like me with a stack of Amiibo cards, Raymond in hand: “So Chrissy, you thinking of moving out soon?”
(j/k I didn’t buy any villagers, they’ll all eventually cycle through)
Though, what’s Becky’s endgame? Wouldn’t she just get saddled with a new roommate, or is she betting on no one else needing a room so to get a free single?
Happened to me too. And the next year I had a roommate who was always studying or at his girlfriend’s place, so my friend’s never believed he existed either.
Happened to me twice at a much smaller school. Freshman year, my roomie moved out to his new fraternity house. I believed the letters the school sent saying they’d pick a new roomie for me if I didn’t, and I really wish I’d called their bluff. Junior year, my roomie failed out before the year even started (apparently music majors don’t do well if they skip all their lessons, who knew?) and I did call the school’s bluff. Having a double to myself in one of the best dorms on campus was pretty damn cool.
Mo
They made me pay more for a double-as-single when my roommate (who was a freshman when I was a junior) moved out to a fraternity, and the dorm was a former military barracks, but otherwise yeah it was pretty nice.
Junior year, my roommate moved in with his Significant Other. Maybe once a week, I’d come back to the dorm room to find a sign he’d come back to get something, or leave something. Didn’t mind. He was a slob.
Senior year, I finally got a single room — next door to two freshmen who hated each other. One was always in my room whining about the other, despite gentle hints such as “get the f*** out of here.”
My on-campus apartment did a cycle w/ the single room: house mate who had the single studied abroad 2nd and 3rd quarters, I took her single room and no-one bothered to replace my spot in the double, so we effectively both had singles for the rest of the year. It was pretty sweet.
Oh, if you have an amiibo card you can pick which villager you’re kicking out and they’ll just bounce. You just have to do favors for the character on the card before they’ll move in
No, the incoming neighbour will “talk to” the outgoing neighbour and find out “Yes, they WERE planning to move out!”
Uh-huh
Icalasari
You can actually ‘pick’ it but it requires savescumming and you can’t have talked to the camper at all prior to that. Combine that with autosaves and it’s just a huge pain in the rear and not worth it
Her endgame is “no longer in competition with Dorothy to be Joyce’s best friend” – she doesn’t mind having a 2nd roommate, she minds Dorothy specifically.
I think most people, at this point in the comic’s run, have *sympathy* for Mike, but don’t necessarily condone his methods.
He Who Abides
I dunno, that page where Danny destroyed his chances with Ethan had a lot of people defending his actions throughout the comic because he did one good thing. And before that, it was because he “was an Asshole Sage”. At least with Becky, we know what she’s been through (this bit’s still worn out, though).
It’s just the usual social media attitude toward criticism — anything or anyone is either The. Best. Evah. or irredeemably evil.
clif
No, no. Mike is a jerk. He’s just a hugely entertaining one (as long as I’m not the one who has to deal with him). And he provides a valuable service in pointing out the flaws in one’s world views in the most irritating way possible. Also your mother likes him.
thejeff
Occasionally he provides that valuable service. Often by accident. Mostly he’s just targeting weaknesses. Sometimes those are flaws it’s useful to have pointed out. More often, they’re just vulnerable spots.
Needfuldoer
I think he got more leeway in the comments after his face turn on the fire escape, after he realized the similarities between his “tough love” attitude and Blaine’s. But yeah, Mike tends to get more slack around here than he really should because “he means well”.
He’s had plenty of leeway all along. And much of the post stairway moment leeway has been framed in terms that basically ignore it and suggest he was good all along.
In-comic Becky has been doing this “act like we’re enemies” thing for months now, and I’m surprised Dorothy hasn’t gotten tired of it and insisted she stop by now.
Yeah. Nope. You “insist that they stop” and they just do it all the more because your irritation in funny.
Bloke I knew ended up flat on his back on the floor in a pub before “insist” really made it home.
Spencer
Well, Dorothy actually hasn’t said stop yet. She’s just passively accepted Becky’s worst behaviour.
clif
Oh, I imagine Becky’s worse behavior is a good deal worse than anything we’ve seen.
