Because she’s prettier than Donald Trump. Literally, that’s the only reason. If she looked like Trump, no one would think she could possibly have any redeemable qualities.
Needfuldoer
Just about anything is prettier than a yam with a prolapse.
Some of us remember how she was in Shortpacked and want to see that character come back, if only for a bit.
Djaevlenselv
^This, pretty much. Despite DoA being it’s own continuity, and these characters not being exactly the same people as in Walkyverse, we’re still mostly basing our expectations of Robin on hope that she is still basically the same well-meaning idiot who went into politics as a lark. No appearance she’s had in DoA this far has seen her show any sort of redeemable behaviour with the possible expection of promising to throw wassisface in jail a few strips ago.
Yes, this. I have fond memories of Robin from Shortpacked! and am still hopeful that she’ll have a redemption arc. She wouldn’t be the first character from the old ‘verse to do so, but if Robin had a change of heart, she would have the potential to make things better for the people of Indiana to a much wider degree than Joyce has.
Also, I still ship Robin/Leslie, despite everything that’s happened so far in DOA.
trlkly
Even just knowing her in this continuity, she’s not really like Trump at all. Sure, she sometimes works as a stand in for Trump, but that doesn’t mean her personality is anything like his.
Can you imagine any of what we’ve seen here happening with Trump? Do you imagine him getting drunk and hanging out with people at all? Do you think he’d feel bad about how a school presentation went, and want to make it up to the teacher? Do you think he’d give a shit about Ryan and drugging girls?
This whole bit has actually helped me understand how Leslie could possibly be attracted to this woman. If she, due to her experience in the closet, could see beyond the facade that Robin was presenting and saw this person underneath, I could see how she could fall for her, despite her politics, and thus hope she could change her so it would be morally acceptable to be with her.
One of the reason Trump’s popularity confounded me was how fundamentally unlikeable his personality is. Sure, if you package a bunch of awfulness in a pleasant enough package, I get that you can bring people in. That’s what various Republican candidates has been doing for years.
This woman is likeable. And I can say that without feeling the slightest bit of attraction to her.
Gamaran Sepudomyn
Heck, the fact that she acknowledges that trans women are women is a major improvement over a large number of Democrats.
Jon Rich
“Do you think he’d give a shit about Ryan and drugging girls?”
He might give Ryan a few pointers. “Look, no need for the drugs. Just get famous. *When you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab ’em by the —–.*”
*Everything between the asterisks is an actual quote.
You know, I’m really not digging Leslie in these panels. For her own selfish reasons, weather she be correct or not, she’s already telling Robin that she’s not straight. Last I heard, telling people what their orientations are is supposed to be a bad thing. She’s also risking outing her in a public place. Also bad. And again, for her own selfish ends more than anything.
Although, I haven’t been digging this story-line much at all anyway. I saw enough of Robin being terrible to Leslie in Shortpacked! And inevitably, Robin is going to be terrible to Leslia…because Robins terrible to people across universes.
You’re reading a different comic. In what panel did she say Robin wasn’t straight?
Unusually Angry Hippie
I got it from the ‘because your afraid your not straight?’ comment, which I suppose my cynical brain read as another variation of the old ‘are you SUUUURRREEE your *sexuality*’. Never really a good sign, forcing otherwise happy people to question themselves like that.
Also, this bar counter isn’t exactly a ‘private’ place to be discussing this sort of thing. Robin is high profile and we live in smartphone-world these days, anyone could be recording. I’ve got the sneaking suspicion that Dorothy was right earlier when she said Leslie was intent upon outing Robin, and it’s despicable as it is pragmatic. If Leslie can get Robin, who she’s convinced by her own desires to already consider non-straight, to recognize it, than she scores both a personal AND a moral victory, as Robin couldn’t well stick with the right-wings agenda once she knew that, and Leslie would have a chance in hell with the object of her lust. I’ve grown wary of people who have a vested interest in other people’s orientation, who put up a facade of ‘whatever they choose’ while desperately hoping and nudging the odds in the direction they would prefer.
