I was about to point out, that you obviously forgot to refresh the It’s Walky! front page, but then realized that for the first hour of this strip the nap vampire had still been there.
Still, that It’sWalky comic is innacurate – Joyce isn’t being a nap _vampire_. Vampires drain something from others to make them stronger. Joyce is infecting Walky with nappiness – she’s more of a nap plague zombie.
Sarah, OTOH, is being a literal smile vampire – she drains people’s smiles to fuel her own. No ‘reverse’ about it.
She doesn’t feed off the smiles, though; smiley people leave her in a foul mood.
Smiley people who ceaseto smile are what lift her mood, and the causal link is in that specific direction.
The smiles are not stolen, nor are they even given; when they are discarded, they find their way to Sarah.
I guess she’s more of a smile raccoon? …Which, while not a vampire, is technically still a creature of the night, I guess?
Indeed. This does seem like a conversation to Nope out of.
I’m… not really sure what’s going on with Dina here. Sarah used a fairly common turn of phrase that is not generally to be taken literally.
If someone said “I was looking for my keys for an hour and then they magically turned up on the coffee table” would Dina jump down their throats about implicating her in Wizardry? Cause that seems… extreme. Dina defends her stance if directly challenged (ie, people arguing against evolution or for non-feathered dinos), but generally doesn’t go picking pointless fights over common parlance for no reason.
In fairness to Dina, Sarah DID mean it literally is my take on it.
Needfuldoer
I don’t see how she’d normally accept “Sarah is happy because Joyce is miserable” at face value unless she also thought Sarah is an asshole. More likely she just got caught up in the moment, and that caught her off-guard.
What ktbear said, plus I think Dina wouldn’t be so upset if Sarah’s initial explanation for what was happening wasn’t such a straight forward cause and effect.
IIRC, their relationship has also largely been about being straight forward with each other too (I’m thinking of that scene in the cafeteria where they agreed they could eat together in silence and still be friends) but maybe that was more with Amber?
So far Dina’s only ever had to deal with Joyce saying something completely outrageous with no basis in reality, maybe the “worst” Dina’s ever gotten about it would be that time Joyce asked her for a birthday present and Dina responded that Joyce “renounce magical thinking”, which could either apply to faith as a concept or just the fact that Joyce is, well, Joyce.
Now though, with the fact that Sarah using a turn of phrase has clearly incited Dina into a fit of genuine anger, we might have to consider the idea that is how Dina responds to anything that is, for lack of a better term, magical. If it can’t be rationally explained, triple cited, and demonstrably replicated then Dina isn’t interested in hearing it.
I don’t know how right I am and I am batting like 0/10 in predicting plot twists in this series, but if I’m right I actually really dig it? I’ve got a terrible problem getting out of my own head, accepting that my own lived experiences and how I would react to things don’t apply to everyone and shouldn’t, and I’m interested in seeing that in Dina, especially since so far a lot of her character focus has been growing and maturing instead of any negative traits she might have.
I really appreciate the healthy communication here, where Becky checks in with Dina to make sure everything is okay and Dina provides an honest answer. Communication with your romantic partner! It’s important! (And it’s important in friendships/other relationships too of course)
Of course. Happy Sarah and grumpy Joyce obviously came from the mirror universe.
Needfuldoer
Mirror Walky has a plate of carrot sticks in one hand and a textbook in the other. That’s the only way we know it’s Mirror Walky, because he can’t grow a goatee either.
Deathjavu
No, but Mirror Walky is still irrationally proud of the exactly two hairs on his chin.
Yeah, a better book title would be something like “I Have Been Unwittingly Wrangled Into Role-playing Superstitution by a Good Friend, Thus I am Betrayed”.
Keulen
How did I misspell superstition?
milu
“Superstitution” sounds like an even worse injury to the laws of causality
I love it, too: it would have been a pretty clever Easter egg for most characters, but Becky is definitely the type to plan her winter look around announcing she’s a lesbian to anyone who will listen.
I feel like Dina and Becky are going to break up soon. Dina won’t be willing to compromise her anti-religion views and while Becky doesn’t really care about other people’s religious beliefs or lack thereof, she won’t be willing to give up her Christian views.
It’s not like dina respecting becky’s religion has ever been an issue before. Literally even once. Even when Becky was like “i wanna smash but God won’t let me” dina backed off immediately and respected her choices without a word
Dina generally has expressed no desire to conflict with Becky as long as she doesn’t use it as an excuse to disbelieve science or use her views harmfully. And Becky was more than willing to shed the scientifically impossible parts so there is no reason for Dina to really care if Becky believes in a God or not just because she isn’t able to make herself do the same. She’s more against people that are anti-science rather than being anti-religion.
