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“And this girl, Amber O’Malley. I kind of hate that bongo.”
(I’ve mentioned before in the comments that coincidentally my name is Amber O’Malley, so I wanted to hit that particular Amazi-Girl archrival before somebody else made me feel bad. )
That’s a chosen gravatar, cropped straight from a comic. The random ones are most easily distinguished by their background closely matching the site’s.
THAT MAKES NO FUCKING SENCE!!!!! in the flashback panels we see amber was clearly affected by sals robbery attempt (and blains assholeness, though that’s a given.) so if sal herself isn’t what drives her to see her as an enemy even to the point of breaking up with her boyfriend because of them being with in ten feet of each other, what is it? If the ptsd followed by being “concluded” by her ass-hat father isn’t ambers problem, it better be something way FUCKING better than that.
She hates herself for being in the position she was in. She blames herself for Ethan having been taken hostage. The reason she pursues Sal so much is because she wants to fight Sal head-on to make up for her past. Sal herself isn’t the problem – she merely represents Amber’s perceived weakness.
I’m starting to think that Amber actually hates HERSELF for giving into her rage and stabbing Sal’s hand. That was a Blaine-thing to do, not a…. dammit, what was her name? Not an Amber’s-Mom thing to do. Amber cannot express rage in a manner that isn’t a threat to everyone around her. That’s what Amazi-girl is for. Amazi-girl can be angry without being a berserk maniac.
Sal is the constant reminder of Amber’s failure in this regard, the recurring and inescapable proof that Amber is a dangerous woman if enraged. Amber’s inability to process Sal’s presence with anything short of crippling fear — both of Sal and herself — is why Amazi-girl is needed.
Amazi-girl hates Amber. So does Amber. This they agree on.
By any chance could it be possible that she hates the system that allowed the both of them to wind up the way they did. (Just food for thought. little thought experiment)
I think that’s more of a thing Sal would hate. She’s definitely the ‘fuck the system’ type. Amber, OTOH, needs the system for stability, and AG (despite the whole vigilante thing) seems to get along with the system quite well – even the cops seem to like her, even though they shouldn’t.
Hence why it pisses her off / scares her that Sal saved her while she was Amazi-girl– because that implies that (1) Amazi-girl being the ‘healthy’ outlet for her anger is not actually that healthy, since it puts her in extreme danger (2) She can’t run from her past and what it means for her present (which Sal represents those problems and fears for her) because it will always show up and (3) She can’t battle her demons successfully alone; she doesn’t want to need other people, but she DOES.
This exactly … Amber can’t harm anyone, and she’s channeled all the rage Amber felt at Sal into amazi-girl, who doesn’t have that filter. Since she’s still conflicted as to who she really is, this can be taken two ways … 1) Amber hates herself, because of what she did … And 2) Amazing-girl can never hate Sal, without her she wouldn’t exist.
My guess is that Amber doesn’t hate Sal. She dislikes her. She associates her with fear and trauma. But I think she has a weird sense of obligation to and respect for Sal. The convenience store robbery was the first time she stood up to anyone -to Sal, to her father, and to herself -all at once. If I’m remembering right, she learned self-defense after that incident -and I’m guessing it was self-defense that eventually led her to track and field, which got her out of her shell and into shape. So if I’m reading her right, there’s this weird bit of dark gratitude, because although Sal terrified her and hurt Ethan, Amber’s only friend, Sal was responsible for Amber breaking through her own shells and proving that she could stand up for herself and act on her own. She’s been following Sal to get her measure and out of a sense of distrust -and trying to get rid of her respect for the “hooligan who held up a convenience store and took my friend hostage” with proof that Sal’s not actually good. Everything Sal does wrong lessens Amber’s debt. Fighting her and proving herself stronger would be a “student has become the master” moment for her -she would finally be demonstrably stronger than the person who finally pushed her over the edge and onto this path. But every time Sal saves her, Amber feels more trapped in her own head and by her reality (like she’s not actually that strong after all), feels more obligated to her, feels more confused (since Sal isn’t supposed to be a good-aligned character). And the hate isn’t for Sal; it’s for Blaine (for obvious reasons) and herself: for being like Blaine, for having anger issues, for not being able to control parts of herself, for needing to be AG, for needing to be saved, for not being who and where she desperately wants to be.
It was honestly my pleasure. Your ….I don’t know the word for “speech patterns of typing”, but whatever it is, you have one that reminds me of a few very dear friends of mine who are always a delight to chat with, most of whom have been too busy to talk much lately. Furthermore, you seem like an interesting sort of person in your own right, and I like hearing about people’s dreams and plans and the insides of their heads. You’re also somewhat ahead of me in life (I refer most particularly to the sense of progression along the self-sufficiency ladder) and I am curious about the sorts of things people do as they move along that, having not yet had to handle much of it myself, but drawing closer to the stage where I need to.
My regards and well-wishes to you and your friend who has been having the health troubles. (I hope you don’t find it creepy that I mentioned that -I keep notes of important things to remember near my computer -upcoming birthdays/anniversaries/tests, etc. and one of the things I try (with varying degrees of success -I’m bad at communication) is to keep a list of people (especially those with whom I primarily or exclusively communicate online) who have mentioned unwellness -either their own, or that of someone they care about, as a reminder in case there is any way I can help or in the event that the person I interact with wants to talk about it, and, well, last night I added your friend to the list. If you object, I will of course remove you and them.)
everyone has their things though right? I mean I clicked on your profile here thinking i might find a tumblr i could send you a message on, but that was not the case. There were multiple names there and as i wasn’t sure which was you I wouldn’t have taken a chance on that.
as for dreams right now my dream is to move out on my own and have a stable life.
beyond that maybe publish a book. I have been paid by individuals to write for them. I just wish that it would be something beyond pron that i was commissioned to write.
I realize it’s not really my place to insert myself here, but if either of you feel like chatting with me, please feel free to get in touch:
“spam [dot] mee [dot] herere [at] gmail [dot] com”
I might take you up on that. Well… I think I might like to take you up on that, but I am unsure of precisely the etiquette involved. (I have minimal social awareness, so I kinda try to overcompensate)
True enough. I don’t tumbl, really -one of these days, I’ll update the link to something that’s me. I was webmaster for the link I use when I first commented on this site; while that was a few years ago and I’m no longer directly affiliated with the organization, I still check in on them and promote them when I can. There’s also an element of “that was the first thing I did that really made an impact, even though it was a small one”, and I like the reminder -I put a lot of work in, and have a lot of good memories, and… yeah…
Makes sense. That’s a someday-goal for me -I’m working on stable headspace and degree at the moment -actual real-world-ing is too far in the future right now.
You write well enough for commissions?! Holy carp, that’s AWESOME! I wish I could write that well -anything I might recognize?
Kinda? I know there’s a specific word I’m thinking of here -my friends who were crazy into Homestuck had one they used to use all the time that meant something like type-quirk?
She had severe crippling social anxiety, Ethan was her social lifejacket.
Sal took and and threatened him, traumatizing her.
Then there was rapid de-escalation. Amber might have enough natural resilience to bounce back, given a comfort and safety.
Then Blaine publicly ridiculed her helplessness while she was basically in a panic attack pouring salt in the wound ( or gasoline on the fire, instead of water ) . This turned Ambers de-escating panic attack into a Full blown rage attack. She *ALWAYS* had the strength , her anxiety turned it inward against her. In rage she grabbed the knife and Blindly attacked Sal, losing all control. Becoming the daughter Blaine wanted. This probably added self-fear, fear of losing control, self-disgust and guilt to her prior feelings ( becuse she was the one who attacked Sal without Cause ) .
Her feelings toward Sal are complicated, and rapidly changing.
She took her off her permanent enemies list when she realized the racist Zimmermaning implications .
Amazigirl can ( usually ) safely channel Ambers terror, trauma and blind rage and calmly direct it outward to people who she thinks deserves it.
Joyce later joins the team when she hears about them planning to take out some people protesting for traditional marriage. Sal begrudgingly lets her join the braiding party.
Faz has charts indicating the adoption rate of the ladies attraction to Faz, and some labeled diagrams right over here showing how they will express their adoration.
Its quite clear which of them is more Batman here. AG nailed ”insisting you didn’t need help rather than expressing gratitude”, but Sal aced the ”you don’t know what you’re doing / don’t rush in half-cocked” speech, AND ”looking cooler than anybody you team up with”. Plus two ”save the day out of nowhere and be kinda grumpy about it”-s
In this alternate universe, criticism is actually her kryptonite, but instead of sapping away powers and strength it saps away tranquility
and the ability to resist the urge to commit homicide
That was the Shortpacked universe, the day she first appeared as AG in the store. Galasso was lecturing her, and she stated that she was ‘immune to criticism.’
I think that’s Amazi-girl starting to realize that Sal didn’t really do any of what she’s been blaming her for. But maybe that’s just wishful thinking and she’s saying she hates herself for not doing anything when Sal robbed the convenience store. It’s probably that second one.
Yeah, I think it’s more the second one there. “I don’t hate you, I hate me for not doing anything when you showed up.” That said I think she’s definitely in some capacity processing things better here in regards to Sal.
honestly this seems to indicate beating up henchdudes while talking will be an effective form of therapy for Amazi-Girl. At least if she doesn’t run away before progress is made.
Sure, we knew that, but I’m rather surprised that she could have figured that out already. It can’t have been more than 20 minutes since she was totally ready to beat Sal up.
It feels like she isn’t that the hate is gone, but she must have figured out it was misplaced. But who does she now realize she hates? Blaine? Young Sal? Amber?
yeah. I agree. I’m not quite sure what she’s thinking, but I think she’s realized Sal isn’t actually guilty of anything in regards to her hate at this point.
How about “I needed an excuse for you to beat me up, to make up for me stabbing your hand. I hurt you, and I can never forgive myself for that, so I need YOU to HURT me. PLEASE.”
I know what you mean. She hasn’t shown any ability to figure this stuff out before.
