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Well the problem is, he would never go for Raidah. He flat out said it himself, he has no time for games and people who don’t play it straight. She probably concluded very quickly that she had no chance with him, and just didn’t devote any work to trying to make that connect. Raidah is the epitome of the sort of person Tony seems like he’s trying to avoid.
Yes, anywhere from 10 to 20 or so. Academic department deans (ie, the ivory tower admins), and executive or other business deans (ie, the executive suite officers). Raidah has a long list to go through.
Ew that “king” is the opposite of “maiden” here. Rather than let that stand (and perpetuate a world where men rule and women are defined by whether or not they’ve slept with someone) I’ll offer the word “bachelorless” as an option.
Well, if we’re using the “female virgin” definition of “maiden”… maybe “incelless”? Not sure why that’d be a bad thing, but Paul might still be around… She could try checking the local hospital; considering what we’ve seen of him recently, he’ll probably end up there sooner or later (not everyone’s as merciful as Tony, after all).
Virgulo is a male virgin, so virguloless? Bachelorless implies a relationship status, but maiden does not. Maidens just are ‘pure (in variable ways depending on the society)’ women. King is absolutely out, that’s a job title.
Yeah, he’s a very self-aware blunt instrument and Raidah’s usual technique of directing the conversation to make her rhetorical points draw blood probably won’t work as well here
Tony struck me as pretty sharp, actually.
Calling someone a blunt instrument is usually in regards to them being simple or stupid, but while he seem very straightforward to me, he seems neither simple nor stupid.
Unless we use the phrase differently from each other.
A blunt instrument is something that hits with crushing force. In rhetoric, it frequently involves blunt truth, suggesting someone who doesn’t let politesse hold him back.
Yeah I think you’re conflating blunt instrument with “not the sharpest tool.” When in this context it just means something straightforward that gets the job done with simple efficiency.
Since y’all had me doubting myself, I looked it up.
The dictionary on my iPad states that a blunt instrument (when not referring to a literal blunt instrument) is “an imprecise or heavy handed way of doing things.”
And going the extra mile, the same dictionary defines heavy handed as “clumsy, insensitive, or overly forceful”.
So no, I don’t think the phrase applies to him (the word blunt by itself does actually fit him as being straightforward is one of the definitions, but the meaning changes when it’s combined with instrument).
But if anyone has some other definition for the phrase, feel free to share it or tell me where to find it.
“Overly forceful” is the operative word in your dictionary checking – someone who “doesn’t let politeesse hold him back.” I don’t have an exact technical definition because this is one of those phrases whose meaning you usually pick up from context, but generally if I were to define someone as a blunt instrument I mean “Someone who will get the point across or the job done no matter whose feelings get hurt or what gets in the way.” It’s someone I would only sic on someone else if I didn’t care whether or not they got hurt, or a problem that I want solved but don’t care about any side effects or consequences, because they are very likely to leave a bit of a mess in the aftermath.
That SOMETIMES has connotations of being a bit simple because simple people do like straightforward solutions without thinking about the consequences. But it could also describe someone who HAS thought through the consequences but just doesn’t care if they’re in his way. Tony strikes me as the latter. If he doesn’t want to talk to or date Raidah because he doesn’t like her, he is not going to bother sparing her feelings on the matter if she tries to push it.
That’s the thing.
I don’t consider him OVERLY forceful, as in TOO MUCH force for the situation.
Tony feels like he used just the right amount to convey himself.
Well, to back you up, he IS a successful football player, definitely top tier college level, and probably will attract professional attention. This means quick thinking and both followership and leadership skills.
You’re getting caught up on semantics for a phrase that is inherently vibes-based I think – we can agree, I suspect, that Tony is absolutely using MORE force than the average person might do because the average person is socialized out of using quite that much force in most situations even if it is appropriate. That Tony IS forceful in affect compared to others is not I think in contention. Is it an appropriate level of force? Maybe, but it’s still forceful in a marked and noticeable way. That’s what people are getting at when they refer to him as a blunt instrument, as well as the damage he’s likely to cause if he decides to have words with Raidah.
I frankly wouldn’t lean too much on a dictionary definition for a phrase like that – like I said, this is one of those phrases that you pick up through vibes and context. Most people are unlikely to have a very clear idea what exactly the phrase means, only the web of vibes around it, and any dictionary is only going to very loosely encompass what that web is like in general usage. Attempting to pin down an exact meaning would be like to delineate an exact border in the middle of the Sahara desert before GPS – you can try, but the nomads actually wandering around the desert aren’t going to care. If you want to check your own sanity it’s probably better to ask a bunch of friends how they’d define a blunt instrument and whether they think it’s a positive or negative or neutral thing when applied to a person. But I think it is notable that so far, nobody else in this comment thread has stepped in to say “I agree, blunt instrument isn’t a good way describe Tony because it implies he’s stupid.”
I do have a very clear idea, yet I have people telling me I’m wrong, which is why I went to the dictionary.
As for multiple people thinking something is one way instead of another, that’s really no way to decide the meaning of something; definitions are not opinions.
The only valid difference of opinion regarding an already established definition is if a definition applies.
I did ask someone on how they take the word blunt and the phrase blunt instrument in regards to people, and I even showed them these comments; they agreed with me, so are you and everyone else suddenly wrong because they did that?
Of course not, just like I’m not suddenly wrong because I disagree with y’all.
But we do have a definition right here, so…
Millions of people have thought and still do think some very messed up things.
This is nowhere close to those types of subjects, but crowd sourcing definitions for something that already has one is still not something I plan to do.
Hoo, I invite you to look up descriptivism – suffice it to say, language is essentially a mostly shared opinion that’s changing all the time in actual use – that’s how language evolves, and how slang drops in and out of use. If enough people decide that “gay” means “homosexual” and not just “happy,” for instance, then that’s what it comes to mean in practical use no matter how much older dictionaries might insist that the only thing it means is “happy.”
I don’t say this solely because it supports the point that we’re trying to make, but dictionaries are the lowest common denominator for accepted usage of certain words or phrases. But it is the dictionary that ultimately bends to how people use the word and not the other way around. You’ve given a very bare Bones strict definition of blunt instrument, but it is far more frequently used as the above person did
The issue is with the stock phrase “blunt instrument”: something which works by raw power, lacking finesse. It’s that last bit, I think, that is bothering some.
Again, blunt and blunt instrument do not have the same connotation.
You’re using the concept in regards to a literal blunt instrument, but he’s a person and not an object, so the meaning that applies is the one NOT for objects.
It’s the difference between talking about an object having a third wheel, like a wagon or a tricycle, or about someone being a 3rd wheel, like being the odd one out while hanging with a couple.
That’s an exaggerated example, but the point is that the phrase when applied to a person is different when applied to an object, and the dictionary bears that out.
(For those who don’t know, he’s a Discworld character who was once described by the phrase “People thought Carrot was simple. And he was. Where they went wrong was in thinking simple meant stupid.” At another time his girlfriend thought “You had to be very complicated to be as simple as Carrot”. It’s also said — on the subject of blunt instruments — that talking to him gives duplicitious people the sensation that they’ve just walked straight into an iron bar.)
cbwroses. You’re right and the hair splitting on the various meanings is ignoring that when such a phrase is used metaphorically, typically all of the meanings are part of the nuance. Moreover, one does not use blunt instruments to do fine work. Tony is both sharp, and has the power to drive a point home. He’s more like a fine chisel.
A reminder that Raidah had her happy relationship with Jacob broken up by Sarah sending Joyce in as an agent provocateur. As shitty as Raidah is to Sarah, that was an escalation above and beyond being catty.
Didn’t Sarah ultimately decide to not do that because she felt like she was using Joyce and that made her feel guilty only for Joyce to end up making out with Jacob anyway?
Also accidently reported your commeny when i meant to reply. Sorry.
Wouldn’t be nearly as troublesome if those were buttons (as they should be) rather than “links”. Maybe they could at least add a “sorry I reported you because this UI is so hard to use” thingy at the end of the line.
[Opinionated: a button does something on this page. A link takes me to another page.]
Reason to hate Sarah more than Jacob? I think if we’re assigning blame for that then Jacob owns most of it. He chose to lie to his brother and get swept up in the feels of another girl while committed to Raidah and then dump her. He really doesn’t deserve a pass for that. Sarah had bad intentions but that’s all they were. Joyce wasn’t a weapon she used against Raidah. They’re all just people who made choices and have their own agency.
That wasn’t a happy relationship, though, and this is more about Raidah viewing people as stepping stones towards some ambiguous goal rather than hating Sarah.
Yeah, Sarah certainly didn’t start that conflict, unless we’re going to join Raidah in blaming her for the Dana situation.
