Dumbing of Age Book Twelve

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June 14, 2026

Villain-coded

by David M Willis on June 24, 2019 at 12:01 am
  • 04 - Vote for Robin
└ Tags: amber, walky

Discussion (57) ¬

[ Comments RSS ]
  1. Ana Chronistic
    Ana Chronistic
    June 24, 2019 at 12:02 am | #

    “we just cohabit meatspace… I should charge rent”

  2. Mr. Random
    Mr. Random
    June 24, 2019 at 12:04 am | #

    So shoving her out of the bush will work out then?

  3. Rosicrucian
    Rosicrucian
    June 24, 2019 at 12:04 am | #

    Quick Willis, tag all the bushes in prior strips!

    • Tan
      Tan
      June 24, 2019 at 12:21 am | #

      Went through 45 pages of the Amber tag. Closest I could find were the time she hid behind a tree

      http://www.dumbingofage.com/2017/comic/book-7/04-the-do-list/sweeten/

      And the time Sal dragged her off unconscious away from the street before the cops arrived

      http://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-6/01-to-those-whod-ground-me/highstrung/

      • Marsh Maryrose
        Marsh Maryrose
        June 24, 2019 at 12:58 am | #

        If she’s hiding behind a bush and not visible, would she be tagged?

        Anyway, there is also a Patreon blue-panel strip where she is literally hiding behind a tree.

        • Needfuldoer
          Needfuldoer
          June 24, 2019 at 2:04 am | #

          This is complicated, because Faye has appeared in DoA, presumably as an IU student, and her father is still alive here. Apparently he only took his own life after she graduated from whichever college she attended in QC. The Dumbiverse also doesn’t seem to have sentient AIs like QC does.

          This leaves us with two possibilities: DoA takes place in QC’s past, or they’re entirely separate timelines.

          But wait, there was that one time, years ago, where Amber made an appearance at Coffee of Doom. This was reciprocated in Shortpacked! at the same time. The Walkyverse did have sentient AI, with Ultra Car and the Zoomers. (Whoa, that’s a cheesy band name.) Does that imply the QCverse and Walkyverse are the same continuity? Or is it another instance of parallel versions of the same character?

          Some comic somewhere needs a Tommy Westphall to tie all this together.

          • Needfuldoer
            Needfuldoer
            June 24, 2019 at 2:08 am | #

            Dangit, this was supposed to be a reply to Marsh Maryrose. I blame the page jumping around and the Android keyboard disappearing at random. Please delete, if you’d be so kind?

            • Tan
              Tan
              June 24, 2019 at 8:44 am | #

              (funnily enough, you did reply to the right person, just not the right comment by that person)

      • BarerMender
        BarerMender
        June 24, 2019 at 11:33 am | #

        There was the time she hurdled a hedge and dropped three or four feet on the other side. Does that count? (I did that once. My ankle hurt for weeks afterward.)

  4. Cattleprod
    Cattleprod
    June 24, 2019 at 12:05 am | #

    Also, the whole thing where Asher might be passingly familiar with Sal getting stabbed and the potential for awkwardness with all that.

  5. Nono
    Nono
    June 24, 2019 at 12:06 am | #

    I didn’t realize that bushes were a common site for preserving amber.

  6. butts
    butts
    June 24, 2019 at 12:06 am | #

    It’s Amazi-Girl Lite™! Same skills and abilities, all of the guilt! Made with 100% all-natural social anxiety!

    • Kyrik Michalowski
      Kyrik Michalowski
      June 24, 2019 at 12:07 am | #

      Butt none of that sweet sweet spandex we’ve come to know and love.

  7. shadowcell
    shadowcell
    June 24, 2019 at 12:06 am | #

    Dumbing of Age Book 9: This is Not the First Bush I’ve Hidden Behind

    • Keulen
      Keulen
      June 24, 2019 at 2:08 am | #

      DoA Book 9: What Part of Who I Am Suggests I’m Cool With Initiating Conversations With Total Strangers?

      • Kyoulkoa
        Kyoulkoa
        June 24, 2019 at 10:33 pm | #

        Dumbing of age book 9: I am not Amazi-girl.

  8. Kyrik Michalowski
    Kyrik Michalowski
    June 24, 2019 at 12:07 am | #

    At this point I want Asher to lean over the bush and be like, “You know I can hear you guys, right?”

