They both seemed surprised by Billie’s little detour. As I doubt this strip is going to turn magical, I’m going to presume, something knocked Billie off-course.
Yoshi’s island was totes badass, and Pokemon was some formative shit right there. All sorts of nasty shit outside, but everything was always awesome inside.
Eh, Billie’s already in a corner with nothing to lose. She could accept that Ruth is going to brutalize her daily and just utterly destroy Ruth’s job. Pull the fire alarm nightly, jam doors, clog toilets with hockey jerseys, etc. Mutually Assured Destruction doesn’t sound so bad when you’re already being destroyed. Though that line of thought could also lead to a school shooting. Doubt Willis would go there, but it is possible.
I do like the idea that all the sci-fi elements would be removed, but now we have legitimately comic book style superpowered entities. Knowing Willis, he could get a hell of a lot of mileage off that. Especially if it was secondary to the more ordinary aspects of College life.
Is Amazigirl actually superpowered? I thought she was just the mask [and costume] Amber put on to quell her own insecurities enough to do the right thing when needed. (or maybe it was Mike? Ultra Car? Reagan?)
But then, I don’t know the archives as well as many of the regulars here probably do, so if theres evidence to the contrary, then my bad. (also if so, could someone please link me the the strips in question?)
We don’t actually have any indication that amazi-girl is superpowered. I just like the idea. I think Willis could do a lot with it.
Since this is an alternate universe from shortpacked, we don’t actually know how amazigirl got started. What you listed is indeed her origin story in the main universe though.
Time stopping. Oh frick…that means the gender swapping reality alterations can’t be too far behind. I wonder if this universe will be able to decide of walky is wearing panties or a thong- http://www.itswalky.com/d/20031220.html
Yeah, I had some very good RAs, but there were a few in my old college who could pretty much get away with anything short of murder. This happens everywhere, though.
Chances are no, given Raycroft hasn’t been with the Leafs since 2008 and this comic was likely made in December. I don’t think Willis had a specific player in mind for the jersey.
Turns out that Billie’s great-uncle is on the board of directors. The blue thing is an envelope being delivered by a trained pigmy monkey, the same monkey that nudged Billie out of the way of Ruth’s obvious trap at the last minute. Inside the envelope are papers informing Ruth that she’s fired, being expelled, and being sued for the full value of the exceptionally rare vintage cheerleading uniform that Billie received in her great aunt’s will.
I’d say that this is a direct response to all the people who’ve been calling for Billie to go through the system to get rid of Ruth, but given that there’s at least a month’s worth of buffer I’m gonna say Willis is really good at predicting his fandom.
He reads the comments, he’s intelligent, he probably notes patterns. Besides, it’s something that would have to come up, fandom reaction or no, to make the plot believable.
Two Samurai meet on a battle field. They both jump at each other, swords drawn. Both land beyond the other. On falls to the ground dead. The victor smiles, and doesn’t even have to look to know that they won.
Anyone can SAY the people in charge love them… especially since that threat keeps people from actually putting in any complaints about them. If people actually said ‘hey this bongo steals our crap and beats us up’, the college board would HAVE to do something, lack of prank fire alarms be damned. Billie should just effing TRY it. Especially since Ruth is now *gasp* late in turning in all her RA paper work. They can’t be loving her so much right now.
This pretty much nails it. It’s a comic. It may be not as out there as Willis’ previous works, but he’s still going to treat it like a comic and not the real world in order to allow him to do things he thinks is more interesting (And let’s be honest, this whole Ruth/Billie thing has all of us interested)
I acknowledge to possibility of a lie, but the fact that Ruth can behave the way she does speaks volumes. I’m sure Billie is not the first person to try and report Ruth. Somehow, Ruth continues to do what she does with impunity.
Billie should still definitely give it a shot though. Probably won’t work but there’s nothing to lose in the attempt.
Even if Ruth’s been reported a dozen times before, it’s still worth it to try. Even if the administration ignores the report, it will make any future reports more likely to bear fruit(at what point does the “tight ship” become too expensive), and will aid in any eventual lawsuits.
It’s probably because the people who try to report Ruth tend to be known troublemakers, such an underage alcoholic.
There’s even a chance Billie was deliberately assigned to Ruth’s care, knowing something like this would be the result. She’s no Spartacus, and the others are no oppressed mass of slaves. No one’s going to miss someone as antisocial and belligerent as this one, and it ensures word gets around that Ruth is not someone you want to cross. Order is maintained, at the cost of one loser.
I sympathize with all the people who remember being bullied, but I doubt you got targeted for being the sort of ass Billie has been in this series.
And I’m fairly certain those same people probably didn’t (or probably did) have shit valuable to them stolen and/or destroyed by an RA who thought they were untouchable.
Having an unwarranted sense of self importance does not merit treatment like this.
Heh, what a surprise. They love her. As I figured, she’s been RA before. She’s done this before. They don’t care that she’s violent, because it means NOTHING goes wrong in that dorm. No pranks or stupid BS.
That just makes me smile. Why? Because Willis has dealt with the whole “just report her, Billie” crap. He’s making sure we know that, yea, things aren’t changing. He wants Ruth being this way and he’ll make up a plot device to allow it. So yea, it’s not going away.
Ruth can’t stay this way for long. Too many of the people on this floor have far too much spine to put up with it. What happens when Ruth tries intimidating Sal? Or pushes a freshman too far in front of Amazi-girl? Billie doesn’t seem inclined to back off at this point, either. Someone will fight back, and I don’t think Ruth could handle an opponent with nothing to lose.
As noted by others, Ruth picks her targets well. Billie has a history of trouble before coming to this school, and the school is aware of it. If no one comes forward to confirm her side of the story and it’s just her word against Ruth’s, I don’t give much for her chances. Hell, Ruth could wait until Billie goes to turn her in, then return the scissors, picture, uniform, and missing letter to Billie’s room and make her look like a liar with a grudge.
