Joyce definitely has the face of someone who just realized she’s barged into a room with the consequences of her own actions and has no idea what to do with that.
I don’t know that I think she’s the type to immediately assume anything about Joe/Dina being here and fixing the dinosaur, but with this level of brain reboot she might well jump to weird conclusions.
Idk why I thought Joyce was gonna have some wacky misunderstanding and think Joe and Dina hooked up. But, uh… that’s what I first thought reading this strip, so that’s what you get.
I could see it. Especially if she makes the (bonkers) assumption that EVERYONE might well have a seething pile of secret lust for arbitrary friends like she did.
Is it no longer possible to search the intersection of multiple character tags? I had to go through Dina’s tag because Dina+Joe gave me a blank result.
thejeff
It’s not. I think/hope that’s on the list of bugs to fix.
I’m also not fond of the new way the search results are shown. It’s harder to tell without clicking through to each which if any is the one you’re looking for.
For my first glance, I thought Joe’s hands were on Dina’s shoulders. I immediately thought that was what Joyce was going to suspect. Then my second glance (read braincell) showed Joe was adjusting the T-Rex.
I likewise thought Joe was giving sympathy via light physical contact ™.
And that Joyce would see any contact, in Dina’s room, and think that Joe and Dina are dating now.
But yes, he’s fixing the dino.
I hope Joyce somehow thinks they’re dating anyway.
OK so upon further reflection based on her reaction…
I honestly think she literally just forgot. Like not in the compartmentalization way. Like it totally slipped her mind completely. “I feel like I was supposed to be doing something but I can’t think of it right now,” kind of deal.
I’ve been saying Joyce Brown has the emotional object permanence of a newborn puppy. I’m waiting for Dorothy to actually experience what it’s like being on the other end of this quirk of hers.
I think Dorothy is immune to this specific flaw of Joyce. Even while dating or pursuing other people, Joyce always found time to be obsessed with Dorothy
Throwatron
You’re basically describing the precise point on the behavioral spectrum where “liking” or “loving” someone, transforms into “being obsessed with someone.” Joyce is extremely good at demonstrating what each of those two sides of the spectrum look like.
Joyce has always been a single-minded obsessive. In her early life, the only socially acceptable outlet for her obsessive energy (in her particular circle, I mean) was her being a perfect fundie Jesus robot. That’s where she got the idea that her whole life was supposed to come down to her finding her romantic soulmate, and then devoting her whole life after that point to serving that person, being their accessory, and raising their eventual kids.
Joyce doesn’t just confuse obsessive behavior for showing love; she feels obligated to deliberately perform obsessive devotion for whoever she’s currently in a relationship with. She hasn’t unpacked the source of that mindset, or the implications of how it relates to her past ideals, yet.
Consciously, she doesn’t really have the sense that this kind of over-the-top devotion, and the single-minded need to perform it, could be something that would be a negative experience for most other people to be on the other side of, because it was always prescribed to her as the moral way to be, as a wife. Subconsciously, she has always needed outlets for these obsessive tendencies, and has gravitated primarily towards friends and partners who were sympathetic, or otherwise willing to indulge it.
Joyce was very into Joe when they were together, but her time with Joe is starting to read to me as if it was her performing being a good girlfriend to Joe, as she slowly scrambles to come up with her own concept of what that means, from her new secular worldview; however, it’s now seeming kind of clear that she’s always been very obsessed with Dorothy, and that’s at least partly because Dorothy has had the same latent romantic feelings for Joyce, for a long time. She feels closest to people who are secretly or subconsciously pining for her, likely because those are the only people who are willing to accept the level of intensity at which Joyce behaves towards relationships.
Joyce likes Joe a lot, and cares about him a lot; but, she’s obsessed with Dorothy, and it turns out that Dorothy, like Becky and Joe, are very comfortable with being an outlet for Joyce to get all of that energy out of her system. She loves all of them platonically, but Dorothy is the one that she feels the most genuine romantic love for, and it puts Dorothy above everybody else in Joyce’s internal Love and Attention hierarchies…and Joe and Becky kind of already knew this, deep down.
tl;dr Joyce only knows one way to love, that way is “with obsessive, self-consuming depth,” and her whole interpersonal life is shaped by this emotional tendency; the people around her kind of already understood this on an implicit level, but those who end up loving her deeply for it, end up pretty much blind to the fact that they won’t ever be Joyce’s priority #1, because they want to be her #1 too badly.
