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Kevin Buist @kevinbuist.com ⋅ 21h
Ferric Fang @fangferric.bsky.social ⋅ 2d
Paul Lê @paulle.bsky.social ⋅ 1d
Rolling Stone @rollingstone.com ⋅ 2d
Blue sky nice guy @rajandelman.bsky.social ⋅ 11d
Maggie Westrum @maggiewestrum.bsky.social ⋅ 2d
David M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 3d
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well that de-escalated quickly
not sure if want =<
Maybe not the way we wanted, but certainly in a way that was needed.
Honestly, facing the brunt of her party’s (ex-party’s, rather) bigotry might be the cold splash of reality needed to finally, *finally* understand what harm she’s done. Robin only seems capable of learning from personal experiences, not words, so unfortunately this might be her only shot at ‘getting it’.
Then maybe, slowly, eventually, she can genuinely make amends. It would take a helluva lot of story arcs for it to be even remotely realistic, and she’d have to learn a bunch of other junk along the way (just because you empathise now doesn’t mean you’re in the clear, you need to understand others have good reason to be skeptical of your change of heart, etc), and then we’ll *finally* have a Robin character that isn’t a total shitbag.
Besides, we’ve already got DoA villains like Toedad who’ve gotten their comeuppance. Schadenfreude isn’t the only option available.
On a related note, of course we can all guess why they dropped sponsorship of Robin. It needed to happen, and it should have happened earlier, but it happened for *all* the wrong reasons. Reminds me of a certain FBI director…
Ex-Director…
The justification for the firing is so damn transparent a lie that I’d be worried about birds trying to fly through it. It wasn’t but a week or so ago Trump was boasting how Comey helped win him the election.
In fact, now that I think about, since these comics are scripted and drawn months in advance the release of this strip is an amazingly timely coincidence. Willis, what do you know that the rest of us don’t? Huh?
Honestly this was always going to happen. Comey is an idiot but he wasn’t going to not investigate Trump, and that wasn’t going to sit well with Trump. I’m surprised it didn’t happen sooner.
The proof of that? How many months ago was this strip written and drawn, again?
There were people who foresaw it as far back as November.
She’s based on Palin in this incarnation, right?
… yeah, don’t hold your breath on the “capable of learning obvious lessons” front.
Palin, Trump, sometimes Rubio or Cruz. Even Bush occasionally. Depends who an appropriate asshole for a given strip is.
The SP version was more Palin. At least the political angle – though she had Pelosi’s seat, IIRC.
She started off more like Palin here too. Then as time went on, the number of parody-able politicians increased.
at this point i figure she’s based on all the republican politicians and none of them at the same time
CLEARLY whichever one is prone to pantlessness
and eating Cadbury Creme Egg cereal
frick. when’s the last time you saw abraham lincoln
Ouch.
I don’t know how to feel Willis, like probably skewed by Shortpacked love, but I feel bad feeling marginally sorry for Robin
Both were basically chaos in human form, but in Shortpacked the world was as nutty as Robin was, so most of her actions either didn’t have real consequences, or had consequences that were ultimately a net-gain for the characters she annoyed with them.
DoA is much more grounded in reality, and reality is less kind to wacky hijinks. You can’t be a cartoon character in the real world.
Though I guess Carla did successfully hit someone with a spring-loaded pie.
Carla for congress! Seat opening up soon!
On the one hand, Carla is rich, educated, and charismatic. On the other hand, she’s a minority running in Indiana. She’s got no chance.
butt on the otherhand, pie
piehand on the other butt
On the other butt-hand, pie!
pie on the other pie, butt
pie butt pie butt pie
Pie pie pie butt pie.
Piehand on the butt is SP! Malaya’s favourite thing.
She tried to google it for some solo-sexytimes, but all she found were personal ads for clowns.
Man, in Shortpack Robin brought about literal world peace for several weeks. She could’ve murdered someone in every strip after that and, on an actuarial basis, still ended up having saved more lives than she took.
Huh, well that problem solved itself.
wait….this is a DoA plot line, they never end this calmly, something coming.
Next up: the conservatives switch their support from Robin to Ross. Or Ryan.
This requires viewing more Steven Universe. That’ll fix it.
That’s my plan.
(but I’m halfway through season 3, and starting to worry about what happens when I run out…)
Withdrawal. Hiatus hell.
It’s probably not as bad as binge-reading a webcomic and catching up to the most recent installment, or getting into a TV show that ended 30 years ago…
Or watching Firefly , and then not being able to find season 2 ANYWHERE!
What? You mean they sent me to the wrong reality? I want my Khronars back.
Hop on over to Star vs when you’re done.
You can come and cry in a corner like the rest of us.
Word of advice: Don’t finish the end of season 4 until season 5 comes out. There’s a bit of a cliffhanger.
Actually, if I’m doing the math right, there are two more episodes left in Season 4.
Leaks.
No, I meant that there are 26 episodes a season.
The leaks were… incidental.
It’s bad. I binged the first four seasons a couple weeks ago, and I’m currently jonesing for more.
……..
……
… I am now placed in the unenviable position of acknowledging that the Republican Party can, in fact, solve problems.
DAMN YOU WILLIS!
the republican party still hasnt solved the trump problem
Well, at least ONE problem.
Baby steps.
I’m still confused as to *why* they haven’t solved the Trump problem. Trump was never their man, he’s hated by both sides, he’d be trivial to impeach. And then they’d have president Pence. Pence!
I honestly don’t see the downside for them; what are they waiting for?
Russian money on both McConnell and Ryan, perhaps?
Then they’d have the Democrat problem. As in, the Democrats would (rightfully) blame them for having elected someone so horribly unsuitable.
Also, they’d lose all the die-hard Trump supporters in the midterms.
Face it. Where would the die-hard Trumpies go? Whoever the Dem’s might propose would not be their choice. They would stay with the Republicans only in opposition. Which is partly how we got here anyway.
Away. Not voting.
Or primarying whichever individual Representatives and Senators voted for impeachment or led in investigations.
Both parties were hacked by the Russians, but the GOP hasn’t had anything released. Blackmail?
The alternative is that they hacked the GOP and didn’t find anything embarrassing, so yes. Blackmail
Or, the Russians realized they had more to gain by trashing the Democrat’s reputation, and leaving the Republican’s unstained.
One reason they might reach that conclusion would be finding blackmail material.
One party is discredited with very minor leaks and utter fabrications (like pizzagate, & the “rigged” primary) that get repeated over and over
The other party is kept in line with blackmail threats and promises that their extreme right agenda will be served.
Though sure, it’s also possible that GOP leadership is just so turned on by the idea of fucking over the poor for decades to come that they just don’t care how much treason it requires, and maybe they’re even stupid enough to think they can get away with it even with an erratic, guileless hobgoblin and his cronies running things and always saying the quiet part loud
Frankly, I feel like “they’re cowards and being blackmailed” is the more charitable explanation
Short term thinking and a total lack of ethics. They can get a little more of their agenda passed and sticking with Trump a little bit longer is easier than biting the bullet and taking the fallout from taking Trump down now.
Every delay makes it worse, but also makes the medicine more difficult to swallow, so there’s more incentive to wait.
A nasty, nasty fight with the huge chunk of their base that is still wild about him? Any impeachment is going to be full of infighting and scar the party for years. Pence is likely tainted by any Trump scandals they could use to bring him down and more investigation would reveal that. An unelected replacement president is going to be incredibly weak and the scandal – not to mention the backlash from Trump supporters would be devastating in the next election.
Besides they’re still getting much of what they want from Trump – Judges and he’ll sign pretty much anything Congress can manage to pass.
It may happen, but only if they get to the point where the political damage of an impeachment is less (probably much less) than the damage he’s causing just sitting there.
I’m not hoping for it but the next election could be the Tea Party’s opportunity to become a major player, and pick up the hard-core right wingers who voted for Trump and have since become disillusioned with how useless he’s being. A candidate who is as right-wing extremist as Trump but who actually does have some small-time political experience could do well. “See, we still want the same things you do: Muslim ban, wall, no birth control/abortions, Creationism taught in schools, etc etc; but we’ve got some political experience and know how to go about doing it! Plus our candidate is as blunt and out-spoken as Trump; but not an idiot who will embarrass us on the world stage for not knowing things like basic history and which country we just bombed. Also, he hasn’t peed on any Russian prostitutes and isn’t a puppet of a foreign power.”
The Democrats, on the other hand, could run Sanders with Obama as his VP (assuming Obama doesn’t laugh his ass off and leave if it’s offered to him), and acknowledge that there are real concerns that aren’t being addressed. They could point out things like the fact that solar power needs far more workers than coal, so lots of good, well-paying jobs could be had in things like that, with retraining for people from coal and manufacturing industries who have lost their jobs either subsidized or given priority. They could also change the corporate tax laws to stop discouraging multi-national corporations from bringing profits back into the country instead of keeping them overseas where the rates are lower.