I think she would have mentioned a previous year’s experience as an RA during the Residents Meeting. She only mentioned going through a two-week training session.
But it was also said that people call her “Ruthless.” She wouldn’t have gotten this nickname just from being a student. She would have had to be an RA at least one year prior.
She definitely could have gotten that nickname as a student. She just says that “some folks” called her “Ruthless”. Those people could have been her (now femur-less) enemies from a previous year.
There isn’t a reason to assume she was there a previous year until today’s comic.
Oh Willis, this simply does not fly. She’s an acceptable loss? Yeah, right up until she calls her parents and then the admin has to deal with angry parents. They crumble like a delicious flaky pastry in the face of the slightest parental pressure, TRUST ME on this. Can you write in a non-contemptible RA character at some point just for balance? I just don’t want to be angry every time I read the comic, it’s hurting my normal appreciation of your work. You could make that other RAs residents be jerks for the balance of suffering if that’s what you need to be happy. :\
At which point Ruth notes she could smell alcohol on Jennifer’s breath. Not hard, considering she’d had a “night’s worth of whiskey” in her and had gone straight from waking up to rushing for class.
I’m usually pretty good at suspending my disbelief for Willis’s humor, but this is really starting to bother me. If an RA actually takes something from one of their charges room, regardless of what it is, and they get caught? They don’t just get fired, they get expelled. Almost all the training an RA goes through is about the shit they can’t do because it will get them expelled and this is at the top of the list.
It doesn’t matter how much they ‘like’ her. As an employee of the school, the administration is responsible for her actions. Billie can actually sue the entire university for destruction of private property.
*fidget. Fidget fidget*
Sorry, this just…really bothers me, for some reason.
A couple days ago I referred to Ruth’s iron fist on her hall as being akin to Stalin’s Russia. Despite being told off for it, I think the analogy even more apt after reading this strip.
It’s about as akin to Stalinist Russia as 1950s America was. Neither was that well known for sending pieces of a hostage back to citizenry who had not complied with the law.
Instilling order by finding and destroying troublemakers quickly is a time-honoured tradition. It also tends to backfire.
Seriously, though, I was referring more to Stalin’s totalitarianism and willingness to rid himself (often violently) of anyone he perceived to be a problem (i.e., a threat). I would also add that Billie isn’t really a troublemaker. She’s done her best to comply with Ruth’s instructions since the floor meeting. Ruth, on the other hand, has been antagonistic and violent since the comic began. Almost all the trouble Billie has made was instigated by Ruth herself.
Billie has demonstrated hostilty to authority in a threatening fashion. Her file labels her an alcoholic, even though she’s underage.
Ruth certainly encourages Billie to act out in a manner that used to be labelled as machismo. Thus far, she’s made no attempt to end her. Break her, sure, and I’ll agree that both that and the lengths she’s gone to do so are inappropriate.
Still, it seems like Ruth is welcoming this challenge. For all her failings, she does seem like the type who’d define a worthy successor as someone that would stand up to her–otherwise, how could she be trusted to stand up to every problem Ruth has put down?
I’m not saying she’s grooming to take Billie as an apprentice, but she’s about as close as we’ve seen to a candidate Ruth would find worthy.
And now some masked vigilante looks about to ruin everything.
I don’t think she’s grooming Billie. Ruth is using her as an example. Billie is the most easily provoked person in the dorm. The one who will respond more vocally and obviously. Ruth seems to be intentionally provoking her, in the hopes that she can beat her down, and instill fear upon the rest of the dorm.
Exactly. As was noted in Pratchett’s Night Watch book, the problem with “rooting out troublemakers and plotters were there were none or few before, means there will shortly be troublemakers and plotters a-plenty.” It’s not going to take long for other students that are on a similar path or bent as Billie, to look at Ruth and say “How much longer before she decides -I- am an ‘acceptable loss’?” and then take steps to do something about her. Tyrants are always their own worst enemies.
How nice – people vote for a character they favor and it makes them stupid. I do believe I smell a troll, or at least someone sorely lacking in manners or the ability to explain their “arguments.” I wonder if there’s much difference betwixt the two…
Naw, you know what? I like Billie more than Ruth too. But come on… the first time they faced off Billie got her ass handed to her. The question wasn’t “who do you like more” it was “who would win in a fight to the death?”
Ahhh, okay, I missed that. Actually, I would vote Billie. Roomies!Billie might have been through more character development at this point, but she proved she had what it took, deep down, to take on -Sal-, and not back down, even when Sal was beating the hell out of her. So far, this Billie looks like she might have it in her, too.
Ruth is a bully and a bongo, and if anything bad happens to her, she has it coming.
That being said, what Billie got is still karmic justice; she treats her friends like crap over some stupid ass high school pride. I’ve dealt with too much of her kind to sympathize with her, even a little.
Her treatment by Ruth is not “karmic justice”. Her payback for the way she treats people is that no one likes her and she’s unhappy. That behavior has the seeds of its own punishment in it. The treatment she got at the meeting was the result of her own behavior; the rest of it is excessive and uncalled for.
If this is Amazigirl, I think its time for a long intro to the character DarkWing Duck style…”I am the terror that flaps in the night! I am the girl immune to all criticism!”
Now we are rapidly approaching the realm of the ridiculous; a Hall Director who would willingly turn a blind eye to an abusive RA? No, not happening, not ever. Students would start to complain, and those complaints would eventually reach the higher ups in Student Housing. Angry students, and/or angry parents are not something those people want to have to deal with. And if Student Housing has to get involved, heads will roll, starting with that complacent Hall Director. Either that, or Ruth is bluffing, and someone needs to call her bluff.
