“wasn’t that more than a week ago? NO ONE remembers THAT anymore”
once had an ex decide to casually swing by* when we were watching our show live (back in the ancient days of cable) and Ex TALKED THROUGH THE SHOW and so I’m *kinda* feeling aggravated by Panel 1 Leslie
*(Ex asked Spouse, who said it was ok for Ex to come over ARHGHGHGHGHG but at least we’ve moved past that EVER HAPPENING AGAIN… by MOVING)
I can’t imagine at **all** why they’re your EX. One of mine, when they couldn’t sleep, would lift their arms up, and DROP them on the mattress. Over and over. Naturally, they weren’t who was getting up at 4:30 (yes, a.m.) to drive to work at 5.
? Wow remembering this made me angry. Moving along…
Look, I’m not trying to be down on Leslie here, but if you’ve got Steve Rogers as one parent and Wade Wilson as the other (someone has written that fanfic, probably Amber), which one do you talk to about Sexy Mistakes?
Becky will come to you when she needs to know how to file taxes, Leslie, or cook something that isn’t Easy Mac. Let Robin take this one. Her her life has been a Sexy Mistake.
Becky may also be subconsciously (but it’s Becky, come on) avoiding telling Leslie because she views her as coming from the “same” background but is more stable than her.
Thanatos
Actually, I think Becky probably WOULD have told Leslie, but between when she saw Robin and when she saw Leslie, she had a crisis of relationship by wondering if Dina is really attracted to her or if she is attracted to someone else and only acting on it with her since they are dating. That worry sorta took the wind out of her pseudo-bragging sails.
Needfuldoer
This sounds like the cast of a mid-90s sitcom.
StClair
Yes it does, doesn’t it?
(and that’s when at least one of them looks directly at the camera.)
Jim
Kinda like Aunt Hilda and Aunt Zelda – from the Melissa Joan Hart version of Sabrina the Teenage Witch…
yeah, and I wouldn’t trust Deadpool with my secrets either
Doctor_Who
Yeah, I was going to have Tony as my pick for “Fun Dad”, as he makes much more sense as a foil parent for Steve (and Amber DEFINITELY has written that fic).
But the truth is that Human Disaster Tony Stark still has his shit together far more than Robin. Whereas I can easily see Wade just crashing on Steve’s couch against his wishes and bingeing on cartoons.
Yeah. eeesh! Both midpanel faces. Unable to do them himself(mask), or concurrently, would he just use two decapitated bad-guys and stage them though? Or would he really do a mundane panel 1 then panel 2 sequence? Or does he manage to actually emote through his mask?
I mean, if the advice you want is a long the lines of “how to I make this problem better/worse by the addition of multiple corpses,” I think you’ll get some pretty good advice. It’s just a matter of perspective.
I understand. I know I have the sugar-monkey on my back because if there was such a thing as a monkey made entirely out of processed sugar, I would probably eat it.
Was it Karl? I knew it was one of the Marx Brothers.
The other brother was the artist who did the mural of an expanding market chasing the bourgeoisie.
eh, whatever
I think Marx was inspired by 2 Peter 3:10:
“But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.”
Thag Simmons
The Communist Manifesto.
woobie
unsurprisingly false
Mark
I do believe it’s Shakespeare’s _A Midsummer Night’s Dream_.
Masumi
Except it’s inaccurate. That’s be sublimation, not melting.
Robin liked the prestige and the money but had no real partisan conviction beyond cynical self-interest. She easily could have played for the other party without any change in her character.
I recognize the quote but my poor memory for names renders me incapable of attributing the quote. I have the vague feeling a one Jimmie Buffet used it in album notes or something but nothing concrete.
I mean… you could just ask her. I do not know exactly how Becky would respond, but I feel like she would give you a straightforward answer. Whether the answer is what you want or not, she would give an answer.
I actually wish he’d write a book about the creation of his comics. I’d not only buy it, I’d help him get it published. I would love to hear the whole story about how Robin’s storyline went so disastrously wrong.
I mean, Robin went from a character I was ambivalent about in Shortpacked to one I actively despise in Dumbing of Age, so if her storyline was meant to be endearing or relatable it completely failed.
DailyBrad
I think she’s human with endearing moments, or times she did the right thing at personal cost, but we’re not likely meant to be terribly sympathetic to her the majority of the time. Like with Mike, that’s probably in part because Shortpacked Robin pulled some really wild shit she’d get easily forgiven by the universe for, it was more of a cartoon, but both of them had to adapt to a setting where they can’t just be the same.
