Admittedly it would make for some interesting dynamics (such as Sarah being jealous, or walky trying to win Lucy back).
But would they have much to connect over? Lucy is into cartoons while Jacob is more of a sports guy. I think they are in different courses too. Plus, Jacob was impressed with Joyce’s actions… Not sure if Lucy has a strong enough character yet.
Jacob dated Raidah and they had nothing in common aside from performative box-checking. Lucy is a “nice girl” he can bring home to his family, and she might even belong to the same religion. They could both do worse. It would be funny if his family hates her though and is just as rude as Walky’s mom.
Well Jacob’s Episcopal while Lucy seems to be some sort of vaguely defined nondenominational liberal Protestant, seeing as she attended the same services as Becky et. al. But I guess they can’t be too serious about it if Jacob was in a serious relationship with Raidah.
Raidah was also a pre-law student, like Jacob; presumably that’s how they met, and one of the primary things they had to talk about together. I can’t actually remember what Lucy’s major is, but I don’t think it’s pre-law.
Also, remember that Lucy just broke up with Walky yesterday, SPECIFICALLY because she realized she had been idealizing romance way too much, and needed to take a break to think about what she actually wanted out of life. I don’t think she’s going to want to get together with yet another earnest, hot, and kind of oblivious dude after meeting him for the first time.
Personally, I’ve always found that a partner with wildly different interests just means more opportunities to learn about new things with someone whose company I enjoy.
Shipped them a long time ago but it seemed too hijinx free to happen. Church going serious students who will spend time building a relationship. Maybe Lucy needed to go through a Walky phase first.
They’re also both on the periphery of the main cast. Hook them up and they’d likely lose most of their connection to others and we wouldn’t see much of them.
Though it would be amusing if Lucy went to another breakfast/lunch with Raidah and invited her new boyfriend along without mentioning names to either side.
Not sure Lucy would get to go to another breakfast with Raidah without Walky. They were only invited because of Walky’s perceived “in” with the Dean. Lucy was collateral, not genuine interest.
They are like if you took [earlier] Joyce, dialed her back to about half, and took [earlier] Dorothy, dialed her back to about half, and then unqueered the situation.
They are both Black and Christian, perhaps even the same denomination. They are both pretty serious people, good at school, without obvious crippling hangups (aside from the Christian brainwashing.) We don’t know if he is into anything other than working out and school, and checking performative boxes to please his family, but maybe that’s enough? Their families might get along. I betcha he could use some cartoon and movie watching to destress.
See, to me that’s all what is so unappealing about them. They’re so similar it would just be two people with similar personalities and interests getting along. It’s kind of boring to me. Sal and Danny are interesting because they’re so different. Danny being the opposite of what you’d expect a “cool” girl like Sal to want. Or supremely horny Becky dating a likely ace or demisexual. Joe and Joyce fit this dynamic too.
What are Jacob and Lucy? What do they have to play off each other with?
It is a pretty simple “two cute people that would be nice if they were happy together” thing. That can not be your thing but it’s not more complicated than that.
Absolutely. While I completely get that a good chunk of readership enjoy enjoys combining people with very different personalities (which is part of the college experience for many), some others aren’t looking for all drama all the time. I think that Jacob and Lucy probably fall into that category. They are both genuinely nice people who deserve some happiness, too.
Jacob’s been pretty clearly confirmed Episcopal while Lucy seems to attend the same services as Becky so not likely to be the same denomination at least.
The entire situation with Joyce showed that he didn’t actually like filling out checkboxes to please his family. He likes filling out checkboxes, but he still wants those to please himself.
100% because of that time Jacob realized he’d like someone who is like Joyce but isn’t Joyce. I have zero strong feelings about Jacob/Lucy—they hadn’t even met until just now!—but I’ve been curious about the possibility ever since.
I think the things that Jacob is interested in aren’t the kidnapper punching, but some things they do have in common. Both of them are upbeat, earnest and extroverted.
There is an argument that Lucy could be what Jacob is looking for. But it’s a flawed argument. The chemistry is impossible to predict and so it is interesting.
The only issue with Jacob is having an unlikeable girlfriend, the only issue with Lucy is being terminally horny. Otherwise, they are both way to well adjusted to be main characters in this comic:)
I do Not understand the “terminally horny” take on Lucy. It wouldn’t be much of a flaw even if it were one, but I think her excitement to have sex for the first time is at a pretty normal level for 18/19. Her flaw, such as it was, was more her idealized, unrealistic expectations for a first relationship. And now she’s Had her first relationship, so that part is at least somewhat mitigated.
I agree. I wouldn’t call her terminally horny, she just had the typical teen romance novel and movie idea of how a first boyfriend should go. X number of dates, say Y specially at point Z, sex is supposed to happen.
He seems naive to me at times. His apparent patience with Sarah sometimes feels like he’s trying to teach her to be social by saying earnestly, “have you tried not being introverted?”
My guess would be that both Jacob and Lucy have been done dirty by main characters recently (Joyce’s manipulative behavior and Walky’s spinelessness, respectively). So you kind of want to just see two (mostly) well-adjusted people have a quiet, happy relationship now that they’ve paid their debts to the Relationship Drama Gods.
I figured it was either gonna be her or Jocelyne. The latter of which would have been funny in terms of “just how badly can the universe possibly fuck with Ethan,” but would have limited potential for development unless she was actually sticking around long-term, which was always a long shot.
however, *directly* using the E=mc^2 formula for 100 kilograms results in over 2 gigatons [one ton of hypothetical TNT is equivalent to 4.184 gigajoules, if anyone wants to do the math at home]
Did some more looking, and a 3 gigaton explosion would be approximately the equivalent of a 1300 foot asteroid crashing into the ground. Finding precise comparisons is hard, but the closest to an actual event I can find is the ~1 gigaton eruption of Mt. Tambora in 1815, which was the largest volcanic eruption in recorded history. It was audible 1600 miles away, left ash deposits 800 miles away, and caused 1816 to be “the year without a summer.”
