For some reason that reminds me of a cassette tape I had growing up called Wee Sing Dinosaurs. It still exists and you can listen to bits of it on Amazon.
We have failed you. He is awesome! The first thing he ever did was a self-titled album by The Modern Lovers, which is very revolutionary in its sound for its time (1972). At the very least I’d suggest checking out Roadrunner, the first song from that album.
It is possible that you have seen There’s Something About Mary…? He is the singing part of the Greek chorus style duo in that movie.
I just listened on Spotify for the first time (whole album is up there) and some of it is pretty great. I love the song about how it’s pretty easy to count to 100 but 10,000 makes my brain hurt.
MY GOD! SOMEONE ELSE WHO KNOWS Wee Sing! Sorry for the enthusiasm, but I had most of the videos and all the books when I was little -there was a music-for-tots group near my house that used those as a “curriculum” and just… that was my toddlerhood!
The dinosaur one was my album of choice. My little brother preferred “Wee Sing Silly Songs”. I wasn’t as fond of that one, it seemed more like the generic public domain songs you get on Barney. And I hated Barney.
But dinosaurs (Barney obviously excepted) are awesome.
It is inherently stable, since as projected joy increases, the price goes down, making joy speculators sad. When projected joy decreases, the price goes up, making speculators happy.
I hope Sarah isn’t doing insider trading. Obviously Mike is.
I’d bet the bad news is ‘Becky is in love with Joyce you know, you’re probably just a rebound’. Which I personally think is just Sarah looking on the bleak side and not having been witness to what Dina and Becky are actually like as a couple.
I guess I just like Sarah. But, I don’t see her as a person who goes around deliberately trying to ruin peoples fun and games.
She got treated pretty rough when she went thru the druggie roomie thing and it soured her big time on trying to communicate with other students. She just wants to get her degree in peace.
She wouldn’t tell adorable Dina something like ‘Becky is in love with Joyce’ or something that’s pure speculation. She isn’t mean.
But she is flat out practical, and realistic. So, apparently something has happened and Willis is about to bomb us again.
I rather dislike Sarah, so I feel like I can confirm your suspicion with less of a bias: she’s not the kind of person who ruins the fun intentionally. She kills my vibe, but that’s just from being all Eeyore about everything.
Seriously, if the druggie roommate drama is the worst thing to happen in Sarah’s life, I would find it hard to respect her for letting it ruin her outlook to the degree it’s been depicted.
I don’t think it was so much the druggie roommate drama as the losing-entire-circle-of-friends that followed and the ongoing intrusion of that drama into new friendships. Been there, done that, have seen friends go through worse versions, and it can be hell.
(that said, the attempted-intrusion into the Sarah-Dina friendship backfired so damn beautifully there should be statues)
I got the feeling from the flashbacks that Ssrsh did not have many/any friends before joining her roommate’s circle. The girl harassing Sarah (Riydah, I think) made a big deal about how her roommate had done her a huge favor by being friends with her. Riydah isn’t exactly a reliable narrator but she thinks Sarah isn’t just mean but “ungrateful”.
Sarah’s also mentioned that without her scholarship, she goes home, and when talking about her family, she’s mentioned a grandmother -and maybe a mom, I think -not sure -but never a dad. I can get school being an extra layer of stress if she’s worried about being an income drain, or disappointing her folks -she’s already pretty isolated and a perfectionist, and neither of those is easy.
I figured it was the whole “Becky loves Joyce” thing. Or alternatively “You know she can’t actually successfully live in the dorms undetected the entire semester, right?”
well, for some people new to romantic relationships in general, the fact that New Relationship Smell does actually wear off isn’t a fun lesson the first time around. that could be one thing sarah is referring to.
but something tells me she’s just snarking in response to “what’s not to like about becky? :D”
I think it’s definitely the first one: she’s wondering if she should tell Dina that you can’t count on love (or even friendship) lasting forever. Which is quite true, of course. And the reason I love Sarah (Sarah!!) is that she’s the kind of person who would consider this info important for Dina to have (for her future happiness), but would stop herself from saying it—as she does here—for the sake of Dina’s current happiness (which she is charmed by, despite her refusal to show it or indulge it). Sarah is a good friend to her friends, while being true to her own feelings.
I don’t understand what Sarah is getting at here. I know she was suspicious of some of Becky’s actions at first, but it turned out there were good reasons for her actions.
Dina, I read your homoreadings. And the straightness levels were overwhelming. Also this wavy taupe line shows that you most definitely have an aversion to redheads and… wait, reading it upside down, never mind.
Yes. And which Becky later acknowledged outright (her comment that non-monosexuality is a thing when Dina and Becky first bring up their relationship to Joyce).
the bad news is that becky cant stick around because she doesnt go to that school, and needs to constantly hide from the authority figure in charge- ruthless- because she isnt supposed to be there. as great as it is having becky around, she cant stick around. but she also has no where to go. after leaving her college and having her dad arrested +being in a position where most of her family and friends growing up would ultimatly shun her– beckys only option is to stay with joyce and dina, but even that is nearly impossible in the long run unless there is a major change.
I think Sarah’s bad news is her usual bad news – This Can’t Last Because Of Rules. Becky can’t stay here, because she’s not a student. Therefore, her relationship with Dina is doomed. Sarah may even think Becky _plans_ to end it, or is using Dina as an excuse to stay longer.
or it could simply be that Dina doesn’t actually LOVE Becky in the way that she thinks she does. Remember that Dina lacks any forms of actual social skills, and part of the reason she started dating Becky is because she was poked fun of for it. She may not even realize that her feelings may not actually be romantic at all
And Sarah, I keep wanting to like you, but it would be so much easier if you didn’t have the constant impulse to be such a bitter ‘percussion instrument’.
I love that the site’s language filter is driving a certain ‘b-word’ further into obscurity. Now even the word ‘bongo’ is being euphemised.
But, what if the word ‘bongo’ gets so overused that ‘bongo’, itself, becomes offensive? Will Willis have to filter that word, too? What will he replace it with??
I mostly think her CHECK IT, DORKS-level pride in Dina has dealt to any lingering Joycefeels.
So… Sarah’s concern/reality check might be that Ruth has an inkling, and that as soon as something pushes her over the edge (eg: Mary getting an inkling) then the happyfundorm times are over?
Ouch. Ouch. That’s, like, something Willis would do…
If the only reason Joyce hasn’t talked with Leslie about this is that she’s somehow reluctant to approach authority figures, she needs to get over that for Becky’s (and Dina’s) sake two weeks ago. I know the US situation is bad, and that access to safe emergency shelter is uneven-to-nonexistent, but Joyce has access to one of the best resources and knows that it’s a specific issue Leslie is well-informed on.
Unless this is an aspect of Joyce grappling with her new and uncertain independence, and that its development and the consequent escalation in Beckyhorror will be another potentially traumatic storyline from Willis, in which case, pre-emptively: damn you, Willis!
(ps plz give us moar willis okay we love you byebye)
Even if, that’s not *really* this horrible catastrophic thing Sarah’s cracking it up to be. Becky can pine for Joyce and still get a very real sense of love and fulfillment with Dina that she’s clearly shown to have.
Like, Robin wasn’t wrong for being attracted to Amber in Shortpacked!. Danny isn’t cheating on Amber if he’s infatuated with Ethan.
This. The heart is. Love is. Romantic and sexual attraction are.
That whole Fundie Christian thing of “if you have attraction to another, you have committed adultery in your heart” thing is a load of bollocks. And would be even if Joyce and Becky had compatible sexualities and feelings for each other.
Given that Joyce’s sexuality rather firmly slams a door shut on any possibility of things going anywhere with Becky, Becky’s attraction to Joyce might as well be as “threatening” to Dina as a romantic partner’s sexual attraction to a celebrity.
I was with you until the celebrity thing. Your best friend is significantly harder to get over than a celebrity. Kirsten Dunst isn’t hanging out all the time, laughing at your jokes, smiling, making you feel like maybe just one time…
True. I’m not saying it’s not hard on Becky. But Joyce is straight. They aren’t going to happen. And Becky believes that even if her heart does annoying things especially when she sees Joyce and Dorothy together. Dina has no reason to worry about them outside of how hard it is on Becky to let that intense hope go.
And to Becky’s credit, she’s been amazing on not dumping that on Dina. She’s even been including Dina on her Joyce comforting time so that it isn’t about her bailing on her gf to lend support for her in-crisis crush.
And that’s the part that makes it not really worth Dina worrying about.
If Sarah goes that route, it’d just be her stirring up jealousy and insecurity over nothing.
How do we know what?
That Joyce is straight? We don’t have word of God, but Joyce thinks so. She’s told Becky so. That’s enough to put them on the path Cerberus describes.
I suppose it’s still possible that Willis will reveal that Joyce is really bi and have Becky jump back into her arms, devastating Dina, but I don’t see it. Anything is possible, including a creator breakdown that changes everything he’d had planned.
I think it’s pretty solid to say that Joyce is straight, even with her girlcrushes on Dorothy and Sal. At most I’d say she’s mildly heteroflexible.
Either way, even if Joyce were to discover she’s bi, she wouldn’t immediately try to date Becky. Her line about how she’d know if she was a lesbian, because if she was she’d be one for Becky, struck me more of her reacting out of guilt of not being able to be what Becky wanted her to be than anything. I don’t really think there’s any actual romantic or sexual feelings Joyce would have for Becky.
And in my experience, one of the best ways to get over a hopeless crush, is to fall for someone else. With an actual relationship to focus on, the need for the first crush to fall for you drops off drastically.
But I really don’t expect that to be what Sarah’s talking about.
Dina can manufacture more capacity for joy with sleep. Speaking of, I do need to manufacture more capacity for joy myself – but I shall try to remember this.
Yeah, though she’ll be in a much better position now if she’s found out than she’d normally be now that she’s got the support of a good chunk of people in the wing and with being targeted on campus. There’s a lot of leverage that someone like Sarah could work into a legal advantage that might allow either a loophole or a connection to services to make integration to the campus easier.
Or possibly someone like Leslie or maybe even Roz (as much as I dislike her, I do appreciate that she’s a doer and genuinely wants to do good in the world. I just think she’s nowhere near as good at ally-ing as she thinks she is. Case in point, being the straight girl talking over the lesbian on an issue of a LGBTQIA rights), but yeah. Becky is a lot safer than she was a few weeks ago.
