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Who should be the default doodle for Book 14?
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preternia @preternia.com ⋅ 1d
David M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 4d
Josh Gerstein @joshgerstein.bsky.social ⋅ 2d
Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com ⋅ 2d
Pavel
@spavel.bsky.social ⋅ 11d
Dumbing of Age Book 9: Few More Rides an’ It’ll CALLUS UP, Wonderbread
also, hey, last panel is me at pretty much every human interaction
Dumbing of Age Book 9: But my dainty taint!
Dumbing of Age Book 9: Oof, I’m Gonna Be Sore For Days
DoA Book 9: You CAN Be A Stubborn Asshole About Everything.
DoA book 9: A collection of suggested titles for DoA book 9
DoA Book 9: Dainty Taint.
Concise, but Tantalizing
Taintalizing
Dumbing of Age Book 9: [no words; the “subtitle” is just Sal’s face in panel 5 of this comic]
I, too, relate strongly to a social strategy of ‘leave as soon as possible even though it feels like running away’!
Even not leaving as soon as possible, I have plenty experience of “I’ve got to go, bye everyone!” and getting no acknowledgement whatsoever it feels like you’re creeping away.
We can all agree I had no choice but to do this, right?
I mean, someone was gonna, and I’m going to hell anyway so I’ll take the hit.
Hell?! No way this is pretty good.
am I supposed to recognize that face? ‘Cuz I don’t.
Yellow Diamond, from Steven Universe.
You clod!
You can’t steal a best friend – but you can lose one.
Have we ever considered the possibility that Sale is hopelessly stupid and can’t make a situation better or think reasonably if her life depended on it.
Putting aside the stuff that’s not her fault in her life, she really is an idiot who goes into every situation swinging her fists or swinging her words.
I’ve completely lost interest in Sal.
Considered and rejected.
Suuuuure. I believe you~
Seconded
I think you don’t give Sal enough credit. Sure, she’s missing some pretty important things, but a lot of that is due to what information she never receives. I don’t think she’s any stupider than, say, Walky. She’s been dealt a tough hand in life–her choices certainly play a role in this but not as much as she is aware of–and ultimately I think it’s only a matter of time before she learns to turn her life back on track.
I am eager to see more of Sal’s development.
Why is this universe’ Malaya, like, a dozen times better than Shortpacked’s?
Well, it would have been hard for her to be worse, wouldn’t it?
Agreed.
I still think Malaya’s about the same level of annoying in both universes.
This Malaya doesn’t waste time and energy being cartoonishly misanthropic and antagonistic.
She wastes no time. She gets right down to it.
Because she’s not stuck at a job she doesn’t want, dealing with subject matter she has no passion for, dealing with idiots constantly harassing her?
Because she pays more attention to the people around her. She isn’t surrounded by ‘boring nerds’ who just love to ‘make connections’ all the time.
Now that she’s moved rooms.
Because Willis has the Midas touch of backstories. The moment he writes a backstory for a character, their assholery or retardedness transforms into brooding and misunderstood. They gain depth, you begin to see what makes them tick, and you start to be able to put yourself in their shoes.
. . . Why do I both relate and reject Danny in that last panel there?
He’s Danning up saying goodbye.
Goodbye, Danny
Because he’s walking away from an altercation between Sal and Malaya, and doesn’t seem to realize what he’s potentially missing out on? I like Danny but boy is he sure aloof.
Last time I saw a face like that it was on a Luftwaffe Hauptmann in Enemy Ace.
Bye, Danny! Don’t let the panel border hit you in the ass on the way out!
Well according to Sal, it’ll callus up so he won’t feel it.
oh that Onion article. Heartbreaking: The Worst Person You Know Just Made A Great Point
hahahahah too true
oh no, his daint
The dialogue in that first panel!
All kinds’a wrong.
All kinds’a RIGHT!
Panel 3: Malaya is an expert on such things.
Last panel: If awkward is a superpower, Danny is THOR.
After that ride, he’ll be thor for hourth.
*rimshot*!
hm, panel four doesn’t read like natural dialogue to me and more like Malaya is reading off a script. That doesn’t sound like a thing people say, it sounds like an analysis she’s reading off
it rubs be the wrong way
Malaya’s had a long-standing bad read on Sal and what she thinks her motivations for anything are. Some of it’s probably facetious (if Malaya doesn’t know why someone would hate having a heat lamp shined in their face except ‘animal hater’, I really don’t know how she’s managed to get this far without intervention,) but a lot of it seems to be that they dislike each other so she reads everything of Sal’s as insincere. Marcie has probably informed Malaya of some of the current issues, too. Guessing Malaya might have had some of this prepared for the next time the argument came up, given how frequently it does?
Malaya reads everything from everyone as insincere. She basically just does not believe that sincerity is a thing.
Malaya does have a bad read on Sal…..but all four of them have a bad read on Kix cereal! They should unite in friendship under their shared ignorance in why Kix remains kid tested, yet mother approved to this very day! Fear not, for I hear there is a nice humble spot for them all to stay in at that roller derby.
… ? what
It tracks pretty well with everything else she’s said to Sal. Malaya doesn’t like Sal’s attitude, (understandable since we’ve never seen Sal give Malaya anything but attitude) so she attacks what she perceives as the underlying cause of it.
Probably because Malaya tries to psychologically analyse everything Sal does as being fake, insincere, or having a worse reason underlying it even when there is a point blank one right there in front of her face. She likely has a running mental script of how everything Sal does is FAKE and how she is EXTREMELY important to Sal’s life by existing (she is in fact not, Sal regards her as a tiny blip of extreme annoyance that shows up sometimes, she is no way important enough for Sal to define herself by her hatred of her and the fact she would assume she cares enough about her for that to be true… yeah, I can see why Sal is so angry, I would be too if an asshole presumed my whole personality was a facade based around them).
