Dorothy sowing: Temporary fun-time no-frills relationship go! It’s got to be this way, I gotta fix this broken country. Everything will be fine! No regrets!
Dorothy reaping: This fucking sucks. What the fuck.
Taking kickboxing lessons/channeling it into something physical/sporty-ness might be more appealing to some future voters overall as opposed to “some white nerd who went to an ivy league school”
Bad advice, but not on purpose. She’s not in the headspace to think about this rationally. She wants to tell him to breakup, for selfish reasons, so she extrapolated that the selfless thing would be to tell him to do the opposite.
There is no good advice here. She hasn’t learned that the only thing you can do in relationship questions is to let them make their own decisions. But it took me 3 years of college to come to that realization.
Leorale
My college advice was always “your feelings are valid, tell the person in question” and I stand by it.
Nicoleandmaggie
And that blows up and they break up and you get blamed. It might have been right for them to break up or it might not have been. But it should never be for you to decide, only them.
Or it could turn out well, but again it’s best if that’s what they decide to do.
I got much better at asking questions and getting them to think out the possible futures with experience. Though people who came to me for advice always chose me because they wanted a sure answer and not just a listener because I was the “fixer” in our friend group. So they left maybe more unsatisfied than if I just gave them bad advice. But not angry at me when my advice went wrong.
Leorale
So far I haven’t been blamed.
It probably helps that I’m just weighing in, so that they can have courage to express themselves, I’m not giving legally binding arbitration. it ultimately was indeed their choice whether to ask each other, or whether to sit on their feelings and stress out and waste their time wondering… when they could literally ask the person and find out what was up.
If they had to break up to get what they really wanted, okay. More likely they could work through it, though, as long as they didn’t let it fester for months until it exploded.
The most common reason I gave this advice was that both S.O.’s were coming to me with the exact same issue, because my 2nd Most Indirect Person I’d Ever Met was dating my #1 Most Indirect Person I’d Ever Met… in which case, oh my gosh those two should really just talk to each other already.
Freemage
Like it or not, there’s no real good options here for Walky. It’s impossible to tell someone you’re dating, “I don’t love you” after they believe you do, that isn’t going to blow up the relationship–which is clearly a bridge Walky isn’t willing to cross.
Dorothy’s advice here is about as good as anything else he could do. If he does develop feelings for Lucy, it’s no harm, no foul; if he doesn’t, then the relationship will come to a close in due course.
Mind you, personally I think that about 90% of the cast should be on a dating moratorium, as none of them are really as ready for it as they think they are. But it’s called Dumbing of Age, not Spontaneous Maturation, so we really should cut just about all of them some slack.
Sirksome
That’s not true at all. They’ve been dating about a week maybe two weeks at max. Lucy said she loved him too early. Saying he doesn’t love her should not destroy a relationship this young. If it does, than Lucy is not the right person for Walky. Frankly I would be very wary of dating Lucy in general if she expected a emotional commitment like that after a week. She misinterpreted what Walky said and deserves to be corrected on that. It might even be good for her since she’s so inexperienced with romance to learn you can put too much pressure on your partner by being so invested so early.
People seem to think Lucy is some mentally fragile girl who will be devastated her boyfriend doesn’t love her after dating for less time than it takes to get a driver’s listener. I say she’s a big girl who can take a bit of rejection. Things just moved a bit too fast, Walky’s not leaving her at the alter her.
Psychie
I don’t think a dating moratorium would actually help with that. Behaving in a healthy manner in a relationship is a skill, and like any skill you need to screw up a bunch to get good at it. Also, speaking from experience, the older you get the harder it is to find people willing to put up with being your first relationship. People expect you to make most of the early mistakes in high school and college, so it can be hard to find someone patient enough to try things if you have little to no experience after that point. It also gets harder to meet people in general, which sucks.
Speaking as someone who didn’t date at all until 23 and hasn’t managed to date anyone since, I would never recommend waiting to anybody. Like, don’t rush into things and be prepared to get hurt, but also relationships will come when they come, so waiting until you’re ready doesn’t really help. Just treat people with as much respect as possible and don’t tolerate being disrespected in a relationship and you’ll be fine, whether you’re emotionally mature or not. Make mistakes, improve, find what works and what doesn’t, discover what you actually want, etc.
