I think the difference between Mike and Booster is that although both are amazingly perceptive and able to see through other’s BS, Booster announces their findings just to show off this ability. Mike always had a motive, often long-term. Though manipulative, this was usually a growth experience for his “victims”.
I think the other key difference is that Booster is less cruel about it. They mostly make catty remarks, while what Mike did occasionally crossed the line into psychological torture.
I wouldn’t say Booster is correct here. Walky isn’t trash. He is a good boyfriend and in general a good person. He has done a lot of work on his main issue of conflict avoidance. At this point he really doesn’t deserve the flack he gets.
Yeah, a LOT of people put a weird amount of stock in whether someone is “good enough” for somebody else based on whatever arbitrary metric they personally value, whether that’s earning potential, social clout, ambition, physical attractiveness, arbitrarily defined morality, belief system, whatever.
In reality the only one who can decide if someone is “good enough” for you is YOU. Your own opinion and that of your partner are literally the ONLY ones that matter. My GF is more attractive than me (given normal societal standards), more ambitious than me, and has a higher earning potential than me (although I currently make more as she’s taking time off work to care for her sick mother), but I am happier, I have more social clout, and depending on your opinions on morality I would generally be rated as “better” on most of the common/popular metrics, so depending on what you personally value, either one of us could be considered “not good enough” for the other. But SHE finds me attractive, so society’s definitions of attractiveness don’t matter, SHE cares more about how happy I make her and how well I treat her than my desire to rise in the world (or lack thereof) or my earning potential, meanwhile *I* never cared about social perceptions (amusingly this is how I got clout, somehow), and my own moral system rates her as just as “good” as I am regardless of what anybody else thinks. She decided I’m good enough for her, and I’ve decided she’s good enough for me, we make each other happy, and that is literally all that matters.
There is one relationship metric which is valid and important for others to evaluate and share their obvservations with someone about: is their partner an asshoke / abusive. Letting someone know they’re too good to be deserving of abuse is very important, because by its nature it makes people believe they deserve it.
Everyone is too good for abuse, nobody deserves it. If anybody sees the signs that someone is in an abusive relationship, I agree there is an obligation to help them get out of it, especially if it is someone you care about. Having said that, if you encounter someone in such a situation and you at any point use the phrase “you are too good for them” in your attempts to convince them to leave their abuser, you are an idiot, because that isn’t a particularly accurate way to describe the situation, nor would it ever be a particularly effective way to convince them to leave their abuser.
I considered including something to that effect in my ramblings, but I ultimately left it out because I didn’t consider it relevant enough to the topic at hand and I already had enough digressions. Abuse and how to deal with loved ones in abusive relationships is a very complex and difficult topic, but any similarities to the language and dynamics currently being discussed are extremely superficial and even the slightest amount of scrutiny with critical thinking would make it clear they are completely unrelated issues, and frankly I find the suggestion that one should conflate the two problematic because it runs the risk of somebody coming to the conclusion that their own subjective assessment of whether or not someone is “good enough” for someone else is a reliable way of identifying abuse. Someone dating a “loser” is not in an abusive relationship. Someone dating someone of lesser attractiveness is not in an abusive relationship. Someone dating someone of lower social status is not in an abusive relationship. Someone is only in an abusive relationship if they are dating an abuser, and bringing up abuse as a potential counter argument to my position that other people’s OPINIONS about relationships they are not part of don’t matter runs the risk of some people coming to the conclusion that they can call someone they don’t like an abuser to get their friend to stop dating them, or whatever. Yes, there 100% are idiots like that, and they are a massive pain in the butt to deal with whenever they get a bug up their butt about something and feel they can justify their own BS by wrapping it up in hot button buzzwords, which not only makes them annoying when you’re the subject of their BS, but it’s also harmful for the very serious topics they try to weaponize for the sake of their own BS.
I really like that you acknowledged the very, very important difference between “You don’t deserve to be abused” and “You are too good for them”/“They are not good enough for you”. On the surface, both might seem to be making the same point about self-worth, but the thing is… even the nastiest, worst person in the world *still* doesn’t deserve to be abused.
One of my mom’s coworkers lived with us for a while. She called her boyfriend every day and all their conversations turned into shouting matches. One time, she thought her boyfriend had cheated on her with a black woman, and she was standing on my porch screaming racial slurs at the top of her lungs into the phone, and I hated her so, so much right then. I was furious and humiliated, worrying that the neighbors would think we were bad people because of her.
Even then, I tried to convince her that the relationship was unhealthy. They were both terrible people, and I think the two of them were both abusing each other, from what I observed. There were a few moments of weakness when I thought they deserved each other. But those were moments of weakness. Nobody deserves to be treated that way, and a cycle of mutual toxicity like that… No one is going to become a better person by being abused. And I can’t bear to imagine the example she was setting for her 14-year-old daughter.
It’s interesting because, I went looking and they have like three 1-on-1 interactions……. on screen. All of them point to Dorothy having Actually TOLD Booster about her current predicaments. I wonder what kind of conversations they’ve had? Like. She’s clearly asked for advice at least once.
yeah i don’t think so. all of her previous behavior (political aspirations) was actually the self-destructive part. Learning what she actually wants is healthy. and i don’t think her and walky are a bad match at all.
other than walky being a complete “Mary” i don’t think there would be a thing as “too good” for another person XD; if anything someone “too good” for another might make one try harder if they don’t get an inferiority complex/want to imrpove eeach other
If you’re early you need to use the opportunity for something. I dunno. Something like DOA14: I’ll go put on pants. Or maybe, “Wow, Jocelyn returns in book 15!” Or even “Man, I wish Mike would return with no explanation except a vague reference to witness protection. “
as far as spiraling goes, hooking up with walky isn’t the worst thing, assuming that lucy did a complete breakup as oppose to “I need some space for now before making a lastin decision”
This. I’m fine with Lucy deciding that she needs someone more definitively in ‘her corner’ than Walky was able to be. I’d be fine with it if she decided to fall back from that position after further consideration, and re-open negotiations.
But if she meant that “Fuck you” exit to be anything other than a breakup, I’m just going to go back and read Shortpacked any time it comes up, because I much prefer that incarnation of her.
She’s fairly not self destructive for a person clearly struggling with PTSD and Depression.
IMO Booster’s analysis is totally off base here… once again… Dorothy pursuing Walky costs her very little and lets her seek closure if she needs it. Indeed the thing that Booster warns against is Walky accepting her, which given how things are going, could be very good for Dorothy.
Like I want to see Walky’s belief in Dorothy confront her disillusionment. I would kind of like to see that belief win. But given how much he supports her I think her going to him is like crazy constructive and screw Booster in this situation.
The problem with Walky’s support here is that he supports her being what’s she’s coming to see as toxic – that she’s perfect, can do everything she wants as long as she just powers through any doubts or difficulties.
I don’t think that’s what she needs right now. She needs a kind of support that will accept she’s got actual issues to deal with.
It’s this. It’s completely this. He’s not down bad for Lucy now, he just would like to not have the immense burden of guilt for fucking up and hurting her.
Like, say what you want about him and Dorothy here (and people are saying a whole lot, none of which is substantiated anywhere, and which involves concepts like “using him as a dildo”, which suggests to me that you also use the term “cock carousel” with a straight face) but at least when they broke up it was mutual and while it hurt it hurt them both equally. In the case of Lucy, he bungled it, he knows it, he doesn’t like the feeling.
I really don’t think Walky fucked up. Lucy fucked up by projecting a whole ton onto a pretty new relationship. Then when she realized, instead of handling it she blamed Walky in any way she could.
Lucy isn’t horrible but I still think Walky basically dodged a bullet. Her infatuation with him wasn’t balanced and her religious neurosis were a barrier to authentic connection.
I think that if Walky had corrected that initial misunderstanding about loving her right away, they might have been able to salvage the relationship. And he might well have grown to love her eventually. She was just much farther along.
But, that kind of discussion would have been really hard to have without it blowing up.
IDK if walky wondering if lucy visiting is necessarily ‘down bad’ b/c i can imagine other than ‘needing space’ she might still be willing to reach out and invite him to hang out platonically as friends/what they were doing before (minus the ‘handholding’ or so)
Getting sublimated into a bunch of cheeky, juvenile, humor, for the most part! That was true for, like, 90% of his emotions, though, not just the Lucy-related ones.
