199

Stanning
Posted on July 10, 2018 by David M Willis

199 thoughts on “Stanning”

  1. Ana Chronistic

    yeah, throwing shoes is better

    put those politician reflexes to the test

    1. Doctor_Who

      Dorothy exercises, so I bet she could dodge a shoe.

      1. Ana Chronistic

        Yeah but what about her opponents?

    2. Swissaboo

      Said show thrower is now part of the Iraqi parliament.

      1. Mr. Random

        Good for them. Turning anger against the system to better use.

  2. ShinyNeen

    Aha, Billie’s trap is sprung! She actually had a reasonable motivation for giving Walky this advice all along!

    … Billie did you really think the “you have to win the FEELINGS WAR” angle would convince Walky?

  3. butts

    Billie.

    On top of everything else.

    You had to shit on Dottie’s aspirations?

    BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

    (shut your FAAAAAAAAAAAACE)

    1. Yumi

      “How many of your parents ever told you you’d grow up to be president? There! Now, see, not all of you are gonna be president. Odds are, none of you will be president!”

      1. foamy

        That sounds like a Wonderella speech :v

        1. Yumi

          I don’t know what that is, but apparently it’s written like Hannah Montana.

      2. Marsh Maryrose

        Denis Leary on Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me:

        “And I went to school one day, and one of the nuns gave a speech about if you were born in the United States, you can become the president. Anybody could be the president as long you’re born here. So I went home and I said, Dad, Sister – you know – Blah-blah-blah said that, you know, anybody that’s born in the United States could be the president. And he said, that’s true. And I said, does that mean that I could be the president? And he goes, hell no, what are you…”

        (Missing from the transcript is what makes it really funny in the moment, which is the brief snort before “hell, no.”

        1. Gojira

          The election of Obama proved anyone can grow up to be president if they’re smart, motivated and lucky no matter who they are or where they started in life. The election of Trump proved no one is ever going to be president of the USA ever again.

        2. thejeff

          Alternately: They always told us anyone could be President. We didn’t think they meant it.

        3. JBento

          Alternately: “We TOLD THEM anyone could be president. Why would they not heed our warnings?!”

          Just kidding. Considering the system was instituted by people who counted black people as 3/5ths of a person (so that slave owners could have more power), and women as not people at all, I’m fairly certain that the 2016 election result (putting a rich, racist white dude in power instead of a woman) was what the system was engineered to do.

        4. Annonymouse

          Lucky, smart and have the right political connections and or loads of cash so that you don’t need those political connections and their associated backers who will want something in return for their cash.
          It was a corrupt yet slick system though now the slick veneer has peeled away and all you are left with is a mushroom farm calling the slime mold corrupt. [I think I got those idioms right]

      3. drs

        “I tell my daughters that in the US, anyone can grow up to impeach the president.” — Calvin Trillin, from my memory

    2. Reltzik

      …. but I’ve been saying the same thing for years now. Dorothy doesn’t have what it takes to win popularity contests elections.

      1. butts

        SHE WILL APPEAL TO A BROAD BASE OF VOTERS WITH WELL-THOUGHT-OUT AND DESCRIPTIVE POLICY PROPOSALS ON A VARIETY OF POPULAR SUBJECTS WHILE ENERGIZING PROGRESSIVES WITH THE PROSPECT OF THE FIRST FEMALE PRESIDENT HOW DARE YOU

        that line sounded a lot better in 2014

        1. Needfuldoer

          Computers may be twice as fast as they were in 1973, but the average voter is as drunk and stupid as ever.
          -Richard Nixon’s Head from Futurama

          Unfortunately, appeals to logic can never override emotion. Just look at the last two years in the US, and the sore winners who are still regurgitating the same old campaign memes.

        2. Annonymouse

          And let us not forget the continuous spewing of bile from the festering losers – though I wish we could. Oh I wish we could and I don’t even live in “The Land of the Free” ™

      2. TheHorseCouncil

        But it’s more of an electoral contest. Since the popular vote rarely wins. If so. We wouldnt be in this mess now.

        1. Jdorr

          Actually most (not all granted but most) US elections have had the popular vote winner also win the electoral and thus won the presidency

        2. King Daniel

          I think TheHorseCouncil was more referring to in the past few decades; the last time a Republican president won election without incumbency advantage was in 1988 – 30 years ago – and yet we’ve seen three Republican administrations in that time period, two of which were won without the popular vote.

    3. Jeff

      I hate to say this but future presidents are so damn smart that nothing a state university can throw at them freshman year should make them use even 10% of their brainpower to ace it. That tells me She just does not have what it takes to climb that hill. She might work hard, but people with bigger brains and just as much drive will crush her.

