Discussion (247) ¬
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Sean Thomason @seanthomason.bsky.social ⋅ 4h
David M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 5h
Rolling Stone @rollingstone.com ⋅ 6h
Dana Simpson 
@danacorn.bsky.social ⋅ 2d
Dana Simpson @danacorn.bsky.social ⋅ 1m
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Barb O. Saur 
⚧️
not sure if want
can’t possibly work this well
Definitely do not want. All my nope. To all of this. Every aspect of all of this.
So. Much. Nope.
And they all lived happily ever after.
And they all suffered happily ever after.
I’m sure this plan will go just swimmingly and there’s absolutely no way anything will go horribly wrong at all.
Oh he’s here! I can finally say it!….
…I don’t trust Asher. That is all.
I mean, plenty of us have been saying that already.
What gave it away, the part where he gave the order to kill Amber’s dad?
For which he deserves cookies and beer, and I am not accepting alternative suggestions at this time.
Shouldn’t that have been Ambers call?
If Asher wants to kill dads so badly, he can kill his own.
It stopped being Amber’s call when Blaine kidnapped the entire wing.
True. Although its not like Asher killed him in order to save anyone. He did it after the fact, to cover his organisations tracks.
In fact, he killed Blaine because Blaine got caught, not because he kidnapped anyone.
Just because the rabid dog is yours doesn’t mean no one else can put it down.
+1
I love this and I’m stealing it. The turn of phrase, that is, not the rabid dog. You can keep THAT.
Blaine wasn’t killed because he was a mad dog though. He was killed because he posed a potential risk to an organized crime group.
So Blaine wasn’t killed to pay for his crimes, he was killed in order to cover up others crimes.
Is Itchy Glasses on My Nose Joyce a custom? If so, well done.
the “stock” gravs all seem to have no background
Yeah. I just had to have it!
Not when Asher’s life is one of the ones Blaine is threatening. Remember, Blain had to blackmail Asher into cooperating by threatening to tell his grandfather something that would make him “more disappointed” with Asher. Considering said grandfather is apparently the head of the criminal organization, something that makes him mores disappointed than choosing to leave the family business of crime could very much have lethal consequences for Asher.
While amber dad was an asshole and probably deserved it. Asher didn’t do it out of the good for them. her father could have been used by the fbi/police to take down the mafia he was working for or atleast used as a witness for a plea deal.
Who totally deserved it and really brought it upon himself?
Blaine deserved it, yes. But Asher’s motives were far from pure. Blaine knew of Asher’s involvement in the plot, and Asher wanted him shut the hell up for good.
Benefiting from killing someone isn’t inherently evil.
He was blackmailed into his participation, what moral argument can be made that he shouldn’t protect himself?
Asher’s greatest flaw is that he believed Blaine when he said no one would get hurt.
I would say it is that when he did not believe Blaine’s absurd assurance he turned to the Mob and not to the police to stop Blaine.
But the way the police work in this world perhaps it was even the better course of action.
I mean, the police are on the take for the Mob, so it’s basically the same thing.
I’d say Ashers greatest flaw is how easily he sanctioned the death of another person.
Killing someone however, is inherently evil.
So… I take it you haven’t yet had to make decisions for a loved one in a horrific medical situation, then.
Yes it’s a different topic, but your statement was so broad and so absolute that it included this situation… and it shouldn’t have.
Deciding to do palliative care instead of curative care is not killing, even though both result in death. It’s accepting that whatever is actually killing the person has won.
My take on it is “Someone who can kill or order someone to be killed in cold blood is someone that is, if not evil then definitely dangerous and should not be trusted.”. Because this is not about Blaine being a shit-under-someone’s-boot kind of human. It’s about Asher handing out death sentences while fully knowing what he is doing. That kind ruthlessness can quickly turn against you if you get involved with it.
Chris’ point stands. Blatant all encompasing statements like, “killing is inherently evil,” really betray a lack of understanding of all the nuance in our messed up world.
Also, comparing choosing palliative care to the ‘evil of killing someone’ shows a rather disgusting lack of empathy for those in that situation. There are harder decisions than opting for palliative care, and Chris’ point was not restricted to just that scenario. But if word games are all it takes to make something ‘not killing’, I’ll remember this if I ever need to throw a rope to a kid trapped in a well. “Sorry kid, I’m gonna go for a pint instead. I’m just accepting that the water you’ll drown in has won.”
Yes this example is absurd, as is the independant claim that killing is always evil.
“I mean, I *could* apply the brakes, but let’s face it, inertia and this Ford Explorer have clearly won.”
What about in self-defence, or in defence of another? Is that evil? Or what if you killed someone in a genuine accident?
No, it isn’t, nor do I have any idea why you’d think that. Are you saying that, e.g., killing someone who’s about to detonate a bomb that’ll kill dozen is evil?
Ooooh, do I get to kill Hitler as he goes full fascist after the Reichstag? Are you of the stance that the Allieed troops were evil, because they killed Nazis?
The military in Myanmar, after coup’ing their way to power, are killing protesters in the streets who want the election results respected. Is killing the military to restore democracy and save the lives of legitimate protesters also evil?*
INQUIRING MINDS WANT TO KNOW!
*As a side note, the Myanmar situation is why you get rid of fascists hard and fast, and not do what Aung Suu Kyi did, which was let them have a bit fo fascims, as a treat. It’s never just Poland, as if “just Poland” wasn’t bad enough.
On the topic of appeasment, you people should keep a close eye on Biden and his “Oh the Chinese are only mass-murdering people because of Cultural differences”. He sounds a bit too much like Chamberlain to my liking.
Holy shit, seriously? *goes to Google* Hoooollllyyyy fucking shit, I always knew Biden was trash, but I really thought “we’re not going to do anything about Kashoggi’s murder because the US doesn’t sanction foreign leaders, no sirree, it has nothing to do with oil on the cheap, nope, nothing whatsoever” was as low as he’d go for at least a couple of months.
