Actually, I’m thinking about the whole “first to give their side wins” and people’s general reactions to Raidah. I should point out that we’ve only really got Sarah’s point of view, and we’re all assuming that it’s 100% true. complete, and accurate, which it probably is, but I kinda hope that someday Willis Rashomons the shit out of us.
I think that given their comparative perspectives in this situation (ie, Sarah was LIVING WITH Dana, Raidah was just a friend,) Sarah’s is going to be more accurate just from greater experience. I mean, unless Raidah was out getting high with Dana until 3 in the morning, in which case her attitude towards Sarah is even less justified because HELLO ROOMMATES you KNOW this would be disruptive to someone trying to study and maintain a normal sleep schedule. Plus the potential drug bust and expulsion threat. Also, that is not an hour that suggests “perfectly healthy and casual recreational drug use”, just as a rule.
Particularly since we haven’t known Sarah to lie thus far, and even when she’s suspicious of other people she’s open about those suspicions.
I’m starting to wonder if Raidah’s foil-ness to Sarah regarding their background (Raidah’s dad has a firm, I think vs. Sarah having tough scholarship guidelines) is going to come up in relation to this. Like, we don’t have anything to suggest that Raidah doesn’t study a fair bit, but her not being as pressured to could play into her being less aware of spending time getting high with Dana.
Please keep in mind that they are ALL prelaw majors. One of the things drilled into you is to use the maximum amount of available evidence before making any decision. I see Jacob asking Sarah what happened before deciding; he’s one of the most rational people in the cast.
Basically this. Raidah said her version first, she has practically won unless Jacob is waaaaaay more willing to hear people out than the average person.
I think, given that Jacob and Sarah have interactions that predate his involvement with Raidah, Jacob will be more willing to listen than the average person.
If anything, he’s probably going to be more curious as to what is going on with Sarah.
Do we know that for sure? Jacob first met Sarah last Sunday. It’s currently Saturday. Jacob is on his second date with Raidah. It’s entirely possible that Jacob has known Raidah for longer. (Second, it never really seemed to me that Jacob ever seemed romantically interested in Sarah. Considering that he said he would give up trying to be friends with Sarah on Friday, it’s almost a given he was already dating Raidah at that time).
I disagree with the whole “first to give their side wins” thing. They ARE in law classes; they’re going to have present evidence and judge this fairly if they want to prove it.
Really? I thought that was just par for the course in college. If people weren’t having existential crises at first, they did after they had to take intro to philosophy.
Was it really? I just re-read it too. To me Raidah sounded genuinely concerned about Dina, since she belives Sarah to be a bad influence on her, and since she actually thought (albeit a bit jumping-to-conclusiony) Dina was mentally handicapped.
The OTHERS were treating Dina as shit, but Raidah wasn’t. She defended Dina, twice.
It is generally considered very rude to kneel down to the same height as someone to speak to them, whether or not they have any type of handicap. It conveys condescension, as did her tone when talking to Dina. And it is NEVER ok to speak condescendingly or in an infantilizing tone to someone who has a handicap.
I should also say, I’m 100% sure that Raidah knew Dina is capable of understanding regular spoken English: Dina exhibited advanced knowledge of dinosaurs in a mostly contextually appropriate fashion. Raidah spoke to Dina that way because she could tell she was socially different.
Just want to say “genuine concern” for someone is never a way to excuse something.
I mean Joyce’s parents were generally concerened for joyce when she told them she was friends with an AETHIEST!
Just like I’m sure Raidah is generally ernest in her trying to protect people from Sarah and her asshole status all comes from the fact that she refuses to believe Sarah is anything but a villain despite the fact that despite everything Sarah was the ONLY one to do what a friend should have done.
Reading through the code, looks like Sarah’s firmly in class B misdemeanor territory. Another site tells me that in Indiana that means up to 180 days in jail and a fine of up to $1,000.
It is worth noting, however, that possession of marijuana for personal use is a class A misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in jail and a fine of up to $5,000. And second offenses+ rise to class D felony, up to three years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000.
The point is that Raidah is pre-law, and she’s wrong about a very simple and clearly defined offense. Makes her sound dumb – and frankly, Jacob comes across as none too smart either, since “punched” is battery.
Yeah, i was joking, THOUGH i hadnt considered which legal term meant what, either, and somehow i never picked that up on Law and Order.
But would a brand new 2nd year pre-law student — Raidah — have necessarily had a class that covered that? And i doubt that we can expect Jacob to be in any classes which would have covered that in the first month (or, whatever) of his first term at college. Pre-law isnot a degree-major. And Id think being pre-law is like being pre-med: ive known pre-meds who hadnt encountered a lot of very basic stuff about Med in their college classes. Unlikd Australia where you can earn a law degree or medical degree in college.
Dang! I get so confused trying to convert from InDumbyverseTime (IDT) to InRealLifeTime (IRLT) … Its worse that Farenheit/Centigrade! Once I thought that everything IDT had happened in the last 5 minutes IRLT.
No, some of us have been in jail or sued or a number of other things that get you in contact with the criminal injustice system. Assault is words and actions that do not result in contact, contact makes it battery.
Cool! But not to be confused with battered as in battered and deep fried. Though i spose that would count as legal battery?
As would spitchcocking someone in the literal sense of cut into small pieces and fry. Whereas the figurative sense of spitchcocking — treat severly — would count as assault if it was a verbal spitchcocking?
I learned that in high school, chatting with the cop as we waited for my brother to get back from being chased off by the folks who followed us home from school to egg us (I didn’t know that was their entire plan).
I feel so bad for Sarah, but Raidah actually sounds reasonable, and Sarah’s already pushed Jacob away once. I get the sense that she’s in for a world of heartbreak if she gets sucked into this. Again, :C.
While the romance is in the grey, I do think Raidah is holding way too much.
People who went through what Dana did tend to have a lot more issues, the fact she didn’t believe a roommate and a friend AT ALL. The fact a legal student was so OK with a pothead and after she started to destroy her own life and effect Sarah’s and Radiah so blindly took one side (which I’m pretty sure lawyers are supposed to look at both and side with what they think is the right. May be wrong but you get the point) Radiah seems pretty bad.
Factor in it had been 1 year later and Radiah didn’t know Dana’s room, which even if they didn’t hang in dorms much you think she’d check in once or twice on a grieving friend.
Radiah is really a terrible person, she did little for her friend, she blamed Sarah for the necessary evil (telling on Dana) and constantly trying to state that she would ruin other lives as well while the only why she ‘ruined’ Dana’s life was by revealing she was doing illegal drugs in a dangerous fashion. Which again shows how awful a friend Radiah was for not noticing the drug issue at all, hell Sarah’s story even stated that Dana dumped her bf and stayed in her dorm constantly. Radiah and her friends didn’t even check on her.
While Sarah didn’t need to harm Radiah I think she was a much better friend and we just got to hope Jacob can understand that instead of being absorbed in Raidah demonizing story. (face it she’ll fudge the story for Sarah too look much worst)
Let’s also remember that during the period where Dana was supposedly “getting better” according to Raidah, she dumped her boyfriend. Ditching a significant other is usually not a good sign when you’re talking about someone grieving a lost parent, especially with drug use thrown in on top of it. It’s funny how we never see or hear about him – was he not friends with anyone but Dana? Didn’t Raidah, Char, and Chan still hang around with him?
“I’m pretty sure lawyers are supposed to look at both and side with what they think is the right”
Arguably lawyers are supposed to side with the people who are paying them (pro bono notwithstanding). In this case Raidah is just a kid siding with Occam’s path of least emotional resistance, which is believing that her friend wasn’t suicidal and her friend’s roommate is a percussional instrument that got her friend removed from college out of spite and later punched Raidah during an argument.
And going to desperate levels in order to keep doing so. i.e. making, shifting all blame or unwanted accountability to others and defending her Raidah-colored glasses view of things at any cost, her key to psychological survival. Sarah clearly has issues, but Raidah is going to run out of paths to run away from her own issues if she doesn’t at least find one or two alternate ways to address problems with potential guilt or being ‘the bad guy’ over anything….
Where are people getting this “They’re studying to be lawyers so they should know to listen to both sides” stuff from? That’s what judges (and juries) are supposed to do, but lawyers are under no such obligation. They argue on behalf of their clients. You’ll never hear, e.g., a criminal defense lawyer for somebody pleading not guilty say, “You know, after hearing the evidence, I think there’s a possibility my client is guilty.”
Well, the point of the question is to find out if they’re to blame. We’re talking about a punch to the face, there’s no culturally-sacred victim status being violated by asking if it was provoked or not.
Notably, it was, in fact, a response to what we as readers are led to believe had been a sustained campaign of verbal bullying, including at least one prior attempt to prevent Sarah from having friends.
Well, sometimes a punch to the face is completely justified. Not in that case, but in some cases. Of course, if it’s pretty clear who’s at fault, then yeah, be careful what you say. But Jacob has next to zero context.
“She attacked me, COMPLETELY unprovoked, like I wasn’t even doing anything. This is totally 100% her fault, Jacob. What? Talk to her about it? No. No no no. There’s no need to follow up and get the other side of the story, just take everything I’m saying at face value and avoid her from now on.”
Yes, before anyone comments on it, I know that what Sarah did was assault, and it’s not okay. I’m just commenting on Raidah’s irritating habit of viewing, and explaining things through Raidah coloured glasses, more so than the average person.
I don’t think this is a Raidah-colored glasses moment. This is a “we have a history of bad relations, most recently she literally punched me in the face” thing. I don’t think the typical person is going to tell that story significantly differently.
Besides, in all seriousness, Sarah punching Raidah was a massive overreaction, if not completely unprevoked.
‘if not completely unprovoked’. No, let’s not kid ourselves – provoked. Raidah has antagonized Sarah to a pretty extreme degree. No, for those not following, this does not mean she deserved to be punched. It just means she’s not some innocent party to the whole thing.
Yep. That’s Raidah all over. I’ve also noticed since Sarah gave in to aggravated assault on Raidah’s nose. called her friends out on being bullies (the later seemed to have upset Raidah more than the former) than finally came to apologize in a passive-aggressive fashion, Her issues with Sarah have taken a direction they should’ve taken close to a year ago. Hell, it looks like Sarah’s about to do something to live up Raidah’s label of her as toxic. As one sows, so shall they reap….Even if right *actually* is on their side.
Maybe a reference to the “sexy outfit” Joyce got her into when she was actively pursuing Jacob? Outside of that, both Raidah and Sarah dress pretty modestly, leaving us with little to judge their physiques by.
Raidah’s really showing her manipulative side today. If you want to cut Sarah out of your life so badly, why do you keep confronting her? She socked you after you’d already verbally attacked her and Dina at the mall, and you did the same thing in the dining hall earlier. Really a petty and vindictive bully.
That bit about some people being toxic is going to come back to haunt her, guaranteed. Sarah will have a chance to talk to Jacob without her around the next time they have class together. We’ll see if Raidah can twist things enough to keep him from listening, but I doubt it.
To be fair, Raidah have been avoiding Sarah. It is not like she chose to confront her. She even left as soon as she could.
That said, yeah, that “toxic” comment will bit her in the butt. Cutting out toxic influence is exactly what Raidah is mad at Sarah for. It is hard to call Dana anything but “toxic” for Sarah. And Sarah did try to help, but no one else was collaborating.
This is literally the only time she’s avoided her. In two other cases Raidah (and Char and Chan) confronted Sarah as a pack, and when Sarah apologized to her in the dining hall she certainly didn’t try to avoid her and behaved confrontationally even after the apology, even though she was initially concerned for her safety.
It was Sarah who went to Raidah in the last dinning scene. What would Raidah do, run away? She was confrontational, sure, but it was Sarah who initiated the conversation.
That said, I had forgot how the meeting in the mall went. Raidah was totally the one to initiate contact there. It wasn’t a simple chance meeting, it was Raidah going to Sarah directly. Similarly, her very first appearance was she going to Sarah fight with her for no reason.
So, yeah, you are right. At most, Raidah learned to stay away from Sarah after receiving a punch in the face.
Raidah’s also not (quite) foolish enough to get in an argument with Sarah on her home turf, in a room full of people she’s presumably friends with (including three people from the mall), and in front of a guy she’s just started dating. And even then, she couldn’t resist snapping at Sarah before leaving – and she made sure to get out before Sarah could speak her case for Jacob to hear.
Obviously she wasn’t trying to avoid Sarah when we first encountered her, but she may have changed her mind and decided to do that after her last encounter with Sarah in the cafeteria. Because we haven’t seen her interact with Sarah since then, and that was two-and-a-half years and a dozen storylines ago. Maybe the idea that she was at physical risk from Sarah scared her off, maybe she took a look at her behavior and wasn’t pleased by it, maybe she just decided she had better things to do than follow Sarah around and call her names. No telling. But I do think she’s serious about cutting Sarah out of her life, now.
Being charitable, maybe she also realized that her cohort bullies were fairly awful people after the mall encounter with Dina and has stopped associating with them. Splitting up that pack would reduce the impetus for any of them to bully Sarah further – and maybe that “toxic” crack was in reference to the kind of person that uses the word “retard” to describe another human being.
That’s well beyond charitable, frankly. Like, I was quite glad Raidah managed to meet the low bar of “wtf is wrong with you?’ to Char, but that reading isn’t even a little bit where this is going, narratively or colloquially.
Yeah, I agree; I missed the in-universe time reference the first time through. I’m still inclined to think Raidah actively decided to stop, but two weeks isn’t really long enough to be sure.
Yeah, when you’re enabling a drug addict and you never actually see them hit rock bottom, everything from your own perspective looks like you have a valid point.
She has a valid point that Sarah assaulted her (and even Sarah admits she shouldn’t have done that). She has a valid point that it’s probably best that she and Sarah stay out of each other’s way. She does not have a valid point that the situation is wholly, or even mostly, Sarah’s fault.
OK the fight yeah that’s like 90% Sarah’s fault. However the whole Dana incident Sarah asked Radiah and the others to help Dana but the ignored it.
