In a world where magical girls and their battles are commonplace, loss has become all too common as well.
Namesake
Isa, Meg
There's ghosts at your heels and fairy tale worlds ahead. What do you do? Jump down the rabbit hole!
The Messenger
indui
In a ruin-abound town cursed with bad luck, Kai and Kalla--a young boy and a fledgling dragonbird spirit--take on a quest in hopes the reward will solve all of their problems.
Stand Still, Stay Silent
Minna Sundberg
A few generations after the end of the world, a small, poorly financed research crew is sent out to rediscover whatever is left of the forbidden old world in the south.
Heroes of Thantopolis
Izzy Strontium Hall
A living boy fights to save the City of the Dead.
Freakshow
Scotty
A festival of broken people, blood flows in the center ring. Come one and come all, to the greatest show in all of Paris.
Nigh Heaven & Hell
Scotty
Heather Vodihn is on a simple mission: find her father. However she becomes entangled with two strangers with mysterious powers being stalked by a group with bizarre demands. Heather must learn to trust her new traveling companions, even if she is untrustworthy herself.
Novae
KaiJu
A historical romance with a touch magic and a dash of astronomy. It chronicles the romantic adventures of Sulvain, a sweet tempered necromancer and Raziol, a passionate 17th century astronomer.
Saint for Rent
Ru Xu
Saint Halliday runs an inn for Time Travelers. Unfortunately, he seems to attract other supernatural "guests," too.
Monster's Garden
Ash G.
Champion pit fighter Kilo Monster was content to spend the rest of his days tending to his quiet garden alone... until he met a curious robot girl and her human family.
ARISE, YE SKELETON KING
Brian Clevinger, Escher Cattle, Lee Black
A troupe of wandering "adventurers" down to their last silver "acquire" a map only to find the real treasure was the fiend they dug up along the way.
Edison Rex
Chris Roberson
The adventures of the world’s greatest villain who, after defeating his superheroic nemesis, decides that he’s the only one left to defend the world.
Augustine
Winter Jay Kiakas, Windy
August and her ragtag group are just like everyone else, simply surviving in the treacherous Crater... When they stumble into what may be an artifact of the ancient past, their lives are thrown into a much bigger loop as they trifle with bounty hunters, monsters and gods.
Guilded Age
T Campbell, John Waltrip, Florence Machina
Welcome to the saga of the working-class adventurer! Enjoy the complete story with new annotations daily!
Ozzie the Vampire
Eric Lide
Ozzie and her best friend Kimmy are your average everyday normal art students – except one is an immortal vampire with superpowers and the other possesses a magic talking grimoire. Also they have to save their town from a demonic invasion.
Lies Within
Lacey
Lysander's aimless and carefree life is turned upside down when he accidentally discovers that the cute boy next door, Simon, is a literal monster
Sister Claire
Yamino
In the troubled aftermath of a great war between Witches and her fellow Nuns, novice Sister Claire just wants a purpose.
Nerf Now!!
Josué Pereira
A cute webcomic about fanservice, video games, and... love. Mostly video games, though.
Sakana
Mad Rupert
Our heroes must navigate a hazardous dating scene, overcome personal anxieties, and wrangle unruly seafood in order to find love, peace of mind, and a paycheck.
Barbarous
Ananth Hirsh, Yuko Ota
A crummy wizard and an anxious monster have to get over themselves and bring order to an apartment building full of misfits.
Cyanide & Happiness
Explosm
Satire, dark humor and surreal humor.
Three Panel Soul
Matt Boyd, Ian McConville
It's a pretty rigid format but we keep the content loose, you know?
The Golden Boar
Magnolia Porter Siddell
A young woman joins a group of summoners who call forth Guardian Beasts to protect their isolated magical island. Unfortunately, her Guardian Beast is nothing like she'd imagined, and he's about to change her life, and everything she thought she knew about herself...
The Weave
Rennie Kingsley
A young woman pursued by bad luck is witness to the murder of the Fairy Queen of Summer. Can she get to the bottom of this mystery?
Empowered
Adam Warren
A sexy superhero comedy (except when it isn't) about the never-ending struggles of a plucky but very unlucky young superheroine.
Angel's Orchard
Harry Bogosian
After the events in Demon's Mirror, Gerda has accepted her role as a Demon Hunter, and Cezar has traveled back to the Demon City. Demons have existed alongside humans for millennia, so things begin to return to normal. But an impossibly powerful Relic has been taken by one of the Demon Masters, and a silent war enters its final stages.
Blindsprings
Kadi Fedoruk
Tamaura, wrested into a world 300 years in the future, must find a way to save the magic fading from her country.
Darkling Bright
Chris Hazelton
Kieran Bright is a college student home for the summer and roped into an online reunion with his old neighborhood friends in the most recent update of their favorite childhood MMORPG.
At least, he was, and that was the idea...
Join Kieran and his friends as they are pulled into another reality that may or may not be real and are forced to confront their own identities, the nature of simulated universes and reality itself.
Not Drunk Enough
Tess Stone
Logan Ibarra is possibly the unluckiest repairman in the world. A late night job should not have landed him in the middle of a mad scientist's squabble, but he soon finds himself surrounded by monsters and further madness with little tools to get out.
Little Tiny Things
Clover
What are the little things that move us? The simple joys that warm our bodies and hearts? The micro life of insects that influence our world more than we think? The tiny steps we make everyday to have a happier tomorrow?
Dumbing of Age
David M Willis
Joyce has been homeschooled her entire life until now, when she's suddenly a freshman in college! Things don't go well.
Peritale
Mari Costa
A fairy godmother with no magic tries her best to successfully fulfill a Fairytale and win the respect of her peers.
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I don’t think so, maybe? I vaguely remember one guy showing interest but I don’t remember who or when. I had thought at first they were talking about Ruth. I had shamefully forgotten Ethan existed, but mitigating factors: it has been a while sense we have seen Ethan and I am very very tired.
He is not. Ethan and Danny did some mutual flirting after Danny realized he was bisexual, but they were mostly working on becoming friends until Mike was hospitalized (the mutual attraction aspect just hanging there, unaddressed). For Ethan’s part, he’d been struggling with having enough self-confidence to actually engage anyone he found attractive in conversation, when suddenly he found himself in a friends-with-benefits dynamic with Mike, who then, as mentioned, abruptly became critically injured and comatose. At which point, accompanying Ethan to the hospital to visit comatose-but-not-dead-yet Mike, Danny performed his trademark foot-into-mouth maneuver, thus immolating their developing friendship and any possibility of romance in the foreseeable future.
All true, but you skipped over the part where between his quick thing with Mike and the kidnapping, Ethan worked his way through most of the available minor male characters. Mike was basically a one time thing, as were his other hook-ups, I believe. The last one we saw was the fingerguns guy he brought to the party.
well, it’s not like some hookups haven’t happened with people not in the best state of mind (both irl and in the comic i’m assuming but can’t think of an example off the top of my head other than ruth/billie), but hopefully it doesn’t backfire (or if it is a dumpster fire it’s entertaining)
I’m not saying she’s not trying to set him up with Ethan, but I’m missing why everyone seems to think she is. There’s multiple dumpster fires she could be trying to set him up with, and one happens to be one we’ve spent a lot of time focusing on, so that seems like a plausible answer also.
Amber is definitely trying to set Booster up with Ethan – though it’s hard to say how much of her motivation is borne of unselfishly trying to help Ethan, and how much is wanting to “get him back” as a friend.
If this is going to have a snowball’s chance of working, Booster WILL need to know which of the Aerialbots is which, so it’s a good thing Amber didn’t delete that information to remember their name.
This time Daisy was approached about it first and there’s nothing transactional happening.
I foresee it just leading to an arranged date where Ethan calls Booster out on their arrogant bullshit psycho-babble. He’s been aggressive, and may have been to real therapy since the skip. It also wouldn’t be the first time someone tried to fix him.
I would enjoy seeing booster called out on arrogant bullshit psycho-babble. Psychology majors and people with psych degrees do tend to approach mentally ill people with a dehumanizing “fascination,” and it’d be neat to see that addressed in this format.
