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www.theguardian.com/science/2025...
Patrick Willems @patrickhwillems.bsky.social ⋅ 1m
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️𝓝𝓪𝓷𝓲 
Projectin’ much, Linda? D:<
idk if she’d ever admit she was ‘slumming’ it other than in her ‘wild teen years’ or whatever, assuming charles makes more money than her if not as much
as if the only way to live in life is to succeed
I think the larger issue is that there are many different ways to succeed.
Lucy pointed out Walky’s recent artistic achievements, and Linda blew them off.
Linda wants him to *succeed* in such a way that basically turns her son into a “Perfect Parent” Trophy. Something to show off how oh so “good” she is.
Basically she’s Willy Loman, only shorter, female, made more money apparently, with better connections throughout her career as an entrepreneur-for-the-purpose-of-being-a-snob-and-climber of sorts, apparently…Oh, and she was a LOT colder to the ‘Hap’ of the family…
I really, really like this phrasing. “as if the only way to live in life is to succeed.” Because how can someone possibly succeed at life? Why do we have to frame it in the sense of “failure” and “success” at all?
He who dies with the most toys wins.
I think that’s how it goes.
But you’re still dead.
I’m sure this is going to end in a very calm and even-keeled conversation
I’m rooting for tomorrow just being Walky and Lucy walking out.
Well, it looks like Lucy is finally getting it.
She counts as slumming it.
“Walky, you could be dating someone whiter than Lucy, why aren’t you?”
I’m not thinking it’ll be them walking out. I’m thinking her husband might just be curious exactly _why_ she thinks Walky is “slumming it”
I suppose Charles can still surprise, but so far he’s done nothing to make me think anyone but Linda can count on him.
Sadly I feel Charles embodies internalised racism.
Probably got it from his bigshot family….And Linda married him because A)She was an NPD-haver who needed his brand of CPD, and B)That was the only way Linda was going to get her claws into the Walkerton name and the clout that supposedly went with it…..And none of the girls Mom and Pap-pap Walkerton would approve of more would take Charles, so it was Linda or get sassed for staying single…
At best, Charles might suggest Linda ‘lighten up’, failing to confront her on her underlying premise in favor of surface-level ‘getting along’, unless Charles has become a radically different character from his previous appearances.
That would be an especially unfortunate phrasing, which makes it all the more likely that he goes for it I feel.
Charles might change here, though. He realized he just basically lost his daughter because he was too passive in these situations.
He approached Walky privately twice to undermine her. He is NOT going to oppose her.
Because of judging a book by it’s cover, no less.
White Flight School of Judging a Book by It’s Cover, since she thought the daughter of a couple from that same fringe ‘hickville’ church whose jobless member, already in trouble with the law for kidnapping his own kid at antique gunpoint, aided that gangster who took her son hostage for the stupidest reasons…Whom wants to study to be a K-12 schoolteacher and simply wants a family of her own, not yachts and crap, simply based on how Northwest European-looking her epidermis was.
Yes, that is what they need to do. Immediately.
That would be the smart option, probably, so therefore there’s gonna at least be some intermediary steps before it happens.
Lucy does not look like someone who’s about to walk out. Or be led out.
100%. That’s not “I’m offended” face, that’s “Raise hell” face.
I would honestly rather see Lucy lay her out.
lol it does look like they’re both going to go off on her hopefully
tho ‘brilliant young man’ lol i can’t imagine walky willingly sitting through an AP/IB class, maybe the public school he went to didn’t have it but i’m surprised she wouldn’t have been in more control of his schedule to where he started off with premed in the first place
You don’t start off with pre-med. It isn’t offered as a thing. If they are paying for it, she might see what courses he’s taking, but basically at this point he’s taking required freshman courses mostly.
It probably depends on the school, but starting premed and then switching was not unheard of. It would have been surprising if someone started other and then switched to premed.
In most schools, including IU, “pre-med” isn’t actually a thing you take. You don’t get a degree in pre-med.
There are definitely courses that are suggested if you want to go to med school after graduation, but it’s not a specific undergrad degree program.
That was one of my favourite ways to piss people off when I was in Uni, they would say they were in pre-med, my reply: “oh in science huh?”. Same for a claim to be in pre-law: “so how is that arts degree going?”.
Apparently you can drive Harvard students/grads batty by pretending you don’t know what Harvard is. “Ohhh, is that like a local community college or something?”
Oh, you can make a subset of pretty much any group violently annoyed by being deliberately and maliciously wrong about something that they consider basic information
well, he’s definitely not ‘working his way up to it’, is also what i meant, i can’t imagine walky as a doctor, maybe as an assistant to cheer little kids up but i would not trust walky to do a surgery on anyone lol
??? I didn’t say it was a degree. Are you calling me a liar or an idiot or what?
I mean, plenty of “smart” kids ace AP classes without much work, only to do very badly in college-level courses
I don’t know if we’ve ever seen Lucy this mad before
Sarah did it first apparently
What’s the most infuriating situation Lucy has been in, Billie was being a bit sarcastic with her? I think this is the first situation she’s been in where anger feels warranted. Niceness and lack of spine are not the same thing, I’m glad Lucy has one.
Nah, it’s DoA. Perharps tomorrow we will see Joyce or Sal again.
the chairs behind them being red seems fitting.
Oh Linda. You barely raised either of your children. Yelling at them and shaking your fist at them doesn’t count.
makes me wonder if we’ll get flashbacks to walky on his own when sal was off in boarding school what an average week for him was like then
I am very curious, and I think it’d depend on if Linda has a job. If she does have a job, I imagine Walky was probably a latchkey kid while both his parents were at work, probably giving him a hour or two after school to watch his favorite cartoons and snack on doritos before they came home. Aside from eating dinner together and probably fussing at him over school, I honestly can’t imagine there being much else to their relationship or Linda’s raising. Like, at least with Charles we’ve seen him drop the kids off to the bus stop on their first day, and be there for Sal when Marcie was in the hospital so maybe he had bonding moments with Charles about stuff. But Linda… it’s harder to imagine with her.
UNLEASH THE BEAST
Please Lucy!!!! Give me a reason to play the Doom Music!!! T_T
Kar en tuk?
The only thing they fear is you
Rip and Tear until it’s Done!
Also Happy Birthday Maggie!!!!
🥳 🪅
Happy birthday to you!!!
The world is a zoo!!!
We wish you a great party!!!
And some sweet presents too!!!
I like this version of the song a lot.
Happy birthday Maggie, I’m sorry you got a parent trauma comic for your birthday.
Happy Birthday, Maggie!
Yes very happy birthday.
Well let’s face she lasted about as long as she possibly could, which is just incredibly sad.
walky can have a few red trauma panels. as a treat
I think these are going to be Lucy’s trauma panels.
Sic her, Lucy.
I feel bad having the reaction of, “Linda, what about Walky has EVER given you the impression he has much to aim for?”
Which is not a slight on his capacity so much as the fact that he’s never wanted to or shown a desire for any of the things she seems to think he’s working toward. Did she even bother noticing his major is in communications?
Oh she has definitely noticed his major, she just seems to think she’s gonna change his mind somehow and nag him into premed. https://www.dumbingofage.com/2013/comic/book-3/04-just-hangin-out-with-my-family/footforward/
And honestly, it is a good point what you said about Walky. Which like you, I don’t think is a slight against Walky but moreso his mom. Linda looks at her son and has just decided he’s going to be a successful Doctor like Linda, have you had a conversation with your son? Checked to see what his interests are and decided to nurture that? She’s clearly just projecting what she wants out of him. It makes me wonder what Linda and Charles do for a living.
oh gods irl worst major to be forced into can you even imagine?
That happened to a friend of mine. Daughter of two doctors. They said she was going to follow in their footsteps. I said, “Wow, I didn’t realize that was what she wanted to do.” Her mom replied, “Regardless of whether it’s what she WANTS to do, it’s what she WILL do.”
《Même si c’est pas ce qu’elle VEUT faire, c’est ce qu’elle VA faire.》
She was 15. Poor girl.
Yikes, hope things turned out okey for her
I think she wound up becoming a doctor.