They could also look at fully-subsidized, single-payer universal health care in other countries with the healthiest populations, like the Scandinavian ones, to see which system would best fit American numbers, And say, “Look, Obamacare wasn’t perfect. Trumpcare was worse. And we know you don’t want your taxes to go up because of course you don’t want more money to be coming out of your pocket, especially not to be paying for cancer care for smokers and stuff. So what we’ve got is a system where YOU, personally, will be covered for everything; and your household budget will not be negatively affected, because you won’t have that monthly health insurance bill to deal with. And few health insurance jobs will be lost because now they will just be dealing with extra insurance for perks like private rooms and TVs, and travel insurance and the like; and anyone who does lose a job due to this implementation of universal health care will have their retraining subsidized for working on the wind and solar farms we will be building across the country.”
IMO.
The Tea Party will become a major player? The TP has mostly merged with and taken over the Republican Party. Trump is as much a creation of the Tea Party as anything else. They won’t be a major player in the third party sense, but they’re still driving the GOP.
> The GOP could easily impeach Trump and put Pence in the White House. What are they waiting for?
Permission from Putin.
Trump hasn’t said a single thing that wasn’t on Mark Levin’s show in the last 5 years…Trump was very much the candidate of what the GOP’s been turning into since the Moral Majority was founded.
They’d have to admit to all of the people who voted for Trump that those people were wrong to vote GOP. They don’t have a very high opinion of their base’s reliability and predictability when it comes to relying on them to think critically, or multiple steps through, being told that they were wrong.
See, for example: They elected President Donald Trump, largely out of pure spite.
it solved a problem for them by unleashing robin on the world
*In a fictional universe.
…. phew. Thanks for that reminder. Now I can put away this bottle of bourbon.
are you saying that dumbing of age does not exist in our physical world
i will have u know that i am Personal Pen Pals with sal and she said, and i quote, “u tell that sassafrassin’ two-bit son of a bongo that i’m as real as he is, thank you very much.” SO I WOULD THINK THAT SETTLES IT
anyways prep for the sugar high apocalypse when robin gets out of a job next january
fuck i dont know your pronouns im sorry i made an assumption based on your gravatar. frick
Yeah gravatars are weird like that. For instance, I’m nominally male. But I don’t have the gravatar excuse because this is a custom avatar, so…
LOOK A DEMONIC DUCK OF SOME SORT
Yeah, but do you know the demonic duck’s pronouns?
…I actually don’t know if that’s been established in canon
I do know their sexual preference (human).
THIS ISN’T TUMBLR, I CAN’T LOOK UP YOUR PRONOUNS ON YOUR BLOG, I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO DO lmao maybe just use exclusively “they/them” pronouns until i know better
ahh! demonic duck!!!
So, like…
did the GOP just fire Robin?
basically.
now if only the liberals would fire christy clark
At least she’ll have to make some concessions if she wants to form a majority. I mean, the Liberals have still been in power WAY too long, but we can hopefully look forward to some more resistance and some fresh ideas.
(Provincial election in BC, for anyone not up on Canadian politics)
I just want to be able to have a house in my own province one day, tbh. Or even just the possibility of that.
Move to Alberta. Or maybe some rando Interior small-town that hasn’t had a real-estate bubble yet, if you can find one.
We’d like to, but jobs. Also, my husband has an apprenticeship and we can’t leave the province until it’s done and he has his red seal. It isn’t just a lack of will to move, although I prefer our rainforests tbh
Aand we just had our first at all serious talk about leaving the country once he has his red seal.
Where would you go?
Basically, yeah. She just got pariahized. She won’t get thrown out of office midterm, but she’s done.
I mean….she can technically still run for reelection.
Technically, yeah, but realistically, she’s done. No party funding, no support from party elected officials, nothing.
In real life that frequently means nothing to incumbents, they often get campaign funds allocated from state (or whatever unit of government) coffers and can continue to run as whatever party regardless of whether that party continues to support them.
I mean, I assume that what you’re saying is where the plot is going with this, just pointing out that it’s an acceptable break from reality for dramatic purposes, the sheer magnitude of how badly the deck is stacked in favor of sitting officials would not make for a very good story.
It’s not stacked that strongly in favor of one-term Reps though. Especially if they do something that alienates not just the establishment party, but also their base voters.
Even in the real world, Robin would be toast.
Well, just not with any supporting mechanisms at all- money, staff, media assistance fron pro-GOP outlets, donor lists, etc.
What concerns me is what Robin has to ‘go’ *do*. It will, I imagine, involve trying to say or do whatever it takes to get back in her party’s good graces. So previous-Robin, turned to 11, seems likely.
The fact that we’re apparently in October of an election year complicates matters further. (I don’t think they could pull her from the ballot now, much less replace her with another candidate, though if Rs control that stuff in IN they’d probably bend every rule in the book to try and accomplish it)
SOMETHING like that.
Technically Robin is an employee of the federal government, not the Republican Party. She’s drawing a salary from the taxpayer for her, erm, service in Congress.
Both major parties try to run a candidate for each open seat in Congress, but party affiliation by each candidate isn’t really something the law takes cognizance of. Technically, each candidate is running by themselves. Party nominations essentially say, “this is the candidate we want to win and will help win, they represent our brand, all our peeps vote for DeSanto”. The party also endorses the candidate, which is the “vote for them” part of that.
This late into the election, it’s likely too late for the party to get Robin’s name off the ballot and someone else’s onto it. Deadlines vary by state and we don’t have an exact in-canon date, but if it’s not too late it’s very very last-minute. Even if it’s technically possible, in practical terms it’s too late. It’s possible for the Republicans to name a candidate and try to get a lot of people to write that candidate’s name in, but it’s pretty hard to do. In a closely-contested election like this one, it’s almost a guaranteed loss.
In essence, the Republicans are yielding the seat to the Democrats. The best explanation for why they are doing this is, in my mind, that they view Robin as so toxic to their brand identity that they’d rather lose the seat in Congress (though they may think that a lost cause anyway) than deal with the damage she does to their reputation. An added element might be that the party’s making an example of her to keep their other politicians in line, though I doubt in this case that this is more than a tiny bit of extra motivation.
Without the endorsement, Robin is still a candidate and her name is still on the ballot. The party name “Republican” might even still appear by her name on the ballot. She will have lost a lot of voters who vote however the party tells them to. She may also lose a lot of financial, strategic, and staff support, though some of her staff might be loyal enough to her to stay on. She can run as an independent, if she has the funds, and the advantage of being an incumbent is still hers. But given how close the race was up to this point, it’s most likely the end of her candidacy, especially with the added scandal.
If she’s realistic, she’ll announce that she’ll be withdrawing from the race ASAP. (The Republicans would probably fund the press conference for that, especially if she endorsed their write-in candidate.) But Robin’s not realistic. I expect this to go kablooie in the most schadenfreude of ways.
…. and that’s way more than you wanted to know, isn’t it?
But to be clear, even without winning reelection, Robin still has her job in Congress until early January. …. and lame ducks (people who have been voted out but whose terms haven’t finished yet) can do some pretty unexpected things once they have nothing left to lose.
But I thought most Republican voters voted for their party no matter how awful the person truly is.
I mean, I’m not American, and as far as I know that’s pretty much how the rest of the world sees Republican voters.
Nowadays, yes. Party loyalty has fluctuated over the years, with voters willing to defect more often in some eras than in others. Right now it’s pretty damn high… not out of actual love of the party, but out of hatred for the other guys.
That said, with the endorsement withdrawn a lot of Republican voters will still vote for her. Even without the endorsement she’ll still be the closest thing to a Republican candidate on the ballot, some people will feel loyalty to her as the incumbent, others will think she’s the best bet for keeping Democrat O’Malley out of office, and others will just not pay enough attention to the news to know that she’s lost the endorsement.
Nah. Most Republican voters vote for their candidate because of how horrible they truly are. On occasion they’re stuck with someone less horrible – those they call RINOs (Republican In Name Only) and try to primary them.
Forgot to close the <b></b> tag, huh?
Thank you for the much more in-depth analysis of the electoral minutiae. (Not sarcastic at all. I was interested in that but didn’t have the relevant info on hand, so this is great.)
Robins redemption is a mere sugar high away. Well, maybe not.
I appreciate it, I like learning about these political intricacies.
thank you!! this was a very interesting read
Wait, writing in a Name on the ballot is a legal thing, and if the majority does it, the person gets elected? Mind-boggling though. In Germany, any writing on the ballot (also any doodle that’s not marking the candidate you want) makes your vote invalid.
How does writing in work with voting machines? And if it doesn’t, how are they legal?
In MA our ballots are basically Scantron forms. There are several broken arrows you complete the lines for, each pointing to a line with a name. The counting machine just reads the completed arrows like a bar code. There’s at least one blank line with an arrow under each position. Presumably if there’s a write-in the “other” arrow is tallied, and each ballot then has to be hand-counted. It’s easy, it’s anonymous, and there’s a paper trail in case of a recount. I have no idea why more states don’t use this system.
Realistically there’s no way a write-in will win, since so many people reflexively vote for their favorite party or call upon the wisdom of George Washington when they cast their vote.
The scantron ballots are one of the more effective ways to enhance electoral fairness. As are things like blocking gerrymandering by having redistricting done by an independent commission, allowing overseas ballots, and having day of voter registration.
