There’s a lot to love about Joyce’s plan, but I think my favorite is just how she’s envisions herself leaping out at Dina like Dracula.
“I vant you to get back together vith Becky, and also try my new Count Joyceula! The cereal and marshmallows come in separate bags so they vill never need to touch, ah, ah, ah!”
from my experience, if you separate them out all you get is dry boring cereal, and too much marshmallow. So like, they balance each other out or something lol
I thought Nymph’s point was that the exact ratio of marshmallows to cereal might not be ideal for everyone, so they could mix them in the concentrations they prefer?
And if you don’t like Count Joyceula there’s alway Frankendotty the cereal so unapologetically apologetic, 4 out 5 presidents approve! Then you can try the whole gang of dumb cereals like Ruth Brute fresh ground femurs in every bite! Walkymummy the only cereal with a cooler twin cereal! And of course Boo Billies the spooky cereal for cheerleaders only, no dorks allowed!
Looked it up: according to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solstice_(1990_video_game) you have to “defeat the evil baron Morbius”. I choose to imagine this as the Jared Leto version; from what I understand, he’s creepy enough.
not sure what time it is for them but other than staying with amber imagine if dina suddenly just went off with her parents on some long break or so to where joyce oculdn’t talk to her
I agree i was looking forward to Becky getting some advice from a functional adult, but we can’t seem to go more then two comics wirhout switching back to Dorothy and Joyce’s honeymoon period.
yep, Joyce and Dorothy are talking about the news of Becky and Dina (potentially) breaking up right after they basically learned about it. . . bad timing for them to do so in the story?????
Why did we cut away from them if this is the next thing they do? Why did we spend a strip on Becky finding out Leslie isn’t home when we could’ve cut to Leslie walking to to Becky at the front door and have Becky she’s been waiting a while?
You’re being obtuse. We cut away from them to focus on Becky. Why cut immediately back after one strip? Why cut to Becky if there was no intention of following that thread for a while? In terms of sequencing, it’s weird.
Probably because that strip is actually important and isn’t just going to be “Becky waits a bit for Leslie to show up”.
Maybe Becky decides on something else (Robin?), but Willis wanted to show that she’d tried to talk to Leslie first. And the timing meant there needed to be delay?
Worst case, that Leslie bonus strip was misleading.
On the one hand, it’s nice that she wants to fix this. But it feels really cavalier the way she’s imagining that she even*can* fix it in the first place.
The fact that I was briefly drawn into the lightness for my lips to twitch adds to that. We shouldn’t be humorous here, damn it!
I don’t want to tell anyone what to do, but the comic might be more pleasant if you let yourself enjoy whatever about it you find even slightly funny? It’s not as though DoJo are likely to go away any time soon, regardless of how diligent readers may or may not be in hating them, so it might be better to at least try to make the most of it?
My distaste for the momentum getting thrown out the window (yet again, like clockwork) is only matched by my slow realization that this is, in fact, Joyce getting ready to Make Things Even Worse, and goddamn we really unironically need that energy in the comic right now.
The absolute arrogance of Joyce thinking she can be some savior that fixes a relationship that has zero to do with her is astounding. Like, actually felt myself physically cringe reading these panels.
If Joyce and Dorothy really want Becky and Dina to get back together, I think this plan would be a terrible way to do it. Maybe they could just encourage Becky to actually talk with Dina about the status of their relationship instead. Considering how shitty they’ve been towards a lot of other characters lately, maybe Joyce and Dorothy aren’t the best people for fixing other relationships.
I get that we were all dumb at that age but this is outright actively getting dumber. How is Dorothy not cringing with second hand embarrassment right now
Joyce never misses an opportunity to treat Dina like an annoying child. Before I was pretty sure Dina would get violent, now I’m certain she’s gonna beat Joyce with hammers.
The last time I saw two college-aged people get into a relationship where they acted this indulgently towards each other and this defensively to people outside the relationship, they eventually started an internet-famous cult.
(admittedly, I would probably really enjoy the twist if these two somehow formed the Dexter and Monkey Master/Hummie the Hymnal cinematic universe version of the FF7 House, but I doubt that’s where THIS particular lesbian time bomb is going)
Joyce it’s an admirable effort but I’m afraid any dinosaur “””””facts””””” you look up will only end up worsening the situation and may earn you a bite.
Joyce’s current primary interest is lust for women, therefore:
“Did you know that when a human has breasts large enough to inhibit the range of motion of their arms, the phenomenon is known as T-Rex Tits in comparison to a tyrannosaur’s stubby limbs?”
Tits are small birds in the Paridae family. Birds are the modern descendants of dinosaurs (and so are taxonomically dinosaurs themselves). Therefore relevant.
A dinosaur fact I think is neat is that lots of dinosaurs’ huge tails acted as counter-balances, helping them stand and walk and also shifting their centers of mass toward their hind-legs.
Now, Dina certainly already knows such facts as this, so what you’ve got to do is take this basic fact and rework it into a question inviting deeper discussion. Joyce will not do this.
Did you know that female dinosaurs likely had clitorises, and in fact one preserved dinosaur cloaca has been preserved intact?
Have you considered that horned dinosaurs such as Triceratops and Styracosaurus developed their elaborate and varied head structure formations to attract potential mates! Becky just got a new haircut! Quick! Grab her before another dinosaur snaps her up!
(I tried to find evidence that dinosaurs mated for life, as many bird species do, but apparently there’s evidence of parental care for hadrosaur juveniles, not necessarily from both parents though.)
Did you know that large dinosaurs may have needed to mate underwater, so that their bouyancy would help support their massive weight? Just saying. I mean, the dorm showers are right there… might be the perfect spot for a little dinosaur-style makeup sex.