Thanks, but I don’t think i have to worry too much — it’s all online work, and the main artist / designer I’m working (who’s also an autism ADHD combo) with seems really into me, turns out we share a LOT of interests and creative style
Hmm, I have a category of queer friends which has multiple transgender persons in both directions. I went through a strange chapter in my life a few years ago that resulted in meeting a whole lot of people with different sexualities and genders and kinks, which was interesting to say the least. Some of those people I’m still in contact with.
Amber’s trying to hook up Booster with Ethan. Amber’s not really friends with Jennifer, like I do not really recall many interactions at all, and Amber already knows Booster shot their shot with Ruth already, so yeah, she wouldn’t need to try to make that happen.
Judging by the description they gave of Ethan, they might not be against it, exactly.
Does Amber consider Ethan “fucked up in the head”? Because I don’t think he is, really. Granted, she seems to call a lot of things “fucked up in the head” that really aren’t, but I don’t actually think she’s talking about Ethan here. I think she might be talking about Amazi-Girl.
I was thinking it was probably not Ethan because this is Dumbing of Age and while Ethan’s a poor choice for this kind of attention, all of the other obvious options are worse.
Definitely Ethan. Jennifer, Ruth, and basically everyone else may be fucked in the head, and attractive, but how many qualify as Amber’s friend and how many are “superhot”? It’s Ethan.
Oh, at this point it’s definitely Ethan. What she doesn’t realize is that if Booster is into fucked in the head, Ethan pales in comparison to what she’s bringing to Booster’s attention.
If Booster’s into fucked in the head, they at least got gold maybe platinum with their dorm assignment. I mean, in that case, are there any bad options?
Resembles – to be like or similar to.
The – a definitive article, used, especially before a noun, with a specifying or particularizing effect, as opposed to the indefinite or generalizing force of the indefinite article a or an
One – being or amounting to a single unit or individual
Who – (of a person) of what character, origin, position, importance
Not sure i like where this is going. Booster has only barely gotten the chance to establish themselves as an independent character, and most of their characterization has still really only been to progress Walky’s arc.
I don’t love throwing them immediately into also being Ethan’s therapist, too. Just let Booster be a regular member of the cast. Show them interacting with people more than just that single time right before a floor meeting.
Characters can’t be islands. Booster not having meaningful interactions with anyone besides Walky has not been working out well for them, panel-time-wise. The only way they’re gonna get fleshed out, and fully rounded enough to support their own plots where other characters are secondary to them, is by building relationships with others.
Does Amber know that Ethan and Mike were an item? Is she *knowingly* trying to get Booster to be Ethan’s “replacement Mike”? Because that would be an extra layer of dumb, which would fit the comic’s name.
nice hair/lines, maybe yo ucan do your own webtoon at some point even if it’s one of those ‘casual relatable’ ones like what sarah anderson does lol (no hate , those comics are great too)
I’ve got a lot of ideas for webcomics cooking. I’m just bad at focusing on an idea.
-A story about a superpowered teenager
-A story about a tomboyish magical girl
-A story about a rude punk Skunk
-A story about Two cyborg ladies starting a band in a magical fantasy world
-A story about a high school girl’s basketball team
-A story about a guy who realizes that he is not, in fact, the main character of his life
-Some NSFW stuff Hopefully I can make at least a few of these in my lifetime.
a magical girl comedy would be lit lol. i’m sure some of those ideas could crossover but it would be funny to see a scene with a mascot like “just repeat after me and pose!” and it’s something cutesy and a tomboy lead would be like “no way”
the main chara thing sounds like some delicious existensial horror/stanley parable vibes maybe haha
The magical girl actually doesn’t mind dressing up and posing. In fact that’s her favorite part. I sorta typed her to be a mix between sailor moon and a Jojo protagonist. Mixing my favorite elements if shonen and shoujo. Her name is even just “Jo”. Though to be fair she probably would hate saying something cutesy.
The main character one is much more of a comedy that gets more and more absurd as it goes on. Probably one of the easier ideas to do since it’s mostly gag based.
Make it an ensemble story and mix all seven things together. When you get tired of following one thread, you jump to the next. The big question is can you work up to doing three high quality strips a week without damaging your hands or eating up your entire life.
Tbh this isn’t that fair to Booster I mean they introduced themselves to a group by breaking down pyscological problems of different characters in public which was mean tude and not what you should be using pyscology training for. That initail arc left a bitter aftertastel, but Booster has not down anything truly malicious since then and also hasn’t had much of an arc yet.
Booster was spying on Walky (with a camera from someone else window!) to see if he really such a dumbass as he seems. I think Booster may be as much of a jerk as Mike.
Do they? Do they really? Psychoanalysing complete strangers in a public setting without their permission strikes you as “a decent sort of individual”? Really?
you can’t psychoanalyze people without their permission. that’s not how psychoanalysis works (i’m not weighing in on Booster’s “decency” here, but the word you use doesn’t mean what you think it does.)
let me rephrase. you can’t psychoanalyze complete strangers without their permission.
i can imagine some sort of scenario where someone might blurt out their own personal interpretation of someone’s character based on private info that they have after hanging out with them for a while. it would still be a stretch to call it “psychoanalysing” them, but them being complete strangers is key to why this is nothing like that.
Sounds like you’re more saying it wasn’t really psychoanalysis than that they had permission. (Which they might have technically had, at least for some of them.)
Whatever you want to call it, it’s still a mark against their being decent, I’d say.
oh they absolutely didn’t have “permission”. and fine, it wasn’t a decent thing to do, though they may have failed to read the room rather than acted out of mean-spiritedness. to me it felt like someone cheerfully carrying on with their neat little party trick, not realizing that people aren’t laughing.
but also, psychoanalysis doesn’t work if it’s not consensual, as far as i understand. otoh, i guess the way JBento and others use the word may be a kind of figurative, hyperbolic sense of the word. i just find it weird how so many in the section have latched on to that very specific, smart-sounding descriptor.
if it was just a couple comments saying Booster was “psychoanalyzing” people it would sound like a snarky turn of phrase, but by now this is obviously not a figure of speech anymore, if it ever was. cos people just keep re-using that word over and over and it just wiggles me the wrong way.
…ok, sorry for being a dick about this, i just checked ran some searches and this use of “psychoanalyze” to mean guesstimating people’s secret trauma is common enough that it doesn’t really warrant special note here.
…grumble grumble maybe i still think people are being unduly mean to a character i like just for being kind of a clueless smartass grumble grumble carry on i guess grumble
(I think it would be a big issue if they kept doing it after graduating? Psychoanalyzing people and revealing that information publicly is unethical, and the more skilled you are, the more harm it can potentially cause. Not everyone would use that information for good. (A lot better than mike, though, who was the sort of person you don’t tell things to.))
er please don’t “you’re valid” me. i’m sure the intent is to be supportive, but i don’t like the implication that i might need support rn, esp from someone who so evidently disagrees with the substance of my point.
and to reiterate, my point was, what booster did was not literal psychoanalysis. in fact, extremely not. it was just flinging wild guesses at people’s backstories.
yes psychoanalysis comes with specific and strict deontological rules, i don’t know that that’s the field Booster is interested in (did they say at any point?) but supposing it is, those are just completely baseless suspicions. they would be frankly insulting, were Booster a real person.
and look, i don’t know what you have against psychologists, psychoanalysts, or psychology majors. you surely have good reason to be wary, many of us have had bad experiences with mental health professionals.
but, as i humorously wrote elsewhere on this page, psychologists are regular people actually, they don’t have a sixth sense, much as some might think they do, in fact i’ve met psychologists who are incredibly bad judges of character. and that’s psychologists, here we’re talking about a sophomore psych major, like… this is so untethered from reality, honestly. fsgrbtrj rh
uni(versitydormroom)tarianism is a school of philosophy that rejects the artificial division of rooms into separate individual people. They consider that 1 room = 1 person, the world being complicated enough as is, what with all the rooms there are to begin with.
Therefore, all people living in a single room are for all ethical intents and purposes, the same person.
