I like how the neurodivergent person says something and the neurotypicals all inject some erroneous motivation into it. Joyce just wants to express a thing and everyone jumps to “that’s not as shocking as you think it is”. Ok, I don’t recall saying it was shocking. I’m just excited. Your shocked reaction or lack thereof was not included in my mental calculus to tell you a thing.
I sincerely doubt Taffy has problems with a woman being silly. That being said Joyce is a little weirdo, and I feel like almost everyone around her could agree.
She’s perfectly valid in getting silly with it. What is not valid is the utter lack of self-awareness in saying this in front of the friend who is the ex of the gf you cheated with.
It’s going exactly how I expected. My desire for friction was almost entirely dependent on Lucy or Jacob and Lucy never fails to disappoint me lol. It’s up to Jacob to hop on that high horse now, he’s the “honestly-kinda-too-judgmental” friend. If he’s also 100% cool with it, I call BS. Bro was upset with Joyce over the cheating he himself committed (which she started with the romcom shenanigans but like… it was his choice to follow through) lol.
I honestly think Jacob might be more upset by his own cheating than other people cheating. I mean, personally, I hold myself to a different standard than other people. Like, when other people cheat or do wrong, I give them the benefit of the doubt. No such benefit can really be given to myself.
Galasso probably had it figured out before her, and when he was asked what his sexuality was, he responded “Fool, we don’t serve TEA at Galasso’s Pizza (and subs), sexual or otherwise!”
At this point, I can only hope karma will correct some of her transgressions… and what of poor, forgotten Joe? Walky’s hurting, but Joe has yet to have ANY resolution, ffs! When’s gonna be my time, Lord?
Why would he do that? Joyce did it for true love that means everything is justified and he should be congratulating her! Haven’t you seen how sweet she is /s
But for real someone has got to say something to her right? Surely tomorrow’s strip isnt just more “well we all knew it would happen so your behavior is fine”
He’d be the most justified ngl. Joyce has either no empathy about who she hurts in pursuit of her happiness with Dorothy, or a shocking lack of regard for someone who is supposed to be her friend, or absolutely no self-awareness of why continuing to gloat after seeing Walky might be what we like to call a dick move.
I appreciate Lucy’s polite “get over yourself, this surprises no one” and Sal just not touching the subject, though. Voices of reason here.
Interesting as well that there’s been zero comment from Jacob here, given he also has a pretty good reason to go “well, I thought you were a sweet girl but you led me to emotionally cheat on Raidah and broke us up, and then it seems you cheated on Joe and are now being an ass to Walky”.
Speaking of Joe, hope he’s doing alright. See also Dina and Becky…
Oh man, is there some science on how emotions affect your memories? I’m really sure now that I let most of the cringe slide because I used to like her…
I have a bad feeling that the result of all the “lol, everybody saw this coming” jokes will be that Joyce concludes she actually did nothing wrong. This will carry through to biology in which she will find a way to make Joe, Becky, and Dina feel even worse about the situation.
I still predict she will try to fuck Joe at least one time before breaking it off.
I actually disagree. I think Willis is setting both Joyce and Dorothy up for a nasty fall. Dorothy’s already starting to crack from the dual pressures of reckoning with her political illiteracy and failing to justify her actions as an exception to the rule. Joyce is on track to alienate her entire friend group either by hurting them directly or being even more cringe than usual. Sooner or later she’s going to get hit with an extreme negative reaction she can’t paper over with her and Dorothy’s “true love.”
I also kinda think that a little bit of comeupance might be coming *eventually*, but I still am frustrated with the pacing. I realize the overall pace of the comic makes this tricky. But still, I wish we’d get to it faster somehow instead of seeing so many saccharine Joyce/Dorothy moments that I really would’ve enjoyed much more if they’d been held until the dust had settled. There could’ve easily been more Becky screentime the last few weeks instead.
I think some of that might be deliberate on the grounds that 1) I’ve been reading Willis for a decade and am well acquainted with their brand of sadism and 2) Willis wants us to feel how obnoxious their relationship is to everyone else in Joyce and Dorothy’s orbit. Notice how nobody’s said anything positive about this development.
I think it’s important here to note the anger at Joyce specifically for slighting Walky may be misplaced. Dorothy is the one we should be pissed at for this. She’s currently experiencing a different kind of hell. I would actually love to see Joe here witnessing how his ex is behaving after cheating on him. This needs to be a full wild fire.
Regarding Dorothy, yes, she’s the one we should be angry with, but unlike Joyce, she still feels guilty, and it’s incredibly sad that she’s deceiving herself and believing her actions are some kind of “exception.”
Before that treacherous kiss, Dorothy was already carrying a heavy burden of hatred. Yes, she messed up, but that hatred had reached unjust levels.
And seeing that level of hatred continue to grow with all of this has only made me remain neutral with the character. I don’t hate her, but what she did makes me sad and angry.
She rubbed it in Walkys face and thats when I straight up started disliking Joyce isntead of just rolling my eyes. That was just being mean to be mean. Anger is not misplaced and they are both in the wrong for different reasons when it comes to Walky.
I’ve said it many times before that it feels like there is a double standard here where Joyce is horrible for mocking Walky in the very same spirit he would mock her emotions for Dorothy when he was dating her. I don’t understand why.
I can only speak for myself here. And I think both have taken it too far at times.