In all fairness to Malaya, Sal responded to her offer with “And watch you continue to steal my best friend? No thanks.” which uhh definitely makes it seem like she cares about Malaya’s existence. If she was just like, “Yeah, no.” that’s one thing, but she decided to make it personal and focus it on Malaya stealing Marcie’s friendship away from her. Which is, you know, not a thing that she is actually doing in any way.
Get the hint, boy, and run. Don’t look back.
https://youtu.be/lmc21V-zBq0
Ohhhh, so much to talk about here.
– Danny is adorable and so is his friendship with Sal.
– Malaya’s offer is only marginally more sincere than Sal’s and that just makes me snort. God I love these two.
– I mean, yeah, she’s not wrong. About it not being possible to steal a person (although you can try to entice them to leave which CAN be a dick move) and about Sal being a stubborn asshole with regards to Malaya.
– That said…yeah, the idea of watching Marcie and Malaya at roller derby while Marcie’s mad at Sal was ALWAYS gonna go over like a lead balloon. There was just no way she was going to get a positive answer there. Not that I think Malaya particularly cares.
– Annnnnd panel four is where Malaya misses the mark entirely. Beating creeps up with AG is not about Malaya, and Sal’s barely thought of Malaya today if at all outside her chat with Marcie. And Malaya can’t know this, but we saw Sal’s self definition in her talk about what she wanted and it had nothing to do with Malaya. Makes me wonder if she’s projecting but even if she’s not, just her statement made me cackle.
– Sal’s face is my everything, especially when it makes me laugh like this.
– I love Danny. That is all. <3
Well you have to keep in mind.
To Malaya, everything is about Malaya.
I mean, that is true. After all, she IS Malaya.
Malaya’s offer in this strip is an ironic reflection of Sal’s ‘offer’ to be nicer to Malaya.
YUP and I love it. <3
Plot twist: This inspires Sal to get AG into roller derby. She would make an excellent blocker, and I can see Sal as a pivot who can block but also just zoom around the rink. Marcie is happy her friend (and also new friend, sort of?) have healthy aggression outlets, Sal gets to be as counterculture as she wants while also engaging in a team sport through which she can make more like-minded friends (and which she can know to herself when Linda gets awful that it’s a real sport with leagues and such,) Malaya learns a bit about everyone which includes some ‘huh, Sal has reasons for her aloofness besides just presenting herself as too cool for everyone,’ improving their roommate relationship, and Carla gets to cheer them on the whole time. Together they recruit the whole hall, except Mary. And the whole strip ends as a well-adjusted roller derby team!
Your optimism is nice, but Malaya admitting that Sal might have a good reason for the way she acts is less likely than hell freezing over. And we’ve already established many things that will happen in this comic before winter reaches hell.
We know she actually can be sincere and make a genuine effort to be a non-douchebag (or at least less-douchebag) with people – she learned to sign for Marcie simply because she wanted to be able to talk with Marcie. So I have to think that maybe if they rammed each other on the rink a couple times or had to cooperate for a common goal it would get some of the pure dislike out of their systems and they might actually cede some common ground.
And in fairness, I just remembered that during the move, Sal’s first instinct was that Malaya got on the list just to screw with Sal. Neither of them ascribes good or even neutral motives to the other, even when it doesn’t make much sense. Some way of establishing to themselves that the other isn’t The Literal Worst and Their Nemesis would probably help a lot.
Hmm, that’s a fair point. And my intense hate of Malaya may be preventing me from seeing this objectively. So I’ll have to concede this one to you, and it would give Sal another chance to hang out with Marcie.
I always felt that Malaya started to learn sign more to not go through Sal and less for Marcie.
It’s not like Marcie needs her to understand sign as she’s more than willing to write what she wants to say.
Also, I’m pretty sure the only times we’ve seen her use sign is to say something negative to Sal.
Pretty sure looking back that she learned to understand Marcie during practice, fair. But she also clearly is making an effort so Marcie doesn’t have to write everything, and as a disabled person seeing an able friend make an attempt to meet you on your level means a lot regardless of motivation. Even if she learned it 100% out of spite for Sal, it’s a lot of work that she takes pretty seriously.
Marcie being friends with both of them got them kind of part of the way to coexisting peacefully, but yeah now that’s kind of falling apart. Not sure what else could do it though!
Malaya does seem to have made efforts to be friends with Marcie, but that’s pretty much it.
I haven’t seen any real effort to not be a jerk with anyone else.
It’s the fact that she’s clearly capable of it at all that baffles me about her interactions with everyone else. Carla appears not to mind Malaya being a jerk so Malaya feels no need to try, sure, and she’s the only other one Malaya has a remotely positive interaction with… so why does she like Marcie? Is she all-around decent to the rest of the derby team, since she relies on them to protect her ass and they rely on her to score? (Note: we’ve seen from prior strips Malaya’s a jammer.) That’s my best guess, but we’ve never really seen anyone else on the team to confirm and she may or may not hang out with them offscreen. So until we know that, what’s Malaya’s deal continues to be one big ?
It’s high time DoA became a sports anime.
Blaine reappears to try and mess with Amber before the Big Match. Suddenly he is surrounded by the entire damn Indiana University Roller Derby League, making their most intimidating faces. He runs for his life and then everyone gives speeches about the power of friendship and teams and their Love Of The Sport allowing them to overcome any obstacle, and then skate their everloving hearts out, as is good and proper.
Also either Becky or Dina’s derby name is Terrorzinosaurus. I can’t think up a second Dino pun for them both but you know that one’s perfect.
While I continue to hate Malaya, and make no mistake I have a fiery passionate contempt for her, she is partially right. Marcie’s decision is hers alone and Malaya isn’t “stealing” her, though Malaya is also being a hypocrite. She intentionally tries to bait Sal and get a rise out of her and she knows it, she is just as stubborn.
What’s the name of Malaya & Marcie’s Derby team?
Bonus Question: What are their individual derby girl names?
Thoughts? References?
Not sure, but I dig the purple and blue color scheme.
Malaya the Mauler and No Mery Marcie?