And we should also remember that Sarah called off the attempt well before they broke up, though Joyce went ahead with hitting on Jacob anyway.
Raidah has been hating Sarah way before that and doesn’t know she was involved. (Plus Joyce and Jacob meet and got along before she Sarah knew about it, so it was very much going to happen wherever she interview or not)
Sarah’s been on Raidah’s narcissism-coded shit-list ever since Sarah found outside help for their mutual friend whose drug use became a threat to herself and others.
Jacob screwed up, but unlike everyone else in that scenario, he was reacting, not deliberately plotting. Even Raidah, who didn’t start any of it, tried to scheme and manipulate to win.
Tony deserves to find someone who he can share happiness with. Interesting to wonder how much dating he’s done. As a good looking guy he’s a football star but seems not caught up in that.
Plus hitting, and apologizing for, his asswipe ex-teammate, ex-friend? Neat.
don’t count on it, we are looking at a strip where radiahs going scorched earth over the sight of a couple who objectivity has nothing to do with her except in her mind “she’s stealing being the social climber! and how dare she smile!”
And because Walky’s hair makes him hot now, apparently.
Can’t forget that.
But I think her outrage is more that Sarah looks happy with a guy who’s big and muscular, just like they both like.
Tho it could be a little of column A and a little of column B.
honestly I just interpret it as, Raidah will be mad forever to see Sarah have literally anything. she is truly a grade A hater. you know she’s the kind of petty to turn any slight into a life-long blood feud.
This is absolutely the take I share. Raidah wouldn’t have cared WHO it was making Sarah happy, it’s that Sarah is never allowed to be happy or Raidah must crush it.
This relationship breaks Raidah on all three levels.
First, it’s SARAH. in a RELATIONSHIP. Sarah doesn’t DO relationships – she’s a miserable, antisocial loner, and Raidah LIKES her that way.
Second, it’s a potentially POLITICAL relationship. This is Raidah’s domain – she’s spent years building up an influential group of friends. She’s been collecting a power base of rooks and knights, and Sarah just nabbed the KING. (The great part is neither Sarah nor Tony view their relationship that way, but Raidah DOES.)
And thirdly – well, just look at them. Sarah’s sardonic half-smile. Tony’s intense stare. Their body language. They’re HAPPY. SARAH IS HAPPY. And that is the one thing Raidah cannot tolerate.
What’s interesting is that Jennifer has clearly completely ignored Raidah’s order to fix her relationship with Asher. Which is an interesting bit of character development as it’s clear she didn’t consider it a serious request or worth clout-chasing to follow.
I think whatever else Jennifer has going that made her vulnurable to joining Raidah’s group (which is a lot), ‘person who takes orders’ is absolutely not one of them.
Yeah, especially since Jennifer is currently Billie-moding; she’s in “problem solver” mode, and she sees Asher as a problem that will simply fix itself, because she already concluded exactly what would happen to make Asher come crawling back in due time.
She was, of course, completely wrong about it; but, she hasn’t mentally noticed that yet, because her attention is focused on other things.
Jennifer ultimately sees herself as extremely socially successful, and always at the absolute pinnacle of whatever social hierarchy she’s currently existing in, regardless of who is in it. She isn’t seeing Raidah’s requests as orders, because she doesn’t think of Raidah as somebody who can give her orders, because she immediately deluded herself into believing she was dead-equal with Raidah, in Raidah’s own social hierarchy, the moment she was introduced to her and received one positive impression.
When Raidah actually tries to “put Jennifer in her place” over this, I don’t know which of the two of them is going to crash out harder. Raidah can’t accept any relationship where a peer sees her as their equal, and Jennifer can’t accept a world where anybody doesn’t see her as their equal.
I’ve always been on Team “cut Asher some slack/trust he at least wants to redeem himself,” but on the other hand? The narrative beats are so heavy to me, I fully expect him to someday reveal that he’s literally the guy who killed Mike. I don’t want to believe it’s true, but also, it’s the most dramatic thing that could happen, and I can’t think of a better reason to specifically make him a bisexual disaster who falls head over heels with Ethan. It’s extremely cable teen drama.
Jennifer might FINALLY do real reporting and expose Ashers pulling the alarm.
Which is so damn socially chaotic, it’s seems like it has narrative pull. She doesn’t get Asher back but gets a story, plays Alpha bongo and turns everyone lives upside down.
Asher has nothing to do with Mike’s death. He got injured before Asher even pulled the alarm. I don’t trust Asher sure but only for the things he’s actually done.
There’s a theory floating around that along with killing Blaine in the hospital, the mob finished off Mike as well. I assume that’s what being referred to here.
I am one who floats that theory. My most Asher-friendly version of that theory has him being indirectly responsible for the cops killing Mike. He gets the cops to kill Blaine, telling them it’s to keep him from testifying to the feds, and the cops decide to kill a loose end. https://www.dumbingofage.com/coincidence-2/ implies Asher is more involved in the loose-end-removal department. Or Willis is misdirecting us. Or it’s fake misdirection, Wallace Shawn style.
It never crossed my mind my mind that Walky would entertain or appreciate the notion, nor emphasize with her.
But she found Walky physically attractive, she sees Lucy with Jacob, she sees someone apparently happy with Sarah, and she’s not in their friend group so wouldn’t know about Walky and Dorothy getting back together.
So maybe she’ll try to get with him for any of several reasons.
Or maybe she won’t.
I doubt Radiah would ever go for Walky, she thought his new look make him appropriate as a group member but we saw briefly what she really thinks of him when its just her and Karl talking. At best she would want him with someone she approves of.
This is what people seem to keep forgetting about Raidah and whatever her plan is. Outside of a few moments with her cronies which basically function as a narrative aside to the audience, everything we see from her is performance. She is lying to everyone, all the time.
Haha I got an actual smile on my face from this one. Sarah found romance through being herself and Raidah prioritizes optics, so it might be petty but I’m admittedly happy to see her upset.
Oh, several people ain’t gettin’ fucked (in the good way). Joyce and Joe (cue my yelling at them to stop fucking around and start fucking around). Billifer, Daisy, Leslie. Booster, maybe?
I still don’t get what her endgame is supposed to be. Work her way up the social ladder to, I don’t know, seduce the dean or something, so he will punish Sarah for non-crimes that happened over a year ago?
Meanwhile, the girl who was kept unharmed is largely an afterthought, since she got help. Maybe she, you know, has distanced herself from toxic “friends”. Like Raidah and her former boyfriend.
It’s the connection. I think Raidah is just very motivated and career oriented. Kind of a dark reflection of Dorothy. She wants to be a successful lawyer and college is just as much about networking as it is about education. She’s not actually wrong for prioritizing these connections she’s just kind of a judgmental and spiteful jerk about it. Her end goal is to be rich I guess, or make her parents proud maybe?
I’m getting the “need for power” vibe from her. Connections, pre-law, manipulative, so power-seeking. Not sure what she wants to do with it, but I do see that drive in her.
I think in addition to that . . . Raidah is a lot more like Jennifer than they appear on surface. They both have dreams of power and popularity, but they only have a middle-school understanding of how to get those things. To me, Raidah’s brunches feel like a kid pretending to be grown-up, and none of her schemes work. I also suspect that neither of them can keep friends or partners long-term. I think Raidah is less depressed and appears more put together, but I think she and Jennifer have a similar core.
A letter of recommendation from the dean (any dean really) would go a long way when applying for grad/law school. But the networking has to be organic and sincere or she won’t get a good letter.
Think about it from her point of view. She’s trying really hard to have friendships with family members of influential people. She cultivates her friend group so she has a better chance of being around the type of people who would run in the same social circles as the dean.
That’s the most logical reason I can think of for why she’s so obsessed with the dean.
There might not be a goal in mind aside from how high she can reach, and she seems kinda determined to never stop reaching either. Which, y’know, if she wasn’t so incredibly, cynically manipulative about it, wouldn’t inherently be a bad thing.
“Social climber” is usually an insult but she seems very invested in Making Something of herself while starting from a variety of disadvantages like race, religion, and gender. Possibly money too, if measured on a relative scale of “can afford to go to college” vs. “rich person’s access to the ivy league.” So she likely has to work her ass off to actually make it. Networking like mad is probably a more guaranteed path to success than Dorothy’s plan to study her way to a doctorate in presidenting, but followed in a way that’s just as calculating as Dorothy’s elaborate schedules and expected GPAs.
The problem, of course, being that Raidah’s using other people as tools and will jettison them the instant she doesn’t have a use for them. And the fact that we don’t know if she’s got a specific goal in mind feels uncomfortably close to the many people we’ve got fucking things up IRL who also don’t have fulfillable goals aside from “more.”