I could also spout some old truisms along the lines of “you don’t know what you’ve got ’till it’s gone” or “the grass is always greener on the other side”, but this seems more relevant, honestly.
i wonder if they’ve met yet/had an extended convo b/c i can totally imagine malaya calling booster fakey or somewhat of a negative opinion after their attempt to psychoanalyze her
That just how I censor my own curse words in text.
It has everything to do with me and nothing to do with the site; it’s just a habit.
Now when I don’t censor my text, it feels weird.
Now I’m trying to remember how Joyce bowdlerized asshole early on. Might have been just butthole, but censoring the butt, so just b-hole? But I think there was some other twist to it.
Narrator Voice: Upon hearing those words, Booster decided to heed them and stop being an @sshole. And lo, to absolutely no one’s surprise, upon doing so, Booster winked out of existence, for being that was their primary character trait.
And somewhere, Mike laughed.
Goodnight everyone.
I mean – they’re basically the old 80s/90s sitcom trope of a sassy character who doesn’t have their own plot lines but exists to make catty remarks on others. That’s kind of their sole function.
In fairness, they also serve the important function of “allow for more non-binary representation in the main cast.” (not sarcasm, to be clear – I’m an enby myself, so I regard this as a very important function indeed).
what’s the worse that can happen, them in the middle of a hookup with lucy walking in? but other than potential ‘drama’ i doubt they’d do anything unfixable together ’cause despite all his faults it’s not as if walky was esp a ‘toxic’ ex or so
Until now, she said that she didn’t feel comfortable wanting to get back with him, however, I started to like Amber after she invited Dorothy to spend some time….yes, it seems complicated, but I want to believe that things could be clarified. things and Dorothy will make things right.
Neither, it’s a way of classifying whether or not someone is good enough to date someone else. Someone who’s judged to be too attractive or too “good” for someone else is said to be “out of their league”.
I think that’s the biggest problem with them as a couple. He’s got her on too high a pedestal. That’s not insurmountable. Any good fictional couple needs a challenge to overcome and Walky getting a more realistic view of Dorothy by having to support her while she’s actually struggling would work well narratively.
I also think his arc with Lucy isn’t really resolved yet. But frankly that’s true of all Walky’s relationships, as we see with the current Dorothy arc.
I mean…if you really want to know, I don’t want this as an endgame because I think those two goals you outlined – “He let’s her not be perfect and she makes him want to be better” – are actually conflicting, rather than complementary, opposites.
That is to say: Dorothy only ever wanted to be with him because his aura of absolute complacency inspired her to be less perfectionist. Walky only ever wanted to be with her because her aura of absolute perfectionism inspired him to be less complacent. The more one of them succeeds at their goal, the less reason the other one has to be in this relationship. That’s why Dorothy completely failed to notice when Walky was freaking out over his bad grades, and why Walky flatly refused to believe that Dorothy could possibly be suffering from burnout. And that’s why a romantic relationship between them could never actually work, in the long-term.
That’s my personal opinion, anyway. Not to yuck your yum here, but you DID ask.
I still think Amber crossed a line when she physically assaulted Walky, and I don’t get why people are okay with writing it off so easily. So I’m totally fine with Walky getting together with almost anyone else, except maybe Raidah.
On one hand, I don’t want Dorothy to embarrass herself again. On the other, she and Walky have a very interesting and compelling dynamic, and there’s virtually no chance it won’t entertain me however this goes, so…. here we go.
I know I shouldn’t rush, but I want to believe that Dorothy learned from past experience, plus Walky himself is allowing it to happen, something tells me that during their lunch there were more details…so as you say, here we go.
I am 200% sure that Walky is over Dorothy and this will either blow up in her face or he’ll rebound off of her and they’ll both feel worse. I liked them together too (way more than him and Lucy) but he seemed genuinely uninterested at last checkup between these two.
I don’t think Walky is uninterested.
He told her when they were standing in the mud of the melted snow hill that he didn’t want to be the reason she failed, and that possibility only existed (in his mind) if they were together.
Which is a long winded way of saying he can still see them together.
It’s honestly hard to judge if Walky is over anyone. He never spends anytime actually alone to gather his thoughts. He just spends his brief moments post breakup putting the girls he dated on a pedestal before being approached by another. Even now, not even a week out, post Lucy, Dorothy is back all over him. I’d love to see him actually free to get over someone.
That’s kind of my actual secret hope. That Walky decides he needs to be single for a while and work on himself, and maybe that he thinks Dorothy isn’t in a good state to be dating either.
Apparently his winter break was spent mostly as a buffer between Sal and their parents which doesn’t seem like the greatest environment for analyzing past romance. When he returned he didn’t really act like he was over Amber or Dorothy to the point he and Amber were actively avoiding each other from fear of conflict and chemistry, then Lucy was pretty much immediately following him after day one.
Have him pretend to be Joyce, for rhetorical purposes. Dorothy’s conversations with her are confusing her, and she needs to work through them, rhetorically. Once Walky is in the role of Joyce, kiss him.
I know there’s comments about “they gon bang” or Walky’s going to reject her advances, and I’m fine with either outcome. The outcome I’m hoping to see is Dorothy just has a “I don’t know what the fuck I am anymore” conversation with Walky and he says some random thing that helps Dorothy see a way forward and they hug before she leaves.
But yeah, I’m ok with them shucking clothing, too.
well, there was a comic where they argued about his pajama pants and she said ‘take your pants off’, stared for a bit and left. it was done in a humorous way but i imagine if the roles were reversed the comments would’ve been heated about that lol
tho i imagine booster would prolly ‘interrupt’ them
Yes, Walky screwed up in a difficult situation with Lucy. But otherwise both Dorothy and Lucy’s brother thought he was a great boyfriend, and I’m not sure what makes Booster’s judgment so much better.
Maybe I just don’t like the concept of someone being “not good enough” for someone else, even if they like each other and treat each other properly.
Dorothy’s judgment is mediocre. She thought Walky was a good boyfriend because he was a good project. She also told him people liked him when he ‘s obnoxious.
Lucy does not think he was a good boyfriend. He is terrible at communicating.
@NGPZ: i can half imagine/expect a flash forward where robin is somehow president despite everything and dorothy just crying bloody tears
but i imagine other than her now being ‘lost’ in college, unless she somehow completely gives up, she wouldn’t necessarily have a bad career as a ‘proper adult’
But Walky *is* a good boyfriend — the problem is he’s largely *just* that. He’s fun to be around and handsome and confident, it’s just that when you actually need him he runs away from his problems and that’s not really husband material.
Which is to say, I’m *really* curious if this is going where I assume it’s going.
My guess is that the two of them had An Interaction off-screen that we will become privy to as the scene goes on. Hinted at by the last time they interacted being summarized as “why didn’t you help me not mess up!” and Booster’s reaction basically being to get extremely gleeful at the prospect of Walky suffering.
the only one i’d consider ‘not good enough’ for anyone else is mary (and even she managed to get a bf tho no clue if they’re still together), but sometimes indulging in something not necessarily ‘healthy’ for you can be…well, healthy i guess if it’s not too self destructive
I kinda like Dorothy and Walky in this canon.
Lucy is way too accepting of Walky’s faults.
Amber and Walky seem to just play into each other’s negatives.
But Dorothy and Walky seem to help each other be better versions of each other.
The only other option for Dorothy we’ve seen is Danny and… well… let’s just say they emphasized the blandest parts of each other.
Interesting observation, and that is precisely why I appreciate Dorothy/Walky, that is, despite everything that has happened, the dynamism of both feels natural and transparent.
Just in case anyone here is burning that midnight oil with work and too much coffee, as I am, here’s some soft sad driving melodies to keep you company at the computer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8P_RLKl2UNY
tho, while i don’t think walky is that much of a ‘human disaster’, what is college for if not ‘lowering your standards’ and doing stuff with ppl you’d never normally do lol
Jacob is on the other side of the hall. Probably far enough away from Walky that Lucy would not have run into him while waiting at his door. Arnold (and Ken) share the half-bath with Walky.
Walky’s window faces the sunrise, seen in gimme, sleepyhead, and nintendo. It’s most apparent in the last one, because of developing artistic ability.
