314

Figured
Posted on August 23, 2021 by David M Willis

314 thoughts on “Figured”

  1. Ana Chronistic

    AU Sal figured out how to cross over to this universe but at least calmed her tits a little

    1. Jeff

      A calm Dumbyverse Sal? That sounds contradictory lol

      1. Juanoku

        I’m pretty sure after trying to nuke a continent you don’t do “calm” anymore

        1. Reltzik

          I figure 50/50 odds that after trying to nuke a continent you get put on non-elective sedation, so calm’s on the menu.

          The other 50% I think involves some sort of medal. No, this probably isn’t a good system.

      2. fridge_logic

        Think you mean Walkyverse?

  2. Doctor_Who

    At least he’s now an idiot whose head is warm.

    1. Clif

      And also an idiot whose been kissed.

      Sal can kiss him any time she wants without asking because she gave him a hat and so she owns him now.

      1. Needfuldoer

        And by continuing to give him things, she’ll keep him under her thumb. Devious!

        /s

      2. Screwball

        “Mistress gave Danny clothing? Danny is no longer free?”

        1. Steamweed

          Aaand now I’m seeing Danny in bondage gear, tied to the bed, with leather-wearing Sal holding the whip.

        2. Kyrik Michalowski

          Is it as beautiful as you imagined?

        3. Librain

          For those of us with Aphantasia, any chance this imagery could be turned into something shareable?

          You know, for… science-related reasons?

      3. Dov

        It’s a shame that Ruth didn’t understand that this is how the men at that school work. She went to way too much trouble to establish her ownership.

    2. Reltzik

      And probably his face. Maybe his neck. Possibly other parts.

  3. Sirksome

    Blue hat increased Danny’s intelligence stat by at least 4 points. Without it obvious flirting float right by him much like blue hat did when it left him for another wayward dork in need.

  4. Thag Simmons

    And the hat came back

    1. Doctor_Who

      The very next semester
      The hat came back
      They should have let it fester
      But the hat came back
      It just wouldn’t stay…Sylvester, look it’s a hard word to rhyme, okay?

      1. Jade

        Young Danny Wilcox lived in a dorm,
        he owned a dorky hat that should never be worn,
        His friend tried and tried, but he just couldn’t be swayed,
        Joe rejoiced when it was lost, but found to his dismay…

      2. Benjamin C Sargent

        The fact that someone else knows The Cat Came Back makes my heart happy and almost makes up for the fact that you picked an extremely difficult word to rhyme and fit into the meter.

        ALMOST.

        1. Deanatay

          Uh, some of us have watched ‘Sesame Street’?

        2. Roborat

          Or the NFB animation of the song, which is absolutely brilliant.

        3. Jade

          Yeah, to be fair it’s a tricky word to rhyme. Probably would have been better to keep it at “day”, or even “term” if you wanted to stick with school-related terms.

      3. eh, whatever

        Senator Jon Tester!

      4. Chris Phoenix

        sequester!

      5. Needfuldoer

        Both of you take your pretend upvotes.

      6. Thag Simmons

        But the Hat came back, the very next book

        The Hat came back, it just wouldn’t stay away

        The Hat came back, it’s not a good look

      7. Dov

        Season would have also been an appropriate substitute.

        But the hat came back, the very next season,
        The hat came back, Danny’s head its squeezin’,
        The hat came back, for no good reason.

        And technically the second line doesn’t even need to rhyme.

    2. Mr D

      good. Gotta keep the head warm.

  5. Bagge

    D’awww

    1. Clif

      This is how Danny goes from dating Amazigirl to dating Batman. He has a type.

      1. Jade

        Or maybe the dark, brooding, stoic women with a strong sense of justice (and a perchant for committing violence on wrongdoers) have a type: an unassuming, doe-eyed ingenue who is in fact a cinnamon roll, too good, too pure for this world.

  6. Yumi

    I love this ship, and, also, now I’m scared.

    1. RassilonTDavros

      Be afraid. Be very afraid

      1. Clif

        Willis gave us a gift and now he owns us.

        1. Needfuldoer

          Hey now, I’ve been owning myself for years thank you very much.

        2. Clif

          I think they call that Ownanism or something like that.

        3. King Daniel

          No, Owananism is when you’re owning someone else but refuse to follow through with the final burn at the last moment.

        4. Jade

          Did everyone get the same gift? Mine looks like a hand, possibly from some kind of primate? What’s weird is, only one finger is curled down…

    2. Keulen

      I’m both happy that they’re getting along so well, and at the same time worried that Willis will torpedo this ship soon.

  7. zacxl

    SHE CALLED HIM DANNY

    1. powerpowerpow

      CODE RED PEOPLE, SAL JUST USED HIS ACTUAL NAME INSTEAD OF A NICKNAME! THIS IS NOT A DRILL!

      1. Ana Chronistic

        She forgot the nicknames, had to fall back to SOMETHING

  8. Wagstaff

    *plays “Love” on Voxola PR-76*

  9. King Daniel

    LE GASP

    IS IT HAPPENING?!?

    1. Fist_of_Life

      Hehehe, lower limb snake. One time I tried typing “LE GASP” into a text, but I misplaced the space. Now that’s all I can think about when I see or hear that phrase.

      1. LiterallyJustSomeGuy

        Hee hee hee! NGL, that’s a lot tamer than where I thought you were going with “lower limb snake” in this context.

        1. King Daniel

          LEG ASP

  10. Wendy

    Very sad to see Sal with this self-righteous schmuck; can’t help but feel like she should hold out for better. But eh, as long as it makes her happy, I guess…

    1. Brumagem

      Kind of a hot take to say Danny is the more self-righteous of the two but okay.

      1. Delicious Taffy

        They’re both a little up their own asses. It’s part of being a teenager. But now they can be up their own asses together, as Besties.

        1. King Daniel

          Or together, up each oth–

        2. Meagan

          I like the way you think

    2. DailyBrad

      You, uhh, sure you aren’t thinking of Walkyverse Danny? Because Danny is like, hilariously low on the list of self-righteous cast members, if we’re being honest.

      1. He Who Abides

        They probably are, but remember that this Danny convinced Grand Moff Tarkin to blow up Alderaan.

        (I’m not apologizing, the level to which people will dump on Danny is almost as ridiculous as the level to which people will simp for Mike)

        1. King Daniel

          I heard this Danny also launched Laika into orbit knowing that she’d die up there!

        2. Needfuldoer

          People are saying he talks on his cell phone by putting it on speaker and holding it in front of his mouth like a hot dog.

      2. TheLurkerAbove

        Yea, Walkyverse Danny, especially during the Roomies! run, could be insufferable at times. This is a far more chill Danny, with a lot more redeemable features.

      3. Matthew E Davis

        I think people tend to want to pretend they have it all together. I know most of the comic’s cast does. Danny doesn’t. He’s honest in his self-reflection and that he is a bit of a mess, and that’s his unique place in the comic. The only other character that seems to engage in that level of self-reflection is Joyce, and she spends a lot of the time fooling herself, too.

    3. CrazyJ

      That seems a bit harsh. Danny has his faults but it sounds like you are describing someone like Mary. In either case, I think all the Danny-Sal interactions have been pretty positive and not just the recent gift exchange. It’s definitely a step up from sleeping with a TA.

      1. Delicious Taffy

        Yeah, they’ve been pals all year. The worst interaction I can think of is when Danny was extremely on edge and angrily told Sal to go jump some stairs.

        Or possibly the time they were fighting over Ethan and Danny grabbed one arm and Sal grabbed the other and they kept pulling until Ethan split cleanly down the middle and his two halves both formed a full duplicate of himself except one was all his good traits and one was all his bad traits and they spent like half a book trying to reunite the two halves.

        1. this is a name of sorts.

          I was mad cause I sat here trying to think when this happened.

