Look, he’s already mastered the art of subtly disparaging his ex to the children and begrudgingly allowing them things the stricter parent would disapprove of. Hank is nailing divorce. He’s fine.
I love that several people read it as “yeah, counselling for exiting that DREARY MARRIAGE! HIGH FIVE!”
Leadsynth
Do we have confirmation that he’s out of the cult?
Astariel
He said he’s between churches, so he definitely left that particular cult. How he feels about fundamentalism in general is not clear.
Minivet
They went between churches a lot, usually finding them unsatisfactory in some way, so they weren’t really in the grip of one church-centric social apparatus, but they were in the grip of fundieism as a broader self-reinforcing apparatus.
well “unsatisfactory” was one way of putting it, Willis said that it’s because they kept discovering corruption in the ranks
yeah tho it’s like I said before, white conservative Christians’ world is basically built on a wall made of FEAR, and that wall lasts long after it’s built since a very young age
thejeff
It seemed like they’d been stable for quite a while though. Joyce phrased that as something like “when I was young”.
Yes but… all things considered? Not bad given his situation. He may not like it, but he loves his daughter. Maybe it won’t work out or he’ll slip or whatever and yes, that counseling will help! But I’m also genuinely relieved to see this not blow up today.
At this point it seems like he’s in the ‘would prefer his daughter to be straight, but would feel like a hypocrite for saying it’. It’s not the worst, but not the best, which seems to be the whole takeaway based on the alt-text.
I’ll take it. A year ago, he’d be literally picking her up and scooping her into the car to get her away from the crazy place.Progress is slow, but still progress.
Solka
It was just megadumped on him, so i fully get how and why he’s not the most suave and supporting in the moment.
But he seems to be the kind of dude who will go through this conversation again and again in his head.
Also, i feel Jocelyn is about to also come clean, since everyone is being honest.
morleuca
Assuming she can still go through with it, having just had her momentum stolen, and now being able to reassess her fad based on his reaction to Joyce.
EmperorGreed
Hank’s line about it being against scripture reads to me like someone who’s finding major flaws in their formal moral framework and is breaking from it, but hasn’t yet found a new one, so everything’s having to go through the standard filter of “is this ok under previous moral framework? IF NO: do i care?”
Reminding me of my parents, honestly. They’ve both been making the journey through levels of acceptance; from the evangelical “Hate the sin, not the sinner (but also associate with them as little as possible)” all the way to now calling their reps in AZ over trans rights.
It’s a long process, but this is a good sign that Hank’s walking the right path!
I mean, almost everyone in this strip needs counseling of one sort or another, that doesn’t mean they are all going to get it.
And for Hank, how would that work? He is not going to seek something like that out at this point, he probably doesn’t even know it’s a thing let alone something he could benefit from, so it would have to be people like Joyce, Joycelyne, and Becky pushing him to do so, and I don’t see that happening. At least not yet.
I’d like to give Hank the benefit of the doubt, and see what happens. Yes he could still disappoint, but he could also prove to be a decent parent. We’ll have to wait, and see.
Besides I feel like now is a good time for them to tell Hank what is going on with Joyce, and Joceylne without Carol finding out.
clif
Relax. The trans will be reluctantly acceptable to Hank. But the socialist protesting has got to go.
SillyGoose
You never know. He might find the long hair more acceptable once he knows it’s gender-conforming.
No surprise for me; while this was on the better end of things, it’s thus far fallen well within my range of expectations based on his prior conduct in the strip–most notably, his near-immediate adoption of Becky. That’s not something you do if your cult programming is capable of overriding your empathy. Hank really just needs more intel.
Same. He’s a good dad, but not perfect. He at least understands that love is the most important part of everything, and actually has a decent idea of what that actually means – even if he still has some hang ups based on his religious and political environment.