Maul-aya!
Bloomington Bongos
Mal Adjusted
Marisol Mayhem
If their derby team canonizes bongos in the strip forever I would love it so much.
Malaya’s derby name is Mala. That means “Bad (girl / woman)” in Spanish, and if she’s supposed to be Filipino, it might apply to her too (since their language got a lot from Spanish during the occupation period.)
Derby names have to be run against the worldwide records and unique, and they tend to prefer longer names for that reason. But something with that as a base could work.
Malay-ria and Marciless.
Wow. Malaya’s actually totally in the right this time. Not something I would have expected to say.
Not entirely, Sal’s reason for fighting the creeps has nothing to do with “getting her jollies” and she does not define herself by her hatred of Malaya. The only things Malaya has right is that Sal can be stubborn and that she isn’t stealing Marcie. Marcie is the one making the choice.
“But my dainty taint!” would be a great the title for Dumbing of Age Book 9.
I hate Malaya….. but I also hate the fact she isn’t wrong…. (She still sucks though).
She isn’t *fully* wrong, but she isn’t *fully* right either. Sal does not define herself by her hatred of Malaya (who she barely thinks about) or get fun out of fighting people (that is about her sense of justice and desire to protect people from harm). And while it is true that you can’t steal a person, Sal isn’t wrong for wanting to spend 0% of her time around Malaya, because Malaya is a stubborn asshole who won’t give up on the idea that Sal fakes literally every aspect of her existence for obscure reasons.
Sal does like to fight though. The justice and protection are there, but she likes it too.
Yes, although I’d argue she’s not getting the enjoyment out of fighting guys with AG that she would have, for example, belting AG in the mouth when she attacked Sal and her friends (and Malaya!) in the parking lot. She seems a lot more serious/conflicted when she’s out with AG.
Like Malaya has any right to judge Sal…. (not a Sal fan, but I can tolerate her versus the dumpster fire that is Malaya).
I hate Malaya, don’t get me wrong but she’s totally in the right this time.
She is right, but the way she words it makes me want to punch her face with a pie. Marcie only hangs out with her because she wants the booty.
You know, a lot of people have said that but don’t really have any evidence to support it. Marcie is laying down a lot of ground work if all she was looking for was some casual hookups, especially when you consider the strain it’s been putting on her life long friendship. The fact that Marcie hasn’t said anything yet also indicates that she’s afraid of rejection and spoiling their friendship.
Marcie also continues to hang out with Malaya after she hooked up with Joe to spite everyone else, and was completely unbothered by said hookup. That says to me they are actually friends aside from Marcie finding her attractive.
Not really. Sal does not define herself by hating Malaya (we know she doesn’t, she barely thinks about her when she isn’t right in front of her face), we know the fighting people is more about justice and Sal’s sense of doing the right thing (protecting others). She is right that you can’t ‘steal’ another person, but you can make it absolutely unbearable for anyone else to be near them by spending all your time psychoanalysing them as ‘fake’ with horrible reasons and motivations behind all their actions based on absolutely nothing.
I almost said Marcie could speak up, whoops. But still, guess she’s co-signing all of this shit with her continuing passiveness on it.
Wait, wait.
“Speak up”?
“Co-sign”?
Are you freakin’ punning us? How DARE you! A comment section is NO place for PUNS!
The co-sign one was a happy accident.
In one panel Danny’s relevance apparently went to zero.
Oh Danny.
Bye Danny.
Its the hat, people naturally ignore people with that hat. That is why you should have your ukulele with you at all times, that awfulness crashes through any wall of apathy.
Malaya is right only until panel 3. Then panel 4 happens and she goes back to being… well, Malaya.
And she is an hypocrite. “Normal things”? First she applauds Joyce’s act of rebellion, but when Sal does it she is a “poser”, and suddenly fighting rapist apologists is a no no for the rebel girl? Malaya is the poser!
To be fair, it’s not clear how much Marcie and Malaya know about the specifics of the guys they’re beating up. Ryan maybe, but not necessarily these guys.
Honestly it’s not clear how Marcie and Malaya know anything about Sal still working with AG or beating on street thugs.
Marcie obviously knows about the fight at the rally, but anything past that?
Apparently the fight with those creeps made the news – nothing identifying about Sal, but the ‘mysterious new sidekick’ and the rally? It wasn’t hard for Marcie to figure out and Sal’s reaction pretty much confirmed it.
At first I thought sal told Marcie and Marcie told Malaya, but then I remembered they’re not really talking much yet and probably all of it was .. what’s the comic equivalent of on-camera?
Maybe whatever news spread didn’t include ‘btw they were going somewhere they thought was the home of a woman who had the guts to accuse Known Rapist And Creep Gashes for unknown purposes after the address had been leaked online.’ It seems pretty unlikely given no one was at the actual house, Sal and AG left before any witnesses could arrive, and you would have to be a remarkably stupid mook to admit that you showed up with intent to commit a crime. Some of them may just be that stupid, but ‘I dunno why Amazi Girl and that other bongo attcked me!’ seems so much easier and less trouble.
It’s not hypocritical. Some people need to be encouraged to rebel and some people don’t.
I want to reiterate that it’s very likely no one else but Sal and AG know exactly who they’re fighting. AG is known on campus for fighting people over really petty things- vandalism, petty theft, underage drinking, just existing at a political rally, etc. And if you’re not really someone that’s interested in superheroes, hearing that someone on your campus is dressing up like one and beating up people for spray-painting a traffic sign, then that doesn’t really put a good image in your head. And then finding out that one of your acquaintances is associating with that same kind of person? Ehh. More so considering you and your friends were the ones attacked for the aforementioned underage drinking.
Though the general reaction to Amazi-Girl seems much more positive than you paint it. Malaya and Marcie may not be, as you suggest.
beating up people for spray-painting a traffic sign.
Now tell me. which comic do you read?
You’re right she just tried to goad them into fighting so she could justify violence to herself.
