283

Unavailable
Posted on June 19, 2023 by David M Willis

283 thoughts on “Unavailable”

  1. Ana Chronistic

    They really need Lucy to be 100% available, with or without Walky, just to see what they do

    (no taking bets)

    1. Nono

      Part of me wants Walky to keep dating Lucy, because if he’s a stand-up guy that will drive him away from Linda faster than if he dates a white-passing person that his parents approve of.

    2. PB

      I actually want it to become a power play of Walky saying he can’t meet them, or isn’t comfortable meeting them without Lucy. Let’s see how long it would take for their bullshit to shine through completely and overtly instead of passive-aggressively.

      1. thejeff

        OTOH, I don’t want to subject Lucy to that.

        1. Matthew Davis

          Yeah. I think that would be a bad move to do to Lucy. I could see her being upset that she’s coming in between Walky and his parents despite any reassurances to the contrary.

      2. Anime fan

        But Walky is also seeming to be looking for an out away from Lucy. At least that’s the impression I keep getting from him.

        1. Golden Yak

          I think he’s just nervous about being her first time.

          Girl’s coming on a little strong on that front.

        2. Kazuma Taichi

          yea, definite vibes that he wants an excuse to ditch, but not that he’d use Lucy as that excuse

  2. DarkoNeko

    …I’m worried about dotty

    1. EmTaya

      ditto on dotty

    2. bubba0077

      I’ve been worried about dotty for a while now.

    3. True Survivor

      Me too. I’m too Keen about recent developments.

      1. TemporalShrew

        Yeah, really wishing I was Keener on how things are going for her.

        1. Decidedly Orthogonal

          I’m sure DyW will kleen up that storyline in short order and not make it a major element in a ten year narative that sees our beloved characters go through hell.
          …
          right?

    4. Switchchris

      I have been worried about her since the moment she said she wanted to be the president lol.

    5. Needfuldoer

      Why? She’s just trying to run away from her problem, that’s all.

      (You can’t run away from yourself, Dorothy. Anywhere you go, there you are.)

      1. Decidedly Orthogonal

        Maybe she just needs to go across a dimension or eight.

  3. DarkoNeko

    ….”they found a place that we wouldn’t like” oh god what kind of racist hellhole are they visiting ?

    1. Viktoria

      Nah, it’s just “Why don’t you come to lunch? Oh, you’re bringing Lucy? Well, we had to cancel lunch, let’s do dinner. No stress if she’s too busy to make it.”

      Bonus point if they’d going to spend the entire meal telling him he can do better than her.

    2. Brigid Keely

      Could just be sushi. Walky has food restrictions just as Joyce does.

      1. Yumi

        Does he? I know he has food preferences, but they seem more flexible. Like, I feel like he could find something at a sushi place he’d like. (Though maybe he’s never been willing to try it, based on his idea of what it is.)

        1. Jamie

          Walky has been to a sushi place. With Dorothy, Joyce, and Becky.

          He stuck them in his shirt pocket, though he did eat them afterwards, I guess.

    3. Alongcameaspider

      My guess, the same place they were planning on initially just needed an excuse to not have Lucy there

      Theyre hoping she has a class or something around dinner time

      1. BarerMender

        More than hoping. Strongly hinting.

      2. Archieve

        This, they met up specifically to take Walky to lunch but expect him to belive they were looking at places he woulnt like? 99 % certain Linda already had a reservation.

        1. Needfuldoer

          No, no, no! You’re supposed to take each thinly veiled excuse on its own at face value! If you start thinking about them as a collective whole, Linda’s narrative starts to unravel and her true motive becomes even more obvious.

          You know, just like in politics!

      3. Jamie

        It’s a pretty long shot. Not a lot of college kids have evening classes.

        So if that’s Linda’s bet, she’s not being all that smart about it.

        1. Archieve

          Linda is the women who thought she could will Walkys new girlfriend to be the white girl looking at her like she was crazy and in the opposite direction of her sons whispers if she said it out loud. I think telling herself Lucy probably won’t make dinner isn’t out of character for her racism fuelled lack of logic.

        2. BBCC

          Really? I had at least one a year.

        3. Yumi

          Probably varies by school, maybe by region, but yeah, I’d say they’re uncommon. I only had evening classes in two classes (which had to be taken in sequence) and were designed that way so you’d have both a class at more standard times in the week and then come back for the “lab” (it wasn’t a lab) session in the evening.

        4. BBCC

          True enough. In my school, classes could go until 10 or 11 PM, I forget which.

        5. CJ

          It’s a veiled “don’t you dare bring her” Sal gets, but I’m not 100% sure Walky does.
          Looking at their faces: He does but Lucy missed it.

        6. GossamerWillow

          It really depends on your major. As a theatre major, I was busy every evening from 4-7 either in rehearsal or working in the shop and that was for a grade. And if you do any clubs or fraternizes/sororities, the activities are likely in the evenings as well. My honors fraternity met at 8 on Mondays. It’s also possible for college students to have jobs which would again take place in the evenings.

        7. Dr. T

          I’ve made the department schedule some of the classes I taught to be at night. I even made them schedule a weekly lab session on Saturday morning, something they kept for a couple of years after I stopped teaching that particular class. It definitely is a thing, especially if it’s one of the classes that have a lot of students.

    4. Cholma

      My guess is Carol stumbled across a White Castle. NO WAY would Lucy or the kids want to eat there!

      1. Cholma

        Carol? Linda? She’s so terrible I can’t even remember her actual name. Shitty McShittyperson?

    5. Furie

      Just a place where good ol’ boys hang out to discuss how Proud they are…

  4. Doopyboop

    Linda getting the gaslight gatekeep, not-so-girlboss attitude started early it seems.

  5. butts

    man that’s even more transparent than i was expecting. what the fuck, linda

    1. Dara

      God I know, right? Not even trying. Christ.

      1. Bryy

        Yeah.

        I’m just.

        Holy fuck, Linda. I expected an awkward as fuck lunch, not straight-up “we’re going to ignore Lucy exists”.

  6. BBCC

    You really don’t want to be there, Lucy.

    Sal’s face though. 🙁

    1. Lumino

      She might not want to be there, but that’s why she SHOULD. This is about Walky calling out his parent’s bullshit. “This is MY girlfriend, and you can either deal with that or get lost.”