      1. Wendy

        Agreed. She’s a hard worker and a nice person, but she doesn’t have natural brilliance or charisma.

      2. Michael Lanting

        Have you seen your current president? And you still believe that?

        1. Needfuldoer

          He has the best degrees money can buy. *Points at sky like a Mary statue* The best. *pinchy fingers* Believe him.

        2. Annonymouse

          You only have to go back to the pretend Texan for a counter example to the Cheeto though there were many more before him.

      3. not someone else

        That really depends on what classes she’s taking; they don’t actually make you take nothing but 101 classes freshman year anywhere I’ve heard. Especially if she tested out of some of the total basics, she may be taking a couple of 300-levels and be adjusting to the massive workload leap. She also has plenty of time to correct course. I’m not sure she’s Obviously Future President Material either, but I don’t think her situation reflects too badly on her intelligence.

        (There’s also a lot a state university can throw at you in terms of “this professor has no idea what the fuck they’re doing teaching undergrads/doesn’t show up to 75% of their classes then expects you to ace an exam on didn’t-remember-to-tell-you-what” but we have no reason to believe that’s what’s happening to Dorothy.)

        1. BBCC

          Dorothy is trying to do super well on super hard classes.

      4. CJ

        I rather doubt that most US presidents excelled at university.

        Actually, Dorothy’s biggest problem with her plan to become president is her idea that she needs to understand stuff and provide well though-out solutions. That’s not how you become president. To become president you need to emotionally overwhelm people with your presence. People vote for emotional appeal not for integrity and a good mind.
        It shouldn’t be so, but it is.

        1. BBCC

          I just checked – just as many presidents didn’t go to any post secondary at all as went to Harvard. Several are graduates of state schools and a lot didn’t go to the Ivy League. Harvard, Columbia, UPenn, Princeton and Yale have had 19 Presidents in attendance at some point between them (not accounting for overlap). Compared to Non-Ivy schools (again without overlap), it’s not a contest.

        2. C.T Phipps

          Dorothy’s problems are that she is all about the grades but the Pesidency is about:

          * Natural charisma
          * Networking
          * Long-term work with your party
          * Long term work with donors
          * Money

          Dorothy basically is TERRIBLE at networking

        3. thejeff

          I’m not sure that’s her idea at all.
          I’m honestly not sure what her idea is. There are huge gaps in her plan.
          1) Do really good in school, plus impressive extracurriculars
          2) Transfer to Yale
          3) ?
          4) Become President.

          She’s focused on Yale, not “Ivy League” or “really good school where I can learn what I’ll need to be President”. Which almost suggests she’s aware that the point of going to Yale (or any prestigious school really) is the networking and connections, though she’s given no direct indication of that.
          It’s probably especially true for someone like Dorothy, who doesn’t come from a moneyed family or a influential political one.

    4. Zee

      If she broke my best friends heart I’d be shitting all over her aspirations too

    5. Dudeeeee

      It’s not like she said it in front of Dorothy. Walky really believing she’s going to president is pretty indicative of him looking at her through boyfriend goggles still. It’s healthy to bring him back to reality.

    6. Fart Captor

      It’s not great, but honestly that’s not even that harsh considering how Billie is aggressively taking his side in the breakup (and isn’t at all close to Dorothy to begin with)

      Many of Dorothy’s actual friends probably aren’t as confident as Walky that she will be president. They might believe she’s got a shot, or think she CAN do it in theory, but believing she’ll go far, but probably not all the way to the White House is actually pretty reasonable, especially considering how Billie is actively trying to cast Dorothy as a villain right now

  4. AnvilPro

    This is why I was hoping Walky would actually be the one to break up with Dorothy, imagine how confused all the characters would be

    1. thejeff

      Joyce would make them get back together again, so that Dorothy could properly dump him.

  5. MM

    “Let the hate flow through you”? Pretty nerdy reference there, cheerleader.

    1. DailyBrad

      She’s been friends with Walky since they were kids. Of course she’s got closet nerd tendencies.

    2. King Daniel

      Billie’s dropped a few hints before that she’s more of a nerd than she lets on, IIRC.

      1. Pylgrim

        At this point hoping for a full Shanna Cochran-like epiphany.

    3. Beef

      A phrase like that has been used so much in popular media that it’s hardly a “nerd reference” anymore

    4. Agemegos

      An allusion to the best movie in an immensely successful movie and TV franchise is not nerdy. It’s a tentpole of popular culture.

      Nerds know who Grace Hopper and Rosalind Franklin were, Hans Oberth and Walter Hohmann.

      1. tyersome

        Interesting — I knew who Admiral Hopper and Dr. Franklin were, but had to look up the two dudes!

  6. BBCC

    DAMN Billie, that was vicious.