Prime pick, there, Democrats.
Sidenote: Not “you people”, I’ve dodged the bullet of being American. Hard pass on that one.
Oh good for you!
So what’s your government doing to stop the military in Myanmar or the Chinese from mass-murdering people or to respond to Kashoggi’s murder? Or are all these things America’s responsibility somehow?
Last time I checked, Kashoggi was an American citizen killed on American soil, so, uh, it definitely is. On the China front, at least we’re not making excuses for it.
Kashoggi was not an American citizen. He may have been a permanent resident or have been working on a special visa. It’s not clear.
He certainly wasn’t killed on American soil. He was killed in the Saudi Embassy in Istanbul.
You’re right, sorry. That’s weird, I don’t know where I got that idea – the usual culprit is that I’m confusing people, but I DEARLY hope there isn’t another journalist that got axemurdered and dismembered recently.
How many men have I killed?
Not men.
I kill fascists.
– Gritty, beloved mascot of the Philadelphia Flyers
“…And that’s what your holy men discuss, is it?” [asked Granny Weatherwax.]
“Not usually. There is a very interesting debate raging at the moment on the nature of sin. for example.” [answered Mightily Oats.]
“And what do they think? Against it, are they?”
“It’s not as simple as that. It’s not a black and white issue. There are so many shades of gray.”
“Nope.”
“Pardon?”
“There’s no grays, only white that’s got grubby. I’m surprised you don’t know that. And sin, young man, is when you treat people like things. Including yourself. That’s what sin is.”
“It’s a lot more complicated than that–”
“No. It ain’t. When people say things are a lot more complicated than that, they means they’re getting worried that they won’t like the truth. People as things, that’s where it starts.”
“Oh, I’m sure there are worse crimes–”
“But they starts with thinking about people as things…”
–from Carpe Jugulum, by Terry Pratchett.
I like this quote for my day to day life but fascists ain’t people.
You see a dragon sleeping atop a mountain of gold and the only moral course of action is to cut its head off.
Woah, woah, woah. What if the dragon’s scales are shiny?
By that logic all soldiers in a war are inherently evil, while the people sending them to do the killing are not. And where would you draw the line? Is killing all life evil? Then we’d all be in heaps of trouble, morally.
A little too simple when put that broadly, isn’t it?
Killing is inherently bad I would subscribe to. But evil requires intent.
It sounds like you’re saying it’s ok for Asher to let him die because this helps Asher avoid responsibility for other things he did?
There are a lot of arguments why it was fine for Blaine to die, but uhhh I’m gonna say that one doesn’t fly.
I wouldn’t try to shift blame in this case. Blaine‘s death was more a result of his own misdeeds than anything else. Who happened to be the messenger in this case wouldn’t really matter much to my morals. It was bound to happen sooner or later.
Live by the sword, die by the sword and all that.
I’d go further. There are those who say the only safe and reasonable response to effective blackmail is murder.
This might or might not be moral, but it is obviously a known risk to any intelligent blackmailer.
He wasn’t so much protecting himself as taking care of a loose end fir the family business.
He wanted to make sure Blaine couldn’t tell about him stealing that money, more like. And y’know what? Fine by me, that kid will end up either trapped for good at best or dead in a ditch at worst if his grandpa finds out he took that money. Mobsters don’t tend to like that much.
Yeah, but …
It’s okay because it’s Blaine. Not just because of the blackmail.
If someone else had found out and was blackmailing him for some less horrible purpose than kidnapping and murder, I don’t think Asher would have been justified in having him killed – even though the consequences to him would have been the same if his grandpa found out. But would Asher still have done the same thing?
Or also, would someone less horrible than Blaine had blackmailed Asher for the same purpose with the same thing? You’re right tthat we can’t run variables on Asher or the situation (unless Willis decides to recycle the situation, but that’s just meh, unless we want DoA to become Asher: A Character Study).
OTOH, Mary has ALSO engaged in blackmail and I don’t think people would go “meh” if Ruth or Jennifer had had her killed.
Well, sure, but that changes the circumstances a decent deal. You have to weigh the blackmail vs how serious what happened was and vs who’s doing it and why. However, in this case? Fine by me.
man. a guy can deserve a punch in the mouth and AT THE SAME TIME you don’t have the right to punch him in the mouth.
IRL, I’d agree with you. In fiction? Nah, Asher’d deserve cookies and beer for getting him killed.
Hard disagree. If someone had checked Blaine properly earlier we might not have had to escalate to getting whacked. Nip that shit in the bud.
oh ok now go identify the baby who is going to grow up to be hitler and strangle it.
It’s not really about being involved in the hit on Blaine even though the mob ties don’t help. Asher’s just a shifty dude. He sold Sal out, he created the opportunity for the kidnapping. I know there are a bunch of excuses for him like “He was only 13” or “His grandad would’ve probably killed him maybe!” but he’ll always choose himself first. He created that vague blackmail scenario by stealing money from his grandpop in the first place. Dude’s sus.
Sal doesn’t seem to completely trust him and she’s a pretty good read on character. Neither do I.
I don’t think Asher ratting Sal out should be any more held against him than the fact Sal threatened Ethan with a knife.
It’s everything as an adult that’s the problem.
Sal doesn’t get slack for that. Neither does Amber for stabbing her in the hand. It’s not something they should be punished for since they were kids but it still factors into their personalities. Amber still has deep trauma and rage issues, Sal still makes stupid and shortsighted decisions, and Asher will probably still think of himself first in any pressure situation.
Both events (Asher ratting out Sal/Sal threatening Ethan with a knife) were both negative acts. I do think there are 2 differences….
– The motivations. Sal was doing bad things, but she was doing them to help an injured friend. Asher acted just for shits and giggles.
