Rendezvous
Posted on April 30, 2022 by David M Willis
I Excised All my Anxieties into Cartoon Characters Who Definitely Don't Have Feelings for Each Other will collect "Year Eleven," spanning the five storylines that start on September 10, 2020, and complete on August 26, 2021. This includes new commentary, behind-the-scenes artwork, and new character designs into an 224-page tome with luxurious glossy paper all bound up into a sturdy presentation.   Seriously, these books are gorgeous.  Sometimes when our house gets solicitors I whip out a book to show them how pretty it is.  And there will be a foreword by Kendra Wells!
 
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213 thoughts on “Rendezvous”

  1. The Wellerman

    ???

    Walky’s such an adorable neurodivergent screwball, I love it!!!

    ???

    1. The Wellerman

      *plays “Andy Anorak” by Chris Marshall on hacked muzak*

    2. The Wellerman

      *followed by “Run Around Orko” by Sheki Levi*

    3. Decidedly Orthogonal

      “Jerry.”

      Also: “? Alt-text”

  2. Nathan

    I’m with Walky on this one

    1. Reltzik

      Best way to defuse a drama bomb is to douse it with awkward.

  3. C.T. Phipps

    Sarah, maybe you should remember that you kind of tried to destroy her relationship out of pure spite using your friend.

    It’s like that moment when Ethan realized he couldn’t lecture people about toys anymore because he was a kidnapper.

    1. Sirksome

      I mean if we’re playing tit for tat or whatever Raidah’s done her fair share of dirt to sabotage Sarah’s relationship’s as well.

      1. Thag Simmons

        Raidah has never physically assaulted Sarah or enlisted a friend to try and steal Sarah’s boyfriend, which I think puts her ahead.

      2. alongcameaspider

        To be fair the worst Raidah has done was be kind of a jerk to Sarah

        Sarah has done the same and worse

        1. Rabbit

          Actually the worst thing she’s done was act like an ableist bongo to Dina, if we’re keeping score.

        2. JBento

          If we’re keeping score, so did Sarah, Joyce, Dorothy, Walky, and pretty much the entirety of the main cast except for Becky.

        3. Cerusee

          Raidah bullied Sarah for a year and then deliberately tried to sabotage Sarah’s new friendships with first year students that Raidah had never met before and didn’t care about. That was the background for Sarah punching Raidah!

          Sarah shouldn’t have done that, but let’s not rewrite history. Raidah is the aggressor in the Sarah/Raidah conflict. She might have started her anti-Sarah campaign because she felt Sarah was wrong to call Dana’s dad, but it was one hundred percent her own choice to keep confronting her and antagonizing her, when there was no useful outcome to doing so. She provoked the SHIT out of Sarah, on purpose, deliberately, for a long time before Sarah broke down and hit her.

          Nobody should feel obliged to give Sarah a pass for resorting to physical violence in a situation like this, but Sarah fucking up that way doesn’t retroactively excuse a campaign of harassment that involved driving Sarah out of the goddamn DINING HALL, and telling total strangers that they shouldn’t associate with Sarah. Do you have the first idea how harmful that shit is? How much it makes someone feel unsafe and isolated in the only place that they have? How destabilizing it is? To feel like you don’t have a place to even *eat* that’s safe? To feel like every tentative friendly interactive you have with someone is a moment away from this person who hates you coming in and destroying it, on purpose, out of malice?

          If we found out that Raidah was right, and Dana was worse off out of college, and Sarah made a mistake by calling her dad, Raidah would *still* be wrong to have inflicted a campaign of harassment against Sarah. It’s not okay to do that! You can quietly loathe someone and not interact with them! You can not be someone’s friend or champion, and also not try to poison their friends who aren’t your friends against them! Raidah was cruel, and vindictive, and she wanted to hurt Sarah, and she liked that she succeeded. I don’t think think Raidah is the Evilest, or that everything she does is wrong, or out of bad motivations, but she was *horrible* to Sarah, and Sarah has every right to hate Raidah (yes, even after punching her, saying she was sorry, and Raidah not escalating by trying to get her expelled or pressing charges of battery). Sarah scheming to break Raidah and Jacob up out of spite was also pretty gross, but again: that was a reaction to Raidah bullying Sarah! For a long time! On purpose! Raidah worked hard to make Sarah hate her this much.

        4. Taffy

          In regard to the whole “Sarah punching Raidah” thing, I’m not super inclined to hold that up as This Terrible Thing like some folks seem to wanna do. It was one punch, fully provoked, Raidah basically shrugged it off later (after calling Sarah a wild animal of course), and it’s not like anyone was traumatised. Punching people isn’t necessarily The Single Most Polite And Optimal Thing To Do, but it’s really not a very big deal in the long run. I know, I know, violence bad, yadda yadda, etc. and so on, but eh. The weird Jacob thing was actually capital-S Shitty and seems a little more valid of a complaint.

        5. Spencer

          Well, there’s a difference between whether the audience will object to a sudden punch in the face, and the character themself getting punched.

