That first panel reference is a little too esoteric for my understanding, so I’m just clock in as the only Walky/Raidah shipper in the world and go about my day.
I feel like even if you don’t get the specific reference (I also have no idea which video game Spider-Man we’re talking about, if anyone has clips I would like to see them) the general gist is pretty easy to infer.
Ever since Rutech bought Disney the games have been more creative.
Leadsynth
Now I want a whole spinoff comic about the inner workings of Ruttech. Management getting woke and trying to make a the world a better place while realizing the clients who butter their bread are evil warmongers
Basically, its a reference to how the various modern Spiderman games have Spidey being very anti-killing, but the very flexible combat system and random events can be used to create some… yeah, that motherfucker’s dead situations.
Spider-man has always been against killing unless absolutely necessary or a loved one was threatened and/or killed. How is that a modern Spider-man game thing?
Throwatron
Because video games are in the business of appealing to the broadest audience possibly, and the number of people who want fun hijinksy action movie combat at their fingertips, is way way bigger than the number of people who are interested in seriously role-playing as Spiderman.
Cbwroses
That wasn’t what I was asking.
I was asking why the emphasis on Spider-man not wanting to kill was mentioned as if it was new to the games.
I understand how the idea that he’s not killing borders on the absurd considering what he does to enemies in game.
I’ve played all 3 games multiple times and am currently playing the first one again.
They’re basically my favorite.
Is Raidah expressing that she’s genuinely hurt that Jennifer isn’t there for her emotional comfort or is she upset that Jennifer has other friends than her? Or both? In any case, Jennifer should probably let Raidah know she’s not trying to get back with Asher either. Raidah presumes that Jennifer is getting right on that.
I mean I wanna like Raidah, but that’s hard when you remember things like the last conversation between these two was Raidah failing and practically rejecting the concept of friendship with Jennifer specifically .
—- https://www.dumbingofage.com/comic/coupling/
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Like I’m totally willing to forgive that and start fresh. Really give this Dumbing group B thing a shot. I just need some consistency here from Raidah and not self serving interpretations that apply only on her time. Or she can do all that too as long as we stay on target in knocking the main group down a peg for my personal satisfaction.
nadamás
Instructions unclear: Raidah will now start pegging everyone in the main cast.
Rowen Morland
Actually looking at those too back to back gives it a very, negging/isolating you feel. Raidah is your only friend, don’t believe you have other friends.
I like her, she reminds me of Dorothy. Less naive, but then a steep cliff. She understands networking exists, but feels like she’s going about it all wrong. I wouldn’t know for sure, I don’t know how to network. But having a small group of people you’re boss of, and shutting everyone else out doesn’t seem like what you’re supposed to do.
I mean definitely not just you, there’s dozens of us. I’m personally in the camp of “I REALLY want to like Raidah. I already like her, but I want to have more reasons to like her, like more exploration of her depths as a character.”
KtBear
You’re assuming there ARE more depths to her character.
Bryy
I think that her current arc is about realizing her she has no depth.
Ian Clark
Contrary to the other replies, I think she definitely does have more depths to her character. My impression is that Raidah does actually have a conscience, she’s just a) pretty much always willing to put it aside for whatever benefits her and b) extremely good at convincing herself that the things she’s doing to benefit her actually are motivated by her conscience.
Li
@KtBear, Bryy: ‘k.
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@Ian: I think I agree with some of that.
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My main thing with Raidah is that we don’t know what state Dana is actually in. We have Sarah’s take on the situation, which was originally actually very exonerating for Raidah — during the flashback, Sarah notes more than once that Dana put on a good front for everyone else in the friend-group, and ONLY Sarah was ever actually witness to the signs of a worsening spiral. Add to that that Sarah had been pretty unfriendly initially and that she always made it clear that her scholarship was her priority, even while airing her worries about Dana… I think it’s actually pretty understandable that Raidah thought Sarah had thrown Dana under the metaphorical bus for her scholarship.
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Meanwhile, Raidah seems to know stuff about Dana’s home life that Sarah doesn’t. She didn’t actually call Dana’s home situation “unsafe” or anything, but when Sarah tried to defend herself by saying she’d done what was best for Dana too, Raidah retorted “not according to Dana”.