One of my friends, at 17*, decided to study Medicine and become a doctor (GP) on the basis that she didn’t really know what she wanted to do, her big sister was doing it and enjoying it, and she’d be guaranteed a good job. She’s retraining as a preschool teacher now, which is something I can picture her doing a LOT easier (she’s incredibly bright, but also quite easy to gross out/most definitely thinks there’s such a thing as TMI… She’s also warm, and gentle and patient and loves kids so she’ll do a fab job starting over at 39/40, having never properly worked as a doctor after spending MANY years studying and training (she’s done the rotations and placement things where you have a supervisor and caseloads? But I think she did an optional extra year abroad, had to repeat a few bits, then went part time because she started a family so I don’t think she ever quite got her final sign-off. Then she had her second baby right before COVID hit and really didn’t want to be back in a hospital after that).
*UK, so you study Medicine then do placements for a few years and need to pass a squillion assessments etc etc. But you don’t typically need to get a different degree first. It’s still like 7 years full-time if you don’t need to redo anything I think.
There were MULTIPLE people at my school who were applying to do Medicine coz they didn’t really know what to do and it seemed like a good idea
I think my face managed to not say how I felt about this…
Good luck to her, Miri! May her path forward be smooth and promising.
Between the debt and the stress, it’s one of the worst careers to go into if you don’t really want it. Yikes.
For sure. I’ve got about 1 more year until my student loans are (fingers crossed! Hopefully!) forgiven. Just gotta steel myself.
(I am not a doctor, nor do I play one on TV.)
probably because he isn’t shirtless in pajama jeans stuffing himself with nachitos and mcnuggets growing up but i wouldn’t be surprised if he did decent enough in school to where he could chill on weekends and just do stuff outta linda’s sight within reason
Yeah, I sympathize with Linda’s fear that her son will goof off during college and, to his later regret, fail to gain the finical or career success he might desire once he enters the world at large (Walky does not seem to have a great grasp on how he plans to gain the money he needs to fulfil his strange yet adorable dreams – largely just being the indolent goof he is now but with cooler stuff).
However, Linda is not having a serious conversation with him about this and instead … doing what ever the heck this nonsense is.
Telecommunications. He wants to work in tv. Linda doesn’t care.
To me the question is, does he REALLY want a career in communications? Or did he just pick that as a major because it seemed easier than a science/math curriculum and, well, he watched a lot of TV when he lived at home.
The only thing Walky seems to be passionate about is visual media- comics and cartoons. I think he might have a genuine desire to work in making them in some way.
Hopefully AI will soon be good enough that he can do a few sketches and get out an animated short of Mike running up and kicking his mom.
And it will cost less than a nickle.
Yeah, like I don’t want to be too negative towards Walky (or overlook the racism), but between what we see at the beginning of the strip and in flashbacks, he hasn’t changed much. He as always been goofy and not particularly ambitious, which can be fine (and has actually seemed to be getting a little more mature recently), but it is clear that she just ignored her actual son completely and instead created a projection of the son she though/wished she had.
I don’t think Walky has ever wanted ANYTHING specifically until recently…after all he knows where wanting what Linda doesn’t leads to. It is why the ‘Golden Child’ dynamic messes up the GC in a different but still damaging way.
I mean, it seems fairly obvious to me that Walky presents himself as a directionless goofball with no larger purpose in life precisely because his mom put so much pressure on him to be Successful when he was growing up. You tell your teenager he’s gotta have a 50-year career plan or else you’ll strongly disapprove of him, naturally he’s going to dig in his heels and tell all his friends his greatest ambition in life is to live in a bouncy castle or whatever!
Yes Lucy, give in to your anger! Embrace the power of the dark side of the Force!
Oh.
Oh she dead.
Nope, fuck Linda. She sucks and no one should have to be subjected to her nonsense. Walky would be better off without her.
I mean yes but she seems like. I mean she is ultimatum type and is not afraid to pull tbe plug on finances, though the fact she hasn’t done that on Sal.. although I don’t know how much Linda and Charles are contributing Sal’s tuition if any.
I think she’s paying for both since Sal doesn’t have a full time job or student loans that we know of. With Sal they might just leave her alone and hope that college helps her marry well since dating the right person is all they expect from her. Not sure about pulling the plug on walky if only because forcing him to drop put isn’t a good look for her but maybe she would follow through on the threat of to scare him into pre med.
Be hilarious if he was like “you know what? i’m just gonna drop out if i’m never gonna live up to your expectations”
(he’sn ot rly close neough with carla for her to buy him a place to live but it would be hilarious if carla was like “y’know what, i’ll hire you, yo ucan live in X apartment that my family owns/sublets” or wahtever XD)
Is Becky using her apartment she got from Robin? Gonna turn that place into a get-the-hell-away-from-your-awful-parents house.
I don’t think Robin ever owned that place. I think it was government -owned and she just used it. (Could be wrong about that.)
Robin probably lives there now.
I feel like the camera’s going to pan out and Charles is just going to have long fled the scene.
either that or he’d just stay there but be silent
He’s very good at that part.
It legit feels like Charles is the sort that wishes that Linda was more diplomatic with what she says, even though she’s *obviously* 100% right about everything.
Ugh.
i know walky is kinda cringefail but this does not excuse linda for being an Adult, Parental Cringefail, and i wish to have her taken down one to three pegs more than walky, who can do some skating through life as far as I care as long as he learns some DAMN further sensitivity…
damn i think this is more words than i’ve ever put into this forum uh oh im in danger *hides in the floorboards*
*pokes the floorboards *
imagine if lucy righteously ranted at her and the kiss cam zoomed in and showed everything (tho i never been to one so idk if they had audio lol)
They don’t have audio, but zooming in on Lucy juggling Linda like it’s Devil May Cry would be entertaining.
“You should have graduated already, and married Jennifer. How do you expect to be president slacking off like this?”
Honestly, I highly doubt he seeks those types of aspirations.
jennifers past (and present i guess) is too ‘messy’ to ever be a ‘president’s ‘wife’ or whatever lol but i wouldnt’ be surprised if she would’ve been ok with walky being dorothy’s trophy husband
She could be president though. She’s actually probably under par for poor life choices if she tried for it.
Not in the US, she’d have to be an unambiguously white man to get away with an underage DUI. Being a woman is bad enough, throw in her mixed ethnicity and she’d be lucky to make state Congress.
But she’s also half-Asian on her mom’s side, so she gets a double “bad driving lol” stereotype, and so I kinda wonder if that’d simply be written off as expected.
Fulfilling a negative stereotype doesn’t mean she’d get forgiven for being a drunk driver. It would only make people see her bad driving as even more inherent / unchangeable / a reflection of who she is.
Negative stereotypes are just never going to help you out.
Laura Bush ran a stop sign and killed someone, when she was 17.
It’s okay though. It was an old boyfriend.
that part’s urban legend.
His aspirations don’t matter much to Linda. Only HER aspirations matter to her.
Well on one hand, Linda’s not wrong that Walky tends to kind of stay where he is rather than reaching for more.
On the other hand, if he’s happy doing that and can pay his bills, there’s nothing wrong with that?
Seems like there should be a happy medium being ‘do what you like’ and ‘give yourself a push out of your comfort zone once in a while’.
Agreed. She’s calling a spade a spade here. Sure it sounds brutal, but sometimes you have to be about as subtle as a sledgehammer to get a point across. The trouble, though, is that this has been Linda’s M.O. all along, so even though she’s speaking the truth and Walky DOES just seem to be coasting along on cruise control.
And I should know. I was the same way.
Just so you know, in the context of saying “slumming it” while meeting the black girl her con is dating, the phrase “a spade a spade” comes off as so racist that it kind of shocks me someone could be so tone deaf in the replies to this comic.
TBH I wouldn’t know the slang meaning of “spade” if I hadn’t read books written many decades ago. And I still don’t actually know whether the expression “calling a spade a spade” has a racist origin or not.
I do totally agree that Linda is being disgustingly racist here, very thinly veiled. So I think BB is wrong to support Linda. But BB may be deaf to the whole Linda-is-racist thing, rather than tone deaf in their reply.
