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Sean Thomason @seanthomason.bsky.social ⋅ 7h
David M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 8h
Rolling Stone @rollingstone.com ⋅ 9h
Dana Simpson 
@danacorn.bsky.social ⋅ 2d
Dana Simpson @danacorn.bsky.social ⋅ 1m
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Barb O. Saur 
⚧️
Joyce used Explosion!
It was super effective!
In all the wrong ways!
Joyce used double kick
Joyce’s attack missed!
Joyce used Flail. It’s not very effective.
I feel like Thrash was more likely
Normal type moves can’t be super effective!
*pushes up glasses* well ACTUALLY, if an Alolan Golem with its hidden ability used Explosion against a water or flying Pokemon, it would be super effective.
Joyce is many things. “Normal” is not one of them XD
Do you suppose she’s a Fairy type?
I mean… She is a friend of Dorothy.
(I could see her as at least part-Fighting Type for sure, though. Punches AND focus on honor.)
Wait… Joyce… can punch MORE than just DADS??
o_0
Joyce wears the Keds of justice, but it’s indiscriminate justice.
Joyce actually wears steel toed shoes. It’s a tightly guarded secret. She almost swore at her nightstand in the middle of the night. Once.
Joyce is seen mostly in boots.
She wears the Uggs of Justice.
But when will she be strong enough to tell Ethan that Faz was involved?
Speaking of whom, did anybody get Faz off the curb?
He lives there now.
The only ones who notice him as the dogs looking for a fire hydrant and they avoid him.
That smile would give even dogs nightmares
Jeepers!
I’m surprised Ethan’s stomach hasn’t curdled yet from all the guilty whiplash he’s been having.
I kinda love that Blaine didn’t manage to land a single blow hard enough to leave an ouchy, when Joyce flailing did
Also hooray for taking responsibility and committing to getting some help! Good girl, Amber!
Blaine is likely a pretty low level goon in the mob. Like, maybe level 5. His challenge rating is correspondingly low.
Amber’s at least a 10th level multiclass Vigilante/Nerd, and Joyce at least a 10th level Goody-Two-Shoes, so it makes sense she’s be able to land a blow.
Blaine’s a money-launderer, too. None of his points are actually in taking a hit.
This deserves an internet. Do we still give those out, or am I just old now.
Dunno, but if you are, I am too.
Mmm, internet.
KOSH “Yes”
No, no, see, you’re in the wrong genre. Blaine only appeared to be the ruler of the League of Evil Dads, but the ease of his defeat proves that he was only the puppet of the true final boss. The evil dad above all others, who had yet to reveal himself… hidden in plain sight all this time, now to emerge from the shadows at last. A true master of stealth… just like his progeny.
THAT’S RIGHT RYOU SARUYAMA DUMBING OF AGE TRUE FINAL BOSS
Nonsense. His strings are being pulled by the Head Alien, who is in turn an unknowing tool of the Soggies, which are, in turn, mere pawns of the Anti-Cheese.
It’s assholes all the way down.
I am stuck on Band-Aids/’Cause Band-Aid’s stuck on me…
You know, I really do wonder what happened between “Joyce leaps at Blaine” and “Blaine bursts out the door holding an unconscious Joyce”. We now know Joyce managed to kick Amber in the face, but it always felt like there was a strip missing in there.
Somehow I completely missed that Amber had an injured spot on her face after that strip but not before it until just now.
I saw the injury but I actually had thought it was a sign of just HOW TIRED Amber was at that point. I actually went back to figure out that yup, it appeared in that strip.
Remember kids, friendly fire isn’t.
I watched Howl’s Moving Castle recently, though.
Work of art on multiple levels.
Unless you’re in Stilwater. Then the clerks are very friendly.
Maxim 15. Only you can prevent friendly fire.
I wish I could remember the number of the maxim that says friendly fire and ship’s mess should be easier to tell apart. I do know it’s one of the early ones.
Also, holy crow Taylor has been doing that comic almost as long as web comics were a thing.
