Prince Gladimir was never meant to fall for a pirate. Swearing off love for duty, the threat of war propels him back into the Captain’s world of high seas and high stakes. Their relationship could be the thing to save the kingdom of Yvoire - or destroy it.
Countdown to Countdown
Velinxi
Iris Black is a self-proclaimed inventor with the curious ability to bring his drawings to life, and yearns to find a space where he can use his powers freely.
Fairmeadow
Kendra P. / KP
A wayward soldier finds herself in a pacifist commune deep in the wilderness of a war-weary land. Living in isolation brings her closer to those she was sworn to kill than she could ever imagine - but also threatens to tear the place apart.
Whomp!
Ronnie
A depressed, portly, hirsute anime fan stumbles through life in the ever-pursuit of chicken nuggets and other life-shortening indulgences.
Nerf Now!!
Josué Pereira
A cute webcomic about fanservice, video games, and... love. Mostly video games, though.
Paint the Town Red
Windy, Winter Jay Kiakas
Winona runs a werewolf shelter with partner in crime, Odile in the Gothic city of Merlot. One day they take in an injured vampire, and soon unravels many of the dark secrets of Merlot.
Demon's Mirror
Harry Bogosian
Based loosely off of "The Snow Queen", a story by Hans Christian Andersen, we see things take a different turn as the demons become central characters, and the side characters stick around. Yup, that's the only differences. Enjoy!
Wychwood
Varethane
When Tiara's pyrokinesis is finally noticed, she is captured by a magical research organization for study. If she cooperates, she could be helping to save humanity from a dire threat - but can she trust them?
Dumbing of Age
David M Willis
Joyce has been homeschooled her entire life until now, when she's suddenly a freshman in college! Things don't go well.
Clockwork
Chikuto
Cog Kleinschmidt is a diligent, quiet worker at the Mercia Fortress, the world power's leading stronghold. His orderly life is thrown into chaos when an enemy kingdom sends a diplomat for peace talks. This diplomat needs something from Cog - whether he agrees to their terms or not!
Shaderunners
Alex Assan, Lin Darrow
A ragtag band of bootleggers open a speakeasy for bottled colour in the greyscale city of Ironwell.
Go Get a Roomie
Clover
Experience the queer journey of an upbeat hippie and the friendships she makes along the way! A tale of self-discovery and love of many forms.
Folklore
Adam Ma, Colin Tan Wei
A superhuman horror story focused on a small band of survivors trying to navigate a war-torn world in the aftermath of the Federation’s collapse.
Atomic Robo
Brian Clevinger, Scott Wegener
The robot punches monsters and bad robots and one time he was a cowboy.
Awaken
Koti Saavedra/Flipfloppery
Superpowers, monsters and conspiracies. Piras, the spoiled Dameschi heir, fights to recover his identity after becoming a terrorist!
Patrik the Vampire
Bree Paulsen
Patrik loves to knit, bake, and help his friends while dealing with his own demons... like his thirst for blood because, oh yeah--he's a vampire.
Demon Studies
Miyuli
Four students summon and study potentially dangerous demons within the walls of the mysterious Summerland University.
Sunshine Boy
Moosopp
New-kid Kelly is sweet but naive. Luckily, he's got his outgoing neighbor Grey in his corner.
Goblins
Ellipsis
A fantasy RPG as told through the eyes of the low-level monsters.
The Otherknown
Lorian Merriman
Chandra is a 12-year-old accidental time traveler with a reluctant new dad, who happens to be a member of a feared galactic crime syndicate.
The Witch Door
Anni K.
Katariina Lehto discovers her neighbor is a witch called Jousia Muotka. Jousia introduces Katariina to the strange people and places beyond the witch door...
Anacrine Complex
Sae Cotton
A superhuman heist involving probably too many pigeons than entirely necessary.
Wilde Life
Pascalle Lepas
Oscar decided to rent an old haunted house, and that's when things got weird...
Sam & Fuzzy
Sam Logan
Troubled by gangster rodents, lovesick vampire stalkers, or confused ninja assassins? Don't panic! Sam and Fuzzy are here to help. (For a reasonable fee.)
Far to the North
Allison Shaw
Kelu turns to the monsters of her remote mountain home when her family is held hostage by outsiders.
Monster Pulse
Magnolia Porter Siddell
Four kids run afoul of a creepy secret organization's experiments, which turn their body parts into fighting monsters. Part sentimental coming-of-age story, part monster-training shonen manga, with just a bit of sci-fi body horror.
Knights Errant
J.R. Doyle
Wilfrid's humble quest for revenge becomes bigger and bloodier by the day.
2 Slices
RJ Morel
After a case of mistaken identity, will awkward Daisuke find help from excitable Mamo, or will his love life be thrown completely off track?
Lighter Than Heir
Melissa Albino
A young Volant woman joins the military in an effort to upstage her war-hero father.
How to be a Werewolf
Shawn Lenore
Malaya Walters was bitten by a werewolf as a child. After being raised by her human family, she faces the chance to learn what being a werewolf is really like as an adult.
Lunar Blight
Studio CARTRIDGE, Laura Lee
Lunar Blight is a gothic horror story about an elite knight serving a moon cult who must choose between upholding his honoured duty or condemning everything he’s grown to know.
Guilded Age
T Campbell, John Waltrip, Florence Machina
Welcome to the saga of the working-class adventurer! Enjoy the complete story with new annotations daily!
The Lonely Vincent Bellingham
Diana Huh
Vincent is an unkind man looking to disappear, and finds himself in the care of a vampire and her two wicked children.
Cyanide & Happiness
Explosm
Satire, dark humor and surreal humor.
El Goonish Shive
Dan Shive
WARNING: This comic often ignores the Laws of Physics
Real Science Adventures
Brian Clevinger
Spin off stories and other adventures from the world of Atomic Robo!
Drugs & Wires
Mary Safro, Io Black
Dan used to be a VR operator until his brain got fried by malware. Now he's stuck delivering packages in a post-Soviet hellhole all while trying to adjust to his new life and find some answers.
Spinnerette
Krazy Krow, Rocio Zucchi, Pablo Rey
When a lab accident gives Heather Brown spider powers and six arms, she does what any midwest comic geek would do: Become Ohio's #3 superhero!
Tove
Severin
The end of the world is coming, and Tove doesn't want to be a hero, but SOMEONE has to look after her little brother.
Star Trip
Gisele Weaver
Jas is a human taken from her home planet on a trip across the galaxy she will never forget.
Heart of Gold
Eliot Baum, Viv Tanner
A pianist with failing eyesight seeks out a priest with a miraculous healing touch, drawing him deeper into a world of miracles and curses.
Solstoria
Angelica Maria
After her brother goes missing, Samantha vows to become a Knight and help those around her in the Kingdom of St. Helena.
Between Failures
Jackie Wohlenhaus
The low stakes adventures of an assorted group of 20 somethings trapped in the declining years of American retail. They are naughty and say lots of swears.
[un]Divine
Ayme
A highschool senior thought giving up his soul for a demon was a good idea. It wasn't.
Girl Genius
Phil Foglio, Kaja Foglio
In a time when the Industrial Revolution has become an all-out war, Mad Science rules the World...with mixed success.
Killjoys
Flatw00ds
When two disgraced ex-feds fall backwards into trouble with the clown mafia, getting out in one piece is gonna be no joke!
Empowered
Adam Warren
A sexy superhero comedy (except when it isn't) about the never-ending struggles of a plucky but very unlucky young superheroine.
MASKLESS
kickingshoes
In a world where people can wield the magic of elemental Masks, all Ashe wants to do is help. Maskless and useless, with dreams of fire and smoke on the back of his tongue, he finds himself on a strange, dangerous path to uncovering the secrets of these incredible objects, and the source of the monsters plaguing his home.
Obelisk
Ashley McCammon
In 1908 New York, a young woman struggles to put her life back together in the wake of her father's death - until she discovers a vampire in the shambles of her inheritance.
No End
Erli, Kromi
A queer romance about people attempting to build lives in a cold, post-apocalyptic world ravaged by hordes of undead.
Hazy London
Scotty
A story about messy relationships. From friendly foes to crazy families. Nothing is black and white, just full of color. But, all colors can get a little hazy...
BOOKMARK Click "Tag Page" to bookmark a page. When you return to the site, click "Goto Tag" to continue where you left off.
BUFFER WATCH
Comics are currently drawn and uploaded through:
Or just archaically, he’s from the sixties and the sixties were often described as “swinging”.
Furthermore a quick search of google offers simply promiscuous as a definition.
swing
swɪŋ/
verb
gerund or present participle: swinging
1.
move or cause to move back and forth or from side to side while suspended or on an axis.
“her long black skirt swung about her legs”
synonyms: sway, oscillate, move back and forth, move to and fro, wave, wag, dangle, rock, flutter, flap, vibrate, quiver More
“the basket was swinging in the wind”
brandish, wave, flourish, wield, raise, shake, wag, twirl
“Helen swung the bottle, clubbing Goldman at the base of the skull”
informal
be executed by hanging.