    Also why does Walky assume smoking makes Asher a bad guy? His sister smokes as well.

    • Zach
      Zach
      June 24, 2019 at 12:10 am | #

      The coding works, Sal can be at best a lancer to any stories actual protagonist. She’s too ‘rebel’.

    • Schpoonman
      Schpoonman
      June 24, 2019 at 12:10 am | #

      Walky is still in a weird limbo state where he regularly operates social interactions like he’s in a TV show, but is only just learning that people don’t work like that.

      It took me until my mid-late 20s to learn that. He’s in for a rough ride.

    • Marsh Maryrose
      Marsh Maryrose
      June 24, 2019 at 1:26 am | #

      Sal is apparently inured to having some people (hi, Linda!) having her
      coded as a hoodlum.

    • BarerMender
      BarerMender
      June 24, 2019 at 11:35 am | #

      Saying “villain-coded” isn’t the same thing as saying “is a villain.”

    • Twirls
      Twirls
      June 24, 2019 at 10:02 pm | #

      Maybe he’s asthmatic? I am so I kind of automatically see people who smoke as whatever the real-life version of “villian-coded” is

  9. Stephen Bierce
    Stephen Bierce
    June 24, 2019 at 12:09 am | #

    If bushes were trees, the trees would be fallin’
    Listen to reason, season is calling…

    • ValdVin
      ValdVin
      June 24, 2019 at 12:50 pm | #

      Whispering grass, don’t tell the trees,
      ‘Cause the trees don’t need to know.

      It’s the Ink Spots and R.E.M. mashup we’ve all been waiting for.

  10. BBCC
    BBCC
    June 24, 2019 at 12:10 am | #

    Oh, right, that.

    Damn you anxiety.

  11. abysswatcher1993
    abysswatcher1993
    June 24, 2019 at 12:14 am | #

    Well, you can’t talk with Asher directly, but you can still go punch the guy that tried to kill Marcie.

    • BBCC
      BBCC
      June 24, 2019 at 12:21 am | #

      Not without hauling ass to Connecticut she can’t, sadly.

      • Marsh Maryrose
        Marsh Maryrose
        June 24, 2019 at 12:38 am | #

        We’ve seen Dina in Coffee of Doom, so we know she can spontaneously transport herself to Northampton. Maybe Amber has some such ability? Or maybe Amber could “hitchhike” with Dina?

        • Dean
          Dean
          June 24, 2019 at 12:48 am | #

          To learn the greater secrets of teleportation, Amber will need to complete a gruelling training montage involving hiding behind doors, eating cereal for every meal, and dinosaur recognition flashcards.

        • Needfuldoer
          Needfuldoer
          June 24, 2019 at 2:15 am | #

          This gets complicated, because Faye has appeared in DoA, presumably as an IU student, and her father is still alive here. Apparently he only took his own life after she graduated from whichever college she attended in QC. The Dumbiverse also doesn’t seem to have sentient AIs like QC does.

          This leaves us with two possibilities: DoA takes place in QC’s past, or they’re entirely separate timelines.

          But wait, there was that one time, years ago, where Amber made an appearance at Coffee of Doom. I think this was reciprocated in Shortpacked! at the same time. The Walkyverse did have sentient AI, with Ultra Car and the Zoomers. (Whoa, that’s a cheesy band name.) Does that imply the QCverse and Walkyverse are the same continuity? Or is it another instance of parallel versions of the same character?

          Some comic somewhere needs a Tommy Westphall to tie all this together.

        • BarerMender
          BarerMender
          June 24, 2019 at 11:38 am | #

          Dina’s powers are limited. Becky wasn’t even able to hitchhike into the ER.

    • Bagge
      Bagge
      June 24, 2019 at 12:51 am | #

      ROAD TRIP!

  12. Bagge
    Bagge
    June 24, 2019 at 12:20 am | #

    Well, you just need to contract it out to an extrovert dork. Good thing you have plenty to chose from. In this instance Danny might be awkward given the circumstances. Becky is otherwise engaged. Joyce does, however, seem to have some free time on her hands.

  13. fishamaphone
    fishamaphone
    June 24, 2019 at 12:23 am | #

    I suddenly want fanart of Amber hiding behind George Bush.

