Walky’s not as clueless as he usually acts. It’s a defense mechanism.
Thrair
I’m an occasional binge reader and normally don’t post, but I do recall that exact trait being a thing in the old Walkyverse. At one point Joyce had to order him to stop pretending to be a clueless goof and boss up.
Probably holds true in DoA-verse, as well.
Gbz
Funny enough I just reached that point in my reading of Its Walky. It’s my first time.
Jamie
Yeah, it’s mostly an act to deflect responsibility. As long as he isn’t responsible, then he isn’t failing to live up to his mother’s expectations: he can postpone her disappointment in him as long as he’s perceived as a child. But, as with most such masks, when you do a good job wearing it, it bleeds into the rest of your life, too, and you start to forget that it’s a mask.
Pylgrim
“he’s thinking… ALL THE TIME!”
justin8448
Walky picks up on lots of things. He just doesn’t act on them often.
This subtle hint, directed vaguely in Jennifer’s direction, is his version of stepping up and taking rather direct and decisive action.
cbwroses
Some defense mechanism.
If I were the killer, I would kill him next.
Gigafreak
But what if Night Guy intervenes!?
Lumino
Was that a Clue reference?
cbwroses
Yes.
Yes it was.
(And that is a Phinias and Ferb reference.)
temperaryobsessor
I think he might be more self aware than people give him credit for.
Matthew Davis
I think he’s definitely more self-aware than people give him credit for here.
Librain
Walky also thinks he is more self-aware than people give him credit for. That’s how self-aware he is.
Bryy
He’s been getting some super good character development.
Fay
Based on the alt-text, I’d say Walky’s comment is very intentional.
I am going to say he doesn’t either but the audience knows both making the dramatic irorny even more funny or sad depending on your deposition and feelings towards the characters involved.
yeah, youd think college everyone would be too old for the ‘secretly hates you friend group’ if not just being ‘practice’ for putting up with difficult coworkers in an office or so
It’s actually useful to have a friend like that. Someone who’ll tell you to your face what the rumor mill is saying when your other friends try to hide it from you.
Unfortunately Jennifer has no compression of how hard it is to get into university without money and still thinks Sarah possibly losing her scholarship to enable her roommate was a perfectly reasonable expectation to place on her. I almost want her to get financially cut off for a time just to gain some freaking empathy for Sarah’s situation.
Even without that factor, Carl left out what the difficult times looked like and that Sarah first tried to get them to help, but they blew her off.
He’s not lying, but leaving out enough to make it look as bad as possible for Sarah.
Enkrod
Ye, it’s not lying, but it IS deceiving.
thejeff
Which we normally call lying in case where we’re parsing words for technicalities.
If someone believed this, then found out what really happened later, they wouldn’t even remember the phrasing that led them to be deceived, they’d just be mad about being lied to.
I think she’s not quite up to speed on how brutally transactional Raidah’s world is, as she wasn’t there for the conversation with Walky.
It’d be interesting to see how the social group she was part of in high school functioned, because I wondering how much of this new “Jennifer” break is her seeking comfort in a new spin on old habits.
It is always fun when that predisposition is re-enforced in high school by your best friend saying that everybody hates you. -1000/10 do not recommend a best friend like that.
I lived with that “best friend” for a year several years after we were both out of high school and I’m still suicidal. Growing up is bullshit, I’d only wish such a horrible fate on my worst enemies.
I don’t necessarily jump to “hates me,” but I do have a really hard time believing anyone likes me. Even if someone flat out says to me, “I like you,” there is a part of me going, “What have I done that this person does not feel they can be honest with me?”
Our minds can suck sometimes!