Agemegos
Yeah. Most people who are continually teased in e.g. school learn that it is best not to object. It is the taunts and jibes that you object to that get most relentlessly repeated. Maybe Dorothy has had an experience like that.
Spencer
I can believe that. Though I do really think Dorothy puts up with it part because she wants to be the bigger woman, as well as maybe thinking Becky’s just trying to be flippant and funny instead of how barbed she actually is.
thejeff
Or maybe Becky is just trying to be funny, even if she’s screwing it up.
And using it to cover the hurt she actually feels.
Which doesn’t make it okay. It’s going to have to be addressed.
StClair
Yup.
Zaxares
As somebody who’s been the “rebound” romance before, I completely agree. It hurts SO much to discover that the person you love and are mentally building towards a future with never let go of their previous love. Worse still, if their ex-flame becomes available and they dump YOU without a second thought to go back to them. 😛
thejeff
OTOH, it’s also possible to have residual painful feelings and still genuinely fall in love with the “rebound”.
Becky’s never shown any sign of not being completely serious about Dina.
I celebrate a secular Christmas too, but both my parents are from (at least nominally) Christian backgrounds. I know some people who aren’t still celebrate Christmas, but considering her parents said she was raised areligiously, it’d be kinda weird if they were okay doing secular Christian holidays but not secular Jewish ones.
CJ
The Japanese celebrate Christmas at this point. It’s a huge commercial success.
Deanatay
The Japanese treat religion much differently than Western societies do. It’s not unusual for a family to follow aspects of Shinto, Buddhist, and even Christian religion, and yet not identify themselves as being members of any of them. Being a ‘member’ of a religion is thought of as an unusual religious devotion, similar to how Westerners would view joining a monastery or convent.
Kamino Neko
I’ve seen the Japanese take on religious practice as ‘born Shinto, married Christian, buried Buddhist.’
Likewise, my non-religious family celebrates Christmas by putting up lights, decorating a tree, eating dinner together, giving presents, etc. We pretty much do all of the more secular aspects of the holiday and none of the religious ones.
I don’t think it’s entirely an act.
Sure the “enemies” part is because Dorothy isn’t playing along, but dragging this not funny in the first place “joke” out this long, you don’t do that unless you’re digging at a person or completely clueless about how humor works.
And Becky isn’t clueless.
It might be subconscious, but I think Becky does not like Dorothy. It’s not just that Joyce likes her. Becky knows she can’t “compete” with Dorothy because Dorothy seems so perfect.
Becky needs to get it through her head that she doesn’t need to compete with Dorothy and that acting like an ass towards her isn’t going to help with Joyce.
Becky’s reminding me of me at my worst and I’m incredibly amused and a little embarrassed.
That being said: This plot development? Becky and Dorothy rooming together? I’m super excited, Willis had a stroke of genius here. I’m hoping it’s played for comedy and for drama both
Agreed. I really would like to see Becky forced to confront her insecurities, best friend jealousy and ‘nobody likes a Debbie Downer’ alike. Dorothy’s an excellent conduit for that – generally very supportive and emotionally aware, which means if Becky DOES push her to her limit, she’s probably going to realize the degree of screwing up there quick, and the slightly lower stakes emotionally (since she won’t have the same fear of abandonment going on as with Joyce) might push Becky to open up more. Meanwhile, Dorothy seems likely to be hitting the wall again/harder this semester of ‘when academics alone aren’t enough to reach your goals,’ and Becky’s accidentally falling into a congressional aide position is a prime contrast/frustration point there. (If and when they hash things out, maybe Becky could be the one to say it in a way Dorothy can work with – she’s a really compassionate, competent person, but she needs some extra flash to be able to sell herself as those things or get someone with a high Charisma stat to help her out.)
I definitely see them getting on each other’s nerves- they’re practically antithetical people, outside of morality and a shared love for Joyce. I think they’re both smart enough people to look at *why* they can find each-other frustrating and grow- learn their own flaws by experience them, or “screwing up over and over” in DoA tagline terms. I’m… definitely rooting for conflict before friendship, at least at first; but honestly main char. vs. main charachter arguments where nobody’s entirely wrong is just a favorite writing style of mine
( I honestly don’t envy the position joyce herself could be in trying to deal with having two best friends who don’t like each-ohter but hopefully that’s another fun story we’ll get to see)
Regalli
Agreed! I can see a solid ground someday, but first I want some tension and conflict.
