Aw, buddy
Posted on November 25, 2025 by David M Willis


Tags: booster, walky

477 thoughts on “Aw, buddy”

  1. NGPZ

    “the name’s not buddy, it’s WALKY, now shut up and just let me be depressed”

    :(

    1. Pocky

      monkey paw curl on people askin for other characters, they get Booster lol

      1. GreyICE

        That’s not some monkey paw that’s a whole ass gorilla arm

        1. Kazuma Shouri

          I dunno, Booster’s kinda lanky. maybe it should be an orangutan arm?

      2. Richard Barrell

        I like Booster.

        1. Samniel

          I also like Booster

    2. someone

      Right now, his name is not Walky. His name now is Sulky.

      He can be Walky back if he gets up and go to class. Or to a fast food.

      1. RoyanRannedos

        Walky must take a walky to remain Walky. Checks out.

    3. Needfuldoer

      “I’m not your buddy, pal!”

      1. Steamweed

        “I’m not your pal, buddy!”

        1. DJTsurugi

          I’m not your friend guy. (yes, I know the sequence was broken) ~<3

        2. Steamweed

          Totally okay. We accept your input anyway. 😀

  2. Doctor_Who

    Booster: (turns page of Psych book)

    Booster: “Medical ethics? Duty of Care? “First do no harm?!” The fuck is this nonsense?”

    1. nadamás

      Hey they don’t got their doctorate yet, they gotta enjoy the gossiping while they still can.

      1. NGPZ

        as well as the not needing to pay for malpractice insurance :p

    2. Effie

      Why does it hurt more to be called a worse shrink than a friend?

    3. sickolesbian

      lol psych students can sometimes just be awful, booster is kinda tame tbh they aren’t horribly ableist

      1. sickolesbian

        id like to clarify i like booster

    4. zee

      Roasting your college roommate is in fact, not in violation of the apa code of ethics

  3. ZombieKyrik

    Is Walky going to kill Booster in order to get a new roommate? Will this roommate be better or worse than Mike, and Booster? Will I ever get to the point? These questions, and more on today’s strip of DoA!

    1. Thag Simmons

      Current trend is upwards!

    2. Pocky

      Walky goes on a dark path, and asks Asher if he knows a guy who knows how to make people disappear lol

      1. Proxiehunter

        Asher gives him the number of a stage magician with a great vanishing act.

    3. Slartibeast Button, BIA

      Nah he kills Booster to get those sweet automatic “A”s.

      1. John Campbell

        Sadly, he’s already determined that that’s an urban legend. If he wants ‘A’s, he’s going to have to get them the old-fashioned way: Having Amber change his grades for him.

    4. Amelie Wikström

      I think if two of your roommates die within a year you’ll get a certain je ne sais quie reputation, no matter how innocent you are

    5. Jimbotherisenclown

      I’d say it’s hard to get much worse than Booster, but Raidah and Mary both exist.

  4. Sirksome

    That happened in the same week? Damn. Don’t trust uh….girlfriends I guess?

    1. Astariel

      Yep, Lucy dumped him last Sunday, he got back together with Dorothy Tuesday, then they broke up again this Sunday (yesterday).

      1. Nono

        Meanwhile it feels like Dorothy and Joyce have been dating for a decade.

        1. GholaHalleck

          Like the last hour of a long shift…

        2. Astariel

          Well, in a way, they have! They just didn’t realize it.

    2. Yotomoe

      In her own special way Dorothy was involved in both breakups.

      1. Nono

        She influenced Ruth to break up with Jennifer! That woman is a menace, breaking relationships left and right.

        1. ZombieKyrik

          Remember that time she sent a large breasted half-asian girl who wears glasses to her ex’s room while he was still upset about Dorothy dumping him?

      2. Fail Earnhardt

        We don’t talk enough about how diabolical Dorothy was for that

        1. Grimeyville

          Is it going too far to believe that because Walky consciously believed Dorothy to be too good for him, and everyone from Joyce to Billie to Booster made a point of reinforcing that, that Dorothy has subconsciously treated Walky like that—to the point that this is where we are now?

        2. Clif

          What was the question again?

        3. Grimeyville

          I dunno, I just work here.

        4. Sharizard

          I think it was *checks notes* ‘Should we have more scenes with Carla in them?’

          I vote Yes.

        5. Astariel

          I concur.

        6. Clif

          Well sure. Some questions are easy.

  5. darkoneko

    aww, sweetie

    1. Theluxland

      Honestly, the hearts made me laugh more than it should have

  6. Aislashu

    Joe/Walky slipshine when?

    1. Sharizard

      At this rate it’s gonna be just a Walky/No one else slipshine.

    2. Bleuryder

      I mean, mot gonna lie that’s an interesting pairing that I’d love to see a slipshine for. If only because I do think they’d be hate/angry/pity fucking each other.

      At least Walky would be, Booster would probably be into it (literally and figuratively).

  7. Amós Batista

    hahaha, Buster in 3rd panel was so much

  8. Mitzi B.

    Damn, Booster really is worse than Mike!

    1. ZombieKyrik

      I don’t know about that; Mike would have made Walky feel like shit for getting dumped immediately. Booster at least had the courtesy of waiting a day before starting in on Walky.

      1. Nono

        Hey Mike at least got Walky to class. Let’s see if Booster can manage that.

    2. sickolesbian

      no they aren’t lmao mike was terrible

    3. Needfuldoer

      Mike worked because his antagonism got you to redirect your anger at him, then really examine your thought patterns.

      Booster is basically Great Value Mike: all the taunting, none of the substance.

    4. Amós Batista

      are you kidding??

    5. Astariel

      They are definitely not worse than Mike. Booster has yet to lie to him in order record him crying, for example.

      1. profnekko

        Mike’s asshole behavior tended to have some ulterior purpose to it. Booster seems to only care about drama for his own personal entertainment and while Mike has actually got people introspective and steered them off a dark path and even sacrificed himself in the end as far as I’ve seen the way Booster behaves if you encountered a bear with him he’d push you to the ground in a second…

    6. zee

      Recency bias goes craaaaazy

  9. Techhead

    Sal, sophomore year: “Why the fuck do you look like me?”

    1. Dragonfire

      “So, uh, sis, you’ll never believe what happened on that trip to Canada over th’ break.”

  10. ZombieKyrik

    Did Lucy dump Walky? I thought that was more of a mutual thing especially considering how quickly Walky moved on.

    1. NGPZ

      not really “moving on” in so much as “burying grief under humor and sufficient amounts of chicken mcnuggets” by the looks of it :(

      1. ZombieKyrik

        I know he’s upset about Dorothy, but he didn’t seem to care much about breaking up with Lucy.

        1. KtBear

          TBH I think it was something of a relief.

        2. Bysmerian

          He could deal with it. It hurt, sure, but he’s got enough going on and Lucy was really trying to rush the relationship a bit more than Walky was really ready for. She was committed and he was…I mean, not not committed but still figuring things out and really still dealing with having his roommate die.

          Dorothy…well, that was different. Still not perfect, judging by his emotionally retreating to Amber sometimes, but there was a different rapport and connection there.

          Dorothy was right that their second breakup was going to hurt him. I thought maybe he was a little less checked in this time around, but as I’ve been typing this response up I’ve changed my mind.

          Ultimately, both of his rapid breakups kick him in the self-worth in different ways. Lucy left him more because of his parents, which is gonna hurt because they’ve always had his back before he really noticed all the conditions on it. And Dorothy…I mean, part of their first breakup, IIRC, was based around the feeling that he was dragging her down. In his mind, she’s better than he is, and while the first time he could roll with it in a vacuum, right now there’s a lot more going on and it wasn’t something handled with tact or care.

          And right now he’s in a room with Booster, who may diagnose with preterhuman skill, but I feel like they may be a bit shit at actually helping

        3. Li

          I mean, when he saw Lucy and Jacob dancing together, he said out loud that he (Walky) might as well just walk into the sea, so.

          I don’t think he took being broken up with that well, even if it WAS partly a relief.

        4. Big Z

          I also think it especially bothers him because of how tied in it is with his parents and his increasing awareness of the issues there.

        5. Lumino

          I don’t think Walky was upset that Lucy broke up with him.

          I think he was upset that HE caused her to break up with him, unambiguously. He admitted as much to her that he was trying to play both sides, when he should have been backing her up. His desire to avoid conflict caused the breakup, and he feels bad about that.

        6. deliverything

          Relevant strip:
          https://www.dumbingofage.com/2024/comic/book-14/04-for-me-it-was-tuesday/rebounding/

        7. Newlland(Henryvolt)

          People say that about every relationship he’s been in and that feels like people not being able to see past his obvious weak ass attempt to pretend he’s not hurt.

        8. thejeff

          It really is amazing how often readers here take character’s surface defense mechanisms as the real truth of their feelings.

        9. Needfuldoer

          He didn’t seem to care all that much much about being with Lucy in the first place, so…

    2. Astariel

      I believe she told him, “Fuck you, I deserve better,” and stormed off, so I would say that she did the dumping.

      1. ZombieKyrik

        Fair enough; that sounds like a dumping to me.

      2. Ray Radlein

        but it doesn’t really count because she never told Joe about it twice

        1. Nymph

          This is a joke about how Joyce’s break-up with Joe is being treated by the comments, but it’s genuinely what happened when Lucy broke up with Walky. There were a number of commentors that were DEAD SET Lucy and Walky hadn’t broken up because no one said the exact phrase “I’m breaking up with you”. People seemed to think that it was super normal to assume your relationship was still going when the person you were with said “fuck you, I deserve better” and walked off (period) but also never came back to talk things out or smooth it over and do the relation part of being in a relationship.

        2. Astariel

          Yep, I’ve just been rereading those strips, and that was super weird.

        3. Clif

          Yeah, that break up was super clear. Jennifer and Asher was much less so.

  11. Suet

    Mike III: The Next Roommate

    or a large pillow?

    1. Cameron Stone

      Why am I only noticing the Mike hair lines on Booster now?

      1. Clif

        It’s gradual as his appearance slowly becomes more and more like Mike.

        1. sickolesbian

          you mean their appearance

        2. Clif

          I’m thinking that’s what I said?

  12. Alongcameaspider

    Booster really needs to learn tact

    1. AeromechanicalAce

      Tact is counterproductive to Shit-Stirring, which is something Booster clearly cannot live without.

  13. Pocky

    oh hey, worst sibling is back.

    1. Shakes

      I prefer Sal too.

      1. Pocky

        Jokes aside, Booster sucks. . . but being the worse of their siblings, I guess that’s something Walky and Booster can bond over. lol

  14. RassilonTDavros

    Walky’s new roommate then turns out to be Faz. The monkey’s paw curls.

    (I’m pretty sure he’ll be 18 next semester, I think)

    1. Nono

      Faz was quoting the Romeo and Juliet law and said under it he would be of consent in a couple weeks.

      Which I think implied that he’s only 14 at this point.

      1. 3oranges

        Faz is in university anyways because his grades are good enough to skip ahead many years, as shown in these charts which he does not actually have because the administrators only let him on the condition that he stop showing them charts.

      2. RassilonTDavros

        It seems my memory was mistaken.

        Howard it is, then.

      3. thejeff

        He quoted it to say it would be legal under the Romeo and Juliet law now, but he’d be at the regular age of consent (16 in Indiana) in a few weeks, so he was 15 then and would be 16 now, since that was last semester.

        1. deliverything

          17, apparently:
          https://itswalky.tumblr.com/post/58157353814/is-faz-younger-than-amber-in-doa-theres-no
          Which makes the strip RassilonTDavros linked confusing.

        2. thejeff

          I wouldn’t trust a tumblr post from 2013 over the actual comic.