      Granted, you’re more likely to get that kind of a comment from Sal, but a guy can dream.

      1. HueSatLight

        I think she’s got some annoying qualities, but she does deserve better than to be sitting there, an unwitting prop while Walky tells his parents off.

      2. Techhead

        Walky’s helping her make an informed choice on how involved she really wants to be in his family’s bullshit. “Should” is a matter of opinion.

        1. Rose Red

          No one’s actually told her what’s going on yet, though.

        2. justin8448

          She may be somewhat determined not to figure it out.

        3. Freemage

          This. Lucy can channel willful obtuseness on a Joyce-level scale when she wants to, and anything that would make her think a particular social interaction she desires is not all it’s cracked up to be falls into that category. (See also, the breakfast with ‘popular people’.)

        4. BBCC

          Maybe, but nobody’s given her good indication what’s going on. They’ve talked about being ranked, but not WHY she’d fall short in that ranking.

    2. drs

      Sal: “Dang, Billie was right”

      1. Clif

        Sal has nothing to say and she is saying it.

        Pretty well actually.

      2. Archieve

        I think even though Sal knows racism was the reason for her treatment on some level she still thought her parents would have treated her better if she had been able to keep up the good girl act. Here she has confirmation that no, changing herself for their approval was indeed a lost cause.

        1. Schpoonman

          Oh, dang.

        2. Plain Marie

          Ooff. That is a gut punch. And so sad, too. It’s even worse than she thought. :'(

  7. Nono

    Can’t decide who I feel more sorry for at the moment: Lucy, Dorothy, Joyce or Asher.

    1. GholaHalleck

      I have a terrible notion Linda found Dottie and invited her to dinner.

      1. PB

        Oh dear God, I hope not. I feel like Dorothy at her lowest would still better than that.

        1. RowenMorland

          In which world line vs a charismatic, heartless manipulator.

        2. azrael

          Does Dorothy actually know that much about Linda? I’m decrepit and my brain stopped working 4 years before I was born, but I don’t think there’s been much interaction there. Walky is just coming around to the fact his parents are kinda racist jabronis, and Sal isn’t the forthcoming type.

        3. thejeff

          Even without knowing, accepting a dinner invitation from your ex’s parents without him knowing about it would be weird. Especially if you barely knew them.

      2. Versen

        Might be with Dorothy now making a pitch about how she needs to get back with Walky asap. For his future or like, soemthin. (I don’t think Dotty would agree, unless she was on her turbo villian arc.)

        1. Versen

          Hell yeah perfect gravatar

        2. Needfuldoer

          A Dorothy heel turn would echo her late-Walkyverse story arc…

      3. Bryy

        …… yup.

        That is exactly what happened.

    2. poofdepoof

      Want to add Sal to that list?

      1. Nono

        Right now Sal’s probably not doing as bad as the other four. Lucy is finding out her boyfriend’s parents hate her for her race, Dorothy is having a meltdown, Asher is stuck with an increasingly unbearable girlfriend, and Joyce has… Carol.

        Sal’s not in the direct line of fire and honestly could probably just ignore her parents with little effect if she wanted to.

        1. Needfuldoer

          Sal’s not in the clear yet. Her parents still haven’t met Danny…

        2. Diane

          Wouldn’t that be a fun twist? Sal suddenly becoming the golden child because at least she’s dating a proper person, ie: white.

        3. Needfuldoer

          There will be a lot of passive-aggressive hints about Danny “setting her straight”, or “warnings” about Sal’s past behavior.

          Preparing the groan of existential dread now…

        4. Archieve

          Yeah, even if they approved of Danny it would likey come at sals expense. They would probably act like he was a Saint for dating their “troubled” daugther which would just make them even more condensending. Staying out of their view is the best case scenario for Sals weekend.

        5. Angel

          that would be quite the blurt out if danny was like “Actually my ex is the one who stabbed your daughter’s hand”

    3. OBBWG

      I feel most sorry for Carla. Nobody is talking about how great she is right now.

  8. Bittersweet

    That is somehow more extreme than I was expecting, Linda’s not even trying to hide it. I’m not shocked, but I feel bad for Lucy.

  9. Yumi

    Jeez, Linda, if you want to drive Lucy away from Walky, you should be spending time with her. You not being around actually makes the idea of dating your son more appealing.

    1. Yumi

      Also, if dating Lucy means spending less time with Linda, then Lucy’s a keeper.

    2. Wraithy2773

      The thing to remember about the Walkerton Parents is that they’re completely blind to their own racism. They assume that they’ve picked up the “Not Racist” perk as part of being in a mixed race family, and thus can never do anything racist ever.

      So, no, she’s probably not intentionally trying to break them up. You know. Intentionally.

      Not a pass for them, of course, being casually bigoted is still being bigoted, and everyone should be willing to check themselves on such things.

      1. Jamie

        She’s not trying to break them up because of racism. She’s trying to break them up because she’s not good enough for her David. Why? It’s just a vibe. Y’know. Definitely unrelated to anything superficial like skin color.

        1. Pergola

          Now suppose David was dating a nice Christian girl like Sierra?

      2. aelfwine

        Thie unware-of-their-own-racism was their characterization until recently, I think Willis is now retconning it so that they are being very deliberateky and knowingly and obviously racist.

        1. Anon A Mouse

          I dont think its retconning. Remember, this Walkys first year in college and they likely have never been apart from Walky for very long beforehand. Knowing Linda as we do it us possible she built up a fantasy version of what his college life is like and this breaks it so she is doubling down in reaction. The lack of self-awareness and level of racism seems about the same from what Jennifer and Sal have mentioned.

        2. Angel

          I think walky did make a throwaway line after he asked lucy something like “man, they’ll be disappointed I’m dating a black girl!” or so

        3. Archieve

          Fantasy fits Linda’s idea of her sons life in a nutshell. She sees him as this straight A never fails future med student always driven to succeed.

        4. smolgrlboi

          Highly doubt that. This webcomic, and most, are written far far ahead of their publication date. This was planned early on, and if you pay attention to their characterisation excluding Lucy really isn’t that shocking. You need to stop assuming that just because a character does a thing you don’t like or understand that Willis is purposely screwing around. It’s kind of insulting and ignorant.

        5. Bryy

          Did you just say “the racists have been retconned to be racist”?

        6. Taffy

          Big if true.

