It was going to be ‘sleep with Ethan, making both Danny and Ethan twisted up’. Except uh, it only worked on Danny, and then Mike caught feelings.
AlexanderHammil
i thought his plan was to sleep with ethan, then convince him that he could get laid as much as he wanted to, thus ensuring that Ethan wouldn’t ever get together with danny the vocally monogamous?
trizzle9
Mike’s motives are hard to gauge. I don’t think he’s a bad guy but he’s very committed to being as big of an asshole as possible
Leorale
I would argue that being “very committed to being as big of an asshole as possible” is definitely bad guy behaviour.
Like, you can be anything! It’s actively terrible to decide that “asshole” is really the way to go.
Jay
But he’s not a harmful asshole, just an annoying one. He never goes out of his way to harm people just fuck with them
Sam
This is incorrect. He has made knife-twisting statements before that have definitely caused emotional harm and he has done so on purpose. He isn’t a failed jokester type of asshole, he is a ‘literally pushes you on your weak points’ asshole.
Meagan
I think it’s a mix of both. Sometimes he targets specific vulnerabilities, other times his insults are so generic to be idiotic and ironically amusing (such as the predictable mom jokes showcased here). The weird thing is how the cliche assholery fills in the gaps between the targeted assholery.
It was originally ‘sleep with one of them to make the other a jealous whimpering mess’. Ethan said Danny was off-limits. So that meant he had to bang Ethan. As he got closer to actually doing so, childhood feels came back so instead he gave Ethan an actual legitimate confidence boost, then had sex with him, knowing that Ethan would likely never opt to be with him willingly again and it finally opened the floodgates for Ethan to be himself and have some casual times without tripping into the insecure guilt pit his mother’s words kept pulling him into.
Danny may still be jealous, but it’s not Mike-patented purposely rubbing it in his face to twist up all his feelings jealous, as he didn’t go out of his way to tell him to ensure he would be.
I’m pretty sure his plan is “I’m in love with Ethan but too emotionally insecure to say it, so I’ll keep coming up with convoluted rationalizations to push him toward intimacy with me.”
Wait, did McConnell ALREADY push the thing through? I know it passed the House. Of course, it was NEVER going to pass the Senate, so this is no surprise, but at least now you know of 11 democrats that you need to primary ASAP.
Nah. Pelosi has declined to send it to the House until they guarantee a fair trial. Since they won’t, Trump will just be the only President ever to be impeached and not acquitted.
thejeff
Unless I missed something, it’s officially not being sent until the rules for the trial are set, which is slightly different.
I suspect it will get there and it probably won’t take too long.
Meanwhile, investigations and revelations will continue.
No it hasn’t. The vote passed the house. Now they’re setting rules for the senate trial. Which is a GOOD thing. Those rules are gonna have to be ironclad to keep Trump’s party members from weaselling around it too much.
thejeff
Problem is, McConnell has as much control over those rules as he can get 51 of Trump’s party members to agree with and McConnell’s already openly stated he’s acting as the President’s defense.
Impeachment certainly hasn’t failed – though it’s overwhelmingly likely not to remove Trump from office. 20 Republican Senators in favor is just not realistic.
The hope was always to use the high profile of impeachment to highlight his crimes and shift public opinion.
JBento
I’ve also heard that as long as you impeach in at least one of the organisms, it’s possible to prosecute after the term is over? It’s almost assuredly not relevant what with the “presidents don’t criticise former incumbents” utter bullshit (maaaaaaybe Warren would break the tradition?), but do you have any idea if it’s true?
Otl1999
It isn’t. Impeachment (which can only happen in the House) is roughly the equivalent of an indictment (with the House acting as a grand jury) for a legislative trial (in the Senate). It has nothing to do with the criminal justice system and doesn’t impact potential criminal proceedings later one way or the other. Nor does following presidents criticizing or not criticizing. (The “not criticizing” thing is largely a tradition of avoiding the appearance of political retaliation which is considered a fairly totalitarian sort of thing. Trump obviously never got the memo.)
thejeff
What you might be thinking of is the Presidential pardon power which might be used to protect Trump from federal prosecution after he’s out of office. There’s a common misconception about impeachment and pardons – The Constitution limits the pardon power in cases of impeachment, but that means he can’t pardon the actual impeachment, not that related crimes can’t be pardoned.
BBCC
Well, yeah, the odds are pretty much certain the senate will be kind to him, but officially this is still ongoing and I think Pelosi’s doing what she can with the rules.
Lailah
The actual long term goal really needs to be widespread changes – of which, one useful one (and part of moving us towards a more healthy parliamentary democracy model, rather than the more unstable presidential democracy model) is making the mechanism of removing the president… well, a thing that could actually happen :V
thejeff
And the primary step towards that isn’t necessarily a change of the rules, but reforming the Republican party (and its base voters) into something other than a fascist criminal enterprise.