Robin is basically like if Daffy Duck was a real person. You can’t really throw that into DoA and expect her to be always easy to be around, so I think Willis has handled that transition well and is good at using her sparingly accordingly.
cbwroses
I think “if Daffy Duck were a real person” is a good analogy for Robin.
Though now I’m wondering who the Bugs Bunny would be in this universe.
Walky’s not smooth enough.
Dorothy’s not childish enough.
Joyce isn’t relaxed enough.
I need to think about this some more, but the closest I can think of is Carla, but that doesn’t quite fit, either.
Ed Callahan
Robin is a Looney Tunes character in an alleged college slice of life comic. Like Carla. That’s what is enjoyable about the two characters.
StClair
Carla was wearing the gloves, last time we saw her.
Derek
this is probably personal preference, but I genuinely struggle to find anything to like about Robin. She’s just an awful person who skated her way through life and somehow fell ass backwards into a cushy job; and then proceeded to throw people under the bus to keep that job.
At least with Mike, he wasn’t meant to be comedically wacky and he certainly didn’t act like he thought he was the good guy all along. He was an asshole and he identified as one.
Robin acts and talks like she lives in a romantic comedy and it’s aggravating to watch her try to be cute after all the shit she pulled.
ischemgeek
I think what makes Robin work for me where Mike didn’t is Robin experiences some level consequences for her behaviour. Mike’s friends largely just enabled him to be a jerk, but Leslie dumped Robin for her shit.
In my case, as I happen to be related to someone who Robin reminds me of in a lot of ways so it’s almost a sense of, “oh thank god other people see the wtf of the behaviour of these types” as well, and I’ve found it really nice to see Robin, at least, not be able to sweet talk her way out of all consequences.
Mark
I think Robin just doesn’t think about what she is doing. I believe she is totally unaware of being “an awful person” and it wouldn’t even make any sense to her if you told her.
marillius
You think Robin is a sociopath?
eh, whatever
Why would her storyline be meant to be endearing or relatable?
I think Robin needed to be recalibrated starting in 2016. Nobody expected the next few years to play out the way they did, but here we are. I honestly don’t know what the story could’ve done with Robin if she followed the real-world Republican goose-step toward extremism.
151 thoughts on “Our Flag”
Ana Chronistic
“wasn’t that more than a week ago? NO ONE remembers THAT anymore”
once had an ex decide to casually swing by* when we were watching our show live (back in the ancient days of cable) and Ex TALKED THROUGH THE SHOW and so I’m *kinda* feeling aggravated by Panel 1 Leslie
*(Ex asked Spouse, who said it was ok for Ex to come over ARHGHGHGHGHG but at least we’ve moved past that EVER HAPPENING AGAIN… by MOVING)
Felgraf
… to be fair, I’m pretty sure this is Leslie’s house.
Felgraf
Oh, wait, this is the lounge, my bad.
Decidedly Orthogonal
I can’t imagine at **all** why they’re your EX. One of mine, when they couldn’t sleep, would lift their arms up, and DROP them on the mattress. Over and over. Naturally, they weren’t who was getting up at 4:30 (yes, a.m.) to drive to work at 5.
? Wow remembering this made me angry. Moving along…
Ana Chronistic
so
Ex would get up before I did and leave the light on while I was still trying to sleep
I asked, “Could you turn off the light after you get up?”
Ex THEN moved into a different room and told people, “[Ana] kicked me out of the bedroom”
…
nope, dunno why we broke up!
Doctor_Who
Look, I’m not trying to be down on Leslie here, but if you’ve got Steve Rogers as one parent and Wade Wilson as the other (someone has written that fanfic, probably Amber), which one do you talk to about Sexy Mistakes?
Becky will come to you when she needs to know how to file taxes, Leslie, or cook something that isn’t Easy Mac. Let Robin take this one. Her her life has been a Sexy Mistake.
StClair
Fun New Mom and Boring New Mom.
Sirksome
Leslie’s the new lesbian pseudo-mom. I think Robin’s more like a wacky pansexual aunt you confide in so you don’t get in trouble.
True Survivor
I can see that.
StClair
Yes, better, thank you.
Opus the Poet
That deffs works for me in the context of DoA.
Bryy
Becky may also be subconsciously (but it’s Becky, come on) avoiding telling Leslie because she views her as coming from the “same” background but is more stable than her.