          Willis also said around Blaine’s first appearance that Amber was his only kid, but that was changed as well.

  15. Owlmirror

    I cannot imagine a serious textbook on psychology that is actually just called PSYCH.

    New headcanon: It’s not a textbook. It’s a collection of psychological tricks and pranks, convoluted mind games, and similar hoaxes to play on the unsuspecting and naive.

    The actual title is literally “PSYCH!”, and Booster’s fingers are covering the exclamation mark.

    1. Yotomoe

      You open up the book and all the pages are blank.
      The book itself was a prank.

      1. Mr D phone posting

        I mean, a notepad that looks like an actual book sounds funny.

        1. Leorale

          You mean, a journal?

        2. Nymph

          lmao okay ~listen~ Leorale, you can’t just come in here with your knowing-the-word-for-stuff and your pointing-out-that-those-exist.

    2. Cameron Stone

      It’s a novelization of TV show Psych.

      1. Needfuldoer

        You know that’s right.

    3. John Campbell

      It’s a cookbook!

      1. Owlmirror

        To PSYCH! Man.

        (Walky: “Chat, am I cooked?”)

        (Booster: “You haven’t done well, but you are well done”)

        (Sal: “Sorry bro, ya roasted”)

    4. NGPZ

      it’s one of those stupid pop psych books from Barnes & Nobles, often found alongside Brian Griffin’s Faster Than The Speed of Love in the “I am out of my frickin mind” section (-_-)

    5. 3oranges

      It’s really a novel by Robert Bloch.

    6. maxh

      That is, in fact, the title of a real introductory psychology textbook.

      1. Nymph

        I like that it’s not only called Psych, the lady on the cover is recording you when you fall for whatever dumbass prank she did before yelling “psych!”

      2. Owlmirror

        “Spencer A. Rathus” sounds like a fake name. Don’t trust it.

        I note that at least one anagram is “Chapter snare us”. Another is “Creep harass nut”.

        Hmm.

    7. Amós Batista

      Plot twist: Booster is not necessarily atheist. Secretily, they are studying witchcraft, cartomancy, that kind of things.

      1. Clif

        Technically a belief in occult principals and powers does not require theism as such.

  16. Davus

    Do you think Joyce would be attracted to Walky if he[?] transitioned?

    1. QueenofSodor

      walky becoming walkie is the only thing that could make joyce sustain a sexual interest in her imo, because once walkie has enough boobage, joyce can just pretend she’s sal while they’re fucking

      if joyce and dorothy start doing polyamorous shenanigans, and dorothy and walky decide get back together, joyce should start forcefemming walky so that she can make this happen

      1. Adept

        How is ”forcefemming” thrown around on this forum like it’s not a horrible act of abuse?

        Could you guys please not throw around such ”fantasies”, please. Violating somebody’s bodily autonomy is not a joke. I had to endure enough of those when growing up.

        1. JBento

          Because there’s absolutely nothing a certain subset of people will not cheer on if it results in them getting to see more gay happening, and this would lead to yuri, so they’re all up for it.

        2. Nymph

          Literally one person is on record as wanting this and yet you’re down here making it an us vs them about a “certain subset of people” here undefined who are willing to “cheer [it] on” and are “all up for it” because they like sapphic stories.

          That’s a hell of a shadowbox you have going on.

        3. JBento

          And now you can look immediately below this and see a bunch more people. If I’m shadowboxing, it’s not with the shadows *I’M* casting.

        4. Nymph

          Listen, when you’re right you’re right. I had more faith in humanity for a second there and that’s on me for believing in people.

        5. JBento

          Ew, no, faith in humanity, ew, there would have to be far more seasons of Hazbin Hotel to help me with that for me to still have any.

          🙂

        6. Li

          I’m so fucking tired.

        7. JBento

          May I mention that tomorrow a new season of Prehistoric Planet comes out, and while it won’t make people in general suck any less, we’ll at least get to look at awesome dinos for a while?

        8. JBento

          As a final note, you know what is extra dumb about all of this? That the entire point of “delectable feminine” comment way back when was so Walky could react ridiculously and we could have the comic point out that it was absolutely asinine and ridiculous of him to panic at it and now we have a bunch of people here demonstrating that, eeeehhh, maybe Walky’s reaction was grounded in a tiiiiiiny bit of validity.

        9. Li

          It’s ridiculous because Walky is fictional and cannot be harmed by any of this.

          Forcefemme and forcemasc fantasies are both morally neutral, I will die on the hill of defending them as being perfectly fine and also often really affirming for the trans people who have them.

          But we have GOT to leave a little bit of room for each other. We KNOW these are hot button fantasies. We must surely know that they’re gonna be triggering for other people sometimes, especially but not only our trans siblings.

          It’s so genuinely awful to respond to someone saying “this happened to me and it was traumatic” by telling them no it didn’t, or that the traumatic thing is good actually.

        10. JBento

          ?????

        11. JBento

          But I dunno man, I’m never fond of the “but these are fictional characters and can’t be affected by anything we say” argument, because that’s true of all of them for every topic but

          TRIGGER WARNING – suicide talk

          if someone went around posting stuff like “oh, Becky is spiraling into suicidal ideation? Good, I hope she pulls the trigger” we’d still come down on them like a ton of bricks, and we wouldn’t be doing that for Becky because she’s just as not-real as Walky (i.e., 100%).

          Like, I would’ve not posted in this thread at all if it weren’t for Adept going, ‘man, why are people treating this so lightheartedly’ and me ABSOLUTELY knowing that someone would reply to them doubling down because that’s just how the dominoes fall here on Earth with humans around.

          (preserve the universe, ban human space travel)

        12. Donovan

          I’ve been passively ignoring the forcefem flavor comments that pop up from time to time, but, like.

          Saying this as a trans man who has had other queers *repeatedly and pointedly* make forcefem ‘jokes’ directed at me after I asked them to please just not, and has seen other t-dudes face the same

          I hate that I read the comments today

        13. Li

          The difference is that in the forcefemme fantasy, Walky might protest, but the process would actually be deeply affirming and cathartic by the end. That’s not at all true of suicide.

          It’s only a problem because it’s being joked about in mixed company, with no regards to how one person’s affirming forcefemme/masc fantasy is another person’s nightmare, and the dismissive reaction to having that pointed out is really, really gross and self-centered.

        14. Li

          Also: I’m really sorry, Donovan.

        15. JBento

          It’s bullshit that the world throws that at you, Donovan. I hope that either the people around you clean up their act or that you somehow find yourself around better people.

        16. Donovan

          @li & jbento: i appreciate it

        17. Big Z

          Honestly, as someone who also finds the mere phrase “forcefemme” pretty disquieting/upsetting, I wonder how much of the issue is that (much like many other phrases, and here I’m thinking of “defund the police” as one of these phrases I use/agree with) the story told by the word itself doesn’t convey the part of the story that’s affirming. As I’m for whatever reason not in any queer circles that have ever talked about “forcefemming” in any way, prior to this thread when I heard the term I envisioned something like what Donovan describes or worse, because (at least in my head) the inclusion of the word “force” has a connotation that this is something that is tantamount to an assault, rather than something that is supposed to be ultimately affirming.

        18. Li

          @Big Z: it’s pretty much exactly like any other ravishment fantasy.

          Being “forced” relieves you of the responsibility for the desire, and lets you explore how it would feel without getting mired in guilt and self-doubt over why you would even want such a thing.

          But. Not unlike ravishment fantasies, it’s inherently hot-button. Some people are gonna find it triggering.

          As thorny as the topic is overall, as much as there’s some genuine competing access needs here — the folks who find it affirming shouldn’t be told their fantasies are abusive full-stop, Adept came in here in very hot for sure (but I’m willing to assume they were triggered and reacting emotionally, that’s how their comment sounds to me)…

          …but the folks who find them triggering should also be able to request that the jokes not be made around them. You know?

          At an absolute minimum, the people who have done what Donovan describes are just being shitty, though. Their right to make those jokes ends when they start making those jokes about a transmasc who has asked them to cut it out. Frankly at that point, it’s not just asshole behavior but sexual harassment.

        19. Big Z

          @Li That’d do it, fully cosigned. I mean, on some level it is fundamentally a type of CNC, and that’s also a fraught thing to casually discuss in public spaces (so much so that people who are into it tend to call it CNC these days instead of what it used to be called.)

          And as I mentioned elsewhere in the thread, as a kinkster myself there’s kind of a weird line (with the more triggering kinks especially) where it’s just kinda better for everyone if you don’t go out of your way to “freak the mundanes” so to speak.

        20. JBento

          Made all the worse because they’re replying to someone who just went “uh, guys, could we not, because this happened to me IRL and it’s making me incredibly uncomfortable.”

        21. perpetual summer

          Noone gets forcefemmed in real life. This doesn’t happen. I mean it does in the context of kink roleplay because that’s where the term actually originates, but roleplay is, notably, 1) not real and 2) done with consent! (& if it’s not, the problem doesn’t lie with the kink, but with the people involved.) So yeah, not “a horrible act of abuse”. If Adept is uncomfortable with this for personal reasons, then that’s their issue but not really something to bother other people about. I’m uncomfortable with stuff all the time and that doesn’t mean it’s automatically morally bad. You do actually have to think about things.

        22. JBento

          You have someone a handful of posts above saying that it does, in fact, happen, and that it happened to them. What even the fuck is this “it doesn’t happen in real life” bullshit?

        23. perpetual summer

          I’m genuinely convinced you’re just still fully misunderstanding but I don’t know how to say it more clearly. I’ll try. Forcefemming (or forced feminization) is a term for a kink subculture and has, as a fantasy become popular with trans women so it will also be referenced casually. What happened to Adept was undoubtedly bad, and, given the context, probably bears similarity in concept. The difference is that that abuse is real, and forcefem is not, because it is either acted out (roleplay) or imagined (fantasy)*. They are not the same thing.
          You might think that this is semantics, but to me it’s actually quite important to be specific with terms, especially when it makes people accuse random trans women online of abuse apologia. And like I said below – it’s fair of Adept to be triggered! Idk the circumstances! What’s not is putting that on a stranger in the way they did.

        24. perpetual summer

          Don’t mind the *, I thought I had something else to say about kink generally and “but why would someone enjoy this” but I think it’s a bit too much to get into.

        25. Big Z

          And bam, there it is. Much like MANY other aspects of kink culture (like, say, BDSM), the terms used are REALLY violent and if someone hasn’t previously been exposed to the idea that this is supposed to be talking about a kink, it SOUNDS like it should be describing what other folks in the thread are describing as having happened to them.

          I’m certainly educated by this thread that it’s a kink term of art, but to borrow some advice from the pagans and kinksters of my college days, the casual use of the terms is kind of an example of “freaking the mundanes”, which IMHO should be done judiciously so it doesn’t cause further harm or blowback.

          (yes, there’s a tension between “don’t yuck someone else’s yum/no one should live in the closet” and “don’t expose the world to your kink without consent”, no, I am not the arbiter of how to resolve that tension)

        26. Paradoxius

          No it’s good actually.

        27. perpetual summer

          Oh noooo whoever will stand up for the fictional characters bodily autonomy… This just can’t be right…

        28. perpetual summer

          Also yeah it’s good actually.

        29. Cassie

          Because the entire fucking world forcemascs everyone assigned make with no thought given to what they want so excuse us if we like a fantasy where someone out there allows and encourages us to become our authentic selves without the need for us to fight off that same world and justify our decisions to it.

          I’m sorry about whatever you went through but all the same I invite you to fuck all the way off, please and thank you, spend some time doing some actual material analysis before you shoot off, and keep your weird prudishness to yourself.

        30. QueenofSodor

          co-signing this

        31. Li

          I have bad news for you about what “the entire fucking world” does to everyone assigned female, sorry.