“now he was going to swing for it”
turn (a ship or aircraft) to all compass points in succession, in order to test compass error.
2.
move by grasping a support from below and leaping.
“we swung across like two trapeze artists”
move quickly round to the opposite direction.
“Ronni had swung round to face him”
move with a rhythmic swaying gait.
“the riflemen swung along smartly”
synonyms: stride, march, sweep; More
stroll;
informalsashay
“Penny swung down the drive”
3.
move or cause to move in a smooth, curving line.
“she swung her legs to the side of the bed”
bring down (something held) with a curving movement, typically in order to hit an object.
“I swung the club and missed the ball”
attempt to hit or punch, typically with a wide curving movement of the arm.
“he swung at me with the tyre wrench”
deliver (a punch) with a wide curving movement of the arm.
“she swung a punch at him”
Cricket
(of a bowler) make a delivery of (a ball) deviate sideways from a regular course in the air.
Cricket
(of a delivery) deviate sideways from a regular course.
4.
shift or cause to shift from one opinion, mood, or state of affairs to another.
“opinion swung in the Chancellor’s favour”
synonyms: change, fluctuate, oscillate, waver, alternate, see-saw, yo-yo, vary, shift, alter, undulate, ebb and flow, rise and fall, go up and down, go back and forth
“the balance had once more swung from centralization to decentralization”
have a decisive influence on (something, especially a vote or election).
“an attempt to swing the vote in their favour”
informal
succeed in bringing about.
“what swung it was the £17,000 she offered the panel to let her win”
synonyms: accomplish, achieve, obtain, acquire, get, secure, net, win, earn, attain, bag, capture, grab, hook; More
manoeuvre, sort out;
informalwangle, land, fix (up), work, get hold of, nab, collar, pull down, knock off
“what finally swung it for him was that his family kept writing to the State Governor”
5.
play music with a flowing but vigorous rhythm.
“the band swung on”
(of music) be played with a flowing but vigorous rhythm.
6.
informal
(of an event, place, or way of life) be lively, exciting, or fashionable.
7.
informal
be promiscuous, especially by engaging in group sex or swapping sexual partners.
Origin
Old English swingan ‘to beat, whip’, also ‘rush’, geswing ‘a stroke with a weapon’, of Germanic origin; related to German schwingen ‘brandish’
Yes it’s correct archaic use, but – actually yknow what? Sure. Hollywood getting it right is vanishingly unlikely, but the author’s dead and it makes a better joke, so shine on, you crazy time-displaced, diamond.
Joyce/Dorothy is taking the easy road by now, but dammit, it would validate my “Joyce was bi all along” crackpot theory! There’s just enough evidence from both universes to make the case. And this time she doesn’t have sci-fi technology to help her bury it.
You know for all the shit I’ve been throwing on Joe, I’d say he’s the best informed of all three of them on gender, so I’m going to go Joyce, Walky, Joe for that one.
He’s been shown to be very invested in gender roles in the past, see his weird rules about how being a man meant he couldn’t own more than one pair of shoes. Whereas Joe is rather modern and informed in his outlook on women and gender roles, just a bit predatory.
Eh. I don’t know if Joe’s really more ‘modern and informed’ in re: gender relations, so much as he’s just invested in different stereotypes than Walky. His whole ‘no feels!’ thing, and all.
Does Joe avoid feelings because he thinks they’re too girly, or to protect himself from emotional pain (such as in his parents’ divorce)? I think that one is self-protection, not machismo. On the other hand, he is super invested that men should always want to get laid and all that.
Again, I think it’s a pretty gender neutral belief. Joe believes everyone should want to get laid all the time, he just has a more direct way to encourage women to do so than he does for men.
Yes, I meant in addition. Walky’s particular flavour of rigid gender roles is the type with only one pair of shoes, the k-mart brand of soap, lots of meat, and a man-cave where moms (or a mom-like wife) can’t bother him.
(Compare with the 1950s husband-role of the protective, reliable, godly man who works a job to provide for the family, which is probably the rigid ideal with which Joyce was raised.)
It is less a “real men don’t have a second set of shoes” thing than a “why should I waste time and money buying shoes when I already have a perfectly good set already?”
It is laziness, not principle.
Digressing, why does Walky bother to shave? Unless you are concerned with conformity to fashion or societal standards, why waste time every morning making your face feel funny?
Laziness probably features in his motivations, but he’s at least using gender to justify it. His exact words were “Only girls own more than one pair of shoes,” and he tried to mock Joe for doing so.
Well wanting to be a man-child means rejecting career ambitions. But it doesn’t mean accepting parenting ambitions which is the traditional trade off expected of women.
And traditionally men have gotten away with quite a lot of immature shit without getting called on it.
My sister once noted that boys are raised to be boys and girls are raised to be mothers. I guess she used that to explain the behavior of our father, her husband, and her in-laws.
But given that they were opening said discussion with a cheesy “Hello Wife!”, “Hello Husband!”, I wonder how much serious discussion they’d actually have gotten done here today anyway… :/
You’d be surprised. The lack of initial commitment could even cause them to stumble into uncomfortable territory unexpectedly since they won’t be on their guard.
Iirc, she outright told him that once, that their relationship is just for fun and has no real future. Later she seemed to change her mind, which caused some problems when he revealed he liked the original plan and refused to even talk about love. It’s a good thing that Joyce interrupted them because as soon as they touch that subject again an ugly breakup is the most likely result.
She said they shouldn’t get too attached because this year at the university is (was?) just a stepping atone for her career and she wouldn’t stick around for long. Later on she says she loves him, expecting to hear the same and getting mad when he refuses and reminds her of the “this is just for fun” deal. I don’t see how this could be anything other than Dorothy changing her mind about what shr wanted out of their relationship.
And then her and Walky had a conversation about what love means. The relationship might mean more to her than “just for fun” like it did at the start but she seems to have accepted that it might still mean only that for Walky.
Specifically, Dorothy acknowledges that she’s developing deeper feelings for Walky than what a “for fun” relationship would entail, and she’s trying to deal with that while staying the course.
Falling in love with someone you originally considered a “just for fun” relationship is a change of someone’s mind, even if it’s not, strictly speaking, something she has voluntary control over.
….No, that’s the point, it isn’t. It means you’re interpreting a ‘just for fun’ relationship as one that has no love, not a relationship that is inherently temporary. If you can’t figure out how to make sense of that, it’s on you. Dotty clearly knows.
It is however not surprising that when you’ve been told it’s a “just for fun” relationship and the other person suddenly confesses their love, you’ll be taken aback a bit. Especially if you’ve been holding back yourself to keep the inevitable pain of it ending from being too bad.
Interesting to think how it would play if the case was reversed and it was the other partner who’d brought up love to the one who’d set out the “just for fun” limits. (Obviously wouldn’t work with Dorothy & Walky, given their personalities, but hypothetically…)
I can’t say I can imagine a no strings attached relationship that involves mutual declarations of love, no. It’s one or the other, if you expect a genuine “I love you too” back then you clearly want more than a little fun. Otherwise why would Dorothy get upset when Walky casually replied “yeah me too” and added that it was “just a bunch of words” to him? It was her idea to not get too involved since she’s leaving soon, so everything is working as intended, right? Right?
And it doesn’t have to involve love. If we’re coworkers and you tell me that we should keep our relationship strictly to a professional level, then ask me to be your best man at your marriage, I’m gonna wonder too. Do you want to be my friend or not?
Her parents had a point when tbey said that sometimes ‘just for fun’ ends up being what you want in the long haul. I think they could make it work; Walky is a force to be reckoned with when be puts his mind to something, and Dorothy is about as goal-oriented as a person can get.
I think the assignment would have been good for their relationship’s growth. Maybe they’ll discuss it after class.
But Walky has shown on multiple occasions that he truly believes Dorothy will become president. I don’t see this kind of exchange at all.
The problem is more likely to revolve around unrealistic (or just competing) notions about what’s possible within that framework.
Walky: So we should have a couple of kids while we’re young. I want to be a dad while I’m still cool.
Dorothy: *We* can’t have kids while *I’m* in law school and running my early career local campaigns.
Walky: but you have to have kids for the publicity shots! And a dog! All the candidates have them! Look at Hillary!
Dorothy: I don’t plan to wait to run for office until I’m in my 70s…
Etc. etc.
You’re probably right, but I’m pretty sure Joyce just shoved Walky out of the seat he was in and sat down in it, i.e. she is now paired with Dorothy. Which should be interesting.
I don’t particularly ship it (nor do I particularly not-ship it), but I wanna see the true slashfic which is Joyce/Dorothy getting off the ground, so I’m gonna run with it!
Nah, Becky will just find it HILARIOUS, especially as told by Walky. Out of respect for Joyce’s current state they might keep it down in her presence, but hey will snigger a LOT about Dorothy and Joyce being married behind her back.
