Did you know that psychology classes are actually required to get a Masters in teaching? I wouldn’t be surprised if she was taking an intro psych class for her MRS.
You know that saying “never a hero to their valet”? Well, a valet was responsible for (among other things) dressing their master. Joyce’s idealizations of Sal were doomed the minute she decided to dress Sal.
Oh, also since people were expressing interest: I found the Amethyst Princess of Gemworld shorts on YouTube! Very different continuity from the comics, but they were fun between ad breaks during GLTAS and Young Justice.
(Which is ultimately, I think, why nothing came of it. Cartoon Network was in that stage where the show they marathoned all day was Johnny Test, and the DC Nation block had a lot more episodic narrative stuff – and immediately before it in the Saturday Morning Deathslot was reboot Thundercats and then Clone Wars just pre-Disney buyout. CN very clearly didn’t want older viewers. CN very clearly didn’t want female viewers. CN made that abundantly clear to all of us, repeatedly.)
(It wasn’t even Gemworld being too close to Steven Universe, the block predated the show – I think Rebecca Sugar may still have been on Adventure Time when everything ended, and I’m guessing given she is a very smart person that she didn’t tell CN at first that the show would go into the epic interstellar adventure places. I still hang onto this bitterness, can you tell?)
Too bad. I think Amethyst and Steven Universe could have co-existed. Amethyst is kinda Game of thrones-esque political struggles with a Steven Universe aesthetic.
Regalli
Oh, definitely! And there was clearly a market for this cute magical girl-esque series st in a video game (the shorts’ setting), or the aesthetic could have been tweaked to be more classical fantasy if they wanted it.
Could be the shortrunners didn’t want a full series, but it always makes me sad that only one set of shorts from that block got the pickup. I would’ve enjoyed Super BFFs being a full scale thing too, but at least that got a couple statues eventually.
BBCC
Yeah, there were a lot of ways to play what’s basically a kiddified Game of Thrones crossed with SU (even if Amethyst came first).
I have never heard of this. Looks interesting though.
I was a little confused by that last second “here’s is your home. Ok, keep the jewel, you can go to your real home” thing.
I would have liked to have seen more. Maybe she’d actually use that shield she had.
Oh sweet!
As someone who actually remembers (and liked) the original comic – and doesn’t freak about the cartoon not being exactly the same – this is a great find, thanks.
Pity the show didn’t get picked up. Think your guess/summary of why is pretty ‘on’.
Regalli
I really should hunt down the 80s comic sometime. (In that same nebulous ‘sometime’ I actually can have a regular comics budget, at least.)
I remember the DC Nation block fiasco so well, and I think some of that exact logic was actually given by CN execs about ending YJ and GLTAS. The toy sales killed them both, sure, and they both got screwed in the toy line department well before the actual cancellation hammer dropped (maybe your toy sales are low because, awesome as Rot Lop Fan is, he didn’t have a huge role in the movie and isn’t known outside comics fandom? Maybe it’s a bad idea to save Robin for WAVE FOUR of your toy line over minor villains?) but given the way they were screwed around specifically beyond the cancellation, even before YJ was on the block and the toys were canceled? CN didn’t want those shows on their network.
At least we’re getting closure on Young Justice. Probably not GLTAS, but I can dream and fanfic exists.
BBCC
I’ve heard good things about the comic!
Mr D phone posting
I heard Young Justice got cancelled for having too many female fans (because female fans don’t buy toys or something?)
Regalli
Yep. That was their justification. (See also Symbionic Titan, which didn’t have a toy line because that would require making a girl action figure and no one would buy it.)
In reality no one bought the toys because the toys were not very good (next to no articulation, and if I’m recalling right the art style meant they had trouble standing up properly) and they made such brilliant choices as releasing Icicle Boy in the first wave over a solo Robin. Robin got a stealth black repaint before he was released as a solo character. By the time a classic, solo Robin was released, Mattel had stopped promoting the toy line.
Better way to get kids buying your toys: release your leads, including the classic kid appeal character who’s one of your four principles, FIRST.
