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I kid, but yeah it looks like Walky might be applying that comment to their relationship or maybe feeling guilty about how it ended with Lucy. Also, maybe ominous foreshadowing? I hope not.
He wasn’t sure for awhile, but I believe that when they ran into each other at class or something the way she acted toward him confirmed it for him. If she later tries to reconcile or get mad at him for getting back with Dorothy and claim they never broke up due to the ambiguity of what she said, it’s pretty easy to point to their next interaction as fairly clear evidence of which side of the fence they were sitting on.
He could have just used his words to ask if they’re broken up, if he thought she broke up with him, but the words “we’re breaking up” were never spoken.
If you argue that Lucy acted badly and unfairly towards him, that may very well be correct, but it’s still not “breaking up”. Having a fight isn’t breaking up, and even having a fight while being on the wrong isn’t breaking up either.
So, yeah if Lucy doesn’t think they broke up, she’s on the right. Same way that Walky would have been on the right if he didn’t realize they’d “broken up” but Lucy started sleeping around without first notifying him of that state in status.
Sorry, this still doesn’t move me on this issue. It’s not, “They had a fight.” It’s specifically about how she conducted that fight, and then even more about how she acted after the fight. The cold shoulder treatment she gave him was indicative of being done with his shit. (And note, I actually am not saying she was wrong, there; it really was a huge test of their relationship, and Walky failed that worse than he did his first Calc test.)
I see no reason for Walky not to believe that they are done, nor for him to go back to her seeking clarification on this point. My personal hope is that Lucy is totally fine with this, and that, once she takes a little time for herself, she goes after Jacob like a politician chasing the last swing voter in their constituency.
If we want drama and dumbingness, we could always have Sarah take that as a personal challenge and ALSO try for Jacob.
I don’t know if you were addressing this to me, but no, I’m not pretaking Lucy’s side in a hypothetical fight. I’m just trying to anticipate the next massive problem that we’re going to run into, however irrational the characters in question might be.
You know, I’ve only noticed you in the comment section of a few pages now, but you’ve consistently been an incredibly rude person. If you disagree with me, then say that, but accusing me of making up an interaction that visibly happened on-panel in the comic we’re all reading is just absurd. No, I didn’t make up the way Lucy was treating Walky, and no, I’m not making up the way I interpreted both her treatment of him, nor the conclusions he seemed to have drawn from it. If Walky wasn’t certain she’d broken up with him, he wouldn’t have agreed to get back together with Dorothy, nor would he have slept with her. There WAS a point where he was uncertain, because he said as much on-panel, but it’s pretty clear he doesn’t think that now. If you have an alternative interpretation of these events, then by all means, share it, argue about it, but if all you have are baseless accusations that I made up events we all read in the comic, kindly set them on fire and shove them up your urethra.
As both a fan of Lucy x Walky AND someone who was broken up with by being pointedly treated as an ordinary friend after making some relationship mistakes and having a fight, this is where I’ve landed, too.
They’re broken up.
Walky might not REALIZE they’re fully broken up, but if he makes noises at Lucy about their relationship I expect she’ll explain to him in no uncertain terms exactly how things are (and possibly reiterate why).
Also, if you happen to read this, Jess, I’m still sorry I was a dumbass about the whole thing but in my defense we were high school juniors. =P
God I have wanted these two back together for SO long and I KNEW it would be bad when they got back together so easily. This is JUICY and i’m LOVING it. Of COURSE Walky views Dorothy as “the most real thing i’ve had” and Dorothy views him as “fun goofy relaxingtime”. Of COURSE!!
Yeah, IMO they’re really good for each other, she’s a grounding influence on Walky, giving him a reason to care about his future and providing perspective he tends to either lack or ignore, meanwhile he evens her neurotic tendencies out and helps her to chill out and unwind. She encourages him to be more serious, and he gives her permission to be unserious, which brings them both to a more healthy place.
The primary issue is a difference in expectations, I’m hoping that this recent crisis will encourage Dorothy to re-evaluate the value of fun and whimsy in her life plan so she can view Walky as a serious partner and not a brief diversion like she did before, but I feel like that realization isn’t going to come without Walky panicing and them having a fight first
Honestly, yeah, sometimes. (After the requisite cuddles, of course.) My partner and I will just start showing each other goofy memes or pet pictures we’ve taken since last time we met up
Here’s the thing though. When she ended it (a mistake (or not, but let’s say)), she hooked up with him again anyway (didn’t matter). Even when she made him less available by getting him together with Lucy (a “mistake”), here she is back together with him not long after deciding she regretted it (didn’t matter)
Right. The problem is that she can’t actually divy up her neurotic and carefree tendencies and her desire to do so means she’s still running the exact same social interaction system. Walky counterbalancing them still just underlines that he’s “for fun” and not really a part of her life because she doesn’t know how to integrate those things together. He’s wondering if this is what’s best for both of them and if we’re just repeating history and he’s going to end up dumped again, I think.
I see why Walky’s taking it this way, that he’s gone back to being her toy she comes back to and pushes away when convenient, but I wonder if that’s why she’s here with him right now, or if it’s because of the genuine succor he seems to provide her.
In any case, I get where he’d feel taken for granted on that front.
I think it might actually be the other way around? Walky is feeling guilty about how he handled things with Lucy, because he treated that like a lower stakes rebound and it ended up hurting her.