Probably, but I can see it taking a while and causing some friction with Dina, kind of like how Leslie was uncomfortable with Robin’s attraction to Amber in Shortpacked!.
Joe is likely to be a PUA, at least in spirit and PUAs tend not want to get hitched, they might pretend to be married sometimes but they like being single.
Well, Joe also has reasons to distrust marriage and his ability to stay committed. By avoiding marriage he knows he’s avoiding the fate of his parents where his father was a massive d-bag. Joe gets to be like his dad but hopefully without hurting anyone in any serious way.
Not saying Joe’s behavior is healthy by the way… Ha ha! No. More that he’s doesn’t like the single lifestyle as that it makes him feel safer than being in a committed relationship.
There’s a pretty bold line in the sand between a PUA and what Joe is. Joe is a kid whose conception of relationships and commitment has been heavily warped by his father’s infidelity and the subsequent collapse of his parent’s marriage. His opposition to marriage almost certainly isn’t a matter of fearing being tied down but rather of believing it’s an inherently doomed institution especially if he’s involved if my reading of his behaviour vis a vis relationships and sexuality being a result of both his own fear of and resignation to becoming his father is correct. At least that’s why I think he’s both much better than but still far too similar to his dad; because he WANTS to be better but he doesn’t really believe he can be.
See my guess yesterday about Joe’s views on love (and therefore marriage). Tl;dr: Joe’s parents’ marriage sucked, as he saw close up, so he assumes all marriages suck.
Not the cast iron ones, they aren’t. You could probably kill someone even with the smallest ones of those; and certainly could brain someone with the larger ones.
….’Cause I still believe in miracles,
I swear I’ve seen a few.
And the time will surely come
When you can see my point of view.
I believe in second chances,
And that’s why I believe in you!
I suspect Joyce is switching partners before she does something that’ll get the cops called. She isn’t feeling particularly stable and having a sacrament dismissed as “bullshit” is something that could well set her off. In all honesty, I’m a bit surprised it’s Joe being a PITA about this more than Joyce.
I’m pleasantly surprised that Joyce seems not to object to the concept of “marrying” a woman. Or, I guess she just objects less than to the concept of marrying Joe?
True. I think my surprise comes from her not being squicked when it’s applied to her personally. She’s brand new to this whole tolerance thing and already doing much better than some people I know irl!
Ditto that. I was cool with gayness almost since I understood what it was, but that doesn’t mean I wanted to see two dudes kiss. It was an issue of cultural conditioning, in my opinion. And it took me a long time to be able to casually discuss the abstract idea of myself being with a woman (which will probs never happen, but I mean, I’m cool with the possibility).
It helps that Joyce kinda has/had a crush on Dorothy. She’s probably squick at the thought of being married to most women but with Dorothy it’s not the end of the world.
I’m sure it being a choice between gay and Joe made gay a much more attractive option. I mean in her eyes of course, IMO gay is always a more attractive option.
“Look wife, what a sturdy desk”
“It sure is, wife. Let’s place ourselves on it this fine Monday morning to ‘study gender'”
“Ooooh, yes let’s!”
“But first, let’s talk about dinosaurs in a way that clearly contradicts the teachings of Intelligent Design, as lesbian couples often do.”
I’m actually really proud of how much Joyce has grown. Old Joyce would have just gone after him like an angry Dina likely with physical violence, but here? She tries to de-escalate the situation and when she finds herself getting riled up she removes herself from the situation she recognizes as toxic. It’s a mature way to handle the situation even if it involves cannon-tossing Walky out of his marriage.
You’d think that both of them could be slightly more mature about it, but hey, baby steps. Joe’s main male role model thus far in life has been his father… Enough said about that. Joyce is trying to reconcile her beliefs with reality and Joe’s a living blatant slap in the face of practically all that she believes in. If it hadn’t been for that disastrous date in the beginning of the story/semester, perhaps she could be more mature with Joe. For now, that will have to wait.
I would adjust Joe’s to, “It’s bullshit, is what it is. Total bullshit.”
As for Joyce, I think she’d call it a Holy Sacrament and say, “fuck you” or “screw you.” Judging by the last walk to her math class, I’m leaning toward a solid fuck you.
She’s gonna need the Voice to get this class under control if Joe continues to be obstinate and/or if Roz snipes at Joyce about preferring to be married to Dorothy over Joe.
One thing that could be interesting about this is seeing what Dorothy thinks of Joe. After all she’s known him for some time, perhaps since they were little kids.
She’s a year ahead of this lot, I believe, so she wouldn’t be in this class even if she is taking Gender Studies. (Unless it’s a required course for her major, and she failed last year.)
my experience has been more like. there’s nothing they can really do about it, because divorce is legal in america? people will probably look down on it socially though.
Don’t underestimate “people looking down on it socially”. Going through divorce, which is already traumatic, while also being ostracized from your support network can be really tough. Especially if you’ve internalized the “divorce is a sin” part.
And your church may well not recognize a divorced person’s second marriage.
Marriage is certainly touching a nerve with Joe! I kinda feel a little bad, because I’m assuming he feels this way because of what his parents went through. I’m REALLY hoping for some character development here.
I was curious to see how Joe and Joyce would interact in this setup, and Dorothy and Walky as well. This should be interesting, too, though. Let’s see how long *these* marriages last.
I’m actually surprised to see Joyce drop the s word in the background there, sacraments are thing us dirty papists hold onto and proper protestants don’t call their ceremonies those so the devil can’t get in. Or so all the baptists in my region have implied while making finger crosses and backing away from us catholics.
For some reason, all I can think of when reading this is when Lyra and Bon Bon (literally everyone’s favourite ship always) referred to each other as “best friends” *nudge nudge, wink wink* this past season.
It’s idiotic, the only way it could ever happen was if they both had alien powered super strength, tough aliens for the government, and Joyce had her mind wiped or some shit, but when would that ever happen!?
You know I just reallized that a long time ago Joe Prophesized that he would “break in” Joyce. I’m a bit sad that it might now happen in this way now. I really would have liked to see Joyce pop Joe’s emotional virginity.
Hmm. I wonder if Leslie will allow this change-up. I wonder this primarily because it’s harder for me to see significant character stuff between Joyce and Dorothy at this point, same for Joe and Walky. The good character stuff re: commitment and fake-marriage is between the class pairs already established IMO.
Joe seems to really hate this assignment, due to being partner with Joyce or the fact that he doesn’t know what such a long term relation involves, since most of other relations lasted couple of hours-one night at least.
There is the possibility that when Joyce says “We’re switching” she means she is unilaterally exchanging Joe for Walky. Knowing what the assignment is now — discuss with your “spouse” your respective duties and obligations in a relationship” (note Leslie never used the word “marriage”) — I think Joyce would still think relationship = marriage and would find it difficult if not impossible to imagine marriage as two females, so she would automatically gravitate to the one man/one woman version of marriage. Hence, partnering with Walky and leaving Dorothy to deal with horndog Joe.
Also she did tell Becky that while she was fine with her being gay, “pre-marital hanky panky [was] still out.” So she’s apparently absorbed and is okay with the idea of gay marriage.
Even if the pairings for the assignment ended up being Walky/Joyce and Dorothy/Joe, Dorothy’s known Joe for years and years. No doubt she has a whole host of Joe-handling techniques already perfected.
Gah, I hate the whole “Marriage is totally full of Venom and hate” narrative. It’s such a series of copouts to avoid thinking about what we’re doing wrong as a society. Also makes me think straight people can’t into Marriage (since they’re the ones usually making them)
It’s a running joke, not a narrative. I know plenty of straight couples who are well into their fourth decade of happy marriage (and sometimes syrup-level sweet with each other) so I can confirm that it is in no way ‘typical’ for such relationships to be filled with venom.
A running joke exists within a franchise. It’s a narrative. And I’m aware it’s abnormal under the cold light of day, but damn if you don’t go out of your way to try to write it off as hahafunny and normal.
From what I’ve seen, same sex relationships have just as much drama (reminds of the joke that goes “we should let gays get married so they can suffer with us”). You cannot escape the drama.
Most close relationships involve a lot of bickering over irrelevant bullshit so it’s natural thatmarriage would be expected to have a lot of that. It’s seen as a sign of everyrhing working as intended, probably as a contrast to failing marriages where both parties grow cold and distant.
“From what I’ve seen, same sex relationships have just as much drama (reminds of the joke that goes “we should let gays get married so they can suffer with us”). You cannot escape the drama.”
Yes, but gay /media/ does not normalize “they act like they hate each other all the time on camera” nearly as much.
“Most close relationships involve a lot of bickering over irrelevant bullshit so it’s natural thatmarriage would be expected to have a lot of that. It’s seen as a sign of everyrhing working as intended, probably as a contrast to failing marriages where both parties grow cold and distant.”
There’s plenty of room for even pretending to be mad without acting like that anger is omnipresent and husbands and wives only fuck up with each other!
This is the one. It’s the re-run with bigger pictures and author comment, also all strips added later are now in correct order.