  7. DailyBrad

    I don’t agree with, like, a pretty hefty chunk of this, but I do agree that Walky needs to not be hung up on Dorothy’s needs right now. He needs to look out for himself.

    1. Swissaboo

      Certainly not The Best Breakup Advice but I think there’s an argument to be made its good advice for Walky Specifically For This Breakup Right Now. He does specifically need to be a friend to himself now and the way he IS feeling towards Dorothy is certainly not helping with that.

      1. Sam

        Eh, barely. The one thing she has gotten right is that he needs to be a friend to himself because the rest of it is dramatic feeling war bullshit that he is right to go ‘that is an absolute trash way to treat someone Billie, I’m not doing that’.

    2. Arawn

      This is just the latest part of Walky running into the brick wall of life. He already think’s he’s trash because of failing Math. Now he thinks he’s further trash because he can’t keep Dorothy. He’s down on himself and needs some successes quick before he gets into a defeatist spiral.

  8. Passchendaele

    pff if the jag is Mike, go for it anyways, Walky. 😛

    1. Unusually Angry Hippie

      Now Mike, Mike could become president, if recent history is in any way telling.

      1. HeySo

        If we go by recent history, then Mike- Mike!- doesn’t hate strongly enough to be president. Besides, Mike is clearly overqualified intellectually, morally, and based off the degree of politeness and respect in his interactions with others.

      2. Aeromechanicalace

        Mike would honestly be a vast improvement at this point. Can you imagine the level of trolling he’d lay down on Putin? It’d be GLORIOUS

  9. Tenzhi

    Stanning?

    1. Yumi

      Stalker+Fan=Stan
      But generally, just an overly invested and obsessive fan.

      1. Norah

        Didn’t it come from the Eminem song? Or was it around before that?

        1. Boots

          100% the Eminem song

        2. Zaxares

          Boots is correct. It’s a reference to the Eminen song “Stan”, which is about a fan with an unhealthy obsession with the singer, to the point where he starts modelling his life after the lyrics of songs.

        3. Delicious Taffy

          WAIT, THAT’S WHERE IT’S FROM?

    2. Keulen

      I literally had to google that word because I’d never heard of it until I read this strip.

      1. Charlie Spencer

        Ditto.

        1. Jack

          Urban Dictionary, in my case.

    3. Architex

      Made me think, “Who the heck is Stan?” because people’s names are used as nouns fairly often here.

      1. Tenzhi

        I thought maybe Walky was making a prodigious number of cameo appearances.

      2. Kamino Neko

        It’s a verb, in this case – to be an obsessive fan, named for the Eminem song mentioned above. ‘Stan’ is also the noun form, but I’ve never seen that except in the plural.

      3. Jago

        I always makes me think of American Dad.

    4. Needfuldoer

      Verbal typo; she could have also meant “Danning”.

      1. HeySo

        “Way to Dan it up like a Stan, Man.” ?

  10. Stephen Bierce

    *forgot to look what the next track on the Rolling Stones record is*
    Maybe it isn’t important.

    1. Stephen Bierce

      *”When The Whip Comes Down” starts playing* Ut oh.

    2. m-m

      Cues up “Stan” by Eminem.

  11. Shiro

    nice

  12. Derek

    what in heck is stanning??

    1. Norah

      Being an obsessive fan of someone.

    2. not someone else

      It’s a reference to the Eminem song “Stan”, and also what Norah said.

  13. Irredentist

    For once I agree with Billy. Not about the relationship, Dorothy and Walky should get back together. But Dorothy definitely isn’t suited to becoming president. She’s too honest. But she’d make a great judge for the same reason.

    1. Poofdepoof

      Was looking for this comment

      +1

    2. Nobody

      All honesty? Sure she’d be good at that but she won’t go for it; she’s going to become the secretary to some more established politician as an ‘in’ to the political landscape then get overworked because she’s capable, used to it, and will do whatever if the carrot of her potential political career is dangled in front of her with no hope of her escaping her low level secretary roll

      1. CJ

        If she does that well, she’ll write the politics without being the president.
        Less pay, but the assasins will kill off one charismatic president after another and wonder why that doesn’t change anything.

  14. Tyramisu

    Sounds like Billie is practicing what she’s going to tell herself when her relationship with Ruth goes to hell.

    1. Joner

      oh no we can’t talk about THAT yet!! there’s already too much drama going on, let Ruth Rest

  15. Bagge

    That is good advice.

  16. Joner

    billie you’re just jealous cause you know you’ll have to write articles about how great dorothy is as president

  17. Schpoonman

    Dorothy used “jag” first back when she was investigating Amazigirl. Hm.

    (Might take until the epilogue-ish for them to get back together but oh my god I can’t wait.