That depends on how many complaints the Hall Director had in the past about students disrupting the lives of other students. If Ruth put a stop to that sort of thing, students that had to tolerate it before are likely to turn a blind eye.
Ruth’s picked her target well and for a purpose that would suit most of her floor just fine. Sadly, she’s made the classical mistake most people make with regard to Machiavelli’s advice about the value of being a feared ruler.
She should’ve read her Pratchett, and gone the Vetinari route: Making them think her indispensable, and nearly afraid of who might get picked to replace her, should she leave the position. Had she done that, she wouldn’t even be needing to do this much, old-time residents would be handling it -for- her.
I love how every time something mysterious happens everyone rushes to guess what it is. And you all just know that as soon as everyone’s decided exactly what it is that Willis will decide to change it at the last minute. ;P
He has made it abundantly clear before that he does not do that. He maintains a buffer, which is one reason he’s become one of the more reliable webcomic authors when it comes to maintaining his update schedule.
It’s the fact that he’s done this for more than a decade that lets him anticipate his audience as well as he does.
Billie’s an interesting contrast. On the one hand, she likes being at the center of attention. On the other, she’s pretty much kept to herself since she got her, forming no new attachments and pretty much rejecting the connections she does have.
It’s a very realistic, human contradiction. Not everyone adapts to the change, especially if they’d been coasting near the top of things up until the point this happens.
Alright, Willis has some amazing ability to keep us on our toes with characters and story… however, I think the most masterful part of the writing is how he is able to bring characters that fans, due to personal experience, either empathize fully with or utterly hate.
Current Ruth/Billie conflict being the most obvious protrayer, as we have avid haters of one, both, or neither AND avid lovers (don’t run with that…) of one, both or neither.
Way to put real life into comics so adequately that we have psychological transference of our own experiences onto 2D art, Willis. Very nice.
Ruth’s having entirely too much fun Billie-baiting for me to feel much sympathy for her “Ordnung” schtick. I can’t believe I just used German and Yiddish in the same sentence…..
Don’t you get it? Ruth is DEAD! She’s the ghost of Ruth from Roomies! No one can see her except Billie! The punch from before was Billie hitting a wall! All the other interactions were um…Ruth’s poltergeist abilities! Willis has replaced aliens with ghosts! It all makes sense now! Sal is dead! Dina is dead! Agatha is dead! The only one alive is Garfield! It’s all his starvation dream! Muwhahahahaahaha!
Uhmm…hasn’t she only been an RA for two days? After only a two-week training? How can they even possibly know she’s running a tight ship, especially in comparison to other RAs?
The implication is that she’s been RA before (This implication was made VERY early, when it was said some people referred to her as “Ruthless”). She likely has to do a two-week training course every year.
It’s strange that I have an easier time believing alien invasions and super-science in a webcomic than I do stuff like this. I guess when the setting is portrayed as being close, if not exactly, like our own without really any supernatural elements it’s harder to suspend disbelief. I really wish he’d go back to doing comedy, if I wanted to watch someone getting slapped around and abused by someone in a position of authority there’s a dozen 80’s movies I could get off Netflix.
Oh please, oh please, can we please have an strip where Ruth dies slowly and horribly of a painful, infected gut wound, and not one person lifts a finger to help her smug, abusive ass?
Ahhh…it was sooo satisfying to see that, even if it was an alternate universe doppelganger.
Seriously: I don’t know why I’m getting so upset over what an absolute beyootch Ruth is. Bullies get up my craw I guess. And Billie: yeah, she’s an alcoholic mess who can’t let go of her high school “glory days,” but y’know, on some level, infinitely more relatable.
An alternate universe doppelganger that *sacrifices her life* to save Danny. Sadly, you can’t take any glee in that if you understand the context at all.
Nah, I’d much rather see her thrown out of dorm for theft and destruction of property, and then when her handlers start investigation her to see if she convinced any past transgressions we see her whole skeleton closet open up, and eventually her flipping burgers at a burger joint after she gets thrown out of college.
I think Ruth just made the classic mistake of all villains. She gave away the secret source of her power. Her bosses are fine with her as long as she keeps the peace, but if a series of pranks, vandalism, and disorder break out she’ll be under fire. With the exception of Billie everyone else is too scared to provoke Ruth, but Amazi-Girl can since her identity is a secret.
I think a lot of the problem is that people are identifying with Billie, and see Ruth as a bully. But the thing is, this isn’t the plight of David versus Goliath. It’s Goliath versus BIGGER Goliath. Billie is also, in fact, a bully. Look at how she treats everyone around her, particularly people who’ve never done anything to her. She’s rude, condescending, and vicious. She’s a highschool bully, and part of her issue is that she’s come to college expecting that to mean something. But it doesn’t, and so she clashes with the college bully. They’re both bullies, it’s just that one is finding out that they’re not quite so hot on campus as they used to be when it was the minor leagues.
Except for one thing. If you don’t like Billie you don’t have to hang out with her. In fact she prefers that. Ruth on the other hand is abusing her position to force in this case a roommate agreement that she should obtain herself. People have to deal with Ruth and that’s what makes her worse.
Actually, it is their responsibility (Billie and Sal) to give Ruth the roommate agreement. At least, that’s how it was when I was at the dorm. The RA said up front that it isn’t his responsibility to hunt it down, it was ours to get it to him.
Goliath versus bigger Goliath. I like this kind of reasonning… I know Ruth groupies are very scarse on the thread, but I related much more with a bully breaker than to a Jocky girl. Okay, Ruth is an authoritarian psycho, but Billie got to have some sense knocked into her. Come on, if teen movies ever thought us anything, is that the hottest cheerleaders is supposed to be a bongo.
