the butter zone for a good break up is essentially zero, you can only mitigate the fallout
…actually I’m p sure the worst way possible would be to literally eviscerate her femurs or something, so AS LONG AS YOU DON’T DO THAT AND CREATE A TIME PARADOX I’M SURE YOU’RE SET
cos this is the very worst possible way to break up, remember? Therefore it’s implied that Ruth sequesters Jennifer in a dank dungeon and does non-consensual stem cell research on her and grows disturbing organs in places they’re not supposed to be before she eviscerates her— obviously.
Decidedly Orthogonal
So… now that you’ve openned this door, are you going to guide us down the hallway?
[tw for disturbing imagery, definitely not my fault though, i’m just the messenger]
beg your pardon??? I’m just stating the glaringly obvious implicit assumptions already entirely pre-packaged within Ana’s comment. are you… are you suggesting i actually produced this freakish scenario using, what, my own imagination? i’m offended. I don’t indulge in such grotesque and grisly fantasies. i’m a normal, clean, non-twisted person. and definitely not a serial killer of any sort.
that being said, i mean, it’s plainly being assumed by Ana, for this to make any sense at all, that Ruth commands huge experience with advanced teratogenic tissue growth induction techniques, i mean, you don’t just successfully grow intestinal lining (not to even mention *scoff* the epithelium itself) out of bone marrow on your first try. That simply goes without saying.
In fact, it’s basically indisputable that Ruth must have experimented using axolotl tissue grafts before (they’re the obvious choice here). It’s a given that, were you to enter that underground laboratory of Ruth’s, you would find an impressive range of surgical implements and highly restricted pharmaceutical supplies, as well as, against a dimly lit wall (of course one of the deathly pale neon tubes is constantly flickering, there’s always one) a ghastly array of distinctly and disturbingly human-adjacent silhouettes in huge liquid-filled transparent containers (they have to be transparent for Ruth to be able to check out the blood-curdling results of her previous attempts while performing a new procedure, like, duh).
Finally your eyes would land on the operating table in the centre of the room, and, look, who wouldn’t wouldn’t pass out from the sheer horror of it all at that point, right? But not before noticing the dark stains on the concrete floor, cos washing away gallons and gallons of blood, day in day out? That’s got to be a bongo, like, for sure. No question.
Like i said, nothing that’s not right there in Ana’s own comment, just not in so many words, i guess.
I think she’s less wanting a ‘good break up’ and more ‘wanting to make sure Jennifer doesn’t kill herself, either intentionally or accidentally via alcohol poisoning’.
“Carla did some sort of experiment that accidentally brought Blowjob Cat to life! He’s rampaging through the city! I don’t know how long Amazi-Girl can hold him off, we gotta go!”
Assuming that it will be always like that might be where Ruth’s pessimism comes in, though, too…? I don’t know. This is back in Halloween, so the binge drinking as well as the depressive episode was pretty recent. But I think that it’d be better to have a discussion with Billie/Jennifer first before dropping “I need to break up with you for your own good.” Even if Ruth is ultimately right about that, saying that all of a sudden would seem kind of shitty.
I don’t know. There’s a real-life situation where someone I know is trying to decide whether to break up with a partner, and I don’t feel that I can judge either way. I told her to do what feels best and I’d support either outcome.
Fictional characters, on the other hand… (okay, technically I’m not judging Ruth for initiating a breakup, just for how she might potentially go about it).
“So I’m going to deny myself happiness and ruin things between us before anything or anyone else can ruin it for us!”
I wish I could say this wasn’t consistent of her. 🙁
(Last time, she wound up in a dark room with a bag of cookies next to her. This time, she’ll end up in a well-lit room with Jason handcuffed next to her.)
Seriously though! She’s literally doing exactly what she doesn’t want to happen. Maybe it is good they broke up. Relationships don’t work if one of the partners has no confidence in it or themselves. It wasn’t for the best but they both deserve better than Ruth second guessing them every day.
What she doesn’t want to happen is both of them LITERALLY DYING. Pretty sure that is not what she’s doing right now.
