Saint Halliday runs an inn for Time Travelers. Unfortunately, he seems to attract other supernatural "guests," too.
Scape
Lauren
Sula has always preferred to forge her own path, but before she knows it, she is pulled into the middle of a civil war between man and monster!
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!
Goodbye to Halos
Valerie Halla
Cuddles, gay flirting, weird feelings, and magic-fueled knife fights - it's an adventure across the queer multiverse!
Edison Rex
Chris Roberson
The adventures of the world’s greatest villain who, after defeating his superheroic nemesis, decides that he’s the only one left to defend the world.
Ride or Die
Mars Heyward
Ride or Die is an LGBTQ webcomic about two street racers who team up with a demon-possessed muscle car in the search for a missing woman, while being hunted by a deadly religious cult.
Star Impact
Jack McGee
A young, energetic woman fights her way up in the world of super-powered boxing after discovering the mighty gloves of her missing idol!
Sleepless Domain
Mary Cagle (Cube Watermelon)
In a world where magical girls and their battles are commonplace, loss has become all too common as well.
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.
Sister Claire
Yamino
In the troubled aftermath of a great war between Witches and her fellow Nuns, novice Sister Claire just wants a purpose.
Barbarous
Ananth Hirsh, Yuko Ota
A crummy wizard and an anxious monster have to get over themselves and bring order to an apartment building full of misfits.
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.
Headless Bliss
Clover
A story about story-telling, and other metaphysical themes such as Nightmares! (Failed) Teamwork! Comedy! And more!
Darkling Bright
Chris Hazelton
Kieran Bright is a college student home for the summer and roped into an online reunion with his old neighborhood friends in the most recent update of their favorite childhood MMORPG.
At least, he was, and that was the idea...
Join Kieran and his friends as they are pulled into another reality that may or may not be real and are forced to confront their own identities, the nature of simulated universes and reality itself.
Lies Within
Lacey
Lysander's aimless and carefree life is turned upside down when he accidentally discovers that the cute boy next door, Simon, is a literal monster
Empowered
Adam Warren
A sexy superhero comedy (except when it isn't) about the never-ending struggles of a plucky but very unlucky young superheroine.
The Forgotten Order
Christy
A young witch for whom every spell is a misfire finds solace and friendship in her new companion - a cursed doll.
Aquapunk
Lo
In an underwater world of unknown coordinates, inhabited by aliens, ghosts, and robots, a young member of a warrior underclass is framed for a crime and goes on the run. Little does he know he is part of a grand design that only gods and ancestors could choreograph.
Not Drunk Enough
Tess Stone
Logan Ibarra is possibly the unluckiest repairman in the world. A late night job should not have landed him in the middle of a mad scientist's squabble, but he soon finds himself surrounded by monsters and further madness with little tools to get out.
Gzhel Guardian
Atla Hrafney, nushanchel
The Railway World is a complex, mysterious network of trains, towns and mechanical monsters. Leo is a Guardian of one of these towns, and although their burn-out and depression has taken hold of them, they have one last job to finish.
Kochab
Sarah Webb
A YA F/F fantasy comic about Sonya, a lost skier trying to survive a snowy wilderness and find her way back to her village; and Kyra - a fire spirit trying to fix the home that she let fall apart around her.
Little Tiny Things
Clover
What are the little things that move us? The simple joys that warm our bodies and hearts? The micro life of insects that influence our world more than we think? The tiny steps we make everyday to have a happier tomorrow?
How to be a Werewolf
Shawn Lenore
Malaya Walters was bitten by a werewolf as a child. After being raised by her human family, she faces the chance to learn what being a werewolf is really like as an adult.
The Substitutes
Myisha Haynes
What happens when three roommates accidentally acquire otherworldly and powerful magic weapons destined for someone else?
Monsterkind
Taylor C
Wallace Foster, a young, bright-eyed human social worker, has his entire world view rocked when he's suddenly relocated into a city primarily inhabited by monsters.
Nigh Heaven & Hell
Scotty
Heather Vodihn is on a simple mission: find her father. However she becomes entangled with two strangers with mysterious powers being stalked by a group with bizarre demands. Heather must learn to trust her new traveling companions, even if she is untrustworthy herself.
The End
August Brown, Cory Brown
Two aliens crash a sci-fi convention and accidentally take seven nerds on an adventure that spans the galaxy!
Alice and the Nightmare
Misha Krivanek
Alice finally attends University to learn to collect the dreams of humans, meet new friends, and deal with a pesky reflection along the way.
Within
Verena Loisel
A young hitman meanders between a reality that seems to happen without him, and his dreams where he is lost in an endless house. When he makes an accidental friend, his world is shaken up and he realizes there are things he can't remember about himself.
Quick$ilver
Crypto
The flirtatious, directionless, and ever disastrous Luci searches for excitement in a life of crime, and finds himself caught in a web of messy romance and bad blood.
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.
Astral Aves
Moon Cabal
A fantasy coming-of-age following the adventures of Astra The Black and friends, as they navigate the mysterious world around them. It's politics, adventure, and the supernatural; oh, and crazy hair.
Widdershins
Kate Ashwin
A series of light-hearted Victorian-era adventure stories featuring grumpy bounty hunters, accidental thiefkings, and more, in England's magical capital city Widdershins!
Freakshow
Scotty
A festival of broken people, blood flows in the center ring. Come one and come all, to the greatest show in all of Paris.
Augustine
Winter Jay Kiakas, Windy
August and her ragtag group are just like everyone else, simply surviving in the treacherous Crater... When they stumble into what may be an artifact of the ancient past, their lives are thrown into a much bigger loop as they trifle with bounty hunters, monsters and gods.
Nerf Now!!
Josué Pereira
A cute webcomic about fanservice, video games, and... love. Mostly video games, though.
Trying Human
IntroducingEmy
Two women separated by over half a century are brought together by an alien-filled conspiracy involving murder, mystery and romance!
Love Not Found
Gina Biggs
Abeille is on a quest to find someone who wants to do it the old-fashioned way in a time when touching has become outdated.
Cyanide & Happiness
Explosm
Satire, dark humor and surreal humor.
Alexander, The Servant & The Water of Life
Reimena Yee
The 21st century retelling of the life and legends of Alexander the Great.
The Golden Boar
Magnolia Porter Siddell
A young woman joins a group of summoners who call forth Guardian Beasts to protect their isolated magical island. Unfortunately, her Guardian Beast is nothing like she'd imagined, and he's about to change her life, and everything she thought she knew about herself...
Namesake
Isa, Meg
There's ghosts at your heels and fairy tale worlds ahead. What do you do? Jump down the rabbit hole!
Sakana
Mad Rupert
Our heroes must navigate a hazardous dating scene, overcome personal anxieties, and wrangle unruly seafood in order to find love, peace of mind, and a paycheck.
Stand Still, Stay Silent
Minna Sundberg
A few generations after the end of the world, a small, poorly financed research crew is sent out to rediscover whatever is left of the forbidden old world in the south.
Missing Monday
Elle Skinner
Two girls fall in love through a magic door connecting their worlds. When Monday suddenly goes missing, it's up to Foyle to find her. How she's going to navigate an entirely unfamiliar world is another matter.
ARISE, YE SKELETON KING
Brian Clevinger, Escher Cattle, Lee Black
A troupe of wandering "adventurers" down to their last silver "acquire" a map only to find the real treasure was the fiend they dug up along the way.
Cassiopeia Quinn
Gunwild, Psudonym
A cute, pantsless thief is pursued across the stars by a buttoned-up military officer in the spacey, laser-filled future.
The Weave
Rennie Kingsley
A young woman pursued by bad luck is witness to the murder of the Fairy Queen of Summer. Can she get to the bottom of this mystery?
The Last Diplomat
Cat Farris
Samma and Tark didn't ask to be stuck together, but now they're partners on the adventure of a lifetime.
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One, despite the protestations of the creators I really have a hard time not seeing Chie and Yukiko in a lesbian relationship. But since they’re both romance options that would probably make them bisexual.
Two, Persona Golden’s epilogue is set a year after the main game, at which point both Yukiko and Chie are 18. So it’s perfectly ok.
Cop Chie comes in and throws her coat down angrily. “All men are shit!”
Narukami: *comes in carrying a dinner tray I’m sorry.
Chie: I- I didn’t mean you! Aw, Yukiko, how did you get so lucky?
Narukami puts down dinner for the ladies and leaves to go back to cooking for the inn.
Chie: I know. We can split Yuu-kun.
Yukikio has a laughing fit. Danny stumbles in accidentally, wearing a towel from the hotsprings.
Yukiko: You could date this random American tourist?
Chie: This inn is even weirder than I remember.
Yeah, y’all are forgetting Rose. So considering Amber is the brunette clone of Dorothy, and Rose was Amber’s counterpart in retail employment, does that make Rose a crimson copy of Dorothy by association? If so, Danny probably shouldn’t go down that road.
To quote Dark Justice:
(character I don’t know): How do you cope?
Batman: I have a butler.
On a more serious note, he’s only so good at repressing the truth because he’s too busy being a foster father (and real father in Damian’s case) to four teens to actually question himself or his motives. Seriously, Batman has the most hectic family life out of the Justice League members.
I know, so many Robins, all following the same trajectory.
Batman needs a Robin.
Robin is young and Batman is his protector.
Robin is popular, lets make him older and give him his own comic/back up etc.
Wait, Batman and Robin are of legal age and living together. Must be teh gays.
Spin Robin off somewhere else, after a big, existential split/Kill Robin off
Batman needs a Robin.
However, apart from being a fictitious character, I think Bruce deals with his repression thanks to frequent opportunities to punch bad guys in the face. As with AmaziGirl, it is surprisingly cathartic.
About “teh gays”: at this point I’m fairly certain that Joker is gay for Bats. Or at the very least one of the THREE Jokers that exists according to the comics is gay for batman. Probably all three actually. And then Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy are finally officially together in at least two ongoing comics within the multiverse, and they’ve had such good chemistry together since Harley was first introduced in the animated series and first interacted with her. I think batman might actually know the most gay characters out of the main DC heroes.
Oh yeah. I forgot that Wonder Woman’s an Amazon. Man, I really need to refresh up on the rest of the Justice League outside of Batman. It’s been way too long. Actually, come to think of it I don’t think I’ve actually paid attention to any DC comics not involving Batman since Young Justice got cancelled. Oh well, guess I’ll start paying attention again because season three baby!!
Which has all sorts of weird implications if you think too much about it – generally a bad idea for decades old superhero origins.
Why are all the Amazons lesbian? Or even bi? Just because they live in an all female environment?
To thejeff: It’s complicated. In the original mythology the Amazons did live in an all female society after all the men were wiped out in a war and devoted themselves to becoming an all female society of mounted warriors without peer, going so far as to cut off one breast so it would be easier to draw a bow (which of course is an invention of Greek men because having breasts doesn’t affect archery at all). Of course as they were all warriors they were pretty much by definition what we would nowadays consider bisexual or lesbian. This is because from the Greek view it was accepted, and often expected of warriors to have same-sex relationships with fellow warriors. The city of Thebes in Boetia took it to the extreme of having 300 warriors known as the “Companions” who were 150 gay couples, the reasoning being that putting lovers together would make them a)fight harder to protect one another and b) drive them into a berserker rage if their lover fell. And these guys routinely trounced Spartans and gave Philip of Macedonia his hardest challenge, killing thousands of warriors and fighting to the last. He and his son Alexander the Great and the various Greek successor states after him would all name their bodyguards after that unit. So because it was considered normal for Greek warriors to bed one another the Greeks logically supposed that the mythical Amazons did the same thing. At the same time, the Amazons kept up their numbers and made sure their society survived by routinely going on raids to find strong warriors who they would then capture and sleep with in order to reproduce. If the resulting child was female she was raised as an Amazon, if the child was male they would raise him to adulthood (generally considered 16 or 17 at that time) and then kick him out with directions to the nearest neighboring city state or kingdom. Or they just killed the male children depending on regional variety of the Amazon myth. Now, in order to explain why the Amazons had remained hidden for so many years, and in order to avoid the possibly messy female-on-male rape (which does happen in real life but isn’t as common as male-on-female rape and even less commonly reported do to the pervading cultural notion that a man can’t be raped by a woman) aspect of Amazon number replenishment, the comic writers had Amazons (or at the very least Diana) made out of clay by the gods, put in a mold, and then brought to life by Olympian god fire. Because, you know, reasons. It also helps explains why Amazons are immortal in the DC multiverse. Of course, it’s also slightly implied in some earlier Justice League episodes and I think a couple of comic storylines (if I’m remembering properly) that Diana herself is the daughter of Hades. Interesting note, despite being nominally made of clay by the gods Amazons still apparently have mothers and a Royal line, so I’m guessing Amazons just mix some of their blood into the clay being used in a statue when they want to have a daughter, which makes seem kinda like Amazons are some sort of mold or fungus.
Yeah, I think that all falls into “don’t look at it too closely in modern terms”. Myth is one thing (as are superhero backstories), how it would actually work if you took it seriously is another.
Most of that I was at least vaguely aware of, though I’ve kind of lost track on the different variations of the DC Amazons history – last I knew they were all the original immortal Greek ones. Except Diana of course.
That reminds me of something Mark Waid wrote in his 90’s run of The Flash.
Wally asks Pied Piper if the Joker was gay and he replies; “No, the Joker’s always seemed more asexual to me. As far as I know, I’m the only gay supervillain.” That was the first time the readers (and Wally) learned that Piper was gay. My apologies if my quote is a little off. Its been twenty something years and I sold those comics a long time ago.
By my count, all time there is probably 15 in Aquaman’s immediate “family” but that includes Mera, and his brothers. And they definitely haven’t all been around at the same time. Aquaman may well outnumber Bruce’s all time record, but as far as hectic “foster families” go, Bruce has him covered.
Seriously, what is your count for 15? I have Tempest, Aqualad, Aquababy, Aquagirl, Dolphin (stretching things there), Ceridan (grandson) and…?
Last I looked (not including a Rebirth, because we have no idea where that is going to settle yet) Cassandra, Bluejay, Dick, Jason, Tim, Damian, Stephanie and Barbara are all looking to Bruce with a current, mutual feeling of responsibility. Jean-Paul keeps popping up, needing guidance as well.
I remember I once got bored and did a tally of it and Aquaman came out with fifteen. This was pre-New 52. I dunno if he’s gained more since. I wrote them down somewhere, I’ll see if I can dig it up later.