I don’t even hate Raidah that much (hating involves more brainpower than I am willing to spare her) but watching Miss Connections’ brain fry at Sarah genuinely bonding with the dean’s son (a connection Raidah would KILL for) by virtue of that same “human sandpaper” personality Raidah decried her for having?
That’s hilarious no matter anyone’s feelings on the characters involved. RIP Raidah’s social outlook, found murdered in Reed Hall.
its hilarious how when you think of it Sarah unintentionally beat Radiah at her own networking game. she got the second relationship started just by inviting Lucy and jacob to a party, gave Asher and Ethan a place to have their first real date, and now is dating someone higher on the elite hierarchy then Radiah ever did. Sarah couldn’t have had a better set up if she had planned it.
Does Sarah know Tony is the Dean’s son? I feel like she wouldn’t care enough to know administrative relations of her school (God knows I don’t). I have a feeling Raidah is gonna drop that fact and Sarah will be like: “You’re dad is the dean?” Queuing another Raidah explosion lmao
Well, she still DIDN’T know during the actual important bits of getting coffee and deciding to go out more. So that can still throw some grit into Raidah’s gears because it happened genuinely unprompted by consideration for who knows/is related to whom.
Jacob and Lucy are embracing like ten feet from Sarah and Tony embracing. But what Raidah’s reacting to is the hot chip she ate between panels 5 and 6.
Oh, god, right. I forgot the degree to which Raidah is motivated, THIS LONG after the inciting incident, by This One Girl Specifically Should Not Get to Be Happy. Gonna be interesting to see how this shakes out, given what we’ve seen of him so far I have a really hard time imagining Tony being swayed by her usual kind of lines of meddling.
…Mind, maybe she won’t do anything! Maybe she’ll just be kind of mad about it from a distance, as would be perfectly healthy to do about someone you dislike for personal reasons.
You think Jennifers noticed her fun new non toxic very mature adult friends in no way keep track of if she’s like. Doing worse then usual.
Worse than that, I think, is she thinks people are things. Stepping stones to grandeur, connections to exploit, little bits of dirt to kick out of her way. She’s run the cold equations, dashed off the trolley problems. If they’re not useful to her, why on earth would they deserve anything?
(And, of course, people as things, that’s where it starts.)
it’s really unhinged when you think of it. Radiah seems to hate Sarah way more then she cares about Dana making the whole woe is my former friend story just look like a excuse to make a crusade against someone friends for the crime of existing.
Tony’s got Clout as the Football Guy, she’s 100% going to try and do something.
It shouldn’t work because we’ve seen Tony is 100% on board for dropping friends when they go off the rails. it might sour Sarah on him though, depending on how he verbalizes that.
her group of friends are slathered in wacky hi-jinks though. My guess would be the friction would start with Joyce and Joe. Joe for his list debacle, and joyce… being joyce.
While what Sarah did wasn’t good, I’m not sure it was actually an escalation because things were already that bad. In-universe, it wasn’t that long after Raidah and her friends confronted them in the mall, tried to convince Sarah’s new friends to ditch her, and called Dina, “mentally challenged,” followed up by a, “retarded kid,” from Raidah’s friends. I’m not sure anything that followed was really an escalation from that point, even the punch. In fact, Raidah’s game plan is still pretty much the same: keep Sarah alone and isolated by poisoning her friends against her.
Again I want to state Sarah did not sabotage or escalate the downfall of Raidah and Jacob’s relationship. She wanted to but Joyce and Jacob already liked each other and Jacob even invited Joyce to church before Sarah ever had the idea and in execution she barely did anything. Unless you think asking Becky to text Jacob once so he could bring Joyce grape juice is an escalation.
A reminder that she did that after a decent amount of torment from Raidah for the crime of ~protecting her scholarship~ and ~getting her roommate the help she needed~. Sorry but I don’t buy into “bullying bullies makes YOU the real bully” mentality and I hope no one else in the comments does either.
Also, last I checked, Jacob is a human being with a brain in his head. He cheated out of his own free will and that’s on him, not Sarah. I’m also not buying into this stretch to make the actions of a man the fault of a woman, thanks.
Experiencing shadenfreude and encouraging your friend to make kissy eyes at a boy isn’t anywhere close to the level of bullying that Raidah is doing by intentionally tarnishing Sarah’s reputation at every opportunity and leveraging her friends away whenever she can.
I almost theorize that Tony may already be aware of Raidah’s bullshit. His BS Radar seems extremely sensitive, and he has zero patience for playing games or being insincere. If he’s encountered Raidah before, the two of them likely did not have a productive social exchange.
Which might be another reason why she tried to rope Walky into her social group for his “connection to the Dean” when the son of the Dean is right there.
Part of why Tony is so cynical about people is because he’s the son of the dean. Bet you anything he’s got no time for this trivial high school bullshit.
She pulled Walky into her orbit purely based on that his mom used to be married to the dean. If his son was walking around on campus she almost certainly at some point *attempted* to draw her into her sphere of influence.
I’m really hoping someone points out to Radiah that bring mad at Sarah for not metaphorically setting herself on fire to keep Dana warm when she refused to get involved herself is quite a tall order to expect of someone.
I believe Sarah pointed that out to Raidah and it didn’t make a dent. Maybe someone Raidah actually cares about could make it stick, but I’m not sure there’s anyone she actually cares about!
That is a quality word balloon.
I find it hard to draw flames that work, but you got the right level of woobly-ness that such things need but is easy to over shoot.
It’s a shame that word balloon can’t be appropriated for the burning hatred and rage the comments section has towards some of these fictional characters.
Yeah I mean the upfront expense seems like a lot but you save so much on heat in the winter, beacuse National Fuel and Grid invokes so much anger that word ballon pays for itself.
It says a lot about Radiah that when she sees her ex-partner Jacob dating Lucy, her response is merely, “That’s new,” but seeing Sarah romantically entwined with Tony invokes hellfire.
Sorry Radiah, no one here cares about your opinion enough to revolve their dating around your preferences. Seriously wondering if it will get through to her that she doesn’t have alot of influence over people who aren’t Karl.
Even worse! Sarah is happy with a FOOTBALL PLAYER who is also THE SON OF THE DEAN. Raidah can’t even get the time of day from the Dean’s ex-wife’s dumber child.
Sarah goes goth; pivots fully into Morticia-mode, vamp-dress and all.
Tony starts wearing a pinstripe suit. Speaks French at Sarah.
They go fencing on dates.
Oh, yeah, I’m HERE for this treatment. Patreon or Slipshine, def!
*digs out wallet
She assumed at the time that Joyce and Jacob would be getting together. Maybe when she saw they didn’t her opinion changed and she blamed it all on Sarah. Might even have found from Jennifer that Sarah was originally behind setting Joyce after Jacob.
I’m kinda hoping Raidah tries to mess up Sarah’s relationship with Tony and ends up making them like each other more over their mutual dislike of Raidah’s nonsense.
I think it’s an entirely plausible outcome. Tony, as he has been established currently, has the opposite of approval for Raidah’s usual divide-manipulate-and-conquer tactics, and Sarah would go even more heart-eyes over someone both seeing what’s going on and defending her.
I like how the reason beavers are so effective as a species is basically that one of them was neurotic and how he fixed the problem turned out to be so incredibly in their favour that the trait got fixed in the species.
Raidah, this is what happens when you take your eye off the ball! (Note: ‘Your eye’ in this context is ‘monomaniacal focus’ and ‘the ball’ is ‘causing endless suffering to a woman who tried to help your friend after you refused to lift a finger’.)
“What? My nemesis that doesn’t see me as relevant is obtaining happiness?! That’s illegal and I will do something about it!”
Focus, Raidah – Lucy isn’t with Walky anymore, that means your path to his mom is gone. Your priority should be the evil plans that have a snowball’s chance in hell of working, not the annoying one that goes nowhere.
Ooh, it clicked for me that this probably bothers the crap out of Raidah not only because she hates Sarah but even more because Tony is well-connected.
Ah yes casual homophobia ‘it’s just a fad’ and ‘rage at a woman who you’ve only done wrong for being happy’ what a great start to this soon to be annihilation by short king. Hopefully Sarah’s insecurity doesn’t run interference for the incubus.
I don’t really think it’s homophobia, more that she explicitly told Jennifer to get back with Asher, and don’t think she cares about the gender of the person he is with.
You could be right, but I don’t know if there has been comics where Raidah has been explicitly neutral about LGBT people so I don’t really assume the best of her relative to that. You are right that the surprise might be relative to Jennifer regardless though.