What I see is Ruth making an example by doing a preemptive strike against a potential troublemaker. And I not even sure she could register as a bully for that because I’m pretty sure once Billie will accept to comply, she won’t get torment anymore. While a bully would keep annoying people who don’t deserve it and who are too weak to fight back.
Billie – Unwarranted sense of self importance, alcoholism.
Ruth – Theft, Destruction of Personal Property, bullying, and who knows what else
Billie likely will eventually get over herself when she realizes very few people in college give a shit about who she is. The alcoholism I don’t know. How ever, Ruth seems to think she’s secure in her position with the backing of her handlers. She seems convinced that they’ll let her do what ever she wants so long as she gets results. Her fall, and she will fall, will be satisfying. Much more so than Billie’s
The people downstairs might not care, but the guys up the street collecting money from Billie’s parents on her tuition sure do. Harass enough kids into leaving and you’ll find that it doesn’t matter how much the guys downstairs like you.
Somehow I don’t think it would even be within her power to drive away enough students that they’d notice. Not to mention that students replace themselves pretty easily. I sincerely doubt they’ll ever look into a problem with their profit margin, and find out that Ruth is the source.
Heck, right now there’s only one student who might even consider leaving, and she won’t because that’s a hell of a lot of effort just to avoid a single person, especially when there’s no guarantee that everyone will be awesome at the next school, and all she has to do to be on this person’s good books is obey the rules.
Funny how Ruth fails to note the most obvious hole in her power-hold. Parents. All Billie needs to do is contact her parents, and they in turn contact the school, which in turn gets Ruth fired. Threaten the school with with a law suit or getting the police involved (which is in Billie’s right, as the RA has stolen her property and threatened her and other students).
Seriously, I’m willing to bet school loves Ruth only because they don’t really know what’s going on in her dorm. I mean, bviously she keeps students so terrified and bullied that I bet no one has complained to the admin about what she will do to them.
They wouldn’t have a choice when I was done… I would be calling the PD NOT campus security. I done play that discipline committee BS, I play pull illegal shit on me and go to jail.
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Wait what just happened there?
Looks like Amazi-Girl’s cape.
Dina’s really bad at hiding her secret identity.
Dude, come on, we all know Dina is actually SpiderCar.
No, Amber is Spider-Car. Dina is Amazi-Girl.
We don’t know who Amazi-Girl is, just that Amber is Spider-Car and Dina is door girl.
lol Amazi-Girl skateboard
WTF!?
(still have a perverse sexual lust for ruth in that shirt)
Yeah, but her ‘acceptable loss’ line makes me want to punch her after sexings.
That sounds like terrible bedside manners
I don’t kick ’em out of bed, I punch them in the FAAACE.
Well, only Ruth. Everyone else gets cupcakes.
Does 50th girl also gets girl gets a coupon for half-off at Fazoli’s?
http://www.itswalky.com/d/20040114.html
OK, that was horrifically written. What I meant to say was:
Does every 50th girl get a coupon for half-off at Fazoli’s?
Me write good…
That line was just hotter than expected.
i want a cupcake.
But Billie -is- an acceptable loss.
The most epic of hate fucks
Only an explosion could make it more epic.
Ghost? Okay, seems the unfairness of life strikes here. The finality of it though could be to take it to the board.
Looks like Billie just flat missed or…something to me. Showing Billie ran to the side of her and not head on is hard, I imagine, from that angle.
They both seemed surprised by Billie’s little detour. As I doubt this strip is going to turn magical, I’m going to presume, something knocked Billie off-course.
Ugh, I know that feeling. Being stuck putting up with a bully’s shit because the people who run the place don’t give a shit.
Time for an Amazi-Girl STRIKE!
No time for good deeds – must raid! :p
STORY OF MY CHILDHOOD
It wasn’t all bad though. I can faintly recall happy feelings associated with Yoshi’s Island and Pokemon Crystal. That and animal encyclopedias.
Yoshi’s island was totes badass, and Pokemon was some formative shit right there. All sorts of nasty shit outside, but everything was always awesome inside.
Pokemon is STILL formative!
*goes back to playing Pokemon Black*
High five!
Eh, Billie’s already in a corner with nothing to lose. She could accept that Ruth is going to brutalize her daily and just utterly destroy Ruth’s job. Pull the fire alarm nightly, jam doors, clog toilets with hockey jerseys, etc. Mutually Assured Destruction doesn’t sound so bad when you’re already being destroyed. Though that line of thought could also lead to a school shooting. Doubt Willis would go there, but it is possible.
Easy way to handle that problem is make a media stink. No school likes bad PR.
Lol. Not exactly a ninja, is she?
What’s that blue cape-shaped thing between Ruth and Billie in the last panel?
A cape? Nah.
Don’t call your attacks, Billie.
Is that Amazi-Girl’s cape at the bottom of the last panel?
If so, Amazi-Girl can stop time, wtf!!!
ZA… WARUDO!
I do like the idea that all the sci-fi elements would be removed, but now we have legitimately comic book style superpowered entities. Knowing Willis, he could get a hell of a lot of mileage off that. Especially if it was secondary to the more ordinary aspects of College life.
Is Amazigirl actually superpowered? I thought she was just the mask [and costume] Amber put on to quell her own insecurities enough to do the right thing when needed. (or maybe it was Mike? Ultra Car? Reagan?)
But then, I don’t know the archives as well as many of the regulars here probably do, so if theres evidence to the contrary, then my bad. (also if so, could someone please link me the the strips in question?)
We don’t actually have any indication that amazi-girl is superpowered. I just like the idea. I think Willis could do a lot with it.
Since this is an alternate universe from shortpacked, we don’t actually know how amazigirl got started. What you listed is indeed her origin story in the main universe though.