        32. perpetual summer

          Well it sure isn’t forcefemming! Which is a kink subculture & (often sexual) (not necessarily though) fantasy about being turned into a woman! Come on. It’s a mere google search away.

        33. Li

          “Because the entire fucking world forcemascs everyone assigned make with no thought given to what they want”

          I was not the one who went there first, perpetual summer, so like. Back off.

        34. perpetual summer

          I don’t think I will, because Cassie using a mirrored term to get the point across actually fully makes sense to me. Like, you either understand that forcefemming is a fantasy that does not equate to the forced gendering inherent in patriarchal society, or you don’t.
          I’d also think from the context it’s clear Cassie is talking about trans women or transfem ppl more generally, and you went “but what about this other thing”, like, idk, not what’s being talked about?

        35. Li

          No, this whole part of this thread is in DIRECT RESPONSE to Adept saying this happened to them IRL and they have trauma about it.

          It stops being solely about fantasy when you’re directly telling someone who experienced this in a traumatic way that they’re lying or that it’s still a good thing.

        36. Li

          So in fact, this IS what’s being talked about now, despite yall being incredibly dismissive and rude.

        37. perpetual summer

          Actually I’m talking bullshit it’s not even context it’s text: “Because the entire fucking world forcemascs everyone assigned make with no thought given to what they want” the make is an obvious typo for male. Cassie is literally talking about “everyone assigned male”.

        38. Li

          Yes? Obviously? Why does that make any difference?

          Why does that make it a perfectly okay response to someone saying “this happened to me and it was traumatic, can we please not joke about it”?

          She could have told Adept that the kink is affirming for transfemme people without belittling everyone else in the world and dismissing Adept’s trauma, and you could have done the same without literally telling them the thing they experienced doesn’t happen.

        39. perpetual summer

          Okay you just genuinely don’t want to understand this. It’s kinda crazy to me I figured queer spaces (speaking vaguely here. Assuming from past comments you move in those!) were at least a little beyond the type of shit that says BDSM is the same as physical abuse – because that does seem to essentially be your argument. Like absolutely can survivors be triggered by that – but that does not have anything to do with the kink or the people involved (in this case, not real)(Joyce and Walky are fictional). Adept chose to comment on this thread & act as if saying that a fictional character should force another to be a woman is the same as act of abuse. It’s not!

          And I’m gonna be annoying about this because I’m fucking sick of trans women being hounded for no fucking reason. There’s a reason people (like Cassie) reacted strongly to Adepts comment because over and over again, trans women (and forcefemming is like, a popular fantasy for that group specifically, as already mentioned by various in this thread) are called out on shit that is blown way out of proportion, and it often has fucked consequences because people are not willing to listen to them or give them the benefit of doubt. Are you specifically doing all that? Is Adept? Idk but maybe take a pause.

        40. Li

          1. I don’t think forcefemming (the kink) is abuse.

          2. I think it’s shitty to react to someone saying they have trauma around being forcibly feminized by telling them “that doesn’t really happen” or “no it’s good actually”.

          3. I also think it’s shitty to defend your behavior by saying “the whole world forcemascs amab people”, which makes that a real problem, in a thread where other people have already said forcefemme doesn’t really happen.

          4. Again: transmasc people have forcemasc fantasies. These fantasies can be triggering to trans women!

          That doesn’t make either type of fantasy wrong, but it does make it pretty shitty to respond to someone else saying “this is triggering, that happened to me” by telling them that no, it’s only ever a good thing, and also that doesn’t really happen to anyone, ever.

          I cannot see why this isn’t completely obvious to everyone involved, but oh well.

        41. Li

          Like if yall had just stopped at “we’re talking about kink and fictional characters, it’s not the same thing at all as the abuse you experienced”, I would fully be on your side.

          Unfortunately there has been a lot of “what happened to you isn’t real” and also seemingly “trans men’s experiences don’t count”, both of which are really crappy positions, so. Here we are.

        42. perpetual summer

          You have been seriously misreading a lot of this, which is incidentally what I was talking about. Like maybe the disconnect is that the thread started talking about forcefemming, Adept brought up their abuse, equating it forcefemming (it’s not, that is a specific term used in kink) and I guess you think people are talking about that(the abuse) instead of the original topic? Genuinely I don’t know.

        43. Li

          I am not misreading anything.

          Read what Donovan said above.

          I know perfectly well that forcefemme is a kink, as is forcemasc, but that doesn’t mean that joking about forcefemming characters can’t be legitimately triggering, and it really really sucks to have that dismissed as, essentially, “you whiny transmascs just can’t take a joke”.

        44. Li

          Again: you understood completely what Cassie meant when she said the world forcemascs everyone assigned male. You knew she wasn’t talking about a harmless kink.

          So why is it so difficult to understand that joking about forcefemme as a kink might be legitimately triggering for transmasc people. Why is it worthy of mockery and disdain.

        45. perpetual summer

          I feel the need to explain stuff you’re referencing again but I don’t think I am able to express myself well enough to get anywhere nor do I at this point want to keep going. Good luck with all that & I’m sorry. This has been frustrating for both of us.

        46. Cassie

          You mean regendering them? Yeah, I’m aware. Just like people who are assigned male at birth are degendered if we don’t perform masculinity correctly. This is basic transfeminism, so I’m not sure why you feel the need to throw it at me like a gotcha. The fault here doesn’t lie with transfems who look to kink as a way of expressing desires that patriarchal society has deemed perverse or as a way of alleviating dysphoria in a world that tells us to fucking suck it up, but thank you ever so much for trying to imply it does.

          Kink and discussion of kink does not stop simply because someone has trauma that is adjacent, or even closely related. People are responsible for keeping themselves safe and while reasonable steps can be requested (such as content warnings for triggering subjects, etc) it is not reasonable to expect people to completely cease discussing their kinks, especially in the context of fictional characters who are, once again, fictional and incapable of being harmed by such discussion.

        47. Li

          You literally said “the whole world forcemascs amab people, so we’re allowed” in response to someone saying they had trauma around this.

          I am not the asshole here, Cassie, sorry.

        48. Cassie

          “I’m here to tell transfems to shut up but I’m not the asshole.” Sit with that a bit before you try claiming you’re not the asshole.

        49. Li

          Jesus fucking Christ, Cassie.

          Anyway, transmasc people have the exact same type of fantasy (forcemascing) for the exact same reason, and should ALSO be sensitive to how that will feel to hear talked about when they do it in rooms that contain folks who might have experienced it in the shitty way, and “actually it’s good” would be a horrible response to transfemme trauma!

        50. Li

          Like are you gonna sit with that? Are you gonna sit with reacting to having your erasure of transmasc people pointed out by doubling down on it and being super heckin condescending?

          I somehow doubt it, but it would be nice.

        51. QueenofSodor

          forcefem does not meaningfully exist in the real world, clutching pearls about the bodily autonomy of fictional characters doesn’t actually help anyone

        52. Li

          Yeah, tt does. It happens to cis girls and trans boys alike.

        53. Cassie

          Oh damn, you mean patriarchal society coercively enforces binary gender and cissexism? Should we tell everyone? Should we throw a party? Should we invite Judith Butler?

        54. Li

          I’m sorry that transmasc erasure is a real problem and not just a funny joke.

        55. Cassie

          Welp. Congratulations on proving you don’t understand material conditions at all. Good job bud, I’m done wasting time on you.

        56. Li

          ?????

        57. Li

          “You didn’t react well to my extremely condescending bait, therefore you must know nothing about trans theory” is a hell of a take, by the way, but don’t let the door hit you on the way out.

        58. Summer

          Walky is a cartoon. He doesn’t have bodily autonomy

        59. zee

          I’m just gonna drop that Foreign Man in a Foreign Land has a really good and nuanced video on the topic and how it intersects with racism and the alt right pipeline and go

          It’s called “The S*ssification Problem” if anyone’s interested

        60. thenamelesssamurai

          Props to you for bringing that video. It’s really good. Link here for anyone interested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBO1-WfSDO4

        61. Seralyna

          Alright, I’m gonna step in and kinda, state what I think all of the downwind arguments are about, and why people are talking past each other.

          Forcefem as a kink is something that is pretty dear to a lot of trans women. Specifically because it represnets a desire some of us wished we had happen to us. Not even in a literal sense but in a fantastical sense. To lose agency in a way that allows us to not have to fight for our identity, and have someone else inflict it upon us instead.

          Realistically there is very little actual attempt to forcefem “actually cis” characters in fiction, because its not actually that hot. (although I will note that if someone did want to indulge in that fantasy, that isnt a moral failing at all, but just want to note that almost all forcefem stuff is based around a presumed closeted trans character)

          In addition, this specific kink has been the target of a lot of harrassment campaigns and bans on tumblr in particular. The fact that it is this one in particular is not really a coincidence, considering that it is kinda, inherently transfeminine.

          The former point is why some trans women are extremely sensitive to the topic being treated as abuse. In reality trans women are not going around forcibly making cis people take estrogen, and the idea that we are is fundamentally reactionary.

          Regardless of your intention, framing this type of thing in the way you did is the catalyst for these arguments.

        62. shepsquared

          I’d say the catalyst was someone suggesting it in an already out of nowhere discussion about Walky being trans.

        63. Seralyna

          that certainly didn’t help.

        64. shepsquared

          Like there’s nothing wrong with having a kink and I’ll admit I’m probably biased against it. But that bias comes from the fact that it fundamentally isn’t something I’m in to, so I’ve only seen it discussed when it’s brought up outside the context of kink, like that one tumblr user that has it in their name or discussions like this.

          To be as generous as possible the first mention of forcefemming here is a giant leap when someone was focused on “what if Walky transitioned”, but I motly think that this just isn’t an appropriate lace to bring it up at all. Maybe in comments for slipshine, if those exist.

        65. Li

          Of course trans women aren’t forcibly feminizing afab people.

          Cis people are forcibly feminizing afab people.

          Anyway, I will just reiterate that I would have been on the othe side if folks had stopped at saying “this kink is not the same thing as the abuse you went through” to Adept, instead of…

          “That’s not a real thing”
          “That doesn’t happen to anyone”
          “Anyway, since the whole world forcemascs us, we’re entitled to joke about forcefemming Walky”

          like, it actually costs $0 to not tell someone “your traumatic experience isn’t real and anyway it’s less important than my trauma”?

        66. Seralyna

          I’ll start by saying that I wasn’t replying to you, but the person who was treating the idea of joking about forcefem as disgusting.

          I also think it is in fact entirely something we are entitled to joke about. I don’t think there really is any fault in anyone joking about it unless they are like. directing it at an explicitley trans masc character.

          The reason people are saying its not a real thing is because you are misrepresenting the conversation. A Conversation about forcefem fundamentally is not about like, the fact that society assigns gender to children. It’s about a thing that is happening to adults far after their assigned gender has been put in place, as a direct subversion of their assigned gender. It’s just not at all correct to conflate the two ideas and treat one as harmful in the same way as the other. I’m sorry that the idea of someone being “forcefully” imposed femininity on them is upsetting to you in the abstract, but equating this fictional concept with literal harm is both disingenious, and disrespectful.

      2. Needfuldoer

        Joyce would probably be attracted to cis Walky if he had Sal’s swagger, like that one “what if” concept drawing many books ago.

      3. Mr.Morningstar

        You know she’s shown attraction to men and has not stated she isn’t into men too right?

        Her dislike of walky has very little to do with his gender identity

        1. QueenofSodor

          yeah, her distaste in walky is because she knows sal is better, so the more walkie is like sal the more interested joyce would be in her!

      4. zee

        This is how Joyce realizes she’s into gagging people

    2. mindbleach

      Nnnnnoooo.

