Oh jeez how can Booster be in a comic dated 2020? And then I check the archive and we’re a week away from their two year anniversary. Gah, I just barely stopped thinking of Becky as being a ‘new’ addition to the main cast.
Pretty much everything every character does in this comic is “problematic” if you look at it too closely, which is inherent to a relationship-heavy dramedy that sometimes works on cartoon rules.
If Amber pushes back and then Booster won’t drop it, then Booster has crossed into “actually a creep” but so far we’re in “Would be a bit creepy IRL but normal in the DoA context” territory.
Justnobodyfqwl
Thank you so much for being so reasonable about this! I don’t understand why people seem to take everything that happens in the comic as a personal attack
zaratustra
There’s a comments section and we got to use it for SOMETHING
Florence
As a booster lover I appreciate you two so much!
Nova
Discussing something and deciding that it seems wrong or creepy or assholish isn’t “taking everything that happens in the comic as a personal attack”.
Some people enjoy discussing the characters through a real-world lens. Other people enjoying something you don’t isn’t a flaw in them or in you. It’s an opinion-based thing and neither option is wrong.
thejeff
The time stretched nature of the comic does lead us to often focus on a particular moment that might be questionable and blow it way out of proportion – often before the scene even finishes playing out.
Taffy
It reminds me of when my sibling used to pause TV shows mid-conversation and nitpick everything that was said for like 20 minutes before unpausing and hearing the rest, just to do it again about a minute later. One of these days I’ll watch Legend of Korra normally.
Sometimes I want to bring that up when people complain about the pacing of a web comic, what if you watched five seconds of a movie per day
Never imagined anyone actually DID ?
Taffy
It’s like watching an entire TV series exclusively via a series of Vines posted on a daily gimmick account.
thejeff
I mean, I’ve done occasionally. Sometimes you need to heckle the movie without missing the next bit. 🙂
Thag Simmons
There’s a recurring thing in the comment section where people forget this is a cartoon.
Taffy
And another one where they mildly forget that other people are people. Not everybody, but.
ESM
tbf, this is always going to be a problem in a “cartoon” that’s also supposed to be a relationship drama.
In the real world, Karla making it her life mission to be as annoying as possible for literally no reason would make everyone hate her, but she’s a cartoon character who gets one line a year so it’s nbd, and in the real world people don’t go make it their life’s mission to annoy people for no reason so it’s easy to see Karla’s a cartoon. It’s more awkward when the action is realistic, like how Walky is casually emotionally abusive to Lucy. If he were real, he’d be an abusive and cruel boyfriend. In the context of the comic….enh?
I wonder, actually, if that’s part of the reason every “bad” character in Dumbing of Age is basically Skeletor, though that’s also the kind of villain Willis seems to enjoy writing the most.
Psychie
I’m not sure abusive is a fair way to describe Walky’s behavior, like yes he’s an incredibly bad boyfriend, but I read that as being due largely to him being incredibly immature/oblivious/clueless (granted some of that is being consciously unwilling to face reality), like I get the feeling that if someone sat him down and made it incredibly clear/painfully obvious that what he’s doing is wrong he would stop, or at least make an effort to change. I’d say that if the problem can be solved with a conversation (or intervention, as the case may be), then it isn’t at the level of malicious intent that qualifies it as abuse, unless you are willing to label any shitty or unhealthy behavior in a relationship as abusive, which is… extreme and unfair.
Cruel? Possibly, I’m not sure he’s gone that far yet, but he’s certainly capable of taking his thoughtlessness that far. Abusive? That’s a stretch.
thejeff
“casually emotionally abusive”?
I’m not even sure what you’re referring to.
It’s certainly possible I’ve missed stuff, but really not sure what you’re thinking of.
His obliviousness before they started dating might have been read that way, especially if you thought he did realize how she felt, but since then?
