Rhea Snaketail returns from the dead, befriending a Demon who falls in love with an Angel. The afterlife ain't what it used to be!
Blindsprings
Kadi Fedoruk
Tamaura, wrested into a world 300 years in the future, must find a way to save the magic fading from her country.
Fantomestein
Beka Duke
Desperate for companionship, Frankenstein's Monster pretends to be the Opera Ghost. A grave mistake.
Dumbing of Age
David M Willis
Joyce has been homeschooled her entire life until now, when she's suddenly a freshman in college! Things don't go well.
Mac Hall
Matt Boyd
The legendary early-aughts webcomic that inspired a wave of webcomic creators.
Paint the Town Red
Windy, Winter Jay Kiakas
Winona runs a werewolf shelter with partner in crime, Odile in the Gothic city of Merlot. One day they take in an injured vampire, and soon unravels many of the dark secrets of Merlot.
Countdown to Countdown
Velinxi
Iris Black is a self-proclaimed inventor with the curious ability to bring his drawings to life, and yearns to find a space where he can use his powers freely.
Guilded Age
T Campbell, John Waltrip, Florence Machina
Welcome to the saga of the working-class adventurer! Enjoy the complete story with new annotations daily!
2 Slices
RJ Morel
After a case of mistaken identity, will awkward Daisuke find help from excitable Mamo, or will his love life be thrown completely off track?
Beeserker
TJ Cordes
This comic is about a robot powered by bees, but it's also about the kind of people who think filling a robot with bees is a good idea, and why they're wrong.
Namesake
Isa, Meg
There's ghosts at your heels and fairy tale worlds ahead. What do you do? Jump down the rabbit hole!
The Otherknown
Lorian Merriman
Chandra is a 12-year-old accidental time traveler with a reluctant new dad, who happens to be a member of a feared galactic crime syndicate.
Cyanide & Happiness
Explosm
Satire, dark humor and surreal humor.
BOOKMARK Click "Tag Page" to bookmark a page. When you return to the site, click "Goto Tag" to continue where you left off.
BUFFER WATCH
Comics are currently drawn and uploaded through:
….Am I the only one who kinda feels like Malaya sorta has a point? In the sense that she just doesn’t like Sal and doesn’t feel that she needs to get along with her just because she’s Marcie’s best friend, or because everyone else thinks she’s cool or anything? I mean it’s not like Sal is any more pleasant to her, even this ‘hanging out’ biz seems more begrudging than her making an effort to get to know her
you’re not alone. Most of my bad feelings about her come from an alternate universe. But this universe she seems fine so far, given that she’s reacting to how others are treating her.
Sorry, but I don’t think snogging is sexy. It refers specifically to tongueing and slobbering all over each other’s mouths, and I do not find that sexy at ALL.
So the word fits.
Bonking is more of a kids’ naughty word (“hehehe bonking”) and shagging is quite crude. Soooo I don’t think they’re supposed to be sexy either?
cheat or swindle (someone) so as to deprive them of something.
“he thought he’d been diddled out of his change”
•deliberately falsify.
“he diddled his income tax returns”
Diddle has a lot of definitions. Aside from the ones above, it can also mean “to delay or procrastinate” – eg I am currently diddling around posting on DoA instead of working like I ought to be.
Urban Dictionary sure is trying to make it dirty, though.
Malaya hits so close to home, she knocked Sal’s accent right out of her. So Sal’s persona is at least partially a deliberate pose – how unlike most 19 year olds.
None of them. There’s no indication her accent has vanished in the last panel, nor do I see a reason to think it’s faked. Those Southern accents are mindworms IME, you pick them up fast and shake them slowly.
Yeah, I agree. While I’ve never really cared about Malaya enough to either like or hate her (even in SP), I actually don’t see her as bongoy here, just as being cranky over having a really good point. Dunno what it says about me that I would’ve probably responded to Sal in the same way haha ^<__<^;; (although probably a bit less abrasive, still sarcastic and cranky)
No, she’s on target with the first TWO panels. It’s completely fair for Malaya not to give a damn. But… it’s Malaya. Let’s not kid ourselves on why someone might dislike her. And I say this as someone who adores her as a character. If you had to deal with her as a person, she’d be mostly unlikable. Mostly – It takes a lot to be thoroughly unlikable.
(I wanted to do the picture, but I don’t know how to do that text-link thingu. Is it code or cite? Despite having done this for a while, I have no idea what half of these things do…)
In fairness, the only other format for Sal to use would have been, “…We could hang out tonight…” Doesn’t make Malaya any less of a boxbot to turn a single word into Sal deigning to grant permission, as though she was doing Malaya a favour. Seems to me Malaya was trying to get a rise out of Sal, and lacks foresight into what setting fire to a proffered olive branch will do for her other friendships.
No, Sal started this. She came out swinging, verbally, and while Malaya didn’t do anything to de-escalate, there was no olive branch, just insults and condescension.
I don’t think she was trying to get a rise out of Sal. I don’t know what the Malaya in other universes did for people to have a general dislike for her, but Sal’s mean-ness to Malaya always seems super unwarranted in the this universe imo. I wouldn’t take too kindly to being called a “cumstain” either.
Malaya was a jerk on the other universe, with special contempt for ‘nerds’. (Given where she worked, and who the bulk of the audience of Shortpacked! was, that endeared her to nobody, in or out of universe.) Possibly more importantly, she made a move on Leslie after she and Robin had temporarily broken up, which meant there was no way anybody was going to do anything but hate her.
As opposed to this universe where the worst she’s done is be every bit as snarky as Sal, and rise to the bait when someone else (Amazi-Girl, Sal) is trying to pick a fight with her.
She made a big deal about going after Leslie, THEN came to the sudden realization that she wasn’t actually into girls after Leslie had gotten really interested. So yeah, extra hateable.
Unlikely we’ll see something like that in this universe, unless it’s a temporary issue with Carla that’s solved when she learns Carla has a dick.
I like Malaya. She’s an entertaining jerk like Mike, but unlike SP! Mike, she gets her comeuppance with some regularity.
It *is* true that on-camera in this universe, Malaya hasn’t really been too annoying, but Sal being completely unreasonable has been, well, not a thing. I could see jealousy amping up an existing dislike, but not creating one from wholecloth. Given that, AND the other universe, Malaya being a jackass in general seems like an implied fact – but I’m open to the idea of being wrong. And in your defense, whether she’s a jerk or not, your read of the narrative thus far is totally valid.
Malaya strikes me as the type of person who’d see getting her ass kicked as validation. “My words hit you so hard you had hit back with fists.” She probably also so thinks she can get Marcie to break away from Sal. (“See what that savage did to me?”) The idea that Marcie knows Sal is like that probably wouldn’t even cross her mind.
I don’t know, Malaya agrees to meet up with Sal and the first thing Sal calls her is a cumstain and then continues to insult her. It’s pretty much ‘we should hang out because Marcie likes you for some reason, but I can’t stand your guts and im not going to hide that’
Malaya’s always been a jerk, but her behaviour here isn’t really unprovoked.
Gunna have to read through DoA again (just finished yesterday) because Malaya came off as egocentric and kinda annoying, but she also was the first one to fight that crazy vigelante bongo trying to ruin Marcie and her friend psycho Sal’s fun, AND she is even trying to learn sign language so she can make communication with her new friend easier.
I dont know maybe My view is being scewed by Sal’s completely uncalled for rage-machining here.
At least Amber takes out her aggression on people who are commiting crimes. Sal never should have had her life ruined by a mistake she made as a young teenager, but she’s a legal adult now. If she doesnt grow up she’s going into jail for serious.
I don’t think Sal was really calling Malaya a ‘cumstain’ — at least not to her face. I think she was using the term as she was muttering to herself — similar to the way people call other people ‘fuckers’ or ‘sonuvabongoes’, as in “I’m going to wait another ten minutes and if that fucker/sonuvabongo hasn’t shown up by then it’ll be just to bad for him” — and it was just coincidence/bad timing that Malaya was there to hear it.
indeed. I agree. It totally seems like Sal was being a total evil bongo to Malaya, not only acting like she GETS to give Malaya permission to hang out, but insulting her while she is doing it, and Malaya totally calls her out on it saying she doesnt need to be valadated by Sal. And Sal being the complete anger avatar that she is overreacts and responds with violence.
The whole problem here is that all these fans are so far up Sal’s booty that it seems Sal is anything but the one in the wrong here.
The sign language for how she will react is so simple even I know it. Only requires one finger, two if you feel particularly strongly about the matter.
That’s the logical fallacy of thinking that labels are reversible, or that groupings are reversible.
Example from my life and dealing with the national organization for my church Up until recently they used “Wiccan” and “Pagan” as reversible terms, but they actually describe two different sets. All Wiccans are Pagan, but not all Pagans are Wiccan. Comparable would be saying all Christians are Catholic because all Catholics are Christian (don’t believe what Westboro Baptist Church says about Catholics).
So thumbs and fingers are both digits, but thumbs are not fingers.
Eh, maybe, but given the nature of the meeting and what Sal said, I get the impression Marcie wasn’t invited, and they’re on campus at a school Marcie doesn’t attend, so it’d be pretty exceedingly coincidental if she happened across them.
Sal isn’t so much crazy anymore…she’s just an alpha type. Malaya’s never really had to deal with one of those. She’s now learning. Mess with the bull…you get the horns. It wasn’t unprovoked. Not at all…but she’s going to learn the hard way that sometimes getting that last quip in, even when the other person is being a jerk, isn’t always worth it.
No, Sal is fucking crazy. This isn’t normal behavior. Sal’s first instinct to confrontation is to beat the shit out of them. Yes–Malaya provoked her. But why the hell is that a justifiable excuse to attack her? It’s not. You don’t get to just beat people up because your feelings got hurt. But this is how Sal deals with things. And it’s gonna land her ass in jail.
According to the Schrodinger’s Shit thought experiment, the shit is both real and not real, existing in an indeterminate state until it is witnessed, which collapses the probability waveform.
But since we are all observing it, we can now state conclusively the reality of the shit.
Wait a sec, if Sal attacks Malaya she commits assault. This is a crime (a violent one at that) and will give Amber/Amazi-Girl justification in attacking her. I have theories
The campus superhero is busy playing Apples to Apples right now. Malaya isn’t the kind of person to go crying about a beatdown, so anything that doesn’t get witnessed probably isn’t going to get back to her.
The bigger danger is Marcie showing up and getting pissed off with Sal.
Amber is still at Joyce’s party probably still playing with Cyclonus. She ain’t around to witness this and Malaya probably wouldn’t talk about getting her ass kicked anyways.
So on the one hand…yeah, Malaya IS totally unpleasant and I have never much liked any incarnation of her. On the other….Sal just went from calling someone unpleasant to ready to kick in their teeth in record time.
As satisfying as it was to see Blaine get his just desserts, it’ll be nearly as satisfying to see Malaya get slapped around like the little bongo she is.
Yeah, Malaya’s abrasive, but Sal couldn’t be offering this olive branch with more resentment and bad faith if she tried. Malaya’s right to call her out – she’s just not doing it in a useful way.
There’s a thin line between “Did nothing to de-escalate” and “asked for it.” Maybe I’m seeing too much of her previous incarnation, but I put Malaya squarely in the latter category.
Its not Malaya’s fault Sal is completely cuckoo bananas.
She’s being a total ass right now, between acting like she’s doing Malaya a favour by hanging out, then proceeding to threaten to beat the shit out of her.
I’m usually just a lurker here and have never commented before, but I have a really hard time with the phrase “asking for it”. Did Sal have a right to be angry at Malaya for provoking her? Yes. Does that mean Malaya was asking to be assaulted? No. It doesn’t matter how much someone provokes you – there is no thin line. No one’s ever “asking for it”. Even if someone is in your face screaming at you and calling you names, even if they could leave and instead they stay and keep screaming, they are still not asking to be the victim of violence. The line is on the other side – where you have the choice to exit instead of *becoming violent*. Sal crossed it, not Malaya.
you can easily say someone is your favorite character in a fictional webcomic that you wouldn’t like in real life. Villains and jerks tend to be more popular and better characters in general than heroes. Heroes are boring, villains are interesting.
Yeah, but it would be like if someone said their favorite character was Malfoy, or their favorite Pony was Rarity. I’m just saying I’d make it a point never to be alone with them in a room that I didn’t know all the exits to…
Can’t say I have, no. As a professional internet nerd, I (thankfully) only have enough free time to skim the surface of most fandoms. Which means I get to hang around with sensible people who like Apple Jack and Fluttershy.
Yeah for me my favorite character and the one I self identify with are completely different. Boba Fett might be my favorite Star Wars character. But I do not identify with him in anyway whatsoever.
No, the plane was in Die Harder. The first one takes place in Holly’s office building.
And thanks, Mendo. Now I’m wondering what ass-weasels are like. *shudders*
Ellis is the cloned witch girl from “El Cajador de Bruja” released in the states as “Witch Hunter”. Ellis was a combination of Loli cute and terrifying magic creature of immense power. You can find the videos on the Funimation site.
If were being honest here, Faz was my favorite character at the beginning of Shortpacked, he lost that though after he began to lose his manipulative personality and cleverness, and just became a butt monkey. I love villains.
I could never hate Faz. His smug face was enjoyable and basically made every awful thing he did just feel enjoyable. Like he just calmly enjoys/experiences being a dick.
