I’d say Billie is the bottom in her and Ruth’s relationship, so if there’s any hitting of bottoms there, I’m pretty sure Ruth’s the one hitting Billie’s bottom.
As said extensively down below, Walky came to Ruth as the RA to help Billie. That didn’t happen and now Walky has expressed repeated unhappiness and displeasure with Ruth as an RA and, generally, as a person.
But he also knows Billie ain’t exactly a ball of sunshine, happiness, and freedom from issues.
I thought you were messing with us, so I had to go look that one up, as I had never heard of it, surprisingly. Just binged some of it, it is pretty good. Thanks for the new (to me) comic to read.
(No, enjoy whatever you want. The author’s a major dick, in my opinion, and his dickishness seeps into the comic and I don’t know why I spent my time as a 14 year old hate-reading a furry webcomic, but. Yeah, I guess have fun with it.)
Note, that I said some of it, as in the first 10 or 15 pages or so. Normally I have trouble with furry comics, with some notable exceptions, (Precocious, among others), but I thought the characters were interesting. However, I have considered your opinion and if I get any bad vibes I will stop reading.
Def not. She probably wanted a fellow drinker and partier, and then later someone just as depressed as she was. What “better” person would be interested in her anyway?
I just went down the entire list on the right side of this page for an exception, and the only one I could come up with was Jacob. And we probably just don’t know what his issue is yet.
Sierra seems to be in pretty good shape, all things considered. Comfortable in her sexuality, supportive parents, and while there’s a lot of stressors in the hall Sierra doesn’t seem to be taking too much of it on herself. Still, never hurts to have check ins this close to midterms.
She’s too healthy. I don’t trust it. In a few chapters, we’re gonna find out she has a secret spot in the park with like, a dead body she makes out with, or something. /s
Dina benefited from Amber’s practical advice. She may not need a traditional therapist but she could definitely use someone who could explain social interactions and cues in her own terms.
For those who read Questionable Content way back in the day, there was that moment when the therapist refused to take any more members of her client’s inner circle. Because the entire cast was starting to go.
“‘Just go out and bang some dude’ is one of the phrases you will never hear a psychiatrist say. Other such phrases include ‘I think the heroin is doing you a lot of good,’ and ‘Jesus, no WONDER your mother never loved you.'”
I remember that! Not that I was reading it “back in the day”. I was going to find the strip in question, but I don’t want to end up re-reading QC for the 4th(?) time right now.
Expected better from Ruth, I believe. Walky was furious with Ruth when the whole alcohol/suicide pact thing came to light earlier, since he had specifically gone to her asking her to help with Billie.
Yeah, I referenced that comic down below. Threw in another link as well so it’s (as of this comment) still awaiting moderation, but that was the first one I thought of.
I keep thinking that in Leslie’s class, there might be some discussion of why a male freshman would refer to a female sophomore as “that lady,” presumably because she is so much older than him.
I think Ruth might be a junior. She’s twenty, two years older than Walky. But wait a minute. He called her by a term that means an adult female. Other than “woman”, what else should he have called her? “Girl” wouldn’t have been appropriate.
Expected Billie to deserve better instead of someone like Ruth being exactly as good as she deserved. I think this is one of those times when Walky’s thought process gets deceptively complex.
Huh, this is not how I imagined this conversation going. Nor is it what I expected from Walky at all. I didn’t think he cared that much about Billie and Ruth’s relationship.
Off the top of my head, these are the two most recent times Walky has expressed an opinion on Ruth/Billie:
“Y’know, I was trying to be supportive in there, but really? Honestly? That R.A. pisses me off. When Billie crawled into my bed, I went to her. She was supposed to fix things. I trusted that lady to help, ‘cuz she was supposed to be the adult, but instead she was the source of the goshdanged problem.” – http://www.dumbingofage.com/2016/comic/book-6/04-it-all-returns/labcoats/
Not sure what Billie being completely plastered has to do with Ruth being better. Other than that Ruth’s getting better is why Billie was plastered – or at least why she was plastered there instead of with Ruth.