Is however spoilered to some amount in the reader comments, so if you want to avoid that, don’t read the comments, or read the original comics on http://www.joyceandwalky.com.
This shows how much Joyce has developed as a character as past Joyce would’ve just started babbling about ‘well Joe you’re the man so you would do this, we would 3 kids and omg Mrs Joyce Rosenthall’ (i probably have got Joe’s last name wrong, but you get the gist)
Whereas now she’s just rageballin’ all over the place and is swapping to have a woman Dorothy partner which wouldve easily weirded her out before, even though this is all an obvious hypothetical scenario.
I feel kinda sorry for Dorothy and Walky tho, they looked so happy to be partners naww. Unless Leslie says ‘nope no switching’ next panel
To be honest, I think this might actually backfire on Joyce.
Granted, Joyce and Joe would certainly be bickering a lot at the beginning, but ultimately they probably would settle on similar ideas for roles and responsibilities (husband=breadwinner, wife=home maker). But with Dorothy, she may end up with more disagreements (since Dorothy would object to the idea that wife=home maker).
Of course, it would be good for Joyce’s character development in the long run, but it would be a hassle in the short run.
I mean Joyce and Dorothy might actually get along great even with Joyce enforcing traditional gender roles because she’d just end up putting Dorothy in the “husband” role (in the career focused breadwinner sense) rather than trying to shoehorn her into the “wife” role that she likely would prefer for herself unless her ambitions have changed entirely since like a month ago.
or like. maybe this is a safe way for Joyce to navigate being her partner’s equal in a way that wouldn’t be possible for her otherwise with her preconceptions about het relationships? because i very much doubt Dorothy would ask for anything else than equality. like. i can see this being more about navigating people’s needs than fulfilling roles, necessarily, and i think that’d probably be good for both of them.
and like. being Dorothy’s spouse would probably require a lot of sacrifice and commitment, because Dorothy wants to be the president someday. which, in a sense, puts her as the “breadwinner” president, Joyce as the first lady, but more importantly they would have to be a team. their public life would be under a great deal of scrutiny, and Joyce would have a ton of influence. her opinions, beliefs, and actions would matter much more than they do in the context of college, and they could make or break Dorothy’s career.
…it’s a good way for Joyce to maybe investigate how much of being a housewife she really wants. and more importantly it’s a safe way. but with consequences!
Once again… I’m not saying that teaming with Dorothy (and being exposed to more open minded ideas of gender responsibilities) wouldn’t be good for Joyce in the [i]long term[/i].
I was strictly referring to the short term. Joyce is really on edge right now, and having Dorothy say something that contradicts yet another long-held belief of Joyce (like “Women can be the breadwinners”) might cause Joyce to become combative in the short term.
slow clap for joe.
I mean, I’m married, but still, I can’t hate on someone who is vehemently against doing it themselves. Though I’m sure Joe could’ve figured out a way to do the lesson still (i.e. Then imagine being in a long term relationship)
marriage is and always has been a legal contract between 2 families, despite what church says it has nothing to do with any religion. Of course the nature of the contract has changed over the ages, at least in this country for example it is no longer basically selling a daughter into slavery. The concept of marriage that Joyce has romanticized so much has only existed for roughly 200 years, maybe not even that long.
Heres the thing Joyce could learn something by partnering with
Joe, she could learn about someones completely different viewpoint and why he has it but instead she inserts herself between Walky and Dorothy
Joe could also stand to learn some empathy as well
I agree. This was amusing and we’ll see where it goes, but Joe & Joyce seemed to me to have more potential.
Though it’ll be interesting seeing Joyce & Dorothy deal with their different expectations for a woman’s role in marriage.
It occurs to me that we haven’t had a definitive statement either way whether or not the DoA characters have the same superpowers as their Walkyverse counterparts!
As much as I’d like to see Joyce and Dorothy roleplay a married couple, I don’t think Joe or Walky will benefit from this switch. I’d expect something like “Hyuk, hyuk, we’re totally gay, no homo tho.”
Loading ...
I thought the unit on wife-swapping was next week.
Do swingers get extra credit?
In that case, Joe graduated when he walked through the door.
Joe’s not a swinger. ‘Swinging’ makes no sense if you’re not in a committed relationship. It’s just ‘random hookups’.
Perfect avatar for that. “The more you know…”
The more you know, the more V5-like variants you can design!
I dunno, if his pants are down he may be swinging.
Austin Powers is a swinger and, last I checked, he was not in a committed relationship.
“Wait a tick… That means I’m single again!”
Austin Powers was probably using the word wrong, though.
Or just archaically, he’s from the sixties and the sixties were often described as “swinging”.
Furthermore a quick search of google offers simply promiscuous as a definition.
swing
swɪŋ/
verb
gerund or present participle: swinging
1.
move or cause to move back and forth or from side to side while suspended or on an axis.
“her long black skirt swung about her legs”
synonyms: sway, oscillate, move back and forth, move to and fro, wave, wag, dangle, rock, flutter, flap, vibrate, quiver More
“the basket was swinging in the wind”
brandish, wave, flourish, wield, raise, shake, wag, twirl
“Helen swung the bottle, clubbing Goldman at the base of the skull”
informal
be executed by hanging.
“now he was going to swing for it”
turn (a ship or aircraft) to all compass points in succession, in order to test compass error.
2.
move by grasping a support from below and leaping.
“we swung across like two trapeze artists”
move quickly round to the opposite direction.
“Ronni had swung round to face him”
move with a rhythmic swaying gait.
“the riflemen swung along smartly”
synonyms: stride, march, sweep; More
stroll;
informalsashay
“Penny swung down the drive”
3.
move or cause to move in a smooth, curving line.
“she swung her legs to the side of the bed”
bring down (something held) with a curving movement, typically in order to hit an object.
“I swung the club and missed the ball”
attempt to hit or punch, typically with a wide curving movement of the arm.
“he swung at me with the tyre wrench”
deliver (a punch) with a wide curving movement of the arm.
“she swung a punch at him”
Cricket
(of a bowler) make a delivery of (a ball) deviate sideways from a regular course in the air.
Cricket
(of a delivery) deviate sideways from a regular course.
4.
shift or cause to shift from one opinion, mood, or state of affairs to another.
“opinion swung in the Chancellor’s favour”
synonyms: change, fluctuate, oscillate, waver, alternate, see-saw, yo-yo, vary, shift, alter, undulate, ebb and flow, rise and fall, go up and down, go back and forth
“the balance had once more swung from centralization to decentralization”
have a decisive influence on (something, especially a vote or election).
“an attempt to swing the vote in their favour”
informal
succeed in bringing about.
“what swung it was the £17,000 she offered the panel to let her win”
synonyms: accomplish, achieve, obtain, acquire, get, secure, net, win, earn, attain, bag, capture, grab, hook; More
manoeuvre, sort out;
informalwangle, land, fix (up), work, get hold of, nab, collar, pull down, knock off
“what finally swung it for him was that his family kept writing to the State Governor”
5.
play music with a flowing but vigorous rhythm.
“the band swung on”
(of music) be played with a flowing but vigorous rhythm.
6.
informal
(of an event, place, or way of life) be lively, exciting, or fashionable.
7.
informal
be promiscuous, especially by engaging in group sex or swapping sexual partners.
Origin
Old English swingan ‘to beat, whip’, also ‘rush’, geswing ‘a stroke with a weapon’, of Germanic origin; related to German schwingen ‘brandish’
Yes it’s correct archaic use, but – actually yknow what? Sure. Hollywood getting it right is vanishingly unlikely, but the author’s dead and it makes a better joke, so shine on, you crazy time-displaced, diamond.
Joe’s the King of the Swingers!
Surely he is the Sultan of Swingers.
Well played, sir.
Multiple cases of “perfect avatars” tonight…
I hope so.
Wait, I’m not in that class.
No, you’re teaching it!
Oh god Dorothy and Walky are such dorks.
I love it.
Joycy: OK, we’re switching. Walky, you’re now Joe’s wife! Dorothy is mine!
….um subtext much? xD
I know right? Can’t wait to see if Joyce is gonna react when she realizes. Maybe she’ll be like “What, like none of you saw that coming?” XD
Joyce is as adorable as a fleshling can get. Which, admittedly, isn’t much. But still.
I kind of wonder what differences in expectations might emerge if D and W had to be spouses for this exercise.
JOYCE-DOROTHY AT LAST
yessssssssss <3
Not only Joyce-Dorothy, but also Walky-Joe. We’re getting double the gayness for the same price!
Walky x Joe also confirmed.
So now I wonder how Walky and Joe would divide responsibilities.
Walky’s in charge of McNuggets, Joe’s in charge of booze and chicks.
And good times were had by all.
It’ll be hilarious if Walky has to be the “responsible one” for once.
That’d break him.
nah this will totally be the continuity where Joe has to grow up near the start to make up for LAST universe.
And neither one is in charge of graduating…
TERRIBLE PAIR
It’s kind of a Joeky, right?