– Sal genuinely seems eager to make amends with Ethan. Asher doesn’t really seem to care.
Well, he did apologize. And took a punch in the phiz because he deserved it.
He took a Walky punch.
In the other universe, he’d be lucky to survive.
In this one, I’m betting that’s like .33 a Sal punch.
I wouldn’t be surprised if he calculated the outcome and decided he would look good for not retaliating, vs actually feeling he deserved the hit.
That’s just the feeling I have of his character, that even his seeming sincerity is carefully weighed and measured.
Maybe that feeling will change as we see more of him.
This. Sal went out of her way to atone for her past. Asher just ignores his and moved on.
Sal didn’t go “out of her way” any more than Asher did. They did exactly the same thing, which was when presented with the person they harmed, they confessed and apologised.
More likely a tip-off than an order.
Do we know for sure that it was Asher that gave the order to kill Blaine?
I just assumed it was someone (anyone) relatively high up in the mob who gave the order, for the simple fact that their stooge was drawing unwanted attention to himself.
It wasn’t in the bag that Asher did it. He did receive notification when it was done, from Lester or grandpa, it wasn’t clear.
Asher assuredly told SOMEONE that he’d been roped into Blaine’s Ridiculously Bad Plan, since they contacted him after the hit. (He also had to know it was coming, since otherwise ‘It’s done’ from some random number/one of Gramps’ cops would have gotten way more of a reaction than we saw.) I feel reasonably confident he knew the Blaine situation being dealt with would end lethally, if only by the time he woke up the next morning to hear the money launderer had gotten arrested for kidnapping a bunch of people including trying to kidnap the campaign manager of a sitting Congresswoman, who set up a dead man’s switch on Twitter outing Blaine at morning primetime, and also he murdered a guy. But depending on who Asher went to, ‘hey the stooge threatened me into helping with his evil plan, I have no idea what it is but I’m pretty sure it’s dumb and way too attention-getting’ was… probably enough to seal Blaine’s fate, even before the degrees of dumbness were known. If he didn’t know it was a possibility… honestly I don’t buy Asher totally believed Blaine in his ‘no one will get hurt’, but he didn’t see a better option and hey, everyone turned out fine right? So it doesn’t REALLY matter. (The kid who died got thrown off a fire escape BEFORE Asher actually did anything, he doesn’t count.)
Yeah, at best, Asher woke up, saw the news, went ‘well, he’s dead’ and texted Lester or someone else asking to be notified when it was done. At worst, well. It wouldn’t be the first time Asher reported someone doing something he was involved in.
To me it seems very unlikely that he had the power to give any such order, nor the money to procure a hit.
What seems far more likely is that he got in touch with someone approachable in his Gramps’ organisation and said “That stooge Blaine O’Malley showed up out of nowhere and tried to muscle me into helping him kidnap his daughter and half a dozen other college kids. Is that really part of Our Business? It seems kind of dumb, dangerous and pointless. Do you really want me to help him?” And that he did so knowing and counting on that that would get Blaine killed.
Yeah, my question is if he reached out to Gramps or to an underling like Lester directly. He couldn’t call the hit himself, but no way he didn’t know the outcome of passing that info on, either way.
(He probably wouldn’t want it to be Gramps, BUT Blaine was a useful enough stooge to have met the boss’s grandkid and it’s hard to say how many details Asher KNEW. Kidnapping a random kid? Not inconceivable it flies under the radar. Kidnapping SEVERAL random kids? Harder to see it slipping by. Trying to get ahold of a Congresswoman’s campaign manager, who was the high-profile victim of a hate crime a month ago? Okay that’s making news. Did so with the perpetrator, some RANDOM GUY Blaine recruited for just this purpose, and he was dumb enough to use his real identity paying bail? He’s 100% dead. But if he only knew the Amber/luring out AG stuff for sure you can see it maybe being dealt with nonlethally, depending on just how useful he was, unless Gramps knew he’d tried to muscle Asher into this unnecessary bullshit. And Asher DEFINITELY needed Blaine gone permanently.)
My understanding is that in organisations that depend on a strict discipline, if they are to be successful, there is usually somebody of whom it is known that you can approach them when you have cocked up, to get things fixed, and through whom you can leak information about your direct superior to the top of the organisation. You usually still take some lumps, but if you tell the fixer-upper about it in time to stop the cock-up from turning into a catastrophe there is a consideration in return. There is usually somebody who has direct access to the chief, usually with less direct authority and fewer duties than you would expect considering their rank, whom anybody can approach, with whom it is possible to broach topics without context, and who can get information directly to Gramps without a formal approach.
If Gramps’ mob is like that, Asher probably has an uncle whom he can call, or Gramps has an old adviser whom Asher can call, who is more approachable than Gramps and who is used to being told things that might have to be passed to Gramps.
Like possibly, people actually related to the boss. Asher probably has far more direct access to his grandfather than most others at a relatively low level.
And he doesn’t need to mention the blackmail, just tell him about Blaine doing crimes that’ll get him caught and being likely to leak about the organization.
Anyway, Asher probably can’t get a pass on having stolen at least a tuition worth of Gramps’ money, but he might very possibly have a way to drop a dime on Blaine without having to answer or evade any awkward questions. Uncle Softie knows that Blaine must have had some sort of hold over Blaine, but his role is to encourage informers and timely warnings.
Thanks for more clarification/speculation! Yeah, Asher would be in serious shit if it’s found out (at BEST, he gets dragged back into the fold and probably punished,) but he probably knows how to make Blaine look bad without saying WHAT he was threatened with.
And he did spend an entire panel thinking very carefully.
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2019/comic/book-9-comic/04-vote-for-robin/onemoresunday/
Whatever he did was very carefully calculated by someone we know is not stupid, not ill-informed, and not burdened with troublesome scruples.
