Discussion (151) ¬
[ Comments RSS ]
Gwen Snyder is uncivil @gwensnyder.bsky.social ⋅ 17h
Ash Parrish @adashtra.bsky.social ⋅ 1d
Katie @katiestp.bsky.social ⋅ 1d
Hunter S Schafer @bolt451.bsky.social ⋅ 2d
DaisyFM ✒︎ @daisyfm.net ⋅ 2d
preternia @preternia.com ⋅ 2d
Hunter S Schafer @bolt451.bsky.social ⋅ 2d
Loading ...
(he/him)
⚧
New game! BOLTED 
Later:
Jennifer: “I KNEW you were into that shit!!”
“This could be the start of a beautiful relation-shit.”
What an odd way to spell train wreck.
*Shit Wreck
Things seem to be going well so far. Also I still don’t care about Halloween. Nice try tho.
Well, good news, because there’s definitely going to be at least one extended flashback sequence.
Bets. My money is on Willis just keeps dangling Halloween at us.
Not touching that one.
I can’t take that bet. I’m between jobs and also I already owe somebody here five bucks, for something I can’t remember.
I’m pretty sure Halloween is going to be a noodle incident for a good bit, until Jennifer and/or Ruth recount their sides in flashback sequences. Whether we see an actual flashback sequence from an objective viewpoint, I’m still 50/50 on that.
Until then, we can only speculate on the cast’s Halloween costumes.
So the first flashback is like https://www.dumbingofage.com/2016/comic/book-6/02-that-perfect-girl/stash/ but redrawn with Halloween costumes?
Each wearing half a two-person dinosaur costume.
They wore the same one as Becky and Dina. That was awkward.
How did all four of them fit in it?
Very snugly.
And much trying to work out who’s hand that was.
Maybe if we clap hard enough, we’ll get a Halloween flashback….
I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t curious as to what exactly caused the breakup
Jennifer: Ruth, there must be some mistake. The toilet paper in your bathroom is in the holder “underhand style”
Ruth: Oh yeah, I prefer it that way.
(Kill Bill Music)
+1 You can never go wrong with that music in a situation like that.
Wait, what’s wrong with toilet paper being hung under? It makes it way harder for toddler or pets to destroy an entire roll.
~toddlers. That was supposed to be plural, damnit.
OR, you could take the tp off the roller and put it somewhere the little animals Can’t get it to destroy it, like a civilized person. Or you could be a villain I guess.
What’s the excuse if there are no toddlers or pets in the house, or your pet is like a horned lizard or budgerigar or something that can’t spool out the roll?
My excuse is that it literally doesn’t matter and this whole debacle about toilet paper has confused me since I first learned about it a couple years ago.
Plus our TP is kept pretty high up and it’s easier to get to when it’s hung under than over.
There is none. They are simply a masochist who wants to make taking their tp harder
A man of thought and reason I see.
Nuance about toilet paper impossible./s
I’m still betting Ruth wasn’t nearly as much to blame for their breakup as Jennifer (and Ruth apparently too) seems to think.
Yeah, I wouldn’t be surprised to find out the self-described alpha bongo cheerleader who’s all about perception and optics offloaded responsibility with a good dose of gaslighting.
honestly, if we never find out, i won’t mind.
No! Don’t clap! I really hope we never get a Halloween flashback. That’s defeats the whole point of a timeskip! If Halloween was that important we should be reading about that instead of this. (Just my opinion though, I completely understand why some people would desire the Halloween flashback)
I mean, the robbery was pretty important, but we still got flashbacks.
If you’re talking about the gas station incident with Sal and Amber and Ethan and such, I don’t think that’s a very fair comparison. That event basically set the foundation for the entire first ten year story of DoA and its major climax. Maybe a decade from now I’ll eat my words, but I doubt couples breaking up has as much significance.
I doubt it’ll have AS much significance, but it clearly has some significance to Walky, Amber, Jennifer and Ruth and it’s being referenced as something significant. That merits seeing what happened, especially since a fuckton of exposition gets boring.
It’s very interesting to me how people read things differently. To me it’s the exact opposite. It doesn’t seem that significant to any of the characters involved. Walky didn’t seem effected by the breakup at all, if anything he’s doing way better post Halloween. He got hotter and has a new potential romance in the works. Amber also doesn’t seemed to have changed in anyway and is still fairly amicable with Walky. So to me their breakup really doesn’t seem that important.