    1. ShinyNeen

      Jag has cropped up between then and now too, I’m pretty sure. Dorothy really did bring it back, it’s great!

      1. Kamino Neko

        It’s Willis’s most common mild insult.

        1. HeySo

          I’ve just always assumed that Willis secretly hates the TV show by that name.

        2. Marsh Maryrose

          I assume it’s a shortening of “jagoff,” shortened because of the common (but mistaken) idea that “jagoff” is an obscenity.

    2. thejeff

      In the context of “judge” in the next line (and with the all caps font helping) my mind went directly to Judge Advocate General and had trouble parsing until remembered it was also just a generic insult.

      1. Roborat

        Yea, I was wondering why the hell Walky would not like Judge Advocate Generals as well.

  18. Proto

    I mean the way she’s phrasing it is bad but “stop mooning over your ex and move on” isn’t bad advice, per se. So good job, Billie? There’s a phrase you don’t get to type out often…

    1. thejeff

      Probably advice she’s given plenty of times to her cheerleading circle back in high school. About the latest jock to screw them over.

      Doesn’t apply so well in Walky’s situation, but she’s trying.

      And really, you’re allowed a couple of days to moon before moving on.

  19. ShinyNeen

    Poll voters, why will you not let Walky go home and eat a taco!?

    … Like, I’m genuinely curious why. Seems kinda soon for him to be forcing himself to go to the same class Dorothy is in, but I’m not really experienced in these kinds of situations.

    1. not someone else

      Because as someone who’s dealt with a lot of the same anxiety, he needs to learn that the world will not end and he isn’t going to end up with terrible catastrophic consequences the second something bad happens, before he can learn to make rational decisions about what is and isn’t worth noping out of. Going along with his life with the support of a friend (Billie) is likely to make him feel a lot better than going into a self-loathing “I am taco trash boy who can’t take care of himself and now I’m even further behind on my studies” spiral, which unfortunately he’s gonna do if he takes that personal day.

      It’s a matter of the general-case advice being counter-productive due to his specific issues.

    2. BBCC

      Because he doesn’t need to fall behind in another class and also because I think he and Dorothy will be okay around each other.

      1. BBCC

        Also, this storyline is already completed and queued so that poll is a sham anyways. 😛

        1. ShinyNeen

          Well, yeah : D

    3. Tenzhi

      He’s spent enough time feeling sorry for himself to the exclusion of getting on with life. He doesn’t necessarily have to stop feeling sorry for himself, but he needs to get back to a less self-destructive routine.

      1. BBCC

        …It hasn’t even been a day yet. He’s hardly on a self destructive routine (at least, one creditable to Dorothy dumping him).

        1. Tenzhi

          Even with the woolly relative time in the strip, given the number of times he’s been on the garbage roof, the state of his hygiene when he and Dorothy had the requisite post break hook up, the drunken shenanigans he is recovered from, and other hijinks, it’s almost certainly been more than a day since they broke up.

        2. BBCC

          It wasn’t. They broke up in Faz Is Great. That was yesterday, strip time. Then he went and got drunk with Jason, skipped his class this morning to go to garbage roof, and is now wandering around when he’s, hypothetically, supposed to be having lunch. His hygiene went back when they were still on pause and them banging was part of aforementioned pause – they hadn’t officially broken up yet.

        3. Tenzhi

          Ah, the Rachellian view. To paraphrase Hugh Laurie’s rebuttal: it seems pretty clear to me that they were on a break. In any case, he’s been moping around for three and a quarter eternities my time and I just want to pick him up by the scruff and shake him whenever he whines or even gets those big watery eyes. That’s a problem with dragging things out too long in real time.

        4. BBCC

          …Yes? They were? As they both agreed via the phrase ‘on pause’. That wasn’t the same as a break up and the narrative does treat it differently because ‘on pause’ wasn’t enough – Dorothy still ends up banging him.

          It’s fine to be fatigued of his reaction but in universe it’s been a day. He’s still going to be upset.

        5. Jago

          This is his first breakup, too. I was upset for a month, at least, after my first breakup.

        6. thejeff

          And the pause itself was a day. It has at this point been less than two days since the pause started, since that was right after Gender Studies.

          Now, for us that was January, so I get that it feels dragged out in real time, but for them it’s barely started.

    4. Joner

      mainly cause the other answer’s funnier

    5. Needfuldoer

      Because phrasing, that’s why.

    6. HeySo

      ’cause we gotta analyze the poll as *readers*, not just as sympathetic individuals (though, considering how Walky has been doing on classes, we gotta push him toward class even from that perspective).

      And as readers, while Willis no doubt would take an interesting spin on it, Walky sitting in his room eating a taco is just more of something we’ve seen more than enough of, already. Meanwhile, throwing him into social circumstances encourages further character interactions that may lead to either increased humor or character growth.