Sirksome
That’s a legitimate issue but Ruth’s not actually trying to address that. She’s single-handedly choosing to end the relationship because she’s scared and doesn’t trust herself or Jennifer. As far as we know she hasn’t even talked to Jennifer about her insecurities with their mental health. She just assumes it will eventually go bad and wants to cut ties. This isn’t saving Jennifer from anything. Proper, medical, professional care, and therapy will save them both, and maybe it would eventually end with them splitting up, but this isn’t the way. Or well it is a way, cause they did break up, but it was a cowardly way because we know in the future there is plenty of toxic resentment on both sides.
Needfuldoer
“As far as we know she hasn’t even talked to Jennifer about her insecurities with their mental health.”
Jennifer is adept at “solving” her problems by not addressing them. They have to nearly bite her faaaace off before she actually does anything about them.
I read this as Ruth wanting to break it off for her own sake, but telling herself it’s best for both of them to justify that decision.
Sirksome
I’m really not sure how to take this because Jennifer is presented to be the unreliable, she was even sneaking booze their first attempt at going sober but post time skip Ruth has been the one to turn back to alcohol. It feels hypocritical now. Ruth asking Jen to quit drinking only to go back to drinking herself when she gets her meds adjusted and turns 21.
I don’t like saying it but it kind of feels like this whole breakup is so Ruth doesn’t have to feel guilty for being self destructive. Like she wants to stop working on herself and just Jennifer being around her would hold her too accountable.
thejeff
A thing Jennifer had feared throughout their time together – that Ruth would push her away so she could go die without hurting Jennifer.
thejeff
As opposed to Ruth who proactively sought out solutions to her problems – by going so non-responsive Carla panicked and she got dragged to the hospital.
Jennifer certainly has her issues, but it’s not at all clear she’s the worst of the pair.
StClair
I’m not prepared to declare/render judgment who’s the worse of the two. Just saying, as above, that she’s done this before. (And as you note, it didn’t work out well.)
Ruth should watch Midsommar, where the main boyfriend character put off breaking off with his girlfriend because he was trying to to be sensitive after her parents and sister died gruesomely in a murder-suicide.
The problem wasn’t so much that he delayed breaking up with her because her family died, it’s that he’d been waffling on ending the relationship for a year prior to that (especially since she could feel him pulling away and it was adding to her ongoing stress and insecurities). If he’d broken up with her when he first realized he wanted out, she would have had time to get over the end of that relationship BEFORE the devastating crisis hit.
(Man, Midsommar is a masterpiece. It is so disturbing but also so compulsively watchable. That’s the power of really good filmmaking, I guess!)
At least Chief Inspector Barnaby got too go home to his wife at the end of the episode. That was a success. That’s Midsommer for you. Should be renamed “Barnaby, Last Man Standing.”
i mean, he also didn’t have to #SPOILER# with #SPOILER# surrounded by naked #SPOILER#.
Sure, she put her pubic #SPOILER# in his #SPOILER#, but that didn’t actually #SPOILER#, he made that decision himself.
Also, omg Midsommar is SO GOOD. Everyone should watch Midsommar. Well, everyone with a stomach for horror, it’s not really scary per se but gruesomenesses occur.
oh, i’m so sorry about that. Specific trigger warnings would get spoiler-y, (though as you gathered from this thread one of its themes is toxic relationships)
but yes, please be conscious that this is a horror movie, and not one of the silly ones. It truly is a disturbing story. i think it is a masterpiece (and horror is my comfort genre for some reason, that and, uh, queer romcoms???), but you’re right, saying “everyone should” watch it was irresponsible. take care of yourselves out there <3
I 100% know this feeling and it super sucks. the, I’m not allowed to be happy/supposed to be happy because I’ll ruin it sort of thing. It’s a terrible thing to go through. it still hits me every so often but not like it used to, thank goodness, but man. Ruth ☹
In a toxic relationship especially, the ‘things feel good right now’ is usually what paralyses people from ending it even when they see the need to or just desire to (because the highs are really good when contrasted with the lows).
