Specifically, spite is the point of kissing somebody else.
If you’re not going to throw it in somebody’s face, you might as well just kiss your regular partner.
Reltzik has a point – when the set of probable changes includes “uncontrolled alcoholism leading to fatal car crash”, it’s pretty important to specify the type of change being requested.
My impression is that she did therapy and she’s not doing it anymore. We know she started before the timeskip and I think it’s only been mentioned in the past tense since then.
She has stopped drinking though, so something seems to have worked.
Taellosse
She has stopped drinking as far as we know! She also has a history of drinking in secret to hide her addiction from others, so we may just not have seen her doing it since the timeskip.
thejeff
Theoretically possible, but we’ve had no clues since before the timeskip and we were usually shown pretty quickly when she was drinking and hiding it.
Most of the time she wasn’t even particularly hiding it.
her parents probably aren’t rich enough to have THAT much influence, thank Satan
Formedras
It’s not about money/influence. It’s about novelty for getting the condition in the first place, with naming being centered around the details of the condition.
The Billingsworths would probably try to use their influence to avoid getting the condition named after them (absolutely no 1%er wants a mental health condition named after them or someone they’re related to; they think it indicates weakness in the family), so the name has to come from somewhere else. And Billie complaining about Kit Fisto would do it.
Like, not to single you out, this comes up the moment any character does or says something maladjusted in the comic, which is often, but therapy can take a real long time to see meaningful changes, and even people who go to therapy can still think or do fucked up things.
She’d have begun therapy like a handful of months ago, tops, and possibly wouldn’t have even been going over winter break.
I’ve gotta second this one, I started seeing a therapist after my mom’s sudden death, and therapy definitely requires time. It’s been about… two years since I’ve started seeing her, and nowadays I mostly touch base once a month (other than my mom’s death there have been a lot of other things I’ve been talking to my therapist about, things that take more than one visit to dig into).
I’d say it took maybe… mmm, 6 months before I really started feeling much of a difference? Not because she wasn’t doing a great job, I felt very good after ever talk with her, but mostly because these things take time. Especially something like grief, just takes time. With her advice I found new things to do, new ways to think about my mom’s passing, and had someone who’s job it was to listen and confide in regarding the grieving process. It was things that took time and effort on my part to really put into action, and I imagine it’s the same for Billie. And keeping in mind she started going in October, she’s been going for about… 3 months? Ish?
On Jennifer’s dubious defense, indeed it took me years of therapy to un-break my sense of self. That said… Literally the main thing with therapy is, you have to WANT to get better.
Exactly this thank you Brad. Took me five years to sort out my life through both group and one on one counselling and at the end of it I’d say I was better but certainly not fixed. Sure, Jennifer’s life doesn’t appear to be as screwed up as mine was but to expect a huge change in such a short time is…unrealistic imo.
I think she liked him to a degree, but is VERY much not over Ruth, and misses their antagonism, even if she was the one who wanted to be more “domestic” with her in the first place, it was Ruth who ironically was more reluctant about it, only for Jennifer to be the resistant party with Asher.
I think she liked him for shallow reasons. He was cool and hot and made her look good by association. She lost interest pretty fast when he was being a bit of a dork.
She actively ignores Asher in favor of the cool melodramatic Asher she made up in her head who’s a bad boy with a troubled past who never does anything anyone asks, but when the real one does intrude on her life she’s only disappointed in him.
He seemed like the perfect, classic “bad boy” who could possibly have given her the trouble and drama that she enjoyed with Ruth and validated her self-loathing. Conveniently, he could also have been a neat project for her misguided new “fix-it” self which would fit into Raida’s little universe to which she desperately knows she doesn’t belong.
She didn’t want a bad boy so she could fix him; she wants a bad boy so he could break her. Just like her previous relationship with a bad girl broke her.
Some of them want to abuse you, some of them want to be abused…
thejeff
If this is still the same kind of thinking she had last semester, she wants a bad boy because she can’t hurt someone who’s already broken.
I suspect their relationship was functional for a bit off-screen. She’s had to put in too much work to break it, IMO, for there to not have been anything before.
“OMG, so not only did he move on, he got a new toxic self-destructive romantic partner BEFORE ME?! THERE’S NO JUSTICE IN THIS WORLD!!!” -Jennifer, in the near future, probably
Right, Jennifer bullies for other selfish and petty reasons. She even harasses and picks on her childhood best friend for the sake of what she thinks will help her upward social mobility. She hurts people for her own selfish reasons and then gets mad at them when they forgive her for it.