Not to mention the swimming pool as an option…
Not much more to do with that at the moment I guess. She’s looking for her lesbimom but hasn’t found her yet. So, assuming there’s a reason she can’t find leslie for a bit, it’s either this or Becky disappears from the narrative for a little bit without us knowing what she’s up to
HOOoo boi! I forgot these strips! Thanks for bringing them back. Dina absolutely has been getting weird asshole vibes from Joyce, and part of me feels the only reason Joyce even began to be kinder to Dina is because they have something in common (relation to Becky and Neurodivergent). That being said, Joyce seems to still struggle to treat Dina as an equal instead of a robot child.
So, the premise of the webcomic Dumbing of Age is, a sheltered hormonal fundamentalist protestant freshman called Joyce meets a sheltered hormonal politically naive atheist freshman called Dorothy, and they’ve both got a lot of learning to do.
Because despite guilt and good-intentions, she doesn’t have any standing to fix the issue. The only people who do are Becky and Dina. Does no one else fantasize about implausible ways they could magically solve the problems they see in the world?
I have to assume that whatever she said out loud to explain this plan to Dorothy was a hell of a lot more convincing than what we’re seeing here. The only other explanation is that Dorothy somehow thinks that doing this can actually solve this probleeaagh, dangit.
She seems to have actually drawn the plan. Which is a weird choice when she and Dorothy were together when she found out, and then went to get lunch together.
I could get it if she was in class after knowing, but huh?
The sensible thing to do would be to leave her alone, because Joyce Specifically absolutely does not have anything to do with THIS relationship disaster. They’re not going to do the sensible thing, and I’m going to enjoy it incredibly.
Okay I don’t know why this is what got me thinking, but it got me thinking that Joyce and Dorothy are going to accidentally convince Dina that breaking up is the best thing to do, so then Dina goes and gets back with Becky just to spite them.
That’s kinda surprising, given Joyce can’t eat meals where different foods are touching each other. Is not the point of a burrito to ensure that rice, meat, beans, guac and what have you are all touching each other as much as possible while you eat them?
Don’t talk with your mouth full.
Why not?
Because you need to breathe to talk, preventing closure of the epiglottis, which leaves you at risk of inhaling food and choking.
Adults do.
Adults also choke, but less often and usually less fatally (less fatal?) than children because they have had more practice.
So we should practice?
I and others have frequently accused Joyce of viewing her life through the lens of narratives, and so it’s nice to see her out here just proving us all right. She really thinks she’s the main character of a story, lmao.
My favourite part about Joyce’s plan is that she’s self-aware enough to realize that Dina finding her words compelling would be unusual and surprising, but not self-aware enough to realize what this means about the plan’s prospects of success. I also love that she pretty much nails Dina’s reaction to Joyce actually being persuasive.
i mean it’s good to be optimistic but maybe they should check up on amber too. tho it’d be hilariously messed up if dina somehow had a new gf by the time joyce bumps into her again
This isn’t actually related to this particular strip, but it’s been eating at my brain for ages at this point, and there’s probably no “right” moment to deploy it, so here it goes now: I would just like to gently remind some readers of this comic that there is no one pointing a gun at their heads and forcing them to read it, certainly not to read it every single day, and CERTAINLY not to leave daily comments. If you can’t stand the characters and hate the direction of the writing, you are allowed to leave. Or, hell, keep dragging the comic offsite! Lord knows “this comic used to be good but now it sucks and I will explain in detail why” is not a new sort of genre! But some of y’all are at the point of being full-on “bongo-Eating-Crackers” mode about the *main character* of the comic you ready every single day, and idk, that just doesn’t seem like fun to me?
I just am really, really tired of feeling like Charlie Brown with the football every time I foolishly open the comments section here.
No, you misunderstand: THEY wanted OTHER people to change, so THEY’D be happier. It doesn’t do anything for them if THEY have to change THEIR behavior to be happier. It’s the other people who are wrong.
It wasn’t all that long ago that i agreed with you. It’s really easy for me to get invested in the negativity and have a bad time. But the more I actually read the HCT, the more i have come to understand that these are not people who hate the comic. These are mostly people who love the comic and do not love *this arc* for whatever reason. For them, this is a bad season of a wonderful thing. And while i do think a few people would benefit from lightening up a little bit, I’m not going to keep telling anyone that they shouldn’t talk about the things they like just because they don’t like it right now. That’s not gonna keep things healthy here.
Andi, you have asked me previously not to interact with you, and I hope you will forgive me this one breaking of my word so that I can thank you for this reasonable and thoughtful defense of the perspective of people who disagree with you. Certainly, there are reactionary naysayers in the comments, including the HCT, but I would hope that the overwhelming majority are as you say – people who love the strip but just can’t love this arc, for whatever reason. DoA is a wonderful strip, and Willis is a wonderful creative who has made a large impact on my own creative pursuits. I think you hit the nail on the head with your comparison here – for me and many others this feels like a weak season of a show that I’d been otherwise loving. Whatever critiques I have, however much some elements of the current storyline make me want to pull my hair out, the thought of leaving would never cross my mind, because sooner or later we’re going to get to things I love again.
Now, let me apologize to you again and go back to getting out of your hair. I hope you’re having a wonderful holiday season!
Thank you for the kind words, Dot, and thank you for reaching out. I’ve been debating with myself about the appropriateness of reaching out to you with an apology. I know I took a rather rude tone when I asked you not to talk to me anymore, and I wish that I hadn’t. I’m at a place where I’d rather make the effort to temper my own attitude and make space for good conversations. If you’re open to talking, so am I, and I will no longer ask you not to talk to me.
This sort of comment will never be taken in good faith regardless of its intent.