Time stopping. Oh frick…that means the gender swapping reality alterations can’t be too far behind. I wonder if this universe will be able to decide of walky is wearing panties or a thong- http://www.itswalky.com/d/20031220.html
And it’s funny that Ruth seems to be from Canada. Or well she’s wearing a Canadian shirt.
Wait! Amber must be the Cheese!
So Ultra Car is Amazi-Girl!
lol
Ooh, shit going DOWN!
Is it me, or do they BOTH look a bit surprised?
They do. Ruth did not engineer this little blunder.
What… just happened here?
Billie’s depth perception isn’t that bad is it?
Well, she IS wearing glasses…
I love both of their “The fuck?” looks.
Yeah, I had some very good RAs, but there were a few in my old college who could pretty much get away with anything short of murder. This happens everywhere, though.
Amazi-Girl STRIKES… or just moves Billie out of the way. Works.
Is Ruth wearing an Andrew Raycroft jersey?
Chances are no, given Raycroft hasn’t been with the Leafs since 2008 and this comic was likely made in December. I don’t think Willis had a specific player in mind for the jersey.
OH NO! All the characters suddenly realize they’re 2D in a three dimensional world! Getting in fights becomes like trying to punch the depth of paper!
DAMN YOU WILLIS!
Oh, please, Willis. Please let Billie (or someone) take Ruth down a peg You’ve really made me hate Ruth. Which was probably your plan all along. 😀
Turns out that Billie’s great-uncle is on the board of directors. The blue thing is an envelope being delivered by a trained pigmy monkey, the same monkey that nudged Billie out of the way of Ruth’s obvious trap at the last minute. Inside the envelope are papers informing Ruth that she’s fired, being expelled, and being sued for the full value of the exceptionally rare vintage cheerleading uniform that Billie received in her great aunt’s will.
Now I want this to happen instead of it being Amazi-Girl.
This, this all the way
I’d say that this is a direct response to all the people who’ve been calling for Billie to go through the system to get rid of Ruth, but given that there’s at least a month’s worth of buffer I’m gonna say Willis is really good at predicting his fandom.
He reads the comments, he’s intelligent, he probably notes patterns. Besides, it’s something that would have to come up, fandom reaction or no, to make the plot believable.
Does Amazi Girl have legit powers in this Universe? Because she is leaping up the Badass scale as if it were a tall building
How did Ruth’s glasses get fixed so quickly?
She bent them back into place the comic after being punched. They weren’t snapped in half, as the art would make us think.
the fuck??? ruth looks just as surprised as billie!!
From the art I’m having a hard time telling if Billie somehow missed or if she just phased straight through Ruth.
Two Samurai meet on a battle field. They both jump at each other, swords drawn. Both land beyond the other. On falls to the ground dead. The victor smiles, and doesn’t even have to look to know that they won.
one*
Until they explode in gory bits, the one dieing on the ground smiling after having lodged a light firebomb in the “victors” Obi belt.
Now RUN Billie! Run and show them the picture!
Anyone can SAY the people in charge love them… especially since that threat keeps people from actually putting in any complaints about them. If people actually said ‘hey this bongo steals our crap and beats us up’, the college board would HAVE to do something, lack of prank fire alarms be damned. Billie should just effing TRY it. Especially since Ruth is now *gasp* late in turning in all her RA paper work. They can’t be loving her so much right now.
Comic, not real life. Also, dumb college freshman.
This pretty much nails it. It’s a comic. It may be not as out there as Willis’ previous works, but he’s still going to treat it like a comic and not the real world in order to allow him to do things he thinks is more interesting (And let’s be honest, this whole Ruth/Billie thing has all of us interested)
I acknowledge to possibility of a lie, but the fact that Ruth can behave the way she does speaks volumes. I’m sure Billie is not the first person to try and report Ruth. Somehow, Ruth continues to do what she does with impunity.
Billie should still definitely give it a shot though. Probably won’t work but there’s nothing to lose in the attempt.
Even if Ruth’s been reported a dozen times before, it’s still worth it to try. Even if the administration ignores the report, it will make any future reports more likely to bear fruit(at what point does the “tight ship” become too expensive), and will aid in any eventual lawsuits.
It’s probably because the people who try to report Ruth tend to be known troublemakers, such an underage alcoholic.
There’s even a chance Billie was deliberately assigned to Ruth’s care, knowing something like this would be the result. She’s no Spartacus, and the others are no oppressed mass of slaves. No one’s going to miss someone as antisocial and belligerent as this one, and it ensures word gets around that Ruth is not someone you want to cross. Order is maintained, at the cost of one loser.
I sympathize with all the people who remember being bullied, but I doubt you got targeted for being the sort of ass Billie has been in this series.
And I’m fairly certain those same people probably didn’t (or probably did) have shit valuable to them stolen and/or destroyed by an RA who thought they were untouchable.
Having an unwarranted sense of self importance does not merit treatment like this.
Yay Amazi-girl!!! *excited*
Heh, what a surprise. They love her. As I figured, she’s been RA before. She’s done this before. They don’t care that she’s violent, because it means NOTHING goes wrong in that dorm. No pranks or stupid BS.
That just makes me smile. Why? Because Willis has dealt with the whole “just report her, Billie” crap. He’s making sure we know that, yea, things aren’t changing. He wants Ruth being this way and he’ll make up a plot device to allow it. So yea, it’s not going away.
I would have found ti just short of implausible if this wasn’t the case. As I’ve been saying, Ruth has all the cards in her hand.
Yep, but it’s always nice to get in-story writing to deal with it to end speculation and stop some people from going insane.
