how much you wanna bet he gets sniped from the rooftop by mike. who in my head totally has a cache of hidden weapons stashed in various locations just in case of crazy jackasses on his turf. ONLY HE BRINGS MISERY TO THIS PLACE
Seeing that he managed to get his gun back I don’t think Dina is alive any longer. I doubt Joyce will get killed off though. Remember the frame where he first chaced them into the woods. There were people watching. I’m guessing police have been called at this point.
I would think that they would find the gun less suprise ng if they had heard a gunshot go off on campus. Ihis rifle is not a the most stealthy weapon on the market, and I imagine could be heard from anywhere on campus.
There’s also a lack of blood. Dina probably wouldn’t run away so killing her would either mean a very close range shot, or beating her to death. Both would probably leave blood splatter on his clothes. My guess is that toedad likely manhandled her into the car and she is likely bruised but otherwise mostly unharmed. Or Willis didn’t think to include bloody clothes…. or toedad had a spare shirt in the car.
If he had shot Dina, they would have heard it. Everyone on campus would have, and there’d be a mass panic.
He immediately caught up to Becky, which required going back to his car, backing it out, turning around, going around the park, and to the fountain. I don’t think he had time to do much to Dina, much less beat her to a pulp and/or throw her in the trunk. Even with her being so small compared to him, he’d still would have wasted time dragging a struggling girl back with him, with his rifle in the other hand, open the trunk, throw her in, get in, and take off in the car… and that’s on the assumption that no one at all tried to stop him to help someone being kidnapped.
Dina might have a rifle-butt or knuckle shaped welt on her head, but otherwise I think she’s alright. If she ends up going to the hospital, it’ll be for a concussion and maybe bruised ribs.
Then I saw another Toedad that rose from the earth; it had an implement of two barrels like a double-barreled implement and it spoke like thunder. It exercises all the authority of the Toedad on its behalf, and it makes the earth and its inhabitants worship the Toedad, whose mortal wound had yet to be inflicted. It performs great signs, even making fire come down both barrels to earth in the sight of all
I think it might be an over/under shotgun or combination gun. Panel 3 of Monday’s strip clearly showed two triggers, so it’s either a double-barreled firearm, or a double set trigger.
Nope, it’s a rifle. I looked up the Ruger No. 1 and yep, that’s this thing. Willis simply sucks at drawing intricate trigger guards and managed to make part of the trigger guard look like a second trigger. I forgive him.
I wouldn’t even say he sucks at it. There’s not much you could do that wouldn’t make the trigger guard on the Ruger No. 1 look like a second trigger in a basic drawing For that matter, it wouldn’t be terribly hard to mistake it for one in real life.
Apologies, that came off with too much snark. The point I wish to make is that as it’s probably a falling-block, single-shot rifle, it’s qualities capabilities are very different from a double-barrel shotgun, or even a double-barrel rifle. This in turn changes what kind of threat it poses.
Not really, “bangstick make it better. bangstick make me right,” seems to be Toedad’s thought process. Discussing what kind of bangstick Toedad will use to impose his views here is not only irrelevant, it is missing the whole point.
I mean the moral shitty-ness of it is equally bad no matter what really but the type of gun significantly changes the threat. Does it spray and shoot everyone in front of him? How many rounds can the gun shoot before he has to reload? like these things directly affect how many people are in danger (including bystanders), how far they can run between shots, and the seriousness of the wounds. Like are they going to have their chest cavities opened up and die on site or are they going to spend a couple days in the hospital?
@dixiesaurer it’s a single shot breech-loading rifle, no magazine and a double-set trigger, probably a .22 caliber rimfire. The rifle was fairly positively identified back at “Deceptress”.
What’s relevant to the narrative is that it is the absolute worst possible choice for a shooting spree (or even just shooting two people), short of a prison zip gun made out of a piece of pipe and a nail.
But it’s still a gun, and it’s still on a college campus, and a girl is still being threatened with it. And it’s still capable of killing said girl — the Ruger #1 Varmint is a .223 caliber rifle, i.e., same round as a M-16, not the world’s deadliest round but people still manage to kill deer with them.
Toedad is not going to be happy when the police roll up and draw down on him. In fact, he may end up dead. Cops nowadays don’t play when someone is holding a gun on a college campus, they don’t spend time analyzing how many rounds it holds, they shout “drop it!” and follow that up a split second later with sufficient rounds to make sure that it happens.
I think that it might not count as a pun if people genuinely laugh genuinely — ie, not groan/mock-laugh, chuckle, smile — even if technically its a pun. Even if it does count and as a pun I’ll pay Cheryl’s punfine: there’s too many levels of intertwined cleverness in her post.
Lying here in the darkness
I hear the sirens wail
Somebody going to emergency
Somebody’s going to jail
If you find somebody to love in this world
You better hang on tooth and nail
The wolf is always at the door
I still can’t believe anyone would bring a rifle when setting out to find their child. I know the MST3K mantra, but this still takes me out of the story.
He almost certainly took off as soon as he saw her. He might have pushed Dina out of the way but I doubt he killed or her dragged her with him or whatever the worst we’re assuming is
The cops don’t wait for a SWAT team anymore. They learned that lesson with Columbine where people died because they waited. The first cops on the scene charge the guy with the gun and if he doesn’t immediately drop it, they shoot and kill him. That’s the modern training on the subject.
I think its the difference between a hostage situation and a mass-murder-massacre-slaughter situation. In the former the older tactics make sense and probably save way more lives. In the latter, what Badtux said.
True enough, but in public, on a college campus, you’re going to get an immediate response as if you’re an active shooter in this day and age. You just have to turn on the news to know why. If you’re in a house with a hostage, on the other hand, they’ll call the SWAT team and wait you out.
Joyce is going to try that, I think. I also think that Ross isn’t sufficiently… sane at the moment to be able to participate. I’m expecting him to just wave his gun and roar demands.
OK Ross, time to see whether you have the courage of your convictions. You’ve done the macho man act, tracked her down, brandished your rifle… but now what? What are you going to do when Becky doesn’t follow the script? Can you actually point that thing at your daughter when she’s standing right there, looking at you? Would you pull the trigger?
Or will you have a moment of clarity and realise what you’re actually doing here? You’re probably going away for this, but you can put the gun down, give yourself up to the cops when they arrive and get some counselling. You’ll have to give up your fantasy of control, but you have that choice. Lord grant you the strength.
(He can’t hear me, can he? Probably just as well; trying to talk him down would just make him dig his heels in further.)
I really feel this could go either way at this point. He might just be that crazy. Well, brough the gun and already pointed it at someone, so we know he’s this crazy. Wether or not he’s insane enough to pull the trigger remains to be seen.
Don’t call it insanity. He’s fully in control of his own actions, he’s just that much of a bigot. Insanity usually can be treated or controlled; there’s no cure for asshole.
if she take a bullet, she will *need* to go to an hospital (where they’d most probably call the cops), or she would probably die from blood loss/infection/younameit.
Not a sound plan.
I can tell you with complete certainty, as a longtime observer of the world of “Christian TV” and similar hucksters on radio and travel. Billy Graham is like the Dalai Lama of Christianity.
Never judged, never asked for money, was sincere in his positive beliefs, and it earned him the respect of presidents and even atheists like myself, because he was more about peace, love, blah blah, than ever was fire, hell, “do this and burn you sinner!”
If there ever was a good guy in the Protestant World, BG should have been their pope.
He definitely judged the Jewish community, although he kept it private apparently, and he advocated a plan for Nixon to bomb dikes all across North Vietnam, which was estimated to be able to kill a million people.
He was friendly enough in public, in order to keep his role as the pastor to presidents, but he definitely wasn’t cuddly.
Police response is 3 minutes minimum. Campus cops who hear gun will rush, but they’ll also pause to arm and armor themselves, so it’s a wash. I’d start expecting them soon, but it could easily be all over before they get there.
I can’t speak for IU, but I work security at Yale, and when we call Yale PD for emergencies, response time is typically quite a bit less than 3 minutes. A gun would draw attention from New Haven PD as well. That said, they can’t be everywhere at once, and with guns, it only takes a couple seconds for someone to get shot.
Very likely that they have been called–someone showing up on a public street toting an assault rifle on campus tends to get attention–but Toedad cut through a wooded area, then went back to his car and drove elsewhere, so the campus cops may be trying to figure out where the heck he is.
It’s a single-shot rifle, not any sort of semi-auto civilian knock-off of a military gun. That said, it’s still definitely deadly, it’s just a really bad choice if he wants to kill BOTH girls.
I know some guys like the single shots for hunting but I’ve always felt its better to have a few rounds on hand in case the deer (or whatever) doesn’t drop so you can shot another round into it before it gets away and suffers more
Of course in this instance I’m glad its a single shot rifle hes carrying
Like, don’t the large Kangaroos occupy something like the same ecological niche in Australia as deer do in Europe & N America? So, like, in NZ? (Seriously, I have no real idea and am just guessing here.)
Deer were released by colonizers to provide game for shooting, deer are considered pests and there are no hunting seasons so if you like hunting and want to help the environment then come to NZ, we also speak English 🙂
PS There populations of Wallabies in NZ but no Kangaroos
The cops aren’t going to stop to ascertain how many bullets the gun he’s holding will fire. They will see a gun in his hands, and act accordingly. Which does *not* bode well for Toedad. I hope Becky doesn’t get to see her dad die in front of her, no matter how evil he’s turned out to be…
1)Yes I do. It’s anything that scares an anti-gun zealot.
Seriously, it’s a phrase that was invented to make guns sound scary. It plays on the ignorance of the masses and induces fear by sounding similar to “Assault Rifle” which is a real thing that is used by the military and is illegal for 99.999998% of the population to own. And the remaining people are all either mercenary groups, an people who run tourist traps in certain unreasonably firearm friendly states.
2) since there are none in the comic or the thread I’m pretty sure YOU don’t.
What are you on about? That dude was telling the guy who called ToeDad’s gun an assault rifle that he didn’t know what he was talking about. No one was even talking to you, and you’re trying to argue with someone whose whole point was that there’s no assault rifle in the strip.
You’d think so, right? But its like “terrorism”/”terrorist”. You’d think it’d mean “causing terror”/”terrorizing”, but you’d be wrong. Imagine this news report:
“Hundreds of people, including children lined up to see Santa, were terrorized at the Mall today when a gunman opened fire on a crowd of Christmas shoppers. Police have not yet said whether they believe that this as a Terrorist Incident.”
I don’t think it’s a case of cops not caring for the nuances as it is a matter of a cop not wanting his (or her) last words to be “I didn’t think it was real; I thought it was just a toy….”
Here’s a slide show with illustrations and a minimum of polysyllabic words so it’s easy for you to understand that “Assault weapon” is a scary buzzword invented by politicians in 1989 that has no bearing on reality. http://www.assaultweapon.info/
and yes before you answer I’m aware its a single shot rifle of an indeterminate caliber so it doesn’t meet the definition of an assault rifle on any number of reasons
Skizz HumboldtRobin jumped into the conversation and started banging on about assault weapons to make a point, which as you’ve pointed out doesn’t need to be made
Be that as if may. Halloween Jack referred to Ross McIntyre’s Ruger 1 as an “assault rifle”. That is an incorrect and misleading description of a single-shot varmint rifle.
“Assault rifle” is a conventional translation into English of the German “sturmgewehr“, and “sturmgewehr” is a buzzword that was made up by the German Army in 1944 so that they could still requisition the MP44 (re-designated as the “StG44”) despite a ban on maschinenpistolen from OKW.
Cause if they’d called it “rifle that will help us hold defensive positions against the charging Soviet hordes by shooting lots of bullets fast and effectively at relatively close range, like a machine-pistol on steroids” when The Furher was screaming “WHY AREN’T WE ATTACKING??!!??” it wouldn’t have gone down so well in The Wolf’s Lair — am I right?
I agree, the problem I had with it is I like shooting, its fun but there are some people who don’t understand why shooting is fun and want to ban shooting, ban semi-autos, restrict ownership etc etc
Its ok if people don’t understand something if they’ve never tried it or their only experience is from what they see on tv because it just means you have an opportunity to explain why its fun, why you like doing it, why people should be able to own semi-autos…hell you can even explain the differences between battle rifle, assault rifle and assault weapon and they’ll start to understand how the media has been duping them
BUT you can’t change peoples opinions when the first thing you do on a forum is to insult people, its a bad look and just feeds the narrative that gun owners are arrogant assholes when the reality is gun owners are just everyday folks
I mean… “guns are fun” doesn’t really make a difference when the issue is that there are near-daily mass shootings. No one wants to outlaw them because they aren’t fun.
Ok so why are there near-daily mass shootings? Isn’t that the more important question to answer?
Lets say for the sake of argument that more stringent gun control laws are put in place, would that stop people having the urge to kill? It might stop them from using firearms but wouldn’t it be better to find out why people are doing this and trying to help them instead?
So whos not allowed to have firearms then? People living in the city, people living in the country, farmers, target shooters, hunters, pest control?
Countries with strict gun control laws don’t have near-daily mass shootings. And yet strangely, even without a firearm in every house, life goes on. Of course it’s important to get to the root of this problem, but until an enlightenment of humanity happens it’s easier and way more efficient to take away the means of indulging murderous urges.
No one, with the possible exception of law endorcement and hunters, needs to own a gun. Thinking otherwise seems like madness to me. Especially if the argument is “but it’s so much fun to shoot”. Yeah buddy, that might be the problem.
Doing drugs, taking other people’s stuff and blowing things up can also be fun but there is a damn good reason why there are laws against the posession of drugs or explosives and theft. Civilization can be such a party pooper.
With the exception of 9/11 and the bombing of the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City, the weapon of choice when someone — other than the military during a time of war — is looking to kill a lot of people in a short period of time is, always has been, and always will be one or more firearm. THAT is why we need some sort of gun restrictions in this country.
Australian comic Jim Jeffries pretty well sums it up here. It runs fifteen minutes, more or less, but after the first two or three minutes you won’t be able to stop.
Countries with strict gun control laws don’t have near-daily mass shootings. And yet strangely, even without a firearm in every house, life goes on. Of course it’s important to get to the root of this problem, but until an enlightenment of humanity happens it’s easier and way more efficient to take away the means of indulging murderous urges.
– And there are countries where semi-auto rifles, shotguns and pistols are available and mass shootings don’t occur very often at all
No one, with the possible exception of law endorcement and hunters, needs to own a gun. Thinking otherwise seems like madness to me. Especially if the argument is “but it’s so much fun to shoot”. Yeah buddy, that might be the problem.
– It is fun to shoot so why not tell all the competitive shooters that what they’re doing is part of the problem, the olympic pistol shooters, the skeet shooters, the bi athletes at the winter olympics etc etc
However under your rules this situation would still be happening because Toe Dad could claim to be a hunter…he probably even is a hunter as hes using a single shot hunting rifle
Doing drugs, taking other people’s stuff and blowing things up can also be fun but there is a damn good reason why there are laws against the posession of drugs or explosives and theft. Civilization can be such a party pooper.
Hows the war on drugs working out for the USA? Portugal has done very good work with drug users by basically legalizing drugs for personal use
Instead of making people criminals with the stroke of a pen its probably more useful to look at countries with high gun ownership and low mass shootings and see what they’re doing
Look, if you think your ‘fun’ merits taking chances with other people’s lives, you’re kinda fucking scum. Like,k seirously, this is it? “I think it’s fun to do”? Sure, okay.
I mean, this is putting aside the simple elephant in the room – there *IS* room to have sports shooters and hunters in a real gun control environment. Because most guns, especially the ones more easily used in crimes of passion, are proscribed, this allows the quality of life you CLAIM to desire while maintaining the safety of everyone else.
But frankly, with folks like you who won’t even fucking concede the blatant need for these laws, I don’t generally feel the need to point out that this is a thing that we can do. I shouldn’t have to point out you can keep your precious sport for your to agree that lives matter more than fucking fun times.
Assault Rifle is an Anglicisation of the German word ‘Schturmgehrwer’, which was used to describe the StG44 infantry rifle used by elite German forces towards the end of WW2. the English word refers to a family of medium-range automatic-fire-capable rifle-calibre weapons.
Officially, the large-mag rifles on the open market are ‘semi-automatic rifles’, not ‘assault rifles’ because they don’t have automatic fire capability. In practice, all you have to do is open the trigger assembly and file away a retaining pin to turn it into a fully-automatic weapon, something any reasonably-skilled and unethical gunsmith should be able to do. Even if you don’t, the semi-automatic cycle is so fast that a reasonably-capable shooter would be able to fire the gun rapidly and accurately at range.
Well, assault rifles fire intermediate cartridges (such as .30 Carbine, 7.92×33mm K, 7.62×39mm, or 5.56 NATO). If you take an old-fashioned battle rifle like a Garand or FN-FAL that fires a full-powered rifle round (such as .30-06, 7.92×57mm Mauser, 7.63×54mmR, .303 British, or 7.62 mm NATO), and adapt it for automatic fire that’s an automatic rifle, not an assault rifle.
“Automatic rifle” — for all you non-enthusiasts, see the beach assault (can I say assault here?) in Saving Private Ryan, during which Tom Hanks’ character asks Robin where his BAR — Browning Automatic Rifle — is and he responds that its at the bottom of the Channel because the #@$%& tried to drown him so he jettisoned it (at which point Hanks tells him to go back out onto the Beach and find another one, presumably one whose previous owner is now KIA/WIA. … where was I ?
That’s right. There was a bit of a fad after WWII for equipping all infantrymen with them, or selective-fire versions — M14 in the USA and the FN-FAL — but they turned out to be a bit too much gun for accuracy, and the ammunition was heavy. Which is why NATO and other Western countries switched to either semi-automatic versions or to lighter 5.56mm cartridges. The Russians went to intermediate cartridges a bit earlier: the AK-47 fired a short-cased 7.62mm cartridge.
Unlike the “Free Speech” advocate below, I found that link interesting. Thank you. It confirmed much of what I thought, as someone who has never contemplated owning a firearm.
Authorities have almost certainly been contacted by this point – if you go back and look at the page when Toedad first pulls the gun out, there is a background character looking rather alarmed (as only comic characters can – with lines of alarm radiating from their head).
I have to say, given his continuous pursuit of his daughter with a deadly weapon, regardless of whether or not it is loaded, or if he has any intent whatsoever to use it – I want him to BURN.
Not even remotely an assault rifle.
It’s a single shot lever action gun. And assault Rifle is magazine fed and capable of full auto fire.
if you understand cars better than guns this would be like calling a Shriner miniature car a Race Car. Or calling a Cessna a Jet Bomber if you’re into airplanes.
Police, fire, and EMS are, on average, seven minutes from everywhere, and dispatch can take up to thirty seconds. I don’t think it’s been that long in DoA time.
Remember that they are likely going initially to the place Ross originally left his car to chase Becky and Dina. There is now likely an BOL/APB out for the car. Now, the alert is being tripped again in the fountain quad.
I’d say that Joyce needs to keep Ross talking for about 10 minutes before escape becomes impossible and we find out if he’s so insane that he’ll start seriously considering ‘martyrdom’.
He is chasing his daughter around a college campus with a gun. A large, high visibility gun. I’d say he’s either comfortable with martyrdom, or convinced that God wouldn’t let it happen to *him.*
Either way, I wouldn’t bet on a calm “oh, the police are here. I must have seemed more threatening than I intended. Dear me.”
“No need for alarm, officers! I’m just taking my daughter away for necessary treatment for her disgusting deviancy! I’d appreciate it if you’d prevent her well-meaning friends from interfering and… What…? What are you doing? GET THOSE HANDCUFFS OFF OF ME!!!”
That would be the best case scenario: He’s so delusional that he can’t believe the police wouldn’t help him right until his toe-face is pushed against the hood while he is being handcuffed.
I hope it’s Sarah, just so we can have this dialogue:
Joyce: God will come for us.
Ross: Ha! And what “God” would that be?
Joyce: The Old Testament God.
Interesting factoid – Flashbacks very rarely if ever happen in survival-level crises. It is much more likely that Joyce will remain calm, collected and totally clear-headed for the duration of the crisis. Then, after it’s all over, have a total breakdown that could go as far as a lapse into catatonia.
Yeah, adrenaline does an excellent job of making your mind sharp. Otherwise you have a good chance of making a stupid, uninformed decision and getting yourself killed. Then the adrenaline wears off, your survival brain ditches you with the emotional check and you crash.
This is fiction though. There’s a good chance of flashbacks occurring at dramatically appropriate times.
Well, armed bystanders did shoot at Whitman during the Texas University Clock Tower shooting, and although none of them hit him it might not have been completely useless. Police on the scene said that fire from bystanders forced Whitman to take shelter, which assisted them in engaging him safely.
The problem is that these days, spree shooters rarely are so kind as to isolate themselves like Whitman did. Instead, they get into the classroom or the movie theater and then open fire. The goal is a ‘target rich environment’. In that scenario, civilian gunfire is about as likely to hit a bystander as it is to hit the original shooter, with the exact odds/outcome being situational. (In the strip, we don’t have a large crowd, so Toedad could be legitimately taken down by an armed bystander. In the Aurora theater shooting (dark, smoke canisters as the opening salvo), six ‘good men with guns’ would’ve probably led to five times as many casualties, as they wouldn’t have any way of knowing who the actual shooter was.
Yes. And we’ve seen a couple of tragically failed interventions in the last week or so. There was the helpful bystander who intervened in a carjacking and shot the victim in the head. And the person who opened fire on a shoplifter in a crowded big-box store….
Using deadly force to prevent or curtail crimes isn’t just a thorny moral issue. It is a also bloody difficult to get right, being fraught with practical and tactical problems.
Here is some research to go with your speculation:
washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2015/10/03/do-civilians-with-guns-ever-stop-mass-shootings/
~\o “‘You’re ugly,’ she said. ‘You bug me,’ she said. ‘Please hug me!’ I said, but she just sat there, with that same flat stare that she saves for me alone… when I’m home…” o/~
Because they worked REALLY well in the 50s. I remember all those gun schools where everyone had their guns. Played gun charades. Get drunk and make out with their guns. All is Gun and Games and Gun University.
A bit morbid for my tastes, and I’m a sadistic bastard with a grisly sense of humor. It reminds me too much of a fellow who was executed by having a red-hot poker shoved up his rear and through any obstructing tissue. Not a quick death, and while I don’t remember who it was, I seem to recall he was a decent guy for his time.
Granted, the morningstar would at least let him bleed and die quickly. Ross may be contemptible, but he’s at least trying to do what he believes is right. I’d think that’s enough to earn a quick death.
“I think this was Saruyama.”
“…I think this was, too.”
I kid. Shots are loud, and getting back to his car and bring it around this fast means ToeDad did not spend much more time on Dina. So she’s probably still how we last saw her, beaten up in the woods, but still with positive hitpoints.
DINA IS OK …. stunned but more-or-less intact and unharmed after having been thrown to the ground by ToeDad back in Dunn’s Woods.
That’s my view on the matter, and I’m standing by it.
I like yours better & that’s the one I’m going to hold as head cannon unless and until WILLIS says otherwise. Cause, I’ve heard that anxiety about things that you don’t know and can’t effect is unhelpful …
She kind of has too, if she lets him go ahead and take her she suffers, if she doesn’t she risks getting shot. Her only option that she can do is stall and pray help comes.
Joyce has shown herself to be pretty strong when push comes to shove. Say what you will about her sheltered upbringing and obvious need to get some therapy, she’s got a core of iron in there somewhere.
Cutting Ryan’s face on the glass is a great example of this. She realizes what’s up and there is a panel of deliberation before she smashes his face. If she hadn’t been drugged I fully expect she’d have not just ‘gotten away’ but knocked him senseless, even though she was scared and angry and confused and consciously thinking about being a good Christian (all of those being just like now).
Unless He does it or sanctions it, and then He does it in cool ways like fire from the skies (Sodom and Gomorrah), earthquakes (the walls of Jericho), or floods (the parting and rejoining of the Red Sea).
World Without Sundays did a fun cover if you want to spice up the monotony. I wouldn’t call it good, but few things are worsened by the addition of electic guitars.
Look up what he did in the Garden of Gethsemene. He distracted the local militia with a miracle and a speech whilst his followers fled. Basically, he gave up any hope of escape for himself to protect them.
I’m not a huge fan of either one, but they’re both better than alternatives that involve him getting away.
Death seems like the optimal result; less paperwork than imprisonment for life, no need for a trial, no need for some poor bastard to get stuck with Ross for a cellmate…
Reminder that someone goes to the hospital at the end of this arc. Joyce is in the same outfit until at least November 5, and there’s a shot of a hospital on November 10, according to Willis’ tumblr. Now, WHO ends up in the hospital is a mystery…
He also apparently doesn’t just bring that rifle everywhere he goes. Some people earlier were speculating that he just happened to have that on hand because he’s one of those open carry gun enthusiasts, but it seems this really was premeditated. He grabbed his rifle before he left the house because he had plans for it.
Yeah, I feel like the “why would you bring that” sort of implies it’s either something he uses for hunting or keeps on the wall- in any case, not something that he’d have any reason to have in the car.
Some dads keep a rifle under the back seat. If they never feel a need to use it, their kids can go an entire childhood without knowing they’ve been sitting on a firearm every time they ride in the back. I was more surprised than the coyote he pulled over to shoot.
Sadly, if he was arrested there’s a good chance she would be sent home to other family members, and not allowed to continue living illegally in her friend’s college dorm.
She’s 18, I believe. They can’t force her to do anything. And really, at this point the best solution might be that she’s found out. In light of the circumstances, I could see the campus GLBT group (which I suspect Leslie knows members of –this will come out in class now– even if Joyce doesn’t think of talking to the folks she met at the questioning thing) throwing resources at Becky and making sure the right staff people are aware of her situation and get her enrolled good and proper.