Joe’s room faces the sunrise, seen at the start of this chapter. The lighting is the same as in nintendo, and Sal casts a shadow into the room, when standing in the window (curtains).
In absurdly, Joe says Jacob’s room is on the other side of the hall.
*not linking all the strips, too many links gets a comment auto-moderated.
Like, FUCK Booster on so many levels. I’ve seriously got ahardon for hating this person on so many levels. Like, I get that they are non-binary and that is some sort of barrier for things but FUCK THEM because they are MORE of a trash person than our average character. Just because they have a pass for being “inclusionary” they get to say all the shitty shit Mike got to say with a pass. FUCK BOOSTER UNTIL THEY GET THEIR “COMMEUPPANCE”. Which will be softened because can’t let them get TOO burdened lest they become fragile.
there are plenty of ppl that dislike booster b/c of their personality, not their gender identity, and mike was also canonically queer. (tho i dont’ think i’ve really seen them ‘hide’ behind them like , “if you disagree with me you’re a bigot” but while amber/ruth aren’t ‘unnatractive’, i’d think it’d be sleazy/morally wrong to want to date them /because/ booster finds them ‘fuckedup’ or so or approaching someone b/c they wanna ‘observe/study them)
Who’s giving them the pass for being nonbinary? The comments section here seems about the same as the other Mike comments sections. The fiction itself doesn’t have many qualms about putting its queer characters in awkward or embarrassing situations, or just straight up making them look annoying or wrong or act on bad info (eg, this strip). To my memory no one ever got around to socking Mike in the mouth for being an asshole. So why do you think their gender has anything to do with how the fiction is treating them?
Anon A Mouse said “comeuppance”. It doesn’t have to be violent; it has to be a negative consequence of their own actions biting them in the ass.
In Mike’s case, it was that he essentially took himself out of the running for Ethan’s affections, and had to accept that.
Booster? Never gets comeuppance, ever. If anything, Booster gets rewarded for being an obnoxious, self-righteous, judgemental and, frankly, super-creepy prick.
You aren’t responding to my point here. Anon also posted a refrain I’ve heard pretty often about minority characters in media, which is what the focus of my reply was about.
But to your point! You don’t have to explain to me why you dislike Booster. I did not engage with that part of Anon’s comment because they’re all perfectly valid reasons to throw your hands up every time they’re on screen. They’re all perfectly valid reasons to want to see the narrative not reward them (which, rewarding being an asshole was pretty much the conceit of Mike’s presence up until he, as you pointed out, took himself out of the running. It took a really long time for the comic to get there. We’ve had Booster for a comparatively short amount of time).
Again, the point is, what’s their gender gotta do with why they’re not getting any comeuppance?
I actually like Booster a lot, but I also really like your honest, uncomplicated, self-aware, hatred of them. No fancy moral preaching, no “I can fix them”, you just know that you deeply despise them and want to see them suffer. It’s incredibly refreshing, especially in this comment section.
Walky also won’t challenge Dorothy and the last thing she needs is someone telling her how great she is and she can do anything which is all Walky would do
nothing wrong with a romantic partner leading to ‘chara development/growth ‘ but most ppl don’t seek out a potential friend/romantic partner to find someone to ‘challenge’ them
Agreed, I think Booster likes and respects Walky as a roommate but feels compelled to at least comment on the fact that Type A personality type women seem to keep gravitating towards Walky with a sort of ‘I can fix him’ mentality. Not that Dorothy has that mentality towards him now, but she did have that beforehand as I remember the strip where she mentioned that buying him nicer clothes is because she believes in ‘leaving someone better than when you found them’ or… however it went.
About what? Buying nicer clothes for him so he’d be better off for the next girlfriend? I mean, yeah, Lucy definitely liked the clothing Dorothy bought for him but I think the point behind why Booster feels the need to say “you girls are too good for him” is because of that sort of mentality, in that in order for Walky to have nice clothes a girlfriend has to buy them for him. It kinda leads into the mentality we see a lot, like those videos that are like “my husband doesn’t like the food I made for dinner so I have to make him nachos so he won’t starve”, just a consistent sort of man baby vibe.
Not that I think Walky is that bad, but I think if he never challenges himself and if he were to continue to date women who are too good for him, who overachieve for him and buy him nice clothes, that could eventually spin to a future where Walky is the manbaby husband to an overworked and overstressed wife who literally does all the work in the house because Walky never tried to learn to clean.
Again because this is the internet I feel the need to preface that I don’t think Walky is that sort of person… presently. Dude’s freshly 18 and just learned how to bite back a little at his mom. He just needs to start doing some emotional work and introspection on himself. Enjoy being single for a while.
Two words: “pajama jeans.” It’s not that Walky can’t have nice clothes without some girl buying them; it’s that he won’t. It’s not something he thinks about.
Mh, I guess i never really saw Walky as a bad boyfriend. Aside from lacking a backbone when it comes to handling his mother. And even then, he is still very financially dependent on his parents.
I can see him and Lucy not being a good fit, and really not on the same page about their relationship. But I never thought one was too good for the other.
bonus strip of Booster and Dorothy hanging out in Dorothy’s room, with Dorothy telling Booster Walky is actually cruder than they thought. (Jan 2022, book 12)
when they ‘psychoanalyzed’ the crowd/ppl at ruth’s ra meeting they did say lucy ‘could do better’
walky always came off to me (personally) as “boyfriend you’d first have at 14-15 as a starter/beginner before moving on” if not chasing some future guys/partners that has a slight ‘goofiness’ about them but also able to be mature/emotional growth
tho be interesting if walky had a bi phase/tried out dating a guy and ended up being a ‘better’ boyfriend dating a guy than when he dated girls lol
I also like Booster, and while I do like Walky/Dorothy I like him with Amber or Lucy more. The hate for Booster is weird considering they’re largely a much more gentle and benevolent Mike.
I love Booster, but I would rather pull my teeth out individually one by one with a plastic spoon than endure another second of Walky/Lucy. Like, they were literally the worst part of the comic for me for a while because they had negative chemistry due to how supernaturally boring and juvenile Lucy manages to be at any given moment. Like, I also strongly dislike Billie/Jennifer but boring isn’t exactly what I would call her.
If they got back together, I really hope that it would be nothing like it was before because it was like paint dry in 100% humidity. I enjoyed Walky/Dorothy but I think that’s over. I’m team Dorothy/Jacob and Walky/Asher/Ethan (or alternatively Dorothy/emotionalVulnerability and Walky/himself). I don’t ship Lucy with anybody because we haven’t seen anybody whom she bounces off of well at all, and I have reservations about Lucy/Jacob for many reasons.
Rant aside, y’all aren’t alone for loving Booster. They‘re always a joy in all their appearances. Not as smart as they think they are, but I’m never bored or angry at them.
(Adding here that I may be forgetting some character development of Lucy’s since it’s been a hot minute since she had a lot of focus, but I have very strong feelings for how she was. I do remember their breakup made me sad because while I disliked the relationship and them, I don’t want anything bad to happen to her, I just want her to do something lol)
Lucy + Ken, would still be boring, but not with all the tension there was like when Walky refused to communicate. Maybe they ran into each other at the restaurant she went to yesterday that nobody else was interested in.
Dorothy + Arnold, somebody new to have a new type of relationship with Dorothy, he helps her relax, they motivate each other, but Arnold’s confident enough in himself that her personality doesn’t overwhelm him. He won’t put her down for following a childhood plan to be president, but won’t indulge in it, encourages her to deconstruct and reconstruct it.
Amber + Booster, just because I want Walky surrounded by other people in better relationships with his exes.
If this was Mike, he would have understood Dorothy’s intentions and used that knowledge to say the meanest thing possible. Booster is brutally honest about it in a flippant way. Personally I think that’s a lot more fun, and I see how Booster fits the dynamic of the comic better.
Well, to be fair, those beans were definitely cooked with human ingredients in them. That makes them really exotic, and thus fancy, and thus, they qualify as “expensive” beans.
Seriously, while there are definitely hints that she’s into Joyce, the clues that she’s still really not over Walky are much bigger and more common.
And have been from the start. She pushed him away because she was too busy, given all her ambitions. She’s never actually stopped wanting him back.
She seems to bounce between the two of them, after Walky came to her for Lucy advice (and her advice was “keep lying to her”) she looked so dejected. Then she went to masturbate with Joyce. She has feelings for both of them, she understands those feelings for Walky better, but mostly she feels lonely and like she doesn’t have control of anything in her own life.
