Discussion (294) ¬
[ Comments RSS ]
The Onion @theonion.com ⋅ 5h
David M Willis! @damnyouwillis.bsky.social ⋅ 17h
The Emotion Engine @emotion-engine.bsky.social ⋅ 9d
The Emotion Engine @emotion-engine.bsky.social ⋅ 13d
Vangelus @vangelus.bsky.social ⋅ 2d
FactPost @factpostnews.bsky.social ⋅ 1d
Loading ...
| TEAM FOSSILS
Rainbow Friends
Asher: “Hey Jennifer, have you noticed Walky is hot?”
Jennifer: “No.”
Raidah: “You know, that Walky guy is pretty hot, huh?”
Jennifer: “Stop it.”
Walky: “Hey, Billie…”
Jennifer: “YOU’RE HOT! I GET IT! YOU’RE HOT AND I WANT YOU TO DO THINGS TO ME! NOW WHAT THE HELL IS IT?!”
Walky: “…What page was the math assignment on?”
Jennifer: “46.”
Walky: “Thanks.”
Yotomoe’s fic: the prequel
Yeah, it’s like someone set off the
BatYoto signal.Ok that’s it I’m going to try hanging out with my old friends again. Atleast Joyce and Sal will help me give someone the side eye if I think even try to push the narrative that walky is hot.
Walky’s relationship status is like the weather in Hawai’i tho
if you don’t like it, just wait five minutes
Aw, this implies you don’t have faith in Walky x Lucy! How can you not have faith in DOA’s OTP Walky x Lucy.?! They’re stronger than terrible lizbeans Becky x Dina!
My OTP died, and so should everyone else’s.
Ruth x Billie fans are in Immense suffering
I would know, i am one
Well my OTP is still waiting to get off the ground… (ships Joyce/Dorothy), so at least yours had a chance. xD
As for Walky’s coolness, I’m just a little jealous that he’s like, what? 18? 19? And still has a full head of hair. (While his commenter started losing his hair at 14!)
It may be my least favorite ship honestly.
Lucy don’t like the pajama jeans. This ship is as good as sunk.
Don’t make me attempt Horny Hypnosis again, human! At least let Walky have this.
Lucy is great, she’s kind, caring, thoughtful and her and Walky make a decent pair. But it feels like they’re relationship doesn’t feel serious yet but that’s fine since their relationship is like a week old and it’s best not to rush into things.
That aside I don’t see yet how this one can last where Dorothy & Amber couldn’t. Dorothy took his first everything including his heart so Lucy can’t imitate that…ok Let’s see Lucy Stab Sal and see if they’re still willing to try to make it work after that.
Keep in mind that the Dorothy/walky relationship ended when Dorothy broke it off (to spend more time on her studies). That probably won’t happen with Lucy.
Garbage Scow for life, yo.
Answer me: Who, other than Joe, has been depicted with the largest number of relationships? (noting I exclude Joe bc none of them were “serious”)
Seriously, include Joe. At least as far as depiction goes, not implication.
Ethan, I suspect. Though most of them weren’t serious either.
Maybe he just believes in love! What a guy can’t believe in love and be accepting of his romantic potential? It’s not Walky’s fault his past relationships haven’t worked out. He’s just been…unlucky. He’s the Ted Mosby of DoA!
Had to look up who “Ted Mosby” was, sort of assuming he was from a Disney show. Turns out he’s that guy who looks like Just Some Guy on that show about the weirdo who grows up to be Bob Saget.
Why would I expect anything less from these bourgeois pricks?
Now, we could engage in a discussion about Historical Marxism, but how about something at least slightly more fun?
What’s your favorite thing to have for breakfast?
(whether or not you say Hoosier Poutine, alright by me)
Y’all eat breakfast?
Oh yeah! For a meal at any time of day!
@Knig Daniel – I know, right?
I usually just have some caffeinated drink in the morning and then have an early lunch.
Whatever you eat after 8+ hours is breaking a fast, so everybody does unless they don’t sleep.
Eggs Benedict with spinach and pancakes or crepes.
This is not something I normally can get, alas.
whatever I can slap a bunch of bacon on and still get away with calling “a whole meal,” tbh
I don’t eat breakfast foods for breakfast. For breakfast, leftoverpizza. For breakfast foods at dinner or lunch: french toast. I actually like most breakfast foods – especially fancy ones like quiche, but cooking breakfast is too hard. I don’t function until later.
“breakfast foods” are a myth propagated by the pork industry and some weird pedo named Kellogg.
True, but given the state of food storage (I won’t really call it refrigeration), reheating (if you maintained a fire in your stove), and grabbing a bite to eat (not existing as we recognize it), people were ready for it.
And by people I largely mean housewives, who were responsible for feeding the family and getting them out the door. Those cliches made fun of in Pleasantville exist for a reason.
A free Sunday so I can sleep in for 8 hours, and have afternoon with breakfast.
Red chilaquiles, very crunchy… only spicy enough to be tasty, if the only thing I can taste is the chilli, then it’s too spicy. I need to feel the tomato too. With chicken either shredded or breaded
Sounds really tasty!!! Care to share your favorite recipe for it? Would you still call them chilaquiles if they were cooked with Taco Bell sauce instead of regular salsa?
I mean, Taco Bell insists on calling their food offerings “tacos,” so there’s nothing stopping you
Just made some with Taco Bell SAUCE, had a fried egg over it, so spicy and savory!!!
Now, just why doesn’t Taco Bell serve these with egg as a breakfast item?
Calling Taco Bell “food” is stretching the truth nearly past recognition…
Dutch baby!
Dutch baby, get in mah belly!
Prep time 3 mins. Cook time 22 mins, gives me time to make coffee and have a bowl of cereal while waiting. 25 mins after entering the kitchen, Dutch baby is entering my mouth. Yes!
As a Dutch person, I am deeply concerned about this post.
…Now, I may be able to get my hands on a Dutch baby soon… how do you prepare, and how hot should the oven be?
My usual breakfast is some toasted hallullas with some half-butter margarine and a slice of (good) gouda cheese, with a cup of milk coffee.
Coffee. Everything else is secondary.
