218

Conceded
Posted on September 2, 2020 by David M Willis

218 thoughts on “Conceded”

  1. Ana Chronistic

    AMBER GETS IT

    fuckin’ vertical videos

    …

    also, uh

    how ya helpin’ Becky by neither of ya having a job now

    1. Ana Chronistic

      ugh, thinking of when I was heavy into reviewing Wayfarer and some jokers submitted VERTICAL photos of HORIZONTAL subject matter

      CLEARLY FROM INSIDE THE CAR

      like, GTFO (literally)

    2. Reltzik

      Robin’s got a lifetime of being paid five figures for giving a speech.

      …. okay, maybe just four figures, but still.

      1. ArthurDB

        Five? Try six figures. Everyone in congress gets paid 100k+. Google says 174k right now. All tax payer funded.

        1. Reltzik

          Well, yes, she’s probably stacked up a nice bank account if she hasn’t been blowing it all as she goes. But even now that she’s retired, she could make a good deal of money doing speeches and writing books.

        2. Michael Haneline

          iirc: All members of congress get a 100% pension. So if she made 174k a year as a member of congress, she’ll get paid 174k a year in “retirement” until the day she dies.

        3. Geneseepaws

          For basically doing nothing but saying ‘No’ to the other side. Essentially nothing

        4. Agemegos

          That’s per year, not per speech.

          When she becomes an ex-congresscritter with a bit of notoriety Robin might be expected to make money in future making paid speeches. She’s not going to rack up $153 million in speaking fees, because she’s not that famous. But lots of people who are only kind of famous get mid-five-figure per speech fees. https://www.lovemoney.com/gallerylist/64364/people-making-a-fortune-from-public-speaking

        5. Jocelyn Irwin

          It’s honestly not that much for needing to own 2 houses (1 in DC $$$) and be away from your family so much. Their millions are made from investments, not salaries. Which is why we need to institute a serious inheritance tax that kicks in at 1mil or so. Investments compound wealth inequality hardcore

    3. Foxhack

      No, I’m sorry, horizontal videos are good to show more of what’s going on, but this is just Robin speaking so a vertical video is acceptable.

      1. Kamino Neko

        There’s a reason the two orientations are called portrait and landscape.

        1. brionl

          True. And since it’s just Robin, it should be in portrait mode. When I’m video chatting with somebody my phone is in portrait.
          When I’m taking pictures of the kittens being cute, I use landscape.
          BTW, anybody in the SF Bay area want to adopt a couple kittens?

        2. Leorale

          I’m on the opposite coast and can’t adopt kittens, but I would still like a link to the adorable kittens, please

        3. Miri

          In the UK but also happy to view kittens being cute!

        4. Peter

          In Denmark, and ditto on kitten videos.

        5. Devi

          cat tax!

        6. Spiracular

          I know someone in Berkeley who’s looking into adopting a kitten?

          Tell you what, if you link something with adorable kitten pics that’s also contactable, I’ll tell them to message you there.

        7. Aelia

          I know someone who is looking for *a* kitten in the East Bay. 🙂 If they’re kittens that can reasonably be split up, lmk.

        8. ego

          robin’s portrait is fine, but her landscape is way better.

        9. McBogue

          Yeah, her…hills and valleys… are a sight to behold.

        10. Thamojster

          your picture fits the comment well

      2. shork

        Also it’s gonna be either viewed on a phone or embedded into a Twitter page, so portrait might actually be the preferred orientation

      3. Ana Chronistic

        I think I’ve never seen a vertical video vertically tho??

        1. Ana Chronistic

          No one:

          Me, still going on about it: Like, this is how I always see vertical videos on my phone: https://drive.google.com/file/d/12A2D4Fkiadkgx3JgvhVw7EqJ2c6t4BnA/view?usp=drivesdk

    4. danielle

      time for more galassos pizza! (and subs!)

    5. Antonio Tyler

      When I see all those “weren’t making shows vertically for your phone!” I know exactly the age bracket they’re going for.

      1. Antonio Tyler

        *We’re

    6. Keulen

      Yeah I have to agree with Amber on this. Vertical videos look terrible.

      1. Bicycle Bill

        What makes them weird is the way whenever they get replayed on KnikKnak or BoobTube they get put into landscape mode with an out-of-focus version of what you’re seeing on either side just to use up the space.

        1. Needfuldoer

          The least sintrusive way to meld a 4:3 clip in the middle of a 16:9 video is to stretch a blurry copy of it across the full field, then superimpose a copy on to in its native aspect ratio. It’s a lot less jarring than black pillars suddenly appearing in the middle of otherwise 16:9 content.

          But yeah, with social media vertical video it literally looks like blurry copies, and that doesn’t blend as well.