She’s an adult. She can’t, of course, be welcomed into the dorms as a non student (although she might be able to get some sort of financial aid, start classes (or auditing them, but it’s only a few weeks in, and certain stuff like certificates start at less regular times) and move into the dorms, it would be a decent goodwill move for the university to show support for abused queer students and would help with the terrifying press they’re about to get.
But that sentence got more tangential than I meant to. She’s an adult, they’re not going to send her anywhere. They might ask if she has somewhere to stay and offer an escort (and possibly take her to a woman’s shelter if she says no), but not send her to relatives she doesn’t want to be with.
Also she might, I guess, be allowed to stay with Joyce slightly longer since they’re afaik allowed short term visitors (like, a few nights, although there might be an exploit if she keeps changing rooms). Maybe in that time she can find off campus housing, even if it’s couchsurfing with other students until she gets a job.
Also this is going to be like real life, this will be super high profile news. Even if he doesn’t fire, it’s a gun wielding religious wacko trying to kidnap his adult lesbian daughter. I don’t doubt some local organization(s) will offer help.
I kind of doubt rooming with Carla because I think Carla is alone for safety/privacy or whatever, but I still would like this. I want to see more of Jocelyn
I don’t really expect it too happen, but I can think of a few convoluted reasons as to why the peopl in charge might think it was a good idea. More importantly though, I just want to see more Carla.
I’m not sure he would go to jail. As of yet, he has yet to commit any crimes (unless the law at this college prohibits fire-arms, which not all campuses do). As a matter of fact, the only person currently in violation of the law is Dina, who assaulted Ross. While yes, Ross is a terrible human and is brandishing a gun ans a subtle threat, he hasn’t actually used it or said he was going to use it. Implied threats do not hold up in court. But again, guns may be illegal on campus, making my entire comment moot.
Yeah, but chasing someone through the woods with a gun is indefensible in court unless you have a fantastic lawyer. That’s not so much “implied threat” as “attempted assault.”
The place you live in where defending yourself against a gun-wielding violent man who’s physically chasing you is illegal, but kidnapping people at gunpoint is not?
I do not want to go there.
He has committed MANY rimes.
“Brandishing a firearm in a threatening manner”, ” assault with a deadly weapon” “Attempted kidnapping with the modifier of ‘possessing a firearm in the commission of a felony’ “, “Battery, with the modifier of ‘ While in possession of a firearm”, “Making terroristic threats” are just the ones that spring to mind right of the bat while drunk and without having to reference anything.
Also IU is a gun free campus, except for law enforcement agents.
HumboldtRobin – Yep. Brandishing a firearm to coerce someone into going with oneself is very definitely illegal. Probably the MOST illegal thing he’s done so far, although as you point out, one can take their pick.
I won’t dispute that butthole dad is a racist sack of shit, along with all the other types of sack of shit he is, but I don’t think I’d go so far as to say that his battery of Dina was motivated by her ethnicity. I think he’d have done the same thing if Becky’s new girlfriend were, say, Daisy.
And, Bill, it’s not like “the ‘N’-word”… it’s more like, say, “colored” a generation ago. Especially among people of a certain age, it may just be a sign that they’re not keeping up with the euphemism treadmill, but it doesn’t earn any benefit of the doubt points.
More telling, I think, is that he felt the need to identify Dina racially at all. Yeah, sure, Dina’s East Asian, but that’s not, even on brief acquaintance, a trait I would ever use to identify her. Like she says herself, last night she kissed a girl, yet she’s still “that dinosaur chick”.
It just occurred to me to wonder if Dina’s Asianness is the reason butthole dad identified her outfit yesterday as a Pokeman costume rather than a dinosaur costume. “She’s Oriental, Pokemen are Oriental…”
I doubt that a hate crime would stick even if they applied. This is more of a case of domestic violence where Becky’s sexual orientation is a factor. The conflict between them is over whether or not Becky is going to do what she is told and come home. The conflict was triggered by her sexual orientation, but you could see the same type of thing happening over other things like getting pregnant or drinking.
Either way assault of several people with a deadly weapon and attempted kidnapping are potentially very serious charges even without the modifier.
Please note that I mentioned that the hate crime charges probably wouldn’t stick. You have to prove motivation beyond a reasonable doubt, and in more complex situations like domestic abuse (which can be a hate crime) it can be much more difficult to clearly prove the motivation for the crime was the protected category.
Wha? Not committed crimes? He’s either got several assault charges or several charges of Terroristic Threats –depending on how the law goes — stalking, attempted kidnapping…
He hasn’t just committed crimes. He’s committed some very serious crimes.
Dina was attacking him to prevent the commission of a forcible felony (kidnapping), as well as (if she saw the gun) preventing serious bodily injury to Becky – under Indiana law, she was justified in using even deadly force to stop him.
Bloody heck! Stop trying to think up terrible scenarios! This situation is bad as it is without the fandom having a “What is the most grizzly fate we can create for Dina?” competition!
Being knocked out is kinda serious. If it lasts longer than a few seconds, serious brain damage is a mahor concern.
I’d actually rather she have severe broken bones. Those heal, with time.
I thought about that too; landed wrong when ToeDad flipped her off his back and onto the ground and cracked her wrist or collarbone or something. But it looks like she landed on her back, and she still seems fulll of piss and vinegar — but unable to do anything about it — in the final panels.
Besides which Willis probably didn’t want to have to draw Dina with her arm in a cast for the next five-plus years…. which is about how long I figure it will take (in real time) for DoA to get through the rest of the month of October.
I think it’s a recognition of just how far he’s willing to go. She knew he was at kidnap her levels. She knew he was at hunt her across the state levels. She knew he was a danger to those he encountered.
But here, it’s like she’s piecing together a last piece and realizing fully that her dad brought a gun to hunt her. That he would have had no other reason to bring it but to hunt her and possibly kill her and those she’s with rather than let her lead her life in peace. And that he has no compunction with martyring himself to that cause of potentially murdering her and her friends.
She always knew he was cruel. She always knew he was dangerous and frightening and unwavering in his convictions. But here, she’s piecing together the exact shape of how much direct and mortal danger she and all of her friends are in thanks to her dad’s religious dogma.
I’m super curious to see how she reacts next, whether it be to intervene in front of Joyce, get angry about the potential fate of Dina, take a chance to run, or let loose a spigot at the prospect that her dad may just martyr himself to kill her for being gay.
When you face something like that, the initial reaction might be disbelief, perplexity, or something like that, but fear might take a little while to sink in. Right now she’s busy trying to process something she might’ve never thought possible, and the longer it takes, the worse the shock is. She’s on her way to some nice PTSD.
Yes, sorry, that’s what I meant to emphasize. She’s too bewildered (and probably following with shock) to be frightened, especially because I doubt reason for mortal fear of her father occurred to her before (fear obviously yes, see running, but not mortal).
Agreed. We think of Toedad as abusive before this, but we haven’t seen any evidence of that prior to Becky getting caught kissing her roommate. She may well have had the same controlling but seemingly pleasant father-daughter relationship with Toedad as Joyce has with her parents. She didn’t run from him initially because she thought he would kill her. She probably thought they would be in a giant fight and he might try to drag her to the car. But that look on her face and the way she says, “Dad?” That makes me think she has been utterly betrayed and blindsided by this development.
For contrast, think about the way Amber responds to Blaine. Much less sense of any connection or attempts to reason with him.
I have a feeling that, eventually, someone is going to make him feel that he has to intervene in something, and he is going to resort to violence.
I don’t know when, how, or why, but it won’t be pretty.
Right now it is lunch (they had Calculus earlier this chapter). Since it’s a Monday, Walky’s afternoon class will be Gender Studies, which Mike is not in.
I’m hoping he kicked her hard enough to disable her, snatched up his rifle, and hoofed it as fast as he could back to his car. No, I don’t want Dina hurt. But that’s preferable to her being tied up and terrorized, particularly after she turned in that heroic performance of jumping on Toedad and scratching up his face.
A few broken ribs, or a leg, would concievably keep her from following him. Even if she had the pain tolerance and determination to try, she’d never keep up.
And they’d take time to heal, but they’d do it relatively easily. Compared to, say, brain damage, or internal organ trauma.
I’m in the U.S., and anyway, when I said “off the grid”, I mean “camping out in the backwoods with poor cell reception and my phone turned off anyway”.
Can we get a map of the campus? I have a sort of mental map in my head right now and it’s saying that he’s somewhere near the middle of the campus area…which is going to make him getting away that much harder at this point.
Still hoping for Galasso whacking him over the head with a pizza paddle a la Home Alone, even though it’s not likely 🙂
It’s a real campus. Google Maps works. Google-Mapping “Showalter Fountain, Bloomington IN” will give you their current location. I think when butthole dad initially accosted Becky and Dina, they were at the intersection of E. 6th and N. Indiana, about 700 yards to the west of the fountain. Read Hall, their dorm, is about 500 yards southeastish.
Having looked at a map and found the fountain, I’m having trouble figuring out a plausible trajectory that goes “street – woods – frisbee field – fountain”.
There’s some trees between Dunn Meadow (frisbee field) and Franklin Hall that I’ve pretty much concluded are the “woods”. On Google Street View, they don’t look nearly as dense as Willis rendered them in the strip, but I haven’t been able to find any better fit. I think Willis just took some artistic license with the foliage.
Either that or Ultra Car transported them to the Amazon for a couple strips.
The good news is that cops don’t all just sit around in the police station waiting for a crime to be reported. They usually have officers out and about on patrol so as to reduce the first response time.
If the spot I just found on Google Maps is the right spot, which I’m pretty sure it is, then they are smack dab in what is probably one of the busiest places on campus, especially since we’re probably pretty close to lunch here.
Maybe when they were younger, Toedad wasn’t as nutso. It happens sometimes. I could see the two families being at the same level of conservative evangelicalism but where the Browns stayed more or less the same the MacIntyres skewed far more conservative.
Willis would know far far better than I would, but I also understand that a lot of time the less conservative members of evangelical congregations either don’t believe that the more conservative ones are as far off as they are or make excuses for some of the more dangerous commentary and behaviors.
Good point. If this is about control — and who are we kidding, it is — then really what he’s trying to do is maintain some semblance of what he thinks his life is supposed to be like. He can’t bring his wife back, but by god he can make sure his daughter hews to the “right path.” That sort of thing.
Um, so this is the second time now he’s clearly brandished a rifle on a busy college campus. How has nobody called the cops or campus security, or at least noticed this?
At mine we’re kinda used to folks running around. Late for class, exercising, just felt like running, et cetera. Depending on how many people are around at the time, it’d be easy for most of them to not notice her emotional state.
Really depends on the campus. There are some campuses in open carry states where it’s not entirely abnormal to see people with their rifle slung over their shoulder (heading to the campus’ range) or a pistol on their hip (maybe also headed to the range, or they’re big on self-defense). A carried weapon in such a place doesn’t illicit panic. A brandished one, on the other hand, tends to get people riled up.
Elicit, not illicit.
And Spiff, not many people have seen him chasing them. Just the two when he first drew the rifle that I know of, and whatever authorities they notified are hopefully mobilized by now and on their way.
It might be that everyone (although hopefully quietly dialing 911) is standing still and being quiet in hopes of not attracting attention, and/or trying to slink out.
Yeah, but he took the rifle out, somebody noticed it, and then he ran into the woods, so somebody should’ve definitely called 911 by now, or at the very very least texted about it.
What are these “alerts” you people keep talking about? Are you trying to tell me that there is some way IU can somehow send a message to each and every cell phone on campus simultaneously and on demand?
When my campus first introduced them, you had to sign up for it.
Presumably in the years since then, it has become an assumed part of starting to live on a campus that you’d have to decide to opt out of.
It’s just a mass text.
On my campus (only a few hours from Bloomington and the largest university in the country), the text is still opt-in. The email is automatic, but it’s entirely plausible that Joyce, like most freshman I teach, didn’t even know how to opt in for the texts.
3-5 minutes. Minimum. Someone noticed the first time he pulled it out, but even if they called, it probably has been 1, maybe 2 minutes since then. Campus cops are on their way, but a bullet takes far less time than a squad car to get where it’s going.
It seems like it should’ve been longer than that, to me at least. He pulled out the gun, chased Dinah through the woods with it, ran back to the car, and drove across campus. It just seems like the running into what looked like the deep part of the woods should’ve taken a little time.
It takes a bit of time to get back in the car and drive it around, although not too long (he’d probably have made better time walking but wouldn’t have had somewhere to stow Becky into), and that means he went back and forth carrying the gun, then back out of the car now with the gun (meaning at least the first person should have it called in and the cops have had a minute or two).
Colleges have campus alert systems set up. It takes a few seconds to text a message saying “A guy with a gun just chased two fleeing girls into the woods”.
How many people know how to send an alert to the alert system? Does it go out without any kind of approval or anybody looking at it?
And still, what do people expect to have happened in the seconds since people saw this message?
While I was in college, my campus established an alert system. They constantly sent inane, non-emergency things and I canceled it. ‘Course, it’s pretty rare not to have a texting plan now (I didn’t, so each message cost me money).
I think they go over all that stuff now when you start college. The campus here has signs and alert boxes all over the place. And even if they hadn’t contacted 911 or the campus security, multiple students tweeting about this would get attention.
These days the cell phone networks have a built-in alert system that sends something to all phones in a geographical area – I’ve gotten them for flash flood warnings mainly.
Part of the delay is even if people are looking it’s difficult to figure out exactly what’s going on. A few decades ago I was a passenger in a car, in L.A. when a lot of movement started. It took a bit of time to figure what was going on. Which was a bunch of plains clothes police officers breaking out tactical gear and shotguns while surrounding a nearby building. What struck me was how …bemused? or something like that, the people around them were. When something is out of context with your day to day life it can take an amazing amount of time to process what your looking.
Also the police might be already be nearby trying to set up an approach that will won’t trigger a shooting the moment they show up. Because a highly trafficked area is great for spotting the idiot brandishing but terrible place for a firefight.
No, I’m not. We already know no one’s going to die, and the Willis already spoiled us with that panel of an ambulance. We KNOW someone’s going to get shot and go to the hospital, and that’ll be the end of the Ross arc. At this point I’m just twiddling my thumbs waiting for the story to resolve itself already.
Actually, we don’t know that anyone’s getting shot. The hospital could very well be for Dina, who’s been smacked around by ToeDad. It could be ToeDad, hammered into submission by Amazi-Girl or the campus cops, or hell, flattened by Sal who probably isn’t that far away yet, considering how glacially paced the strip is.
Or someone unrelated to this arc. Ruth, maybe. Or someone without any tragedy in their storyline (Joe, Dorothy) could get hit by a car or something, but we can’t really predict that. This could end with no one in the hospital (although it maybe should just for a talk with a psych nurse and a social worker for Becky)
In real life, maybe. In comicland, I have complete and total faith in her ability to kick the gun out of Toedad’s slimy hands and then knee him in the nards.
Or she reads from it and exorcises the demon that took control of Toe Dad all these years. Finally released from the horrific spector he embraces his daughter with his actual body for the first time in a decade.
This is no time to turn the other cheek, Joyce, even if Jesus said so. Then again, Jesus never had to confront a crazed disciple with a rifle either. If the campus cops are unarmed, they can’t do squat. There’s never a cop around when you need one is there?
That’s right, Mr Scary Large Bleeding Man in Camo, pull out a rifle in the middle of the grounds in the probably most populated spot on campus, with a tonne of witnesses with phones and cameras, and then focus on the two terrified girls in front of you.
That’s actually kind of encouraging, because the cops really should be there any minute now. Aaaany minute. So like December 28th for us. *eyeroll*
Happily, Amazi-girl is probably right behind him. Wonder if Ruth is sober enough right now to team up? And Sal may not have gone too far yet; she didn’t have anything planned.
Right now a Sal/Ruth/Amazi-girl tag-team takedown sounds amazing.
Problem is those are all side characters, Amber taking out Blaine works because he’s her father. Joyce needs to be the one to defeat Toe Dad or perhaps Becky
Recall in an earlier strip where Amazigirl felt guilty because she let Joyce’s attacker at the party (a.k.a. gashface) escape. Amazigirl subduing toedad would go a long way to making amends for that.
Don’t bring a longarm to a fistfight. It all happens to close to bring the gun to bear or to take the time to aim. Inside three feet the unarmed person has the advantage over someone with a shoulder arm.
Yar. That’s why what Dina did was smart. Lay in wait and scramble over him like a cat on furocet. And it’s also why armies used to stress bayonets on their rifles. Once they’re too close to shoot effectively, you’ve got a handy spear.
Well, she’s already scared to be outside alone. And now, she has a new trauma for when she’s outside with another person. I think at this rate, she’s going to be agoraphobic by Thanksgiving (her time).
I think that the likely strongly encouraged counseling by the campus mental health office after Toedad is subdued will result in getting some help about all the traumas.
As terrible as literally everything else about the situation is, I’m glad Becky is sticking to her… her… standing up for herself. After that hopeless look in the last panel yesterday, I was afraid she was going to give in to protect her friends/girlfriend, even before the gun showed up. It might not be the safest choice to stand up to him, but from a reader standpoint it sure is the most satisfying.
Others have covered the horribleness of everything else better than I can. Just wanted to throw in that one little happy thought.
She’s scared and hiding how scared she is. And she’s really running out of options but she refuses to betray what she knows about herself and she refuses to back down on fighting for it.
In this, she is her father’s daughter. Too stubborn to be forced into the box he wants to shove her in. And it’s a really admirable trait.
He’s not aiming yet, but I mean, he probably blames everything that isn’t him for Becky, and Joyce is sheltering her, so she’s probably pretty much a succubus in his eyes anyway.
Becky and Dina bolted before butthole dad pulled out the rifle. Becky didn’t mention it on the phone with Joyce, so she probably didn’t look back to see it. Dina knew, because she circled back to ambush butthole dad, but she didn’t have a phone to notify anyone at that point, because she gave it to Becky.
That Dina doesn’t have her phone really worries me now.
Hello Toedad, I would like to congradulate you on you signing your prison ticket, you attacked a woman (she attacked first but I think Dina felt threatened), you have chased after two college girls when your clearly a much older man and you had a gun ON CAMPUS GROUND. Hell depending on the campus you can be penalized just for not having an ID. So lets all give Toedad a round of applause as they prepare his prison jumpsuit and or straitjacket
That’s not accurate. Most mass shooters are white males. A white male seen with a gun on campus is an automatic ‘Oh shit! Everybody get over there now!” moment.
He looks like a normal type. But even if he’s not, fighting types have 5 advantages (Ice, Steel, Rock, Normal, Dark) So if he’s ANY of those it’d be super effective. And the only way it’d NOT be very effective is if he is a Flying, Bug, Ghost, Psychic, Fairy or Poison type. Pretty good odds to be honest.
On the other side of the woods looking for the guy with the gun. They may also be fussing over the little oriental woman with the dinosaur bandanna they found knocked out.
What happened to Dina? I’m half expecting her to jump out of the car or someplace and bite his ear off, half expecting Amazi-Girl to come in with a flying kick to the face. Or should I say I hope that’s what happens, either way I hope Dina’s alright.
Yeah Joyce. It’s actually Luke 34:23
“And the lord said that whilst thy neighbors elder may take thee to a place of great amusement, with flags of more than 3 but less than 10, If they are to bear arms against you, make thy feet as a a runaway beasts and make way the hell out of there.
Luke 34:24
If thy hath trained thy body in physical arts of which to defend oneself, Thou could strip thine aggressors of armaments and in the lords name let thy feet fly into the crotches of thy aggressors. And in the lords name thou may continue until thy is satisfied.
Luke 34:25
The lord says, however, that if thy aggressors find ecstasy upon aforementioned crotch attacks, thou may wish to discontinue. The lord hath hangups about that.
Joyce and Becky’s horrified reactions really get to me. They were lifelong friends. They spent their whole childhoods looking up to each other’s parents as authorities figures in their community, people to be respected and trusted. Hell, they went to Six Flags together; you don’t go to Six Flags with just anybody.
And now here’s Toedad, waving around a gun on a university campus because his daughter likes other ladies, revealing himself for the twisted controlling son of a fuck he truly is.
Pedestals break hard. I hope they make it out okay in the end.
(Also, judging by the appearance of Joyce’s dad in a recent preview panel on tumblr, I’m guessing that Toedad’s actions are going to have a pretty strong effect on how Joyce views her home and upbringing. Joyce looked pretty traumatized in said preview panel, too. Well, more traumatized than she already is.)
(God, I hope there’s a happy ending waiting for these kids.)
I find it interesting that the two absolute worst moments of her life involved the pastors son quoting the bible and now her best friends god-fearing father threatening them both with a rifle and remembering what Roz said I’m just surprised she hasn’t gone catatonic by now
I think it always had to be. Seeing the poison lying underneath the mask of piety leads her to question her faith and her upbringing the most. Seeing the hurt her upbringing has caused Becky. Seeing the way it has twisted the love of her father. Seeing how those who claim piety have been the most duplicitous to trying to get something from her. It’s enough to make her question whether or not the way she was raised really does make one better. And if it’s not better, then why keep clinging to it.
At the end of the day, this is a story about a girl losing her faith and finding her morality whether that involves remaining a type of Christian or not. It’s always been that. And so, it makes sense that her most traumatic moments have come at the hands of those who profess to belong to her faith.
There have been times when I’ve envied the faith people have in their respective religions and I’d have liked to have faith in some of the darker times in my life (I’m an athiest) but after reading what Joyce is going through I’m glad I never had to deal with a crisis of faith
This. This is such a giant crack in the armor of her trust of authority. This is a family friend, someone who was there and somewhat caring when they were both kids going on trips and now he’s directly threatening the general proximity of her with a gun.
Yes, it is truly horrible. And not even Becky had expected him to sink to these depths.
Poor Joyce, girl looks like she is really loosing it. But still she steps between Becky and McChildmurderer. I didn’t expect anything less of her but I’m still proud.
Joyce’s face in the last panel is heartbreaking.
There is part of her innocence being lost there in her wide eyes.
[insert obligatory damn you willis here]
And then Ross snaps to his senses and puts the shotgun away. He then retrieves his Rocket Launcher from his trunk.
“I already look insane anyway. Go big or go home” Ross Thought.
I wonder if Becky knows anything about guns. Ross at first glance seems to be the kind of person who’d think guns are a man thing. On the other hand he might think it’s all right for women to use guns. If so Becky may recognise his rifle, and know it’s only a single shot weapon with no magazine. What she might do with that information is another question.
If Ross comes from the sort of culture I’m thinking of, it’s highly likely that he’s taught Becky to shoot from a young age to defend herself and her family against the ‘Gubbermint’.
And usually she comes back stronger. I’m wondering if what we’ll see here at the end is a Joyce who still has her faith, but isn’t willing to look to men (as in mankind, but also as in patriarchy, I suppose) to dictate what counts and what doesn’t for her. Which, to my understanding, is the whole point of protestantism. Personal connection to your god and an understanding based on the larger intent of Jesus’ words rather than the dogmatic doctrines of Paul filtered through the dudes who were trying to prove Anglicanism right.
What Becky didn’t realize is that there’s actually an alien invasian and her dad is trying to save her from the body snatchers. Dina has already been taken by a creature pretending to be her hat. Indiana U isn’t how it appears! He’s trying to drive her away from this horrible place.
That is an uncomfortably big minimum, and honestly pretty hard to believe. I’d guess 5 as a minimum and 14 maximum for deployment, and a central location like the fountain should be quickly reached once they know to go there.
Okay, it’s been at least 15 minutes since that bystander saw him pull a gun. Most universities have at least one special constable assigned to the campus at a time and are prepared for the instance of a gunman on campus. They really should be on lockdown by now with at least one police car in the area searching for him.
This. It’s been 4 minutes, tops, and that is if Becky’s full-on sprint is slow. A 10 minute mile is marathon pace, not sprinting pace. Giving the sprinting, I’d say it’s been 2-3 since Becky and Dina went running. Still below average police response time, but getting to that point where we could hear alarms and sirens at any minute.
I’m excited for sirens now that you mention it, because that should be super good for Becky to hear, if scary. I know she knows this is wrong, but given her upbringing and stuff I think that’ll be an important affirmation, that her dad’s not ‘just’ anything[mad, trying to help, etc] and she’s not disobeying.
I am more nervous about what toe-dad will do when he hears sirens. I can easily see him thinking that the evil, secular police will seek to take his property from him, and it is better to save her soul before it can be further corrupted.
They could just as easily escalate his actions.
Oh, I agree. The cops need to get there. This is not an Amazi-girl situation. I’m mostly just worried that it is not going to be as simple as the cops showing up and Toedad surrendering. A lot can happen between sirens being heard and their actual arrival.
How long does it take to run 700 yards, mostly across open field and sidewalk? That’s what Becky’s done since the gun appeared. Google walking directions says 9 minutes at an easy walking pace. It’ll be a fair bit less at a run. It’s been like five minutes, tops.
And the first police response is going to be 700 yards away, where the gun was initially spotted.
Anytime now, Amazi-Girl. Anytime. You know, if you have time for it in your busy schedule. If you feel like it today. No pressure. No rush at all, this isn’t like a quick time event or anything that has serious consequences or whatever.
Ultimately, that’s why people like butthole dad are so gun-happy. They think that said persecution is a real existential threat in a time and place where Christians are a majority and there has never been anyone who doesn’t identify as Christian in the highest office of the land, and they need their guns to defend themselves against the librul muslin Kenyans who are gonna grab ’em and enforce sharia law on them. And also to exterminate varmints, like lesbian daughters and Pokeman girls.
I’ll also add that there are political figures who are deliberately encouraging this delusion either because they believe it themselves or as a cynical bid to keep the butthole dads of the world voting for them. I’m not entirely clear on how the actual breakdown between those categories goes.