      2. Sam

        I’d say it isn’t quite inaccurate, Danny CAN be very self-righteous when he feels mad and he can be an absolute ass to anyone around him when he is being so. He was very much being so when talking to Ethan at the hospital when Mike was in a coma, and I find it a very unlikable trait personally for his anger to bring out.

        But this is a sweet interaction so it is also kind of a bit harsh to bring it up specifically now.

        1. WanderingLynx

          Danny’s anger is ugly, yes, but whose isn’t? Specially as a college freshman. I’d take self-righteous over violent or vicious; and we’ve seen him being passive aggressive when upset, but I can’t think of many times in this comic he’s been like, truly mad.

          We like Mike because we know his backstory and always knew there had to be a reason he was this way here (given that he’s not a SEMME abductee anymore). Danny didn’t – He just saw a known abuser who made people he cared about miserable. Telling this to Ethan was a HUGE MISTAKE and the worst thing he’s done, but y’know. That’s his worst.

        2. Sam

          There are plenty of people in this world that have better control of their anger than that. Using your anger as a destructive force is a choice and choosing to not let go of your self-righteous justification when you know the other person is hurting and in no place to deal with it because he HAD to convince Ethan that he was RIGHT is still just extremely dislikeable to me. I would rather someone be mildly violent on the rare occasions they feel anger or vicious in the heat of the moment than massively insensitive and cruel by choice.

          For me personally, how Danny deals with anger would be an immediate dealbreaker no matter how rare it is. I’m also just not much of a fan of passive aggression either.

          I learned to control my anger better than that before college and to take time to calm down or redirect it in constructive ways. So I do find it absolutely fair that some people would not want to date someone like Danny themselves and would see that as YIKES. But again, not in this specific moment, and it is up to Sal if it is something that is a problem for her.

        3. Wendy

          The thing is that Danny wasn’t even in the heat of a moment when he basically told Ethan that Mike deserved to be dying. He wasn’t in the throes of anger, he was in the throes of self-righteousness. And his being right mattered more to him than someone’s feelings of grief. That said a lot to me about what kind of person Danny is. Hence my comment.

        4. Spencer

          Danny was having that conversation at the most inappropriate time, but that conversation wouldn’t have existed had Mike not been the world’s biggest douche who constantly emotionally abused everyone around him.

          And then Ethan told Danny that if Danny was in a coma, Ethan would let Mike laugh at him.

          Danny had some self-respect for himself for once and decided how he felt matter more than his pure romantic fantasy love where Dorothy didn’t work out and neither did Amber but this time for sure Danny just has to slavishly devote himself to Ethan, and boom, he did not. He decided he mattered more.

          It was the fucking capstone to the arc that started with Danny realizing he was bi, because the actual mean and potatoes was Danny learning some goddamn self-respect.

        5. Wendy

          People throw about “emotionally abusive” about Mike a lot, but how and when exactly was he ever emotionally abusive? He was harsh, and he was annoying to a lot of characters, but I don’t recall him ever emotionally abusing anyone. As much as he annoyed people, when did he ever actually hurt anyone?

        6. Spencer

          Yer fucking pulling my leg here, ain’tcha.

        7. JBento

          The other one has got bells on.

        8. He Who Abides

          Aside from (according to hisself) making Walky cry on multiple occasions just so he could record it (something he played to Dorothy just to exacerbate her doubts about breaking up with Walky), Mike openly admitted to winding Amber up for years just to see what her/their breaking point was. There was also that little detail where he had sex with Ethan to use as some form of attack against Danny, though he was pretty blunt TO US, THE READERS, that he would’ve fucked either of them to get at the other. And let’s not forget about how Walky still expects/fears Mike to just show up outta nowhere as part of some grand brain-fuck on everyone, despite him being dead for months. And he only knew Mike for a few months, but he’s still that messed up by him.

        9. zee

          Listen dude i love Mike as much as the next simp but he was a pos a d you’re seriously underplaying him here

        10. foamy

          How can you possibly have read through this comic and still ask that question? Mike’s treated everyone like his personal chewtoy all run. *Sometimes* that’s arguably to some better purpose but, like, the vast majority of it is just being an asshole for the sake of being an asshole.

        11. Clif

          Which is a noble calling.

          As long as I don’t have to deal with it.

    4. Thag Simmons

      With the current crop of dudes in this comic, Danny is by far and away the best option.

      1. Ana Chronistic

        But Snoop ☹️

        1. Thag Simmons

          He is a good dog, but he is not boyfriend material. On account of being a dog

  11. Dean

    How does she know what size hat he wears?

    1. King Daniel

      She measured him in his sleep

      1. Doctor_Who

        Since it’s Sal and that would have been an excuse to climb through a window, I can actually see it being the case.

        1. powerpowerpow

          My god, I want this bonus strip so bad. No dialogue. Just Sal breaking into Danny’s room via his window with a measuring tape in hand, takes a couple measurements of his scalp, and just leaves.

          I love imagining scenes like this. I can’t watch The Godfather without picturing Tom Hagen breaking into Jack Woltz’s bedroom, hiding a bloody disembodied horse’s head under his covers while the man’s asleep, making sure he mops up the floor any anywhere else he accidentally may have gotten some blood on, and then just leaving the same way he came in (through the window, probably.)

        2. Regalli

          Joe is working on an assignment, briefly looks up as she’s measuring things, and then goes back to typing, with no external reaction whatsoever.

        3. Doctor_Who

          (Sees Sal approaching Danny with tape measure)

          Joe: “I can save you the trouble, we share a shower room. You aren’t missing much.”

        4. Chris Phoenix

          Here, have an internet.

        5. WanderingLynx

          “Shuddup. Been told Wonderbread’s a grower” [keeps measuring around his temples, does nothing else, then disappears through the window.]

        6. Jade

          Joe is an excellent wingman, thankyouverymuch. This slander will not stand.

          While I don’t think he’d be comfortable with talking about his friend’s junk, I do think he would vouch that he’s a good catch, gingerly take a sock out of a drawer, and then quietly leave the room, putting the sock on the doorknob.

          Whether or not he hits on Sal before doing so is another matter (I don’t think their past interactions have been good? Joe would be into it, but Sal knows he’s the list guy).

        7. TlalocW

          There was a wonderful cartoon, but I can’t think who did it though I’m leading toward Dave Kellett of Sheldon Comics, of a cartoon dotted line ala Family Circus showing the path Luca Brasi took on the estate of Jack Woltz to get the horse head into his bed.

    2. woobie

      Elastic.

      1. Regalli

        Yeah, I have quite a few one size fits all hats, including a few that look like they shouldn’t have elastic but do.

        1. Wagstaff

          Does a beanie count as a hat?

        2. Delicious Taffy

          Only to the west of Wisconsin.

        3. WanderingLynx

          Most def in Chile 😀

        4. Clif

          Depends on whether it has a propeller.

        5. zee

          What else would it be?

        6. Clif

          Decoration. Tradition. Oversight.

          A non-hat head covering with no brim, crown, pinch or crease or other recognized part of an actual hat.

    3. BarerMender

      She peeped his old one. She thinks ahead.

      1. I am Nothing

        She thinks a head.

    4. Sam

      It is highly probable he fits a normal medium sized hat and that she just guessed that.

    5. WanderingLynx

      ……. That makes me think Sal has thought of him enough to guess a likely measure and now I’m D’AWWing.

  12. Ray Radlein

    This is so college

  13. BBCC

    AWWWWWWWWW

  14. Yotomoe

    RAISE THE MAIN SAIL.

    1. Kyrik Michalowski

      I was hoping this would happen for two reasons: I like the characters and want them to be happy. Also, I need the slipshines in my life.

    2. Wagstaff

      Seriously though Sal would make for an AWESOME pirate captain!

      1. Keulen

        Do what you want cause a pirate is free, you are a pirate!

      2. Roborat

        She would be a great dread pirate Roberts.

    3. Thag Simmons

      Yo ho, heave-ho!

      1. He Who Abides

        Hoist the colors!

        1. King Daniel

          Run out the lanyard!