Is there anything else?
Cream and sugar, at least.
If marxism isn’t fun, you’re doing it with the wrong people.
Don’t forget protections, though, especially with multiple conversation partners, because some positions may be riskier than others.
It’s not that marxism isn’t fun, it’s that finding all these recipes to try is that much MORE fun, at least when you’re low on spoons like I am these days. ADHD stripes bruh!
Coffee. Black. sluuurrrrrp
Usually cereal with milk, sometimes oatmeal, and Poptarts if I’m in a hurry, but always with a cup of strong tea with sugar and milk to wash down my morning meds. I’m old, I have wake-up meds and bedtime meds because getting killed means you need lots of pills to keep you going when you are alive again. Blood pressure pills, pain pills, pills to stabilize your brain damage…
Poptarts and milk.
Wellerman, is that first breakfast or second breakfast? I know that sounds like a hobbit joke but I grab something like a single serving bag of chips or pretzels or a handful of mixed nuts with coffee when I first get up. Get something in my stomach.. Later, once my wife is awake, while she has cereal and fruit, I have something Mexican and microwavable. Some combo of breakfast tacos, breakfast burritos, actual burritos, tamales, scrambled eggs with picante sauce, etc. Along with milk and my old man pills.
Spinach bacon and cheddar omelette, home fries, wheat berry toast. (I may have just had this at the dîner today as well)
…my phone keeps autocorrecting diner to dîner lately. Dang french.
Yeah, I still stand by Raidah not being that great. Also Jennifer trash talking her former friends sours me too, and actually Carl is just a tool. Oh and I guess Asher’s there. I don’t trust him. That is all.
Oh, she’s acting pretty bad here. My general point just to keep in minds is that our view of Raidah is heavily influenced by her massive grudge against Sarah, a major character in the strip.
In all honestly, she’s probably around par in terms of people being assholes in this comic. She’s not exactly aggressive or hostile, she just has a really ugly grudge against Sarah and it colors everyone that Sarah hangs around with.
Also, note her comment on Joyce here. That she looks terrible, but it looks to be presented in more of a “…huh” than “hahaha goooooood”.
And there’s certainly reasons why Raidah might want to feel vindictive towards Joyce.
I keep trying to convince myself that I’m just biased against Raidah because we’ve been seeing her through Sarah’s eyes, but she keeps coming up with new and different ways to be awful.
It’s less that we’re seeing her though Sarah’s eyes, Raidah’s grudge against Sarah is pretty damn vicious and not exactly reciprocal (Sarah doesn’t like Raidah, but only a bit more than she doesn’t like anyone else). It’s a bad look and it is awful.
It also just happens to dominate her appearances because so much of her interactions are related to Sarah’s friend circle.
I’ll also note that she’s not being awful in a new or different way here. She’s shitting on Sarah (neither new or different), and enjoying a bit of eye candy. If she does make moves on Walky despite being informed that he’s got a girlfriend, then absolutely, that’d be something new and different, but she ain’t there yet.
Well she’s going strait from that guys cute to what do his parents do. Which isn’t exactly a good look.
Evolutionarily it makes sense. A potential mate’s ability to support progeny is directly related to the financial status of his parents. Good parents increases the probability of being able to support children and the wife/mother in the style to which she wishes to become accustomed.
Opus i think you’re taking a little poetic license their combining evolution and finance
I get the practicality and honestly if she was asking directly about his finances or job prospects I would not judge her as hard. But asking about his parents finances instead screams of classism.
I mean, my view of Raidah comes from how her and her friends treated Dina.
My view of Raidah comes from the fact that she clearly feels superior to everyone, including her boyfriend.
That fact that she’s interested in Walky, but only puts value on people via how powerful their parents are, is super icky.
That’s what I noticed first. Raidah needed to know Walky’s parents financial/social status. That made me cringe.
Ditto, her treatment of Dina was a knife in the heart.
same
I never trust people who talk that way about people with disabilities or mental illness, real or perceived
that’s my policy in real life too and up to this point, I was right on the nose 100% of the time, every person I avoided with this rule was a huge creep/asshole
No it’s the “What do his parents do” for me. That’s not Sarah – related.
To be fair, I wouldn’t say Jennifer is trash talking any of them except maybe Sarah. But I think Sarah would kinda be proud of that depiction of her, so does it really count as trash?
I could see reading the comment about Joyce as trash talking, but I read her facial expression as genuine concern about what’s wrong with Joyce, not derision.
Meh, it irks me a little. These same people were Jennifer’s emotional support just a few months ago. She went to Sarah/Dina’s birthday party. Yet here she is with a new friend group really quick to keep pace with Raidah’s jabs. Kinda shitty to me. Not the worst thing, but not a great moment either.
She was also a periodically suicidal, alcoholic trainwreck in an unhealthy relationship. Changing her circle of friends, at least for the moment, seems to have made her considerably healthier.
Also, did Billie ever have much in the way of personal interactions with Sarah? Her being an antisocial loner is, well, the baseline assumption for people about Sarah…
I don’t actually hate Jennifer’s friend group…..uh actually no I do kind of hate them. They suck, but I don’t hate Jennifer’s choice to separate from her old friends and try to reinvent herself and be healthier. But the thing is you can do that and also not be kind of a tool like your dumb new friends. That’s not mutually exclusive.
I mean, Jennifer’s comment was kinda dickish…
…and while untrue, I think Sarah would be right there going “AGREED”.
I personally don’t really read Jennifer’s comment as much of a jab necessarily, at least not any worse than the sort of pointed comment she might have freely made even while in Sarah’s company months ago. Like, She’s not being any more bongo-y than even Old Billie was.
That is to say, it does not seem to me like she’s making that comment in order to piggypack off of Raidah’s shittalking, so much as it’s just the sort of thing she’d say regardless. Raidah’s the one who tries to interpret that as ‘oh she’s joining in on my shittalking ha ha.’
But like. It’s still not great. It’s just not really any worse than the sorts of things she used to say all the time, literally to people’s faces.