You could have made your point without that last line.
This is, what, one or two hours after Sal bragged to Marcie that she’d finally de-escalated a situation?
But now, objects in red panels may be closer than they appear.
These two never seem to be on the same page but they both always seem to be sore about something. No one can say sal didn’t try to get along with Marcie once ( it was a half-assed attempt then Almost Led to a fight but still) and here we are with the roles reverse.
Also I wonder If Malaya is still holding a grudge against a certain “caped nerd” who tossed her beating not too long ago.
I guess the two situations are somewhat similar, but Sal’s peace offering was bullshit, and Malaya was right to call her out on it. This offering was self congratulating, but she didn’t call Sal a cumstain or threaten to kill her if she didn’t like her.
Sooo this needs to be tried again, with them both actually meaning it.
Sal, you are a stubborn jerkass. Malaya, you are a bongoy asshole. Marcie, just admit that you want casual sex and avoid jerkasses and assholes. Danny, you are fine you cinnamon bun.
…. so yeah pretty much this^
Perfect comment is perfect.
Maybe someone could arrange for Sal and Malaya to never interact again? I mean, it feels like they get into fights at record speed at this point. Just three sentences this time!
… oh right they’re roomies, shit
Malaya has a point in panel 3, but after that… nah. Also, I am consistently the Danny in this sort of situation. XD
Everyone has their own reason for hating Malaya, so I’ll just lay claim here to her misuse of “I” in panel 2.
Seriously, Malaya, you wouldn’t say “You wanna come watch I at roller derby?” So don’t say “Marcie and I” in this context. It just gives more people reasons to want to punch you.
Hypercorrection tends to be one of those things that is irritating when people you already don’t like do it, but when people you already like do it, it’s kind of endearing.
I don’t hate or even dislike Malaya, but for me, her most disconcerting trait is her seeming narcissism. Other people just don’t matter to her, most of the time. But then, sometimes, they do — and that makes her more of a sympathetic character.
Good news sal. I found a conflict for you that you can deescalate. And it’s living in your room, too!
Also, did marcie tell malaya about the fighting-criminals-thing or is it that obvious that it’s sal? Did a picture get out or something? She’s not that difficult to recognise.
It’s in the news that AG’s fighting with a mysterious new sidekick (whom, thankfully, has not been identified). Since Marcie saw them at the rally, it wasn’t much of a stretch to guess it was Sal.
Yes, marcie knows. But it is in her best interest to keep it a secret. So I’m wondering whether she told malaya.
I don’t see any other way Malaya could have found out, unless she saw the news too and somehow put the pieces together (which would be harder for her because she doesn’t know about the rally).
Though Marcie may well have told her about the rally too. Almost certainly did, since it’s the cause of the split between her and Sal.
Malaya said she doesn’t know why Sal and Marcie aren’t talking, so I think it’s likely she didn’t know about the rally (at least at the time).
On a random note, how long did Joyce have Fuckface on her head? How long was Sal out riding? How late did Sal sleep in? The bulk of that day sure seemed to fly by.
All these questions and more will not be answered on the next episode of Dumbimg Ball Z!
Sal is pissed because Malaya is right
I think Malaya is only right in panel 3. Her comments in panel 4 are nonsense.
No, she’s mad because Malaya’s spouting nonsense about her as if she really understands anything about her. If someone told me to my face that I defined myself by my hatred of them, I would be FURIOUS, not because they are right, but because they presume they matter to me remotely. Someone I regard as an extreme annoyance ain’t someone I’m going to be thinking about when I don’t have to and I am especially not going to be faking my motivations just to show them up.
Sal…. maybe go watch Marcie do something she cares about instead of saying IN FRONT OF HER that Malaya is “stealing” her like it’s Malaya’s fault and not yours that you hurt Marcie’s feelings
Sal doesn’t have to agree to watch them do something fun. She doesn’t have to spend time with someone that always pushes her buttons even for her best friend. Marcie knows that Sal finds Malaya intolerable and that Malaya purposefully pushes all of Sal’s buttons. Yes, Sal did hurt Marcie’s feelings by breaking her promise, but that doesn’t mean that any opportunity to hang out near her is a good one.
Would you really have any fun hanging out with someone if the person you hated the most was also there judging you every two seconds for every single word you say? Probably not.
Sal might be the one who hurt Marcie’s feelings, but friendship is a two way street, you have to show consideration for each other, and if Marcie wants to hang out with Sal again, she is fully capable of asking her to do something that doesn’t involve Malaya.
Sal might agree to it if she thought it would help smooth things over with Marcie, but there’s a low chance of that and even though Malaya is right that you can’t steal another person, it can still hurt watching someone you care about who is mad at you having fun with someone you hate.
You have a point in that friendship is a two-way street, but in this scenario where Sal is consistently the one hurting the friendship through her attitude and choices, it’s not fair on Marcie to be the one to reach out even after she’s explained how Sal is driving her away. Sal knows what she’s doing is hurting Marcie, and she’s not really trying to make things better.
Also, Malaya’s invited Sal to hang out with her and Marcie to try to fix their relationship before: http://www.dumbingofage.com/2017/comic/book-8/01-face-the-strange/terms-2/ This just reads as a second attempt, to me. Yeah, Malaya’s rude and caustic, but she is trying to give Sal a chance to fix things with Marcie, and instead Sal would rather go on about how Malaya is stealing Marcie away from her. Completely ignoring the problems that Marcie pointed out.
To further clarify, Sal’s justified in rejecting Malaya’s offer and she doesn’t have to hang out with anyone she doesn’t want to at any point. But that she’s focusing her anger and rejection solely on Malaya, when Marcie pointed out exactly what’s driving her away (http://www.dumbingofage.com/2018/comic/book-9-comic/01-flyin-to-the-red/evidence/), that’s just Sal ignoring the problem and going for an easy scapegoat. And surprisingly, that’s not making anything better. Least of all, that she’s saying this right in front of Marcie, who knows that it’s not true.
