Can I just say how much I love the way the shadow of the tree overhead frames this? It tells the story of their walking together beneath it without necessarily needing to see their feet or even shift the focus to the presence of any landmarks other than these lovebirds, giving it a sense of motion that wouldn’t be present otherwise, and I just think that’s a nice touch.
I only noticed this when I read your comment and went back to look- not only does it indicate motion, but they’re in shadow when Dina worries that she’s getting boring and emerging into the light when Becky assures her she isn’t! This is some next-level shit here.
HK-47: Converting people to the KOTOR religion for… twelve years now?
Screwball
Don’t get me wrong – strutting around the galaxy with a light saber in each hand is about as pimp as it gets – it’s just that everywhere I go people want me to help them with something. I just feel like, “find your own Goddamn Ewok shoes, I’ve got a galaxy to save and/or destroy!”
He probably had someone spoil it by telling him how amazing the game was before the first playthough.
Listening to HK-47 (it was never clear to me whether he was killing his owners or not) and finding out what was in that flashback…
Xakthul
You’re absolutely right, actually. Same thing when I started playing Mass Effect.
Hell, actually, every game I’ve played since I got into gaming has been somewhat spoiled for me first, before I actually decided to play them. Mostly, I’ll go looking for spoilers to keep my companions alive in the story.
Given that her parents are completely chill with her dating a chick, i doubt she went to a radical christian school.
Disloyal Subject
Every once in a while they find jobs in public schools, and some aren’t above abusing their position to discriminate against what they don’t understand.
As for what kind of teacher would get sick of Dina’s dino lore, J’m guessing one who spends an entire school year teaching her class. Most folks believe in ‘too much of a good thing;’ fortunately, Becky is not most folks.
Actually, my second grade teacher asked my mother to come in for a conference about my behavior, and informed her that the problem was that I read too much. I’d finish my assigned worksheet, then pull a book out of my desk and read! How dare I!
I believe my mom stared at her open-mouthed long enough for the teacher to realize something was wrong before saying, “Well, then, I’ll tell her to start spending that time chewing gum, passing notes and poking the kid in front of her with a pencil”, and then walked out without a backward glance.
I had a similar problem through secondary school (UK equivalent of high school). I’d have a Terry Pratchett book with me and be reading with the book hidden just below the desk, and my work finished way ahead of others. The teachers would notice, ask me question about the lesson subject, I’d answer correctly and go back to reading. They hated that.
Disloyal Subject
Heh. That’s how I spent most of middle school.
Well, aside from not having been exposed to Pratchett yet.
That reminds me of my 6th grade maths teacher. He apparently had a very specific method that he wanted us to use to solve problems, and when I used a different method, still getting the right answer, he marked it wrong on my exam anyway, for every single problem. He then called my dad in for a conference. My dad was understandably livid. ^<__<^;;
Jenspaztic
you just perfectly described how i failed Algebra 2…
My parents got called in for a similar reason in first grade I think? Only in my case it was because I wasn’t paying attention during the reading portion of our class and my teacher was concerned I was having trouble with it. My parents pointed out that I was bored out of my mind since I was already reading at a level well beyond what they were teaching in that class. So they ended up having me help some of the students who were having trouble reading instead.
I had a similar experience. My mom put me in public school as a stopgap after it became clear that the private school I was attending wasn’t going to work out. After a couple of months the teachers claimed that I was ADD because I did more work than assigned and spent instructional time reading. I had straight A’s. Needless to say I didn’t attend that school for much longer after that.
I was a kid who was completely obsessed with weather (literally – how Dina is about dinos is how I was about weather. Then medicine for a while – then etymology because idioms made no sense to me so I wanted to understand them and it got a bit out of hand to put it mildly, Star Wars for a while, Tamora Pierce books for a bit, and more recently chemistry, hydrogen storage and heat transfer – my list of “hobbies” across my life span is less a list of hobbies and more a list of things that have completely taken over my life for years at a time. Autism means you don’t like stuff lightly.)
