A duration
Posted on September 11, 2025 by David M Willis

516 thoughts on “A duration”

  1. Amós Batista

    – six months ago, didn’t you hear it?
    *Carla leaves the room*

    1. HueSatLight

      congratulations on Brasil news!

      1. Amós Batista

        Ooooohhh, thaaanks .
        (I’m already drunk, at 4PM.)

      2. Amós Batista

        Hey, congratulations for you, americans, too. For yesterday!

        1. Furie

          I understood these references. Celebratory zimmer frame shake!

        2. Mustachio

          Congratulations? Seriously? OMG.

  2. mindbleach

    Between two days and ten years.

    1. Needfuldoer

      It feels like it’s been just over 15 years.

      1. DJTsurugi

        lol exactly! ~<3

  3. Serendipity

    Like. A day-ish? Been a real wild 24 hours.

    1. anon

      Or since leslie did that assignmemt where they were ‘married’ 8D

    2. yet_one_more_idiot

      Yesterday….
      All my troubles seemed so far away….
      Now I need a place where I can stay
      Ohhhh I believe, in yesterday….

    3. Pocky

      can the laundry machine stuff be retroactively added, or are Joyce and Dorothy gonna keep debating what counts? lol

    4. Deanatay

      That’ll be the answer they give, but that’s not Becky’s question.

      Her question is, “How long have you been interested in girls? When did you change (and remember, people on Becky’s life are not supposed to change ever)? Was it before or after I confessed to Joyce? Or did Joyce never change, and was just lying to me? Was I not good enough? Why do you hate me and how can I fix it!?!”

      Or emotions to that effect.

      1. Loki

        This. ☝️

      2. Vanessa

        Yes, a big part of her problem is that she and Dina have been making fun of Joyce and Dorothy both, but making fun of imagined, frozen and stereotyped, surface caricatures of Joyce and Dorothy. Hopefully this is a good wake-up call instead of a hardening off.

  4. ADLegend21

    like 14 hours tops

  5. Cattleprod

    This was the first time in a while I noticed the site being slow to load at new comic time, and with yesterday’s cliffhanger, I get it.

    1. Bryy

      Did Willis not perceive the bisexual panic that he was causing?

      1. Steamweed

        Willis knows. All proceeds according to the evil plan.

      2. The Lurker

        Do you not get the newsletter?

    2. Acher4

      It has been down for me.

      The internet gods are mocking us! 😛

      1. Vanessa

        I was not able to see the comic at all last night.

    3. Embe13

      unfortunately i have been having slow loading for this site at random times as well as at new comic o’clock

    4. BorkBorkBork

      Yeah, well, in true Willis fashion, the day after a major cliffhanger, nothing much happens.

      Almost as if to say, to all those people out there who are like “OMG I CAN’T WAIT THE SHIT’S ABOUT TO HIT THE FAN!!!” and go subscribe to the Patreon, “ha ha, gotcha now, but stay subbed because you don’t want to wait two whole days for the next hit, do you?” like the dealer he is.

      1. Vanessa

        Ah ha, but when you suddenly subscribe to Patreon because of a cliffhanger and a website hang, as I did, you get TWO strips!

    5. DinaJoyce

      Mine has been worst at loading at like 1 or 2 am eastern. I don’t get it.

  6. AbacusWizard

    “For about… uh… hold on, first, what time is it now?”

  7. John Campbell

    Let’s see… Joyce asked Dorothy out on their first date on… Thursday of the first week of first semester.

    1. Morrison

      Omigosh your right

      1. Vanessa

        Oh my! And then right afterward asked to be Billie’s shower buddy. She was already in love with Dorothy when Becky kissed her.

    2. Rowen Morland

      Heh, going from this to the old art gives Dorothy a surprisingly alien head look 😀

    3. Morrison

      You’re right. The way Joyce just dumped out her purse roght in the hallway. She was ready to go all in

      https://www.dumbingofage.com/2011/comic/book-1/05-media-rumble/tracts/

  8. Megan

    Becky is gonna go from one of my favorites to one of my least favorite characters over this. I just can’t forgive the “What does she have that I don’t have” attitude. After she was rejected *months* ago? And then moved on??? You’re still hung up this bad?

    Everyone saying Joe and Walky deserved better, but *DINA* is the one who deserves more than this. At least Joyce and Dorothy were *planning* on breaking up with the guys, with giving them closure and letting them go once they realized their feelings, but Becky is supposed to be the one in a happy relationship pulling the incel attitude out of nowhere.

    I have had too many good calls for too many plotpoints in a row, and unfortunately “Becky can handle this like a normal adult” was the link that broke the chain. Maybe the next few strips can bounce her back, but uh. Yeah idk, I think Becky is no longer my favorite lesbian in this.

    (good thing there are so many more gay women doing the heavy lifting now)

    1. Svankensen

      She can still be heartbroken about it without making a storm about it. I don’t see it as such a big deal (yet).

      1. Clif

        Incel?

      2. Megan

        i think being heartbroken that someone you care about found love is very strange, personally

    2. Summer

      You are significantly jumping the gun in assuming what Becky’s getting at here.

    3. Tan

      It is worth noting that Dina is well aware that Becky still experiences jealousy about Joyce (and probably doesn’t feel great about it, but doesn’t seem to hold it against her). This was from less than a week ago in-comic: https://www.dumbingofage.com/2024/comic/book-14/03-trystin-in-the-wind/absolves/

      1. Vanessa

        Oh good reminder. Intermittent bouts of jealousy indeed. Let’s hope Becky remembers that’s she’s moved on and has a hot girlfriend who is really into her now. Before she burns all of the remaining bridges with Joyce and also exhausts the deep well of tolerance her roommate Dorothy has shown for her continued abuse.

        1. Freemage

          Describing Becky’s actions as ‘abuse’ (as opposed to, say, ‘grating’ or ‘irritating’) indicates a reading not supported by evidence.

        2. Megan

          yeah i think becky is charitably read as cringe here, but abusive is way too far. i have long maintained being a bad gf is not abusive, just kind of shitty. not the same thing.

    4. justin8448

      Becky is still a teenager, and she’s had a crush on Joyce for basically her entire life. She learned that Joyce doesn’t feel the same way (and outed herself) less than 6 months ago. That’s not a lot of time to get over such a long-term crush.

      Personally I would like Becky less as a character if she shrugged this off, only because it wouldn’t have seemed like a realistic response to me.

      1. Sabrina Pandora

        THIS! Yes!

      2. Megan

        i had a gay crush on my straight best friend my entire life leading up to college, and i was not crying when he found other partners. idk if thats realistic or universal, which is why its bothering me

        1. justin8448

          Not that you need validation from an internet stranger, but I think that whatever reaction you had in the situation you experienced was right for you.

          I just also happen to believe that in the fictional universe of DoA, a more pained reaction from Becky makes more sense.

    5. Sharizard

      Maaaaybe give her a moment. This is Becky. She bounces back.

      1. Bryy

        Does she, though?

    6. Rebecca

      What the fuck are you talking about? What incel attitude? What’s your source for “What does she have that I don’t have”? There are THREE WHOLE WORDS in this strip, how are you THIS delusional?

      1. Megan

        You seem friendly

    7. Envy

      Becky has literally only said three words so far. Come on.

      1. Megan

        comic books tend to be a visual medium

    8. Bogeywoman

      Honestly, I’d consider Becky feeling hurt, forgotten, less-than, however she’s likely to feel to be an extremely human response. As with the reverse, feelings don’t care about facts. They happen, sometimes they’re overwhelming or don’t align with what we believe and value, and we deal with them. This isn’t her backtracking on growth, it’s an entirely new set of circumstances that may or may not shift how she perceives everything since she came out to Joyce.
      A well-adjusted adult would likely have an emotional reaction, express that, spend time integrating this new information into their schema, and take values-based-action. Having no emotional reaction would be abnormal, and just shoving those feelings down with a hundred pack of nuggets would be considerably less healthy.

      1. Megan

        at risk of mirroring arguments i found annoying about dorothy and joyce, Becky probably should be having those reactions with Dina instead of her unreciprocated crush. Like Becky had months to deal with the rejection, and it kind of strikes me as odd that Joyce being bi is such a revelation to her (despite every other character in the strip knowing before joyce did lmao) that she has this kind of teary, betrayed-looking moment about it.

        idk hard to say fully what i mean while the scene still hasnt finished, but as someone who’s been in a similar situation, its just kinda giving cringe.

    9. gamtos

      “good thing there are more gay women doing the heavy lifting now” yeah and what a bang up job they’re doing.

      1. Megan

        i know! thank you for agreeing with me, holds your hand because we’re friends

    10. Odditude

      She is just very human here.
      Hurt.
      You feelings dont dissapear as soon as you date another person.
      And with all the time and love scared between her and Dina, she properly wouldn’t go for Joyce if given the opportunity.

      But she is allowed to be hurt that Joyce fell for another woman, given how many years she loved Joyce for.

      1. Odditude

        *shared not scared

        1. Vanessa

          True. And also no one has to stop living their lives in fear of her reaction either.

      2. Megan

        thats less love and more possessiveness tho. She wasnt this hurt about Joe, she was only hurt when she realized Joyce could be into girls, just not her. That’s weird. Its normal to feel that way when she was hurt back at the actual rejection, but to be feeling that way now is just unfair to everyone unvolved, especially Joyce and Dina, because it means this whole time she never moved on, just compartmentalized it as “not my fault.”

    11. JBento

      Yeah, they gave the people they cheated on so much closure that Joyce urgently rushed out of Joe’s room to do nothing urgent at all.

      1. thejeff

        And then told Walky she’d won Dorothy and dragged here away.

      2. Megan

        what i meant is that the instant the kissed, Joyce and Dorothy had the full intention of breaking up with their existing partners to be with each other. They did not like the idea of cheating or dishonesty, they just wanted to move on with these newfound revelations and feelings

        Also both of those relationships were younger than two weeks Becky’s been with Dina for the better part of a year. Dina latched onto a violent man with a gun to save Becky and its been months since then, holding onto someone else for all that time is worse to me than a 10 hour period where Dorothy was technically dating two people who hate each other.

    12. Myra V

      It’s irrational as all get-out, but Becky’s not in an emotionally stable state right now. The discussion on sexual fluidity in her Gender Studies class triggered a bout of suicidal ideation with her, which has left her extremely shaken up – to the point that DINA of all people picked up on it and felt it appropriate to experiment with changing her gender presentation to help comfort her. Joyce and Dorothy have also been giving off strong signals left and right since the semester began (enough for Becky to try Beckxiling Dorothy from the group a day or two ago), and well before that as well. So, all of that combined means that Becky isn’t going to take the news well.

      Now, whether that means a quick explanation of how things clicked in the heat of the moment or if it means a dark spiral into depression and attempted suicide for Becky (which, again, is something that has been hinted at with Becky throwing out jokes about committing suicide) we can’t say at this point – but what I can say is that it makes sense that Becky is upset, even though she really shouldn’t be.

    13. Ludaire

      i know others are shouting you down, but I get it, Megan. There’s a ton of stuff in the comic pointing a particular direction. Becky’s history of possessiveness, the narrative framing, how Joyce/Dorothy have talked about her response, and so on all point towards a very explosive conversation here.

      And even if many people tend to have more sympathy for the person with unrequited feelings than the people who said person is causing problems for, I get how much pain it can cause if people don’t manage said unrequited feelings in a mature manner. Especially when a person is getting possessive and defensive of someone who isn’t even their romantic partner (which Becky is 110% guilty of).

      I’m still hoping that all of this setup has been leading to a moment where Becky shows some growth and subverts expectations. This question could honestly go either way.

      1. Big Z

        I’m not yelling at you here, but I am amused how much things have changed — people used to scream about homophobia and misogyny if you dared breathe the idea that Becky was a boundary-pusher or overly possessive of Joyce.

        1. Ludaire

          Oof. I didn’t tend to comment or read comments on those comics, so I wasn’t aware. It’s sad that some people would cheer so hard for non-straight relationships that they ignore unhealthy behaviors…

        2. Megan

          I mean she really wasn’t that bad until these last two strips. like yhe same argument about becky making the occasional joke while smiling and not expecting anything is unfair, but she’s currently guilting Joyce’s current gf with teary puppydog eyes and acting like she was kicked, which is a different story. two things can be true

      2. Vanessa

        Yes, I hope there is some growth. Becky really doesn’t want to be like either her parents. Giving into despair or being a controlling jerk.

    14. thejeff

      Let this cook for a bit.

      At least with what she’s said here, I feel like at least part of it is “how long have you been hiding this from me?”, which is a valid thing for a best friend to be upset about. Especially if she’s been seeing the signs for awhile and denying them to herself because Joyce would have told her, but now she’s thinking they actually were together going back how long?

      1. CWA

        Honestly? I think this is the right take. I don’t think she’s nearly so hurt by Joyce’s choices in who to have relationships with as she feels like this was specifically kept a secret from *her*.

        I mean it might be both (it’s probably both, I’m often naïve in such matters), but “My best friend didn’t tell me who she was with in a quasi-cheating relationship with until it came out on the front page.”

        1. thejeff

          Or even more directly, “My best friend didn’t tell me she was bi until it hit the front page.” Though it being Dorothy certainly plays into it, I doubt the cheating part really does.

        2. Vanessa

          Joyce has been scared to share herself with Becky. Even though Becky is supposed to be a best friend, for some reason Joyce feels that Becky is going to super-overreact to any growth and change that Joyce is having. It’s not been healthy or good. And I think Joyce has good reason, she’s known Becky all her life after all and Becky’s already telegraphed her intolerance for change and been an absolute beast to Dorothy. Fingers crossed the tremendous tension between them can be resolved: Becky is happy now right? Right?

        3. Freemage

          Such a beast to Dorothy that Dotty felt she had no option other than to room with Becky this semester.

      2. Megan

        i mean i am letting it cook, if she turns around and says “Lol” soon I’ll admit i was wrong, but i also dont think two queer people hiding their queerness for a few days out of fear from the outside world should be that foreign a concept for Becky at this point

    15. Mym

      This is an exhausting mindset. Why can’t Becky be upset because her best friend hid one of the biggest events of her life from her? Rejection stings, even after moving on. They’re children, and Becky just lost both of her parents. Why wouldn’t this rock her world, too?

