I do in general, but she put the emphasis in the wrong place.
Her foot isn’t damned by god – his face is. So it should be “when I put my foot through your god-damned face.”
I think the point is “hey, I might be a damned unbeliever now, but I guess I could still be doing God’s work.”
Schpoonman
No, Ross isn’t shook in his place at all, he’s saying the imperfect agent is Blaine. Even now Ross believes he hasn’t fucked up.
Reltzik
Right, that paraphrase was on Joyce’s behalf.
Oak Rover
Ross might be shaken, but Joyce will never be able to get through to him to capitalize on that. Toe-dad will just ignore her in favor of his comforting rationalizations. Why? Easy: 1} Comforting rationalizations generally win; 2} Joyce is still a ‘child’ to him, and therefore unworthy to argue with him. There are a bunch of other factors of course, but it would take someone Ross respects to get him to change course — his Pastor, for example — and everyone else will get tuned out.
jmsr7
“…Joyce is still a ‘child’ to him, and therefore unworthy to argue with him.”
She’s also female. Don’t forget his cult’s misogyny.
By “my goddamned foot”, she means specifically the one with the loose toenail.
Rose by Any Other Name
The toenail is no longer loose – it’s gone.
That said, your proposition is logical. Missing-toenail foot could be considered god-damned.
I still think it works better the other way because it implies that Ross is literally damned by god, but being kicked with icky toe might carry a higher level of threat.
Thanatos
I think she is saying her foot is imperfect and will be doing God’s work.
clif
Well, she is now.
SuperZero
Don’t kick people with injured feet. Equal and opposite reaction, and all that.
Deanatay
If she kicks him enough with it, eventually her toe and his Toe will match.
Aaaaaaabsolutely. ..and yet, I can’t help but wonder if it exists as is as a factor of her human capacity for insecurity or rather doubt, despite faith.
I think in this case Joyce is acknowledging that according to the way she was brought up, she is working against God’s Perfect Will™ thus making her foot, which is also working against God’s Perfect Will™, god-damned.
At this point, I have to wonder if Ross thinks he’s being truly righteous or if he’s hanging on to that belief because he’s otherwise worse than the people he was trying to “rescue” Becky from.
Needfuldoer
I think he’s going along with it because “the ends justify the means”, and he’s too blind (or stupid) to realize he’s Blaine’s patsy. Hopefully he reaches his acceptable collateral damage threshold before something else extremely terrible happens…
When faced with new facts, people don’t change their beliefs, they disbelieve the facts. Also people are much less motivated by religious beliefs than they think they are. Changing your mind is a difficult task. That’s one reason people like the music of their teen years forever and think recent sports stars are the best ever.
Your recommended reading: Mistakes were made but not by me and The structure of scientific revolutions (a classic and short)
Ross knows he’s in the wrong here. You can tell by his expression, and the words he’s saying (and, more importantly, not saying). The problem is that he’s so far down the rabbit hole, he’s scrambling for reasons to justify why he’s still in the right.
He’s lying to himself, basically. Entirely possible he’ll keep doing so going forward, of course, but the point is that he’s not like Blaine, who’s fully committed to doing what he knows is evil and selfish, because he doesn’t give a fuck.
Ross gives a fuck. He wants to do the right thing. He wants to “save his daughter”.
There’s nothing like a good cause to bring out the worst in people.
Well, it’s time to celebrate your birthday, it happens every year
We’ll eat a lot of broccoli and drink a lot of beer
You should be good and happy that there’s something you can eat
A million people every day are starving in the street
Your daddy’s in the gutter with the wretched and the poor
Your mama’s in the kitchen with a can of Cycle Four
There’s garbage in the water
There’s poison in the sky
I guess it won’t be long before we’re all gonna die
Happy birthday
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday
Happy birthday to you
291 thoughts on “Imperfect”
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happy birthday willis
Lumino
Welp, I’m not sleeping tonight.