Huh, reading this little thread I can now see your point of view re: trash talking. However, to be totally honest, when I read the strip, I was more, wow, Jennifer is trying to lower the amount of TT’ing Raidah is doing. More along the lines of “Christ, here we go again going to have to listen to Raidah go on and on about Sarah”, so she diffuses that. Then when Raidah points out how bad Joyce looks (which happened to totally surprise me that Raidah even knows who Joyce is by name”, Jennifer looks and is kind of surprised how bad Joyce DOES look, and finally Walky. She has so much history with Walky as a surrogate-step-sister to him, that any trash talking by her should simply be overlooked as normal sisterly love/hate. I didn’t think that Jennifer was being necessarily intentionally mean at all. But… maybe I misread the strip.
Don’t forget, Joyce is the reason Jacob broke up with Raidah – she knows EXACTLY who Joyce is by name.
Raidah also joined Jacob for lunch at Galasso’s when he was there with Joyce and Dorothy, and she knew Joyce by name even then.
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2018/comic/book-8/04-of-mike-and-men/wrong-3/
This is a pretty valid interpretation. Maybe I’m just too jaded on the subject since I don’t really like anyone in Jennifer’s new group. It still feels a little mean to me but Jennifer probably doesn’t intentionally want to mock her old fridnds and is more playing off Raidah.
Wow, tat’s the firs tthing you look for Raidah uh
Walky being hot was the first thing she looked for.
Rich parents were a close second.
Typically looking for tats waits for the removal-of-clothing stage.
Yeah, but that’s what almost everyone looks for first.
YOU… and oh hey, new guy! Hey, Carl!
You’d think by how Walky is somehow extraordinarily hot, he could melt all the Bloomington snow
Is Carl Sarah’s roommate’s boyfriend from the previous year?
Dana’s, right… It’s been so long, too long.
Two poached eggs, french fries, kielbasa gravy and fresh cheese curds? $12.50?!?!?
…You know, that’s a connection I hadn’t made until now.
I wonder if they’re still together? If so, that would imply their friend group has at least somewhat regular contact with Dana.
That Hoosier Poutine hate is definitely something Jennifer picked up from Ruth, right?
…good catch, there. I totally missed that.
What the hell is hoosier poutine
An amalgamation of tater tots, gravy and cheese curds. Breakfast item in Indiana’s diners.
Flavor May Vary.
ye gods
CORRECTION:
The variation Carl and Jennifer are talking about utilizes french fries, kielbasa gravy and poached eggs.
SAUCE:
https://www.yelp.com/biz/farm-bloomington-bloomington-2
**attempts not to vomit**
Oh. Oh wow. That is one of the most disgusting foods I have ever heard of.
I grew up a half an hour from the Indiana border, and I have never heard of this dish before. Thank goodness.
Hey now, all depends. Some people find chili or mustard disgusting, but some people like those.
That’s what the google told me too and damn. Sounds gross.
We do have “breakfast poutine” in Canada with eggs, home fries, curd, and hollandaise sauce. The hollandaise makes the eggs work. Gravy and eggs kinda makes me want to vomit too. :shrug:
How exactly does one “earn” attractiveness? Like, in Billifer’s head, anyway.
I assume “taking care of yourself physically and being cool”.
Doing something to cultivate or reinforce it, prolly. Getting a good haircut, using styling gel, makeup, just general effort at making oneself look presentable.
Because lets be honest, the most effort Walky puts into looking good is putting on clothing. Any clothing that happens to be around.
And that’s actually detrimental!
But preferably pajama pants.
You don’t. The very concept of “earning” it is just another disposable invention by which bourgeois pricks like Billie can maintain ownership of their means of production.
Some people do actually work on their appearance. Diet, exercise, makeup, and generally trying to cultivate a sense of style. Then there’s Walky who was just born with it. Getting ass, despite wearing pajama jeans and sweats often stained with crumbs of whatever he just ate.
If DoA was a fantasy series, Walky would be the weird dude who got isekai’d in and now suddenly everyone wants to bang him for some inexplicable reason
Dressing well, working out, wearing makeup, putting care into washing your hair, regular bathing, eating food that isn’t mcnuggets 3 times a day. Y’know. Taking pride in your appearance. Things Walky doesn’t do.
What gets me is his diet specifically. I lost my just eat a bunch of fast food and not gain weight privileges in college! I’m salty!
The male teenage metabolism is kind to some and not so much to others.
I’ve never HAD those privileges, I just accept that I’m gonna be fat if I want to enjoy my food.
Don’t worry. It’ll happen to Walky too.
Of course, given the timescale, I’ll be long dead before then, but still it’ll happen.
Mostly just by not being walky, I reckon
Performing several purely altruistic acts of kindness for a disguised Greek goddess, and being blessed in return.
… oh, in Billie’s head. I think you earn it by being in the in-crowd. Or maybe you earn being in the in-crowd by being attractive. I’m still not sure which way that causality flows.
Unless you lucked out with good genes and have a natural sense of good fashion, mostly everything that takes effort like fitness and above decent grooming.
Well if Walky was careful about what he ate and worked out frequently, you might say he had earned his six-pack. But instead he eats fast food all day and relies on his metabolism. Jennifer struggles with her weight a bit so she probably finds this extra unfair.
Based on Google, what makes “Hoosier Poutine” Hoosier Poutine is Tater Tots: https://www.inhockey.net/news_article/show/776362
brb vomiting
that is not the specific one carl and jennifer are talking about
OOPS! Sorry for spreading misinformation up there, then!
Enlighten us Willis, just which variety are they talking about? We MUST know!!!!
Hah, my bad, couldn’t help but start googling, and certainly sounded like something that Jennifer/Billie would call awful :D.
Eh, might go easy on the cheese curds, but the whole thing sounds really savory and tasty to me!
“Tastes good” and “culinarily awful” are not exclusive :D.
“culinarily” awful? What’s that mean anyway?
It basically means “something that wasn’t made by specifically my mom or some French asshole who put it on an oversized plate and dRiZzLeD some sauce near it”, based on personal experience.
Or some Italian asshole, if we’re talking about pasta.
Or some Japanese asshole, if we’re talking about sushi.
Mostly just means stuff that isn’t high class, authentic, or proper in some manner.
