Side note, I think many characters here would look AWESOME with a Venom-style symbiote!!!
Leorale
Nah, no way would these characters stand for that.
Leorale
They wouldn’t stand for so-called conversion therapy, that is. I don’t know their stances on symbiotes.
Johan
I mean ambers got a tulpa and everyone’s okay with it so maybe?
Wagstaff
Also Anti-Joyce in the Walky-verse, so there’s that.
What if these symbiotes were like the stands from JoJo, and had powers and personalities that really fit the characters?
Regalli
Given he’s apparently still at college to be invited, doubt it. Fortunately. Those tend to require isolating the victims from anyone who might be able to help.
Besides, I think most of them are explicitly CHRISTIAN-based torture pray the gay away, which I don’t think Naomi would be thrilled with. Maybe as a last resort given Joyce, but then I don’t think she expected Ethan to STAY with the fundie once he’d been fucked straight.
Wagstaff
The fact that people usually don’t accept such atrocious action is exactly why their instigators repackage it as something it’s not, like “therapy”.
Speaking of which, please forgive me for forgetting to put “therapy” in quotation marks above right there.
Regalli
Yes, but I meant more that to my knowledge it usually (or at least frequently) involves actively keeping someone removed from the general population, so that they don’t get any relief from the bombardment of You Are Wrong And Shameful. The wearing down of defenses is a key part of how it ‘works,’ and therefore any contact with the outside world would reduce that. (Admittedly and thankfully, I’m not an expert on the subject, so I could be wrong.) Thus, camps, or ‘facilities’ with ‘inpatient stays’ that have no medical bearing whatsoever but do resemble psychiatric hospitals in the potential to be horribly traumatized by someone with power over you including reserving the ability to leave for the compliant.
Especially with an adult living away from home who’s pretty well accepted he’s gay, there are limited ways for Naomi to get him to go without actually holding him there against his will. So if he’s still at school, that’s probably not going on. Plus the aforementioned ‘most remaining are religiously-motivated and explicitly CHRISTIAN’ thing.
Wagstaff
You might not be an expert, but it looks like you have the gist of it.
Is Naomi intrinsically skeptical of “faith-healing” in general, or just the Christian kind in particular?
Even then, she could still potentially be manipulated into letting those kinds of people have their way with their son, through repackaging their actions in the manner described above. I mean, that’s how Scientology recruits people into their scheme.
Regalli
Ethan and his family are Jewish, and given Naomi’s reference to ‘praying every day’ that he’d stop disappointing her (man I forgot that bit of awfulness,) she at least is probably actively practicing. So I suspect she’d be resistant to sending him anywhere involving evangelical Christianity, because they’d almost certainly try to convert Ethan in the process.
Regalli
And since, again, I’m pretty sure MOST remaining places trying to torture gay people straight in the US are actively and openly Christian, this is something Naomi would know and be assuming most were, rather than assuming secularity and being surprised. She’s terrible, but she can catch a hint and I’m pretty sure any member of a heavily-marginalized religion living in Indiana of all places would learn to spot cues that they’re dealing with evangelicals. To avoid getting Surprise Proselytizing, if nothing else.
Wagstaff
The only Jewish groups I know of that would actively try to repress gay people in a manner even close to that of the Christian Conversion “Camps” would be the Haredim (ultra-orthodox believers) in Israel.
On the other hand, she might fall for a group like the Unification Church, which try to appeal to broad (Abrahamic) groups of believers while repressing gay people and even arranging marriages.
Regalli
Given those tend to be either Christian sects in unconvincing hats or straight-out cults, see my previous comment about a member of a heavily-marginalized religion learning to recognize cues. ‘Abrahamic’ values aren’t nearly as much a thing as US Christians try to pretend. Christianity made a permanent split from Judaism around when Paul decided he was The Absolute Authority on What Jesus Wanted despite never meeting the guy, at latest.
Wagstaff
Well the Unification Church still manages to convince at least a few really intelligent Jews.
