A witch accidentally marries a monster, and now she and her familiar has to navigate life around her monstrous husband and her even more terrifying in-laws.
No End
Erli, Kromi
A queer romance about people attempting to build lives in a cold, post-apocalyptic world ravaged by hordes of undead.
All Known Alternatives
Karolina 'Kajotko' Jankiewicz
Akane has only one way to get back home: collect the 42 keys to parallel worlds. Eri and Ben are just trying to get through the summer before university. When a magical key turns up in an old spare set, all three are forced to change their plans and fast.
Dumbing of Age
David M Willis
Joyce has been homeschooled her entire life until now, when she's suddenly a freshman in college! Things don't go well.
Paint the Town Red
Windy, Winter Jay Kiakas
Winona runs a werewolf shelter with partner in crime, Odile in the Gothic city of Merlot. One day they take in an injured vampire, and soon unravels many of the dark secrets of Merlot.
Guilded Age
T Campbell, John Waltrip, Florence Machina
Welcome to the saga of the working-class adventurer! Enjoy the complete story with new annotations daily!
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didn’t walky literally go like “la la la i can’t hear you” last time booster tried to give ‘advice’/say that he can’t handel genuine emotions? He prolly would’ve been dismissive of it lol
Petition to alter the site’s markup so that whenever Walky is tagged in a strip (and Booster isn’t), then they are automatically added to either side of the strip, like bookends, making that face.
Yeah, but also he would’ve immediately guilted Walky in some soul crushing way about what an obvious sham his relationship with Lucy was and kept needling him the entire time. Kinda like how he bought Walky pajama pants to undermine his relationship with Dorothy. Who jnows if it would help but it would change things.
Given how much promise the Walky/Dorothy ship had if they had time to grow together and how rough Walky’s love life has been since then I think Mike did more harm than good.
…I dunno. Bullying Lucy just feels a little too simple for Mike. He was an asshole, no question, but he was a sportsman, damn it! He’s not going to prey on only the easy targets!
… I somehow don’t feel entirely comfortable with jokes about Lucy murdering the person who was murdered…I think if you’d said “figuratively eviscerate” or something it would have been far enough from what actually happened to him while making the same point?
Mike would have solved this in the same way a pipe bomb solves a leaky faucet. Yeah you don’t have the old problem, but you now have several more worse problems
that is a very Mike face he’s making (and apparently expecting) in panel 4.
but IMO, same problem as panel 5, in that Mike pretty much always had that face. (pure coincidence, I’m sure.)
Actually I’m referring to what Walky says in panel 5, not Booster’s expression. Fully unpacking/killing the joke (ha):
Walky is wanting Booster to give him The Mike Expression (panel 4) as a warning that he’s being stupid. However, Mike always had that expression, possibly because Walky was always being stupid. To be actually useful, MikeBooster Replacement Mike would need a different signal for when Walky is being exceptionally stupid… but the rest of panel 5 suggests that, nope, that needle is just constantly pegged all the way over. Readings are always off-the-scale, on the high end.
I think that, whether or not him and Lucy ever go back to being a thing, he does care about her and does feel bad he did badly by her. There are plenty of cast members who dislike him, he doesn’t tend to sweat it much.
He enjoyed her company, and probably feels like he didn’t do enough to help her handle his parents.
They’re still in town right? Entirely possible he chews them out and either prompts positive change or inspires them to join the next iteration of the league of evil parents. One of those is more likely than the other.
The knowledge that he screwed this up and genuinely DID do poorly by her can’t be helping. Like, he agreed with her “fuck you”. (And I don’t think the failure here WAS entirely on Walky, and that some of the things he handled poorly were understandable missteps – but there were a lot of opportunities to clear things up in less loaded context, and that ball was in his court.)
And he definitely does like and enjoy Lucy platonically. He may well potentially have romantic feelings for her, he hadn’t been thinking of her in that context for long, all of his friends are girls. Either way, he’s likely damaged his platonic relationship with her, too (and with how long she was harboring that crush, we don’t know if she WANTS to be friends platonically with dating off the table. Or she could quite reasonably need a break before she could hang out with him in a platonic context.)
I’ll just say that Lucy got too excited and Walky was just trying to do things slowly, but with Linda’s comment and Lucy’s insistence in the church it only caused the bomb to explode too soon, which is disturbing because who knows what. What would Lucy really do after she finally used common sense?
In my opinion, it’s not going to be any good, because she said that she should be brave enough and those words cannot be exactly coherent if we take into account that she is a naive girl who received her strong blow from reality and that bravery that she says There may be many people affected by all this.
I think over the course of the last year of panels Walky has been coming to terms that he isn’t just some chill dude that can coast through life like he thought, he is noticing the constant mistakes he makes and has made and wants to stop making them. He wants to be better but after living like that for his entire life it is going to be VERY HARD to kick those bad habits and I think its eating him up inside, he wants help and nobody who used to help him is around besides Dorothy and she isn’t the best person to ask atm.
In addition to the last interactions they had, he is aware of what he said with too much confidence and if Dorothy finds out what just happened…, it is not going to be good.
Didn’t he simply say he was going to be faithful?
He wasn’t unfaithful so, while the overall situation might be awkward to discuss with her, there’s nothing that he’d have to walk back if he decided to talk to her.
I say it, because he seemed to want to show that he has already gotten over Dorothy, but who knows how the latter would take it into consideration, since she is not in a good moment either, but if it were the opposite….. hurray (despite The way he flaunts his integrity to Lucy bothers me, I still like the Walky x Dorothy)
That was not and is not my take on that scene, but if that’s how you took it, that’s fine.
