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IME if you have to suddenly pay with a card due to the person with the cash not showing up, you can, but you have to call the pizza place and read the numbers over the phone and it’s a whole thing. Make sure to tip well (preferably with cash) if this happens.
i mean this in semi-seriousness: i think ruth could learn a lot from galasso’s style of management
1) show up, have a clear mission statement, and ensure that everyone knows what their roles are and what they need to do
2) leave everyone alone except for when you are directly needed
3) hire adequate support staff so that you are rarely needed
4) rinse and repeat
i mean except for the third one that is mostly accomplishable. intern in trying to take over the world, ruth!! it’d do wonders for your work experience!
honestly the best thing he did was leave the floor to whoever would make themselves in charge. which happened to be amber, who is also not chill, but also managed to turn herself into a competent manager?? primarily because he spent all his time in the back office making plans to take over the world and not on the floor threatening people
the point being: on the scale of galasso to ruth, galasso is way chiller than ruth. which was the point.
Well, when I went to college we had to either attend the floor meetings or give a valid reason why we couldn’t. Valid reasons usually consisting of having a class or exam at the time, previously-scheduled conflicting event, or similar. I don’t recall what the ‘or else’ bit was, but I think it may have been not being allowed to stay in the dorms after that semester.
When I want to college, once the cloying kiddie games of the (non-mandatory, though I didn’t realize that until it was over, dammit) freshman orientation were over, we were treated as adults and mostly expected to comport ourselves as such. I don’t recall any floor meetings and don’t remember the names of any of my RAs. Come to think of it, I barely remember my roommates. Dorm was where I slept.
Other than the very first one at the beginning of the semester for going over the rules and such, I don’t recall there even being one a month. They tended to only happen in the case of needing to talk about a change or event or announcement that they needed to ensure everyone was aware of, rather than simply posting a flyer or sending an email. Certainly not nearly as often as they’ve been happening in this comic.
I don’t think so. Last I checked, the US actually has a decent Greek Orthodox and Russian Orthodox population. Then again they’re both situated in cities that are more well known for other ethnic minorities, so maybe we did?
Here in NZ, in a small town, I had flatmates who were Russian Orthodox and Serbian Orthodox (not at the same time). They’re far from limited to the territories (or even ethnicities) that they emerged from.
(haven’t come across any in small-city NZ though, come to think.)
The Russian instance was distinctly icky. This was around the time when Tsar Nicholas II was canonised, and hearing the stories of what a glorious and righteous and holy man that bloodthirsty taintwad was… ick.
Aside from its popularity in that region Orthodox Christianity has as much to do with Russia as ancient greeks had to do with naval warfare. Sure, they became very adept at it, Athenians in particular who had supremacy of the ocean for a while, but they learned the art from the Phoenicians.
Orthodox Christianity has its roots in Constantinople, the part of the Roman empire primarily inhabited and thus governed by greeks. Even after the fall of the western section of the empire, the faith persisted in the west and the east. As a result of cultural differences and the power struggle between the Pope in Rome and the Patriarch in Constantinople, they would often separate, but always reconcile shortly after.
Until 1055 when they split for the final time and never got back together. THAT is the point where Catholicism and Orthodoxy officially separated. Russia wasn’t even a minor factor in the process.
As in “didn’t exist as a nation”. My understanding is that the original Kievan Rus (who later divided into the groups which became the Russians, Byelorusians and Ukranians, along with several smaller groups – but not the Kosaks, who were Tatars that had been part of the westernmost holdings of the Golden Horde and settled in Crimea around the start of the 14th century) were Viking settlers who sailed up the Nieman, crossed Belarus, and sailed down the Dnieper, eventually ending up in Kiev, where they assimilated into the Slavic population in much the same way their cousins in Normandy did with the Frankish population there around that same time.
IIRC, this started only a generation before the Great Schism, and was still ongoing process at the time.
The Rus, or at least the rulers among them, were most likely viking conquerors and settlers from the region today known as Sweden who would go on to raid the lands of (what remained of) the Eastern Roman empire and later served as mercenaries that provided the military force needed by polish nobles to solidify their dynasties. According to some polish archaeologists anyway. I don’t know if the russians agree or have a different version.
Either eay, you are correct. Russia itself did not exist at the time. The vikings spoke of a swedish empire in the east called Novgorod (Kinda. Vikings themselves did not divide themselves into Danes, Svear or Northmen until after long periods of contact with foreign realms.
My home town of 3000 in rural Wisconsin has an Orthodox monestery. People end up in weird places sometimes. They wanted to be in the middle of nowhere and they found it. Some place it is dark at night and mainly quiet. And where they run an Internet based business. http://www.skete.com/
Because the religious conflicts that shaped the country’s early immigration and subsequent religious traditions and related laws and rights were primarily Protestant/Catholic in nature, and tended to sympathize more with the Protestants. We didn’t start getting large influxes of Eastern Orthodox until… what, late 1800s?
Barely ever really. Looks like Orthodox is still well less than one percent of the population in the US. Not even really enough to trigger serious prejudice like Catholics faced.
Protestants also “feast” on the body & blood of Christ. I’m not sure where your distinction is coming from. I was raised Lutheran, and part of the ritual is “take and eat/drink, this is my body/blood, given/shed for you.” Is this not true for all Protestants?
As for Orthodoxy, I’ve never heard used except for “Orthodox Jews,” which I guess is a more… hardcore/strict form of Judaism? (I’m not a student of religion, and don’t really pay attention to religion of any kind, except to note that Chicago news media LOVE to talk about the Pope and the current Catholic Cardinal based in Chicago. Seems weird to me; they never focus on any other churches)
Yes, but Catholics (and, I gather, Orthodox versions as well), have a doctrine called transsubstantiation, whereby the bread and wine literally become the body and blood of Christ in the Eucharist. Its nature is actually altered by being consecrated, even though it doesn’t appear that way from the outside.
Protestants, in contrast, regard the bread and wine as symbols or stand-ins: reminders of the Last Supper and of Jesus’ words, rather than miraculously altered substance.
So, back in medival time (around 1000 AD iirc) disagreeances between the Christians in the Eastern Roman Empire and those in western Europe (Papal State, Holy Roman Empire and the like) about things like the position of the pope and the filioque in the credo became big enough to cause the shism between the Orthodox Christian Churches in the east and the Roman Catholic Church in the west. Both Roman Catholics and Orthodox (as well as Old Catholics (and I guess Anglicans and and Episcopals, given that they have church communion with the Old Catholics)) believe that bread and wine truly becomes the body and blood of Christ, but the dogma of transsubstantiation is only a Roman Catholic zhing, for Orthodox and Old Catholics it is simply a mysterium of faith.
Some branches of Protestant denominations which are not from the Calvinist line (Calvin and later followers of his views out and out reject(ed) much of the preceding traditional liturgical model) also support transubstantiation, they are the minority in their modern context (both within their denominations and within the wider Protestant community) even if those denominations hew closer to Catholicism liturgically and theologically.
All the old churches carry forward this view in common because it dates back to the earliest days of Christianity when it was first generally deemed acceptable for gentiles to be included in the Christian sacrament. The Eucharist and with it transubstantiation were given a prime place at that time as theologically it implied any person, regardless of their background, entered into physical and spiritual union with God through the body and blood of Christ. That in turn helped overcome the hangups about them not all being of “God’s chosen people” which was a thing because Christianity was at this point still just a minor sect of Judaism which it would have remained had they not followed a path of accepting gentiles.
See back in 1054 A.D. there was a schism in the church referred to as the Great Schism, when the Pope excommunicated the Ecumenical Patriach (the Patriach of Constantinople and the only other one of the Pentarchate in Christian hands at the time) and the Ecumenical Patriarch returned the favor at the bidding of the East Roman/Byzantine Emperor. This was the final nail in the coffin so to speak of a break that was three centuries in the making based on local culture variations, some minor doctrinal differences, and a power struggle over who was actually in charge of the church. In the Western (i.e. Catholic) point of view the Pope, as the successor of Saint Peter, was the ultimate church authority. In the eastern (i.e. Orthodox) point of view the Pope was merely a first among equals among the patriarchs. This lead to Christian Europe experiencing an east-west split, with most of the southern Balkans, much of modern Romania, and modern Ukraine, Belorussia, and Russia siding with the Ecumenical Patriarch and Poland, Hungary, Germany, France, Italy, the British Isles, Croatia, and the parts of Scandinavia that had been Christianized and the parts of Spain that had been reconquered from the Muslims siding with the Pope.
It’s still more complex than that. The body of the original organized Christian Church remains today in three groups. The Oriental Orthodox which split from the Church in the fifth century and has been a separate subset with a hand full of denominations since (the Coptic Church being the best known on the world stage). Then the Eastern Orthodox and the Catholic which split in 1054 as you said. In the last century or so, all three have been working hard to reach an agreement between them that brings them all back into communion with one another despite their overall fairly minor theological quibbles.
The Chalcedon split happened mainly due to bad wording in the final document. Due to translation issues the Oriental Orthodox Church assumed that the council was trying to force a Nestorian viewpoint. Meanwhile, the council itself thought that the Oriental Orthodox Church was Monophysite when they were in fact Miaphysite, which actually isn’t that different from the official church doctrine. Chalcedon was a huge mess of a council.
Treating her depression and escaping an abusive parent doesn’t HAVE to mean she can’t rule by fear and hate. She is the Dark Lord of the Dormitories! One Ruth to rule them all!
Is she dumb enough to do that with Billie right there?
… Yeah, she’s totally dumb enough to do that with Billie right there. Some people you can’t punch sense into.
Hmm, Billie’s not in the tags. Maybe Ruth is just hallucinating her. Maybe that explains Billie’s, “um”. She was trying to decide whether she should hallucinatory-count her hallucinatory self.
While writing my thesis (biology), I got an error-type message from spellcheck on Word that it was turning itself off because of all the words it didn’t recognize.