But I don’t see any sign that she was ready to beat Sal up. She’s been oddly hesitant this whole time, ever since Sal pulled her down. As she said, by her own rules she was completely justified in attacking Sal. But she didn’t. She hesitated. She looked for an excuse to leave and found one in Ryan.
Something is different about her since this. Sure, she was stalking Sal, but she wasn’t in full out rage mode wanting to hurt her. Oddly, Sal was the one who kept trying for a fight–a complete reversal from their previous encounter.
Even in their previous encounter Amber wasn’t exactly trying to beat up Sal. She said at one point something along the lines of “Come on, hurt me.”
The reversal on Sal’s side is fairly understandable though, Sal’s been stalked and threatened for a considerable time now. Sal just wants to resolve things one way or another to put an end to it there.
Oh, yeah. I understand why Sal is the way she is. But it was also quite surprising. She’d been the one person who was willing to walk away so many times. But AG’s stalking (and possibly other stuff she’s been experiencing lately) finally wore her down.
She didn’t look for an excuse not to fight Sal. She’d always needed Sal to be the aggressor. Either so it would be justified according to her code, or because that was how it went down originally, and she’s trying to re-enact the original event. Probably a bit of both.
It was racist crowd that gave her a pause and put her Must-Get-Sal mode on standby for a moment, followed by spotting Ryan knocked her out of it. She snapped out of that mental state, and apparently got a much better look at herself in the previous state than she’d had before.
Had she always been able to see these things when she wasn’t distracted by her hate-on for Sal?
Oh, and I forgot. As she said, she technically did, by her own rules, have an excuse to fight Sal, since she pulled her down and could have severely hurt her.
But when Sal invited her to come at her, she hesitated.
Sal recovered. She’s in college, and mostly normal. She’s doing fairly well.
Amber is only falling apart.
Amber/Amazi-girl doesn’t hate Sal. She hates her reflection in Sal. She hates that Sal has recovered, and turned it all around, and all Amber can manage to do is push away those that care, and fall deeper into her Persona.
The nose is already key. Taylor’s is a button nose. Tyler’s is pointy. Dawson’s nost is basically the same as Tyler’s, but he has a more angular chin (and is also less tanned)
I made a couple comments on Becky strips here on my tablet, and now its autocorrect keeps suggesting “lesbian” when it doesn’t know what else to put in.
This is the link you were trying: “and there’s Hayes!”
—
put the text you actually want to show up inside of the tags: <a href=”link”>THIS SHOWS UP</a>
that all should work.
Or, if you just want the post the URL, post the URL, and it will automatically be linked.
Also, kudos for noticing that the link was still there in the source code. I wouldn’t have even thought to look. I’d assume anything that didn’t display would be filtered out.
To call Marcie a security guard is really stretching a point. She is a student who is just a warm body at this rally and is meant to do little more than present the appearance of a control figure. She’s really just another pair of eyes on the crowd, or there to point the way to the bathroom or which door to use to get into the auditorium itself, and as Yossarianduck says, getting down and mixing it up with this melee that has broken out is way past her duties and responsibilities.
I was a student security guard and I agree with the above.
But my inner nitpick has to point out Marcie is not a student security guard because she is not a student. But almost certainly down at the “warm body” level of rent-a-cops.
I agree, I think AG is still really struggling with her life and is jealous that Sal’s is pulling her life back together. However, Sal doesn’t have a terrible dad that she has to deal with. Most of Sal’s problems are in the past, where AG’s are still very real and current.
The angle on the guy’s mouth in the last panel makes it look like he has this blissful smile at being slugged in the jaw. Methinks that someone just discovered a new fetish. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
For some pansy frat boys, those dudes are taking some punches and coming back for more. Scarface and Knee to the Chin have to have dislocated, if not broken, jaws. One good shot to their cajones will put them down for the count though. I wonder what the crowd will do next? I’d say the campaign rally is cancelled. Is there a buffet?
And given that he’s being defended by guys all wearing the same frat t-shirt, I’ll give you one guess as to which frat he’s in. Shouldn’t be hard to find him.
Those are ‘De Santos’ campaign shirts, not frat T-shirts. As Ryan said when A-G first came up to him, they are apparently all interns/campaign volunteers for this rally.
Carla: (places hand over eyes) I sense a great disturbance in the Fuck-Off Force – like countless millions of Fuck-Offs were delivered to one person, and suddenly unleashed.
Becky: OHHH YEAAAAAH!! In your FAAAAAAAACE!!
Carla: HEY! That’s MY schtick!!
Once again, the last line is what is catching my attention more than anything:
“Not you. Never YOU.”
Now, the fact that Amber/AG is talking about herself is pretty damn obvious. But let’s go a little bit deeper than that, shall we?
What I think Amber/AG hates is their capacity for violence. This capacity was (thankfully) quite dormant, and perhaps (that is a -big- perhaps) it would never have surfaced if not for the night when Amber stabbed Sal. Then again, perhaps not. It’s more likely that Blaine would have done something horribly abusive to push her over the edge sooner or later.
But however, it happened, Amber discovered that part of her. And then she realised at some point that this part of her was a pretty horrible part. Amber then created AG because she wanted Amber to be normal (as she told in the interview with Dorothy). By putting the violent tendencies behind a mask, a mask with certain rules, with a measured control on how they are allowed to use their capacity for violence… Then -Amber- could hope to function as a normal human being, never hitting someone who she’d then immediately regret hitting.
In some ways, it’s sort of worked out, if only for a while. In others, less so.
BUT EVEN SO, Amber still hates that part of herself; and little wonder. I think what she hates the most is just how much she enjoys the violent tendencies. The rush of adrenaline and endorphin released when she is punching someone in the face. It’s a drug. An immensely powerful drug.
And I think she is starting to realise that her control of these violent tendencies are not controlled that well even by AG, and that it’s like a band-aid covering up a cancerous boil that needs to be cut away, if she’s ever to fulfill her dreams of being normal.
But that’s a long-term view of things. Right now, we come back to Sal and why Amber goes catatonic (if that is the word) every time she sees her. Basically, Sal is her trigger. Sal reminds Amber that she is the kind of person who will stab another, restrained unarmed person.
Sure, -we- know that Blaine is the real reason with his years of abuse, but the human brain is sadly a very imperfect instrument (to say the least), and the correlation of events have melted together in Amber’s mind into something that just breaks her down again and again.
And Amber goes catatonic and flees whenever she sees Sal, because she’s afraid that she will do it again. That she will stab Sal just like that, no provocation.
That’s why she needed AG to do it. With AG, her plan was to provoke Sal into starting a fight, to get the justification she needed in her own mind. Because what Amber thought she needed…
She needed to convince herself that Sal somehow deserved to be stabbed with a knife.
That is the absolutely most chilling thing about this whole situation. Her “closure” with Sal has always been to assume that Sal is still an evil person. If Sal had been evil, it would not have been so bad that she got stabbed, right? Right?
But time and again, Sal refuses to play part of the villain. And it just drives Amber nuts, because every time that happens, it reminds Amber that she stabbed someone with a knife, and that someone turned out not to be an abusive dad or a shitty serial rapist.
And now we know. Now we know why saving AG’s life was the second worst thing Sal ever did to Amber. It’s horribly depressing, but in its twisted, sad way, it makes sense.
This is a really interesting analysis, and I think the word you’re looking for might be “dissociation”. She can’t maintain the Amber persona in front of Sal because she can’t maintain the sense of detached equilibrium that defines her.
I think what might really get to Amber (and Amazi-Girl) is if she got to talking with Sal about the incident and heard Sal say she regretted it. Or that she did a bad thing. Or any kind of negative self-assessment, really. The concept that isn’t sticking with her is “I did a bad thing but that doesn’t mean I’m a bad person”. And that’s definitely down to Blaine’s A+ parenting skills. *gag*
I am posting simply to say that your post is well thought-out, well constructed, well presented, internally consistent, and I disagree with every single inch of it.
Applause and an internet for that spot-on analysis, good sir. (And clearing up a few things that I hadn’t even thought of, though I’d guessed at part of this.)
I could almost agree with you but for the time when Amber said she needed to “get it right”. When she thought Dorothy would expose her, she was frantic that it was her last chance to get it right.
That implies that there was something she did wrong that she had to do differently this time. Justifying her actions retroactively doesn’t do that.
Recreating a similar confrontation with Sal would. She could still want to defeat Sal on her own terms, instead of in a rage, while she’s handcuffed. I think there’s more there, though I think it’s Amber who actually needs to get it right. Amazi-Girl doing it doesn’t seem like it would fix anything. Amber’s the one who lost control. That’s how she was too weak.
Remember AG’s words during the fight in the parking lot.
“Come back! Fight me! HURT ME!!”
“This is my last chance to get it right!”
Amber didn’t want to fight to hurt Sal – she was trying to provoke Sal into attacking, without attacking her first. Not because attacking first wouldn’t be honorable, but because SHE DIDN’T WANT TO HURT SAL. She wanted to fight so that SAL could hurt HER. She feels terrible guilt and shame for her actions at the convenience store, and feels that she owes blood to Sal. Hurting Sal herself would only make her feel worse. What’s more, every time Sal helps her, she feels even more guilty and ashamed and indebted to her. Amber and AG feel that they DESERVE pain, and that Sal deserves to be the person who makes them feel it.
Maybe, but getting hurt by Sal doesn’t feel like ”getting it right” to me. The way she phrases that makes it sound like she needs to do something again, but differently. Not just recreate the situation. I think she wants to prove she can do it wIthout losing control again.
From the stabbing onward, all of Amber’s red panels center on things she did in anger. Times when she lost control and flew into a rage. Times when she reminds herself of Blaine.
She might think that by re-living it but maintaining control, she can prove she won’t become her father.
There’s only one person that Amber ever has really hated and that’s the woman she sees in the mirror every day. I do wonder sometimes if Amazi-Girl has to fight for control to keep Amber from hurting herself.
Neither of them need to go. They need to reintegrate.
They both have good things. They both have problems.