There is never really a perfect time to suggest breaking up but when you aren’t feeling suicidal and they aren’t feeling suicidal, is generally preferable to when you are or never.
Mhm, I’ve been there 1000%. Not that the relationship was toxic, but I was unhappy in it and convincing myself that we were good together when things were going well. If anything **I** was the toxic one by all my passive aggression in it. A tough lesson to swallow from reflection that you were so far in the wrong.
If anyone in their early 20s reads this comment. Please reflect on these words “You can break up with anyone for any reason. And it is a million times better to break up and deal with the temporary sadness than to stay together and force the fake happiness”
Like, yeah. Doesn’t need to be toxic but it being toxic adds its own extra layers of difficulty in how they may react extra poorly. Putting off a break up always ends worse than doing it as soon as you feel the need to.
Especially because some people kick a relationship breaking arguments down the line for years then act surprised when it still comes up. And they look like an ass too for putting it off, even if their partner acted unreasonably, which is why they put it off. You cannot out wait a bad reaction from happening and trying to just guarantees the fallout will be 100 times worse when whatever conversation or topic you were avoiding still manages to come up.
The only reason you need to break up with somebody is “I no longer wish to be in this relationship, therefore, we should break up”.
thejeff
That’s certainly true. No one should be forced or pressured to stay in a relationship when they want to leave.
That said, there can still be bad reasons to break up. Some of which might be good reasons for the other person to break up with you, but others might be simple misunderstandings or bullshit social conventions or other nonsense.
If I’m reading Ruth’s motivations here correctly, I not convinced this is a good reason. She is of course within her rights to do so.
Discussion (128) - “Trigger”
Ana Chronistic
the butter zone for a good break up is essentially zero, you can only mitigate the fallout
…actually I’m p sure the worst way possible would be to literally eviscerate her femurs or something, so AS LONG AS YOU DON’T DO THAT AND CREATE A TIME PARADOX I’M SURE YOU’RE SET
Doctor_Who
Have we gotten a good look at Jennifer’s legs since the time skip? Could be high quality prosthetics.
Clif
A good look at Jennifer’s legs?
Are you confusing this with a different comic?
A comic found in the Butter Zone…
Needfuldoer
Dina has the teeth covered.
Stare long enough into the abyss, the abyss stares back.
Adam Black
dumbing of Vale
Tan
Wh… Why would Jennifer/Billie have viscera in her femurs?
milu
cos this is the very worst possible way to break up, remember? Therefore it’s implied that Ruth sequesters Jennifer in a dank dungeon and does non-consensual stem cell research on her and grows disturbing organs in places they’re not supposed to be before she eviscerates her— obviously.
Decidedly Orthogonal
So… now that you’ve openned this door, are you going to guide us down the hallway?
milu
[tw for disturbing imagery, definitely not my fault though, i’m just the messenger]
beg your pardon??? I’m just stating the glaringly obvious implicit assumptions already entirely pre-packaged within Ana’s comment. are you… are you suggesting i actually produced this freakish scenario using, what, my own imagination? i’m offended. I don’t indulge in such grotesque and grisly fantasies. i’m a normal, clean, non-twisted person. and definitely not a serial killer of any sort.
that being said, i mean, it’s plainly being assumed by Ana, for this to make any sense at all, that Ruth commands huge experience with advanced teratogenic tissue growth induction techniques, i mean, you don’t just successfully grow intestinal lining (not to even mention *scoff* the epithelium itself) out of bone marrow on your first try. That simply goes without saying.
In fact, it’s basically indisputable that Ruth must have experimented using axolotl tissue grafts before (they’re the obvious choice here). It’s a given that, were you to enter that underground laboratory of Ruth’s, you would find an impressive range of surgical implements and highly restricted pharmaceutical supplies, as well as, against a dimly lit wall (of course one of the deathly pale neon tubes is constantly flickering, there’s always one) a ghastly array of distinctly and disturbingly human-adjacent silhouettes in huge liquid-filled transparent containers (they have to be transparent for Ruth to be able to check out the blood-curdling results of her previous attempts while performing a new procedure, like, duh).