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Since then, we’ve seen… honestly very LITTLE of Raidah that wasn’t calculated for a specific audience, but there have been little suggestions here and there that she doesn’t like most of her other friends — which makes me wonder if Dana was the only friend she actually liked? Or it could also be that she just took having Dana sent home much harder than the rest of the friend-group and THAT caused a schism.
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Either way, we know that Raidah started with a friend-group of about five people, all of whom at least seemed to get along in Sarah’s flashback, and of that original group, she’s down to Carl — Dana’s ex-boyfriend, probably not coincidentally. And she seems to have gone from someone who at least SEEMED genuinely friendly to Sarah to someone who conspires with Carl to feign friendliness with Jennifer and Walky, people Raidah really seems to find deeply irritating, while actively trying to sabotage Sarah’s other friendships (the version of events she told Jacob was definitely manipulative, and of course there’s also what she told Lucy about Sarah).
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In the interim, she also acquired another arch nemesis in the form of Joyce, to the point of responding to Jacob’s parting “you’re better than that” with an ominous “we’ll see.”
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So like. A lot of what’s going on with Raidah right now, for me, hinges on whether she’s right about Dana being in a bad situation, and whether or not I’m right that she really cared about Dana.
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Especially since her machinations wrt Joyce (obviously imho) go back to Jacob kissing Joyce and then dumping Raidah. In some ways, Raidah is in the right there! Which makes me think she’s more likely to also be somewhat in the right with Sarah, even though I don’t think what Sarah did was wrong either.
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(When I say “in some ways” about Joyce — like, a couple of points, right? In a normal situation, I’d be like, “well, my partner’s mistress wasn’t even my friend, so she’s not the one who betrayed me: my partner is”.
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But this wasn’t a normal situation. Joyce didn’t just pursue Jacob because she was attracted to him — and she made that pretty clear! That lunch they had (with Dorothy awkwardly also present) really spelled out, to Raidah, that Joyce was going after Jacob partially because she’d decided Raidah didn’t deserve him. Joyce’s expressions fairly drip enmity: “I know he’s your boyfriend, and I hope he dumps you!”
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So, Joyce MADE it personal. In a way I bet she doesn’t even really remember, and would cringe over if reminded, because she definitely got to that point initially out of empathy for Sarah, wanting to see Sarah happy, wanting to make Sarah’s enemy her own in solidarity… and then, at some point along the line, also wanting to kiss Jacob for her own reasons.
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Now, since then, Raidah’s methods have been… a bit much. I think befriending Jennifer while hating her just to hurt Joyce and Sarah? Really sucks! The way she needles people’s insecurities is also generally crappy.
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But still. There are layers to her beef with Joyce! I expect to also find that there are layers to her beef with Sarah.)
Ian Clark
I’m of two minds with regards to the origin of her beef with Sarah, because I think your assessment of the perspective and information she had/has access to both before and after Dana was sent home is accurate, but, at the same time, those are both situations where Raidah should probably be more aware that she’s operating on limited information. When my mom died, I was relatively open about how I was doing, but people still assumed (correctly) that what they were seeing wasn’t the full extent of it. The people closest to me were asking my wife how I was doing as much as they were asking me how much I was doing, because she was the one who saw me all the time. Now, kind of different scenario in that my wife is the friendliest person on Earth, but at the very least, Raidah and the rest of Dana’s friends should have at least entertained the idea that Sarah was telling the truth, even if they didn’t accept it. Particularly considering Sarah’s initial suggestion was just to get Dana into therapy, which would have kept her there (and ultimately involved a lot of sacrifice on Sarah’s part, since it wouldn’t mean Dana was better immediately, and she’d still have to deal with a lot of it). I think you’re onto something about Dana being the one friend Raidah actually liked (and that part of her sense of betrayal may have been because she thought Sarah might eventually become a second such friend, but that’s another matter), but brushing off Sarah’s warnings was ultimately kind of being a bad friend to Dana, too.
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By the same token, she appears to be the only one who still has access to Dana, but she also has access only to Dana. Of course Dana’s going to say things aren’t going well, this wasn’t her idea in the first place, and she’s talking to the one person as mad about it as she is. But from what we know about Raidah, if she thought Dana’s living situation was unsafe, she almost certainly would have thrown it at Sarah during one of their dust-ups, and in the meantime, there’s also one crucial piece of evidence she doesn’t seem to be factoring into her assessments at all: Dana’s still gone. At least a year has passed in comic time, and Dana hasn’t returned to school. For which there could be all kinds of explanations, but barring Raidah having knowledge of some explanation that she’s not shared yet, she should really consider at least the possibility that the most likely reason is that she actually did need a lot of help, and she hasn’t finished getting it yet.
