378

Control
Posted on January 8, 2014 by David M Willis

378 thoughts on “Control”

  1. The Meek Ninja

    Don’t Danny this up, Danny…

    1. GoldStarz

      Danny should use his Dannying powers for this conversation!

      1. Yotomoe

        Maybe he already is. Just not in the way you’d want.

    2. Scott

      “Don’t”? What conversation are you watching? He already has.

    3. Icalasari

      Actually, Danny should Danny it up. If he Dannys this up, then he completely misses the whole idea of her dad REALLY wanting to talk to her away from the dorms and would just keep going, “No, the dorms would be the best! I mean, she has no friends there to embarrass!” etc.

      1. Mr. Morningstar

        When you put it THAT way….

        DANNY THE FUCK OUT OF THIS CONVERSATION DANNY

        1. Tachyon

          If and when in doubt: Danny, Danny, *Danny!*

    4. Krell

      I’m afraid it is too late; The Dannying is already in motion.

    5. 'Drew

      Y’know, I was happy to ship Danny and Dorothy, but now I think that Danny is so clueless that he’s dangerous…

    6. Hanii Puppy

      He’s going to danny this up and then he’ll be joed.

  2. Sails

    Nothing wrong with Pokéfriends :c

    1. marr

      And nothing wrong with poking friends.

      1. Parnifia the Bastard

        I do it all the time!

        1. pudge

          The image says you don’t enjoy it though.

        2. Mal

          Friends don’t always want to be poked. 🙁

        3. KevinGriffin3CD

          Stop poking me, Mal.

    2. Cheryl

      Did…..did he just dis Pokemon?

      1. WindWolfe144

        Cheryl, get the pokéballs.
        We will make him love them.

  3. Idon'tcarenomore

    Oh crap Danny, don’t feed the troll.

    1. Jay Eff

      But if you insist on feeding the troll, don’t let him near the Gyros.
      Goats give him such gas..

    2. Nate

      Pretty sure the troll is feeding him.

      1. saltchocolate

        It’s a feedback loop.

        1. GupyF

          Infinite Energy?

        2. asmcint

          Of course! E=S times O, where S is scumbaggery and O is obliviousness!

        3. Rowen Morland

          Trollscience.

  4. Sageress

    What the hell Danny.

    1. Malebranche

      Danny’s a huge dork, but I’m not sure where all the fan-hate in his direction comes from. Anyone care to elucidate?

      1. Stewart C Baker

        Displaced historical self-loathing.

      2. KevinGriffin3CD

        In Roomies, he was the author insert during Willis’ very religious and self- righteous years in college, and so Danny mirrored that pretentious self- righteousness to his fellow characters, whom he treated like annoying lessers. He was supposed to be the voice of reason in the comics, but ended up looking like an uncaring jerk.

        As for Dumbing Of Age, where he’s no longer an author insert (that would be Joyce, partially), he’s simply been kinda annoying/slightly self-righteous/stupidly oblivious to everything throughout the whole story so far. Personality wise, he’s nothing horrible, but his numerous small flaws have thus far been leagues more noticeable than his redeeming qualities. And though he’s never been an outright jerk to anyone, he’s unwittingly ended up causing quite a lot of drama for the much more likeable characters, and so he’s the perfect person for us to blame/get mad at for any ensuing drama, even when it’s not entirely his fault.

      3. Jen Aside

        In all seriousness, I think it’s like watching sports. We don’t yell because we think it’ll affect the outcome–we just want an outlet, however misdirected. =B

        1. Jen Aside

          or irrational, meant to add

      4. Sageress

        I don’t hate Danny, I just don’t like what he’s saying about Amber in this one strip.

        1. Khrene Cleaver

          He has a point though… WHen have we seen AMber interact with people outside of being Amazigirl, Danny and WoW.

  5. Mr K

    Oh boy. I hope Danny finds something suspicious about Blaine.

    1. Yotomoe

      “Why do you keep laughing manically and posing dramatically, mr.?

      1. Kiggy

        ^^^this^^^

      2. Alex Stritar

        Wait, was it Amber’s dad or Conquest’s dad that Danny was having lunch with?

  6. PureFedora

    No! Danny! Shoot. Damn it! Why does everything you say have to be the punchline?

  7. DocHarleen

    “Acting up”? “Creeping”? I like Danny even less than usual.

    1. Mr K

      At least he’s expressing regret. First step to fixing yourself.

      1. Yotomoe

        It’d be like regretting running someone off the road and using words like “stupid” and “ugly”.

        1. Aischylos

          It’s a matter of perspective here. As other people have noticed, Danny doesn’t actually know what’s going on. Amber literally walked up to him pretending to be his girlfriend (Danny also realizing that he’s attracted to Amber in addition to Amazi-Girl, both of whom he believes to be separate entities). He knows something is up, but he is also confused by the way she’s acting towards him. I’d feel creeped out if a good friend of mine whom I was attracted to started pretending she was my girlfriend in front of my parents when I was already committed to someone.

    2. TacosForever

      Seriously, though. The way he’s talking about Amber is so dismissive and it kind of makes me hate him. And normally I’m relatively neutral on Danny, compared to the rest of Willis’s fan base.

      1. Oishi

        Yes you two get it!

        1. Yotomoe

          Shut up, Danny.

      2. Tim

        Didn’t Amber pretty much guilt Danny into pretending to be her boyfriend and then get all cuddly and cozy when Danny specifically said he was into someone else. I mean yes the other person IS Amber but the context in his mind, that’s kind of creeping.

        1. Rex Hondo

          Yes, no pretty much to it. She was practically Fazzing on him.

        2. Icalasari

          Yeah

          It honestly feels like people are faulting Danny for being an idiot, when EVERYBODY in universe seems to fall for the disguise (seriously, not ONE person has connected the dots yet? Maybe she WAS grabbed by an alien and given the power of Clark Kenting)

        3. Jen

          But Danny is the only one who has hung out multiple times with her in costume and he’s kissed her. If anyone can be faulted for not noticing, it’s him.

        4. Aischylos

          Mary Jane kissed Spider-Man and hung out with him a couple of times (when they kissed, he practically had half of his mask off). Just sayin’

        5. JD

          Actually, Mary Jane always knew, in the comics at least.

        6. sps48

          Retcon. She didn’t used to.

        7. Jake

          We’re pretty sure Ethan knows. It’s been implied. “I read the newspaper.”

    3. GoSpeedRumpist

      To be fair, she pretended to be his girlfriend in front of his parents even though she knew he already had one. Creeping is kinda apropos. A lot of his problems stem from his inability to see the blatantly obvious when it’s right in front of him, but I think he was right in that situation.

      1. Sam

        To be fair to Amber, HER DAD WAS CHASING HER AT THE TIME. She needed a way to escape. Danny was there, she overheard, she took the opportunity so that she could escape. Danny didn’t even ask why she forced herself onto his day.

        1. andiemus

          Yeah, WE know that, but Danny doesn’t. From his perspective creeping is pretty much exactly what she was doing.

        2. Doc Harleen

          He could have, I don’t know, asked her why that happened or something? Novel, I know. And while “creeping” may have its debatable aspects, “acting up” is condescending as hell.

        3. begbert2

          He DID. Literally just seconds after she walked up and started acting all creepy. Amber refused to give a straight answer, like she ALWAYS does. And like always, people get all selective memory everywhere and blame Danny for everything that Amber doesn’t say or do.

          More and more, I’m starting to interpret the phrase “Danning it up” as “Amber being evasive and readers being forgetful”.

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

        4. Random832

          The problem is that “Ambering” doesn’t have much of a ring to it.

        5. MindLink

          Well… 50% of that expression has a “ring” to it though 😉 (yeah, yeah, I know, but lame word plays is basically my addiction..)

        6. beege

          Not to mention, it’s kinda hard to have this conversation in front of your parents when they’re already convinced that the girl who’s suddenly pretending to be your girlfriend *is* your girlfriend.

        7. andiemus

          But no, Amber is in friggin’ fallible and Danny is useless. Where’s the Everybody Loves Raymond music?

        8. andiemus

          Condescending or not, it’s pretty damn accurate. What else do you call “Hi, I just appeared out of nowhere and I’m your girlfriend now.”

          “Amber, what are you-”

          “I’m your girlfriend for today!”

        9. brionl

          Danny’s problem is that he hasn’t seen enough episodes of Three’s Company.

  8. Ephee

    No no no no no no no no no no no no no no no…

  9. shadowcell

    i’m starting to think Dumbing of Age might be an elaborate effort on Willis’ part to just pour out as much of his hatred for Danny as possible

    1. Yotomoe

      Clearly Roomies didn’t do the job.

      1. timemonkey

        Roomies was accidental.

  10. Psycho

    Slay him now! For fuck’s sake!

    1. Keroshino

      Pull out the Master Sword and drive it into Blaine’s head!

      1. WindWolfe144

        ^That icon was perfect for that statement^

  11. March

    Jesus fucking Christ, Danny, die in a goddamn fire already. You and this asshole.

    She was “creeping” on you. Right. You’re not sure she has any friends. Right. God fucking damn it, I want to read one panel with you in it where I don’t want to hit you with a tire iron.

    1. TacosForever

      Let’s hit him with a tire iron together.

      1. TacosForever

        Better yet: Amazi-Girl hits him with a tire iron.

      2. March

        I deeply appreciate your moniker.

        And yes. Tire iron. Maybe then he’ll start being a decent human being. I mean, Walky is a borderline incompetent adult, and he is a better example of humanity than Danny.

        1. Mike55555

          YO, Danny isn’t in the knowingful wrong here. He’s just another Idiot guys.
          She WAS creeping on him hardcore, from anyone who-didn’t know she was amazi-girl (in this universe, apparently literally everyone)’s perspective. If a random friend came up to you and insisted that she was your girlfriend to your parents, and snuggled up to you and made you talk about how great your relationship is, even though you already have a “different” girlfriend, that’s definitely creeping. He probably didn’t ask her because the situation was so amazingly awful, because she’s so reserved and secretive about so many things, or because Not all that much time has passed, and he just hasn’t yet (or because he doesn’t care, because there are so few situations where that kinda behavior would even kinda be ok, that he isn’t even aware of them)!
          He already stated that he feels that he has to agree with adults, which is why he said “acting out”, and her only friends are Ethan and Mike, and She’s been mad and awkward about Ethan, and Mike is… Mike. After the creeping (from his perspective), he might not even consider her a friend anymore, leaving her with Basically no friends.
          Danny was an awful judgmental dick in Roomies, seriously, but this is a Different universe! He is a Different person! Stop Wanting to be mad at him, and you’ll notice he’s just an idiot.