Apparently it started out in Greece with figs and troughs, then started referring to the digging tool, then the card suit ♠️, and then since the suit is black, we can pretty easily figure out where it went from there.
At least, according to a listicle I just read that also said “no can do” and “long time no see” started out as ways to mock how Chinese immigrants talked, and so marginalised people should feel uncomfortable hearing those phrases.
@Taffy:
“and so marginalised people should feel uncomfortable hearing those phrases.”
If you’re going down that road, don’t you think it’s a little…distasteful…for you to prescribe how marginalised people “should” feel about hearing those phrases? Wouldn’t you agree that it is up to people themselves how to feel about hearing any given phrase, and up to the speaker to reflect on how their words might be received?
I feel like another question is “did it say that people should feel uncomfortable or did it say some people might feel uncomfortable”.
I wouldn’t necessarily assume which one it was… or both… in the era of ChatGPT I’m a little surprised to find a “listicle” that has coherent grammar, much less good information.
The exact literal wording is “Due to their origin, either of these phrases could make racially marginalised people feel uncomfortable and should therefore be avoided.”
It’s something about the way the entire thing was written that made it feel more like “minorities should be upset”. If I could elaborate on that feeling, I would.
I’m not the one who wrote the thing, don’t task me for any of the content being distasteful.
I’d love to see a source for this other than “a listicle somewhere,” and I also absolutely do not believe that every step there refers the the phrase “call a spade a spade,” though possibly does refer to the word “spade,” and lastly, I am not at all convinced by the last step in that logic chain. “The suit of cards is black, therefore it referred to black people” is absolutely something that you need a source for. The suit of clubs is also black, so why not “call a club a club” or something? I don’t buy it – at least, not without some evidence.
I’ve also seen people claim “picnic” came from a term for lynching (it did not) and plenty of other Snopesable claims about etymology that are just nonsense. That in addition to the point made by ThomasQuinn that it’s pretty distasteful to say “marginalized people *should* feel uncomfortable”.
Anyway, I don’t think Linda is actually right here, regardless of the phrasing. Even if she’s technically correct that Walky’s coasting, “slumming it” IS actually a loaded phrase*, though one with deeper-than-just-racist connotations, and also he’s struggling because he has an undiagnosed learning disability (not that she knows that), and also he actually has been trying harder! (that said I really like the idea that there’s nothing wrong with being content and not having a ton of ambition; the idea that “being happy where you are, not terribly interested in pursuing the moon” is a problematic lack of ambition has bothered me in other webcomics.)
*see: Slumming by Chad Heap, Gay New York by George Chauncey, and Interzones by Kevin Mumford.
To be honest though- and not remotely to defend Linda here or to be saying anything about Walky specifically, but to discuss the situation- if someone is paying for someone to attend university, “I take issue with you not putting any effort in” would be valid. Like, it’s totally fine to not have ambition, or to have untraditional ambition. It should be entirely possible to live a comfortable life on minimum wage (a discussion for another time). But if someone is going through an expensive education at the expense of another, ambition really should be in there somewhere- at the very least the ambition to actually learn and take advantage of the immediate opportunity they have.
Of course, coming back to Walky, I’d make a solid guess that it wasn’t exactly his idea to go to uni in the first place.
Sort of! I don’t think he’s not putting the effort in, tbh – he never had to put in effort before, but he’s better off learning the skills he needs in lower division classes, rather than throwing himself at stuff he’s bad at and failing.
But also, although I do agree that if your parents pay for your education when you are an adult, you have some obligation to them, I also think most parents take that way too far, thinking of it as a second part of their kids’ childhood, and universities have seriously been enabling this (because they want the parents’ money more than they care about the students’ wellbeing). But even by law, once you’re over 18 your parents absolutely do NOT have a legal right to know anything about your university life that isn’t public information – what classes you’re in, what your major is, what your grades are, etc. This is true even if they’re paying for it.
@Thulcandran: The problem is if he sticks to the lower division classes, he’ll breeze through them and not learn the skills he needs.
OTOH, he’s no longer failing the subject he was having trouble with and he’s learning the skills in that process, so it’s really good.
Parental rights are awkward at that stage, since you’re correct they have no legal right to know, but on the other hand they have no legal obligation to keep paying for school, so they’ve got a lot of leverage to exert over their child.
@thejeff That’s impossible, though. You can’t graduate college with a degree – so, you can’t graduate at all – without ever taking an upper-division class. Gen ed requirements are a thing, and they’re lower division, but at some point, you have to declare a major and take the requirements for that major, and the university – all universities – do set standards that departments have to abide by in their requirements and curricula.
Agreed on the liminality of 18-22 year-olds in universities. I really do think it’s very unhealthy to have people go straight from high school to university without any independent time on their own in between, for that exact reason (and more).
you need evidence that “spade” has been a racial slur in living memory, or you need evidence of moot etymology?
Both! But I decided not to wait to see if anybody was going to link to a reliable source and found one myself. So I’ll gladly admit that I was wrong, and it is in fact a phrase with racist implications.
Seems like it was not a racial slur until after the 1920s, arose within the Black community in Harlem, and then sometime after that became a slur. So I stand corrected. I do think that people today can easily hear it without knowing that, though. I had heard the phrase a lot growing up, but never heard it used to refer to people at all, so had never made the association, hence my hesitation.
I would still say that I do not think Linda is right, and that saying she’s accurate in describing Walky’s behavior, generally/broadly, as “slumming” is y-i-k-e-s, because of the connotations of slumming. (even if she was not referring to his social circle or girlfriend, just to his major, it’s STILL inaccurate. slumming, in its strict definition, in that context, would refer to taking all easy, non-challenging courses while still reaping the social benefits of a high-status major. but that’s not what’s happening! Walky started out in a difficult math class, then realized partway through the term that he was struggling because he didn’t know how to take notes or study! I don’t know what classes he’s taking this term, since I don’t think we’ve really seen them, but even if they’re lower-division courses like 100 or 200 levels: 1, those are required prerequisites in most majors for the upper-division courses, 2, this is still his freshman year, they’re entirely appropriate, and 3, he’s not coasting through them (anymore, probably).
https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2013/09/19/224183763/is-it-racist-to-call-a-spade-a-spade
Calling a spade a spade has been an idiom since 1542. Spade was not used as a racial slur until 1928.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Call_a_spade_a_spade#:~:text=The%20idiom%20originates%20in%20the,the%20more%20familiar%20%22spade%22.
I will admit to sympathy with discomfort with idiom. Back in the 1970’s when I was tutoring young black students for college courses in logic and mathematics, the professor invariably assigned a non-simple logical reasoning problem about a man who was niggardly. I knew what the word meant, but it made me feel deeply uncomfortable and I heartily wished the professor had chosen a different scenario.
If you’re curious to know how that situation plays out ~30yrs later:
I had a professor use “niggardly” too, and it was like the temperature of the room dropped. (He was from high-status Iran, and spoke many languages. He may not have known that this word is very unusual, on account of sounding just like the worst slur possible in an English-speaking room, so that his students would literally feel like he was using the n-word to us.)
Heck, I’m not Black, I knew the word, and I immediately realized why he might’ve made that error — but it *still* made me feel crawly.
The prof clearly got multiple student complaints, because, the next class, he wrote the etymology on the board to carefully explain that his word was not linguistically related to the n-word, and that he had not meant to disparage Black people. I don’t remember if he apologized.
I assume he switched to using “stingy” from then on. That’s all it would take to fix it.
More than a listicle, it is well-documented to Erasmus in the 1500s, who was translating ancient Greek and seems to have mistranslated on purpose (either for recognizability or because he considered figs and troughs to be vulgar slang). The use as a slur started in the 1920s.
So it’s clear which came first, but whether it’s a good idea to use it in 2023 is different.
Personally I think “calls a cock a cock” is a better saying anyway, and keeps the “…to the point of rudeness” connotations.
I honestly didn’t knew about the racist tone of this term until this comic and I have been looking at the comment in the hope of seeing someone elaborate a bit more on it.
People can use phrases that might have a racist implication or tone, without realizing it. But also other people will use that same phrase _because_ it has a racist tone and they think it’s amusing to play dumb about it.
