And in fairness to Joyce, her Moral Shame has had to be shifted throughout her college experience due to seeing the real-world impacts her rigid morality was having (e.g. Becky). Her Sexual Shame has largely gotten reinforced.
Yeah, Joyce is still re-examining what the axis of Moral is supposed to be, especially when you consider that to her, “breaking up the couple that shouldn’t be together because this is True Love” probably does count as a moral option. But having to examine that this might be less “true love” and more “I want that weenus” miiiiiiiiiight carry some additional weight.
She’s referenced Becky marrying a girl a couple times (mentioning “find(ing) her a wife” in the strip where she’s panicking and trying to think of ways to make up for being homophobic in the past, saying “you still should wait until marriage for hanky-panky” to her) so I think it’s safe to say she’s supportive of two folks with the same ding-dong situation getting married. 😛
Also, I know a lot of folks are expecting Joyce to freak out when someone inevitably brings Trans Stuff up with her, but I’m kind of crossing my fingers for her to at least be vaguely aware of it? She’s been to a LGBT group meeting before, and she’s in a gender studies class, so I think it’s plausible that she’s come across some information. It could just be wishful thinking, though.
thejeff
Maybe. I think it would be kind of anti-climatic for her to just be cool when she finally learns about Jocelyne.
I hereby declare it my personal headcanon that Walkyverse Joyce is now a smut-peddler.
butts
“Head Alien Performs a Sex”
(writing smutty hatefiction about your vanquished foes is the best way to spit on their memory)
Regalli
I mean, it pays whatever bills SEMME/You Saved The World A Lot pensions don’t cover.
Assuming the whole family isn’t now fighting Soggies, of course. They may rule.
Wonder if the Colorado cast ever met back up with Dina? Guessing probably, if she and Becky hooked up there as well.
Regalli
Also going back to the end days of Shortpacked reminded me that Pat Lee ended up working there right before the Invasion, and may have been consumed by the Soggy tide. Good times.
Kyrik Michalowski
You know, considering how repressed Joyce is, I’d actually be fascinated to see what kind of smut she would draw. Hopefully some high quality butts, the world(and definitely myself) can use some more drawing of butts in our lives.
If I’m remembering correctly, she is aware it’s a thing, at least one that Sarah does? But I’m certain if she knows it’s only through the lens of Sinful Sinful Premarital Sexuality, which of course Joyce as a Good Christian Woman is immune to. And then pile on the Ryan PTSD she may still be experiencing in that theater, and oof.
“My sexual shame cannot be exploited because I have no sexual shame because I am Pure. But, on an unrelated note, maybe I shouldn’t be pursuing Jacob, which I am definitely not doing for sexual reasons.”
While division by zero is undefined in the vast majority of mathematical systems, there are a few for which it is defined and has actual meaningful results.
1 / a ridiculously small number = a ridiculously huge number. However, at 0, 1/x has no value – not zero, not infinity, NO VALUE. It’s called an ‘asymptote’. 1/0 does not exist.
ego
/0 is simply a lexicographic error, like “/purple”. there is no number, in any coherent system, such that 0*X = 1, and such an X is necessary to the definition of what it means to “divide”
I think she means ‘one cannot’ as in ‘a person cannot,’ and also that she has zero moral nor sexual shame, so neither can be any portion of what changed her mind?
(although obviously she is just claiming she’s done/thought nothing she’s ashamed of (thus the only thinking about marriage))
Like others have said, it’s “one cannot” not “one cannot be”. Also, Dorothy is trying to compare Joyce’s moral shame to her sexual shame, which we can think of as a fraction, moral shame/sexual shame, but Joyce is saying that she has no sexual shame, i.e sexual shame=0, hence, she can’t divide by zero.
They had 4 kids because they were kinky bastards behind closed doors. Joyce’s shame has nothing to do with faith in any of Willis’ universes. She is just a self hating horny mess.
the final pam
I mean, it does though? Joyce’s shame is directly tied into her education and development as a child, in which she was told that God was watching and that to think, let alone do anything “dirty” like that was an insult to God. It has absolutely everything to do with faith, it didn’t exactly come out of a void.
Regalli
I think it’s possibly both and hard to disentangle one from the other, given the whole ‘Joyce is autobiographical’ and author comments on Bring Back It’s Walky. But it’s really hard to deny that a culture that teaches shame, especially to the people it reads as female, has a really big impact, especially on someone who appears to have internalized that shame so fully she may not be able to separate it from her faith.
abysswatcher1993
If I understand correctly Joyce’s parents aren’t that religious in the walkyverse, and Joyce is still a yandere even if you replace her religious believes with alien conspiracy theories. She is just that way because of some sort of shame to her own body.
the final pam
No, they still were. They just weren’t outright called fundamentalists or had their religion mentioned much, if at all. Everyone in early Walkyverse was religious, but again, it wasn’t really pointed out because the assumption was that everyone had faith in the same higher being. Danny, Mary, and Sal were all a part of the same fundie church growing up and were raised with the same beliefs. It wasn’t really until later Roomies! comics that the idea of not being religious was mentioned, let alone losing faith in God and religion. Add to the fact that Willis didn’t start examining his faith and his upbringing until later after the Walkyverse had already been established for several years, so you don’t have the same kind of reflection that you see in DoA today.