Anyway, the point of the above is that I can say from experience: Pretty much every teacher ever. “Needs to show more diversity of topics” in English class. “Should diversify experience” on like social development stuff. “Nice kid, but really, really weird, you should probably take her to a psychologist because what six year old lists death statistics from historical tornadoes to calm herself down?!” seemed to be the kind of general consensus I got (yeah, really, I did that. We lived in a tornado zone. When I explained to classmates, they all panicked the next time we had a severe thunderstorm warning with tornado watch. Understandably, but I genuinely had no idea why they were upset because I was so socially inept – it was just fascinating to me that wind could be so destructive. I still love weather watching, it’s just not the level of obsession it used to be, where literally I was a six through nine year old with like pilot’s cloud manuals and suchlike. Which I’d read all of – hyperlexia came in handy there).
But yeah. In general, characters like Dina are considered cute in comics, but if you’re like that in real life? People don’t respond nearly as positively. Generally words like “crazy” “weirdo” and “freak” are thrown around a lot from your age-peers, along with “social developmental delay” and “social impariments” and “behavioral issue” and “inappropriate” and what have you from adults which really are just more-polite ways of saying “crazy” and “weirdo” and “freak,” IME.
Just sayin’. If you like Dina but took the piss out of the weirdo in class who was completely obsessed with something you think of as stupid or immature? You’re exactly the kind of person I’m talking about here. Ahmed Nadir and Dina and River Tam and Spencer Reid and the like are adorable on screen or in comics or in a book, but in real life, most people make fun of us and try to normalize us.
Who the hell wants to be “normal” anyway. I’ve always taken being called “weird” as a compliment, even as a kid, cause who the hell wants to be a generic sheep clone. Can you imagine how bloody boring the world would be if everyone was exactly the same? All conversation would cease cause you’d already know what people were going to say cause it would be the same as what you’d say. BORING.
TL;DR: People who call you weird as an insult aren’t worth your time. Keep on keeping on, my non-generic friend.
fizzywafflezsuperstore
Hello fellow proud weirdo!
I must say: you are quite contrary to the norm.
And I also must say:we share a philosophy (Weird is a word that should be grouped as a compliment)
JaneDoe
You’re weird. And I love it!
(Another proud weirdo here ;))
ischemgeek
I’ve given up trying to be normal because quite literally trying nearly killed me in high school. Or, rather, the realization that I could try and try and try forever and would never succeed at it nearly killed me. My folks & sibs are all socially adept social butterfly types and put a lot of stock in your ability to attract friends as a proxy for your worth as a person – given that I was lucky, generally, if I had even one friend at a time, I got pretty hung up about it, and if I let myself think too much on it, I’ll still tend to obsess over the fact that my partner and I can happily spend an entire weekend without saying a word to each other – not because we’re angry or anything, but just because we’re both people who appreciate quiet and don’t always need words to express care for each other.
Anyway, my brainspace is both happier and healthier now that I accept that I’m weird and have largely stopped trying to be normal. But it took nearly three decades of life and a shitload of emotional torment to reach this space. And I think it’s important for non-neurodivergent people to realize that underneath the cute social awkwardness portrayed on TV, that’s what millions of tiny (and not-so-tiny, and sometimes spectacular) failures in interaction can add up to, if you, like me, are generally-speaking a people pleaser who does care what others think, much to your own dismay at times.
I’m getting too serious for a comic about college kids now, but Dina gives me all the feels.
I was teaching a kid who spent hour after hour, day after day, writing book after writing book, drawing pokemen. I still keep the santa pokeman I got as a Christmas gift.
Becky has always been busty? Idk go back and look, she’s got some boobage. But she’s wearing more form fitting tops now, so it’s a little more obvious. I think it’s also a bit more obvious next to Dina than next to Joyce. Dina is rather small chested, while Joyce is busty like Becky.
As someone who had an grade school English teacher that wrote on his report card that he needed to “stop writing about animals”, and as someone who is currently studying to become a zoologist, I understand completely.
