standing up for something she believes in and ensuring jocelyn has someone in her corner. she doesn’t want to be a capital-L Leader, she hasn’t in ages. she wants to do good
There are tons of examples of unjustified police shootings.
I’m not aware of any from snipers at protests. I’m not even aware of any justified shootings from snipers at protests. There certainly weren’t any shots fired at the IU protest this is based on.
Police violence at protests tends to be using supposedly non-lethal weapons – misused rubber bullets, tear gas canisters fired at people or just good old beatings with batons.
Willis took this almost line by line from what happened at “pro-Palestinian” protest at IU a little over a year ago. The school administration and the state police significantly overreacted – it’s not clear why (unlike if this happened this year, in which case they arguably could have been afraid of retribution by the Trump administration if they didn’t). 55 people (students, faculty, and protesters who were neither) were arrested, none were charged. There were no significant injuries.
The commentariat seems to be expecting this to turn out like anti-war demonstrations on campuses sometimes did in the 60s and early 70s, with many injuries and some deaths, notably at Kent State and Jackson State. If Willis actually goes that far, he is dishonoring the names of those back then. I don’t think he will, but if this does end significantly worse than the actual IU event did, I’ll be disappointed in him tugging heartstrings to just play to the readers. It’s not like this was a made up event – it’s conceivable that I’d give him more slack if it was. But so far it is just a replay of the news, albeit with these characters.
True, but: there’s the dangling thread of Lester out there. I can see him putting a round in someone off-protest (Mary Mary Mary please please Mary) and going down for it, and if it’s some right-wing freak left recovering in hospital (Mary Mary Mary please please Mary) then that would absolutely track with the contemporary right’s delight in celebrating their martyrs.
Which means we’d be stuck with the consequences forever. Ugh.
Laura
Lester?
Laura
Ah yes. Lester the cop who knows who Amazi-Girl is. Who shot Blaine.
Tessea
Blaine actually did the right thing and deflected Lester’s question about Amazi-Girl being Amber before he died.
Something like
“So your daughter turned out to be Amazi-Girl.”
After a beat
“She wishes. She could never pull off something like that.”
something about part of what you said doesn’t sit right… ” did the right thing” I personally wont attribute any “right things” to Blaine. if hell exists, he’s there. ~<3
cain
I don’t think it was out of a desire to protect Amber. He follows it up with something along the lines of “no way, but if you think you can use it to arrest her, go for it.”
PhyrexianRogue
That was not about protecting Amber. It was denial about his daughter’s capabilities. Amazi-Girl helped beat him, but it’s impossible for his failure daughter to beat him, therefore his daughter can’t be Amazi-Girl.
Silphael
The consequences could be Mary beginning to realize, too, because I feel like her character is going nowhere.
Steamweed
One could help that she gets lumped in by the cops as a protester and gets arrested, beaten, and/or shipped off to jail. And has a “But I didn’t think they’d eat MY face” moment.
Astariel
Do we really need a redemption arc for Mary? IRL, not everyone gets redeemed. Some people just stay assholes their whole lives. Seems like Mary could be a representative of that.
ESM
If you weren’t familiar with Mary’s Walkyverse character, she’s initially presented as “A meaner version of Joyce who feels bad that being mean makes people not like her” and her potentially being redeemed is up in the air, even as she gets more aggressive. Then her wacky blackmail plot semi-accidentally gets Ruth to attempt to kill herself. Afterwards, Jennifer is like “Okay your mean shenanigans have crossed a line into actually being evil, but I’m winning to move on if you’re willing to stop now. We’ll call it even. Choo choo, all aboard the redemption arc train last chance” and Mary doubles down and pitches a plan to blame it all on Carla. This gets her punched in the face and exiled and is “officially” the point where “Mary learns to be a better person” is stricken from the list of possibilities for her. This is her arc. She’s a foil to Joyce, both having to choose being changing for her friends or sticking to her religion. Joyce went one way, she went the other and was ultimately completely and utterly defeated as a result.