Me if I ever see Tony Hawk: Hey you’re Tony Hawk the famous skateboarder. That’s right I recognise you. Won’t be able to get any content out of this will you, you piece of shit
How to read all 28 issues of my Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane run on Marvel Unlimited:
1: The first four issues were published as the miniseries "Mary Jane."
www.marvel.com/comics/serie...
today in #9chickweedlane i learned we have to be shown children learning and relearning what sex is, for Reasons, even though they already clearly know and have prepared nuanced questions about it!
also that Gran must hate, if she's still alive, how Old Juliette is the same but with gray hair
one of my favorite things is when a commenter explodes WHEN DO THESE CHARACTERS GET THERAPY but directed towards a character who canonically has a regular therapist
Hot Toys Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith 1/6 Scale Darth Vader Deluxe ($495) & Standard ($315) is up for preorder at Sideshow - shrsl.com/4wcx6 #ad
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btw if you're one of those rando bluesky weirdos who doesn't know me but sees me in the wild being sarcastic and don't know i'm being sarcastic because you haven't taken like 30 seconds to, like, maybe look at my user profile or something, keep walking, you're not going to score internet points here
Here's an entertaining cite at the bottom of the first page
Josh Gerstein@joshgerstein.bsky.social ⋅ 2d
JUST IN: Milwaukee Judge Hannah Dugan moves to dismiss federal criminal case against her for allegedly helping immigrant hide from ICE. Her lawyers say she's protected by official acts & judicial immunity and 10th Amendment. Doc: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
Where did Hollywood go so wrong? I thought movies were supposed to be an escape from reality, a chance to put your worries aside and not have to think about any underlying ideas or concepts. Well, not anymore.
theonion.com/you-can...
It's not a new argument, of course, but Chesterton dismissed it effectively in 1908.
"You will hear everlastingly... this argument that the rich man cannot be bribed. The fact is, of course, that the rich man is bribed; he has been bribed already. That is why he is a rich man."
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com ⋅ 3d
Hawley dismisses Trump lining his pockets with his memecoin: "Listen, I think nobody believes that Donald Trump can be bought. I mean, what does Donald Trump need more money for?"
preternia @preternia.com ⋅ 2d
Josh Gerstein @joshgerstein.bsky.social ⋅ 2d
Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com ⋅ 3d
Pavel
@spavel.bsky.social ⋅ 12d
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… Raidah’s gonna somehow make this Jennifer’s fault, ain’t she?
Yes.
Yes, but only because Jennifer’ll say “I was hitting on Tony but he was so intimidated by how incredibly hot I am that he asked Sarah out by mistake.”
Not even in response to anything. The way Jennifer’s conversations this morning are going, she’s just gonna say that completely unprompted.
I’m not certain she would remember Sarah was there. But otherwise spot on.
Jennifer should have made sure Walky sealed the deal with Lucy.
It was a simple job!
considering tony’s the dean’s son(?) it’s also a delicious unintended benefit to get under raidah’s skin
Agreed! Tony ‘outranks’ her, so now Sarah does, too, by association.
Oh yeah. That’s good.
Does Sarah even know that yet?
jelly? ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° )
“Dating the dean’s son? That was an option? Why didn’t I think of that?”
Well the problem is, he would never go for Raidah. He flat out said it himself, he has no time for games and people who don’t play it straight. She probably concluded very quickly that she had no chance with him, and just didn’t devote any work to trying to make that connect. Raidah is the epitome of the sort of person Tony seems like he’s trying to avoid.
We keep hearing “the dean”, but surely there’s other deans, right? And maybe one of them’s got a son? GOALS, Raidah, GOALS.
Yes, anywhere from 10 to 20 or so. Academic department deans (ie, the ivory tower admins), and executive or other business deans (ie, the executive suite officers). Raidah has a long list to go through.
Yes, but not for the reasons you think.
Yesss, Raidah, feel the burrrnnn. Let the hate flow through youuu.
Honestly love this for Sarah. Hope her dating Tony helps her grow and they have a long healthy relationship.
cope
seethe
mald?
grass: untouched
maiden- wait no, kingless
Ew that “king” is the opposite of “maiden” here. Rather than let that stand (and perpetuate a world where men rule and women are defined by whether or not they’ve slept with someone) I’ll offer the word “bachelorless” as an option.
Well, if we’re using the “female virgin” definition of “maiden”… maybe “incelless”? Not sure why that’d be a bad thing, but Paul might still be around… She could try checking the local hospital; considering what we’ve seen of him recently, he’ll probably end up there sooner or later (not everyone’s as merciful as Tony, after all).
Virgulo is a male virgin, so virguloless? Bachelorless implies a relationship status, but maiden does not. Maidens just are ‘pure (in variable ways depending on the society)’ women. King is absolutely out, that’s a job title.
Surely the Father is the opposite of the Maiden
The phrase is supposed to be about who you’re dating/sleeping with so I should hope not.
The phenomenon of people calling their boyfriends and husbands “Daddy” makes this muddy.
*lordless
Crops: withered
Dehydrated and dessicated
Out of lane, unmoisturized.
Yum yucked.
Oooh, this is gonna be goooood! Raidah getting told off by Tony for being a manipulative ding-dong incoming!
Yeah, he’s a very self-aware blunt instrument and Raidah’s usual technique of directing the conversation to make her rhetorical points draw blood probably won’t work as well here
Tony struck me as pretty sharp, actually.
Calling someone a blunt instrument is usually in regards to them being simple or stupid, but while he seem very straightforward to me, he seems neither simple nor stupid.
Unless we use the phrase differently from each other.
A blunt instrument is something that hits with crushing force. In rhetoric, it frequently involves blunt truth, suggesting someone who doesn’t let politesse hold him back.
Yeah I think you’re conflating blunt instrument with “not the sharpest tool.” When in this context it just means something straightforward that gets the job done with simple efficiency.
Since y’all had me doubting myself, I looked it up.
The dictionary on my iPad states that a blunt instrument (when not referring to a literal blunt instrument) is “an imprecise or heavy handed way of doing things.”
And going the extra mile, the same dictionary defines heavy handed as “clumsy, insensitive, or overly forceful”.
So no, I don’t think the phrase applies to him (the word blunt by itself does actually fit him as being straightforward is one of the definitions, but the meaning changes when it’s combined with instrument).
But if anyone has some other definition for the phrase, feel free to share it or tell me where to find it.
“Overly forceful” is the operative word in your dictionary checking – someone who “doesn’t let politeesse hold him back.” I don’t have an exact technical definition because this is one of those phrases whose meaning you usually pick up from context, but generally if I were to define someone as a blunt instrument I mean “Someone who will get the point across or the job done no matter whose feelings get hurt or what gets in the way.” It’s someone I would only sic on someone else if I didn’t care whether or not they got hurt, or a problem that I want solved but don’t care about any side effects or consequences, because they are very likely to leave a bit of a mess in the aftermath.
That SOMETIMES has connotations of being a bit simple because simple people do like straightforward solutions without thinking about the consequences. But it could also describe someone who HAS thought through the consequences but just doesn’t care if they’re in his way. Tony strikes me as the latter. If he doesn’t want to talk to or date Raidah because he doesn’t like her, he is not going to bother sparing her feelings on the matter if she tries to push it.
That’s the thing.
I don’t consider him OVERLY forceful, as in TOO MUCH force for the situation.
Tony feels like he used just the right amount to convey himself.
Well, to back you up, he IS a successful football player, definitely top tier college level, and probably will attract professional attention. This means quick thinking and both followership and leadership skills.
You’re getting caught up on semantics for a phrase that is inherently vibes-based I think – we can agree, I suspect, that Tony is absolutely using MORE force than the average person might do because the average person is socialized out of using quite that much force in most situations even if it is appropriate. That Tony IS forceful in affect compared to others is not I think in contention. Is it an appropriate level of force? Maybe, but it’s still forceful in a marked and noticeable way. That’s what people are getting at when they refer to him as a blunt instrument, as well as the damage he’s likely to cause if he decides to have words with Raidah.
I frankly wouldn’t lean too much on a dictionary definition for a phrase like that – like I said, this is one of those phrases that you pick up through vibes and context. Most people are unlikely to have a very clear idea what exactly the phrase means, only the web of vibes around it, and any dictionary is only going to very loosely encompass what that web is like in general usage. Attempting to pin down an exact meaning would be like to delineate an exact border in the middle of the Sahara desert before GPS – you can try, but the nomads actually wandering around the desert aren’t going to care. If you want to check your own sanity it’s probably better to ask a bunch of friends how they’d define a blunt instrument and whether they think it’s a positive or negative or neutral thing when applied to a person. But I think it is notable that so far, nobody else in this comment thread has stepped in to say “I agree, blunt instrument isn’t a good way describe Tony because it implies he’s stupid.”