Did Ashur giving the order to kill Blaine get made explicit in a bonus strip? I know he was outside the hospital and received a text saying “It’s done” (unless he was supposed to be sending it) but does that mean he was the person calling the shots, or that he got roped into being their to confirm and his receiving the text was keeping an extra degree of separation from the full time mob family members?
But his smile is so genuine in that last panel! It’s not even his usual smirk.
Huge “Oh Hi Mark!” energy in that grin
dude does NOT know he’s meeting Jennifer’s ex
Is it because, despite his claims that he’s not involved with the family business anymore, his first idea of dealing with Blaine having dirt on him is to have him whacked, or at least be involved enough to get texted about it? Because that totally screams “trustworthy upstanding young man” to me.
In all seriousness, I’m pretty sure that our next big villain is gonna be whichever made man has Asher’s tickle-stick in a vice vis-a-vis stealing his tuition from the family.
Eh, he knew Blaine is guilty of kidnapping and as we know, murder, so turning to the mob is actually reasonable if you know the police are on the take. EVIL? Maybe. But reasonable, yes.
The part I don’t get about asher and Jennifer is, she grew up with walky, right? So she must have known him. Walky knew he was involved in the robbery, so she probably does, to. He’s not exactly a person who keeps his mouth shut about things.
So why go to a proven actual bad boy when you’re looking for a stable, healthy relationship?
She probably isn’t looking for one of those. It’s Jennifer, her longest lasting relationship was a Sexy Lesbian Suicide Pact.
I can totally see Asher giving a sob story about how he is 100% away from the toxic influence of his family, the same way he told Sal. (I’ll note that Sal knows he stole a TON of money, which means she knows his family is both wealthy and bad news. She may not have connected that to ‘mobster,’ given her own family issues, but it’s not impossible she at least has an inkling how bad the news is.) For Jennifer and her continuing desire to turn over a new leaf and stop associating with people who are incongruent with her mental image (and a whole lot of denial about how well that ever works,) I can see it being appealing. Provided, of course, he was genuinely out of their influence.
But of course he is! Would he lie about that?
(There is no way Jennifer, Sal, or ANYONE knows not only that Asher’s toxic family are mobsters, but that he’s still connected enough to have been involved in Blaine’s death.)
Oh, wait, re: Sal:
‘ALL (Gramps’s) money is under the table.’ https://www.dumbingofage.com/2019/comic/book-10/01-birthday-pursuit/wiggly/
Yeah, Sal knows about the mob thing, I forgot it was THAT explicit.
We know Asher was legit about trying to leave – Blaine knew his grandpa wasn’t happy about it, but NOT at any levels dangerous to Asher. Yet.
Billie might have known him as a kid, but we don’t know if they were actually friends like he and Sal were.
Maybe Jennifer is a super good reporter student now and is actually under cover to infiltrate the mob via Ashur’s connections…
I think a lot of us don’t trust him. For me it’s partly his mob ties, and partly his other past shitty behavior that I’m not convinced he’s really sorry for.
Uh-oh, it’s the boy-criminal.
OH GOD WHAT HAPPENED I NEED TO KNOW
They disagreed on whether cheerleading should be considered a sport.
Billie refused to get a Maples tattoo on her arm.
Ruth confessed to liking Star Wars.
Followed by Billie confessing she really preferred Star Trek.
Ruth’s homemade Kit Fisto costume was so poorly-constructed that Jennifer took it as an insult.
That’s where the line was drawn. That far, no further!
If we ever do find out it won’t be for awhile. Personally I think it’s gonna be like who hacked Joe’s do-list where it’s just never said just hinted at, but if it does ever happen it will have to be at a way more dramatic moment we haven’t built to yet.
Oh I missed the hints, who is it implied to be?
Well Rachel was the obvious hint mainly because Joe called her out on it, but personally I think it was Danny. He knew about the list, thought it was disgusting and it was a part of Joe he didn’t like plus he had a small freakout when Rachel made the point that leaking a do-list of hot girls right after a sexual predator was outed was probably bad timing. Plus the whole following Joe around to help him make amends has a whole “criminal always returns to the scene of the crime” type feel to it.
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2017/comic/book-7/04-the-do-list/treasuremap/
There are a few other hints. Anyone with decent computer skills and knowledge of the list could do it but we’ll probably never find out for sure.
I think it was Raidah – Joe sent her the password after all.
If it was Danny it would have come up. He’s not good at hiding things.
“Hacked”? He was offering people an RSS feed!
I choose to believe Ruth decided to give Billie an ultimatum and the latter walked out on her.
I do believe it’s not drinking because I believe Jennifer is sober.
Yeah, as of now, all information points to Ruth being the one *most* at fault. I don’t think Billie is the gaslighting type.
Even though the jab in the last panel was SUPER SHITTY.
I declare that Billie still loves Ruth. I’ll die on this hill.
You, me and Hill 937 baby!
Oo-rah!
Indeed they seem to both still care. And Hill 70 eh.
Most of our information comes from Jennifer, and she’s known to wave at responsibility when she passes it by. Just sayin’.
This is why I struggle – in truth Ruth is way more likely to feel at fault for responsibility jennifer shirked, and if they’re still in that space where jennifer is happy to accuse ruth of letting her down for not picking up her slack, or for making a decision in jennifer’s best interest she wouldn’t approve of…. then they really should be apart and learn and grow both of them.
In truth it’s hard to see many things Ruth would have done that would warrant this reaction from Jennifer, except for dumping her, or cheating on her (and even then, with how Jennifer is it’s hard to say if being cheated on would actually cause this sort of reaction in her, and I’d assume if it did it would create a lot more neuroses in her than it seems to have – so far whatever happened seems to have Jennifer trying to reinvent herself and shut out everyone that was part of her old life, trust issues for other people don’t seem to be the issue as much as feeling like “Billie” is a bad memory herself.