      1. Astariel

        Hid for what, 18 hours? Is Joyce not allowed to have sometime to come to terms with it herself before she has to tell Becky? I don’t know how long Becky knew she was gay before she told Joyce, but it was sure as hell more than a day, and no one got on her ass for hiding things from her best friend.

        1. Tadfish

          I mean, Becky doesn’t KNOW that it’s been a day or less, hence the Question “Fer how long?” Everybody, including Becky, has been picking up the Gay Thing Joyce and Dorothy have had going on for months, and so it’s not unreasonable for Becky to imagine that Joyce has known and been hiding this for awhile- and that would be pretty devastating given that multiple of Becky’s insecurities are being hit here. 1) Part of the rejection hinged on the fact that Joyce is straight- and so the relationship itself was rejected without it being Becky specifically that was rejected. If Joyce is into girls and not Becky, that recontextualizes it and hurts more. 2) Becky is insecure about her position in Joyce’s life. She’s “supposed” to be Joyce’s best friend, and if Joyce doesn’t tell her about important life events and personal updates, that is threatening to her understanding of her position in Joyce’s life. 3) Becky is afraid of change, and Joyce is kind of the last holdout from her “old” life. And yeah her old life sucked but Joyce is the person that got her through it to the other side. To Becky, it was her and Joyce against the World. As long as she had Joyce things were gonna be okay. And for Joyce, well, Becky was her best friend.
          Joyce is the most important person in Becky’s life, and this is her discovering that she is not the most important person in Joyce’s life. That is rough.
          (And as an aside, yes, of course Dina is important to Becky. Joyce being more important to Becky isn’t me saying Becky has romantic feelings for Joyce that are prioritized over her romantic feelings for Becky. It’s like saying Joyce is more important to Sarah than Tony is.)

        2. Astariel

          No, I totally understand why Becky is sad and upset here. I don’t understand what seems to be the attitude of some commenters that Joyce has somehow wronged Becky by not telling her everything yet.

        3. Taffy

          All information is morally required to be shared with all potentially interested parties within microseconds of is acquisition, with no omission of any detail, which includes its holder’s inner thoughts. This is not unreasonable to demand.

        4. Vanessa

          Yes, absolutely agree.

        5. Rose

          I see a lot of comments saying Becky’s big feelings are understandable, but that’s not really the same thing as saying Joyce has wronged her. Sometimes there are difficult feelings without anyone doing anything malicious.

        6. Jon

          That length of time is the part that Becky doesn’t know yet. Remember, she’s been gay forever, although she didn’t kiss another girl until college; it would be easy for her to assume that Joyce and Dorothy have been hiding this from her since she arrived. Given her fear of gender fluidity, I don’t know if the truth will help a lot, but the point here is that it’s a truth she doesn’t know yet.

          Hopefully, one of these two will manage to tell her in less than seventeen more strips.

    16. zee

      Oh fuck you man just let her be sad. She’s not even doing anything, she hasn’t said anything entitled, shes barely said anything at all yet. She’s literally just standing there about to cry. Becky’s straight up not allowed to feel things according to the commentariat. Stop fucking reading into things she hasn’t said and just let the god damn traumatized teenager be sad. Or is that only allowed when it’s for blondes kissing?

      1. zee

        Sorry about the “man” I try to default to gender neutral language when addressing others here. Fuck off all the same tho

        1. Megan

          eat shit all the same, dickhead

        2. Megan

          Why is someone so militantly misogynist reading this comic with an 80% female cast, arent you scared? how are you managing?

    17. Taffy

      “incel attitude”
      Get a grip.

      1. Embe13

        it appears said comment has gotten nuked, and i am glad i didnt have to deal with it

        1. Taffy

          No, it’s still there.

      2. Megan

        what else do you call crying because someone youre not dating is getting it from someone who isn’t you? it just is incelly, objectively. its weird

    18. superglucose

      No kidding! Like how the hell are you going to tease Joyce for *months* about being gay (and for Dorothy) and then *this* c’mon be real.

      1. Taffy

        What exactly do you think “*this*” is?

        1. zee

          “*this*” is having emotions ig

        2. superglucose

          *this* is ambushing your best friend in her room with a newspaper and acting all betrayed and hurt because she recently discovered she’s queer.

        3. Dot

          Becky *doesn’t know* it’s recent.

        4. Arillius

          Becky DOES know it’s recent because Joyce has told her, relatively recently, that she didn’t believe she was straight. Becky has that info and is choosing to think that Joyce either a.) figured this out in the last few months and hid it from her or b.) was lying to her all along.

          Either way, Becky’s question is toeing the line of her toe dads possessive behavior.

        5. Sajuuk-Khar

          She really isn’t and this is disgusting, fuck off.

        6. Megan

          you had me in the first half ngl

        7. Shepsquared

          She is only ambushing her with a newspaper because said room has a bunch of them. And neither of them consider it out of bounds to be in each other’s room without permission.

      2. Vanessa

        Haha, Becky has been so rude and mean to them, of course they are afraid to tell her anything. Maybe she’ll realize she’s part of the problem. Becky is the reason Becky isn’t the one Joyce confides all of her thoughts and fears and hopes to. What an awful realization.

        But Becky kind of knows already I think.

        1. zee

          Becky’s never done anything wrong in her entire life

    19. ProfNekko

      think about it with this logic. Becky spent YEARS harboring a secret crush for Joyce and didn’t act on it due to the stigma she felt from her upbringing and her belief that Joyce was straight. When she met Dina she was able to move past her feelings and was even willling enough to accept Joe as Joyce’s partner… But then she opens the newspaper and sees that all those repressed feelings were meaningless because now Joyce just turns out to be bi all along and not only that but she’s dating someone who she’s not particularly fond of either. It’s a real punch to the gut either way

      1. Megan

        if that happened to me I’d go “Awesome my friend is gay now too, we can talk about gay stuff together now”

        i am not a jealous or possessive person, when i get rejected it doesnt take more than a few days for me to get over it. I love people because i want them to be happy, not because i want them to be mine and mine alone. sjust weird

  9. Yotomoe

    Anyway I drew a thing last night.
    https://imgur.com/a/BuraSzb

    1. Megan

      that’s awesome o.o

    2. BarerMender

      Nice.

    3. YourCousinJay

      what’s the quote again? “Could crawl between them and be safe forever”?

    4. Steamweed

      Nice! (she could crawl up in there and stay forever)

    5. thenamelesssamurai

      I love the expression on both of their faces. Jennifer’s nuturing, loving face ,while Joyce’s clearly melting from Joy and also a little bit of horniness is just adorable.

    6. Clif

      Thank you, as always Yotomoe.

    7. Astariel

      Very cute!

    8. Embe13

      LIKE!

      very well done

    9. Li

      Your art is so expressive and cute. Cute even when it’s being erotic in a way that diminishes neither!

  10. Stormtide Leviathan

    I’d just like us to recall a long long time ago when dan said “i’m so sorry becky i’ll make joyce gay if it makes you stop crying”. That strip is called “hindsight”.

    https://www.dumbingofage.com/2014/comic/book-5/01-when-somebody-loved-me/hindsight/

    1. Bogeywoman

      Oh damn, that call back hurts.

      1. Amara

        I mean I think this one was ironically a type of foreshadowing too now?
        https://www.dumbingofage.com/2014/comic/book-5/02-threes-a-crowd/cheating/

    2. Elf grrl

      Strips like “hindsight” really showcase just why Becky would feel a ways around Joyce’s budding bisexuality. You can see a lot of emotions and realizations clicking into place during Becky’s wordless panels.

      “But she’s in a committed relationship with Dina!!!” – I hear some cry and, yeah, so? Becky is a teenager who has been slowly getting over her childhood crush after confessing her feelings, coming out and getting rejected (sibling zoned) then getting 6 months worth of grief/trauma. Folks can stand to manage their expectations over how these teens should behave.

      I know this is just a melodrama slice of life comic strip, but Becky’s feelings are valid, and its weird how many wlw readers are quick to shove her feelings aside in favor of their new fav ship pair.

      1. Astariel

        Ever since Joyce and Dorothy kissed for the first time, people have been on their ass about how selfish they are to prioritze their emotions over other peoples. As far as Joe and Walky went, they at least had something of a point, but now they’re supposed to put Becky’s emotions ahead of theirs, too? When do they get to have their feelings instead of managing everyone else’s?

        1. HueSatLight

          I think you read the comment above yours in bad faith.

    3. Steamweed

      Not Dan, but definitely Willis. Some foresight, though. Made Joyce queerish but here’s Beckster crying again. 🙁

    4. TerribleTransit

      The irony that they did make Joyce gay, but it only seems likely to make her cry more.

      1. Jon

        Like the man said, be careful what you wish for, because you might get it.

    5. Vanessa

      That strip is the one right after Becky kissed Joyce. Notice Joyce doesn’t say she’s not into girls, she’s just not into Becky that way. She’s always thought of Becky as a friend. Not that she could have articulated any of that at the moment.

      1. Fuzzy

        She later tells Wally she definitely super is not at all into women because if she was, she would be into Becky. https://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-5/02-threes-a-crowd/foranybody/

        But also she says “I’m not–” in that strip which was almost certainly going to be “I’m not (into ladies)”.

  11. Lingo

    I guess I’m not the only one who has found it almost impossible to load this website recently? At least anywhere near midnight, and often during the day too.

    1. Hazel

      In the last couple days it has taken a long time for me too. Hopefully it can be resolved soon.

    2. IntangibleMatter

      I wonder if it’s because people are opening the page at midnight to read the comic and comment as soon as it’s out, or if it’s because of other server issues

      Though trouble loading at other times points to more issues

      1. thejeff

        I haven’t run into it myself, but from the comments it seems to have been getting gradually worse and not directly related to the number of comments, so I’d guess server issues.

      2. superglucose

        It is *exactly* because this (awesome!) storyline is making the comic so popular.

        (and for the record I’m allowed to be annoyed at characters in the webcomic)

        1. Vanessa

          Same here. I love them all and also they piss me off.

          The website didn’t load at all for me at turnover, for an hour or more.

    3. Thag Simmons

      Yeah, something about the website is borked. Hope it’s not too difficult of a fix.

    4. Rabid Rabbit

      Yeah, the last couple of nights, to the extent I actually checked IsItDown, which confirmed that it was, in fact, down.

      (The way Joyce & Dorothy aren’t right now because Becky-emotions got in the way, hohoho…)

      1. Vork

        Yeah, same here. When I checked, it stayed down for at least 2 hours, sometimes 3… plus during the day. It’s not that it loads slowly, it just doesn’t respond at all.

        That said…
        Wow, what a storyline. I didn’t expect Joyce to actually go for Dorothy. I love this. I’m definitely one of those people who check at midnight sharp 😉

    5. Nubetrasnochada

      Yeah, Willis already reported it to hiveworks, they are working on it.

    6. Yarner

      It was down for me, too (reading from Germany). I looked on reddit, where they had a mirror linked. The comments, though, were… well, somawhat different in atmosphere than here. ?

  12. Suet

    *hums any song named “How Long”*

    “How long since” or “How long will it last”

    1. Dara

      this one’s a classic

      1. Jon

        I don’t know enough HTML to link it, but Ace’s “How Long (Has This Been Going On)” is a good choice, I think.

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGP9uz4s8hQ

    2. thakoru

      My brain went to Hadestown.
      https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Bim5CXHgy3s&pp=ygUSaGFkZXN0b3duIGhvdyBsb25n

  13. TrueVCU

    MISSILES FIRED

  14. JA

    “Uh…time in comic or time IRL?”

  15. darkoneko

    ah, yer acent caught up

    1. Vanessa

      lol very good catch.

  16. NGPZ

    Wow this really is gonna be Becky’s 9/11 huh

    Also it’s still technically 9/10 over here and like fuck if im gonna let this effort go to waste D:<

    Introducing Horse Race Test: Dumbing of Age Edition

    https://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/project/7023781

    cuz if ya all gonna have parasocial relations with these comic characters, might as well be in the form of bouncing DVD screensavers ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

    1. NGPZ

      also here’s a better link for it in case your University or Business internet censors Newgrounds like a bunch of little shits:

      https://ngpz.dev/

      (yes, it is my personal website, what ya gonna do in the modern internet but improvise, peace ✌?)

      1. Embe13

        victory for agatha (took 10 minutes)

      2. Summer

        Carla won my first go. Sarah and Booster both made decent efforts, but Carla was the early leader and even with a setback having to go through the starting area again, she won. Probably because of the skates.

    2. Yotomoe

      Jocelyne won.

      1. cbwroses

        Julia Grey won mine.

        1. deliverything

          Sal won mine in way that kinda looked like showing off. Third to leave the starting area (she was in no hurry, I guess), went around the right almost to the end, then returned to the start and completed the left route instead.

        2. OngoingConversation

          Blowjob cat did the same on mine. Closely followed by Joe on the right, and then Ethan on the left.

      2. Freemage

        Daisy took an early lead to the right, then went back to the left where she was able to push Lyle to victory, like she was herding a cat.

    3. CianM1301

      Jennifer won mine, but it was a close race between her and BJ Cat.

    4. YourCousinJay

      Booster split off from the pack first but was unable to make a significant lead, losing their way as they returend to the pack as Agetha moved up past her followed closely by Carla.

      Carla attempting to box in Agetha but unable to pin her down, Agetha soaring past the corner as Carla gets stuck. Agatha now miles ahead of the rest of the pack while Joe and Ethan finally begin to make moves of their own taking the mirrored path to the rest but unable to make the bend, Ethan quickly returning to the larger pack as Joe attempts to find his way.

      But, what’s this? Agatha, only a single turn away from winning just seconds ago has mad her way all the way back to the starting line and begun a race down the opposing route. She’s already passes Carla! She passed Billy! She passed Fuckface!

      Ethan and Booster try to box her in but interefere with each other as Agatha soars past!! Only Joe is left now, the two are neck in neck!

      Two turns remaining, neither able to make headway but! BUT!! AGATHA!!