Amber has the anger and Amazi-Girl the self-control, but “Amazi-Girl should respond consistently to the exact same misdemeanor”, but “maybe Amber is allowed to be inconsistent”.
Well, panel 2 appears to be a broken jaw and or possibly a semi-severed tongue. The goon is definitely going to need a wire in his jaw, and probably several dozen trips to an orthodontist to fix his teeth.
I’m so glad that they’re friends now, and Amber has worked through all her issues, and has no more problems, and her mentla state is perfectly stable now.
Where is security? They should have been on alert around Amazi-Girl when she first stood off against Sal, and she has since followed and confronted someone else and has gotten in what seems to be a fairly elaborate fight with several people involved. They should at the very least be creeping into the background by now, shouldn’t they?
They’re probably standing back and placing bets whilst waiting for the police to arrive (much to the frustration of Sal and Marcie – That’s probably why Sal decided to get involved).
Only those two would choose to discuss their personal issues (both with each other and, in Amazi-Girl’s case, with herself) in the middle of a hectic fist-fight!
It is but this isn’t meant to be a standard superhero comic. Because of that, I expect Sal to start raving about how unrealistic the whole scenario is at any moment.
Depends which front page. So far Dotty has always had creative control over articles about Amazi-Girl and I’m sure she would be fairly sympathetic to her today, especially because this guy went after Joyce.
For the national papers… Robin/someone competent supporting Robin’s campaign could feasibly cover up the fact a dude like Ryan was at her event supporting her “family friendly” campaign. Alternatively AG is in trouble and gets banned on campus which (dare I say it) might actually be good for Amber in the long run.
Unless someone from her opponent’s team catches wind of the hole Rapist thing. There is likely someone there observing, and sent to record any potential scandals they can find, and this is a huge potential scandal starting from masked girl/campus-vigilante “conversing” with shirted intern. Seriously her opponent could easily end up with the whole conversation, including the “no one’s ever wanted to drug your fat ass” comment
If they get any amount of evidence they could spin this in ways that would be horrible to Robin…
If any of the truth starts to come out then Robin needs to distance herself from the Bros-of-Rape immediately. She might be able to get away wit it by throwing Frieda under the bus and blame her for hiring unpaid and unvetted interns.
Personally, I’ve got a feeling it won’t be Team Rapist. The media will spin it to look like AG (who the police are already looking for) attacked four white male interns who were working at Senator DeSanto’s rally. (Let’s keep in mind that DeSanto is the INCUMBENT candidate.) The aggressor (AG) had assistance from Sal Walkerton (an African American woman in Indiana–with a criminal record).
Rapist Ryan and his band of merry Bros. will look like they were defending themselves against an unprovoked attack.
“Fox News brings you the latest news from Indiana where an all-woman inter-racial terrorist team has been terrorising innocent white, male interns of the beloved, honored and straight, Representative DeSanto.”
“When prompted with donuts, Chief Wiggins said ‘This was a wholly unprovoked attack. We have men on their trail right now. They just need to finish their donuts’.”
“Rep DeSanto could not be reached at this time. Her aides said she was busy with personal matters. She was later seen in heated discussion with an anonymous woman with large hooters.”
“And now for some more outrageous lies syphoned from the internet and filtered for our over-70s demographic.”
I think that might get political if Robin tries to make herself out as a ‘law and order’ candidate as well as ‘family values’ – “I will see to it that Amazi-Girl is hunted down and brought to justice like the common vigilante thug she and her accomplice truly are!” Her poll numbers immediately drop 5% because Dorothy’s reporting has made AG seem such a complete white knight to the Bloomington community.
Yeah, but the medical center is practically on campus. They still probably only have her access because she was obviously Joyce’s friend and they wouldn’t get in trouble for it
I doubt enough people outside the student body read the student paper for it alone to make a significant impact on Robin’s poll numbers
I think that you may be underestimating the value to the local press of a costumed vigilante to selling advertising space. Dorothy’s stories will have been reprinted verbatim and likely elaborated (in mostly imaginary ways) in op/eds by numerous other reporters.
Yeah, this. Our British campus had a few papers when I was a student and a few of the more “scandalous” stories from in there were picked up and distorted by nationals and even other publications (including, hilariously, Breitbart…actually I say hilariously but it led to our women’s officers getting death threats, of course). I wouldn’t be surprised if a few locals had run stories on AG lifted from Dotty’s articles.
No, but I can see her finally spilling out all her, self-loathing, self-hate and terror at the thing she’s becoming in Sal’s presence and ending up sleeping in Sal and Billie’s room because Sal doesn’t trust her not to hurt herself.
One thing: I don’t expect Sal to ask Amazi-Girl to take off her mask; she will insist that is Amazi-Girl’s decision to make. I do think, however, that Amazi-Girl to choose to do so.
Meanwhile Ryan is slithering away while his bros get their well deserved reward of an asskicking for jumping at the chance to gang up on a single woman.
Security isn’t expected to handle this kind of stuff. They have probably decided this is a floor full of Nope and are waiting for the cops.
I remember a comic where Batman was surrounded, and Superman heat-vision zapped a rifle that one of the bad guys had on him. Of course Batman got all pissy about getting rescued. But Sal’s punch was WAY more entertaining than Superman’s heat-vision zap. Had better wisecrack, too.
I am now doing panel reactions because why the heck not.
Panel 1: My goodness, girl. That face. She looks so upset that someone had to step in and help her, because that’s something about AmaziGirl, is that she doesn’t like help.
Panel 2: Okay, everyone already pretty much figured she was going to say something like this. But how does she get that knee up there? I can’t even do that, and I’m double-jointed.
Panel 3: This is the panel I think we were all waiting for. Sal and AmaziGirl standing back-to-back, surrounded by enemies. Yes.
Panel 4: Whoops, you missed.
Panel 5: Now, that’s interesting. Who does AmaziGirl hate, then, if she didn’t hate Sal? And how does that make sense considering her creepy stalking just a couple weeks ago?
on panel 2, I think she’s pulling his face and upper body down across hers – look how his shoulder obscures her face. Add to that a low camera angle (camera’s not looking straight down on her from above – it’s basically looking up her trunk from the direction of her feet) and she’s basically not getting her knee up as high as it looks.
Okay, I know virtually nothing about psychology so I’m just gonna ask this straight out:
Is it possible that “Amazi-Girl” is dissociative enough from Amber that her actions toward Sal are a form of self-preservation? That she is afraid that if Amber gets over her trauma regarding Sal that Amazi-Girl might disappear entirely? So she doesn’t hate Sal, because Sal is the reason she exists, but she needs Sal to hate her so that Amber will continue to be afraid of Sal?
From what I understand it is possible for alters to rebel from reintegrating, but I don’t believe that’s the case for Amber and Amazi-Girl. Amazi-Girl and Amber act in the same interests (they both believe that Danny betrayed them, for example) and what Amber wants is to overcome her fear of becoming her dad, and for Amazi-Girl to defeat her perception of Sal and do it properly.
If Amber has DID (which, as far as I’m concerned, is canon) Amazi-Girl is always going to be around.
Its an open question whether the Amazigirl persona is defensive mechanism to post-dissociation episodes , or a full blown Alt.
So far, there has never been a time when Amber didnt chose to be Amazigirl . Instead she loses the ability to control her behavior and emotional regulation. Amazigirl is an escape hatch. Shes never had memory loss, or missing time , or lost consciousnesses .
These things could be happening but Willis hasnt shown them.
This would be a very atypical presentation of BPD as I understand it. Amber doesn’t seem to have any problem being alone, when usually BPD sufferers are extremely scared of abandonment. And that’s one of the key symptoms.
She also seems to have a ton of empathy, which, in my experience, is really hard for BPD people. Their own problems are so big that they can’t really care about others.
And I just don’t see the extreme idealization/devaluation. She doesn’t treat her friends as either the best or the worst. Sure, she treats Danny like he’s the worst, but she’s perfectly nuanced with other people.
I also don’t see a ton of impulsivity. Even the more impulsive alter has huge restraints on her actions. I don’t think someone with BPD could even maintain a superhero form.
I’ve actually looked to see what specifically to diagnose Amber O’Malley with. I think that, even without the conclusive memory hiding aspects, DID fits her more than anything. And, of course, anger management issues, social anxiety, and stuff like that.
And given that actual DID sufferers have seen it, I feel that’s probably closer to correct. The few people I know with BPD are nothing at all like Amber/AmaziGirl.
Amber needs Sal to be a 13 year old who is breaking the law and threatening people, so the 13 year old Amber can react with power and competence. Sal refuses to play that game. Amber keeps trying to catch Sal at something criminal or provoke her into attacking her to resolve the episode in the convenience store more satisfactorily. Yep, messed up.
Nice writing Mr. Willis. I love that you’ve brought them together in a way that they can hash out their problem while fighting side by side. Cool story.
Okay, so someone said that Amazi-girl hates being helped, and it’s like something clicked in my head coz I realized I understand her feelings completely.
It’s this fucked up abusive parent logic train of ‘you let someone help you, therefore you are lazy and worthless and incapable of doing anything yourself’. To be a Good Worthy Person, you need to not just do everything yourself, but aggressively defend your ‘territory’ from well-intentioned assistants since you’ll just be reprimanded for making them exert themselves doing what’s obviously your job.
It… doesn’t make much sense. Unless you’ve grown up with it and internalized it as much as Amber has obviously internalized her father’s abuse.
By helping her, Sal didn’t extend a helping hand, prove her friendliness and make Amber’s life easier. By helping her, Sal inflicted a huge blow on what little self esteem she’s managed to cobble together for her superhero persona, and prevented her from feeing any accomplishment from the result at all.
Only someone who’s had “I’ll just do it myself!” used as a threat against them can fully understand >_<
That’s not very uncommon in the modern US. It’s at the root of some toxic parts of the masculine ideal in the current zeitgeist and at the heart of the Objectivist strain of market libertarianism that’s been growing over the last few decades in the Republican party among various other societal problems.