      2. Bicycle Bill

        Wouldn’t it be funny if Willis had Manley react like Jack Lemmon in “The Great Race”?

        I am king!  I am the king!
        No, I’m not!  I didn’t beat him!  He let me win!
        I can’t win this way!  I can only win one way:  My way!  They let me win!
        I can’t win your way.  You cheated.  You cheated.  You cheated!  I hate you!

        I refuse to accept!  I won’t win any way but my way.  You ruined my reputation!  Do you hear?  You, I hate!

        I refuse to accept!

        I challenge you to – another race!!

        1. Bicycle Bill

          this should have gone at the end in its own thread. We REALLY could use an edit function on this comment board.

        2. anonymsly

          I LOVE THAT MOVIE.

          Gonna go watch the pie fight on a YouTube now.

        3. Ed Rhodes

          “Get off my car!”

      3. Corrine

        Isn’t TikTok mostly vertical?

    7. Xenocide

      She’s conceding the presidential race, but that doesn’t mean she’s resigning from the position she already had does it? So she should have just as much income as before, minus campaign spending.

      1. Agemegos

        Until the 3rd January.

        (Congressional race, not presidential.)

      2. Taellosse

        She hasn’t been running for a new office – she’s been running for reelection to her existing seat in Congress. So conceding the race means she does remain in office until the new term begins in January, but then she’s out of a job. (But it also means she has a few months drawing a salary as a lame duck to line up a new gig).

        1. Xenocide

          Ah, I have no idea at which point I lost track of the particular race she was racing in!

    8. Pylgrim

      I think she means helping Becky by removing the weight off her shoulders of having furthered the campaign of politics she disagrees with.

    9. Liam

      What witchcraft did you perform to have some of those words come with hover over text?

      1. Leorale

        whatever it is, I wish people wouldn’t! I can’t view it on my phone and I feel like I’m missing out. 🙁

    10. Jack Faire

      Because she’s giving Becky what she wanted. And doing the right thing. Robin can’t push for the things her supporters want anymore. She’s walking away because it’s the right thing to do. Today of all days. Becky needs someone whose inspired to do the right thing because of her. Not the wrong one.

  2. Chris

    Watch as she goes on to win the election anyway.

    1. JetstreamGW

      I mean, if she’s actually pulling out of the race then they probably won’t put her on the ballot.

      Unless she’s already there? What time of year is it? It’s really hard to keep track.

      1. Chris

        Mid-October, I think? Ballots have probably been printed already.

      2. Stephen Bierce

        Yeah, by this time it would already be on all the printed ballots. However, if the concession was made in some official form then the election officialdom would be obliged to throw out all votes for her anyway.

        1. Chris

          Just looked up the rules in Indiana. Looks like the deadline for candidates to withdraw from the general election was in early August.

        2. King Daniel

          She can still resign even if she’s voted in.

        3. DSL

          If she wins and resigns, the party gets to pick her replacement.

        4. thejeff

          Vacant House seats are filled through special elections. Senators can be appointed, though it depends on the state.

        5. Taellosse

          I THINK senators are always appointed when a replacement is needed mid-term. Who makes the appointment (usually the governor, occasionally the state legislature, maybe) and how long it lasts (either to complete the existing term or only until a special election is held) can vary quite a bit, though.

          The reason being that the Senate has far fewer members (100 vs. Over 500 in he House), and the margins to determine the majority tend to also be much tighter. Flipping control of the Senate from 1 party to the other has hinged on the appointment of a temporary senator more than once. 1 House seat has almost never held that kind of weight.

        6. thejeff

          Looking a little close – 37 states have the governor appoint a replacement who serves until the next election. In 8 the governor can appoint a temporary replacement until a special election can be held. In the remaining 5 the seat is vacant until a special election is held.
          I believe in all cases the new Senator must run in the next regular election, though their term still ends when the original term would have been up.

          I think the reason is more historical than that: Originally Senators were appointed by state legislatures and governors could appoint replacements until the (usually part-time) state legislatures would meet. The 17th Amendment changed that to direct election of Senators and of their replacements, but allowed state legislatures to allow governors to appoint replacements.

        7. Slartibeast Button, BIA

          But wouldn’t that just mean that the seat will be vacant until a special election is held. Where some Republican less fickle than Robin can run against Jake.

      3. DaveM

        Wasn’t the only reason she was still a candidate after being dumped by the party that is was too late to remove her from the ballot? But even if I’m remembering that wrong (which I may be), I’d reckon with two weeks to go it’s a bit late to remove her now.

        So IMHO, despite having conceded she could still win the election.