That said, “well no one’s making you read our comments” is such a weird rejoinder. Like, surely yall know that’s a very different thing to say, right?
Rurouni Idoru’s not the one making the DoA comic a mostly unpleasant experience for you.
Meanwhile, the overwhelming negativity in the comments, where at least a third are now reliably within the HCT and a bunch others spread throughout, is definitely something you are all contributing to.
The comment section is not becoming steadily more and more negative because more and more readers are upset with Willis: it’s turning more and more negative because readers like Rurouni Idoru go to look at the comments, see overwhelming negativity, and no longer feel like trying to join the conversation.
inb4: I didn’t tell any of you to stop reading, or to stop commenting, or to do anything at all. Hate-reading is a time-honored pastime. Etc etc etc.
But I dislike misunderstandings, and the last time I said I mentioned that I was sure the comments were gonna keep getting more and more overwhelmed by negativity, a bunch of yall told me, essentially, that you were sorry Willis had done this.
And yes, in multiple ways, Willis is ultimately responsible. This storyline has been divisive, and they continue to have a mostly hands-off approach to comment moderation.
But no. My certainty that the comment section is going to eventually be nothing but the HTC is not really because of Willis. It’s because for months and months, the background radiation of this comment section has been very hostile to positivity. For a while, SO hostile that positive comments literally got dogpiled by people explaining at length why they were wrong.
It’s not that bad anymore, but it doesn’t have to be. The few positive comments that still get made on Joyce/Dorothy strips are anemic. “This is cute.” There’s nothing of substance to respond to, and to even find them you have to scroll past pages of robust “hater” comments. Increasingly it feels like you don’t belong here. This isn’t your bar, your friends have stopped coming… why are you even still here?
Speaking as someone who is still trying to rep Joyrothy positivity, I think you’re very much right, but part of the problem is also that it’s just easier to complain than to compliment. If you really like a strip, it’s hard, at least for me, to say much more than “I love Joyce and Dorothy, they make me feel warm and fuzzy inside.” Whereas if you hate something, it’s easy and feels rewarding to tear it apart in great detail. This is why people enjoy reading negative movie reviews more than positive ones.
Sure, that’s like… maybe 10% of the issue I was talking about.
But we all know the comments used to be pretty evenly divided between “paladins” and “sickos”, and that these days most of the positivity comes in the form of a person leaving their first-ever comment, before looking around at the rest of the “patrons” in this metaphorical bar and deciding not to come back.
Or else it’s “positivity” (sarcastic quotes) like the top comment on this thread, to the effect of “I like this comic, I dislike the comment section”.
Which then gets shouted down, even though you KNOW it’s not an unpopular opinion, because most of the regular commenters are part of the negativity, and those few of us who aren’t… are tired and don’t want to start fights, even in defense of a take we agree with.
So what’s definitely gonna happen is that Joyce and Dorothy are gonna get sucked into doing a whole vaudeville routine to convince Dina to get back together with Becky, and at the end of it Dina’s just gonna be like “we were broken up?”
I think it’s been very easy to dislike Joyce and Dorothy lately, especially Joyce in my opinion, but I find this strip rather charming even as it highlights a possible negative trait of Joyce’s which is inserting herself over other people’s relationships. That’s bad, but her logic is amusing and it’s nice to know she means well.
I think it’s actually pretty difficult to write characters that are acting obnoxious while still meant to be endearing and I think this strip executed that well.
Y’all will never be happy. This comment section was just the text vomit of miserable people. Stop pretending you hate Joyce for cheating, you just hate Joyce. And the comic strip that you feel compelled to comment on.
There’s some real truth to that. Steam tells me I have played 6,500 hours of Stardew Valley, If you get me started, I could spend just as many hours telling you about every tiny thing about that game that I hate. Conversely, I couldn’t tell you three things I don’t like about Dark Souls because I didn’t like it enough to keep plying it. I don’t think most people put that much time and energy into thinking about things they don’t like unless they see something underneath to like better.
I don’t hate Joyce, she’s a very compelling character, she’s just been acting careless for the past 200 strips or something like that. I’ve acted careless before too.
If there’s ever a storyline focusing primarily on Dina, I hope so much that the book title is Dumbing of Age, Book ##: [dinosaur fact I will look up later]
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There’s a lot to love about Joyce’s plan, but I think my favorite is just how she’s envisions herself leaping out at Dina like Dracula.
“I vant you to get back together vith Becky, and also try my new Count Joyceula! The cereal and marshmallows come in separate bags so they vill never need to touch, ah, ah, ah!”
Or perhaps she is like some predatory bird
which of course means she is doing an impression of a dinosaur’s descendant
they say that bird line on the transformers wiki a lot
Clever girl
or maybe like a dropbear.
Okay but I think the marshmallows being separated from the cereal actually sounds really nice. You can have as many or as few as you like.
from my experience, if you separate them out all you get is dry boring cereal, and too much marshmallow. So like, they balance each other out or something lol
I thought Nymph’s point was that the exact ratio of marshmallows to cereal might not be ideal for everyone, so they could mix them in the concentrations they prefer?
If you want Count Chocula without marshmallows, just have Cocoa Puffs.
And if you don’t like Count Joyceula there’s alway Frankendotty the cereal so unapologetically apologetic, 4 out 5 presidents approve! Then you can try the whole gang of dumb cereals like Ruth Brute fresh ground femurs in every bite! Walkymummy the only cereal with a cooler twin cereal! And of course Boo Billies the spooky cereal for cheerleaders only, no dorks allowed!
Don’t trust breakfast cereals.
1. Approach Dina
2. ???
