Pixar, 1995: What if toys had feelings
Pixar, 1998: What if bugs had feelings
Pixar, 2001: What if monsters had feelings
Pixar, 2003: What if fish had feelings
Pixar, 2004: What if superheroes had feelings
Pixar, 2006: What if cars had feelings
Pixar, 2007: What if rats had feelings
Pixar, 2008: What if robots had feelings
Pixar, 2009: What if dogs had feelings
Pixar, 2012: What if Scotland had feelings
Pixar, 2015: WHAT IF FEELINGS HAD FEELINGS
Willis, 2015: WHAT IF RUTH HAD FEELINGS
I totally forgot Brave was pixar and not just disney (they are confusing me with all the 3D stuff when are we gonna see some good ol 2D animated movies again!
Well, Disney got rid of all their normal animation stuff ages ago so it’s unlikely to ever be a regular thing again. Every now and then, but it’s mostly gone now sadly.
They are still working on the Paperman hybrid, however…which may not be analogous to the older 2D styles, but at least it’s closer and serves as progress in getting to something perhaps even closer.
Yeah, I believe I read somewhere that Walt Disney Animation studios will not be producing anymore traditionally 2D movies from now on, given the massive success of 3D-modelled animation so far and the fact that Princess and the Frog was a relative flop compared to the likes of Tangled, Wreck-it Ralph, Frozen, and Big Hero 6.
Next step…3D virtual reality movies, where you can see the movie from a 2nd person perspective. Or possibly interactive movies, where if you wish you can interact directly with the characters and make your own movie, deciding the ending for yourself! xD
So the feelings in inside out have feelings of their own. Does they program their own feelings? Or do they have feelings that give them feelings? But then who gives those feelings feelings? Is there a never ending chain of feelings giving feelings to other feelings?
We still don’t know her backstory, just vague, one sided conversations of her constantly apologizing to someone on the phone and a little brother who thinks Game of Thrones means the same thing as shalom in Hebrew.
I love how an ad for the San Diego Comic Con lands on the strip with Ruth doing the same angry face finger pointing that was used for the Seattle Comic Con.
God these two are both SO DAMAGED but also SO ADORABLE and I’m constantly fluctuating between being super duper mega worried about either or both or them and going ‘omg awwwwww look at them, how cute’ and grinning like an idiot. Arghhhhh!
The life of a Ruth/Billie shipper. THE STRUGGLE IS REAL, MY FRIENDS.
Oh ok! Yeah, I have an over-abundance of feelings at all times lol, that’s kinda my affliction. But I really do love these two. I see myself in them and also some of my friends. I know some people who’ve been low like this and have come out of it on the other side better and healthier, so I always really invest myself into these two and root for them. More than for any other characers in this comic. I really want them to get better, desperately. Because I feel their pain from here. Through my computer screen. Fictional characters’ pain. It’s THAT real for me.
So. That was my long-ass explanation of my feelings xD
I second your long-ass explanation. Ruth and Billie remind me of bits and pieces of people I’ve known and even some I love to this day. I wish them nothing but the best and hope that for once, they can have a happy ending together.
I continue to contend that both needing therapy in the worst way does not mean they are a bad couple. Lots of couples have shit that they need to deal with without needing to break up. Keeping my fingers crossed.
Ruth has a full emotional spectrum, she just doesn’t realize that the uncomfortable feeling she describes as not happy nor sad is what the rest of us call sadness.
Or perhaps it’s pain. It would follow the pattern. Aversion to being alone due to emotional emptiness which excludes anger? An excess of stress and looooooots of very public shouting and coming down hard with zero tolerance? Her and Billie sort of hooked up quick… and it’s been rocky… she doesn’t function reliably, as seen by that time she shut herself away. She’s definitely depressed. So that would be most of a worrying symptom list I’m sadly familiar with: Borderline Personality Disorder. Reeeeeeeally hope to never see the rest of that list anywhere damn near her. I kinda like this one.
Bluh. Maybe I’m projecting a bit, being dramatic…. Anybody else see it?
Lust and hate, huh?