I don’t remember seeing many bad parents in QC (or many parents at all really). Marten’s parents are fine. Claire’s mom is world-class as Ray said and I don’t remember hearing much about her dad at all. I don’t think anything all that bad came up about Dora’s parents when we met them way back. Faye’s mom seems all right. Bakery Guy is trying, he just doesn’t seem to get his daughter too well. The only outlier I can recall off the top of my head is Faye’s dad — which is admittedly a pretty big one. But on the whole QC parents seem decent.
Spectre
Hannelore’s mom and Anh’s dad are probably the only other ones I can think of.
Claire’s dad doesn’t seem too great from the snippets she and Clinton have mentioned
Jason
Oh good point; I’d forgotten all about Hannermom. And Anh’s dad despite him being a big part of a recent storyline. Goldfish memory strikes again in that case.
And on the subject of Hanner’s parents her dad isn’t great, but he seems more the easily-distracted-geniss type, not the puposefully-neglectful type.
some folks, not me… would argue that Faye’s dad is awful, but that’s not a fair thing, depression is a cruel monster. but I think the % of bad parents between QC and this is probably in the high 70s ~<3
The two bad parents in QC are Hannelore’s mother and…
I’m not going to weigh in on the moral issues because I have no idea, but it’s safe to say that Faye’s father caused some really big problems for his kids.
I think it helps that he’s already admitted to suspecting one of his kids was some kind of queer. He just didn’t expect Joyce specifically to be the one coming out right now. Personally I’d guess that he’d react to Jocelynn coming out as trans with primarily confusion and some misunderstandings over what that entails, but not with condemnation or hatred.
I mean, it’s not usually condemnation or hatred that’s the problem. Those people exist, but they’re relatively rare. A lot more people have a “You’re just confused” sort of attitude, like they expect the person to grow out of the idea. I’ve *been* that person, I’m ashamed to say, and honestly Willis and this comic are a big part of what shook me out of it and made me rethink that line of thought. It comes from an intent to be helpful, but you don’t realize the actual harm it’s causing, or how actually pretty arrogant it is. I can’t see Hank being hateful, but I could see him falling into *that* pattern, at least in the short term.
“Of course. Birds are members of the class Aves. They are characterized by being warm-blooded with a four-chambered heart, feathers, and beaks. Additionally, they have intraosseous pneumaticity. Meaning their interconnected respiratory system is integrated into their bones. In regards to us, that last part is most crucial aspect of this metaphor.”
3oranges
That almost sounds more like Becky’s girlfriend…except there’s no way she would consider some of those merely avian traits.
eskimolos
ACKTCHUALLY *pushes up glasses* “warm-blooded” and “cold-blooded” are no longerconsidered accurate terms! Birds would now be considered endothermic – generating their own heat internally – rather than exothermic.
Also they have like airbags and I feel like I remember something about six lungs? Look I didn’t actually pay that much attention when we were studying birds.
LiamKav
ACTUALLY actually, mosy birds (and mammals) would also be considered homeothermic AND tachymetabolic according to a thing I have read just now after learning this brand new information. It’s interesting!
Disastroid
Whereas Joyce and Dorothy are homothermic, as they get hot for gay stuff.
eh, whatever
The ordinary two lungs, but lots of air sacs branching off the whole system. The way this works is fascinating, look it up!
Decidedly Orthogonal
I’ve always been bothered by how biology and chemistry basically swap how they mean endo- and exo- thermic.
StClair
The phoenix being one of the few birds that falls into the latter category.
“…or would that be the bees and the bees? Or the birds and the birds? Honestly I’m a little out of my depth here. Tell you what, use whatever metaphor works for ya.”
Disastroid
So, which one of you collects the pollen and which one builds the nest out of twigs?
When a mommy bee and a daddy bee love each other very very much, they go on a special flight together. Then the daddy bee dies and the mommy bee builds her own hive with any further male involvement.
What is that avatar picture? It looks like something from a textbook from when I was in lower or middle school. Which I think is cool. I am just curious what it actually is.
