According to The Good Place, it’s possible for something to be up to 104% perfect.
I think Dina probably qualifies at this point.
Proxiehunter
Dina hits 105%.
Proxiehunter
I got lucky on the reshuffle.
HeySo
“I got lucky” is rather amusing phrasing for a Dina avatar to pop out with, considering the topic and context of the recent strips. 😛
Arianod
That makes it 106% perfect!
Regalli
She does have one fairly significant flaw we’ve seen – she helped Sarah plot the Raidah Vengeance Breakup Plan (such as it was) out of spite for Raidah’s ableism at the mall. Which, yeah, perfectly justified in disliking Raidah for, but that does suggest some serious ability for spite and the breakup plot was unconnected to Raidah being ableist. (We know it was ableism, specifically, that bothered Dina – ‘She was not kind to me, though I think she thought she was.’) She also has a tendency to be more lax with Sarah (who she likes) even when Sarah’s calling her weird for her more noticeably neurodivergent behavior, so there’s a bit of a double standard. Of course, Sarah’s never called her ‘mentally challenged’ and I’m pretty sure everyone at the party apologized for the ‘Dina kissing just seems weird and wrong’ infantilization, so she probably just has a longer fuse than I would on that front.
Note: None of this is me saying I dislike Dina. Not in the slightest! She’s one of my favorites. But I appreciate that she can be petty because it makes her more of a real character and not a perfect caricature of autistic loveliness, and as a petty autistic bongo myself I will point it out. Representation that’s not allowed flaws is boring, and I kind of grate against discussion of the autistic ace character as ‘pure’ – especially in the context of romance and sex, but also in general – because it feels a bit like infantilization. Which is something Dina herself has repeatedly brought up in her arc, though mostly focused on romance. (That’s not any commentators’ faults, just that we get that. A lot. Both as an ace and an autistic person, I have encountered those attitudes as active judging and they are unpleasant.)
Demoted Oblivious
There’s a reasonably strong evolutionary argument for revenge feeling good. As such I can see it being not just acceptable but also regarded as socially necessary in Dina’s eyes, in order to discourage errant behaviour.
Regalli
Reasonable! But I would perhaps suggest making sure the cause and effect are clear.
In other words, once Jacob broke up with Raidah Joyce should have been on hand to say ‘Dina Saruyama sends her regards.’ Then it’s not petty at all! ^^
He Who Abides
Hey Regalli, are you on Polygon? I saw a comment with your username on an article, and I was wondering if that was you, or if someone else randomly picked that handle.
Regalli
Yep, that would be me! Been using a variant of this handle for years now, especially as my non-online handle name has been co-opted by an Amazon speaker.
He Who Abides
Cool. Didn’t realize you’re a Winx fan, though your Amethyst avatar should’ve clued me in.
Man, I wish I could have found a place near my campus that sold salad wraps at midnight.
I worked nights my last couple years of college, 11-7, and while during the day you could find all sorts of healthy foods, at night the only things available were pizza and burritos. My “freshman fifteen” wound up becoming my “senior shitload”.
As for why I didn’t prepare my own meals ahead of time like a responsible adult, the answer is shut up.
The reason you didn’t prepare your own meals ahead of time was because you were working nights and taking classes during the day. When the hell would you have had time to meal prep?
As a college student, I was fully aware of the subjective nature of time and the exploitation of such. How else did I once write a five thousand word essay in a single shift?!
Fnord
I initially read this as “in a single shit” and thought you meant you composed it on the toilet.
You’re welcome.
mancuso
I don’t know if you chose the expression on you avatar to go with this one comment, but the result is pure genius.
Preparing your own meals like “a responsible adult” requires a LOT of spoons. Working a night shift job while also taking college courses takes AN IMMENSE AMOUNT OF SPOONS.
If it’s possible for you to do so, please give yourself a little bit of a break 🙂
The reason nutritious, home-cooked meals are a standardized part of American expectations is that they were built upon one worker’s income being sufficient to feed a family of four or five. This allowed one parent to stay at home, and devote the entire day to planning and assembling these perfect meals. In today’s economy, that’s no longer feasible. For a student with no income AND a full courseload to pull it off may never have been.
it’s fake, she doesn’t actually hate her in any way and only acts like there’s bad blood because she’s afraid to admit that Joyce might have found new friends…jealousy and hate aren’t the same, they just seem like it at times
IMO:
No, it’s real. But lately she’s been a little too obvious about it, risking that other people besides Dorothy might notice – and that would mean consequences for her. (Think of it as your “stealth meter” creeping upward in a game, when you make too much noise, get too close to a guard or the target you’re tailing, etc.) She fears discovery/rejection and wants to remain in the good graces of everyone besides Dorothy, especially Joyce (and Dina).
tl;dr the feelings are real, she’s only dialing it back a little so she doesn’t get caught.