Joyce/Dorothy is taking the easy road by now, but dammit, it would validate my “Joyce was bi all along” crackpot theory! There’s just enough evidence from both universes to make the case. And this time she doesn’t have sci-fi technology to help her bury it.
Headline: Willis Fan-Services Fans for New Year; Breezes Felt Across the Globe.
I COULD NOT YES TGIS HARDER. THANK YOU WILLIS
Who’s got more old fashioned views on the responsibilities of each gender, Joyce, Joe, or Walky? Find out next time on…
You know for all the shit I’ve been throwing on Joe, I’d say he’s the best informed of all three of them on gender, so I’m going to go Joyce, Walky, Joe for that one.
Definitely. Walky would also want to be a manchild for as long as possible; not sure whether that counts as a traditional role.
He’s been shown to be very invested in gender roles in the past, see his weird rules about how being a man meant he couldn’t own more than one pair of shoes. Whereas Joe is rather modern and informed in his outlook on women and gender roles, just a bit predatory.
Eh. I don’t know if Joe’s really more ‘modern and informed’ in re: gender relations, so much as he’s just invested in different stereotypes than Walky. His whole ‘no feels!’ thing, and all.
True, true.
Does Joe avoid feelings because he thinks they’re too girly, or to protect himself from emotional pain (such as in his parents’ divorce)? I think that one is self-protection, not machismo. On the other hand, he is super invested that men should always want to get laid and all that.
Tbf, it can be both.
I don’t recall out of hand, did he say Danny was too girly for having feelings, or that he didn’t want to deal with it
Again, I think it’s a pretty gender neutral belief. Joe believes everyone should want to get laid all the time, he just has a more direct way to encourage women to do so than he does for men.
Joe seems to have had talking about his feelings with others go south on him in the past. He’s keeps it surface level for self-defense purposes:
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-5/02-threes-a-crowd/fetishy/
Correction: It’s for self defense, I’m reading in that Joe has had a bad experience in the past with this.
Yes, I meant in addition. Walky’s particular flavour of rigid gender roles is the type with only one pair of shoes, the k-mart brand of soap, lots of meat, and a man-cave where moms (or a mom-like wife) can’t bother him.
(Compare with the 1950s husband-role of the protective, reliable, godly man who works a job to provide for the family, which is probably the rigid ideal with which Joyce was raised.)
for the shoes things, it’s more about Joe wanting to be fashionable to have better successes.
Where the hell did Walky get that from, anyways? He’s been living at home until a few weeks ago.
How does his Dad feel about men and shoes? “One pair of brown loafers and that’s it, Tinkerbell!”?
I would guess TV. Walks watches a lot of TV.
It is less a “real men don’t have a second set of shoes” thing than a “why should I waste time and money buying shoes when I already have a perfectly good set already?”
It is laziness, not principle.
Digressing, why does Walky bother to shave? Unless you are concerned with conformity to fashion or societal standards, why waste time every morning making your face feel funny?
Or does he just not have much beard growth yet?
Laziness probably features in his motivations, but he’s at least using gender to justify it. His exact words were “Only girls own more than one pair of shoes,” and he tried to mock Joe for doing so.
It is both laziness AND principle.
His principles are based around slacking as much as possible.
Well wanting to be a man-child means rejecting career ambitions. But it doesn’t mean accepting parenting ambitions which is the traditional trade off expected of women.
And traditionally men have gotten away with quite a lot of immature shit without getting called on it.
My sister once noted that boys are raised to be boys and girls are raised to be mothers. I guess she used that to explain the behavior of our father, her husband, and her in-laws.
Nooo! Joyce, stop. Dorothy and Walky need to talk honestly about their relationship and this was perfect. Don’t ruin that.
But given that they were opening said discussion with a cheesy “Hello Wife!”, “Hello Husband!”, I wonder how much serious discussion they’d actually have gotten done here today anyway… :/
You’d be surprised. The lack of initial commitment could even cause them to stumble into uncomfortable territory unexpectedly since they won’t be on their guard.
Indeed. I suspect Dorothy has more requirements for a spouse than Walky realizes.
Iirc, she outright told him that once, that their relationship is just for fun and has no real future. Later she seemed to change her mind, which caused some problems when he revealed he liked the original plan and refused to even talk about love. It’s a good thing that Joyce interrupted them because as soon as they touch that subject again an ugly breakup is the most likely result.
…she didn’t change her mind. She said she loved him. It’s on you if you can’t figure out how that makes sense.
She said they shouldn’t get too attached because this year at the university is (was?) just a stepping atone for her career and she wouldn’t stick around for long. Later on she says she loves him, expecting to hear the same and getting mad when he refuses and reminds her of the “this is just for fun” deal. I don’t see how this could be anything other than Dorothy changing her mind about what shr wanted out of their relationship.
And then her and Walky had a conversation about what love means. The relationship might mean more to her than “just for fun” like it did at the start but she seems to have accepted that it might still mean only that for Walky.
Specifically, Dorothy acknowledges that she’s developing deeper feelings for Walky than what a “for fun” relationship would entail, and she’s trying to deal with that while staying the course.
Falling in love with someone you originally considered a “just for fun” relationship is a change of someone’s mind, even if it’s not, strictly speaking, something she has voluntary control over.
….No, that’s the point, it isn’t. It means you’re interpreting a ‘just for fun’ relationship as one that has no love, not a relationship that is inherently temporary. If you can’t figure out how to make sense of that, it’s on you. Dotty clearly knows.
It is however not surprising that when you’ve been told it’s a “just for fun” relationship and the other person suddenly confesses their love, you’ll be taken aback a bit. Especially if you’ve been holding back yourself to keep the inevitable pain of it ending from being too bad.
Interesting to think how it would play if the case was reversed and it was the other partner who’d brought up love to the one who’d set out the “just for fun” limits. (Obviously wouldn’t work with Dorothy & Walky, given their personalities, but hypothetically…)
I can’t say I can imagine a no strings attached relationship that involves mutual declarations of love, no. It’s one or the other, if you expect a genuine “I love you too” back then you clearly want more than a little fun. Otherwise why would Dorothy get upset when Walky casually replied “yeah me too” and added that it was “just a bunch of words” to him? It was her idea to not get too involved since she’s leaving soon, so everything is working as intended, right? Right?
And it doesn’t have to involve love. If we’re coworkers and you tell me that we should keep our relationship strictly to a professional level, then ask me to be your best man at your marriage, I’m gonna wonder too. Do you want to be my friend or not?
Her parents had a point when tbey said that sometimes ‘just for fun’ ends up being what you want in the long haul. I think they could make it work; Walky is a force to be reckoned with when be puts his mind to something, and Dorothy is about as goal-oriented as a person can get.
I think the assignment would have been good for their relationship’s growth. Maybe they’ll discuss it after class.
“So, I’ll be making all the money with my sweet trampoline park; and you can do all the dishes an’ stuff.”
“Walky, I will be working too. You can do the dishes.”
“Nuh uh! You’re the wife. Remember? We said that, just now?”
I may need more popcorn for this…
But Walky has shown on multiple occasions that he truly believes Dorothy will become president. I don’t see this kind of exchange at all.
The problem is more likely to revolve around unrealistic (or just competing) notions about what’s possible within that framework.
Walky: So we should have a couple of kids while we’re young. I want to be a dad while I’m still cool.
Dorothy: *We* can’t have kids while *I’m* in law school and running my early career local campaigns.
Walky: but you have to have kids for the publicity shots! And a dog! All the candidates have them! Look at Hillary!
Dorothy: I don’t plan to wait to run for office until I’m in my 70s…
Etc. etc.
“We’ll be rich enough to hire people to do the dishes”
And Leslie was worried Roz was going to be the disruptive force in class today…
Joe took the first set but Joyce has made a comeback.
One of those (few?) instances in which Walky is the lesser of two evils.
You’re probably right, but I’m pretty sure Joyce just shoved Walky out of the seat he was in and sat down in it, i.e. she is now paired with Dorothy. Which should be interesting.
He could have meant that Joyce is the greater evil.
Shoved, or lifted bodily? Has Joyce been getting into Amazi-Girl’s pillbox or something?
She would have thrown him if it wasn’t for her sprained wrist.
she was getting physical with Joe’s shirt with that wrist too, so it probably isn’t too bad now.
I wanna read more of the hidden conversation in panel 4 !!!
“Marriage is God’s Holy Sacrament, screw you”
“It’s so not! It’s what Joes call BULLSHIT”
[/educated guess]
Second speech bubble is probably Roz, maybe the first one is Jenn/Sue?
Nah, this is still the marital dispute between Joyce & Joe!
Do i detect some impending character development for joe?
If so, Danny stands to benefit from it.
Joyce wants Walky?
What madness is this?
It’s a sign that everything’s right with the world!
Are we talking about the same world here?
I sorta ship it. It was the OTP of an entire universe, but I feel they’re different enough people that it wouldn’t be a retread here.
Probably not gonna happen, though.
Actually, I think Joyce is claiming Dorothy and leaving Joe with Walky.
