Hi! Today’s January 31, and it’s also (probably) January 31 in the comic, so that means it’s Dumbing Day. So happy Dumbing Day, everyone! Go out and celebrate by doing something Dumb today. Have fun!
This seems likely, actually, given the first panel. Becky is reevaluating her Dina-status. This hopefully means that she’s going to work on the bits of her psyche that screwed things up, so that she can feel worthy of happiness with Dina again. And Becky prioritizing Dina may, in turn, help Dina decide that Joyce was right, and she deserves to be a bit selfish.
And as a plus, the tears of Doyce haters seeing this work in the comic will be as the sweetest of ambrosia to my soul.
honestly, a part of me is kind of expecting that this exact thing was going to work just fine, but Dina actually considers Joyce’s advice, and takes it…selfishly rejecting Becky, and just choosing a world where she doesn’t feel like she’s a second choice, even if she previously questioned the validity of her own feeling. Making it so Joyce ends up completely fucking over Becky, through her assumption that throwing herself at the problem with full passionate bluster would automatically solve every problem in every situation. Given that the lesson that’s on the horizon for Joyce is “you can make decisions that feel good and right, and they can still backfire or blow up in your face or cause unintended consequences,” this would be a really tragic but poignant way for this to play out.
I think Dorothy’s lived with Becky long enough to know that she’s a lot tougher mentally and/or able to compartmentalize a lot more than most people. And she also appreciates people being performative more than actual sympathy most of the time. Not that she DOESN’T appreciate it (especially from Dina or Joyce in the past), but considering her messy self-esteem most of the time it’s a “yeah I’ll be fine, don’t waste your time feeling sorry for me, let’s go to HIJINKS so everyone isn’t sadsville”.
So Dorothy is giving Becky exactly what she wants.
Dorothy cares about Becky. Becky cares about Dorothy, but has had some conflicting feelings towards her because she did to some degree feel genuine jealousy and hurt over how close Joyce had become with Dorothy in her absence. Hence why she (Becky) has always played up the “We are enemies and you are here to undermine my relationships” bit. It’s an outlet for her feelings that she otherwise doesn’t know what to do with. Meanwhile Dorothy has always stonewalled this banter because she doesn’t WANT to be Becky’s “enemy”, she just wants to be her friend.
Now, Becky has more “legitimate” grounds to feel like Dorothy “stole” Joyce from her/is the cause of her current emotional turmoil. But rather than continuing to lean into the bit and be even more bitter at Dorothy, she had just given up. She admitted that they were never really enemies and that Dorothy has always been a good friend to her. She lost that emotional outlet and is now overwhelmed by her confusing and conflicting feelings, and is blaming herself fully rather than metering out some of the blame onto Dorothy to help her (Becky) cope.
Dorothy saw this, and decided to help Becky regain that emotional stabilizer by being the one to push and insist, no actually we ARE enemies and you SHOULD blame me for all of this. You thought we were friends? Ha! No! I am the cause of all of your problems! It’s not that YOU fucked up, it is that I planned and executed all of this to ruin your relationships once again! Muahahahaha!
Becky sees that Dorothy is doing this, and doing it for her, because they are friends and they do care about each other, and she’s accepting the olive branch. She’s going back into the safety of venting her emotions by “blaming Dorothy”, and letting some of that pressure off of herself. They both know this is an act. They both know they’re doing it for each other. They are each happy to provide the other with this outlet (Dorothy) and accept the stability and grounding it gives them (Becky).
But also there IS still a little bit of genuine resentment (that’s probably too strong, but close enough) that Becky feels towards Dorothy, so she IS going to push things A Little More than she was doing before (see: making her side of the room even more of a mess just to spite Dotty).
Becky immediately choosing to make her room messier is also hilariously apt on multiple levels; it’s the exact thing Dorothy said would work to spite her, sure, that’s a good punchline; but, also, it alludes to the incoming messiness that this new cope is eventually going to cause; but, on the deepest level, not picking up laundry and having a messy space is, like, one of the quintessential stereotypes of a very depressed person. So, in a sense, Dorothy is giving symbolic permission for Becky to cope with her current feelings (or lack thereof, if you prefer to define it like that) in whatever way she needs to, even if it’s inconvenient for Dorothy, and Becky immediately turns her room into the stereotypical unwashed doomer tomb.
Tried to destroy your relationship? Now I’m desperately hoping that Joyce’s attempt to talk Dina around has actually made Dina commit to ending things. Don’t make this whole thing a waste of time where Dina settles for being a consolation prize.
Why do you believe not being someone’s very first love makes you a “consolation prize”? Hillary was definitely not mere “consolation” for me after my ex left.