It’s playing with people’s lives and I don’t like it much at all. Even when it happens to Robin…which surprises me, because I disliked Robin even before it was cool.
TheOthin
“Forcing otherwise happy people to question themselves” suggests Robin is plenty fine with repressing herself, and I don’t think Leslie believes that. This looks to me like it’s no longer about seduction and has moved on to being about trying to help Robin out of a shitty situation.
Ethan
What, exactly is wrong with repressing oneself? Its your choice.
Sure, it’s not morally wrong, but that doesn’t mean it’s not harmful to your mental health to do so.
Especially since Robin is most likely doing it not because it’s what she wants, but because she’s afraid of reprisal, and being shunned by her peers. She’s doing it not because she wants to repress her interest in other women, but because she believes it’s “normal” to do so.
trlkly
It being harmful to your mental health is a pretty good argument for it being immoral–all else being the same.
Sure, if you repress in order to help others, that’s a more murky situation. But repressing and hurting yourself only?
If a person does something that harms themself, but no one else, would you say they’re a bad person because of it?
Like, am I a bad person because I often eat poorly and sit on my ass for long periods, probably shaving years of my own lifespan?
No, I’m simply lazy and rather out of shape.
The Chosen One
Am I a bad person because I often jaywalk? No, I’m just doing something I, strictly speaking, probably shouldn’t, even if it doesn’t tend to hurt anyone, and even if many other people do it with no ill consequences. Which is still just a fancy way of saying “basically immoral (if not unethical)”
I respect in principle your right to choose to be lazy, but there definitely exists a moral argument against, you know, Sloth, as being more of a vice than a virtue, as such things are measured. And that same argument applies to other kinds of treating oneself poorly, as above.
Going all the way back up to the comic, though, if Leslie is “stepping in” on Robin’s behalf, it’s a moral gray area: bad if she’s wrong (and we don’t know exactly why she’s as confident as she is) but good if she is right (and we have meta reasons to believe she happens to be)
Something “being a vice” and “being immoral” are not the same thing though. A vice may reflect poorly on your character, but it’s not typically regarded as corresponding to good/evil.
We were discussing the morality of Robin forcing herself to into the closet, and denying her attraction to women, but as for Leslie’s actions, this whole line of questioning started with earnest response to Robin’s almost explicitly stated belief that people could just choose not to be gay. I’m pretty sure when Leslie asked “is it like that for you?”, she had no idea Robin was attracted to women, and was expecting her to realize “no, I guess it isn’t”. Leslie only seems to start to suspect today, and Robin is giving her EVERY reason to with her extremely over-the-top denial.
I really don’t see how the morality of Leslie’s actions is impacted by whether her suspicions are correct or not. If she’s wrong, what has she done? She smirked a bit at the way Robin insisted she was straight. Considering how she was miming a blowjob, that seems an appropriate reaction either way.
Leslie asked what I think is a completely sincere question, which logically follows from Robin’s reaction to her previous question.
And SHE is keeping her voice down. Robin’s the one raising her voice and miming a blowjob
nothri
Yeah. I agree with the hippie. Honestly, both Leslie and Robin feel a little “off” here, although we don’t know as much about either of them here as we did in Shortpacked. I mean, its one thing to try to educate Robin about her policies (Robin being dense and obtuse about what hurts or annoys the people around her is a consistent character trait) but the end of the last comic felt like an awkward transition into the subject of Robin’s sexuality. It just doesn’t feel like the best way to broach the topic, I suppose, and it feels off to me that Leslie would push the subject this way.
thejeff
Except that the entire reason they’re having this conversation is Robin’s sexuality. Robin’s obviously not admitting it, but there’s only so long Leslie could dance around the elephant in the room.
Unusually Angry Hippie
You hit the nail on the head. Both characters just seem ‘off’ throughout this whole interaction, as if it’s somehow forced, and it isn’t really any fun to read because thanks to Shortpacked! we already know EXACTLY what the end result is going to be.