I don’t really know that that’s fully true. Like, I always got the feeling he liked her, but she was much quicker and more intense with her feelings, probably a lot of it being new, and even when he committed, he wasn’t going to match that energy.
If anything, I’d consider Amber much closer to the rebound, to the point where they never really outright dated. A number of things prevented it from getting to that point, between his inability to get past the Sal past, or Amber’s anger at how he handled the Mike stuff.
that’s her own damn fault she coulda just been like “walky stick it to me” at basically any time but sat on her own (oddly belabored) morality instead.
Walky absolutely did not treat Lucy like mistakes wouldn’t matter. In fact he spent so much energy on trying not to screw things up with her that he repeatedly wound up retreating to either the snow hill or to Amber’s Nintendo because of the stress.
That seems like a Walky thing to do. Maybe she is working with an PowerPoint presentation or using excel to create an organizational chart or table? Is horizontal orientation good for that? I only ever use my computer for that sort of thing.
Even outside of Walky taking that as how she views a relationship with him, the casual dismissal of something that actually matters a lot to him still hurts on its own.
Yeah, along with the fact that he knows Dorothy cares as much about the fandom as he does, so that’s probably not the energy he’d have about it.
It’s not like with Ultra Car, where he got pouty about Dorothy giving it credit after he was dismissive of it, and even then, he probably wasn’t being especially serious.
I think a lot of these “why walky is insulted/upset” comments are serious stretches of imagination.
Personally I think he’s just worried about her? Like she said something deeply sad just then and idk why everyone’s jumping to Walky taking offense somehow.
Is this the most skin we’ve seen in a strip? “The pause was a lie” covered Walky’s grundle with nothing but a text bubble, but (heheh, butt) he was also wearing a jacket.
Hm. Dunno if it’s an “also” if that’s all he’s wearing.
Condom was mentioned before the sexytimes resumed. And it seems like they’ve been done for a minute, so wouldn’t be surprising if it had been disposed of.
Yes, many here already have a bad feeling. While it is true that Dorothy should relax properly, but she is just getting started, what she is saying in the last panels
It’s for herself, but it’s clear that Walky feels it as something personal, I just hope things are cleared up.
He’s realizing that’s how she also sees him and their relationship.
Something that’s “For Fun” as her parents mentioned WAY back in like Book 2.
Where if she messes up like say, breaks up with him because she was stressed, she can jump right back into the same groove with him in less than a month when she has her head on and not worry about him taking it personally because, in her eyes, he doesn’t have much going on and it’s not permanent damage.
At least, that’s my take on how Walky’s internalizing this.
I’m honestly having a hard time putting myself in the headspace to read this as Walky taking her statement to be related to him in any fashion.
When I first read it, I took it to mean he was thinking about how his relationship with Lucy did matter more than he realized since he feels so bad about the mistakes he made regarding her.
Even after reading the other comments, I still can’t see Walky would ever think she was talking about him/their relationship, either consciously or unconsciously.
The woman said she was never happier than when she was with him, and she was practically having a breakdown for past week (though it’s hard to say how much of that was missing him vs going without sex for 1 to several months).
She said, when she threw her phone, that she was going to stop treating people like projects, which included him, and here she’s talking about stuff not mattering, which seems to not include people projects.
Clearly, the idea that it wouldn’t be surprising for Walky to read into her statement that she’s talking about him is prevalent enough to have multiple comments about it, but I’m struggling to view it that way.
Clearly Dorothy says it in a carefree way and without any kind of malicious intent (she is also starting to learn how to relax), but it is true that he interprets that statement differently, I just hope things become clearer.
I do not think she means it that way AT ALL. Even if the story supported that, it’s an awful thing to say out loud. I think Walky’s brain went there because of his insecurities.
I don’t think he thinks she is talking specifically about him, but I can see how he might interpret himself as another one of those “mistakes that don’t matter” considering how spur of the moment this all was. And, while I personally believe him and Lucy are broken up, meaning this wouldn’t be cheating, I think Walky is still working through his feelings too and this isn’t helping.
Yeah, if he was the sort of person who treated this interlude less seriously, he wouldn’t even be having these thoughts of…whatever it is he’s thinking.
And I just realized he had sex with Dorothy twice, the first time today kinda on a whim, and yet he and Lucy couldn’t make it happen.
That has potential for messiness aside from him getting back with Dorothy so quickly.
Yeah I strongly agree with this. I think some people in the comments section just have the least charitable view of every interaction and I hope they don’t carry that energy into their real lives. Sounds lonely tbh.
Yeah, I think people are really reaching to make Walky’s reaction one of personal offense/insecurity. I’m not even certain it’s as much to do with Lucy specifically. Throughout this reunion with Dorothy, he’s seemed uncertain; to me, his expression indicates that he thinks he made a mistake jumping back in with Dorothy rather than trying to make amends with Lucy. He may even be wondering if he’s taking the easy way out again, rather than bearing the discomfort of doing the right thing.
But what’s the right thing after a breakup?
You know, besides the obvious things like don’t stalk your ex, don’t attack them or their property, and don’t sleep with their friends or family?
Of course, if he doesn’t believe they’re broken up, then he was flat out wrong, but, being Walky, even if situation could have been stated with more clarity, he must believe they’re broken up as he’s not the kind to do this otherwise.