Oh for sure, I don’t think there’s an absolute place in her head for either
She wants Walky and now figuring out she might want Joyce is just going to get worse when faced with Walky probably not wanting anything after the breakup with Lucy
Which just pulls her away from one of the few easy decision she could make
Poor Walky. He hoped it was Lucy, but it’s once again the girl who left him because her grades were more important and when they stopped being, she tried to go back to him. I don’t think Booster has a full picture of the situation, if they did they would understand that this couple is a highly unstable mess and not because of Walky. But Walky has realized that she likes Joyce…, Let’s hope they’ll talk about this and Dorothy can admit it’s true.
Stay strong, Walky. You do not need to be the gravel in runaway truck ramp that Dorothy’s tractor-trailer of self-destruction is barreling down the mountain towards.
Mike was a “brutally honest” type of asshole. He was good at being that, but it’s a really 2013 style of asshole and we don’t need to talk about it anymore. “Condescending pseudo-Freudian who thinks everyone “toxic” is to be avoided”, however is definitely a kind of asshole that currently exists.
No. No. This is good. He admitted he has a price. Now you need to find out what it is and put a group together to hit social media and raise the funds.
Going around publicly ranking people like this is really toxic. I know Booster probably means ”you can find a better match” but certainly doesn’t try to communicate that.
No, I’m pretty sure Booster means exactly what they say. And yes, it is. On the other hand Walky would (and indeed has, vocally) agreed, but I’m not sure that makes it any better.
All this talk of Mike, who could be deeply and gratuitously unpleasant. Why Joe didn’t simply clobber him after the first punch during the Yellow Dress Date, I don’t know. Joe is OK. He was a bit of an ass when he first appeared (in the British English sense of “show-off, gratuitously offensive”) but we have yet to actually see him with a girl other than Joyce. Danny has had a fling with Amber/Amazi-girl and now he is with Sal. Joe also let Joyce be pretty childish during the Yellow Dress Date without losing his cool. I’d quite like to see more Sarah, especially get over her crippling anxiety regarding Jacob… another big, strong hunk who let Joyce act out (over being his girlfriend) with good grace. Joyce would have left her underwear on HIS floor, given the chance.
Yeah that never sat well with me, I could see Joyce being full of righteous indignation doing it.
But, generally speaking, if you’re at least 4-5 inches shorter and 30-40 pounds lighter then the person you’re punching then it’s not going to end well for you
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Man booster. You’re a butthole sometimes
Absolute bongo
Perhaps, but also a correct one.
A clean butthole is still a butthole
have an upvote earthling
A clean butt hole can also be an invitation to play.
Also known as « replacement Mike »
Also known as « not funny enough to be replacement Mike »
I think the difference between Mike and Booster is that although both are amazingly perceptive and able to see through other’s BS, Booster announces their findings just to show off this ability. Mike always had a motive, often long-term. Though manipulative, this was usually a growth experience for his “victims”.
I think the other key difference is that Booster is less cruel about it. They mostly make catty remarks, while what Mike did occasionally crossed the line into psychological torture.
But psychological torture that was good for people, probably!
Yeah, abuse can be a “growth experience”.
“This is part of why I’ve been poking Amber’s bear for five friggin’ years. She’s multiple timebombs. Just wind her up and point her dadwards.”
Mike was abusive and destructive and he realized that in his last moments. He did have motives and plans, but they were not good for his targets.
Walky only had to deal with him for a couple months and he’s still traumatized about Mike faking his death just to mess with him.
Gay Mike. As in happy, not sexuality.
Yeah, Mike wasn’t happy but wasn’t straight either.
Mike would probably say his sexuality was “your mom” but “your dad” was very much on the table too. (IIRC literally, in Shortpacked?)
Is it bad that I tend to think of them as ‘more realistic Mike’?
I wouldn’t say Booster is correct here. Walky isn’t trash. He is a good boyfriend and in general a good person. He has done a lot of work on his main issue of conflict avoidance. At this point he really doesn’t deserve the flack he gets.
Yeah, a LOT of people put a weird amount of stock in whether someone is “good enough” for somebody else based on whatever arbitrary metric they personally value, whether that’s earning potential, social clout, ambition, physical attractiveness, arbitrarily defined morality, belief system, whatever.
In reality the only one who can decide if someone is “good enough” for you is YOU. Your own opinion and that of your partner are literally the ONLY ones that matter. My GF is more attractive than me (given normal societal standards), more ambitious than me, and has a higher earning potential than me (although I currently make more as she’s taking time off work to care for her sick mother), but I am happier, I have more social clout, and depending on your opinions on morality I would generally be rated as “better” on most of the common/popular metrics, so depending on what you personally value, either one of us could be considered “not good enough” for the other. But SHE finds me attractive, so society’s definitions of attractiveness don’t matter, SHE cares more about how happy I make her and how well I treat her than my desire to rise in the world (or lack thereof) or my earning potential, meanwhile *I* never cared about social perceptions (amusingly this is how I got clout, somehow), and my own moral system rates her as just as “good” as I am regardless of what anybody else thinks. She decided I’m good enough for her, and I’ve decided she’s good enough for me, we make each other happy, and that is literally all that matters.
There is one relationship metric which is valid and important for others to evaluate and share their obvservations with someone about: is their partner an asshoke / abusive. Letting someone know they’re too good to be deserving of abuse is very important, because by its nature it makes people believe they deserve it.
They. do. not.
That’s very true, but it has almost nothing to do with the usual “not good enough for them” or “out of their league” kind of talk.
Everyone is too good for abuse, nobody deserves it. If anybody sees the signs that someone is in an abusive relationship, I agree there is an obligation to help them get out of it, especially if it is someone you care about. Having said that, if you encounter someone in such a situation and you at any point use the phrase “you are too good for them” in your attempts to convince them to leave their abuser, you are an idiot, because that isn’t a particularly accurate way to describe the situation, nor would it ever be a particularly effective way to convince them to leave their abuser.
I considered including something to that effect in my ramblings, but I ultimately left it out because I didn’t consider it relevant enough to the topic at hand and I already had enough digressions. Abuse and how to deal with loved ones in abusive relationships is a very complex and difficult topic, but any similarities to the language and dynamics currently being discussed are extremely superficial and even the slightest amount of scrutiny with critical thinking would make it clear they are completely unrelated issues, and frankly I find the suggestion that one should conflate the two problematic because it runs the risk of somebody coming to the conclusion that their own subjective assessment of whether or not someone is “good enough” for someone else is a reliable way of identifying abuse. Someone dating a “loser” is not in an abusive relationship. Someone dating someone of lesser attractiveness is not in an abusive relationship. Someone dating someone of lower social status is not in an abusive relationship. Someone is only in an abusive relationship if they are dating an abuser, and bringing up abuse as a potential counter argument to my position that other people’s OPINIONS about relationships they are not part of don’t matter runs the risk of some people coming to the conclusion that they can call someone they don’t like an abuser to get their friend to stop dating them, or whatever. Yes, there 100% are idiots like that, and they are a massive pain in the butt to deal with whenever they get a bug up their butt about something and feel they can justify their own BS by wrapping it up in hot button buzzwords, which not only makes them annoying when you’re the subject of their BS, but it’s also harmful for the very serious topics they try to weaponize for the sake of their own BS.
I really like that you acknowledged the very, very important difference between “You don’t deserve to be abused” and “You are too good for them”/“They are not good enough for you”. On the surface, both might seem to be making the same point about self-worth, but the thing is… even the nastiest, worst person in the world *still* doesn’t deserve to be abused.
One of my mom’s coworkers lived with us for a while. She called her boyfriend every day and all their conversations turned into shouting matches. One time, she thought her boyfriend had cheated on her with a black woman, and she was standing on my porch screaming racial slurs at the top of her lungs into the phone, and I hated her so, so much right then. I was furious and humiliated, worrying that the neighbors would think we were bad people because of her.
Even then, I tried to convince her that the relationship was unhealthy. They were both terrible people, and I think the two of them were both abusing each other, from what I observed. There were a few moments of weakness when I thought they deserved each other. But those were moments of weakness. Nobody deserves to be treated that way, and a cycle of mutual toxicity like that… No one is going to become a better person by being abused. And I can’t bear to imagine the example she was setting for her 14-year-old daughter.