Even considering that Varsuuvius’ hypothesis is a bit out of date, I think Ruth is capable of feeling both of those at once, judging by the beginning of her relationship with Billie.
Still a sexy freckled goddess of violence, though.
Seen it, can vouch. Similar situation to Ruth&Billie. My girlfriend and I are both pretty broken (her anxiety and my depression-and-generally-screwing-up-everything) and we got to be really emotionally codependent over time. I’m her anti-anxiety meds, and she’s my clinical-strength antidepressant. It’s not healthy, and we know it, but it works. I won’t judge our fictional friends for doing the same.
I’ve had such a relationship before… sadly it didn’t end well for us. But I feel that it can work out. This is sort of the relationship I’m still looking for, in part at least. I find a certain unique romantic feeling in depending on such a level on the one you love and they in turn on you. It can be a life-long bond. I really hope Ruth&Billie can help each other in the long term.
Speaking as someone who’s wrestled with depression, Ruth speaks the truth. It’s actually kind of surprising that she can manage the anger, if her depression is that deep. Simply wanting to feel… that speaks volumes of her character that she’s held it together for this long.
Oof the stage of depression where you start to lose whole emotions. I remember that and have been there enough for others going through that. Not only does it suck going through, it sucks just as much coming out of it and getting hit with the buried emotions when you actually start recovering enough to feel again.
Definitely. Forgetting how things feel, and then feeling them again? Even good emotions hurt, because you realize how empty you felt before you felt them again. It’s a damned thing. Not that it’s any picnic helping someone go through it too, because you feel just as helpless. I’m really glad that Billie and Ruth are just kind of taking things one moment at a time.
This may sound strange to anybody has been through it, but I wish I had experienced the emotionless stage. I simply had “I hate my life and I am worthless and I will never be happy” for abooouuut twenty years. Honestly, a break from feeling like that- even if it’s feeling nothing, and like nothing is ever going to feel different- would have been a blessing in comparison.
Like, I can recall times where I just laid there and did nothing for hours a time. I wasn’t even sad or angry, I was that a lot but sometimes I wasn’t, I didn’t even feel apathetic, where I did nothing because I was inherently worthless and nothing I did would ever have a positive impact. It was just, well, nothing. You’re just there and don’t feel a thing, and suddenly hours are gone.
I think I preferred those moments of just sheer “I hate myself.” I was feeling something, you know? It was terrible and awful but at least it was me saying it.
I’ve come close to that a few times, but I mostly simulate the experience via compulsive gaming to take my mind off the depression. A sort of… haze is created where you’d just exist in the moment, but without deeper emotions – just the surface parts that you’d forget in a few minutes or when you fall asleep.
What you’ve went through seems to me like a step further down the hole, into… well, nihilism. Perhaps the closest a human can get to a state of nonexistence. Perhaps, if there are no gods or souls, something deeper but similar to such a non-feeling s what we all end up becoming after we shed our self-awareness. I’m not sure if that’s frightening or soothing to think about.
Emptiness is very hard to stop doing. Score: 1/60,000,000,000 would not cope again. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone. I lost whole months. Just staring through everything, feeling the potential inertia flop over and die every morning without seeing any way to stop it. No, don’t be jealous.
Ruth and Billie: two halves, one whole. They really do need each other, flaws and all. Maybe between them they can finally stop digging and start climbing.
I love this depiction of depression here. It’s honest and real and hurts to look at, because it’s so uncomfortable. I’ve struggled with depression for many years (though mine’s not the ‘no feelings’ kind, mine is more the crying all day and being overwhelmed by life kind, ‘too many feelings’ kind, if you will). I love how a spotlight is being shone on it here and it’d done so well.
Both Ruth and Billie are depressed (Billie has displayed signs that make me worry she’s gonna self-harm or hurt herself) and they’re self-medicating with alcohol and that makes it 100% worse. It’s really uncomfortable for me to read, because I’ve been to some of these low places and this brings it back. I love these two girls and I want all the best for them, this is just all really, really moving me right now and sorry for the wall of words, but, y’know, FEELINGS. I have a lot of those.