…maybe I’m just chronically lacking in self-confidence, but. I don’t get Sal’s reaction, why is someone thinking she’s beyond self-consciousness a bad thing?
Also last panel Carla is adorbs as fuck, she’s so excited
^This. Also Sal seems to be self conscious about a lot of things but does her best to hide it. And the fact that Joyce does not realize any of that, but seems to think she understands Sal has probably gotten on her last nerve. She might not actually be that mad at Joyce, this might just be the straw that broke the camel’s back, as they say.
Also, when people get to know Sal, she feels they abandon her. Right now, Joyce is a…friend. And knowing Joyce doesn’t actually know her just gives more room for that fear to grow.
BBCC
Yeeeeep. Which is one reason she was so clingy with Marcie, because Marcie knew all that stuff about Sal and knows Sal best out of anyone and she was still her friend.
Thinking (and expressing) that Sal is beyond self-consciousness is dehumanizing, in the sense that it reduces Sal to an idealized set of attributes, rather than acknowledging that she’s a human being with all of the complexity and nuance that that involves.
You mean kind of like how thinking and expressing that Ana Chronistic is frequently the first poster is dehumanizing in the sense that it reduces Ana to a defining attribute, rather than acknowledging that she’s (probably) a human being with all of the complexity, nuance and shipping that involves?
Careful Joyce, you are dangerously close to actually learning a lesson for a change. I’d hate for Sal to shatter your- wait, no continue with what you are doing. I’ll get popcorn and a comfy seat.
Anyone else think that 4th panel looks a lot like Walky? I mean, I know they’re basically naturally made genderbent clones but up close like that it really becomes obvious…
Yes, I also thought it looked a lot like Walky. It was the first thing I saw when the site came up and I actually wondered for a second how the story had switched back to Walky so soon.
It shows how frustrated Sal gets with the people around her that they don’t actually see /her/ they just see the wall she has put up. It makes me hope that Danny continues to be a good friend for her and listen to her. New Danny seems to be doing a pretty decent job of that, so fingers crossed that goes well?
Ahhhh, this storyline is everything I want. I have SO MANY THOUGHTS on this strip.
1) Dude, for the price of a motorcycle, it should come with a lot more than a jacket. And I love Carla can spot her family tech off the bat. She’s so proud of her family! <3
2) …Yeah, I dunno if I'd personally feel self conscious wearing merch of a sort of friend's family, but I'd definitely think it was weird and keep that merch away from them.
3) I like how Sal keeps being surprised at things like her reputation not including the ability to be self-conscious or easily including street fighting.
4) I mean, feeling self-conscious about potential headaches and/or trouble and not caring in general what others think aren't necessarily mutually exclusive, Joyce. See also: Why Sal still chooses to wear her school uniform instead of something she actually likes around her parents. To some extent, it's true she doesn't care – if she truly cared about being perceived as an aloof, above it all badass who didn't care about anything or how she was seen, she wouldn't admit to things like liking apples to apples or feeling self conscious at all.
5) That said, in some regards, Sal cares about things far more than she admits (and, sometimes, more than she wants to or thinks she should. Sal's passionate that way).
6) Eek! Don't go assuming you know Sal. Then again, that's kinda the root of a lot of her problems, isn't it? People trying to mould her into what they 'know' she is (read: what they want her to be). We know she's had issues with people trying to turn her into a project and we know she's always abandoned when people realize she's not what they want. That's part of why she can get so clingy with Marcie – Marcie's the one who stayed (up until recently that is, but that had nothing to do with trying to mould Sal into something else and more to do with 'breaking promises not to fight and getting her fired' so that one's on Sal and AG).
7) And yup – put her on the defensive and Sal will get snarly and cranky. I suspect this is also true for hurt feelings if she can't get alone quickly enough, but that's a personal observation and partly head canon so I'll leave that alone for now.
8) Carla, your sort of friend just said she didn't want to. Maybe don't? That said, please continue being cute and hoppy. It's adorable and I love you.
9) Sal gives a lot of nicknames, but this is the second time she's called Joyce Pollyanna. That might stick around for a bit, sorry, Joyce, you're cute as hell.