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Ultimately, the issue with Raidah’s attitude toward Sarah isn’t so much about whether she’s wrong or right, it’s that she acts like she knows which one it is before she actually does. Having an issue with what Sarah did would be perfectly reasonable, but she skipped past “I don’t think this was the right thing to do” straight to “This was unambiguously the wrong thing to do, and also here are the malevolent motivations I’m ascribing to you for having done it.”
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With Joyce, I’m also of two minds. Because what Joyce did was definitely fucked up, and Raidah was definitely one of the people hurt by it, but Raidah was ultimately as much an accomplice as a victim, and in a way that says to me that she was already like this in general.
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When Raidah realized that Joyce was trying to take Jacob from her, she was perfectly content to treat it as a game, and only really became upset when she learned she wasn’t going to win it. Dorothy at one point not only calls this out, but tells both of them that people will get hurt, including Jacob. Raidah flat-out brushes that off, then later acts like the only victim in the situation.
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I think part of the reason she seems to be good at convincing herself that she’s acting out of conscience when she’s actually acting for personal gain is because she does genuinely find herself in situations where there is an actual wrong for her to be upset about. But that’s just 99% of situations. We’re almost never handed something where we’re 100% right or 100% wrong, and admittedly pretty much everyone tends to overemphasize the parts where they’re right and downplay the parts where they’re wrong, but Raidah seems to have turned it from a human foible to an art form.
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(Edited because as soon as I posted the comment it immediately became clear why you put periods between paragraphs, and why so should I.)
Li
I think you raise really good points! (And yeah, single periods are just the least visually disruptive options right now orz, I hope Mx Willis gets the line breaks to HTML bit working soon.)
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The only counterpoint I have for like any of it is: I do think that knowing you shouldn’t necessarily trust how someone tells you they’re going is wisdom that comes with time, and they were all college freshman when the incident occurred — and they’re only a year older now.
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I also think the path Raidah has traced in the comic so far is interesting: the narrative has kind of gone back and forth on how sympathetic it wants to be to her, IMHO. On the one hand, she’s definitely a bit of a schemer who seems perfectly willing to hurt other people on her way to hurting Sarah — and on the other hand, she HAS gone out of her way to be kind to people in the past (notably Sarah and Joyce, when she first met each of them), and the ableist microaggressions she dealt Dina are, I think, best summed-up by Dina herself later when she tells Sarah that Raidah thought she was being kind to her, but wasn’t really.
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I wish I remembered the specific things about her interactions with Sarah that have signaled antiblackness, bc like I said below I FEEL LIKE Zee elaborated at one point, but I imagine her willingness to exaggerate Sarah’s punch at the mall and her UNwillingness to believe Sarah about Dana both rank. Bleh. This is something I really need to get better at spotting.
I wanna fuck with raidah, i really do, but the overtones of antiblackness and misogynoir in her interactions with Sarah (fully unintended, I do not believe that’s what Willis was going for back in like 2012) are just too much for me without a redemption arc. Like there’s being a fun minor villain and there’s shit like that which is way too real
Li
Dang it. I feel like you’ve actually expanded on this before, like I’ve read your take, and now it’s tickling at the edge of my brain… /attempts to restart brain in the hopes that it’ll surface
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Either way, obviously a super valid way to feel. :/ Not that you need mayo validation shhsljdhs
Li
Okay, here’s what I SHOULD HAVE SAID, after some time ruminating on my bad phrasing:
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This is a point I wasn’t considering, even though I’m pretty sure you’ve raised it before and even expounded on what you meant. D’oh.
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(ETA: Like I’ve just been turning it over in my head, going… “I know ‘valid’ is not what I wanted to say, what does ‘valid’ even mean in this context and who am I to validate a point about antiblackness anyway????” But I think this is what my brain was TRYING to get at.)