It’s just not dramatic because Robin isn’t going through any sort of actual ‘growth’, she’s just turning back into the indefinably queer Robin we already knew. *Yawn* Boring. I’m just going to have to grit my teeth through these chapters and hope that at some point Willis realized that we saw all we needed to of these characters in the last comic.
So, you’re complaining BOTH that the two of them feel “off”, AND that you bored because you expect the exact same result as before? Seriously?
Maybe part of the reason it feels off is because of that expectation. If you’re convinced things are going to go the same way as before, then the story steering another direction would likely cause it to feel off.
And I doubt it will go the same as before. They will probably end up dating, sure. But the different timescale alone ensures that what we see of their relationship can’t play out quite the same. If it actually lasts until the comic ends, we’ll see less than 9 months of it, unless the singularity hits and Willis decides to continue the comic past freshman year once we’re all just brains hooked up to computers.
That almost definitely takes marriage and kids off the table, even with a bit of time compression. That plus the change in enviroment means there basically have to be different story beats than before, because that doesn’t leave many that could be repeated
Nonsense, would someone in denial loudly proclaim that the rumors are untrue in such an over-the-top way as to be inherently unbelievable? No, I thought not, checkmate liberals.
That is true, oh silly me, we all know there’s nothing more convincing and less comical than someone going to cartoonish, high school logic to claim something must be true!
One of George Bush’s former advisors is on record literally saying something to the effect of “reality-based politics is so last year, making stuff up is the new realpolitik.”
It’s not about behavior, it’s about sexual orientation. Willis has said that charactets’ sexual orientation is the same across ‘verses. Robin was ‘undefinably queer’ in the Walkyverse, ergo she’s not straight in the Dumbiverse either, even if she may not have admitted it to herself yet…
If it were anyone but Robin, yeah, but Robin is the picture next to “over the top” in the encyclopedia… so there’s no such thing as “overselling it” when it comes to her.
On the flip side we have WoG that orientation carries over, so yeah, you’re probably right.
honestly it’s hard to be mad at her because she’s still somewhere between “Trying too hard” and “still more respectful of trans women than some RL politicians”
Discussion (368) - “Bourbon”
Ana Chronistic
“look do I need to make a sex tape or–”
“I have conflicting feelings about saying YES PLEASE but…???”
wheelpath
Oh, that hurts so much, damn it Ana.
deathjavu
NO BAD ANA
no prizes for you, that is just feelsbad
JetstreamGW
You can just see it. “Why do I like you? You’re a pain in the ass, and possibly a complete moron, but I’m completely into you. WHY?”
chris2315
Because she’s prettier than Donald Trump. Literally, that’s the only reason. If she looked like Trump, no one would think she could possibly have any redeemable qualities.
Needfuldoer
Just about anything is prettier than a yam with a prolapse.
Some of us remember how she was in Shortpacked and want to see that character come back, if only for a bit.
Djaevlenselv
^This, pretty much. Despite DoA being it’s own continuity, and these characters not being exactly the same people as in Walkyverse, we’re still mostly basing our expectations of Robin on hope that she is still basically the same well-meaning idiot who went into politics as a lark. No appearance she’s had in DoA this far has seen her show any sort of redeemable behaviour with the possible expection of promising to throw wassisface in jail a few strips ago.
Ensiform
* its
Fart Captor
[Liberty Bell March begins playing]
a snow ʍousɐ
+1
L!ghtn!ng
Yes, this. I have fond memories of Robin from Shortpacked! and am still hopeful that she’ll have a redemption arc. She wouldn’t be the first character from the old ‘verse to do so, but if Robin had a change of heart, she would have the potential to make things better for the people of Indiana to a much wider degree than Joyce has.
Also, I still ship Robin/Leslie, despite everything that’s happened so far in DOA.
trlkly
Even just knowing her in this continuity, she’s not really like Trump at all. Sure, she sometimes works as a stand in for Trump, but that doesn’t mean her personality is anything like his.