Wonder what the odds are that a student would be armed. Further, wonder what the odds are that when he sees a man who does not look like he belongs there (not a student, not faculty, not sane) brandishing a rifle at two students with a very intense look of rage on his face that he would feel that one of the nation’s ubiquitous shootings is about to take place. Given those conditions, I wonder what the odds of preemptive strike are.
Said student has not been previously established as present and armed.
Said events would be a massively anti-climactic ending to a tense dramatic storyline.
Completely derails the storyline and character development.
Not going to happen.
Same goes for a lot of the other suggestions for random other characters to show up and deliver a beat down. This is a Joyce and Becky (and Dina) storyline. They’ve got to resolve it. If anyone else gets involved, it’s got to be tied in far more directly than we’ve seen any signs of.
It really also applies to the police showing up and saving the day as well. T
They’ll get there, but after the climax. Willis just has to make it plausible to delay them enough, which it still is, but probably won’t be too much longer.
That and all the other, more real world responses.
Yes. Let’s say Joe Hero pulls his handgun and goes after Ross. Assuming he is good enough to make the shot and not be overwhelmed by adrenaline, when the campus police respond to the active shooter situation how do they know which shooter is the bad guy?
For armed bystanders to intervene in a spree shooting is exceedingly rare. As far as I can make out it has not happened in the USA since 1966, when Charles Whitman was pinned down by fire from bystanders, which allowed the police to get close enough to kill him.
According to interviews, several students present at the Umpqua Community College shooting earlier this month were carrying concealed weapons and chose not to use them.
The last time I heard of a bystander getting involved (with a weapon) in a spree shooting was when that couple killed those two police officers in Las Vegas.
He pulled his weapon, stalked after the boyfriend, and got shot in the back of the head by the girlfriend. That should say something to people.
Then the police drive up and shoot the guy who just shot at (and missed) toedad. He drives away with Becky while they empty their guns into the shooter they saw
I can understand a father wanting their daughter back where they can keep an eye on them. I can also see how they might think they know what is best for them. But even if he’s not going to use it, the threat of a weapon that can take the life of another is too far to take it. Especially for the singular purpose of ‘saving’ his daughter, to feel it’s necessary to go this far…
I still maintain the hope that he brought that gun as intimidation factor and he doesn’t mean to use it lethally on anyone. It’s still plausible at this point, though of course this situation has every opportunity to be escalated in the worst way.
Even if he did, intention quickly melts in the heat of the moment.
Either he genuinely loves his daughter and, in his homophobia, is desperate to get her back or he’s desperate to regain control. (Okay, not mutually exclusive, love isn’t a cure for abuse.) Either way, desperation doesn’t easily lead you to holding back.
This. He has been shown to be quick to anger and to be quick to violence when he is angered. He may have intended the gun just as a show of force or an open-ended “just in case”, but it did not take much to escalate towards thinking about killing her or to pull it out again. At the end of the day, she is disobedient property spouting the lies of Satan and he is too proud and stubborn to let himself be a failure who simply let Satan “take” his daughter from him to the lands of sin.
In short, he’s not many more refusals to get in the car away from straight up deciding that his daughter is better dead than gay and it did not take him long to decide that murder was an acceptable outcome of this dance.
Similar to the people calling on any number of characters to come in and take down a large angry man holding a rifle and think nothing bad will come of it
Not to mention it seems even less likely that [character] would be right there than security, since security’s probably reasonably spaced out around campus so as to keep someone near everywhere?
It depends where her bike was, if it was nearby she could have made good time out by now, but she could still just be walking, then hear this ruckus behind her (she already looked back on Joyce once, after all).
You’re right. I should say, we know Sal was nearby a short time ago and is very feasibly still close enough that her reappearance wouldn’t be at all questionable.
Not automatically; random kidnappings happen everyday as do ‘disappearances’ by the family of ‘deviant’ youngsters. Unless the body-count is high, the atrocity particularly salacious (because nothing sells advertising space on the news channels like snuff porn) or the victim famous, the media is far too busy talking about the Kardashians to care.
This would be the perfect time for the police to show up
…or Amazi-girl
… or Sal
… or Ruth
…or Jesus
…or even Mike!
But come on SOMEONE show up! I don’t think a Joyce heart to heart is going to work on this armed kidnapping lunatic.
No, seriously, wouldn’t this be the perfect time to showcase this universe’s historical Jesus. Jeshua should walk in stage right and knock over a table at Toedad.
Oh man I had forgotten about historical Jesus! That would be great! Though I’m not sure how it would work in the context of this universe being fairly realistic.
But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don’t have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one…or better yet; a glock, for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword!
Remember the Browns, Ross? Neighbours, friends, church on Sunday, barbecues in summer, drove their daughter to six-flags? Well, that’s the daughter you are currently POINTING A GUN AT.
Also, take a long, careful look at your daughter’s expression. Up until now she retained the illusion that the man she used to call father had some minimum of human decency. You just let her know that she was wrong.
Sadly the poison of his particular faith is bound to be stronger than whatever his vestigial amount of empathy is trying to scream at him. Or at least that’s the excuse. It’s more that his desire to control is greater than his capacity to love and accept the unthinkable… that he is wrong. That he is not the most moral in the room. That he not others need to change. He cannot accept that world, so instead he’ll double down. And he’ll keep on doubling down until someone gets hurt.
That would be heartbreaking and I also want it to happen. Especially if it doesn’t mean changing the fact that the police are going to fuck him up please, and just means Joyce and her dad are scared and confused and her dad’s trying to help and stuff.
It would be completely horrible. It would be the worst call Joyce’s dad would receive in his life (at least I hope so). But he might be the one person to actually get through to Ross.
Mr Brown is not a kid for Ross to bully or “fix”. He is not a heathen or an outsider. He is a (hopefully) respected part of Ross’ community. He is a neighbor and friend – someone who Becky practically grew up with so Ross should know him well.And to hear HIM plead for his daughter’s life might actually be the one thing to slow Ross down.
Also, sooner or later – hopefully sooner – the Browns need to realize the full horror their upbringing has brought on Becky and Joyce. Yes, mr Brown. Your youngest child might very well die today, because of the worldview that is shared between you and Ross. Her best friend is chased by her father with a gun because of the things you taught them.
I was about to say ‘yeah he[JoyceDad] should be respected by Toedad as long as no one knows about Jocelyn still’ but then I realized what if Toedad knows about Jocelyn (the only person on campus who would have heard about her getting outed would be Joyce or Ethan (via her blog), but it could have been not long ago and Joyce might be kept in the dark) and that’s why he doesn’t trust Joyce and why he went to IU because her family are corrupt
I mean I don’t think this is likely, but wow the possibilities.
I still like the idea of the horribly painful phonecall, especially knowing Joyce isn’t going to die on the line (because if that was a possibility, I mean, holy shit), regardless of the truthfulness of the above. I agree that Joyce’s dad might get through to him but I also kind of want him to continue being irrational (but Joyce’s dad buys some time for the cops to get there at least)
FWIW, I don’t think that there is going to be much negotiation, expect possibly with a cop and, when he realises that the authorities are not on his side, Ross will do something… rash.
Yeah, agreed. He’ll probably hear their first ‘lower you weapon (or equivalent) and tell them to stop undermining his parenting, then quickly escalate. If Joyce’s dad was ‘negotiating’ it would be just an unofficial thing that happened because Joyce was kn the phone.
Unfortunately, I can kinda imagine how that phone conversation would go:
“Dad, Ross is here, and he’s trying to kill Becky!”
“WHAT?? Ross, what the hell-”
“She’s been influenced by demons into becoming a lesbian, I have to save her soul!”
“Oh. Well, Joyce, he has a good point. It sayeth in Leviticus…”
I really don’t think Joyce’s father would care about anything else than getting Ross to put away the gun. Homosexuality, sin, runaway daughters… it all can wait until he knows that Joyce won’t be killed within the next few minutes.
Especially since Joyce’s dad is visibly less extreme than her mom. I could definitely see hee mom at least sympathizing with Ross on everything but the gun (and maybe even that, she seemed pretty harsh and just reigned in by that Joyce’s dad took charge when last we saw them. Her dad also was more tolerant about her married brother with whom the mom disagrees), but not as likely with JDad
Well, Joyce’s panic attacks are about to get a whole lot worse now that even people she used to trust and feel safe with are potentially going to shoot her. So yeah, one more “fuck you” on the long list of offenses for Toedad
Anyone else notice that she’s reaching for that wrist again? I think Joyce’s flashbacks might be back with a vengeance.
Also, badass Joyce points for slowly maneuvering Becky behind her and trying to reason with scary-as-fuck Toedad. And it’s that “same ol’ Joyce” in that she so desperately wants to see the good in him and appeal to that and believe he’s the sort that if she can just appeal to the right Bible passage will realize that his daughter has committed no sin worthy of the pain he is causing.
And her heartbreak and shock in that last panel is palatable. She really did try even thought she was scared and desperate and probably has had so much stress she just wants to scream and he escalated to straight up threatening her with a gun. For the second time, she’s been reduced to her most vulnerable by a religious man with an agenda.
I really don’t see her touching her wrist at all, in this comic or the previous ones. You might be reading something in her body language that’s not really there.
Are you talking about the last panel? Because that’s just her moving her hands back reflexively as she stops walking towards Ross.
This is the moment when Joyce and Becky realise that Ross isn’t a Christian; he never was a Christian. He just thought that he was. It hurts all the more because it’s pretty clear that they both do have good memories of the man.
The question is this: Is this a bluff? If they keep saying ‘no’, does he have the intestinal fortitude to actually use it? If he does, what would he use it for?
Joyce, the one you’re looking for is Matthew 26:52. If Jesus wouldn’t permit a weapon to be used to protect the Son of God from unjust arrest, could it be used for any lesser purpose?
So, he was stupid enough to start waving his gun around in the middle of campus. The clock is now ticking to when Ross is surrounded by cops screaming at him to drop the gun and surrender. It’s even money whether he’ll do the sane thing or whether he’ll decide that God will protect him from multiple 9mm Parabellum and 5.56mm NATO rounds all passing through him more-or-less at once.
Not any version of the Christian faith that I consider worthy of the name. The version that seems to think that God wants you to bless guns and bombs before they are used on non-combatants, maybe, but not the real sort. The sort that gave up real Christianity in favour of a place at the high table with the kings and rich men.
but you’re not the sole arbiter of what is and isn’t Christian. The man clearly self-identifies as Christian. He clearly worships the Christian God – bear in mind this is the same faith behind the Crusades. So if you’re subscribing to this philosphy, you don’t really get to wash your hands of the negative aspects.
So am I, and I manage to not be Ross.
You know the Scream quote, “Movies don’t make psychos, they just make psychos more creative”? Apply it to religion and authoritarian, insecure bigots.
And Crusader armies? And the huge number of Christians who believe homosexuality is an abomination? Yeah, maybe Christian isn’t synonymous with crazy bigot, but funny how it attracts a vast number of the aforementioned. Long story short: You’re Christian, this guy is a part of your faith, and his mind-set is well represented by your religion.
What you are arguing is the “no true scotsman” fallacy… (The argument basically goes “no scotsman would ever ad sugar to their oatmeal”… “but my uncle Angus from the highlands ads sugar to his oatmeal”… “but no TRUE scotsman would”). Basically, the person making the claim is trying to eliminate people from a category based on an artificial criteria that doesn’t make sense.
To be a christian, you just have to believe in god/jesus. Full stop. There is nothing in the definition of ‘christian’ which would filter out those people based on what they do. While the majority of mainstream christians may frown on violence, that doesn’t necessarily mean you can claim a person ISN’T a christian just because they do things that are not acceptable. The only thing that matters is belief in god/jebus.
Are you sure about that? What about John 13:35: “They will know that you are my disciples because of your love for one another.” How about the sheep and the goats (Matthew 25:31-46)? Or Matthew 22:36-40 (“Love your neighbour as yourself”)? Try James 2 if you think that “the only thing that matters is belief in god/jebus”.
Because right now you’re engaged in telling at least one actual Christian what they do and don’t believe. You might be surprised to hear that the loud, right-wing, ultra-conservative bigotry that USians tend to associate with ‘Christianity’ is not shared across the world. It’s exactly the same as imagining that Daesh, IS, Al Qaeda etc are “true Muslims” because, well, because they say they are, even if there’s like a billion other Muslims in the world who find their beliefs/actions abhorrent.
I know people love to raise the NTS fallacy in these arguments, but it’s frequently (as here) applied incorrectly. I (and you) don’t get to make the final call on who is or isn’t ‘really’ a Christian, but there are some pretty solid expectations laid down for how one is supposed to act.
I’m not trying to tell you what you believe. I’m trying to explain why what you believe may be wrong.
The bible is a complex work, written by many people over centuries, with some sections that are vague, some that are factually wrong, and some that are contradictory. There are many passages of the bible that point to being saved “by faith”, without reference to acting in a particular way.
As for your “expectations on how someone is supposed to act”, that has nothing to do with the bible and everything to do with the environment you were raised in. Had you been born in a different century or different location (e.g. the confederate states before the civil war) you would have found justification in the bible for slavery, and would have been just as convinced that slavery was something acceptable to christians, even though you probably view it as contrary to the bible now.
segnosaur: “To be a christian, you just have to believe in god/jesus. Full stop.”
Me @ segnosaur: “I (and you) don’t get to make the final call on who is or isn’t ‘really’ a Christian, but there are some pretty solid expectations laid down for how one is supposed to act.”
You @ me: “And are you the arbiter of what constitutes Christianity?”
You’re conflating what makes one Christian with what makes one a Christian in your eyes. You don’t get to make the final call on who is or isn’t a Christian. But sure. Let’s play that game. Yeah, there are some pretty solid expectations laid down. Like not wearing clothes of two materials and putting to death any child that curses their parent (an apt one here).
So I bet you pick and choose what parts of the bible you obey. I bet you interpret the bible so it fits your modern narrative. And then what do you do? You declare your interpretation right while condemning those that do not follow according to your interpretation. But who are you, to pick and choose the words of your god? You’re a Christian? So is the gun toting dude in the comic. So were the Crusaders. So were the Nazi’s. You might think these people were “bad” Christians, yet they were still Christians, often acting in what they believed was the will of their god, making personal interpretations of the bible to support their own narrative.
Disturbing thought here. What if Toe-dad is ordering both Joyce and Becky into the car? After all, he just caught them hugging, and in his twisted mind that could mean that Joyce is a lesbian. And Joyce could be subjected to corrective rape, unlike Becky, who if he tries, can get him shunned by the congregation. Unless the church they go to is really wrong.
Genuine question, is corrective rape by parent actually that frowned upon? I mean, isn’t the dad in such families supposed to be exactly the ideal husband too? I get that this even if it worked wouldn’t be a good example of an appropriate partner since it’s literally the father, but I can also see the argument for it, and I don’t feel like raping Joyce would be greatly ‘better’ in the eyes of the community (she’s still Becky’s age, a member of the community, and the two are practically family, and also even if corrective rape wasn’t a horrible and false thing she’s not even a lesbian in the first place- what I mean is, I don’t think they’d see it as excusable if they didn’t see doing so to Becky as excusable).
But I’m skeeved out, the ‘play’ in But I’m A Cheerleader skeeves me out even, so I’ll stop pontificating (I am still interested in if anyone knows the answer, though)
My reasoning is: if Ross was intending to rape a lesbian into straightness, it would have been Dina back then in the woods. Joyce is someone he knows from way back and (presumably) he assigns more humanity to her than to the “oriental deceptress” he only met once.
It’s the reason I was so worried about his “I should-” comment.
I agree about the ‘I should’ fear (although I think it was more ‘smash you into oblivion’), but I also feel like Dina would be so not-human that ‘curing’ her wouldn’t really be a thing anyway.
Ross wouldn’t be doing it himself. Becky would get sent to a camp and/or married off to get her back on the ‘right’ path. He also wouldn’t try to ‘correct’ Dina – as a non-believer, she’s written off as a heathen, possibly a witch depending on his particular tradition, and he needs to get his daughter away from evil, worldly influences like her.
Deathjavu did say *this* strip in their post, though. So that wasn’t spoilery. And it seems to me they were also intentionally vague about tomorrow’s strip!
I’m thinking that Joyce may be thinking of John 15:13 – “No greater love has a man than he should surrender his life for his friends.” I don’t think that it will go that far but I can’t see Joyce hesitating if it comes to that.
Yay, comments are working for me again. I really like Becky’s expression, which conveys to me this perfect level of, “And just when I thought my dad could not get any worse, he pulls *this*.” Poor, poor Becky. Just. There is no coming back from that.
Despite everything, I think that Becky was still working on the assumption that he was her father and that, disagreements and misunderstandings aside, fundamentally he loved her and would, in the end, never hurt her. The look on her face in the last panel is the realisation that she is totally wrong.
That’s the beginning of realization that your life is in danger and your brain is quickly shifting gears into fight/flight/freeze mode, with a greater chance for the latter two to occur than the first.
Also, any possibility that Becky isn’t really Ross’ kid? I know genetics are a mishmash, but his hair is dark, and hers is red, which is an ultra recessive form of the blonde gene. She is also petite whereas he’s a brick shithouse. One can look completely different from one or both parents, but unless Ross had a redheaded parent who had at least one redheaded parent, it seems unlikely that someone like him would have a redheaded child.
Kind of wondering if Becky’s mother had an affair or something, got pregnant with Becky, and Ross was duped into thinking she was his only to find out later she wasn’t. I think I remember it being said that Becky’s mother died from an illness, though given this scene, I don’t think it’s out of the realm of question that he could have been abusing her in some way (physical, or maybe denying proper medical care) that hastened or caused her death… and while he considers Becky a possession still (since he raised her), he no longer has any parental love for her, and is thus content with killing her if she doesn’t submit back to being his property again.
There better be fucking repercussions for this. Pulling out a gun twice on a college campus? With tons of witnesses around? or is the plaza suddenly, conveniently, empty?
Here’s my prediction: Joyce, being Joyce, is going to try to reason with Ross, leaning heavily on scriptural authority for reproving him for threatening, even by implication, the use of force. She’ll try her full suit of love and empathy. Ross, on the other hand, will simply continue to make absolute demands and, every time these are not complied with, he will get more and more angry. Worse, I think that Joyce actually sounding reasonable will make him even more angry until he starts to identify her with the source of all his frustrations.
It is quite possible that, as Cerberus suggests, he will ultimately decide that a dead Becky is better than a Becky living in sin. Worse, he would have got so angry at Joyce for so effectively arguing Becky’s case that he may think violence against her is also permissible to deal with those emotions. I’m figuring he takes the shot. However, he will have some kind of pithy phrase to utter first that will give the girls a few moments warning to dive for the ground. Then the cops will shoot him dead.
The most tragic part of it would be that Becky’s last memory of her father would be the look of hate in his eyes when he decided to kill her.
For a brief and whimsical moment, I thought that the gun was only there for the “clever girl” gag, and I was so relieved that it wasn’t part of the plot (because from a story-telling standpoint, it’s a little bit ridiculous).
I feared that Fundie’s actions were motivated more by his ego than anything else. This appears to confirm that. He’s using a rifle to recover his property. Sadly, there’s no way this will end well. He’s threatened his daughter’s life, as well as the lives of her best friends, and seems to have no grasp of the damage that’s done. I’m sure he thinks that the deprogramming session he has planned will put her back on a path that’s acceptable to him. He might even have some limited luck there, depending on the brutality of the deprogramming session. Stockholm Syndrome is a powerful tool if used correctly.
Joyce’s life is also about to change forever. She must face the fact that an authority figure in the faith that sustained her is now threatening her life. She’ll find that prayer isn’t quite as comforting as is was in the past.
As for the police, an armed shooter on campus will bring a fast response, but it will be with full lights and sirens. That will trigger one of two responses. Either Fundie will wake up and the situation will begin to defuse, or he will panic and escalate things to the highest level. If things escalate, it’s likely he will knock Joyce down, grab Becky and throw her in the car, and make a run for it. Either way, Fundie’s in for some jail (and maybe asylum) time, and Becky’s out on her own. The family will blame and ostracize her, and the university will get rid of her to try to calm things down. She has no right to be on campus and the publicity will be a nightmare for the administration.
“The eye that mocketh at his father, and despiseth to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out, and the young eagles shall eat it.” Proverbs 30:17
Joyce, my dear, you may just need to remember the words of Jesus, but Toedad just needs to remember the words of the Old Testament.
Back then, children going off the rails tended to end up as murderous highwaymen and the like or members of religions that incinerated live babies as sacraments. The Hebrew Scriptures reflect a time that, optimistically, can be described as ‘not nice’.
FWIW, though, the underlying concept of showing respect and obedience to one’s parents where this is reasonable is a sound one. It should be noted that there were times in Israelite history where such respect and obedience wasn’t actually required, especially when it’s the parents that had gone off the rails, as in this case.
From all I can tell, the way parents treated their children was part of things being not nice. We still have murderous gangs today, and insisting your kids obey Ross-style is not the best way to keep them out of one.
In any case, though, the proverbs are now kept as the unchanging word of God, ready to be quoted in any context. Most Christians don’t, but there is a rationalization close at hand whenever someone like Ross wants.
Fundie is remembering the words of the old testament. “Then they shall bring out the damsel to the door of her father’s house, and the men of her city shall stone her with stones that she die: because she hath wrought folly in Israel, to play the whore in her father’s house: so shalt thou put evil away from among you.” – Deuteronomy 22:21
It would prevent her from further damaging her soul through sinful conduct. More importantly, it would stop her damaging his reputation as an upright man. Before anyone mentions it, yes, I know this is not a sane mindset.
He’s past the point of rational thought. When he’s in interrogation with the police, he’ll say that he only brought the gun to scare her. And if the gun is fired, he’ll probably never say he shot anybody “the gun just went off”.
While continually blaming Becky for not being “reasonable”.
Ultimately, though, if he shoots it’ll be because Becky won’t submit to him, and he’ll hate her defiance. He can rationalize it any way he wants, but it will be purely because of hate.
am i the only one who really really wants to see historical jesus (Yeshua) dramatically enter the comic as an IU campus police officer, and take down toedad?
I think the best course of action for the girls at this point is to scream.
Attract attention. Involve bystanders. Make a scene. EMBARRASS Toedad.
I think it’s the thing that’s most likely to get through to him and de-escalate the situation. Screaming girls reframe the situation into “scary man attacking with a gun” from “family affair” pretty effectively.
That’s what I’ve been taught to do in cases of shit like this – scream as loud as possible, attract attention. Of course, I was also taught to run, since I live in a country with actual gun control, where running from an assailant is not likely to get me shot…
I seriously think screaming is the best thing they can do to protect themselves at this point.
This is going to be all about Joyce. The police aren’t even minor cast members. Joyce WILL save Becky. The narrative demands it. Forget the details and follow the story people.
Precisely.
I think even Dina’s out of it until everything is over. She had her chance to try and did so valiantly, but much of the purpose of that was so that she wouldn’t be there at the final confrontation.
In the reality of the comic occurring Right Now, original sidewalk dude has posted to YikYak that there’s a dude with a gun on campus, and it has been downvoted off the feed three or four times by now.
Wow, I just realized…. the conversation Joyce talk about took place HERE, at the fountain. This is were she defied her parents. This is were Becky makes her stand against HER father.
When Joyce stood up to her parents Ethan hid behind the fountain. When Becky stands up to her father Joyce stands between her and the gun.Joyce’s parents were swayed by the right proverb and the resolve of their daughter. Becky’s father is unlikely to stop until someone puts him down.
I’m sure there are more interesting parallels, but for now all I will say is… well played, Willis, well played.
There must be other students seeing this, right? It’s a beautiful fall day on a college campus. There have to be a ton of students with phones videoing this, I hope. o_O
First, that’s my book you’re quoting.
Second, and if I dare quote myself “a long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom.” (Common Sense, 3rd edition, 1776, p.1)
I think it was something along the lines of “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you…while running like Gehenna and alerting the authorities.”
>why would you bring that
I’ll take ‘because he’s been brainwashed by the words of a book that makes no sense and was never really intended to be taken too seriously by the aliens who helped write it’ for 1,000, Alex.
Well, as Jesus said: “if you don’t have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one.” (Luke 22:36)
So really Joyce, you only have yourself to blame for not being prepared.
That was a very specific instruction. He said those particular people needed to have swords, and then he explained that it was because he was supposed to be found among criminals. They then told him “We do have a few swords” and he said that was cool.
Later, one of them actually used one, and he was rather upset by it.
Not that “plucking out random verses and ignoring both the context and the rest of the book” isn’t a style favored by people like Ross.
For all the complaints people have about how Toedad is so two dimensional as a character (and of course he is! He’s here to serve a role in the narrative, not spin off into The Radical Adventures of Toedad), Joyce’s line in the final panel is genuinely heartbreaking, specifically because of her history with Becky’s family.
Joyce thinks the absolute best of everyone regardless of circumstances, and most times she’s had a problem with a loved one she’s been able to reach out and come to an understanding. But here? It’s not just a matter of a terrifying stranger; Becky’s dad is someone she’s known and trusted her whole life, and now, he’s directly threatening her and someone she dearly loves.
Now to patiently await even more “omg this is so strawman” from the peanut gallery.
Strangers are already bad to her, but now… male authority figures from her past are also bad.
I predict that this is going to open the floodgates of all pent up resentment towards her dad for having raised her in such a bigoted, controlling manner, such as not letting her leave the neighborhood on her bike until she was 16. First it’ll just be abject terror upon seeing him, then she’ll eventually link the nature of her upbringing under his control to that abject terror and how he, even though he’s much more “laid back” than Ross is, has the potential to do what Ross here is doing once he feels he’s losing control of her.
Ross is not a character, he’s an obstacle. He’s the conflict of this arc personified. And sure maybe he isn’t a gun toting psychopathic nutjob ALL the time but for the purpose of the story it doesn’t matter.