And Sarah and anti-Sarah would annihilate each other at about three times that.
“WE’RE NOT FRIENDS BUT BY COVERING FOR MY SOCIAL FLAWS YOU HAVE BECOME AS CLOSE WITH ME AS ANY HUMAN IS ALLOWED. THANK YOU AND NEVER SPEAK TO ME AGAIN.”
I honestly feel like this is Lucy doing Sarah a favor by helping her be on better terms with Jacob. But I have the feeling everyone going to see this as something else.
Whaaat? Reader of this comic willfully misinterpreting the actions of a character they dislike to be more manipulative or harmful that they actually are? Ridiculous. Preposterous even. (I am just joking here, to be clear).
I mean… this is kind of what she wants though. She likes Jacob but has made it repeatedly clear that she’s not in a position to date him (emotionally or baggage-wise). She was perfectly happy for Jacob and Joyce to date, I think she’d be ambivalent about LucyxJacob.
Sad, because I personally would love the drama of her being actually jealous and having to grow as a person so let’s hope it goes that way instead.
I feel that, Lucy and Jacob potentially end up a thing, kind of like how they nearly did in Shortpacked but Ken won out, if I recall.
Or, this is the fire that gets Sarah to get her shit together versus losing out on a chance with Jacob yet again.
And, this also obviously furthers the Lucy/Walky situation regardless of how it plays out, though I kind of imagine that relationship ends with finality whether Lucy and Jacob get together or not.
Yeah, though I feel like, in general, Jacob has been much more interesting in the Dumbiverse. He’s been one of the most improved, though obviously not the only one, like obviously Dina and Becky and Dorothy have a lot more development here, themselves.
The rest of those I agree with, but Dina was VERY developed in the Walkyverse. It was just in a very different direction. (Honestly it’s hard to even see them as the same character.)
I don’t like it either. Maybe it’s because I just don’t like Lucy. That too. And I don’t think they are going to date, because they just met. What’s wrong with just being friends?? Plenty of drama can be done with that, no?
I so far find the idea of them dating kind of boring, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they couldn’t win me over. I honestly would rather Jacob and Sarah be a thing, if only since it’d finally pull her out of her comfort zone.
I dunno. I am kind of in the camp of “vaguely sure they’d be content but boring together, which isn’t what I want from fiction”. But I’m open to Willis proving me wrong.
(INDIVIDUALLY I think I mentally slot both Lucy and Jacob into “nice, a little boring”, which makes them seem like that squared as a couple… but I’m not sure how much of my mental categorization is actually fair? Jacob was pretty dynamic and compelling in the “fake dating” storyline and I often enjoyed how he and Joyce bounced off each other… so the question is, how much of that was the SITUATION (Joyce being into a boy who was off-limits, either because she initially WANTED him to date Sarah or because he WAS dating Raidah), and how much of it was Jacob himself? Which we might be about to find out.)
I’m still kinda excited to see them finally interacting though, because it’ll answer these and other questions. (Like “how similar ARE Lucy and Joyce, really, in Willis’s eyes? Are the parts where they’re similar also the parts that Jacob was attracted to in Joyce?”)
But admittedly most of what I like in THIS strip is Lucy and Sarah’s interaction. It’s so much less hostile than the last one, and I am Fascinated by that.
well it is college and not like anyone’s being forced into an arrange marriage relationship (tho be hilarious if they fake dated to mess with ppl but idk if that’d happen) so they can get to know each other and see how things work out, tho i guess a slice of life strip like this even if it is daily other than a fling/one night stand a ‘short’ relationship by doa standards might feels longer to us
Pretty sure she hates it already. I mean, literally running away from a guy because he knows you like him is not a point where you think “Things are going great here!” She may hate it more later.
I feel like somewhere Joyce’s shipping sense is tingling considering her “You stay away from Jacob!” reaction when Lucy’d asked about potential boys earlier.
Lucy’s paradox. Lucy is everybody’s friend. Nobody is Sarah’s friend.
Anyways, Lucy and Jacob would be a nice couple, and also sooooo boring. I’ve never been sold on Jacob+Sarah, his interest in her has seemed to be interested in getting to know her as a friend and then find out if maybe more. I could see them as friends, but at her most gregarious Sarah is still cynical and snarky and would be trying to hide that from him, and she failed he’d be disappointed.
Dear Sarah: See a counselor about your extreme social anxiety and your coping mechanism of hostility. This will not benefit you in the workplace and is severely hampering your interactions with other people. Like it or not, you need other people in this world.
Dear Jacob and Lucy: You two seem like very nice people. Get to know each other. Keep each other sane. Whether you become more than friends is up to you.
I believe Willis has been purposely vague about the precise room numbers and relative locations and such since this setting is based on a real place with people living in those rooms.
I have a dorm map partially worked out. There are nebulous areas, like the hall length changes.
I assume there’s at least two reasons, 1: like Amelie says, so there’s not a usable map to where real life people live. 2: it complicates the storytelling in exactly the way I’m curious about.
Clark is more defined than Beck. Which direction the windows face is consistent so far, I don’t think anyone gets both sunrise and sunset. Relative room position is fairly consistent, it’s always consistent for the main four rooms (Joyce->Dorothy), then a little more flexible past that. A number of supporting or recurring cast have their room switch from left or right handed doors.
In Beck, Walky and Mike|Booster are to the left of their half-bath, with Ken and Arnold. It’s probably sunrise facing. Danny and Joe are down the hall from Walky, in the direction of Ken/Arnold. They are probably sunset facing. Danny and Joe’s door is left opening.