          It’s not really “Sarah did a horrible wrong and must atone!” but more like “this is a sensible reason why Character X dislikes Character Y, someone she already had a beef with.” I like Sarah more than Raidah, we all do, but “liking Sarah” doesn’t actually mean anything to Raidah, who was punched in the face by someone she already does not like.

        6. Spencer

          We don’t actually know that it was a prolonged campaign, since it happened twice on-panel in the earliest years of the strip before we knew the whole story.

          I would not be surprised if it were, though. Raidah does strike me as the kind of person who would go “stay away from me!” and then take every opportunity where she crosses Sarah’s path to be a huge dillweed. It might be relevant that Raidah in the last flashback panel tells her to stay away and then some time later Raidah checks in on Dana and it’s not looking good according to her, like Raidah did start harassing Sarah again to get back at her, because now she’s “got a good reason” to do it. Again, that does strike me as a Raidah move to go “you deserve this because Dana is suffering, also I will not tell you anything because it’s not like you care.”

          (Also thanks for bringing up why Sarah punched her, since it’s been easy for me to frame that as “Raidah’s reason for why she does not like Sarah” but I’ve been leaving out the context for Sarah’s character)

          Now that I’m typing this, I do kinda like the idea that Raidah got an update on Dana and then did start bullying Sarah and going back on hero own demand that Sarah stay away from her, and then once they decide a cease-fire and Raidah walks in with Jacob, Sarah then goes “well I’m entitled to hurt her because she hurt me.”

          Like even if we find out the Raidah was totally right about Dana and Sarah did actually cause her harm by sending her home, that’d still mean she didn’t make the slightest move to contextualize that to Sarah, she just decided Sarah was her punching bag from now on the way Sarah decided herself to hurt Raidah because she was dating a guy Sarah thought was hot.

        7. Bunny

          I wish I could upvote this comment. Well said.

        8. thejeff

          But none of that matters since it was mostly offscreen backstory. We can pretend it was only the couple incidents we saw, despite them clearly being shown to establish the backstory.
          It’s also worth nothing that whether it was right or wrong, punching Raidah seemed to work – the blatant harassment stopped after that.

        9. Sombrero

          Punching Raidah always works. Asher knows.

        10. Tunasammich

          Yes! Raidah is a massive bully. Sarah had a right to not have someone smoking weed in her dorm room all the time. She probably should have just told the RA, but that could have resulted in even worse consequences for Dana anyway. Raidah and her friends are a bunch of mean girls

        11. Spencer

          Dana wasn’t “smoking weed,” she was horribly depressed over her mother’s death and using weed as a crutch while keeping appearances in front of everyone else.

        12. Tunasammich

          I guess I’m just heartless because I don’t think anyone is obligated to overlook someone making their dorm room smell like weed no matter what. I hate the smell of weed, it would be so miserable. It’s Sarah’s home and she doesn’t have to get bad grades and drop out of school for someone else. Dana’s situation sucked but Sarah still had a right to be comfortable in her own home and report illegal activity in her room

        13. Spencer

          I’m saying Sarah didn’t do it because Teh Drugs, she did it because Dana was in a catastrophic mental health spiral that Sarah was convinced was going to kill her.

        14. Cerusee

          I’m also heartless because I don’t care whether Dana was okay or not. It certainly would be flattering to Sarah if she acted more out of compassion or worry than out of self-protection, but I’m team Sarah all the way even if Sarah called Dana’s dad just to get Dana’s self-destructive train to go wreck itself somewhere *besides Sarah’s living space.* If Raidah minds that, Raidah can invent a time machine, go back to their freshman year, invite Dana into HER dorm room 24/7, and enjoy what drug dependency looks like when it’s five feet away from you in a closed airspace.

        15. Opus the Poet

          If we are having an evil-off we have characters much worse than Raidah in the cast (but not anymore). ToeDad and Blaine were objectively much more evil than Raidah or any currently alive cast. This semester lacks anyone approaching that level of evil.

          Which TBH is good. I don’t think University of Indiana’s reputation could stand that level of evil two semesters in a row.

    2. AlexaSpuds

      Raidah is a shitty opportunistic and demeaning human being.
      She deserves worse after the Dina incident.

      1. Wraithy2773

        Joyce has been harsher to Dina than Raidah has.

        1. Spencer

          I mean, yeah.

          “Robot girl” notwithstanding, at her dorm party when Becky was hitting on Dina, Joyce said it was weird because Dina “looks and acts 12,”, followed by Dorothy and Sarah agreeing.

          (Dina got pissed and Joyce apologized. Dorothy was drunk and went huzzah when Dina kissed Becky, and Sarah went “wow nice going a cranky Dina is all we need” before later befriending her)

          Raidah was absurdly condescending to Dina right from the start, because she engaged Dina as if she was incapable of having an adult conversation. It’s wrong, and it’s a kind of wrong that’s difficult to dismantle because it’s couched by the speaker attempting to be compassionate when it’s dehumanizing, and it’s hard to explain that to someone engaging in that behavior out of what they’ve been taught to think of as politeness. Social blinders are a common factor for folks with ASD, it is still outrageous to approach someone you’ve met for the first time as if they’re a helpless child.