        1. Leorale

          She technically could. But I wouldn’t vote for somebody who had already officially conceded.
          Plus, story-wise, it would make this a really hollow moment. I would be very surprised if Willis would rob a big character moment of having the appropriate impact.

        2. thejeff

          Probably, though it could be used for more character conflict. “Do I resign and risk someone worse getting in or keep the seat and try not to disappoint Becky?”

        3. Lord_Circe

          I could see it being a “this was a nice gesture, but it turns out that things don’t work the way Robin thought they did” moment. Where she ends up winning, and then has to look at changing her ideals or adjusting her stance and things like that. Potential for both character conflict and character growth.

        4. sidehack

          Some years ago Missouri elected a dead guy to the US Senate. Sometimes people decide what they want whether what they want is available or not.

        5. thejeff

          Good thing too. He beat John Ashcroft.

        6. sidehack

          Yeah, but then Ashcroft became US Attorney General. His federally-backed “investigations” into 2000-election voter fraud (which didn’t happen, as his investigations determined, but that’s not what everyone was told anyway) helped pave the way for an awful voting reform act (written in large part by Missouri’s *other* senator), which pushed ID laws, expanded registration purges, and funded contracts for unauditable insecure electronic ballot systems, all of which mechanisms have been leveraged for mass disenfranchisement and stolen elections ever since. So it didn’t matter in the end, he still did quite a bit of damage.

      4. Newllend(henryvolt)

        Plus people can still right her name in.

      5. Patrick Duke

        Thing is, she’s not pulling out of the race, she’s conceding the race, the thing folks’re afraid Trump won’t do if he loses. Which is to say, even if she wins, she won’t accept the win.

        1. thejeff

          I’m not sure if that’s an option. I’m not sure conceding has any legal effect.

        2. Taellosse

          It does. Several, in fact, depending on the circumstances. Most notably it precludes anyone pursuing any of the measures that can be taken when the outcome is close or disputed – calling for recounts, contesting the outcome in court, etc. And that includes such measures being taken by a larger state or national organization backing the conceding contestant, such as the RNC.

        3. thejeff

          Perhaps – though there have been cases where the concession has been withdrawn.

          More specifically though, I’m not sure it would matter if she won a clear victory. If it was a close loss, she could certainly not mount a challenge.

    2. Dr T

      Yeah, she’s going to be on the ballot regardless at this point. She might even win with this all going on.

    3. clif

      Yeah, if this doesn’t win her the election, nothing will.

    4. Keulen

      Yeah, I’m pretty sure it’s too late for her name to be taken off the ballot. Robin could still win even after this concession speech.

      1. thejeff

        Nothing like a last minute withdrawal to seize the high moral ground and inspire people to vote for her. Interesting tactical choice.

  3. BBCC

    Good job, Robin.

    Now we cut to the fucking banger of a party Roz must be prepping.

    1. Nono

      No see, how can Roz stand on her petard if her enemies show genuine remorse without her having a hand in it

      1. DailyBrad

        Yeah, Roz probably can’t get any pleasure out of this. She “won”, but in a way that totally robs her of anything to crow about: Robin comes out the big person, Becky accomplished her goal, and Roz had nothing to do with it.

        1. bcb

          Roz is still sorta responsible for Robin coming to Leslie’s class, and consequently for Robin meeting Becky and Becky getting ahold of Robin’s phone. So, Roz can still claim credit.

        2. BBCC

          I don’t think she much cares as long as her sister doesn’t get in office and can’t flake out and try to get rid of her birth control options. She didn’t take the photo of Robin and Leslie either but she was happy when she thought it would tank her sister’s campaign.

          Besides, Roz already knows Robin is capable of good. She told Leslie early on Robin had a good heart and can be a good listener – it’s just Roz is her kid sister so she DOESN’T listen to Roz.

        3. thejeff

          And also stops dragging her into campaign photo ops to support politics she despises.
          I have my problems with Roz, but I don’t see any reason to think she’s petty about being responsible for Robin’s loss. It’s personal, but not like that.

        4. Regalli

          Yeah, so long as she GETS the important part (Robin not in office) she’s okay with it.

          Not sure if she’ll accept Robin’s sudden change of heart on a personal level, any more than she was quick to accept Joyce’s, but that’s Roz’s right as the sister being used as a prop for detestable political photo ops. (It would be interesting to see some more Roz interacting with Joyce now that she IS noticeably continuing to change and all. Still gaps in her knowledge, of course, but actively getting better all the same.)

        5. Leorale

          Strongly agree — Roz wants actual political change. If she can take credit for it, that’s undeniably nice icing, but way more than that, she wants the actual policies.

