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Kendra, regular version @kendrawcandraw.bsky.social ⋅ 6h
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“wasn’t that more than a week ago? NO ONE remembers THAT anymore”
once had an ex decide to casually swing by* when we were watching our show live (back in the ancient days of cable) and Ex TALKED THROUGH THE SHOW and so I’m *kinda* feeling aggravated by Panel 1 Leslie
*(Ex asked Spouse, who said it was ok for Ex to come over ARHGHGHGHGHG but at least we’ve moved past that EVER HAPPENING AGAIN… by MOVING)
… to be fair, I’m pretty sure this is Leslie’s house.
Oh, wait, this is the lounge, my bad.
I can’t imagine at **all** why they’re your EX. One of mine, when they couldn’t sleep, would lift their arms up, and DROP them on the mattress. Over and over. Naturally, they weren’t who was getting up at 4:30 (yes, a.m.) to drive to work at 5.
so
Ex would get up before I did and leave the light on while I was still trying to sleep
I asked, “Could you turn off the light after you get up?”
Ex THEN moved into a different room and told people, “[Ana] kicked me out of the bedroom”
…
nope, dunno why we broke up!
Look, I’m not trying to be down on Leslie here, but if you’ve got Steve Rogers as one parent and Wade Wilson as the other (someone has written that fanfic, probably Amber), which one do you talk to about Sexy Mistakes?
Becky will come to you when she needs to know how to file taxes, Leslie, or cook something that isn’t Easy Mac. Let Robin take this one. Her her life has been a Sexy Mistake.
Fun New Mom and Boring New Mom.
Leslie’s the new lesbian pseudo-mom. I think Robin’s more like a wacky pansexual aunt you confide in so you don’t get in trouble.
I can see that.
Yes, better, thank you.
That deffs works for me in the context of DoA.
Becky may also be subconsciously (but it’s Becky, come on) avoiding telling Leslie because she views her as coming from the “same” background but is more stable than her.
Actually, I think Becky probably WOULD have told Leslie, but between when she saw Robin and when she saw Leslie, she had a crisis of relationship by wondering if Dina is really attracted to her or if she is attracted to someone else and only acting on it with her since they are dating. That worry sorta took the wind out of her pseudo-bragging sails.
This sounds like the cast of a mid-90s sitcom.
Yes it does, doesn’t it?
(and that’s when at least one of them looks directly at the camera.)
Kinda like Aunt Hilda and Aunt Zelda – from the Melissa Joan Hart version of Sabrina the Teenage Witch…
Frankly I would avoid talking to a amoral and insane mercenary for advice of any sort. Bad advice is probably the best case scenario there.
“amoral and insane mercenary”
We know Robin was a republican, no need to be redundant.
I immediately regretted saying ‘insane’ instead of the more specific ‘dangerously unhinged’ but I guess that wouldn’t rule out a republican either.
Y’see, this is why we need an upvote system for this webcomic’s comments section. This comment thread deserves commemoration with an upvote.
I’d upvote that….
Upvotes exist on patreon!
Do they?
Or is that like the hot tubs airlines were supposed to have in first class.
I feel this comparison to Republicans is unfair to Deadpool.
yeah, and I wouldn’t trust Deadpool with my secrets either
Yeah, I was going to have Tony as my pick for “Fun Dad”, as he makes much more sense as a foil parent for Steve (and Amber DEFINITELY has written that fic).
But the truth is that Human Disaster Tony Stark still has his shit together far more than Robin. Whereas I can easily see Wade just crashing on Steve’s couch against his wishes and bingeing on cartoons.
I’d chill with comparing conservative politicians to Deadpool.
I can only imagine he’d make the same face Sal did here https://www.dumbingofage.com/2016/comic/book-6/04-it-all-returns/nina/
Yeah. eeesh! Both midpanel faces. Unable to do them himself(mask), or concurrently, would he just use two decapitated bad-guys and stage them though? Or would he really do a mundane panel 1 then panel 2 sequence? Or does he manage to actually emote through his mask?
I mean, if the advice you want is a long the lines of “how to I make this problem better/worse by the addition of multiple corpses,” I think you’ll get some pretty good advice. It’s just a matter of perspective.
Just ask their advice, and then do pretty much anything else.
