215

Stow
Posted on January 17, 2019 by David M Willis

215 thoughts on “Stow”

  1. Doctor_Who

    Lucy: Anyway, my point is that the Force will be with you, always, so live long and prosper. Forget it Billie, it’s Chinatown. Excelsior!

    Billie: …You actually can’t stop, can you?

    Lucy: What we’ve got here is failure to communicate.

    Billie: I think I’d better take you to the hospital for a CAT scan.

    Lucy: All right, Mr. DeMille, I’m ready for my close-up!

    1. Foxhack

      Go back to Between Failures, Brooksie.

      1. zathael

        Fuck, I forgot about Between Failures. My life is somehow emptier with that comic over.

        1. Chris Phoenix

          Wait, what? Between Failures is not over! Check your RSS feed or something – the last update was today!

          And yes, Brooksie is awesome.

      2. Jessie

        HOLY CRAP HOW HAVE I FORGOTTEN ABOUT BETWEEN FAILURES?!

        1. ValdVin

          Now that’s some apt avataring!

        2. Needfuldoer

          And how!

          Where’s that particular Joyce from? It’s not exactly the usual “critical system error” Joyce face.

    2. Tacos

      So what you’re saying is that Lucy should speak in movie quotes from now on, yes?

    3. newllend(henryvolt)

      So we got like a bumblebee Style speech impediment going on here?

      1. Crusading Barista

        Rwby, I assume?

        Another fan of culture, I see.

        1. King Daniel

          Your assumption would bee correct.

        2. newllend(henryvolt)

          Look it was a cool bike but it’s gone now.

        3. King Daniel

          But for a good cause.

    4. Yotomoe

      I’m just saying “It’s oveeeeeeeeeeeeeer Freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeezaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa”

  2. Keulen

    Lucy, you’re adorkable.

    1. Clif

      And picking this lying thing right up.

  3. Ana Chronistic

    “It’s from… Parry Hotter or the Something of Not That”

    1. Doctor_Who

      The Parry Hotter books went downhill after The Thingie of Whatzit.

      1. LeslieBean4Shizzle

        I never knew that the Earl was from Whatzit!

        1. Marsh Maryrose

          I think you’re confusing the Earl of Whatzit with the Duke of Thingley. Neither of whom is the Marquess of Gazinta.

        2. Spaz

          see, the problem with you is that you’re so thick. you’re thick. You’re Mr.–Ms.? Thick. Thick Thickity-Thickface from Thick Town, Thickania.

        3. Spaz

          And so’s your dad

        4. Annonymouse

          So how’s the mum?

          Oh fine, fine.
          She just delivered a bag full of wool for the little boy down the lane.

      2. Lokitsu

        I really enjoyed ‘Parry Hotter and the Doctor of Who’. I laughed every time he exclaimed, “It’s NOT a wand!”

    2. Marsh Maryrose

      “Parry Hotter” sounds like a sword-and-sorcery fanfic that Amber would write.

  4. Cattleprod

    None of the individual stories, including the one that line is from, is titled simply ‘Harry Potter’, so technically it’s true.

  5. Keulen

    The fact that Billie understood that reference isn’t helping her claim that she’s not a nerd.

    1. BenRG

      I’ve said this before but Billie’s biggest problem is that she’d dependent on this illusory self-image to maintain her self-respect.

    2. wwwhhattt

      Hasn’t Harry Potter reached Star Wars levels yet, where it’s too well known to qualify as nerdery? (Unless you get way beyond recognising quotable quotes)

      1. Mel

        I’m not sure that counts as a recognisable quote is all. Hogwarts and quiddich and wingardium leviosa are public currency but this? Billie is a nerd

      2. Deanatay

        Nope, not old enough. Star Wars is 40 years old, HP is barely 20.

        1. BBCC

          And? Well known is based on popularity, not age. :Even if it were, Billie’s 18. She’d have grown up during the Potter hype.

  6. meep

    Is it from Harry Potter? I don’t remember.

    1. MK15

      Hovertext already has your answer, but definitely a Dumbledore quote to Harry about Voldemort, just no idea which book without looking it up.

      1. Keulen

        It’s in Deathly Hallows.

        1. Deanatay

          So, not Dumbledore.

          Well, not Albus, at least.

        2. ditrysia

          It’s Albus, and it’s Deathly Hallows. The King’s Cross scene.

    2. meep

      Okay, other people’s comments are saying yes, I was thinking it wasn’t from Harry Potter but something with equally Nerdy fandom with Lucy’s delayed response

      1. meep

        Man, it’s been so long since I’ve read any of those. I keep thinking I should reread some of them but never get around to it.

    3. brumagem

      After googling, it’s paraphrased from Deathly Hallows chapter 35: “Do not pity the dead, Harry. Pity the living, and, above all, those who live without love.”

    4. insomniac

      Check the hover text.

      “narrator: it was”

  7. Catman

    Lucy is getting better at lying, she will be popular yet!

    1. Annonymouse

      and on the fast track to a life in politics.

  8. pjeseb

    I actually had to look up which book that line was from, so I think one of you are required by ancient law to revoke my official Harry Potter Fan card.

    1. Doctor_Who

      Geekcredus Deletus!

    2. DailyBrad

      JK’s done enough lately to revoke mine, but I am glad Lucy’s still able to have fun.