          So, Roz will primarily be glad that Robin is conceding. She will probably have a frustrated or bittersweet sibling-moment of “you’ll concede for her, but not for me?” …but she’ll still appreciate the broader impact, and celebrate this concession with all her liberal pals.

  4. Sirksome

    Ah! There it is!

    1. clif

      Not yet. Leslie hasn’t seen the video.

      1. bryy

        Only then can the banging begin.

  5. Tirachokko

    hahaha becky has her priorities right

    1. Tirachokko

      oh wait no, was amber. shit. curse you eyes and your low tolerance for low brightness!

  6. Buttery Commissar

    Woah. I mean it’s what I expected after yesterday’s page, but it’s still a surprise to see it made real.

  7. Pagemistress

    …well, my opinion of Robin just skyrocketed.
    Not that I didn’t think she cared. I just didn’t see her going to these lengths to prove it. I guess Becky has a new big sister, now.

  8. Opus the Poet

    So how does she meet her commitments to Becky for next year’s deferred compensation?

    1. Solenoid

      Depends on who would give her the time of day if she attempted the usual ex-congressperson career shift: lobbying

      1. clif

        Robin being Robin, if she somehow doesn’t win, she will starve to death.

        Either that or she becomes homeless and moves in with Roz.

        1. C.T Phipps

          She’ll die of scurvy soon so its probably for the best.

          You can’t live on Cadberry Eggs in a more realistic universe.

        2. Pizzasgood

          I have two words for you: gummy multivitamins.

  9. Switchchris

    That is the sweetest thing I have seen somebody do in this webcomic (I didnt read their other works yet, am waiting till this one is over and im gonna go binge it). Its clear that she has learned and wants to do things right and support the people she cares about, even if it means giving up all the work she has put into (or didnt put into) this line of work. no doubt she could still become a senator or something that isnt president, but she is giving up on it to make sure Becky is ok… Becky now knows that there is a adult that cares deeply for her and the look on her face shows how much that matters….

    1. Dunedon

      You may be waiting a very long time … Check the buffer.

      1. Regalli

        Yeah, Dumbing of Age was designed as a reboot Willis could be working on forever, even if they were too busy with kids to stay as in touch with the nerdy zeitgeist (which was the backbone of Shortpacked.)

        1. Switchchris

          I remember him saying that he was almost done with
          this one and he might do more with them going off and living life after
          college but I might be remembering wrong….

  10. Mra

    I am starting to think Becky might have a stronger relationship to Robin than Roz does.

    1. Kamino Neko

      Since Roz wouldn’t have a relationship with Robin unless the latter forced it…

    2. Newllend(henryvolt)

      “You’d do that for her but not for me!?”

      1. C.T Phipps

        “Yeah, I like Becky.”

        1. Deanatay

          “Yer my little sib, we’re S’POSED to hate each other!”

  11. CMasta1992

    I’m sure this will resonate with others on the board but I hate stuff like this. You can just be better without doing this flashy gesture. She could’ve accepted her growth and worked within the system to make change happen. I dunno, if this makes you happy then it makes you happy but this rubs me personally the wrong way.

    1. Sporky

      I get what you’re saying and it’d be nice if she didn’t make it a huge attention-getting gesture, but honestly I don’t trust Robin enough to actually do the right thing if she gets elected and I don’t think Robin trusts herself either

    2. Dara

      As a Republican subject to party discipline in Congress? Not as much. She’d still have to caucus with party and that means a lot in terms of committee assignments and other procedural issues that matter.

      Handing the seat over to Manley is legitimately the better option, as structure-of-Congressional-politics goes.

      As for the drama, yeah, but it’s Robin.

      1. CMasta1992

        I guess this is late enough where the Republicans couldn’t put up another candidate on this notice. For every Mitt Romney there’s a Tom Cotton waiting in the wings y’know.

        Politics is rarely a game where you get everything you want and pro and con you get want to can and you live with what you must and when you cede what you control you leave it up fate on something worse happening.

      2. Segnosaur

        She wouldn’t HAVE to caucus with the republicans. If she stayed in the race and got elected, she could leave the party and sit as an independent (or become a Democrat). It has happened before.

        There are some questions about just how ethical it is… after all, even though you are voting for a person, there is an expectation that they will give some support to the party they campaigned under. A little bit simpler for Robin though, since her party had already disavowed her.

      3. Rectilinear Propagation

        Didn’t the party already drop her? I thought they kicked her out after what happened with Leslie.

        1. thejeff

          They might have taken her back if she’d won. It’s happened before. Especially if control of the House is close.

    3. DailyBrad

      Robin isn’t subtle, nor has she ever been subtle. This is her earnest best.

      1. CMasta1992

        People who do showy gestures are usually not subtle people either. Doesn’t make those actions less scummy to me.