The uni(versitydormroom)tarianist trolley problem is as follows: there are two random non-rooming people tied to the track a trolley is headed for, no one cares about them, and Booster and Walky are on the other track minding their own business in their room, possibly in their underwear, and if you pull a lever the trolley will crash into Wooster and Balky and start furiously making out with them (the trolley is Amber btw). What do you choose, and why is it pulling the lever, because you are dirty, dirty girl and this is actually the synopsis for one of Amber’s weirdest fanfictions??? That’s no longer a question?????
Amber and Walky liked each other, and it seems like Amber broke it off. It would be a bit insensitive to start dating his roommate, because she would be around a lot and it may be painful for Walky.
Agreed on the second part. I’m not sure it is such a terrible idea. Pulling Ethan out of his funk could be good, even if it does not turn into a serious relationship.
It depends. Like, it could do Ethan good, but we’ve also seen Booster unethically applies psychoanalysis to people who didn’t exactly sign up for that. Booster might be too pushy, but maybe Ethan would be into that, who the fuck even knows with Ethan’s current headspace.
i feel like even if they have the best intentions/don’t try to consciously try to psychoanalyze you; i’d think most ppl should steer clear/run away from any psych students romantic wise. (or on the flip side, if someone said “yeah i wanna be a therapist” some ppl would just dump all their issues on them, tho that happens with ppl not equipped to deal with that too)
Okay maybe I’m just being a triggered psych student but like
I’m all for dunking on different majors (bullying the poly-sci folk was fun) but this just feels like. Not a joke anymore. A genuine and weird take.
I don’t really think of it as a joke, but it sounds like you’re not the kind of person who people are talking about when they say to stay away from psych majors, if you’re really confused? Like, you might just not have a frame of reference since you wouldn’t necessarily hang out with the kind of person people are talking about, even as a psych major.
It’s like, you know how a lot of guys don’t know how bad sexual harassment is, since it doesn’t usually happen around them? They’re decent guys, so it wouldn’t cross their mind that people could be as bad as they can be, and men aren’t going to act that way when a decent, protective guy is around.
Really not a fan of the Booster character. When first introduced, they seemed an artificial way to recap the main characters’ traits (for new readers?) and I thought the way made Booster appear to be a jerk. Since that intro, all the subsequent appearances (including this one) haven’t changed that opinion. Admittedly, Amber is also being a jerk, but she has a developed character that includes much more, and we basically know why she acts like a jerk.
Does Amber know definitively that Booster is into men? I know we saw that time when Booster was kind of flirting with Joe, but I don’t believe I remember Amber being there. I’m just a bit concerned that she’s seeing a (presumably, based on previous remarks) amab queer person and assuming that 1) they’d be comfortable dating/hooking up with a cis man who self-identifies as gay and has only displayed genuine attraction to men, and 2) that Ethan would be interested in dating/hooking up with someone who is not a man. This scenario just feels like one with the potential to result in both Ethan’s and Booster’s (but mostly Booster’s) identities being invalidated by Amber’s assumptions.
Source: I’m AFAB nonbinary and would feel deeply uncomfortable if someone tried to set me up with a lesbian friend of theirs.
P.S. I trust Willis 100% to handle this situation (for obvious reasons), my comment is not in any way meant to imply that they as a writer are doing anything wrong or insensitive.
well i imagine she’d think that talking to booster would help even if it’s not intended in a romantic setup, though hopefully just looking at ethan physically (not shaming anyone naturally skinny/lanky but we all knew beforehand he wasn’t always that bony/’emaciated’) would make ppl think “oh yeah he’s in no state to date”
While it certainly might help, I feel as though when she says she knows Booster is into people who are fucked in the head based on their interactions with Ruth (who Booster asked out), that strongly implies a potentially romantic connection. Unless you are meaning that she’s implying a romantic connection to get Booster interested in the interaction but hoping that once they see Ethan, they will see that he’s in no state to date but will stick around anyway to fix him? Because if so, that’s quite the game of 4D chess Amber is attempting.
i think booster mentioned /seeing ruth as ‘fascinating’ which might be concerning to describe but other than the anger issues, idk how much they were told about the ‘suicide pact’ unless people told them, but either way should be something Ethan’s asked about first (though i can’t imagine him saying “sure, set me up with the psych major” unless he’s just going on autopilot and not caring)
Ah, okay, I think I see what you’re saying. I agree that Ethan should definitely be consulted first, whether this potential connection is romantic or platonic. However, I don’t think Amber and Ethan are currently on speaking terms.
This is also true. it’s entirely possible that I am approaching this scenario from too meta a perspective; obviously we are unlikely to ever strike the perfect balance of respect for others, as is evinced by most strips.
Emo Ethan is still hot, just in a different kind of way. (Booster doesn’t know what he used to look like.) And apparently Booster does seem to be into him! It looks to me like Booster jumped right to guessing Ethan here, like he’s been thinking about him already. Now that I think about it: he was weirdly obsessed with hot Walky too.
Right, but unless Amber’s a mind-reader (which seems unlikely given that Amber didn’t so much as know Booster’s name at the beginning of this interaction), she couldn’t have known Booster would be receptive to this. Of course, there’s no problem in asking them if they find Ethan attractive and would be interested in chatting him up, I just feel as though Amber’s motivation to involve Booster specifically is a little suspect.
Also: Booster’s pronouns are they/them, not he/him.
them already knowing that ethan was ‘depressed’ (assuming it’s ethan and not another person), booster’s probably been told bits and pieces from walky about how he was before
given the ‘college students living off of ramen’ stereotype, i’m surprised more ppl don’t either gain or lose weight b/c of the stress of college, fictional drama aside, but i imagine unless someone’s just masking for a brief interaction you could maybe tell he wouldn’t be in the best state just from talking to him as well; I imagine his parents might not have been that fond of mike but surprised they didn’t pull him out to take care of him or thought that it wasn’t bad enough to where he couldn’t be on his own anymore assuming he isnt completely missing/failing classes
I don’t think it’s inherently wrong to suggest someone for a hookup, even if you don’t definitively know they swing that way. As long as you don’t push it if they say they’re not interested.
Doing it without knowing how Ethan would react to Booster being non-binary is a little more of a problem.
Wonder if it’s different if it’s asking someone out for yourself, rather than trying to set them up?
I agree that it’s not inherently wrong to try to set two people up even if you don’t know their specific orientations, but this specific scenario gives me pause because Amber does know Ethan’s: he is gay. He likes men. Booster is not a man, and is specifically bothered by people perceiving them as such (see: Booster’s first interactions with Joyce).
I’m willing to concede that I might be projecting my own feelings and frustrations about how I am perceived onto Booster, but it just seems insensitive for Amber to do what she’s doing, given Booster’s gender identity and her (Amber’s) personal knowledge of Ethan’s sexuality. I hope I am making sense here, even if you don’t agree with me.
lol so hopefully isn’t booster someone who “gets into psych majors” as some sorta chaser? hopefully not tho i can imagine there is temptation for ppl taking advantage of emotionally/mentally unstable ppl
On the other hand Booster didn’t they call Ruth a ‘fascinating creature’ which was skin crawl inducing.
Like I’m not making any hard judgments on Booster since they haven’t even hit fifty strips but even then I was like…. buddy.
Could be just them having unfortunate ways of phrasing things honestly. Like I’m sure there’s people who say things like ‘m’lady’ without being a fedora? Or who aren’t ‘Nice Guys’? Language tics can sometimes be red flags people unknowingly blunder into.
i imagine college is a great time period in your life/opportunity to ‘experiment’ and ppl would be drawn to ‘interesting’ people but even if ruth didn’t have an angry out burst and everything else, i’d feel most ppl would probably shy away from asking out an RA out of all possible students
I think it’s a verbose language style *as well as* Booster using non-gendered terms almost exclusively. I saw creature as a weird way to avoid calling Ruth a woman/lady/whatever while doing a pick-up-line thing. I don’t think it was a Good way, but as a NB, I picked up on that habit of theirs quickly.
That would make sense. Perhaps Booster will eventually realise they can use better gender neutral phrases if that is their desire. Like ‘interesting person’ would trip fewer alarm bells.
How does Booster even know about Ethan? I looked back and couldn’t find any instance of them existing in the same room as Ethan, or of Amber telling them about him.
It’s probably something that happened off-screen. They’re dorm neighbors, after all.