Also how much Jennifer is clearly the same person – meddling in other people’s business, sacrosanct judgment that often feels hypocritical, struggling to see anybody around her for who they really are. The thing that made Jennifer redeemable as Billie was caring for someone more than she cared for herself, and specifically trying to take care -of- that person, and that we seemed to see this streak of altruism with most characters, even if she initially acted haughty with them. I suppose it could be said that hooking up Ruth and Daisy is that effort, but as she’s pretty much outright stated here, she’s hoping that hooking them up will remove any responsibility she still feels towards Ruth, and Daisy to give her another chance on the paper.
Jennifer isn’t the gaslighting type, but she is self-absorbed enough to wildly distort events unintentionally.
So, whatever it was that happened, Ruth seems to consider it her fault and not Jennifer’s…
I mean, even given Ruth’s penchant for self loathing, it may not matter to her whether or not it’s *actually* her fault as long as Jennifer believes it is. Maybe more than any Fair and Just resolution she just wants her friend back.
Feels, man.
Let’s hope with Asher showing up, grav roulette will be merciful to me today
and seemingly no
Oh, man, how can you complain about our beloved Amber?
Pretty sure it was Joe.
Yep, ’twas Joe
Now the healing can begin… or CAN it?!
I don’t see any ukuleles being put down, so I guess not?
*Tilts head*
Is Ruth doing the Shocked Pikachu face in that last panel?
Or if not that it feels close to *something* that I’ve seen before. With the wide open eyes and tightly pursed mouth, but otherwise no other expression.
It might just be pouting. I don’t think Ruth has any reason to know who Asher is and why he’s important to the plot (outside being Jennifer’s current boyfriend anyway).
pikashock has an open mouth
Ok fuck it, I’m curious about how things are with Asher and I don’t mean his love life with Billie I mean what’s his deal. Some small part of me doesn’t trust him completely yet but another part of just wonders.
He is literally the grandson of a mafioso… there is nothing to trust here lol
“Grandson of a mafioso” isn’t in itself damning.
The fact that he had a man who knew of his involvement in the kidnapping assassinated, however, is proof positive that no matter how much he may want to turn over a new leaf, he still can’t be trusted.
Yeah, that second point is my attitude all over. I’m perfectly willing to believe he wants to get out of the mob life, but objectively he is not right now. (And can’t be, so long as mob stooges know where to find him and have his cell phone number.)
Since he’s not, he’s currently a time bomb waiting to go off for anyone in his orbit, and since it involves the fucking MOB, it won’t be pretty when it does.
*Gets popcorn* I can’t WAIT.
Pretty much this, yeah. Asher was legit about wanting to leave but whatever happened, he’s not out yet and that makes him dangerous to be around. He might be a good kid, but the mob doesn’t care.
I just wanna see who from the Walky!verse gets promoted to mob underboss or made man for that storyline.
Actually, who could be an option for this role? I’m completely drawing a blank on minor villains that haven’t shown up yet.
Gallaso
Sydney Yus
Ryan ‘The Douche’ Scarface
The Bad Brown Brother?
I mena, it’s the KOREAN mob, so… none of those?
Oh crap, maybe there was enough time for them to sew not-Ryan back together…
Fair point, I guess I just think he really is trying to reform but that hit he put on Blaine (even though he brought that on himself) gives me red flags.
I mean, all that was several months ago… So idk??
WHAT HAPPENED this is killing me.
It involved Bitcoin.
Oh, come on. I know Jennifer spent months on “Sal is Amazi-Girl” even though Sal’s a head taller, half the width, and about 9/10ths of the light spectrum darker than AG, but not even SHE’s gullible enough for cryptocurrency.
OH NO.
It’s the haircut. Jennifer stole the “I’m bisexual” bob haircut from Ruth. It was popularized by Korra in season 4 of Avatar:LoK! Ruth had the idea first. Jennifer just took it one day and that was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Sad really.
“Oh, this will be discreet.”
Understandable. Totally unforgivable.
…And if still, to be shocked, she pretends well,
Just remind her that “All’s Well That Ends Well.”
Brush Up Your Shakespeare
And they’ll all kowtow.
Brush up your Shakespeare,
Start quoting him now!
Brush up your Shakespeare
And the women you will wow.
As performed by Christopher Reeve, Link Hogthrob, Fozzie Bear, and Yorick the Skull.
I knew him well, Horatio.
Or this: https://youtu.be/u8Zzl_HH4XQ
I don’t know Jennifer, you say everything worked out but I get the feeling your relationship with Asher is doomed to fail. For simple reasons too, such as: He’s kind of a scumbag, he was involved with the kidnapping of people you know and because you are in this comic.
So what odds are we betting on for this relationship?
Five on endgame, seven on two months.
Two in or out of universe months though?
Two real-world months is only about a day or so in-universe, my money’s on the former.
As far as we know he got blackmailed into being involved, and then either directly or indirectly had the guy responsible killed. …That’s still REALLY not great, but it’s not quite the same as being willingly on-board for the whole thing.
But yes he is still a scumbag, though I’d take “deliberately got Sal arrested for a crime he was also involved in” as more evidence than the stuff with Blaine.
Oh, I’ve clearly won the Gravatar roulette.
It’s easy to have no faith or investment in a relationship when you weren’t around to see the build-up to it happening…. but yeah in the comic world time I give it between 2 to 4 weeks
I hope Asher gets redeemed but it will sadly involve him throwing his master down a reactor shaft.
…and then taking his mentor’s place.
We’ve all been there, right? Shitty decisions during our youth, creepy mentor figures with a hidden agenda and of course, the reactor thing; Unless you are too young for that and prefer the slicing-in-half-while-they-monologue trick.
If you kill me now, I’ll tell Yoda! And your mom.
He’s the Michael Corleone of the Dumbiverse.
Yep. Trying to get out on the way to becoming the boss.
And because she’s still in love with Ruth.
It did, right? Right?