Ian Clark
I’m so glad someone else picked up on the anti-Blackness. The fact that she said “white freshmen” a couple appearances ago seems to have created the impression with a lot of people that she’s actually motivated by anti-racism, but not only did her whole beef with the main cast start with her believing her white friend over a Black woman on scholarship in a way that ultimately ended up harming both of them, but it’s worth noting that, of the dozen or so characters we’ve seen her be willingly shitty to, Joyce and Dorothy are the only white ones. Well, and Char, but Char had it coming to an astonishing degree.
She adds conflict to the comic. She is what is known as a sitcom arch nemesis. She is the Newman to Sarah’s Jerry. Of course at this point I dislike Joyce more than her.
well, she said ‘dms’ so maybe they’re just twitter mutuauls versus a personal number (tho i imagine robin doesn’t exactlys tay private and easily gives aawy contact info lol) tho at this point even if she got elected once you’d think most ppl would steer clear of associating with robin
The kid can’t even receive an electronic message without expositing its origin and contents out loud for an audience of none. Total goober, Monday thru Friday from 6:00am to 9:30pm, 11pm on weekends.
I will forever love the insane dynamic Billifer put herself into where she is simultaneously the only person who can consistently no-sell Raidah to her face and get away with it while also being completely ambivalent about being Raidah’s beloathed wretched little pursedog. It is so insane, I love it so much.
Crazy thing is that I don’t even want it to implode, lowkey I hope their mildly toxic relationship stumbles itself into a wildly goofy toxic friendship.
Li
+1
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Raidah seems to have been shedding parts of her friend-group without comment, and it would be kind of neat if she looked up one day and it was just Jennifer left? And maybe, in an ironic twist of fate, Jennifer wound up imparting lessons she’s learned from Walky and Joyce of all people on how to have real friends instead of just people who are useful to you, or people you think make you look cool by association.
Sirksome
Two things here
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1. Where the eff is Carl? Has he been dumped in the same void Raidah’s other friends seemingly disappeared into? I guess his whole gimmick was being forgettable background noise so it’s no real loss if he never shows up again much like Raidah’s other “friends” whose names I forgot but trust me they exist!
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2. I think Raidah is about to get a term I’m coining right now called the Reverse Joyce. In which you’ve somehow come to realize a person who annoys you has become your best and possibly only friend just by being around. I really think Raidah is now in that situation with Jennifer. Ironic considering she didn’t want to know who Kit Fisto was. When the time comes that Raidah actually needs a friend Jennifer will be the only person she has!🤣
146 thoughts on “Video game Spider-man”
Ana Chronistic
Yes, Sarah is absolutely doing the boning
TrueSurvivor
Everybody welcome back Ana, long has she been departed from us, but lo the prodigal daughter returns.
Sirksome
What sick shit is Tony into?
Steamweed
Seemly behavior! :O
Mr. Random
Holding hands
Qube
tall chicks
clif
Football.
Circeus
Common sense and not taking any shit
Rimwalker55
Throw pillows
Minivet
Punctuality.
Leadsynth
Law and order! Pomp and circumstance!
TrueSurvivor
Given what Ruth syas about Billie, I am unsure if that lest question is spoken with horror or intrigue.
Stormtide Leviathan
Honestly I don’t read it as either, just genuinely trying to clarify
clif
I read it as Jennifer’s keen perceptiveness being the same as ever.
StClair
“Look, I’ll do a lot of questionable things to get what I want, but willingly associating with Sarah? That’s… how dare you.”
NGPZ
that’s what ya get for “networking” LMAO XD
totally called this BTW is just like when James blew all his money on a Magikarp
LaGrosseLegume
Raidah if ya want an access to the dean and make a power move over Sarah – just start to boning Dean youself
Needfuldoer
Go Team Venture?
Ray Radlein
Or Sarah!
Dot
That first panel reference is a little too esoteric for my understanding, so I’m just clock in as the only Walky/Raidah shipper in the world and go about my day.
Thag Simmons
I feel like even if you don’t get the specific reference (I also have no idea which video game Spider-Man we’re talking about, if anyone has clips I would like to see them) the general gist is pretty easy to infer.
clif
Ever since Rutech bought Disney the games have been more creative.
Leadsynth
Now I want a whole spinoff comic about the inner workings of Ruttech. Management getting woke and trying to make a the world a better place while realizing the clients who butter their bread are evil warmongers
Grimey
Honestly, I think I ship Walky/Raidah if only to avoid Amber/Walky so friggin’ soon, and because they could be good for each other.