I didn’t think it was that weird before because they had kinda become friends and she had roped them into a weird plot and she made a joke about it at the end of the strip, but this definitely is getting into big oof territory
I think Booster is safe given that they probably can’t get pregnant and even if they can they don’t live in a universe where doctors are so inept and completely incompetent that they blame death from complications during child birth to “a broken heart.”
Kimi
Maybe they couldn’t accept that their technology wasn’t enough to save her so they blamed it on a broken heart. Her while death scene was weird though. Her whole relationship with Anikan was weird and felt forced.
Fay
Anakin fell into lava and burned off all his limbs and still survived. Technology not being able to save Padme feels very strange in-universe. I feel like if they wanted her die in childbirth they could’ve just made it so she didn’t have medical attention during it. She was in a volcano and had just been force-choked, I feel like they could’ve just had her go into early labor and not be able to get medical attention or just refuse it.
Autogatos
Yeah I mentally retcon that scene to be that planet had not the best medical care (I mean who puts a hospital in a volcano?) and the Drs were lying to avoid liability (or just didn’t know any better) and her having JUST BEEN FORCE CHOKED WHILE PREGNANT and then immediately going into labor is why she really died.
Because as written it is ridiculous.
Rogue 7
Obi-Wan took Padme to the Polis Massa asteroids for treatment. If we want to get into fan explanations, I think that the significant travel time meant they arrived too late.
3oranges
“She lost the will to live after her ventricle burst. She wanted me to let you know that Anakin wanted his son to have his lightsaber when he us old enough.”
Least terrible reasoning I can think of is “I like a fixer-upper”
which is still gross but maybe at least they have the mindset of wanting to be able to mostly contribute to the relationship, rather than only being mostly a grifter
idk
Laura
The thought, “But I can save him/her/them!” is the appeal, sometimes, apparently.
Reminds me of in the 90s how the fans would swoon over the tortured souls who achieved music celebrity status, and their addictions and run-ins with the law just made them more appealing “bad boys” and “bad girls”.
248 thoughts on “Observe”
Ana Chronistic
???
“so you’re a pain-sexual”
Dara
…said Amazi-Girl, who is not here when we need her apparently?
Clif
Not sure we need her.
This would be dead on arrival if not for Amber’s attraction to twisted relationships.
Kyrik Michalowski
BahdumTss.png
Rose by Any Other Name
… the Most Epic of All Hate Fucks part Two?
The Wellerman
Booster Performs a Slipshine? Sure why not? ?
The Wellerman
Oh wait, I got an even better title — Amber Gives Booster Brain!!!
????
True Survivor
I don’t understand…
Yet_One_More_Idiot
This…is pure Booster Gold!
*random DC reference!*
AntJ
She didn’t catch that from this interaction? https://www.dumbingofage.com/2020/comic/book-11/01-this-bright-millennium/odd/
RassilonTDavros
Damn, good catch there.
anon
well, i suppose it could be interpreted as “i want to treat you as an apology” rather than it being a date
Ana Chronistic
“pizza on me” sounds much more apology than date, it’s very something one night say to a co-worker or vague acquaintance
thejeff
Immediately flipping to Ruth with “maybe I’ll ask out this fascinating creature instead” suggests to me that the first was also meant as a date.
Ana Chronistic
Whether or not Amber paid attention for that changes the interpretation, of course
Or it could be, “hey wanna hang out? no? ok imma date instead”
thejeff
It could be, but it seems unlikely.
Amber could certainly have missed the next bit.
anon
tbf, she was distracted
MisterJinKC
She wasn’t Amber. She was Amazi-girl.
BarerMender
Pink cheeks say Amber.
Proxiehunter
So do the tags. If Amazi-girl was fronting she would be tagged not Amber wouldn’t she?
Needfuldoer
Correct.
Rose by Any Other Name
AH! That was why I thought they meant Ruth before (and coined Rooster). Cause I remember them asking her out previously.
Decidedly Orthogonal
That was *two* years ago?!? Fookin’ covid I tells ya bai.