      But she’d have to peel Dorothy off her. A polycule built on mutual disgust.

      Then again, if Walky leveled up this semester by getting 1% manlier, E might be counterproductive to pull.

      1. Mitzi B.

        Canonically, it was Walky’s “delectably feminine” long hair that helped him pull

        1. mindbleach

          November: “Many such cases.”

        2. mindbleach

          “Whomst.”

    3. John Campbell

      Joyce is attracted to all the Walkies. She just doesn’t want to bang this one because he’s been a dick to her pretty much since they met. Also he stole her girl, an injustice she has since corrected.

  17. Qube

    this might be more of a Rule of Two type deal, considering events

    1. ZombieKyrik

      Rule of Two?

      1. Deanatay

        A Master and an Apprentice?

        1. deliverything

          Here’s the Wookiepedia article:
          https://ph.kuuro.net/starwars/wiki/Rule_of_Two
          (This’s the Fandom article without the Fandom junk attached.)

  18. Yotomoe

    I miss Mike like you wouldn’t believe.

    1. ZombieKyrik

      I don’t; Booster is also a dick, but he’s better than Mike. Small victories.

      1. ZombieKyrik

        they’re*

      2. Yotomoe

        Naaaw I honestly think Mike did more good for Walky’s character growth than Booster has. Like Mike’s a dick but his specific kind of dickery forced Walky to reexamine hisself and his values.

        1. thejeff

          Walky’s still checking the closets to see if Mike faked his death in a scheme to torment him. Mike was not good for Walky, other than maybe in the way overcoming any adversity can be.

        2. Yotomoe

          On one hand Mike was a menace. On the other hand that’s…grieving. I’m still expecting my friend to message me about the latest Jojo chapter. When someone dies suddenly and young you often times find it so unbelievable that you except then to be right where you last saw then despite knowing better.
          I honestly think walky thinking Mike faked his death is because on some level that just makes more sense than his roommate suddenly dying in his first semester of college.

        3. Proxiehunter

          And because faking his death andnhiding in Walky’s closet to torment him sounds like something Mike would actually do. He probably had it all planned out but died for real before he actually did it. Kind of like what I assume happened with Andy Kaufman.

      3. GholaHalleck

        Mike was at least honest, and actually did seem to care about people while taking the most asshole way to help them.

        Booster’s just there for the explosions and the snark.

        1. thejeff

          Honest?
          https://www.dumbingofage.com/2018/comic/book-8/04-of-mike-and-men/recording/

        2. Nymph

          Yeah, people in the comments have a bad habit of sanitizing the hell out of Mike and Early Joe in particular. I’m sure there are others for that list.

        3. Astariel

          It’s baffling how far some people stretch to try to paint Mike as some sort of secretly benevolent guru. I assume it’s leftover goodwill from people who started with Willis’ earlier comics.

        4. Yotomoe

          I think its less that Mike is benevolent and moreso that he’s just good at reading people and uses that to give them challenges. He’s more like a trickster imp or something. You can overcome and learn a lesson from the encounter but thats less an intention of the imp and more incidental.
          I just find that both more interesting and entertaining.

        5. Clif

          This go around we got an immature Mike, not yet in his final form. He made mistakes. He wasn’t quite as good at manipulating people.

          If you didn’t like Mike as a character, you certainly wouldn’t like mature Mike.

        6. Tan

          Can you kindly point to examples of Booster being dishonest?

        7. Nymph

          Yeah, seconding this request. I can’t think of a time when they weren’t anything but (sometimes painfully) upfront about things. Maybe they lie to theirself in the subconscious way we all do, but I’d be surprised to see where they lied outright and on purpose.

        8. zee

          Iiii guess you could argue there was some spirit of dishonesty with Carla? Maybe? No outright lies iirc, walky did that. But ig you could argue the distinction is more letter of the law than spirit. Like, fey/devil honesty. I’d call you wrong but ig you could if you really wanted to

    2. Bittersweet

      I too miss Mike, even though Booster is one of my fave characters

  19. Fail Earnhardt

    Honestly, I went through a similar situation and even though I’d already lost my scholarship and dropped out I can confirm the estrogen helped a ton

    1. Liara

      Can also only concur

  20. Mr. Random

    Mike was an asshole, but I genuinely don’t believe Booster is attempting to be sincere in their condolences, but is rather more interested in seeing how Walky’s psyche is handling this all.

    1. Cameron Stone

      Wow, what a sociaopath.

      1. ZombieKyrik

        I’m assuming you mean Booster is the sociopath, and not Mr. Random. If that is what Booster is doing then yes that is sociopathic behavior.

  21. Newlland(Henryvolt)

    Maybe take a different route to class today man…or better yet just take a day off, I don’t think Walky has skipped a singel day yet in this new semester.

  22. IntangibleMatter

    You heard it here first, folks: Walky has a complex where he fully expects all of his roommates to inevitably die!

    1. Slartibeast Button, BIA

      The Walkerton Curse…

      1. Clif

        May you have interesting roommates.

        As for the other, I too fully expect all of my friends and roommates to inevitably die. I mean sure, we could get a fast take-off to the Singularity, but the odds are not at all favorable.

  23. Sirksome

    It’s hard not to feel bad for Walky here. I know he holds some responsibility it his last two relationships failing, especially Lucy, but it really seems like neither of them valued him as a person.

    1. Nono

      How was he responsible for him and Dorothy’s failing?

      1. Deanatay

        Walky is kind of a victim of his own casualness. He says he only wants shallow, fun relationships with girls, and to an extent that’s true, but when he winds up caring more for someone, he’s just not prepared to take that next step. With Dorothy in particular, he thinks of himself as a stepping stone to her ‘real’ serious relationship, so he kinda self-sabotaged it from the start. He cares more than he’s willing to admit to himself.

        1. Doopyboop

          Honestly, I don’t think he’s ever stated he wants shallow, fun relationships with girls. Especially in the first relationship with Dorothy, she was the first one to put the ‘this is casual’ on the table so any instance of him bringing it up after is reminding her what she said to him. With Lucy, I don’t think he ever insisted on wanting it to “just” be shallow and fun, I think his main mistake was just that Lucy had already written fanfictions of getting married to him in his head during the months they were friends, while he was more (understandably) casual in trying out a relationship with her. Not because he wanted it shallow, but because the two of them were clearly of different minds. Had things gone differently and Walky given time to develop deeper feelings for her, I think they would have been a fine couple.

          I definitely see some elements of self-sabotage especially with Dorothy, but I don’t think he did self-sabotage with Lucy. His biggest failing with those two is always thinking they’re better than him and deserve more than he can give. It’s a big self-esteem issue for sure and honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s been in a depressive funk since the kidnapping and death of Mike.

        2. thejeff

          He self-sabotaged the relationship where Dorothy had been pursuing him for weeks ahead of time and cheating on him a few days after getting back together?
          The only self-sabotage was not recognizing that Dorothy was just deflecting from her crush on Joyce – which is not actually his job and gives him only the tiniest sliver of responsibility here.

        3. Doopyboop

          No, the self-sabotage was during the fall semester when he kept putting Dorothy on a pedestal and telling himself and everyone around him that he was never good enough for her, that she was too good for him, that her life goals were more important than him, and then after the break up he and Amber had some make outs on garbage roof where he kept saying he was garbage. Also just in general, Walky tells himself he’s no good so he doesn’t strive to be better. That’s Walky’s thing.

          The latest relationship stuff, I don’t feel he’s in any way like, ‘responsible’ for.

      2. Sirksome

        In my opinion getting back together with her for what was obviously a just sex motivated hookup was a mistake they both made. More Dorothy than him, but its takes two to tango.

        1. Ray Radlein

          Dorothy was desperately trying to distract herself from Joyce (possibly even subconsciously trying to assert heteronormativity to herself?), and Walky almost certainly knew she wasn’t getting back together with him because of any romantic attraction, so yeah, I think so.

          I had a college girlfriend with whom I was desperately in love but who kept coming back to me only for sex, and it really did put me through a wringer, so I can sympathize with Walky a lot here.

          OTOH, I also had a FWB in college who I eventually realized was probably in (unreciprocated, alas) love with me, and that probably messed her up, which itself messed me up, but didn’t always stop me from, well, benefiting, because people are fucked up and messy, especially at that age.

          So every great and awful relationship thing in this comic rings pretty dang true to me.

        2. thejeff

          Why do you think it was obvious it wasn’t romantic?

          They’d dated and been in love. They’d broken up for other reasons without a big fight or falling out of love. They’d each made various gestures at getting back together at several points.

          If you didn’t know that Dorothy was going through a crisis about repressing her feelings for Joyce, why would you think it wasn’t romantic?

        3. Big Z

          Yeah, this is what I’m thinking — Walky and Dorothy’s lastest moves were part of the overall pattern of their relationship right up until they weren’t (because a ‘new’ challenger entered the arena).

        4. thejeff

          Or at least seemed to be from his point of view. She was clearly deflecting from her interest in Joyce, though I’m not sure when that really started.

    2. Yotomoe

      Yeah naw Walky wasn’t like…a perfect boyfriend but I legit can’t think of anything he did in that second relationship that felt like he should take any responsibility for that breakup.

      1. Sirksome

        He didn’t have to get back together with Dorothy. The man has agency. I’m not saying it’s his fault but we can also let characters hold responsibility for their choices. Walky knew his thing with Dorothy wasn’t gonna last in round 2. He should’ve spoken up. It’s a lesser example of the same reason Lucy dumped him and a character flaw he has in general.

        1. Yotomoe

          I dunno. Feels like it’s just sorta blaming Walky for Dorothy using him as a quick hookup. He’s obviously still got strong feelings for her still and while it was against his better judgement he gave into those lingering feelings. He holds no responsibility for the breakup. He holds responsibility for dating her in the first place. Dorothy’s poison.

        2. Sirksome

          Dude. I don’t really wanna argue this because I’m on Walky’s side here, but it’s not blaming him to say he holds some responsibility for initiating what was clearly a rebound he was at least partially aware of. There were literally red flags before they were even dressed.

          https://www.dumbingofage.com/2024/comic/book-14/04-for-me-it-was-tuesday/schema/

          I’m not even sure we disagree here. Also he couldn’t have been feeling that bad if he was trying to hit up Amber hours after it was over. I have sympathy for Walky because I do think he is seen as a sort of fun and safe toy to most of the women he’s been with, but this last hookup they both should’ve been fully aware it didn’t mean much. One 30 second conversation between condoms would’ve prevented all the bullshit.

        3. Odo

          Still sounds like blaming to me, just using “it’s his responsability” instead of “it’s his fault”.

          Walky might not have made the smartest decisions for his own wellbeing, but Dorothy is the one who acted hurtfully. Her lack of self-awareness was what led her to lead Walky on with comments of “Like we never left… I’d like to be back together”. Dorothy is the one who chose to cheat.

        4. Sirksome

          I give up. I don’t know how a post where I try to sympathize with Walky turned into me having to defend my perspective. I won’t continue this anymore. I don’t want to become something I abandoned long ago.

        5. Odo

          I’d think about it in terms of what Walky should reasonably be expected to do differently:

          Have better parents? Not something he can control.

          Protect Lucy from his parents better? He actively told her they were horrible, to run away, and that he didn’t expect her to be there. She is the one who pushed to try to get Linda to like her.

          Believe he should surrender to God? No, he shouldn’t do that. He hit the nail on the head with how the worship was creepy and culty.

          His biggest mistake was not clarifying the “I love you” thing… but honestly that seems like a hecking easy mistake considering it would be rough to have a partner say “I love you too” and respond with “actually… I don’t love you”. That would be rough to be on the receiving end of as well. He should have been more direct with communicating that the relationship was moving faster than he preferred, but that is also an easy mistake to make when you are trying to be accommodating to your partner.