BB hasn’t replied, so they might not even have read all this, which may feel like a dogpile now. But if someone uses a skunked word and doesn’t know it, you should let them know. So that if their don’t intend to have an ambiguously racist tone, they won’t.
I was following the discourse and learning something. But I will say that after having put in more than sixty-five years on this planet learning English and developing an extensive vocabulary, I don’t feel we are doing ANYONE any good by filtering perfectly good words out of the vocabulary because it either sounds like something else or because the meaning has been warped. Take the word ‘gay’, for example. It used to mean happy, merry, festive, as in ‘our hearts were young and gay’, or ‘don we now our gay apparel’ — but now it means ‘homosexual’ and there are no ifs, ands, or buts allowed.
Trust me … if I want to offend someone, there will be no question in anyone’s mind that I’m doing so. I’ve got a boatload of words I can use to do it, even without resorting to racial slurs or other ‘trigger words’.
connotations change. ‘based’ used to refer to crack, now it means right-wing identitarian.
Hmmm. I don’t think that expression is as innocuous as you think it is. Spade is an old (or not so old, depending on one’s age) pejorative towards black people. Just not a good term in this case.
well, walky does need a bit of a push to get serious and get an ok paying job but he shouldn’t have to worry about it for right now (imagine the reaction if he told his mom he wanted to be a ‘youtuber’/influencer tho lol)
No, we actually don’t need to give it to the narcissistic racist.
We do if “it” is a live grenade or a lit stick of dynamite with a short fuse.
Yeah Walky tends want to stay in his comfort zone, but in the context here matters, Linda is a racist and is being racist.
Reminds me of people that find out that I don’t like heights due to a childhood trauma and insist that I should do things like rock climbing or sky diving to conquer that fear. Even if I liked heights, I don’t think that I would want to sky dive, and forcing myself to get over something like that in an unpleasant way at someone else’s forceful insistence is not the way to get over something like that. I do things in my own time and place, and I do think there is such a thing as a healthy fear that gives you a sense of appreciation and caution when doing things (or deciding not to do things) that could be dangerous. I am not going to jump head first into something dangerous for the only reason of “defeating my fear”. I have pushed the boundaries on it before. I do have to say that walking down grated stairs on the Eiffel Tower at night was a bit rough on it. It also wasn’t a place that could kill or injure me if I froze up or panicked (though I suppose falling down the stairs could).
In any case, in my opinion, there should be a good reason why you push yourself to do something you are worried about doing other than just peer pressure. I don’t comfort zone in this case because I find it a bit ambiguous. There can be things outside your comfort zone that you still enjoy doing with the right support (eg someone likes doing theater but doesn’t feel comfortable acting in front of other people). That is completely different than something you don’t like doing, would never like to do, and don’t need to do it to have a successful life. Riding in an airplane can be a very unpleasant experience, but it is the best way to visit new places or friends and family that live far away. Scuba diving if you hate the water is just ridiculous. One has a reward for doing something you don’t like while the other will probably just leave you wondering why you spent the time and money on it and was just unpleasant all around.
Also what is wrong with just being content with what you have? Since when is that a bad thing?
Comfort is fine, you just want to avoid falling into passivity. If people are genuinely happy doing the same thing for 20+ years, go for it. If you had that vague notion of ‘oh I want to go to Europe someday’ or ‘I want kids’ or ‘maybe I want to learn an instrument’, then if you’re too comfortable in your current situation, suddenly it’s 15 years later and you wonder what the heck happened.
It doesn’t mean you need to upend the table every once in a while, it just means probably take note of where you are every so often and if you’re okay with it.
I understand. It is always good to make a note of where you are going and where you are at just for self health reasons. There is also some concern with putting things off and then being disappointed that it didn’t happen for one reason or another. Most of the time something like vacation travel is put off (from my experience) is due to expense, vacation time off of work, or kids. My parents had been planning on traveling to Europe after my dad retired, but then he developed a severe allergy to mold (best way to describe it) that makes traveling difficult. In some ways, joy in the everyday is a survival skill for the poor because they can’t afford to spontaneously spend money on something they really want to do. Hard to get disappointed when something you saved up money and time for doesn’t pan out due to reasons outside of your control if you weren’t yearning for it so much in the first place.
Accidental report!!! I’m sorry!!
Murderer.
He doesn’t pay his bills. She pays his bills.
You are right in that there should be nothing wrong with a life that is, well, ordinary, as long as he is happy and can support himself. The trouble is, can walkey actually support himself? He did do well in high school and some of his college classes, but he struggled in others. (Plus he has a potential learning disability). And he doesn’t seem the type that would be interested in skilled trades.
It reminds me of a nephew of mine… Everyone talked about how smart he was in school, but he dropped out before he finished high school, never went to college, and his entire work experience consists of a few months working at a retail store for a few months. He lives in his mother’s basement and sponges off of her for everything.
He did well in high school. He struggled (as far as we know) in one college class, but managed to learn coping strategies and recovered, at least well enough to move on to the next semester of that topic. He probably has ADHD.
None of this suggests he’s doomed to fail out of school and live in Linda’s basement. It might suggest he needs more support than he’s been getting, but that’s not going to come from his parents.
You really are adorable with words, aren’t you Linda?
you wouldn’t like her when she’s angry
(n.b.: you’d love her)
Well it’s up to Lucy to defend herself because no one there is likely to so hopefully she unleashes hell!
I dunno, i Give it fairly good Odds that Walky Backs her up if she goes off. He may not be THAT into the relationship, but he’s been trying to be a good boyfriend.
or he says the same thing as sal and realizing “i don’t need your approval any more” , not thathe’s been as ‘starved’ of it as sal was, but still. tho i wonder if it’d be possible to file a restraining order against your own parents even if they didn’t technically do anything. ruth was able to stop ppl who aren’t on the ‘approved’ list from previous things but she’s not the RA for walkys dorm
The difference is Walky has been conditioned that his worth as a person is contingent on that approval. (A really telling sign is how he broke down when Dorothy didn’t judge him as a person on his struggle with maths.) Sal was taught pretty much from the off (as far as we know) that that approval was never coming, that nothing she did would make her “good enough” so she had to build her own sense of “good enough”. Her whole arc has been about trying to solidify that because she finally had some glimpse of what being “good enough” looks like and- as with Walky- it comes with doing and being the correct things in her mother’s eyes no matter what that means for her. It will never be that she as a person is “good enough”.
Walky hasn’t had the personal growth of stepping away from trying to be “good enough”- this may be the beginning of it but it’s a damn hard journey. Parental approval can carry a lot of weight when used as a weapon, and that goes far harder for someone taught to tie their own sense of worth as a person into that approval.
Point is- it would be great to see Walky reach the point of walking away from her and being willing to cut ties (even if not able to for financial reasons), but that won’t be today. From an in-universe perspective things move pretty damn fast (consider how little time Joyce’s character development took, in-universe) so it might well happen relatively soon. But I’ll be extremely surprised if it’s today.
Go off on her, Lucy. I’m begging you.
Please lord let this be the moment Lucy breaks and in turn breaks Linda’s nose with a well placed punch Joyce style
Wow – that is baaaad. (I assume she means slumming as in spending time with ones social inferiors in an not so subtle swipes at Lucy and not in the sense that Walky is living in degraded conditions, because I believe that devoid of an authority figure telling him to clean his room Walky would eventually drown under an slowly rising tide of unsorted dirty clothes).
he’s prolly ‘slumming it’ when he’s in bachelor mode but i mean, as a parent, hopefully some of them would be ok with their kids ‘coasting through life’ as long as they aren’t like on drugs or so
No point in the rat race, you always end up where you started.
What’s bizarre about Linda’s words here is that she is flip-flopping between making a very good point—Walky is lazy and needs to get his act together, we all know this, although some of his issues could be addressed by a mental health professional—and…suggesting that his choice to date Lucy is somehow a reflection of that? I guess she’s suggesting that he should date someone who gets him “in line,” and picking someone who supports him unconditionally is just another example of him being lazy, but…ma’am, that’s not what “slumming it” means. Also, Lucy is right there. “Slumming it” is racially coded in this context but there is plausible deniability on Linda’s part there, but there is zero deniability that “slumming it” refers to whom Walky chooses to hang out with—*and she is right there.* like my god woman, be a human.