Amber/Amazi-Girl really does not want to admit she has limits. She’s more self-destructive than Sal ever was… and it all comes back to that abusive piece of *blarg* of a father.
It’s amazing how damaging one can be to someone else.
I didn’t expect more than an overnight stay. Disorderly conduct at most, dropped after the police find out about Ryan’s supply of GHB (I wonder if he’s a chemistry major?) and link him to a few campus assaults. It would, however, give the two antagonists time to talk with no way for either to escape. The lack of a mask for Amber, and gloves for Sal, would be a real ice breaker.
Compartmentalize and repurpose. The existence of Amazi-Girl protects Sal from what Amber would do otherwise.
It’s actually quite terrifying to step back and think of all the violence, anger and possibly amphetamines used in the making of Amazi-girl.
And also, I hope Amazi-Girl is smart enough to use a burner phone for all her Amazi-Girl business. But if her condoms are any indication, rapist a-hole will soon know her secret identity.
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“c’mon I need a rival for business purposes, stop trying to be all non-conflict and shit”
“The only other real enemy I have is the ding dong bandit and I’m kind of doing all this for her sooo”
Y’all have great avatars for this convo
“oh, and my butthole dad, but he’s never coming back”
“Oh, and Rapey McRapeRape here, who isn’t going to be coming back either.”
“And this girl, Amber O’Malley. I kind of hate that bongo.”
)
(I’ve mentioned before in the comments that coincidentally my name is Amber O’Malley, so I wanted to hit that particular Amazi-Girl archrival before somebody else made me feel bad.
Did you somehow manage to choose that avatar yourself? Because I have a hard time believing that was a coincidence.
Pretty sure that’s a gravatar. That is, they chose their own avatar and it’s tied to their username
The system is broken, I chose Walky for mine. Everywhere else it’s Walky… Here, it isn’t. I broke the system, please don’t hit me Amazi-girl.
That’s a chosen gravatar, cropped straight from a comic. The random ones are most easily distinguished by their background closely matching the site’s.
Also, “dingdong bandit” is embarrassing. I need a better named villain. I choose you!!!
“I don’t hate you, Cardassian. I hate what I became because of you.”
You may be very near the truth.
best time to work on your feelings. when you are beating up villians.
Yeah, who knew that to resolve personal conflict you just had to beat up some privledged jerk wads
Yes, unless there’s some kind of doomsday device nearby that needs to be stopped from blowing the world up.
THAT MAKES NO FUCKING SENCE!!!!! in the flashback panels we see amber was clearly affected by sals robbery attempt (and blains assholeness, though that’s a given.) so if sal herself isn’t what drives her to see her as an enemy even to the point of breaking up with her boyfriend because of them being with in ten feet of each other, what is it? If the ptsd followed by being “concluded” by her ass-hat father isn’t ambers problem, it better be something way FUCKING better than that.
She hates herself for being in the position she was in. She blames herself for Ethan having been taken hostage. The reason she pursues Sal so much is because she wants to fight Sal head-on to make up for her past. Sal herself isn’t the problem – she merely represents Amber’s perceived weakness.
I’ve read some other comments and conversations and I’m honestly hoping that’s what he’s aiming at.
I definitely agree that what Willis is driving at here is that Amber blames herself. I don’t think she blames Ethan at all, though.
I’m starting to think that Amber actually hates HERSELF for giving into her rage and stabbing Sal’s hand. That was a Blaine-thing to do, not a…. dammit, what was her name? Not an Amber’s-Mom thing to do. Amber cannot express rage in a manner that isn’t a threat to everyone around her. That’s what Amazi-girl is for. Amazi-girl can be angry without being a berserk maniac.
Sal is the constant reminder of Amber’s failure in this regard, the recurring and inescapable proof that Amber is a dangerous woman if enraged. Amber’s inability to process Sal’s presence with anything short of crippling fear — both of Sal and herself — is why Amazi-girl is needed.
Amazi-girl hates Amber. So does Amber. This they agree on.
By any chance could it be possible that she hates the system that allowed the both of them to wind up the way they did. (Just food for thought. little thought experiment)
That might be a more mature response. Or at least less self-destructive.
I think that’s more of a thing Sal would hate. She’s definitely the ‘fuck the system’ type. Amber, OTOH, needs the system for stability, and AG (despite the whole vigilante thing) seems to get along with the system quite well – even the cops seem to like her, even though they shouldn’t.
Amber hates the parts of herself that she inherited from her father.
Hence why it pisses her off / scares her that Sal saved her while she was Amazi-girl– because that implies that (1) Amazi-girl being the ‘healthy’ outlet for her anger is not actually that healthy, since it puts her in extreme danger (2) She can’t run from her past and what it means for her present (which Sal represents those problems and fears for her) because it will always show up and (3) She can’t battle her demons successfully alone; she doesn’t want to need other people, but she DOES.
This exactly … Amber can’t harm anyone, and she’s channeled all the rage Amber felt at Sal into amazi-girl, who doesn’t have that filter. Since she’s still conflicted as to who she really is, this can be taken two ways … 1) Amber hates herself, because of what she did … And 2) Amazing-girl can never hate Sal, without her she wouldn’t exist.
My guess is that Amber doesn’t hate Sal. She dislikes her. She associates her with fear and trauma. But I think she has a weird sense of obligation to and respect for Sal. The convenience store robbery was the first time she stood up to anyone -to Sal, to her father, and to herself -all at once. If I’m remembering right, she learned self-defense after that incident -and I’m guessing it was self-defense that eventually led her to track and field, which got her out of her shell and into shape. So if I’m reading her right, there’s this weird bit of dark gratitude, because although Sal terrified her and hurt Ethan, Amber’s only friend, Sal was responsible for Amber breaking through her own shells and proving that she could stand up for herself and act on her own. She’s been following Sal to get her measure and out of a sense of distrust -and trying to get rid of her respect for the “hooligan who held up a convenience store and took my friend hostage” with proof that Sal’s not actually good. Everything Sal does wrong lessens Amber’s debt. Fighting her and proving herself stronger would be a “student has become the master” moment for her -she would finally be demonstrably stronger than the person who finally pushed her over the edge and onto this path. But every time Sal saves her, Amber feels more trapped in her own head and by her reality (like she’s not actually that strong after all), feels more obligated to her, feels more confused (since Sal isn’t supposed to be a good-aligned character). And the hate isn’t for Sal; it’s for Blaine (for obvious reasons) and herself: for being like Blaine, for having anger issues, for not being able to control parts of herself, for needing to be AG, for needing to be saved, for not being who and where she desperately wants to be.
thank you for having a conversation with me yesterday. I am a bit out of practice in having long ones. especially about things that matter.
It was honestly my pleasure. Your ….I don’t know the word for “speech patterns of typing”, but whatever it is, you have one that reminds me of a few very dear friends of mine who are always a delight to chat with, most of whom have been too busy to talk much lately. Furthermore, you seem like an interesting sort of person in your own right, and I like hearing about people’s dreams and plans and the insides of their heads. You’re also somewhat ahead of me in life (I refer most particularly to the sense of progression along the self-sufficiency ladder) and I am curious about the sorts of things people do as they move along that, having not yet had to handle much of it myself, but drawing closer to the stage where I need to.
My regards and well-wishes to you and your friend who has been having the health troubles. (I hope you don’t find it creepy that I mentioned that -I keep notes of important things to remember near my computer -upcoming birthdays/anniversaries/tests, etc. and one of the things I try (with varying degrees of success -I’m bad at communication) is to keep a list of people (especially those with whom I primarily or exclusively communicate online) who have mentioned unwellness -either their own, or that of someone they care about, as a reminder in case there is any way I can help or in the event that the person I interact with wants to talk about it, and, well, last night I added your friend to the list. If you object, I will of course remove you and them.)
everyone has their things though right? I mean I clicked on your profile here thinking i might find a tumblr i could send you a message on, but that was not the case. There were multiple names there and as i wasn’t sure which was you I wouldn’t have taken a chance on that.
as for dreams right now my dream is to move out on my own and have a stable life.
beyond that maybe publish a book. I have been paid by individuals to write for them. I just wish that it would be something beyond pron that i was commissioned to write.
I realize it’s not really my place to insert myself here, but if either of you feel like chatting with me, please feel free to get in touch:
“spam [dot] mee [dot] herere [at] gmail [dot] com”
I might take you up on that. Well… I think I might like to take you up on that, but I am unsure of precisely the etiquette involved. (I have minimal social awareness, so I kinda try to overcompensate)
Just send me an email and make sure I recognize something. ^_^
like “hey, it’s silamy”
and I’ll be like “hey, here’s my real email. what’s up?”
True enough. I don’t tumbl, really -one of these days, I’ll update the link to something that’s me. I was webmaster for the link I use when I first commented on this site; while that was a few years ago and I’m no longer directly affiliated with the organization, I still check in on them and promote them when I can. There’s also an element of “that was the first thing I did that really made an impact, even though it was a small one”, and I like the reminder -I put a lot of work in, and have a lot of good memories, and… yeah…
Makes sense. That’s a someday-goal for me -I’m working on stable headspace and degree at the moment -actual real-world-ing is too far in the future right now.
You write well enough for commissions?! Holy carp, that’s AWESOME! I wish I could write that well -anything I might recognize?
no it was for individuals not anything published
@Silamy’s first paragraph: Diction? I mean, I know it’s not specific to typing, but other than that, that seems to be the idea you’re getting at.
Kinda? I know there’s a specific word I’m thinking of here -my friends who were crazy into Homestuck had one they used to use all the time that meant something like type-quirk?
Still want Sal to make Thulsa Doom’s “I Made You” speech.
(movie version)
This is unrelated to this post, but I just wanted to check that you saw that Willis tumbled a large version of the previous strip’s final panel
http://dumbingofage.tumblr.com/post/150317069047/i-am-sure-i-am-not-the-first-but-in-case-i-am
Since you’d been asking about it yesterday and it’s hard to know if you saw it before the comments section ‘moved on’ to the next day.