I mean, a mistake that you’re happy about can also be about eating a truly tooth-murdering amount of sweets. Speaking from experience, yo.
I understand. I know I have the sugar-monkey on my back because if there was such a thing as a monkey made entirely out of processed sugar, I would probably eat it.
Don’t get confused by the Robin trolling Les. It’s because Becky actually respects you.
Yeah my impression and I could be wrong is that Becky actually cares what Leslie thinks of her, while with Robin she doesn’t.
That’s been my read, too. Her relationship with Leslie has stakes.
Eh, only really a “mistake” in the eyes of the voters Robin went out of her way to please.
Just how convicted was she in her ultra-conservative views anyway?
I mean Robin had absolutely no views and was solely in it to make money. She became a Republican to get elected.
It’s just she was confronted by people other than her sister that her policies were horrifying and harmful.
“All that is solid melts into air….”
What\Who is that a quote from. Its a good one.
*It’s.
Karl Marx
Was it Karl? I knew it was one of the Marx Brothers.
The other brother was the artist who did the mural of an expanding market chasing the bourgeoisie.
I think Marx was inspired by 2 Peter 3:10:
“But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.”
The Communist Manifesto.
unsurprisingly false
I do believe it’s Shakespeare’s _A Midsummer Night’s Dream_.
Except it’s inaccurate. That’s be sublimation, not melting.
:p
It’s a translation
All that glitters is gold, only shooting stars break the mold.
A better fit would might be “The ice we skate is getting pretty thin”
Hey now.
Robin liked the prestige and the money but had no real partisan conviction beyond cynical self-interest. She easily could have played for the other party without any change in her character.
–I am a pirate, two hundred years too late
The cannon don’t thunder
There ain’t nuthin’ to plunder
I’m an over forty victim of fate
Arriving too late…
I recognize the quote but my poor memory for names renders me incapable of attributing the quote. I have the vague feeling a one Jimmie Buffet used it in album notes or something but nothing concrete.
Yes, Jimmy Buffet, “A Pirate Looks at Forty”. My reply to the question, ‘name a song that reminds you of your father’, a few days ago.
“For I am a Pirate King-”
“He is! Hurrah for the Pirate King!”
“-And it is, it is a glorious thing
To be a Pirate King.”
I mean… you could just ask her. I do not know exactly how Becky would respond, but I feel like she would give you a straightforward answer. Whether the answer is what you want or not, she would give an answer.
Secreting of Age
There’s an ethical question here that even I wouldn’t mess with or mention
Good thing you didn’t mention it.
When I go back on a computer later where I can see what the double underlines are, I may be sorry I mentioned it.
Poor Willis.
I actually wish he’d write a book about the creation of his comics. I’d not only buy it, I’d help him get it published. I would love to hear the whole story about how Robin’s storyline went so disastrously wrong.
How do you know Robin’s storyline went wrong?
Just a guess.
If I’m wrong, I’d still love to read the behind the scenes.
I mean, Robin went from a character I was ambivalent about in Shortpacked to one I actively despise in Dumbing of Age, so if her storyline was meant to be endearing or relatable it completely failed.
I think she’s human with endearing moments, or times she did the right thing at personal cost, but we’re not likely meant to be terribly sympathetic to her the majority of the time. Like with Mike, that’s probably in part because Shortpacked Robin pulled some really wild shit she’d get easily forgiven by the universe for, it was more of a cartoon, but both of them had to adapt to a setting where they can’t just be the same.
Robin is basically like if Daffy Duck was a real person. You can’t really throw that into DoA and expect her to be always easy to be around, so I think Willis has handled that transition well and is good at using her sparingly accordingly.
I think “if Daffy Duck were a real person” is a good analogy for Robin.
Though now I’m wondering who the Bugs Bunny would be in this universe.
Walky’s not smooth enough.
Dorothy’s not childish enough.
Joyce isn’t relaxed enough.
I need to think about this some more, but the closest I can think of is Carla, but that doesn’t quite fit, either.
Robin is a Looney Tunes character in an alleged college slice of life comic. Like Carla. That’s what is enjoyable about the two characters.
Carla was wearing the gloves, last time we saw her.
this is probably personal preference, but I genuinely struggle to find anything to like about Robin. She’s just an awful person who skated her way through life and somehow fell ass backwards into a cushy job; and then proceeded to throw people under the bus to keep that job.