Joy
If compensated dating were legal where I live, I’d consider putting up with it. Otherwise I just feel exploited by that dynamic and exhausted from explaining how relationships work all the time.
Yumi
I don’t think people should wait for the sake of waiting (or because there’s some idea that you need to improve yourself before/that “you can’t love someone until you love yourself” shit). A lot of our learning and growth happens in relationships. But by that, I don’t mean “romantic relationships,” but relationships in general, of which romantic relationships are a subset.
I don’t think you need to have been in romantic relationships previously to develop your relationship skills.
I do agree that is is often harder to meet new people as you get older, though.
Tan
I would say Leorale has the right of it. Your feelings are valid; tell the other person. He doesn’t have to say “I don’t love you”, but rather “I’m not actually ready to call this love yet. I do care about you a lot and want this to continue, but I don’t want to use that word lightly and I’m not there yet.”
Y’know, being honest and emotionally available to your partner. Weird, right?
Is it possible this will still hurt Lucy? Yep. But she is a big girl and she gets to decide if this is a dealbreaker for her or not.
Leorale
Yes that. That would be a Smarting Of Age thing to say.
Oh well, sucks to be Walky and Lucy instead. 🙂
thejeff
There’s a long distance between giving advice and making decisions for people. You can help them figure out what they want, think about how to approach it and warn about potential consequences.
“You’ll be at that point eventually anyway” is awful advice – there’s no teleology to relationships – but it’s not sabotage. *Of course* Dorothy genuinely believes you can just graph out how a relationship is going to progress in advance; she puts her interpersonal relationships into thoroughly annotated spreadsheets.
(Also, she’s a college freshman; ambitious and driven though she may be, she still hasn’t had the kinds of experiences that would teach her why it’s bad advice. Or, at least, the distance needed to reflect on those experiences.)
That’s an aspect I hadn’t considered. Though not even quite that she can graph it out in advance, but a reaction to her feelings for Walky, where she’d intended to keep it casual but fell in love with him. If she couldn’t stop it, how can he?
And while I’m sure it’s not intentional sabotage, her feelings for him are certainly messing with her objectivity here.
Can someone please explain this to me like I’m five because I literally don’t understand why this is bad advice. It honestly seems logical to me, and way better than “haw haw I don’t actually love you”
Lack of honesty. Dorothy is proposing that since Walky does at least care about Lucy’s feelings that even though he doesn’t love her or feel as strongly for her as she does him, he should just wait and eventually he will reciprocate her feelings. The problem is that’s not guaranteed, and letting Lucy believe he loves her in the meantime is a dishonest misrepresentation of his emotions. Lucy deserves to know what Walky feels about her, because she deserves to move forward in the relationship based on truth. Even Walky recognizes this. Dorothy’s advice is well meaning in intent, but it feels almost naive like wishful thinking.
Dorothy’s advice essentially boils down to “ignore it, it’ll be fine” when ignoring an issue rather than communicating with one’s partner is categorically not good, especially when it’s banking on stronger feelings eventually developing when a) they might not and b) stronger feelings already exist but for another person
It’s bad advice because a) it’s dishonest, lying by omission about his feelings, thereby making Lucy believe something that isn’t true. This would be fine if he was certainly going to fall in love for real with her shortly, however b) it’s likely to backfire, because it’s not guaranteed at all, and if he doesn’t end up reciprocating her feelings the end result would be all the worse for lying to her about it, however unintentionally.
The better course of action would be to have an honest discussion, and tell her “Hey, I don’t actually love you… yet. But I do like you and want to see if those feelings develop.” Then both of them could make an informed decision about the realities of the relationship and go forward with it honestly, if they so chose.