For everyone giving Walky shit over the past week for sassing Joyce, I present to you exhibit A: Joyce maybe learning something. Now if she actually sticks with learning the lesson, things will be great. Joyce’s lack of moral shame is a subject for another day, and sassing her with sexual shame may not have been the best solution but it did the job I guess. Now question, how will Jacob react if Joyce suddenly begins avoiding him?
171 thoughts on “Forgive”
BBCC
Figures this’d be the thing that gets her to stop.
ShinyNeen
“The more things change” is like Joyce’s M.O. or something I swear.
CrowsCrone
Now I wanna make a playlist for DoA characters. And put Bon Jovi on Joyce’s. Thanks, Neen. :p
AnvilPro
Joyce and Walky need each other
Pizzafairy
Like a dog needs a rabies shot
Pizzafairy
[Wasn’t being sarcastic, in case [somehow] that was implied. I really feel this way about them]
Yet_One_More_Idiot
But as friends, or a romantic couple?
In this version of reality, I mean. 🙂
thejeff
As their particular version of harassing each other and pretending not to be friends.
Drunk Mike
The way they argue makes me think they’ll end up together though.
Mravac Kid
J&W transcends realities.
Stu
Her whiteboard is also decorated by ding-dongs, lest we forget the bandit.
Stu
And in fairness to Joyce, her Moral Shame has had to be shifted throughout her college experience due to seeing the real-world impacts her rigid morality was having (e.g. Becky). Her Sexual Shame has largely gotten reinforced.
Snippy Harold
Yeah, Joyce is still re-examining what the axis of Moral is supposed to be, especially when you consider that to her, “breaking up the couple that shouldn’t be together because this is True Love” probably does count as a moral option. But having to examine that this might be less “true love” and more “I want that weenus” miiiiiiiiiight carry some additional weight.
Deanatay
Jacob does have AMAZING elbows.
toby
But it’s okay, because this time they’re married ding-dongs! That’s why they’re wearing little tuxes and veils.
Portland
If she’s okay with ding-dongs getting married, and with girl ding-dongs, maybe she’s gone further with accepting the LGBT community than we thought!
toby
She’s referenced Becky marrying a girl a couple times (mentioning “find(ing) her a wife” in the strip where she’s panicking and trying to think of ways to make up for being homophobic in the past, saying “you still should wait until marriage for hanky-panky” to her) so I think it’s safe to say she’s supportive of two folks with the same ding-dong situation getting married. 😛
Also, I know a lot of folks are expecting Joyce to freak out when someone inevitably brings Trans Stuff up with her, but I’m kind of crossing my fingers for her to at least be vaguely aware of it? She’s been to a LGBT group meeting before, and she’s in a gender studies class, so I think it’s plausible that she’s come across some information. It could just be wishful thinking, though.
thejeff
Maybe. I think it would be kind of anti-climatic for her to just be cool when she finally learns about Jocelyne.
Purblebirb
If theres drawings on the whiteboard is it really spotless?
newllend(henryvolt)
Yep totally spotless, totally doesn’t have the image of a dozen well detailed wenises edged in there with permanent marker.
Purblebirb
Its spelled “weenus”
Malimar
And as a second-declension masculine noun, the plural is “weeni”.
Kamino Neko
None of the married families have dogs.
Doctor_Who
So the REAL Whiteboard Ding-Dong Bandit is Jacob, because he’s the one covering Joyce’s mental board with smutty thoughts.
Proxiehunter
Smutty thoughts of his ding dong.
AeromechanicalAce
…Fundie childhoods really screw you up, don’t they?
butts
yeah, you get a shame-filled adolescence and then twenty years down the line you end up peddling cartoon smut on the internet
Kyrik Michalowski
Are we still talking about Joyce?
butts
we’re not NOT talking about joyce
Doctor_Who
I hereby declare it my personal headcanon that Walkyverse Joyce is now a smut-peddler.
butts
“Head Alien Performs a Sex”
(writing smutty hatefiction about your vanquished foes is the best way to spit on their memory)
Regalli
I mean, it pays whatever bills SEMME/You Saved The World A Lot pensions don’t cover.
Assuming the whole family isn’t now fighting Soggies, of course. They may rule.
Wonder if the Colorado cast ever met back up with Dina? Guessing probably, if she and Becky hooked up there as well.
Regalli
Also going back to the end days of Shortpacked reminded me that Pat Lee ended up working there right before the Invasion, and may have been consumed by the Soggy tide. Good times.
Kyrik Michalowski
You know, considering how repressed Joyce is, I’d actually be fascinated to see what kind of smut she would draw. Hopefully some high quality butts, the world(and definitely myself) can use some more drawing of butts in our lives.
bhtooefr
Canonically, in this universe, she draws highly detailed dicks…
Synnerman
Oh god, the day Joyce discovers masturbation her world is going to spin out of control.