Joe might be disappointed that he’s with a dude now, but part of him has to be thinking “Called it”.
Joe X Walky, the real slashfic that the alt-text is referring to.
I don’t particularly ship it (nor do I particularly not-ship it), but I wanna see the true slashfic which is Joyce/Dorothy getting off the ground, so I’m gonna run with it!
I think Joyce just wants to trade partners and be with Dorothy so she doesn’t stay stuck with Joe and have a bunch of problems.
That sounds like a convenient excuse to get with Dorothy to me.
Looks to me like she’s shoving him out of the way so she can marry Dorothy.
Which is what everyone around them has expected for weeks now.
Wait until Becky hears about the distorted by the grapevine version of this!
I’m sure Walky will lead with it the next time they meet which I’m sure will do wonders for her jealousy.
I think he’s picked up on not throwing this in Becky’s face.
Walky only throws things at Dorothy’s face! he would never cheat on her with Becky!
Nah, Becky will just find it HILARIOUS, especially as told by Walky. Out of respect for Joyce’s current state they might keep it down in her presence, but hey will snigger a LOT about Dorothy and Joyce being married behind her back.
Hopefully being in a relationship will largely soothe her Dorothy jealousy.
Probably, but I can see it taking a while and causing some friction with Dina, kind of like how Leslie was uncomfortable with Robin’s attraction to Amber in Shortpacked!.
“Becky, did you know that here at Indiana University gay marriage not only is possible, but also today Joyce totally married Dorothy?”
Joe’s surprisingly angry about the concept of marriage.
Stuff like this makes me realize that much as I rip on Joe, he’s one good storyline away from being a better character.
He’s mad about being married to Joyce. Who wouldn’t’ be?
(Except for Becky)
Well, considering how badly his parents’ divorce turned out…
What they said ^^
Joe is likely to be a PUA, at least in spirit and PUAs tend not want to get hitched, they might pretend to be married sometimes but they like being single.
Well, Joe also has reasons to distrust marriage and his ability to stay committed. By avoiding marriage he knows he’s avoiding the fate of his parents where his father was a massive d-bag. Joe gets to be like his dad but hopefully without hurting anyone in any serious way.
Not saying Joe’s behavior is healthy by the way… Ha ha! No. More that he’s doesn’t like the single lifestyle as that it makes him feel safer than being in a committed relationship.
There’s a pretty bold line in the sand between a PUA and what Joe is. Joe is a kid whose conception of relationships and commitment has been heavily warped by his father’s infidelity and the subsequent collapse of his parent’s marriage. His opposition to marriage almost certainly isn’t a matter of fearing being tied down but rather of believing it’s an inherently doomed institution especially if he’s involved if my reading of his behaviour vis a vis relationships and sexuality being a result of both his own fear of and resignation to becoming his father is correct. At least that’s why I think he’s both much better than but still far too similar to his dad; because he WANTS to be better but he doesn’t really believe he can be.
See my guess yesterday about Joe’s views on love (and therefore marriage). Tl;dr: Joe’s parents’ marriage sucked, as he saw close up, so he assumes all marriages suck.
Wow! Joyce is getting kinda violent!
Thank goodness that she’s not within easy reach of a rolling pin or cast iron frying pan.
Cast iron frying pan? well she is a bit of a pollyanna
Does walky have a bat or yo yo?
Most standard frying pans are way too light and lack impact.
Everyone knows the golden wrench is the best melee weapon.
Not the cast iron ones, they aren’t. You could probably kill someone even with the smallest ones of those; and certainly could brain someone with the larger ones.
Or perhaps a musical rock, whose powers are needed to defeat an ancient evil?
(Yes, I see what you did there.)
Yo yo? Like the protagonist in Sukeban Deka.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EarthBound
I meet your Earthbound and counter with Star Tropics!
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/StarTropics
I meet your Star Tropics and counter with Chrono Trigger!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrono_Trigger
I meet your Chrono Trigger and… and… Actually I can’t think of anything to counter Chrono Trigger with. Chrono Trigger rocks.
Now I want A Dumbing of Age RPG
Toe Dad attacks
Toe Dad uses shotgun
Amber uses spike balls
Becky uses call authorities
Toe Dad uses slap
-5 HP (Becky)
Sal uses motorcycle catch
Amber has fainted!
Joyce uses DAMN YOU
-500 HP (Toe Dad)
Toe Dad was defeated
+50 experience Joyce!
+50 experience Becky!
+50 experience Amber!
+50 experience Sal!
Joyce has reached level 15!
New ability unlocked, ability to swear!
Joyce fumbles her save vs. existential crisis!
Joyce acquires status ailment “Disillusionment”!
Chrono Cross, dear.
*Cackles, flees*
I’d bring up Chrono Crusade but I can’t see any obvious link to DoA.
nooooo
its so baaaaad
Chrono Cross was great, but what was truly amazing was the nerd tears it allowed me to harvest. Mwahahahahaha
….’Cause I still believe in miracles,
I swear I’ve seen a few.
And the time will surely come
When you can see my point of view.
I believe in second chances,
And that’s why I believe in you!
Obligatory.
I suspect Joyce is switching partners before she does something that’ll get the cops called. She isn’t feeling particularly stable and having a sacrament dismissed as “bullshit” is something that could well set her off. In all honesty, I’m a bit surprised it’s Joe being a PITA about this more than Joyce.
She did beat him up and hire someone to beat him up, so it’s not surprising.
Actually, I’d consider this being less violent. She’s removed herself from the situation before punching Joe in the face.
Her strength is as the strength of ten because her heart is pure!
Pure what, though?
Which is fairly consistent for Joyce.
Now, KISS!
Why hello there
Dorothy’s job is fixing the country, international politics, etc. Wally has to usually wear real pants. They both make sacrifices.
I’m pleasantly surprised that Joyce seems not to object to the concept of “marrying” a woman. Or, I guess she just objects less than to the concept of marrying Joe?
There was a critical system update:
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-6/01-to-those-whod-ground-me/scenarios/
True. I think my surprise comes from her not being squicked when it’s applied to her personally. She’s brand new to this whole tolerance thing and already doing much better than some people I know irl!
Ditto that. I was cool with gayness almost since I understood what it was, but that doesn’t mean I wanted to see two dudes kiss. It was an issue of cultural conditioning, in my opinion. And it took me a long time to be able to casually discuss the abstract idea of myself being with a woman (which will probs never happen, but I mean, I’m cool with the possibility).
It helps that Joyce kinda has/had a crush on Dorothy. She’s probably squick at the thought of being married to most women but with Dorothy it’s not the end of the world.
I’m sure it being a choice between gay and Joe made gay a much more attractive option. I mean in her eyes of course, IMO gay is always a more attractive option.
Plus, it’s a classroom exercise. It’s not like any actual pre-marital hanky panky is going to be involved, gay or not.
“Okay! We’re gay-married. Are you doing the dishes or am I?”
I think you’re making that call a little early. We’ll see if she can handle it in a few strips.
Now everyone, I want your Dorothy/Joyce slashfic on my desk by monday morning
define your version of morning. Technically, you posted that comment on monday already
Well, they didn’t say which Monday, did they now?
Real World Monday or DoA timeline Monday? The latter will be sometime this spring.
“Look wife, what a sturdy desk”
“It sure is, wife. Let’s place ourselves on it this fine Monday morning to ‘study gender'”
“Ooooh, yes let’s!”
“But first, let’s talk about dinosaurs in a way that clearly contradicts the teachings of Intelligent Design, as lesbian couples often do.”
And so they did and it was very sexy.
Lol irl.
Generate one yourself; http://fanficmaker.com
Ok, how did Willis get his hands on my slashfic? It’s not even posted yet.
…aaaaand we’re divorced.
I’m actually really proud of how much Joyce has grown. Old Joyce would have just gone after him like an angry Dina likely with physical violence, but here? She tries to de-escalate the situation and when she finds herself getting riled up she removes herself from the situation she recognizes as toxic. It’s a mature way to handle the situation even if it involves cannon-tossing Walky out of his marriage.
hooray for non-violence and character growth!
Jupp. Joyce handles an uncomfortable situation in a formidable way.
How Amazi-Girl-esque of her.
Oh. Oh dear…
You’d think that both of them could be slightly more mature about it, but hey, baby steps. Joe’s main male role model thus far in life has been his father… Enough said about that. Joyce is trying to reconcile her beliefs with reality and Joe’s a living blatant slap in the face of practically all that she believes in. If it hadn’t been for that disastrous date in the beginning of the story/semester, perhaps she could be more mature with Joe. For now, that will have to wait.
I wonder what Joyce and Joe are saying in the fourth panel.
Is Joyce getting counselling? Because she really needs it apparently.
She’ll be getting prayer sessions this weekend instead.
Obscured balloon guessing:
Joyce?:
“Marriage is God‘s Sacrament,
?????? you”
Joe?:
“It’s ??????
is what ?????????[E or L]
bullshit”
I’m guessing Joe’s dialogue is “It’s bullshit, is what it is. Bullshit.”