        2. Geneseepaws

          Hoist the fore-main-topsail!

        3. thejeff

          Reef the main-topgallant-studding sail and haul in the spanker!

        4. JBento

          Flush the poop deck.

        5. Clif

          I’ve always believed that reserving an entire deck for pooping represents a design flaw.

        6. JBento

          Well, it was before people invented stalls, so each person needed a lot of room.

    4. WanderingLynx

      AYE AYE CAPTAIN!

      1. Wagstaff

        I CAN’T HEAR YOU!

        1. WanderingLynx

          SI, CAPITÁN! ESTAMOS LISTOS!!!

          WOOOOH~

        2. Wagstaff

          WHO WANTS SOME PINAPPLE EXPRESS AND BOBA TEA?

        3. Clif

          I have no idea what either of those are and so I am assuming they are mixtures containing alcohol.

        4. Wagstaff

          Actually, both of those things are thousands of times LESS toxic than alcohol, and therefore even MORE enjoyable!

          Plus I thought I could come up with an even funnier lyric to the rest of the SpongeBob theme song!

  15. Kyrik Michalowski

    HOORAY! The ship is sailing just as I hoped it would.

    And don’t worry Danny, I was kissed and I had to ask if it was a joke. Signals are confusing when you are dumb and/or unattractive.

  16. Brumagem

    I make a big hoopla about Ethan/Danny getting taken off the table, but I gotta admit Sal/Danny is still pretty dang cute.

    1. WanderingLynx

      Aw man, yeah. I wish it had happened SO MUCH. SO MUCH. It’s always going to be like, the setup I had been waiting for since 2015 and then Ethan fucked Mike, and Danny fucked up and. Now there’s no way. I give up.

      These two are cute so I’ll take it.

      1. milu

        Ooooh, just you wait, you might get your wish in true Damn You Willis™ fashion.
        Ethan’s just waiting in the wings. He’ll show up and throw himself at Danny once he and Sal have gotten a bit serious and are looking a bit too cheery for this comic.

    2. Spencer

      This isn’t necessarily directed at you, specifically, but it’s something I’ve kind of wanted to talk about since Ethan/Danny got tabled for the time being.

      Ethan as we knew him prior to the timeskip… did anything he do indicate there’d be some kind of interesting romance with Danny?

      They never talked about anything! Every time they were on-panel, separated by months if not even a whole year, they’d either be fretting over Amber or cooing over how great the other is. They both like comics and they think the other is neat, and by the time Ethan was willing to be with a guy he was also sleeping around with every dude he wanted because holy shit, turns out months of being forced into the closet means you want to rocket out of it as hard as possible, but then if he ever committed to Danny he’d still be Ethan, he’d still just be Manny, the boyfriend of another more interesting character who didn’t need all this romance drama bullshit and wanted to settle down, and that more interesting character was Shortpacked! Ethan after eight years of being a major character establishing that all the wacky drama was something he’d only tolerated and he just wanted to go on the internet and bongo about toys. Of course Shortpacked! Ethan just wanted a boring blank slate, because he doesn’t need drama to be happy, but more importantly the series he was in didn’t need him anymore, so he got his finale.

      I’m not some rabid Danny/Sal shipper. I mean, I am now, because they are absurdly adorable, but more than that I feel like things could actually happen and interesting character drama could arise from these two because I’ve already seen a bunch of interesting character drama from them. They hung out and got along and Sal feels like she can be open and vulnerable around this dopey idiot who has no capacity to trip over her alarms that cause her to reflexively push everyone away, except uh-oh what’s gonna happen when Sal lets herself be vulnerable around Danny, and then that invites everyone around her to treat that vulnerability as something that deserves their commentary?

      I do want Ethan to come back, Shortpacked! Ethan is this legitimately amazing Queer male character where he engaged with his sexuality on his terms and mostly only chafed when other people decided it had to mean something else. This guy gave up dating Catman because he refused to stop being a turbo nerd, and the comic wasn’t explicitly for or against Ethan’s own decision, it just let him make it because he was a grown ass man who knew what he wanted out of life and maybe he doesn’t need to change himself if he’s happy and stable! That’s Ethan to me, and DoA Ethan’s never been on that level because he’s always been a minor character. That’s fine too, Ethan doesn’t need to cut Joyce’s head off and usurp the main character role in an ironic twist of fate after what transpired in Shortpacked!, but until he starts being someone I can’t imagine latching onto a ship with him and especially not with a character like Danny, whose most important development from his time with Ethan came when Danny refused to allow himself to be ashamed of his sexuality anymore, and when Danny refused to back down from saying Mike was an abusive shithead and refusing to back down when Ethan put him down where he said he’d let Mike laugh at Danny if he was in a coma. Danny’s most important developments with Ethan were in how Danny asserted himself, and Ethan was secondary.

      Like the only reason Ethan sticks in my mind is that he’s got the chance for a soft reboot and his lack of personality can be fixed by dressing up as Bully Maguire. Ethan when he comes back can, and I hope, I really do, absolutely be an interesting fount for drama in a series run on big, sweeping emotional moments, I just don’t think that’s where he is now.

      1. Brumagem

        Listen.

        In the beforetimes, Ethan and Danny totally simped for eachother and in a world without Amber there is no question they would have gotten together. There was a scene where they even said as much, but also said they shouldn’t because it would be damaging for her to see ANOTHER love interest “turned gay” after dating her.

        That’s all.

        1. Spencer

          That… that really isn’t what I was getting at.

        2. Brumagem

          It’s also just bonkers that once Amber openly stated how ok she was with Ethan diddling other dudes AND had cut ties with Danny, they don’t actually address it again. It’s like Willis had the idea, then wanted to sweep it under the rug again, then seal the deal with Danny being SO callous at the hospital that it shattered my suspension of disbelief RE people in a comic called “Dumbing of Age” doing dumb things.

        3. Spencer

          He asserted himself in the face of his crush telling him in no uncertain terms that he would stand by and let Mike laugh at Danny for being in a coma.

          Like Danny was about to wander into another relationship (because for all the “oh but Amber” stuff Danny was absolutely going to tell Ethan everything he wanted to say), had some misgiving, and instead of passively standing there and hoping they’ll work themselves out he just said the thing that was on his mind, and then Ethan made it clear that he didn’t value Danny as much as Danny thought he did.

          Danny gained the power of self-respect. He didn’t just let himself get dragged along by his romantic interest’s bullshit.

      2. Regalli

        I made a pretty big comment and then lost it, but: Thing I’m realizing about Ethan? He’s been VERY passive since the strip started, sometimes under the guise of avoiding drama. It makes sense – I get, for instance, that maybe Ethan wasn’t ready to come out when they broke up and Amber went VERY assertive in ‘he is gay and that should be respected’ to acquaintances (I’m not sure she pushed coming out in general – that could’ve been him and he got burned on the end result, or Naomi could’ve pushed when they broke up because she knew the answer already – but either way it wasn’t great for him.) I get that Amber also took the Joyce situation REALLY badly. The distance was merited. But he seems to be less assertive on the whole, even in low-stakes situations, than other characters who try to be people-pleasers to avoid drama (Walky in particular seems comparable here, and Becky also has some tendencies.) It being a probable trauma response doesn’t make it particularly interesting to read when that’s how he reacts to everything. I don’t think his arc’s done – the explicitly-stated bit where he wanted to be casual-sex only in part to avoid telling his mother he was seeing anyone is too obviously unsustainable, and that’s DEFINITELY a ‘don’t make a big move to avoid drama’ thing so I suspect changing it would require some character development. But being offscreen has tabled at least some of that – I agree, he’ll probably reinvent himself a bit when we see him again, but I don’t think he’ll have worked through it all. End result, though, is he wasn’t particularly interesting as a romantic option for a more active character. He’ll have to work through that at some point, but it doesn’t have to be with Danny or to propel him towards Danny. Lord knows we need more queer male characters in the cast, not just background. But yeah, where his arc stands was not the best to set up interesting ship dynamics.