        2. Random832

          “””If a random friend came up to you and insisted that she was your girlfriend to your parents, and snuggled up to you and made you talk about how great your relationship is”””

          None of which, it must be noted, is obviously necessary to the goal of avoiding a confrontation with Blaine.

        3. kelticat

          “Not much time has passed” 24 hours is not a lot of time, since this is still Sunday and Amber went out to lunch with his parents Saturday.

        4. Christina

          I don’t come pre-packaged with Danny hate, having never read all of Roomies, but I was upset by the word “creeping” too. He was very reciprocal to it at the time, even though she caught him off guard. He clearly felt some feels, which admittedly then made him uncomfortable and then he turned her down (at which point she started avoiding him). “Creeping” is the language you would use to describe somebody who is pursuing you in a completely unwanted way even after you’ve refused them outright. I guess that could just be me being picky about language, though. I

        5. Roomba Ron

          Keep in mind he actually has a girlfriend he seems pretty commited to, have you considered he is relegating Amber to that point because he IS attracted to her and feels that threatens his established relationship with Amazi-Girl? Not to mention he explicitely stated he was uncomfortable with the situation and Amber still continued to push it with no explanation?
          I dont think its the right reaction but its an understandable one from Dannys perspective.

        6. March

          The fact is, he does not know this man. All he knows is that this man claims to Amber’s father. He does not know this for sure. He does not know their relationship. And with these two facts in mind, he has no right to start revealing Amber’s personal life to this stranger without Amber’s permission.

          Let me reiterate: Danny does not know this man or that he is telling the truth.

          Yet he still reveals personal details of Amber’s life and their own relationship, potentially damaging things. This is an extremely stupid, arrogant thing to do. He was very attracted to Amber at the beginning, and after that they were friends. She asked a favour of him, he played along though uncomfortable, and then expressed his feelings after and their friendship ended, seemingly.

          He is no longer her friend, from what we see, which really, really removes his right to talk about her to complete strangers.

          Again: He does not know this man. He does not know this man is telling the truth, or, if he is, what his relationship wit Amber is, and he is still revealing very personal details to this man about Amber.

          Inshort: Danny is a fucking idiot.

      3. Keroshino

        Tire Iron’s for Everyone!!!!

    2. Blackbird

      To be fair on that “no friends” one, Amber hasn’t been spending much time around Ethan during the few weeks Danny’s known her (and probably hasn’t wanted to talk about him anyway), so who else does she have? Dina’s her roommate, but it’s only been the last week or so (DoA time) that they’ve started to act like friends, so it seems fair that Danny may not really know if she has any friends.

      The “acting up” comment is pure Danning though.

      1. Casey

        He doesn’t know who her friends are or if she has any, which he could have found out easily in the few weeks he’s known her if he cared to, but he didn’t have go say she had no friends to her dad, yanno?

        1. TacosForever

          This.

        2. Graq

          Absolutely this.

        3. Roomba Ron

          Maybe they just weren’t as good friends outside of the Amazi-Girl relationship? And you are also ignoring how evasive Amber generally is about her personal life.

          Also, not everyone shares friends with other friends, especially in university where one bad relationship can taint other friendships it is not uncommon to see people keep their circle of friends seperate.

      2. Tom T.

        As to all of these comments, bear in mind that Danny is speaking out of concern over Amber’s well-being. Concern that Amber doesn’t really reciprocate, moreover.

      3. begbert2

        “Acting up” as in “getting very feisty with him over his repeated objections that he already has a girlfriend and doesn’t feel comfortable over her acting that way.”

        You know, like she was actually doing. Of course I suppose he could have instead gone into detail telling Blaine about her actions and thoughts and movements, that would have been better.

    3. Yotomoe

      Does Amber have any friends? Dina, her roommate, I guess and she’s pretty mad at Ethan.

      1. kelticat

        Mike, the Warners, Ethan, and Dina that we know of. Since she doesn’t share classes with the others, Danny wouldn’t have met them.

    4. madock345

      Well, she kinda was creeping on him. She made him pretend to be dating her in front of her parents, without talking to him about it first, knowing that he was dating “somebody else”.

      1. Sam

        Yes, but it was because her dad was chasing her. If he’d even considered asking why she forced herself on his day, then it’d be obvious that it was a last minute escape plan to save herself from her dad.

        1. Pizkie

          She still went above and beyond hiding from dad (aka, snuggling and making him say why he likes her). From her perspective, that’s fine since she’s Amazi-Girl and all, but he doesn’t know that.

          We have a situation here where two people are both very right and very wrong, considering what each knows about the situation.

        2. The E-man

          I’m just going to echo begbert2 here and post the following link where he does ask and she doesn’t want to explain.

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

        3. Gold

          He did, dude. Nice selective memory.

    5. dimblecon

      I too hate when people make two correct observations in succession

    6. Icalasari

      She did heavily force herself on him when he already had a girlfriend, which is creeping in my mind. And acting up makes sense – She went from timid to suddenly, well, forcing herself on him. And of course, she locks herself away all the time. I’d be uncertain too about her having friends

      You need to look at this from an outsider’s view point

      1. begbert2

        No no no, the problem is that everybody IS looking at it from an outside all-seeing reader’s point of view.

        What everybody needs to do is see this from a Danny point of view. As in, go through the entire comic and take only the things Danny actually sees and hears. Oh, and you might as well also darken the ‘outdoors at night’ comics by 75%, to represent probably actual light levels. Just for the heck of it.

        1. Icalasari

          What I meant is an outsider from inside the comic. As in somebody who doesn’t have the amount of knowledge we would

          I badly worded it

  12. John

    Certainly not you, Danny!

  13. Shade

    Pokemon always count.

    1. Yotomoe

      The day the made it possible to hi-five a raichu in a pokemon game, that was the day my life was truly complete.

      1. The E-man

        I CAN HI-FIVE MY RAICHU??????

        Pardon me. *scurries off with my 3DS*

      2. StClair

        But for me, it was Tuesday.

  14. Alex Stritar

    I wonder if Danny even knows Dina exists. I don’t think he’s been to her room, and even if he has, he probably wouldn’t of seen Dina, as she’d probably be behind the door the whole time.

  15. Person

    SWEAR TO GOD DANNY

    I WILL FICTIONALLY KICK YOU IN YOUR FICTIONAL ASS IF YOU DAN THIS UP ANYMORE

  16. Cthulhu's Intern

    Blaine seemed to crack his facade for a moment. Maybe Danny is going to Dan so hard that Blaine makes it obvious he’s not a good person.

    1. Sageress

      That’s just crazy enough to work!

    2. Yotomoe

      Someone can only be around Danny for so long without turning to violence.

      1. Icalasari

        I sometimes feel like I’m the only person who LIKES Danny. He’s one of my favourite characters

        1. Rex Hondo

          Oddly enough, I don’t know if I’d even say I “like” him so much as I find him one of the more sympathetic characters. He tries to make the best decisions he can with the information given to him, but the universe (and fandom) continues to shit on him.

        2. Sam

          He is so concerned with what others think all the time but he always then chooses to do the one thing which will make him look like a bad person. He always seems to get annoyed or upset about things and complains about how things are going to go badly for him/have gone badly for him without considering how others feel and he ALWAYS finds a way to hurt someone else in the process.

          Before Dorothy broke up with him, he hurt her by suggesting her dreams might become less important to her than him.

          When Amber fled when Dorothy and Joe were in his room, he threatened MURDER, then shouted at both of them and called Joe the ‘worst wingman ever’ which actually hurt him.

          And when he ended his friendship with Amber, he asked if she was a complete person when she said Amazi-Girl wasn’t, which hurt, because she knew she wasn’t due to being Amazi-Girl. He hadn’t even asked WHY she forced herself onto his day.

          And the worst thing about it has to be that he never reflects on why things go wrong, which allows him to make the same kind of mistakes over and over and over again regardless of what the situation is.

          He literally screws himself over all the time, hurts someone else in the process, and then still finds something to complain about. He would be one of the most annoying people you’d ever deal with.

        3. beege

          >He hadn’t even asked WHY she forced herself onto his day.

          People keep pointing out that yes, he did ask exactly that and got a non answer.

        4. begbert2

          I like him more every time somebody says lots of absurd one-sided stuff (like say in a long rather forced list of supposed wrong things he’s done, like MURDER) rather than going by what he’s actually seen, done, and knows.

          By this point, I like him a lot.

        5. kelticat

          Unless you managed to vote 491 times, you’re not the only one who likes Danny. Me, I voted for Mike.

  17. Opus the Poet

    Somebody forgot to tell Danny about the restraining order Blaine has against him to stay away from the campus…

    1. Jen Aside

      Actually, it kinda bugs me how their dorms are set up so, theoretically, anyone could easily break into anyone else’s room if they had access to the adjoining room. Our dorms gave no such access, though one could theoretically be locked in the bathroom by a disgruntled roommate.

      1. John

        Eh, just means you effectively have three roommates instead of just one. And can’t be locked into your bathroom. (But can be locked out of it. If I understand how the setup works.)

        1. Jen Aside

          But they don’t have an “adjoining room”-mates agreement, do they? So the other room is free to screw you over if they so want, and “legally” there’s nothing they can do if the infractions are within the regular laws.

          *goes into other room and rearranges furniture*
          “That’s LEGAL! We’re just MOVING it.”

        2. StClair

          yeah, it’s legal. and then all the involved parties, and their femurs, get to have a nice chat with Ruth about why they still shouldn’t do it.

      2. Shade

        That sounds like a great way to get your roommate to wear deodorant. Just lock them in till they use it.

      3. D

        We had an adjoining bathroom like that. Both sides locked from within the dorm room (had a sliding locky thing, not a pickable keyhole- you’d have to break the door down/break the metal bar). If you left it unlocked, yes, people could get in from the adjoining room- but I’d hope Amber is smart enough not to leave hers unlocked and that it’s now been impressed upon Dina why she should lock it as well. I actually imagine “MUST LOCK THIS” would be in the roommate agreement.

        I really hope it would be lockable. It would be a massive breach of privacy not to be able to lock those.

        Joyce/Sarah and Billie/Sal’s set up makes me wonder if it can be locked, though, so I see where you’re coming from. We’ve seen them come into each other’s rooms through the bathroom with impunity and no one mentioning a lock. Joyce I can imagine leaving it unlocked because she’s so trusting and likes Billie and Sal. Billie I can see leaving it unlocked. Sal’s a wild card for me- could go either way. Sarah I imagine locking it and trying to get Joyce to keep it locked.