      PUSHING JOE DOWN SHE BOOSTED HERSELF UP OVER THE FINAL BEND AND GOT THE DRINK!! AGATHA WINS, HAVING LAPPED THE ENTIRE RACE TRACK!! WHAT PRIDE, WHAT POWER, WHAT DEXTERITY AND SPEED!! YOU’VE HEARD OF THE STORY OF THE TORTOISE AND THE HARE FOLKS, WELL THIS HARE WON BY A LANDSLIDE!!

    5. QueenofSodor

      this is the greatest thing anybodys ever made

      (it was neck and neck between Dorothy and Julia Gray, but Dorothy managed to outmaneuver her and get the win bc shes got that dog in her)

    6. HueSatLight

      Walky was the only one to make it out of the top for a long time, wandering all around the bottom, then Roz and Asma corralled him back, then Roz very quickly found the cup.

  17. IntangibleMatter

    Becky’s just the distraction, Dina’s waiting elsewhere to kill them for making Becky cry.

    1. Bryy

      IT BEGINS.

    2. CianM1301

      You stare at a teary-eyed Becky, and she just stares right back, and that’s when the attack comes, not from the front, but from the side, from the Dina you didn’t even know was there.

      1. Twinsword

        Ahh… perfection.

  18. twiz

    Yeah that’s a fair question.

    1. BarerMender

      I was impressed. I couldn’t guess what Becky would say, but Willis pulls it off, easy as pie.

  19. darkoneko

    ….there is definitely a problem with the site, it can’t just be “more people want to check on updates” at this point. It’s so bad that we’re one hour in and about 20 people managed to post a comment.

    1. Summer

      It’s been four hours as I type this and still barely a few dozen. And loading times are still atrocious

      1. Proxiehunter

        It took four hours f9r me to actually get it to load.

    2. Icalasari

      Oh hey the site is back up neat

      1. Icalasari

        WHY DID THIS REPLY INSTEAD OF TOP LEV-Wait actually this works. Huh. Ok

  20. superglucose

    oh fuck off becky you *knew* you’ve known for *months* chill out

    1. ZerglingOne

      I mean, she knew Joyce had *The Gay* within her for a long time. What Becky didn’t know, is growing up with your best friend tends to have a rather strong cooling effect on attraction.

      Becky is more like Joyce’s sister.

    2. Axel

      what, and how, do you think Becky knew?

      1. Ilucuthen

        Like Walky, Becky has made multiple comments about Joyce and Dorothy being super gay towards each other. They’re just less mean-spirited comments and easier to overlook.
        Some examples (the last panel of each):
        https://www.dumbingofage.com/2017/comic/book-8/01-face-the-strange/majesty/
        https://www.dumbingofage.com/2014/comic/book-5/01-when-somebody-loved-me/forever/
        https://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-6/01-to-those-whod-ground-me/rightfully/

      2. superglucose

        You’re telling me that Becky saw *gestures at the Dorothy and Joyce relationship* and came to the same conclusion that bigmad heterosexuals came to that it was just some kind of neat friendship with no romantic overtones? Iunno, man.

    3. thejeff

      That kind of makes it worse in a way. If she suspected for months but didn’t believe there was anything going on because Joyce wouldn’t hide that from her, now she thinks Joyce has been hiding it from her for months.

      1. superglucose

        so she’s hurt by something that she made up in her head.

        1. thejeff

          In a sense, but it’s a perfectly reasonable assumption. What are the odds that their very first kiss made the paper?

          Mind you, it’s not that big a deal. As long as Joyce and Dorothy don’t overreact, they’ll be able to calmly and clearly reassure her that they only figured it out themselves yesterday. Oh yeah. Never mind. They’re doomed.

    4. HueSatLight

      how dare she have feelings! D:<

      1. superglucose

        one can have feelings and express them poorly.

  21. Kyulen

    I don’t know if this comment will make it through since this site is loading extremely slow right now. But while I feel for Becky, I still feel like the characters who should be more bothered by Joyce and Dorothy’s recent behavior are the guys they were actually dating when they cheated.

    1. eh, whatever

      What’s the point in telling us every day, for months, how you think fictional characters should feel?

      1. Minivet

        Hear, hear.

      2. Yotomoe

        Yeah! Stop discussing your feelings about a comic in a comic discussion comment section!

      3. Dot

        What’s the point in kvetching about someone else expressing themselves in a way you don’t approve of – as if your own opinion on the matter is somehow more important – rather than just thinking “I disagree” and moving the fuck on?

    2. Shiro

      But you’ve been so good at keeping it secret

    3. Proxiehunter

      Why?

    4. Odditude

      I kinda wish the cheating was kept a secret for some time, seeing how they played their cards and how everyone reacted when they found out, one by one.

      It has been more “new status quo”

      But I like they Becky is here making everything more human.

      For one of the most cartoony charecters in the webcomic, she is also the one with the most human moments

      1. Ludaire

        Did you skip over Joe’s response? I thought that was an incredibly beautiful and human moment all about non-monogamous love. Even Walky’s response of “Well, that’s sad, but it’s been four days. Time for a healthy dose of coping mechanism” was extremely relatable.

        How is Becky’s response “more human?” I frankly find it far less relatable than either of the guys’ responses.

        1. perpetual summer

          idk if this is what Odditude meant, but I like this strip because it IS just pure emotion as the reaction – Joe and least partly expected this and likely had his whole spiel prepared (very calm and mature! A little too much for me personally. but I’ve never really found perfect boyfriend Joe that interesting) and Walkys reaction was a punchline (well, two punchlines). This has a lot more emotional weight behind it! Look at that lighting!

        2. J.Gawain

          “healthy”

        3. Yotomoe

          I think Becky’s actually fine being mad. I’m more upset that Becky’s the only one who GETS to be mad despite being the only one who wasn’t cheated on in this situation. Becky being mad is great in a vacuum but man why couldn’t Joe or Walky be allowed to be mad. As a treat.

        4. Fuzzy

          Like Joe being upset that he gave both Joyce and Dorothy opportunities to TALK TO HIM about it and do this above board instead of behind his back… Specifically trying to orchestrate a situation where cheating doesn’t happen, because he has trauma about cheating which was specifically mentioned in this arc to make sure that we remembered (but somehow only for the sake of delaying telling him til morning, not to actually foreshadow his reaction).

          Sigh.

        5. Archieve

          I really hope that atleast gets addressed, even if Joe isn’t mad about the cheating and is fine sharing a girlfriend, it’s hard to belive its healthy for his first serious relationship to be with someone where the favoritism is so unbalanced.

        6. Ludaire

          Why aren’t Joe and Walky allowed to not be mad?

          People are getting so hung up on how important the boyfriends’ response should be, but the same people are minimizing and invalidating their actual responses. Someone’s emotions aren’t less valid or less worthy of being told in a story just because it’s not unadulterated rage or sobbing tears of sadness.

          People are basically calling Joe and Walky less human just because there wasn’t more angst. Does that mean that I’m less human because I find their responses more relatable than Becky’s?

          One of this comic’s greatest strengths is the diversity of human experiences on display. Stop demanding that people in the comic should all be responding to cheating in the amatonormatively prescribed way when there’s a much wider range of human emotion and experience than that.

    5. Embe13

      i would say it is cause emotions are not transactional, and we don’t get to pick and choose which people around us get to have which level of reaction, the best we can to is try to not hurt as many as we can and apologize when we do unintentionally cause harm. i get you think that the boys should have greater proportional reactions based on the societal average value assigned to the act of cheating. but the boys are within their agency to react as they have, and if read as a whole it both is pretty in character for them, without it being signs of depression.
      becky has every right to have this hurt and pain, she loves dina, she wants to be with dina. that doesnt mean the 12year+ torch she has carried for joyce is gone, and maybe if the events that lead to this were occurring in second year becky wouldn’t feel it this hard, but it has barely been 6 months. let them feel.

  22. butts

    okay yeah this angle does make sense to me. not “i can’t believe you’re with dorothy” but “i’m afraid you’ve been with dorothy behind my back this whole time.” hopefully they clear this up quickly though

    1. Minivet

      At least some of column A still, but definitely a lot of column B, yes.

      1. Francoinblanco

        Im i the mood To help you dude
        You ain’t never had a friend like me

    2. thejeff

      The fun part is, they’re likely to stumble over their answers and make it worse.
      The simple answer of “That photo really was our first kiss. We were in denial for a while before that” would probably satisfy Becky – and once she’d calmed down she’d want all the details.

      But if the laundry sex or other things come up first, it’ll just confirm they’ve been hiding it from her, rather than just figuring it out now themselves. Which might also call back to Joyce hiding becoming atheist from her.

  23. Thing 2

    Well, not very, obviously, given what she has just said!

    1. thejeff

      Not six months obviously, but they still could have been hiding it from her for weeks.

  24. Masha

    Seems unlikely but I’d prefer the angle where Becky’s anger lied not with just being upset about the Joyce/Dorothy ship(understandable) but more with being like “We grew up together with similar circumstances but being gay caused me to be rejected, get kicked out of college, be briefly homeless, have my dad attempt to kidnap and murder me, and I have to deal with thoughts that I might be suicidal like my mom”.

    1. Myra V

      And I think that last one is a large part of what’s driving her being upset, and is hinting at a rather dark path for her coming up. Hopefully this doesn’t go that route and Dorothy and Joyce are able to reassure her that this is just a recent development and does not reflect on Becky at all – but we’re talking about Joyce and Dorothy here, two people who have shown that they’re not exactly great at understanding other people’s feelings or knowing how to react to them. So, as much as I’d rather see this turn into a bout of playful teasing from Becky going forward, I rather suspect that we’re going to be in for another dark story arc about a character dealing with depression and suicidality.

      I’ve noticed that’s not a terribly uncommon theme in the comic.

  25. Cimorene

    Becky needs and has needed therapy for a long time. She still needs that support and as far as I can remember Dorothy is the only cast member that we know of that is/has been in therapy. I’m mostly annoyed (at the characters) the support and focus has been helping Joyce figure out things, but Becky is just a mask of bravado and confidence and nobody has checked in to make sure she is getting her needs met as an orphan?

    She lost both her parents. Her dad died due to his reaction of his daughter’s sexuality. Then there is Joyce just flaunting it (although unintentionally) on the front page of a newspaper. That’s what Becky is going to be more hurt by than Joyce being into Dorothy more than her. Joyce and Joyce’s family is the one solid foundation she still has from her formative years.

    This also makes me think of some roommate swapping that happened after relationship drama. Are Dorothy and Amber going to have to become roommates? Or Sarah and Amber because Sarah won’t even want to deal with Joyce’s fall out leaving Dina and Becky to room together (officially or unofficially).

    1. Rabid Rabbit

      Ruth, Jennifer, Sal but it never took, and I feel I’m forgetting someone.

    2. YourCousinJay

      Dotty has a therapist, she doesn’t really get therapy

      She pretty plainly told Ruth she only tells her therapist about minor things because getting written up with something serious could hurt her future career.

      But considering she doesn’t want to become president anymo, hopefully that’ll change soon and she can have a good talk with her therapist about her PTSD and other anxieties

      1. Dot

        I have every confidence she will be able to find a new excuse for not telling her therapist anything.

        1. Bryy

          Ding ding ding.

      2. Proxiehunter

        It’s not even clear that she’s had a session since deciding she doesn’t want to be present anymore for her to open up about things at.

        1. Cimorene

          To be fair that’a not even been a week right? Might not have had another appt scheduled yet. But yeah I know many people “in therapy” not doing the work.

  26. Rabid Rabbit

    Re: alt-text: Well, it was 10 months when you wrote that, Willis, but it’s mysteriously gone down to 5 and bit.

    1. Fuzzy

      Has it? Does anyone have the link to where they talked about the buffer going down?

      1. thejeff

        There’s a Buffer Watch panel on the side bar, at least on the computer version of the side. Currently at February 27, 2026.

        1. Fuzzy

          Ohhhh I think I knew about that once, but then it became background noise that my eyes just glazed over. Thank you!

  27. Doopyboop

    Brief testing testing to see if my new avatar works. I have changed it in solidarity with Becky because she gets too much hate in the comments and I love her.

  28. Shiro

    Oh no those are the saddest wettest eyes ;-; Okay I can’t blame Becky for feeling like they were keeping it a secret, that’s a valid thing to be upset about. I hope they clear that up and there’s lots of hugging next strip ;-;

  29. CianM1301

    Not gonna lie, I was expecting Becky to slap one of them out of betrayal and frustration. Not sure which of the two she’d slap though, since both have proper grounds for slapping: Dorothy for stealing her childhood crush, and Joyce for lying to her about not being into girls.

    1. JBento

      Neither of those are grounds for slapping.

      1. CianM1301

        To a person in a normal mindset, maybe, but I don’t think Becky’s in a normal mindset at the moment.

        1. Ludaire

          Not being in a normal mindset doesn’t mean one has “proper grounds” for physically assaulting people.

        2. CianM1301

          I agree, obviously, but the point I’m trying to make is Becky wouldn’t be making a decision rationally or intentionally, she’d be acting out of emotion, and would most definitely regret it afterwards.

        3. Acher4

          YES!! SLAP SLAP SLAP SLAP SLAP SLAP SLAP!!!

          (I don’t actually want Becky to slap anyone, but it would definitely be a nice drama moment. hehehehe.
          Also, young adult drama stories have that in spades, why suddenly act like it’s bad?)

        4. Freemage

          And yet AG continues to get a pass for Halloween….

      2. Taffy

        Where’s the court of law? “Grounds” would matter there.

        1. CianM1301

          The court of Becky’s Emotionally Frazzled State Of Mind.

    2. John Campbell

      Leaving aside the frankly awful notion that either of those are legitimate grounds for violence, Joyce in fact did not lie to Becky about not being into girls. She just told Becky that she didn’t feel the same way about her, and likened it to incest. The idea that that was because Joyce was straight was all Becky’s assumption.

      1. CianM1301

        First off, I agree that they’re not legitmiate grounds for violence. As I stated above, Becky wouldn’t be thinking rationally and would be acting purely on emotion, and if she were to slap either of them, she would definitely regret it afterwards. Surely you’d agree that finding out that your childhood best friend is into girls via seeing her kissing your roommate on the front page of a newspaper would be very jarring mentally.
        Second, fair enough, that’s on me for not thinking on it further, though in my defense that strip was from 11 years ago, so you’ll forgive me for forgetting.