Ruth and Jennifer does have more intrigue especially since Ruth seems to miss her and I admit early on I was a bit curious, but things have moved on since then. I’m way more invested in if she’ll connect with Daisy then why she and Jennifer aren’t an item. They both seem fine. In fact most of the cast seem fairly normal compared to before the time skip. To me that means that the details of what happened during probably aren’t that big a deal.
We only saw the robbery sequence in full, from the audience’s perspective (not tinted by any one character’s perception) in 2018, eight years into DoA’s run.
I hope the Halloween conflict is revealed sooner than that. The robbery was load-bearing, the breakup is just a partition wall.
Not a fan of in medias res?
huh! now that you put it like that i guess i am a fan of in media res type stories. i love it when backstories are dropped in cryptic allusions. I love when small details, a stare, a silence, an elliptical turn of phrase, convey huge looming secrets or stakes, when you know there’s an elephant in the room but you just sort of have to guess what it is about… I think on the one hand it just feels more naturalistic, but probably also i enjoy the detective work of trying to piece together what might have happened?! =)
As one example, I recently saw Sound of Metal, the way it spaces out the background elements of the protagonists’ lives and drops them right when learning about them will be most impactful. it’s beautiful. I also love Alice Munro’s short stories, same sort of style.
A fun thing about stories is that you can tell them out of order, show the effect before the cause, and create a different sort of drama than you would if you showed those events in chronological order.
I understand it. But to me it kind of softens some of the impact of the time skip. Right now we’re seeing a new status quo and new stories. Daisy’s getting some more time and development and I’m getting invested in this date. I no longer care why Jennifer and Ruth broke up.
If I’m not mistaken, One Piece pulled off quite a major time skip with a couple of flashbacks, and its storytelling is decompressed even further.
That’s wild to me about how differently people can feel about a storyline! I honestly thought the time skip was there so the new storyline could start on the anniversary of the comic. Its impact was to leave me wondering what happened, and I very much care as to why things are so different and what we are missing :0
This ^^
Damn the plot! I just want to see everybody’s costumes!
Getting into a relationship with Ruth would have tons of warnings if it were packaged in a bottle.
On the bright side, Ruth is no longer packaged in a bottle.
That made me chuckle.
Daisy, if you could stop channeling me, that’d be great
…
Does…
Does their awkwardness cancel each other out?
Somehow it does seem to be functioning that way
There are the roots of we can be garbage together, but I’m not sensing the chemistry.
Together, they make one functional person.
Yeah, one fully dis-functional person. Source: it takes one to know one.
slash labradoodle
Hard to be awkward when you’re too occupied with either being self-deprecating or a person-pleaser.
The Awkwardness is palpable with these two.
It’s also kinda cute.
I can’t help but wonder if this won’t be the most stable relationship for either or both of them for some time to come.
Here’s hopin’…
Heck, who knows, maybe both Ruth/Daisy and Walky/Lucy will both end up working out.
Stranger things have happened, I guess.
If we don’t get a flashback to what happened at some point, I will lose my mind.
Unrelated to that, this date is already going better than I expected. Maybe it won’t end terribly? Am I being too hopeful?
Seriously, what the hell was
NamekHalloween?Interesting how Ruth seems to be equating the breakup to the totality of the relationship itself.
I approve of your reference, and yeah, Ruth seems to be taking it out on herself without any good reason(that we know of.)
I get that reference
I also get your reference
*the jukebox switches to some Duran Duran*
So now we’ve got TWO breakups that confirmedly happened on Timeskip Halloween
Eh, those are rookie numbers. Back in my dorm if there weren’t at least 3 breakups and two drunks passed out in the lounge by the end of Halloween night, the whole thing was considered a bust
We’ve got two confirmed break-ups.
I forget, was the second one Amber and Walky?
Yeah.
Dina and Becky also broke up that night, but Dina mainly did it to follow social cues, they got back together the next morning.
Becky is still insecure about it, and refuses to acknowledge it happened.
I love tis. These two are such goofuses. I’ve definitely seen dates start worse.
As long as there’s no vomiting then it should be better than my worst date.
Ugh. Please don’t remind me of Europe. It should have been such a nice trip.
No, the traditional roommate initiation ritual involves a headbutt to the crotch, then vomiting.
(It’s an old, OLD QC reference.)
I remember tnat, good times. For us at least.
Ahhh back before Jaques realized that Faye and Martin was literally the worst possible pairing of any members of his cast. I’m so happy that they’re both now with better partners than they would have been for each other. Though as a trans lesbian who thinks robots are neat, I might be biased.