        1. JBento

          The problem with an Ethan/Danny relationship is (was?) that, relationship-wise, they’re basically the same person: both such wet blankets they could be bedclothes in the Titanic.

        2. Spencer

          The way I’ve come to think of Ethan is that he was a character loaded with problems, except none of those problems were his fault so his inability to deal with them didn’t really engender interesting drama, like either the triumphant rise or that loving frustration the audience doles out to characters when they make mistakes, it was just really sad and you felt bad for him. “Joyce dates a gay dude” sounds like a funny sitcom plot, but all the funny sitcom stuff was on Joyce’s end and with Ethan it was just this incredibly painful and fruitless attempt at turning himself into something he’s not so his parents would love him again.

          And meanwhile his lifelong best friend abandons him so she can wear a cape and beat people up, and then that lifelong best friend tells him that she needed a break from him being gay and gets mad at him that Joyce took him to a meeting instead of her and constantly stonewalls any of his attempts to meaningfully connect with her again, and then his other lifelong best friend fucking dies and he gets kidnapped because of some bullshit where Amber’s dad is dressing up like a supervillain and Amber’s mental state had fractured so badly that she was involved and didn’t even know herself, and all of this just happens to Ethan and because of his personality and character disposition he doesn’t react in a funny over the top way, he just gets really angry and depressed.

          And like, even if all that hadn’t happened, how do Danny and Ethan interact? How do you get worthwhile character interaction out of them when they’re not only nice to each other all the time, but both of them don’t have the kind of personalities that lead to a lot of character conflict? Where do you go with them other than “Ethan has to boldly declare in front of his parents that he has a boyfriend”? Becky and Dina are also pretty much always happy with each other, it’s only now with Becky’s sexual hangups that there’s any real drama between them, but Becky and Dina are a good dynamic because they constantly make the other grow and change and adapt and fill vital roles in each other’s lives that both of them want filled.

          Yeah sure I do want more Queer men in the series because, you know, I’m me, every Patreon poll I answer Sayid Phry the Hot Queer Guy (to the tune of Bill Nye), and moreover everything I’ve said above can change with Ethan’s return getting built up with a new persona that creates more interesting character dynamics, but for me, and I fully recognize this is a much more complicated discussion than how I’m putting it here, I’m more interested in the pairing of individual characters than character pairings, and I don’t really need Danny to smooch a dude when I’ve got Danny smooching on self-respect and the actualization of his bisexuality manifesting not as “Danny breaks up with his crazy girlfriend and gets with a dude, the Only Valid Relationship For Queer Characters”, but in Danny growing and becoming a more mature person from learning he’s bi, and his life being enriched by it.

        3. Needfuldoer

          I think putting Ethan on a bus makes sense from a storytelling standpoint. By the way Walky describes him now, it sounds like the rapid shift in demeanor (from the reader’s perspective) would be even more jarring than Jennifer’s. He’s stuck at the hospital like Amber was stuck at the gas station.

          Besides that, as you said he mostly just rode shotgun on other characters’ stories. They all to be reestablished for Season 2 while filling us in on the changes they went through since the end of Season 1. Now that they’re back in full swing, they’ll provide context (and contrast) for Ethan whenever he shows up again.

        4. Regalli

          Agreed. Ethan’s likely to reappear eventually, but that doesn’t mean he’s going to be a love interest for Danny again and I think the crux of his (and Amber’s) personal arcs should be less about romance and more about realizing that Mike was maybe not a good friend to them, ever, and it’s not disrespecting the dead to acknowledge he was terrible to them. In Ethan’s case, he could also use a bit more assertiveness/willing to cause drama to say what he actually thinks. In that respect, his scene with Danny in the hospital was progress. Unfortunately, it was progress born of him being an asshole, but, Dumbing of Age.

          A break’s good for him. And a break that gives him a chance to reset and be a more active driver in his own storylines is even better.

  17. ADLegend21

    YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES!

  18. Sirksome

    Also it’s nice to see Sal get out of her own way on this and embrace something genuinely positive in her relationships. It can’t just be Marcie forever.

    1. mrnoidea

      +1

  19. Pizzawiz

    Woooooo. Yeah baby that’s exactly what I’ve been waiting for.

  20. John

    Hmm. He’s tagged as “dan” rather than “danny”. I wonder if that’s meaningful, or an error.

    1. John

      Now he’s “danny”. I guess it was an error.

    2. Wizard

      I’m seeing “Danny”, so maybe it was an error.

  21. newlland(Henryvolt)

    You know what the fucking kicker here is? Danny being with Sal would make the most stable romantic relationship he’s had so far, more so the even when we was trying to make it work with the acclaimed “oh so perfect” Dorothy.

    I mean Dorothy’s great and having someone like her in your life would definitely do you some good but with her and him wanting different things for their future it they were bound to go in different directions and Amber/Amazi was good while it lasted and maybe they could have gone all the way till the end of college if somethings were different, but it got so complicated maybe too complicated which is a shame since Danny was willing to take her back for a time and I know I would.

    Sal will be good for him and Danny would be good to her, I think as long as he’s open, upfront, and pretty keeps doing what he’s been doing with Sal they could have a good thing going.

  22. John

    So she DOES know his name!

  23. LiterallyJustSomeGuy

    D’awwwww.

    I find it interesting hearing Sal call Danny “good” and “kind,” because I don’t think she would use those words to describe Asher. Asher is “dangerous.” Is Jennifer going to get jealous that Sal isn’t jealous?

    1. RassilonTDavros

      Probably, yeah.

      Hell, I wouldn’t be too surprised if it turned out she was only dating Asher in the first place for that very reason. Maybe as revenge for Sal having the sheer gall to not be Amazi-Girl, proving all of her speculation fruitless

      1. King Daniel

        Doesn’t she still think Sal is Amazi-Girl? Yeah yeah, Sal denied it to her face after the kidnapping, but that wasn’t the first time Sal denied it to her face. And Billie’s response the first time was “that’s exactly what someone who is Amazi-Girl would say!”

        1. Delicious Taffy

          Just because they’ve both been seen in the same place, that doesn’t mean they can’t both still be Sal.

        2. King Daniel

          If presented now with that “evidence”, I’d imagine Jennifer (who is a comics nerd among other things) would compare it to something like that time Bruce Wayne dressed up as Superman and vice versa to foil someone who was trying to unveil their secret identities.

        3. He Who Abides

          Or when Alfred dressed up as Batman, so that Bruce could have her talk to Batman without making her suspicious.

        4. He Who Abides

          I swear I typed “Poison Ivy”, not “her”

        5. Clif

          Jennifer knows you can be two people at the same time on account of being Mike.

        6. wwwhhattt

          Have Jennifer and Booster been seen in the same panel together? QED.

        7. Needfuldoer

          They just have to shift back and forth extremely quickly, like the Olsen twin.

        8. Thag Simmons

          She’d have to be willfully ignorant to an obscene degree to still think that, so like a 60/40 shot I’d say

    2. BenRG

      FWIW, I think that we’re going to go through a long “Danny is my Very Good Friend” phase whilst Sal realises that Asher is toxic and dangerous to everyone, including and especially herself all with Danny being a critical part of her support structure. She is going to be as surprised as Danny when she finally realises that she thinks he is a potential romantic partner and all the better for being ‘less exciting’ than Asher.

    3. WanderingLynx

      1- You put this into perspective and I’m grateful ;D Sal calling Danny “good and kind” as opposed to Asher who’s dangerous and “should be with someone like me, BUT NOT ME” worries me. Not because Sal feels anything for Asher (I think she doesn’t, she’s just upset he grew up to be hot); but because Sal feels like she doesn’t deserve good things, good people, or kindness.

      2- Jennifer is MOST DEF going to be upset Sal came to warn her out of true, well-founded concern, and not from a jealousy she can look down upon and/or take glee from.