Taffy
I’d like to add that I think the framing of “Walky loving her is the important part” doesn’t especially help. Regardless of whether he does, doesn’t, wants to wait and see, whatever, the inciting thing behind all this was Lucy thinking he said he did. That’s the misunderstanding that needs cleared up first and foremost, in my own opinion, and any conversation of “does he or doesn’t he” ought to come afterward.
I don’t see why. She isn’t wrong, from where I’m sitting. Walky hasn’t said he doesn’t love Lucy, only that it’s a little premature and she misunderstood him. But enough people seem weirded out that I think I’ve gotta be missing something on this. Help?
Im with you on this. Everyone saying its terrible advise doesnt make sense to me either and Walky agrees with Dorothy so… *shrugs*
dalniente
Thanks! At least I’m not alone, lol. My partner of fifteen years doesn’t get it, either. Honestly the only way I see this leading to drama is if Walky is later like “I love you! Haha, and I even mean it this time :)” But…that’s actions. Emotionally, this advice makes sense to me. *shrugs back, fistbumps*
CrazyJ
The way I see it there is almost no way to explain to Lucy that he didn’t mean to say he loved her without hurting her some, whereas in reality the chance that Walky not saying anything now would change the course of the relationship is pretty slim. Of course sitcom logic would be that this will 100% come back to bite Walky in the butt, but the characters don’t know that they are characters in a comic strip and Dorothy in particular shouldn’t be using sitcom logic to try to solve real problems.
Lan
To me, it feels like she’s telling walky to ignore the issue and to bank on developing deeper feelings later down the line, which just doesn’t strike me as something that will set him up for success in the end. If he doesn’t end up developing those feelings (and tbh I don’t think he’s going to), especially when the smartest and most perfect girl in the world to him (that he TOTALLY doesn’t still have feelings for /s) said he would, I suspect he’ll eventually internalize it as him being unfair to Lucy or a categorically bad boyfriend or whatever internal dialogue his self-loathing will concoct to justify itself.
Or, optimistically, he’ll come to the realization himself that he needs to be honest with his feelings and fumble his way through an awkward conversation.
dalniente
Ah, that’s fair. I would actually take this conversation as evidence that he is already developing romantic feelings for Lucy, simply because of how much he seems to want to handle this in a way that is not stomping on her feelings (it seems he prioritizes/values her feelings more than his own discomfort; that seems significant). But the comic overall seems like it could end up going either way, so it’s entirely likely that I’m misreading that. It could also simply be Walky having grown enough to realize that he should be sensitive to other people’s feelings? It’d be the first sign of him acting on that awareness, though. I guess we’ll find out!
Yumi
Walky doesn’t know what to do and he trusts Dorothy’s judgment AND this gets him out of having a difficult conversation. That doesn’t mean it supports this being good advice.
KayBee
It seems like incredibly short-sighted advice to me. All it does is give Walky a chance to kick it down the road. But what happens the next time Lucy says “I love you” out of the blue? As you do in a relationship where you love your companion? He’s instantly faced with a choice again that puts him right back in the position of responding in kind (a/k/a lying) or avoiding it somehow. He might get away with that once or twice but she’s going to catch on eventually and it’s likely going to go much worse than having an awkward conversation now.
thejeff
Plus right after the “I love you too” conversation, she strongly suggested having sex. While she’s at least been tempted by the idea before, it’s very likely the idea that they’re now officially “in love” played a role in being willing to go that far.
Going ahead with that under false pretenses seems a bad idea. Not doing so will also raise questions.
Taffy
Hopefully the questions raised by not wanting to bang yet won’t be anything more serious than “Oh, are you not ready? Will you let me know when you are, so we can report to the ship?”.
anon
i guess some ppl might be blinded by love/it isn’t always realistic but even if she’s rly into walky i’m surprised she hasn’t watched enough romcom/drama movies/series to where saying those words within the week of a relationship (unless you’ve been close friends for years prior dating) would be a ‘red flag’
I suppose maybe less so at their age tho if i were dating like a 40 year old and they said after two dates that i’d prolly run
HueSatLight
If she doesn’t know already, it’s not a secret that Walky fucks.
Taffy
Being a person who’ll have sex doesn’t mean you always want to, though.