She had severe crippling social anxiety, Ethan was her social lifejacket.
Sal took and and threatened him, traumatizing her.
Then there was rapid de-escalation. Amber might have enough natural resilience to bounce back, given a comfort and safety.
Then Blaine publicly ridiculed her helplessness while she was basically in a panic attack pouring salt in the wound ( or gasoline on the fire, instead of water ) . This turned Ambers de-escating panic attack into a Full blown rage attack. She *ALWAYS* had the strength , her anxiety turned it inward against her. In rage she grabbed the knife and Blindly attacked Sal, losing all control. Becoming the daughter Blaine wanted. This probably added self-fear, fear of losing control, self-disgust and guilt to her prior feelings ( becuse she was the one who attacked Sal without Cause ) .
Her feelings toward Sal are complicated, and rapidly changing.
She took her off her permanent enemies list when she realized the racist Zimmermaning implications .
Amazigirl can ( usually ) safely channel Ambers terror, trauma and blind rage and calmly direct it outward to people who she thinks deserves it.
It’s so nice to see them talking
Yeah they are making progress.
This is therapeutic. Next they will braid each other’s hair while disarming a bomb that a villain plans to destroy an orphanage with.
Joyce later joins the team when she hears about them planning to take out some people protesting for traditional marriage. Sal begrudgingly lets her join the braiding party.
“but why would a vailling bother destroying an orp”*shhhh*
And now we start to get to the root of the problems plaguing Amber/Amazi-Girl.
She doesn’t hate Sal, she hates herself.
And her dad. And Faz, everyone hates Faz.
Faz does not hate Faz. And Faz is certain Faz will soon make the world love Faz. Especially the ladies.
Faz has charts indicating the adoption rate of the ladies attraction to Faz, and some labeled diagrams right over here showing how they will express their adoration.
Faz has a chart that proves his conclusions.
Actually those charts are the changes of grain prices in the 14th century and the GDP of Europe in the 18th century.
Exactly.
Those charts makes it obvious that the world (especially the ladies) loves Faz. I’m not sure how you can’t see that.
Lions like Faz
Especially with bbq sauce.
but Faz beat the lions
Sidekick Detected
Super team-up. Sal is no one’s sidekick.
He, of course, meant Amazi-girl became Sal’s sidekick.
Its quite clear which of them is more Batman here. AG nailed ”insisting you didn’t need help rather than expressing gratitude”, but Sal aced the ”you don’t know what you’re doing / don’t rush in half-cocked” speech, AND ”looking cooler than anybody you team up with”. Plus two ”save the day out of nowhere and be kinda grumpy about it”-s
Amazi-Girl’s power is the ability to duck and roll out of ANY situation
aside from trucks
her only weakness
I thought it was
duck and cover
tuck and roll
Jump, Jive N Wail
Open the door, get onto the floor, everybody walk the dinosaur?
That’s Dina’s super power.
Roll and roll,
Mac and chesse,
Walky confirmed future superhero.
Wreck and rule?
I thought her power was immunity to criticism.
Yeah sure, maybe in an alternate universe or something.
She, uh, doesn’t take criticism well.
In this alternate universe, criticism is actually her kryptonite, but instead of sapping away powers and strength it saps away tranquility
and the ability to resist the urge to commit homicide
That was the Shortpacked universe, the day she first appeared as AG in the store. Galasso was lecturing her, and she stated that she was ‘immune to criticism.’
We should always believe what characters says at face value. always.
Apparently it’s tuck and roll.
I thought that was for upholstery?
FEELINGS FIGHTING oh my god I love this so much, it’s like the aaron sorkin walk and talk of DoA
Thank you for this perfect thing you have said.
“punch and lunch”? “tussle and discuss-le”? “wrassle and hassle”?
Does anyone else find it kinda impressive that the bros are still fighting, if nothing else, those guys are persistent!
It’s about as impressive as being a sponge for punches and kicks can get.
Given what we’ve seen of Ryan, that’s officially no longer a compliment.
And we’re not seeing him anymore. Which mean, he either ran or is sprawled on the ground still.
He’s the quarterback Chipper Dove from “The Hotel New Hampshire”. He made his play and is gone already when the shit hits the fan.
Yes but also a little annoying.
Jesus fuck my jaw cringed after looking at that second panel
I’m both relieved at how well AG’s taking this and very confused by that last line.
I think that’s Amazi-girl starting to realize that Sal didn’t really do any of what she’s been blaming her for. But maybe that’s just wishful thinking and she’s saying she hates herself for not doing anything when Sal robbed the convenience store. It’s probably that second one.
Yeah, I think it’s more the second one there. “I don’t hate you, I hate me for not doing anything when you showed up.” That said I think she’s definitely in some capacity processing things better here in regards to Sal.
honestly this seems to indicate beating up henchdudes while talking will be an effective form of therapy for Amazi-Girl. At least if she doesn’t run away before progress is made.
I think she might have realized it for a while. Remember the fight in the parking lot… it seemed like she wanted Sal to hurt her.
Perhaps she feels guilty for stabbing when she was being arrested.
It’s not Sal directly, it’s that Sal represents/reminds her of a time when Amber was powerless.
Sure, we knew that, but I’m rather surprised that she could have figured that out already. It can’t have been more than 20 minutes since she was totally ready to beat Sal up.
“I need to defeat you in order to prove I’m not powerless anymore.”
or something like that maybe?
you had to save me. I….. I’m amazigirl…..
I can’t be someone who needs to be saved i have to save people.
To prove im good enough i have to take you down.
“I dun told you once–you son of a bongo–I’m the best that’s eva been.”
suuuuuuure you did jhonny.
[Not-For-Airplay version]
They play it uncut on the radio all the time up here…
It feels like she isn’t that the hate is gone, but she must have figured out it was misplaced. But who does she now realize she hates? Blaine? Young Sal? Amber?
yeah. I agree. I’m not quite sure what she’s thinking, but I think she’s realized Sal isn’t actually guilty of anything in regards to her hate at this point.
Mimes, everybody hates mimes.
How about “I needed an excuse for you to beat me up, to make up for me stabbing your hand. I hurt you, and I can never forgive myself for that, so I need YOU to HURT me. PLEASE.”
I know what you mean. She hasn’t shown any ability to figure this stuff out before.
But I don’t see any sign that she was ready to beat Sal up. She’s been oddly hesitant this whole time, ever since Sal pulled her down. As she said, by her own rules she was completely justified in attacking Sal. But she didn’t. She hesitated. She looked for an excuse to leave and found one in Ryan.
Something is different about her since this. Sure, she was stalking Sal, but she wasn’t in full out rage mode wanting to hurt her. Oddly, Sal was the one who kept trying for a fight–a complete reversal from their previous encounter.
Even in their previous encounter Amber wasn’t exactly trying to beat up Sal. She said at one point something along the lines of “Come on, hurt me.”
The reversal on Sal’s side is fairly understandable though, Sal’s been stalked and threatened for a considerable time now. Sal just wants to resolve things one way or another to put an end to it there.
Oh, yeah. I understand why Sal is the way she is. But it was also quite surprising. She’d been the one person who was willing to walk away so many times. But AG’s stalking (and possibly other stuff she’s been experiencing lately) finally wore her down.
She didn’t look for an excuse not to fight Sal. She’d always needed Sal to be the aggressor. Either so it would be justified according to her code, or because that was how it went down originally, and she’s trying to re-enact the original event. Probably a bit of both.
It was racist crowd that gave her a pause and put her Must-Get-Sal mode on standby for a moment, followed by spotting Ryan knocked her out of it. She snapped out of that mental state, and apparently got a much better look at herself in the previous state than she’d had before.
Had she always been able to see these things when she wasn’t distracted by her hate-on for Sal?
She hesitated before the crowd got involved, though: http://www.dumbingofage.com/2016/comic/book-6/04-it-all-returns/nickname/
Because, like always she needed Sal to attack her. That’s not new. She did the same thing when she followed them to the parking lot.
Oh, and I forgot. As she said, she technically did, by her own rules, have an excuse to fight Sal, since she pulled her down and could have severely hurt her.
But when Sal invited her to come at her, she hesitated.
Yeah, my money is on your “re-enact the event”. I think she pretty much wants a do-over to “cancel out” how it went the first time.
we will likely learn in the panels during this fight or the panels after the fight is done.
Probably this fight. Beating up bad guys must speed up emotional processing.
Though you’d think Batman wouldn’t brood so much if that were the case..
Not going to lie, Amazi-girls looking pretty damn fine right about now
Eh. Sal’s showing more skin. Finally see whey she’s on top of the polls (even if there are women I think are hotter).
Its not always about the amount of skin you show
Ohh, I like this. They’re havin’ a conversation.
GOOD GOOD GOOD GOOD GOOD
FINALLY
And a fight.
Everyone wins!
Except the bad guys.
Unless they’re into getting beat up. In which case they’re champions!
That’s okay the bad guys aren’t supposed to win.
at least not in fictional settings. they often do in the real world however. especially due to loop holes and connections.
Only sometimes. Only sometimes.
Yeah, like if they’re promising young white men.
hey, they’re taking on both Sal and Amazi Girl. That alone is fairly impressive.
Gonna be some totally killer exposition tomorrow.
okay new verdict: me x sal x amazi-girl ot3. the weddings in june. BYOB.
Glad to be invited! You’re also invited to the October wedding of my ot3, me x Dina x Becky.
Reception in the parking lot of a Wal-Mart at 3am?
“Bring Your Own Bruises”?
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA The Back-To-Back Badasses bit! I knew you couldn’t resist! It’s almost as good as the Superhero Landing! I love it!
[Incoherent squeals of glee intensifies]
Pff, there is NOTHING cooler than Back to Back Badasses
And THIS is why my fanfic idea had to die.
Since when does canon stop fanfic?
ive heard of head canons sinking ships.
I thought that was loose lips.
wrong ships
Correct. Loose lips actually build this kind of ship.
DUCK AND COVER!