        1. Jen Aside

          Sal isn’t even there to care what’s in her room. It’s just a place to crash if needed.

    2. Bill

      Don’t know that it’s an actual restraining order, or just an arbitrary decision made by Asma — based on his not being on Amber’s “OK” list — when she escorted him out the day before.  Amber doesn’t even know that he had gotten caught by Security trying to sneak back in later that night.

      1. D

        I don’t think it’s actually a restraining order, but dorms are private property (as pointed out with the sex tape fiasco- the school owns the dorms, not the students) and if the school says that someone is not allowed on their property, they have the right to boot them. I believe that schools can actually have virtually anyone who’s not student/faculty/staff removed from the premises if they want to- but that would obviously not do well for their popularity, so they only have people who definitely are threats (Amber’s dad, people who harass students) or have given them reason to believe they’re threatening (someone making bomb threats) removed.

  18. Wonder Wig

    Blaine = evil skinny Drew Carey.

    1. Jay Eff

      So does that mean Blaine is actually Amber’s second father?
      And that her first father was evil Bob Barker?

      1. Yotomoe

        Spay and Neuter your Nintendogs today!

    2. Just Cheeto Dust

      If Drew Carey already has a sex dungeon* without being evil, what does the evil one have hidden in his house?

      *allegedly

  19. fbihop

    Danny has no clue.

    1. fbihop

      Note: You can post this in any comic with Danny and it works!

      1. Yotomoe

        Even Octopus Pie?

  20. Deathjavu

    Did anyone think this was going to go anything even remotely approximating “well”?

    Danny is doing what Danny does, being pushed around by stronger personalities and being vaguely insulting without really realizing it.

    1. Pat

      Yeah, but what’s Blaine trying to push Danny into doing?

      1. Yotomoe

        Becoming his evil sidekick.THE DANTRUM.

      2. Kiggy

        Into becoming his tool.

        Still getting a Palpatine/Anakin vibe here :p

        1. Dragon_Nataku

          Considering how he eventually took Billie’s woed that Sal is AG despite his doubts, I don’t really have much trouble imagining Blaine going “DANNY… I AM YOUR FATHER” and after two panels of half-hearted doubts Danny being like “Oh, I guess you’re right, dad”

        2. xKiv

          Terriblaine/Damny.

    2. The E-man

      Yep your comment basically approximates what I thought was going to happen. (and is happening!)

  21. Darth Cariss

    Willis must be so happy reading all these comments.

  22. Pureed Madness

    Okay Danny. Be very careful not to Danny anything up.

    1. Keroshino

      That’s like asking the rain to not be wet!

  23. Totz the Plaid

    I wish you hadn’t confirmed that nobody was going to die because I keep hoping for SOMETHING to happen to both Blaine and Danny right now!

    1. John

      And then The-Vehicle-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named comes careening through the front window and ends up parked in the middle of their table! It shifty-eyes, straightens up their broken fleshbags, and sidles off-panel, whistling innocently.

      Then extender-arms come in from off-panel and pie them both, while another flips them the bird.

      (In my fanfic.)

    2. Aizat

      Well, we can’t hope they die…but no one said anything about a coma.

    3. Yotomoe

      Danny gets hit by the truck that failed to get him after all these years.

  24. Kernanator

    DANNY, YOU ARE NOT HELPING.

    Wait, if Danny inevitably Dans up anything he tries, maybe helping Blaine would Dan up Blaine’s plans?

    1. Yotomoe

      Danny doesn’t help. He is incapable of doing it.

    2. Kiggy

      I can only hope!

  25. Aizat

    SHOOT HIM! SHOOT HIM!

    1. Keroshino

      SHOOT THE CORE!!!

  26. JessWitt

    Especially with Pokemon-amie, Pokemon certainly fit in as friends.

    1. Yotomoe

      Pokemon-amie has made me love pokemon so much more. High-fiving Raichu and dancing with Bellossoms.

      1. Regalli

        I finally got to hug my Pokemon.

        So I have.

  27. Casey

    I think Blaine’s response to going to her dorm should have raised some red flags for Danny, but I guess he’s too busy being a jerk about Amber to notice

    1. Sageress

      Or to busy being a moron.

      1. Yotomoe

        As if he can’t be both!

  28. Bill

    A parent won’t talk/can’t talk/doesn’t want to talk to their daughter in a private setting like a dorm room?
    RED FLAG, DANNY, RED FLAG!!!

  29. hinoteoni

    I like Danny but what’ with this? “Creeping”, where’d that come from?

    1. hinoteoni

      Wow, my gravatar matches pretty well.

    2. TacosForever

      I’m guessing that he’s trying to ignore his feelings for Amber by pushing her away, even in his head, so that’s making him act super casual and dismissive about her. Not that that excuses him being a total asshole right now.

      1. Yotomoe

        His asswholishness is off the charts.
        Always Danning
        Always DAAAAAANNNIIIIIIIIIIING
        Makes me wanna punch him in his Danny parts.

    3. Random832

      Imagine that you only know what Danny knows about what happened yesterday. If it helps, imagine she’s the guy in this situation, though really this shouldn’t matter.

      1. Roomba Ron

        Actually thats a good point, try gender flipping the situation between Danny and Amber and see how you end up feeling about the actions that took place. It makes it quite clear that Ambers actions can quite comfortably fit into the ‘creepy’ category. In fact this might be a generally good excercise problems between Danny and Amber, it shouldnt matter what their genders are but it seems that it still does in peoples perceptions.

    4. Darth Cariss

      Amber basically forced herself into his parents’ day or whatever it’s called by pretending to be his girlfriend without him being okay with it. That seems pretty creepy to me. If I was with my parents and some girl I knew for a few days from school suddenly latched onto my arm and said she was my girlfriend, I’d think it was pretty darn weird.

  30. TSB

    Ah, another instance of Dumbing of Age’s central theme: learning life lessons and growing as a person by doing stupid things that hurt yourself and everyone around you. Here’s how I see it. Danny’s parents don’t seem that great from what I remember of them, nor is Joe’s dad a shining star of guidance, but I think he’s still relatively sheltered as far as bad parents go. He must know child abusers exist, of course, but I imagine like Walky he expects those villains to be cackling and mustache-twirling. So he can’t see what’s right in front of his face, even with how Amber has talked about her dad in the past, because it’s so far outside of what he’s experienced or imagined. Hopefully this will be the smallest possible disaster and next time he will be a better friend to other people he meets with abusive (or even “merely” self-centered or stupid or misguided) parents.

    1. Tom T.

      Danny IS speaking out of concern and friendship toward Amber, who in fact has treated him badly. And I suspect that many of us would have more difficulty spotting dangerous or abusive people in the real world than when we are sitting in the audience with an omniscient view.

      1. TSB

        I almost entirely agree with you, but I believe Danny is giving unwarranted trust to Blaine. This isn’t just a case of failing to spot a manipulator. Immediately after meeting Blaine he openly discusses his friend’s deepest emotional problems and lets him take the lead on how to handle them.

        It’s totally understandable that Danny is doing this. There are many, many circumstances where taking it to a parent is the right choice. Saying this to Amber’s mom, for instance, would probably be helpful. I think Sarah made the right choice to bring in her roommate’s dad, in that flashback. Even less-than-perfect parents like the Walkertons or Browns would do their best to help their child with such good cause to worry, even if their methods might be misguided.

        But I think it’s recklessly naive to assume Blaine has Amber’s best interests at heart and will know what to do, just because he’s her dad. Telling him your friend’s mysterious dad she won’t discuss that you’re worried about her is one thing, laying out all her erratic behavior and helping him surprise her is quite another. Danny, in my opinion, is like Walky obliviously seeing but not understanding his parents treating him differently. They’re missing the obvious because it’s so far outside of their realm of experience, but they’re good boys and they’ll learn.

        1. Mr. Random

          Consider Danny telling Amber’s mom would be a good decision. He knows roughly the same about her as he does about Blaine. He does have some clues, but in all honesty, it’d be more reasonable to assume they got into a fight about something than thinking Blaine’s an abusive monster.

        2. TSB

          Just because an action would have a positive outcome in some situations doesn’t make it a good idea.

          I think that knowing nothing about a friend’s parent, except that they refuse to talk about them, you should not assume it is safe to tell them details about your friend’s emotional problems. Many people have abusive, manipulative, or outrageously stupid/incompetent parents.

          I am not saying that Danny is wrong to not realize Blaine is an abuser – I am saying he is wrong to assume it is okay to tell him about Amber’s life, when he has never heard Amber talk about him, or seen them together, and he knows nothing about their relationship. Assuming he also knows that little about Amber’s mom, he should not tell these details to Amber’s mother either, even though he probably would be helpful in that case.

          There are so many untrustworthy parents in the world, and the consequences of helping them interfere in their children’s lives are so extreme, that if you know literally nothing about them, I think you should not grant them any more trust than you would a random stranger – regardless of whether they come across as reasonable or a dangerous abuser.

          I’m sorry to type so much, but it seems two people at least are not grasping what I am saying: it doesn’t matter whether Danny realizes what a dangerous guy Blaine is or not, Blaine is still a stranger and Danny has no idea how Amber feels about him or what their relationship is. Therefore, Danny should not open up to him about Amber’s fragile emotional state, although it is totally understandable that he does. Maybe you disagree with me on that point, that’s fine. But what I am saying is not related to Danny not realizing Blaine is a jerk.

        3. TSB

          Wait crap, that was what I was saying in my first post. What the hell, brain? I don’t remember thinking that. Uh… I’m going to flee into the night now.

        4. Random832

          Interestingly, this actually can be tied back to the discussions the other day about privilege. Growing up in a stable relatively normal non-abusive family situation is a form of privilege, which led to Danny failing to consider this possibility.

        5. Random832

          I meant to put “normal” in quotes.

  31. Idon'tcarenomore

    Her father is so adamant about going to the dorm and ‘confronting’ her…I am sure Danny picked up on the fact that Blaine ‘ain’t right’ when he met him at the dorms and then talking at lunch. He didn’t seem comfortable and said he ‘felt he had to agree, because Blaine is a parent’. Not exactly a heartfelt endorsement.

    The crack Blaine made about ‘spending money’ seemed to make Danny alert maybe.