Jacob and Ethan are on the opposite side of the hall as Joe. Their door is one of the ones that switches left/right opening.
all this is subject to the whims of Willis. Whimlises.
Probably not, yeah, if only because, if it were, I feel like we’d have had Jacob or Ethan interact with Walky more often over the years of comics. That, and Booster would have not needed Amber’s introduction particularly, even with Ethan’s odd lifestyle these days.
These two would be terrible together. Great for each other, the world does not need two nice old-fashioned family friendly Christians in a performative checkboxy relationship getting married straight outta college and raising a buncha little babies with no critical thinking skills or emotional intelligence at all. Iʻm about it. I want Joyce to tell them off about something.
Haha, my impression as well. Perhaps they will both exit the comic to sail off into the sunset with the church bells ringing. They’ll have a messy and vicious divorce in thirty years when she donates their house to the church and he buys a convertible to go sow some wild oats.
Hey, that would be interesting to see, that is, a confrontation between Joyce and Lucy, the perfect opportunity to see if they shake Joyce and her way of seeing things from Lucy’s perspective a little.
But when you’re talking about forming a relationship, I imagine that ‘great for each other’ is kind of the most important thing. Should they have a relationship that is less good for them for the sake of humanity? Besides, neither of them seem to lack critical thinking skills, so I think you’re being a bit harsh on them. They might be a good, low drama, emotionally stable relationship. It’s not exactly a pairing that’ll get the ratings, but like you said, I think they would be great for each other. And a relationship exists for the people who are in it.
I think you’re misunderstanding the nature of Jacob’s checklist. He’s the kind of person to write that list simply because he’s extremely neat and orderly. He realized that the list lining up to give him Raidah wasn’t a problem with the list itself but the items on the list. His hairstyle change is indicative of that.
Lucy + Jacob, not interested. Lucy and Sarah softening on each other and learning from each other, I’m all in. I feel like Lucy and Sarah combined would curb/cover each of their worst tendencies. Also, I want to see Sarah and Lucy being each other’s best wingman.
I’m curious to see Lucy and Jacob interact. I don’t think they are as similar as they seem on the surface, and I’d like to see them gain more depth. Contrasting two seemingly similar characters can actually be a great way to sharpen the differentiation between them.
Okay first, in webcomics the answer is very much yes.
Second, people have been saying they would be a good match for a long time now. When Jacob wanted someone likely Joyce who hadn’t lied to him, many people thought about Lucy. Joyce even worries about that possibility on screen. The main thing holding them back is that they didn’t actually know each other, so a whole comic devoted to them meeting does seem significant.
I’m quite interested in whether Lucy is going to socialise with Raidah still and what she might hear about Jacob, and Joyce, and Sarah through that, and whether she will act on that info.
We only saw a fraction of the breakfast, but this is the only one where it looks anything like Raidah conversing with Lucy. And it’s Carl who responds to Lucy’s question. Raidah adds onto what he says, and directs it to Walky.
Based entirely on tropes, the three panel handshake does have a “hey, look at this little meet cute” vibe to it. Or at least that’s how it reads to me.
In a more direct answer to your question: no, characters don’t need to be in a relationship, but they’re gonna get shipped anyway. It’s a law of physics.
Welcome to “fandom”. Not everyone in fandom is into ‘shipping, but ‘shipping is definitely one of the most popular activities.
Some folks like to pretend that it’s only the Gay Ships that get this “they’ve met exactly once, now kiss” treatment, but it’s not. It’s very much not. EVERY interaction between characters is treated by SOMEONE as proof of destined romance, and with m/f dynamics it’s more likely to be the actual writers of the canon.
Because shipping is fun – it’s fun to explore the possibilities in different relationships. It doesn’t have to be fun for you but it is for a lot of people.
I don’t particularly want to see Lucy and Jacob get together in a romantic way, but if the webcomic gods demand that such a thing must happen at some point, then I would prefer, by many orders of magnitude, to see Lucy and Jacob get together than to see Sarah and Jacob get together.
About the only scenario where I’d prefer to see Sarah/Jacob become a thing would be if the only other alternatives available for Jacob were, like, Mary or maybe Raidah, again.
Just because she despises Sarah isn’t any reason not to be friends with her! In fact, I’m pretty sure that she’s MORALLY OBLIGATED to be cheerful and friendly with absolutely everybody she meets, because otherwise she won’t be a Nice Person. Sure, she fails in that sometimes, but that just makes it all the more important for her to keep trying!
uh oh
I smell trouble for Dottie’s attempt to get Walky and Lucy together. She’s about to have another failure. Hope she can take it. Sarah has pretty much blown it, if she even ever had a chance it’s pretty much sailed by now.
what do we call this ship? JaLu?
I’m worried that Lucy will try to play matchmaker to get Sarah and Jacob together, probably succeeding, while Jacob will help her figure out what she really thinks of Walky. But there’s hope that Jacob and Lucy will start dating, Sarah will be crazy jealous, start spying on them and end up forming an alliance with Raidah against Lucy. It will end in tragedy for everyone involved, BUT finally Lucy will understand that Sarah is not her friend.
well that is what happened with joyce cept it is more of a sisterly dynamic with them/worked out more or less tho i can’t imagine sarah agreeing to do anything with raidah even over jacob
YAY i’ve been rooting for these two to meet for MONTHS!! regardless of romantic entanglement, i think that lucy and jacob will get along very well and look forward to them interacting more :3
it’d be amusing if they bonded over how ridiculous that romance on the campus is and they ended up being besties even if they don’t date/have a romantic leaning romantic
lol yeah, i’d hope walky would be happy for them, tho i can totally imagine early development walky being like “man how am i supposed to compete with THAT?” and it being a blow to his ego (tho i guess sal and jen did say he wasn’t aware of his hotness more or less XD )
dang lucy’s tiny/jacob’s taller than expected. so congrats to ppl who were shipping them and into height gaps/size differences for this bit of interaction 8D
I just got scammed and locked out of my Discord account by someone who looked like a Discord Employee.