Stephanie and Babs have worked with him a lot, but aside from Steph’s brief run as Robin, they never really worked FOR him as a sidekick and they’ve never been adopted by him, hence why I’d say they’re more like nieces than daughters to him. Cass was never really much of a sidekick either (the batgirls tend to be more like independent operatives who work with him but not for him) but he ended up adopting her.
You’re right that Aquaman’s kids aren’t all together though. So for long lasting families, Bruce wins out. But by pure numbers, Arthur’s got him licked.
My Aquaman collection needs work, I have his run in 70s Adventure comics and his subsequent solo series, but only four of the original 60s run of his own title. So, yeah, please dig out that list.
Considering Datb of the Family and various Luther storylines, and Redruk’s saying “hectic family life” I am definitely counting Barbara and Stephanie into the that grouping, whatever subset you wish to apply. All time you would have to add Carrie, Helena and Terry McGinnis.
Aqua man’s kids, as of that list:
1) First Aquagirl (Lisa)
2) Second Aquagirl (name was Selena iirc)
3) Garth
4) Tula
5) Dolphin (I like stretching it. :P)
6) Lorena
7) Arthur Jr.
8) AJ
9) Koryak
10) Lagoon Boy
11) Mareena (his daughter from Terry’s universe)
12) Lagoon Girl
13) Jackson Hyde (Young Justice fans know him as Kaldur)
14) Aquagirl (A different AU)
15) I think the other was Tramm, which is REAAAAAALLLLY stretching it, as he’s on the very periphery of the Aquafamily. I’d argue there’s a stronger case for Dolphin, as she at least goes on several missions with him and eventually became his daughter in law.
Also I have found out about another Aquagirl who was not previously on my list named Jane.
I would count Cerdian, but that’s not a son. That’s a grandson. If we’re counting grandchildren, we’ll have to bring Jason’s sidekick Scarlet into Bruce’s tally.
I forgot about Cass and Stephanie (I’m unfortunately more of casual-medium comic fan) and I’ve never really counted Barbara because of Commissioner Gordon. But who the hell is Bluejay? I’ve never heard of that one.
Ok. Wait, do we also count that one sorta clone of Batman that Talia made and who killed Damian in that one storyline? Or is he just too inconsequential in the big scheme of things?
The Heretic? He was a clone of Damian. Considering he never learned from or studied with Batman or fought by his side, I don’t think we can count him. Although, straight DNA would suggest otherwise. Your call, I guess. This is all subjective, anyway.
Oh and I made a mistake calling Bluebird, Bluejay. Bluejay was that guy from JLI.
I always felt sorry for the Heretic. I mean he never really had a chance because Talia was such a bongo (seriously, least favorite love interest for Batman and I want a comic storyline where Damian is Batman and Catwoman’s son and ends up being the Robin for Dick Grayson after Bruce passes the mantle to him, leaving Tim Drake to become the new Nightwing). And at the same time, despite all the League of Shadows brainwashing, accelerated growth, and training from hell, he’s fighting Batman simply because he thinks he (the Heretic” will be a better Batman and do a better job of protecting Gotham, and Talia kills him for it. (I really, really hate Talia al-Ghul.)
But Damian is Damian because of that horrific upbringing. That was the whole point of the character – at least in the initial story arc (before he died and was brought back and all that nonsense.)
It was all about Damian learning to be a functional human being and even a kid. Desperate to earn his father’s love with no idea how to go about it. And Bruce, of course, being nearly incapable of showing it.
I always thought it was a “flock”. Turkeys and crows are the only birds I know of that aren’t collectively called “flocks” but instead “gaggle” and “murder” respectively.
Google suggests that robins are sufficiently territorial that mostly they don’t have groups to name, hence the need for the online vote. One of the collective-bird-name pages included “a gift of robins” among their possibilities, though, and for this context I quite like that. (Alternately, “a squabble of robins”, for when Bruce has to threaten to stop the Batmobile.
Speaking of which – does anyone else see a face in Amber’s neck and collar area in the 5th and 6th panels? Her collarbone is its mouth. The hair over her ear is its bangs. Her neckline defines its chin. It seems to have an eye and a nose.
Could this be a subtle Willis commentary on Amber having more than one aspect? (Probably not.)
It was mostly leftover hate from his Walkyverse days.
And much of it stopped once Danny’s parents showed up and treated him the same way commenters treated him. Somehow, it turned out to be less funny all of a sudden…
Tbh I hated Danny a lot earlier on. Like, he was a good person, but he had traits that annoyed me a lot like, he was a doormat but he turned passive-aggressive and snappy when he got upset, he blamed other people for a misunderstanding as well, I think he even threatened a double-murder over it which was childish.
And his obliviousness was painfully high over why Amber would push herself into his day with his parents – she SAID she needed to avoid/escape someone at the beginning I’m pretty sure (I may be remembering specifics incorrectly, but she definitely said something that could have tipped him off if his awareness at the time wasn’t less than a sack of hammers and he didn’t give her room to explain herself either).
But I like him more now as he grows away from that kind of behaviour and that kind of personality while keeping his good core traits. As he grows the spine to say ‘this isn’t cool’ without turning snappy and snide when he is angry (though he still snapped at Sal which wasn’t cool). And hell, I want to applaud him in this strip for calling out AG on EXACTLY WHAT SHE IS DOING and for correcting Amber like, wholly hell your awareness of what is going on is up at maximum right now.
Danny has done a lot of growing that he might not even fully realise but he gets an A+ for it in my book.
Amber said nothing to explain why she wanted to pretend to be his girlfriend. She looked nervously over her shoulder, and there are characters who would have clued in from that, sure–but she didn’t say anything, even when Danny pulled her away and asked her “what’s going on here?”
Yeah, he started out a bit Nice Guy TM, especially after his breakup with Dorothy and in his interactions surrounding Roz during the sex video arc, but he’s really abandoned a lot of that very quickly and grown into being a very good and sweet guy who frequently gets in very over his head with concepts he’s unfamiliar with.
I’ve been very proud of him of late and especially this comic where it would have been absolutely fair of him to be a douche to Amber owing to hurt feelings about the breakup and perceived hypocrisy, but he interrupted that to genuinely empathize with what was going on, recognize the DID, and show genuine support for the struggling alter.
Danny basically went from being a stalkerish variant of a “Nice Guy” into being and actual non-quotation mark empathic nice guy. Which is a really cool character development.
Stakerish seems a bit harsh to me. Honesty calling him a recovered “nice guy” seems a bit much to me too. He’s always been extremely respectful towards the women in his life for that label. To me his worst crime (if you could call it tha, more just a dumb teenage thing) seems to have been being too attached to Dorothy enough to make too many life decisions based around her and as we know from seeing his parents they helped to create that monster and Dorothy did as well by putting off ending things. However let’s remember that once Dorothy dumped him he was actually very mature about it? He respected her decision and left her alone and moved on. I just kind of get the feeling people labeled Danny as something he wasn’t because of a decision he made entirely based on low self esteem and because Dorothy a character that gets a bit more respect seems to have a lack of respect for him based on not seeing how much he’s grow without her? Now that Danny’s gotten some space from Dorothy and his parents and made friends who actually like him for him he genuinely appears to be blossoming.
I agree with this. He could be a jerk sometimes, but it’s not unheard of for sweethearts to follow each other to college. And we also have to remember that Dorothy put off dumping him until they actually got to school, not before that – so as flawed as Danny’s perspective was, he didn’t realize she was gonna dump him. I think they both have issues, and it was more mutual than a lot of people are saying. Same thing with Amber. Danny brought his baggage, but Amber has not given him much to work with at all, and besides that he’s a doormat, so he didn’t actually force their relationship on her, just did whatever she wanted him to do.
Fourth panel, she just contradicted herself. By saying that AG is the only “good” part of her, she *is* saying that Amber is all bad and any shitty thing AG does is because of Amber. This whole situation is shitty.
I don’t think Amber was meant to be denying it. I think she believes it’s objectively true and so she’s not ‘trying’ to put the blame on Amber – it’s legitimately Amber’s fault.
That is exactly how she is viewing it. That the Amber alter is toxic and poisonous and must mostly be contained or sealed away from the world in “protection” and that the AG alter is good and pure.
So, if AG is doing wrong behaviors or behaviors that seem erratic, then for the Amber alter, that means that she must have infected or corrupted AG somehow and she’s terrified this means she’s so “broken” or “dangerous” that she’s twisting and poisoning the golden alter and making her as “damaged” as her.
And this genuinely terrifies her and it’s likely that AG is contributing this by being very willing to dump off the blame for her negative actions with regards to Danny and Sal on Amber so she can remain “pure” and golden leading Amber into a really awkward state where she can either go against AG and acknowledge that AG is flawed (which is terrifying for her, because she’d blame herself and has trouble seeing that she has worth and value as an alter as well) or she can accept that toxic framing and still feel like “everything is in its place and sorted” (which is a bad idea with DID to try and enforce neat clean boxes).
And it’s why it’s beautiful that Danny points out the toxic framing and tries to get Amber to see she has worth, but also why she so angrily rejects that, because that’s such a shift in the framing and feels like standing over an abyss that can only lead to bad things (in her imagining of it).
Cerberus deserves an award for things predicted right because this is 100% what she said about Amazi-girl being perceived as the perfect while all the flaws are somehow Amber’s fault
I agree Danny should take care of himself, but having empathy for a person with mental health issues is a positive thing. Also that’s a really disrespectful way to describe said person with mental health issues.
Honestly, I think he’s doing the right thing by continuing to support her. Yes, she’s not sane and is dangerous but she’s still a person and needs love and support to get better.
Silly Amber. If she wants to escape the truth, all she has to do is jump into the water. Everybody knows the truth can fly, but it can’t swim! Just like those swarms of hornets from the old cartoons.
But remember, help is for weak people, for losers, for nobodies. -Real- people don’t need help or therapists or crap like that! That’s just one of the many horrible “lessons” her asshole of a ‘father’ instilled in her. And because of those lessons, she was forced to deal with her problems by creating what was at first a persona, and which evolved into… Well, this new mess instead.
Yup. Don’t get a therapist, that’s for losers. Hit something instead.
That was his lesson and why he followed up the trauma of the 7-11 incident by yelling at her for “sniveling like a coward” and enrolling her in karate rather than actually getting her help for the massive spikes in anxiety and flashbacks she was experiencing.
Which is going to make it a lot harder for her to seek out mental health support in integrating her alters and why she doesn’t yet view her alters as needing to be integrated (because why in Amber’s mind, would you risk Amber the weak PTSD riddled victim “infecting” the clear heroic purpose of AG who is the hero her father wanted and never wanted her to become, willing to fight back against bullies to protect the weak).
I see. That’s the explanation we’re going with, AG? That any and all bad things you do are Amber bleeding through and not you being shitty?
Interesting. I’m sure Sal and Danny and anybody else you’ve used excessive force on will be delighted to learn you’re not REALLY responsible for this, it’s all Amber’s fault because she’s the bad alter.
I know it’s Amber saying this but AG’s been pushing this a lot lately. I’m not surprised Amber is believing it.
Is it AG pushing it and Amber believing it? Or is it that Amber already believed that she was worthless, dangerous, and broken, due to her father’s messaging and her own assault with lethal weapon? Maybe AG saying it is Amber bleeding over? Or maybe the two are in complete agreement on this point, no daylight between them.
…. and that’s a bad thing.
But it’s bad on both of them, not bad on just one of them.
AG seemed pretty happy doing violent, stalky shit all on her own before she realized a crowd full of racists calling for Sal’s blood was on her side. At which point it was magically all Amber’s fault.
Amber’s never believed she deserved goodness, but that’s around the time she started taking the fall for AG’s shit.
They’re in agreement. Amber’s a-hole dad primed her to believe she was worthless (successfully) and to take abuse (not so successfully, good job Amber). Amazi-Girl just fits into this preexisting framework perfectly.
Yeah, which is the trap of the golden alter myth. If the golden alter is perfect and all your goodness, then one or more other alters must be all your badness or unwanted traits.
And so it becomes really easy for the golden alter to blame all their shit on the “bad alter” either because the “bad alter” corrupted their decision making or because of the strain of keeping the bad alter down (which are both bullshit). And for the “bad alter” to believe that shit, because, well, they are the depository for all the bad stuff, aren’t they?
It’s a really toxic frame that doesn’t do either any favors because the golden alter is under no pressure to actually grow and improve and recognize negative actions and the “bad alter” isn’t allowed the freedom to grow and it tends to deepen disassociation (because why would you allow the “bad alter” a seat at the table or any respect), which means less communication.
For some reason I’m now imagining the truth as some sort of supervillain with the ability to appear anywhere and torment you psychologically or something.
Well Cerberus called it with the golden altar (yes that word is being used on purpose) pedestal bullshit. Amber’s not willing to believe she can do anything good, and both AG and Amber are unwilling to admit that AG can do anything wrong. On a side note, never have I felt so sympathetic for two fictional characters. And I think it’s because I see so much of myself in them and can relate to them as a result. Cause my dad (while not physically abusive) was basically a hybrid of Blaine and Danny’s parents, so I feel like I could have been like one of these two so easily. That last panel makes me feel worse than when either Obi-Wan or Han died.
I’m sorry but I told you Danny you can try your hardest but you still going to screw thingredients up a bit, the best you can do is screwed things up enough to get it right…I know that doesn’t make a lick of sense but it’s less confusing this Amber/Amazi-girl thing.
Plus, if you’re skilled enough at removing organs, you can keep him alive to flay or burn alive at your pleasure. Or impale him. Or drown him in a shallow bowl or bucket of his own blood and piss.
I am a very vindictive person when it comes to punishing people who abuse in any way shape or form children.
He tries SO HARD to win back the “worst piece of shit” award from ToeDad. Sorry, Blaine. After what we have learnt about Bonnie, ToeDad actually has some lead.
When it comes to people like Blaine, the first thing that I think, I mean this with all seriousness, a Samuel Jackson quote from ‘A Time to Kill’: “Yes they deserved to die and I hope they burn in hell!!!” And for a sense of schadenfreude Dante would probably put in Caina, a sub-level of the ninth circle of hell. Circle Nine is reserved for traitors and Caina is reserved to traitors of kin; those who betrayed their own families. And Blaine’s abuse would definitely count as a betrayal of kinship.