          But she hasn’t been worse to Dina than any of the protagonists who have slighted her. It just sticks out more because it’s one of like six actual events Raidah has actually been involved in.

        2. Rose Red

          The “don’t hit on Dina, she’s young” thing didn’t seem weird to me at all. (And I know from personal experience that white people who didn’t grow up in predominantly Asian communities tend to be very very bad at guessing Asian women’s ages before the age of about 50, so I’m fine giving Joyce a pass on incorrectly guessing Dina’s age.) I’ve known a couple people who went to university at 15-16, and being hit on by an 18-19 year-old was a little creepy at that age, you know? Especially if they looked even younger than that, like Dina apparently did. (I also know plenty of people don’t think 15-16/18-19 is a weird age gap, but I personally do.)

          I know that in this case, Dina wasn’t actually 15-16, she was an adult, but if you don’t have information like, hey we met at a bar (I don’t know if IU is one of the places that doesn’t let you stay in dorms if you’re that young)? She looked like she could have been 12, and we as a society tend to disapprove of people who are sexually interested in the physical characteristics of people barely starting puberty (yes, I know the average age of menarche and puberty in general is getting lower, so 12 doesn’t necessarily mean barely starting puberty, but still).

        3. Spencer

          I mean, everyone who knows Dina knows she is a college freshman. Dina wasn’t “too young” to those three, she was short and quiet and didn’t use contractions, so that meant she was a helpless baby thing and her existing in any kind of secure context was innately weird and wrong to them.

        4. Spencer

          sexual context*

          Goddamned stubby fingers.

        5. Opus the Poet

          Damn You Otto Korrect!

        6. The Wellerman

          Don’t even get me started on how Raidah acted.

          I really hate the “autism” label for that very reason, it always leads to people blurring us together with harmful stereotypes and leads to them making REALLY hurtful assumptions about us.

          Because of that label, I was subjected to decades of dehumanizing infantilization and abuse at the hands of family, friends, therapists and teachers, all while having them act like it was compassion. ?

          My only hope for this matter is that we get better ways of describing neurodivergence than an oligopoly of overgeneralziing categories, that encourage people to actually get to know us and what we actually need help with, not only for the sake of neurotypicals to understand us, but for us to understand ourselves.

        7. thejeff

          A character is always the worst thing they’ve ever done.

  4. RassilonTDavros

    My God. Project Sarah.

    1. Taffy

      You’re havin’ fun with that one, huh.

      1. RassilonTDavros

        This is probably the last time I’ll make that particular reference. Rule of Three and all that.

  5. Sirksome

    I actually don’t get what’s happening here. I don’t think people greet each other like this in real life.

    1. C.T. Phipps

      Just imagine that it’s Star Wars:

      Vader: Skywalker

      Luke: Vader

      Walky: Walky

    2. Thag Simmons

      Eh. First name greetings are a thing that happens, but usually not in this sort of scenario.

    3. Nathan

      They’re posturing at each other.

      They’re all so absorbed in their individual little rivalries that they are calling out their foe. This is the part where there’s anime fight lines even though no one is throwing a punch yet.

    4. Decidedly Orthogonal

      It happens. It can be harmless/formal, or it can be a way to acknowledge someone that you have nothing nicer to say to.

    5. eh, whatever

      There are Americans who actually do this, bizarre as it is – but I think only in a bit more formal situations.

    6. Amós Batista

      it’s a samurai duel

      1. Nathan

        Exactly!

    7. Keulen

      I’m sure there are some people who do, but it’s probably not nearly as common as in fiction.

  6. CC

    Actually not a bad de-escalation tactic

    1. The Wellerman

      Yeah, I just love that about Walky. ?

  7. Giguioto

    “Oh, are you approaching me?”

  8. Darkoneko

    Shadow the Hedgehog

    1. Jamie

      Big the Cat.

      1. Kyrik Michalowski

        Big the cat is the worst, fuck fishing for froggy.

        1. mrnoidea

          *victory music playing in background after catching a fish*

          “This game is agony.”

        2. Kyrik Michalowski

          Good old GG, Arin suffering is my favorite thing to watch.

      2. Rose by Any Other Name

        **off key**
        Mew bew bew bew bew beeeeew. Meew beeew.

        1. RassilonTDavros

          …trying to figure out what song that’s supposed to be and coming up blank.

        2. Kyrik Michalowski

          I believe they are referencing the music from one of the Big the Cat levels. It is also possibly a reference to Game Grumps when they played the Big the Cat levels.

    2. RassilonTDavros

      Tommy Turtle.

      1. Taffy

        Sweet, an Archie Comics deep cut.

        1. RassilonTDavros

          I mean, not sure how deep a cut he is within the realm of Archie specifically, since he’s kinda infamous for being the one character everyone agreed was terrible. He’s a deep cut within the franchise as a whole, though, if that’s what you meant.