“You’re EXACTLY good enough for her, and that’s the problem.”
Walky knows what a mess Billie is. He hoped she’d find someone that uplifts her in some way. Instead, she got alcoholic sexy suicide pact. (I say this as someone who loves Ruth & Billie, but I also kinda think Walky is right to hate Ruth.)
Billie’s problem is Billie. It was still Ruth’s responsibility not to be a part of that. (I’m glad she chose wrong, because…story! But so wrong.) Walky wanted Billie to have a supportive SO and a responsible, helpful RA. Instead, Billie got a terrible RA and a depressed, alcoholic SO and oops they’re the same person.
Ruth was the R.A. She had accepted this responsibility of being better.
It’s a somewhat unreasonable and unfair responsibility, but it existed nonetheless, and it was reasonable of Walky to depend on it. It’s her job, and she’s being paid in room and board.
To be fair, she didn’t want the responsibility, it was pushed onto her, via her abusive grandpa. She was acting out in part, as an attempt to finally get fired. Now that she’s on meds, I guess she’s trying to do a less worser job.
Oh hell no, Ruth does not HAVE to be better for Billie. Ruth is getting help. Ruth is trying to be better for HERSELF, which is exactly what she should be doing right now. Billie needs to get better too before she loses Ruth, IMO.
But it is not the whole of the truth. Because Ruth does have to be better due to her position as an RA.
Which is in part what Walky is pissed . about, because he went to Ruth for help when he saw Billie was in dire straights, because that’s kind of her job.
And he’s not entirely wrong to still be pretty upset with her, especially since it’s been.. what, two weeks?
I’m glad that Willis is representing the daily slog of getting better. (As in getting healthier from depression, but in Ruth’s case, also trying to change and live down her previous bad actions, too.)
Getting healthier can be such constant, difficult, invisible work.
I feel seen. Mad props to everyone on similar journeys.
Walky needs to wind his neck in. Billie was self-destructing just fine, well before she met Ruth. Ruth is a symptom, at worst an enabler of behavior that Billie will partake without any enabling at all.
I find it kind of hilarious that all the settings elements of Kingdom Hearts can be summarized as “metaphysics”. I’m sure it’s accurate, it’s just funny to hear it summarized so, uh, scientifically?
Some would argue that happened in, like, chapter 4, when the mother sat down for a student-teacher conference with her son’s teacher, Miss Straw-Feminist Bedbutter, as the son turned every assignment into counter-propaganda to Miss Bedbutter’s agenda.
I’m jealous. I’ve got severe depression, too, but I’m so bad at taking my meds that I think they’ve expired. I’d have to find the bottle first to find out.
Walky has unrealistic expectations. A girlfriend/RA can’t fix Billie’s depression and alcoholism. She didn’t even want to be fixed. It really depends mostly on her to improve herself. Lately she has had therapy appointments but never goes to them. Are YOU gonna try and persuade her, Walky?
Eh, Billie did that of her own free will. RAs may have a position of authority, but they are only a couple years older than freshmen, so they’re not much wiser or anything.
Related, Jason is only 22, which is much younger than I had thought. Which explains his lack of thinking when he did not back out from Sal. I wonder when will Walky find out about that. And what will his reaction be?
Nonetheless, Walky went to the authority who’s supposed to help when Billie was in trouble and that authority was actually a large part of the problem, which led her to be unable to help.
That’s one of the reasons relationships with the RA are forbidden.
I think it’s more likely that he’ll throw them away. This isn’t the first time it’s been indicated that Dorothy wanting to ‘pause’ their relationship has seriously messed him up on a few levels.
I think Walky takes a lot of responsibility upon himself. He’s not good at actually doing things about it, and then he beats himself up about that, but he has high expectations for what he should do for the people he cares about.
I really hope that trying harder with Sal will be rewarding for him, too.
What I think Walky is trying to say is that words and aspirations are easy; delivery is hard. Ruth should excuse him if he is only impressed after he sees concrete and lasting changes.