Ian Clark
As a romantic partner, Raidah’s not good for anyone.
Tequila Mockingbird
The ship would, however, make for entertainment for the audience, I suspect.
Jeff K!
Swap in “videos of Mario dropping a baby penguin off a cliff” and you’re fine.
Wraithy2773
Basically, its a reference to how the various modern Spiderman games have Spidey being very anti-killing, but the very flexible combat system and random events can be used to create some… yeah, that motherfucker’s dead situations.
One particularly amusing example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9TCU8cpAR0
Cbwroses
Spider-man has always been against killing unless absolutely necessary or a loved one was threatened and/or killed. How is that a modern Spider-man game thing?
Throwatron
Because video games are in the business of appealing to the broadest audience possibly, and the number of people who want fun hijinksy action movie combat at their fingertips, is way way bigger than the number of people who are interested in seriously role-playing as Spiderman.
Cbwroses
That wasn’t what I was asking.
I was asking why the emphasis on Spider-man not wanting to kill was mentioned as if it was new to the games.
I understand how the idea that he’s not killing borders on the absurd considering what he does to enemies in game.
I’ve played all 3 games multiple times and am currently playing the first one again.
They’re basically my favorite.
C.T. Phipps
Is Raidah expressing that she’s genuinely hurt that Jennifer isn’t there for her emotional comfort or is she upset that Jennifer has other friends than her? Or both? In any case, Jennifer should probably let Raidah know she’s not trying to get back with Asher either. Raidah presumes that Jennifer is getting right on that.
M!a
Billifer is hovering dangerously close to being an undesirable asset for Raidah’s collection.
Thank the gawds for her money and promiscuity; she’s a shoo-in for a Cabinet post at least.
Coatl
Well, that “I’m your friends” doesn’t sound so distressed or painful.
And yes, it seems Raidah will let things slide with Asher, but if she finds out about Alice, I think things won’t be good for Jennifer.
M!a
Raidah isn’t doing much to expand her fan club among the readers.
nadamás
She got me in there, i love her exactly because the ways that she sucks are fascinating..
Bryy
Right? I don’t exactly love Raidah but I love how much she thinks she’s a literal supervillain.
Coatl
There are characters who are created precisely to not be liked…and without fear of being wrong, Raidah is one of them.
Dot
Her “fan club” appears to consist of just me.
Sirksome
I mean I wanna like Raidah, but that’s hard when you remember things like the last conversation between these two was Raidah failing and practically rejecting the concept of friendship with Jennifer specifically .
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https://www.dumbingofage.com/comic/coupling/
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Like I’m totally willing to forgive that and start fresh. Really give this Dumbing group B thing a shot. I just need some consistency here from Raidah and not self serving interpretations that apply only on her time. Or she can do all that too as long as we stay on target in knocking the main group down a peg for my personal satisfaction.
nadamás
Instructions unclear: Raidah will now start pegging everyone in the main cast.
Rowen Morland
Actually looking at those too back to back gives it a very, negging/isolating you feel. Raidah is your only friend, don’t believe you have other friends.
HueSatLight
I like her, she reminds me of Dorothy. Less naive, but then a steep cliff. She understands networking exists, but feels like she’s going about it all wrong. I wouldn’t know for sure, I don’t know how to network. But having a small group of people you’re boss of, and shutting everyone else out doesn’t seem like what you’re supposed to do.
Li
I mean definitely not just you, there’s dozens of us. I’m personally in the camp of “I REALLY want to like Raidah. I already like her, but I want to have more reasons to like her, like more exploration of her depths as a character.”
KtBear
You’re assuming there ARE more depths to her character.
Bryy
I think that her current arc is about realizing her she has no depth.
Ian Clark
Contrary to the other replies, I think she definitely does have more depths to her character. My impression is that Raidah does actually have a conscience, she’s just a) pretty much always willing to put it aside for whatever benefits her and b) extremely good at convincing herself that the things she’s doing to benefit her actually are motivated by her conscience.
Li
@KtBear, Bryy: ‘k.
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@Ian: I think I agree with some of that.