      Also, Soggies Will Rule.

  20. Doomska

    This really makes me love Billie a lot. Like, the haters may not realize it, but even if this isn’t 100% accurate advice, it’s good friend advice. Dorothy is pretty far removed from being Satan here but Walky has cause to be at least a bit angry at being jerked around and Billie is the only one seeing past Dorothy’s whole being-so-goshdarn-perfect routine to point it out and stand by Walky, literally even including Walky himself.

    1. Sam

      No, it isn’t. It is 95% bullshit advice. If Walky doesn’t feel mad at her, he isn’t going to feel mad at her. If Walky wants to be understanding that Dorothy has been frazzled and emotionally collapsing in on herself and that they both thought this was the best decision, then he is allowed to! Billie is trying to turn it into a feelings war and force him to be a jerk but he doesn’t WANT to do that because the whole reason he was prepared for the break up was because he thought that was better for Dorothy. The only thing she is getting right is that he needs to be a friend to himself first and foremost, not focusing all on Dorothy right now, but she is contradicting herself by making it all about Dorothy by trying to force him to be mad and hateful towards her.

      1. Kamino Neko

        Yeah…Billie’s actual advice couldn’t be better calculated to keep Walky from getting over Dorothy if she was actually attempting that.

        ‘I can’t worry her’ and ‘she is my enemy, so I need to show her I’m not losing this breakup’ are both defining his actions by her. And the latter is particularly unhealthy given it was a relatively amicable breakup, by mutual assent (even if neither of them has particularly healthy reasons to think it was the right thing to do).

        She did sneak that ‘be a friend to yourself’ thing in there, which is good advice, if isolated… But the Sith-lord ‘spite makes you strong’ bullshit she’s wrapping it in is not.

        1. Felian

          i’m also not convinced that Billie’s advice is that great…
          Break ups aren’t supposed to be “won“ by anybody. You get to have all the feelings you have, and all the stages of grief, but you mostly don’t get to act them out towards your ex (in, as Kamino Neko wrote, a relatively amicable breakup, and not a nasty or abusive one).
          It’s not helpful or fair to make your ex feel even worse on purpose than they very likely do already (some trust that they *did* actually care for you enough to feel bad about the break up).

          “be a friend to yourself“ is great advice, though. that’s a priority. The main work of breaking up isn’t about hating your ex or ruining their life, or making a show of how much you DON’T suffer (or how much you do suffer, to make them feel guilty) it’s about what helps YOU heal. (and that could be tacos, or hanging out with friends more, throwing yourself into your studies more than ever… whatever works!)
          at least that’s what i’d expect from sensible grown ups… 😉

      2. C.T Phipps

        I’m with Billie here. Dorothy treated Walky awful even if it was unintentional and it’s better to rip off the bandaid than pine after her.

    2. Badgermole

      If Billie was a man, her advice would be MRA talking points.

    3. Emily

      Literally the only part of that entire embittered mess she calls advice that’s any use is the “stop obsessing over your ex and focus on living your life.” Sure as hell not for the dumb ass reasons she says though.

      1. Zaxares

        Yeah. Billie’s advice is actually correct, but for all the wrong reasons. Walky definitely shouldn’t “hate” Dorothy, but as someone who has first-hand experience of how not putting some distance between yourself and an ex that you still love can seriously mess you up with regards to being unable to move on, I had to learn this lesson the hard way.

        1. HeySo

          “Billie’s advice is actually correct, but for all the wrong reasons. ”

          I mean, it’s not like that element wasn’t already clarified with the previous strip. 😛

        2. Inahc

          yeah… anger can be a useful counter to various self-sabotaging urges. but otoh, walky’s self-sabotage isn’t so much from the breakup as from his self-worth issues and current inability to pass math.

      2. Doomska

        Man the fans have bad opinions on this comic.

        Literally what is happening is Dorothy keeps jerking Walky around with their relationship status, very literally because while she loves him she doesn’t think he’s good enough for her. That’s. That’s it at its core. She plans on moving to an Ivy League and being President and thinks he’s not good enough for what she aspires to be and so doesn’t want to take him seriously.

        Dorothy’s attitude towards this relationship is therefore at its core kind of shitty and her yo-yoing of Walky’s feelings straight up. Let’s be charitable and just say, “Unkind.”

        1. Doomska

          And Walky has totally and 100% bought into this to the point where he doesn’t even see a problem with her constantly changing the status of their relationship on her whims without consideration towards his feelings and Billie is the only person who notices how messed up this is.