Sometimes it helps me to remember that this is, in a way, a judgment I’m putting on people I care about. Shouldn’t they get to be believed about their own feelings? And you know what? If someone did hate me, okay, that’s their right. I would expect them to put distance/boundaries between us. If they kept me around because they got a kick out of hating me or something… that’s fucked up! And that’d be on them. And, idk, I don’t really believe the people I care about would do that? It’s a lot to sort through, admittedly.
oh yeah, overthinking this can lead to some dark, dark places. it’s this paradox, it’s probably been named somewhere on the internet, that goes something like:
person says they like you. this creates a contradiction:
a- you like the person, and believe they have great taste
b- you believe it’s impossible for anyone to like you
something’s got to give. either they’re lying, or deluded, or their taste is not that great after all (and you maybe need to cut them loose for their own good??); or you can in fact be liked, which can be so hard to conceive of.
i will say i’ve puzzled over this for many, many fruitless sleepless hours (chronically depressed over here how y’all doing). i’ve tried therapy, many many hours of it, but i guess what seems to have done the trick (for now? gulp) is, well, antidepressants. not saying that’ll do it for everyone, obviously. it just appears to be what i needed. unless it was just time and some sort of maturity? i don’t know for sure. (but i’m in no hurry to answer that, i’ll just keep popping my pills every night.)
anyway, fwiw worth, and from the tiny amount that i know of you Yumi, i like you.
Oh man. I can’t tell you how many times I believed I needed to disappear due to the thought people were being polite about having me around. But that same mindset is what prevented me from learning from my mistakes and maintaining good relationships with, well, anyone that wasn’t family. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. It wasn’t until the last few years that I realized I needed to play catch-up on a lot of social skills. (Like, I took a questionaire on Asperger’s and my social score was 2 out of 10.)
It’s important to remember other people can *and will* care about you, even when they’re angry/criticizing you. If you believe everyone secretly hates you, how can you assure you can love yourself?
I meant that as a complement – I realize now without the benefit of voice tone my words could have accidentally come across as cruel.
Schpoonman
To reemphasize, no I did not take your words as an insult. Good juxtaposition is worth acknowledging, and I appreciate you got something even if it wasn’t intentional.
For years I had Joyce’s $20 glare (you know the one) as my gravatar and it worked so well for my caustic comments.
It essentially sounds like that if you cut out a whole bunch of details. If Dotty still wants to be a poltican maybe she should take notes from Jenifer.
Jennifer WOULD make a better politician than Dorothy. Like not “knowing politics” wise but she definitely has the nature of a cutthroat politician. She schmoozes, throws her parents money around, stretches the truth with impunity and is only loyal to the people who can further her goals.
Sounds like most politicians I suppose Jenifer can run for congress if this whole( I want say she is a journalism major) journalism career doesn’t work out.
317 thoughts on “Essentially”
Ana Chronistic
shade thrown
(will Jennifer catch it?)
Ana Chronistic
(actually, does Walky even know, that would be funny if he didn’t)
Blibdoolpoolp
He doesn’t often show that much self awareness so probably not?
John Campbell
Walky’s not as clueless as he usually acts. It’s a defense mechanism.
Thrair
I’m an occasional binge reader and normally don’t post, but I do recall that exact trait being a thing in the old Walkyverse. At one point Joyce had to order him to stop pretending to be a clueless goof and boss up.
Probably holds true in DoA-verse, as well.
Gbz
Funny enough I just reached that point in my reading of Its Walky. It’s my first time.
Jamie
Yeah, it’s mostly an act to deflect responsibility. As long as he isn’t responsible, then he isn’t failing to live up to his mother’s expectations: he can postpone her disappointment in him as long as he’s perceived as a child. But, as with most such masks, when you do a good job wearing it, it bleeds into the rest of your life, too, and you start to forget that it’s a mask.
Pylgrim
“he’s thinking… ALL THE TIME!”
justin8448
Walky picks up on lots of things. He just doesn’t act on them often.
This subtle hint, directed vaguely in Jennifer’s direction, is his version of stepping up and taking rather direct and decisive action.
cbwroses
Some defense mechanism.
If I were the killer, I would kill him next.
Gigafreak
But what if Night Guy intervenes!?
Lumino
Was that a Clue reference?
cbwroses
Yes.
Yes it was.
(And that is a Phinias and Ferb reference.)
temperaryobsessor
I think he might be more self aware than people give him credit for.
Matthew Davis
I think he’s definitely more self-aware than people give him credit for here.
Librain
Walky also thinks he is more self-aware than people give him credit for. That’s how self-aware he is.
