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Well we know how Walky, Joyce, Joe, Malaya and Mary draw at least. That’s actually a pretty decent amount of the cast. And that’s just off the op of my head.
I wouldn’t put Robin past commissioning honestly. Like one of those anonymous furries that pay tons of money for an artist to draw Krystal from Star Fox’s feet, and their actually like a high powered lawyer or a senator or something.
If you ever do let me know. Ive commissioned about 10 so far and I think the most Ive paid was US$1000. Never got a picture of Star Fox’s feet tho, perhaps I should?
Yep, probably that. Also I need to go make a website so potential commission-hirers know I exist.
See you in a bit, gotta go draw a portfolio of adorable animal-people.
He’s a comedian. Been on shows like Good Place and B99, starred in a show I can’t remember the name of, in the new Percy Jackson, has a podcast I think.
Got a fun crazy energy to him, he’s a talented performer
Did a quick search and I haven’t seen anything he was in, but I’m looking forward to seeing him as Mr. D! Gods, I hope the new series is good. I’ve waited for a good PJatO adaptation since 2010.
He’s also been the guest judge for Nailed It more than once, likely their best guest judge (and I say that knowing my top celebrity crush, Felicia Day, was once on the show)
You would know if you saw him he has done alot of tv roles also is in Big Mouth on Netflix he general plays someone who is unhinged, so the joke works on multiple levels here.
Also voices Jankom Pog on Star Trek Prodigy, and the asshole* on Invincible. I didn’t recognise him in the first until I noticed his name in the credits, but then watching Invincible I couldn’t mistake hearing his voice again.
*I can’t remember what said asshole’s name is, but I feel like that should be enough for most people to know who I’m talking about.
ridiculous shortpacked powers aside, jason mantzoukas and robin def seems the type that’d have an on/off relationship again/he’d be down for her ‘chaos’ as long as she doesn’t try to poison him with eggs (allergy)
Leslie’s judgement is sometimes questionable, I think she is still dating probably the moat rude dentist in the world or at least the greater Bloomington area, not sure if she was the best choice given how she mocked her ex girlfriends looks.
GUARANTEE that lady is not the rudest dentist in the area. If you have had mostly non-rude experiences with dentists, I envy you! Leslie’s ex seemed straight down the middle if not kinder/more tactful than the average.
So Q: do the campus admins know about Robin’s restraining order hijinks? Or do they have plausible denial on tap in case Robin does something of a stickier public embarrasment fashion?
At this point I just assume basically everyone holding any position of responsibility or authority is either corrupt or incompetent in this comic, with few exceptions. People like Leslie or Jackson, or Joyce’s pharmacist end up only proving the rule.
There’s nothing wrong with her. That’s the point. Leslie’s a good teacher, Jackson (aka Jacob’s older brother) is a good lawyer, and pharmacist is also good. But good competent adults like them are few and far between.
There’s a Henry Kissinger quote to the effect of that academic politics are vicious precisely because they don’t matter. Sorry to bust out a quote from a war criminal, but it seemed apropos.
They’re just riding the “big fish in a small pond” high they get by having a modicum of control in their sad, pathetic lives. They haven’t had that since high school!
There is a distinction to be made here between those corrupted by power (that is, an otherwise basically good person who, within the trappings of power, loses sight of what it means to be the common person subject to the whims of the powerful)
versus those who seek out power, great or small, for the purpose of using it against their “lessers”, because they are entitled, petty, vicious assholes who consider the concept of basic human empathy a weakness.
The former, if removed from power, will come to regret their actions. The latter will at most only ever regret that they personally suffer consequences.
Funny enough, that’s pretty close to how I distinguish people from hostile non-person humanoids.
You’re right, though. It’s an important distinction, because a good person who realises they’ve strayed off the path is able to course-correct and go back to doing the right thing with their power and/or authority (at any level). The other category just wants to hurt others and maybe watch a number go up on their bank account.
Jason Mantzoukas didn’t call the restraining order because it was inappropriate and gross. He was just really mad when he realized it wasn’t for him. He had just called his mom to say “Mother, I think I just found my future wife”
He got the judge to set the restraining order at 100 feet as a challenge. You can still woo someone with saucy posterboards at 100 feet, just takes some big-ass posterboards.
Guilty. i just read his wikipedia bio and while i would’ve totally done some modest posterboarding on his ass before that, I’m just about reading to bust out the sharpies right now
Robin had 3 houses and apparently only got into Congress as a way to grift money as the Cheeto did from his followers. So, it’s possible Robin is extraordinarily rich and donated a huge chunk of money to buy a professorship.