Nice gravatar!
Ok that last line makes me think Amber/AG might finally begin to work on her issues.
Do these past few strips remind anyone else of the Adam West Batman series?
Now that you mention it yes indeedy.
Adam West never looked this good in tights.
Yes, and I love it!
Pow! Biff! Oof!
Oh good, I wasn’t the only one thinking that.
Thoughts:
Sal recovered. She’s in college, and mostly normal. She’s doing fairly well.
Amber is only falling apart.
Amber/Amazi-girl doesn’t hate Sal. She hates her reflection in Sal. She hates that Sal has recovered, and turned it all around, and all Amber can manage to do is push away those that care, and fall deeper into her Persona.
I wonder if I fixed this Gravatar thing.
Re: the alt-text,
Here’s your opportunity to give Tyler a broken nose, so you can tell them apart from now on.
Taylor’s the one with the beat-up face, while Tyler’s the one whose face is all beat up.
… uh, wait…
The nose is already key. Taylor’s is a button nose. Tyler’s is pointy. Dawson’s nost is basically the same as Tyler’s, but he has a more angular chin (and is also less tanned)
Put a shirt on Tyler that says #10 and one on Tayler that says #12 and it’s easy. Problem solved!
*Taylor. Oh god.
Let’s blame that one on autocorrect.
It’s amazing how much you can get away with blaming on autocorrect.
I made a couple comments on Becky strips here on my tablet, and now its autocorrect keeps suggesting “lesbian” when it doesn’t know what else to put in.
Taylor!
Millard Fillmore.
Second attempt…
Bah.
This is the link you were trying: “and there’s Hayes!”
—
put the text you actually want to show up inside of the tags: <a href=”link”>THIS SHOWS UP</a>
that all should work.
Or, if you just want the post the URL, post the URL, and it will automatically be linked.
Also, kudos for noticing that the link was still there in the source code. I wouldn’t have even thought to look. I’d assume anything that didn’t display would be filtered out.
I’m used to digging around in the source for arbitrary reasons anyway
Haha, that’s great.
Curious, though, who the other three guys in that skit were supposed to be.
Yeah, you don’t want to earn the wrath of Tayler. He’ll send the Toughs after you.
Back to back beat em up banter. My favorite.
I can’t be the first person to realize Sal’s jacket looks like the self drying jacket in Back to the Future 2, right?
Aagh, now I can’t unsee it!
I noticed yesterday, but couldn’t find the right place for the joke: It’s like she beat up Player 2 Marty and stole his color-swapped jacket.
Sure, why not? They came out almost a year ago, right?
No you’re not.
Phew, could use a strip break from looking at Ryan’s mug.
Where the hell is Marcie??? Worst security guard ever.
What about the other security guards the gathered when she pressed the distress button? They aren’t doing anything either.
Have they shown up yet? I don’t remember seeing them.
They did.
Looking the other way while they give Joyce’s assailant a good but extralegal whipping.
This is entirely legal. They attacked Amazigirl and aren’t staying down.
… I think she might have a hard time explaining the situation to them.
Heh.
More worried about were the hell is Ryan. Classic hero fail in getting distracted by the Williamses while Skullmageddon gets away?
I guarantee this situation is well beyond Marcie’s pay grade.
To call Marcie a security guard is really stretching a point. She is a student who is just a warm body at this rally and is meant to do little more than present the appearance of a control figure. She’s really just another pair of eyes on the crowd, or there to point the way to the bathroom or which door to use to get into the auditorium itself, and as Yossarianduck says, getting down and mixing it up with this melee that has broken out is way past her duties and responsibilities.
You just described the vast majority of security guards.
I’m speaking from experience. I used to be one.
I was a student security guard and I agree with the above.
But my inner nitpick has to point out Marcie is not a student security guard because she is not a student. But almost certainly down at the “warm body” level of rent-a-cops.
My evil twin then ?
“what does Walky got to do wi..”
nevermind
This’ll sound silly, but I almost bit my tongue laughing at that. No, I don’t know why I closed my teeth to start laughing.
Sorry~
No worries. I did say “almost”! Totally worth it.
Hmm. Is she saying she really hates herself, and Sal is just a reminder of that?
That’s where I was thinking it was going… Or maybe that she hates her own weakness?
I was going with the own weakness theory, as well.
Tho it’s what she says now, the past observation shows otherwise.
I agree, I think AG is still really struggling with her life and is jealous that Sal’s is pulling her life back together. However, Sal doesn’t have a terrible dad that she has to deal with. Most of Sal’s problems are in the past, where AG’s are still very real and current.
The angle on the guy’s mouth in the last panel makes it look like he has this blissful smile at being slugged in the jaw. Methinks that someone just discovered a new fetish. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
This can only end with Rorschach throwing him down an elevator shaft.
For some pansy frat boys, those dudes are taking some punches and coming back for more. Scarface and Knee to the Chin have to have dislocated, if not broken, jaws. One good shot to their cajones will put them down for the count though. I wonder what the crowd will do next? I’d say the campaign rally is cancelled. Is there a buffet?
Ah, the good old Enemy Mine situation. Nothing brings two people together like a common enemy.
Especially if that common enemy really deserved to be kneed in the jugular.
That’s a funny way of spelling “in the dick”
Also, Willis, would you happen to have a textless version of the back-to-back panel? I want it for a gravatar!
Wait, NOT Sal?
This comic has legit thrown me for a loop! Amazi-Girl’s feelings might be more complex than I was giving her credit for.
Go back and read their previous encounters. There’s a ton of foreshadowing to this revelation.
And Ryan is nowhere to be found. Vanishing into the abyss once again.
Considering Sal’s punch in the last strip, I think he’s knocked out, or dazed at the very least.
But then why isn’t he in the tags? Shouldn’t he still be somewhere in the background, even if we can’t make him out?
Iirc, the tags only include people we can directly see on-panel.
The one from which he was birthed.
Aw jeez, didn’t notice the blood coming out of T[a]yl(e/o)r’s mouth until my third look-through of the strip.
I mean, serves ‘im right, but still.
i noticed that his chin seems much more pointy in todays than yesterdays before i noticed the blood. i notice odd things at times.
That really should have been: /Ta?yl(e|o)r’s/g
There goes Amazi-Girl, earning her BAFFta award.
I mean I get you were trying to link this.
That was an interesting storyline.
Yeah, forgot the end tag like a dolt. Thanks!
where is Ryan? WHERE IS RYAN??
don’t let him get away a second time!!
YOU’RE RIGHT HOLY CRUD
Don’t worry he probably has a broken zygomatic bone and a concussion. Which is super bad for you by the way.
Yeah, but he took a bat to the face (repeatedly) last time, and he still dragged himself away.
Might come down to how the crowd feels about letting him slink off.
Regardless, this time it’ll be publicized one way or another.
And given that he’s being defended by guys all wearing the same frat t-shirt, I’ll give you one guess as to which frat he’s in. Shouldn’t be hard to find him.
Those are Desantos t-shirts, because they’re all volunteering at the rally.
Those are ‘De Santos’ campaign shirts, not frat T-shirts. As Ryan said when A-G first came up to him, they are apparently all interns/campaign volunteers for this rally.
the writing in this particular strip is incredible. catchy and deep
OMD It’s gonna happen, finally!! So exited !!!
Heh, if Sal were truly a bad person, I’d make smartass comments about The Joker coming to Batman’s rescue…
Man, what an amazing duo.
The Unambiguously Great Duo!
Is… Is this Amber showing some self-awareness about her underlying issues? If so, way to go! We all knew you had it in you!
She’s always been aware, she just … sometimes chooses the familiarity and power of the violent tendencies over her self-awareness.
“Not you. Never you.”
“You mean ya hate y-”
“-ellow jellybeans. THOSE ARE THE WORST. What are they even? They’re not like any lemon I’ve ever tasted.”
“… wait, what kinda of yellow? Like solid yellow or yellow with white splotches?”
“Solid, but more dimly foggy yellow than solid yellow.”
“Oh, those. Pina Colada.”
“Those are the WORST.”
“They grow on you.”
“I KNOW! It’s AWFUL!”
“… did we just whup their asses while talking about jelly beans?”
“… yes.”
“… along with the racist mob who joined in?”
“… yes.”
I just realized that Sal has the raddest jacket.
No fighting (each other), girls. There are acceptable targets for everyone.
My imperial headcanon right now:
The Raping Douchebags* sit in a holding cell for all the horrible shit they’ve pulled.
In comes Becky.
She flips the double bird on them. And keeps it flipped all the way out of sight. While grinning hard.
*Pretty sure Ryan’s not the only one in the gang who’s been the worst of the worst.
Carla: (places hand over eyes) I sense a great disturbance in the Fuck-Off Force – like countless millions of Fuck-Offs were delivered to one person, and suddenly unleashed.
Becky: OHHH YEAAAAAH!! In your FAAAAAAAACE!!
Carla: HEY! That’s MY schtick!!
Carla then throws cream pies in the faces of the horrible people.
Once again, the last line is what is catching my attention more than anything:
“Not you. Never YOU.”
Now, the fact that Amber/AG is talking about herself is pretty damn obvious. But let’s go a little bit deeper than that, shall we?
What I think Amber/AG hates is their capacity for violence. This capacity was (thankfully) quite dormant, and perhaps (that is a -big- perhaps) it would never have surfaced if not for the night when Amber stabbed Sal. Then again, perhaps not. It’s more likely that Blaine would have done something horribly abusive to push her over the edge sooner or later.
But however, it happened, Amber discovered that part of her. And then she realised at some point that this part of her was a pretty horrible part. Amber then created AG because she wanted Amber to be normal (as she told in the interview with Dorothy). By putting the violent tendencies behind a mask, a mask with certain rules, with a measured control on how they are allowed to use their capacity for violence… Then -Amber- could hope to function as a normal human being, never hitting someone who she’d then immediately regret hitting.
In some ways, it’s sort of worked out, if only for a while. In others, less so.