Can you imagine any of what we’ve seen here happening with Trump? Do you imagine him getting drunk and hanging out with people at all? Do you think he’d feel bad about how a school presentation went, and want to make it up to the teacher? Do you think he’d give a shit about Ryan and drugging girls?
This whole bit has actually helped me understand how Leslie could possibly be attracted to this woman. If she, due to her experience in the closet, could see beyond the facade that Robin was presenting and saw this person underneath, I could see how she could fall for her, despite her politics, and thus hope she could change her so it would be morally acceptable to be with her.
One of the reason Trump’s popularity confounded me was how fundamentally unlikeable his personality is. Sure, if you package a bunch of awfulness in a pleasant enough package, I get that you can bring people in. That’s what various Republican candidates has been doing for years.
This woman is likeable. And I can say that without feeling the slightest bit of attraction to her.
Gamaran Sepudomyn
Heck, the fact that she acknowledges that trans women are women is a major improvement over a large number of Democrats.
Jon Rich
“Do you think he’d give a shit about Ryan and drugging girls?”
He might give Ryan a few pointers. “Look, no need for the drugs. Just get famous. *When you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab ’em by the —–.*”
*Everything between the asterisks is an actual quote.
Jaxx Sentinel
Fairly sure in another universe she’s been down that road xDD
Ana Chronistic
“THANKS Other Universes for ruining everything!”
modulusshift
ROFL you jerk
Josh Spicer
Ooh…ouch…
Porto
The gay is strong with this one….
Doctor_Who
Search your feelings, you know it to be true.
Unusually Angry Hippie
You know, I’m really not digging Leslie in these panels. For her own selfish reasons, weather she be correct or not, she’s already telling Robin that she’s not straight. Last I heard, telling people what their orientations are is supposed to be a bad thing. She’s also risking outing her in a public place. Also bad. And again, for her own selfish ends more than anything.
Although, I haven’t been digging this story-line much at all anyway. I saw enough of Robin being terrible to Leslie in Shortpacked! And inevitably, Robin is going to be terrible to Leslia…because Robins terrible to people across universes.
Gecko
Leslie is asking her if she’s afraid she is not straight. She is not telling her she is.
Clif
You’re reading a different comic. In what panel did she say Robin wasn’t straight?
Unusually Angry Hippie
I got it from the ‘because your afraid your not straight?’ comment, which I suppose my cynical brain read as another variation of the old ‘are you SUUUURRREEE your *sexuality*’. Never really a good sign, forcing otherwise happy people to question themselves like that.
Also, this bar counter isn’t exactly a ‘private’ place to be discussing this sort of thing. Robin is high profile and we live in smartphone-world these days, anyone could be recording. I’ve got the sneaking suspicion that Dorothy was right earlier when she said Leslie was intent upon outing Robin, and it’s despicable as it is pragmatic. If Leslie can get Robin, who she’s convinced by her own desires to already consider non-straight, to recognize it, than she scores both a personal AND a moral victory, as Robin couldn’t well stick with the right-wings agenda once she knew that, and Leslie would have a chance in hell with the object of her lust. I’ve grown wary of people who have a vested interest in other people’s orientation, who put up a facade of ‘whatever they choose’ while desperately hoping and nudging the odds in the direction they would prefer.
It’s playing with people’s lives and I don’t like it much at all. Even when it happens to Robin…which surprises me, because I disliked Robin even before it was cool.
TheOthin
“Forcing otherwise happy people to question themselves” suggests Robin is plenty fine with repressing herself, and I don’t think Leslie believes that. This looks to me like it’s no longer about seduction and has moved on to being about trying to help Robin out of a shitty situation.
Ethan
What, exactly is wrong with repressing oneself? Its your choice.
Fart Captor
Sure, it’s not morally wrong, but that doesn’t mean it’s not harmful to your mental health to do so.
Especially since Robin is most likely doing it not because it’s what she wants, but because she’s afraid of reprisal, and being shunned by her peers. She’s doing it not because she wants to repress her interest in other women, but because she believes it’s “normal” to do so.
trlkly
It being harmful to your mental health is a pretty good argument for it being immoral–all else being the same.