Spilled water on my laptop earlier, thought it’d be fine but still thouroughly wiped it down with a towel. It was working fine until suddenly it started freaking out and shut down accompanied by a slight burning smell.
Oh, I did the same in 2022! Spilled water, turned the laptop off, tried to dry it, and then had the hubris to believe that I must have dried it so correctly that I didn’t have to wait 24 hours for it to really get dry on his own, and when I tried to turn it on again my BIOS killed itself in flames. Took my wifi chip with it! The whole motherboard had to be replaced, that was not fun. Hope you have the spare money to get the repairs done, and hope you’ll be okay!
When this happened to me I disconnected power (including removing the battery), let it dry, then rebooted. Might be too late but also might work? (that laptop went on to live for like 7 more years)
Aw fuck, sorry to hear that.
It was coffee for me that one time, and i only had to replace the keyboard layer thankfully. Yeah, worst case your data is probably fine. pull out the hard disk/ssd and get some cheap external hard disk case (they cost like 10$).
Wow, that was quite a punchline! Robin seeming as if they were becoming a better person only to reveal she only thought she messed up because she got the wrong address instead of it being because she showed explicit images (of herself?) on poster board to people
I mean, there is a circumstance or two under which that would probably be fine. If you’re already dating the person whose house you’re outside, can reasonably expect them to appreciate the posterboards, and make sure you don’t show anyone else on the way there, that seems acceptable.
(Granted, this does not seem to have been the case.)
Does anyone know if DYW adds the alt text at the time of uploading the comic or closer to when it goes live? Just wondering how much of a coincidence it is (if at all) that he was talking about watching Star Wars recently and then we get this.
Oh, no, I was responding to milu. I thought your comment was maybe a little more intense, and the comparison wasn’t great, but I get the underlying point and irritation. I don’t understand what triggered milu’s reaction either.
It’s a turn of phrase. Like “Teachers are people too”. It just means “Treat people nicely.” It’s not insinuating you said they weren’t a person. It’s a call to action to realize you should be more polite when speaking to people.
That’s honestly not how I’ve experienced that phrase. Like, yeah, the end goal of “x are people too” is to get x-group to be treated with more respect, but the phrase itself is more… what it says on the tin.
yeah what Yoto said. then again, sure, that was a silly question. worth
yelling at? ymmv i guess. it felt benighted enough to me that i was happy just rolling my eyes, but yeah. tone policing bad. please ignore me
It seemed strange to me that you joined in on mocking the comment upthread, but then The Oracle’s more direct response was “yelling” that needed… yeah, “policing.” And also that your interpretation of the phrase that you used to do so is not universal… I feel I’m usually onboard with the things I see you post here, milu, so yeah, I found this weird.
yeah, i also tend to trust your reads, so thanks for the vibe check. guess i’m a bit tired and on edge lately. just got randomly ticked off. welp, sorry about that.
The irony to me is that Jason Mantzoukas would probably be bothered less by posterboard nudes than Oscar Isaac. I guess that’s evident given that she only got a restraining order.
Aaaaaaand the final panel shows why Robin is the worst: because she refuses to learn even consequences slap her in the face. I guess it’s a dark political commentary that instead of being in jail by the time she’s 30 she was a representative of the US government, but man I’m not laughing. She really does think she lives in a wacky comedy movie and behaves accordingly
I don’t forget that Robin is a fictional character in a comic strip; but if I’m reading a work of fiction that brings certain gravitas, then I treat my reading of the characters and their actions with the same level of seriousness. I don’t do a criminal justice analysis on my little pony characters and I don’t watch the godfather saying “tee hee those silly Italians”.
This is a webcomic that has subjects like racism, rape culture, parental abuse and domestic violence; but when Robin comes on we’re supposed to forget all that?
Like how Ruth in the “Roomies!” Strips was much more violent and cruel but we laughed more at her antics.
Wheras the tone of DoA shows the more grounded toxicity of her actions.
But I think the specific point that people forget here isn’t that Robin is a fictional character in a comic, but that Robin knows it. I don’t think that’s really canon, but Robin does act like she knows she lives in a wacky comic strip and the universe generally bends itself to accommodate.
It’s part of the reason people were thrown off by the more serious Amazi-Girl storylines. Tonal shifts aside from the slice-of-life college story, you had feats that would not be feasible in reality because of physics being done because uhhh superhero.