No self-respecting, idealist English teacher would ever prevent a student from reading or writing in her/his spare time. And if the teacher isn’t an idealist, then that teacher has no business being an English teacher. :O
177 thoughts on “Redundant”
Nightsbridge
Can I just say how much I love the way the shadow of the tree overhead frames this? It tells the story of their walking together beneath it without necessarily needing to see their feet or even shift the focus to the presence of any landmarks other than these lovebirds, giving it a sense of motion that wouldn’t be present otherwise, and I just think that’s a nice touch.
Captain Batson
Seconded.
spiderfan14
thirded
CommunistCanada
I hadn’t even noticed it. That’s High Quality Art.
-Sentinel-
Agreed. Thanks for pointing it out.
Kudos, David.
Obviouservation
Hella subtle.
DarkoNeko
It’s this kind of attention to details <3
OnnaStik
I only noticed this when I read your comment and went back to look- not only does it indicate motion, but they’re in shadow when Dina worries that she’s getting boring and emerging into the light when Becky assures her she isn’t! This is some next-level shit here.
Ana Chronistic
Dina’s teachers are weird.
Silly mammals.
Screwball
Foolish meatsacks…
Xakthul
MEATBAGS!
Xakthul
Gravatar, Y U NO CHANGE?!
m2iCodeJockey
Must… Resist… KOT- F**king Steam.
It’s already downloading…
Xakthul
HK-47: Converting people to the KOTOR religion for… twelve years now?
Screwball
Don’t get me wrong – strutting around the galaxy with a light saber in each hand is about as pimp as it gets – it’s just that everywhere I go people want me to help them with something. I just feel like, “find your own Goddamn Ewok shoes, I’ve got a galaxy to save and/or destroy!”
[Instruction]: do not underestimate the power of the Darkside, meatbag.
Eh, I like meatsack… 😛
m2iCodeJockey
He probably had someone spoil it by telling him how amazing the game was before the first playthough.
Listening to HK-47 (it was never clear to me whether he was killing his owners or not) and finding out what was in that flashback…
Xakthul
You’re absolutely right, actually. Same thing when I started playing Mass Effect.
Hell, actually, every game I’ve played since I got into gaming has been somewhat spoiled for me first, before I actually decided to play them. Mostly, I’ll go looking for spoilers to keep my companions alive in the story.
nothri
Tricks are for kids?
PrincessPaladin
uh, EXCUSE you, the SCIENTIFIC term is “TRIX”
Lokitsu
Nothri’s a cereal offender.
Xakthul
So I should BOX her in with the cereal killers?
DarkVeghetta
Uurgh! The pain. THE PAIN!
Xakthul
Would you say the pain is too grrrrrrreat for you?
Halloween Jack
On the contrary–it’s magically delicious!
Some Name
What kind of teacher would want Dina to stop talking about Dino facts?
inqntrol
A radical christian one?
Some Name
So Becky’s dad?
Someone
Given that her parents are completely chill with her dating a chick, i doubt she went to a radical christian school.
Disloyal Subject
Every once in a while they find jobs in public schools, and some aren’t above abusing their position to discriminate against what they don’t understand.
As for what kind of teacher would get sick of Dina’s dino lore, J’m guessing one who spends an entire school year teaching her class. Most folks believe in ‘too much of a good thing;’ fortunately, Becky is not most folks.
DarkoNeko
Ask her again in a year.
Stephen R. Bierce
Probably had to teach that boy from Fox Trot first.
electromagneticDestroyosaur
A maths teacher might have other things to get to, par exemple…
Tacos
Oh who needs math anyways?
Nightsbridge
There are probably equations you need to learn in order to appropriately radiometrically date things.
Tacos
That’s what mathematical computer programs are for.
Amanduh
Actually, my second grade teacher asked my mother to come in for a conference about my behavior, and informed her that the problem was that I read too much. I’d finish my assigned worksheet, then pull a book out of my desk and read! How dare I!
I believe my mom stared at her open-mouthed long enough for the teacher to realize something was wrong before saying, “Well, then, I’ll tell her to start spending that time chewing gum, passing notes and poking the kid in front of her with a pencil”, and then walked out without a backward glance.
