“Hi! I’m Becky! I don’t think about the consequences of my actions because if I did, I’d get super bummed out! Plus, being impulsive is part of why I’m just the raddest! Rock on peeps!”-what I hear whenever I look at Becky.
Briny
She doesn’t seem very good at impulse-control, now that you mention it.
There’s “pulling the bandage off fast” and then there’s “Hey, what’s under this tourniquet that needs to be removed carefully? (Gush!)”
I’m gonna say that she did think about this one. Joyce’s dad was being strangely nice and and good and maybe she didn’t want Joyce to forget the bad stuff, so she threw herself into the fray to make the dad act mean. Of course this is just hopeful thinking.
Mr. Morningstar
I sincerely doubt that’s it.
Becky is impulsive but she wouldn’t intentionally do that.
Yet_One_More_Idiot
Popcorn2.tiff
Nezumi
… That sounds like Mary, if she were willing to use her powers for good.
Nezumi
And yes, despite the suffering involved, I think “Reminding her that her parents are intolerant so she doesn’t just blow it off because things are going nice this time” is good. Though I have no idea why I keep coming here to comment, since I still haven’t read this through.
On a completely unrelated sidenote. All the people reading Becky like some sort of supervillain seeking to hurt people is giving me flashbacks to all the people who tried to argue during the Toedad hunts Becky arc who tried to argue that it would be such a “good twist” if it turned out that Becky was an evil gay liar who lies and Toedad was actually just an awesome caring dad trying to stop her lying gay ways.
Like, it’s at the level where it’s a) no, and b) what comic have these people even been reading to be able to interpret Becky’s character this way?
Random832
This comic, they’re just reading it through their twisted worldview. I remember in QC when Marten’s Dad first showed up there was someone who came into the forum angrily claiming that gay men are inherently incapable of caring about their families, because his own father had “abandoned” his family (it was never clear whether this is a case of being a scumbag who happened to be gay, or if the father just couldn’t handle their bigotry and so cut ties) so clearly all gay people would do that.
3-I
Are we really going to get these “This character is the devil and deserves whatever they get” comments whenever anyone LGBTQIA does anything in this comic? ~.~
Because I don’t hear any of you people saying this about Joe. Or Mike. Or Jacob.
Jenne
Ok, I had to sign on just to say ‘Mike deserves to have his entire life blow up in his face.’ Because, even as someone who has left college long behind them, I have no sympathy for him, and whatever makes him such a jerk. He’s a sick puppy and he’s going to do serious damage someday unless he’s stopped.
Honestly, Joe scares me a lot. Hopefully he hasn’t committed sexual assault yet, and someone will upside him in the head and get through before he does, but he teeters on the verge of harrassment way too often. If he were to pick up a (curable) STD, I would be all like “Karma!”
I have some sympathy for Becky, but Willis has already shown us that she’s not in a good headspace right now to make good choices. She’s upset, to start with, and Becky has shown that her response to being upset is to stir the Shinola. She’s done it before. The fact that her traumas and her coming out are what are pushing her to do that stirring is worthy of sympathy, but this is still a bad choice, and one coming from a state of poor judgement.
While confronting Joyce’s dad may be a good truthtelling measure, it’s unlikely to allow the object of Becky’s affection the time and space she needs to come to terms with everything that has happened to her and how that involves her family of origin.
Poor Joyce. Poor Becky. But jeez, Becky, way to take your best friend with you on your Nuke Them From Orbit tour.
thejeff
It’s come up. Both with Mike and Joe, though I don’t recall anything with Jacob.
There was a lot of analysis of Joe just a little while back during the fake marriage bit. IIRC, mostly the same people defending Becky here were criticizing Joe there.
Mike’s a little odder. He gets some slack from the Shortpacked version and from generally being over the top & cartoony. For some, he’s just not real enough to attack. Others think he really is an ass.
I feel like if I were to evaluate Mike as I would a real person then yes, he is a complete ass.
On the other hand, it almost seems like he walks a weird line between a jerk who just screws with everyone for the hell of it, and some sort of… I’m not really sure what the word is, but it seems like half of his dickish behavior is actually aimed at forcing characters to own up to their mistakes, see past their own excuses, or face some unpleasant decision. Except for punching Joe in the face repeatedly at Joyce’s request. That was pure physical comedy.