10) Man, Carla really wants Sal to wear a jacket with her last name on it. This did not deter Patreon squeeing about Sal/Carla at all, in case you were wondering. 😛 Look, it's not our fault Sal's so frickin' great and so many people are frickin' cute to ship her with.
195 thoughts on “Sleeves”
Ana Chronistic
“Ah care about not carin’ that ya care that ah care about not carin’ that ah care that ya care”
Clif
Sorry, I lost track somewhere there.
Roborat
Ah don’t care.
AnvilPro
Joyce is a secret psychology major.
Pablo360
If so, she’s got a lot of studying to do.
JessWitt
She can do a field study right in her wing.
Michael Steamweed
She’s gonna totally ACE that Abnormal Psychology class practicum!
No Name
Did you know that psychology classes are actually required to get a Masters in teaching? I wouldn’t be surprised if she was taking an intro psych class for her MRS.
Sy
No Name, I like you.
JessWitt
Maybe next semester. So, it’ll be a while in real time.
K^2
So secret, even she doesn’t know about it!
Tobias
The problem with having a degree in Secret Psychology is you’re not allowed to put it on your resume.
Roborat
Not to mention finding the classroom.
ShinyNeen
Sal looks so resigned in panel 2. Not really looking at either Joyce or Carla, just kind of going “yep, guess I gotta do this now.”
Artschoolrage
Never befriend your heroes, Joyce.
No Name
You know that saying “never a hero to their valet”? Well, a valet was responsible for (among other things) dressing their master. Joyce’s idealizations of Sal were doomed the minute she decided to dress Sal.
Jago
Isn’t it never *meet* your heroes?
Regalli
Vulnerability! Sal (apparently) got a specific motor for her bike to spiff it up more!
CARLA!
Regalli
Oh, also since people were expressing interest: I found the Amethyst Princess of Gemworld shorts on YouTube! Very different continuity from the comics, but they were fun between ad breaks during GLTAS and Young Justice.
(Which is ultimately, I think, why nothing came of it. Cartoon Network was in that stage where the show they marathoned all day was Johnny Test, and the DC Nation block had a lot more episodic narrative stuff – and immediately before it in the Saturday Morning Deathslot was reboot Thundercats and then Clone Wars just pre-Disney buyout. CN very clearly didn’t want older viewers. CN very clearly didn’t want female viewers. CN made that abundantly clear to all of us, repeatedly.)
(It wasn’t even Gemworld being too close to Steven Universe, the block predated the show – I think Rebecca Sugar may still have been on Adventure Time when everything ended, and I’m guessing given she is a very smart person that she didn’t tell CN at first that the show would go into the epic interstellar adventure places. I still hang onto this bitterness, can you tell?)
BBCC
Too bad. I think Amethyst and Steven Universe could have co-existed. Amethyst is kinda Game of thrones-esque political struggles with a Steven Universe aesthetic.
Regalli
Oh, definitely! And there was clearly a market for this cute magical girl-esque series st in a video game (the shorts’ setting), or the aesthetic could have been tweaked to be more classical fantasy if they wanted it.
Could be the shortrunners didn’t want a full series, but it always makes me sad that only one set of shorts from that block got the pickup. I would’ve enjoyed Super BFFs being a full scale thing too, but at least that got a couple statues eventually.
BBCC
Yeah, there were a lot of ways to play what’s basically a kiddified Game of Thrones crossed with SU (even if Amethyst came first).
cbwroses
I have never heard of this. Looks interesting though.
I was a little confused by that last second “here’s is your home. Ok, keep the jewel, you can go to your real home” thing.
I would have liked to have seen more. Maybe she’d actually use that shield she had.
StClair
Oh sweet!
As someone who actually remembers (and liked) the original comic – and doesn’t freak about the cartoon not being exactly the same – this is a great find, thanks.
Pity the show didn’t get picked up. Think your guess/summary of why is pretty ‘on’.
Regalli
I really should hunt down the 80s comic sometime. (In that same nebulous ‘sometime’ I actually can have a regular comics budget, at least.)