I feel like they’re pretty consistent about it honestly.
I’d say they have at least a 2 to 1 butthole ratio. Slightly lower than Mike’s 4 to 1
In terms of intensity, sure, but they’re both pretty constant about it
It’s interesting because, I went looking and they have like three 1-on-1 interactions……. on screen. All of them point to Dorothy having Actually TOLD Booster about her current predicaments. I wonder what kind of conversations they’ve had? Like. She’s clearly asked for advice at least once.
You and I read their interactions significantly differently, because I don’t get that she’s asked him for advice at all.
If you don’t want advice, avoid Booster.
Sometimes?
Nah. They’re just perceptive.
Perceptive but doesn’t keep their mouth shut makes them a butthole.
yeah i don’t think so. all of her previous behavior (political aspirations) was actually the self-destructive part. Learning what she actually wants is healthy. and i don’t think her and walky are a bad match at all.
sometimesother than walky being a complete “Mary” i don’t think there would be a thing as “too good” for another person XD; if anything someone “too good” for another might make one try harder if they don’t get an inferiority complex/want to imrpove eeach other
Agreed. I really hate the “too good for him” type of rhetoric.
Some one can definitely be bad for a partner, but that’s a very different thing.
He”ll fudge you up.
Fudge myself: I meant they.
They’re not good they’re not nice, they’re just right.
wow i’ve never been here this early!
If you’re early you need to use the opportunity for something. I dunno. Something like DOA14: I’ll go put on pants. Or maybe, “Wow, Jocelyn returns in book 15!” Or even “Man, I wish Mike would return with no explanation except a vague reference to witness protection. “
Except that Ethan was there when Mike died.
He was in on it. And a really good actor.
While I hate to see Dorothy’s self-destructive depressive spiral I also want to state that it’s also the fucking best.
Dorothy gets an A+ in depression.
If you’re going to do something, do it right.
as far as spiraling goes, hooking up with walky isn’t the worst thing, assuming that lucy did a complete breakup as oppose to “I need some space for now before making a lastin decision”
At this point if Lucy didn’t want a complete breakup that is entirely on her. Just not communicating is a dickish thing to do
This. I’m fine with Lucy deciding that she needs someone more definitively in ‘her corner’ than Walky was able to be. I’d be fine with it if she decided to fall back from that position after further consideration, and re-open negotiations.
But if she meant that “Fuck you” exit to be anything other than a breakup, I’m just going to go back and read Shortpacked any time it comes up, because I much prefer that incarnation of her.
She’s fairly not self destructive for a person clearly struggling with PTSD and Depression.
IMO Booster’s analysis is totally off base here… once again… Dorothy pursuing Walky costs her very little and lets her seek closure if she needs it. Indeed the thing that Booster warns against is Walky accepting her, which given how things are going, could be very good for Dorothy.
Like I want to see Walky’s belief in Dorothy confront her disillusionment. I would kind of like to see that belief win. But given how much he supports her I think her going to him is like crazy constructive and screw Booster in this situation.
Jes. Walky introduced booster to joyce and said cringe things about girl makeup. Then she asked cringe questions and took booster to meet Malaya/sal.
The problem with Walky’s support here is that he supports her being what’s she’s coming to see as toxic – that she’s perfect, can do everything she wants as long as she just powers through any doubts or difficulties.
I don’t think that’s what she needs right now. She needs a kind of support that will accept she’s got actual issues to deal with.
Exactly
Walky is real down bad for Lucy now. Where was this energy when they were together?
She still wanted to be president
Lucy wanted to be president?
Grass is always greener.
I thought it was Dorothy is always Keener.
I think he feels bad about it on account of the why more than anything, but he was clearly trying to make that relationship work
it feels to me that he didn’t want her, but he didn’t want to fuck up and disappoint her, and…. he did that.
It’s this. It’s completely this. He’s not down bad for Lucy now, he just would like to not have the immense burden of guilt for fucking up and hurting her.
Like, say what you want about him and Dorothy here (and people are saying a whole lot, none of which is substantiated anywhere, and which involves concepts like “using him as a dildo”, which suggests to me that you also use the term “cock carousel” with a straight face) but at least when they broke up it was mutual and while it hurt it hurt them both equally. In the case of Lucy, he bungled it, he knows it, he doesn’t like the feeling.
Walky not feeling as intensely as Lucy did isn’t the same as him not feeling. He realizes he fucked up.
I really don’t think Walky fucked up. Lucy fucked up by projecting a whole ton onto a pretty new relationship. Then when she realized, instead of handling it she blamed Walky in any way she could.
Lucy isn’t horrible but I still think Walky basically dodged a bullet. Her infatuation with him wasn’t balanced and her religious neurosis were a barrier to authentic connection.
I think that if Walky had corrected that initial misunderstanding about loving her right away, they might have been able to salvage the relationship. And he might well have grown to love her eventually. She was just much farther along.
But, that kind of discussion would have been really hard to have without it blowing up.
Maybe the Lucy breakup is just something Walky can blame for making him feel bad when he’s really feeling bad about other stuff.
I think the breakup with Lucy was the final bitter pill of reality for Walky.
There is no such thing as a final bitter pill in life until you literally run out of time to swallow more of those.
The funny thing about life is, it never gets that bad that it couldn’t get at least a tiny bit worse.
IDK if walky wondering if lucy visiting is necessarily ‘down bad’ b/c i can imagine other than ‘needing space’ she might still be willing to reach out and invite him to hang out platonically as friends/what they were doing before (minus the ‘handholding’ or so)
She’s been his best friend for 3 months and now shunning him.
Walkys been almost as self destructive as Dorothy . His mother might take his rebellion on his sister or Amber
He wants something between “get lost” and “it’s a shame we can’t just get married this afternoon.”
Good one. He was happy just being buddies with Lucy.
Getting sublimated into a bunch of cheeky, juvenile, humor, for the most part! That was true for, like, 90% of his emotions, though, not just the Lucy-related ones.
I could also spout some old truisms along the lines of “you don’t know what you’ve got ’till it’s gone” or “the grass is always greener on the other side”, but this seems more relevant, honestly.
Partly just hidden under how much more she was into it and not wanting to give her the wrong impression she was desperately looking for.
I smell shades of Malaya’s gatekeeping, but Booster’s a little more forgiving
I should pull up a chair for this
i wonder if they’ve met yet/had an extended convo b/c i can totally imagine malaya calling booster fakey or somewhat of a negative opinion after their attempt to psychoanalyze her
Stop being an @sshole, Booster.
I’m preeetty sure you can just say “asshole” here. Unless I missed something.
You appear to be correct.
People were saying butthole above, so I followed cbwroses example and didn’t.
That just how I censor my own curse words in text.
It has everything to do with me and nothing to do with the site; it’s just a habit.
Now when I don’t censor my text, it feels weird.
I shall go with “behindpit”.
b*tch would auto replace to ‘bongo’ i believe but idk there are other Good Place-esque swears lol
It’s a completely fair anatomically-derived insult. Everybody has (and can be) an asshole.
We are all buttholes in the end.
ba dum TSS!
You mean “da bum tss!” 😀
Now I’m trying to remember how Joyce bowdlerized asshole early on. Might have been just butthole, but censoring the butt, so just b-hole? But I think there was some other twist to it.
“B-hole”. She wouldn’t say “a-hole” because it stands for “ass” and even that was too much.
Narrator Voice: Upon hearing those words, Booster decided to heed them and stop being an @sshole. And lo, to absolutely no one’s surprise, upon doing so, Booster winked out of existence, for being that was their primary character trait.
And somewhere, Mike laughed.
Goodnight everyone.
“disappeared in a puff of logic”
Booster, cease being such a complete posterior, you absolute back door.
I mean – they’re basically the old 80s/90s sitcom trope of a sassy character who doesn’t have their own plot lines but exists to make catty remarks on others. That’s kind of their sole function.
In fairness, they also serve the important function of “allow for more non-binary representation in the main cast.” (not sarcasm, to be clear – I’m an enby myself, so I regard this as a very important function indeed).
Malaya also serves both of these, IMO.