(thank you for creating these characters and treating them sensitively and realistically and ahhhh! It’s wonderful!)
Seems to me Billie & Ruth have gathered a LOT of people rooting and just wanting the best for them, more even then Joyce. I’m not sure if it’s beautiful that such protective emotions have been coaxed from our hearts or if it’s sad that so many of us understand them at such a personal level – showing just how many here have suffered similarly.
I think ‘bittersweet’ is the word I’m looking for.
I feel sad that Jason is at the bottom of the poll. I’m a college professor, he’s a college TA. He had a whole pornographic slipshine… you’d think he’d tickle someone’s pickle (other than Sal, obviously), taste wise
Damn; Ruth is more than two thirds of the way to a total breakdown, isn’t she?
Meanwhile, I suspect that Billie has realised that the power balance relationship doesn’t have to be entirely one-sided, given what Ruth has just said about being lonely without her.
Not a bad thing, power sitting with just one of two can lead to abuses of sed power without the one in question realizing it. It is safer for all involved to have it spread out more.
Ruth is where I was about 4 or 5 years ago, minus the PTSD. At least I’m assuming that Ruth does not have PTSD, as I have not seen anything that would make me feel otherwise.
Well, I’m pretty damn worried for Ruthless now. Not that I wasn’t before. I’m not sure if her depression is getting worse or if it’s just that she’s becoming more honest with Billie and opening up about just how depressed she really is.
I enjoy Ruth’s character so much that I checked the wiki and learned that there are two independent timelines in the same universe with the same characters. So TIL about Walkyverse and Dumbiverse.
If you love Ruth here in DoA you’re going to love her in David Willis’ magnum opus, Roomies! Ruth there is just awesome! She always acts with integrity, no regrets!
I’d really not call Roomies! Willis’s ‘magnum opus’, considering it was his first webcomic. That and I see what you did there. But I wouldn’t say ‘always’… just… well, the girl has grit in spades when it comes down to it. /respect
Come now. Ruth had a huge impact on that comic. Think of how many story lines would have been blocked if she hadn’t been a part of Roomies! And, hey, Billie wouldn’t have had a happy ending in SP! without Ruth.
No these are not “two independent timelines in the same universe” – these are different ‘verses in the Willis-multiverse.
Actually the Walkyverse is not a universe (=single ‘verse), it comes with its own alternate ‘verses.
Oh, no, I see a darkness.
Oh, no, I see a darkness.
Oh, no, I see a darkness.
Oh, no, I see a darkness.
Did you know how much I love you?
Is a hope that somehow you,
Can save me from this darkness.
Johnny Cash is the man. He totally would have understood Ruth.
I used to do the numbness thing on occasion but I used to look forward to it. Not feeling anything was awesome. Of course the moment I realized I enjoyed it the feeling was broken and so I lost it. I’m not sure if that’s supposed to be poignant or not. Anyway the numbness thing went away completely after a while. I kindof miss it on occasion.
Ah, yes, that numb, hollow feeling, where there’s no energy, no motivation, and everything that living entails feels like just too damned much. Fun times, indeed. I’d say it’s natural to seek escape from that heavy gray reality one way or another.
Some of us read comics on the internet, and become overly invested in the lives of fictional characters — erm, so I’ve heard– from a friend. Yeah. Meanwhile, others get involved in codependent relationships, then crash parties to be with their significant others, striking fear into the hearts of dozens in the process. We all seek out coping mechanisms — healthy or otherwise.
Some coping mechanisms take on a life of their own if you rely too much on them, however. There’s where the healthy ones get worn down, which really mostly buys a bit of time, and the unhealthy ones get stressful, which is counter-intuitive to finding coping mechanisms in the first place. In the end, if you are unhappy about something change is usually the key to rectifiying the primary condition. I say usually because communication is pretty powerful when done well and proper, with unhappiness inflicted by another.
I love how honest people are in the comments about their depression, and I love how relatable Billie and Ruth are, and how Ruth’s emotions (or lack of) have been portrayed. Hits so close to home, and is the main reason I come back every day… It’s nice to not feel alone (because of commenters and characters).
