That puts her in prestigious company with Alcohol, Explosives and [insert political joke here!]
Amy
As we can see in this comic, she is very much in the company of Alcohol.
clif
And we’ve seen her in the company of Robin which arguably takes care of political joke, so all that we are missing is high explosives. Which you would think would be in the toolkit of any problem solver as most problems can be taken care of by the proper application of sufficiently large explosions.
I mean let’s be honest, if someone drove you across state lines no questions asked, punched out someone for you no questions asked, then took you by the hand and said “let’s get out of here?”
I mean I get it. In her shoes I would probably also be tempted to do the Thelma and Louise thing. I also probably would not be prepared for what would happen if my situationship drove us off the road.
I do hope the car wreck doesn’t drive Alice back to her awful monster of an ex somehow. It seems like she knows Chester’s a piece of shit and she seemed to be doing okay when she saw Jennifer last, but if Willis [i]really[/i] wants to twist the knife in for Jen that’s how you’d do it.
Clif
Alice wants nothing to do with Jennifer because she desperately doesn’t want Jenn to know that she’s now married to Chester.
I’m pulling this out of my nether regions, but who knows?
Thag Simmons
I mean I don’t think it’s particularly likely but until we’re out of the flashback I’m not going to discount it.
The thing about really minor characters is that it’s way more plausible for things to turn out really extremely terribly for them compared to the leads. Creates a lot of tension.
thejeff
My assumption is that Alice is happily dating that unnamed girl she was sitting with in her first appearance.
Which also makes that whole sequence even more awkward.
Sirksome
I want to believe this too. Alice’s backstory is pretty sad. She deserves to be a happy background character we rarely see that gets to live a relatively peaceful not dumbing of age life.
Michael Steamweed
That darn Willis for doing this! This is all his fault!
mindbleach
Nah, she gets to be this universe’s Rickety Cricket.
He and Sal were childhood friends and Jennifer was basically an honorary Walkerton, so they’ve probably known each other since they were quite small. That wasn’t a connection I saw people make until after it was revealed they’d been dating though.
So far we cannot know wether they actually knew each other, or were merely aware of each other’s existence.
Also, there is actually no reason to believe Billie was privy to any of Sal’s extra-familiar activities. My impression of their relationship is they knew each other well enough but that Sal would get Billie to mind her own business on these matters, so it is very possible that Asher may have escaped Billie’s radar.
So how did she cause Chester to happen to Alice? That’s the problem at the head of the cascade.
Chubseus
We don’t know if she did yet. I think it just feels like a Jennifer thing to do so I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop. I’m just waiting to find out that Billie brought Alice to a drinking party and then left her alone. Maybe something not that far off from what happened to Joyce. Similar to the Star Wars that Jennifer loves so much, it’s like poetry…it rhymes.
thejeff
It fits perfectly with what we know of their high school exploits, including a couple hints on Patreon.
I remember a strip about a party where Alice’s common sense of “this is a bad idea” got overwritten by “Billie’s so hot.”
The significance of the boozles in panel 3 I think is to point out she had already had something to drink before she takes that out in the last panel, she’s not just starting now 🙂
216 thoughts on “Forcefully”
NGPZ
Jennifer gotz the right idea
fucka was beat,
time to bounce outta there!
*plays “Know The Ledge” by Eric B. & Rakim on dance floor speakers*
Clif
Or apparently, time to booze outta there.
Cheshrin
Hi, Asher.
Bye, Asher.
Clif
For extra credit, what does Asher’s star represent? He’s a deputy bouncer?
brionl
Probably some sort of flower.
captainrex7675
Lapel corsage
Needfuldoer
Omelette du fromage.
Proxiehunter
Lapel du fromage.
Eric
Those French have a different word for EVERYTHING!
Theluxland
Omelette du corsage (I’m french)
Michael Steamweed
Corsage fromage
(fromage corsage?)
brionl
Winner! Winner! Omelette dinner.
Michael Steamweed
Flower lapel.
clif
Thank you.
Wizard
It’s a boutonnière. They were originally worn to ward off bad luck and evil spirits. Not sure that really worked out for Asher.
Needfuldoer
He’s the Michael Corleone of the Dumbiverse. Trouble keeps following him, even if he manages to keep it at arm’s length.
clif
He never had the bad luck of coming up against Amazigirl, so it must have done something.
BBCC
She also creates more! It’s a very efficient system.
BBCC
GDI one day I’ll remember this first.
Queezle
would not want to run out of work.
Doctor_Who
Jennifer Billingsworth is a process that turns problems into different problems.
Thag Simmons
That puts her in prestigious company with Alcohol, Explosives and [insert political joke here!]
Amy
As we can see in this comic, she is very much in the company of Alcohol.
clif
And we’ve seen her in the company of Robin which arguably takes care of political joke, so all that we are missing is high explosives. Which you would think would be in the toolkit of any problem solver as most problems can be taken care of by the proper application of sufficiently large explosions.
Aura
Hooray!
Nono
A self-sustaining economy…
Deanatay
Billie is a “problem solver” in the same usage as “problem drinker” or “problem child”, where ‘problem’ is an adjective, not a noun.