Also, ironically for those using the wisdom of Washington to pick a party, he and his compatriots at the time were very skeptical and distrustful of political parties.
Write-ins have won on occasion, almost always in exceptional circumstances. The most recent high-profile one was Alaska Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski, who was the incumbent, but lost the 2010 primary to a Tea Party style challenger. She mounted a successful campaign for people to writer her in and won.
She had the advantage of incumbency and name recognition, but lost the primary since the primary base voters were more radical than the general electorate.
Everything varies from state to state, sometime from county to county. IN some states write-in candidates can be elected, in others they can if they are registered, in others they can’t.
That’s how Detroit got its current mayor.
IRL, parties in the US don’t exactly “endorse” congressional candidates — rather, the candidate wins a primary or a caucus of some kind. And they don’t withdraw an endorsement of a sitting legislator, because they don’t want to throw away a vote in Congress. Instead, the party might encourage someone else in the primary at the next election. Robin’s exile is dramatic license for story-telling proposes.
Kinda. Parties DO endorse candidates, but the primaries are indeed how they decide who to endorse. They also have (rarely-discussed and even-more-rarely-utilized) procedures for withdrawing those endorsements. It’s pretty damn extreme.
But she’s currently on the campaign trail, which means:
a) She’s won the primary
b) She’s campaigning for the (very near) election
c) She’s just lost her party’s support
So it’s too late to primary her, and possibly too late to have her removed from the ballot for eg crimes or death (though in the current climate being LGBTQI is probably worse). Which means her party will be going all out behind a write-in.
(wasn’t there a candidate who died a couple of elections ago shortly before election day, leading to a write-in campaign because he couldn’t be removed from the ballot? though that might have been state-level.)
I’m not sure which election you’re referring to, but here in Missouri, we elected the deceased Mel Carnahan to the senate over the very much alive John Ashcroft. It was decided that if Carnahan won, then Governor Roger Wilson would appoint his replacement as though he had died while in office. Mel won and Wilson appointed Jean Carnahan, Mel Carnahan’s widow, to the seat. It was fucking bizarre.
That could well be the one! The Ashcroft bit rings an ugly bell.
Alternatively, there’s Minnesota in 2002, when Paul Wellstone (the Democratic-Farmer-Labor incumbent) died in a plane crash 11 days before the election…Wellstone’s name stayed on the ballot, but the DFL endorsed Walter Mondale (the Republican, Norm Coleman, won narrowly).
with the way campaigns are run these days, she could just be on the never-not campaigning track. they might have time to get someone else.
No, the GOP can’t “fire” a Congresswoman. They’re just not going to support her in the next election, even though Robin losing means a Democrat wins
That’s how we know DoA is fiction. The real GOP would scramble for damage control to keep the seat red.
They think it’s already a lost cause, and it probably is. This IS damage control.
I’m really glad I do not reside in the DoA universe at this moment, because I feel like I’d be stumbling over my words. “That s- I mean, you probably deserve it, I — but it does suck– well, I mean for yo– “
“…like, don’t darken any of our doors… for like… ever, but… umm… if you need to, ya’know, talk about the *Nervous laughter.* things you’ve been… Ahem… realising about yo… stuff… I, uhh… I can get you… resources, I… guess…?”
“It couldn’t have happened to a more deserving asshole now get the fuck out.”
…would they do this? Usually they try to avoid being this overt…
Well, Robin did get caught being all friendly-like with an out lesbian and then hid in said lesbian’s apartment for a while. And some people like it when the Republicans are overtly homophobic.
Cause they think she’s a lesbian now, plus they can conflate that with whatever kind of unhealthy breakdown this is.
I mean, she’s also a female, Hispanic version of our own Donald Trump, and presumably without the supposed financial legacy. This could just be the final straw.
Nooooooo no no no no.
She is not nearly as bad as Voldetort.
Shouldn’t that be McConnell? His mouth is more vaguely beak-like like a tortoise’s.
Oh my god can he die already? He’s one of the fucking worst.
‘Tort’ is a legal term. The infringement in a civil case. The Narcissist in Chief has committed many a tort over the years, some of them resulting in cases against him.
I was actually going for tort as in torta but that works too I guess
*Checks recent news*
Pretty sure that yes, they would.
I doubt they’d be so overt JUST over her spending so much time with a lesbian. In fact, done right, it might have even pulled in some moderate votes. Not with the rumors flying around that she’s banging Leslie, but visiting the school and meeting with/befriending an openly gay teacher in the wake of the shooting, before meeting the victims? Play up the right angle and she could even come ahead, maybe.
But, she’s also avoiding her job, not even doing damage control, probably not talking with her party at all…
Given how zany she is in general, this was likely the last straw. She seems to be barely any more functional here than she was at the start of Shortpacked!, and she barely functioned then. I’d bet that the only reason she was ever supported at all was because she appeals to a different voting audience than usual; if she’s going to pull damaging stunts and ignore her responsibilities, she’s suddenly not worth the investment.
She did threaten to murder a guy’s entire family via twitter so there’s the lesbian rumor and the fact that she does appear to be going through a very public break down along with it. I get why they’d decide to cut their losses even this close to an election. There’s nothing (they care about) to be gained by keeping her.
yeah this
And there have always been lesbian rumors about – based simply on her being 30ish and unmarried. Mary commented on them.
I’m privately head-canoning that Becky sent an email to Paul Ryan threatening to support an independent investigation into Trump’s corruption.
Except that’s, like, a bunch of the Republican-held swing seats, as of the last 24 hours or so.
….. though Willis wrote this like 1762 months ago, so it’s probably not that up to date.
(I swear that buffer is a minor deity at this point. Other webcartoonists bow down and worship it as a superhuman endeavor.)
Hence why it’s just a private headcanon as there is no chance in hell it’s actually the case.
Trump’s been dead since the 70s/80s in the Dumbiverse, has he not?
Yeah, just double-checked, brutalized by bad gas-station sandwich in 1972.
According to recent Willis, Trump is currently president in the Dumbiverse.
My private headcanon is that the current president is the aforementioned brutally toxic gas-station sandwich, now known as Donald Trump.
So, the sandwich contained some form of shape-changing alien that assimilates the memories of its victim and then takes their form? I like it.
An evil sandwich would likely have fewer constitutional crises…
It would also be less of a cartoon character than what we’ve been stuck with.
I thought that was the parasite sitting on top of his head.
It’s been a trip realizing that so many over-the-top 80s cartoon villains are the seemingly unrealistic way they are because they were heavily based on Trump.
bless your brain
Sadly, that was a joke.
To be fair, this investigation could be launched at literally any time in Trump’s path and there would be something horrible to find.
Ooh, I like that.
I kind of don’t feel bad for her sooooo…….
same
I’m surprised at my lack of sympathy.
maybe I’ll blame it on stupid kevin and his stupid yellow car, and go see if the next episode of steven universe is more fun.
or maybe it’s just that I have no idea what this means to her, and I’m not expecting any serious consequences because privilege.
I guess Robin cared enough to be stunned by the withdrawal of endorsement? She definitely didn’t act like she cared about her job beyond the paycheck and moderate respect and fame.
I also don’t think she’ll get a free pass on this. Maybe some redemption angle or something? Depends on if she’s important enough to come back. This has been the most panel time she’s had in seven years.
Man, FUCK Kevin. Stupid fuckin’ scarf havin’, cowboy boot wearin’, can’t match his own fuckin’ clothes lookin’-ass little dickbag. I hope he crashes his stupid fuckin’ car so goddamn hard, they have to peel his ass off the wall with a fuckin’ spatula.
Just ignore him and he’ll have a public nervous breakdown.
Something something Republicans
same
I mean. They withdrew their support of Robin for bigoted reasons. But it is a good slap in the face with a reality check. So. That’s complicated.
Honestly, my first thought was that Becky’s tweeting was what finally did her in, but the girlfriend stuff makes a lot more sense.
Aaaaaand the other shoe drops.
I still think that this whole stunt was Robin doing a semi-concious career suicide. For whatever reason (possibly even inspired by Lesslie’s speach at the bar) she decided she wanted out from her campaign and politics. But confronting people about it is haaaard.
She escaped into playing house with a cute lesbian instead (never mind how much she hurt her) and pretended everything was fine until it wasn’t. Now she still have to deal with the fallout, but not the conflict itself. It is already over.
Pro-tip, robin: Next time you want out, WRITE A FUDGING LETTER AND GO AWOL. DON’T USE PEOPLE AS PROPS.
It just dawned on her that her political career is over, before now she was just treating this as a short break from the campaign trail, not expecting any real consequences.
If nothing else this may be what finally prompts Robin to take a long hard look at the person she’s become
Someone else? Yes.
Robin? No.
I’m guessing she’ll run as an independent. And probably go down in flames, but maybe not.
And just MAYBE she’ll jettison a lot of the Republican talking points because they’re no longer helping her. I suppose it’s possible. But my last hope-check from Robin bounced, so I don’t think it will happen.
This is what I wanted, right?
This is what I wanted, right? I wanted Robin or Leslie or both them and maybe have Robin leave and meet Leslie later on less invasive terms.
…So why do I feel like crap?