      1. Fist_of_Life

        Re:2, That’s assuming that Jennifer doesn’t just chalk it up to Sal trying to not look jealous, whilst totally being jealous. Jennifer strikes me as the type to find facts to fit her narrative, not narratives to fit the facts.

        1. Clif

          That’s all of us. But Jennifer does seem particularly good at it.

  24. NinjaNick

    SQUEE!!!

  25. Delicious Taffy

    Wait, she likes him? That’s funny, you’d think someone in the comments might have noticed before now. I was certain it was all part of his secret plan to sell her kidneys on the deep web. /s

    Easy there, Danno. It’s just a peck on the cheek, let’s not get ahead of ourselves here. Long as they’re happy, I got no problems.

  26. DailyBrad

    Honestly, I do like the hat on him, he pulls it off, it just looks less silly if he’s got, like, a jacket on.

    1. Delicious Taffy

      For some reason, every time he wears a hat like this, he spontaneously develops a perfect Galway accent.

  27. StClair

    Finally, a version of the Sal/Danny pairing that’s actually good and wholesome and deserved.

    1. Delicious Taffy

      Tomorrow bone of them is gonna pull out a gun and it’s gonna get all Clone Saga in this place.

      1. milu

        Your own autocorrect is actively working to turn this threatening scenario into a sleazy one. Or maybe that was your unconscious? the difference is close to academic by this point in the history of human/machine relationships.

        1. Delicious Taffy

          Y’know what, fuck it. If the b wants in there so badly, let’s go hogwild with this.

          Either Danny’s skeleton or Sal’s is gonna emerge from their body with a gun, leaving them mysteriously un-floppy and causing a ruckus.

  28. Mr. Random

    “This girl I’ve been talking to for the last 3 months and playing games with gave me a present and kissed me. Do you think she might like me?”

    1. Delicious Taffy

      The next week he’s feverishly Googling “this woman well and truly frigged me to within an inch of my life does that mean she likes me” while Sal cackles maniacally.

      1. milu

        Helpfully, Google responds “yes; no; maybe; join this cult; want some dick pills?!?”

      2. Keulen

        You really can’t tell. Maybe she’s from Canada and was just being polite.

    2. JBento

      I feel called out by your post.

      1. Reltzik

        It’s kinda similar to me in a bunch of ways that I shouldn’t be proud of. Do you think I should feel called out by this post?

  29. bemisawa

    Spoiler alert: he probably won’t figure it out.

  30. Amos Batista

    I just figured out nobody kissed me for a while, since the pandemic.

    1. Needfuldoer

      That recently? You lucky devil.

  31. Delicious Taffy

    On the one hand, if you’re bothered by this it sucks and sympathy is extended. On the other hand, at least you know you haven’t got the “Rona from that sort of thing?

    1. Delicious Taffy

      Well. That’s the hubris in action.

    2. Fist_of_Life

      Its been a while since i read QC, so maybe there’s been some character development I’m not privy to, but your grav really doesn’t match your comment.

      1. Delicious Taffy

        Last year, Pintsize and Hannelore swapped bodies, Marigold ate the last slice of pizza so Dale ate her Xbox, Bubbles became a furry complete with neon dogsuit, Claire violated international law and had to flee with Marten to Paraguay, Roko upgraded to become more powerful than Yay, Brun deleted Switzerland, and Sam went to Egypt with Jim, where they found an ancient golden ring that killed Jim and possessed Sam with the spirit of an ancient evil.

        So, same ol’, same ol’.

        1. Clif

          Hey! Spoilers. The ring was a major plot point.

        2. He Who Abides

          Not so much the ring itself, as it was the thing inside it.

        3. mrnoidea

          You had me at “deleted Switzerland” XD

      2. Amos Batista

        I’ve stopped reading QC, I followed this webcomic before I discovered DoA this age.

        1. Clif

          I know it seems counter-intuitive, but it’s possible to read and enjoy several web comics at the same time.

          What do you mean I’m doing it wrong?

        2. Amos Batista

          I guess I was not enjoying QC as lately, and plus, DoA got me so hyped because it helped to deal with some things in my life.

        3. Needfuldoer

          I’ve been reading it since almost the beginning, but have mostly read it out of habit for years now. If you asked me to sum up the plot from the last year I’d only have a handful of bullet points.

          I feel like it’s difficult to get invested in a comic when even it doesn’t seem to know where it’s going. The stories just meander around for a while without accomplishing anything of consequence, and the character roster has become a complex, rotating cast of dozens. It’s more like a collection of loosely related vignettes about a small mill town than it is an overall story arc. Maybe that’s how it wound up diving into the world of mocap avatar livestreaming?

        4. Clif

          I’m glad DOA speaks to you. I thoroughly enjoy it and am much more invented in the characters than those of QC. But the slow exploration of the relationships between humans and AIs is a premise that fascinates me.

        5. Clif

          * invested

  32. Regalli

    D’awwwww!

  33. Mackabre

    This is fucking adorable

  34. He Who Abides

    YAS!

  35. Mancuso

    Give him time, he’s almost got it. Almost. He’s nearly there.

  36. Mr D

    Hey Willis! What did ya think of Evangelion 3+1?

  37. Meagan

    Wow, I am pleasantly surprised with how quickly the ‘Sal looks for love in all the wrong places’ arc pivoted to something wholesome. I hope Willis doesn’t immediately start leaning on couple tension between them for narrative drama, as fictional media is so wont to do.

    1. Rotunda

      This is the same Sal who computed that she should forgive Amber.

      1. Sporky

        With that word choice you kinda make her sound like a robot.

        1. Delicious Taffy

          We can’t prove she’s not.

        2. Clif

          Sure we can. Lop off the head and the difference should be obvious.

        3. StClair

          Or just see if she can tick the little box.

  38. Joe Angel

    Cute moment that could be ruined in a hot two seconds if Ethan or Asher walk by.

    Sal has been hovering around hoping to bump into Ash like, two days ago? And Asher is a mild-mannered bad-boy-image hiding an actual mobster, what would their encounter have been like if Sal met Asher when he was alone?
    Not to mention how Sal is bitter as hell around Ruth/Jason and I don’t think that’s only because they’re both shitty authority figures.

    What happens if Ethan forgives Danny?

    This just kinda feels like two rejected people taking a safe option.

    1. DailyBrad

      I don’t really know. Asher, yeah, that’s a fresh wound, but Ethan, it’d really depend on what’s happened since we saw him last. Guessing Ethan and Danny have likely not spoken since the hospital. Hell, sorta get the impression Amber possibly hasn’t spoken to Ethan, either.

      1. Miri

        I suspect Amber is now in therapy (Joe Sr is Dr Dick isn’t he? So hopefully he would kindly but firmly insist on finding somebody with experience helping highly traumatised people with DID work on their trauma and memory-sharing etc. I would also like to think that said therapist “gets” Amber enough that some of this therapy takes the form of talking to each other online whilst also playing a shoot-em-up designed to act as an EMDR tool, some writing out of experiences as fanfics to facilitate memory-sharing while providing some distance from the events described (and also mean that these cannot possibly count as evidence to be used by Not-Ryan against her, even though the bit where Batman flips and stabs Joker to a bloody mess after he tried to drug and rape Robin’s friend, then tried to come after Batman, the friend and Robin, sounds a bit familiar), and very little to none of it takes the form of talking face to face whilst making eye contact. Plot twist: it’s Dina’s mother…).

        Amber would totally tell Ethan she’s in therapy and that it’s hopefully helping, and I’m sure he’s relieved and part of the reason he feels OK about cutting ties for now is because he knows she’s got people around her looking out for her. But I suspect he still needs more time and space (a) because he is hurting too; (b) to see if it’s actually helping and making a difference; and (c) because he has been her support system since they were tiny, he probably needs to deal with complicated feelings surrounding having created distance betwen them by having to come out and first hurt her then rely on her support with his parents, guilt about not having realised she had developed two separate identities who weren’t integrating memories (especially as this was possibly because he was too busy hooking up with all the cute guys on campus who weren’t Danny), anger that she hadn’t let him know she was struggling sooner…

        1. Sam

          As Walky said early on, the therapists in the area are not in fact, very good.