I suppose sometimes a question answers another question simply by being asked
Which frankly is more answer than Booster is entitled to
Dorothy isn’t answering a question; she’s ignoring it and pushing toward her goal.
Dorothy is so preoccupied with whether or not she can she didn’t stop to think about if she should.
Your avatar choice makes this a thousand times better.
Clever girl…
I think she both knows she shouldn’t and doesn’t care
I think the shouldn’t is a significant part of her motivation tbh
But will life with Walky, uh, find a way?
Hopefully not. Dorothy is at least responsible enough to maintain her prophylactic requirements.
She stood on the shoulders of dumbasses to burnout as fast as she could!
what’s the worse that can happen, them in the middle of a hookup with lucy walking in? but other than potential ‘drama’ i doubt they’d do anything unfixable together ’cause despite all his faults it’s not as if walky was esp a ‘toxic’ ex or so
God I love them. On point as always – Dorothy, this is a terrible decision.
I don’t support it but I’ll be glad to watch the flaming, flaming wreck it’ll become.
Nobody ever let Booster be a fighter pilot.
Nobody ever let me let anyone else be a fighter pilot. 🙁
I am not sure I quite understand. I didn’t upset you did I?
I was just trying to make a joke about Booster being a bad wingman.
Shut up, Booster
I just want to say I do think Dorothy and Walky have the potential to be the best couple.
He let’s her not be perfect and she makes him want to be better. Like. How can anyone not want this to be an endgame?
I guess it depends on how you feel about Amber.
Until now, she said that she didn’t feel comfortable wanting to get back with him, however, I started to like Amber after she invited Dorothy to spend some time….yes, it seems complicated, but I want to believe that things could be clarified. things and Dorothy will make things right.
Polycule can happen now
Amber is great but she encouraged walkys worst habbits. Not intentionally of cpurse! It just kinda happened
Walky is not only NOT in Dorothy’s league, he’s not even playing in the same sport. She’ll never be able to truly respect him. They’re doomed.
Only true if you subscribe to the absurd concept of leagues.
Wait, is “leagues” here referring to the sports concept or the classist/elitist concept Dorothy would have been entrenched in at Yale?
Neither, it’s a way of classifying whether or not someone is good enough to date someone else. Someone who’s judged to be too attractive or too “good” for someone else is said to be “out of their league”.
I knowwwww I love them so much.
I’m not sure that he does let her not be perfect.
I think that’s the biggest problem with them as a couple. He’s got her on too high a pedestal. That’s not insurmountable. Any good fictional couple needs a challenge to overcome and Walky getting a more realistic view of Dorothy by having to support her while she’s actually struggling would work well narratively.
I also think his arc with Lucy isn’t really resolved yet. But frankly that’s true of all Walky’s relationships, as we see with the current Dorothy arc.
The existence of Sal and Danny has me convinced you’re wrong, but Walky and Dorothy have a solid shot at second place.
I mean…if you really want to know, I don’t want this as an endgame because I think those two goals you outlined – “He let’s her not be perfect and she makes him want to be better” – are actually conflicting, rather than complementary, opposites.
That is to say: Dorothy only ever wanted to be with him because his aura of absolute complacency inspired her to be less perfectionist. Walky only ever wanted to be with her because her aura of absolute perfectionism inspired him to be less complacent. The more one of them succeeds at their goal, the less reason the other one has to be in this relationship. That’s why Dorothy completely failed to notice when Walky was freaking out over his bad grades, and why Walky flatly refused to believe that Dorothy could possibly be suffering from burnout. And that’s why a romantic relationship between them could never actually work, in the long-term.
That’s my personal opinion, anyway. Not to yuck your yum here, but you DID ask.
I still think Amber crossed a line when she physically assaulted Walky, and I don’t get why people are okay with writing it off so easily. So I’m totally fine with Walky getting together with almost anyone else, except maybe Raidah.
On one hand, I don’t want Dorothy to embarrass herself again. On the other, she and Walky have a very interesting and compelling dynamic, and there’s virtually no chance it won’t entertain me however this goes, so…. here we go.
If only the Lucy stuff wasn’t going on 😭😭😭
I want them back together so bad
I know I shouldn’t rush, but I want to believe that Dorothy learned from past experience, plus Walky himself is allowing it to happen, something tells me that during their lunch there were more details…so as you say, here we go.
*Walky himself is allowing her to enter.
re: alt-text
Love that Roger Rabbit Reference ^^
(try saying that five times fast XD)
I tried it.
I succeeded.
I am surprised.
Yes! A+++ hovertext, Willis
I am 200% sure that Walky is over Dorothy and this will either blow up in her face or he’ll rebound off of her and they’ll both feel worse. I liked them together too (way more than him and Lucy) but he seemed genuinely uninterested at last checkup between these two.
I don’t think Walky is uninterested.
He told her when they were standing in the mud of the melted snow hill that he didn’t want to be the reason she failed, and that possibility only existed (in his mind) if they were together.
Which is a long winded way of saying he can still see them together.
It’s honestly hard to judge if Walky is over anyone. He never spends anytime actually alone to gather his thoughts. He just spends his brief moments post breakup putting the girls he dated on a pedestal before being approached by another. Even now, not even a week out, post Lucy, Dorothy is back all over him. I’d love to see him actually free to get over someone.
To be fair she was into him the week before.
And the week before that too. When she set them up.
That’s kind of my actual secret hope. That Walky decides he needs to be single for a while and work on himself, and maybe that he thinks Dorothy isn’t in a good state to be dating either.
He had all of November and December. We just didn’t see it.
Apparently his winter break was spent mostly as a buffer between Sal and their parents which doesn’t seem like the greatest environment for analyzing past romance. When he returned he didn’t really act like he was over Amber or Dorothy to the point he and Amber were actively avoiding each other from fear of conflict and chemistry, then Lucy was pretty much immediately following him after day one.
Have him pretend to be Joyce, for rhetorical purposes. Dorothy’s conversations with her are confusing her, and she needs to work through them, rhetorically. Once Walky is in the role of Joyce, kiss him.
I know there’s comments about “they gon bang” or Walky’s going to reject her advances, and I’m fine with either outcome. The outcome I’m hoping to see is Dorothy just has a “I don’t know what the fuck I am anymore” conversation with Walky and he says some random thing that helps Dorothy see a way forward and they hug before she leaves.
But yeah, I’m ok with them shucking clothing, too.
Obligatory “both is good”.
if so , wasted efforts to put back on pants
but it’s not as if they haven’t relied on each other emotionally at least
Sometimes you just gotta go through the motions.
Besides, taking someone else’s pants off can be a fun activity when done with consent.
well, there was a comic where they argued about his pajama pants and she said ‘take your pants off’, stared for a bit and left. it was done in a humorous way but i imagine if the roles were reversed the comments would’ve been heated about that lol
tho i imagine booster would prolly ‘interrupt’ them
Yes, Walky screwed up in a difficult situation with Lucy. But otherwise both Dorothy and Lucy’s brother thought he was a great boyfriend, and I’m not sure what makes Booster’s judgment so much better.
Maybe I just don’t like the concept of someone being “not good enough” for someone else, even if they like each other and treat each other properly.
Dorothy’s judgment is mediocre. She thought Walky was a good boyfriend because he was a good project. She also told him people liked him when he ‘s obnoxious.
Lucy does not think he was a good boyfriend. He is terrible at communicating.
seeing that she is no longer trying to become president, Dorothy is attempting to find other ways to use what she has acquired in past classes
what’s that thing you earthlings say?
“life gives you lemons, make lemonade”
@NGPZ: i can half imagine/expect a flash forward where robin is somehow president despite everything and dorothy just crying bloody tears
but i imagine other than her now being ‘lost’ in college, unless she somehow completely gives up, she wouldn’t necessarily have a bad career as a ‘proper adult’
But Walky *is* a good boyfriend — the problem is he’s largely *just* that. He’s fun to be around and handsome and confident, it’s just that when you actually need him he runs away from his problems and that’s not really husband material.
Which is to say, I’m *really* curious if this is going where I assume it’s going.
I don’t think that’s why she thought he was a good boyfriend at all.
My guess is that the two of them had An Interaction off-screen that we will become privy to as the scene goes on. Hinted at by the last time they interacted being summarized as “why didn’t you help me not mess up!” and Booster’s reaction basically being to get extremely gleeful at the prospect of Walky suffering.