      1. Big D

        It was the thing about the plumbing, wasn’t it.

        1. DailyBrad

          In a figurative sense, that’d work, since my main issue with her is the transphobia.

        2. JoeCovenant

          My main issue with her is her insistence that Scotland should remain shackled to an increasingly uncaring and xenophobic ‘UK’.*
          (Despite her hypocrisy regarding the fear-mongering Brexit campaign.)

          *-Read: Westminster Parliament

        3. LookingIn

          in her defense, she’s in the majority there as I haven’t seen many if any UK people who weren’t xenophobic in some form. They are English/Irish/Welsh/Scottish until they aren’t, British until they aren’t, European until they aren’t.

          Brexit simply exposed the hypocrisy in them and they don’t like the world seeing just how fake they are…

        4. Minim

          I’ve lived in the UK all my life and I’ve met hardly anyone like that…

        5. Daibhid C

          I’m honestly not even entirely sure what it means. There certainly are people in Britain who are xenophobic; I don’t know any personally, but they’re on Every Damn News Broadcast to provide “balance” so I know they exist. But I don’t see what “[group] until they aren’t” means, unless it’s a comment on their hypocritical abandoning of their xenophobia when inconvenient (like the publisher of the Daily Mail thinking European subsidies are a good thing when he’s the one getting them). Which is a fair point (within previously mentioned caveats), but an oddly phrased one.

  9. chris73

    First two panels is making me wonder if it’s not just the whole drama and emotion of the situation that Billies into rather than the person. That being at the centre of the vortex is what Billie likes

    1. Jessie

      That does seem very Billie-like, but I like to think that there is one thing in this world she genuinely gives a fuck about.

  10. ValdVin

    Putting Peter and Gordon’s “A World without Love” on the commandeered Muzak.

    1. Stephen Bierce

      Great minds think alike!

      1. Stephen Bierce

        The first non-Beatles #1 song of the British Invasion on the US charts–and the biggest Lennon/McCartney hit not recorded by the Beatles themselves!

  11. Stephen Bierce

    I don’t care what they say
    I won’t stay in a World Without Love!

  12. Kyrik Michalowski

    Even if that quote is from something you consider “nerdy” Billie, the meaning has value and you would be wise to learn from it. But I fully expect you to double down on bad decisions and make things worse, or for Ruth to find out and you to get in trouble anyway. So let’s just see how things play out, shall we?

  13. DahliaRose

    AWWWWWWWWW, Okay but how in love with Ruth Billie is is just the absolute cutest thing ever, like <3 <3 <3

  14. Danielle

    this is a better context than harry potter

  15. C.T Phipps

    Lucy, again, you are snooping and I’m entirely on Billie’s side here. Everyone needs their own safe space and right now, Billie’s safe space is Forrest Quad. It’s a place where she can not have to deal with the horrible dramas of her life and you’re threatening that.

    1. Gizen

      The ‘horrible dramas of her life’ are entirely of Billie’s own making. Like, in this case, the ‘horrible drama’ is that Billie is constantly lying her ass off in her new dorm to make herself look like an alpha bongo instead of just, you know, a normal person.

    2. Tacos

      I would not classify a place where you gotta lie about everything because you want people to think you’re cool as a “safe space”.

    3. Doopyboop

      I’m sorry, but I feel like at this point, Lucy could mind her own business and just like…go get herself some lunch and you’ll find a way to turn it into her ‘snooping’. “Wow Lucy’s eating pizza like Billie did one time! Lucy you are snooping and you need to let Billie eat her own food and not take it.” I feel like eventually Willis is gonna have to deactivate the comments section with this weird crusade against Lucy for…existing.

      1. GenJen

        I mean whether you think she’s justified or not, going to a person’s past residence without their knowledge to ask multiple people questions about them is still kinda snooping. You can love Lucy and still understand why that’s not exactly cool, right?

        Like, Lucy got waaaaay more info about her roommate than she was looking for *Did my roommate just imply she was in death pact with her female lover?*, and all she wants in life is a well-attended movie night, but she still was snooping, even if it was for non-malicious intent.

        1. Doopyboop

          We just have very different ideas of what snooping is I think. Lucy went to a public dorm building, walked in the halls, and asked some basic questions. If she snuck into Billie’s old room or went through Billie’s things, then I would call it snooping. This is not snooping, and if even Billie has no accused Lucy of snooping, I think it’s not meant to be seen as snooping. A bit weird to go to Billie’s old residence, sure. But she didn’t cross any lines by dropping by there.

        2. Emily

          Exactly, Lucy wasn’t looking for any of that she was asking around to find out what Billie’s interests were so that maybe she could make her movie night more appealing to her. At worst this is just kinda weird and a bit sad but it’s certainly not an invasion of privacy.

        3. Clif

          I think the word you’re looking for is stalking.

        4. Sam

          Carla OVERSHARING is not a point against Lucy who never asked for that kind of information. The onus for that is on Carla for throwing the information on the mental health of others right at Lucy.

          Asking people some really basic questions is not snooping. Literally look it up in Google, snooping is looking for information about PRIVATE affairs. The genres of movies Billie might like or things that might attract her to a future movie night aren’t private. How other people reacted to her before, despite Billie’s wishes to hide it, isn’t private or something that other people are under any obligation to hide for her.