Because you, unlike Robin, feel empathy.
Congratulations on being a decent but unhappy human being.
I am fucking giddy right now. It’s about time she faced a consequence of any kind for her actions.
Welp! Guess that’s what it took. Sorry your coworkers are a buncha homophobes, Robin, but I’m pretty sure you were already aware of that.
But how could she have known that rampant homophobia would have a negative impact on LGBT people?? HOW???
If only there had been signs.
Yeah, it’s a sad reality, but this is also why back in the day anti-gay politicians were outed. Because hiding it in the bubble meant they got insulated from the reality of being out and what that meant. With an outing, they had to actually confront reality for most queer Americans and make their reckoning with that one way or another.
Because for some people, without having it hit close to home, themselves or a close loved one, it’s easy to just hold on to hate and the fantasy of a level playing field.
Sneaky Becky reading the congress woman’s mails. Not just playing candy-crush, are we?
sounds like investigative reporting
Robin was probably reading the news, maybe a Google News search for her own name, so just refreshing the page would be enough to find those headlines.
To be fair, Robin pretty much already signed off on her sending committee inquiries for her.
Ruth isn’t the only one with really expressive eye-sizes.
leslie if you’re gonna end up ironically sympathizing with robin now that she’s actually in emotional distress, please don’t do it immediately. And remember robin already has two houses. Wait for her hypothetically conservative family and definitely fundamentalist inner circle to cut her off from them and then when she actually has nowhere to go sympathy can come crawling its way back in.
At least wait until she’s out of the house. Don’t do anything to tempt her to stay.
Avoid eye contact.
Robin might own those and in no real danger of losing that, but Roz might be in for a rude awakening of her own. She stabbed her sister in the back and if she’s the family meal ticket she could be cut off financially and shunned by everyone.
Roz’s ENTIRE involvement in this consists of
1. Trying to persuade her sister to feel empathy for people hurt by her party’s policies
2. Being happy about Robin’s career imploding
There was no backstabbing.
It was a totally frontal stabbing.
Also we’ve had no indication ever that Robin’s ‘the family meal ticket’.
All we need now is for someone to accuse one of Robins family members to Assassination and she’ll officially be Ted Cruz.
Pretty sure that Ted Cruz isn’t a lesbian. Though I guess we don’t actually know.
I now refuse to believe Ted Cruz is anything other than a lesbian.
The zodiac killer?
That meme never made sense to me, even though it’s the exact sort of thing I make up all the time.
When was the last time a meme actually made sense?
What, tricking people into listening to Rick Astley doesn’t make sense to you? What about a frog on a unicycle? Come on, these are super logical.
“lizard person” sounds similar to “lesbian”, but they’re really very different.
Honestly, he really does look like some sort of perpetually-uncomfortable reptile.
Did you just ruin the ship name “Terrible Lesbians” for me?
Obviously the ship itself is still perfect, it’s the two best characters with the best romance.
Have you met Madame Vastra?
‘I’m a 65 million year old lizard woman and this is my wife,
Well, they are both known for using their tongue.
Except Ted Cruz somehow still has his job. I have no idea how or why, but he does.
first she has to deliver a hundred cans of soup to leslie’s house
Schadenfreude
It’s never good when tiny dot eyes show up in DoA.
Wouldn’t this be a reason for Robin to stay with Leslie? She’s ACTUALLY out of a job now, right?
…Oh god I can totally see Robin trying to pull this off later towards Leslie D:
Don’t give her any ideas
Not until January.
Not yet. Her term won’t end until January, unless she resigns.
She still has two houses. She never needed the couch in the first place.
Yes, but without a job she may have to sell them
Withdrawing support just means the party won’t back her in any way.
Robin can still run, she’ll just have to find her own support structure.
She’s _potentially_ out of a job in two years (the election is already on in this DoA semester and she’s already the campaigning candidate, so their dropping support means nothing for _this_ election). It’s not like the party can actually kick her out of office, she still has the job until January 3 (or whatever day the congressional session starts) at minimum.
The reason she has to rush out is more that she just realized that she’s going to have to actually make an effort rather than half-assing it to win her party back in that two-year period, or ensure that her own campaign fundraising is enough to replace what she’d normally have gotten from the party (in most secure districts that’s not really that high a bar to jump, but it’s still work).
This isn’t a secure district though, it’s a swing one, and the race was close already.
And here I was hoping that Leslie would be the one to finally kick her out. Glad Robin’s going, but the manner of it reeks of “your thoughts on the matter matter less than the rapidly decaying health of my political career”.
Of course, that’s the sentiment of any politician, so…
Yeah like…she learned nothing. She’s just sad her career’s in the toilet.
Yeah. She didn’t learn a god-damned thing, she’s just being faced with consequences for her inane behavior.
Consequences, her one weakness!
It’s why I’m entirely unsympathetic.
Don’t let the door hit your ass on the way out Robs.
Robin’s total deflation here is very well-illustrated.
Now gtfo, hon. “Overstayed your welcome” is not even slightly strong enough.
What welcome?
Exactly.
She overstayed her welcome before breaking in.
Cold splash of reality. I don’t know where she’s going to for fixing anything.
Given certain real-world events right now, it’s humorous that “her party” can concentrate on this fairly picayune situation.
Are you kidding? Scandals like this are PERFECT ways to distract public attention from real problems.
Yeah, it’s a nasty sting in everything. They’ll ignore this level of treason and open corruption but assumed lady lovin’. Nope. That needs an immediate harsh response.
“It’s humorous” in that that play might not work this time. The gasbags like Will, Brooks and Douthat will do their best, but many of the Beltway Inbreds are not going along with it.
The RW echo chamber is one thing, the enablers in the middle, who allow themselves to make whatever Fox News thinks into “half the story”, another.
So what you’re saying, Willis…
is we need to catch Trump in bed with a guy?
Can you imagine social media if that happened. I’m guessing those I follow would eventually settle toward something like, “I want Trump out of office but not like this.”
….. I have an idea of whom he would be caught with, but I feel better not putin the name out there.
ROFL
Pretty sure that Ted Cruz isn’t a lesbian. Though I guess we don’t actually know.
Wait. How did this comment wind up here?
Probably a control V replacing the actual comment, but having thought about the implications, I’ll go with this one.
i never want context
ted cruz can be the zodiac killer and a lesbian. follow your dreams ted
Carlos…
*The Magic Schoolbus theme plays in the distance, ominously*
What? Putin? That’d be Un-believable.
….
No one will get that, will they?
Won’t happen. Obama would be too jealous.
Of getting with Putin? Nah. Obama was always trying to get some loving from Republicans, to make himself feel like he could win them over.
I thought Putin was with Assad?
I volunteer as tribute. Not for myself, but for justice and the American people.
“Live boy or dead girl.”
Finally she’ll leave.
(Unless something happens in next strip, but I really hope she leaves. Her storyline is probably far from done, and can be interesting to see, I just want her to leave Leslie’s home)
Something something something Trump.
*plays Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young’s “American Dream” on Leslie’s stereo*
Caught You With the Girl Next Door/Pile of money all over the floor…
Huh, I thought this conflict between Robin and Leslie would draw out a lot longer.
Robin finally got punched in the face, metaphorically at least.
There is a part of me that feels bad for Robin right now. This probably feels like several punches to the gut. However, I hope this doesn’t lead to a weird turn where Leslie lets Robin stay. This doesn’t change how much of a butt-hat Robin has been to her during this time.
That being said, this might lead to the awakening Robin desperately needs to become a better person, especially once we learn the specific reasons why they decided to pull their support. I know the reasons are obvious, but maybe her hearing them will be the thing that leads to a change of heart.
TLDR: This strip has left me all kinds of conflicted, but I hope this doesn’t lead to Leslie relenting.
No, it makes sense. She’s experiencing a blow that is heavily steeped in homophobia. That’s going to breed sympathy in most non-shitty people. Like, even people who do great wrong don’t deserve to experience punching-down bigotry.
I know he can be problematic, but it’s one of the things that IMO Whedon got right in Buffy. The commentary for the episode where Willow and Tara deal with a pair of homophobes in the Bronze has the writers discuss that the original solution was to magically compel them to compulsively kiss each other, until Whedon stepped in to say “… yeah, let’s not make people feel like their orientation is a punishment.” And so they instead became go-go dancers in booty shorts.
Which is leading me to the both repulsive and yet inexplicably delightful vision of Trump stripping for singles in a dive out in the DC ‘burbs.
And yet he made a non-binary person ‘really a lady’ in his Runaways work.
honestly joss whedon is a pile of protofeminist garbage
some of what comes out of his mouth is good, but some of it is self-congratulatory mess
Him getting stuff right seems more and more like ‘broken clocks’.
one of the actresses who worked with him described him as “an old english teacher” which sounds pretty legit!!! so like: not someone who doesn’t question the limits, but someone who doesn’t explore the limits enough because they’re empowered by the limits. yrgh.
You can be less awful than most of what’s around you and still not be very good.
Likewise, a work or a creator can be “fair for its day”, but when the day changes, and they don’t keep up…
yup yup yup!!!!
revolutionary for the 90s, not so much today
Yup.