Puckish Rogue
This is all on Becky, when has Dorothy been anything less than friendly or helpful towards Becky
Diner Kinetic
She hasn’t, at all! she’s honestly incredibly stable and mature, ~and in literary terms that mean’s she’s got nearly infinite potential energy if/when she finally snaps~
Jhon
Anti-Dorothy.
The power of fanfic compels you!
Needfuldoer
We’ve seen hints of Anti-Joyce, now we just need Anti-Becky, Anti-Sal, and Anti-Amber, then we can start assembling DoA’s Mirror Universe.
Regalli
Yep! Dorothy’s current low point in the comic (her crunch mode studying shutting out her friends) was self-destructive, but even then she was a kind, put-together person to them (sometimes inasmuch as she could be.) She’s been unknowingly insensitive to Amber during her idolization of AG, she did very quickly get more emotionally involved with Walky than intended and wasn’t as clear about the moving goalposts as she should have (probably because she wasn’t as clear about them in her mind,) and obviously the Danny breakup wasn’t the best handled but he was clearly resistant to the trying to do so gently before it reached this point, but other than that? Dorothy is a steady rock of maturity in her interactions with others.
Which means seeing her lose her cool when pushed by someone who Dorothy knows to be a generally reasonable person with this inexplicable hate-on for her in particular? Fantastic.
(Especially since it’s clear to us the readers with a line on Becky’s inner thoughts that it’s not an inexplicable hate-on so much as an irrational one based in pretty understandable fears that are still out of line. But Becky continues to cover her negative emotions pretty significantly, which means she is ALSO a dam waiting to burst.)
thejeff
Part of the problem with Becky – and part of the fascinating thing about her as a character – is how much of the portrayal we see is her surface defense mechanism. “Don’t be a Debbie Downer”.
The frustrating thing is how much of the audience falls for it. The recurring thing about Becky having no subtlety or not being able to keep secrets? Have these people paid any attention to Becky at all?
260 thoughts on “Rootin’”
Ana Chronistic
like me with a stack of Amiibo cards, Raymond in hand: “So Chrissy, you thinking of moving out soon?”
(j/k I didn’t buy any villagers, they’ll all eventually cycle through)
Though, what’s Becky’s endgame? Wouldn’t she just get saddled with a new roommate, or is she betting on no one else needing a room so to get a free single?
Chris
The two times my roommate at Major State University moved out mid-year, I didn’t get a replacement.
Doctor_Who
Happened to me only six weeks into my sophomore year: my roommate dropped out to join the Air Force. They never got around to replacing him.
Slartibeast Button, BIA
Happened to me too. And the next year I had a roommate who was always studying or at his girlfriend’s place, so my friend’s never believed he existed either.
Andy
Happened to me twice at a much smaller school. Freshman year, my roomie moved out to his new fraternity house. I believed the letters the school sent saying they’d pick a new roomie for me if I didn’t, and I really wish I’d called their bluff. Junior year, my roomie failed out before the year even started (apparently music majors don’t do well if they skip all their lessons, who knew?) and I did call the school’s bluff. Having a double to myself in one of the best dorms on campus was pretty damn cool.
Mo
They made me pay more for a double-as-single when my roommate (who was a freshman when I was a junior) moved out to a fraternity, and the dorm was a former military barracks, but otherwise yeah it was pretty nice.
DSL
Junior year, my roommate moved in with his Significant Other. Maybe once a week, I’d come back to the dorm room to find a sign he’d come back to get something, or leave something. Didn’t mind. He was a slob.
Senior year, I finally got a single room — next door to two freshmen who hated each other. One was always in my room whining about the other, despite gentle hints such as “get the f*** out of here.”
thejeff
My junior year roommate failed out after the first semester and I didn’t get a replacement until senior year.