    4. Sam

      An entire dorm hall is not something you get to claim as a safe space especially when any and all drama that could exist there is of your own making and both affects and harms other people both in and out of it. Oh, and especially not when it is the damn epicentre of where the drama is happening.

      Safe spaces exist for recovery, peace when things get too much and to prepare to confront things – not to avoid the consequences of your actions.

    5. Rowen Morland

      At the very least I’m glad Billie told Lucy to “stow her sermons”. That “I basically saved your relationship” line seemed horrible given that she doesn’t know anything about Billie and Ruth’s relationship beyond what she is seeing right now.

      1. Emily

        Except she’s probably right. Finding out your girlfriend has been pretending you’re nothing but a sexual conquest in order to inflate their ego is a mega bad look and absolutely grounds for a breakup.

      2. Alanari

        Her impression is right though. Billie is not exactly a good or supportive girlfriend.

        I don’t remember the exact quote or who said it, but the gist was “dying is easy. Everybody does it at some point. Living is the difficult part.” Billie is just as destructive as ever. And Ruth needs someone who lives with her. Like, for example, get sober and see the therapist she’s supposed to see to address her own issues instead of liquid breakfast. But it seems that muttering some teenage melodramatic stuff about suicide is easier than actually doing something.

        1. thejeff

          I don’t know. She’s been pretty damn supportive. Possibly too much so – as she had a good deal of her self-worth wrapped up in supporting Ruth for a bit. To the point that she was bothered by Ruth getting other help.
          If Ruth needs a live in nurse to take care of her, that’s not a role for a new romantic partner.
          Yes, Billie needs to get sober and see that therapist, but that’s for her own sake, not for Ruth’s.

        2. Emily

          I think they mean “lives with her” in a less literal sense as in “isn’t still on a downward spiral of alcoholism and depression with no intent of changing that.” Ruth is in no position to be Billie’s emotional crutch while she avoids dealing with her problems. Also, a supportive girlfriend doesn’t throw their partner under the bus to a bunch of strangers to stroke her own ego.

        3. thejeff

          Yeah, she’s got her issues. So do they all.

        4. Alanari

          She’s codependent. Yes. But that is exactly why her support isn’t really that supportive. It’s not about Ruth and what Ruth needs. It’s about what Bille.

        5. thejeff

          Or it’s both, because she’s a messed up kid who really does care about Ruth.

        6. Alanari

          I’m actually not sure about that. She tends to shove Ruth away whenever convenient for her.
          Anyway, caring and being helpful aren’t necessarily related.

    6. Mel

      If your safe space involves hiding the existence of a girlfriend you care deeply about then it’s a pretty shitty safe space and you’re a shitty person

    7. Emily

      A space where you have to put up a facade and pretend to be someone you’re not is literally the antithesis of a safe space. A safe space is a space where you are free to be yourself without fear of judgement.

    8. ninja_jesus

      You have a warped idea of what “safe space” means. Unless you mean she’s safe to be a lying liar in Forrest Quad, then yeah I guess. But nobody can lie for long, as shown here.

    9. thejeff

      Yeah, when it only works as a safe space if you keep your girlfriend from finding out about, that’s hardly going to work long term. You’re just setting yourself up for disaster.
      Of course, Billie’s a drama hurricane, so that’s not so surprising.

  16. Professor Detective

    That makes it no less valid, Billie.

  17. C.T Phipps

    I actually didn’t get the quote and thought it was Gandalf’s quote from THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING about Gollum. Which made Billie’s assuming it was from Harry Potter even worse and more entertaining.

    🙂

    1. Clif

      Fakenerd!!!

      🙂 (Disclaimer – I thought it sounded familiar and couldn’t have told you what it was from.

    2. Jhon

      At least it wasn’t Twilight!

      1. JBento

        This is true of everything, except fucking Prometheus and possibly Avatar (aka, Dance with Wolves in SPAAAAAACE, except we compound it by having 3D and hammerhead rhinos and NOT COMBINING THE TWO).

        1. Kitsunekun

          I’m dating myself here but “Fern Gully in Space, without Robin Williams”

        2. DaveM

          I see your dated reference and raise with Avatar aka “How much can we rip off from Ursula Le Guin’s ‘The word for the world is forest’ without being sued and having to pay her something?”

  18. DailyBrad

    Lucy rocks, and I’m glad about Billie clarifying what her issue was.

    The cast are, by and large, in the 18-20 range, so I get that identity issues would be very common, but I love that they have had some pretty different journeys with regard to it.

    Walky’s had a lot of issues with his idea of masculinity, redefining his relationship to his parents and Sal, and is currently dealing with one over how he used to coast but can’t anymore.

    Sal and Joyce’s are a bit more obvious.

    Sarah’s efforts to be an island to herself have met frequent stumbling blocks, as she’s found friendship, or friendship found her.

    Dorothy’s got her sights set high, but has continually paid a price for that as she fatigues herself by overstuffing her schedule.

    Amber’s… okay, we know the story with her and the sense of self.

    Billie’s in a world where “head cheerleader” meant nothing anymore, and she was defined by others for her alcoholism. New wing meant getting “head cheerleader” back, but it’s coming at a potential cost.

    Danny’s a goofball, but he’s his own goofball now. No longer defined by his ties to Dorothy, and then Amber/Amazigirl. He’s a dork on his own terms, and therefore honestly probably further in his journey than most of them are. He’s also largely come to terms with being bisexual, so, thumbs up.