Am putting that “problematic” to a bunch of work, here…
hahahaahh yes
so much so
Joss Whedon did Buffy, Angel, and The Avengers, right? I’m not super familiar with his work, but people seem to really like those ones. What’s he do that’s problematic?
He also created the Runaways, a comic about runaways kids related to some supervillain families. It’s a long story. Anyway, one of them Karolina is a lesbian (and am alone but whatever) and she hooks up with a Skrull (am I getting the name right?), a being that can shapeshift and that were never really cleared on whether they’re male or female (even if skrulls can be both they tend to prefer one). They seem to favor the male one for a while, much to Karolina’s annoyment because lesbian, until they lose their temper at some point and “default” to a female form.
Personally I always saw this as a character flaw (from K) and I don’t even know of Wheedon was in control of the comic by then, but I guess some found that to be problematic.
So many typos.
If I’m reading this right, one of the characters is a lesbian who dates a Skrull, but the Skrull tends to be in a male form, which annoys her, until the Skrull loses their head and shape-shifts into a female form, which is considered the “default” for them? I think I can maybe see why that could be seen as problematic, if the character has a non-specific gender but tends to favor male forms, but a writer then decides they’re female out of the blue.
Joss did NOT create the Runaways. The Runaways were created by Brian K Vaughn. He did 5 issues at the end of volume 2, bridging the gap between Vaughn and Terry Moore.
Kamino, I thought he helped with the first issues too? I’m on mobile and I could be wrong though.
@ Gesc – He did not create Runaways. He wrote a few issues though.
This Skrull, while they generally prefer one or the other, explicitly said they did not give a fuck whether they presented as male or female. They said it was ‘about as big a deal as a human changing their hairstyle.’ They felt it was a trivial thing to present as a lady to make Karolina, a lesbian, feel more comfortable with marrying them to bridge the gap between their people (since Karolina initially rejected them on the basis they were presenting as a man and Karolina liked girls). They would still present as a man sometimes, but with Karolina they tended to present as a lady.
The problem being Whedon made Karolina suddenly REALLY REALLY care about what their ‘real gender’ was (way to invalidate trans AND non-binary people). Xavin got upset because they really really did not care what their bio gender was and couldn’t understand why it mattered to Karolina. In one of their arguments, they got upset and reverted to a female form, and then admitted it happened when they got very upset and lose focus. This made Karolina happy and solved their problems not because Karolina STOPPED BEING AN *ASSHOLE* but because Xavin was ‘really a girl’.
Marvel also killed them off later, but Whedon had left by then, so it’s not his fault.
Wow, that’s pretty friggin’ bad. Gotta wonder what the hell he was thinking.
dollhouse was pretty problematic in that it featured …so many consent issues
firefly was problematic in that it featured a lot of mandarin (spoken badly) for flavor but no actual chinese people
buffy and angel were really good but also pretty problematic in different areas
joss’ treatment of charisma carpenter is horrendous
natasha romanoff’s boob trampoline
also like the fact that joss tends to destroy his toys/characters
I mean if they’re perpetuating punching down bigotry they kind of do deserve it if for no other purpose than to make them understand just what they’re subjecting others to.
I’m not sad that Robin is finally getting the rug pulled out from under her, but I am a little sad that she couldn’t budge even slightly until now :/
Hopefully being torn down sufficiently will finally lead to some self-examination
Good news: Robin can no longer harm LGBT+ and it’s too late for her LGBT+ hating party to nominate a new candidate and get them on the paperwork, as the election is at most a month away. Manley will likely run unopposed.
Bad news: Her LGBT+ hating party is, I guarantee, not firing her for her terrible policies or her irresponsibility. This is because she’s bi, plain and simple. So fuck them.
Also now I’m worried Leslie is going to feel bad, let her stay, and Becky’s gonna have to find a place to stay AGAIN.
Yeah, I’m not dripping with sympathy for Robin right now. She has money, two houses, and former politicians always have cable news, book writing, and spokesperson jobs lining up. She’s no longer in a position to harm people. So it’s very hard to feel for her.
Robin is probably still on the ballot.
Sure, but the party is no longer officially backing her and she’s unlikely to win without that endorsement.
As blatantly ineffective and dickish as she’s willing to be in public, chances are she’s in a safe district (something like 60% of GOP districts are gerrymandered to the point that it’s almost impossible for a democrat to win regardless of circumstance) and is gonna be the automatic winner just because it’s too late for anyone else to have the (R) by their name.
I mean… that’s applying real-life logic here, if Willis has politics work differently in the comic to make the story flow better that’s totally cool, too.
This district is a swing district irl and this is a close race.
I don’t see Leslie letting her stay especially if it means depriving Becky. I do think she’ll end up trying to maybe give her some kind of pep talk about how she can rebuild her life and start over. Also like you said Robin still has a lot going on in her favor she’s just losing that harmful position of power she enjoyed so much so let me play the tiniest violin for her. I mean it’s the republican fucking party she knew what they were. She just didn’t give a fuck until she personally became their target.
Yup, pretty much this.
Why would Leslie let her stay? She has two houses of her own. I’m sure they’ll interact again at some point but I’m pretty sure this nonsense just ended.
I’m concerned because Leslie is compassionate and a bit of a doormat. I don’t want her to feel bad and then let Robin stay out of unwarranted pity.
I’m not sure she can’t keep harming people, actually. Sure, maybe not in the broad waves she’s had in Congress, but she can still do harm on a smaller scale. Sure, it’s less harm overall, but she’s not exactly doing it of her own volition.
Fair point – allow me to rephrase: She can no longer harm people to the same degree.
A small comfort, but a comfort just the same.
Not to generate any actual sympathy, but I’m not sure one-term Congresscritters kicked out of the Republican party for being queer tend to get the post-politician perk jobs. I doubt she has the influence on any of her former colleagues to get the good lobbying jobs. Fox News isn’t going to be hiring her.
Maybe if she has the public “Come to Jesus” moment, repenting of her homosexual temptations, but I doubt that works as well for women.
If nothing else, again, write a tell all book.
Where “write” is defined as “hire a ghostwriter to write”.
Leslie’s face here: Hello darkness my old friend
Definitely a fitting song for this strip, though I was thinking more for Robin’s face from panel 3 on.
And she was never seen again.
Is it because everyone refuses to look at her, now?
It’s because I can dream.
“If Hitler invaded hell I would make at least a favourable reference to the devil in the House of Commons.”
So I suppose I must be grateful, however grudgingly, to the Republican party for throwing Robin under the bus.
No. Not grateful. Not even a little.
I acknowledge that they did the right thing for entirely the wrong reasons and, while I am glad for the outcome, that does nothing to endear them to me in the slightest.
Not to be too topical, but that sounds a lot like the reactions I’ve been hearing about the Comey firing. Except that I’m not glad for the outcome because I have zero faith that whoever is next w do the right thing for ANY reason.
Which is why all of the Americans here need to call their representative and senators ASAP and tell them that the Evil Cheeto’s ties with Russia needs an independent commission and a special prosector immediately.
Mm hmm. Comey is a vile traitor who doomed his country and the world just to serve his party’s interests, but he shouldn’t have been fired like this, as part of a ham-fisted authoritarian cover-up of one of the worst acts of treason in American history.
Like, yeah, Robin needed real consequences to get her moving, but being dumped because the party assumes she’s queering it up with Leslie is pretty awfully shitty.
It is a deeply unpleasant feeling. To me, this is not the justice I hope for. That kind of justice would be for the district she’s running in to stand up and tell her that her hateful rhetoric is unwelcome there and drum her out for it. But knowing that we won’t see that kind of justice, I’ll settle for this.
And I’m really glad to see you back, Cerberus. I was worried about you after how ugly the comments turned the other day, especially knowing that you’re having a hard enough time as it is. I hope you’re taking good care of yourself and that you’re doing well.
All of the above.
It’s… I got into a real bad head space that lead to some not good places that left me open and vulnerable to some not very good things. I’m still pretty shaky, but I had a very long session with my therapist yesterday after work and she heavily encouraged me to try certain actions.
I’m still going to need time to get to 100% but for now, I’m trying to be here.
-hugs-
it’s good to have you back!!
I’m genuinely scared about going into any more detail than that because of stuff, so
.
Also, I owe Li a giant hug. Because of a thing that happened at session that was really important that was tied to a comment they made.
You don’t owe any of us an explanation that you don’t 100% want to share. I’m just glad that you have support and you’re doing what you need to to be safe and healthy.
*hugs offered*
^^ ditto
Also ^^^
alsoplus ^^^^
^^^^^Additional dittos.
it’s ok, you don’t have to go into any more detail than you feel comfortable with. i’m just glad you’re in a somewhat better space! and i hope for the future that that continues.
sometimes it’s weird what sets something off and what doesn’t :/
*offers an Internet hug* I’m sorry to hear you’re still struggling, but am glad to hear you are putting up a fight. If I could have one superpower, it would be the ability to send warm, pleasant vibes on the astral plane and then having then turn into a psychic cup of honeyed tea that warms and revitalizes your entire mind and soul.
That’s an… oddly specific superpower and yet, it may be the very best one I’ve ever heard of.