Throwatron
Oooh, I do NOT like how tight the line breaks are on these new comments. Makes bigger comments so much harder to read.
StClair
Great analysis as always, T.
Bill Erak
Hey, this is a pretty great analysis!
It’s almost funny, it sounds kinda like how I act towards… friends and…
Huh. That’s uh. A lot to unpack.
Honestly that doesn’t really make it feel better for me. Like jeez girl this really shoulda been higher priority. It’s like forgetting to pick up your kids after soccer practice.
Joyce has a (very relatable as an autistic person) recurring flaw of being very sure of herself – it’s a strength of character too, but she’s always very righteous in what she believes, from Christ now to atheism, which extends nicely into how she’s so focused and driven and gets blindsided by things she should see coming.
It’s great, I love how her flaws and strengths sorta wrap around each other. It’s very human.
I love the countdown timer for the new edit feature. It’s like it’s taunting you. “Is this really what you want to post? Are you sure? Are you REALLY sure?”
Maybe she should try “No Regrets?”
Possibly even “Act with Integrity?”
I like the sounds of those for some reason. More people should give them a shot.
i can imagine her doing it platonically/imitating someone and not necesarily outta spite/cunningness like giving him a cheek kiss as a thank you even tho that might be a bit outta chara
“There is your kiss, Joe, as I understand is customary for when a large male helps one rearrange their living space.”
“Wait, where did you get that?”
“I did some research on the internet. Was I mistaken? I hope things do not need to escalate to sexual intercourse, as seems to be the case for borrowing culinary ingredients.”
Makes sense to me. Someone who doesn’t understand human interaction on their own merit tends to study it through other means. And this is America.
There’s every chance she has a glass of champagne somewhere to throw in Joyce’s face and has briefed Joe that he’s actually his evil twin who is also a robot.
207 thoughts on “Go with God”
NGPZ
LMAO your plan didn’t account for Joe did it? XD
Steamweed
werds
Inahc
werds indeed
(edit: wow, it took something like 15s for that comment to post. New WordPress is struggling a wee bit?)
NGPZ
yeah the site’s new bearings are settling in, I’ve seen this before
shouldn’t take too much longer I hope
Pocky
Who can’t account for him? He’s been in that room for couple days now.
Sarah Lea
This is Dina’s room, not Joe’s.
Thag Simmons
I can’t really fault her for that. I wouldn’t have called this either.
YourCousinJay
Nah man look at that face of sheer determination and confidence, she’s definitely got this
Steamweed
“You have to get back with Becky, while I…um…er…that is…you see…”
Trying my best
LET’S FUCKING GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Rose by Any Other Name
I don’t think Dina would much appreciate them doing that in front of her or on her dinosaur.
Rose by Any Other Name
Oh wow! The edit button exists for me now!
EpochFlame
been very much looking forward to joyce/joe in the same room
MK15
Well this’ll go smooth like…
Dot
Alright I’m back on board let’s do this
apocryphascribe
I’m so hype omg
RexLatro
W00t, definitely been waiting for this moment for…months now
Big Z
Joyce definitely has the face of someone who just realized she’s barged into a room with the consequences of her own actions and has no idea what to do with that.
I don’t know that I think she’s the type to immediately assume anything about Joe/Dina being here and fixing the dinosaur, but with this level of brain reboot she might well jump to weird conclusions.
Elf Grrl
Handing out popcorn to those who scroll through comments today 👀
🍿 🍿 🍿 🍿🍿🍿🍿
shadowcell
Dumbing of Age Book 16: werds
clif
+1
Bobcat
Vaya sin Dios
Gigafreak
Palabruh
elebenty
Did you just “Word, Bruh” in Spanish?
Well done.