Of course, this all depends on whether or not Mike is actually orchestrating all this on purpose, or if it’s all an unintended consequence of being an asshole. It would be easier to get a read on him if he were actually present whenever shit hits the fan and we could see if he actually makes an effort to help or not when it matters.
Spencer
I really don’t buy the “Mike is trying to help by forcing people to confront their mistakes” argument. Partially because Mike never did that in the Walkyverse; if anything he took great pleasure in making peoples’ lives worse, and partially because of all the genuinely horrible actions he’s taken. I’m pretty sure he’s just meant to be an occasional joke character.
And like, if it’s true… so what? It’s still disgusting, and presumes that Mike is in a place where he should allowed to mete out abuse as long as it has a positive ending.
Nezumi
Silly, they’re not girls! Women get this treatment as characters in general, and being LGBT+ only makes it worse.
Mike is an awesome force of nature and the help you never want. He may force people to face their own contradictions because he enjoys being a jerk, but that doesn’t make him any less useful. What we have here is a immature form of the Walkyverse Mike, a dumber version if you like, but still recognizably Mike.
Spencer
Mike literally told Amber that her preferences in men meant that she was doomed to be an abuser.
He can’t be this awesome force of nature and an actual character at the same time.
Needfuldoer
She’s a big fan of Representative DeSanto.
Captain Button
Becky would certainly support banning cancer.
Deanatay
But Cancers are great people! I mean, yeah, they’re jerks, but they’re basically good people. Mostly. Well, they mean well. I guess.
I’m kind of hoping he I use flat out hugs her and tries to make sure she is okay. Thus revealing that he’s not as shitty a Christian as his wife, but that he upholds her teachings in the house.
That would be awesome, but I can definitely see him doing that and then chiding her for her “choices” in friendship later on in the car. Basically a similar small comfort and then pulling the rug from out under her that her mom did.
Disloyal Subject
I could see the Browns questioning Joyce remaining close with her best friend, but what choices in friendship would they chide Becky for? I doubt Ross has told anyone about the Pokey Man girlchild that deceived him.
They know he’s in jail “because” of her. (And by that I mean he’ll put all the blame on her, he’s in jail because of the shit he pulled, not defending him on that front.)
That’s what I meant, sorry. That he’ll emotionally hit Joyce for her “choices” in being friends with her in a way that’ll unintentionally hit Becky or he’ll chide Becky for her “choices” in sexuality and parental obedience in a way that minimizes the true horror of Toedad’s crime.
That would be nice, but I’d be worried that if that happened then all the parent couples we see would be Overbearing-Mom/Ineffectual-Dad types. Not to say DoA doesn’t have its share of Bad Dads, obv, but they all sort of appear solo, either divorced or widowed. Besides Dorothy’s parents the rest would seem to fall into these two categories, though I could be easily missing something.
Needfuldoer
Considering some of the insights the author has given into his own Fundie upbringing (and the fact that Joyce is autobiographical), I really hope you’re right.
We haven’t seen Hank without Carol before; it’s possible he’s fairly moderate but ‘plays along’ with her to avoid conflict. (For lack of a better description.)
zoelogical
yeah, i’m kinda bothered that hank’s first move wasn’t “i’m so glad you’re okay” but instead “i’m so glad you haven’t changed”.
Spencer
“You haven’t changed” is a really common thing to say to someone, let alone your kid after they’ve been away at college. I can’t imagine Hank meant anything sinister by it.
zoelogical
it’s…probably more related to me and my personal experiences tbh.
like, as someone who grew up in a more evangelical-flavored fundie background, the stated goal for me as a good christian girl going to college was to not change anything important about myself or my morals. because college was sort of notorious for being a corrupting influence?? a lot of good christian kids would go to college and then leave the church. which people’s morals evolving and changing is apparently a Bad Thing, as is being exposed to more of the world. acknowledging gay people’s existence, let alone trans people’s. being kind to people who’ve had abortions. allowing the world to be bigger than the church, essentially.