Michael Steamweed
She is a solver, and that’s a problem.
Plaaaaaa
That’s a solvent
Thag Simmons
Well, at least Alice appreciates the gesture. For the like, five minutes they’ve got before everything goes to shit again
Nono
I mean let’s be honest, if someone drove you across state lines no questions asked, punched out someone for you no questions asked, then took you by the hand and said “let’s get out of here?”
Yeah it would work on a lot of us.
Thag Simmons
I mean I get it. In her shoes I would probably also be tempted to do the Thelma and Louise thing. I also probably would not be prepared for what would happen if my situationship drove us off the road.
I do hope the car wreck doesn’t drive Alice back to her awful monster of an ex somehow. It seems like she knows Chester’s a piece of shit and she seemed to be doing okay when she saw Jennifer last, but if Willis [i]really[/i] wants to twist the knife in for Jen that’s how you’d do it.
Clif
Alice wants nothing to do with Jennifer because she desperately doesn’t want Jenn to know that she’s now married to Chester.
I’m pulling this out of my nether regions, but who knows?
Thag Simmons
I mean I don’t think it’s particularly likely but until we’re out of the flashback I’m not going to discount it.
The thing about really minor characters is that it’s way more plausible for things to turn out really extremely terribly for them compared to the leads. Creates a lot of tension.
thejeff
My assumption is that Alice is happily dating that unnamed girl she was sitting with in her first appearance.
Which also makes that whole sequence even more awkward.
Sirksome
I want to believe this too. Alice’s backstory is pretty sad. She deserves to be a happy background character we rarely see that gets to live a relatively peaceful not dumbing of age life.
Michael Steamweed
That darn Willis for doing this! This is all his fault!
mindbleach
Nah, she gets to be this universe’s Rickety Cricket.
Byron Orpheus
Shut up, bird. Now we have to do the whole cast:
Clearly, Walky = Charlie.
Carla = Carmen
Hmm… little help?
Thag Simmons
I really hope this, or something like this, is the case.
Michael Steamweed
Up until hugging the tree with the car.
Karla Jean
Hey, it’s that guy
JA
It’s he who is that guy.
PedanticJerkass
Eglamore?
Wizard
Please consider yourself up-voted.
elebenty
Upvoted twice, even.
Sirksome
Asher isn’t really involved in these events but he shouldn’t be trusted regardless.
Thag Simmons
Maybe it’ll turn out he did the car crash.
Doctor_Who
Guessing not, I suspect the crash is imminent, and Asher appears to be on the way IN.
Thag Simmons
From sabotaging the car! He has no alibi, and we know he has the sort of criminal past that might teach you how to sabotage a car!
Now all we need is anything at all resembling a motive…
Nono
He heard there were three McNuggets up for grabs and he wanted in.
Thag Simmons
I think that’s a strong enough case to convict!
Sirksome
He needed to get rid of Alice so that Jennifer would be free to date over a year later. All part of his plan!
Aura
Oh my god it’s all so obvious in hindsight
Nono
Asher take the wheel?
Woof McGee
He’s probably casing the joint and planning a mass kidnapping.
clif
He’s holding the door open for them. Such a gentleman.
Polar
Making a lot more sense now, yeah. Also, I didn’t realize Asher knew her for so long.
Thag Simmons
He and Sal were childhood friends and Jennifer was basically an honorary Walkerton, so they’ve probably known each other since they were quite small. That wasn’t a connection I saw people make until after it was revealed they’d been dating though.
asmodai27
So far we cannot know wether they actually knew each other, or were merely aware of each other’s existence.
Also, there is actually no reason to believe Billie was privy to any of Sal’s extra-familiar activities. My impression of their relationship is they knew each other well enough but that Sal would get Billie to mind her own business on these matters, so it is very possible that Asher may have escaped Billie’s radar.
Blibdoolpoolp
Problem Solver!
Joe Moose
“Solves problems”
Sure, Jen.
Needfuldoer
Creates problems, then solves them by creating even more collateral damage problems.
Mark
So how did she cause Chester to happen to Alice? That’s the problem at the head of the cascade.
Chubseus
We don’t know if she did yet. I think it just feels like a Jennifer thing to do so I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop. I’m just waiting to find out that Billie brought Alice to a drinking party and then left her alone. Maybe something not that far off from what happened to Joyce. Similar to the Star Wars that Jennifer loves so much, it’s like poetry…it rhymes.
thejeff
It fits perfectly with what we know of their high school exploits, including a couple hints on Patreon.
I remember a strip about a party where Alice’s common sense of “this is a bad idea” got overwritten by “Billie’s so hot.”
Alongcameaspider
Well looks like Alice is okay with Billie doing that without giving her a heads up
Also looks like she was drinking but managing to act sober pong enough to call Chester out (you can see the drunk bubble start to appear in panel 3)
Proxiehunter
You can also see her drinking out of a flask in the last pannel.
Aura
The significance of the boozles in panel 3 I think is to point out she had already had something to drink before she takes that out in the last panel, she’s not just starting now 🙂
Proxiehunter
Just saying that she’s adding more.
Azhrei Vep
Boozies may rule!