          A real Archie deep-cut would be someone like… shit, I’m in too deep to know what is and isn’t a deep cut. Maybe someone like Abby the Racist Stereotype Koala Maid? Or Mobie the Cave Bear. Or the Spawnmower. Or Catweazle, the talking non-anthro bird who Knuckles inexplicably despises. Or the gangster Downtown Ebony Hare and his partner-in-crime Reinfeld T. Rodent, the amusement park owner who sold chili dogs that killed people because they were laced with fatal doses of LSD. (And yes, all of those are real.)

        2. Taffy

          Can’t forget Zonic the Zone Cop. He’s Sonic but zideways!

    3. Doki

      ? Can you see all me of meeee
      Walk into my mysteryyyy
      Step inside and hold on for dear liiiife ?

  9. butts

    “Spongebob!”

  10. Sirksome

    I know it will probably never happen but I hope one day Dana shows up again happier and healthier than she was when she roomed with Sarah and just squashes this whole dumb beef that’s festered between her and Raidah. I honestly think Sarah might have saved her life. Depression is no joke.

    1. Thag Simmons

      I kind of get the feeling Dana was in a very similar situation to Ruth, where she absolutely needed intervention but that her home is not safe.

      1. Sirksome

        Was it ever implied her home life was bad? A lot of the details around Dana are vague and I don’t like assuming stuff like that. All we know is her dad pulled her out of school and at least from Sarah’s perspective on the story Dana was in a very bad place post her mom’s death so that might have been the right move, but we can’t really make a call with no information.

        1. Thag Simmons

          “Dana is in a better place”

          “Not according to Dana last I checked“

        2. Sirksome

          I can maybe trust Raidah’s credibility since even though I don’t like her she doesn’t seem like the type to lie for no reason. But even with that I have no context behind what that means. Dana’s mom died and she was in crisis, I imagine no place would be considered “better” to Dana. Which I want her to come back! Closure on this would be nice.

        3. Spencer

          yeh

          Dana, how Sarah handled it, and the fallout of that event feel too relevant to Sarah’s character and her struggle with solution-oriented problem solving and her inability to open up to her friends. We just got done a chapter where Sarah bulldozes through Liz’s problems without hearing her out, and ended it going “damn Joyce I can’t solve your problem for you. I’m not worth looking up to, clearly I got no idea what I’m doing.” With Raidah (and also Carl) taking on more of a prominent role than prior to the timeskip, these feel like pretty heavy signals that we’re gearing up for something big for Sarah.

        4. alongcameaspider

          The only implication we have is Raidah claiming Dana was miserable

          For all we know she made it up because she thought it would hurt Sarah, and even if Raidah didn’t it could be more “I’m having withdrawals” sort of miserable and she’s since past that and is in a healthier place now

        5. C.T. Phipps

          Even if she’s miserable, it may be because of the more mundane, “I’m not in college anymore and can’t smoke weed.”

          Or maybe she’s just unhappy anywhere her mom is dead.

        6. alongcameaspider

          The only one who can really tell us what’s going on with Dana is Dana and I doubt she’s coming back until far into the future when Willis is wrapping up the series and needs to end Sarah’s character arc

        7. Thag Simmons

          I don’t know about that.

        8. Wraithy2773

          Honestly, this just sounds like a justification to pile on more hatred towards a character you don’t like.

          Here’s a thing to note about the strip where Raidah says that Dana’s not better: Sarah gives basically zero fucks about being told that. Her reaction to being told Dana’s not doing better than she was in college is “Well, history will prove me right” and storming off.

        9. Spencer

          I want to build off of this since I think it’s a really important, unstated part of their fued:Sarah has not checked in on Dana once.

          Dana to Sarah is someone she did “the hardest thing in her life” for, and she just dropped out of her mind since. What matters to Sarah is that she took control and did the right thing that nobody else could.

          (Raidah’s relation to Dana is less concrete to make a read on, so I dunno what to make of it yet other than that she knows more than Sarah and isn’t willing to share it with her)

          This is why Dana reappearing is such a tantalizing possibility to me: she’s a prop for these two to hate themselves.

        10. C.T. Phipps

          We should do an evil plot by voting for Dana in the next bonus comic strip.

          🙂

        11. Sombrero

          Just to discover that Dana was a fictional character invented by Sarah to be able to not share her room, later hijacked by Raidah to have a reason to intensely dislike Sarah and feel good about it.

        12. alongcameaspider

          I suspect Willis would manage to make it vague enough to not really answer anything

        13. Sol

          I wouldn’t be surprised if Dana utterly rejected any attempt by Sarah to reach out, or told Sarah off and never to speak to her again when she got taken out of school by her father (wouldn’t be surprising, given what we know). But then, we haven’t been shown the direct fallout of Sarah’s call, so everything’s speculation.

          Might even be that Sarah feels that she doesn’t have the right to check in on Dana. Like it was about the only option she could take, but she does seem to really hate having to take it (“hardest thing she ever had to do”) and now thinks it bars her from being able to be friendly with Dana.

          Knowing Willis though Dana is gonna be like Jordan and will be held as this tantalising little bit of mystery that won’t be touched upon directly for *ages*.

  11. RassilonTDavros

    This feels like as good a place as any to post this

    1. Taffy

      Yes.