Sure , but he’s not even 21 yet, even tho it’d be good to get a ‘head start’ on his future or so (do we even know if he has a dream job? i imagine he’d get by on being a streamer all day or so, ppl can apparently make a living off of it even if their numbers don’t go viral), but it’s not as if he’s in his 40s and mooching in his parents basement and refusing to get a job and such
Linda’s choice of words is VERY deliberate. Remember she forbid Sal from hanging out with hoodlums when it was about Marcie.
Whether Walky is coasting through life here or not, it was racially charged.
Walky is 18 and almost certainly living with an undiagnosed and untreated mental disorder. He’s not lazy.
Idk if he’d ever be willing to be on meds like “I refuse to let this traumatize me” so he’d prolly also be overall against even talking to a therapist but walky does seem like the type to just say he chooses to be lazy even as an excuse, or at least, probably not be as overly ambitious as dorothy if he did manage to focus with medical aid or not, tho a balance would be good.
At the very least he does seem like the type of person that’d prefer to do bare minimum work and just prefer to have ‘fun’ versus workign hard, which isn’t inherently bad as long as you’re not pushing ur workload into others
Walky was never really “lazy.” Any interest or drive that he had outside of Linda’s narrow vision has been mocked, blocked, and snuffed out. The kid can’t even have a comic for fun. He barely knows how to ambition in the first place. Maybe Walky feels safer doing “nothing,” because “something,” is future ammunition to be used against him.
And that’s on top of his parents ignoring his adhd. I’d bet good money they’ve been told about it and chosen not to believe in it.
Eh, I think that robs Walky of his agency a bit too much. Yes, Walky is dealing with his ADHD and a mom whose expectations of him do not at all match reality.
But he is also lazy. He likes his pajama jeans for a reason. His idea of the perfect night in is 50 McNuggets and a cartoon binge. He wears pajama jeans to class so he doesn’t have to change.
Don’t forget that his first reaction to studying with Dorothy was not “I’m trying and this is hard” but “god, this is boring, I could be watching cartoons right now.” That’s laziness. His ADHD might make it harder for him to buckle down and focus, but he originally didn’t even want to try because it’s boring. That’s not a mortal sin in the slightest- lord knows I’m guilty of it even now (he says, posting while at work)- but it is a failing of Walky’s and not something that should be looked past just because his mom sucks out loud.
You may have a point about his agency. But I can’t help but imagine a little 10 year old Walky getting screamed at by his mom over his grades just like she did at the restaurant. Or doing his homework scared stiff while Linda shouts at Sal. And that makes me think he deserves some empathy and understanding for why, when he got to college, he snapped and decided to suck down a billion nachitos. And it’s a weakness for sure, but it’s bothersome when some folks talk about it like he’s guilty of sloth.
Also it’s not that uncommon for clever people to make armor out of underachieving.
Walky probably would’ve been a laid-back comfort-seeker no matter what, but add to that, he’s existentially terrified of failing. And for good reason, considering how Linda flips TF out against any whiff of having difficulty, and how his parents encouraged him to base his whole identity around being a good smart boy (not somebody who is bad at school or steps out of line: Walky had a front-row seat to how that little designation went for his twin). Difficulty is clearly Very Not Okay in this family, with huge, love-witholding consequences.
Walky believed Dorothy would instantly dump him for not being effortlessly skillful at calculus, that’s how he expects the world to treat him if he isn’t easily, instantly brilliant at everything he does.
When the stakes are that high, why on earth would somebody want to attempt something fail-able and *hard*?
especially when, for the first time in his life, nobody is making him do it, and he could actually just sit around for a weekend with tasty snacks, instead?
His lack of ambition was also probably influenced by Linda micromanaging everything as a child, it’s hard to pick out your own interests and consequently decide what you want to strive for when you’ve got somebody is authority planning everything for you with no room for disagreement.
………. Fuck you Linda, that’s all I got.
This next installment of Amber/Joe is taking a little longer than I expected. Should be done soon!
Something to look forward to during this stressful af arc
Can’t rush perfection. It’s funny, I have zero interest in Joe and Amber ever being a thing in the webcomic proper, but you paint such a fun scenario that I’ve been enjoying it a lot.
Take as long as you’d like, Yoto. Always love your stuff!
Weird question, but did you use to have a big Imgur gallery of DoA fan art? I really liked it; it had some funny stuff.
Yep. But imgur took down any links with nsfw art
When the competition includes actual murderers you’d think it’d be harder to be the worst parent.
well, toedads dead so no more damage can be done cept emotional trauma/mourning or so but i imagine becky’s over that by now
They’re dead so Linda is probably the worst at the moment just by exposure but Ethan’s and Danny’s parents are probably up there and of course Joyce’s mom is in thebrunning for first llace but if where also including parental figures i think Ruth’s grandfather takes first place on the grounds he both physically and mentally abuses his grandchildren.
I’d rate Dina, Dotty’s and Sierra’s parents at the top I know people where complaining about Dotty’s parents are bad beacuse they gave Dotty confidence (I think it was a joke) but Dotty’s parents are supportive and if Dorothy actually spoke to them they would probably give good advice and continue to be supportive.
I’d still say Carol is worse. Linda is horribly, horribly, horribly misguided but there’s a kernel of wanting do good for her kids (see: wanting Amber expelled because she stabbed Sal and her dad kidnapped Walky).
Carol’s response to when Joyce got kidnapped was ‘well she didn’t get hurt, did she?!’.
Carol also wants good things for Joyce. She wants her to avoid sin and find a good husband to provide for her so she can raise lots of kids.
The angles are different, but both are very much focused on their kids becoming what they want them to be.
At least Linda doesn’t think people should be allowed to point guns at her children.
Linda is working hard to catch up with Carol in the worst Living parent category.
She’s trying to achieve beyond her reach.
Linda’s obviously not as bad as Becky’s dad or Amber’s dad, but she is my least favorite (and probably a lot of other people’s) because she’s the most mundane, boring kind of shitty person. Kidnapping your daughter and her friends or dressing up as a supervillain to fight your daughter is a bit…abstract, for most of us. But we all know a Linda.
Why is Linda not as bad as Blaine or Ross? Is it because she doesn’t directly threaten Sal with physical harm? Because all the kids are traumatized, but Becky and Amber are physically whole. Sal is not. Her hand literally no longer works correctly.
The whole “physical danger as a meter” schtick got old back when we got the full flashback to the robbery.
Blaine is arguably more responsible for Sal’s hand than Linda. Linda’s abuse of Sal got Sal arrested, but Blaine abusing Amber made Amber snap and stab Sal. If Blaine didn’t exist, Sal wouldn’t have gotten stabbed, but Sal still would have been arrested.
Mike is dead. That’s kind of the benchmark for very worst thing any parent has done.
SHRIEKING at the alt text. Also at poor Lucy’s expressions. She’s speedrun to that one particular kind of Dealing With An In-Law emotion.
Agreed. I’m wondering if Linda has made Lucy realize that there are families you don’t marry into.
Walky has a black girlfriend and is considered slumming it. Sal is just always treated badly… What did we get from all this? Dating white you doing alright (Sal). Dating black you are slumming it (Walky).
And Charles has witnessed both today. I wonder if he’s going to realize how racist Linda is. I wonder if it’s going to click. Or maybe he doesn’t care.
Charles unfortunately seems to also share the same racial biases as his wife, despite all of Sals previous effort to come off as a perfect princess in their presence he apparently still thought of her as having issues until he saw her with Danny and then he and his wife all the sudden think she’s redeemed herself.
Sure, my feelings about Lucy are clear, but Linda could use a firm stomp from Mike. Fuck Linda
Surprisingly racist choice of words.
Honestly, the only really surprising part is that she’s being this overt about it for once.