Malaya’s not really offering to hang out with Sal with Marcie in that above strip. She just says having Malaya around might make Sal work out some of her problems for Marcie. But other than that, yeah. Pretty much.
Danny out, like a BOSS!
…OK, like a hipster-hat dweeb, but that’s the way he’d have wanted to go.
Did anyone else misread that as “But my Danny taint”.
I did. I only realized after rereading it again hours later that it said dainty. >_>
I hard agree about one not being able to steal a friend (or romantic interest, though if they’re actually together, encouraging cheating is still shitty), but damn Malaya thinks literally everything’s about her.
I think Sal moving in with Carla (she’s out to and likes Sal, so if both agreed I think it’s possible) would be a good storyline and getting away from Malaya move. also solves Joyce treating her like a barbie doll, every time she wakes up, at least in a practical sense.
But then Sal would have to deal with Carla’s particular type of friendship – one she might not be ready for yet.
Plus Carla has her own room and bathroom for privacy reasons. I don’t think she’s ready to share about herself than she already does to her classmates just yet.
… that should read “more about herself”, sorry.
I also suspect Carla’s single is a matter of policy – ‘yeah we acknowledge you belong in the women’s dorm so we aren’t sued for discrimination by your extremely wealthy parents and half a dozen civil rights groups, but we won’t go so far as to pair you with other women because they or their parents might complain’. (And since Carla moving in would mean sharing a bathroom with Joyce, you KNOW Carol would raise hell.) It keeps Carla safe, but it also seems like if she DID find someone she felt comfortable rooming with, Res Life would be all ‘well, but we don’t want to cause trouble, and what about your neighbors, and this sets a precedent that isn’t necessarily replicable’ and it would be frustrating and awful. (Remember, when Puddinghead listed the challenges in the hall, she included ‘the Ruttech girl’ rather than even a last name when the other two got those and Joyce because she was involved in the shooting.)
I did think about it being policy, but had planned on ignoring it and hoping it wasn’t that.
Yeah, I just have no faith in either Chloe or Joyce’s ability to keep an extremely sensitive secret from Carol. Hell, depending on how open the Ruttens are about their personal life, Carol may already know about Carla in the abstract bigoted bullshit sense. (See also, conservative responses to the Jolie-Pitts and letting John explore their gender identity* without trouble. Or just media at large – poor kiddo has been the subject of ill-informed thinkpieces on parenting for years now.)
(* From what I can tell John uses they pronouns? At least Angelina used them to describe them four years ago.)
Got sidetracked, forgot my point. Anyway Carol may know the name ‘Carla Rutten’ enough to freak out and tell Joyce to never go near Carla and other transphobic bullshit, and so Joyce and Carla sharing a bathroom is sadly not an option and Joyce mentioning Carla’s name could be unpleasant. (Which would require priming Joyce on Not Broaching This Subject – and any scenario where they share a bathroom and Joyce keeps barging in on living quarters requires Carla coming out to Joyce, which I’m pretty sure she hasn’t yet because she’s not sure of the reaction and really doesn’t want to have to play Educate The Fundie.)
But some semester where Sal doesn’t share a bathroom with Joyce, Carol has been dealt with, or other such things are non-issues? It would totally be awesome, Carla could be an excellent friend for Sal and vice versa and it’s a pretty short list of roommates Sal would get on worse with than Malaya.
To be fair, Sal could move into Carla’s single instead of Carla swapping into Malaya’s place. If it got her away with Malaya, I think Sal’d be willing to sleep on the floor.
I would love to see Sal join rollerderby just to show Malaya up. Malaya’s not wrong about Sal’s stubbornness, but that’s a really condescending and fake way to be nice to someone. I think Sal being awesome at rollerderby would be a wonderful way of pissing Malaya off, since she couldn’t badmouth Sal’s skills and call her a poser. And we already know that Sal is good at rollerskating, since she showed her skills to Carla when challenged.
Oh no, Sal is gonna escalate things further, isn’t she?
Malaya may be a jerk at times but at least she was trying with that olive branch this time.
An olive branch means nothing if most of it is made out of barbed wire.
Call it even for the totally insincere olive branch Sal extended during Joyce’s dorm party.
Which was that? I forget.
That one was way worse. She threatened to kill Malaya in the same sentence.
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-5/03-the-butterflies-fly-away/stain-2/
Let’s call it a branch of rose thorns then. It was an attempt.
Yes Malaya because Sal fighting people to spite or deny you makes so much sense you utter nitwit
… I’d just give up on Marcie at this point.
Some people are not worth straining a friendship over. I learned that in a difficult, very painful way.
Do you mean Malaya? Sal or Malaya giving up on Marcie isn’t going to improve their friendship any, and Sal giving up wouldn’t help her friendship with Marcie, it would end it.
I meant Sal giving up on Marcie.
I don’t think their friendship would end permanently… but I’m the kind of person who would prefer to put a friendship on hold than have to deal with a person like Malaya just to continue a friendship. Again, learned that the hard way.
Should Sal have to be friends with Malaya to spend time with Marcie? I’m gonna say no, but they should at least be able to ignore each other, which… honestly, Malaya’s the bigger problem there, which of course, doesn’t mean Sal hasn’t been passive-agressive multiple times before.
I don’t think you should have to ignore or try to tolerate someone that is as horrible as Malaya for anyone, best friend or not. So I agree with Foxhack here that in Sal’s position, I’d probably give up on trying to hang out with Marcie – let her decide when she’s ready to hang out instead of trying to make it work around this person that I find intolerable.
Seriously, if one of my friends inserted a rampant asshole into my life because they were so desperate to go to bonetown with them they didn’t care how awful they were to everyone else I’m not really sure how invested I’d be in maintaining that friendship.
Except in Sal’s case, it’s not “one of her friends”, it’s her oldest and longest childhood friend who’s stood by her through everything. For most of that time, her only friend.