The main line plot would go, Amber is cured, a situation happens where the world needs Amazigirl, there is no Amazigirl. But this is Wiilis, so I dunno.
Preeetty sure DID isn’t something that you “cure”.
It’s not.
The term is very iffy for the solutions available, at least, when not outright misleading.
“Managed” might a better word, I think?
Perhaps not, but I’m betting that few health professionals are going to believe that crime-fighting vigilante is not something that needs to be cured. If you take away the defining characteristics of Amazigirl, is she still Amazigirl?
Vigilantism is illegal, but it isn’t a mental illness. It isn’t something to “cure”.
yeah, using the word “cure” for DID is very shitty, thanks
I doubt this is leading up to a straightforward cure. First, because Willis only started actively writing AmbG as a system after deciding there were ways to do so that DIDN’T play as much into deeply inaccurate and dangerous tropes about DID (in particular the Violent Scary Evil Personality, but ‘easily and permanently Cured Into Being Neurotypical’ would probably also count, based off what commenters with firsthand knowledge have said.)
Second, we’ve seen a relatively close analogue with Ruth, who’s doing WAY THE FUCK BETTER with the wonders of antidepressants but is still working to break the shitty thought patterns depression (and Sir) produced. (And is also pretty sure she’ll be on antidepressants for years if not ever, because it’s likely chronic. Speaking from experience, even on functioning meds there are still episodes of relapsing depression.) Antidepressants and anxiety meds would probably help a lot with the non-DID issues, but at the end of the day they are not neurotypical and will not be. AG’s still going to be around sharing Amber’s body because she’s not just the costume that can be put away. And Amber getting to a healthy place after All This Trauma And Self-Loathing would take actual years, in-universe. Assuming a DID-supportive therapist in the first place, which is IN NO WAY A GIVEN. There’s still a genuine question in the Psychologist Community (TM)* about whether or not DID actually EXISTS, and the stance of those that do is still largely… Outdated, shall we say. Bad therapists and doctors can Fuck You Up. (I have relatively tame examples, like ‘the endocrinologist I still remember five years later not because she missed a significant B12 deficiency, but because she and her PA spent forty minutes berating me about how the issue was clearly something that they admitted could not be causing my symptoms.’ The deficiency is long fixed, but I STILL don’t feel comfortable seeing a doctor for the first time alone. This doctor was NOT insisting they knew my brain better than I did and in a position to actively recommend ‘treatments’ that would be counterindicated.)
Third, I’m pretty sure Willis knows well enough about the lasting effects of trauma and how to write them with care and nuance. For previous examples, see Dumbing Of Age, September 10, 2010 to present.
* The Psychologist Community, particularly with regards to certain forms of neurodivergence, often fails to seek input from said neurodivergent people they’re studying. Spectacularly.
Yeah. I’m not a mental health professional at all, but from what I understand of DID cases like Amber’s, harmonious coexistence is probably the best, most realistic end goal.
I’d guess successful treatment might look more like couples’ therapy than an attempt to suppress alters.
sometimes we can integrate, and a lot of psychologists treat integration as the “cure” or the ideal outcome, which a lot of us systems don’t appreciate for a lot of reasons. but in cases where we do integrate, the resulting person is a combination of the alters who integrated, not a suppression or deletion of one of them. amazigirl’s skills would not be lost to amber (not to mention the integrated person might not be AG /or/ amber).
also, even in cases of integration, stress and trauma can cause a system to re-split. once you’re a system you always have the potential to split new alters or to re-split after integration, it has to do with an instabililty of ones sense of self caused by extended childhood trauma. so even if she appeared “cured” it def wouldn’t be that simple.
Yeah, I figure if integration IS on the table here it’s probably at a point years in the future in-universe as well, so as far as the comic’s concerned we’re never going to see it.
Thank you both for your input!
I’ll note here I’m not DID myself, just autistic and with a really good memory for things other people have said in the comments over the years! But hey, if that memory and my ability to write a hugeass thesis comment is helpful to those of you who are systems so you don’t have to spend spoons explaining it, I am happy to do so. (And if not, let me know and I’ll get out of your way!)