        7. aelfwine

          If your reading comprehension is that bad, I doubt there’s a point in trying to explain it for you, but I’m guessing you are exhibiting malice rather than lack of comprehension.

        8. Bryy

          “Your opinion isn’t valid to me personally, so the only two options are you are dumb or you will me harm” is reallllllllllly not the thing you wanna go with, friendo.

  10. NGPZ

    Yeah Lucy, you should just say “no”. Really.

    A rather fitting strip to show on Juneteenth of all days!

    1. BarerMender

      Walky is the one who should say no. “Fuck off,” even.

  11. Laura

    …Sick feeling in the stomach… 😐

    1. laura

      Ugh, go away, smarmy avatar!

    2. NGPZ

      Awe. ??

      How have you been if I may ask?

      1. laura

        Thanks, bud. I just meant it’s a sickening comic. 🙁 A sickening situation they are in. It’s so sad.

        It’s sweet of you to ask how I am, though, too. :-}

        1. NGPZ

          That it is 🙁 also Awe ?

          BTW nice Robin avatar, or did you have another in mind you wanted to roll the dice for?

        2. laura

          Thanks. I like Robin — I’ll keep her. 🙂

        3. NGPZ

          Yee, mustard elbows away! ?

  12. Yotomoe

    Reminds me. For father’s day I called my dad. Had a pretty nice conversation and reminded him that he invited me to hang out in New York with him like a year ago. He keeps cancelling and putting things off. So annoying.

    I guess I did inherit something from him.

    1. laura

      …You feeling sad, bud?

      1. Yotomoe

        Can’t say I am. Actually had a pretty nice convo with him. 😛 Honestly I like the guy. He just doesn’t feel like a dad. He just feels like a cool old guy I know.

        1. laura

          I’m glad, then, hon’. Glad it was a good chat.

    2. Puppeteer Nessus

      As a dad person myself who also makes art, I hereby appreciate the hell out of you and would adopt you with the speed of a striking snake on cocaine

    3. WalkerOfSorrow

      Funny. I tried to call my dad for Father’s day. Got a text back: “In church. Is it an emergency?” I reply, “Just calling to wish you a happy Father’s day!” His answer: “Will be available at noon. Thx”

      For clarity, my boomer dad never chatspeaks when texting. He will take the time to spell out a simple “thanks.” So this is both uncharacteristic of his texting preferences, and characteristic of him being a dorkus maborkus.

  13. not someone else

    Yeah, okay. If they’re going to just… stop doing lunch and subtly try to not even meet Lucy… based on one short interaction…

    That bodes ill for the question of exactly how racist we’re gonna see them getting

    1. BarerMender

      I’d like to see how they react to Sal being with Danny.

    2. Proxiehunter

      The interaction was long enough to see the color of her skin.

  14. Cmasta1992

    Is Charles* not aware he is in fact black?

    *I don’t remember the Walkerton dad’s name and Idgaf enough to search to remember if i am wrong

    1. Nono

      He’s half-black.

    2. Wraithy2773

      Of course he’s aware.

      Just like how black cops are aware they’re black.

      They’re still fucking cops, though.

      1. Dante

        Wisest words ever.

    3. Angel

      I get the vibe that Charles is more oblivious to his wife’s bullshit than actively supporting or agreeing with it. After all, she knows he’s half-black and she married him, so there must be some other explanation than her being racist. Her clear preference for Walky could be excused with “You know Sal’s always been a difficult child, it’s not MY fault I’m closer with David” without examining any deeper than that. It’s not as if Walky was dating a whole lot of girls before college, so her being standoffish with Lucy could be handwaved as “That nice Dorothy girl was so smart and brought out the best in him, I don’t think this new girlfriend is as good for him” without a second question. It can be really hard to acknowledge someone’s worst traits when you love them, and I can definitely see how he’d be constantly missing the bigger picture with her as long as she wasn’t just outright saying she hates black people.

      1. Yotomoe

        Charles is half black? I was under the impression that he was all black.

        1. Sirksome

          I didn’t get that either. Where was this stated? Must have been some minor dialogue that just slipped by.

        2. BarerMender

          Walky said it explicitly back on parents day.

        3. Yumi

          Here ya go!: https://www.dumbingofage.com/2013/comic/book-3/04-just-hangin-out-with-my-family/whitelady/

        4. Yotomoe

          ah well shoot.
          Also Billie’s line just reminds me why I hate Linda, Charles and this whole storyline surrounding them.

        5. Jamie

          It’s honestly fascinating to me how Jennifer can be entirely aware of all the shit when she wants to be. Like, Jennifer’s never been shown to side with Linda and Charles against Sal (or, now, Walky). She never stands up to them, obviously, but she knows the score very well somehow and she always backs them up when they beg her for help. Never volunteers, but never holds it over them, really, and is entirely aware that it’s fucked up.

          In another person, it’d actually be kinda cool. Benefit of being a quasi-outside observer, perhaps.

        6. Nono

          Problem is that she’s not above taking what benefits she can get from it. Like, she knows that the parents prefer her above Sal (see: cookies).

          So it’s just not standing up out of purpose, not ignorance like Walky.

        7. thejeff

          She’s also pretty good at manipulating them, which can be more useful than a direct confrontation.

        8. StClair

          Jennifer has pretty strong awareness of other people’s bullshit.

        9. Mark

          Now I’m recalling that Star Trek episode with the two guys insulting each other with “half-black!” / “half-white!”

          (“Let That Be Your Last Battlefield”)

        10. StClair

          That’s my go-to reference when people try to claim that Star Trek has gotten “too political” recently; one, because it shows that actually it goes all the way back to the beginning, and two, because in a franchise that is often unsubtle in its moralizing, that particular episode still manages to stand out by stopping just short of grabbing the viewer by the collar and shouting in their face, “DO YOU GET IT?!”

    4. timemonkey

      Internalized racism is a thing. He probably sees Lucy, thinks ‘she’s not a good fit for my son’ and doesn’t bother asking himself why he thinks that without knowing anything about her.

    5. zee

      There’s a whole conversation about biracial folk and light skins vs dark skins in the community, colorism’s one of our biggest internal and external issues. I mean for being biracial Charles is actually pretty dark but he’s still not as dark as Lucy. This is probably moreso being lead by Linda but it’s possible he subconsciously doesn’t want his son with a dark skinned girl, potentially making darker babies with more black features in the future

  15. Net-Zero Joeyce Shipper (no engine, slowly following the current)

    Get Out.