I’m honestly impressed by them all here. Even before you factor in Amber’s psychological problems, everything about this plain HURTS, yet they take the time and effort to be as civil with each other as they can.
Even amazi-girl’s parting words are mild compared to last time they spoke.
Panel 1: Oh good, I was worried I was reading too much into the golden alter narrative, because of my own experiences.
But yeah, I’ve been there, believing my golden alter could do no wrong and where the one treated as the dumping ground could not acknowledge her own strength. Hell, when she was finally free of being abused by the golden alter, she still believed for awhile that all her goodness was just the golden alter leaking through or her love for her.
So yeah, I feel poor Amber here stuck in this toxic framing and trying to make sense of the raw truth that AG fucked up and did wrong. Cause I remember the confusion right after my golden alter tried to take over and commit suicide during one of my attempts, trying to make sense of this perfect image in comparison to the raw wrong she had just committed.
And I remember after too many attempts finally cottoning on that that was just what she was about.
It’s a hard thing to see and the propaganda is seductive and strong to pretend away the plain truth.
Panels 2-3: Oh Danny, you perfect cinnamon roll, you! I fucking love you.
Like, A) I love that he doesn’t buy this shitty framing for even one second. That he sees right through this self-hating bullshit and pathetic attempt to pin AG’s fuckups on Amber.
And B) Yes, just yes, thank you for pointing this out. Because that’s exactly what AG has been doing. Propping up her mythology by blaming all her flaws and fuckups on Amber, on framing Amber as someone with nothing positive to give, an eternal victim for AG to play hero to. And poor Amber has accepted that framing, assumed that they must be bad and toxic to AG’s perfection.
And fuck, just all the extra points to Danny here because he came into this conversation ready to fight with a legitimate grievance and yet, he recognizes this isn’t the person he’s angry with and that the alter in front of him is scared and hurting and needing of support. Just A+ Danny, A-fucking-+.
But AG can’t, because Danny has had his Lois Lane fantasy broken and realizes that AG is dangerous. So now it’s a matter of AG needing to continue existing and controlling. And Danny’s a threat to that, to her.
From what what I’ve heard about Roomies (haven’t read it myself), best Danny ever may not be a high bar to clear. But this Danny really is great, and deserves far more love than he gets in the comments.
Panel 4: Well, that hits like a wrecking ball to the sternum.
I’m still scared of this. Not that I’m corrupting a perfect alter, but that all my attempts to do good and right by people is just painting a thin layer of paint over a rotten core and that everyone will eventually see the rot underneath and leave.
And a lot of the reason for that is having so many turn on me over the years for parts of my identity I couldn’t affect. Some probably stems to being a scared kid with an alter I convinced myself was dangerous to everyone and who I needed to let my golden alter abuse and cage like an animal so as to “save everyone”.
It’s not something any kid should have to go through. And poor Amber here breaks my heart.
Especially so, because well, AG might not realize it, but this is feeding into an abuse survivor self-narrative. Specifically the one where almost every abuse survivor is terrified that they will one day turn into their abuser and commit the same sins or lose themselves to the monster their abusers swore they would become. And it’s heart-breaking to see Amber so distressed by that fear.
Panel 5: *blub* Oh, Danny, you sweet sweet man, you. Thank you for pointing this out, telling the Amber alter that she has worth, that this framing is toxic to her and that she’s got just as many positive qualities as AG. And that AG’s got just as many flaws.
And that’s especially important, because that golden alter framing tends to erase that in favor of a comforting narrative, but the reality is that no alter tends to be truly worthless. Some may be more damaged or have more triggers. Some may be in hiding and hard to coax out. Some may have flaws that loom large over them. But each one has something important to give and are an important part of the whole. And accepting that and allowing everyone true agency and self is the key to integration and not ripping yourself apart in stupid avoidable ways *glares at middle school self*.
Panels 6-7: But of course Amber is not ready to hear that yet and I’m especially galled that AG has stepped in here just to keep Amber from figuring out this truth. Like, what a dick mo-
*reads alt text*
o.0
Oh. Oh, I have so many questions now. Why can Amber do the AG voice? Why is she doing the AG voice? No seriously, why is she doing that voice? What does it mean?
She’s doing it in response to Danny’s comment about all of AG’s goodness coming from her. I think it’s her trying to refute that statement and cling even more tightly to her ideal of AG being perfect and good and Amber being a worthless fuckup. Like maybe by responding in AG’s voice instead of her own, she’ll be able to convince Danny (and herself?) that he’s wrong.
Danny has slowly become my favorite (male) character in this comic. And funnily enough he started out as my second least favorite (male) character (Joe was initially my least favorite male character, but then Ryan, John, Joe’s dad, Blaine, and Toedad showed up. I just forget about Mike because he’s honestly not worth remembering). Part of it is that, as shown in my comment above, I really relate to him on a lot of levels now but also the fact that he has grown and matured by about ten years in what for him is only two months. And just, the shear empathy he has for, well, everyone.
I love how Danny is so done with being afraid of being shouted at so he
goes straight for the simply truth. And Amber hears it, and that is very important, even if she parkours out of there faster than even Carla could manage.
This isn’t the first time Amber has done the AG voice, I think (did she do it when convincing Billie to drink water?).
And I just want to say, in response to your (first? second?) paragraph: Don’t let yourself believe that you aren’t a good person. I may have gushed a little in the comments last comic, but I mean it when I say that you are one of the best people I know of.
And when you feel like you’re just putting up a façade, that you’re rotten underneath? Well, aren’t we all. I know I have to actively check myself sometimes, because there’s some nasty stuff lurking in my mind. But I firmly believe that our actions towards others, more than anything else, determine our moral character, and based on what little I know of you, you are an outstanding human being.
Amber shouts in Amazi-Girl’s voice as she leaves because it’s possibly not smart to be shouting in her own voice, dressed as Amazi-Girl, while outside.
Remember that the Amazi-Girl persona was, at least originally, Amber’s creation based on her comic book self-insert character fantasies. It makes sense that she can ‘do’ Amazi-Girl pretty well as she created her originally. It is only of late that she’s attempted to schism the two aspects of her life into distinct personalities (with the current confusion and trouble being the result).
I want to hug Danny right now, because god damn the dude gets shit on way too much both in comic and in the comments and he really does not deserve it.
I am absolutely sick of the amount of commenters saying “don’t Dan this up, Dan” – it feels mostly like they’re projecting his Walkovers character, who I understand was a “Nice Guy (TM)” jerk, onto his dumbiverse character, who is just a really sweet guy who just wants to do right by his friends. Not saying he hasn’t made some embarrassing mistakes (thinking Sal is Amazigirl, for example”), and he started out badly by handling his breakup with Dorothy terribly, but he makes no more mistakes than the rest of the cast, and in moments like this shows real emotional intelligence.
Especially considering it’s pretty much canon that Danny has next to no self esteem due to his parents and to a lesser extent Joe constantly putting him down, it really does seem mean spirited that so many commenters put him down in an uncomfortably similar way.
I think those comments have mostly tapered off. Some people had it as a sort of longterm running gag, and/or Danny made them uncomfortably remember their younger selves too much…. but then we saw that his parents talked like that, which made it too real and too mean, and that killed the joke aspect of it for most people.
Also, whereas in Shortpacked! he was a preachy uptight jerk, here he is super genuine and kind, and also he’s super adorably bisexual, so I imagine that helped, too.
Fair enough. I mostly say this because I still saw some commenters saying “Don’t Dan this up Danny” when he started this conversation with Amber, so those attitudes do still seem to be around. But there is a lot more positivity for him in general.
Did he handle the break up terribly? From what I can recall he was sad about it for a reasonable amount of time and moped in bed for a day which seems pretty reasonable for the end of a years long first relationship. He also respected her decision and made no attempts to get back together. Even when he had ever reason to blow up at her (that stupid Walky’s shoes incident for example) he didn’t.
When like immediately after the break up? I feel like he’s allowed that once or twice. I don’t think it moves into “dick move” territory unless he’s doing it long past the point he should have gotten over things and considering it’s only been like..what a month? He’s still kind of in that window and the only times I’ve seen him get really aggravated with Dorothy (the shoe incident, trying to get info about amazigirl from him, her trying to shame him about moving on with Amber) it was pretty reasonable. He was kind of annoying with her during the bisexual explanation but I kind of have to give him a pass on that considering he was going through a pretty major life change. Honestly I feel like he’s been pretty damn mature about both of his break ups considering his age and experience.
I think Willis deserves congratulations for distilling into just three strips what I thought would take an entire chapter!
I’m expecting Amber to try to run away from this for some time but, here’s the thing: I don’t think she has the necessary strength to ignore Danny. She likes him too much and misses him too much. That means she’s got to consider what he’s saying. That will be difficult but it is something that she has to face.
And honestly, an apology here wouldn’t be a great thing. It would be Amber apologizing for what Amazi-Girl did – which is a good part of her current problem: Amber taking the blame for anything bad that either of them do and Amazi-Girl getting the credit.
I have to admit as much as I try to understand and relate somewhat to Amber, I’m really frustrated with her right now. Danny reacted better than I would have.
Wait a minute I got side tracked by the real problem of all this, all of that and yet he still didn’t ask her why she snapped at him over Sal in the first damn place.
Welp to Amber Sal is “The Root of All Evil” and she got all irrationally angry that Danny was talking with her but didn’t even bother to explain to him WHY he can’t talk to Sal.
He might’ve if the conversation had gone on longer, but he was trying to make sure he understood the situation first, and then Amber’s answers sent him down a different path.
This is new Danny, with an actual spine: he DEMANDS to differ, and you bloody well will allow him to. If it’s not too much trouble, he means. Like, don’t inconvenience yourself on his account.
Wow, 3rd panel Danny is really hitting the nail on the head of everything Cerberus told us about golden alters. Willis only knows what the AG pushback on that’s going to be.
You guys should go check Willis’s twitter, as he has posted some art there for Valentine’s.
Bagge in particular might find this one of great interest: https://twitter.com/damnyouwillis/status/831703386273755136/photo/1
*puts on earmuffs in preparation, for love of eardrums*
Are psychiatrists and/or therapists something that exist in this universe? I dunno, maybe it’s just me, but I mean, come on. You would think the friends of these people would be like “hey, this isn’t healthy at all”.
They definitely exist in this universe, and Ruth’s up to her eyeballs in them.
I’m guessing that of all her friends, only Danny (and MAYBE Ethan or Mike) know that this is some pretty dangerous psychology going on, rather than just vigilantism. Dorothy and Sal think it’s just a secret-identity thing.
Mike isn’t getting her help because Mike. Danny isn’t getting her help because Danny. Ethan…. I don’t think Ethan really has all the facts and he’s kinda confused.
But let’s not forget the fact that getting her help may ALSO mean sending her to jail. Because giving her propensity for beating people up over minor property crimes, any psychologist or therapist would be duty-bound to report her as a potential threat to others.
Yes, but that’s not ironclad. They are specifically obliged to report someone who is a threat to themselves or others. Little Miss Violent Delinquent-Beating Vigilante would count.
I’m in gradschool for social work (iirc, two thirds of therapists in this country are social workers).
It depends on the agency a bit, but in general, if Amber’s like “I’m going to go beat people up tonight” you have to tell her that, just as you discussed in your first meeting with her, you are duty-bound to warn a cop, or her mom, or your supervisor, or whomever your agency defines as the person who can keep her from injuring people tonight. Your job is to keep people safe, after all, and she probably signed a confidentiality agreement to that effect.
If you are super lucky, she is on board with you, and you make the call together. However, usually she hates this and wishes you wouldn’t, but you do it against her wishes.
You don’t tell the newspapers, you don’t tell the cops that she’s vaguely dangerous so please follow her around forever. Just somebody who makes sense as the person to keep people from getting hurt, and also your supervisor.
If you’re a rabbi, you are probably also a mandated reporter like this. If you’re a priest, pretty sure you don’t gotta tell nobody nuffing.
PS. Therapists have no requirement to turn you in for *past* crimes. I’m not a detective, judge, or police officer, I don’t actually mind if you’ve gotten away with breaking the law so far, I mind that breaking laws will probably have sucky consequences for you, such as jail, which will prevent you from reaching your goals, style of thing. I must intervene if you are planning to hurt yourself or other people imminently, because I am for safety. If you’ve hurt people in the past, though, I don’t get to judge that, I just try to make it so you don’t hurt people today.
Tl;dr: You only break confidentiality for imminent danger to self or others. (Ideally, you reveal only as much as is relevant to preventing that harm, but in practice they do sometimes forward your whole file to the hospital.)
You don’t have to break confidentiality for past harm to self or others, unless, again, it’s relevant to preventing imminent harm.
…. NEVER apologize for giving detailed explanations on important topics?
OKAY THEN! Let me explain how IRS Form 941 is used to qualify an employer as an annual, quarterly, monthly, or semi-weekly depositor of federal tax withho- *vaudeville hook*
For priests, my school (which was Catholic) taught us that priests can’t tell anybody what’s been said in confession. However, if you confess to doing something terrible like murder or rape or something, they can say ‘okay, this seems very serious, can we move to my office and talk more?’ and they can call the police about things said in their office or…anywhere really, outside the confession booth.
This seems like a ridiculous, deceitful cop-out. I mean, I don’t agree with the confidentiality of confession to begin with, but if you’re going along with it, basing the value of it on the place where it’s said seems preposterous.
I think that’s become something of an out so that priests can confess if they find a mass murderer or something in their congregation. And something about sacred space or something like that.
Though, my school made it sound like this rule was common knowledge, so I have no fucking idea why anyone confessing something that bad would go to their office with them.
That said, a good defense lawyer can probably get it thrown out, because even if the priest knows that it isn’t under the seal of confessional, the confessing criminal thinks it is. That would make it inadmissible.
… though it would keep the priest from getting excommunicated.
If the priest really wants to get the guy caught and tried, then, the way to do it would be to do that office trick and then call in with a detailed anonymous tip.
I believe that’s generally what the police call is for – to say ‘Hey, I’m pretty sure this guy did a thing’. Not so much for getting actual confessions for the police.
I was listening to a programme in the wake of recent statistics about priesthood child abuse, and a Catholic priest said that he’d never had someone confess it, but if he did, he would say something like ‘if you are truly penitent and seek absolution report it to police’.