At the time of this response, my avatar is the album cover of the 2001 album Supergott, by the Swedish pop group Caramell. If you’ve been online long enough, I expect you’ll have heard the opener.
Clif
I’ve been online a very long time and I’ve never heard of Supergott before. My excuse is that i’m old.
494 thoughts on “Left field”
NGPZ
I said it once, and I said it again,
Hank could REALLY use like exit counseling or something ?
True Survivor
Look, he’s already mastered the art of subtly disparaging his ex to the children and begrudgingly allowing them things the stricter parent would disapprove of. Hank is nailing divorce. He’s fine.
NGPZ
I meant like exit counseling for having just come out of a CULT, but sure i guess
DJTsurugi
I got it! ~<3
Lysbeth
I love that several people read it as “yeah, counselling for exiting that DREARY MARRIAGE! HIGH FIVE!”
Leadsynth
Do we have confirmation that he’s out of the cult?
Astariel
He said he’s between churches, so he definitely left that particular cult. How he feels about fundamentalism in general is not clear.
Minivet
They went between churches a lot, usually finding them unsatisfactory in some way, so they weren’t really in the grip of one church-centric social apparatus, but they were in the grip of fundieism as a broader self-reinforcing apparatus.
NGPZ
well “unsatisfactory” was one way of putting it, Willis said that it’s because they kept discovering corruption in the ranks
yeah tho it’s like I said before, white conservative Christians’ world is basically built on a wall made of FEAR, and that wall lasts long after it’s built since a very young age
thejeff
It seemed like they’d been stable for quite a while though. Joyce phrased that as something like “when I was young”.
Nurts2That
Yes but… all things considered? Not bad given his situation. He may not like it, but he loves his daughter. Maybe it won’t work out or he’ll slip or whatever and yes, that counseling will help! But I’m also genuinely relieved to see this not blow up today.
Sharizard
At this point it seems like he’s in the ‘would prefer his daughter to be straight, but would feel like a hypocrite for saying it’. It’s not the worst, but not the best, which seems to be the whole takeaway based on the alt-text.
I’ll take it. A year ago, he’d be literally picking her up and scooping her into the car to get her away from the crazy place.Progress is slow, but still progress.
Solka
It was just megadumped on him, so i fully get how and why he’s not the most suave and supporting in the moment.
But he seems to be the kind of dude who will go through this conversation again and again in his head.
Also, i feel Jocelyn is about to also come clean, since everyone is being honest.
morleuca
Assuming she can still go through with it, having just had her momentum stolen, and now being able to reassess her fad based on his reaction to Joyce.
EmperorGreed
Hank’s line about it being against scripture reads to me like someone who’s finding major flaws in their formal moral framework and is breaking from it, but hasn’t yet found a new one, so everything’s having to go through the standard filter of “is this ok under previous moral framework? IF NO: do i care?”
Katie
Reminding me of my parents, honestly. They’ve both been making the journey through levels of acceptance; from the evangelical “Hate the sin, not the sinner (but also associate with them as little as possible)” all the way to now calling their reps in AZ over trans rights.
It’s a long process, but this is a good sign that Hank’s walking the right path!
Yet_One_More_Idiot
Alt-text: Hank is not the worst dad, but he’s also not the best dad.
Me: But also he’s at least trying to be better – that counts for something, right?
cain
It absolutely does. Willingness to change is one of the most valuable qualities a person can have.
PigmyWurm
I mean, almost everyone in this strip needs counseling of one sort or another, that doesn’t mean they are all going to get it.
And for Hank, how would that work? He is not going to seek something like that out at this point, he probably doesn’t even know it’s a thing let alone something he could benefit from, so it would have to be people like Joyce, Joycelyne, and Becky pushing him to do so, and I don’t see that happening. At least not yet.
Katie
I want to see him somehow becoming friends with Dorothy’s parents.
ZombieKyrik
Huh, this went better than expected. Hank continues to surprise us.
