A queer romance about people attempting to build lives in a cold, post-apocalyptic world ravaged by hordes of undead.
Hemlock
Josceline Fenton
A witch accidentally marries a monster, and now she and her familiar has to navigate life around her monstrous husband and her even more terrifying in-laws.
Cyanide & Happiness
Explosm
Satire, dark humor and surreal humor.
Shaderunners
Alex Assan, Lin Darrow
A ragtag band of bootleggers open a speakeasy for bottled colour in the greyscale city of Ironwell.
Paint the Town Red
Windy, Winter Jay Kiakas
Winona runs a werewolf shelter with partner in crime, Odile in the Gothic city of Merlot. One day they take in an injured vampire, and soon unravels many of the dark secrets of Merlot.
Guilded Age
T Campbell, John Waltrip, Florence Machina
Welcome to the saga of the working-class adventurer! Enjoy the complete story with new annotations daily!
All Known Alternatives
Karolina 'Kajotko' Jankiewicz
Akane has only one way to get back home: collect the 42 keys to parallel worlds. Eri and Ben are just trying to get through the summer before university. When a magical key turns up in an old spare set, all three are forced to change their plans and fast.
Dumbing of Age
David M Willis
Joyce has been homeschooled her entire life until now, when she's suddenly a freshman in college! Things don't go well.
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She’s not shown any sexual orientation thus far, so some people assume she’s asexual; but that’s like assuming anyone who’s a virgin is asexual. She could still easily turn out to be straight, or les, or bi, or anything really.
Or maybe she’s actually a Dinosexual who gets hot for Velociraptors?
Most virgins however have still experienced some sort of sexual attraction. She explicitly states she has never felt such an attraction. Assuming she’s asexual is not really that odd given that statement.
Most people in general don’t compartmentalize things the way Dina does, though. I feel like people ought to wait and see how the character identifies rather than slapping a label on her in advance.
@Heavensrun Asexuality is generally not very well represented in fiction. People with nonstandard sexual orientations tend to get a lot of comfort/happiness out of seeing people with whom they can identify in fiction.
With that in mind, what’s the harm in people imagining or assuming Dina is asexual, when there is decent evidence supporting that and it brings them happiness? I don’t see any. On the other hand, it does seem like telling people that they aren’t allowed to make any assumptions about a character until things are made perfectly clear can be somewhat invalidating and disheartening, so maybe it’d be best to avoid that.
Omg I am really tempted to get that ebook just to see if it’s serious (?!?) or a parody (I hope!) but if I do, it’s going to really, really skew my Amazon picks.
Since she wasn’t asexual in It’s Walky, I’m pretty sure Dina is not asexual here, since sexualites have been noted to transfer.
Considering certain issues in continuity in It’s Walky, all we know for certain about Dina’s sexuality is that she has had heterosexual sex (in the Walkyverse, I mean, not here) and that she would describe herself as “non-white, non-heteronormative, neurodivergent”. And that covers a lot of possibilities.
With Mike. Maybe Walky as well? I think that was just X-Treme cuddling.
I don’t think either of those instances can be used to solidly say anything about Dina, though. She was in a huge depression and slept with Mike in an attempt to get him to stay with her, and even if she did with Walky, that’s not some ultimate confirmation. I’m like 90% certain Walky lost his virginity to Joyce in IW! near the end.
I guess the TLDR of it is that, if it eventually comes out that Dina is ace, then it’s the same reveal as Danny went through last year, since we all assumed he was straight since he never displayed attraction to men in the Walkyverse.
Since when is Dina confirmed ace? Not saying she’s not, but I vaguely remember her expressing interest in the concept during a conversation with Amber? Which doesn’t preclude her from being ace, but there’s no real reason she should be.
Yeah, I’m leery of calling her ace based on her conversation with Amber, considering it seems like it would play into the stereotype of asexuals being asexual because they’re unemotional/logical/etc.
Dina’s not a robot, though. She has very strong emotions and cares for others, but she finds it hard to understand subtle social cues, which comes off to me as autism spectrum. I would normally question the Asian stereotype, but Dina isn’t really written as smart because she’s Asian, but because she has a very narrow focus that she exhaustively researches like someone on the spectrum would do.
I know Willis said she wasn’t diagnosed, but I would diagnose her right then and there based on what I’ve seen. She fits the criteria well enough that I think she was written that way.
I just want to make sure I’m absolutely clear here that I’m not saying I think Dina’s definitely not asexual, or that I think interpreting her that way is wrong. I’m just saying that I think the conversation with Amber is a somewhat problematic one to derive that conclusion from, because to me it seems to play into a negative asexual stereotype.
I totally understand where you’re coming from! A lot of asexual characters I’ve seen represented in places tend to be logical, detatched and sometimed come off as quite cold characters. The best place I’ve seen asexuality represented is on Girls With Slingshots as the girl who was ace was none of those things but just a normal girl who didn’t like sex. (Which I would like to see more of in places!)
The flip side of this coin is that I know a number of asexual people who are on the spectrum who get frustrated when they feel like they are seen as inherently a negative stereotype and like their experiences need to be hidden so as to make life easier for neurotypical asexuals. A positive spectrum ace depiction would mean as much for those individuals as a positive trans ace character in Ultra Car/Carla meant to me.
Additionally, her counterpart in the other universe did seem to be able to be read as demisexual/grey ace and it would be awesome if this universe’s Dina would happen to confirm either (especially the demi as I can’t think of a single representation of that identity and I trust Willis to handle that well and not just make it a “love fixes the ace” storyline)
Well, to be fair, that’s Dina. She sees words as serving a practical rather than thematic purpose. She talks like a dictionary most of the time because she’s on the spectrum.
Dinosaurs are totally her special interest and after Willis has said the Walkyverse version of her was in fact implied to be neurodivergent I’m taking her as canon until stated otherwise.
(I really, REALLY want her to be explicitly autistic in canon, though. You know even the protagonist of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime isn’t canonically autistic? Why is it that we only seem to get positive representation and status as protagonists if we’re implied?)
I get your desire for explicitness, but this is such a textbook case of Aspergers that it’s not even really necessary, I don’t think. Unless Willis explicitly stated otherwise, I think it’s safe to take it as canon.
My daughter is a clinical psychologist who works primarily with autism spectrum children. She doesn’t read this comic but I gave her a brief synopsis of Dina’s character. She agrees that there are cues in her behavior that would at least encourage having her evaluated, particularly the fixation on dinosaurs, difficulty of expression/social skills, and apparent overstimulation (being overwhelmed in a crowded environment). But she reminded me it’s called a spectrum because there are a wide range of potential symptoms and degrees of severity, so diagnosing her accurately would require a little more effort.
@JonRich… I don’t know about these other folks, but I’m licensed clinical professional counselor. What I’ve seen of Dina would lead me to think that she is on the autism spectrum, but she’d need a proper evaluation to determine just where.
I expect the reason creators avoid making it explicit is they don’t want to deal with the responsibilities that entails. As soon as you declare a character to explicitly be on the spectrum you have an obligation to portray what that means accurately and you immediately lose the ability to make them the butt of shitty jokes and then say “Oh no they’re not actually autistic so it’s totally okay to mock the textbook autistic traits they exhibit.”
We were also never told what was divergent about Forrest Gump, Abed Nadir, or Arnie Grape.
The audience takes refuge in labels and learns to define characters by them, instead of by their actions and personality.
Else, as was the case with “Rain Man” when they did name his condition, it tends to lead to popular misconceptions when audiences come to expect the unique character’s quirks to be generally true of all people of the same label.
I mean, she kinda described it like, “I’m curious what it feels like, but there’s no one I’ve ever actively wanted to have sex with in my life.” Seems pretty ace or gray-ace to me.
Dina’s in college, though. And the way she worded it was “I don’t really have any sort of sexual inclinations, but I’m curious because people say it’s good.”
Not, “I haven’t met a person I trust…” but no urges whatsoever, which is unusual before 18.
I didn’t meet even a single person I wanted to have sex with until I was 20. Not in a “I trust you” way, but literally not even one person that made me want to roll in the hay, or daydream about rolling in the hay. I honestly thought I was broken! Then I got out of my small town and met a bunch of fellow nerds, and BAMMO, suddenly there were sexy people in my universe. It happens.
If you desire a really fancypants word for that, you might call that ‘sapiosexual’. As in, you’re attracted solely to really smart people, because they are smart. I find it fun to say.
What a coincidence. I myself am only sexually attracted to those who consider the term “sapiosexual” to be the stupidest fucking thing to be created by allegedly functioning human beings since the Insane Clown Posse.
Yes! This! I am almost perfectly in the middle of the Kinsey scale, and enjoy sex quite a bit, but a lot of people thought I was ace (or rather, “frigid, because they were jerks) because I had absolutely no interest in sex with any of them. I thought that might be the case too, until I got to college and went, wow, every flavor of cereal looks so GOOD here!”
In my experiences working with spectrum kids, I haven’t seen that apply to sexuality.
In my experiences interacting with spectrum ace adults, I think it would be awesome to have a positive spectrum ace individual, especially if Dina is as I suspect, demi, as those individuals shouldn’t be stuck with stereotypes or nothing.
The problem is, asexuality _is_ a stereotype for non-neurotypical people. There’s nothing wrong with being on the spectrum or otherwise different, and there’s nothing wrong with being asexual, but that doesn’t mean it’s not problematic for media to consistently pair these traits.
“Dina’s in college, though. ” – Just started. And as someone who personally didn’t have sex until 19, I feel obligated to object to applying labels based on someone’s lack of high school relationships.
All of this talk of aces, which is a term I have never heard used before in this context, makes me think of a group of asexual fighter pilots. Especially that comment mentioning “confirmed ace,” which I initially read as “a confirmed ace.” I thought the idea was too awesome not to share.
You aren’t really an asexual until you’ve shot down at least five planes. Unless, of course, you’re a neurotic beagle who thinks his doghouse is a biplane – then you’re automatically an ace.
Well sure! Just because you’re asexual doesn’t mean you don’t have or enjoy any sex at all. It’s just not what drives you or your attraction to a person. I could totally see Dina and Carla having a good dinosaurs-on-rollerskates debate that evolves into an other-things-dinosaurs-and-rollerskates-are-good-for “discussion”. OR…yeah, never mind. I have no idea where I was going with that.
Becky nuked her closet so spectacularly, that all metaphorical closets that ever existed, or ever will exist, were simultaneously nuked as well. That’s why Dina had to hide behind doors instead.
Binky, Dinky, Decky, Binacky, Dinacky, Dinks, Decks, Bina, Dena, ect…
I still like Dicky cause my immature mind has already rhymed inappropriate sounding words with it. Tricky Dicky, Icky Dicky, Picky Dicky, Licky Dicky!….sorry.
It’s like that joke from the Monty Python sketch that make people laugh themselves to death, but here nobody can breath because if you want to inhale you’ll have to stop going “”AWWWWWWW….”
Guys I may have a new ship :3
Realistically though I’ve always gotten the vibe that Dina is asexual so if they just become super best friends that’d be cool too ( ^ω^ )
Demisexual is a possibility there. Or Grey-ace. Then again there WERE some relationships she had in the Walkyverse… but I’m not sure how sexual they were, or if they were the “I’m actually attracted to you” kind or the “I like you and want to be close to you and logically relationships of this kind between members of differing genders are romantic” kind and even then it’s possible she’s ace but sex-curious and -positive, too.