    2. Agemegos

      What is it? I don’t click blind links.

      1. RassilonTDavros

        A parody of Christian Sonic fanart. SFW, if you’re worried about that.

        1. Agemegos

          Thanks. That’s not something that would do much for me, since I don’t know what Sonic is and would not appreciate the parody for its Christian fan-art.

        2. Delicious Taffy

          What you see is what you get. Just a guy that loves adventure.

        3. Doki

          Sonic the hedgehog is someone who a. has beaten the shit out of multiple gods in his canon and b. is an irreverent free-spirited guy who takes orders from no one.

          In essence, the exact opposite of someone who would be into Christianity IRL.

          But for some reason ‘Christian Sonic’ has become a widespread internet joke by this point. Who started it? NO idea haha. Just know that it is very cursed.

        4. The Wellerman

          Emperor Willis himself, that’s who:

          https://twitter.com/damnyouwillis/status/1072331969252462593

        5. Doki

          OMG I didn’t know they tweeted that!

          But no, the meme has been around since before the movie haha.

      2. Amós Batista

        Rassilon have a Sonic fan blog, I only saw the 3 last posts.

    3. Doki

      Uggggh cuuuuursed haha

  12. Pocky

    That blasted hedgehog

    1. Taffy

      Gotta be honest, I read this in Long John Baldry’s voice. The other Robotniks are all perfectly good, but nobody can top the original.

      1. RassilonTDavros

        Baldry always sounds like he was having the time of his life in the recording booth when he played Robotnik. I really wish that he’d lived to see PINGAS become a meme.

  13. Yotomoe

    https://imgur.com/a/Vk41xKi (NSFW)
    It begins. Hope y’all are ready for it to get REALLY lewd.

    1. The Wellerman

      ??? ???

      Excellently sexy Yoto!!! You’re well on your way to becoming a Porn Lord!!!

      *plays “Closer” by Nine Inch Nails on hacked muzak*

    2. newlland(Henryvolt)

      Hmm Yep, you did not disappoint.

    3. Taffy

      Love the pose and hair on that first panel. I’m especially fond of the second panel, though. That little hair-tuck move is Very Good and more NSFW stuff needs it.

      1. Zach

        That’s sexy? It just makes me glad I’ve cut my hair.

      2. Yotomoe

        Ok so uh…fun fact about me. One of the first hentai I ever saw had a girl do that little hair-tuck and I don’t know why but that was just…so much hotter to me. So I decided “ok if I ever draw this I am absolutely doing that”

        So to answer your question Zach, I find it sexy.

        1. The Wellerman

          That’s such a cute and awesome story Yoto, and now you’re using it in your own art too!!! ???

          Do you remember the name of that Hentai?

        2. Taffy

          There’s just somethin’ about it. Might be comfort-related.

    4. Rose by Any Other Name

      Yes! My body is ready for lewdness Yotomoe!
      Also my mind.

      As to the hair-tuck thing – I mean, it’s just a practical necessity during oral sex. No one wants to go down on their own hair.
      Of course, it’s also very real and human – and that’s why I think people find it hot.

    5. cbwroses

      “I was born ready.”

    6. Andy

      Do you have a collection of your arts somewhere? I know there’s things I’ve missed, and going back however many months or years and Ctrl+F-ing your name to find them all is kinda irritating

      1. cbwroses

        Willis has one of Yotomoe’s art I believe, at least the ones related to the series. He’s linked it before.

      2. Yotomoe

        I do in fact though it’s out of date. I’ve posted it a few times and usually put it under my name unless I forget.
        https://imgur.com/a/8Q50mBQ

        1. Opus the Poet

          Saved to bookmarks.

  14. Juanoku

    Long time no see

  15. newlland(Henryvolt)

    Walkys bit was predictable but still got a laugh out of me, It’s my brand of humor.

  16. Grimey

    Walky is truly God’s Perfect Idiot and I mean that in the most complimentary way possible.

  17. William Leonard Reese Jr.

    Nice attempt but adding “The Hedgehog” kind of ruins the flow of the snark Walky.

    . . . Also what is that face that Sarah is making? It’s. . . the kind of expression I would normally default to translating as “cartoon confusion” but that wouldn’t make sense considering the context of the strip.

    1. Sam

      She’s making a ‘biting lip to contain anger on the inside’ or ‘biting lip to force air out of side of mouth’ face, both of which indicate internal anger the person is trying to keep inside but it is not fully working.

  18. keet

    Oh, Walky. Sometimes you say the best possible thing.

  19. Taffy

    Walky is treating this silly little confrontation with exactly the amount of gravitas and importance it deserves.

  20. Yotomoe

    Sarah’s expression is a little odd here. I’m not sure what emotion that is. Cringing? Conflicted? Especially since the name Raidah doesn’t have any phonemes that’d require her to bite her lip.

    1. hazel

      I read it as “get my name out of your mouth.” Raidah started it with whatever shit-eating grin is happening here

    2. Amós Batista

      She’s about to explode, like she had meeting Joe.