And he did try to talk to Lucy while Lucy barely said two sentences to him and walked away, so I don’t think there’s any “right thing” to do now (vs what he could have done prior to church service with Lucy).
She says “this doesn’t matter” and Walky looks away uncomfortably. In a comic strip that kind of thing isn’t a coincidence. He’s clearly reacting to what she said.
I know he’s reacting to it.
The idea that said reaction is “she somehow relates what she just said to me, either consciously or unconsciously” is what I have a problem with.
Maybe not a night stand but Dotty’s line implies that what they have doesn’t matter, it’s just meaningless stress relief while he might have hoped for a genuine relationship.
Here we go now! Dorothy was nouning the verb!
Joyce, you need to get on top of this fuckkng thing and noun your own verbs and not lean on Dorothy or Becky for any intrinsic suppor!
This pair of unwitting insults to boyfriends has me imagining Walky and Joe paired up in a storyline, which makes no sense, unless they both get kidnapped by a drug cartel that mistakes them for plainsclothes cops, thus beginning a series of madcap adventures that ends with them sipping beers on a cliff, talking about how they’ve got a new appreciation for the sunset.
IMO they both Suffer from image they send to the outside.
Hey girls lets play with Joe Horndog and Walky Dontcare they can take whatever we drop at them
Bit hard to read Walky’s expression in that last panel. I can’t tell if he’s upset because D&MM is IMPORTANT to him, or because he’s reading deeper into her comment and thinks she’s back with him because Dorothy views him as being fun/simply/of no consequence, which doesn’t mesh well with the recent revelation he’s had that practically everybody around him regards him as being an irreverent (and possibly unimportant?) goof. It might not have mattered to him when he was younger, but perhaps now he wants to be treated as “serious material”, not just a shallow fling.
that’s not how relaxing works dorothy
that is actually a deeply concerning thing to say and I kind of hope walky tells joyce or your therapist or somebody
I get you but also, somebody organizes and works on all those wikis we use to look up our nerd shit. Most huge wiki topics have a discussion page full of Dorothy types who are hyper into this stuff, spending as much time there figuring that stuff out as some of us do here trying to hammer out the intricacies of character emotional landscapes. Its just another place people point their care.
I think (I hope) that Walky might actually want to talk about serious feelings, which is a big step for him. I don’t think Dorothy wants this to be a brief fling, but Walky can see that she’s still kind of the same person, and maybe he fears that when Dorothy isn’t so low she’ll break up with him again to pursue some ambition. Walky doesn’t want his heart broken again.
I think he’d be totally justified in saying that he can’t keep this relationship casual, and that if they are to get back together it needs to be serious, and they need to have a serious talk about why it ended before.
I’m a little late to this, but why is Walky so angsty. Pretty sure Dorothy said it was up to him whether they get back together. This seems like it was a nice bit of release in tension for her. I don’t get why Walky feels guilty here. Also nice to see Dorothy has freckles all over. That’s cute.
Walky is anxious for multiple reasons, I think, and it’s not clear what they all are yet. Some possibilities: Perhaps he’s wondering if Dorothy is comfortable with him because he also doesn’t really matter. Also, Walky is now aware that mistakes can matter a lot, so maybe he’s reflecting on his mistakes with Lucy, wondering if he’s making a mistake right now, worrying that Dorothy is making a mistake right now that she’ll regret later, or that Dorothy is unconcerned about mistakes with him that will hurt him. They were not just casually dating before, they had both said, “I love you,” and Walky was genuinely heartbroken before.
Personally, if I was in Walky’s situation right now, I’d also be worried that my ex-girlfriend is a little all over the place. She says she wants to get back together, go back to how things were, and to stop organizing other people’s lives, but in-between sex her pillow talk has been organizing a wiki and talking about bringing another person into the bedroom (jokingly?). Personally, I’d be worried that she would just leave me and break my heart again once she gets her head back on straight or finds a new ambition to focus on.
I get that Dorothy’s emotional state might be a little unstable, but it is possible to read too much into nothing. Activism is how Dorothy relaxes, this is her hobby. Much like Ethan is obsessed with editing the Transformers wiki or Amber hyperfocusing on a near impossible Mario Bros speedrun.
I just feel like Walky’s worried over nothing because neither have committed to anything. He was even the one who offered sex. This is why he needs alone time. He falls into women too easily and sabotages himself with overthinking.
I mean, yes, that’s specifically why he’s interested in theme, because he doesn’t cope well with stuff that matters. He has freely admitted this on multiple occasions.
Look, I am … not exactly un-obsessive when it comes to my fandoms. And if someone said they were investing in L-Space Wiki or the TARDIS Data Core because if they screwed up it wouldn’t affect anything important, I’d think “Yeah, fair enough. In the grand scheme of things it doesn’t, but if you do manage to fix some issues, that’d be nice.”
I’d also be concerned that they were in a strange combination of spiralling because they’ve lost faith in their ability to fix things, and not actually capable of stopping trying to fix things, and I think that would take priority.
It’s comforting to see that Walky understood that there’s something wrong with this story. Or that there’s something wrong with him or with Dorothy about relationship.
My first thought? Walkie takes umbrage that she describes the Dexter and Monkey Master Wiki as not important. My second thought went the other way. Walkie’s credo of life is don’t get involved in important stuff. With that I read his expression as concerned that Dorothy is coming too far to the Chill-Side of the Force.