Sure, if you repress in order to help others, that’s a more murky situation. But repressing and hurting yourself only?
Yeah, I’d call that immoral.
Fart Captor
If a person does something that harms themself, but no one else, would you say they’re a bad person because of it?
Like, am I a bad person because I often eat poorly and sit on my ass for long periods, probably shaving years of my own lifespan?
No, I’m simply lazy and rather out of shape.
The Chosen One
Am I a bad person because I often jaywalk? No, I’m just doing something I, strictly speaking, probably shouldn’t, even if it doesn’t tend to hurt anyone, and even if many other people do it with no ill consequences. Which is still just a fancy way of saying “basically immoral (if not unethical)”
I respect in principle your right to choose to be lazy, but there definitely exists a moral argument against, you know, Sloth, as being more of a vice than a virtue, as such things are measured. And that same argument applies to other kinds of treating oneself poorly, as above.
Going all the way back up to the comic, though, if Leslie is “stepping in” on Robin’s behalf, it’s a moral gray area: bad if she’s wrong (and we don’t know exactly why she’s as confident as she is) but good if she is right (and we have meta reasons to believe she happens to be)
Fart Captor
Something “being a vice” and “being immoral” are not the same thing though. A vice may reflect poorly on your character, but it’s not typically regarded as corresponding to good/evil.
We were discussing the morality of Robin forcing herself to into the closet, and denying her attraction to women, but as for Leslie’s actions, this whole line of questioning started with earnest response to Robin’s almost explicitly stated belief that people could just choose not to be gay. I’m pretty sure when Leslie asked “is it like that for you?”, she had no idea Robin was attracted to women, and was expecting her to realize “no, I guess it isn’t”. Leslie only seems to start to suspect today, and Robin is giving her EVERY reason to with her extremely over-the-top denial.
I really don’t see how the morality of Leslie’s actions is impacted by whether her suspicions are correct or not. If she’s wrong, what has she done? She smirked a bit at the way Robin insisted she was straight. Considering how she was miming a blowjob, that seems an appropriate reaction either way.
Fart Captor
Leslie asked what I think is a completely sincere question, which logically follows from Robin’s reaction to her previous question.
And SHE is keeping her voice down. Robin’s the one raising her voice and miming a blowjob
nothri
Yeah. I agree with the hippie. Honestly, both Leslie and Robin feel a little “off” here, although we don’t know as much about either of them here as we did in Shortpacked. I mean, its one thing to try to educate Robin about her policies (Robin being dense and obtuse about what hurts or annoys the people around her is a consistent character trait) but the end of the last comic felt like an awkward transition into the subject of Robin’s sexuality. It just doesn’t feel like the best way to broach the topic, I suppose, and it feels off to me that Leslie would push the subject this way.
thejeff
Except that the entire reason they’re having this conversation is Robin’s sexuality. Robin’s obviously not admitting it, but there’s only so long Leslie could dance around the elephant in the room.
Unusually Angry Hippie
You hit the nail on the head. Both characters just seem ‘off’ throughout this whole interaction, as if it’s somehow forced, and it isn’t really any fun to read because thanks to Shortpacked! we already know EXACTLY what the end result is going to be.
It’s just not dramatic because Robin isn’t going through any sort of actual ‘growth’, she’s just turning back into the indefinably queer Robin we already knew. *Yawn* Boring. I’m just going to have to grit my teeth through these chapters and hope that at some point Willis realized that we saw all we needed to of these characters in the last comic.
Fart Captor
So, you’re complaining BOTH that the two of them feel “off”, AND that you bored because you expect the exact same result as before? Seriously?
Maybe part of the reason it feels off is because of that expectation. If you’re convinced things are going to go the same way as before, then the story steering another direction would likely cause it to feel off.
And I doubt it will go the same as before. They will probably end up dating, sure. But the different timescale alone ensures that what we see of their relationship can’t play out quite the same. If it actually lasts until the comic ends, we’ll see less than 9 months of it, unless the singularity hits and Willis decides to continue the comic past freshman year once we’re all just brains hooked up to computers.