  21. alongcameaspider

    I’ve been playing too much Elden Ring, I keep starting to type Radahn when I go to type Raidah’s name

  22. JessWitt

    Donkey!

  23. AbacusWizard

    “Oh, we’re using our made-up names?”

  24. Kitschensyngk

    TONY BENNETT.

    ULYSSES S. GRANT.

    HARRY BELAFONTE.

    …am I doing this right?

  25. ADLegend21

    Rutabaga!

  26. epitome of incomprehensibility

    This genuinely made me laugh. Well done!

    Mildly amusing story: I was proofreading a biology paper for work and I ran across a sentence about a protein named “Sonic hedgehog.” At first, I was sure one of the writers was putting that in as a joke. I was just about to show it to the biology tutor and go, “Ha ha, look at what some bored researcher tried to slip past us,” but I thought I should look it up first, just in case.

    Sure enough: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonic_hedgehog

    1. The Wellerman

      Wow!!! ?

      Very fascinating and a fitting name for a gene that covers an embryo with spike-like structures! ?

      I dove even deeper, and found that there are also proteins that are named after Robotnik and Pikachu too!!! ?

      Live and learn, I guess! Thanks for sharing! ?

      *plays “Infotain Me” by Ochre on hacked muzak*

      1. The Wellerman

        *followed by “Wonderful Collection” by Pikachu Records*

    2. Thag Simmons

      Well, some bored researcher did slip that past people, into being the official designation for the protein.

      1. Agemegos

        It doesn’t take a lot of slipping, since allusions and jokes in species names is a bit of a tradition. An extinct snake got classified as Morelia montypythonoides, some clown named a new species of vampire squid after Joe Biden.

        1. The Wellerman

          Hold the political part, I actually LOVE vampire squids! ?

    3. Blue

      This made my day. It just brings a smile to my face knowing about this protein.

    4. Doki

      Haha, thanks for sharing! I happened to already know that (as someone who has spent an inordinate amount of time Googling Sonic), but it’s an amusing fact nonetheless. 😀

  27. newlland(Henryvolt)

    You know looking back on it I think really was jealous but not of Jennifer, I think Sal was more Jealous of Asher.

    People are often saying Sal and Asher are similar right? Maybe Asher is reflecting a type of parallel where life is going more smoothly for him while he’s allowed to do some of things he’s wants to and bend just a couple minor rules and all he had to do was conform to the same type of straight and narrow life her mom wanted for her.

    Turning over a new leaf and changing his life for the better didn’t take confronting unforseen consequences from the past or refusing to really on old unwanted help from a manipulating authority figure like she did. But for him it took not much it seems in her eyes, unfortunately I think that would be underselling Asher trying to better his life.

    1. Thag Simmons

      Yes, because Asher has definitely escaped the consequences of his past and the grasp of a manipulative authority figure. Totally. That’s why he’s allowed to ride his neat motorcycle all around campus.

      1. newlland(Henryvolt)

        A really neat motorcycle and a hot new girlfriend.

        1. Thag Simmons

          His neat motorcycle that definitely isn’t in violation of any campus rules, and which doesn’t imply that a well connected family member pulled some strings for him

        2. Needfuldoer

          Maybe he’s parking it off-campus at one of grandpa’s “rental properties”.

        3. Agemegos

          Is Asher an underclassman? What is an underclassman?

        4. Raven

          Underclassman are first and second-year college students

  28. John Campbell

    Janet!

  29. MM

    Doctor Scott!

    1. JohnnyO

      Brad!

      1. karishi

        Dr Frank (desperately): Walky!

      2. thejeff

        Ugh!

  30. Dave Van Domelen

    …AND KNUCKLES.

    1. RassilonTDavros

      Here I come, rougher than Knuckles
      The best of them, tougher than Knuckles
      You can call me Knuckles, unlike Knuckles I don’t chuckle
      I’d rather flex my Knuckles

  31. Bryy

    ….. I’m super interested in hearing Raidah’s opinion on the school shooting and the kidnapping/murders.

    1. Taffy

      She probably thinks the people involved deserve it for being Sarah-adjacent.

    2. thejeff

      And then about her new friend Asher’s tangential role in it.

  32. AGV

    Donkey!

  33. LiterallyJustSomeGuy

    Nora!

  34. cbwroses

    The fact that Sonic the Hedgehog is tagged…???

  35. cbwroses

    Also, I’m torn between making a “Naruto! Sasuke!” comment or a “Bruno…we don’t talk about Bruno!” comment.

  36. Icalasari

    DONKEY!

    1. Icalasari

      See, I remembered to ALL CAPS it, which means mine is actually correct

      1. Icalasari

        Dammit I put a fake tag and it ate it :<

        1. Icalasari

          Fake [/BadWalkyImpression] tag

          …I should stop commenting on webcomics when sick and exhausted

  37. Bagge

    Knuckles.

    1. Taffy

      Oh no.

  38. Kirtro

    LEAD FEMALE’S NAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAME!!!

  39. CJ

    Thanks Walky, for someone who is supposed to be oblivious to other people‘s feelings, you found the ideal reaction to derail this shipwreck.