Aisling
Oh, heaven forbid a child should read, they might get smater and be better at learning! Can’t have that, we need ignorant controllable sheep!
Carefreewill
I had a similar problem through secondary school (UK equivalent of high school). I’d have a Terry Pratchett book with me and be reading with the book hidden just below the desk, and my work finished way ahead of others. The teachers would notice, ask me question about the lesson subject, I’d answer correctly and go back to reading. They hated that.
Disloyal Subject
Heh. That’s how I spent most of middle school.
Well, aside from not having been exposed to Pratchett yet.
Dragon_Nataku
That reminds me of my 6th grade maths teacher. He apparently had a very specific method that he wanted us to use to solve problems, and when I used a different method, still getting the right answer, he marked it wrong on my exam anyway, for every single problem. He then called my dad in for a conference. My dad was understandably livid. ^<__<^;;
Jenspaztic
you just perfectly described how i failed Algebra 2…
JaneDoe
My parents got called in for a similar reason in first grade I think? Only in my case it was because I wasn’t paying attention during the reading portion of our class and my teacher was concerned I was having trouble with it. My parents pointed out that I was bored out of my mind since I was already reading at a level well beyond what they were teaching in that class. So they ended up having me help some of the students who were having trouble reading instead.
Misteline
I had a similar experience. My mom put me in public school as a stopgap after it became clear that the private school I was attending wasn’t going to work out. After a couple of months the teachers claimed that I was ADD because I did more work than assigned and spent instructional time reading. I had straight A’s. Needless to say I didn’t attend that school for much longer after that.
JetstreamGW
One that would really like her to pay attention to some of the other topics?
ischemgeek
I was a kid who was completely obsessed with weather (literally – how Dina is about dinos is how I was about weather. Then medicine for a while – then etymology because idioms made no sense to me so I wanted to understand them and it got a bit out of hand to put it mildly, Star Wars for a while, Tamora Pierce books for a bit, and more recently chemistry, hydrogen storage and heat transfer – my list of “hobbies” across my life span is less a list of hobbies and more a list of things that have completely taken over my life for years at a time. Autism means you don’t like stuff lightly.)
Anyway, the point of the above is that I can say from experience: Pretty much every teacher ever. “Needs to show more diversity of topics” in English class. “Should diversify experience” on like social development stuff. “Nice kid, but really, really weird, you should probably take her to a psychologist because what six year old lists death statistics from historical tornadoes to calm herself down?!” seemed to be the kind of general consensus I got (yeah, really, I did that. We lived in a tornado zone. When I explained to classmates, they all panicked the next time we had a severe thunderstorm warning with tornado watch. Understandably, but I genuinely had no idea why they were upset because I was so socially inept – it was just fascinating to me that wind could be so destructive. I still love weather watching, it’s just not the level of obsession it used to be, where literally I was a six through nine year old with like pilot’s cloud manuals and suchlike. Which I’d read all of – hyperlexia came in handy there).
But yeah. In general, characters like Dina are considered cute in comics, but if you’re like that in real life? People don’t respond nearly as positively. Generally words like “crazy” “weirdo” and “freak” are thrown around a lot from your age-peers, along with “social developmental delay” and “social impariments” and “behavioral issue” and “inappropriate” and what have you from adults which really are just more-polite ways of saying “crazy” and “weirdo” and “freak,” IME.
Just sayin’. If you like Dina but took the piss out of the weirdo in class who was completely obsessed with something you think of as stupid or immature? You’re exactly the kind of person I’m talking about here. Ahmed Nadir and Dina and River Tam and Spencer Reid and the like are adorable on screen or in comics or in a book, but in real life, most people make fun of us and try to normalize us.
Dragon_Nataku
Who the hell wants to be “normal” anyway. I’ve always taken being called “weird” as a compliment, even as a kid, cause who the hell wants to be a generic sheep clone. Can you imagine how bloody boring the world would be if everyone was exactly the same? All conversation would cease cause you’d already know what people were going to say cause it would be the same as what you’d say. BORING.