But with Faz, he had a point other than “miserable b-word”. He was a backstabbing suck-up, but a backstabbing suck-up with a goal in mind. What’s Malaya’s goal other than “be nice to Marcie” (Who we actually know less about, personality wise, than Malaya).
…Why are you assuming Malaya’s goal ist o be nice to Marcie? Her goal is to be herself – that includes ‘friends with people she likes’. Why does she like Marcie? I have no fucking idea – but I’m not going to assume it’s part of a con, precisely because she isn’t Faz.
I’m all grown up and junk now. Sierra’s still top tier but she’s getting beat out by the Malayas and Billies. Clearly being a B-woid is what I’m into now. B-wordy girls are hot.
Ouch, I usually vote to see more Malaya in polls. I guess there is something I am totally missing, because she seems annoying at best, but people keep calling her a villain in the same way as they do Blaine, which I don’t get. Malaya hasn’t hurt anyone. I’d waaaaaay sooner hang out with Malaya than Mike.
Mike (usually) falls into “Jerkass Has A Point” territory. He’s an asshole, but chooses his spots for best effect. Malaya goes bongo mode seemingly because it’s the only way she knows how to be. Here or the Walkyverse, we’ve seen nothing to counter or even explain otherwise.
Eh, nah. He’s pretty hit or miss overall. A lot of his attempted jibes are really more ‘annoying gnat’ than ‘biting commentary’ You’re just intentionally forgetting the misses.
Geeze, but Malaya’s an idiot. Girl with a known bad temper extending the olive twig for the sake of a mutual friend and you’re STILL full of the insults…
I think the argument is that Malaya wasn’t very smart to provoke Sal like that. Then again, I can’t honestly expect Malaya to be anything but provocative in this scenario – she isn’t very diplomatic, and Sal has just repeatedly insulted her.
Yep, this. I know Sal’s being less than nice, but Malaya just doesn’t know when to shut up. Up until the third panel I was (kinda) with Malaya, but Sal’s expression and probable tone when she calls Malaya unpleasant should have been a loud and clear “Shut. UP.” to Malaya. Sal’s hardly diplomatic herself, but she’s making the effort. Malaya, well, isn’t.
I really wouldn’t call what Sal’s doing an effort to be diplomatic. She’s basically attempting to basically magic Malaya and her being cool without any sort of compromise on Sal’s part.
Okay readers of Dumbing of Age, please take opinion you have about these characters that stem from the Walkyverse and forget them when you are here. This is a universe that isn’t supposed to connect to the Walkyverse in the slightest (besides characters being reused) We need to judge characters based on what we know about them from this comic not from the other comics.
Her role in Shortpacked was basically to pee on everything everyone loved and then whine about how nobody liked her. Mind, I like Malaya, but she was intentionally a grating, self-centered character with not an ounce of self-awareness as to how her own actions contributed to people’s reactions to her.
Malaya never whined about people not liking her. Malaya actively avoided most of the cast of Shortpacked. Only Leslie and Ultra-Car were people she wanted to spend time with. Everyone else was neutral or hated.
She tried to help Leslie be happy, even after they’d broken up and even went personally to confront Leslie’s mother about the shitty way they treated their daughter.
Yes.
And she did that in a pretty weird, immature way. That’s all I’m saying. I’m not saying she had bad intentions, and I’m not saying that what she did didn’t work, to some extent, I’m saying that Malaya has spent so much time hating people and being unpleasant, she’s not very good at helping people even when she wants to.
She was originally unpleasant cause she was mean almost constantly. Not in a haha way but realistically mean.
Personally I never rrally had anything against her and felt that eventually her character grew to be more like Mike, as in either so cartoonishly mean thats it funny or mean but has a really good point.
Basically me at her age. I am still somewhat foul-mouthed and I still think humans can be largely unpleasant to be around, but I’m not nearly as abrasive as I used to be. I’ve grown out of most of my schadenfreude, but not all of it. I still reserve some for those who deserve it.
in Shortpacked, Malaya’s toxic misanthropy could be played for laughs or just dismissed as comic exaggeration. Here, in the more grounded Dumbiverse? Not so much. Contrast with Sal, where we’ve seen enough of her and her backstory to know where her issues come from. So she comes off as more… “Relatable” seems like the wrong word. “Understandable?” All we know about Malaya is “Full time bongo, except WRT Marcie”. We don’t know why. We dont’ know if Marcie knows why. She’s just The Friend Nobody Likes right now and not everyone is willing to cut her slack on the grounds of “There must be a reason”. (There wasn’t one in Shortpacked, but again, Comedy)
That is part of the problem. DoA Malaya has had very limited panel time and has only interacted with a small subset of characters. We really don’t know much about her beyond the surface traits, of which misanthropy is the standout. At least in Shortpacked she had that odd-but-touching relationship with Ultra Car/Carla as a saving grace. Here we’ve got…what, her willingness to learn sign language to better buds with Marcie?
Heh. Just realized that learning ASL was actually Sal’s suggestion, not an idea that started with Malaya or Marcie. She deserve’s credit for taking the effort, but it wasn’t Malaya’s idea.
Ok that is true. But abusive fuckwards are sort of outside the spectrum of worstitude for me. They’re their own thing.
Malaya to me is among the worst of the people who are actually people. And not, y’know, monsters.
Horrible, but horrible with style and purpose. DoA!Mike hasn’t gone as far as SP!Mike (yet), but also hasn’t had his ass handed to him by Robin, either (or died and came back).
Mike to me is also among the worst, but not yet in DoA, really. Mainly because he hasn’t really popped up often enough. SP!Mike was softened by Amber and Donna eventually and Malaya by UC a little bit (tho they both more or less hated the world together), so they’re both not irredeemable to me.
I just really don’t like Malaya. Regardless of what Sal is doing here, which is also awful, no question. But Malaya’s general attitude, always, about all things, is just my least favorite thing about her in all iterations.
Yeah I tend to not like people who jump to violence quickly. Especially over stuff like this. I might not like Malaya but at least she doesn’t try to attack people.
With the situation with Amazi-Girl, Malaya charged her pretty quickly to try to attack her at the slightest provocation and got knocked down pretty quickly.
Then when Amazi-Girl was restrained, Malaya then attacked her in retaliation because she is vindictive.
Malaya’s also the one trying to provoke even FURTHER escalation here into an actual fight – yeah Sal is being threatening holding her up against the wall, but she could easily let go and storm off still. :V
I wouldn’t say justified. Sal is being a baby got back level ass, true. But Malaya’s on the same level, by feeding into it. I think an upraised middle finger and walking away would be far more telling than staying to fight a pointless battle.
Of course I could be wrong. A rough fight between the two where Malaya holds her own might actually earn her some respect from Sal…
I would totally be down with this, but Sal seems to be awesome incarnate when she’s not drunk. Malaya winning would be pretty great though. She does get a lot of exercise, and Sal is a smoker…
Best possible scenario: Marcie walks by and either sees Sal and Malaya fighting or sees Sal standing over a beaten up Malaya. Marcie than proceeds to deck Sal with one pissed off punch.
Holy shit, wow. Sal is being horrible. Calling her a cumstain and everything to her face, the “allowing” to hang out.. This is about the most disrespectful you can be. Short of spitting on her dead mother, maybe? Wtf. Is sal out of her mind? Does she know she’s saying these things out loud?
Yeah, you think she could disguise her disdain for her a little bit if she actually wants this plan to work. It’s especially messed up cause Malaya seems to be completely happy just hanging out with Marcie, it’s Sal who misses her best friend, but Sal’s acting like she’s the one doing Malaya a favour.
I find that to be one of the best moments thoguh. Situations with no clear good guy, just two people who areore of a gray area. Kinda like GoT. Sometimes there aren’t good guys, just people who you hate more than the other.
Malaya is the good guy in this scenario. And frankly she’s done nothing all that bad in this entire _comic_.
Forget about the alternate universe Malaya who committed the horrible crime of not liking nerdy things. (That is, the crime of being this-universe Billie minus the crippling alcoholism.) Look at this Malaya. She’s been unfriendly, but almost exclusively to people who were being irredeemable assholes. Like Sal here. Complete. Fucking. Asshole.
She’s hardly interacted with most of the characters. Reserving judgement on how close she is to Walkyverse Malaya until we see more time on panel, but what we have seen of her isn’t very pleasant.
Agreed! The amount of fan bias that leaks through from other Willis comics continues to surprise me… So far, I don’t dislike Malaya at all. She seems like someone who tells it like it is in a pretty rude and unpleasant way, but there are worse crimes. She’s just young and angry, like several other DOA characters. She needs to get her shit together eventually, but the brilliance of this comic is watching them screw things up and grow in the process. Learning ASL for friendship seems indicative of a few really positive character traits.
Personally I am of the opinion that Sal needs to get off her high horse. I like her sure, but Malaya is right. Sal is pretending to be the better person here but she can’t accept that her friend is making new friends. That happens, it is annoying when you don’t get along but guess what Sal, life is like that sometimes. All you do by assaulting Malaya is showing people that you are the unrestrained teenager you used to be.
Sal has vaulted over undiplomatic and dived headfirst into horrible asshole. I consider myself a pretty nice guy, and I’d be telling her to fuck right off is she talked to me the way she’s talking to Malaya.
Right? I consider myself easy to get along with but I’m 100% sure if I were in this situation, Sal would be slamming me against that wall just as quick! No one should have to kowtow to Sal, even if she does have a sweet bike and great clothes and that cool devil-may-care attitude… What was I saying again?
But…Malaya’s /not/ really that aggressively rude to most people, as far as we’ve seen. Certainly no more so than Carla, and way less so than Mike. I mean, we don’t have much of a barometer to work from here, but at the very least, she seems pretty cool with Marcie, and going to the trouble to try and learn sign language because you met somebody with a disability is downright /considerate/.
I think Marcie actually chooses not to speak (and I don’t think we know why) but yeah, learning ASL to make a friend shows that she can be considerate and dedicated if she finds a worthy reason.
Her learning ASL was a direct result of Sal suggesting she do so, although Marcie’s obviously been doing the teaching. It wasn’t Malaya’s idea originally. Whether it would have occurred to her on her own (or if Marcie would have suggested it) is unclear.
Malaya in DoA has been abrasive but not the total asshole of Shortpacked. Meanwhile Sal is being a huge jerk. “Cumstain”, “like menstruation”, acting like she’s doing Malaya a huge favor in deigning to maybe hang out with her a bit. And now, apparently a huge, violent, jerk.
Yeah, like it or not, but this behavior has a word in the real world: bullying.
And the reasons for it are understandable. Sal disliked Malaya even before her and Marcie started getting on and she’s way too jealous to act genuinely conciliatory to the person she feels hurt by (because she’s “stealing” her friend in her eyes). But that doesn’t make it any more right for Sal to be resorting to so many bad methods to drive her off.
Sal perfectly summed up my feelings towards Malaya: ‘Jesus, you are unpleasant.’
Malaya has this unfortunate desire to provoke everyone who comes near her resulting in them despising her (or despising her more than they already did).
Yeah, Sal’s not a perfect person either in this situation, but she was willing to try to improve their relationship from ‘hate each other’ to ‘tolerate each other’ for Marcie and is actually nice to MOST people.
I question Sal’s actual willingness. She arranged this meeting, yes, but really doesn’t seem to want to be here. If she can’t even extend an olive branch to Malaya without thinking of her as a “cumstain”, I can’t give her points for trying to improve their relationship because she’s obviously not trying very hard.
Sal’s idea of extending an olive branch is to call Malaya a cumstain and act like speaking to her is a chore, and the only reason she’s doing it is because she’s possessive of Marcie. When Malaya has the gall to call Sal out on her ridiculously inappropriate behaviour, Sal slams her into a wall and threatens to kick the shit out of her.
Malaya was a gigantic asshole in the other verse, but here she’s been at worst mildly unpleasant and has shown remarkable depth in her friendship with Marcie. I know we all like Sal more than Malaya, but that isn’t a justification for how genuinely terrible she is being right now
Sal called Malaya “unpleasant” for telling her off after a string of rudeness and insults–unpleasant, no?
And she’s definitely doing the provoking. Certainly not trying to improve their relationship–that would be Malaya, who came to meet her when requested.
A string of insults that came after Sal, who has never once been even remotely polite to Malaya, insults Malaya by implying that spending time with her is painful.
Sal’s just being an asshole because he can’t have Marcie to herself.
As much as I agree, I don’t see that ending well. Sal with even more emotional turmoil sounds like a recipe for strife; maybe Joyce gets overly worshipful again, and Sal lashes out at her.
Oh yes. Their suffering will be exquisite.
“Jesus, you are unpleasant.” Sal, you might not want to fling stones about while you’re standing inside that glass house. Just saying. If you can’t at least be civil while offering an olive branch, you should probably hold on to it for a little longer unless you want exactly this to happen.
I understand that she’s desperate not to lose her best (maybe only?) friend, but that’s exactly why this gambit is not working for her. She doesn’t want to hold out that olive branch. She wants Malaya to de-exist and stop taking up a percentage of Marcie’s attention. She’s doing this in bad faith and it’s obvious – and it’s really not surprising that the already-abrasive Malaya is responding so poorly. At least, not from the audience point of view. I’m not sure that Sal understands her own reasons for doing this, or realizes how much of a butt opening she’s being.
Mind you, I’m not saying Malaya’s winning any prizes for personality either, and she’s not calling Sal out in a useful or constructive way. But Sal’s definitely the one who has to answer most for how badly this is going.