She’s drunk remember? :p
It only gonna escalate as she finishes that beer 0_0
Oh Lucy honey. Whatever anger you’re feeling, let it out on Linda. She more than has it coming. (and happy birthday Maggie)
…OK so I realize why everyone else sees Lucy’s expression as Rageful; there is DEFINITELY some real serious Anger there! But I admit, I feel like it’s actually primarily Really Really Sad? I dunno, Facial Expressions can be a bit ambiguous in real life let alone art, so who knows if I’m on point here at all, but she genuinely looks like, whatever else is about to happen, she’s also fighting back the urge to burst into tears, and it just breaks my heart!
Or perhaps it could be a combination of the two, at least for me that expression in the last panel expresses that they hurt her but also expresses helplessness in trying to defend herself or a helplessness with herself because she doesn’t want to give a bad image.
I see that, too. Could be a bit of being so emotionally wrung she’s losing control as well. I’m sure there’s a billion different feelings, a lot of them conflicting and none of them good, with anger near or at the top and sadness not far behind.
Coatl’s point on feeling helpless is really resonating, too. She’s been a great girlfriend to Walky up to this point. For his mother to come at her sideways like this is definitely putting her in a space where she feels doing anything (or nothing at all) is going to just be used as ammunition against her.
As ammunition against her.
I dont know, but I feel that there, it will be a negative point for Lucy, that is, she should seek the help and “wisdom” of the “great people” (Raidan and Jennifer)
I really hope she tells her off. It’s ok if it’s mostly tears.
Get her, Jade.
Who’s Jade?
The one who’s gonna get her.
Duh.
It’s going to be kind of wild if Walky and Lucy storm off, and this of all things ends with them fucking.
“Can it still be a hate fuck if the hated party isn’t present?”
“A conversation for a much later date. Get your jeans off.”
You got a hardy laugh from me! I needed that as much as I need Linda to be snapped out of existence.
Lucy, aren’t you tired of being nice? Don’t you want to go apeshit?
Lucy looks 100 percent redlined, let’s gooooooooooooo
Walky also looks ready to bring some shit so that’ll make it… easier?
A++ that’s the feeling, that’s it exactly.
I love Lucy, and Lucy’s got some ‘sploding to do.
Happy birthday Maggie! We made you a pie but accidentally threw it in Linda’s face.
Lucy you have a chance to completely 180 my opinion on you.
Take it.
FINISH HER!
Poor Lucy
I wonder if this is going to somehow come back to her marriage to Dean McHenry. I can’t help but wonder if some part of her isn’t resentful that she ended up with Charles, while her ex became a Dean.
oooo, that’s a shoe I didn’t ever consider might be about to drop. I imagine if there’s anything that’s going to finally snap Charles out of peace-keeper mode, it would be Linda blatantly admitting that.
She does certainly rely on the Dean for being her only noteworthy connection so far. Maybe that’s the real reason he’s so generous with favors, she blames him for causing their marriage to fail due to him initially wanting to take his career is a less prestigious direction only to turn around and do what she gad wanted after she had the twins.
“I raised you to be brilliant,” how? What is this magical parenting method only you have figured out to produce extraordinary people at will? I mean, we have seen that this has in fact only produced one twin who’s terrified of failing and strives to avoid doing anything that would draw parental attention, and one radical anti-authoritarian who I’m sure would actually be brilliant at specifically the opposite of whatever you want, if she won’t just spend her whole life trying to figure out what she wants for herself independent from parental expectations.
But I mean, what’s the actual method? Cause I’ve got a feeling it’s called “Being Linda, who’s automatically amazing at everything without trying.”
some difficult parents are always like “i raised you better than this” when they barely did anything at all.
Tho other than having a flexible schedule and fully free weekends, tbh i’d think growing up more ppl technically spend time with teachers and students more than their own parents depending on where you live/culture/etc (like all those cute/’embarassing’ anecdotes of accidentally calling the teacher ‘mom’ and such)
yelling at him to do his homework, etc. https://www.dumbingofage.com/missed-2/ https://www.dumbingofage.com/deadline/
She’s looking back at berating and micromanaging him, through a narcissistic lens.
Red Background is Willis for:
They will remember this.
I like the way that symbolism was achieved naturally, in-universe, by putting them in front of a red wall.
“I raised you to be a brilliant young man” really seems to translate to “I followed a step-by-step plan to guarantee your future, never stepping back to actually take stock on how that was going. By my math you should already be a genius over-achiever, so clearly any indications to the contrary are an act you’re putting on to make me angry.”
given how walky’s attitude was at the beginning of the comic, i’m surprised any ‘strict’ parenting’ and such wouldn’t have made him into more of a neurotic mess unless she also went easier on him for being a boy too and letting him goof off versus doubling down on how tough she’d be on walky after ‘failing’ with sal being sent off to boarding school
far as i can tell, linda didn’t actually raise either of her children. if neither walky nor lucy bongoslap this fool, figuratively and/or literally, i’ma be so fuckin mad. preferably both of them do cuz she sure as shit needs it.
Oh shit Lucy about to activate?
Linda may be fake, but she’s a really good illustration of the exact type of person who doesn’t deserve to participate in society under any circumstances. Shunning is all that type should ever get to experience.
Unfortunately, average ‘karen’ or not, more often than not ppl like her are usually in authority figures/you kinda have to be a bit of a dick to get ahead , depending on the profession (tho idk if it’s ever stated what she does for a living unless she’s just some housewife/trophy wife/stay at home mom, which isn’t inherently bad if its your choice versus acting superior about it)
Yeah, I know. That’s a big reason they shouldn’t be allowed to be near other people, acting that way. Some professions aren’t necessary for society to function, and the ones where you “have to” be an antisocial piece of shit to “get ahead” are at the top of the list. Most people are just too polite (or have their heads too far up their asses) to properly ostracise them, and it’s a real shame.
it is fun to read ‘takedowns’ of them under petty revenge, even if it’s just ppl on reddit doing it as a writing exercise but i’m sure there’s subtle ways to ‘get back’ at ppl like that either socially or legally , tho i’d rather have money than power and chill and do my own thing like “delegate someone else to do this task” while being off at some luxury spa getting a massage/enjoying a sauna or so
You know, I always felt kinda bad for Walkyverse Linda. Yeah, she was Big Boss, yeah she was a bad mom, but she was hella traumatized and paranoid for some pretty understandable reasons.
I feel nothing but bitter contempt for Dumbiverse Linda. She’s awful. She’s a toilet. She is last week’s garbage.
Ohhhhh that was EXACTLY the wrong choice of words, lady.
I have a feeling Lucy and Walky are gonna say something before the night is out.
This is stuff Walky’s been hearing his whole life, if he was going to speak up he’d have done it by now.
LUCY, on the other hand…hoo boy, are there going to be fireworks.
It’s one thing to get the same insults and putdowns you’re used to. It’s an entirely different thing for someone you like to start getting those same attacks when you know they were unjustified the entire time but you simply let them hit you because you’re used to it.
Makes me think, does Linda have a paying job? Like, if they sass her, do we know she has the financial support to withdraw, or is Charles probably the one paying? Cuz it’d be pretty cool if he was paying and she wanted to cut her kids off and he was like “No, they’re staying in school, actually.”
Sarah was right, stand up to Linda. Don’t let Charles boatsteady this bullshit.
It would be interesting to see a post convo of this with lucy and sarah. tho i’d imagine it’d go like “good for you but i already have enough ‘little sisters’ so don’t expect that this makes us friends or anything” lol
We’re not going to be friends… but I’m going to the batting cage, you can go too if you don’t talk to me or talk about me later.
Do it Lucy. Rip her apart.
“David, you need to understand that every aspect of your life is all about ME, how it affects me, and, most importantly, how it reflects on me.”
Don’t say Linda is a terrible parent. She’s just a terrible person.
Smack her, Lucy!
Happy birthday to Maggie!
go off lucy
“SLUMMING IT”. “HOODLUM.”
Linda sure is an overachiever. She manages to be racist and classist while abusing her children in a record amount of words. And by god, I hope Lucy tears her apart.