    But now, Danny seems to be warming to him, ‘glad her Dad is there’. I really hope Danny is feeding the troll to see if he says more odd and off the wall things, IE how much she is spending, how she gets out of control, how he absolutely doesn’t want to meet her in her dorm.

    Danny may not be the brightest bulb, but he is not an idiot. I hope he listens to his inner voice here and warns Amber that her Dad is on the scene. I do not think he would willingly do anything to hurt her.

    1. Casey

      He’s kind of an idiot when it comes to Amber-related issues. But I do hope that dorm reaction raises his red flags and he realizes what Blaine is.

      1. WaveRocker

        “What Blaine is”
        It’s so true, though. He really is more like a monster or something.

    2. TacosForever

      I don’t hate Danny as much as most of the commenters here, but I think you may be giving him too much credit for, you know, noticing things.

      1. WaveRocker

        I agree. People in the comments, love em as I may, give Danny way too much crap. He’s not the smartest, but he means well.

        1. Rutee

          I don’t like Danny either, and I agree. Granted, I just consider him uninteresting in comparison to his counterparts, rather than like, awful.

        2. StClair

          He’s a clueless adolescent – which I suspect a lot of us would like to pretend we never were.

      2. The E-man

        Yeah, agreement. Danny isn’t exactly good at noticing things. I like Danny and I’m just cringing at this current storyline with him because it’s going to end up horrible and heartbreaking (mostly for Amber, who i also love. dang this is going to suck)

    3. Tom T.

      “Her father is so adamant about going to the dorm and ‘confronting’ her…”

      ??? Blaine expressly says not to go to the dorm to confront her.

      1. Mr. Random

        What would you think if you found a parent waiting outside the dorms asking if you knew someone.

  32. Ragnal

    Every panel this keeps going I want to vomit.

    Just…urgh…this dude does not make me comfy.

    1. kelticat

      Still thinking of castration during Blaine scenes. Messed up, but appropriate.

  33. Juliecat

    And the inexorable march of plot continues slouching towards bedlam…

    1. Belegcam

      This is all going to end with Amber, Blaine, Danny, Dorothy, and Walky colliding in a magnificent trainwreck.

      1. Kiggy

        What about Sal and Billie?

  34. Cholma

    Oh, great. Dumb-ass Danny is going to lure Amber to an off-campus site where Asshole Blaine can ambush her.

    1. Bill

      In Danny’s defense, should that be “well-meaning but clueless Danny”, etc.?

      1. Aizat

        Finally, someone who didn’t bash on the guy. Seriously guys, safe for a few people, does Danny even know that Blaine is an asshole?

        1. Yotomoe

          At best he might have an inkling. But naw. There is very little chance that Danny would know that Blaine’s a dick at this point.

        2. Rutee

          Pretty much the only people in the college who know Blaine is horrible are Dina, Ruth, Billie, Ethan, and Mike. Right now, he’s just looking overbearing – mostly. The tells are there, but it’s not obvious. Danny is currently only danning it up in mundane ways – but mundane ways that would obviously not be ideal even to an overbearing ordinary parent.

        3. timemonkey

          Billie doesn’t actually know, she was just following Ruth’s instructions and was at a loss once she’d caught up to him.

        4. kelticat

          No, he thinks Blaine is a parent. Slightly controlling, but okay. Danny doesn’t realize the abusiveness of Blaine because he doesn’t realize the abusiveness of his own parents.

    2. Random832

      We can only hope that A) Blaine will be smart enough to tell him not to tell her it’s to meet her father B) Blaine will be dumb enough to realize that’s a massive red flag and C) Danny will be smart enough to realize that’s a massive red flag.

      And/or Blaine won’t think of it and Danny will mention it because there’s no reason not to.

  35. Jon P

    Feeling stupid. Who’s Isabelle?

    1. Sageress

      Animal Crossing character.

      1. Keroshino

        The “Most Adorable” of Animal Crossing characters!!!

  36. Nena

    This is going to end in tears and blood shed isn’t it?

  37. lil albatross

    Danny you idiot you’re going to get her killed.

    1. Bill

      Willis has already promised that no one will die in this webcomic.
      However, like Sarah, he could be lying.

      1. Yotomoe

        Willis beating us with a metaphorical plot bat.

  38. Salmo

    Really? “Acting up”? “Creeping on you”? Fuck off, Danny.

    1. none too far

      See, “creeping” might totally be the wrong word to use in this instance, but, from Danny’s point-of-view, well, she was trying to insert herself into his life romantically when he was already in a relationship with “someone else.” That could be considered creepy behavior if you don’t know the motivations behind that person’s actions, and it can still be construed as creepy by someone even if you do. I’m happy that Danny admits to some regret about how he handled his rejection of Amber, though. It shows at least minimal self-awareness about how his actions affect others. Note that I say MINIMAL because dude, stop badmouthing your friend to her Dad. Still, I can’t fault the guy for perceiving his increasingly erratic friend in the way that he has. I do wish he’d tried approaching her in a more mature manner, though, but he’s, what, 18? 19? That’s a tall order for someone that age in a pretty uncomfortable position.

      Also, holy shit, Blaine is the worst.

    2. saltchocolate

      “Acting up” is what a parent says about a child. A young child. Not cool, Danny.

  39. John Madden

    Its like watching a train wreck.

  40. WaveRocker

    I honestly thought from the last comic that he meant well :\

  41. jaimehlers

    Someone drop a meteor on those two and end the agony.

    1. Keroshino

      Get some Black Materia and that can be done!

  42. newllend

    And all my fears where confirmed, shit will go down sooner than expected…. Get out of control some times, *cough* runs in the family,*cough*

  43. GoogerGeiger

    Danny is Dannying this up more than Britta could ever Britta something up.

    1. Yotomoe

      Britta wish she could britta as hard as Danny Dans.

  44. newllend

    Side not on what danny just said: DICK

    1. Keroshino

      With a side order of: DOUCHE!!!

  45. Idon'tcarenomore

    I think he does mean wel,l Waverocker, he doesn’t know what Blaine is.

    He doesn’t hang around with Amber, just her alter-ego. And Amber does not have a lot of friends, so it’s not like he knows what’s really going on in her real life from friend’s gossiping.

    It’s been said in forum, that Blaine can be charming when he is wanting to get something. Buying a college student free lunch is a good way to get his foot in the door. Acting like a concerned parent is another.

    Danny has been described as clueless. I don’t hate him, but would gladly hit him with a hammer right about now. He is saying what’s on his mind with no thought of the consequence to Amber.

    I hope he does not get her killed.

    Willis said no one would get hit by a truck. I don’t think he actually said no one would die?

    1. newllend

      I dont hate danny either, he’s part of a dieing race of nice guys you can’t really cant find any more. Its just, He’s so fucking stupid and easy, Joyce isn’t even less as niave he is and walky’s probably smarter than him, mature of fact walky’s a closet box genius yet he acts dumb thats his character so he is smarter than Danny

      1. newllend

        Ya I messed up

    2. Jen Aside

      That’s what I thought, “no one will get hit by a truck”–taking death off the table entirely removes a huge set of options, even if it’s only, “Your grandfather no one in the comic saw just died, the funeral is during finals” =p

  46. Nym

    In all fairness, from Danny’s pov, Amber was creeping on him. All the same, this whole showing concern for her while simultaneously dismissing everything about her is making me want to pull my hair out.

    Even were Blaine a normal, non-abusive father, Danny is being a terrible friend here, and showing that he’s a terrible friend in general to her. (See: “I don’t know any of Amber’s other friends and have never bothered asking, so I’m going to assume she has none and nonchalantly tell her dad this. Not because I’m concerned she’s isolated, but because I need to point out it doesn’t matter to me if we possibly embarrass her in front of others.”) Argh.

    1. Norah

      This! I understand that he doesn’t realize Blaine is abusive, and he thinks Blaine is just a kind, concerned dad. But Danny could have worded it way differently, for instance saying “Amber seems to be really emotionally upset and worried about something lately. Something seems to be bothering her, and I’m getting really concerned about her.” And when Blaine mentioned friends, all he would have had to say is that he didn’t know Amber’s other friends.

      1. Graq

        Yes yes yes to all of this, both of you.

      2. Roomba Ron

        I had this pointed out to me earlier but thats asking for quite a bit of emotional maturity from a 18 to 19 year old, especially from someone who doesnt seem to have had to deal with abusive parents(annoyingly overbearing perhaps, in fact he might be seeing Blaine as the same as his mom).
        I also think he is still upset from the day before but atleast admist he could of acted or reacted in a better way about it. In fact he even says he wants to talk it out with her and sort any problems between them out, thats a hell of alot of movement from someone who might of just buried his head in the sand before.

    2. TacosForever

      YES Nym & Norah. This is exactly what’s wrong with what Danny is saying and how dismissive he’s being. Sure, from his point of view, she was ‘creeping on’ him, and I’m not blaming him for not knowing about Blaine (although he really should have asked Amber what was going on before ripping into her) but he’s found a really disrespectful way to phrase his concern about whatever’s going on with her, and he said other things that were way worse than ‘creeping’, in that regard.

      1. Jen Aside

        I could imagine his use of “creeping” as continuing to justify to himself his “I chose Amazi-Girl and NOT Amber”–but everyone else would call that Danning it up. If the shoe fits, I guess.

  47. Oishi1117

    Finally got a Gravatar :=P

  48. Sailorcake

    It kind of sad Danny thinks Amber doesn’t have any friends

    1. Tom T.

      You mean because he’s right?

      1. Yotomoe

        It’s sad cuz it’s TRUEEEE.

    2. Norah

      As far as he knows, it’s true. He maybe doesn’t know about Ethan and Mike.

      1. Rutee

        He probably doesn’t! But if Amber hasn’t said something to that effect, it’s a pretty self-absorbed conclusion. I mean, the two friends (3 with Dina?) Amber has outnumbers Danny’s one friend we see as omnipotent viewers, and I imagine he would (rightly) feel insulted if Amber said “I don’t think he has friends” because she hasn’t watched him with his Bestie (who’s leaving him, at any rate).

  49. Siddlaw

    Danny is making me want him to end up alone and miserable.

    1. Yotomoe

      You don’t need to worry about that. Natural selection will probably see to that.

  50. Rex Hondo

    God god, has everybody forgotten how Amber acted with Danny during parents’ weekend. In his own words:

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

    She forces herself into lunch with his parents, pretends to be his girlfriend, even after he tells her flat out that she’s making him unfomfortable. Then, she talks smack about his girlfriend and basically tries to get him to break up with her. At no point does she tell him the truth about Amazigirl or her dad.