At the very least, Mary’s crud personality is from religious indoctrination. Jennifer’s crud personality is from being mad she isn’t the center of attention and adoration. Mary’s brainwashed. Jennifer is just a fart sandwich.
zee
Yep still not as bad as targeted bigoted harassment. Jens a highschool bully, whatever who cares, they’re a dime a dozen. Blackmailing a suicidal person so you can harass your trans floor mate and trying to stop people from stepping in when that suicidal person is about to go through with it is objectively much worse.
Frankly, I don’t hate any of the main character like the rest of the commenters do (except amazi girl, that’s been there since I was 13 and it ain’t goin no where). It rarely rises above annoyance. I don’t say anything usually but y’all are DRAMATIC about Jen. Probably because you know more Jens than Mary’s. But ffs she’s not as bad as someone who literally tried to get people to kill themselves
GoblinBagsSumo
I had forgotten about the stuff in your first paragraph.
Call people dramatic for noting that a cartoon character is constantly a jerk making terrible choices… okay. ?♂️ This isn’t high stakes, I just think she’s an awful character. (Not the writing, but just like she is a heel.)
Mary lacks depth. She’s just around to be loathsome when the plot requires it. Nobody in the audience is supposed to like her. Jennifer, on the other hand, is a focus character.
Yes, but consider what made him decide on this course of action. Did he have anything left to retain/defend? Does Jennifer even care beyond the optics? Not defending Asher, but is there anyone to defend in this scenario?
I’ll defend Asher. By the way billies talking here, do either of them consider themselves still a couple? I mean I hate ambiguous breakups they’re fucking annoying but, “get him back” is how you talk about an ex, no? She’s not acting like she’s been cheated on, like she’s not pissed nor is she excited he’s doing something toxic. It just kinda sounds like she’s mildly annoyed her fresh ex moved on
I feel like, of the many people doing wrong things here, Asher is the least wrong? Ethan kissed him once, Asher stopped him and immediately told Jennifer, Jennifer’s actual words in response were, “Kiss a billion dudes, I don’t care.” Only after all that did Asher kiss Ethan.
Jennifer only said that because she assumed, incorrectly, that the purpose of kissing Ethan was to spite her, but I don’t think Jennifer’s bad assumptions are Asher’s fault. The guy did his due diligence and, for all he knows, got the green light from his girlfriend to kiss guys.
She wants pushback in a relationship, and she’s very frustrated. She misses being with Ruth, and Ruth not only broke up with her, but then had the audacity to try to act like the bigger person about it, something Jennifer correctly saw through and that Ruth has her own angst about once she cut through all the patronizing martyr bullshit Ruth was spouting.
244 thoughts on “Destroyed himself”
Jen Aside
Throwing them in other people’s face is the POINT of kissing!
Nono
Gravatar is appropriate?
Slartibeast Button, BIA
Wait, so I’ve been doing it all wrong then?
Doctor_Who
Jennifer should try biting people. “Biting’s excellent! It’s like kissing, only there’s a winner!”
(I refuse to explain the context of this quote)
Koname
But its such a great episode, best to share it.
Reltzik
Dammit, this is why I should read other comments before I post my first thoughts.
Grayfinity
Jen Aside’s back? Cool. Or we’re you Ana Chronistic before?
Anyway, ?I KISSED SOMEONE AND I LIKED IT?
Nono
I thought the point of kissing was that kisses were rad and you get to do it with someone cute.
Spite is a bonus.
TrueVCU
Excellent choice of Gravatar, sir
Dante
Very in character, A+++
I also love that addition of “spite is a bonus”. It’s like a positive development but cooked spicy.
thejeff
Specifically, spite is the point of kissing somebody else.
If you’re not going to throw it in somebody’s face, you might as well just kiss your regular partner.
Doopyboop
Ah Jennifer, never change. Never change…
StClair
She keeps saying she has, and yet
Proxiehunter
Jennifer, please change.
Reltzik
Maybe before we ask for a change we should first ask which direction the change would be in.
Dara
No.
(just because gravitar xD )
GreyICE
Instructions unclear, joined Scientology.
Adept
Please change indeed. Billie remains truly terrible. One of the most unlikeable characters in the comic.
John Campbell
Aw, I love Billie. Even though — maybe because — she’s terrible. Maybe it’s because she’s even terrible at being terrible.
Not a big fan of Jennifer, though.
Taellosse
Reltzik has a point – when the set of probable changes includes “uncontrolled alcoholism leading to fatal car crash”, it’s pretty important to specify the type of change being requested.
therufs
me yesterday: god Jennifer pls friend-dump this toxic asshole
me today: nvm you are perfect for each other
elebenty
Last panel has Lucy Van Pelt vibes.
Rectilinear Propagation
So is Jennifer still not in therapy or…?