Panel 1: I love Dina’s sense of continuity and intentionality. She told Sarah she was her second favorite, because that is true to her and she intends it as a compliment because she’s saying she likes hanging around Sarah and feels her a worthy investment of her emotional batteries.
Panel 2: Seriously Dina is the best. “Allocate you some smiles”. It’s just so endearingly sweet.
Panel 4: Of course, Sarah, Becky and Dina are totes adorbs together and very healthy despite all the shit that got thrown at them so early in their relationship. They’ll still have a lot of crap with Becky literally rebuilding her life back up from nothing, but they both seem to be on a really good path together… but why are you bringing this up, Sarah… no. No, no, no. Sarah, don’t you dare-
Panel 6: Damnitt Sarah/Willis, you are history’s greatest monster. :c
… I really hope it’s just Sarah’s pessimism or noticing something they’ve already talked about rather than something that’s going to hit Dina in her insecurities about being what another person would find romantically compelling.
To be honest maybe Sarah should just accept that some things are none of her business and be quiet? She acts like she hates being the bearer of bad news but she obviously does not.
I appreciate her desire to do the right thing, despite the fact that it will probably cause problems for everyone involved.
She’s got conviction, but I’m just worried that her bleak outlook is warping her judgement a bit; Becky is attracted to Joyce, sure, but that doesn’t preclude a faithful attraction to Dina as well.
There is also this. Becky has strong feelings for Joyce, but has also acknowledged that that isn’t happening and has formed a very strong connection with Dina, has shown she very much cares, is in awe of, and loves her in really major ways.
I mean, Becky will need time for it all to stop stinging and for her stupid brain to 100% shake that off and thus stop feeling jealous of Dorothy, but I don’t think there’s really any sort of conflict there unless Joyce suddenly decides she’s actually sapphic after all and in love with Becky as well. And even then, I’m honestly of the opinion that there would be a potential chance that Becky would turn it down because she’s already in a great relationship and I think poly would take a bit more education on relationship possibilities before it was even on her radar.
I mean, Dina would have more call to be concerned about Becky running off with an actual dinosaur than Joyce/Becky taking off for reals.
That might actually be one of Sarah’s major flaws. She’s a fixer and seems to very much feel that people going through stuff or being in situations around her are calls for her to voice her concerns or solve the issues. She’s not terribly good at just letting things go and not picking at them.
It makes her incredibly empathetic and gives her the tenacity that will make her a great lawyer. But it also means she doesn’t realize that maybe right when a person says they are on their last social battery isn’t the right moment to drop any sort of bad news.
I wonder if Sarah has a romanticized view of herself as someone who does What Must Be Done. Like, she’s so used to the shit it brings on herself trying to do the right thing that she goes with it anyway even though the harsh route isn’t always the smart one.
Could be. Might even be just as simple as she’s got a savior complex. I had one of those when I was Sarah’s age. It’s easy to have when you’ve got a lot of desire to do good in the world but not a lot of experience with what best works for people in crisis situations.
I think Sarah is definitely driven by empathy, but I don’t even know how much she recognizes that in herself, especially with the lengths she went to help Dana and how badly that blew up in her face even though she knows it was the right thing to do.
So what I’m thinking is that that’s how she approaches bad situations now. Things are bad. I better jump straight to maximum crisis level and then deal with the fallout, because I’m used to that.
I can definitely see that. She’s got no middle gear, so when she sees things that are potentially a source of concern, it’s either “not my problem” which doesn’t work for her or full on crisis-management, everything is burning mode.
& I think part of it may be genuine fear of under-reacting like she did until things got to a point of no return with Dana. She says as much, that she just tried to make things work and be supportive and cope until midterms came around.
She probably blames herself and her inaction for how it all turned out.
It’s kinda more like
“why the FUCK am I the only person there that can see how horribly this and that will end ?”
like they’re all little kids in her floor. Tho I guess she’s a year older, but still.
We’ll see what exactly her “bad news” is, but at this point in the conversation it really does seem like nothing prompted this.
Not like Dina came in and said “I’m so excited about this upcoming concert” so that Sarah could respond with something relevant like “Oh geeze, I hate to be the bearer of bad news but the tickets are already sold out”
The flow of the conversation so far is just
Dina: Hello, friend! I am so very happy!
Sarah: I really hate to take a shit on your good mood but the phantoms demand it! Nobody else can see or hear the people making these demands but I assure you they will not let me rest until this deed is done.
Yeah, it’s not really primed to be Sarah’s best moment in timing. What? You said you were happy and emotionally drained and thus not in at all the right head space to be receiving negative news? Welp, time to dump on that until waiting until you get a good night’s sleep and telling you over breakfast.
My Mum went in to see a specialist about her cancer a couple days before my birthday. She and Dad then gave me the news that she had been given six months to live (she didn’t last that long) like two days before my birthday, and then sang “Happy Birthday” over the phone to me two days later with me being fully aware that I was never, ever going to be wished happy birthday by her or have her sing it to me ever, ever again.
Over a decade later and I still can’t hear people sing “Happy Birthday” to me without crying.
You have NO idea how much I wish they’d lied to me, told me it was going to be fine, and then told me the truth after my birthday. She’d been given half a year (and lasted a little over a month); they could have told me a happy lie for like three days instead of giving me the birthday present of my Mum’s death.
I doubt Sarah is going to tell Dina about anyone’s death, but Jesus Christ, you don’t always have to give someone bad news immediately. Hell, sometimes you don’t have to give it to them ever. But for the love of god, at least let it wait a bit. She’s happy right now. She’s smiling. Do you really, actually need to take that away from her right now?
Sarah’s permanently constipated expression suggests she really doesn’t like being the bearer of bad news, but it’s a dirty job and someone’s gotta do it.
Sarah and Dina are friends because Sarah doesn’t fluff her conversations with unnecessary details and just gets to the point, which Dina appreciates. This also happened less than a week ago and bringing the bad news to Dina seems like the kind of thing you’d need a deep, established friendship to do.
Where does that Amber, anyway? #3? I kind of figured they were really close.
I just think that, on a certain subconscious level, Sarah can’t stand anyone else being happy because she isn’t. So, she’s constantly on the lookout for reasons and excuses to make people miserable; she’ll make them up if she has to and then tell herself that she’s doing them a favour by helping them shed their naive delusions.
The time when she suddenly decided not to ruin Jacob’s day was the first time I’ve seen her resist that impulse.
“Yeah, turns out the cops totally fucked up his transfer details and he was accidentally released early. Also, this happened about 6 hours, so he’s probably already on his way to campus. Oh hey, what’s that angry thumping out in the hall?”
The bad news better be that cafeteria is out of cereal, or just your pessimism about the long term Sarah. Cause we’re already dealing with, like, three levels of drama, and we still don’t know the fallout of Carla vs Mary from a couple of weeks earlier.
taking bets on what the bad news is:
A) becky cant stay forever because youre all rulebreakers
B) becky still loves joyce and is therefore incapable of also loving dina apparently?
C) sarah still thinks becky is bad news in general even though she knows the whole situation
D) life sucks thats it #getrektdina
With regards to B), this would obviously be because it’s unpossible to have romantic feelings for two people at the same time. I mean, really, that’s just ridiculous.
Becky gave up on Joyce as a romantic prospect when she realized she likes guys, so that’s out. I think it’s option E, “You realize Becky will probably want hanky-panky eventually, are you sure you like girls or you just like Becky very much like Walky likes mcnuggets very much?”.
My instant thought was actually Dina and Becky’s mismatches in introversion/extroversion or something, but those really don’t need to be deal-breakers, especially not for a couple who handles them so graciously.
Sarah shouldn’t even be assuming that Becky and Dina have to be longterm. Sarah isn’t looking for longtem, herself. They can be exploring, and happy, and that’s cool too, no?
Other differences between them, like Becky’s poverty? Surely Sarah knows that people work around differences… I *really* hope she isn’t like certain commenters who thought that Becky was a mooch or whathaveyou, but she does tend to imagine the worst in people, especially since she could be responding to “why would I not [like Becky]?”. Whatever Sarah dislikes most about Becky, that’s why!
The dorm thing makes the most sense as a logical threat, especially given the context of yesterday’s comic. Most people in the comments seem to think it’s that. We’ll find out in half an hour.
…yeah, I’ma place my bet on “Your dad was on the news. Everyone knows about this. She’ll probably be homeless again within the week, so you need to figure this out NOW.”
Actually, no, I’ma bet that Sarah won’t advise Dina to figure it out together with Becky. She’ll tell Dina that she’ll only get burned, or some other idea that promotes safe, terrible loneliness. Becky’s gonna be homeless and Dina should run away from the drama, type of thing.
All that time talking to myself while I was waiting super-impatiently for the comic to update, and yet I was still wrong. I kinda expected Sarah to drop something with more merit.
Ultimate nightmare version: “Yeah, I just noticed a crowd of protestors down at the hospital waving ‘Free Ross’ signs and ranting about the ‘homosexual agenda’. I think you’re about to get another dose of fundie hell.”
Supreme nightmare version: “Also they’ve just found conclusive, scientific proof that dinosaurs didn’t actually have feathers, and thank the actual Creator God in Heaven for that because it’d be so lame if all those awesome monsters were just giant chickens.”
“Also, Fundie God descended from the Heavens and revealed that fossils really were a big ol’ prank, evolution totally is fake, and gay people really are bound for Hell. Also everyone else on Earth already converted.”
Apparently I think really differently from the commenters here because it didn’t even occur to me that the bad news is “Becky likes Joyce” (I don’t think Sarah would make such a big deal out of it tbh)
I think the news is more along the lines of “the administration knows about Becky, even if Ruth can’t find her, her days here are counted”
Prime candidates for turning Becky in are Amber and Joyce’s family. I don’t think Sarah would do so now, even if she has in the past expressed the wish to do so for Becky’s sake.
Why Amber? She’s close to Dina, and Amazigirl was involved in the Becky rescue. Plus given her last known whereabouts the only way that could have happened would be if she pulled a quick change into civilian clothes and went directly to an authority figure (last seen as Amazigirl, departing the dorm entrance area shortly after Dina and Becky – who just recently reached the hall, got there).
Mary seems more plausible, and could also blackmail Ruth in to acting on it.