Sarah already knows. Walky’s sharp enough that he more likely than not knows. Becky is many things, but subtlety is not her forte.
The real question is why Joyce hasn’t said anything about it.
Sam
Well, subtlety about some things isn’t at least. She can be deceptive when she wants to be because she lets enough other things slip out. It’s a trade off.
thejeff
Becky can be very subtle. Think back to when she first came back to campus. Even Joyce didn’t realize there was anything wrong until the kiss and the breakdown.
Or her taking over Robin’s phone and social media during the intervention at Leslie’s.
It’s not even a trade off. The loudness gives cover to the subtlety.
Slartibeast Button, BIA
A lifetime’s experience at hiding her true feelings…
Sam
It is a trade off to me as the things she is loud about make her obnoxious and she is frequently oversharing with strangers e.g. that her parents are both dead. She is sacrificing privacy of events in her life so often and regularly that people genuinely think she can’t be hiding things because she would overshare them.
But this then means much of her sneaky behaviours go unnoticed and her inner turmoil can be hidden. It gives people a false trust in her being open when she is a lot more closed off than they know and I see this as a flaw because it means she rarely relies on people and not even Joyce knows how much she is ever really hurting.
She is sacrificing the protection of privacy so she doesn’t have to often be truly vulnerable and open. Which is a survival technique, but it is no longer as helpful when surrounded by people that actually care about her and want to support her.
Honestly, I’ve always felt there’s something a bit performative about her dislike of Dorothy – people are supposed to know. I’d say it’s about a 50/50 split between “I’m mean to Dorothy because genuinely I don’t like her” and “I’m mean to Dorothy because that’s a thing I’ve established that I do”.
But you can not particularly like someone and still not really want to upset them, and I think Saturday’s strip, where Dorothy was arguably a bit snappy with her — the first time ever that she’s indicated this is getting to her — was where Becky realised she’d crossed a line.
I think you’re mistaking jealousy for hate. everything that she has done so far has been reactionary based on Dorothy’s being friendly with Joyce, only when Dorothy does something does Becky put on the hate act. she says that she hates Dorothy, yet if she hated her why is she going out of her way to be by Dorothy’s side with Joyce instead of forcing the two apart? And when she’s with Joyce alone, why doesn’t she try to get Joyce to see that Dorothy isn’t a good person for her? This isn’t actions of someone who hate someone, it’s been almost always reactions based on jealousy. She’s jealous, just under the surface she actually likes Dorothy.
thejeff
I think that’s closer to the true situation. With a dose of Daihbid C’s performative dislike. It’s mostly a bit, with some real jealousy behind it and she’s been stressed and let it spill over more onto Dorothy than she really wanted.
Or she’s just a malicious evil monster. One of the two.
StClair
Yeah, definitely (real) jealousy, semi-hidden behind a performative layer of “sure, I’m just doing a bit, that’s me, wacky likeable Becky.”
She’s right there admitting to Dina that she’s been a dick to Dorothy. Dina suggests a solution to apologise. Becky says yep, that’s what I should do. Feel free to speculate about where the story is going, but you don’t need to assign the worst motivations to a cartoon character. There is literally nothing happening behind their eyes. Any of them.
I love that as I scrolled by I half saw your comment as:
“So Dorothy isn’t real?”
I’m kind of happy, kind of disappointed in my use of brainspace that I had no doubt at my read of your comment and thought to myself, oh no: Dorothy is quite real.
Jealousy and hate aren’t the same, she hasn’t realized that yet. she puts on a false facade but in reality she doesn’t mind Dorothy at all and knows that it’s right for Joyce to go to a third party who only wants what’s best for her
Heh, I now foresee Becky recalibrating her running gag to be ‘nice’ in a sitcom way and being much more annoying that way than when she tried to be mean.
and I assume Dorothy will see through that bullshit just as easily as she did the ‘mean’ act.
IMHO Dina “nails” a lot of social interactions because she has no expectation of success or sense of self worth around nailing social interactions. Which makes her profoundly humble in an accepting and supporting way.