Finally your eyes would land on the operating table in the centre of the room, and, look, who wouldn’t wouldn’t pass out from the sheer horror of it all at that point, right? But not before noticing the dark stains on the concrete floor, cos washing away gallons and gallons of blood, day in day out? That’s got to be a bongo, like, for sure. No question.
Like i said, nothing that’s not right there in Ana’s own comment, just not in so many words, i guess.
Decidedly Orthogonal
Brilliant. 5 stars
Felgraf
I think she’s less wanting a ‘good break up’ and more ‘wanting to make sure Jennifer doesn’t kill herself, either intentionally or accidentally via alcohol poisoning’.
Doctor_Who
Suddenly Sierra bursts in.
“Carla did some sort of experiment that accidentally brought Blowjob Cat to life! He’s rampaging through the city! I don’t know how long Amazi-Girl can hold him off, we gotta go!”
King Daniel
Artisticat was brought to life, you say? That really…sucks.
Concolor44
BWAHAHAHA!
Don’t know if you were the first to that shore, but congrats.?
milu
Pygmalion with an unlikely speech impediment: Aftisticat was bfought to life? i know all about sculptufes being bfought to life. I can fellate.
epitome of incomprehensibility
This made me laugh way more than it should have.
Needfuldoer
Great, now all I can think of is B.J.C. as a Godzilla-like kaiju rampaging across the campus.
The sky cracks with a mighty hiss, and a laser beam of encouraging words destroys the staircase Mike fell off of.
Bruceski
BJC animates to defend the town after the Soggy invasion begins.
Sunday
Ruth: “I am not allowed to have nice things”
The Universe: “I agree”
The Wellerman
Ninjas? What Ninjas? Nobody told me there’d be NINJAS! ?
The Wellerman
*plays “Yokubou o Sakebe!!!” from Naruto Shippuden on hacked muzak*
The Other Mike
“Never assume a man does not have ninjas at his disposal.”
Wizard
There are always ninjas. If you’ve never seen them, well, duh, what part of “ninja” didn’t you understand?
Sirksome
I think Ruth needs to take a breath on this. This is supremely pessimistic.
Thag Simmons
Not surprisingly pessimistic though.
Needfuldoer
She’s not wrong, though.
Their good days together are fine when they can rise above the noise floor of their normal days, but their bad days are baaad.
epitome of incomprehensibility
Assuming that it will be always like that might be where Ruth’s pessimism comes in, though, too…? I don’t know. This is back in Halloween, so the binge drinking as well as the depressive episode was pretty recent. But I think that it’d be better to have a discussion with Billie/Jennifer first before dropping “I need to break up with you for your own good.” Even if Ruth is ultimately right about that, saying that all of a sudden would seem kind of shitty.
I don’t know. There’s a real-life situation where someone I know is trying to decide whether to break up with a partner, and I don’t feel that I can judge either way. I told her to do what feels best and I’d support either outcome.
Fictional characters, on the other hand… (okay, technically I’m not judging Ruth for initiating a breakup, just for how she might potentially go about it).
Opus the Poet
Ruth is breaking the 4th wall looking so hard.
Lingo
There it is
Opus the Poet
Oh look, so is Dorothy.
Stephen Bierce
At Hellacious Acres–listen mischief makers!
Admission’s FREE! YOU PAY TO GET OUT!
jeffepp
No foreshadow there. Nope, none at all.
Carla's #2 Fan
I wonder if this has to do with that Spooky hallway!
milu
very foresunny. no forecloud of any sort, not a foretree or even a forestraw hat in sight.
StClair
“So I’m going to deny myself happiness and ruin things between us before anything or anyone else can ruin it for us!”
I wish I could say this wasn’t consistent of her. 🙁
(Last time, she wound up in a dark room with a bag of cookies next to her. This time, she’ll end up in a well-lit room with Jason handcuffed next to her.)