    In fact, she knows that Blaine saw her with Danny, and while she’s perfectly aware of what he’s capable of, she never thinks to give Danny the slightest warning. She led Blaine straight to Danny and left him hanging. I believe the term we’re looking for here is “Good job breaking it hero.”

    Then, the next time he sees her, she’s screaming and crying and panicking with no threat in sight, generally acting like a crazy person. Even then, when he would have every reason to consider himself to have dodged a bullet with a crazy girl, his first reaction is to follow her and try to see if she’s ok. Yeah, what a horrible fucking person he is…

    1. Nym

      And that’s why I think the creeping comment from Danny is fair from his pov, but that still leaves him being dismissive of her and saying she’s “acting up,” language you might use for an unruly toddler, not a peer and friend. It kind of boggles my mind that he can have such good intentions – being concerned for a friend even when you don’t want to be around them For Reasons and wanting to make sure they end up okay – and manage to have such poor execution even when merely expressing that concern.

      1. Rex Hondo

        I guess I just don’t see the wording as being that dismissive. I lean more towards an interpretation that it’s more polite than saying “She’s been acting like a raving loon,” which, let’s be honest, she has been.

        1. kujazlilmage

          I like how panicking over losing control of her rage, which is what AmaziGirl is there to help her cope with, and reasonably getting upset that she just saw the face of the girl who ran in with guns almost literally blazing to rob a convenience store when she was younger, while in the middle of several other already distressing things that JUST HAPPENED in the span of a few minutes, is considered “acting like a raving loon”. She isn’t reacting to everything around her in the space of an emotionless vacuum.

        2. Rex Hondo

          Because, as people have pointed out before, and I suppose I’ll have to point out again.

          Danny is not aware of any of that. He did not witness the table flip. He is not a mind reader. He does have a magic laptop that gives him access to webcomics in which he is a character. And, since Amber has not chosen to actually tell him about anything, he can not be expected in any way, shape, or form to have access to the information about Amber that we, the readers, have at our fingertips.

        3. Rani

          Rex is right. I hate to admit it but FUCK. Danny’s not actually a bad kid. His one mistake was not being God in a universe that all but demands he be.

        4. T Campbell

          I was going to say more in response to today’s strip, but Rex went and stole all my best lines.

        5. Nym

          “Danny is not aware of any of that. He did not witness the table flip.”
          Yes, absolutely. While what he saw of Amber’s reaction was understandable in context, it’s definitely really weird and outside the expected from what Danny’s aware of. (He’s also unaware of everything wrt Sal and Amber’s history.) It makes sense and is a point in his favor that he’s concerned.

        6. kujazlilmage

          Yet it appears Danny’s lack of knowledge of the situation has opened up the floor to in fact call Amber out on acting crazy when she’s really not? That’s what I’m taking issue with. I’m not comfortable that people are so quick to defend Danny by completely disregarding Amber. I understand that she certainly doesn’t LOOK held together from Danny’s POV, and that’s because she isn’t, but just because he doesn’t get it doesn’t mean she’s nuts.

        7. beege

          True. It’s actually a situation where neither of them are in the wrong*. There’s a context for everything Amber’s done, but Danny is unaware of that context through no fault of his own.

          *Although the way Danny’s expressed his concern is . . . less than ideal.

        8. Nym

          Er, yes, if he’d said it that way, I’d take that less as thinking it’s dismissive and more in the manner of wide-eyed horror. Here are some non-dismissive ways he could describe Amber’s behavior, from tactful understatement to outright blunt:

          -“I’m worried about her, because she seems . . . stressed. Much more so than one would expect from starting university.”
          -“Do you know if anything else is going on with her? She looked really distressed the last I saw her, enough that I’m really concerned.”
          -“Something must have happened, because when I saw her last, she was crying and running away from something.”

          There are many, many other options, obviously, but all of those are ways to acknowledge someone’s actions and emotions, and that they may, in fact, be valid, rather than something akin to a toddler’s tantrum or the sign of mental illness.

          (Which, y’know, the latter would also be a valid reason to be freaking out, but a) due to the stigma attached, is not something you want to say about someone else without very good reason and b) is not something I’d say Danny has tons of personal evidence toward making that conclusion anyway. This level of emotional outburst is definitely still within the average person’s range.)

    2. Rutee

      Uh, reminder: She was also consciously saving him from his meddling parents. Unlike Amber, Danny was open about them and their concerns. Not, by any means, the ranking priority on her mind when she started, but the ranking priority on her mind when she started was “JESUS FUCK ITS BLAINE”, which I doubt any of us can blame.

      1. Rex Hondo

        That’s certainly the rationalization she came up with when Danny started to balk. Without reading her mind, we can’t really say one way or the other just how driving a motivation it was. Still, without letting him in on it, she placed him right in her father’s crosshairs. As many comics as she reads, you’d think she’d realize that it’s a miracle Danny hasn’t been crammed into her dorm fridge yet.

        1. Rutee

          No, we can’t say how driving it was, and we do know part of it was she wanted it to be true. That’s why I said ‘also consciously saving him’ and not ‘she was trying to save him’. The first thing on her mind was clearly saving herself from Blaine. I don’t know where things rank past that, and it’s difficult to speculate based on the evidence we have available. But it was a factor in there, most likely.

          As to the fridge thing, given that she didn’t punch the engineering student, I suspect she’s well aware that hte world doesn’t work like in a superhero comic? When Sal’s not around anyway.

        2. Rex Hondo

          The point is, helping Danny out by pretending to be his girlfriend shows considerably less concern for his wellbeing than warning him about her emotionally and physically abusive father who now thinks he is her boyfriend would have.

        3. Rutee

          If that’s your point, it’s a pretty weak one even if it’s true; she seems to think Blaine is GONE, else I imagine Amazi-girl would have a different target in mind earlier. Not a safe assumption, apparently, but there you go. And I find it very unlikely that Blaine thinks this dude is her boyfriend, and certainly, he isn’t acting like it. He seems to treat him as a tool, not a target. He even identified him as one of her little friends, not her boyfriend. I think Blaine recognized the transparent excuse to be near people for what it was.

        4. Rex Hondo

          Blaine was standing right there watching when she started draping herself all over Danny in front of his parents, and Amber knew it. Whatever Blaine believes Danny to be is irrelevent, anyway. Amber called Danny to Blaine’s attention and utterly failed to warn him, direcly leading to the situation in which Danny finds himself now.

        5. Rutee

          If it’s irrelevant, you should probably not try to highlight how important it is that he thinks he’s her boyfriend. Also all things considered, and in light of Danny’s (mostly reasonable) opinion of Amber atm, I honestly think he’d be MORE inclined to believe Blaine, with the warning treated as part of her creeping ploy. There’d be an understandable, if hatable (for reasons unrelated to Danny), logic there too.

        6. Roomba Ron

          Although I think its a pretty easy mistake to make considering the heightened emotions and lack of any actual experience on the part of Amber Im going agree with you here Rex, this situation is a result of her failing to warn Danny about her father. Im not saying this makes her responsible for Blaine or Dannys actions but it does show that she isnt entirely innocent in all this either.
          And no I dont think she was helping Danny out with his parents, long term it would of better for him to be honest about his situation as strange as it was and even the reprieve she bought him was her taking advantage of the situation(even if she really did need to get away from her dad).

      2. Ravenholme

        So we can accept that kind of meddling when Amber is the one doing it but not when Danny is the one doing it? He believes he’s helping her by going to somebody he supposes cares about her, as would be natural for a parent.

        Cripplingly naive, sure, and conceited, for considering himself the closest thing to a friend she has, but not malicious.

        1. Rutee

          The issue has little to do with Danny, except that he is saying things that would be a bad idea /if everything was exactly as it appeared to him/. He has no reason to think blaine is anything but an overbearing dad – “I don’t think she has any friends”, aside from being very egocentric, is a bad idea to tell this person EVEN GIVEN THAT.

          I don’t even think he’s wrong to want Blaine to talk to Amber. I mean he is, but he’s arrived at a reasonable conclusion based on societal messages about how helpful family must be, and the evidence he actually has. But again, even given all that, he’s danning up, if less than normal.

    3. Twirls

      not really hoping into the giant comment thread that followed, but I do feel inclined to point out that it kinda looks like he cuts her off when she tries to explain in the first two panels that you linked to.

  51. Kiggy

    I keep equating Blaine with Senator Palpatine/Darth Sidious, and Danny with… well, Anakin Skywalker, despite his flaws as a tragic hero, was smarter than Danny :p

    1. T Campbell

      http://www.digitalpimponline.com/strips.php?title=movie&id=24

      It’s sad but true.

      At least so far.

    2. StClair

      (I know i said this on a previous strip, but)

      “I like it when we visit the Chancellor’s office. He gives me candy!”

  52. JoeMerl

    Danny told Amber he didn’t want to date her. Amber arranged circumstances so that he pretty much had no choice but to do so anyway.

    I’m sorry, “creeping” seems like a fairly appropriate term. I know there were other circumstances, but he doesn’t.

    1. nothri

      Well, that’s part of the problem, isn’t it? Danny has reached this frankly shitty conclusion based on his own teeny tiny grasp on the facts and a lot of assumptions. I have a bias against people like that- I’ve met enough of them to have made my life pretty awful in certain places.

      Also, for a guy who’s complaining about how this girl was creeping on him, Danny is real damn quick to go eat dinner with her supposed father and gossip about her behind her back.

      1. Greenygal

        I think your second point is valid–I get why Danny is concerned, and why he doesn’t realize that Blaine is awful, but I don’t think he should be talking to Amber’s father about her regardless, specifically because he doesn’t know anything about him.

        But he’s not assuming things: he did in fact see Amber pretend to be his girlfriend in front of his parents and push him into admitting romantic feelings for her when she knows he already has a girlfriend. And then when he said he wasn’t happy with that she told him his girlfriend–who she doesn’t even know–wasn’t a real person and he couldn’t love her. I mean, seriously, imagine how awful that sounded from Danny’s perspective.

        Yes, the reality of the situation is different, but Danny isn’t missing that because he’s making assumptions; he’s missing it because Amber is deliberately keeping things from him. Much different thing.

  53. Tom T.

    I’m baffled by this term “dismissive” that keep cropping up in the comments. Danny is obviously genuinely concerned about her well-being, much more than she appears to deserve after the bizarre and unfriendly ways she has treated him.