Yes, it’s stupid and arbitrary. But that seems like something Jennifer/Billie would care a lot about >a_>.
Eh, making things look all fancy ass like that is a parlor trick, anyone can do it with any food.
Yes, even Hoosier Poutin.
I googled to find out more but the first result is this comic!
I’ve read the entire Wikipedia about Poutine now and omg I am going to have to take a trip there and do a tour. The authors must love poutine so much. “The contrast of temperatures and textures” … Fresh cheddar curds (which I don’t even know were a thing) and hot fries and a nice reduction sauce/gravy to melt the cheese and bring the flavors together …. Hmmmm.
And by there I mean Quebec!
Is it this one?
Hoosier Poutine
2 Poached Eggs, French Fries, Kielbasa Gravy, Fresh Cheese Curds
$12.5
That would seem to make sense! Asher was talking about something with eggs.
Oh geez. Welp, a bunch of fireworks are probably about to go off. XD Great.
I wonder if Raidah knows the circumstances behind Jacob breaking up with her, we already know she can hold a grudge and be nasty about it too, and Joyce is not in a good place for a confrontation about her handling of that situation
She knows
People often try to defend Raidah, but boy, does she make that more and more difficult.
I honestly don’t get why. Something bad happened to her sure but the closest to a good thing we’ve seen her do is tell one of her cronies not to use a slur
Because I try to be wary about “Protagonist-centric morality”.
Raidah tends to act pretty damn awful. She’s also generally only showed up in two situations: When Sarah was around, and thus her actions would be colored by her severe (and, while understandable, unwarranted) grudge against Sarah, or when Joyce was trying to seduce Jacob away from Raidah.
Frankly, if you only looked at the Joyce/Raidah/Jacob stuff, entirely in isolation of everything else, Raidah comes off massively better than anyone else in that plot arc…
Raidah’s only done one REALLY terrible thing in my eyes, and that’s calling Dina a slur.
Otherwise… her and Sarah have made some pretty petty-aggressive snipes at each other, but Sarah, at least on paper, has done worse since she actually slugged her.
And, it should be noted, Raidah didn’t call Dina a slur.
Well, unless you count “mentally-challenged” as one. Which, yeah, I can see that. But it was her friend that called her the R-word. Which she (mildly) rebuked her for.
So, well, six of one, half-dozen of another, I guess?
You’re right about this Dina’s sittuation. So, I’ve put Joyce into this “asshole pot”, too.
She’s also consistently classist and seems to have a sense of superiority about her. Also as someone who goes to a school where everyone is obsessed with “networking” and “building opportunities” i absolutely hate her social climber mindset.
The flip side of “protagonist-centric morality” is that you have to resort to puppy-kicking to show that an antagonist is bad.
The defense is mainly that she hasn’t actually done all that much bad either beyond generally being a mean and unpleasant person.
That is all that bad and it’s why I can’t understand people defending her.
It’s because nearly all the sympathetic central characters we like (except Dina) are as bad in different ways.
By “different” I meant “various”.
“As bad” is doing some seriously heavy lifting, if I am being honest, but yes, they are flawed people. Like, I am not sure any of the main cast have done something on par with Raidah’s orchestrated mistreatment of Sarah, for example. It’s all relative, I suppose.
I guess it’s just kind of wild to me that I’ve seen people show more warmth and patience to her in some situations than they’d extend to Becky, or Roz. Like, Raidah’s not as bad as Mary, but we still haven’t really been shown a whole lot to not think she’s a jerk.
The straightest answer is that when our protagonists falter, there’s not really a reason to believe we should think of them as (for lack of a better term) villainous in the same way we do with a character who only exists in an antagonistic capacity for a protagonist.
I’m real harsh on Becky lately, for example (it’s also the first I’ve ever been interested in her as a character, because “the character is mean” isn’t the same as “the character is bad and annoying”), but there’s never gonna be a point where I look at Becky and think “that’s the villain of the story that the hero to overcome” the way I would if one of the parent characters were doing it, because I have reason to think of Becky in a more nuanced fashion than I do Carol or Blaine. Becky has the opposite problem for me, actually, where she’s a main character who does really messed up things, we just haven’t gotten to the point where The Narrative, however one wants to describe it, has gone “hey Becky it really wasn’t cool for you to do that” yet (except with her and Dorothy now, where Becky is seemingly trying to be her friend and regretted how she acted prior, and her ongoing problem with that is one rooted in her trust issues).
Roz basically only shows up in an antagonistic capacity to Becky the last five years and Becky always comes out looking better even if Becky is being a big stupid idiot going “pft it’s fine that I’m working for a republican, you’re a legacy admission” and Dorothy helpfully chimes in that Becky is a lesbian so that means Roz isn’t allowed to criticize her, Sarah loudly slutshames her in a packed auditorium for literally no reason. All of these moments are ones where I think “the nominally more heroic characters are big stupid idiots,” but then I go on and like them anyway because I also know that Sarah’s a grouchy curmudgeon with a secret heart of gold who feels lost and adrift to express affection for her little sisters, and they exist independent of Roz in a way that Roz does not exist independently of them.
Or: Becky does morally worse things than Roz has, but the series is more about Becky than it is Roz and we have more time in Becky’s head and a greater understanding of her foibles, and so even when Becky does bad shit we still have more ground to like her because it’s a story about Becky dealing with her hangups more than it is about Roz.
With Raidah we barely know her, and when we do it’s this scenario here where she’s antagonistic with characters we like more than her. She’s antagonistic for extremely sensible and understandable reasons, but we know that Sarah removing Dana from college was “the hardest thing she’s ever done in her life,” and we know that Joyce buried herself in guilt over what she did with Jacob, but we don’t know how Raidah herself took it other than one strip of showing that it’s gone poorly. We had more time with Joyce flirting with Jacob than we actually had Raidah dating him, and so it’s harder for us to grasp what that relationship meant to both him and her (and indeed, the main thing we know is that Jacob wasn’t entirely confident and wanted to date someone his brother would be proud of, and you could make a convincing argument towards using Raidah the way we talk about Raidah as some vindictive social climber). It’s easy to humanize Raidah (in that we don’t see her and go “boo, that scoundrel!”) because the comic went out of its way to clarify and display humanizing elements for her that, as of yet, haven’t been fully explored. Mary doesn’t get that because the first time she was ever important it was to be hugely transphobic for no reason; we know she’s, for lack of a better term, not really a character, she’s just here to be antagonistic to people we like more.