I know a lot of neurodivergent people who point their intensity at hobbies and I don’t think it’s bad to channel impulses that direction. I am seeing some people treating it as very negative but I think it’s healthy for her right now to have an outlet.
It feels like a few people think Walky is the ideal Dorothy should aim to be. If our world were all Walkys, nothing would get done. You need Dorothy types in this world – she’s the kind of person I’ve met who are Executive Directors at nonprofits that provideimportant social services. She just needs to figure some stuff out and get on track with her ambitions.
Correction: a window to display an ad pops up, but with the ad blockers running no ads populate it. and it’s tall enough to block the bottom line of the comment block, and the “Post” button. But it X’s out so the comment button can be clicked. Chrome browser on Win11, Stands blocker and also AdBlock blocker. I’m about my ad blockers like Dorothy is about her birth control, always have 2 going.
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*plays “Reconstruct” by Photay on hacked muzak*
Hoo boy a lot to read in there
Do you think it is that big of a wiki?
I kid, but yeah it looks like Walky might be applying that comment to their relationship or maybe feeling guilty about how it ended with Lucy. Also, maybe ominous foreshadowing? I hope not.
Also, is it just me or are they less clothed now.
I can say with certainty that they will not be less clothed at any future point.
Unless one of them still has their socks on.
Dorothy’s still wearing her glasses, and her watch.
I’m kind of wondering if WALKY isn’t sure whether or not Lucy actually broke up with him.
He wasn’t sure for awhile, but I believe that when they ran into each other at class or something the way she acted toward him confirmed it for him. If she later tries to reconcile or get mad at him for getting back with Dorothy and claim they never broke up due to the ambiguity of what she said, it’s pretty easy to point to their next interaction as fairly clear evidence of which side of the fence they were sitting on.
It doesnt matter.
if Dumbers are still pretaking Lucys side in a future nonfight , if shes wants to pretend she didnt toss walky to the curb,
they will still Freak out and attack walky at her Tears. its a lost cause.
I doubt a full divorce in court will satisfy some
He could have just used his words to ask if they’re broken up, if he thought she broke up with him, but the words “we’re breaking up” were never spoken.
If you argue that Lucy acted badly and unfairly towards him, that may very well be correct, but it’s still not “breaking up”. Having a fight isn’t breaking up, and even having a fight while being on the wrong isn’t breaking up either.
So, yeah if Lucy doesn’t think they broke up, she’s on the right. Same way that Walky would have been on the right if he didn’t realize they’d “broken up” but Lucy started sleeping around without first notifying him of that state in status.
So you’re saying there’s a chance…?
Sorry, this still doesn’t move me on this issue. It’s not, “They had a fight.” It’s specifically about how she conducted that fight, and then even more about how she acted after the fight. The cold shoulder treatment she gave him was indicative of being done with his shit. (And note, I actually am not saying she was wrong, there; it really was a huge test of their relationship, and Walky failed that worse than he did his first Calc test.)
I see no reason for Walky not to believe that they are done, nor for him to go back to her seeking clarification on this point. My personal hope is that Lucy is totally fine with this, and that, once she takes a little time for herself, she goes after Jacob like a politician chasing the last swing voter in their constituency.
If we want drama and dumbingness, we could always have Sarah take that as a personal challenge and ALSO try for Jacob.
I don’t know if you were addressing this to me, but no, I’m not pretaking Lucy’s side in a hypothetical fight. I’m just trying to anticipate the next massive problem that we’re going to run into, however irrational the characters in question might be.
You made all of that up.
You know, I’ve only noticed you in the comment section of a few pages now, but you’ve consistently been an incredibly rude person. If you disagree with me, then say that, but accusing me of making up an interaction that visibly happened on-panel in the comic we’re all reading is just absurd. No, I didn’t make up the way Lucy was treating Walky, and no, I’m not making up the way I interpreted both her treatment of him, nor the conclusions he seemed to have drawn from it. If Walky wasn’t certain she’d broken up with him, he wouldn’t have agreed to get back together with Dorothy, nor would he have slept with her. There WAS a point where he was uncertain, because he said as much on-panel, but it’s pretty clear he doesn’t think that now. If you have an alternative interpretation of these events, then by all means, share it, argue about it, but if all you have are baseless accusations that I made up events we all read in the comic, kindly set them on fire and shove them up your urethra.
As both a fan of Lucy x Walky AND someone who was broken up with by being pointedly treated as an ordinary friend after making some relationship mistakes and having a fight, this is where I’ve landed, too.
They’re broken up.
Walky might not REALIZE they’re fully broken up, but if he makes noises at Lucy about their relationship I expect she’ll explain to him in no uncertain terms exactly how things are (and possibly reiterate why).
Also, if you happen to read this, Jess, I’m still sorry I was a dumbass about the whole thing but in my defense we were high school juniors. =P
Maybe they are “On A Break”.
NO!
We are free of that now!
We are free of that now…
Yeah, the quickie urge is temporarily resolved, so they had time to nudify themselves for round 2 (maybe round 3?).
If only he had talked Lucy into joining him as NightGirl, they could still be fighting crime together.
If I make a mistake nothing happens. Just like with you.
That’s how I read Walky’s unhappy expression as well. “Am I such a mistake”?