Under the rules it could happen and would have to Nixon, except he recognized it and resigned first. That was the process working. The difference now isn’t the process, it’s the hyperpartisanship of the Republican party and the fact that they expect no or minimal political damage from it.
Meagan
The thing is, unless you are an influential member of the Republican party, you have absolutely no leverage to change those things. Maybe you are, what do I know, but for those of us who aren’t we can only hope to make change in the areas we do have leverage.
And this is why you don’t conduct a lengthy campaign of douchebaggery for the sake of douchebaggery! By the time you realize you’re interested, he’s over his crush on you because he realizes you’re not worth it!
I’d be way more sympathetic to your plight if you didn’t do the website spoofing thing to make Walky cry, like, a week, week and a half ago.
Mike’s smile doesn’t mean “Wait – he still cares enough for Danny to notice that we spoke and then he left… His core Ethan-ness has not been consumed by his need to consummate as many flings as possible! This means we may still have a chance!” does it..? Coz if so, OH BOY does he have it bad…
I don’t think so. I think it is just supposed to show that he finds Ethan’s joke and reaction endearing and enjoyed the interaction though he is keeping his feels to himself.
There’s a difference, though, between “identifying as nonmonogamous” and “going through your exploratory phase”. Plenty of people who sleep around a lot when not in relationships go on to have monogamous relationships; we don’t have enough information on Ethan to suspect one way or the other yet. I’m not sure *Ethan* has enough information on Ethan one way or the other to know that yet.
Charles Phipps
True but it’s a nice change of pace that a character hasn’t been inclined to believe in one true love and a serious relationship as the goal of dating.
I don’t think Mike is perplexed, pretty vividly remember him telling Ethan he could get with pretty much any guy on their floor if he tried, just seems jealous because childhood feels came back to him and he knows they’ll never legit be together as an actual couple. And pretty sure Danny is just jealous that Ethan is getting with other people, not puzzled by it.
See, kids, this is why we don’t act like an asshole for years on end. Because when you’re possibly willing to change, people don’t believe you and believe the worst of you.
The only reason he agreed to die is that Luke Skywalker’s ghost asked nicely. He was 100% in it for selfish reasons. I mean, his entire goal was to create a blank, empty world and rule over it as an invincible tyrant.
Regalli
Honestly my read on that scene was that Eraqus forgave him (for reasons I can’t understand, but maybe it was a ‘I’ll take this blow for the rest of you’ thing), and literally everyone else was smiling, nodding, and doing whatever else necessary for him to DIE ALREADY. Man clearly showed he could shrug off death and make ANOTHER new ridiculous form, so they needed him to accept it.
116 thoughts on “Empathizing”
Ana Chronistic
WHAT IS THAT ON HIS FACE
oh no
[maybe he’s smiling about the impeachment]
Charles Phipps
What exactly was Mike’s plan with Danny and Ethan? It seems to have completely gone arry.
Nono
It was going to be ‘sleep with Ethan, making both Danny and Ethan twisted up’. Except uh, it only worked on Danny, and then Mike caught feelings.
AlexanderHammil
i thought his plan was to sleep with ethan, then convince him that he could get laid as much as he wanted to, thus ensuring that Ethan wouldn’t ever get together with danny the vocally monogamous?
trizzle9
Mike’s motives are hard to gauge. I don’t think he’s a bad guy but he’s very committed to being as big of an asshole as possible
Leorale
I would argue that being “very committed to being as big of an asshole as possible” is definitely bad guy behaviour.
Like, you can be anything! It’s actively terrible to decide that “asshole” is really the way to go.
Jay
But he’s not a harmful asshole, just an annoying one. He never goes out of his way to harm people just fuck with them
Sam
This is incorrect. He has made knife-twisting statements before that have definitely caused emotional harm and he has done so on purpose. He isn’t a failed jokester type of asshole, he is a ‘literally pushes you on your weak points’ asshole.
Meagan
I think it’s a mix of both. Sometimes he targets specific vulnerabilities, other times his insults are so generic to be idiotic and ironically amusing (such as the predictable mom jokes showcased here). The weird thing is how the cliche assholery fills in the gaps between the targeted assholery.
Sam
It was originally ‘sleep with one of them to make the other a jealous whimpering mess’. Ethan said Danny was off-limits. So that meant he had to bang Ethan. As he got closer to actually doing so, childhood feels came back so instead he gave Ethan an actual legitimate confidence boost, then had sex with him, knowing that Ethan would likely never opt to be with him willingly again and it finally opened the floodgates for Ethan to be himself and have some casual times without tripping into the insecure guilt pit his mother’s words kept pulling him into.