  30. SarahTerra

    This isn’t the IDS comic section, Rebecca. We did it 15 hours ago.

    1. Taffy

      You’re not supposed to remember how long it’s been for them, even if you’re making a Watch Men reference.

      1. John Campbell

        Who watches the watch, man?

      2. Jon

        Besides, Becky wouldn’t get the reference – she doesn’t watch men.

    2. Dot

      Well of course it’s not the IDS comic section. It’s Sunday.

  31. Mal

    No idea where this is going, but I’m not ready to condemn Becky for handling this badly just because she’s upset. Her facial expressions spanning from the last strip through this one show that she’s at least trying to work through a gut reaction. Asking “for how long” because she’s had to see it on the newspaper and then walk in on them making out is not a neat perfect reaction, of course it’s not. But it’s also not a venomous accusation or tantrum that Joyce chose Dorothy instead. I find her quiet reaction, so far, more interesting than her storming out or immediately leaping to explosive anger.

    It might not stay that way, but I don’t think it’s fair to have the worst faith reading on Becky’s reaction because she asked a question that, frankly, is fair to wonder given all of the context. She’s hurt and confused. She can express that, and it doesn’t inherently mean she’s going to implode her relationship with Dina or go on a jealous tirade at Joyce over it.

    1. Axel

      Yeah I agree, it’s not ideal, but it’s fair. If they’d been hiding it from her for a long time, that would suck. Not just because of the secret keeping, but because what does that mean about what they think of Becky? Like, after seeing the paper I probably wouldn’t assume it was the first time, so I’d be wondering like, did they think I wasn’t trustworthy? Or would be unsafely angry? Or did Joyce think I was going to be a creep if I found out she was gay, because I kissed her the one time? Or do they not really consider me enough of a friend anymore to tell me? etc

      sorry for swapping into first person but it’s 3am I can’t re type it

      1. Nymph

        I don’t love the (you’re not the only person who did this, you’re just the person I’m choosing to reply to about it) constant phrasing of “keeping a secret” and “not trusting” like Joyce and Dorothy would be bad friends if they’d been smooching for weeks in secret.

        That’s called being in the closet. There’s lots of reasons people choose to stay in the closet, and one of my least fave things that happens IRL is when people learn that you’re in the closet and get their shit in a twist about you not trusting them. Like it’s easy to tell who is or isn’t going to have a reaction you’re prepared to deal with. Like it’s totally safe now and gay/trans people don’t get beaten up or killed for existing.

        IDK, I just wish we could drop the “betrayal” angle of things. Becky can still be sad she didn’t know, be sad that it’s true and it means Joyce didn’t want her anyway, but I am genuinely hopeful that a young woman who nearly got murdered over coming out doesn’t hold it against other young women for not texting her the instant they smooched.

        1. Yotomoe

          I remember when I first found out my roommate was gay. He didn’t tell me but one of his friends mentioned it offhand and I was surprised because that guy knew and I didn’t. And for a little bit I was a little hurt that other people knew and I didn’t. But I also quickly told myself that he obviously had reasons to keep it secret and it was obviously his choice to keep it from me, especially since I’m sure high school me had made homophobic comments at times. So I just got over myself, accepted this new reality and went on with my life.

          Keep in mind I was like…16-17 at the time.

        2. Li

          I also think it’s important to remember that, like…

          This isn’t a binary situation. It IS a perfectly human reaction to be hurt when you realize someone you care about wasn’t sure you would be accepting of them. Especially if it feels like they trusted people they don’t know as well as they know you.

          (See: Joyce’s reaction to realizing Becky and Dina both knew Jocelyne was trans before her.)

          You put it in the EXACT right frame, Yotomoe, but you were not a bad person for having a moments of feeling crappy.

          I’m sure Nymph would agree: it’s not being a bad friend to feel hurt that you weren’t told. The crappy thing is when you (general you, obviously not you specifically) take those feelings and lash out with them, treating it like a betrayal, treating it like an accusation — and making something difficult and scary your friend just did all about you and how unfair it is that they didn’t do that sooner.

          Not a binary ❤️

          Becky can feel hurt that she wasn’t the first person Joyce told, Danny can feel hurt that Dorothy didn’t willingly come out to him — that’s fine.

          But also: not being immediately trusted isn’t an attack. It’s not actually a mean thing being done to you, even though it might feel that way. And betrayal is definitely the wrong word for Joyce and Dorothy not immediately coming out.

          (And also: you’d THINK Becky being a lesbian would automatically mean she can’t be biphobic, but boy oh boy is that not, unfortunately, how the world always works.)

        3. Yotomoe

          Biphobic lesbians are like racist black people. You would think with all the hardship you’ve endured you would have an inherit sense of community but NOPE. Turns out oppressed people can be just as bigoted as anyone else.

        4. thenamelesssamurai

          Oh yeah, definitely. There’s a quote I keep going back to: “At its worst, this attitude makes discussions about personal, emotional issues intolerable, because everybody has to demonstrate to everybody else that they, in fact, are paragons of multi-racial purity. But in fact, everybody, without exception, are bigoted, prejudiced, close-minded idiots. Getting this essential truth out early allows the eventual name-calling of racist, sexist, transphobe, kyriarchiest to be framed appropriately. We are against bad things, therefore we are also against ourselves.”

        5. Li

          Alas, we have all been steeped in the same shitty culture. 🙁

        6. Astariel

          @Nymph – Yes, absolutely this. I hate this idea that some people seem to have that Joyce is a bad friend because she didn’t tell Becky about this immediately. Realizing you aren’t straight is a huge deal and it takes time to come to terms with it. I wish people would give Joyce (and Dorothy) a little grace before chastizing them for betrayal that they didn’t tell people right away. When I realized I was trans, it took me a lot longer than this to tell my closest friends, even though I was 99.9% sure they’d be supportive (and they were.) And that was when I was 39, not a college freshman.

        7. Jon

          Given that Joyce realized she wasn’t straight yesterday afternoon, in the middle of a police riot, yeah, I’d cut her some slack for making the guys a higher priority than her friend.

        8. Axel

          (not sure how far down this will show up, it’s @Nymph though)

          I do think it’s fair for people to take their time being in the closet (I certainly did), but at the same time, if a friend knew I was super out, I would still wonder if there was something that made them think I was an unsafe person to tell. That doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with it, or that any hurt on my part would be justified (especially if they really just wanted to take a minute and get comfortable with it themselves), but I’d still wonder and be upset about those possibilities before we sorted it out

          I also don’t think they’re bad friends or anything, but them not having done anything wrong to Becky doesn’t mean she’s not allowed to have an emotional response. (there are things she could do with that response that would be wrong, but just having it, and having questions, are okay)

        9. Axel

          Should probably also clarify that “If they’d been hiding it from her for a long time, that would suck,” in my original reply is meant to mean ‘that would kinda suck to find out,’ for the reasons I outlined; it’s NOT meant to mean ‘that would be a sucky thing to do.’ People can do things that are fully okay and within their rights that still hurt to hear about later.

    2. drs

      ” then walk in on them making out”

      She didn’t walk in on them. She was waiting in Joyce’s room. D&J walk in, start kissing, Joyce looks to her left — away from the door — and sees Becky standing in front of the window.

  32. Acher4

    Becky doing the right questions. 😉

    Answer! 12 hours…? At best. 😀

    A serious important fact, that some specific commenters forget and have decided to act like there has been, for years, some like, backstab cheating or something… :eyeroll:

    (fact: No literal cheating has occurred)

    1. Thing 2

      People seem to have wildly different views about what constituted “cheating”, but I’m certainly in the camp that no cheating has occurred.

      1. Dot

        That seems like a strange camp to be in given that Joyce and Dorothy definitely think they cheated

        1. Nymph

          I mean, Thing 2 is allowed their own personal opinion on things. Even if it doesn’t align with the characters in the comic or some of the commentariat. It’s not required that they base their definition of “did cheating happen” on the opinions of people within the relationship.

        2. Bryy

          And that multiple people think they cheated. Including Joe. And apparently Walky.

        3. thejeff

          Not to mention Willis.

          I’m not so sure about Walky though.

      2. deliverything

        Joyce and Dorothy, however, aren’t.
        The very first panel of https://www.dumbingofage.com/2025/comic/book-15/04-the-only-exception/clocked-2/ confirms, but they seemed to already think of themselves as cheating back in https://www.dumbingofage.com/2025/comic/book-15/04-the-only-exception/stop-3/

      3. Acher4

        Same. 🙂
        No literal cheating has occured.

        As about Joyce and Dorothy feeling bad doing anything before they broke up with Joe and Walky.
        I mean…. ye(?). That was the point…and proves many things against the “cheating” allegations.

        1. TerribleTransit

          All right, then. What’s “literal” cheating? Does it require having sex? If so you’re… I suppose *technically* correct, depending on whose definition you use, but it’s a bit weird to declare yours objectively correct when every character and the author have all called what happened cheating. It’s clearly not singing completely innocent and harmless that happened, so if you don’t call it cheating, what was it?

        2. Jon

          For my money, “literal cheating” requires violating some sort of oath or promise – and not an “implicit promise” based on someone’s interpretation of the social zeitgeist. Joyce and Joe were barely dating; Walky and Dorothy was a four-day-long rebound booty call, initiated in a moment of Dorothy’s bi panic. Nobody had proposed to anyone, there were no rings, there was no ceremony, there wasn’t even a statement on anyone’s part that there was a commitment. They’re college kids.

    2. Ludaire

      Only the participants in the relationship can really define cheating, and Joe did call it such. However, he also clearly didn’t have a problem with it.

      Given that and the fact that they haven’t even considered any kind of deceit or lying or anything like that, I don’t think they deserve the level of scorn they’ve been receiving from some in this comments section regardless of whether it does or doesn’t meet the technical definition of “cheating.”

      1. thejeff

        The author has also called it cheating. Or at least talked about deciding to write a cheating plot.

        It’s definitely on the mild side as far as cheating goes, which I see as something of a failure. If you set out to write a cheating arc and a decent chunk of the audience are arguing there was no cheating, it doesn’t seem like a success in that regard.

        1. Big Z

          I keep thinking of referencing that one comic:

          Joyce: It was cheating
          Dorothy: It was cheating
          Joe: It was cheating

          … isn’t there someone you forgot to ask?

          Willis: I set out to write a cheating arc

          Wait, shit.

        2. Donovan

          Did you ask the magic 8-ball?

        3. Ludaire

          As I’ve said elsewhere, it depends on the goal. If Willis wanted to write a stock-standard cheating arc where everything goes as people expect, with long-term deception, the hijinks that involves, the lying, the massive emotional pain, and everything else, then yes, he failed.

          If he wanted to write a story about the nuances of messy human relationships and question the societal response to all “cheating” as if it’s one singular unforgivable sin (rather than a spectrum of behavior with varying degrees of pain and moral issues), then I think what he’s written has been pretty great. In such a case, people questioning whether it’s cheating or not is a success, not a failure. It has questioning and discussing the very nature of cheating, questioning notions of monogamy, questioning whether assumed monogamy is sufficient justification to call something cheating, and so on.

          There’s certainly a lot more depth to this than your stock-standard cheating arc, and it’s by far a lot more interesting.

        4. thejeff

          I think that’s assuming a lot. There’s nothing I see in the story itself that questions the very nature of cheating or anything about assumed monogamy. None of the characters have raised the arguments that it wasn’t cheating we’ve seen here. Joe brought up poly, but he also referred to it as cheating, so that’s not really questioning the nature of cheating.

          Maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t really see any meta deconstruction of cheating and monogamy going on here. I see an arc where most of the depth and most of the plot beats could have worked just fine as a “coming out/breaking up” story without the cheating even being there.

    3. Eric

      Wait! Maybe she was asking about the buffer

    4. thejeff

      That’s how long it’s been, but it’s perfectly reasonable for Becky to assume it’s been longer. Generally when people get surprised by something like a photo of two of their friends making out, they won’t assume it was the very first time.
      That’s one reason why you want to get ahead of the news and tell them yourself before they stumble across it. However much we want to argue they’re not obligated to tell her or to tell her within any particular time limit, if you tell someone yourself before they find out, the assumptions change.

      And the cheating side of it is probably irrelevant here. Becky’s not directly affected by that and it doesn’t seem like what she’s talking about.

  33. Rebecca

    Pleasantly surprised that this comments section hasn’t been utterly flooded, as I assumed would be the case from the abysmal loading times.

    Unpleasantly surprised that people are reacting so strongly and intensively to what is effectively a beat comic. I thought people would be complaining about how little happens here, but instead there’s people straight-up fabricating Becky’s attitude to have something to whine about.

    1. Icalasari

      I checked Reddit’s comments while waiting for the site to get its act together

      These comments are downright logical and high quality compared to there it was hilarious

      1. Rebecca

        Same. Reddit’s puritans are making the ‘relationship paladins’ on this site look nearly moderate.

        1. Icalasari

          I especially liked the one where they were claiming Joyce and Dorothy being all over each other was “Fetishizing” and that it’s only focusing on that and ignoring Joe and Walky, when Joe is not going to be interesting to focus on right now as he’s numb (especially when we have the, ‘Consequences when?’ crowd), Walky is… He’s just eating his feelings, and Joyce and Dorothy going at each other makes sense with all the build up – Like, looking back at older uploads it’s basically, “Yep, they have so much pent up of course they are going to go at each other”

          Close second (and mentioned in comments for THIS page specifically which adds to the confusion) was Willis apparently being transphobic because he never had Jocelyne mention any bedroom antics which ???

        2. Icalasari

          *mentioned in the reddit page’s comments for this page

        3. Gotthammer

          That’s a pretty big misrepresentation of that conversation, which is queer women talking about their own discomfort about the comic’s portrayal of queer women.

          And the second point is about Carla, not Jocelyne.

        4. esoteric pastry

          I’m having a lot of queer woman fun queer womanly reading intense anxiety and angst and conflict in this comic.

        5. deliverything

          On the second point: not a very good point, if it’s indeed claiming transphobia based on the possibly sex-repulsed Carla (if that’s consistent across universes) not mentioning bedroom shenanigans when Jocelyne cheerfully mentioned getting her “bubble” poked.