Him and Lucy breaking up wouldn’t mean he’s not over Dorothy so still nothing to walk back even if he was trying to convey that.
reread your comment, and yes, it seems like I got sidetracked, it’s because that moment really bothered me because after the obvious rejection, his “words of encouragement” felt… the opposite. It seemed like he told her “You’re just having a bad day, the next day you’ll be fine.” Obviously he didn’t say it the way I wrote it, but I noticed it that way.
I read my comment again.
I don’t know what you think is being misconstrued or what you think I don’t understand, but I wrote exactly what I meant.
Saying “I’m in a committed relationship and I’m staying faithful” is not the same thing as “I want you to know know that I’m over you”.
He can be over Dorothy without that being the point of that conversation, which is the implication when you say he wants her to know that.
Being over Dorothy is not contingent on his relationship status.
He can be single and still be over her.
That’s why the point was about him being faithful, not about emphasizing to Dorothy that he’s over her.
Hell, he said, either in that same strip or the one after that, that he didn’t want to be the reason that she fails; that doesn’t indicate a lack of interest to me.
That’s pretty much the same attitude he’s had since they first took a break, that he doesn’t want to drag her down.
That’s not even a possibility if he has no desire to get with her.
That aside, I do agree that he was treating her as if she was just having a bad day.
I’m pretty sure that was how it was supposed to come across.
He wasn’t really hearing her, I think partly because he wanted to leave the situation and partly because he puts her up on a pedestal.
It occurs to me that you may have been saying that you read my comment again vs telling me to read my comment again.
If so, I apologize for writing so much.
I hate to be misunderstood, so I tend to over explain myself if it seems like that’s happening.
At no point has Walky ever implied that he didn’t like Lucy. He does. He’s just not in love with her, and has kinda been sleepwalking through this attempt at a relationship with her.
And right now, she’s hurting, and its because of him. There’s other, deeper stuff going on here too, of course, but “my friend is hurting because I fucked shit up” is going to be a factor regardless.
I don’t see the sleepwalking through the relationship. He’s not in love with her – which isn’t surprising, given that it’s been a week. And he’s not jumping at the opportunity to have sex with her – for what are likely complicated reasons, but might well not reduce to “no attraction”.
Honestly his “I like to be liked” is now running into “she isn’t a good fit for you and you have to realize that” which is I think why Booster is the one he talks to first. Booster is the one who can tell him outright that this relationship was only heading one way.
Mmm just because someone’s a good fit for you doesn’t mean you have to be with them. I’ve met plenty of people who were a perfect fit for me on paper but the chemistry just wasn’t there
I still think Walky does have tender feelings for Lucy, and would have shown them more if he hadn’t been constantly back-pedalling from Lucy’s intensity.
I am pretty sure he actually likes Lucy and cares about her. He is however an emotionally stunted person, which in the way his mother glorified him and gave him constant approval, causes issues because now he thinks he is in the wrong when someone gives him approval. Like Joyce leaving the church and growing, Wally is leaving his parents and growing.
If Booster is supposed to be there to make faces at you every time you screw up, Walky, they’d never be able to do anything for themself. They’d be attached to you 24/7. I approve of Booster’s shit-eating grin, BTW.
I mean, it might also be the best thing that’s ever happened to Lucy. She was getting dangerously close to heading straight into marriage, without first stopping the teenage phase of her life!
As a person exploring whether I want to insist on they/them pronouns for myself, I’m really glad that good-hearted people have an opportunity to practice using they/them pronouns on a comic character (instead of just on me).
There’s something about the combination of shit-eating grin, eyebrows in orbit, and steepled hands of supervillainy that made me literally burst out laughing.
Man, Booster just can’t help the narcissism. (No, Booster’s not obliged to be Walky’s keeper. But there’s a difference between “not being responsible for your issues” and “gleefully treating you like a fictional character here for my own amusement”, and Booster’s several steps past that line.)
Yep. TBH I read that third panel face as concern?? Walky’s going on about “tearing me down” and Mike-scowling to demonstrate how he wants the emotional curbstomping. Gotta deescalate tension a bit.
(Plus, y’know. It helps them to visually differentiate themselves from said dead roommate.)
booster did ‘warn’ lucy/told her she could do better, so idk if they said anything similar to walky versus walky not overhearing stuff, but other than them being roommates, idk if booster and walky have rly purposefully spent that much time together (even ethan had more one on one time with them?) to where walky would’ve considered booster “friend status” enough to follow advice versus brush it off
So Lucy is unhappy.
And Walky is unhappy.
So is Sarah ecstatic?
On the one hand, she doesn’t exactly like either of them and she was more or less right about the relationship.
On the other hand, she may not be close enough to them for her reverse-emotional-vampire deal to activate.
I don’t think sarah cares enough about Walky and Lucy to feel good when they suffer.
I think Sarah’s reverse emotional vampire deal is a result of having a very negative worldview when it comes to social matters, which makes her feel like a misunderstood outsider whenever too many people are happy. It’s like that “everything is fine” meme where everything is on fire: Sarah can see the fire and can see people smiling and it is creeping her out, so when people stop smiling and start panicking everything is suddenly right with the world in a way she hasn’t experienced much.
Sure Booster didn’t have to do anything, he’s still coming off as a real asshole right now with the whole implied gleeful enjoyment of other people’s fuck ups.
Yeah, that’s my read too. If Walky had come in in tears, Booster wouldn’t be doing this bit. Walky came in all Friends (The Millennium Series) and so Boost is in Sitcom Mode.
Yep! We’ve seen them interact before. Booster and Walky are close enough to be playful/do bits, and I’m pretty sure that if my dude actually did anything like emotional honesty, they’d be willing to match that energy. Plus there’s the thing others have said about Walky doing the Mike Scowl and wanting them to reproduce it.