The difference (at least, to me) is that Walky mostly mocked Joyce for her relationships. With Dorothy, with her religion. Yes, he also made some backhanded remarks about her upbringing, and he called her ‘brainwashed’ once, which was definitely not great. But many of his remarks, while mean, mostly were attacks on her beliefs and upbringing.
Joyce’s attacks were typically on Walky’s character. She would call him a troll, jerk, disgusting, etc. They felt generally more personal. There’s also the part where she shows a blatant lack of compassion or empathy for Walky. When Walky made a mean remark, he later apologised (even if it was at the behest of Dorothy). This is Joyce’s first interaction after she laughed at Walky while yanking Dorothy away, and she’s just rubbing it in his face.
So yeah, that’s part of why I feel Joyce has been meaner to Walky than the other way round.
You put it pretty well.
Joyce and Walky always rib each other but often times the source and nature of what Joyce is mocking and how Joyce mocks him rubs me the wrong way. I can’t express it in any other way than saying that not all teasing is equivalent teasing.
In the same way Becky’s “bit” about hating Dorothy also often rubbed me the wrong way because at a certain point it was almost indistinguishable from Bullying.
I don’t know what to believe anymore or where the line is on the Joyce v Walky rivalry. I used to think they crossed the line of simple sibling rivalry long ago and they were both just being jerks. I don’t know how this is worse than Walky calling Joyce a lesbian multiple times and bragging about getting to make out with Dorothy in front of her. I agree that at some point this behavior just becomes bullying but it only seems to be bullying when Joyce does it to Walky. It all feels bad to me. To me Joyce and Walky has been nothing but two romantic rivals competing over a girl in the most toxic way possible while being told “Hey they’re still friends. This is all cute and fun sibling bickering.” But like no it’s not. Walky has siblings and even his relationship with Jennifer who shoved him in lockers mind you, was never this level of petty and antagonistic.
I also despised the Becky performative rivalry stuff too. I can accept Becky as a fictional character doing stuff I disagree with for gags or whatever but don’t piss on me and tell me it’s rain. Especially now that she’s having a full crisis of faith thanks to her it’s totally performative rival stealing her not girl.
If shit gets dire enough with Becky, Dina might be tempted to take out her frustration on Joyce. They’ve had problems before and she could justify it to herself as payback for Joyce blowing up her spot.
Remember when people had conversations? Remember when people reacted to things that happened?
Now it’s just Joyce and / or Dorothy saying the same thing over and over and over again while everyone else goes yeah okay and the cycle repeats. Nobody else seems to care about it, but Doyce is the only thing the comic cares about now so it’s just the story equivalent of styrofoam.
The last however many months could be cut down by a quarter and nothing of any consequence would be lost.
Everyone keeps saying it’s building to something but all I can think of is the potential man meme. Putting up with months of the plot spinning its wheels because something *might* happen is not at all compelling.
It’s bad writing, bad pacing, and extremely disappointing because prior to this things actually happened and even if I didn’t like them I could see why others did but this is just baffling why people are enjoying this.
Every time Doyce appears, I prefer not to say anything; in fact, I’ve been almost completely silent. But with this thread, at least we can vent better, and yes, I want to believe that Dorothy becomes interesting again when she’s not with Joyce, and the latest strips seem to show that.
I think this is again a symptom of possibly DoA’s biggest flaw and most legitimate criticism which is pacing. This is a flaw a lot if not possibly all strip a day format comics and webcomics in general have. Imagine reading a typical 18 page manga chapter at one page a day or even just 4 or 5 panels a day. It would take weeks to finish a chapter. It takes forever for anything to happen when reading in real time but I think the Doyce era will ultimately be a small blip when reading in book form. I’m not even sure we’re building to something as much as we’re just cleaning up fallout and establishing a new working equilibrium in character relationships from Doyce happening.
i’ve been reading DOA for a while and I don’t usually comment, and maybe I haven’t been reading long enough to really “know” Joe, but currently I am am 100% caught up on “what about Joe???” when it comes to Dorothy/Joyce situation
Clearly Joyce is more “at home” and happy now, but (and this feels terrible to say this as a gay) she was adorable with Joe, and she’s insufferable now lol
I’ve actually spoken with quite a few of my lesbian friends who’ve stated that the preferred Jojo to Doyce and how they’re conflicted cuz thy’re usually all in on lesbian ships and some even usually hate straight ships.
Kinda crazy the dichotomy between the two couples.
I’m gay and was rooting for Joe to get with a man, and despite my disliking of Joyce in general, was still at peace with JoJo because it was genuinely cute.
Well that’s down the river, can Joe go get a threesome with Ethan and Asher?
You would reward Asher with a threesome with not one but two tall built fuck machines!? Can we get Joe to STEAL Ethan from Asher?….After the threesome of course.
I think she was already talking as he walked outside and just caught the tail end of it.
In college before I transitioned I was in my apartment living room and someone said, “Well who hasn’t slept with your Roommate?”
I looked at all of us in the room and went, “Well, none of us, much to Roommate’s disappointment!”
We were all laughing as Roommate walked in and we all clammed up guiltily. Roommate got upset and went, “Aw c’mon!” and stormed into their room. It was all funny, just the obvious laughing cut short as they walked in. We called them back and they laughed and were ok. Roommate was very much early Joe coded at the time.
Dumb college relationships are dumb and messy. Heck people cheating in college is not even that uncommon.