What is his purpose here? To take Becky away and get her “cured” so to speak. Thats all we really need to know. The minute details of his life are not needed, we do not need to know his backstory nor his struggles. Because in the eyes of the characters and hopefully most readers, everything he’s doing is wrong.
I’m sure he has some qualities many would find admirable, at least in his community. Like Joyce said he would drive her to Six Flags. And likely drove her and becky to various things. So we hear of good things he’s done but we don’t see them. Because we don’t need to.
I’m going to sound pretentious by bringing up shakespeare but he reminds me of Tybalt from Romeo and Juliet.
He is just a horrible unrepentant asshole, yet following his death many mourn him including Juliet, remembering him fondly.
But we never see it.
And in many cases most would consider this bad character writing, or a two dimensional character. But for the story he’s in we don’t need to see his sympathetic side.
Dammit Toedad now you’re adding to your inevitable prison sentence you jackass. When those guys find out you took a rifle onto a school campus they are NOT going to be kind to you either.
Considering the timespeed of this comic, Campus Police could have a response time under 2 minutes, and we still won’t see them show up until after Christmas.
So Joyce has another variation of PTSD to add to her roster. That’s sure going to be fun for her to deal with.
I wonder how Dina will come out of this though. Kinda one thing to ambush a maniac with a rifle in the moment, and another completely to realize that you ambushed a maniac with a rifle a little while afterwards and were rolling the dice on whether or not you’d live to panic about it.
*claws at own face* Please, I need to get a confirmation that he didn’t rape Dina, and that she’s okay, because that’s the exact setup we last saw her on.
Don’t worry… There wouldn’t have been time to do that. He doesn’t seem like the kind of person to rape someone, anyway (which is odd to say after he pulls out a gun on his own child)… The thing is, he has what he considers to be justification for his violence (his religion). He wouldn’t have any justification for rape.
Willis would never do that to a character of his unless it actually plays a part in the story, because having someone be raped just for added drama without building on it would be a super shitty and bad thing to do. Any time it happens in mainstream media it is almost always done badly, and even in most webcomics.
He did not rape Dina and our evidence is that he simply did not have time to do it.
Last time we saw him, he was watching Becky tearing away at full speed across a field. He needed to get back to his car and drive towards the general direction he saw Becky go towards. In that short time he could have certainly hurt Dina, but rape is really doubtful. Especially because of how focused he is on Becky.
If he did anything to Dina at all, I would speculate like other people that he violently knocked Dina out and dragged her to the car because right now she’s an obstacle getting in his way.
Maybe what Joyce wants is from Matthew 10: 34.
“Think not that I am come to take you to six flags: I came not for vacation, but to shoot deceptresses.” I might be a little off on the quote though.
this makes me so fucking sad for Joyce I want to cry and hug. it’s so traumatizing to have her see that another person she once liked is also violent and dangerous.
I have a bad feeling… Joyce is… right… there… She’s going to snap. She’s going to break. She’s going to slowly degrade in a violent spiral of rationalization that tells her one thing and one thing only. THIS. IS. BULLSHIT!!!!!
Joyce is INCREDIBLY naive, but she’s not violent, and she’s not cruel: when confronted with Becky’s homosexuality, she did go through that thought of trying to ‘fix’ it, but she was putting Becky first and foremost. She’s devoted to people, regardless of their beliefs. She’s a soul that loves, even if she’s ignorant.
Ross is a big, bundle of loathing. He loathes what his daughter is, and wants to fix her because his hate for what she is outweighs his love for her. He’s not an adult-male Joyce, he’s all Ross, and that’s awful. If he was more like Joyce, this situation would be going down very differently.
I mean, we saw her date with Joe. Joyce isn’t above trying to beat the sin out of people. Wouldn’t do that to her own daughter though. Joyce gets more compassionate and more willing to bend the rules when dealing with friends and family.
But even with Ethan it wasn’t in malice. He wanted to not be gay and the kind of person she is just wanted to help. It’s after she learns that it’s not helping she does what’s right as much as she can. If Ross where in a similar arrangement, like his daughter for some reason asks to change, I have a feeling the handle on the subject would be crueler.
True enough. Joyce isn’t a good or bad person because of her religion, same as Ross. What defines them is how they act, and when Joyce is confronted by challenges and painful truths she always tries to adapt her viewpoints to do right by her loved ones, while Ross digs his heels further.
And Jesus said unto he “Stop standing there and get the fuck outta there, for he that brandeth a shot gun upon his own kin hath past unto the land of the batshit and should be shunned.”
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“yeah the EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-PISTOLS of Paul!”
“…that’s a rifle”
“Rifle-ations?”
Still not sure if Dina is in there, but I do not know if this is necessarily better in any meaningful sense
Dina will save the day with SCIENCE.
My conspiracy theory is that this man is, in reality, John Cena’s big toe, and they will be saved when Cena shows up to reclaim him.
I’m absolutely dreading this to be a noble sacrifice for Dina…
Willis wouldn’t kill her would he? He wouldn’t do that to us?
He said he wouldn’t kill anyone off, but that doesn’t mean he won’t injure anyone.
Willis wouldn’t kill her… again, you mean, right?
She got better, at the end of Shortpacked.
how much you wanna bet he gets sniped from the rooftop by mike. who in my head totally has a cache of hidden weapons stashed in various locations just in case of crazy jackasses on his turf. ONLY HE BRINGS MISERY TO THIS PLACE
….ps the answer WILL NOT BE A NICKLE
Can’t be a nickel he gave all those to your mom.
* Dina will save the day with SCIENCE.
I thought science was only good for blinding people.
Damn you 80s pop songs!
Blinding him WOULD allow everyone to get away and make it easier to stall him until the police show up…
Seeing that he managed to get his gun back I don’t think Dina is alive any longer. I doubt Joyce will get killed off though. Remember the frame where he first chaced them into the woods. There were people watching. I’m guessing police have been called at this point.
I would think that they would find the gun less suprise ng if they had heard a gunshot go off on campus. Ihis rifle is not a the most stealthy weapon on the market, and I imagine could be heard from anywhere on campus.
There’s also a lack of blood. Dina probably wouldn’t run away so killing her would either mean a very close range shot, or beating her to death. Both would probably leave blood splatter on his clothes. My guess is that toedad likely manhandled her into the car and she is likely bruised but otherwise mostly unharmed. Or Willis didn’t think to include bloody clothes…. or toedad had a spare shirt in the car.
Willis has stated no-one dies.
Also the rifle is a .22LR. Unless he hit a major vessel the round would not produce much spray, if any.
Correction, it’s a .223, which at that range would be traveling too fast to create much back spray
Well her body is probably in the car. Whether her body is occupied is another thing.
Not really, nobody dies in the comic.
Tell that to Roomies.
Well, THIS comic has a lot of thematic and stylistic differences from the Walkyverse.
Granted, Willis has said that nobody will die in this universe
however
That still leaves a lot of room for things like “grievously maimed”
Comatose isn’t dead, right?
If he had shot Dina, they would have heard it. Everyone on campus would have, and there’d be a mass panic.
He immediately caught up to Becky, which required going back to his car, backing it out, turning around, going around the park, and to the fountain. I don’t think he had time to do much to Dina, much less beat her to a pulp and/or throw her in the trunk. Even with her being so small compared to him, he’d still would have wasted time dragging a struggling girl back with him, with his rifle in the other hand, open the trunk, throw her in, get in, and take off in the car… and that’s on the assumption that no one at all tried to stop him to help someone being kidnapped.
Dina might have a rifle-butt or knuckle shaped welt on her head, but otherwise I think she’s alright. If she ends up going to the hospital, it’ll be for a concussion and maybe bruised ribs.
Do gun to others, as you would have them do gun to you.
Then I saw another Toedad that rose from the earth; it had an implement of two barrels like a double-barreled implement and it spoke like thunder. It exercises all the authority of the Toedad on its behalf, and it makes the earth and its inhabitants worship the Toedad, whose mortal wound had yet to be inflicted. It performs great signs, even making fire come down both barrels to earth in the sight of all
Once again, that’s not a double-barrel shotgun, it’s a Ruger No. 1, or something similar.
I think it might be an over/under shotgun or combination gun. Panel 3 of Monday’s strip clearly showed two triggers, so it’s either a double-barreled firearm, or a double set trigger.
Nope, it’s a rifle. I looked up the Ruger No. 1 and yep, that’s this thing. Willis simply sucks at drawing intricate trigger guards and managed to make part of the trigger guard look like a second trigger. I forgive him.
I wouldn’t even say he sucks at it. There’s not much you could do that wouldn’t make the trigger guard on the Ruger No. 1 look like a second trigger in a basic drawing For that matter, it wouldn’t be terribly hard to mistake it for one in real life.
http://ruger.com/products/no1DE/specSheets/11389.html
1 Wheaton: Don’t be a dick
Apologies, that came off with too much snark. The point I wish to make is that as it’s probably a falling-block, single-shot rifle, it’s qualities capabilities are very different from a double-barrel shotgun, or even a double-barrel rifle. This in turn changes what kind of threat it poses.
That was a response to HEYOUGUYZ!, not you.
it was actually a tag-on directed at Toedad, also
idk bible jokes are hard
Here’s one:What kind of man was Boaz before he married Ruth?
Ruthless.
… Boaz was an alcoholic RA, and a woman?
Hit the books? In Soviet Russia, books hit YOU!
*beats Toedad to death with a Bible*
Not really, “bangstick make it better. bangstick make me right,” seems to be Toedad’s thought process. Discussing what kind of bangstick Toedad will use to impose his views here is not only irrelevant, it is missing the whole point.
Unless it changes the possible injury outcomes, you know?
Nope, not even slightly relevant. Two girls being threatened with gun. End of.
This is not an RPG or an NRA fantasy.
I mean, I think the difference between one injured or dead girl and two definitely dead girls is pretty huge.
I mean the moral shitty-ness of it is equally bad no matter what really but the type of gun significantly changes the threat. Does it spray and shoot everyone in front of him? How many rounds can the gun shoot before he has to reload? like these things directly affect how many people are in danger (including bystanders), how far they can run between shots, and the seriousness of the wounds. Like are they going to have their chest cavities opened up and die on site or are they going to spend a couple days in the hospital?
@dixiesaurer it’s a single shot breech-loading rifle, no magazine and a double-set trigger, probably a .22 caliber rimfire. The rifle was fairly positively identified back at “Deceptress”.
What’s relevant to the narrative is that it is the absolute worst possible choice for a shooting spree (or even just shooting two people), short of a prison zip gun made out of a piece of pipe and a nail.
The rest is just nerds gotta nerd 🙂
But it’s still a gun, and it’s still on a college campus, and a girl is still being threatened with it. And it’s still capable of killing said girl — the Ruger #1 Varmint is a .223 caliber rifle, i.e., same round as a M-16, not the world’s deadliest round but people still manage to kill deer with them.
Toedad is not going to be happy when the police roll up and draw down on him. In fact, he may end up dead. Cops nowadays don’t play when someone is holding a gun on a college campus, they don’t spend time analyzing how many rounds it holds, they shout “drop it!” and follow that up a split second later with sufficient rounds to make sure that it happens.
and SYMBOLISM: Toedad is hunting his daughter with a Varminter, a varmint-hunting rifle:
“Vermin (colloquially varmint or varmit) are pests or nuisance animals, especially those that threaten human society by spreading diseases”
So, SYMBOLISM: Toedad sees Lezbo Becky as a VARMINT, VERMIN, SOMETHING TO BE DESTROYED AS A THREAT TO HUMAN SOCIETY.
You win all the internets.
If its rifle-lations then she’ll just come back in a little bit anyway.
And Jesus said on to us.
“He hath pullith a rifle upon on you.”
And I replied to Jesus.
“No way!”
And Jesus replied.
“Yahweh”
Jesus wept.
T__T
Dollar. Pun jar.
I don’t care if you don’t have a pun jar, quart jars aren’t too expensive.
Hey, if you don’t like Bible puns, then just make an Exodus. Do you have an Acts to grind or something?
Not as Ezekiel as it sounds…
I think that it might not count as a pun if people genuinely laugh genuinely — ie, not groan/mock-laugh, chuckle, smile — even if technically its a pun. Even if it does count and as a pun I’ll pay Cheryl’s punfine: there’s too many levels of intertwined cleverness in her post.
You know, if Willis could implement a pun jar in the comments section, he could drop the whole Patreon thing and make more money.
Brilliant.
Call it: Puntreon
Movie treatment: Jesus and his 12 Bros.
Good pun! I snorted ice tea at that.
Lying here in the darkness
I hear the sirens wail
Somebody going to emergency
Somebody’s going to jail
If you find somebody to love in this world
You better hang on tooth and nail
The wolf is always at the door
Need some help here
I still can’t believe anyone would bring a rifle when setting out to find their child. I know the MST3K mantra, but this still takes me out of the story.
I see this is going well.
Nobody got shot…yet.
We still don’t know how his confrontation with Dina ended. :-/
Not with a gunshot. Those are loud and Becky was close enough to be seen
*Very* loud.
He almost certainly took off as soon as he saw her. He might have pushed Dina out of the way but I doubt he killed or her dragged her with him or whatever the worst we’re assuming is
I think that there’s a good chance that you’re right, considering how quickly he got back to his car and drove around to the fountain.
I’m sure the next week of comics will be a peaceful debate on whether or not homosexuality is a sin by using bible quotes as evidence.
While the SWAT team sets up a sniper…
The cops don’t wait for a SWAT team anymore. They learned that lesson with Columbine where people died because they waited. The first cops on the scene charge the guy with the gun and if he doesn’t immediately drop it, they shoot and kill him. That’s the modern training on the subject.
I think its the difference between a hostage situation and a mass-murder-massacre-slaughter situation. In the former the older tactics make sense and probably save way more lives. In the latter, what Badtux said.
True enough, but in public, on a college campus, you’re going to get an immediate response as if you’re an active shooter in this day and age. You just have to turn on the news to know why. If you’re in a house with a hostage, on the other hand, they’ll call the SWAT team and wait you out.
Badtux the Snarky Penguin?
Not sure if you are talking about the comic strip or the comment section
I expect discussion in both will go equally poorly
I don’t expect the comments section feels uncertain enough to need a debate, and I don’t expect Ross is going to stand around for one.
but what if Ross is just trying to be a good dad and a righteous man
/sarcasm
Is that a recognized school of Biblical exegesis? One side cites Bible verses, the other fires bullets?
Joyce is going to try that, I think. I also think that Ross isn’t sufficiently… sane at the moment to be able to participate. I’m expecting him to just wave his gun and roar demands.
OK Ross, time to see whether you have the courage of your convictions. You’ve done the macho man act, tracked her down, brandished your rifle… but now what? What are you going to do when Becky doesn’t follow the script? Can you actually point that thing at your daughter when she’s standing right there, looking at you? Would you pull the trigger?
Or will you have a moment of clarity and realise what you’re actually doing here? You’re probably going away for this, but you can put the gun down, give yourself up to the cops when they arrive and get some counselling. You’ll have to give up your fantasy of control, but you have that choice. Lord grant you the strength.
(He can’t hear me, can he? Probably just as well; trying to talk him down would just make him dig his heels in further.)
I really feel this could go either way at this point. He might just be that crazy. Well, brough the gun and already pointed it at someone, so we know he’s this crazy. Wether or not he’s insane enough to pull the trigger remains to be seen.
Don’t call it insanity. He’s fully in control of his own actions, he’s just that much of a bigot. Insanity usually can be treated or controlled; there’s no cure for asshole.
Yeah, exactly. Calling him insane implies that he’s too crazy to understand what he is doing, and therefore gives him an excuse for what he is doing.
There is no excuse for this. ^=__=^;;
Chances are if and when Becky refuses, he WILL shoot her. Not to kill, though. Just probably in the shoulder or the leg as a warning shot.
if she take a bullet, she will *need* to go to an hospital (where they’d most probably call the cops), or she would probably die from blood loss/infection/younameit.
Not a sound plan.
ToeDad is clearly not sound in the head, then.
Okay this just went from bad to worse to TOEDAD IS GOING TO BE ON TV worse
Toedad: “SUCCESS! I saved my daughter from sin AND I’ll be a guest for Billy Graham and Glenn Beck!”
*did not check to see if Billy Graham is still alive or what*
He’s still alive, but he’s old enough to rent ultraporn now.
The last great milestone.
I can tell you with complete certainty, as a longtime observer of the world of “Christian TV” and similar hucksters on radio and travel. Billy Graham is like the Dalai Lama of Christianity.
Never judged, never asked for money, was sincere in his positive beliefs, and it earned him the respect of presidents and even atheists like myself, because he was more about peace, love, blah blah, than ever was fire, hell, “do this and burn you sinner!”
If there ever was a good guy in the Protestant World, BG should have been their pope.
He definitely judged the Jewish community, although he kept it private apparently, and he advocated a plan for Nixon to bomb dikes all across North Vietnam, which was estimated to be able to kill a million people.
He was friendly enough in public, in order to keep his role as the pastor to presidents, but he definitely wasn’t cuddly.
More like “Redneck moron storms Indiana U. with hunting rifle; citing religious contempt for homosexuality as reason. Tonight at 8” On TV.
I never said he wasn’t delusional about the likely outcome
I don’t think Glenn Beck has a show anymore; at least not on Fox. (And if you are too much for Fox….)
Well, I’m sure he’ll get thousands for his legal defense on gofundme.
He totally would, wouldn’t he?
Um…someone? Anyone? Campus police? Professor?
Amazi-Girl?
Ruth?
Still think it’s gonna be Sal…
I vote for all of the above, with Mike on hand to deliver the coup de grace.
Sailor Moon, please
Never watched that, but I’ve heard good things. Is she bulletproof?
Kamen Rider might do well. Ross could use a good, solid boot to the head.
YES, the Scouts are pretty much bulletproof.
Bueller?
Gilligan? Skipper? Chief? McCloud?
Scootaloo? Scoot Scoot Scootaloo?
SNAKE!!!!!!!!
Wubba Lubba Dub DUb
Snape!
…Snape, Severus Snape
DUMBLEDORE!
Bond, James, B… is that a rifle? Yeah, I’m just Joe Blow, bye!
It’s a pipe bomb!
Gary?
Dumbledore!
Too late…
Snape, Snape, Severus Snape…
Doctor Scott!
I’m surprised no-one beat me to this:
KHAAAAAAAAAAAAN!
Who you gonna call?
Janet!!
Ghostbusters! (The New Next Generation, not the old guys!!)
Yeah, it really seems like there should have been some security/police response by now…
Probably not. It’s probably going to end with some dumb, contrived superhero bollocks.
Ain”t ya the naysayer in ALL your comments on this page: |
Well, when one refers to oneself as ‘Doomrider’…
Police response is 3 minutes minimum. Campus cops who hear gun will rush, but they’ll also pause to arm and armor themselves, so it’s a wash. I’d start expecting them soon, but it could easily be all over before they get there.
At the Umpqua Community College shooting earlier this month, police arrived on the scene six minutes after the first call to 911.
And in that case, the shooter was still in the same room a he had been reported as being in, he had not driven half a mile.
Umpqua Community College does not have its own police department. IU does. They’ll still take a couple of minutes to roll though.
I can’t speak for IU, but I work security at Yale, and when we call Yale PD for emergencies, response time is typically quite a bit less than 3 minutes. A gun would draw attention from New Haven PD as well. That said, they can’t be everywhere at once, and with guns, it only takes a couple seconds for someone to get shot.
but they might go to the other side of the woods first, since that’s where he was first spotted with a gun.
Very likely that they have been called–someone showing up on a public street toting an assault rifle on campus tends to get attention–but Toedad cut through a wooded area, then went back to his car and drove elsewhere, so the campus cops may be trying to figure out where the heck he is.
It’s a single-shot rifle, not any sort of semi-auto civilian knock-off of a military gun. That said, it’s still definitely deadly, it’s just a really bad choice if he wants to kill BOTH girls.
I know some guys like the single shots for hunting but I’ve always felt its better to have a few rounds on hand in case the deer (or whatever) doesn’t drop so you can shot another round into it before it gets away and suffers more
Of course in this instance I’m glad its a single shot rifle hes carrying
“One shot, one deer. Two shots, maybe one deer. Three shots, no deer.”
Of course it’s different if you actually hit it with the first shot. 🙂
There are deer in EnZed?
Like, don’t the large Kangaroos occupy something like the same ecological niche in Australia as deer do in Europe & N America? So, like, in NZ? (Seriously, I have no real idea and am just guessing here.)
Deer were released by colonizers to provide game for shooting, deer are considered pests and there are no hunting seasons so if you like hunting and want to help the environment then come to NZ, we also speak English 🙂
PS There populations of Wallabies in NZ but no Kangaroos
The cops aren’t going to stop to ascertain how many bullets the gun he’s holding will fire. They will see a gun in his hands, and act accordingly. Which does *not* bode well for Toedad. I hope Becky doesn’t get to see her dad die in front of her, no matter how evil he’s turned out to be…
You don’t know what an assault weapon is, do you?
1)Yes I do. It’s anything that scares an anti-gun zealot.
Seriously, it’s a phrase that was invented to make guns sound scary. It plays on the ignorance of the masses and induces fear by sounding similar to “Assault Rifle” which is a real thing that is used by the military and is illegal for 99.999998% of the population to own. And the remaining people are all either mercenary groups, an people who run tourist traps in certain unreasonably firearm friendly states.
2) since there are none in the comic or the thread I’m pretty sure YOU don’t.
What are you on about? That dude was telling the guy who called ToeDad’s gun an assault rifle that he didn’t know what he was talking about. No one was even talking to you, and you’re trying to argue with someone whose whole point was that there’s no assault rifle in the strip.
It’s just any rifle you use to assault someone, right?
You’d think so, right? But its like “terrorism”/”terrorist”. You’d think it’d mean “causing terror”/”terrorizing”, but you’d be wrong. Imagine this news report:
“Hundreds of people, including children lined up to see Santa, were terrorized at the Mall today when a gunman opened fire on a crowd of Christmas shoppers. Police have not yet said whether they believe that this as a Terrorist Incident.”
Terrorism has a definition. Maybe you should look it up while you are online, wordsmith.
In that case, I can grab a toy rifle, and brutally bludgeon someone with it.
Assault Rifle!
No, precise meanings ARE important.
Then again, at least one person has been killed by the cops for carrying a toy gun around, so..
The cops may not care about the nuances, either. :X
I don’t think it’s a case of cops not caring for the nuances as it is a matter of a cop not wanting his (or her) last words to be “I didn’t think it was real; I thought it was just a toy….”
I think Toad was being sarcastic.
They not have sarcasm where you come from, friend?
Here’s a slide show with illustrations and a minimum of polysyllabic words so it’s easy for you to understand that “Assault weapon” is a scary buzzword invented by politicians in 1989 that has no bearing on reality.
http://www.assaultweapon.info/
Whatever, dude. No one was talking to you.
Thanks, Toad. Yes, I meant “rifle” not “weapon.” Ignore this pedantic fool.
Halloween Jack called it an assault rifle not an assault weapon so try reading the post first before going ahead and making a jack ass of yourself
and yes before you answer I’m aware its a single shot rifle of an indeterminate caliber so it doesn’t meet the definition of an assault rifle on any number of reasons
Seriously? It is a gun, it is being used to threaten teenage girls and you lot are quibbling about firearms semantics?
Skizz HumboldtRobin jumped into the conversation and started banging on about assault weapons to make a point, which as you’ve pointed out doesn’t need to be made
Be that as if may. Halloween Jack referred to Ross McIntyre’s Ruger 1 as an “assault rifle”. That is an incorrect and misleading description of a single-shot varmint rifle.
“Assault rifle” is a conventional translation into English of the German “sturmgewehr“, and “sturmgewehr” is a buzzword that was made up by the German Army in 1944 so that they could still requisition the MP44 (re-designated as the “StG44”) despite a ban on maschinenpistolen from OKW.
Not that the etymology matters, but I thought it was interesting.
Cause if they’d called it “rifle that will help us hold defensive positions against the charging Soviet hordes by shooting lots of bullets fast and effectively at relatively close range, like a machine-pistol on steroids” when The Furher was screaming “WHY AREN’T WE ATTACKING??!!??” it wouldn’t have gone down so well in The Wolf’s Lair — am I right?
I agree, the problem I had with it is I like shooting, its fun but there are some people who don’t understand why shooting is fun and want to ban shooting, ban semi-autos, restrict ownership etc etc
Its ok if people don’t understand something if they’ve never tried it or their only experience is from what they see on tv because it just means you have an opportunity to explain why its fun, why you like doing it, why people should be able to own semi-autos…hell you can even explain the differences between battle rifle, assault rifle and assault weapon and they’ll start to understand how the media has been duping them
BUT you can’t change peoples opinions when the first thing you do on a forum is to insult people, its a bad look and just feeds the narrative that gun owners are arrogant assholes when the reality is gun owners are just everyday folks
I mean… “guns are fun” doesn’t really make a difference when the issue is that there are near-daily mass shootings. No one wants to outlaw them because they aren’t fun.
Ok so why are there near-daily mass shootings? Isn’t that the more important question to answer?
Lets say for the sake of argument that more stringent gun control laws are put in place, would that stop people having the urge to kill? It might stop them from using firearms but wouldn’t it be better to find out why people are doing this and trying to help them instead?
So whos not allowed to have firearms then? People living in the city, people living in the country, farmers, target shooters, hunters, pest control?
Countries with strict gun control laws don’t have near-daily mass shootings. And yet strangely, even without a firearm in every house, life goes on. Of course it’s important to get to the root of this problem, but until an enlightenment of humanity happens it’s easier and way more efficient to take away the means of indulging murderous urges.