Nono
She is, but we don’t know what for. Main thing seems to be alcoholism and maybe the codependency from her last relationship.
So maybe they haven’t addressed her ego (which is funny, you think it’d be hard to miss).
thejeff
My impression is that she did therapy and she’s not doing it anymore. We know she started before the timeskip and I think it’s only been mentioned in the past tense since then.
She has stopped drinking though, so something seems to have worked.
Taellosse
She has stopped drinking as far as we know! She also has a history of drinking in secret to hide her addiction from others, so we may just not have seen her doing it since the timeskip.
thejeff
Theoretically possible, but we’ve had no clues since before the timeskip and we were usually shown pretty quickly when she was drinking and hiding it.
Most of the time she wasn’t even particularly hiding it.
NGPZ
Oh she is.
But only really to rub it into people’s faces (-_-)
Doctor_Who
She tried. Didn’t go great.
But in the plus column, the DSM-6 is going to have a new condition named in honor of Kit Fisto.
NGPZ
her parents probably aren’t rich enough to have THAT much influence, thank Satan
Formedras
It’s not about money/influence. It’s about novelty for getting the condition in the first place, with naming being centered around the details of the condition.
The Billingsworths would probably try to use their influence to avoid getting the condition named after them (absolutely no 1%er wants a mental health condition named after them or someone they’re related to; they think it indicates weakness in the family), so the name has to come from somewhere else. And Billie complaining about Kit Fisto would do it.
DailyBrad
How fast do you think therapy works?
Like, not to single you out, this comes up the moment any character does or says something maladjusted in the comic, which is often, but therapy can take a real long time to see meaningful changes, and even people who go to therapy can still think or do fucked up things.
She’d have begun therapy like a handful of months ago, tops, and possibly wouldn’t have even been going over winter break.
Doopyboop
I’ve gotta second this one, I started seeing a therapist after my mom’s sudden death, and therapy definitely requires time. It’s been about… two years since I’ve started seeing her, and nowadays I mostly touch base once a month (other than my mom’s death there have been a lot of other things I’ve been talking to my therapist about, things that take more than one visit to dig into).
I’d say it took maybe… mmm, 6 months before I really started feeling much of a difference? Not because she wasn’t doing a great job, I felt very good after ever talk with her, but mostly because these things take time. Especially something like grief, just takes time. With her advice I found new things to do, new ways to think about my mom’s passing, and had someone who’s job it was to listen and confide in regarding the grieving process. It was things that took time and effort on my part to really put into action, and I imagine it’s the same for Billie. And keeping in mind she started going in October, she’s been going for about… 3 months? Ish?
Dante
On Jennifer’s dubious defense, indeed it took me years of therapy to un-break my sense of self. That said… Literally the main thing with therapy is, you have to WANT to get better.
ktbear
Exactly this thank you Brad. Took me five years to sort out my life through both group and one on one counselling and at the end of it I’d say I was better but certainly not fixed. Sure, Jennifer’s life doesn’t appear to be as screwed up as mine was but to expect a huge change in such a short time is…unrealistic imo.
Opus the Poet
My personal experience physical therapy works pretty quick, psychotherapy sometimes doesn’t work or works so slowly it may not seem to work at all.
Amós Batista
I think therapy can’t resolve everthing.
Sirksome
Real question: Does Jennifer even like Asher?
DailyBrad
I think she liked him to a degree, but is VERY much not over Ruth, and misses their antagonism, even if she was the one who wanted to be more “domestic” with her in the first place, it was Ruth who ironically was more reluctant about it, only for Jennifer to be the resistant party with Asher.
Coatl
The most obvious thing would be that Raidah intervened and “motivated” Jennifer to have him by her side.
Bash
I think she liked him for shallow reasons. He was cool and hot and made her look good by association. She lost interest pretty fast when he was being a bit of a dork.
Amelie Wikström
She actively ignores Asher in favor of the cool melodramatic Asher she made up in her head who’s a bad boy with a troubled past who never does anything anyone asks, but when the real one does intrude on her life she’s only disappointed in him.
Pylgrim
He seemed like the perfect, classic “bad boy” who could possibly have given her the trouble and drama that she enjoyed with Ruth and validated her self-loathing. Conveniently, he could also have been a neat project for her misguided new “fix-it” self which would fit into Raida’s little universe to which she desperately knows she doesn’t belong.
someone
She didn’t want a bad boy so she could fix him; she wants a bad boy so he could break her. Just like her previous relationship with a bad girl broke her.
Some of them want to abuse you, some of them want to be abused…
thejeff
If this is still the same kind of thinking she had last semester, she wants a bad boy because she can’t hurt someone who’s already broken.