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2023/comic/book-14/02-its-the-love-i-havent-got/job-description/
(for reference)
Going off that last interaction it would absolutely make sense if the two got into a fight over it.
the only one i’d consider ‘not good enough’ for anyone else is mary (and even she managed to get a bf tho no clue if they’re still together), but sometimes indulging in something not necessarily ‘healthy’ for you can be…well, healthy i guess if it’s not too self destructive
I kinda like Dorothy and Walky in this canon.
Lucy is way too accepting of Walky’s faults.
Amber and Walky seem to just play into each other’s negatives.
But Dorothy and Walky seem to help each other be better versions of each other.
The only other option for Dorothy we’ve seen is Danny and… well… let’s just say they emphasized the blandest parts of each other.
Interesting observation, and that is precisely why I appreciate Dorothy/Walky, that is, despite everything that has happened, the dynamism of both feels natural and transparent.
That wasn’t answering a question with a question. That was ignoring your self-superior question.
They’re just referencing what Dorothy said to them Thursday.
That could still be self-superior. Haughty? I think the correct word is haughty.
True but also immaterial.
Just in case anyone here is burning that midnight oil with work and too much coffee, as I am, here’s some soft sad driving melodies to keep you company at the computer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8P_RLKl2UNY
(Played on the hacked pneumatic pianola.)
Oooooh shoot you know what this is exactly what I need right now!
Thanks Laura, will keep me up for as long as I need it for technical art stuff. ^^
Good luck! Enjoy!
This one’s a nice transition, for after the lofi eases the listener into a working groove. Dark and romantic.
Booster should point her at someone who she’s not too good for. He’s only one door down.
Hmm?
jacob?
tho, while i don’t think walky is that much of a ‘human disaster’, what is college for if not ‘lowering your standards’ and doing stuff with ppl you’d never normally do lol
Jacob is on the other side of the hall. Probably far enough away from Walky that Lucy would not have run into him while waiting at his door. Arnold (and Ken) share the half-bath with Walky.
Walky’s window faces the sunrise, seen in gimme, sleepyhead, and nintendo. It’s most apparent in the last one, because of developing artistic ability.
Joe’s room faces the sunrise, seen at the start of this chapter. The lighting is the same as in nintendo, and Sal casts a shadow into the room, when standing in the window (curtains).
In absurdly, Joe says Jacob’s room is on the other side of the hall.
*not linking all the strips, too many links gets a comment auto-moderated.
After the episode with Carla, Booster felt overconfident with their bongo behavior
boosters too busy psychoanalyzing everyone else and enjoying watching ppl’s antics to rly be insecure
Like, FUCK Booster on so many levels. I’ve seriously got ahardon for hating this person on so many levels. Like, I get that they are non-binary and that is some sort of barrier for things but FUCK THEM because they are MORE of a trash person than our average character. Just because they have a pass for being “inclusionary” they get to say all the shitty shit Mike got to say with a pass. FUCK BOOSTER UNTIL THEY GET THEIR “COMMEUPPANCE”. Which will be softened because can’t let them get TOO burdened lest they become fragile.
there are plenty of ppl that dislike booster b/c of their personality, not their gender identity, and mike was also canonically queer. (tho i dont’ think i’ve really seen them ‘hide’ behind them like , “if you disagree with me you’re a bigot” but while amber/ruth aren’t ‘unnatractive’, i’d think it’d be sleazy/morally wrong to want to date them /because/ booster finds them ‘fuckedup’ or so or approaching someone b/c they wanna ‘observe/study them)
My partner is non-binary, no issue for me.
I absolutely loathe Booster.
They remind me of the worst parts of myself.
What barrier are you imagining?
A little melodramatic there.
Who’s giving them the pass for being nonbinary? The comments section here seems about the same as the other Mike comments sections. The fiction itself doesn’t have many qualms about putting its queer characters in awkward or embarrassing situations, or just straight up making them look annoying or wrong or act on bad info (eg, this strip). To my memory no one ever got around to socking Mike in the mouth for being an asshole. So why do you think their gender has anything to do with how the fiction is treating them?
Anon A Mouse said “comeuppance”. It doesn’t have to be violent; it has to be a negative consequence of their own actions biting them in the ass.
In Mike’s case, it was that he essentially took himself out of the running for Ethan’s affections, and had to accept that.
Booster? Never gets comeuppance, ever. If anything, Booster gets rewarded for being an obnoxious, self-righteous, judgemental and, frankly, super-creepy prick.
You aren’t responding to my point here. Anon also posted a refrain I’ve heard pretty often about minority characters in media, which is what the focus of my reply was about.
But to your point! You don’t have to explain to me why you dislike Booster. I did not engage with that part of Anon’s comment because they’re all perfectly valid reasons to throw your hands up every time they’re on screen. They’re all perfectly valid reasons to want to see the narrative not reward them (which, rewarding being an asshole was pretty much the conceit of Mike’s presence up until he, as you pointed out, took himself out of the running. It took a really long time for the comic to get there. We’ve had Booster for a comparatively short amount of time).
Again, the point is, what’s their gender gotta do with why they’re not getting any comeuppance?
did Mike and or Booster kidnap and kill anyone? Did they gaslight and abuse someone? Or do they just say shit that annoys you sometimes?
Mike was…a pretty abusive friend, yeah.
Booster, otoh, is just vaguely annoying? idk I like them
I actually like Booster a lot, but I also really like your honest, uncomplicated, self-aware, hatred of them. No fancy moral preaching, no “I can fix them”, you just know that you deeply despise them and want to see them suffer. It’s incredibly refreshing, especially in this comment section.
You have my full support, friend. *applause*
I mean, not really, it’s actually pretty damn common. A bit too common in fact.
Agreed.
Walky also won’t challenge Dorothy and the last thing she needs is someone telling her how great she is and she can do anything which is all Walky would do
To 3oranges
nothing wrong with a romantic partner leading to ‘chara development/growth ‘ but most ppl don’t seek out a potential friend/romantic partner to find someone to ‘challenge’ them
Does Booster have a problem with Walky that I am not aware of? I thought they got reasonably well along.
Just because you like someone doesn’t mean you’re immune to their flaws or think they’d make a good boyfriend
Agreed, I think Booster likes and respects Walky as a roommate but feels compelled to at least comment on the fact that Type A personality type women seem to keep gravitating towards Walky with a sort of ‘I can fix him’ mentality. Not that Dorothy has that mentality towards him now, but she did have that beforehand as I remember the strip where she mentioned that buying him nicer clothes is because she believes in ‘leaving someone better than when you found them’ or… however it went.
She wasn’t wrong.
About what? Buying nicer clothes for him so he’d be better off for the next girlfriend? I mean, yeah, Lucy definitely liked the clothing Dorothy bought for him but I think the point behind why Booster feels the need to say “you girls are too good for him” is because of that sort of mentality, in that in order for Walky to have nice clothes a girlfriend has to buy them for him. It kinda leads into the mentality we see a lot, like those videos that are like “my husband doesn’t like the food I made for dinner so I have to make him nachos so he won’t starve”, just a consistent sort of man baby vibe.
Not that I think Walky is that bad, but I think if he never challenges himself and if he were to continue to date women who are too good for him, who overachieve for him and buy him nice clothes, that could eventually spin to a future where Walky is the manbaby husband to an overworked and overstressed wife who literally does all the work in the house because Walky never tried to learn to clean.
Again because this is the internet I feel the need to preface that I don’t think Walky is that sort of person… presently. Dude’s freshly 18 and just learned how to bite back a little at his mom. He just needs to start doing some emotional work and introspection on himself. Enjoy being single for a while.
Two words: “pajama jeans.” It’s not that Walky can’t have nice clothes without some girl buying them; it’s that he won’t. It’s not something he thinks about.
Mh, I guess i never really saw Walky as a bad boyfriend. Aside from lacking a backbone when it comes to handling his mother. And even then, he is still very financially dependent on his parents.