But people cheating in college and behaving like Joyce has and then the whole friend group just shrugging and going “eh guess it was always going to happen” is just weird.
I get so bored of the “it ain’t Smarting of Age” argument being used to wave off stuff like this. Yes, they’re stupid college kids and they won’t act rationally always, or even often.
But the general mean-ness and over the top behavior from Joyce especially, and the lack of meaningful reactions from the rest of the cast, can’t really be explained away by that same argument.
Joyce has an awful side that is unrelated to her neuroatypical social issues and fundamentalist upbringing (well maybe not that). Basically, she loves rubbing her successes in other people’s faces and gloating.
I’m very burned out on Joyce gushing about Dorothy, but I do have to give credit for that last two-panel delivery. It’s insufferable but it’s well executed for sure.
what really sucks is how Joyce’s character has bascially eroded down to just being “I am fucking Dorothy and am going to make it everyone else’s problem!”
like we’re not getting any conflict here it’s all just “love love Dorothy love” and having her be snippy and lash out if anyone brings up the issues she is bringing up as a result like rubbing it in Walky’s face that she torpedoed his relationship with her or how she seriously hurt Joe and Becky with her actions.
Hell at this point I wouldn’t be surprised if Becky decided to try what her mother did and when Joyce finds out she calls Becky selfish for it or something like that.
There’s no way any attempt at poly from Joyce wouldn’t devolve into “I’m still seeing Joe sometimes, but we’re just not gonna tell Dorothy because I see any conflict with my one true love as an existential threat.”
Dorothy always thought Joyce was attracted to Walky. I think Charles is right. Dorothy will have minimal issues with Joyce doing it, but will need coaxing to join.
To be fair I’d argue most social relationships are smell based if you argue that people who smell really bad definitely effects the relationships they can have.
Joe called Jacob his “main man” once and they’ve had actual conversations while at the gym, I think that goes above “guy you see while working out and grunt and maybe nod at.”
They were friendly enough for Jacob to tell Joe to be careful about Joyce, which really felt out of place at the time but was apparently more or less good advice.
Jacob is also kind of self-righteous and like… yeah. I like him, but he can definitely be a little “holier-than-thou” at times and this would be a great time for him to be like that.
I live and breathe for the promise of angry Walky. I need to see this man crash out, I need it in my bones. I want him to crash out, have an angry arc, and then beat the actual hell outta incelerator somehow. Point A to Z, idk how we get there, I just know I wanna see my man rage and yell at the sun
Unfortunately, Walky is constitutionally incapable of being regular aggressive, and is currently too self-doubting to be passive aggressive. I believe that the time for Walky to get angry will come, but first must be Walky’s journey toward a sense of self based in something other than comfort-seeking and ironic detachment.
I think I said this before but if I were Walky’s friend, and I didn’t know Joyce and Dorothy’s lore, I would be barking in his ear to go nuclear on these bongos.
Joyce you’ve had that jacket for 15 minutes, there is no way Dorothy smell is on it yet. Unless she is just constantly engulfed in a cloud of perfume like a middle schooler who just discovered the magic of body mist. Or she deliberately spritzed it with something of hers before running off.
Do people still tell people to do that these days? My mom always told me to spray guys’ stuff with perfume and I can’t tell if that was normal mother-child advice or one of the weird social rules she made up (like a man needing to propose in <4 months or it being impossible to cheat outside of marriage)
I was curious about the smell too, especially if Dorothy has a certain perfume she uses. I don’t remember the smell of any of my exes, but then again I’ve lived with a smoker all my life so my nose is kinda dulled. As for the advice, that’s definitely a weird one. Like she told you to spray stuff that belonged to guys around you, with your perfume? Sounds like she was hoping that would, like, fend off other suitors or something. Main advice my mom ever gave was just “spray your neck and wrists, rub lightly” as far as where to spray my stuff.
why the hell is Joyce smelling her JACKET in the last panel? that’s the jacket that she bought this morning, it doesn’t smell like anything except store
she exchanged shirts with Dorothy, she should be smelling her shirt, like c’mon
Taking another comment section break! I’m enjoying the comic but. Mostly don’t feel like I’m enjoying the conversation rn, and I definitely don’t feel like I’m being the kind of chill positive presence I wanna be.
Only announcing because I know folks get worried sometimes over names disappearing. Just in case. We’ve all got enough stress rn without unnecessarily adding to it, I figure.
I can assure you have been one of the most chill people in these comments. I think sometimes you are a bit hard in yourself for not being always positive, ehich i think it’s unrealistic to expect of yourself. Gonna miss you and hope you have a nice break.
I recently was reading the arc back in 2022 where Joyce is getting confronted by Dina about being spanked as a kid, and I found an old comment of mine complaining that seemingly every character was getting on Joyce’s case, calling her out, or passing moral judgment on her.
Kind of funny to think about that complaint in context of this arc, where I actually wish most of the characters would get on her case MORE.
This light snark is a decent appetizer but I wish to FEAST on the disapproval of her acquaintances!
I think if you asked Joyce and Walky two days ago (their time), they’d tell you it’s mostly banter and call the other their friend. Joyce would say it through gritted teeth and not fully understand why. Walky would crack wise about Joyce’s undying love for Dorothy, but wouldn’t laugh about it like he used to.
I wonder if Walky has picked up on how much more “real” Joyce’s animosity towards him feels now.