Alongcameaspider
There’s still one or two things left depending on how much Jocelyne decides to share
Still time for him to disappoint
ZombieKyrik
I’d like to give Hank the benefit of the doubt, and see what happens. Yes he could still disappoint, but he could also prove to be a decent parent. We’ll have to wait, and see.
Besides I feel like now is a good time for them to tell Hank what is going on with Joyce, and Joceylne without Carol finding out.
clif
Relax. The trans will be reluctantly acceptable to Hank. But the socialist protesting has got to go.
SillyGoose
You never know. He might find the long hair more acceptable once he knows it’s gender-conforming.
Freemage
No surprise for me; while this was on the better end of things, it’s thus far fallen well within my range of expectations based on his prior conduct in the strip–most notably, his near-immediate adoption of Becky. That’s not something you do if your cult programming is capable of overriding your empathy. Hank really just needs more intel.
Donovan
Yeah i’m in the ‘about what i expected’ camp.
Myra V
Same. He’s a good dad, but not perfect. He at least understands that love is the most important part of everything, and actually has a decent idea of what that actually means – even if he still has some hang ups based on his religious and political environment.
DJTsurugi
frankly, any good parent between DoA and QC is a win in my book. ~<3
Ray Radlein
Hey, Marten’s mom is pretty cool, and Claire’s mother is absolutely world class
Miri
Claire’s mum adopted Yay who didn’t even know they needed mothering!
DJTsurugi
Yay is a gremlin who got the best mom. MOM VIBES! ~<3
Jason
I don’t remember seeing many bad parents in QC (or many parents at all really). Marten’s parents are fine. Claire’s mom is world-class as Ray said and I don’t remember hearing much about her dad at all. I don’t think anything all that bad came up about Dora’s parents when we met them way back. Faye’s mom seems all right. Bakery Guy is trying, he just doesn’t seem to get his daughter too well. The only outlier I can recall off the top of my head is Faye’s dad — which is admittedly a pretty big one. But on the whole QC parents seem decent.
Spectre
Hannelore’s mom and Anh’s dad are probably the only other ones I can think of.
Claire’s dad doesn’t seem too great from the snippets she and Clinton have mentioned
Jason
Oh good point; I’d forgotten all about Hannermom. And Anh’s dad despite him being a big part of a recent storyline. Goldfish memory strikes again in that case.
And on the subject of Hanner’s parents her dad isn’t great, but he seems more the easily-distracted-geniss type, not the puposefully-neglectful type.
DJTsurugi
some folks, not me… would argue that Faye’s dad is awful, but that’s not a fair thing, depression is a cruel monster. but I think the % of bad parents between QC and this is probably in the high 70s ~<3
0x2ba22e11
The two bad parents in QC are Hannelore’s mother and…
I’m not going to weigh in on the moral issues because I have no idea, but it’s safe to say that Faye’s father caused some really big problems for his kids.
MK15
If nothing else, this is Aurelia slander and I won’t stand for it 😛
And Marten’s mom is a weapon but overall his parents aren’t bad either.
Skewbrow
Yeah. But I wasn’t very surprised. Even though still newsfeed from a fundie bubble, Hank’s educated enough. And loves his children no matter what.
Arianod
It’s obvious which side of the family Joyce gets it from.
deliverything
See also: https://www.dumbingofage.com/2016/comic/book-6/04-it-all-returns/quarters/ (panel 4 in particular)
Arianod
Exactly!
Smokeysis
I think it helps that he’s already admitted to suspecting one of his kids was some kind of queer. He just didn’t expect Joyce specifically to be the one coming out right now. Personally I’d guess that he’d react to Jocelynn coming out as trans with primarily confusion and some misunderstandings over what that entails, but not with condemnation or hatred.
