He landed on his feet, dabbed, did a backflip, dabbed three more times, shotgunned some Pepsi, backflipped while dabbing, and tweened away mid-flip like Steve from Blue’s Clues.
In the split second before Mike hit the ground, Mike did his Mike thing with the concrete where he was an asshole, but was right, and the concrete, seeing that Mike was right, changed its state from a rigid solid into a trampoline-like surface, allowing Mike to land hard, but immediately bounce back unharmed.
He did a full flip through the car’s sunroof, landed in the driver’s seat, and did a sick burnout to get away even though the car’s underpowered, front wheel drive, and has an open differential.
“There is an art to flying, or rather a knack. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.” Mike has totally read Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, right?
There’s no way Mike is dead, or even hospitalized. I was assuming this was bad until Blaine acted smug about it. There’s now 2 reasons Mike is alive.
1: Blaine is a lying liar.
2: Mike is a quantum asshole. His physical health is whatever you don’t want it to be. Right now, Blaine would be much happier if Mike was dead. Therefore, he’s absolutely not.
Willis even then said he would make exceptions for characters who our main cast wouldn’t much mourn (citing Tony as an example), and he more recently said on Twitter that he’d broken one of his Major Rules of writing Dumbing of Age – many have taken it to mean the “no-killing” rule, as that’s the one the most are familiar with.
Willis even then said he would make exceptions for characters who our main cast wouldn’t much mourn
Which quite blatantly doesn’t include Mike.
Yes, he’s an annoying POS, but he’s also Amber and Ethan’s best friend.
Lumino
Right? If Mike is dead, literally the entire comic from this point on is going to be mourning with how time works.
Dr. T
Another major rule Willis had was that any characters that were in a relationship in the Walkyverse would not be paired together in the Dumbiverse. That way he can explore new things, but some previous relationships COULD be interesting in this new setting as it might have been quite toxic in the Walkyverse, like Sal/Danny (hell, she seems open to it, though Danny is not really so at this time).
Hell, he already sort of broke that rule with Sal’s affair with Jason, so he’s willing to break that one in the right context.
King Daniel
Other Walkyverse couples he has already paired on-screen in the Dumbingverse: Billie/Ruth, Mandy/Grace/Sierra, Dorothy/Walky…
coru
Unfortunate because Mike/Amber are my OTP.
Yumi
Willis also reserves the right to change his mind/that thing about him claiming or implying to have broken one of his “rules.”
Mike might not be dead, but old Word of God might not be the protection you think it is.
King Daniel
Case in point on the “reserving the right to change his mind” thing: there was originally Word of Willis that Amber was Blaine’s only biological offspring in this ‘verse (as opposed to the scores in the Walkyverse), but a couple of years back he said on Patreon that he’d forgotten all about having ever said that – and it’s since been all-but-stated that Faz, at least, is also Blaine’s.
CC
It was originally made a rule on the grounds that, if broken, the characters would all be mourning for literal years (our time), it would bring the pacing to a grinding halt for literally the rest of the comic, and it would just overall suck. I’m not gonna say 100% that that wasn’t the Rule he broke, I’m just saying it’s probably the worst one to break from a practical standpoint, because it had the soundest reasoning behind it when it was first put up.
JA
Didn’t Amber kill whats-his-face, the guy who tried raping Joyce? Or did she just completely fuck his shit up but he survived at the hospital?
King Daniel
She tried to kill him, but didn’t. Now his family is suing her.
thejeff
She cut him up, but stopped before killing him. It’s unclear exactly what happened, but I’d hesitate to describe it as “tried”, since she apparently had the opportunity, but stopped herself before actually finishing him.
It’s possible that she only stopped because she thought he was dead or about to die, but it’s not clear that’s the case.
Mm. That ‘I tried’ could mean a number of things, though. ‘I tried, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it’ seems at least as likely as ‘I tried, but it looks like he’ll pull through’.
1) He’s claiming that he personally defeated Mike.
2) He’s claiming that he killed Mike, when we know #1 isn’t true.
3) Therefore, Mike is alive but also in a controlled environment.
4) Blaine is going to kill all of them?
5) Then who is going to contact Amazi-Girl?
6) Carol would not consent to Joyce being killed, even for the “greater good”.
7) Ross, even though he has been swayed to murdering Mike, is not about to kill six children, including his daughters best friend, for no reason. Was he ready to shoot up a college? Yes. But let’s think about that for a minute. In his mind, the college was the enemy. These are just six kids that they already subdued.