BUT EVEN SO, Amber still hates that part of herself; and little wonder. I think what she hates the most is just how much she enjoys the violent tendencies. The rush of adrenaline and endorphin released when she is punching someone in the face. It’s a drug. An immensely powerful drug.
And I think she is starting to realise that her control of these violent tendencies are not controlled that well even by AG, and that it’s like a band-aid covering up a cancerous boil that needs to be cut away, if she’s ever to fulfill her dreams of being normal.
But that’s a long-term view of things. Right now, we come back to Sal and why Amber goes catatonic (if that is the word) every time she sees her. Basically, Sal is her trigger. Sal reminds Amber that she is the kind of person who will stab another, restrained unarmed person.
Sure, -we- know that Blaine is the real reason with his years of abuse, but the human brain is sadly a very imperfect instrument (to say the least), and the correlation of events have melted together in Amber’s mind into something that just breaks her down again and again.
And Amber goes catatonic and flees whenever she sees Sal, because she’s afraid that she will do it again. That she will stab Sal just like that, no provocation.
That’s why she needed AG to do it. With AG, her plan was to provoke Sal into starting a fight, to get the justification she needed in her own mind. Because what Amber thought she needed…
She needed to convince herself that Sal somehow deserved to be stabbed with a knife.
That is the absolutely most chilling thing about this whole situation. Her “closure” with Sal has always been to assume that Sal is still an evil person. If Sal had been evil, it would not have been so bad that she got stabbed, right? Right?
But time and again, Sal refuses to play part of the villain. And it just drives Amber nuts, because every time that happens, it reminds Amber that she stabbed someone with a knife, and that someone turned out not to be an abusive dad or a shitty serial rapist.
And now we know. Now we know why saving AG’s life was the second worst thing Sal ever did to Amber. It’s horribly depressing, but in its twisted, sad way, it makes sense.
BUT
There might be hope yet.
Because AG just said “Not you. Never YOU.”
That was deep. And accurate. And the hope, the hope is nice to have.
I like this interpretation and you’re thorough to boot.
This is a really interesting analysis, and I think the word you’re looking for might be “dissociation”. She can’t maintain the Amber persona in front of Sal because she can’t maintain the sense of detached equilibrium that defines her.
I think what might really get to Amber (and Amazi-Girl) is if she got to talking with Sal about the incident and heard Sal say she regretted it. Or that she did a bad thing. Or any kind of negative self-assessment, really. The concept that isn’t sticking with her is “I did a bad thing but that doesn’t mean I’m a bad person”. And that’s definitely down to Blaine’s A+ parenting skills. *gag*
I am posting simply to say that your post is well thought-out, well constructed, well presented, internally consistent, and I disagree with every single inch of it.
Good.
Applause and an internet for that spot-on analysis, good sir. (And clearing up a few things that I hadn’t even thought of, though I’d guessed at part of this.)
I could almost agree with you but for the time when Amber said she needed to “get it right”. When she thought Dorothy would expose her, she was frantic that it was her last chance to get it right.
That implies that there was something she did wrong that she had to do differently this time. Justifying her actions retroactively doesn’t do that.
Recreating a similar confrontation with Sal would. She could still want to defeat Sal on her own terms, instead of in a rage, while she’s handcuffed. I think there’s more there, though I think it’s Amber who actually needs to get it right. Amazi-Girl doing it doesn’t seem like it would fix anything. Amber’s the one who lost control. That’s how she was too weak.
Remember AG’s words during the fight in the parking lot.
“Come back! Fight me! HURT ME!!”
“This is my last chance to get it right!”
Amber didn’t want to fight to hurt Sal – she was trying to provoke Sal into attacking, without attacking her first. Not because attacking first wouldn’t be honorable, but because SHE DIDN’T WANT TO HURT SAL. She wanted to fight so that SAL could hurt HER. She feels terrible guilt and shame for her actions at the convenience store, and feels that she owes blood to Sal. Hurting Sal herself would only make her feel worse. What’s more, every time Sal helps her, she feels even more guilty and ashamed and indebted to her. Amber and AG feel that they DESERVE pain, and that Sal deserves to be the person who makes them feel it.
Maybe, but getting hurt by Sal doesn’t feel like ”getting it right” to me. The way she phrases that makes it sound like she needs to do something again, but differently. Not just recreate the situation. I think she wants to prove she can do it wIthout losing control again.
From the stabbing onward, all of Amber’s red panels center on things she did in anger. Times when she lost control and flew into a rage. Times when she reminds herself of Blaine.
She might think that by re-living it but maintaining control, she can prove she won’t become her father.
To be honest, I have no fricking idea which of us (if any) are closer to reality here.
I think it’s gonna turn out she’s just bein’ sarcastic an we’re both gonna look VERY silly
I think Willis has at least three versions of every comic, and each time he chooses whichever one makes the most commenters look very silly.
Because obviously he has the time and the inclination to do such a thing.
There’s only one person that Amber ever has really hated and that’s the woman she sees in the mirror every day. I do wonder sometimes if Amazi-Girl has to fight for control to keep Amber from hurting herself.
Not herself. Anyone else. Like her father would.
I think Amber is the part which needs to go. Amazi-Girl is the good things in her…Amber is who Blaine wanted her to be.
Neither of them need to go. They need to reintegrate.
They both have good things. They both have problems.
Amber has the anger and Amazi-Girl the self-control, but “Amazi-Girl should respond consistently to the exact same misdemeanor”, but “maybe Amber is allowed to be inconsistent”.
Dude that’s a pretty good summation, I mean only the author can confirm how correct it is but it sounds pretty legit from here
Well, panel 2 appears to be a broken jaw and or possibly a semi-severed tongue. The goon is definitely going to need a wire in his jaw, and probably several dozen trips to an orthodontist to fix his teeth.
To: Willis
Re: Alt text
Just remember, alphabetical order from least-tanned to most. Dawson’s pasty, Tyler’s real tan, Taylor’s in-between.
It took me three tries to realize that that order made sense. I should probably sleep more.
Wait she doesn’t – oh.
OH.
Ohhhhhhhhh.
I’m so glad that they’re friends now, and Amber has worked through all her issues, and has no more problems, and her mentla state is perfectly stable now.
Where is security? They should have been on alert around Amazi-Girl when she first stood off against Sal, and she has since followed and confronted someone else and has gotten in what seems to be a fairly elaborate fight with several people involved. They should at the very least be creeping into the background by now, shouldn’t they?
They’re probably standing back and placing bets whilst waiting for the police to arrive (much to the frustration of Sal and Marcie – That’s probably why Sal decided to get involved).
She hates you because she’s in love with you. This is a Willis comic. Everybody’s some degree of gay.
Except for the numerous straight people, but hey, whatevs.
Honestly, the amount of straight people in this comic strains credibility. I bet Willis just put them in to appease the PC police.
Only those two would choose to discuss their personal issues (both with each other and, in Amazi-Girl’s case, with herself) in the middle of a hectic fist-fight!
Isn’t that standard superhero behavior?
It is but this isn’t meant to be a standard superhero comic. Because of that, I expect Sal to start raving about how unrealistic the whole scenario is at any moment.
It’s a good thing talking is a free action.
WHATATWIST!
So, any guesses which side will get painted as the “bad guys” when this winds up on the front page tomorrow? (DoA tomorrow, not real tomorrow.)
Depends which front page. So far Dotty has always had creative control over articles about Amazi-Girl and I’m sure she would be fairly sympathetic to her today, especially because this guy went after Joyce.
For the national papers… Robin/someone competent supporting Robin’s campaign could feasibly cover up the fact a dude like Ryan was at her event supporting her “family friendly” campaign. Alternatively AG is in trouble and gets banned on campus which (dare I say it) might actually be good for Amber in the long run.
Unless someone from her opponent’s team catches wind of the hole Rapist thing. There is likely someone there observing, and sent to record any potential scandals they can find, and this is a huge potential scandal starting from masked girl/campus-vigilante “conversing” with shirted intern. Seriously her opponent could easily end up with the whole conversation, including the “no one’s ever wanted to drug your fat ass” comment
If they get any amount of evidence they could spin this in ways that would be horrible to Robin…
If any of the truth starts to come out then Robin needs to distance herself from the Bros-of-Rape immediately. She might be able to get away wit it by throwing Frieda under the bus and blame her for hiring unpaid and unvetted interns.
Personally, I’ve got a feeling it won’t be Team Rapist. The media will spin it to look like AG (who the police are already looking for) attacked four white male interns who were working at Senator DeSanto’s rally. (Let’s keep in mind that DeSanto is the INCUMBENT candidate.) The aggressor (AG) had assistance from Sal Walkerton (an African American woman in Indiana–with a criminal record).
Rapist Ryan and his band of merry Bros. will look like they were defending themselves against an unprovoked attack.
*Representative* DeSanto.
/pedant
Oh, she’s in the House? I thought she was a senator. Doesn’t change anything, though.
“Fox News brings you the latest news from Indiana where an all-woman inter-racial terrorist team has been terrorising innocent white, male interns of the beloved, honored and straight, Representative DeSanto.”
“When prompted with donuts, Chief Wiggins said ‘This was a wholly unprovoked attack. We have men on their trail right now. They just need to finish their donuts’.”
“Rep DeSanto could not be reached at this time. Her aides said she was busy with personal matters. She was later seen in heated discussion with an anonymous woman with large hooters.”
“And now for some more outrageous lies syphoned from the internet and filtered for our over-70s demographic.”
I think that might get political if Robin tries to make herself out as a ‘law and order’ candidate as well as ‘family values’ – “I will see to it that Amazi-Girl is hunted down and brought to justice like the common vigilante thug she and her accomplice truly are!” Her poll numbers immediately drop 5% because Dorothy’s reporting has made AG seem such a complete white knight to the Bloomington community.
Dorothy is a freshman who writes for the student newspaper at IU. I think you may be over-estimating her influence.
Well, it did get her in to see Joyce when she was in the hospital and ‘everybody else is supposed to be waiting outside’.