*Shrugs* Basically I’ve got no clue what Dina’s sexuality is and don’t care to speculate right now, I just hope she and Becky end up being friends and that Dina can talk about dinosaurs to her and maybe they can cuddle a bit if Dina finds the deep pressure soothing and does not mind the skin contact.
Are you refering to the 4-some with Amber, Mike, and Ethan in SP (in an Alt Universe of the Walkyverse…), or are you refering to an episode that I dont recall.
I just realized how complex and interesting the references/echoes/harmonies of the characters and relationships are from that one panel to the other Willis-verses: the variations/permutations of Amber, Mike, Ethan, Dina as characters AND their relationships. Truly, the Willis-Multiverse is Kaleidoscopic!!
Somehow I came away on first read-through with the impression that she was definitely sexual – interested in having sex herself, rather than just scientifically curious about the subject in general – but aromantic, so she was less likely to find herself in a relationship that would lead to sex, especially with her socialisation issues.
But looking at the evidence, romantic asexual fits just as well as aromantic sexual. So I’m keeping an open mind on Dina’s orientation!
well its been stated that everyone’s sexuality carried over from the old continuity, so if she is asexual she might still be open to dating someone. actually though, im kinda rooting for bffs tho
she could still be asexual and have a big huge thing for Mike. That’s what I’m saying, being asexual doesn’t necessarily preclude relationships, even sexual ones
Resident asexual here to point a thing out!
Asexuals come in several flavors, some of which are interested in romantic relationships (romantic asexuals of various kinds) some of which are not (aromantic asexuals).
I’m an romantic asexual in a relationship with a pansexual person. So I don’t see why Dina and Becky couldn’t be a thing.
(Oh gosh I hope its a thing, I just about died of cute.)
You probably heard about the creationist (one who in fact helped fund a creation musesum) who found a fish fossil recently, since that happened in my Province there’s been a lot of him on the radio. It’s interesting to here him, and a paleontologist given equal talk time on the subject.
There should be something like the Tour de France Yellow Jersey that gets passed to the DoA-commentor who crafts the best pun each day. Girlandcat gets to wear it today.
And they also genuinely got along. She’s been more or less friendly to absolutely everybody except Ethan and Dorothy, and in the former’s case she was doing it to push him into taking his relationship with Joyce to the next stage, and then frantically apologized when she thought she had ruined their relationship.
I think Becky’s current tragedy is that she is genuinely nice and genuinely does care for the people that are important to her and can be very genuinely friendly to strangers, but that she also tends to play up being “wacky” as a defense mechanism and a way of hiding her emotions and she’s often prone to acting poorly out of jealousy as the green-eyed monster has her something fierce.
Which is why she struggles the most with treating Dorothy well and has fits of possessiveness with regards to Joyce and why she was dismissive to Ethan until she thought she had broken up their relationship.
Well over here in Australia, a fortnight(2 weeks) is commonly used because public servants, pensioners and welfare recipients are all paid on a fortnightly basis.
Eh, the only respect in which they’re not reptiles is that the common definition of ‘reptile’ isn’t really a valid grouping, technically speaking – as it excludes birds, but includes their ancestors.
However, It’s dead easy to make it a valid clade again, simply by including birds, which is what most people I’m familiar with do. (It’s also possible to fix it by removing dinosaurs, but that also requires removing crocodilians and a few other (extinct) groups, and nobody’s going to do that.)
(The same problem exists for ‘fish’, but it’s pretty much impossible to fix without declaring every vertibrate a fish, or declaring most fish not-fish.)
I am a fan of “Sauropsida” instead of “Reptila” personally. Of course if you want a group that excludes the birds (and other archosaurs), you end up with the more unwieldy “Lepidosauromorpha”
I tend to like ‘reptile’ over ‘sauropsid’, simply because most people have an idea of what it means and I (perhaps oddly) find it easier to remold that definition than to explain a new one…though I have used sauropsid when it’s felt more appropriate to me.
Dinosaurs are, as a recall, an order unto themselves, they have too many differences to be considered lizards, and in terms of body structure are actually closer to birds.
Lizards and reptiles aren’t synonymous, though – squamata (lizards and snakes) are only one of several distinct groups under the ‘reptile’ umbrella, even in the common definition. Crocodilians (and all other archosaurs except birds), tuatara (which are lizardlike, but distinct), turtles, and a couple exctint groups, are included in the common definition. A cladistically valid definition includes birds, as well, as they are a subgroup of archosaurs.
It amazes me how Becky and Joyce manage to be such polar opposites in the socializing game. The people Joyce can naturally talk to and like Becky completely botches her conversations with, and the people Joyce finds exasperating Becky makes friends with without even trying. Interesting.
And chocolate! Darko-choko-covered esspresso beans to nom in bed!!! YUM!!!
Thats nothing to do with being tired/committing errors, thats just quality of life!
I do not see this particular interaction as “romantic”; if anything, Dina has found a friend, and to someone who has has lived on the spectrum and has a son on a different color of the spectrum, a friend who will just listen is super important to one’s well-being.
What I don’t want is to turn this well-needed positive interaction into a romance fantasy, because it would be exploitative.
… Um, Aspie here as well, somewhat confused by the thought that romantic and potentially sexual relationships would be incompatible with that fact/make her less “innocent”?
I mean, personally I read her as at least somewhat asexual and this as a first moment of connection for friendship, at least for the time being, but there’s plenty of autistic people who have and desire romantic relationships? And are happy in them?
(Sorry, just. I’m a bit sensitive to infantilization and the like because I feel insecure about not being able to cook/not having a job/lack of social life/not being a normal adult and it’s really unpleasant when your younger brother says you’re effectively HIS younger sister because of those things.)
Though think about and talk about can be twodifferent things. Once my dad helped me get ready for a trip overseas by picking up some toiletries for me when he was at the store. When i was packing the stuff i found that he’d added a box of condoms to the stuff on my list, without me asking or him saying anything about it.
Regalli, nothing to be sorry about. One of the best things about the DoA commentariat is getting to listen to what the folks drawn to DoA have experienced. (And i always enjoy your comments.) (And thanks be to Willis for his dilligent Troll Patrol to maintain this space.)
I, too, have a child much like Dina. I know we all want the best for our kids (those of us who have kids, obviously.) I *myself* am a person much like Dina.
This is a very minor thing, but I remember it vividly, because it felt so insulting, was other people telling me–when I was an adult, who had already been in stable, long-term relationships for many years–that I was not “allowed” to have adult relationships because of my size/personality.
I am sure the other person did not mean to hurt my feelings.
I don’t “ship” any of the characters, to be honest. To the extent that I hope anything for non-real people, I just hope they end up happy. Nor do I read this interaction as even romantic in nature. I think the characters are just becoming friends.
And if we are lucky, our sweet, innocent children will grow into sweet, mature people with healthy, happy relationships with others.
But I only want the first one. I want Becky to have a friend, and her hitting on every girl around is getting old. Plus we know Dina won’t reciprocate romantic feelings for a girl so it’ll just be a rehash.
I really don’t think it is known for sure that Dina won’t reciprocate romantic feelings from a woman. That situation didn’t really come up in the alternate-universe counterpart’s situation and she did imply a non normative sexuality of some kind and her earlier ace-hinting conversation with Amber seemed to be open with regards to what kinds of persons Dina would be interested in studying sexual interactions with people.
Billie, once she heard she was interested in girls potentially.
And I think it was only last strip she offered to make out with Sal if she stayed. (Then again everyone is sexually attracted to Sal, let’s be real here.)
To be fair, that happened after Joyce mentioned her supposed secret boyfriend…but also before she got a chance to get it into her head that maybe Billie might be a valid romantic partner.
Sal’s smoking habit may explain the toothbrush thing. Lot of people don’t enjoy kissing an ashtray, but brushing does help some. The tobacco reek is unavoidable, though.
Other smokers dont notice it. The mobile stale ash pit smell did come as a bit of a shock after i quit smoking. I was quite glad when my wife quit not too long after i did.
She sort of hit on Sal. But, yeah, aside from her move on Joyce, that’s it. She loudly announced she was a lesbian at several points, but that’s not nearly the same thing.
“Loudly announced” … yeah, she cranked that all the way to 11, and about one step short of:
Ok ALL YOU COLLEGE LEZBO GIRLZ, FORM AN ORDERLY LINE, THERES PLENTY OF BECKY FOR EVERYONE!!!
I think she may have learned her lesson with Joyce on that front. She will probably be more thoughtful about surprise kisses that don’t make sense when given. (for instance–it makes sense when you’ve been heavily flirting with physical contact. Kissing often comes from that, but yes, it can be rejected which is a-ok. But it doesn’t make sense to say, surprise kiss someone when you’re having a pleasant, casual conversation.)
In all the shipping frenzy let’s try to remember that asexual doesn’t mean aromantic (Even if ace Dina is just a popular head cannon, don’t shit on it, there’s not a lot of ace representation in the world) and that many ace people do feel curious/experimental about sex and even enjoy it sometimes!
Yep! My ace friend is in a very happy relationship that sometimes gets a bit sexual, but usually doesn’t. It varies on how she’s feeling. For her…hmm. A very very basic way to describe it (but doesn’t fully explain her feelings) is that she enjoys sex, but doesn’t feel the need to have it. She never craves sex, she doesn’t look at people and think “man I want to get them in my bedroom!” If she is with a partner who wants to have sex, she will sometimes say “Yeah that sounds like fun right now!” It’s more of a past time or hobby (okay that sounds odd) to her rather than a need or strong desire. Dina might be the same way.
Pro-tip: if someone says “my asexual friend”, don’t tell them “you wouldn’t call that asexual”. It’s incredibly rude to correct anyone else’s chosen label for their sexual orientation. Like, pretty sure they know better than you.
Inb4: “WHAT ABOUT CLOSETED GAY PEOPLE” — first of all, straightness is the default presumed orientation, so when you question straightness you’re not necessarily questioning someone else’s deeply-thought-out perception of themselves. And second of all, it’s STILL incredibly rude to tell someone they’re not straight, no matter how “obviously” queer they might seem to you. Unlikely to be helpful either. Don’t do it.
Inb4 2: “SO IT MUST ALSO BE RUDE TO SHIP QUEER PAIRINGS FOR STRAIGHT OR PRESUMED STRAIGHT CHARACTERS” — no shut up. There is a obvious difference between real people’s real identities and fictional characters.
Except I’m under no real obligation to care whether my assessment of their choice of labels would be rude if I expressed it to them directly because that’s not what I’m doing here I’m responding to a description given by a third party so back the outrage train on up your scenario is not applicable.
As far as I can remember this is the single best conversation anyone has had with Dina without acting as a hobby therapist to her (oh, with the possible exception of this. Becky just asks her about the topic Dina oh so clearly broadcast she prefers and then politely maintains conversation. And it is adorable.
“Although evidence of mate choice is scarcely preserved in fossil records, extrapolation from living reptile and avian species suggest common occurrences of same gender intercourse among dinosaurs.”
I ship this for sure, but I can’t decide in what way…I think I mostly ship it in a platonic sense. I don’t think they would be a good match, their belief systems don’t match up, and that can really fuck up a relationship, no matter how much the two people love/like each other. But I would love for them to be friends. I feel like Becky would be the perfect person to help Dina come out from under her shell.