Danny may still be jealous, but it’s not Mike-patented purposely rubbing it in his face to twist up all his feelings jealous, as he didn’t go out of his way to tell him to ensure he would be.
Alan
I’m pretty sure his plan is “I’m in love with Ethan but too emotionally insecure to say it, so I’ll keep coming up with convoluted rationalizations to push him toward intimacy with me.”
Which, ya know, has worked out stellar
Jen Aside
oops I was going to post from this account today sorry new avvie who dis
Nono
That’s Hank and… is that Mike’s dad?
insomniac
…Joyce’s sister?
King Daniel
I remember Willis mentioning something about dad makeouts on Twitter a little while ago, so I think that’s it.
plasticwrap
The impeachment failed.
Delicious Taffy
What else is new? Eat at fucking Arby’s.
JBento
Wait, did McConnell ALREADY push the thing through? I know it passed the House. Of course, it was NEVER going to pass the Senate, so this is no surprise, but at least now you know of 11 democrats that you need to primary ASAP.
theVoidWatches
Nah. Pelosi has declined to send it to the House until they guarantee a fair trial. Since they won’t, Trump will just be the only President ever to be impeached and not acquitted.
thejeff
Unless I missed something, it’s officially not being sent until the rules for the trial are set, which is slightly different.
I suspect it will get there and it probably won’t take too long.
Meanwhile, investigations and revelations will continue.
elebenty
You are correct, thejeff.
BBCC
???
No it hasn’t. The vote passed the house. Now they’re setting rules for the senate trial. Which is a GOOD thing. Those rules are gonna have to be ironclad to keep Trump’s party members from weaselling around it too much.
thejeff
Problem is, McConnell has as much control over those rules as he can get 51 of Trump’s party members to agree with and McConnell’s already openly stated he’s acting as the President’s defense.
Impeachment certainly hasn’t failed – though it’s overwhelmingly likely not to remove Trump from office. 20 Republican Senators in favor is just not realistic.
The hope was always to use the high profile of impeachment to highlight his crimes and shift public opinion.
JBento
I’ve also heard that as long as you impeach in at least one of the organisms, it’s possible to prosecute after the term is over? It’s almost assuredly not relevant what with the “presidents don’t criticise former incumbents” utter bullshit (maaaaaaybe Warren would break the tradition?), but do you have any idea if it’s true?
Otl1999
It isn’t. Impeachment (which can only happen in the House) is roughly the equivalent of an indictment (with the House acting as a grand jury) for a legislative trial (in the Senate). It has nothing to do with the criminal justice system and doesn’t impact potential criminal proceedings later one way or the other. Nor does following presidents criticizing or not criticizing. (The “not criticizing” thing is largely a tradition of avoiding the appearance of political retaliation which is considered a fairly totalitarian sort of thing. Trump obviously never got the memo.)
thejeff
What you might be thinking of is the Presidential pardon power which might be used to protect Trump from federal prosecution after he’s out of office. There’s a common misconception about impeachment and pardons – The Constitution limits the pardon power in cases of impeachment, but that means he can’t pardon the actual impeachment, not that related crimes can’t be pardoned.
BBCC
Well, yeah, the odds are pretty much certain the senate will be kind to him, but officially this is still ongoing and I think Pelosi’s doing what she can with the rules.
Lailah
The actual long term goal really needs to be widespread changes – of which, one useful one (and part of moving us towards a more healthy parliamentary democracy model, rather than the more unstable presidential democracy model) is making the mechanism of removing the president… well, a thing that could actually happen :V
thejeff
And the primary step towards that isn’t necessarily a change of the rules, but reforming the Republican party (and its base voters) into something other than a fascist criminal enterprise.
Under the rules it could happen and would have to Nixon, except he recognized it and resigned first. That was the process working. The difference now isn’t the process, it’s the hyperpartisanship of the Republican party and the fact that they expect no or minimal political damage from it.
Meagan
The thing is, unless you are an influential member of the Republican party, you have absolutely no leverage to change those things. Maybe you are, what do I know, but for those of us who aren’t we can only hope to make change in the areas we do have leverage.
Deadjolras
Impeachment and removal are two different things. Trump is 100% impeached.
Doctor_Who
Head Canon: Mike secretly learned everything about Transformers so that he can mess with Ethan’s wiki edits as a form of being a Tsundere.
Dr T
Honestly, I’m proud of Ethan’s joke too.
LeslieBean4shizzle
I know, right?
Until proven otherwise, I’m assuming that the last panel is just Mike being overwhelmed with pride that Ethan made that joke.
PHNX
Mike cracks a smile, and all ofn reality cracks with it.