Yer’ never alone, mate. There’s plenty of us, here or otherwise. 🙂
PS: I JUST noticed a little smiley on the bottom-left of the screen! Was that always there? O_o
Loading ...
Pixar, 1995: What if toys had feelings
Pixar, 1998: What if bugs had feelings
Pixar, 2001: What if monsters had feelings
Pixar, 2003: What if fish had feelings
Pixar, 2004: What if superheroes had feelings
Pixar, 2006: What if cars had feelings
Pixar, 2007: What if rats had feelings
Pixar, 2008: What if robots had feelings
Pixar, 2009: What if dogs had feelings
Pixar, 2012: What if Scotland had feelings
Pixar, 2015: WHAT IF FEELINGS HAD FEELINGS
Willis, 2015: WHAT IF RUTH HAD FEELINGS
Mother, do you want to bang heads, with meeeeee? DO you want to feel everything……
I could totally see a tiny little Lewis Black operating the controls in Ruth’s Head.
Little Amy Poehler is just locked in a cage in the corner. She’s only allowed out when Billie’s around or the Leafs are winning.
She’s emaciated, and somewhat resembles Gollum.
So just when Billie’s around?
(I don’t watch hockey, but this is how you make a sports joke, yes?)
Maybe all of Ruthie’s emotions are anger, like in the bus driver’s head in the movie. 😛 And they’re all periodically intoxicated as well.
Ruth, 2015: WHAT IF BILLIE HAD FEMURS
Sexual cannibalism.
“What if Scotland had feelings”
I totally forgot Brave was pixar and not just disney (they are confusing me with all the 3D stuff when are we gonna see some good ol 2D animated movies again!
We had the Princess and the frog…it didn’t do that well.
Next year, with Moana
Well, Disney got rid of all their normal animation stuff ages ago so it’s unlikely to ever be a regular thing again. Every now and then, but it’s mostly gone now sadly.
They are still working on the Paperman hybrid, however…which may not be analogous to the older 2D styles, but at least it’s closer and serves as progress in getting to something perhaps even closer.
Yeah, I believe I read somewhere that Walt Disney Animation studios will not be producing anymore traditionally 2D movies from now on, given the massive success of 3D-modelled animation so far and the fact that Princess and the Frog was a relative flop compared to the likes of Tangled, Wreck-it Ralph, Frozen, and Big Hero 6.
Next step…3D virtual reality movies, where you can see the movie from a 2nd person perspective. Or possibly interactive movies, where if you wish you can interact directly with the characters and make your own movie, deciding the ending for yourself! xD
B-But, deciding the ending for yourself may cause people to have premarital Disney hanky panky!
…Sorry your avatar (Joyce gasping in shock) inspired me
So the feelings in inside out have feelings of their own. Does they program their own feelings? Or do they have feelings that give them feelings? But then who gives those feelings feelings? Is there a never ending chain of feelings giving feelings to other feelings?
Yarg, too many feelings D:
Yes.
“Its turtles all the way down.”
It’s feelings all the way down, Yotomoe.
I’m dissapointed no one got my spongebob reference.
Yeah, I feel you.
“Pixar, 2012: What if Scotland had feelings”
I died. Well done.
Out of curiosity, exactly what sorta feelings would Scotland have?
Depends on the last time Scotland had something to drink. And how much.
Scotland had something to drink ten minutes ago. Always ten minutes ago. Unless it’s right now. That is also an option.
Single malt feelings.
Well, lately, feelings of GIB INDEPENDENCE!!!
(with apologies to polandball)
Well right now I can’t blame them. 🙁
Joy and anger. Just those two, and always exactly those two, in precarious let’s-call-it-“balance”
I’d say the feeling of a gentle breeze caressing yer penis, for slightly more then a nickle (kilts aren’t cheap >.< ).
What if Scotland had feelings? That’s a bit far fetched isn’t it?
Twas a time before the drink, lad…Okay, no it wasn’t, but twas a time before the drink INDUSTRY.