Those random acts of catness _are_ pretty neat, though. Last tuesday one of the local cats walked up to me, rubbed itself against my leg, and then just continued on its way. It’s usually more interested in squirrels and doesn’t seem to care much about people, so I was a bit surprised.
Cats have scent glands in their cheeks that they use to mark their territory. When they do that rub thing, they’re just designating you as their property.
Just cos of that ‘why would I not?’ (like Becky), I’m worried that Sarah’s about to drop some new facts in the mix. Something Becky left out of her origin story. ‘That girl Becky made out with? she didn’t tattle- they got found out because Becky punched her.’
Or something. some dark flavour to becky.
if that does happen its gotta be something sarahs misinterpreting or blowing out of proportion because theres pretty much no way becky would do smth like that
Or, alternatively, it could be Sarah’s tendency to be super pessimistic. “What’s your plan, here? She can’t live here forever, and you can’t afford to rent a place. Is she going to work? How could she get student aid? Are you going to live here or with her? You need to be thinking about these things.”
i actually think it looks exactly like sarah is about to say that becky is in love with joyce and bring up some of her own assumptions as if they are true. like “she will never love you” or something like that, cause shed a bitter asshole. i dont think saying that becky will eventually be found is something that sarah would do in this situation, unless she says it like “you have no future together and she will leave and you will never ever see her again”. sarah is probably aware of that dina probably has figured out by herself that becky might get caught (plus its not “forever” since becky is planning on getting a job and from there she will probably get an apartment eventually. its not like the school is magical and keeps all the students behind an invisible barrier forever) and i dont think her way of acting in this strip indicates that shes going to say something like that. im almost 100% sure shes going to say that becky is in love with joyce and make it seem worse than it actually is, or thats what shes planning to say but then she changes her mind and decides not to be so bitter
I vote for the “bad news” being “This relationship will most likely end very soon, because you are both young and traveling in different directions in life, particularly Becky, who isn’t actually allowed to live here. This will cause you pain.”
I don’t know anything about the US educational system, but could Becky get a transfer from her old college to this one? Maybe changing her major to Biology?
Maybe he will be forced to pay for her to enter the college of her choice, as a court order. Its what Amber’s dad was made to do, which is why Amber is in college in the first place.
Is that something that the court in the us can actually do – force someone to pay for whatever college the kid wants to go? I’m completely puzzled… At the other side of the ocean it kind of stops with “living allowance as long as you are in school”…
Depends on (in Amber’s case) the divorce settlement. Some judges might rule “yes” and some “no.” The school doesn’t matter; it’s basically accepted that if the answer is “yes,” it’s applied to whatever school the student is accepted into and decides to attend. (Many students will apply to multiple schools, but won’t always be accepted. Someone like Amber would have probably gotten into whatever school she applied to. Becky would have a harder time because of her history with homeschooling.) Tuition is frequently wrapped into the “living allowance” since there are fewer opportunities for scholarships and grants if your parents make money, whether they are married or not and whether they like you or not. Also, we don’t have the free or reduced tuition that many European countries enjoy, so if we have an “expected family contribution” (what it’s called when our parents make enough that they’re supposed to kick in toward tuition) and our parents refuse or are unable to pay it, we have to come up with it ourselves (work a job, borrow it off friends/family, etc).
(I am not a lawyer and have no special knowledge of the law.)
There are two possible trials here, criminal and civil. Toedad will be tried on criminal charges of discharge of a firearm, assault with a deadly weapon, kidnapping, etc. If he is convicted these will mean jail time and maybe fines.
Ross might make a plea bargain, but I wouldn’t think that kind of money matter would come into it. And Ross would almost certainly refuse to agree to anything benefiting Becky.
Becky could also sue Ross in civil court for damages and might get a settlement giving her money. Depending on Ross’s income is a bad bet because he won’t be earning much in prison.
Of course, this depends on if Ross has significant assets, after he pays his legal costs. If he doesn’t, a damage award won’t help.
Becky might be able to sue Anderson University if they let Ross drag her away kicking and screaming or something, but winning that would be very iffy. But Anderson would have liability insurance and assets, so there would be something to collect if she did win.
She could also try to get a refund of her Anderson tuition, as has been mentioned before.
Except possibly for the refund, none of this will happen quickly, it will be months to years. Becky won’t be able to pay for school that way now or for the spring semester.
Since DoA will probably never get out of freshman year, she won’t get anything in the life of the comic.
And to do anything more than ask for a refund, Becky needs a lawyer who knows what is possible and what isn’t. But lawyers cost money she doesn’t have. There are legal aid services, but they are traditionally underfunded and overworked.
Becky desperately needs advice on her rights and what resources are available to her. Which is why people here keep yelling to ask Leslie or Roz for help because they will know where to get that advice.
yes, if she meets the requirements (some, like my uni, require a specific GPA and a letter of recommendation, but it’s a private uni), but I’ve never heard of transferring in like two weeks into freshman semester. It would have to wait til the semester is over probably
Depends on the school. My alma mater let students come in as late as the fourth week as long as they met entrance criteria and their department head was okay with it. (Basically, the department head would have to think you had the ability to catch up with everything you’d missed to that point and still keep up with the rest of class.) It wasn’t common; for most students, the add/drop period was at the end of the second week. At that point, if you dropped, you wouldn’t get a full refund for the class tuition, and you could no longer add a new class. If you dropped at midterm or later, you didn’t get any refund for tuition, and it would show up as a “W” (Withdrawn) on your transcript.
There is no parade, no matter how wholly good, that Sarah can’t resist raining on. What really annoys me is her need to loudly proclaim her personal martyrdom in her perceived duty to make everyone else as miserable as she is.
One of these days, someone (probably Joyce or maybe Mike) will respond in a way that will only validate Sarah’s neurosis that she’s inherently unlikeable and incapable of having friends.
I think the comment section is over-thinking this and missing the obvious:
Becky haS ALREADY BEEN EXPOSED. MASSIVELY.
She is about to be a local celebrity, too. Where Becky lives isnt going to stay a secret from the Police, the Trial, and Ruthless and the administration already know about her.
On top of this, Becky is going to Joyces for the weekend. That leaves a full week from the shooting , for the all the details to catch up with her.
Uncertain. Many people assume so because she mentions offering to go when they were all walking in a group (with Dina, Walky, Billie, and Mike) earlier. However, she’s been absent from preview panels either on campus or off (with the exception of being added in a later addition to one for later this month and may predate Joyce’s departure).
I too was confused by that assumption until I had the line called to my attention. As it is, it’s unclear.
Incidentally, the first preview panel containing Dina to be released after the ‘clever girl’ scene is the same one Becky appears in an update to.
It’s from three days before the one with Joyce’s dad (I checked) so it can’t indicate either way Becky’s whereabouts for the weekend.
Honestly, I don’t see Sarah as a Mike-with-boobs. More like a pessimistic and more-conservative version of Billie at the start of the comic: By which I mean, like Billie used to, Sarah has a bit of an over-inflated sense of her own judgement and maturity, and like Billie, she’s a fixer. Unlike Billie, she’s judgmental on the grounds of whether or not she thinks you’re responsible and ambitions rather than on the grounds of whether or not you’re of equal or greater social prestige.
Sarah assumes everything is going to turn out in the worst way possible without her personal intervention. “Bearer of bad news” is because she kind of sees herself as a Cassandra: Able to foresee the horrible consequences of a decision, but never believed until everything goes pear-shaped.
In this case, I think it’s less about “Becky still loves Joyce” and more about, “You made national news. It was on TV. Everyone knows about this. Sooner or later, Becky is going to be homeless because the school will kick her out. What will you do then?”
Personally, I think the right answer to the problem is “Go to Leslie.” Buuut that shows more good judgement, networking skill, and situational awareness than I think pretty much anyone has. Sarah has the situational awareness that something’s gonna blow up in their faces soon, Becky has the networking skill (now that she’s reasonably sure nobody’s going to be an asshole for the sake of being an asshole, she’s less defensive and abrasive, and people are liking her a lot more – just like as Joyce has become less sanctimonious and more accepting of other belief systems and backgrounds while also slowly discarding the parts she doesn’t agree with anymore, people who used to really dislike her are starting to warm up*), and I’m not really sure who has the best crisis management judgement. Sarah, as much as she thinks she does, is not one with enough skill in crisis management to figure out what to do with Becky when Becky is suddenly homeless. Her approach with crisis management tends to be “Call the biggest authorities relevant to the situation and let them sort it out.” Which works sometimes. But sometimes it’s not the best approach. Sarah needs to develop a suite of approaches that can be tailored from situation to situation.
*Roz excepted, but I think Joyce impressed her with the “Sometimes I need someone to be mean” thing and the party invite despite their past friction. Cuz Roz’s level of outrage sometimes is a valuable approach to activism. It’s just not the only approach and shouldn’t be.
Only tangentially related, but I think Sarah’s trust in authority to be A) the best solution and B) able to make the correct decisions is going to become a serious problem if she’s serious about pursuing law school. I know she’s very much a “law of the land” type person, and she’s also a “if everybody plays by the rules, there are no problems” type, but the reality of both law and justice is that nothing plays out that way. Toedad stayed completely within the law (provided IL is an open-carry state; I have no idea and don’t have time to look right now) until he discharged his firearm recklessly. Was it either right or just that he was able to come onto his daughter’s friend’s campus to threaten adults over religious bigotry? Sometimes, the law doesn’t do what’s just, sometimes, justice isn’t measured by the law, and sometimes the whole damned system breaks down because people and reality are not drawn along sharp lines.
There’s other stuff as well – even before firing the gun, brandishing it and chasing people with it and making threats becomes illegal.
If you pull out a gun and order someone to get in your car, you’re attempting kidnapping, even if you don’t fire the thing. When she did get in the car, under that threat, it became actual kidnapping.
Sarah, will you just fuck off? She’s one of the few characters I’m entirely unsympathetic with. Her self-flagellation gets in the way of her ever finding happiness or making friends, and all she does is drag others down to be miserable, and then say “I told you so.” when it’s partly her fault they’re miserable.
I don’t give a fuck if one of your friends did some drugs so you told on her. That is NO reason to be such an apathetic, crankier-than-thou twat. Nut up, shut up, and stop blaming yourself for everything you boring, stupid bongo.
Not that I take it personally that people don’t like my favourite characters, but the Dana situation was far more complex than “she did drugs so Sarah told on her.”