AntJ
Mike really needs to work on conveying different emotions with his Piercing Stare
Doctor_Who
Staring contest!
Mike’s Piercing Stare vs Paddington’s Hard Stare.
sirconanad
It’ll just never end, like the contest between Mike and Roadblock over at Shortpacked.
Regalli
And this is why you don’t conduct a lengthy campaign of douchebaggery for the sake of douchebaggery! By the time you realize you’re interested, he’s over his crush on you because he realizes you’re not worth it!
I’d be way more sympathetic to your plight if you didn’t do the website spoofing thing to make Walky cry, like, a week, week and a half ago.
Charles Phipps
I wonder if Mike was the one who revealed the Do list.
No, he would have revealed it to Joe by now and that women were right to hate him for it.
Stephen Bierce
*plays Neil Diamond’s “Love On the Rocks” on the hacked Muzak*
Charles Phipps
Now Mike has to go fuck Ethan’s mom.
Miri
Mike’s smile doesn’t mean “Wait – he still cares enough for Danny to notice that we spoke and then he left… His core Ethan-ness has not been consumed by his need to consummate as many flings as possible! This means we may still have a chance!” does it..? Coz if so, OH BOY does he have it bad…
Sam
I don’t think so. I think it is just supposed to show that he finds Ethan’s joke and reaction endearing and enjoyed the interaction though he is keeping his feels to himself.
Deanatay
Panel 5 Mike: He GETS me! He REALLY gets me!
DailyBrad
Mike got what he wanted, he made Ethan live it up, Just, looks like feelings were caught along the way.
Also, credit where it’s due, that was a really good one on Ethan’s part.
Charles Phipps
Danny and Mike both seemed to be perplexed at the possibility that maybe Ethan isn’t monogamous.
Like many people in RL.
Kit
There’s a difference, though, between “identifying as nonmonogamous” and “going through your exploratory phase”. Plenty of people who sleep around a lot when not in relationships go on to have monogamous relationships; we don’t have enough information on Ethan to suspect one way or the other yet. I’m not sure *Ethan* has enough information on Ethan one way or the other to know that yet.
Charles Phipps
True but it’s a nice change of pace that a character hasn’t been inclined to believe in one true love and a serious relationship as the goal of dating.
Sam
I don’t think Mike is perplexed, pretty vividly remember him telling Ethan he could get with pretty much any guy on their floor if he tried, just seems jealous because childhood feels came back to him and he knows they’ll never legit be together as an actual couple. And pretty sure Danny is just jealous that Ethan is getting with other people, not puzzled by it.
Woomy
You can’t convince me Ethan didn’t say the words “exasperated sigh”
Thursday Violist
he actually did say that though
BarerMender
The blue outline text is for sound effects.
Rei
That smile is kinda precious ;_;
Keulen
Are we sure Mike isn’t drunk right now? Normally he doesn’t smile when he’s not drunk, and if he does smile sober it’s creepy as hell.
Wizard
There’s something about the eyes, too.
Delicious Taffy
Cry me a river, binkyboy. Honestly, go home.
SUGauthor
Is…is that an emotion? Can Mike make those?
Shane Wegner
He received Character Development Points for completing some side quests.
Mitchell Aitchbee
AAAAAAH IT’S A SOBER MIKE SMILE
THE WORLD IS CRUMBLING
Nono
It’s a college party. Someone snuck in booze, somehow.
Dean
The booze was hidden in Billie’s liver.
Delicious Taffy
It’s a known fact that boozahol can be expelled at high speeds under party conditions.
p!enapple
DAWWWWW!!
BBCC
See, kids, this is why we don’t act like an asshole for years on end. Because when you’re possibly willing to change, people don’t believe you and believe the worst of you.
abysswatcher1993
Like Vriska Serket, or Sasuke Uchiha.
abysswatcher1993
Okay, everybody forgave Sasuke too easily.
Delicious Taffy
Can’t forget Xehanort, of course.
MatthewTheLucky
Well, Xehanort did prove his sincerity by dying, which is pretty strong evidence he wasn’t in it for himself.
Delicious Taffy
The only reason he agreed to die is that Luke Skywalker’s ghost asked nicely. He was 100% in it for selfish reasons. I mean, his entire goal was to create a blank, empty world and rule over it as an invincible tyrant.
Regalli
Honestly my read on that scene was that Eraqus forgave him (for reasons I can’t understand, but maybe it was a ‘I’ll take this blow for the rest of you’ thing), and literally everyone else was smiling, nodding, and doing whatever else necessary for him to DIE ALREADY. Man clearly showed he could shrug off death and make ANOTHER new ridiculous form, so they needed him to accept it.
Zee