I don’t think that Becky likes her in that way, and I dislike the idea of if she gets along with a girl she must like her. I really want them to be friends, and if something happens, something happens! But I want Dina to instigate it. I think that Dina would not be pleased if Becky put the moves on her.
I also hate the whole thing that’s going on with Daisy. I feel like fans are saying “here’s a lesbian, lets give her to Becky!” I get that a lot from friends. “Oh I know a gay girl! You should date! Here, let me pull up her facebook, and I’ll ask you if she wants your number and you can hang out sometime.” “I. Um. I’m not looking for a relationship right–” “Ooo and she likes horror movies and anime oh my gosh you’ll be PERFECT together!” So yeah. Been through enough of that to dislike the whole Daisy/Becky thing that the fans are insisting on.
Becky is going through one hell of a time in her life, so who knows if she comes out of it Christian at all (and that if she does, she’ll remain a young Earth creationist as well). This could actually be the start of Becky discovering an interest in science and biology or something. That could be quite cool.
Not sure if Becky’s romantically interested in her, or if Dina would reciprocate if she is, but I do hope they become at least good friends. Becky needs connections here badly, and she strikes me as someone who could help Dina interact with others (both encouraging her to do things and taking the lead in a situation where she’s overwhelmed, potentially.)
The only form of Becky/Daisy I can even imagine happening is “quick makeout session to slake their sexual frustrations before parting” or something. And even then, not really because Becky strikes me as the more romantic type like Joyce and the most that can be said about Daisy is that she exists.
It’s less “here are two lesbians” as it is “Here are two explosively lesbian women who are extremely horny and seem desperate for sex. Maybe they can work off some steam together?”
You know, I’ve seen so much AHH WE MUST HAVE BECKY/DAISY that I reckon when they meet up in-universe, they probably won’t like each other haha. Or just won’t be each others type. That would be pretty cool.
eh, this comic has me in a good mood. So in the words of Marie Antoinette (even though there isn’t really any record of her saying it) “Let them eat soft serve!”
Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to put away my net trap and pay off a very disgruntled bounty hunter… assuming he ever comes back.
Really either one works for me. The important thing is that Becky and Dina spend more time interacting with each other, because I’m going to guess that it will be awesome either way.
Becky and Dina could both use another friend. If it goes somewhere else, that’s cool too, but admittedly, I am unsure of Dina’s orientation. I know that Willis has tried to not change any of them, at most operating where it wouldn’t contradict things. So Dina would not be lesbian, given Walkyverse with her stuff with Walky and Mike. Doesn’t mean she couldn’t be bi/pan/etc, though
folks stop saying that you read dina as asexual because it’s forcing me to guess at your reasoning and giving me an migraine thanks
like yeah okay she’s ace or demi or whatever as per her earlier conversation with amber but if one more person says she “comes off that way” or something i’m gonna make a vague threat
also thank you to all the folks pointing out asexuality and aromanticism are different things, you are wonderful
Sorry Wack’d. (Personally in my case it’s just the “Oh you’re really curious but haven’t gotten the pants feelings before and it’s all in a sort of vague everyone-else-seems-to-be-into-it-and-I-wonder-what-the-deal-is way? Same!” but yeah the stereotypes are not pleasant and I still remember the crap about UC and Malaya.)
Unlike the majority, I don’t ship it. However, I do forgive you for pretty much everything else because you’ve given Dina a happy moment. That smile pays for everything.
I don’t see this as romance (although it’d certainly be a really interesting and cool pairing)……from my own experiences, autistic peeps are really, really into stuff. And often, we just get told to shut up about it….either actively or passively. Doesn’t really matter. You learn, eventually. So when you find someone who’s actually willing to listen and wants you to talk about the stuff you really, really, really want to talk about, and won’t turn it around at you and start being a dick and labelling your behaviour……it’s pretty neat.
The most boring one yet. Still, I want both Dina and Becky to be happy on their terms. If that means hot lesbian sex while Dina takes copious notes (or dictates them into her phone) and they are both happy, or whatever, so long as they are both happy…
Both Becky and Joyce seem to be naturally friendly and outgoing, especially towards difficult personalities like Dana. I think that Becky deserves a thumbs-up by not starting a pointless argument but, instead, just unconditionally trying to be Dina’s friend.
Okay, firstly: Don’t press ‘post’ until you’re sure you’ve proofed your spelling. I am talking only about Dina in my previous post.
Secondly… Why does everything have to have a sexual context? Why can’t Becky and Dina choose just to be good friends and enjoy spending time with each other?
I’m just suspicious of how many more people suddenly care about the values of good friendship when there’s a panel of two girls/two guys together than when it’s a guy and a girl.
I can only speak for myself, but I know what it’s like to have difficulty making and keeping friends, and I think a strong friendship is exactly what Dina needs right now. Then again, I may just be projecting.
Oh, I absolutely think it would be great for these two to become friends, don’t get me wrong. I’m more of commenting on the surprising number of people who voice their concerns that we’re all forgetting the value of good friendship to the shipping craze, when I doubt I could find similar outrage on a page with a girl and a guy smiling at each other.
In my particular case, it’s because envisioning Dina in sexual terms is just plain not happening. Her character has displayed only a slight (and mostly clinical) interest in sex, she’s drawn to look like she’s barely into her teens, and her wardrobe just makes her seem even younger. Her look in the last panel here may be the oldest she’s ever seemed to me, and that’s mostly because the signature hat isn’t screaming “I’m a tween” for once.
Seriously shipping her into a sexual relationship with anyone would make me feel like an outright pedophile no matter what her stated age is.
Dina’s not difficult. Ruth is a difficult person to get along with. Whatshername, the judgmental one, is difficult. Dina’s easy to talk to and get along with if you just talk about things she’s actually enthusiastic about, which I suspect is true of most people.
I think that you’re misinterpreting what I mean about ‘difficult’. I’m not talking about ‘troublesome’ or ‘offensive’. I’m just pointing out a truth which is that Dina’s condition means that you have to make a lot of conscious effort to interact with her so as to avoid confusing her, overwhelming her or hitting a trigger by accident.
I COULD be reading this situation wrong, but i do believe we are the beginnings of love here, but then again i thought a friendship between chickens and a Pit Bull would work out. So i may be wrong.
Incidentally, the ship I’m seeing here is a solid, important friendship. They both need a friend, I think, and one with whom there is no complicated context.
Willis has had this strip in his buffer for almost four months. He is obviously a psychic who can read the future; or has a functioning crystal ball; or a Time Turner from the Potterverse. Take your pick.
I love that Dina doesn’t pick one of those. For many dinosaur fans the giants like Supersaurus, Argentinosaurus, or Dreadnoughtus would be the place to start, dazzling us with their sheer size and the excitement of new discoveries.
But Dina isn’t about the newest finds or biggest dinosaurs. She loves them all. When somebody asks her about them, common Camarasaurus is just as good as any of the others.
Even before I got to the last panel I was smiling ridiculously at Becky taking an active interest in Dina’s special interest. That’s so lovely and then the last two panels and it got even better I DIDN’T THINK IT COULD GET BETTER BUT IT DID
I don’t think Beckys hitting on Dinah. She just hit on Sal and it was embarrassing, but she did it cause Sal is hot and cool. (Everyone would hit on Sal xD)
I believe she really just wants to talk to an interesting person who is a bit outside of Joyces circle and have some distraction and fun. It may, if Dinah is interested in such thing, lead to more, but I don’t believe thats Beckys goal atm.
Also: Look at how all those Becky-hate was reverted … suddenly. Funny.
NO ONE has picked up on Becky’s single-shoulder shrug as she says “I’unno — I just kinda like it when you talk to me” in panel four? It’s there, it’s appropriate, it’s noticeable, but it’s not ‘in your face’.
I’m not sure what you think is notable about it. Are we supposed to point out every time Willis draws a character making a gesture appropriate to the situation?
A) She isn’t seducing her, she’s conversing with her.
B) The only people who get to decide whether seducing is okay are Becky and Dina, collectively.
C) I like lists of three things.
Ok I get that her taking the jacket off of her head is a sign that she’s getting more comfortable with her environment and whatnot…. but I still kind of wish she’d keep it on forever because I love how silly it looks to see just a Cousin It esque blob with the green dinosaur hat on.
There are; they’re called “schools” but you can’t trust them because they all have a hidden agenda of some kind or another, depending on who runs them. And I know that this is true because I read it on the internet. (close sarcasm)
Judging from what I’ve seen of Dina in DoAverse, she has Asperger’s (whether written that way or not, it’s how I read it). Becky saying that to Dina, assuming she’s Asperger’s, will likely spark a close friendship very quickly and maybe more further on, if Walky feels inclined not to go all George R. R. Martin on us.
My experience with aspergers is that even if I don’t feel that bad, when I’m confronted with a stressor, I automatically react like a more neurotypical person would if confronted with a noticeably worse stressor. My brain shuts down due to too much stress more quickly, and I’m more likely to feel compelled to argue and react strongly when I see something I dislike. I think of Dina as more controlled, and restrained, than that.
Dina has difficulty with routine social interaction, which I don’t. However, she’s more able to relate to others once they start talking to her, and hold a conversation where both sides convey information and emotion to each other. Usually, when I’m talking with someone, only one person tends to do the talking, whether that’s me, or the other person in the conversation. It seems like she’s been able to make friends relatively easily, because of her strangeness, too.
Because of all these factors, it’s more difficult for me to relate to her than for me to relate to more neurotypical characters, even though I am not neurotypical.
True story: After panel two, I held up my hand to cover the remaining panels, revealing them one at a time, because I wanted to hold on to my delusion that this wasn’t going straight to Craptown for as long as possible. When I got to the next to last panel, I started cringing in dreadful anticipation. And then…
SMILES!
(And I also got something in my eye shut up it was an eyelash)
Not really. I mean, sauropods in general have longer necks than most other classes of non-avian dinos, but there’s a range within the sauropods. Some are around the length of the body, others around twice as long.
“Sorry for looking you in the face. I am new to social cues, and had to check your face. I wasn’t sure you were being sarcastic…
That’s strange. I am almost certain you had to mean that sarcastically – everyone finds my dissertations on dinosaurs pedantic and boring. However, I am seeing none of the facial cues associated with sarcasm on your face. Am I missing something, or is your sarcasm meant to be subtle?”
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OMG BEST BFFs FOREVAR =D =D =D
Willis, I forgive you all your damn-worthy transgressions =D [that is, until you DROP THE HEARTBREAKS again]
Incoming heartbreak of Dina’s asexuality.
That never prevented people from being friends.
Nor from having romantic relationships.
Or even from engaging in sexual activities as she has stated she is curious about one day exploring those in a scientific way: http://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-5/02-threes-a-crowd/overstepped/
She’s not shown any sexual orientation thus far, so some people assume she’s asexual; but that’s like assuming anyone who’s a virgin is asexual. She could still easily turn out to be straight, or les, or bi, or anything really.
Or maybe she’s actually a Dinosexual who gets hot for Velociraptors?
Most virgins however have still experienced some sort of sexual attraction. She explicitly states she has never felt such an attraction. Assuming she’s asexual is not really that odd given that statement.
Most people in general don’t compartmentalize things the way Dina does, though. I feel like people ought to wait and see how the character identifies rather than slapping a label on her in advance.
@Heavensrun Asexuality is generally not very well represented in fiction. People with nonstandard sexual orientations tend to get a lot of comfort/happiness out of seeing people with whom they can identify in fiction.