Is this a wacky comedy strip or is this a more serious down-to-earth one that deals with subjects like date rape, misogyny, homophobia tied with parental abuse and the indoctrination of children into doom cults; with occasional humour to ease the tension?
(because I was under the impression that it was the latter)
It has to be one or the other, because trying to be both will undermine each to their detriment. We already have some wackiness with Joyce and her teleportation abilities; but Robin is like having a freaking Looney Tunes character in a live-action drama. She stands out like a sore thumb, and her mere presence belies the idea that we’re reading something remotely serious.
It’s fine not to like media that combines both, but I really don’t think “it has to be one or the other.” I’m fine with media that does that; it being detrimental is subjective.
The Lord of the Rings does it too, a bit. There’s intergenerational tension, attempted genocide, people getting their heads put on spikes, undead everywhere, and it’s all next to things like Merry and Pippin dancing on tables, Tom Bombadil’s entire existence, and all the incessant singing. Choosing to be Just One Thing is fine, and plenty of people have made it work spectacularly, but there’s absolutely no reason whatsoever that fiction has to be done that way.
Peopled will describe DoA as “wacky” or a comedy at times and as a drama at others. To me, it easily falls into a space of a dramady, which isn’t, like, an unheard of concept– there’s a fuckin established portmanteau for it. My favorite show of this genre is probably Scrubs, so that was my internal point of comparison when reading these comments.
I’ve only seen a couple episodes of Scrubs (I know, I know, mandatory viewing, blegh), but what little I remember does tend to have that vibe to it. I’ve never really seen a need for a piece to be only one thing, and I think this comic does a perfectly fine job balancing the two extremes. Most of the time, anyway.
There are definitely tonal shifts with this comic that throw some people. Happened to a lot of people with the superhero arcs – particularly the big kidnappings. Robin’s another big focus – people’s reactions to the arc with her squatting at Leslie’s varied widely depending on how seriously they could take Robin.
I guess sometimes it’s individuals overreacting and sometimes it’s the strip itself misfiring on the balance.
She thinks that way because she is , obviously, correct. In every webcomic she has been in, what you describe has more or less been her roll. Less in Walky, much more in Shortpacked to the point that she and her relationship to consequences and emotional realities is kind of the main character arc of the entire comic.
Of course, in DoA, she is a third string character and any revelations about Drama Tags and the pulling thereof will have to be strictly metaphorical. So her character arc this time is going to take much, much longer.
Her role really really doesn’t mesh well with this strip and Willis has realized it and tried to rectify it when it became incredibly clear that Trump analogies are not funny anymore when he’s causing real harm and inspiring Nazis around the country to organize.
Why get rid of Mike and not her?
For some reason, I don’t think killing off Robin instead of Mike would have gone over well with readers. We already get people accusing Willis of the Bury Your Gays trope because Mike was queer-shaped. With Robin dying, we’d get all that, plus more.
Because Mike’s usual character arcs are more out of place in DoA than Robin’s “oh right my actions have consequences” arc that we are seeing play out again, just much slower. Which is fine, since she’s not a main character. She got Shortpacked!
Also, unless you are one of the keen ones who was against Trump but predicted his win, in which case, fair dues, I don’t think it’s really fair to hold “failing to predict the over the top failson politician with an eerily similar air to a horrible racist version of their own character actually wins and would have secured a second term too if not for a global plague” against Willis. “Realizing Trump jokes aren’t funny” seems like a really unfair way to describe what happened. Trump was supposed to lose and fall off the radar, and the same could happen to Robin. Of course, reality got weird for many.
Real talk, is Leslie piqued here at least in part because she initially heard Robin calling herself a “sex pest” as an admission that she had totally been trying to get into her pants?
There’s a non-zero chance Robin is an unreliable narrator. Think what Joe or Walky (or some real life people you might know) might do after they shared an uncomfortable truth about themselves.
Today in #9ChickweedLane I learned I can be thrown long enough over POLLY'S FIANCE IS *SIXTEEN YEARS OLDER THAN HER DAD?????* to momentarily forget to wonder HOW IS SISTER STEVEN STILL ALIVE
still thinking of that time jerry seinfeld guest starred in the season 2 premiere of 30 rock just so he could stare directly into the camera and plug Bee Movie
was working in the yard when the pizza delivery guy pulled up. handed me the pizzas, joked about whether i actually lived there or was trying to scam free pizza. laughed
carried the pizza up to the door, i'd been locked out of my own house, so i stood there awkwardly as the delivery guy stared
My belief is that a lot of people worship a pantheon of death gods, whether they realize it or not, and my intent is to live long enough to see their gods' heads put up on pikes. That's where I'm at. I'll warm my bones by the glow of these cathedrals of rot when they're all razed to the ground.