Blaine is 100% playing himself here. Is there more heartbreak and drama (and trauma) to come? Most definitely. But Blaine’s roll in this is quickly evaporating.
SuperZero
Why would he care what Carol wants? He should care more what Ross wants since he’s actively depending on him and he’s right there, but there’s no reason he should care about Carol.
Khyrin
Ross and Carol are friends, and Ross will likely consider Carol’s wishes as he isn’t a COMPLETELY unsympathetic piece of shingle.
Provided it’s somebody within his congregation who shares his particular idea of God. So basically if anything, Carol may be more unreasonable than ToeDad
Thanatos
Actually, this might bring up a good possibility for the “no death of anyone the main cast would mourn” rule. Maybe Blaine does try to hurt the kids and Ross decides things are going too far and tries to stop him. If Ross dies to protest everyone, I think they would still mourn him and so would Becky. It would be redemptive enough that he would be forgiven his past sins and I think it would still hit everyone really hard, so they would be mourning him the rest of the comic, but (because of what he did) not so much that it would prevent other things from happening to progress the story.
Probably referring to Joyce’s comment regarding Amber and Amazi-Girl. “Amber is Amazi-Girl” is only true in the sense that they both share the same 5-foot-2-inch meat vehicle.
I actually forgot he took Blaine down with him. If Blaine, a middle aged man who likely is already pretty battered and bruised, survived with few lasting issues? Then Mike DEFINITELY survived
Finding someone physically attractive isn’t the same as being their friend. “Kind of” about describes it for Amber I think. She mostly put up with him for Ethan’s sake. I can’t think of a time when she intentionally spent any time with him.
Walky seemed to care about him when he had not seen him in a day. Amber clearly thinks of him as a friend. Joyce invited him to her dorm party, though he had to promise to be nice (he declined that invite).
Dorothy clearly found him irritating. I doubt Sarah knew he existed in the first place.
I think he is trying to make them think Mike died because none of them can confirm otherwise and the word ‘friend’ is being used more as ‘peer’ here rather than in a literal sense of ‘friend’. And Amber and Ethan and presumably AG at the very least see Mike as a friend.
The rest see him as someone they are at least attached to due to familiarity and none of these people at the very least would be ones that would say Mike deserves to die even if they did like him.
Which actually strikes me with the thought that I would like for Danny to help Mike. I don’t know why, it just seems like as a previous kidnap victim of Blaine, that it would be nice if he was involved in saving everyone in some way.
189 thoughts on “Stakes”
Ana Chronistic
leaving out the part where Mike landed on his feet like a spiteful cat
(bc it didn’t happen, oops)
clif
As far as you know.
Delicious Taffy
He landed on his feet, dabbed, did a backflip, dabbed three more times, shotgunned some Pepsi, backflipped while dabbing, and tweened away mid-flip like Steve from Blue’s Clues.
Jhon
(Dabs at eyes.)
Dab you Willis!
JA
In the split second before Mike hit the ground, Mike did his Mike thing with the concrete where he was an asshole, but was right, and the concrete, seeing that Mike was right, changed its state from a rigid solid into a trampoline-like surface, allowing Mike to land hard, but immediately bounce back unharmed.
Delicious Taffy
What is he, a fuckin’ Fullbringer?
Aprion
This!!!
Needfuldoer
He did a full flip through the car’s sunroof, landed in the driver’s seat, and did a sick burnout to get away even though the car’s underpowered, front wheel drive, and has an open differential.
Carl Muckenhoupt
He’s okay because he landed on your mom. Like usual.
Walky_Talky
“There is an art to flying, or rather a knack. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.” Mike has totally read Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, right?
coru
If he hasn’t, he’s heard Amber and Ethan quote it enough times that it counts.
BBCC
Well fuck.
King Daniel
#MikeIsDead?
Viktoria
There’s no way Mike is dead, or even hospitalized. I was assuming this was bad until Blaine acted smug about it. There’s now 2 reasons Mike is alive.
1: Blaine is a lying liar.
2: Mike is a quantum asshole. His physical health is whatever you don’t want it to be. Right now, Blaine would be much happier if Mike was dead. Therefore, he’s absolutely not.
Dark
Also Willis has said that he won’t kill anyone.
King Daniel
Willis even then said he would make exceptions for characters who our main cast wouldn’t much mourn (citing Tony as an example), and he more recently said on Twitter that he’d broken one of his Major Rules of writing Dumbing of Age – many have taken it to mean the “no-killing” rule, as that’s the one the most are familiar with.