Awww
/hugs!!!
(I’m a cis girl. Like, 90% sure anyway.)
*giant hugs* And replace their with her in my previous post. Thank you a ton!
<3<3 I'm honestly just so glad to have helped at all! also I was very sleepy when I wrote that note in the parentheses and I was more preoccupied with the second half of it when I posted it and I looked at it afterwards a couple of times and kept going, "Did that come across as offhanded and btw as I meant it, or did it sound like I was cross, or……"
I should have said "psst, she/her!" but I also don't really mind. I do have a tiny :\ over being called he/him on the internet because for much of my formative experience online that was a sign of how unfriendly-to-anyone-except-(cis)-guys a given space was. So it reminds me of that.
I much prefer they/them as a default and what *that* indicates about an online space. <3
No, I like correcting to people’s pronouns when I know them and I tend to default to they/them when I’m unsure, so definitely all good.
And again, thank you. Going back and seeing that and going over it in therapy really helped me glue a lot of my head back together. So I really greatly appreciate it.
As many hugs as you want, or other sympathy and re-welcome.
I just went back and re-read the previous discussion, and oh wow, FactsMatter is a weapons-grade twisted mindfucking piece of danger who probably exacerbated your headspace more than you realize. If you haven’t shown FactsMatter’s post to your therapist to say “I probably need more defense against this kind of attack than I currently have” you might want to try it.
I’m glad you’re back.
I wish I’d been there to disagree with FactsMatter. (Assuming I’m thinking of the right trainwreck, hope there wasn’t more than one)
As someone who has been triggered by anger (that wasn’t even directed at me! It made no sense!), Cerberus, I don’t remember any of your posts bothering me. I mean, it’s always possible I forgot because I like you, but, well, that’s sort of the point: I like reading your comments. Even when you’re wrong or angry you’re still kind.
and, like, you probably don’t hate me forever for being an ass in the osdd thread, right? So people here would probably forgive you if you did screw up once in a while too.
And your talking about your feelings was so not done in a manipulative way. (I could probably go into more detail on that but not today.) You were honest and open to feedback, and got that twisted against you. Whether FactsMatter believed what they were saying or not, it was harmful. It kinda reminds me of stuff that happened in Questionable Content recently.
*Hugs*
Aw thanks, and yeah, I think very fondly of you. *hugs*
Chris Phoenix- Yeah, uh… let’s just say my therapist came in at it in a similar direction to you and uh… had some… animated things to say about it. And yeah, defenses against certain types of things to keep me from spiraling out is on the docket for next session.
awww
I… actually was assuming people just tolerate me here. I’ve been letting a bit more of the cracks show here and it’s scary being broken and imperfect andstuff even with a pseudonym. to still be liked despite that… that’s … very good. I think I ran out of words
I feel that. I feel that a lot.
*/ if I could begin to be
half of what you think of me… */
i. how do you even defend against this kind of thing
I would love to have an answer to that question.
I did just watch SU s3e22, though, and I think it might make Cerberus feel better to see how much like Jasper it sounded. (provided you can handle the BS Jasper actually says, and the stuff Amethyst is going through. oh amethyst…)
Becky totally sabotaged Robin’s campaign.
FYI – I’m fairly sure Robin is going to win as an independent. Actually, does she have to be an independent? The Republican party may withdraw her nomination but they can’t kick her out of the party and she’ll still win because she’s R and it’s Indiana.
Robin is not in a red district. It’s a swing district, and it’s been a close race the whole time. This scandal so close to election day, plus the loss of her endorsement, is probably her campaign’s death knell.
I feel no sympathy.
I wonder if Robin will quit being such a little shit now that she no longer needs to rely on constant deflection and dishonesty to maintain her position as an elected official.
Part of me hopes so, but part of me is noticing that Robin can’t even leave Leslie’s *house* except on her own bloody terms, so I’m not strictly optimistic.
Being a little shit is Robin’s defining trait.
Or she could switch from cynically manipulating the right with their biases for undeserved votes to doing the same thing to the left. Not like there’s a substantial practical difference in gullibility once you’re willing to straight-up lie to get into people’s favor.
I mean, look at all the people in the comments who are somehow sympathetic to Robin for no actual logical reason just because her completely unaltered, unvarying stream of douche behavior is flavored by (rather dishonest and selfish) lesbian tendencies. Her whole character is about how people who root for a winning team based on virtue signaling instead of real actions are easy marks… I wouldn’t put it past her to troll the audience a bit by turning it around to point the accusing finger in the other direction for a bit.
That oughta do it, Luigi.
And the word of the day is:
https://youtu.be/nCQGQ5qBQTAc
Comic Reactions:
The one in which Robin’s carefully constructed fantasy world is yanked out from under her.
But yeah, this was coming. Her whole shtick has been ignoring reality and blundering forward expecting reality to make space for her. Which, to be fair, is a very popular conservative action, especially these days. Lie, keep pushing, wait for the propaganda to do your work and allow you to keep pushing what is normal.
But that can’t work in every instance. People are movable but reality is less so and has a nasty way of reasserting itself even for those most married to denialism that everything is fine and dandy. And for Robin, that was always going to come to pass because well, what she’s been doing is hiding out from a crisis in an incredibly compromising position and quickly poisoning what minimal chemistry she had with a cute teacher into a full-blown abusive nightmare.
And at some point, the fantasy would end. And here we are.
Panel 1: I’m genuinely proud of Leslie here. She’s not rising to Robin’s bait, not letting herself get sucked down a side tangent like Robin wanted nor letting herself be seduced into putting up with anymore shit. She’s tired, she’s scared, she may have just nuked her career from orbit today and at this point, I think she’s lost pretty much every inch of the crush she used to have on Robin.
And that’s hitting Robin hard. Like, already Robin is frowning and taken aback by Leslie laying down the law and her eyes go pinprick even before she sees what Becky is referring to on her phone. And I suspect that’s because Leslie is refusing to let her have any space in which to continue her little queer housewife fantasy. So well done, Leslie.
Panel 2: I don’t remember who it was, but someone told me to keep an eye on Becky with the phone as she has been proven to be slick before. As such, I can’t help but wonder if maybe Becky will end up having had a hand in this situation, maybe forging an email from the party leaders, maybe telling Paul Ryan that she’s going to vote for an independent commission to investigate Trump, who knows.
I dunno, it might be a red herring, but it’s worth keeping an eye on.
Panel 3: And there’s reality and the end of the fantasy. Hitting home, at long last. The thing she tried and failed to hide away from by moving herself into Leslie’s home. It still existed and it was only a matter of time before that will hammered home in nasty fashion.
CERB’S BACK! CERB’S BACK!
…. also, I just now reading your analysis and your mention of what Becky might do made me wonder if perhaps Becky forged the endorsement-withdrawal on Robin’s phone. …. but no, it’s not really a Becky thing to do. AWESOME, but not Becky.
http://www.cartoonbrew.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/stevenuniverse-swordfighter-c.gif
The comments section is whole again! The balance is restored!
Leslie is doing well here. She is in a shitty situation, but she still tries to minimize the damage and keep it somewhat together. And when Robin’s fantasy is collapsing quickly it’s important to not become collateral damage.
Good to have you back!
Haven’t been able to read the Patreon comments recently so I don’t know if you were absent / busy for any reasons related to my own Congressional terror trance this past week, but–hope you are well and feeling well and it is good to see you’re up and posting to know you’re alright.
Cerebrus!!!!!!!!!!!!
good gracious gravy i guess robin needed SOMETHING hammered into her
I vote for those crooked nails from the “office” sign.
ouch
The curse has been lifted! The regal ruler has returned!
It was me. I note that in this strip, Becky was deep enough into Robin’s phone to see when the news came in.
It wouldn’t surprise me at all if she had something to do with the party withdrawing its support.
The way she went along with Robin’s “We’re besties 4ever!” doesn’t ring true. She is not that easily swayed or influenced. So if she was acting that way, it was for some reason… and I’m thinking it was to give her more time with Robin’s phone.
Also, I just looked at the previous strip again. Note how Becky is holding the phone firmly in the “I’m typing” position in every panel. We don’t see the little motion-lines of her thumbs, but I’d bet they’re there.
Good eyes and thanks for pointing it out. It’s really got me on the lookout this arc.
I’ve honestly had no idea where Robin’s character arc is going for the longest time, and I’m still unsure. Nor do I know what kind of message Willis is trying to send out through her.
Foils don’t always get character arcs.
Which sucks, because katanas pretty much always do.
I see what you did, you dirty heretic.
Okay, but the way I see it, Robin’s role in the webcomic was finished by the time Leslie got her chance to sit down with her and talk to her about LGBT+ struggles. Everything beyond that, starting with the “Robin crashes into Leslie’s apartment” has felt like it’s going nowhere.
I dunno, I think Robin does a great job of demonstrating how you don’t have to be intentionally cruel or hateful to be awful and even dangerous to people around you.
And for the moment at least, it looks like her arc is headed the fuck out of Leslie’s house
I absolutely agree. I actually really love Robin as a villain. She’s the embodiment of every person who said something cruel or hurtful and then told me to lighten up because they were “obviously only joking”.