    Raidah‘s smirk is going a long way to make me want to punch her.

    You shouldn’t punch people, but I have to admit Raidah‘s delight in hurting Sarah is hard to stomach.
    Sarah may have kindof provoked Joyce into going after Jacob because then Raidah wouldn’t have him (she didn’t try to go after Jacob to get him for himself, because she just wanted to sleep with him and that would have hurt him, so it was more important to not hurt him than to hurt Raidah). But that was a bad decision after a year of being harassed by Raidah. Another was to hit Raidah.
    Raidah is making bad decisions each time she goes after Sarah.

    1. Taffy

      >”You shouldn’t punch people”
      Sure, provisionally and with some very important exceptions. You also shouldn’t go out of your way to deliberately provoke people to the point that they’re inclined to punch you. And once you’ve crossed that threshold, you also shouldn’t act surprised when they actually do it.

  40. Kaffeeteria

    Brad!
    Janet!
    Dr . Scott!
    ROCKY!

    1. PB

      Audience: BULLWINKLE!

      1. Van Jealous

        Hokey Smoke!

  41. The Other Mike

    Tetsuoooo!!!

    1. PirateTawnee

      KANEDA!

  42. PirateTawnee

    Dinkleberg!

    Superintendent Chalmers!

    KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!!!

  43. CianM1301

    WIIIILLMAAAA!

  44. khn0

    Adrian!

  45. Zaxares

    Donkey!

  46. newlland(Henryvolt)

    Griffith!

  47. Rabisch

    It’s like a spaghetti western scene. Walky is the old man that always says something ironic.

  48. Amós Batista

    Oh no, don’t bring Sonic here. I hate its fandom, one of most toxic community in entire internet.

    1. Pearl

      Too late. You’re too slow!

    2. Doki

      As a huge fan of Sonic who also stays far away from fandom drama… it’s, uh, really not the worst?

      Everything I’ve seen in the Sonic fandom, I have seen in the Pokémon fandom just as much. They’re both huge fandoms, spread across many MANY websites and sub-communities, with a wide variety of people as fans. And, yeah, of course some Sonic fans are toxic! That’s inevitable. But it’s overall not that bad, to be honest. Just a few super well-known examples that became infamous in the early days of the internet.

      The ONLY problem I’d say I see pop up consistently is that a lot of fans are mildly homophobic… but that’s not really a surprise with a fandom as diverse and old as this one, haha. It just affects me personally because I’m queer myself. Most people are pretty chill though, and Sonic himself would definitely/I> not be okay with harassing anyone for being gay. One of his key character traits is that he hates bigotry, actually.

      BASICALLY? It’s not any better or worse than any other huge fandom I’ve been in, I promise.

      (I also only got into Sonic as an adult, so I would hope I’m an okay judge of toxicity in fandom by now, haha. I didn’t grow up in the fandom, is what I’m saying.)

      1. Doki

        Oh nooo I’m sorry my formatting broke dksksldfgdff :C

      2. Amós Batista

        I lived there, some decade ago. I learnt they even ruined the game and Comics franchise.
        (but I believe there’s another ruined communities, too)

  49. JBento

    KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!!!!

  50. Spencer

    Asher then follows up with “I see… but you know, I can’t let you live. Your adventuring days are coming to an end!”

    Everyone around him is too scared to admit that they know where that’s from .

    1. Wraithy2773

      I’d just respond “You’re a fool if you believe I would trust your benevolence. Step aside, and you and your lackeys will be unhurt.”

      Since we’re quoting stuff here :D.

      1. Spencer

        (It’s from Sonic Adventure 2, Shadow says it before his final fight with Sonic)

        1. Wraithy2773

          Aye, figured that from a google search, just more of a Baldur’s Gate person :P.

    2. Blue

      Damn this makes me want to start playing sonic games again.

    3. Doki

      PERFECT comment haha

  51. Beau Kirin Maysey

    “Long time no see.” “Long time no see…”

  52. Plaaaa

    I don’t know who Carl is, the name of the 4th guy in Sal and Raudah’s group is named Sonic the Hedgehog.

    1. Spencer

      This is his life now.

    2. Thag Simmons

      I don’t think Sonic has enough of a spine to dispute that

  53. Eldritchy

    Sorry Walky but your severe moustache deficiency disqualifies you from saying that name ominously.

  54. Keulen

    Wernstrom!

  55. Chokfi

    Donkey!

  56. Sombrero

    I’m calling it: next strip is Joyce, from her hazy migraine cloud, greeting Jennifer as “Billie”.

  57. Stephen Nedland

    Just like Asher/Ruth, people are automatically doing the, “the person I don’t like is totally the bad guy”, thing, and trying to justify it. I get it, you don’t like Raidah, but that doesn’t make Sarah the victim; she is far from innocent. When relationships fall apart, like Sarah’s and Raidah’s, there is no, “person x did worse than person y”, don’t even try, just stop it.