TLDR: It’s about what’s been presented to the audience and it depends on the action. The guy who got mad at Joe while he was forlornly staring at Joyce thinking he’d never be good enough for her, but he was doing it in front of the door and obstructing traffic, isn’t A Person that the audience has to care about, but Raidah’s been recurring on and off for years until she had her boyfriend break up with her because Sarah has a grudge. It’s not just that Raidah has entirely sensible reasons to hate Sarah, it’s that they have been presented as entirely sensible reasons to hate her.
Dina just got done telling someone that being physically abused made them an asshole and prior to that was too stupid to get off from them when she was directly told to her face “you are hurting me, get off” so I’m okay with calling her bad at something now.
(I’m perfectly aware of any complicated feelings anyone has about those strips, let alone that Joyce herself capped it off saying something equally terrible. I’m not gonna make it some kinda binary right and wrong thing, just please no one tell me that it’s fine to go “you’re a bad person because your parents abused you”)
No, like, some of them are a lot worse. For example, Ruth routinely physically assaults people.
So does Amazi-girl. Amber broke into an office, hacked a computer, and falsified academic records. Joyce’s “precious flower” speech was worse than anything Raidah’s done, besides which she deliberately tried to break up Jacob’s and Raidah’s relationship. Mike was a serially-abusive arsehole; Danny wished he’d stay in a nice long coma so he could boink Ethan, and told Ethan so.
To remain sympathetic with the central characters wee have to imagine that their antagonists are vile.
What’s missed in this kind of discussion and might play into the “protoganist centered morality” concept is that while all our main characters have done some shitty things, they’ve also done a lot of good things – supportive, sympathetic, helpful, etc.
It could just be that we don’t see that side of the antagonists, but with Raidah it’s not just that we’ve seen her do bad things, it’s that we don’t see anything on the other side of the scale.
Yeah, I really loved that part where Ruth threw her trans charge to the wolves because otherwise she might get in trouble for fucking another one of her charges.
…
Wait, no, I didn’t.
yeah that
It’s not a sliding scale between uwu sad bean and horrible monster. Ruth doesn’t build her Good Person points enough that it’s okay for her to terrorize her dorm, it’s still wrong. She’s just, y’know, a fictional character that we can observe, so we can be invested in her journey to try and outgrow her worst behaviours. Ruth isn’t gonna be Totally Redeemed once Rachel goes “you’re not so bad for a nerd after all,” she’s hated by someone she did wrong by and that person can hate her as long as she wants, and Ruth’s gotta move on with her life anyway.
Like, morality doesn’t work as “good people who fall short” and “bad people who it’s okay to do bad things too.” Mary sucks, also Mary didn’t deserve to have a dick slapped onto her face that one time before she did anything.
And then condescend to the person it was used against like she was a child who probably didn’t understand what was going on.
I don’t get why people can just not like her – like even if it’s just for bad vibes and stuff.
I don’t hate her except maybe her hair, but she’s not great. She’s just also not annoying enough or seen enough for me to add to my “actively dislike” list
But everyone’s criteria is different so go wild me says.
I don’t try to defend Raidah, because every time she shows up she reminds me why I dislike her so much.
“Oh great, a Billie strip; she is the worst,” I said to myself.
Raidah speaks.
“Okay, she’s not *the* worst.”
Raidah continues to be awful
You all expected Linda and Charles to be the social climbers, but oh yeah, it’s Raidah!
Something tells me Linda won’t like her. And not for the obvious fact Raidah is obnoxious.
I feel like they’d heavily agree on there being some “good ones” and Raidah would probably fall into that category.
Either that, or Linda would see right through her and realize she’s just a social climber (because Linda is the exact same).
I don’t know what Walky’s parents do for a living but they are completely awful, which is probably worth points in Raidah’s book.
To be fair to Walky, his girlfriend was into him before his hotness powers were unlocked.
Damn, this week is really bringing me around to Lucy! Not that I ever disliked her, but I was meh on her until this week’s strips. Lucy can be a little over-the-top sometimes, but she really does see people for who they are inside. Sure, she still makes silly adolescent mistakes, but that’s natural and in the main, Lucy is a force for good and much sharper about interpersonal things than the bulk of the cast. She sees the good in Walky and as much as she’s trying to help him grow up, she seems to know the limits there and she’s not insisting that he fundamentally change his nature- just maybe a better shirt for a job interview, no? Your comment was really sweet and I like the perspective you brought here.
Raidah will lose interest once she sees the pajama jeans. Don’t worry.
And if that doesn’t do it, when Walky opens his mouth will probably seal (or unseal?) the deal.
Raidah’s probably just enjoying some eye candy, honestly…
https://imgur.com/a/6Of3rPx (NSFW)
A bit late today cuz I waited till the last moment. FINALLY we’re getting into the sexy stuff. Sorry the art is deteriorating. We’re getting to the part that’s hard to draw.
Well done human!!!
Nice you getting into a routine, this well help if you eventually make more comics one day. Also this is looking more and more promising.
Very much true!
If only making games had more visible progress at the ready…
Hey Yoto, do you think you’ll make a full collection of this when the whole strip is done? Because I’m sorry to say some of the pages were swallowed by Imgur
of course.
Nice, Yotomoe! Keep going
Oh thank goodness. After wading through two threads about… that unpleasant sounding dish, I feared you hadn’t posted today.
**opens new tab**
Ha! Oh… my yes. Worth it.
The one day they decided to not take the motorcycle and walk with friends.
You know if Raidah wants pay back on Joyce and Sarah she could try something a little under handed like pretending to forgive one of them (most likely Joyce) befriend them and wait to find a way to drive a wedge between like I don’t know stir on a love triangle with a guy they both like as payback. Maybe Joe if Liz was on to something with the last conversation of there’s.
This notion seems ridiculous as hell now that I put into words.