    • Needfuldoer
      Needfuldoer
      June 24, 2019 at 2:16 am | #

      W, or H.W.? I think Cheney’s taking up all the space behind W.

  14. BarerMender
    BarerMender
    June 24, 2019 at 12:32 am | #

    Smoking up? I’m starting a list. It’ll be titled “Weird Dialect of Indiana.” So far the list includes “smoking up” and “blushing up.”

  15. Alethiolet
    Alethiolet
    June 24, 2019 at 12:33 am | #

    Seconded

  16. Dean
    Dean
    June 24, 2019 at 12:49 am | #

    Amber has an Excel spreadsheet of every bush on campus with their concealment quotient.

  17. Woomy
    Woomy
    June 24, 2019 at 1:33 am | #

    It’s pretty neat how Amber can cure her anxiety by playing a different persona. Why don’t we all do that?

    • Lawzlo
      Lawzlo
      June 24, 2019 at 2:19 am | #

      I’m not certain that “playing” is quite the right verb here…

    • 3oranges
      3oranges
      June 24, 2019 at 2:22 am | #

      Deal with anxiety by dissociating to the point where there is an actual mental breakdown into different personas that interact poorly and make your life miserable? Most of us try not to, I guess.

      • Inahc
        Inahc
        June 24, 2019 at 2:53 pm | #

        Yeah it is *really* not good for you in the long run. Like Granny Weatherwax grabbing the sword, you’re not avoiding the consequences, just delaying them. With interest.

  18. Lawzlo
    Lawzlo
    June 24, 2019 at 2:20 am | #

    Hey look! Sean Spicer is also back here!

  19. Darkoneko
    Darkoneko
    June 24, 2019 at 2:30 am | #

    This is going as well as I expected~ XD

    • Shane Wegner
      Shane Wegner
      June 24, 2019 at 3:14 am | #

      It was indeed a bad plan that didn’t really know what it was about or think itself through at all.

      • Darkoneko
        Darkoneko
        June 24, 2019 at 8:52 am | #

        a vague excuse to flirt

  20. Falcon
    Falcon
    June 24, 2019 at 6:31 am | #

    The fact that Amber can acknowledge she has Amazigirl’s skill seems like a good sign. No expert on DID though.

  21. FinalOwen
    FinalOwen
    June 24, 2019 at 9:47 am | #

    Yesterday a ‘Seagulls’ reference in the alt text, and today we have Amber and Walky waiting in the bushes (of love).

    • Marsh Maryrose
      Marsh Maryrose
      June 24, 2019 at 11:15 am | #

      Let us pray that they don’t find any crispy bodies by the door.

      • FinalOwen
        FinalOwen
        June 24, 2019 at 7:13 pm | #

        Well, Owen and Beru were certainly smoking up, though don’t think they were villain coded.

        • Marsh Maryrose
          Marsh Maryrose
          June 24, 2019 at 11:48 pm | #

          Well, they did force Luke to drink that blue milk.

  22. ShinyNeen
    ShinyNeen
    June 24, 2019 at 10:03 am | #

    Look Amber, if you’re gonna give Walky extra excuses to avoid talking to Asher then you’re kind of signing yourself up to talk to him instead!

    Anyway, the more anxious they get about Asher the more I feel like we’re being set up for the twist that he’s totally chill now. …Unless it’s a double-twist or something >.>

  23. Darkoneko
    Darkoneko
    June 24, 2019 at 12:25 pm | #

    …someone reminds him that Sal smokes, too

  24. sosolo
    sosolo
    June 24, 2019 at 4:56 pm | #

    I looooove this comic, I just started reading 3 days ago and now ive finally made it. So why do I feel so sad you ask? Because now I have to waiiiiiiit 🙁

  25. fractalwolf
    fractalwolf
    June 24, 2019 at 6:25 pm | #

    Well, here’s one instance of hiding behind bushes… http://www.dumbingofage.com/2011/comic/book-1/04-the-bechdel-test/journalist/

  26. Liliet
    Liliet
    June 25, 2019 at 5:47 am | #

    I love them. So much.

  27. Eve
    Eve
    June 26, 2019 at 1:05 am | #

    Walky your sister and mom smoke

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