Even excluding the first few days (her grieving period) she didn’t get better just a facade…then Dana dumped her boyfriend but do we here anyone came to check on her? NO! Dana’s ‘friends’ may of all been the type ‘just let her have some time’ which doesn’t always work especially when they decide to leave her alone and disrespect another friend’s requests for help (Sarah asking for help) which is also the roommate which kind of means the fact NO ONE BELIEVED HER worst…
Sarah really just was surrounded by terrible people and one nice person who just broke.
Did she say that though? At worst, she’s admitting that Sarah is toxic because of what she does to Raidah, which is make her a jerk. And, in a way, her rage was understandable if not defensible or right in any way. I don’t know why it’s so hard for people to admit that. She was a bully but she honestly thought Dana was getting better?
If she didn’t spend her time venting her indefensible rage on a character I generally sympathize with and believe to have been in the right, I would have more time for her. But she does and I don’t.
And no, she didn’t admit that Sarah makes her a jerk. (Which is still putting responsibility for Raidah’s actions on Sarah’s shoulders, but aside from that.) Being extremely generous, it could be what she meant, but it’s not what she said, and there’s no possible way Jacob could get that from “some people are toxic” and “she assaulted me.” Nothing Raidah says in the above strip suggests that she’s at fault for anything.
Sadly, that may just be the result of our not having seen much of him yet. He’s only been in 35 strips as of today – about the same as Raidah. He’s certainly made a better early impression than she has, but Willis likes characters with feet of clay.
Raidah knows she cant stop herself from getting in Sarahs face and insulting her in front of people.
( she just did it again )
Sarah already Hit her once for it.
Raidah accepted the apology, but she did not offer Sarah one either.
She hasnt ( and probably cant ) stop herself from provoking Sarah.
She just attempted to publicly humiliate Sarah, in Sarahs own room, in front of her friends, at a party Raidah wasnt invited to.
In this context, Raidah is right. She should stay away from Sarah. She is risking getting another punch.
It is pretty fucked up to accept an apology for an incident… and then later use that same incident as emotional leverage rather than leaving it buried.
…Is this some kind of advanced law technique or what
Reactions generally have two components, both of which are complicit in the reaction. Regardless of whichever side is ‘acting badly’ (which is an entirely subjective judgement), both would be wise to avoid the other.
Raidah’s first appearance has her seeking out Sarah to tell her to choke on her lunch. Her secondhis her doing the same but calling her a bongo. Her third is calling Sarah a life ruiner.
Usually you don’t regularly harass the toxic people you’re trying to keep out of your life.
I don’t think that Raidah is really twisting the situation, at least not on purpose. You have to remember that she thinks that she’s right. She just doesn’t have all the information. The only time we see her is around Sarah, so we don’t really get a good indicator of how bad she really is. Of course her calling Dina special was a bit assholey.
She is claiming that she is trying to cut out the very person she’s been actively bullying, at least until she got a facefull of fist in retaliation (undeserved, but not unprovoked).
To be fair to Raidah, this would probably be her side of the story:
“Last year, I met Sarah, who was the roommate of my friend Dana. She was a quiet person who studied a lot, but we tried to be nice to her and let her in the group. She looked like she needed friends.
Then, Dana’s mom died. She was struggling with grief, like anyone would, but Sarah wasn’t accepting of this AT ALL. She was more concerned with her grades than anything.
Finally, Dana was starting to get better and be more like her normal self. Sarah, though, started claiming that she wasn’t getting better even though we could clearly see that Dana was. I don’t know why, but Sarah got Dana pulled out of school. Probably because she cared about the books more than her friends.
Then a year later, I was at the mall and talking to this nice freshman when, out of nowhere, Sarah comes up and gets all defensive. I tried to make a joke, but she punched me! It was really weird.”
I just wanted to point out that Raidah has only seen her side, and not all of the issues that Dana had that we saw from Sarah.
I think people have only seen Sarah’s side of the story, so they think Raidah is being manipulative. But honestly, if we saw Raidah’s side of the story, we would be looking at Sarah as a total bongo. We don’t really know what went on, though, other than what Sarah said.
Raidah’s going on the information she has, and the info she has is skewed, as is Sarah’s.
I dunno, she knew Dana was using and “knew” that having her father intervene would mean maybe Dana would stop using. Kiiiiinda can’t see her point, unless she’s also a user or [insert other rationalization].
Do you even college? People smoke weed all of the time. It’s not a big deal. Sarah was clearly okay with Dana smoking it, but Dana’s dependency became too much for her. Raidah also knew that Dana liked to smoke weed, but she was not really aware of how much it was becoming a dependency.
It was also a matter of Dana smoking IN THEIR ROOM, which Raidah may or may not have been aware of but could have jeopardized Sarah’s enrollment if it had been found out. (Remember, IU’s also been established as a dry campus – traditionally those aren’t fond of finding other drugs of questionable legality.)
It doesn’t matter what Raidah “didn’t see”, because Sarah went above and beyond asking her to look.
She chose not to look. She is a massive asshole, no matter what she believes happened.
Even if someone was wrong, if they tried to get someone pulled out of school and explained it was because they thought they were killing themselves, they should be sympathized with. What’s Raidah’s argument here, that if Sarah thinks someone is going to kill themself, she should just let them? That’s massively asinine. Raidah’s pissy that she had a source of entertainment taken away, and if she sincerely cared about Dana(?) as much as she claims, she would have taken Sarah’s pleas way more seriously.
And if Sarah’s telling the truth, refusing to look when Dana’s dumping her boyfriend, scaring her roommate, and rarely leaving her room. I can forgive not noticing when you take your friend at her word that she’s fine but when another friend says “DUDE SHE’S NOT FINE” and there’s all this STUFF to point to…
At this point, the only point Raidah might have is that Dana probably isn’t in a good place right now. Since she thinks Dana was fine before and Sarah had no other options we know of, not much of a point.
Also? When I went back to look at the Dana-flashback strips, for the first time I noticed that Dana’s group of friends in the “keeping up appearances” panel includes Sarah. A visibly unhappy, exhausted Sarah. The kind of stress and sleep deprivation Sarah was under usually leaves physical signs; you think Raidah ever said “Whoa, Sarah, you don’t look so good, are you okay?”
Raidah’s side of the story would make for a great spin off comic. Like the same story but told from the perspective of different people, with Raidah as the main character.
Honestly Raidah doesn’t seem like she’s an awful person. I doubt that she’s as manipulative as she appears here. Does she even know Sarah’s interested in Jacob?
And we never hear from Raidah just what was so awful about Sarah calling Dana’s dad, except for the fact that Raidah’s friend got taken away, seemingly (in Raidah’s view) because Sarah couldn’t deal with her grief and increased pot smoking because it interfered with Sarah’s studies. Was there some extenuating circumstance–was Dana’s dad abusive, unknown to Sarah but known to Raidah? Did her dad, after sending her to rehab or counseling, then punish her in some way, such as refusing to pay for her to return to college, or something worse?
I wonder what Dana’s situation is now– hopefully this gets covered at some time. Maybe Raidah will mention it to Jacob.
The former could certainly be a thing Raidah would have known and blamed her for right away, but I don’t think it was the latter, or at least that wasn’t a contributing thing since it started the day Dana left. (And it can easily take more than a year for someone to recover from drug addiction and bereavement, so it may not be an issue yet anyway.)
That completely omits the encounter with Dina and Sarah before the later dispute over Joyce. Raidah’s behavior there was absolutely appalling, and Is suspect Jacob would call her out on it if he knew the details.
In fact, Sarah’s best ally here is likely to be Dina, if it occurs to either of them to have her talk to Jacob or confront Raidah in his presence and demand an apology.
Honestly I think clarification would solve this entire feud. Raidah’s unaware of how bad Dana actually was and If she cares about her as much as it seems she’d thank Sarah for sending her away if she knew. The antagonistic behavior is a direct result of thinking Sarah acted completely in self interest. As far as the assuming Dina’s mentally disabled. I see that more an act of extreme idiocy than directly malicious.
I……can’t fault Raidah for that. Not entirely anyway. It’s hard to trust someone you believe faulted you. Especially when all evidence you’ve seen points to the contrary. Didn’t help Sarah’s case that Dana was some kind of Oscar nominated actress to her friends.
What makes you think Dana was such a good actress? The only panel we see of her public face looks to me like an extremely brittle smile.
If we’re using the fact that Raidah and the others believed her as evidence that Dana was great at pretending, then the argument is kind of circular, isn’t it? “Raidah couldn’t have known, because Dana was pretending so well, and we know Dana was pretending so well because Raidah didn’t know”?
As far as what happened at the mall, Joyce met Raidah, Sarah found Joyce and tried to drag her away. Raidah grabbed Joyce’s arm to prevent Sarah from dragging her away while stating that Joyce didn’t have to go with Sarah. Sarah then punched Raidah in the face. From anyone’s perspective other than Sarah, that’s a pretty violent overreaction. Raidah seemed to be pretty nice to Joyce before that.
Not unless she learns the difference between assault and battery first. Not that Jacob’s showing up well on that count either.
I’m honestly starting to wonder if part of Raidah’s issue is that Sarah’s grades (when they weren’t being crippled by Dana) are way better than hers. Jealousy is a good driver for spite.
Raidah refers to the incident as battery in an earlier comic. (Jen Aside’s comment higher up on the page has the link). I think she’s using a non technical version of the term assault, the one that just means to attack.
Dana comes from a wealthy family who owns a law firm. She is friends with Raidah, a pre-law student, and was assigned a room with Sarah, also a pre-law student. “Two, maybe three” of her friends’ parents also own law firms. She also tells Sarah that networking in college is equally important as her grades, showing her as someone who has at least considered a type of job like the one Sarah will be looking for.
It’s a small assumption, really.
Still an assumption, but a pretty safe one, I think.
In my experience, particularly in upper-level classes, the grading scales and methods can vary wildly between departments. Even between professors. There’s a business professor at my school who doesn’t follow the school guidelines for grades at all. He’s tenured and gets away with it. He’s also the department head, so students don’t really complain. They just warn each other about him.
My most recent psych professor’s grading system worked with a curve. She averaged the three highest points totals of individual students for our exams and assignments throughout the semester. The resulting average was considered a *perfect* score. She used that average to establish a curve that determined the grades of the rest of the class. 93% and up was an A, 93-82% was a B, 81-70% was a C, and 69-60% was a D. I was five points shy of an A, and I missed the day of class we had our only extra credit, which was worth 6 points. So infuriating.
Not a single professor in the rest of the department used such a scale or method. I heard she doesn’t even do it for her other classes. The med-focused programs are worse, I hear.
She is correct, colloquially speaking (and quite possibly within Indiana law – just because lawyers know the difference doesn’t mean lawmakers do; further, assault is usually charged along with battery, since the act implies a threat). She’s a law student, speaking to a law student, yes, but that doesn’t mean everything she says is going to be correct in such a way that it goes through court, because that’s not really how humans operate.
“Saying words that made me angry” and “continuing her months-long campaign of harassment” are subtly different, and while the latter still doesn’t make physical violence okay… bullied people do snap, and I can’t bring myself to feel too much condemnation for them, or sympathy for the bullies, when they do.
I was going to agree with you by sarcastically denying that context matters, and denying that it could plausibly be remotely forgivable for not having patience that would be legendary, but then I threw up in my mouth and realized I’ve read and heard that for realsies and it wouldn’t sound sarcastic. Yech.
‘She was harrassing me and Joyce, over an incident that was the result of her being an uncaring jackhole about her supposed friend’s spiral into self-destruction and me being the only person with a modicum of concern for what happened to her. So, yeah, I got mad and punched her. I shouldn’t have, but painting herself as a total victim is enough bullshit to keep every farm in the state fertile for the next decade.’
Raidah’s made literally zero attempt to cut Sarah out of her life. In fact, she’s actively sought Sarah out to antagonize her on a regular basis. Sarah was just minding her own businesss two weeks ago until Raidah became incredibly concerned by the sight of Sarah at the mall with friends and decided to head on over and confront Sarah about year old bullshit.
Is this genuinely how Raidah conceptualizes the relationship in her head or is this calculated?
That happened only shortly before the incident with Joyce and the punching. Raidah’s treatment of Dina certainly contributed to Sarah’s anger later on.
Yep, all happened at the mall, probably no more than a few minutes apart. Really depends on how long it took Sarah and Dina to find where Billie and Joyce were shopping.
But that confrontation is probably separate in her mind from getting punched. After that, Raidah and her girls didn’t follow Sarah, they went their own way, and were making great friends with Joyce and Billie when–from Raidah’s perspective–Sarah comes chasing them down, insisting Joyce stop talking to them and leave, and when Raidah tells Joyce that she doesn’t have to obey Sarah’s commands, Sarah punches her.
Since then, the ONLY time we’ve seen Raidah do anything is when Sarah goes up to her to apologize, and right now, when her reaction is “fuck this, I wanna get out of here immediately.” Yes, Raidah was an awful person in her interaction with Dina and here in the dorm room, but nothing she’s telling Jacob is wrong or even overly generous to herself.
The “then” in “Since then” is only two weeks ago. That she hasn’t actively sought out Sarah’s company in two whole weeks doesn’t mean anything, since she has a longstanding history of doing it.
THANK YOU.
This jerk constantly harasses her, and she expects NOT to get punched and then complains about it. Jacob can go somewhere if he eats Raidah’s BS up.
It depends on how well Sarah can hide it when she would need to.
So far, there has never been a time when Sarah has had to not be herself. She’s spoken to no professors or other authority figures of note. And even then, unless her current professors are the ones she’ll have in law school(unlikely, but possible) and she intends to practice in the area where these people will all wind up, how she comes across now, during her undergrad is mostly irrelevant.
Really, if she can be polite and respectful to superiors and wow them with her grades and participation in classes, her cynicism and antisociability simply becomes an amusing character quirk than a career killer.
One would assume, at least. I don’t any experience with law school, but popularity amongst her peers, especially at this level, isn’t necessarily going to get her ahead. It seems to be the case with the psych grad students at my school.