I can see no way in which Malaya is wrong here. The attitude Sal is copping here is pretty well unacceptable, and Malaya has no reason to take that shit.
“Yes, your honor, I did kick her in the stomache five times, but you don’t understand, she /talked back when I insulted her/!”
Controversial opinion, but Malaya has a point. Sal invites her out even though they aren’t friends and Sal has taken every point possible to reiterate how not friends they are. Sal opens with insulting her and calling her names and then condescends to her and is only doing this because she’s pulling a Becky and getting her jelly all over the place.
She’s fully in her rights to call Sal out for that and while she’s unpleasant and rude about that, nothing she’s saying is as out-of-line as what Sal has been opening with and let’s not forget her habit of dismissing Malaya each time she’s encountered her either by glaring as she hung out with Marcie, intentionally diminishing her name, or straight up wondering why they hang out with her.
And whether Sal intends to our not, she definitely feels entitled to Malaya accepting her olive branch simply because Sal doesn’t respect her enough to genuinely apologize and build bridges and pretty much wanted an excuse to beat her up way more than actually accept a weaker position in making nice with her friend’s friend (which its worth noting that when Malaya likes someone in either universe, she’s fiercely loyal and has shown genuine effort in her interactions with Marcie)
She’s still going to get her ass handed to her for this, but she’s got some points.
I don’t think there’s anything controversial about it, and judging by the other comments neither do a lot of people. They’re both being pretty terrible here, but Malaya’s actually got some justification for a change.
I did say “some” justification. Malaya handled her end of things in typical (ie awful) Malaya fashion, but that doesn’t change the fact that she was provoked.
Not sold on this going to a beating yet. Sal might show some self-control and de-escalate, or we might see a third actor show up to intervene and diffuse things. Willis is rarely obvious, and Malaya spitting out her own teeth is obvious.
And why did Malaya show up? It’s not in character for her from what little we’ve seen. She appears to only be interested in hanging out with Marcie, not Sal or Carla (who isn’t really part of the group anyway). Did Sal misrepresent things, or did Malaya really opt to come see Sal? If the latter, what’s her reason for doing so? Something screwy going on here.
I’m torn between Loving Sal and wanting to see her put Malaya into a headlock and make her feel pain and the realization that you actually are making loads of sense. Hmm.
Lot of “what if Marcie shows up” thinking going on. More interested in Carla popping up myself, and if she’d take a side in a fight. Be interesting to see if/how the Shortpacked relationship between Malaya and Carla maps to DoA.
Yeah, you grab those tits, Sal. You grab ’em good.
Fine, I know that’s not actually what’s happening. But it was what I saw at first glance.
More seriously, I imagine that part of what makes it hard for Sal is that Marcie originally hated Malaya too. Then Malaya took Sal’s eyeroll about just learning sign language, and suddenly she and Marcie were getting along. Can’t help the whole “Sal is a bit possessive of people who actually like her, for some strange reason” thing.
Well, it has to be the right type of fertilizer and the right kind of fuel. Doesn’t help that the fertilizer carries a chip-shaped detonator on her shoulder.
The one fucking night Amazi-Girl isn’t around! Perhaps we should ask that plain and certainly not up to any misdeeds Amber O’Malley if she’s seen her around.
I am completely siding with Malaya here. She’s being ALLOWED to hang out with the great and mighty Sal? GEE WHAT AN HONOR.
I would probably have a similar reaction in being told that I suck but I’m ALLOWED to stay in the presence of someone even though they’re obviously too good for me. It gets my blood boiling.
When you’re that accustomed to constantly spewing profanity, doing otherwise is hard even under optimal circumstances. She’s utterly justified in cussing, that’s not even an issue. Incitement of violence is iffy, but we’ll see how it plays out.
Not sure about that. Go back through her limited appearances in DoA. She’s got a surprising number of strips where she doesn’t cuss at all. Borders on polite in some of them, and she’s not even abrasive to Sal in most. Shortpacked Malaya she ain’t.
I sympathized with Sal up to this point – jealousy is a hard thing to deal with, and it looks very much like Marcie is her ONLY friend, so her insecurity makes sense. But this? This is not a good-faith effort to make nice with Marcie’s new friend. Sal’s making it pretty clear from her attitude that she doesn’t like Malaya at all, and doesn’t mean to even TRY to be pleasant.
And Malaya’s got a real point here – since getting to college, most of the people Sal has encountered have been wowed by her ‘badass’ air, and I honestly think that there was a part of her that expected Malaya would be the same way, despite all evidence to the contrary. The only way Sal was going to ‘make nice’ tonight would be if Malaya bent over backwards for her, because she started out with a clear attitude of “I hate you, you should be really grateful that I’m giving you a chance.”
Basically, yeah, Malaya is a rude little shit, but Sal is the one in the wrong here, even before she physically attacked.
I agree, though I am also part of the tiny group that liked Walkyverse Malaya. All this talk about that they are both jerks? Malaya is not the one committing physical assault.
Well, I’d say they both are exactly the wrong kind of personality for this kind of encounter, but Sal is the one who had the bright idea of trying to befriend Malaya while making it abundantly clear that she doesn’t really want to.
Wow, that came off completely wrong – sounds as if the worst thing Sal’s done is bad-mouthing Malaya. Point was that this whole meeting was a mistake to set up.
calling her out here only to call her names, then she acts like an arrogant prick acting like malaya should be honored to hang out with someone who calls her a “cumstain” and when malaya calls her on her shit she attacks her.
again, sal is being an asshole. I’m not even going to read the comments on this strip since i know 90% of them will be acting like Sal is somehow justified in the assault she’s pulling here.
I actually think most people agree with you. Have some faith! Not in humanity of course, but in the fact that Willis’ fans are somewhat un-sheeplike. XD
I think that we’re witnessing the first few steps of the Sally Walkerton death spiral. Things will probably get a lot worse for her before they get better and Amazi-Girl may find herselfe surprisurprising position of having to help save her Nemesis from herself and from self-destruction.
As for this fight? Well, right outside the dorm room, in full view of Campus Security’s cameras is probably a bad locale to choose. I see a suspension or credit loss in Sal and Malaya’s immediate futures.
OMG! Between Amber’s start of her rage being Sal, and Sal’s life being ruined by that same day…and knowing how Pro-Gamer Sal has the potential to be and the fact that Amber doesnt like to be social and Sal doesnt like to talk…
Much as I hate to say it, Malaya does have a point. Sal does need to realise that Marcie is entitled to have other friends and spend time with other people as she wishes. Not everybody in life is going to like you, and learning to live with that is one of the most important lessons you’ll ever learn as a person.
Looking further than the current altercation, tho.
(Not adding proper links because WordPress sends any message with more than one URL to the moderation folder.)
Sal has been a bomb looking to blown off pretty much since she arrived. -She almost went to a fist fight with Ruth (/book-2/01-pajama-jeans/authority/)
-She was about to “paint this parking lot” with Amazi-girl’s blood ( /book-4/03-up-all-night-to-get-vengeance/fightme/ )
-Once drunk with Jason ( /book-5/02-threes-a-crowd/walking/ )
The 2 first were from provocations… but for the last one, she’s pretty much looking to get into a fight, ANY fight ; and mention that Marcie’s the only thing stopping her.
My point is that if even if the current fight is stopped, she’ll explode eventually, and the damage radius will get worse the longest it’s left unattended.
Betting someone else shows up before it gets out of hand. Could be almost anyone, Sal’s probably not so far gone that she’s beat someone’s head in right in front of a witness. I kind of like the idea of Joe walking past and saying something that gets both of them pissed with him, but that’s just me.
Hopefully this is Willis’ way of getting Sal to admit to why she’s so angry and give people a chance.
The thing that is so aggravating is that Sal has proved herself to be a great person, intelligent, and thoughtful at times So we know she has the potential to be beloved. Maybe she just needs to realize between some of the people she lives near by that there are some great people she can open up to and not leave herself vulnerable. Hell Even Walky and Billy are going through some serious growing up.
Just did an archive dig through all of Malaya’s strips – less than 20 of them as of today – and I’m struck by the fact that she’s interacted with no one except Sal, Marcie, and Carla, unless you want to count the fight with Amazi-Girl as interaction. She’s not the type of person who’s going to have a lot of friends (Marcie may be the only one outside of maybe some unseen derby players) or get into casual conversations off panel – so where does panel 4 come from? It’s spot on in terms of accuracy when it comes to Joyce, but how does she know that stuff? Unless Sal’s been talking about Joyce’s girl-crush on her in front of Malaya, who told her? Did Sal tell Marcie and she relayed it along?
You forget that Sal always takes charge; even just in the set of characters you named, there’s enough basis to have that sort of envious-disdain reaction.
Just reread the parking lot/amazigirl sequence and see how Sal is essentially taking charge of their entire group.
‘Sides, there’s reason enough to imagine stuff has happened off-panel: Even Sal and ‘wonderbread’ have had off-screen continued study session interactions alluded to.
Though if your point prompts Willis to add more Sal to the strips, I’m all in favor.
You really think anyone in the Carla/Marcie/Malaya grouping has ever expressed a desire to brush Sal’s hair? No way in hell. That’s a Joyce thing, and where did Malaya hear it unless it came from Sal somehow? Apparently Sarah isn’t the only one who’s been talking about Joyce’s weirdness behind her back – but it’s kind of surprising that Sal has even registered on the crazy bible girl hero worshipping like that, much less felt like passing it along to Marcie or Malaya.
Well, either that, or we have to accept that Malaya subconscious is speaking there. I don’t see her wanting to brush Sal’s hair for her, but the folks calling for a lesbian slipshine with the two sure would.
Here is what I think is gonna happen: They will beat on each other for a while, and after blowing off some steam that way, they will sit down on the sidewalk next to each other, having found a modicum of mutual respect and they’ll have a nice pleasant talk.
Wow there’s so much Malaya hate here, and most of it boiled over from the Walkyverse. This may be the most times I’ve seen the word “bongo” on the page.
I liked Walkyverse Malaya… and I kind of like this one too. She’s abrasive sure, but she’s also kind of fun, too.
First, who set up this meeting? Sal asked for it.
Then Sal shows up itching for a fight. Basically “girl friend stealing hussy” on steroids.
Then Malaya correctly calls out Sal on her behavior, leading Sal to drop her put on accent and move directly to violence, which seems to have been the intent of this meeting all along.
People hate on Becky for not letting go of her only friend when Joyce is about all she has in the world, but are defending Sal using violence to keep her only real friend. Becky made a new friend in Dina, while Sal has refused to make anything like a friend despite many opportunities. Jason is a hate fuck, not a relationship. Yes DYW just juxtaposed two alternate reactions to having a friend expand their social circle. Becky was jealous and in dire circumstances, but limited herself to banter and passive-agressive crap. Sal was jealous but far from alone, surrounded by admirers (and her brother is right there).
Sal has been playing Fonzie so far. Cool rebel, aloof. Now she plays alternate universe (or maybe real life / non-sitcom) Fonzie. Short tempered, isolated, striking a pose rather than actually living, kinda desperate and sad. I feel sad for Sal here, because this is part of a downward spiral. She’s a long way from the path.
FWIW, ‘desperate’, ‘sad’, ‘striking a pose rather than actually living’? These have always been part and parcel of who Sal is. It’s just that she’s never actually been forced to admit that to herself in a way that she can’t shrug off before. If Marcie takes Malaya’s side and dumps Sal, then an unpleasant self-examination may become unavoidable. It will be a genuine test of her strength of character whether she can survive that.
No “sexy lesbian suicide pact” to motivate her, either. For all its flaws the relationship between Ruth and Billie is propping both of them up, at least for the time being.
Speaking as a longtime Walkyverse reader who didn’t care for Malaya in Shortpacked!, Sal is clearly the one in the wrong here. I’m half wondering if she’s deliberately sabotaging this just so she can claim to Marcie that she made an effort to be friendly but Malaya threw it back in her face.
Speaking as someone who hasn’t read Shortpacked! yet, I can tell that there’s some reason people don’t like Malaya, but just like Danny, that reason doesn’t seem to have carried through into DoA.
It kinda has, she has pretty much the same personality here as she did there. People just had a MASIVE hate on for her over there. Like to the point they legitimately thought Leslie murdered her after it turned out she wasn’t a lesbian and were totally cool said murder.
So cut back to the party, a few strips later we’ll see the aftermath or Dorothy will have to go break up the fight, and on slipshine there’ll be a “Malaya & Sal’s Inadvertantly Erotic Catfight” thing, right?
My prediction: Sal is going to beat Malaya to a pulp. Marcie is going to drop her like a red-hot coal (what is the sign for “I don’t hang out with psychos”?) and she’s going to end up looking expulsion in the face because she carried out an assault in front of one of Campus Security’s cameras. In the face of the almost-certain ruination of her life, she’s going to start acting out and that is going to ultimately bring her and Amazi-Girl together in the way that Amber never imagined.
Has Amazi-Girl every talked a person in despair off of a high ledge before?
Oddly enough, I can see her sort of replacing Becky as the ‘wild one’ in Joyce’s circle when Becky finally has to move out of the dorm for one reason or another because, in the end, Joyce has always treated her decently and never judged her. I can also see Sal hanging out with Amazi-Girl’s boyfriend as he’s practically the only decent friendship she’s made beyond Marcie. That also means that she also has to tolerate the computer nerd girl he hangs out with too. Funny that she reminds her of someone…
I just read the comments, I shouldn’t have, I really shouldn’t have. Because I have gotten the feeling that over half of the commentators would love to see me being put in hospital, a couple might even do it themselves free of charge.