No one, with the possible exception of law endorcement and hunters, needs to own a gun. Thinking otherwise seems like madness to me. Especially if the argument is “but it’s so much fun to shoot”. Yeah buddy, that might be the problem.
Doing drugs, taking other people’s stuff and blowing things up can also be fun but there is a damn good reason why there are laws against the posession of drugs or explosives and theft. Civilization can be such a party pooper.
The funny thing is, it seems to work in other countries.
With the exception of 9/11 and the bombing of the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City, the weapon of choice when someone — other than the military during a time of war — is looking to kill a lot of people in a short period of time is, always has been, and always will be one or more firearm. THAT is why we need some sort of gun restrictions in this country.
Australian comic Jim Jeffries pretty well sums it up here. It runs fifteen minutes, more or less, but after the first two or three minutes you won’t be able to stop.
Well Cyberdance
Countries with strict gun control laws don’t have near-daily mass shootings. And yet strangely, even without a firearm in every house, life goes on. Of course it’s important to get to the root of this problem, but until an enlightenment of humanity happens it’s easier and way more efficient to take away the means of indulging murderous urges.
– And there are countries where semi-auto rifles, shotguns and pistols are available and mass shootings don’t occur very often at all
No one, with the possible exception of law endorcement and hunters, needs to own a gun. Thinking otherwise seems like madness to me. Especially if the argument is “but it’s so much fun to shoot”. Yeah buddy, that might be the problem.
– It is fun to shoot so why not tell all the competitive shooters that what they’re doing is part of the problem, the olympic pistol shooters, the skeet shooters, the bi athletes at the winter olympics etc etc
However under your rules this situation would still be happening because Toe Dad could claim to be a hunter…he probably even is a hunter as hes using a single shot hunting rifle
Doing drugs, taking other people’s stuff and blowing things up can also be fun but there is a damn good reason why there are laws against the posession of drugs or explosives and theft. Civilization can be such a party pooper.
Hows the war on drugs working out for the USA? Portugal has done very good work with drug users by basically legalizing drugs for personal use
Instead of making people criminals with the stroke of a pen its probably more useful to look at countries with high gun ownership and low mass shootings and see what they’re doing
You mean treating their own citizens like friends and human beings rather than assets and/or enemies?
Look, if you think your ‘fun’ merits taking chances with other people’s lives, you’re kinda fucking scum. Like,k seirously, this is it? “I think it’s fun to do”? Sure, okay.
I mean, this is putting aside the simple elephant in the room – there *IS* room to have sports shooters and hunters in a real gun control environment. Because most guns, especially the ones more easily used in crimes of passion, are proscribed, this allows the quality of life you CLAIM to desire while maintaining the safety of everyone else.
But frankly, with folks like you who won’t even fucking concede the blatant need for these laws, I don’t generally feel the need to point out that this is a thing that we can do. I shouldn’t have to point out you can keep your precious sport for your to agree that lives matter more than fucking fun times.
Assault Rifle is an Anglicisation of the German word ‘Schturmgehrwer’, which was used to describe the StG44 infantry rifle used by elite German forces towards the end of WW2. the English word refers to a family of medium-range automatic-fire-capable rifle-calibre weapons.
Officially, the large-mag rifles on the open market are ‘semi-automatic rifles’, not ‘assault rifles’ because they don’t have automatic fire capability. In practice, all you have to do is open the trigger assembly and file away a retaining pin to turn it into a fully-automatic weapon, something any reasonably-skilled and unethical gunsmith should be able to do. Even if you don’t, the semi-automatic cycle is so fast that a reasonably-capable shooter would be able to fire the gun rapidly and accurately at range.
Well, assault rifles fire intermediate cartridges (such as .30 Carbine, 7.92×33mm K, 7.62×39mm, or 5.56 NATO). If you take an old-fashioned battle rifle like a Garand or FN-FAL that fires a full-powered rifle round (such as .30-06, 7.92×57mm Mauser, 7.63×54mmR, .303 British, or 7.62 mm NATO), and adapt it for automatic fire that’s an automatic rifle, not an assault rifle.
“Automatic rifle” — for all you non-enthusiasts, see the beach assault (can I say assault here?) in Saving Private Ryan, during which Tom Hanks’ character asks Robin where his BAR — Browning Automatic Rifle — is and he responds that its at the bottom of the Channel because the #@$%& tried to drown him so he jettisoned it (at which point Hanks tells him to go back out onto the Beach and find another one, presumably one whose previous owner is now KIA/WIA. … where was I ?
That’s right. There was a bit of a fad after WWII for equipping all infantrymen with them, or selective-fire versions — M14 in the USA and the FN-FAL — but they turned out to be a bit too much gun for accuracy, and the ammunition was heavy. Which is why NATO and other Western countries switched to either semi-automatic versions or to lighter 5.56mm cartridges. The Russians went to intermediate cartridges a bit earlier: the AK-47 fired a short-cased 7.62mm cartridge.
Unlike the “Free Speech” advocate below, I found that link interesting. Thank you. It confirmed much of what I thought, as someone who has never contemplated owning a firearm.
So sorry–I didn’t mean to offend anyone whose main priority in this kind of situation is making sure that the type of weapon is identified correctly.
I see you’re using MSNBC’s gun classification system.
Authorities have almost certainly been contacted by this point – if you go back and look at the page when Toedad first pulls the gun out, there is a background character looking rather alarmed (as only comic characters can – with lines of alarm radiating from their head).
I have to say, given his continuous pursuit of his daughter with a deadly weapon, regardless of whether or not it is loaded, or if he has any intent whatsoever to use it – I want him to BURN.
We know the gun was spotted by a bystander, so I’m hopeful we’re going to get actual police intervention. Whether it will go well is another matter.
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-6/01-to-those-whod-ground-me/deceptress/
Not even remotely an assault rifle.
It’s a single shot lever action gun. And assault Rifle is magazine fed and capable of full auto fire.
if you understand cars better than guns this would be like calling a Shriner miniature car a Race Car. Or calling a Cessna a Jet Bomber if you’re into airplanes.
Police, fire, and EMS are, on average, seven minutes from everywhere, and dispatch can take up to thirty seconds. I don’t think it’s been that long in DoA time.
Remember that they are likely going initially to the place Ross originally left his car to chase Becky and Dina. There is now likely an BOL/APB out for the car. Now, the alert is being tripped again in the fountain quad.
I’d say that Joyce needs to keep Ross talking for about 10 minutes before escape becomes impossible and we find out if he’s so insane that he’ll start seriously considering ‘martyrdom’.
He is chasing his daughter around a college campus with a gun. A large, high visibility gun. I’d say he’s either comfortable with martyrdom, or convinced that God wouldn’t let it happen to *him.*
Either way, I wouldn’t bet on a calm “oh, the police are here. I must have seemed more threatening than I intended. Dear me.”
“No need for alarm, officers! I’m just taking my daughter away for necessary treatment for her disgusting deviancy! I’d appreciate it if you’d prevent her well-meaning friends from interfering and… What…? What are you doing? GET THOSE HANDCUFFS OFF OF ME!!!”
That would be the best case scenario: He’s so delusional that he can’t believe the police wouldn’t help him right until his toe-face is pushed against the hood while he is being handcuffed.
Perhaps not, but wouldn’t we hear the sirens dopplering up by now as they converge at high speed?
In all honesty unless it’s by a food court or between classes most of the profs are probably either in their offices or meetings.
Ghostbusters! (The New Next Generation, not the old guys!!)
How’d this end up down here?
I hope it’s Sarah, just so we can have this dialogue:
Joyce: God will come for us.
Ross: Ha! And what “God” would that be?
Joyce: The Old Testament God.
And then Sarah WACKS him with a bat.
i hope dina called someone to help
Becky has Dina’s cell phone.
I’m sure she wrote out “SOS” in her pooling blood before the darkness took her.
jesus
Yes, my son ?
You’re our Saviour? All this time I thought you were just a cat.
Oh he’s both. Have you not seen the internet? Cats everywhere.
DarkoNeko has been trying to tip us off that the second coming has already been happening for years but GrumpyCat kind of stole the attention.
Damn you, Grumpycat !
You think Ancient Egypt was ruled by pharaohs? Wrong! Cats had the power.
It all makes sense! In my darkest moments, you were there beside me.
Puking a hairball on the carpet.
Shrieking at me to give you cream!!!
Ceiling cat, is that you?!?
Her blood forms a skull
Which then proceeds to eat toedad.
She’s have to holler, or flag someone down. Becky still has her phone.
Once again, Joyce’s brain has broken. Cue flashbacks to the party, running, screaming, and flailing. Or curling up into a ball weeping.
There’s a couple of times that it’s reasonable for her brain to have broken, and this is one of them.
Oh, man. Joyce is never going outside again, is she?
Interesting factoid – Flashbacks very rarely if ever happen in survival-level crises. It is much more likely that Joyce will remain calm, collected and totally clear-headed for the duration of the crisis. Then, after it’s all over, have a total breakdown that could go as far as a lapse into catatonia.
Fun facts are fun.
Yeah, adrenaline does an excellent job of making your mind sharp. Otherwise you have a good chance of making a stupid, uninformed decision and getting yourself killed. Then the adrenaline wears off, your survival brain ditches you with the emotional check and you crash.
This is fiction though. There’s a good chance of flashbacks occurring at dramatically appropriate times.
When pushed into a corner and forced to react Joyce reacts with violence.
Guns on a college campus don’t mix well these days.
“these days” they say.
Go back to the strip when Toedad first shows his rifle. Look for Willis’ comments.
This is what I believe you were referring to. http://reverbpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Mass-Shootings-for-2015.jpg
Wow, WTF is going on Sundays? Seriously, that seems like the most popular day to shoot folks up! What day is it today in comic time?
It’s Monday. Though to be fair, butthole dad was gunning for Sunday, but was diverted and delayed by Dina and Sarah’s actions.
Yes, it’s monday, but i don’t like mondays!
“These days”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Whitman
UT campus carry — https://campuscarry.utexas.edu
Yeah, and that law goes into effect on the 50th anniversary of Whitman’s mass murder. Classy, huh?
Well, armed bystanders did shoot at Whitman during the Texas University Clock Tower shooting, and although none of them hit him it might not have been completely useless. Police on the scene said that fire from bystanders forced Whitman to take shelter, which assisted them in engaging him safely.
The problem is that these days, spree shooters rarely are so kind as to isolate themselves like Whitman did. Instead, they get into the classroom or the movie theater and then open fire. The goal is a ‘target rich environment’. In that scenario, civilian gunfire is about as likely to hit a bystander as it is to hit the original shooter, with the exact odds/outcome being situational. (In the strip, we don’t have a large crowd, so Toedad could be legitimately taken down by an armed bystander. In the Aurora theater shooting (dark, smoke canisters as the opening salvo), six ‘good men with guns’ would’ve probably led to five times as many casualties, as they wouldn’t have any way of knowing who the actual shooter was.
Yes. And we’ve seen a couple of tragically failed interventions in the last week or so. There was the helpful bystander who intervened in a carjacking and shot the victim in the head. And the person who opened fire on a shoplifter in a crowded big-box store….
Using deadly force to prevent or curtail crimes isn’t just a thorny moral issue. It is a also bloody difficult to get right, being fraught with practical and tactical problems.
Here is some research to go with your speculation:
washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2015/10/03/do-civilians-with-guns-ever-stop-mass-shootings/
Hopefully it shows up 🙂
~\o “‘You’re ugly,’ she said. ‘You bug me,’ she said. ‘Please hug me!’ I said, but she just sat there, with that same flat stare that she saves for me alone… when I’m home…” o/~
Because they worked REALLY well in the 50s. I remember all those gun schools where everyone had their guns. Played gun charades. Get drunk and make out with their guns. All is Gun and Games and Gun University.
And the Lord said, “Let all my children come unto me. But preferably not with a gun.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/11932821/toddler-shooting-gun-controls-america.html
Guns and children don’t mix.
Somebody needs to put their foot up toe-dad’s ass. To the kneecap.
But then you’re stuck with your foot up his ass. That’s gonna take time to remove, until then you can’t leave him.
Here, have a cactus and a sledgehammer.
Cacti are too soft. How about a morning star? You could pretend it’s the star of Bethlehem and that it will purify his insides.
A bit morbid for my tastes, and I’m a sadistic bastard with a grisly sense of humor. It reminds me too much of a fellow who was executed by having a red-hot poker shoved up his rear and through any obstructing tissue. Not a quick death, and while I don’t remember who it was, I seem to recall he was a decent guy for his time.
Granted, the morningstar would at least let him bleed and die quickly. Ross may be contemptible, but he’s at least trying to do what he believes is right. I’d think that’s enough to earn a quick death.
I feel that half of what makes him such a despicable piece of shit is the fact that he believes that he’s doing the right thing.
As the saying goes, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
Are you thinking of Edward II? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_II_of_England
I wanted to find the info but just started reading about how historians argue about his sexual orientation.
Farther. Dude’s gonna have athlete’s foot on his uvula.
Aw, no one deserves that. Getting there leg stuck in someone’s butt that is.
Insert elaborate joke about a foot actually being Toedad’s actual toeshaped head already occupying the space here
Paging Red Forman
Where the fuck is Dina?
a) Back seat of car
b) Trunk of car
c) Back in the woods, bleeding somewhere
d) I am an evil human who knows nothing
e) Parts of her here, and parts of her there
f) Parts of her waaaaaaaaaaaaaay over there
g) Plotting a ninja attack on that Toefungus.
h) Running to catch up.
“I think this was Saruyama.”
“…I think this was, too.”
I kid. Shots are loud, and getting back to his car and bring it around this fast means Toe
Daddid not spend much more time on Dina. So she’s probably still how we last saw her, beaten up in the woods, but still with positive hitpoints.Oh, he’ll probably pull her out of the back of the car and maybe throw her to the ground and point the rifle down at her head until Becky gives in.
DINA IS OK …. stunned but more-or-less intact and unharmed after having been thrown to the ground by ToeDad back in Dunn’s Woods.
That’s my view on the matter, and I’m standing by it.
We shall see.
I like yours better & that’s the one I’m going to hold as head cannon unless and until WILLIS says otherwise. Cause, I’ve heard that anxiety about things that you don’t know and can’t effect is unhelpful …
You are going to hold a head cannon?
Joyce is handling this remarkably well.
She kind of has too, if she lets him go ahead and take her she suffers, if she doesn’t she risks getting shot. Her only option that she can do is stall and pray help comes.
Joyce has shown herself to be pretty strong when push comes to shove. Say what you will about her sheltered upbringing and obvious need to get some therapy, she’s got a core of iron in there somewhere.
Cutting Ryan’s face on the glass is a great example of this. She realizes what’s up and there is a panel of deliberation before she smashes his face. If she hadn’t been drugged I fully expect she’d have not just ‘gotten away’ but knocked him senseless, even though she was scared and angry and confused and consciously thinking about being a good Christian (all of those being just like now).
“Uh… What would Jesus do?”
Get nailed to a post, probably. Let’s not emulate Jesus here, okay girls?
I know Jesus was captured but I like ppl who don’t get captured. #TrumpBible
Probably not shoot people. I think he was distinctly against murder and stuff.
Unless He does it or sanctions it, and then He does it in cool ways like fire from the skies (Sodom and Gomorrah), earthquakes (the walls of Jericho), or floods (the parting and rejoining of the Red Sea).
That wasn’t Jesus, that was old testament god!
Jesus IS God. Holy Trinity, Batman!
I don’t know about Jesus, but the apostles would be swords out right now.
I figure he’d have some profound words, or the whip. Whip is always an option.
*plays some Devo*
*tableflip*
death by thunderstrike.
Where there’s a whip there’s a way. Return of the Kings 3:16
Left right left right!
Now I’ve got that song stuck in my head, thaaaaanks.
World Without Sundays did a fun cover if you want to spice up the monotony. I wouldn’t call it good, but few things are worsened by the addition of electic guitars.
Turn the other cheek? Not sure what the GUN version of that is.
Take the shot from the second barrel, too. (YES, I realize it’s a single-shot rifle, thank you comment threads, this is just the best I’ve got.)
Turn the other cheek but be careful so he doesn’t pop a cap in your ass?
That expression, when he used it, doesn’t mean what you think it means.
Inconceivable!
Look up what he did in the Garden of Gethsemene. He distracted the local militia with a miracle and a speech whilst his followers fled. Basically, he gave up any hope of escape for himself to protect them.
Grabbing a bullwhip and kicking some ass isn’t out of the question.
They better put thise legs to good use.
Come on public place! Do what your supposed to do and let someone come help them T.T
tommorow half the police is there
Bystander Effect.
May no one ever eat fruit from you again!
Willis, I know you said no killing, but just this once do it for me. Kill Ross. Just do it. We all want it
Yes, this sounds amazing right now. Maybe taking 2 or three comics to die….
Or instead Ross will live forever, but he’ll be in jail for life. That’d be neat.
I’m not a huge fan of either one, but they’re both better than alternatives that involve him getting away.
Death seems like the optimal result; less paperwork than imprisonment for life, no need for a trial, no need for some poor bastard to get stuck with Ross for a cellmate…
We should cast him into the bowels of the earth to be pecked by birds.
Reminder that someone goes to the hospital at the end of this arc. Joyce is in the same outfit until at least November 5, and there’s a shot of a hospital on November 10, according to Willis’ tumblr. Now, WHO ends up in the hospital is a mystery…
Dunno if he’s gonna die, but he ain’t stayin’ outside a jail cell much.
I’m not sure about Indiana, but by Texas law he’s committed… oh…
Five… felonies? Minimum?
And five felonies in Texas is like twenty felonies anywhere else, so…
Texas? Isn’t the comic set in Indiana?
Yeah but I only know Texas law reasonably well. I don’t know Indiana law. So I just cited what I know. It’s likely at least similar everywhere else.
Well, at least we know Becky’s dad didn’t habitually threaten her with firearms. Both Becky and Joyce seem way too surprised for that.
That is a very good point. It is also sad that things have gotten so bad that that is comforting. :/
Yay?
He also apparently doesn’t just bring that rifle everywhere he goes. Some people earlier were speculating that he just happened to have that on hand because he’s one of those open carry gun enthusiasts, but it seems this really was premeditated. He grabbed his rifle before he left the house because he had plans for it.
“One must ready one’s sword when one goes to war against Satan in hostile territory”.
Poor bastard doesn’t know that you gotta kill Him with Kindness. He is gonna SOOOOO get his ass kicked by demons when he gets to hell.
I have a lot of words, but I feel like I may be coming up empty on the awful of that man soon enough. I’ve used so many of them already.
Your gravitar says it all, really.
Yeah, I feel like the “why would you bring that” sort of implies it’s either something he uses for hunting or keeps on the wall- in any case, not something that he’d have any reason to have in the car.
Some dads keep a rifle under the back seat. If they never feel a need to use it, their kids can go an entire childhood without knowing they’ve been sitting on a firearm every time they ride in the back. I was more surprised than the coyote he pulled over to shoot.
Kids never looked under the seat of the car? Seriously?
What was the coyote driving?
I feel like then it would be more ‘where did you get that’ or ‘why did you bring a gun’ rather than her wording if she didn’t know about it
I hope Dina was able to find help
Ya know, Joyce is reacted to having a gun pointed at her much better than I would have assumed! Good for her!
It’s not pointed at her. Not yet, anyway.
It’s not pointed at her yet. ToeDad is doing what they call in the biz “brandishing”.
Buddy, you just pulled out a rifle in the middle of a crowded university. This is not going to end well for you.
I was wondering how Willis could end this arc without Becky going home. Having Toedad be arrested and thrown in jail would definitely do the trick.
Sadly, if he was arrested there’s a good chance she would be sent home to other family members, and not allowed to continue living illegally in her friend’s college dorm.
She’s 18, I believe. They can’t force her to do anything. And really, at this point the best solution might be that she’s found out. In light of the circumstances, I could see the campus GLBT group (which I suspect Leslie knows members of –this will come out in class now– even if Joyce doesn’t think of talking to the folks she met at the questioning thing) throwing resources at Becky and making sure the right staff people are aware of her situation and get her enrolled good and proper.
She’s an adult. She can’t, of course, be welcomed into the dorms as a non student (although she might be able to get some sort of financial aid, start classes (or auditing them, but it’s only a few weeks in, and certain stuff like certificates start at less regular times) and move into the dorms, it would be a decent goodwill move for the university to show support for abused queer students and would help with the terrifying press they’re about to get.
But that sentence got more tangential than I meant to. She’s an adult, they’re not going to send her anywhere. They might ask if she has somewhere to stay and offer an escort (and possibly take her to a woman’s shelter if she says no), but not send her to relatives she doesn’t want to be with.
Also she might, I guess, be allowed to stay with Joyce slightly longer since they’re afaik allowed short term visitors (like, a few nights, although there might be an exploit if she keeps changing rooms). Maybe in that time she can find off campus housing, even if it’s couchsurfing with other students until she gets a job.
Also this is going to be like real life, this will be super high profile news. Even if he doesn’t fire, it’s a gun wielding religious wacko trying to kidnap his adult lesbian daughter. I don’t doubt some local organization(s) will offer help.
(she could go on Ellen!)
Her joining the school proper could result in her rooming with Carla and finally starting the storyline with Joceleyne.
I kind of doubt rooming with Carla because I think Carla is alone for safety/privacy or whatever, but I still would like this. I want to see more of Jocelyn
I don’t really expect it too happen, but I can think of a few convoluted reasons as to why the peopl in charge might think it was a good idea. More importantly though, I just want to see more Carla.
One can only hope.
Now I have to wonder how the dean would react to finding out about this entire mess…
I’m not sure he would go to jail. As of yet, he has yet to commit any crimes (unless the law at this college prohibits fire-arms, which not all campuses do). As a matter of fact, the only person currently in violation of the law is Dina, who assaulted Ross. While yes, Ross is a terrible human and is brandishing a gun ans a subtle threat, he hasn’t actually used it or said he was going to use it. Implied threats do not hold up in court. But again, guns may be illegal on campus, making my entire comment moot.
But duh, after the recent shootings, guns are going to be a red flag and everyone would be worried. I retract my previous statement.
Yeah, but chasing someone through the woods with a gun is indefensible in court unless you have a fantastic lawyer. That’s not so much “implied threat” as “attempted assault.”
The place you live in where defending yourself against a gun-wielding violent man who’s physically chasing you is illegal, but kidnapping people at gunpoint is not?
I do not want to go there.
He has committed MANY rimes.
“Brandishing a firearm in a threatening manner”, ” assault with a deadly weapon” “Attempted kidnapping with the modifier of ‘possessing a firearm in the commission of a felony’ “, “Battery, with the modifier of ‘ While in possession of a firearm”, “Making terroristic threats” are just the ones that spring to mind right of the bat while drunk and without having to reference anything.
Also IU is a gun free campus, except for law enforcement agents.
See my comment on the post before last for citations.
HumboldtRobin – Yep. Brandishing a firearm to coerce someone into going with oneself is very definitely illegal. Probably the MOST illegal thing he’s done so far, although as you point out, one can take their pick.
How many of those are also hate crimes?
Although to be fair, that doesn’t change the number.
Indiana hate crime law doesn’t include sexual orientation, unfortunately.
The battery could count, if the prosecutor successfully argued that it was in part motivated by Dina’s ethnicity.
i think it was, actually, partially motivated by ethnicity. He called her “oriental deceptress and all that crap´´
Has “oriental” somehow become as racist a term as the n-word? If it is I never received the memo.
I won’t dispute that butthole dad is a racist sack of shit, along with all the other types of sack of shit he is, but I don’t think I’d go so far as to say that his battery of Dina was motivated by her ethnicity. I think he’d have done the same thing if Becky’s new girlfriend were, say, Daisy.
And, Bill, it’s not like “the ‘N’-word”… it’s more like, say, “colored” a generation ago. Especially among people of a certain age, it may just be a sign that they’re not keeping up with the euphemism treadmill, but it doesn’t earn any benefit of the doubt points.
More telling, I think, is that he felt the need to identify Dina racially at all. Yeah, sure, Dina’s East Asian, but that’s not, even on brief acquaintance, a trait I would ever use to identify her. Like she says herself, last night she kissed a girl, yet she’s still “that dinosaur chick”.
It just occurred to me to wonder if Dina’s Asianness is the reason butthole dad identified her outfit yesterday as a Pokeman costume rather than a dinosaur costume. “She’s Oriental, Pokemen are Oriental…”
I doubt that a hate crime would stick even if they applied. This is more of a case of domestic violence where Becky’s sexual orientation is a factor. The conflict between them is over whether or not Becky is going to do what she is told and come home. The conflict was triggered by her sexual orientation, but you could see the same type of thing happening over other things like getting pregnant or drinking.
Either way assault of several people with a deadly weapon and attempted kidnapping are potentially very serious charges even without the modifier.
You just described a hate crime, y’know.
Please note that I mentioned that the hate crime charges probably wouldn’t stick. You have to prove motivation beyond a reasonable doubt, and in more complex situations like domestic abuse (which can be a hate crime) it can be much more difficult to clearly prove the motivation for the crime was the protected category.
Wha? Not committed crimes? He’s either got several assault charges or several charges of Terroristic Threats –depending on how the law goes — stalking, attempted kidnapping…
He hasn’t just committed crimes. He’s committed some very serious crimes.
Dina was attacking him to prevent the commission of a forcible felony (kidnapping), as well as (if she saw the gun) preventing serious bodily injury to Becky – under Indiana law, she was justified in using even deadly force to stop him.
At least it looks like Dina got away…
maybe she’ll bring Amazigirl? Although unless she’s amazi-bulletproof I’m not sure how that would help.
We still don’t know if she got away.
if it’s any consolation, they’d have heard if there was any gunshot.
I’m afraid he might’ve just clocked her with the stock, before heading back to the car. Not dead, but knocked out.
Or she might have suffered from brain damage.