At least with Mike, he wasn’t meant to be comedically wacky and he certainly didn’t act like he thought he was the good guy all along. He was an asshole and he identified as one.
Robin acts and talks like she lives in a romantic comedy and it’s aggravating to watch her try to be cute after all the shit she pulled.
I think what makes Robin work for me where Mike didn’t is Robin experiences some level consequences for her behaviour. Mike’s friends largely just enabled him to be a jerk, but Leslie dumped Robin for her shit.
In my case, as I happen to be related to someone who Robin reminds me of in a lot of ways so it’s almost a sense of, “oh thank god other people see the wtf of the behaviour of these types” as well, and I’ve found it really nice to see Robin, at least, not be able to sweet talk her way out of all consequences.
I think Robin just doesn’t think about what she is doing. I believe she is totally unaware of being “an awful person” and it wouldn’t even make any sense to her if you told her.
You think Robin is a sociopath?
Why would her storyline be meant to be endearing or relatable?
I think Robin needed to be recalibrated starting in 2016. Nobody expected the next few years to play out the way they did, but here we are. I honestly don’t know what the story could’ve done with Robin if she followed the real-world Republican goose-step toward extremism.
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2016/comic/book-6/04-it-all-returns/tinyhands/
“Look Les, this was originally supposed to take place in 2010, when you could almost believe that there were Republicans who weren’t Nazis if you squinted reeeally hard! It’s not my fault the sliding timescale hates me!”
“The Trump joke was funny before OHMYGODHEACTUALLYGOTELECTED. EARTH IS GOING TO BURN.”
Yeah. She was originally a Sarah Palin parody who made Roz’s life hard because people thought sexual autonomy made Roz a “hellbound slut” and Robin was trying to force her to conform.
Then the politicians we loved to make fun of in the news shifted and she became a parody of Ted Cruz/Marco Rubio/Trump and they started taking it a little more seriously with her voting for anti-gay legislation (that thankfully didn’t pass) under the guise of religious liberty.
And then one of them became the president and it stopped being funny really fast.
Essentially, making fun of the Right Wing is hilarious until they have a gun at your head.
They’ve had a gun at my head over my religion since the mid-90s. They’ve defaced and desecrated my places of worship, attacked and wounded with intent to cripple members of my faith, and tried to murder us. At least my attempted murder was for something unrelated, riding a bicycle on the road.
It was George W. that turned me on it when they legalized torture.
Yep. For some of us it’s never been funny. For some of us it still is and those damn “”woke”” kids these days are ruining everything.
But for a growing number it’s getting to the point that even making fun of the people who still find it funny is just grating and saddening, and so Robin has kinda… become awkward.
I dunno… at the very least there’s a contingent of right-wing lunatics who aren’t all that homophobic, aren’t there?
The Log Cabin Republicans actually had to write a statement saying, “Okay, guys, we may have to reevaluate our position since the Texas GOP just put it on their agenda to wipe out homosexuality.”
I actually meant QAnon types. For all their faults, they’re less homophobic than tradcons.
Fun fact: I was on 4chan when the Qanon flash game/fanfic game appeared. Watching it become this massive conspiracy theory and organization is a bit like America being threatened by Cobra Commander.
SOGGIES MAY RULE
Yeah, I remember when it was just a lot of weird gibberish, too. Honestly miss those days a little.
Well, QAnon is a mess of loosely linked conspiracy theories, so you don’t necessarily have to be homophobic to buy into it, but there’s a lot homophobic connections within it.
Just the weaponizing of pedophilia inevitably opens it to abuse.
Sure, but that wasn’t Robin. She was supporting anti-gay legislation.
I wonder if anyone else ever uses that faculty lounge.
Haha yes. I wonder if Robin has just moved in there now.
occasionally
I’d like Leslie and Robin to have a conversation about the fact that the latter sacrificed her career as a Congresswoman to help Becky.
Leslie: YOU IDIOT!
Yeah, okay, but I don’t think you can soft reboot your way out of her remembering the time you BROKE INTO HER HOUSE, Robin. Thaaaaat might require more elbow grease.
Its like Marvel comics, if it happened more than 5 years ago, it didn’t happen.