THANK YOU. Since reading this comic, I haven’t encountered a more unsympathetic and annoyingly negative character as Sarah. Being hated by your peers is not a fucking cross to bear, I have experienced it too, but I didn’t turn into a jaded asshole.
Sarah lost all of her friends when trying to do the right thing, and was repeatedly harassed by them since.
She’s a pessimistic jerkface and lives in a box mostly of her own creation, and she sure as hell doesn’t make it easy to like her, but it’s not entirely her fault.
Sarah had already seen herself as a ‘bongoy killjoy misanthrope” LONG before meeting Dana and her group, which only adds to the conclusion of her wanting to be friendless, and actively pushing away people who want to be with. Hell, she pushes away from people SHE wants to be with, as seen with Jacob, even before she found out about him dating Raidah.
There is no way, at least in a real world that Dina and Becky would work out long term. I wasn’t even thinking about the Joyce thing that others mentioned… good point though. I’m just thinking that they are both too imature. They have a LOT of growing up to do. With so far to go the adults they are going to become are likely to be very different people from the children that they now are and as such it is unlikely they will be compatible then with the same person they are compatible with now.
But…. they don’t need to be told that. This relationship is part of that growing up process and they both really badly need it. Leave them alone!
It’s always possible. Some people marry their high school sweethearts and live happily ever after (with the usual struggles and ups and downs).
I’m not sure Dina & Becky are any more doomed than any other relationship. Especially any other college relationship.
Of course, the chances of any week-old relationship lasting are slim, but that’s not quite the same thing.
I can’t think of a single thing Sarah could tell Dina that she doesn’t already know, so I’m expecting either new information, or Sarah getting f’n rek’t for emptying the glasses so they’re always more empty than full 👀
I’m guessing Sarah is talking about Becky’s feelings for Joyce? Like literally just a few days before this Becky confessed her lifelong love for Joyce and kissed her, and now she’s turned around and gone for Dina. It remains to be seen if Dina is just a rebound to Becky, but that’s probably what Sarah suspects!
UGH all these stupid kids with their DRAMA they dont even know they HAVE that now i HAVE to make them aware of UGH its so HARD being above all this DRAMA
We don’t know what she’s gonna drop. It could be her being pessimistic for no reason or it could be a useful insight like the last time with Joyce and Becky (or somewhere in between).
This strip presents Sarah in the worst light possible, because we have no context. Sarah’s not engaging with Dina’s light fun visit, but is instead lamenting her role as the harbinger of bad news. We don’t know how grim her information is, though. Perhaps it is worth saying and lamenting having to say. Without that information, all we have is Sarah being kinda jokey about ruining Dina’s day. It’s easy to look at that and get mad at her, especially when most people dislike Sarah and love Dina.
It would be hard for the actual bad news she brings up to be received more poorly than this preamble, because that at least has caring for others at the core of it. Even if it’s in a Sarah-like fashion.
Honestly, I’m baffled by how many people do like Sarah. She’s well-written and has some good qualities, but I can’t sympathize with her self-imposed misery or her apparent belief that anyone who isn’t a bitter asshole just isn’t as smart as her.
The cast of DoA wouldn’t even be half as interesting if i didn’t occasionally want to violently throttle their necks.
Too many webcomics, too much fiction, period, wraps up their characters in lame jokes and transparent flaws, and it’s impossible to be invested in them.
All things being equal, there’s something adorable about Dina’s “…I can manufacture more [joy] with sleep” that makes me just want to hug Dina, and put her up on a shelf with a bunch of stuffed animals/MLPs!
As a follow up, I just realized something – shouldn’t it be supply of joy, rather than capacity? I think capacity is more of a storage concept, rather than an output concept, unless we’re talking bandwidth. (Maybe she’s outputting more joy than her bandwidth today?)
fuck Sarah don’t do it! just because Dina was the first girl Becky meet away from her dad doesn’t mean their relationship isn’t real. I can’t say it has lasting potential but these two girls actually are a good fit.
I’m surprised that nobody’s mentioned spoon theory yet. Very relevant to allocating energy to smiles (and further indication that Dina is neurodivergent).
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“it’s like, you’re metric and she’s imperial”
“BUT SHE’S CONVERTING!”
“yeah, the U.S. tried that for like three weeks”
(idk or like where you’re going with this Sarah)
Dina is too fucking adorable
I was expecting some sort of imperial Japan joke. Disappointed.
She’s just afraid that Becky will dump her when she sees Dina without a hat and realizes she has a massive bald spot.
“She’s BALD!”
“Well maybe she got a haircut, or something.”
“No one walks into a beauty parlor and says ‘Give me the Larry Fine!'”
“Just give me the Franciscan Monk, fam.”
Two words :
Persis. Khambatta.
YES
Or Sinead O’Conner, Sigourney Weaver, Natalie Portman, Charlize Theron, or any of the hundreds more obscure ladies who rock bald.
nice to see they still get along :3
(until next page, anyway)
Sarah’s majoring in Fun Ruining
she was born with that gift.That burden.
Sarah is the destroyer this campus needs, not deserves.
Amazi-girl deals the physical damage, Sarah deals the verbal one.
I am become Sarah, destroyer of Dreams.
Sarah new villain of DoA 2016 confirmed
She feasts on the tears and crushed hopes of those unfortunate.
Wait, Sarah is Mike?
(Just remembered my login, sorry for all the incorrect ones willis.)
The Bearer of Epiphanies of Doom! O wow! Wow is me!
I just figured that was a core requirement to get into law school.
not technically untrue, considering she’s pursuing a law degree
And here’s where Sarah tells Dina (and Becky) that Joyce has gone back home.
She’s so chipper she’s a chippatosaurus.
For some reason that reminds me of a cassette tape I had growing up called Wee Sing Dinosaurs. It still exists and you can listen to bits of it on Amazon.
I imagine that Dina was raised by that album.
Okay, fuck me, I started clicking preview links and the nostalgia hit me like a tidal wave, and now I’m rocking out to dinosaur music after midnight.
Man, that Deinonychus tune was my fuckin’ jam when I was six.
were they Dinosaurs on a Spaceship?
Or even better…Dinosaucers??
She’s a little dinosaur.
There’s a famous guy named Jonathan Richman? I’m 24 and I never knew that. You’d think someone would mention it.
*would have mentioned
We have failed you. He is awesome! The first thing he ever did was a self-titled album by The Modern Lovers, which is very revolutionary in its sound for its time (1972). At the very least I’d suggest checking out Roadrunner, the first song from that album.
It is possible that you have seen There’s Something About Mary…? He is the singing part of the Greek chorus style duo in that movie.
I just listened on Spotify for the first time (whole album is up there) and some of it is pretty great. I love the song about how it’s pretty easy to count to 100 but 10,000 makes my brain hurt.
Whole album? Man, all day at work tomorrow my coworkers are going to be very confused if they overhear what’s coming out of my headphones.
I’ve been rocking out to “Bushes of Love” (by Bad Lip Reading) all day yesterday and today.
If you haven’t seen Bad Lip Reading’s take on Star Wars, man, you are in for a treat, lol.
MY GOD! SOMEONE ELSE WHO KNOWS Wee Sing! Sorry for the enthusiasm, but I had most of the videos and all the books when I was little -there was a music-for-tots group near my house that used those as a “curriculum” and just… that was my toddlerhood!
The dinosaur one was my album of choice. My little brother preferred “Wee Sing Silly Songs”. I wasn’t as fond of that one, it seemed more like the generic public domain songs you get on Barney. And I hated Barney.
But dinosaurs (Barney obviously excepted) are awesome.
At some point, Sarah, one could say you’re doing it to yourself.
Bearer of bad news? Is that the leader of the Bad News Bears?
I think that might be the etymology of the Bad News Bears.
Omgosh, I have never thought of that before!
Technically, wanting to give is still wanting something.
Joy is Dina’s chief export.
Is the market for joy futures good or bad?
It is inherently stable, since as projected joy increases, the price goes down, making joy speculators sad. When projected joy decreases, the price goes up, making speculators happy.
I hope Sarah isn’t doing insider trading. Obviously Mike is.
you are so adorable Dina! you are living a dream and Sarah is just an insomniac.
🙁 Noooo Sarah, please don’t make my precious science child sad
Wait, what’s the bad news? I don’t want there to be bad news. I want Dina to be happy forever and ever.
I’d bet the bad news is ‘Becky is in love with Joyce you know, you’re probably just a rebound’. Which I personally think is just Sarah looking on the bleak side and not having been witness to what Dina and Becky are actually like as a couple.
Oh ok, that makes sense. Yes, Sarah would automatically think of the worst thing.
That would be my guess.
Which means Dina and Joyce must have a head-butt battle for dominance, like Pachycephalosaurus.
But Pachycephalosaurus most likely didn’t actually butt heads. Either they had shoving matches or hit each other in the side.
I would expect something more like a threat display, or maybe lovely plumage competition.
I don’t know why, but “Burn! Bobonga!” from Chrono Trigger is playing inside my head while they’re battling.
Dina found that out following the party, though.
I guess I just like Sarah. But, I don’t see her as a person who goes around deliberately trying to ruin peoples fun and games.
She got treated pretty rough when she went thru the druggie roomie thing and it soured her big time on trying to communicate with other students. She just wants to get her degree in peace.
She wouldn’t tell adorable Dina something like ‘Becky is in love with Joyce’ or something that’s pure speculation. She isn’t mean.
But she is flat out practical, and realistic. So, apparently something has happened and Willis is about to bomb us again.
I rather dislike Sarah, so I feel like I can confirm your suspicion with less of a bias: she’s not the kind of person who ruins the fun intentionally. She kills my vibe, but that’s just from being all Eeyore about everything.
Seriously, if the druggie roommate drama is the worst thing to happen in Sarah’s life, I would find it hard to respect her for letting it ruin her outlook to the degree it’s been depicted.
I don’t think it was so much the druggie roommate drama as the losing-entire-circle-of-friends that followed and the ongoing intrusion of that drama into new friendships. Been there, done that, have seen friends go through worse versions, and it can be hell.
(that said, the attempted-intrusion into the Sarah-Dina friendship backfired so damn beautifully there should be statues)
The “druggie roommate” wasn’t the problem it was the “Being harassed for about a year nonstop”
yeah, what Butting and Reaver have said. Ongoing harassment campaigns can ruin your outlook on humanity in general.