So best case scenario, Walky does end up loving her and this doesn’t have to come up again. It’s still not great because he was not honest with his partner about a point of confusion, nor did he feel entirely comfortable talking with her about it openly. Not a bad result, but ignoring something that makes you uncomfortable isn’t a real W either.
But what happens next time Lucy tells Walky that she loves him? Especially if he hasn’t fully sorted out his feelings for her yet? Does he just say that he loves her to make her happy?
This is only good advice if everything works out. If Walky doesn’t decide he loves her by the next time she says it, or ends up feeling like this relationship isn’t for him, then it’s a whole situation that could have been ameliorated by honest communication.
Agreed. I feel like he always liked Lucy well enough, and they do have common interests and all, but that’s about the extent of it. He was pleasant to her because he’s generally a pleasant person, if sometimes a bit thoughtless in his speech. He seemed shocked when Dorothy pointed out Lucy’s feelings, and then every interaction since then has seemed like Walky showing up and deciding this is going well enough. I don’t think he has strong feelings for Lucy, and I don’t think it’s a good gamble to assume he’ll get there, especially on a timetable that seems likely to work for someone as intense as Lucy.
i mean, slightly better than walky saying “i actually don’t love you” or so/blurting it out in a not so coherent way, or maybe there can be a diff convo down the line, or him avoid saying it, or maybe even trying to take things slower if lucy wants to sleep with him, though who knows maybe walky will get a second opinion
She did, yeah, and who else can he ask? Jennifer is definitely not the person to talk to about this since it may get back to Lucy, and he doesn’t really know a lot of people that would have input on this. Besides, Dorothy knows Walky better than anyone else at school does outside of Sal or Jennifer, and I dunno if he is at a comfort level to talk to Sal about this kind of thing with yet. Their relationship is improving, but that’s still a lot of vulnerability.
Tan
He could ask… Uh…. Well, um… *looks over the cast page* No, dear god no, no, hilarious but no, no, no, no…. Hnn…… Booster? I guess Booster? Next best I got is Jason and then it goes even more downhill.
DailyBrad
Booster honestly wouldn’t be terrible to ask, but I assume they are elsewhere with Ethan right now, anyhow.
anon
i’m not sure if booster would give the best advice ,or at least not be biased as they’ve told lucy before “you can do better”
Tan
(Actually I low-key would like to see him go to Danny about this. “I’ve walked a mile in your shoes, I’ve boinked both your ex-girlfriends, and you’re dating my twin sister. This makes us bros. Give me relationship advice.”)
DailyBrad
I’d actually kinda love to see Walky and Danny interact more.
I think it depends on how that relationship with said ex ended. I used to talk with my first ex about some of my relationship issues and got some great advice as she knew me very well. We didn’t end on a bad note though and remained friends afterwards.
267 thoughts on “My advice”
Ana Chronistic
“so nobody beyond that fourth wall watch as I totally don’t punch things out of frustration and loss”
Sajuuk-Khar
Dorothy sowing: Temporary fun-time no-frills relationship go! It’s got to be this way, I gotta fix this broken country. Everything will be fine! No regrets!
Dorothy reaping: This fucking sucks. What the fuck.
Needfuldoer
“I want things to be light and casual.”
*smashy smashy*
“oh no”
Arawn
Think Dorothy in a boxing montage would be apt right now.
anon
Taking kickboxing lessons/channeling it into something physical/sporty-ness might be more appealing to some future voters overall as opposed to “some white nerd who went to an ivy league school”
Lumino
I was gonna say, wasn’t Dorothy the one that broke off the relationship?
Sirksome
Uh oh! That’s bad advice if you ask me. Dorothy’s sabotaging the Walkman!
Sporky
No, she seems to think it was genuinely good advice. She just has way worse social skills than she thinks she does.
Tan
Unconscious sabotage or just being absolute garbage at this? Could go either way!
Masumi
Bad advice, but not on purpose. She’s not in the headspace to think about this rationally. She wants to tell him to breakup, for selfish reasons, so she extrapolated that the selfless thing would be to tell him to do the opposite.