idk there’s this real thing in the churches i’ve been a part of where you have to specifically control your intake so that you don’t become corrupted. you have to walk the straight and narrow in every aspect of your life, you have to be this particular person and if you’re not you’re a bad christian. and the gossip can be insidious and vicious, because people are human but they’re held up to these standards that nobody can possibly reach and they’re taught to feel bad about themselves all the time because they’re not good enough, never going to be good enough. and –
there’s this specific kind of patriarchal controlling that comes with being daddy’s little girl. because you do your best to please and you try to be perfect, like a disney princess, but disney princesses aren’t real people and they don’t have the kind of real problems that can’t be solved within the space of a song. but you’re still really encouraged to fit that perfect image of what a girl ought to be: which is a static image. Aurora asleep on her bed waiting for true love’s kiss, essentially, but true love never comes because she’s never allowed to get up and go looking for it. she’s not an active participant; she’s always passive and moldable. which for a long time was the ideal woman in american society.
so like – at this point i’m probably way overreading it, although this chapter is called “that perfect girl” – but Hank not meaning anything sinister by it doesn’t mean that there isn’t a heckton of cultural baggage along with it. which is, essentially, the problem.
zoelogical
so like it is kinda heartwarming because both Hank and Joyce are trying to go back to a space where things were simple and nothing had to change. but like simpler is sort of a matter of perspective – the world was always this screwed up, Joyce just didn’t notice until now, and it’s a manifestation of white Christian privilege that the world was allowed to be that simple and black and white.
thejeff
Hank might not have, but Willis did.
It’s pretty obviously a callback both to Becky’s “Don’t let anyone change you” from Mov-in Day and to her later “I’m glad they did”.
Joyce just stood up for Becky in the face of death itself. This is going to be painful however it goes, but I don’t think Joyce throwing Becky under the truck is going to happen.
Bob Bobberman
Sometimes standing up to family can be scarier than death.
Yeah, the way it’d stack up is Joyce alone will have a much harder time, because she won’t have an ally willing to fully get her back (Jocelyne is awesome, but terrified of jumping into arguments with family), but Becky with Joyce means Becky will be having to casually grin past a lot of crap herself and may be physically dangerous for her.
zoelogical
texting! it’s like being physically there but only in an emotional sense.
No, no, no. You’re supposed to set the universal constants while creating the universe such that the random number generator on a particular Game Boy generates a zero at a particular time such that it is guaranteed that the pokéball captures the Joyce.
Which, yeah, I would normally assume to mean, yes, but only if you’re okay with it, which Becky was, but given that we haven’t seen Becky pack, maybe that assumption is in error, but then maybe this scene suggests the opposite. I dunno, I imagine it’ll get cleared up one way or another by the next couple of comics.
1,021 thoughts on “Hit the road”
Ana Chronistic
DisGonBGud.gif
Cody
Am I a bad person for wanting to see all the hell break loose?
butts
Please, we’re talking about Joyce’s parents.
All heck’s gonna break loose.
AngryBamboo
“Hi! I’m Becky! I don’t think about the consequences of my actions because if I did, I’d get super bummed out! Plus, being impulsive is part of why I’m just the raddest! Rock on peeps!”-what I hear whenever I look at Becky.
Briny
She doesn’t seem very good at impulse-control, now that you mention it.
There’s “pulling the bandage off fast” and then there’s “Hey, what’s under this tourniquet that needs to be removed carefully? (Gush!)”
Scordo
I’m gonna say that she did think about this one. Joyce’s dad was being strangely nice and and good and maybe she didn’t want Joyce to forget the bad stuff, so she threw herself into the fray to make the dad act mean. Of course this is just hopeful thinking.
Mr. Morningstar
I sincerely doubt that’s it.
Becky is impulsive but she wouldn’t intentionally do that.
Yet_One_More_Idiot
Popcorn2.tiff
Nezumi
… That sounds like Mary, if she were willing to use her powers for good.
Nezumi
And yes, despite the suffering involved, I think “Reminding her that her parents are intolerant so she doesn’t just blow it off because things are going nice this time” is good. Though I have no idea why I keep coming here to comment, since I still haven’t read this through.
Cerberus
Yeah, that’s very unlikely.
On a completely unrelated sidenote. All the people reading Becky like some sort of supervillain seeking to hurt people is giving me flashbacks to all the people who tried to argue during the Toedad hunts Becky arc who tried to argue that it would be such a “good twist” if it turned out that Becky was an evil gay liar who lies and Toedad was actually just an awesome caring dad trying to stop her lying gay ways.