    Ethan’s flourishing now that he’s stopped denying himself.

    Joe’s relationship with sex, women, intimacy, trust in relationships, etc, has been a pretty torrid thing. Speaking of, I hope we touch base with him again soon. I’d like to know what he’s up to, but I suspect this won’t happen until we are closer to any fallout with him and Joyce.

    1. lilyliv

      I second this; I love all the journeys these kids are on, and I hope they all end up in a better place at the end. (And I hope we see Joe again too. Which is something I NEVER imagined I’d say when I first started DoA.)

      1. AntJ

        Agreed – Joe has really surprised me and now it seems he has a crush on Joyce, which is even more interesting. He’s one of the few characters who hasn’t gotten resolution yet, so I think he’s towards the front of the line.

    2. Felian

      Sarah: I used to wonder what friendship could be
      until you all shared its magic with me

  19. Yotomoe

    It’s from Garfield actually. The comics have gotten really existential lately.

    1. Marsh Maryrose

      “Pity, above all, those who live without love of lasagna.”

      1. cbwroses

        I pity anyone who lives without lasagna, let alone love of it.

        1. Clif

          May the lasagna be with you always.

  20. Roger

    it’s fine that Lucy’s a big basic dweeb and still super into harry potter and all that, nothing wrong with liking that sorta thing it was a majorly influential book for a lotta people, but I will admit having witnessed JK Rowling’s descent into being a TERF, the casual antisemitism she doesn’t even register as being antisemitism, the tokenistic grabs for liberal brownie points without actually putting in the effort, hating the poor, hating unions, the weird comments about Wicca, and of course just the weird lore about wizard shits or whatever that noone needed wanted or cared to know…it does leave me a lil nonplussed, is all.

    1. lilyliv

      I’m comforting myself by ignoring the fact that Comic Time exists and telling myself this took place before she did some of that. (Because JKR is… really, really yikes.)

    2. Derek

      wait wait, when did the TERF thing happen??

    3. Derek

      Also I’m pretty sure the “wizards just poop wherever” was a faked tweet

      1. Roger

        Not that there haven’t been faked tweets about Harry Potter before, but there’s no evidence the wizards used to relieve themselves was a faked tweet. As for the Terf thing, she has compared to trans women in women’s spaces to “foxes in a henhouse”, retweeted terf ass articles and then calling people who were concerned about whether she knew they were transphobic mysoginists, and then just generally liking transphobes on twitter In General.

        1. Miri

          Was there maybe context like this being in response to a specific thing (e.g. the trans woman who IIRC raped and murdered her ex gf, transitioned whilst in prison, petitioned to be moved to a woman’s prison for her own safety – then sexually assaulted a fellow inmate there? Coz I can see “People with a history of violent sexual assaults should be kept away from their preferred victim group for their protection, be that solitary or a special high security wing, or whatever, regardless of what genitalia they may have and whether that’s with or without the aid of surgery” maybe being paraphrased down to something that sounds off when cut to 140 characters..?

          I don’t WANT JKR to be problematic *wails*

          With the antisemetic thing, is this about goblins? Coz I’d argue that in DH when she fleshes them out a bit more as a species, with things like sales expiring at the death of the purchaser, etc, it is clear that they are an intelligent non-human species, in the same way the centaurs are… As I consider myself to be both Jewish and human that would therefore seem to be a poor allegory…

          The bit where the two Asian characters are Cho Chang (who had early promise as a character that she failed to live up to) and Nagini (who spent the entire main series being a snake)… Yeah… Even if she was intended to be based on the Naga, all along it just isn’t great, optics-wise…

          But it’s hard to see somebody who crafted books with such core messages of accepting people, being kind to others – see Kreacher – and our different strengths allowing us to collaboratively achieve great things being a bigot 🙁

        2. Roger

          Buddy, you’re being way too charitable to ol’ JK. She said, quote, “No fox has a right to live in a henhouse, even if he identifies as a hen”. That sucks a lot on its own, even discounting her following militant transphobes and liking and retweeting their shit about it.

          As for the antisemitism thing, well. 1. Goblins. She sure made the magical species made to run banks hook nosed and swarthy, didnt she. Just because the allegory also doesn’t work doesn’t mean she didn’t Use It.
          2. I am, in fact, not just talking about the Goblins, but rather that on a deleted twitter rant she went somewhat berserk on a speech made by Jeremy Corbyn that criticized the institution of Banks as antisemitic, because to her it would seem that a Bank = Jewish People. It was a bad look to say the least.

          And lastly, sure she made a series about being nice and accepting but she also had a whole magical species that were enslaved because they liked being slaves, actually, so long as they’re with good owners, and then made a whole comic subplot about one person thinking it’s morally corrupt to own people and everyone laughing at her and thinking she’s just being annoying.

        3. Emily

          I feel like the intent of that whole house elves subplot was probably supposed to be something to do with allies talking over marginalized voices but then she went and had the marginalized voices say “Well actually, we like being oppressed” so it ended up being fucking stupid bullshit instead.

        4. 3-I

          She also really, REALLY likes abusers. She wrote a whole series about why we should forgive a child abuser, because he really loved one of his students’ moms.

        5. Inahc

          :/

          it always bothered me that harry potter forgave the dursleys so easily for their abuse. so much “But Faaaaamily” there.