RacingTurtle
*high-five to a fellow Sarah avatar for this excellent take*
Nicoleandmaggie
There is no good advice here. She hasn’t learned that the only thing you can do in relationship questions is to let them make their own decisions. But it took me 3 years of college to come to that realization.
Leorale
My college advice was always “your feelings are valid, tell the person in question” and I stand by it.
Nicoleandmaggie
And that blows up and they break up and you get blamed. It might have been right for them to break up or it might not have been. But it should never be for you to decide, only them.
Or it could turn out well, but again it’s best if that’s what they decide to do.
I got much better at asking questions and getting them to think out the possible futures with experience. Though people who came to me for advice always chose me because they wanted a sure answer and not just a listener because I was the “fixer” in our friend group. So they left maybe more unsatisfied than if I just gave them bad advice. But not angry at me when my advice went wrong.
Leorale
So far I haven’t been blamed.
It probably helps that I’m just weighing in, so that they can have courage to express themselves, I’m not giving legally binding arbitration. it ultimately was indeed their choice whether to ask each other, or whether to sit on their feelings and stress out and waste their time wondering… when they could literally ask the person and find out what was up.
If they had to break up to get what they really wanted, okay. More likely they could work through it, though, as long as they didn’t let it fester for months until it exploded.
The most common reason I gave this advice was that both S.O.’s were coming to me with the exact same issue, because my 2nd Most Indirect Person I’d Ever Met was dating my #1 Most Indirect Person I’d Ever Met… in which case, oh my gosh those two should really just talk to each other already.
Freemage
Like it or not, there’s no real good options here for Walky. It’s impossible to tell someone you’re dating, “I don’t love you” after they believe you do, that isn’t going to blow up the relationship–which is clearly a bridge Walky isn’t willing to cross.
Dorothy’s advice here is about as good as anything else he could do. If he does develop feelings for Lucy, it’s no harm, no foul; if he doesn’t, then the relationship will come to a close in due course.
Mind you, personally I think that about 90% of the cast should be on a dating moratorium, as none of them are really as ready for it as they think they are. But it’s called Dumbing of Age, not Spontaneous Maturation, so we really should cut just about all of them some slack.
Sirksome
That’s not true at all. They’ve been dating about a week maybe two weeks at max. Lucy said she loved him too early. Saying he doesn’t love her should not destroy a relationship this young. If it does, than Lucy is not the right person for Walky. Frankly I would be very wary of dating Lucy in general if she expected a emotional commitment like that after a week. She misinterpreted what Walky said and deserves to be corrected on that. It might even be good for her since she’s so inexperienced with romance to learn you can put too much pressure on your partner by being so invested so early.
People seem to think Lucy is some mentally fragile girl who will be devastated her boyfriend doesn’t love her after dating for less time than it takes to get a driver’s listener. I say she’s a big girl who can take a bit of rejection. Things just moved a bit too fast, Walky’s not leaving her at the alter her.
Psychie
I don’t think a dating moratorium would actually help with that. Behaving in a healthy manner in a relationship is a skill, and like any skill you need to screw up a bunch to get good at it. Also, speaking from experience, the older you get the harder it is to find people willing to put up with being your first relationship. People expect you to make most of the early mistakes in high school and college, so it can be hard to find someone patient enough to try things if you have little to no experience after that point. It also gets harder to meet people in general, which sucks.
Speaking as someone who didn’t date at all until 23 and hasn’t managed to date anyone since, I would never recommend waiting to anybody. Like, don’t rush into things and be prepared to get hurt, but also relationships will come when they come, so waiting until you’re ready doesn’t really help. Just treat people with as much respect as possible and don’t tolerate being disrespected in a relationship and you’ll be fine, whether you’re emotionally mature or not. Make mistakes, improve, find what works and what doesn’t, discover what you actually want, etc.
Joy
If compensated dating were legal where I live, I’d consider putting up with it. Otherwise I just feel exploited by that dynamic and exhausted from explaining how relationships work all the time.