Not DID either, just trying to learn some of this stuff.
“harmonious coexistence is probably the best, most realistic end goal.”
So since she has achieved this on her own, there is nothing more to be gained by seeking help? Not sure I buy that.
theres a LOT more to functioning well as a system than just liking each other. she decided to me friends with AG but there’s still a lot more unmanaged stuff about their system, communication isn’t as easy as just saying you’re gonna communicate. also, she still needs tons of help for her trauma
this was all really well said, agreed with everything here!
Finally! Geez! How far did this have to go before Amber made a conscious decision that she needed help?!
Amber didn’t believe she could be helped/didn’t believe she desvered help a lot of the time.
I don’t know Yumi. As much as Amber is responsible for being proactive in her mental health I also feel like her support system failed her. The fact this is only being brought up now after shit hit the fan and someones is in a coma is a big yikes for all of them.
Both components of her support system are right here, not coincidentally.
But we could always blame Ethan for things he didn’t know. We have Danny as precedent.
Sure. I wasn’t saying anything against that, and your comment talked about Amber making a conscious decision. “How far did things have to go before someone supported Amber in getting help” is a different conversation.
You mean like people indulging in her fantasy that Amazi-Girl is a separate individual, yeah I get that
I’m not sure how much of a fantasy it is if AG can withold memories from Amber. I don’t kmow the intricacies of dissassociation but that at least feels pretty tangible proof that AG is something seperate from Amber.
Yeah, uh.
Amber demonstrably cannot control, singlehandedly, that she and AG weren’t sharing memories. If she could, that would have happened WEEKS ago. At the very least some point before Brain Ghost Mike had to actually manifest, when her subconscious was putting up ‘MIKE’s everywhere. And she STILL didn’t realize something had actually happened to him until the next morning.
If a part of your brain acts independently of you, is capable of communicating with you as a separate entity, and actively has a set of memories you do not, and vice versa (remember, AG didn’t realize Amber and Walky were becoming a thing either,) what else are you supposed to call them but a separate individual?
You can think anything you like, you can believe anything you want but it’s still just one person and it’s not helped by people reinforcing the notion
You clearly believe what you want to believe.
May I suggest that just because you have never experienced something does not mean it does not exist.
I’m not denying Amber may have DID, I’m saying that actively encouraging Amber in her delusion and not encouraging her to seek help is harmful
IE the first time someone saw Amber in a superhero suit would have been a good time to start talking to her about getting help (Dorothy)
And where, exactly, did you get your degree in psychiatry?
Like two distinct [apps] running on the same physical [platform]?
Memory loss and apparent separate personalities are pretty much textbook DID. There’s a debate to be had about what type, but the general diagnosis isn’t in question at this point.
I think the point was that few truly challenged Amber on the matter but rather just played along. Even after realizing it may be a personality split and not just a cute superhero affectation.
Also, I’m not really sure it makes sense to talk about “textbook” DID. It’s an often reclassified and still a pretty controversial diagnosis with a lot of experts still suggesting it’s really just an offshoot of some other mental disability.
Desired edit: If I could I’d remove the second paragraph altogether. It’s just pointless nitpicking that kind of slipped out and I don’t really care to bait anyone into a discussion on the legitimacy of DID as a psychological diagnose. I really don’t have a horse in that race.
The only person who clearly recognized it as a personality split was Walky. Maybe Danny, but we never actually saw him put it together.
That’s a better way of putting it
Puckish, I originally interpreted AmaziGirl’s seperateness as a fantasy that Amber wanted to be true, but eventually that interpretation became untenable. At this point, I think Amazigirl’s independent reality is beyond question. Now, I don’t think that what Amber/AmaziGirl have is classical DID, or maybe to put it differently, the portrayal of DID is particularly accurate. But that’s okay. It’s taking place as part of an engrossing story, not a clinical textbook. And if some people dealing with problems find representation there, that’s a bonus.
anyways DID and OSDD are real disorders and every headmate is their own unique individual person and ableism like this has no place in this comment section <3
The human experience is far more diverse than some commenters seem to think it is, including the wide variety of ways our brains can deviate from the norm! All of what you said and said headmates deserve their own support as people in their own right.