Kamino Neko
Which quite blatantly doesn’t include Mike.
Yes, he’s an annoying POS, but he’s also Amber and Ethan’s best friend.
Lumino
Right? If Mike is dead, literally the entire comic from this point on is going to be mourning with how time works.
Dr. T
Another major rule Willis had was that any characters that were in a relationship in the Walkyverse would not be paired together in the Dumbiverse. That way he can explore new things, but some previous relationships COULD be interesting in this new setting as it might have been quite toxic in the Walkyverse, like Sal/Danny (hell, she seems open to it, though Danny is not really so at this time).
Hell, he already sort of broke that rule with Sal’s affair with Jason, so he’s willing to break that one in the right context.
King Daniel
Other Walkyverse couples he has already paired on-screen in the Dumbingverse: Billie/Ruth, Mandy/Grace/Sierra, Dorothy/Walky…
coru
Unfortunate because Mike/Amber are my OTP.
Yumi
Willis also reserves the right to change his mind/that thing about him claiming or implying to have broken one of his “rules.”
Mike might not be dead, but old Word of God might not be the protection you think it is.
King Daniel
Case in point on the “reserving the right to change his mind” thing: there was originally Word of Willis that Amber was Blaine’s only biological offspring in this ‘verse (as opposed to the scores in the Walkyverse), but a couple of years back he said on Patreon that he’d forgotten all about having ever said that – and it’s since been all-but-stated that Faz, at least, is also Blaine’s.
CC
It was originally made a rule on the grounds that, if broken, the characters would all be mourning for literal years (our time), it would bring the pacing to a grinding halt for literally the rest of the comic, and it would just overall suck. I’m not gonna say 100% that that wasn’t the Rule he broke, I’m just saying it’s probably the worst one to break from a practical standpoint, because it had the soundest reasoning behind it when it was first put up.
JA
Didn’t Amber kill whats-his-face, the guy who tried raping Joyce? Or did she just completely fuck his shit up but he survived at the hospital?
King Daniel
She tried to kill him, but didn’t. Now his family is suing her.
thejeff
She cut him up, but stopped before killing him. It’s unclear exactly what happened, but I’d hesitate to describe it as “tried”, since she apparently had the opportunity, but stopped herself before actually finishing him.
It’s possible that she only stopped because she thought he was dead or about to die, but it’s not clear that’s the case.
Agemegos
Amber told Joyce that she tried to kill Ryan.
Agemegos
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2017/comic/book-7/04-the-do-list/comforting/
Do not know why that didn’t work.
phlebas
Mm. That ‘I tried’ could mean a number of things, though. ‘I tried, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it’ seems at least as likely as ‘I tried, but it looks like he’ll pull through’.
bryy
Blaine is 100% overplaying his cards here.
1) He’s claiming that he personally defeated Mike.
2) He’s claiming that he killed Mike, when we know #1 isn’t true.
3) Therefore, Mike is alive but also in a controlled environment.
4) Blaine is going to kill all of them?
5) Then who is going to contact Amazi-Girl?
6) Carol would not consent to Joyce being killed, even for the “greater good”.
7) Ross, even though he has been swayed to murdering Mike, is not about to kill six children, including his daughters best friend, for no reason. Was he ready to shoot up a college? Yes. But let’s think about that for a minute. In his mind, the college was the enemy. These are just six kids that they already subdued.
Blaine is 100% playing himself here. Is there more heartbreak and drama (and trauma) to come? Most definitely. But Blaine’s roll in this is quickly evaporating.
SuperZero
Why would he care what Carol wants? He should care more what Ross wants since he’s actively depending on him and he’s right there, but there’s no reason he should care about Carol.
Khyrin
Ross and Carol are friends, and Ross will likely consider Carol’s wishes as he isn’t a COMPLETELY unsympathetic piece of shingle.
Delicious Taffy
Yes, he is.
Icalasari
No he isn’t
Provided it’s somebody within his congregation who shares his particular idea of God. So basically if anything, Carol may be more unreasonable than ToeDad
Thanatos
Actually, this might bring up a good possibility for the “no death of anyone the main cast would mourn” rule. Maybe Blaine does try to hurt the kids and Ross decides things are going too far and tries to stop him. If Ross dies to protest everyone, I think they would still mourn him and so would Becky. It would be redemptive enough that he would be forgiven his past sins and I think it would still hit everyone really hard, so they would be mourning him the rest of the comic, but (because of what he did) not so much that it would prevent other things from happening to progress the story.