Yay?
There are like eight disasters waiting to happen in this strip. Which is pretty impressive given how few characters are onscreen!
The real shitty thing about the last panel is that I honestly don’t think Billie understands just how shitty the thing she said is.
Of course, in her mind, she probably thinks she’s saying “I’m no longer confused thanks to how shitty you were”.
I’m really curious what Ruth did. This is such a flip from where they were that it has to have been pretty bad.
I still wouldn’t be surprised if Jennifer is more to blame for their breakup than Ruth.
Me either.
“‘In the end’? Nothing ends, Adrian. Nothing ever ends.”
It goes on and on, my friend.
I wonder if we will see a sub-plot where the main cast finds out about Asher’s role in the kidnappings. (A minor role but still enough to at least raise eyebrows.) It would be interesting to see how Jennifer handles the whole “my boyfriend was involved in the attempted kidnapping/murder of my friends/floor-mates”, and which side she would choose if she had to.
I think that’s a given.
Just not sure how many months or years outside of the story it will take to come up.
I don’t think I’ll live to see it.
Well, a swan can live up to 30 years in a domestic environment, but only 12 in the wild, so… don’t go outside?
Black swans are always statistical outliers though.
Up, down, or flattening the Gauss curve?
Not on the axis; a difference in kind and not of degree….
Jennifer is a damsel in distress waiting to happen with Ruth reluctantly as the superheroine to the rescue.
Well, Ruth _is_ the most qualified (??) to take AG’s mantle if Amber doesn’t want it anymore, so…
Hahahahaha god DAMMIT, Willis, I’m sinking deeper into my conspiracy theory over here
fuckin PepeSilvia.gif
(My conspiracy theory is that Jennifer wanted to go after Clint in some concrete way and Ruth did not allow it. Possibly Jennifer got the Billingsworths or Linda involved and Ruth made her look like an idiot in front of them, to preserve the Lie.)
Yeah I’m warming up to this. That Ruth somehow “betrayed” Jennifer by downplaying her in front of Clint.
I think at this point Ruth has to have done something to earn a level of ire from Jennifer because the alternative, that Jennifer has gaslit Ruth into blaming herself for their break-up, would make Jennifer almost irredeemable.
It makes sense! Maybe it’s just my pattern-seeking brain but like, there’s only so many events that could make a previously semi-stable romantic coupling implode! And in Jennifer and Ruth’s case…
Could it be their shared alcoholism? Yes. That would be realistic, sadly. But narratively it wouldn’t feel right, would it? They just reached equilibrium, very recently, on that. Ruth knows the bottle is pretty much a death sentence if she misuses it, and she wants to live, for now. And finally, how equitable would Jennifer be about that REALLY if that was what broke them up? Would she be quietly kind like this? No, I say. No.
Could it be Jennifer’s internalized biphobia? This seems like a reach. Like, Jennifer’s view has PROBLEMS, but they again managed to navigate that obstacle very recently and they were stable-ish. It seems unworthy of Willis’ deft hand. It also centers Jennifer as at fault unless Ruth had a truly heinous bout of jealousy, which just…It doesn’t seem right.
Could it just be Jennifer getting Too Friendly with Asher? It doesn’t seem right, again. Jennifer isn’t a cheater, that we know of. It might be an additional problem but as the primary…
Could it be Ruth lashing out at Jennifer some way? Sure, but why would she have? What would the catalyst be?
It all comes back to the main source of conflict left, and that’s Clint.
I’m hoping it was actually Ruth who did a bad thing and is getting proper recompense.
We don’t need more crapping on Jennifer.
*angry hissing*
Both seem to be out of their worst destructive behavior (well, depending on where Jennifer is with the drinking). They are still capable of amiable interaction and can give help and support.
But they are not together, and there are still lots of problems, big and small.
Dumbing of age – giving us what we want, in exactly the way we don’t want.
COunterpoint: Them not together is exactly what I wanted of their relationship.
Dumbing of age – giving exactly what we don’t want in exactly the way we don’t want it.
What don’t we want?!
THIS!
When dont we want it?
EVER!
Ruth keeps talking about drinking as soon as she’s legal. That’s not good.
I’m not QUITE as concerned, because a full-blown alcholoics that’s not even trying to get on the wagon isn’t going to get slowed down by a two-day period until legality.
There was someone a couple of days ago mentionng how they had gone through suicidal ideation and they’re better now, but that they makes jokes about killing themselves as a form of “dark humour”, much to the consternation of their friends. Hoping that’s the case here.
I hope so, but those references make me wonder if she’s convinced herself that it’s the illegality and maybe the drug interaction that are the only problems, so once she’s of age, it’ll be fine to go back to drinking.
I’ll just say it. Fuck you, Jennifer. She’s being really awful, and she knows it. Wonder how Daisy would take this. Even though she’s clearly, ahem, “thirsty”, she seems like she values professionalism. I hope Daisy doesn’t run afoul of Asher.
“Professionalism” is NOT a word that comes to mind when I think of Daisy.
“Fuckpile”, on the other hand . . .
I meeeean, she did try to kiss billie once so idk how much she cares about professinalism
Panel 4 is GREAT.
I really hope the comic will newer show what Ruth has do. This mystery is really intriguing and let the mind free to do a lot of hypothesis. And knows what happens is not really important for the story. And now, I want to see Ruth’s date!
I think it kind of is important. Maybe not exactly, but right now we don’t know if it was bad enough to justify Jennifer’s reaction or even if it was all really Jennifer’s fault – as some readers seem to think.
Not knowing would be less weird if this would’ve been a more amicable break-up, but when the fallout is so great that they can’t even be in a class together, that suggests some heavier shit than “you’ve pissed with the restroom door open FOR THE LAST TIME.” It’s probably something with narrative implications, and it should therefore at some point be explained in the narrative.