Just because Ruth can’t punch her doesn’t mean Billie won’t. Or kick, she has those killer cheerleader legs. It’s been a while since we saw someone get rekt during those meetings.
can she really hurt joker anymore than he’s already been damaged?? i mean like nu52 literally. ripped off. his face. that dude has been through hell and high water and i mean it’s not like he doesn’t deserve it but damn, a recognizable character arc is he not. he’s basically just a serial killer with a grin and an anarchy shtick now, he barely even has a sense of humor
so like this isn’t the wildest stretch for joker, is what i’m saying
See, there’s many reasons why I don’t read new 52. This is one of those reasons. Like, come on that is so stupid! Also, Jared Leto’s Joker strikes me as just…too sane? Like, there was one scene in Suicide Squad that made him look unstable, and that was the “laugh in the room full of knives” scene. And he delegates almost everything to his lackeys. He’s just, not the Joker. He’s a gang leader with a bit of a clown gimmick, and not even a very good clown gimmick at that.
jared leto’s joker will be a forgettable interpretation of the character simply because he was, like you said, “too sane.” he didnt explore any part of the character that jack nicholson, heath ledger, or cesar romero didnt already cover. hes bland and surface level. itd be like if frank miller wrote the joker.
I like Leto Joker because he’s back to being The Clown Prince of Crime rather than the preening Agent of Chaos the Joker has had to be since Dark Knight.
to be honest, the Joker never came across as legit insane to me. He gets what he’s doing is wrong, he just doesn’t care. He’s nihilistic, random and obsessive, but not certifiable. He honestly should have been executed years ago, but he keeps fooling the judges into committing him with his crazy act.
yeah he might be diagnosible with some kind of mental disorder, but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t completely cognizant of what he was doing when he was doing it and why he shouldn’t do it
i’m pretty sure most of his reasons for doing stuff were because he shouldn’t do it
i show up to nu52 for steph and cass, and am making plans to show up for duke and damian. also possibly greg rucka’s run on wonderwoman (finally!!!!)
everything i’ve heard about jared leto’s joker was very…hot topic. tbh i feel like there are ways in which joker is just a very overrated character because he’s best used for shock value and in very small doses. the nice thing about mark hamill’s joker is that he was humanized – he had his ups and downs, he could be beaten, he had a great laugh, and he was actually funny sometimes right up until he scared you, and sometimes even while he was scaring you
jack nicholson’s joker was very jack nicholson as the joker, which was great because jack nicholson knows when to eat scenery and when to hold back, and everything was really weird and compelling all at once. full points for michael keaton’s “you wanna get nuts! let’s get nuts!!” tho, only moment i’ve wondered if bruce wayne was actually as crazy as the joker (and the answer is totally, but in very different ways, and anyways crazy is too vague a word to really say what i mean anyways).
heath ledger’s joker was very…zeitgeist. idk, like, very in that culture of people-who-shoot-up-places-and-why. and the reason is ‘why not’ apparently!!! i don’t think nolan’s moralizing was very good or clear, even as a person who likes moralizing, so that philosophical battle didn’t really work for me. also the fridging of rachel dawes was super boring. it would have been better if they’d added harley, because joker would have had someone to talk to and interact with so we could get a sense of anything real about him.
i dont really have opinions about 1969 batman’s joker except that the painted over moustache was ridiculous
but mostly like i’m saying that i think mary plays much the same role as joker to this narrative in that she shows up, can’t be gotten rid of, everyone hates her, and she is best taken in very small doses whenever possible. and most arcs with her end in her comeuppance
Same on the latter, if only because I relate the most to Dina and I would show up because Showing Up To Hall Meetings is A Rule. However, she may want to spend time with Becky (whose shift may be over now? I’m not sure exactly what time it is now or how long her shift is), and it’s probably still not a good idea to let Becky be seen by the hall authority figure.
No, Amber just came to the meeting because she thought it would be the place where she was the least likely to encounter other people.
…Or, more likely, she simply moved here after Ruth destroyed her original sofa fort of solitude, and hasn’t yet decided to depart for lonelier pastures.
I’m sort of curious what Dorothy generally hopes to record in these meetings and what she does with it, because we don’t see much information/that which we see is pretty uninformative. But now, in my headcanon, she’ll have pages of Joyce’s presumably cute cursive writing style with incredibly depressing messages in it, which is somehow both funny and sad at the same time, and could possibly be a chekov’s gun for later, but I don’t know when or how.
I mean, she just decided to step down from reporting so it’s not like she NEEDS the notes for reporting, but she likes having them anyway because Joyce’s handwriting is so cute, and she is so happy when she hands them over and… oh dear. She better not be developing a crush or anything.
I almost never went to any floor meetings in college. Didn’t matter if the RA was someone I liked or not, I just didn’t see the point of going to floor meetings unless there was free food or something.
I’m curious as to what would happen if Ruth told everyone right now that the only thing keeping her at this position is her grandfather and his use of Howard as a pretty-much-hostage.
I think either Rachel or Joyce (not Mary though, she’d probably commend the war hero to herself) will say something stupid like “Clint Hughes? But he’s such a good guy!” and then Amber, who no doubt has heard THAT excuse before, will tear into them something fierce and give them a Cerberus worthy rant about abusers and their motives and practices and I’m rambling now so I’m going to shut up.
Clint’s choice of words is much slicker than Blaine’s. I don’t know that some of the witnesses to Blaine on the one weekend we’ve seen him will say he’s “such a nice guy”.
And Blaine has hit Stacy, right? We’ve yet to see if Clint has done the same to Ruth, Howard , or anyone.
Yea, I’m not sure Amber would have heard that excuse before about her own abuse. I’d put Blane somewhere between a Clint and a Ross on subtly. But she would likely study that sort of thing.
I think it’s probably just Rachel and Mary who are there for corpse feasting. Rachel on grounds of righteousness and Mary on grounds of unrighteousness.
I only ever had two memorable floor meetings. Both in my freshman year. Once, when the CA (as opposed to RA) called the whole building into the rec room so she could stand on the pool table, announce she’s bisexual, and say that anyone who continued to write homophobic things on white boards would have to deal with her personally.
The other time was when the same CA called every girl on the ground floor into the hallway so she could beg whoever was leaving their pubes all over the shower to stop doing so.
Actually considering she has Billie and Joyce there and Amber’s never expressed any dislike towards her Ruth actually has more allies in the room than potential corpse feasters and as much as Rachel expressed clear dislike (and as shitty as Joe might have made her current mood) she does seem like a reasonable person who can be swayed when presented with a greater evil. So lucky for Ruth Mary showed up.
I think that instead I’ll go with “super-guilty about outing Ruth but also defiant and came close enough to an apology earlier today and got nothing in return but Billie’s hate so fuck them both she’s going nowhere near those two assholes”.
Yeah I don’t think she’s thinking of either of them as assholes. She cares more than she wants to admit and she is feeling some guilt. I think in the end she’s going to want to make sure Ruth’s okay even if she knows Billie’s no fan of hers right now.
Carla’s not the type to be here and show that vulnerability where others can see it, but I would not be surprised if she tries to sneak a quick conversation somewhere in here just to check in, not that she cares or anything or is sorry about the risks or anything.
Yea Rachel and Mary are there out of some sort of spite. Amber is there because either because that’s what she’s supposed to do or out of some sort of solidarity. Joyce is there to take notes for Dorothy. Dorothy might not have shown up but she at least bothered to have someone take notes for her. Billie’s not a resident anymore but is there to back Ruth up.
So today in business communications class we covered (skimmed) nonverbal communication, and I can’t help but break down everyone in Panel 1 by their body language here.
Joyce: Eager. (Duh.)
Amber and Ruth: Freeze (one of the fear reactions). Ruth in particular is completely unmoving throughout the entire strip.
Rachel and Mary: Fight. In Rachel’s case, her crossed arms are a sign of restraint in a society where actually punching someone out is usually frowned on. Mary’s body language is more openly dominant, taking up space in an aggressive manner.
…. and I really know nothing about what I’m talking about, so bleh.
Yeah, the freeze trauma response. Which makes sense. This is her living nightmare and the person who nearly drove her to death is sitting there grinning and clearly taking up the majority of her attention.
Her eyes look a bit dilated as well, which makes me think trauma response.
I love how Joyce just nonchalantly calls her Ruthless as if that’s her name. Joyce has called her that to other people, but I don’t recall if she’s ever done it to her face, though I feel like she has.
Panel 1: 5 people for an RA meeting during midterm season? That’s really damn good and better than what she got before Operation Violent Wrangling for her first meeting.
And oh man, Mary… Like, this is what makes her such a fucked up villain and foil. She nearly murdered Ruth. Because she is queer, because she didn’t let her harass a trans student with no consequences, because she dared defy and humiliate and strike her after she tried to bully her into jumping at her command.
Because she is not Mary.
And yet despite that near murder, she comes all smiles because she smells just a little advantage, something she can press and so she’s here to roll in the blood and the “weakened” emotional state of her “enemy”, just looking for a chance to stab a few more knives into the woman who only literally got out of the hospital this morning.
Despite her very near miss in driving a woman to suicide with her blackmail, she’s eager to jump right back in to poking at Ruth’s weak points and gain something she can exploit. And despite not having even the remotest whiff of a high ground, she’s smugly enjoying the downfall of Ruth nonetheless.
And the thing is… that’s a thing. Bullies like Mary do live to press any advantage and don’t care if they nearly kill someone. Hell, a good number collect those suicide attempts like marks on a fighter plane. And there are plenty who have been extremely open about how they’d love everyone not cis straight and white to die and “give them back their country”.
And it’s what makes Mary such a terrifying villain because she’s never going to feel chastised and back off. She’s always going to angle for a weak point and try and exploit it and she’ll bounce into whatever her next attack is even when she’s been as thoroughly served as she was by Billie.
She’s relentless and she is dangerous and she’s probably already scheming up her next angle of attack.
Agreed. Also, fuck Mary and her smug smile. She is a villainess born from reality who has convinced too many that she is parody. That is what makes her so dangerous.