People hate being told "if you wanna make a comic, just make a comic" but also I come from The Land of 2000s Webcomics, where a LOT of people just made a comic. And it was harder! We all had to own scanners and buy paper!
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I wonder how married Oscar Isaac would be if all it took was holding up explicit posters, would he need an exclusive harem house
…also, now I totes want to see how the entire cast draws
Well we know how Walky, Joyce, Joe, Malaya and Mary draw at least. That’s actually a pretty decent amount of the cast. And that’s just off the op of my head.
Well observed. We also know Amber draws pretty well:
– https://www.shortpacked.com/comic/false-equivalence
I mean, I’m sure he’d be just as married-with-two-kids as he was before the posters.
Sure. Married TO ROBIN, with two kids from his previous marriage which he ended so he could be with Robin.
I wouldn’t put Robin past commissioning honestly. Like one of those anonymous furries that pay tons of money for an artist to draw Krystal from Star Fox’s feet, and their actually like a high powered lawyer or a senator or something.
They’re usually tech industry people
It’s almost enough to make me consider doing furry commissions…
Almost.
If you ever do let me know. Ive commissioned about 10 so far and I think the most Ive paid was US$1000. Never got a picture of Star Fox’s feet tho, perhaps I should?
I’d totally draw furry art for hire. I’m an illustrator, my favorite subjects are portraits and pets, why am I not already in this market?
Probably just no one in your inner circles mentioning that furry commissions make bank
Yep, probably that. Also I need to go make a website so potential commission-hirers know I exist.
See you in a bit, gotta go draw a portfolio of adorable animal-people.
What the heck kinda picture did you pay a thousand bucks for? I’m assuming/hoping it’s very elaborate and large.
Furries will make you rich
Willis– How does Robin sound? I’ve always imagined her with a Palin-esque accent.
feeling very vindicated right now
To make a confession of my own… I, too, have said “lol” aloud in the past.
I confess to the same and furthermore i confess i will also do it in the future, repeatedly, until it no longer amuses me. (it might be decades)
Did you say “ell oh ell”, or “loll”?
Yes.
I have no idea who Jason Mantzoukas is. Unless that’s Robin mispronouncing Jason Mamoa which is like a 50/50.
He’s a comedian. Been on shows like Good Place and B99, starred in a show I can’t remember the name of, in the new Percy Jackson, has a podcast I think.
Got a fun crazy energy to him, he’s a talented performer
Did a quick search and I haven’t seen anything he was in, but I’m looking forward to seeing him as Mr. D! Gods, I hope the new series is good. I’ve waited for a good PJatO adaptation since 2010.
You should watch The Good Place. Not for him particularly, his character’s only relevant for a handful of episodes, but just in general.
I second, third, fourth, and fifth that.
He’s also been the guest judge for Nailed It more than once, likely their best guest judge (and I say that knowing my top celebrity crush, Felicia Day, was once on the show)
Sorry you’re waiting to see him as who?
Dionysus goes by Mr. D in the books, and Jason Mantzoukas will be playing him.
(Ooo, good save, we don’t want him finding out until the premiere…)
Well poop, I chose this nickname thinking I wouldn’t have to deal with character references
I just googled him and I do recognize the actor but would never have guessed that was his last name.
You would know if you saw him he has done alot of tv roles also is in Big Mouth on Netflix he general plays someone who is unhinged, so the joke works on multiple levels here.
He’s an actor. Derek in The Good Place. Adrian Pimento in Brooklyn Nine Nine. Various other things.
Thanks, because for a second I thought he was, well, Jason on the Good Place.
Jason Mantzoukas notably played Rosa’s on and off boyfriend Adrian Pimento on Brooklyn 99 and Derek on The Good Place.
Also voices Jankom Pog on Star Trek Prodigy, and the asshole* on Invincible. I didn’t recognise him in the first until I noticed his name in the credits, but then watching Invincible I couldn’t mistake hearing his voice again.
*I can’t remember what said asshole’s name is, but I feel like that should be enough for most people to know who I’m talking about.