Regardless, it just pays to respect the fact that guarding against manipulation is just like preventing disease — not necessarily by dehumanizing these groups, but by acknowledging a very important fact —
We can ALL be manipulated.
Whittier Strong
For the record:
There are Jewish conversion “therapy” practitioners. They used to operate under the umbrella of an organization called JONAH, until a lawsuit got it shut down, but they created another organization that’s essentially the same.
Also, I was going to Indiana University when I was seeing a Christian conversion “therapist.”
Clif
Or so you’ve been manipulated into claiming.
Regalli
My sympathies. I suspected I could be wrong but hoped I wasn’t – the fewer of those fucking torture facilities in existence, the better.
I still doubt until proven otherwise the narrative’s going that way in general, because ‘parent tries to force gay kid to not be gay’ has already been pretty well tread via Becky and Willis went to pretty specific lengths for her NOT to get subjected to it, but ‘unfortunately possible’ is the case, huh.
Wagstaff
Even if he does go there, it probably wouldn’t be for very long.
His dearest friends would all use their abilities to help him escape in an EPIC cinematic way, like in Hey Arnold! or Recess: School’s Out, with some Disney elements mixed in!!!
Autogatos
Has it been confirmed he’s actually still in school there? For some reason I kept thinking he’d dropped out but I can’t remember if it’s actually been made clear why we haven’t seen him lately/why he wasn’t on the new cast image.
Thag Simmons
I think so? He’s been mentioned, and if he dropped out I think that would have come up
Regalli
Yeah, Joyce invited him (implying there’s a chance he could physically come,) Walky mentioned his new look (meaning he’s seen Ethan since we last did,) and Amber’s discussion about how they’re not really friends anymore doesn’t imply distance is the problem – it’s the rift that meant he didn’t come up to Garbage Roof in the last pre-skip scene, and her recognizing she had to give him that space. He’s almost certainly avoiding Amber and Danny, which means seeing less of the rest of the cast since they were his closest friends there and everyone else is friends with at least one of the two (so it’d be awkward).
A few of the characters are going to be sitting down eating or something, and we will only see close ups of them talking. second to last panel will have a speech bubble coming from off screen. The last panel will be a shot of the other, now stunned, characters looking at Ethan, who is just sitting there like his return isn’t a big deal.
If by “cake”, you mean “chance to spend time with her besty and her roommate and perhaps find out why they’re acting so weird”, then yes, Dotty is just here for the ‘cake’.
Given the exotic origin, and ignoring entirely the history that led to vanilla being ‘normal’ or ‘default’, THERE IS NOTHING PLAIN about vanilla cake or otherwise. I mean, I’m a chocolate dude myself, but I gots mad respect for what vanilla brings to the table when dancing with cocoa. I’ll fight anyone who’s gonna so casually denigrate such a delicate and complex flavour.
Wagstaff
That, and it’s natural vanilla’s not gonna be common for long unless we do something about climate change OR genetically engineer the plant OR transplant the flavonoid genes into some other organism.
Demoted Oblivious
No no no Wagstaff. This is the internet. We can’t /agree/. That is entirely too civil an approach.
StClair
Luckily the imitation stuff will be around as long as wood is, knock on.
I’d like to think red velvet it’s not but I like to think it is. Maybe Yellow Cake with hard fudge icing. But in the end it is probably just Vanilla cake with chocolate frosting probably purchased at a local Meyers or Wal Mart or Target maybe even Aldis. I a. not sure of the locations of groceries stores in Bloomington and their proximity to the campus.
ehh, I feel like having lowkey but midsize gatherings in dorm lobbies/common rooms was pretty common (heh) back in college? And by fall semester the frat bros had basically destroyed like 80% of our freshman dorm’s common room furniture. And a wall.
I don’t know anything about Bonnie but that sounded like using your dead mom as an excuse to be a slob that can’t be challenged to me. And let’s be honest if you can’t use dead parents for that then what can you use them for?