That was like pre-historic, the Mesopotamians had a goddess of beer and they didn’t even have the wheel
“Pixar, 2009: What if dogs had feelings”
Pfff. 2009 was “what if old people had feelings.”
FEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELINGS
WHOA WHOA WHOA
FEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELINGS
Ruth? Feelings??? That’s crazy talk.
What if feelings were bees?
What if bees were Scotland?
Best movie summary ever 🙂
…I am VERY worried about Ruth. I mean, I always have been, but…I am VERY worried about Ruth right now.
It sounds a lot like Ruth’s alcohol problem is a symptom of her real problems, not the cause of them.
Which we already knew from her backstory.
We still don’t know her backstory, just vague, one sided conversations of her constantly apologizing to someone on the phone and a little brother who thinks Game of Thrones means the same thing as shalom in Hebrew.
We know quite a bit more about her backstory!
Alcoholism is not so discreet.
“Jumper,” indeed.
Jumper cables, jump ‘er bones, same difference
Wow, Ruth is even more fucked up in her mind than I previously thought.
Yay mental problems… -_-
Not much flatness in that room to flatter.
Billie sure isn’t bringin’ the flatness.
I mean she’s “BILLIE”. I’d be pretty possesive too. Don’t wanna lose a chubby drunken rich bespecticled ex-cheerleader. That’d be a damn shame.
That sentence would ring very true if you’d remove the ‘drunken’ part. Who knows, maybe eventually we will be able to do just that.
There’s a message in the wire/And I’m sending you this signal tonight…
You don’t know, how desperate I’ve become, and it looks like I’m loosing this fight. 🙂
There’s a storm that’s RAGING through my lonesome heart tonight
I love how an ad for the San Diego Comic Con lands on the strip with Ruth doing the same angry face finger pointing that was used for the Seattle Comic Con.
God these two are both SO DAMAGED but also SO ADORABLE and I’m constantly fluctuating between being super duper mega worried about either or both or them and going ‘omg awwwwww look at them, how cute’ and grinning like an idiot. Arghhhhh!
The life of a Ruth/Billie shipper. THE STRUGGLE IS REAL, MY FRIENDS.
I know what you mean I went through the full range on this strip alone >.<#
It is really amazing how they can be so adorable and so dysfunctional at the same time, often in the same *moment*.
I want to understand your feelings.
lol I thought I made my feelings pretty clear just now?
I am unable to feel those feelings towards these two in this situation. So, I find your feelings fascinating.
Oh ok! Yeah, I have an over-abundance of feelings at all times lol, that’s kinda my affliction. But I really do love these two. I see myself in them and also some of my friends. I know some people who’ve been low like this and have come out of it on the other side better and healthier, so I always really invest myself into these two and root for them. More than for any other characers in this comic. I really want them to get better, desperately. Because I feel their pain from here. Through my computer screen. Fictional characters’ pain. It’s THAT real for me.
So. That was my long-ass explanation of my feelings xD
I second your long-ass explanation. Ruth and Billie remind me of bits and pieces of people I’ve known and even some I love to this day. I wish them nothing but the best and hope that for once, they can have a happy ending together.
We struggle with you TwT
Preach it.
Maybe their damaged parts can match each others, allowing them to combine into a functional couple…
I don’t wanna be a Combiner, honest…
I continue to contend that both needing therapy in the worst way does not mean they are a bad couple. Lots of couples have shit that they need to deal with without needing to break up. Keeping my fingers crossed.
Maybe Ruth has the same emotional spectrum as Belkar from the Order of the Stick.
She’s the token evil character?
Ruth: I am a sexy, shoe wearing, goddess of femur removal!
Sounds about right to me!
Ruth has a full emotional spectrum, she just doesn’t realize that the uncomfortable feeling she describes as not happy nor sad is what the rest of us call sadness.
Or perhaps it’s pain. It would follow the pattern. Aversion to being alone due to emotional emptiness which excludes anger? An excess of stress and looooooots of very public shouting and coming down hard with zero tolerance? Her and Billie sort of hooked up quick… and it’s been rocky… she doesn’t function reliably, as seen by that time she shut herself away. She’s definitely depressed. So that would be most of a worrying symptom list I’m sadly familiar with: Borderline Personality Disorder. Reeeeeeeally hope to never see the rest of that list anywhere damn near her. I kinda like this one.
