no. Here’s the thing–certain things can be triggering, and can lead to re-living the experience, thus leading into panic attacks, or mental break downs. As you move on with your PTSD, (because that’s what often happens) you learn what your triggers, and how to avoid them. Before you or your friends know your triggers, it’s kind of hard to know what’s okay and what’s not.
*discussion of my triggers below, please tread lightly*
For instance, rape jokes give me panic attacks, as do discussions of hard core drugs or drug abuse, alcoholism, jokes about domestic violence, pictures of self mutilation, people sexually dominating me, and jokes about suicide. I had to discover these all on my own. It’s easy to tell people now, and they are easy to avoid. But yeah, it’s appreciated. But we also want you to treat us normally as well! Just be aware of things that are MOST LIKELY to be triggering to us, and avoid ’em! That’s what good friends do.
The type of teasing that Walky was doing was something that Joyce would NEVER have been happy with/comfortable with. The way I see it, Sal’s intervention was not so much a case of “don’t bring up bad memories” as much as “Don’t give her more problems”.
I think as is often the case the answer will very from person to person.
Vary. Sorry, I’m sleepy.
Also from day to day, of course. People’s emotional state varies so some days will be worse than others.
I disagree. Crazy (murderous) Sal is best Sal !
I just wanted to check in really quick to say that I really like today’s strip. Yeah.
I do too.
“All year”? It’s only been a few weeks! Do I have to rewrite the whole timeline now? Goddammit, Walky!
I think it’s implied that it was “all school year”.
Generally students refer to a year meaning a school year. I’ve definitley confused people with that terminology on both ends. When I said I was planning on going to Scotland for a year, my friends had to ask if I meant 10 months or 12.
But it would’ve made more sense to say “all term,” but “all year” basically means the same thing at this point in school year.
I’ve heard people referring to what has been of this month as “all year”, though often involving the lines “Haven’t seen you all year”. Does that count?
It took me a few minutes to figure out what Sal was talking about when she said, “Especially that girl.” It’s amazing how little time has passed in this strip.
So Sals basically the Fonz then?
Two things occur to me here.
1. Between this and worrying about Billie I feel like Sal has kinda stealth grown as a character on us. Also nice to see her actually acting like a big sister to Walky, even if its with threats of physical violence (what else would it be really?).
2. Does MIKE have a thing for Sal. Holy shit, I think Mike has a thing for Sal.
Everyone has a thing for Sal.
We’ve seen Mike likes to endure mild physical violence when he met Amazigirl, so I guess this is what draws him to Sal?
OK, where was the twins birth order confirmed? This is, like, the third post in these comics saying Sal’s the older one, but I don’t remember that ever coming up.
*these comments. Blast the lack of an edit function!
I don’t think it was, its just assumed based on the situation.
1. Sal seems to be the more adapt one of the two. I was originally going to say mature, but there isn’t much evidence towards her being more mature, just more of the antisocial one.
2. Walky seems to be the favored child. Being the youngest brother of two different brothers, I personally can’t co-sign onto what I’m about to say. . . to my understanding, the youngest child is usually the favored or more spoiled because he is the baby. I’ve got two friends who are twins and being twins doesn’t seem to erase this concept. Now like I said, I can’t co-sign onto this seeing how with my mother, it was my older brother who was the “spoiled” child. He always got the namebrand stuff, got his first car at 15, and always had mom standing by him even if he was in the wrong when in trouble.
I on the other hand was the golden child who was the complete opposite; never really wanted clothes ore shoes, still haven’t didn’t get a car, and just tried not to be any uneeded stress for moms, even when I was becoming more and more depressed, or having problems I knew nothing about
3. It’s usually the older sibling who is considered the troublemaker or overpowering the younger one.
And Sal has been forced to grow up and become self-reliant quicker, I’d guess. And of course, girls generally tend to mature earlier than boys.
I’m the younger of two brothers and I’m totally the favored child.
…But my older brother happens to actually be a huge jerk, so maybe it’s not a great example. Then again, maybe he became a huge jerk because I ended up being the favored child? He’s not a huge jerk to me specifically, though, he’s just a huge jerk in general.
…Anyway, Sal and Walky are twins. Sal just had to grow up faster.