175 thoughts on “Facebook invite”
Ana Chronistic
Slobby Dearest?
plasticwrap
I hate dumb puns.
Rognik
How appropriate. I love dumb puns!
This one barely qualifies as a pun, though.
UrsulaDavina
Some say puns are the lowest form of comedy but I believe puns should be considered high art.
Ryek Hvek
So says Stephan “da Vinci” Pastis.
Michael L
Others believe it’s the highest form of humor, because it’s one of the few ways to make a joke at no ones expense.
Wagstaff
What about the wild slapstick that goes on in SpongeBob?
Xaeon
That’s not true, puns come at the expense of having to hear them.
Common sense
Yay, i always thought the quality of a good pun was measured by the amount of Groans it causes.
Highest points if you inflict light physical pain ,like someone facepalming to hard or hitting his head on a table.
StClair
I’m fond of absurdity and non sequiturs, myself.
StClair
Trout, anyone?
Wagstaff
Absurdity and randomness is really funny too!
Those with more generous palates may enjoy some YTPs for that stuff!
Geneseepaws
“Humour is a rubber sword – it allows you to make a point without drawing blood.”
Fist_of_Life
I take this to mean that art is below comedy, and you are knocking puns down yet another peg. How dare you!
Lawzlo
Well, if she never hangs up her clothes, that would mean that she uses “No WIRE HANGERS, EVERRRRRRRR!!!!!!”
Wagstaff
I don’t get it.
By the way, just where did you get that striking avatar?
Lawzlo
I’m quoting Mommy Dearest.
And the avatar is a picture I took of myself a number of years ago lit with a “floating disco ball” pool toy (I think).
Thag Simmons
More ominous Ethan mentions, though I kinda doubt we’ll be seeing him for a while.
Jamie
At least he’s confirmed alive.
Pinkie
Did I miss a strip about him going off to conversion therapy?
Wagstaff
You forgot to put the “therapy” into quotation marks.
Thag Simmons
He and Amber don’t really talk much anymore, and apparently he’s going through an Emo phase
Wagstaff
I sure hope it’s not conversion therapy…
Side note, I think many characters here would look AWESOME with a Venom-style symbiote!!!
Leorale
Nah, no way would these characters stand for that.
Leorale
They wouldn’t stand for so-called conversion therapy, that is. I don’t know their stances on symbiotes.
Johan
I mean ambers got a tulpa and everyone’s okay with it so maybe?
Wagstaff
Also Anti-Joyce in the Walky-verse, so there’s that.
What if these symbiotes were like the stands from JoJo, and had powers and personalities that really fit the characters?
Regalli
Given he’s apparently still at college to be invited, doubt it. Fortunately. Those tend to require isolating the victims from anyone who might be able to help.
Besides, I think most of them are explicitly CHRISTIAN-based
torturepray the gay away, which I don’t think Naomi would be thrilled with. Maybe as a last resort given Joyce, but then I don’t think she expected Ethan to STAY with the fundie once he’d been fucked straight.Wagstaff
The fact that people usually don’t accept such atrocious action is exactly why their instigators repackage it as something it’s not, like “therapy”.
Speaking of which, please forgive me for forgetting to put “therapy” in quotation marks above right there.
Regalli
Yes, but I meant more that to my knowledge it usually (or at least frequently) involves actively keeping someone removed from the general population, so that they don’t get any relief from the bombardment of You Are Wrong And Shameful. The wearing down of defenses is a key part of how it ‘works,’ and therefore any contact with the outside world would reduce that. (Admittedly and thankfully, I’m not an expert on the subject, so I could be wrong.) Thus, camps, or ‘facilities’ with ‘inpatient stays’ that have no medical bearing whatsoever but do resemble psychiatric hospitals in the potential to be horribly traumatized by someone with power over you including reserving the ability to leave for the compliant.