Just gonna make a little jot down of “Joyce directly stating that Dorothy smells attractive” for the people who kept insisting Joyce being in love with Dorothy came out of nowhere…
Walky needs to either blow up on Joyce or freeze her out completely. Anything in between means we’ll find Walky’s self-respect buried several miles beneath the Earth’s crust.
So we’re doing an “obnoxious baby gay” Joyce story to match the “obnoxious baby atheist” story huh. That tracks since Joyce didn’t actually learn any lessons about not applying her fundie thought processes to new ways of thinking and just learned to be quiet around Becky, an outcome I’m not sure she can get away with again.
Is the point of the current arc just to make Joyce the most insufferable possible character you could write? Cause i feel thats all that’s been accomplished the past 6 months
Loading ...
The fun thing about autism is that you’re always the last to learn something about yourself
😛 In the same way I was the last one to know I was Neurodivergent
As somebody who was diagnosed with autism literally last week, I resemble that statement!
I like how the neurodivergent person says something and the neurotypicals all inject some erroneous motivation into it. Joyce just wants to express a thing and everyone jumps to “that’s not as shocking as you think it is”. Ok, I don’t recall saying it was shocking. I’m just excited. Your shocked reaction or lack thereof was not included in my mental calculus to tell you a thing.
Little weirdo
god forbid a woman get a little silly with it
Willis seems fine with it.
I sincerely doubt Taffy has problems with a woman being silly. That being said Joyce is a little weirdo, and I feel like almost everyone around her could agree.
She’s not that little, looks around average height
It’s relative; I’m tall, so she’s little to me.
Not compared to Joe and Jacob.
Some people feel little no matter their actual height. It is odd. Like, not dismissively either.
About 5.5 heads high? Average is 7.25? Though she’s a cartoon so she might be taller in the live action telenovela.
oh i’m not accusing taffy of anything, i’m just broadly lamenting
because i’m a broad and i feel the need to lament
Women can and should get a little silly with it. My girlfriend is extremely silly with it, and she’s a woman.
She’s perfectly valid in getting silly with it. What is not valid is the utter lack of self-awareness in saying this in front of the friend who is the ex of the gf you cheated with.
Huh, this is not going how I expected.
It’s going exactly how I expected. My desire for friction was almost entirely dependent on Lucy or Jacob and Lucy never fails to disappoint me lol. It’s up to Jacob to hop on that high horse now, he’s the “honestly-kinda-too-judgmental” friend. If he’s also 100% cool with it, I call BS. Bro was upset with Joyce over the cheating he himself committed (which she started with the romcom shenanigans but like… it was his choice to follow through) lol.
I honestly think Jacob might be more upset by his own cheating than other people cheating. I mean, personally, I hold myself to a different standard than other people. Like, when other people cheat or do wrong, I give them the benefit of the doubt. No such benefit can really be given to myself.
I think there could still be hope for Lucy to keep going. Joyce got the punchline but Lucy might have more to say!
Joyce really was the last to know, huh.
Galasso probably had it figured out before her, and when he was asked what his sexuality was, he responded “Fool, we don’t serve TEA at Galasso’s Pizza (and subs), sexual or otherwise!”
Wait, this DoA universe Galasso knows what sex is??
I love how proud Joyce is of her girlfriend. She also got a rare Sal compliment.
Poor timing by Walky. He’s probably wishing he stayed in bed right now.
Walky will survive this, and I suspect if he gets back with Amber then any animosity between him and Joyce will be minimal.
Hm… Walky/Amber and Joyce/Dorothy double dates?
Gremlin Joyce gotta be one of my favorite Joyces
Verily, the anti-Joyce walks among us.
Don’t trust smells.
Joyce actually showing restraint.
She could have easily shoved her fingers in Walky’s face and said, “guess where *these* have been!”
Give her time.
She should’ve said that. Make.👏 Everyone.👏 Worse.👏
Yes!🔥🔥🔥
At the rate she’s going it’s surprising she didn’t knee him in the crotch as she said it.
At this point, I can only hope karma will correct some of her transgressions… and what of poor, forgotten Joe? Walky’s hurting, but Joe has yet to have ANY resolution, ffs! When’s gonna be my time, Lord?
Wait for it.
that means Lucy’s gonna steal your woman, Joyce
🙄
⬇️ kvetch below, yall know the drill by now
Really hope Walky just tells her directly to her face to fuck off, I genuinely cannot stand her like this
She’s being very…wearing, yes.
I share the feel
Why would he do that? Joyce did it for true love that means everything is justified and he should be congratulating her! Haven’t you seen how sweet she is /s
But for real someone has got to say something to her right? Surely tomorrow’s strip isnt just more “well we all knew it would happen so your behavior is fine”
He’d be the most justified ngl. Joyce has either no empathy about who she hurts in pursuit of her happiness with Dorothy, or a shocking lack of regard for someone who is supposed to be her friend, or absolutely no self-awareness of why continuing to gloat after seeing Walky might be what we like to call a dick move.
I appreciate Lucy’s polite “get over yourself, this surprises no one” and Sal just not touching the subject, though. Voices of reason here.
Interesting as well that there’s been zero comment from Jacob here, given he also has a pretty good reason to go “well, I thought you were a sweet girl but you led me to emotionally cheat on Raidah and broke us up, and then it seems you cheated on Joe and are now being an ass to Walky”.