Because they don’t think that Sal’s behavior is completely unjustified? Or your name is Malaya? If it’s the latter, welcome to the club – my name’s Ryan, by the way.
Odds are somebody around here is actually named Blaine. They must find the character-hate even more tiresome.
DoA Malaya is getting more leftover Shortpacked hate than she deserves by a long shot. She’s had so little panel time it’s unfair to even try to judge her. Doesn’t help that DoA Sal is fairly popular (and no, I’m not a raving fanboy for her, the grav is a random choice) and is behaving horribly today.
It’s not the name. It is the fact that I have been in Malaya’s situation. I am exceedingly blunt to the point of rudeness, slightly misanthropic and have a love of casual language.
At some point in my past I have someone who didn’t like me approach me under the pretence of “playing nice” who was spoiling for a fight after months of treating me like shit. I reacted much like Malaya just did; a verbal explosion of vulgarity and when threatened with violence I dared them to do it.
And a lot of people are saying that Sal’s violence towards Malaya is completely justified and some are utterly gleeful at the beating they assume is coming her way.
The idea believe that Malaya should just kneel and lick Sal boots after being referred to a “cumstain” and being to told to be pleased that she is being allowed to breathe the same air as Sal and deserves to be the victim of violence when she refuses to do so is so utterly incomprehensible to me.
Am I supposed to be on Malaya’s side in this scene? Because I pretty much am, despite disliking her pretty much whenever she’s interacting with anyone other than Sal or Marcie.
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
If you preorder make sure to hit the Exclusive versions since they include a commemorative plaque and cost the same.
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 ⋅ 1d
Josh Gerstein @joshgerstein.bsky.social ⋅ 2d
Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com ⋅ 3d
Pavel
@spavel.bsky.social ⋅ 12d
Loading ...
Hanging with Malaya
now with 20% more hangings
…and 50% more clothing damage…
She’s one dead squid-kid dude.
Ink-actly
Dammit, now I have that pernicious song stuck in my head again.
It’s a great song. I warned my nephew I’m gonna make him sing it so i can video it.
….Am I the only one who kinda feels like Malaya sorta has a point? In the sense that she just doesn’t like Sal and doesn’t feel that she needs to get along with her just because she’s Marcie’s best friend, or because everyone else thinks she’s cool or anything? I mean it’s not like Sal is any more pleasant to her, even this ‘hanging out’ biz seems more begrudging than her making an effort to get to know her
you’re not alone. Most of my bad feelings about her come from an alternate universe. But this universe she seems fine so far, given that she’s reacting to how others are treating her.
I totally agree with her on this one. She hit the nail on the head here and Sal don’t like it
setting up the next slipshine?
This is the perfect setup for a hate snog….
My hate ships are being so messed up here why do you do this to me
Snogging is kissing, right?
Yes, as we Brits have a fine tradition of making incredibly unsexy sounding words for sexy things. Snogging, Shagging/Bonking, etc.
Yeah…one hate-snog coming up please, Willis! ^_^
Also I must be going barmy, but I could’ve sworn that the punctuation on Malaya’s t-shirt was different yesterday. xD
Sorry, but I don’t think snogging is sexy. It refers specifically to tongueing and slobbering all over each other’s mouths, and I do not find that sexy at ALL.
So the word fits.
Bonking is more of a kids’ naughty word (“hehehe bonking”) and shagging is quite crude. Soooo I don’t think they’re supposed to be sexy either?
I rather like the term “shagging”
At the very least, I 0refer it to diddling. Diddling just makes me laugh.
diddle /ˈdɪd(ə)l/
verb
informal
present participle: diddling
cheat or swindle (someone) so as to deprive them of something.
“he thought he’d been diddled out of his change”
•deliberately falsify.
“he diddled his income tax returns”
Diddle has a lot of definitions. Aside from the ones above, it can also mean “to delay or procrastinate” – eg I am currently diddling around posting on DoA instead of working like I ought to be.
Urban Dictionary sure is trying to make it dirty, though.
…your lead is kind of doing it for me….to quote another female couple.
Say what you like about Malaya, she was pretty much on target for the first four panels.
Yup. It’s a little jarring to realize that Sal seems to’ve gotten used to the adoration.
I’unno, looks like she flat-out ignores it all to me.
That attitude is key to keeping the adoration coming. If Sal ever acknowledged it openly, the spell would be broken.
Yeah, it’s highly annoying when Malaya is right…
But there must be something to the ‘cult’. Even Joyce fell under its spell.
You think Sal is a bimbo?
This isn’t related to what you said, but for a brief moment, I thought you were me.
Malaya hits so close to home, she knocked Sal’s accent right out of her. So Sal’s persona is at least partially a deliberate pose – how unlike most 19 year olds.
Which word should have been accented? Normally her speech only shows her accent when she says “I”.
None of them. There’s no indication her accent has vanished in the last panel, nor do I see a reason to think it’s faked. Those Southern accents are mindworms IME, you pick them up fast and shake them slowly.
Yeah, I agree. While I’ve never really cared about Malaya enough to either like or hate her (even in SP), I actually don’t see her as bongoy here, just as being cranky over having a really good point. Dunno what it says about me that I would’ve probably responded to Sal in the same way haha ^<__<^;; (although probably a bit less abrasive, still sarcastic and cranky)
No, she’s on target with the first TWO panels. It’s completely fair for Malaya not to give a damn. But… it’s Malaya. Let’s not kid ourselves on why someone might dislike her. And I say this as someone who adores her as a character. If you had to deal with her as a person, she’d be mostly unlikable. Mostly – It takes a lot to be thoroughly unlikable.
Sal is getting real.
And I just noticed Malaya’s shirt/RB jersey is ?! instead of 21.
GLORY TO INTERROBANG
Can you feel the love tonight…
*sings along*
It’s enough
To make Kings and Vagabonds
Believe the very best
Oh, Malaya, you b-word.
Bongo thumper?
Ballet enthusiast?
Batman Villain?
Barnacle Boy?
Mermaid Man?
EVIL!!!
(I wanted to do the picture, but I don’t know how to do that text-link thingu. Is it code or cite? Despite having done this for a while, I have no idea what half of these things do…)
Every Villain Is Lemons!
Bibliophile?
Bionic Woman!
Brat packer?
Bird watcher?
Bothriospondylus?
Brachiosaurus?
Whoops, should’ve kept reading.
…Baryonyx?
Brachycephalic?
Brachiosaurus?
and we know Amazigirl isn’t going to be there to stop it…
I read Malaya’s last sentence in panel 4 as another question. “Can I ride your motorcycle?” “Can I brush your hair?” “Can I fuck you?”
All I could think was “I didn’t know Jason had to ask permission, I thought it was Sal’s idea.”
Well that’s how the Yes Mean Yes law is meant to work more or less.
You’re not very good with “permission,” eh? If someone instigates a romantic encounter and is coherent, I’d say permission was there.
I don’t think I’d call that encounter with Jason romantic as such.
… I tend to believe a lot of characters have valid points, but sometimes they really need to work on their communication skills.
Does using your fists count as sign-language?
Turns out boxing is just a violent form of semaphore.
Either that or Morse Code. The jury’s still out on which one.
Semaphore is the one with flags, though.
I thought hands could be used as a substitute if flags aren’t available.
(Source: hell if I know)
You are correct.
Sign language: a contact sport.
Depends on the message you’re trying to get across.
In fairness, the only other format for Sal to use would have been, “…We could hang out tonight…” Doesn’t make Malaya any less of a boxbot to turn a single word into Sal deigning to grant permission, as though she was doing Malaya a favour. Seems to me Malaya was trying to get a rise out of Sal, and lacks foresight into what setting fire to a proffered olive branch will do for her other friendships.
Carla won’t care and Marcie’s likely to be pissed at Sal for this.
The next strip to feature Marcie will be called: Dammit Sal, I leave you alone for one night!
Seriously?
No, Sal started this. She came out swinging, verbally, and while Malaya didn’t do anything to de-escalate, there was no olive branch, just insults and condescension.
I don’t think she was trying to get a rise out of Sal. I don’t know what the Malaya in other universes did for people to have a general dislike for her, but Sal’s mean-ness to Malaya always seems super unwarranted in the this universe imo. I wouldn’t take too kindly to being called a “cumstain” either.
Malaya was a jerk on the other universe, with special contempt for ‘nerds’. (Given where she worked, and who the bulk of the audience of Shortpacked! was, that endeared her to nobody, in or out of universe.) Possibly more importantly, she made a move on Leslie after she and Robin had temporarily broken up, which meant there was no way anybody was going to do anything but hate her.
As opposed to this universe where the worst she’s done is be every bit as snarky as Sal, and rise to the bait when someone else (Amazi-Girl, Sal) is trying to pick a fight with her.
She made a big deal about going after Leslie, THEN came to the sudden realization that she wasn’t actually into girls after Leslie had gotten really interested. So yeah, extra hateable.
Unlikely we’ll see something like that in this universe, unless it’s a temporary issue with Carla that’s solved when she learns Carla has a dick.
I like Malaya. She’s an entertaining jerk like Mike, but unlike SP! Mike, she gets her comeuppance with some regularity.
It *is* true that on-camera in this universe, Malaya hasn’t really been too annoying, but Sal being completely unreasonable has been, well, not a thing. I could see jealousy amping up an existing dislike, but not creating one from wholecloth. Given that, AND the other universe, Malaya being a jackass in general seems like an implied fact – but I’m open to the idea of being wrong. And in your defense, whether she’s a jerk or not, your read of the narrative thus far is totally valid.
Sal didn’t proffer the olive branch. She sharpened it and held it against Malaya’s throat.
I’m guessing that you’re a Gunnerkrigg Court fan too?
Malaya strikes me as the type of person who’d see getting her ass kicked as validation. “My words hit you so hard you had hit back with fists.” She probably also so thinks she can get Marcie to break away from Sal. (“See what that savage did to me?”) The idea that Marcie knows Sal is like that probably wouldn’t even cross her mind.
You know, it’s possible Marcie lost her voice after a beating up (in the throat ?) from Sal.
O_O
Nah. Malaya is pretty horrible, but she’s not manipulative.
….Well, in SP! she certainly had the capacity to try it. She wasn’t very good at it, but she absolutely tried to be when it struck her fancy.
Boxbot? Harsh!
I don’t know, Malaya agrees to meet up with Sal and the first thing Sal calls her is a cumstain and then continues to insult her. It’s pretty much ‘we should hang out because Marcie likes you for some reason, but I can’t stand your guts and im not going to hide that’
Malaya’s always been a jerk, but her behaviour here isn’t really unprovoked.
The idea of “Be the bigger person” didn’t cross her mind either, I’d wager. Sad part is, I think Sal thinks that’s what she was doing.
Gunna have to read through DoA again (just finished yesterday) because Malaya came off as egocentric and kinda annoying, but she also was the first one to fight that crazy vigelante bongo trying to ruin Marcie and her friend psycho Sal’s fun, AND she is even trying to learn sign language so she can make communication with her new friend easier.
I dont know maybe My view is being scewed by Sal’s completely uncalled for rage-machining here.
At least Amber takes out her aggression on people who are commiting crimes. Sal never should have had her life ruined by a mistake she made as a young teenager, but she’s a legal adult now. If she doesnt grow up she’s going into jail for serious.
I don’t think Sal was really calling Malaya a ‘cumstain’ — at least not to her face. I think she was using the term as she was muttering to herself — similar to the way people call other people ‘fuckers’ or ‘sonuvabongoes’, as in “I’m going to wait another ten minutes and if that fucker/sonuvabongo hasn’t shown up by then it’ll be just to bad for him” — and it was just coincidence/bad timing that Malaya was there to hear it.
Regardless, Malaya /did/ hear it, and the appropriate behavior when somebody hears you call them a truly nasty name is to at least apologize for it.
Really? I thought comparing them to your period was more acceptable!
indeed. I agree. It totally seems like Sal was being a total evil bongo to Malaya, not only acting like she GETS to give Malaya permission to hang out, but insulting her while she is doing it, and Malaya totally calls her out on it saying she doesnt need to be valadated by Sal. And Sal being the complete anger avatar that she is overreacts and responds with violence.
The whole problem here is that all these fans are so far up Sal’s booty that it seems Sal is anything but the one in the wrong here.
Grow up Sal.
Woohoo! An honest review of Sal.
That… is not what happened. At all.
This will improve things with Marcie, for sure.
The sign language for how she will react is so simple even I know it. Only requires one finger, two if you feel particularly strongly about the matter.
Soooo… a thumbs up?
>.>
<.<
As my niece proudly informed me not long ago, “A thumb is not a finger.”
Gonna have to disagree on that count, but itbis a little open to either side’s interpretation.
That’s the logical fallacy of thinking that labels are reversible, or that groupings are reversible.
Example from my life and dealing with the national organization for my church Up until recently they used “Wiccan” and “Pagan” as reversible terms, but they actually describe two different sets. All Wiccans are Pagan, but not all Pagans are Wiccan. Comparable would be saying all Christians are Catholic because all Catholics are Christian (don’t believe what Westboro Baptist Church says about Catholics).
So thumbs and fingers are both digits, but thumbs are not fingers.
Prediction: Marcie will see this and correctly view Sal as the agressor.