Because nobody knows how bad it is. Sal’s cottoned on that she’s way too reckless and so far has been able to talk her down from that and the martyrdom while chasing Ryan, but not why she’s like that (untreated anxiety, PTSD, and probably DID). Ethan, Dina, and Mike have no idea how badly her mental state is deteriorating and Danny’s only been cottoning on now.
Like by telling her she’s a good person. That she’s not corrupting the good alter. That Amber isn’t the evil, worthless one.
Good on calling her out on that.
Hm. I view Amazi Girl as a representation of everything unhealthy in Amber’s mind. When I said I want her to go away, I meant that I hope Amber heals fully and is no longer compelled to don the mask as she currently does.
That… isn’t exactly correct. AG is more like… a part of Amber, that has taken its own distinct form, to try to protect Amber from triggers and things that make her unstable. To bring control when she feels overwhelmed so the unhealthiness of Amber’s mind wouldn’t destroy her. But she is now scapegoating her instead of actually doing her job of protecting her.
AG could also actually be really really helpful if she was convinced to throw away their toxic mythology as she probably knows how to help Amber better than anyone else does.
But yes, it would be good if Amber reached a point where she didn’t have to rely on AG, and is holding a transformer, and is okay for once and a double rainbow would appear in the DoA sky to celebrate.
But unfortunately I don’t think we’ve reached the bottom of this rabbit hole yet even though I’ve been at the point of wanting Amber to be able to start healing for quite a while.
Honestly, though, I think people have been listening too much to Cerberus’ own experience. The fact that Amber views AG as the golden alter is absolutely right. I don’t think that AG views herself that way at all. In fact, I think she only thinks herself as AG’s guardian, and nothing more. It’s honestly a very submissive role (which admittedly is ironic considering Amber’s inferiority complex).
Amazi-Girl has explicitly said she was protecting people from Amber, not protecting Amber herself.
And even if she sees herself as Amber’s guardian, the way she constantly shits on Amber and insists she’s dangerous and toxic and deserves nothing all makes it very clear that Amazi-Girl is a fucking terrible guardian.
I don’t remember AG saying that Amber was toxic. I know Amber has said that, probably even while dressed as AG. Perhaps she is trying to protect people from Amber, sure, but I don’t think she’s been trying to shit over Amber. It’s possible that Amber dressed as AG said that before the dissociation had gotten too bad, I suppose, which might have her tagged as AmaziGirl, but I don’t think the current AG sees Amber as toxic. Perhaps damaged, but not toxic.
If she weren’t trying to protect Amber, she never would have dumped Danny. So I’m pretty sure she sees Amber as someone worth protecting.
I don’t think AmaziGirl is actually that bad. I honestly don’t even think she’s responsible for Amber’s view that AG is everything good in her and Amber is everything bad. I mean, that’s probably what Amber created AmaziGirl for, before her dissociation got to the point where AG had split into a separate alter: As AmaziGirl, Amber could discharge her feelings in a way that (in her mind) was productive and good, and AmaziGirl could be a better person than Amber. Amber was always the identity she wanted to escape, and AmaziGirl was the idealized identity she wanted to escape TO. No, AmaziGirl’s vigilantism isn’t really healthy or commendable, and no, it wasn’t a good dynamic to set up. However, I think while Amber has kept her idealized vision of AG, AmaziGirl views herself as nothing more than a guardian for… well, for the general public, but in particular for Amber. The way I see it, I don’t think AmaziGirl is actually a malicious entity at all. In fact, it’s AmaziGirl who has made the most steps in bridging the gap with Sal.
The reason Amber says that “Amber leaks through” is that she doesn’t quite understand that while AG is a separate person, they share the same past. AmaziGirl has young Amber’s memories, and to some degree shared the opinion of Sal being her foe, a view that Amber probably thought was her view and not AmaziGirl’s. So while AmaziGirl tried to deal with Sal to protect Amber, it didn’t change the fact that she hated Sal and wanted to protect herself as well, and so she still blew up at Sal and Danny with the mindless anger any superhero might have after catching their loved one with their archenemy… but of course, Amber thinks of herself as the angry one, and attributes those sorts of outbursts to herself. However, despite her distrust of Sal both through experience and through her knowledge of Amber’s animosity towards Sal, AmaziGirl has learned to put the past behind her and trust Sal, which is a huge step. Don’t hate on AmaziGirl! I really think she’s not to blame for Amber viewing herself so negatively!
Poor Amber in the first panel. She feels so bad for Danny, she doesn’t think it was fair for him to be yelled at… but at the same time, she didn’t do it. It was Amazi-girl. Amber can’t apologise for something that wasn’t her fault… only it might have been her fault after all for “corrupting” Amazigirl just by existing.
It looks like the lines between Amber and Amazi-Girl are blurring. Is her subconscious fighting to keep the two apart, or fighting to meld the two together?
I was never one of the people who thought Danny should hook up with Ethan, mainly due to how close the break up was and the damage it would do to Amber, but now I’m convinced the best thing for Danny to do would be keep away from Amber and forge a relationship with Ethan
It’d be better for his esteem and he might even start believing he’s worth more then he thinks he’s worth
I do get the impression they’d be very well suited for each other but the Amber of it all makes it not the best idea…and pretty much guarantees it’ll happen.
I just think that Danny would be better off with someone with less issues that already thinks he’s a good guy because Dannys the type that someone could easily use as a doormat and he’d probably apologize for it as well
He’s getting better. I still like Danny/Amber, but she definitely needs to deal with some of her issues. He’s well within his rights to want nothing to do with her at the moment. Though being Danny and starting to get a spine, I think he’d be good for her – very supportive, but also pushing her to change and get help.
Of course, he can do that if she lets him back in as a friend, even without dating.
I don’t think Amber is in a great headspace to start or resume a relationship with anyone just now. Self-loathing is not terribly conducive to romance.
But if Danny keeps his new spine, I see no reason he can’t be there for Amber as a friend AND get closer to Ethan.
Frankly, I think if they started dating and Amber found out, she might get too distracted picturing them doin’ it for it to sting too badly.
There’d also be a lot of “Of course, they got together. They’re better off without me. I’m horrible, why would he want me. I ruin everything. I’ll just sit in my room and fantasize about them. It’s better for everyone.”
That’s Amber of course.
AG is more like “I need to find an excuse to punch everything. Not them, but all the bad things.”
i broke up with someone over something like this. She never apologized for the mountain of bad shit and abuse she piled on to me because it was her “alter ego” that did it and she wasn’t that person any more.
In hindsight, this is probably why I want Amber to be run over by a truck.
Panel One: Fucking golden alters, man. AG can do no wrong, so of course it must be Amber’s fault she yelled at Danny. And it’s her fault she stalked and harassed Sal right up until a mob yelled for Sal’s murder. AG is really just incapable of owning her shit, isn’t she?
And this isn’t making it easy for Danny because how do you even respond to that? He has no idea that Amber likely has DID and that this is a thing that could affect this. It’s becoming a mess.
And yeah, AG is shitting on this whole encounter. Asshole.
Poor Amber though, trying to angle herself into taking the rap for something her asshole golden alter did.
Panel Two: And Danny’s just trying to understand what the hell just came out of Amber’s mouth. It’s bullshit, he knows it is. AG is in control of AG.
Panel Three: Yesiree, Danny, she is. And it sucks because AG is happy enough to foist the blame for everything she does onto Amber. She can’t take responsibility for anything because she’s all good and so therefore Amber must be all bad. The idea that they both can be largely good people with redeeming qualities and flaws like most people is never considered.
I appreciate his incredulity on this though. He doesn’t blame Amber and that’s a good thing. Might be a lesson for her to pick up for herself.
Panel Four: The sad part is she believes this. She believes AG is the only good one and that she is therefore a mess unworthy of love or any good things. She’s never believed she was capable of deserving good things. Fuck you for that, Blaine. And now this is getting worse as AG uses Amber as a dumping ground so she doesn’t have to own her shit.
And that is scary as she ‘loses’ her good alter. It’s got to be anxiety inducing and it’s because she doesn’t understand that Amber has worth.
Panel Five: NO. BAD Danny. Yes, good, get Amber to realize she has worth and value, but please don’t flip this around to AG is the bad alter. Nobody needs to be the bad alter. Both have good qualities – AG has a thirst for justice, is very protective, and has a lot of confidence and determination. It’s just that Amber ALSO has good qualities – she’s smart and supportive and loyal. They both have flaws, but that doesn’t mean that either is a putrid, corrupt alter.
But yes, this is important. Validating Amber is a good thing. She needs to know she has worth and intrinsic value. She is a good person and doesn’t deserve this and Danny telling her so is beautiful.
Panel Six: Not that it helps. Hearing things like that hit like a gut punch. Hearing that AG, the golden alter is wrong, is worldview shifting and potentially breaking. And yeah, it running against her mythology has to be weird and obviously wrong, he doesn’t know what he’s talking about, if he only knew what she was he’d be disgusted, is he mocking her? It’s not a fun place to be and this is not good for Amber and so yeah, she’s mad. And Danny is so worried about her because he just wants Amber to be okay and to love herself but she’s rapidly getting less and less integrated and he doesn’t know that or how to fix that.
Panel Seven: I like how Amber has the presence of mind to yell in her AG voice so people don’t see Amber yelling an AG costume and put two and two together. Nice touch. See, Amber, you’re smart!
But holy hell, this sucks. She can’t even accept that she might have worth and so she just dismisses Danny and leaves. It’s easier than learning to cope and admitting AG doesn’t have all the answers. That leaves her in limbo and would be scary, so she won’t do it.
And Danny, you delightful child, calling after her like that that it’s true is hilarious. And I believe she just did, unfortunately. I appreciate he doesn’t buy it and he still believes in Amber. I love it. I need them to remain important in each others lives, be it as friends or reuniting when she recovers. BABIES.
so i'm thinking, okay, i took some extra photos of this set of doors this year so i could draw some other angles, it's an important set of doors, so let's pull up my new reference photos...
....and do you see a problem, do you see an issue
Well, Lizard is here, and I've been telling myself for... years that I'd take down my Endgame shelf and put up Spider-Man:No Way Home once the final villain was out.
So.
That's a thing I gotta do.
okay okay -- spider-man reboot idea
the lizard is still dr connors, but he's dr PHIL connors, and he wakes up every day and it's groundhog day and he's a lizard
is this anything
a plague has hit our house
both children singing billie eilish's "what was i made for" but entirely in "meows"
we can't get them to stop
it's been weeks
please send help
Sean Thomason @seanthomason.bsky.social ⋅ 21h
Rolling Stone @rollingstone.com ⋅ 1d
Dana Simpson 
Loading ...
Barb O. Saur 
⚧️
“YES I CAN AND YOU JUST WATCH ME”
“…dang, she DID just do it”
…
*spins the Pokestop* “wait WHAT DO YOU MEAN ‘Try again later’???”
He just can’t get a break, even in POkémon.
Yep, the evidence clearly suggests she can.
Well, yes, but what he really means is that it isn’t effective in escaping from the truth.
Oh, Amber’s a mess…
Yea, she’s starting to confuse Danny with Jon snow, that’s not a good sign.
…would that give Danny a free pass to sleep with a redhead?
Unless I’m forgetting someone, the only redhead in the comic who’s into boys is Ruth and god dammit now I’m shipping it
There is another alternative, but I wouldn’t recommend it
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-5/02-threes-a-crowd/twelvethirty/
DAMMIT NOW I SHIP THAT TOO
NOW IT’S A POLY SHIP
YOU SEE WHAT YOU DID
YES THIS WAS 100% YOUR FAULT, NOT MINE AT ALL, WHAT, I’M NOT BEING DEFENSIVE, YOU’RE BEING DEFENSIVE
WHATEVER, I’M JUST GOING TO GO BACK TO SHIPPING CHIE AND YUKIKO
…
DAMMIT NOW I’M SHIPPING ALL FIVE OF THEM IN ONE BIG HAPPY POLY FAMILY
wait now Penny’s gone, this is fine now
Yes, it’s an older Chie and Yukiko, of course, GAWD
One, despite the protestations of the creators I really have a hard time not seeing Chie and Yukiko in a lesbian relationship. But since they’re both romance options that would probably make them bisexual.
Two, Persona Golden’s epilogue is set a year after the main game, at which point both Yukiko and Chie are 18. So it’s perfectly ok.
Naww. How it goes down- 15 years later:
Cop Chie comes in and throws her coat down angrily. “All men are shit!”
Narukami: *comes in carrying a dinner tray I’m sorry.
Chie: I- I didn’t mean you! Aw, Yukiko, how did you get so lucky?
Narukami puts down dinner for the ladies and leaves to go back to cooking for the inn.
Chie: I know. We can split Yuu-kun.
Yukikio has a laughing fit. Danny stumbles in accidentally, wearing a towel from the hotsprings.
Yukiko: You could date this random American tourist?
Chie: This inn is even weirder than I remember.
I ship that even more! Danny deserves it! For reasons!
Does Rose exist in this universe?
Yeah, y’all are forgetting Rose. So considering Amber is the brunette clone of Dorothy, and Rose was Amber’s counterpart in retail employment, does that make Rose a crimson copy of Dorothy by association? If so, Danny probably shouldn’t go down that road.
Jack! Rose!
As long as he gets to feel all depressed about it once the redhead dies in his presence . . . oh my.
Is Ruth destined to play the role of Ygritte?
I thought she already sorta did in Roomies?
There is another! (Probably? We don’t know much about her.)
Man, Cerberus really called this one
Was about to say just that.
I was also about to say as much! Cerberus, you get maximum points for this one, hot damn.
Yeah, Cerberus called it.
Yeah. Even if this isn’t DID, it’s something that Amber really needs to deal with in a far less self-destructive way.
This reminds me of Dorothy telling Joyce of Joyce’s inherent goodness. I hope Amber listens at some point.
You forgot the time she jumped on top of a moving truck
“Well you can’t beat up that mugger from the truth!”
“And you can’t rescue that cat from a tree and the truth!”
“Hey, stop mooning me from the truth!”
*See my comment for more of this*
“You can’t run, flip over a hedge, and somersault onto a roof from the truth!”
“Maybe not, but I can look awesome AF while doing it!”
“You can’t backflip onto another rooftop from the truth, either!”
“STOP PARKOURING FROM THE TRUTH”
If you have to avoid the truth, do it like Batman. No one knows repression better.
To quote Dark Justice:
(character I don’t know): How do you cope?
Batman: I have a butler.