Kinoko
My on-campus apartment did a cycle w/ the single room: house mate who had the single studied abroad 2nd and 3rd quarters, I took her single room and no-one bothered to replace my spot in the double, so we effectively both had singles for the rest of the year. It was pretty sweet.
Dunedon
She gets Joyce’s undivided attention … Dina or not, she’s still got huge feelings for Joyce.
Eolirin
Even if it’s not undivided attention, at least she doesn’t have to watch Joyce gushing over a girl that isn’t her.
Fuzzy
No no, Raymond is so popular because he’s too new to have an Amiibo, so he can only be found on islands.
TheKelliestKelly
Oh, if you have an amiibo card you can pick which villager you’re kicking out and they’ll just bounce. You just have to do favors for the character on the card before they’ll move in
Ana Chronistic
No, the incoming neighbour will “talk to” the outgoing neighbour and find out “Yes, they WERE planning to move out!”
Uh-huh
Icalasari
You can actually ‘pick’ it but it requires savescumming and you can’t have talked to the camper at all prior to that. Combine that with autosaves and it’s just a huge pain in the rear and not worth it
Taellosse
Her endgame is “no longer in competition with Dorothy to be Joyce’s best friend” – she doesn’t mind having a 2nd roommate, she minds Dorothy specifically.
Foxhack
Eh.
It’s getting old.
Puckish Rogue
No no Becky is like totes amazing and everything she does is ok and good and she shall receive no criticism whatsoever
He Who Abides
So, just like Mike then?
Mechajin
I think most people, at this point in the comic’s run, have *sympathy* for Mike, but don’t necessarily condone his methods.
He Who Abides
I dunno, that page where Danny destroyed his chances with Ethan had a lot of people defending his actions throughout the comic because he did one good thing. And before that, it was because he “was an Asshole Sage”. At least with Becky, we know what she’s been through (this bit’s still worn out, though).
DSL
It’s just the usual social media attitude toward criticism — anything or anyone is either The. Best. Evah. or irredeemably evil.
clif
No, no. Mike is a jerk. He’s just a hugely entertaining one (as long as I’m not the one who has to deal with him). And he provides a valuable service in pointing out the flaws in one’s world views in the most irritating way possible. Also your mother likes him.
thejeff
Occasionally he provides that valuable service. Often by accident. Mostly he’s just targeting weaknesses. Sometimes those are flaws it’s useful to have pointed out. More often, they’re just vulnerable spots.
Needfuldoer
I think he got more leeway in the comments after his face turn on the fire escape, after he realized the similarities between his “tough love” attitude and Blaine’s. But yeah, Mike tends to get more slack around here than he really should because “he means well”.
Leorale
Mike has his own theory about people cutting him way more slack than he deserves:
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2018/comic/book-8/04-of-mike-and-men/recording/
thejeff
He’s had plenty of leeway all along. And much of the post stairway moment leeway has been framed in terms that basically ignore it and suggest he was good all along.
Odditude
Yeah, I feel bad for Dorothy.
Must be hard to have one in the friend group acting like that.
Foxhack
I -have- been that friend, but only because I expect that kind of crap to be thrown back at me. Equivalent exchange and all that.
And I would NEVER behave like that with someone I don’t trust enough to know that they would be okay with that.
Agemegos
I feel bad for Dina. It can’t be pleasant to have her supposed lover publicly rehearsing jealousy over another woman.
Keulen
In-comic Becky has been doing this “act like we’re enemies” thing for months now, and I’m surprised Dorothy hasn’t gotten tired of it and insisted she stop by now.
Agemegos
Yeah. Nope. You “insist that they stop” and they just do it all the more because your irritation in funny.
Bloke I knew ended up flat on his back on the floor in a pub before “insist” really made it home.
Spencer
Well, Dorothy actually hasn’t said stop yet. She’s just passively accepted Becky’s worst behaviour.
clif
Oh, I imagine Becky’s worse behavior is a good deal worse than anything we’ve seen.