That almost definitely takes marriage and kids off the table, even with a bit of time compression. That plus the change in enviroment means there basically have to be different story beats than before, because that doesn’t leave many that could be repeated
Council
Pff.
Thanks Robin.
This will be a good day~
Athedia
Does it say something about me, or just the fact I am exhausted that I read that as ‘good gay’?
Council
Former, I think.
‘day’ could be turned into a lot of things. Bay. Hay. May. Fay(e).
Uncertainty Moth
Oh good, we’re all on board shipping Faye and Bubbles.
Michele
I ship it but I also fear the logistics of such a relationship in that kind of world
Pablo360
Pretty sure that relationship can only end with someone taking over the world.
Geneseepaws
Isn’t that what Bubbles tries not to do, every night of the week?
Try to take over the world?
Doctor_Who
As obnoxious and stupid as Robin is being right now, this strip actually kinda portrays what makes them a good couple in Universe A.
Leslie’s expression is 100% “I know I should be angry, but I’m too amused.”
Mr. Mendo
I’d imagine dating Robin is not dissimilar to owning a cat…
Shade
Including things getting knocked off high shelves.
Mr. Mendo
Well, that’s their fault for being so high up!
Leorale
I imagined Leslie waking up, with Robin sitting on her and breathing in her face and demanding Skittles. It was strange moment?
Mr. Mendo
No, that would actually be totally consistent with her character.
BBCC
Robin, if I didn’t know for sure from Shortpacked!, this would have clinched it. This reads like TEXTBOOK denial.
Cerberus
Nonsense, would someone in denial loudly proclaim that the rumors are untrue in such an over-the-top way as to be inherently unbelievable? No, I thought not, checkmate liberals.
BBCC
That is true, oh silly me, we all know there’s nothing more convincing and less comical than someone going to cartoonish, high school logic to claim something must be true!
Reltzik
Checkmate LIBERALS?
We’re way beyond Checkmate LIBERALS.
Denial looks nothing like this! Checkmate, REALITY!
BBCC
Well, I have certainly been shown! Mercy me.
Pablo360
Sorry, no mercy. Best I can do is Lucio you.
BBCC
Dango.
AveryAves
You act as if people would not equate “general non bigotness” with “reality” and still manage to make fun of it
Needfuldoer
This is beyond checkmate. We’re playing 47-dimension Monopoly now!
podian
Yeah, well, reality has a strong liberal bias.
Reltzik
Which is why it obviously needs to be put in its place with the rest of the liberals, and kept well away from the staunch defenders of conservatism.
Pablo360
One of George Bush’s former advisors is on record literally saying something to the effect of “reality-based politics is so last year, making stuff up is the new realpolitik.”
Clif
Cerberus, no fair making me laugh laugh and spill my coffee.
Charlie Spencer
I love it when people reference the way a character behaved in SP! as if it had anything to do with DoA.
L!ghtn!ng
It’s not about behavior, it’s about sexual orientation. Willis has said that charactets’ sexual orientation is the same across ‘verses. Robin was ‘undefinably queer’ in the Walkyverse, ergo she’s not straight in the Dumbiverse either, even if she may not have admitted it to herself yet…
Killjoy
If it were anyone but Robin, yeah, but Robin is the picture next to “over the top” in the encyclopedia… so there’s no such thing as “overselling it” when it comes to her.
On the flip side we have WoG that orientation carries over, so yeah, you’re probably right.
BBCC
This is overselling it even for Robin.
Mollyscribbles
honestly it’s hard to be mad at her because she’s still somewhere between “Trying too hard” and “still more respectful of trans women than some RL politicians”
Pablo360
If it’s hard to be mad at her then I am a fucking PRO.
Liliet
oooh good point there, too
Keulan
Go home Robin, you’re drunk.
JetstreamGW
I’m not convinced that she is.
Abel Undercity (@AbelUndercity)
Drink your bourbon, Robin. You’re not drunk enough.
Clif