Right now is like “ooh~ you want me to go ‘told you so’? 8DD” because… “I’m an idiot all the time why aren’t you stopping me” is also not very diagnostic.
Booster doesn’t have to do anything. That’s the point here. If Walky wants Booster to be helpful, then Walky’s first bit of introspection should be thinking about the proper way to ask.
It doesn’t really work that way. Booster wasn’t near him, nor has any Stupid Sense— Carla’s antics must’ve rubbed off on Booster with that panel 5 face.
Plus it’s an unsustainable agreement, you mess up too much anyway
Everyone brings up therapy but it sounds like such a pain in the butt. You gotta like…pay money for them and junk. And you don’t even know if you have a compatible one until you experience it yourself.
Not that it would be any of her business either way, but I can’t imagine what Linda’s reaction would be if she ever found out one of her kids was in therapy, for any reason. But it probably wouldn’t be great.
Linda on Sal in therapy: “Well, you know, with how she is she clearly needs it. You do your best but sometimes, sometimes you just have to get outside help. Anyway, I hope it helps.”
Linda on Walky in therapy: “…he’s…what??” *strained smile, takes out cell phone* “One second.” *steps away, when Walky picks up we hear a clearly hissed* “David. What in the world—“
I think the specifics of the situation would make her understand.
Sure, she’d freak the fuck out if it were for more mundane reasons (like, say, parental issues, cough cough), but “I’m fucked up because my roommate was fucking murdered and then I got kidnapped” is something that even Linda would go “…oh, uh, yeah, that makes sense…”
Definitely court-ordered. Getting mandated into therapy is a lot different from choosing to go yourself!
Normally you’d get to pick a therapist where you think you’ll have trust and a good working relationship, you can fire/switch therapists if one doesn’t match well with you, it’s entirely up to you what you talk about in therapy, etc.
More autonomy might’ve suited Sal a lot better than having a revolving door of random therapists that authoritarian adults made her attend.
I think he offhandedly mentioned there aren’t any decent ones which implied he prolly did talk to at least one or was assigned one to briefly talk to him after the whole kidnapping incident?
“That’s not diagnostic” is the most rational thing Walky has said in a while, maybe ever. It makes me feel he’s close to an self-reflection induced breakthrough.
It looks more like the Mike side-eye. Which makes it considerably less amusing, because Walky, consciously or not, seems to be trying to force the Booster-peg into the Mike-shaped hole.
My prediction is that if Walky actually manages to explain why this is emotionally devastating, Booster will go from “Can I say ‘I told you so?’ 8DD” (aka, “The Cassandra” from a bit)…
To the rather hollow experience of having prophesized right, but the immediate disastrous consequences ruin the satisfaction. (“The Cassandra: Fallen Troy Edition.”)
Only then the healing might commence. Walky needs… Yes,professional therapy, but even without the therapy having a strong support system would help him tons. He gives a passable impression of someone whos’ not lonely,but… Who does he have?
That’s a lot to assume from the “you could do better” they told to Lucy, exactly once, as a joke. And not enough taking in what Walky is saying and how is he acting right now.
The “can I say I told you so” I mentioned is about Booster doing what they were asked to, in their own style because everyone keeps comparing them to Mike and that sucks. Kiddo is pedantic, not cruel.
Walky avoided talking to Booster from nearly their first meeting (actually the hall meeting shortly after that) when it became clear they’d be Too Real about things, which was pretty quick thinking really.
Is he angling for a reality check here?
Walky is definitely Charles son. Letting others run his life while he sleepwalks around. It’s only chance that he isn’t further into a very unequal relationship with Lucy. Betting Linda had a ring on her finger before Charles knew what hit him.
Help is nice but, Walky, you need to learn to stop yourself.
I think right this moment he needs to break down a little, unpack his weak spots instead of just sticking a label on the package, and then discuss with someone how he plans to address them.
Also a lot of what happened wasn’t Walky’s fault. Lucy always had unrealistic expectations around their relationship, and there wasn’t an easy way to resolve that. He could have done more to clarify things sooner, but it wouldn’t solve the fundamental problem.
I mean, sure, it wouldn’t have fixed everything, but if Walky had been willing to clearly communicate things may not have blown up in his face. Things with Lucy may have been salvageable if they were clarified sooner instead of waiting until they cracked under pressure.
Fair enough. I never really saw them working as a couple in the long run, Walky never seemed interested in Lucy the way he was in Dorothy or even Amber. I think it would have fallen apart no matter how well he communicated with her, i just wonder if it would have been less spectacular, that’s all. No way to know now though.
I’m not sure that blew up is really even the right descriptor here. They did have a tense moment, but they worked it out. What really killed it was Lucy realizing that she liked Walky more than he liked her. That was always going to be a problem, regardless of how it was handled.
I agree with both of you. Walky needs to do a crapton of introspection, as Mark states. But a lot of this (as Bash states) is on Lucy.
I am trying to be fair, and say the problems were equal. But Lucy was the main motive force in that relationship, and if I am not being fair, its not an unequal amount of blame.
But Walky just walked away from a nasty conversation where Lucy put a lot on him, and Walky is used to taking blame. He needs to be introspective right now, not just to find his failings, but also to discover that Lucy is wrong about some of the things she put on him that are not his fault. Sure, he needs to grow and be better than some of the things he did, but he also doesn’t need the extra burden, or attempt to fix things coming from his partner.
I’ve noticed nobody is beating Walky into a thin, leathery paste right now. The trouble is, I don’t think Booster has the capability to change that, so honestly what good are they right now?