To be fair to him, Ruth represents the possible first time he has internalized being failed by an adult. Like, his parents were and are awful, but he was largely shielded from that and lay on the outside of a lot of Sal’s problems with adults and the system.
But for him, he had trusted those same things and so when he reached out to Ruth to help with Billie, trusting her to be the adult, instead (in his eyes) she slept with Billie and enabled some of her dangerous thought patterns and bad habits.
So in his eyes, Ruth is the embodiment of adult betrayal who endangered his almost-sister at a time when he is feeling deeply protective of his little family.
Mm, true. It’s not fair to lay that entirely on Ruth’s doorstep, but given recent events, maybe being ‘fair’ isn’t first on his list. Part of my assessment is his treatment of Joyce in the last couple strips too, which feels less ‘playful banter’ and more ‘god, try harder why don’t you’.
It’s not fair, but it’s reasonable for him to see it that way. If she’d just failed that would be one thing, but she was tied directly to the problem.
And it’s fair in the sense that this was a thing she should have been fired for. It’s more complicated than that, but it very often is and Ruth crossed a serious line.
In truth, I think that Walky is well aware of his own inadequacies. At worst, I think that he isn’t aware of all of them or he’s falling back on the ‘I am who I am’ excuse and claiming that he can’t change.
Walky is not perfect, but struggling with learning how to study and his poor track record with Sal are a very far cry from suicide pact. Walky does have the moral high ground here.
It really kills me sometimes how much Ruth loves Billie. <3 <3 <3 I few short days? ago she thought she could never be better then she was, now here she is saying she can be in response to what Walky said <3
I… Kinda hate Walkie for this line. So far, one of Walkie’s biggest personal struggles has been that he isn’t picking up on college-level math as quickly as he’s used to and he’s handling that like a real dumpster fire. It isn’t even that he can’t do it, it’s that he barely even tries. He puts in next to no effort and then wallows in how he’s supposed to be the smart one.
Ruth is a mentally ill, suicidal orphan who spent much of her life under the thumb of her physically and emotionally abusive grandfather and she is actually putting in effort towards self-improvement. She could have taken the easy out and not tried in therapy, fallen back on old ways and let her and Billie’s life go to hell. But, she didn’t. She is going to therapy. She is staying sober. She is taking her medicine. She’s doing what she needs to in order to be better for herself and for Billie and I really don’t think treating her so abrasively is justified. Especially after she just tried to give him help with his grades and extend a peace offering.
And I know I am always in Ruth’s corner lately. But I really relate with her struggle against mental illness and the effects of years of abuse. It’s hard to improve as a person when you struggle with self-hatred.
How much of that does Walky know?
How much is he just worried about her effect on his near-sister Billie? He doesn’t know what she’s trying to do for Billie, he’s just seen Billie get caught up in the suicide pact.
Again, most people know the fallout of Ruth’s mental illness. I think I’ve mentioned that before. The fact that she’s been to therapy has been often spoken about in very public manner. And, regardless, he JUST had a lesson from Sal about looking deeper into other people’s motivations before jumping to the most convenient conclusion.
Honestly? Go Walky. Yes we as the audience know how two way Ruth and Billies relationship was and how genuinely Ruth has already changed, but Walky has yet to see the full extent. He sees Ruth doing kind of better and Billie still… Billie-ing. So, “cool words, still don’t want you near my surrogate sister til I know it won’t go toxic again.” And I think from what perspective he has that’s a fair thing to say.
Right. Walky is frankly justified here. Not saying it doesn’t hurt, or that I don’t have compassion for Ruth, but she betrayed his trust, and was really damn unethical. You can recognize this and still recognize Ruth’s pain.
Ruth has the most single minded and obnoxious fanbase at this point. Zero perspective or understanding towards any of the people who rightfully distrust or are critical towards someone they have every reason to be wary of.
“um… good talk, yo” *awkward fistbump motion*
Maybe not, but I;m really not sure where we’re going here.
Nether are they.
Not sure if accidental misspelling or intentional reference to nether regions…
butts, your input needed here.
Truce?
Well, that was… unnecessarily cutting, given what little interaction these two have had.