She might have way less social savvy than say a student like Joe, Billy, or Malaya. But all those characters have a high expectation of being savvy and understanding/hearing other people. It’s wrapped up in their self worth. Which means that no matter how much those characters “succeed” at social perception they often fail catastrophically because they bank on the belief that they know what others want. Meanwhile Dina just guesses, asks questions, and listens. Meaning that when she’s wrong she loses nothing, and when she’s right the audience celebrates her for getting it right.
Not being wrapped up in the expectations of social interactions because you don’t know or understand them, makes it actually a lot easier to nail them because you’re not trying to fit into the ‘accepted mold’ of them, but rather just reacting to things as they happen in the way you think is best. Sometimes anxiety can get in the way but just being straightforward tends to work pretty well regardless.
182 thoughts on “The Deed”
Ana Chronistic
Dina is too perfect
ThunderNight
is that possible?
Golden Yak
It’s her one flaw!
Doctor_Who
According to The Good Place, it’s possible for something to be up to 104% perfect.
I think Dina probably qualifies at this point.
Proxiehunter
Dina hits 105%.
Proxiehunter
I got lucky on the reshuffle.
HeySo
“I got lucky” is rather amusing phrasing for a Dina avatar to pop out with, considering the topic and context of the recent strips. 😛
Arianod
That makes it 106% perfect!
Regalli
She does have one fairly significant flaw we’ve seen – she helped Sarah plot the Raidah Vengeance Breakup Plan (such as it was) out of spite for Raidah’s ableism at the mall. Which, yeah, perfectly justified in disliking Raidah for, but that does suggest some serious ability for spite and the breakup plot was unconnected to Raidah being ableist. (We know it was ableism, specifically, that bothered Dina – ‘She was not kind to me, though I think she thought she was.’) She also has a tendency to be more lax with Sarah (who she likes) even when Sarah’s calling her weird for her more noticeably neurodivergent behavior, so there’s a bit of a double standard. Of course, Sarah’s never called her ‘mentally challenged’ and I’m pretty sure everyone at the party apologized for the ‘Dina kissing just seems weird and wrong’ infantilization, so she probably just has a longer fuse than I would on that front.
Note: None of this is me saying I dislike Dina. Not in the slightest! She’s one of my favorites. But I appreciate that she can be petty because it makes her more of a real character and not a perfect caricature of autistic loveliness, and as a petty autistic bongo myself I will point it out. Representation that’s not allowed flaws is boring, and I kind of grate against discussion of the autistic ace character as ‘pure’ – especially in the context of romance and sex, but also in general – because it feels a bit like infantilization. Which is something Dina herself has repeatedly brought up in her arc, though mostly focused on romance. (That’s not any commentators’ faults, just that we get that. A lot. Both as an ace and an autistic person, I have encountered those attitudes as active judging and they are unpleasant.)
Demoted Oblivious
There’s a reasonably strong evolutionary argument for revenge feeling good. As such I can see it being not just acceptable but also regarded as socially necessary in Dina’s eyes, in order to discourage errant behaviour.
Regalli
Reasonable! But I would perhaps suggest making sure the cause and effect are clear.
In other words, once Jacob broke up with Raidah Joyce should have been on hand to say ‘Dina Saruyama sends her regards.’ Then it’s not petty at all! ^^
He Who Abides
Hey Regalli, are you on Polygon? I saw a comment with your username on an article, and I was wondering if that was you, or if someone else randomly picked that handle.
Regalli
Yep, that would be me! Been using a variant of this handle for years now, especially as my non-online handle name has been co-opted by an Amazon speaker.
He Who Abides
Cool. Didn’t realize you’re a Winx fan, though your Amethyst avatar should’ve clued me in.
Ana Chronistic
DANGIT I forgot my comment that this is sushi erasure!!
AntJ
technically we never saw Dorothy eating sushi, perhaps she was merely sustained by the schadenfreude of making Joyce and Walky eat it
Doctor_Who
Man, I wish I could have found a place near my campus that sold salad wraps at midnight.
I worked nights my last couple years of college, 11-7, and while during the day you could find all sorts of healthy foods, at night the only things available were pizza and burritos. My “freshman fifteen” wound up becoming my “senior shitload”.
As for why I didn’t prepare my own meals ahead of time like a responsible adult, the answer is shut up.
Jay
My town has 24/7 corner stores that do it, they taste like shit but it’s semi food
Amias
The reason you didn’t prepare your own meals ahead of time was because you were working nights and taking classes during the day. When the hell would you have had time to meal prep?