    More generally, the way Danny’s word choices are nitpicked in the comments into the worst possible light, while Amber’s chaotically destructive actions are waved off without consequence, suggests to me that many commenters are reacting based on prior pre-judgments, and not on the events as they are actually unfolding.

    1. Ridureyu

      Danny is an abusive asshole, and deserves to die. Amber has not done anything wrong or even remotely bizarre, and if you REALLY interpret her as “Chaotically destructive,” well… you should get yourself checked out. Seriously.

      1. Mr K

        Going around beating people up in a weird costume is totally normal!

        1. Rex Hondo

          Likewise, Hulked-out table flipping is often considered a reasonable and well-measured response, appropriate for most social situations.

        2. Random832

          Hey, as long as we’re being fair to his limited perspective, Danny doesn’t know about any of that either.

      2. Ravenholme

        So the whole episode where she forced her way into dinner with his parents and pretended to be his girlfriend totally passed you by?

        Because that is so wrong on so many levels that I don’t know where you get off saying that Danny is an abusive asshole.

        He does not have your perfect perspective of the story, he has only his perspective, and from where he is standing she has been “creeping” on him, because she has not offered a rational explanation for activities most commonly associated with crazy life-sucking stalkers.

      3. T Campbell

        “Chaotically destructive” may be a bit harsh– Amazi-Girl is a moderately crazy thing Amber’s doing to protect herself from snapping COMPLETELY. But man, I can’t even fathom “abusive asshole.”

        He’s not COMPETENT enough to be abusive. Blaine is an adult who has had every chance to learn to care for others, and has chosen rage instead, consistently, and will probably continue to until the day he dies. Danny is a kid, a sheltered boy who’s been in college a few weeks, as immature as Walky in his way. And he STILL knows that when you see someone in pain, even if you’re connecting with your girlfriend in her secret identity for the first time ever, you drop that shit and you go help. And he’s trying to improve himself, while Blaine blames everyone else.

        “Abusive asshole,” jeez Louise. Heck, I’m probably not gonna convince anyone who’d say Danny deserves to DIE for his sins– I think only Blaine and Ryan might fall into that category, personally– but I had to respond to this general sentiment somewhere.

        1. Rex Hondo

          I’m pretty sure, where hatred of Danny is concerned, the ship for “rational” sailed long, long ago, and even if it hadn’t, it certainly wouldn’t have stayed in port very long once the nazis marched into town, upthread.

    2. Rutee

      I don’t see how one can equate genuine concern with patronizing condescension? Yeah, she’s fucked up, don’t get me wrong here. I really dislike that people ignore that amber is as messed up as the people she’s interacting with, and given that one of them is Ethan, this is actually a pretty huge mess. It just doesn’t really mean Danny isn’t making stupid decisions; Does the rest of the cast? ABSOLUTELY. But they’re far more /entertaining/ about it. That matters!

      1. Tom T.

        “But they’re far more /entertaining/ about it. That matters!”

        +1! 🙂

    3. Nym

      As a person who actually used the word dismissive before reading the rest of the comments, I’ve got to say, yeah, his words come across that way. Word choice matters, and different words have different connotations. Did I acknowledge that Danny is genuinely concerned? Yes. And does his concern give him good person points? Absolutely! But that doesn’t change the fact that Danny speaks about his female friend in the same dismissive manner that a lot of women experience today. I don’t in any way think he’s being intentionally misogynist or a terrible friend, just like I don’t think Danny intentionally messes up many of his interactions with others. Intentions can inform actions, but they don’t magically make them much better.

      Wrt Amber (and others!), yes, I’d agree she’s not been acting in the best manner either. See: my comment above about how from Danny’s pov it’s fair to say she was creeping on him and my comments from the table flip strips that I was not super impressed with Amber’s actions (and another incident where good intentions don’t mean great follow through).

      It’s entirely possible to dislike how Danny’s acting here without also giving everyone else a free pass, and I think a lot of people have very good reason to paint Danny’s words overall as dismissive.

  54. Kyle

    Way to notice the painfully obvious signs Danny

    1. ninja_jesus

      I guess he didn’t notice the bold letters and the sentences and the word bubbles above Blaine’s head that would’ve given him the contextual clues.

      1. Catriona

        He’s got better, he can actually hear the man talk and see his body language. :3

  55. Rani

    Amazi-girl’s enemies converge on her from every direction. Danny is leading Blaine to her alter-ego. David is leading Dorothy to the truth about her secret identity. Joyce is leading Ethan to shatter Amazi-girl’s psyche. And Amazi-girl is distracted by the one enemy who just doesn’t give a shit.

    WILL SHE MAKE IT?

  56. AJBulldis

    This Danny hate is delicious. Almost makes it worth having to watch him constantly Dannying up everything.

    Best case scenario is Amber realizing she can do better. And then Danny gets hit by a bus.

    1. Nym

      I’d like to think best case scenario is he learns and grows as a person. I met a number of people while in high school and college who were very Danny-ish, and I’d rather that sort of person catches a clue than were run over. Danny has the good intentions! Now all he needs is to be able to actually . . . do anything useful with them.

  57. etybolik

    I’m sure this has been brought up, but it’s worth noting he literally knows nothing about Amber other than she’s in his CS class and is on her DS every waking second. And likes comics and him. He definitely doesn’t know about Blaine actually being a total asshole because Amber never mentioned it (not that she had any obligation to, it just never came up). He also has no idea how manipulative Blaine apparently is and would have no reason to suspect something’s up.

    He’s still a gigantic idiot for not realizing who Amazi-Girl really is (or anything else that’s painfully obvious), but after taking that into account and looking at things from his perspective, as far as he’s concerned Amber shoved herself onto him in a way. Could he have asked what was going on? Sure. Would Amber have actually explained? I doubt it.

    Anyway, fuck you Blaine, go die in a fire.

  58. Quinctia

    I hope Walky and Dorothy find her first.

    1. Norah

      Yes, or Ruth. I remember Ruth was going to talk to her.

    2. Mr K

      OR Faz. That would be hilarious.

  59. Norah

    I’ve never disliked Danny as much as I do at this moment.

    1. Keroshino

      Welcome to the Club!

    2. xKiv

      Live for the moment.

  60. Mr K

    Faz will come in and save the day! He’ll report Blaine to campus authority, convince Amber to not beat up Sal, get the Walkerton siblings to be friends, and then fix Amber and Danny’s relationship. He’ll then get a harem of hot college girls!

    1. Nym

      I. I don’t know why, but I kind of love this comment.

      Poor Faz, though. Isn’t he still tied up? Man, we already know Blaine is a terrible parent, so it follows he’d be a terrible “step-parent” (I use quotes only because I like to think he’s the actual father in this ‘verse, too, because the thought of Amber and Faz being related is never not hilarious to me), but still.

      From what I can tell, he abandoned Faz, who has no idea where Blaine is or how he’s getting home. Not, y’know, that Faz was above taking the opportunity to hit on college girls.

      1. Random832

        This is the second day of parents’ weekend, and Blaine is in town for both days. He may have figured Faz can find his own way back to the hotel room. He may have been right – we haven’t actually seen Faz since before nightfall.

  61. Bilfred

    blaine laying a devious plot

    1. Keroshino

      Placing the trap!

  62. T Campbell

    Blaine’s continued desperate impersonation of a human being is amusing me way more than it should.

    Despite his stated dislike of Danny, I don’t feel like David’s making him too dumb just for plot convenience. Many people do not assume that the parents of friends they meet are horribly abusive, especially if they’re sheltered like Walky or just have casually abusive parents like Danny (it will take him a long time to figure out that their attitude toward him is not helping his development, unless someone else points it out first).

    Yes, okay, maybe telling Amber’s dad that Amber doesn’t have any friends (I presume Danny means other than himself) was not the greatest friend-move ever, but he’s doing it because he actually realizes he’s in over his head and is sharing information, hoping he and this other person who’s concerned about Amber can pool their resources.

    1. Alex Stritar

      It’s like Sal said, he is a good guy, he’s just not all that bright.

    2. Ravenholme

      You and Rex might be some of the few decent human beings in this comment thread.

      Sad to see so many people wishing death/maiming on Danny just for being densely naive.

      1. Rutee

        He’s fake. A construct made to resemble a human being. The irony of judging someone harshly for wanting bad things to happen to a non-real entity is staggering.

        1. ninja_jesus

          I think it’s more a credit to the author for making such realistic characters that people are able to passionately take sides. These characters, while fake, represent the readers in some form or another.

        2. StClair

          Perhaps more than they’d like to admit. As I noted above, Danny is a (IMO) not unrealistic depiction of a rather unworldly adolescent American male. A lot of people (including those who used to BE that) are going to react negatively.

  63. Michael Crichton

    If you feel the need for any pointless deaths for other characters to angst over in this version of the Walkyverse, can you have it be Danny this time? Because this version of him is completely useless for anything else.

    1. rachel

      m… michael crichton?

      1. rachel

        at chaotic-nipple.livejournal.com???

        you are breaking my world

  64. Rutee

    Danny, you are danning this up, but you have room to recover. Please, recover – this isn’t about hating you, this is about Blaine not getting too much leverage.

  65. cdot

    Acting up?
    what a douche,hate him even more

    1. Ravenholme

      Because forcing him to pretend to be her boyfriend in front of his parents is totally normal behaviour and not in any way out of line.

      But hey, choo-choo! Danny Hate Train has no brakes.

      1. Bob Ross

        Forcing? Really? Like he couldn’t have just said no? There is a reason people don’t like him.

        1. Ravenholme

          Maybe didn’t want to make his friend seem like a psycho in front of his parents?

        2. etybolik

          Or he didn’t want to deal with explaining to his parents why he pushed away this pretty college girl that seems really into him.

        3. Twirls

          But pretty much calling her as such to one of hers is fine?

  66. Charles RB

    DANNY, YOU FAIL

  67. Rex Hondo

    The main problem with Danny, in my estimation, is that he could have one of the more fascinating character arcs if her weren’t used merely as a punching bag. While other cast members are challenging their preconceptions and learning to incorporate new ideas into their personalities, Danny is the one who is pretty much building an identity for himself from scratch, starting practically at zero.
    His parents raised him to be practically nothing, a mere accessory to a more successful woman. While she could have definitely stood to do it earlier, Dorothy was probably the first person to ever encourage him to be something more. And he’s been trying. He does his best, and sometimes he stumbles. In many, many situations, though, he does what, more often than not, would be the right thing, and only goes wrong because he simply doesn’t have the information to do any better.