Ruth can’t stay this way for long. Too many of the people on this floor have far too much spine to put up with it. What happens when Ruth tries intimidating Sal? Or pushes a freshman too far in front of Amazi-girl? Billie doesn’t seem inclined to back off at this point, either. Someone will fight back, and I don’t think Ruth could handle an opponent with nothing to lose.
As noted by others, Ruth picks her targets well. Billie has a history of trouble before coming to this school, and the school is aware of it. If no one comes forward to confirm her side of the story and it’s just her word against Ruth’s, I don’t give much for her chances. Hell, Ruth could wait until Billie goes to turn her in, then return the scissors, picture, uniform, and missing letter to Billie’s room and make her look like a liar with a grudge.
In this age of technology I doubt it would be so simple.
I think she would have mentioned a previous year’s experience as an RA during the Residents Meeting. She only mentioned going through a two-week training session.
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2010/comic/book-1/01-move-in-day/training/
But it was also said that people call her “Ruthless.” She wouldn’t have gotten this nickname just from being a student. She would have had to be an RA at least one year prior.
She definitely could have gotten that nickname as a student. She just says that “some folks” called her “Ruthless”. Those people could have been her (now femur-less) enemies from a previous year.
There isn’t a reason to assume she was there a previous year until today’s comic.
Oh Willis, this simply does not fly. She’s an acceptable loss? Yeah, right up until she calls her parents and then the admin has to deal with angry parents. They crumble like a delicious flaky pastry in the face of the slightest parental pressure, TRUST ME on this. Can you write in a non-contemptible RA character at some point just for balance? I just don’t want to be angry every time I read the comic, it’s hurting my normal appreciation of your work. You could make that other RAs residents be jerks for the balance of suffering if that’s what you need to be happy. :\
At which point Ruth notes she could smell alcohol on Jennifer’s breath. Not hard, considering she’d had a “night’s worth of whiskey” in her and had gone straight from waking up to rushing for class.
I’m usually pretty good at suspending my disbelief for Willis’s humor, but this is really starting to bother me. If an RA actually takes something from one of their charges room, regardless of what it is, and they get caught? They don’t just get fired, they get expelled. Almost all the training an RA goes through is about the shit they can’t do because it will get them expelled and this is at the top of the list.
It doesn’t matter how much they ‘like’ her. As an employee of the school, the administration is responsible for her actions. Billie can actually sue the entire university for destruction of private property.
*fidget. Fidget fidget*
Sorry, this just…really bothers me, for some reason.
Everything’s nice and quiet. YOU’RE just someone with a fist growing out of your head.
SERIOUSLY? Can Ruth please go die in a fire now? -__-
(PS. Thank you internet gods for that avatar.)
A couple days ago I referred to Ruth’s iron fist on her hall as being akin to Stalin’s Russia. Despite being told off for it, I think the analogy even more apt after reading this strip.
Dasvidaniya, comrade.
It’s about as akin to Stalinist Russia as 1950s America was. Neither was that well known for sending pieces of a hostage back to citizenry who had not complied with the law.
Instilling order by finding and destroying troublemakers quickly is a time-honoured tradition. It also tends to backfire.
Every analogy breaks down somewhere.
Seriously, though, I was referring more to Stalin’s totalitarianism and willingness to rid himself (often violently) of anyone he perceived to be a problem (i.e., a threat). I would also add that Billie isn’t really a troublemaker. She’s done her best to comply with Ruth’s instructions since the floor meeting. Ruth, on the other hand, has been antagonistic and violent since the comic began. Almost all the trouble Billie has made was instigated by Ruth herself.
Billie has demonstrated hostilty to authority in a threatening fashion. Her file labels her an alcoholic, even though she’s underage.
Ruth certainly encourages Billie to act out in a manner that used to be labelled as machismo. Thus far, she’s made no attempt to end her. Break her, sure, and I’ll agree that both that and the lengths she’s gone to do so are inappropriate.
Still, it seems like Ruth is welcoming this challenge. For all her failings, she does seem like the type who’d define a worthy successor as someone that would stand up to her–otherwise, how could she be trusted to stand up to every problem Ruth has put down?
I’m not saying she’s grooming to take Billie as an apprentice, but she’s about as close as we’ve seen to a candidate Ruth would find worthy.
And now some masked vigilante looks about to ruin everything.
I don’t think she’s grooming Billie. Ruth is using her as an example. Billie is the most easily provoked person in the dorm. The one who will respond more vocally and obviously. Ruth seems to be intentionally provoking her, in the hopes that she can beat her down, and instill fear upon the rest of the dorm.
Billie is a sacrificial lamb.
Exactly. As was noted in Pratchett’s Night Watch book, the problem with “rooting out troublemakers and plotters were there were none or few before, means there will shortly be troublemakers and plotters a-plenty.” It’s not going to take long for other students that are on a similar path or bent as Billie, to look at Ruth and say “How much longer before she decides -I- am an ‘acceptable loss’?” and then take steps to do something about her. Tyrants are always their own worst enemies.
YOU ARE SO AWESOME I WANT TO BE FRIENDS WITH YOU
*ahem* I mean you referenced Terry Pratchett and used it successfully in an argument, therefore I think you are awesome.
Sorry about my utter creepiness….
All you jaggoffs who voted for Billie in the poll are stupid.
How nice – people vote for a character they favor and it makes them stupid. I do believe I smell a troll, or at least someone sorely lacking in manners or the ability to explain their “arguments.” I wonder if there’s much difference betwixt the two…
Naw, you know what? I like Billie more than Ruth too. But come on… the first time they faced off Billie got her ass handed to her. The question wasn’t “who do you like more” it was “who would win in a fight to the death?”
Ahhh, okay, I missed that. Actually, I would vote Billie. Roomies!Billie might have been through more character development at this point, but she proved she had what it took, deep down, to take on -Sal-, and not back down, even when Sal was beating the hell out of her. So far, this Billie looks like she might have it in her, too.