I dunno, she might make a pretty good prosecutor. Most people tend to dislike the prosecutor, and it does tend to require a somewhat needling approach, which Raidah seems to be pretty good at so far. We don’t know how she’s doing in her classes, but her ability to take a blunt yet sharp approach at the same time added to a good knowledge of her area of expertise might make a good prosecutor out of her some day.
I know she kinda let Dana down (she and Sarah both did, IMO), but for her part, she had no idea how bad things were for Dana: Dana certainly wasn’t being forthcoming. And all of Sarah’s attempts to address the issue were mainly permeated by “my grades? What about my grades??” Dana had just lost her mother, so Sarah was coming across as a HUGE jerk; I don’t blame Raidah for being dismissive of her concerns, and then blaming Sarah when things imploded.
Plus, Sarah suddenly deciding to steal someone’s boyfriend isn’t making her look great, either.
If Sarah actually makes a play for Jacob I’ll be surprised. I think it’s far more likely that she’ll talk to him when Raidah isn’t around (they share a class she isn’t in, after all) and tell her side of the story. Raidah’s bullying is not likely to make Jacob think better of her, and seeing to it that Raidah doesn’t get Jacob is Sarah’s stated goal, not some implausible attempt at seducing him.
But Raidah’s not all that much better. She seems to be ignoring how unhealthy Dana’s grieving process was entirely, whereas Sarah at least addresses it (though mainly when talking to Raidah), focusing instead on the fact that she liked Dana and was upset that she was forced to leave. And Sarah was willing to give Dana space to do her… grieving… until it started putting her own scholarship in jeopardy. But hey, that’s just what I took from it. I could be wrong.
No matter how Sarah “framed it” (which, if you actually look at the comics cited, she mentioned her grades as a response to the drug issue, not to denial that Dana was doing badly), Sarah informed Raidah and the others that Dana appeared to be spiraling downward, i.e., approaching suicide.
Fuck however Raidah thought Sarah was framing it, when someone says they think your friend is approaching suicide, you fucking investigate that. Raidah doesn’t have a leg to stand on here. If you’re at all being honest about the information we have about what Raidah knew, you should ABSOLUTELY blame her.
And fuck the “Sarah deciding to steal someone’s boyfriend” bit. (1) Sarah just now said it, and was ashamed that she had been ranting it out loud (really heavily implying she didn’t actually mean it), and (2) Raidah doesn’t know word one about it, so it doesn’t justify anything of what she just said.
I get where youre coming from! I’m not rooting for Raidah, as I mean she has also been pretty shitty to Sarah (which I understand, but still) but if I was in her situation I would probably be hating on Sarah too. We know more about Sarah so its easy to be on her side and make Raidah into the bad guy, but I would be doing similar things in her shoes. In Raidahs perspective, all Sarah’s done is get her friend kicked out of school after her mum died because her grades were going down. We know its not true, but Sarah didn’t really bother to explain herself very well regardless.
Im really just rooting for them to actually talk to each other here and get it all out properly. Though its definately gonna get worse before it gets better
The only person who implied that Sarah would steal Raidah’s boyfriend is Joyce, who’s convinced that Sarah and Jacob are destined to be romantically involved. Sarah’s stated goal is that Raidah doesn’t get Jacob. Sarah wants to throw a wrench into their relationship. Whether she and Jacob ever get horizontal with each other afterwards is only tangent to that. (Also important to note that Sarah hasn’t expressed romantic interest in Jacob. At least not explicitly)
Actually, Sarah has expressed romantic interest in Jacob. Joyce tells Sarah that she didn’t introduce her to Jacob because she was worried it would be racist. Sarah emphatically tells Joyce that if a guy looks like that, you definitely introduce her. She also has stared at his butt when he walks to his seat.
I read that as an extension and expression of Sarah’s low self-esteem. Sarah doesn’t think she is lovable. She thinks that everyone is destined to leave her once they start to get to know her, if they even give her the chance. That makes a relationship impossible.
I doubt she has a problem with dating Jacob, in theory. She just believes herself incapable of having an intimate relationship(of any kind) with another person.
The first ‘oh’ in that comic was just acknowledgement(Oh! I see why you don’t like Roz, then). The second ‘oh’ was disappointment(Oh. That means this will never happen.*sadface*).
But I guess that’s mostly in my head, rather than canon. I empathize a lot with Sarah, as I have also been on the roller coaster of depression and self-hate. It’s a scary ride that doesn’t want to let you off.
Gigafreak, yes, I can see your point about a distinction between those two terms, but I was using “romantic interest” in a less nitpicky sense. 🙂 Especially since the comment I was responding to referenced them “getting horizontal” and then in the next line referenced romantic interest, so I was taking romantic interest as a general term instead of a specific one.
I definitely meant it as a specific term, and separate from sexual interest. As the link in Gigafreak’s post shows, Sarah’s elated that Jacob isn’t going for Roz, until she realizes that she wants the same thing Roz does, and Jacob isn’t interested in that. Also why I used a phrase like getting horizontal, instead of love as a euphemism for sex.
Augh, true. And by this point, even saying “Do you have any idea how long I covered for her to keep us from getting expelled? Do you know how many nights I waited up until 3 AM to make sure she wasn’t DEAD somewhere? HOW DARE YOU” wouldn’t get through to Raidah.
The person Raidah is really lying to here isn’t Jacob – it’s herself. Raidah is still in serious denial about everything that happened with Dana and vilifying Sarah is necessary to maintaining that denial*. If Jacob wasn’t such a determinedly nice guy he might notice that Raidah’s ‘explanation’ is long on bile and short on context.
See I don’t see her in denial at all, to me I see Raidah as thinking she’s right and Sarah is this cold unfeeling monster who got Dana kicked out of school because she couldnt study. Yeah we know more about the situation, but Raidah doesn’t. Plus the two of them can’t seem to be civil too each other, so I doubt Sarah has explained her side of things that well to her
Sarah went to Raidah and tried to tell her that things weren’t getting better for Dana. Raidah brushes off her concerns. Sarah calls Dana’s dad. Raidah finds out what happens and confronts Sarah, while claiming that Dana was getting better. We know for a fact that is not true.
Sarah being selfish and wrong is the lynchpin that holds the “I’m a good friend who didn’t let my friend spiral out of control and down into drug addiction.” part of Raidah’s self-esteem together. If Sarah is right, then not only does she have to unpack and examine the idea that that statement is not entirely true, but also that she has been harassing and bullying a girl who tried to help her friend when she(Raidah) was, at best, ignoring her or, at worst, enabling her.
Yes we knew she wasn’t getting better, but from Raidah’s POV she was. What didn’t help Sarah’s argument to Raidah was the constant reference to her grades getting worse, instead of focusing of Dana’s well being, because to Raidah this just made Sarah look like a jerk who didn’t care. Sarah was shown as this frosty person who didn’t like to socialise, so its not much of a stretch for Raidah to think that she just wanted Dana out so she could study better.
Raidah has never shown any signs of thinking Sarah was ever in the right, so to her this isnt denial, this is her side of the story.
Yes. Exactly. She has never considered the possibility that Sarah could be right. Or even that she was a little bit right. At all.
Because if she does, all that stuff I described falls to pieces. It means that Raidah was and is wrong. It means that socially inept, grumpy Sarah knew more about her best friend than she did. It means that Dana needed help and she ignored it. It means taking some of the responsibility for Dana not being in school anymore rests. It means that, on more than one occasion, Raidah verbally assaulted someone who was only guilty of doing their best to help her friend.
But instead of having to face all of that, Raidah doubles down on being wrong. She goes so far as to sabotage any friendships Sarah might make.
They’re both flawed. One’s guilty of physical violence, the other one’s an outright bully even if she restricts herself to “just” words. Significantly, only one of them has ever apologized to the other for her behavior.
She comes off as a psycho when you leave out the year of harassment she’s gone through. Hitting is wrong but becomes a lot more understandable when you find out someone been pushed to the end of their limit.
Whereas anyone overhearing any of the bullying incidents would think Raidah was, at best, a bongo. Neither one of them shines, but there are way more Raidah-as-bad-guy occasions for people to take out of context.
Don’t just read the one strip where Sarah punches Raidah, read back aways and see what Sarah put up with. No good deed goes unpunished they say (even ones that you do for your own self interest too).
Sarah was harassed to the point of crying by these ‘friends of Dana-who didn’t have a clue Dana was killing herself”. Harassed because she took unpopular action to save Dana.
If ever a person was owed a punch, Raidah is the one. Hit her again Sarah.
Yeah, after a long time of constant harassment – going out of their way to harass Sarah – she hits you? COOL STORY, RAIDAH. Jacob won’t have that context (or the context for why Sarah’s hitting her when she’s near Joyce) but you should know you kept going after Sarah cos you were there, Raidah.
(I’d forgotten Raidah stops harassing Sarah after said punch. Ha.)
Yeah, sorry Sarah, you can’t explain away that one. My mom dated a man who punched a dude in public and got thrown out of the establishment. Sarah was lucky nobody saw it happen. Not only is assault illegal, but public brawling is ridiculous. If she thinks she can solve her problems by hitting people whenever and wherever she wants, that’s a problem.
Several things. I agree with your core point, but some of the things you use as reasons are… less than accurate. Thing 1: It wasn’t a brawl, it was a frustrated, desperate punch. Thing 2: It’s incredibly rare to be prosecuted on assault charges for a single punch. Thing 3: She doesn’t think she can solve her problems by hitting people whenever and wherever she wants. I can only think of two people she’s ever been shown to have hit: Ryan and Raidah. Both times it was at least partially to protect Joyce, though Raidah was more out of panic than anything else. Also, people DID see it happen. People usually see these things happen. It was the middle of the mall, for crying out loud. But I still agree that Sarah doesn’t have all that strong a case here.
Isnt it odd that noone had their phone in hand ready to snap or vid at least the immediate aftermath if not the violence itself? Anyone who didnt know would think that DoA is set in the 20th Century because not one person has their gaze locked on a handheld flatscreen even when conversing with other people — with the possible exception of Joes index card…. our collective willingness to ignore this is one of ghd Great Suspensions of Disbelief.
If I were Jacob I don’t think an apology would matter THAT much. I’d be like “okay I’m glad you’re sorry, but still what the hell?” But I mean, I see your point.
Raidah accepted the apology. When you accept an apology, it’s kind of understood that it’s buried and that you won’t use the incident as emotional leverage later, like she’s doing right now.
Raidah was friends with someone (Dana) who was doing illegal drugs, and more than likely knew it. To my knowledge it has never been stated just *what* type of illegal drugs; it was probably pot to start with (and I can see why that might have been winked at) but it might have gone to something heavier such as crack, meth, or worse. If she’s pre-law, doesn’t she know that this would make her an accessory after the fact?
And why is the fact that Dana was doing illegal drugs even being given a pass in the first place? Some things are just plain effin’ wrong, and even more so when it starts having an effect on others — such as the decline in Sarah’s grades.
To be fair, what Raidah says is true. I like how this comic shows there is no right/wrong side here, I mean we sympathise with Sarah because as a reader we know more about her, and what happened with Dana, but honestly if I was in Raidah’s shoes I would take the same approach here. I’ve had toxic people in my life and the only way to deal with them is just to cut them out. (Or at least, this was the case for me.)
In anycase, I really *really* do not see this going in Sarah’s favour at all. Hopefully the two might be able to properly talk through their issues with the other, but thats best case scenario here. I doubt very much on Sarah being able to convince Jacob of leaving Raidah
Yeah, I don’t agree with her actions, but I wouldn’t say she’s bullying Sarah. There’s been what a couple of times from what I remember, that she’s verbally attacked Sarah, and one of those times was when they unintentionally bumped into each other in the mall. Plus we haven’t seen anything more from her since.
I’m not saying Raidah is a good person, there have been a few times that I’ve cringed at stuff she’s said, but I wouldn’t say shes a bully
In basically the first two-three weeks of their return to school, Raidah has specifically sought Sarah out or used the forced proximity of dorm and school life to take potshots at Sarah multiple times, when all Sarah did was exist in a public space. Two of these incidents were Raidah actively attempting to socially isolate Srah.
The clear indication is that Raidah has been doing this since Dana left.
Raidah specifically sought her out once, angrily vented at her and then
left. The only other time we’ve seen is the time at the mall, which was an unintentional meeting. They were both shitty to each other then, and I’m not saying Raidah is a nice person, but she’s not bullying her. If there was a mention that she did this more often off -screen then I would see your point, but right now its only been those two occasions where some nasty stuff has been said
Raidah and her friends are actively bullying Sarah. They seek her out to insult her, when they come across her with other people they do their best to drive those people away from Sarah. They want her alone and feeling miserable. They are assholes.
Aside from the thing in the cafeteria which has been pointed out, when they met at the mall Raidah–totally unprovoked–accused her of ruining the lives of her friends, told Dina that she shouldn’t be friends with Sarah because other people were inconveniences to her, and when Sarah tried to just walk away Raidah yelled at her for doing it, because that’s “looking out for number one”. (But it’s only good sense when Raidah does it, because REASONS.)
That isn’t “they were both shitty to each other”. That’s “Raidah kept attacking Sarah without provocation, and Sarah finally snapped.”
Also, while there isn’t any canon indication of more than those three incidents…Dana was taken out of school at mid-term. It seems really unlikely to me that Raidah ignored Sarah for months after that, then suddenly started harassing her at the start of next year. Not impossible, just unlikely. The odds are that Raidah was doing this to her last year, too.
I think the problem is that Raidah has not cut Sarah out. She’s been antagonizing her all year – we were literally introduced to Raidah when she came especifically to Sarah’s table on the other side of the cafeteria to antagonize her. Sarah looks like she’d *love* to be cut off, and these two in fact actually cutting off would be the best thing for both, but it ain’t happening and not because of Sarah being the one that searches confrontation.