OK Dina, enough is enough. Are you really going to act like a jerk because she mentioned magic as a joke? Are you so incapable of stopping your scientific obsession that you can’t take a friendly joke for what it is?
This, yes! How does ‘how DARE you mention magic playfully around me?’ match up with having a girlfriend who steadfastly and unironically believes in God, Jesus, miracles, etc.
Daibhid C
Because Becky accepts that Dina doesn’t believe in that stuff, and they agree to disagree.
Sarah (from Dina’s perspective) got her to go along with her irrational beliefs by not properly explaining that that’s what they were. It’s like she tricked Dina into believing in magic herself!
Dina probably doesn’t get that it is a turn of phrase/joke and is overreacting uncontrollably to it because she is autistic so it feels like 1) Sarah believes in magic and 2) tricked her into participating in her beliefs.
Like. If you take what Sarah said completely literally, as Dina seems to be doing, she has implied a belief in magic by saying that is the cause, and she got Dina to take part in it, knowing that with her scientific mindset and lack of other beliefs that would indicate otherwise, she very likely doesn’t believe in magic. Which would feel like, to Dina, a betrayal, like if you tricked someone non-religious into doing a religious ceremony with you by not explaining that it was one.
Dina isn’t even expressing annoyance at the idea of Sarah potentially believing in magic itself, but at the idea of feeling like she was deceived into PARTICIPATING in beliefs she herself does not believe in.
And with science being so important to her, she may be feeling uncontrollable anger about it (like not so fun fact, I have had a meltdown over a small thing before, that I didn’t feel deserved that level of reaction even during it but had no ability to stop, where I felt deep anger and hatred as well as overwhelmingly crushing sadness). So it’s entirely possible she’s not doing it on purpose and is trying to contain it but it is still coming out.
If you are autistic, as Word of Willis has pretty much stated Dina is, you can’t always tell if someone is joking and if no one has explained to you what a turn of phrase actually means, you might take it literally. It likely isn’t a turn of phrase that her parents use and Amber had to teach her about jokes, sarcasm, to script what to say at a party, what an appropriate level of comforting contact is and how to recognise when it is needed.
And you expect her to just ‘know’ that the use of ‘magically’ here isn’t literal? To just know it is a turn of phrase or ‘joke’? When it very well could be the case that no, she can’t take it as the ‘friendly joke it is’ if she isn’t able to read it as one and she might not be in full control of her reaction?
Like, this reads to me personally like some of the not so fun parts of autism of not having the experience to recognise this specific word usage isn’t literal and a surge of uncontrollable emotion in response to a minor thing (which sucks to be stuck in and unable to stop).
Something about all of this worries me. I wonder if Sarah has started like… Therapy and medication offscreen? It wouldn’t be strange after the past semester.
Meanwhile there has to be a BIG reason Dina is being so sensitive about a harmless turn of phrase. “Magically” isn’t a particularly obscure idiom. Me thinks it has everything to do with Becky’s belief in god creating friction between them… That Dina swallows down because despite this nice show of communication in this panel, nobody’s talking about it. Becky has likely found a new church. She’s also probably dragging a newly-atheistic Joyce to it (whom is NOT telling Becky she’s not into it); and has been evading her girlfriend because she’s… Too hot and tempting to sin before marriage?
There’s trouble in paradise here and Booster’s getting a front row seat to watch it.
Yeah… Dina and Becky are walking towards a full blown religious debate ain’t they? And the really sad thing is that Becky’s gonna look at Joyce to back her up, and that’ll probably be the moment she find’s out Joyce is an atheist too
I know it’s unlikely but I really do get the impression that Sarah is somehow getting a positive charge off of Dina, Becky and Joyce’s anger. I’m sort of looking forwards to how the three of them try to explain this in their own heads.
Dina, seriously, it may be unscientific but, if it actually happens, then that means that science hasn’t caught up yet, not that it’s impossible.
Yeah, Dina doesn’t have a problem with the idea that Sarah is somehow getting happier from other people’s negative emptions, she just has a problem with it being magic.
On the other hand, I – looking at the strip from the outside, and knowing the ultimate explanation for everything is “Because that’s how Willis wrote it” do kind of have a problem with it, but that’s my issue.
I’m surprised Joyce knows about the “evil eye”. I wouldn’t have thought it would be something she would have been exposed to when growing up, or at least it wouldn’t have been named as such. Maybe named something else.