God I have wanted these two back together for SO long and I KNEW it would be bad when they got back together so easily. This is JUICY and i’m LOVING it. Of COURSE Walky views Dorothy as “the most real thing i’ve had” and Dorothy views him as “fun goofy relaxingtime”. Of COURSE!!
Yeah, IMO they’re really good for each other, she’s a grounding influence on Walky, giving him a reason to care about his future and providing perspective he tends to either lack or ignore, meanwhile he evens her neurotic tendencies out and helps her to chill out and unwind. She encourages him to be more serious, and he gives her permission to be unserious, which brings them both to a more healthy place.
The primary issue is a difference in expectations, I’m hoping that this recent crisis will encourage Dorothy to re-evaluate the value of fun and whimsy in her life plan so she can view Walky as a serious partner and not a brief diversion like she did before, but I feel like that realization isn’t going to come without Walky panicing and them having a fight first
I also hope this becomes clear soon. Because it’s true, this ship is the one that feels genuine support from both
Is phone scrolling what people do after sex these days?
Sometimes.
But frankly I would never put it near by chest as Dorothy is doing. Once it vibrates there it’s like aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah *-*
That’s just how she holds it when she’s laying on her back. And when DYW is using it as a censor bar.
Post-coital phubbing
Sometimes. Smoking is less popular than it once was, especially smoking inside.
It’s this, eating, or TV/video games, for a lot of people. Decompression after funsies.
A post-smash Smash, if you will.
Honestly, yeah, sometimes. (After the requisite cuddles, of course.) My partner and I will just start showing each other goofy memes or pet pictures we’ve taken since last time we met up
I like a nap. But I’ve got a toddler and am always tired so I fancy a nap most of the time.
*feelings were hurt*
IE the way she feels about this relationship
I don’t think that’s true, given how much she regretted ending it last time, but it’s definitely what Walky’s thinking she thinks
Here’s the thing though. When she ended it (a mistake (or not, but let’s say)), she hooked up with him again anyway (didn’t matter). Even when she made him less available by getting him together with Lucy (a “mistake”), here she is back together with him not long after deciding she regretted it (didn’t matter)
Right. The problem is that she can’t actually divy up her neurotic and carefree tendencies and her desire to do so means she’s still running the exact same social interaction system. Walky counterbalancing them still just underlines that he’s “for fun” and not really a part of her life because she doesn’t know how to integrate those things together. He’s wondering if this is what’s best for both of them and if we’re just repeating history and he’s going to end up dumped again, I think.
Ahhh, there’s the rub.
I see why Walky’s taking it this way, that he’s gone back to being her toy she comes back to and pushes away when convenient, but I wonder if that’s why she’s here with him right now, or if it’s because of the genuine succor he seems to provide her.
In any case, I get where he’d feel taken for granted on that front.
I think it might actually be the other way around? Walky is feeling guilty about how he handled things with Lucy, because he treated that like a lower stakes rebound and it ended up hurting her.
Well, Lucy is not without mistakes, she was too immersed in her fantasy that she was already imagining a very concrete future with Walky.
I don’t really know that that’s fully true. Like, I always got the feeling he liked her, but she was much quicker and more intense with her feelings, probably a lot of it being new, and even when he committed, he wasn’t going to match that energy.
If anything, I’d consider Amber much closer to the rebound, to the point where they never really outright dated. A number of things prevented it from getting to that point, between his inability to get past the Sal past, or Amber’s anger at how he handled the Mike stuff.
amber was definitely the rebound, walky said “she’s thicc dorothy”
Meanwhile, Lucy still hasn’t gotten laid and is like SEETHING…
that’s her own damn fault she coulda just been like “walky stick it to me” at basically any time but sat on her own (oddly belabored) morality instead.
Oh hey, I wasn’t assigning blame. Just kickin back with a hot cuppa schadenfreude. 🤭
Maybe. She definitely hinted at it a lot and Walky deliberately avoided picking up her cues.
Probably a good thing she wasn’t more direct.
Walky absolutely did not treat Lucy like mistakes wouldn’t matter. In fact he spent so much energy on trying not to screw things up with her that he repeatedly wound up retreating to either the snow hill or to Amber’s Nintendo because of the stress.
Arguably, he spent so much energy trying not to screw things up that he screwed things up.
Which is really a pretty easy mistake to make.
Yeah, if he had been more laidback and transparent, they’d likely still be dating. Such is life.
I don’t think Dorothy MEANT “performing a sexy with Walky” but I can see how he might be in a “reading too much into things” place atm
I never really regarded Walky as easily given to thinking, though, much less overthinking.
He always thought he wasn’t good enough for her, and she did originally frame their relationship as “just for fun”. It’s not so much of a stretch.
Walky’s thinkier than he generally lets on. A lot of the goofball shtick is a cover for deep-seated insecurities.
Kinda hoping Dorothy realized what she implied 2 seconds later and apologizes.
I imagine Walky is gaming, or watching youtube. I don’t know why Dorothy has her phone horizontal if she’s writing something?
That seems like a Walky thing to do. Maybe she is working with an PowerPoint presentation or using excel to create an organizational chart or table? Is horizontal orientation good for that? I only ever use my computer for that sort of thing.