They asked me to change my account email and send them screenshots of recent transactions in financial institutions, and send them literally all of my PayPal balance.
Until further notice if you see any messages from the discord accountngpz DO NOT TRUST.
Let the record show that at 1:45 AM pst on march 13th, I became fully up to date with Dumbing of Age after five straight days of reading. I look forward to becoming a regular
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“DON’T SPEAK FOR ME AS THOUGH YOU WERE MY FRIEND OR EVEN ACKNOWLEDGE MY EXISTENCE”
“Okay.”
“THAT’S ACKNOWLEDGEMENT!”
Heres a combo I hadnt considered…
I have!
Trying to remember if they ever interacted much in Shortpacked!, I can’t recall anything in specific.
Actually I think Jacob had a bit of a thing for her in Shortpacked! Nothing ever came of it, tho (Lucy started dating Ken iirc)
You mean a romantic combo?
Admittedly it would make for some interesting dynamics (such as Sarah being jealous, or walky trying to win Lucy back).
But would they have much to connect over? Lucy is into cartoons while Jacob is more of a sports guy. I think they are in different courses too. Plus, Jacob was impressed with Joyce’s actions… Not sure if Lucy has a strong enough character yet.
Jacob dated Raidah and they had nothing in common aside from performative box-checking. Lucy is a “nice girl” he can bring home to his family, and she might even belong to the same religion. They could both do worse. It would be funny if his family hates her though and is just as rude as Walky’s mom.
Well Jacob’s Episcopal while Lucy seems to be some sort of vaguely defined nondenominational liberal Protestant, seeing as she attended the same services as Becky et. al. But I guess they can’t be too serious about it if Jacob was in a serious relationship with Raidah.
Raidah was also a pre-law student, like Jacob; presumably that’s how they met, and one of the primary things they had to talk about together. I can’t actually remember what Lucy’s major is, but I don’t think it’s pre-law.
Also, remember that Lucy just broke up with Walky yesterday, SPECIFICALLY because she realized she had been idealizing romance way too much, and needed to take a break to think about what she actually wanted out of life. I don’t think she’s going to want to get together with yet another earnest, hot, and kind of oblivious dude after meeting him for the first time.
She’s in telecommunications, like Walky is.
Personally, I’ve always found that a partner with wildly different interests just means more opportunities to learn about new things with someone whose company I enjoy.
My wife and my interests have very little overlap, but we get along great and always support each other’s hobbies.
People don’t have to have the same interests as their SOs.
It would be an effective way to kill two birds with one stone, namely Walky x Lucy and Sarah x Jacob.
Ooo, that’d be an interesting couple, I’d say!
I have, especially since Lucy is like a normal, presentable version of Joyce.
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2019/comic/book-9-comic/02-but-the-sun-still-shines/guys-2/
i screamed!!! thank you
Slipshine material
Shipped them a long time ago but it seemed too hijinx free to happen. Church going serious students who will spend time building a relationship. Maybe Lucy needed to go through a Walky phase first.
They’re also both on the periphery of the main cast. Hook them up and they’d likely lose most of their connection to others and we wouldn’t see much of them.
Glad I’m not the only one who suddenly built a ship out of 3 panels….
I’ve been waiting for this moment for… forever!
Same.
Lucy, that’s not anti-social, that’s asocial.
They’re not the same, don’t conflate them.
thank you
I agree that the distinction is important, but I’m pretty sure Sarah is both.
What part of Sarah’s misanthropy isn’t antisocial? At times, she’s like a less funny Mike.
none of it is anti-social. It’s asocial.
I’ve been waiting for this ever since Jacob said he was updating what he was looking for in a relationship.
They are going to bang so goddamn hard.
…in Christ.
Right! Lucy & Joyce do have similar personalities.
This is going to end with Lucy and Jacob attending another breakfast/lunch with Raidah and her posse and Jacob defending her better, isn’t it?
I’m pretty sure that won’t happen Raidah and Jacob broke up and Raidah did not take it well.
If Raidah sees him with Lucy, rest assured that she will retaliate, if she already did a cowardly act by annoying Dorothy, she will do it again.
Though it would be amusing if Lucy went to another breakfast/lunch with Raidah and invited her new boyfriend along without mentioning names to either side.
Not sure Lucy would get to go to another breakfast with Raidah without Walky. They were only invited because of Walky’s perceived “in” with the Dean. Lucy was collateral, not genuine interest.
Probably true, though I still think Raidah’s plotting something against Joyce and Sarah, not just social climbing.
Ridah’s entire plan hinges on the fact that people only like other people because they are popular. It’s incredibly hollow and flawed.
Raidah is probably going to take Lucy dating Jacob as some sort of chess move by Joyce.
Ranking characters base on how Joyce-like they are:
1. Joyce
2. Liz
3. Lucy
How is Liz Joyce-like?
I’m actually really interested in what people see in this couple so I’m sincerely asking why people want it? Just cause they seem compatible on paper?
They seem like they’ll be nice together.
They are like if you took [earlier] Joyce, dialed her back to about half, and took [earlier] Dorothy, dialed her back to about half, and then unqueered the situation.
This take is both hilarious and accurate.
…. I don’t disagree, but when you put it that way it sounds like “Triple Vanilla”.
triple vanilla would be a great name for something lol
They are both Black and Christian, perhaps even the same denomination. They are both pretty serious people, good at school, without obvious crippling hangups (aside from the Christian brainwashing.) We don’t know if he is into anything other than working out and school, and checking performative boxes to please his family, but maybe that’s enough? Their families might get along. I betcha he could use some cartoon and movie watching to destress.