        1. clif

          Don’t explain it to me; explain it to Becky.

    4. Joyfulldreams

      I think the point and reason she did this at all is because even if she did earnestly try to do that, *BECKY* would have to just take that she would do that on faith? Faith that has been completely unearned. And Robin doesn’t want Becky to have to worry about this, AT ALL, in the IMMEDIATE NOW, while she is healing from a traumatic experience.

      The only way to guarantee that Becky doesn’t have to worry that she even possibly enabled a bad person getting power is to just remove herself from the race entirely. Now, Becky doesn’t have to worry, and can focus on healing. And yeah, unfortunately, the gesture had to be kind of public, because this is a political race and you can’t just quietly dip out of those.

    5. Sam

      She needed to do the flashy gesture if she wanted to prove to Becky she was trustworthy. A lot of people will probably think she is a jerk for it, but Robin’s not doing it for any of her random voters or for fans, likes or retweets. Her opponent has already been stated to be a far more progressive person than Robin was and people Robin cared about didn’t want her in that position or trust her on the basis that she might just be using them.

      Taking the position quietly would have been the selfish route I personally feel as that would only be in Robin’s interest (especially when multiple people have suggested her opponent is waaaaay better) and it wouldn’t have helped her gain Becky’s trust that her care was sincere and from the heart.

      I think there is a time and place for quietly moving forward but sometimes for things important to you, you can’t do that. You have to speak up or you will be left in a situation you don’t want to be in. Robin didn’t want her relationship with Becky to be so lacking in trust, so she got rid of the thing Becky perceived as mattering more than her. It is a selfless action where she is giving up the job that she was desperate to have for Becky’s trust that she sincerely cares.

    6. Rectilinear Propagation

      She could just be better but that would still mean that Becky helped put a person who has passed laws that hurt the LGBTQ community back in office. Becky would still feel guilty about that.

      She can prevent the thing Becky doesn’t want to happen from happening or she can let it happen and spend her entire term proving Becky should feel slightly less bad about it.

      Also, other people would hold this against Becky. She’d go from being the person who trolled a conservative campaign and got paid to do so to being the reason Robin was re-elected.

      1. thejeff

        If she switched parties and took up progressive causes, I think there would be no need for guilt.

        But then I’ve never really understood how what Becky was doing was supposed to work to get her re-elected – other than the sympathy support from the kidnapping and even that’s pretty tenuous.

  12. Dara

    “Rest and heal, with your conscience freed” is not a line I ever would have expected out of Robin DeSanto.

    1. JessWitt

      Yeah it’s a lovely stream of words conveying her putting Becky first.

  13. Nono

    Landscape shots: BC or AD?

    1. Slartibeast Button, BIA

      BCE or CE, please.

      1. Pizzasgood

        BCE/CE is lumpy asymmetrical trash. I’m all for kicking idiotic religious cruft to the curb, but let’s not replace it with objectively worse nonsense! Better alternatives include BC/AC (Before Calendar / After Calendar), BC/CC (Before Calendar / Current Calendar), and PE/CE (Pre Epoch / Current Epoch).

        Or we could do the sensible thing and start counting fresh from 1939 using BB/AB (Before Batman / After Batman).

  14. Stephen Bierce

    *cues up some Frank Zappa & The Mothers for the hacked Muzak*

    1. Geneseepaws

      Robin singing: “Me and my lonely Dental Floss“…?

      1. Roborat

        Then Roz singing “Catholic Girls”.

  15. Nah

    …..Seems good. She’s not a good congressperson, Becky can be happy, Roz can have a private life, and Jake gets a victory party.

  16. drs

    So Robin managed to perceive that Becky didn’t want her to win. And did this about it.

    Wasn’t Becky hired two weeks before the election? “Conceding” may not matter, if Robin gets more votes anyway.

    1. Lingo

      According to Walkypedia, this storyline is on Thursday October 21, probably 12 days before the election. And Becky was hired just 5 days ago, on the 16th.

      1. bryy

        We’re gonna timejump this close to Halloween? WE ONLY NEED TEN MORE ARCS, WILLIS.

        1. Deanatay

          *takes out knife, starts sharpening it*

          Willis had better not time skip over Halloween…

        2. Lingo

          Yeah I’m afraid we’re jumping over Halloween. That’s probably why we already had that Halloween storyline with Sarah and Joyce a few storylines ago.

    2. Jamie

      You can’t actually be forced to serve in an elected office against your will.

      1. thejeff

        No, but the consequences of resigning after winning are different from those of losing.
        If she loses, Manley gets the seat. If she wins anyway but resigns, the seat will be vacant until a special election can be held, giving the GOP a chance to hold it with a different candidate.