I don’t think so. It expresses profound disappointment in both of them.
They’re both pretty disappointing as people. Ruth is attempting to improve. Billie hasn’t hit a bottom hard enough yet.
I’d say Billie is the bottom in her and Ruth’s relationship, so if there’s any hitting of bottoms there, I’m pretty sure Ruth’s the one hitting Billie’s bottom.
….in the metaphorical sense, or in the sense that they have a spanking fetish? Or both?
Both. Though I think they have more of a fighting/violence fetish.
And I’m not sure Billie was always, or even mostly, playing the bottom. She’s fought back and turned the tables more than once.
So either Billie’s a switch, or the tables are.
It can at times be difficult to tell a bratty sub from a switch.
i’m just not really sure where they interacted long enough for Ruth to have discerned that?
They have four pages of shared-tag strips, apparently. But my loading’s awful so I can’t check them all.
As said extensively down below, Walky came to Ruth as the RA to help Billie. That didn’t happen and now Walky has expressed repeated unhappiness and displeasure with Ruth as an RA and, generally, as a person.
But he also knows Billie ain’t exactly a ball of sunshine, happiness, and freedom from issues.
I’m not sure he’s meaning the weight of that to be fully on Ruth. I think he’s also expressing his disappointment in Billie’s baseline.
But is Billie interested in “better”…
THATS the question!
“Dunno, they remind me of Better Days”
No Walky, Better Days was a completely different webcomic that finished years ago. ;D
You don’t understand how upset I am that I know that of which you speak.
Jeeze. I thought that sounded familiar.
Lol really? I really liked that comic.
I was kinda sad when the sequel “Original Life” ran out of steam mid-storyline… >_>
I thought you were messing with us, so I had to go look that one up, as I had never heard of it, surprisingly. Just binged some of it, it is pretty good. Thanks for the new (to me) comic to read.
*screeching noises*
(No, enjoy whatever you want. The author’s a major dick, in my opinion, and his dickishness seeps into the comic and I don’t know why I spent my time as a 14 year old hate-reading a furry webcomic, but. Yeah, I guess have fun with it.)
Note, that I said some of it, as in the first 10 or 15 pages or so. Normally I have trouble with furry comics, with some notable exceptions, (Precocious, among others), but I thought the characters were interesting. However, I have considered your opinion and if I get any bad vibes I will stop reading.
Def not. She probably wanted a fellow drinker and partier, and then later someone just as depressed as she was. What “better” person would be interested in her anyway?
She wanted someone she couldn’t ruin, because they were already ruined.
Yeah…and, oh, apparently Ruth is Better now, and alcohol would ruin it. Alcohol that Billie won’t give up. Oops?
She’s helping Walky. Training up to better help Billie.
Dumbing of Age Book 9: Neat
DoA Book 9: I Can Be Better
Dumbing of Age Book IX: But I’m Not Ready to be Nostalgic
Dumbing of Age book 9: I’d really prefer if you’d take these back
Ouch.
*Shoves both Walky and Billie into therapy*
*Pause, consideration*
*Shoves everyone into therapy*
Not the same session though. That would just be unfair to the therapist.
I just went down the entire list on the right side of this page for an exception, and the only one I could come up with was Jacob. And we probably just don’t know what his issue is yet.
Shit taste in girlfriends.
Sierra seems to be in pretty good shape, all things considered. Comfortable in her sexuality, supportive parents, and while there’s a lot of stressors in the hall Sierra doesn’t seem to be taking too much of it on herself. Still, never hurts to have check ins this close to midterms.
Guess Sierra works. Unless the “no shoes” thing is due to some sort of bizarre phobia.
She’s too healthy. I don’t trust it. In a few chapters, we’re gonna find out she has a secret spot in the park with like, a dead body she makes out with, or something. /s
We haven’t seen the squirrel in a while.
You think maybe Sierra went off the vegan bandwagon?
I blame Momo.
https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1485
That strip is copyright 2009.