Panel 2: This is a heavy panel. Because it’s the core of Ruth’s everything when it comes to the RA position. Like, this is why it was easy for her to turn to a lot of terrible bullying behavior for her position and it’s that her grandpa has wound her up and gotten her to believe she must be perfect in her role. That she should have perfect attendance, perfect compliance, etc…
But this is the reality of an RA meeting. A handful of folks, several of whom likely will have ulterior motives, with very little attention or fucks given. A meeting this size is not a failure and would likely not be seen as a failure. But she interprets it as one because “sir” has fucked with her head to the point where she believes she needs to be the best RA ever. 100% attendance, 100% compliance, etc… and it made it easy for her to copy traits that echo far too close for her liking the actions and sitting threats of her grandpa.
And she’s still under that power, still interpreting it in its worst, letting the garbage-brain frame the moment. She’s beating herself for not meeting an impossible or highly unlikely standard and interprets a situation where one person severely dislikes her, one person tried to kill her, one person vaguely thinks well of her, one person greatly thinks well of her, and one person is in love with her as a universal crowd of enemies.
And it just makes me sad.
Panel 3: Oh Joyce, you perfect cinnamon roll you.
Panel 4: Nonsense, Ruth, I’m sure Mary would be willing to settle for gnawing on your barely conscious bloodied body in a pinch. Stop being overly dramatic!
Panel 5: Oh Joyce, you perfect perfect cinnamon roll…
Shit, I didn’t even notice the perfectionism. That’s what makes it so insidious and awful: it feels completely normal and reasonable, no matter how unreasonable or outright insane its demands are. It bypasses all the usual sanity checking because it’s in so deep.
I’m starting to have moments where my own perfectionism actually feels as unreasonable as it is, and it is really weird. Like, the laundry bin being only 80% of a full load instead of precisely 95%? That used to feel like a horrible Wrongness, like I was committing some horrible sin not having the absolute optimal laundry load. I’d get yelled at for the rest of the day (or longer) by NVoice, trying to berate me into never making such a horrible mistake ever again. But now? There’s a part of my mind that sees how ludicrous that is, and reassures me that it’s okay to do the laundry “wrong”, that I don’t have to do better next time because I’m already doing good *enough*. It’s almost able to convince me that using even half of my available spoons wisely is “enough”. being allowed margins of error that aren’t constantly being optimized away in the name of “efficiency” is quite nice.
…the weird part, though, is that I’m so used to the abusive response that when I get the nice one instead, it’s like .. having a staircase not end where you think it ends. It actually startles me to *not* get attacked by NVoice. It’s good, just, very disconcerting
And then the cycle begins again, peeling back another layer of dysfunction and suffering.
“Letting it feel weird” is a skill I seem to be getting the hang of. Very useful. It’s interesting that sometimes my brain is stuck in a mode that’s violently opposed to that, though. I suspect it’s related to how I needed to build basic boundaries before compassion-related meditation felt safe.
…i honestly wonder what Sarah thinks of everything that’s been going on with her RA and the administration. because, like, she reported her roommate for self-endangering behavior, and her roommate got taken back home. but here Ruth got reported and she’s still in the exact same place and like
is Sarah noping out? is Sarah having a lil bit of a worry fest? she’s probably just focusing on her studies because that’s what she has to do, but like. what’s her emotional quandary here
Well, Sarah told Dana’s dad, and he chose to pull her out. Sarah didn’t want to ruin her chances at coming back when she was better, so she opted for calling family who would help. Aftermath was out of her hands, so this probably isn’t too big a source of emotional quandary. Sarah’s opinion on Ruth’s authority was probably pretty neutral, but she did acknowledge that Ruth was a pretty sadistic RA in some ways and realized that people’s opinions of her weren’t gonna be high. She probably saw the change in the “Be there or I take your femurs” Ruth and is doing what she feels would be more productive as a result.
and. ah. calling ruth’s guardian is very much not an option here
idk sarah doesn’t really seem like the type to get herself too involved in other people’s affairs, especially now, but like. she and ruth are kind of sort of peers? idk if i was a sophomore on a floor of freshmen i would cling to the only other person in my age group
although it is ruth, who is about as cuddly as a turtle (i.e. not very until u get under her shell)
Without being a scholar in literary history, I would bet A LOT that the concept of Black Numenorian and its ilk owns a lot of its popularity to 19 century literature portrayal of European interaction with the colonies and “Born Gentlemen” now working together with the “Savages”. In that light, it is all to easy to see Joyce kind of Christians translating the concept to fit their groups.
I think she (Joyce) would have to become a Devil Worshipper for the analogy to work, since Dark Numenoreans worship Melkor (Middle Earth’s Devil equivalent) as the actual creator of Arda and the creator of other worlds in outer space, because they bought into Sauron’s lies about the Valar.
…
Then again I’m now picturing Joyce in Black Numenorean Armor and Dorothy dressed as Sauron and I am confusingly pleased by these mind images.
Mary is, unfortunately, a diseased young woman whose soul is full of self-satisfied piety and cruelty. I’m pretty sure any psychological profile of her would read like the profile of a medieval inquisitor.
She carries a mutant strain of the Black Plague. It’s harmless, for now, but if she kisses, bleeds on, or has sex with anyone, they’re going to catch it.
I mean, Walkyverse Joyce was a biologically enhanced super soldier who worked for the government as a member of a specialized task force, knew significantly less about the modern world than everyone else, is incredibly idealistic, carries a unique weapon, and at one point had to fight a close friend of hers who was brainwashed into betraying her homeland.
I don’t think that Ruth has ever really presented it as an excuse. I don’t even think that she’s presented it as an explanation, only that it’s part of her back-story. FWIW, I consider it entirely plausible that Clint’s mistreatment of her has so screwed up her social instincts that she literally doesn’t know any way to interact with others in most scenarios except through violence and intimidation.
the way to think about it, sometimes, as not an excuse but a reason.
like: if a cat scratches you, that’s not okay. but if they scratch you because they’re scared of you, then that’s different than a cat scratching you just because.
i mean. that doesn’t mean her floor has to like her, or even forgive her. but this doesn’t have to be for Ruth anything other than a place she’s been that she can move on from. because it’s not a place she ever wanted to be, and it’s a place that was harmful to herself and her brother, and it’s a place she could never leave on her own. she needs help in order to leave mentally, emotionally, physically and financially.
and at that point, the question becomes not “was it okay for Ruth to do these things?” because no. the answer is that it never was. the question becomes “what will we do now that we know what’s going on?” because like: the hurt has happened. and it was not okay, but if we never reach out with necessary and useful aid then it will never get better.
to put this into very polarized terms, Ruth is villain and victim and hero and person, all at the same time if not to the same extent. villain: because she has terrorized the girls of her hall, and continues to lash out as a response to her abuse. victim: because she has undergone treatment from her grandfather that is beyond the pale. hero: because she has survived, and is choosing to keep going back out there even though she knows she screwed up and thinks people hate her. person: because she is all these things in one, and more besides in places we have not ventured.
idk i think sometimes all you need to deserve aid is to need it
Ruth has treated everyone badly, but right after she got out of the hospital seems like not the best time to settle that hash. And Mary’s expression makes me want to be in between Ruth and her.
Yeah, I understand why she wanted to rush into that, given all her circumstances. But yeah, this was a terrible idea and it’s a terrible idea because of fucks like Mary.
Because being right out of the hospital, you are raw and vulnerable and admitting flaws and wrongdoing is like chum in the water for a person like Mary and doing so while in an emotionally vulnerable state is a good recipe to get a nasty punch sideways that fucks with your head and is way more risky than if you get that punch at a point when you are more emotionally prepared for it.
Looking back at some previous strips surrounding this whole day made me realize two things.
1) Rachel is already predisposed to be a bit harsh to Ruth despite the fact that she’s freshly out of the hospital (which, I dunno, I get being pissed off for a long time at Ruth’s particular reign of terror brand of RA-ing, but maybe berating someone as a piece of shit the exact same day they get out of the hospital for observation for a potential suicide attempt isn’t the time to air all the grievances as it’s more likely to prompt a relapse than any meaningful change).
But worse for this situation is the fact that Rachel is also deeply annoyed at the moment thanks to Joe’s little pouncing on her the second she left her room and so is going to be even more in the mood to rip into Ruth. So yeah, this could go really bad for Ruth, especially because Mary is likely to try and seize on that stuff in a toxic way as an intentional attempt to push Ruth back into that hunted suicidal space again.
And in that strip, she was heavily nervous, possibly even embarrassed for Ruth’s return given all the horrible things Mary had done, quite deliberately, to Ruth as an act of control and then as an act of sustained abuse and blackmail.
And now she’s all smug face and a smile as wide as a barn door and all she’s had to get her from point A to point B is that Ruth is in an emotionally vulnerable place where she’s open to admitting her mistakes and she has openly come out as the thing Mary had blackmailed her about.
And that she has stated to some of the students that she wanted to have a meeting to talk about stuff.
And that’s what’s so terrifying about Mary is that’s all it took to get her from “hmm, maybe I should lie low at the moment” to looking like she’s eager to jump right back into her campaign of harassment and emotional abuse.
And what’s so terrifying in general about people like her is that they’ll hop on and exploit positive traits (desire to be fair, to own mistakes, to be willing to show vulnerability rather than building a Carla-like cage, to admit illness or non-normativity, etc…) and punish people so awfully, sometimes fatally for it.
And the end result is that people become more scared of showing the type of vulnerability that Ruth does here because there are folks who will see that as only one more weapon to attack you with (kind of like various bigot groups who love seeing their targets express depression or suicidal ideation because they see that as something they can hammer to “get rid of” their hated targets once and for all) and that’s worse for everyone.
Without Mary, without Rachel or without them being a good solid near half of the attendees, this has a very different psychological weight and is far less dangerous for the extremely fragile mental state Ruth is in right now (not only out of the hospital today, but also just went through a brutal round of emotional abuse and destruction by “sir” poking at her biggest traumas in order to keep her “in line”)
So yeah, I can understand why she’s feeling she made a great big mistake and is about to be ripped apart by vultures come to pick off the remains of an already shattered corpse. Because well, neither Rachel nor Mary is likely to be in any way positively cognizant of the mental state Ruth is in and will be much more likely to pursue their own agendas (Mary regaining her relative power and defanging the check against her overall campaign of harassment and maybe pushing Ruth back into a state she can blackmail or threaten her with for power; Rachel having a chance to say all the things she’s wanted for the last year or so to the terrifying bellowing abusive RA she’s had without much regard to the fact that maybe these are things that can wait a week to air).