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My main thing with Raidah is that we don’t know what state Dana is actually in. We have Sarah’s take on the situation, which was originally actually very exonerating for Raidah — during the flashback, Sarah notes more than once that Dana put on a good front for everyone else in the friend-group, and ONLY Sarah was ever actually witness to the signs of a worsening spiral. Add to that that Sarah had been pretty unfriendly initially and that she always made it clear that her scholarship was her priority, even while airing her worries about Dana… I think it’s actually pretty understandable that Raidah thought Sarah had thrown Dana under the metaphorical bus for her scholarship.
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Meanwhile, Raidah seems to know stuff about Dana’s home life that Sarah doesn’t. She didn’t actually call Dana’s home situation “unsafe” or anything, but when Sarah tried to defend herself by saying she’d done what was best for Dana too, Raidah retorted “not according to Dana”.
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Since then, we’ve seen… honestly very LITTLE of Raidah that wasn’t calculated for a specific audience, but there have been little suggestions here and there that she doesn’t like most of her other friends — which makes me wonder if Dana was the only friend she actually liked? Or it could also be that she just took having Dana sent home much harder than the rest of the friend-group and THAT caused a schism.
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Either way, we know that Raidah started with a friend-group of about five people, all of whom at least seemed to get along in Sarah’s flashback, and of that original group, she’s down to Carl — Dana’s ex-boyfriend, probably not coincidentally. And she seems to have gone from someone who at least SEEMED genuinely friendly to Sarah to someone who conspires with Carl to feign friendliness with Jennifer and Walky, people Raidah really seems to find deeply irritating, while actively trying to sabotage Sarah’s other friendships (the version of events she told Jacob was definitely manipulative, and of course there’s also what she told Lucy about Sarah).
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In the interim, she also acquired another arch nemesis in the form of Joyce, to the point of responding to Jacob’s parting “you’re better than that” with an ominous “we’ll see.”
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So like. A lot of what’s going on with Raidah right now, for me, hinges on whether she’s right about Dana being in a bad situation, and whether or not I’m right that she really cared about Dana.
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Especially since her machinations wrt Joyce (obviously imho) go back to Jacob kissing Joyce and then dumping Raidah. In some ways, Raidah is in the right there! Which makes me think she’s more likely to also be somewhat in the right with Sarah, even though I don’t think what Sarah did was wrong either.
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(When I say “in some ways” about Joyce — like, a couple of points, right? In a normal situation, I’d be like, “well, my partner’s mistress wasn’t even my friend, so she’s not the one who betrayed me: my partner is”.
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But this wasn’t a normal situation. Joyce didn’t just pursue Jacob because she was attracted to him — and she made that pretty clear! That lunch they had (with Dorothy awkwardly also present) really spelled out, to Raidah, that Joyce was going after Jacob partially because she’d decided Raidah didn’t deserve him. Joyce’s expressions fairly drip enmity: “I know he’s your boyfriend, and I hope he dumps you!”
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So, Joyce MADE it personal. In a way I bet she doesn’t even really remember, and would cringe over if reminded, because she definitely got to that point initially out of empathy for Sarah, wanting to see Sarah happy, wanting to make Sarah’s enemy her own in solidarity… and then, at some point along the line, also wanting to kiss Jacob for her own reasons.
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Now, since then, Raidah’s methods have been… a bit much. I think befriending Jennifer while hating her just to hurt Joyce and Sarah? Really sucks! The way she needles people’s insecurities is also generally crappy.
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But still. There are layers to her beef with Joyce! I expect to also find that there are layers to her beef with Sarah.)
Ian Clark
I’m of two minds with regards to the origin of her beef with Sarah, because I think your assessment of the perspective and information she had/has access to both before and after Dana was sent home is accurate, but, at the same time, those are both situations where Raidah should probably be more aware that she’s operating on limited information. When my mom died, I was relatively open about how I was doing, but people still assumed (correctly) that what they were seeing wasn’t the full extent of it. The people closest to me were asking my wife how I was doing as much as they were asking me how much I was doing, because she was the one who saw me all the time. Now, kind of different scenario in that my wife is the friendliest person on Earth, but at the very least, Raidah and the rest of Dana’s friends should have at least entertained the idea that Sarah was telling the truth, even if they didn’t accept it. Particularly considering Sarah’s initial suggestion was just to get Dana into therapy, which would have kept her there (and ultimately involved a lot of sacrifice on Sarah’s part, since it wouldn’t mean Dana was better immediately, and she’d still have to deal with a lot of it). I think you’re onto something about Dana being the one friend Raidah actually liked (and that part of her sense of betrayal may have been because she thought Sarah might eventually become a second such friend, but that’s another matter), but brushing off Sarah’s warnings was ultimately kind of being a bad friend to Dana, too.