98 thoughts on “Wrangled”
Ana Chronistic
Me, thinking of a comment for today’s DoA strip: hahaha it’s like Walkyverse!Joyce being a nap vampire, where is that strip
Me, checking the It’s Walky! front page: oh
MacareuxMoine
I was about to point out, that you obviously forgot to refresh the It’s Walky! front page, but then realized that for the first hour of this strip the nap vampire had still been there.
Deanatay
Still, that It’sWalky comic is innacurate – Joyce isn’t being a nap _vampire_. Vampires drain something from others to make them stronger. Joyce is infecting Walky with nappiness – she’s more of a nap plague zombie.
Sarah, OTOH, is being a literal smile vampire – she drains people’s smiles to fuel her own. No ‘reverse’ about it.
Gigafreak
She doesn’t feed off the smiles, though; smiley people leave her in a foul mood.
Smiley people who ceaseto smile are what lift her mood, and the causal link is in that specific direction.
The smiles are not stolen, nor are they even given; when they are discarded, they find their way to Sarah.
I guess she’s more of a smile raccoon? …Which, while not a vampire, is technically still a creature of the night, I guess?
Cattleprod
Booster backed right out of the comic.
Doctor_Who
They’re gonna just keep backing away and wind up in a toy store staffed with weirdly familiar people.
Slartibeast Button, BIA
Getting out of the blast radius.
DailyBrad
They got their pic, I figure, or are offscreen still trying to get it.
Clif
They went for a wider angel.
UrsulaDavina
They moved on there was probably a bag caught in a tree that caught their eye.
Rose by Any Other Name
Indeed. This does seem like a conversation to Nope out of.
I’m… not really sure what’s going on with Dina here. Sarah used a fairly common turn of phrase that is not generally to be taken literally.
If someone said “I was looking for my keys for an hour and then they magically turned up on the coffee table” would Dina jump down their throats about implicating her in Wizardry? Cause that seems… extreme. Dina defends her stance if directly challenged (ie, people arguing against evolution or for non-feathered dinos), but generally doesn’t go picking pointless fights over common parlance for no reason.
ktbear
In fairness to Dina, Sarah DID mean it literally is my take on it.
Needfuldoer
I don’t see how she’d normally accept “Sarah is happy because Joyce is miserable” at face value unless she also thought Sarah is an asshole. More likely she just got caught up in the moment, and that caught her off-guard.
Rectilinear Propagation
What ktbear said, plus I think Dina wouldn’t be so upset if Sarah’s initial explanation for what was happening wasn’t such a straight forward cause and effect.
IIRC, their relationship has also largely been about being straight forward with each other too (I’m thinking of that scene in the cafeteria where they agreed they could eat together in silence and still be friends) but maybe that was more with Amber?
Spencer
So far Dina’s only ever had to deal with Joyce saying something completely outrageous with no basis in reality, maybe the “worst” Dina’s ever gotten about it would be that time Joyce asked her for a birthday present and Dina responded that Joyce “renounce magical thinking”, which could either apply to faith as a concept or just the fact that Joyce is, well, Joyce.
Now though, with the fact that Sarah using a turn of phrase has clearly incited Dina into a fit of genuine anger, we might have to consider the idea that is how Dina responds to anything that is, for lack of a better term, magical. If it can’t be rationally explained, triple cited, and demonstrably replicated then Dina isn’t interested in hearing it.
I don’t know how right I am and I am batting like 0/10 in predicting plot twists in this series, but if I’m right I actually really dig it? I’ve got a terrible problem getting out of my own head, accepting that my own lived experiences and how I would react to things don’t apply to everyone and shouldn’t, and I’m interested in seeing that in Dina, especially since so far a lot of her character focus has been growing and maturing instead of any negative traits she might have.
Blindness
They may be an ass, but they aren’t stupid…
BBCC
That wouldn’t have worked on her even if she WERE pissy, Joyce, C’mon.
Stephen Bierce
*plays Swing Out Sister’s “Twilight World” on the P.A. speakers*
Suet
Nothing’s gonna stop Sarah now. The sight of Jacob, maybe.
C’mon now, there’s lots of friends to go around. Talk about cold shoulders.
Nicole
I really appreciate the healthy communication here, where Becky checks in with Dina to make sure everything is okay and Dina provides an honest answer. Communication with your romantic partner! It’s important! (And it’s important in friendships/other relationships too of course)
Slartibeast Button, BIA
Wait, is this a cameo from “Smartening Of Age”?