3. BECKY AND DINA TOGETHER AGAIN 5EVAR!!
4. Profit?
5. Overthrow the government!
6. Space train!
7999. In the grimdumb future there is only tacos… butt tacos
7. Happy Solstice everyone!
Okay, that really wasn’t part of the plan. I just couldn’t think of another way to bring it up.
Aye, happy Solstice to you as well! ^^
Lots of jelly donuts and a really short day
Or something im a bit woozy atm b/c painkillers
indeed, happy solstice (not the video game, but do look it up if you’re younger than 40)
8. Be gay do crimes! ~<3
Looked it up: according to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solstice_(1990_video_game) you have to “defeat the evil baron Morbius”. I choose to imagine this as the Jared Leto version; from what I understand, he’s creepy enough.
I am…
NOT AMUSED.
Joyce,
please,
just DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON’T
(smh)
Would it help if I point out that Joyce’s speech bubble in panel 1 is aimed right up her butt
She’s talking out of her ass
not sure what time it is for them but other than staying with amber imagine if dina suddenly just went off with her parents on some long break or so to where joyce oculdn’t talk to her
she’s so sillyhead
Oy gevalt.
Hater containment thread, kvetch here ⬇️
These two always at the scene of the crime when the forward momentum of the story gets killed in its tracks
I agree i was looking forward to Becky getting some advice from a functional adult, but we can’t seem to go more then two comics wirhout switching back to Dorothy and Joyce’s honeymoon period.
I’m not convinced Leslie is entirely functional.
Leslie is fine. She’s in a bonus strip.
One fucking day! Like, I’m glad they’re at least planning this through but what was even the point of yesterday’s strip being where it is?!
Gaaaaaaaah I am definitely more than a little annoyed at Joyce rn, to say the least (-_-)
I sure hope Yotomoe was serious about drawing stink lines wafting off of her
So glad Joyce seems to be taking this matter seriously 🙄
She even avoids talking to Becky in her plans.
I hadn’t even noticed that, but damn what a call out!
What are the odds ambushing someone who historically doesnt like you and demanding they do something helps
Asking for a Joyce
Well, at least it’s not Anna
Silver linings where we can get them!
Okay, I do genuinely think this is a good strip. Clever visuals and some decent jokes.
It’s a decent enough strip in the abstract, but its placement in story sequence is infuriating.
yep, Joyce and Dorothy are talking about the news of Becky and Dina (potentially) breaking up right after they basically learned about it. . . bad timing for them to do so in the story?????
Why did we cut away from them if this is the next thing they do? Why did we spend a strip on Becky finding out Leslie isn’t home when we could’ve cut to Leslie walking to to Becky at the front door and have Becky she’s been waiting a while?
You’re being obtuse. We cut away from them to focus on Becky. Why cut immediately back after one strip? Why cut to Becky if there was no intention of following that thread for a while? In terms of sequencing, it’s weird.
Probably because that strip is actually important and isn’t just going to be “Becky waits a bit for Leslie to show up”.
Maybe Becky decides on something else (Robin?), but Willis wanted to show that she’d tried to talk to Leslie first. And the timing meant there needed to be delay?
Worst case, that Leslie bonus strip was misleading.
*sighs*
On the one hand, it’s nice that she wants to fix this. But it feels really cavalier the way she’s imagining that she even*can* fix it in the first place.
The fact that I was briefly drawn into the lightness for my lips to twitch adds to that. We shouldn’t be humorous here, damn it!
I don’t want to tell anyone what to do, but the comic might be more pleasant if you let yourself enjoy whatever about it you find even slightly funny? It’s not as though DoJo are likely to go away any time soon, regardless of how diligent readers may or may not be in hating them, so it might be better to at least try to make the most of it?
No thanks
My distaste for the momentum getting thrown out the window (yet again, like clockwork) is only matched by my slow realization that this is, in fact, Joyce getting ready to Make Things Even Worse, and goddamn we really unironically need that energy in the comic right now.
I’m going to quit reading the comments. I’m tired of the carping and kvetching.
Good plan!
Or you could just skip past the bit that’s explicitly labeled “hater containment thread”?
Or they can just not read the comments. There’s no harm in it.
Ok!
Sounds good champ
The absolute arrogance of Joyce thinking she can be some savior that fixes a relationship that has zero to do with her is astounding. Like, actually felt myself physically cringe reading these panels.
Never underestimate the power of a lesbian love sleuth.
If Joyce and Dorothy really want Becky and Dina to get back together, I think this plan would be a terrible way to do it. Maybe they could just encourage Becky to actually talk with Dina about the status of their relationship instead. Considering how shitty they’ve been towards a lot of other characters lately, maybe Joyce and Dorothy aren’t the best people for fixing other relationships.
Yes! That’s the joke! Joyce really believes this is how social relationships work!
THANK YOU THANK YOU this strip really flew over people’s heads.
I get that we were all dumb at that age but this is outright actively getting dumber. How is Dorothy not cringing with second hand embarrassment right now
Joyce never misses an opportunity to treat Dina like an annoying child. Before I was pretty sure Dina would get violent, now I’m certain she’s gonna beat Joyce with hammers.
Dina will definitely be offended if she realizes this is what Joyce thinks of her reasoning abilities, yeah.
Offended?!?!?!?!
“Offended” honestly wouldn’t even BEGIN TO COVER IT
🤬🤬🤬
No hammers needed. She has her teeth and claws. She once destroyed Amber’s shirt.
The last time I saw two college-aged people get into a relationship where they acted this indulgently towards each other and this defensively to people outside the relationship, they eventually started an internet-famous cult.