        6. Yumi

          Oh, hun, we’re way past “I don’t want her to be problematic” at this point.
          I am, however, very much a Harry Potter fan– so sometimes people, like family or whoever, will bring up Rowling to me in an admiration kind of way, expecting me to be in agreement with them, and…it’s awkward.

          I second the approach of the person downthread where I’m kind of like, “Isn’t it a shame JKR wrote the seven Harry Potter books AND THEN NEVER DID OR SAID ANYTHING INVOLVING THE SERIES AGAIN.” (I don’t try to will away the shitty things she’s said as a person because then it’s more just ignorance.)

        7. BBCC

          I mean, there’s plenty of information she’s given out in reviews that I do like (like talking about what the kids do as careers) but yeah, there’s plenty I ignore too.

        8. BBCC

          I am referring to canon facts here, not other things she’s said (or interpretations she’s had like whether so and so is a good person or not).

        9. Emily

          I’m still annoyed that Harry went on to be a wizard cop even though the entirety of OotP was basically foreshadowing for him taking up the cursed DADA position.

        10. BBCC

          OotP is also the book where Harry first expresses his desire to be an Auror though. I think it makes sense for Harry – he’s very good at DADA and I think he’d make a good teacher, but I think Harry’s very much a protector. I think he’d want to keep other people safe.

          Mind you, whether or not that’s how Aurors actually work practically on the day to day is a whole other issue, but I can see that being Harry’s reasoning.

        11. Derek

          I’ve heard that she likes transphobes, but I was somewhat willing to overlook that because *I* have inadvertently followed transphobes posting feminist stuff until they show their true ugly colours.
          It’s sadly rather easy to get conned into thinking TERFs are feminists unless they’re very open about it 🙁 I hate getting duped

      2. Fart Captor

        No that was from the official, *verified* Pottermore account. Not actually from Rowling herself, but technically canon unless she contradicts it

        But yeah she’s terfy af, though she’s fairly quiet about it. She follows a bunch of terfs, and occasionally likes and retweets transphobic stuff

        It’s mild compared to a lot of British celebrities (transphobia is pretty bad there), but it’s clearly not confidential. Plus all the other insensitive stuff Roger mentioned that show up I the books/movies themselves. Like Johnny Depp. Or the only Asian woman in the whole series being a literal snake. Or never actually making Dumbledore gay except as a tacked on footnote.

        I’m not inclined to judge Lucy for it though. Even if she’s aware, expunging years of fandom after the fact is difficult. If Gene Roddenberry had turned out to be a full fledged Nazi it would probably still take me a solid decade to stop talking about Star Trek, if I ever managed it, even though I would immediately stop watching the movies/shows or supporting it in any way

        1. Chris Phoenix

          I hear you. Decades ago I memorized Cosby’s “There’s a fellow by the name of Noah, built an ark, everybody knows he built an ark…” and I still have to stop myself from quoting it.

        2. ischemgeek

          Not the only one. Cho Chang and Padma and Pavarti Patil exist. They’re not exactly great well fleshed out characters but they are in the books.

        3. Charlotte

          Cho Chang is a terrible character once she actually gets more scenes in the book.
          She starts out as this bad-ass Quidditch player, later she’s only a crying mess and a terrible cliché of a “complicated girlfriend”.

        4. BBCC

          In Cho’s defence, she’d also just had her boyfriend murdered not long before. I think it’s fair she was still a mess about it. That said, she also disappears after that book (she graduated iirc) so there wasn’t any chance to get any sort of arc or do anything else with her. She’s a massive missed opportunity.

        5. Emily

          “They exist” is largely all that can be said for their contribution to the books though.

        6. Charlotte

          I think you can like Harry Potter without liking JK Rowling or any of the stuff she’s said after the fact.

          I like what’s in the books — which have problematic parts, as any item in pop culture, but overall still have a positive message and many good things about them, I would say — and for me all the other stuff Rowling has said on Twitter or Pottermore or whatever doesn’t exist.

        7. 3-I

          I’m gonna be honest: JK and the books can choke. All the good things about the Potter fandom came from the fans. We BUILT this house.

        8. Derek

          The only Asian woman? what about Cho?

    4. regina phalange

      ….if there’s “nothing wrong with liking” Harry Potter still, why bring all this up at the *slightest* reference to the series? Look, I’ll never advocate for full-blown Death of the Author because it allows people to excuse really bad things that artists do, but are we really at a place that it’s somehow weird or confusing that someone (i.e. Lucy) might still admire the books she grew up with despite what the author says or does in real life?

      1. Charlotte

        I agree also that one cannot absolve authors/ artists/ actors of terrible things they do, nor divorce them fully from their opus, but in the particular case of Harry Potter I think it’s fine. Not that it can’t be criticised, but I don’t think it’s wrong to like it.

      2. Emily

        There’s nothing wrong with liking it but people should still be aware of the issues that have arisen with the author to stave off uninformed hero worship. Pointing out the problematic aspects of a piece of media or its creator’s isn’t about shaming people for liking it it’s about informed consumption and recognizing the sometimes veiled toxic ideas present therein.

        1. Charlotte

          I agree with being informed, and with refraining from hero worship (I think this is healthier in general, even if the author is not a bigot).

          Do you think there are veiled toxic ideas in Harry Potter itself?