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By the same token, she appears to be the only one who still has access to Dana, but she also has access only to Dana. Of course Dana’s going to say things aren’t going well, this wasn’t her idea in the first place, and she’s talking to the one person as mad about it as she is. But from what we know about Raidah, if she thought Dana’s living situation was unsafe, she almost certainly would have thrown it at Sarah during one of their dust-ups, and in the meantime, there’s also one crucial piece of evidence she doesn’t seem to be factoring into her assessments at all: Dana’s still gone. At least a year has passed in comic time, and Dana hasn’t returned to school. For which there could be all kinds of explanations, but barring Raidah having knowledge of some explanation that she’s not shared yet, she should really consider at least the possibility that the most likely reason is that she actually did need a lot of help, and she hasn’t finished getting it yet.
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Ultimately, the issue with Raidah’s attitude toward Sarah isn’t so much about whether she’s wrong or right, it’s that she acts like she knows which one it is before she actually does. Having an issue with what Sarah did would be perfectly reasonable, but she skipped past “I don’t think this was the right thing to do” straight to “This was unambiguously the wrong thing to do, and also here are the malevolent motivations I’m ascribing to you for having done it.”
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With Joyce, I’m also of two minds. Because what Joyce did was definitely fucked up, and Raidah was definitely one of the people hurt by it, but Raidah was ultimately as much an accomplice as a victim, and in a way that says to me that she was already like this in general.
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When Raidah realized that Joyce was trying to take Jacob from her, she was perfectly content to treat it as a game, and only really became upset when she learned she wasn’t going to win it. Dorothy at one point not only calls this out, but tells both of them that people will get hurt, including Jacob. Raidah flat-out brushes that off, then later acts like the only victim in the situation.
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I think part of the reason she seems to be good at convincing herself that she’s acting out of conscience when she’s actually acting for personal gain is because she does genuinely find herself in situations where there is an actual wrong for her to be upset about. But that’s just 99% of situations. We’re almost never handed something where we’re 100% right or 100% wrong, and admittedly pretty much everyone tends to overemphasize the parts where they’re right and downplay the parts where they’re wrong, but Raidah seems to have turned it from a human foible to an art form.
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(Edited because as soon as I posted the comment it immediately became clear why you put periods between paragraphs, and why so should I.)
Li
I think you raise really good points! (And yeah, single periods are just the least visually disruptive options right now orz, I hope Mx Willis gets the line breaks to HTML bit working soon.)
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The only counterpoint I have for like any of it is: I do think that knowing you shouldn’t necessarily trust how someone tells you they’re going is wisdom that comes with time, and they were all college freshman when the incident occurred — and they’re only a year older now.
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I also think the path Raidah has traced in the comic so far is interesting: the narrative has kind of gone back and forth on how sympathetic it wants to be to her, IMHO. On the one hand, she’s definitely a bit of a schemer who seems perfectly willing to hurt other people on her way to hurting Sarah — and on the other hand, she HAS gone out of her way to be kind to people in the past (notably Sarah and Joyce, when she first met each of them), and the ableist microaggressions she dealt Dina are, I think, best summed-up by Dina herself later when she tells Sarah that Raidah thought she was being kind to her, but wasn’t really.
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I wish I remembered the specific things about her interactions with Sarah that have signaled antiblackness, bc like I said below I FEEL LIKE Zee elaborated at one point, but I imagine her willingness to exaggerate Sarah’s punch at the mall and her UNwillingness to believe Sarah about Dana both rank. Bleh. This is something I really need to get better at spotting.
zee
I wanna fuck with raidah, i really do, but the overtones of antiblackness and misogynoir in her interactions with Sarah (fully unintended, I do not believe that’s what Willis was going for back in like 2012) are just too much for me without a redemption arc. Like there’s being a fun minor villain and there’s shit like that which is way too real
Li
Dang it. I feel like you’ve actually expanded on this before, like I’ve read your take, and now it’s tickling at the edge of my brain… /attempts to restart brain in the hopes that it’ll surface
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Either way, obviously a super valid way to feel. :/ Not that you need mayo validation shhsljdhs
Li
Okay, here’s what I SHOULD HAVE SAID, after some time ruminating on my bad phrasing:
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This is a point I wasn’t considering, even though I’m pretty sure you’ve raised it before and even expounded on what you meant. D’oh.