Unless I’m wrong, it was only that time and the time at the mall that we’ve seen them together. I agree that during those times she was out of line, I mean the stuff she said at the mall about Dina was eeeegh, but since the mall incident, we haven’t seen them together, so I believe that was the point where Raidah decided to cut all ties because ‘toxic’. What I really want to see from these two is them talking it out, not to be BFFs or anything, but so at least they no longer have to hate each other and can sort of understand the others point
You are wrong. There is also another strip in which Sarah is just chilling in the cafeteria when Raidah passed by and called her a “bongo” for no reason. The strip ended with Sarah deciding to go eat elsewhere. The implication is that Raidah have been doing similar things whenever in Sarah’s vicinity, which is outright bulling.
Yeah, maybe Raidah decided to stop going after Sarah after the mall scene, but it was just then.
Torra, There was a comic where Sarah was minding her own business, eating lunch and Raidah came up and asked her if “this seat taken?” and then went into a rant about how of course it isn’t because Sarah is a terrible person and has no friends.
I noticed nobody has mentioned the last line of the comic… “The list is going to get bigger”. Maybe its just an assumption that all lawyers will get beat up by angry clients/victims/etc.; on the other hand, Jacob could be thinking “Wait, why would she get punched so much? Maybe there’s something wrong with her.”
When I type “Lawyer pu” into Google, it autocompletes to “Lawyer Punched in Court” as the top result. It could have autocompleted to something like “Lawyer pulls his weight” or “Lawyer punches someone else,” and in fact “Lawyer puns” was the SECOND autocomplete option.
“Lawyer gets punched” is a Thing here! It probably shouldn’t be, but it is.
My mom never got punched, but let me say this: In her office, they have posted numerous photos of people to report to security if you see them, because they have been known to stalk and threaten people in the office. Sometimes give death threats. When there were phone books, my mom made sure we were unlisted. I wasn’t allowed to be in public photos that the school took, in case somebody recognized me as her daughter.
It actually depends on how Raidah presents it combined with the kind of person she is. If Raidiah presents the facts regardless of how she sees them and Jacob is aware of the kind of person she is he might smell the bullshit.
Raidah. She´s the type who likes to gnaw on old bones. Whether she is aware or not of the futility of that attitude of hers, doesn´t matter. Now, I´d like to know if Jacob will be keen enough to pick up on this, or if he will simply shrug it off. It can be grating to be in the middle of a catfight…
Raidah is far from the source of truth. She never lived with her friend or Sarah, passed judgement on Sarah, and then continually spread rumors based on the judgement. She refused to believe her friend had a drug problem or any type of problems and needed help. She made it seem that Sarah just assaulted her, but she twisted it so much that she left out the fact that she went up to Sarah and the rest, and started with the claims and yelling.
The most effective thing about this strip is that, if we knew as much about Sarah as Raidah does, it would come off as the same jokey banter between friends that the other characters’ conversations sound like, and we wouldn’t think twice of how Raidah is labeling Sarah right now.
Punching someone is a bad thing to do. Bullying someone and trying to turn their friends against them is a bad thing to do. Punching seems to have stopped the bullying (while not causing Raidah any serious harm). The punch was apologized for, the bullying was not. Sarah punching Raidah in her stupid face was a net good.
Sarah got really lucky that Raidah or a bystander didn’t call the police or press charges. It’s also really good that Raidah wasn’t seriously harmed by the punch. Punching someone isn’t a go to solution for relentless bullying, but I honestly struggle to see how else she would’ve dealt with it. Seems like it eventually would’ve pushed her to do something drastic.
I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to rant at you. “Net good,” despite what Utilitarians would like you to believe, is crap, and one of the worst reasonings for anything. People and right and wrong aren’t numbers, and you shouldn’t do math with them. “Net good,” for example, says you really should get rid of about half to two-thirds of the world’s population right now.
More to the case in point, “net good” means that if Raidah and her posse feel good harassing Sarah, they should, because there’s more good being generated that way than not harassing Sarah.
Well I think your first example is very flawed, after all half to two thirds of the population dying would be negative for that very large amount of the worlds population. Further if anyone in that group was friends with the half that lived than people outside of that group would also see it as bad. Therefore removing two thirds or half the population would have a net negative effect.
Furthermore Raidah and her friends have other actions they could undertake that would make them feel just as good without hurting another human being.
This discussion was had a couple of strips ago. Apparently, depending on the culture of the region (not even country) you were raised in, a +1 may be automatically assumed unless otherwise specified.
I can see misanthrope, but not narcissist. For instance, a narcissist would never have admitted to Joyce that she didn’t know how to help Dana, and that she may have made her worse when she tried to comfort her.
Just because you put it in capital letters, doesn’t mean that Sarah is narcissistic. In fact she doesn’t seem to be doing that great on the self esteem front. http://www.dumbingofage.com/2014/comic/book-4/04-the-whiteboard-dong-bandit/newrecord/ (She refers to her soul as a dark pit of nothing. That doesn’t say great things about her self worth). And I’m unsure of what you mean by Sarah is getting exactly what she would expect if she wasn’t a narcissist. That implies that she thinks a scene like this wouldn’t happen. Considering her view of people, a scene like this is exactly what she would expect to happen.
First off, how did he immediately assume (granted correctly) that the assault was a punch. I guess luck is a possibility, but seems a stretch. Second of all, ARGH! I can’t believe Sarah is letting Raidah get away, especially now that she’s playing the BS “poor victim” card. I’m so sick of people who do that.
Sarah’s not present for this conversation. Sarah is currently hiding in her half bath to avoid drama. I’m not sure what you mean by “Letting Raidah get away”.
The only way to see a Radiah/Sarah reconciliation (or rather an end to their feud) would be if Dana came back, even just to visit. If she comes back doing better, she might actually thank Sarah for what she did–and Radiah would have a hard time viewing Sarah as all bad then. If she comes back not better, most likely Radiah would notice that Dana was/is not in a good place. And thus internal questions could begin, albeit probably really slowly.
no you should never punch someone. also no you should never be an ableist fuck and actively condescend to people with mental illness. raidah you manipulative fuck
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“Oh come on, two WEEKS? That’s practically two YEARS! Water under the bridge!”
And come on, it’s probably been like what, 30 years since Sarah got Dana taken away?
Of the bullies, Radiah is my favorite. (Not saying too much)
More interesting is that in rereading the archives, it appears she forgave Sarah for hitting her…. so why is she so up in arms about it here?
You can forgive somebody while still learning that maybe you really shouldn’t hang out with them.
Because she needed to justify her outrage and present herself as the reasonable one.
this is not going to go how sarah thinks its going to go
Yeah, first to give their side wins, more or less. Raidah: 100. Sarah: 0.
Actually, I’m thinking about the whole “first to give their side wins” and people’s general reactions to Raidah. I should point out that we’ve only really got Sarah’s point of view, and we’re all assuming that it’s 100% true. complete, and accurate, which it probably is, but I kinda hope that someday Willis Rashomons the shit out of us.
I think that given their comparative perspectives in this situation (ie, Sarah was LIVING WITH Dana, Raidah was just a friend,) Sarah’s is going to be more accurate just from greater experience. I mean, unless Raidah was out getting high with Dana until 3 in the morning, in which case her attitude towards Sarah is even less justified because HELLO ROOMMATES you KNOW this would be disruptive to someone trying to study and maintain a normal sleep schedule. Plus the potential drug bust and expulsion threat. Also, that is not an hour that suggests “perfectly healthy and casual recreational drug use”, just as a rule.
Particularly since we haven’t known Sarah to lie thus far, and even when she’s suspicious of other people she’s open about those suspicions.
I’m starting to wonder if Raidah’s foil-ness to Sarah regarding their background (Raidah’s dad has a firm, I think vs. Sarah having tough scholarship guidelines) is going to come up in relation to this. Like, we don’t have anything to suggest that Raidah doesn’t study a fair bit, but her not being as pressured to could play into her being less aware of spending time getting high with Dana.
So basically it’s “Daddy owns a law firm” vs. “I’m really fucking serious about being a lawyer”.
Also, Sarah’s side came with a visual flashback, and if CSI has taught me anything it’s that flashbacks are always 100% how it went down.
You should always trust the hallucination.
Please keep in mind that they are ALL prelaw majors. One of the things drilled into you is to use the maximum amount of available evidence before making any decision. I see Jacob asking Sarah what happened before deciding; he’s one of the most rational people in the cast.
+1 for using “Rashomon” as a verb.
+1 for using “the shit” as its object.
My hat is off to you.
I award you 10 points for Rashomon reference
Basically this. Raidah said her version first, she has practically won unless Jacob is waaaaaay more willing to hear people out than the average person.
I think, given that Jacob and Sarah have interactions that predate his involvement with Raidah, Jacob will be more willing to listen than the average person.
If anything, he’s probably going to be more curious as to what is going on with Sarah.
Yeah…Jacob liked Sarah before he liked Raidah.
Do we know that for sure? Jacob first met Sarah last Sunday. It’s currently Saturday. Jacob is on his second date with Raidah. It’s entirely possible that Jacob has known Raidah for longer. (Second, it never really seemed to me that Jacob ever seemed romantically interested in Sarah. Considering that he said he would give up trying to be friends with Sarah on Friday, it’s almost a given he was already dating Raidah at that time).
I disagree with the whole “first to give their side wins” thing. They ARE in law classes; they’re going to have present evidence and judge this fairly if they want to prove it.
Raidah: 100. Sarah: 0
The kind of “insurmountable” odds typically reserved for Bugs Bunny.
“Why did you punch her in the face”
“They’ve been bullying, harrassing me, and gaslighting me for a year”
“why did you bully her”
“We want her to kill herself.”
Seems like an easy win for Sarah unless Jacob is stupid or crazy stuff happens.
it SHOULD be, but lets be real. sarahs not gonna let it be that easy for herself.
NO, JACOB!!! RESIST THE DARK SIDE!!! Or, rather, the side that doesn’t have Sarah on it, to be more accurate.
at this point I think the best thing for Jacob to do is run, run and never return
It’s not too late Jacob! You still have time to transfer to a college where your friends won’t undergo existential crises every 3-4 days!
Is Becky’s school co-ed? He could transfer and inspire even more much-needed sexual self-discovery with his beauty.
Really? I thought that was just par for the course in college. If people weren’t having existential crises at first, they did after they had to take intro to philosophy.
Raidah is not a main character!!!
Only Sarah can make you a main character!
Assaulted!?
She punched Raidah in the face for talking to Joyce.
I know I was trying to do the whole sarcasm thing. I don’t know how to convey that in type. Maybe quotes? Take two: “Assaulted”?! ……eh.
Didnt She punch Raidah for grabbing Dina by the arm to prevent Sarah from pulling Dina along with her as she stormed out of the Mall?
No. They were fighting over whether Joyce would stay or go.
Oopsie. Im doubly handicapped here: otoh, my memory of past episodes often fails me, otoh, i am ultra-clumsy using the archive/tag system.
To be fair, I re-read all the Raidah strips a few days ago. She’s got few enough appearances that it’s viable to do so, unlike most characters.
I had honestly forgotten how bad her treatment of Dina was.
Ive been fighting the urge lately to reread the Archive. Rade vetro!
Was it really? I just re-read it too. To me Raidah sounded genuinely concerned about Dina, since she belives Sarah to be a bad influence on her, and since she actually thought (albeit a bit jumping-to-conclusiony) Dina was mentally handicapped.
The OTHERS were treating Dina as shit, but Raidah wasn’t. She defended Dina, twice.
It is generally considered very rude to kneel down to the same height as someone to speak to them, whether or not they have any type of handicap. It conveys condescension, as did her tone when talking to Dina. And it is NEVER ok to speak condescendingly or in an infantilizing tone to someone who has a handicap.
I should also say, I’m 100% sure that Raidah knew Dina is capable of understanding regular spoken English: Dina exhibited advanced knowledge of dinosaurs in a mostly contextually appropriate fashion. Raidah spoke to Dina that way because she could tell she was socially different.
Just want to say “genuine concern” for someone is never a way to excuse something.
I mean Joyce’s parents were generally concerened for joyce when she told them she was friends with an AETHIEST!
Just like I’m sure Raidah is generally ernest in her trying to protect people from Sarah and her asshole status all comes from the fact that she refuses to believe Sarah is anything but a villain despite the fact that despite everything Sarah was the ONLY one to do what a friend should have done.
Well, Sarah punched Raidah. What else would you call it?
Battery?
A high five!….To the face….with her fist….can’t spin this.
So not mains then…
I would call it battery.
So would any competent law student. How are your grades, Raidah?
“high”
What you did there. I see it.
Some states do not have “battery”, so assault would actually be accurate. Im not sure if this is true for their state.
http://codes.lp.findlaw.com/incode/35/42/2/35-42-2-1
(of course I still have the Raidah avatar. Ironic irony is ironic)
Reading through the code, looks like Sarah’s firmly in class B misdemeanor territory. Another site tells me that in Indiana that means up to 180 days in jail and a fine of up to $1,000.
It is worth noting, however, that possession of marijuana for personal use is a class A misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in jail and a fine of up to $5,000. And second offenses+ rise to class D felony, up to three years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000.
Just as a general bit of context.
9 volt?
Id call it “punched”. Seriously. Is everyone here pre-law? Not that theres anything wrong with that …. 🙂
The point is that Raidah is pre-law, and she’s wrong about a very simple and clearly defined offense. Makes her sound dumb – and frankly, Jacob comes across as none too smart either, since “punched” is battery.
Yeah, i was joking, THOUGH i hadnt considered which legal term meant what, either, and somehow i never picked that up on Law and Order.
But would a brand new 2nd year pre-law student — Raidah — have necessarily had a class that covered that? And i doubt that we can expect Jacob to be in any classes which would have covered that in the first month (or, whatever) of his first term at college. Pre-law isnot a degree-major. And Id think being pre-law is like being pre-med: ive known pre-meds who hadnt encountered a lot of very basic stuff about Med in their college classes. Unlikd Australia where you can earn a law degree or medical degree in college.
Well I learned that in highschool Civics and Economics (None honors)
so I think she would now such a simple term.