Bloody heck! Stop trying to think up terrible scenarios! This situation is bad as it is without the fandom having a “What is the most grizzly fate we can create for Dina?” competition!
If it’s any consolation, people may just be thinking of worst case scenarios so that we will all be relieved by whatever actually does happen. ^^;
These are all still a lot better than her previous fate.
Being knocked out is kinda serious. If it lasts longer than a few seconds, serious brain damage is a mahor concern.
I’d actually rather she have severe broken bones. Those heal, with time.
I thought about that too; landed wrong when ToeDad flipped her off his back and onto the ground and cracked her wrist or collarbone or something. But it looks like she landed on her back, and she still seems fulll of piss and vinegar — but unable to do anything about it — in the final panels.
Besides which Willis probably didn’t want to have to draw Dina with her arm in a cast for the next five-plus years…. which is about how long I figure it will take (in real time) for DoA to get through the rest of the month of October.
Pretty sure she at least has a shiner, judging by her squint at the end of that strip.
I’d bet she’s in the car.
Random thought: I’m alittle disappointed, I was almost expecting Dina to be in this.
But not tied up in the car, maybe something else.
I’m not really sure what I expected…
Careful what you wish for.
That look on Becky’s face. She’s no longer mad at him for not accepting her, she’s heart broken that he would go this far
I think it’s a recognition of just how far he’s willing to go. She knew he was at kidnap her levels. She knew he was at hunt her across the state levels. She knew he was a danger to those he encountered.
But here, it’s like she’s piecing together a last piece and realizing fully that her dad brought a gun to hunt her. That he would have had no other reason to bring it but to hunt her and possibly kill her and those she’s with rather than let her lead her life in peace. And that he has no compunction with martyring himself to that cause of potentially murdering her and her friends.
She always knew he was cruel. She always knew he was dangerous and frightening and unwavering in his convictions. But here, she’s piecing together the exact shape of how much direct and mortal danger she and all of her friends are in thanks to her dad’s religious dogma.
I’m super curious to see how she reacts next, whether it be to intervene in front of Joyce, get angry about the potential fate of Dina, take a chance to run, or let loose a spigot at the prospect that her dad may just martyr himself to kill her for being gay.
She doesn’t even look scared, hey.
When you face something like that, the initial reaction might be disbelief, perplexity, or something like that, but fear might take a little while to sink in. Right now she’s busy trying to process something she might’ve never thought possible, and the longer it takes, the worse the shock is. She’s on her way to some nice PTSD.
Maybe she and Dina will be able to hug it out during red panel moments together.
Yes, sorry, that’s what I meant to emphasize. She’s too bewildered (and probably following with shock) to be frightened, especially because I doubt reason for mortal fear of her father occurred to her before (fear obviously yes, see running, but not mortal).
Agreed. We think of Toedad as abusive before this, but we haven’t seen any evidence of that prior to Becky getting caught kissing her roommate. She may well have had the same controlling but seemingly pleasant father-daughter relationship with Toedad as Joyce has with her parents. She didn’t run from him initially because she thought he would kill her. She probably thought they would be in a giant fight and he might try to drag her to the car. But that look on her face and the way she says, “Dad?” That makes me think she has been utterly betrayed and blindsided by this development.
For contrast, think about the way Amber responds to Blaine. Much less sense of any connection or attempts to reason with him.
where the fuck is mike and why isnt he murder punching?
When you need him the fucking most.
Because that sounds like a felony. I mean so does what Toe dad is doing, but Mike is CLEARLY an upstanding member of society.
I believe he would be in whatever class Walky is in, right? And this isn’t Walkyverse Mike. He’s not a Deus Ex Punchica here.
He could still be letting the air out of the toe’s tires.
I miss walkyverse Mike in these situations…
I have a feeling that, eventually, someone is going to make him feel that he has to intervene in something, and he is going to resort to violence.
I don’t know when, how, or why, but it won’t be pretty.
Right now it is lunch (they had Calculus earlier this chapter). Since it’s a Monday, Walky’s afternoon class will be Gender Studies, which Mike is not in.
Welp, this keeps right on escalating. What the hell has he done to Dina?!
I’m hoping he kicked her hard enough to disable her, snatched up his rifle, and hoofed it as fast as he could back to his car. No, I don’t want Dina hurt. But that’s preferable to her being tied up and terrorized, particularly after she turned in that heroic performance of jumping on Toedad and scratching up his face.
A few broken ribs, or a leg, would concievably keep her from following him. Even if she had the pain tolerance and determination to try, she’d never keep up.
And they’d take time to heal, but they’d do it relatively easily. Compared to, say, brain damage, or internal organ trauma.
It took me a while to realize that those marks behind Joyce are water from the fountain and not physical manifestations of anxiety/terror.
Saaame~
Yeah, i thought at first that she was sweat-dropping like crazy.
Thought she was trembling like a leaf
She probably is.
AAGGGHHHH. I don’t wanna wait 24 hours to see what happens next!
(psst Patreon) XD
Willis probably assumes now is not the most tasteful time to promote that feature :p
He has us to do that for him anyway.
OH GOD IT GOT SO MUCH WORSE!
I’m going to be off the grid all weekend. If this doesn’t wrap up tomorrow, I’m not going to find out what’s happening until I get home Sunday night.
If you’re in the UK I’ll text you what happens.
I’m in the U.S., and anyway, when I said “off the grid”, I mean “camping out in the backwoods with poor cell reception and my phone turned off anyway”.
Can we get a map of the campus? I have a sort of mental map in my head right now and it’s saying that he’s somewhere near the middle of the campus area…which is going to make him getting away that much harder at this point.
Still hoping for Galasso whacking him over the head with a pizza paddle a la Home Alone, even though it’s not likely 🙂
It’s on google maps~
It’s a real campus. Google Maps works. Google-Mapping “Showalter Fountain, Bloomington IN” will give you their current location. I think when butthole dad initially accosted Becky and Dina, they were at the intersection of E. 6th and N. Indiana, about 700 yards to the west of the fountain. Read Hall, their dorm, is about 500 yards southeastish.
Having looked at a map and found the fountain, I’m having trouble figuring out a plausible trajectory that goes “street – woods – frisbee field – fountain”.
There’s some trees between Dunn Meadow (frisbee field) and Franklin Hall that I’ve pretty much concluded are the “woods”. On Google Street View, they don’t look nearly as dense as Willis rendered them in the strip, but I haven’t been able to find any better fit. I think Willis just took some artistic license with the foliage.
Either that or Ultra Car transported them to the Amazon for a couple strips.
The bad news is that according to Google Maps, the IU police station is 6 minutes away even at this no traffic time of night…
The good news is that cops don’t all just sit around in the police station waiting for a crime to be reported. They usually have officers out and about on patrol so as to reduce the first response time.
If the spot I just found on Google Maps is the right spot, which I’m pretty sure it is, then they are smack dab in what is probably one of the busiest places on campus, especially since we’re probably pretty close to lunch here.
Given that this is set at an actual university, you can look up the map on the Indiana University website.
Toe-Dad is probably going to die here.
Nope, just get captured and beaten half to death “resisting arrest”.
How about nine tenths?
Thou shalt not take the Lord’s name in vain unless someone just pulled a goddammed rifle on you. (Exodus 20:7)
If something’s a big enough deal to specify it as an exception, I think it counts as ‘not in vain.’
Six Flags? Wouldn’t that be too “heathen” for Toedad? Wouldn’t he have preferred one of those Bible theme parks?
Maybe when they were younger, Toedad wasn’t as nutso. It happens sometimes. I could see the two families being at the same level of conservative evangelicalism but where the Browns stayed more or less the same the MacIntyres skewed far more conservative.
Willis would know far far better than I would, but I also understand that a lot of time the less conservative members of evangelical congregations either don’t believe that the more conservative ones are as far off as they are or make excuses for some of the more dangerous commentary and behaviors.
May be due to the death of his wife. Test of Job thing, and Ross failed the test. He just doesn’t know it yet.
Good point. If this is about control — and who are we kidding, it is — then really what he’s trying to do is maintain some semblance of what he thinks his life is supposed to be like. He can’t bring his wife back, but by god he can make sure his daughter hews to the “right path.” That sort of thing.
You’re psychoanalyzing a fictional character whose whole personality is basically “religious nut stereotype”. 😛
Actual religious nut*
Stereotypes are often rooted in fact.
They’re also lazy, unoriginal and often offensive.
Um, so this is the second time now he’s clearly brandished a rifle on a busy college campus. How has nobody called the cops or campus security, or at least noticed this?
Cops don’t teleport, as far as I know.
It’s not so much the cops as it is that people should be running around screaming and a campus alert should’ve gone out.
Something tells me it’s gonna happen real soon.
Also, a terrified girl running full speed across campus would’ve gotten a lot of attention at any college I’ve been too. 😛
At mine we’re kinda used to folks running around. Late for class, exercising, just felt like running, et cetera. Depending on how many people are around at the time, it’d be easy for most of them to not notice her emotional state.
Campus alerts also don’t teleport.
Well, I mean, I guess they sorta do.
But somebody’s gotta write ’em first.
If somebody tweets out or texts “GUN ON CAMPUS!” it spreads quick.
Really depends on the campus. There are some campuses in open carry states where it’s not entirely abnormal to see people with their rifle slung over their shoulder (heading to the campus’ range) or a pistol on their hip (maybe also headed to the range, or they’re big on self-defense). A carried weapon in such a place doesn’t illicit panic. A brandished one, on the other hand, tends to get people riled up.
It’s the whole combination of things. Girls running away, guy chasing them down with a guy he’s obviously considering using.
Elicit, not illicit.
And Spiff, not many people have seen him chasing them. Just the two when he first drew the rifle that I know of, and whatever authorities they notified are hopefully mobilized by now and on their way.
Define “quick”.
It may have gone out and we are just not aware of it.
Joyce would be, or someone around her.
It might be that everyone (although hopefully quietly dialing 911) is standing still and being quiet in hopes of not attracting attention, and/or trying to slink out.
Yeah, but he took the rifle out, somebody noticed it, and then he ran into the woods, so somebody should’ve definitely called 911 by now, or at the very very least texted about it.
Oh yes, I think and hope so, but I meant as far as there not being a ruckus (regarding the idea that no one has noticed).
What are these “alerts” you people keep talking about? Are you trying to tell me that there is some way IU can somehow send a message to each and every cell phone on campus simultaneously and on demand?
When my campus first introduced them, you had to sign up for it.
Presumably in the years since then, it has become an assumed part of starting to live on a campus that you’d have to decide to opt out of.
It’s just a mass text.
On my campus (only a few hours from Bloomington and the largest university in the country), the text is still opt-in. The email is automatic, but it’s entirely plausible that Joyce, like most freshman I teach, didn’t even know how to opt in for the texts.
3-5 minutes. Minimum. Someone noticed the first time he pulled it out, but even if they called, it probably has been 1, maybe 2 minutes since then. Campus cops are on their way, but a bullet takes far less time than a squad car to get where it’s going.
It seems like it should’ve been longer than that, to me at least. He pulled out the gun, chased Dinah through the woods with it, ran back to the car, and drove across campus. It just seems like the running into what looked like the deep part of the woods should’ve taken a little time.
He drove no farther than Becky sprinted. That’s not gonna take much time.
Not much, no, but enough for people to be noticing it and talking about it.
It takes a bit of time to get back in the car and drive it around, although not too long (he’d probably have made better time walking but wouldn’t have had somewhere to stow Becky into), and that means he went back and forth carrying the gun, then back out of the car now with the gun (meaning at least the first person should have it called in and the cops have had a minute or two).
And I was thinking people should’ve taken pics of his car, or stolen his keys, or something. 😛
Back and forth through the woods.
And what do you think they’ve done in a minute or two?
Colleges have campus alert systems set up. It takes a few seconds to text a message saying “A guy with a gun just chased two fleeing girls into the woods”.
How many people know how to send an alert to the alert system? Does it go out without any kind of approval or anybody looking at it?
And still, what do people expect to have happened in the seconds since people saw this message?
While I was in college, my campus established an alert system. They constantly sent inane, non-emergency things and I canceled it. ‘Course, it’s pretty rare not to have a texting plan now (I didn’t, so each message cost me money).
I think they go over all that stuff now when you start college. The campus here has signs and alert boxes all over the place. And even if they hadn’t contacted 911 or the campus security, multiple students tweeting about this would get attention.
These days the cell phone networks have a built-in alert system that sends something to all phones in a geographical area – I’ve gotten them for flash flood warnings mainly.
Somebody going over it doesn’t mean the students retained the details and are able to recall and perform them in seconds.
“Getting attention” takes some time… and Tweeting seems like an odd response to me, anyway, while the emergency is immediately going on.
Part of the delay is even if people are looking it’s difficult to figure out exactly what’s going on. A few decades ago I was a passenger in a car, in L.A. when a lot of movement started. It took a bit of time to figure what was going on. Which was a bunch of plains clothes police officers breaking out tactical gear and shotguns while surrounding a nearby building. What struck me was how …bemused? or something like that, the people around them were. When something is out of context with your day to day life it can take an amazing amount of time to process what your looking.
Also the police might be already be nearby trying to set up an approach that will won’t trigger a shooting the moment they show up. Because a highly trafficked area is great for spotting the idiot brandishing but terrible place for a firefight.
Because when seconds matter, the police are minutes away.
I’m not talking really about the police, just that people on campus should’ve noticed and be making a big deal of it by now.
I think you’re right on the money. Panel 6 of Deceptress clearly shows people freaking out about Toedad’s gun.
Ya that right Joyce that’s how real this shits getting right now.
Patreon peeps, am I the only person afraid to look at tomorrow’s update?
. . .
No. No, you’re not.
Oh my god the tension is killing me SOMEBODY GET SHOT ALREADY! I DON’T EVEN CARE WHO!
Your kind of playing Russian roulette with these characters right now.
No, I’m not. We already know no one’s going to die, and the Willis already spoiled us with that panel of an ambulance. We KNOW someone’s going to get shot and go to the hospital, and that’ll be the end of the Ross arc. At this point I’m just twiddling my thumbs waiting for the story to resolve itself already.
Actually, we don’t know that anyone’s getting shot. The hospital could very well be for Dina, who’s been smacked around by ToeDad. It could be ToeDad, hammered into submission by Amazi-Girl or the campus cops, or hell, flattened by Sal who probably isn’t that far away yet, considering how glacially paced the strip is.
Or someone unrelated to this arc. Ruth, maybe. Or someone without any tragedy in their storyline (Joe, Dorothy) could get hit by a car or something, but we can’t really predict that. This could end with no one in the hospital (although it maybe should just for a talk with a psych nurse and a social worker for Becky)
No one gets shot. Danny trips down the dorm stairs and sprains an ankle.
Whose ankle?
Rachel, maybe.
But, but, but….
Which Rachel?
Saaaaaaal? Now would be a great time to come back and do the action girl thing :C
Unless shes armed as well then that would be a very bad idea
Sal is armed with a motorcycle.
In real life, maybe. In comicland, I have complete and total faith in her ability to kick the gun out of Toedad’s slimy hands and then knee him in the nards.
Well ok yes in comicland that is certainly an option
But Willis loves drama, and Amber getting injured and having her secret identity discovered when people try to help her would certainly deliver that.
Can Sal and Mike team up on this one?
A Bible would be a handy thing right now, to chuck at ToeDad.
Or to have in her vest pocket to block a bullet.
Or she reads from it and exorcises the demon that took control of Toe Dad all these years. Finally released from the horrific spector he embraces his daughter with his actual body for the first time in a decade.
That’s an insult to demons.
That’s almost as far-fetched as “it was all a dream” ending of Newhart.
Dude! That totally happened. In real life!
Why not more and duct tape them to a car? Bam! Holy bulletproof car.
At that range, it would have to have a thick steel cover.
This is no time to turn the other cheek, Joyce, even if Jesus said so. Then again, Jesus never had to confront a crazed disciple with a rifle either. If the campus cops are unarmed, they can’t do squat. There’s never a cop around when you need one is there?
*plays The Beatles’ “Soldier of Love” on the hacked Muzak*
Lay down your arms/and come peacefully
Lay down your arms/and surrender to me…
happiness is not a warm gun, no matter what you’ve heard
That’s right, Mr Scary Large Bleeding Man in Camo, pull out a rifle in the middle of the grounds in the probably most populated spot on campus, with a tonne of witnesses with phones and cameras, and then focus on the two terrified girls in front of you.
That’s actually kind of encouraging, because the cops really should be there any minute now. Aaaany minute. So like December 28th for us. *eyeroll*
Happily, Amazi-girl is probably right behind him. Wonder if Ruth is sober enough right now to team up? And Sal may not have gone too far yet; she didn’t have anything planned.
Right now a Sal/Ruth/Amazi-girl tag-team takedown sounds amazing.
Problem is those are all side characters, Amber taking out Blaine works because he’s her father. Joyce needs to be the one to defeat Toe Dad or perhaps Becky
Hm. Good point. :/ Uh, this updates pretty slowly; think Joyce can learn Aikido or something over the next few strips?
Forget swords, don’t bring bare hands to a gun fight.
Do grenades work then?
The only time it’s good to have bare hands at a gunfight is if they had grenades in them, and you just threw them.
Don’t bring bystanders to a cop-fight.
Recall in an earlier strip where Amazigirl felt guilty because she let Joyce’s attacker at the party (a.k.a. gashface) escape. Amazigirl subduing toedad would go a long way to making amends for that.
Unless he is under a tree, Amazi-Girl has no place to drop from!
Don’t bring a longarm to a fistfight. It all happens to close to bring the gun to bear or to take the time to aim. Inside three feet the unarmed person has the advantage over someone with a shoulder arm.
Yar. That’s why what Dina did was smart. Lay in wait and scramble over him like a cat on furocet. And it’s also why armies used to stress bayonets on their rifles. Once they’re too close to shoot effectively, you’ve got a handy spear.
Um no
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buttstroke
If you can’t bring the rifle to fire its still a three foot long solid metal and wood weapon
She can climb over the car?
Man, Becky’s got to be wondering when the well of Awful Dad dries up.
I think when it reaches the center of the earth
Hey Joyce! I heard you had a traumatic experience three weekends ago. How about adding another one?
No?
Too bad, here’s your best friend’s father, packing heat.
Have fun picturing other members of your congregation going on a shooting spree when they don’t get their way!
Signed,
The Author
Oh Joyce, mental trauma is her mistress.
The last comic will just be Joyce sitting inside of her padded room having long since lost her ability to trust anyone, even herself.
humming “the sounds of music”
Also Walky has millions of dollars for creating the multi Quadrillion selling snack, Nachitos.
Well, she’s already scared to be outside alone. And now, she has a new trauma for when she’s outside with another person. I think at this rate, she’s going to be agoraphobic by Thanksgiving (her time).
I think that the likely strongly encouraged counseling by the campus mental health office after Toedad is subdued will result in getting some help about all the traumas.
Another possible scenario: Jacob saves the day. Then the cops show up and pull a Michael Brown on him.
Ok, let’s not go there. just no.
I was actually thinking along those lines as well.
I predicted this several days ago – only, with Sal.
No no no no no
Well, I would personally prefer Sailor Moon to show up and give one of her little speeches, but there is little chance of that happening.
Ross would probably just pull a Starlight Glimmer and tell her to be quiet and spare him the heathenous proselytizing.
Still hoping for suicide by cop.
Willis won’t rest until he sees everyone’s dad in prison.
And everyone’s mom has conjugally visited Mike. For a nickle.
Hopefully he gets to mine! He owes me money!
I do wonder what Dickhole parent will be next
Probably Ruth’s grandpa.
Crap we’ve been forgetting about an evil father his whole time….Dargon!
Wonder if he’s gonna show up at some point
Nah. Joyce’s dad seems like an okay guy. Misguided yeah, but not, in general, bad people.
Yeah, most characters seem to have one relatively nice parent and one complete jerk. See also: Ethan.
Passively agreeing with your spouse while said spouse emotionally abuses your child for being gay doesn’t make them nice, it makes them an asshole.
As terrible as literally everything else about the situation is, I’m glad Becky is sticking to her… her… standing up for herself. After that hopeless look in the last panel yesterday, I was afraid she was going to give in to protect her friends/girlfriend, even before the gun showed up. It might not be the safest choice to stand up to him, but from a reader standpoint it sure is the most satisfying.
Others have covered the horribleness of everything else better than I can. Just wanted to throw in that one little happy thought.
She’s scared and hiding how scared she is. And she’s really running out of options but she refuses to betray what she knows about herself and she refuses to back down on fighting for it.
In this, she is her father’s daughter. Too stubborn to be forced into the box he wants to shove her in. And it’s a really admirable trait.
I’m sure she’d go in the box if there was a Dina in it…
Why is Becky surprised, she knows he has the gun, just chased her and Dina with it.?
Where is Dina?
Where is anyone?
Words of god : they started running before he took the rifle out.
Also, Dina died. sorry peeps.
Nope. Willis told us that one of the laws of this universe is nobody dies.
Becky didn’t see the gun, as she took off before he pulled it out.
Think she’s surprised he both pulled it out, and is aiming it at Joyce who is not her lesbian lover, as far as he knows a good christian girl.
He’s not aiming it at anyone, not yet.
He’s not aiming yet, but I mean, he probably blames everything that isn’t him for Becky, and Joyce is sheltering her, so she’s probably pretty much a succubus in his eyes anyway.
She didn’t see him with the gun when he was chasing her.
She said to run and not look back.
Becky and Dina bolted before butthole dad pulled out the rifle. Becky didn’t mention it on the phone with Joyce, so she probably didn’t look back to see it. Dina knew, because she circled back to ambush butthole dad, but she didn’t have a phone to notify anyone at that point, because she gave it to Becky.
That Dina doesn’t have her phone really worries me now.
That Dina has scrapings of Toedad’s skin under her fingernails worries me.
It’s evidence of assault on a part of toedad. She can claim self-defense/defense of her girlfriend.
I’m not worried about it being used as evidence against Dina. I’m worried about it being needed as evidence against Ross Macintyre.
Hello Toedad, I would like to congradulate you on you signing your prison ticket, you attacked a woman (she attacked first but I think Dina felt threatened), you have chased after two college girls when your clearly a much older man and you had a gun ON CAMPUS GROUND. Hell depending on the campus you can be penalized just for not having an ID. So lets all give Toedad a round of applause as they prepare his prison jumpsuit and or straitjacket
you mean, they’ll arrest him and then pull over to get some milkshakes and talk it over ?
Joyce uses Jesus. It’s as effective as you’d expect.
Like how many people have seen him pull that out today for fucks sakes !?
The actual question is how long does it take for security / law enforcement to react after a guy is spotted whipping out a gun in a public place.
(The answer is “too long”)
For a white guy? Yeah, too long. And even then, they’d talk him down and protect him. If this were Joe’s dad? Fucking forget it. He’d be dead.
That’s not accurate. Most mass shooters are white males. A white male seen with a gun on campus is an automatic ‘Oh shit! Everybody get over there now!” moment.
At the most recent spree shooting on a college campus in the USA, police arrived on the scene six minutes after the first call to 911.
That we know of? Four.
One of them is wounded (at best), two of them saw it in this comic, and one of them saw it maybe two minutes ago.
Why do you ask?
You’d think there would be a bunch of people in the middle of campus.
Likely. They also would have seen it as of this comic.
She should’ve used Close Combat. That probably would’ve been Super Effective.
Indeed. If the intended result was to see Joyce bounce off Toedad like a tennis ball off a wall, that is.
A damage multiplier doesn’t help all that much if your Attack compares too poorly to his Defense.
Too true.
You think he’s Normal?
He looks like a normal type. But even if he’s not, fighting types have 5 advantages (Ice, Steel, Rock, Normal, Dark) So if he’s ANY of those it’d be super effective. And the only way it’d NOT be very effective is if he is a Flying, Bug, Ghost, Psychic, Fairy or Poison type. Pretty good odds to be honest.
He seems pretty toxic to me.
Where the heck is campus police?!
On the other side of the woods looking for the guy with the gun. They may also be fussing over the little oriental woman with the dinosaur bandanna they found knocked out.
Ross is gunning for the worst dad in Dumbing of Age title.
gunning for
He’s a surefire hit.
(Did I go too far?)
Gunning? That title is firmly his at this point.
I’d say he’s got a shot at it.
And he’said having a blast doing it.
Stop! I’m dying here!
He’s really hit the mark.
The worst part? If you were to ask him now, he’d insist that he’s doing this to protect Becky as an act of love.
And I think he would earnestly mean it.
Well, he’s not without a rifle in that competition!
On a lighter note, Becky’s face in panel 3 is so pissed off and determined, I love it.
Yeah, that might be the best “fuck you” face yet.
What happened to Dina? I’m half expecting her to jump out of the car or someplace and bite his ear off, half expecting Amazi-Girl to come in with a flying kick to the face. Or should I say I hope that’s what happens, either way I hope Dina’s alright.
Yeah Joyce. It’s actually Luke 34:23
“And the lord said that whilst thy neighbors elder may take thee to a place of great amusement, with flags of more than 3 but less than 10, If they are to bear arms against you, make thy feet as a a runaway beasts and make way the hell out of there.
Luke 34:24
If thy hath trained thy body in physical arts of which to defend oneself, Thou could strip thine aggressors of armaments and in the lords name let thy feet fly into the crotches of thy aggressors. And in the lords name thou may continue until thy is satisfied.
Luke 34:25
The lord says, however, that if thy aggressors find ecstasy upon aforementioned crotch attacks, thou may wish to discontinue. The lord hath hangups about that.
“And there was much rejoyce. Except not really.”
“It was more of a respectful clap, as The lords fans understood he’s trying his best, and that they can’t all be gems”
Well, if they were gems they could fuse and take on Toedad head first. But no, they aren’t and that isn’t an option.
I think you responded to the wrong comment there, buddy.