        2. BBCC

          If a person in a relationship doesn’t want to be in that relationship anymore or wants to go on pause, there’s not much the other person (or people) can do about it. They can talk about it or choose to break up instead of go on pause but ultimately, if one person is trying to end or change the terms of a relationship, that’s kinda it.

        3. thejeff

          True, but that’s not quite what Dorothy was doing. I don’t think Doomska was talking about the actual break up here, but the longer term pattern. She acknowledged it when they broke up “This hasn’t been very fair to you, has it.” “I can’t be reeling you in and pushing you away constantly.”

          And no. While one person can end a relationship, they can’t just change the terms unilaterally. And she did: She said it was “just for fun” and then she talked about love. She put them on pause and then jumped him less than a day later.
          She’s got a problem here of not living up to the rules she’s setting.

        4. Inahc

          this was never about walky not being “good enough”. it’s about dorothy thinking she needs to not spend any time on relationships so she can spend it all on studying. Walky could be the platonic ideal of the Perfect Boyfriend and this would still have happened.

        5. thejeff

          Agreed. I don’t think Dorothy has ever even hinted Walky’s not good enough.
          From the very start it’s been “I don’t need the distraction. We need to keep this light because I’m not going to let anything stop me following my plan.”

          It’s all about her, not a problem with him at all.

          And she did recognize and admit that she was treating him badly, just before they broke up.

        6. Kamino Neko

          This is entirely bullshit.

          The only one who thinks Walky isn’t good enough for Dorothy is Walky. The fact that Dorothy doesn’t think she’s too good for him is 100% of why this whole situation is happening.

  21. Smooti

    Not to mention (though maybe Billie of all people shouldn’t be the one to say it) but if the only reason you want to do well in something is to make sure another person doesn’t worry, well, you’re not really in much a better headspace than when you weren’t doing the thing.

    Also, Dorothy ain’t perfect and putting her on that pedestal, even when you’re not actively dating her, isn’t good for either of you.

  22. Goki

    Even money Dorothy gets another Boyfriend before the end of the year.

    1. thejeff

      Even money she gets back with Walky before the end of the year.

      Is that our year or their year, by the way?

      1. DeepThought42

        Even money Dorothy becomes a robot Dorothy and conquers the province of Saskatchewan and large swaths of Manitoba but gives it back, by the end of the year.

        1. Goki

          Deep, considering where she is right now in the comic, I would actually welcome that change.

      2. Goki

        I am going school year. but hey I am flexible considering how time passes in this comic.

  23. steelbright

    Hooray for Billy giving Walky terrible advice and making sure his slightly unreasonable behavior is for her own even worse reasons

  24. Danni

    no alcohol has been involved!!

  25. Barf Ninjason

    Fingers crossed crossed for Dorothy as a revolutionary guerilla insurgency leader.

    1. abysswatcher1993

      There are dark times coming, and she better be ready.

  26. BKC

    Never tried to embed anything here, so this will probably fail, but it’s just so apt:

    Ya JAG!!!

    1. BKC

      Hm.

      1. Inahc

        you need a http: (or https:) before the //

  27. Nobody

    I have seen dorothy’s type and they are not politicians they’re overworked secretaries for politicians who get used because they have been broken

  28. abysswatcher1993

    Yep, Billie continues to give awful advice that even Walky doesn’t buy.

    Also, sadly I have to agree that Dorothy can’t be president of the united states. She could be a judge, a lawyer, a CEO, an activist, an antifa member, the owner of a maid cafe, or a fantasy author, but those are jobs that anyone with enough DETERMINATION can get. Being a leader doesn’t require DETERMINATION, it requires being a person that understands the public and can rally the public to do good or evil. Joyce has that talent, and even Ruth considered Joyce over Dorothy for the job of RA. While Dorothy may be an A+ student, she doesn’t apply what she studies, she doesn’t participate with the local community, and she doesn’t have extra curricular activities where she can make networking. She better change the world outisde of politics, since only the friendly people (Joyce) and the batards (Roz) can handle that power.

    1. BBCC

      ? Dorothy does work with the community and have extracurriculars – the newspaper and the soup kitchen twice a week. I believe she’s been dialing it back recently because of her school work but she definitely does have them.

      Also – when did Ruth consider Joyce to be the new RA? I don’t recall this.

      1. abysswatcher1993

        I forget some stuff after reading hundreds of pages, but yeah, she does have many networking skills. The problem is that Dorothy is more focused in work than human relationships right now. She is a good person and can change the world, but she can’t lead because leaders are social animals that scheme, lie occasionally, make promises that seem possible, use public perception to their advantage, make compromises, etc.

        As for Joyce being a potential RA, Ruth mentioned her, Roz and Carla as possible successors when the Manager asked about it. Joyce has proven time and time again to be the heart of her group of friends, even if she is flawed and selfish many times.