Im not sure that i retain anything from Civics, but i took it much longer ago than Raidah, so perhaps she should know the distiction.
Are you kidding? We’ve progressed like 2 months in about 4 years. At that pace, Raidah took Civics at least 35 years ago, if not more, lol.
Dang! I get so confused trying to convert from InDumbyverseTime (IDT) to InRealLifeTime (IRLT) … Its worse that Farenheit/Centigrade! Once I thought that everything IDT had happened in the last 5 minutes IRLT.
No, some of us have been in jail or sued or a number of other things that get you in contact with the criminal injustice system. Assault is words and actions that do not result in contact, contact makes it battery.
Man, then what the hell is the Assault class in XCOM? The “ooga booga run up and scare the aliens but no touchy” class?
[think she’s just using the “common” usage, like how “literally” means “not literally” and makes my head a splode]
[[alternately, she is doing for SHIT in her classes, unlike Sarah]]
Cancel that, she knows it’s battery… it’s just weird saying “she batteried me in a store”
Would battery be cognate with battered: she battered me?
Battered is correct. I’ve had occasion to sign complaints that used that term.
Cool! But not to be confused with battered as in battered and deep fried. Though i spose that would count as legal battery?
As would spitchcocking someone in the literal sense of cut into small pieces and fry. Whereas the figurative sense of spitchcocking — treat severly — would count as assault if it was a verbal spitchcocking?
Unless its battery with a sock full of batteries…
it’s just weird saying “she batteried me in a store”
It’s only weird outside of Philadelphia and Cleveland.
Like Battered and Deep frahd budder?
Ah! I hadnt considered that angle, though plenty of DoAs cast have been involved in it.
2) the difference between the Legal System and the Justice System, eh?
3) Im so used to hearing the terms “assault and battery” together as if thats a single term and without coming across or looking up their meaning….
To be fair, if you commit battery, you’ll also generally be charged with assault as well. The reverse isn’t true, though.
I learned that in high school, chatting with the cop as we waited for my brother to get back from being chased off by the folks who followed us home from school to egg us (I didn’t know that was their entire plan).
Amusing and Schadenfreudelicious, but I don’t think either of those are permitted as a defense in a court of law.
Schadenfreudelicious makes me very happy! I will be looking for an opportunity to use it.
I thought I had made it up, then I searched it. I am not so creative as I believed. =P Glad I could share it though!
(some people would call it good parenting)
A headbutt to the fist.
:C
I feel so bad for Sarah, but Raidah actually sounds reasonable, and Sarah’s already pushed Jacob away once. I get the sense that she’s in for a world of heartbreak if she gets sucked into this. Again, :C.
While the romance is in the grey, I do think Raidah is holding way too much.
People who went through what Dana did tend to have a lot more issues, the fact she didn’t believe a roommate and a friend AT ALL. The fact a legal student was so OK with a pothead and after she started to destroy her own life and effect Sarah’s and Radiah so blindly took one side (which I’m pretty sure lawyers are supposed to look at both and side with what they think is the right. May be wrong but you get the point) Radiah seems pretty bad.
Factor in it had been 1 year later and Radiah didn’t know Dana’s room, which even if they didn’t hang in dorms much you think she’d check in once or twice on a grieving friend.
Radiah is really a terrible person, she did little for her friend, she blamed Sarah for the necessary evil (telling on Dana) and constantly trying to state that she would ruin other lives as well while the only why she ‘ruined’ Dana’s life was by revealing she was doing illegal drugs in a dangerous fashion. Which again shows how awful a friend Radiah was for not noticing the drug issue at all, hell Sarah’s story even stated that Dana dumped her bf and stayed in her dorm constantly. Radiah and her friends didn’t even check on her.
While Sarah didn’t need to harm Radiah I think she was a much better friend and we just got to hope Jacob can understand that instead of being absorbed in Raidah demonizing story. (face it she’ll fudge the story for Sarah too look much worst)
Let’s also remember that during the period where Dana was supposedly “getting better” according to Raidah, she dumped her boyfriend. Ditching a significant other is usually not a good sign when you’re talking about someone grieving a lost parent, especially with drug use thrown in on top of it. It’s funny how we never see or hear about him – was he not friends with anyone but Dana? Didn’t Raidah, Char, and Chan still hang around with him?
“I’m pretty sure lawyers are supposed to look at both and side with what they think is the right”
Arguably lawyers are supposed to side with the people who are paying them (pro bono notwithstanding). In this case Raidah is just a kid siding with Occam’s path of least emotional resistance, which is believing that her friend wasn’t suicidal and her friend’s roommate is a percussional instrument that got her friend removed from college out of spite and later punched Raidah during an argument.
And going to desperate levels in order to keep doing so. i.e. making, shifting all blame or unwanted accountability to others and defending her Raidah-colored glasses view of things at any cost, her key to psychological survival. Sarah clearly has issues, but Raidah is going to run out of paths to run away from her own issues if she doesn’t at least find one or two alternate ways to address problems with potential guilt or being ‘the bad guy’ over anything….
Where are people getting this “They’re studying to be lawyers so they should know to listen to both sides” stuff from? That’s what judges (and juries) are supposed to do, but lawyers are under no such obligation. They argue on behalf of their clients. You’ll never hear, e.g., a criminal defense lawyer for somebody pleading not guilty say, “You know, after hearing the evidence, I think there’s a possibility my client is guilty.”
Trial By Combat, one of the most enduring traditions of the court system.
All of a sudden I want to see these two as British barristers with the silk robes and Georgian wigs.
Did you know that the British legal profession went into mourning for Queen Anne in 1714 and has never come out?
None of them are going to make Rumpole of the Bailey that’s for sure.
Well, none of The Learned Friends did either.
There’s no good way to ask “Why did they punch you in the face?” without somehow implying the victim is to blame.
“What happened?” works
Well, the point of the question is to find out if they’re to blame. We’re talking about a punch to the face, there’s no culturally-sacred victim status being violated by asking if it was provoked or not.
Notably, it was, in fact, a response to what we as readers are led to believe had been a sustained campaign of verbal bullying, including at least one prior attempt to prevent Sarah from having friends.
Well, sometimes a punch to the face is completely justified. Not in that case, but in some cases. Of course, if it’s pretty clear who’s at fault, then yeah, be careful what you say. But Jacob has next to zero context.
C’mon, Jacob. We all know no one would ever punch you.
Eh, maybe Mike
Mike would punch the world if he could get away with it.
He could, all he has to do is kneel down and punch the ground.
Mike does this at least once a day. It’s part of his morning routine.
In contrast to “Scuse me while I kiss the sky”.
“She attacked me, COMPLETELY unprovoked, like I wasn’t even doing anything. This is totally 100% her fault, Jacob. What? Talk to her about it? No. No no no. There’s no need to follow up and get the other side of the story, just take everything I’m saying at face value and avoid her from now on.”
Yes, before anyone comments on it, I know that what Sarah did was assault, and it’s not okay. I’m just commenting on Raidah’s irritating habit of viewing, and explaining things through Raidah coloured glasses, more so than the average person.
I don’t think this is a Raidah-colored glasses moment. This is a “we have a history of bad relations, most recently she literally punched me in the face” thing. I don’t think the typical person is going to tell that story significantly differently.
Besides, in all seriousness, Sarah punching Raidah was a massive overreaction, if not completely unprevoked.
Classic “anger management issues”
‘if not completely unprovoked’. No, let’s not kid ourselves – provoked. Raidah has antagonized Sarah to a pretty extreme degree. No, for those not following, this does not mean she deserved to be punched. It just means she’s not some innocent party to the whole thing.
Exactly. As part of an on-going campaign of bullying.
Are Sarah’s actions justified? No.
But it wasn’t unprovoked.
Yep. That’s Raidah all over. I’ve also noticed since Sarah gave in to aggravated assault on Raidah’s nose. called her friends out on being bullies (the later seemed to have upset Raidah more than the former) than finally came to apologize in a passive-aggressive fashion, Her issues with Sarah have taken a direction they should’ve taken close to a year ago. Hell, it looks like Sarah’s about to do something to live up Raidah’s label of her as toxic. As one sows, so shall they reap….Even if right *actually* is on their side.
Fortunately for Sarah, she has a better body than Raidah.
Yeah, because this comic doesn’t have a thing for short chunky girls with glasses and shoulder length fluffy haircuts.
I can take or leave the glasses, but the rest of it gets my hearty approval.
..Am I missing a joke or reference here?
Dorothy, Joyce, Amber, Becky, Billie, and Ruth fit all fit at least one of those three criteria. Some have all three.
And there’s the last panel of this shortpacked! strip that strongly implies it: http://www.shortpacked.com/index.php?id=1742
My comment was actually in reply to Googergeiger, not Thebetterer, so I’m still confused as to what Googer’s joke is. Thanks, though.
Maybe a reference to the “sexy outfit” Joyce got her into when she was actively pursuing Jacob? Outside of that, both Raidah and Sarah dress pretty modestly, leaving us with little to judge their physiques by.
Is kind of sad that at this point Sarah and Raidah can only take out the worst of each other when they see eye to eye.
<blockquote cite="Some people are toxic and you need to cut them out of your life”>
Funny thing for you to say, Raidah.
The girl’s projecting herself into others. Figures.
Yeah, she has a funny way of cutting Sarah out of her life. Normally, that would involve, I don’t know, avoiding her?
“But only the people _I_ think are toxic. The rest of you can shut the face up”
“And by cutting them out of your life, I mean go up to them and say mean things to them every single time I see them”
Raidah’s really showing her manipulative side today. If you want to cut Sarah out of your life so badly, why do you keep confronting her? She socked you after you’d already verbally attacked her and Dina at the mall, and you did the same thing in the dining hall earlier. Really a petty and vindictive bully.
That bit about some people being toxic is going to come back to haunt her, guaranteed. Sarah will have a chance to talk to Jacob without her around the next time they have class together. We’ll see if Raidah can twist things enough to keep him from listening, but I doubt it.
To be fair, Raidah have been avoiding Sarah. It is not like she chose to confront her. She even left as soon as she could.
That said, yeah, that “toxic” comment will bit her in the butt. Cutting out toxic influence is exactly what Raidah is mad at Sarah for. It is hard to call Dana anything but “toxic” for Sarah. And Sarah did try to help, but no one else was collaborating.
This is literally the only time she’s avoided her. In two other cases Raidah (and Char and Chan) confronted Sarah as a pack, and when Sarah apologized to her in the dining hall she certainly didn’t try to avoid her and behaved confrontationally even after the apology, even though she was initially concerned for her safety.
It was Sarah who went to Raidah in the last dinning scene. What would Raidah do, run away? She was confrontational, sure, but it was Sarah who initiated the conversation.
That said, I had forgot how the meeting in the mall went. Raidah was totally the one to initiate contact there. It wasn’t a simple chance meeting, it was Raidah going to Sarah directly. Similarly, her very first appearance was she going to Sarah fight with her for no reason.
So, yeah, you are right. At most, Raidah learned to stay away from Sarah after receiving a punch in the face.
Raidah’s also not (quite) foolish enough to get in an argument with Sarah on her home turf, in a room full of people she’s presumably friends with (including three people from the mall), and in front of a guy she’s just started dating. And even then, she couldn’t resist snapping at Sarah before leaving – and she made sure to get out before Sarah could speak her case for Jacob to hear.
Not stupid, whatever her other flaws.
You’re more optimistic than I am, Rich—and I hope you’re right.
Obviously she wasn’t trying to avoid Sarah when we first encountered her, but she may have changed her mind and decided to do that after her last encounter with Sarah in the cafeteria. Because we haven’t seen her interact with Sarah since then, and that was two-and-a-half years and a dozen storylines ago. Maybe the idea that she was at physical risk from Sarah scared her off, maybe she took a look at her behavior and wasn’t pleased by it, maybe she just decided she had better things to do than follow Sarah around and call her names. No telling. But I do think she’s serious about cutting Sarah out of her life, now.
Being charitable, maybe she also realized that her cohort bullies were fairly awful people after the mall encounter with Dina and has stopped associating with them. Splitting up that pack would reduce the impetus for any of them to bully Sarah further – and maybe that “toxic” crack was in reference to the kind of person that uses the word “retard” to describe another human being.
That’s well beyond charitable, frankly. Like, I was quite glad Raidah managed to meet the low bar of “wtf is wrong with you?’ to Char, but that reading isn’t even a little bit where this is going, narratively or colloquially.
Although, do note that only two weeks have passed since the mall excursion. Not really much time at all in story.
Yeah, I agree; I missed the in-universe time reference the first time through. I’m still inclined to think Raidah actively decided to stop, but two weeks isn’t really long enough to be sure.
Well…shit.
Half-truths and telling Jacob as little iformation as she can…begins!
Good luck Sarah…you will need it.
Raidah may have been set up as the bad guy at the beginning but I honestly think she has a pretty valid point
Yeah, when you’re enabling a drug addict and you never actually see them hit rock bottom, everything from your own perspective looks like you have a valid point.
She has a valid point that Sarah assaulted her (and even Sarah admits she shouldn’t have done that). She has a valid point that it’s probably best that she and Sarah stay out of each other’s way. She does not have a valid point that the situation is wholly, or even mostly, Sarah’s fault.
OK the fight yeah that’s like 90% Sarah’s fault. However the whole Dana incident Sarah asked Radiah and the others to help Dana but the ignored it.
Even excluding the first few days (her grieving period) she didn’t get better just a facade…then Dana dumped her boyfriend but do we here anyone came to check on her? NO! Dana’s ‘friends’ may of all been the type ‘just let her have some time’ which doesn’t always work especially when they decide to leave her alone and disrespect another friend’s requests for help (Sarah asking for help) which is also the roommate which kind of means the fact NO ONE BELIEVED HER worst…
Sarah really just was surrounded by terrible people and one nice person who just broke.
Did she say that though? At worst, she’s admitting that Sarah is toxic because of what she does to Raidah, which is make her a jerk. And, in a way, her rage was understandable if not defensible or right in any way. I don’t know why it’s so hard for people to admit that. She was a bully but she honestly thought Dana was getting better?