… oh Walky. (I am going to address the rest of this to the character. This is not addressed to anyone reading)
Walky, you need to start having some non-periphrial consciousnesses.
You have developed enough to know when things are a problem, now stop relying on third party imput to address the problems, because you are sliding right down the slope here. Dorothy, Sal, Mike, Amber, others you have dealt with have been willing to tell you when you are wrong. However, as you have expanded your social interactions, the people who realize there are problems are less able to address you about fixing them. Then you encountered Lucy. Lucy not only didn’t know how to address your problems, she doesn’t even know how to address her own, and that’s exactly (one of, probably second or third) your big problem here.
Walky, m’boy. You need to deal with it. Yourself. Its part of growing up, and I am very sorry, Walky, you ain’t getting back to Neverland. You are gonna need to bloody well grow up, and asking your roommate to tell you how you are fracking up and how not to frack up isn’t going to cut it. You grow up by realizing other people’s advice is, well, advice and not instructions.
First, the relationship with Lucy is done (hallelujah). Go do your homework – a retrospective of where you fracked up, where she fracked up, and all the ways to not do that again. Then try not to do that again.
You can do that. You have had at least some character development in this last decade- I mean, three months. But by god, Walky, you need to come to some realizations about how you act. You were doing some good retrospection a couple strips back, even if you were being undermined by Lucy deciding you were to blame for everything, because Lucy hasn’t had any positive character development yet and I think she needs to crash a few more relationships before she does. You need to sort out all the places you were wrong. There’s plenty.
But it is not Booster’s job to help you grow. Booster did not sign up to be the personal Walky disaster manager. The biggest realization you need to have, and I mean right now Walky, is that you need to ask for advice and know what advice means. You need to work your own mess out, with advice or not. Most of all, Walky, stop demanding someone else fix it for you.
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“Why didn’t you magically teleport in like Joyce and fact-check me at the first whiff of shenanigans??”
Too busy reading Amber’s fanfics.
didn’t walky literally go like “la la la i can’t hear you” last time booster tried to give ‘advice’/say that he can’t handel genuine emotions? He prolly would’ve been dismissive of it lol
Petition to alter the site’s markup so that whenever Walky is tagged in a strip (and Booster isn’t), then they are automatically added to either side of the strip, like bookends, making that face.
That face. I don’t know about Walky, but I shall have nightmares.
If I wasn’t mad busy getting ready to travel, I’d have a greasemonkey script for you in a couple of hours.
A Booster face I didn’t need.
That seems like a resource hog, but if it makes you happy…
Walky’s actually right. Mike would’ve solved this.
By fucking Walky’s mom for a nickel?
Someone has to.
There’s solid evidence it’s happened at least once.
The nickel is solid evidence. He still has it, because once he banged walky’s mom for a nickel, he asked for a refund.
Yeah, but also he would’ve immediately guilted Walky in some soul crushing way about what an obvious sham his relationship with Lucy was and kept needling him the entire time. Kinda like how he bought Walky pajama pants to undermine his relationship with Dorothy. Who jnows if it would help but it would change things.
Given how much promise the Walky/Dorothy ship had if they had time to grow together and how rough Walky’s love life has been since then I think Mike did more harm than good.
I keep reading your name as my name
Too expensive
Actually he probably would’ve bullied Lucy even more than everyone else did.
…I dunno. Bullying Lucy just feels a little too simple for Mike. He was an asshole, no question, but he was a sportsman, damn it! He’s not going to prey on only the easy targets!
I feel like Lucy would straight up murder Mike. She’s emotionally intelligent enough to give him a run for his money.
… I somehow don’t feel entirely comfortable with jokes about Lucy murdering the person who was murdered…I think if you’d said “figuratively eviscerate” or something it would have been far enough from what actually happened to him while making the same point?
I’m sorry you feel that way, but Mike will live forever in our hearts and minds where Lucy cannot touch him.
Y’can’t murder Mike twice.
In this universe.Mike lives in Amber’s heart and mind, but not forever.
He’s dead anyway, it’s not like he’s gonna complain.
Dude I adore your icon, I laughed out loud
Why should Mike have been subjected to such torture? Even for a nickel.
That’s Charles’s job and frankly he’s welcome to it
I wonder if Linda still charges him the nickel.
I’ve periodically wondered if Mike charged nickles or paid them
Depends on the mom
I can’t prove it but I just know if Mike ever met Walky’s mom he’d be like “yo I want a refund”
Mike would have solved this in the same way a pipe bomb solves a leaky faucet. Yeah you don’t have the old problem, but you now have several more worse problems
Mike would’ve told him something like “just go ahead and bang Dorothy, it’s what you REALLY want anyway.”
Mike would have been right. But uncomfortably right, so still on brand.
It’s painful to see how much he misses Mike. As someone coming up on the anniversary of a close friend’s sudden death, I can relate.
Sympathy, same here.
Mike would’ve solved it by seducing both of them, possibly at the same time.
Three-way FTW!
Oh no, is Walky going to have to handle his Mike emotions at last??
that is a very Mike face he’s making (and apparently expecting) in panel 4.
but IMO, same problem as panel 5, in that Mike pretty much always had that face. (pure coincidence, I’m sure.)
Mike’s face never once reminded me of the Joker.
I think they’re referring to Walky’s expressions in panels 4 and 5, which are both very Mike-esque.
Actually I’m referring to what Walky says in panel 5, not Booster’s expression. Fully unpacking/killing the joke (ha):
Walky is wanting Booster to give him The Mike Expression (panel 4) as a warning that he’s being stupid. However, Mike always had that expression, possibly because Walky was always being stupid. To be actually useful,
MikeBoosterReplacement Mike would need a different signal for when Walky is being exceptionally stupid… but the rest of panel 5 suggests that, nope, that needle is just constantly pegged all the way over. Readings are always off-the-scale, on the high end.Huh, Walky is actually upset. Because he really likes Lucy? Or because, as he said to Lucy, he just wants everyone to him?