    1. Proxiehunter

      Nope.

  16. Joe Moose

    They really should sit the poor girl down and tell her the family dynamics.

    1. Seregiel

      At this point it would take a clue by four to the head. And knowing Lucy’s optimism she’d double down and declare she’d be such a good gf that they’d have to change their minds!

      1. Jamie

        Yeah, they did tell her the score. It was on-screen mere days ago.

        The problem at this point is that Lucy will refuse to believe it until her face is rubbed in it because that’s how Lucy deals with problems.

        1. Mark

          They did not. We imputed it.

      2. Adam Black

        Yes. It’s brilliant. A bunch of characters get to be annoying to each other and ignore their poorly described boundaries.

        I remember Lucy permanent sunny and benevolent attitude made her my favorite. Until I saw she was a passive aggressive social climber with poor boundaries. Now it’s going to pay off with Linda. Lucy going to kill Linda with kindness.

    2. HueSatLight

      Someone’s going to have to explain that there’s such a thing as reading between the lines. It’s not that she’s bad at it picking up subtext, she doesn’t even seem to be aware it exists.

  17. Pocky

    Cancelling plans is like heroin.

    1. Jamie

      Surprisingly, all it’s cracked up to be?

      1. milu

        it’s really dope

        1. Taffy

          I can’t methamphetamine these drug jokes.

  18. Victor Riley

    If Walky texts his Mom that she IS available… what’s the odds that she cancels again? I’m guessing 99% chance… and that’s giving her an opportunity for shame.

    1. Mark

      Suppose he texts that Lucy has a class this evening, and then they show up together. “Class was cancelled, so I invited her, ‘coz I really want you to get to know her.” (Subtext: “I want her to know what she’s getting into.”)

      He doesn’t tell Lucy about the subterfuge, which lets her do the puzzled stare again.

  19. RassilonTDavros

    So, any bets on why Walky and Sal supposedly “wouldn’t like” the place?

    1. Puppeteer Nessus

      Cracker Barrel?

    2. Yumi

      tbf, Sal wasn’t even part of this equation. At no point were they planning to have lunch with their daughter.

      1. thejeff

        Which would have been a good excuse to switch the plans from lunch to dinner – “so that Sal can make it”. That they don’t even consider that as an excuse says a lot.

    3. Dante

      My bet: It was posh. So this means dinner is going to be posh too, and therefore, they would be happy to ditch Sal while they try to ditch Lucy, as a bonus.

    4. HueSatLight

      Because they don’t expect Walky to ask why.

      1. Archieve

        Now I want Walky to ask about this luch place then insist they both like it and will come if they want them to be there. Just to turn the tables. Getting sick of his parents framing exclusion as always the fault of the person their excluding.

        1. Schpoonman

          “Wait, you went to that new Mexican-Italian fusion place!? They’ve got a nacho pizza I’ve been dying to try!”

      2. HueSatLight

        Or the signage has the incorrect amount of humanoid bear women with nice sets of tits.

    5. Angel

      well, walky is the type to enjoy 50 mcdonalds mcnuggets over sushi even when someone else is paying so even if he’s not as “bad” about food as joyce is, they probably just assume he still eats like a 12 year old

  20. Sirksome

    Lol. I feel the Walkertons went a little mask off with that last text.

    1. Bruno

      They were never mask on, we just got Walky’s experience with them before we got Sal’s or Jennifer’s.

  21. Kitschensyngk

    She actually found a restaurant that would make Charles eat in the kitchen?

  22. Stephen Bierce

    *plays Cheap Trick’s live version of “I Want You To Want Me” on the sound system of a passing vehicle*

  23. Sol

    While everyone is focused on the Walkteron parents being shitty:

    I wonder if Dorothy is gonna be avoiding Walky for a while? If I were here I definitely would be. The feeling of awkwardness and shame after the previous day’s actions would be unbearable.

    1. HueSatLight

      I’d be mortified, but also maybe mood swinging and wanting to prove I wasn’t mortified, or apologize. Avoiding is probably the best choice. And it’s not like she can really talk to people she knows about it.

      This isn’t just because it goes into the Dorothy+Arnold ship. But she needs to talk to someone, who doesn’t have any expectations of her. Practically everyone she knows socially has expectations that she’s got it together, has ambitions to be president that are either inspiring or silly, that she’s a work-a-holic. Just the freedom of being able to tell someone, “I made a fool out of myself with my ex yesterday” or “I thought I knew what I wanted to do with my life” without worrying about disappointing their expectations.

      1. Sol

        I know they’ve currently got their hands full with being Ethan’s friend, but maybe Booster would be a good candidate for this. They know Dorothy a little, but not enough to have Expectations ™, and might be able to have a good conversation.

        1. Dante

          Booster could def have more friends. Apart from Ethan, there’s currently like… Well, I think Walky does count. Lucy, I’m not so sure? They’ve had nice interactions with more people on the cast (and The Amber Incident) but nothing I can see going further.

          Dorothy would super get along with them, now that you mention it.

        2. Sol

          Maybe Booster can use their fledgling psychology powers for Good ™ instead of for Mischief ™. Ask maybe some pointed questions about what Dorothy wants out of life and what she hopes to achieve.

        3. Reaver

          Maybe right now isn’t the best time for pointed questions about her goals and aspirations…

        4. HueSatLight

          Booster’s pretty intense, and Walky’s roommate. I think she needs a different social circle, where she can say “I fucked up” and get commiseration not analysis or answers. Followed by unrelated and mostly inconsequential conversation.

      2. Derek

        Who is Arnold?

        1. HueSatLight

          Dorothy’s endgame relationship. He’s dreamy.

        2. Derek

          I genuinely have no idea which character you are talking about

        3. Taffy

          So, the guy in HueSatLight’s current gravatar? That’s Arnold. He’s basically exactly what you see, just some guy. In about 3-5 more chapters though, he and Dorothy are about to hit it off, per Word of Willis in an interview.

    2. Mark

      I think she’s just very busy being Super Dorothy today, to rebalance the Cosmic All.

  24. Dante

    This is. This is BLATANT, like come on, how obvious can they be in them not wanting Lucy to be there?