Speaking of Joe, hope he’s doing alright. See also Dina and Becky…
She said that?!
Oh man, is there some science on how emotions affect your memories? I’m really sure now that I let most of the cringe slide because I used to like her…
It was something along the lines of:
Lucy: I think I’m interested in Walky.
Joyce: hmm must be the residual Dorothy smell, because it can’t be the McNuggets.
I shouldn’t have gotten my hopes up but somehow I’m still dissapointed jesus christ.
We stand together, brother.
I have a bad feeling that the result of all the “lol, everybody saw this coming” jokes will be that Joyce concludes she actually did nothing wrong. This will carry through to biology in which she will find a way to make Joe, Becky, and Dina feel even worse about the situation.
I still predict she will try to fuck Joe at least one time before breaking it off.
At this pint I think “Joyce did nothing wrong” is the takeaway we’re meant to have and this is the narrative working as intended.
Right now the main takeaway I’m getting is “Walky, Joe and maybe Sarah need better friends.”
I actually disagree. I think Willis is setting both Joyce and Dorothy up for a nasty fall. Dorothy’s already starting to crack from the dual pressures of reckoning with her political illiteracy and failing to justify her actions as an exception to the rule. Joyce is on track to alienate her entire friend group either by hurting them directly or being even more cringe than usual. Sooner or later she’s going to get hit with an extreme negative reaction she can’t paper over with her and Dorothy’s “true love.”
I also kinda think that a little bit of comeupance might be coming *eventually*, but I still am frustrated with the pacing. I realize the overall pace of the comic makes this tricky. But still, I wish we’d get to it faster somehow instead of seeing so many saccharine Joyce/Dorothy moments that I really would’ve enjoyed much more if they’d been held until the dust had settled. There could’ve easily been more Becky screentime the last few weeks instead.
I think some of that might be deliberate on the grounds that 1) I’ve been reading Willis for a decade and am well acquainted with their brand of sadism and 2) Willis wants us to feel how obnoxious their relationship is to everyone else in Joyce and Dorothy’s orbit. Notice how nobody’s said anything positive about this development.
I think it’s important here to note the anger at Joyce specifically for slighting Walky may be misplaced. Dorothy is the one we should be pissed at for this. She’s currently experiencing a different kind of hell. I would actually love to see Joe here witnessing how his ex is behaving after cheating on him. This needs to be a full wild fire.
Regarding Dorothy, yes, she’s the one we should be angry with, but unlike Joyce, she still feels guilty, and it’s incredibly sad that she’s deceiving herself and believing her actions are some kind of “exception.”
Before that treacherous kiss, Dorothy was already carrying a heavy burden of hatred. Yes, she messed up, but that hatred had reached unjust levels.
And seeing that level of hatred continue to grow with all of this has only made me remain neutral with the character. I don’t hate her, but what she did makes me sad and angry.
She rubbed it in Walkys face and thats when I straight up started disliking Joyce isntead of just rolling my eyes. That was just being mean to be mean. Anger is not misplaced and they are both in the wrong for different reasons when it comes to Walky.
I’ve said it many times before that it feels like there is a double standard here where Joyce is horrible for mocking Walky in the very same spirit he would mock her emotions for Dorothy when he was dating her. I don’t understand why.
I can only speak for myself here. And I think both have taken it too far at times.
The difference (at least, to me) is that Walky mostly mocked Joyce for her relationships. With Dorothy, with her religion. Yes, he also made some backhanded remarks about her upbringing, and he called her ‘brainwashed’ once, which was definitely not great. But many of his remarks, while mean, mostly were attacks on her beliefs and upbringing.
Joyce’s attacks were typically on Walky’s character. She would call him a troll, jerk, disgusting, etc. They felt generally more personal. There’s also the part where she shows a blatant lack of compassion or empathy for Walky. When Walky made a mean remark, he later apologised (even if it was at the behest of Dorothy). This is Joyce’s first interaction after she laughed at Walky while yanking Dorothy away, and she’s just rubbing it in his face.
So yeah, that’s part of why I feel Joyce has been meaner to Walky than the other way round.
You put it pretty well.
Joyce and Walky always rib each other but often times the source and nature of what Joyce is mocking and how Joyce mocks him rubs me the wrong way. I can’t express it in any other way than saying that not all teasing is equivalent teasing.
In the same way Becky’s “bit” about hating Dorothy also often rubbed me the wrong way because at a certain point it was almost indistinguishable from Bullying.
I don’t know what to believe anymore or where the line is on the Joyce v Walky rivalry. I used to think they crossed the line of simple sibling rivalry long ago and they were both just being jerks. I don’t know how this is worse than Walky calling Joyce a lesbian multiple times and bragging about getting to make out with Dorothy in front of her. I agree that at some point this behavior just becomes bullying but it only seems to be bullying when Joyce does it to Walky. It all feels bad to me. To me Joyce and Walky has been nothing but two romantic rivals competing over a girl in the most toxic way possible while being told “Hey they’re still friends. This is all cute and fun sibling bickering.” But like no it’s not. Walky has siblings and even his relationship with Jennifer who shoved him in lockers mind you, was never this level of petty and antagonistic.
I also despised the Becky performative rivalry stuff too. I can accept Becky as a fictional character doing stuff I disagree with for gags or whatever but don’t piss on me and tell me it’s rain. Especially now that she’s having a full crisis of faith thanks to her it’s totally performative rival stealing her not girl.