So yeah, I’m even more concerned for Ruth here than I was before.
And the fact that Mary’s standing close to Rachel makes me think she’s seeing Rachel as more of a fellow warrior for tearing down the evil queer woman who dares to assert authority that should be Mary’s than as someone with her own reasons to dislike Ruth and who is not going to appreciate being used like a weapon in Mary’s homophobic campaign.
i feel like rachel sees through exactly all of mary’s shit. like. she ignored her while she was calling ms. puddinghead
i also feel like rachel is probably completely one hundred percent done with the adminstration in regards to these issues, but that is more of an intuitive leap than anything based in anything she’s said. like. ruth isn’t exactly responsible for not getting fired, here. she’s responsible for not resigning, but she didn’t get much of a choice
I wonder if Rachel’s her stance against Ruth is there to give us a morally upright character to vent frustrations against her, rather than leaving Mary as Ruth’s only antagonist.
“Alright guys, first order of business is to remind Mary that literally everyone on the floor distrusts and hates her. Any objections?”
“Ye-”
“That aren’t Mary?”
“…”
“Good, next topic.”
“I don’t hate you. I’m here to take notes for Dorothy…”
“Write down that everyone here is anxious to feed on my corpse.”
And Joyce dutifully does so.
Ya gotta love it.
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btw if you're one of those rando bluesky weirdos who doesn't know me but sees me in the wild being sarcastic and don't know i'm being sarcastic because you haven't taken like 30 seconds to, like, maybe look at my user profile or something, keep walking, you're not going to score internet points here
Here's an entertaining cite at the bottom of the first page
Josh Gerstein@joshgerstein.bsky.social ⋅ 2d
JUST IN: Milwaukee Judge Hannah Dugan moves to dismiss federal criminal case against her for allegedly helping immigrant hide from ICE. Her lawyers say she's protected by official acts & judicial immunity and 10th Amendment. Doc: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
Where did Hollywood go so wrong? I thought movies were supposed to be an escape from reality, a chance to put your worries aside and not have to think about any underlying ideas or concepts. Well, not anymore.
theonion.com/you-can...
It's not a new argument, of course, but Chesterton dismissed it effectively in 1908.
"You will hear everlastingly... this argument that the rich man cannot be bribed. The fact is, of course, that the rich man is bribed; he has been bribed already. That is why he is a rich man."
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com ⋅ 2d
Hawley dismisses Trump lining his pockets with his memecoin: "Listen, I think nobody believes that Donald Trump can be bought. I mean, what does Donald Trump need more money for?"
wilbur, savvy enough to know he's in a comic strip but still not a great actor, awkwardly lifts a muffin up into frame so that we, the audience, understand that he has a muffin right now, which is very important narratively, but he's not really selling it well as an organic, human action
confirming that the reason there's been no Galaxy Version female characters in Blokees until now is that they felt they needed to make Round Lady Thighs For Ladies
preternia @preternia.com ⋅ 17h
Josh Gerstein @joshgerstein.bsky.social ⋅ 2d
Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com ⋅ 2d
Pavel
@spavel.bsky.social ⋅ 11d
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hey, imagine, people don’t attend things they aren’t interested in, held by people they don’t like, when given no compelling reason to do it
…I’m just saying if somebody coulda ordered pizza (and subs), there’d be some turnout
Pizza and subs? On a college students income? Pipedream! Not everyone’s Carla or Billie rich here.
Yeah, but Billie is Carla-or-Billie rich, and she’s standing right there!
Billie sighs very hard. “Fine, I got this.” She hands the pizza guy her black AmEx.
“What am I suppose to do with this? It only has a magnetic strip.”
I don’t understand. Is there some new development with credit cards?
Pizza delivery guys don’t usually take card!
IME if you have to suddenly pay with a card due to the person with the cash not showing up, you can, but you have to call the pizza place and read the numbers over the phone and it’s a whole thing. Make sure to tip well (preferably with cash) if this happens.
What?
But… iZettle?
Swish?
What kind of third world country still uses cash?
What on Earth are those?
When I was in college, there was a place that sold a large 2-topping (only 1 of which could be meat, though) for $5.
That place was the source of my Freshman 15, since I worked nights and it was within walking distance.
When I had floor meetings, the school paid for my pizza.
And then Ruth could turn the floor over to Galasso! PERFECT.
i mean this in semi-seriousness: i think ruth could learn a lot from galasso’s style of management
1) show up, have a clear mission statement, and ensure that everyone knows what their roles are and what they need to do
2) leave everyone alone except for when you are directly needed
3) hire adequate support staff so that you are rarely needed
4) rinse and repeat
i mean except for the third one that is mostly accomplishable. intern in trying to take over the world, ruth!! it’d do wonders for your work experience!
That’s basically what she did. It went poorly.
yeah but she wasnt chill about it
you gotta be chill about it and not…………..threaten people’s femurs.
Yes, Galasso is noted for his chill.
honestly the best thing he did was leave the floor to whoever would make themselves in charge. which happened to be amber, who is also not chill, but also managed to turn herself into a competent manager?? primarily because he spent all his time in the back office making plans to take over the world and not on the floor threatening people
the point being: on the scale of galasso to ruth, galasso is way chiller than ruth. which was the point.
Well, when I went to college we had to either attend the floor meetings or give a valid reason why we couldn’t. Valid reasons usually consisting of having a class or exam at the time, previously-scheduled conflicting event, or similar. I don’t recall what the ‘or else’ bit was, but I think it may have been not being allowed to stay in the dorms after that semester.
When I want to college, once the cloying kiddie games of the (non-mandatory, though I didn’t realize that until it was over, dammit) freshman orientation were over, we were treated as adults and mostly expected to comport ourselves as such. I don’t recall any floor meetings and don’t remember the names of any of my RAs. Come to think of it, I barely remember my roommates. Dorm was where I slept.
I don’t remember my RA’s name, just that he made mushroom soup for us one time. It was pretty good.
we didn’t have floor meetings, EVER, so I’m actually p confused about this whole aspect of the comic
Other than the very first one at the beginning of the semester for going over the rules and such, I don’t recall there even being one a month. They tended to only happen in the case of needing to talk about a change or event or announcement that they needed to ensure everyone was aware of, rather than simply posting a flyer or sending an email. Certainly not nearly as often as they’ve been happening in this comic.
Joyce is anxious to feast on the body and blood of Christ
But only metaphorically. She’s not Catholic.
Or Ortthodox!
…
But no seriously, why does everyone in America seem to forget that Orthodox Christianity is a thing?
Did you collectively decided to forget it because it’s russian’s (and a lot of various countries around the world) version of Christianism ?
I don’t think so. Last I checked, the US actually has a decent Greek Orthodox and Russian Orthodox population. Then again they’re both situated in cities that are more well known for other ethnic minorities, so maybe we did?
Here in NZ, in a small town, I had flatmates who were Russian Orthodox and Serbian Orthodox (not at the same time). They’re far from limited to the territories (or even ethnicities) that they emerged from.
(haven’t come across any in small-city NZ though, come to think.)
The Russian instance was distinctly icky. This was around the time when Tsar Nicholas II was canonised, and hearing the stories of what a glorious and righteous and holy man that bloodthirsty taintwad was… ick.
Well, the catholic church canonized a fascist death cultist in 2015, so there’s that…
And over in pentecostal land there’s the Grahams and the Duggars and halp halp these people vote
wait, what?
Please tell more about fascist death cultist.
I somehow missed the “-ist” part and was trying to figure out how you manage to canonize an entire cult.
Aside from its popularity in that region Orthodox Christianity has as much to do with Russia as ancient greeks had to do with naval warfare. Sure, they became very adept at it, Athenians in particular who had supremacy of the ocean for a while, but they learned the art from the Phoenicians.
Orthodox Christianity has its roots in Constantinople, the part of the Roman empire primarily inhabited and thus governed by greeks. Even after the fall of the western section of the empire, the faith persisted in the west and the east. As a result of cultural differences and the power struggle between the Pope in Rome and the Patriarch in Constantinople, they would often separate, but always reconcile shortly after.
Until 1055 when they split for the final time and never got back together. THAT is the point where Catholicism and Orthodoxy officially separated. Russia wasn’t even a minor factor in the process.
As in “didn’t exist as a nation”. My understanding is that the original Kievan Rus (who later divided into the groups which became the Russians, Byelorusians and Ukranians, along with several smaller groups – but not the Kosaks, who were Tatars that had been part of the westernmost holdings of the Golden Horde and settled in Crimea around the start of the 14th century) were Viking settlers who sailed up the Nieman, crossed Belarus, and sailed down the Dnieper, eventually ending up in Kiev, where they assimilated into the Slavic population in much the same way their cousins in Normandy did with the Frankish population there around that same time.
IIRC, this started only a generation before the Great Schism, and was still ongoing process at the time.
I should mention that the Kazakhs are more closely related, ethnically, to the Crimean Kosaks, hence the similarity in name.
The Rus, or at least the rulers among them, were most likely viking conquerors and settlers from the region today known as Sweden who would go on to raid the lands of (what remained of) the Eastern Roman empire and later served as mercenaries that provided the military force needed by polish nobles to solidify their dynasties. According to some polish archaeologists anyway. I don’t know if the russians agree or have a different version.
Either eay, you are correct. Russia itself did not exist at the time. The vikings spoke of a swedish empire in the east called Novgorod (Kinda. Vikings themselves did not divide themselves into Danes, Svear or Northmen until after long periods of contact with foreign realms.