    Girl pls I know you wanna see the good in people – And in special in your bf’s parents but. You don’t wanna be there either. Skip the pain. Oh my GOD. Please someone explain this bullshit to her? With clear words??

    1. Dante

      (ksgdjls gravatar roulette blessed me with being SPOT ON for once? What??)

    2. HueSatLight

      someone has to be cruel to be kind. it’s going to suck for everyone involved.

    3. Mark

      Linda could say, “Oh. In that case, lunch is off. Lucy, is that your name? we don’t want our boy dating you because you’re black.”

      THAT is obvious. THAT is direct evidence. THAT is also something that Linda is just a little too genteel to actually say, I think. Which is good storytelling, because winkling it out will also bring out more about the character than just “she’s an awful racist.”

  25. Suet

    Everybody seems a little weird.

    Dotty’s still running?

    1. Amós Batista

      Yes.

      Yes, until she collapses on the snow.

  26. Rachel

    This sucks this sucks this driving sucks I hate it so much, the fuck walkerparents???!!!

  27. brionl

    If both Walky and Lucy are there, there’s at least one thing they can make “French”. ?

    1. Proxiehunter

      Might get them kicked out of the restaurant though.

    2. HueSatLight

      He hasn’t kissed her at all. That’s the whole other issue that has to be tabled to deal with her parents not liking Lucy for some reason they can’t put their finger on. And Lucy not understanding passive aggressiveness exists.

      1. Taffy

        Wait yeah, he kinda hasn’t, huh. I hadn’t really noticed because something else always comes up.

  28. fireprincesslily

    “How can Linda be racist if she’s married to Charles???”

    She probably thinks to herself “I married one of the GOOD ONES” And doesn’t actually give it a whole lot of thought.

    She’s a “polite” racist, like she’s not gonna out right call anyone a slur. But she’s definitely the kind of woman who sees a minority person and crosses the street. I saw that a lot as a kid by people who would swear up and down they weren’t racist.

    Also I hope Dorothy is okay.

    1. Bryy

      I’m assuming she married Charles specifically because of his racial background, and he for the same reason.

      1. Angel

        maybe they met in highschool or earlier or similar friend groups as opposed to modern dating these days where you’d look at a pic and swipe right/left. Or he grew up in a mostly ‘white’ neighborhood/crowd to basically be more ‘passing’ if he’s half/mixed

        Ppl also have kids and end up being child abusers, i don’t think many ppl plan on having kids specifically to hurt them hopefully but sometimes bad things just happen

  29. Opus the Poet

    Lucy, you don’t wanna be available. Sal’s and David’s parents are a Nightmare on My Street.

    1. PB

      I understood that reference 😀

  30. IniquitousKing

    Even Walky doesn’t look like he can believe the sheer audacity of this woman.

    1. Yotomoe

      The sheer Caucaisty of this woman.

  31. JepMZ

    Why did she even invited her in the first place?

    1. Just an Armadillo

      Plausible deniability. She gives the invitation because she knows that’s what she should do, that’s what any good mother would do. But in the back of her mind (or maybe forefront of her mind, I don’t think we actually know how self-aware of her racism she is) she doesn’t actually want to have the dinner because racism. So now she’s undermining her own invitation, trying to make things more inconvenient for Lucy to attend.

      And if Lucy doesn’t show up the narrative will shift in such a way that it’s actually Lucy’s fault, because she decided meeting Walky’s parents wasn’t important to her, or something along those lines. This way they can skip out the dinner without having to confront their racism and also find a convenient excuse to dislike Lucy and pressure the relationship into breaking up! Hooray!

  32. Just an Armadillo

    Come on Walky, you’re asking the right question here, now have a real conversation about the problem! You can do it!

  33. Reltzik

    See, if Walky wanted to do a power play here he could text back that he and Lucy already made private date plans for tonight, so he can’t come to dinner.

    …. that’s probably a bad move for multiple reasons, but at least it would subtly push back against this bullshit.

    1. Just an Armadillo

      Yeah but that would just give them an excuse to point at Lucy and say “She’s just no good for you!” or some bullshit along those lines.

  34. Jon

    Ugh. What the fuck.

    The Walkerton parents were SPECIFICALLY interesting to me because their shittiness was sneakier, subtler, more relatable to real life. I can compare that behavior against every little manipulative parenting quirk I’ve seen and feel a sense of connection.

    Having them go full mask-off turbo-racist makes them SO much less compelling. Throw them on the garbage pile of cartoon villains or whatever, I guess.

    Are there any nuanced parent-child relationships left in this comic? Just, what, Joe and his dad?

    1. Jamie

      Six months into college isn’t really the time for nuance in your parent-child relationship.

    2. GUIGUI

      You could argue that this would still be subtle if Sal hadn’t already exposed it. It is after all a reasonable excuse, if taken at face value.

    3. Bruno

      There’s never been anything subtle about them, Walky’s just been clueless.

      1. Derek

        what on earth are you talking about? their previous behavior was actually subtle, there was always plausible deniability to the point that Walky and some the commentariat didn’t think there was anything wrong until a bunch of examples were listed in succession
        The Walkteron parents were all about piling up the microaggressions

        1. Bruno

          Microaggressions like sending Sal to boarding school.

          Look, just because the favourite kid, who need I remind you is a particularly goofy young man, not especially noted for his eagle eye didn’t pick up on it doesn’t mean it wasn’t blatant.

          That’s the plot of the comic that we are reading.

        2. Yotomoe

          Sal robbed a convenience store. Going to a boarding school is honestly a pretty light punishment all things considered. Like it SUCKS, but there’s plenty of white parents who would jump at the chance to send their misbehaving son to military school to “learn some discipline”. I think we’re discussing how specific and transparent the “racism” aspect of their particular form of bigotry is now.

        3. BBCC

          That assumes that the boarding school isn’t abusive, many of them are. Especially if it was one of those ‘troubled teens’ ones.

        4. Yotomoe

          I assume most people assume they’re sending their kid to “one of the good ones”. It’s a shitty thing to do for sure, but we’re not really talking specifically about Linda being a bad parent and more about her being racist. I wish Linda was just a bad parent.

        5. BBCC

          That’s true. The troubled teen industry doesn’t exactly market as being abusive so if it is, it’d depend what the Walkertons know and what they refuse to believe.

        6. Taffy

          “Troubled teen industry” look you’re not allowed to spell it out so blatantly, it makes the grifters in charge look bad.