If Dina shows a violent impulse toward Joyce, it would be glorious.
Although, to be honest, she and Becky will just distance themselves from her.
The real problem here is Joe; I mean, he won’t hesitate to talk to her.
If shit gets dire enough with Becky, Dina might be tempted to take out her frustration on Joyce. They’ve had problems before and she could justify it to herself as payback for Joyce blowing up her spot.
Oh good gravy I plum forgot she had to have class with that combination. I’m already bracing for impact…
This is all so god damn tedious.
Remember when people had conversations? Remember when people reacted to things that happened?
Now it’s just Joyce and / or Dorothy saying the same thing over and over and over again while everyone else goes yeah okay and the cycle repeats. Nobody else seems to care about it, but Doyce is the only thing the comic cares about now so it’s just the story equivalent of styrofoam.
The last however many months could be cut down by a quarter and nothing of any consequence would be lost.
Everyone keeps saying it’s building to something but all I can think of is the potential man meme. Putting up with months of the plot spinning its wheels because something *might* happen is not at all compelling.
It’s bad writing, bad pacing, and extremely disappointing because prior to this things actually happened and even if I didn’t like them I could see why others did but this is just baffling why people are enjoying this.
Yeah the Doyce world tour really should have been a Doyce walk around the neighbourhood.
Every time Doyce appears, I prefer not to say anything; in fact, I’ve been almost completely silent. But with this thread, at least we can vent better, and yes, I want to believe that Dorothy becomes interesting again when she’s not with Joyce, and the latest strips seem to show that.
Remember when DOA had a plot
I think this is again a symptom of possibly DoA’s biggest flaw and most legitimate criticism which is pacing. This is a flaw a lot if not possibly all strip a day format comics and webcomics in general have. Imagine reading a typical 18 page manga chapter at one page a day or even just 4 or 5 panels a day. It would take weeks to finish a chapter. It takes forever for anything to happen when reading in real time but I think the Doyce era will ultimately be a small blip when reading in book form. I’m not even sure we’re building to something as much as we’re just cleaning up fallout and establishing a new working equilibrium in character relationships from Doyce happening.
i’ve been reading DOA for a while and I don’t usually comment, and maybe I haven’t been reading long enough to really “know” Joe, but currently I am am 100% caught up on “what about Joe???” when it comes to Dorothy/Joyce situation
Clearly Joyce is more “at home” and happy now, but (and this feels terrible to say this as a gay) she was adorable with Joe, and she’s insufferable now lol
I’ve actually spoken with quite a few of my lesbian friends who’ve stated that the preferred Jojo to Doyce and how they’re conflicted cuz thy’re usually all in on lesbian ships and some even usually hate straight ships.
Kinda crazy the dichotomy between the two couples.
Ok I’m glad it’s not just me haha
I’m gay and was rooting for Joe to get with a man, and despite my disliking of Joyce in general, was still at peace with JoJo because it was genuinely cute.
Well that’s down the river, can Joe go get a threesome with Ethan and Asher?
You would reward Asher with a threesome with not one but two tall built fuck machines!? Can we get Joe to STEAL Ethan from Asher?….After the threesome of course.
Joe + Ethan would make Danny so frustrated.
I would honestly. He’s been super chill post-timeskip.
And while recovering from a smoking addiction, which tends to make most people cranky.
Asher should be rewarded. He killed a man, which is funnier than anything else any of these schmucks have done.
Honestly, Joyce was already somewhat hateful when she became an atheist, but I recognize that her relationship with Joe was acceptable.
Yeah I’ve commented more since this arc began than in many many years of reading.
Joyce really rubbing it in with Walky RIGHT there. Does she have any concept of tact at all?
I think she was already talking as he walked outside and just caught the tail end of it.
In college before I transitioned I was in my apartment living room and someone said, “Well who hasn’t slept with your Roommate?”
I looked at all of us in the room and went, “Well, none of us, much to Roommate’s disappointment!”
We were all laughing as Roommate walked in and we all clammed up guiltily. Roommate got upset and went, “Aw c’mon!” and stormed into their room. It was all funny, just the obvious laughing cut short as they walked in. We called them back and they laughed and were ok. Roommate was very much early Joe coded at the time.
Dumb college relationships are dumb and messy. Heck people cheating in college is not even that uncommon.
But people cheating in college and behaving like Joyce has and then the whole friend group just shrugging and going “eh guess it was always going to happen” is just weird.
Especially when one of them is related to Walky and another is friends with Joe.
Yes, this exactly!!
I get so bored of the “it ain’t Smarting of Age” argument being used to wave off stuff like this. Yes, they’re stupid college kids and they won’t act rationally always, or even often.
But the general mean-ness and over the top behavior from Joyce especially, and the lack of meaningful reactions from the rest of the cast, can’t really be explained away by that same argument.
Joyce has an awful side that is unrelated to her neuroatypical social issues and fundamentalist upbringing (well maybe not that). Basically, she loves rubbing her successes in other people’s faces and gloating.
I’m very burned out on Joyce gushing about Dorothy, but I do have to give credit for that last two-panel delivery. It’s insufferable but it’s well executed for sure.
what really sucks is how Joyce’s character has bascially eroded down to just being “I am fucking Dorothy and am going to make it everyone else’s problem!”
like we’re not getting any conflict here it’s all just “love love Dorothy love” and having her be snippy and lash out if anyone brings up the issues she is bringing up as a result like rubbing it in Walky’s face that she torpedoed his relationship with her or how she seriously hurt Joe and Becky with her actions.