        2. Emily

          Eh, I haven’t read it in a very long time because Rowling’s low key transphobia has kinda taken all of the fun out of it for me.

      3. Roger

        Right so, the reason I prefaced my statement with an “Its Fine” that Lucy likes the books is because I Think That It Is Fine To Still Like The Books. I bring up my feelings about JK Rowling because this is in fact one of many references to those books that’ve happened in this webcomic, and presumably there’s gonna be more in the future, and because seeing references to that series gives me a bit of a pit in my stomach nowadays even with how important they were to a young me I felt it was pertinent to mention how the author sucks a lot, and wanted to state that without it being seen as a dig at Lucy for being basic or whatever. That’s all there is to it.

    5. Deadjolras

      Or Lucy is like me: someone who grew up with the books, holds them close to their heart and pretends that they ended in 2007 and nothing else happened after that.

      1. Felian

        I don’t want to mix up content and author.
        Even when JKR turned out to be horrible, which apparently became more evident long after the HP series was finished, that doesn’t mean the series is bad. It can be good to look at the books critically and to see where the author’s problematic views have crept into the books (they have, goblins etc) and criticize that, but i’m not a fan of binary „good OR evil“ thinking.
        No hero worship, but no witch hunt either.
        I’m capable of loving the story (or most of it) without loving the author. I’m not her fan, i’m Harry Potter’s fan, who’s gotten a life of his own due to years of fandom and such, i guess 😀

        1. JBento

          Being a fan of Harry Potter and NOT of “binary good and evil” is a huge disconnect.

        2. Yumi

          Is it?

  21. abysswatcher1993

    Sometimes the most marketable movies reveal deep truths. Except Rransformers. Everything in Michael Bay’s movvies is about explosions and Optimus giving a generic speech at the end of every movie.

  22. Bagge

    “Did you just speak nerd to me?”

    1. stoodmuffin

      She will NEVER admit she likes it

  23. Kelli217

    What Lucy said was true… from a certain point of view. The words that she said were not precisely what Dumbledore said in Chapter 35 of Deathly Hallows.

    They’re just very very close. 🙂

  24. ShinyNeen

    Yeah. Yeah, things are different over in Forest Quad. Why are things so different over in Forest Quad!?

    1. BenRG

      A bunch of weak personalities looking for a strong personality to define them.

      1. ShinyNeen

        Hmm… nah, that’s too reasonable an explanation for people as weird as them. I’m sticking to the pod people theory.

        (Also I get, I dunno, naive “eff the establishment” vibes from Forest Quad too, or however you’d describe how they worship Billie because they think she “conquered” Ruth)

        1. DaveM

          (SARCASM)

          Well obviously Willis is using this as a commentary on the positive side of white colonialism. Forest quad are a primitive culture happy with their simple innocent ways and rituals. Then Billie arrives, a person from a more advanced (not perfect, but certainly more complex) culture and all of forest quad recognises her superiority and wants to learn from her, emulate her. Naturally this puts a great strain on Billie so she does leave them at times to return to her peers where she does not have to suffer the “white womans burden”. Lucy follows her and shows that primitive she may be, but her simple philosophies mark her as a noble savage and as being worthy of (condescending) praise.

          (/SARCASM)

  25. DailyBrad

    You know, this is a common pitfall of giving any advice as a dork.

    “Admiration is the furthest thing from understanding” is an immensely useful bit of wisdom.

    It’s also from Bleach, and not even the author quoting something, it originates with him. It’s just embarrassment waiting to happen if they google it.

    1. PB

      “The circumstances of one’s birth are irrelevant. It is what you do with the gift of life, that determines who you are.”

      That is the deepest shit I have ever heard to this day, and it came from Pokémon: The First Movie. THE ENGLISH DUB.

      1. Emily

        That quote applies to quotes with less than illustrious sources funnily enough.

        1. Vox Aurumque

          I get it. One of my favorite quotes is “Mankind lives and dies by its boundless dreams.”

          It’s from a Finnish metal song. About science fiction.

        2. JBento

          Mine’s from Angel: “If nothing we do matters, then all that matters is what we do.”

    2. Rowen Morland

      It is also a pretty good point to think about.

    3. Emily

      I thought “That sounds like something that punk-ass bongo Aizen would say” and I was right.

      1. DailyBrad

        Yep, and I mean, he’s not wrong, though I do think you can admire someone and still truly know them. it’s just obviously not how it often plays out, hence “don’t meet your heroes”.

    4. MatthewTheLucky

      Unfortunately, Billie seems to get that pretty well.

  26. JediMB

    Lucy teaching the good lessons, even if she’s paraphrasing a Harry Potter character!

  27. PB

    I think this is the beginning of a beautiful mutual tolerance.

  28. DahliaRose

    Man nothing drives home how much Ruth means to Billie more then the fact that Billie would die for her and willingly admits that, like <3

    1. chris73

      But is it Ruth or isit just the whole situation Billie is infatuated with, like if it had been someone else that harrassed her or stalked her or assaulted her and wanted to die with her I’d bet Billie would feel the same

      Basically, in Billies eyes, Ruth may well be replaceable

      1. Zaxares

        Not to cast aspersions on Billie’s declaration, but also, you never really know if you WOULD die for someone until you’re finally placed in a situation where it might happen. The self-preservation instinct is incredibly, INCREDIBLY strong. A lot of people would wind up not making the sacrifice, no matter how much they love their partner, or possibly even their own child.