My home town of 3000 in rural Wisconsin has an Orthodox monestery. People end up in weird places sometimes. They wanted to be in the middle of nowhere and they found it. Some place it is dark at night and mainly quiet. And where they run an Internet based business. http://www.skete.com/
Because the religious conflicts that shaped the country’s early immigration and subsequent religious traditions and related laws and rights were primarily Protestant/Catholic in nature, and tended to sympathize more with the Protestants. We didn’t start getting large influxes of Eastern Orthodox until… what, late 1800s?
Barely ever really. Looks like Orthodox is still well less than one percent of the population in the US. Not even really enough to trigger serious prejudice like Catholics faced.
Protestants also “feast” on the body & blood of Christ. I’m not sure where your distinction is coming from. I was raised Lutheran, and part of the ritual is “take and eat/drink, this is my body/blood, given/shed for you.” Is this not true for all Protestants?
As for Orthodoxy, I’ve never heard used except for “Orthodox Jews,” which I guess is a more… hardcore/strict form of Judaism? (I’m not a student of religion, and don’t really pay attention to religion of any kind, except to note that Chicago news media LOVE to talk about the Pope and the current Catholic Cardinal based in Chicago. Seems weird to me; they never focus on any other churches)
Yes, but Catholics (and, I gather, Orthodox versions as well), have a doctrine called transsubstantiation, whereby the bread and wine literally become the body and blood of Christ in the Eucharist. Its nature is actually altered by being consecrated, even though it doesn’t appear that way from the outside.
Protestants, in contrast, regard the bread and wine as symbols or stand-ins: reminders of the Last Supper and of Jesus’ words, rather than miraculously altered substance.
Ah. Interesting. Thanks for the clarification. Those wacky Catholics!
So, back in medival time (around 1000 AD iirc) disagreeances between the Christians in the Eastern Roman Empire and those in western Europe (Papal State, Holy Roman Empire and the like) about things like the position of the pope and the filioque in the credo became big enough to cause the shism between the Orthodox Christian Churches in the east and the Roman Catholic Church in the west. Both Roman Catholics and Orthodox (as well as Old Catholics (and I guess Anglicans and and Episcopals, given that they have church communion with the Old Catholics)) believe that bread and wine truly becomes the body and blood of Christ, but the dogma of transsubstantiation is only a Roman Catholic zhing, for Orthodox and Old Catholics it is simply a mysterium of faith.
Some branches of Protestant denominations which are not from the Calvinist line (Calvin and later followers of his views out and out reject(ed) much of the preceding traditional liturgical model) also support transubstantiation, they are the minority in their modern context (both within their denominations and within the wider Protestant community) even if those denominations hew closer to Catholicism liturgically and theologically.
All the old churches carry forward this view in common because it dates back to the earliest days of Christianity when it was first generally deemed acceptable for gentiles to be included in the Christian sacrament. The Eucharist and with it transubstantiation were given a prime place at that time as theologically it implied any person, regardless of their background, entered into physical and spiritual union with God through the body and blood of Christ. That in turn helped overcome the hangups about them not all being of “God’s chosen people” which was a thing because Christianity was at this point still just a minor sect of Judaism which it would have remained had they not followed a path of accepting gentiles.
See back in 1054 A.D. there was a schism in the church referred to as the Great Schism, when the Pope excommunicated the Ecumenical Patriach (the Patriach of Constantinople and the only other one of the Pentarchate in Christian hands at the time) and the Ecumenical Patriarch returned the favor at the bidding of the East Roman/Byzantine Emperor. This was the final nail in the coffin so to speak of a break that was three centuries in the making based on local culture variations, some minor doctrinal differences, and a power struggle over who was actually in charge of the church. In the Western (i.e. Catholic) point of view the Pope, as the successor of Saint Peter, was the ultimate church authority. In the eastern (i.e. Orthodox) point of view the Pope was merely a first among equals among the patriarchs. This lead to Christian Europe experiencing an east-west split, with most of the southern Balkans, much of modern Romania, and modern Ukraine, Belorussia, and Russia siding with the Ecumenical Patriarch and Poland, Hungary, Germany, France, Italy, the British Isles, Croatia, and the parts of Scandinavia that had been Christianized and the parts of Spain that had been reconquered from the Muslims siding with the Pope.
They had a fanatical devotion!
It’s still more complex than that. The body of the original organized Christian Church remains today in three groups. The Oriental Orthodox which split from the Church in the fifth century and has been a separate subset with a hand full of denominations since (the Coptic Church being the best known on the world stage). Then the Eastern Orthodox and the Catholic which split in 1054 as you said. In the last century or so, all three have been working hard to reach an agreement between them that brings them all back into communion with one another despite their overall fairly minor theological quibbles.
Are you saying that the question of whether Christ has two natures or just one nature is a “minor theological quibble?”
Them’s bishop-punching-bishop words!
The Chalcedon split happened mainly due to bad wording in the final document. Due to translation issues the Oriental Orthodox Church assumed that the council was trying to force a Nestorian viewpoint. Meanwhile, the council itself thought that the Oriental Orthodox Church was Monophysite when they were in fact Miaphysite, which actually isn’t that different from the official church doctrine. Chalcedon was a huge mess of a council.
Joyce is a good assistant.
And so cute! That last panel may seriously be the most adorable Joyce has ever looked.
I dunno, the third panel gives it some stiff competition.
She’ll have to fight plaid-vest-with-her-hair-up-Joyce for that title.
Am I the only one disappointed that this meeting wasn’t opening with a promise to break them and to destroy any who attempt to inform the authorities.
Yes.
Probably.
The whole point is that Ruth is trying to change.
Treating her depression and escaping an abusive parent doesn’t HAVE to mean she can’t rule by fear and hate.
She is the Dark Lord of the Dormitories! One Ruth to rule them all!
Mary is still a bongo. Just watch. She’ll try and pull some BS.
Only to find out it won’t work because Ruth has retained her RA position.
Is she dumb enough to do that with Billie right there?
… Yeah, she’s totally dumb enough to do that with Billie right there. Some people you can’t punch sense into.
Hmm, Billie’s not in the tags. Maybe Ruth is just hallucinating her. Maybe that explains Billie’s, “um”. She was trying to decide whether she should hallucinatory-count her hallucinatory self.
Ruth is Anode, and Billie is Lug? That explains everything! Ruth has Timesickness!
…Anyone who gets this reference is awesome.
Where’s the Necrobot when you need him?
Stuffed full of holoflowers, courtesy of the DJD.
I want to point out that Billie IS in the tags, but I also don’t want to burst your interesting-theory-bubble.
…
IGNORE ME!!!
Maybe you’re just hallucinating that she is.
(She wasn’t when I posted my previous comment.)
DoA and the Walkyverse (and maybe even our our reality itself) merely exists in Amber’s imagination. She’s the Tommy Westphall of webcomics.
IU snowglobes exist?
She actually can’t.
That… *smirk*. Like she’s thinking Rachel is somehow going to be her ally?
Here’s a list of things Mary has thought will end well for her that have, in fact, ended well for her: .
wow that period is so short. i guess it’s good that she has one thing going for her? but i wouldn’t have guessed it’d be periods
Birth control can do that.
(yes, I assume Mary is that much of a hypocrite)
(cackling forever, especially if she has to take it for medical reasons)
(honestly it’s just…so much willful blindness and hypocrisy)
As far as Mary knows, she still has Becky’s situation to hold over them. So I wouldn’t be surprised.
Fortunately, Joyce is there, and is well informed as to Becky’s situation. Imagine what Joyce’s reaction will be to Mary’s attempt to harm Becky.
Please, Ruth. You’re a thin and stringy. Hardly a satisfying meal.
billie might disagree
Hah.
But she’s been marinating in whiskey for years. That can only have done good things for her tenderness and flavor
Smirking Mary in left part of panel one must be returning from having just touched the orb.
Stupid orb. Making everyone who is ridiculously transparently evil look even more ridiculously transparently evil.
life is too much like a comic book now
yeah so this is about par for the course for hall meetings
Joyce: “How do you spell eviscerate? Nevermind, Autocorrect got it.”
She’s using a pen…
Do not question the mysterious ways of Joyce.
Autocorrect is insidious and everywhere. Soon it shall be installing itself on textbooks from centuries ago.
…. reading Beowulf for English class will never be the same again.
one time autocorrect made me text my coworker to ask the problems at customer service for advice
it was the best mistake ever
The autocorrect may have a stroke trying to translate Old English. Now imagine what will happen when it tries to have a go at Sanskrit or Akkadian…
While writing my thesis (biology), I got an error-type message from spellcheck on Word that it was turning itself off because of all the words it didn’t recognize.
Why is Mary smiling? That never means anything good.
Sometimes it means that she is deluded and overconfident and about to walk into a comeuppance.
Just because Ruth can’t punch her doesn’t mean Billie won’t. Or kick, she has those killer cheerleader legs. It’s been a while since we saw someone get rekt during those meetings.
Kick ‘er in the groinal ligaments, Billy!
im choosing to believe she just got back from the dentist and now her face is permanently stuck that way
soon…soon she will fall into a vat of acid and become the joker……
Nnnnoooo!!!! Jared Leto already hurt the Joker’s image, we don’t need Mary to as well!!
can she really hurt joker anymore than he’s already been damaged?? i mean like nu52 literally. ripped off. his face. that dude has been through hell and high water and i mean it’s not like he doesn’t deserve it but damn, a recognizable character arc is he not. he’s basically just a serial killer with a grin and an anarchy shtick now, he barely even has a sense of humor
so like this isn’t the wildest stretch for joker, is what i’m saying
See, there’s many reasons why I don’t read new 52. This is one of those reasons. Like, come on that is so stupid! Also, Jared Leto’s Joker strikes me as just…too sane? Like, there was one scene in Suicide Squad that made him look unstable, and that was the “laugh in the room full of knives” scene. And he delegates almost everything to his lackeys. He’s just, not the Joker. He’s a gang leader with a bit of a clown gimmick, and not even a very good clown gimmick at that.
jared leto’s joker will be a forgettable interpretation of the character simply because he was, like you said, “too sane.” he didnt explore any part of the character that jack nicholson, heath ledger, or cesar romero didnt already cover. hes bland and surface level. itd be like if frank miller wrote the joker.