It’s like getting poked in the ribs in the same spot over and over again. Even when it is meant in fun, it starts to hurt after a while. Especially because some people clearly were not joking. They jab hard. They mean for it to hurt. And now it’s badly bruised and even the light hearted poke hurts like the devil but they just won’t stop because their fun is more important that your pain. Robin takes that little jape and amplifies it until there are deadly consequences.
THIS
I’M HERE FOR THIS
I can see that, but it still really seems to me like this isn’t a villain arc. Narratively, this doesn’t work as a villain story. It might, if this is only act one – though even then the temporary apparent victory is usually more do to the protagonist’s actions.
This, here, is why I had such a strongly negative first impression of Becky. ‘Cause she seemed to be doing this to Joyce, her ‘best friend’, and anyone else who might come between them.
Things turned out to be a little more complex than that. :/
Bye bongo!
Due to recent events, I find “The Republican Party kicking someone in power out due to a scandal” to be the most ludicrous and unbelievable thing to ever happen in this Dumbing of Age, a comic in which a superhero fell off a car and fell *up* off-panel to be caught by a motorcyclist making a jump.
Yates? Comey?
Yates isn’t a Republican though, nor is Comey affiliated with them in any visible sense. ESM is referring to the GOP’s refusal to withdraw support from Trump after it was revealed that he’s a sexual predator (and the Khizir Khan deal, the comments on John McCain’s service record, the mocking of a disabled reporter, the…). The two you mention were kicked out by Trump because of power plays, not the GOP because of a scandal.
Comey does technically fit “kicking.. out due to a scandal,” but it’s not quite the same thing.
It would be unbelievable if the scandal had anything to do with an ethical lapse of some kind
Being one of “those” is an ethical lapse, of the gravest sort.
(brb, must scrub hands after typing that)
well that sure was fast
…also there HAVE been gay republican senators…
There was a gay Republican presidential candidate once, Fred Karger. I would have voted for the guy if he had had even a chance to make it to the final ballot. -_-
There have been gay Republican Representatives, but no known gay Republican Senators (rumored ones, yes.)
Near as I can tell only one Republican Representative, Jim Kolbe, actually won reelection after coming out – and he’d been in office for a decade before then, which helps.
There have been no out queer female Republican Congresswomen.
Panel 4: Mmph, this is really unfortunate. But also probably good for her because at least she won’t go down in the history books as one of the Representatives who sunk the Republic into hell if enough of us survive to still write history books.
Like, it’s key that this happened as it’s the only thing that would move her out of this and make her actually go out and try and fix her mess. But it’s hard to ignore that the reason that they have withdrawn that support is that they believe she has gone AWOL into a wlw affair and is now an out bi woman who may turn on a lot of her former positions.
And that sucks because homophobia/biphobia sucks.
But it’s also impressive. The GOP needs to hang on every vote right now to forestall a treason investigation that may end up putting a considerable amount of the party behind bars if it gets rolling and the election in universe is less than a month away, which means no option for replacement and this becomes essentially a surrendered seat.
Which really hammers home how politically doomed she is right now that her party is willing to eat all that just to distance themselves from her while also intertwining their party more and more to the dumpster fire that is Trump and that really must sting for Robin. And that part of it is deeply unfair to her even though she is also a boundary-violating stalkerish narcissist who had previously been escalating more and more awful denials of reality.
Panel 5: “Hello darkness, my old friend…”
Panel 6: I feel like this is a piece of real Robin. Her fantasy has been yanked away and she is just raw and honest here. She does have to go. The fantasy is broken, the real world is continuing to collapse whether she is there or not and it’s long past time to try and get out there and reverse it.
And that’s beautifully awesome for Leslie, because she deserves to get her home and life back and not to be held prisoner to Robin’s extralegal whims and exploitation of extreme power.
But that first part is also true. I fully believe that Robin managed to convince herself that things weren’t nearly as broken as they were and that Leslie’s increasing anger and desperation at her was just rom-com good times japery. That she let herself slip into the fantasy of a nice queer domesticity, where she was just Robin, the dutiful housewife, in a way that didn’t require her to actually acknowledge that that was what she was craving nor require her to actually listen to Leslie’s needs, respect her boundaries, and make the genuine growth needed to be someone Leslie could forgive herself for getting with.
That that likely felt better than a lot of things she had done in her life and spoke to a longing she has been terrified of acknowledging her entire life. I feel empathy for where she is and what she is missing, but at the end of the day, this nightmare needed to end for Leslie’s sanity and humanity. Boundary violation in wacky fantasy cartoon land where B&E might as well be a greeting is one thing. It’s way darker and more awful in a world more based in reality.
Like, I imagine Leslie will likely be waking up in a cold sweat a good few times these next couple of weeks, fearing that she’ll once again wake to Robin sleeping in her bed. And so yeah, this was what needed to happen. And now it has. Now we see where everyone goes from here.
Also, woo, Becky has a real legal roof that won’t be yanked away the instant pudding-head notices it.
On that note – again, all of you, call your reps and senators and demand that special prosector and independent commission.
And if you have Democratic Senators who are already behind the special prosecutor demands ask them to back Senator Durbin’s attempt to block other Senate business until they focus on this Constitutional crisis.
Also thank them for being behind said prosecutor, because that validates the position. They can point to your call later and say their constituents supported it.
all true, and thank you for saying it.
Sweet baby Jesus I missed this. So good to see you again Cerberus.
……..thinking about leslie’s potential trauma is. not a good! it is definitely a sad. wow
Welcome back, Cerberus! You were missed!
You know what, I’ve been going into the comment section for quite some time just to read your comments Cerberus, and I love how spot-on the analysis is and how you manage to ground it in real events and experiences.
By now you’ve written so much that I think you should consider releasing all of your comments into a separate book of some sort.
“Dumbing of age- the annotated edition, by Cerberus”
Glad you’re back Cerberus, and glad you’re feeling somewhat okay. *internet hug* I always look forward to your comments.
Um, so, question.
Is Becky the sort of person that could/would fake a message? The timing’s pretty convenient, it’s the sort of quick solution that would resolve things, and… it’s not like Robin’s in the state of mind where she would be obsessively checking over it…
Hmmm…well, I didn’t see that coming, but it is perfectly logical. Maybe the logic of it is why I didn’t even consider it a possibility.
Same here.
FWIW, I saw it coming; either she jumped or she’d be pushed. She’s never been that important to The Powers That Be.
She’s a woman. Privilege is thin.
Also Latina. Thin indeed.
Something something bodyshaming, something something we love all kinds of privilege.
Where did Joyce go?
To paraphrase Randy Milholland, I feel bad about this and I wish it didn’t have to happen. Which how I know that this is exactly what Robin deserves.
ain’t that the truth
“My New Year’s resolution is a far more selfish one than last year. It is to make my motto, eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow, you may be dead.”
Actually, Robin, I have to honestly say that this is the worst possible moment to go. Really and truly the worst for your sake.
That’s kind of why it has to be now, though.
Robin is sad.
This makes me happy.
Interesting.
Freud had some shady theories about this phenomenon.
All of Freud’s theories were shady.
Lol, I actually never noticed there’s a “Freud” in “Schadenfreude”.
And somehow I got the joke anyways. Brains are weird.
Bye Robin! We loved having you here!
wellnotreally
I’m disappointed that Les is actually going to tell her to leave and then this happens.
She was going to stand up for herself and her right to kick Robin out but then another interruption happens.
I mean, that’s just the comic’s way, but it’s still a little sad.
Well Leslie was a doormat in SP so I guess its just carried on over here
Doormat? She has been telling Robin to leave from the start and even threw her out physically. Short of calling the police she tried every approach she could muster.
In SP, not over here.
Ehhhhh she was a doormat that kicked Robin out of her own home, as well as jumped into an alternate timeline to rescue someone. She might have started out as one for some awkward jokes at her expense but she did evolve to have a spine.
In both universes she’s a character who got booted by her family, went through a divorce, and other junk.
Oh boo hoo.
Darn it, I think Robin is rubbish covered in skin, but I’m feeling kind of sad for her now. Being dumped like this, for this, is not fair or just in any way. (ahem) Damn you Willis!
Ok, time for Robin to unleash her secret weapon, proposition 469 (A bill to ban cancer forever)! Not only will the GOP love it, when O Malley ridicules it you can claim she wants her voters to get cancer!
Also, being in remission can get scary and I would like to think there’s one politician out there who’s willing to do something (useless though it may be) to show they have some awareness.
This way we the insurance companies can not pay for cancer treatment.
It’s oddly topical.
Yes, she obviously shouldn’t be supported. No, not like that.
They managed to turn something morally necessary unethical.
I’m just wondering how long it will be before Robyn (you know, the woman who thoughtlessly supported anti-LGBT legislation because she was told to and “probably no-one would be hurt”) ends up a martyr to the cause. After all, in the end, she’s been thrown out of her job because she’s bi at the very least! Those who know less about her backstory may rush to support her and it could easily become something of a cause calebré.
In terms of ‘consequences’, I get the impression that Robin was raised to follow in her family’s political footsteps. She literally has no career except Republican politico. Now she’s on the outs she has literally no options and I wouldn’t be surprised if her parents disown her for ‘dishonouring the familiy name’ or something similar.