I remember the DC Nation block fiasco so well, and I think some of that exact logic was actually given by CN execs about ending YJ and GLTAS. The toy sales killed them both, sure, and they both got screwed in the toy line department well before the actual cancellation hammer dropped (maybe your toy sales are low because, awesome as Rot Lop Fan is, he didn’t have a huge role in the movie and isn’t known outside comics fandom? Maybe it’s a bad idea to save Robin for WAVE FOUR of your toy line over minor villains?) but given the way they were screwed around specifically beyond the cancellation, even before YJ was on the block and the toys were canceled? CN didn’t want those shows on their network.
At least we’re getting closure on Young Justice. Probably not GLTAS, but I can dream and fanfic exists.
BBCC
I’ve heard good things about the comic!
Mr D phone posting
I heard Young Justice got cancelled for having too many female fans (because female fans don’t buy toys or something?)
Regalli
Yep. That was their justification. (See also Symbionic Titan, which didn’t have a toy line because that would require making a girl action figure and no one would buy it.)
In reality no one bought the toys because the toys were not very good (next to no articulation, and if I’m recalling right the art style meant they had trouble standing up properly) and they made such brilliant choices as releasing Icicle Boy in the first wave over a solo Robin. Robin got a stealth black repaint before he was released as a solo character. By the time a classic, solo Robin was released, Mattel had stopped promoting the toy line.
Better way to get kids buying your toys: release your leads, including the classic kid appeal character who’s one of your four principles, FIRST.
Delicious Taffy
There are 6 or 7 issues of Amethyst at my regular comics place. If I can get the extra cash, I’ll have to check them out.
Poofdepoof
I don’t think this strip implies that she got a specific motor, since she said “it came free with the cycle.”
CK
Ah yes, “put it on!”, the true asexual catchphrase.
Jago
Except if you’re referring to a strap-on, of course.
King Daniel
Sal doing a Gandalf here.
King Daniel
By which I mean, unexpected Black Speech.
Pablo360
What are you talking about? Sal always had the blackest speech in the comic!
…
*exits, pursued by a bear*
Clif
hungry bear
Doctor_Who
The way Joyce is holding the jacket in panel 1 makes it looks like a heartfelt tribute to Robbie Rotten.
Alan
This is so fantastic.
Shiro
…maybe I’m just chronically lacking in self-confidence, but. I don’t get Sal’s reaction, why is someone thinking she’s beyond self-consciousness a bad thing?
Also last panel Carla is adorbs as fuck, she’s so excited
Kernanator
Sal isn’t particularly comfortable with people idolizing her, especially if it’s a false image of her.
Kyrik Michalowski
^This. Also Sal seems to be self conscious about a lot of things but does her best to hide it. And the fact that Joyce does not realize any of that, but seems to think she understands Sal has probably gotten on her last nerve. She might not actually be that mad at Joyce, this might just be the straw that broke the camel’s back, as they say.
Shadlyn
Also, when people get to know Sal, she feels they abandon her. Right now, Joyce is a…friend. And knowing Joyce doesn’t actually know her just gives more room for that fear to grow.
BBCC
Yeeeeep. Which is one reason she was so clingy with Marcie, because Marcie knew all that stuff about Sal and knows Sal best out of anyone and she was still her friend.
Annika
Thinking (and expressing) that Sal is beyond self-consciousness is dehumanizing, in the sense that it reduces Sal to an idealized set of attributes, rather than acknowledging that she’s a human being with all of the complexity and nuance that that involves.
Clif
You mean kind of like how thinking and expressing that Ana Chronistic is frequently the first poster is dehumanizing in the sense that it reduces Ana to a defining attribute, rather than acknowledging that she’s (probably) a human being with all of the complexity, nuance and shipping that involves?
Liliet
oh my god
Secret foreigner
She could probably have gotten away with saying that she didn’t want to give Carla the satisfaction, which Joyce would have instantly understood.
Kyrik Michalowski
Careful Joyce, you are dangerously close to actually learning a lesson for a change. I’d hate for Sal to shatter your- wait, no continue with what you are doing. I’ll get popcorn and a comfy seat.
Daisy
Avatar matches the content!!