Squirrel’s last tagged appearance was in 2014: http://www.dumbingofage.com/2014/comic/book-4/02-i-was-a-teenage-churchmouse/crankier/
So Momo is clearly blameless.
Dina. Dina is well adjusted. She may be a bit unusual, but she owns it and is happy with who she is. How many people can say the same?
Dina benefited from Amber’s practical advice. She may not need a traditional therapist but she could definitely use someone who could explain social interactions and cues in her own terms.
So in her case, either a therapist or an anthropologist will do.
Sarah’s alright. Horribly misanthropic, but otherwise? She’s doing ok.
Recovering sex addict.
From the main cast page? Yeah, I think most of them could benefit from it.
Good luck getting some of them to say anything though.
For those who read Questionable Content way back in the day, there was that moment when the therapist refused to take any more members of her client’s inner circle. Because the entire cast was starting to go.
“‘Just go out and bang some dude’ is one of the phrases you will never hear a psychiatrist say. Other such phrases include ‘I think the heroin is doing you a lot of good,’ and ‘Jesus, no WONDER your mother never loved you.'”
https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=809
*clicks on a link*
Aaand the second line got eaten by the html. That’ll teach me to use > and < when writing.
I remember that! Not that I was reading it “back in the day”. I was going to find the strip in question, but I don’t want to end up re-reading QC for the 4th(?) time right now.
I was like “oh, I know what you mean, but I’ll just read this one strip”. Two and a half hours later…
Only the fourth? pffft, amateur. (just kidding)
neat-o
Holy shit, Walky. That was brutal.
Seriously, goddamn.
From Worst to First–Then back to Worst…
Huh. Expected better from Ruth, or expected the universe would find her someone better?
Expected better from Ruth, I believe. Walky was furious with Ruth when the whole alcohol/suicide pact thing came to light earlier, since he had specifically gone to her asking her to help with Billie.
“I trusted that lady to help, ‘cuz she was supposed to be the adult.”
Yeah, I referenced that comic down below. Threw in another link as well so it’s (as of this comment) still awaiting moderation, but that was the first one I thought of.
I keep thinking that in Leslie’s class, there might be some discussion of why a male freshman would refer to a female sophomore as “that lady,” presumably because she is so much older than him.
Everyone is older than Walky, even if they’re not. It’s part of what defines him.
I think Ruth might be a junior. She’s twenty, two years older than Walky. But wait a minute. He called her by a term that means an adult female. Other than “woman”, what else should he have called her? “Girl” wouldn’t have been appropriate.
I assume in this case it had more to do with the authority position she’s in and thus the more adult role she has.
Man, thanks for the link. Had completely forgotten about it, and that comic explain a lot about his relationship with Ruth.
Expected Billie to deserve better instead of someone like Ruth being exactly as good as she deserved. I think this is one of those times when Walky’s thought process gets deceptively complex.
Not the Ruth she deserves, but maybe the Ruth she needs right now…
Huh, this is not how I imagined this conversation going. Nor is it what I expected from Walky at all. I didn’t think he cared that much about Billie and Ruth’s relationship.
Off the top of my head, these are the two most recent times Walky has expressed an opinion on Ruth/Billie:
“Y’know, I was trying to be supportive in there, but really? Honestly? That R.A. pisses me off. When Billie crawled into my bed, I went to her. She was supposed to fix things. I trusted that lady to help, ‘cuz she was supposed to be the adult, but instead she was the source of the goshdanged problem.” – http://www.dumbingofage.com/2016/comic/book-6/04-it-all-returns/labcoats/
“If you want something just as self-destructive [as alcohol] but legal, just invite Ruth.” – http://www.dumbingofage.com/2019/comic/book-9-comic/02-but-the-sun-still-shines/survey-2/
Huh, fair enough. I guess I didn’t realize that Walky had his own thoughts on Ruth and that they were less than flattering. Thanks for the info.
How do you manage to post two links without ending up in moderation hell?
With SCIENCE!
(Sorry, I’m just silly. As far as I know it’s not possible. My guess is that Willis was simply quick to moderate that post)
Another relevant link, where Walky expressed these feelings to Ruth directly: http://www.dumbingofage.com/2018/comic/book-8/03-faz-is-great/actualfactual/
Oof, I’ve been on the recieving end of a Neat like that. Not fun.