Suddenly, Robin is going to learn what it is like to be Becky from a first-person perspective.
Not really, on any level. Given what we’ve seen of her family she’s the only one with these views, and even then she only holds them because they got her elected. She’s also financially well off and politically famous, there will be groups knocking her door down to recruit her for their parties now. Becky has absolutely nothing, Robin is well off and has options. Nothing alike really.
If they’re “dishonoring the family name” types, how is Roz paying for college?
To do that, they would need to have a frighteningly skewed scale of what is acceptable and what is ‘just girls being girls’.
Good, I hope we never see you again.
Is there an opposite to schadenfreude, where you’re SUPPOSED to be happy for someone’s misery, but you’re not?
Yes, it’s called ‘human empathy’.
Looks like this Robin…
*puts on sunglasses*
…just got her wings clipped.
YEAAAAAAAHHHHH!
(Sorry about the meme, but it was either this or “Hello Darkness My Old Friend”, and this was funnier to me. Can’t wait to see what happens next!)
Ctrl+F, cerb
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Sigh of Relief
(Scrolls back to beginning, starts reading today’s comments)
So good to see you back Cerberus!
Man, I really wanted to see Leslie finish her final smackdown, for her sake. Robin’s intrusion went over into not-funny territory and will leave scars.
Still, good work Becky. Better get to Galasso’s now.
Mixed feelings about what happened to Robin. Just got booted out of a job, because weird behavior? Because lesbian or bi? (Powers that be probably figured that one out before she did.) So that’s… awful. And yet, she still has two homes, so she is not Becky. She has no idea what it’s like to be homeless or even poor.
Am NOT looking forward to Roz’ gloating, however.
I might for once
Am I the only one wondering if the party thinks this is unsalvageable at least in part because of Leslie’s academic publications?
I’m looking forward to it. Roz has had to put up with Robin’s behaviour for her entire life I think she’s earned a bit of gloating.
if you blur your eyes so panels 4 and 5 overlap, robin is in 3d
+1. Panels 3 and 4 work better, but the effect is still minimal.
For me, anyway.
ur right dogg
Is it too late for me to realize that this comic passes the Bechdel Test?
Passed it in the very first strip. With a poop joke.
Any work with a fairly large ensemble cast is gonna pass it pretty trivially. For instance, most of the Fast and Furious movies pass just because there are like 25 main character and three or four are female.
You know, the movies that are basically 90% machismo and where no one can take a car out of park without five bikini models showing up to bend over slowly for the camera. There’s a reason this very comic has an extensive conversation about how the test isn’t really meaningful in the context of a specific work.
*rolls out the banner reading “bad reason, but good job”*
Don’t worry! Just stomp on a sick child and the “Your Party”-ans will be tripping over themselves to sing your praises!
What’s up with the lines on Robin’s head in panel 3? Leftovers from the pencils?
It’s a pity it’s happening for all the wrong reasons, but this is the Republican party we’re talking about here, so it’s not like it was going to happen for the right ones.
Should we throw a quick party before next strip, where I’m already dreading the possibility of Leslie stopping Robin from going?
…. the more I look at it, the more I realize….
… in Panel 6, Robin’s not apologizing for home invasion, trespassing, destroying Leslie’s stuff, etc. She’s apologizing for having to now leave.
Yup, she still hasn’t internalized what she did that was wrong to make Leslie so mad at her, she’s just mourning the ending of a really comforting fantasy.
And that’s the central horror/tragedy in all this. It’s someone being used as a set-piece in another person’s fantasy life without their permission or consent. And any time this happens, it usually leads to bad places, especially when the person resists more and more the fantasy and the control over their life it represents.
This is the most unrealistic part of the comic so far.
The idea that the Republicans would actually stop endorsing someone just because they’re completely morally unacceptable by the GOP’s own standards, I mean. This is the party that elected a president who was openly proud of having broken all ten commandments and bragged about it constantly.
Yeah, but he didn’t do anything truly unforgivable like being gay or openly speaking in support of the rights of others. /s
Right? Like, how far gone would a politician have to be to stand up for people like you or me? It’s not like we’re actual humans, or anything. /s
(brb throwing up all this pent-up bile)
Actually they will do it to politicians who don’t toe the party line, especially since they can easily replace them with an even more far right candidate.
That’s not really how the Republican party or any political party works. It’s not always necessarily a race to the right. It’s more about finding a candidate in your party that can win.
I’m in the same boat. My suspension of disbelief accepts Amber’s super powered exploits more than this. Look at the end of the day based on the amount of time that is supposed to have passed and what Robin has supposedly done, this is an incredibly confusing story development. Hopefully, the next strip will explain better what happened because honestly a young woman drinking with a friend and then crashing on her couch might raise suspicion but it certainly wouldn’t cause the Republicans to drop support for you, and honestly no Republican party is going to risk the backlash that would come with dropping support for Robin just because she might possibly in some way that isn’t verifiable be a lesbian. Even as a Democrat who generally views the Republican party very negatively, I would have a really hard time swallowing that.
The problem for Robin is that she’s always been on very thin ice with the Republican party. She’s the sort of politician I think of as the pet WoC. She toes the party line, she doesn’t make trouble and she hits all the major talking points of the party platform. All of her constituents get to say, “See! I’m not racist or sexist! I voted for the inoffensively brown lady!”
And the craziest thing is that they might, might, have accepted her as queer under the right circumstances. What I suspect Robin did to draw such immediate ire from her party was drawing attention to it. The press showed up on Leslie’s door and Robin actively hid from them. It created a sense of scandal around it. Once Robin starts to smell of scandal, the leadership immediately decides she’s more trouble than she’s worth.
I think that’s still a bit of a stretch. Maybe a couple of days into the scandal, but more than likely she would just still be the subject jest of speculation. The vast majority of Republicans don’t hate gay people so vehemently that they would accept her being fired for maybe being outed. I can see your point it’s just the timing of it that seems off to me.
Robin even dropped a hint that she only barely deemed acceptable by her colleges when she came to class
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2016/comic/book-7/01-glower-vacuum/lament/
And it’s basically what happened to Tomi Loren. She was allowed to be all aggressive and opinionated like typical male conservative commentators, but only so long as she said the right things and made the right people angry. The instant she said something the right didn’t like (admitting she was pro choice in another network), she was out on her ass almost the same day.
If you’re not a old white guy or related to someone important, they’ll only tolerate you, no matter how many issues you might agree on. If you’re not a leggy blonde white woman, the ice is even thinner.
“Today’s Republican party is very diverse! See, we have a black guy and a Mexican guy!”
“… I’m Puerto Rican.”
“Sure, whatever.”
Thank you! That was the strip I was thinking of when I was posting. She understands very well that she’s only acceptable to her electorate as long as she doesn’t cause any problems. We don’t know how big the scandal has gotten except for knowing that there have been journalists camped outside Leslie’s door all day. It is very possible that the conservative blogosphere has been eating this up and the party leadership, still high on the Trump victory but frustrated at the recent immigration and AHCA failures, are chomping at the bit to burn a witch just to energize the base.
To quote Robin about Roz & her sex tape:
“An’ allll down here live all the peeps who think yer a hellbound slut. An’ those peeps are who keep me in office.”
“My alternate universe needs me.”
As I scroll up, I am anticipating a whole lot of ‘no sympathy for Robin’ posts. Let’s see how right I am…
Surprisingly, not as many as I’d expected – a lot of people are at least mildly sympathetic towards her plight, although that’s mixed with a healthy relief that she won’t be abusing Leslie anymore.
She has tiny eyes. You know what they say about people with tiny eyes.
They have tiny glasses?
Yep.
I am nowhere near as good of a person as I try to be. Case in point: While I do feel a vague sense of sympathy for Robin getting bad news, it’s almost completely overwhelmed by a sense of fuckin’ finally. which is how I feel when pretty much any piece of shit has some consequences for their actions.
Like, on the one hand, I should have sympathy-outrage about the homophobia/biphobia of the endorsement withdrawal. And I do agree that it’s a terrible thing to have happened to her.
But on the other hand, damn if it isn’t nice to see her get a ghost of a sliver of what she’s been dishing out to queer people her whole career.
… I… have complicated feelings on outing homophobes. In that I take way more schadenfreude in it than I probably should and honestly feel a little ashamed that I do but I still do. I have a vindictive streak in me. It’s a character flaw, and it’s one that this sort of thing really rubs in a probably-not-good-for-me-being-a-good-person kind of way. :\
I think that’s totally normal. We see a villain sicking a pack of rabid dogs on her enemies. To see her being torn apart by those same dogs feels good. Like this is appropriate. This is what she deserves. But it also sort of feels a little bit like cheering on the rabid dogs and that feels wrong. Those dogs should not exist and they shouldn’t be celebrated for anything they do.
But I think it’s ok to revel in the poetic justice for a time, just as long as we don’t forget to get back to dealing with dogs.
Bye Felicia
The tipping point came when Becky made the Ag Sec go ‘moo’.
Well hopefully Leslie doesn’t get fired over this