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Wack'd's Best Dumbing Of Age Character poll starts ... Round 4 today, I think? The remaining champions are Dina, Joyce, Sal, and.... 
Discussion (185) - “Wrest”
OtterBoy1
So many tweeeeeeets
OtterBoy1
Also Gollum x Smeagol
Ana Chronistic
BFFs DOING BIFFS
wait that came out wrong
Rose by Any Other Name
… was that a joke about portable toilets? Because that’s the only reference to BIFFS I could find.
Jeff K!
Pretty sure they meant BIFFs as in BIFF! POW! SOCKO!
Chris
I believe “biff” is one of the standard comic book sound effects for a punch.
HeySo
Er, no. What kind of ridiculous, non-60s era comic artist would add such absurd sound effects? Pssh. Rather, clearly, “Biff” is a reference to the Back to the Future antagonist by that name.
Though why anyone would want to “do” him is rather beyond me..
HeySo
(As everyone knows, proper punch-related sound effects are Thwock, Thwump, Cha-thunk, Splunk, Chgunk, Twcrack, and Sproing. That’s just totes obvs.)
maarvarq
It’s not a sound effect, just a slang synonym for ‘punch’, in quite common use Down Under.
Doctor_Who
Yeah, this is basically how it worked for Scott Pilgrim too.
In the move version, anyway, comic went a bit differently.
Doctor_Who
Durr, I hyperlink gud.
abysswatcher1993
Scott pulled an “I AM THOU, THOU ART I” too easily in that movie, and now he has a best friend.
In the comic Kim basically gave him a reality slap because he kept escaping himself and it was getting annoying. Good thing Scott accepted the truth.
butts
in a way, this is amazi-girl’s first on-screen appearance
BBCC
I’m proud of them all.
Except you, Blaine. And not really of Faz right now but I have more leeway on him because he’s an abused teenager and his shithead dad’s the adult in this scenario.
He Who Abides
One of the adults. Yuri bears some fault, not caring dick-all about what happens to her kid.
BBCC
Yuri’s not here right now. In general, yes, her too.
Sirksome
Does she know what’s happening here? I’m actually fairly interested in finding that out. Normally a wife would have no reason not to trust her husband with their child. I’m anticipating some kind of fallout on this when/if she discovers Blaine had her son participate in a kidnapping.
DailyBrad
I mean, she knew when Blaine used Faz as a mole and really didn’t seem to care.
King Daniel
Not just “didn’t care”, she was the one who took those photos of Amber’s friends that Blaine then showed to Ross.
Jon Rich
Yeah, but, like, there’s a pretty big difference between bringing your kid to visit his half/step-sister at college and steal a few files from her computer, on the one hand, and getting said kid involved in a kidnapping and hostage-taking scheme on the other. One of those could end with Faz getting a slap on the wrist, maybe. The other could easily end up with Faz being in that house when police stormed it, and he could get, you know, shot in the crossfire. Or implicated with kidnapping charges. That’s far, far worse, from a “you’re putting my kid at risk” perspective.
I would not be surprised at all if this makes Yuri absolutely furious with Blaine.
temperaryobsessor
Considering that Faz said Amber is the nicest to him, I wouldn’t be surprised if she more mad about Blaine wasting money he claims he doesn’t have, or is not willing to get mad at Blaine even for this.
anonymousethatscurriesinthedarkness
If Amber was the nicest, where does that put Yuri on the scale of Amber to Blaine?
He Who Abides
And considering how Amber tends to treat Faz, that ain’t great.
Reltzik
Given that it sounds like both she and Faz are dependent on Blaine for a roof over their heads, and Blaine is a manipulative abusive shit, I’m not sure just how much agency she has in any of this.
CJ
Well, being an abused wife doesn’t give you a free ticket out of responsibility for your child.
Reltzik
That it doesn’t. But it might put you in a place where you don’t exercise that responsibility because someone else made it so that you can’t.
Not saying that this is the case with Yuri, and I’d actually lean a bit towards it not being the case.. I’m just the reserve-judgement type. Most of the time.