    1. Ravenholme

      I think you nail it perfectly

    2. Rutee

      “His parents raised him to be practically nothing, a mere accessory to a more successful woman. While she could have definitely stood to do it earlier, Dorothy was probably the first person to ever encourage him to be something more”

      On what evidence do you think any part of this is true? FFS even *JOE* has been pushing him from the first comic. Yeah, he met Dorothy before the first comic, but get real.

      1. Rex Hondo

        The evidence of every interaction he has with his parents as well as what we know of his relationship with Dorothy.
        And Joe has not been pushing him to discover himself of be better. Joe has been pushing him to get laid.

        1. Rutee

          His relationship with dorothy was formed by his parents? The most we see of his parents is that they seem to want him to be more-or-less normal, and that, for dudes, means NOT being a passive accessory.

          “And Joe has not been pushing him to discover himself of be better. Joe has been pushing him to get laid.”
          So in-character perspectives only matter when they’re beneficial to Danny? This notwithstanding that frankly, pushing him to treat women as people who can actually form opinions he’s not for IS pushing him to be better.

        2. Rex Hondo

          Yeah, you may want to re-read the first couple of strips with the Wilcoxes. Wanting him to hang on to a successful woman is not wanting him to be normal or successful.
          And… I’m not even really sure what you’ve even trying to say about Joe. Danny’s the one who actually keeps his dick in his pants and regularly has conversations with girls without trying to get them into the sack, so it seems that Danny’s has the treating-women-as-people thing down quite a bit more than Joe does.

        3. Rutee

          Kay, just did. You’re still drastically making a huge leap of faith in your conclusions. ‘better’ doesn’t mean ‘more successful’. It is a very, VERY broad term, and given that Danny is (understandably) being very defensive he may be coming off as rationalizing it as a small deal to them.

          “Danny’s the one who actually keeps his dick in his pants and regularly has conversations with girls without trying to get them into the sack, so it seems that Danny’s has the treating-women-as-people thing down quite a bit more than Joe does.”

          Joe seems to act based on the concept of enthusiastic consent, which Danny seems to find unpossible. Certainly, Joe has a much better understanding of consent than average for Meriken, much less horndog meriken; “Was she crying? Was she drunk? Was she unconscious?”, remember? Hell, the context for that was danny assumed that Billie could not have possibly consented to sex, because reasons, when Billie clearly was consenting to sex, enthusiastically at that. Him not wanting to bang is one thing, but his willful misreading of Billie to rob her of her agency in the matter is not. Joe immediately calls him on it, in moer or less those words, and Danny outright concedes the point. Most of what we’ve seen out of Joe past the first book (at most) suggests Joe understands quite intimately that women are people, and his entirely cordial relationship with Dorothy with no attempts to hit on her, can maintain perfectly platonic relationships w/ us as well.

        4. Rutee

          Incidental note, there are not many comics w/ the Wilcoxen.

        5. ninja_jesus

          The first three strips with Danny’s parents would be enough to establish their feelings towards Danny. In fact, it is fully expressed within the first three strips. Large post coming up that has yet to be moderated.

      2. ninja_jesus

        “Smart move, following Dorothy to college. You hold onto her, son, she’s going places.” This is the very first time we see the Wilcoxes, and Randal’s opening line states quite clearly that Danny’s parents do not think anything highly of him, and encourage him to ride the coat tails of a more successful person (i.e. a girlfriend).

        “Dorothy is a treasure, isn’t she?” Note the change in attitude and facial expression when Danny drops that he and Dorothy broke up; it follows into the next strip. Danny’s parents are clearly upset that he “lost his chance for success” as an accessory to someone successful. This sentiment is found in the next quote:

        ““Oh, really? Is [this ‘new girlfriend’] better than Dorothy?“/”You don’t have to make up girlfriends to make us feel better, Danny.” When he says he has a new girlfriend, the first question that’s asked of him isn’t whether or not she’s nice, but whether or not she is going to see the same success (or better) than what Dorothy is aiming for. It is quite clear from these first interaction we see that his parents place heavy emphasis on wanting Danny to become vicariously successful through the hard work of others. Also, notice how his parents specifically use the phrase “to make us feel better”; it’s quite a revealing phrase that makes it known that his parents only care as long as his girlfriend will make him rich/successful, and Danny, the big idiot jerkface who everyone hates with a fiery passion of a thousand suns for actions that took place entirely within an alternate universe, is only trying to appease them and make them think of him better.

        I submit to you that Danny is not a flawless creature, as none of the characters in Dumbing of Age are, but that he, as Rex Hondo says, is restarting an identity from nothing after his planned life with Dorothy failed. Being “Dorothy’s boyfriend/eventual husband” was as much his identity as it was a career title, and Dorothy breaking it off with him was the catalyst he needed to begin asserting his own identity. Thus far, however, there has been no growth to his character, and I hope that this character arc will finally mark a change in him.

        1. Rutee

          ” This is the very first time we see the Wilcoxes, and Randal’s opening line states quite clearly that Danny’s parents do not think anything highly of him, and encourage him to ride the coat tails of a more successful person (i.e. a girlfriend).”
          You.. do realize the claim originally made was that he was RAISED to be, right? All we see now is how they’re reacting to what is HAPPENING, and what is HAPPENING is that their ambitionless son has a girlfriend with an actual plan (on some level) and desires to better herself. This says NOTHING about what they actually wanted for him originally, only what they hope to achieve out of the current situation.

          “When he says he has a new girlfriend, the first question that’s asked of him isn’t whether or not she’s nice, but whether or not she is going to see the same success (or better) than what Dorothy is aiming for.”
          Uh, the first question asked is whether she’s Better, not whether she’s going to be More Successful. And that’s after he’s trying to act like breaking up with Dorothy isn’t a big deal.

          ” It is quite clear from these first interaction we see that his parents place heavy emphasis on wanting Danny to become vicariously successful through the hard work of others.”
          Yeah, it can’t possibly be that they already know that their son has no ambition. Clearly they WANTED that result and inculcated it from childhood.

          “Also, notice how his parents specifically use the phrase “to make us feel better”; it’s quite a revealing phrase that makes it known that his parents only care as long as his girlfriend will make him rich/successful”
          Um, no. No, not at all. I don’t know how you arrive at this conclusion, because that isn’t what the phrase normally means nor is it what a reasonable thing to arrive at based solely on the words themselves. I’ve heard this nonsense said to family all the bloody time. It doesn’t mean “I wish your girlfriend will be successful.” It generally means they think you’re lying to either protect your ego, or lying to make the speaking party worry less about your relationship status. It doesn’t require, depend on, or generally refer to only caring about your family member/friend/whatever’s alleged SO in terms of how they socially advance the family member/etc.

          “and Danny, the big idiot jerkface who everyone hates with a fiery passion of a thousand suns for actions that took place entirely within an alternate universe, is only trying to appease them and make them think of him better.”
          Yeah, people never do that about relationships at all, no sir. Danny is the first, and the first the concept has been raised ever. Also, didn’t read walkyverse beyond shortpacked. I really, really, REALLY don’t care about his actions in it. If this is your insight regarding me, I am rapidly losing faith in your insight into the actual COMIC.

          “I submit to you that Danny is not a flawless creature, as none of the characters in Dumbing of Age are, but that he, as Rex Hondo says, is restarting an identity from nothing after his planned life with Dorothy failed”
          Maybe, but not the part I contested.

        2. kelticat

          Thank you for taking the time to spell out the Wilcoxes abusiveness. There are also quotes about how his older brother is sooo much better than Danny in those same strips.
          Not being sarcastic.

        3. rachel

          awesome dude, thank you. you’re right, danny does come by it somewhat honestly, doesn’t he? come on, parents, why y’all so messed up with your child-rearins???

  68. Crumplepunch

    One good danning, coming right up.

  69. Alden

    Dina’s not a Pokemon, Danny, don’t let the hat fool you.

    1. Twirls

      Neither are Mike or Ethan…
      though I suppose they would be good fighting and normal type, respectively.

  70. Mr. Random

    This is… Getting more disturbing as it goes on.

  71. Spliced

    Way late to the party, but checked it.

    Willis, I have to applaud you on this writing. I can’t decide if the music in the background of this particular comic is a train wreck or the Gypsy Chorus (anvil dropping song)

    1. ninja_jesus

      …you hear music? I don’t hear music. <_< Is there something that I'm missing?

      1. Spliced

        Sorry for being confusing! I meant the “soundtrack to the comic”

    2. etybolik

      I think the intro to “The Dead Flag Blues” would fit pretty well.

  72. Rosie

    Art inspires a reaction, right? Nausea is a reaction, right?

  73. Nym

    Guys, I’ve just realized. The hate I felt from re-reading all the Danny strips at once months ago has faded once more into ambiguity. If you, too, have ever made this dreadful decision regarding any character, know that there is hope. (Maybe.)

    1. ninja_jesus

      You felt hate for a character from trying to understand said character from his/her own point of view? How does that work? O_o

      1. Nym

        You know how you can watch a character put their foot in their mouth a few times and accidentally smack someone in the face once and feel sympathy for their clumsiness even as you wince for the other characters? Apparently, if you watch them do it over and over again like some kind of messed up training montage, you go from sympathy to, “ARGH WHY DO YOU KEEP DOING THAT,” and it is definitely enough to tip the balance from, “Sometimes I like you and sometimes I don’t, but I’m hoping this changes with character development,” to, “It is difficult to read another comic with your stupid, stupid face, because I just know you’re going to trip and smack right into someone.” Or at least, you do if you are like me.

        1. Nym

          Oops, hit enter too soon.

          Anyway, the point is, though, that if you give it a while, the effects of the montage fade, and you can go back to ambivalence and rooting for the character to develop into someone you want to read, rather than someone you want to go away.

    2. Nym

      Also, because I just keep coming back to this strip (and the comments, but that’s not what I’m addressing here):

      I think panel three Danny is my favorite. Going back to what I said ages ago, I think Danny would be a more interesting character for me to read if he kept having interactions with Sarah, as they played well off of each other, but I also think that if panel three Danny were Danny all the time (intentions + actual good execution), then I could really enjoy him as a character. He’s got that youthful look of, “Yeah, I’m a teenager who’s a little oblivious and needs to learn things, but I’m still young; it’s totally doable,” plus this air of cute innocence in addition to the obliviousness.

      . . . It’s too bad that it’s bracketed by him putting his foot in his mouth in the first and last panel.

  74. CianM1301

    You can almost SEE the evil in Blaine’s eye twitch in Panel 2.