Sometimes DOA can be a little on the nose about having characters say everything out loud, so I really appreciate the character work in this strip. I really like how much is communicated by having Becky reframe things to herself as “Dorothy trying to break up me and Dina and I won’t let her”.
Becky can sometimes have the same problem as Carla and Mayala, where the comic can be very “tell, don’t show” with their personalities. I appreciate how much this strip charactizes Becky and her adversarial nature through word choice and expression. It’s a lot more nuanced and well executed than the times she’s turned to the camera to, as she and Dina once put it, “keep making the subtext text”.
I like “show don’t tell” as much as the next person, but I think this arc has been lacking the kind of exposition that’s really required.
Because… if its this easy to convince Dina and Becky to get back together, WHY WERE THEY BROKEN UP IN THE FIRST PLACE?!
I get that Becky’s heartbreak about Joyce actually being Bi is the central problem, and Dina feeling like a rebound that was only there while Joyce was romantically unavailable to Becky, but, yeah, sometimes you need to fucking Tell instead of Show! It feels like central strips about Becky and/or Dina venting about the situation were dropped somehow, and its just making this arc not land for me.
It’s like… I understand *that* there’s a problem, and even what some aspects of the problem are, but I would like to know the full goddamn problem if its so massively affecting these characters and this relationship that I thoroughly enjoy.
I am thrilled that Becky and Dorothy are still friends, and that Becky is taking this so well. I know they’re “enemies,” but I feel like their friendship really is fantastic.
That being said; BECKY, USE THIS ENERGY AND GO TALK TO DINA!!!
“My messiness will be proportionate to my resuming my relationship with Dina.”
“Okay, fine, you scatter the laundry; I’ll empty the trashbasket on the floor.”
I wasn’t sure how to read Becky’s expression at the end of yesterday’s strip so I’m so glad Dorothy read the situation correctly. I think she pulled off a better “c’mon get back together” speech than Joyce did, all in all.
After reading this a second time, I think Becky should steal a car and chase Dorothy around the parking lot with it. No injuries or death or maiming or any of that, just a little test of her reflexes.
I didn’t expect that Dorothy would act silly and play along with Becky’s dumb “Dorothy is my nemesis” thing, and that somehow that would actually make Becky feel better. Now I wonder if Becky and Dina are gonna finally talk with each other and decide if they want to continue dating. I’d be fine with them getting back together or them staying broken up, just as long as they actually communicate with each other.
66 thoughts on “Architect”
Ana Chronistic
I MUST, in fact!!
Yumi
Whoa, I’ve missed your opening comments! (I actually don’t know if you had a first comment fairly recently or not, but if so, I forgot it.)
Jo_cubstar
I don’t know if I’ve seen one, recently. Have also missed seeing them. Welcome back (even if you’ve been back for a while and I somehow missed it)
Jo_cubstar
Oh weird. No gravatar. Will those be coming back?
clif
I feel safe in saying that’s a definite maybe.
IntangibleMatter
I think Ana’s been missing! It always makes me worry a little, wondering if they’re okay. Feels weird for them to be absent.
Ruby/AGV
“I have no girlfriend and I must make a mess.”
Steamweed
The Ana has returned!
NGPZ
ah the prodigal Ana has returned ^-^
hope you have been doing well
or at least, better than I am atm ;-;
clif
Ana’s back and alls right with the world.
Lingo
Hi! Today’s January 31, and it’s also (probably) January 31 in the comic, so that means it’s Dumbing Day. So happy Dumbing Day, everyone! Go out and celebrate by doing something Dumb today. Have fun!
clif
Done.
NGPZ
i tried making McRib sauce. Does that count?
Taigan
***FWIENDS!!!***
chuckroast
It’s happening, Dotty. You asked for this.
Van Jealous
NOWWWW They’re Arch Enemies!
Jon
Arch-NEMESES, thank you very much!
Doctor_Who
And here we see the Dorky pairing living up to its name.
Nono
Wait and here I thought Dorky was Dorothy/Walky… actually y’know what similar goofball energy I’ll accept it.
Dorothy does give off Dexter (of Dexter and Monkey-Master) arch-villain laughing energy, too.
Vincent
I was actually worried at the end of yesterday’s strip
Jo_cubstar
So was I! I thought they were actually going to fight
Dot
Eh. Punchline is pretty good, I’ll give it that much. Can we go back to Dina now please
NGPZ
pretty please? TT~TT
Freemage
This seems likely, actually, given the first panel. Becky is reevaluating her Dina-status. This hopefully means that she’s going to work on the bits of her psyche that screwed things up, so that she can feel worthy of happiness with Dina again. And Becky prioritizing Dina may, in turn, help Dina decide that Joyce was right, and she deserves to be a bit selfish.