I also get the impression from Sarah that she’s been through some shit even before she came to uni. I can’t really put my finger on it, though.
I got the feeling from the flashbacks that Ssrsh did not have many/any friends before joining her roommate’s circle. The girl harassing Sarah (Riydah, I think) made a big deal about how her roommate had done her a huge favor by being friends with her. Riydah isn’t exactly a reliable narrator but she thinks Sarah isn’t just mean but “ungrateful”.
Sarah’s also mentioned that without her scholarship, she goes home, and when talking about her family, she’s mentioned a grandmother -and maybe a mom, I think -not sure -but never a dad. I can get school being an extra layer of stress if she’s worried about being an income drain, or disappointing her folks -she’s already pretty isolated and a perfectionist, and neither of those is easy.
She’s mentioned parents, plural, when telling Joyce about how lying to them is a rite of passage, like pretending to love them.
She also has a little sister.
It’s probably something like that. Sarah just reflexively needs people to be miserable sometimes.
I figured it was the whole “Becky loves Joyce” thing. Or alternatively “You know she can’t actually successfully live in the dorms undetected the entire semester, right?”
That …really isn’t something Sarah has any business disclosing. Is it?
well, for some people new to romantic relationships in general, the fact that New Relationship Smell does actually wear off isn’t a fun lesson the first time around. that could be one thing sarah is referring to.
but something tells me she’s just snarking in response to “what’s not to like about becky? :D”
I think it’s definitely the first one: she’s wondering if she should tell Dina that you can’t count on love (or even friendship) lasting forever. Which is quite true, of course. And the reason I love Sarah (Sarah!!) is that she’s the kind of person who would consider this info important for Dina to have (for her future happiness), but would stop herself from saying it—as she does here—for the sake of Dina’s current happiness (which she is charmed by, despite her refusal to show it or indulge it). Sarah is a good friend to her friends, while being true to her own feelings.
besides, they’ve been dating for like BARELY a week. you just don’t tell someone “meh, you’ll get tired of her eventually.”
I don’t understand what Sarah is getting at here. I know she was suspicious of some of Becky’s actions at first, but it turned out there were good reasons for her actions.
It’s that Becky still loves Joyce more than Dina
I think the bad news is that Dina isn’t gay.
Why would Sarah be telling that to Dina though?
Dina, I read your homoreadings. And the straightness levels were overwhelming. Also this wavy taupe line shows that you most definitely have an aversion to redheads and… wait, reading it upside down, never mind.
Where do they keep the calibration standards for those instruments? Is platinum-iridium involved?
Usually they just use a Gallium-Yttrium compound.
I observe what you have done on this mass spectrometer.
All my chem-geeky applause for you.
Wait, is that- yes it is. It’s Dina with a friggin Tardis hat.
Or as I like to call it, my excuse to make obscure DW references in the comments. 😛
(The edit is my own of her pic in the character list)
Which Becky already knows, since Dina said that gender expression was irrelevant to her right in front of her face.
Yes. And which Becky later acknowledged outright (her comment that non-monosexuality is a thing when Dina and Becky first bring up their relationship to Joyce).
She’s bi and so what?
or possibly pan. She specified that gender expression possibly didn’t matter to her.
Or pan/bi/polyromantic ace… what? I can still hope.
I mean ace could cause some significant problems in her relationship with Becky because Becky is decidedly not.
Dina got pretty brain-melty from kissing Becky. Does that happen for ace folks? (genuine question, I hope it is not obnoxious.)
…well, that’s one hell of a guess. What makes you think that?
I figure its something like “She can’t stay here forever, she will get caught and need to go.”
She must return to her own kind! No, wait…
Her planet needs her.
Becky is going with Joyce for the trip, remember?
the bad news is that becky cant stick around because she doesnt go to that school, and needs to constantly hide from the authority figure in charge- ruthless- because she isnt supposed to be there. as great as it is having becky around, she cant stick around. but she also has no where to go. after leaving her college and having her dad arrested +being in a position where most of her family and friends growing up would ultimatly shun her– beckys only option is to stay with joyce and dina, but even that is nearly impossible in the long run unless there is a major change.
I think Sarah’s bad news is her usual bad news – This Can’t Last Because Of Rules. Becky can’t stay here, because she’s not a student. Therefore, her relationship with Dina is doomed. Sarah may even think Becky _plans_ to end it, or is using Dina as an excuse to stay longer.
or it could simply be that Dina doesn’t actually LOVE Becky in the way that she thinks she does. Remember that Dina lacks any forms of actual social skills, and part of the reason she started dating Becky is because she was poked fun of for it. She may not even realize that her feelings may not actually be romantic at all
Sleep Through Joy?
BECKY IS 400% PERFECT, BITE YOUR TONGUE SARAH
tho to be honest, the bad news is PROBABLY that eventually, Becky will be found out.
She has a 24 score on the Kinsey scale and everything!
yup
Becky makes Dina happy. All is well.
And Sarah, I keep wanting to like you, but it would be so much easier if you didn’t have the constant impulse to be such a bitter ‘percussion instrument’.
Sarah doesn’t seem to realize she’s under no obligation to be the bearer of bad news she’s just unwilling to exercise tact.
I love that the site’s language filter is driving a certain ‘b-word’ further into obscurity. Now even the word ‘bongo’ is being euphemised.
But, what if the word ‘bongo’ gets so overused that ‘bongo’, itself, becomes offensive? Will Willis have to filter that word, too? What will he replace it with??
Slash and burn linguistics.
Pork pork pork pork pork pork MUKLUKS.
Is the bad news that Becky still has feelings Joyce? Because I doubt she got over that quickly.
Well, the thing about that is Dina already knows that. She was right there next to Sarah when Becky let slip that she wasn’t over Joyce yet and so sleeping in the same bed was hard:
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-5/03-the-butterflies-fly-away/floor-2/
More likely: “The school authorities/Ruth will eventually notice that she’s living here.”
But Becky’s getting a job. A job will mean she can get an apt.
In a few months… if she’s lucky.
Marcie lives off-campus, and probably wouldn’t mind some help with the rent…
I mostly think her CHECK IT, DORKS-level pride in Dina has dealt to any lingering Joycefeels.
So… Sarah’s concern/reality check might be that Ruth has an inkling, and that as soon as something pushes her over the edge (eg: Mary getting an inkling) then the happyfundorm times are over?
That would be bad news indeed. “Oh hey Dina, Mary was asking about Becky earlier, I think you guys are boned.”
Ouch. Ouch. That’s, like, something Willis would do…
If the only reason Joyce hasn’t talked with Leslie about this is that she’s somehow reluctant to approach authority figures, she needs to get over that for Becky’s (and Dina’s) sake two weeks ago. I know the US situation is bad, and that access to safe emergency shelter is uneven-to-nonexistent, but Joyce has access to one of the best resources and knows that it’s a specific issue Leslie is well-informed on.
Unless this is an aspect of Joyce grappling with her new and uncertain independence, and that its development and the consequent escalation in Beckyhorror will be another potentially traumatic storyline from Willis, in which case, pre-emptively: damn you, Willis!
(ps plz give us moar willis okay we love you byebye)
I’m pretty sure that’s it. I suspect the school has figured it out – this was big news, after all – and Ruthless has been told to watch for her.
Even if, that’s not *really* this horrible catastrophic thing Sarah’s cracking it up to be. Becky can pine for Joyce and still get a very real sense of love and fulfillment with Dina that she’s clearly shown to have.
Like, Robin wasn’t wrong for being attracted to Amber in Shortpacked!. Danny isn’t cheating on Amber if he’s infatuated with Ethan.
This. The heart is. Love is. Romantic and sexual attraction are.
That whole Fundie Christian thing of “if you have attraction to another, you have committed adultery in your heart” thing is a load of bollocks. And would be even if Joyce and Becky had compatible sexualities and feelings for each other.
Given that Joyce’s sexuality rather firmly slams a door shut on any possibility of things going anywhere with Becky, Becky’s attraction to Joyce might as well be as “threatening” to Dina as a romantic partner’s sexual attraction to a celebrity.
I was with you until the celebrity thing. Your best friend is significantly harder to get over than a celebrity. Kirsten Dunst isn’t hanging out all the time, laughing at your jokes, smiling, making you feel like maybe just one time…
True. I’m not saying it’s not hard on Becky. But Joyce is straight. They aren’t going to happen. And Becky believes that even if her heart does annoying things especially when she sees Joyce and Dorothy together. Dina has no reason to worry about them outside of how hard it is on Becky to let that intense hope go.
And to Becky’s credit, she’s been amazing on not dumping that on Dina. She’s even been including Dina on her Joyce comforting time so that it isn’t about her bailing on her gf to lend support for her in-crisis crush.
And that’s the part that makes it not really worth Dina worrying about.
If Sarah goes that route, it’d just be her stirring up jealousy and insecurity over nothing.
How do we know this? I haven’t seen any word of god things on it yet.
How do we know what?
That Joyce is straight? We don’t have word of God, but Joyce thinks so. She’s told Becky so. That’s enough to put them on the path Cerberus describes.
I suppose it’s still possible that Willis will reveal that Joyce is really bi and have Becky jump back into her arms, devastating Dina, but I don’t see it. Anything is possible, including a creator breakdown that changes everything he’d had planned.
I think it’s pretty solid to say that Joyce is straight, even with her girlcrushes on Dorothy and Sal. At most I’d say she’s mildly heteroflexible.
Either way, even if Joyce were to discover she’s bi, she wouldn’t immediately try to date Becky. Her line about how she’d know if she was a lesbian, because if she was she’d be one for Becky, struck me more of her reacting out of guilt of not being able to be what Becky wanted her to be than anything. I don’t really think there’s any actual romantic or sexual feelings Joyce would have for Becky.
And in my experience, one of the best ways to get over a hopeless crush, is to fall for someone else. With an actual relationship to focus on, the need for the first crush to fall for you drops off drastically.
But I really don’t expect that to be what Sarah’s talking about.
DUN DUN DUUUN
Given the previous comic for context, it’s probably something to do with Becky’s questionably legal presence at the school
Dina can manufacture more capacity for joy with sleep. Speaking of, I do need to manufacture more capacity for joy myself – but I shall try to remember this.
Dina continues to be perfect.
Dammit Sarah, don’t make Dina sad D:
The bad news is probably gonna be about Becky eventually being found out.