It’s alright, I looked him up and still don’t recognize him
ridiculous shortpacked powers aside, jason mantzoukas and robin def seems the type that’d have an on/off relationship again/he’d be down for her ‘chaos’ as long as she doesn’t try to poison him with eggs (allergy)
I knew who he was but needed a refresher on this Isaac fellow.
(I would totally marry Mantzoukas over him)
I looked Isaac up too. I’ve seen a couple of things that he was in. Still not ringing a bell.
He’s one of the three regulars at “How Did this Get Made?”
He’s Tellarite nobility
Robin is the posterboard dingdong bandit!
I’m not sure what she did qualifies as banditry, really.
Joyce didn’t steal anything either.
Robin is pretty in panel 2.
Agreed.
another smug girl smile to reference/add to the collection lol
i mean he’s no Greg Killmaster, but i guess he’ll do
This is all part of her plan to get close to the Star Wars cast so she can infiltrate Lucasfilm and locate Killmaster.
I do not like Robin.
Also, Leslie needs to stop going up to someone she despises because she wants to make use of them.
Shes a bigger pest than Jason ever was
Leslie’s judgement is sometimes questionable, I think she is still dating probably the moat rude dentist in the world or at least the greater Bloomington area, not sure if she was the best choice given how she mocked her ex girlfriends looks.
GUARANTEE that lady is not the rudest dentist in the area. If you have had mostly non-rude experiences with dentists, I envy you! Leslie’s ex seemed straight down the middle if not kinder/more tactful than the average.
I was expecting Robin to show herself becoming more likeable
And then she pulls this
I’ll be honest. It’d work on me.
And just how high a bar is that?
o3o if a girl walked up and said “I like you” I might marry them.
Awwww Yoto! No!
…insist on explicit posterboards at least
I’m sure it was, Robin. I’m sure it was.
Leslie: Jason, I found you a job. I figure either you’re a reformed individual and deserve this chance, or you’re not and deserve this punishment.
Best theory I’ve heard yet. I’m now behind this plan.
So Q: do the campus admins know about Robin’s restraining order hijinks? Or do they have plausible denial on tap in case Robin does something of a stickier public embarrasment fashion?
They hired after her numerous political fiascos so they probably do not care
One of which involved her refusing to leave the house of a member of their own staff who now has to work alongside her.
Zero fucks given.
At this point I just assume basically everyone holding any position of responsibility or authority is either corrupt or incompetent in this comic, with few exceptions. People like Leslie or Jackson, or Joyce’s pharmacist end up only proving the rule.
Everything you said, right up until “in this comic”, tbh.
Also, what’s wrong with the pharmacist? The worst we’ve seen her do is wrongly believe some teenagers were gay.
There’s nothing wrong with her. That’s the point. Leslie’s a good teacher, Jackson (aka Jacob’s older brother) is a good lawyer, and pharmacist is also good. But good competent adults like them are few and far between.
Yeah, I’m confused too. :/
The pharmacist may not have been completely mistaken tho :3
The decorations at the pharmacy weren’t the best, though not sure if they were her decision or if she had any say over them being put up at all.
Yeah, considering the effort put into them to make them more progressive actually made them WORSE, you could have sworn Roz did them
Leslie is an adjunct. She has basically no responsibility or authority.
… hence her relative goodness, I suppose.
Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Minimal power corrupts minimally, I guess?
Minimal power corrupts even more absolutely than absolute power, if my experience with retail/fast food management is anything to go by.
I used to volunteer at a charity shop, and the power struggles between the little old ladies were spectacular
There’s a Henry Kissinger quote to the effect of that academic politics are vicious precisely because they don’t matter. Sorry to bust out a quote from a war criminal, but it seemed apropos.
They’re just riding the “big fish in a small pond” high they get by having a modicum of control in their sad, pathetic lives. They haven’t had that since high school!
There is a distinction to be made here between those corrupted by power (that is, an otherwise basically good person who, within the trappings of power, loses sight of what it means to be the common person subject to the whims of the powerful)
versus those who seek out power, great or small, for the purpose of using it against their “lessers”, because they are entitled, petty, vicious assholes who consider the concept of basic human empathy a weakness.
The former, if removed from power, will come to regret their actions. The latter will at most only ever regret that they personally suffer consequences.
Funny enough, that’s pretty close to how I distinguish people from hostile non-person humanoids.
You’re right, though. It’s an important distinction, because a good person who realises they’ve strayed off the path is able to course-correct and go back to doing the right thing with their power and/or authority (at any level). The other category just wants to hurt others and maybe watch a number go up on their bank account.