Yumi
I don’t think people should wait for the sake of waiting (or because there’s some idea that you need to improve yourself before/that “you can’t love someone until you love yourself” shit). A lot of our learning and growth happens in relationships. But by that, I don’t mean “romantic relationships,” but relationships in general, of which romantic relationships are a subset.
I don’t think you need to have been in romantic relationships previously to develop your relationship skills.
I do agree that is is often harder to meet new people as you get older, though.
Tan
I would say Leorale has the right of it. Your feelings are valid; tell the other person. He doesn’t have to say “I don’t love you”, but rather “I’m not actually ready to call this love yet. I do care about you a lot and want this to continue, but I don’t want to use that word lightly and I’m not there yet.”
Y’know, being honest and emotionally available to your partner. Weird, right?
Is it possible this will still hurt Lucy? Yep. But she is a big girl and she gets to decide if this is a dealbreaker for her or not.
Leorale
Yes that. That would be a Smarting Of Age thing to say.
Oh well, sucks to be Walky and Lucy instead. 🙂
thejeff
There’s a long distance between giving advice and making decisions for people. You can help them figure out what they want, think about how to approach it and warn about potential consequences.
Radiance
“You’ll be at that point eventually anyway” is awful advice – there’s no teleology to relationships – but it’s not sabotage. *Of course* Dorothy genuinely believes you can just graph out how a relationship is going to progress in advance; she puts her interpersonal relationships into thoroughly annotated spreadsheets.
(Also, she’s a college freshman; ambitious and driven though she may be, she still hasn’t had the kinds of experiences that would teach her why it’s bad advice. Or, at least, the distance needed to reflect on those experiences.)
thejeff
That’s an aspect I hadn’t considered. Though not even quite that she can graph it out in advance, but a reaction to her feelings for Walky, where she’d intended to keep it casual but fell in love with him. If she couldn’t stop it, how can he?
And while I’m sure it’s not intentional sabotage, her feelings for him are certainly messing with her objectivity here.
Yotomoe
Ironic you call him a Walkman cuz I don’t think Dorothy’s doing a good job listening to him
cbwroses
I see what you did there ??
Airyu
Can someone please explain this to me like I’m five because I literally don’t understand why this is bad advice. It honestly seems logical to me, and way better than “haw haw I don’t actually love you”
Sirksome
Lack of honesty. Dorothy is proposing that since Walky does at least care about Lucy’s feelings that even though he doesn’t love her or feel as strongly for her as she does him, he should just wait and eventually he will reciprocate her feelings. The problem is that’s not guaranteed, and letting Lucy believe he loves her in the meantime is a dishonest misrepresentation of his emotions. Lucy deserves to know what Walky feels about her, because she deserves to move forward in the relationship based on truth. Even Walky recognizes this. Dorothy’s advice is well meaning in intent, but it feels almost naive like wishful thinking.
Lan
Dorothy’s advice essentially boils down to “ignore it, it’ll be fine” when ignoring an issue rather than communicating with one’s partner is categorically not good, especially when it’s banking on stronger feelings eventually developing when a) they might not and b) stronger feelings already exist but for another person
TerribleTransit
It’s bad advice because a) it’s dishonest, lying by omission about his feelings, thereby making Lucy believe something that isn’t true. This would be fine if he was certainly going to fall in love for real with her shortly, however b) it’s likely to backfire, because it’s not guaranteed at all, and if he doesn’t end up reciprocating her feelings the end result would be all the worse for lying to her about it, however unintentionally.
The better course of action would be to have an honest discussion, and tell her “Hey, I don’t actually love you… yet. But I do like you and want to see if those feelings develop.” Then both of them could make an informed decision about the realities of the relationship and go forward with it honestly, if they so chose.
Taffy
I’d like to add that I think the framing of “Walky loving her is the important part” doesn’t especially help. Regardless of whether he does, doesn’t, wants to wait and see, whatever, the inciting thing behind all this was Lucy thinking he said he did. That’s the misunderstanding that needs cleared up first and foremost, in my own opinion, and any conversation of “does he or doesn’t he” ought to come afterward.