I think Hannelore is about to remind Dora why her relationship with Marten fell apart. She’s slipping into her prying, gossipy habits again.
Could just be you’ve got good taste in webcomics rather than being biased. Hell, as a bisexual man who also thinks robots are neat I definitely squeed waaaaay too loud when Faye and Bubbles finally got together.
Honestly, I would’ve liked to see them try and fail instead of the whole cockteasing, borderline-misogynistic-at-times, passive aggressive will-they-or-won’t-they that we got.
This is honestly probably not the worst ice breaker, somehow. Getting this stuff out of the way before the pizza arrives might be a gameplan.
also, airing out potential dealbreakers up front is good form
I know Jennifer is the one who hooked them up but I would probably never recommend starting a conversation for a first date by talking about each other’s ex’s.
Well, Jennifer set this all up, and is the one person they both have a connection with, so she’s probably going to come up.
Here’s hoping Daisy doesn’t talk about her last ex too much. A shoebox full of pictures of Amazi-Girl makes for an awkward mealtime topic.
Ruth was already supposedly self-sabotaging, so tit for tat.
Then again, dual self-sabotage sounds a little too much like mutually assured [self-]destruction and Ruth JUST got out of the lesbian suicide pact dynamic…
“I will date you because I have no better alternative” is not a healthy way to begin a relationship. Why, yes I DO know this from personal experience, why do you ask?
This remember me that one of the most beautiful, sweet and poetic Italians love songs literally start saying “I fell in love with you, because I had nothing better to do”.
“no better alternatives” is a rather different creature than “nothing better to do”.
@Rabisch i imagine you are referring to this song
nice!
..but i don’t think that’s really what he’s saying?
“mi sono innamorato di te perché non avevo niente da fare; il giorno, volevo qualcuno da incontrare; la notte, volevo qualcosa da sognare”
it sounds to me like he’s saying “because i had nothing to do” as in “because my life was empty” not “nothing better to do” as in, “falling in love? eh why not”. it’s… sort of the same thing maybe, but it’s not quite the same mood!
(unless we are talking about a different song
(Also Demoted is right, this i still not quite what’s happening here)
Yes, This song by Luigi Tenco. One of the most beautiful and deep love songs i know. You’re right in the interpretarion. Start a love song saing something like that, so powerful!
Eight years into a relationship that basically started exactly that way, I can’t necessarily disagree.
I don’t ship them but I do want them to fuck.
i’m generally in favor of sex-positive people who aren’t jerks getting laid
oops that could be a confusing parse. i’m in favor of sex happening between non-jerky, sex-positive people.
But… but… if they’re jerking, aren’t they pre-empting getting laid? I mean, I’m pretty sex positive and am positive I’m not getting laid so rely on being jerky.
you can jerk before/during/after getting laid! You can get laid, without anything to jerk in sight! Embrace as many jerky possibilities as you wish.
Just keep the food type of jerky out of the equation.
They sure look cute together.
Indeed.
They both deserve to be happy (whether Ruth believes it or not).
I wonder if Mike died on Halloween. It seems like a lot of shit went down that night.
Mike just wanted to attend as a ghost.
You saying Mike ghost the halloween party?
ugh. ghosted… Mike ghosted the halloween party.
Mike died?????????
That’s the cover story. Jennifer dating Asher to investigate his role in the kidnapping and Amber’s father’s death is pure coincidence.
oh of course, jennifer followed her amazing reporter’s intuition
She does have great intuition.
Unless there’s a surprise twist, yes.
Daisy’s smile in panel two is so sweet and cute that make me hope this date will be a success. Maybe Ruth has do the most stupid thing during Halloween, but it’s time to move on and Daisy seems perfectly fine with Ruth. Let’s hope even Ruth will be perfectly fine with Daisy ♡.
Even if they don’t become a couple, it seems like a very healthy experience for them
I think they’re cute. I want to Ruth to experience someone actually enjoying her as a person, instead of finding an external version of her self-hatred.
Things are… still going well?
I will be forever annoyed we didn’t get to see Halloween Shenanigans. Stupid time jump…
Same, and I’m definitely hoping for a flashback or two to see some of what we missed.
Oh, no. So, this is a theory but…
…Is this, basically, Anna/Mindy?
Ruth has yet to display the casual hostility that seems to be Anna’s thing. also i don’t think Anna would be so upfront about her insecurities, and in fact doesn’t seem particularly insecure at all.