Heavensrun
I mean, it’s not usually condemnation or hatred that’s the problem. Those people exist, but they’re relatively rare. A lot more people have a “You’re just confused” sort of attitude, like they expect the person to grow out of the idea. I’ve *been* that person, I’m ashamed to say, and honestly Willis and this comic are a big part of what shook me out of it and made me rethink that line of thought. It comes from an intent to be helpful, but you don’t realize the actual harm it’s causing, or how actually pretty arrogant it is. I can’t see Hank being hateful, but I could see him falling into *that* pattern, at least in the short term.
Animedingo
Frankly thats a legitimate question for her at this point
Doctor_Who
“Please ask your girlfriend to explain the birds and the bees to you.”
True Survivor
“Of course. Birds are members of the class Aves. They are characterized by being warm-blooded with a four-chambered heart, feathers, and beaks. Additionally, they have intraosseous pneumaticity. Meaning their interconnected respiratory system is integrated into their bones. In regards to us, that last part is most crucial aspect of this metaphor.”
3oranges
That almost sounds more like Becky’s girlfriend…except there’s no way she would consider some of those merely avian traits.
eskimolos
ACKTCHUALLY *pushes up glasses* “warm-blooded” and “cold-blooded” are no longerconsidered accurate terms! Birds would now be considered endothermic – generating their own heat internally – rather than exothermic.
Also they have like airbags and I feel like I remember something about six lungs? Look I didn’t actually pay that much attention when we were studying birds.
LiamKav
ACTUALLY actually, mosy birds (and mammals) would also be considered homeothermic AND tachymetabolic according to a thing I have read just now after learning this brand new information. It’s interesting!
Disastroid
Whereas Joyce and Dorothy are homothermic, as they get hot for gay stuff.
eh, whatever
The ordinary two lungs, but lots of air sacs branching off the whole system. The way this works is fascinating, look it up!
Decidedly Orthogonal
I’ve always been bothered by how biology and chemistry basically swap how they mean endo- and exo- thermic.
StClair
The phoenix being one of the few birds that falls into the latter category.
AbacusWizard
“…or would that be the bees and the bees? Or the birds and the birds? Honestly I’m a little out of my depth here. Tell you what, use whatever metaphor works for ya.”
Disastroid
So, which one of you collects the pollen and which one builds the nest out of twigs?
Slartibeast Button, BIA
When a mommy bee and a daddy bee love each other very very much, they go on a special flight together. Then the daddy bee dies and the mommy bee builds her own hive with any further male involvement.
Pappenheimer
There, you go, droning on again.
Animedingo
The birds and the other birds
Bluesnake463
Considering what we know she used to think sex was in the early days, that was a very legitimate question.
Adeptus
Hank is right to worry, and to (almost) apologise for the home schooling thing.
Claire
Hey Hank being not so bad, how refreshing to see in a DOA parent!
Enigmatic Jack
Hank: “No other left field surprises?”
Jocelyne: “You mean from Joyce specifically, or… ?”
C.T Phipps
Jocelyne: I’m trans, dad. I’m literally a woman.
Hank: Uh huh. About Bulmeria. Do you not agree that the insurgents are a bunch of Russian proxies that are trying to stop the Rapture?
Jocelyne: NO!
Nurts2That
Honestly it would be wild if the only thing he really objects to – that is a straw too far – is thinking his newest daughter is ? a COMMUNIST!
OngoingConversation
Niche reference for y’all: Har jag närt en KOMMUNIST! Vid min barm?!!
Taffy
Man, Supergott is such an underappreciated album. Everybody knows the one-hit wonder from it, of course, but there’s not a single miss on there.
C.T Phipps
Jocelyne: No dad, communism was just a red herring!
Loki
Two thumbs up for the Clue reference.
True Survivor
What is that avatar picture? It looks like something from a textbook from when I was in lower or middle school. Which I think is cool. I am just curious what it actually is.
Taffy
At the time of this response, my avatar is the album cover of the 2001 album Supergott, by the Swedish pop group Caramell. If you’ve been online long enough, I expect you’ll have heard the opener.
Clif
I’ve been online a very long time and I’ve never heard of Supergott before. My excuse is that i’m old.