Wow. I didn’t expect to say this but I’m feeling sorry for Ruth now while Jennifer is clearly being on full asshole mode. I hope Ruth doesn’t go into self destruction again.
I hear the stiumuls bill finally passed? In what form? Did someone slap some decency into Manchin, or did the centrists cave to the right?
Act
There was compromise involving lower unemploymemt for a longer time (300/mo thru Sept IIRC), some of that untaxed, no movement forward on raising minimum wage, and lower caps on the direct checks. The center-left like Manchin won here, basically. As a progressive/far leftie it’s not everything I was hoping for but frankly good enough. Manchin is a far lesser evil than the Bad Cheeto Man
Thanks.
I think I’m most disappointed with how many people in the comments still call Jennifer Billie.
Someone says they don’t go by a name anymore and you still call them that you are an asshole.
Seems like an over simplification, but I do agree that we should all be calling her Jennifer (and not doing things like insisting that she “earn it”).
I agree but we called her Billie for ten years.
It’s not like she’s adopted a new name of great significance to her, like it’s not Booster being incredibly specific that they need to be referred to as Booster because whatever they used to be called it sure as hell doesn’t matter now. If Walky were to stop calling himself that it’d take some time to adjust too.
Like if it’s just “that’s been her name in-comic forever” then that’s one thing, but if it is coming from a place where she needs to “earn” being called Jennifer like Yumi suggests then yeah that’s BS.
The only curiosity Ihave about the name “Booster” is that they were very adamant about it being “JUST Booster”. What, was their previous roommate calling them “booster gold” or something?
Most likely Booster was being deadnamed and misgendered by their previous roommate, given how Booster describes their time with him.
More like we’ve been calling her Billie for 20+ years.
Nobody read Roomies.
Roomies is so bad I leave out the exclamation mark that I consistently write for It’s Walky! and Shortpacked! for it is unworthy.
She was in It’s Walky! in some significant roles, though, and Joyce & Walky! People read those! So like, 15 years or more.
Yeah, I make the adjustment but my brain still sometimes goes straight to Billie and I start typing it before catching myself. Especially since we’re still bringing her up on the Walkyverse reruns from time to time, and there of course she’s Billie. Like, I’ll do it, and I could see this sticking long-term even as some of the other changes to her life don’t, but it’s a thing my brain has to catch myself on.
Sure, sure,… you are technically correct. And 9 or 10 weeks is not enough time for my old brain to flip name info that is 9 years strong, in a webcomic. I have trouble with Robert changing his name to Saul 25 years on… I knew him as Robert for 30 years, so… I understand the problem: …I hate my brain.
Like when Sen. Cruz filed to have his name changed to Palpatine! How am I supposed to remember that?
This is insulting to Palpatine, come on.
Strictly speaking you’re right but I think a large part of it in this particular situation – besides it being a comic where the person can’t actually be hurt by us – is that the Big Changes in her life feel forced/fake. Billie was always selfish and shortsighted but Jennifer is seemingly in denial and using that as a weapon to boot
I…I don’t think it’s our place to decide whether someone changing their name is of great significant or not or if it feels forced or not(I’d say there’s a fine line between forced and intentional but that’s besides the point). At some point Jennifer decided that the name Billy didn’t fit her and that should be that.
idk, even if she’s fictional and can’t be hurt I think in situations like this we should think of how we would act to a real person. If someone I didn’t have the best of feelings for decided to go by a different name, I wouldn’t make less of an effort to call them by that name.
Couldn’t have said it better.
Imo if they’re cis and not a real person it doesn’t matter. If the character were trans and “billie” was a deadname, then I’d be with you
It’s not your place to decide whether you call somebody by the name they ask you to or not. That’s just respect.
For me, at least, it’s unintentional and accidental. I’m sure that’s the case for some of us, but I’ve seen some grossness with regards to ‘earning it’.
I don’t really understand why people are so against Jennifer when we don’t even know what it is Ruth did yet (and even Ruth appears to agree she was in the wrong.) obviously Jennifer is handling it in a messy way by completely trying to reinvent herself and cut old friends off, but it seems a bit fast to completely condemn her for not forgiving Ruth and for setting boundaries with her over something we clearly haven’t got the full story of yet.
Because in any conflict between two characters we must choose one to be an absolute monster. It’s in the commentariat by-laws.
Well that’s the problem, we’re judging based on what we know, and what we know is that:
– Ruth and Jennifer broke up.
– Jennifer is now with someone else we probably don’t like, segregating from the rest of the cast, and now treating her bisexuality as a silly phase.
Basically it’s just that Jennifer *looks* like more of the antagonist than Ruth does right now.
The last one is kinda a weird sticking point. We all come to terms with our sexuality in different ways. Her first real relationship that kinda confirmed her sexuality was not what she assumed was, well, a hot mess so that aspect of her identity is wrapped up in that and can make things difficult.
While it may be that in the few months we were away she realized she wasn’t actually bi, it does feel like this was someone caught up in her clean slate decision and if that’s the case, we shouldn’t make someone still coming to terms with their sexuality a demerit against them (even if she could’ve worded it a bit better). The time between realizing I was bi and accepting I was bi was a rough one
It’s only a demerit in the sense that a fictional character is doing something disagreeable, not that they’re bad people for doing it or that the issue itself isn’t complex, because I was making a broader point about how Ruth v. Jennifer is shaping up in how it depicts Jennifer as, potentially, it’s all still up in the air at the moment, the more antagonistic of the two.
I’m going to go out on a limb here and suggest that whatever’s going on here, it’s not the Jennifer isn’t actually bi. Denial is definitely a thing and it’s not unreasonable for her to have trouble accepting it, but she’s not going to turn out not to be bisexual in the end.
Especially for a character who has never had any trouble acknowledging her sexual attraction to women, even in our glimpses of her high school past.