With that in mind, what’s the harm in people imagining or assuming Dina is asexual, when there is decent evidence supporting that and it brings them happiness? I don’t see any. On the other hand, it does seem like telling people that they aren’t allowed to make any assumptions about a character until things are made perfectly clear can be somewhat invalidating and disheartening, so maybe it’d be best to avoid that.
Just food for thought.
I cannot imagine people not getting hot for Velociraptors.
Right???
Star-LordChris Pratt and Jurassic World’s fake velociraptors are probably going to kill me. ^^;Neither can this guy ;D http://www.amazon.com/Billionaire-Dinosaur-Forced-Me-Gay-ebook/dp/B00MCVVH6G
Omg I am really tempted to get that ebook just to see if it’s serious (?!?) or a parody (I hope!) but if I do, it’s going to really, really skew my Amazon picks.
True that.
#me
Since she wasn’t asexual in It’s Walky, I’m pretty sure Dina is not asexual here, since sexualites have been noted to transfer.
Considering certain issues in continuity in It’s Walky, all we know for certain about Dina’s sexuality is that she has had heterosexual sex (in the Walkyverse, I mean, not here) and that she would describe herself as “non-white, non-heteronormative, neurodivergent”. And that covers a lot of possibilities.
Well, she’s not white, so…
So Carla…
Wait, Dina had sex in the Walkyverse? I don’t remember this.
With Mike. Maybe Walky as well? I think that was just X-Treme cuddling.
I don’t think either of those instances can be used to solidly say anything about Dina, though. She was in a huge depression and slept with Mike in an attempt to get him to stay with her, and even if she did with Walky, that’s not some ultimate confirmation. I’m like 90% certain Walky lost his virginity to Joyce in IW! near the end.
(Forgot to add this part)
I guess the TLDR of it is that, if it eventually comes out that Dina is ace, then it’s the same reveal as Danny went through last year, since we all assumed he was straight since he never displayed attraction to men in the Walkyverse.
ITT: making tl;dr’s as long as original comment ;p
Since when is Dina confirmed ace? Not saying she’s not, but I vaguely remember her expressing interest in the concept during a conversation with Amber? Which doesn’t preclude her from being ace, but there’s no real reason she should be.
Yeah, I’m leery of calling her ace based on her conversation with Amber, considering it seems like it would play into the stereotype of asexuals being asexual because they’re unemotional/logical/etc.
Dina’s not a robot, though. She has very strong emotions and cares for others, but she finds it hard to understand subtle social cues, which comes off to me as autism spectrum. I would normally question the Asian stereotype, but Dina isn’t really written as smart because she’s Asian, but because she has a very narrow focus that she exhaustively researches like someone on the spectrum would do.
I know Willis said she wasn’t diagnosed, but I would diagnose her right then and there based on what I’ve seen. She fits the criteria well enough that I think she was written that way.
I meant more of the tone of the conversation; the detached, scientific way she described an approach to sex seemed like it would play into that trope.
I just want to make sure I’m absolutely clear here that I’m not saying I think Dina’s definitely not asexual, or that I think interpreting her that way is wrong. I’m just saying that I think the conversation with Amber is a somewhat problematic one to derive that conclusion from, because to me it seems to play into a negative asexual stereotype.
I totally understand where you’re coming from! A lot of asexual characters I’ve seen represented in places tend to be logical, detatched and sometimed come off as quite cold characters. The best place I’ve seen asexuality represented is on Girls With Slingshots as the girl who was ace was none of those things but just a normal girl who didn’t like sex. (Which I would like to see more of in places!)
The flip side of this coin is that I know a number of asexual people who are on the spectrum who get frustrated when they feel like they are seen as inherently a negative stereotype and like their experiences need to be hidden so as to make life easier for neurotypical asexuals. A positive spectrum ace depiction would mean as much for those individuals as a positive trans ace character in Ultra Car/Carla meant to me.
Additionally, her counterpart in the other universe did seem to be able to be read as demisexual/grey ace and it would be awesome if this universe’s Dina would happen to confirm either (especially the demi as I can’t think of a single representation of that identity and I trust Willis to handle that well and not just make it a “love fixes the ace” storyline)
I seriously doubt Dina will confirm anything sexual anytime soon.
Well, to be fair, that’s Dina. She sees words as serving a practical rather than thematic purpose. She talks like a dictionary most of the time because she’s on the spectrum.
Dinosaurs are totally her special interest and after Willis has said the Walkyverse version of her was in fact implied to be neurodivergent I’m taking her as canon until stated otherwise.
(I really, REALLY want her to be explicitly autistic in canon, though. You know even the protagonist of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime isn’t canonically autistic? Why is it that we only seem to get positive representation and status as protagonists if we’re implied?)
I get your desire for explicitness, but this is such a textbook case of Aspergers that it’s not even really necessary, I don’t think. Unless Willis explicitly stated otherwise, I think it’s safe to take it as canon.
Are any of you actually medical professionals?
My daughter is a clinical psychologist who works primarily with autism spectrum children. She doesn’t read this comic but I gave her a brief synopsis of Dina’s character. She agrees that there are cues in her behavior that would at least encourage having her evaluated, particularly the fixation on dinosaurs, difficulty of expression/social skills, and apparent overstimulation (being overwhelmed in a crowded environment). But she reminded me it’s called a spectrum because there are a wide range of potential symptoms and degrees of severity, so diagnosing her accurately would require a little more effort.
@JonRich… I don’t know about these other folks, but I’m licensed clinical professional counselor. What I’ve seen of Dina would lead me to think that she is on the autism spectrum, but she’d need a proper evaluation to determine just where.
I expect the reason creators avoid making it explicit is they don’t want to deal with the responsibilities that entails. As soon as you declare a character to explicitly be on the spectrum you have an obligation to portray what that means accurately and you immediately lose the ability to make them the butt of shitty jokes and then say “Oh no they’re not actually autistic so it’s totally okay to mock the textbook autistic traits they exhibit.”
Reminds me of Big Bang Theory.
Or, perhaps, wanting to avoid the shitstorm that results from them not sufficiently hewing to one reader or another’s agenda.
We were also never told what was divergent about Forrest Gump, Abed Nadir, or Arnie Grape.
The audience takes refuge in labels and learns to define characters by them, instead of by their actions and personality.
Else, as was the case with “Rain Man” when they did name his condition, it tends to lead to popular misconceptions when audiences come to expect the unique character’s quirks to be generally true of all people of the same label.
It’s much better to show instead of tell.
Willis never said she was DIAGNOSED its possible she’s never been to a doctor about it
yep
I mean, she kinda described it like, “I’m curious what it feels like, but there’s no one I’ve ever actively wanted to have sex with in my life.” Seems pretty ace or gray-ace to me.
Or she’s just a teenager who hasn’t reached that point in her life yet.
Dina’s in college, though. And the way she worded it was “I don’t really have any sort of sexual inclinations, but I’m curious because people say it’s good.”
Not, “I haven’t met a person I trust…” but no urges whatsoever, which is unusual before 18.
I didn’t meet even a single person I wanted to have sex with until I was 20. Not in a “I trust you” way, but literally not even one person that made me want to roll in the hay, or daydream about rolling in the hay. I honestly thought I was broken! Then I got out of my small town and met a bunch of fellow nerds, and BAMMO, suddenly there were sexy people in my universe. It happens.
If you desire a really fancypants word for that, you might call that ‘sapiosexual’. As in, you’re attracted solely to really smart people, because they are smart.
I find it fun to say.
What a coincidence. I myself am only sexually attracted to those who consider the term “sapiosexual” to be the stupidest fucking thing to be created by allegedly functioning human beings since the Insane Clown Posse.
Uh, okay? Sheesh, that’s a strong reaction to such a harmless word. Did somebody who likes making up words run over your puppy?
Yes! This! I am almost perfectly in the middle of the Kinsey scale, and enjoy sex quite a bit, but a lot of people thought I was ace (or rather, “frigid, because they were jerks) because I had absolutely no interest in sex with any of them. I thought that might be the case too, until I got to college and went, wow, every flavor of cereal looks so GOOD here!”
It could be a part of her Autism – I have on average a 3 year social lag, though I don’t know if that’d apply to sexuality.
In my experiences working with spectrum kids, I haven’t seen that apply to sexuality.
In my experiences interacting with spectrum ace adults, I think it would be awesome to have a positive spectrum ace individual, especially if Dina is as I suspect, demi, as those individuals shouldn’t be stuck with stereotypes or nothing.
The problem is, asexuality _is_ a stereotype for non-neurotypical people. There’s nothing wrong with being on the spectrum or otherwise different, and there’s nothing wrong with being asexual, but that doesn’t mean it’s not problematic for media to consistently pair these traits.
REmember how she super got along with Roz’s little sister ?
“Dina’s in college, though. ” – Just started. And as someone who personally didn’t have sex until 19, I feel obligated to object to applying labels based on someone’s lack of high school relationships.
Amen to this.
Unusual, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen.
Yeah, it seems we had that discussion already.
We suffer from periodic mass amnesia, and wind up having the exact same discussions all over again.
All of this talk of aces, which is a term I have never heard used before in this context, makes me think of a group of asexual fighter pilots. Especially that comment mentioning “confirmed ace,” which I initially read as “a confirmed ace.” I thought the idea was too awesome not to share.
I’m not saying that I’m awesome, mind you. I’m pretty average. I just think the idea is great.
You aren’t really an asexual until you’ve shot down at least five planes. Unless, of course, you’re a neurotic beagle who thinks his doghouse is a biplane – then you’re automatically an ace.
Hmm, perhaps you’re not a confirmed ace until you’ve shot down at least five sexual advances.
her being asexual would actualy work on my dina/carla ship… yeah I also have no idea why i ship them, I just do
also, I used to heve a gravatar, I haven’t reolyed in a long time, but why did it change for a randon one? (even tho I kinda like like it)
Every so often the gravs are shifted if you are using a system assigned one.
I can already taste the despair Willis is going to bring to this later on.
Well sure! Just because you’re asexual doesn’t mean you don’t have or enjoy any sex at all. It’s just not what drives you or your attraction to a person. I could totally see Dina and Carla having a good dinosaurs-on-rollerskates debate that evolves into an other-things-dinosaurs-and-rollerskates-are-good-for “discussion”. OR…yeah, never mind. I have no idea where I was going with that.
Your avatar is the perfect fit for your post.
On the other hand Dina did say she’d be open to sexual experiences……… no mention of any specific orientation.
Maybe Becky is what is necessary to awaken the sexual beast that is Dina.
Becky x Dina make a cute couple.
Everyone! Stop shipping what you were shipping and ship Becky x Dina!
Raise your hands and give Goku your energy!
Man I ship the hell out of that !!!!
then one day THIS HAPPENS
yeeeeeeee
eeeessssssssss
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So… tomorrow
Oh God, the feels.. RIGHT in the feels.
i ship it
It is shipped.
I just hope that the postage and handling was paid.
It was paid, in tears.
Visa would have been better…
Or ShippayPal?
^Upvoted!
If you ship it without sufficient postage, it will be shipped back to you.
It’s happened!
https://youtu.be/CTBqP9JyCi8
My theme song!
Delightful!
Oh lord.
That was awesome.
All aboard!
I publicly shipped this months ago. And, you might notice that Dina has a habit of grinning when she looks at, or talks to, Becky.
The smile that launched a thousand ‘ships!
CUUUUTE !