Bluh. Maybe I’m projecting a bit, being dramatic…. Anybody else see it?
Not necessarily. See some of the comments below about depression.
Lust and hate, huh?
Even considering that Varsuuvius’ hypothesis is a bit out of date, I think Ruth is capable of feeling both of those at once, judging by the beginning of her relationship with Billie.
Still a sexy freckled goddess of violence, though.
And Billie is her cat?
Called it. She missed her.
Thats about as dark as anything I’ve read in this strip and pretty sure that Billie is not the right person for ruth to talk to about this
Unfortunately, she’s the only person.
It’s an unfortunate and quite possibly pathetic reality that the right person *can* be an anti-depressant that little else can substitute.
Fortunately, I’m speaking from experience.
yeah. that is true.
This is so true. And just like with actual drugs, you can become too dependent on that person and develop and unhealthy addiction =/
Seen it, can vouch. Similar situation to Ruth&Billie. My girlfriend and I are both pretty broken (her anxiety and my depression-and-generally-screwing-up-everything) and we got to be really emotionally codependent over time. I’m her anti-anxiety meds, and she’s my clinical-strength antidepressant. It’s not healthy, and we know it, but it works. I won’t judge our fictional friends for doing the same.
I’ve had such a relationship before… sadly it didn’t end well for us. But I feel that it can work out. This is sort of the relationship I’m still looking for, in part at least. I find a certain unique romantic feeling in depending on such a level on the one you love and they in turn on you. It can be a life-long bond. I really hope Ruth&Billie can help each other in the long term.
Oh, Ruth, I feel that depression, I really do. She has a few characteristics of BPD, too. …No wonder I like her.
Speaking as someone who’s wrestled with depression, Ruth speaks the truth. It’s actually kind of surprising that she can manage the anger, if her depression is that deep. Simply wanting to feel… that speaks volumes of her character that she’s held it together for this long.
If you go long enough without really feeling any one thing in particular, anger can be downright /pleasant/. Cathartic and almost fun.
finding a safe and positive way to express anger is one of the most therapeutic things that anyone can do in my opinion.
“Almost?”
This is how most YA novels start out, yea?
I hope Ruth is trying to break thru her depression?
Seeking Billie out, seeking to ‘feel’ has to be a good sign?
I hope.
Honestly, it really depends on what you’re trying to “feel”. Not all feels are good feels. And if you need evidence, look at Amber.
Oof the stage of depression where you start to lose whole emotions. I remember that and have been there enough for others going through that. Not only does it suck going through, it sucks just as much coming out of it and getting hit with the buried emotions when you actually start recovering enough to feel again.
Definitely. Forgetting how things feel, and then feeling them again? Even good emotions hurt, because you realize how empty you felt before you felt them again. It’s a damned thing. Not that it’s any picnic helping someone go through it too, because you feel just as helpless. I’m really glad that Billie and Ruth are just kind of taking things one moment at a time.
This may sound strange to anybody has been through it, but I wish I had experienced the emotionless stage. I simply had “I hate my life and I am worthless and I will never be happy” for abooouuut twenty years. Honestly, a break from feeling like that- even if it’s feeling nothing, and like nothing is ever going to feel different- would have been a blessing in comparison.
Then again the grass is always greener, so…
It’s genuinely really weird.
Like, I can recall times where I just laid there and did nothing for hours a time. I wasn’t even sad or angry, I was that a lot but sometimes I wasn’t, I didn’t even feel apathetic, where I did nothing because I was inherently worthless and nothing I did would ever have a positive impact. It was just, well, nothing. You’re just there and don’t feel a thing, and suddenly hours are gone.
I think I preferred those moments of just sheer “I hate myself.” I was feeling something, you know? It was terrible and awful but at least it was me saying it.