Gigafreak
Werd bruh
AshleyMagica
Idk why I thought Joyce was gonna have some wacky misunderstanding and think Joe and Dina hooked up. But, uh… that’s what I first thought reading this strip, so that’s what you get.
mads_in_zero
I 100% expect an “oh my god, a mutual rebound!” “no Joyce.” in the next strip.
Big Z
I could see it. Especially if she makes the (bonkers) assumption that EVERYONE might well have a seething pile of secret lust for arbitrary friends like she did.
Gigafreak
It would not even be the first time she has had a misunderstanding in this general direction with these specific people
Is it no longer possible to search the intersection of multiple character tags? I had to go through Dina’s tag because Dina+Joe gave me a blank result.
thejeff
It’s not. I think/hope that’s on the list of bugs to fix.
I’m also not fond of the new way the search results are shown. It’s harder to tell without clicking through to each which if any is the one you’re looking for.
J.Gawain
For my first glance, I thought Joe’s hands were on Dina’s shoulders. I immediately thought that was what Joyce was going to suspect. Then my second glance (read braincell) showed Joe was adjusting the T-Rex.
Leorale
I likewise thought Joe was giving sympathy via light physical contact ™.
And that Joyce would see any contact, in Dina’s room, and think that Joe and Dina are dating now.
But yes, he’s fixing the dino.
I hope Joyce somehow thinks they’re dating anyway.
DiDi
OK so upon further reflection based on her reaction…
I honestly think she literally just forgot. Like not in the compartmentalization way. Like it totally slipped her mind completely. “I feel like I was supposed to be doing something but I can’t think of it right now,” kind of deal.
Also: FINALLY.
Sirksome
I’ve been saying Joyce Brown has the emotional object permanence of a newborn puppy. I’m waiting for Dorothy to actually experience what it’s like being on the other end of this quirk of hers.
Bill Erak
I think Dorothy is immune to this specific flaw of Joyce. Even while dating or pursuing other people, Joyce always found time to be obsessed with Dorothy
Throwatron
You’re basically describing the precise point on the behavioral spectrum where “liking” or “loving” someone, transforms into “being obsessed with someone.” Joyce is extremely good at demonstrating what each of those two sides of the spectrum look like.
Joyce has always been a single-minded obsessive. In her early life, the only socially acceptable outlet for her obsessive energy (in her particular circle, I mean) was her being a perfect fundie Jesus robot. That’s where she got the idea that her whole life was supposed to come down to her finding her romantic soulmate, and then devoting her whole life after that point to serving that person, being their accessory, and raising their eventual kids.
Joyce doesn’t just confuse obsessive behavior for showing love; she feels obligated to deliberately perform obsessive devotion for whoever she’s currently in a relationship with. She hasn’t unpacked the source of that mindset, or the implications of how it relates to her past ideals, yet.
Consciously, she doesn’t really have the sense that this kind of over-the-top devotion, and the single-minded need to perform it, could be something that would be a negative experience for most other people to be on the other side of, because it was always prescribed to her as the moral way to be, as a wife. Subconsciously, she has always needed outlets for these obsessive tendencies, and has gravitated primarily towards friends and partners who were sympathetic, or otherwise willing to indulge it.
Joyce was very into Joe when they were together, but her time with Joe is starting to read to me as if it was her performing being a good girlfriend to Joe, as she slowly scrambles to come up with her own concept of what that means, from her new secular worldview; however, it’s now seeming kind of clear that she’s always been very obsessed with Dorothy, and that’s at least partly because Dorothy has had the same latent romantic feelings for Joyce, for a long time. She feels closest to people who are secretly or subconsciously pining for her, likely because those are the only people who are willing to accept the level of intensity at which Joyce behaves towards relationships.
Joyce likes Joe a lot, and cares about him a lot; but, she’s obsessed with Dorothy, and it turns out that Dorothy, like Becky and Joe, are very comfortable with being an outlet for Joyce to get all of that energy out of her system. She loves all of them platonically, but Dorothy is the one that she feels the most genuine romantic love for, and it puts Dorothy above everybody else in Joyce’s internal Love and Attention hierarchies…and Joe and Becky kind of already knew this, deep down.
tl;dr Joyce only knows one way to love, that way is “with obsessive, self-consuming depth,” and her whole interpersonal life is shaped by this emotional tendency; the people around her kind of already understood this on an implicit level, but those who end up loving her deeply for it, end up pretty much blind to the fact that they won’t ever be Joyce’s priority #1, because they want to be her #1 too badly.