On a more serious note, he’s only so good at repressing the truth because he’s too busy being a foster father (and real father in Damian’s case) to four teens to actually question himself or his motives. Seriously, Batman has the most hectic family life out of the Justice League members.
I know, so many Robins, all following the same trajectory.
Batman needs a Robin.
Robin is young and Batman is his protector.
Robin is popular, lets make him older and give him his own comic/back up etc.
Wait, Batman and Robin are of legal age and living together. Must be teh gays.
Spin Robin off somewhere else, after a big, existential split/Kill Robin off
Batman needs a Robin.
However, apart from being a fictitious character, I think Bruce deals with his repression thanks to frequent opportunities to punch bad guys in the face. As with AmaziGirl, it is surprisingly cathartic.
About “teh gays”: at this point I’m fairly certain that Joker is gay for Bats. Or at the very least one of the THREE Jokers that exists according to the comics is gay for batman. Probably all three actually. And then Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy are finally officially together in at least two ongoing comics within the multiverse, and they’ve had such good chemistry together since Harley was first introduced in the animated series and first interacted with her. I think batman might actually know the most gay characters out of the main DC heroes.
Given that Wonder Woman grew up on Paradise Island, I don’t think Bruce can finish in better than second place there. Even if we add in Montoya.
Oh yeah. I forgot that Wonder Woman’s an Amazon. Man, I really need to refresh up on the rest of the Justice League outside of Batman. It’s been way too long. Actually, come to think of it I don’t think I’ve actually paid attention to any DC comics not involving Batman since Young Justice got cancelled. Oh well, guess I’ll start paying attention again because season three baby!!
Yeah, Wonder Woman grew up in the equivalent of a lesbian separatist colony as a young bisexual.
Which has all sorts of weird implications if you think too much about it – generally a bad idea for decades old superhero origins.
Why are all the Amazons lesbian? Or even bi? Just because they live in an all female environment?
Why else would they agree to live with only women for thousands of years?
To thejeff: It’s complicated. In the original mythology the Amazons did live in an all female society after all the men were wiped out in a war and devoted themselves to becoming an all female society of mounted warriors without peer, going so far as to cut off one breast so it would be easier to draw a bow (which of course is an invention of Greek men because having breasts doesn’t affect archery at all). Of course as they were all warriors they were pretty much by definition what we would nowadays consider bisexual or lesbian. This is because from the Greek view it was accepted, and often expected of warriors to have same-sex relationships with fellow warriors. The city of Thebes in Boetia took it to the extreme of having 300 warriors known as the “Companions” who were 150 gay couples, the reasoning being that putting lovers together would make them a)fight harder to protect one another and b) drive them into a berserker rage if their lover fell. And these guys routinely trounced Spartans and gave Philip of Macedonia his hardest challenge, killing thousands of warriors and fighting to the last. He and his son Alexander the Great and the various Greek successor states after him would all name their bodyguards after that unit. So because it was considered normal for Greek warriors to bed one another the Greeks logically supposed that the mythical Amazons did the same thing. At the same time, the Amazons kept up their numbers and made sure their society survived by routinely going on raids to find strong warriors who they would then capture and sleep with in order to reproduce. If the resulting child was female she was raised as an Amazon, if the child was male they would raise him to adulthood (generally considered 16 or 17 at that time) and then kick him out with directions to the nearest neighboring city state or kingdom. Or they just killed the male children depending on regional variety of the Amazon myth. Now, in order to explain why the Amazons had remained hidden for so many years, and in order to avoid the possibly messy female-on-male rape (which does happen in real life but isn’t as common as male-on-female rape and even less commonly reported do to the pervading cultural notion that a man can’t be raped by a woman) aspect of Amazon number replenishment, the comic writers had Amazons (or at the very least Diana) made out of clay by the gods, put in a mold, and then brought to life by Olympian god fire. Because, you know, reasons. It also helps explains why Amazons are immortal in the DC multiverse. Of course, it’s also slightly implied in some earlier Justice League episodes and I think a couple of comic storylines (if I’m remembering properly) that Diana herself is the daughter of Hades. Interesting note, despite being nominally made of clay by the gods Amazons still apparently have mothers and a Royal line, so I’m guessing Amazons just mix some of their blood into the clay being used in a statue when they want to have a daughter, which makes seem kinda like Amazons are some sort of mold or fungus.
Yeah, I think that all falls into “don’t look at it too closely in modern terms”. Myth is one thing (as are superhero backstories), how it would actually work if you took it seriously is another.
Most of that I was at least vaguely aware of, though I’ve kind of lost track on the different variations of the DC Amazons history – last I knew they were all the original immortal Greek ones. Except Diana of course.
I always though the Joker was purely biastophiliac. Assigning anything as normal as homosexuality to him seems, not right. YMMV
The Joker’s sexuality is probably like Mike’s: he’s whatever you don’t want him to be.
That reminds me of something Mark Waid wrote in his 90’s run of The Flash.
Wally asks Pied Piper if the Joker was gay and he replies; “No, the Joker’s always seemed more asexual to me. As far as I know, I’m the only gay supervillain.” That was the first time the readers (and Wally) learned that Piper was gay. My apologies if my quote is a little off. Its been twenty something years and I sold those comics a long time ago.
And then there’s that one who ran for Congress on a conservative-for-convenience platform, and ended up stalking a college professor, and…
Foster father is Dick, Jason, Tim, and Cass and real father is Damian, yes?
That’s like 5 kids. Heck, we’ll throw in Babs and Stephanie as being like nieces, make it 7. Aquaman’s been responsible for 15 over the years.
younare both kind of right.
By my count, all time there is probably 15 in Aquaman’s immediate “family” but that includes Mera, and his brothers. And they definitely haven’t all been around at the same time. Aquaman may well outnumber Bruce’s all time record, but as far as hectic “foster families” go, Bruce has him covered.
Seriously, what is your count for 15? I have Tempest, Aqualad, Aquababy, Aquagirl, Dolphin (stretching things there), Ceridan (grandson) and…?
Last I looked (not including a Rebirth, because we have no idea where that is going to settle yet) Cassandra, Bluejay, Dick, Jason, Tim, Damian, Stephanie and Barbara are all looking to Bruce with a current, mutual feeling of responsibility. Jean-Paul keeps popping up, needing guidance as well.
I remember I once got bored and did a tally of it and Aquaman came out with fifteen. This was pre-New 52. I dunno if he’s gained more since. I wrote them down somewhere, I’ll see if I can dig it up later.
Stephanie and Babs have worked with him a lot, but aside from Steph’s brief run as Robin, they never really worked FOR him as a sidekick and they’ve never been adopted by him, hence why I’d say they’re more like nieces than daughters to him. Cass was never really much of a sidekick either (the batgirls tend to be more like independent operatives who work with him but not for him) but he ended up adopting her.
You’re right that Aquaman’s kids aren’t all together though. So for long lasting families, Bruce wins out. But by pure numbers, Arthur’s got him licked.
My Aquaman collection needs work, I have his run in 70s Adventure comics and his subsequent solo series, but only four of the original 60s run of his own title. So, yeah, please dig out that list.
Considering Datb of the Family and various Luther storylines, and Redruk’s saying “hectic family life” I am definitely counting Barbara and Stephanie into the that grouping, whatever subset you wish to apply. All time you would have to add Carrie, Helena and Terry McGinnis.
Ooooh, AU kids! Fun!
Aqua man’s kids, as of that list:
1) First Aquagirl (Lisa)
2) Second Aquagirl (name was Selena iirc)
3) Garth
4) Tula
5) Dolphin (I like stretching it. :P)
6) Lorena
7) Arthur Jr.
8) AJ
9) Koryak
10) Lagoon Boy
11) Mareena (his daughter from Terry’s universe)
12) Lagoon Girl
13) Jackson Hyde (Young Justice fans know him as Kaldur)
14) Aquagirl (A different AU)
15) I think the other was Tramm, which is REAAAAAALLLLY stretching it, as he’s on the very periphery of the Aquafamily. I’d argue there’s a stronger case for Dolphin, as she at least goes on several missions with him and eventually became his daughter in law.
Also I have found out about another Aquagirl who was not previously on my list named Jane.
I would count Cerdian, but that’s not a son. That’s a grandson. If we’re counting grandchildren, we’ll have to bring Jason’s sidekick Scarlet into Bruce’s tally.
I forgot about Cass and Stephanie (I’m unfortunately more of casual-medium comic fan) and I’ve never really counted Barbara because of Commissioner Gordon. But who the hell is Bluejay? I’ve never heard of that one.
Bluejay and Cassandra both came into their own as Batsibs in Batman Eternal and Batman and Robin Eternal.
Ok. Wait, do we also count that one sorta clone of Batman that Talia made and who killed Damian in that one storyline? Or is he just too inconsequential in the big scheme of things?
The Heretic? He was a clone of Damian. Considering he never learned from or studied with Batman or fought by his side, I don’t think we can count him. Although, straight DNA would suggest otherwise. Your call, I guess. This is all subjective, anyway.
Oh and I made a mistake calling Bluebird, Bluejay. Bluejay was that guy from JLI.
I always felt sorry for the Heretic. I mean he never really had a chance because Talia was such a bongo (seriously, least favorite love interest for Batman and I want a comic storyline where Damian is Batman and Catwoman’s son and ends up being the Robin for Dick Grayson after Bruce passes the mantle to him, leaving Tim Drake to become the new Nightwing). And at the same time, despite all the League of Shadows brainwashing, accelerated growth, and training from hell, he’s fighting Batman simply because he thinks he (the Heretic” will be a better Batman and do a better job of protecting Gotham, and Talia kills him for it. (I really, really hate Talia al-Ghul.)
But Damian is Damian because of that horrific upbringing. That was the whole point of the character – at least in the initial story arc (before he died and was brought back and all that nonsense.)
It was all about Damian learning to be a functional human being and even a kid. Desperate to earn his father’s love with no idea how to go about it. And Bruce, of course, being nearly incapable of showing it.
And what is the collective name for Robins? I just found “Round” and “Breast” but they were the result of an online vote a little while ago.
I always thought it was a “flock”. Turkeys and crows are the only birds I know of that aren’t collectively called “flocks” but instead “gaggle” and “murder” respectively.
Nah, all birds have collective names, from a mob of emus running along, to a gaggle of geese taking off, to the aerie of eagles high overhead.
My favourite one of Sandman story. A Parliament of Rooks.
Google suggests that robins are sufficiently territorial that mostly they don’t have groups to name, hence the need for the online vote. One of the collective-bird-name pages included “a gift of robins” among their possibilities, though, and for this context I quite like that. (Alternately, “a squabble of robins”, for when Bruce has to threaten to stop the Batmobile.
Yeeesss, both of those are great. Breast and Round are apparently the most common though.
Obviously, the it should be “a mammobomb of Robins”
What do you call a single crow?
Murder One.
And two crows are Attempted Murder
I think Magnus has the most childs with 6
The Truth knows parkour too!
Some a+++ faces going on in this strip. I enjoy these faces.
I know, it almost doesn’t need dialogue in most panels, huh?
Speaking of which – does anyone else see a face in Amber’s neck and collar area in the 5th and 6th panels? Her collarbone is its mouth. The hair over her ear is its bangs. Her neckline defines its chin. It seems to have an eye and a nose.
Could this be a subtle Willis commentary on Amber having more than one aspect? (Probably not.)
I didn’t until you pointed it out – it kind of looks like Danny…
Man, This is why I read comments. That’s hilarious. Well, this and all of the insightful commentary into the characters and also the real world.
Tell it like it is, Danny. You’re a good man, and she needs to hear you telling her she’s a good person even if she doesn’t believe it right now.
Was about to comment about the voice and the tags . . . then I saw the mouseover text.
Proof that Amber does a really good Amazi-Girl impression. She should cosplay her. #nosheshouldnt
#beentheredonethat
Where’s a nicotine-tainted meteor when you need one? *opens Google Earth*
…Run that by me again?
I’m from the Christopher Reeve era of Superman.
Me too, and so I must point out:
Not nicotine, tar.
Danny’s a good guy.
He is. He gets a lot of crap from people, but he’s getting better slowly.
I honestly never understood the hate he got and I’m glad it’s died down.
It was mostly leftover hate from his Walkyverse days.
And much of it stopped once Danny’s parents showed up and treated him the same way commenters treated him. Somehow, it turned out to be less funny all of a sudden…
More cynically, it seemed to me that the turning point in the Danny hate was when the Danny-Ethan ship started getting teased.
Yes, as soon as it was revealed Danny might be Bi then the hating dropped off dramatically
I still believe a lot of it was people seeing a lot of themselves at that age in him, and hating that.
“God, I was so fucking stupid.“
I agree with the above. Which is why I never EVER hated Danny.
Not at all. And I so didn’t understand the vitriol spewed towards him.
Oh God yes, so much Danny.
I look at Danny and think “was I ever such an idiot?”, and the answer is “No, you were worse”.
But people change and mature, even as Danny is doing.
Tbh I hated Danny a lot earlier on. Like, he was a good person, but he had traits that annoyed me a lot like, he was a doormat but he turned passive-aggressive and snappy when he got upset, he blamed other people for a misunderstanding as well, I think he even threatened a double-murder over it which was childish.
And his obliviousness was painfully high over why Amber would push herself into his day with his parents – she SAID she needed to avoid/escape someone at the beginning I’m pretty sure (I may be remembering specifics incorrectly, but she definitely said something that could have tipped him off if his awareness at the time wasn’t less than a sack of hammers and he didn’t give her room to explain herself either).
But I like him more now as he grows away from that kind of behaviour and that kind of personality while keeping his good core traits. As he grows the spine to say ‘this isn’t cool’ without turning snappy and snide when he is angry (though he still snapped at Sal which wasn’t cool). And hell, I want to applaud him in this strip for calling out AG on EXACTLY WHAT SHE IS DOING and for correcting Amber like, wholly hell your awareness of what is going on is up at maximum right now.
Danny has done a lot of growing that he might not even fully realise but he gets an A+ for it in my book.
Amber said nothing to explain why she wanted to pretend to be his girlfriend. She looked nervously over her shoulder, and there are characters who would have clued in from that, sure–but she didn’t say anything, even when Danny pulled her away and asked her “what’s going on here?”
Yeah, he started out a bit Nice Guy TM, especially after his breakup with Dorothy and in his interactions surrounding Roz during the sex video arc, but he’s really abandoned a lot of that very quickly and grown into being a very good and sweet guy who frequently gets in very over his head with concepts he’s unfamiliar with.