          And this whole mistake was something that he and Lucy had talked about and resolved.

        6. zee

          Tbf he shouldn’t have dated her in the first place knowing he wasn’t actually interested in her. She was just pretty and there and his ex told him to. But that’s a dumb teenager mistake, learning experience shit

        7. Taffy

          Not to be rude, but you’re just plain wrong about the “Can’t control having better parents” thing. If Willis wanted to go that route, Walky has full control over how many living parents he has and who he replaces them with when he’s done. There’s no shortage of available options for him to murder his biological mother and father, locate a more comfortable substitute for them, and live the rest of his life in that new configuration. You’re leaving out any blatantly illegal or immoral options, and it feels to me like that’s an active choice you’re making, rather than an oversight of any kind or a passive assumption.

        8. thejeff

          @zee: I think he was interested, just not already in love with her like she was with him. That threw him off.

        9. Yotomoe

          Yeah he wanted to casually date and hope it would build to something but she came in hot. Girl was at an 11 right out the gate.

        10. JBento

          @Taffy: Having terrible parents is a problem that can be quickly solved by calling the M. Bison hotline, yes.

          Or just do the job yourself, you coward.

        11. Mr D phone posting

          This very vaguely reminds me of the timeframe that you were Walky’s hater number 1

        12. Sirksome

          You know my past?

        13. Mr D

          Buddy I’ve been reading DoA since 2010 and posting in the comments since-
          shit I dunno. 2016? 17?

        14. Mr D

          (I really hate the lack of an edit button) I explicitly remember needling you about your distaste for Walky one or two times lol

    3. Odo

      Lucy was primarily to blame for that relationship failing. She was projecting her fantasies onto Walky rather than respecting who he actually was. Then when that fantasy got popped she got pissy.

      Instead of having an ounce of self-reflection it was easier for her to just grab whatever excuses she could to blame Walky… which worked great because Walky is already way to willing to think of himself as a screw up, so of course it was his fault.

      1. Yotomoe

        Every girl Walky has dated definitely benefits immensely from Walky’s inherent self loathing (and loathing from people externally)that causes him to always blame himself and feel as if he doesn’t deserve better.

        1. thejeff

          I really do still hope that somehow this whole situation pushes Walky to the point of realizing that: “No, they were shitty to me. I do deserve better than that.”
          Even if not being cheated on and having the new partner gloat about it before your girlfriend can even get the words out to break up is a really low bar for “deserve better”.

      2. Anonymous

        I applaud your succinctness!

      3. Sirksome

        I feel like we don’t talk enough about how weird Lucy was with her sexual desire in her relationship with Walky. Like I don’t think it would be nearly as cute if the gender roles were reversed and Walky was counting dates until they could fuck while Lucy was very obviously not ready for that yet. If Walky were in Sal’s face at the roller derby saying “This better count as a date!” We would call him out for that right?

        1. Big Z

          There’s a lot of that in this sort of space, and I think while there’s a valuable impulse in the idea of “we cut people of marginalized identities more slack, consciously, to mitigate the amount that jerks are nitpicking their every move to try to make them seem worse”, there are definitely times where it crosses the line into “no, that’s just bad behavior” and gets ignored anyway.

          In Lucy’s PARTICULAR case she was also helped by the fact she never once comes across as “threatening” as opposed to “pushy”.

        2. Sirksome

          He was clearly uncomfortable with the idea of sleeping with a virgin or perhaps a girl he didn’t have stronger feelings for and while I’m sure he wasn’t opposed to sex with Lucy I also don’t think they ever addressed the expectations there. It was just Lucy counting down and Walky kinda nervously going with while actually being relieved when it didn’t happen.

        3. Li

          This is what I thought was going on with Joe until he and Joyce had sexual encounters that went completely fine.

        4. Li

          Like it’s literally the EXACT same dynamic, and I think it’s interesting that some people react differently to it when it’s Lucy than they do when it’s Joyce.

        5. Big Z

          I know that for a lot of textual reasons I kinda trusted Joe was handling it better than Walky was going to, largely because Joe was repeatedly acknowledging it in-panel as something he should be careful with.

        6. Li

          Isn’t that also what Walky was doing? He doesn’t have as much experience or the vocabulary, but he was also expressing nervousness around Lucy’s inexperience.

        7. thejeff

          It’s a similar dynamic, but the relationship aspects were very different and that changes perception.
          Both Joe and Walky were hesitant about sex, but Joe was clearly and openly head over heels for Joyce while Walky was still kind of feeling his way into a relationship with Lucy. Some of his hesitation was about her being a virgin and him not being used to being the experienced one (another difference from Joe), but I suspect a lot was about it feeling like false pretenses, especially after the “I love you” fiasco.

        8. Big Z

          @Li, yeah, to an extent, but a lot of it was what thejeff said, but also combined with the vibes-based idea that having the experience/vocabulary probably actually matters quite a bit in terms of ensuring a good outcome.

        9. Li

          idk, a lot of people were arguing pretty hard that Walky clearly did have feelings for Lucy at the time, until the breakup.

          I’m also… mmmm, unsure how to feel about criticizing Jacob or Lucy for jumping into bed together quickly.

          I thought it was pretty clear that what was happening was a combination of things, like…

          1. Jacob and Lucy having recently (and in Lucy’s case, VERY recently) had unpleasant relationship experiences with what they’d thought they wanted, which just so happened to include, in both cases, taking things slow sexually.

          2. Lucy especially being on the rebound. No, Walky didn’t owe her anything, she broke up with him, and not very kindly! But, as Lucy took some pains to remind readers, when she first met Walky, he was agonizing over moving on too soon after having been broken up with, out of an abundance of concern (too much concern) over hurting his ex’s feelings.

          That was one of if not THE first thing(s) that attracted Lucy to Walky.

          Having him show up at a party holding hands with another girl less than 24 hours later just kind of drove home the message that she, Lucy, had never been as important to him as Dorothy was.

          And oh yeah, also the girl he showed up with is literally Dorothy.

          It recontextualized a lot of things for Lucy, I think, whether fairly or unfairly.

          3. Meanwhile, as the comic had already pointed out several times, Lucy and Joyce are very similar. Jacob had already explicitly said he was going to revise his checklist to be a lot more like Joyce, and then he met Lucy.

          Also Jacob has expressed that he doesn’t want to be treated like a piece of meat, but not that he doesn’t like sex or anything: we saw him try to initiate intimacy with Raidah once (and she teasingly rebuffed him with a reminder that he should be studying).

          So. Under these circumstances, they meet. They have great chemistry. They dance. They’re both single, they’re both reconsidering what they want in a partner… they’re both looking at someone they find very attractive.

          We did get one strip where they both sheepishly acknowledged that they don’t usually sleep with someone so fast, but it was still a positive night, obviously.

          I think Willis wanted to make Lucy’s faith a lot more positive and affirming than Joyce’s, so her hangup around sex was never like Joyce’s — she just wanted it to be with someone she loved, rather than having a lot of deep dread over it (the way Becky and Liz and Joyce herself once did). And she’d already repeatedly said that she was okay with rationalizing the exact situation in which she had sex for the first time, though I kind of think Walky was joking when he mentioned the specific loophole of anal, I doubt Lucy was actually on board with that as an option for her first time.

        10. Yotomoe

          I think with Joe he was afraid to initiate because he
          1. Has a reputation for being a Horndog and wanted to make it clear to Joyce he isn’t just with her for sex
          2. He was terrified of making her uncomfortable or cross a line she was unwilling to given her trauma with sexual assault and their pretty prominent size and power disparity.
          The onus of any sexual progress was firmly on Joyce.

        11. Sirksome

          We also just saw them both slowly developing heir sexual chemistry. They were having overtly sexual conversations. Topless cuddling, Joe showing off his boner. That lets us readers see that they’re both on the same page with where they are. Things we definitely didn’t see with Walky and Lucy. It was just them dating, and Lucy saying “This counts as a date so we can have sex on the third date so I can keep to my arbitrary values of being a good Christian girl!” and Walky kinda nervously and passively accepting it only for us to learn he really appreciated Jennifer cock blocking him. And then after they’re over Lucy hooks up with Jacob after only briefly talking to him one time before that, really making the sexual dynamic she had with Walky feel especially strange to me.

        12. Yotomoe

          The “this is nothing ” strip with walky and amber is telling of the pressure walky feels to be “on” whenever he’s with Lucy. Amber truly relaxes him and makes him feel like he can be himself. Lucy put him on a pedestal and had all these expectations and goal posts she wanted to hit. It made everything feel like an obligation rather than fun.

        13. thejeff

          Lucy and Jacob felt strange to me too. Very much not in the spirit of how either had presented themselves. That’s not unrealistic, under the right circumstances, but I was surprised there wasn’t some second guessing at least the morning after.
          But they’re minor characters, really only important in how they interact with the main cast, so they’ve kind of shuffled off-stage for now.

        14. Li

          Oops I made a ridiculously long reply to this and it also went to the wrong place, sigh.

        15. Yumi

          I would be very concerned if Walky was saying that to Sal.

  24. Fail Earnhardt

    Walky is in desperate need of people close to him that don’t treat him like a nuisance, lab rat, or substitute. If getting dumped twice in a week is two shotguns to the chest, getting stuck as the perpetual backup friend is death by 1000 cuts.

    1. Yotomoe

      Walky needs friends who aren’t trying to or have at some point fucked him.

      1. Fail Earnhardt

        I mean the people in this strip who aren’t trying to fuck Walky aren’t exactly supportive, either. Billie and Sal have their own issues, Amber’s out of commission, and I honestly can’t get a read on if Booster is sincerely concerned or not. If he vanished tomorrow, everybody else in the strip wouldn’t notice for days.

        1. Yotomoe

          Amber falls SQUARELY in the “people trying to fuck Walky” category.

        2. Fail Earnhardt

          I meant Amber as one of the few people who genuinely cares about Walky the person, but you’re right. Like how is Walky gonna react when he finds out she also engaged in light social engineering to get back in bed with him?

        3. Bittersweet

          If we were lucky, she’d tell him first before they do any rebound work so they can build from zero because they’re one of my fave couples. /hj

      2. Mr. 2

        Agreed. Walky and Jason should hang out again.

        1. Yumi

          Misread this as, “Walky and Jason should make out again,” and I was just like, yeah, I agree. (It happened during the timeskip, probably.)

  25. Deanatay

    Walky considering the murder of his roommate.

    AGAIN.

  26. Lee

    I mean, he literally asked for it.

  27. Thing 2

    Booster got some cleavage going on in panel 1?

    1. Nymph

      Or a line between their pecks, or a stray hair that landed on their chest, or a little shadow on their sternum.

      We’ll never know because it’s pretty unimportant.

  28. EmTaya

    “I wonder what my next roommate will be like” /threat

  29. Morrison

    Go away Walky. We’ll see you when you’re invited into the poly.

    In fact, have we never not seen Walky when he wasn’t in some stage of some kind of loving feeling in Amy universe, outside of kid flashbacks?

    1. 3oranges

      Walky’s first appearances here were just interacting with Billie and Sal.

    2. Grimeyville

      …He was invited to the poly?

      All I’ve literally ever seen was people saying—oh, that’s the joke isn’t it? ._.

  30. skartling

    Man, these two? I hate these guys!

    1. skartling

      Was that inflammatory enough to start a fight? Did I do it right?

      1. eh, whatever

        No. You’d need to be a lot more specific.