  17. Kitschensyngk

    I picture her as more Sarah Palin than AOC.

    1. Lingo

      Yeah, Palin was her big rival in Shortpacked!.

      1. thejeff

        There she was a Democratic version of Palin – using her schtick, but with Democratic policies.
        Here she’s had hints of both Trump (Make District 9 Great Again!) and AOC, though she’s not exactly either of course, any more than she was exactly Palin.

    2. C.T Phipps

      Time has changed. Republicans could be laughed at before.

      Now it’s just terror and disgust.

      1. Geneseepaws

        We’re all adults here, that’s how I put it for the kids. For the adults there’s no need to Sugar coat it.

    3. Norah

      And also a female Trump.

      1. Jamie

        No, Robin ultimately means well. It’s barely worth pennies, but it’s more currency than Trump deserves.

  18. PB

    Huh. I have to admit I wasn’t expecting this.

  19. Bagge

    Robin doesn’t really do small gestures, does she?

    and, daaaaaaang. Her exits are as impressive as her entries. Robin OUT!

  20. C.T Phipps

    I feel that Robin would have done better than Manley with all of Becky’s progressive policies. Resigning doesn’t do any good as that just means one less person doing good in a bad environment.

    1. Leorale

      We don’t know anything about Manley’s policies. I think for the story to work, we should assume he’s a progressive who will do good work.

      1. BBCC

        Dorothy and Leslie both like him. So do Carla’s parents so he’s presumably not total shit on trans issues. Roz thinks he’s okay too, whatever that’s worth.

        1. C.T Phipps

          He’s an authority figure and older so clearly he must be pure evil.

        2. Agemegos

          Not until he’s elected.

    2. thumb

      I mean, better someone who started out doing good than someone who’s learning, however much help they get to figure it out. She can run again once she’s got it locked down.

  21. abysswatcher1993

    Don’t ruin this moment, Amber. Robin is proving Rachel is wrong.

    1. Schpoonman

      Tall Rachel was always wrong.

  22. JA

    For God’s sake PLEASE listen to Amber when you’re filming on your phone. No one likes watching videos in portrait mode. Please rotate your phone 90 degrees before you tap the Record button.

    1. Bicycle Bill

      Pffffttt to you.  If I’m taking a video on my phone of someone standing in front of, say, the Eiffel Tower, the Gateway Arch, or the Washington Monument, I’m shooting in portrait mode.  If I’m shooting someone in front of the Golden Gate Bridge, or the Lincoln Memorial, or Mount Rushmore, I’m still shooting in portrait mode, because even then the subject of the picture I’m taking the picture of is still the PERSON, not the freaking bridge or whatever else might be in the background.

    2. Kamino Neko

      For god’s sake, no, don’t listen.

      Use the mode that’s appropriate for what you’re shooting.

      Use portrait for when you’re shooting a single person who’s standing or sitting up (you know, a portrait), or a tall structure. Or anything else taller than it is wide.

      Use landscape when shooting a landscape, a skyline, or a person reclining. Or anything else wider than it is tall.

      If you’re going to have dead space, it should be letterboxing on a device that will only orient in the wrong direction (a TV or most computer monitors), because letterboxing is quickly ignored, whereas irrelevant detail can distract.

      1. Kamino Neko

        Also, using portrait for portrait-appropriate subjects allows more detail on what you’re actually trying to shoot, since more of the pixels are devoted to the subject instead of irrelevancies.

        1. Vulcanodon

          In the image, yes, but in the display, no. Fit a portrait-mode image into a landscape display and you end up with fewer pixels for the face (assuming the distance and zoom are the same) and less context for the image.

        2. thejeff

          Watch it on your phone though and you can watch it in the same mode and it’ll be better there.

        3. Kamino Neko

          Nope, you will not get magically more pixels vertically by shooting landscape.

          The reason that putting a portrait formatted image on a landscape display gives less pixels is that it’s constrained by the pixels in the display which will be EXACTLY THE SAME whether the original image is portrait or landscape.

          So, WORST CASE, you have the same number.

          Except that ‘worst case’ is actually shooting landscape and having the majority of the image being useless ‘context’, which does nothing but distract from what you’re trying to show.

          If what’s going on on the sides is important, you shoot landscape. If it’s not, you shoot portrait. You use the format that’s suited to what you’re trying to shoot.

        4. Kamino Neko

          Er…that third paragraph didn’t come out reading quite the way I intended.

          Worst case scenario, displaying a portrait image on a landscape display, you end up with the same number of pixels devoted to the subject as you would if you shot landscape and displayed it on the same display.

  23. Slartibeast Button, BIA

    Is this good news for the Leslie-Robin shippers?