Yeah but celebrities aren’t human, so it doesn’t count. If they didn’t want maniacs slobbering all over ’em, they shouldn’t have been hot on a screen.
/s
Mr. The Frog, we all agreed a celebrity is not a people.
Jason Mantzoukas didn’t call the restraining order because it was inappropriate and gross. He was just really mad when he realized it wasn’t for him. He had just called his mom to say “Mother, I think I just found my future wife”
you beat me to it! He would absolutely see the chaotic energy aura as a plus but realizing it was intended for someone else would sour his mood.
He got the judge to set the restraining order at 100 feet as a challenge. You can still woo someone with saucy posterboards at 100 feet, just takes some big-ass posterboards.
And by “big-ass”, i mean,
So is that a “no” on hiring the sex pest?
A lot of folks are real into Jason Mantzoukas. This is only tangentially related to anything, but it feels worth mentioning.
Guilty. i just read his wikipedia bio and while i would’ve totally done some modest posterboarding on his ass before that, I’m just about reading to bust out the sharpies right now
That dude seems rad.
Ready*
just the normal kind of pest
Jason Mantzoukas might have reacted differently had the posterboards not been clearly intended for someone else.
Robin had 3 houses and apparently only got into Congress as a way to grift money as the Cheeto did from his followers. So, it’s possible Robin is extraordinarily rich and donated a huge chunk of money to buy a professorship.
Why?
SO SHE COULD BE CLOSE TO LESLIE.
If Robin had the right house perhaps by now she and Oscar Isaac could be enacting their own… “Scenes from a Marriage”.
Spilled water on my laptop earlier, thought it’d be fine but still thouroughly wiped it down with a towel. It was working fine until suddenly it started freaking out and shut down accompanied by a slight burning smell.
SO I may very well have destroyed my computer.
Eep!
Pressing F to pay respects.
Remove the battery and SSD, leave the rest of it propped open for a few days. At the very least, your data should be okay.
🥺🫡
Oh, I did the same in 2022! Spilled water, turned the laptop off, tried to dry it, and then had the hubris to believe that I must have dried it so correctly that I didn’t have to wait 24 hours for it to really get dry on his own, and when I tried to turn it on again my BIOS killed itself in flames. Took my wifi chip with it! The whole motherboard had to be replaced, that was not fun. Hope you have the spare money to get the repairs done, and hope you’ll be okay!
When this happened to me I disconnected power (including removing the battery), let it dry, then rebooted. Might be too late but also might work? (that laptop went on to live for like 7 more years)
Aw fuck, sorry to hear that.
It was coffee for me that one time, and i only had to replace the keyboard layer thankfully. Yeah, worst case your data is probably fine. pull out the hard disk/ssd and get some cheap external hard disk case (they cost like 10$).
Fingers crossed
Wow, that was quite a punchline! Robin seeming as if they were becoming a better person only to reveal she only thought she messed up because she got the wrong address instead of it being because she showed explicit images (of herself?) on poster board to people
My guess is she showed up with naked Poe Dameron drawings at Jankum Pogg’s house
I mean, there is a circumstance or two under which that would probably be fine. If you’re already dating the person whose house you’re outside, can reasonably expect them to appreciate the posterboards, and make sure you don’t show anyone else on the way there, that seems acceptable.
(Granted, this does not seem to have been the case.)
Does anyone know if DYW adds the alt text at the time of uploading the comic or closer to when it goes live? Just wondering how much of a coincidence it is (if at all) that he was talking about watching Star Wars recently and then we get this.
I still ship them and I don’t know why.
Because their every interaction is hilarious?
Ten years ago: “Robin is supposed to be a member of congress??!”
Now: “Oh, right. Robin is supposed to be a member of congress.”
Seems Willis knew what Congress is really like
People take this comic so seriously sometimes. Robin’s a delight.
If Robin was portrayed as an unattractive man would you still think he’s delightful?
Alas, this is true. There’s a LOT of stuff in the real world that people get away with just because they’re super hot/attractive. (Or rich.)
Proving OP’s point there, guys
What if she was portrayed as an actual literal robin, as in the bird? Not a magic talking bird with people brains, just an ordinary bird-ass bird.
Neither scenario is part of this comic, so they’re both equally valid.
I might like her more actually. Robin’s are a really cute bird.
maybe she’s been bitten by a radioactive bird of paradise though, and that’s why her courtship rituals are so unhinged
this made me question everything in my worldview. thanks a lot.