BAWW some more.
OK, speaking as a guy, I really shouldn’t say this and I would never actually do it, but…I’d love to kick her teeth in…
I like Billie’s face in the first panel. She looks like Tetsuo.
AKIRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!
KAAANNAAADDAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!
Totally hung over. or still drunk your pick. lol Been there!
Ruth is a bully and a bongo, and if anything bad happens to her, she has it coming.
That being said, what Billie got is still karmic justice; she treats her friends like crap over some stupid ass high school pride. I’ve dealt with too much of her kind to sympathize with her, even a little.
Her treatment by Ruth is not “karmic justice”. Her payback for the way she treats people is that no one likes her and she’s unhappy. That behavior has the seeds of its own punishment in it. The treatment she got at the meeting was the result of her own behavior; the rest of it is excessive and uncalled for.
I like to think that Billie just tripped over Amazi-Stool.
They really shouldn’t leave that crap in the hallways.
Extra adorable, given your gravitar! 😀
Speaking of gravitars– I get Roz, but NO condom hat? Bah!
Ruth is one of the Sidereal Exalted, that’s all.
If this is Amazigirl, I think its time for a long intro to the character DarkWing Duck style…”I am the terror that flaps in the night! I am the girl immune to all criticism!”
“I am…getting out of here quick before somebody recognizes me!”
Now we are rapidly approaching the realm of the ridiculous; a Hall Director who would willingly turn a blind eye to an abusive RA? No, not happening, not ever. Students would start to complain, and those complaints would eventually reach the higher ups in Student Housing. Angry students, and/or angry parents are not something those people want to have to deal with. And if Student Housing has to get involved, heads will roll, starting with that complacent Hall Director. Either that, or Ruth is bluffing, and someone needs to call her bluff.
That depends on how many complaints the Hall Director had in the past about students disrupting the lives of other students. If Ruth put a stop to that sort of thing, students that had to tolerate it before are likely to turn a blind eye.
Ruth’s picked her target well and for a purpose that would suit most of her floor just fine. Sadly, she’s made the classical mistake most people make with regard to Machiavelli’s advice about the value of being a feared ruler.
She should’ve read her Pratchett, and gone the Vetinari route: Making them think her indispensable, and nearly afraid of who might get picked to replace her, should she leave the position. Had she done that, she wouldn’t even be needing to do this much, old-time residents would be handling it -for- her.
I love how every time something mysterious happens everyone rushes to guess what it is. And you all just know that as soon as everyone’s decided exactly what it is that Willis will decide to change it at the last minute. ;P
He has made it abundantly clear before that he does not do that. He maintains a buffer, which is one reason he’s become one of the more reliable webcomic authors when it comes to maintaining his update schedule.
It’s the fact that he’s done this for more than a decade that lets him anticipate his audience as well as he does.
Billie’s an interesting contrast. On the one hand, she likes being at the center of attention. On the other, she’s pretty much kept to herself since she got her, forming no new attachments and pretty much rejecting the connections she does have.
It’s a very realistic, human contradiction. Not everyone adapts to the change, especially if they’d been coasting near the top of things up until the point this happens.
Joyce’s “I want to be your friend…no I don’t, since someone with a motorcycle came along” maneuver didn’t help matters.
Alright, Willis has some amazing ability to keep us on our toes with characters and story… however, I think the most masterful part of the writing is how he is able to bring characters that fans, due to personal experience, either empathize fully with or utterly hate.
Current Ruth/Billie conflict being the most obvious protrayer, as we have avid haters of one, both, or neither AND avid lovers (don’t run with that…) of one, both or neither.
Way to put real life into comics so adequately that we have psychological transference of our own experiences onto 2D art, Willis. Very nice.
Ruth’s having entirely too much fun Billie-baiting for me to feel much sympathy for her “Ordnung” schtick. I can’t believe I just used German and Yiddish in the same sentence…..
Don’t you get it? Ruth is DEAD! She’s the ghost of Ruth from Roomies! No one can see her except Billie! The punch from before was Billie hitting a wall! All the other interactions were um…Ruth’s poltergeist abilities! Willis has replaced aliens with ghosts! It all makes sense now! Sal is dead! Dina is dead! Agatha is dead! The only one alive is Garfield! It’s all his starvation dream! Muwhahahahaahaha!
I’m…I’m gonna go lie down now…
When you wake up in a white room wearing a straitjacket, know that it was for you own good.
And I had absolutely nothing to do with it.
Uhmm…hasn’t she only been an RA for two days? After only a two-week training? How can they even possibly know she’s running a tight ship, especially in comparison to other RAs?
The implication is that she’s been RA before (This implication was made VERY early, when it was said some people referred to her as “Ruthless”). She likely has to do a two-week training course every year.
Not necessarily. She just says “some folks”. People could just call her that because of her behavior towards other people in previous years.
Sorry, I meant not RA behavior, just behavior towards people at college in general.
It’s strange that I have an easier time believing alien invasions and super-science in a webcomic than I do stuff like this. I guess when the setting is portrayed as being close, if not exactly, like our own without really any supernatural elements it’s harder to suspend disbelief. I really wish he’d go back to doing comedy, if I wanted to watch someone getting slapped around and abused by someone in a position of authority there’s a dozen 80’s movies I could get off Netflix.
I’m not sure how Mr. Willis is supposed to go back to a place he never left. This stuff’s hilarious.
Thank You!
Glad somebody gets it.
Oh please, oh please, can we please have an strip where Ruth dies slowly and horribly of a painful, infected gut wound, and not one person lifts a finger to help her smug, abusive ass?
I think we got that in Roomies. Course, it was kind of too late to do anything for her there by the time anyone was available.