CJ
I might be biased on that point, but I think the moment you have a child it’s your f******* responsibility to get out of an abusive home situation, no matter how hard it is.
You’re the adult, your child isn’t.
Reltzik
Agreed, though I can imagine a few out-of-the-frying-pan-into-the-fire edge cases that are more quibbling than substantive. I’m saying someone might be in a situation where it’s not just hard, but impossible.
And the more I think about it, the more I’m leaning towards the idea that Yuri’s not in that sort of situation.
thejeff
It is, but at the same time, abuse fucks you up and all indications are that Yuri’s been Blaine’s victim since she was barely an adult herself. At best.
HeySo
Right, and I don’t think there’s enough credit being given to this aspect. When you’re in an abusive or harmful lifestyle, it can be hard to properly contextualize it. Your natural instinct is to fall into perspectives which repress, ignore, or marginalize the negative aspects of the relationship(s) involved. When you’re a child that’s amplified, when it’s a long-going thing it’s amplified, and when it’s a long-going thing that’s been going on since you’re a child and is supported by social structures [such as the ones which devalue children as subhumans, or which associate a female’s value with her contributions to “her man”], then gods, everything is stacked against you.
Does that mean that there’s excuses for obvious moral shortcomings [eg, abiding by your spouse being a serial killer]? No, at that point you’re just yielding to something you know is wrong because it’s easier. Even if you’re completely overcome by terror, the only way you let that kind of thing linger is if you’re willfully shoving it out of mind and never trying to find a way out. At that point, you have moral culpability, regardless of what legality may state on the matter.
But, as others have noted, we don’t have any indication of that. An authoritarian, abusive father can still be considered to fit into standard gender roles. Further, she likely was manipulated from an early age by him to accept such perspectives, and presumably suffers either from low mental acuity or the emotional/psychological impairments that come from self-worth issues. In other words, going off the latter portion of that, she may be readily manipulatable due to a lack of outside structures supporting her and a lack of foundational support growing up.
Beyond abiding by Blaine’s [assumed] “strict nurturing” [y’know, that style of child-rearing where you act as immaturely and irrationally and impulsively as possible, and then try to pass it off as being good for the child and/or being your right as a parent], we haven’t really seen anything overly damaging in regards to Yuri. As far as spying on Amber, tell me that any normal person in a relationship wouldn’t be willing to do the same thing, and likely with little hesitation. That isn’t to say it’s commendable or mature, just that it’s not at all restricted to Yuri, and likely not too uncommon for any random member of the general populace to have been similarly yielding [eg, within their past relationships], even just when considering the users of this site.
So, in summary:
She shouldn’t get a free pass just because Blaine is scum.
But, at the same time, it’s unfair to hold her to lofty standards that the average human has trouble matching up to, when her actual misbehaviors are- as these things go- relatively small.
To be clear, that’s comparatively speaking. Broadly speaking, it’s likely the majority of humans shouldn’t be parents. But a circumstance where we’re looking at “A roof over my son’s head and a stable lifestyle for him with reasonable prospects for the future once he leaves the house, at the cost of ‘strict punishment’ ” is definitely among the better excuses for parental neglect. Not that we know that her perspectives are that well-intended but, at the same time, it’s not like we know they aren’t, either. Again, if she was more capable and had better structures to support her and hadn’t been manipulated since she was a child? Yeah, it’d make sense to hold her to a more moral or sympathetic perspective on the matter. [And so, for another random user of this site, maybe there wouldn’t be leeway.] But for someone who seems to lack support and relies solely on a single person to support her and her son, and who is likely all she’s really known in regards to being supported, it makes sense for her to be willing to offer some compromises, and to feel that they’re justified.
BBCC
If Amber is right and Blaine is Faz’s father, “barely an adult” nothing. He’s been manipulating her since she was a teenager.
And I think it’s important to note Blaine’s already known to be physically abusive on at least one occasion with a previous partner and you’re most likely to be murdered by an abusive partner when you try to leave.
thejeff
As I said “At best”.
It’s not clear exactly how old Yuri is. Too young is almost certain.