How unattractive we talkin’? Like if he was just monstrously ugly then yeah, I probably wouldn’t like him much cuz he’d be hard to look at.
Yes, if I had over a decade of familiarity with the character and had already seen the character go through similar plot arcs multiple times?
What a stupid fucking question. You’ve invented an entirely separate scenario to get judgemental over.
“My husband baked a delicious pumpkin pie for dessert last night.” “If it was overseasoned lutefisk, would you still think it’s a delicious dessert?”
whoah there. commenters are still people, buddy.
Who said anything about anyone not being a person? 🤨 Let’s not make things into something they aren’t.
i’m saying your aggressivity was uncalled for.
unless you have some sort of history with that commenter i’m unaware of
What, because I said fuck? I don’t need prior history with a person to bring up how ridiculous they’re being.
Yeah, what? This was kind of a weird response that felt more out-there to me than the exchange being commented on.
Alright, so maybe it wasn’t strictly called for to swear about it, but I still don’t understand where the “not people” concept is coming from.
Oh, no, I was responding to milu. I thought your comment was maybe a little more intense, and the comparison wasn’t great, but I get the underlying point and irritation. I don’t understand what triggered milu’s reaction either.
It’s a turn of phrase. Like “Teachers are people too”. It just means “Treat people nicely.” It’s not insinuating you said they weren’t a person. It’s a call to action to realize you should be more polite when speaking to people.
Damn it, I hate turns of phrase. They’re like conversational landmines. Thanks for the explanation, I honestly didn’t understand.
That’s honestly not how I’ve experienced that phrase. Like, yeah, the end goal of “x are people too” is to get x-group to be treated with more respect, but the phrase itself is more… what it says on the tin.
yeah what Yoto said. then again, sure, that was a silly question. worth
yelling at? ymmv i guess. it felt benighted enough to me that i was happy just rolling my eyes, but yeah. tone policing bad. please ignore me
It seemed strange to me that you joined in on mocking the comment upthread, but then The Oracle’s more direct response was “yelling” that needed… yeah, “policing.” And also that your interpretation of the phrase that you used to do so is not universal… I feel I’m usually onboard with the things I see you post here, milu, so yeah, I found this weird.
yeah, i also tend to trust your reads, so thanks for the vibe check. guess i’m a bit tired and on edge lately. just got randomly ticked off. welp, sorry about that.
It’s really nothing to worry about, to be honest. I was mostly confused. And hey, who’s not a little tired and on edge, these days?
Is it just me, or is there a weird blurring effect when I scroll around on my phone? It’s centralized on Robin’s hair.
Just you i think?
Ooh, it happens with any black colors in DoA on my phone. I thought it was a weird “Robin superspeed” joke.
The irony to me is that Jason Mantzoukas would probably be bothered less by posterboard nudes than Oscar Isaac. I guess that’s evident given that she only got a restraining order.
I now have to google who both of those people are.
Some guy from Star Wars and some guy from nothing I’ve ever watched.
Mantzie exudes Mad Dog vibes, so him giving Robin an RO feels very outta place.
I should be watching Suburbicon, but not solely coz of the Oscar mention
point noses !
Aaaaaaand the final panel shows why Robin is the worst: because she refuses to learn even consequences slap her in the face. I guess it’s a dark political commentary that instead of being in jail by the time she’s 30 she was a representative of the US government, but man I’m not laughing. She really does think she lives in a wacky comedy movie and behaves accordingly
Is she really wrong?
She knows she lives in a wacky online comic strip. One of the reasons I like the character.
Yeah. People seem to forget that a lot.
I don’t forget that Robin is a fictional character in a comic strip; but if I’m reading a work of fiction that brings certain gravitas, then I treat my reading of the characters and their actions with the same level of seriousness. I don’t do a criminal justice analysis on my little pony characters and I don’t watch the godfather saying “tee hee those silly Italians”.
This is a webcomic that has subjects like racism, rape culture, parental abuse and domestic violence; but when Robin comes on we’re supposed to forget all that?
Yes.
if so then that’s bad writing, man
Like how Ruth in the “Roomies!” Strips was much more violent and cruel but we laughed more at her antics.
Wheras the tone of DoA shows the more grounded toxicity of her actions.
But I think the specific point that people forget here isn’t that Robin is a fictional character in a comic, but that Robin knows it. I don’t think that’s really canon, but Robin does act like she knows she lives in a wacky comic strip and the universe generally bends itself to accommodate.