Just read this comic over and over again and you’ll be fine: http://www.itswalky.com/d/19990318.html
you trying to make me cry?
That got me reading the archives again, and I ran into this: it’s rather hilarious in light of recent events: http://www.itswalky.com/d/19990505.html
Ahhh…it was sooo satisfying to see that, even if it was an alternate universe doppelganger.
Seriously: I don’t know why I’m getting so upset over what an absolute beyootch Ruth is. Bullies get up my craw I guess. And Billie: yeah, she’s an alcoholic mess who can’t let go of her high school “glory days,” but y’know, on some level, infinitely more relatable.
An alternate universe doppelganger that *sacrifices her life* to save Danny. Sadly, you can’t take any glee in that if you understand the context at all.
And head alien is perfect for that. Weeee.
Nah, I’d much rather see her thrown out of dorm for theft and destruction of property, and then when her handlers start investigation her to see if she convinced any past transgressions we see her whole skeleton closet open up, and eventually her flipping burgers at a burger joint after she gets thrown out of college.
No burger joints for her- not with Galasso next door. The man could use an enforcer for his eventual world dictatorship.
I think Ruth just made the classic mistake of all villains. She gave away the secret source of her power. Her bosses are fine with her as long as she keeps the peace, but if a series of pranks, vandalism, and disorder break out she’ll be under fire. With the exception of Billie everyone else is too scared to provoke Ruth, but Amazi-Girl can since her identity is a secret.
Billie, you sneaky bongo…
She wants to fail here. Shes about to beat Ruth at her own game.
Elaborate.
I think a lot of the problem is that people are identifying with Billie, and see Ruth as a bully. But the thing is, this isn’t the plight of David versus Goliath. It’s Goliath versus BIGGER Goliath. Billie is also, in fact, a bully. Look at how she treats everyone around her, particularly people who’ve never done anything to her. She’s rude, condescending, and vicious. She’s a highschool bully, and part of her issue is that she’s come to college expecting that to mean something. But it doesn’t, and so she clashes with the college bully. They’re both bullies, it’s just that one is finding out that they’re not quite so hot on campus as they used to be when it was the minor leagues.
…And I feel bad that I don’t recognize the girl in my icon. 🙁
It’s a Rachel icon. Her name is Rachel. ^ ^
Except for one thing. If you don’t like Billie you don’t have to hang out with her. In fact she prefers that. Ruth on the other hand is abusing her position to force in this case a roommate agreement that she should obtain herself. People have to deal with Ruth and that’s what makes her worse.
Actually, it is their responsibility (Billie and Sal) to give Ruth the roommate agreement. At least, that’s how it was when I was at the dorm. The RA said up front that it isn’t his responsibility to hunt it down, it was ours to get it to him.
Goliath versus bigger Goliath. I like this kind of reasonning… I know Ruth groupies are very scarse on the thread, but I related much more with a bully breaker than to a Jocky girl. Okay, Ruth is an authoritarian psycho, but Billie got to have some sense knocked into her. Come on, if teen movies ever thought us anything, is that the hottest cheerleaders is supposed to be a bongo.
What I see is Ruth making an example by doing a preemptive strike against a potential troublemaker. And I not even sure she could register as a bully for that because I’m pretty sure once Billie will accept to comply, she won’t get torment anymore. While a bully would keep annoying people who don’t deserve it and who are too weak to fight back.
Billie – Unwarranted sense of self importance, alcoholism.
Ruth – Theft, Destruction of Personal Property, bullying, and who knows what else
Billie likely will eventually get over herself when she realizes very few people in college give a shit about who she is. The alcoholism I don’t know. How ever, Ruth seems to think she’s secure in her position with the backing of her handlers. She seems convinced that they’ll let her do what ever she wants so long as she gets results. Her fall, and she will fall, will be satisfying. Much more so than Billie’s
Billie > Ruth
So.
I just realized that since Billie’s winning in the poll about who would win in a fight, Ruth is totally going to win, hands down.
Damn it.
oh damn it, you’re right….should we have a pre-emptive “damn you willis”?
The people downstairs might not care, but the guys up the street collecting money from Billie’s parents on her tuition sure do. Harass enough kids into leaving and you’ll find that it doesn’t matter how much the guys downstairs like you.
Somehow I don’t think it would even be within her power to drive away enough students that they’d notice. Not to mention that students replace themselves pretty easily. I sincerely doubt they’ll ever look into a problem with their profit margin, and find out that Ruth is the source.
Heck, right now there’s only one student who might even consider leaving, and she won’t because that’s a hell of a lot of effort just to avoid a single person, especially when there’s no guarantee that everyone will be awesome at the next school, and all she has to do to be on this person’s good books is obey the rules.
Funny how Ruth fails to note the most obvious hole in her power-hold. Parents. All Billie needs to do is contact her parents, and they in turn contact the school, which in turn gets Ruth fired. Threaten the school with with a law suit or getting the police involved (which is in Billie’s right, as the RA has stolen her property and threatened her and other students).
Seriously, I’m willing to bet school loves Ruth only because they don’t really know what’s going on in her dorm. I mean, bviously she keeps students so terrified and bullied that I bet no one has complained to the admin about what she will do to them.
haha awesome XD
Ruth is abusive and criminal. She really really needs a serious life changing, disabling beating.
If I were in this college, I’d pop Ruth’s head off like a bottle top. Yeah, I know that would kill her. So? She’s a cartoon!
I’d do it when she wasn’t looking of course.
Can’t say I wouldn’t have tried the samething.
Ironically, a few weeks later (in comic time), Ruth was directly the cause of a “prank” fire alarm.
They wouldn’t have a choice when I was done… I would be calling the PD NOT campus security. I done play that discipline committee BS, I play pull illegal shit on me and go to jail.