Eh, maybe, but given the nature of the meeting and what Sal said, I get the impression Marcie wasn’t invited, and they’re on campus at a school Marcie doesn’t attend, so it’d be pretty exceedingly coincidental if she happened across them.
More likely is that Sal beats Malaya’s ass, and later gets told off for it.
Ok Malaya, yes Sal brought up the subject in a rude way but, gosh, how have you miscalculated.
She was completely accurate on her statement, but she miscalculated that Sal’s kinda crazy.
THIS
Sal isn’t so much crazy anymore…she’s just an alpha type. Malaya’s never really had to deal with one of those. She’s now learning. Mess with the bull…you get the horns. It wasn’t unprovoked. Not at all…but she’s going to learn the hard way that sometimes getting that last quip in, even when the other person is being a jerk, isn’t always worth it.
No, Sal is fucking crazy. This isn’t normal behavior. Sal’s first instinct to confrontation is to beat the shit out of them. Yes–Malaya provoked her. But why the hell is that a justifiable excuse to attack her? It’s not. You don’t get to just beat people up because your feelings got hurt. But this is how Sal deals with things. And it’s gonna land her ass in jail.
Oh, Sal is still crazy – she just has it under control some of the time.
shit status: REAL.
According to the Schrodinger’s Shit thought experiment, the shit is both real and not real, existing in an indeterminate state until it is witnessed, which collapses the probability waveform.
But since we are all observing it, we can now state conclusively the reality of the shit.
That’s … that’s not really how that works.
Wouldn’t be the first time that thought experiment was misunderstood.
Wouldn’t be the first time that someone who understood it perfectly well used the pop-culture version as the basis for a joke, either.
I think that you’ll find that when Shrodinger explained that thought expiriment the point was to be that the shit was in fact, bullshit.
Seems both are working on breaking records for unpleasant contributions to conversation.
Not the most diplomatic pair in the strip, yes.
jesus they are unpleasant
Wait a sec, if Sal attacks Malaya she commits assault. This is a crime (a violent one at that) and will give Amber/Amazi-Girl justification in attacking her. I have theories
The campus superhero is busy playing Apples to Apples right now. Malaya isn’t the kind of person to go crying about a beatdown, so anything that doesn’t get witnessed probably isn’t going to get back to her.
The bigger danger is Marcie showing up and getting pissed off with Sal.
It’s probably not a good idea to do that so close to the wing entrance, tho.
Amber is still at Joyce’s party probably still playing with Cyclonus. She ain’t around to witness this and Malaya probably wouldn’t talk about getting her ass kicked anyways.
Wait, Amber is Amazi-Girl?!
…..And dawn breaks over Marblehead.
The best way to deal with assault is with pepper-spray.
A little black pepper, a little vinegar, and some sugar works great when you have too much ass salt.
Don’t be silly, Amber can’t be Amazi-Girl, she never leaves her room!
Well then, Sal must be Amazi-Girl, and she can’t very well fight herself.
Battery, right? …
So on the one hand…yeah, Malaya IS totally unpleasant and I have never much liked any incarnation of her. On the other….Sal just went from calling someone unpleasant to ready to kick in their teeth in record time.
I have a feeling she was ready to kick Malaya’s teeth in before she got there…
Also, Malaya was unpleasant in response to Sal being considerably more unpleasant.
Sure, Malaya’s unpleasant anyway, but most anyone would have been right then.
As satisfying as it was to see Blaine get his just desserts, it’ll be nearly as satisfying to see Malaya get slapped around like the little bongo she is.
Except it’s SAL who is completely out of line here.
Yeah, Malaya’s abrasive, but Sal couldn’t be offering this olive branch with more resentment and bad faith if she tried. Malaya’s right to call her out – she’s just not doing it in a useful way.
There’s a thin line between “Did nothing to de-escalate” and “asked for it.” Maybe I’m seeing too much of her previous incarnation, but I put Malaya squarely in the latter category.
Its not Malaya’s fault Sal is completely cuckoo bananas.
She’s being a total ass right now, between acting like she’s doing Malaya a favour by hanging out, then proceeding to threaten to beat the shit out of her.
It is her fault for flying off the handle and acting like a screaming harpy bongo when she could just leave.
I’m not in the mind to victim blame, especially when Sal instigated every step of this.
Just because we like Sal more doesn’t make her any less of an asshole right now.
I’m usually just a lurker here and have never commented before, but I have a really hard time with the phrase “asking for it”. Did Sal have a right to be angry at Malaya for provoking her? Yes. Does that mean Malaya was asking to be assaulted? No. It doesn’t matter how much someone provokes you – there is no thin line. No one’s ever “asking for it”. Even if someone is in your face screaming at you and calling you names, even if they could leave and instead they stay and keep screaming, they are still not asking to be the victim of violence. The line is on the other side – where you have the choice to exit instead of *becoming violent*. Sal crossed it, not Malaya.
As right as you are, I’m still looking forward to the violence.
Hopefully Malaya holds her own for at least a few seconds, though.
Come on Sal kick her butt!
Someone’s catching a murder wrap.
Sounds like the filling of an Olive Garden breadstick sandwich, only on flatbread.
The secret is in the special sauce! (Malaya’s blood)
I was thinking snarky term for a meat burrito.
*looks up the “breadstick sandwich” on Google*
Really, Olive Garden? Food trucks?
Murder wrap sounds like it’d be the most unhealthy, cholesterol-filled burrito of all time.
http://www.thrillist.com/recipe/nation/bacon-weave-cheeseburger-burrito-thrillist-recipes
Alas, the song I wanted to share hasn’t survived history.
Is it a battle hymn from the Vikings?
From the Transcontinental HipHop R&B Funk War of 1985. But yeah.
How about some lyrics? I have a knack for manipulating search engines.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcfhWuxF5R4&ab_channel=-drosky-MT
Half the readers be like…
I sincerely hope I never meet a fellow Willis-verse fan who says Malaya is their favorite character. I will find them scary.
you can easily say someone is your favorite character in a fictional webcomic that you wouldn’t like in real life. Villains and jerks tend to be more popular and better characters in general than heroes. Heroes are boring, villains are interesting.
Yeah, but it would be like if someone said their favorite character was Malfoy, or their favorite Pony was Rarity. I’m just saying I’d make it a point never to be alone with them in a room that I didn’t know all the exits to…
Rarity’s not evil, and I’m pretty sure Malfoy cleaned up his act.
Never said Rarity was evil, just that I would give pause at the idea of her being anyone’s favorite…
They exist, and the only reason she’s not in my top 10 is the sheer number of characters.
I’ll just stop there lest I get off-topic.
Rarity is second best pony, she’s a good figure for girls, not demonizing femininity, which is something I can appreciate.
You’d seriously trust a Pinkie Pie lover over a Rarity lover?
Boy, you sure haven’t explored the dark side of the fandom, have you.
Can’t say I have, no. As a professional internet nerd, I (thankfully) only have enough free time to skim the surface of most fandoms. Which means I get to hang around with sensible people who like Apple Jack and Fluttershy.
No, he became a writer, seduced his teacher, and banged Harry.
They did a movie together, and I can relax about the existence of Malfoy/Potter.
Yeah for me my favorite character and the one I self identify with are completely different. Boba Fett might be my favorite Star Wars character. But I do not identify with him in anyway whatsoever.
My ex’s favorite pony is Rarity. I question his sanity.
With Malaya, it’s more like their favorite HP character is Fitch and their favorite FIM character is Diamond Tiara.
To be fair, Filch is an interesting character. Even sympathetic from the right angle.
As opposed to the fans of the insane violent vigilante or the violent criminal?
Yes. Because while Hans Gruber is understandably appealing, would you really wanna hang out with someone who identified with ELLIS?
I don’t understand your references and so your point fails. (:
Someone hasn’t seen Die Hard? Huh. Best get on that, Die Hard’s a pretty good movie.
Die Hard is pretty good?!
PRETTY GOOD!?!?
Yippee ki-yay. . .
The first one is Die Hard, not sure who Ellis is
Ellis was Holly’s coworker who sold John out to Hans, and was generally a smarmy ass-weasel for the entire movie. Guy with the beard.
Oh, it’s the guy who get tazed in the plane, right ?
No, the plane was in Die Harder. The first one takes place in Holly’s office building.
And thanks, Mendo. Now I’m wondering what ass-weasels are like. *shudders*
Yeah, but it’s the same guy, right ? (I don’t actually remember him at all in the first movie)
That doesn’t sound remotely like Malaya.
Ellis is the cloned witch girl from “El Cajador de Bruja” released in the states as “Witch Hunter”. Ellis was a combination of Loli cute and terrifying magic creature of immense power. You can find the videos on the Funimation site.
I…don’t think we saw the same movie…
Imagine if you had! That, or we need a mashup video
(also, I find the strange status of mainstream media and fiction here fascinating…)
No, see, this is the problem with not specifying your references. Most names have been used repeatedly.
I thought he was the writer of Transmetropolitan and Plantenary.
You don’t have to identify with someone for them to be your favorite, you just have to enjoy watching the drama they bring to a scene.
Violent criminals and insane vigilantes make awesome characters (again not awesome people in real life) thats why Batman is so popular.
But now I am tempted to lie just to be scary…
Malaya is my favorite character.
If were being honest here, Faz was my favorite character at the beginning of Shortpacked, he lost that though after he began to lose his manipulative personality and cleverness, and just became a butt monkey. I love villains.
I could never hate Faz. His smug face was enjoyable and basically made every awful thing he did just feel enjoyable. Like he just calmly enjoys/experiences being a dick.
The best villains always do
I hated Faz for every minute of Shortpacked!… except his very last panel. Which made up for everything that came before.
Faz the Lion King was great.
But with Faz, he had a point other than “miserable b-word”. He was a backstabbing suck-up, but a backstabbing suck-up with a goal in mind. What’s Malaya’s goal other than “be nice to Marcie” (Who we actually know less about, personality wise, than Malaya).
HEaven forbids they’re just get along.
Actually, I feel like we can get a good feel for Marcie from the flashback and her interactions with Sal and Malaya.
…Why are you assuming Malaya’s goal ist o be nice to Marcie? Her goal is to be herself – that includes ‘friends with people she likes’. Why does she like Marcie? I have no fucking idea – but I’m not going to assume it’s part of a con, precisely because she isn’t Faz.
Aaron? or Pettymotives?
Actually, the whole tumblr WoT fandom is full of people who love villains, I don’t know why I try to narrow it down
Yotomoe, somewhere Sierra is weeping bitter tears…
Look what you did, Yotomoe! I am disappoint.
I’m all grown up and junk now. Sierra’s still top tier but she’s getting beat out by the Malayas and Billies. Clearly being a B-woid is what I’m into now. B-wordy girls are hot.
Ouch, I usually vote to see more Malaya in polls. I guess there is something I am totally missing, because she seems annoying at best, but people keep calling her a villain in the same way as they do Blaine, which I don’t get. Malaya hasn’t hurt anyone. I’d waaaaaay sooner hang out with Malaya than Mike.
Mike (usually) falls into “Jerkass Has A Point” territory. He’s an asshole, but chooses his spots for best effect. Malaya goes bongo mode seemingly because it’s the only way she knows how to be. Here or the Walkyverse, we’ve seen nothing to counter or even explain otherwise.
Mike is an evil genius, Malaya is just a common jerk.
Mike isn’t an evil genius, he’s just an asshole. At least in this continuity.
He isn’t just an asshole. he is an exceptional asshole, not quite the evil genius people say is but incredibly skilled at it.
Eh, nah. He’s pretty hit or miss overall. A lot of his attempted jibes are really more ‘annoying gnat’ than ‘biting commentary’ You’re just intentionally forgetting the misses.
I think a lot of people dislike Malaya because she was pretty nasty in Shortpacked!
Then again, so was Mike.
Hi. Find me scary.
If the Amazi-Girl showdown was any indication, Malaya seems to be overstating her fighting abilities.
Still, it’ll be interesting to see how this all goes down.
Why? Sal did nothing in that fight, meanwhile Malaya demonstrated her ability to take several kits and keep coming.
A solid jaw is not a skill.
But it helps.
Better in a fight than a glass one.
I mean, I don’t really like either of these characters and they both have pretty good points about each other so uh… fight?
I actually do like Sal, but she’s badly out of line here. Two bongos do not a right make.
ROUND ONE, FIGHT!
I might be that they’re the type who can only bond after they’ve beaten the shit out of each other. This could be good for them.
That is how ultracar and Malaya bonded in Shortpacked…
…nooooo
Geeze, but Malaya’s an idiot. Girl with a known bad temper extending the olive twig for the sake of a mutual friend and you’re STILL full of the insults…
Is it really an olive twig/branch if she’s basically smacking Malaya with it the entire time?
More like an olive switch.
“Cmere you lil cumstain and accept my olive branch>C” -swats with- “WHY AREN’T YAH TAKEN MAH BRANCH!”
-Wack wack wack-
…hmm. Yes, those who assigned Ashleigh Ball’s voice to Sal were definitely right. This is perfect.
So Sal has a “known bad temper” but somehow Malaya’s at fault for not bending over backwards to appease her?
Also, Sal didn’t do that.
Malaya’s not a nice person, but that’s not even really relevant here.
I think the argument is that Malaya wasn’t very smart to provoke Sal like that. Then again, I can’t honestly expect Malaya to be anything but provocative in this scenario – she isn’t very diplomatic, and Sal has just repeatedly insulted her.