It’s part of the reason people were thrown off by the more serious Amazi-Girl storylines. Tonal shifts aside from the slice-of-life college story, you had feats that would not be feasible in reality because of physics being done because uhhh superhero.
Is this a wacky comedy strip or is this a more serious down-to-earth one that deals with subjects like date rape, misogyny, homophobia tied with parental abuse and the indoctrination of children into doom cults; with occasional humour to ease the tension?
(because I was under the impression that it was the latter)
It has to be one or the other, because trying to be both will undermine each to their detriment. We already have some wackiness with Joyce and her teleportation abilities; but Robin is like having a freaking Looney Tunes character in a live-action drama. She stands out like a sore thumb, and her mere presence belies the idea that we’re reading something remotely serious.
It’s fine not to like media that combines both, but I really don’t think “it has to be one or the other.” I’m fine with media that does that; it being detrimental is subjective.
The Lord of the Rings does it too, a bit. There’s intergenerational tension, attempted genocide, people getting their heads put on spikes, undead everywhere, and it’s all next to things like Merry and Pippin dancing on tables, Tom Bombadil’s entire existence, and all the incessant singing. Choosing to be Just One Thing is fine, and plenty of people have made it work spectacularly, but there’s absolutely no reason whatsoever that fiction has to be done that way.
Peopled will describe DoA as “wacky” or a comedy at times and as a drama at others. To me, it easily falls into a space of a dramady, which isn’t, like, an unheard of concept– there’s a fuckin established portmanteau for it. My favorite show of this genre is probably Scrubs, so that was my internal point of comparison when reading these comments.
I’ve only seen a couple episodes of Scrubs (I know, I know, mandatory viewing, blegh), but what little I remember does tend to have that vibe to it. I’ve never really seen a need for a piece to be only one thing, and I think this comic does a perfectly fine job balancing the two extremes. Most of the time, anyway.
There are definitely tonal shifts with this comic that throw some people. Happened to a lot of people with the superhero arcs – particularly the big kidnappings. Robin’s another big focus – people’s reactions to the arc with her squatting at Leslie’s varied widely depending on how seriously they could take Robin.
I guess sometimes it’s individuals overreacting and sometimes it’s the strip itself misfiring on the balance.
She thinks that way because she is , obviously, correct. In every webcomic she has been in, what you describe has more or less been her roll. Less in Walky, much more in Shortpacked to the point that she and her relationship to consequences and emotional realities is kind of the main character arc of the entire comic.
Of course, in DoA, she is a third string character and any revelations about Drama Tags and the pulling thereof will have to be strictly metaphorical. So her character arc this time is going to take much, much longer.
Her role really really doesn’t mesh well with this strip and Willis has realized it and tried to rectify it when it became incredibly clear that Trump analogies are not funny anymore when he’s causing real harm and inspiring Nazis around the country to organize.
Why get rid of Mike and not her?
For some reason, I don’t think killing off Robin instead of Mike would have gone over well with readers. We already get people accusing Willis of the Bury Your Gays trope because Mike was queer-shaped. With Robin dying, we’d get all that, plus more.
Because Mike’s usual character arcs are more out of place in DoA than Robin’s “oh right my actions have consequences” arc that we are seeing play out again, just much slower. Which is fine, since she’s not a main character. She got Shortpacked!
Also, unless you are one of the keen ones who was against Trump but predicted his win, in which case, fair dues, I don’t think it’s really fair to hold “failing to predict the over the top failson politician with an eerily similar air to a horrible racist version of their own character actually wins and would have secured a second term too if not for a global plague” against Willis. “Realizing Trump jokes aren’t funny” seems like a really unfair way to describe what happened. Trump was supposed to lose and fall off the radar, and the same could happen to Robin. Of course, reality got weird for many.
I want to see the posterboards.
Real talk, is Leslie piqued here at least in part because she initially heard Robin calling herself a “sex pest” as an admission that she had totally been trying to get into her pants?
Real talk– did Robin do it on purpose???
Robin truly is a self sabotage pro
Leslie really hoped Robin had realized that mistake as well. Who knows, maybe one day Robin will understand. Maybe.
There’s a non-zero chance Robin is an unreliable narrator. Think what Joe or Walky (or some real life people you might know) might do after they shared an uncomfortable truth about themselves.
JANKUM POGG DOESN’T UNDERSTAND THESE DRAWINGS. Jankum will just hit them with a hammer.
The question is, what did she draw on those poster boards? We need details.
I never considered that someone would confuse Isaac and Mantzoukas but now I want to see them play brothers.