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(ETA: Like I’ve just been turning it over in my head, going… “I know ‘valid’ is not what I wanted to say, what does ‘valid’ even mean in this context and who am I to validate a point about antiblackness anyway????” But I think this is what my brain was TRYING to get at.)
Ian Clark
I’m so glad someone else picked up on the anti-Blackness. The fact that she said “white freshmen” a couple appearances ago seems to have created the impression with a lot of people that she’s actually motivated by anti-racism, but not only did her whole beef with the main cast start with her believing her white friend over a Black woman on scholarship in a way that ultimately ended up harming both of them, but it’s worth noting that, of the dozen or so characters we’ve seen her be willingly shitty to, Joyce and Dorothy are the only white ones. Well, and Char, but Char had it coming to an astonishing degree.
Dandi_Andi
Nah. I’m a fan. I’d take 100 Raidahs over a single Joe.
Thag Simmons
I mean, I enjoy reading about her! I wouldn’t enjoy interacting with her, but that’s not relevant.
nadamás
A character doesn’t have to be likable to be interesting to read!
RassilonTDavros
I’m honestly really liking her as a character lately. As for the club, though… I’m just not sure I’m ready for that kind of commitment.
Qube
true enough, I continue to have X-Pac Heat for raidah
Spacie
She adds conflict to the comic. She is what is known as a sitcom arch nemesis. She is the Newman to Sarah’s Jerry. Of course at this point I dislike Joyce more than her.
Steamweed
They ARE boning. But yeah it’s still weird kinky shit.
(weird stuff like seemly behavior and all…like whoinhell does THAT?)
nadamás
I love how fucking weird Raidah is about everything. And i hope she lives to forver regret giving Robin her contact information.
anon
well, she said ‘dms’ so maybe they’re just twitter mutuauls versus a personal number (tho i imagine robin doesn’t exactlys tay private and easily gives aawy contact info lol) tho at this point even if she got elected once you’d think most ppl would steer clear of associating with robin
Bryy
Raidah is 100000% the type of social media user that gets personally offended that people on an open and free platform talk to her.
Taffy
The kid can’t even receive an electronic message without expositing its origin and contents out loud for an audience of none. Total goober, Monday thru Friday from 6:00am to 9:30pm, 11pm on weekends.
Bill Erak
Seeing Raidah’s day ruined is always fun
I Know Why The Mowed Lawn Screams
I will forever love the insane dynamic Billifer put herself into where she is simultaneously the only person who can consistently no-sell Raidah to her face and get away with it while also being completely ambivalent about being Raidah’s beloathed wretched little pursedog. It is so insane, I love it so much.
nadamás
It is easily one of the best things to come out of the time skip, i can’t wait to see how their whole situation eventually implodes.
I Know Why The Mowed Lawn Screams
Crazy thing is that I don’t even want it to implode, lowkey I hope their mildly toxic relationship stumbles itself into a wildly goofy toxic friendship.
Li
+1
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Raidah seems to have been shedding parts of her friend-group without comment, and it would be kind of neat if she looked up one day and it was just Jennifer left? And maybe, in an ironic twist of fate, Jennifer wound up imparting lessons she’s learned from Walky and Joyce of all people on how to have real friends instead of just people who are useful to you, or people you think make you look cool by association.
Sirksome
Two things here
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1. Where the eff is Carl? Has he been dumped in the same void Raidah’s other friends seemingly disappeared into? I guess his whole gimmick was being forgettable background noise so it’s no real loss if he never shows up again much like Raidah’s other “friends” whose names I forgot but trust me they exist!
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2. I think Raidah is about to get a term I’m coining right now called the Reverse Joyce. In which you’ve somehow come to realize a person who annoys you has become your best and possibly only friend just by being around. I really think Raidah is now in that situation with Jennifer. Ironic considering she didn’t want to know who Kit Fisto was. When the time comes that Raidah actually needs a friend Jennifer will be the only person she has!🤣
Newlland(Henryvolt)