NinjaNick
As soon as Blaine the Bastard heads to prison, Faz will likely be proud of himself, even if his life is in limbo.
anonymousethatscurriesinthedarkness
Faz is always proud of himself no matter what because he is The Faz.
Chris
Panel 5: Hell Yes.
BarerMender
Yes. I absolutely love it.
Emeraldbeacon
Panel 5: awesome high-energy version of Amazi-Girl theme music starts playing.
HeySo
I’d love to know what that’d sound like..
Regalli
Well, way back when Willis said big AG action sequences were always drawn to Kerry Ellis’s rock cover of Defying Gravity (Hence the title of the “To Those Who’d Ground Me” storyline, and the flavor text and title of Becky’s “I’m gonna be a fucking scientist” strip there referring to Elphaba’s “Unlimited” motif that’s used prominently in the bridge.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQ_9kun4OQo
That said, one: I’m not sure how you further high-energy what is already a rock remix of a bigass act one finale, and two: that was like five years ago and Willis might have found other action sequence songs in that time, I’m not sure. (That said, if I were picking an option I’d just come in after the bridge, around “So if you care to find me!”)
Deanatay
Not only is this alliance bad-ass, it’s healthy. If AG and Amber can learn to work together, it’s a step towards integration.
Jhon
Amber, you’re also Amazi-Girl. Amazi-Girl, you’re also Amber.
Kyrik Michalowski
Glad to see Amber and Amazi-girl on the same page at last. Now she just has to somehow stop this vehicle without killing herself or Joyce and Sal who may or may not have caught up yet.
Reltzik
Not only are they on the same page, they’re in the same panel!
NinjaNick
And Blaine is the dumbest of all dumb adults. Make your escape, Joyce.
Reltzik
I dunno, I’d say Ross is a dumber of dumb…
… was. Ross was.
…. okay, objection withdrawn!
Meagan
Is anyone else annoyed with Becky monologuing when she could be giving out relevant details to help Blaine actually be apprehended?
BBCC
She wrote this before she arrived at the house. She didn’t have relevant details to give out.
Yumi
She did have some. “I was last going to this address” and clearly communicating the names. But this is a different situation than she was expecting the Tweets to be published into.
Reltzik
Also, if she were to be using the phone to give details right now, she should probably be giving them to the police rather than the twitter feed.
BBCC
Yeah, the name is easy enough to get, but the address only works if they stay there and I don’t think Becky thought they would once they had her.
BBCC
Remember, she expected to be on the road with her dad already by this point.
Yumi
The address is still helpful as a last known location.
BBCC
Fair enough.
synnerman
I think I just just heard the first trumpet strings of the John Williams Superman theme.
Go Amazi-Amber!
Stephen Bierce
Like in III when Clark defeated his evil clone in the junkyard and opened his shirt? 🙂
StClair
“Actually, this is the second time I’ve gone nuts and fought myself.”
Oruncrest
I was hearing the first strings of this (https://youtu.be/G-59zgQJ2wg?t=53) beginning at 0:59.
VanVelding
Wait. Can you really queue Twitter threads?
Chris
You couldn’t when Willis wrote this, but now you can.
Michael Haneline
@Chris , wait, are you saying that Willis can see the future?
Roborat
No, he MAKES the future.
SuperZero
Even if you can’t through the actual Twitter site/app, there are tools you can use to do it. I’ve used one when doing Twitter for a non-profit for a while. Becky would certainly use one for her job.
CJ
Never thought about how she’s doing that, but sure, as Twitter is used in professional marketing, there sure are tools.
sharktrs
I’m pretty sure there are sites for that
Katerly
HELL YES
Amber may need some serious therapy. (She does) but short of that, having her two halves “make nice” to beat the baddy? Yessssss
Chris Phoenix
beat the
baddydaddyFixed it for you
SuperZero
That’s… how I read it in the first place.
abacuswizard
Egad! Bad Dad!
Deanatay
Ross: Blaine… are we the baddie-daddies?
Nono
Why is the morning of midterms important enough to throw out again? Was Amber hoping to just casually stop Blaine, do her test and be back in time for lunch?