TL;DR: People who call you weird as an insult aren’t worth your time. Keep on keeping on, my non-generic friend.
fizzywafflezsuperstore
Hello fellow proud weirdo!
I must say: you are quite contrary to the norm.
And I also must say:we share a philosophy (Weird is a word that should be grouped as a compliment)
JaneDoe
You’re weird. And I love it!
(Another proud weirdo here ;))
ischemgeek
I’ve given up trying to be normal because quite literally trying nearly killed me in high school. Or, rather, the realization that I could try and try and try forever and would never succeed at it nearly killed me. My folks & sibs are all socially adept social butterfly types and put a lot of stock in your ability to attract friends as a proxy for your worth as a person – given that I was lucky, generally, if I had even one friend at a time, I got pretty hung up about it, and if I let myself think too much on it, I’ll still tend to obsess over the fact that my partner and I can happily spend an entire weekend without saying a word to each other – not because we’re angry or anything, but just because we’re both people who appreciate quiet and don’t always need words to express care for each other.
Anyway, my brainspace is both happier and healthier now that I accept that I’m weird and have largely stopped trying to be normal. But it took nearly three decades of life and a shitload of emotional torment to reach this space. And I think it’s important for non-neurodivergent people to realize that underneath the cute social awkwardness portrayed on TV, that’s what millions of tiny (and not-so-tiny, and sometimes spectacular) failures in interaction can add up to, if you, like me, are generally-speaking a people pleaser who does care what others think, much to your own dismay at times.
I’m getting too serious for a comic about college kids now, but Dina gives me all the feels.
fizzywafflezsuperstore
Click my name to be happy! (It really works!)
DarkoNeko
REport card margins, eh.
liahansen
“Yes, she’s an attentive calculus student and she always does her homework, but if only she’d quit yackin’ bout sweet historical monsters!”
Mada
Oh Dina, I feel you so hard on that last one.
Although in my case it was teachers getting tired of me going on about science fiction and fantasy books I was reading.
And my habit of drawing dragons on my papers.
Bagge
I was teaching a kid who spent hour after hour, day after day, writing book after writing book, drawing pokemen. I still keep the santa pokeman I got as a Christmas gift.
Lapin
I’ve been on the receiving end of that sort of report card. Guaranteed way to make a kid feel terrible about themselves and their interests.
Liz
I thought it wasn’t possible to love this ship more but now I do.
Twilightomens
Becky is the best girlfriend
Captain Batson
It’s probably just the angle of her torso, but that first panel makes Becky appear more busty than I had considered her before.
I’m not sure why I felt the need to point that out.
Someone
Her breasts do seem more defined.
Mada
Hey, dinosaurs need a good place to lie down sometimes…often in a nice …valley…
Yeah.
Doctor_Who
Is that the Great Valley they were looking for in Land Before Time?
Lives up to the hype.
knifleman
Based on this image, I think it’s more that a combination of angles and outifts has hidden it up until this point.
Kryss LaBryn
It depends a lot on your bra, too. She might have put a different one on.
Dana
I so noticed that. Does that make me “such a guy” or just into girls?
merbrat
Dat avatar paired with those comments, would put you at 8 years old, though! Hee hee!
showler
The “thumbs hooked behind her shirt pulling it outward” is probably what is doing it.
Em
Becky has always been busty? Idk go back and look, she’s got some boobage. But she’s wearing more form fitting tops now, so it’s a little more obvious. I think it’s also a bit more obvious next to Dina than next to Joyce. Dina is rather small chested, while Joyce is busty like Becky.
otusasio451
As someone who had an grade school English teacher that wrote on his report card that he needed to “stop writing about animals”, and as someone who is currently studying to become a zoologist, I understand completely.
inqntrol
Was your teacher old,like over 50 years?That would explain it.
otusasio451
At the time, I’m pretty sure she was in her ’40s.
Michael Steamweed
No self-respecting, idealist English teacher would ever prevent a student from reading or writing in her/his spare time. And if the teacher isn’t an idealist, then that teacher has no business being an English teacher. :O
Poskie