Reltzik
Can’t sleep, Joyce will eat me…
Doctor_Who
It belongs in a museum!
Kensou
Yeah, we have top men working on that.
BigDogLittleCat
Top. Men.
JessWitt
Some reader playing New Horizons will get it done hopefully.
Tan
Art.
David M Willis
Thank you, that is wonderful.
clif
Who deserves it more? (Ana’s art, not the social distancing.)
clif
Also, congratulations on surviving another exciting trip around the sun.
SuperZero
Maybe the next one can be less exciting? Please.
Schpoonman
Fucking knew “may you live in interesting times” was a curse!
Spriteless Girl
I do not want a scene change now, unless it is to Ruth calling the cops.
Needfuldoer
That’s brilliant1 Does the new Animal Crossing give you enough room to plant that as a garden? Or maybe a topiary or something?
He Who Abides
?????????????????????????
JBento
I hear there’s a Ditch museum with a recently opened-up spot, have you thought about submitting?
JBento
DUTCH. Dutch museum, of course.
Michael Lanting
Ditch, Dutch, it’s all the same really. Lots of our country is ditches…
Needfuldoer
Aren’t levees the opposite of ditches?
gingercake
I intensely relate to Joyce in the last panel.
Rose by Any Other Name
I do in general, but she put the emphasis in the wrong place.
Her foot isn’t damned by god – his face is. So it should be “when I put my foot through your god-damned face.”
jmsr7
Craaaaaaaaaaap you’re right. HEY WILLIS! Can you fix that in post?
chris2315
Instructions unclear. Joyce now says “when I put my god through your damned foot-face.”
Needfuldoer
Well, Ross is a sentient toe…
Delicious Taffy
Are we sure he’s even sentient?
Azhrei Vep
Oh, he’s definitely sentient. You can see him reacting to external stimulus due to his senses.
Whether or not he’s sapient is another question entirely.
Reltzik
I think the point is “hey, I might be a damned unbeliever now, but I guess I could still be doing God’s work.”
Schpoonman
No, Ross isn’t shook in his place at all, he’s saying the imperfect agent is Blaine. Even now Ross believes he hasn’t fucked up.
Reltzik
Right, that paraphrase was on Joyce’s behalf.
Oak Rover
Ross might be shaken, but Joyce will never be able to get through to him to capitalize on that. Toe-dad will just ignore her in favor of his comforting rationalizations. Why? Easy: 1} Comforting rationalizations generally win; 2} Joyce is still a ‘child’ to him, and therefore unworthy to argue with him. There are a bunch of other factors of course, but it would take someone Ross respects to get him to change course — his Pastor, for example — and everyone else will get tuned out.
jmsr7
“…Joyce is still a ‘child’ to him, and therefore unworthy to argue with him.”
She’s also female. Don’t forget his cult’s misogyny.
Radiance
By “my goddamned foot”, she means specifically the one with the loose toenail.
Rose by Any Other Name
The toenail is no longer loose – it’s gone.
That said, your proposition is logical. Missing-toenail foot could be considered god-damned.
I still think it works better the other way because it implies that Ross is literally damned by god, but being kicked with icky toe might carry a higher level of threat.
Thanatos
I think she is saying her foot is imperfect and will be doing God’s work.
clif
Well, she is now.
SuperZero
Don’t kick people with injured feet. Equal and opposite reaction, and all that.
Deanatay
If she kicks him enough with it, eventually her toe and his Toe will match.
Bajja
Aaaaaaabsolutely. ..and yet, I can’t help but wonder if it exists as is as a factor of her human capacity for insecurity or rather doubt, despite faith.
James
It kind of fits: her foot would be the “imperfect agent” enacting “god’s perfect will”. The foot could be damned in that case.