Hell at this point I wouldn’t be surprised if Becky decided to try what her mother did and when Joyce finds out she calls Becky selfish for it or something like that.
No. Becky making an attempt is one of the things that would bring Joyce crashing back to earth.
She’s just. So. PUNCHABLE RIGHT NOW
Joyce continues to own the worst everything, worst character, worst ship, worst development. What record will she shatter next?!
And Joe is but a distant memory.
Yeah…
Whatever resignations she had about him before are pretty much forgotten.
Will they come back? Who knows? But she’s claiming Dorothy so we’ll see how that turns out.
* RESERVATIONS
Damn, we need an edit button. Or at least a delete option.
They’ll come back the second Joe enters her field of vision. Joyce has no object permanence.
If…it…takes forever. I will wait for you…
For a thousand summers…I will wait for you.
Guess he doesn’t have any object permanence. Out of sight, out of mind?
Is he? Joyce got permission to keep both.
I mean, Dorothy will be fully okay with that.
As someone whose poly I would rather not have any poly relationship than one that began because of cheating. We have enough stigma already.
There’s no way any attempt at poly from Joyce wouldn’t devolve into “I’m still seeing Joe sometimes, but we’re just not gonna tell Dorothy because I see any conflict with my one true love as an existential threat.”
Dorothy always thought Joyce was attracted to Walky. I think Charles is right. Dorothy will have minimal issues with Joyce doing it, but will need coaxing to join.
Wait, so Joyce is a naked mole rat? Her social relations are smell-based?
Um, Google “how much of human relations are smell based?”
To be fair I’d argue most social relationships are smell based if you argue that people who smell really bad definitely effects the relationships they can have.
all of you folks smell like hot dusty cpu to me
Ron Stoppable is her cousin!
Lucy with the fucking ice cold burn there and I’m not even sure she did it on purpose
I don’t really see how that counts as a burn? Even an unintentional one.
No one said she was burning Joyce.
(Hint -Walky is standing right behind her.)
Ok, even with that i sm struggling to figure out what the burn is supposed to be.
Will Jacob have any opinions on his friend getting broken up with? No? We’ll see?
I don’t think Jacob and Joe are really friends? They se each other at the gym and that’s about it.
The bond of the gym bro is one of the strongest there is
Joe called Jacob his “main man” once and they’ve had actual conversations while at the gym, I think that goes above “guy you see while working out and grunt and maybe nod at.”
They were friendly enough for Jacob to tell Joe to be careful about Joyce, which really felt out of place at the time but was apparently more or less good advice.
Jacob is also kind of self-righteous and like… yeah. I like him, but he can definitely be a little “holier-than-thou” at times and this would be a great time for him to be like that.
I thought they were gym partners, not just people who happen to be at the gym at the same time.
Justice for Walky goddamn man, lol
“Then, why was I the last to know? ”
“You’ve been talking about having alone time with Dorothy, while stroking her hair since the first week. You knew. “
… so Walky’s going to walk to class separately then, I take it.
… and Billie will probably go with him.
… maybe Sal? Hard to call.
They’re walking from the same place to the same place.
Yes but he won’t have to hear Joyce if he takes a different route.
He can walk ahead or behind
If he had any self respect he would.
So y’know.
He won’t.
Walky’s feeling like Cyclops here. Just bring on the floating butt.
Top (or possibly bottom) tier reference.
A truly incredible deep cut.
As deep as the cuts from Wolverine’s claws when they pull out a Reese’s
So is there some evil supervillain The Perfumer who is behind all this?
Musn’t… use… patreon…
You are broke! Your savings are dwindling between jobs.
Do not engage!!!
You would have to save it for special occasions anyway, or it just advances the agony by a day.
You’d only be paying for one day of advance warning, then you’re back to waiting 24hrs!
I swear that Willis should offer additional days at doubling costs for every additional day.
I wouldn’t normally advocate for Walky flipping out on anyone but I need to see this group collapse! He’s justified here! Do it Walkman!
I need angry Walky I need it I need it I need it
I live and breathe for the promise of angry Walky. I need to see this man crash out, I need it in my bones. I want him to crash out, have an angry arc, and then beat the actual hell outta incelerator somehow. Point A to Z, idk how we get there, I just know I wanna see my man rage and yell at the sun
I’m begging any higher power that exists, let the teens have a TEEN FIGHT
WALKY, JUST DO IT, NO MERCY!!!
Unfortunately, Walky is constitutionally incapable of being regular aggressive, and is currently too self-doubting to be passive aggressive. I believe that the time for Walky to get angry will come, but first must be Walky’s journey toward a sense of self based in something other than comfort-seeking and ironic detachment.
Do it Walky. Let the Hate flow through you.
I think I said this before but if I were Walky’s friend, and I didn’t know Joyce and Dorothy’s lore, I would be barking in his ear to go nuclear on these bongos.
Joyce, girl, that jacket can’t smell that much like dorothy you *just* got it
Yes, but Walky doesn’t know that.
I think she’s sniffing her hand.
Joyce doing a lot of “fuck”ing lately. She’s rapidly clawing her way to the top of the chart. Tied with Ruth for 5th place now.