        1. ischemgeek

          Hell the risk doesn’t even have to be life or death for self preservation to kick in. As a kid my father used to talk big about how he would never tolerate cops/security/etc mistreating his kids.

          Then when I was 16 two airport security agents of a different gender threatened to strip search me if I couldn’t limp through a metal detector (I should note that at the time a pat down by a same gender officer was the legal alternative) unassisted. And peered at me and started making pervy jokes with each other about seeing a teenager naked. I had severely sprained my knee literally the day before and couldn’t bear weight on my leg.

          My father who had gone on at length about never letting authority figures abuse said authority? Folded immediately. Made me aggravate my injury by going through the metal detector. Even though I had no access to effective pain relief and therefore was in agony for the rest of the day.

          Short version: self preservation is a potent instinct, and those who talk biggest about what they’d do in a hypothetical situation usually fold the hardest.

        2. thejeff

          “I would die for you” has some pretty negative connotations in this comic.

        3. Clif

          Yep.

        4. Marsh Maryrose

          I would die for you, Joyce

        5. Marsh Maryrose

          If I have to die for you, Becky, I will. I will die for you

        6. Marsh Maryrose

          I should have just linked to this:

          I don’t talk to my mom anymore

          “You realize that you as a person don’t matter against the fabricated reality that she’s built her worldview out of. Her hateful ideas are way stronger than her concern for you. Heaven and Hell, Sin and Salvation, those are the foundation of everything, and everything else does not compute.”

        7. ShinyNeen

          I’m gonna be sad if (when?) Tumblr breaks enough that we lose Willis’s posts like those. I love the extra insights into DoA that he shared on there. Even if, y’know, sometimes it’s really frustrating and sad insight
          : (

          A willingness to go to extreme measures shouldn’t change anything in any kind of relationship, especially if you don’t normally offer anything else positive to it to begin with. Granted, though, I kinda got that opinion from DoA- it’s not something I have any real experience with.

        8. ischemgeek

          Has some pretty negative connotations in my own life for pretty much the same reason as the comic. But what I am pointing out that even if it wasn’t a manipulative power play, it’s also usually a lie.

      2. DahliaRose

        @Chris73 – I dunno, personally I have a hard time seeing it as just being Billie loving the situation and not really Ruth. The feelings are to real and raw for that. I mean how much Billie worried about Ruth before they even got together. And then just the little moments like the content look on her face while holding Ruth’s arm right before she noticed Lucy there. Just all those soft moments, like when they first said I love you to eachother, to me at least it all seems to real to be anything but.

        Plus if it was for the situation they were in would Billie really be so concerned about making sure Ruth takes her meds, and wondering why she isn’t eating much.

        Basically it’s the minutia that does it for me, like I said. Sure a lot of big moments can lend credence towards what you say, but there are just so many more small moments that to me at least say otherwise.

        1. thejeff

          There’s no conflict if it’s just Billie loves the drama and doesn’t care about Ruth.
          The conflict here is that Billie does love Ruth, but also loves the attention and adulation she’s getting at Forrest and she’s going to have to grow up and fix that problem.

        2. Jhon

          Would she give up booze for her?

    2. Felian

      Ugh, come on, Billie. That’s pathetic. Don’t sell your „suicide pact“ as something it is not.
      Unless someone’s in a life-threatening situation and can literally only be saved by another person dying, this whole “i’d die for you“ thing is bullshit and overdramatic.
      Why would it be any help if someone dies to prove they love you?! Then you have proof that you have been loved (or, unhealthily obsessed about), but can never experience that love any further.

    3. Badgermole

      “I’d die for her” from Billie is more an indicator of how little she values herself rather than how much she values Ruth. It’s pretty worrying that she still thinks this and is legitimizing it as a Grand Gesture of Affection imo.

      1. Felian

        Yes, well phrased!

    4. Alanari

      I’d never, ever die for my boyfriend. And I’d throw him out the second he’d say something like that to me.
      I’ve no use for a corpse. I need someone who wants to live. To improve, have fun, develop, get better, build a life with me. People who want that usually don’t want to die (or are in puberty and think that it is romantic to rot in a grave and have worms eat your brain).

      1. Felian

        Hah, i thought about using the corpse theme, good that you did!

        There are so many sacrifices in relationships that – in moderation – can be much more valuable than dying. Like mentioned a few posts above, give up booze. Or stay up with a partner in crisis all night, not getting any sleep. Telling them things they need to hear, even if they don’t like hearing them.
        Dying is a once-in-a-lifetime thing. Being supportive is much more beneficial in the long run.

        1. BBCC

          Yeah, the dying thing (in media) only works when it’s A) An unhealthy relationships (who doesn’t like a good tragedy?) and/or B) It’s in the context of the ‘throwing self in front of a bullet’ situation or something akin to it, where it’s not so much ‘wanting to die’ as ‘wanting the other person to live’.

          That second situation is vanishingly rare for most people (I would hope) and is absolutely not what Billie means here, and the first one is what Billie is trying to avoid (ostensibly) so yeah.

        2. JBento

          Honestly, I blame Shakespeare. Or, rather, the people who take Shakespeare seriously – I mean, HE certainly didn’t.