Especially with an adult living away from home who’s pretty well accepted he’s gay, there are limited ways for Naomi to get him to go without actually holding him there against his will. So if he’s still at school, that’s probably not going on. Plus the aforementioned ‘most remaining are religiously-motivated and explicitly CHRISTIAN’ thing.
Wagstaff
You might not be an expert, but it looks like you have the gist of it.
Is Naomi intrinsically skeptical of “faith-healing” in general, or just the Christian kind in particular?
Even then, she could still potentially be manipulated into letting those kinds of people have their way with their son, through repackaging their actions in the manner described above. I mean, that’s how Scientology recruits people into their scheme.
Regalli
Ethan and his family are Jewish, and given Naomi’s reference to ‘praying every day’ that he’d stop disappointing her (man I forgot that bit of awfulness,) she at least is probably actively practicing. So I suspect she’d be resistant to sending him anywhere involving evangelical Christianity, because they’d almost certainly try to convert Ethan in the process.
Regalli
And since, again, I’m pretty sure MOST remaining places trying to torture gay people straight in the US are actively and openly Christian, this is something Naomi would know and be assuming most were, rather than assuming secularity and being surprised. She’s terrible, but she can catch a hint and I’m pretty sure any member of a heavily-marginalized religion living in Indiana of all places would learn to spot cues that they’re dealing with evangelicals. To avoid getting Surprise Proselytizing, if nothing else.
Wagstaff
The only Jewish groups I know of that would actively try to repress gay people in a manner even close to that of the Christian Conversion “Camps” would be the Haredim (ultra-orthodox believers) in Israel.
On the other hand, she might fall for a group like the Unification Church, which try to appeal to broad (Abrahamic) groups of believers while repressing gay people and even arranging marriages.
Regalli
Given those tend to be either Christian sects in unconvincing hats or straight-out cults, see my previous comment about a member of a heavily-marginalized religion learning to recognize cues. ‘Abrahamic’ values aren’t nearly as much a thing as US Christians try to pretend. Christianity made a permanent split from Judaism around when Paul decided he was The Absolute Authority on What Jesus Wanted despite never meeting the guy, at latest.
Wagstaff
Well the Unification Church still manages to convince at least a few really intelligent Jews.
Regardless, it just pays to respect the fact that guarding against manipulation is just like preventing disease — not necessarily by dehumanizing these groups, but by acknowledging a very important fact —
We can ALL be manipulated.
Whittier Strong
For the record:
There are Jewish conversion “therapy” practitioners. They used to operate under the umbrella of an organization called JONAH, until a lawsuit got it shut down, but they created another organization that’s essentially the same.
Also, I was going to Indiana University when I was seeing a Christian conversion “therapist.”
Clif
Or so you’ve been manipulated into claiming.
Regalli
My sympathies. I suspected I could be wrong but hoped I wasn’t – the fewer of those fucking torture facilities in existence, the better.
I still doubt until proven otherwise the narrative’s going that way in general, because ‘parent tries to force gay kid to not be gay’ has already been pretty well tread via Becky and Willis went to pretty specific lengths for her NOT to get subjected to it, but ‘unfortunately possible’ is the case, huh.
Wagstaff
Even if he does go there, it probably wouldn’t be for very long.
His dearest friends would all use their abilities to help him escape in an EPIC cinematic way, like in Hey Arnold! or Recess: School’s Out, with some Disney elements mixed in!!!
Autogatos
Has it been confirmed he’s actually still in school there? For some reason I kept thinking he’d dropped out but I can’t remember if it’s actually been made clear why we haven’t seen him lately/why he wasn’t on the new cast image.
Thag Simmons
I think so? He’s been mentioned, and if he dropped out I think that would have come up
Regalli
Yeah, Joyce invited him (implying there’s a chance he could physically come,) Walky mentioned his new look (meaning he’s seen Ethan since we last did,) and Amber’s discussion about how they’re not really friends anymore doesn’t imply distance is the problem – it’s the rift that meant he didn’t come up to Garbage Roof in the last pre-skip scene, and her recognizing she had to give him that space. He’s almost certainly avoiding Amber and Danny, which means seeing less of the rest of the cast since they were his closest friends there and everyone else is friends with at least one of the two (so it’d be awkward).