And as much of an asshole as Malaya is, Sal’s been right there with her from the start – not in general, but about Malaya.
Also, it’s not clear that’s all Marcie wants from Malaya. Marcie has seen Malaya ask a random stranger if he wanted to fuck, so she knows Malaya is cool with casual no strings attached hookups. That doesn’t seem to be what Marcie is pursuing. Also I have a hard time faulting Marcie for wanting to hang out with one of the few characters who has at least a rudimentary knowledge of ASL.
Sal did tell Danny that she didn’t want to lose her anger at the world. Is that now how she defines herself: “I am because I hate [enter bugbear of the week]”? That’s not healthy at all.
That’s not how I read that scene. Sal was dealt a really bad hand when she and a kid and made some big mistakes. Her anger at her parents and her situation are justified. That kind of anger can become part of your core, and that’s not a bad thing. Anger is a valid and useful emotion, which gets a bad rap these days. Terry Pratchett once said that he’s a very angry person, and he used it to fuel his writing. He made wonderful funny books that are a gift by using the anger he had. Anger isn’t necessarily a negative emotion. When used constructively it’s more commonly known as passion. Sal ha st to really find a good way to use it, but that doesn’t mean her anger can’t be a benefit to her.
No, that’s just Malaya’s bullshit read.
Sal not wanting to lose her anger at the world is more of a not wanting to forget the wrongs of the world or lose sight of them. She doesn’t want defined by her anger, but she doesn’t want to forget what caused it either.
Anger isn’t an unhealthy emotion just because it exists. You feel angry when unfair things happen. When someone hurts you or another living creature. When people are killed unfairly. When people disregard safety. When people do something that could get themselves or someone else killed. When people disregard instructions. I don’t get angry often, but when I do, it is usually at someone who has crossed a moral line.
Anger often exists for a reason, for certain people these may be small reasons due to having extreme emotions, for some they may be for the wrong reasons e.g. entitlement, a self-centred sense of ‘fair’ and ‘unfair’, for some people it may be due to misinterpretation, but for most people, most of the time, it is because of genuine justifiable reasons to be angry at something that wasn’t fair.
Malaya makes a good point. She’s still an intentionally antagonistic pain in the ass, though.
I love the trees in the last two panels.
My read on Sal is she’s actually incredibly thin skinned. Probably because she spent her upbringing being picked apart from her parents. She wants people to like her so much but thinks no one ever actually will. So she pretends not to care. That’s why she tends to be so gruff and doesn’t take well to ribbing, either good natured or not. If someone is mean to her she’s finished with them because she dosen’t have room for another mean person in her life.
Maylaya on the other hand isn’t rattled by other peoples opinions, or at least to a much lesser degree. She’s got a very thick skin and doesn’t see why other people shouldn’t. So when Sal sends up a warning flag by snapping at anyone she finds critical or nosy, she dosn’t back off or give Sal space like most people, she snaps back, because she believes shit talk deserves more shit talk. Mayala thinks Sal thinks she’s special, and she thinks the best way to deal with that is not treat her special.
Though Sal’s clearly shown many times that she’s not interested in the kind of casual fan club Malaya thinks she wants and that she can so easily attract. That may be because she knows that kind of friend can easily turn on you, but I don’t think we’ve seen much evidence of that.
I think the simpler explanation for the feud, from Sal’s side at least, is that from the very start she felt her friendship with Marcie threatened (or at least encroached on) by Malaya.
Why Malaya’s an asshole is a different question, but it seems aimed at nearly everyone but Marcie.
Might point wasn’t that Sal want’s some sort of hallow group of vapid hangerons, might point is that Sal wants some real form of validation. For people to know the real her and like her. But that desire is outweighed by the fear of people getting to know the real her and not like her. She probably spent her whole childhood being compared to Walky, and those comparisons probably weren’t very favorable. So she keeps her guard up and keeps people at a distance, letting only a few people grow closer to her, like Danny one of the nicest most genuine character in this comic. I’m talking about the need to be liked, not adored. But paired with this need is her fear of being rejected. Sal has no patience for criticism because she spent most of her life being criticized. So she’s built this barrier of being short with strangers, and behaving generally unapproachable (she wondered if Danny lost a bet when he approached her.)
Unfortunately this aloof behavior paired with Sal’s motorcycle and accompanying jacket does slot in to an old school 80’s view of “cool.” It wasn’t something Sal was deliberately trying to evoke, but it’s easy to see how an outsider would she was. I certainly did when I first started reading this comic. I saw Sal zipping around on her motorcycle, and I saw someone who thought she was too cool for people in general and for her dorky brother specifically.
Thing is we the audience have had a chance to through her hardened exterior, and understand what drives and motivates her, and see the real trauma she’s gone through. My understanding and opinion of Sal has evolved as we’ve went on this journey.
But of course Malaya hasn’t seen any of this. If Malaya has never kept an opinion to herself as far as I can tell, and when she first met Sal she had the same opinion I did. Being a generally critical person she criticized. This generally wouldn’t have been that big a deal. Most of us can all handle a little criticism. Some people bond over it giving back as good as they get. But when Sal hears criticism she hears her mom, her therapist, and all the people who wish she could be more like Walky. So she snaps at Malaya. Most people would back off, either keep their distance or be gentler around her. But that’s not the way Malaya is wired. When someone his rude to her she is rude back. Not being able to handle the negative feedback Sal would usually simply excise Malaya from her life. But not that she’s Marcie’s friend and Sal’s roommate, that’s no longer an option. So for the first time since she’s come to collage Sal has to live with a sustained barrage of criticism she worked so hard to avoid, and that’s difficult for her to handle.
The thing is, Malaya’s criticisms aren’t exactly right, but they are not exactly wrong either. Best as I can tell Malaya is a completely self assured person. Someone who likes herself and isn’t hurt when other people don’t. So she can smell out that something about Sal isn’t genuine. That Sal is unhappy with herself or the world. To put in colloquially, that Sal is fronting. Sal’s self-assured I don’t need anyone attitude is a sort of facade. The version of herself she wishes she was. So Malaya is absolutely wrong about motive, but when she doubts Sal’s authenticity I think it’s with good reason.