So far there’s no other Amber (and she’d be referenced as such anyway), so if Ethan grumbled something about Amber then they’d know exactly who he was talking about.
2nd panel Amber has me wondering if she is implying Mike was emotionally mature or that she is requiring a date for Ethan who meets the aforementioned requirements to coax him out of his depressive state.
Or Amber is trying to help Ethan or is trying to help AmaziGirl. Both possibilities are a disaster, BUT if Amber finally sees that she needs help, she thinks Booster could help her and maybe she feels that she (or AmaziGirl) is attractedby them, well… it’s still a disaster, but it’s the kind of strange and potentially very complicated downward spiral relationship that I’m interested in seeing. Something nice might come out of it.
i don’t quite get why people are so on their case honestly.
they have poor social awareness skills + a big mouth, which, ok, unfortunate combo.
but that bit that they did, when they were quote-unquote “””psychoanalyzing””” people or whatever? honestly, why are so many people outraged about that, i find this so confusing? i just found it hilarious?
Like, they were just saying their first impressions of people out loud. they didn’t actually know any of them. they were most likely way off the mark. (well it turns out they weren’t, because exposition, but irl this is called cold reading, it’s not that deep.) People could’ve just shrugged and brushed them off. Anyway, that’s not how psychoanalysis works. Call it rude, insensitive, offputting: fine. i call it cheeky and bratty and endearing, but fine.
but now comparing them to Mike like they’re just as malevolent, that strikes me as unfair. and weird.
@milu People getting read for filth or getting cold read is pretty common. I wonder how many people in this comment section has watched Pose or RuPaul’s Drag Race? Booster may have not meant it insultingly since they might’ve thought they were being helpful. Granted, the offended party didn’t take it as helpful and were annoyed.
But quite a few of the people here pearl clutching is rich. What’s the John Mulaney bit? “And we were like, “We know, but hey!” “
There’s an incredibly weird angle to this where it’s a testament to how far Amber has come that she’s able to blunder her way through a conversation with a stranger like this without recoiling into a perfect sphere
Love the fact that half the comments section forgot that Ethan exists. Everybody’s so amped up on Halloween energy and the fallout of the Ruth/Billie breakup.
Side note: imagine Ruth’s face when she realizes that Billie isn’t coming to break down her dorm door.
For a hot second there I thought Amber was just asking Booster out (and doing a really bad job of it, given that she couldn’t even remember their name.)
I feel like panel 2 is the point where a really reasonable, self-caring, person would probably just slowly close the door and refuse to take any further part in this conversation. Panel 5 is the point where ANYBODY with even an ounce of self-preservation would do so. Booster clearly saw both of these points by by them, and kept going anyway, just as I would…
Yea, building up to something with someone who’s degree is psychology ain’t gonna fly, they’re spending the entire conversation using the puzzle pieces of what you’ve said to get where you’re going faster than you can
ok, this is in good enough humour but like zee said up there’s a vibe wrt “psych majors” like they’ve got some freak chaotic neutral sixth sense of some kind?
and look Booster is a weirdo by any metric, but psychology students on the whole are basically, y’know, regular people.
…and anyway they’re like second year, they aren’t allowed to use spells yet, (trans rights)
At first I thought Amber was trying to set Booster up with Ruth, but now I’m pretty sure she’s trying to set them up with Ethan. Either way probably not a good idea, and I hope Booster rejects this plan.
i don’t think ruth and amber are really even ‘friends’ to consider playing cupid or so, or even anything like “if i set these two up together they’ll both leave me alone” or so lol
Some time ago, I promised milu and Laura a link to my lametrature once I was done with the chapter. Turns out the chapter ran away from me so I ended up breaking it up in two chapters and the second part is STILL freakishly huge compared to the others.
Like I said, there are bits in chapter VI that I’m not happy about because I think the way I wrote them makes the pacing iffy. So if someone has any advice/feedback on that (or anything else), please give.
allllrighty!!! 70 pages?! my dude that’s some output =) proud of ya.
now it’ll take me a moment to read through, or at least enough of it to have things to say, and annotate, so patience. but i’m honoured to be your test audience =)
My take (and hope) is that she’s not trying to “set-up” set-up Booster and Ethan, but is looking for someone who emotionally mature enough, understanding of queer love/life experiences, and is comfortable managing/supporting people with MH issues so that Ethan has someone to talk to/go to about what he’s dealing with without being constantly confronted by other people’s trauma/issues.
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Not Sure If Want
Either way, you have to admit Amber is doing a heck of a sales job.
So like, the tires are slashed, and the tank is empty, oh and the engine is burnt out, but he’s only got 5000miles on him.
I…
Huh….
You know, I’m think I’d be kinda into Rooster.
THE SHIP NAME IS CHOSEN YOU CANNOT UNDO.
I think she’s talking about Boothan…
Either haha
I said ETHER, PHONE
Eather ore.
You are correct. I thought Booster meant Ruth. Ethan did not register as ‘super hot’ to me, hence the confusion.
But yeah, Ruth/Booster (aka Rooster)… I stand behind that conceptually.
Ethster.
hmmmm…..yikes???
Indeed. I think rule #1 of trying to set someone up with a friend is that if the friend is already in a relationship, don’t do it.
Is Ethan in a relationship?
I don’t think so, maybe? I vaguely remember one guy showing interest but I don’t remember who or when. I had thought at first they were talking about Ruth. I had shamefully forgotten Ethan existed, but mitigating factors: it has been a while sense we have seen Ethan and I am very very tired.
He was involved in sex-capades but then Mike had to go and ruin it by sacrificing himself, sending Ethan into a depressive spiral.
Amber’s sales pitch is kinda yikes but Booster is majoring in psychology if memory serves, so this maybe tangentily helpful? *shrugs*
He is not. Ethan and Danny did some mutual flirting after Danny realized he was bisexual, but they were mostly working on becoming friends until Mike was hospitalized (the mutual attraction aspect just hanging there, unaddressed). For Ethan’s part, he’d been struggling with having enough self-confidence to actually engage anyone he found attractive in conversation, when suddenly he found himself in a friends-with-benefits dynamic with Mike, who then, as mentioned, abruptly became critically injured and comatose. At which point, accompanying Ethan to the hospital to visit comatose-but-not-dead-yet Mike, Danny performed his trademark foot-into-mouth maneuver, thus immolating their developing friendship and any possibility of romance in the foreseeable future.
All true, but you skipped over the part where between his quick thing with Mike and the kidnapping, Ethan worked his way through most of the available minor male characters. Mike was basically a one time thing, as were his other hook-ups, I believe. The last one we saw was the fingerguns guy he brought to the party.
Kinda doubt it, he seems to be in a really bad state.
Huh? Is Ethan with anyone?
only with dinobot
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2021/comic/book-12/01-sister-christian/playing/
Wow. Worst wingwoman ever?
I guess she really is Joe’s (step-)sister.
When it doubt, try to get (someone) laid?
Yeah that adds up, nice spot, notation accepted
well, it’s not like some hookups haven’t happened with people not in the best state of mind (both irl and in the comic i’m assuming but can’t think of an example off the top of my head other than ruth/billie), but hopefully it doesn’t backfire (or if it is a dumpster fire it’s entertaining)
Mike and Ethan is one i can think of.
@anon … This is a damnyouwillis comic… of COURSE it’ll be entertaining
I mean, she already got Booster to admit they think Ethan is superhot, so now she’s just to build up on that.
I’m not saying she’s not trying to set him up with Ethan, but I’m missing why everyone seems to think she is. There’s multiple dumpster fires she could be trying to set him up with, and one happens to be one we’ve spent a lot of time focusing on, so that seems like a plausible answer also.
Consider how many of them Amber considers friends, how many of them are single, how many of them she’d actually care enough to try to set up with.
Also, Amber’s last interaction with Ethan was pretty much him walking away while she admitted she missed him too. Probably some residual guilt.
As a heads up, Booster’s pronouns are they/them not he/him. I don’t know how to do the fancy links so you can have an unfancy copy-paste.
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2020/comic/book-11/01-this-bright-millennium/uses/
Amber is definitely trying to set Booster up with Ethan – though it’s hard to say how much of her motivation is borne of unselfishly trying to help Ethan, and how much is wanting to “get him back” as a friend.