(admittedly, I would probably really enjoy the twist if these two somehow formed the Dexter and Monkey Master/Hummie the Hymnal cinematic universe version of the FF7 House, but I doubt that’s where THIS particular lesbian time bomb is going)
Wait hold on did you actually know the FF7 house folks
Yeah hold UP
Wait, what’s this about a cult?
Joyce it’s an admirable effort but I’m afraid any dinosaur “””””facts””””” you look up will only end up worsening the situation and may earn you a bite.
she’s going to say something about how Tyrannosaurus rex was exclusively a scavenger or something and there’s going to be violence
Becky was going to ask for bites for her birthday
being so bad at dino facts it’d make dina miss becky? lol
Who wants to help out, what’s a dinosaur fact that could be relevant to this situation?
No known dinosaurs who died before 15000 BC have been proven not to have owned a PS2.
Joyce’s current primary interest is lust for women, therefore:
“Did you know that when a human has breasts large enough to inhibit the range of motion of their arms, the phenomenon is known as T-Rex Tits in comparison to a tyrannosaur’s stubby limbs?”
But that’s a human fact, and it could well in fact backfire as Dina finds some objection to the terminology
They did not say the fact had to be helpful
Did you make that up just then or is that really a thing people say?
Did I stutter?
https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=T%20rex%20tits
I see two definitions that agree with yours, one that defines it as some kind of sex move, and one that defines it as small breasts instead 😐
As tits are apex predators, all can be true
Tits are small birds in the Paridae family. Birds are the modern descendants of dinosaurs (and so are taxonomically dinosaurs themselves). Therefore relevant.
A dinosaur fact I think is neat is that lots of dinosaurs’ huge tails acted as counter-balances, helping them stand and walk and also shifting their centers of mass toward their hind-legs.
Now, Dina certainly already knows such facts as this, so what you’ve got to do is take this basic fact and rework it into a question inviting deeper discussion. Joyce will not do this.
“Since birds are dinosaurs, when we call two people lovebirds, we’re technically calling them dinosaurs.”
Did you know that female dinosaurs likely had clitorises, and in fact one preserved dinosaur cloaca has been preserved intact?
Have you considered that horned dinosaurs such as Triceratops and Styracosaurus developed their elaborate and varied head structure formations to attract potential mates! Becky just got a new haircut! Quick! Grab her before another dinosaur snaps her up!
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/everything-you-want-know-about-sex-lives-dinosaurs-scratching-ground-battling-with-horns-173015/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinosaur_reproduction
(I tried to find evidence that dinosaurs mated for life, as many bird species do, but apparently there’s evidence of parental care for hadrosaur juveniles, not necessarily from both parents though.)
Did you know that large dinosaurs may have needed to mate underwater, so that their bouyancy would help support their massive weight? Just saying. I mean, the dorm showers are right there… might be the perfect spot for a little dinosaur-style makeup sex.
Not to mention the swimming pool as an option…
https://www.earth.com/news/how-did-dinosaurs-have-sex-mate-and-reproduce-fossil-evidence-offers-clues/
“Relevant” strip: https://www.dumbingofage.com/2022/comic/book-12/04-dont-stop-billie-ving/heeheeheeheehee/
I’m amazed Bad Dragon hasn’t made a version of it yet.
Someone set up a sweepstake where we bet on who makes the first post complaining when it’s a Joyce & Dorothy strip.
Easiest money i ever made in my life
I feel like you shouldn’t be allowed to bet on yourself
Sorry, I checked the rules and it’s an Air Bud situation. There’s no rule expressly forbidding it and therefore we have to allow it.
The seems strangely fair. The outcome is inevitable in either case.
On the internet, no one knows you’re a dog posting in the hater’s thred
jokes on you, you gotta pay the person who bet on you 😛
I thought we were gonna stay with Becky, but alas.
Big same. Was really hoping to see Leslie and Becky talk for at least a couple more consecutive strips.
Not much more to do with that at the moment I guess. She’s looking for her lesbimom but hasn’t found her yet. So, assuming there’s a reason she can’t find leslie for a bit, it’s either this or Becky disappears from the narrative for a little bit without us knowing what she’s up to
well it’d be astrip of her awkwardly waiting and monologuing if elslie’s not there
Would honestly be quite funny if every third strip was a Becky monologue; That conversation could go places.
Either Joyce’s explanation imagery or Joyce’s art looks suspiciously similar to Willis’ line art
It’s been established all character thoughts look like line art.
Still it’s almost eerily like Joyce was recapitulating Willis in some respects.
I wonder why that could be.
Why is this plan so utterly stupid?
That’s a qualified Lesbian Love Sleuth you’re disparaging there.
I want her license revoked.
Sleuths don’t solve problems! They just prove it exists! Joyce would know this, if she was allowed to read noir growing up!
Joyce is currently putting all of brain power into smooching Dottie and everything else is turned off.
Her brain is now just a lump of electrically charged fat that houses lil versions of Joyce in an office.
All of them pointing at a white board that only has “Finger blast Dorothy like she’s a vending machine that didn’t drop your Funions.” written on it.
Because she hasn’t found the perfect dinosaur fact to tie it all together just yet.
Because Joyce doesn’t actually respect Dina as a person with internality.
Yup. She sees her as just an automaton that just needs to be fed the correct stimulus to provide a required effect.
You phrased that very well…The fact that she’s so happy with her idea and Dorothy is encouraging it is just…ugh.
I recognize Joyce has had more positive interactions with Dina since these strips but I suspect she still sort of thinks of Dina that way, yeah
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2022/comic/book-12/03-trial-and-sarah/notweirdatall/
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2022/comic/book-13/01-bring-me-to-life-drawing/perceive/
HOOoo boi! I forgot these strips! Thanks for bringing them back. Dina absolutely has been getting weird asshole vibes from Joyce, and part of me feels the only reason Joyce even began to be kinder to Dina is because they have something in common (relation to Becky and Neurodivergent). That being said, Joyce seems to still struggle to treat Dina as an equal instead of a robot child.