Demoted Oblivious
No criticism from me here. Except, aside from generally being on the same page, can we just call it what it is?
Conversion Torture
RassilonTDavros
Yeah, after all the build-up since the time skip I can only assume that his return is going to be a massive shocker when it finally happens.
Fist_of_Life
A few of the characters are going to be sitting down eating or something, and we will only see close ups of them talking. second to last panel will have a speech bubble coming from off screen. The last panel will be a shot of the other, now stunned, characters looking at Ethan, who is just sitting there like his return isn’t a big deal.
Sombrero
Don’t be surprised when Chekhov’s Ethan is fired.
RassilonTDavros
In response to the alt text:
n
plasticwrap
Also n from me
woobie
(y’all saw the actual poll, right?)
Z
I had not thank you now answered
RassilonTDavros
Funny story: before I commented, I reloaded the home page to see if it was actually the new poll… and it wasn’t yet. So I commented. And now it is.
Tan
Only? No.
Mainly? ………I don’t have to listen to these wild accusations.
Deanatay
If by “cake”, you mean “chance to spend time with her besty and her roommate and perhaps find out why they’re acting so weird”, then yes, Dotty is just here for the ‘cake’.
Doctor_Who
The important thing is what kind of cake is that?
Slartibeast Button, BIA
And is it a lie?
Wagstaff
Looks like a plain vanilla cake with chocolate frosting to me, but I could be wrong….
Keulen
That’s what it looks like to me as well.
Deanatay
So yes, it IS a lie.
Demoted Oblivious
Given the exotic origin, and ignoring entirely the history that led to vanilla being ‘normal’ or ‘default’, THERE IS NOTHING PLAIN about vanilla cake or otherwise. I mean, I’m a chocolate dude myself, but I gots mad respect for what vanilla brings to the table when dancing with cocoa. I’ll fight anyone who’s gonna so casually denigrate such a delicate and complex flavour.
Wagstaff
That, and it’s natural vanilla’s not gonna be common for long unless we do something about climate change OR genetically engineer the plant OR transplant the flavonoid genes into some other organism.
Demoted Oblivious
No no no Wagstaff. This is the internet. We can’t /agree/. That is entirely too civil an approach.
StClair
Luckily the imitation stuff will be around as long as wood is, knock on.
UrsulaDavina
I’d like to think red velvet it’s not but I like to think it is. Maybe Yellow Cake with hard fudge icing. But in the end it is probably just Vanilla cake with chocolate frosting probably purchased at a local Meyers or Wal Mart or Target maybe even Aldis. I a. not sure of the locations of groceries stores in Bloomington and their proximity to the campus.
Needfuldoer
There’s one close enough that Rose went there at least once to buy a block of cheese.
Annika
Dotty is a treasure.
Wagstaff
*plays “Victoria’s Laboratory Theme” by Winifred Philips on Voxola PR-76*
Nono
Where are they, anyway? The lobby? Weird place for a party. Why are they sitting on the floor?
Yumi
I was wondering about that too. Seems like they could find somewhere with a table.
Wagstaff
Artistic convenience?
I really don’t know….
wynne
ehh, I feel like having lowkey but midsize gatherings in dorm lobbies/common rooms was pretty common (heh) back in college? And by fall semester the frat bros had basically destroyed like 80% of our freshman dorm’s common room furniture. And a wall.
Sirksome
I don’t know anything about Bonnie but that sounded like using your dead mom as an excuse to be a slob that can’t be challenged to me. And let’s be honest if you can’t use dead parents for that then what can you use them for?
Doctor_Who
You can use them as an excuse to be Batman.
Proxiehunter