  31. skartling

    Apparently we need to get this to 300 comments to reward Willis for putting some different characters I’m this strip today

    1. Mitzi B.

      Willis out here trying to juice engagement numbers…..smh my head

    2. Pocky

      the dichotomy of DoA hate-readers’ they want other characters, but on;y comment when Joyce and Dorothy are on page lol

      1. Big Z

        That’s literally everyone everywhere, though. People are far more likely to complain than to praise, especially in anonymous/pseudonymous forums.

        1. Bittersweet

          Fun fact, this is actually a rule in the business world. I forget the actual ratio, I think it’s 2 and 7. Someone having a good experience is likely to tell two people, someone having a bad experience is likely to tell 7. So you try to minimize the bad experiences because it’ll spread far faster via word of mouth than the good.

        2. Big Z

          Yup, it’s the same thing that causes companies to evaluate customer ratings in a way where only 5/5 or 9/10+ are “good”.

    3. StClair

      speaking only for myself, I’m increasingly inclined to just not post/engage at all.

    4. Stormtide Leviathan

      Are comments a reward, here?

    5. Needfuldoer

      I’m doing my part!

    6. nadamás

      And of course they being 100% serious about this.

  32. Professional asexual

    Booster is so rude lmaooo I love them so much

  33. foducool

    dunno but if you murder this one, your next one will wear an orange suit with some numbers on them XD

  34. Jon

    I misread that, and when I read it correctly my brain locked into a memory of when the DC character Black Alice, who can borrow the powers of any other magic-based characters, started channeling Etrigan during a fight:

    Gone, gone the ways of men,
    Arise, the demon Estrogen!

    1. Grimeyville

      My God.

      A Jason Blood reference? At this time of night? In this part of the comment section? Localized entirely in your response?

  35. Doopyboop

    Makes me wonder if Linda’s ever called Walky ‘sweetie’.

    1. Doopyboop

      https://www.dumbingofage.com/2013/comic/book-3/04-just-hangin-out-with-my-family/fancypantslounge/

      I have found the only time Linda has ever called him ‘sweetie’!

      1. Grimeyville

        And it was all downhill from there.

      2. Dwampre Scorrigank

        Ah, so he has heard the pretending-to-be-a-caring-mom act before.

        I mean, he’s probably heard it plenty from his real mom, television.

  36. Li

    Ah I see it’s a Booster day, time to avoid reading the comments for a while.

    (Sets up a little “Booster fan” flag, adds obligatory “they seem SO very neurodivergent and like they’re trying their best, and not actually like an asshole who just doesn’t care at all about other people” comment below it.

    If you wanna know where I’m getting any of that from, Booster basically said as much while talking to Ethan ages ago, and then we met Charlie.)

    1. NGPZ

      as is the responsible and helpful thing to do, Booster is indeed taking all their shots

      1. Ray Radlein

        +1

        1. Li

          idk if this is sarcastic or what, but I didn’t say Booster was always “responsible and helpful”. I said they’re not an asshole on purpose who doesn’t care about other people.

          https://www.dumbingofage.com/2023/comic/book-13/02-turning-saints-into-the-sea/hyper/
          https://www.dumbingofage.com/2023/comic/book-13/02-turning-saints-into-the-sea/punish/

          Anyway here are two of the relevant strips.

        2. NGPZ

          eh, honestly I just wanted so bad to make a pun, hope ya don’t mind lol :p

        3. NGPZ

          but yeah, as much as they can be a little much, they’re actually some of my favorite nuanced NB rep I’ve ever seen <3

        4. Li

          Thank you for clarifying, heh. Today’s been a wild one in the comments. I should’ve stuck to my metaphorical guns and avoided the comments until tomorrow.

        5. NGPZ

          yeah I need to stay away from the comments as well, but for different(?) reasons

          Willis is well aware of the, erm, problematic dynamics which tend to go on down here (hence why he added the report comment button), and if he were any other webcomic author, he would have also done away with the comments section entirely,

          in the end we can’t really treat this place like the center of the universe, and for many reasons this is actually a good thing

        6. NGPZ

          which isn’t to say, that I don’t enjoy reading what you write here, I think your takes are always nuanced and good at the very least

        7. Li

          Thank you ❤️ I enjoy your presence in the comments too. I think it’s more good than bad, but some days yeah. Breaks good.

    2. Holly

      I really like Booster too! Their autsim-level bluntness and Enbyness is relatable. Their conversational style also reads as more genuinely British than the actual sterotyped British characters in the comic. I will wave my little pro-Booster flag too.

      To me this reads as a genuine awkward concern in panel one that is interpreted as condescention and met with slight rudeness, causing a joke response to that rudeness – Walky then states what he supposedly wants, and when Booster supplies it (possibly malicious compliance, but that is justified seeing as Walky just threw the word “normal” at them, which is a crappy thing to do) he responds with a death threat (which I read as banter, just as the “sweetie” was banter from Booster – i.e. not that serious and certainly not a damning sin).

      I like Walky, too, but my point is he’s very upset here and therefore he’s being way more of a douche to Booster than people seem to be noticing. The bias towards Booster hate is depressing.

      I’d like to know what Walky thinks “normal” is here. That would be an interesting topic. Is normal ignoring him even hough he is clearly not doing well? Is normal acting trad masc? Is normal dumbing down conversations and avoiding serious topics? Is normal behaving like Mike did so that Walky doesn’t notice the difference and think about him? Is normal having zero sense of humour and never making any jokes?

      1. Daibhid C

        I think “normal” is pretending the reason Walky’s depressed doesn’t exist. Like at the Hallowe’en party, because that worked out so well for him.

      2. C.T Phipps

        I don’t think Booster is neurodivergent.

        They are way too socially skilled. They just enjoy the manipulations and head games.

        1. Li

          You’re extremely incorrect and need to actually meet more ND people! Even if you’re ND yourself, “can’t be neurodivergent because you got too good at masking*” is a shitty statement.

          And by the way Booster isn’t that good at masking lol, their “manipulations” are so awkward and upset people regularly. If they were actually as good at it as you think they are, they’d have tons of friends, and wouldn’t regularly be told their reactions to things are inappropriate (which is what actually happens in the comic all the time, including this very strip).

        2. C.T Phipps

          I am indeed neurodivergent myself and think she’s the kind of neurotypical person who scares me.

        3. Li

          Okay well now you’ve added misgendering to this, so. That extra sucks, man.

        4. Li

          See the strips I just linked above for NGPZ and Ray, and note how they both self-describe as hyper vigilant due to almost EXPLICITLY transphobic trauma and how they say they might be terrible at being a friend because they “don’t have many”, and ask yourself again if they’re ~just too socially skilled~ to be neurodivergent.

        5. C.T Phipps

          I take Booster as being a fictional character and whether they are neurodivergent or not as being explicitly the decision of the author. I can make an interpretation but not a conclusion. However, I would not make any conclusions or hostility to RL neurodivergent people over a fictional one.

        6. Li

          Consider though that saying Booster is “too good at socializing to be ND” has unpleasant splashback on your fellow ND readers who have specifically said they recognize themselves or their friends in Booster.

        7. zee

          Pff. Yeah sure dude, okay. I’m sure you’d watch dungeon meshi and think Kabru is neurotypical too ?

          Sometimes when you’re naturally disadvantaged at something you obsessively learn all the rules so you can try to come across as proficient. Sometimes your autistic special interest can be social dynamics and how people work. Clearly the case here for booster. Sometimes autistic people just don’t fit the stereotypes in your head. And, as Li pointed out, they’re not even that good socially! They’re a lil weirdo (affectionate)! They turn people off! They don’t have like, any friends that we’ve seen!!! I’m also not 100% that one twin can be ND (Charlie) but not the other. They’re presumably fraternal so idk

        8. Yotomoe

          I think its funny cuz I think the creator herself didn’t clock Laios. She just put a lot of herself in him which…yknow.
          Sometimes things come through in your art that you don’t realize yourself.
          (That and Japanese society’s view on mental health can be just a bit conservative)

        9. StClair

          Willis, early on: “I don’t feel comfortable saying [character] is ND because I myself am not, and don’t want to get in trouble for misnaming/misrepresenting.”

          Willis, later: “… fuck.”

          (because the TF wiki/fandom and, y’know, everything else wasn’t a giant effing clue)

        10. zee

          Yeah turns out the best NB rep is almost always accidental. Dunmeshi gave us a buffet that rivals doa’s

      3. Li

        All of this!

    3. Daibhid C

      I’m sort of with you halfway on that. Like, I feel like sometimes Booster does this stuff on purpose. Maybe most times.

      My take on Booster (which I think is also supported by that conversation with Ethan) is that at some point they noticed that their deep insight into how other people think didn’t translate into actually saying the right thing, and decided that deliberately leaning into that was better than doing it by accident. But when they’re not leaning into it, they still do it by accident.

      1. Li

        It’s the same thing as Carla, basically? And many people have exactly the same reaction to her, this “I refuse to pay enough attention to notice how obviously a front her persona is, it must be genuine at all times and therefore I’m justified in hating her” thing.

        1. Cameron Stone

          For me it’s less that I don’t recognize and more that it’s annoying and not very compelling. If you want that to work you kinda need to show more moments of vulnerability or else it just clocks like bad, ironing-poisoned writing. Like Mike may have been “worse” in terms of his actions (which were done when the comic was transitioning from Shortpacked level of comedic tone) but at least his deadpan stoic-ness was more palatable than Booster being smugy-smug all the time. Mike was also a legacy character so people just have more attachment even if it’s not the same continuity. Carla’s problem is she’s written like, “is it awesome how the billionaire rich kid is loud and obnoxious to random people for no good reason” (other than Mary). Which worked when she was originally Ultra Car’s mind put in an android body, but not so much when she was supposed to be an actual human being for he entire life.

        2. Li

          Okay.

        3. Li

          Like it works for me just fine, I have no problem seeing beneath Carla and Booster’s facades, so. Guess we are at an impasse, have a good day.

        4. thejeff

          I’m still amused that at some point the perception of Carla changed from “the trans kid” to “the billionaire kid” and I’m pretty sure it wasn’t anything about her presentation in the comic that did it.

    4. zee

      Booster has done nothing wrong ever in their life and I love them

      1. Tan

        Objectively correct.

      2. Nymph

        Truuuue

      3. Li

        hah, I don’t entirely co-sign but I do support you.

        1. zee

          I’m here as a proud defender of trans rights AND trans wrongs ♥️
          (Sorry not sorry to partially steal your joke nymph)

        2. Li

          ❤️ ❤️ ❤️

        3. Nymph

          that’s okay, it’s a meme anyway so not my joke ?

        4. zee

          Ik but if felt like the courteous thing to do

    5. Nymph

      *copies Booster-fan flag* Love them so much, love everything they do. I support their rights and their wrongs.

      1. Li

        ❤️

  37. Bash

    This whole thing is *hilarious* to me

  38. Acher4

    Hehehhe.

    Not Walky slyly remarking of Booster’s death.

  39. sickolesbian

    yay ! booster!

    1. zee

      THE GOAT HAS ARRIVED!!!

  40. Corey C.

    Correction- he got dumped by two girlfriends AND got rejected from a booty call in the same week.

    Walky’s luck with women finally ran out. And, honestly, after getting back together so soon with Dorothy after being told he’s too selfish to date Lucy, I’m not shedding any tears. Joe at least TRIED to be a better person, but it’s astonishing how much effort Walky has taken to not better himself and still jump from one girl to the next. And even when BILLIE tries to console him, his immaturity still got him literally kicked off his bed!

    1. Fail Earnhardt

      This seems really harsh and ignores all the ways Lucy and Dorothy used him for fantasy projection and an emotional crutch respectively. He’s the one guy in the strip I could believe just wanted to play games with Amber. (pretty sure they’ve done that a couple times already) Walky is probably gonna keep cycling in and out of this shit until he finds people who don’t treat him like a fallback option.