Yeah, I think it’s a positive sign for Sal’s emotional growth and attachment to her peers that she a) stands up for Joyce and b) has started to trust that even if Walky can be kind of a turd, it’s worth it to try and correct his behavior, and he’ll listen to her (at least, that’s how I interpret this – though I’m not denying she’s being rougher than she has to be).
And now I begin picturing everyone as just floating heads….
You’re just looking at the default gravatars in the comment section. That’s cheating.
Like in Prince of Persia: The shadow and the flame.
Awww Sal, stickin’ up for the biddies.
Don’t look now, but it looks like Joyce is visiting over at Questionable Content today.
She asked Marten what his mom does for a living.
…And is sufficiently horrified… 😛
i don’t see it. do you have a link to that comic?
Aw, it’s not there anymore! 🙁
It was totally there like two days ago, just a one-page panel, but now it’s gone. Must have just been filler that was replaced by the actual comic.
Bummer.
Cerxi to the rescue! http://www.questionablecontent.net/random/joycemarten.png
No! No! No! Joyce and Sal will not be a thing!
Anyways, Sal needs to just stay awesome!
*hands Joyce an axe*
Oh well, Walky was deserving that veru much
Mike’s here to confirm what the rest of us already know
I’m having a little difficulty finding the forums. I’ve used them before, but I can’t seem to find them, can someone give me a link?
What forums?
There have never been DoA forums.
I think he/she/[insert pronoun here] is referring to the same forums on which the Billie/Joyce fanfic you shared around the time DoA started was found.
Speaking of “all dang year”, has anybody been keeping track of how far into the semester we are by now?
about a month and a half. there was a calendar going around on tumblr months ago that i don’t feel like finding, but the gist of it is that we’ve had two or three time skips that jump thru the week, and with the night to day to night progression it amounts to something like 4 or 5 weeks. maybe 6, idk. but i do remember book one is sometime in august (per word of willis), and book four iirc is sometime in september (per word of ruth)
whoops went check cos i’m actually kind of obsessive about things and it turns out this is just ending week four. like not even a month has passed wth it’s time for another time skip already
There was also a graph going around of real time vs comic time, someone worked out the ratio and it was like 53 comics per day or something… any chance you found that while looking for the other thing/
It’s Friday of Week Four, which makes it sometime in late September, year unspecified.
Most storylines are a day, though they sometimes slop a little over the midnight boundary, and we skipped Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday of Week Two waiting for pajama jeans at the beginning of “Time Keeps On Slippin'”, and Thursday and Friday of Week Three studying with Dorothy at the end of “Answers in Hennessy”.
We’ve been running around an in-comic week per real-world year, though I think it’s slowing down lately.
I do not recall my first year at the university being anywhere near this eventful.
The party was Friday night of Week One, incidentally, so it’s been almost exactly three weeks.
So… Joyce is lesbian for girl heads? Or is there something special about Sal’s head that makes her an exception?
Hmm, what if Joyce is heterosexual but biromantic?
Would she not be headrosexual? *nudge nudge wink wink*
That is not what we usually mean by “give head.”
But I’ll allow it!
hmm, that thought crossed my mind too cos of joyce’s wording. but she probably just meant that she would be gay for becky to keep her from grief and in the path of god. also, id-rly-k how sensual romantic orientations are, but maybe she would’ve reacted differently to the kiss if she were?
Romantic attractions can vary a lot. I am particularly interested in them for personal reasons but neither me or anybody I know really seems able to define a line where a romantic interaction ends and a sexual one begins. For instance, I am a-ok with kissing but shy away from contact involving genitalia. Other ace romantic folks are kind of meh about kissing.
The thing about Becky’s kiss that makes it seem inconclusive to me was that it was unsolicited and Joyce was given almost no time to prepare for it. I don’t know how other people feel about unsolicited contact but it’s very rarely positive for me.
I like hugs and am OK with kissing, cuddling when I expect it is also good, but I do not like unsolicited or random physical contact to the point where I am only barely OK with handholding with my (romantic but not sexual) girlfriend, and then only for a few minutes before I want my hand and space back.
It’s like Jamie from Girls With Slingshots, who described herself once as an “above-the-waist lesbian”.
Joyce could be an “above-the-neck lesbian”.
But yeah, biromantic is what I was thinking.
Then what would be an “above the head lesbian”?
I think Joyce is just freaked out by boobies.
She seemed quite attracted to Billie’s.
(But then, who isn’t?)