        7. Samniel

          Robbed a convenience store after Linda took away her hard-earned money because it wasn’t for a cause she believed in. Linda in particular was always harder on Sal because she wasn’t what she wanted her to be.

    4. aelfwine

      Yeah, Willis has decided that he doesn’t care about continuity any more, for some rèason he needs to make them actually card-carrying members of the KKK.

      1. Serendipity

        Do you really think this doesn’t track with their previous behavior and characterization?

        1. aelfwine

          Their previous behavior waa subtle enough that Walky could plausibly enough fail to see it. He had to flashback to a seemingly arbitrary decision to put kindergarten-him on a show rather than Sal as the loudest example of possibly-rarcism he witnessed. And that by itself could have been anything – might have been racism, might have been sexism, might have been as innocuous as a coinflip, thus explaining why Walky hadn’t figured it out.

          These recent strips not already make it so that it’s obvious to anyone who spends 5 seconds with them, it frankly demands that they themselves are aware of their racism. And makes Walky look even stupider than he usually is, for not having figured it out previously.

        2. Bruno

          I didn’t really realise how racist my parents were when I was Walky’s age, either.

        3. pyrock_mania

          But without the fore-knowledge that their mom is racist, did anything that happened so far actually make that fact obvious? There are plenty of readings of her actions this arc that are nowhere near “card-carrying KKK members.” They mistakenly gushed over the wrong girl as Walky’s girlfriend, so a reasonable person could have wanted to make excuses to leave before making things worse. Parents changing plans suddenly on a trip isn’t suspicious in a vacuum, especially since they weren’t cancelling, but rescheduling for dinner. This all seems exactly like the stuff Walky was able to ignore/gloss over as a kid that would have lead him to only realizing his mom (and by enabling it, his dad) is racist in college. I feel like it’s intentional that this arc shows us behaviors that Walky likely ignored growing up with the added context that we know it’s racially motivated, mirroring how Walky is experiencing this epiphany.

        4. zee

          That’s probably in part because o
          f all the dumbass, brain worm infested commenters vehemently defending Linda and Charles as not racist and calling sal a crazy thug

        5. zee

          Tch, format got fucked up at the last second
          *Of, obviously

        6. Taffy

          Insulting real people is super cool and makes you look like a real smart person.

        7. zee

          I mean I don’t feel bad about insulting grown adults exposing their thinly veiled racism. The way people spoke about the situation showed they were probably closer to Linda than they’d like to admit. Again, calling sal crazy and a thug

        8. zee

          I’m not trying to do it to feel cool and smart, I’m doing it because i, as a black woman who has experienced this thinly veiled racism personal, am mad about it
          I remember Willis wasnt too pleased either

        9. Bryy

          I literally did not understand how Red my father’s side of the family was until I was 36.

        10. NGPZ

          Yee, it all comes back to the willingness to revisit and revise the definition of bigotry most American students learn in grade school.

      2. smolgrlboi

        You’re being awfully arrogant and presumptive about why Willis is writing something or not. Assuming a lot about the authorial intent of a work you haven’t written. Heck, I doubt you write stories at all based on how you tend to attack Willis when a character does something you don’t like. Really really curious why you even bother reading this webcomic, especially if you believe you know better than the author.

        1. milu

          meh, i also think Aelfwine’s takes are consistently terrible but disagreeing with an author is an integral part of how and why i engage with fiction. it’s fine actually to think you know better than the author how to write their own story. #DeathToTheAuthor or something

        2. Pergola

          Sometimes I find myself doing this and then whoops! the author proves me very wrong. Which puts them up a notch in my estimation.

    5. vulcanodon

      It seems pretty consistent, it’s just the spotlight hasn’t been on them for this long before. And the camera zoomed in. All the… blemishes are visible.

    6. Mark

      Lucky person, you seem to have no idea what full mask-off turbo racism looks like. This is quite subtle by comparison. Less blood, for one thing.

      1. not someone else

        “Like” +100,000 to you.

      2. Jon

        Give me a break, I exaggerated to make a point.

        The walkertons are obviously better than Ross or Blaine by comparison. They aren’t, like, screaming racial slurs or committing hate crimes. Sure.

        But if you don’t see a difference between their last appearances and this one, I don’t know what to tell you.

        1. BBCC

          The last time we saw her wasn’t about her racism storyline – it was her being a shithead to Amber and trying to pretend she’s a decent mom. The last time her racism storyline came up was her stealing money from Sal to make her stop hanging out with Marcie and saying she lived with hoodlums and rolling her eyes when Sal told her she knows why she really doesn’t like Marcie.

        2. Mark

          OK, have a break.

        3. Taffy

          We could all use one, from time to time.

    7. zee

      If you think this is mask off turbo racism you’ve lived an extremely sheltered life and i envy you. They’re still being subtle and giving themselves plausible deniability. It just doesn’t feel subtle anymore because we know what they’re doing. This is also an excellent way to display walkys experience. Now that he’s realized what they’re up to, everything is suddenly blaringly obvious. It’s like getting a new pair of glasses

      Also, they were never even that subtle. Go back and look at how Linda talked about Marcie as a child and tell me that was subtle. She sounded like a trump supporter

      1. Yotomoe

        That happened years after their first introduction and I honestly feel like they’re written as increasingly more obviously racist in every new appearance they’re in, probably as a direct response to people not seeing it at first. That’s the impression I got even back then.

        1. Yumi

          See, to me, some of the flashback stuff (such as with Marcie) seemed more obviously racist than what we’re getting now, which feels similar to family weekend for me. It’s just that it’s been discussed, both in the comments and in the comic, more explicitly since then, so it stands out more.

          People calling this “full mask-off turbo-racist” and “card-carrying members of the KKK” are having a very different experience of this than I am. Like, this is nowhere near those levels?

        2. Yumi

          Also, the “if it’s this blatant, they have to know they’re racist” takes are wild to me. I’ve heard way more directly racist shit from people who swear they’re not racist. Plenty of people accept that racism is bad, but therefore that means (to them) that racism is above and beyond what they themselves think/do/say.

        3. Samniel

          It reminds me of that line in The Help (problematic movie, I know) where Bryce Dallas Howard’s character says “There are some real racists in here.” This is the woman who pushed for Black people to have separate bathrooms because “they have different diseases” and she considers herself not racist.