Yep, this. I know Sal’s being less than nice, but Malaya just doesn’t know when to shut up. Up until the third panel I was (kinda) with Malaya, but Sal’s expression and probable tone when she calls Malaya unpleasant should have been a loud and clear “Shut. UP.” to Malaya. Sal’s hardly diplomatic herself, but she’s making the effort. Malaya, well, isn’t.
I really wouldn’t call what Sal’s doing an effort to be diplomatic. She’s basically attempting to basically magic Malaya and her being cool without any sort of compromise on Sal’s part.
Wow, there’s bout to be a major beat down. And me without my pop corn.
Well, you’ve got about 20 hours to make some.
Marcie’s the one, who stops me from making out w people
Okay, I haven’t read a lot of non-DoA Walkyerse entires, why is Malaya so hated?
*entries damnit
Malaya’s unpopularity is to a fair extent due to how she was in Shortpacked! Willis’ earlier comic.
Okay readers of Dumbing of Age, please take opinion you have about these characters that stem from the Walkyverse and forget them when you are here. This is a universe that isn’t supposed to connect to the Walkyverse in the slightest (besides characters being reused) We need to judge characters based on what we know about them from this comic not from the other comics.
So you’re saying that Malay will never scoop up macaroni and cheese out of a bucket using a piece of fried chicken in the Dumbiverse?
Probably not. But I wouldn’t put it past Willis to reuse that joke just to gross a few more people out.
Damn. Now I have to ttry that.
I’ve rad Shortpacked from start to finish and I still don’t hate her.
Her role in Shortpacked was basically to pee on everything everyone loved and then whine about how nobody liked her. Mind, I like Malaya, but she was intentionally a grating, self-centered character with not an ounce of self-awareness as to how her own actions contributed to people’s reactions to her.
…that’s actually why I like her, but yeah.
Malaya never whined about people not liking her. Malaya actively avoided most of the cast of Shortpacked. Only Leslie and Ultra-Car were people she wanted to spend time with. Everyone else was neutral or hated.
Thanks for the clarification, I misremembered. She still wasn’t super great at being nice even to people she liked – see Leslie.
She tried to help Leslie be happy, even after they’d broken up and even went personally to confront Leslie’s mother about the shitty way they treated their daughter.
Yes.
And she did that in a pretty weird, immature way. That’s all I’m saying. I’m not saying she had bad intentions, and I’m not saying that what she did didn’t work, to some extent, I’m saying that Malaya has spent so much time hating people and being unpleasant, she’s not very good at helping people even when she wants to.
SP! Malaya is misanthropic, which is why she and UC spend so much time together. Neither one is especially hep on the human race.
She did briefly attempt to (begrudgingly) reach out to Ethan before quickly going ‘wow, why did I even try’.
From what I remember of her in Shortpacked!, she spends a lot more time doing pretty much the exact same stuff she’s been doing here.
No, she does more what Sal is doing here – insulting everyone around here and then pretending it was their fault.
I blame the patriarchy.
The Kzinti government has nothing to do with this.
Known Space high five!
Thank goodness, a fellow reader. Usually I get some Star Fleet Battles player with that reference instead.
She was originally unpleasant cause she was mean almost constantly. Not in a haha way but realistically mean.
Personally I never rrally had anything against her and felt that eventually her character grew to be more like Mike, as in either so cartoonishly mean thats it funny or mean but has a really good point.
She’s abrasive, foul-mouthed, and dislikes people on the whole.
Redeeming points? Good roller bladed and willing to learn sign language.
*blader
Basically me at her age. I am still somewhat foul-mouthed and I still think humans can be largely unpleasant to be around, but I’m not nearly as abrasive as I used to be. I’ve grown out of most of my schadenfreude, but not all of it. I still reserve some for those who deserve it.
Just like Sal, but Sal has a style.
in Shortpacked, Malaya’s toxic misanthropy could be played for laughs or just dismissed as comic exaggeration. Here, in the more grounded Dumbiverse? Not so much. Contrast with Sal, where we’ve seen enough of her and her backstory to know where her issues come from. So she comes off as more… “Relatable” seems like the wrong word. “Understandable?” All we know about Malaya is “Full time bongo, except WRT Marcie”. We don’t know why. We dont’ know if Marcie knows why. She’s just The Friend Nobody Likes right now and not everyone is willing to cut her slack on the grounds of “There must be a reason”. (There wasn’t one in Shortpacked, but again, Comedy)
That is part of the problem. DoA Malaya has had very limited panel time and has only interacted with a small subset of characters. We really don’t know much about her beyond the surface traits, of which misanthropy is the standout. At least in Shortpacked she had that odd-but-touching relationship with Ultra Car/Carla as a saving grace. Here we’ve got…what, her willingness to learn sign language to better buds with Marcie?
There was also her respect for Leslie, who both refused to be baited by her and called her on her bullshit.
Heh. Just realized that learning ASL was actually Sal’s suggestion, not an idea that started with Malaya or Marcie. She deserve’s credit for taking the effort, but it wasn’t Malaya’s idea.
Willingly learning sign language in order to communicate better with Marcie is a big credit in my book, anyway.
Oh yeah, I was pleasantly surprised, and quite irate at Sal for getting jealous.
Yet a lot of people cut Mike the same slack because of his more heroic showings in SP!.
…now make out.
Make out, Dammit.
That would be a very nice way for Malaya to throw this in her face. A ‘you don’t scare me, little girl.’
Joe never stops hoping.
Actually, that would solve this, wouldn’t it? Joe wanders by, tells them to make out, and they can bond over the beating they hand him.
I am okay with this. I care not whose blood flows, only that it flows.
Are you.. that creepy Buckets of Blood -guy?
Malaya’s on point. That’s why she’s the best.
Kick her ass
You could be talking about either of them there.
Exactly.
You dont get it do you? You’re trapped in here with me, not the other way around.
But Walkyvers Dina taught us we don’t need violence to be monsters.
thank you, i was waiting for someone to make that reference
well really i was hoping no one had yet so that i could do it, but the end result is the reference was secured and that will have to be enough.
Welp, that went downhill quickly.
Much like Malaya’s corpse will in about 30 minutes.
Or, two weeks. Because Willis.
At least Malaya remains cross-universally the worst. That’s a nice constant in life lol.
No, Blaine is cross universally the worst.
Ok that is true. But abusive fuckwards are sort of outside the spectrum of worstitude for me. They’re their own thing.
Malaya to me is among the worst of the people who are actually people. And not, y’know, monsters.
How do you rate Mike?
Horrible, but horrible with style and purpose. DoA!Mike hasn’t gone as far as SP!Mike (yet), but also hasn’t had his ass handed to him by Robin, either (or died and came back).
Mike to me is also among the worst, but not yet in DoA, really. Mainly because he hasn’t really popped up often enough. SP!Mike was softened by Amber and Donna eventually and Malaya by UC a little bit (tho they both more or less hated the world together), so they’re both not irredeemable to me.
Mike really has some redeeming features, it was already visible in IW!.
He, in the most asshole-ish and rude way possible, gets things done.
I think DoA Ryan is worse than Blaine. Walkyverse Ryan probably wasn’t, though.
Shitbrick MacIntyre may be even worse.
Shitbrick MacIntyre is a major pain in the ass.
Malaya’s the best, silly.
Nahhhh.
Mary’s still a contender.
True! But I guess I softened on her since she’s been my gravatar lol. (but not really, she is still totally up there in worsitude)
How so? Sal is the one provoking her provocations.
I just really don’t like Malaya. Regardless of what Sal is doing here, which is also awful, no question. But Malaya’s general attitude, always, about all things, is just my least favorite thing about her in all iterations.
Geez, Malaya is unpleasant.
Its really your icon that sold that comment.
This is Willis’ design.
Was that a Hannibal reference?
Does a vendigo haunt your dreams??
I mean, yes it is.
Toooooo be fair, Sal’s actually being a huge jackass here, so Malaya for once is totally justified in her, uh…Malaya-isms.
I agree that Malaya is justified.
…I feel dirty.
Yeah I tend to not like people who jump to violence quickly. Especially over stuff like this. I might not like Malaya but at least she doesn’t try to attack people.
Also
Sal: Where is that little cumstain…Why are you so awful?
Me: Uh because you just called her a cumstain.
funny how that works
to reiterate my sarcastic comment from yesterday, sal is really good at interacting with people who aren’t impressed by her.
Yes she does?
With the situation with Amazi-Girl, Malaya charged her pretty quickly to try to attack her at the slightest provocation and got knocked down pretty quickly.
Then when Amazi-Girl was restrained, Malaya then attacked her in retaliation because she is vindictive.
Malaya’s also the one trying to provoke even FURTHER escalation here into an actual fight – yeah Sal is being threatening holding her up against the wall, but she could easily let go and storm off still. :V
Everything here was done by Sal, but because Malay didn’t stop it she’s the one at fault!
I wouldn’t say justified. Sal is being a baby got back level ass, true. But Malaya’s on the same level, by feeding into it. I think an upraised middle finger and walking away would be far more telling than staying to fight a pointless battle.
Of course I could be wrong. A rough fight between the two where Malaya holds her own might actually earn her some respect from Sal…
Then makeouts.
Sal started the verbal fight. Sal continued to escalate the verbal fight. Sal started the physical fight.
Malaya’s fault!
It’s not a “one or the other” situation.
It kind of is. Malaya showed up to being verbally assaulted, protested this treatment and then was physically assaulted.
Welp, Malaya seems to have miscalculated and borked herself.
I hope Malaya kicks her ass and leaves her there to think about things for a while.
I would totally be down with this, but Sal seems to be awesome incarnate when she’s not drunk. Malaya winning would be pretty great though. She does get a lot of exercise, and Sal is a smoker…
Best possible scenario: Marcie walks by and either sees Sal and Malaya fighting or sees Sal standing over a beaten up Malaya. Marcie than proceeds to deck Sal with one pissed off punch.
That would be acceptable to me.
im pretty sure sal is gonna hand her ass on a plate.
Holy shit, wow. Sal is being horrible. Calling her a cumstain and everything to her face, the “allowing” to hang out.. This is about the most disrespectful you can be. Short of spitting on her dead mother, maybe? Wtf. Is sal out of her mind? Does she know she’s saying these things out loud?
Yeah, you think she could disguise her disdain for her a little bit if she actually wants this plan to work. It’s especially messed up cause Malaya seems to be completely happy just hanging out with Marcie, it’s Sal who misses her best friend, but Sal’s acting like she’s the one doing Malaya a favour.
Agreed. Malaya is actually being the slightly less horrible–especially since she’s not the one who just started the violence.
JEalousy makes people do pretty terrible things
don’t forget comparing malaya to a menstrual cycle
Agreed. Sal is being the cumstain and Malaya is 100% in the right in this conversation.
There really are no good guys in this scenario.
I find that to be one of the best moments thoguh. Situations with no clear good guy, just two people who areore of a gray area. Kinda like GoT. Sometimes there aren’t good guys, just people who you hate more than the other.
It’s easy, the good guy is the one who doesn’t jump to physical violence for being called out for bad behavior.
Is the one constantly trying to provoke that violence any better? #Nope
So you agree that Sal’s constant belittlement of Malaya makes her a bad guy. GOOD.
As I said further up: They’re both jerks; Sal’s just the jerk we know better and like.
That… that was Sal. Sal did that.
That was Sal doing that.
I refuse to accept any classification that has Malaya as a good guy.
Malaya is the good guy in this scenario. And frankly she’s done nothing all that bad in this entire _comic_.
Forget about the alternate universe Malaya who committed the horrible crime of not liking nerdy things. (That is, the crime of being this-universe Billie minus the crippling alcoholism.) Look at this Malaya. She’s been unfriendly, but almost exclusively to people who were being irredeemable assholes. Like Sal here. Complete. Fucking. Asshole.
She’s hardly interacted with most of the characters. Reserving judgement on how close she is to Walkyverse Malaya until we see more time on panel, but what we have seen of her isn’t very pleasant.
Agreed! The amount of fan bias that leaks through from other Willis comics continues to surprise me… So far, I don’t dislike Malaya at all. She seems like someone who tells it like it is in a pretty rude and unpleasant way, but there are worse crimes. She’s just young and angry, like several other DOA characters. She needs to get her shit together eventually, but the brilliance of this comic is watching them screw things up and grow in the process. Learning ASL for friendship seems indicative of a few really positive character traits.
Personally I am of the opinion that Sal needs to get off her high horse. I like her sure, but Malaya is right. Sal is pretending to be the better person here but she can’t accept that her friend is making new friends. That happens, it is annoying when you don’t get along but guess what Sal, life is like that sometimes. All you do by assaulting Malaya is showing people that you are the unrestrained teenager you used to be.
The only reason it seems she isn’t is Marcie’s presence to stop her, tho.
I don’t know about anyone else, but Malaya is a pretty relatable character for me.
Well, can’t say that Sal is a hypocrite, but she could’ve been a wee bit more diplomatic here? No wait, that’s not Sal.
Neither of them are the most social in the strip. But Sal is not aggressively rude to most people, she just ignores them. Malaya is and doesn’t.
This will be sad. Unless Marcie wanders in. Then it will still be sad, in a different way.
Sal has vaulted over undiplomatic and dived headfirst into horrible asshole. I consider myself a pretty nice guy, and I’d be telling her to fuck right off is she talked to me the way she’s talking to Malaya.