*like him
Little of column A, Little of Column B
I think that, whether or not him and Lucy ever go back to being a thing, he does care about her and does feel bad he did badly by her. There are plenty of cast members who dislike him, he doesn’t tend to sweat it much.
He enjoyed her company, and probably feels like he didn’t do enough to help her handle his parents.
They’re still in town right? Entirely possible he chews them out and either prompts positive change or inspires them to join the next iteration of the league of evil parents. One of those is more likely than the other.
The knowledge that he screwed this up and genuinely DID do poorly by her can’t be helping. Like, he agreed with her “fuck you”. (And I don’t think the failure here WAS entirely on Walky, and that some of the things he handled poorly were understandable missteps – but there were a lot of opportunities to clear things up in less loaded context, and that ball was in his court.)
And he definitely does like and enjoy Lucy platonically. He may well potentially have romantic feelings for her, he hadn’t been thinking of her in that context for long, all of his friends are girls. Either way, he’s likely damaged his platonic relationship with her, too (and with how long she was harboring that crush, we don’t know if she WANTS to be friends platonically with dating off the table. Or she could quite reasonably need a break before she could hang out with him in a platonic context.)
I’ll just say that Lucy got too excited and Walky was just trying to do things slowly, but with Linda’s comment and Lucy’s insistence in the church it only caused the bomb to explode too soon, which is disturbing because who knows what. What would Lucy really do after she finally used common sense?
In my opinion, it’s not going to be any good, because she said that she should be brave enough and those words cannot be exactly coherent if we take into account that she is a naive girl who received her strong blow from reality and that bravery that she says There may be many people affected by all this.
I think over the course of the last year of panels Walky has been coming to terms that he isn’t just some chill dude that can coast through life like he thought, he is noticing the constant mistakes he makes and has made and wants to stop making them. He wants to be better but after living like that for his entire life it is going to be VERY HARD to kick those bad habits and I think its eating him up inside, he wants help and nobody who used to help him is around besides Dorothy and she isn’t the best person to ask atm.
In addition to the last interactions they had, he is aware of what he said with too much confidence and if Dorothy finds out what just happened…, it is not going to be good.
Didn’t he simply say he was going to be faithful?
He wasn’t unfaithful so, while the overall situation might be awkward to discuss with her, there’s nothing that he’d have to walk back if he decided to talk to her.
I say it, because he seemed to want to show that he has already gotten over Dorothy, but who knows how the latter would take it into consideration, since she is not in a good moment either, but if it were the opposite….. hurray (despite The way he flaunts his integrity to Lucy bothers me, I still like the Walky x Dorothy)
That was not and is not my take on that scene, but if that’s how you took it, that’s fine.
Him and Lucy breaking up wouldn’t mean he’s not over Dorothy so still nothing to walk back even if he was trying to convey that.
reread your comment, and yes, it seems like I got sidetracked, it’s because that moment really bothered me because after the obvious rejection, his “words of encouragement” felt… the opposite. It seemed like he told her “You’re just having a bad day, the next day you’ll be fine.” Obviously he didn’t say it the way I wrote it, but I noticed it that way.
I read my comment again.
I don’t know what you think is being misconstrued or what you think I don’t understand, but I wrote exactly what I meant.
Saying “I’m in a committed relationship and I’m staying faithful” is not the same thing as “I want you to know know that I’m over you”.
He can be over Dorothy without that being the point of that conversation, which is the implication when you say he wants her to know that.
Being over Dorothy is not contingent on his relationship status.
He can be single and still be over her.
That’s why the point was about him being faithful, not about emphasizing to Dorothy that he’s over her.
Hell, he said, either in that same strip or the one after that, that he didn’t want to be the reason that she fails; that doesn’t indicate a lack of interest to me.
That’s pretty much the same attitude he’s had since they first took a break, that he doesn’t want to drag her down.
That’s not even a possibility if he has no desire to get with her.
That aside, I do agree that he was treating her as if she was just having a bad day.
I’m pretty sure that was how it was supposed to come across.
He wasn’t really hearing her, I think partly because he wanted to leave the situation and partly because he puts her up on a pedestal.
It occurs to me that you may have been saying that you read my comment again vs telling me to read my comment again.
If so, I apologize for writing so much.
I hate to be misunderstood, so I tend to over explain myself if it seems like that’s happening.
Well, it bothers me how he said it, it just remains to see how this chaos intensifies
At no point has Walky ever implied that he didn’t like Lucy. He does. He’s just not in love with her, and has kinda been sleepwalking through this attempt at a relationship with her.
And right now, she’s hurting, and its because of him. There’s other, deeper stuff going on here too, of course, but “my friend is hurting because I fucked shit up” is going to be a factor regardless.
I think this is when Walky realizes that a relationship that looks good on paper won’t work without romantic feelings.
I don’t see the sleepwalking through the relationship. He’s not in love with her – which isn’t surprising, given that it’s been a week. And he’s not jumping at the opportunity to have sex with her – for what are likely complicated reasons, but might well not reduce to “no attraction”.
To me, even now Walky reads as more upset that he messed up than that Lucy dumped him which was the problem from the start.
Honestly his “I like to be liked” is now running into “she isn’t a good fit for you and you have to realize that” which is I think why Booster is the one he talks to first. Booster is the one who can tell him outright that this relationship was only heading one way.