Throwatron
Oooh, I do NOT like how tight the line breaks are on these new comments. Makes bigger comments so much harder to read.
StClair
Great analysis as always, T.
Bill Erak
Hey, this is a pretty great analysis!
It’s almost funny, it sounds kinda like how I act towards… friends and…
Huh. That’s uh. A lot to unpack.
Yotomoe
Honestly that doesn’t really make it feel better for me. Like jeez girl this really shoulda been higher priority. It’s like forgetting to pick up your kids after soccer practice.
Sirksome
She’d forget them instantly if Dorothy needed something.
Thag Simmons
I don’t know if forgetting her kids at Soccer Practice would actually be out of character…
Niklarean
At this point it feels like the equivalent of forgetting she even had kids.
clif
Or forgetting to ask Sal to go bowling.
mads_in_zero
Joyce has a (very relatable as an autistic person) recurring flaw of being very sure of herself – it’s a strength of character too, but she’s always very righteous in what she believes, from Christ now to atheism, which extends nicely into how she’s so focused and driven and gets blindsided by things she should see coming.
It’s great, I love how her flaws and strengths sorta wrap around each other. It’s very human.
V
Go with Godn’t
YourCousinJay
feels better somehow..
PipersSon
Perhaps she should substitute “Go with courage”. Sounds like a better mantra, anyway.
PipersSon
I love the countdown timer for the new edit feature. It’s like it’s taunting you. “Is this really what you want to post? Are you sure? Are you REALLY sure?”
Azhrei Vep
Maybe she should try “No Regrets?”
Possibly even “Act with Integrity?”
I like the sounds of those for some reason. More people should give them a shot.
Steamweed
Go With Godot
(which is better than waiting for godot, ’cause that one never shows up on time)
thejeff
But if you’re going with Godot, aren’t you also going to be late?
Freemage
Sure, but at least you have company.
Nono
Ooh, are we getting to the ‘Dina is mad at Joyce’ preview panel?
Mitzi B.
god, I hope so. I want Angry Dina so bad
Grimey
FOR WHOM THE DINO TOLLS
WERD MARCHES ON-ON-ON!
Yotomoe
This wouldn’t make a lick of sense but I want Dina to kiss Joe in front of Joyce.
apocryphascribe
I don’t care, I am here for any and all escalation of drama and chaos in this strip at this current juncture. Right behind you!
Bittersweet
Yessss, dewit Dina, it makes no sense but is the ultimate power move lol
Mewzard
That would certainly be a choice in this moment. Not necessarily a good one, but a choice nonetheless.
Matt Beardface
It’s not the three-way we wanted, but it’s the three-way we deserve
Anon
i can imagine her doing it platonically/imitating someone and not necesarily outta spite/cunningness like giving him a cheek kiss as a thank you even tho that might be a bit outta chara
3oranges
“There is your kiss, Joe, as I understand is customary for when a large male helps one rearrange their living space.”
“Wait, where did you get that?”
“I did some research on the internet. Was I mistaken? I hope things do not need to escalate to sexual intercourse, as seems to be the case for borrowing culinary ingredients.”
Jon
I want Dina to kiss Joyce in front of Joe, then look critically at Joyce and say, “Frankly, I don’t see why Becky is so interested in her.”
Yotomoe
“I can’t say I get the hype”
zee
Go full phenomaman.
*Kiss*
“….you are not why my relationship dissolved.”
Furie
Makes sense to me. Someone who doesn’t understand human interaction on their own merit tends to study it through other means. And this is America.
There’s every chance she has a glass of champagne somewhere to throw in Joyce’s face and has briefed Joe that he’s actually his evil twin who is also a robot.
John Campbell
I’m imagining her dipping him, planting one on him, and then dropping him.
Lumino
You thought we were going to have wholesome Joe and Dina interaction? Not with this sentient tire fire on the prowl.
Dot
This is perhaps the most succinct summation of Joyce I’ve ever seen.
Adept