I do have a very clear idea, yet I have people telling me I’m wrong, which is why I went to the dictionary.
As for multiple people thinking something is one way instead of another, that’s really no way to decide the meaning of something; definitions are not opinions.
The only valid difference of opinion regarding an already established definition is if a definition applies.
I did ask someone on how they take the word blunt and the phrase blunt instrument in regards to people, and I even showed them these comments; they agreed with me, so are you and everyone else suddenly wrong because they did that?
Of course not, just like I’m not suddenly wrong because I disagree with y’all.
But we do have a definition right here, so…
Millions of people have thought and still do think some very messed up things.
This is nowhere close to those types of subjects, but crowd sourcing definitions for something that already has one is still not something I plan to do.
Hoo, I invite you to look up descriptivism – suffice it to say, language is essentially a mostly shared opinion that’s changing all the time in actual use – that’s how language evolves, and how slang drops in and out of use. If enough people decide that “gay” means “homosexual” and not just “happy,” for instance, then that’s what it comes to mean in practical use no matter how much older dictionaries might insist that the only thing it means is “happy.”
I don’t say this solely because it supports the point that we’re trying to make, but dictionaries are the lowest common denominator for accepted usage of certain words or phrases. But it is the dictionary that ultimately bends to how people use the word and not the other way around. You’ve given a very bare Bones strict definition of blunt instrument, but it is far more frequently used as the above person did
SimpleStupid
In fact, making sure things remain simple are usually the best ways to ensure your forecasting model is usable.
“Blunt” here refers to: Abrupt in address; plain; unceremonious; rough in manners or speech.
“Dull” is much more the word that means simple or stupid, even though the two words are in the literal sense synonyms.
The issue is with the stock phrase “blunt instrument”: something which works by raw power, lacking finesse. It’s that last bit, I think, that is bothering some.
Further clarification: A blade can be sharp or dull. A dull blade is clearly inferior to a sharp blade in its purpose to cut.
A hammer, however, is intentionally designed to be blunt. The point is not to cut, but to apply force of impact.
Again, blunt and blunt instrument do not have the same connotation.
You’re using the concept in regards to a literal blunt instrument, but he’s a person and not an object, so the meaning that applies is the one NOT for objects.
It’s the difference between talking about an object having a third wheel, like a wagon or a tricycle, or about someone being a 3rd wheel, like being the odd one out while hanging with a couple.
That’s an exaggerated example, but the point is that the phrase when applied to a person is different when applied to an object, and the dictionary bears that out.
I think we can agree that Sarah is rather good with blunt instruments.
let me be blunt. no.
If he’s simple, he’s simple like Cpt. Carrot Ironfoundersson
Just what I was going to say.
(For those who don’t know, he’s a Discworld character who was once described by the phrase “People thought Carrot was simple. And he was. Where they went wrong was in thinking simple meant stupid.” At another time his girlfriend thought “You had to be very complicated to be as simple as Carrot”. It’s also said — on the subject of blunt instruments — that talking to him gives duplicitious people the sensation that they’ve just walked straight into an iron bar.)
‘Blunt instrument’ is kinda objectifying in a way just ‘blunt’ isn’t. He’s not a tool. That’s probably what Raida objects to more than anything else.
cbwroses. You’re right and the hair splitting on the various meanings is ignoring that when such a phrase is used metaphorically, typically all of the meanings are part of the nuance. Moreover, one does not use blunt instruments to do fine work. Tony is both sharp, and has the power to drive a point home. He’s more like a fine chisel.
Raida’s method of social death by a thousand cuts meets Tony’s brick wall
This feels like a 2019 meme template and I mean that as the highest compliment. I intend to use it as such.
*plays “Sanctuary Guardian” from EarthBound on hacked muzak*
Suck it, Raidah.
[Sailor Moon]
OHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHO!!
[/Moon]
But not, I notice, slash Sailor.
The moon may be gone, but Joe Moose sails forever!
Well, yeah, you don’t need to say that sailors are doing slash, that’s a given
A reminder that Raidah had her happy relationship with Jacob broken up by Sarah sending Joyce in as an agent provocateur. As shitty as Raidah is to Sarah, that was an escalation above and beyond being catty.
She has a reason to hate Sarah.
Is Raidah aware that whole thing was Sarah’s idea though?
You know I don’t know but it is really crappy of Sarah to manipulate her friend like that for revenge.
She might suspect, but from the evidence she has it’d be a leap.
She didn’t know that Joyce was sent by Sarah though. As far as she knows Jacob just befriended Joyce and it just escalated from there.
Didn’t Sarah ultimately decide to not do that because she felt like she was using Joyce and that made her feel guilty only for Joyce to end up making out with Jacob anyway?
Also accidently reported your commeny when i meant to reply. Sorry.
It’s the website’s fault for putting Reply right next to Report comment. Let’s blame the front-end designers.
Wouldn’t be nearly as troublesome if those were buttons (as they should be) rather than “links”. Maybe they could at least add a “sorry I reported you because this UI is so hard to use” thingy at the end of the line.
[Opinionated: a button does something on this page. A link takes me to another page.]
Maybe even an “Are you sure?” before confirming the reporting.
Reason to hate Sarah more than Jacob? I think if we’re assigning blame for that then Jacob owns most of it. He chose to lie to his brother and get swept up in the feels of another girl while committed to Raidah and then dump her. He really doesn’t deserve a pass for that. Sarah had bad intentions but that’s all they were. Joyce wasn’t a weapon she used against Raidah. They’re all just people who made choices and have their own agency.
That wasn’t a happy relationship, though, and this is more about Raidah viewing people as stepping stones towards some ambiguous goal rather than hating Sarah.
right? the “happy” relatinship where Radiah used Jacob’s insecurities over impressing his brother to keep him in line.
A reminder that Raidah had been bullying Sarah for a while and trying to isolate her by driving away any potential new friends of hers.
If Sarah tried to sabotage one of Raidah’s relationships, well it ain’t a classy move, but you reap what you sow, right?
It’s really just karma for her.
Yeah, Sarah certainly didn’t start that conflict, unless we’re going to join Raidah in blaming her for the Dana situation.
And we should also remember that Sarah called off the attempt well before they broke up, though Joyce went ahead with hitting on Jacob anyway.
Plus Jacob ain’t totally non-perceiving. He had time to see how Raidah is manipulative and opportunistic.
He never really seemed to have caught on to that though.
She hated Sarah well before that.
Raidah has been hating Sarah way before that and doesn’t know she was involved. (Plus Joyce and Jacob meet and got along before she Sarah knew about it, so it was very much going to happen wherever she interview or not)
Sarah’s been on Raidah’s narcissism-coded shit-list ever since Sarah found outside help for their mutual friend whose drug use became a threat to herself and others.
Yes. Jacob was utterly helpless and not at all responsible for himself.
Jacob screwed up, but unlike everyone else in that scenario, he was reacting, not deliberately plotting. Even Raidah, who didn’t start any of it, tried to scheme and manipulate to win.
It was a childish and petty impulse on Sarah’s part, but she’s since moved past it.
Raidah hasn’t.
Sarah and Tony look like they’re about to dance the tango.
More of a horizontal mambo.
Your icon *makes* this comment
Tony deserves to find someone who he can share happiness with. Interesting to wonder how much dating he’s done. As a good looking guy he’s a football star but seems not caught up in that.
Plus hitting, and apologizing for, his asswipe ex-teammate, ex-friend? Neat.
I do enjoy that he’s willing to whack a guy in his vicinity for being a shithead. Men should hurt each other more when they genuinely misbehave.
“members of (X) should (Y)”
– member of X’, speaking of an action they would consider wildly inappropriate for X’
not great
A real misanthrope wouldn’t object.
Points awarded!
Yes yes yes
Please have the biggest meltdown since Jennifer meltdowns no. 2, 4 and 7.
You’re forgetting meltdown 9.
Well, we were all trying to, until you brought it up!
oh boy I think Radiah vs Jennifer meltdown is fast approaching,
Honestly it’s kinda draining
Take a break from reading it if you need to, then. Comics you engage with shouldn’t be draining you.
The suspense is killing me! I hope it somehow makes less sense than “She stole being the calm one from me!”
don’t count on it, we are looking at a strip where radiahs going scorched earth over the sight of a couple who objectivity has nothing to do with her except in her mind “she’s stealing being the social climber! and how dare she smile!”
It would be fascinating to watch a Raidah meltdown make Jennifer look cool and collected by comparison.