…But i agree Daisy is Mindy so far. yeah
No, Nono. This is Ruth/Daisy. You can tell because one keeps putting her foot in her mouth, and the other is a self-sabotaging hockey fan.
At this point in time, I’m seeing Leslie/Mindy vibes. Two people who are quite different, but too similar to really work. But it’s early days yet.
Daisy, how the hell did you become the editor of the paper?
I mean, sure, you could be great at managing and cutting other people’s writing, but surely you had to start as a reporter? Or do you manage to avoid phrasings like this when you’re writing?
Editting. Much harder to do on the fly verbally.
That’s why I like these comments. You can proofread before clicking “Post Comment”!
(Of course they can still end up out of place, or HTML gets broken somehow, or I end up having to clarify three times anyway because I’m a big stupid dumb-dumb, but still.)
Appropriate avatar is appropriate.
I don’t know much about college papers, but she might have started in proofreading or lower editing, rather than in reporting, before being promoted up.
Whatever happened on Halloween why the hell does Ruth think the breakup,is her fault? Bille/Jennifer already started pulling away before that.
I still have a feeling that the breakup might be more Jennifer’s fault than Ruth’s.
Oh, fuckin’ absolutely.
I have a feeling it involves Ruth blowing up at Billie over resuming drinking and not taking care of her mental health issues.
It’s possible, but would seem weird narratively. We left them with that neatly tied up and while relapses certainly happen, I don’t think it works in this case. Especially offscreen.
It just feels like “Oh that character development arc we just did? Forget that. Didn’t matter.”
There have also been other hints about Ruth having trouble. She said something about changing her medication and she’s also talked a couple of times about drinking.
Neatly tied up? With Billie still drinking and lying about therapy?
Billie stopped drinking, went through withdrawal and started therapy.
We didn’t actually see a therapy session, so it’s possible that she was lying about that, but it was presented as if she had and as part of the same shift that had her stop drinking – after the scene where Ruth drank again at Galasso’s and got taken to the hospital.
A lot of people seem to have completely blocked that arc out.
I’m going with Varangian’s theory that Clint came back and Ruth downplayed Jennifer in front of him.
Why do you think Jennifer was pulling away before that?
I mean, she did a couple storylines back, but that got resolved, along with her quitting booze and starting therapy. We left them in a good place before the timeskip.
She could have reverted to that before Halloween, but I don’t think we’ve got any reason to think so.
I think there’s plenty of blame to be shared, but Billiefer deflected most of hers onto Ruth. (Probably through gaslighting or just reframing her own actions.)
Depression and self-loathing shipped with Social Looney Tunes Awkardness.
This is gonna be wild.
Insert doom reference
Oh, Daisy. Wish you weren’t so fuckin awkward bud.
Oh, Daisy. I’m so glad you’re so unbelievably awkward.
We’re two strips in and Daisy already assumes they’re in a relationship!
Probably, she has a U-Haul parked outside as well.
Oh no they’re kind of cute.
This is going better than I expected so far, but I’m sure there’s still plenty of chances for one or both of them to fuck this up. Though I’m hoping Ruth and Daisy at least make it through this date okay.
No seriously, what the hell happened during Halloween ?
Something major it seems. Either that or Willis just sadistically enjoys dangling references to what we missed and can’t have in front of us.
It’s hard to guess.
it seems to have broken at least 2 couples so far
and…there’s always more halloween
Not in Dumbing of Age though, barring flashbacks or a timeskip that would put the (roughly) three months skipped between Season 1 and Season 2 to shame.
Ruth: fair warning, i’m a dumpster fire and i hate myself.
Daisy: that’s cool, i’m a horndog with zero standards.
*warm smiles*
OTP material, right there.
(No seriously, they’re both cute and deserve better than they had before.)
Wait until you get to 16 years. By then you will diffinately agree.
Uh…that was directed at Delicious Taffy waaaayyy upthread. (I’l just show myself out)
Noting that the first two comments on this comic quickly divided the comments section into two camps: those who really don’t care what happened during Halloween, and those who REALLY DO care what happened during Halloween.
Me, I just want to see the cast in costume. I don’t think that’s unreasonable.
Huh, I meant Sirksome’s and Wagstaff’s comments, which are actually second and third. Ana always ghosts in at #1, so my brain just kinda ignored them.
I just wanna hear Willis carping about drawing costumes.
Against all odds I really want this to work.
This could be a fun ship
I support this ship because I am all about the anti-Ruth and Billie ship.
LET IT BURN AND SINK.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXYM6-X8c3o