Like, it’s at the level where it’s a) no, and b) what comic have these people even been reading to be able to interpret Becky’s character this way?
Random832
This comic, they’re just reading it through their twisted worldview. I remember in QC when Marten’s Dad first showed up there was someone who came into the forum angrily claiming that gay men are inherently incapable of caring about their families, because his own father had “abandoned” his family (it was never clear whether this is a case of being a scumbag who happened to be gay, or if the father just couldn’t handle their bigotry and so cut ties) so clearly all gay people would do that.
3-I
Are we really going to get these “This character is the devil and deserves whatever they get” comments whenever anyone LGBTQIA does anything in this comic? ~.~
Because I don’t hear any of you people saying this about Joe. Or Mike. Or Jacob.
Jenne
Ok, I had to sign on just to say ‘Mike deserves to have his entire life blow up in his face.’ Because, even as someone who has left college long behind them, I have no sympathy for him, and whatever makes him such a jerk. He’s a sick puppy and he’s going to do serious damage someday unless he’s stopped.
Honestly, Joe scares me a lot. Hopefully he hasn’t committed sexual assault yet, and someone will upside him in the head and get through before he does, but he teeters on the verge of harrassment way too often. If he were to pick up a (curable) STD, I would be all like “Karma!”
I have some sympathy for Becky, but Willis has already shown us that she’s not in a good headspace right now to make good choices. She’s upset, to start with, and Becky has shown that her response to being upset is to stir the Shinola. She’s done it before. The fact that her traumas and her coming out are what are pushing her to do that stirring is worthy of sympathy, but this is still a bad choice, and one coming from a state of poor judgement.
While confronting Joyce’s dad may be a good truthtelling measure, it’s unlikely to allow the object of Becky’s affection the time and space she needs to come to terms with everything that has happened to her and how that involves her family of origin.
Poor Joyce. Poor Becky. But jeez, Becky, way to take your best friend with you on your Nuke Them From Orbit tour.
thejeff
It’s come up. Both with Mike and Joe, though I don’t recall anything with Jacob.
There was a lot of analysis of Joe just a little while back during the fake marriage bit. IIRC, mostly the same people defending Becky here were criticizing Joe there.
Mike’s a little odder. He gets some slack from the Shortpacked version and from generally being over the top & cartoony. For some, he’s just not real enough to attack. Others think he really is an ass.
Ellegos
I feel like if I were to evaluate Mike as I would a real person then yes, he is a complete ass.
On the other hand, it almost seems like he walks a weird line between a jerk who just screws with everyone for the hell of it, and some sort of… I’m not really sure what the word is, but it seems like half of his dickish behavior is actually aimed at forcing characters to own up to their mistakes, see past their own excuses, or face some unpleasant decision. Except for punching Joe in the face repeatedly at Joyce’s request. That was pure physical comedy.
Of course, this all depends on whether or not Mike is actually orchestrating all this on purpose, or if it’s all an unintended consequence of being an asshole. It would be easier to get a read on him if he were actually present whenever shit hits the fan and we could see if he actually makes an effort to help or not when it matters.
Spencer
I really don’t buy the “Mike is trying to help by forcing people to confront their mistakes” argument. Partially because Mike never did that in the Walkyverse; if anything he took great pleasure in making peoples’ lives worse, and partially because of all the genuinely horrible actions he’s taken. I’m pretty sure he’s just meant to be an occasional joke character.
And like, if it’s true… so what? It’s still disgusting, and presumes that Mike is in a place where he should allowed to mete out abuse as long as it has a positive ending.
Nezumi
Silly, they’re not girls! Women get this treatment as characters in general, and being LGBT+ only makes it worse.
Clif
Mike is an awesome force of nature and the help you never want. He may force people to face their own contradictions because he enjoys being a jerk, but that doesn’t make him any less useful. What we have here is a immature form of the Walkyverse Mike, a dumber version if you like, but still recognizably Mike.
Spencer
Mike literally told Amber that her preferences in men meant that she was doomed to be an abuser.
He can’t be this awesome force of nature and an actual character at the same time.
Needfuldoer
She’s a big fan of Representative DeSanto.