Sarah and Tony are dancing a tango so passionate it has lit a fire in Raidah’s icy soul.
Oh, Raidah is about to IMPLODE
At any moment she will foam a lot from her mouth and make a deadly grinding sound with her teeth.
You sure she won’t pull out a pair of six shooters and jump around while firing bullets and yelling Yosemite Sam cuss words?
Damn, it’s very likely
Oh. Is Tony a high value target or something? Is a dean daddy really that big?
Raidah was willing to put up with Walky because he was the son of the Dean’s ex-wife, so uh… yeah.
And because Walky’s hair makes him hot now, apparently.
Can’t forget that.
But I think her outrage is more that Sarah looks happy with a guy who’s big and muscular, just like they both like.
Tho it could be a little of column A and a little of column B.
honestly I just interpret it as, Raidah will be mad forever to see Sarah have literally anything. she is truly a grade A hater. you know she’s the kind of petty to turn any slight into a life-long blood feud.
This is absolutely the take I share. Raidah wouldn’t have cared WHO it was making Sarah happy, it’s that Sarah is never allowed to be happy or Raidah must crush it.
Her first shitfit, in her very first appearance, was triggered by Sarah having LUNCH.
This relationship breaks Raidah on all three levels.
First, it’s SARAH. in a RELATIONSHIP. Sarah doesn’t DO relationships – she’s a miserable, antisocial loner, and Raidah LIKES her that way.
Second, it’s a potentially POLITICAL relationship. This is Raidah’s domain – she’s spent years building up an influential group of friends. She’s been collecting a power base of rooks and knights, and Sarah just nabbed the KING. (The great part is neither Sarah nor Tony view their relationship that way, but Raidah DOES.)
And thirdly – well, just look at them. Sarah’s sardonic half-smile. Tony’s intense stare. Their body language. They’re HAPPY. SARAH IS HAPPY. And that is the one thing Raidah cannot tolerate.
I’m thinking it’s both (1) Raidah wants Sarah to lose and suffer and go away, and (2) Raidah wants the Tony connection to the (that particular) Dean.
She’s definitely been trying to weave a giant network of connections, too bad her last couple of attempts keep leaving snags in her web.
What’s interesting is that Jennifer has clearly completely ignored Raidah’s order to fix her relationship with Asher. Which is an interesting bit of character development as it’s clear she didn’t consider it a serious request or worth clout-chasing to follow.
I think whatever else Jennifer has going that made her vulnurable to joining Raidah’s group (which is a lot), ‘person who takes orders’ is absolutely not one of them.
Oh, I don’t know… I think if Tony had told her to roll over and sit, she’d have been begging for treats.
Yeah, especially since Jennifer is currently Billie-moding; she’s in “problem solver” mode, and she sees Asher as a problem that will simply fix itself, because she already concluded exactly what would happen to make Asher come crawling back in due time.
She was, of course, completely wrong about it; but, she hasn’t mentally noticed that yet, because her attention is focused on other things.
Jennifer ultimately sees herself as extremely socially successful, and always at the absolute pinnacle of whatever social hierarchy she’s currently existing in, regardless of who is in it. She isn’t seeing Raidah’s requests as orders, because she doesn’t think of Raidah as somebody who can give her orders, because she immediately deluded herself into believing she was dead-equal with Raidah, in Raidah’s own social hierarchy, the moment she was introduced to her and received one positive impression.
When Raidah actually tries to “put Jennifer in her place” over this, I don’t know which of the two of them is going to crash out harder. Raidah can’t accept any relationship where a peer sees her as their equal, and Jennifer can’t accept a world where anybody doesn’t see her as their equal.
it’s going to be insane if those two clash in there current mental states right now.
Having to agree in anyway with Raidah might convince me to finally trust Asher if only slightly…..Just kidding I still don’t trust him.
#neverforgettonottrustAsher
(Distrust is probably the more grammatically correct choice, but I like it better this way.)
I’ve always been on Team “cut Asher some slack/trust he at least wants to redeem himself,” but on the other hand? The narrative beats are so heavy to me, I fully expect him to someday reveal that he’s literally the guy who killed Mike. I don’t want to believe it’s true, but also, it’s the most dramatic thing that could happen, and I can’t think of a better reason to specifically make him a bisexual disaster who falls head over heels with Ethan. It’s extremely cable teen drama.
I had a different idea today.
Jennifer might FINALLY do real reporting and expose Ashers pulling the alarm.
Which is so damn socially chaotic, it’s seems like it has narrative pull. She doesn’t get Asher back but gets a story, plays Alpha bongo and turns everyone lives upside down.
She’s actively avoiding him now though so story wise she seems set up to ignore his real faults.
Asher has nothing to do with Mike’s death. He got injured before Asher even pulled the alarm. I don’t trust Asher sure but only for the things he’s actually done.
There’s a theory floating around that along with killing Blaine in the hospital, the mob finished off Mike as well. I assume that’s what being referred to here.
I didn’t know that. That’s kind of dark. I wouldn’t be comfortable with Asher even being around if that were true.
I am one who floats that theory. My most Asher-friendly version of that theory has him being indirectly responsible for the cops killing Mike. He gets the cops to kill Blaine, telling them it’s to keep him from testifying to the feds, and the cops decide to kill a loose end.
https://www.dumbingofage.com/coincidence-2/ implies Asher is more involved in the loose-end-removal department. Or Willis is misdirecting us. Or it’s fake misdirection, Wallace Shawn style.
But he’s hoooooot! Apparently. My judgement of male attractiveness is second hand.
Can confirm, he is hot.
It’s gratifying to see that expression in the last panel.
To be honest, I expected the reaction with Jacob to be similar, but no.
Huh. I wonder if she’s going to go after Walky believing he’s free now.
Don’t forget that he saw how she hurt Dorothy with those hurtful words, Walky will be Walky, but I really hope he doesn’t dare empathize with her.
It never crossed my mind my mind that Walky would entertain or appreciate the notion, nor emphasize with her.
But she found Walky physically attractive, she sees Lucy with Jacob, she sees someone apparently happy with Sarah, and she’s not in their friend group so wouldn’t know about Walky and Dorothy getting back together.
So maybe she’ll try to get with him for any of several reasons.
Or maybe she won’t.
Also, Walky finally confronted Linda and she left very upset, you can imagine the future repercussions.
(I wrote it again, in case you hadn’t seen it)
I doubt Radiah would ever go for Walky, she thought his new look make him appropriate as a group member but we saw briefly what she really thinks of him when its just her and Karl talking. At best she would want him with someone she approves of.
This is what people seem to keep forgetting about Raidah and whatever her plan is. Outside of a few moments with her cronies which basically function as a narrative aside to the audience, everything we see from her is performance. She is lying to everyone, all the time.
Also, Walky finally confronted Linda and she left very upset, you can imagine the future repercussions.
“Happy” perhaps, but not as important as “useful.”
this was meant to be a reply to Charles Phipps, above.
Sarah has a good (possibly) relationship and Raidah can’t stand her actually being happy(ish).
Raidah is distressed.
Good.
Gotta hear that in Hobie Brown’s voice!
Happy Valentine’s Day, Raidah!
(sorry if this is a week late i posted it from internet explorer)
lol
avatar checks out
Raidah attempts a Ghost Rider impression
Haha I got an actual smile on my face from this one. Sarah found romance through being herself and Raidah prioritizes optics, so it might be petty but I’m admittedly happy to see her upset.
Also, is that a window in panel one? Isn’t it still morning?
Or is that just very large art
(not that a time skip is out of the question, I’m just confused)
I think it’s a window. Might be late afternoon. After the bulk of daily classes, so people are now meeting after a full day of classing.
Wait.
Is that a smile on Tony’s face?
Yup
It is, actually.
I didn’t realize until you mentioned it (and I enlarged it).
And your gravatar is perfect for this comment.
Get fucked, Raidah.
I think part of the problem is that she isn’t.
You know, I literally said those exact words out loud when I saw this comic, except my exclamation was preceded with “ha ha”.
But not in the way that SarahTonyn did.
Was gonna say, Raidah’s the only character in this strip not getting fucked.
Oh, several people ain’t gettin’ fucked (in the good way). Joyce and Joe (cue my yelling at them to stop fucking around and start fucking around). Billifer, Daisy, Leslie. Booster, maybe?
I meant this particular strip – it’s just the 3 couples and Raidah.
(Though we don’t know if Sarah and Tony have gone that far yet, they’re clearly on the path.)
I still don’t get what her endgame is supposed to be. Work her way up the social ladder to, I don’t know, seduce the dean or something, so he will punish Sarah for non-crimes that happened over a year ago?