I would adjust Joe’s to, “It’s bullshit, is what it is. Total bullshit.”
As for Joyce, I think she’d call it a Holy Sacrament and say, “fuck you” or “screw you.” Judging by the last walk to her math class, I’m leaning toward a solid fuck you.
I remembered it wrong: http://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-6/02-that-perfect-girl/pg/
Perhaps, a “damn you” from Joyce?
How I think their argument/conversation goes. It doesn’t quite match up perfectly though, so some of the words are different.
*I only realized when I was done that it looks like Dotty and Walky are hilariously mocking Joe and Joyce.
‘How dare’ seems more likely than ‘how could.’
Since yesterday (or even longer) her swear vocabulary is no longer limited to “damn” and “hell”!
She has gained “jackass” and is probably preparing for “asshole”.
Messed up that link.
“___ you”
Joe’s already gotten a “jackass” out of Joyce… is this an obscured “fuck you”?
Might just be “Fudge”. The making of which is one of a wife’s proper duties, of course.
And a husband’s. Because fudge is delicious and you can never have too much of it.
I’m betting on —
JOYCE: “Marriage is a goddamned sacrament!”
For some reason Leslie’s collar has started looking weird to me only today.
Because it looks like it’s sticking up at the back?
Oh god, Leslie’s become a bro.
As opposed to a manssiere?
So we will be seeing Les sporting orange tans and riding a Low-Rider to school then?
This proves, proves that Leslie is secretly a Bene Gesserit. No doubt a deep cover agent of the Panoplia Propheticus.
She’s gonna need the Voice to get this class under control if Joe continues to be obstinate and/or if Roz snipes at Joyce about preferring to be married to Dorothy over Joe.
One thing that could be interesting about this is seeing what Dorothy thinks of Joe. After all she’s known him for some time, perhaps since they were little kids.
I don’t suppose that Carla is also taking this class, is she…
She’s a year ahead of this lot, I believe, so she wouldn’t be in this class even if she is taking Gender Studies. (Unless it’s a required course for her major, and she failed last year.)
Bummer!
Or she switched her major, or didn’t talk to her adviser last year.
The great thing about this class is that Joyce is finally showing some emotion beyond apathy, even if it’s annoyance.
Good job, Joe.
So he did “fix her” with his “unit”, just not in the way he intended. Who needs therapy when you have a fountain of dick jokes?
Joyce, did you just “divorce” your Spouse? You know Divorce is frowned upon.
Does her sect have annulment? I think it’s that.
Unless Joe consummated the relationship between panels.
Both of them would have gone along with it on pure instinct (albeit with wholly different rationales)
Most Protestant denominations are good with it, actually, and I’d assume Non-Denominational Evangelicals would be, too.
That’s a dangerous assumption, given that fundamentalists often rail against it.
my experience has been more like. there’s nothing they can really do about it, because divorce is legal in america? people will probably look down on it socially though.
Don’t underestimate “people looking down on it socially”. Going through divorce, which is already traumatic, while also being ostracized from your support network can be really tough. Especially if you’ve internalized the “divorce is a sin” part.
And your church may well not recognize a divorced person’s second marriage.
Marriage is certainly touching a nerve with Joe! I kinda feel a little bad, because I’m assuming he feels this way because of what his parents went through. I’m REALLY hoping for some character development here.
So that explains the preview panel for tomorrow. Joyce is claiming Dorothy as her spouse, so Joe and Walky are married here. http://dumbingofage.tumblr.com/post/129028244682/january-5-aka-the-official-due-date
I was curious to see how Joe and Joyce would interact in this setup, and Dorothy and Walky as well. This should be interesting, too, though. Let’s see how long *these* marriages last.
Are we talking Joe/Walky or Walky/Joe?
Walky: I get to be the top, right?
Joe: Hell no, I’m bigger. I’ve banged enough yaoi fangirls to know how this works.
But Joe and uke sound so similar, it’s too perfect to ruin.
I’m actually surprised to see Joyce drop the s word in the background there, sacraments are thing us dirty papists hold onto and proper protestants don’t call their ceremonies those so the devil can’t get in. Or so all the baptists in my region have implied while making finger crosses and backing away from us catholics.
And now for my slasfic
“Okay, were switching!” Yelled Joyce. Dorothy grabbed her and…rest of fic to dirty and inappropriate to post on this site, or anywhere…ever.
Yes, Joyce! Embrace your homosexual desires and become a true “friend of Dorothy”!
*slow clap*
Sierra called it
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2014/comic/book-4/04-the-whiteboard-dong-bandit/earliest/
For some reason, all I can think of when reading this is when Lyra and Bon Bon (literally everyone’s favourite ship always) referred to each other as “best friends” *nudge nudge, wink wink* this past season.
Ha! That’s great!
I really need to catch up on those.
Joyce and Walky, huh?
Yeah, I don’t see it. Even just the words together sound preposterous.
It’s idiotic, the only way it could ever happen was if they both had alien powered super strength, tough aliens for the government, and Joyce had her mind wiped or some shit, but when would that ever happen!?
*Fought
Confession: I never wanted Walky and Joyce together… DoA has been very rough on my Jo-Jo shipper nerves.
(They’re pretty cute in Joyce and Walky!, though.)
Actually it’s Joyce/Dorothy. Joyce is ejecting Walky from his seat because she doesn’t want to deal with Joe.
Suuuuure it’s to get away from Joe. A likely story.
did she just force walky on joe?
If the alt-text is to be believed, then yes.
Prediction: this is how Dorothy finds out she’s not exactly a zero on the Kinsey Scale.
Same for Joyce.
It’s a little late for the Christmas gift of WalkyXJoe.
But it’s more or less on time for Epiphany though I think only people in Spanish speaking parts of the world give gifts that day.
Well, Epiphany is the twelfth day of Chistmass, so somebody’s getting twelve drummers drumming.
So Joyce and Dorothy….who’s wife 1# in this couple ?
I think establishing that such distinctions needn’t exist is a large part of the assignment’s purpose.
But very much needed in Joyce’s world view.
You know I just reallized that a long time ago Joe Prophesized that he would “break in” Joyce. I’m a bit sad that it might now happen in this way now. I really would have liked to see Joyce pop Joe’s emotional virginity.
Oops forgot the link: http://www.dumbingofage.com/2010/comic/book-1/03-men-are-from-beck-women-are-from-clark/corrupt/
Dorothy and Walky seem to think marriage involves a lot of fingering.
[rimshot]
Hmm. I wonder if Leslie will allow this change-up. I wonder this primarily because it’s harder for me to see significant character stuff between Joyce and Dorothy at this point, same for Joe and Walky. The good character stuff re: commitment and fake-marriage is between the class pairs already established IMO.
It would have been more fulfilling and likely dramatic but this set-up is definitely more hilarious and gay so I think I’m okay with it.
Joe seems to really hate this assignment, due to being partner with Joyce or the fact that he doesn’t know what such a long term relation involves, since most of other relations lasted couple of hours-one night at least.
Most of the speculation in the last few days ran more along the lines of deeper issues stemming from his parents’ divorce.
Dorothy has a look of sheer utter betrayal here. Why Joyce? Why you steal her dork husband and give him to your douchecanoe husband?
Excitement. She’s now realizing she wants to hit that.
TOMORROW WILL RUIN THIS, LET ME HAVE IT GOD DAMN YOU.
There is the possibility that when Joyce says “We’re switching” she means she is unilaterally exchanging Joe for Walky. Knowing what the assignment is now — discuss with your “spouse” your respective duties and obligations in a relationship” (note Leslie never used the word “marriage”) — I think Joyce would still think relationship = marriage and would find it difficult if not impossible to imagine marriage as two females, so she would automatically gravitate to the one man/one woman version of marriage. Hence, partnering with Walky and leaving Dorothy to deal with horndog Joe.
Nah, the positioning clearly shows she’s swapping herself for Walky based on the fact she’s bodily replacing him in his seat with herself.
Plus, hovertext mentions slashfic, indicating at least one of the resultant pairs is same-sex.
Also she did tell Becky that while she was fine with her being gay, “pre-marital hanky panky [was] still out.” So she’s apparently absorbed and is okay with the idea of gay marriage.
Even if the pairings for the assignment ended up being Walky/Joyce and Dorothy/Joe, Dorothy’s known Joe for years and years. No doubt she has a whole host of Joe-handling techniques already perfected.
Eeee!
Eeeeeeeeeee
MUAHAHA!
no, no, keep having that discussion. i want to hear it all.
Swapping is probably a good idea. I’m thinking that Joyce and Joe would end up killing eachother before the fifteen minutes are up at this rate.
Still, as Leslie pointed out, they got the role-play down right!
Screaming a lot and rushing off to find someone else. It DOES sound a bit like Joe’s parents’ marriage.