I can see him and Lucy not being a good fit, and really not on the same page about their relationship. But I never thought one was too good for the other.
bonus strip of Booster and Dorothy hanging out in Dorothy’s room, with Dorothy telling Booster Walky is actually cruder than they thought. (Jan 2022, book 12)
when they ‘psychoanalyzed’ the crowd/ppl at ruth’s ra meeting they did say lucy ‘could do better’
walky always came off to me (personally) as “boyfriend you’d first have at 14-15 as a starter/beginner before moving on” if not chasing some future guys/partners that has a slight ‘goofiness’ about them but also able to be mature/emotional growth
tho be interesting if walky had a bi phase/tried out dating a guy and ended up being a ‘better’ boyfriend dating a guy than when he dated girls lol
I like Booster and don’t like Walky/Dorothy, so I must be an aberration.
I also like Booster, and while I do like Walky/Dorothy I like him with Amber or Lucy more. The hate for Booster is weird considering they’re largely a much more gentle and benevolent Mike.
I like Booster most of the time. I just have a strong aversion against the “you are too good for person x”sentence.
I love Booster, but I would rather pull my teeth out individually one by one with a plastic spoon than endure another second of Walky/Lucy. Like, they were literally the worst part of the comic for me for a while because they had negative chemistry due to how supernaturally boring and juvenile Lucy manages to be at any given moment. Like, I also strongly dislike Billie/Jennifer but boring isn’t exactly what I would call her.
If they got back together, I really hope that it would be nothing like it was before because it was like paint dry in 100% humidity. I enjoyed Walky/Dorothy but I think that’s over. I’m team Dorothy/Jacob and Walky/Asher/Ethan (or alternatively Dorothy/emotionalVulnerability and Walky/himself). I don’t ship Lucy with anybody because we haven’t seen anybody whom she bounces off of well at all, and I have reservations about Lucy/Jacob for many reasons.
Rant aside, y’all aren’t alone for loving Booster. They‘re always a joy in all their appearances. Not as smart as they think they are, but I’m never bored or angry at them.
(Adding here that I may be forgetting some character development of Lucy’s since it’s been a hot minute since she had a lot of focus, but I have very strong feelings for how she was. I do remember their breakup made me sad because while I disliked the relationship and them, I don’t want anything bad to happen to her, I just want her to do something lol)
Lucy + Ken, would still be boring, but not with all the tension there was like when Walky refused to communicate. Maybe they ran into each other at the restaurant she went to yesterday that nobody else was interested in.
Dorothy + Arnold, somebody new to have a new type of relationship with Dorothy, he helps her relax, they motivate each other, but Arnold’s confident enough in himself that her personality doesn’t overwhelm him. He won’t put her down for following a childhood plan to be president, but won’t indulge in it, encourages her to deconstruct and reconstruct it.
Amber + Booster, just because I want Walky surrounded by other people in better relationships with his exes.
booster taking a page outta sal’s book/closet? (well not that she owns the monopoly on jackets like those but rare to see on other chars)
Gotta love Booster’s sense of humor
If this was Mike, he would have understood Dorothy’s intentions and used that knowledge to say the meanest thing possible. Booster is brutally honest about it in a flippant way. Personally I think that’s a lot more fun, and I see how Booster fits the dynamic of the comic better.
Or just yelling loud enough for the whole hallway to hear: “Your ex is over for a booty call!!”
Booster is the kind of sports fan who yells at the players and referees while watching from his comfy couch.
Wondering who Booster thinks would be good for Walky out of curiosity.
Although, granted, he does eat chips that ‘fall on the potty bowl’ so MAYBE they have a point. XD
Honestly Booster I don’t think you have room to talk given that you killed that census worker and ate his cooked liver with expensive beans and wine.
>expensive
>beans
???
What the fuck, you can pick one of those things, they can’t both be true.
Well, to be fair, those beans were definitely cooked with human ingredients in them. That makes them really exotic, and thus fancy, and thus, they qualify as “expensive” beans.
They’re heirloom beans imported from like, Spain or something. Also they’re only like $14 a can, but for beans that’s expensive.
For $14, I can eat for a week.
See, Booster is not only a murderous cannibal, they’re irresponsible with money. And sometimes rude or sassy.
Which as we all know, it’s one of the most heinous sins in existence. Along with having not positive feelings and being a bit annoying.
$14. Pah. You can order Divina – Giant Gigandes White Beans in Vinaigrette from Walmart for $160. https://www.walmart.com/ip/Divina-Giant-Gigandes-White-Beans-in-Vinaigrette/161629927
For a 20 oz. can.
Mistype. For a 70 oz. can.
For the math challenged that’s around 9 quarters an ounce.
expensive applies to “beans and wine”. It’s an expensive Chianti, which comes with a complimentary bag of fava beans.
What a perfect way to avoid confronting “I might be into my best friend”
Just go back to the last long term straight relationship she had
This totally works and won’t make the feelings more apparent
Seriously, while there are definitely hints that she’s into Joyce, the clues that she’s still really not over Walky are much bigger and more common.
And have been from the start. She pushed him away because she was too busy, given all her ambitions. She’s never actually stopped wanting him back.
She seems to bounce between the two of them, after Walky came to her for Lucy advice (and her advice was “keep lying to her”) she looked so dejected. Then she went to masturbate with Joyce. She has feelings for both of them, she understands those feelings for Walky better, but mostly she feels lonely and like she doesn’t have control of anything in her own life.
Oh for sure, I don’t think there’s an absolute place in her head for either
She wants Walky and now figuring out she might want Joyce is just going to get worse when faced with Walky probably not wanting anything after the breakup with Lucy
Which just pulls her away from one of the few easy decision she could make
Again, Dorothy? What’s about someone grabs her and make a tour, to show other places in college where she can go?
Everyone sure are making fashion decisions this morning
Poor Walky. He hoped it was Lucy, but it’s once again the girl who left him because her grades were more important and when they stopped being, she tried to go back to him. I don’t think Booster has a full picture of the situation, if they did they would understand that this couple is a highly unstable mess and not because of Walky. But Walky has realized that she likes Joyce…, Let’s hope they’ll talk about this and Dorothy can admit it’s true.
Booster is either being a butt, or playing 5D chess. Possibly both.
Oh, dear: now Dorothy is working on herself to excel at being worthless.
[West’s Batman theme starts] Quick Dotty! To the Garbage Roof!
The hovertext is beautiful and correct on several levels. 🙂
Stay strong, Walky. You do not need to be the gravel in runaway truck ramp that Dorothy’s tractor-trailer of self-destruction is barreling down the mountain towards.
Mike was a “brutally honest” type of asshole. He was good at being that, but it’s a really 2013 style of asshole and we don’t need to talk about it anymore. “Condescending pseudo-Freudian who thinks everyone “toxic” is to be avoided”, however is definitely a kind of asshole that currently exists.
Slipshine double whammy?
really don’t think slipshine could afford me for that
🥺
No. No. This is good. He admitted he has a price. Now you need to find out what it is and put a group together to hit social media and raise the funds.
Only 98% joking.
It’s been a while since the last one. Surely they could have saved up in all that time. If not, what are they even doing with their finances?
Girl, no 😭
Please let him go Dot…… please………
But he’s in such convenient grabbing range!
I can fix him: X
Let me break too: O
Ahahahah Booster is growing on me.
Going around publicly ranking people like this is really toxic. I know Booster probably means ”you can find a better match” but certainly doesn’t try to communicate that.
No, I’m pretty sure Booster means exactly what they say. And yes, it is. On the other hand Walky would (and indeed has, vocally) agreed, but I’m not sure that makes it any better.
All this talk of Mike, who could be deeply and gratuitously unpleasant. Why Joe didn’t simply clobber him after the first punch during the Yellow Dress Date, I don’t know. Joe is OK. He was a bit of an ass when he first appeared (in the British English sense of “show-off, gratuitously offensive”) but we have yet to actually see him with a girl other than Joyce. Danny has had a fling with Amber/Amazi-girl and now he is with Sal. Joe also let Joyce be pretty childish during the Yellow Dress Date without losing his cool. I’d quite like to see more Sarah, especially get over her crippling anxiety regarding Jacob… another big, strong hunk who let Joyce act out (over being his girlfriend) with good grace. Joyce would have left her underwear on HIS floor, given the chance.
Yeah that never sat well with me, I could see Joyce being full of righteous indignation doing it.
But, generally speaking, if you’re at least 4-5 inches shorter and 30-40 pounds lighter then the person you’re punching then it’s not going to end well for you
where is lucy ? its been a while ……
What is that? 3 decades until someone inverted the Jessica Rabbit line?