Meanwhile, the girl who was kept unharmed is largely an afterthought, since she got help. Maybe she, you know, has distanced herself from toxic “friends”. Like Raidah and her former boyfriend.
It’s the connection. I think Raidah is just very motivated and career oriented. Kind of a dark reflection of Dorothy. She wants to be a successful lawyer and college is just as much about networking as it is about education. She’s not actually wrong for prioritizing these connections she’s just kind of a judgmental and spiteful jerk about it. Her end goal is to be rich I guess, or make her parents proud maybe?
I’m getting the “need for power” vibe from her. Connections, pre-law, manipulative, so power-seeking. Not sure what she wants to do with it, but I do see that drive in her.
I think in addition to that . . . Raidah is a lot more like Jennifer than they appear on surface. They both have dreams of power and popularity, but they only have a middle-school understanding of how to get those things. To me, Raidah’s brunches feel like a kid pretending to be grown-up, and none of her schemes work. I also suspect that neither of them can keep friends or partners long-term. I think Raidah is less depressed and appears more put together, but I think she and Jennifer have a similar core.
A letter of recommendation from the dean (any dean really) would go a long way when applying for grad/law school. But the networking has to be organic and sincere or she won’t get a good letter.
Think about it from her point of view. She’s trying really hard to have friendships with family members of influential people. She cultivates her friend group so she has a better chance of being around the type of people who would run in the same social circles as the dean.
That’s the most logical reason I can think of for why she’s so obsessed with the dean.
There might not be a goal in mind aside from how high she can reach, and she seems kinda determined to never stop reaching either. Which, y’know, if she wasn’t so incredibly, cynically manipulative about it, wouldn’t inherently be a bad thing.
“Social climber” is usually an insult but she seems very invested in Making Something of herself while starting from a variety of disadvantages like race, religion, and gender. Possibly money too, if measured on a relative scale of “can afford to go to college” vs. “rich person’s access to the ivy league.” So she likely has to work her ass off to actually make it. Networking like mad is probably a more guaranteed path to success than Dorothy’s plan to study her way to a doctorate in presidenting, but followed in a way that’s just as calculating as Dorothy’s elaborate schedules and expected GPAs.
The problem, of course, being that Raidah’s using other people as tools and will jettison them the instant she doesn’t have a use for them. And the fact that we don’t know if she’s got a specific goal in mind feels uncomfortably close to the many people we’ve got fucking things up IRL who also don’t have fulfillable goals aside from “more.”
Hahahahaha
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
I don’t even hate Raidah that much (hating involves more brainpower than I am willing to spare her) but watching Miss Connections’ brain fry at Sarah genuinely bonding with the dean’s son (a connection Raidah would KILL for) by virtue of that same “human sandpaper” personality Raidah decried her for having?
That’s hilarious no matter anyone’s feelings on the characters involved. RIP Raidah’s social outlook, found murdered in Reed Hall.
its hilarious how when you think of it Sarah unintentionally beat Radiah at her own networking game. she got the second relationship started just by inviting Lucy and jacob to a party, gave Asher and Ethan a place to have their first real date, and now is dating someone higher on the elite hierarchy then Radiah ever did. Sarah couldn’t have had a better set up if she had planned it.
I wish I could upvote this comment.
So, looks like Raidah found a new flame.
Girl’s on fire!
Does Sarah know Tony is the Dean’s son? I feel like she wouldn’t care enough to know administrative relations of her school (God knows I don’t). I have a feeling Raidah is gonna drop that fact and Sarah will be like: “You’re dad is the dean?” Queuing another Raidah explosion lmao
Booster told Sarah at the coffee shop.
Riiight…Damn
Well, she still DIDN’T know during the actual important bits of getting coffee and deciding to go out more. So that can still throw some grit into Raidah’s gears because it happened genuinely unprompted by consideration for who knows/is related to whom.
Booster pointed it out to her.
imagine being so taken by rage you create a new textbubble style. wild
Jacob and Lucy are embracing like ten feet from Sarah and Tony embracing. But what Raidah’s reacting to is the hot chip she ate between panels 5 and 6.
*onee-san laughter* OHO HO HO HO HO
whyyy is this so satisfying!!!
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NoblewomansLaugh
I don’t like Raidah. I don’t like Jennifer either but I still got the serious hots for her. Raidah? Ugh. Drop a truck on her already. Do not like.
Here, have Mary.
I mean, yeah, I’d be livid too, Ms. Grumpy’s never this happy.
Points of reference:
“Hm. Still?”
“That’s new.”
And who knows what’s with Carl lately.
“Hm. Still?”
Those two are all over each other!
Oh, god, right. I forgot the degree to which Raidah is motivated, THIS LONG after the inciting incident, by This One Girl Specifically Should Not Get to Be Happy. Gonna be interesting to see how this shakes out, given what we’ve seen of him so far I have a really hard time imagining Tony being swayed by her usual kind of lines of meddling.
…Mind, maybe she won’t do anything! Maybe she’ll just be kind of mad about it from a distance, as would be perfectly healthy to do about someone you dislike for personal reasons.
You think Jennifers noticed her fun new non toxic very mature adult friends in no way keep track of if she’s like. Doing worse then usual.
That’s really the worst part of Raidah’s personality, too. That she literally believes some people don’t deserve things.
Worse than that, I think, is she thinks people are things. Stepping stones to grandeur, connections to exploit, little bits of dirt to kick out of her way. She’s run the cold equations, dashed off the trolley problems. If they’re not useful to her, why on earth would they deserve anything?
(And, of course, people as things, that’s where it starts.)
Something tells me Raidah never had a real friendship
Maybe if she’d stop grabbing people in the street and ripping out their intestines with her bare hands…
Insert Terry Pratchett quote here.
“Sin, young man, is when you treat people like things. Including yourself. That’s what sin is.”
I think she’s just kind of a jerk, in a pretty normal if very focused way.
it’s really unhinged when you think of it. Radiah seems to hate Sarah way more then she cares about Dana making the whole woe is my former friend story just look like a excuse to make a crusade against someone friends for the crime of existing.
Sarah took her toy away and has to *pay* for that.
Tony’s got Clout as the Football Guy, she’s 100% going to try and do something.
It shouldn’t work because we’ve seen Tony is 100% on board for dropping friends when they go off the rails. it might sour Sarah on him though, depending on how he verbalizes that.
Sarah’s seen how Paul turned out so I think she’d understand what he meant.
her group of friends are slathered in wacky hi-jinks though. My guess would be the friction would start with Joyce and Joe. Joe for his list debacle, and joyce… being joyce.
A reminder that Sarah deliberately set out to destroy her relationship.
Sarah escalated things far more than Raidah.
While what Sarah did wasn’t good, I’m not sure it was actually an escalation because things were already that bad. In-universe, it wasn’t that long after Raidah and her friends confronted them in the mall, tried to convince Sarah’s new friends to ditch her, and called Dina, “mentally challenged,” followed up by a, “retarded kid,” from Raidah’s friends. I’m not sure anything that followed was really an escalation from that point, even the punch. In fact, Raidah’s game plan is still pretty much the same: keep Sarah alone and isolated by poisoning her friends against her.
Again I want to state Sarah did not sabotage or escalate the downfall of Raidah and Jacob’s relationship. She wanted to but Joyce and Jacob already liked each other and Jacob even invited Joyce to church before Sarah ever had the idea and in execution she barely did anything. Unless you think asking Becky to text Jacob once so he could bring Joyce grape juice is an escalation.
A reminder that she did that after a decent amount of torment from Raidah for the crime of ~protecting her scholarship~ and ~getting her roommate the help she needed~. Sorry but I don’t buy into “bullying bullies makes YOU the real bully” mentality and I hope no one else in the comments does either.
Also, last I checked, Jacob is a human being with a brain in his head. He cheated out of his own free will and that’s on him, not Sarah. I’m also not buying into this stretch to make the actions of a man the fault of a woman, thanks.
Experiencing shadenfreude and encouraging your friend to make kissy eyes at a boy isn’t anywhere close to the level of bullying that Raidah is doing by intentionally tarnishing Sarah’s reputation at every opportunity and leveraging her friends away whenever she can.
yeah jacobs a whole ass human adult who Made Choices, and didn’t handle things gracefully.
This is Raidah’s Roman Empire
Who the fuck is Raidah? Complete nobody.
Raidah’s about to get hit with the blunt bat known as Tony seeing through her bullshit.
I almost theorize that Tony may already be aware of Raidah’s bullshit. His BS Radar seems extremely sensitive, and he has zero patience for playing games or being insincere. If he’s encountered Raidah before, the two of them likely did not have a productive social exchange.