Doctor_Who
As a college student, I was fully aware of the subjective nature of time and the exploitation of such. How else did I once write a five thousand word essay in a single shift?!
Fnord
I initially read this as “in a single shit” and thought you meant you composed it on the toilet.
You’re welcome.
mancuso
I don’t know if you chose the expression on you avatar to go with this one comment, but the result is pure genius.
Osopescado
Preparing your own meals like “a responsible adult” requires a LOT of spoons. Working a night shift job while also taking college courses takes AN IMMENSE AMOUNT OF SPOONS.
If it’s possible for you to do so, please give yourself a little bit of a break 🙂
(No pressure haha)
Deanatay
The reason nutritious, home-cooked meals are a standardized part of American expectations is that they were built upon one worker’s income being sufficient to feed a family of four or five. This allowed one parent to stay at home, and devote the entire day to planning and assembling these perfect meals. In today’s economy, that’s no longer feasible. For a student with no income AND a full courseload to pull it off may never have been.
Hartar Janabay
Smooch that salad wrap
Proto_Eevee
So her hate for Dorothy isn’t entirely real?
Lux
So it would seem.
Nono
But not completely fake. She latched onto it regardless because it’s easy and controllable.
Blindness
it’s fake, she doesn’t actually hate her in any way and only acts like there’s bad blood because she’s afraid to admit that Joyce might have found new friends…jealousy and hate aren’t the same, they just seem like it at times
woobie
Not even real frenemies.
StClair
IMO:
No, it’s real. But lately she’s been a little too obvious about it, risking that other people besides Dorothy might notice – and that would mean consequences for her. (Think of it as your “stealth meter” creeping upward in a game, when you make too much noise, get too close to a guard or the target you’re tailing, etc.) She fears discovery/rejection and wants to remain in the good graces of everyone besides Dorothy, especially Joyce (and Dina).
tl;dr the feelings are real, she’s only dialing it back a little so she doesn’t get caught.
Nono
Sarah already knows. Walky’s sharp enough that he more likely than not knows. Becky is many things, but subtlety is not her forte.
The real question is why Joyce hasn’t said anything about it.
Sam
Well, subtlety about some things isn’t at least. She can be deceptive when she wants to be because she lets enough other things slip out. It’s a trade off.
thejeff
Becky can be very subtle. Think back to when she first came back to campus. Even Joyce didn’t realize there was anything wrong until the kiss and the breakdown.
Or her taking over Robin’s phone and social media during the intervention at Leslie’s.
It’s not even a trade off. The loudness gives cover to the subtlety.
Slartibeast Button, BIA
A lifetime’s experience at hiding her true feelings…
Sam
It is a trade off to me as the things she is loud about make her obnoxious and she is frequently oversharing with strangers e.g. that her parents are both dead. She is sacrificing privacy of events in her life so often and regularly that people genuinely think she can’t be hiding things because she would overshare them.
But this then means much of her sneaky behaviours go unnoticed and her inner turmoil can be hidden. It gives people a false trust in her being open when she is a lot more closed off than they know and I see this as a flaw because it means she rarely relies on people and not even Joyce knows how much she is ever really hurting.
She is sacrificing the protection of privacy so she doesn’t have to often be truly vulnerable and open. Which is a survival technique, but it is no longer as helpful when surrounded by people that actually care about her and want to support her.
Daibhid C
Honestly, I’ve always felt there’s something a bit performative about her dislike of Dorothy – people are supposed to know. I’d say it’s about a 50/50 split between “I’m mean to Dorothy because genuinely I don’t like her” and “I’m mean to Dorothy because that’s a thing I’ve established that I do”.
But you can not particularly like someone and still not really want to upset them, and I think Saturday’s strip, where Dorothy was arguably a bit snappy with her — the first time ever that she’s indicated this is getting to her — was where Becky realised she’d crossed a line.
Delicious Taffy
Beware, fool, the eye of the Yiga.
Blindness
I think you’re mistaking jealousy for hate. everything that she has done so far has been reactionary based on Dorothy’s being friendly with Joyce, only when Dorothy does something does Becky put on the hate act. she says that she hates Dorothy, yet if she hated her why is she going out of her way to be by Dorothy’s side with Joyce instead of forcing the two apart? And when she’s with Joyce alone, why doesn’t she try to get Joyce to see that Dorothy isn’t a good person for her? This isn’t actions of someone who hate someone, it’s been almost always reactions based on jealousy. She’s jealous, just under the surface she actually likes Dorothy.
thejeff
I think that’s closer to the true situation. With a dose of Daihbid C’s performative dislike. It’s mostly a bit, with some real jealousy behind it and she’s been stressed and let it spill over more onto Dorothy than she really wanted.