Read it again.
Steven Universe joke, Yoto.
What they said.
COPS!!!!
Fighting crime in a future time!
Now would be a pretty good time to call 911
When seconds count, the police are only minutes away!
Joyce and Becky’s horrified reactions really get to me. They were lifelong friends. They spent their whole childhoods looking up to each other’s parents as authorities figures in their community, people to be respected and trusted. Hell, they went to Six Flags together; you don’t go to Six Flags with just anybody.
And now here’s Toedad, waving around a gun on a university campus because his daughter likes other ladies, revealing himself for the twisted controlling son of a fuck he truly is.
Pedestals break hard. I hope they make it out okay in the end.
(Also, judging by the appearance of Joyce’s dad in a recent preview panel on tumblr, I’m guessing that Toedad’s actions are going to have a pretty strong effect on how Joyce views her home and upbringing. Joyce looked pretty traumatized in said preview panel, too. Well, more traumatized than she already is.)
(God, I hope there’s a happy ending waiting for these kids.)
I find it interesting that the two absolute worst moments of her life involved the pastors son quoting the bible and now her best friends god-fearing father threatening them both with a rifle and remembering what Roz said I’m just surprised she hasn’t gone catatonic by now
I think it always had to be. Seeing the poison lying underneath the mask of piety leads her to question her faith and her upbringing the most. Seeing the hurt her upbringing has caused Becky. Seeing the way it has twisted the love of her father. Seeing how those who claim piety have been the most duplicitous to trying to get something from her. It’s enough to make her question whether or not the way she was raised really does make one better. And if it’s not better, then why keep clinging to it.
At the end of the day, this is a story about a girl losing her faith and finding her morality whether that involves remaining a type of Christian or not. It’s always been that. And so, it makes sense that her most traumatic moments have come at the hands of those who profess to belong to her faith.
There have been times when I’ve envied the faith people have in their respective religions and I’d have liked to have faith in some of the darker times in my life (I’m an athiest) but after reading what Joyce is going through I’m glad I never had to deal with a crisis of faith
This. This is such a giant crack in the armor of her trust of authority. This is a family friend, someone who was there and somewhat caring when they were both kids going on trips and now he’s directly threatening the general proximity of her with a gun.
Yes, it is truly horrible. And not even Becky had expected him to sink to these depths.
Poor Joyce, girl looks like she is really loosing it. But still she steps between Becky and McChildmurderer. I didn’t expect anything less of her but I’m still proud.
Joyce’s face in the last panel is heartbreaking.
There is part of her innocence being lost there in her wide eyes.
[insert obligatory damn you willis here]
And then Ross snaps to his senses and puts the shotgun away. He then retrieves his Rocket Launcher from his trunk.
“I already look insane anyway. Go big or go home” Ross Thought.
They’re getting out the missle toe already? It’s not even November yet?
Oi!
Well, military weaponry, ….
Obviously it’s a new action figure called G.I. Toe!
And he saw that it was good.
After that he realizes that’s a bigger mistake.He put the rocket launcher down….and goes for the Tank(shaped like a foot).
I wonder if Becky knows anything about guns. Ross at first glance seems to be the kind of person who’d think guns are a man thing. On the other hand he might think it’s all right for women to use guns. If so Becky may recognise his rifle, and know it’s only a single shot weapon with no magazine. What she might do with that information is another question.
If Ross comes from the sort of culture I’m thinking of, it’s highly likely that he’s taught Becky to shoot from a young age to defend herself and her family against the ‘Gubbermint’.
I hope Dina hasn’t been shoved in the trunk or something. Little worried that she isn’t visible here. Hopefully she’s just on foot and catching up.
Also, did this guy just whip out a rifle in a heavily trafficked public space? God damn psychopath.
Dammit Willis, are you TRYING to break Joyce?
He’s done it before.
And usually she comes back stronger. I’m wondering if what we’ll see here at the end is a Joyce who still has her faith, but isn’t willing to look to men (as in mankind, but also as in patriarchy, I suppose) to dictate what counts and what doesn’t for her. Which, to my understanding, is the whole point of protestantism. Personal connection to your god and an understanding based on the larger intent of Jesus’ words rather than the dogmatic doctrines of Paul filtered through the dudes who were trying to prove Anglicanism right.
What Becky didn’t realize is that there’s actually an alien invasian and her dad is trying to save her from the body snatchers. Dina has already been taken by a creature pretending to be her hat. Indiana U isn’t how it appears! He’s trying to drive her away from this horrible place.
All hail Ross, for he is righteous
(not)
[imagine if I had posted this without the qualifications]
{I would be eaten alive}
But where is that dude trench coat ? I’ve been waiting for him to come everytime since Becky showed up.
“Invasian”? Racist.
This really puts the MacIntyre back into Babies MacIntyre :c
http://policies.iu.edu/policies/categories/administration-operations/public-safety-institutional-assurance/PS-03.shtml
So Toedad is violating campus policy.
If that’s in question at this point, the campus has insufficient policy.
I’m glad to know that it’s official that what he is doing is illegal, but I don’t think any of us really had too much doubt on that count.
I’m sure that this would be of such great concern to him [/sarc]
petition for sal to run him over with her motorcycle
Aye.
Count me in.
They are on a college campus in 2015 how is no one calling 911 like quickly?!?!
They are; it’s just that it will take 10 minutes minimum for anyone to turn up.
That is an uncomfortably big minimum, and honestly pretty hard to believe. I’d guess 5 as a minimum and 14 maximum for deployment, and a central location like the fountain should be quickly reached once they know to go there.
Okay, it’s been at least 15 minutes since that bystander saw him pull a gun. Most universities have at least one special constable assigned to the campus at a time and are prepared for the instance of a gunman on campus. They really should be on lockdown by now with at least one police car in the area searching for him.
The campus is a friggin’ Escher print
+100
How long does it take for Becky to run half a mile?
This. It’s been 4 minutes, tops, and that is if Becky’s full-on sprint is slow. A 10 minute mile is marathon pace, not sprinting pace. Giving the sprinting, I’d say it’s been 2-3 since Becky and Dina went running. Still below average police response time, but getting to that point where we could hear alarms and sirens at any minute.
I’m excited for sirens now that you mention it, because that should be super good for Becky to hear, if scary. I know she knows this is wrong, but given her upbringing and stuff I think that’ll be an important affirmation, that her dad’s not ‘just’ anything[mad, trying to help, etc] and she’s not disobeying.
I am more nervous about what toe-dad will do when he hears sirens. I can easily see him thinking that the evil, secular police will seek to take his property from him, and it is better to save her soul before it can be further corrupted.
They could just as easily escalate his actions.
I get that, but I also feel like other than him pulling the trigger, it can’t get too much worse once they’re close
Worse than it would be with them farther away, I mean. It can totally get worse than it is right this moment.
Oh, I agree. The cops need to get there. This is not an Amazi-girl situation. I’m mostly just worried that it is not going to be as simple as the cops showing up and Toedad surrendering. A lot can happen between sirens being heard and their actual arrival.
You’re really asusming Becky is a slow as shit runner then.
How long does it take to run 700 yards, mostly across open field and sidewalk? That’s what Becky’s done since the gun appeared. Google walking directions says 9 minutes at an easy walking pace. It’ll be a fair bit less at a run. It’s been like five minutes, tops.
And the first police response is going to be 700 yards away, where the gun was initially spotted.
Regarding Ross, I’m saying the same thing I said about Osama Bin Laden:
I won’t celebrate his death, but by the same token, when he dies, I will not be mourning.
To be fair, there’s probably billions of deaths I don’t mourn. At least not actively.
True, I should clarify. Of the deaths I’m aware of, I won’t be mourning his.
“I’ve never wished a man dead, but I have read some obituaries with great pleasure.”
…….attributed to Mark Twain
I don’t generally do mourning.
But I see no reason to celebrate Ross’ life should he fall.
Anytime now, Amazi-Girl. Anytime. You know, if you have time for it in your busy schedule. If you feel like it today. No pressure. No rush at all, this isn’t like a quick time event or anything that has serious consequences or whatever.
And then Amazi-Girl takes the gun, swings it like a club and splinters the butt of it against Ross’ freakishly thick neck.
YES!
Usually, when the topic of Jesus and guns comes up, my first thought is “sell your coat and buy a sword.”
…not sure how that applies here. Maybe try Solomon? Or Sirach, ya proddy dogs?
Not very well; he was warning his followers about just how violent persecution of his followers would get in the aftermath of his death.
Ultimately, that’s why people like butthole dad are so gun-happy. They think that said persecution is a real existential threat in a time and place where Christians are a majority and there has never been anyone who doesn’t identify as Christian in the highest office of the land, and they need their guns to defend themselves against the librul muslin Kenyans who are gonna grab ’em and enforce sharia law on them. And also to exterminate varmints, like lesbian daughters and Pokeman girls.
I’ll also add that there are political figures who are deliberately encouraging this delusion either because they believe it themselves or as a cynical bid to keep the butthole dads of the world voting for them. I’m not entirely clear on how the actual breakdown between those categories goes.
Wonder what the odds are that a student would be armed. Further, wonder what the odds are that when he sees a man who does not look like he belongs there (not a student, not faculty, not sane) brandishing a rifle at two students with a very intense look of rage on his face that he would feel that one of the nation’s ubiquitous shootings is about to take place. Given those conditions, I wonder what the odds of preemptive strike are.
Odds are approaching zero. IU is a gun free campus.
Odds are zero.
Said student has not been previously established as present and armed.
Said events would be a massively anti-climactic ending to a tense dramatic storyline.
Completely derails the storyline and character development.
Not going to happen.
Same goes for a lot of the other suggestions for random other characters to show up and deliver a beat down. This is a Joyce and Becky (and Dina) storyline. They’ve got to resolve it. If anyone else gets involved, it’s got to be tied in far more directly than we’ve seen any signs of.
It really also applies to the police showing up and saving the day as well. T
They’ll get there, but after the climax. Willis just has to make it plausible to delay them enough, which it still is, but probably won’t be too much longer.
That and all the other, more real world responses.
Depends firstly on the concealed carry laws in the state and the rules on campus I guess
There are a lot of problems that go along with a student with a handgun getting involved.
A campus police officer…less problems.
Yes. Let’s say Joe Hero pulls his handgun and goes after Ross. Assuming he is good enough to make the shot and not be overwhelmed by adrenaline, when the campus police respond to the active shooter situation how do they know which shooter is the bad guy?
For armed bystanders to intervene in a spree shooting is exceedingly rare. As far as I can make out it has not happened in the USA since 1966, when Charles Whitman was pinned down by fire from bystanders, which allowed the police to get close enough to kill him.
According to interviews, several students present at the Umpqua Community College shooting earlier this month were carrying concealed weapons and chose not to use them.
The last time I heard of a bystander getting involved (with a weapon) in a spree shooting was when that couple killed those two police officers in Las Vegas.
He pulled his weapon, stalked after the boyfriend, and got shot in the back of the head by the girlfriend. That should say something to people.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2015/10/03/do-civilians-with-guns-ever-stop-mass-shootings/
I d have an issue with the author not listing police as civilians but listing military members as civilians, but there you go.
Then the police drive up and shoot the guy who just shot at (and missed) toedad. He drives away with Becky while they empty their guns into the shooter they saw
I’m just so glad he got out of the car with the gun. With him sitting in it yelling her people would be a lot less likely to report.
yelling AT her even
jesus christ would somebody stub this toe already
Or cut that Toehead off.
I can understand a father wanting their daughter back where they can keep an eye on them. I can also see how they might think they know what is best for them. But even if he’s not going to use it, the threat of a weapon that can take the life of another is too far to take it. Especially for the singular purpose of ‘saving’ his daughter, to feel it’s necessary to go this far…
He is the one she needs to be protected from. He has always been the one she needs to be protected from.
I still maintain the hope that he brought that gun as intimidation factor and he doesn’t mean to use it lethally on anyone. It’s still plausible at this point, though of course this situation has every opportunity to be escalated in the worst way.
Depends on whether it’s loaded or not…a lot of people get shot by accident when someone uses a gun like that.
Even if he did, intention quickly melts in the heat of the moment.
Either he genuinely loves his daughter and, in his homophobia, is desperate to get her back or he’s desperate to regain control. (Okay, not mutually exclusive, love isn’t a cure for abuse.) Either way, desperation doesn’t easily lead you to holding back.
This. He has been shown to be quick to anger and to be quick to violence when he is angered. He may have intended the gun just as a show of force or an open-ended “just in case”, but it did not take much to escalate towards thinking about killing her or to pull it out again. At the end of the day, she is disobedient property spouting the lies of Satan and he is too proud and stubborn to let himself be a failure who simply let Satan “take” his daughter from him to the lands of sin.
In short, he’s not many more refusals to get in the car away from straight up deciding that his daughter is better dead than gay and it did not take him long to decide that murder was an acceptable outcome of this dance.
Does security exist on this campus and will they get here now now now?
Why do so many people in these comics seem to think campus security pops out of the ground the moment somebody telepathically reports seeing a gun?
Similar to the people calling on any number of characters to come in and take down a large angry man holding a rifle and think nothing bad will come of it
Not to mention it seems even less likely that [character] would be right there than security, since security’s probably reasonably spaced out around campus so as to keep someone near everywhere?
We know Sal is nearby, though.
It depends where her bike was, if it was nearby she could have made good time out by now, but she could still just be walking, then hear this ruckus behind her (she already looked back on Joyce once, after all).
You’re right. I should say, we know Sal was nearby a short time ago and is very feasibly still close enough that her reappearance wouldn’t be at all questionable.
*comments, not comics.
And now the cops come to arrest and/or shoot Toedad yes? Amazigirl is about to come and kick his ass right? O_O
This situation has escalated so much it’ll have an inch of snow on it when it’s resolved.
(Without bloodshed, I hope.)
Blood has already been shed. Look at his face.
(Also: Well done Dina.)
Without FURTHER bloodshed, then.
This will do wonders with Joyce PTSD as we can imagine D: D:
I am very not okay with not knowing the state Dina is in.
Indiana, there at IU
Indiana 😛
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZ8k6fVe25k
Even betterer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tExiTL5MCjA
boo you people are mean. 😀 I should’ve known better to use a word with more than one meaning.
And then the police actually shoot someone who deserves it
The fan…
Shit has hit it…
I’m not entirely convinced Ross has a mouth under that pedostache…
The mustache vibrates the air around it, producing Ross’ voice. If it vibrates fast enough, he sounds like one of the Chipmunks.
Oh, thanks for that! Imagining his lines with a psychotic chipmunk voice is just what is needed to make sure I don’t fall asleep early tonight.
Now reading Toedad in the voice of Foamy the Squirrel.
“This mustache is my gift. It is…my curse.”
I was thinking the voice of the villain in “Who Shot Roger Rabbit”
Good, now we know he’s on campus. Someone taze that mule. Multiple someones, over and over again.
Forget the taser: that hurts for five seconds or so and then it’s over. Sabre Red, though…that’s a horse of a different color!
…the color of pain, specifically. Pain and insanity. Insane pain.
…Sabre Red sucks.
Maybe Mike has a terrarium full of bullet ants somewhere?
“Go, my babies! Go forth and do your voodoo! Daddy’s proud of ya!”
I’m trying! I just keep destroying my computer!
I am really bugging out on this strip for “reasons.”
I am wondering how close to reality these events are?
There is a guarantee that someone was crazy and dumb enough to do this or something similar.
That is pretty much what I am assuming, I just thought I would have heard about it.
Not automatically; random kidnappings happen everyday as do ‘disappearances’ by the family of ‘deviant’ youngsters. Unless the body-count is high, the atrocity particularly salacious (because nothing sells advertising space on the news channels like snuff porn) or the victim famous, the media is far too busy talking about the Kardashians to care.
This would be the perfect time for the police to show up
…or Amazi-girl
… or Sal
… or Ruth
…or Jesus
…or even Mike!
But come on SOMEONE show up! I don’t think a Joyce heart to heart is going to work on this armed kidnapping lunatic.
And that’s when Walky came back.
not exactly one of the people I had in mind but ok. He has shown that he is capable of chucking toys at people’s heads with great skill.
Actually now I really want Jesus to show up.
No, seriously, wouldn’t this be the perfect time to showcase this universe’s historical Jesus. Jeshua should walk in stage right and knock over a table at Toedad.
Oh man I had forgotten about historical Jesus! That would be great! Though I’m not sure how it would work in the context of this universe being fairly realistic.
Maybe this universe ‘s version has mellowed out a bit and teaches some sort of “Ethics of …” class?
Historical Jesus is in the Dumbiverse. He’s just been dead for 2000 years or so I would guess.
But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don’t have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one…or better yet; a glock, for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword!
Ugh, I got the following scenario in my head about the next strip, and I really hope it doesn’t happen.
Becky: sorry, dad, I am calling your bluff. I don’t think you would actually physically hurt me.
Toe-dad: you’re right. But I would destroy the demon who haas been corrupting you. (reveal Dina knocked out in the back)
This is also my fear.
Remember the Browns, Ross? Neighbours, friends, church on Sunday, barbecues in summer, drove their daughter to six-flags? Well, that’s the daughter you are currently POINTING A GUN AT.
Also, take a long, careful look at your daughter’s expression. Up until now she retained the illusion that the man she used to call father had some minimum of human decency. You just let her know that she was wrong.
Fudge you Ross.
Sadly the poison of his particular faith is bound to be stronger than whatever his vestigial amount of empathy is trying to scream at him. Or at least that’s the excuse. It’s more that his desire to control is greater than his capacity to love and accept the unthinkable… that he is wrong. That he is not the most moral in the room. That he not others need to change. He cannot accept that world, so instead he’ll double down. And he’ll keep on doubling down until someone gets hurt.
One day, we will reach a page where we don’t need to repeat ‘fudge you ross’ again. But that day is not this day.
I look forward to that day. I want more Becky strips where I have to say things like “SQUEEEEE” or “Clever girl”
Maybe, just maybe, Joyce is right and this WOULD be the right time to call a dad.
“Hi dad, I love you, I’m putting you on speaker phone so Mr MacIntyre can explain why he is pointing a gun at me.”
That would be heartbreaking and I also want it to happen. Especially if it doesn’t mean changing the fact that the police are going to fuck him up please, and just means Joyce and her dad are scared and confused and her dad’s trying to help and stuff.
It would be completely horrible. It would be the worst call Joyce’s dad would receive in his life (at least I hope so). But he might be the one person to actually get through to Ross.
Mr Brown is not a kid for Ross to bully or “fix”. He is not a heathen or an outsider. He is a (hopefully) respected part of Ross’ community. He is a neighbor and friend – someone who Becky practically grew up with so Ross should know him well.And to hear HIM plead for his daughter’s life might actually be the one thing to slow Ross down.
Also, sooner or later – hopefully sooner – the Browns need to realize the full horror their upbringing has brought on Becky and Joyce. Yes, mr Brown. Your youngest child might very well die today, because of the worldview that is shared between you and Ross. Her best friend is chased by her father with a gun because of the things you taught them.
I was about to say ‘yeah he[JoyceDad] should be respected by Toedad as long as no one knows about Jocelyn still’ but then I realized what if Toedad knows about Jocelyn (the only person on campus who would have heard about her getting outed would be Joyce or Ethan (via her blog), but it could have been not long ago and Joyce might be kept in the dark) and that’s why he doesn’t trust Joyce and why he went to IU because her family are corrupt
I mean I don’t think this is likely, but wow the possibilities.
I still like the idea of the horribly painful phonecall, especially knowing Joyce isn’t going to die on the line (because if that was a possibility, I mean, holy shit), regardless of the truthfulness of the above. I agree that Joyce’s dad might get through to him but I also kind of want him to continue being irrational (but Joyce’s dad buys some time for the cops to get there at least)
FWIW, I don’t think that there is going to be much negotiation, expect possibly with a cop and, when he realises that the authorities are not on his side, Ross will do something… rash.
Yeah, agreed. He’ll probably hear their first ‘lower you weapon (or equivalent) and tell them to stop undermining his parenting, then quickly escalate. If Joyce’s dad was ‘negotiating’ it would be just an unofficial thing that happened because Joyce was kn the phone.
That . . . is some Scout kill a mockingbird negotiation tactics there
Unfortunately, I can kinda imagine how that phone conversation would go:
“Dad, Ross is here, and he’s trying to kill Becky!”
“WHAT?? Ross, what the hell-”
“She’s been influenced by demons into becoming a lesbian, I have to save her soul!”
“Oh. Well, Joyce, he has a good point. It sayeth in Leviticus…”
I really don’t think Joyce’s father would care about anything else than getting Ross to put away the gun. Homosexuality, sin, runaway daughters… it all can wait until he knows that Joyce won’t be killed within the next few minutes.
Especially since Joyce’s dad is visibly less extreme than her mom. I could definitely see hee mom at least sympathizing with Ross on everything but the gun (and maybe even that, she seemed pretty harsh and just reigned in by that Joyce’s dad took charge when last we saw them. Her dad also was more tolerant about her married brother with whom the mom disagrees), but not as likely with JDad
Well, Joyce’s panic attacks are about to get a whole lot worse now that even people she used to trust and feel safe with are potentially going to shoot her. So yeah, one more “fuck you” on the long list of offenses for Toedad
Amazigirl is waaaaaaaay overdue for swooping in and curb-stomping this clown and holstering that rifle in his ass.
Anyone else notice that she’s reaching for that wrist again? I think Joyce’s flashbacks might be back with a vengeance.
Also, badass Joyce points for slowly maneuvering Becky behind her and trying to reason with scary-as-fuck Toedad. And it’s that “same ol’ Joyce” in that she so desperately wants to see the good in him and appeal to that and believe he’s the sort that if she can just appeal to the right Bible passage will realize that his daughter has committed no sin worthy of the pain he is causing.
And her heartbreak and shock in that last panel is palatable. She really did try even thought she was scared and desperate and probably has had so much stress she just wants to scream and he escalated to straight up threatening her with a gun. For the second time, she’s been reduced to her most vulnerable by a religious man with an agenda.
I really, really hope you meant to write “palpable” not “palatable”…
Maybe she’ll smash him with a glass. I could go for that.
I really don’t see her touching her wrist at all, in this comic or the previous ones. You might be reading something in her body language that’s not really there.
Are you talking about the last panel? Because that’s just her moving her hands back reflexively as she stops walking towards Ross.
I hope he shoots himself in the balls by accident with that gun. Bloody fundie!
And his eyes. Hate his guts.
And then Dina comes back with the T-Rex to beat up the Toedadominus Rex!
This part of the comic is causing so much anxiety. I’m loving it.
Dirtbag Ross needs some anger management classes. Guns are not the answer.
This seems like a situation that a sneak baseball bat to the head attack from Sarah could fix. It’s a good way to handle jerks.
Or to get shot if he hears her approach.
*high pitched screaming* oh please let everyone be alright PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE. ;-;
This is the moment when Joyce and Becky realise that Ross isn’t a Christian; he never was a Christian. He just thought that he was. It hurts all the more because it’s pretty clear that they both do have good memories of the man.
The question is this: Is this a bluff? If they keep saying ‘no’, does he have the intestinal fortitude to actually use it? If he does, what would he use it for?
Joyce, the one you’re looking for is Matthew 26:52. If Jesus wouldn’t permit a weapon to be used to protect the Son of God from unjust arrest, could it be used for any lesser purpose?
So, he was stupid enough to start waving his gun around in the middle of campus. The clock is now ticking to when Ross is surrounded by cops screaming at him to drop the gun and surrender. It’s even money whether he’ll do the sane thing or whether he’ll decide that God will protect him from multiple 9mm Parabellum and 5.56mm NATO rounds all passing through him more-or-less at once.
He’s the product of the Christian faith.
Not any version of the Christian faith that I consider worthy of the name. The version that seems to think that God wants you to bless guns and bombs before they are used on non-combatants, maybe, but not the real sort. The sort that gave up real Christianity in favour of a place at the high table with the kings and rich men.
He follows Supply-Side Jesus.
but you’re not the sole arbiter of what is and isn’t Christian. The man clearly self-identifies as Christian. He clearly worships the Christian God – bear in mind this is the same faith behind the Crusades. So if you’re subscribing to this philosphy, you don’t really get to wash your hands of the negative aspects.
So am I, and I manage to not be Ross.
You know the Scream quote, “Movies don’t make psychos, they just make psychos more creative”? Apply it to religion and authoritarian, insecure bigots.
And Crusader armies? And the huge number of Christians who believe homosexuality is an abomination? Yeah, maybe Christian isn’t synonymous with crazy bigot, but funny how it attracts a vast number of the aforementioned. Long story short: You’re Christian, this guy is a part of your faith, and his mind-set is well represented by your religion.
What you are arguing is the “no true scotsman” fallacy… (The argument basically goes “no scotsman would ever ad sugar to their oatmeal”… “but my uncle Angus from the highlands ads sugar to his oatmeal”… “but no TRUE scotsman would”). Basically, the person making the claim is trying to eliminate people from a category based on an artificial criteria that doesn’t make sense.
To be a christian, you just have to believe in god/jesus. Full stop. There is nothing in the definition of ‘christian’ which would filter out those people based on what they do. While the majority of mainstream christians may frown on violence, that doesn’t necessarily mean you can claim a person ISN’T a christian just because they do things that are not acceptable. The only thing that matters is belief in god/jebus.
Are you sure about that? What about John 13:35: “They will know that you are my disciples because of your love for one another.” How about the sheep and the goats (Matthew 25:31-46)? Or Matthew 22:36-40 (“Love your neighbour as yourself”)? Try James 2 if you think that “the only thing that matters is belief in god/jebus”.