If she didn’t spend her time venting her indefensible rage on a character I generally sympathize with and believe to have been in the right, I would have more time for her. But she does and I don’t.
And no, she didn’t admit that Sarah makes her a jerk. (Which is still putting responsibility for Raidah’s actions on Sarah’s shoulders, but aside from that.) Being extremely generous, it could be what she meant, but it’s not what she said, and there’s no possible way Jacob could get that from “some people are toxic” and “she assaulted me.” Nothing Raidah says in the above strip suggests that she’s at fault for anything.
Thing is, Wil, some people just *make* that hard to admit to themselves. A few, even to the point of becoming complete monsters.
Yet she conveniently left out how she’d been bullying Sarah up to that point.
Can someone link the comic where Raidah was punched?
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2012/comic/book-2/05-saturdays-all-right-for-slighting/paid/
And now we’ll get to see what kind of guy Jacob is – the kind who takes this sort of thing at face value, or the kind who wants to know both sides.
I think he’s possibly the most level-headed person in the comic (or at least in the top 3). Yeah, I don’t think Jacob is anybody’s fool.
Sadly, that may just be the result of our not having seen much of him yet. He’s only been in 35 strips as of today – about the same as Raidah. He’s certainly made a better early impression than she has, but Willis likes characters with feet of clay.
She also totaly apologized and you accepted it.
True; But In her own way Raidah is right.
Raidah knows she cant stop herself from getting in Sarahs face and insulting her in front of people.
( she just did it again )
Sarah already Hit her once for it.
Raidah accepted the apology, but she did not offer Sarah one either.
She hasnt ( and probably cant ) stop herself from provoking Sarah.
She just attempted to publicly humiliate Sarah, in Sarahs own room, in front of her friends, at a party Raidah wasnt invited to.
In this context, Raidah is right. She should stay away from Sarah. She is risking getting another punch.
Right, but doesn’t that make Raidah the toxic one?
Arguably yes. The only time Sarah has sought out Raidah was when she was apologizing for battering her.
It is pretty fucked up to accept an apology for an incident… and then later use that same incident as emotional leverage rather than leaving it buried.
…Is this some kind of advanced law technique or what
Reactions generally have two components, both of which are complicit in the reaction. Regardless of whichever side is ‘acting badly’ (which is an entirely subjective judgement), both would be wise to avoid the other.
Yes, but calling someone toxic assigns them responsibility, rather than saying something more neutral like “I can’t handle being around her”
Raidah’s first appearance has her seeking out Sarah to tell her to choke on her lunch. Her secondhis her doing the same but calling her a bongo. Her third is calling Sarah a life ruiner.
Usually you don’t regularly harass the toxic people you’re trying to keep out of your life.
I don’t think that Raidah is really twisting the situation, at least not on purpose. You have to remember that she thinks that she’s right. She just doesn’t have all the information. The only time we see her is around Sarah, so we don’t really get a good indicator of how bad she really is. Of course her calling Dina special was a bit assholey.
Way more than a bit, and that earlier interaction (which can only be described as bullying) put Sarah on edge and into a confrontational mindset.
She is claiming that she is trying to cut out the very person she’s been actively bullying, at least until she got a facefull of fist in retaliation (undeserved, but not unprovoked).
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2012/comic/book-2/05-saturdays-all-right-for-slighting/choice/
“…and so everyone thought I was just exaggerating the severity of her problem.”
Raidah was given the facts. She just chose to disbelieve them due to Dana’s “presentation.”
To be fair to Raidah, this would probably be her side of the story:
“Last year, I met Sarah, who was the roommate of my friend Dana. She was a quiet person who studied a lot, but we tried to be nice to her and let her in the group. She looked like she needed friends.
Then, Dana’s mom died. She was struggling with grief, like anyone would, but Sarah wasn’t accepting of this AT ALL. She was more concerned with her grades than anything.
Finally, Dana was starting to get better and be more like her normal self. Sarah, though, started claiming that she wasn’t getting better even though we could clearly see that Dana was. I don’t know why, but Sarah got Dana pulled out of school. Probably because she cared about the books more than her friends.
Then a year later, I was at the mall and talking to this nice freshman when, out of nowhere, Sarah comes up and gets all defensive. I tried to make a joke, but she punched me! It was really weird.”
I just wanted to point out that Raidah has only seen her side, and not all of the issues that Dana had that we saw from Sarah.
I think people have only seen Sarah’s side of the story, so they think Raidah is being manipulative. But honestly, if we saw Raidah’s side of the story, we would be looking at Sarah as a total bongo. We don’t really know what went on, though, other than what Sarah said.
Raidah’s going on the information she has, and the info she has is skewed, as is Sarah’s.
I dunno, she knew Dana was using and “knew” that having her father intervene would mean maybe Dana would stop using. Kiiiiinda can’t see her point, unless she’s also a user or [insert other rationalization].
Do you even college? People smoke weed all of the time. It’s not a big deal. Sarah was clearly okay with Dana smoking it, but Dana’s dependency became too much for her. Raidah also knew that Dana liked to smoke weed, but she was not really aware of how much it was becoming a dependency.
It was also a matter of Dana smoking IN THEIR ROOM, which Raidah may or may not have been aware of but could have jeopardized Sarah’s enrollment if it had been found out. (Remember, IU’s also been established as a dry campus – traditionally those aren’t fond of finding other drugs of questionable legality.)
It doesn’t matter what Raidah “didn’t see”, because Sarah went above and beyond asking her to look.
She chose not to look. She is a massive asshole, no matter what she believes happened.
Even if someone was wrong, if they tried to get someone pulled out of school and explained it was because they thought they were killing themselves, they should be sympathized with. What’s Raidah’s argument here, that if Sarah thinks someone is going to kill themself, she should just let them? That’s massively asinine. Raidah’s pissy that she had a source of entertainment taken away, and if she sincerely cared about Dana(?) as much as she claims, she would have taken Sarah’s pleas way more seriously.
“She chose not to look”
And if Sarah’s telling the truth, refusing to look when Dana’s dumping her boyfriend, scaring her roommate, and rarely leaving her room. I can forgive not noticing when you take your friend at her word that she’s fine but when another friend says “DUDE SHE’S NOT FINE” and there’s all this STUFF to point to…
At this point, the only point Raidah might have is that Dana probably isn’t in a good place right now. Since she thinks Dana was fine before and Sarah had no other options we know of, not much of a point.
Also? When I went back to look at the Dana-flashback strips, for the first time I noticed that Dana’s group of friends in the “keeping up appearances” panel includes Sarah. A visibly unhappy, exhausted Sarah. The kind of stress and sleep deprivation Sarah was under usually leaves physical signs; you think Raidah ever said “Whoa, Sarah, you don’t look so good, are you okay?”
…me neither.
Raidah’s side of the story would make for a great spin off comic. Like the same story but told from the perspective of different people, with Raidah as the main character.
Honestly Raidah doesn’t seem like she’s an awful person. I doubt that she’s as manipulative as she appears here. Does she even know Sarah’s interested in Jacob?
She’s lying to Jacob and painting Sarah as toxic to him, when Raidah is the one who’s made a point of harassing Sarah.
Raidah is an awful person, is incredibly deceitful and manipulative, and should feel awful about what she’s doing.
And we never hear from Raidah just what was so awful about Sarah calling Dana’s dad, except for the fact that Raidah’s friend got taken away, seemingly (in Raidah’s view) because Sarah couldn’t deal with her grief and increased pot smoking because it interfered with Sarah’s studies. Was there some extenuating circumstance–was Dana’s dad abusive, unknown to Sarah but known to Raidah? Did her dad, after sending her to rehab or counseling, then punish her in some way, such as refusing to pay for her to return to college, or something worse?
I wonder what Dana’s situation is now– hopefully this gets covered at some time. Maybe Raidah will mention it to Jacob.
The former could certainly be a thing Raidah would have known and blamed her for right away, but I don’t think it was the latter, or at least that wasn’t a contributing thing since it started the day Dana left. (And it can easily take more than a year for someone to recover from drug addiction and bereavement, so it may not be an issue yet anyway.)
That completely omits the encounter with Dina and Sarah before the later dispute over Joyce. Raidah’s behavior there was absolutely appalling, and Is suspect Jacob would call her out on it if he knew the details.
In fact, Sarah’s best ally here is likely to be Dina, if it occurs to either of them to have her talk to Jacob or confront Raidah in his presence and demand an apology.
Honestly I think clarification would solve this entire feud. Raidah’s unaware of how bad Dana actually was and If she cares about her as much as it seems she’d thank Sarah for sending her away if she knew. The antagonistic behavior is a direct result of thinking Sarah acted completely in self interest. As far as the assuming Dina’s mentally disabled. I see that more an act of extreme idiocy than directly malicious.
Raidah’s only ‘unaware’ of how bad Dana had gotten because she refused to believe when told.
I……can’t fault Raidah for that. Not entirely anyway. It’s hard to trust someone you believe faulted you. Especially when all evidence you’ve seen points to the contrary. Didn’t help Sarah’s case that Dana was some kind of Oscar nominated actress to her friends.
What makes you think Dana was such a good actress? The only panel we see of her public face looks to me like an extremely brittle smile.
If we’re using the fact that Raidah and the others believed her as evidence that Dana was great at pretending, then the argument is kind of circular, isn’t it? “Raidah couldn’t have known, because Dana was pretending so well, and we know Dana was pretending so well because Raidah didn’t know”?
As far as what happened at the mall, Joyce met Raidah, Sarah found Joyce and tried to drag her away. Raidah grabbed Joyce’s arm to prevent Sarah from dragging her away while stating that Joyce didn’t have to go with Sarah. Sarah then punched Raidah in the face. From anyone’s perspective other than Sarah, that’s a pretty violent overreaction. Raidah seemed to be pretty nice to Joyce before that.
Well, give Sarah credit, she also wad pretty shocked and appalled by her having punched Raidah,
With all these little convenient truths you’re spouting, Raidah, you’ll make a fine defense attorney in the future. 😠
Not unless she learns the difference between assault and battery first. Not that Jacob’s showing up well on that count either.
I’m honestly starting to wonder if part of Raidah’s issue is that Sarah’s grades (when they weren’t being crippled by Dana) are way better than hers. Jealousy is a good driver for spite.
Raidah refers to the incident as battery in an earlier comic. (Jen Aside’s comment higher up on the page has the link). I think she’s using a non technical version of the term assault, the one that just means to attack.
Maybe Danas were worse than Raidahs; and Dana going home hurt Raidahs spot on the grading curve
I don’t think we know Dana’s major. She might have been pre-law as well, but that’s a big assumption.
Besides, how many classes actually use a curve?
Eh, I wouldn’t say it’s a big assumption.
Dana comes from a wealthy family who owns a law firm. She is friends with Raidah, a pre-law student, and was assigned a room with Sarah, also a pre-law student. “Two, maybe three” of her friends’ parents also own law firms. She also tells Sarah that networking in college is equally important as her grades, showing her as someone who has at least considered a type of job like the one Sarah will be looking for.
It’s a small assumption, really.
Still an assumption, but a pretty safe one, I think.
As far as the grading thing goes….
In my experience, particularly in upper-level classes, the grading scales and methods can vary wildly between departments. Even between professors. There’s a business professor at my school who doesn’t follow the school guidelines for grades at all. He’s tenured and gets away with it. He’s also the department head, so students don’t really complain. They just warn each other about him.
My most recent psych professor’s grading system worked with a curve. She averaged the three highest points totals of individual students for our exams and assignments throughout the semester. The resulting average was considered a *perfect* score. She used that average to establish a curve that determined the grades of the rest of the class. 93% and up was an A, 93-82% was a B, 81-70% was a C, and 69-60% was a D. I was five points shy of an A, and I missed the day of class we had our only extra credit, which was worth 6 points. So infuriating.
Not a single professor in the rest of the department used such a scale or method. I heard she doesn’t even do it for her other classes. The med-focused programs are worse, I hear.
Small point, they’re only sophomores, no upper-level classes for them yet.
She is correct, colloquially speaking (and quite possibly within Indiana law – just because lawyers know the difference doesn’t mean lawmakers do; further, assault is usually charged along with battery, since the act implies a threat). She’s a law student, speaking to a law student, yes, but that doesn’t mean everything she says is going to be correct in such a way that it goes through court, because that’s not really how humans operate.
Sarah: Well yes, I did punch her but she was saying words that made me angry.
What are you people in the comments thinking the other side to the story is? Can Sarah possibly say anything that makes this ok?
No, and that’s why she apologized for doing it. Doesn’t fix it, but it shows she knew she did something wrong.
Raidah, OTOH, has apologized for nothing, because she is always right and her actions are always wholly justified. At least in her mind.
“Saying words that made me angry” and “continuing her months-long campaign of harassment” are subtly different, and while the latter still doesn’t make physical violence okay… bullied people do snap, and I can’t bring myself to feel too much condemnation for them, or sympathy for the bullies, when they do.
I was going to agree with you by sarcastically denying that context matters, and denying that it could plausibly be remotely forgivable for not having patience that would be legendary, but then I threw up in my mouth and realized I’ve read and heard that for realsies and it wouldn’t sound sarcastic. Yech.
‘She was harrassing me and Joyce, over an incident that was the result of her being an uncaring jackhole about her supposed friend’s spiral into self-destruction and me being the only person with a modicum of concern for what happened to her. So, yeah, I got mad and punched her. I shouldn’t have, but painting herself as a total victim is enough bullshit to keep every farm in the state fertile for the next decade.’
Raidah’s made literally zero attempt to cut Sarah out of her life. In fact, she’s actively sought Sarah out to antagonize her on a regular basis. Sarah was just minding her own businesss two weeks ago until Raidah became incredibly concerned by the sight of Sarah at the mall with friends and decided to head on over and confront Sarah about year old bullshit.
Is this genuinely how Raidah conceptualizes the relationship in her head or is this calculated?
The same pack of bullies also confronted Sarah in their dining hall earlier.