(Walky too, and if a miracle happens maybe Charles could stop being a doormat? Yes? But mainly, this black girl who was excited to meet her.)
and then Lucy punched her
It’s hilarious Linda seems to think her ‘raising’ Walky a certain way gave him all his positive traits in life so far. From what we’ve seen he just managed to skate by with natural talent and get good grades up to the end of high school, and wasn’t really pushed or expected to do much else by his parents. So what exactly is she taking credit for, Walky being born mildly gifted? Cuz then she’s got to take credit for the ADHD (or whatever his problem with school is) as well.
Any positive trait she petcoeved in her children she takes credit for, like how when they liked Danny they decided meant they did good by her.
Good old narcissism.
Part 5
This was originally gonna be the final part but I got a liiiiittle bit more I couldn’t quite squeeze in tonight. Hope y’all aren’t disappointed.
oh forgot to mention
(NSFW)
Too late: I already sent it to my boss.
She’s totally going to write about this on Twitter, though probably as a fan fic to protect the innocent since several of their friends read it.
Maybe as the wonder twins?
Or some pair from the Titans when one of the couples as broken up?
Possibly some pair from the MCU, including the shows, though I’m not caught up on any of the shows to guess at a pairing.
Regardless, keep up the great work!
Ooh I could see Raven as amber. Maybe with cyborg? Or hell even beast boy himself given they were never actually a thing in the og series, outside of our hearts.
Actually, Raven and Cyborg works great for Amber and Joe’s personalities, especially if we make Cyborg’s reluctance being due to her history with Beast Boy.
I have opinions on who is being a tease.
Seriously though, well done. This whole thing was great. Have you thought about writing a NSFW webcomic yourself?
Several.
1. An Angel girl and a Demon Girl. The Demon is a shy succubus and the Angel is a naughty pervert. She’s dating the demon because she thinks she’s kinky but the demon girl has no idea what she’s doing.
2. A story of a Shut-in NEET Fujoshi who ends up dating a crossdressing sadist. She really wants wants to get her boyfriend to submit to her but she constantly ends up being the one who gets dommed. Sort of a comedy of errors of her trying to top but coming up short (She’s a “switch” so it’s a win/win for her.)
3.A story about a girl with a hot body and a dorky face and then many misadventures she has trying to get laid. This one has a large ensemble cast appealing to a variety of kinks.
4. I had an idea the other day of a guy who’s girlfriend is a scientist who’s figured out how to stop time. Hijinks ensue.
Anyway I’m lazy so I’ll probably never do any of them
These sound like good ideas. I’d read it.
Well I think you’d be great at it, if you ever wanted to do something like that. The way you had the characters express themselves is excellent.
just put them all in the same apartment block man
They all sound interesting, but I really like the premise of the first one.
Okay, the “Cold, hard, fierce, mechanical sex” part kills me. That might be one of the best faces you’ve drawn.
“And Linda attacks with the anti-matter micro-macro aggression strike!”
Walky has been slacking for 18 years and now is the time you notice, because he’s dating a black girl, AFTER HE HAS ALREADY ADAPTED TO HIS POOR GRADES.
Jesus Christ Linda you’re about to get screamed at by a very upset sprinkly black forest cupcake and you’re going to deserve every second of it.
It’s so sad that she’s acusing him of slacking off when he’s at the point were he has never been trying harder. Confirming she never once paid attention to his working habits.
Yea.
Reminds me of a friend who used to introduce himself as having “high functioning autism.” I asked him what that meant. He explained: “It’s a shorthand I use so people don’t worry about whether they can talk with me. ‘High functioning’ is how parents describe their own children. ‘Low functioning’ is how people describe other people’s children. Whatever you feel it is that makes your child better than other people’s children, that’s what you call ‘high functioning’.”
I think of that a lot, when I ever get the urge to ruminate on the “be all that you can be” lie that parents/school/TV/ads/media/etc. feed to students and growing younger folks.
“What would life have been like if only I had taken X opportunity. If only I hadn’t done Y.”
But the definition of “high functioning” changes from family to family and from person to person. We’ve gotta set our own bars, not keep banging heads and other body parts on some bar someone else sets for us. We don’t owe it to anyone to “prove ourselves” to them. We are worthy already, exactly as we are.
Maaaaaaate. Functioning labels are based entirely on how much your tism impacts other people.
It was a kick in the guts when I realised I was never “high functioning”. All the signs were just badly misinterpreted as every psychiatric disorder except autism because I internalise like a bongo.
Back in my day (25+ years ago), that just meant you were capable of doing something besides stimming in a corner.
Well, yeah, this was about around that time. This fellow was likely the first “out” autist that most of our neighbors had ever been aware that they had met. He’s someone I look up to a lot.
‘High functioning’ goofball. That’s Walky.
The first speechless panel shows Walky and Lucy being dumbstruck together, then we get some separate reactions, with Walky, who is accustomed to Linda, checking in on Lucy’s reaction.
But I wonder whether Lucy is partially connecting Linda’s criticism of Walky with Booster’s “you can do better”.
Of course, oracles often come true in non-obvious ways, and Lucy couild “do better” by Walky becoming better.
I’m hoping that Lucy has a more sensible reaction than giving in to the worldview that Walky is not better, just because he’s not ambitious.
There’s more to life than ambition, as we are seeing in Dorothy’s growth timeline. One of the reasons Dorothy was so much worse for Walky, and that Walky’s dad spotted Amber could be good for him, was that Dorothy was only a projection of him internalising his mother’s idea of who he should be (with).
Lucy is similar to Dorothy, but while she’s nice, she’s not (that we know) ambitious to the point of workaholic, and she is bringing out Walky’s mother’s racism. She might just stand a chance of being a better match for Walky, if he can see her acceptance of him and get over the idea that a girlfriend has to make you better (without rebounding back to Amber).
I wonder if Lucy’s incoming explosion at Linda will lead to them breaking up or them finally having sex (or both)?
that’d be one way to leadinto a slipshine lol
Dorothy and Walky first had sex after confronting a “superhero”.
It wouldn’t be off for Lucy and Walky to first have sex after confronting a mundane “villain”.
assuming they stay together at least, tho hopefully even if lucy does have to move on her next bf would be a better fit. if not just some fun one night stand/fling that’s fairly safe
Lucy is going to say something!
tanjoubi omedetou, joyeux anniversaire, happy birthday (far away from Lina) etc etc
As much as I want to see Lucy let loose I will be more disappointed if Walky doesn’t step up. He’s slowly started to notice, accept and challenge his parent’s racism, but he’s also massively under-prepped Lucy and she does not need/deserve to be put on the spot. I’m rooting for him, but am more prepared for disappointed than she is.
I don’t think he’s there yet. He still doesn’t have the courage to do that. He’s comfortable punching Asher, he’s not okay yelling at his vicious mom. If I had to bet, Lucy will yell at her and leave and Walky will follow, making him quite literally the new Sal to her.
Linda, I am pretty sure you raised neither of your kids. I would say the positive aspects of their personalities are in spite of you.
Uh oh.
Also: happy b-day to Maggie!
Ooo, we’re about to see Lucy Unshackled
realized she was the convenient rebound?
.. Yes, the point of this storyline is that Linda is right about stuff.
Jerkass has a point.
Every time I see Walky and Lucy being a couple, I like them together a bit less.
However, every time I see Linda being Linda about it the more I want them to make a good, healthy and lasting relationship out of it.
…Spiiiiiiite.
The last time a relationship in this comic had spite as a core element, it was hot as fuck, so I’m all for seeing another attempt.
If Lucy goes off on his mom, that might be the spark he hasn’t felt yet.
Screw Linda
The scary part is that Charles has done exactly that, at least once.
Btw, happy birthday, Maggie!
People are being like “Linda what gave you the impression that Walky was any good at being high-achieving.” But (from personal experience) the thing about high control parents is that you can force a kid with serious executive function issues to do well in school by structuring their entire lives for them, but all that does is give them zero experience in self-motivating or structuring their own lives, leaving them even LESS prepared to succeed without their parents hanging over their shoulders.
Which happened to both of them! Sal bombed the high expectations out of spite, Walky never had to question it until he wasn’t good at something instantly. Linda again making her kids struggles about herself.