And as a plus, the tears of Doyce haters seeing this work in the comic will be as the sweetest of ambrosia to my soul.
Throwatron
honestly, a part of me is kind of expecting that this exact thing was going to work just fine, but Dina actually considers Joyce’s advice, and takes it…selfishly rejecting Becky, and just choosing a world where she doesn’t feel like she’s a second choice, even if she previously questioned the validity of her own feeling. Making it so Joyce ends up completely fucking over Becky, through her assumption that throwing herself at the problem with full passionate bluster would automatically solve every problem in every situation. Given that the lesson that’s on the horizon for Joyce is “you can make decisions that feel good and right, and they can still backfire or blow up in your face or cause unintended consequences,” this would be a really tragic but poignant way for this to play out.
veggiemail
awwwww :) i’m so glad that worked
saltchocolate
Me, too!! This is the energy I was hoping for!
Wait—who drew this comic & what have they done with (Damn You) Willis?? 😅
NGPZ
honestly?
could be my autism, but like, trying to get a read on this strip is like trying to use a compass in an iron valley @-@
Nono
I think Dorothy’s lived with Becky long enough to know that she’s a lot tougher mentally and/or able to compartmentalize a lot more than most people. And she also appreciates people being performative more than actual sympathy most of the time. Not that she DOESN’T appreciate it (especially from Dina or Joyce in the past), but considering her messy self-esteem most of the time it’s a “yeah I’ll be fine, don’t waste your time feeling sorry for me, let’s go to HIJINKS so everyone isn’t sadsville”.
So Dorothy is giving Becky exactly what she wants.
SunflowerBanjo
Dorothy cares about Becky. Becky cares about Dorothy, but has had some conflicting feelings towards her because she did to some degree feel genuine jealousy and hurt over how close Joyce had become with Dorothy in her absence. Hence why she (Becky) has always played up the “We are enemies and you are here to undermine my relationships” bit. It’s an outlet for her feelings that she otherwise doesn’t know what to do with. Meanwhile Dorothy has always stonewalled this banter because she doesn’t WANT to be Becky’s “enemy”, she just wants to be her friend.
Now, Becky has more “legitimate” grounds to feel like Dorothy “stole” Joyce from her/is the cause of her current emotional turmoil. But rather than continuing to lean into the bit and be even more bitter at Dorothy, she had just given up. She admitted that they were never really enemies and that Dorothy has always been a good friend to her. She lost that emotional outlet and is now overwhelmed by her confusing and conflicting feelings, and is blaming herself fully rather than metering out some of the blame onto Dorothy to help her (Becky) cope.
Dorothy saw this, and decided to help Becky regain that emotional stabilizer by being the one to push and insist, no actually we ARE enemies and you SHOULD blame me for all of this. You thought we were friends? Ha! No! I am the cause of all of your problems! It’s not that YOU fucked up, it is that I planned and executed all of this to ruin your relationships once again! Muahahahaha!
Becky sees that Dorothy is doing this, and doing it for her, because they are friends and they do care about each other, and she’s accepting the olive branch. She’s going back into the safety of venting her emotions by “blaming Dorothy”, and letting some of that pressure off of herself. They both know this is an act. They both know they’re doing it for each other. They are each happy to provide the other with this outlet (Dorothy) and accept the stability and grounding it gives them (Becky).
But also there IS still a little bit of genuine resentment (that’s probably too strong, but close enough) that Becky feels towards Dorothy, so she IS going to push things A Little More than she was doing before (see: making her side of the room even more of a mess just to spite Dotty).
Throwatron
Becky immediately choosing to make her room messier is also hilariously apt on multiple levels; it’s the exact thing Dorothy said would work to spite her, sure, that’s a good punchline; but, also, it alludes to the incoming messiness that this new cope is eventually going to cause; but, on the deepest level, not picking up laundry and having a messy space is, like, one of the quintessential stereotypes of a very depressed person. So, in a sense, Dorothy is giving symbolic permission for Becky to cope with her current feelings (or lack thereof, if you prefer to define it like that) in whatever way she needs to, even if it’s inconvenient for Dorothy, and Becky immediately turns her room into the stereotypical unwashed doomer tomb.
Nono
Some Looney tunes dynamic going on here but I dig it.
Ruby/AGV
Dorothy: “Dang, we need a safe word.”
Thing 2
Heh.
Cattleprod
*Odd Couple theme song intensifies*
Rosicrucian
So Dorothy finally meets someone where they live. This is progress.
Rosicrucian
(Yes, Dorothy also lives there. Everyone has to start somewhere.)