The problem is that Mary WAS a Walkyverse character so she’s part of the “main cast” even though her arc is completely and satisfyingly resolved in such a way that explicitly shuts the door on her ever changing. That’s why every time she’s appeared since she’s had a completely new gimmick. She’s dating Peter Paul, then she’s homophobic Galasso who’s so inept that Becky/Dina enjoy hanging out with her, then she’s trying to seduce Joyce into being a TERF and now she’s a nazi and probably next arc she’ll be a juggler or something. She can’t be interesting. She can’t be threatening. She can’t even really be defeated because it would undercut her big climatic ultimate defeat in the blackmail arc and seem weak by comparison. She really doesn’t have a role in a the comic any more and should ride off into the sunset in shame and be replaced with a new “homophobic asshole” that Willis can actually do a storyline with.
Nadamás
I seriously would like to see dome dtrips showing your repeated claim that “Mary fell bad being mean make people not like her”.
ESM
Not “felt bad” in the sense of feeling guilty, literally just “Wow it sucks that people here aren’t bigoted”, and for that I’m mostly going off her being sad in panel three here and being surprised/confused/upset that people were mad at her about the blackmail thing. I realize that’s only two examples it’s fully 5% of her appearances up to that point; she’s a very minor character who barely appears with a simple little mini-arc. “Mary is a jerk, but that makes people not like her which makes her sad. Will this make her stop being a jerk? No, she’ll just aim her jerkishness at Carla and Ruth because she thinks they’re acceptable targets and now she is getting punched in the face as she deserves.”. And it’s a nice little mini-arc for a very minor character. Dumbing of Age is about flawed people trying to be better. Mary refuses to be better so she’s punched in the face and kicked out of the group. It’s a big dramatic statement of the themes of the comic. Fix your hearts or die. It’s good! I like the storyline where the nazi gets punched in the face and it’s not even the worst thing that happens to her. I wish we had more like it, where villains were defeated in a really emotionally satisfying way.
Tan
I would call that indignant rather than sad
Nadamás
Yeah i gotta agree, those are just 2 very far apart instances that could be interpreted tgat wat if you like. I don’t really.
At the same time, there is something to consider : it is unlikely Willis will make another protest in this webcomic, and here it’s by taking “protest” generally (ie, gathering, slight riot, and so on), so showing more serious state violence would be covering all those cases. Sure, that would be a lot compared to last year protests, *but* Dorothy mentionned “they changed the law overnight” which happened this year, meaning it could also be about the LA uprising, where there has been wounded.
thejeff
IU changed the rules overnight to ban encampments, leading to clearing the protest there. Exactly what we’re seeing here.
It’s possible he’ll take this farther, but I wouldn’t expect it.
Some arrests are likely and that should be enough to provoke some drama in the cast.
oh, i don’t know, the girl who is thin, blonde, pretty, and also fairly famous for organizing an escape from a kidnapper standing in front of the police is absolutely camera ready
Thank you, now “Rizz up” is what I’m always going to hear during the post-credit ending of Transformers One. I would be mad, but honestly, I think it works better. The reasoning behind the name Deception always seemed very forced for a revolutionary movement, but the naming is amazing when you instead imply Megatron is running some sort of evil pick-up artist seminar.
And sure all the references to Optimus in that speech now make their relationship seem pretty gay, but come on, it was already bursting at the bolts with homoerotism to begin with. Its not changing anything there.
305 thoughts on “Calmly”
NGPZ
wow of all times NOW she decides to go gangsta
…right into range of armed police without so much as a plan
(0-0)
FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
*plays “Apocalypshit” by Molotov on hacked muzak*
anon
what is she planning to do tho , i don’t think there’d be a ‘leader’ unless she gets on top of a tall thing and shouts directions at everyone or so
Caro
standing up for something she believes in and ensuring jocelyn has someone in her corner. she doesn’t want to be a capital-L Leader, she hasn’t in ages. she wants to do good
DJTsurugi
meanwhile me yelling at them like Barbosa “JUST KISS!” ~<3
Reaver
LEEROOOOY JENKIIIINS!