I would say she’s being extremely manipulative here.
Nevermind. I mixed up two events in my head.
Two weeks ago was when Joyce and Raidah met eachother while Sarah had stepped out. Raidah didn’t realize Joyce was out with Sarah.
I was thinking of the time Raidah and the gang saw Sarah out with Dina and felt they had to intervene.
That happened only shortly before the incident with Joyce and the punching. Raidah’s treatment of Dina certainly contributed to Sarah’s anger later on.
Oh really? I’m just skimming through her tag at the moment. Didn’t realize that was all the same day.
Yep, all happened at the mall, probably no more than a few minutes apart. Really depends on how long it took Sarah and Dina to find where Billie and Joyce were shopping.
But that confrontation is probably separate in her mind from getting punched. After that, Raidah and her girls didn’t follow Sarah, they went their own way, and were making great friends with Joyce and Billie when–from Raidah’s perspective–Sarah comes chasing them down, insisting Joyce stop talking to them and leave, and when Raidah tells Joyce that she doesn’t have to obey Sarah’s commands, Sarah punches her.
Since then, the ONLY time we’ve seen Raidah do anything is when Sarah goes up to her to apologize, and right now, when her reaction is “fuck this, I wanna get out of here immediately.” Yes, Raidah was an awful person in her interaction with Dina and here in the dorm room, but nothing she’s telling Jacob is wrong or even overly generous to herself.
The “then” in “Since then” is only two weeks ago. That she hasn’t actively sought out Sarah’s company in two whole weeks doesn’t mean anything, since she has a longstanding history of doing it.
It was literally out introduction to her
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2010/comic/book-1/02-uphill-from-here/taken/
She just walks up to Sarah eating lunch and goes to town on this “toxic” influence she wants out of her life entirely.
Or remember this one?
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2011/comic/book-1/06-yesterday-was-thursday/
Just impulsive drive by insults. It’s convenient that her sudden desire to be uninvolved comes just in time to make her look good for Jacob.
THANK YOU.
This jerk constantly harasses her, and she expects NOT to get punched and then complains about it. Jacob can go somewhere if he eats Raidah’s BS up.
Seeing Raidah smiling and joking feels weird and wrong, it’s like seeing the Pope curse.
If the Pope heard about Raidah’s malicious intents on Sarah, I’m sure he’d curse.
I feel like she’s talking down to Jacob a bit and that really makes me mad. so far he is the nicest, smartest and most reasonable character.
They’re both going into law? Sarah might not win this one.
Sarah is too, remember.
I forgot that detail but Sarah’s grumblebum nature is a big negative working against her.
It depends on how well Sarah can hide it when she would need to.
So far, there has never been a time when Sarah has had to not be herself. She’s spoken to no professors or other authority figures of note. And even then, unless her current professors are the ones she’ll have in law school(unlikely, but possible) and she intends to practice in the area where these people will all wind up, how she comes across now, during her undergrad is mostly irrelevant.
Really, if she can be polite and respectful to superiors and wow them with her grades and participation in classes, her cynicism and antisociability simply becomes an amusing character quirk than a career killer.
One would assume, at least. I don’t any experience with law school, but popularity amongst her peers, especially at this level, isn’t necessarily going to get her ahead. It seems to be the case with the psych grad students at my school.
Unless someone captures and posts a vid to the web of Sarah losing it.
I feel awkward in the fact that I think I’ve been both Sarah and Raidah in this situation, at the same time.
Depressing, isn’t it?
*Thinks of Raidah going into law.*
*Shudders.*
She’d probably be a Republican and work for Scott Walker. One more reason for me to dislke her.
I dunno, she might make a pretty good prosecutor. Most people tend to dislike the prosecutor, and it does tend to require a somewhat needling approach, which Raidah seems to be pretty good at so far. We don’t know how she’s doing in her classes, but her ability to take a blunt yet sharp approach at the same time added to a good knowledge of her area of expertise might make a good prosecutor out of her some day.
Rooting for Raidah here, honestly.
I know she kinda let Dana down (she and Sarah both did, IMO), but for her part, she had no idea how bad things were for Dana: Dana certainly wasn’t being forthcoming. And all of Sarah’s attempts to address the issue were mainly permeated by “my grades? What about my grades??” Dana had just lost her mother, so Sarah was coming across as a HUGE jerk; I don’t blame Raidah for being dismissive of her concerns, and then blaming Sarah when things imploded.
Plus, Sarah suddenly deciding to steal someone’s boyfriend isn’t making her look great, either.
If Sarah actually makes a play for Jacob I’ll be surprised. I think it’s far more likely that she’ll talk to him when Raidah isn’t around (they share a class she isn’t in, after all) and tell her side of the story. Raidah’s bullying is not likely to make Jacob think better of her, and seeing to it that Raidah doesn’t get Jacob is Sarah’s stated goal, not some implausible attempt at seducing him.
Yeah, I don’t think Jacob’s opinion of either of them is going to improve.
Blaming Sarah would be one thing. Refusing to have anything more to do with Sarah, while misguided, would have been 100% her right.
Harassing Sarah all year is what makes her so rightly loathed.
But Raidah’s not all that much better. She seems to be ignoring how unhealthy Dana’s grieving process was entirely, whereas Sarah at least addresses it (though mainly when talking to Raidah), focusing instead on the fact that she liked Dana and was upset that she was forced to leave. And Sarah was willing to give Dana space to do her… grieving… until it started putting her own scholarship in jeopardy. But hey, that’s just what I took from it. I could be wrong.
Bullshit.
No matter how Sarah “framed it” (which, if you actually look at the comics cited, she mentioned her grades as a response to the drug issue, not to denial that Dana was doing badly), Sarah informed Raidah and the others that Dana appeared to be spiraling downward, i.e., approaching suicide.
Fuck however Raidah thought Sarah was framing it, when someone says they think your friend is approaching suicide, you fucking investigate that. Raidah doesn’t have a leg to stand on here. If you’re at all being honest about the information we have about what Raidah knew, you should ABSOLUTELY blame her.
And fuck the “Sarah deciding to steal someone’s boyfriend” bit. (1) Sarah just now said it, and was ashamed that she had been ranting it out loud (really heavily implying she didn’t actually mean it), and (2) Raidah doesn’t know word one about it, so it doesn’t justify anything of what she just said.
I get where youre coming from! I’m not rooting for Raidah, as I mean she has also been pretty shitty to Sarah (which I understand, but still) but if I was in her situation I would probably be hating on Sarah too. We know more about Sarah so its easy to be on her side and make Raidah into the bad guy, but I would be doing similar things in her shoes. In Raidahs perspective, all Sarah’s done is get her friend kicked out of school after her mum died because her grades were going down. We know its not true, but Sarah didn’t really bother to explain herself very well regardless.
Im really just rooting for them to actually talk to each other here and get it all out properly. Though its definately gonna get worse before it gets better
Eh, being mad at Sarah is understandable.
A years worth of seeking her out to harass and bully her is not.
The only person who implied that Sarah would steal Raidah’s boyfriend is Joyce, who’s convinced that Sarah and Jacob are destined to be romantically involved. Sarah’s stated goal is that Raidah doesn’t get Jacob. Sarah wants to throw a wrench into their relationship. Whether she and Jacob ever get horizontal with each other afterwards is only tangent to that. (Also important to note that Sarah hasn’t expressed romantic interest in Jacob. At least not explicitly)
Actually, Sarah has expressed romantic interest in Jacob. Joyce tells Sarah that she didn’t introduce her to Jacob because she was worried it would be racist. Sarah emphatically tells Joyce that if a guy looks like that, you definitely introduce her. She also has stared at his butt when he walks to his seat.
That’s a sexual interest rather than a romantic one, though. She’d like to bang Jacob, not necessarily date him. She has, in fact, quietly expressed displeasure at the idea of having to date him in order to fuck him.
I read that as an extension and expression of Sarah’s low self-esteem. Sarah doesn’t think she is lovable. She thinks that everyone is destined to leave her once they start to get to know her, if they even give her the chance. That makes a relationship impossible.
I doubt she has a problem with dating Jacob, in theory. She just believes herself incapable of having an intimate relationship(of any kind) with another person.
The first ‘oh’ in that comic was just acknowledgement(Oh! I see why you don’t like Roz, then). The second ‘oh’ was disappointment(Oh. That means this will never happen.*sadface*).
But I guess that’s mostly in my head, rather than canon. I empathize a lot with Sarah, as I have also been on the roller coaster of depression and self-hate. It’s a scary ride that doesn’t want to let you off.
Gigafreak, yes, I can see your point about a distinction between those two terms, but I was using “romantic interest” in a less nitpicky sense. 🙂 Especially since the comment I was responding to referenced them “getting horizontal” and then in the next line referenced romantic interest, so I was taking romantic interest as a general term instead of a specific one.
I definitely meant it as a specific term, and separate from sexual interest. As the link in Gigafreak’s post shows, Sarah’s elated that Jacob isn’t going for Roz, until she realizes that she wants the same thing Roz does, and Jacob isn’t interested in that. Also why I used a phrase like getting horizontal, instead of love as a euphemism for sex.
And Joyce’s middle name is Emma, isnt it?
Raidah, Raidah, Raidah, you and Sarah REALLY need to have a talk.
And Sarah, you REALLY need to explain just how bad it had gotten.
She has. Raidah refused to believe her.
Augh, true. And by this point, even saying “Do you have any idea how long I covered for her to keep us from getting expelled? Do you know how many nights I waited up until 3 AM to make sure she wasn’t DEAD somewhere? HOW DARE YOU” wouldn’t get through to Raidah.
The person Raidah is really lying to here isn’t Jacob – it’s herself. Raidah is still in serious denial about everything that happened with Dana and vilifying Sarah is necessary to maintaining that denial*. If Jacob wasn’t such a determinedly nice guy he might notice that Raidah’s ‘explanation’ is long on bile and short on context.
See I don’t see her in denial at all, to me I see Raidah as thinking she’s right and Sarah is this cold unfeeling monster who got Dana kicked out of school because she couldnt study. Yeah we know more about the situation, but Raidah doesn’t. Plus the two of them can’t seem to be civil too each other, so I doubt Sarah has explained her side of things that well to her
Sarah went to Raidah and tried to tell her that things weren’t getting better for Dana. Raidah brushes off her concerns. Sarah calls Dana’s dad. Raidah finds out what happens and confronts Sarah, while claiming that Dana was getting better. We know for a fact that is not true.
Sarah being selfish and wrong is the lynchpin that holds the “I’m a good friend who didn’t let my friend spiral out of control and down into drug addiction.” part of Raidah’s self-esteem together. If Sarah is right, then not only does she have to unpack and examine the idea that that statement is not entirely true, but also that she has been harassing and bullying a girl who tried to help her friend when she(Raidah) was, at best, ignoring her or, at worst, enabling her.
That is textbook denial.
Yes we knew she wasn’t getting better, but from Raidah’s POV she was. What didn’t help Sarah’s argument to Raidah was the constant reference to her grades getting worse, instead of focusing of Dana’s well being, because to Raidah this just made Sarah look like a jerk who didn’t care. Sarah was shown as this frosty person who didn’t like to socialise, so its not much of a stretch for Raidah to think that she just wanted Dana out so she could study better.
Raidah has never shown any signs of thinking Sarah was ever in the right, so to her this isnt denial, this is her side of the story.
Yes. Exactly. She has never considered the possibility that Sarah could be right. Or even that she was a little bit right. At all.
Because if she does, all that stuff I described falls to pieces. It means that Raidah was and is wrong. It means that socially inept, grumpy Sarah knew more about her best friend than she did. It means that Dana needed help and she ignored it. It means taking some of the responsibility for Dana not being in school anymore rests. It means that, on more than one occasion, Raidah verbally assaulted someone who was only guilty of doing their best to help her friend.
But instead of having to face all of that, Raidah doubles down on being wrong. She goes so far as to sabotage any friendships Sarah might make.
I want Raidah to be lying about the assault, but she’s not, so yeah, Sarah sort of comes off like a psycho here, doesn’t she?
They’re both flawed. One’s guilty of physical violence, the other one’s an outright bully even if she restricts herself to “just” words. Significantly, only one of them has ever apologized to the other for her behavior.
She comes off as a psycho when you leave out the year of harassment she’s gone through. Hitting is wrong but becomes a lot more understandable when you find out someone been pushed to the end of their limit.
True, but if you were unacquanted with any of the people involved and only saw Sarah turn into the Incredible Hulk in the Mall, what would you think?
Whereas anyone overhearing any of the bullying incidents would think Raidah was, at best, a bongo. Neither one of them shines, but there are way more Raidah-as-bad-guy occasions for people to take out of context.
Don’t just read the one strip where Sarah punches Raidah, read back aways and see what Sarah put up with. No good deed goes unpunished they say (even ones that you do for your own self interest too).
Sarah was harassed to the point of crying by these ‘friends of Dana-who didn’t have a clue Dana was killing herself”. Harassed because she took unpopular action to save Dana.
If ever a person was owed a punch, Raidah is the one. Hit her again Sarah.
Yeah, after a long time of constant harassment – going out of their way to harass Sarah – she hits you? COOL STORY, RAIDAH. Jacob won’t have that context (or the context for why Sarah’s hitting her when she’s near Joyce) but you should know you kept going after Sarah cos you were there, Raidah.
(I’d forgotten Raidah stops harassing Sarah after said punch. Ha.)
Yeah, sorry Sarah, you can’t explain away that one. My mom dated a man who punched a dude in public and got thrown out of the establishment. Sarah was lucky nobody saw it happen. Not only is assault illegal, but public brawling is ridiculous. If she thinks she can solve her problems by hitting people whenever and wherever she wants, that’s a problem.