Some of it, I think, is that she’s still filtering her desires through the familiar, established forms of intimacy she already knows – in this case, brushing another girl’s hair.
Seriously, I ship Joyce & Mike.
I ship Joyce and Joe.
seems pretty reasonable.
Me too! I want them to give it a second shot, this time, without Mike. I don’t know how in the hell the story would lead to that happening, but I hope it does.
I can believe that.
Pretty sure Joyce was going to say Becky. Because she never wanted to hurt Becky with her rejection and so on. Plus Joyce trusts Becky and cares about her so much and yeah. I promise I don’t ship it, I just have been there, where I wanted a romance to work between myself and my best friend, but it didn’t work out.
Saaaaaaame.
Joyce the head hunter.
I wouldn’t mind a Sal/Mike slipshine.
Actually I kind of hope we see a slipshine with Mike, considering that he has already mention that he’s a sub in the bedroom, and likes being tied up. Damn a bondage slipshine from Willis would be hot as fuck.
Unless Mike was lying and was just saying that to make Amazi-girl uncomfortable. In that case, I will have to somehow enter the DOA world and pummel Mike for getting my hopes up.
Also: If only? Wow Joyce! That was offhand and casual! Somebody’s growing up, and learning to take a joke! Well I mean, he wasn’t JOKING, but pre-outed Becky Joyce (wow that was weird) would have spluttered, turned red, and gotten angry.
Also her dialogue suggests she would totally make out licky style with Sal.
Well, there is a Slipshine with 30-something Walkyverse Mike.
Oh damn I forgot about that one. He probably won’t use Mike again then.
Mike is whatever you don’t want him to be. So that means if you want him to be a sub he’ll be a raging dom or top.
My Sal appreciation index just went up. That’s not a euphemism; I wouldn’t dare.
This reminds me- does Ethan know about the incident at the party?
Not unless someone’s told him off-panel.
Being Sals bongo might be a dang good education for Joyce in the long run.
No one should ever think Joyce is unrealistic. I mean, even if you ignore the fact that David Willis says she’s semi-autobiographical, this is sort of me at 18. Religious, but still in that “but the bible should be about love” mode and questioning everything because I can’t bring myself to see people who are gay as doing something wrong. It’s a fast downhill slide, man. I went from SDA who was in the school bible reading club to agnostic to bisexual atheist XDD
Mike, once more standing in and speaking for us all.
I’m amazed by Walky’s behaviour. I know he’s a smart-ass, but his behaviour here seems just plain mean.
Not really, Joyce has set herself for it and Walky was taking the shot, maybe not as well as Mike could have but really Joyce has brought it on herself
Well, their relationship has been a lot like this all along. Joyce just isn’t taking it as well today as she has in the past, in large part I think because Becky pulled the rug out from under her last night and she hasn’t gotten herself reoriented. On previous occasions her reaction has been pretty much, “You’re so stupid and annoying! I hate you! What are we doing for lunch today?” This is the first time she’s actually told him to stop, and also the first time she’s actually denied being a lesbian. I think Walky just failed to recognize the situation changing, until Sal clued him in.
So…
It seems Joyce’s ideal partner would be a male version of Sal.
If Mike ever gentled himself a touch, I could see that pairing work here…
Uh-oh! Sal’s eye twitched! Walky might wanna be careful…
“-it’d be for My Lord And Saviour Jesus Christ.” “Jesus isn’t a woman though.” “All things are possible through the power of God.”
Food for thought. Joyce tries very hard to be a good person – even if some of things she believes are utterly irrational. She stood up for Dorothy against her parents, and she took in her other best friend. When has Walky ever done anything good?
Sal is seriously one of the best characters, I love her so much.
I can’t believe I just spent over an hour looking for Joyce over in the backgrounds of QC and not finding her. What was the comic number Willis?
If I recall, it was a placeholder image that was removed once he put up a proper strip.
http://www.questionablecontent.net/random/joycemarten.png
I dunno, seems to me the stuff above the neck is (at least on Sal) even more likely to smell of cigarettes.
(On the other hand, there is a small part of me that cannot currently see a “for her” with potentially-ambiguous antecedent without bringing up Rose Quartz.)
i find this hilarious because a few years ago i said basically the same thing Joyce did but let me tell u i have been attracted to girls this entire time and was just so far in denial i had myself completely convinced. Everyone else knew though.
Give her a year at most. Hopefully in comic it’d happen sooner so we can see it