Gah, I hate the whole “Marriage is totally full of Venom and hate” narrative. It’s such a series of copouts to avoid thinking about what we’re doing wrong as a society. Also makes me think straight people can’t into Marriage (since they’re the ones usually making them)
It’s a running joke, not a narrative. I know plenty of straight couples who are well into their fourth decade of happy marriage (and sometimes syrup-level sweet with each other) so I can confirm that it is in no way ‘typical’ for such relationships to be filled with venom.
A running joke exists within a franchise. It’s a narrative. And I’m aware it’s abnormal under the cold light of day, but damn if you don’t go out of your way to try to write it off as hahafunny and normal.
From what I’ve seen, same sex relationships have just as much drama (reminds of the joke that goes “we should let gays get married so they can suffer with us”). You cannot escape the drama.
Most close relationships involve a lot of bickering over irrelevant bullshit so it’s natural thatmarriage would be expected to have a lot of that. It’s seen as a sign of everyrhing working as intended, probably as a contrast to failing marriages where both parties grow cold and distant.
Roommates, man. Amirite?
“From what I’ve seen, same sex relationships have just as much drama (reminds of the joke that goes “we should let gays get married so they can suffer with us”). You cannot escape the drama.”
Yes, but gay /media/ does not normalize “they act like they hate each other all the time on camera” nearly as much.
“Most close relationships involve a lot of bickering over irrelevant bullshit so it’s natural thatmarriage would be expected to have a lot of that. It’s seen as a sign of everyrhing working as intended, probably as a contrast to failing marriages where both parties grow cold and distant.”
There’s plenty of room for even pretending to be mad without acting like that anger is omnipresent and husbands and wives only fuck up with each other!
Joyce just didn’t want to listen to Walky and Dorothy being “married” for 15 minutes.
Oh, good. I’m not the only one who thought that at first.
Question. I’m wanting to read s Me of the other comics. Which should I start with first???
It’s hard to go wrong with chronological order.
This is the one. It’s the re-run with bigger pictures and author comment, also all strips added later are now in correct order.
Is however spoilered to some amount in the reader comments, so if you want to avoid that, don’t read the comments, or read the original comics on http://www.joyceandwalky.com.
Ay first I wasn’t sure, but I’m starting to like this new,angsty Joyce.
This shows how much Joyce has developed as a character as past Joyce would’ve just started babbling about ‘well Joe you’re the man so you would do this, we would 3 kids and omg Mrs Joyce Rosenthall’ (i probably have got Joe’s last name wrong, but you get the gist)
Whereas now she’s just rageballin’ all over the place and is swapping to have a woman Dorothy partner which wouldve easily weirded her out before, even though this is all an obvious hypothetical scenario.
I feel kinda sorry for Dorothy and Walky tho, they looked so happy to be partners naww. Unless Leslie says ‘nope no switching’ next panel
To be honest, I think this might actually backfire on Joyce.
Granted, Joyce and Joe would certainly be bickering a lot at the beginning, but ultimately they probably would settle on similar ideas for roles and responsibilities (husband=breadwinner, wife=home maker). But with Dorothy, she may end up with more disagreements (since Dorothy would object to the idea that wife=home maker).
Of course, it would be good for Joyce’s character development in the long run, but it would be a hassle in the short run.
I mean Joyce and Dorothy might actually get along great even with Joyce enforcing traditional gender roles because she’d just end up putting Dorothy in the “husband” role (in the career focused breadwinner sense) rather than trying to shoehorn her into the “wife” role that she likely would prefer for herself unless her ambitions have changed entirely since like a month ago.
or like. maybe this is a safe way for Joyce to navigate being her partner’s equal in a way that wouldn’t be possible for her otherwise with her preconceptions about het relationships? because i very much doubt Dorothy would ask for anything else than equality. like. i can see this being more about navigating people’s needs than fulfilling roles, necessarily, and i think that’d probably be good for both of them.
and like. being Dorothy’s spouse would probably require a lot of sacrifice and commitment, because Dorothy wants to be the president someday. which, in a sense, puts her as the “breadwinner” president, Joyce as the first lady, but more importantly they would have to be a team. their public life would be under a great deal of scrutiny, and Joyce would have a ton of influence. her opinions, beliefs, and actions would matter much more than they do in the context of college, and they could make or break Dorothy’s career.
…it’s a good way for Joyce to maybe investigate how much of being a housewife she really wants. and more importantly it’s a safe way. but with consequences!
Once again… I’m not saying that teaming with Dorothy (and being exposed to more open minded ideas of gender responsibilities) wouldn’t be good for Joyce in the [i]long term[/i].
I was strictly referring to the short term. Joyce is really on edge right now, and having Dorothy say something that contradicts yet another long-held belief of Joyce (like “Women can be the breadwinners”) might cause Joyce to become combative in the short term.
Oh hovertext… yeah, probably.
Eh… no, not mine. Not with those two anyway.
Not sure if Ethan gravatar is appropriate or inappropriate
in b4 Becky has a reason to be jealous of Dotty
slow clap for joe.
I mean, I’m married, but still, I can’t hate on someone who is vehemently against doing it themselves. Though I’m sure Joe could’ve figured out a way to do the lesson still (i.e. Then imagine being in a long term relationship)
a long what x_x
Ah, Joyce sees another of her building blocks whittled away.
That came in like a wrecking ball.
She never punched so hard in love
While Leslie will most probably disagree with Joyce’s switch, it would probably be best for Dotty/Walky ^^; I have a bad feeling about their session.
…then again, I can’t fathom was the various “responsabilities” would be in a Joe/walky unit ^^;
Eh, Leslie might let it happen seeing as Joyce just created two fake gay marriages for the price of one.
Aw, but they were about to be all cute all over everything.
Homewrecker!
Happy Families! A Game For All The Family!
Joyce x Dorothy marriage?
Oh boy that will end in disaster ^^
Oh yes Joyce/Dorothy the ship of the gods.
Don’t forget there’s also Joey/Walky, the joky-ship!
I just realised that I find Joyce really attractive in this outfit o//o
It has a great mix of her own style that reaches down into the cuteness (like those long sleeve things) while letting her more badarse side manifest.
It was either that outfit, or the one with the strap on.
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2014/comic/book-4/02-i-was-a-teenage-churchmouse/makeover/
marriage is and always has been a legal contract between 2 families, despite what church says it has nothing to do with any religion. Of course the nature of the contract has changed over the ages, at least in this country for example it is no longer basically selling a daughter into slavery. The concept of marriage that Joyce has romanticized so much has only existed for roughly 200 years, maybe not even that long.
Heres the thing Joyce could learn something by partnering with
Joe, she could learn about someones completely different viewpoint and why he has it but instead she inserts herself between Walky and Dorothy
Joe could also stand to learn some empathy as well
And here I was starting to look forward to some Joe character development.
I agree. This was amusing and we’ll see where it goes, but Joe & Joyce seemed to me to have more potential.
Though it’ll be interesting seeing Joyce & Dorothy deal with their different expectations for a woman’s role in marriage.
Wow, Joyce has some serious upper body strength, to be able to life Walky like that.
It occurs to me that we haven’t had a definitive statement either way whether or not the DoA characters have the same superpowers as their Walkyverse counterparts!
they don’t
Nice try Willis, everybody knows this is all set in that one universe shown in Joyce & Walky.
what contradictions
No, Joyce is just really pissed
Doesn’t the Head Alien being a fictional character make that not the case?
Maybe Joyce is the 2nd Amazi-Girl.
she will succeed her predecessor, once the original Amazi-Girl becomes Amazi-Woman.
True story.
Following that, Amazi-Woman goes dark, and in an effort to reenoble the legacy, Joyce dons the mantle and takes on her dark doppleganger..
Her leg is doing most of the heavy lifting. Not that he looks THAT heavy…most of his body mass is mcnuggets anyway.
Hmm.
As much as I’d like to see Joyce and Dorothy roleplay a married couple, I don’t think Joe or Walky will benefit from this switch. I’d expect something like “Hyuk, hyuk, we’re totally gay, no homo tho.”
Almost hoping Leslie nopes this too.
Joe: …..
Walky: ……
Joe: So-
Walky: YOUR THE ONE THAT HAS TO BUY ALL OF THE SHOES!
Which Slashfic though? The Joyce/Dorothy one? Or the Joe/Walky one? Because I’m certain there’s a market for both.
Sure, why not both? Though I’m pretty sure Joyce/Dorothy has a larger following.
I’m on for both.
Joe and Walky have the two best chests in the entire comic, so that’s probably the more notable slash of the two.
Good golly gee, Mr. Willis. Joyce switched with Wally and not Dorothy. I wonder what conversation that’ll lead to…
A bit off topic, but is anyone else wondering when Leslie’s eventually gonna go on that date with Robin?
This is how much of their grade?
And I think Leslie is enjoying Joe’s discomfort.
(Not -always- a nice person…)
I certainly hope so. If anyone deserves to feel discomfort at least a few times in his life (before he dies horribly of syphilis =P) its probably Joe.
@Lastpanel
Tomorrow might be epic.
……Minus the religious belief portion of it, I agree with Joe. Huh.