Walky’s like, okay then, do that and then I’ll believe you
Yup. And given that last time he saw Billie she was completely plastered, he is not that impressed so far.
Not sure what Billie being completely plastered has to do with Ruth being better. Other than that Ruth’s getting better is why Billie was plastered – or at least why she was plastered there instead of with Ruth.
Walky came to Ruth for help when Billie was at her lowest point.
He doesn’t think she has done a good job helping her.
Well, certainly that, but Billie getting completely plastered isn’t exactly new or necessarily tied to Ruth.
Sorry Walky. Billie is kinda trash. Caveat that Billie is also 18 and most 18 year olds are kinda trash because they’re still growing.
I was trash at 18. I am better heading towards 30
She may be trash, but she’s his like-a-bullying-sister trash.
“You’re EXACTLY good enough for her, and that’s the problem.”
Walky knows what a mess Billie is. He hoped she’d find someone that uplifts her in some way. Instead, she got alcoholic sexy suicide pact. (I say this as someone who loves Ruth & Billie, but I also kinda think Walky is right to hate Ruth.)
And she’s got someone who is getting better and that’s driving her away. I’m not sure the problem here is Ruth.
Billie’s problem is Billie. It was still Ruth’s responsibility not to be a part of that. (I’m glad she chose wrong, because…story! But so wrong.) Walky wanted Billie to have a supportive SO and a responsible, helpful RA. Instead, Billie got a terrible RA and a depressed, alcoholic SO and oops they’re the same person.
Oh, that last panel is relatable as hell.
“nostaligic”
We can make her better than she was. We have the technology.
Stronger. Better. Faster. And with a larger femur collection.
The Six Million Femur Woman.
Wait, maybe that’s a little too close to the end of last Sunday’s GOT.
And what do we say to the Goddess of Femurs?
We say (in Dothraki) “Femurs for the Femur Goddess!”
That just puts the image of Ruth doing Derringer Meryl cosplay. Only with femurs instead of derringers.
Well… CARLA has the technology.
And she would absolutely help.
Why, Walky? Why would you expect better? You get what you pay for, in this world.
Ruth was the R.A. She had accepted this responsibility of being better.
It’s a somewhat unreasonable and unfair responsibility, but it existed nonetheless, and it was reasonable of Walky to depend on it. It’s her job, and she’s being paid in room and board.
Absolutely this!
Which is one reason both Ruth and Walky agrees that it’s complete bullshit that Ruth is RA.
Come to think of it… Billie has a NEW RA now. Maybe she can help.
To be fair, she didn’t want the responsibility, it was pushed onto her, via her abusive grandpa. She was acting out in part, as an attempt to finally get fired. Now that she’s on meds, I guess she’s trying to do a less worser job.
Oh hell no, Ruth does not HAVE to be better for Billie. Ruth is getting help. Ruth is trying to be better for HERSELF, which is exactly what she should be doing right now. Billie needs to get better too before she loses Ruth, IMO.
Word!
This times infinity
This is true!
But it is not the whole of the truth. Because Ruth does have to be better due to her position as an RA.
Which is in part what Walky is pissed . about, because he went to Ruth for help when he saw Billie was in dire straights, because that’s kind of her job.
And he’s not entirely wrong to still be pretty upset with her, especially since it’s been.. what, two weeks?
I’m glad that Willis is representing the daily slog of getting better. (As in getting healthier from depression, but in Ruth’s case, also trying to change and live down her previous bad actions, too.)
Getting healthier can be such constant, difficult, invisible work.
I feel seen. Mad props to everyone on similar journeys.
Walky needs to wind his neck in. Billie was self-destructing just fine, well before she met Ruth. Ruth is a symptom, at worst an enabler of behavior that Billie will partake without any enabling at all.
Excuse me, I’m having objectivist furry flashbacks. ?
You what?