    2. Odo

      Walky’s problem has never been selfishness, it has been low self-esteem thinking of himself as a screw up and so never standing up for himself.

      When Jennifer tried to console him she did so by saying “you’re a four” … so getting a bit of flak back from Walky seems pretty appropriate.

  41. girls rule basically

    This one’s funny

  42. Kyulen

    I kinda hope Booster realizes soon that their constant psychoanalyzing and just generally being obnoxious to other people isn’t making them a lot of friends.

    1. nadamás

      I hope they make a lot of friends while continuing being like that. I think they should be rewarded for it honestly.

  43. Arianod

    Yeah, definitely NOT helping.

  44. BorkBorkBork

    I’ve been reading through some of the older, fall semester stuff, and… yeah, there’s a ton of similarities between Booster and Mike. More than the obvious ones. A lot of the subtle ones. Like being acutely aware of what made other people tick and keeping a mental dossier of other people.

    … strips like this one remind me that there really isn’t much difference between the two. Other than that Mike was honest about his intentions, and Booster is not; and Mike was capable of having close friendships, while Booster does not, and Mike thought those people worth putting his life on the line to protect, while Booster sees them as dntertainment.

    I’m not sure why Booster gets a pass for literally doing the same thing that Mike did, other than the fact that they say it with a smile. Any labels you put on Mike can be put on Booster. They’ve caused a similar level of mental torment to people who very much are not their friends, solely for their own amusement.

    I know that might get some people angrily yelling about how abusive Mike was and how Booster’s just a loveable misunderstood scamp, but I think that viewpoint is coming from one that hasn’t read Mike in context in a long time, has already safely labeled them something horrible where they dont need to consider the nuances of the character, and likewise have a bevy of creative interpretations for Booster’s behavior when they essentially torment the people they hang around.

    Also, this strip feels like foreshadowing.

    1. thejeff

      Booster has not to our knowledge done anything equivalent to “poking Amber’s bear for five friggin’ years” to make her “multiple timebombs”. Mike’s closest “friend” was maybe 50% sure they were friends. Booster doesn’t concoct elaborate schemes to mess with people.
      Mike was an abuser and he definitely helped screw up Amber and Ethan, and even Walky. He realized in the end how similar his excuses were to what Blaine was spewing and that led to his sacrifice move.

      1. Astariel

        @thejeff – You’re exactly right. I’m still not sure how I feel about Booster, but there’s no question that they’re leagues better than Mike. The level of whitewashing the comments has for Mike is nuts. An abuser is exactly what he was. He went out of his way to make the lives of everyone around him worse. Booster isn’t anywhere close to that.

      2. BorkBorkBork

        Being “better than Mike” isn’t a high hurdle to get. Kind of like how Ross is better than Blaine, and Carol is better than Ross.

        I say “get a pass” because there are many, many people who see Booster as not being antagonistic at all. Many self-proclaimed “Booster fans” and far more “Booster apologists.” It makes it hard to say “You know, this is shitty behavior and isn’t OK” without making a ruckus.

        And maybe I shouldn’t even mention the Mike comparison, but Willis is drawing it constantly, its *very* obvious. And this sort of “kick him while he’s down” sort of thing is something I’d more expect to see from Mike.

        Except with Mike, what he’d say was crafted specifically to get Walky up and out of bed. And when he didn’t get out of bed, he went and got Amber, the person who could help his roommate. Whereas with Booster, I feel like they’d be more likely to talk about just how fascinating it was to see someone crashing and burning.

    2. zee

      Idk what you mean about “getting a pass” when every comment section with them is filled with comments identical to this one

      1. Taffy

        Yeah but if I ignore those comments and think about watercress instead, it looks like they’re not even being made.

        1. perpetual summer

          a genuinely great tip for life. think about watercress

        2. StClair

          when I think about watercress, I just get reminded of The Trumpet of the Swan.

    3. Rimwalker55

      Both Mike and Booster play the same part within DoA; They are both oracle and narrator to story plot lines. Neither one of them gets a “Hero’s Journey” type story arc because their function requires stability. Mike achieves a hero’s sacrifice ending, but he’s still the same Mike and when he passes his function is given to a more sympathetic character.

      They are almost literally Mr. Willis walking on stage to set an important story point.

      1. Opinion

        They do serve the same function but I find Booster alot less likeable personally.

        Like Mike was an A$$ but he was a very open and unapologetic one. He said mean things and it was acknowledged by everyone in and out of universe that Mike was being a jerk that was his whole gimmick.

        Booster on the other hand is still a jerk but they dont own it in the same way. Its like they are mean/condescending but think they are doing it in an enlightened way so it’s okay.

        Idk maybe its just makes them a less enjoyable version of that role.

    4. C.T Phipps

      I admit this is part of why don’t want Booster to be neuroatypical because I think that runs into the idea of associating their cruelty and head games with a condition that does not lead to either. Like the attempt to blame mental health for violence when the mentally ill are far more likely to be victims of violence than perpetrators.

      In this case, mental abuse and bullying.

      1. sickolesbian

        neurodivergent people are capable of being assholes? in any case i dont really think booster is that bad

  45. Jernacious

    Delicious. Finally some good Walky suffering.

  46. Taffy

    I hate Booster’s mouth today. It doesn’t have enough medium-sized birds in it.

    1. John Campbell

      Walky left some McNuggets that could be stuffed in there?

  47. Dot

    At approximately this point my fingers would be finding their way around Booster’s throat

    1. Dot

      Sorry to any Booster fans, genuinely, but if there’s one thing that can set me off it’s being condescending to me

      1. zee

        That’s fair, but have you considered: they’re my perfect blorbo? They’re skrongly bonglies?

        1. Mitzi B.

          i gotta be honest, I both hate Booster (for being a condescending prick) and love Booster (for being cheeky and nonbinary and a good sibling) simultaneously. I figure since they’re a fictional character, I can superimpose my love and hatred of them indefinitely.

        2. zee

          This is the way.
          Tbh if I had a booster plush I’d probably treat it like a Deltarune fan treats their spamton plush. I’d absolutely be soaking them in milk and throwing them against a wall till they stop making wet sounds. Theyre that kind of blorbo.

        3. zee

          To be clear I don’t hate them for being an asshole bc it’s too amusing when they are, but hate/love is a very good way to appreciate the Booster

        4. Dot

          I don’t have any particularly strong feelings about Booster but I do find their asshole moments to be way more real and way less entertaining than Mike’s, who relied on audacity and crossing the line twice to avoid just coming off as “someone I’d probably just avoid in real life.” He occupied a niche that I don’t think Booster fills as effectively.

        5. anon

          nice teto icon

          lol well, at the very least they’re entertainining butwonder if htey’ll get an arc where tehy have to deal with all teh emotional heaviness/trauma the rest of the cast already went through to see if they change or maybe double down on their personality

        6. zee

          Omg someone recognized the birdbrain grav. I’ve been waiting for this moment for months. I applaud your taste in music my friend.

        7. Taffy

          Wait holy shit, that is “Birdbrain” Teto. I only just watched the video today, after finding it on the channel of the producer of Snapcube’s Kingdom Hearts fandub’s theme song, “Do No Harm”. The first time I heard “Birdbrain” was during a Final Fantasy Dragsidia Drag Show, with a really energetic drag king dancing around to the song dressed as Meteion.

    2. Big Z

      I’m more in a place of “I would probably literally be smacking Booster on the back of the head and telling them to knock it off” than outright murder, myself, but I understand the impulse.

      To misquote every white guy’s favorite farce, “You’re not wrong, Booster, you’re just an asshole.”

  48. Rimwalker55

    Can anyone remember a male character breaking up with a female character? The only one I recall is Jacob and Raidah, and that was off camera.

    1. Taffy

      Asher broke up with Billie so he could go fuck Ethan. That’s one.

      1. JBento

        That’s zero, actually. Here is Jennifer saying she and Asher aren’t dating, before he fucked Ethan.

        1. Taffy

          It’s as close as we’ve ever gotten.

    2. Astariel

      At least part of the Jacob/Raidah breakup was on camera.

      https://www.dumbingofage.com/2019/comic/book-10/01-birthday-pursuit/bubblebrained/

      I can’t think of any others, but it’s not too surprising given how female-heavy the cast is.

    3. Mitzi B.

      https://www.dumbingofage.com/2012/comic/book-2/05-saturdays-all-right-for-slighting/moms/ for a certain value of “breaking up”

  49. zee

    PEAK HAS REACHED MY SCREEN

  50. zee

    FUCK IT im bringing the booster love thread back. PRAISE BE TO THE SKROINGLY

    I missed their autistic bitch ass so much

    1. I Know Why the Mowed Lawn Screams

      truly booster is my zillennial enby-in-arms !! recognization (and a fond cringe) of the self through the fictionalized other.

      1. I Know Why the Mowed Lawn Screams

        there’s just an incredibly niche phenomenological set of observable traits booster has that reminds me of all the andrea long-chu reading, modern baseball listening, stood out too much in a “bad way” to fit in with their peers and had to exaggerate certain traits to better navigate how to interact with other people growing up, fully internalized to speak with tumblr prose when doing any kind of amateur pop-analysis, was an “old soul” as a kid, active nebula subscription people that i have known (and i have been) in my life, and there is no other way i can look at that and not go “very real and true”.

        1. perpetual summer

          I was just reading these and nodding along like SO true

        2. Taffy

          Booster definitely has a lifetime subscription to Nebula. If I had to guess, they probably learned about it through Curious Archive and worked a part-time summer job to pay the very expensive fee.

    2. Doopyboop

      Booster has a great fashion sense and they give me gender envy.

  51. Disastroid

    Well, what can he do?
    He’ll have to laser off the “D” tattoo.

  52. raultsi

    A week? Jeezum crow, is that all it’s been?

    1. Needfuldoer

      The last chapter covered one in-universe day over the course of 100 real-time days, so yeah.

  53. Da Boy

    Probably a neurosurgeon planning to open up your skull and tinker with your brain directly XD

  54. spriteless aunty

    If you count his mom, 3 break ups!

    1. NGPZ

      ngl this did make me chuckle a bit XD

  55. ValdVin

    Is “Dumped by two consecutive gfs in a week” a bit too normal? And is that what Mike would have said?

    1. Nymph

      If you’re just pointing out that Booster shares a few traits with Mike, then yeah totally.

      If you’re implying a latine nonbinary person with a twin sister is somehow a cis white guy in brownface who is taking advantage of Charlie’s lack of attention to pretend to be a twin sibling she’s always had then… like… No? I hope not? That would be awful enough that I would stop reading the comic entirely.

      Not meant as an aggro comment, just genuinely unsure what you meant and offering up answers to my guesses.

      1. JBento

        “If you’re just pointing out that Booster shares a few traits with Mike, then yeah totally”

        Ngl, I think their hair is starting to morph into Mike-ness? If the projection starts ending in a few straight lines, we might consider calling an exorcist.

  56. Nymph

    Very happy to see everyone correcting the misgendering of Booster in the comments! Whether the misgendering is accidental or intentional is irrelevant, it’s just so nice to see it getting curbed fast and friendly-like.

    Keep up the good work everyone!!

    1. Spriteless Aunty

      yes peeps being nice

      1. StClair

        How much do you think is nice, and how much is leaping at the chance to correct someone?
        I guess it has the same result, in this case.

        1. Nymph

          They’re being nice about the corrections though <3

  57. Plain Marie

    Aw, piss off, Booster.

  58. perpetual summer

    I really like Booster here. This is just such a funny sequence. I 100% believe they’re genuinely asking / being sympathetic in the first panel & then somewhat facetious in the third, mirroring Walky’s flippant answer – and then Walky asks them to act normal. Unfortunately for Walky Boosters normal is pointed questions & being nosy.