If this is going to have a snowball’s chance of working, Booster WILL need to know which of the Aerialbots is which, so it’s a good thing Amber didn’t delete that information to remember their name.
Excellent point
Upvote
Way to Dan it up… wait…
I really don’t know what the hell Amber is trying to do here, and I’m not sure it’s going to go well anyway.
She needs more crazy relationship drama to happen to give her fanfic ideas.
Ruth and Jennifer used to provide so much that them breaking up was like turning off the sun, so she’s desperate for a new source.
I love this, FYI.
She’s trying to do the same thing Jennifer attempted with Ruth and Daisy, except with Booster and Ethan, probably with similar end results.
This time Daisy was approached about it first and there’s nothing transactional happening.
I foresee it just leading to an arranged date where Ethan calls Booster out on their arrogant bullshit psycho-babble. He’s been aggressive, and may have been to real therapy since the skip. It also wouldn’t be the first time someone tried to fix him.
I would enjoy seeing booster called out on arrogant bullshit psycho-babble. Psychology majors and people with psych degrees do tend to approach mentally ill people with a dehumanizing “fascination,” and it’d be neat to see that addressed in this format.
Booster’s going to text Ethan a Willow nood deepfake with the head cropped off?
Queer Space, that’s where I’m from LOL
BTW I got the indie game studio job!!!! Hooray!!!!! 🥳
Wish me luck!!!
*plays “Livin’ in the Sunlight, Lovin’ in the Moonlight” by Tiny Tim on the hacked muzak*
Congratulations. Best of luck to you.
Congrats and Good Luck. I hope its a good work environment, cause it tends to be a 50/50 shot of it being horrible.
Thanks, but I don’t think i have to worry too much — it’s all online work, and the main artist / designer I’m working (who’s also an autism ADHD combo) with seems really into me, turns out we share a LOT of interests and creative style
Congratulations – you’ll do great! 頑張って – Ganbatte!
Good job.
Congratulations and good luck.
congrats! don’t forget about us when you’re rich and famous ;P /lh
Way to go!!!
Congratulations on the new job that you’re into!
kudos comrade! you show them!
That’s great! Good luck.
Why would you need any more luck if you have the job? What you need now is conviction to the job.
Huzzah and cudos my friend!
Great news! Thanks for sharing!!
Hmmm…no like.
Not feeling BoosterxRuth nor BoosterxJennifer
Plan your games out better Amber
Huh. I thought she was referring to Ethan.
You know, it says something that “Amber’s superhot depressed friend” is a category rather than a specific person.
Hmm, I have a category of queer friends which has multiple transgender persons in both directions. I went through a strange chapter in my life a few years ago that resulted in meeting a whole lot of people with different sexualities and genders and kinks, which was interesting to say the least. Some of those people I’m still in contact with.
What about BoosterxEthan which I’m guessing is what she’s suggesting
Which makes the “replacement Mike” thing a bit more fucked up now that I think about it
hmmm….BoosterxEthan?
Amber’s trying to hook up Booster with Ethan. Amber’s not really friends with Jennifer, like I do not really recall many interactions at all, and Amber already knows Booster shot their shot with Ruth already, so yeah, she wouldn’t need to try to make that happen.
Judging by the description they gave of Ethan, they might not be against it, exactly.
Booster is the most sane person in this strip. Relatively speaking. Why would Amber want to entangle them in Ruth’s mishegas?
I thought Amber and Booster were talking about Ethan.
Me too. :/
Ohhhh. That makes way more sense than Ruth. I had sort of forgotten about Ethan.
Yeah, it’s Ethan. Booster already tried to hit on Ruth and got nowhere.
Besides, she’s got Jason now.
….she came to get Booster to talk with Ethan, got it.
Uh, so.
Amber’s “superhot depressed friend” who exists in a queer space isn’t Ruth.
I’m pretty sure she’s trying to set them up with Ethan???
…Oh, no.
Oh no oh no oh no.
Does Amber consider Ethan “fucked up in the head”? Because I don’t think he is, really. Granted, she seems to call a lot of things “fucked up in the head” that really aren’t, but I don’t actually think she’s talking about Ethan here. I think she might be talking about Amazi-Girl.
I was thinking how Ethan really doesn’t need this kind of meddling in his life, but now I’m desperately hoping she does mean Ethan because oh, God.
I was thinking it was probably not Ethan because this is Dumbing of Age and while Ethan’s a poor choice for this kind of attention, all of the other obvious options are worse.
man it started with “replacement mike” but then it went downhill fast
From replacement Mike to replacement Mike.
Well starting your conversation with replacement Mike was kind of signal that there was no place to go but down hill.
It started out with “Replacement Mike”, how did it end up like this?
If it is Ethan she’s talking about, “Replacement Mike” is especially sick.
Definitely Ethan. Jennifer, Ruth, and basically everyone else may be fucked in the head, and attractive, but how many qualify as Amber’s friend and how many are “superhot”? It’s Ethan.
Oh, at this point it’s definitely Ethan. What she doesn’t realize is that if Booster is into fucked in the head, Ethan pales in comparison to what she’s bringing to Booster’s attention.
If Booster’s into fucked in the head, they at least got gold maybe platinum with their dorm assignment. I mean, in that case, are there any bad options?
What comes after platinum?
So this makes the “replacement Mike” thing kind of fucked up rather then just generally rude is she’s suggesting this go where I think she is
Let her build up to it.
“so, you know how you’re Replacement Mike, right?”
It’s weird, because I know Ethan’s grieving and depressed at the moment, but I don’t think it’s right to describe him as ‘fucked up in the head’.
Like he’s nowhere near the level of whatever stuff Ruth or Amber had going on.
Yeah, Amber’s probably the last person who should call anybody else “fucked up in the head”.
Game recognize game.
sooo, which superhot friend are we talking about here
The one who resembles SM3-era Peter Parker.
i have no idea what half these words means
Resembles – to be like or similar to.
The – a definitive article, used, especially before a noun, with a specifying or particularizing effect, as opposed to the indefinite or generalizing force of the indefinite article a or an
One – being or amounting to a single unit or individual
Who – (of a person) of what character, origin, position, importance
SM: (abbr.) sado-masochism.
3: the cardinal number three.
Era: a French new-age music project, mostly known internationally for its 1996 hit “Ameno”.
Peter: to dwindle; to trail off; to diminish to nothing.
Parker: someone who parks a motor vehicle.
Hope this helps
Willis bless you, it helped me enormously.
Not sure i like where this is going. Booster has only barely gotten the chance to establish themselves as an independent character, and most of their characterization has still really only been to progress Walky’s arc.
I don’t love throwing them immediately into also being Ethan’s therapist, too. Just let Booster be a regular member of the cast. Show them interacting with people more than just that single time right before a floor meeting.
This is assuming they’re going to say “yes”, which I very much doubt. I think what’s more likely is Amber has just made yet another enemy.
Booster is into fucked up. See Ruth.
Problem is I think Booster might be into being Ethan’s therapist.
Characters can’t be islands. Booster not having meaningful interactions with anyone besides Walky has not been working out well for them, panel-time-wise. The only way they’re gonna get fleshed out, and fully rounded enough to support their own plots where other characters are secondary to them, is by building relationships with others.
the ol’ “have the characters do more stuff but somehow without interacting with anybody new” trick, lemme see what I can do
Does Amber know that Ethan and Mike were an item? Is she *knowingly* trying to get Booster to be Ethan’s “replacement Mike”? Because that would be an extra layer of dumb, which would fit the comic’s name.
Pretty sure he told her the day of.
She knows they fucked, yes.
She wanted details.
For Science.
o3o hey y’all just popping in to say i’m chipping away at these inks. Hope you’re having a good day.
https://imgur.com/a/MRolX25 (NSFW)
I like the way you drew her smile.
SWEET progress bruh! Thanks! 🤩
It all looks fantastic, I’m looking forward to more.
Nice work!