Agemegos
Yeah. Most people who are continually teased in e.g. school learn that it is best not to object. It is the taunts and jibes that you object to that get most relentlessly repeated. Maybe Dorothy has had an experience like that.
Spencer
I can believe that. Though I do really think Dorothy puts up with it part because she wants to be the bigger woman, as well as maybe thinking Becky’s just trying to be flippant and funny instead of how barbed she actually is.
thejeff
Or maybe Becky is just trying to be funny, even if she’s screwing it up.
And using it to cover the hurt she actually feels.
Which doesn’t make it okay. It’s going to have to be addressed.
StClair
Yup.
Zaxares
As somebody who’s been the “rebound” romance before, I completely agree. It hurts SO much to discover that the person you love and are mentally building towards a future with never let go of their previous love. Worse still, if their ex-flame becomes available and they dump YOU without a second thought to go back to them. 😛
thejeff
OTOH, it’s also possible to have residual painful feelings and still genuinely fall in love with the “rebound”.
Becky’s never shown any sign of not being completely serious about Dina.
Pacce
Becky allowed to be flawed.
fire_daws
Becky’s got her priorities straight.
Lenora
Well I mean… straight as a Crescent Moon
Rose by Any Other Name
… moon prism power.
Make up!
Ana Chronistic
Becky can’t even THINK straight
*incredibly angry-at-everybody-for-who-knows-what girl in my high school got mad at the flamingly gay boy who wore a button that said that
[tho the button said “I” not “Becky”]
BBCC
I’m so proud of how much Joyce has grown!
And I love Becky. You know she really does want Dorothy to succeed because she wants her to be happy, but she also wats to act like they’re enemies.
I also appreciate the insight into the Keeners holidays! I wonder if they also do secular Jewish holidays?
General Tekno
I mean, my family always celebrated Christmas, and we aren’t particularly religious. It’s got enough secular trappings after all.
Jamie
Enough, shnough. It barely has any non-secular trappings.
BBCC
I celebrate a secular Christmas too, but both my parents are from (at least nominally) Christian backgrounds. I know some people who aren’t still celebrate Christmas, but considering her parents said she was raised areligiously, it’d be kinda weird if they were okay doing secular Christian holidays but not secular Jewish ones.
CJ
The Japanese celebrate Christmas at this point. It’s a huge commercial success.
Deanatay
The Japanese treat religion much differently than Western societies do. It’s not unusual for a family to follow aspects of Shinto, Buddhist, and even Christian religion, and yet not identify themselves as being members of any of them. Being a ‘member’ of a religion is thought of as an unusual religious devotion, similar to how Westerners would view joining a monastery or convent.
Kamino Neko
I’ve seen the Japanese take on religious practice as ‘born Shinto, married Christian, buried Buddhist.’
Keulen
Likewise, my non-religious family celebrates Christmas by putting up lights, decorating a tree, eating dinner together, giving presents, etc. We pretty much do all of the more secular aspects of the holiday and none of the religious ones.
Nono
It feels like this is more of a ‘that’s it, push Dorothy’s buttons…’ move. If Dorothy got into Yale, it’d be the first thing she talked about.
BigDogLittleCat
I don’t think it’s entirely an act.
Sure the “enemies” part is because Dorothy isn’t playing along, but dragging this not funny in the first place “joke” out this long, you don’t do that unless you’re digging at a person or completely clueless about how humor works.
And Becky isn’t clueless.
It might be subconscious, but I think Becky does not like Dorothy. It’s not just that Joyce likes her. Becky knows she can’t “compete” with Dorothy because Dorothy seems so perfect.
Becky needs to get it through her head that she doesn’t need to compete with Dorothy and that acting like an ass towards her isn’t going to help with Joyce.
C.T Phipps
No, Becky doesn’t. No reason she should or has to.
Fuzzy
She should probably try to like the person she’s roommates with.
clif
If there’s a drama tag, you have to wiggle it. Them’s the rules.
thejeff
Becky may be a bit clueless.
I think this may be a version of the humor she uses with Joyce. Inappropriate, since she doesn’t know Dorothy well enough
Nono
Becky often ACTS clueless. She’s a lot savvier than Joyce is.