          Anyway, Carla talking about sexual exploits would use up time that could be spent talking about her (and now her girlfriend’s) personal awesomeness.

        6. Astariel

          Carla’s definitely sex-repulsed. She was grossed out when Becky and Dina told her they had sex, and she told Charlie that “I very passionately don’t fuck.”

        7. Li

          Yeah, Carla is unambiguously homoromantic (see how she talks to Walky about Lucy) and sex-repulsed.

          (inb4 “having her react like that to Dina and Becky—” Narratively necessary! It was not enough to have her only be visibly sex-repulsed about straight people! Only by having her react that way to two girls do we know that it is sex-repulsion and not just being over the top grossed out by straightness.)

          So yeah, if they’re upset about that, that’s icky.

        8. Dot

          It’s been a while since I’ve read Shortpacked! but as I recall it’s in keeping with how Ultra Car was in that. The fact that she was not capable of engaging sexually with Malaya was a point of contention between them, wasn’t it?

        9. Li

          Yes and yes. They found ways around it, which I personally thought were nice? Because that Carla was also an android, she was able to engage sexually with Malaya with enough physical distance that it didn’t bother her.

          That’s not so much an option for this Carla of course, but especially for the year all of this happened, I thought it was neat. And Willis was (rightfully) disturbed by folks calling for Carla to just get over her feelings or be “””fixed”””.

          idk, obviously literally cartoonish, but I liked how it still managed to touch on the kinds of healthy compromises aspec folks do sometimes very much WANT to make. I liked that it kept Carla’s boundaries in place, etc.

        10. Yotomoe

          I will admit I can recognize the complaint somewhat. In that carla was both our first openly trans character and our first openly sex repulsed character. If I wasn’t aware of carla’s origins I would sideeye that her being the one character at that time who outright disliked sex. Could be seen as a way to prevent the writer from having to depict anything they’re uncomfortable or unsure about their depiction of (playing it safe.) I don’t think that’s the case but I have seen that be the case enough to get the suspicion.
          I think Jocelyne has been so brazenly horny almost as a way to say “no I’m not afraid to delve into sexuality with trans people. That is a character trait that is simply unique to carla.”

        11. perpetual summer

          i’m gonna be real some of you look a little silly going “if this is what was said” and arguing against it without like. checking. which you could do. otherwise you’re literally shadowboxing. (though i went looking and the comment doesn’t provide much detail. if i had to guess, i’d agree with yotomoe about what the issue probably is, because it’s a trope i’ve seen enough other places. that said, a lot of people over there don’t seem to have a lot if any grace left for willis – maybe this is an old complaint coming up again, or something retroactively frustrating after not liking the comic recently. who knows not me)

          but i also think bringing arguments over from a different space just fundamentally sucks and doesn’t add anything of value to this one, so. (none of this directed /at/ gotthammer btw just the thread below their comment. I think it’s fine to add context if you feel something is misrepresented, though at some point people should just check themselves if they care.)

        12. Li

          Going looking for aphobic transphobia is bad for my mental health in at least two ways so I will not actually be doing that. If that results in the occasional silly “jeez that’s gross if that’s what they said” comment, oh well.

        13. Icalasari

          Yeah, I probably shouldn’t have brought it over. And again, I apologize if I misunderstood – as you saw yourself, they didn’t leave much detail to be 100% sure so at first few readings, they felt the way I read it. Yotomoe’s is probably the correct reading after sitting on it

          And sorry if I seemed like I was shadowboxing myself (fourth read and it seems more like you were talking about people responding, but still, I did effectively take my read and post it without any quotes so it wasn’t like my comment was much better)

        14. Icalasari

          If I did misunderstand, then I do apologize. It’s how it read to me, however, and it was more commentary on how Reddit does go rabid and removes context from scenes. Not meaning to shadowbox or anything

    2. Ludaire

      To be fair, a lot of stuff in the comic has been framing Becky’s response as an incredibly important thing, even this beat comic. I think people are responding to that just as much, if not more, than they are to Becky herself.

      Also, the expectation that someone else’s unrequited attraction should dictate anything in your life is extremely upsetting to some people, so it’s understandable that even the anticipation of such can provoke quite a strong reaction.

      1. Rebecca

        Your diplomacy is laudable, but I will not be fair to these people.

        1. Ludaire

          Why not?

        2. Rebecca

          Because they’re exhausting and I am continuously frustrated by how a literal soap opera has somehow attracted the kind of people who moralize on and on about the choices of fictional characters made for the sake of generating drama. They’re so desperate to ‘remind’ everyone that the real world exists and actions have consequences that they seem to forget that this is an escapist dramedy and none of the reader base is stupid enough to need puritans right under their comic performatively shaking their heads to show that these are disagreeable actions.

        3. Bryy

          Am I okay to wag my finger?

        4. Fuzzy

          No.

        5. Taffy

          Yeah, you draw that line in the sand, champ.

    3. StClair

      The abysmal loading times are, IMO, what KEPT the site from being immediately flooded. Most of us simply couldn’t get through and gave up.

      1. StClair

        and as you see, all of those comments are being made now that the site is actually accessible.

  34. Animedingo

    Depends on who you ask.

  35. FluffyLlamacorn

    Alright, this is a reasonable question. Becky gets to be hurt that the girl she’s liked forever doesn’t like her back, but she doesn’t get to hold it against her when she falls for someone else. However, if said girl had been keeping something this big from her for maybe ages, it’s another layer of hurt to deal with.

    1. Rimwalker55

      True, true. Although she loves Dina completely, Joyce was her hearts first love and sadness for what could have been is a healthy response.

      Should they hug it out or go do a couple shots?

      1. Taffy

        Forget “or”.

  36. anonymsly

    Oof. Yeah. Becky had already been upset about being left out of the dranks excursion, it probably feels entirely possible that Joyce and Dorothy have been lying to her for weeks or more.

    1. thejeff

      Even if they only got together more recently, if she thinks Joyce has been hiding being queer longer, that’s also going to hurt.

      And she’s got precedent: Joyce hid becoming atheist from her for quite awhile.

      1. StClair

        Ouch, good point.

        Becky’s been hurting for a while, and Joyce has been hiding and leaving her out of stuff for almost as long.

  37. Dare

    “well Becky I was just about to confess my feelings for you on the first day of college but then you said that don’t let anyone change you so I became frighened. but then the minute you’d stepped into the car Dorothy swept me off my feet causing me to forget all about you and we’ve been a couple since then, just didn’t get around to telling you”

    “ghost of mike, go bother amber or something”

  38. Da Boy

    Well at least this answer won’t be Too devastating.

    1. Shakes

      IT WAS LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT BABY

      1. John Campbell

        Honestly, I think it may have been. The link I posted above with Joyce asking Dorothy out on their “first date” is only half joking.

        I was recently re-reading the early comic, with an eye towards when we started getting the first hints of Bi Joyce, and… basically every interaction she has with Billie or Sal for the first week or so of the comic can be read as “huge lesbian crush”. At one point, she was fawning over Billie so hard that I wouldn’t have been surprised if she’d started clinging to her leg like they were in a Frazetta painting, which was only forestalled by a hotter girl showing up on a motorcycle.

        Her reaction to Dorothy was more subtle, but it was basically a quieter mirror of Walky’s reaction to Dorothy. They both latched onto her at exactly the same time. Joyce freaked out when she discovered that her new crush was an atheist, resulting in a series of comics where freaked-out-about-atheism Joyce and freaked-out-because-GIRL Walky were both nevertheless trailing Dorothy around like lost puppies. And then within 24 hours, Joyce was at Dorothy’s door to apologize and ask her out to dinner, even though she was clearly still terrified of catching the godlessness. It even culminated, as I’ve pointed out before, in Joyce throwing a toy at Dorothy’s head.

        A bunch of people seem to have been distracted by Dorothy’s flailing and missed Joyce’s much quieter bisexuality arc. In retrospect, I think we may have been distracted by Walky’s flailing and missed Joyce’s much quieter falling-for-Dorothy arc.

        I have now written way too much in response to a joke one-liner, but whatcha gonna do?

        1. Embe13

          i feel you man!

    2. Dot

      This is the exact situation where Joyce loves to put her foot in her mouth and just say some shit.

      1. Da Boy

        Oh shit, you are right

        1. thejeff

          Yup. There’s a nice honest straightforward answer that’ll probably make Becky feel a lot better, especially if it comes with an apology for not telling her last night (when Dorothy did basically lie about nothing happening).
          Then the details about how they built up to it while still being in denial can come out later, because Becky will definitely want to know the deets.

          That’s probably not what’s going to happen.

  39. Sirksome

    Don’t trust this site’s load times.

    1. Deckard

      Honestly, the fact that I have to means I’m being forced to sleep a little more properly now!

      Don’t trust yourself when you’re exhausted.

      1. Deckard

        “have to wait”

        okay clearly I’m still tired.

  40. ScienceOfFantasy

    The diabolical thing would be to give two different, logically sound answers at the same time. Joyce could answer weeks or months, depending on where she thinks her attraction/atttachment to Dorothy began. Dorothy, meanwhile, could answer ‘two days’ and and be 100% correct also.

    1. StClair

      And for that added bit of meta, the longer answer could be how long this story arc has been running in real time.

    2. Li

      Oh that is a very good prediction. Joyce has definitely been retroactively adding time to this, Dorothy has been doing the opposite.

      Even “two weeks ago” and “yesterday” would be bad enough!

      1. Dot

        Yep. Joyce has been acting as if they were actively, consciously pining for each other for half a year, while Dorothy is still working through some guilt or uncertainty and is trying to keep the timeline tight.

        1. Li

          Something something Joyce’s tendency to romanticize everything something.

      2. Jon

        “Yesterday” would be exactly correct. Sometime yesterday afternoon, in point of fact.

        1. Li

          Yes but I just mean even that would be a big enough discrepancy for Becky to feel like she’s being lied to!

  41. Dot

    Well Joyce did just say six months…

  42. Taigan

    I’m hoping Becky will tearfully move past this, but later when she and Dorothy are alone be like “if you aren’t the best god danged girlfriend in history to her, I will END YOU, more slowly and painfully that you can possibly imagine.”

  43. Dot

    Glad to see this comment section is continuing its streak of only extending grace to the cast for making messy, emotional choices only when it’s Joyce and Dorothy.

    Becky is not an incel for still being hung up on a girl she was in love with her entire life. Have some fucking tact.

    1. esoteric pastry

      I’m having tact by enjoying the angst. revelling in it even. I love pain in fiction 🙂 this comic is so cool.

    2. Ludaire

      In the same way some people respond very, very strongly to cheating (and there have been plenty of people extending zero grace to Joyce and Dorothy due to that), some people have a very strong emotional reaction to someone maintaining possessiveness, defensiveness, and attachment long after it’s been made clear the romantic feelings are not reciprocated.

      That kind of thing can cause some very serious pain even if it’s mostly been played for laughs in this comic (usually at Dorothy’s expense). That history is part of how people are reading this. So I understand people being upset, even if it’s mostly in response to the build up we’ve had more so than Becky’s actual response.

      It will be interesting to see how things go and whether Becky proves those worst worries correct or goes a different direction.

    3. Big Z

      Frankly speaking, it does feel pretty nice to have my suspicions confirmed that there are some folks in this comment section whose entire POV is “whatever makes my ship sail unhindered is good, everything else is obviously bad and wrong and nonsense” as they react just as strangely to Becky being a normal person with feelings as they have been to commenters who weren’t 100% on board with consequence-free J&D.

      1. Nymph

        Okay but “Consequence-free J&D” rhymes, so what now? Checkmate.

        1. Dot

          Fuck. That’s true.

        2. Big Z

          I was trying to come up with counter-rhymes, to Joyce and Joe, but they’re all either inappropriate or REALLY inappropriate. You win this time, coincidental couplet!

        3. Rogue 7

          OK but with Joe & Joyce you can use their ship name to make references to one of the best Beatles songs.

    4. Yotomoe

      Becky can totally be mad but my patience ends when she starts making her problems their problems. She hasn’t said anything damning yet but god I hate how this arc is all framed and built up to her reaction. It’s not the character for me. It’s the framing.

      1. zee

        We haven’t even seen her be mad yet. She’s just crying

        1. Arillius

          We see her assuming that her best friend has been lying to her for a length of time, by asking a question that automatically assumes Joyce has been keeping this info from her, and also by framing it in a way that assumes Becky deserved to be told immediately.

          I’m not saying Becky being hurt isn’t valid and I’m not saying I agree with how Joyce has been acting through any of this, but Becky being in Joyce’s room, waiting, holding that newspaper, with a question that automatically frames Joyce as a liar, is sending up a LOT of red flags for me.

      2. Bryy

        It could go either way at this point.

    5. Li

      It’s actually EXTREMELY new that Dorothy is getting any of that grace, and even very recently folks were still consistently talking about this whole arc as if Dorothy were dragging Joyce around by the hand and forcing her to cheat on Joe and forcing her to break up with him.

    6. Embe13

      so glad that commetn got muked

  44. Sirksome

    I don’t have much for this one except that it feel weird and unfair that Becky, the person who has been actively hindering Joyce and Dorothy’s closeness, even as platonic friends, practically since she first met Dorothy can ask this question. They weren’t hiding anything but if they were could Becky really blame them?

    1. Chasey

      This is about all I’m feeling here as well. You summed it up nicely.

    2. Ludaire

      Yeah. It’s been mostly played for laughs, but I don’t think people get how serious that kind of thing can be. Even if Joyce and Becky were together, Becky sabotaging Joyce’s friendship with Dorothy would be horrible. There’s a reason why Becky has been the biggest looming cloud over these two, and it’s entirely down to Becky’s fairly toxic possessiveness.

      1. Bryy

        Yeah, like, there’s a reason Becky was #1 in their minds.

  45. YourCousinJay

    My girlfriend share me a patreon comment yesterday that willis seemed to enjoy and that definitely makes me afraid

    “An ineluctable truth about Joyce Brown is that her heart and her kindness and rizz and her genuine beauty are inextricable from her pathological need to jus say some of the worst sentences, for any given moment, in the entire English language”
    – Sajuuk-Khar

    Anyhow watch Joyce say some poorly timed romcom shit that’ll just re-confirm Becky’s idea from their last fight that she truly just doesn’t know Joyce as a person anymore

    1. thejeff

      And that Joyce doesn’t trust her and is always hiding anything important from her.