…Becky, I have new respect for you as a character.
…but I still hate your hair
I am HERE for this!
Do I hear the sound of a new ship being launched?
yes, yes you do.
I KNEW IT!
I’m breaking a bottle of champagne over it at we speak.
Toot, toot!
And what happens when Willis launches a new ship? Its only a matter of time until it smashes on the rocks…
Icebergs are more his style.
You misspelled porn.
…I’m sorry my brain tried to put Dina and porn into the same sentence and got a 404.
I ship it.
Ahhhhh BEST DAY EVER
Oh my God! The two fan-favorite characters are merging! BRACE YOURSELVES!!!
Dumbing of Age: Combiner Wars is a go!
Cannon =/= canon.
FU-SION DAN-CE!
HA! It’s FU-SION HA!
Yeah I meant that! ^_^
They aren’t merging yet! This isn’t Slipshine.
OH NO it’s too cute
Becky + Dina = Dicky!
…Bena ?
Maybe last names? Sarutyre? Macinyama? Those both sound like some of the Godzilla franchise’s less inspired monsters.
Macinyama!!!! Also sounds like a cool hybrid motorcycle…
Sarutyre sounds like King Kong with wheels for hands.
Is Sal gonna ride that?
Salt Chocolate, your grav is amazingly apt for what your comment suggested to me ……………..
I like it.
All this time we said Becky nuked her closet, when in reality she Godzilla stomped it.
Dear sir or madam I humbly present you with this Internet.
You desserves all of it.
The closet is not only obliterated – if anyone happens to find the remains they are radioactive.
So, actually, Godzilla came to be from the remains of Becky’s closet, when they fell back from orbit into the Pacific.
Becky nuked her closet so spectacularly, that all metaphorical closets that ever existed, or ever will exist, were simultaneously nuked as well. That’s why Dina had to hide behind doors instead.
Or Bina! That was the name of a Brazilian-made call identifieer that was very high-tech in the 90’s
I was thinking Binky or Dinky
Binky, Dinky, Decky, Binacky, Dinacky, Dinks, Decks, Bina, Dena, ect…
I still like Dicky cause my immature mind has already rhymed inappropriate sounding words with it. Tricky Dicky, Icky Dicky, Picky Dicky, Licky Dicky!….sorry.
Becna?
Dinky, they are both a bit on the short and slender side.
Dinky. I like that.
What are the powers of Becna’s hand and eye?
“And then Dina grinned and every reader’s heart exploded and David willis had to go to jail forever. The End.”
Its his ultimate plan
Appropriate Galasso av is appropriate.
It’s like that joke from the Monty Python sketch that make people laugh themselves to death, but here nobody can breath because if you want to inhale you’ll have to stop going “”AWWWWWWW….”
I giggled at this
Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww (times a billion)
Welp. I ship this.
And thus a new pairing is born.
I misread that last one with a “p”. I blame the commenters above.
This might possibly be the greatest thing ever.
It is super great!
The best part is Becky seems really genuine and isn’t just trying to get in someone’s pants.
I’m so happy inside right now
OMG adorableness. New ship launched!
Wait when did Becky become Chell
Did not see that one coming at all but i like it!
oh MAN
Guys I may have a new ship :3
Realistically though I’ve always gotten the vibe that Dina is asexual so if they just become super best friends that’d be cool too ( ^ω^ )
She’s mentioned before the she would like to explore her sexuality at some point
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-5/02-threes-a-crowd/overstepped/
But there is a large chance she’s asexual
Maybe she’s asexual with an exception.
Ehhhhh. Not a good way to look at things. But bear in mind that asexual does not mean aromantic, in any case.
I was mostly making a little reference http://www.shortpacked.com/2011/comic/book-13/03-fishin-chicks/exception/
but I did sorta forget the whole asexual =/= aromantic and that was dumb on my part.
Demisexual is a possibility there. Or Grey-ace. Then again there WERE some relationships she had in the Walkyverse… but I’m not sure how sexual they were, or if they were the “I’m actually attracted to you” kind or the “I like you and want to be close to you and logically relationships of this kind between members of differing genders are romantic” kind and even then it’s possible she’s ace but sex-curious and -positive, too.
*Shrugs* Basically I’ve got no clue what Dina’s sexuality is and don’t care to speculate right now, I just hope she and Becky end up being friends and that Dina can talk about dinosaurs to her and maybe they can cuddle a bit if Dina finds the deep pressure soothing and does not mind the skin contact.
She did perk up at the idea of a orgy in the Walkyverse, but it was also in another alternate reality, so.
Are you refering to the 4-some with Amber, Mike, and Ethan in SP (in an Alt Universe of the Walkyverse…), or are you refering to an episode that I dont recall.
I just realized how complex and interesting the references/echoes/harmonies of the characters and relationships are from that one panel to the other Willis-verses: the variations/permutations of Amber, Mike, Ethan, Dina as characters AND their relationships. Truly, the Willis-Multiverse is Kaleidoscopic!!
Yup, that’s the one.
Somehow I came away on first read-through with the impression that she was definitely sexual – interested in having sex herself, rather than just scientifically curious about the subject in general – but aromantic, so she was less likely to find herself in a relationship that would lead to sex, especially with her socialisation issues.
But looking at the evidence, romantic asexual fits just as well as aromantic sexual. So I’m keeping an open mind on Dina’s orientation!
well its been stated that everyone’s sexuality carried over from the old continuity, so if she is asexual she might still be open to dating someone. actually though, im kinda rooting for bffs tho
Didn’t she have a big thing for Mike in Walkyverse?
Big. Huge. Definitely not asexual.
she could still be asexual and have a big huge thing for Mike. That’s what I’m saying, being asexual doesn’t necessarily preclude relationships, even sexual ones
Ah…
She kept him drunk so he’d be happy/nice.
Resident asexual here to point a thing out!
Asexuals come in several flavors, some of which are interested in romantic relationships (romantic asexuals of various kinds) some of which are not (aromantic asexuals).
I’m an romantic asexual in a relationship with a pansexual person. So I don’t see why Dina and Becky couldn’t be a thing.
(Oh gosh I hope its a thing, I just about died of cute.)
Indeed! Also, secret ace high five!
Here’s an idea for a label: “Dina.”
You probably heard about the creationist (one who in fact helped fund a creation musesum) who found a fish fossil recently, since that happened in my Province there’s been a lot of him on the radio. It’s interesting to here him, and a paleontologist given equal talk time on the subject.
He is respectful on air, at least.
I’d like to date you, scientifically.
Why are people not responding to this? It is an excellent, appropriate, and adorable pun!
Well I didn’t cause I wasn’t smart enough to figure it out until you pointed out its greatness
Yep, took me a minute even when I started looking for it because of your post.
There should be something like the Tour de France Yellow Jersey that gets passed to the DoA-commentor who crafts the best pun each day. Girlandcat gets to wear it today.
oh my god i’d completely missed that, it’s right there on the strip too gdi
(I mean the “scientific dating methods” phrase rather than the actual pun)
Wow, so Becky can be nice. Glad to see Dina smiling.
Becky organized a party to make Joyce happy and just begged Sal to stay for Joyce’s sake, both actions generally regarded as “nice.”
Wow, so Becky can be nice to people who aren’t Joyce.
Becky bonded with Walky pretty much instantly.
IIRC, she did that to make joyce jealous.
And they also genuinely got along. She’s been more or less friendly to absolutely everybody except Ethan and Dorothy, and in the former’s case she was doing it to push him into taking his relationship with Joyce to the next stage, and then frantically apologized when she thought she had ruined their relationship.
And Dotty’s a “friend-stealing hussy”, so…
Nah, they’re… just.. alike ?
I think Becky’s current tragedy is that she is genuinely nice and genuinely does care for the people that are important to her and can be very genuinely friendly to strangers, but that she also tends to play up being “wacky” as a defense mechanism and a way of hiding her emotions and she’s often prone to acting poorly out of jealousy as the green-eyed monster has her something fierce.
Which is why she struggles the most with treating Dorothy well and has fits of possessiveness with regards to Joyce and why she was dismissive to Ethan until she thought she had broken up their relationship.
GOOD.
And out of the jacket chrysalis emerges the socializing butterfly. ~ Awwwwww ~
Is this butterfly a reptile?
Wait—are dinosaurs reptiles??
if only dina could reply to comments
That would be hilarious.
They used to believe that but now they seem to believe that dinosaurs are more bird-like than reptilian.
Plasma to the rescue!
It’s worth donating plasma as you can do it every fortnight.
Although most Americans dont know how long a fortnight is.
Well over here in Australia, a fortnight(2 weeks) is commonly used because public servants, pensioners and welfare recipients are all paid on a fortnightly basis.
Rad more Austen!! (And Brontë! And Eliot! And Dickens, Gaskell, Thackery, and Trollope!)
I learned how to use aint — am I not — properly from Trollope. He would have been worth it for that alone.
“Aint I just too pedantic & filled with random trivia.”
I only know what a fortnight is because someone found fun to add that as a valid duration type on Wikipédia/MediaWiki.
(for blocking people and protecting pages, i mean)
Eh, the only respect in which they’re not reptiles is that the common definition of ‘reptile’ isn’t really a valid grouping, technically speaking – as it excludes birds, but includes their ancestors.
However, It’s dead easy to make it a valid clade again, simply by including birds, which is what most people I’m familiar with do. (It’s also possible to fix it by removing dinosaurs, but that also requires removing crocodilians and a few other (extinct) groups, and nobody’s going to do that.)
(The same problem exists for ‘fish’, but it’s pretty much impossible to fix without declaring every vertibrate a fish, or declaring most fish not-fish.)
I am a fan of “Sauropsida” instead of “Reptila” personally. Of course if you want a group that excludes the birds (and other archosaurs), you end up with the more unwieldy “Lepidosauromorpha”
Plus, Sauropsida means “Lizard Face”, which is awesome.
heh, I just found this: http://palaeos.com/vertebrates/amniota/sauropsida.html
which defines Sauropsida as “All amniotes closer to snakes than to St. Patrick”
Hah! I like that definition.
I tend to like ‘reptile’ over ‘sauropsid’, simply because most people have an idea of what it means and I (perhaps oddly) find it easier to remold that definition than to explain a new one…though I have used sauropsid when it’s felt more appropriate to me.
Yes, they are. And, yes, that means that birds are reptiles, cladistically speaking.
Very appropriate av!
Since I am quite often pedantic or tossing out random trivia, it’s quite generally applicable for me. >_>
Your avatar is ever appropriate for that, tho.
At this rate, I’m going to start thinking that you’re actually Tedd, having somehow escaped El Goonish Shive and created a WordPress account.
I can live with that. >_>
Pedantic and tosser of random trivia. Nope. Aint no one like that around here.
Ha.
Dinosaurs are, as a recall, an order unto themselves, they have too many differences to be considered lizards, and in terms of body structure are actually closer to birds.
Lizards and reptiles aren’t synonymous, though – squamata (lizards and snakes) are only one of several distinct groups under the ‘reptile’ umbrella, even in the common definition. Crocodilians (and all other archosaurs except birds), tuatara (which are lizardlike, but distinct), turtles, and a couple exctint groups, are included in the common definition. A cladistically valid definition includes birds, as well, as they are a subgroup of archosaurs.
I am so glad I asked that question! (This lesson brought to you by the super-intelligent hive mind of the DoA comment stream…)
Somebody may finally replace Riley as Dina’s friend.