If Raidah wanted payback she probably would have pressed charges when Sarah punched her, since that’s kind of actually a crime.
Nah not satisfying enough, the best way to be an antagonist is to take your time messing with someone.
Pressing charges after one punch (that you provoked in the first place) is a sign of weakness and a leading cause of barren wheat fields. How’s she gonna feed her family with no wheat, Thag? We gotta think sensibly here.
People getting mad at Raidah, meanwhile I get angry at Jennifer for quickly agreeing with her new “friend”‘s view of the people who were there when she needed >:c
Agreed, but also, ‘Sarah’s friends’ being an oxymoron isn’t a view unique to raidah. It’s also held by most of Sarah’s friends, and Sarah.
I dont get why people are getting upset about Jennifer’s comment about Sarah
Everything we know about Sarah tells me she’d agree with that comment
I think people would be more mad about her ragging on Joyce for looking terrible and agreeing….mainly because she does because Joyce is dying out there, Lucy even said last strip “she looks like death.”
I mean maybe Raidah was but Jennifer’s tone struck me as more concerned then ragging on Joyce
Yeah I see that too, be easy for someone to issue that if they were caught up with being annoyed with Raidah.
Walky also did the same and didn’t get nearly as much blowback.
People just dislike Raidah. Which, well, is understandable. But it does colour people’s perceptions of her actions.
She’s just annoying to me in certain ways and in others She’s justified.
What does Walky & Sal parents do for a living? I wonder if Linda has a somewhat “respectable” if she’s all about chasing higher status and was involved with a former college dean.
I think upper middle, at least. Linda managing to get Sal to keep her motorcycle for a semester without her notice is either bribery and/or hobnobbing with McHenry enough to do it.
I don’t remember if anyone said, but maybe we’ll find out?
Linda does strike me as snobby, whatever her job. From the earlier strips, it seemed she worried more about Sal’s behaviour being embarrassing or disrespectable than about whether she could use some support.
Damn I want to take a guess…state board of education? Probably not? Something with the entertainment industry maybe.
Linda strikes me as “married to the guy who makes the money”, maybe doing some charity work that makes her look good and improves her status. Probably fundraising.
Early strip when they visited college, they hobnobbed with the DeSanto’s and the college dean. Linda’s first marriage was to one of the deans
When you put it that way, it makes me think that Charles must be some kind of hotshot professionally. Linda is pretty well established as an inveterate and ruthless classist who’s very focused on “winning” whatever social game she’s playing. I don’t see her bailing on the dean of a university for a normal guy with a normal job. Mind, Linda might still have a prestigious job of her own, I just think that it’s a requisite for Charles to have one too based on what we know about Linda’s priorities and values, such as they are.
It’s not clear whether she bailed on the Dean or the Dean bailed on her.
*leans forward in chair*
Where are we going with this?
Didn’t think people that far away from Canada would even know poutine exists! And I’d never heard of Hoosier poutine (a quick search tells me it’s with potato puffs – or tater tots, or whatever you call them).
Oooo! Are you Canadian, then?
BTW the variation they’re talking about uses french fries instead.
Yes, from Montreal! The standard poutine here IS french fries, cheese, and gravy. I’d just never heard “Hoosier poutine” before and when I googled it I saw a recipe with potato puffs: https://www.inhockey.net/news_article/show/776362
But I’m super tired so I probably took that as THE thing when it was just a spin on it. I also forgot where Indiana was (yay, tired brain).
(By the way, the music you linked on yesterday’s comment? So pretty! Thanks!)
Thanks!!!
Nice to meet you EOI, this has been a very savory introduction!
I’m NGPZ aka “The Wellerman”. She / They pronouns.
Savory, ha
Nice to meet you!
(Wait, Indiana’s not that far away, it’s just under Michigan. I must have been thinking of somewhere else.)
Seen all kinds of variations of poutine in the south/almost south. Very popular on food trucks
Poutine’s definitely known of, at least in the ‘oh yeah, it’s a Canadian food’, in the same way that people know of haggis as a Scottish thing.
Have you seen his pants, though??
(Whispers), they’re really pajama pants that look like jeans.
You don’t normally see this many girls lusting after a big nerd outside a isekai anime.
His pajama pants look like jeans right now. If he were in regular pajama pants, it would all vanish.
In Raidah’s defense, I would very much want to date Walky if I hadn’t yet heard him speak.
Is there an alternate universe where Raidah ISN’T a miserable bongoy begrudger? Nope. Not a one.
Bongoy is the word that autocorrect slipped in there in place of “bongoy”.
It sure is
That wily autocorrect is up to its old tricks again.
Raidah, you are way too old for this petty mean girl garbage. If you can’t just start keeping your mouth shut when you see her, maybe you should consider therapy.
That’d make it worse. Much like Billie, the blasted bourgeois bloat would probably just us it to gather acting scripts to aid with her pretentious image while not really changing in the slightest.
The ‘I’m healthy, my therapist told me so, too bad you aren’t healthy’ mentality.
She’s being a mean girl to someone who punched her in the face and orchestrated a plan to break her up with her boyfriend.
Except she’s not. She’s being a mean girl about her to her friends. It’s off-putting and weird, at least for normal people.
Sarah’s friends include the weird girl who biked up to them so she could tell them they’re fakey because she was jealous, and the girl who torpedoed her relationship with her boyfriend.
Please read my comment again, look at the comic, and ask yourself who “her” is in the sentence. Whose friends is Raidah bashing Sarah to? Is it Sarah’s friends? Or is it Raidah’s friends?
Once you’ve answered this, consider this: Do you particularly like hanging out with a person who routinely takes over the conversation to rant about a third party who isn’t even present and whom none of you interact with much? Do you think *anybody* likes it when their friends do that?
It’s been months since Sarah did that. Sure, it was a bad thing to do – but that doesn’t mean it’s healthy for Raidah to keep bringing it up with other people, nor does it mean it’s not, as I said, off-putting and weird.
It can be true that Raidah needs to stop doing this *and also* true that Sarah’s behavior was wrong. You seem to think I don’t think that.