      1. anonymsly

        In a bit of fairness to Joyce, Becky goes out of her way to make herself an unsafe person for Joyce to confide in a goodly amount of the time. What with the yelling repetition of things she’s told, the climbing up her ass about religion and trying to re-convert her, and other such events.

        Becky doesn’t present herself to Joyce as a good supportive listener, is what I’m saying. That’s the whole reason she started talking to Joe in the first place, IIRC. Couldn’t Talk To Becky About This.

        1. Bryy

          Joyce doesn’t even *know* about the re-conversion plot, and that’s yet another shoe. We’ve only even seen two strips about it. I’m assuming that’s actually going to be a Lucy Arc.

        2. Dot

          It feels like less of a “plot” and more of a “something Becky did exactly once”

        3. Bryy

          Well, we never actually got any closure on that. The two times we’ve actually seen it, Lucy implied that she was either a co-conspirator or wanted to be one. The second was her very pettily putting on Rich Mullins.

          It could go the way of “oh, Joyce is bi now, maybe she actually is atheist after all”.

    2. Sajuuk-Khar

      Hahaha it’s me! I was saying this! ?

      1. Dot

        It’s you!

      2. zee

        You’re my favorite commenter on the Patreon tbh

        1. Sajuuk-Khar

          I’m honestly really glad to hear this

  46. Drainiest Drain

    BECKYYYYY ?

  47. Corey C.

    So everything Becky suspected about Dorothy turned out to be true. Joyce never loved Becky romantically, her heart always belonged to Dotty since Day 1, and Becky has fallen into the Childhood Friend With a Crush trope, and those NEVER get the protagonist.

    It’s kind of weird seeing people bash Becky’s view since Becks currently has a girlfriend that she’s sexually active with herself. Yes, Becky and Dina are really cute together, but Joyce was her first love, and it’s only been about 6 months since she made her confession and got rejected, so, as much as she loves Dina, those feelings won’t disappear completely, especially as a teenager whose hormones are still raging. I was in love with my best female friend in college, who was a year older than I was so she graduated before I did, and even though I did get a girlfriend after that, when she came back to see ME graduate she kissed me, and all those emotions flooded right back. Two years later I was a videographer to her wedding, and it was, without a doubt, one of the worst days of my life… and I was 24! Only when I saw her 5 years later did I realize I had no more romantic attraction to her whatsoever. Becky is roughly 10 years younger than I was when I got over my crush once and for all, so of course she’s not going to let this slide. You can’t get over a girl you’ve been in love with for years in just SIX MONTHS! I’ve been there! I know!

    1. Dot

      It’s genuinely crazy how little empathy people are extending Becky in this situation. This is a certified Sapphic classic and they’re crucifying her for it!

      1. feli

        Especially since she hasn’t done anything yet.
        I think the question and her reaction are valid. Not only does it hurt that your crush (and best friend since forever) likes another girl (when you just got used to ‘its not me, its just that she dont like girls’), but she also suspects it might have been going on in secret for a while. And that last part would hurt A TON.

        1. Elf grrl

          This exactly! Folks forget the length of time all of this went down and how adamantly Joyce rejected Becky on the grounds of “I’m not into girls.” Of course Becks is going to feel emotional over this. Dina not being with her right now but aware of the situation (see few strips back where Dina gave Dorothy “a look” when Dotty came to check on Amber) kinda gives the impression that Becky needed to confront this on her own. Dina would understandably give Becky that space to process. My hope is that Becky will go to Dina after this conversation is had and the two will cuddle/bang in consolation.

        2. Adam Black

          Turns out Becky raised like she was a sister was the wrong person to make that test for Joyce.
          For the obvious reason of being a childhood friend.

          Becky was the one who fooled Joyce. Joyce might have come out sooner without that kiss.

        3. Dot

          This is a genuinely wild take. Are we seriously blaming Becky for Joyce being closeted?

        4. zee

          Its fucking Adam Black what did you expect, sense?

        5. Taffy

          Consistently one of the least-hinged regulars.

        6. Bryy

          Joyce was heavily fundie at the time. And “test”?

          Buddy.

        7. Proxiehunter

          “how adamantly Joyce rejected Becky on the grounds of ‘I’m not into girls.'” Not something that actually happened.

        8. Adam Black

          Are Becky’s feelings valid? They just kissed yesterday.

          Why does Joyce have to stay in the closet? Becky wouldn’t.
          She broke into Joyce’s roomto catch Joyce in the act in the dark like she’s private eye or a cheated on spouse. AFAIC a Becky used up her jealousy cards 100x times over.

          This isn’t about Becky. Or Becky being number 1 lesbian. Her feelings don’t get centered .

        9. thejeff

          Ah, I wondered when we were going to get this variation on the “Becky was stalking Joyce” take from the atheist reveal.

        10. Arillius

          Becky has repeatedly acted in a possessive and abrasive way, often times intentionally putting herself between Dorothy and Joyce so much that both the girls felt nervous about her reaction. She is currently asking a question that implies Joyce was lying to her and hiding something from her that she *deserved* to know. There are red flags.

          Maybe she’ll handle this well going forward, maybe she won’t, but she has been toxic, clingy and possessive of someone thus far, in ways that were played for laughs and jokes but ways that still clearly made Joyce and Dorothy nervous about sharing this new information with her.

          And this is coming from someone who genuinely sort of hates how uncaring Joyce is of Joe’s feelings. The normally extremely empathetic girl seems to be giving up most of her empathy because she’s horny, and I’m getting a little tired of Joyce having to really hurt people before she realizes her mistakes.

      2. zee

        “dumb teens” only applies if its the specific pair of Aryan ass gays i want

        1. Dot

          Guy who hates Becky specifically because she’s of Scottish descent

        2. Li

          Hm. Mmmm. Dunno about this adjective in regards to Dorothy, Zee.

        3. Dot

          Somehow forgot Dorothy was Jewish for a second, but yeah. Rethink this one.

        4. zee

          Consistently forget that fact, fine. Incredibly white blondes, one of which is Aryan ass and the other could frankly pass well enough for you average white supremacist as long as they don’t ask any questions. There, a long and very literal description. My point is they’re super white and that may or may not have an impact on the lengths to which people are willing to go to absolve them of any wrongdoing, compared to other characters who, in this case yes are white but still visibly Other in a way that people subconsciously detest.

        5. Li

          I feel like I could not possibly have been milder in pointing out that you called a Jewish character “Aryan”.

          Anyway, it’s obviously the case that Becky gets more shit from the comments than she would if she were straight, and it got really intense right after she got a visibly queer haircut. Joyce meanwhile is still getting more grace than almost any other character in the comments.

          I wonder, though, if she won’t get less grace in the future. Willis giving her the type of queer haircut that straight people overwhelmingly think is ugly would probably go over… revealingly, heh.

        6. zee

          I- yeah I wasn’t saying you were coming at me hot? You did come at me very mild and respectful, I’m sorry if I came off like I was lashing out.

        7. Li

          Okay. Thanks, heh.

    2. YourCousinJay

      It’s only been 4 months, Becky confessed on the 23rd of September while today is the 30th of January

      But yeah it makes sense She’d still have lingering emotions about this

    3. APW

      I am shamed by the number of times I read “sexually active with herself” before I understood the entire sentence and by for how long it distracted me from the (perfectly good!) point of your comment

    4. Zaxares

      Especially since the only reason Becky backed off back then was because Joyce pulled the “I love you, but not that way, I’m straight” card. So Becky swallowed the pain and accepted that her longest love could never be because Joyce just didn’t swing that way. And now Joyce hooks up with Dorothy so it feels like a “So the problem was ME all along” betrayal.

      A secondary aspect of this whole mess is that Becky was also recently grappling with the revelation that people’s sexual tastes can change over time, so as someone who was lesbian for her entire developing life, there’s this fear that the people who love her now may not love her in the future (or vice versa). For Becky, it must feel like another anchor for her life just got ripped away. 🙁

    5. Astariel

      I absolutely feel for Becky here. I’ve been in similar situations with people I cared about a lot who rejected me. But it was always made very clear to me that you do not make it the other person’s problem. You especially do not go and confront them about it. You go home and cry into your pillow, (or in Becky’s case, into her amazing girlfriend’s bosom.)

      BTW, fun fact: Joyce never rejected Becky on grounds of being straight. She said she didn’t feel the same way for Becky, and she said Becky was like a sister to her. She never said, “I can’t be with you because I’m not into girls.”

      1. Dot

        Joyce never used those words, but I feel it’s fair to read in subtext, and it’s certainly how Becky would have taken it.

        1. Jon

          It may be “fair” to read into subtext, but it’s at least as “fair” to point out that it was not what Joyce said when someone presents it as if it were a quote.

          And recall – Joyce is on the autism spectrum. Subtext is frequently not a part of that.

        2. Rogue 7

          It’s absolutely how Becky *did* take it, as I recall.

          https://www.dumbingofage.com/2014/comic/book-5/01-when-somebody-loved-me/aftermath/

          “I came here an’ kissed Joyce but she’s straight”

          Of course, recently(ish) we got this strip: https://www.dumbingofage.com/2023/comic/book-13/02-turning-saints-into-the-sea/confirm/

          which indicates she may have reevaluated Joyce’s Kinsey number.

        3. Astariel

          I’m sure that is how Becky took it. It’s by far the least hurtful way that she could interpret things. And to be fair, Joyce certainly didn’t object to that interpretation in strips like the one Rogue 7 linked. But I do think it’s relevant information to what’s going on now, especially for the comments discussion.

  48. Rogue 7

    So I hope folks see what I meant yesterday.

    The centering of Becky’s pain over Walky and Joe’s would work so, *so* much better if this hadn’t been a cheating arc. Becky is a character with a lot of pain that she hides behind a facade. It’s only been a few months since her life (and the back of Toedad’s head) exploded. The Chekov’s Gun of Dina knowing she’s Becky’s rebound has been loaded on the mantle for I think more than a decade now. It is absolutely sensible, in a vacuum, for her perceived betrayal at the tongues of DoJo to be the focus of this arc.

    Except that it leaves this giant elephant in the room when it’s put in the context of Becky being with Dina, Dorothy being with Walky, and Joyce being with Joe, where the pain of the person *not being cheated on* is what is being centered.

    Contrast Becky and Walky. Both have a strong relationship with one person in the couple before us while having antagonistic interactions with the other specifically linked to how close they are to “their person”- Becky resented (performatively or not) Dorothy being so close to Joyce and Joyce resented (*decidedly* not performatively) Walky being so close to Dorothy.

    Becky gets to take a whole strip to ask a question, for us to linger on the betrayal she feels and the sadness in her eyes.

    Walky gets to say “should have seen that coming” and gets Joyce literally laughing in his face.

    Suffice to say, it seems pretty obvious to me that the story is focusing on Becky’s pain more than it is Walky’s. Walky’s pain has been played for laughs.

    That simply doesn’t work when I (and many other readers) think that prioritizing the pain of someone not romantically involved with the cheaters is to the detriment of the story’s logic and tone.

    At the end of the day, this doesn’t ruin the strip for me, make me want to stop reading, or make all the good writing that drew me into this comic stop existing. I have every confidence that the story will move past it and there will be parts I enjoy wholeheartedly again.

    1. thejeff

      Agreed. Basically, this feels like it’s being written as a breakup and coming out arc with the cheating tacked on and mostly ignored as a factor in other characters reactions.

      Even thinking about it like that, I feel the boys they’re breaking up with should have gotten more emphasis, but it’s not as strong.

      1. Dot

        Agreed with this.

        1. Donovan

          Yeah

    2. Yotomoe

      IMAGINE if Dorothy grabbed Joyce, Said “Sorry I’m stealing your childhood crush” and laughed in her face like Joyce did. Imagine.

      1. Dot

        No see that’d be fine actually because it’s a punchline and you aren’t allowed to do any analysis or extrapolation based upon it

      2. Rogue 7

        Joyce didn’t even say sorry LMAO

      3. Astariel

        Honestly, that would have been hilarious.

      4. Sirksome

        She should’ve done that. One thing I’ve learned in like is that if your girl start acting up, then you take her friend!

    3. Embe13

      so i still cannot interpret it this way, the centering of the pain if this revelation to these 2 around on becky’s reaction is 100% in character for the characters of joyce and dotty, as well as the tone and focus of the author.
      1. becky is a colead with joyce and dotty, walky has consistantly been in the 1b character pool in the role of comic relief, yes we do get periodic focus on him outside if his interactions with the 1a cast, but when it comes to 1a casts priorities he is behind becky, joe it could be said is even possibly a 2nd level cast member, not even a 1b, and again it make sense for the dramatic focus to be on the 1a cast trio, and so fro a narrative structure view becky focus fits with the authors style and patterns.
      2. both joe and walkys reactions are 100% in character for them. walky is a laid back person, i identify and see a lot of myself at that age in him. and to outsiders many would say we are just repressing and hiding our pain or suffering silently with deep depression issues, but we are not, we just have a good hold on the concept that there are things we cannot control and a good many of those thing are not worth letting get to us, it isnt that we dont feel hurt, it’s that we wont let that pain get in the way of feeling happyness. i do not claim to have had a pain free time at that age, ymgrad quote form high school welcomed the juniors to the worst fucking years of their lives! but i knew there was little i could do about how the others were going to act and focused on what made me feel good. walky is the same, i still expect to see a panel revealing him sharing the nuggets while gaming with people, hell he might be with joe. joe desiring a world were he gets to share in joyces happyness as a lover/partner of some kind even if it means he doesnt get all of her makes his reaction make sense, and yeah he is hurting in the last panel we get to see, but he trusts her that she will come back to talk to him more about it when she can (wether she does is still to be said, and it may happen off camera even we’ll just have to wait and see).
      3. Joyrothy’s reaction and focus on beckys reaction makes sense, dotty is her roommate, it makes sense that she would be really worried about how becky will react. becky has been joyces sister for 12 years, she learned 4 months ago that her sister was romantically in love with her, and she could not return the feelings. she knew becky wouldbe hurt, and rightfully was concerned, but she’s a stupid horny teenager in a fictional story, forgetting al lthat when alone with the one you want to be with is in character for them. not saying how they have handled things is good or just or fair or right, just that it is in character, and makes sense when veiwed in the greater story at large.