        3. BBCC

          Romeo and Juliet weren’t even meant to be romantic they were meant to be tragic because they were kids who died because their parents wouldn’t shut up for ten minutes and get their shit together.

        4. JBento

          Fiction with shitty parents: older than Willis.

        5. BBCC

          Older than dirt, really.

  29. BenRG

    I’m with Lucy on this one. If the rest of the dorm aren’t interested in the real Billie rather than the fake ‘head cheerleader’ (who was always a lie anyway and has never done anything but make her miserable), then too bad for them.

  30. Chris Phoenix

    Since Harry Potter’s been mentioned, let me put in a plug for Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality. You don’t even have to have read the originals (I haven’t). If you’re a certain kind of science-minded geek, you will find it absolutely f’n hilarious (I do – I’m currently binge-re-reading it, and LOL’ing a lot).

    1. Rowen Morland

      And you can also like both fairly easily.

    2. Felian

      Oooh thanks for reminding me. I wanna read that again, i think i stopped in the middle and forgot about it, shame on me

    3. thejeff

      Apparently I’m the wrong kind of science minded geek. It read to me like an author tract that didn’t particularly understand or care about the source material it’s supposedly critiquing. Sprinkled with a lot of sciency jargon that gives the impression of science without actually using it.

      1. LauraS

        Yeah. YMMV on that fic, which I found pretty unbearable.

        1. Emily

          Yeah, even at my deepest depths of “I am incredibly rational and logical” smugness I still found this fic just intolerable smug.

        2. Emily

          *intolerably

        3. BBCC

          Head’s up: everyone is OOC and the story oozes condescension. Mind, I’m biased, because I hated it pretty early on when Draco started talking about how rape is okay in the Wizarding world if you use Obliviate.

        4. Emily

          It’s HP fanfic by someone who does not like HP and also Is Very Smart.

        5. Ragnarok

          Yah. Read it. Went completely the Way of the Sue in about five seconds. Kept going anyway, and came away with disgust at the whole thing.

        6. thejeff

          Honestly it kind of reads to me like someone with an agenda how was like “I can get people to read my ideological tract by cloaking it as some kind of popular fanfiction.”
          And the author does very definitely have an agenda.

        7. Emily

          I never got far enough to figure out their agenda beyond showing us all how very very clever they are.

        8. thejeff

          I didn’t read far enough into to figure it out, but after running into enthusiastic fanboys enough times I poked around the interwebs to find out a bit about him.

        9. BBCC

          @ Ragnarok – Have an internet cookie. You deserve it if you could slog through that mess.

        10. the final pam

          I honestly could not get past the first chapter in the fic because my suspension of belief was horribly broken by Harry’s behavior. Like, even in an AU where a lot of things have changed, that is not the way any kind of child acts or talks.

          And the whole ‘scientific method’ bit reads of someone that’s not actually a scientist or anything trying to write someone that is and it’s just so obnoxious and overdone.

        11. Rowen Morland

          Canon Potter seemed to indicate that a lot of Muggle abuse ended up sliding under the radar as long as adult wizards weren’t being stupid about it including what Merope Gaunt did Tom Riddle senior.

        12. Inahc

          I found the smugness itself hilarious. I really enjoy that sort of mary-sue OP nonsense so long as it meets my standards of funny.

          but yeah, thejeff’s right about the author having an agenda. if you’re gonna read it, bring lots of popcorn and do *not* drink the koolaid. 😉

    4. Badgermole

      I’m with you there. I like HPMOR more than I ever liked HP.

      1. Clif

        Well, same.

  31. DarkoNeko

    For some reason I thought it was a bible quote <_<

    1. BenRG

      Me too; it does sound like something out of the book of Proverbs, doesn’t it?

      1. Felian

        it kinda does!

  32. Zee

    Lucy is a sweet pure girl and I would give her both my kidneys if she needed them

    1. Bagge

      Oh no, then she would give YOU both her kidneys because she’s so nice, and then you would give them back and then you would just run around swapping organs all day and it would be very messy and frankly not very good for anyone.

      1. JBento

        *cooks and eats all four kidneys*

        Yum. Can I have the livers next?

        1. ShinyNeen

          Nah, you gotta sell the organs. And then, if you want to be kind, you can use that black market money to pay for some of Zee and Lucy’s bills for all the surgery they underwent before you intervened.

        2. Liquid Len

          Maybe both? I men, no one would suspect their origin if you were selling kidney pie! XD

        3. Pablo360

          That’s illegal AND economically inefficient, and while one or the other would be fine, both is just irresponsible.

        4. JBento

          Or presidential! Potato, potahto!

  33. Megan

    My admiration and love for Lucy as a character becomes stronger every strip she’s in.

  34. Deanatay

    Lucy:… wait, how did you KNOW it was from Harry Potter?

    Billie: I… I understood that reference.
    And it fills me with shame.

    1. Eldritch Gentleman

      I’m getting a flashback to that scene between the 9th Doctor and that Slitheen woman
      “Only a Harry Potter would know that.”

      1. Eldritch Gentleman

        GHAA! It was supposed to be Harry Potter fan

  35. Whaatt

    Billie: Lucy, you just hit a new low.
    Lucy: I am also having Jell-O shots at my party I you come
    Billie: NOOOOO!

  36. Arianod

    …no :v

  37. CastawayJ

    This is: Development of Arrested

  38. Kitsunekun

    It’s a good quote.

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