Frank Miller did write the Joker. And the Dark Knight version was pretty scary and cool.
Of course, that was before his Creator Breakdown.
I like Leto Joker because he’s back to being The Clown Prince of Crime rather than the preening Agent of Chaos the Joker has had to be since Dark Knight.
Hell, it’s kinda like BTAS’ Joker.
The only true joker is the one that loses swordfights to Alfred.
to be honest, the Joker never came across as legit insane to me. He gets what he’s doing is wrong, he just doesn’t care. He’s nihilistic, random and obsessive, but not certifiable. He honestly should have been executed years ago, but he keeps fooling the judges into committing him with his crazy act.
or more like, he’s not all there, but not in a way that should make him inculpable for his crimes enough to be committed instead of jailed.
yeah he might be diagnosible with some kind of mental disorder, but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t completely cognizant of what he was doing when he was doing it and why he shouldn’t do it
i’m pretty sure most of his reasons for doing stuff were because he shouldn’t do it
i show up to nu52 for steph and cass, and am making plans to show up for duke and damian. also possibly greg rucka’s run on wonderwoman (finally!!!!)
everything i’ve heard about jared leto’s joker was very…hot topic. tbh i feel like there are ways in which joker is just a very overrated character because he’s best used for shock value and in very small doses. the nice thing about mark hamill’s joker is that he was humanized – he had his ups and downs, he could be beaten, he had a great laugh, and he was actually funny sometimes right up until he scared you, and sometimes even while he was scaring you
jack nicholson’s joker was very jack nicholson as the joker, which was great because jack nicholson knows when to eat scenery and when to hold back, and everything was really weird and compelling all at once. full points for michael keaton’s “you wanna get nuts! let’s get nuts!!” tho, only moment i’ve wondered if bruce wayne was actually as crazy as the joker (and the answer is totally, but in very different ways, and anyways crazy is too vague a word to really say what i mean anyways).
heath ledger’s joker was very…zeitgeist. idk, like, very in that culture of people-who-shoot-up-places-and-why. and the reason is ‘why not’ apparently!!! i don’t think nolan’s moralizing was very good or clear, even as a person who likes moralizing, so that philosophical battle didn’t really work for me. also the fridging of rachel dawes was super boring. it would have been better if they’d added harley, because joker would have had someone to talk to and interact with so we could get a sense of anything real about him.
i dont really have opinions about 1969 batman’s joker except that the painted over moustache was ridiculous
but mostly like i’m saying that i think mary plays much the same role as joker to this narrative in that she shows up, can’t be gotten rid of, everyone hates her, and she is best taken in very small doses whenever possible. and most arcs with her end in her comeuppance
I kinda liked Leto’s take on the Joker.
I’m pretty sure Billie hasn’t given you permission to smile, MARY
]:<
Oh come now, Ruth. Only Mary hates you. Rachel just thinks you’re an asshole.
Amber and Joyce are just decent human beings with nothing better to do.
Corrections.
Rachel hates her for being an asshole.
Amber has something better to do, but fortunately Mario Kart is portable.
I think Amber is there on behalf of a “friend” who wants to keep her hand on the pulse of Clark Wing.
Presumably Amber shows up because she thinks that “Amber” has to be a rule abiding citizen.
Mary is just begging to be cut down to size. Fingers crossed that happens next.
Hasn’t she already been cut down? I can’t imagine her falling any lower.
Oh I’m sure she can.
Mary’s been cut down about as low as she can go, and the only one who doesn’t know it is her.
She’s like grass. Cut her down and she’s grown back within a week, and I’m allergic to her.
you’re allergic to Grass? my condolences
When Mary finds the rock bottom she starts looking for a pickaxe.
Fine by me, as long as we can arrange a shack and a toilet seat up above.
Well she is already full of shit so that wouldn’t be much of a change for her.
I’m surprised Amber is here. And that Dina isn’t.
Same on the latter, if only because I relate the most to Dina and I would show up because Showing Up To Hall Meetings is A Rule. However, she may want to spend time with Becky (whose shift may be over now? I’m not sure exactly what time it is now or how long her shift is), and it’s probably still not a good idea to let Becky be seen by the hall authority figure.
Has anyone checked behind the doors?
This is a fair point.
I’m expecting her to walk up beside Ruth from behind the door and make her jump.
Billie isn’t counting herself, since she’s not really a resident of this hall any more. She sees Dina just off-panel.
-high fives- STEEEEEEPH
Amber hates Ruth?
No, Amber just came to the meeting because she thought it would be the place where she was the least likely to encounter other people.
…Or, more likely, she simply moved here after Ruth destroyed her original sofa fort of solitude, and hasn’t yet decided to depart for lonelier pastures.
Ruth may think she does after the chair kicking
Ooh, I didn’t make that connection.
For real, what the hell does Mary have to smirk about?
She has not yet been launched into the sun
she probably thinks she can still blackmail ruth
Ruth is having a bad day. That’s all she need. Mary is a person of simple pleasures like that.
Plus she just touched the orb. (NOT INNUENDO BUT KINDA SOUNDS LIKE INNUENDO)
Mary derives pleasure from the misery of others, particularly when she can cast that misery as God punishing sinners.
I’m sort of curious what Dorothy generally hopes to record in these meetings and what she does with it, because we don’t see much information/that which we see is pretty uninformative. But now, in my headcanon, she’ll have pages of Joyce’s presumably cute cursive writing style with incredibly depressing messages in it, which is somehow both funny and sad at the same time, and could possibly be a chekov’s gun for later, but I don’t know when or how.
I mean, she just decided to step down from reporting so it’s not like she NEEDS the notes for reporting, but she likes having them anyway because Joyce’s handwriting is so cute, and she is so happy when she hands them over and… oh dear. She better not be developing a crush or anything.
Well, in defense of any would be cannibals on the floor, humans supposedly taste either like pork or veal.
the one thing they don’t taste like is albatross
I knew that.
SCORE ONE FOR THE CREEPY WEIRD RIDDLES TEAM
I almost never went to any floor meetings in college. Didn’t matter if the RA was someone I liked or not, I just didn’t see the point of going to floor meetings unless there was free food or something.
I’m curious as to what would happen if Ruth told everyone right now that the only thing keeping her at this position is her grandfather and his use of Howard as a pretty-much-hostage.
Mary comes up with some complex plan to manipulate Clint and remove him from the equation…only to learn that Ruth is not upset at this turn of events.
The absolute last thing she should do is give Mary something else she can needle her with
Amber would pretend not to notice while collecting blue shells, but would take notes for her alter in case Gramps shows up again.
Joyce would either go big-eyed and almost-weeping, or offer some naively awful advice.
Rachel would demand to know if that’s supposed to earn forgiveness from everyone.
Mary would gain ammunition.
I was thinking more “everyone on the floor”.
I think either Rachel or Joyce (not Mary though, she’d probably commend the war hero to herself) will say something stupid like “Clint Hughes? But he’s such a good guy!” and then Amber, who no doubt has heard THAT excuse before, will tear into them something fierce and give them a Cerberus worthy rant about abusers and their motives and practices and I’m rambling now so I’m going to shut up.
Clint’s choice of words is much slicker than Blaine’s. I don’t know that some of the witnesses to Blaine on the one weekend we’ve seen him will say he’s “such a nice guy”.
And Blaine has hit Stacy, right? We’ve yet to see if Clint has done the same to Ruth, Howard , or anyone.
Yea, I’m not sure Amber would have heard that excuse before about her own abuse. I’d put Blane somewhere between a Clint and a Ross on subtly. But she would likely study that sort of thing.
I think it’s probably just Rachel and Mary who are there for corpse feasting. Rachel on grounds of righteousness and Mary on grounds of unrighteousness.
Mary is righteous! Her cause is, at least! Just ask her!
No, Mary’s there for righteousness and Rachel’s there for lefteousness. Obviously.
I only ever had two memorable floor meetings. Both in my freshman year. Once, when the CA (as opposed to RA) called the whole building into the rec room so she could stand on the pool table, announce she’s bisexual, and say that anyone who continued to write homophobic things on white boards would have to deal with her personally.
The other time was when the same CA called every girl on the ground floor into the hallway so she could beg whoever was leaving their pubes all over the shower to stop doing so.
I mean… Rachel and Amber don’t seem to be there out of hatred.
Though I think Rachel hates her regardless.
i kind of figure that rachel is there for accountability purposes
Actually considering she has Billie and Joyce there and Amber’s never expressed any dislike towards her Ruth actually has more allies in the room than potential corpse feasters and as much as Rachel expressed clear dislike (and as shitty as Joe might have made her current mood) she does seem like a reasonable person who can be swayed when presented with a greater evil. So lucky for Ruth Mary showed up.
I’m also assuming Carla’s just late…
I think that instead I’ll go with “super-guilty about outing Ruth but also defiant and came close enough to an apology earlier today and got nothing in return but Billie’s hate so fuck them both she’s going nowhere near those two assholes”.
Yeah I don’t think she’s thinking of either of them as assholes. She cares more than she wants to admit and she is feeling some guilt. I think in the end she’s going to want to make sure Ruth’s okay even if she knows Billie’s no fan of hers right now.
Deep down, she doesn’t think of them as assholes.
On the level of her consciousness where her willful internal dialogue is in full rant mode, yeah, they’re assholes.
Carla’s not the type to be here and show that vulnerability where others can see it, but I would not be surprised if she tries to sneak a quick conversation somewhere in here just to check in, not that she cares or anything or is sorry about the risks or anything.
Probably because she is looking for snacks to bring.
Yea Rachel and Mary are there out of some sort of spite. Amber is there because either because that’s what she’s supposed to do or out of some sort of solidarity. Joyce is there to take notes for Dorothy. Dorothy might not have shown up but she at least bothered to have someone take notes for her. Billie’s not a resident anymore but is there to back Ruth up.
Billie’s still a resident. She hasn’t been transferred yet she’s just first on the list to be.