Mmm just because someone’s a good fit for you doesn’t mean you have to be with them. I’ve met plenty of people who were a perfect fit for me on paper but the chemistry just wasn’t there
I still think Walky does have tender feelings for Lucy, and would have shown them more if he hadn’t been constantly back-pedalling from Lucy’s intensity.
I am pretty sure he actually likes Lucy and cares about her. He is however an emotionally stunted person, which in the way his mother glorified him and gave him constant approval, causes issues because now he thinks he is in the wrong when someone gives him approval. Like Joyce leaving the church and growing, Wally is leaving his parents and growing.
If Booster is supposed to be there to make faces at you every time you screw up, Walky, they’d never be able to do anything for themself. They’d be attached to you 24/7. I approve of Booster’s shit-eating grin, BTW.
Booster’s shit-eating grin is the best possible replacement for Mike’s permanent scowl.
would booster even be listened to versus dorothy’s advice? lol
Booster’s outfit here is CUTE. Love those overalls.
Walky has yet to realize that breaking up with Walky might be the best thing that’s ever happened to him.
I think one of those names was probably meant to be Lucy, but honestly Walky breaking up with himself might be good for him as well.
He needs some time apart.
I have no idea how I did that. But yeah. Breaking up with LUCY might be the best thing that’s ever happened to him.
I mean, it might also be the best thing that’s ever happened to Lucy. She was getting dangerously close to heading straight into marriage, without first stopping the teenage phase of her life!
Walky x Walky is my OTP.
Someone get Randall Munroe in here for a crossover
Is that what people mean when they tell someone to go fuck themselves?
“No matter where you go, there you are.”
I’ve noticed that and am considering reporting myself for stalking.
Well first of all, Booster was tackling Carla and sicced her on you, and secondly, they were asleep, so technically they couldn’t save ya.
Oh Walky, swing and a miss.
Between Carla and Walky, Booster is having the BEST day.
Walky, Booster is giving you the side eye in panel ONE. He’s not responsible for making sure you see the faces he pulls too.
Shoot, it’s they. That’ll teach me for commenting after months away.
Accidentally misgendering Booster is basically a rite of passage for commenters at this point.
As a person exploring whether I want to insist on they/them pronouns for myself, I’m really glad that good-hearted people have an opportunity to practice using they/them pronouns on a comic character (instead of just on me).
Hey, you noticed & corrected it yourself. That’s more than most do.
Most people don’t even spot it until days later if they read what they said. Usually people don’t re-read their own comments.
That is the exact face I’d make if I were friends with these people and not involved in their drama. Hell I make this face all the time reading it.
I want more Booster and Walky interactions. Something about their dynamic amuses me a lot.
I agree.
Sure. I think they’d make a great couple too.
Well that is horrifying.
I am consoled by the fact that any minute now we will cut away to where Carla is still waiting.
Holy shit, that movement art is great.
There’s something about the combination of shit-eating grin, eyebrows in orbit, and steepled hands of supervillainy that made me literally burst out laughing.
Man, Booster just can’t help the narcissism. (No, Booster’s not obliged to be Walky’s keeper. But there’s a difference between “not being responsible for your issues” and “gleefully treating you like a fictional character here for my own amusement”, and Booster’s several steps past that line.)
Honestly I think Walky needs jokes more than a discussion about feelings right now.
Yep. TBH I read that third panel face as concern?? Walky’s going on about “tearing me down” and Mike-scowling to demonstrate how he wants the emotional curbstomping. Gotta deescalate tension a bit.
(Plus, y’know. It helps them to visually differentiate themselves from said dead roommate.)
booster did ‘warn’ lucy/told her she could do better, so idk if they said anything similar to walky versus walky not overhearing stuff, but other than them being roommates, idk if booster and walky have rly purposefully spent that much time together (even ethan had more one on one time with them?) to where walky would’ve considered booster “friend status” enough to follow advice versus brush it off
So Lucy is unhappy.
And Walky is unhappy.
So is Sarah ecstatic?
On the one hand, she doesn’t exactly like either of them and she was more or less right about the relationship.
On the other hand, she may not be close enough to them for her reverse-emotional-vampire deal to activate.
I don’t think sarah cares enough about Walky and Lucy to feel good when they suffer.
I think Sarah’s reverse emotional vampire deal is a result of having a very negative worldview when it comes to social matters, which makes her feel like a misunderstood outsider whenever too many people are happy. It’s like that “everything is fine” meme where everything is on fire: Sarah can see the fire and can see people smiling and it is creeping her out, so when people stop smiling and start panicking everything is suddenly right with the world in a way she hasn’t experienced much.
Given her last comments to Lucy, I bet Sarah would get a bit of a Schadenfreude boost.
I thought Sarah’s reverse-emotional-vampire bit only had an effect with Joyce?
Sarah thinks she will enjoy saying, “I told you so.” But I think her empathy kicks in.
might depend on how lucy acts around sarah from now on, but idk if she cares enough to gloat
Walky has the expression down pat
Total coincidence that Booster makes that expression. I’m sure it means nothing.
Sure Booster didn’t have to do anything, he’s still coming off as a real asshole right now with the whole implied gleeful enjoyment of other people’s fuck ups.
Someone’s gonna say “they” so it might as well be me.
book title: It Might As Well Be They
I think Booster is just matching Walky’s energy. He’s turning this into a bit so he doesn’t have to address his real feelings on the matter.
Yeah, that’s my read too. If Walky had come in in tears, Booster wouldn’t be doing this bit. Walky came in all Friends (The Millennium Series) and so Boost is in Sitcom Mode.
Yep! We’ve seen them interact before. Booster and Walky are close enough to be playful/do bits, and I’m pretty sure that if my dude actually did anything like emotional honesty, they’d be willing to match that energy. Plus there’s the thing others have said about Walky doing the Mike Scowl and wanting them to reproduce it.