Right? I consider myself easy to get along with but I’m 100% sure if I were in this situation, Sal would be slamming me against that wall just as quick! No one should have to kowtow to Sal, even if she does have a sweet bike and great clothes and that cool devil-may-care attitude… What was I saying again?
But…Malaya’s /not/ really that aggressively rude to most people, as far as we’ve seen. Certainly no more so than Carla, and way less so than Mike. I mean, we don’t have much of a barometer to work from here, but at the very least, she seems pretty cool with Marcie, and going to the trouble to try and learn sign language because you met somebody with a disability is downright /considerate/.
I think Marcie actually chooses not to speak (and I don’t think we know why) but yeah, learning ASL to make a friend shows that she can be considerate and dedicated if she finds a worthy reason.
Her learning ASL was a direct result of Sal suggesting she do so, although Marcie’s obviously been doing the teaching. It wasn’t Malaya’s idea originally. Whether it would have occurred to her on her own (or if Marcie would have suggested it) is unclear.
Sal. Wait. No. Please. Don’t.
Ah well, I tried. Y’all are my witnesses.
Malaya in DoA has been abrasive but not the total asshole of Shortpacked. Meanwhile Sal is being a huge jerk. “Cumstain”, “like menstruation”, acting like she’s doing Malaya a huge favor in deigning to maybe hang out with her a bit. And now, apparently a huge, violent, jerk.
Yeah, like it or not, but this behavior has a word in the real world: bullying.
And the reasons for it are understandable. Sal disliked Malaya even before her and Marcie started getting on and she’s way too jealous to act genuinely conciliatory to the person she feels hurt by (because she’s “stealing” her friend in her eyes). But that doesn’t make it any more right for Sal to be resorting to so many bad methods to drive her off.
Sal perfectly summed up my feelings towards Malaya: ‘Jesus, you are unpleasant.’
Malaya has this unfortunate desire to provoke everyone who comes near her resulting in them despising her (or despising her more than they already did).
Yeah, Sal’s not a perfect person either in this situation, but she was willing to try to improve their relationship from ‘hate each other’ to ‘tolerate each other’ for Marcie and is actually nice to MOST people.
We have not seen her interact with people without needing to. She started this off with a LONG string of insults.
Who are we when no one is watching?
Who are we when we aren’t watching?
I question Sal’s actual willingness. She arranged this meeting, yes, but really doesn’t seem to want to be here. If she can’t even extend an olive branch to Malaya without thinking of her as a “cumstain”, I can’t give her points for trying to improve their relationship because she’s obviously not trying very hard.
Sal is the one being provocative.
Unless you think ‘cumstain’ in the DoAverse is a term of endearment.
Yeah no.
Sal’s idea of extending an olive branch is to call Malaya a cumstain and act like speaking to her is a chore, and the only reason she’s doing it is because she’s possessive of Marcie. When Malaya has the gall to call Sal out on her ridiculously inappropriate behaviour, Sal slams her into a wall and threatens to kick the shit out of her.
Malaya was a gigantic asshole in the other verse, but here she’s been at worst mildly unpleasant and has shown remarkable depth in her friendship with Marcie. I know we all like Sal more than Malaya, but that isn’t a justification for how genuinely terrible she is being right now
Sal called Malaya “unpleasant” for telling her off after a string of rudeness and insults–unpleasant, no?
And she’s definitely doing the provoking. Certainly not trying to improve their relationship–that would be Malaya, who came to meet her when requested.
A string of insults that came after Sal, who has never once been even remotely polite to Malaya, insults Malaya by implying that spending time with her is painful.
Sal’s just being an asshole because he can’t have Marcie to herself.
Sal is kind of the worst one right here. If Marcie stops being friends with her for a while because of this she has it coming.
I agree, despite being Sal’s #1 fan.
I didn’t know you were Joyce.
They can fight to the death for the title.
Fights for everyone!
As much as I agree, I don’t see that ending well. Sal with even more emotional turmoil sounds like a recipe for strife; maybe Joyce gets overly worshipful again, and Sal lashes out at her.
Oh yes. Their suffering will be exquisite.
“Jesus, you are unpleasant.” Sal, you might not want to fling stones about while you’re standing inside that glass house. Just saying. If you can’t at least be civil while offering an olive branch, you should probably hold on to it for a little longer unless you want exactly this to happen.
I understand that she’s desperate not to lose her best (maybe only?) friend, but that’s exactly why this gambit is not working for her. She doesn’t want to hold out that olive branch. She wants Malaya to de-exist and stop taking up a percentage of Marcie’s attention. She’s doing this in bad faith and it’s obvious – and it’s really not surprising that the already-abrasive Malaya is responding so poorly. At least, not from the audience point of view. I’m not sure that Sal understands her own reasons for doing this, or realizes how much of a butt opening she’s being.
Mind you, I’m not saying Malaya’s winning any prizes for personality either, and she’s not calling Sal out in a useful or constructive way. But Sal’s definitely the one who has to answer most for how badly this is going.
Get ’em!
There are people who’re somehow mad at Malaya for this.
http://i.imgur.com/3ZGYOHI.png
Or “They’re both wrong but we like Sal.”
I can see no way in which Malaya is wrong here. The attitude Sal is copping here is pretty well unacceptable, and Malaya has no reason to take that shit.
“Yes, your honor, I did kick her in the stomache five times, but you don’t understand, she /talked back when I insulted her/!”
Worst I can say is that Malaya escalated the situation, which was unwise – but that absolutely does not justify Sal’s behavior.
There was once a law on the books in North Carolina that permitted that, but only if the person who talked back was black.
It was enacted in 1866, and was one of the reasons congress said “fuck this shit, we’re imposing Radical Reconstruction.”
Nice one
Lol at the picture, I read today’s comic and instantly thought, “Haters gonna make some good points.”
Controversial opinion, but Malaya has a point. Sal invites her out even though they aren’t friends and Sal has taken every point possible to reiterate how not friends they are. Sal opens with insulting her and calling her names and then condescends to her and is only doing this because she’s pulling a Becky and getting her jelly all over the place.
She’s fully in her rights to call Sal out for that and while she’s unpleasant and rude about that, nothing she’s saying is as out-of-line as what Sal has been opening with and let’s not forget her habit of dismissing Malaya each time she’s encountered her either by glaring as she hung out with Marcie, intentionally diminishing her name, or straight up wondering why they hang out with her.
And whether Sal intends to our not, she definitely feels entitled to Malaya accepting her olive branch simply because Sal doesn’t respect her enough to genuinely apologize and build bridges and pretty much wanted an excuse to beat her up way more than actually accept a weaker position in making nice with her friend’s friend (which its worth noting that when Malaya likes someone in either universe, she’s fiercely loyal and has shown genuine effort in her interactions with Marcie)
She’s still going to get her ass handed to her for this, but she’s got some points.
I don’t think there’s anything controversial about it, and judging by the other comments neither do a lot of people. They’re both being pretty terrible here, but Malaya’s actually got some justification for a change.
The juxtaposition of your avatar with that comment is excellent.
I did say “some” justification. Malaya handled her end of things in typical (ie awful) Malaya fashion, but that doesn’t change the fact that she was provoked.
Not sold on this going to a beating yet. Sal might show some self-control and de-escalate, or we might see a third actor show up to intervene and diffuse things. Willis is rarely obvious, and Malaya spitting out her own teeth is obvious.
Sal “extended an olive branch” by inviting Malaya there and then insulting her when she arrived.
Malaya came when called, and the first thing she did was ask why Sal even invited her if she was just going to be an ass.
She eventually got angry, but only one of them actually tried.
And why did Malaya show up? It’s not in character for her from what little we’ve seen. She appears to only be interested in hanging out with Marcie, not Sal or Carla (who isn’t really part of the group anyway). Did Sal misrepresent things, or did Malaya really opt to come see Sal? If the latter, what’s her reason for doing so? Something screwy going on here.
Compromise and diplomacy are as much about how you say things as what you say.
I’m torn between Loving Sal and wanting to see her put Malaya into a headlock and make her feel pain and the realization that you actually are making loads of sense. Hmm.
“Jesus, you are unpleasant.”
That sentence ranks up there with Hannibal Lecter’s side-eye on the list of understated warnings of impending violence.
Lot of “what if Marcie shows up” thinking going on. More interested in Carla popping up myself, and if she’d take a side in a fight. Be interesting to see if/how the Shortpacked relationship between Malaya and Carla maps to DoA.
Eh, she’s hang against a nearby wall and enjoy the sight.
*Silently praying* “please let them hatefuck, please let them hatefuck, please let them hatefuck”….. DON’T YOU JUDGE ME!
Sal is the truth!
Swear to god if this ends in a lesbian kiss…
Yeah, you grab those tits, Sal. You grab ’em good.
Fine, I know that’s not actually what’s happening. But it was what I saw at first glance.
More seriously, I imagine that part of what makes it hard for Sal is that Marcie originally hated Malaya too. Then Malaya took Sal’s eyeroll about just learning sign language, and suddenly she and Marcie were getting along. Can’t help the whole “Sal is a bit possessive of people who actually like her, for some strange reason” thing.
Or it could be that “Malaya is needlessly nasty and antagonistic and Sal is exactly the wrong type of person to try that on.”
…Sal is being needlessly nasty and antagonistic, and then got pissed when Malaya didn’t submit to her.
She’s beauty, She’s grace
She’ll punch you in the face~~
This is what happens when gasoline tries hanging out with fertilizer.
Well, it has to be the right type of fertilizer and the right kind of fuel. Doesn’t help that the fertilizer carries a chip-shaped detonator on her shoulder.
I know, but I figured ‘ammonium nitrate’ would be too obscure.
After the Oklahoma City bombing? No.
I was pretty young when that happened…
It still put “ammonium nitrate = bomb component” into public awareness. You could buy the stuff by the ton without anyone blinking an eye before then.
Second rule of Fight Club… Don’t piss off Sal.
Good move, Sal. This will make everything right between you and Marcie for sure
Welp, this is going to be an unmitigated disaster.
… Good thing Amber’s not here to make things worse, at least.
The one fucking night Amazi-Girl isn’t around! Perhaps we should ask that plain and certainly not up to any misdeeds Amber O’Malley if she’s seen her around.
To anyone wondering, this is pretty much how the fight’s gonna’ go.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d696t3yALAY
I am completely siding with Malaya here. She’s being ALLOWED to hang out with the great and mighty Sal? GEE WHAT AN HONOR.
I would probably have a similar reaction in being told that I suck but I’m ALLOWED to stay in the presence of someone even though they’re obviously too good for me. It gets my blood boiling.
I’d dare say most of us could’ve registered our displeasure without the profanity. (or at least not as much of it.)
When you’re that accustomed to constantly spewing profanity, doing otherwise is hard even under optimal circumstances. She’s utterly justified in cussing, that’s not even an issue. Incitement of violence is iffy, but we’ll see how it plays out.
Not Malaya. Expecting Malaya to not be profane is like expecting Sal to not be violent.
Not sure about that. Go back through her limited appearances in DoA. She’s got a surprising number of strips where she doesn’t cuss at all. Borders on polite in some of them, and she’s not even abrasive to Sal in most. Shortpacked Malaya she ain’t.
How about Sal’s profanity?
Perhaps Sal could have responded without grabbing Malaya and throwing up against a wall.
I sympathized with Sal up to this point – jealousy is a hard thing to deal with, and it looks very much like Marcie is her ONLY friend, so her insecurity makes sense. But this? This is not a good-faith effort to make nice with Marcie’s new friend. Sal’s making it pretty clear from her attitude that she doesn’t like Malaya at all, and doesn’t mean to even TRY to be pleasant.
And Malaya’s got a real point here – since getting to college, most of the people Sal has encountered have been wowed by her ‘badass’ air, and I honestly think that there was a part of her that expected Malaya would be the same way, despite all evidence to the contrary. The only way Sal was going to ‘make nice’ tonight would be if Malaya bent over backwards for her, because she started out with a clear attitude of “I hate you, you should be really grateful that I’m giving you a chance.”
Basically, yeah, Malaya is a rude little shit, but Sal is the one in the wrong here, even before she physically attacked.
Yea, I was going to post that too; it’s basically two very unpleasant attitudes crashing against each other.
Unstoppable Asshole meets Immovable Bongo.
I’m very surprised on how many comments are justifying Sal’s actions here! I was expecting a lot more people being along the lines of ‘Sal wtf’
Sal’s a POV character. Protagonist-centred morality is very popular in this fandom.
Or it’s a Jerk Vs. Jerk fight and Sal’s the Jerk We Know.
Malaya isn’t the one slamming people into walls.
Sal’s in the wrong here. It’s pretty clear cut.
I agree, though I am also part of the tiny group that liked Walkyverse Malaya. All this talk about that they are both jerks? Malaya is not the one committing physical assault.
Well, I’d say they both are exactly the wrong kind of personality for this kind of encounter, but Sal is the one who had the bright idea of trying to befriend Malaya while making it abundantly clear that she doesn’t really want to.
Wow, that came off completely wrong – sounds as if the worst thing Sal’s done is bad-mouthing Malaya. Point was that this whole meeting was a mistake to set up.
Oh damn…the limiters have been released!!!
You dun fucked up now Malaya.
‘Limiters’? Who’re they?
Ah and here comes out the old Sal we walkyverse people know and love.
Or know anyway.