So, the premise of the webcomic Dumbing of Age is, a sheltered hormonal fundamentalist protestant freshman called Joyce meets a sheltered hormonal politically naive atheist freshman called Dorothy, and they’ve both got a lot of learning to do.
Sounds improbable.
It needs invading aliens or something for balance.
Sometimes other characters show up, but they don’t really matter, much like the neighbors or co-workers in other situation comedies.
Let’s not.
I admit, I don’t even think Dorothy and Joyce are endgame.
This is just the latest relationship of the characters.
That’s not especially relevant to me explaining why the plan is so utterly stupid.
Just saying that people make way too much of things when this is a long ongoing process of finding yourself.
And it’s not me shipping Dorothy and Becky!
This plan is perfect, 9011 out of 10, no notes.
Because despite guilt and good-intentions, she doesn’t have any standing to fix the issue. The only people who do are Becky and Dina. Does no one else fantasize about implausible ways they could magically solve the problems they see in the world?
I fantasize about having Magneto powers so never have to worry about traffic again.
This isn’t an implausible way she could magically solve a problem. This is one idiot coming up with a half witted plan and another idiot agreeing.
I mean if someone told me this plan IRL I’d assume they were joking
A brilliant, and no doubt foolproof, plan.
Yes. Foolproof. It proves they are fools.
I do feel like Dina would at least accept a “DINOSAURS” shirt as a gift.
Dig it.
The art in this strip. No notes.
So…
Did anyone else visit Bluesky a while back and catch a preview scene of Dina in her pajamas angrily glaring daggers towards someone at her door?
*sips straw* Just wondering.
I hope Dorothy is working on a Plan B.
Since they’re both lesbians now, she hopefully won’t need any Plan B
I have to assume that whatever she said out loud to explain this plan to Dorothy was a hell of a lot more convincing than what we’re seeing here. The only other explanation is that Dorothy somehow thinks that doing this can actually solve this probleeaagh, dangit.
Or Dorothy’s humouring her / being sarcastic
All it’s missing is the pat on the head.
Your avatar syncs up oddly well with that comment.
She seems to have actually drawn the plan. Which is a weird choice when she and Dorothy were together when she found out, and then went to get lunch together.
I could get it if she was in class after knowing, but huh?
The sketchy style is how Willis communicates something being imagined by a character, Joyce isn’t quite this far enough along as an artist.
I took the wrapper in front of her as paper she was drawing on. Its not like characters imagine things that often.
Alright.
The sensible thing to do would be to leave her alone, because Joyce Specifically absolutely does not have anything to do with THIS relationship disaster. They’re not going to do the sensible thing, and I’m going to enjoy it incredibly.
She doesn’t have anything to do with this relationship disaster yet
Okay I don’t know why this is what got me thinking, but it got me thinking that Joyce and Dorothy are going to accidentally convince Dina that breaking up is the best thing to do, so then Dina goes and gets back with Becky just to spite them.
“I can do all things through spite, which strengthens me.” ― A.J. Sherwood, A Mage’s Guide to Human Familiars
Fully living up to the comic’s name today, I see.
What is in Joyce’s mouth and why is Dorothy’s one folded?
They’re at Taco Bell. Joyce is eating a taco or burrito, and Dorothy is having a Crunchwrap.
That’s kinda surprising, given Joyce can’t eat meals where different foods are touching each other. Is not the point of a burrito to ensure that rice, meat, beans, guac and what have you are all touching each other as much as possible while you eat them?
I mean it could be a cheesy roll-up
I think the last time they went to Taco Bell, Joyce got a burrito with just beans in it.
Don’t talk with your mouth full.
Why not?
Because you need to breathe to talk, preventing closure of the epiglottis, which leaves you at risk of inhaling food and choking.
Adults do.
Adults also choke, but less often and usually less fatally (less fatal?) than children because they have had more practice.
So we should practice?
We already know Joyce doesn’t have a gag reflex, she’ll be fine.
Mmmm.
Gagging and choking are different things. In fact, gagging is a reflex meant to help *prevent* choking.
your avatar is perfect for this reply. It is perfection.
Absolutely nothing can possibly go wrong with this plan, and I unreservedly endorse it.
I am oddly reassured.
i mean whats the worst that can happen
Dina could roar and bite and hunt them for sport
They asked what the worst that could happen was, not the best.
The words “unmitigated disaster” are flashing up on my screen, must be a bug of some kind.
Dina would absolutely own a tshirt that just plaintext says “dinosaurs”
the only X-factor is whether or not the font is helvetica
“Joyce…is this just a Chick Tract you replaced the dialogue for so it’s about lesbianism, not proselytisation?”
“They say good writers borrow, but great writers steal.”
“Who?”
“English majors.”
Someone’s getting dangerously close to the truth…
It’s true, we do.
(And the greatest of writers get stolen from, forever after.)
I and others have frequently accused Joyce of viewing her life through the lens of narratives, and so it’s nice to see her out here just proving us all right. She really thinks she’s the main character of a story, lmao.
To be fair, she is.
What an absurd notion. Someone needs to explain to her, this is real life, not some fantasy.
/s
Joyce needs to open her eyes, look up to the skies, and actually see for once.
Well, what can we expect?
She’s just a poor girl. She needs no sympathy.
Also, it seems she just killed a man?
fuck it, that’s girlboss behavior, she gets a pass
Eh, easy come, easy go.
You can’t tell an artist where they find inspiration. I know from experience.
Willis seems VERY inspired by Joyce and Dorothy.