I’ve come close to that a few times, but I mostly simulate the experience via compulsive gaming to take my mind off the depression. A sort of… haze is created where you’d just exist in the moment, but without deeper emotions – just the surface parts that you’d forget in a few minutes or when you fall asleep.
What you’ve went through seems to me like a step further down the hole, into… well, nihilism. Perhaps the closest a human can get to a state of nonexistence. Perhaps, if there are no gods or souls, something deeper but similar to such a non-feeling s what we all end up becoming after we shed our self-awareness. I’m not sure if that’s frightening or soothing to think about.
Emptiness is very hard to stop doing. Score: 1/60,000,000,000 would not cope again. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone. I lost whole months. Just staring through everything, feeling the potential inertia flop over and die every morning without seeing any way to stop it. No, don’t be jealous.
Damn, Ruth! Get a TV or a laptop with a Netflix or HULU subscription! (or in my case, a Steam library full of single player games!)
Human interaction…? What’s that?
Ruth and Billie: two halves, one whole. They really do need each other, flaws and all. Maybe between them they can finally stop digging and start climbing.
I think I’m gonna have to agree with this one…
I love this depiction of depression here. It’s honest and real and hurts to look at, because it’s so uncomfortable. I’ve struggled with depression for many years (though mine’s not the ‘no feelings’ kind, mine is more the crying all day and being overwhelmed by life kind, ‘too many feelings’ kind, if you will). I love how a spotlight is being shone on it here and it’d done so well.
Both Ruth and Billie are depressed (Billie has displayed signs that make me worry she’s gonna self-harm or hurt herself) and they’re self-medicating with alcohol and that makes it 100% worse. It’s really uncomfortable for me to read, because I’ve been to some of these low places and this brings it back. I love these two girls and I want all the best for them, this is just all really, really moving me right now and sorry for the wall of words, but, y’know, FEELINGS. I have a lot of those.
(thank you for creating these characters and treating them sensitively and realistically and ahhhh! It’s wonderful!)
Seems to me Billie & Ruth have gathered a LOT of people rooting and just wanting the best for them, more even then Joyce. I’m not sure if it’s beautiful that such protective emotions have been coaxed from our hearts or if it’s sad that so many of us understand them at such a personal level – showing just how many here have suffered similarly.
I think ‘bittersweet’ is the word I’m looking for.
That cheeky challenge is what Billie likes best of their relationship
Billie sure knows how to push Ruth’s buttons…
Ruth desperately wants her buttons pushed. That’s not even innuendo.
I feel sad that Jason is at the bottom of the poll. I’m a college professor, he’s a college TA. He had a whole pornographic slipshine… you’d think he’d tickle someone’s pickle (other than Sal, obviously), taste wise
No one can resist Galasso.
Don’t get me wrong, he’s great, but he’s facing some pretty stiff competition. I rank him #4 of that list.
You can’t top sculpted caramel.
Honestly as an asexual, Id probably say Danny is the most physically appealing.
Throw these girls into the counseling center.
Damn; Ruth is more than two thirds of the way to a total breakdown, isn’t she?
Meanwhile, I suspect that Billie has realised that the power balance relationship doesn’t have to be entirely one-sided, given what Ruth has just said about being lonely without her.
Not a bad thing, power sitting with just one of two can lead to abuses of sed power without the one in question realizing it. It is safer for all involved to have it spread out more.
Ruth is where I was about 4 or 5 years ago, minus the PTSD. At least I’m assuming that Ruth does not have PTSD, as I have not seen anything that would make me feel otherwise.
Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.
Or to hate smex.
Good, good. Let the anger flow through you.
Gee, that last panel… That mouth…
Could Ruth be the secret child of Batman?
Maybe Bruce Timm filled in for the last panel?
Well, I’m pretty damn worried for Ruthless now. Not that I wasn’t before. I’m not sure if her depression is getting worse or if it’s just that she’s becoming more honest with Billie and opening up about just how depressed she really is.
I kinda understand.
That moment when a webcomic smacks you in the face with reality.
Oh my god, man! I totally want to make an Evanescence fan made music video of them. Someone please stop me!
Nope, you’re on your own.