Bryy
He’s been getting some super good character development.
Fay
Based on the alt-text, I’d say Walky’s comment is very intentional.
UrsulaDavina
I am going to say he doesn’t either but the audience knows both making the dramatic irorny even more funny or sad depending on your deposition and feelings towards the characters involved.
butts
yeah i’m with Walky on this one
anon
yeah, youd think college everyone would be too old for the ‘secretly hates you friend group’ if not just being ‘practice’ for putting up with difficult coworkers in an office or so
Archieve
I think Jennifer she really does fit in but Radiahs dismissivnes has got her feeling like an outsider which makes Walkys comment sting.
Archieve
*Really thinks she fits in*
Plaaaa
College is where most people encounter such groups for the first time. Consider fraternities/sororities and hazing.
Fetch85
Unfortunately, it’s one of those things you’re never too old for.
Mollyscribbles
It’s actually useful to have a friend like that. Someone who’ll tell you to your face what the rumor mill is saying when your other friends try to hide it from you.
Keulen
Same, I’d rather if someone doesn’t like me they let me know directly, rather than pretend to like me when they actually don’t.
BBCC
Oh shut the FUCK up, Jennifer. That is not what Sarah said and you know it. Well, no, you don’t, but I hate that. 😛
Good for Walky!
Archieve
Unfortunately Jennifer has no compression of how hard it is to get into university without money and still thinks Sarah possibly losing her scholarship to enable her roommate was a perfectly reasonable expectation to place on her. I almost want her to get financially cut off for a time just to gain some freaking empathy for Sarah’s situation.
Archieve
*Comprehension*
thejeff
Even without that factor, Carl left out what the difficult times looked like and that Sarah first tried to get them to help, but they blew her off.
He’s not lying, but leaving out enough to make it look as bad as possible for Sarah.
Enkrod
Ye, it’s not lying, but it IS deceiving.
thejeff
Which we normally call lying in case where we’re parsing words for technicalities.
If someone believed this, then found out what really happened later, they wouldn’t even remember the phrasing that led them to be deceived, they’d just be mad about being lied to.
anon
it feels so long ago, well years for us but how much time has passed since jen heard that story, 6 months?
BBCC
About 3 months. It’s early January now and that was early September.
Opus the Poet
Close enough, 5 months by my count.
Needfuldoer
Give her a break, she can’t risk an ounce of social capital by not following Raidah’s lead.
/s
Matthew Davis
I think she’s not quite up to speed on how brutally transactional Raidah’s world is, as she wasn’t there for the conversation with Walky.
It’d be interesting to see how the social group she was part of in high school functioned, because I wondering how much of this new “Jennifer” break is her seeking comfort in a new spin on old habits.
danimagoo
Yeah, I was going to say, ‘essentially’ is doing some heavy lifting in that statement.
The Wellerman
Walky has a point. A brutally honest point. (:o)
True Survivor
Unfortunately, in the last panel, we observe Jennifer as watches that point fly right over her head.
justin8448
This is the woman who somehow still thinks Sal was Amazi-Girl.
Schpoonman
Wait, still?
cbwroses
Yes.
Even after Walky told her straight up.
Archieve
It’s because Jennifer has to make herself the focal point of every story so ofcourse Sal is Amazi girl, shes her roomate! whose even heard of Amber!?.
Yotomoe
It doesn’t matter if they secretly hate me or not! I’ll always be thoroughly convinced that secretly they all hate me.
The Wellerman
?
Thag Simmons
mood
Kimi
It is always fun when that predisposition is re-enforced in high school by your best friend saying that everybody hates you. -1000/10 do not recommend a best friend like that.
Schpoonman
I lived with that “best friend” for a year several years after we were both out of high school and I’m still suicidal. Growing up is bullshit, I’d only wish such a horrible fate on my worst enemies.
Masumi
I had my *mother* tell me that everyone secretly hates me if they don’t overtly avoid me.
… I don’t talk to her anymore.
Yumi
I don’t necessarily jump to “hates me,” but I do have a really hard time believing anyone likes me. Even if someone flat out says to me, “I like you,” there is a part of me going, “What have I done that this person does not feel they can be honest with me?”