So today in business communications class we covered (skimmed) nonverbal communication, and I can’t help but break down everyone in Panel 1 by their body language here.
Joyce: Eager. (Duh.)
Amber and Ruth: Freeze (one of the fear reactions). Ruth in particular is completely unmoving throughout the entire strip.
Rachel and Mary: Fight. In Rachel’s case, her crossed arms are a sign of restraint in a society where actually punching someone out is usually frowned on. Mary’s body language is more openly dominant, taking up space in an aggressive manner.
…. and I really know nothing about what I’m talking about, so bleh.
Yeah, the freeze trauma response. Which makes sense. This is her living nightmare and the person who nearly drove her to death is sitting there grinning and clearly taking up the majority of her attention.
Her eyes look a bit dilated as well, which makes me think trauma response.
Rachel: working hard at not punching Ruth, though not punching Mary is bound to be taking some toll as well.
Wondering if she’d be more relaxed if she’d just done some healthy, therapeutic, stress-relieving relentless punching of Joe first.
Or had been able to do the calm tranquil appreciation of the autumn foliage that she had planned on doing.
While leaning back on Joe’s femurs.
I’m… tending towards the vicious today for some reason. Maybe I should stop tracking the news for a while.
I love how Joyce just nonchalantly calls her Ruthless as if that’s her name. Joyce has called her that to other people, but I don’t recall if she’s ever done it to her face, though I feel like she has.
the bad thing is that at this point it might as well be her name lmao
I would have expected Agatha to be the chipper notetaker, but Joyce has been through some stress already so this is fine too.
Comic Reactions:
Panel 1: 5 people for an RA meeting during midterm season? That’s really damn good and better than what she got before Operation Violent Wrangling for her first meeting.
And oh man, Mary… Like, this is what makes her such a fucked up villain and foil. She nearly murdered Ruth. Because she is queer, because she didn’t let her harass a trans student with no consequences, because she dared defy and humiliate and strike her after she tried to bully her into jumping at her command.
Because she is not Mary.
And yet despite that near murder, she comes all smiles because she smells just a little advantage, something she can press and so she’s here to roll in the blood and the “weakened” emotional state of her “enemy”, just looking for a chance to stab a few more knives into the woman who only literally got out of the hospital this morning.
Despite her very near miss in driving a woman to suicide with her blackmail, she’s eager to jump right back in to poking at Ruth’s weak points and gain something she can exploit. And despite not having even the remotest whiff of a high ground, she’s smugly enjoying the downfall of Ruth nonetheless.
And the thing is… that’s a thing. Bullies like Mary do live to press any advantage and don’t care if they nearly kill someone. Hell, a good number collect those suicide attempts like marks on a fighter plane. And there are plenty who have been extremely open about how they’d love everyone not cis straight and white to die and “give them back their country”.
And it’s what makes Mary such a terrifying villain because she’s never going to feel chastised and back off. She’s always going to angle for a weak point and try and exploit it and she’ll bounce into whatever her next attack is even when she’s been as thoroughly served as she was by Billie.
She’s relentless and she is dangerous and she’s probably already scheming up her next angle of attack.
mary is a friggin’ piranha with blood scented in the water
Agreed. Also, fuck Mary and her smug smile. She is a villainess born from reality who has convinced too many that she is parody. That is what makes her so dangerous.
Yes. That is horrible and all too realistic.
And in case anyone thinks Cerberus is exaggerating… she’s not.
https://www.wired.com/2014/10/trolls-will-always-win/
Panel 2: This is a heavy panel. Because it’s the core of Ruth’s everything when it comes to the RA position. Like, this is why it was easy for her to turn to a lot of terrible bullying behavior for her position and it’s that her grandpa has wound her up and gotten her to believe she must be perfect in her role. That she should have perfect attendance, perfect compliance, etc…
But this is the reality of an RA meeting. A handful of folks, several of whom likely will have ulterior motives, with very little attention or fucks given. A meeting this size is not a failure and would likely not be seen as a failure. But she interprets it as one because “sir” has fucked with her head to the point where she believes she needs to be the best RA ever. 100% attendance, 100% compliance, etc… and it made it easy for her to copy traits that echo far too close for her liking the actions and sitting threats of her grandpa.
And she’s still under that power, still interpreting it in its worst, letting the garbage-brain frame the moment. She’s beating herself for not meeting an impossible or highly unlikely standard and interprets a situation where one person severely dislikes her, one person tried to kill her, one person vaguely thinks well of her, one person greatly thinks well of her, and one person is in love with her as a universal crowd of enemies.
And it just makes me sad.
Panel 3: Oh Joyce, you perfect cinnamon roll you.
Panel 4: Nonsense, Ruth, I’m sure Mary would be willing to settle for gnawing on your barely conscious bloodied body in a pinch. Stop being overly dramatic!
Panel 5: Oh Joyce, you perfect perfect cinnamon roll…
“Perfect cinnamon roll” is exactly the comment I was going to make.
“what is joyce doing” “her BEST”
“What is Joyce?” THE BEST!
“What best?” THE JOYCE!
“Who’s the best at writing things down?” “JOYCE!”
….
*flees for dear lit-punning life*
…oh god, there’s a pun there and i don’t get it
where is it hiding
I’ll take “THE BEST” for $2000!
… Who is Joyce?
Shit, I didn’t even notice the perfectionism. That’s what makes it so insidious and awful: it feels completely normal and reasonable, no matter how unreasonable or outright insane its demands are. It bypasses all the usual sanity checking because it’s in so deep.
I’m starting to have moments where my own perfectionism actually feels as unreasonable as it is, and it is really weird. Like, the laundry bin being only 80% of a full load instead of precisely 95%? That used to feel like a horrible Wrongness, like I was committing some horrible sin not having the absolute optimal laundry load. I’d get yelled at for the rest of the day (or longer) by NVoice, trying to berate me into never making such a horrible mistake ever again. But now? There’s a part of my mind that sees how ludicrous that is, and reassures me that it’s okay to do the laundry “wrong”, that I don’t have to do better next time because I’m already doing good *enough*. It’s almost able to convince me that using even half of my available spoons wisely is “enough”.
being allowed margins of error that aren’t constantly being optimized away in the name of “efficiency” is quite nice. 
…the weird part, though, is that I’m so used to the abusive response that when I get the nice one instead, it’s like .. having a staircase not end where you think it ends. It actually startles me to *not* get attacked by NVoice. It’s good, just, very disconcerting
…and now I’m thinking about Lapis again. Hmm.
I know exactly what you mean and all I can say is that in time, having the non-self-abusive response will feel less and less alien.
*appropriate gesture of support*
-offers hugs-
it does feel weird, but if you can let it feel weird it will gradually not feel quite-as-weird and then feel normal
and then, possibly, you will get Very Mad about how much self-judgment you had to deal with that you didn’t deserve
idk what happens after that, i guess like. letting it go and then moving on with your life or something
*hugs*
What happens after that? The laundry.
And then the cycle begins again, peeling back another layer of dysfunction and suffering.
“Letting it feel weird” is a skill I seem to be getting the hang of. Very useful. It’s interesting that sometimes my brain is stuck in a mode that’s violently opposed to that, though. I suspect it’s related to how I needed to build basic boundaries before compassion-related meditation felt safe.
…i honestly wonder what Sarah thinks of everything that’s been going on with her RA and the administration. because, like, she reported her roommate for self-endangering behavior, and her roommate got taken back home. but here Ruth got reported and she’s still in the exact same place and like
is Sarah noping out? is Sarah having a lil bit of a worry fest? she’s probably just focusing on her studies because that’s what she has to do, but like. what’s her emotional quandary here
Well, Sarah told Dana’s dad, and he chose to pull her out. Sarah didn’t want to ruin her chances at coming back when she was better, so she opted for calling family who would help. Aftermath was out of her hands, so this probably isn’t too big a source of emotional quandary. Sarah’s opinion on Ruth’s authority was probably pretty neutral, but she did acknowledge that Ruth was a pretty sadistic RA in some ways and realized that people’s opinions of her weren’t gonna be high. She probably saw the change in the “Be there or I take your femurs” Ruth and is doing what she feels would be more productive as a result.
mmmmmmmmmm thank you
and. ah. calling ruth’s guardian is very much not an option here
idk sarah doesn’t really seem like the type to get herself too involved in other people’s affairs, especially now, but like. she and ruth are kind of sort of peers? idk if i was a sophomore on a floor of freshmen i would cling to the only other person in my age group
although it is ruth, who is about as cuddly as a turtle (i.e. not very until u get under her shell)
Not the only other.
Carla’s a sophomore. I believe Rachel is too. Some of the others might be. Ruth’s actually a junior, I think.
!!! thank you
POINT BEING MADE. slightly older (and presumably more mature) ladies’ club
…this would probably happen in a world with an RA who was better at socializing
This is pure Joyce and I love it.
Joyce, remind me to set aside some time to talk to you about a couple of things called ‘sarcasm’ and irony’. XD
She can do those (mostly while talking to Sarah, for whatever reason). It speaks greatly to her character that she CHOOSES not to.
She’s far too engrossed in carrying out her mission for Dotty.
Would this make Joyce some kind of Black Numenorian? Formerly devout Christian serving The Atheist Lord now?
…yes, I kinda think it would.
Without being a scholar in literary history, I would bet A LOT that the concept of Black Numenorian and its ilk owns a lot of its popularity to 19 century literature portrayal of European interaction with the colonies and “Born Gentlemen” now working together with the “Savages”. In that light, it is all to easy to see Joyce kind of Christians translating the concept to fit their groups.
I think she (Joyce) would have to become a Devil Worshipper for the analogy to work, since Dark Numenoreans worship Melkor (Middle Earth’s Devil equivalent) as the actual creator of Arda and the creator of other worlds in outer space, because they bought into Sauron’s lies about the Valar.
…
Then again I’m now picturing Joyce in Black Numenorean Armor and Dorothy dressed as Sauron and I am confusingly pleased by these mind images.
Uh. no.