Your avatar is creepy D:
That’ll be Joyce getting startled by her Nobody, Ocyjex. If you’re not familiar with Kingdom Hearts metaphysics, I can elaborate.
I was wondering what your ava was about, but I never got around to asking!
I find it kind of hilarious that all the settings elements of Kingdom Hearts can be summarized as “metaphysics”. I’m sure it’s accurate, it’s just funny to hear it summarized so, uh, scientifically?
The webcomic “Better Days.” The author went full Ayn Rand partway through it.
Some would argue that happened in, like, chapter 4, when the mother sat down for a student-teacher conference with her son’s teacher, Miss Straw-Feminist Bedbutter, as the son turned every assignment into counter-propaganda to Miss Bedbutter’s agenda.
Fisk wasn’t wrong, but propaganda cuts both ways.
Well, that’s about as painless as can be expected I guess.
I’m jealous. I’ve got severe depression, too, but I’m so bad at taking my meds that I think they’ve expired. I’d have to find the bottle first to find out.
Since when does Walky care lol
About Billie?
Since the entire comic, to varying degree of success and varying degree of ability to articulate it.
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2014/comic/book-4/04-the-whiteboard-dong-bandit/firelitup/
Walky has unrealistic expectations. A girlfriend/RA can’t fix Billie’s depression and alcoholism. She didn’t even want to be fixed. It really depends mostly on her to improve herself. Lately she has had therapy appointments but never goes to them. Are YOU gonna try and persuade her, Walky?
Perhaps, but it’s not entirely unrealistic to at least hope the RA won’t enter into a suicide pact with the person when you go to them for help.
Eh, Billie did that of her own free will. RAs may have a position of authority, but they are only a couple years older than freshmen, so they’re not much wiser or anything.
Related, Jason is only 22, which is much younger than I had thought. Which explains his lack of thinking when he did not back out from Sal. I wonder when will Walky find out about that. And what will his reaction be?
Nonetheless, Walky went to the authority who’s supposed to help when Billie was in trouble and that authority was actually a large part of the problem, which led her to be unable to help.
That’s one of the reasons relationships with the RA are forbidden.
Jealous his sister could do it and not himself, since he’ll blow a guy for free pizza and thought it was brilliant someone was getting ahead that way.
So does this mean Walky will go back to wearing those shoes again?
I think it’s more likely that he’ll throw them away. This isn’t the first time it’s been indicated that Dorothy wanting to ‘pause’ their relationship has seriously messed him up on a few levels.
Walky tries to be a good brother…
And it’s hard enough with SAL, who’s main problem is evil parents. With Billie it’s self destruction he has to worry about.
I think Walky takes a lot of responsibility upon himself. He’s not good at actually doing things about it, and then he beats himself up about that, but he has high expectations for what he should do for the people he cares about.
I really hope that trying harder with Sal will be rewarding for him, too.
What I think Walky is trying to say is that words and aspirations are easy; delivery is hard. Ruth should excuse him if he is only impressed after he sees concrete and lasting changes.
Neat™
Question is, can Billie be better.
I think she can; she’s demonstrated this on a few occasions. However, it’s motivating her to be better that’s going to be the difficult part.
Oh hey the name of the next storyline changed
Not the first time – Book 6’s final chapter, “It All Returns, was originally titled “Returns to Nothing” for one example off the top of my head.
“Worser”, Ruth? Really?
It’s archaic, but it’s a real word.
Not sure when Walky decided behaving like a relentless chode to nearly everyone in x radius began, but it’s not a good look.
Really? It seems more like this is Walky being genuine, not a chode.
Sure he still is socially awkward, but that hasn’t changed since the comic began.
I mean, those two things aren’t always mutually exclusive.
To be fair to him, Ruth represents the possible first time he has internalized being failed by an adult. Like, his parents were and are awful, but he was largely shielded from that and lay on the outside of a lot of Sal’s problems with adults and the system.
But for him, he had trusted those same things and so when he reached out to Ruth to help with Billie, trusting her to be the adult, instead (in his eyes) she slept with Billie and enabled some of her dangerous thought patterns and bad habits.