Guessing her phone is horizontal because otherwise this strip might have to go on the Slipshine instead
They couldn’t find any L-shaped sheets on short notice so this is the next best thing
Now a healthy relationship would address these feelings and not immediately take offense to them or dismiss them
I liked this strip, so hot. But I just don’t know why it makes me so annoyed…
I mean: why this strip makes me so annoyed?
Yes, but who are you annoyed at?
Even outside of Walky taking that as how she views a relationship with him, the casual dismissal of something that actually matters a lot to him still hurts on its own.
I doubt he’s all that invested in the wiki. He’s not Ethan.
Yeah, along with the fact that he knows Dorothy cares as much about the fandom as he does, so that’s probably not the energy he’d have about it.
It’s not like with Ultra Car, where he got pouty about Dorothy giving it credit after he was dismissive of it, and even then, he probably wasn’t being especially serious.
I think a lot of these “why walky is insulted/upset” comments are serious stretches of imagination.
Personally I think he’s just worried about her? Like she said something deeply sad just then and idk why everyone’s jumping to Walky taking offense somehow.
Oh, my word, I was all set to say this as a joke, with the subtext being “Haha, Daibhid is reading the strip weird again!”
“hey remember that one user who tried to overhaul the entire wiki into a more efficient organizational schema?”
“yeah didn’t she get elected president of the united states or something”
Love it
Okay, but she’s onto something with that wiki restructuring idea. Most wikis I visit (even the non-Fandom ones) fucking suck to use and navigate.
I’m not sure what’s more dismissive—that the relationship doesn’t matter or that it’s a mistake.
Lucky she didn’t say either of those things.
Is this the most skin we’ve seen in a strip? “The pause was a lie” covered Walky’s grundle with nothing but a text bubble, but (heheh, butt) he was also wearing a jacket.
Hm. Dunno if it’s an “also” if that’s all he’s wearing.
He’d better be wearing a condom, at least.
In terms of “skirting the line where there’s almost something on-screen”, this one comes close:
https://www.dumbingofage.com/downtime/
Without the jacket, it would be the undisputed winner by that metric.
Runners-up include Joe and Joyce hiding behind the blanket from Sal, and Peter in Mary’s hell house.
With the both of them jumping to the floor after fucking, I feel awful for the room below them.
Condom was mentioned before the sexytimes resumed. And it seems like they’ve been done for a minute, so wouldn’t be surprising if it had been disposed of.
Oh no, sexy Dorothy is making me feel things.
Yes, many here already have a bad feeling. While it is true that Dorothy should relax properly, but she is just getting started, what she is saying in the last panels
It’s for herself, but it’s clear that Walky feels it as something personal, I just hope things are cleared up.
That’s a bit… demeaning.
It’s also what Walky’s been building himself as all through his teenage years.
How is it demeaning?
I know Walky and Wiki sound kind of similar, but she’s literally not talking about him. She’s talking about a wiki for a fandom she also belongs to.
He’s realizing that’s how she also sees him and their relationship.
Something that’s “For Fun” as her parents mentioned WAY back in like Book 2.
Where if she messes up like say, breaks up with him because she was stressed, she can jump right back into the same groove with him in less than a month when she has her head on and not worry about him taking it personally because, in her eyes, he doesn’t have much going on and it’s not permanent damage.
At least, that’s my take on how Walky’s internalizing this.
I’m honestly having a hard time putting myself in the headspace to read this as Walky taking her statement to be related to him in any fashion.
When I first read it, I took it to mean he was thinking about how his relationship with Lucy did matter more than he realized since he feels so bad about the mistakes he made regarding her.
Even after reading the other comments, I still can’t see Walky would ever think she was talking about him/their relationship, either consciously or unconsciously.
The woman said she was never happier than when she was with him, and she was practically having a breakdown for past week (though it’s hard to say how much of that was missing him vs going without sex for 1 to several months).
She said, when she threw her phone, that she was going to stop treating people like projects, which included him, and here she’s talking about stuff not mattering, which seems to not include people projects.
Clearly, the idea that it wouldn’t be surprising for Walky to read into her statement that she’s talking about him is prevalent enough to have multiple comments about it, but I’m struggling to view it that way.
Clearly Dorothy says it in a carefree way and without any kind of malicious intent (she is also starting to learn how to relax), but it is true that he interprets that statement differently, I just hope things become clearer.
Just honestly sharing their feelings and insecurities would help every character in this comic so much, but that’s not going to happen.
I do not think she means it that way AT ALL. Even if the story supported that, it’s an awful thing to say out loud. I think Walky’s brain went there because of his insecurities.
I don’t think he thinks she is talking specifically about him, but I can see how he might interpret himself as another one of those “mistakes that don’t matter” considering how spur of the moment this all was. And, while I personally believe him and Lucy are broken up, meaning this wouldn’t be cheating, I think Walky is still working through his feelings too and this isn’t helping.
Yeah, if he was the sort of person who treated this interlude less seriously, he wouldn’t even be having these thoughts of…whatever it is he’s thinking.
And I just realized he had sex with Dorothy twice, the first time today kinda on a whim, and yet he and Lucy couldn’t make it happen.
That has potential for messiness aside from him getting back with Dorothy so quickly.
Yeah I strongly agree with this. I think some people in the comments section just have the least charitable view of every interaction and I hope they don’t carry that energy into their real lives. Sounds lonely tbh.