Captain Button
Becky would certainly support banning cancer.
Deanatay
But Cancers are great people! I mean, yeah, they’re jerks, but they’re basically good people. Mostly. Well, they mean well. I guess.
Yeah, you’re right. Fuck Cancers.
Mr D
Fuck you too buddy 😀
Steampunkette
I’m kind of hoping he I use flat out hugs her and tries to make sure she is okay. Thus revealing that he’s not as shitty a Christian as his wife, but that he upholds her teachings in the house.
Steampunkette
Fracking autocorrect.
Cerberus
That would be awesome, but I can definitely see him doing that and then chiding her for her “choices” in friendship later on in the car. Basically a similar small comfort and then pulling the rug from out under her that her mom did.
Disloyal Subject
I could see the Browns questioning Joyce remaining close with her best friend, but what choices in friendship would they chide Becky for? I doubt Ross has told anyone about the Pokey Man girlchild that deceived him.
Foxhack
They know he’s in jail “because” of her. (And by that I mean he’ll put all the blame on her, he’s in jail because of the shit he pulled, not defending him on that front.)
Cerberus
That’s what I meant, sorry. That he’ll emotionally hit Joyce for her “choices” in being friends with her in a way that’ll unintentionally hit Becky or he’ll chide Becky for her “choices” in sexuality and parental obedience in a way that minimizes the true horror of Toedad’s crime.
Adam Black
That Deceptress!
Historyman68
That would be nice, but I’d be worried that if that happened then all the parent couples we see would be Overbearing-Mom/Ineffectual-Dad types. Not to say DoA doesn’t have its share of Bad Dads, obv, but they all sort of appear solo, either divorced or widowed. Besides Dorothy’s parents the rest would seem to fall into these two categories, though I could be easily missing something.
Needfuldoer
Considering some of the insights the author has given into his own Fundie upbringing (and the fact that Joyce is autobiographical), I really hope you’re right.
We haven’t seen Hank without Carol before; it’s possible he’s fairly moderate but ‘plays along’ with her to avoid conflict. (For lack of a better description.)
zoelogical
yeah, i’m kinda bothered that hank’s first move wasn’t “i’m so glad you’re okay” but instead “i’m so glad you haven’t changed”.
Spencer
“You haven’t changed” is a really common thing to say to someone, let alone your kid after they’ve been away at college. I can’t imagine Hank meant anything sinister by it.
zoelogical
it’s…probably more related to me and my personal experiences tbh.
like, as someone who grew up in a more evangelical-flavored fundie background, the stated goal for me as a good christian girl going to college was to not change anything important about myself or my morals. because college was sort of notorious for being a corrupting influence?? a lot of good christian kids would go to college and then leave the church. which people’s morals evolving and changing is apparently a Bad Thing, as is being exposed to more of the world. acknowledging gay people’s existence, let alone trans people’s. being kind to people who’ve had abortions. allowing the world to be bigger than the church, essentially.
idk there’s this real thing in the churches i’ve been a part of where you have to specifically control your intake so that you don’t become corrupted. you have to walk the straight and narrow in every aspect of your life, you have to be this particular person and if you’re not you’re a bad christian. and the gossip can be insidious and vicious, because people are human but they’re held up to these standards that nobody can possibly reach and they’re taught to feel bad about themselves all the time because they’re not good enough, never going to be good enough. and –
there’s this specific kind of patriarchal controlling that comes with being daddy’s little girl. because you do your best to please and you try to be perfect, like a disney princess, but disney princesses aren’t real people and they don’t have the kind of real problems that can’t be solved within the space of a song. but you’re still really encouraged to fit that perfect image of what a girl ought to be: which is a static image. Aurora asleep on her bed waiting for true love’s kiss, essentially, but true love never comes because she’s never allowed to get up and go looking for it. she’s not an active participant; she’s always passive and moldable. which for a long time was the ideal woman in american society.
so like – at this point i’m probably way overreading it, although this chapter is called “that perfect girl” – but Hank not meaning anything sinister by it doesn’t mean that there isn’t a heckton of cultural baggage along with it. which is, essentially, the problem.
zoelogical
so like it is kinda heartwarming because both Hank and Joyce are trying to go back to a space where things were simple and nothing had to change. but like simpler is sort of a matter of perspective – the world was always this screwed up, Joyce just didn’t notice until now, and it’s a manifestation of white Christian privilege that the world was allowed to be that simple and black and white.
thejeff
Hank might not have, but Willis did.