        4. BBCC

          Those flashbacks were also from Sal, so of course she noticed stuff like that. I imagine Walky’s flashbacks about incidents like that, before Sal pointed it out, would have looked differently.

    8. UnDrewsual

      This isn’t mask-off. This is still them being racist without being overt about it. They have the defense of “oh, well, I guess she just couldn’t make it, how unfortunate” even though that was their intention. Mask-off would be “We don’t want you to bring your girlfriend. We don’t want to eat with her kind.”

    9. Derek

      Fully agreed with Jon. This is the second time Willis decides to throw a character’s subtlety out the window for reasons unknown. Previously it was Blaine, who went from a smooth manipulator to an unhinged lunatic; having the unfortunate retroactive implication that Amber’s mom somehow failed to see what a stupid violent maniac he is for years and years.
      Early Blaine, with his easy smiles and rational-sounding explanations for his actions that ~coincidentally~ all led to controlling his daughter; him I could see tricking a woman into staying in an abusive marriage for years, because he can talk her into thinking it’s not that bad, he can dangle the carrot and hide the stick in a continual cycle.
      Later Blaine, who thought it was a good plan to kidnap several students, murder one and his associate; him I can scarcely believe could talk his way out of a wet paper bag.

      1. BBCC

        Later Blaine was still able to put on the smooth manipulations when he wanted to. He was pretty good at playing the church and Ross like fiddles. He’s ALSO extremely violent and vengeful when thwarted though.

        1. Yotomoe

          Yeah but even then it felt less like “he’s convincing” and more like “Wow Ross is fucking stupid”.

        2. Derek

          ^exactly

        3. BBCC

          Okay fair, I’ll grant ya that one, but he was still convincing enough to play nice with the church. And well, Blaine’s never been particularly subtle. My point is he’s capable of pretending to play nice for long enough to get to the violence.

        4. thejeff

          The smooth subtlety of Blaine’s first appearance

        5. BBCC

          Right? I must’ve missed the subtlety when he *checks notes* called Amber gloating about her boyfriend being with him and his reaction to AG.

      2. zee

        That’s just what abusers do when they start losing control. There are so many stories of ex boyfriends who were “just” controlling and manipulative trying to find their ex with a knife and rope after she leaves him

    10. HueSatLight

      This is “In those house we believe…” yard sign next to a yard sign opposing multifamily homes. I’m not seeing skull caliper enthusiasm.

  35. Amós Batista

    I got the same feeling, reading today strip, in those days that everything is plotting to end badly, but I don’t know why.

  36. Judas Peckerwood

    Completely cutting off contact with my racist (and homo/transphobic, ageist, sexist, body-shaming, etc.) parents was the best move I’ve ever made. Just sayin’.

  37. GUIGUI

    I kinda wish Jennifer had kept that for herself. Can’t help but thing she has Jinxed it even more than it already was Lucy is a very charming person when she act naturally, could easily win the welcome of anyone, including the Walkerton parent, without even trying.

    But I have the feeling she will now act in a forced way, afraid to be wrong, in the hope of gaining their approval anyway, making things worse. I have never been a an of self-fulfilling prophecies and this look like one in the making…

    1. Nicoleandmaggie

      The most charming person in the world can’t change a racist. See: Obama.

      1. thejeff

        Sometimes you can get slotted in as “one of the good ones”.

      2. Bryy

        In fact, we got Donald Trump in office specifically BECAUSE the world didn’t end.

    2. Daibhid C

      Don’t worry, it doesn’t matter how forced Lucy’s behaviour is if Linda’s taking steps to avoid interacting with her or acknowleging her presence.

      Also, Linda doesn’t deserve to know how charming Lucy can be. She deserves to miss out on Lucy’s charm due to her own assholery.

    3. adam black

      agree on Lucy. This is hysterical.

      Linda, you just made two of the classic blunders:

      The first in thinking Lucy could take a hint. Not within months.

      The second in not understanding she would take this as a personal challenge to be liked.
      You had it easy and Sal would flake off.

      I think both of them deserve this. Linda gets to see how much she would really hate if Sal was a clingy goody two shoes.

      Lucy has to learn she can’t force people to like her. But she is darned going to try. ( or always socially climb over some people like Billy ) . Not that Lucy deserves Lindas racism. NO one does. Its just funny to inflict Lucys passsive aggressive people pleasing on Linda. I like that Lucy cant win here. It would be shitty to Sal , walky and Billy otherwise. I want to Lucy to just show up Carols Sam-I-am style.

      1. adam black

        hate this gravatar

        1. Pergola

          I wish -I- could play the uke and wear a hat with panache.

  38. CrazyJ

    Back when Jennifer was ranking siblings I commented that she was probably wrong on her rankings since Lucy at least got an invite for lunch, but now it isn’t so clear who is regarded worse. I mean Sal still wasn’t told they were coming for the weekend, wasn’t invited to lunch or for dinner. I guess in Linda’s mind she still has to be polite to Lucy and make excuses to snub her whereas Sal deserves her treatment.

    Although from Sal’s perspective, her weekend really shouldn’t be ruined like she claimed. She can take off and stay out of her parent’s sight for the weekend and neither party will ever miss or even inquire about the other.

    1. BBCC

      Given how bad they make her feel, just seeing them might have been enough to kill her weekend. She’s said twice that she felt like dying around them.

    2. PhyrexianRogue

      I doubt being polite to Lucy has anything to do with it, it just hurts relations with the (potentially salvageable) golden child if you’re going to openly tell them their undesirable girlfriend can’t come. Much cleaner if things just happen to make it so she can’t come with them. (And won’t be there when trying to talk some sense back into the child).

      1. adam black

        she screwed up by being do friendly to Joyce. ( she wouldnt if she knew she was Carols daughter ) .

  39. Amelie Wikström

    You know, if they found such a fantastic eatery just for adults, they could probably have dinner there as well. Or even go Saturday or Sunday, heck, wasn’t it going to be a three or four day weekend?

    As an excuse for getting out of seeing the kids who are the reason they came to town, it’s so thin I’m 90% sure they want their golden boy’s girlfriend to know they want to avoid having even one polite conversation with her.

  40. Freezer

    Take the hint, Lucy! Say you have to iron your hair tonight! (Linda would probably take that literally)

    1. Raen

      …honestly, Linda would probably just assume she meant “relax”/”perm.”