    2. BBCC

      That was earlier today she was trying to bump into Asher but honestly, I think she’d been lonely in general. Danny’s a good guy though and I think he proved it today with how much he tried to make her happy.

    3. Spencer

      Depends on where the characters are at.

      If Danny’s starting to twig onto being with Sal but still has lingering feels for Ethan, that gets complicated.

      If Ethan comes back after Danny starts committing to Sal, then he’s kinda SoL because Danny is so monogamous he thought he cheated on Amazi-Girl with Amber that one time, and Danny’s attraction to Ethan while he was with Amber, because his attraction to Ethan was new and loud and representative of feelings he didn’t understand, was something he couldn’t really control in the same capacity as “I am with one person, time to never think about anyone else ever.”

      Danny isn’t, like, waiting around for Ethan or anything. He crashed and burned with him over four months ago now. He’s probably moved on from Ethan as a serious romantic consideration.

      Also I reject any reality where “cool lady with a motorcycle who has been in two actual car chases” is safer than “guy with Opinions on toy robots.”

      1. Doongus

        To be fair, Amber also considers Amazi-Girl to be two separate people.

    4. Spencer

      Not to mention opening herself up like this to someone is a huge leap for Sal. It’s only “safe” in the sense that Danny has zero ability to be dishonest and a stated intent of not wanting to push any boundary other than at Sal’s own pace, so Sal can actually start processing stuff a lifetime of getting burned has led to her believe can’t actually happen with someone who all but lacks the capacity to hurt Sal in the specific way she constantly gets hurt.

      1. thejeff

        Amusingly, in contrast to your last line in the first post, for Sal, the “(ex?) mobster who’s been involved in a murder and helped get her caught shoplifting” is safer than Danny. No need for emotional vulnerability with Asher.

    5. thejeff

      I don’t really see that. They’ve been building towards this since before the timeskip. There’s really something there between them.

  39. Prince Mech

    This put smiles in my soul.

  40. MrSmith

    Aww

  41. GUIGUI

    On one hand
    -YAYYYY my favorite It’s Walky ship is back in business
    On the Other hand
    -DoA still has many years of comics ahead of it, with ample time for David Willis to make this ship crash and burn with no survivors in a irredeemable way.

    I am happy, but also a bit worried.

    1. Clif

      Without the worry you can’t truly appreciate the happiness.

    2. Deanatay

      Consider the last book, where the first couple of chapters set up some pretty sweet ships – NONE OF WHICH SURVIVED.

      Walky+Dorothy = BROKE IN HALF AND SUNK

      Sal+Jason = SMASHED AGAINST THE ROCKS

      Danny+AG = WENT UP LIKE THE HINDENBURG

      Yeah, this’ll be cute – for a while

    3. StClair

      “A thing isn’t beautiful because it lasts.”

  42. BenRG

    Sometimes, nice guys do come out on top.

    It’s always a difficult thing to judge: How to show a character changing their view of another and perhaps deciding that they like them enough to risk being vulnerable around them. You can say too much or you can say too little and the balance is a fine one. I think that by stretching it out so long, Willis has done this fairly well. We’ve seen how Sal’s feelings for Danny has really crept up on her really without any conscious effort on his part or any real realisation on her part until, one day, they found themselves here.

  43. David

    She’s not wrong, you know.

  44. Bunnygurl

    Did no one catch she called him by his name and not wonderbread?

    1. Clif

      Obviously a missprint.

    2. Reltzik

      I think “Danny” is Wonderbread’s new nickname.

    3. zee

      Nope, several comments above didn’t mention it

  45. Rabisch

    I would really like to hope for all possible happiness for Sal and Danny as a couple. They are adorable, fun and capable of bringing out the best in each other ♡. But will they survive public exposure and the judgment of others? I’m afraid they aren’t emotionally ready for this, yet.

    1. Reltzik

      Who’s judgey? Joe would be on board with Danny landing a hot girlfriend, and whoever Sal’s rooming with should be just as accepting.

      1. thejeff

        Malaya? Accepting?

        I suspect the judgments will mostly be more on the “That’s so unlike you” angle. That the pairing is unexpected and seems to break character for both of them.

        1. JBento

          On the other hand, you get to see Malaya trying to find a way to call Danny fakey and him constantly proving to her that he is, in fact, exactly what you see.

        2. thejeff

          But it definitely proves Sal is fakey if she’s willing to date someone like Danny.

        3. Spencer

          Yeah that’s kinda where I’m expecting this to go if it gets serious.

          Either Sal is being desperate, fakey, and was never actually cool because she latched onto the ukulele dork, or that ukulele dork is a nice, upstanding normal guy who will set Sal down the right path, and all that’s existing in between the commentary and constant need to defend and justify that she’s dating someone at all.

        4. Rabisch

          The thing that worries me is that seeing how Danny is just Danny would drive Malaya crazy, start hating him more and more, kill him in a violent, uncontrollable attack of rage and then try to dispose of his corpse with Mary’s help.

        5. Reltzik

          Yeah, but Malaya’s spirit animal is an iguana that just sits there with resting-dragon-face in perfect acceptance of anything that happens, so that means Malaya is just as accepting.

        6. Rabisch

          Malaya doesn’t accept. She just decides not to care about it and occasionally throws a disgusted glance followed by cynical passing remarks full of prejudice.

  46. AGV

    How did you call a himbo that wasn’t buff?

    1. WanderingLynx

      I have no idea but my brain jumped to “slimbo” and now it’s stuck

    2. Spencer

      David Willis has informed me this term is referred to as “himbim.”

  47. WanderingLynx

    HAVEN’T READ ANYONE ELSE’S COMMENTS, JUST. I CAME HERE TO FLAIL FIRST. I can’t believe I’m shipping this so hard??? Swear to Marx it was like “heh, those two are so genuine together, it’s sweet” and now it’s like “OH GOD DANNY PLEASE CHERISH HER FOREVER”. It’s weird, fam – But I ain’t complaining.

    I like their friendship a lot and want it to continue! But basically, if they start dating I kinda hope it’s endgame now. What the hell &heart;

    1. Wagstaff

      Well, we have reason to suspect that no ships are endgame:

      ” No ships are endgame because I always find ships that are even more endgame-y. “

      — David M. Willis

      The million dollar question is, will there be any SlipShines coming out of this?

      1. WanderingLynx

        It feels like this setup is the climax of the interaction (though I might be wrong af) before Something and/or Someone interrupts. So they wouldn’t be getting together now.

        I’m a queer queer NB person (she/they and sometimes he pronouns); and most times I wouldn’t be raring for a Slipshine of a straight ship. This isn’t one of those times. I damn hope Willis draws a Slipshine of these two :’D

        1. Wagstaff

          Hmm… now that I think of it, the Slipshine releases have gotten MUCH less frequent since the pandemic started. Either that or they’re not as frequent as we want them to be.

          I have high hopes, for even if none come this year, there’s a high chance that we’ll get at least one next year, in celebration of the 4000th strip!

          Also, I think it might just be more than coincidence that this strip was went up during the full moon.

          Tell me, does the moon also shine brightly in Chile?

  48. BBCC

    So, uh, when’s the other shoe dropping, Willis?

    1. WanderingLynx

      It’s hilarious how Pavlov’d all of us are about Bad Things Happening As Soon As We’re Thrown Something Nice ™

      …….. But yeah, I’m kinda betting on the next, or next three strips having something Bad thrown at those two ;;

      1. Clif

        It’s not as soon as. From Ruth and Billie becoming a couple to Halloween was books and books.

        Ethan has to be reintroduced and then learn that Mike is still alive but didn’t let him know, before he decides to pursue Danny.

        1. Spencer

          A more interesting ship has found Danny.