Because right now you’re engaged in telling at least one actual Christian what they do and don’t believe. You might be surprised to hear that the loud, right-wing, ultra-conservative bigotry that USians tend to associate with ‘Christianity’ is not shared across the world. It’s exactly the same as imagining that Daesh, IS, Al Qaeda etc are “true Muslims” because, well, because they say they are, even if there’s like a billion other Muslims in the world who find their beliefs/actions abhorrent.
I know people love to raise the NTS fallacy in these arguments, but it’s frequently (as here) applied incorrectly. I (and you) don’t get to make the final call on who is or isn’t ‘really’ a Christian, but there are some pretty solid expectations laid down for how one is supposed to act.
I’m not trying to tell you what you believe. I’m trying to explain why what you believe may be wrong.
The bible is a complex work, written by many people over centuries, with some sections that are vague, some that are factually wrong, and some that are contradictory. There are many passages of the bible that point to being saved “by faith”, without reference to acting in a particular way.
As for your “expectations on how someone is supposed to act”, that has nothing to do with the bible and everything to do with the environment you were raised in. Had you been born in a different century or different location (e.g. the confederate states before the civil war) you would have found justification in the bible for slavery, and would have been just as convinced that slavery was something acceptable to christians, even though you probably view it as contrary to the bible now.
And are you the arbiter of what constitutes Christianity?
segnosaur: “To be a christian, you just have to believe in god/jesus. Full stop.”
Me @ segnosaur: “I (and you) don’t get to make the final call on who is or isn’t ‘really’ a Christian, but there are some pretty solid expectations laid down for how one is supposed to act.”
You @ me: “And are you the arbiter of what constitutes Christianity?”
Uh huh. Ooh-kay.
You’re conflating what makes one Christian with what makes one a Christian in your eyes. You don’t get to make the final call on who is or isn’t a Christian. But sure. Let’s play that game. Yeah, there are some pretty solid expectations laid down. Like not wearing clothes of two materials and putting to death any child that curses their parent (an apt one here).
So I bet you pick and choose what parts of the bible you obey. I bet you interpret the bible so it fits your modern narrative. And then what do you do? You declare your interpretation right while condemning those that do not follow according to your interpretation. But who are you, to pick and choose the words of your god? You’re a Christian? So is the gun toting dude in the comic. So were the Crusaders. So were the Nazi’s. You might think these people were “bad” Christians, yet they were still Christians, often acting in what they believed was the will of their god, making personal interpretations of the bible to support their own narrative.
Disturbing thought here. What if Toe-dad is ordering both Joyce and Becky into the car? After all, he just caught them hugging, and in his twisted mind that could mean that Joyce is a lesbian. And Joyce could be subjected to corrective rape, unlike Becky, who if he tries, can get him shunned by the congregation. Unless the church they go to is really wrong.
Genuine question, is corrective rape by parent actually that frowned upon? I mean, isn’t the dad in such families supposed to be exactly the ideal husband too? I get that this even if it worked wouldn’t be a good example of an appropriate partner since it’s literally the father, but I can also see the argument for it, and I don’t feel like raping Joyce would be greatly ‘better’ in the eyes of the community (she’s still Becky’s age, a member of the community, and the two are practically family, and also even if corrective rape wasn’t a horrible and false thing she’s not even a lesbian in the first place- what I mean is, I don’t think they’d see it as excusable if they didn’t see doing so to Becky as excusable).
But I’m skeeved out, the ‘play’ in But I’m A Cheerleader skeeves me out even, so I’ll stop pontificating (I am still interested in if anyone knows the answer, though)
“Genuine question, is corrective rape by parent actually that frowned upon [AMONGST PEOPLE WHO WOULD SUPPORT IT OTHERWISE]?”
Obviously it’s more than frowned upon in general, as it should be. That was an unfortunate turn of phrase.
My reasoning is: if Ross was intending to rape a lesbian into straightness, it would have been Dina back then in the woods. Joyce is someone he knows from way back and (presumably) he assigns more humanity to her than to the “oriental deceptress” he only met once.
It’s the reason I was so worried about his “I should-” comment.
I agree about the ‘I should’ fear (although I think it was more ‘smash you into oblivion’), but I also feel like Dina would be so not-human that ‘curing’ her wouldn’t really be a thing anyway.
Ross wouldn’t be doing it himself. Becky would get sent to a camp and/or married off to get her back on the ‘right’ path. He also wouldn’t try to ‘correct’ Dina – as a non-believer, she’s written off as a heathen, possibly a witch depending on his particular tradition, and he needs to get his daughter away from evil, worldly influences like her.
Ross doesn’t care about Dina, he wouldn’t bother with her when Becky is still running.
I’m pretty sure Toedad knows Dina is Becky’s girlfriend.
I finally subbed to the patreon yesterday in hopes the day ahead strip- this strip- would bring me comfort.
I was so, so wrong.
I don’t hold out a lot of hope for tomorrow’s strip either.
No spoilers, please.
Willis is firm with his policy on giving spoilers to people.
Deathjavu did say *this* strip in their post, though. So that wasn’t spoilery. And it seems to me they were also intentionally vague about tomorrow’s strip!
Oh, bongo-es!
I’m thinking that Joyce may be thinking of John 15:13 – “No greater love has a man than he should surrender his life for his friends.” I don’t think that it will go that far but I can’t see Joyce hesitating if it comes to that.
Fuck, I’m so fucking in suspense here. But please, by all means,.. Keep escalating the drama
Prediction: Dina uses sneaky ninja attack and chops Toedad’s head off, Becky and Joyce celebrate with ice cream: http://ninjanick101.deviantart.com/art/Chapter-29-Comic-21-565872706
Not an actual comic or anything, but it’s kind of close to what I’m thinking.
If you’d ask me what-would-jesus-do, i think he would f*ckin run.
If you murder someone to save their soul from impurity… does it still count as eternal damnation?
HOORAY, HE IS THAT STUPID!!
….son of a bongo, this can only go down from here…
“Get in the robot, Becky.”
He pulled out his rifle ON CAMPUS. Someone HAS to see that.
Someone does, go back a couple of comics to when he first pulls out the rifle(?) and someone in the background shows shock.
yeah, i doubt that was just for comic relief, probably revisiting that in a couple strips.
Still can’t get over how much Toe-dad looks like Tim Schafer
Yeah this isn’t going to end well for homophobic dad. Guns -even what look like single shot falling blocks- are gonna get him SWATed shortly.
Yay, comments are working for me again. I really like Becky’s expression, which conveys to me this perfect level of, “And just when I thought my dad could not get any worse, he pulls *this*.” Poor, poor Becky. Just. There is no coming back from that.
Despite everything, I think that Becky was still working on the assumption that he was her father and that, disagreements and misunderstandings aside, fundamentally he loved her and would, in the end, never hurt her. The look on her face in the last panel is the realisation that she is totally wrong.
That’s the beginning of realization that your life is in danger and your brain is quickly shifting gears into fight/flight/freeze mode, with a greater chance for the latter two to occur than the first.
Also, any possibility that Becky isn’t really Ross’ kid? I know genetics are a mishmash, but his hair is dark, and hers is red, which is an ultra recessive form of the blonde gene. She is also petite whereas he’s a brick shithouse. One can look completely different from one or both parents, but unless Ross had a redheaded parent who had at least one redheaded parent, it seems unlikely that someone like him would have a redheaded child.
Kind of wondering if Becky’s mother had an affair or something, got pregnant with Becky, and Ross was duped into thinking she was his only to find out later she wasn’t. I think I remember it being said that Becky’s mother died from an illness, though given this scene, I don’t think it’s out of the realm of question that he could have been abusing her in some way (physical, or maybe denying proper medical care) that hastened or caused her death… and while he considers Becky a possession still (since he raised her), he no longer has any parental love for her, and is thus content with killing her if she doesn’t submit back to being his property again.
A recessive gene can last hidden among dominant genes pretty much indefinitely so long as it keeps getting passed on.
There better be fucking repercussions for this. Pulling out a gun twice on a college campus? With tons of witnesses around? or is the plaza suddenly, conveniently, empty?
Here’s my prediction: Joyce, being Joyce, is going to try to reason with Ross, leaning heavily on scriptural authority for reproving him for threatening, even by implication, the use of force. She’ll try her full suit of love and empathy. Ross, on the other hand, will simply continue to make absolute demands and, every time these are not complied with, he will get more and more angry. Worse, I think that Joyce actually sounding reasonable will make him even more angry until he starts to identify her with the source of all his frustrations.
It is quite possible that, as Cerberus suggests, he will ultimately decide that a dead Becky is better than a Becky living in sin. Worse, he would have got so angry at Joyce for so effectively arguing Becky’s case that he may think violence against her is also permissible to deal with those emotions. I’m figuring he takes the shot. However, he will have some kind of pithy phrase to utter first that will give the girls a few moments warning to dive for the ground. Then the cops will shoot him dead.
The most tragic part of it would be that Becky’s last memory of her father would be the look of hate in his eyes when he decided to kill her.
For a brief and whimsical moment, I thought that the gun was only there for the “clever girl” gag, and I was so relieved that it wasn’t part of the plot (because from a story-telling standpoint, it’s a little bit ridiculous).
Bye bye, brief and whimsical moment.
I feared that Fundie’s actions were motivated more by his ego than anything else. This appears to confirm that. He’s using a rifle to recover his property. Sadly, there’s no way this will end well. He’s threatened his daughter’s life, as well as the lives of her best friends, and seems to have no grasp of the damage that’s done. I’m sure he thinks that the deprogramming session he has planned will put her back on a path that’s acceptable to him. He might even have some limited luck there, depending on the brutality of the deprogramming session. Stockholm Syndrome is a powerful tool if used correctly.
Joyce’s life is also about to change forever. She must face the fact that an authority figure in the faith that sustained her is now threatening her life. She’ll find that prayer isn’t quite as comforting as is was in the past.
As for the police, an armed shooter on campus will bring a fast response, but it will be with full lights and sirens. That will trigger one of two responses. Either Fundie will wake up and the situation will begin to defuse, or he will panic and escalate things to the highest level. If things escalate, it’s likely he will knock Joyce down, grab Becky and throw her in the car, and make a run for it. Either way, Fundie’s in for some jail (and maybe asylum) time, and Becky’s out on her own. The family will blame and ostracize her, and the university will get rid of her to try to calm things down. She has no right to be on campus and the publicity will be a nightmare for the administration.
Joyce used Reasoning.
It’s not very effective.
“The eye that mocketh at his father, and despiseth to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out, and the young eagles shall eat it.”
Proverbs 30:17
Joyce, my dear, you may just need to remember the words of Jesus, but Toedad just needs to remember the words of the Old Testament.
Back then, children going off the rails tended to end up as murderous highwaymen and the like or members of religions that incinerated live babies as sacraments. The Hebrew Scriptures reflect a time that, optimistically, can be described as ‘not nice’.
FWIW, though, the underlying concept of showing respect and obedience to one’s parents where this is reasonable is a sound one. It should be noted that there were times in Israelite history where such respect and obedience wasn’t actually required, especially when it’s the parents that had gone off the rails, as in this case.
From all I can tell, the way parents treated their children was part of things being not nice. We still have murderous gangs today, and insisting your kids obey Ross-style is not the best way to keep them out of one.
In any case, though, the proverbs are now kept as the unchanging word of God, ready to be quoted in any context. Most Christians don’t, but there is a rationalization close at hand whenever someone like Ross wants.
Fundie is remembering the words of the old testament. “Then they shall bring out the damsel to the door of her father’s house, and the men of her city shall stone her with stones that she die: because she hath wrought folly in Israel, to play the whore in her father’s house: so shalt thou put evil away from among you.” – Deuteronomy 22:21
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
I keep hoping Mike has a concealed carry permit and is about to turn this dude’s head into a canoe.
That is now my new favorite thing.
Mike will turn your head into a canoe!
Just look at Becky’s face in the 2nd and 3rd panels.
She does seem more annoyed than terrified.
Rifles on campus make everything better. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWKpblxejWE
Okay girls, ready? At the top of your lungs now:
“He’s got a gun!”
See how many people dogpile him and/or call the police.
“We’ll choose Door Number Two.”
Ross going to jail would probably be the extra boost Becky needs to qualify for financial aid independently. So here’s hoping…
Him getting killed would allow her to inherit everything, also helping with the financial situation.
i’m still confused about why he’s brandishing this rifle. is he actually going to shoot his daughter? how exactly would that help him?
It would prevent her from further damaging her soul through sinful conduct. More importantly, it would stop her damaging his reputation as an upright man. Before anyone mentions it, yes, I know this is not a sane mindset.
He’s past the point of rational thought. When he’s in interrogation with the police, he’ll say that he only brought the gun to scare her. And if the gun is fired, he’ll probably never say he shot anybody “the gun just went off”.
While continually blaming Becky for not being “reasonable”.
Ultimately, though, if he shoots it’ll be because Becky won’t submit to him, and he’ll hate her defiance. He can rationalize it any way he wants, but it will be purely because of hate.
am i the only one who really really wants to see historical jesus (Yeshua) dramatically enter the comic as an IU campus police officer, and take down toedad?
considering Dina, it would have to be Raptor Jesus
Jesus riding a raptor.
“That part was true, the rest you lunatics said was pretty messed up, but I definitely ride raptors.”
I just want to see him shout while doing it “Did I fucking stutter when I said to love each other?!?!? No?!? Then STAY DOWN!!”
This needs to happen!
We need more Yeshua in this comic!
I think the best course of action for the girls at this point is to scream.
Attract attention. Involve bystanders. Make a scene. EMBARRASS Toedad.
I think it’s the thing that’s most likely to get through to him and de-escalate the situation. Screaming girls reframe the situation into “scary man attacking with a gun” from “family affair” pretty effectively.
That’s what I’ve been taught to do in cases of shit like this – scream as loud as possible, attract attention. Of course, I was also taught to run, since I live in a country with actual gun control, where running from an assailant is not likely to get me shot…
I seriously think screaming is the best thing they can do to protect themselves at this point.
Because Joyce knows Punch-Fu, Savannah Style?
http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1857
This is going to be all about Joyce. The police aren’t even minor cast members. Joyce WILL save Becky. The narrative demands it. Forget the details and follow the story people.
Precisely.
I think even Dina’s out of it until everything is over. She had her chance to try and did so valiantly, but much of the purpose of that was so that she wouldn’t be there at the final confrontation.
In the reality of the comic occurring Right Now, original sidewalk dude has posted to YikYak that there’s a dude with a gun on campus, and it has been downvoted off the feed three or four times by now.
But I like to speculate (and on occasion, pontificate) and then be surprised. As Willie Wonka said: “The suspense is terrible, I hope it’ll last.”
It’s sort of alarming but I can hear Gene Wilder saying that…
Silver lining: once all this is over, the university will likely insist Joyce get some kind of counseling.
Oooooh boy, this is certainly going to exacerbate her trust issues. Afraid of strangers? Well guess what? THE PEOPLE YOU TRUST ARE CRAZY TOOOOO….
True, this is such a nightmare for Joyce. What is left to believe in?
God! (but not the church. that’s an important distinction). Also, people of her choosing.
Wow, I just realized…. the conversation Joyce talk about took place HERE, at the fountain. This is were she defied her parents. This is were Becky makes her stand against HER father.
When Joyce stood up to her parents Ethan hid behind the fountain. When Becky stands up to her father Joyce stands between her and the gun.Joyce’s parents were swayed by the right proverb and the resolve of their daughter. Becky’s father is unlikely to stop until someone puts him down.
I’m sure there are more interesting parallels, but for now all I will say is… well played, Willis, well played.
I really didn’t remark that.That must have a meaning.Thank God not the same meaning as the Walkyverse one.
There must be other students seeing this, right? It’s a beautiful fall day on a college campus. There have to be a ton of students with phones videoing this, I hope. o_O
“Holy shit, does that guy have a gun?!”
“Quick! This will get us so many hits on youtube!”
I’m glad that I’m not the only bitter cynic here! 😉
LOL. My thought was that even if people are taking it for youtube, it would be great for evidence later. 🙂
“And he said to his followers, ‘if he see a rifle, call the cops'” (Common sense. 1:01
First, that’s my book you’re quoting.
Second, and if I dare quote myself “a long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom.” (Common Sense, 3rd edition, 1776, p.1)
Except in Texas.
I think it was something along the lines of “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you…while running like Gehenna and alerting the authorities.”
>why would you bring that
I’ll take ‘because he’s been brainwashed by the words of a book that makes no sense and was never really intended to be taken too seriously by the aliens who helped write it’ for 1,000, Alex.
Well, as Jesus said: “if you don’t have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one.” (Luke 22:36)
So really Joyce, you only have yourself to blame for not being prepared.
That was a very specific instruction. He said those particular people needed to have swords, and then he explained that it was because he was supposed to be found among criminals. They then told him “We do have a few swords” and he said that was cool.
Later, one of them actually used one, and he was rather upset by it.
Not that “plucking out random verses and ignoring both the context and the rest of the book” isn’t a style favored by people like Ross.
If you picture the dad’s mouth as his nose, and his enormous chin as his mouth, he looks kind of hilarious.
For all the complaints people have about how Toedad is so two dimensional as a character (and of course he is! He’s here to serve a role in the narrative, not spin off into The Radical Adventures of Toedad), Joyce’s line in the final panel is genuinely heartbreaking, specifically because of her history with Becky’s family.
Joyce thinks the absolute best of everyone regardless of circumstances, and most times she’s had a problem with a loved one she’s been able to reach out and come to an understanding. But here? It’s not just a matter of a terrifying stranger; Becky’s dad is someone she’s known and trusted her whole life, and now, he’s directly threatening her and someone she dearly loves.
Now to patiently await even more “omg this is so strawman” from the peanut gallery.
oooh, another flavor of PTSD to add to the list.
Strangers are already bad to her, but now… male authority figures from her past are also bad.
I predict that this is going to open the floodgates of all pent up resentment towards her dad for having raised her in such a bigoted, controlling manner, such as not letting her leave the neighborhood on her bike until she was 16. First it’ll just be abject terror upon seeing him, then she’ll eventually link the nature of her upbringing under his control to that abject terror and how he, even though he’s much more “laid back” than Ross is, has the potential to do what Ross here is doing once he feels he’s losing control of her.
Honestly this is the way to think of it.
Ross is not a character, he’s an obstacle. He’s the conflict of this arc personified. And sure maybe he isn’t a gun toting psychopathic nutjob ALL the time but for the purpose of the story it doesn’t matter.
What is his purpose here? To take Becky away and get her “cured” so to speak. Thats all we really need to know. The minute details of his life are not needed, we do not need to know his backstory nor his struggles. Because in the eyes of the characters and hopefully most readers, everything he’s doing is wrong.
I’m sure he has some qualities many would find admirable, at least in his community. Like Joyce said he would drive her to Six Flags. And likely drove her and becky to various things. So we hear of good things he’s done but we don’t see them. Because we don’t need to.
I’m going to sound pretentious by bringing up shakespeare but he reminds me of Tybalt from Romeo and Juliet.
He is just a horrible unrepentant asshole, yet following his death many mourn him including Juliet, remembering him fondly.
But we never see it.
And in many cases most would consider this bad character writing, or a two dimensional character. But for the story he’s in we don’t need to see his sympathetic side.
It’s the same with Toedad the douchebag.
Sorry I rambled.
Dammit Toedad now you’re adding to your inevitable prison sentence you jackass. When those guys find out you took a rifle onto a school campus they are NOT going to be kind to you either.
Can we just have the campus cops off him, so Becky can inherit his house & money and then go to IU starting next semester?
i’m expecting a payday style police response (difficulty deathwish)
Considering the timespeed of this comic, Campus Police could have a response time under 2 minutes, and we still won’t see them show up until after Christmas.
I’m not always a fan of Ruth’s methods. But she needs to show up, be completely unfazed by this BS, and casually kick this guy into the next galaxy.
Or even better, Ruth should kick him in the nuts until he bleeds. *cackles*
Oh please, she’d make one move then get dizzy and vomit. Because she’s a depressed alcoholic, badass isn’t on her to do list.
So Joyce has another variation of PTSD to add to her roster. That’s sure going to be fun for her to deal with.
I wonder how Dina will come out of this though. Kinda one thing to ambush a maniac with a rifle in the moment, and another completely to realize that you ambushed a maniac with a rifle a little while afterwards and were rolling the dice on whether or not you’d live to panic about it.
Knowing Dina?
She’ll apologize for being unable to stop him there.
I wonder how semi-autobiographical this part is.
Quick Joyce, roll for initiative! (and/or breaking point).
*claws at own face* Please, I need to get a confirmation that he didn’t rape Dina, and that she’s okay, because that’s the exact setup we last saw her on.
Don’t worry… There wouldn’t have been time to do that. He doesn’t seem like the kind of person to rape someone, anyway (which is odd to say after he pulls out a gun on his own child)… The thing is, he has what he considers to be justification for his violence (his religion). He wouldn’t have any justification for rape.
Well, unless he’s a believer in “corrective” rape. Which he might be, but either way I don’t think that’s what happened.
Willis would never do that to a character of his unless it actually plays a part in the story, because having someone be raped just for added drama without building on it would be a super shitty and bad thing to do. Any time it happens in mainstream media it is almost always done badly, and even in most webcomics.
I doubt willis would do it.
She’s probably just unconcious back in the woods.
Or in his car.
Im hoping the former.
He did not rape Dina and our evidence is that he simply did not have time to do it.
Last time we saw him, he was watching Becky tearing away at full speed across a field. He needed to get back to his car and drive towards the general direction he saw Becky go towards. In that short time he could have certainly hurt Dina, but rape is really doubtful. Especially because of how focused he is on Becky.
If he did anything to Dina at all, I would speculate like other people that he violently knocked Dina out and dragged her to the car because right now she’s an obstacle getting in his way.
no
Could readers stop acting hysterical and use some damned logic?
Never.
Geez, what a party pooper.
…people come to some very, very odd conclusions when it comes to fiction.
All the nightmares came today
and they look as though they’re here to stay
Ah… Joyce. Now fully realizing exactly HOW bad this is. Poor kid’s been through it and none of it’s even close to being over.
Maybe what Joyce wants is from Matthew 10: 34.
“Think not that I am come to take you to six flags: I came not for vacation, but to shoot deceptresses.” I might be a little off on the quote though.
this makes me so fucking sad for Joyce I want to cry and hug. it’s so traumatizing to have her see that another person she once liked is also violent and dangerous.
I have a bad feeling… Joyce is… right… there… She’s going to snap. She’s going to break. She’s going to slowly degrade in a violent spiral of rationalization that tells her one thing and one thing only. THIS. IS. BULLSHIT!!!!!
And then Walky can be a poet and make everything better.
Joyce has now dealt with an attempted rape and someone she likely once considered a close adult figure pulling a gun on her.
Yes, her PTSD situation is going to get SO much better.
Joyce and Becky clearly weren’t expect it. I’d say it’s time to call 911, in case someone hasn’t already.
Also, Dina is still unaccounted for. That makes me highly uneasy.
I meant they clearly weren’t expecting the gun. I shouldn’t write comments when I’m this tired.
Did this just happen in real life?
Does Willis have psychic powers?
The Dad even kind of looks right.
http://ithacavoice.com/2015/10/alert-wells-college-closes-as-armed-dangerous-man-likely-headed-to-campus/
I know what we’ve said in previous comic threads, but this is just too weird.
http://cnycentral.com/news/local/former-student-sparks-safety-concerns-at-wells-college-campus-shuts-down
Pulling out the gun in the open completely changes the dynamic. No way Ross leaves the campus anywhere other than in the back of a police car.
…now I just hope that trigger doesn’t get pulled 🙁
There was a terror threat made on Tuesday against my original alma mater, University of New South Wales.
Pulling a rifle on a college campus? Yeah real good idea there Toedad. This does not end well for you.
We could only be so lucky….
Oh, well: finger’s crossed!
This strip is missing somebody shouting “IT’S A LION!” between panels 3 and 4.
So… How is this fundy nutjob running around a college campus brandishing a rifle without every police officer in 50 miles rushing at him?
… Of course, I have to admit this is pretty much something I’d expect an adult + male Joyce to do, so it fits.
Joyce is INCREDIBLY naive, but she’s not violent, and she’s not cruel: when confronted with Becky’s homosexuality, she did go through that thought of trying to ‘fix’ it, but she was putting Becky first and foremost. She’s devoted to people, regardless of their beliefs. She’s a soul that loves, even if she’s ignorant.
Ross is a big, bundle of loathing. He loathes what his daughter is, and wants to fix her because his hate for what she is outweighs his love for her. He’s not an adult-male Joyce, he’s all Ross, and that’s awful. If he was more like Joyce, this situation would be going down very differently.
I mean, we saw her date with Joe. Joyce isn’t above trying to beat the sin out of people. Wouldn’t do that to her own daughter though. Joyce gets more compassionate and more willing to bend the rules when dealing with friends and family.
But even with Ethan it wasn’t in malice. He wanted to not be gay and the kind of person she is just wanted to help. It’s after she learns that it’s not helping she does what’s right as much as she can. If Ross where in a similar arrangement, like his daughter for some reason asks to change, I have a feeling the handle on the subject would be crueler.
True enough. Joyce isn’t a good or bad person because of her religion, same as Ross. What defines them is how they act, and when Joyce is confronted by challenges and painful truths she always tries to adapt her viewpoints to do right by her loved ones, while Ross digs his heels further.
Duh. He’s white.
And Jesus said unto he “Stop standing there and get the fuck outta there, for he that brandeth a shot gun upon his own kin hath past unto the land of the batshit and should be shunned.”
Dude, it’s official: David Willis is psychic.
Armed father headed toward Wells College campus
Huh, Wells College. There’s a place near my hometown with that name.
Huh, Ithaca Voice. That’s the same name as my hometown’s news site!
…OHMYGODISITANYONEIKNOWNOITISN’TOK, good. WHEW.
i like how the water coming out of the fountain makes joyce look like a glitchy robot