Doctor_Who
DOOOOROTHYYYY KEEENERRR!
Proxiehunter
NOOOOOOOO REGREEEEEEEETS!
Aquila
TOO SOOOON TO TEEEEELLLL!
Laura
KHAAAAAAAAAAAAÀAAAAN!
Amelie Wikström
Get in their FAAAAAAAAAACE!
morleuca
It’s a FAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKE!
Olofa
I LIKE YELLLLLIIIIIIIIIING!
Van Jealous
E X P E LLLLLLLL E D!
Laura
FAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2010/comic/book-1/01-move-in-day/face/
…A reference?
Amelie Wikström
I was worried everyone had forgot FAAAACE
yak
Dorothy, in the lock-up and eating a bucket of KFC she got somehow: “At least I have chicken”
Freezer
Joyce: Ew, they mixed original with crispy!
morleuca
do people actually eat original?
Opus the Poet
Yep, some of us do.
Freezer
I’m old enough to remember when KFC was legit the best restaurant fried chicken around.
Freezer
Emphasis on “was.”
ZombieKyrik
Welp, this isn’t going to end well.
On a scale of 1-10 how bad do we think this is?
NGPZ
well let’s see,
there’s armed police, a sniper, and Mary
what do you thinK???? X-X
Proxiehunter
Depends, will the sniper shoot Mary? What about if I offer him cash?
NGPZ
dammit I really REALLY hope that happens
if not?
*guzzles redbull, cracks knuckles and opens up GameMaker*
Icalasari
I will also take Mary getting arrested. Even if Dorothy or Joyce got arrested, Mary’s arrest is worth at least 1.5x that in wonderful points
butting
Jocelyne, Leslie, and Dorothy in a cell (holding pen, more likely) together could be a hell of a time.
With Mary too, though? Ew.
Lily
getting arrested isn’t fun for anyone, but i particularly worry about jocelyne; pigs don’t exactly have a great track record with trans women
anon
mary would have too much ‘narc’ energy if not be a suckup or start quoting bible verse
Kyulen
It seems unlikely they’d arrest Mary, since she’s on their side.
clif
Specifically, her foot seems to be on Joyce’s side of the fence.
eh, whatever
They’re going to shoot first and ask questions later, including questions like “oh, are you actually theoretically on our side”.
Olofa
But the leopards would never eat her face!
Sharizard
Considering her sign’s been swapped without her noticing, they make think she’s making fun of them…
anon
i think it’d be more ‘making fun of others’ if it said “YOUR” face is a but versus carla writing it as ‘my’ XD
RonF
The sniper isn’t going to shoot anyone that isn’t themselves shooting.
The Lurker
O sweet summer child…. https://www.apnews.com/44c0ffa874663b4f1ea8f890a7c304d0
thejeff
There are tons of examples of unjustified police shootings.
I’m not aware of any from snipers at protests. I’m not even aware of any justified shootings from snipers at protests. There certainly weren’t any shots fired at the IU protest this is based on.
Police violence at protests tends to be using supposedly non-lethal weapons – misused rubber bullets, tear gas canisters fired at people or just good old beatings with batons.
Taffy
Well, that seems naive.
Opus the Poet
You’re probably too young to remember “4 Dead In Ohio” by CSN&Y
JA
So bricks are getting thrown. Things’ll be alright, I think.
Longshot97
Not well, I think. 9. Possibly even 10.
Kyulen
Depends on how nasty the cops decide to be towards the protesters.