Sporky
Time to log on to Punchipedia
StClair
just add it to the ball of stuff you’re already repressing!
Wereg
Absolutely terrible advice.
dalniente
I don’t see why. She isn’t wrong, from where I’m sitting. Walky hasn’t said he doesn’t love Lucy, only that it’s a little premature and she misunderstood him. But enough people seem weirded out that I think I’ve gotta be missing something on this. Help?
ktbear
Im with you on this. Everyone saying its terrible advise doesnt make sense to me either and Walky agrees with Dorothy so… *shrugs*
dalniente
Thanks! At least I’m not alone, lol. My partner of fifteen years doesn’t get it, either. Honestly the only way I see this leading to drama is if Walky is later like “I love you! Haha, and I even mean it this time :)” But…that’s actions. Emotionally, this advice makes sense to me. *shrugs back, fistbumps*
CrazyJ
The way I see it there is almost no way to explain to Lucy that he didn’t mean to say he loved her without hurting her some, whereas in reality the chance that Walky not saying anything now would change the course of the relationship is pretty slim. Of course sitcom logic would be that this will 100% come back to bite Walky in the butt, but the characters don’t know that they are characters in a comic strip and Dorothy in particular shouldn’t be using sitcom logic to try to solve real problems.
Lan
To me, it feels like she’s telling walky to ignore the issue and to bank on developing deeper feelings later down the line, which just doesn’t strike me as something that will set him up for success in the end. If he doesn’t end up developing those feelings (and tbh I don’t think he’s going to), especially when the smartest and most perfect girl in the world to him (that he TOTALLY doesn’t still have feelings for /s) said he would, I suspect he’ll eventually internalize it as him being unfair to Lucy or a categorically bad boyfriend or whatever internal dialogue his self-loathing will concoct to justify itself.
Or, optimistically, he’ll come to the realization himself that he needs to be honest with his feelings and fumble his way through an awkward conversation.
dalniente
Ah, that’s fair. I would actually take this conversation as evidence that he is already developing romantic feelings for Lucy, simply because of how much he seems to want to handle this in a way that is not stomping on her feelings (it seems he prioritizes/values her feelings more than his own discomfort; that seems significant). But the comic overall seems like it could end up going either way, so it’s entirely likely that I’m misreading that. It could also simply be Walky having grown enough to realize that he should be sensitive to other people’s feelings? It’d be the first sign of him acting on that awareness, though. I guess we’ll find out!
Yumi
Walky doesn’t know what to do and he trusts Dorothy’s judgment AND this gets him out of having a difficult conversation. That doesn’t mean it supports this being good advice.
KayBee
It seems like incredibly short-sighted advice to me. All it does is give Walky a chance to kick it down the road. But what happens the next time Lucy says “I love you” out of the blue? As you do in a relationship where you love your companion? He’s instantly faced with a choice again that puts him right back in the position of responding in kind (a/k/a lying) or avoiding it somehow. He might get away with that once or twice but she’s going to catch on eventually and it’s likely going to go much worse than having an awkward conversation now.
thejeff
Plus right after the “I love you too” conversation, she strongly suggested having sex. While she’s at least been tempted by the idea before, it’s very likely the idea that they’re now officially “in love” played a role in being willing to go that far.
Going ahead with that under false pretenses seems a bad idea. Not doing so will also raise questions.
Taffy
Hopefully the questions raised by not wanting to bang yet won’t be anything more serious than “Oh, are you not ready? Will you let me know when you are, so we can report to the ship?”.
anon
i guess some ppl might be blinded by love/it isn’t always realistic but even if she’s rly into walky i’m surprised she hasn’t watched enough romcom/drama movies/series to where saying those words within the week of a relationship (unless you’ve been close friends for years prior dating) would be a ‘red flag’
I suppose maybe less so at their age tho if i were dating like a 40 year old and they said after two dates that i’d prolly run
HueSatLight
If she doesn’t know already, it’s not a secret that Walky fucks.
Taffy
Being a person who’ll have sex doesn’t mean you always want to, though.