On a semi-related note, is there any way you could post the link again to that mega-fanart dump you made a while back? I can’t seem to find it.
https://imgur.com/a/8Q50mBQ (There’s some NSFW at the bottom.)
nice hair/lines, maybe yo ucan do your own webtoon at some point even if it’s one of those ‘casual relatable’ ones like what sarah anderson does lol (no hate , those comics are great too)
I’ve got a lot of ideas for webcomics cooking. I’m just bad at focusing on an idea.
Hopefully I can make at least a few of these in my lifetime.
-A story about a superpowered teenager
-A story about a tomboyish magical girl
-A story about a rude punk Skunk
-A story about Two cyborg ladies starting a band in a magical fantasy world
-A story about a high school girl’s basketball team
-A story about a guy who realizes that he is not, in fact, the main character of his life
-Some NSFW stuff
a magical girl comedy would be lit lol. i’m sure some of those ideas could crossover but it would be funny to see a scene with a mascot like “just repeat after me and pose!” and it’s something cutesy and a tomboy lead would be like “no way”
the main chara thing sounds like some delicious existensial horror/stanley parable vibes maybe haha
The magical girl actually doesn’t mind dressing up and posing. In fact that’s her favorite part. I sorta typed her to be a mix between sailor moon and a Jojo protagonist. Mixing my favorite elements if shonen and shoujo. Her name is even just “Jo”. Though to be fair she probably would hate saying something cutesy.
The main character one is much more of a comedy that gets more and more absurd as it goes on. Probably one of the easier ideas to do since it’s mostly gag based.
Make it an ensemble story and mix all seven things together. When you get tired of following one thread, you jump to the next. The big question is can you work up to doing three high quality strips a week without damaging your hands or eating up your entire life.
I can see mashing some of these into the same comic.
Oh wow, that’s great!
Ohhhh… this is gonna be painful to watch.
Booster doesn’t deserve this either. They really do seem like a decent sort of individual.
Given how they introduced themselves they arent decent. but given how many of the characters have been acting recently they seem fine by comparison.
Tbh this isn’t that fair to Booster I mean they introduced themselves to a group by breaking down pyscological problems of different characters in public which was mean tude and not what you should be using pyscology training for. That initail arc left a bitter aftertastel, but Booster has not down anything truly malicious since then and also hasn’t had much of an arc yet.
*.Did introduce
*the psychological
*psychology
*and rude
*initial
*after taste.
Booster was spying on Walky (with a camera from someone else window!) to see if he really such a dumbass as he seems. I think Booster may be as much of a jerk as Mike.
Thought I remembered something like that, but I can’t find it now.
Walky was standing on the snow mountain talking to his sister on the street below. That’s pretty public.
Still can’t find it. It’s starting to nag at me.
Do they? Do they really? Psychoanalysing complete strangers in a public setting without their permission strikes you as “a decent sort of individual”? Really?
you can’t psychoanalyze people without their permission. that’s not how psychoanalysis works (i’m not weighing in on Booster’s “decency” here, but the word you use doesn’t mean what you think it does.)
let me rephrase. you can’t psychoanalyze complete strangers without their permission.
i can imagine some sort of scenario where someone might blurt out their own personal interpretation of someone’s character based on private info that they have after hanging out with them for a while. it would still be a stretch to call it “psychoanalysing” them, but them being complete strangers is key to why this is nothing like that.
Sounds like you’re more saying it wasn’t really psychoanalysis than that they had permission. (Which they might have technically had, at least for some of them.)
Whatever you want to call it, it’s still a mark against their being decent, I’d say.
oh they absolutely didn’t have “permission”. and fine, it wasn’t a decent thing to do, though they may have failed to read the room rather than acted out of mean-spiritedness. to me it felt like someone cheerfully carrying on with their neat little party trick, not realizing that people aren’t laughing.
but also, psychoanalysis doesn’t work if it’s not consensual, as far as i understand. otoh, i guess the way JBento and others use the word may be a kind of figurative, hyperbolic sense of the word. i just find it weird how so many in the section have latched on to that very specific, smart-sounding descriptor.
if it was just a couple comments saying Booster was “psychoanalyzing” people it would sound like a snarky turn of phrase, but by now this is obviously not a figure of speech anymore, if it ever was. cos people just keep re-using that word over and over and it just wiggles me the wrong way.
…ok, sorry for being a dick about this, i just checked ran some searches and this use of “psychoanalyze” to mean guesstimating people’s secret trauma is common enough that it doesn’t really warrant special note here.
…grumble grumble maybe i still think people are being unduly mean to a character i like just for being kind of a clueless smartass grumble grumble carry on i guess grumble
You’re valid.
(I think it would be a big issue if they kept doing it after graduating? Psychoanalyzing people and revealing that information publicly is unethical, and the more skilled you are, the more harm it can potentially cause. Not everyone would use that information for good. (A lot better than mike, though, who was the sort of person you don’t tell things to.))
er please don’t “you’re valid” me. i’m sure the intent is to be supportive, but i don’t like the implication that i might need support rn, esp from someone who so evidently disagrees with the substance of my point.
and to reiterate, my point was, what booster did was not literal psychoanalysis. in fact, extremely not. it was just flinging wild guesses at people’s backstories.
yes psychoanalysis comes with specific and strict deontological rules, i don’t know that that’s the field Booster is interested in (did they say at any point?) but supposing it is, those are just completely baseless suspicions. they would be frankly insulting, were Booster a real person.
and look, i don’t know what you have against psychologists, psychoanalysts, or psychology majors. you surely have good reason to be wary, many of us have had bad experiences with mental health professionals.
but, as i humorously wrote elsewhere on this page, psychologists are regular people actually, they don’t have a sixth sense, much as some might think they do, in fact i’ve met psychologists who are incredibly bad judges of character. and that’s psychologists, here we’re talking about a sophomore psych major, like… this is so untethered from reality, honestly. fsgrbtrj rh
They did a cold read of everyone, it was rude at worst. You can be rude one time and still be decent
Thanks for making this remark, I agree with you.
I think Ruth and Ethan are very different flavours of fucked up.
At least setting someone up with Ethan isn’t likely to get them punched.
Until the last panel, I thought she was going to ask Booster out, which felt wrong since they’re Walky’s roommate.
Why would asking Walky’s roommate out be wrong? I’m not sure what kind of system of morality would lead to that conclusion.
uni(versitydormroom)tarianism is a school of philosophy that rejects the artificial division of rooms into separate individual people. They consider that 1 room = 1 person, the world being complicated enough as is, what with all the rooms there are to begin with.
Therefore, all people living in a single room are for all ethical intents and purposes, the same person.
The uni(versitydormroom)tarianist trolley problem is as follows: there are two random non-rooming people tied to the track a trolley is headed for, no one cares about them, and Booster and Walky are on the other track minding their own business in their room, possibly in their underwear, and if you pull a lever the trolley will crash into Wooster and Balky and start furiously making out with them (the trolley is Amber btw). What do you choose, and why is it pulling the lever, because you are dirty, dirty girl and this is actually the synopsis for one of Amber’s weirdest fanfictions??? That’s no longer a question?????
Amber and Walky liked each other, and it seems like Amber broke it off. It would be a bit insensitive to start dating his roommate, because she would be around a lot and it may be painful for Walky.
Thank you. I understand that people might not agree, but I thought it went without saying why I expressed the position in the first place.
Oh! That’s how Booster’s going to be relevant.
This is a terrible idea, can’t wait to see it.
Agreed on the second part. I’m not sure it is such a terrible idea. Pulling Ethan out of his funk could be good, even if it does not turn into a serious relationship.
It depends. Like, it could do Ethan good, but we’ve also seen Booster unethically applies psychoanalysis to people who didn’t exactly sign up for that. Booster might be too pushy, but maybe Ethan would be into that, who the fuck even knows with Ethan’s current headspace.
Does Booster feel the need to “fix” Ethan with his five minutes of psychoanalysis training? This could be very dumb in the most entertaining way.
“their”.
Their.
i feel like even if they have the best intentions/don’t try to consciously try to psychoanalyze you; i’d think most ppl should steer clear/run away from any psych students romantic wise. (or on the flip side, if someone said “yeah i wanna be a therapist” some ppl would just dump all their issues on them, tho that happens with ppl not equipped to deal with that too)
That seems a bit excessive. Obviously stay away if they cross boundaries, but that’s not inherent in being a psych student.