Right now is like “ooh~ you want me to go ‘told you so’? 8DD” because… “I’m an idiot all the time why aren’t you stopping me” is also not very diagnostic.
Booster doesn’t have to do anything. That’s the point here. If Walky wants Booster to be helpful, then Walky’s first bit of introspection should be thinking about the proper way to ask.
It doesn’t really work that way. Booster wasn’t near him, nor has any Stupid Sense— Carla’s antics must’ve rubbed off on Booster with that panel 5 face.
Plus it’s an unsustainable agreement, you mess up too much anyway
Booster is doing their best Matt Bors impression.
https://thenib.com/mister-gotcha/
Not following that link. Booster’s expression is bad enough. More nightmare fuel is not required.
…Walky, please, find a halfway decent therapist. You’ve got so much goddamn Mike trauma going on…
Booster’s probably the closest he can get to that where he is
Everyone brings up therapy but it sounds like such a pain in the butt. You gotta like…pay money for them and junk. And you don’t even know if you have a compatible one until you experience it yourself.
Not that it would be any of her business either way, but I can’t imagine what Linda’s reaction would be if she ever found out one of her kids was in therapy, for any reason. But it probably wouldn’t be great.
i would think part of sals probation would include therapy of some sort
I think part of Sal’s problems are a result of bad therapy.
“Of some sort”.
It was probably less “help Sal through her issues on her terms”, more “browbeat Sal into falling in line”.
Linda on Sal in therapy: “Well, you know, with how she is she clearly needs it. You do your best but sometimes, sometimes you just have to get outside help. Anyway, I hope it helps.”
Linda on Walky in therapy: “…he’s…what??” *strained smile, takes out cell phone* “One second.” *steps away, when Walky picks up we hear a clearly hissed* “David. What in the world—“
“David ypu don’t need therapy. YOU’RE FINE. You just have to try harder.”
I think the specifics of the situation would make her understand.
Sure, she’d freak the fuck out if it were for more mundane reasons (like, say, parental issues, cough cough), but “I’m fucked up because my roommate was fucking murdered and then I got kidnapped” is something that even Linda would go “…oh, uh, yeah, that makes sense…”
Sal apparently saw a bajillion unhelpful ones when she robbed those stores. Not sure if that was her or court ordered.
Definitely court-ordered. Getting mandated into therapy is a lot different from choosing to go yourself!
Normally you’d get to pick a therapist where you think you’ll have trust and a good working relationship, you can fire/switch therapists if one doesn’t match well with you, it’s entirely up to you what you talk about in therapy, etc.
More autonomy might’ve suited Sal a lot better than having a revolving door of random therapists that authoritarian adults made her attend.
I think he offhandedly mentioned there aren’t any decent ones which implied he prolly did talk to at least one or was assigned one to briefly talk to him after the whole kidnapping incident?
Is the fact that Walky definitely isn’t over Mike’s death gonna be directly addressed?
By whom?
Booster: I DO HAVE SUBTLE INDICATIONS OF MY INNER EMOTIONAL LANDSCAPE THANK YOU VERY MUCH
Walky, stop expecting Booster to be a cheap knock-off when they’re clearly the upgrade!
(God, their face in the final panel is the best.)
“That’s not diagnostic” Entire clades have been built on these, Walky. Sometimes you have to make due with what you have.
“That’s not diagnostic” is the most rational thing Walky has said in a while, maybe ever. It makes me feel he’s close to an self-reflection induced breakthrough.
at the same time if Booster makes that face at Walky all the time, then it suggests to me that it is a face that is very diagnostic indeed
per my comment(s) above:
“This ‘You’re Being Stupid’ light must be broken, it’s always lit up!”
“it’s not broken.”
Walky doing the Booster side-eye is totally amusing.
It looks more like the Mike side-eye. Which makes it considerably less amusing, because Walky, consciously or not, seems to be trying to force the Booster-peg into the Mike-shaped hole.
Booster Pegging Mike’s hole, that’s some imagery right there
That’s what Amber said.
slipshine that’s entirely a text slashfic when
–Dave, is it still slash if one or both or all are nonbinary
More of this dynamic please!
there are two roommates, one is pissed off at how crazy the world is, the other is fascinated at how crazy the world is
That’s more of a “Carla pulls off a sick prank” look, Booster.
No Booster, that’s generally was Mary and pre-med Ruth do
Mike was better at hiding his glee for the demise of others than Panel 5 Booster is being.
… is something I almost said, before realizing it was false.
And now walky shall proceed to blame himself for not being good enough, which will lead him to be even more people pleasing in fear of rejection.
My prediction is that if Walky actually manages to explain why this is emotionally devastating, Booster will go from “Can I say ‘I told you so?’ 8DD” (aka, “The Cassandra” from a bit)…
To the rather hollow experience of having prophesized right, but the immediate disastrous consequences ruin the satisfaction. (“The Cassandra: Fallen Troy Edition.”)
Only then the healing might commence. Walky needs… Yes,professional therapy, but even without the therapy having a strong support system would help him tons. He gives a passable impression of someone whos’ not lonely,but… Who does he have?
It doesnt count when when you undermine a relationship.
That’s a lot to assume from the “you could do better” they told to Lucy, exactly once, as a joke. And not enough taking in what Walky is saying and how is he acting right now.
The “can I say I told you so” I mentioned is about Booster doing what they were asked to, in their own style
because everyone keeps comparing them to Mike and that sucks.Kiddo is pedantic, not cruel.“Where’s the giant, Mansley?”
OK, I got the reference instantly, but I’m having trouble applying it.
panel 3, bottom balloon.