I dunno what the statute of limitations is on not liking a person that got my friend dragged out of college and this other one that snaked my boyfriend.
I am for sure not aware of what the statute of limitations is on being rueful when you see them again, two and a half months later after the latter snaked my boyfriend.
It’s okay to not like somebody, and even to avoid them.
Snarking about them to third parties, repeatedly and often… it’s off-putting and weird behavior. If you can’t move past this enough to at least keep it to yourself, you need to take that to a therapist rather than inflicting it on all your friends. It’s a sign of something else unhealthy going on.
Also, let’s be clear – Sarah acted in Dana’s best interests. Even in a worst-case reading of this scenario, which you seem bound and determined to have, Dana is the one who got herself removed from college. Sarah didn’t do that for her.
(Also, you didn’t answer my question. Don’t think I didn’t notice that. You dodged it. Do you like hanging out with people who act like Raidah is acting here?)
Billie’s comment in the first panel took me a second.
I’ve lived in Indiana for over 30 years and I’ve never heard of Hoosier Poutine.
…you know, this is a weird thing to get hung up on, but why the heck does Raidah’s friend group and possible-romantic-target list seem to consist entirely of freshmen when she herself is at least a sophomore? (Plus Carl, whose claim to fame is being the stoner ex of someone who doesn’t attend IU anymore.) She’s almost certainly not going to a freshy class with this gang, so this was probably a purely social breakfast group.
What happened to her friends from last year? We know she had some, she had a whole gang in on the Sarah-bullying, didn’t she? She had a couple gal-pals at the mall back when too.
Even absent the general low-to-moderate level of mean and/or controlling she’s exhibited in previous appearances, I feel like this could mean Raidah’s bad at being a friend, y’all.
I mean, you could say the exact same about Sarah.
I don’t think it’s a big deal. It’s not like we’re saying anything about the fact that Carla constantly hangs around freshmen and was practically feeding off attention from just about anyone, but mostly Malaya.
And about Ruth. Sarah at least has the excuse she ROOMS with a freshman.
They’re in college. College students don’t clique up by year to the same degree high school students do, because who they interact with is determined by who they share classes with, and schedules are less rigidly structured compared to high school.
The classes I teach are often a blend of freshmen, Sophmores, and Juniors, all in various degree programs, because it’s a gen ed course. They form social bonds in my class because they see these people 2-3 times a week and have the same tests and material to study, and they aren’t thinking about what year one another are in.
That’s not even factoring in people who meet because they work together, or because they have common friends, or because they live in the same dorm.
Yeah, my friends group at Uni was mostly defined by the Science Fiction Society. When I was a fresher, most of them were in their second or third year. When I was in my second year, we got an influx of new freshers. And then my Uni career imploded messily, so we never got to the point where I was like the elder statesman of the group. I’d have been really bad at it anyway.
Hey y’all americans what the hell are Tater Tots?
They’re like hash-browns but smaller, and shaped like marshmallows.
Depends on where you are, but they’re also known as potato gems.
Little fried barrel-shaped masses of potato. Crispy outside, other texture inside. If you’re confused, just look up a picture and imagine you’re eating a really salty fried potato. Nothing special.
Oh, croquettes!
… absolutely not croquettes, no.
From Wikipedia: “Tater tots are grated potatoes formed into small cylinders and deep-fried, often served as a side dish. The name “tater tot” is a registered trademark of the American frozen food company Ore-Ida, but is often used as a generic term. “Tater” is short for potato.”
Hoosier poutine is defined by being awful? I don’t think so. The really awful poutine is called Vladimir.
Haha it’s funny because people are currently dying in real life at the hands of soldiers overseen by an unstable tyrant whose name kinda resembles a food.
In someone’s defense, bleak/black humor is kind of a Slavic thing. Take it from this one born in Russia, if you will.
Fair do’s.
Man, I didn’t think I could like Raidah less, but her first impulse upon finding a guy attractive is to ask who his parents are? Bleeeeeeh.
And still hanging out with Asher after knowing who his parents are?
Asher’s parents are probably rich and powerful enough to warrant respect, regardless of where that wealth and power came from.
Hoosier poutine? Okay, I give up, WTF is that? I mean, I’ve spent just over half a century living deep in Hoosierland, and I’ve never heard of that. OTOH, at last year’s Oktoberfest, I did have some bison poutine, and it was straight-up awesome. I could take or leave the cheese curds, but it turns out that french fries taste amazing with gravy and bison meat.
Is it going to be Jennifer or Raidah who tries to swipe Walky from Lucy? What role will the pajama jeans play?
I’m thinking Raidah will try to take Walky away and force Billie to side with Lucy and other friends and abandon team “we declared ourselves to be more mature than you because we’re just more boring”
Raidah is such a good villainess character, mad props.
Oh, great, it’s Team “We’re More Mature Than You, So Nyeah”.
Can Raidah go ten fucking seconds without doing this whole “Sarah bad” routine? She’s fuckin’ obsessed and it’s weird. Oh, you don’t like her, boo-hoo-hoo, better deliberately interact with her at every opportunity instead of avoiding/not interacting with her like a normal person. The little creep.
I choose to believe she understands on some level there’s unfinished business, something she has missed about the case of Sarah ruining Dana’s life. Possibly because Sarah tried telling her Dana needed help before going to the adults but she didn’t care.
If that were the case, I doubt she’d act like this. I’m pretty sure she just wants to fuck Sarah and call her names during, and she’s mad that it’s not gonna happen.
Jennifer has told to Sarah that Dana’s situation is still bad, because they took Danah to her house.
I guess I’m with few people that like Raidah, in a way or another.
Peharps because she is a interesting ‘antagonist’.
Or maybe it’s my recently discovered … fixation for girls with bold eyebrows. hahahaha
If you want impressive eyebrows go watch Kill La Kill. Raidah has nothing on Satsuki.
ok, you have my curiosity now
Just look up “Satsuki Intro Speech” on Youtube and watch the eyebrow game.
*watches video*
Oh nonexistent gods she’s worse than Raidah 🤮
And people think Hoosier Poutine is repugnant….