Thanatos
Actually, I think Becky probably WOULD have told Leslie, but between when she saw Robin and when she saw Leslie, she had a crisis of relationship by wondering if Dina is really attracted to her or if she is attracted to someone else and only acting on it with her since they are dating. That worry sorta took the wind out of her pseudo-bragging sails.
Needfuldoer
This sounds like the cast of a mid-90s sitcom.
StClair
Yes it does, doesn’t it?
(and that’s when at least one of them looks directly at the camera.)
Jim
Kinda like Aunt Hilda and Aunt Zelda – from the Melissa Joan Hart version of Sabrina the Teenage Witch…
Thag Simmons
Frankly I would avoid talking to a amoral and insane mercenary for advice of any sort. Bad advice is probably the best case scenario there.
Doctor_Who
“amoral and insane mercenary”
We know Robin was a republican, no need to be redundant. 😉
Thag Simmons
I immediately regretted saying ‘insane’ instead of the more specific ‘dangerously unhinged’ but I guess that wouldn’t rule out a republican either.
Opus the Poet
Y’see, this is why we need an upvote system for this webcomic’s comments section. This comment thread deserves commemoration with an upvote.
elebenty
I’d upvote that….
BBCC
Upvotes exist on patreon!
Clif
Do they?
Or is that like the hot tubs airlines were supposed to have in first class.
Felgraf
I feel this comparison to Republicans is unfair to Deadpool.
butts
yeah, and I wouldn’t trust Deadpool with my secrets either
Doctor_Who
Yeah, I was going to have Tony as my pick for “Fun Dad”, as he makes much more sense as a foil parent for Steve (and Amber DEFINITELY has written that fic).
But the truth is that Human Disaster Tony Stark still has his shit together far more than Robin. Whereas I can easily see Wade just crashing on Steve’s couch against his wishes and bingeing on cartoons.
The Wellerman
I’d chill with comparing conservative politicians to Deadpool. ?
I can only imagine he’d make the same face Sal did here https://www.dumbingofage.com/2016/comic/book-6/04-it-all-returns/nina/
Decidedly Orthogonal
Yeah. eeesh! Both midpanel faces. Unable to do them himself(mask), or concurrently, would he just use two decapitated bad-guys and stage them though? Or would he really do a mundane panel 1 then panel 2 sequence? Or does he manage to actually emote through his mask?
Andy
I mean, if the advice you want is a long the lines of “how to I make this problem better/worse by the addition of multiple corpses,” I think you’ll get some pretty good advice. It’s just a matter of perspective.
Wizard
Just ask their advice, and then do pretty much anything else.
Mikey
I mean, a mistake that you’re happy about can also be about eating a truly tooth-murdering amount of sweets. Speaking from experience, yo.
True Survivor
I understand. I know I have the sugar-monkey on my back because if there was such a thing as a monkey made entirely out of processed sugar, I would probably eat it.
Sirksome
Don’t get confused by the Robin trolling Les. It’s because Becky actually respects you.
Shade
Yeah my impression and I could be wrong is that Becky actually cares what Leslie thinks of her, while with Robin she doesn’t.
Needfuldoer
That’s been my read, too. Her relationship with Leslie has stakes.
The Wellerman
Eh, only really a “mistake” in the eyes of the voters Robin went out of her way to please.
Just how convicted was she in her ultra-conservative views anyway?
C.T. Phipps
I mean Robin had absolutely no views and was solely in it to make money. She became a Republican to get elected.
It’s just she was confronted by people other than her sister that her policies were horrifying and harmful.
The Wellerman
“All that is solid melts into air….” ?
True Survivor
What\Who is that a quote from. Its a good one.
True Survivor
*It’s.
The Wellerman
Karl Marx ?
Clif
Was it Karl? I knew it was one of the Marx Brothers.
The other brother was the artist who did the mural of an expanding market chasing the bourgeoisie.
eh, whatever
I think Marx was inspired by 2 Peter 3:10:
“But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.”
Thag Simmons
The Communist Manifesto.
woobie
unsurprisingly false
Mark
I do believe it’s Shakespeare’s _A Midsummer Night’s Dream_.
Masumi
Except it’s inaccurate. That’s be sublimation, not melting.
:p
The Wellerman
It’s a translation ?
Needfuldoer
All that glitters is gold, only shooting stars break the mold.
powerpowerpow
A better fit would might be “The ice we skate is getting pretty thin”
Needfuldoer
Hey now.