Okay maybe I’m just being a triggered psych student but like
I’m all for dunking on different majors (bullying the poly-sci folk was fun) but this just feels like. Not a joke anymore. A genuine and weird take.
I don’t really think of it as a joke, but it sounds like you’re not the kind of person who people are talking about when they say to stay away from psych majors, if you’re really confused? Like, you might just not have a frame of reference since you wouldn’t necessarily hang out with the kind of person people are talking about, even as a psych major.
It’s like, you know how a lot of guys don’t know how bad sexual harassment is, since it doesn’t usually happen around them? They’re decent guys, so it wouldn’t cross their mind that people could be as bad as they can be, and men aren’t going to act that way when a decent, protective guy is around.
I hope that helps?
So this went in an unexpected direction…
Does Booster reeeeeeeeeeally have an emotional maturity though?
emotional maturity is relevant in this lol. who would be the most emotionally mature, probably a side chara we don’t see as much lol
You mean Ruth that has a boyfriend now?
She means to set them up with Ethan.
She probably means Ethan, not Ruth.
Oh god, she sees Booster as Replacement Mike in more ways than one. Which is conflicting as hell.
Really not a fan of the Booster character. When first introduced, they seemed an artificial way to recap the main characters’ traits (for new readers?) and I thought the way made Booster appear to be a jerk. Since that intro, all the subsequent appearances (including this one) haven’t changed that opinion. Admittedly, Amber is also being a jerk, but she has a developed character that includes much more, and we basically know why she acts like a jerk.
Dammit Booster, you ruined the bit! She had a plan and everything
Does Amber know definitively that Booster is into men? I know we saw that time when Booster was kind of flirting with Joe, but I don’t believe I remember Amber being there. I’m just a bit concerned that she’s seeing a (presumably, based on previous remarks) amab queer person and assuming that 1) they’d be comfortable dating/hooking up with a cis man who self-identifies as gay and has only displayed genuine attraction to men, and 2) that Ethan would be interested in dating/hooking up with someone who is not a man. This scenario just feels like one with the potential to result in both Ethan’s and Booster’s (but mostly Booster’s) identities being invalidated by Amber’s assumptions.
Source: I’m AFAB nonbinary and would feel deeply uncomfortable if someone tried to set me up with a lesbian friend of theirs.
P.S. I trust Willis 100% to handle this situation (for obvious reasons), my comment is not in any way meant to imply that they as a writer are doing anything wrong or insensitive.
well i imagine she’d think that talking to booster would help even if it’s not intended in a romantic setup, though hopefully just looking at ethan physically (not shaming anyone naturally skinny/lanky but we all knew beforehand he wasn’t always that bony/’emaciated’) would make ppl think “oh yeah he’s in no state to date”
While it certainly might help, I feel as though when she says she knows Booster is into people who are fucked in the head based on their interactions with Ruth (who Booster asked out), that strongly implies a potentially romantic connection. Unless you are meaning that she’s implying a romantic connection to get Booster interested in the interaction but hoping that once they see Ethan, they will see that he’s in no state to date but will stick around anyway to fix him? Because if so, that’s quite the game of 4D chess Amber is attempting.
i think booster mentioned /seeing ruth as ‘fascinating’ which might be concerning to describe but other than the anger issues, idk how much they were told about the ‘suicide pact’ unless people told them, but either way should be something Ethan’s asked about first (though i can’t imagine him saying “sure, set me up with the psych major” unless he’s just going on autopilot and not caring)
Ah, okay, I think I see what you’re saying. I agree that Ethan should definitely be consulted first, whether this potential connection is romantic or platonic. However, I don’t think Amber and Ethan are currently on speaking terms.
And if Ethan were consulted first, the argument would be Booster should be consulted first. At the moment Booster is more likely to hear her out.
This is also true. it’s entirely possible that I am approaching this scenario from too meta a perspective; obviously we are unlikely to ever strike the perfect balance of respect for others, as is evinced by most strips.
Emo Ethan is still hot, just in a different kind of way. (Booster doesn’t know what he used to look like.) And apparently Booster does seem to be into him! It looks to me like Booster jumped right to guessing Ethan here, like he’s been thinking about him already. Now that I think about it: he was weirdly obsessed with hot Walky too.
Right, but unless Amber’s a mind-reader (which seems unlikely given that Amber didn’t so much as know Booster’s name at the beginning of this interaction), she couldn’t have known Booster would be receptive to this. Of course, there’s no problem in asking them if they find Ethan attractive and would be interested in chatting him up, I just feel as though Amber’s motivation to involve Booster specifically is a little suspect.
Also: Booster’s pronouns are they/them, not he/him.
them already knowing that ethan was ‘depressed’ (assuming it’s ethan and not another person), booster’s probably been told bits and pieces from walky about how he was before
given the ‘college students living off of ramen’ stereotype, i’m surprised more ppl don’t either gain or lose weight b/c of the stress of college, fictional drama aside, but i imagine unless someone’s just masking for a brief interaction you could maybe tell he wouldn’t be in the best state just from talking to him as well; I imagine his parents might not have been that fond of mike but surprised they didn’t pull him out to take care of him or thought that it wasn’t bad enough to where he couldn’t be on his own anymore assuming he isnt completely missing/failing classes
As a heads up, Booster’s pronouns are they/them not he/him. I don’t know how to do the fancy links so you can have an unfancy copy-paste.
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2020/comic/book-11/01-this-bright-millennium/uses/
Weirdly?
And this is separated from what I’m replying to. Why is Booster finding Walky attractive weird?
I don’t think it’s inherently wrong to suggest someone for a hookup, even if you don’t definitively know they swing that way. As long as you don’t push it if they say they’re not interested.
Doing it without knowing how Ethan would react to Booster being non-binary is a little more of a problem.
Wonder if it’s different if it’s asking someone out for yourself, rather than trying to set them up?
I agree that it’s not inherently wrong to try to set two people up even if you don’t know their specific orientations, but this specific scenario gives me pause because Amber does know Ethan’s: he is gay. He likes men. Booster is not a man, and is specifically bothered by people perceiving them as such (see: Booster’s first interactions with Joyce).
I’m willing to concede that I might be projecting my own feelings and frustrations about how I am perceived onto Booster, but it just seems insensitive for Amber to do what she’s doing, given Booster’s gender identity and her (Amber’s) personal knowledge of Ethan’s sexuality. I hope I am making sense here, even if you don’t agree with me.
lol so hopefully isn’t booster someone who “gets into psych majors” as some sorta chaser? hopefully not tho i can imagine there is temptation for ppl taking advantage of emotionally/mentally unstable ppl
I mean, judging by their facial expression in the last panel, they don’t seem very receptive of the whole idea.
On the other hand Booster didn’t they call Ruth a ‘fascinating creature’ which was skin crawl inducing.
Like I’m not making any hard judgments on Booster since they haven’t even hit fifty strips but even then I was like…. buddy.
Could be just them having unfortunate ways of phrasing things honestly. Like I’m sure there’s people who say things like ‘m’lady’ without being a fedora? Or who aren’t ‘Nice Guys’? Language tics can sometimes be red flags people unknowingly blunder into.
Remains to be seen I guess.
i imagine college is a great time period in your life/opportunity to ‘experiment’ and ppl would be drawn to ‘interesting’ people but even if ruth didn’t have an angry out burst and everything else, i’d feel most ppl would probably shy away from asking out an RA out of all possible students
But she’s not their RA.
I think it’s a verbose language style *as well as* Booster using non-gendered terms almost exclusively. I saw creature as a weird way to avoid calling Ruth a woman/lady/whatever while doing a pick-up-line thing. I don’t think it was a Good way, but as a NB, I picked up on that habit of theirs quickly.
That would make sense. Perhaps Booster will eventually realise they can use better gender neutral phrases if that is their desire. Like ‘interesting person’ would trip fewer alarm bells.
I know enough lesbians to not really be phased by the phrasing, personally.
Oh noooo…
i love her asking if they have “an emotional maturity.” like, they might have a selection, or zero, or one.
Yeah, we got it at Kitsch Mart, don’t you love it?