I’ve been very proud of him of late and especially this comic where it would have been absolutely fair of him to be a douche to Amber owing to hurt feelings about the breakup and perceived hypocrisy, but he interrupted that to genuinely empathize with what was going on, recognize the DID, and show genuine support for the struggling alter.
Like, holy fuck is that just a beautiful action.
Danny basically went from being a stalkerish variant of a “Nice Guy” into being and actual non-quotation mark empathic nice guy. Which is a really cool character development.
Stakerish seems a bit harsh to me. Honesty calling him a recovered “nice guy” seems a bit much to me too. He’s always been extremely respectful towards the women in his life for that label. To me his worst crime (if you could call it tha, more just a dumb teenage thing) seems to have been being too attached to Dorothy enough to make too many life decisions based around her and as we know from seeing his parents they helped to create that monster and Dorothy did as well by putting off ending things. However let’s remember that once Dorothy dumped him he was actually very mature about it? He respected her decision and left her alone and moved on. I just kind of get the feeling people labeled Danny as something he wasn’t because of a decision he made entirely based on low self esteem and because Dorothy a character that gets a bit more respect seems to have a lack of respect for him based on not seeing how much he’s grow without her? Now that Danny’s gotten some space from Dorothy and his parents and made friends who actually like him for him he genuinely appears to be blossoming.
I agree with this. He could be a jerk sometimes, but it’s not unheard of for sweethearts to follow each other to college. And we also have to remember that Dorothy put off dumping him until they actually got to school, not before that – so as flawed as Danny’s perspective was, he didn’t realize she was gonna dump him. I think they both have issues, and it was more mutual than a lot of people are saying. Same thing with Amber. Danny brought his baggage, but Amber has not given him much to work with at all, and besides that he’s a doormat, so he didn’t actually force their relationship on her, just did whatever she wanted him to do.
The girl who parkours around in spandex jammie’s and a mask, and talks like Christian Bale’s Batman, has psychological issues—who coulda guessed?
Yay, Danny. I hope she believes him someday.
Also yay Danny again, he is so great to people, A+++, would totally date him or be his pal.
Fourth panel, she just contradicted herself. By saying that AG is the only “good” part of her, she *is* saying that Amber is all bad and any shitty thing AG does is because of Amber. This whole situation is shitty.
I don’t think Amber was meant to be denying it. I think she believes it’s objectively true and so she’s not ‘trying’ to put the blame on Amber – it’s legitimately Amber’s fault.
That is exactly how she is viewing it. That the Amber alter is toxic and poisonous and must mostly be contained or sealed away from the world in “protection” and that the AG alter is good and pure.
So, if AG is doing wrong behaviors or behaviors that seem erratic, then for the Amber alter, that means that she must have infected or corrupted AG somehow and she’s terrified this means she’s so “broken” or “dangerous” that she’s twisting and poisoning the golden alter and making her as “damaged” as her.
And this genuinely terrifies her and it’s likely that AG is contributing this by being very willing to dump off the blame for her negative actions with regards to Danny and Sal on Amber so she can remain “pure” and golden leading Amber into a really awkward state where she can either go against AG and acknowledge that AG is flawed (which is terrifying for her, because she’d blame herself and has trouble seeing that she has worth and value as an alter as well) or she can accept that toxic framing and still feel like “everything is in its place and sorted” (which is a bad idea with DID to try and enforce neat clean boxes).
And it’s why it’s beautiful that Danny points out the toxic framing and tries to get Amber to see she has worth, but also why she so angrily rejects that, because that’s such a shift in the framing and feels like standing over an abyss that can only lead to bad things (in her imagining of it).
Cerberus deserves an award for things predicted right because this is 100% what she said about Amazi-girl being perceived as the perfect while all the flaws are somehow Amber’s fault
I know, right? Cerberus is the best.
“You can handle the truth!”
“Wrong, but I can—”
“Nope.”
Handle it, massage it, sit on it, spin…
The truth is surprisingly malleable
That sounds like a challenge
Danny, she’s crazier than a shit house rat.
Love’s hard enough when both parties are sane.
Cut your losses.
I agree Danny should take care of himself, but having empathy for a person with mental health issues is a positive thing. Also that’s a really disrespectful way to describe said person with mental health issues.
Honestly, I think he’s doing the right thing by continuing to support her. Yes, she’s not sane and is dangerous but she’s still a person and needs love and support to get better.
Silly Amber. If she wants to escape the truth, all she has to do is jump into the water. Everybody knows the truth can fly, but it can’t swim! Just like those swarms of hornets from the old cartoons.
The truth can fly, but it can’t vote.
good on danny for telling amber she’s good. She needs to hear that more. I totally thought this was going to end much worse.
im sure it’s already been said but Amber you may need help. Probably professional help.
Oh, of course she does. So very much.
But remember, help is for weak people, for losers, for nobodies. -Real- people don’t need help or therapists or crap like that! That’s just one of the many horrible “lessons” her asshole of a ‘father’ instilled in her. And because of those lessons, she was forced to deal with her problems by creating what was at first a persona, and which evolved into… Well, this new mess instead.
Yup. Don’t get a therapist, that’s for losers. Hit something instead.
That was his lesson and why he followed up the trauma of the 7-11 incident by yelling at her for “sniveling like a coward” and enrolling her in karate rather than actually getting her help for the massive spikes in anxiety and flashbacks she was experiencing.
Which is going to make it a lot harder for her to seek out mental health support in integrating her alters and why she doesn’t yet view her alters as needing to be integrated (because why in Amber’s mind, would you risk Amber the weak PTSD riddled victim “infecting” the clear heroic purpose of AG who is the hero her father wanted and never wanted her to become, willing to fight back against bullies to protect the weak).
And, I love her dearly, but her new friend Sal is unlikely to be conducive to getting her therapy due to her experiences with shitty therapists.
I mean, Sal could basically BE her therapist.
she might serve that role, but I think there would be throat punching if you called her that.
Also hugs. All of the hugs.
I’ve heard of narcissism, but this takes ‘putting yourself on a pedestal’ to a new level.
Pedestals, rooftops, statues…
You know nothing, Dan Wilcox.
Does this mean AG is going to shoot Dan in the leg when he tries to turn her in to the authorities?
Noir Dumbing of Age
Reginald: Well, I suppose I will go to my hotel. I will see you guys later.
Joyce: Thank you
Reginald: It was a pleasure
Narrator: Joyce returns to Danny. Who has managed to decipher the note.
Joyce: What does it say.
Danny reads: Ryan. I am leading them to you. Mark of death.
Joyce: Dammit we knew that already.
Danny: I found more stuff on the servers though…they have their own religion and everything!
Joyce: That’s great but…wait.
Narrator: Joyce points to a link
Joyce: What’s that?
Danny reads: King interested in bring Christianity to our country. Sends Duke to meet with Christian students. Duke is against.
Joyce: I think I’m starting to figure this out. Everyone who was killed was a Christian.
Danny: and they were all marked
Joyce: Reginald’s father is old
Danny: probably has a lot of older beliefs
Joyce: like that a death mark is real. We were supposed to find Ryan…
Danny: And he was supposed to kill you.
Joyce: But he failed. I think I know who did it.
Next time is probably the end (maybe!)
It was . . . the Whiteboard Ding-Dong Bandit! (no)
It was Dorothy.
I see. That’s the explanation we’re going with, AG? That any and all bad things you do are Amber bleeding through and not you being shitty?
Interesting. I’m sure Sal and Danny and anybody else you’ve used excessive force on will be delighted to learn you’re not REALLY responsible for this, it’s all Amber’s fault because she’s the bad alter.
I know it’s Amber saying this but AG’s been pushing this a lot lately. I’m not surprised Amber is believing it.
Anybody else meaning up to and including people different from the backpack thief just post breakup, who she beat past any pretence of reasonableness.
It probably shouldn’t be too surprising that a masked vigilante is showing a lot of escapism.
Is it AG pushing it and Amber believing it? Or is it that Amber already believed that she was worthless, dangerous, and broken, due to her father’s messaging and her own assault with lethal weapon? Maybe AG saying it is Amber bleeding over? Or maybe the two are in complete agreement on this point, no daylight between them.
…. and that’s a bad thing.
But it’s bad on both of them, not bad on just one of them.
AG seemed pretty happy doing violent, stalky shit all on her own before she realized a crowd full of racists calling for Sal’s blood was on her side. At which point it was magically all Amber’s fault.
Amber’s never believed she deserved goodness, but that’s around the time she started taking the fall for AG’s shit.
They’re in agreement. Amber’s a-hole dad primed her to believe she was worthless (successfully) and to take abuse (not so successfully, good job Amber). Amazi-Girl just fits into this preexisting framework perfectly.
Yeah, which is the trap of the golden alter myth. If the golden alter is perfect and all your goodness, then one or more other alters must be all your badness or unwanted traits.
And so it becomes really easy for the golden alter to blame all their shit on the “bad alter” either because the “bad alter” corrupted their decision making or because of the strain of keeping the bad alter down (which are both bullshit). And for the “bad alter” to believe that shit, because, well, they are the depository for all the bad stuff, aren’t they?
It’s a really toxic frame that doesn’t do either any favors because the golden alter is under no pressure to actually grow and improve and recognize negative actions and the “bad alter” isn’t allowed the freedom to grow and it tends to deepen disassociation (because why would you allow the “bad alter” a seat at the table or any respect), which means less communication.
For some reason I’m now imagining the truth as some sort of supervillain with the ability to appear anywhere and torment you psychologically or something.
She might not be able to escape the truth like that, but she CAN evade it by getting on the other side of an Egyptian river.
I see what you did there, and am shaking my head slowly with scowl on my face.
Can’t see it.
Hiding on other side of river.
See how well it works? This is a tactic that you can really take to the bank.
I paean you for that. I guess you could call me a tributary.
If folks leave the room after you make a bad pun, would that make them distributaries?
Depending on how rapid their departure is, they might instead be said to be delta-ex-iting.
…. yes, this is a river of puns. Let it flow.
Dam it, looks like the floodgates are opening.
Dang, that run off puns was sharp.
…. or as Ricky Ricardo would say it: “SLUICEY! I’M HONE!”
(And the puns keep spilling over.)
If fighting puns, don’t forget to parry, riparian thrust.
Since the keys to puns are a versatile vocabulary, it’s important to wield a broadword.
Well Cerberus called it with the golden altar (yes that word is being used on purpose) pedestal bullshit. Amber’s not willing to believe she can do anything good, and both AG and Amber are unwilling to admit that AG can do anything wrong. On a side note, never have I felt so sympathetic for two fictional characters. And I think it’s because I see so much of myself in them and can relate to them as a result. Cause my dad (while not physically abusive) was basically a hybrid of Blaine and Danny’s parents, so I feel like I could have been like one of these two so easily. That last panel makes me feel worse than when either Obi-Wan or Han died.
woah, a lot of self hate demonstrated over here
I’m sorry but I told you Danny you can try your hardest but you still going to screw thingredients up a bit, the best you can do is screwed things up enough to get it right…I know that doesn’t make a lick of sense but it’s less confusing this Amber/Amazi-girl thing.
Of course, NOW Amazi-Girl comes back.
Just in time to deprive Amber of the hug I desperately needed her to receive. >:[
Still Amber. Not AG. Which is even sadder. </3
Apparently I should have read the hover text BUT I’M STILL MAD >:[
AS AM I >:[
“Nuh uh! Amber deserves nothing, she’s worthless and despicable!”
*sigh* “She’s right…”
Quiet, AG, nobody asked you!
Words cannot describe how damn much I hate Blaine right now.
It’s so much fun seeing these kids feeling horrible about themselves and getting to hate their shitty parents that much more, isn’t it?
That was me with the Walkertons a little while ago. But I’ve always got room for more DAMN YOU, BLAINE O’MALLEY in me.
I also kinda want to blame the Wilcoxes for something here, but I’m having trouble figuring out what.
…. Wilcoxs? Wilcox’s? Wilcoces?
Wilcoxen.
….. okay, I looked up the name origin, hoping there was some cool pluralization rules like in Welsh, but it’s an English name. Boring old Wilcoxes.
Wilcoxen.
They can if you spell them with blood and entrails!
Preferably Blaine’s?
You get me.
Plus, if you’re skilled enough at removing organs, you can keep him alive to flay or burn alive at your pleasure. Or impale him. Or drown him in a shallow bowl or bucket of his own blood and piss.
I am a very vindictive person when it comes to punishing people who abuse in any way shape or form children.
He tries SO HARD to win back the “worst piece of shit” award from ToeDad. Sorry, Blaine. After what we have learnt about Bonnie, ToeDad actually has some lead.
Blaine sounds like blame. Coincidence? I THINK NOT!
Blaine blame.
. . . which is actually a lot of the reason for Amber’s issues, come to think of it.
Blame Blaine for Blaine blame.
We can play the Blaine blame game.
If there’s a gunshot, we can play the Blaine blam-blame game.
If that gunshot is a fake, we can play the Blaine sham-blam-blame game.
If there’s faked footage of it, we can play the Blain sham-cam-blam-blame game.
If…
Yeah, Blaine is the architect of a lot of Amber/AG’s traumas and no hell can be hot enough for what he has done to her.
When it comes to people like Blaine, the first thing that I think, I mean this with all seriousness, a Samuel Jackson quote from ‘A Time to Kill’: “Yes they deserved to die and I hope they burn in hell!!!” And for a sense of schadenfreude Dante would probably put in Caina, a sub-level of the ninth circle of hell. Circle Nine is reserved for traitors and Caina is reserved to traitors of kin; those who betrayed their own families. And Blaine’s abuse would definitely count as a betrayal of kinship.
Wait, did Danny just
make the correct assumption and give what might just be the correct reaction even with incomplete information
Danny Danned up Danning it up.
It was only a second-dan Danning up Danning it up.
I’m honestly impressed by them all here. Even before you factor in Amber’s psychological problems, everything about this plain HURTS, yet they take the time and effort to be as civil with each other as they can.
Even amazi-girl’s parting words are mild compared to last time they spoke.
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2016/comic/book-6/03-when-god-closes-the-door/buckle/
*reads alt text*
Ah, OK, so it wasn’t amazi-girl. That might explain how well it went.
If Danny doesn’t know anything, then enlighten him on the deal with Sal.