    (… I hate to bring Mike up but this really is a good example of why I like Booster as a “replacement”, at least in the role their characters play – I could easily see this playing out similarly with Mike but just in a less fun way because Mike doesn’t have another register other than deadpan asshole. Even if he ~secretly means well~ or whatever people love saying, he just does the one thing, and that never was very interesting to me. Also this punchline could never work, and it’s a really fun one. )

    1. Big Z

      Honestly I find “jovially smartassed, causes potentially arbitrary harm” far superior to “snarkily mean, causes potentially purposeful harm”.

      1. Dot

        My issue with Booster is that they come across as just, like, a realistically unpleasant sort of person that I tend to chafe against in real life, while Mike was a cartoon character notwithstanding fleeting moments of depth.

        1. JBento

          You see this sort of thing a lot. Like, take Harry Potter (eugh, but whatever): Voldemort is the literal worst. Man is literally magical Hitler. You do not get worse than Voldemort. But it’s people like Dolores Umbridge that are the biggest hatesinks, because we all know an Umbridge and want them to get hit by a speeding bus with a bladed bumper.

        2. StClair

          a lot of people find Mother Gothel to be Disney’s most terrifying villain, because unlike the ones who turn into dragons and stuff, her emotional abuse is something that many have personal experience of.

        3. Li

          Too bad about the antisemitic caricaturing that is like, all over her character design, especially versus Rapunzel, because otherwise she’d be great.

        4. Dot

          Unfortunately a lot of things that are often used to code villainy are also antisemitic!

        5. Li

          Almost like there’s a deeply ingrained connection or something. ?

      2. Yotomoe

        For me theyre just different flavors. I don’t like Booster as a replacement but I don’t dislike their dynamic. There’s a world where we could have had both coexist and be the angel and devil on walky’s shoulder.

        1. Yotomoe

          Oh no. I think i ship them.

        2. yak

          Oh my god they would be the best couple ever.

        3. Nymph

          Oh no, it’s contagious!

  59. Peregrinus

    Lesson I learned, probably long before most of you saw the light of day, and one that would really help these characters, were they real folks:

    You are not fit to participate in a relationship until you can face life without one. Learn that you won’t die when someone leaves, and you aren’t as desperate to hold on, not as tempted to try to control them.

    If your life collapses when someone leaves, you were leaning on them too hard. It’s fine, even a good sign if you miss them awhile, but if you spiral, you were depending on them for too much.

    When someone leaves, it’s an opportunity to stand on your own; to build independent emotional endurance and fortitude. Go on with your life. If there’s a new relationship later, you’ll be a better partner for it.

  60. yak

    I don’t really get why people read Booster as neurodivergent. They don’t act at all like the people I know that are on the spectrum, including my partner and maybe myself. They have an unusual personality, that seems to be about it.

    Anyway, this isn’t really an asshole move at all. Annoying someone is an effective way to get them out of bed.

    1. nadamás

      Ok, that really doesn’t mean aything. It’s called a spectrum for a reason, it’s not a solid monolith where Neuro divergent people only act in one specific way. I don’t think you are trying to, but it’s kinda shitty to dismiss other people nd experience because they don’t match the ones you are familiar with.

      1. yak

        I definitely don’t mean to dismiss anyone else’s experience, I just don’t understand what about Booster makes people identify them as neurodivergent.

        1. Yumi

          Many people have explained many times in comments. Is it that you’ve read those and gone, “I just don’t see it” or that you haven’t seen explanations/analysis of it? Sincerely, just to understand if you might want explanations or if you’re just succinctly expressing your disagreement.

    2. Li

      People read Booster as ND because we as ND people either relate to them or we do know ND people who are very similar.

      You and your friend group just aren’t the only ND people in the world, that’s all.

      (Also ND != autistic, for the record. ND is the whole big range of various and sundry neurospicy flavors.

      Like, I do think Booster is specifically autistic, but there’s more to ND than just being autistic.)

      1. yak

        I’m aware that neurodivergent doesn’t mean autistic and that there’s a huge variety of how it is. The point of my comment is just that I personally don’t see it. I may have gotten pre-emptively defensive in how I framed my reasoning, though.

        1. Li

          Well, you just dismissed the idea of them being ND and then specifically talked about them not seeming like they’re on the spectrum, so I felt the need to point it out. If you meant a more general spectrum of neurodiversity, my bad.

    3. Opinion

      ND is a big spectrum with a bunch of experiences.

      Plus there are some people in online communities that like to throw out ND labels when a character they like is behaving in a way that would typically be viewed negatively.

    4. anon

      i would assume charlie as more MD but booster does seem like the type that’d tell you about all his own neurosis while studying other ppl’s minds

      but they do talk about ppl acting ‘normal’/masking/etc/putting on a fake persona to blend in and stuff, tho i don’t think booster would care about that, versus the ppl who act ‘unique/quirky’ to stick out/get attention, they are teens after all

    5. zee

      I mean, p much everyone saying they read booster as ND/autistic is saying it’s because they see their specific brand of ’tism in them. They’re 1000% spectrumified. Their special interest is social dynamics and how the human mind works

      1. Li

        This.

        Like I know that NT people who are fascinated by psychiatry are… problematic, but Booster is definitely not that type.

  61. Wendy

    Poor Walky, but also, lol at the last panel.

  62. anon

    i qwould think ‘comforting mom’ woudl be appreciated considering his last meeting with his mom

    I mean, this is a dramadey but i doubt booster will be killed off too

  63. ADLegend21

    I wonder who all will be there for Walky and Joe coming out of all this. This is a great chance to show some genuine support for these guys going through a hard time.

    1. apocryphascribe

      Doubt there will be many! Walky’s friend group is mostly tied to Dorothy, and Joe’s got an issue where most of the campus still thinks he’s a gross sex pest. If anything, this is a perfect chance to for them to make new friends with whom sex/dating isn’t on the table.

  64. NGPZ

    genuinely hope ya happy Willis, for the first time in a long while ya got 300+ comments on a non Doyce strip XD

    …but at what cost? (0~0)

    1. zee

      Aside from a truly, no one could have seen this coming fight about forced feminization, it was like 90% conflict free

      1. nadamás

        There was also an asshole being weird about using Booster correct pronouns

        1. NGPZ

          UGH just

          TIRED of all this shit, pretty number go up but pretty number have point of diminishing returns

          as much as the report comment feature takes care of the very worst of the problematic dynamics that go on down here,

          Willis should hire some actual mods, or better yet, just make like many other webcomic author and just do away with this place entirely

          sometimes we have fun down here yes, but honestly who needs it? X-X

        2. nadamás

          Yeah overall i be less stressed if it just wasn’t an option to come here.

        3. Tequila Mockingbird

          lOne thing that helped me was element blocker, which you can get as a firefix extention on its own, but ublock origin also has it. I deleted the button that even let me see somments on my desktop. it helped me a lot, hopefully it will help you. i have to use these strategies to counteract the adhd and ocd i juggle. i totally get why you sometimes get sucked un no matter how hard you try.

        4. NGPZ

          I mean even then these out of hand dynamics here are really concerning, especially considering the sole reason Willis keeps this place around to begin with — specifically, he said he needs a way to let people know if he’s being tonedeaf, given how liable he is as an ex-fundie white dude who writes a lot about people different than him.

          Regardless of good intention, an online space left to mostly automatically moderate itself with little to no intervention from mods will inevitably overtime tend to collect the worst kinds of people, bring out the worst in people, and subsequently, keep the best out

          People like Megan, Mowed Lawn, and Regalli, etc have already expressed heavy resentment prompting them to spent but a sliver of the amount of time here they used to or even quit entirely

          the people Willis wants/needs to hear from just don’t feel safe posting here anymore, defeating the purpose of the comments section to begin with

        5. Nymph

          It kind of seems like you’re suggesting the people who do post here aren’t the people Willis needs/wants to hear from.

          There are plenty of marginalized people still commenting here, I’m sorry your faves don’t feel comfy anymore. That is genuinely a shame. I hope he hires mods, I do! I don’t want any regulars in the comments section to be among them, but I hope he gets a couple to help him out.

        6. NGPZ

          I mean yeah it’s true that some marginalized folk who are willing to let Willis know if he did something wrong still post here, yes,

          …but for how much longer so long as this shit plays out???

          Megan has already expressed why/how this place has gotten too much for them and quit indefinitely, honestly that should have been the wake up call

          and yeah I really REALLY hope he can at least get some mods,

          and thankfully I almost certainly doubt he’d look to the comments section itself as a hiring pool

        7. Nymph

          One person leaving a comment section is not a “wake-up call”

          I think you are confusing your personal friend group, or group of commenters you like, with the vast majority of people commenting. It’s fine if they leave, others will come.

        8. zee

          Also if we’re talking about the Megan that called taffy an incel, they left in a super toxic fit that frankly makes me feel safer without them around

        9. NGPZ

          Megan and Mowed lawns aren’t exactly my personal friend group, what the hell with these assumptions Nymph?

          I don’t condone Megan calling Taffy that but at the same time, did you not see their reaction to that one comment left on Yoto’s poll a while back???

          the comment about rape and murder???

          that honestly would have scared anyone, an if left majorly unmodded the comments sections dynamics are just gonna continue to get worse and feel less safe for people in general — including people who would otherwise be willing to let Willis know if he did something tonedeaf

          anyways I’m really not arguing about this anymore

      2. Big Z

        I’ve been waiting for that explosion to happen for a while, honestly — it’s entirely too intersectionally fraught with meanings to NOT be a land mine.

        I mean, it was kinda weird that it happened TODAY.

    2. QueenofSodor

      i started leaving regular comments here to try to offset the negativity generated by any given joyrothy strip, and so far this seems to’ve been a bad call because even when they’re not in the daily strip, the worst people on earth are still saying things that make my skin crawl (literally in this case bc the people yelling about the forcefem bit seem to also be regulars in the anti-joyrothy tirades) and this time it’s MY fault it’s happening! this shit sucks!

      1. Dot

        FWIW as a “hater” of note I liked the forcefem joke

      2. Donovan

        Uh sorry for having a vulnerable moment I guess

        1. Doopyboop

          Internet expression of sympathy for you Donovan I don’t think you did anything wrong.

        2. Donovan

          I get that this is just self-centered anxiety brain talking but reading the comments on blusky and its like, uh. I guess the thread where i slipped up and had an open moment about sexual harrassment i’ve gotten (my mistake, never let your guard down on the internet, 100% something I should know better about) is just a joke.

        3. Donovan

          Y’know maybe I just don’t fit here.

        4. Doopyboop

          If it helps, I don’t think it’s a joke and I think anyone laughing about it or minimizing it should be ashamed of themselves. You shouldn’t feel forced to stay somewhere you don’t feel comfortable, but I think it’s a shame people can’t give the bare minimum of kindness.

        5. Li

          Seriously.

          I know I got heated, I know some folks are probably mad at me for it. But you did literally nothing wrong.

        6. Li

          Like I’ll take my lumps, and Adept came in super hot (in what seemed to me like a genuine trauma response), but you literally just chimed in quietly about your experiences in a separate thread.

          @Willis: I assume you put that comment up before it all went south but as it stands……. a bit rough for a joke, sir.

        7. Big Z

          You’re just fine, you did nothing wrong, and we’re happy to have you here.

      3. NGPZ

        it’s not your fault at all! 🙁

        shit like this is literally the reason MANY webcomic authors just bite the bullet and shut off their comments sections for good

        that this one still exists is an exception among exceptions

  65. Icalasari

    “Oh boy I’m gonna read the comments!”
    …
    “What the f-“

    1. Nymph

      Agreed.

    2. Steamweed

      That’ll l’arn ’em a thing.

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