Otl1973
Willis took this almost line by line from what happened at “pro-Palestinian” protest at IU a little over a year ago. The school administration and the state police significantly overreacted – it’s not clear why (unlike if this happened this year, in which case they arguably could have been afraid of retribution by the Trump administration if they didn’t). 55 people (students, faculty, and protesters who were neither) were arrested, none were charged. There were no significant injuries.
The commentariat seems to be expecting this to turn out like anti-war demonstrations on campuses sometimes did in the 60s and early 70s, with many injuries and some deaths, notably at Kent State and Jackson State. If Willis actually goes that far, he is dishonoring the names of those back then. I don’t think he will, but if this does end significantly worse than the actual IU event did, I’ll be disappointed in him tugging heartstrings to just play to the readers. It’s not like this was a made up event – it’s conceivable that I’d give him more slack if it was. But so far it is just a replay of the news, albeit with these characters.
butting
True, but: there’s the dangling thread of Lester out there. I can see him putting a round in someone off-protest (Mary Mary Mary please please Mary) and going down for it, and if it’s some right-wing freak left recovering in hospital (Mary Mary Mary please please Mary) then that would absolutely track with the contemporary right’s delight in celebrating their martyrs.
Which means we’d be stuck with the consequences forever. Ugh.
Laura
Lester?
Laura
Ah yes. Lester the cop who knows who Amazi-Girl is. Who shot Blaine.
Tessea
Blaine actually did the right thing and deflected Lester’s question about Amazi-Girl being Amber before he died.
Something like
“So your daughter turned out to be Amazi-Girl.”
After a beat
“She wishes. She could never pull off something like that.”
Laura
Huh. Gotta point there.
DJTsurugi
something about part of what you said doesn’t sit right… ” did the right thing” I personally wont attribute any “right things” to Blaine. if hell exists, he’s there. ~<3
cain
I don’t think it was out of a desire to protect Amber. He follows it up with something along the lines of “no way, but if you think you can use it to arrest her, go for it.”
PhyrexianRogue
That was not about protecting Amber. It was denial about his daughter’s capabilities. Amazi-Girl helped beat him, but it’s impossible for his failure daughter to beat him, therefore his daughter can’t be Amazi-Girl.
Silphael
The consequences could be Mary beginning to realize, too, because I feel like her character is going nowhere.
Steamweed
One could help that she gets lumped in by the cops as a protester and gets arrested, beaten, and/or shipped off to jail. And has a “But I didn’t think they’d eat MY face” moment.
Astariel
Do we really need a redemption arc for Mary? IRL, not everyone gets redeemed. Some people just stay assholes their whole lives. Seems like Mary could be a representative of that.
ESM
If you weren’t familiar with Mary’s Walkyverse character, she’s initially presented as “A meaner version of Joyce who feels bad that being mean makes people not like her” and her potentially being redeemed is up in the air, even as she gets more aggressive. Then her wacky blackmail plot semi-accidentally gets Ruth to attempt to kill herself. Afterwards, Jennifer is like “Okay your mean shenanigans have crossed a line into actually being evil, but I’m winning to move on if you’re willing to stop now. We’ll call it even. Choo choo, all aboard the redemption arc train last chance” and Mary doubles down and pitches a plan to blame it all on Carla. This gets her punched in the face and exiled and is “officially” the point where “Mary learns to be a better person” is stricken from the list of possibilities for her. This is her arc. She’s a foil to Joyce, both having to choose being changing for her friends or sticking to her religion. Joyce went one way, she went the other and was ultimately completely and utterly defeated as a result.
The problem is that Mary WAS a Walkyverse character so she’s part of the “main cast” even though her arc is completely and satisfyingly resolved in such a way that explicitly shuts the door on her ever changing. That’s why every time she’s appeared since she’s had a completely new gimmick. She’s dating Peter Paul, then she’s homophobic Galasso who’s so inept that Becky/Dina enjoy hanging out with her, then she’s trying to seduce Joyce into being a TERF and now she’s a nazi and probably next arc she’ll be a juggler or something. She can’t be interesting. She can’t be threatening. She can’t even really be defeated because it would undercut her big climatic ultimate defeat in the blackmail arc and seem weak by comparison. She really doesn’t have a role in a the comic any more and should ride off into the sunset in shame and be replaced with a new “homophobic asshole” that Willis can actually do a storyline with.