          Ethan is now the Amber.

      2. zee

        We’ve been traumatized

  49. Nenja

    I am both delighted and nervous. This is so sweet … so how long before something bad happens?

  50. darkoneko

    holy shiiiiiiiit

  51. Bunny

    Sals got a sweet tooth. She just smooched a cinnamon roll.

  52. Heavensrun

    Anybody else get Rayla/Callum vibes from these two?

    1. newlland(Henryvolt)

      Dragon Prince? One could hope to get that type of romantic dynamic.

  53. Mr.Morningstar

    Is the first pairing from the walkyverse to happen in dumbing of age?

    1. Spencer

      Nah Dorothy/Walky (they were high school friends, they never went for it, Dorothy came to town, she’s possessed by the Head Alien) and Ruth/Billie (Ruth was Billie and Walky’s babysitter when they were kids and it was posthumously revealed they had gotten together prior to Ruth’s death) both happened here in the same capacity of “same characters, but radically different context.”

      Joe’s current feelings for Joyce are actually pretty in-line with his Walkyverse counterpart as well, where Joe starts falling for her after he starts thinking of her differently. He did like Joyce but didn’t want either of them to change what they wanted to be together, Joe did want to be kind of shallow and free until he did mellow out with Rachel and later was totally different by the time he hooked up with Robin for a bit, and Joyce wanted someone who would be romantic and committed to her, whereas here Joe’s feelings for Joyce seem to be manifesting as “she’s an outrageously good person and I want her to be happy, but I’m not good enough and don’t know how.”

      1. BBCC

        Leslie/Robin is here too.

        1. Buli-buli

          Does the mythical two-way unrequited crush count as a pairing?

      2. newlland(Henryvolt)

        Second chances all around to see how it would have panned out.

  54. Needfuldoer

    D’aww.

    So who’s going to ruin the moment first? Sal getting cold feet and running away from her feelings again, or will it be another classic example of Danning it up?

    1. BenRG

      My guess is that they’re going to walk in on a “just kiss already” argument between Joyce and Joe and it will break the mood.

  55. BenRG

    He’s an idiot… but he’s her idiot.

    1. Clif

      She gave him a hat and now she owns him.

      Dunno how much the hat cost, but she may have overspent. All my wife had to do was buy me a hamburger.

      1. JBento

        Yes, but the hamburger molecules then become part of you. The hat is removable.

        1. Reltzik

          But what if the hat becomes part of his identity?

        2. Delicious Taffy

          Better the hat than a hamburger.

        3. JBento

          Then it becomes harder for him to be picked by facial recognition software, and then both people AND machines will pretend not to see him.

        4. Reltzik

          Wow. I knew the hat was styling, but I had no idea it was so razzle-dazzle.

  56. JoeCovenant

    My dream is (hopefully!) coming true.

    I’ve never really been a shipper, but always thought Sal and Danny got a rough ride “originally” all those years ago, and felt bad for them both.

    Fingers crossed!

  57. Keulen

    I hope Willis lets this ship sail for a while. Sal and Danny seem like they’d be a much better couple in this universe than the Walkyverse. And now I’m worried about all the possible ways this ship could sink before it gets very far.

  58. RowenMorland

    Are we setting up for Mrs Walkerton meeting Danny and Lucy at the same time and approving of Danny because he’ll help reform Sal while worrying that Lucy will corrupt Walky and is to blame for him not obeying her will to be a doctor?

    1. BenRG

      I suspect that Linda ‘approving’ of Danny is probably going to be the one biggest obstacle in any possible long-term relationship between him and Sal.

      1. Brumagem

        That balancing act between wanting someone’s approval and resenting them for needing their approval.

        1. thejeff

          And worrying that their approval means you’re doing something wrong.

        2. JBento

          https://78.media.tumblr.com/40506ff2e2edfb57d838e98c79e816dd/tumblr_nx052dSzia1t4ymcao1_1280.png

    2. Alex

      I would like to see Linda thinking Lucy is no good for Walky, and Lucy tirelessly trying to win her over.

  59. TK

    … yay. ^__^

  60. Zee

    Walky: “This is why girls gotta kiss me so I know what’s goin’ on!”

    Danny: “You kissed me.” *Visual confusion*

  61. Spencer

    This might sound weird, it’s kind of hard for me to phrase it appropriately, bear with me.

    I am definitely in on the redemption of dudes who can be described as good and kind in media.

    I kinda feel that sometimes the prevalence of Nice Guy both in fiction and irl knda leads to a point where we don’t want to depict a guy like Danny, who is nice and kind and supportive and after buttloads of character development also capable of separating his own big romantic fantasies from when he just wants to be nice to someone and the other person is a human being and therefore they don’t need to make any kind of deal out of his gesture other than what they want, and Danny in particular is someone who does a nice thing for that person because he wants them to be happy and it doesn’t have to go any further than that.

    I remember saying something yonks ago like “Danny and Sal getting together (and I don’t think they’re, like, joined at the hip right now anything, mind, she pecked him on the cheek) would be kinda like validating Danny’s old behaviour where he grows up and gets rewarded with the coolest lady ever who really gets him”, and while my consistent inability to ever successfully predict a plot point in DoA remains unblemished, I think the reason I even thought something along those lines (beyond thinking that Danny and Sal wouldn’t be too dramatic, but also that’s stupid because it took like three interactions across this one chapter to get some juicy drama out of them) is because I’m used to a surrounding discourse where the male character who is passive, gentle and mostly tries to be affectionate has to show they aren’t a Nice Guy, like that’s just a natural endpoint for this kind of person we have to know they’ll avoid, and I do get that; I did used to watch Friends after all, and that show ran on a nerdy dude in his 20s feeling entitled to the woman he loved.

    But from there I get the feeling that dude characters who were like that, who were passive and won someone over because they’re kind and gentle, started getting perceived as “this is a dude who is getting rewarded for basic human decency, I’m supposed to think he’s awesome because he’s nice to people, and therefore the act of being nice is being lionized.”

    1. Buli-buli

      Okay. That did get a bit rambling so let me try and summarize.

      You are saying that you support Danny/Sal because you feel Danny’s character and arc is a reconstruction of the Nice Guy trope instead of the toxic deconstruction we often think of nowadays?

      1. Buli-buli

        Sorry that was unclear. Let me clarify.
        The deconstructed Nice Guy trope isn’t toxic itself, but deconstructs the Nice Guy by making him toxic.

        1. Spencer

          Kinda yeah.

          So you get fiction for yonks where “guy wins out because he’s So Nice and she keeps dating Jerks instead of him” and then we all recognize that’s weird creepy bullshit that exists as a power fantasy.

          Then we get yonks of fiction where that character is presented as they really are; a weasel who thinks basic human decency should reward him with sex, except this goes to a point where, at least as I feel and I recognize that this may be relying too much on anecdotal evidence, a guy who is gentle and passive ending up in a relationship with a cool lady who gets him is “rewarding him for being a Nice Guy.”

          So if I tried to sum it up it would be “Danny is a guy who is nice, and he did start the series out with weird fucked up visions of romance, but he grew out of it while staying the person he actually wanted to be and found a healthy way to be that person.”

        2. thejeff

          One of the big problems with the Nice Guy trope is that it’s often presented as if the “Nice” is the problem, not the entitlement and expectations of being rewarded with sex for being nice.
          Thus kind of reinforcing the claims about nice guys not getting the girls.

          Despite his problems, Danny has never been the Nice Guy(tm). He’s been clingy and dependent, but not entitled.

        3. Spencer

          Danny was never malicious, there is exactly one time in the entire series he really did something wrong with someone he dated and that was when he said he’d lend Walky some shoes or tell Dorothy about Amazi-Girl, and one panel indicates he did it because he wanted to prove either to himself or Dorothy that she’d abandon Walky for her ambition.