See, to me that’s all what is so unappealing about them. They’re so similar it would just be two people with similar personalities and interests getting along. It’s kind of boring to me. Sal and Danny are interesting because they’re so different. Danny being the opposite of what you’d expect a “cool” girl like Sal to want. Or supremely horny Becky dating a likely ace or demisexual. Joe and Joyce fit this dynamic too.
What are Jacob and Lucy? What do they have to play off each other with?
It is a pretty simple “two cute people that would be nice if they were happy together” thing. That can not be your thing but it’s not more complicated than that.
In terms of the narrative, given how extreme most of the main characters are, some straight men would be beneficial.
Absolutely. While I completely get that a good chunk of readership enjoy enjoys combining people with very different personalities (which is part of the college experience for many), some others aren’t looking for all drama all the time. I think that Jacob and Lucy probably fall into that category. They are both genuinely nice people who deserve some happiness, too.
Jacob’s been pretty clearly confirmed Episcopal while Lucy seems to attend the same services as Becky so not likely to be the same denomination at least.
The entire situation with Joyce showed that he didn’t actually like filling out checkboxes to please his family. He likes filling out checkboxes, but he still wants those to please himself.
100% because of that time Jacob realized he’d like someone who is like Joyce but isn’t Joyce. I have zero strong feelings about Jacob/Lucy—they hadn’t even met until just now!—but I’ve been curious about the possibility ever since.
Except the similarities are superficial and the differences run deep.
Lucy hasn’t punched out a kidnapper, for example. And I can’t really see her doing it.
I think the things that Jacob is interested in aren’t the kidnapper punching, but some things they do have in common. Both of them are upbeat, earnest and extroverted.
He commented specifically about how much that impressed him.
I’d guess that “punched a kidnapper” isn’t a minimum dating standard for Jacob even if it impressed him.
No, but it suggests it isn’t just the superficial “upbeat, earnest and extroverted” part that worked on him.
There is an argument that Lucy could be what Jacob is looking for. But it’s a flawed argument. The chemistry is impossible to predict and so it is interesting.
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PairTheSpares
The only issue with Jacob is having an unlikeable girlfriend, the only issue with Lucy is being terminally horny. Otherwise, they are both way to well adjusted to be main characters in this comic:)
I do Not understand the “terminally horny” take on Lucy. It wouldn’t be much of a flaw even if it were one, but I think her excitement to have sex for the first time is at a pretty normal level for 18/19. Her flaw, such as it was, was more her idealized, unrealistic expectations for a first relationship. And now she’s Had her first relationship, so that part is at least somewhat mitigated.
I agree. I wouldn’t call her terminally horny, she just had the typical teen romance novel and movie idea of how a first boyfriend should go. X number of dates, say Y specially at point Z, sex is supposed to happen.
He seems naive to me at times. His apparent patience with Sarah sometimes feels like he’s trying to teach her to be social by saying earnestly, “have you tried not being introverted?”
His interpretation of Joyce and Ethan dating was naive too.
I’m actually really interested in what people see in this couple so I’m sincerely asking why people want it? Just cause they seem compatible on paper?
She doesn’t seem cowed by his hotness, that’s a good start.
My guess would be that both Jacob and Lucy have been done dirty by main characters recently (Joyce’s manipulative behavior and Walky’s spinelessness, respectively). So you kind of want to just see two (mostly) well-adjusted people have a quiet, happy relationship now that they’ve paid their debts to the Relationship Drama Gods.
Take this reply in lieu of an upvote, because I agree with your take.
I figured it was either gonna be her or Jocelyne. The latter of which would have been funny in terms of “just how badly can the universe possibly fuck with Ethan,” but would have limited potential for development unless she was actually sticking around long-term, which was always a long shot.
(not that i wouldn’t love it if jocelyne stuck around full time)
(just sayin)
More trans rep is always good.
I hadn’t considered this pairing until now and HOLY SHIT do I want it.
It does feel like Lucy and Jacob are likely each other’s endgame though, at least based on Jacob’s previous comments post his snafu with Joyce.
I’m pretty sure she is Sarah, though.
If the not-Sarah meets Sarah, won’t Indiana be vaporized?
I bet there’s a formula for the energy released from annihilation with a variable for the mass of matter annihilated.
A megaton bomb annihilates 1 kilogram of matter. So if Sarah and not-Sarah mass 50 kilos each, that’s 100 megatons.
https://nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap/?&kt=100000&lat=39.165325&lng=-86.5263857&airburst=0&hob_ft=0&ff=52&psi=20,5,1&zm=9
Nukes don’t contain any antimatter! They turn nuclear binding energy into heat.
right but that nuclear binding energy has mass.
however, *directly* using the E=mc^2 formula for 100 kilograms results in over 2 gigatons [one ton of hypothetical TNT is equivalent to 4.184 gigajoules, if anyone wants to do the math at home]
Every ‘mass’ has ass.
If we figure Sarah masses, what, 70 kg? Double that for the not-Sarah, and plug it into E = mc², that gives us 1.26 * 10¹⁹ J, or about 3 gigatons.
I screwed up my math, so you are probably better here.
To put this in perspective, the biggest nuclear bomb ever detonated – the Tsar Bomba – was “only” 57 megatons.
Did some more looking, and a 3 gigaton explosion would be approximately the equivalent of a 1300 foot asteroid crashing into the ground. Finding precise comparisons is hard, but the closest to an actual event I can find is the ~1 gigaton eruption of Mt. Tambora in 1815, which was the largest volcanic eruption in recorded history. It was audible 1600 miles away, left ash deposits 800 miles away, and caused 1816 to be “the year without a summer.”
And Sarah and anti-Sarah would annihilate each other at about three times that.
That would explain why Sarah is so urgently attempting to avoid all the not-Sarahs out there.
And, contrary to Sarah’s wishes, object permanence continues to be a thing.