Several things. I agree with your core point, but some of the things you use as reasons are… less than accurate. Thing 1: It wasn’t a brawl, it was a frustrated, desperate punch. Thing 2: It’s incredibly rare to be prosecuted on assault charges for a single punch. Thing 3: She doesn’t think she can solve her problems by hitting people whenever and wherever she wants. I can only think of two people she’s ever been shown to have hit: Ryan and Raidah. Both times it was at least partially to protect Joyce, though Raidah was more out of panic than anything else. Also, people DID see it happen. People usually see these things happen. It was the middle of the mall, for crying out loud. But I still agree that Sarah doesn’t have all that strong a case here.
Isnt it odd that noone had their phone in hand ready to snap or vid at least the immediate aftermath if not the violence itself? Anyone who didnt know would think that DoA is set in the 20th Century because not one person has their gaze locked on a handheld flatscreen even when conversing with other people — with the possible exception of Joes index card…. our collective willingness to ignore this is one of ghd Great Suspensions of Disbelief.
I more meant that none of the security guards or staff saw. I think if they had, they would have been on her like white on rice.
Jacob just needs out of this whole situation. This is only going to get more stressful from here.
But he might actually do something interesting in this universe.
Augh fuck you Raidah, you’re right but you’re also shit.
What Raidah’s leaving out is that Sarah sought her out and apologised http://www.dumbingofage.com/2012/comic/book-2/06-strange-beerfellows/relax/ Now I wonder why she’d leave that out
The archive is handy.
If I were Jacob I don’t think an apology would matter THAT much. I’d be like “okay I’m glad you’re sorry, but still what the hell?” But I mean, I see your point.
Raidah accepted the apology. When you accept an apology, it’s kind of understood that it’s buried and that you won’t use the incident as emotional leverage later, like she’s doing right now.
Raidah was friends with someone (Dana) who was doing illegal drugs, and more than likely knew it. To my knowledge it has never been stated just *what* type of illegal drugs; it was probably pot to start with (and I can see why that might have been winked at) but it might have gone to something heavier such as crack, meth, or worse. If she’s pre-law, doesn’t she know that this would make her an accessory after the fact?
And why is the fact that Dana was doing illegal drugs even being given a pass in the first place? Some things are just plain effin’ wrong, and even more so when it starts having an effect on others — such as the decline in Sarah’s grades.
Willis showed Dana using a bong a couple times I believe, and during Sarah’s “story time” she only mentioned pot.
You can’t hold every punch to the face against someone.
I mean, look how good of friends Joe and Mike are….
That wasbusiness, mike was paid to punch him, nothing personal.
That’s not really a very good argument. A loan shark’s kneebreaker is only hurting his victim because of business, but that doesn’t make it okay.
I forgot to end with a smiley. Also, i doubt that joe andmike are good friends 🙂
To be fair, what Raidah says is true. I like how this comic shows there is no right/wrong side here, I mean we sympathise with Sarah because as a reader we know more about her, and what happened with Dana, but honestly if I was in Raidah’s shoes I would take the same approach here. I’ve had toxic people in my life and the only way to deal with them is just to cut them out. (Or at least, this was the case for me.)
In anycase, I really *really* do not see this going in Sarah’s favour at all. Hopefully the two might be able to properly talk through their issues with the other, but thats best case scenario here. I doubt very much on Sarah being able to convince Jacob of leaving Raidah
There is a right and a wrong.
Being a bully doesn’t suddenly stop being wrong when you finally bully your victim enough that they lash out physically.
Yeah, I don’t agree with her actions, but I wouldn’t say she’s bullying Sarah. There’s been what a couple of times from what I remember, that she’s verbally attacked Sarah, and one of those times was when they unintentionally bumped into each other in the mall. Plus we haven’t seen anything more from her since.
I’m not saying Raidah is a good person, there have been a few times that I’ve cringed at stuff she’s said, but I wouldn’t say shes a bully
In basically the first two-three weeks of their return to school, Raidah has specifically sought Sarah out or used the forced proximity of dorm and school life to take potshots at Sarah multiple times, when all Sarah did was exist in a public space. Two of these incidents were Raidah actively attempting to socially isolate Srah.
The clear indication is that Raidah has been doing this since Dana left.
That is a campaign of harassment. It is bullying.
Raidah specifically sought her out once, angrily vented at her and then
left. The only other time we’ve seen is the time at the mall, which was an unintentional meeting. They were both shitty to each other then, and I’m not saying Raidah is a nice person, but she’s not bullying her. If there was a mention that she did this more often off -screen then I would see your point, but right now its only been those two occasions where some nasty stuff has been said
It’s been more than those two times.
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2010/comic/book-1/02-uphill-from-here/taken/ Her introduction, completely unprovoked
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2011/comic/book-1/06-yesterday-was-thursday/fifteen/ Second time again unprovoked and driving Sarah into isolation
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2012/comic/book-2/05-saturdays-all-right-for-slighting/wander/ at the mall where she again insults Sarah and tries to deliberately keep someone from being her friend
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2012/comic/book-2/05-saturdays-all-right-for-slighting/size/ Naturally when Sarah finds Joyce with raidah a few minutes later she takes it poorly
Nest there’s the apology and today’s unpleasantness.
Raidah and her friends are actively bullying Sarah. They seek her out to insult her, when they come across her with other people they do their best to drive those people away from Sarah. They want her alone and feeling miserable. They are assholes.
Aside from the thing in the cafeteria which has been pointed out, when they met at the mall Raidah–totally unprovoked–accused her of ruining the lives of her friends, told Dina that she shouldn’t be friends with Sarah because other people were inconveniences to her, and when Sarah tried to just walk away Raidah yelled at her for doing it, because that’s “looking out for number one”. (But it’s only good sense when Raidah does it, because REASONS.)
That isn’t “they were both shitty to each other”. That’s “Raidah kept attacking Sarah without provocation, and Sarah finally snapped.”
Also, while there isn’t any canon indication of more than those three incidents…Dana was taken out of school at mid-term. It seems really unlikely to me that Raidah ignored Sarah for months after that, then suddenly started harassing her at the start of next year. Not impossible, just unlikely. The odds are that Raidah was doing this to her last year, too.
I think the problem is that Raidah has not cut Sarah out. She’s been antagonizing her all year – we were literally introduced to Raidah when she came especifically to Sarah’s table on the other side of the cafeteria to antagonize her. Sarah looks like she’d *love* to be cut off, and these two in fact actually cutting off would be the best thing for both, but it ain’t happening and not because of Sarah being the one that searches confrontation.
Unless I’m wrong, it was only that time and the time at the mall that we’ve seen them together. I agree that during those times she was out of line, I mean the stuff she said at the mall about Dina was eeeegh, but since the mall incident, we haven’t seen them together, so I believe that was the point where Raidah decided to cut all ties because ‘toxic’. What I really want to see from these two is them talking it out, not to be BFFs or anything, but so at least they no longer have to hate each other and can sort of understand the others point
You are wrong. There is also another strip in which Sarah is just chilling in the cafeteria when Raidah passed by and called her a “bongo” for no reason. The strip ended with Sarah deciding to go eat elsewhere. The implication is that Raidah have been doing similar things whenever in Sarah’s vicinity, which is outright bulling.
Yeah, maybe Raidah decided to stop going after Sarah after the mall scene, but it was just then.
Torra, There was a comic where Sarah was minding her own business, eating lunch and Raidah came up and asked her if “this seat taken?” and then went into a rant about how of course it isn’t because Sarah is a terrible person and has no friends.
I noticed nobody has mentioned the last line of the comic… “The list is going to get bigger”. Maybe its just an assumption that all lawyers will get beat up by angry clients/victims/etc.; on the other hand, Jacob could be thinking “Wait, why would she get punched so much? Maybe there’s something wrong with her.”
Lawyers have an extremely horrible reputation in America. There’s an entire genre of insulting or outright vicious lawyer jokes. I’d say it’s definitely just the lawyer thing that makes Jacob think that he and Raidah are punchable.
I know lawyers are disliked. But I’m assuming most of them manage to go their whole career without ever getting punched.
When I type “Lawyer pu” into Google, it autocompletes to “Lawyer Punched in Court” as the top result. It could have autocompleted to something like “Lawyer pulls his weight” or “Lawyer punches someone else,” and in fact “Lawyer puns” was the SECOND autocomplete option.
“Lawyer gets punched” is a Thing here! It probably shouldn’t be, but it is.
My mom never got punched, but let me say this: In her office, they have posted numerous photos of people to report to security if you see them, because they have been known to stalk and threaten people in the office. Sometimes give death threats. When there were phone books, my mom made sure we were unlisted. I wasn’t allowed to be in public photos that the school took, in case somebody recognized me as her daughter.
There are actually only two (2) lawyer jokes.
Everything else is the absolute truth.
It actually depends on how Raidah presents it combined with the kind of person she is. If Raidiah presents the facts regardless of how she sees them and Jacob is aware of the kind of person she is he might smell the bullshit.
she sounds like tumblr
Raidah. She´s the type who likes to gnaw on old bones. Whether she is aware or not of the futility of that attitude of hers, doesn´t matter. Now, I´d like to know if Jacob will be keen enough to pick up on this, or if he will simply shrug it off. It can be grating to be in the middle of a catfight…
Raidah is far from the source of truth. She never lived with her friend or Sarah, passed judgement on Sarah, and then continually spread rumors based on the judgement. She refused to believe her friend had a drug problem or any type of problems and needed help. She made it seem that Sarah just assaulted her, but she twisted it so much that she left out the fact that she went up to Sarah and the rest, and started with the claims and yelling.
Jacob and Danny has the same idea of second dates
Shhh! Youre going to encourage the Shippers!
As if Danny didn’t do that enough yesterday.
The most effective thing about this strip is that, if we knew as much about Sarah as Raidah does, it would come off as the same jokey banter between friends that the other characters’ conversations sound like, and we wouldn’t think twice of how Raidah is labeling Sarah right now.
Punching someone is a bad thing to do. Bullying someone and trying to turn their friends against them is a bad thing to do. Punching seems to have stopped the bullying (while not causing Raidah any serious harm). The punch was apologized for, the bullying was not. Sarah punching Raidah in her stupid face was a net good.
Sarah got really lucky that Raidah or a bystander didn’t call the police or press charges. It’s also really good that Raidah wasn’t seriously harmed by the punch. Punching someone isn’t a go to solution for relentless bullying, but I honestly struggle to see how else she would’ve dealt with it. Seems like it eventually would’ve pushed her to do something drastic.
I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to rant at you. “Net good,” despite what Utilitarians would like you to believe, is crap, and one of the worst reasonings for anything. People and right and wrong aren’t numbers, and you shouldn’t do math with them. “Net good,” for example, says you really should get rid of about half to two-thirds of the world’s population right now.
More to the case in point, “net good” means that if Raidah and her posse feel good harassing Sarah, they should, because there’s more good being generated that way than not harassing Sarah.
Well I think your first example is very flawed, after all half to two thirds of the population dying would be negative for that very large amount of the worlds population. Further if anyone in that group was friends with the half that lived than people outside of that group would also see it as bad. Therefore removing two thirds or half the population would have a net negative effect.
Furthermore Raidah and her friends have other actions they could undertake that would make them feel just as good without hurting another human being.
Jacob shouldn’t have assumed he could bring a date to a party in someone’s dorm room. This little brouhaha is pretty much his fault.
This discussion was had a couple of strips ago. Apparently, depending on the culture of the region (not even country) you were raised in, a +1 may be automatically assumed unless otherwise specified.
Sarah’s preeeetty much getting exactly what she would expect if she wasn’t a narcissist. (NOTE: MISANTHROPY IS SUPER NARCISSISTIC)
Why? Not saying you’re wrong, but I can’t quite get the line of reasoning that goes Misanthropy->Narcissism
I think she was more socially anxious or suspicious of anyone who would like her when Dana first befriended her. She even told Raidah that they didn’t have to be nice to her because Dana asked them to–that doesn’t sound very narcissistic or even misanthropic.
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2012/comic/book-2/05-saturdays-all-right-for-slighting/crusty/
Well, Sarah describes HERSELF as a misanthropist (check her cast page); she doesn’t strike me as narcissistic, though.
I can see misanthrope, but not narcissist. For instance, a narcissist would never have admitted to Joyce that she didn’t know how to help Dana, and that she may have made her worse when she tried to comfort her.
Just because you put it in capital letters, doesn’t mean that Sarah is narcissistic. In fact she doesn’t seem to be doing that great on the self esteem front. http://www.dumbingofage.com/2014/comic/book-4/04-the-whiteboard-dong-bandit/newrecord/ (She refers to her soul as a dark pit of nothing. That doesn’t say great things about her self worth). And I’m unsure of what you mean by Sarah is getting exactly what she would expect if she wasn’t a narcissist. That implies that she thinks a scene like this wouldn’t happen. Considering her view of people, a scene like this is exactly what she would expect to happen.
I do not think those words mean what you think they mean.
First off, how did he immediately assume (granted correctly) that the assault was a punch. I guess luck is a possibility, but seems a stretch. Second of all, ARGH! I can’t believe Sarah is letting Raidah get away, especially now that she’s playing the BS “poor victim” card. I’m so sick of people who do that.
I’m not sure he did. All he says is “oh wow.”
oh nevermind, i forgot about the last panel
Sarah’s not present for this conversation. Sarah is currently hiding in her half bath to avoid drama. I’m not sure what you mean by “Letting Raidah get away”.
Clearly, she’s unscrewing the sink so she can drop it on Raidah as she passes underneath the dorm window.
Ryan, Blaine, Ethan’s mom, Mary
Ryan, Blaine, Ethan’s mom, Mary
Ryan, Blaine, Ethan’s mom, Mary, Raidah
it was really hard thinking up of more than two unambiguously evil characters.
The only way to see a Radiah/Sarah reconciliation (or rather an end to their feud) would be if Dana came back, even just to visit. If she comes back doing better, she might actually thank Sarah for what she did–and Radiah would have a hard time viewing Sarah as all bad then. If she comes back not better, most likely Radiah would notice that Dana was/is not in a good place. And thus internal questions could begin, albeit probably really slowly.
I don’t see any other way out of this argument.
I would love this.
no you should never punch someone. also no you should never be an ableist fuck and actively condescend to people with mental illness. raidah you manipulative fuck