Yeah, though she’ll be in a much better position now if she’s found out than she’d normally be now that she’s got the support of a good chunk of people in the wing and with being targeted on campus. There’s a lot of leverage that someone like Sarah could work into a legal advantage that might allow either a loophole or a connection to services to make integration to the campus easier.
Or possibly someone like Leslie or maybe even Roz (as much as I dislike her, I do appreciate that she’s a doer and genuinely wants to do good in the world. I just think she’s nowhere near as good at ally-ing as she thinks she is. Case in point, being the straight girl talking over the lesbian on an issue of a LGBTQIA rights), but yeah. Becky is a lot safer than she was a few weeks ago.
Panel 1: I love Dina’s sense of continuity and intentionality. She told Sarah she was her second favorite, because that is true to her and she intends it as a compliment because she’s saying she likes hanging around Sarah and feels her a worthy investment of her emotional batteries.
Panel 2: Seriously Dina is the best. “Allocate you some smiles”. It’s just so endearingly sweet.
Panel 4: Of course, Sarah, Becky and Dina are totes adorbs together and very healthy despite all the shit that got thrown at them so early in their relationship. They’ll still have a lot of crap with Becky literally rebuilding her life back up from nothing, but they both seem to be on a really good path together… but why are you bringing this up, Sarah… no. No, no, no. Sarah, don’t you dare-
Panel 6: Damnitt Sarah/Willis, you are history’s greatest monster. :c
… I really hope it’s just Sarah’s pessimism or noticing something they’ve already talked about rather than something that’s going to hit Dina in her insecurities about being what another person would find romantically compelling.
Does Dina know Becky is going with Joyce yet?
She was standing right next to her when she offered. So, yes:
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-6/02-that-perfect-girl/elsewhere/
Just because you see the downside to everything doesn’t mean you have to make everyone else see it too.
Unless Sarah is feeding an unconscious need to be alone.
The same way a happy person feels the need to share sed happiness, so can a curmudgeon feel the need to spread curmudgeonness around.
To be honest maybe Sarah should just accept that some things are none of her business and be quiet? She acts like she hates being the bearer of bad news but she obviously does not.
I appreciate her desire to do the right thing, despite the fact that it will probably cause problems for everyone involved.
She’s got conviction, but I’m just worried that her bleak outlook is warping her judgement a bit; Becky is attracted to Joyce, sure, but that doesn’t preclude a faithful attraction to Dina as well.
There is also this. Becky has strong feelings for Joyce, but has also acknowledged that that isn’t happening and has formed a very strong connection with Dina, has shown she very much cares, is in awe of, and loves her in really major ways.
I mean, Becky will need time for it all to stop stinging and for her stupid brain to 100% shake that off and thus stop feeling jealous of Dorothy, but I don’t think there’s really any sort of conflict there unless Joyce suddenly decides she’s actually sapphic after all and in love with Becky as well. And even then, I’m honestly of the opinion that there would be a potential chance that Becky would turn it down because she’s already in a great relationship and I think poly would take a bit more education on relationship possibilities before it was even on her radar.
I mean, Dina would have more call to be concerned about Becky running off with an actual dinosaur than Joyce/Becky taking off for reals.
Cerb, you’re being silly. Any dinosaur worth it’s fossils would obviously run off with Dina. Or with both of them smooching on top of it. 😀
That might actually be one of Sarah’s major flaws. She’s a fixer and seems to very much feel that people going through stuff or being in situations around her are calls for her to voice her concerns or solve the issues. She’s not terribly good at just letting things go and not picking at them.
It makes her incredibly empathetic and gives her the tenacity that will make her a great lawyer. But it also means she doesn’t realize that maybe right when a person says they are on their last social battery isn’t the right moment to drop any sort of bad news.
I wonder if Sarah has a romanticized view of herself as someone who does What Must Be Done. Like, she’s so used to the shit it brings on herself trying to do the right thing that she goes with it anyway even though the harsh route isn’t always the smart one.
Could be. Might even be just as simple as she’s got a savior complex. I had one of those when I was Sarah’s age. It’s easy to have when you’ve got a lot of desire to do good in the world but not a lot of experience with what best works for people in crisis situations.
I think Sarah is definitely driven by empathy, but I don’t even know how much she recognizes that in herself, especially with the lengths she went to help Dana and how badly that blew up in her face even though she knows it was the right thing to do.
So what I’m thinking is that that’s how she approaches bad situations now. Things are bad. I better jump straight to maximum crisis level and then deal with the fallout, because I’m used to that.
I can definitely see that. She’s got no middle gear, so when she sees things that are potentially a source of concern, it’s either “not my problem” which doesn’t work for her or full on crisis-management, everything is burning mode.
& I think part of it may be genuine fear of under-reacting like she did until things got to a point of no return with Dana. She says as much, that she just tried to make things work and be supportive and cope until midterms came around.
She probably blames herself and her inaction for how it all turned out.
Yes that is a very good point. Don’t make Dina regret allocating her last nugget emotional energy to you!
It’s kinda more like
“why the FUCK am I the only person there that can see how horribly this and that will end ?”
like they’re all little kids in her floor. Tho I guess she’s a year older, but still.
Well, possibly because they are. 😛 Most of them anyway. Funny enough, I’d count Dina as a notable exception in most regards except social cues.
We’ll see what exactly her “bad news” is, but at this point in the conversation it really does seem like nothing prompted this.
Not like Dina came in and said “I’m so excited about this upcoming concert” so that Sarah could respond with something relevant like “Oh geeze, I hate to be the bearer of bad news but the tickets are already sold out”
The flow of the conversation so far is just
Dina: Hello, friend! I am so very happy!
Sarah: I really hate to take a shit on your good mood but the phantoms demand it! Nobody else can see or hear the people making these demands but I assure you they will not let me rest until this deed is done.
Yeah, it’s not really primed to be Sarah’s best moment in timing. What? You said you were happy and emotionally drained and thus not in at all the right head space to be receiving negative news? Welp, time to dump on that until waiting until you get a good night’s sleep and telling you over breakfast.
My Mum went in to see a specialist about her cancer a couple days before my birthday. She and Dad then gave me the news that she had been given six months to live (she didn’t last that long) like two days before my birthday, and then sang “Happy Birthday” over the phone to me two days later with me being fully aware that I was never, ever going to be wished happy birthday by her or have her sing it to me ever, ever again.
Over a decade later and I still can’t hear people sing “Happy Birthday” to me without crying.
You have NO idea how much I wish they’d lied to me, told me it was going to be fine, and then told me the truth after my birthday. She’d been given half a year (and lasted a little over a month); they could have told me a happy lie for like three days instead of giving me the birthday present of my Mum’s death.
I doubt Sarah is going to tell Dina about anyone’s death, but Jesus Christ, you don’t always have to give someone bad news immediately. Hell, sometimes you don’t have to give it to them ever. But for the love of god, at least let it wait a bit. She’s happy right now. She’s smiling. Do you really, actually need to take that away from her right now?
Sarah’s permanently constipated expression suggests she really doesn’t like being the bearer of bad news, but it’s a dirty job and someone’s gotta do it.
It’s not really her place to the bearer of bad news all the time, especially when it’s with someone she’s barely related to.
There are in fact instances where the dirty job does not have to be done! Sometimes a little effort and compassion and nice words go a long way!
I take issue with them being barely related. Sarah and Dina are #2 best friends!
Sarah and Dina are friends because Sarah doesn’t fluff her conversations with unnecessary details and just gets to the point, which Dina appreciates. This also happened less than a week ago and bringing the bad news to Dina seems like the kind of thing you’d need a deep, established friendship to do.
Where does that Amber, anyway? #3? I kind of figured they were really close.
I just think that, on a certain subconscious level, Sarah can’t stand anyone else being happy because she isn’t. So, she’s constantly on the lookout for reasons and excuses to make people miserable; she’ll make them up if she has to and then tell herself that she’s doing them a favour by helping them shed their naive delusions.
The time when she suddenly decided not to ruin Jacob’s day was the first time I’ve seen her resist that impulse.
This. This is why I can’t deal with Sarah. Seen it IRL, not a fan.
What? But that’s –Mike’s– job!
Am i the only one here who pictures dina having a voice like candy from gravity falls and beemo from adventure time?
Yeah definitely have been hearing her voice like Beemo.
Why do i have a bad feeling that this involves toedad?
“Yeah, turns out the cops totally fucked up his transfer details and he was accidentally released early. Also, this happened about 6 hours, so he’s probably already on his way to campus. Oh hey, what’s that angry thumping out in the hall?”
“Good news, though! We managed to piece his gun back together an- why are you looking at me like that?”
He’s more gun now than man.
Part toe. Part gun. All fundie.
ToeGunDad — The
futurepresent of religious fundamentalism.Beware ManBearPig!
The bad news better be that cafeteria is out of cereal, or just your pessimism about the long term Sarah. Cause we’re already dealing with, like, three levels of drama, and we still don’t know the fallout of Carla vs Mary from a couple of weeks earlier.
NO CEREAL ?!
It’s okay though! That just means whatever is second best becomes the new best! (At least until they restock the cereal.)
Seeing Dina smile is worth every other page of this comic.
taking bets on what the bad news is:
A) becky cant stay forever because youre all rulebreakers
B) becky still loves joyce and is therefore incapable of also loving dina apparently?
C) sarah still thinks becky is bad news in general even though she knows the whole situation
D) life sucks thats it #getrektdina
With regards to B), this would obviously be because it’s unpossible to have romantic feelings for two people at the same time. I mean, really, that’s just ridiculous.
it doesnt FEEL like its a thing people could reasonably think is true, and yet i know it is
none of these are acceptable reasons to not be happy and enjoy her relationship anyway
Is option D) that Sarah wants Dina to get really into the new Star Trek movie?
B would be the worst option- so i’m polarized whether that means it’ll happen or not
Dina already knows and I hardly think she’s forgotten since it was like a week ago max.
Becky gave up on Joyce as a romantic prospect when she realized she likes guys, so that’s out. I think it’s option E, “You realize Becky will probably want hanky-panky eventually, are you sure you like girls or you just like Becky very much like Walky likes mcnuggets very much?”.
I thought Dina knew – or guessed at – C?