Keulen
I didn’t catch that at the time either.
Cattleprod
Oh jeez how can Booster be in a comic dated 2020? And then I check the archive and we’re a week away from their two year anniversary. Gah, I just barely stopped thinking of Becky as being a ‘new’ addition to the main cast.
Kelli217
Smooth, Booster. Smooth.
Durandal_1707
So, we can all agree that the nonconsensual photography is creepy now, right?
BarerMender
Yep. But Booster has always been kind of creepy. Maybe Amber will find she likes it creepy. Wouldn’t be unheard of for someone who grew up with abuse.
Wizard
’cause what this situation desperately needs is yet another level of creepy.
ESM
Pretty much everything every character does in this comic is “problematic” if you look at it too closely, which is inherent to a relationship-heavy dramedy that sometimes works on cartoon rules.
If Amber pushes back and then Booster won’t drop it, then Booster has crossed into “actually a creep” but so far we’re in “Would be a bit creepy IRL but normal in the DoA context” territory.
Justnobodyfqwl
Thank you so much for being so reasonable about this! I don’t understand why people seem to take everything that happens in the comic as a personal attack
zaratustra
There’s a comments section and we got to use it for SOMETHING
Florence
As a booster lover I appreciate you two so much!
Nova
Discussing something and deciding that it seems wrong or creepy or assholish isn’t “taking everything that happens in the comic as a personal attack”.
Some people enjoy discussing the characters through a real-world lens. Other people enjoying something you don’t isn’t a flaw in them or in you. It’s an opinion-based thing and neither option is wrong.
thejeff
The time stretched nature of the comic does lead us to often focus on a particular moment that might be questionable and blow it way out of proportion – often before the scene even finishes playing out.
Taffy
It reminds me of when my sibling used to pause TV shows mid-conversation and nitpick everything that was said for like 20 minutes before unpausing and hearing the rest, just to do it again about a minute later. One of these days I’ll watch Legend of Korra normally.
Ana Chronistic
Sometimes I want to bring that up when people complain about the pacing of a web comic, what if you watched five seconds of a movie per day
Never imagined anyone actually DID ?
Taffy
It’s like watching an entire TV series exclusively via a series of Vines posted on a daily gimmick account.
thejeff
I mean, I’ve done occasionally. Sometimes you need to heckle the movie without missing the next bit. 🙂
Thag Simmons
There’s a recurring thing in the comment section where people forget this is a cartoon.
Taffy
And another one where they mildly forget that other people are people. Not everybody, but.
ESM
tbf, this is always going to be a problem in a “cartoon” that’s also supposed to be a relationship drama.
In the real world, Karla making it her life mission to be as annoying as possible for literally no reason would make everyone hate her, but she’s a cartoon character who gets one line a year so it’s nbd, and in the real world people don’t go make it their life’s mission to annoy people for no reason so it’s easy to see Karla’s a cartoon. It’s more awkward when the action is realistic, like how Walky is casually emotionally abusive to Lucy. If he were real, he’d be an abusive and cruel boyfriend. In the context of the comic….enh?
I wonder, actually, if that’s part of the reason every “bad” character in Dumbing of Age is basically Skeletor, though that’s also the kind of villain Willis seems to enjoy writing the most.
Psychie
I’m not sure abusive is a fair way to describe Walky’s behavior, like yes he’s an incredibly bad boyfriend, but I read that as being due largely to him being incredibly immature/oblivious/clueless (granted some of that is being consciously unwilling to face reality), like I get the feeling that if someone sat him down and made it incredibly clear/painfully obvious that what he’s doing is wrong he would stop, or at least make an effort to change. I’d say that if the problem can be solved with a conversation (or intervention, as the case may be), then it isn’t at the level of malicious intent that qualifies it as abuse, unless you are willing to label any shitty or unhealthy behavior in a relationship as abusive, which is… extreme and unfair.