Who am I kidding- nobody will ever replace Riley.
Unless Becky also has a cereal fixation.
Becky has a different fixation.
it’s fucked up that this ray of sunshine has me fearful of horrible sadness coming soon
Same! This party has been and will probably continue to be an emotional roller coaster.
Hornets are next. It’s in the cards.
In the Apples to Apples cards? I knew it!
Billie has to report back.
There’s a shit storm a-brewing! Batten down the hatches!
Dina smile = best smile!
Oh good, people are being happy.
RUN FOR THE HILLS
Aw. New friend made for both of them.
I wanna cry cuz this is just too stinking cute and it makes me really happy.
Awwww. [Very rare comment for me, but damn, Dina is soooo cute]
Can’t say a pairing of my favorites, but anybody that can get Dina to smile like that is okay by me.
Becky went up about 100pts on this one.
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
It amazes me how Becky and Joyce manage to be such polar opposites in the socializing game. The people Joyce can naturally talk to and like Becky completely botches her conversations with, and the people Joyce finds exasperating Becky makes friends with without even trying. Interesting.
Oftentimes, it’s the extremely outgoing who make the effort to reach the extremely reclusive. As the latter, I can say it’s quietly appreciated.
As another member of the latter, though, I wish they’d just go away.
D’awww. The adorableness is of the scales ^_^
*off
Many dinosaurs have scales. Still fits.
Just noticed, but it’s a bit different than the preview.
June 11th is tomorrow.
Actually that’s the preview for the next strip
…I need more sleep.
or more coffee
Or both.
And chocolate! Darko-choko-covered esspresso beans to nom in bed!!! YUM!!!
Thats nothing to do with being tired/committing errors, thats just quality of life!
The size of this ship cannot be quantified
Who the hell measures things in cubits these days anyway
This is adorable and precious and everything I ever wanted.
How is this going to go wrong.
Oh yeah, Becky’s trying out her scientific dating methods…
Ha!
Also, what happened to the web ring dealie? None of the webcomics are on display any more.
I love Dina’s adorable smile
AHHHH! Dina’s face is too much for me! I must hide behind the clothing of the opposite sex!
This is so cute I think I’m going to die from it
And I, I love it when you read to me. And you, you can read me… anything. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkjXr9SrzQE
This is my new favorite strip.
So when the two favorite characters come together, we get one of the most adorable strips ever.
Hey, this isn’t slipshine.
Aww, Becky’s being really sweet. :3
I too await the inevitable shoe drop.
This is awesomely sweet… why do i think that something terrible is gonna happen tomorrow?
Yaaaaay for Dina, but why did it have to be Becky x0
Because, when she isn’t insanely jealous of you, she is very open and accepting person. At least, that’s my read.
(Trying this post again, since I apparently did something wrong last time, and it fell into the aether…)
Playing in my head, right now.
And since the aether doesnt exist, thats REALLY lost!
Or it fell into the ether, and dissolved. Don’t worry, we can still retrieve it with a rotovap.
I hope this doesn’t end with me hating Becky. I’m too cautious to be happy when Willis is involved.
EEEEEEE
Its like you drew the cutest thing, next to the other cutest thing, and then it was even cuter!!!
*plays some Was Not Was on the Muzak*
Stephen Bierce, are you going to make DoA Muzak Mix Tapes available?
I’lll have to call my lawyer and ask him what my FCC license allows me to do.
Now kiss.
Ha. I kinda called it, hope they can remain friends.
I ship this
Please don’t ship poor aspie Dina.. I wuv her as innocent as she is because she reminds me of my son. ^^;
…so, do you never want your son to find romantic fulfillment, either?
I do not see this particular interaction as “romantic”; if anything, Dina has found a friend, and to someone who has has lived on the spectrum and has a son on a different color of the spectrum, a friend who will just listen is super important to one’s well-being.
What I don’t want is to turn this well-needed positive interaction into a romance fantasy, because it would be exploitative.
… Um, Aspie here as well, somewhat confused by the thought that romantic and potentially sexual relationships would be incompatible with that fact/make her less “innocent”?
I mean, personally I read her as at least somewhat asexual and this as a first moment of connection for friendship, at least for the time being, but there’s plenty of autistic people who have and desire romantic relationships? And are happy in them?
(Sorry, just. I’m a bit sensitive to infantilization and the like because I feel insecure about not being able to cook/not having a job/lack of social life/not being a normal adult and it’s really unpleasant when your younger brother says you’re effectively HIS younger sister because of those things.)
Don’t be sorry, I’m in the same position and I’m really glad you were able to put words to more of it than I was.
I wouldn’t read too much into it. Most parents don’t want to think about their children’s sexuality.
Though think about and talk about can be twodifferent things. Once my dad helped me get ready for a trip overseas by picking up some toiletries for me when he was at the store. When i was packing the stuff i found that he’d added a box of condoms to the stuff on my list, without me asking or him saying anything about it.
Regalli, nothing to be sorry about. One of the best things about the DoA commentariat is getting to listen to what the folks drawn to DoA have experienced. (And i always enjoy your comments.) (And thanks be to Willis for his dilligent Troll Patrol to maintain this space.)
Thanks friend. c:
I, too, have a child much like Dina. I know we all want the best for our kids (those of us who have kids, obviously.) I *myself* am a person much like Dina.
This is a very minor thing, but I remember it vividly, because it felt so insulting, was other people telling me–when I was an adult, who had already been in stable, long-term relationships for many years–that I was not “allowed” to have adult relationships because of my size/personality.
I am sure the other person did not mean to hurt my feelings.
I don’t “ship” any of the characters, to be honest. To the extent that I hope anything for non-real people, I just hope they end up happy.
Nor do I read this interaction as even romantic in nature. I think the characters are just becoming friends.
And if we are lucky, our sweet, innocent children will grow into sweet, mature people with healthy, happy relationships with others.
Thank you for your erudition. I want Dina to be happy. I’ve always wanted her to be, for all the people like her who end up miserable and unhappy.
That Dina smile is the greatest thing I have ever seen. May it never go away.
That would get painful within the hour, though.
“It is proven true. When I kept making this face, it got stuck this way.”
I’m so happy for Dina and her way too cute smile!
GUYZ GUYZ GAIZ! I just realized holy shit!
The next chapter is called “Walking with Dina” I think I may know who’ll be walking with her
A dinosaur.
A cameraman.
…an Egyptian ?
Though one need not be anEgyptian to walk like an Egyptian in that sense.
An Egyptian dinosaur with a camera?
Yay Becky for making Dina smile! Please let this be genuine and not another example of her hitting on every woman within sight.
Those two things are not mutually exclusive
But I only want the first one. I want Becky to have a friend, and her hitting on every girl around is getting old. Plus we know Dina won’t reciprocate romantic feelings for a girl so it’ll just be a rehash.
how do we know that? she could be biromantic.
I really don’t think it is known for sure that Dina won’t reciprocate romantic feelings from a woman. That situation didn’t really come up in the alternate-universe counterpart’s situation and she did imply a non normative sexuality of some kind and her earlier ace-hinting conversation with Amber seemed to be open with regards to what kinds of persons Dina would be interested in studying sexual interactions with people.
I can’t think of a single woman she’s hit on besides Joyce. (And certainly not Dorothy.)
She’s hit on Billie, but I think that’s the only one.
Billie, once she heard she was interested in girls potentially.
And I think it was only last strip she offered to make out with Sal if she stayed. (Then again everyone is sexually attracted to Sal, let’s be real here.)
Oh dang how did I forget that strip with Sal? xD
That is pretty egregious. Really, though, it’s Sal in the same sentence with teh word “strip,”so you were justifiably distracted.
‘Lesbian high-five!’ and ‘We lezbos should stick together’ are not hitting on her.
Especially because she (correctly) guessed that Billie has a secret girlfriend.
To be fair, that happened after Joyce mentioned her supposed secret boyfriend…but also before she got a chance to get it into her head that maybe Billie might be a valid romantic partner.
Well, everyone who can tolerate the stench of a smoker, at least.
Sal’s smoking habit may explain the toothbrush thing. Lot of people don’t enjoy kissing an ashtray, but brushing does help some. The tobacco reek is unavoidable, though.
Other smokers dont notice it. The mobile stale ash pit smell did come as a bit of a shock after i quit smoking. I was quite glad when my wife quit not too long after i did.
She sort of hit on Sal. But, yeah, aside from her move on Joyce, that’s it. She loudly announced she was a lesbian at several points, but that’s not nearly the same thing.
You are correct. Apparently I was so annoyed by her hitting on Joyce after being rejected already that I expanded it beyond it’s actual intentions.
Though she likely only didn’t hit on Billie because she knows Billie is seeing someone already.
Or because Becky’s heart is already taken.
…broken.
“Loudly announced” … yeah, she cranked that all the way to 11, and about one step short of:
Ok ALL YOU COLLEGE LEZBO GIRLZ, FORM AN ORDERLY LINE, THERES PLENTY OF BECKY FOR EVERYONE!!!
new ship
I was not ready!!!! <3 <3 <3 <3
Whatever you do, please don’t have Becky, desperate for love and lesbian acceptance, kiss Dina without a lot of warning.
I think she may have learned her lesson with Joyce on that front. She will probably be more thoughtful about surprise kisses that don’t make sense when given. (for instance–it makes sense when you’ve been heavily flirting with physical contact. Kissing often comes from that, but yes, it can be rejected which is a-ok. But it doesn’t make sense to say, surprise kiss someone when you’re having a pleasant, casual conversation.)
Let’s hope so.
Dina doesn’t seem to have a problem with being touched. If Becky kissed her she’d probably just analyse the kiss rather than get upset about it.
http://31.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m2wybyooPd1qjop0x.png
Holy shit, i actaully caught up! I’ve been reading this sinve 10am this morning lol.
This is what i call a scientific dating method. Hur, hur.
In all the shipping frenzy let’s try to remember that asexual doesn’t mean aromantic (Even if ace Dina is just a popular head cannon, don’t shit on it, there’s not a lot of ace representation in the world) and that many ace people do feel curious/experimental about sex and even enjoy it sometimes!
Dina has outright stated that she may be curious about sex given the right circumstances, so yeah.
Yep! My ace friend is in a very happy relationship that sometimes gets a bit sexual, but usually doesn’t. It varies on how she’s feeling. For her…hmm. A very very basic way to describe it (but doesn’t fully explain her feelings) is that she enjoys sex, but doesn’t feel the need to have it. She never craves sex, she doesn’t look at people and think “man I want to get them in my bedroom!” If she is with a partner who wants to have sex, she will sometimes say “Yeah that sounds like fun right now!” It’s more of a past time or hobby (okay that sounds odd) to her rather than a need or strong desire. Dina might be the same way.
I wouldn’t really call that asexual so much as just having a low sex drive.
a low sex drive is considered a form of asexuality. Specifically the gray-ace spectrum. There are many ways to be asexual.
Pro-tip: if someone says “my asexual friend”, don’t tell them “you wouldn’t call that asexual”. It’s incredibly rude to correct anyone else’s chosen label for their sexual orientation. Like, pretty sure they know better than you.
Inb4: “WHAT ABOUT CLOSETED GAY PEOPLE” — first of all, straightness is the default presumed orientation, so when you question straightness you’re not necessarily questioning someone else’s deeply-thought-out perception of themselves. And second of all, it’s STILL incredibly rude to tell someone they’re not straight, no matter how “obviously” queer they might seem to you. Unlikely to be helpful either. Don’t do it.