A support system can only do so much when the person doesn’t want helped or doesn’t believe they can be helped. Dorothy has tried to help. Danny has tried to help. Ethan has tried to help. Sal told Danny she needed help. Have they suggested professional help before right now? No.
But she’s not been known to react well to being called out on her flawed ways of thinking or told she is worth caring about and you can’t exactly force someone to open up and make progress in therapy even if they could have somehow forced her to go to it. It’s the Catch-22 of mental health. The person that needs help needs to accept they need help to be helped but low self-esteem and stigma makes them feel like they can’t, shouldn’t or won’t be helpable and until they get past that barrier, it’s difficult to get people the help they need.
Yeeeeep! All of this.
And Amber was actively discouraged from getting therapy as a kid after the convenience store Incident, which cannot possibly have helped. Some support then would have given her a framework to build off of, but instead, self-defense classes. (It equally cannot POSSIBLY have been influenced by a parent who had a vested interest in not being found out as an abuser up to sketchy shit, along with the obvious interest in his victims not having the tools to realize they were abused!)
(Seriously there’s a serious stigma around mental illness and needing healthcare for it, there are very real concerns about mistreatment, especially when you’re Unusual to the therapist, but also: Blaine DEFINITELY contributed to her conviction that therapy wouldn’t and couldn’t help.)
She was discouraged by Blaine, though. There’s been 3-ish years where Blaine was out of the picture where her mother (cannot remember her name, sorry) could have encouraged her to talk to someone, but didn’t.
When Amber was scared to return to college after the stabbing (of other people’s reactions to her – a longstanding anxiety issue – and clear trauma-based hesitation going in the entrance where it had occurred,) Stacy gave her one of Joe’s apology doughnuts and went ‘Feeling better already, aren’t you? I swear, most of your problems can be traced to low blood sugar.’
Yeah, Stacy’s not helping on the ‘mental illness is real, significant, and sometimes needs external support to treat’ front. Would not be at all surprised if Blaine actively instilled in both of them a ‘therapy is useless’ attitude or looks for partners who won’t seek it out. (It’s also not an uncommon attitude, sadly.)
Thing is, Stacy is right in that many problems people have trace back to low blood sugar. Just not Amber’s problem.
Nope, neither Dorothy, Ethan, nor Danny has suggested a therapist, though they don’t know (or in Ethan’s case, didn’t know) the full extent of what was going on. Sal would not suggest a therapist even if she knew the full extent because she doesn’t like therapists.
Amber has implied in the past that she believes she’s beyond help, so unique she cannot be helped, or that helping her isn’t worth the effort. More scars from her father’s psychological abuse, I think.
For example:
Ruth: “Amber, I would really feel better if you talked to a professional about this.”
Amber: “Ha. Like anyone else in the world is even remotely equipped to deal with me.”
This is kind of exactly what I’m talking about though. Why is Ruth the one to bring the topic up over Amber’s friends who she might actually consider their input and advice more. Amber barely even respects Ruth.
Because Ruth saw something of her own problems and denial in Amber?
Because Ruth is an RA and is therefore equipped with about a week of training and an extra year of living to recognize stuff like “Therapists are good and this is what a person with a serious problem looks like.”
All of Amber’s friends that everyone is complaining about? They’re barely 18 years old. They’ve been living alone for a whole 3 months. Recognizing that Amber is in a bad place is WAY beyond their experience levels.
None of Amazi-Girl’s previous antics have actually hurt people that she cared about. Most of Amazi-Girl’s trip-ups were because of her failure to respond accurately to Bad Stuff already happening. This is the first time where memory failure might have caused bad things to happen to Mike.