Deathjavu
Of course. Happy Sarah and grumpy Joyce obviously came from the mirror universe.
Needfuldoer
Mirror Walky has a plate of carrot sticks in one hand and a textbook in the other. That’s the only way we know it’s Mirror Walky, because he can’t grow a goatee either.
Deathjavu
No, but Mirror Walky is still irrationally proud of the exactly two hairs on his chin.
Littleslinky.
Communication is just important in everything most of the time!
Littleslinky.
.. I suddenly regret typing this 5 seconds later.
Roborat
We thank you for communicating that.
auroki
Reverse Smile Vampire should be a book title
Lars
Sarah Clinton – Reverse Smile Vampire … Of DOOM
A spin-of about Julia Gray’s Arch Nemesis.
Clif
Thus I am Betrayed would make a good title as well.
Reltzik
I like it, but it’s too short. That’s like 5% of a DoA book title.
Keulen
Yeah, a better book title would be something like “I Have Been Unwittingly Wrangled Into Role-playing Superstitution by a Good Friend, Thus I am Betrayed”.
Keulen
How did I misspell superstition?
milu
“Superstitution” sounds like an even worse injury to the laws of causality
Regalli
Have we seen Becky’s outfit here yet? Either way love how she incorporated her hair color into her Lesbian Flag Attire.
Zippotricks McEdgelord
It first appeared here, I believe.
I love it, too: it would have been a pretty clever Easter egg for most characters, but Becky is definitely the type to plan her winter look around announcing she’s a lesbian to anyone who will listen.
MrSmith
I really want to see Becky act towards Sarah the way she acts towards Dorothy
I don’t think Sarah will let that last long and it’ll be good to see
Kernanator
What do you mean “reverse” smile vampire? She’s taking the smiles from other people, that’s textbook normal smile vampire behavior.
Slartibeast Button, BIA
I think that may just be a “frown vampire.”
Cholma
I think emphasis is on “reverse smile”, Joyce’s word for a frown? (meaning people’s frowns make Sarah smile)
Ray Radlein
The Reverse Smile Vampire was my favorite X-Files Monster of the Week
Bagge
Wait? How did Joycebecome the straight woman in this insanity?
Deathjavu
Because Sarah has ratcheted up her nonsense factor. A balance must be maintained.
Uly
…did you think it’d be Becky and Dina?
Bagge
…fair
Blindness
She has by default…she’s the least over the top at the moment
UrsulaDavina
Reverse Smile Vampire would be a good name for a indie post-punk revial band. Just saying
Some1
I feel like Dina and Becky are going to break up soon. Dina won’t be willing to compromise her anti-religion views and while Becky doesn’t really care about other people’s religious beliefs or lack thereof, she won’t be willing to give up her Christian views.
zee
It’s not like dina respecting becky’s religion has ever been an issue before. Literally even once. Even when Becky was like “i wanna smash but God won’t let me” dina backed off immediately and respected her choices without a word
Sam
Dina generally has expressed no desire to conflict with Becky as long as she doesn’t use it as an excuse to disbelieve science or use her views harmfully. And Becky was more than willing to shed the scientifically impossible parts so there is no reason for Dina to really care if Becky believes in a God or not just because she isn’t able to make herself do the same. She’s more against people that are anti-science rather than being anti-religion.
Needfuldoer
I wonder how much of this is venting, because she bites her tongue around Becky?
Blindness
OK Dina, enough is enough. Are you really going to act like a jerk because she mentioned magic as a joke? Are you so incapable of stopping your scientific obsession that you can’t take a friendly joke for what it is?
Blindness
trying this again…not a fan of BJC
MrSmith
I want to know how Dina can be so anti this yet have a girlfriend that believes in God
anonymsly
This, yes! How does ‘how DARE you mention magic playfully around me?’ match up with having a girlfriend who steadfastly and unironically believes in God, Jesus, miracles, etc.
Daibhid C
Because Becky accepts that Dina doesn’t believe in that stuff, and they agree to disagree.
Sarah (from Dina’s perspective) got her to go along with her irrational beliefs by not properly explaining that that’s what they were. It’s like she tricked Dina into believing in magic herself!
Sam
Dina probably doesn’t get that it is a turn of phrase/joke and is overreacting uncontrollably to it because she is autistic so it feels like 1) Sarah believes in magic and 2) tricked her into participating in her beliefs.