My instant thought was actually Dina and Becky’s mismatches in introversion/extroversion or something, but those really don’t need to be deal-breakers, especially not for a couple who handles them so graciously.
Sarah shouldn’t even be assuming that Becky and Dina have to be longterm. Sarah isn’t looking for longtem, herself. They can be exploring, and happy, and that’s cool too, no?
Other differences between them, like Becky’s poverty? Surely Sarah knows that people work around differences… I *really* hope she isn’t like certain commenters who thought that Becky was a mooch or whathaveyou, but she does tend to imagine the worst in people, especially since she could be responding to “why would I not [like Becky]?”. Whatever Sarah dislikes most about Becky, that’s why!
The dorm thing makes the most sense as a logical threat, especially given the context of yesterday’s comic. Most people in the comments seem to think it’s that. We’ll find out in half an hour.
…yeah, I’ma place my bet on “Your dad was on the news. Everyone knows about this. She’ll probably be homeless again within the week, so you need to figure this out NOW.”
Actually, no, I’ma bet that Sarah won’t advise Dina to figure it out together with Becky. She’ll tell Dina that she’ll only get burned, or some other idea that promotes safe, terrible loneliness. Becky’s gonna be homeless and Dina should run away from the drama, type of thing.
All that time talking to myself while I was waiting super-impatiently for the comic to update, and yet I was still wrong. I kinda expected Sarah to drop something with more merit.
Ultimate nightmare version: “Yeah, I just noticed a crowd of protestors down at the hospital waving ‘Free Ross’ signs and ranting about the ‘homosexual agenda’. I think you’re about to get another dose of fundie hell.”
Supreme nightmare version: “Also they’ve just found conclusive, scientific proof that dinosaurs didn’t actually have feathers, and thank the actual Creator God in Heaven for that because it’d be so lame if all those awesome monsters were just giant chickens.”
“Also Toedad escaped and stole a mech.”
“Also, Fundie God descended from the Heavens and revealed that fossils really were a big ol’ prank, evolution totally is fake, and gay people really are bound for Hell. Also everyone else on Earth already converted.”
Damnit, where do they find all those mechs
Japan, of course.
All that economic stimulus money has to be spent on something. Mecha and underground bases for them are good ones.
“Because bald eagles look so much better without all those stupid feathers, amirite?”
That’s why they’re bald eagles, right?
(Turns a little crank that slowly raises his middle finger)
Text appears on screen:
“warning, obscene gesture imminent.”
This may be my favorite strip yet. Dina-In-Love is Best-Dina.
Apparently I think really differently from the commenters here because it didn’t even occur to me that the bad news is “Becky likes Joyce” (I don’t think Sarah would make such a big deal out of it tbh)
I think the news is more along the lines of “the administration knows about Becky, even if Ruth can’t find her, her days here are counted”
i dont know why shed be bringing up either thing as dina already knows that but this is sarah so i just know i wouldnt put it past her
Looks like Becky may have been turned in and Sarah heard about it?
About time for a Willis bomb apparently.
I Love Dina.
Well, there’s the little fact that Becky can’t possibly stay hidden in the dorm for much longer.
Prime candidates for turning Becky in are Amber and Joyce’s family. I don’t think Sarah would do so now, even if she has in the past expressed the wish to do so for Becky’s sake.
Why Amber? She’s close to Dina, and Amazigirl was involved in the Becky rescue. Plus given her last known whereabouts the only way that could have happened would be if she pulled a quick change into civilian clothes and went directly to an authority figure (last seen as Amazigirl, departing the dorm entrance area shortly after Dina and Becky – who just recently reached the hall, got there).
Mary seems more plausible, and could also blackmail Ruth in to acting on it.
You missed Mary.
So, I think we can rule out anything happening to Becky. This seems to be just moments after running into Ruth.
Dina: *Gently touches people with small Dina hand*
People: *GASP* You will never know how much this means to me. ;-;
(For people confused, this is a joke based on how people react to kittens and cats, just with Dina instead of a cat).
Those random acts of catness _are_ pretty neat, though. Last tuesday one of the local cats walked up to me, rubbed itself against my leg, and then just continued on its way. It’s usually more interested in squirrels and doesn’t seem to care much about people, so I was a bit surprised.
Cats have scent glands in their cheeks that they use to mark their territory. When they do that rub thing, they’re just designating you as their property.
Obligatory Azumanga Daioh reference.
Just cos of that ‘why would I not?’ (like Becky), I’m worried that Sarah’s about to drop some new facts in the mix. Something Becky left out of her origin story. ‘That girl Becky made out with? she didn’t tattle- they got found out because Becky punched her.’
Or something. some dark flavour to becky.
if that does happen its gotta be something sarahs misinterpreting or blowing out of proportion because theres pretty much no way becky would do smth like that
Why you gotta propose grimdark for my happy sapphic ladies
Sarah seems pretty close to a boiling point, for a lot of thing. A bomb waiting to go off. I guess it’ll be her turn in our spotlight soon.
Or, alternatively, it could be Sarah’s tendency to be super pessimistic. “What’s your plan, here? She can’t live here forever, and you can’t afford to rent a place. Is she going to work? How could she get student aid? Are you going to live here or with her? You need to be thinking about these things.”
Becky is your sister!
“I give you smiles” is such a Joyce thing to say. There are THREE OF THEM NOW.
Get on with it.
i actually think it looks exactly like sarah is about to say that becky is in love with joyce and bring up some of her own assumptions as if they are true. like “she will never love you” or something like that, cause shed a bitter asshole. i dont think saying that becky will eventually be found is something that sarah would do in this situation, unless she says it like “you have no future together and she will leave and you will never ever see her again”. sarah is probably aware of that dina probably has figured out by herself that becky might get caught (plus its not “forever” since becky is planning on getting a job and from there she will probably get an apartment eventually. its not like the school is magical and keeps all the students behind an invisible barrier forever) and i dont think her way of acting in this strip indicates that shes going to say something like that. im almost 100% sure shes going to say that becky is in love with joyce and make it seem worse than it actually is, or thats what shes planning to say but then she changes her mind and decides not to be so bitter
I vote for the “bad news” being “This relationship will most likely end very soon, because you are both young and traveling in different directions in life, particularly Becky, who isn’t actually allowed to live here. This will cause you pain.”
Let’s see. Joyce told her parents on the phone that Becky was going to “stay here, with me.” Sarah was in the room and heard this.
Therefore, Sarah knows that Joyce’s parents know that the evil corrupting lesbian is staying on campus, or can at least deduce it.
Not impossibly, they’ve told.
I don’t know anything about the US educational system, but could Becky get a transfer from her old college to this one? Maybe changing her major to Biology?
I’m assuming her father paid for her college, and that her (past) ignorance may get in the way of applying.
Maybe he will be forced to pay for her to enter the college of her choice, as a court order. Its what Amber’s dad was made to do, which is why Amber is in college in the first place.
That is a good point. Too bad for toedad.
Toedad needs a theme song: Toedad! Hes a dick! Yeah!
Is that something that the court in the us can actually do – force someone to pay for whatever college the kid wants to go? I’m completely puzzled… At the other side of the ocean it kind of stops with “living allowance as long as you are in school”…
Depends on (in Amber’s case) the divorce settlement. Some judges might rule “yes” and some “no.” The school doesn’t matter; it’s basically accepted that if the answer is “yes,” it’s applied to whatever school the student is accepted into and decides to attend. (Many students will apply to multiple schools, but won’t always be accepted. Someone like Amber would have probably gotten into whatever school she applied to. Becky would have a harder time because of her history with homeschooling.) Tuition is frequently wrapped into the “living allowance” since there are fewer opportunities for scholarships and grants if your parents make money, whether they are married or not and whether they like you or not. Also, we don’t have the free or reduced tuition that many European countries enjoy, so if we have an “expected family contribution” (what it’s called when our parents make enough that they’re supposed to kick in toward tuition) and our parents refuse or are unable to pay it, we have to come up with it ourselves (work a job, borrow it off friends/family, etc).
(I am not a lawyer and have no special knowledge of the law.)
There are two possible trials here, criminal and civil. Toedad will be tried on criminal charges of discharge of a firearm, assault with a deadly weapon, kidnapping, etc. If he is convicted these will mean jail time and maybe fines.
Ross might make a plea bargain, but I wouldn’t think that kind of money matter would come into it. And Ross would almost certainly refuse to agree to anything benefiting Becky.
Becky could also sue Ross in civil court for damages and might get a settlement giving her money. Depending on Ross’s income is a bad bet because he won’t be earning much in prison.
Of course, this depends on if Ross has significant assets, after he pays his legal costs. If he doesn’t, a damage award won’t help.
Becky might be able to sue Anderson University if they let Ross drag her away kicking and screaming or something, but winning that would be very iffy. But Anderson would have liability insurance and assets, so there would be something to collect if she did win.
She could also try to get a refund of her Anderson tuition, as has been mentioned before.
Except possibly for the refund, none of this will happen quickly, it will be months to years. Becky won’t be able to pay for school that way now or for the spring semester.
Since DoA will probably never get out of freshman year, she won’t get anything in the life of the comic.
And to do anything more than ask for a refund, Becky needs a lawyer who knows what is possible and what isn’t. But lawyers cost money she doesn’t have. There are legal aid services, but they are traditionally underfunded and overworked.
Becky desperately needs advice on her rights and what resources are available to her. Which is why people here keep yelling to ask Leslie or Roz for help because they will know where to get that advice.
It’s also possible they had some kind of college savings fund, maybe even with her name on it. That money she should have a claim on.
True. Another reason to rifle through her father’s files this weekend.
yes, if she meets the requirements (some, like my uni, require a specific GPA and a letter of recommendation, but it’s a private uni), but I’ve never heard of transferring in like two weeks into freshman semester. It would have to wait til the semester is over probably
Depends on the school. My alma mater let students come in as late as the fourth week as long as they met entrance criteria and their department head was okay with it. (Basically, the department head would have to think you had the ability to catch up with everything you’d missed to that point and still keep up with the rest of class.) It wasn’t common; for most students, the add/drop period was at the end of the second week. At that point, if you dropped, you wouldn’t get a full refund for the class tuition, and you could no longer add a new class. If you dropped at midterm or later, you didn’t get any refund for tuition, and it would show up as a “W” (Withdrawn) on your transcript.
Not this far into the semester. She can probably get into IU, but not until next semester.