Cruel? Possibly, I’m not sure he’s gone that far yet, but he’s certainly capable of taking his thoughtlessness that far. Abusive? That’s a stretch.
thejeff
“casually emotionally abusive”?
I’m not even sure what you’re referring to.
It’s certainly possible I’ve missed stuff, but really not sure what you’re thinking of.
His obliviousness before they started dating might have been read that way, especially if you thought he did realize how she felt, but since then?
The Wellerman
This right here. For further reading, see The Rule of Funny article on TV Tropes.
tunasammich
I didn’t think it was that weird before because they had kinda become friends and she had roped them into a weird plot and she made a joke about it at the end of the strip, but this definitely is getting into big oof territory
Yeet
I feel like I should’ve seen this coming and I still didn’t. What’s the social equivalent of a pratfall?
Queen Anthai
A Danny.
Clif
I want to say you’re wrong, but I can’t.
Stanistani
Faux pas?
Kyrik Michalowski
Wait, is this Booster admitting they find Amber hot? or Ethan?
Which begs the next question: is Booster going to seduce one of them, or just make fdiends?
Masumi
Yes.
AntJ
I think Booster is just attracted to people with a lot of trauma to unravel. Here’s hoping they don’t end up like Padme Amidala
Jamie
… WOW.
ANeM
I think Booster is safe given that they probably can’t get pregnant and even if they can they don’t live in a universe where doctors are so inept and completely incompetent that they blame death from complications during child birth to “a broken heart.”
Kimi
Maybe they couldn’t accept that their technology wasn’t enough to save her so they blamed it on a broken heart. Her while death scene was weird though. Her whole relationship with Anikan was weird and felt forced.
Fay
Anakin fell into lava and burned off all his limbs and still survived. Technology not being able to save Padme feels very strange in-universe. I feel like if they wanted her die in childbirth they could’ve just made it so she didn’t have medical attention during it. She was in a volcano and had just been force-choked, I feel like they could’ve just had her go into early labor and not be able to get medical attention or just refuse it.
Autogatos
Yeah I mentally retcon that scene to be that planet had not the best medical care (I mean who puts a hospital in a volcano?) and the Drs were lying to avoid liability (or just didn’t know any better) and her having JUST BEEN FORCE CHOKED WHILE PREGNANT and then immediately going into labor is why she really died.
Because as written it is ridiculous.
Rogue 7
Obi-Wan took Padme to the Polis Massa asteroids for treatment. If we want to get into fan explanations, I think that the significant travel time meant they arrived too late.
3oranges
“She lost the will to live after her ventricle burst. She wanted me to let you know that Anakin wanted his son to have his lightsaber when he us old enough.”
Nova
The idea of an aspiring therapist who finds psychological damage hot is down right gross to me. Here’s hoping they grow out of that.
Clif
I feel certain this will be a learning experience all around.
Masumi
You have a disturbing amount of a point there.
Ana Chronistic
Least terrible reasoning I can think of is “I like a fixer-upper”
which is still gross but maybe at least they have the mindset of wanting to be able to mostly contribute to the relationship, rather than only being mostly a grifter
idk
Laura
The thought, “But I can save him/her/them!” is the appeal, sometimes, apparently.
Reminds me of in the 90s how the fans would swoon over the tortured souls who achieved music celebrity status, and their addictions and run-ins with the law just made them more appealing “bad boys” and “bad girls”.
Proxiehunter
You think Booster’s going to stop at one of them?
Clif
Of course not. But don’t rush things. Savor them as they happen.
Romanticide
They might really, really, really try to befriend but if mutual atraction happens I don’t think they would resist very much
The Wellerman
???
Looks like you got more than what you bargained for, Amber! ?
*plays “Closer” by Nine Inch Nails on hacked muzak*
Stephen Bierce
*attempts to play Buster Poindexter’s “Hot Hot Hot” on the Muzak…*
Opus the Poet
I’ll help:
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=bKP18BpvX_o
Sirksome
The thirst.
BBCC