Inb4 2: “SO IT MUST ALSO BE RUDE TO SHIP QUEER PAIRINGS FOR STRAIGHT OR PRESUMED STRAIGHT CHARACTERS” — no shut up. There is a obvious difference between real people’s real identities and fictional characters.
Except I’m under no real obligation to care whether my assessment of their choice of labels would be rude if I expressed it to them directly because that’s not what I’m doing here I’m responding to a description given by a third party so back the outrage train on up your scenario is not applicable.
Right. There are sex-positive, sex-neutral, and sex-repulsed sexual people, all of which are EQUALLY valid asexual identities.
As far as I can remember this is the single best conversation anyone has had with Dina without acting as a hobby therapist to her (oh, with the possible exception of this. Becky just asks her about the topic Dina oh so clearly broadcast she prefers and then politely maintains conversation. And it is adorable.
SOMEONE SHOWING INTEREST IN YOUR SPECIAL INTEREST AND WANTING TO HEAR ABOUT IT IS THE BEST FEELING EVER. =D
Meriting the all-caps, trust me.
Oh how I agree.
I still remember that man I sat next to on a train a few years back. After a few stock greeting phrases he looked at me shyly and asked.
“Do you like… trains?”
I said yes, and we had an hour animated discussion about steam engines as a hobby.
Do yourself a favor and never look up “train” on Urban Dictionary. Innocence is sometimes bliss.
I dunno, Robin and Roz’s little sister had a good conversation with Dina about cereal, too.
That’s true, but it got awkward once they discovered the age difference.
I also don’t think I’ve seen Dina this happy, in either universe (granted, Walkyverse Dina was pretty unhappy).
So will Dina ask Becky about the topic which she . Has so loadly proclaimedher interest in?
I hope so – I look forward to that conversation.
“So, you are a lesbian?”
“Yup.”
“Although evidence of mate choice is scarcely preserved in fossil records, extrapolation from living reptile and avian species suggest common occurrences of same gender intercourse among dinosaurs.”
“Cool”
[Dina talks about feathers for 30 minutes]
If this never happens, it will still be part of my headcanon for all time.
I ship this for sure, but I can’t decide in what way…I think I mostly ship it in a platonic sense. I don’t think they would be a good match, their belief systems don’t match up, and that can really fuck up a relationship, no matter how much the two people love/like each other. But I would love for them to be friends. I feel like Becky would be the perfect person to help Dina come out from under her shell.
I don’t think that Becky likes her in that way, and I dislike the idea of if she gets along with a girl she must like her. I really want them to be friends, and if something happens, something happens! But I want Dina to instigate it. I think that Dina would not be pleased if Becky put the moves on her.
I also hate the whole thing that’s going on with Daisy. I feel like fans are saying “here’s a lesbian, lets give her to Becky!” I get that a lot from friends. “Oh I know a gay girl! You should date! Here, let me pull up her facebook, and I’ll ask you if she wants your number and you can hang out sometime.” “I. Um. I’m not looking for a relationship right–” “Ooo and she likes horror movies and anime oh my gosh you’ll be PERFECT together!” So yeah. Been through enough of that to dislike the whole Daisy/Becky thing that the fans are insisting on.
Becky is going through one hell of a time in her life, so who knows if she comes out of it Christian at all (and that if she does, she’ll remain a young Earth creationist as well). This could actually be the start of Becky discovering an interest in science and biology or something. That could be quite cool.
Not sure if Becky’s romantically interested in her, or if Dina would reciprocate if she is, but I do hope they become at least good friends. Becky needs connections here badly, and she strikes me as someone who could help Dina interact with others (both encouraging her to do things and taking the lead in a situation where she’s overwhelmed, potentially.)
The only form of Becky/Daisy I can even imagine happening is “quick makeout session to slake their sexual frustrations before parting” or something. And even then, not really because Becky strikes me as the more romantic type like Joyce and the most that can be said about Daisy is that she exists.
Oh, Becky already has an interest in biology, ifyouknowwhatImean.
It’s less “here are two lesbians” as it is “Here are two explosively lesbian women who are extremely horny and seem desperate for sex. Maybe they can work off some steam together?”
Friendshipping ^.^
You know, I’ve seen so much AHH WE MUST HAVE BECKY/DAISY that I reckon when they meet up in-universe, they probably won’t like each other haha. Or just won’t be each others type. That would be pretty cool.
THIS IS CUTE and the first time I’ve actually been enthusiastic about something involving DoA Dina.
YAAAAAAY, FRIENDSHIP!! This calls for a celebration! Bust out the quality soft serve. And the Mt. Dew! ALL OF THE FLAVORS!!!
Friendship is dinosaurs
That sounds like a fanfiction Dina would write. Same characters, but they’re all dinosaurs.
I’d read it.
I’ve seen that fan art and it’s awesome.
Sauring of Age?
-sneaks the soft serve I’m no longer allowed when no one is looking-
Ah, but I suspect Boomwolf has laid a trap…
Well I took the light step perk so as long as its a floor based trap I’m good.
eh, this comic has me in a good mood. So in the words of Marie Antoinette (even though there isn’t really any record of her saying it) “Let them eat soft serve!”
Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to put away my net trap and pay off a very disgruntled bounty hunter… assuming he ever comes back.
Freezers weren’t really a thing back then, but I appreciate your train of thoughts XD
What’s wrong with just being friends? Why must everyone jump to romance?
I agree!
Hello fellow Emma! Yep I agree! They would be much, much better as friends. Which is great, because Becky needs people other than Joyce to be around.
Dina also needs people other than Amber to be around.
Plus, jumping straight into romance may be a bit premature – is Dina even ready for that yet?
I’m perfectly happy with friendshipping them ^.^
Really either one works for me. The important thing is that Becky and Dina spend more time interacting with each other, because I’m going to guess that it will be awesome either way.
Cuteness!
I was hoping somebody would adopt that as a grav.
Incidentally, if you crop straight from the image, you can get the invisible background. Err, I mean, put this into Gravatar, and crop it:
http://www.dumbingofage.com/comics/2015-06-10-dinosaurs.png
Thanks. I’ll redo it.
I meant you should upload it straight from the URL I posted. That hopefully makes more sense.
I get it now. Thanks.
This is adorable <3
Awesome! If you hadn’t grabbed it, I might have traded in my Becky grav for that. Not that Becky isn’t still good!
These two gravs together are just adding to the adorable.
Happy!Becky is still one of the best gravs.
Becky and Dina could both use another friend. If it goes somewhere else, that’s cool too, but admittedly, I am unsure of Dina’s orientation. I know that Willis has tried to not change any of them, at most operating where it wouldn’t contradict things. So Dina would not be lesbian, given Walkyverse with her stuff with Walky and Mike. Doesn’t mean she couldn’t be bi/pan/etc, though
folks stop saying that you read dina as asexual because it’s forcing me to guess at your reasoning and giving me an migraine thanks
like yeah okay she’s ace or demi or whatever as per her earlier conversation with amber but if one more person says she “comes off that way” or something i’m gonna make a vague threat
also thank you to all the folks pointing out asexuality and aromanticism are different things, you are wonderful
Sorry Wack’d. (Personally in my case it’s just the “Oh you’re really curious but haven’t gotten the pants feelings before and it’s all in a sort of vague everyone-else-seems-to-be-into-it-and-I-wonder-what-the-deal-is way? Same!” but yeah the stereotypes are not pleasant and I still remember the crap about UC and Malaya.)
I think this is the strip that started it all: http://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-5/02-threes-a-crowd/overstepped/
I think the wording that she is fascinated in a clinical sense made people jump to the conclusion. I dunno if they’re right or not though.
And isn’t sexuality supposed to carry over from the Walkyverse? If so, then we at least know Dina is sexually attracted to men.
or alternatively she was –romantically– attracted to men. two different spectrums.
Walky acting maturely turned her on so much she pounced him and they dry humped a room to death.
They’re right. Trust me.
Unlike the majority, I don’t ship it. However, I do forgive you for pretty much everything else because you’ve given Dina a happy moment. That smile pays for everything.
AWWWWWWWWWW
i squee’d so hard i think i broke something
yaaaaaay <3
I friend-ship it.
*SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE*
Aww
I don’t often ship. But I immediately shipped those two. Of course, after It’s Walky, I just want Dina to have a happy ending.
Yeah, that was heartbreaking. Good storytelling, but heartbreaking.
And now that Dina appears in Dumblr. Now I am both very happy for Dina, and feeling very sorry for Dina.
I don’t see this as romance (although it’d certainly be a really interesting and cool pairing)……from my own experiences, autistic peeps are really, really into stuff. And often, we just get told to shut up about it….either actively or passively. Doesn’t really matter. You learn, eventually. So when you find someone who’s actually willing to listen and wants you to talk about the stuff you really, really, really want to talk about, and won’t turn it around at you and start being a dick and labelling your behaviour……it’s pretty neat.
Totally. “She’s interested? SHE’S INTERESTED! :D”
Dawww
Unfortunately, Becky’s flirting, and Dina’s not socially aware enough to figure that out.
While it isn’t impossible I’d crack ship it, in fact I am pretty sure Becky isn’t flirting, just being friendly.
I agree. Could just be me, but that didn’t seem like flirting. Especially so in this case – I think Becky would have been less subtle.
She looks like she really, really wants to chat with someone and get her mind off stuff. Like her cards.
Compare and contrast her outrageous flirting with Sal in the previous comic.
I think this is genuine, for varying values thereof.
This is way too low key for Becky flirting. Becky flirting is more along the lines of “Hey, wanna bang?”
When you take Becky’s energy level into account, I can’t help but think of it as
“Hey, wanna interro-bang!?”
Some feels are good feels.
Yay Becky. It’s nice to have someone actually engage with Dina in a way that appreciates her, rather than treat her as something broken.
Couldn’t have said it better. My ‘issues’ aren’t as obvious as Dina’s, but I absolutely HATE being treated as if I’m broken.
Me, too.
… It says bad things about me that I read your comment and had an “Oh shit yeah… how did I never notice that?” moment.
+1
…and thus, a new Slipshine porno was born!
The most boring one yet. Still, I want both Dina and Becky to be happy on their terms. If that means hot lesbian sex while Dina takes copious notes (or dictates them into her phone) and they are both happy, or whatever, so long as they are both happy…
Seriously, I would pay good money for 10+ pages of Dina and Becky chatting, laughing and just having a good time.
…So basically, I just admitted that if Willis ever sinks to emotional extortion I will pay up.
…DOES Dina have a phone? It occurs to me that if she does, I don’t know or remember what it looks like.
I am expecting the none-slipshine comic: Dina and Becky hug while talking about dinosaurs – there is also some tickling.
That might possibly be a billion dollar smile. Last panel is best panel evar.
Shell officially came out of.
Both Becky and Joyce seem to be naturally friendly and outgoing, especially towards difficult personalities like Dana. I think that Becky deserves a thumbs-up by not starting a pointless argument but, instead, just unconditionally trying to be Dina’s friend.
Okay, firstly: Don’t press ‘post’ until you’re sure you’ve proofed your spelling. I am talking only about Dina in my previous post.
Secondly… Why does everything have to have a sexual context? Why can’t Becky and Dina choose just to be good friends and enjoy spending time with each other?