Passchendaele
Joyce stop reading Sarah’s textbooks
butts
lotta eye action going on in this one, eh
butts
also i think you’ve got something in your throat, sal
looks like… undeath
King Daniel
Turn undead!
Deanatay
Sal swallowed a Death Eater this morning.
Roborat
Well, she did just wake up, so hasn’t brushed her teeth yet.
Screwball
Anyone else think that 4th panel looks a lot like Walky? I mean, I know they’re basically naturally made genderbent clones but up close like that it really becomes obvious…
Humans are trippy…
cbwroses
Yes, I also thought it looked a lot like Walky. It was the first thing I saw when the site came up and I actually wondered for a second how the story had switched back to Walky so soon.
toby
Looks like Sal’s experiencing some fuckor.
(really hopin’ i did that html right)
Catman
Maybe Joyce should get the mug
Liliet
I think that’s contrafuckor in this case…
Stephen Bierce
*The hacked Muzak is temporarily out of service this weekend due to Tropical Storm Florence. We apologize for the inconvenience. *
Lilyliv
Stay safe, hacked Muzak!
Ryek Hvek
“Meanwhile, enjoy some nice ‘hold’ music“
Deanatay
My favorite
Ryek Hvek
recently tossed at me as a suggested selection on account of I played a bit of Santana’s album Caravanserai
adjudicus
Huh. Joyce’s comments are a nice contrast to Malaya’s who saw Sal’s attitude as a front while Joyce takes it at face value.
Kyrik Michalowski
It shows how frustrated Sal gets with the people around her that they don’t actually see /her/ they just see the wall she has put up. It makes me hope that Danny continues to be a good friend for her and listen to her. New Danny seems to be doing a pretty decent job of that, so fingers crossed that goes well?
Lilyliv
Panel three Joyce is the cutest
BBCC
Ahhhh, this storyline is everything I want. I have SO MANY THOUGHTS on this strip.
1) Dude, for the price of a motorcycle, it should come with a lot more than a jacket. And I love Carla can spot her family tech off the bat. She’s so proud of her family! <3
2) …Yeah, I dunno if I'd personally feel self conscious wearing merch of a sort of friend's family, but I'd definitely think it was weird and keep that merch away from them.
3) I like how Sal keeps being surprised at things like her reputation not including the ability to be self-conscious or easily including street fighting.
4) I mean, feeling self-conscious about potential headaches and/or trouble and not caring in general what others think aren't necessarily mutually exclusive, Joyce. See also: Why Sal still chooses to wear her school uniform instead of something she actually likes around her parents. To some extent, it's true she doesn't care – if she truly cared about being perceived as an aloof, above it all badass who didn't care about anything or how she was seen, she wouldn't admit to things like liking apples to apples or feeling self conscious at all.
5) That said, in some regards, Sal cares about things far more than she admits (and, sometimes, more than she wants to or thinks she should. Sal's passionate that way).
6) Eek! Don't go assuming you know Sal. Then again, that's kinda the root of a lot of her problems, isn't it? People trying to mould her into what they 'know' she is (read: what they want her to be). We know she's had issues with people trying to turn her into a project and we know she's always abandoned when people realize she's not what they want. That's part of why she can get so clingy with Marcie – Marcie's the one who stayed (up until recently that is, but that had nothing to do with trying to mould Sal into something else and more to do with 'breaking promises not to fight and getting her fired' so that one's on Sal and AG).
7) And yup – put her on the defensive and Sal will get snarly and cranky. I suspect this is also true for hurt feelings if she can't get alone quickly enough, but that's a personal observation and partly head canon so I'll leave that alone for now.
8) Carla, your sort of friend just said she didn't want to. Maybe don't? That said, please continue being cute and hoppy. It's adorable and I love you.
9) Sal gives a lot of nicknames, but this is the second time she's called Joyce Pollyanna. That might stick around for a bit, sorry, Joyce, you're cute as hell.
10) Man, Carla really wants Sal to wear a jacket with her last name on it. This did not deter Patreon squeeing about Sal/Carla at all, in case you were wondering. 😛 Look, it's not our fault Sal's so frickin' great and so many people are frickin' cute to ship her with.
cbwroses