I’m not saying its bad, I love them, but there’s a lot of them lately.
Too much is never enough.
Reminds me of an old MTV slogan…back when the M meant Music not Miscellaneous.
Screaming like Spider-Man as the Becky subplot slips through my fingers
Points and laughs.
(Watch out for Mike,)
But Willis doesn’t want to cure Becky; he wants to turn people on to Dina Saurus
I hope Dina talks to Sarah. Not that Sarah will necessarily be very useful. But Dina and Sarah used to talk a lot and I miss that.
im really curious what she might say since it was her who clocked dina/becky as being a rebound relationship 84 years ago
which must makes even more awkward for sarah to be joyces roomie rn jesus
….oh no. oh no oh no oh no
this
I sincerely hope she doesnt actually go ahead with this dumbass plan
if she does, she might as well visit the morgue and pick out a nice freezer 👀
I see no flaws in this plan
ok, Willis, you can confess that you also sketch a difficult human interaction you must have one day ( I do this, too)
My favourite part about Joyce’s plan is that she’s self-aware enough to realize that Dina finding her words compelling would be unusual and surprising, but not self-aware enough to realize what this means about the plan’s prospects of success. I also love that she pretty much nails Dina’s reaction to Joyce actually being persuasive.
who knows, amybe it’d work better if she was like “Don’t get back together” tho dina isn’t the type t o do the opposite outta spite
Not really for spite, no.
But here’s a thing she did the opposite of because people were being stupid about it:
Safe
Hypotheses
(I really feel like this only proves your point.)
“It’s over, Dina! I have the high ground!”
Dina’s t-Shirt just writing “Dinosaurs” is the icing on this scenario. lol
reminds me of steve buschemi’s ‘music band’ shirt in that ‘hello fellow kids’ ep
Also the time Joyce wrote ‘Robots’ on Walky’s shirt in order to attract Amber.
i mean it’s good to be optimistic but maybe they should check up on amber too. tho it’d be hilariously messed up if dina somehow had a new gf by the time joyce bumps into her again
I wouldn’t ship Dina with Amber but I could totally ship Dina and Amazi-Girl
This isn’t actually related to this particular strip, but it’s been eating at my brain for ages at this point, and there’s probably no “right” moment to deploy it, so here it goes now: I would just like to gently remind some readers of this comic that there is no one pointing a gun at their heads and forcing them to read it, certainly not to read it every single day, and CERTAINLY not to leave daily comments. If you can’t stand the characters and hate the direction of the writing, you are allowed to leave. Or, hell, keep dragging the comic offsite! Lord knows “this comic used to be good but now it sucks and I will explain in detail why” is not a new sort of genre! But some of y’all are at the point of being full-on “bongo-Eating-Crackers” mode about the *main character* of the comic you ready every single day, and idk, that just doesn’t seem like fun to me?
I just am really, really tired of feeling like Charlie Brown with the football every time I foolishly open the comments section here.
Yeah I don’t get it either. Don’t seem like a fun way to spend time.
95% of the internet is people complaining about something idkwym. :p
I live here
Sounds like that would be solved by not opening the comments anymore?
No, you misunderstand: THEY wanted OTHER people to change, so THEY’D be happier. It doesn’t do anything for them if THEY have to change THEIR behavior to be happier. It’s the other people who are wrong.
There is no one pointing a gun at your head and forcing you to open the comments section, and certainly not to read the comments every day.
It wasn’t all that long ago that i agreed with you. It’s really easy for me to get invested in the negativity and have a bad time. But the more I actually read the HCT, the more i have come to understand that these are not people who hate the comic. These are mostly people who love the comic and do not love *this arc* for whatever reason. For them, this is a bad season of a wonderful thing. And while i do think a few people would benefit from lightening up a little bit, I’m not going to keep telling anyone that they shouldn’t talk about the things they like just because they don’t like it right now. That’s not gonna keep things healthy here.
Andi, you have asked me previously not to interact with you, and I hope you will forgive me this one breaking of my word so that I can thank you for this reasonable and thoughtful defense of the perspective of people who disagree with you. Certainly, there are reactionary naysayers in the comments, including the HCT, but I would hope that the overwhelming majority are as you say – people who love the strip but just can’t love this arc, for whatever reason. DoA is a wonderful strip, and Willis is a wonderful creative who has made a large impact on my own creative pursuits. I think you hit the nail on the head with your comparison here – for me and many others this feels like a weak season of a show that I’d been otherwise loving. Whatever critiques I have, however much some elements of the current storyline make me want to pull my hair out, the thought of leaving would never cross my mind, because sooner or later we’re going to get to things I love again.
Now, let me apologize to you again and go back to getting out of your hair. I hope you’re having a wonderful holiday season!
Thank you for the kind words, Dot, and thank you for reaching out. I’ve been debating with myself about the appropriateness of reaching out to you with an apology. I know I took a rather rude tone when I asked you not to talk to me anymore, and I wish that I hadn’t. I’m at a place where I’d rather make the effort to temper my own attitude and make space for good conversations. If you’re open to talking, so am I, and I will no longer ask you not to talk to me.
Absolutely, no hard feelings at all, and no apology necessary, although it’s kind that you had the thought for it.
This sort of comment will never be taken in good faith regardless of its intent.
That said, “well no one’s making you read our comments” is such a weird rejoinder. Like, surely yall know that’s a very different thing to say, right?
Rurouni Idoru’s not the one making the DoA comic a mostly unpleasant experience for you.
Meanwhile, the overwhelming negativity in the comments, where at least a third are now reliably within the HCT and a bunch others spread throughout, is definitely something you are all contributing to.