Malaya makes a good point in Panel 3, but in panel 4, she’s just shit-talking out her ass…but more than that, “I promised I’d be nicer…you’re welcome” wasn’t nice at all. It was a bongo move that really wasn’t welcoming in anyway. In what universe would Sal actually feel welcome by that kind of invitation?
But more than that, panel 2 kind of made me mad at Marcie. This whole time, I’ve basically been feeling sympathy for Marcie because a) it sucks that two people you enjoy the company of insist on hating each other and b) it’s true that the things Sal has done do affect her. But she seems so much more willing to call Sal out than she does Malaya. And maybe that’s just because Sal’s stuff has been going on for a longer period of time, but she did absolutely nothing when Malaya said she’d be nicer but did a bongo move not two seconds later.
And while I don’t necessarily expect Marcie to step into the fight that is now brewing between Sal and Malaya, I am disappointed that her reaction to Malaya’s “I promised I’ll be nice…except not” was nothing. Especially since Sal hadn’t even said anything to Malaya this go ’round yet. Sal’s got a temper, so of course, she’s going to respond to being antagonized, but Marcie’s reaction before Sal says anything is just a blank face. I get that she’s mad at Sal, but I’d like to see some actual follow-through on this supposed attempt to Malaya to be nicer to Sal.
Marcie’s kinda in an awkward situation here. It’s true that she has had an unfortunate history of “suffering the consequences for Sal’s actions”, and I think that deep down, she has some subconscious resentment over that. On the other hand, she’s only being this nice to Malaya because she’s attracted to Malaya, so I don’t have a terribly high opinion of Marcie for brushing off her best friend of probably the better part of 2 decades over a girl whose pants she wants to get into.
Everybody else can see that Malaya is a rude, shallow and inconsiderate person. If Marcie wanted Malaya to “be nicer to Sal”, MARCIE should have invited Sal to the roller-derby and then see how Malaya behaves.
Just because Marcie is physically attracted to Malaya doesn’t mean something more isn’t going on. So far we’ve seen Marcie mostly hang out with Sal, Carla, and Malaya, all of which have pretty abrasive personalities. It stands to reason that’s the sort of person she enjoys being around. Add to the fact Malaya is teaching herself ASL and it seems likely they she has more than just a physical interest in Malaya.
I’m not sure that Marcie actually liking Malaya as a person isn’t worse than her just wanting to smash because Malaya is a garbage human being and what kind of person is into that?
Malaya isn’t a garbage person. Garbage people make people feel unsafe, Garbage people spread fear and hatred. Garbage people show no consideration for others.
What Malaya is is rude, and like I said that’s pretty par for the course.
+1
Malaya isn’t a garbage person. Garbage people make people feel unsafe, Garbage people spread fear and hatred. Garbage people show no consideration for others.
What Malaya is is rude, and like I said when you look at her social circle that’s pretty par for the course.
Marcie’s brushing Sal off right now because she wants to get her distance BECAUSE, once again, she got hit with the splash back for Sal’s actions. Even if Malaya weren’t here right now, Marcie probably wouldn’t be super enthused to hang out.
As people are pointing out in threads above, tho, Sal doesn’t have a lot of moral high ground vis a vis insincere backhanded attempts at reconciliation for Marcie’s sake.
Thanks for noting the “you’re welcome”. Above people keep talking about how Malaya is in the right, and I’m like, did nobody notice her treating basic human decency like some sort of special favor?
Kinda hypocritical, since until now, she was not that nice to Sal. And some people don’t jump at “I’ll be nicer to you now”, when you’ve been a jerk for them for weeks before that.
Also Malaya seems like a tad egocentric, but that’s not really the first time I thought that.
Not even “I’ll be nicer to you”, but “I’ve reluctantly agreed to be nicer to you, so I’m prepared to attempt this, but know I have zero enthusiasm for the project”.
Kind of like this, but not so bad.
Oof, I’d forgotten about that. Fair point.
Eh. They’re both kind of being assholes here. It’s like a who’s the bigger jerk contest. (It’s somehow still Malaya despite opening with the higher ground) Marcie doesn’t really escape either. Why are you encouraging them to hangout when you’ve said you’re avoiding Sal’s splashback? That’s slightly questionable judgement….but anyway it’s not about Marcie (even though it is). Both being jerks. Danny wins, best girl!
I think that pretty much sums up the problems between Sal and Malaya: A ‘Who’s the biggest jerk?’ competition.
Bye, Danny
DANNY PAY ATTENTION TO THE FACT THAT SAL IS AMAZI-GIRL’S PARTNER
Sal forget it. Let Marcie be buds with the worst person and when the chickens inevitably come home to roost you’ll have a new better network of friends.
That’s the best thing about college, shedding all the unneeded shit from high school to pick up new unneeded shit
SALFACE.GIF
Danny Wilcox: Dainty Taint
Man, Malaya’s great. This is a Malaya Appreciation Zone now. No Malaya-dissers allowed below this point.
God I love Malaya. She’s a pain in the ass and that’s why she’s great.
Honestly, yeah, she’s been a jerk to Sal, but Sal *definitely* started it. Malaya is totally justified in thinking Sal’s an ass, even if Malaya is, y’know, also an ass.
Also, characters don’t have to be nice people for readers to like them! I fully rebel against the notion that we are only allowed to like Good, Kind Role Models.
Is Sal about to anger ride Danny for maximum drama when the Sal-Walky-Amber-Danny chain unravels?
The worst thing about Panel 3?
Sal can skate.
She’s refusing to skate with Malaya and Marcie, which is why she talks about having to “sit in the stands”. But this is all self-inflicted. This is why Malaya thinks Sal’s a poser, even though it’s not exactly fair. As far as Malaya can tell, Sal is “too cool” to skate with her best friend.