There is no parade, no matter how wholly good, that Sarah can’t resist raining on. What really annoys me is her need to loudly proclaim her personal martyrdom in her perceived duty to make everyone else as miserable as she is.
One of these days, someone (probably Joyce or maybe Mike) will respond in a way that will only validate Sarah’s neurosis that she’s inherently unlikeable and incapable of having friends.
I think the comment section is over-thinking this and missing the obvious:
Becky haS ALREADY BEEN EXPOSED. MASSIVELY.
She is about to be a local celebrity, too. Where Becky lives isnt going to stay a secret from the Police, the Trial, and Ruthless and the administration already know about her.
On top of this, Becky is going to Joyces for the weekend. That leaves a full week from the shooting , for the all the details to catch up with her.
Is Becky going?
Uncertain. Many people assume so because she mentions offering to go when they were all walking in a group (with Dina, Walky, Billie, and Mike) earlier. However, she’s been absent from preview panels either on campus or off (with the exception of being added in a later addition to one for later this month and may predate Joyce’s departure).
I too was confused by that assumption until I had the line called to my attention. As it is, it’s unclear.
However characters being absent from preview panels to lead astray / scare the readers is not absolutely new!
“Does Dina live?” lasted weeks.
Incidentally, the first preview panel containing Dina to be released after the ‘clever girl’ scene is the same one Becky appears in an update to.
It’s from three days before the one with Joyce’s dad (I checked) so it can’t indicate either way Becky’s whereabouts for the weekend.
I love Sarah but sometimes the girl just needs to shut her damn mouth and let people be happy. Not everyone needs to be a perpetually miserable cynic.
Honestly, I don’t see Sarah as a Mike-with-boobs. More like a pessimistic and more-conservative version of Billie at the start of the comic: By which I mean, like Billie used to, Sarah has a bit of an over-inflated sense of her own judgement and maturity, and like Billie, she’s a fixer. Unlike Billie, she’s judgmental on the grounds of whether or not she thinks you’re responsible and ambitions rather than on the grounds of whether or not you’re of equal or greater social prestige.
Sarah assumes everything is going to turn out in the worst way possible without her personal intervention. “Bearer of bad news” is because she kind of sees herself as a Cassandra: Able to foresee the horrible consequences of a decision, but never believed until everything goes pear-shaped.
In this case, I think it’s less about “Becky still loves Joyce” and more about, “You made national news. It was on TV. Everyone knows about this. Sooner or later, Becky is going to be homeless because the school will kick her out. What will you do then?”
Personally, I think the right answer to the problem is “Go to Leslie.” Buuut that shows more good judgement, networking skill, and situational awareness than I think pretty much anyone has. Sarah has the situational awareness that something’s gonna blow up in their faces soon, Becky has the networking skill (now that she’s reasonably sure nobody’s going to be an asshole for the sake of being an asshole, she’s less defensive and abrasive, and people are liking her a lot more – just like as Joyce has become less sanctimonious and more accepting of other belief systems and backgrounds while also slowly discarding the parts she doesn’t agree with anymore, people who used to really dislike her are starting to warm up*), and I’m not really sure who has the best crisis management judgement. Sarah, as much as she thinks she does, is not one with enough skill in crisis management to figure out what to do with Becky when Becky is suddenly homeless. Her approach with crisis management tends to be “Call the biggest authorities relevant to the situation and let them sort it out.” Which works sometimes. But sometimes it’s not the best approach. Sarah needs to develop a suite of approaches that can be tailored from situation to situation.
*Roz excepted, but I think Joyce impressed her with the “Sometimes I need someone to be mean” thing and the party invite despite their past friction. Cuz Roz’s level of outrage sometimes is a valuable approach to activism. It’s just not the only approach and shouldn’t be.
Only tangentially related, but I think Sarah’s trust in authority to be A) the best solution and B) able to make the correct decisions is going to become a serious problem if she’s serious about pursuing law school. I know she’s very much a “law of the land” type person, and she’s also a “if everybody plays by the rules, there are no problems” type, but the reality of both law and justice is that nothing plays out that way. Toedad stayed completely within the law (provided IL is an open-carry state; I have no idea and don’t have time to look right now) until he discharged his firearm recklessly. Was it either right or just that he was able to come onto his daughter’s friend’s campus to threaten adults over religious bigotry? Sometimes, the law doesn’t do what’s just, sometimes, justice isn’t measured by the law, and sometimes the whole damned system breaks down because people and reality are not drawn along sharp lines.
IN, not IL. What I wouldn’t give for an “edit” option on posts. :/
Indiana University, however, is a gun-free campus.
There’s other stuff as well – even before firing the gun, brandishing it and chasing people with it and making threats becomes illegal.
If you pull out a gun and order someone to get in your car, you’re attempting kidnapping, even if you don’t fire the thing. When she did get in the car, under that threat, it became actual kidnapping.
Sarah, will you just fuck off? She’s one of the few characters I’m entirely unsympathetic with. Her self-flagellation gets in the way of her ever finding happiness or making friends, and all she does is drag others down to be miserable, and then say “I told you so.” when it’s partly her fault they’re miserable.
I don’t give a fuck if one of your friends did some drugs so you told on her. That is NO reason to be such an apathetic, crankier-than-thou twat. Nut up, shut up, and stop blaming yourself for everything you boring, stupid bongo.
Not that I take it personally that people don’t like my favourite characters, but the Dana situation was far more complex than “she did drugs so Sarah told on her.”
THANK YOU. Since reading this comic, I haven’t encountered a more unsympathetic and annoyingly negative character as Sarah. Being hated by your peers is not a fucking cross to bear, I have experienced it too, but I didn’t turn into a jaded asshole.
Sarah lost all of her friends when trying to do the right thing, and was repeatedly harassed by them since.
She’s a pessimistic jerkface and lives in a box mostly of her own creation, and she sure as hell doesn’t make it easy to like her, but it’s not entirely her fault.
Sarah had already seen herself as a ‘bongoy killjoy misanthrope” LONG before meeting Dana and her group, which only adds to the conclusion of her wanting to be friendless, and actively pushing away people who want to be with. Hell, she pushes away from people SHE wants to be with, as seen with Jacob, even before she found out about him dating Raidah.
There is no way, at least in a real world that Dina and Becky would work out long term. I wasn’t even thinking about the Joyce thing that others mentioned… good point though. I’m just thinking that they are both too imature. They have a LOT of growing up to do. With so far to go the adults they are going to become are likely to be very different people from the children that they now are and as such it is unlikely they will be compatible then with the same person they are compatible with now.
But…. they don’t need to be told that. This relationship is part of that growing up process and they both really badly need it. Leave them alone!
It’s always possible. Some people marry their high school sweethearts and live happily ever after (with the usual struggles and ups and downs).
I’m not sure Dina & Becky are any more doomed than any other relationship. Especially any other college relationship.
Of course, the chances of any week-old relationship lasting are slim, but that’s not quite the same thing.
I can’t think of a single thing Sarah could tell Dina that she doesn’t already know, so I’m expecting either new information, or Sarah getting f’n rek’t for emptying the glasses so they’re always more empty than full 👀
Ah, the struggle of social energy.
I’m guessing Sarah is talking about Becky’s feelings for Joyce? Like literally just a few days before this Becky confessed her lifelong love for Joyce and kissed her, and now she’s turned around and gone for Dina. It remains to be seen if Dina is just a rebound to Becky, but that’s probably what Sarah suspects!
UGH all these stupid kids with their DRAMA they dont even know they HAVE that now i HAVE to make them aware of UGH its so HARD being above all this DRAMA
Rolling my eyes at all this Sarah hate in the comments.
Sarah’s about to drop some needless pessimism onto the most popular character in the comic. What did you think was going to happen?
We don’t know what she’s gonna drop. It could be her being pessimistic for no reason or it could be a useful insight like the last time with Joyce and Becky (or somewhere in between).
This strip presents Sarah in the worst light possible, because we have no context. Sarah’s not engaging with Dina’s light fun visit, but is instead lamenting her role as the harbinger of bad news. We don’t know how grim her information is, though. Perhaps it is worth saying and lamenting having to say. Without that information, all we have is Sarah being kinda jokey about ruining Dina’s day. It’s easy to look at that and get mad at her, especially when most people dislike Sarah and love Dina.
It would be hard for the actual bad news she brings up to be received more poorly than this preamble, because that at least has caring for others at the core of it. Even if it’s in a Sarah-like fashion.
Everyone loves (to hate) Sarah.
Honestly, I’m baffled by how many people do like Sarah. She’s well-written and has some good qualities, but I can’t sympathize with her self-imposed misery or her apparent belief that anyone who isn’t a bitter asshole just isn’t as smart as her.
The cast of DoA wouldn’t even be half as interesting if i didn’t occasionally want to violently throttle their necks.
Too many webcomics, too much fiction, period, wraps up their characters in lame jokes and transparent flaws, and it’s impossible to be invested in them.
“Bad news is god really exists.
His name is Damn-You-Willis and he will punish every happy moment with soul-crushing blows of fate!”
“Don’t believe me? Well, Becky is having sex with Agatha right now!”
slipshine of doom
All things being equal, there’s something adorable about Dina’s “…I can manufacture more [joy] with sleep” that makes me just want to hug Dina, and put her up on a shelf with a bunch of stuffed animals/MLPs!
As a follow up, I just realized something – shouldn’t it be supply of joy, rather than capacity? I think capacity is more of a storage concept, rather than an output concept, unless we’re talking bandwidth. (Maybe she’s outputting more joy than her bandwidth today?)
Shared pain is lessened; shared joy, increased — thus do we refute entropy. – Spider Robinson
In her case, it’s capacity: “before her brains ability to make facial expressions collapses from exhaustion”.
Dina looks like she would be in a business twisting the knife in your back , and making you enjoy it.
fuck Sarah don’t do it! just because Dina was the first girl Becky meet away from her dad doesn’t mean their relationship isn’t real. I can’t say it has lasting potential but these two girls actually are a good fit.
Sarah: “Uh, Becky isn’t like other girls, you know.”
Dina: “Of course not. She’s super wonderful!”
Sarah: “….”
I’m surprised that nobody’s mentioned spoon theory yet. Very relevant to allocating energy to smiles (and further indication that Dina is neurodivergent).
http://www.butyoudontlooksick.com/articles/written-by-christine/the-spoon-theory/