        1. thejeff

          If you’re thinking of this strip, those aren’t possible successors, but the people who are potential trouble and reasons why there isn’t a waiting list for new RAs for the floor.

        2. BBCC

          Yeah, that’s…not what was being said in that strip. For good reason, because Joyce would make a terrible RA.

          As for Dorothy, I think she can be a good leader but she’s got a lot on her plate right now.

        3. abysswatcher1993

          Sorry, I misunderstood the talk.

    2. Jago

      I disagree. “Be a friend to yourself now, be a friend to her later, maybe” is the best advice I could give someone who still loves their ex and is hurting, but doesn’t want them to hurt, either.
      Either way “be a friend to yourself” is (almost) never bad advice.

      1. Kamino Neko

        ‘Be a friend to yourself’ is good advice, but given that Billie seems to think that requires hating your ex, it’s less so.

        1. C.T Phipps

          Dorothy at present can’t rally people to support her as the head of her Hall.

        2. Kamino Neko

          What this has to do with Billie being a horrible friend who’s actively (if not knowingly) trying to prevent Walky from actually getting over Dorothy, I don’t know.

        3. Yumi

          Seems like a reply to the wrong post. Makes a lot more sense in reply to the conversation just a bit up. Happens.

      2. Emily

        Yeah but she’s predicating that on Dorothy being his enemy now which is stupid and counterproductive in this case. Like her advice isn’t “don’t worry about Dorothy and focus on your needs” it’s don’t worry about Dorothy and focus on your needs because you should hate Dorothy right now.”

        1. Heavensrun

          The problem is that what Walky is doing right now is idolizing his ex and putting his feelings for her in a precious little shrine that will keep him from ever moving past her.

          I’ve been there. I did what he’s doing, and it fucked me up pretty thoroughly for a long time. Billie is right. Walky needs to recognize that he has been injured by Dorothy and that it’s okay to blame her for it a bit. Billie is exaggerating that a bit, but it’s still true.

        2. abysswatcher1993

          Basically Billie is doing the right thing for the wrong reasons.

  29. nlips

    I’ve never understood the notion of feeling better by being mean to other people. Sometimes I wonder if a part of my brain is broken, because it comes so naturally to everybody else.

    I can’t feel good about myself if I’m making somebody else feel bad. I feel bad for days if I ACCIDENTALLY make someone feel bad.

    And it doesn’t matter at all if they’re nice or mean to me. When somebody is mean to me, I don’t feel like I have some sort of license to be mean back. I still imagine how shitty it feels to have somebody be mean to me, and I’d never deliberately make somebody else feel that way. Maybe I’m to empathic. But if they feel bad, I feel bad. I don’t know how to turn that off.

    Not to mention the mental load. Just keeping track of who’s been nice, who’s been mean, who I should be nice back to or mean back to… It feels like it must take people so much time and effort to accomplish all of that. I can’t see how they have time.

    1. JessWitt

      I can’t bring myself to be mean to others as well, whether as retribution or as a means to feeling relieved. I’d instantly regret whatever words I’ve said or actions undertaken and they’d be forever lodged as painful fragments.

      I’m better off just taking a breath, keeping my distance from people who’ve irked me, or responding as little as possible to them until I’ve cooled down emotionally to be fairly amicable.

    2. Sam

      I agree. The only times when I have been mean to someone on purpose when it wasn’t in extreme anger, I severely regretted it later and one of my biggest regrets in life is one of those times. I only haven’t regretted it when they have purposely provoked it out of me and even when they severely cross my moral lines, it makes me very very angry but I don’t attack them personally for it, I cut off all ties, vent with someone else, cool down and move on. It isn’t something I come back to, I don’t haunt people with cruelty later on or passive-aggressively speak to them or about them. I move past it by not making it a thing to focus on positively or negatively when I don’t have to.

    3. Zee

      This feels less like a call to be mean and more like a call to hate, which can be different. You can loathe someone and act indifferent towards them in person.
      Also imo, meanness can be earned. I hate being mean to people who don’t deserve it, even most people I hate I can’t be mean to. The only real example I can think of where I was actually mean to someone post childhood (cuz all kids are mean to each other) was the creepy dude who hung around my group in highschool that our guy friend got a crush on, but everyone else hated because he turned everything you said into a gross sex joke, started every story about his female friends with his opinion on their breasts and groped me when I was in an emotionally bad place and actually allowed him to get close (both emotionally and physically). We all sort of treated him like the group whipping post. Even the guy who had a crush on him didn’t actually like who he was, they were supposedly “best friends”, but that creep kept making cancer and mom jokes to him (his mom died of cancer the year before, he knew this).
      Wow that was a dumb vent, sorry. But yeah, meanness can be earned. It’s not an exhausting thing to keep track of cuz you just kinda know

    4. Inahc

      I can’t either, although the *urge* to be mean is there sometimes. It seems to come from anger, wanting to lash out when I can’t see a constructive way of solving things (or when the anger has gotten dark enough it doesn’t *want* to be constructive).