    1. Eldritchy

      Well when we were introduced to her she went after Dina.
      And most interactions we had with her were about her seeing Jacob as a glorified wallet and something to show off for social clout.
      There is… very little positive that we have seen of her. She is maybe a bit above Mary…

    2. thejeff

      When we were introduced to her, she was harassing Sarah out of nowhere in the dining hall. Multiple times. With the strong implication that was picking up from the previous year.

      And like Eldritchy said, while we’ve learned more about her, we’ve seen basically nothing good. Nothing to balance against the bad. Sarah certainly has her flaws, but she’s much closer to the innocent party here.

      And as a broad rule, this :When relationships fall apart, like Sarah’s and Raidah’s, there is no, “person x did worse than person y”, don’t even try, just stop it.” is victim blaming bullshit. Certainly, sometimes it’s mutual, but sometimes it’s just one person realizing the other is an asshole.

      1. Stephen Nedland

        But you are still just arbitrarily deciding who the victim is, based on how much you like them. Raidah is no saint, but neither is Sarah. Her early interactions with, not just Joyce, but then entire group, were at best mean spirited. She literally tried to sabotage Raidah’s and Jacob’s relationship, and lets not forget how she treats Joe (Joe is a creep, but no one deserves a baseball bat to the head). They have been terrible to each other, and/or the people around them.

  58. mrnoidea

    Kinto-un!

    1. Opus the Poet

      Truck-kun!

      1. Eldritchy

        Hai, Kazuma desu

        1. The Wellerman

          SAUCE? ?

  59. Nathan

    The Sarah-Dana situation is one of the cases where an ultimatum would have been appropriate. “Stop smoking in our room or I’ll tell your dad about it” should have happened before the actual dad-telling.

    1. Eldritchy

      True, though on the other hand if Sarah’s description of the situation is to be believed getting Dana to do drugs outside Could have led to her ODing in some secluded place and her death would have been on Sarah’s conscience.

    2. BBCC

      It wasn’t just the drugs though. She was keeping Sarah awake all night after she broke up with her boyfriend, to the point it was affecting her grades. She was also afraid Dana was going to DIE, which suggests to me she either moved onto heavier drugs or Sarah was afraid she was a suicide risk. Dana’s friends thought she was fine and were unwilling to discuss it with her, Sarah cannot COMPEL her to go to mental health services, and reporting her to the RA or the school made it very possible she’d get worse consequences than her dad coming to withdraw her from school. As could Sarah, actually, for having drugs in her room and not reporting it until now. Schools are not known for being kind to poor, Black students who have drugs in their room and don’t report it.

      1. Spencer

        Yeah that, especially the last part.

        If god forbid Dana showed up next strip and said “Sarah I just needed one more day to cope with my mother’s death and you sent me to my abusive father,” the reality is that Sarah was isolated with someone who was destroying her scholarship and Sarah’s best attempts at being kind to her fell flat, she could not meaningfully give back, and everyone she attempted to reach out to brushed her off. The situation was untenable regardless of the outcome that Sarah caused for Dana by calling her dad.

        I kinda wanna know Carl’s deal now, if he has one. He still hangs out with Raidah, what’s he think about what happened to Dana? Did he reach out to her? Does he still care? Was it something where he wasn’t really serious with her? He is the one who said to give her time to Sarah in the flashback.

        1. Axel

          We also don’t know (unless I’ve missed something) that her dad is abusive. This comic (and real life) has some pretty bad dads so I’m not denying it, but all (I think) we know is that Dana isn’t happy about/since being sent there. When I was a (actively) suicidal college student I would have been disgusted about being sent back to my parents and I would hate to be stuck there.

        2. alongcameaspider

          From what I can tell it’s people extrapolating from something Raidah said implying she wasn’t happy where she is which there are a number of reasons as to why that may be the case before jumping to “She’s being abused” the top of them being she’s heavily grieving and has just lost the thing she was using to cope

        3. Spencer

          I’m going to state, for the record, that I wrote that as a worst-case hypothetical (because I’m pretty sure no one can actually state that there are one day away from emotional stability) to illustrate why Sarah still would have made the best decision she could with the problem she was presented with.

          We don’t know jack about Dana’s current situation other than that she was unhappy the last time Raidah checked.

      2. Axel

        I’m pretty sure the implication was that Dana was suicidal (or at least that Sarah believed that she was). And yeah Dana was endangering more than just Sarah’s scholarship by keeping and smoking weed in their room (which I don’t blame her for since it’s pretty normal college and she was deeply grieving), so it’s no wonder that Sarah was extra on edge

    3. Sam

      I would say it is totally fair that Sarah didn’t take the risk of giving her the choice and risking her disappearing into the night. Dana was in a very dark place, and giving an ultimatum to someone depressed is a great way to get an angry storm out with no guarantee they’ll make a wise choice of where they are storming to.

  60. davidbreslin101

    This is a surprisingly smooth move from Walky!

  61. Lumino

    So, Billie has officially joined the Linear Guild?

    1. bcb

      Jennifer’s parents are going to be in the Vector Legion.

  62. Doki

    This is my new favorite strip haha (okay I’m joking (but only kinda))

  63. All-Purpose Guru

    Wally turn on the sexy right when he turn on the derp.

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