I’m just suspicious of how many more people suddenly care about the values of good friendship when there’s a panel of two girls/two guys together than when it’s a guy and a girl.
Maybe I just jump to conclusions.
I can only speak for myself, but I know what it’s like to have difficulty making and keeping friends, and I think a strong friendship is exactly what Dina needs right now. Then again, I may just be projecting.
Oh, I absolutely think it would be great for these two to become friends, don’t get me wrong. I’m more of commenting on the surprising number of people who voice their concerns that we’re all forgetting the value of good friendship to the shipping craze, when I doubt I could find similar outrage on a page with a girl and a guy smiling at each other.
Two thoughts occur to me for this:
1. Is it outrage? I mean yeah you’ll see outrage by homophobes and bigots in other places but here, I’m not so sure.
2. “Just two gal pals sharing a kiss, nothing romantic going on here!” reports The Daily Mail, lol.
In my particular case, it’s because envisioning Dina in sexual terms is just plain not happening. Her character has displayed only a slight (and mostly clinical) interest in sex, she’s drawn to look like she’s barely into her teens, and her wardrobe just makes her seem even younger. Her look in the last panel here may be the oldest she’s ever seemed to me, and that’s mostly because the signature hat isn’t screaming “I’m a tween” for once.
Seriously shipping her into a sexual relationship with anyone would make me feel like an outright pedophile no matter what her stated age is.
Dina’s not difficult.
Ruth is a difficult person to get along with. Whatshername, the judgmental one, is difficult. Dina’s easy to talk to and get along with if you just talk about things she’s actually enthusiastic about, which I suspect is true of most people.
Basically, she’s not difficult up until the point you start shitting on science.
I think that you’re misinterpreting what I mean about ‘difficult’. I’m not talking about ‘troublesome’ or ‘offensive’. I’m just pointing out a truth which is that Dina’s condition means that you have to make a lot of conscious effort to interact with her so as to avoid confusing her, overwhelming her or hitting a trigger by accident.
I’d say it’s the other way around – Dina finds EVERYONE to be difficult, because she misses social cues that everyone else picks up on automatically.
Awwww. All the smiles.
And thereupon came a comic that warmed the cockles of my cold, dead heart.
Seriously, this is so fucking adorable.
+1
Haha, Cockles.
You should really see a cardiologist. Having a clam infestation on your heart can’t be good or you.
I’ve been considering that for a while, but we’ve finally been starting to get along.
I COULD be reading this situation wrong, but i do believe we are the beginnings of love here, but then again i thought a friendship between chickens and a Pit Bull would work out. So i may be wrong.
**Seeing
Friendship would be fine for the pit bull
You have obviously never met my dog Sadie. She kinda… killed some of our neighbor’s chickens. >>; kinda caused a deal…
I love Dina so goddamn much <3
All of this shipping, so appropriate in a week when LightSail successfully unfolded in its first trial and NASA tested out a saucer-like lander.
And Dina talking about dinosaurs in a week when a new one was discovered.
And Willis said this wasn’t a period piece… *eyes rolling or whatever*
Incidentally, the ship I’m seeing here is a solid, important friendship. They both need a friend, I think, and one with whom there is no complicated context.
Willis has had this strip in his buffer for almost four months. He is obviously a psychic who can read the future; or has a functioning crystal ball; or a Time Turner from the Potterverse. Take your pick.
The Doctor reads his comic. Maybe he got some insider information.
“only 20 tons”, she says.
For a sauropod, that’s not that huge. The truly massive ones approach 100 tons. It’s about the middle of the range of the really well known genera.
I know
I love that Dina doesn’t pick one of those. For many dinosaur fans the giants like Supersaurus, Argentinosaurus, or Dreadnoughtus would be the place to start, dazzling us with their sheer size and the excitement of new discoveries.
But Dina isn’t about the newest finds or biggest dinosaurs. She loves them all. When somebody asks her about them, common Camarasaurus is just as good as any of the others.
Also, the hat in the final panel looks a bit perturbed that its field of vision is being obstructed by the jacket now. Appease the hat!
Becky does like’em easy-to-fluster…
That… that actually made ME fluster a bit.
I can’t handle how adorable these two are.
AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW
DINA SMILE
My name is nooB and I approve of this ship.
Q Teeeeeeees
Adorable. Now who else smells doom cooking?…maybe I’ve been reading too much Something Positive….
Adorable new friendship! Yay! Is this the first time we’ve seen Dina grin?
Oh my god this is SO CUTE.
Even before I got to the last panel I was smiling ridiculously at Becky taking an active interest in Dina’s special interest. That’s so lovely and then the last two panels and it got even better I DIDN’T THINK IT COULD GET BETTER BUT IT DID
And suddenly Becky becomes a hell of a lot more likable to me.
KEEP TALKING ABOUT DINOSAURS
I died a little. In a good way.
Relationship or friendship, I don’t care, but I ship it so much.
Feel good comic of the year
I love the way people have been making eye contact with Dina’s hat while her face is covered.
But that’s what’s moving!
This is – dare I say it? – Triceradorable.
I hope Becky has actually made a friend and this isn’t a pretext to hit on Dinah.
NO FUCKING WAY
I don’t think Beckys hitting on Dinah. She just hit on Sal and it was embarrassing, but she did it cause Sal is hot and cool. (Everyone would hit on Sal xD)
I believe she really just wants to talk to an interesting person who is a bit outside of Joyces circle and have some distraction and fun. It may, if Dinah is interested in such thing, lead to more, but I don’t believe thats Beckys goal atm.
Also: Look at how all those Becky-hate was reverted … suddenly. Funny.
Agreed about Dina. She’s reaching out to someone who is, in her own way, as isolated as she is.
Not sure if the hate is reversed…there’s a lot of ‘go away, Becky, stop trying to seduce her!’
Nice, finally a non-Joyce person whom Becky is not being obnoxious and/or a jerk to.
Look at that smile! SUCH A PUNIM!
I love this!! Smiling Dina is the best!
NO ONE has picked up on Becky’s single-shoulder shrug as she says “I’unno — I just kinda like it when you talk to me” in panel four? It’s there, it’s appropriate, it’s noticeable, but it’s not ‘in your face’.
What I noticed is that the shrug lines were the same colour as her hair XD
I’m not sure what you think is notable about it. Are we supposed to point out every time Willis draws a character making a gesture appropriate to the situation?
Awwww
love this!!!!
No! Bad Becky! No seducing Dina! >:[
A) She isn’t seducing her, she’s conversing with her.
B) The only people who get to decide whether seducing is okay are Becky and Dina, collectively.
C) I like lists of three things.
Ok I get that her taking the jacket off of her head is a sign that she’s getting more comfortable with her environment and whatnot…. but I still kind of wish she’d keep it on forever because I love how silly it looks to see just a Cousin It esque blob with the green dinosaur hat on.
I am a christian, but at the same time I wasn’t there when it all started how the %@#^#$^ should i know how old things are?
If only there were some sort of public institution whose job was to tell people things they don’t know.
There are; they’re called “schools” but you can’t trust them because they all have a hidden agenda of some kind or another, depending on who runs them. And I know that this is true because I read it on the internet.
(close sarcasm)
Many public institutions of that character even!
i dont think bing is really a public institution
Judging from what I’ve seen of Dina in DoAverse, she has Asperger’s (whether written that way or not, it’s how I read it). Becky saying that to Dina, assuming she’s Asperger’s, will likely spark a close friendship very quickly and maybe more further on, if Walky feels inclined not to go all George R. R. Martin on us.
I dunno…
My experience with aspergers is that even if I don’t feel that bad, when I’m confronted with a stressor, I automatically react like a more neurotypical person would if confronted with a noticeably worse stressor. My brain shuts down due to too much stress more quickly, and I’m more likely to feel compelled to argue and react strongly when I see something I dislike. I think of Dina as more controlled, and restrained, than that.
Dina has difficulty with routine social interaction, which I don’t. However, she’s more able to relate to others once they start talking to her, and hold a conversation where both sides convey information and emotion to each other. Usually, when I’m talking with someone, only one person tends to do the talking, whether that’s me, or the other person in the conversation. It seems like she’s been able to make friends relatively easily, because of her strangeness, too.
Because of all these factors, it’s more difficult for me to relate to her than for me to relate to more neurotypical characters, even though I am not neurotypical.
I like Game of Thrones a little bit less every time I see somebody throw out George R.R. Martin as a standard example of a mean author.
Especially when you’re worried about heartbreak rather than being worried about Dina stabbing Becky in the throat to usurp her political position.
I’ll admit thats something I wouldn’t see coming
Sounds like the makings of an april fool’s strip to me.
I’m not sure Becky’s political position is something worth usurping
Scientific DATING methods!
Oh Dina, I’d love to talk about dinosaurs with you!
WHAT
http://40.media.tumblr.com/60e82a563af6d4489a68012e384ea328/tumblr_mhsdaspdkW1qkinreo1_500.png
~friendship~
and hopefully becky will stop being an ass when she realizes joyce is allowed have other friends besides her when she becomes friends with dina.
i mean i love becky and all but
she can be pretty douchey
And Let the shipping begin!!!
Loving the “new” art style
I’ve been coming back to this come periodically all day, because the smiles in the last panel make me happy every time I look at it.
“to this comic” not “to this come”. Sorry for the typo.
I know, right. Warm fussy feelings all around.
And there goes Dina, breaking the Law of the Conservation of Cuteness yet again.
Nah, cuteness is conserved only in closed systems. Becky is obviously putting energy into the system, so it doesn’t apply.
SCIENCE!
=O
Look at us, learning science and stuff!
DID I BUILD A SHIP TO WRECK
TO WREEEEECK
TO WREEEEECK
TO WREEEEECK
DID I BUILD THIS SHIP TO WRECK
(yes I did)
I must say, Dina’s doing better than I did. The one and only time a woman expressed an interest in talking to me I reacted in confusion.
Positive interaction. Hooray! (may be shipping it pale already)
omfg my little heart, I want to hug Dina right now.
True story: After panel two, I held up my hand to cover the remaining panels, revealing them one at a time, because I wanted to hold on to my delusion that this wasn’t going straight to Craptown for as long as possible. When I got to the next to last panel, I started cringing in dreadful anticipation. And then…
SMILES!
(And I also got something in my eye shut up it was an eyelash)
What a perfectly executed smile! Beautiful. Dina must have been practicing hard!
Isn’t “long-necked sauropod” redundant?
Biological/paleontological terminology redundant? I never! *faints*
Not really. I mean, sauropods in general have longer necks than most other classes of non-avian dinos, but there’s a range within the sauropods. Some are around the length of the body, others around twice as long.
If it’s not meant to be a pleonasm, then as sauropods go, wouldn’t Camarasaurus have one of the shorter necks?
Yeah, it would, especially relative to the others of the same general size.
“Sorry for looking you in the face. I am new to social cues, and had to check your face. I wasn’t sure you were being sarcastic…
That’s strange. I am almost certain you had to mean that sarcastically – everyone finds my dissertations on dinosaurs pedantic and boring. However, I am seeing none of the facial cues associated with sarcasm on your face. Am I missing something, or is your sarcasm meant to be subtle?”
Yup, subtle that’s Becky
My whole entire heart!
I’m calling it. Willis is going to shoot this ship down harder than an orbital strike to your brain.
I wouldn’t mind Becky having a crush on Dina.
oh wow. still shipping it
FRIENDSHIP! YEEE
or maybe more…?
OH BOY.