The comment section is not becoming steadily more and more negative because more and more readers are upset with Willis: it’s turning more and more negative because readers like Rurouni Idoru go to look at the comments, see overwhelming negativity, and no longer feel like trying to join the conversation.
inb4: I didn’t tell any of you to stop reading, or to stop commenting, or to do anything at all. Hate-reading is a time-honored pastime. Etc etc etc.
But I dislike misunderstandings, and the last time I said I mentioned that I was sure the comments were gonna keep getting more and more overwhelmed by negativity, a bunch of yall told me, essentially, that you were sorry Willis had done this.
And yes, in multiple ways, Willis is ultimately responsible. This storyline has been divisive, and they continue to have a mostly hands-off approach to comment moderation.
But no. My certainty that the comment section is going to eventually be nothing but the HTC is not really because of Willis. It’s because for months and months, the background radiation of this comment section has been very hostile to positivity. For a while, SO hostile that positive comments literally got dogpiled by people explaining at length why they were wrong.
It’s not that bad anymore, but it doesn’t have to be. The few positive comments that still get made on Joyce/Dorothy strips are anemic. “This is cute.” There’s nothing of substance to respond to, and to even find them you have to scroll past pages of robust “hater” comments. Increasingly it feels like you don’t belong here. This isn’t your bar, your friends have stopped coming… why are you even still here?
Hence, Charlie Brown and the football.
Speaking as someone who is still trying to rep Joyrothy positivity, I think you’re very much right, but part of the problem is also that it’s just easier to complain than to compliment. If you really like a strip, it’s hard, at least for me, to say much more than “I love Joyce and Dorothy, they make me feel warm and fuzzy inside.” Whereas if you hate something, it’s easy and feels rewarding to tear it apart in great detail. This is why people enjoy reading negative movie reviews more than positive ones.
Sure, that’s like… maybe 10% of the issue I was talking about.
But we all know the comments used to be pretty evenly divided between “paladins” and “sickos”, and that these days most of the positivity comes in the form of a person leaving their first-ever comment, before looking around at the rest of the “patrons” in this metaphorical bar and deciding not to come back.
Or else it’s “positivity” (sarcastic quotes) like the top comment on this thread, to the effect of “I like this comic, I dislike the comment section”.
Which then gets shouted down, even though you KNOW it’s not an unpopular opinion, because most of the regular commenters are part of the negativity, and those few of us who aren’t… are tired and don’t want to start fights, even in defense of a take we agree with.
>because readers like Rurouni Idoru go to look at the comments, see overwhelming negativity, and no longer feel like trying to join the conversation
Yeah, I used to enthusiastically read the comments and occasionally participate, but these days I mostly try to avoid them. It’s depressing.
Yep.
And I mostly don’t think it’s anything anyone is doing on purpose. (The dogpiling was on purpose.) It just… is.
Welp, … She has a concept of a plan.
J: “Dina! Get back together with Becky!”
D: “What? I do not recall breaking up with Becky.”
J: “Yay! It worked!”
Just those minor, unimportant details to work out.
So what’s definitely gonna happen is that Joyce and Dorothy are gonna get sucked into doing a whole vaudeville routine to convince Dina to get back together with Becky, and at the end of it Dina’s just gonna be like “we were broken up?”
Only solution that ends with Willis’s life spared
I think it’s been very easy to dislike Joyce and Dorothy lately, especially Joyce in my opinion, but I find this strip rather charming even as it highlights a possible negative trait of Joyce’s which is inserting herself over other people’s relationships. That’s bad, but her logic is amusing and it’s nice to know she means well.
I think it’s actually pretty difficult to write characters that are acting obnoxious while still meant to be endearing and I think this strip executed that well.
As someone whose favorite character in the entire strip is Dina, and who hasn’t been enjoying a lot of Joyce’s writing lately…
I chuckled. This was a good strip. Come on, people, it’s not that serious.
Eleven percent of a plan!
Sudden (and Righteous) Joyce!
Joyce’s understanding of T-shirts being just “plain text of the thing you like” being a recurring joke is very, very funny.
XD
…oh, she hasn’t even considered that Becky did the breaking up. Oh, dear.
But she didn’t? I can see Becky believing that Dina broke up with her, but Becky definitely didn’t break up with Dina.
Of course Joyce’s imagine spot would basically be a Chick tract.
This is maybe the dumbest plan Joyce has ever made. I love it!
Y’all will never be happy. This comment section was just the text vomit of miserable people. Stop pretending you hate Joyce for cheating, you just hate Joyce. And the comic strip that you feel compelled to comment on.
Who are you?
This is my house, I’ve lived here for fifteen years
I’m sorry but are you arguing that fans complaining is not a sign of being a fan?
That is like the very definition of it.
You can’t trust people who like the thing they love.
There’s some real truth to that. Steam tells me I have played 6,500 hours of Stardew Valley, If you get me started, I could spend just as many hours telling you about every tiny thing about that game that I hate. Conversely, I couldn’t tell you three things I don’t like about Dark Souls because I didn’t like it enough to keep plying it. I don’t think most people put that much time and energy into thinking about things they don’t like unless they see something underneath to like better.
I don’t hate anything here i’m just destuctive. Like an amnimal.
I chew on the metaphorical furniture.
I don’t hate Joyce, she’s a very compelling character, she’s just been acting careless for the past 200 strips or something like that. I’ve acted careless before too.
Also this particular strip is really funny.
If there’s ever a storyline focusing primarily on Dina, I hope so much that the book title is Dumbing of Age, Book ##: [dinosaur fact I will look up later]
Avoiding coloring by making the “sketch” nature of the strip part of the visual style. I see your ploy, Willis.
(it’s a good ploy)
Saving time in the stylization is a trick as old as comics.