Like. If you take what Sarah said completely literally, as Dina seems to be doing, she has implied a belief in magic by saying that is the cause, and she got Dina to take part in it, knowing that with her scientific mindset and lack of other beliefs that would indicate otherwise, she very likely doesn’t believe in magic. Which would feel like, to Dina, a betrayal, like if you tricked someone non-religious into doing a religious ceremony with you by not explaining that it was one.
Dina isn’t even expressing annoyance at the idea of Sarah potentially believing in magic itself, but at the idea of feeling like she was deceived into PARTICIPATING in beliefs she herself does not believe in.
And with science being so important to her, she may be feeling uncontrollable anger about it (like not so fun fact, I have had a meltdown over a small thing before, that I didn’t feel deserved that level of reaction even during it but had no ability to stop, where I felt deep anger and hatred as well as overwhelmingly crushing sadness). So it’s entirely possible she’s not doing it on purpose and is trying to contain it but it is still coming out.
If you are autistic, as Word of Willis has pretty much stated Dina is, you can’t always tell if someone is joking and if no one has explained to you what a turn of phrase actually means, you might take it literally. It likely isn’t a turn of phrase that her parents use and Amber had to teach her about jokes, sarcasm, to script what to say at a party, what an appropriate level of comforting contact is and how to recognise when it is needed.
And you expect her to just ‘know’ that the use of ‘magically’ here isn’t literal? To just know it is a turn of phrase or ‘joke’? When it very well could be the case that no, she can’t take it as the ‘friendly joke it is’ if she isn’t able to read it as one and she might not be in full control of her reaction?
Like, this reads to me personally like some of the not so fun parts of autism of not having the experience to recognise this specific word usage isn’t literal and a surge of uncontrollable emotion in response to a minor thing (which sucks to be stuck in and unable to stop).
WanderingLynx
Something about all of this worries me. I wonder if Sarah has started like… Therapy and medication offscreen? It wouldn’t be strange after the past semester.
Meanwhile there has to be a BIG reason Dina is being so sensitive about a harmless turn of phrase. “Magically” isn’t a particularly obscure idiom. Me thinks it has everything to do with Becky’s belief in god creating friction between them… That Dina swallows down because despite this nice show of communication in this panel, nobody’s talking about it. Becky has likely found a new church. She’s also probably dragging a newly-atheistic Joyce to it (whom is NOT telling Becky she’s not into it); and has been evading her girlfriend because she’s… Too hot and tempting to sin before marriage?
There’s trouble in paradise here and Booster’s getting a front row seat to watch it.
Hazel
Yes. Awesome comment.
milu
Dude! Put up a spoiler warning at least!
(Jk 😉
Needfuldoer
“Ooh, relationship drama. Neat!” *Camera shutter*
MugiwaraNoPancakes
Yeah… Dina and Becky are walking towards a full blown religious debate ain’t they? And the really sad thing is that Becky’s gonna look at Joyce to back her up, and that’ll probably be the moment she find’s out Joyce is an atheist too
BenRG
I know it’s unlikely but I really do get the impression that Sarah is somehow getting a positive charge off of Dina, Becky and Joyce’s anger. I’m sort of looking forwards to how the three of them try to explain this in their own heads.
Dina, seriously, it may be unscientific but, if it actually happens, then that means that science hasn’t caught up yet, not that it’s impossible.
milu
Nnnnyeah but “magic” doesn’t mean “unexplained by current science” it means “blatantly violating established scientific laws”
Daibhid C
Yeah, Dina doesn’t have a problem with the idea that Sarah is somehow getting happier from other people’s negative emptions, she just has a problem with it being magic.
On the other hand, I – looking at the strip from the outside, and knowing the ultimate explanation for everything is “Because that’s how Willis wrote it” do kind of have a problem with it, but that’s my issue.
0phidiophile
I’m surprised Joyce knows about the “evil eye”. I wouldn’t have thought it would be something she would have been exposed to when growing up, or at least it wouldn’t have been named as such. Maybe named something else.
Needfuldoer
Maybe she meant “evil eye-stares” as in eye stares that are menacing, not “evil-eye stares”.
Then again, Carol…
Mordecai
I don’t know who has already suggested this, as I missed a lot of comments lately. But maybe this is Sarah’s way of cheering up Joyce?
HeySo
When we apply “reverse” to a phrase, we implicitly clarify that the following phrase is an existant, default form of the version of the phrase.
…ergo, I simply must ask.. what are smile vampires? And how concerned should I be that, apparently, they’re a whole thing?
Clif
The first rule of Smile Vampires is that we don’t talk about Smile Vampires.
dralou