Nadamás
I seriously would like to see dome dtrips showing your repeated claim that “Mary fell bad being mean make people not like her”.
ESM
Not “felt bad” in the sense of feeling guilty, literally just “Wow it sucks that people here aren’t bigoted”, and for that I’m mostly going off her being sad in panel three here and being surprised/confused/upset that people were mad at her about the blackmail thing. I realize that’s only two examples it’s fully 5% of her appearances up to that point; she’s a very minor character who barely appears with a simple little mini-arc. “Mary is a jerk, but that makes people not like her which makes her sad. Will this make her stop being a jerk? No, she’ll just aim her jerkishness at Carla and Ruth because she thinks they’re acceptable targets and now she is getting punched in the face as she deserves.”. And it’s a nice little mini-arc for a very minor character. Dumbing of Age is about flawed people trying to be better. Mary refuses to be better so she’s punched in the face and kicked out of the group. It’s a big dramatic statement of the themes of the comic. Fix your hearts or die. It’s good! I like the storyline where the nazi gets punched in the face and it’s not even the worst thing that happens to her. I wish we had more like it, where villains were defeated in a really emotionally satisfying way.
Tan
I would call that indignant rather than sad
Nadamás
Yeah i gotta agree, those are just 2 very far apart instances that could be interpreted tgat wat if you like. I don’t really.
Silphael
At the same time, there is something to consider : it is unlikely Willis will make another protest in this webcomic, and here it’s by taking “protest” generally (ie, gathering, slight riot, and so on), so showing more serious state violence would be covering all those cases. Sure, that would be a lot compared to last year protests, *but* Dorothy mentionned “they changed the law overnight” which happened this year, meaning it could also be about the LA uprising, where there has been wounded.
thejeff
IU changed the rules overnight to ban encampments, leading to clearing the protest there. Exactly what we’re seeing here.
It’s possible he’ll take this farther, but I wouldn’t expect it.
Some arrests are likely and that should be enough to provoke some drama in the cast.
FlamestAndLight
Why would that dishonor the names of those who died at the hands of the state back then?
Taffy
Like a 3, maybe a 4 at most. They’ll be fine.
AlexanderHammil
oh, i don’t know, the girl who is thin, blonde, pretty, and also fairly famous for organizing an escape from a kidnapper standing in front of the police is absolutely camera ready
Longshot97
Why oh why did we wish for this ship.
Damn you David “Monkey’s Paw” Willis.
Bryy
That’s this entire comic.
Dot
Finally some political backbone from Dorothy. Proud to share a name with her for once.
ZombieKyrik
The alt text XD Willis lives in a hell of his own design. 😛
GholaHalleck
Which appendage is Walky though?
AnonGrouch
The rizzening! Let it consume you. Feel it. Embrace it. Draw power from its cup and your own will runneth over. RIZZ it up! Rizz it up! Rizz it UP!
AnonGrouch
Let it be known that I was asking for this a few days ago and my wish was granted.
True Survivor
Thank you, now “Rizz up” is what I’m always going to hear during the post-credit ending of Transformers One. I would be mad, but honestly, I think it works better. The reasoning behind the name Deception always seemed very forced for a revolutionary movement, but the naming is amazing when you instead imply Megatron is running some sort of evil pick-up artist seminar.
And sure all the references to Optimus in that speech now make their relationship seem pretty gay, but come on, it was already bursting at the bolts with homoerotism to begin with. Its not changing anything there.
AnonGrouch
I mean if you really think about it the Decepticons are always doing that if you squint at it.
Yumi