Sirksome
Seriously though! She’s literally doing exactly what she doesn’t want to happen. Maybe it is good they broke up. Relationships don’t work if one of the partners has no confidence in it or themselves. It wasn’t for the best but they both deserve better than Ruth second guessing them every day.
Fuzzy
What she doesn’t want to happen is both of them LITERALLY DYING. Pretty sure that is not what she’s doing right now.
Sirksome
That’s a legitimate issue but Ruth’s not actually trying to address that. She’s single-handedly choosing to end the relationship because she’s scared and doesn’t trust herself or Jennifer. As far as we know she hasn’t even talked to Jennifer about her insecurities with their mental health. She just assumes it will eventually go bad and wants to cut ties. This isn’t saving Jennifer from anything. Proper, medical, professional care, and therapy will save them both, and maybe it would eventually end with them splitting up, but this isn’t the way. Or well it is a way, cause they did break up, but it was a cowardly way because we know in the future there is plenty of toxic resentment on both sides.
Needfuldoer
“As far as we know she hasn’t even talked to Jennifer about her insecurities with their mental health.”
Jennifer is adept at “solving” her problems by not addressing them. They have to nearly bite her faaaace off before she actually does anything about them.
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2019/comic/book-9-comic/02-but-the-sun-still-shines/nonpromise/
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2019/comic/book-9-comic/04-vote-for-robin/accomplished/
I read this as Ruth wanting to break it off for her own sake, but telling herself it’s best for both of them to justify that decision.
Sirksome
I’m really not sure how to take this because Jennifer is presented to be the unreliable, she was even sneaking booze their first attempt at going sober but post time skip Ruth has been the one to turn back to alcohol. It feels hypocritical now. Ruth asking Jen to quit drinking only to go back to drinking herself when she gets her meds adjusted and turns 21.
I don’t like saying it but it kind of feels like this whole breakup is so Ruth doesn’t have to feel guilty for being self destructive. Like she wants to stop working on herself and just Jennifer being around her would hold her too accountable.
thejeff
A thing Jennifer had feared throughout their time together – that Ruth would push her away so she could go die without hurting Jennifer.
thejeff
As opposed to Ruth who proactively sought out solutions to her problems – by going so non-responsive Carla panicked and she got dragged to the hospital.
Jennifer certainly has her issues, but it’s not at all clear she’s the worst of the pair.
StClair
I’m not prepared to declare/render judgment who’s the worse of the two. Just saying, as above, that she’s done this before. (And as you note, it didn’t work out well.)
Taellosse
The really profound question there is: of those 2 “hitting bottom” scenarios, which is worse?
RassilonTDavros
(alt-text) So if Ninja Rick burst out of the closet, would that qualify as a Rick Roll?
Puppeteer Nessus
I suspect the alt text references a problem experienced by Weird Al in the movie UHF.
The Wellerman
I just got a Bonus Gift from the Future! ?
Thank you Willis!!!!
Derek
Ruth should watch Midsommar, where the main boyfriend character put off breaking off with his girlfriend because he was trying to to be sensitive after her parents and sister died gruesomely in a murder-suicide.
SPOILER: putting it off didn’t end well either
Archieve
Boyfriend in midosummar wasnt sensitive so much as cowardly and manipulative but your point stands.
Cerusee
The problem wasn’t so much that he delayed breaking up with her because her family died, it’s that he’d been waffling on ending the relationship for a year prior to that (especially since she could feel him pulling away and it was adding to her ongoing stress and insecurities). If he’d broken up with her when he first realized he wanted out, she would have had time to get over the end of that relationship BEFORE the devastating crisis hit.
(Man, Midsommar is a masterpiece. It is so disturbing but also so compulsively watchable. That’s the power of really good filmmaking, I guess!)
Geneseepaws
At least Chief Inspector Barnaby got too go home to his wife at the end of the episode. That was a success. That’s Midsommer for you. Should be renamed “Barnaby, Last Man Standing.”