    1. Geneseepaws

      Robin is an addict. There are a lot of worse drugs to try to quit, but sugar Is rough to cut down. The brain doesn’t like that.

      1. Geneseepaws

        So there’s hope if Robin can start eating food. Not so much hope for Leslie if Robin doesn’t start eating food.

  24. LiterallyJustSomeGuy

    Robin, that was very well-worded. I’m impressed. So… welcome to the private sector???

    1. Bagge

      Noooooo! She will die out there

      1. davidbreslin101

        Either that or she’ll get a job doing virtually nothing for $500,000 a year. (It’s an established career path.)

  25. Raen

    I feel like “ugh, film in landscape” isn’t a sentiment of those young enough to be used to phones. I’ve been made fun of for using landscape, and told to “turn my phone,” when of course I wasn’t on one.

    1. Raen

      (In a tone suggesting I was a bit of a codger, that is.)

      1. Geneseepaws

        Some of us here, (like Opus the Poet, and others) are old enough that we remember that ‘video’ comes from the vidicon tube. And a new 16” diag. screen tv cost more money than most people took home in paychecks for a MONTH. Codgers are a dime a dozen.
        I’m not dead yet. I feel happy, …I want to go for a walk!

    2. Zee

      No, most young people will hate you if you film videos in portrait. Those are usually videos showing off something that should be in landscape though

  26. buzzsaw

    I’m pretty sure that we’re really close to Election Day here. When Robin hired her, it was sometime in mid-October, as she did it right after firing her staff in the aftermath of Amber’s fight with Ryan, and the mini-arc on Halloween decorations was at the same time. Can’t remember, but it might have been mentioned that there were only a few weeks remaining in the campaign at the time.

    1. CianM1301

      Becky mentioned that Election Day was in two weeks at the hospital, since that was the amount of time off that Robin gave to her.

  27. PiotrW

    See! Robin is one of the good guys! <3

    1. thumb

      Getting there.

  28. BenRG

    Because making Becky (and probably Leslie) proud of her is more important to Robin than her political career that, when she thinks about it, was mostly fake anyway. What is she going to do next? Ah she’ll figure that out later.

    Actually probably Becky will figure it out later for her but it’s going to turn out to be mostly the same thing.

  29. Arianod

    Mom acquired. Congratulations (?) Becky.

    1. Deanatay

      Is she really, though? Robin no longer has an income. Can she still shelter and feed her ex-social media director/adopted daughter?

      1. thejeff

        She’s still employed through the new year and even Robin should have been able to save up something on a Rep’s income.

      2. Apostate

        As an ex-congress critter she gets paid for life.

    2. Jhon

      Robin will now consider herself entitled to horn in on Becky’s pancake breakfasts.
      8-(

  30. Bagge

    What I find most alarming is the absence of lamp.

    Robin is truly alone now.

    1. Schpoonman

      Oh, THAT’S why she should have shot in landscape, would have shown lamp to her right, our left, and her new aide coat rack to her left, our right.

  31. K/S

    I love the way this strip pulls ya in for a huge laugh at the last panel. XD Got the feels AND a hearty “HAH”.

  32. Chronos

    That “Holy crap, what” from the previous page has a very different meaning than what I thought it would.

  33. 3oranges

    Look, if even Jesus uses portrait mode, why are we still judging it?

  34. Liam

    I wish that I had typed out my initial thought of “She could drop out of the election to prove it to Becky but that will never happen” so that I could say something along the lines of “Well, somebody better pick up that phone.”

    1. Liam

      I fuckin knew this chick was gonna turn out okay.

      Unless this is all some kinda ploy to keep Becky as her social media manager for next term so that she can skyrocket in the polls thereby winning her the election.

      NEVER TRUST GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS.

  35. Adept

    Did NOT see that coming o.O

    Well done.

  36. Josh Spicer

    I know that last panel was jokey but it still does irritate that people film vertically when it’s so much more visually pleasing to film horizontally.

    1. Slartibeast Button, BIA

      Wait, Jesus is on social media now?

      1. BenRG

        I’m sure that there are any number of posters who think that their posts are somehow ‘what Jesus would do’ but I have my doubts.

    2. thumb

      There is no one way to shoot anything, my spice. Portrait can be the look you’re going for. It’s weird to equate professional conventions with a hard and fast rule, especially when said “rule” is broken all the time by most people. It’s okay to let people be.

    3. Zee

      I mean, she’s only filming herself here, sitting down. Portrait makes sense, landscape would just have a bunch of unnecessary dead space and possibly awkward cropping

  37. Vulcanodon

    Amber’s right, Robin still needs a social media director!