SuperZero
Blaine didn’t actually say that Mike is dead, even while stretching the truth. Does that make it more or less likely?
NinjaNick
Doubt it. I’m sure he’ll be back for unfinished business.
Keulen
Blaine could be lying, though he didn’t specifically say that Mike died from that fall either.
Agemegos
Blaine is lying. He did not throw Mike off the staircase.
Icalasari
Plus that was so not three stories
Needfuldoer
He was replaced by a doppelganger back in the sixties.
Beef
damn it willis what do you mean “mostly true” WHAT’S MOSTLY TRUE
Jamie
Well, according to Miracle Max, …
Doctor_Who
Miracle Max (inflating bellows): And what’s so important that you need to stay alive for?
Mike: Toooo fuuuck yooooour moooom.
King Daniel
And that’s why Miracle Max decided not to revive Mike.
clif
As far as you know.
Liquid Len
And Max’s wife then leaves a nickel on the table…
N0083rP00F
Only because his mom was eaten by a Giant Owlbear years ago.
King Daniel
Probably referring to Joyce’s comment regarding Amber and Amazi-Girl. “Amber is Amazi-Girl” is only true in the sense that they both share the same 5-foot-2-inch meat vehicle.
Meagan
Well, Blaine didn’t actually throw Mike, Mike jumped at him and they fell together.
a/snow/mous/e
^this
Icalasari
I actually forgot he took Blaine down with him. If Blaine, a middle aged man who likely is already pretty battered and bruised, survived with few lasting issues? Then Mike DEFINITELY survived
sirconanad
Blaine managed to grab hold of Amazi-Girls rope while Mike fell.
Link
Hugo Bedward
“It’s mostly true, the majority of it”
CC
Everything Blaine said in panel 3 except the words “I” and “threw”
Nono
Non-Ethan people think of Mike as their friend?
Vangeln
Your mom does.
Ferret
Only for a nickel though.
King Daniel
Amber, kind of. She sometimes willingly associated with him, and she once commented on how hot she found him appearance-wise.
(And Amazi-Girl non-convincingly denied being turned on by tying him up and then sitting on him while they were on the floor, IIRC.)
BarerMender
She didn’t tie him up. Mike only wished she would.
thejeff
Finding someone physically attractive isn’t the same as being their friend. “Kind of” about describes it for Amber I think. She mostly put up with him for Ethan’s sake. I can’t think of a time when she intentionally spent any time with him.
Dr. T
Walky seemed to care about him when he had not seen him in a day. Amber clearly thinks of him as a friend. Joyce invited him to her dorm party, though he had to promise to be nice (he declined that invite).
Dorothy clearly found him irritating. I doubt Sarah knew he existed in the first place.
Lingo
Sarah didn’t like him either: https://www.dumbingofage.com/2018/comic/book-8/04-of-mike-and-men/recording/
Lingo
And while trawling the archives, I was reminded of THIS creepy bit of foreshadowing: https://www.dumbingofage.com/2016/comic/book-7/01-glower-vacuum/included/
King Daniel
And don’t forget Sal’s foreshadow-y comment in this strip, in the same panel as Mike: https://www.dumbingofage.com/2019/comic/book-10/01-birthday-pursuit/impulsive/
(Also, Blaine comments to Ross in the strip immediately following that one that he “wouldn’t be too bothered” if something happened to Mike.)
Lingo
Oooh, I missed that one!
Needfuldoer
That doesn’t make it any less of a shock to hear someone you know died suddenly, and it also adds weight and credibility to Blaine’s threat.
Sam
I think he is trying to make them think Mike died because none of them can confirm otherwise and the word ‘friend’ is being used more as ‘peer’ here rather than in a literal sense of ‘friend’. And Amber and Ethan and presumably AG at the very least see Mike as a friend.
The rest see him as someone they are at least attached to due to familiarity and none of these people at the very least would be ones that would say Mike deserves to die even if they did like him.
Which actually strikes me with the thought that I would like for Danny to help Mike. I don’t know why, it just seems like as a previous kidnap victim of Blaine, that it would be nice if he was involved in saving everyone in some way.
Sam
That is supposed to say ‘even if they didn’t like him’ at the end of the second paragraph.
Meagan
JFC
Suet
What else to consider, Blaine, it’s still a hyukking open ending for whats-his-name!
What would also do to them kids, huh, throw them off a dang cliff?
Hugo Bedward