Leslie, Leslie. The fact is that Becky is Mom-zoning you by withholding significant personal events in her life. Becky has achieved some personal autonomy by making some choices and not having to explain, justify, or share them, and you have leveled up to true Mom status by not getting all the deets. Embrace the teen shut-out!
If there was ever any doubt that Robin is queer, none can exist now. She watches the gay pirate show™️
I don’t know how to tell you this, but I ALSO watched the gay pirate show (second season when, Waititititititititi?), and I’m not queer (well, possibly in the older meaning of the word), so that’s hardly an identifier.
(also, I have no idea who could have any doubt that Robin is queer)
Robin herself, maybe.
Oh wait, you said “doubt”, not “denial”. Never mind.
Well, I wasn’t discussing African hydrography.
The source of denial hasn’t been in doubt for some time now, so African hydrography isn’t that queer.
Though I guess you could argue white vs blue.
There some real irony to Becky trusting the former amoral conservative grifter over the out and proud lesbian with a background eerily similar to her own that’s a prime example that she can exist and thrive in a world at best the Robins of it are indifferent to her struggle while undermining her her life just cause it’s the easiest grift.
If Becky didn’t come into her life Robin would still be that terrible person who was okay slut shaming her sister in class for political points.
But I guess she’s kinda funny now and really sorry so sure.
It’s not really about trust though. Robin’s just easier to go to because she’s in no position to judge Becky in the first place. I will say Becky kind of doesn’t give her friends with fundamental Christian backgrounds much trust. She assumes Joyce will judge her for having sex too. Why?
But there’s also this strip: https://www.dumbingofage.com/2021/comic/book-11/03-see-you-in-the-funny-page/properly-2/
Robin has prior involvement, here.
Lol! That strip is painful for me. Robin must have rolled a nat 20 in her charisma check in that moment cause she legit rolled in after Leslie gave Becky real advice and said the vaguest and most generic nonsense and Becky fucking bought it! She internalized that and despite in reality doing what Leslie advised Robin got all the credit for it!
Robin’s charisma is like… Willis doesn’t get charisma better than Dorothy does, so Robin’s charisma is off and applies in a was disconnected from reality, because politicians’ charisma seems like magic, not reality, to Willis.
Leslie is very “mom”.
Robin is less an authority figure to her.
My guess is that Becky felt uncomfortable sharing that with her quote unquote mom. I mean, even when you’re on a good relationship with your parents, you don’t really want to share every sexual encounter with them.
I’m just gonna say it. Leslie’s a mom. Robin’s a friend or like a big sister or wine aunt. Leslie tells you to clean your room, and Robin asks if you’ve got any weed (so you can smoke together)
Oh right. I forgot how much of a bad taste DoA Robin puts in my mouth
I remain unconvinced that Becky thinks of Leslie as a mother-figure at all. Becky doesn’t seem to engage emotionally with Leslie or be particularly interested or invested in her. It’s a one-sided relationship that benefits Becky enough that she doesn’t feel like she should sever it, but for whatever reason Leslie cares a lot more about Becky than the other way around.
I disagree with the premise of this, but I do agree that Becky has kept a wall up with Leslie. Her mom killed herself, her dad kidnapped her and was murdered, and her previous school and entire hometown threw her to the wolves.
Becky has difficulty taking Leslie up on her kindness for long because safe, reliable family with no strings attached is virtually unprecedented for her. I am not trying to be cruel to Becky’s mother in saying that, she obviously had a terribly difficult life for it to end as it did, but she left Becky behind to pick up the pieces, which just… yeah, that’s not reliable or safe, either.
All that being considered, Becky’s done well letting Leslie in this much in a matter of months, but it’s going to be a process.
Becky doesn’t want to lose Leslie’s support by letting her down.
Personally the impression I get is she cares more about what Leslie thinks of her than Robin. Which makes it easier for her to be open with Robin.
This.
I think it’s because Becky HAD a mother and looks at Leslie as a big sister figure.
Leslie sees her as a student and more daughterly role.
if I was doing the most unkind reading of Becky’s character I would say that she took advantage of Leslie’s generosity until a better opportunity presented itself and then ditched Leslie like she was nothing.
we as the audience know it’s not true because we’re more privy to Becky’s personal thoughts and traumas, but yeah from an outsider’s perspective Becky just took advantage of the fact that Leslie didn’t want another homeless queer teen to suffer like she suffered, so she offered Becky everything she could afford to give or share with no strings attached. And Becky just took it and ran, without even saying thank you or goodbye.