  49. Leila

    I’m torn between two: “since always” and “God, Becky, not everything’s ‘lesbians lesbians lesbians’. It’s just a new fling, chill out!”

    Sometimes I enjoy being a monster.

  50. Elf grrl

    Gosh the lighting in these scenes are just *chef kiss*
    I remember people commenting yesterday asking why Becky was standing in Joyce’s room in the dark, but really with the window shining in a backdrop of light on Becky it provides an interesting bit of visual storytelling. Joyce/Dorothy are in the dark while Becky is standing in the light.

  51. zee

    Becky: *cries*

    DOA comments: we should hang her for this actually

    1. Dot

      It’s lesbo

      1. Dot

        Lesbophobia is what it is

        1. Sirksome

          I too am afraid of lesbians. Not because of their sexual preference. I know most of them have super powers!

        2. Dot

          That’s right, and don’t you forget it.

        3. Yotomoe

          It’s frustrating. It’s VERY frustrating. Cuz I tend to judge characters by my own sets of morals. But like…I hate having to walk on eggshells whenever a character does something I hate cuz I don’t want y’all calling me a phobe for it.

          I don’t like Dorothy and Joyce. Not cuz I hate lesbians but because Dorothy sucks, Joe/Joyce is one of my favorite ships and also I hate the way their relationship was started in a pastiche of a protest that’s still pretty fresh in our minds.
          I don’t like that Joe and Walky have been shafted this arc. Not because I “think they need to be talked down to by a man” but because being cheated on sucks. Especially when you have specific cheating trauma. And I feel like often times Male feelings are made to seem unimportant or need to be subdued cuz “men are scary” which definitely doesn’t perpetuate “men need to repress their emotions” rhetoric, nosiree.

          I don’t like Becky being the one to have the most focus on her pain because while I understand the HURT of having unrequited pining never being returned…TRUST ME I know. I also realize that I don’t have the right to anyone’s love or affection. Even if it kills you inside. So while I understand her actions that doesn’t mean I approve of them.

          There’s genuine phobes in the comment section I’m sure but I also definitely feel like this arc’s writing has just been…severely lacking and I see the “oh but it’s queer” used more to defend it than to criticize it. Cuz I feel like if Joe or Walky had done this shit people would not be nearly as charitable.

        4. Sirksome

          You’re fine. You have legitimate complaints a lot of people share based on the story being presented. That’s fair and valid criticism, but some people will make bad faith arguments anyway. Don’t think you’re them just because others confront them about it. I think most readers have enough sense to tell the difference between fair argument and bad faith complaints.

        5. Xujhan

          Not a regular commenter, but I want to echo the ‘you’re fine’. I’m also frustrated by how quick some people here are to throw around accusations of homophobia.

        6. perpetual summer

          It’s nice for you that you don’t see bad comments before they get deleted but that doesn’t like, make them not exist lol

        7. thejeff

          It makes it weird though. Like some of us don’t see most of the worst comments and we also don’t really see specific accusations of homophobia (like aimed at particular posts or commenters), but the general atmosphere of “there’s so much homophobia in the comments, especially from anti-Joyce/Dorothy posters” makes it feel like people are describing the comments we do see. I can’t really think of many specific examples of people being too quick to throw around accusations of homophobia. A couple that were obvious misreadings of the post maybe?

          I think the key is to remember that the bad stuff gets called out and usually moderated away, so if that’s not happening to you, you’re probably fine.

      2. Andrusi

        This is true, but don’t call her “it.”

        (this is a joke)

    2. Taffy

      Everyone’s a Becky addict until they actually get Becky. Then they suddenly can’t handle the tiniest expression or shortest sentence. Gotta make up an entire manifesto about their worst version of this pretend teenager’s possible thoughts, like that’s anything to do.

    3. Jon

      “DOA comments” where? Aside from one that I keep seeing referenced but was apparently nuked before I could get into the site, where are these “hang her for this” comments? Because if they’re on Reddit or something, I can’t bring myself to care; as a wise man once said, “You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.”

      1. zee

        The several people above me saying she doesn’t have a right to react in any way? Yeah no one’s literally saying let’s burn the witch, hi I’d like to introduce you to a concept called hyperbole. Its when you make a really exaggerated statement to drive home a point and/or for comedic purposes.

  52. Steamweed

    Awww, Becky. 🙁
    (but maybe like 24 hours?)

    1. Dot

      They’ve been kissing for 24 hours, but Joyce has been insistent that no actually she ALWAYS wanted to kiss Dorothy and was ALWAYS head over heels for her despite realistically only realizing that’s what she wanted in the last day so we’ll see what she blurts out in a moment of panic.

      1. Corey C.

        Also take note that while Joyce was GLEEFUL in telling Walky that she stole Dorothy away from him, literally laughing in his face about it, when Dotty mentioned that “we both broke up with our boyfriends for this new relationship” Joyce nervously smiled and half-nodded, not actually confirming Dotty’s statement. That reluctant non-confirmation puts a giant hole in Joyce’s claim that she’s always been in love with Dotty and wants no one else but her.

        1. Astariel

          I don’t think Joyce ever said she wants no one else but Dorothy. She said Dorothy will always come first for her. That’s not the same thing.

        2. Archieve

          Dorothy clearly hasn’t gotten the memo though and is under the impression that Joyce broke up with Joe. Also as always pointed out Joyce nuked Dorothy’s relationship with Walky so now its Joyce wanting Dorothy to treat her as the one and only while Joyce is still keeping her side options open.

      2. nadamás

        One can realize something in hindsight that you weren’t consciously aware at the time.

        1. Dot

          I think it’s disingenuous to then act as if you were always consciously aware of it, though.

  53. Claire

    Becky…Becky don’t cry ????

    Also not understanding the random Becky hate on this strip? While she’s happy with Dina she can’t help but feel sad that a) her best friend has potentially been lying about something huge b) her first love who rejected her for (conceivably) not being into girls suddenly seen kissing a girl . It’s totally valid for her to be upset.

    1. Bryy

      I think people are reacting to Becky’s past actions and how they might inform the next few strips.

    2. superglucose

      hiding in Joyce’s room to ambush her with a newspaper is different from “being upset”

      also queer people taking other people coming out as a personal attack is just sadge.

  54. Andrusi

    “…were we all just silently looking at each other? Five panels. Could have been six if you’d kept your mouth shut.”

  55. Big Z

    Since we’ve been riffing on other webcomics lately, that’s very nearly an Achewood level of silent beat panels right there.

    1. Sajuuk-Khar

      Of all the times to need the damn Amulet of Chochacho it is *right now*

      (Also, every time I look at Joyce and Dorothy post-kiss I think of them as a pair of certified groin idiots)

      1. Big Z

        Joe’s gonna go join the Great Outdoor Fight to work through his feelings.

        Due to shenanigans, Walky will also join. And somehow win.

  56. Bittersweet

    Aww, poor Becky.

  57. Dot

    I joked about it but there really is an undercurrent of lesbophobia in some of these comments. Not pleasant to read as a lesbian!

  58. Adam Black

    Because she’s not the main character in this coming out arc.

    Guilt tripping friends for coming out is toxic.
    “Thinks they have been lying about something huge ” is a huge homophobic irl trope that trps people in the closet. You didn’t come out early enough. You didn’t tell me the instant you felt something same sex love. I don’t hate you for being gay, it’s because you lied about it.

    It’s all tropes that don’t give people room to grow or change.

    This is toxic in straight relationships too. It’s the friend zone trope. Plus a ton of entitlement

    But for me it’s made worse by her exhausting faux rivalry of Dorothy.
    And the Strip already did “gay couple can’t get together or it will hurt someone feelings” Danny Ethan with Amber.

    1. Taffy

      Slightly Emotional Becky is not real and cannot hurt you.

    2. Dot

      Yeah, why doesn’t that fucking dyke know her place?

      1. Dot

        Gather round, children, for a wonderful example of how to be flagrantly lesbophobic while ostensibly being supportive of gay people.

        1. Yotomoe

          Yo chilllllllll. Don’t do that PLEASE. This isn’t lesbophobia just because Becky is a Lesbian.

    3. anonymsly

      Just putting it out there – recent Becky focus has made clear that she feels massive stress to the point of suicidal ideation just at the concept of anyone growing or changing specifically in the area that Joyce and Dorothy are currently doing.

      1. anonymsly

        So this might be about her personal issues and now actually trying to control Joyce and Dorothy, is what I mean. Lest Dot accuse me of being lesbophobic for commenting.

        1. anonymsly

          Not, not now. Stupid screen keyboard.

        2. Dot

          I’m not gonna get on your ass for actually analyzing the characters involved and not just spewing bile at Becky for existing with emotions lol.

      2. Huttj

        Becky has a lot of assorted baggage, and a lot of her baggage overlaps.

    4. Jon

      Dude. People who aren’t the main character can still have emotions. Asma has never been allowed to be the main character; was it therefore wrong of her to be visibly annoyed with these two girls showing up to the protest with no idea what was going on or what to properly do about it?

      And Becky is feeling betrayed in part at least because her best friend is smooching a girl, but never came out to Becky that she was “gay” (let’s be honest, Becks still hasn’t really grasped the idea of being bi). That’s why she asked, “For how long?” Because if the answer is anything more than what it’s really been (less than 24 hours), she’ll feel that Joyce doesn’t trust her – and Becks, along with her other issues, has some really serious RSD, reinforced by her first girlfriend throwing her under the bus and then driving it.

      1. perpetual summer

        Gotta correct you on one thing: Becky understands bisexuality just fine. The one not “grasping the idea of being bi” was Joyce, back when Ruth first started dating Jason (presumably she’s made some progress since then…?). Even though Joyce did also think Becky would agree with her:

        https://www.dumbingofage.com/2021/comic/book-12/02-ill-leave-you-a-phantom/notsoanonymous/

        And maybe it’s just because I’ve seen people say this specific thing before, or because people (including today!) really love making up things about Becky to then have negative opinions about, but it’s incredibly annoying to me. Not necessarily directed at you, but man.

        Anyways I mostly agree with the rest of your comment in that I think trust is a big part of it. A recent-ish topic between the two, aswell (Becky wanting to keep sex with Dina a secret and, iirc Joyce being hesitant telling Becky about her autism?)

  59. smolgrlboi

    I feel bad for Becky because I have a heart and understand feelings don’t always have to be “justified”. I also feel bad that people in the comments section think they understand the inner workings of Willis’ mind and claim to know the intention behind every single little plot point they don’t like. That kind of thinking just seems so futile and such a waste of time. If you don’t like the author you can stop reading anytime you please.

  60. Sajuuk-Khar

    “Is Becky allowed to be sad”, the most contentious thread in the history of the DOA main site comments section, locked by Willis after reaching 15K comments and a level of vitriolic paragraphs never before seen in human history

    1. Taffy

      No, she’s not allowed to be sad. About anything. Ever. She’s The Funny One™, which means she can only be happy and say funny things, otherwise reality breaks. By suggesting Becky could be sad, you’re advocating for the violent death of every single character in this entire comic.

    2. Big Z

      Funny to me: I used to get yelled at for being homophobic and misogynistic for suggesting Becky was occasionally a bad friend due to pushing boundaries with Joyce and being too emotionally involved with what she’s doing.

      I haven’t checked back to see if any of the same people are now getting on Becky’s case for being too involved emotionally with what Joyce is doing.

  61. wakeangel2001

    somewhere between yesterday and…however long the laundry thing was in universe

    1. John Campbell

      Eleven days. It’s Sunday, and laundry day was last Wednesday.

      1. Elf grrl

        Honestly John at this point you might as well repost your timeline comment under each strip going forward lol

      2. Dara

        Eleven days holy hell sometimes it really does hit me how slowly this strip moves and this is one of those times xD

        (take that, Maison Ikkoku!)

  62. Caro

    like a week, becky.

    1. Fuzzy

      A week is like a third of the runtime of the whole comic strip!

  63. Big Z

    Y’know, if I had to guess what Becky’s thinking, it’d almost be a mirror of the last panel of https://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-5/02-threes-a-crowd/discreet/

    Although I suspect Joyce is going to put more care into dealing with Becky’s reaction to Joyce’s coming out than Becky did into dealing with Joyce’s reaction to coming out.

    1. Big Z

      ..”Joyce’s reaction to *Becky coming out”, if that wasn’t obvious.

  64. Steve C

    Dorothy (takes deep breath): “Since I showed Joyce how to masterbate” Becky: (Head explodes)

  65. Larathiel

    The site has been slow to load or unable to load within an hour or two of update time for a couple weeks for me on my phone and home PC.
    ERR_Connection_Aborted

    Meanwhile across town at work the next day, attempting to access the comic locked-up my entire PC and I had to pull the plug. So yeah, something feels very jacked-up with this website. I’m even noticing keyboard focus getting taken whenever the advertisements in the sidebars refresh. :-\

  66. Florence

    Beckys one of the best characters in doa because she’s stuck in this contradiction

    Reason would dictate this is fine, it should be fine, but it isn’t

    Much like Dorothy was previously, Becky is trying so hard to be reasonable

    She’s stuck with all these complicated feelings and maybe they’ll be a logical answer to direct them but there won’t be

    And Becky is hyper aware, she will tell you how aware she is whenever shit gets real, but what sucks about hyper awareness is it doesn’t do anything on its own. It just protects you from the embarrassment of ignorance

    1. Florence

      I’m so so on wacky Becky shenanigans but whenever her character stuff gets put to the forefront I get excited cause it’s some of the most interesting character drama in this comic

      1. Florence

        I’m trying not to get too poet brain annoying about this but what a delight this twist is

  67. Yotomoe

    I think a big issue is people thinking “Becky doesn’t have right to be mad here” means “I hate Becky and I think this development is bad”. I honest to god like Becky more than ever right now. AND I think she’s not justified to be mad in this situation. But it’s GOOD zesty drama that she IS upset. And it’s realistic and it’s engaging and it’s interesting. And I don’t agree with her if her anger is just based on jealousy (Jealousy: the fear of having something you have taken away (I learned this distinction from the simpsons)).