And even then, not really to Mike. Contributed to the kidnapping and all, since no one was warned, but Mike was already in a coma in the hospital.
It’s not about hurting other people as much as it’s just a danger to herself. Maybe other’s aren’t effected negatively by AG’s actions, but remember that before this kidnapping Amber was trying to deprive Amazi-Girl of existing through refusing to sleep! How would this have turned out if her crazy dad didn’t kidnap her friends to force a situation where they had to resolve their differences? You can die from sleep deprivation. Not to mention Amber’s rage issues where she flips tables and throws chairs, stabs a guy more than was probably necessary to subdue him *I’m not losing any sleep over Ryan that’s not the point I’m trying to make here* Her feeling like death is an acceptable punishment for stabbing Sal. Like the list goes on. Amber and AG have a lot of issues that can’t just be ignored because AG wasn’t hurting anybody.
Wait, did Ethan always have on a Dinobot shirt? How did I miss that?
Actually, he has a kangaroo pouch. Dinobot just happens to be in it.
No, he’s worn other shirts before.
I think Ethan took a shower and changed clothes before he went to the hospital.
Edit before publishing, I checked back and he was wearing the same shirt in the May 9 comic when he left to check on Mike.
Oh, Ethan.
Yeah, that is about what I expected. Deep concern, some anger that it’s gotten to a point where, well, this happened and he didn’t know, but also he cares about Amber and they have both had WAY too much of a day to be up for a fight. And I think Mike was a wakeup call for Amber as well, on multiple levels. (She can care about herself at least as much as he did, but also, I think she also doesn’t want to be in this position again.)
Oh thank gosh Amber is finally going to try and seek professional help.
From the look on Ethan’s face in the last panel, he could sure use some professional help (and a hug) too!
I hope Amber and Ethan can *talk* about shit again. Obviously, Amber’s been bad about it, but Ethan has a spotty history of vocalizing his issues, too, and not running from them.
Ethan: I have issues
Amber: I, too, have issues
Ethan: Let us talk about them and lessen each others burden before then talking about foldy robots
Amber: I shall be supportive while also allowing myself to be supported just like *insert foldy robot character here*
-hugging occurs-
Yes, thank you Ethan.
Well put, things have clearly progressed to a point where *this shit is not remotely okay anymore*.
Amber was kicked in the fracas.
I hate it when I get kicked in the fracas.
I was once kicked in the process. It didn’t hurt as much as I expected.
Let’s not get started on THATschtick. It was already old when Paul Harvey did it on his radio news and commentary program back in the 1980s.
And now you know the rest of the story.
Thank you for doing that. :—)
Yeahhhh, it was a rough morning.
Ethan has been in a rollercoaster of being first angry, then feeling guilty and then feeling less guilty.
Amber’s done it too when she found out that Ethan was dating Joyce.
Yeah, it can be frustrating the fact that of all girls Ethan could have “dated” he choose a random girl he met instead of his best friend from middle school. Of course, Amber needed to learn to let go and be in love with someone else and Ethan needed to learn to not hide who he truly is: a gay man that loves to casually bang other men without interest in romance.
This is how a healthy friend relationship works. They’re allowed to be frustrated with each other and themselves, and express their frustration, without either one thinking something friendship-ending has happened.
Ethan had a very understandable reaction, Amber treated it as such, Ethan acknowledged he might have been coming on too strongly… all of it heartfelt, all of it low-stakes.
Because when sane caring people trust each other, they don’t need to sweat the small stuff.
Especially not after what is, I feel pretty confident saying, the new Worst Day Of Their Mutual Lives.
Hell. During it. This is probably like, 10 AM after the kidnapping. (I have no evidence supporting this claim beyond ‘it has to be after 8 AM because sunrise’ and ‘Amber has by now reached the hospital and presumably whatever first witness statements were needed from her have been taken.’)
I wouldn’t call this “the small stuff,” but you are right about everything else. The level of emotional intelligence is amazing, given that these are teenagers. I wasn’t half this good at their age.