Needfuldoer
In the environment they grew up in, that’s a survival strategy.
butts
“wait was that sarcasm or are you actually rooting for me to get into Yale so i’ll leave”
“figure it out yourself, nemesis”
Octopus Ink
Subtle, Becks.
Reeeeeal subtle.
Diner Kinetic
Becky’s reminding me of me at my worst and I’m incredibly amused and a little embarrassed.
That being said: This plot development? Becky and Dorothy rooming together? I’m super excited, Willis had a stroke of genius here. I’m hoping it’s played for comedy and for drama both
Regalli
Agreed. I really would like to see Becky forced to confront her insecurities, best friend jealousy and ‘nobody likes a Debbie Downer’ alike. Dorothy’s an excellent conduit for that – generally very supportive and emotionally aware, which means if Becky DOES push her to her limit, she’s probably going to realize the degree of screwing up there quick, and the slightly lower stakes emotionally (since she won’t have the same fear of abandonment going on as with Joyce) might push Becky to open up more. Meanwhile, Dorothy seems likely to be hitting the wall again/harder this semester of ‘when academics alone aren’t enough to reach your goals,’ and Becky’s accidentally falling into a congressional aide position is a prime contrast/frustration point there. (If and when they hash things out, maybe Becky could be the one to say it in a way Dorothy can work with – she’s a really compassionate, competent person, but she needs some extra flash to be able to sell herself as those things or get someone with a high Charisma stat to help her out.)
Diner Kinetic
I definitely see them getting on each other’s nerves- they’re practically antithetical people, outside of morality and a shared love for Joyce. I think they’re both smart enough people to look at *why* they can find each-other frustrating and grow- learn their own flaws by experience them, or “screwing up over and over” in DoA tagline terms. I’m… definitely rooting for conflict before friendship, at least at first; but honestly main char. vs. main charachter arguments where nobody’s entirely wrong is just a favorite writing style of mine
( I honestly don’t envy the position joyce herself could be in trying to deal with having two best friends who don’t like each-ohter but hopefully that’s another fun story we’ll get to see)
Regalli
Agreed! I can see a solid ground someday, but first I want some tension and conflict.
Puckish Rogue
This is all on Becky, when has Dorothy been anything less than friendly or helpful towards Becky
Diner Kinetic
She hasn’t, at all! she’s honestly incredibly stable and mature, ~and in literary terms that mean’s she’s got nearly infinite potential energy if/when she finally snaps~
Jhon
Anti-Dorothy.
The power of fanfic compels you!
Needfuldoer
We’ve seen hints of Anti-Joyce, now we just need Anti-Becky, Anti-Sal, and Anti-Amber, then we can start assembling DoA’s Mirror Universe.
Regalli
Yep! Dorothy’s current low point in the comic (her crunch mode studying shutting out her friends) was self-destructive, but even then she was a kind, put-together person to them (sometimes inasmuch as she could be.) She’s been unknowingly insensitive to Amber during her idolization of AG, she did very quickly get more emotionally involved with Walky than intended and wasn’t as clear about the moving goalposts as she should have (probably because she wasn’t as clear about them in her mind,) and obviously the Danny breakup wasn’t the best handled but he was clearly resistant to the trying to do so gently before it reached this point, but other than that? Dorothy is a steady rock of maturity in her interactions with others.
Which means seeing her lose her cool when pushed by someone who Dorothy knows to be a generally reasonable person with this inexplicable hate-on for her in particular? Fantastic.
(Especially since it’s clear to us the readers with a line on Becky’s inner thoughts that it’s not an inexplicable hate-on so much as an irrational one based in pretty understandable fears that are still out of line. But Becky continues to cover her negative emotions pretty significantly, which means she is ALSO a dam waiting to burst.)
thejeff
Part of the problem with Becky – and part of the fascinating thing about her as a character – is how much of the portrayal we see is her surface defense mechanism. “Don’t be a Debbie Downer”.
The frustrating thing is how much of the audience falls for it. The recurring thing about Becky having no subtlety or not being able to keep secrets? Have these people paid any attention to Becky at all?