Malaya specifically asked if she wanted to watch, not participate, though. Does Malaya even know Sal can skate?
No, but Sal knows Sal can skate.
Malaya probably assumes Sal’s scared of looking dumb for not knowing how to skate, like Carla did.
If that’s the case, Malaya REALLY shouldn’t be suggesting someone who can’t skate get involved in roller derby. It’s REALLY easy to get hurt in roller derby, and I can’t imagine that gets less likely with someone who doesn’t know what they’re doing.
But regardless, Malaya’s not suggesting Sal participate. She asked if Sal wanted to watch.
You’re kinda making this about Malaya, but I’m mostly commenting on Sal’s behavior.
I get that, but the point is that Sal’s not wrong for talking about sitting in the stands when that’s what Malaya offered.
It not skating she said, its roller derby, which unless I remember it differently involves ramming into people at high speeds on skates. Sal may enjoy skating but me not enjoy high speed collisions.
Not if the way she drives is any indication.
Where was Danny keeping that ukulele durring that whole ride?
And finally someone asks the really important question!
Is Danny supernatural like Joyce?
Does he own a Bag of Holding?
I think motorcycles have sompartments under the seat where you can store things that aren’t too large. Like ukuleles.
Malaya is so …
*shades*
… callous.
YEEEEAAAH
(guys is the CSI Miami meme outdated yet)
Some memes are eternal.
Others were outdated when they began.
Pun memes are the latter.
CSI Miami ran from 2002 to 2012. So it was outdated for a while, but now it’s old enough to be considered vintage, which makes it cool again.
Something tells me Wonderbread shan’t be so lucky like leaving so soon
Honestly, I’m conflicted with this because we know that Sal can skate, and roller derby may be a good outlet for her in terms of general stress release.
I figure she doesn’t want to take part because she’ll get too into the fighting and the other girls haven’t officially done anything wrong, but that might just be my wondering about her sense of justice.
It looked like there were skateboards around when Marcie lost her voice. I’m wondering if that has something to do with it.
Oh, I never picked up on that – that may be tied to it. How interesting.
Wait, Bloomington’s league is making their members play on Champs weekend?
Wow, I never get tired of my hatred for Malaya and her being such a smug, condescending prick.
Yeah its difficult to take sides, the smug and condescending Malaya versus the arrogant martyr that is Sal
They may both be acting like jerks here but Marcie’s constant and consistently wrong psychoanalysis makes her way more annoying so I’m on Sal’s side.
Part of their problem is that the three of them are falling into Geek Social Fallacy #4, Friendship Is Transitive: all your friends can and should be friends with each other. Any idea of incompatibility due to conflicting interests, subcultures, and/or politics is inherently wrong.
Sal and Malaya do not have to be friends just because Marcie is friends with both of them. They don’t have to hang out together. They only need to be civil to each other, which doesn’t require offers to hang out.
Of course, it would help if these offers to hang out were actually sincere instead of each of them acting like they’re doing the other a huge favor: http://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-5/03-the-butterflies-fly-away/bimbo/
I’m increasingly starting to think that Malaya, Carla and Sal can all fall in a woodchipper. Like, how insufferable, contrarian and 3edgy5u can you get.
If this comic were genderbent, they’d all be wearing fedoras, cargo pants and CoD t-shirts
Not for nothing, but I feel obliged to call out both sides — Malaya, Carla, and Sal all have drastically different personalities, interests, and difficulties in their lives, and reducing their genderflipped opposites to fedora-wearing manchildren stereotypes is a disservice both to them and to men in general. Do you have so little contact with guys that no other stereotypes or archetypes come to mind? Malaya could be the musclelifting Chad, Carla the “better than you” skinny atheist, and Sal wouldn’t be here because juvenile boys don’t come back from attempted robbery.
Yeah, I admit it was very reductive, as comments written in frustration tend to be. I just get annoyed with people like that. For all their attempts to be “real” they end up just coming off as incredibly fake and attention-hungry, making me roll my eyes so hard that random engineers try to use my skull as a gyroscope.
This is a bit late but when I read the 23 Oct 2013 strip, it made me think of Discord, so I made a thing:
https://imgur.com/gallery/cc0WP4r
In a way it’s not so late since Discord didn’t exist back then anyway.
Oof.
She has. Points. Not as many as she think she does. And, also, Pot calling Kettle black, a little.
She may hate you, but she brooded LONG before you.
This bugs me, cause I’ve BEEN Sal. And Malaya IS right. Friend’s are PEOPLE. You don’t OWN them.
But you can be a manipulative ass hat and hide under “rude,” as you cause drama.
Like, The thing that bugs me the MOST about this is She’s right about Sal, but. Yeah, no, you’re being as big of an ass about it.
And they’ve BOTH shown moments of reflection, and thinking this isn’t right, ONLY to get RIGHT back into the thick of it infront of each other. Like, the other one burns the hatchet as SOON as the other Bury’s it.
Marcie, I know you want some booty, and you and Sal have shit to work out. But this seems like A LOT just for a lay, Girl.
I honestly think you should lock them in a room together and walk away. Maybe cuff them so they don’t kill each other.
I agree. I feel like both Sal and Malaya are doing things to sabotage their relationship while not realizing what themselves are doing and only seeing what the other is doing. But mostly Sal.
I am eager to see them sort this out, but I don’t think it’ll happen without one or both of them making a major change to their life.
I am not going to blame Malaya for taking cheap potshots at Sal’s character, because she doesn’t know what we know about Sal’s past and the cornucopia of issues that come with it shaping Sal into the person she is today.
But I AM going to call her out for being a petty, self-centered bongo for saying that Sal’s behavior is defined solely by Sal’s distaste for Malaya herself. That condescending spiteful bint…
Panel 5: Sally Van Pelt
Wow the backgrounds in this strip are beautiful.
Malaya seems to understand Sal pretty well, but I’m not sure it’s fair to say she’s a phony.