Regalli
If I’m remembering correctly, she is aware it’s a thing, at least one that Sarah does? But I’m certain if she knows it’s only through the lens of Sinful Sinful Premarital Sexuality, which of course Joyce as a Good Christian Woman is immune to. And then pile on the Ryan PTSD she may still be experiencing in that theater, and oof.
We REALLY need to get Joyce some help.
Rabid Rabbit
She’s aware of it, but she’s afraid that her grandmother will look down from heaven and see her doing it, so she doesn’t.
Inahc
>.< joyce is Trying.
Opus the Poet
Yes, extremely so.
butts
did
joyce did you just call your mind zero
adjudicus
Wait what’s the “1 cannot be divided by 0” supposed to mean?
Snippy Harold
“My sexual shame cannot be exploited because I have no sexual shame because I am Pure. But, on an unrelated note, maybe I shouldn’t be pursuing Jacob, which I am definitely not doing for sexual reasons.”
ShinyNeen
I took it as Joyce saying she has no ‘sexual’ anything to be shamed over.
Crusading Barista
Divide anything by zero will always and exclusively be zero.
Agemegos
NO. Multiply anything by zero and you get zero. Division by zero is undefined, impossible, or an error.
Agemegos
Sorry. Inadvertent capitalisation, unintended stridency.
vlademir1
While division by zero is undefined in the vast majority of mathematical systems, there are a few for which it is defined and has actual meaningful results.
3oranges
1/0 = 0
1/0×0 = 0×0
1
/0×0= 01 = 0
Deanatay
1 / a ridiculously small number = a ridiculously huge number. However, at 0, 1/x has no value – not zero, not infinity, NO VALUE. It’s called an ‘asymptote’. 1/0 does not exist.
ego
/0 is simply a lexicographic error, like “/purple”. there is no number, in any coherent system, such that 0*X = 1, and such an X is necessary to the definition of what it means to “divide”
Axel
I think she means ‘one cannot’ as in ‘a person cannot,’ and also that she has zero moral nor sexual shame, so neither can be any portion of what changed her mind?
(although obviously she is just claiming she’s done/thought nothing she’s ashamed of (thus the only thinking about marriage))
Axel
aka what everyone else typed faster than me
Jed!
Like others have said, it’s “one cannot” not “one cannot be”. Also, Dorothy is trying to compare Joyce’s moral shame to her sexual shame, which we can think of as a fraction, moral shame/sexual shame, but Joyce is saying that she has no sexual shame, i.e sexual shame=0, hence, she can’t divide by zero.
EvilMidnightLurker
There’s a book title.
Stephen Bierce
Today’s strip is brought to you by Daz3D. For when your porn needs to cross the Uncanny Valley.
Stephen Bierce
*And the P.A. speakers are playing The Fixx’ “Saved By Zero”*
Clif
Hm. Can Joyce be duplicated in Victoria?
StClair
Could probably get close.
The real question is, where are the sweater-vest packs?
Clif
+1
Tacos
Yeah about that marriage whiteboard… usually there’s ding-dongs involved so…
insomniac
But when it’s within the bonds of marriage it’s pure and good and God approved.
The Browns didn’t have four kids because they prayed really hard.
abysswatcher1993
They had 4 kids because they were kinky bastards behind closed doors. Joyce’s shame has nothing to do with faith in any of Willis’ universes. She is just a self hating horny mess.
the final pam
I mean, it does though? Joyce’s shame is directly tied into her education and development as a child, in which she was told that God was watching and that to think, let alone do anything “dirty” like that was an insult to God. It has absolutely everything to do with faith, it didn’t exactly come out of a void.
Regalli
I think it’s possibly both and hard to disentangle one from the other, given the whole ‘Joyce is autobiographical’ and author comments on Bring Back It’s Walky. But it’s really hard to deny that a culture that teaches shame, especially to the people it reads as female, has a really big impact, especially on someone who appears to have internalized that shame so fully she may not be able to separate it from her faith.
abysswatcher1993
If I understand correctly Joyce’s parents aren’t that religious in the walkyverse, and Joyce is still a yandere even if you replace her religious believes with alien conspiracy theories. She is just that way because of some sort of shame to her own body.
the final pam
No, they still were. They just weren’t outright called fundamentalists or had their religion mentioned much, if at all. Everyone in early Walkyverse was religious, but again, it wasn’t really pointed out because the assumption was that everyone had faith in the same higher being. Danny, Mary, and Sal were all a part of the same fundie church growing up and were raised with the same beliefs. It wasn’t really until later Roomies! comics that the idea of not being religious was mentioned, let alone losing faith in God and religion. Add to the fact that Willis didn’t start examining his faith and his upbringing until later after the Walkyverse had already been established for several years, so you don’t have the same kind of reflection that you see in DoA today.
Kyrik Michalowski
For everyone giving Walky shit over the past week for sassing Joyce, I present to you exhibit A: Joyce maybe learning something. Now if she actually sticks with learning the lesson, things will be great. Joyce’s lack of moral shame is a subject for another day, and sassing her with sexual shame may not have been the best solution but it did the job I guess. Now question, how will Jacob react if Joyce suddenly begins avoiding him?
Sam