My vote is SORTA like this, with a difference: Jennifer moved on, which means their precious lesbian ship is now taking large amounts of water. I posit the reaction would be EXACTLY the same if Jennifer were dating literally any dude.
This is ANOTHER problem with depicting bi characters in media (a topic already touched in the comments some days ago) – no matter what type of relationship they’re in, fans of the other type are going to break out the torches and pitchforks.
As the kind of person who was extremely tilted by the sinking of Danny/Amber, because all my bisexual fiction involves doomed relationships when you’re with another gender but eternal perfect happiness when with the same, I get it.
The problem isn’t any particular writing of a bi character outside of egregious and unacceptable stereotyping the problem is that there are so little meaningful bi characters that we’re kind of fighting over the few that are around.
what did she do?
Go back on drinking? cheat? i doubt that one….it must have been alcohol with these two
In an absolute worst case scenario? Ruth relapsed into drinking and physically/sexually assaulted Jennifer. For me, that would be an ABSOLUTE dealbreaker for any relationship.
Do we know what happened between them? Like, from Patreon or something? Because I don’t remember reading an actual account of their falling out.
Nope. It’s a mystery.
1. We have special insight as the audience into who Asher is but unless Walky, Sal, or Amber told her that he called the cops on Sal (and nobody but us knows he’s in the mob) he’s just a smooth talking cool kid who rides a motorcycle. We can’t blame Jennifer for not knowing
2. At the very least it seems like both Ruth and Jennifer accept that Ruth did something to get the ball rolling on the breakup. Until more info comes out I don’t think it’s fair to assume that Jennifer is twisting it and Ruth is just wrongly blaming herself. Both of them were making progress at the end of the last arc (both have made mistakes and backslid in the past), neither seem to be in a particular bad place right now, and it’s obvious they still care for each other very much despite the bristles, or they wouldn’t be genuinely making sure the other is doing okay.
A small caveat – Jennifer was the Walkerton twins’ babysitter, so she probably ran around in the same circles and is probably aware of Asher’s past. Then again, Jennifer is the one that gave us this strip:
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2016/comic/book-6/04-it-all-returns/nina/
(which will forever remain one of my favourites due to the sequence of Sal faces) and “Sal is Amazi-Girl” for, like, forever, so we’re not exactly talking about the sharpest tool in the shed.
Jennifer wasn’t the Walkerton twins’ babysitter. She’s the same age they are. She was their substitute sister, so it’s more like the Walkerton parents acted as babysitter for her much of the time.
The only babysitter connection I’m aware of is in the Walkyverse, but even there it was Ruth, not Billie. And she was sitting for Walky and Billie, iirc.
Yeah, Sal was babyswapped and the twin Walky knew for most of his life was Beef, a complete nonentity. Ruth would have babysat him along with Walky and Billie.
One point re: 1 – Sal knows his family are mobsters, but as far as we’ve seen, the story she knows is that he stole money and is out. (‘All his money is under the table.’ https://www.dumbingofage.com/2019/comic/book-10/01-birthday-pursuit/wiggly/ ) Given she hangs out with AG, she MIGHT know Blaine was a mob stooge, possibly even which specific organization, but that’s pure conjecture. Either way, it’s seriously unlikely she’d connect that to ‘so he blackmailed Asher into helping with the kidnapping, and Asher tipped off the mob to kill Blaine.’ Certainly not offscreen. I doubt Sal told Jennifer about any of it – she doesn’t like snitches, was on decent terms with Asher when they interacted onscreen, and anyway I doubt Jennifer would take it well. Walky, on the other hand, could very well have butted in when he saw them getting close. (I could very easily see Jennifer already knowing about it from Asher and just getting annoyed with Walky in that scenario – can’t you see
we’vehe’s changed?) Either way, it’s not her fault for not knowing the stuff he’s almost certainly not told ANYONE – that he’s still in contact with underlings, at minimum, and that he was involved in the kidnapping and Blaine’s subsequent death.I agree re: Jennifer and Ruth breakup. I can see it being a hot mess for both involved, but the information we have is that it was Ruth who started it. (Now, I could see Jennifer bringing up some idea that Ruth reacted to badly enough to start a big blowout fight – suggesting they needed to do something about Clint assuming the topic wasn’t off-limits, or goodnatured ribbing about the Leafs that Ruth in the downturn we know happened based off the new meds took poorly – but the key there would be that Jennifer hadn’t actually done anything out of line in and of itself, and it was Ruth’s reaction that made for a breakup-worthy offense.)
I also think it’s very interesting that Becky still seems to be on good terms with both of them – we haven’t seen her with Jennifer much, but she wasn’t surprised to see Becky being obnoxiously positive – but nonetheless doesn’t think they should be a couple to the point of apparent sabotage. Wouldn’t be shocked if it were a depressive thing, given that.
People can crap on this all they want, but see them at least being amicable towards each other, is a good thing. Until Willis tells us the story, picking a side is, well, dumb. A breakup, like everything else in a relationship, is rarely one sided.
I know this is gonna weird to say (I’m a long time reader, I just never commented.) but I’m glad that Jennifer and Ruth broke. I’m a wlw but I found their relationship to be VERY toxic, codependent and physically abusive at times. Yes Billie was an alcoholic and Ruth was depressed with anger issues but two wrongs don’t make a right relationship. Like they had a suicide pact and would’ve died for eachother if Carla didn’t let the higher up know. Of course Asher is definitely NOT the right choice and Jennifer doesn’t know it yet (and still has her issues to work out) , but after she breaks up with Asher (which probably might happen) I still don’t want her and Ruth getting back together.
HOLY FUCKING SHIT, ALABAMA!
Heart out to transfolk. 8(
I know, I hope everyone stays safe. I don’t know how useful this stuff is but here’s some stuff that hopefully can help: https://www.transgendermap.com/resources/usa/alabama/
HELP THEM PLEASE
THEY’RE SO GAY