Raven
I think you might be confusing the British TV show Midsummer Murders with the horror movie Midsomar
milu
i mean, he also didn’t have to #SPOILER# with #SPOILER# surrounded by naked #SPOILER#.
Sure, she put her pubic #SPOILER# in his #SPOILER#, but that didn’t actually #SPOILER#, he made that decision himself.
Also, omg Midsommar is SO GOOD. Everyone should watch Midsommar. Well, everyone with a stomach for horror, it’s not really scary per se but gruesomenesses occur.
crow
I honestly wish I hadn’t watched Midsommar
milu
oh, i’m so sorry about that. Specific trigger warnings would get spoiler-y, (though as you gathered from this thread one of its themes is toxic relationships)
but yes, please be conscious that this is a horror movie, and not one of the silly ones. It truly is a disturbing story. i think it is a masterpiece (and horror is my comfort genre for some reason, that and, uh, queer romcoms???), but you’re right, saying “everyone should” watch it was irresponsible. take care of yourselves out there <3
Suet
The fun thing about “Damn you, Willis” is that it goes both ways: Damn if he does; Damn if he doesn’t.
I know Ruth is doing a “sell high” approach, but what’s Dotty sussing out?
Raja
I 100% know this feeling and it super sucks. the, I’m not allowed to be happy/supposed to be happy because I’ll ruin it sort of thing. It’s a terrible thing to go through. it still hits me every so often but not like it used to, thank goodness, but man. Ruth ☹
Axel
It looks like Dorothy knows what the surprise way is
StClair
Ruth is just about to take Billie aside and break up with her when SURPRISE!
Pocky
hahah; nah, no way.
such an unlikely outcome.
chuckroast
Damn. Just damn.
The Oracle
All this “trigger” talk is getting me a little nervous, even if I already know Ruth isn’t gonna shoot Billie.
Proxiehunter
You know Ruth isn’t going to fatally shoot Billie. A lot of things can happen.
Lingo
Wait, does Galasso have a vendetta against Billie?
BBCC
Look, it HAS been an extremely long month.
Ray Radlein
“For instance, she could relapse and drive away drunk into the path of an oncoming semi”
Sam
Valid.
In a toxic relationship especially, the ‘things feel good right now’ is usually what paralyses people from ending it even when they see the need to or just desire to (because the highs are really good when contrasted with the lows).
There is never really a perfect time to suggest breaking up but when you aren’t feeling suicidal and they aren’t feeling suicidal, is generally preferable to when you are or never.
GeekyWarrior
Mhm, I’ve been there 1000%. Not that the relationship was toxic, but I was unhappy in it and convincing myself that we were good together when things were going well. If anything **I** was the toxic one by all my passive aggression in it. A tough lesson to swallow from reflection that you were so far in the wrong.
If anyone in their early 20s reads this comment. Please reflect on these words “You can break up with anyone for any reason. And it is a million times better to break up and deal with the temporary sadness than to stay together and force the fake happiness”
Sam
Like, yeah. Doesn’t need to be toxic but it being toxic adds its own extra layers of difficulty in how they may react extra poorly. Putting off a break up always ends worse than doing it as soon as you feel the need to.
Especially because some people kick a relationship breaking arguments down the line for years then act surprised when it still comes up. And they look like an ass too for putting it off, even if their partner acted unreasonably, which is why they put it off. You cannot out wait a bad reaction from happening and trying to just guarantees the fallout will be 100 times worse when whatever conversation or topic you were avoiding still manages to come up.
Uly
The only reason you need to break up with somebody is “I no longer wish to be in this relationship, therefore, we should break up”.
thejeff
That’s certainly true. No one should be forced or pressured to stay in a relationship when they want to leave.
That said, there can still be bad reasons to break up. Some of which might be good reasons for the other person to break up with you, but others might be simple misunderstandings or bullshit social conventions or other nonsense.
If I’m reading Ruth’s motivations here correctly, I not convinced this is a good reason. She is of course within her rights to do so.