Our minds can suck sometimes!
Sometimes it helps me to remember that this is, in a way, a judgment I’m putting on people I care about. Shouldn’t they get to be believed about their own feelings? And you know what? If someone did hate me, okay, that’s their right. I would expect them to put distance/boundaries between us. If they kept me around because they got a kick out of hating me or something… that’s fucked up! And that’d be on them. And, idk, I don’t really believe the people I care about would do that? It’s a lot to sort through, admittedly.
milu
oh yeah, overthinking this can lead to some dark, dark places. it’s this paradox, it’s probably been named somewhere on the internet, that goes something like:
person says they like you. this creates a contradiction:
a- you like the person, and believe they have great taste
b- you believe it’s impossible for anyone to like you
something’s got to give. either they’re lying, or deluded, or their taste is not that great after all (and you maybe need to cut them loose for their own good??); or you can in fact be liked, which can be so hard to conceive of.
i will say i’ve puzzled over this for many, many fruitless sleepless hours (chronically depressed over here how y’all doing). i’ve tried therapy, many many hours of it, but i guess what seems to have done the trick (for now? gulp) is, well, antidepressants. not saying that’ll do it for everyone, obviously. it just appears to be what i needed. unless it was just time and some sort of maturity? i don’t know for sure. (but i’m in no hurry to answer that, i’ll just keep popping my pills every night.)
anyway, fwiw worth, and from the tiny amount that i know of you Yumi, i like you.
anon
after a while you get unapologetically annoying/being yourself, nothing wrong with that as long as you’re not being hostile about it lol.
i’m usually the one messaging first but idon’t mind that in internet friendships lol
mrnoidea
Oh man. I can’t tell you how many times I believed I needed to disappear due to the thought people were being polite about having me around. But that same mindset is what prevented me from learning from my mistakes and maintaining good relationships with, well, anyone that wasn’t family. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. It wasn’t until the last few years that I realized I needed to play catch-up on a lot of social skills. (Like, I took a questionaire on Asperger’s and my social score was 2 out of 10.)
It’s important to remember other people can *and will* care about you, even when they’re angry/criticizing you. If you believe everyone secretly hates you, how can you assure you can love yourself?
Kimi
Is it really playing catch up on your social skills if you actually have Asperger’s or just how you naturally are?
mrnoidea
That’s a question I’m processing to this day. I dunno.
Schpoonman
Eat shit, Jennifer.
True Survivor
The juxtaposition of your scathing comment and ecstatic avatar is fantastically, hilariously disjoint.
True Survivor
I meant that as a complement – I realize now without the benefit of voice tone my words could have accidentally come across as cruel.
Schpoonman
To reemphasize, no I did not take your words as an insult. Good juxtaposition is worth acknowledging, and I appreciate you got something even if it wasn’t intentional.
For years I had Joyce’s $20 glare (you know the one) as my gravatar and it worked so well for my caustic comments.
Schpoonman
Thank you.
Yotomoe
Damn, this restaurant really does serve everything.
Schpoonman
Something something “Make it French.”
Needfuldoer
Stop trying to be fake fancy!
The Wellerman
Eh, I could care less for brie, and honestly caramelized onions really aren’t that sophisticated I think? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
UrsulaDavina
It essentially sounds like that if you cut out a whole bunch of details. If Dotty still wants to be a poltican maybe she should take notes from Jenifer.
Yotomoe
Jennifer WOULD make a better politician than Dorothy. Like not “knowing politics” wise but she definitely has the nature of a cutthroat politician. She schmoozes, throws her parents money around, stretches the truth with impunity and is only loyal to the people who can further her goals.
The Wellerman
Sure hope she doesn’t go into that kind of business, the last thing the cast needs is a functional Michelle Malkin in their lives. ?
UrsulaDavina
Sounds like most politicians I suppose Jenifer can run for congress if this whole( I want say she is a journalism major) journalism career doesn’t work out.
anon
depends on how much paperwork she’d have to fill out if she’s not working with someone/a puppet master
or like parks&rec lol “How about you quit running, then I win, but then I let you do all the work”