As comical as Rukduk’s images are, I think they’re just friends. Joyce seems to be the kind of person who gives their all to anyone she’s loves.
I don’t like Mary’s smile. Reminds me of the orb one.
Mary is, unfortunately, a diseased young woman whose soul is full of self-satisfied piety and cruelty. I’m pretty sure any psychological profile of her would read like the profile of a medieval inquisitor.
I was gonna say that she has the smile of someone who savors the aroma of her own flatulence, but I like your comment better.
That sure would explain why Joyce moved to seat the farthest away from her.
‘diseased’? o.O
She carries a mutant strain of the Black Plague. It’s harmless, for now, but if she kisses, bleeds on, or has sex with anyone, they’re going to catch it.
Joyce is such a great note taker. “Dictated, not read.” Signed, Ruth
I’m wondering if Ruth’s comment in panel 4 was a test to see just how completely verbatim Joyce’s minute-taking will be.
Now that I took a long hard look at Joyce… if there was ever a female version of Captain America Joyce would fit the job perfectly.
I understood that reference!
Joyce, The Captain America you can hug because she just That adorable.
I mean, Walkyverse Joyce was a biologically enhanced super soldier who worked for the government as a member of a specialized task force, knew significantly less about the modern world than everyone else, is incredibly idealistic, carries a unique weapon, and at one point had to fight a close friend of hers who was brainwashed into betraying her homeland.
She kinda already WAS Captain America.
Whoa I didn’t know that. Thanks for sharing.
Willis has you covered.
Heh and Dotty is going to drop the hammer on some bad guys XD
I empathize with Ruth’s family situation, but at the same time it was never an excuse to treat everyone so badly.
I don’t think that Ruth has ever really presented it as an excuse. I don’t even think that she’s presented it as an explanation, only that it’s part of her back-story. FWIW, I consider it entirely plausible that Clint’s mistreatment of her has so screwed up her social instincts that she literally doesn’t know any way to interact with others in most scenarios except through violence and intimidation.
the way to think about it, sometimes, as not an excuse but a reason.
like: if a cat scratches you, that’s not okay. but if they scratch you because they’re scared of you, then that’s different than a cat scratching you just because.
i mean. that doesn’t mean her floor has to like her, or even forgive her. but this doesn’t have to be for Ruth anything other than a place she’s been that she can move on from. because it’s not a place she ever wanted to be, and it’s a place that was harmful to herself and her brother, and it’s a place she could never leave on her own. she needs help in order to leave mentally, emotionally, physically and financially.
and at that point, the question becomes not “was it okay for Ruth to do these things?” because no. the answer is that it never was. the question becomes “what will we do now that we know what’s going on?” because like: the hurt has happened. and it was not okay, but if we never reach out with necessary and useful aid then it will never get better.
to put this into very polarized terms, Ruth is villain and victim and hero and person, all at the same time if not to the same extent. villain: because she has terrorized the girls of her hall, and continues to lash out as a response to her abuse. victim: because she has undergone treatment from her grandfather that is beyond the pale. hero: because she has survived, and is choosing to keep going back out there even though she knows she screwed up and thinks people hate her. person: because she is all these things in one, and more besides in places we have not ventured.
idk i think sometimes all you need to deserve aid is to need it
unless you’re the joker. then you can suck it
“You rather I put cadaver?”
“Don’t belittle me.”
Ruth has treated everyone badly, but right after she got out of the hospital seems like not the best time to settle that hash. And Mary’s expression makes me want to be in between Ruth and her.
Yeah, I understand why she wanted to rush into that, given all her circumstances. But yeah, this was a terrible idea and it’s a terrible idea because of fucks like Mary.
Because being right out of the hospital, you are raw and vulnerable and admitting flaws and wrongdoing is like chum in the water for a person like Mary and doing so while in an emotionally vulnerable state is a good recipe to get a nasty punch sideways that fucks with your head and is way more risky than if you get that punch at a point when you are more emotionally prepared for it.
Joyce is there. And she’s got one wrist left un-sprained for punching.
Billie is also there. And she knows how to punch people without breaking herself.
Between Billie, Ruth, Amber, and Sal that floor of Clark wing has some serious butt-whooping potential.
It would be delicious irony for Mary to get rekt by the Hand of God. Because if anyone deserves to be called Christian it’s Joyce.
Looking back at some previous strips surrounding this whole day made me realize two things.
1) Rachel is already predisposed to be a bit harsh to Ruth despite the fact that she’s freshly out of the hospital (which, I dunno, I get being pissed off for a long time at Ruth’s particular reign of terror brand of RA-ing, but maybe berating someone as a piece of shit the exact same day they get out of the hospital for observation for a potential suicide attempt isn’t the time to air all the grievances as it’s more likely to prompt a relapse than any meaningful change).
But worse for this situation is the fact that Rachel is also deeply annoyed at the moment thanks to Joe’s little pouncing on her the second she left her room and so is going to be even more in the mood to rip into Ruth. So yeah, this could go really bad for Ruth, especially because Mary is likely to try and seize on that stuff in a toxic way as an intentional attempt to push Ruth back into that hunted suicidal space again.
2) This was the last we saw Mary:
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2017/comic/book-7/03-the-thing-i-was-before/hair-3/
And in that strip, she was heavily nervous, possibly even embarrassed for Ruth’s return given all the horrible things Mary had done, quite deliberately, to Ruth as an act of control and then as an act of sustained abuse and blackmail.
And now she’s all smug face and a smile as wide as a barn door and all she’s had to get her from point A to point B is that Ruth is in an emotionally vulnerable place where she’s open to admitting her mistakes and she has openly come out as the thing Mary had blackmailed her about.
And that she has stated to some of the students that she wanted to have a meeting to talk about stuff.
And that’s what’s so terrifying about Mary is that’s all it took to get her from “hmm, maybe I should lie low at the moment” to looking like she’s eager to jump right back into her campaign of harassment and emotional abuse.
And what’s so terrifying in general about people like her is that they’ll hop on and exploit positive traits (desire to be fair, to own mistakes, to be willing to show vulnerability rather than building a Carla-like cage, to admit illness or non-normativity, etc…) and punish people so awfully, sometimes fatally for it.
And the end result is that people become more scared of showing the type of vulnerability that Ruth does here because there are folks who will see that as only one more weapon to attack you with (kind of like various bigot groups who love seeing their targets express depression or suicidal ideation because they see that as something they can hammer to “get rid of” their hated targets once and for all) and that’s worse for everyone.
Without Mary, without Rachel or without them being a good solid near half of the attendees, this has a very different psychological weight and is far less dangerous for the extremely fragile mental state Ruth is in right now (not only out of the hospital today, but also just went through a brutal round of emotional abuse and destruction by “sir” poking at her biggest traumas in order to keep her “in line”)
So yeah, I can understand why she’s feeling she made a great big mistake and is about to be ripped apart by vultures come to pick off the remains of an already shattered corpse. Because well, neither Rachel nor Mary is likely to be in any way positively cognizant of the mental state Ruth is in and will be much more likely to pursue their own agendas (Mary regaining her relative power and defanging the check against her overall campaign of harassment and maybe pushing Ruth back into a state she can blackmail or threaten her with for power; Rachel having a chance to say all the things she’s wanted for the last year or so to the terrifying bellowing abusive RA she’s had without much regard to the fact that maybe these are things that can wait a week to air).
So yeah, I’m even more concerned for Ruth here than I was before.
And the fact that Mary’s standing close to Rachel makes me think she’s seeing Rachel as more of a fellow warrior for tearing down the evil queer woman who dares to assert authority that should be Mary’s than as someone with her own reasons to dislike Ruth and who is not going to appreciate being used like a weapon in Mary’s homophobic campaign.
Hopefully Rachel will be the next person to punch Mary.
Definitely has the possibility of Mary overplaying her hand and pushing Rachel from “I’m pissed at our abusive RA” to “WTF Mary?”
i feel like rachel sees through exactly all of mary’s shit. like. she ignored her while she was calling ms. puddinghead
i also feel like rachel is probably completely one hundred percent done with the adminstration in regards to these issues, but that is more of an intuitive leap than anything based in anything she’s said. like. ruth isn’t exactly responsible for not getting fired, here. she’s responsible for not resigning, but she didn’t get much of a choice
I wonder if Rachel’s her stance against Ruth is there to give us a morally upright character to vent frustrations against her, rather than leaving Mary as Ruth’s only antagonist.
God, Mary even manege’s to be hateful in a single panel were she doesn’t say or do anything.
“Smirking like an asshole” counts as “doing something”.
I men I guess?
look not to get your hopes up but i think book 7 ends with three characters in a bed together
Oh dear.
Oh dear, indeed. Time to start a betting pool who is in that love nest? (I start with a bet that there are a non-sexual context)
I’m guessing Robin asks to crash with Roz and Riley for the night (whatever happened to Riley anyway?)
Alternatively Grace/Mandy/Sierra is starting to get some focus.
Alternatively alternatively we’ll get thrown for a loop and it’ll be Danny/Amber/Ethan.
Riley went home. She’s a kid.
It’s Clint, Ross and Blaine, obvs
*puking noises*
Only if it’s a death bed.
“Alright guys, first order of business is to remind Mary that literally everyone on the floor distrusts and hates her. Any objections?”
“Ye-”
“That aren’t Mary?”
“…”
“Good, next topic.”
I think Ruthless is being overly pessimistic. Only one person their is anxious to feast on her corpse, right? Mary, right?
Well, Billie has already feasted on her corpse, technically…. ;3
Oh, joy. Mary’s here. How fucking lovely.
Just her face alone already makes me want to punch through my computer.
Then change your Gravatar?
Eh at this point I think its honestly funnier to have even Mary hate Mary.
Speaking of which, Joyce, please don’t call her Ruthless. Maybe it isn’t a big deal but
yeah this
it’s not a fun nickname
A well earned nickname though that some on her floor think, especially Rachel, she still deserves
“I don’t hate you. I’m here to take notes for Dorothy…”
“Write down that everyone here is anxious to feed on my corpse.”
And Joyce dutifully does so.
Ya gotta love it.