“I can be your angle and yuor devil, but I’m not your Mike”
Ah panel #4 is Mikes Side-eye.
Goddaamn that fucker is an ahole, but i really hope Mike turns out to be alive and in witness Protection.
and I hope Amber ( Mike) Knows.
Booster is messy as hell and I love them for it.
Walky avoided talking to Booster from nearly their first meeting (actually the hall meeting shortly after that) when it became clear they’d be Too Real about things, which was pretty quick thinking really.
Is he angling for a reality check here?
*talking to Booster about serious topics
I accidentally some words
He’s looking for “replacement mike” to do the “mike-thing” and be an all-knowing asshole and “fix” things.
I got say Booster’s pink shirt and black overalls looks great in them.
*on but my stance still stands its a great combo
Role reversal: today Walky pointed out the stupidity in another.
Walky is great at channeling Mike’s facial expressions.
However, Booster has a great expression of their own.
I’m torn as to which one I like more.
Walky is definitely Charles son. Letting others run his life while he sleepwalks around. It’s only chance that he isn’t further into a very unequal relationship with Lucy. Betting Linda had a ring on her finger before Charles knew what hit him.
ohhhhhhhhhhhh there it is
I’ll give him one allowance for being upset but THAT’S IT
Help is nice but, Walky, you need to learn to stop yourself.
I think right this moment he needs to break down a little, unpack his weak spots instead of just sticking a label on the package, and then discuss with someone how he plans to address them.
And maybe Booster is saying that: what you are asking of me will not help you as much as you could help yourself.
Also a lot of what happened wasn’t Walky’s fault. Lucy always had unrealistic expectations around their relationship, and there wasn’t an easy way to resolve that. He could have done more to clarify things sooner, but it wouldn’t solve the fundamental problem.
I mean, sure, it wouldn’t have fixed everything, but if Walky had been willing to clearly communicate things may not have blown up in his face. Things with Lucy may have been salvageable if they were clarified sooner instead of waiting until they cracked under pressure.
Or they might just have blown up sooner – which is what he was worried about.
Fair enough. I never really saw them working as a couple in the long run, Walky never seemed interested in Lucy the way he was in Dorothy or even Amber. I think it would have fallen apart no matter how well he communicated with her, i just wonder if it would have been less spectacular, that’s all. No way to know now though.
I’m not sure that blew up is really even the right descriptor here. They did have a tense moment, but they worked it out. What really killed it was Lucy realizing that she liked Walky more than he liked her. That was always going to be a problem, regardless of how it was handled.
I agree with both of you. Walky needs to do a crapton of introspection, as Mark states. But a lot of this (as Bash states) is on Lucy.
I am trying to be fair, and say the problems were equal. But Lucy was the main motive force in that relationship, and if I am not being fair, its not an unequal amount of blame.
But Walky just walked away from a nasty conversation where Lucy put a lot on him, and Walky is used to taking blame. He needs to be introspective right now, not just to find his failings, but also to discover that Lucy is wrong about some of the things she put on him that are not his fault. Sure, he needs to grow and be better than some of the things he did, but he also doesn’t need the extra burden, or attempt to fix things coming from his partner.
Oh noes! WALKY is the Replacement Mike, and not Booster!
Walky you’re supposed to say least try to start doing that yourself at age 14
Booster needs a fluffy white cat so they can sit on a chair and pet it while Walky does dumb things.
oh joes*, walky has SPOKEN the unspoken AGREEMENT
–Dave, better read the fine print in those penalty clauses right quick now. probably Sarah can help you, she’s pre-law
[*] i typed what i typed
I’ve noticed nobody is beating Walky into a thin, leathery paste right now. The trouble is, I don’t think Booster has the capability to change that, so honestly what good are they right now?
… oh Walky. (I am going to address the rest of this to the character. This is not addressed to anyone reading)
Walky, you need to start having some non-periphrial consciousnesses.
You have developed enough to know when things are a problem, now stop relying on third party imput to address the problems, because you are sliding right down the slope here. Dorothy, Sal, Mike, Amber, others you have dealt with have been willing to tell you when you are wrong. However, as you have expanded your social interactions, the people who realize there are problems are less able to address you about fixing them. Then you encountered Lucy. Lucy not only didn’t know how to address your problems, she doesn’t even know how to address her own, and that’s exactly (one of, probably second or third) your big problem here.
Walky, m’boy. You need to deal with it. Yourself. Its part of growing up, and I am very sorry, Walky, you ain’t getting back to Neverland. You are gonna need to bloody well grow up, and asking your roommate to tell you how you are fracking up and how not to frack up isn’t going to cut it. You grow up by realizing other people’s advice is, well, advice and not instructions.
First, the relationship with Lucy is done (hallelujah). Go do your homework – a retrospective of where you fracked up, where she fracked up, and all the ways to not do that again. Then try not to do that again.
You can do that. You have had at least some character development in this last decade- I mean, three months. But by god, Walky, you need to come to some realizations about how you act. You were doing some good retrospection a couple strips back, even if you were being undermined by Lucy deciding you were to blame for everything, because Lucy hasn’t had any positive character development yet and I think she needs to crash a few more relationships before she does. You need to sort out all the places you were wrong. There’s plenty.
But it is not Booster’s job to help you grow. Booster did not sign up to be the personal Walky disaster manager. The biggest realization you need to have, and I mean right now Walky, is that you need to ask for advice and know what advice means. You need to work your own mess out, with advice or not. Most of all, Walky, stop demanding someone else fix it for you.
Yet you participate in being an idiot. Curious!
…Still not Mike, Walky.
No, no, say it ominously!
Innnnnteresting. (drumming steepled fingertips against each other)