“WE’RE NOT FRIENDS BUT BY COVERING FOR MY SOCIAL FLAWS YOU HAVE BECOME AS CLOSE WITH ME AS ANY HUMAN IS ALLOWED. THANK YOU AND NEVER SPEAK TO ME AGAIN.”
I honestly feel like this is Lucy doing Sarah a favor by helping her be on better terms with Jacob. But I have the feeling everyone going to see this as something else.
Whaaat? Reader of this comic willfully misinterpreting the actions of a character they dislike to be more manipulative or harmful that they actually are? Ridiculous. Preposterous even. (I am just joking here, to be clear).
Lucy doing Sarah a favor by taking Jacob out of the dating pool, lol.
Oh, Sarah. Your stupid performative actions are going to get yet another person involved with Jacob.
I mean… this is kind of what she wants though. She likes Jacob but has made it repeatedly clear that she’s not in a position to date him (emotionally or baggage-wise). She was perfectly happy for Jacob and Joyce to date, I think she’d be ambivalent about LucyxJacob.
Sad, because I personally would love the drama of her being actually jealous and having to grow as a person so let’s hope it goes that way instead.
This is going to be an interesting tangle.
I feel that, Lucy and Jacob potentially end up a thing, kind of like how they nearly did in Shortpacked but Ken won out, if I recall.
Or, this is the fire that gets Sarah to get her shit together versus losing out on a chance with Jacob yet again.
And, this also obviously furthers the Lucy/Walky situation regardless of how it plays out, though I kind of imagine that relationship ends with finality whether Lucy and Jacob get together or not.
It’s got a lot of potential routes.
Haha, it would make Sarah mad to see them flirt, maybe that will overcome her embarrassment.
You recall Shortpacked! correctly.
I was glad, too. I think they’re potentially interesting here, but for some reason I had zero interest in Lucy/Jacob in the Walkyverse.
Yeah, though I feel like, in general, Jacob has been much more interesting in the Dumbiverse. He’s been one of the most improved, though obviously not the only one, like obviously Dina and Becky and Dorothy have a lot more development here, themselves.
The rest of those I agree with, but Dina was VERY developed in the Walkyverse. It was just in a very different direction. (Honestly it’s hard to even see them as the same character.)
You know, that’s totally fair. I am being a little dismissive, perhaps.
I ship them, they would be such a good couple.
Lucy is really off, it’s like her save state from yesterday got corrupted so she had to reload from the last save point four days ago.
Yeah, this is either super healthy or super not, because Lucy was INCREDIBLY ANGRY literally less than 12 hours ago.
I’d say it’s just she’s a chipper person and there’s a lot to be said for sleeping on it?
I don’t want to panic here cause they’re just shaking hands but I hate this ship. I don’t want it even if I’m in the minority.
I don’t like it either. Maybe it’s because I just don’t like Lucy. That too. And I don’t think they are going to date, because they just met. What’s wrong with just being friends?? Plenty of drama can be done with that, no?
I so far find the idea of them dating kind of boring, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they couldn’t win me over. I honestly would rather Jacob and Sarah be a thing, if only since it’d finally pull her out of her comfort zone.
I dunno. I am kind of in the camp of “vaguely sure they’d be content but boring together, which isn’t what I want from fiction”. But I’m open to Willis proving me wrong.
(INDIVIDUALLY I think I mentally slot both Lucy and Jacob into “nice, a little boring”, which makes them seem like that squared as a couple… but I’m not sure how much of my mental categorization is actually fair? Jacob was pretty dynamic and compelling in the “fake dating” storyline and I often enjoyed how he and Joyce bounced off each other… so the question is, how much of that was the SITUATION (Joyce being into a boy who was off-limits, either because she initially WANTED him to date Sarah or because he WAS dating Raidah), and how much of it was Jacob himself? Which we might be about to find out.)
I’m still kinda excited to see them finally interacting though, because it’ll answer these and other questions. (Like “how similar ARE Lucy and Joyce, really, in Willis’s eyes? Are the parts where they’re similar also the parts that Jacob was attracted to in Joyce?”)
But admittedly most of what I like in THIS strip is Lucy and Sarah’s interaction. It’s so much less hostile than the last one, and I am Fascinated by that.
well it is college and not like anyone’s being forced into an arrange marriage relationship (tho be hilarious if they fake dated to mess with ppl but idk if that’d happen) so they can get to know each other and see how things work out, tho i guess a slice of life strip like this even if it is daily other than a fling/one night stand a ‘short’ relationship by doa standards might feels longer to us
yup, this is the moment that Sarah will look back on some day and hate (or at least strong regret).
Pretty sure she hates it already. I mean, literally running away from a guy because he knows you like him is not a point where you think “Things are going great here!” She may hate it more later.
Like what is she even doing anymore? How is having an awkward conversation with him or walking in silence somehow worse than this, it’s like she’s 5.
she tried walking in silence. Maybe she’s trying to get over him.
“So you are Linda’s friend as well then?”
“…”
lol linda’s awfulness aside i wonder h ow many ppl consider themselves ‘friends’ with their friends parents
I feel like somewhere Joyce’s shipping sense is tingling considering her “You stay away from Jacob!” reaction when Lucy’d asked about potential boys earlier.
Lucy’s paradox. Lucy is everybody’s friend. Nobody is Sarah’s friend.
Anyways, Lucy and Jacob would be a nice couple, and also sooooo boring. I’ve never been sold on Jacob+Sarah, his interest in her has seemed to be interested in getting to know her as a friend and then find out if maybe more. I could see them as friends, but at her most gregarious Sarah is still cynical and snarky and would be trying to hide that from him, and she failed he’d be
disappointed.So boring! They would be one of those Instagram church couples who post unintentionally cringe family photos with their seven perfectly dressed kids.
But imagine the Joyce drama.