It’s pretty obviously a callback both to Becky’s “Don’t let anyone change you” from Mov-in Day and to her later “I’m glad they did”.
Inkblot
I think it would be deliciously awful to have Joyce feel so cornered that she breaks out the gay-shaming on Becky in front of her dad.
Cerberus
That would be utterly heart-breaking. 🙁
jepmz
Ouch!!! That would be cray cray
Haven
Joyce just stood up for Becky in the face of death itself. This is going to be painful however it goes, but I don’t think Joyce throwing Becky under the truck is going to happen.
Bob Bobberman
Sometimes standing up to family can be scarier than death.
Kamino Neko
Joyce has already stood up to her family over Becky.
Though, admittedly, via voice mail, not face to face, but it’s still a point against breaking, just not the strongest.
jepmz
Yeah absolutely. It was just a little worrisome since she been having angry eyebrows for a few strips. You know his important those eyebrows are ‘,:)
The Carlos
Couldn’t agree more. Cornering Joyce between rocks and hard places doesn’t seem a very loving thing to do.
Cephalo the Pod
I dunno, after everything Joyce has stood up for, and stood up to, I can’t imagine her giving up on Becky like that.
Stephen R. Bierce
*plays the Charlie Daniels Band’s “Devil Went Down To Georgia” on the hacked Muzak*
tim gueguen
Charlie probably would not like DoA.
Doctor_Who
All the best people want to see that.
Cerberus
No. This will be glorious and I’m so excited to see what’s coming next.
Deanatay
Ooh, that sounds suspiciously like hope. You know what Willis does when he senses hope!
Cerberus
Nonsense, it’ll go great this time…
(flash forward two weeks)
nooooooooooo…
thejeff
It’ll be horrible and painful, but we’ll still get to cheer Joyce being badass and sticking up for Becky. To her parents yet.
Tabitha Desanto
Be better if she tagged along with Joyce home. Then good times for all.
(Then again I feel like Joyce may not make it home at all)
Cerberus
Yeah, the way it’d stack up is Joyce alone will have a much harder time, because she won’t have an ally willing to fully get her back (Jocelyne is awesome, but terrified of jumping into arguments with family), but Becky with Joyce means Becky will be having to casually grin past a lot of crap herself and may be physically dangerous for her.
zoelogical
texting! it’s like being physically there but only in an emotional sense.
Church
bEcKy sTaY iN lInE YoU hAvE nO BuSsInEsS HeRe
Captain Button
Panel 3: Called it!
[/preen]
Tabitha Desanto
Perfect timing.
Just A. Thinker
Ok shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit….
anon
Wait for it~
Dreadhawk177
Becky uses Embarrass. It’s super effective!
anon
Does she faint?
Palamdrone
I hope not, I don’t have a Joyce in my collection! Pokeball, go!
miados
hold up b for a better chance!
CaptainBatson
I always thought it was rapidly pressing a and b
Andrusi
Fools! You’re supposed to press the D-Pad in a clockwise circle while holding A!
cesium133
No, no, no. You’re supposed to set the universal constants while creating the universe such that the random number generator on a particular Game Boy generates a zero at a particular time such that it is guaranteed that the pokéball captures the Joyce.
miados
she did say she would come with joyce right? or am i imagining things…… eh id believe either honestly
Mada
She offered to, but Joyce said it would be a bad idea.
Briny
And so, Joyce got overridden.
Lord Stoneheart
Joyce asked if she was sure, and Becky responded with a poorly timed joke that triggered a shocked response in Joyce. Then the scene changed.
StClair
Yup, whatever you think of her… that’s Becky. 100%.
StClair
bleh, that was supposed to go lower, on its own – this was a comment I started, then changed my mind.
Cerberus
Which, yeah, I would normally assume to mean, yes, but only if you’re okay with it, which Becky was, but given that we haven’t seen Becky pack, maybe that assumption is in error, but then maybe this scene suggests the opposite. I dunno, I imagine it’ll get cleared up one way or another by the next couple of comics.