    1. Florence

      This is me for sure. She is not at all justified and it’s great. Two strips of just her reaction and I’m already lost in so many thoughts about what’s she’s feeling and thinking

    2. Yotomoe

      You cry out for drama but then get mad when people say “I don’t agree with this character’s actions”? That’s where the DRAMA comes from! I disagree with her AND I think it’s completely understandable for her character.

    3. Axel

      Anger is often categorized into justified and unjustified, depending on whether there was actual injustice. We don’t usually think of sadness this way. I don’t see Becky crying and think “she has no right to be sad.”

      1. Fuzzy

        I guess maybe most people don’t categorize sadness that way? Anger is a very similar emotion to sadness, at least how I experience them, so categorizing them in similar ways makes sense to me.

        Categorizing my emotions by whether they’re justified or not is part of how I regulate them; separating the experience of being sad from the thing that I’m sad about helps me cope appropriately. I get the same feeling of sadness when two of my friends hang out together without me and when someone tells me to my face that they don’t like me. If I don’t separate the feeling from the situation I might react the same way to both, but that’d be an overreaction. One of the sadnesses is justified and the other is not.

    4. Alongcameaspider

      I think people need to take a step back and understand that if every character reacted in a calm reasonable way this story would be boring

      This is a dramedy comic, drama is half of what makes the formula work, and for that we need some character to act in emotional ways that dont always seem reasonable

      1. Bryy

        DoA Commenters: “This is a fictional story about fictional characters written into specific situations”.
        Also DoA Commenters: “You’re an idiot if you have opinions about fictional characters written into specific situations.”

    5. HueSatLight

      People have a right to their emotions. There’s a good deal of involuntariness with emotions and emotions are internal. I cannot fathom how she wouldn’t have the right to be mad, or upset, or sad, and I don’t think it has anything to do with you or anyone hating the character.

      They did not wrong Becky, but Becky has the right to her emotions and other thoughts about this development.

      1. Yotomoe

        I’ll emphasize. She’s obviously allowed to feel a thing. I mean moreso I would not take her side if she decided to lash out with those feelings at them. Hasn’t happened yet. Dunno if it will but just saying. I can allow someone to be mad and not logically agree with why they’re mad. I can be mad all of my friends have fruit based cakes at their birthday but like. Its not my birthday. I’m in the wrong to complain about it.

  68. Shogo

    Unless this is a fake out and she’s about to lay into them for the cheating thing, I guess Becky really is going to make this all about herself. Even if Joyce hadn’t just assumed she was straight and had been knowingly closeted the entire time, that’s none of Becky’s business. She was never owed romantic affection from Joyce. I don’t care how long she carried a torch for before she ended up with Dina.

  69. Rogue 7

    Having made a critical response earlier, now I’m ready to dig into some characterization beats.

    Specifically, I’m really curious what Joyce is going to do here.

    Someone with zero empathy, zero concern for others, might just go “what business is it of yours?” Becky isn’t entitled to Joyce just because Joyce figured out she’s sexually attracted to women, so she can take a long walk off a short pier for all zero-empathy Joyce cares.

    A more reasonable take might be something like “Becky, I wish that I could love you the way you love me and I love Dorothy, I really do, but I see you as a sister.”

    A true chaos goblin starts making out with Becky then and there.

    1. Dot

      Money’s on “panicked stammering that makes matters worse.”

      1. Bryy

        That’s 50-80% of this comic.

      2. ProfNekko

        or given a few of Joyce’s somewhat passive aggressive responses as of late she may wind up REALLY putting her foot in her mouth here

    2. Dare

      Dorothy’s going to follow Joyce’s lead. Like Joyce handled difficult matters with Walky.

      Then Dina will eat them. And not in a sexy way.

    3. Lexi

      The true chaos gremlin answer…. “Theesome? We can get Dina in here too”

  70. Cmd1095

    I really feel for Becky here. No she’s not owed anything from Joyce, but for this to be done behind her back with knowledge of her feelings, feelings she set aside because Joyce was “straight,” is going to hurt. And her first question is telling where her head is at, because she’s wondering how long this has been going on. If it’s a recent development it’ll sting, rejection always stings, but it means Joyce wasn’t lying to her when she rejected her. That’s far more acceptable than the alternative where these two have been an item for a long time and hiding it from her, which Becky doesn’t know isn’t the case.

    And with how guilty Joyce/Dorothy have been acting about it, they aren’t exactly presenting a great case for themselves either. So Becky naturally assumes the worst. Going behind her back and sneaking around like this is going to hurt much more and much deeper than just not being who Joyce chose… which again it is perfectly understandable that Becky would be upset over. It’s heartbreak, no amount of rational “well she doesn’t owe me anything” is going to just logic away a heartbreak.

    So yeah, she’s allowed to be hurt and question things here, I have faith that in the long run, Becky will accept this and be happy with Dina and forgive Joyce/Dorothy. She’s a very mature person for her age. So don’t jump down her throat too much just cause she’s being a teenager going through her heart breaking right now.

    1. Cmd1095

      Side note: Dina may not be as forgiving. Dina and Joyce have already had a lot of strained interactions so she’s not exactly primed to give much leeway… and hurting Becky this badly is probably not going to sit well with her. I know as an autistic person myself I’m not exactly the most forgiving when people hurt those I love, I react a lot more strongly to that kind of thing than is probably appropriate. If Dina has that same trait in this situation… oof. BIG oof.

    2. GUIGUI

      It was not so much done “behind her back” rather than Joyce and Dorothy stumbled into it in a way they didn’t really saw coming till the very end.

      1. Dot

        Becky doesn’t know that, and I doubt Dorothy and Joyce are gonna be in a headspace to rationally and calmly explain the situation.

        1. StClair

          Nope. They’re gonna be dumb and messy about it.

          (Which is exactly what some people here have been waiting and hoping for.)

      2. Cmd1095

        yeah it didn’t start behind her back… but they’ve also been avoiding telling her and stuff so it’s not NOT behind her back

        1. GUIGUI

          I think “not even 24h” should still be within the reasonable amount of time before it is wrong to not tell.

    3. ElderlyMarxist

      <3

    4. Ludaire

      So to be clear, they kissed last night and have been looking for her to tell her this morning. If that’s “behind her back” how exactly do they go about this not behind her back? Is the required turnaround time for this seriously less than 12 hours?

  71. Bagge

    Oh Becky…

  72. Li

    The art of this strip is just really lovely. Shifting expressions and lighting…!

  73. GUIGUI

    “A day”.

  74. Bwsab

    D’aaaawwwwww! 🙁

    (Good writing here. Not anger. Just hurt. It hurts when someone you’re holding onto for dear life because you’re scared someone is going to take them away ends up with the exact person you were scared was going to take them away.)

  75. Yeet

    I wonder if the short time will reduce the impact

  76. Florence

    I am appreciating and loving all the analysis of Becky

    Let us all all appreciate the deep vortex of inferiority that is Becky together

  77. RassilonTDavros

    I honestly feel really sad for Becky here. It’s a reminder of just how much pain and loss she hides under that goofy loudmouth bravado, how much she’s clinging onto the only things from her old life she has left. Whether or not she “has the right” to be sad about this, of COURSE this is like a knife in the back to her.

    1. Dot

      Yeah she essentially has nothing left of her old life. Her parents, her old church community, those are lost to her forever. Any friends from that time (most of whom would have been part of that church community) have probably cut off contact. I can’t remember the status of her house but I imagine it’s not a place she’d want to be much regardless.

      All she has is Joyce. And what “Joyce” is keeps changing.

      1. Bryy

        YUUUUUUUUUP.

  78. ZombieKyrik

    Willis is there anything you can do about the site not working when a new strip is posted?

    1. Big Z

      I think they’ve said, but I don’t remember where, that they’re actively working with the hosting provider about it.

  79. HueSatLight

    Since shortly after this pep talk.

  80. Acebender

    uh like fifteen years?

  81. Jdorr

    So good news Becky, this is a new development and they wanted to tell you.
    Less good news, they were scared to tell you and have been trying to avoid doing so as long as possible

    1. Taffy

      Fortunately, “as long as possible” basically amounts to right before bedtime and part of the morning.

  82. ElderlyMarxist

    oh becky, my poor baby. like yes she’s in love & loves dina, but joyce was her first love & to her it’s like. oh i wasn’t enough. not to mention compounding familial trauma – joyce was the only safe/good place left from her childhood. & yeah sure it’s not joyce’s job to be that for becky, but it doesn’t mean it’s not going to fucking suck for her.

    1. ElderlyMarxist

      gravatar reeeeeeaaaaaally not working for this comment

      1. NGPZ

        then get a new one, they’re fun

  83. C.T Phipps

    I am all for a brutal fist fight with Dorothy, followed by Joyce jumping in with a steel chair to Becky’s head.

    Then Dorothy reveals she was actually behind Becky’s problems all along as an evil promoter.

  84. Adeptus

    Poor Becky 🙁

  85. ADD

    I mean, technically it’s been a day, at most. But now I want to back and re-read and see where Joyce’s feelings really started to shift (or rather, she became more aware of what she was feeling.) With Dorothy, it was much more obvious as she went through that whole arc of denial, but with Joyce, was there any moment where we can point to and say: “right there. That’s where she realizes what she feels for Dorothy?”

    1. Dot

      As a conscious thing? Maybe in bed with Paramore blasting.

    2. John Campbell

      I think the latest I would put it is when she finally saw Dorothy’s titty pic. Though that might have just been the point where she started to realize that Dorothy might reciprocate.

      (In other news, what happened to the username links? All of mine here, except the dumb watch pun that I posted from my tablet, had a link to the F-bomb chart this morning, and now they’re all gone except ADD’s. They’re missing way back in the archives now, too.)

      1. John Campbell

        (And it’s there on that post, at least, though I screwed up the link-closing in the actual comment. At least it works, even though it turned the rest of the comment red.)

    3. Heavensrun

      I put together a series of links that I accidentally posted to the main thread instead of this reply. Currently awaiting moderation because it’s full of links. Short version, I think Dot nailed when the conscious choice happened.

      1. Dot

        Just checked the strips and yeah I think it was very specifically this one:

        https://www.dumbingofage.com/2025/comic/book-15/03-me-and-who-you-say-i-was-yesterday/because-ultimately/

  86. Chaz

    Anyone else feel like this is less about Becky’s feelings about Joyce and more about Joyce’s movements away from Christian fundamentals? Like, infidelity is a pretty big one to be upset about from a Christian standpoint. And the more Joyce rejects her fundamentals, the more it hurts Becky, who still strongly believes in many Christian morals. It also makes her feel like she never really knew Joyce, who has been her rock through all of the terrible cards she was dealt.

    1. C.T Phipps

      There’s also the fact that Joyce doesn’t identify a lot of morals as Christian that she shares with Becky.

    2. Proto

      Why not both?

  87. Heavensrun

    I’d say she notices Dorothy’s feelings here:

    https://www.dumbingofage.com/2025/comic/book-15/03-me-and-who-you-say-i-was-yesterday/tardy/

    By this point she is *considering* flirting back as a joke but doesn’t yet:

    https://www.dumbingofage.com/2025/comic/book-15/03-me-and-who-you-say-i-was-yesterday/perusing/

    She tries a little teasing here:

    https://www.dumbingofage.com/2025/comic/book-15/03-me-and-who-you-say-i-was-yesterday/clean/

    And this is where she first makes a conscious decision about her own feelings about the matter:

    https://www.dumbingofage.com/2025/comic/book-15/03-me-and-who-you-say-i-was-yesterday/want-2/

    (Though she doesn’t commit until:)

    https://www.dumbingofage.com/2025/comic/book-15/04-the-only-exception/panorama/

    1. Heavensrun

      Whoop, that was supposed to be a reply to a post further up the thread.

    2. YourCousinJay

      So Jan 28th, 2 days ago

  88. Orange Lantern

    I mean, I get why Becky would be hurt over this, but that’s pretty much a her-thing. Because Joyce surely was bi already back in the day, under all the layers of religious indoctrination, just not for Becky. Sometimes that is how it is. No one is owing anyone reciprocated love. And even if, there was no way this would have had a chance to come out. Wrong place, wrong time.

    Also, what is the point anyway, Becky *has* an awesome girlfriend. Becoming butthurt over this would be a bit greedy (of which I should approve, I know, but still). The friendship spot never was in peril. Shouldn’t she rather celebrate that turn of events?

    But emotions are never logical or even coherent.

    In her shoes I would be more upset about the cheating thing, morally speaking. But I would also feel quite a tinge of hurt over not being the one who got chosen. So, yeah, that is understandable, I guess. But, alas, that is life.

    Love the drama, though. Really interested what will happen next.

    1. Dot

      Joyce might not have been bi back in the day. Sexual orientation is not always immutable and may change and shift over the course of your life based on a variety of factors. This fact is, of course, at the centerpiece of Becky’s internal conflict since the start of the semester.

      Also it’s not “greedy” to have complicated feelings about the girl you were in love with for most of your life, no matter how great your girlfriend is.

      1. Orange Lantern

        Did I got lectured here by Supergirl about greed?

        Just so you know: I love it. XD

        (also, yes, feelings are complicated, fr)

  89. CitrineMonster

    sweet becky. everyone leaves who they used to be, but the only time people have left her have been permanent. it probably feels like joyce is “leaving” in some capacity, be it in her morals, her status as a best friend, or even as her rock. i feel a lot of empathy for her character— she’s so tragic.

  90. Perils

    UGH Joyce owes you nothing

  91. Wendy

    NOOOOO BECKY T_T

  92. Axel

    I’m just gonna reword my comments here

    There are plenty of reasons for Becky to feel hurt, even though Joyce and Dorothy haven’t done anything to harm her.

    1. Throwatron

      crazy how life can work that way

  93. Straximus

    This is the hardest wait for the next strip I’ve ever had.

  94. Matt

    ok I’m saying now that my take is that Becky actually is only sad that they didn’t tell her because she feels like she should have been so trusted with this information

  95. Barf Ninjason

    Well! This is very painful and all, but I am sure it can be adequately resolved by Becky administering sufficiently painful spankings to Joyce and Dorothy.

    BUTT _)_) seriously…. ouch ouch ouch, this has gotta be the singularly most poignantly painful strip on record. Ki

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