There is no paradox. Lucy is everybody’s friend; Sarah is nobody’s friend. One can be a friend to someone who is not a friend to one.
Though actually Sarah is a rare type: the “friend ONLY in need.” She’ll go to bat for you — literally — but refuse to hang out with you.
I worded it the exact way I meant.
I want this ship so badly so I known it’s doomed
Dear Sarah: See a counselor about your extreme social anxiety and your coping mechanism of hostility. This will not benefit you in the workplace and is severely hampering your interactions with other people. Like it or not, you need other people in this world.
Dear Jacob and Lucy: You two seem like very nice people. Get to know each other. Keep each other sane. Whether you become more than friends is up to you.
The USS Lucob ship sails at dawn!!!
Not Jucy?
most important thing, if they’ve never met before, Walky’s room is probably not directly across from Jacob’s.
Surprised there haven’t been dorm maps worked out.
I believe Willis has been purposely vague about the precise room numbers and relative locations and such since this setting is based on a real place with people living in those rooms.
I have a dorm map partially worked out. There are nebulous areas, like the hall length changes.
I assume there’s at least two reasons, 1: like Amelie says, so there’s not a usable map to where real life people live. 2: it complicates the storytelling in exactly the way I’m curious about.
Clark is more defined than Beck. Which direction the windows face is consistent so far, I don’t think anyone gets both sunrise and sunset. Relative room position is fairly consistent, it’s always consistent for the main four rooms (Joyce->Dorothy), then a little more flexible past that. A number of supporting or recurring cast have their room switch from left or right handed doors.
In Beck, Walky and Mike|Booster are to the left of their half-bath, with Ken and Arnold. It’s probably sunrise facing. Danny and Joe are down the hall from Walky, in the direction of Ken/Arnold. They are probably sunset facing. Danny and Joe’s door is left opening.
Jacob and Ethan are on the opposite side of the hall as Joe. Their door is one of the ones that switches left/right opening.
all this is subject to the whims of Willis. Whimlises.
Probably not, yeah, if only because, if it were, I feel like we’d have had Jacob or Ethan interact with Walky more often over the years of comics. That, and Booster would have not needed Amber’s introduction particularly, even with Ethan’s odd lifestyle these days.
These two would be terrible together. Great for each other, the world does not need two nice old-fashioned family friendly Christians in a performative checkboxy relationship getting married straight outta college and raising a buncha little babies with no critical thinking skills or emotional intelligence at all. Iʻm about it. I want Joyce to tell them off about something.
Haha, my impression as well. Perhaps they will both exit the comic to sail off into the sunset with the church bells ringing. They’ll have a messy and vicious divorce in thirty years when she donates their house to the church and he buys a convertible to go sow some wild oats.
Hey, that would be interesting to see, that is, a confrontation between Joyce and Lucy, the perfect opportunity to see if they shake Joyce and her way of seeing things from Lucy’s perspective a little.
But when you’re talking about forming a relationship, I imagine that ‘great for each other’ is kind of the most important thing. Should they have a relationship that is less good for them for the sake of humanity? Besides, neither of them seem to lack critical thinking skills, so I think you’re being a bit harsh on them. They might be a good, low drama, emotionally stable relationship. It’s not exactly a pairing that’ll get the ratings, but like you said, I think they would be great for each other. And a relationship exists for the people who are in it.
I think you’re misunderstanding the nature of Jacob’s checklist. He’s the kind of person to write that list simply because he’s extremely neat and orderly. He realized that the list lining up to give him Raidah wasn’t a problem with the list itself but the items on the list. His hairstyle change is indicative of that.
True, he has had some character development since that encounter with Joyce.
Lucy + Jacob, not interested. Lucy and Sarah softening on each other and learning from each other, I’m all in. I feel like Lucy and Sarah combined would curb/cover each of their worst tendencies. Also, I want to see Sarah and Lucy being each other’s best wingman.
I’m reserving judgment on the first bit but BIG yes on the second, this was such a cute interaction for them??
That would be lovely. Perhaps Lucy is just as stubbornly cheerful as OG Joyce so will develop the same kind of friendship with Sarah.
Figuring this was a reply to Chubsius but I will also second (third?) that sentiment. 🙂
Sarah please do something about your allergy to Feelings before you literally die of it, I’m begging you
Does avoiding them count as doing something?
Don’t apologize for other people
“anti-social terror” is a phrase fundamental to my experience.
Interesting that Lucy has such a keen eye for anti-social terror.
( which is def gonna be the name of my next band )
oh NO
It would be convenient for anyone who doesn’t like Lucy x Walky
I wish we could retcon Lucy x Walky out of existence tbh.. though I can appreciate the Walky growth that has happened as a result.
But what if we just don’t like Lucy? I’d rather not see any more of her.
Jacob has been around for 3994 days.
Lucy has been around for 3212 days.
And they’ve never met since.
Better now than during senior year, or never.
I’m curious to see Lucy and Jacob interact. I don’t think they are as similar as they seem on the surface, and I’d like to see them gain more depth. Contrasting two seemingly similar characters can actually be a great way to sharpen the differentiation between them.
Don’t know why people are immediately shipping Jacob and Lucy. Does every character need to be in a relationship all the time?
Okay first, in webcomics the answer is very much yes.
Second, people have been saying they would be a good match for a long time now. When Jacob wanted someone likely Joyce who hadn’t lied to him, many people thought about Lucy. Joyce even worries about that possibility on screen. The main thing holding them back is that they didn’t actually know each other, so a whole comic devoted to them meeting does seem significant.
I’m quite interested in whether Lucy is going to socialise with Raidah still and what she might hear about Jacob, and Joyce, and Sarah through that, and whether she will act on that info.
Raidah has no interest in Lucy, Raidah wanted Walky’s connections. Lucy came pre-scraped-off there, I’d wager.