          That was beneath Danny but that’s the issue, it’s beneath everyone and Danny indulged in it for a hot minute. When it comes to the breakup Danny wasn’t necessarily entitled, but I think it’s more that he expected Dorothy would want to give up on Yale because Love Conquers All, and consequently he did treat Dorothy as an extension of his destined life as his Wife’s Husband.

        4. Some1

          Didn’t Danny outright reject the chance to have sex with Billie? I think that alone should take him out of the “nice guy” category.

        5. Spencer

          Kinda? Like if you mean “I’m Nice, so sleep with me” then yeah, but with Danny that behaviour mostly manifested as “the women in my life need to adapt into the fantasy I laid out for us.”

          This was made literal when Danny started dating Amazi-Girl, someone who, at the time all this was written, didn’t exist in the capacity we understand that she does now.

          Danny also threw some “I didn’t want to take advantage!” lines at Joe to claim a moral authority which is pretty White Knight, and then the next strip Danny admits that he didn’t think he was ready to have sex so soon after Dorothy.

  62. Ereb

    Eh, that much obliviousness doesn’t endear me to Danny… or at least, seems like wish fulfillment. I hope it’s not “I’m SO nice, yet SO selfless, I won’t even notice I was courting her/she was receptive.” Then again he managed to think she was talking to his ghost and make it unfunny.

    1. Buli-buli

      To be fair, Sal had previously reacted poorly to Danny’s gifts and he had to explicitly assure her he wasn’t looking for some kind of quid pro quo and was just being platonically nice.

      Now Sal has gone from paranoid and upset to being complimentary and affectionate. That alone is enough to be confusing for Danny. Then she kisses him, but kisses him on the cheek.

      To be honest I would be freaking out on how far to interpret that in Danny’s shoes.

    2. Spencer

      Danny didn’t notice he was trying to court her because he actually was not trying to court her. Sal once indicated she wouldn’t mind if Danny was more assertive around her, which Danny responded to that he likes someone else and can only really process that one person at a time, and now Danny’s actions this chapter have shown him to Sal that he is absolutely genuine about his intentions, and more importantly to Sal specifically he’s someone who is never going to push those intentions further than what Sal wants.

      1. Ereb

        Wasn’t he, though? I wouldn’t buy my friends a new bike to cheer them up, without them ever mentioning wanting one. Especially not in college. He doubled down on it with flowers too, and told her he liked her.

        I can agree with everything else you said tho.

        1. Spencer

          Danny isn’t unattracted to Sal but so far he’s given no indication he’s romantically interested in her other than getting blindsided when Sal was positive to his joke flirting so he kind of stumbled out some words about how he’s a one-person guy and Sal wasn’t it right now.

          The crux of their interactions this chapter have been clear as day that Danny’s primary motivation is that Sal’s unhappy and he wants her to be happy, except the specifics of his attempts made her reflexively wall up because usually when someone does something nice for her it means they want it as leverage over her, and then it was heavily implied that Sal rejecting people when they’re nice to her makes them lash out. From this, Danny decided that if his actions weren’t appreciated, then he’ll only engage Sal on a level she finds comfortable because his intent is to make her happy and as such his actions need to be stuff she finds comfort in.

          TLDR: Yeah Danny could have a crush on her, maybe, his descriptions of her have been “she’s out of my league” and “I like hanging out with you”, but even if he were actually totes in love the important factor of their current interactions is that Danny’s only engaging with Sal in her comfort zone, and even if Danny were into her he wouldn’t act on it if there wasn’t some kind of clear signal that Sal would also be into it, and I can’t think of a funny way to work this in so I’ll say it all blunt and awkward: he’s definitely not doing this in the hopes that Sal will start dating him, because that’s the kind of behaviour Danny has long outgrew.

        2. drs

          He bought her a big bunch of flowers. You can do that just to be nice, but from guy to girl it has a hard to miss default meaning.

        3. zee

          I mean, Just because you wouldn’t doesn’t mean that applies to everyone

    3. Alex

      I read this as surprise, seeing how she was acting earlier. I think he knows what a kiss means.

      1. Ereb

        That makes sense, although the last strip already played up his obliviousness. It depends on whether it becomes a rule of three, one more to go.

  63. TheMirai

    Disasterhimbo Danny.

    1. Spencer

      He is the Disaster of Passion.

  64. Adept

    Maybe the harmless, introspective boringness of Danny is exactly what Sal needs in her life. Whatever else he is, he’s not a bad guy.

  65. Disastromatic

    We’ve got the wind, lads! Set sail! Bring me that horizon!

    1. JBento

      I tried to, but every time I thought I was getting nearer to the horizon, bugger kept moving away.

      1. Clif

        Maybe you weren’t moving fast enough.

  66. JBento

    Three out of three. Sal’s really got his number.

  67. mrnoidea

    Dang. That was fast.

  68. ETP

    “An’ yer an idiot.”

    Ah, just like every other guy then. Good.

  69. Valerie

    I always forget that Sal and Danny were a thing throughout the Walkyverse; it makes the ship make a NOT more sense

    1. Clif

      Sal and Danny were a thing at the beginning of Roomies and then Sal was mostly offstage. It was really far more about Joyce and Danny until Joyce was mindwiped. Then Danny wound up with Billie.

      But this is a completely different dynamic anyway, so not really.

  70. Diane

    Huh, Joe is finally being the wingman he always claimed he could be for Danny. By being selfish and throwing out Dan’s hat, he gave Sal the opportunity to give him a new one.

    1. zee

      Actually the wind took it didn’t it?

      1. mrnoidea

        Joe found the hat later in a bonus Patreon strip, I believe.

      2. Rabisch

        In a bonus strip on Patreon you see Joe find the hat, recognize it as Danny’s hat, then throw it away.

  71. mrnoidea

    …Something about this strip sends me into a thought spiral. I keep thinking that the other shoe is gonna drop, where Danny now changes his behavior and no longer feels compelled to be nice, now that he “got the girl.” But that leads to another question: why?

    It’s times like these where I wish my incel past didn’t follow me around.

    1. Spencer

      Hey if you outgrew that then good on you. Sometimes we just buy into the wrong shit and it’s easier to go deeper than to admit fault.

      1. mrnoidea

        Thanks, Spencer.

        It’s also easy to buy into the wrong shit when one feels like redemption is out of reach. Like “I can’t apologize because I wouldn’t be forgiven anyway.”

        Took me a while to realize most people ARE forgiving. You just gotta own up to your mistakes, not double-down when accused.

        1. Spencer

          Oh, believe me, everyone loves a redemption story.

          There’s an addict in my life who is exactly that person. Tells me she can’t let her sponsor down so she constantly lies about her relapses, as if a sponsor’s job isn’t to be called up and be told you made a mistake.

          Maturity requires forgiving yourself or getting over yourself, depending on the circumstance. The rest will follow.

    2. Alex

      In my opinion Danny could stand to be a little more self-interested. He seems like the type that keeps his feelings bottled up until they explode at the worst possible moment.

    3. mrnoidea

      Coming back days later to add something positive!

      Sal just made Danny her <a href="https://www.dumbingofage.com/2019/comic/book-9-comic/02-but-the-sun-still-shines/warning-2/"sprinkly vanilla cupcake.

      1. mrnoidea

        oh nvm

  72. Vulcanodon

    Awwwwwww… nice to start the day with something heartwarming

  73. RowenMorland

    Willis is being pulled like a zipper along two lines of teeth made up of Danny/Sal working so much more naturally this time, and the desire to draw a super hot Slipshine for it.

  74. :0

    IT HAPPENED

    Kinda

  75. Sunny

    One thing occurred to me. If Sal gets together with Danny, Billifer will DEFINITELY get jealous. When she was supposed to interview him regarding Joe’s video with Roz she tried to have sex with him and he was all “it wouldn’t be right”. Billifer practically threw herself at Danny and “failed”. If Sal manages to “get” him the jealousy will be through the roof.

  76. Acebender

    Eugh, how does someone as bland as wonderbread get with girls that are way above him like Dorothy, Sal or Amazigirl?

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