    1. Needfuldoer

      This is one instance where vertical video gets a pass, in my book. It’s a video portrait. The sole focus of the video is Robin, not the scene she’s in. Double- and triple-boxes on the news do the same thing, for the same reason.

  38. BenRG

    I find myself wondering whether Willis created this feud between Robin and Congresswoman Cortez out of whole cloth himself or whether he just got a lot of jokes from hsi friend about Robin being the ‘Anti-AOC’?

  39. Needfuldoer

    WELP, now DoA can skip Election Day with impunity.

    But you can’t! Vote!

  40. hof1991

    She’s ending her congressional career, but she may have saved herself as a character in this comic. Who would want to watch her as a reformed Republican for the next two years in comic time? That would be about a full century.

    And Becky finally gets a win of some kind, without compromise.

    Now to skip funerals and such and restart with all this behind us.

    1. Regalli

      I mean, we still haven’t seen Joyce vs Carol smackdown, and there’s not enough time left in the storyline for that. Funeral would be an excellent (by which I mean terrible) venue. But… maybe it’s being saved for Thanksgiving. Which Hank will be having in Bloomington, without inviting Carol. (Jocelyne however is invited, and comes as well.) And then Carol shows up in an outrage.

  41. khiron1416

    the Robin Face turn! Boom!

  42. Thomas O.

    Are you not familiar with TikTok, Amber? (or does it exist in this timeline…)

  43. Rabisch

    Robin is awesome here. What a heart of gold ♡.

  44. JessWitt

    My brother likes to watch all YouTube videos vertically on his phone, even those in landscape. So I get Amber’s annoyance in a roundabout way.

  45. thumb

    The comments section is almost always great here, don’t get me wrong. But there’s a lot of strange cynicism about fictional characters too. I get that a real person appearing to do certain things out of altruism would make anyone suspicious, but a fictional story (especially one featuring a superhero and nemesis supervillain, her abusive dad) is written in broader strokes. Continuously seeing characters doing good deeds and calling them hypocrites or assholes is weird. They don’t have an interior life, and their actions do not affect the wider world. Even Republican deSanto. They’re part of a story. If they’re hypocrites, it will be obvious or it will be a twist. Speculate, sure, that’s fun. But condemning or getting bent out of shape at someone for doing what appears to be good or at least okay only affects your blood pressure. And if that’s the case, it might be better to not follow the series until character arcs are resolved and you can have that peace of mind.

    1. thejeff

      Though Robin hasn’t continously done good deeds. She’s got a history of bad stuff – first her politics, but also the creepy stalker invasion of Leslie’s. Being skeptical of her altruism is reasonable.

      I do think it’s fairly obvious that she was eventually going to improve, but that was largely based on narrative concerns and on knowing Robin’s role and character arc in Shortpacked! And it was never clear when that was going to happen.

      1. Dracke

        Against every good act she has done in the comic.
        And she has done a lot specially for Becky

    2. Doom Shepherd

      I figure if I can pull a heel-face turn, then ANYBODY can.

      (Ok, by some measures I’m still pretty awful, but I’m awful on the right side of history now.)

  46. Gamhuin

    It’s good to see more of the somewhat emotionally evolved Shortpacked timeline Robin shine through.
    Now we just need to get her and Les back together. 😀

  47. elsendor

    oh i wasnt expecting to cry today

  48. DarkoNeko

    tale of Becky’s two mommies

  49. Leadsynth

    legit LOL out loud at this portrait vs. landscape punchline. Well played. Mr. Willis

  50. Dracke

    Wow the writer did the infintile thing the audience think its the right think cause of Robins political afiliation as most readers never saw her as a character just a member of a party they dont like on a ficticional world

    Sorry i been analazing the lesseon of leting people win to make them happy or doing things you dont want to do to make someone happy in children media as of late and how its a terrible lesson aswell as the White lie lesson is.

    But expecting someone who actally did a lot for you to drop everything for you like this? is out of a children show

    Im so anoyed by the lack of respect some characters in this commic get from the readers, Robin specially as she has done no wrong “on screen” at all. But got a lot of critisism…

    And im anoyed at the writers from going with it if it wasnt their original idea, and if it was…damn im disapointed.

    But im just one reader, and i expresed my opinion…

    1. thejeff

      No wrong “on screen” at all?

      Maybe reread the sequence where she broke into Leslie’s house (and bed) and refuses to leave. Sure, Robin treats it all as just normal and that makes the tone weird, but watch Leslie closely to see how distressed it makes her.

    2. David M Willis

      “infintile”? i prefer to think of it as totally babies

  51. whatthelewis

    Great, we can’t have peace for five seconds yet again; Becky wasn’t even this upset when her dad died. Then again, I didn’t cry over my dad’s death, so maybe it’s a Dad Thing.

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