Jamie
I suspect their relationship was functional for a bit off-screen. She’s had to put in too much work to break it, IMO, for there to not have been anything before.
Ray Radlein
tbf, the guy he’s kissing might be trying to destroy himself
Slartibeast Button, BIA
Kiss Of Death?
Mturtle7
“OMG, so not only did he move on, he got a new toxic self-destructive romantic partner BEFORE ME?! THERE’S NO JUSTICE IN THIS WORLD!!!” -Jennifer, in the near future, probably
shadowcell
i think he’s destroying someone else as an act of love or something, if you get my drift…
Dante
Building someone else up, as he destroys something else – It’s Equivalent Exchange. It’s a Law of New Relationship Energy.
Asher isn’t coming back
Animedingo
Christ how is Mary having competition for “worst”
3oranges
She’s not. Jennifer has not asked to “have” anyone to bully based on bigotry, so she is not anywhere close to as bad as Mary.
GoblinBagsSumo
Right, Jennifer bullies for other selfish and petty reasons. She even harasses and picks on her childhood best friend for the sake of what she thinks will help her upward social mobility. She hurts people for her own selfish reasons and then gets mad at them when they forgive her for it.
At the very least, Mary’s crud personality is from religious indoctrination. Jennifer’s crud personality is from being mad she isn’t the center of attention and adoration. Mary’s brainwashed. Jennifer is just a fart sandwich.
zee
Yep still not as bad as targeted bigoted harassment. Jens a highschool bully, whatever who cares, they’re a dime a dozen. Blackmailing a suicidal person so you can harass your trans floor mate and trying to stop people from stepping in when that suicidal person is about to go through with it is objectively much worse.
Frankly, I don’t hate any of the main character like the rest of the commenters do (except amazi girl, that’s been there since I was 13 and it ain’t goin no where). It rarely rises above annoyance. I don’t say anything usually but y’all are DRAMATIC about Jen. Probably because you know more Jens than Mary’s. But ffs she’s not as bad as someone who literally tried to get people to kill themselves
GoblinBagsSumo
I had forgotten about the stuff in your first paragraph.
Call people dramatic for noting that a cartoon character is constantly a jerk making terrible choices… okay. ?♂️ This isn’t high stakes, I just think she’s an awful character. (Not the writing, but just like she is a heel.)
Reltzik
Well, Ryan’s not dead yet….
… oh, you mean Jennifer. Nah. Mary is A-tier awful and Jennifer is low B- or high C-tier awful.
someone
Mary lacks depth. She’s just around to be loathsome when the plot requires it. Nobody in the audience is supposed to like her. Jennifer, on the other hand, is a focus character.
brumagem
F U ASHER
Anon A Mouse
Yes, but consider what made him decide on this course of action. Did he have anything left to retain/defend? Does Jennifer even care beyond the optics? Not defending Asher, but is there anyone to defend in this scenario?
Dante
I feel like Asher would’ve stayed, had he sensed Jennifer actually wanted him. Dude looks committed to his “let’s heal together”s
zee
I’ll defend Asher. By the way billies talking here, do either of them consider themselves still a couple? I mean I hate ambiguous breakups they’re fucking annoying but, “get him back” is how you talk about an ex, no? She’s not acting like she’s been cheated on, like she’s not pissed nor is she excited he’s doing something toxic. It just kinda sounds like she’s mildly annoyed her fresh ex moved on
Needfuldoer
Excellent use of shot framing in that last panel.
DarkoNeko
well I mean… she did
Dr. Sharks
I feel like, of the many people doing wrong things here, Asher is the least wrong? Ethan kissed him once, Asher stopped him and immediately told Jennifer, Jennifer’s actual words in response were, “Kiss a billion dudes, I don’t care.” Only after all that did Asher kiss Ethan.
Jennifer only said that because she assumed, incorrectly, that the purpose of kissing Ethan was to spite her, but I don’t think Jennifer’s bad assumptions are Asher’s fault. The guy did his due diligence and, for all he knows, got the green light from his girlfriend to kiss guys.
Dr. Sharks
Annnd I am now realizing this was a joke about the letters in the background of the last panel, carry on.
Marianne
Starting to sound like Ruth was the healthiest unhealthy relationship she’s been in
Jeremiah
At least there the unhealthinest was mutual.
Grimey
“Mostly that he’s no longer telling me about it so I can’t get mad.”
Jennifer…What?
DailyBrad
She wants pushback in a relationship, and she’s very frustrated. She misses being with Ruth, and Ruth not only broke up with her, but then had the audacity to try to act like the bigger person about it, something Jennifer correctly saw through and that Ruth has her own angst about once she cut through all the patronizing martyr bullshit Ruth was spouting.
Bryy