I mean, on *what is* the deal with Sal, not a contract thingy. This pussyfooting can’t go on forever, right?
Comic Reactions:
Panel 1: Oh good, I was worried I was reading too much into the golden alter narrative, because of my own experiences.
But yeah, I’ve been there, believing my golden alter could do no wrong and where the one treated as the dumping ground could not acknowledge her own strength. Hell, when she was finally free of being abused by the golden alter, she still believed for awhile that all her goodness was just the golden alter leaking through or her love for her.
So yeah, I feel poor Amber here stuck in this toxic framing and trying to make sense of the raw truth that AG fucked up and did wrong. Cause I remember the confusion right after my golden alter tried to take over and commit suicide during one of my attempts, trying to make sense of this perfect image in comparison to the raw wrong she had just committed.
And I remember after too many attempts finally cottoning on that that was just what she was about.
It’s a hard thing to see and the propaganda is seductive and strong to pretend away the plain truth.
Panels 2-3: Oh Danny, you perfect cinnamon roll, you! I fucking love you.
Like, A) I love that he doesn’t buy this shitty framing for even one second. That he sees right through this self-hating bullshit and pathetic attempt to pin AG’s fuckups on Amber.
And B) Yes, just yes, thank you for pointing this out. Because that’s exactly what AG has been doing. Propping up her mythology by blaming all her flaws and fuckups on Amber, on framing Amber as someone with nothing positive to give, an eternal victim for AG to play hero to. And poor Amber has accepted that framing, assumed that they must be bad and toxic to AG’s perfection.
And fuck, just all the extra points to Danny here because he came into this conversation ready to fight with a legitimate grievance and yet, he recognizes this isn’t the person he’s angry with and that the alter in front of him is scared and hurting and needing of support. Just A+ Danny, A-fucking-+.
The sad part with their entire relationship is how great a boyfriend Danny would have been for AMBER, if Amazi-girl had only allowed that.
But AG can’t, because Danny has had his Lois Lane fantasy broken and realizes that AG is dangerous. So now it’s a matter of AG needing to continue existing and controlling. And Danny’s a threat to that, to her.
He’ll have to go.
AG WOULD have allowed it. Danny deliberately and explicitly chose AG over Amber.
…. granted, that was back before he had the least idea that they shared a body.
When did he chose AG over Amber? He did start dating AG before he knew they were the same.
These two strips.
…… grah. Okay, old-fashioned-way.
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2012/comic/book-2/03-the-first-step-towards-recovery/who-2/
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2012/comic/book-2/03-the-first-step-towards-recovery/signals/
Danny has shot up from being a character I was fairly indifferent to fucking amazing dude in one strip. 15/10 best Danny ever.
From what what I’ve heard about Roomies (haven’t read it myself), best Danny ever may not be a high bar to clear. But this Danny really is great, and deserves far more love than he gets in the comments.
Panel 4: Well, that hits like a wrecking ball to the sternum.
I’m still scared of this. Not that I’m corrupting a perfect alter, but that all my attempts to do good and right by people is just painting a thin layer of paint over a rotten core and that everyone will eventually see the rot underneath and leave.
And a lot of the reason for that is having so many turn on me over the years for parts of my identity I couldn’t affect. Some probably stems to being a scared kid with an alter I convinced myself was dangerous to everyone and who I needed to let my golden alter abuse and cage like an animal so as to “save everyone”.
It’s not something any kid should have to go through. And poor Amber here breaks my heart.
Especially so, because well, AG might not realize it, but this is feeding into an abuse survivor self-narrative. Specifically the one where almost every abuse survivor is terrified that they will one day turn into their abuser and commit the same sins or lose themselves to the monster their abusers swore they would become. And it’s heart-breaking to see Amber so distressed by that fear.
Panel 5: *blub* Oh, Danny, you sweet sweet man, you. Thank you for pointing this out, telling the Amber alter that she has worth, that this framing is toxic to her and that she’s got just as many positive qualities as AG. And that AG’s got just as many flaws.
And that’s especially important, because that golden alter framing tends to erase that in favor of a comforting narrative, but the reality is that no alter tends to be truly worthless. Some may be more damaged or have more triggers. Some may be in hiding and hard to coax out. Some may have flaws that loom large over them. But each one has something important to give and are an important part of the whole. And accepting that and allowing everyone true agency and self is the key to integration and not ripping yourself apart in stupid avoidable ways *glares at middle school self*.
Panels 6-7: But of course Amber is not ready to hear that yet and I’m especially galled that AG has stepped in here just to keep Amber from figuring out this truth. Like, what a dick mo-
*reads alt text*
o.0
Oh. Oh, I have so many questions now. Why can Amber do the AG voice? Why is she doing the AG voice? No seriously, why is she doing that voice? What does it mean?
Damn you Willis, I need to know!
Don’t forget that AG’s dark blue voice was just an act to fool Danny. AG didn’t always talk like that, she started doing it in http://www.dumbingofage.com/2012/comic/book-2/03-the-first-step-towards-recovery/voice/
She’s doing it in response to Danny’s comment about all of AG’s goodness coming from her. I think it’s her trying to refute that statement and cling even more tightly to her ideal of AG being perfect and good and Amber being a worthless fuckup. Like maybe by responding in AG’s voice instead of her own, she’ll be able to convince Danny (and herself?) that he’s wrong.
Danny has slowly become my favorite (male) character in this comic. And funnily enough he started out as my second least favorite (male) character (Joe was initially my least favorite male character, but then Ryan, John, Joe’s dad, Blaine, and Toedad showed up. I just forget about Mike because he’s honestly not worth remembering). Part of it is that, as shown in my comment above, I really relate to him on a lot of levels now but also the fact that he has grown and matured by about ten years in what for him is only two months. And just, the shear empathy he has for, well, everyone.
I love how Danny is so done with being afraid of being shouted at so he
goes straight for the simply truth. And Amber hears it, and that is very important, even if she parkours out of there faster than even Carla could manage.
This isn’t the first time Amber has done the AG voice, I think (did she do it when convincing Billie to drink water?).
And I just want to say, in response to your (first? second?) paragraph: Don’t let yourself believe that you aren’t a good person. I may have gushed a little in the comments last comic, but I mean it when I say that you are one of the best people I know of.
And when you feel like you’re just putting up a façade, that you’re rotten underneath? Well, aren’t we all. I know I have to actively check myself sometimes, because there’s some nasty stuff lurking in my mind. But I firmly believe that our actions towards others, more than anything else, determine our moral character, and based on what little I know of you, you are an outstanding human being.
And I’m gushing again.
Amber shouts in Amazi-Girl’s voice as she leaves because it’s possibly not smart to be shouting in her own voice, dressed as Amazi-Girl, while outside.
If you wanna know!
Ah, practicality.
See, Amber, you can be smart and clever and worthy. If all you ever did was screw up you’d have just given away your secret identity.
Ah, makes sense. Thanks!
Remember that the Amazi-Girl persona was, at least originally, Amber’s creation based on her comic book self-insert character fantasies. It makes sense that she can ‘do’ Amazi-Girl pretty well as she created her originally. It is only of late that she’s attempted to schism the two aspects of her life into distinct personalities (with the current confusion and trouble being the result).
Because it was something Amber practiced along with the rest of her impressive skills as part of the process of creating Amazigirl.
Is it okay to ask you a question about your DID?
Definitely! what’s your question?
I want to hug Danny right now, because god damn the dude gets shit on way too much both in comic and in the comments and he really does not deserve it.
*sends cookies*
I am absolutely sick of the amount of commenters saying “don’t Dan this up, Dan” – it feels mostly like they’re projecting his Walkovers character, who I understand was a “Nice Guy (TM)” jerk, onto his dumbiverse character, who is just a really sweet guy who just wants to do right by his friends. Not saying he hasn’t made some embarrassing mistakes (thinking Sal is Amazigirl, for example”), and he started out badly by handling his breakup with Dorothy terribly, but he makes no more mistakes than the rest of the cast, and in moments like this shows real emotional intelligence.
Especially considering it’s pretty much canon that Danny has next to no self esteem due to his parents and to a lesser extent Joe constantly putting him down, it really does seem mean spirited that so many commenters put him down in an uncomfortably similar way.
I think those comments have mostly tapered off. Some people had it as a sort of longterm running gag, and/or Danny made them uncomfortably remember their younger selves too much…. but then we saw that his parents talked like that, which made it too real and too mean, and that killed the joke aspect of it for most people.
Also, whereas in Shortpacked! he was a preachy uptight jerk, here he is super genuine and kind, and also he’s super adorably bisexual, so I imagine that helped, too.
Fair enough. I mostly say this because I still saw some commenters saying “Don’t Dan this up Danny” when he started this conversation with Amber, so those attitudes do still seem to be around. But there is a lot more positivity for him in general.
Did he handle the break up terribly? From what I can recall he was sad about it for a reasonable amount of time and moped in bed for a day which seems pretty reasonable for the end of a years long first relationship. He also respected her decision and made no attempts to get back together. Even when he had ever reason to blow up at her (that stupid Walky’s shoes incident for example) he didn’t.
He got pretty passive aggressive with her a few times and while it is reasonable to be upset, it was also a dick move.
When like immediately after the break up? I feel like he’s allowed that once or twice. I don’t think it moves into “dick move” territory unless he’s doing it long past the point he should have gotten over things and considering it’s only been like..what a month? He’s still kind of in that window and the only times I’ve seen him get really aggravated with Dorothy (the shoe incident, trying to get info about amazigirl from him, her trying to shame him about moving on with Amber) it was pretty reasonable. He was kind of annoying with her during the bisexual explanation but I kind of have to give him a pass on that considering he was going through a pretty major life change. Honestly I feel like he’s been pretty damn mature about both of his break ups considering his age and experience.
This was a couple weeks later iirc. And while he’s allowed to be upset, getting all passive aggressive still feels like a dick move to me. YMMV.
I cannot count the times I’ve had to explain that “I’m not ‘trying’ to do anything” and have absolutely no one get it.
I think Willis deserves congratulations for distilling into just three strips what I thought would take an entire chapter!
I’m expecting Amber to try to run away from this for some time but, here’s the thing: I don’t think she has the necessary strength to ignore Danny. She likes him too much and misses him too much. That means she’s got to consider what he’s saying. That will be difficult but it is something that she has to face.
“…Jon Snow”
“…not in that order…”
Very funny substitute for drawing Amazigirl doing all of that, Willis. I see what you’re doing XD
And once again nothing even resembling an apology, just shifting of blame and running away as always.
She’s a mess; you can’t expect her to react in a mature way.
Shifting of blame onto herself? I’ll give you the running away.
And honestly, an apology here wouldn’t be a great thing. It would be Amber apologizing for what Amazi-Girl did – which is a good part of her current problem: Amber taking the blame for anything bad that either of them do and Amazi-Girl getting the credit.
I have to admit as much as I try to understand and relate somewhat to Amber, I’m really frustrated with her right now. Danny reacted better than I would have.
Wait a minute I got side tracked by the real problem of all this, all of that and yet he still didn’t ask her why she snapped at him over Sal in the first damn place.
Welp to Amber Sal is “The Root of All Evil” and she got all irrationally angry that Danny was talking with her but didn’t even bother to explain to him WHY he can’t talk to Sal.
He might’ve if the conversation had gone on longer, but he was trying to make sure he understood the situation first, and then Amber’s answers sent him down a different path.
One step at a time and she ran out in step one. Can’t really blame Danny for that.
He was still trying to be sure who snapped at him.
But that’s the wrong question, it shouldn’t be “who” it should be “why”.
Look, look, look at that face in the second-to-last panel! She’s starting to accept it in her heart! You can see it!
No, she doesn’t Danny and that’s why she needs help, professional help at best.
*Looks at Alt Text*
…Great, now it’s going to become increasingly harder to tell them apart.
That…. might be what progress looks like.
Danny, just cut your losses and run. She’s not worth the aggravation.
Danny begs to differ.
This is new Danny, with an actual spine: he DEMANDS to differ, and you bloody well will allow him to. If it’s not too much trouble, he means. Like, don’t inconvenience yourself on his account.
Wow, 3rd panel Danny is really hitting the nail on the head of everything Cerberus told us about golden alters. Willis only knows what the AG pushback on that’s going to be.
You guys should go check Willis’s twitter, as he has posted some art there for Valentine’s.
Bagge in particular might find this one of great interest: https://twitter.com/damnyouwillis/status/831703386273755136/photo/1
*puts on earmuffs in preparation, for love of eardrums*
^_^
There’s 3 more if you scroll down – that’s just both the first and the one I thought the commentariat would like more.
Huh? What do…
*clicks link*
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That’s so dofusy!!!!
Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
Are psychiatrists and/or therapists something that exist in this universe? I dunno, maybe it’s just me, but I mean, come on. You would think the friends of these people would be like “hey, this isn’t healthy at all”.
They definitely exist in this universe, and Ruth’s up to her eyeballs in them.
I’m guessing that of all her friends, only Danny (and MAYBE Ethan or Mike) know that this is some pretty dangerous psychology going on, rather than just vigilantism. Dorothy and Sal think it’s just a secret-identity thing.
Mike isn’t getting her help because Mike. Danny isn’t getting her help because Danny. Ethan…. I don’t think Ethan really has all the facts and he’s kinda confused.
But let’s not forget the fact that getting her help may ALSO mean sending her to jail. Because giving her propensity for beating people up over minor property crimes, any psychologist or therapist would be duty-bound to report her as a potential threat to others.
Could they? Wouldn’t such things be protected by doctor-patient confidentiality?
Normally yes.
Yes, but that’s not ironclad. They are specifically obliged to report someone who is a threat to themselves or others. Little Miss Violent Delinquent-Beating Vigilante would count.
Only if she’s planning to do it right now!
I’m in gradschool for social work (iirc, two thirds of therapists in this country are social workers).
It depends on the agency a bit, but in general, if Amber’s like “I’m going to go beat people up tonight” you have to tell her that, just as you discussed in your first meeting with her, you are duty-bound to warn a cop, or her mom, or your supervisor, or whomever your agency defines as the person who can keep her from injuring people tonight. Your job is to keep people safe, after all, and she probably signed a confidentiality agreement to that effect.
If you are super lucky, she is on board with you, and you make the call together. However, usually she hates this and wishes you wouldn’t, but you do it against her wishes.
You don’t tell the newspapers, you don’t tell the cops that she’s vaguely dangerous so please follow her around forever. Just somebody who makes sense as the person to keep people from getting hurt, and also your supervisor.