Vulcanodon
She’s still working out the grammar of profanity
ishouldbeworking
Hey, be nice. Joyce is just learning swears.
gingercake
I think in this case Joyce is acknowledging that according to the way she was brought up, she is working against God’s Perfect Will™ thus making her foot, which is also working against God’s Perfect Will™, god-damned.
thejeff
“All right then, I’ll go to hell”
Cattleprod
She could threaten to break his neck, but how would that even work?
Doctor_Who
Kick him in the ass hard enough, and the neck pops up like a Rock ’em Sock ’em Robot.
Or maybe he’s built more like a PEZ dispenser and you can push back his head to dispense a bible.
Dr. T
If you kick him in the ass hard enough, you might give him brain damage. After all, that is where his head is firmly placed.
BigDogLittleCat
But such a small target!
BBCC
Wreck his shit, Joyce. I believe in you.
Regalli
I hope she destroys him both physically AND emotionally!
auroki
Now that’s a rage face!
Agemegos
Good old “mysterious ways, his wonders to perform”.
bryy
Yup.
Ross is GONE.
Dr. T
I mean, that was pretty obvious from the get-go. He just is more hypocritical than before.
Freezer
At this point, I have to wonder if Ross thinks he’s being truly righteous or if he’s hanging on to that belief because he’s otherwise worse than the people he was trying to “rescue” Becky from.
Needfuldoer
I think he’s going along with it because “the ends justify the means”, and he’s too blind (or stupid) to realize he’s Blaine’s patsy. Hopefully he reaches his acceptable collateral damage threshold before something else extremely terrible happens…
hof1991
When faced with new facts, people don’t change their beliefs, they disbelieve the facts. Also people are much less motivated by religious beliefs than they think they are. Changing your mind is a difficult task. That’s one reason people like the music of their teen years forever and think recent sports stars are the best ever.
Your recommended reading: Mistakes were made but not by me and The structure of scientific revolutions (a classic and short)
Undrave
She’s got him by the bible! If anybody could make him crack, I think its Joyce.
Wraithy2773
…disagree.
Ross knows he’s in the wrong here. You can tell by his expression, and the words he’s saying (and, more importantly, not saying). The problem is that he’s so far down the rabbit hole, he’s scrambling for reasons to justify why he’s still in the right.
He’s lying to himself, basically. Entirely possible he’ll keep doing so going forward, of course, but the point is that he’s not like Blaine, who’s fully committed to doing what he knows is evil and selfish, because he doesn’t give a fuck.
Ross gives a fuck. He wants to do the right thing. He wants to “save his daughter”.
There’s nothing like a good cause to bring out the worst in people.
JBento
It’s so weird when the BEST case scenario is the Sunken Cost Fallacy, isn’t it?
William Etheridge
I read that as ‘Sunken COAST Fallacy’ and just spend 30 minutes trying to find out what that was…
JBento
Anything relying on Atlantean shores?
Wraithy2773
……….if you had asked me that a month ago, I’d wholehearted agree.
It’s been a fucked-up month.
Kravis
An agent so imperfect it doesn’t even have a neck.
BarerMender
I think he means Blaine.
Kravis
Yeah, I know.
But in this stupid metaphor of his, he is (willingly or not) ALSO an “agent of god”, and that being so, a very imperfect one at that.
CMasta
I liked you better when you didn’t talk Toedad.
You’re simultaneously screwing up my bet and driving up the odds for payout.
Stephen Bierce
They say it’s your Birthday…
ValdVin
You’re the Birthday,
You’re the Birthday,
You’re the Birthday Boy or Girl…
ValdVin
Wait, where are my italics?
Deanatay
Well, it’s time to celebrate your birthday, it happens every year
We’ll eat a lot of broccoli and drink a lot of beer
You should be good and happy that there’s something you can eat
A million people every day are starving in the street
Your daddy’s in the gutter with the wretched and the poor
Your mama’s in the kitchen with a can of Cycle Four
There’s garbage in the water
There’s poison in the sky
I guess it won’t be long before we’re all gonna die
Happy birthday
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday
Happy birthday to you