Joyce you’ve had that jacket for 15 minutes, there is no way Dorothy smell is on it yet. Unless she is just constantly engulfed in a cloud of perfume like a middle schooler who just discovered the magic of body mist. Or she deliberately spritzed it with something of hers before running off.
Do people still tell people to do that these days? My mom always told me to spray guys’ stuff with perfume and I can’t tell if that was normal mother-child advice or one of the weird social rules she made up (like a man needing to propose in <4 months or it being impossible to cheat outside of marriage)
I’m inclined to believe your mother had a propensity to believe strange things that weren’t true.
I was curious about the smell too, especially if Dorothy has a certain perfume she uses. I don’t remember the smell of any of my exes, but then again I’ve lived with a smoker all my life so my nose is kinda dulled. As for the advice, that’s definitely a weird one. Like she told you to spray stuff that belonged to guys around you, with your perfume? Sounds like she was hoping that would, like, fend off other suitors or something. Main advice my mom ever gave was just “spray your neck and wrists, rub lightly” as far as where to spray my stuff.
why the hell is Joyce smelling her JACKET in the last panel? that’s the jacket that she bought this morning, it doesn’t smell like anything except store
she exchanged shirts with Dorothy, she should be smelling her shirt, like c’mon
🙄
When are we going to get back to the Becky/Dina situation? I need more of that in my life.
Hi just wanted to say happy full moon hehehe ^-^
Really looking forward to when I can walk again so I can enjoy walking in the moonlight once more :’)
Internet gesture of support!! I hope you heal up soon. 🙂
awe thanks ;-;
I sure hope so too, by end of this weekend I’ll know whether or not it’s an infection, really really hoping it ain’t, so frickin scared TT~TT
Sigh, poor Walky.
Taking another comment section break! I’m enjoying the comic but. Mostly don’t feel like I’m enjoying the conversation rn, and I definitely don’t feel like I’m being the kind of chill positive presence I wanna be.
Only announcing because I know folks get worried sometimes over names disappearing. Just in case. We’ve all got enough stress rn without unnecessarily adding to it, I figure.
I can assure you have been one of the most chill people in these comments. I think sometimes you are a bit hard in yourself for not being always positive, ehich i think it’s unrealistic to expect of yourself. Gonna miss you and hope you have a nice break.
I recently was reading the arc back in 2022 where Joyce is getting confronted by Dina about being spanked as a kid, and I found an old comment of mine complaining that seemingly every character was getting on Joyce’s case, calling her out, or passing moral judgment on her.
Kind of funny to think about that complaint in context of this arc, where I actually wish most of the characters would get on her case MORE.
This light snark is a decent appetizer but I wish to FEAST on the disapproval of her acquaintances!
Walky’s got this look on his face like “Somehow overhearing this sentence is the worst thing you’ve done to me this week” lmao.
Haha it’s okay it’s all good Walky doesn’t have feelings, he’s just a dumb idiot! /s
Yeah, Joyce is rubbing it.
She was never your friend, Walky.
I always thought their rivalry was just playful banter but this arc has shown a really ugly side of Joyce when it comes to Walky.
Joyce was always stewing with envy and spite toward Walky/Dorothy.
I think if you asked Joyce and Walky two days ago (their time), they’d tell you it’s mostly banter and call the other their friend. Joyce would say it through gritted teeth and not fully understand why. Walky would crack wise about Joyce’s undying love for Dorothy, but wouldn’t laugh about it like he used to.
I wonder if Walky has picked up on how much more “real” Joyce’s animosity towards him feels now.
Walky is still going to have a better class experience than Dorothy is having right now.
That Walkys look on camera is so on point.
Im tired of this too
Backup hating thread for when the OG one eventually gets reported ⬇️
I can never be silenced
Just gonna make a little jot down of “Joyce directly stating that Dorothy smells attractive” for the people who kept insisting Joyce being in love with Dorothy came out of nowhere…
Walky needs to either blow up on Joyce or freeze her out completely. Anything in between means we’ll find Walky’s self-respect buried several miles beneath the Earth’s crust.
Walky : can confirm
So we’re doing an “obnoxious baby gay” Joyce story to match the “obnoxious baby atheist” story huh. That tracks since Joyce didn’t actually learn any lessons about not applying her fundie thought processes to new ways of thinking and just learned to be quiet around Becky, an outcome I’m not sure she can get away with again.
So like.
Is the point of the current arc just to make Joyce the most insufferable possible character you could write? Cause i feel thats all that’s been accomplished the past 6 months
“never going to be shocking news to anybody”
Except for a bunch of people in the comments, apparently.
Sal seriously yer gonna catch a cold
I love Joyce and Dorothy
My new Yankee Candle scent: Residual Dorothy Aroma, coming this winter
still not black enough, looks more like a bomber jacket
Ah, you had the same idea as me, yet you were far more brilliant with your execution. Bravo! :applause:
The strip Lucy is mentioning for those who do not want to / have time for an archive crawl:
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2019/comic/book-9-comic/02-but-the-sun-still-shines/offbase/
Also, this strip confirming that Lucy had already picked up on Joyce’s attraction to Dorothy from that original comment, way back when.
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2019/comic/book-9-comic/04-vote-for-robin/proselytize/
I’m kind of sad we didn’t get to see Joyce turn into the kind of puddle Wally meant. I mean, yeah, the Slipshine folks got to see the OTHER kind.