Yeah, but the medical center is practically on campus. They still probably only have her access because she was obviously Joyce’s friend and they wouldn’t get in trouble for it
I doubt enough people outside the student body read the student paper for it alone to make a significant impact on Robin’s poll numbers
I think that you may be underestimating the value to the local press of a costumed vigilante to selling advertising space. Dorothy’s stories will have been reprinted verbatim and likely elaborated (in mostly imaginary ways) in op/eds by numerous other reporters.
Yeah, this. Our British campus had a few papers when I was a student and a few of the more “scandalous” stories from in there were picked up and distorted by nationals and even other publications (including, hilariously, Breitbart…actually I say hilariously but it led to our women’s officers getting death threats, of course). I wouldn’t be surprised if a few locals had run stories on AG lifted from Dotty’s articles.
This is the best thing.
I am confused and not just about which one is Taylor and which one is Tyler.
. . . oh.
Just herself. Because her dad told her she wasn’t tough enough. And Sal keeps on reminding her who’s tougher.
So, should we just assume that they’ll make up at the end of this arc and everything will be well?
Of course. Defintely.
No, but I can see her finally spilling out all her, self-loathing, self-hate and terror at the thing she’s becoming in Sal’s presence and ending up sleeping in Sal and Billie’s room because Sal doesn’t trust her not to hurt herself.
One thing: I don’t expect Sal to ask Amazi-Girl to take off her mask; she will insist that is Amazi-Girl’s decision to make. I do think, however, that Amazi-Girl to choose to do so.
This is awesome. I was hoping Sal and Amazi-Girl would team-up to kick ass on these guys. It’s a reverse Damn You Willis.
!silliW uoY nmaD
I somehow read that as “Willis, you mad?”
By the way, this deserves some badass fight scene music.
Meanwhile Ryan is slithering away while his bros get their well deserved reward of an asskicking for jumping at the chance to gang up on a single woman.
He gets about twenty feet before Marcie tasers him.
“Hi, face. Meet knee.”
And I’m worried about AG’s knuckles. She’ll get terrible bruising if she’s not careful. Maybe Sal will tend to her bruises later …
“Not you. Never you”?
Well, this is interesting… does this imply that Amber/AG actually has a more nuanced view of Sal than we might first have believed?
Amber doesn’t actually care about who Sal is, just what she represents.
Security isn’t expected to handle this kind of stuff. They have probably decided this is a floor full of Nope and are waiting for the cops.
I remember a comic where Batman was surrounded, and Superman heat-vision zapped a rifle that one of the bad guys had on him. Of course Batman got all pissy about getting rescued. But Sal’s punch was WAY more entertaining than Superman’s heat-vision zap. Had better wisecrack, too.
I am now doing panel reactions because why the heck not.
Panel 1: My goodness, girl. That face. She looks so upset that someone had to step in and help her, because that’s something about AmaziGirl, is that she doesn’t like help.
Panel 2: Okay, everyone already pretty much figured she was going to say something like this. But how does she get that knee up there? I can’t even do that, and I’m double-jointed.
Panel 3: This is the panel I think we were all waiting for. Sal and AmaziGirl standing back-to-back, surrounded by enemies. Yes.
Panel 4: Whoops, you missed.
Panel 5: Now, that’s interesting. Who does AmaziGirl hate, then, if she didn’t hate Sal? And how does that make sense considering her creepy stalking just a couple weeks ago?
She probably hates herself, and Sal’s a reminder of a time she felt that particularly strongly.
on panel 2, I think she’s pulling his face and upper body down across hers – look how his shoulder obscures her face. Add to that a low camera angle (camera’s not looking straight down on her from above – it’s basically looking up her trunk from the direction of her feet) and she’s basically not getting her knee up as high as it looks.
Teamup! World’s Finest! Er… Indiana’s Finest!
Okay, I know virtually nothing about psychology so I’m just gonna ask this straight out:
Is it possible that “Amazi-Girl” is dissociative enough from Amber that her actions toward Sal are a form of self-preservation? That she is afraid that if Amber gets over her trauma regarding Sal that Amazi-Girl might disappear entirely? So she doesn’t hate Sal, because Sal is the reason she exists, but she needs Sal to hate her so that Amber will continue to be afraid of Sal?
From what I understand it is possible for alters to rebel from reintegrating, but I don’t believe that’s the case for Amber and Amazi-Girl. Amazi-Girl and Amber act in the same interests (they both believe that Danny betrayed them, for example) and what Amber wants is to overcome her fear of becoming her dad, and for Amazi-Girl to defeat her perception of Sal and do it properly.
If Amber has DID (which, as far as I’m concerned, is canon) Amazi-Girl is always going to be around.
Amber, at the very least , has Borderline Personality Disorder, with
characteristic splitting ( Black/white thinking) unstable moods , emotional outbusts, rage, and Dissociation .
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borderline_personality_disorder
Its an open question whether the Amazigirl persona is defensive mechanism to post-dissociation episodes , or a full blown Alt.
So far, there has never been a time when Amber didnt chose to be Amazigirl . Instead she loses the ability to control her behavior and emotional regulation. Amazigirl is an escape hatch. Shes never had memory loss, or missing time , or lost consciousnesses .
These things could be happening but Willis hasnt shown them.
This would be a very atypical presentation of BPD as I understand it. Amber doesn’t seem to have any problem being alone, when usually BPD sufferers are extremely scared of abandonment. And that’s one of the key symptoms.
She also seems to have a ton of empathy, which, in my experience, is really hard for BPD people. Their own problems are so big that they can’t really care about others.
And I just don’t see the extreme idealization/devaluation. She doesn’t treat her friends as either the best or the worst. Sure, she treats Danny like he’s the worst, but she’s perfectly nuanced with other people.
I also don’t see a ton of impulsivity. Even the more impulsive alter has huge restraints on her actions. I don’t think someone with BPD could even maintain a superhero form.
I’ve actually looked to see what specifically to diagnose Amber O’Malley with. I think that, even without the conclusive memory hiding aspects, DID fits her more than anything. And, of course, anger management issues, social anxiety, and stuff like that.
And given that actual DID sufferers have seen it, I feel that’s probably closer to correct. The few people I know with BPD are nothing at all like Amber/AmaziGirl.
“It’s not you I hate…. I hate what I became, because of you.”
Amber needs Sal to be a 13 year old who is breaking the law and threatening people, so the 13 year old Amber can react with power and competence. Sal refuses to play that game. Amber keeps trying to catch Sal at something criminal or provoke her into attacking her to resolve the episode in the convenience store more satisfactorily. Yep, messed up.
Leslie will be infuriated that this happened while she was in the other room.
Nice writing Mr. Willis. I love that you’ve brought them together in a way that they can hash out their problem while fighting side by side. Cool story.
Okay, so someone said that Amazi-girl hates being helped, and it’s like something clicked in my head coz I realized I understand her feelings completely.
It’s this fucked up abusive parent logic train of ‘you let someone help you, therefore you are lazy and worthless and incapable of doing anything yourself’. To be a Good Worthy Person, you need to not just do everything yourself, but aggressively defend your ‘territory’ from well-intentioned assistants since you’ll just be reprimanded for making them exert themselves doing what’s obviously your job.
It… doesn’t make much sense. Unless you’ve grown up with it and internalized it as much as Amber has obviously internalized her father’s abuse.
By helping her, Sal didn’t extend a helping hand, prove her friendliness and make Amber’s life easier. By helping her, Sal inflicted a huge blow on what little self esteem she’s managed to cobble together for her superhero persona, and prevented her from feeing any accomplishment from the result at all.
Only someone who’s had “I’ll just do it myself!” used as a threat against them can fully understand >_<
That’s not very uncommon in the modern US. It’s at the root of some toxic parts of the masculine ideal in the current zeitgeist and at the heart of the Objectivist strain of market libertarianism that’s been growing over the last few decades in the Republican party among various other societal problems.
Eh, it’s more than that. Amber still feels guilty about losing control and stabbing Sal’s hand. When Sal helps her, it makes that worse.
It is very inconsiderate of Sal to not be the totally evil monster that A imagined her to be.
Amber/Amazi-Girl really does not want to admit she has limits. She’s more self-destructive than Sal ever was… and it all comes back to that abusive piece of *blarg* of a father.
It’s amazing how damaging one can be to someone else.
I hope they get adjoining cells when security hands them over to the police. That way they can talk through all of these anger issues.
Considering Amber’s waking up in her on bed in about two weeks, I’d say it’s not happening that way.
I think it’s really likely some more stuff gets dropped though.
I didn’t expect more than an overnight stay. Disorderly conduct at most, dropped after the police find out about Ryan’s supply of GHB (I wonder if he’s a chemistry major?) and link him to a few campus assaults. It would, however, give the two antagonists time to talk with no way for either to escape. The lack of a mask for Amber, and gloves for Sal, would be a real ice breaker.
Know what’s funny? I think Sal is about to recognize Amazigirl as the girl who stabbed her, but not as Amber.
So there’s a separation between Amber and Amazi-Girl to some extent. Is it possible that Amber hates Sal but Amazi-Girl doesn’t?
…I think this might wind up being good for Amazi-Girl, but I wonder if it will help Amber work through her issues too?
Great team up!
this is like on-again-off-again superheropartners?
Ok whatever Ambermazi-Girl says in the next panel has to make a dang ton of sense, because there is no WAY that she is over Sal.
Compartmentalize and repurpose. The existence of Amazi-Girl protects Sal from what Amber would do otherwise.
It’s actually quite terrifying to step back and think of all the violence, anger and possibly amphetamines used in the making of Amazi-girl.
And also, I hope Amazi-Girl is smart enough to use a burner phone for all her Amazi-Girl business. But if her condoms are any indication, rapist a-hole will soon know her secret identity.
Amazi-Girl trained for years to be the best at tucking and rolling while unconscious.
I spent all day thinking Amber said, “Truck and roll. Truck and roll.”
Kind of disappointed to finally re-read this and realize she opted for coherency instead of terrible puns.