Or she’s just a malicious evil monster. One of the two.
StClair
Yeah, definitely (real) jealousy, semi-hidden behind a performative layer of “sure, I’m just doing a bit, that’s me, wacky likeable Becky.”
thejeff
Well, if you want to take the worst possible interpretation, sure.
thumb
She’s right there admitting to Dina that she’s been a dick to Dorothy. Dina suggests a solution to apologise. Becky says yep, that’s what I should do. Feel free to speculate about where the story is going, but you don’t need to assign the worst motivations to a cartoon character. There is literally nothing happening behind their eyes. Any of them.
fridge_logic
I love that as I scrolled by I half saw your comment as:
“So Dorothy isn’t real?”
I’m kind of happy, kind of disappointed in my use of brainspace that I had no doubt at my read of your comment and thought to myself, oh no: Dorothy is quite real.
Blindness
Jealousy and hate aren’t the same, she hasn’t realized that yet. she puts on a false facade but in reality she doesn’t mind Dorothy at all and knows that it’s right for Joyce to go to a third party who only wants what’s best for her
ian livs
Awwww. They ARE very good at being cute girlfriends ^_^
BBCC
She also enjoys sushi and pudding cups!
Giguioto
Dina is the best out of all of us
NinjaNick
Stay likeable, Becky.
showler
I’m a little worried that line means she is still afraid of being rejected unless she maintains the “right presentation”.
Rowan
It’s pretty reasonable to worry about people stopping liking you if you treat them like shit
Rowan
appropriate avatar is appropriate
Rainhat
Yeees. It’s time to be nice to Dorothy.
Jeff K!
Stay good, Riff!
Bagge
Heh, I now foresee Becky recalibrating her running gag to be ‘nice’ in a sitcom way and being much more annoying that way than when she tried to be mean.
and I assume Dorothy will see through that bullshit just as easily as she did the ‘mean’ act.
Bagge
Dina: “I do not understand social interactions”
also Dina: * Consistently nails social interactions *
0kami
Sometimes the best perspective is the one from outside.
Reltzik
Yeah, Dina, I get it too. It’s really confusing to see everyone screw everything up.
Ray Radlein
Came down here to say exactly that
fridge_logic
IMHO Dina “nails” a lot of social interactions because she has no expectation of success or sense of self worth around nailing social interactions. Which makes her profoundly humble in an accepting and supporting way.
She might have way less social savvy than say a student like Joe, Billy, or Malaya. But all those characters have a high expectation of being savvy and understanding/hearing other people. It’s wrapped up in their self worth. Which means that no matter how much those characters “succeed” at social perception they often fail catastrophically because they bank on the belief that they know what others want. Meanwhile Dina just guesses, asks questions, and listens. Meaning that when she’s wrong she loses nothing, and when she’s right the audience celebrates her for getting it right.
Sam
Not being wrapped up in the expectations of social interactions because you don’t know or understand them, makes it actually a lot easier to nail them because you’re not trying to fit into the ‘accepted mold’ of them, but rather just reacting to things as they happen in the way you think is best. Sometimes anxiety can get in the way but just being straightforward tends to work pretty well regardless.
Suet
If Becky is in the polls, her approval rating has been tanking. Maybe.
Then again, salad shops are all I see open at midnight.
TrueVCU
Finally yes Becky is capable of introspection good we can maybe start to like her again HUZZAH
bcb
And she apparently likes Starbursts.
TrueVCU
Everyone likes starbursts
Doctor_Who
I know a guy who swears they are like eating wax.
Next Halloween, I need to get him some wax lips so he can see there’s no comparison.
TrueVCU
that guy is an actual communist
Needfuldoer
I bought a bag of “fun size” Starburst (basically two-packs of the things) after Halloween. You’d expect a mix of flavors, right?
NOPE. They’re ALL watermelon. That’s nowhere near strong enough to mask the chemical base.
emusam
My dad likes honey. For a special treat: honey with beeswax.
So waxy Starburst might not be a complaint.
He Who Abides
Starburst jelly beans are better. This is a fact.
Reltzik
Vegetarian here. No Starbursts for me, unless they nixed the gelatin since I last checked.
Needfuldoer
Nope, they still have gelatin. And palm oil.
Delicious Taffy
Does the oil come from monkeys’ palms?