    2. adam black

      Taking Hints in not in Lucy’s skillset.
      Ignoring boundaries and eager sacharine people pleasing are.

  41. Plaaaa

    Next scene has Walky’s parents having lunch with Dorothy

    1. Sombrero

      This.

  42. Raen

    “TAKE ME TO YOUR POSHEST!”

    1. Raen

      (Honestly, though, at this point, I feel like if one of Chauvin’s kids – the cop, not the Napoleonic lieutenant – brought home a Black partner, he’d be more subtle than this.)

  43. ValdVin

    Alt text: By French we mean Walky really likes his Bechamel, Veloute, and especially Hollandaise.

    1. Needfuldoer

      Don’t forget the brie and caramelized onions.

      1. NGPZ

        Caramelized onions…. ?

    2. Pergola

      Nachos ala hollandaise.
      I’m hungry now.

  44. Alan in DC

    Google says there’s a White Castle about five miles from campus; just off Rt 69 at W 3rd.
    Assuming it’s still there, sounds like the Walkertons are all set.

  45. Alan in DC

    ^^ (Reply to Cholma, misplaced)

  46. Segnosaur

    Plot twist: walky’s parents are having lunch with Carol, whom they happened to run into by chance. The 3 of them commiserate about the bad choices their children have made.

    They form another criminal conspiracy to “fix” the problem, a la Blaine and toe dad.

    1. Needfuldoer

      I think Carol and Linda would be more likely to fight than team up.

      The only reason their last confrontation ended was because of Hank.

      https://www.dumbingofage.com/won/

  47. poyo

    JESUS what is their mom’s damage ???
    i like how they said “we’re sorry if lucy can’t make it” and not “would lucy still be able to make it?” people really reveal themselves in their words

  48. Dot

    Feels like Lucy should be able to figure this out at this point.

    1. Bryy

      Lucy is incredibly naive, but yes.

      1. Psi baka onna

        Naive and likes to see the best in people. Since she doesn’t have the same context as us, I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s thinking that Linda is genuine in her apology for rearranging the meal and may even be touched that Linda thought to say sorry at all.

        Watching her realise her boyfriend’s mum is racist is gonna hurt…

    2. BBCC

      She can figure out they don’t like her but probably won’t clue in as to why.

      1. Dot

        She is a young Black woman in Indiana, and she’s already gotten several very strong clues. She should be able to figure this out on her own.

  49. Essex

    Someone (Walky) needs to just be upfront with Lucy and admit that his mom doesnt want to spend time with Lucy because she is a racist who is upset with who her son is dating.

    1. Rikunda

      I still don’t get how you can be racist while married to a black guy. You love your black son, but not your black daughter.

  50. nightshade

    yeah thats not a hint eh?

  51. Perdellian

    “made french”?
    As in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_French?
    Don’t think I’ve ever actually seen/heard that referenced outside of Western NY.

    1. Tan

      It is a callback to https://www.dumbingofage.com/2023/comic/book-13/03-joementum/farm-2/

  52. Yakumo

    It feels like Lucy would have to fall into the category Becky mentions in the last panel of the last strip vis a vis at least mom to want to be available for dinner.

  53. elfroyalty

    “they’re acting so much more cartoonishly racist now!”

    now I may just be a guy who has re-read this comic too many times, but the first time we met the walkerton parents (freshman family weekend)

    Linda utterly ignored Sal for the entirety of their visit in favour of walky, including when Sal tried to say goodbye, twice in one strip. Charles made a comment about Sal’s curly hair that read, as follows, “Too bad. You look so pretty when it’s long and straight.”

    next: the flashback in “I was a teenage church mouse” wherein she favoured walky over sal as children (sal has curly hair in puffs, a distinctly black feature of hers that is called to attention regularly, and walky has straight hair)

    then the flash-back to sal meeting marcie (who is a brown-skinned latina) wherein linda states that marcie will be “knocking over convenience stores” and refers to her as a vagrant

    their next mention was the care packages, wherein they sent walky and jennifer large care packages and sal a significantly smaller one, one the same size as dorothy’s (who they had met… once)

    please note that sal is at oldest about 13 in the following flashbacks and her hair has been (likely chemically) straightened (and in a later flashback she is depicted at kindergarten-age with straight hair, so probably even younger her hair has been straightened on/off)

    then there’s charles, at the hospital with sal after marcie had her throat smashed in, googling “can illegal immigrants get health insurance” (there is no evidence regarding marcie’s immigration status)

    oh and of course linda describing marcie and her entire family and everyone she hangs out with as “hoodlums” (marcie did not participate in any of the robberies and there is no reason to have assumed marcie’s family were “hoodlums”) and then stealing sal’s hard-earned money that she had been saving up specifically after failing to gofundme marcie’s surgery, all of which had been acquired legally

    then of course there’s linda just utterly ignoring sal when going on about getting amber kicked out of school, while listening to jennifer as she explains what are, ultimately, the exact same points (giving amber’s dad what she wants would be both morally and socially bad)

    and, of course, there’s linda and charles not bothering to try contacting sal about their visit, instead relying on walky to pass on the message to her, when you can type 2 emails into the send bar just as easily.

    this is obvious because we have 13 years of comics wherein their racism is highlighted and discussed by the cast, and because the characters literally pointed it out 5 strips ago.

    and this is all while keeping in mind that their kids are mixed-race, with relatively light-to-mid brown skin, and significantly whiter features than dark skinned, cool-toned lucy with her broad nose and natural hair. she is by far the most visibly black girl that we have seen them interact with on-screen. so even IF this was somehow out-of-pocket for them, somehow less subtle than any other instance of their racism, it makes narrative sense.

    if you think the above examples are particularly subtle, then i’m not really sure what to tell you. the care packages were from 2016! the charles strip is from 2018! they have been like this the whole time, you just noticed now.

    1. Wereg

      I adore how comprehensive of a breakdown this is

    2. DailyBrad

      Re-reading does help, versus having it microdosed over years, but I agree that the dogwhistles weren’t all that quiet to me, though maybe that’s due to osmosis, having a pretty diverse social group and family, so I’ve heard a lot of this before, more or less.

    3. BBCC

      Thank you. Genuinely. I did not have the energy to find and type all this out myself.

    4. not alex

      WHEW. Thank you for spelling it out for the people in the back.

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