Thag Simmons
Robin liked the prestige and the money but had no real partisan conviction beyond cynical self-interest. She easily could have played for the other party without any change in her character.
Stephen Bierce
–I am a pirate, two hundred years too late
The cannon don’t thunder
There ain’t nuthin’ to plunder
I’m an over forty victim of fate
Arriving too late…
Opus the Poet
I recognize the quote but my poor memory for names renders me incapable of attributing the quote. I have the vague feeling a one Jimmie Buffet used it in album notes or something but nothing concrete.
Illithid
Yes, Jimmy Buffet, “A Pirate Looks at Forty”. My reply to the question, ‘name a song that reminds you of your father’, a few days ago.
davidbreslin101
“For I am a Pirate King-”
“He is! Hurrah for the Pirate King!”
“-And it is, it is a glorious thing
To be a Pirate King.”
Kyrik Michalowski
I mean… you could just ask her. I do not know exactly how Becky would respond, but I feel like she would give you a straightforward answer. Whether the answer is what you want or not, she would give an answer.
Suet
Secreting of Age
There’s an ethical question here that even I wouldn’t mess with or mention
Clif
Good thing you didn’t mention it.
When I go back on a computer later where I can see what the double underlines are, I may be sorry I mentioned it.
C.T. Phipps
Poor Willis.
I actually wish he’d write a book about the creation of his comics. I’d not only buy it, I’d help him get it published. I would love to hear the whole story about how Robin’s storyline went so disastrously wrong.
poofdepoof
How do you know Robin’s storyline went wrong?
C.T. Phipps
Just a guess.
If I’m wrong, I’d still love to read the behind the scenes.
Derek
I mean, Robin went from a character I was ambivalent about in Shortpacked to one I actively despise in Dumbing of Age, so if her storyline was meant to be endearing or relatable it completely failed.
DailyBrad
I think she’s human with endearing moments, or times she did the right thing at personal cost, but we’re not likely meant to be terribly sympathetic to her the majority of the time. Like with Mike, that’s probably in part because Shortpacked Robin pulled some really wild shit she’d get easily forgiven by the universe for, it was more of a cartoon, but both of them had to adapt to a setting where they can’t just be the same.
Robin is basically like if Daffy Duck was a real person. You can’t really throw that into DoA and expect her to be always easy to be around, so I think Willis has handled that transition well and is good at using her sparingly accordingly.
cbwroses
I think “if Daffy Duck were a real person” is a good analogy for Robin.
Though now I’m wondering who the Bugs Bunny would be in this universe.
Walky’s not smooth enough.
Dorothy’s not childish enough.
Joyce isn’t relaxed enough.
I need to think about this some more, but the closest I can think of is Carla, but that doesn’t quite fit, either.
Ed Callahan
Robin is a Looney Tunes character in an alleged college slice of life comic. Like Carla. That’s what is enjoyable about the two characters.
StClair
Carla was wearing the gloves, last time we saw her.
Derek
this is probably personal preference, but I genuinely struggle to find anything to like about Robin. She’s just an awful person who skated her way through life and somehow fell ass backwards into a cushy job; and then proceeded to throw people under the bus to keep that job.
At least with Mike, he wasn’t meant to be comedically wacky and he certainly didn’t act like he thought he was the good guy all along. He was an asshole and he identified as one.
Robin acts and talks like she lives in a romantic comedy and it’s aggravating to watch her try to be cute after all the shit she pulled.
ischemgeek
I think what makes Robin work for me where Mike didn’t is Robin experiences some level consequences for her behaviour. Mike’s friends largely just enabled him to be a jerk, but Leslie dumped Robin for her shit.
In my case, as I happen to be related to someone who Robin reminds me of in a lot of ways so it’s almost a sense of, “oh thank god other people see the wtf of the behaviour of these types” as well, and I’ve found it really nice to see Robin, at least, not be able to sweet talk her way out of all consequences.
Mark
I think Robin just doesn’t think about what she is doing. I believe she is totally unaware of being “an awful person” and it wouldn’t even make any sense to her if you told her.
marillius
You think Robin is a sociopath?
eh, whatever
Why would her storyline be meant to be endearing or relatable?
Needfuldoer
I think Robin needed to be recalibrated starting in 2016. Nobody expected the next few years to play out the way they did, but here we are. I honestly don’t know what the story could’ve done with Robin if she followed the real-world Republican goose-step toward extremism.
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2016/comic/book-6/04-it-all-returns/tinyhands/
RassilonTDavros