Yeah, I think people are really reaching to make Walky’s reaction one of personal offense/insecurity. I’m not even certain it’s as much to do with Lucy specifically. Throughout this reunion with Dorothy, he’s seemed uncertain; to me, his expression indicates that he thinks he made a mistake jumping back in with Dorothy rather than trying to make amends with Lucy. He may even be wondering if he’s taking the easy way out again, rather than bearing the discomfort of doing the right thing.
But what’s the right thing after a breakup?
You know, besides the obvious things like don’t stalk your ex, don’t attack them or their property, and don’t sleep with their friends or family?
Of course, if he doesn’t believe they’re broken up, then he was flat out wrong, but, being Walky, even if situation could have been stated with more clarity, he must believe they’re broken up as he’s not the kind to do this otherwise.
And he did try to talk to Lucy while Lucy barely said two sentences to him and walked away, so I don’t think there’s any “right thing” to do now (vs what he could have done prior to church service with Lucy).
I don’t personally think there’s a “right” thing, either, but I suspect Walky might not be so certain.
She says “this doesn’t matter” and Walky looks away uncomfortably. In a comic strip that kind of thing isn’t a coincidence. He’s clearly reacting to what she said.
I know he’s reacting to it.
The idea that said reaction is “she somehow relates what she just said to me, either consciously or unconsciously” is what I have a problem with.
One step forward, two steps sideways and diagonal.
I think you’re confusing your chess pieces.
Or perhaps it’s a new chess piece. We shouldn’t judge.
The crusader; a knight-bishop. Created when a knight gets to the ‘other end’ whilst alongside either king, and a queen is on point. Simple, really.
Few words could’ve broken his heart more
Alt text: Bold of you to assume she isn’t already an admin
translation… “you don’t matter” ~<3
someone realized that he was only a disposable night stand
I’m not sure where you get that, but okie.
Maybe not a night stand but Dotty’s line implies that what they have doesn’t matter, it’s just meaningless stress relief while he might have hoped for a genuine relationship.
It really doesn’t imply that at all? She’s talking about a wiki page she’s editing. It’s such a reach to say it’s about walky.
Like she literally said she wanted to be back together with him, it’s clearly not a throw away thing for her.
I thought that’s what he was offering.
Me too.
But perhaps he thinks that was a mistake.
Here we go now! Dorothy was nouning the verb!
Joyce, you need to get on top of this fuckkng thing and noun your own verbs and not lean on Dorothy or Becky for any intrinsic suppor!
Wanting Joyce to top is Dotty’s biggest secret fantasy.
This pair of unwitting insults to boyfriends has me imagining Walky and Joe paired up in a storyline, which makes no sense, unless they both get kidnapped by a drug cartel that mistakes them for plainsclothes cops, thus beginning a series of madcap adventures that ends with them sipping beers on a cliff, talking about how they’ve got a new appreciation for the sunset.
That sounds oddly specific,
[sound of willis having to scrap 4 months worth of strips]
IMO they both Suffer from image they send to the outside.
Hey girls lets play with Joe Horndog and Walky Dontcare they can take whatever we drop at them
To quote the Joker… “Exceptionally poor choice of words.”
Now who’s sabotaging the relationship?
Dorothy, please not the ambiguity in the antecedent of “this”.
It’s the interlocking arms that concern me, and not… anything else.
Ever heard of the butterfly effect, Dotty?
You step on a butterfly and you change the future of a hurricane?
Stick to sex… if you do something wrong, you can always do it over, with variations!
Oh hey, I just realized this means that Dorothy didn’t break or lose her phone when she threw it into the audience.
Ya I caught it and threw it back at her off panel.
Thread won.
Bit hard to read Walky’s expression in that last panel. I can’t tell if he’s upset because D&MM is IMPORTANT to him, or because he’s reading deeper into her comment and thinks she’s back with him because Dorothy views him as being fun/simply/of no consequence, which doesn’t mesh well with the recent revelation he’s had that practically everybody around him regards him as being an irreverent (and possibly unimportant?) goof. It might not have mattered to him when he was younger, but perhaps now he wants to be treated as “serious material”, not just a shallow fling.
Are dorm rooms THAT warm?
They’ve been exercising.
“Oh no. It’s me. I’m the wiki.”
“But already edited the wiki”
that’s not how relaxing works dorothy
that is actually a deeply concerning thing to say and I kind of hope walky tells joyce or your therapist or somebody
it’s getting very real for me here
From being crushed to death by responsibility to No responsibility at all
more that she’s creating responsibilities where there were none
I don’t know if she can do anything without making it into a Thing
I get you but also, somebody organizes and works on all those wikis we use to look up our nerd shit. Most huge wiki topics have a discussion page full of Dorothy types who are hyper into this stuff, spending as much time there figuring that stuff out as some of us do here trying to hammer out the intricacies of character emotional landscapes. Its just another place people point their care.
I think (I hope) that Walky might actually want to talk about serious feelings, which is a big step for him. I don’t think Dorothy wants this to be a brief fling, but Walky can see that she’s still kind of the same person, and maybe he fears that when Dorothy isn’t so low she’ll break up with him again to pursue some ambition. Walky doesn’t want his heart broken again.
I think he’d be totally justified in saying that he can’t keep this relationship casual, and that if they are to get back together it needs to be serious, and they need to have a serious talk about why it ended before.