Well she IS the villain
I for one am aghast that Raidah has a low opinion of a group where 3/5ths of it consists of:
– That weird bike girl who showed up just to tell them they’re all fakey, and then we find out it’s because she’s jealous.
– That girl who got her boyfriend to break up with her.
– That other girl who she thinks ruined her friend’s life and and also punched her in the face that one time, and who only started involving herself in her life again to break her up with her boyfriend.
It’s a good thing I like the main characters more, else this would be complicated.
Also, Rachel is right.
And Getaway did nothing wrong.
(besides that part with Tailgate I mean, that was effed)
I mean, Rachel was definitely right when it came to Ruth. We know this, because Ruth broke into people’s rooms and physically assaulted them AGAIN.
Yeah but I like Ruth, y’know?
That means it’s just a funny quirk.
It must have a name for villians that you kind of agree with their motivations.
That whole “redemption is a myth” soapbox of Rachel’s was complete bullshit, though. If nobody can change and every mistake marks you for life as Damaged Goods, we may as well all start jumping in front of trains every time we’re mildly rude.
She said it to a serial abuser who walked into the room going “hey I’m getting away with everything but I’m totally sad about it, wygd.”
Rachel can just actually believe this of Ruth because Ruth used to be a garbage person, and also Ruth can be allowed to get up in the morning and want to go on with her day despite previously being a garbage person.
Rachel can also take a long walk off a short pier.
Does it not matter where that came from? Is she defined entirely by her angry lashing out at a person who angrily lashed out at whoever she wanted to with no consequence from a position of power over their heads?
…
I mean, besides the part where she doesn’t really exist in any major state beyond that one moment yet.
I ain’t no arbiter of morality, but maybe when the character exist beyond “[Angry Pontificating Noises]”, I’ll bother thinkin’ about her in other terms. Don’t matter to me why a person jumps down another person’s throat every time they lay eyes on ’em in an avoidable situation, but I can’t be expected to like it.
Yeah and that was Ruth every time she had the opportunity to deck someone.
Don’t get me wrong, I get your point; Rachel’s not “a character with a beef with Ruth,” her character is having a beef with Ruth so far and has been for like five years, I just feel like it’s worth at least highlighting what surrounding context exists.
I don’t necessarily disagree, with the caveat that I could start properly agreeing once she shows other traits. She showed up at the computer lab or whatever it was, the day Joe did his weird donut stand thing. Also I’m 300% biased toward Ruth because she’s sexy, so I sorta tend to disregard her being a violent jackass.
I want to like Raidah but she’s making it hard in that last panel.
Why? Did she pretend to be Walky’s girlfriend and steal a kiss, only to have him realize he really likes her but can’t be with her, and then go break up with his girlfriend she just knowingly helped him cheat on? :O
Obviously all of that is bad and she’s the victim in that circumstance, but the victim can still be an unlikeable person obsessed with class and status.
Yeah, sometimes bad stuff happens to shitty people, too.
Which was why I really liked that arc, despite how incredibly toxic the comments got:)
Our protagonist was in the wrong in the romantic triangle and it was purely because of her own actions, not because the romantic rival was a good person and their relationship too strong to break up
Disliking Raidah is fine because she is, by design, an extremely unlikable character. If she weren’t, we’d probably see her more.
But it’s also okay acknowledging that she doesn’t deserve things like having her relationship ruined on the grounds that the protagonists felt like it. “Being mean to the protagonists” isn’t actually a sin.
Raidah is that girl you loved to hate in college. Superbly written.
To be honest, seeing Raidah and Walky together would be really fun. She will explode and leave him covering him with insults or completely change herself! I really want to see her in situations that are really awkward for her but normal for him. Plus, Lucy’s hidden vengeful side may finally break free and strike mercilessly.
Her elitist brain may just explode from interacting with Commoner Walky XD
Please- Walky would make Raidah
EXPLODE
Do Char and Chan Still Exist? Are they’re still part of Raidah’s friend group but constantly off-panel? Or did they have a falling-out of their own during the time-skip?
Not even five minutes pass and raidah is once again being an ass
I constantly forget how much I hate Raidah.
I hate Billie’s new crew
you’ve got a shithead mob kid that we’re eventually gonna find out is evil when he tires to assassinate someone, a massive asshole who basically called Dina mentally challenged (I will never forget or forgive), and a white guy with no personality
I also love the fact Raidah is a weirdo shallow opportunist that would date you if you’re passing the 5/10 mark and your parents have any type of minor clout
really the cherry on top of the shit cake that is her personality
Not to mention that she is a massive elitist/classicist.
Every time Raidah appears in a strip, she reminds me why I dislike her, and sometimes even gives me new reasons to dislike her.
Same, her entire way of talking about people annoys me, doesn’t surprise me that her friend was openly ableist when that’s the vibe
Is it just me or is that “are his parents important” kind of a red flag?
No, it’s definitely a red flag. She’s one of those people, the status-chasing type. I mean, we saw some of that when she was still with Jacob.
It’s weird that she didn’t ask if his parents were important, just assumed. Maybe because he’s friends with Jennifer?
I think she’s just hoping.
I’m ashamed to admit that I very badly misinterpreted the first line.
I assume this has something to do with the eggs used in human reproduction, but I’m unclear on how that would make sense in this context.
After mating in an earlier strip, Asher has taken Jennifer’s fertilised eggs into his brood pouch, where they will develop for several days before he releases hundreds of miniscule but perfectly-formed humans into the water. Preferable near some seaweed, so they can hold onto it with their tails and hide from predators.
I think that’s how it works, anyway.
Oooooh! It’s the popular girls
raidah, you stay at LEAST 20 feet away from walky! dont you touch him!
not that i think walky would care, i think he can pretty clearly clock how terrible of a person she is. but the less she interacts with any of the nice characters the better
I’m forever on team Sarah did nothing wrong… Raidah is my least favorite lol
If Sarah did anything wrong with the Dana thing, we’ve yet to see it, and even if she’s an unreliable narrator, we need to see the actual events before deciding she was Misbehaving, Actually.
I doubt Walky will ever have a hedge fund manager, and I certainly don’t think he would whore his parents.
oops, i didnt see the apostrophe
their vibes are Horrendous.