      To not feel bad about hurting someone, I’d have to not only not care about *them*, but also not care about the possible social repercussions. I suspect people who are mean a lot get good enough at it that they get a lot less social repercussions (or they’ve discovered their privilege means there aren’t any).

      As for the mental load, I have that issue a lot too, but some people get to my emotions in a way that’s hard to forget. People with high charisma tend to give me emotional whiplash, though, as I bounce between forgetting/suppressing and remembering.

      1. thejeff

        Done well, being mean helps your social standing. People you can be mean to without consequences are lower in the social hierarchy. Showing this convinces more people you have higher standing. People defer to you so that you’re not mean to them. People start following your lead and targeting the people you’re mean to or anyone who you’re likely to be mean to.

        Basic social primate dynamics. 🙂

  30. Griffin Raynor

    Stanning? Billie, do you have a tumblr?

    Also: are you a Sith. Just asking.

  31. JessWitt

    Chin up, Walky. Tacos await after class.

    And I suspect things will look a little better for him by chapter’s end.

  32. Vi

    LET! DOROTHY! BE! PRESIDENT!

  33. C.T Phipps

    That is the best EPIC BURN which Billie could have done and I’m sorry that Dorothy wasn’t there to hear it.

  34. bunivasal

    Billie makes a surprising number of Star Wars references for someone who so aggressively hates nerds and also is only 18 in (2010-present)

    1. Zatar

      Oh Billie is obviously A closet nerd.Always has been.

    2. King Daniel

      Currently Billie is eighteen in 2018… has a nice ring to it. Next year she’ll be eighteen in 2019, which is less ringworthy.

    3. BBCC

      ? People still watch Star Wars. This isn’t a super obscure 70s franchise only 70s kids will get. It’s a pop culture phenomenon. Most people, even if they haven’t seen it, at least know it exists.

    4. autogatos

      I get the impression Star Wars is more “mainstream” now than it was in the 90s/00s. I remember being picked on in elementary school for liking Star Wars (it was “okay” for boys, but not for girls…APPARENTLY) but I feel like the new films have kind of brought it back into general pop culture.

      1. autogatos

        and by 00s I mean like…early 00s. I think by the time I was in college (2004-08) Star Wars had stopped being just a “nerd thing” but I’m not sure if that was due to change in culture or just my own peer age group shift. I do think that kind of coincided with the emergence as “geek chic” as a Thing though.

        1. thejeff

          Could have had something to do with a couple movies that came out starting in 99. 🙂

  35. Mr. Anderson

    Yeeeeeahhh, I can’t see Dorothy becoming President either, Billie. Not because she’s a woman, but because she’s an Athiest. She wouldn’t win in her home state from that alone!

    1. thejeff

      Well, she’s got 17 years before she’s even eligible to run and probably longer before she could make a realistic run at it.
      Maybe the country will change in those 17 years.

      Of course, if the strip kept running up to her campaign, she’d be running in 23xx or something.

      1. Schpoonman

        God, how many Mega Man sequels and spin-offs are they gonna make?

        1. ShinyNeen

          By 23xx? Too many.

          … no, wait, we already have too many. Maybe Dorothy can run on a platform of “clean up all these Mega Man games littering the street, there are so many oh my word how did we not fix this in 22xx”

    2. C.T Phipps

      I can’t see Dorothy winning because she doesn’t seem to have any real political instincts and seems determined to study (which is great for a lawyer) versus argue. The hallway election where no one wants her as RA pretty much summarizes her problem.

      1. Puckish Rogue

        Agreed, a good start would be to maybe look at joining the debating club. I don’t know how american universities work in comparison to NZ unis but i’m assuming there must be a young democrats or young republicans or something she could look at joining as well if shes decided on her political affiliations

      2. BBCC

        There wasn’t an election.

        1. Puckish Rogue

          it wasn’t official but it was pretty cut and dried who would have won

        2. BBCC

          Probably, although I think it might have been closer than Roz would think (especially since Roz admitted later she didn’t actually want to do it).

  36. stoodmuffin

    Billie has a good point. How to handle it? I’m not so sure. But she is trying. Hmm.

  37. Lee

    That last comment is a lil mean but Billie’s advice to Walky here is actually VERY legit for once

  38. Br44n5m

    Can we have a best ex competition though? I wanna win gold by knitting my ex-fiancé a dragon for his new baby. Babies are cute.

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