Today, at Dia dos Namorados, I’m graced with a naked couple here in DoA.
For my non-brazilian friends, please, wait until February.
aren’t y’all cold
I’m a little late to this, but why is Walky so angsty. Pretty sure Dorothy said it was up to him whether they get back together. This seems like it was a nice bit of release in tension for her. I don’t get why Walky feels guilty here. Also nice to see Dorothy has freckles all over. That’s cute.
As far as pillowtalk goes, I don’t necessairly want to hear that mindset from my returning ex
Walky is anxious for multiple reasons, I think, and it’s not clear what they all are yet. Some possibilities: Perhaps he’s wondering if Dorothy is comfortable with him because he also doesn’t really matter. Also, Walky is now aware that mistakes can matter a lot, so maybe he’s reflecting on his mistakes with Lucy, wondering if he’s making a mistake right now, worrying that Dorothy is making a mistake right now that she’ll regret later, or that Dorothy is unconcerned about mistakes with him that will hurt him. They were not just casually dating before, they had both said, “I love you,” and Walky was genuinely heartbroken before.
Personally, if I was in Walky’s situation right now, I’d also be worried that my ex-girlfriend is a little all over the place. She says she wants to get back together, go back to how things were, and to stop organizing other people’s lives, but in-between sex her pillow talk has been organizing a wiki and talking about bringing another person into the bedroom (jokingly?). Personally, I’d be worried that she would just leave me and break my heart again once she gets her head back on straight or finds a new ambition to focus on.
I get that Dorothy’s emotional state might be a little unstable, but it is possible to read too much into nothing. Activism is how Dorothy relaxes, this is her hobby. Much like Ethan is obsessed with editing the Transformers wiki or Amber hyperfocusing on a near impossible Mario Bros speedrun.
I just feel like Walky’s worried over nothing because neither have committed to anything. He was even the one who offered sex. This is why he needs alone time. He falls into women too easily and sabotages himself with overthinking.
It’s freckles all the way down.
“So you’re saying, my special interests and obsessions are trivial?”
I mean, yes, that’s specifically why he’s interested in theme, because he doesn’t cope well with stuff that matters. He has freely admitted this on multiple occasions.
Look, I am … not exactly un-obsessive when it comes to my fandoms. And if someone said they were investing in L-Space Wiki or the TARDIS Data Core because if they screwed up it wouldn’t affect anything important, I’d think “Yeah, fair enough. In the grand scheme of things it doesn’t, but if you do manage to fix some issues, that’d be nice.”
I’d also be concerned that they were in a strange combination of spiralling because they’ve lost faith in their ability to fix things, and not actually capable of stopping trying to fix things, and I think that would take priority.
wow I haven’t been keeping up with doa for a while and I think I mustve missed a chapter or two… what are they doing together?? scandalous
If you really want scandalous, look back at yesterday’s strip.
So, nobody seems to be asking the important question here.
Is the wiki actually called Dexter & Monkey Master Wiki, or does it have a fun name like Dexterpedia or The Sensitive Scanner Files?
Ah, so Dorothy’s changed her major to following the esteemed Dr. Carl’s philosophy.
It’s comforting to see that Walky understood that there’s something wrong with this story. Or that there’s something wrong with him or with Dorothy about relationship.
My first thought? Walkie takes umbrage that she describes the Dexter and Monkey Master Wiki as not important. My second thought went the other way. Walkie’s credo of life is don’t get involved in important stuff. With that I read his expression as concerned that Dorothy is coming too far to the Chill-Side of the Force.
Walky can see she hasn’t actually worked on her “solve everything for everyone” complex, she’s just pointing it at problems with no stakes.
I know a lot of neurodivergent people who point their intensity at hobbies and I don’t think it’s bad to channel impulses that direction. I am seeing some people treating it as very negative but I think it’s healthy for her right now to have an outlet.
It feels like a few people think Walky is the ideal Dorothy should aim to be. If our world were all Walkys, nothing would get done. You need Dorothy types in this world – she’s the kind of person I’ve met who are Executive Directors at nonprofits that provideimportant social services. She just needs to figure some stuff out and get on track with her ambitions.
This is goals, honestly
Yeah.
And that is when Walky had what alcoholics refer to as “a moment of clarity”.
Someone might want to tell DYW that even with an ad blocker running there’s a random ad coming up that blocks the bottom of the page.
Correction: a window to display an ad pops up, but with the ad blockers running no ads populate it. and it’s tall enough to block the bottom line of the comment block, and the “Post” button. But it X’s out so the comment button can be clicked. Chrome browser on Win11, Stands blocker and also AdBlock blocker. I’m about my ad blockers like Dorothy is about her birth control, always have 2 going.
Walky’s realizing that being garbage is fine on the roof, but not so fun in a relationship.
…Just in case anyone is still here and wants some inspiration to help them focus, this is what’s been driving my brain today:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAEVdM-mF1hR6Th1LR8Oqj2IuKSwxWTTT
Best with an ad-blocker.
I’m switching to the Lofi playlist soon, tho.
Dang Willis, you really been pushing the envelope on what you draw outside of slipshine
don’t get me wrong, I’m totally hear for it but didn’t realize I’d be wiping sweat from my brow here
*draw outside of slipshine lately
can’t believe I forgot a single word and it was the one I considered the most important
Oh dear.