If you’re a rabbi, you are probably also a mandated reporter like this. If you’re a priest, pretty sure you don’t gotta tell nobody nuffing.
PS. Therapists have no requirement to turn you in for *past* crimes. I’m not a detective, judge, or police officer, I don’t actually mind if you’ve gotten away with breaking the law so far, I mind that breaking laws will probably have sucky consequences for you, such as jail, which will prevent you from reaching your goals, style of thing. I must intervene if you are planning to hurt yourself or other people imminently, because I am for safety. If you’ve hurt people in the past, though, I don’t get to judge that, I just try to make it so you don’t hurt people today.
Wow, uh, that was a lot of words.
Tl;dr: You only break confidentiality for imminent danger to self or others. (Ideally, you reveal only as much as is relevant to preventing that harm, but in practice they do sometimes forward your whole file to the hospital.)
You don’t have to break confidentiality for past harm to self or others, unless, again, it’s relevant to preventing imminent harm.
Noooo, never apologise for giving detailed explanations on important topics. I know knowing stuff is now seen as a bad thing in the US, but nooooo.
Thanks for all the info!
Waaaaait.
…. NEVER apologize for giving detailed explanations on important topics?
OKAY THEN! Let me explain how IRS Form 941 is used to qualify an employer as an annual, quarterly, monthly, or semi-weekly depositor of federal tax withho- *vaudeville hook*
For priests, my school (which was Catholic) taught us that priests can’t tell anybody what’s been said in confession. However, if you confess to doing something terrible like murder or rape or something, they can say ‘okay, this seems very serious, can we move to my office and talk more?’ and they can call the police about things said in their office or…anywhere really, outside the confession booth.
This seems like a ridiculous, deceitful cop-out. I mean, I don’t agree with the confidentiality of confession to begin with, but if you’re going along with it, basing the value of it on the place where it’s said seems preposterous.
I think that’s become something of an out so that priests can confess if they find a mass murderer or something in their congregation. And something about sacred space or something like that.
Though, my school made it sound like this rule was common knowledge, so I have no fucking idea why anyone confessing something that bad would go to their office with them.
That said, a good defense lawyer can probably get it thrown out, because even if the priest knows that it isn’t under the seal of confessional, the confessing criminal thinks it is. That would make it inadmissible.
… though it would keep the priest from getting excommunicated.
If the priest really wants to get the guy caught and tried, then, the way to do it would be to do that office trick and then call in with a detailed anonymous tip.
I believe that’s generally what the police call is for – to say ‘Hey, I’m pretty sure this guy did a thing’. Not so much for getting actual confessions for the police.
I was listening to a programme in the wake of recent statistics about priesthood child abuse, and a Catholic priest said that he’d never had someone confess it, but if he did, he would say something like ‘if you are truly penitent and seek absolution report it to police’.
Thanks.
Because nobody knows how bad it is. Sal’s cottoned on that she’s way too reckless and so far has been able to talk her down from that and the martyrdom while chasing Ryan, but not why she’s like that (untreated anxiety, PTSD, and probably DID). Ethan, Dina, and Mike have no idea how badly her mental state is deteriorating and Danny’s only been cottoning on now.
And Sal’s got no use for or trust in authorities or therapists anyway.
Noooooope.
I approve of Danny calling Amber out on all of her shit the last few days.
Like by telling her she’s a good person. That she’s not corrupting the good alter. That Amber isn’t the evil, worthless one.
Good on calling her out on that.
Honestly, given Amber’s propensity for self-hatred, that probably would count as “calling her out”.
Yea, AmaziGirl needs to go. The sooner she is gone, the better.
That’s not how it works. “Make the bad alter go away” isn’t the fix. It creates more problems.
Hm. I view Amazi Girl as a representation of everything unhealthy in Amber’s mind. When I said I want her to go away, I meant that I hope Amber heals fully and is no longer compelled to don the mask as she currently does.
That… isn’t exactly correct. AG is more like… a part of Amber, that has taken its own distinct form, to try to protect Amber from triggers and things that make her unstable. To bring control when she feels overwhelmed so the unhealthiness of Amber’s mind wouldn’t destroy her. But she is now scapegoating her instead of actually doing her job of protecting her.
AG could also actually be really really helpful if she was convinced to throw away their toxic mythology as she probably knows how to help Amber better than anyone else does.
But yes, it would be good if Amber reached a point where she didn’t have to rely on AG, and is holding a transformer, and is okay for once and a double rainbow would appear in the DoA sky to celebrate.
But unfortunately I don’t think we’ve reached the bottom of this rabbit hole yet even though I’ve been at the point of wanting Amber to be able to start healing for quite a while.
Oh that’s crazy, we responded within five minutes of each other
Honestly, though, I think people have been listening too much to Cerberus’ own experience. The fact that Amber views AG as the golden alter is absolutely right. I don’t think that AG views herself that way at all. In fact, I think she only thinks herself as AG’s guardian, and nothing more. It’s honestly a very submissive role (which admittedly is ironic considering Amber’s inferiority complex).
*Amber’s guardian
Amazi-Girl has explicitly said she was protecting people from Amber, not protecting Amber herself.
And even if she sees herself as Amber’s guardian, the way she constantly shits on Amber and insists she’s dangerous and toxic and deserves nothing all makes it very clear that Amazi-Girl is a fucking terrible guardian.
I don’t remember AG saying that Amber was toxic. I know Amber has said that, probably even while dressed as AG. Perhaps she is trying to protect people from Amber, sure, but I don’t think she’s been trying to shit over Amber. It’s possible that Amber dressed as AG said that before the dissociation had gotten too bad, I suppose, which might have her tagged as AmaziGirl, but I don’t think the current AG sees Amber as toxic. Perhaps damaged, but not toxic.
If she weren’t trying to protect Amber, she never would have dumped Danny. So I’m pretty sure she sees Amber as someone worth protecting.
Days, late, but here’s AG telling Sal she wears her mask to protect her from Amber:
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2016/comic/book-7/01-glower-vacuum/paid-3/
I don’t think AmaziGirl is actually that bad. I honestly don’t even think she’s responsible for Amber’s view that AG is everything good in her and Amber is everything bad. I mean, that’s probably what Amber created AmaziGirl for, before her dissociation got to the point where AG had split into a separate alter: As AmaziGirl, Amber could discharge her feelings in a way that (in her mind) was productive and good, and AmaziGirl could be a better person than Amber. Amber was always the identity she wanted to escape, and AmaziGirl was the idealized identity she wanted to escape TO. No, AmaziGirl’s vigilantism isn’t really healthy or commendable, and no, it wasn’t a good dynamic to set up. However, I think while Amber has kept her idealized vision of AG, AmaziGirl views herself as nothing more than a guardian for… well, for the general public, but in particular for Amber. The way I see it, I don’t think AmaziGirl is actually a malicious entity at all. In fact, it’s AmaziGirl who has made the most steps in bridging the gap with Sal.
The reason Amber says that “Amber leaks through” is that she doesn’t quite understand that while AG is a separate person, they share the same past. AmaziGirl has young Amber’s memories, and to some degree shared the opinion of Sal being her foe, a view that Amber probably thought was her view and not AmaziGirl’s. So while AmaziGirl tried to deal with Sal to protect Amber, it didn’t change the fact that she hated Sal and wanted to protect herself as well, and so she still blew up at Sal and Danny with the mindless anger any superhero might have after catching their loved one with their archenemy… but of course, Amber thinks of herself as the angry one, and attributes those sorts of outbursts to herself. However, despite her distrust of Sal both through experience and through her knowledge of Amber’s animosity towards Sal, AmaziGirl has learned to put the past behind her and trust Sal, which is a huge step. Don’t hate on AmaziGirl! I really think she’s not to blame for Amber viewing herself so negatively!
Poor Amber in the first panel. She feels so bad for Danny, she doesn’t think it was fair for him to be yelled at… but at the same time, she didn’t do it. It was Amazi-girl. Amber can’t apologise for something that wasn’t her fault… only it might have been her fault after all for “corrupting” Amazigirl just by existing.
Go Danny.
Yep. Amber has been awful these past few months. Lost total interest in her or her alterego as characters. Repellant.
Huh? She’s not terrible, she’s dealing with a very deep wound.
Amber needs to hear someone say to her, what Danny just said to her.
i am still really confused.
Someone get that girl into therapy.
Sooooo…. given that the next item on Sal’s agenda is Math assignments, I assume that’s where Danny is going next.
His day is just getting better.
That would seem to contradict Danny’s assertion on yesterday’s strip.
I really get the feeling that Amber just called Danny a “big, mean ol’ poopy head”.
Danny’s going to troll AG/Amber with the truth from now on? Hope so.
He’s already Danning that up, trolling by saying really nice things to her
It looks like the lines between Amber and Amazi-Girl are blurring. Is her subconscious fighting to keep the two apart, or fighting to meld the two together?
The last thing you want is the ID to get involved in this mess.
If she’s got DID, melding the two together is not how it works. If she doesn’t, it might be.
I’m stealing that last line if I ever find the opportunity to use it.
It does seem pretty situational.
Clearly you don’t know the right people.
Clearly, neither do I.
I was never one of the people who thought Danny should hook up with Ethan, mainly due to how close the break up was and the damage it would do to Amber, but now I’m convinced the best thing for Danny to do would be keep away from Amber and forge a relationship with Ethan
It’d be better for his esteem and he might even start believing he’s worth more then he thinks he’s worth
I do get the impression they’d be very well suited for each other but the Amber of it all makes it not the best idea…and pretty much guarantees it’ll happen.
I just think that Danny would be better off with someone with less issues that already thinks he’s a good guy because Dannys the type that someone could easily use as a doormat and he’d probably apologize for it as well
He’s getting better. I still like Danny/Amber, but she definitely needs to deal with some of her issues. He’s well within his rights to want nothing to do with her at the moment. Though being Danny and starting to get a spine, I think he’d be good for her – very supportive, but also pushing her to change and get help.
Of course, he can do that if she lets him back in as a friend, even without dating.
I don’t think Amber is in a great headspace to start or resume a relationship with anyone just now. Self-loathing is not terribly conducive to romance.
But if Danny keeps his new spine, I see no reason he can’t be there for Amber as a friend AND get closer to Ethan.
Frankly, I think if they started dating and Amber found out, she might get too distracted picturing them doin’ it for it to sting too badly.
Yeah if I was Amber that’s something that’d distract me as well, at least until the overwhelming surge of betrayal begins
There’d also be a lot of “Of course, they got together. They’re better off without me. I’m horrible, why would he want me. I ruin everything. I’ll just sit in my room and fantasize about them. It’s better for everyone.”
That’s Amber of course.
AG is more like “I need to find an excuse to punch everything. Not them, but all the bad things.”
Progress!
Also I just imagined the potential of the existence of an Amazi-Ethan.
“Man that looks like it would be a pain to draw”
i broke up with someone over something like this. She never apologized for the mountain of bad shit and abuse she piled on to me because it was her “alter ego” that did it and she wasn’t that person any more.
In hindsight, this is probably why I want Amber to be run over by a truck.
Panel One: Fucking golden alters, man. AG can do no wrong, so of course it must be Amber’s fault she yelled at Danny. And it’s her fault she stalked and harassed Sal right up until a mob yelled for Sal’s murder. AG is really just incapable of owning her shit, isn’t she?
And this isn’t making it easy for Danny because how do you even respond to that? He has no idea that Amber likely has DID and that this is a thing that could affect this. It’s becoming a mess.
And yeah, AG is shitting on this whole encounter. Asshole.
Poor Amber though, trying to angle herself into taking the rap for something her asshole golden alter did.
Panel Two: And Danny’s just trying to understand what the hell just came out of Amber’s mouth. It’s bullshit, he knows it is. AG is in control of AG.
Panel Three: Yesiree, Danny, she is. And it sucks because AG is happy enough to foist the blame for everything she does onto Amber. She can’t take responsibility for anything because she’s all good and so therefore Amber must be all bad. The idea that they both can be largely good people with redeeming qualities and flaws like most people is never considered.
I appreciate his incredulity on this though. He doesn’t blame Amber and that’s a good thing. Might be a lesson for her to pick up for herself.
Panel Four: The sad part is she believes this. She believes AG is the only good one and that she is therefore a mess unworthy of love or any good things. She’s never believed she was capable of deserving good things. Fuck you for that, Blaine. And now this is getting worse as AG uses Amber as a dumping ground so she doesn’t have to own her shit.
And that is scary as she ‘loses’ her good alter. It’s got to be anxiety inducing and it’s because she doesn’t understand that Amber has worth.
Panel Five: NO. BAD Danny. Yes, good, get Amber to realize she has worth and value, but please don’t flip this around to AG is the bad alter. Nobody needs to be the bad alter. Both have good qualities – AG has a thirst for justice, is very protective, and has a lot of confidence and determination. It’s just that Amber ALSO has good qualities – she’s smart and supportive and loyal. They both have flaws, but that doesn’t mean that either is a putrid, corrupt alter.
But yes, this is important. Validating Amber is a good thing. She needs to know she has worth and intrinsic value. She is a good person and doesn’t deserve this and Danny telling her so is beautiful.
Panel Six: Not that it helps. Hearing things like that hit like a gut punch. Hearing that AG, the golden alter is wrong, is worldview shifting and potentially breaking. And yeah, it running against her mythology has to be weird and obviously wrong, he doesn’t know what he’s talking about, if he only knew what she was he’d be disgusted, is he mocking her? It’s not a fun place to be and this is not good for Amber and so yeah, she’s mad. And Danny is so worried about her because he just wants Amber to be okay and to love herself but she’s rapidly getting less and less integrated and he doesn’t know that or how to fix that.
Panel Seven: I like how Amber has the presence of mind to yell in her AG voice so people don’t see Amber yelling an AG costume and put two and two together. Nice touch. See, Amber, you’re smart!
But holy hell, this sucks. She can’t even accept that she might have worth and so she just dismisses Danny and leaves. It’s easier than learning to cope and admitting AG doesn’t have all the answers. That leaves her in limbo and would be scary, so she won’t do it.
And Danny, you delightful child, calling after her like that that it’s true is hilarious. And I believe she just did, unfortunately. I appreciate he doesn’t buy it and he still believes in Amber. I love it. I need them to remain important in each others lives, be it as friends or reuniting when she recovers. BABIES.