Wereg
So best case scenario, Walky does end up loving her and this doesn’t have to come up again. It’s still not great because he was not honest with his partner about a point of confusion, nor did he feel entirely comfortable talking with her about it openly. Not a bad result, but ignoring something that makes you uncomfortable isn’t a real W either.
But what happens next time Lucy tells Walky that she loves him? Especially if he hasn’t fully sorted out his feelings for her yet? Does he just say that he loves her to make her happy?
This is only good advice if everything works out. If Walky doesn’t decide he loves her by the next time she says it, or ends up feeling like this relationship isn’t for him, then it’s a whole situation that could have been ameliorated by honest communication.
Yeet
goddammit dorothy
Clif
Hey. No one actually sane would want to be president, so we’re starting from there.
Erica
DOES he have strong feelings, though, Dorothy?
Yotomoe
And what are those strong feelings? Disgust can be a pretty strong feeling.
Clif
He has strong feelings. And they’re mostly for Dorothy.
Thag Simmons
I think from her perspective it’s a reasonable assumption.
pope suburban
Agreed. I feel like he always liked Lucy well enough, and they do have common interests and all, but that’s about the extent of it. He was pleasant to her because he’s generally a pleasant person, if sometimes a bit thoughtless in his speech. He seemed shocked when Dorothy pointed out Lucy’s feelings, and then every interaction since then has seemed like Walky showing up and deciding this is going well enough. I don’t think he has strong feelings for Lucy, and I don’t think it’s a good gamble to assume he’ll get there, especially on a timetable that seems likely to work for someone as intense as Lucy.
Taffy
Dorothy, that advice is fucking terrible. “Don’t clear up the misunderstanding”? Really?
Yotomoe
The most cliche’d of romcoms all start like this. Though it’s usually the main characters douchey roommates/slovenly best friend.
anon
i mean, slightly better than walky saying “i actually don’t love you” or so/blurting it out in a not so coherent way, or maybe there can be a diff convo down the line, or him avoid saying it, or maybe even trying to take things slower if lucy wants to sleep with him, though who knows maybe walky will get a second opinion
Taffy
Being on fire near a swimming pool (but being unable to swim) is slightly better than just being on fire, I suppose.
Ed Callahan
You can always jump in the shallow end.
Taffy
Alright, so then I get made fun of for drowning in the shallow end because I was panicking from being in fire.
butts
aw dotty
Reed
yeah walky was a dick for this.
i’m sorry but do not go to your ex about relationship advice for the person you’re currently with.
sakamism
I cut him slack because 1) He barely has anyone to turn to, and 2) She’s literally the one who set them up, if I recall correctly.
DailyBrad
She did, yeah, and who else can he ask? Jennifer is definitely not the person to talk to about this since it may get back to Lucy, and he doesn’t really know a lot of people that would have input on this. Besides, Dorothy knows Walky better than anyone else at school does outside of Sal or Jennifer, and I dunno if he is at a comfort level to talk to Sal about this kind of thing with yet. Their relationship is improving, but that’s still a lot of vulnerability.
Tan
He could ask… Uh…. Well, um… *looks over the cast page* No, dear god no, no, hilarious but no, no, no, no…. Hnn…… Booster? I guess Booster? Next best I got is Jason and then it goes even more downhill.
DailyBrad
Booster honestly wouldn’t be terrible to ask, but I assume they are elsewhere with Ethan right now, anyhow.
anon
i’m not sure if booster would give the best advice ,or at least not be biased as they’ve told lucy before “you can do better”
Tan
(Actually I low-key would like to see him go to Danny about this. “I’ve walked a mile in your shoes, I’ve boinked both your ex-girlfriends, and you’re dating my twin sister. This makes us bros. Give me relationship advice.”)
DailyBrad
I’d actually kinda love to see Walky and Danny interact more.
Well_Played
I think it depends on how that relationship with said ex ended. I used to talk with my first ex about some of my relationship issues and got some great advice as she knew me very well. We didn’t end on a bad note though and remained friends afterwards.
Yotomoe