Heck, even knowing Becky’s reasons to be jumpy, I still find her hella ungrateful
When did Becky tell Robin she made a mistake?
In this strip: https://www.dumbingofage.com/2022/comic/book-12/04-dont-stop-billie-ving/textbooks/
While they both have a point
One is definitely bigger than the other
I had to go back and reread the strip where Becky and Leslie talk, but it seems to me Becky’s residual values are kicking in and she doesn’t want to disappoint Leslie. Robin is the fun aunt or cool big sister whom she doesn’t have to worry about judging her.
This indicates to me that Becky thinks much more highly of Leslie and values her opinion more than Robin, even if she herself doesn’t realize she feels this way.
Leslie, Becky just wants to do a bit with you.
These two should get married.
boy do I have the comic strip for you!
Okay, this sounds like a strip I should already know about, but you’re someone who has such a great avatar I have to ask: What is that?
Claire from Questionable Content comic.
Uf, I wrote my comment totally wrong and meant something else. Thank you for the answer, though.
I think the comic strip in question would be Shortpacked!
Geez, I should have figured that. I knew it, but I thought it was a more wide-open thing about another comic with two women, much like Robin and Leslie, and they get married.
What can I say, I like the premise.
No, Leslie. Becky respects you and doesn’t want to risk you being disappointed in her.
It’s easy to talk to someone whose opinion really doesn’t matter half as much to you.
Kind and responsible blonde girl getting angry at irresponsible black haired girl who was somehow more successful at taking care of someone seems to be a reoccurring theme in this comic.
This anti-blonde agenda harms all of us.
Speaking of Our Flag Means Death, has anyone heard the fan song?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e31B1ThJN34
I can thank Willis for three things I was put onto from this comic: Steven Universe, Persepolis, and Jonathan Colton. As soon as Our Flag Means Death becomes a non-HBO Max show (ha!) I’ll try it.
I think that Robin’s actually right, but not in the way she’s thinking of. Becky’s afraid of telling Leslie because she thinks Leslie will judge her, but in the manner of a “concerned parent”. “Are you sure it was the right time? You’re not rushing into this, are you?” etc. And it will all feed back into Becky’s self-doubts and her complex stemming from her upbringing. With Robin, Becky knows that Robin is not somebody to EVER dwell on mistakes or whether it was the right thing to do, so she can freely share the secret with her knowing Robin will have no judgmental opinion even if deep down, Becky is feeling conflicted over having engaged in sex with Dina.
sounds about right
I feel as though we’ve seen before a progressive yet straight-laced blonde being pushed by her protege choosing to ignore her in favor of a dark-haired individual with a sketchy past.
Robin isn’t like other moms, she’s a cool mom.
Not cool, Robin.
Everyone deserves a second chance and be better, but you NEED to admit your mistakes openly. You can’t just pretend you didn’t negatively impact anybody.
Robin has never done anything wrong, ever.
Just ask her.
Robin, you can’t be The Suicide Squad until you acknowledge your mistakes
Leslie is a serious person and Becky don’t wants to disappoint her. Robin is not a serious person, even when she try, and Becky don’t have problems in disappoint her. Both care for Becky.
I still hate Robin.
Yeah. She was goofy and great in other continuities, but here I just want to punch her
Becky really does not want to disapoint Leslie but what Leslie would preffer is to be told things.
Robin cannot be disapointed in fact she would be envious in a good way she didn’t thought of it first.
Re: Alt text, am I the only one who got the 1984 reference?
Does the Memory Hole still count as a 1984 reference at this point?
I’m not referring to The Merchant of Venice if I use the term “pound of flesh”.
Or Eminem if I use the verb “to stan”.
With every appearance she makes, Robin is presented like a funny, relaxed, quirky but cool girl.
Yet every time she speaks I feel deeply uneasy. What she tried to pull off as a politician and how she treats everyone around her absolutely cannot be written over by a few witty comments.
Rather fitting for her to make an appearance in light of what’s happening to Twitter 🤮
Becky didn’t really tell Robin, Robin figured it out (/made an assumption.)
Leslie would have also figured it out but was more focused on not making assumptions and not judging.