I wonder if Walky seeks doing nothing and being completely non-serious out of spite as well, it’s just hidden because he lives in fear and buries his emotions by default.
I see a lot of my (academic) self in Walky, and *I* was doing it from a combination of “burnout” and “straight-As in high school came easily enough to not motivate me, so no longer getting them in college was equally unmotivating, at least compared to video games and dating.”
I don’t think it’s spite, I think he’s just in default mode and coasting. All he does is coast and it’s always worked out well, so no reason to do anything different. But college changed him.
I suspect doing nothing for Walky is just how he can let himself relax mentally. Linda spent his childhood grooming him for success, trying to get him into acting etc. I doubt he had much free time growing up despite not having many friends so having space to do nothing is a luxury for him.
I’m sure an unhealthy dose of projection is a contributing factor, too.
But that doesn’t seem to be what happened with Walky. There are hints that Linda did do some structuring for Walky, but not to the point of making him put in lots of time studying or anything, since we saw last semester that he didn’t know how to do that, even when he tried.
He was just smart enough to absorb high school level material without having to put work in, but not enough to do the same with college math. He prided himself at the start for being able to get good grades without studying. That’s not a sign that Linda structured his life to make him study.
I think he was okay coasting but his life was kind of structured for him, he just went with it because it was easier than trying to fight her. Only now is it actually becoming a problem.
That’s fair, but that’s different than V’s claim. He was fine “coasting” in high school because he could still excel that way. His life in general was probably structured for him, but she wasn’t sitting there planning out his study time. We know he just didn’t study and got As anyway.
Sure, I just think forcible structure does exist around Walky, he just never had a problem with it and the times that he did, he was too scared of her to act on it.
justice for lucy!
none for walky, he can do a homework, it won’t kill him
Justice for Walky, too. You’re tempting the fates and the Willis to show you the saddest flashbacks imaginable. Imagine an 6 year old boy being micromanaged and disparaged like this. Imagine an 8 year old boy who tries too hard to be funny because no one in the house is happy. Imagine a 10 year old boy being forced to do homework out of fear while his mom screams at his sister in the next room. Imagine a 12 year boy hiding in another part of the house, watching cartoons and trying to drown out all the yelling. Imagine a 16 year old boy who only feels safe doing “nothing,” because doing “something,” is just future ammunition.
Wow you nailed it.
Right on – It’s like you see through walls
Man wat to just, not read any of the dozens of comments by adults with adhd who had their lives ruined by this shit. Congrats on completely glossing all those threads over
Real people’s experiences don’t matter (even as just an aid to your reading experience), only empty condemnation of a fictional character.
Can I hit a mom or dad? I’m very sure there’s some verse on Bible that allows me, or some translation, or some Dead Sea Scroll piece missed that G-d may give some specific condition to hit without no much consequences.
Hey Lucy I have a creed for you that you’re gonna love
BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!
SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE!
I love Lucy’s facial expression here. Do it Lucy, stand against Linda! That’s the chance to do a huge character development!!!
Woop, there it is.
Lucy, that is a good appropriate face to make. But what do you do with that anger?
My guess is that she’s going to defend Walky.
My fantasy: her defense draws Walky in and then, just when things reach a screaming crescendo, Charles joins them:
Charles [quietly]: Linda, shut up.
Linda: Whaaaat???
C: You heard me. That’s enough. Stop this. You’ve driven one of our children away, and you’re not going to do it again.
L: Or else what?
C: There is no “or else”. You’re not going to do it. David, Lucy, I think your seats were better after all. Let’s go see if there’s still room for the three of us.
Unfortunately, I just don’t think that Charles has earned that character development yet…
What makes you think Charles disagrees with Linda about any of this?
He’s the good cop. But he’s still a cop.
Happy birthday, Maggie!
Throw her to the wolves!
Frame 6 — Lucy’s building rage just sucked all the red right out of the room.
Anyone in the comments reading Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere books? Lucy just breathed in aaaaaall the Voidlight within a mile radius and she’s about to Surgebind the fuck out of Linda.
Where the heck is Charles during all this?
Literally on the other side of Lucy. This is what he does, his wife gets going and he shuts up.
He’s king of the boat-steadiers, enabler extraordinaire.
In his happy place, where he always goes when his wife starts abusing his children
He’s jelqing in the corner, as usual.
Oh god, DUCK AND COVER, LUCY’S GONNA BLOW!
Hang on, I thought Walky in Panel 3 was going into shock at the feeling of having his life picked apart. But on second thought, that’s a bit of a reach, however unwarranted the feeling may be. I now think he’s thinking “holy shit mom, she’s RIGHT HERE.”
Looks like Linda’s going 2 for 2. End of the day she’ll have two kids who have cut her off.
Walky has been cool, up ’til now. And Lucy’s ’bout to open up a whole new door. Maybe Charles will have some things to say, too.
BTW does anyone know if Sal was born kinda soon after the wedding?
I seem to remember they’re twins, so now I wonder if they both were.
Either way, Linda’s on her way to school
Am I the only one hearing the Kill Bill music?
Nope, I hope we see Kill Bill reenactment next.
Happy birthday Maggie!
Also, Linda giving Carol a run for her money on worst parent (alive) competition.
Lucy isn’t my fave or anything, but if she does what it looks like she’s about to, she goes up the list quite a bit.
Saaame. She doesn’t deserve what she’s been through the past couple of days.
Linda’s right that Walky hates effort but Jesus Fucking Christ this is shit is so fucking disgusting.
I wish I could get excited about Lucy getting upset about Linda’s comments, but after being here so long, I know there’s not going to be any payoff. :/ We’re just going to switch to someone else.
It’s probably my only complaint of this series. I get excited that there’s finally some good fuckin’ drama and right when we’re at the point where a nice tasty conflict could happen, suddenly everything is fine.
We at least got to see Sal walk away from her parents, so maybe there’s a smidge of hope? But I’m not holding my breath.
happy birthday maggie
fuck you linda
I bet we’re gettin’ some sexy stuff just in time for Halloween: Lucy blows a gasket, they both tell off the parents and run away, and then proceed to finally have their first fuck. …And a new SlipShine story gets posted to boot.
… happy birthday!
Welcome to DOA! Bad news, if your parents show up here, something real bad is about to happen to them. Or their marriage! Or you!
And sometimes all of the above!
Yaaaassss tell her ass OFF Lucy!!! We love parallels, walky stood up to her brother for her and now I wanna see her give that back ten fold
Lucy. I understand that you are a sweet girl. You do your best to adhere to the Christian principle of forgiveness, to the point that it encompassed rehabbing Jennifer to your whole floor. You just want to love and be loved. But please, for the love of all that is good, ANNIHILATE HER.
Linda’s attitude’s about to have Lucy acting in a manner most righteous.
Lucy’s facial expressions are awesome.
Yeah, right? She must be considered a pretty-norma character for most of people, but her face is great, one of greatest rage face in entire DoA.
The only proper response is to just leave.
That last panel is incredibly sad.
“i raised you to be a brilliant young man” linda honey you raised a Fool
Thing is, there’s nothing wrong with being a bit of a Fool (at least the kind Walky is… he’s not a dangerous Fool. In fact, he has elements of The Great Fool, who lives by a different set of standards in life, and is only perceived as a dumb fool).
The bigger problem is that her attitude, insisting that her methods created “Brilliance” is a problem. Parents don’t have control over that… to even think you do, and force that upon a child is near child-abuse.
Everyone of the opinion Lucy is mad at Walky’s mom. I see Walky obviously knowing what’s being said and not speaking up and that’s where I see her anger aimed.
Hmm, Lucy is pissed. I didn’t think that was possible.
Yes, Lucy, feel the rage within you…
Strike that Bongo down!
Not sure Lucy’s rage is aimed at Linda. Maybe she’s wondering if that’s what Walky is doing with her… slumming it.
Don’t know if it was intentional but the choice of red bleachers is really felt in these panels all of a sudden. It’s no Amber Red Panels, and shouldn’t be given the situation, but it really adds to the social tension here and I just thought I’d point it out and say I appreciate it whether you planned it or not
Is anyone else sad we didn’t see how the Sportsball Match went?