*grabs parachute and jumps from the metaphoric plane* Yer on yer’ own, kid!
*slides you the weepiest evanescense-and-similar songs and trashy worthlesse fanart under the desk* you didn’t get these from me pal
I enjoy Ruth’s character so much that I checked the wiki and learned that there are two independent timelines in the same universe with the same characters. So TIL about Walkyverse and Dumbiverse.
If you love Ruth here in DoA you’re going to love her in David Willis’ magnum opus, Roomies! Ruth there is just awesome! She always acts with integrity, no regrets!
I’d really not call Roomies! Willis’s ‘magnum opus’, considering it was his first webcomic. That and I see what you did there. But I wouldn’t say ‘always’… just… well, the girl has grit in spades when it comes down to it. /respect
Magnum Opus is It’s Walky
oh you evil person.
Come now. Ruth had a huge impact on that comic. Think of how many story lines would have been blocked if she hadn’t been a part of Roomies! And, hey, Billie wouldn’t have had a happy ending in SP! without Ruth.
Ruth certainly had a huge impact, yeah.
No these are not “two independent timelines in the same universe” – these are different ‘verses in the Willis-multiverse.
Actually the Walkyverse is not a universe (=single ‘verse), it comes with its own alternate ‘verses.
That’s it, Billie. Gently stroke her rage-clit. You know she likes it.
“Rage-clit” is my new favorite word!
Ruth in the last vignette: – Billie, smell my finger!
Oh, no, I see a darkness.
Oh, no, I see a darkness.
Oh, no, I see a darkness.
Oh, no, I see a darkness.
Did you know how much I love you?
Is a hope that somehow you,
Can save me from this darkness.
Johnny Cash is the man. He totally would have understood Ruth.
So angry sex time?
I kinda think that’s what they both are going for.
And there shall be much rejoyce 😀
nAH, Joyce isn’t interested~
*Flags pop up from behind a hill*
Yaaaaaaaay…
I used to do the numbness thing on occasion but I used to look forward to it. Not feeling anything was awesome. Of course the moment I realized I enjoyed it the feeling was broken and so I lost it. I’m not sure if that’s supposed to be poignant or not. Anyway the numbness thing went away completely after a while. I kindof miss it on occasion.
But then, I can emotionally confuse and manipulate you in the dark in your room, too.
Ah, yes, that numb, hollow feeling, where there’s no energy, no motivation, and everything that living entails feels like just too damned much. Fun times, indeed. I’d say it’s natural to seek escape from that heavy gray reality one way or another.
Some of us read comics on the internet, and become overly invested in the lives of fictional characters — erm, so I’ve heard– from a friend. Yeah. Meanwhile, others get involved in codependent relationships, then crash parties to be with their significant others, striking fear into the hearts of dozens in the process. We all seek out coping mechanisms — healthy or otherwise.
Some coping mechanisms take on a life of their own if you rely too much on them, however. There’s where the healthy ones get worn down, which really mostly buys a bit of time, and the unhealthy ones get stressful, which is counter-intuitive to finding coping mechanisms in the first place. In the end, if you are unhappy about something change is usually the key to rectifiying the primary condition. I say usually because communication is pretty powerful when done well and proper, with unhappiness inflicted by another.
Willis has just done the very best depiction of a common manifestation of depression I’ve ever seen. “Darkness Visible” indeed.
I bet this has been said before, but these two are such a textbook example of kismesitude. So in spades with each other <3<
It just hit me that Ruth was just standing motionless in a dark room last strip. It’s really heartbreaking along with this strip…
TRAWLING >:(
Why did you delete my question, sir? You were advertising your wares today, I was just asking about shirts.
I love how honest people are in the comments about their depression, and I love how relatable Billie and Ruth are, and how Ruth’s emotions (or lack of) have been portrayed. Hits so close to home, and is the main reason I come back every day… It’s nice to not feel alone (because of commenters and characters).
Yer’ never alone, mate. There’s plenty of us, here or otherwise. 🙂
PS: I JUST noticed a little smiley on the bottom-left of the screen! Was that always there? O_o