These poor kids are going to need so much therapy…
Ethan, can you really blame Amber for being too frightened to tell anyone that she thought she was ‘going crazy’ (as she doubtless thought of it)? It was a mistake but it was also a very, very understandable thing for someone as young as her to do.
Meanwhile, I’m not even slightly surprised that Joyce’s fighting style is “flail randomly at everything nearby”!
So Ethan’s gone from being “so, so sorry” to just “so sorry”. Got it.
In the epic struggle between amber and Blaine, the only injury she sustains comes from Joyce accedently kicking him. Blaine is to shitty at things to get a hit in.
Blaine is a shit and is shit at what he’s doing.
I dunno, Amazi-Girl and Sal’s benchmark have been set pretty damn high in this series. It’s entirely possible that Blaine is actually completely average at what he does, which is why he doesn’t stand a chance against them. His power level just is not high enough.
Yeah, Blaine’s somewhere around 5500.
Sal and Amber are probably in the high 8000s range.
My calculator caught fire trying to compute Shaggy’s power level. Norville must be a force to be reckoned with.
Except the Ballpeen was able to stand up to Amazi-Girl in the earlier fight where Mike got hurt and he did get away with Joyce as hostage, so things couldn’t have gone to badly for him in that struggle.
I got the impression that he just had an awful lot of hit points to the point where he was a punch sponge. It took Amber and Mazie a while to wear him down.
I think they’re both way off their game from lack of sleep. Not just one night of Amber staying up to keep AG from getting out, but a regular routine of AG being out and active for most of Amber’s sleep schedule.
This went much better than I was expecting. I’m so glad.
This is a really shitty way for them to realize just how much Mike cares about them.
Blaming them for it when Mike actively conceals his affections, and does so successfully, to the point where they distrust his earnest showings of it, might not be the best perspective either.
I’m not blaming either of them, trust me. Just commenting that, of all the ways to find out, this is a phenomenally shitty way.
In a vacuum, if might hadn’t Created and Perpetuated this mentality they are now breaking out of, I’d agree, but considering the circumstances they are even at best.
*if Mike hadn’t
Mike is a force of nature and thereby beyond affection. He can only be worshipped. Or lain with for a nickle.
Or other woodpecker of equal value.
One of the reasons I don’t want Mike to die (or languish in a coma too long) is that I’m really looking forward to seeing him deal with that realization.
And continuing with this line of “Amber gets aware of things she needs”, she could use some sleep.
Dinobot is watching you sleep…
Mike always knew that he was some kind of creep.
Ugh.. why does Ethan look so hot when he is being desperately earnest…..
to be honest i don’t find ethan attractive and i’ve never quite understood why people do?
#subjectivity
I am straight, and I think some reason why men and women are interested in Etahn: he is a shy and tall guy, he still has the innocence of a toy collector, he is easy to befriend, etc.
However, Ethan has many problems that would make people ditch him: he is too obnoxious and self righteous about his hobbies as shown in DoA and Shortpacked, he is a pushover that can’t stand for himself and will do anything to make other happy (his mom and Joyce), he can’t take a hint (Mike and Danny), he is as promiscuous as Roz and Malaya, and his haircut annoys me.
Likewise, why isn’t Amber a hot sweaty torn-up mess after all that exertion?
it’s been a bad day for Ethan.
Well, for everyone.
Why did her dad struggle to get away? I thought he was going to cooperate because he had connections with corrupt cops or something.
The earlier struggle back at the house, when Faz cut him loose and he took Joyce hostage.
The question still remains, though. He had nothing to gain and everything to loose from running rather than just be arrested, as repeatedly pointed out to him by Becky and Dorothy.
My explanation is that he’s just some kind of idiot.
Idiot + Chris right below’s ‘he’s not a loser’, definitely. Also, why get arrested and let off when he can just not get arrested? OBVIOUSLY that’s the better option so he’s going to do it regardless of how clearly not going to happen it is.
Zero-sum thinking. He couldn’t let the kids win. If they win, he loses, and he is not a loser.