So in his eyes, Ruth is the embodiment of adult betrayal who endangered his almost-sister at a time when he is feeling deeply protective of his little family.
Yup. And also a piece of him assigning some of his self-blame to Ruth. The best Walky could do to help Billie was to ask Ruth.
That clearly wasn’t good enough – neither of them did good enough.
Mm, true. It’s not fair to lay that entirely on Ruth’s doorstep, but given recent events, maybe being ‘fair’ isn’t first on his list. Part of my assessment is his treatment of Joyce in the last couple strips too, which feels less ‘playful banter’ and more ‘god, try harder why don’t you’.
It’s not fair, but it’s reasonable for him to see it that way. If she’d just failed that would be one thing, but she was tied directly to the problem.
And it’s fair in the sense that this was a thing she should have been fired for. It’s more complicated than that, but it very often is and Ruth crossed a serious line.
“not good enough for Billie” can only be applied to a VERY limited set of the strip’s characters
Wanna turn that judgemental gaze inward for a second, Walky?
In truth, I think that Walky is well aware of his own inadequacies. At worst, I think that he isn’t aware of all of them or he’s falling back on the ‘I am who I am’ excuse and claiming that he can’t change.
Walky is not perfect, but struggling with learning how to study and his poor track record with Sal are a very far cry from suicide pact. Walky does have the moral high ground here.
Does he have another way of looking at himself? I think Danny’s the only DOA guy who has been harder on himself, also arguably Joe.
It really kills me sometimes how much Ruth loves Billie. <3 <3 <3 I few short days? ago she thought she could never be better then she was, now here she is saying she can be in response to what Walky said <3
I… Kinda hate Walkie for this line. So far, one of Walkie’s biggest personal struggles has been that he isn’t picking up on college-level math as quickly as he’s used to and he’s handling that like a real dumpster fire. It isn’t even that he can’t do it, it’s that he barely even tries. He puts in next to no effort and then wallows in how he’s supposed to be the smart one.
Ruth is a mentally ill, suicidal orphan who spent much of her life under the thumb of her physically and emotionally abusive grandfather and she is actually putting in effort towards self-improvement. She could have taken the easy out and not tried in therapy, fallen back on old ways and let her and Billie’s life go to hell. But, she didn’t. She is going to therapy. She is staying sober. She is taking her medicine. She’s doing what she needs to in order to be better for herself and for Billie and I really don’t think treating her so abrasively is justified. Especially after she just tried to give him help with his grades and extend a peace offering.
And I know I am always in Ruth’s corner lately. But I really relate with her struggle against mental illness and the effects of years of abuse. It’s hard to improve as a person when you struggle with self-hatred.
How much of that does Walky know?
How much is he just worried about her effect on his near-sister Billie? He doesn’t know what she’s trying to do for Billie, he’s just seen Billie get caught up in the suicide pact.
Again, most people know the fallout of Ruth’s mental illness. I think I’ve mentioned that before. The fact that she’s been to therapy has been often spoken about in very public manner. And, regardless, he JUST had a lesson from Sal about looking deeper into other people’s motivations before jumping to the most convenient conclusion.
Honestly? Go Walky. Yes we as the audience know how two way Ruth and Billies relationship was and how genuinely Ruth has already changed, but Walky has yet to see the full extent. He sees Ruth doing kind of better and Billie still… Billie-ing. So, “cool words, still don’t want you near my surrogate sister til I know it won’t go toxic again.” And I think from what perspective he has that’s a fair thing to say.
Right. Walky is frankly justified here. Not saying it doesn’t hurt, or that I don’t have compassion for Ruth, but she betrayed his trust, and was really damn unethical. You can recognize this and still recognize Ruth’s pain.
Looks like real, positive strides toward recovery are underway.
(Good thing there’s no such thing as a ‘Drama Tag’ in this more real-ish reality!)
Ruth is already doing better.
Ruth has the most single minded and obnoxious fanbase at this point. Zero perspective or understanding towards any of the people who rightfully distrust or are critical towards someone they have every reason to be wary of.