QueenofSodor
i feel very normal ways about dorothy’s exposed canines
Rosicrucian
If it helps I think you’re entirely welcome to them. Joyce has texture issues.
QueenofSodor
idk, joyce seemed pretty jazzed about these bite marks dorothy left on her!
https://www.dumbingofage.com/comic/hadsex/
Shogo
Tried to destroy your relationship? Now I’m desperately hoping that Joyce’s attempt to talk Dina around has actually made Dina commit to ending things. Don’t make this whole thing a waste of time where Dina settles for being a consolation prize.
Rosicrucian
I don’t think Dina’s going to settle for anything.
I think Dina’s going to look up a bunch of hard domme reference material and Enact a Plan.
Doopyboop
Becky does not actually think Dorothy did that, she is joking. And Dina is not actually a consolation prize to Becky.
Jon
Why do you believe not being someone’s very first love makes you a “consolation prize”? Hillary was definitely not mere “consolation” for me after my ex left.
IntangibleMatter
Ah, everything will be right in the world. Good to see these two getting along again
Justnobody
Sometimes DOA can be a little on the nose about having characters say everything out loud, so I really appreciate the character work in this strip. I really like how much is communicated by having Becky reframe things to herself as “Dorothy trying to break up me and Dina and I won’t let her”.
Becky can sometimes have the same problem as Carla and Mayala, where the comic can be very “tell, don’t show” with their personalities. I appreciate how much this strip charactizes Becky and her adversarial nature through word choice and expression. It’s a lot more nuanced and well executed than the times she’s turned to the camera to, as she and Dina once put it, “keep making the subtext text”.
Wraithy2773
I like “show don’t tell” as much as the next person, but I think this arc has been lacking the kind of exposition that’s really required.
Because… if its this easy to convince Dina and Becky to get back together, WHY WERE THEY BROKEN UP IN THE FIRST PLACE?!
I get that Becky’s heartbreak about Joyce actually being Bi is the central problem, and Dina feeling like a rebound that was only there while Joyce was romantically unavailable to Becky, but, yeah, sometimes you need to fucking Tell instead of Show! It feels like central strips about Becky and/or Dina venting about the situation were dropped somehow, and its just making this arc not land for me.
It’s like… I understand *that* there’s a problem, and even what some aspects of the problem are, but I would like to know the full goddamn problem if its so massively affecting these characters and this relationship that I thoroughly enjoy.
Taffy
I ship it.
ZombieKyrik
I am thrilled that Becky and Dorothy are still friends, and that Becky is taking this so well. I know they’re “enemies,” but I feel like their friendship really is fantastic.
That being said; BECKY, USE THIS ENERGY AND GO TALK TO DINA!!!
DiDi
All right. This is good.
I am appeased.
For NOW.
Doopyboop
This strip makes it clear just how beautiful Becky’s new haircut is. I’m love her.
M!a
This is the first healthy thing I’ve seen either of these two two bumbleshits do in months.
M!a
wow, I get a ten-minute edit window now? rock! 🤘
RassilonTDavros
Aww, I haven’t seen arch-nemeses this wholesome in a while. Kinda gives me Doof/Perry vibes, which is always nice.
Steamweed
“My messiness will be proportionate to my resuming my relationship with Dina.”
“Okay, fine, you scatter the laundry; I’ll empty the trashbasket on the floor.”
nadamás
This is incredibly wholesome i don’t care what anyone says.
mads_in_zero
I wasn’t sure how to read Becky’s expression at the end of yesterday’s strip so I’m so glad Dorothy read the situation correctly. I think she pulled off a better “c’mon get back together” speech than Joyce did, all in all.
ZombieKyrik
Well Dorothy does want to be a politician after all; I would hope she’s more convincing than Joyce.
Suet
Laundry Pile Lives!!
Damn
Straight… Joyce’s jacket actually looks good on her, they should swap clothes moreembe13
well done ms. keener-brown
Taffy
After reading this a second time, I think Becky should steal a car and chase Dorothy around the parking lot with it. No injuries or death or maiming or any of that, just a little test of her reflexes.
Kyulen
I didn’t expect that Dorothy would act silly and play along with Becky’s dumb “Dorothy is my nemesis” thing, and that somehow that would actually make Becky feel better. Now I wonder if Becky and Dina are gonna finally talk with each other and decide if they want to continue dating. I’d be fine with them getting back together or them staying broken up, just as long as they actually communicate with each other.
NGPZ
either way, Professor Brock suggested that lab partners were permanent 👀
darkoneko
There’s little straight about either of yous, Dorobhi.
Astariel
Aww, that’s somehow really sweet. And it really seems to have helped Becky. Good for them!
Pocky
Taking “hot mess” literally
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