Jesus Sal, I thought this was about making friends not losing them. You will lose Marcie if/when she finds out about this.
wow, sal is a giant asshole.
calling her out here only to call her names, then she acts like an arrogant prick acting like malaya should be honored to hang out with someone who calls her a “cumstain” and when malaya calls her on her shit she attacks her.
again, sal is being an asshole. I’m not even going to read the comments on this strip since i know 90% of them will be acting like Sal is somehow justified in the assault she’s pulling here.
I actually think most people agree with you. Have some faith! Not in humanity of course, but in the fact that Willis’ fans are somewhat un-sheeplike. XD
I think that we’re witnessing the first few steps of the Sally Walkerton death spiral. Things will probably get a lot worse for her before they get better and Amazi-Girl may find herselfe surprisurprising position of having to help save her Nemesis from herself and from self-destruction.
As for this fight? Well, right outside the dorm room, in full view of Campus Security’s cameras is probably a bad locale to choose. I see a suspension or credit loss in Sal and Malaya’s immediate futures.
OMG! Between Amber’s start of her rage being Sal, and Sal’s life being ruined by that same day…and knowing how Pro-Gamer Sal has the potential to be and the fact that Amber doesnt like to be social and Sal doesnt like to talk…
They could be best buds!
Malaya already seems to have lost some of that assurance in the last panel.
this pleases me…because i’m a bad person >.> *faint voice* noooo sal, don’t doooo it…
Much as I hate to say it, Malaya does have a point. Sal does need to realise that Marcie is entitled to have other friends and spend time with other people as she wishes. Not everybody in life is going to like you, and learning to live with that is one of the most important lessons you’ll ever learn as a person.
Looking further than the current altercation, tho.
(Not adding proper links because WordPress sends any message with more than one URL to the moderation folder.)
Sal has been a bomb looking to blown off pretty much since she arrived. -She almost went to a fist fight with Ruth (/book-2/01-pajama-jeans/authority/)
-She was about to “paint this parking lot” with Amazi-girl’s blood ( /book-4/03-up-all-night-to-get-vengeance/fightme/ )
-Once drunk with Jason ( /book-5/02-threes-a-crowd/walking/ )
The 2 first were from provocations… but for the last one, she’s pretty much looking to get into a fight, ANY fight ; and mention that Marcie’s the only thing stopping her.
My point is that if even if the current fight is stopped, she’ll explode eventually, and the damage radius will get worse the longest it’s left unattended.
So this will end badly for Malaya, and Sal will get her ass in custody again?
I’m not sure. They’re awfully close to a building entrance to not be left unnoticed for long.
Betting someone else shows up before it gets out of hand. Could be almost anyone, Sal’s probably not so far gone that she’s beat someone’s head in right in front of a witness. I kind of like the idea of Joe walking past and saying something that gets both of them pissed with him, but that’s just me.
Hopefully this is Willis’ way of getting Sal to admit to why she’s so angry and give people a chance.
The thing that is so aggravating is that Sal has proved herself to be a great person, intelligent, and thoughtful at times So we know she has the potential to be beloved. Maybe she just needs to realize between some of the people she lives near by that there are some great people she can open up to and not leave herself vulnerable. Hell Even Walky and Billy are going through some serious growing up.
I like Malaya more every time I see her.
That’s an awful lot of shit to talk to somebody who was in juvie with only one working hand
on a related note, I retract my previous statement involving bloodstains
Bye Malaya, nice knowing you D:
Oh wait
BFFs
Dammit, as much as I hate to admit it, Malaya is objectively a better person in this strip…
i think they are both equally terrible here.
How do you figure?
Umm, hate to say it, but I’m on Malaya’s side in this…
i’m pretty sure most are.
And I’m pretty sure most hate to say it.
I enjoy the fact that Malaya’s parody of a Sal-fan is a spot-on description of Joyce.
Especially since Malaya has never -met- Joyce.
Yup, its a subtle “cut”-joke. (if we cut to Joyce gushing about Sal in the last panel it would be a straight example)
…Malaya have you been hanging out with Joyce lately?
Sal’s the one that’s about to actively cross the line here, but I can’t help but think “dammit, Malaya”.
Crap, I missed first on calling it-
But it never really gets old, so here it goes anyway:
“Dammit, Malaya.”
malayas got a point
(then again i always side with malaya anyway, because damn it someone has to!!!)
Don’t worry! Some people here like her and side with her. She may be unpleasant but she owns it.
….now kiss!
Could not be happier than to see her get a beat down from Sal, even if I know it’s not gonna happen.
Just did an archive dig through all of Malaya’s strips – less than 20 of them as of today – and I’m struck by the fact that she’s interacted with no one except Sal, Marcie, and Carla, unless you want to count the fight with Amazi-Girl as interaction. She’s not the type of person who’s going to have a lot of friends (Marcie may be the only one outside of maybe some unseen derby players) or get into casual conversations off panel – so where does panel 4 come from? It’s spot on in terms of accuracy when it comes to Joyce, but how does she know that stuff? Unless Sal’s been talking about Joyce’s girl-crush on her in front of Malaya, who told her? Did Sal tell Marcie and she relayed it along?
You forget that Sal always takes charge; even just in the set of characters you named, there’s enough basis to have that sort of envious-disdain reaction.
Just reread the parking lot/amazigirl sequence and see how Sal is essentially taking charge of their entire group.
‘Sides, there’s reason enough to imagine stuff has happened off-panel: Even Sal and ‘wonderbread’ have had off-screen continued study session interactions alluded to.
Though if your point prompts Willis to add more Sal to the strips, I’m all in favor.
You really think anyone in the Carla/Marcie/Malaya grouping has ever expressed a desire to brush Sal’s hair? No way in hell. That’s a Joyce thing, and where did Malaya hear it unless it came from Sal somehow? Apparently Sarah isn’t the only one who’s been talking about Joyce’s weirdness behind her back – but it’s kind of surprising that Sal has even registered on the crazy bible girl hero worshipping like that, much less felt like passing it along to Marcie or Malaya.
Well, either that, or we have to accept that Malaya subconscious is speaking there. I don’t see her wanting to brush Sal’s hair for her, but the folks calling for a lesbian slipshine with the two sure would.
I think the point is that Malaya absolutely has Sal pegged even though she’s never met Joyce or seen how she reacts to her.
^
Here is what I think is gonna happen: They will beat on each other for a while, and after blowing off some steam that way, they will sit down on the sidewalk next to each other, having found a modicum of mutual respect and they’ll have a nice pleasant talk.
You forget. In this comic, when two strong-minded young women get into a big blowout, it leads into Slipshine.
This one might even have more destructive elements involved than the last one!
Look forward to it!
These people are both pretty much assholes.
Wow there’s so much Malaya hate here, and most of it boiled over from the Walkyverse. This may be the most times I’ve seen the word “bongo” on the page.
I liked Walkyverse Malaya… and I kind of like this one too. She’s abrasive sure, but she’s also kind of fun, too.
bongo bongo bongo i dont wanna leave the jungle oh no no no no no
“But officer! She called me SALLY. Do I LOOK like a ‘Sally’ to you?”
Ummm Yessss?!
I would love nothing more than to see Sal slap some sense into her. She’s even more unpleasant here than she was in Shortpacked.
At first, I wanted to give her a chance here. She ruined that in about 2 comic strips. Sal, you may do your worst, now.
First, who set up this meeting? Sal asked for it.
Then Sal shows up itching for a fight. Basically “girl friend stealing hussy” on steroids.
Then Malaya correctly calls out Sal on her behavior, leading Sal to drop her put on accent and move directly to violence, which seems to have been the intent of this meeting all along.
People hate on Becky for not letting go of her only friend when Joyce is about all she has in the world, but are defending Sal using violence to keep her only real friend. Becky made a new friend in Dina, while Sal has refused to make anything like a friend despite many opportunities. Jason is a hate fuck, not a relationship. Yes DYW just juxtaposed two alternate reactions to having a friend expand their social circle. Becky was jealous and in dire circumstances, but limited herself to banter and passive-agressive crap. Sal was jealous but far from alone, surrounded by admirers (and her brother is right there).
Sal has been playing Fonzie so far. Cool rebel, aloof. Now she plays alternate universe (or maybe real life / non-sitcom) Fonzie. Short tempered, isolated, striking a pose rather than actually living, kinda desperate and sad. I feel sad for Sal here, because this is part of a downward spiral. She’s a long way from the path.
FWIW, ‘desperate’, ‘sad’, ‘striking a pose rather than actually living’? These have always been part and parcel of who Sal is. It’s just that she’s never actually been forced to admit that to herself in a way that she can’t shrug off before. If Marcie takes Malaya’s side and dumps Sal, then an unpleasant self-examination may become unavoidable. It will be a genuine test of her strength of character whether she can survive that.
Yeah, I noticed a long time ago that Sal’s pretty much just Billie but better at it and without the booze addiction.
No “sexy lesbian suicide pact” to motivate her, either. For all its flaws the relationship between Ruth and Billie is propping both of them up, at least for the time being.
Christ, what an asshole.
which one?
yes
Very much so.
I’m…I’m on Malaya’s side.
I feel dizzy. I need to sit down.
Shit, I -am- sitting down.
Speaking as a longtime Walkyverse reader who didn’t care for Malaya in Shortpacked!, Sal is clearly the one in the wrong here. I’m half wondering if she’s deliberately sabotaging this just so she can claim to Marcie that she made an effort to be friendly but Malaya threw it back in her face.
Speaking as someone who hasn’t read Shortpacked! yet, I can tell that there’s some reason people don’t like Malaya, but just like Danny, that reason doesn’t seem to have carried through into DoA.
It kinda has, she has pretty much the same personality here as she did there. People just had a MASIVE hate on for her over there. Like to the point they legitimately thought Leslie murdered her after it turned out she wasn’t a lesbian and were totally cool said murder.
…that’s seriously messed up.
Shortpacked ran on a different brand of humour than DoA, and Malaya at her best rarely came close to the worst of what this Malaya offers.
Heck, one of the last jokes in Shortpacked was Pat Lee dying at the hands of Soggies.
So cut back to the party, a few strips later we’ll see the aftermath or Dorothy will have to go break up the fight, and on slipshine there’ll be a “Malaya & Sal’s Inadvertantly Erotic Catfight” thing, right?
I do not miss my 20’s one bit.
Well, except the body. I wouldn’t mind my 20’s body back, but not the mind! hahaha
Preach it, fellow traveler.
Aw yiss *reaches for popcorn*. The Willis giveth ^^
“Happy Birthday Malaya. I hope you enjoy this perforated lung. It’s your lung…..”
My prediction: Sal is going to beat Malaya to a pulp. Marcie is going to drop her like a red-hot coal (what is the sign for “I don’t hang out with psychos”?) and she’s going to end up looking expulsion in the face because she carried out an assault in front of one of Campus Security’s cameras. In the face of the almost-certain ruination of her life, she’s going to start acting out and that is going to ultimately bring her and Amazi-Girl together in the way that Amber never imagined.
Has Amazi-Girl every talked a person in despair off of a high ledge before?
Oddly enough, I can see her sort of replacing Becky as the ‘wild one’ in Joyce’s circle when Becky finally has to move out of the dorm for one reason or another because, in the end, Joyce has always treated her decently and never judged her. I can also see Sal hanging out with Amazi-Girl’s boyfriend as he’s practically the only decent friendship she’s made beyond Marcie. That also means that she also has to tolerate the computer nerd girl he hangs out with too. Funny that she reminds her of someone…
Determine who’s the bigger asshole or sit back and enjoy the snark?
Sit back and enjoy the snark. B)
I just read the comments, I shouldn’t have, I really shouldn’t have. Because I have gotten the feeling that over half of the commentators would love to see me being put in hospital, a couple might even do it themselves free of charge.
Because they don’t think that Sal’s behavior is completely unjustified? Or your name is Malaya? If it’s the latter, welcome to the club – my name’s Ryan, by the way.
Ehh, sorry if that sounded too flippant. You’re hardly alone in thinking this forum is getting too hostile.
Odds are somebody around here is actually named Blaine. They must find the character-hate even more tiresome.
DoA Malaya is getting more leftover Shortpacked hate than she deserves by a long shot. She’s had so little panel time it’s unfair to even try to judge her. Doesn’t help that DoA Sal is fairly popular (and no, I’m not a raving fanboy for her, the grav is a random choice) and is behaving horribly today.
It’s not the name. It is the fact that I have been in Malaya’s situation. I am exceedingly blunt to the point of rudeness, slightly misanthropic and have a love of casual language.
At some point in my past I have someone who didn’t like me approach me under the pretence of “playing nice” who was spoiling for a fight after months of treating me like shit. I reacted much like Malaya just did; a verbal explosion of vulgarity and when threatened with violence I dared them to do it.
And a lot of people are saying that Sal’s violence towards Malaya is completely justified and some are utterly gleeful at the beating they assume is coming her way.
The idea believe that Malaya should just kneel and lick Sal boots after being referred to a “cumstain” and being to told to be pleased that she is being allowed to breathe the same air as Sal and deserves to be the victim of violence when she refuses to do so is so utterly incomprehensible to me.
A lot of this is cross-universe schadenfreude.
Am I supposed to be on Malaya’s side in this scene? Because I pretty much am, despite disliking her pretty much whenever she’s interacting with anyone other than Sal or Marcie.
malaya <3
Yes, I would imagine Jesus was unpleasant.
Although, I could be wrong.