We only saw a fraction of the breakfast, but this is the only one where it looks anything like Raidah conversing with Lucy. And it’s Carl who responds to Lucy’s question. Raidah adds onto what he says, and directs it to Walky.
Lucy is not on her radar.
She is the most like Joyce whom Jacob liked.
Also it’s a beautiful screw you to Sarah considering how she was an ass to Lucy XD
Based entirely on tropes, the three panel handshake does have a “hey, look at this little meet cute” vibe to it. Or at least that’s how it reads to me.
In a more direct answer to your question: no, characters don’t need to be in a relationship, but they’re gonna get shipped anyway. It’s a law of physics.
They do hold hands and look at each other an extra beat.
Welcome to “fandom”. Not everyone in fandom is into ‘shipping, but ‘shipping is definitely one of the most popular activities.
Some folks like to pretend that it’s only the Gay Ships that get this “they’ve met exactly once, now kiss” treatment, but it’s not. It’s very much not. EVERY interaction between characters is treated by SOMEONE as proof of destined romance, and with m/f dynamics it’s more likely to be the actual writers of the canon.
Because shipping is fun – it’s fun to explore the possibilities in different relationships. It doesn’t have to be fun for you but it is for a lot of people.
https://www.dumbingofage.com/tag/lucy+jacob/
It begins!!! 😀
Hahahahhaha. They were actually foreshadowed in the only other strip they are both tagged in
Ok, I’m shocked
DYW does play the long game.
I don’t particularly want to see Lucy and Jacob get together in a romantic way, but if the webcomic gods demand that such a thing must happen at some point, then I would prefer, by many orders of magnitude, to see Lucy and Jacob get together than to see Sarah and Jacob get together.
About the only scenario where I’d prefer to see Sarah/Jacob become a thing would be if the only other alternatives available for Jacob were, like, Mary or maybe Raidah, again.
Yesterday I joked that it would happened but I didn’t expect to be right so fast XD
Lucy made it very clear she despised Sarah, the heck she means they’re friends?
Proving that she is, in fact, friends with everyone is how she intends to get back at Sarah.
Not sure it’s working.
Just because she despises Sarah isn’t any reason not to be friends with her! In fact, I’m pretty sure that she’s MORALLY OBLIGATED to be cheerful and friendly with absolutely everybody she meets, because otherwise she won’t be a Nice Person. Sure, she fails in that sometimes, but that just makes it all the more important for her to keep trying!
Lucy got entirely over Sarah bashing her.
I’m surprised.
It helps her think she didn’t cross the line first.
Everyones friend, about to do some work
The Weirdos have gotten immediately Weird about these two getting together so I look forward to them having a bigger role in the story
uh oh
I smell trouble for Dottie’s attempt to get Walky and Lucy together. She’s about to have another failure. Hope she can take it. Sarah has pretty much blown it, if she even ever had a chance it’s pretty much sailed by now.
what do we call this ship? JaLu?
In an attempt to get her Walky and Lucy plan to succeed, she ends up throwing herself at Jacob.
Poor Sarah. She lost it, big time.
And great day for Lucy. She looks like she forgive Sarah; is in a good mood, even after giving a break to Walky, and she is meeting Jacob first time.
We’re filling out our DoA Scorigami with this one gamers
Bingo?
….hold on now. i never considered this pairing 👀
really? i think some ppl have mentioned it before, even as a half joke lol
I’m worried that Lucy will try to play matchmaker to get Sarah and Jacob together, probably succeeding, while Jacob will help her figure out what she really thinks of Walky. But there’s hope that Jacob and Lucy will start dating, Sarah will be crazy jealous, start spying on them and end up forming an alliance with Raidah against Lucy. It will end in tragedy for everyone involved, BUT finally Lucy will understand that Sarah is not her friend.
well that is what happened with joyce cept it is more of a sisterly dynamic with them/worked out more or less tho i can’t imagine sarah agreeing to do anything with raidah even over jacob
YAY i’ve been rooting for these two to meet for MONTHS!! regardless of romantic entanglement, i think that lucy and jacob will get along very well and look forward to them interacting more :3
it’d be amusing if they bonded over how ridiculous that romance on the campus is and they ended up being besties even if they don’t date/have a romantic leaning romantic
I’m okay if these two would hook up and leave Walky free.
lol yeah, i’d hope walky would be happy for them, tho i can totally imagine early development walky being like “man how am i supposed to compete with THAT?” and it being a blow to his ego (tho i guess sal and jen did say he wasn’t aware of his hotness more or less XD )
dang lucy’s tiny/jacob’s taller than expected. so congrats to ppl who were shipping them and into height gaps/size differences for this bit of interaction 8D
If the ensuing hijinks from this means that Jacob gets Brown Joyce I’m going to cackle my ass off.
YOU STAY AWAY FROM JACOB!
(https://www.dumbingofage.com/2019/comic/book-9-comic/02-but-the-sun-still-shines/guys-2/)
Not relevant but important:
I just got scammed and locked out of my Discord account by someone who looked like a Discord Employee.
They asked me to change my account email and send them screenshots of recent transactions in financial institutions, and send them literally all of my PayPal balance.
Until further notice if you see any messages from the discord accountngpz DO NOT TRUST.
I’m so scared, I don’t know what I’ll do. 😭😭😭
Well, that sucks the big one. You gotta watch out for those fake employees, they’re tricky fuckers.
Did you actually send them that stuff, though? That’s like the #1 scam tactic they use, you can’t trust a motherfucker with that info.
-remembers what Jacob said about his next girlfriend probably being a lot like Joyce-
…Uh oh.
A lot like Joyce without being the girl who lied to you, huh Jacob?
Let the record show that at 1:45 AM pst on march 13th, I became fully up to date with Dumbing of Age after five straight days of reading. I look forward to becoming a regular
Congratulation. (I got read everthying, too).