“Please toggle the ‘Emotional Maturity Slider’ to your preferred setting”
Ooooooooooh! I’m all for this storyline
Nah, let’s set Booster up with Jason instead.
Wait a minute how was Booster able to tell there used to be a thing between Amber and Walky?
They’re roommates so maybe it came up in an off-panel conversation?
Walky is their roommate. I’m sure it came up.
if he didn’t tell booster, maybe they ‘picked it up’ the same way booster said “you two have been friends for a while, i can tell” with joe and danny
How Walky responded to Booster’s botched introduction to Amber and the bit of context Walky gave afterwards into her mental health seems intimate.
Amber. Please don’t.
How does Booster even know about Ethan? I looked back and couldn’t find any instance of them existing in the same room as Ethan, or of Amber telling them about him.
He doesn’t, he’s just making an exaggerated guess and was right without realizing.
As a heads up, Booster’s pronouns are they/them not he/him. I don’t know how to do the fancy links so you can have an unfancy copy-paste.
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2020/comic/book-11/01-this-bright-millennium/uses/
Damn it! I always fucking g up remembering the right way to address someone by none binary pronouns.
It’s probably something that happened off-screen. They’re dorm neighbors, after all.
So far there’s no other Amber (and she’d be referenced as such anyway), so if Ethan grumbled something about Amber then they’d know exactly who he was talking about.
2nd panel Amber has me wondering if she is implying Mike was emotionally mature or that she is requiring a date for Ethan who meets the aforementioned requirements to coax him out of his depressive state.
Yeah, it must be the latter.
Or Amber is trying to help Ethan or is trying to help AmaziGirl. Both possibilities are a disaster, BUT if Amber finally sees that she needs help, she thinks Booster could help her and maybe she feels that she (or AmaziGirl) is attractedby them, well… it’s still a disaster, but it’s the kind of strange and potentially very complicated downward spiral relationship that I’m interested in seeing. Something nice might come out of it.
Oooh, it’s been a while since an f bomb
Amber, you need to looking for a psychologist. But for you and not for Ethan.
Maybe she’s looking for a psychologist for AmaziGirl.
Why is Amber trying to hook Booster up with Ethan?
Have they EVER interacted?
I’m afraid “superhot” is giving Booster away. They are willing to go the replacement Mike road.
They tipped their hand.
yeeeeee i still like Booster ^^
i don’t quite get why people are so on their case honestly.
they have poor social awareness skills + a big mouth, which, ok, unfortunate combo.
but that bit that they did, when they were quote-unquote “””psychoanalyzing””” people or whatever? honestly, why are so many people outraged about that, i find this so confusing? i just found it hilarious?
Like, they were just saying their first impressions of people out loud. they didn’t actually know any of them. they were most likely way off the mark. (well it turns out they weren’t, because exposition, but irl this is called cold reading, it’s not that deep.) People could’ve just shrugged and brushed them off. Anyway, that’s not how psychoanalysis works. Call it rude, insensitive, offputting: fine. i call it cheeky and bratty and endearing, but fine.
but now comparing them to Mike like they’re just as malevolent, that strikes me as unfair. and weird.
Feel bad for them, do not want they’re day wasted with drama from a hook up, but maybe some fun wacky booster shenanigans will occur
Not hookups I’m general(I’m pro horny) just this obvious drama storm
@milu People getting read for filth or getting cold read is pretty common. I wonder how many people in this comment section has watched Pose or RuPaul’s Drag Race? Booster may have not meant it insultingly since they might’ve thought they were being helpful. Granted, the offended party didn’t take it as helpful and were annoyed.
But quite a few of the people here pearl clutching is rich. What’s the John Mulaney bit? “And we were like, “We know, but hey!” “
Originally I was happy to see Booster again but then I read the text of the comic.
Oh, they’re like Danny…?
I meant more that I like them and don’t want them getting roped into this dumpster fire.
Amber. Sweetie.
No.
Honey, just no.
but have you considered:
“yes… ha ha ha… YES!”
I mean, “superhot depressed friend” doesn’t sound NOT receptive…
Who…
Oh! Ethan, right.
Nooooooooo Amber…. nooooo..
This isn’t a goldfish you can’t buy Ethan a new one and expect it to be better.
Plus, I don’t want Ethan to get a round of unwanted spotaneous diagnosis from Booster..
I kind of do, but I agree this is super messed-up.
Personally I would be all about that, but only because Ethan’s fictional and here for my amusement.
There’s an incredibly weird angle to this where it’s a testament to how far Amber has come that she’s able to blunder her way through a conversation with a stranger like this without recoiling into a perfect sphere
You know that’s honestly an excellent point.
Love the fact that half the comments section forgot that Ethan exists. Everybody’s so amped up on Halloween energy and the fallout of the Ruth/Billie breakup.
Side note: imagine Ruth’s face when she realizes that Billie isn’t coming to break down her dorm door.
Took me a moment because the last thing we saw between Jennifer and Ruth in the present was literally Jennifer breaking down her door.
For a hot second there I thought Amber was just asking Booster out (and doing a really bad job of it, given that she couldn’t even remember their name.)
Honestly same. Kinda had that vibe for a moment
She is, she just doesn’t realize it.
Amber bby Booster is not replacement Mike. Repeat after me. THEY ARE NOT REPLACEMENT MIKE
Says you.
Dam u right
I feel like panel 2 is the point where a really reasonable, self-caring, person would probably just slowly close the door and refuse to take any further part in this conversation. Panel 5 is the point where ANYBODY with even an ounce of self-preservation would do so. Booster clearly saw both of these points by by them, and kept going anyway, just as I would…
ahaha HARD SAME
Nice South Park Bigger Longer and Uncut reference in the alt text here
The alt text made me chortle
LOL
Yea, building up to something with someone who’s degree is psychology ain’t gonna fly, they’re spending the entire conversation using the puzzle pieces of what you’ve said to get where you’re going faster than you can
ok, this is in good enough humour but like zee said up there’s a vibe wrt “psych majors” like they’ve got some freak chaotic neutral sixth sense of some kind?
and look Booster is a weirdo by any metric, but psychology students on the whole are basically, y’know, regular people.
…and anyway they’re like second year, they aren’t allowed to use spells yet, (trans rights)
At first I thought Amber was trying to set Booster up with Ruth, but now I’m pretty sure she’s trying to set them up with Ethan. Either way probably not a good idea, and I hope Booster rejects this plan.
i don’t think ruth and amber are really even ‘friends’ to consider playing cupid or so, or even anything like “if i set these two up together they’ll both leave me alone” or so lol
Whenever my friends try to introduce me to someone it feels like this.
Some time ago, I promised milu and Laura a link to my lametrature once I was done with the chapter. Turns out the chapter ran away from me so I ended up breaking it up in two chapters and the second part is STILL freakishly huge compared to the others.
https://1drv.ms/b/s!Aj2B_mtuVXz_nkEgSa67kqWd27i6?e=VXcSMn
Like I said, there are bits in chapter VI that I’m not happy about because I think the way I wrote them makes the pacing iffy. So if someone has any advice/feedback on that (or anything else), please give.
allllrighty!!! 70 pages?! my dude that’s some output =) proud of ya.
now it’ll take me a moment to read through, or at least enough of it to have things to say, and annotate, so patience. but i’m honoured to be your test audience =)
PS i will psychoanalyze your ass muahaha
PPS j/k i will be respectful and nice <3
You can do both.
Just don’t chew gum at the same time.
oh no, that’s rude. i would never.
Ethan hadn’t occurred to me. I was thinking she was propositioning Booster for Amazigirl or a new alter.
I’m here for this. I like Booster and I ship Ethan with happiness
Hey, Replacement Mike!
Okay, I KNOW you’re not Replacement Mike. But, I need you to…
Well, you know…
Replace Mike.
My take (and hope) is that she’s not trying to “set-up” set-up Booster and Ethan, but is looking for someone who emotionally mature enough, understanding of queer love/life experiences, and is comfortable managing/supporting people with MH issues so that Ethan has someone to talk to/go to about what he’s dealing with without being constantly confronted by other people’s trauma/issues.
Is Booster emotionally mature? I don’t know that Amber’s had enough interaction with him to really know that.