Which might be another reason why she tried to rope Walky into her social group for his “connection to the Dean” when the son of the Dean is right there.
Part of why Tony is so cynical about people is because he’s the son of the dean. Bet you anything he’s got no time for this trivial high school bullshit.
I’m thinking he’s already encountered Raidah and her manipulative attempts.
She pulled Walky into her orbit purely based on that his mom used to be married to the dean. If his son was walking around on campus she almost certainly at some point *attempted* to draw her into her sphere of influence.
I kind of hope this backfires and Tony’s conmections cause Raidah to nearly get expelled and as such stfu, sit tf down, and stop being like this
Her and Jennifer I stg
Expelled for being unremarkable and pointless
It’s fun because the reason Raidah doesn’t like her is a reason Tony *would* like her.
“She dropped a dime on her friend and roommate just for smoking pot!”
“… And?”
I’m really hoping someone points out to Radiah that bring mad at Sarah for not metaphorically setting herself on fire to keep Dana warm when she refused to get involved herself is quite a tall order to expect of someone.
I believe Sarah pointed that out to Raidah and it didn’t make a dent. Maybe someone Raidah actually cares about could make it stick, but I’m not sure there’s anyone she actually cares about!
Raidah: Nooooo you can’t socialize and form connections without my blessing and approval!
Shipping wars be like
This one made me burst out laughing! Well done.
Eat shit Raidah.
That is a quality word balloon.
I find it hard to draw flames that work, but you got the right level of woobly-ness that such things need but is easy to over shoot.
Living well is the best revenge!
True
It’s a shame that word balloon can’t be appropriated for the burning hatred and rage the comments section has towards some of these fictional characters.
That rage is non-existent and imaginary.
I’m imagining flames around this comment.
I’m adding imaginary guitar solos to the words “imaginary” and “non-existent”
she hates waltzing
She has tangled feelings about those two tangoing.
Oh dang, you got the flamin’ word balloon! Those are expensive but totally worth it.
Yeah I mean the upfront expense seems like a lot but you save so much on heat in the winter, beacuse National Fuel and Grid invokes so much anger that word ballon pays for itself.
It says a lot about Radiah that when she sees her ex-partner Jacob dating Lucy, her response is merely, “That’s new,” but seeing Sarah romantically entwined with Tony invokes hellfire.
Really drives home that things ultimately ended for a good reason.
Raidah said a thing a while back that sounded to me like masking her real feelings, but maybe she was telling the actual honest truth?
Here’s that thing: https://www.dumbingofage.com/2017/comic/book-7/02-everything-youve-ever-wanted/storied/
Counterpoint
And earlier, her rushing down to the lunch with Jacob & Joyce to defend her investment is also an argument that she was at least not as blase as she wanted to sound.
Mostly, I think she’s motivated more by anger and revenge. She’d expected Jacob would get with Joyce and that would have fanned her anger with Joyce. Other than that, what Jacob does might not matter much.
These are all the same link to the same comic.
Looks like someone forgot to close a tag and the system tried to fix it.
Yeah sorry. Just the first word was supposed to be a link.
How quickly it went from “Jacob deserves ME” to “Jacob deserves no one”.
*undignified cackling*
get it Raidah
Apart from that little jolt of schadenfreude I am really glad Sarah seems happy, and I hope she will stay so for a while.
The way I laughed. This is gonna be DELICIOUS.
Love [and Lust] are in the air at Indiana.
Oh I am READY for this
Sorry Radiah, no one here cares about your opinion enough to revolve their dating around your preferences. Seriously wondering if it will get through to her that she doesn’t have alot of influence over people who aren’t Karl.
Oh god Raidah just mind your business please
She’d probably have more time for real connections with people if she’d do just that.
IRONY.
Why is Raidah lurking around Read Hall, anyway? Reconnaissance? Doesn’t she have minions to do that, or not right now because Jennifer’s busy?
Also, hahaha get rekt Raidah.
Checking to see if Jennifer got Asher back or not.
“Sarah? Happy ?! How DARE she?!”
Even worse! Sarah is happy with a FOOTBALL PLAYER who is also THE SON OF THE DEAN. Raidah can’t even get the time of day from the Dean’s ex-wife’s dumber child.
They look like they’re about to tango, why are they standing like that
An absolute Gomez and Morticia vibe they’ve got going
Good. They’re one of the healthiest relationships in fiction. Just two people madly in love and reveling in their eccentricity together.
Sarah goes goth; pivots fully into Morticia-mode, vamp-dress and all.
Tony starts wearing a pinstripe suit. Speaks French at Sarah.
They go fencing on dates.
Oh, yeah, I’m HERE for this treatment. Patreon or Slipshine, def!
*digs out wallet
Okay I actually like Raidah now. This is the first sign of actual taste we’ve seen from her. Even if that taste is fully spite-based.
Would Raidah also be consternated by Joe and Joyce? Even without knowing how Joe’s been doing some work on himself?
Did she even interact with Joyce enough to have an opinion?
Joyce is a big reason Raidah and Jacob split. I’m sure she has thoughts about Joyce’s deserving of happiness.
That was over five years ago IRL – right?
Even if it was, I doubt Raidah is the person that lets things go.
She assumed at the time that Joyce and Jacob would be getting together. Maybe when she saw they didn’t her opinion changed and she blamed it all on Sarah. Might even have found from Jennifer that Sarah was originally behind setting Joyce after Jacob.
Game Face Joyce was there with Raidah (and Jacob and Dotty) for dinner at Galasso’s.
She might be bitterly amused.
HAPPINESS?!?? I won’t stand for it!
Raidah needs to recruit Ethan into her circle. It turns out his father is the inventor of the beer hat or something.
I’m kinda hoping Raidah tries to mess up Sarah’s relationship with Tony and ends up making them like each other more over their mutual dislike of Raidah’s nonsense.
I think it’s an entirely plausible outcome. Tony, as he has been established currently, has the opposite of approval for Raidah’s usual divide-manipulate-and-conquer tactics, and Sarah would go even more heart-eyes over someone both seeing what’s going on and defending her.
I could see Tony hearing the story and seeing through the bullshit immediately. “So you’re mad at her for doing something when you wouldn’t?”
Raidah reacts to Sarah being happy like beavers react to flowing water.
This in turn triggers Sarah’s emotional vampire thing, resulting in a feedback loop until she explodes from happiness and Raidah from rage.
I like how the reason beavers are so effective as a species is basically that one of them was neurotic and how he fixed the problem turned out to be so incredibly in their favour that the trait got fixed in the species.
“Dam you, Sarah!”
truly the best revenge is living well
Suck it Raidah.
Haha, this is actually really good.
Raidah accidentally scoring high on Balatro.
What we all been waiting for!
Looks like Raidah just discovered a new objective in her life. The fight will be Epic!
Burning with happiness for Sarah and Tony.
Raidah saved us from the apocalyptic disaster of a Keener presidency.
What new glories will she bring us?
Raidah, this is what happens when you take your eye off the ball! (Note: ‘Your eye’ in this context is ‘monomaniacal focus’ and ‘the ball’ is ‘causing endless suffering to a woman who tried to help your friend after you refused to lift a finger’.)
EAT IT RAIDAH I HATE YOUR GUTS HAHAHAHA
It hadn’t occurred to me to think about how Raidah would react to this.
Amazing, perfect, 10/10!
Sooo her business at this point….
Ex-boyfriend is dating someone new: *sleep*
Sarah is dating Tony: “HOW DARE SHE”
This is fine.
“What? My nemesis that doesn’t see me as relevant is obtaining happiness?! That’s illegal and I will do something about it!”
Focus, Raidah – Lucy isn’t with Walky anymore, that means your path to his mom is gone. Your priority should be the evil plans that have a snowball’s chance in hell of working, not the annoying one that goes nowhere.
Ooh, it clicked for me that this probably bothers the crap out of Raidah not only because she hates Sarah but even more because Tony is well-connected.
Ah yes casual homophobia ‘it’s just a fad’ and ‘rage at a woman who you’ve only done wrong for being happy’ what a great start to this soon to be annihilation by short king. Hopefully Sarah’s insecurity doesn’t run interference for the incubus.
I don’t really think it’s homophobia, more that she explicitly told Jennifer to get back with Asher, and don’t think she cares about the gender of the person he is with.
You could be right, but I don’t know if there has been comics where Raidah has been explicitly neutral about LGBT people so I don’t really assume the best of her relative to that. You are right that the surprise might be relative to Jennifer regardless though.
Please don’t ruin this for Sarah somehow 🥺
Also… Happy Valentine’s, Raidah
we don’t see you with any lover
Bwhahahahahaha