  75. Yarrr

    Amber was silly, Danny is clueless, her dad is a monster.

  76. Just for kix

    Danny. Just die. Your existence is pointless.

  77. Sir Robin

    Blaine is trying to screw over Amber, but with Danny’s help … so when Danny does Danny this up … it will benefit Amber?

    Right?

    1. Lel

      ♪Brave Sir Robin hoped too much,
      bravely hoped too much! too much!
      when has Danning, all these years
      ended in annnnnnything but tears
      young Amber always takes the piss
      all you can do is damn Willis ♪

      1. Sir Robin

        I know, that’s a lot to wish for isn’t it?

  78. Stranger

    Thats right dumbass, just keep digging yourself deeper. Seriously kid, there’s oblivious, and then there’s idiotic.

  79. D

    Nonononononononononononononononononononononooooooooooooooo
    No
    no.
    Not okay. Do not like the direction this is going. Do not want. Oh god let him be the type of horrific abusive asshole who would NOT kidnap his daughter or something awful like that and that Danny will be smart enough to get Amber to meet him in a public location where the worst he can do is a stern talking to. Which will freak her out bad enough but is honestly the best way this could end.

    Come on, Danny. GIANT RED FLAG RIGHT HERE. Dorm room? Yeah, would not be in front of her friends because Amber could quite easily ask any that were there to leave. If this guy can’t maintain composure for the 5 minutes it takes to say “Hey, I’d like to talk to Amber in private- father to daughter, that cool with you guys?” to her friends and have them clear out, maybe he should not be talking to Amber. You know Amber doesn’t really have friends anyways, so push the dorm room thing. Dorm room is a private place. Dorm room has strict rules about who is and is not allowed to visit people, and this guy is at the top of the “Not Allowed” list for good reason. Do not go along with this. You don’t even know for sure he is her father unless he carries around her birth certificate which would be weird as fudge but I could also believe it.

    Yes, yes, not really Dan’s fault because Amber hasn’t told him. But that doesn’t make this easier to watch.

    1. TheJesterKing

      Cause when some one comes up to you and says “I’m this persons father” the proper response is “pics or it didn’t happen”

  80. Corsair114

    Danny is like a perfect storm of lack of life experience, arrogance, and (seemingly) gullibility, quite possibly the perfect pawn for Blaine.

  81. Minder

    Danny’s naivety and uselessness is kind of incredible. I think he might be my favorite.

    (Not that I would defend his actions, but still. MAN. He’s so good at ruining things with the best of intentions that it’s actually become sort of endearing.)

  82. Julez

    Jeez, Danny. This guy is acting sketchy, why can’t you see this?

  83. TheJesterKing

    Honestly all the Danny hate annoys me. He is just a stupid kid with good intentions thrust into a very bad situation. It’s only natural for some one to think that parents only want to help. It’s not Danny’s fault that Blaine is complete scum. WE read this comic strip, not Danny. He doesn’t understand the context or meaning behind Blaine’s words and he certainly didn’t read the part where he was an abusive nut job. And it’s not like when they find Amber Danny will help Blaine kick the shit out of her or kidnap her or what ever. He is a good kid, if Amber starts freaking and says what’s up Danny will come to her aid. So srsly stop acting like this is all Danny’s fault he’s not the one here who hits his kids.

  84. Aslee

    Something about the way he said Amber was “creeping on him” just tipped me over the edge of apathy into pure disgust, and I’m not even sure why. Maybe it’s the fact that he can’t put two and two together and figure out she’s his damn girlfriend? But that might be too harsh. So maybe it’s the fact that he thinks it’s creepy that his friend has a crush on him, left him alone after he said no, and then felt bad when she saw him chatting up another girl in the hall? Yeah, totally creepy, feeling emotions about things that happen in public spaces that you hadn’t even planned to be in.

    Not to mention the whole ‘if she has any’ thing. Which, again, I don’t know why it makes me feel like that, I just know that if my boyfriend (or even just friend!) talked about me like that, we wouldn’t be together very long. I don’t know, I don’t really like the way he talks about her. It’s probably just Blaine’s influence. Ickiness is contagious, you know.

    The fact that he’s still worried about her even though he’s tried to effectively cut her out of his life is still kind of sweet though, I’ll have to admit.

    1. Vent

      Or he thinks that whole “forcibly pretending to be my girlfriend” thing was creepy.

      Which, y’know.

      From his perspective it totally was.

    2. Minder

      From Danny’s point of view, Amber recently went from “friend with possible undertones of infatuation” to “blatantly inviting herself romantically into his day with his parents,” even though he’d made it perfectly clear to her that he already had a girlfriend and didn’t want her there. That’s what he meant by creeping, not the fact that she saw him with Sal.

      (Although incidentally, he is completely right. Amber has on him for a lot longer than he realizes.)

      Many of the things Danny says (particularly about women) are awful, yes, but it doesn’t seem like he realizes how degrading they are. If someone told him the connotations of saying stuff like how Amber’s been “acting up,” he would probably feel bad about it and apologize. At least, I think he would. Hard to tell when nobody’s called him on it yet.

      1. Minder

        Wowee, broken post is broken. It’s supposed to say “Amber HAS BEEN creeping on him a lot longer than he realizes,” and the link shouldn’t have gone on all the way to the end. Erhghhhhhh

  85. Aurora

    Up until this point I had no real problems with Danny, but he’s kinda being an ass, putting Amber down like this in front of her own father. It’s almost like he’s trying to make himself look better in comparison. First off, it’s unfair to characterize her feelings as creeping, when he was the one who first showed romantic interest. Secondly, tell someone’s dad (that you just met) that their kid has no friends is not okay. Clueless I can deal with, but this makes him really unlikable.

    1. Aurora

      I also wanted to add that I agree with Minder about him saying things like “acting up”. She’s supposed to be your friend, Danny! She’s not some child for you to discipline.

      1. begbert2

        You’re absolutely right; he should have instead said “She acted like a crazy psycho stalker with no respect for either my existing relationships or my repeatedly expressed personal wishes. I like her as a person and enjoy hanging around with her, but she took my friendship and broke it by following me around, dragging me off on dates against my wishes, and generally trying to force herself on me against my will. It’s really sad, and I feel sorry for her, but seriously. I’m glad she’s not the a violent table-flipping sort of crazy person, or I’d have to stay away from her for my own safety.”

        Boiling all that down to a mere “acting up” clearly is a grave insult to Amber. Which is crossing the line despite the fact that she’s not really his friend anymore, but instead somebody to worry about and pity.

        1. Obstreperous

          Ideally, he wouldn’t have said anything. I think Danny’s justifiably angry with Amber, but I don’t really think he has the right to be talking about her with a stranger at all, even her father who could, theoretically, call her, visit her, email her, or find some way of contact her that doesn’t involve lurking in shadows near her dorm.

        2. Aurora

          I’m not arguing that Amber’s recent actions are completely reasonable and defendable, but since Danny is unaware of any of those outbursts, it’s kind of a moot point. His attitude is based mostly on the incident with his parents. I agree Amber was being too pushy, but Danny handled it badly, and continues to handle it badly even after acknowledging the fact. Basically, what bothers me is not that he was mad at Amber, but rather the subtle sense of entitlement and superiority that I’m beginning to notice.

  86. Stewart

    I know he isn’t smart enough to do this, but god do I wish Danny was misdirecting Blaine. Telling him what he wants to hear to trick him into doing something stupid.

    1. begbert2

      Forget being smart, he’d have to be omniscient. Or the sort of guy who maliciously misleads people’s parents for no reason, one or the other.

    2. Jack Finch

      Blaine’s a psychopath. They have devious charm and are consummate liars when necessary. Danny’s 17, 18 tops, with no reason to be paranoid. I suspect only Sal has the requisite street sense/hard experience combined with suspicion and lack of trust for Blaine to cause her douchebag-sense to tingle.

      1. rachel

        yeah, scary : ( blaine knows EXACTLY what he is doing and in what way he can delude danny into helping him. psychopaths gon’ psychopath and they’re really good at blaining it up on grown-ass adults to enlist their cooperation (or as is more often the case, complicity and silence), much less a totally naive freshman in college.

  87. AllTheTimeEver

    Many people have made the point of how limited Danny’s knowledge is of various situations within the universe, but that is what bothers me most.
    Literally Blaine was chilling in the shadows, and when he heard Danny calling for Amber, he approached him and was all “yeah, I’m her dad”.
    Maybe I’m just paranoid, but I really would not trust anyone who was like that. That’s what makes me dislike Danny here for telling Blaine about Amber. As far as we know, Blaine has given Danny no reason to believe that Blaine is actually Amber’s dad, as from that he is an adult and he said so. Danny is too trusting; hopefully Blaine being all “NO. Not the dorms.” will be a red flag for him, especially if he suggests somewhere out of the way for them to meet.
    That, or Blaine sends Danny to find Amber, Danny apologizes for being weird (though only to get her to come with him) and for her to at some point ask where they’re going and he’ll be all “oh, your dad”, either before they go or seconds before she actually sees Blaine, so Amber can flip out and run potentially making Danny realise something is up.
    Buuuut I’m likely hoping for too much, knowing Danny.

    1. Spliced

      I was thinking the same yesterday. This would NOT sit well with me, but Danny is far less jaded than we are. Remember, that’s the reason Dorothy dumped him; he had this incredibly idealistic (and unrealistic) view of their future, and not discounting her other reasons she also wanted him to see that life isn’t an idealistic view.

      His relationship with “Amazigirl” is an excellent example of just how deluded Danny is. He doesn’t think it’s weird at all his girlfriend is some superhero who’s face he never sees; he never stops to question who this person could be, or what trouble they could be in, or get in him involved with. Just as he’s not stopping to question Blaine, or how weird this whole situation is, from his shady appearance, to his antagonistic response to going to the dorm, to his hints at wanting Danny to sneak Amber out, to why a grown man and father of a young woman is discussing any of this with a man young enough to be his son in the first place.

    2. begbert2

      So let me get this straight. You’re outside in the common area of your school, just where you might expect anybody to pass by, on Freshman Family Weekend. You call out somebody’s first name, and somebody steps up, asks if you’re talking about the same person he knows, giving her full name, and then introduces himself as her father. You look at him, assess the fact that he’s a person who hasn’t carefully avoided stepping into the shade that cross the sidewalk on this warm sunny day, and immediately conclude that the only reasonable, non-paranoid response would be to conclude that this adult who’s exactly where you’d expect her father to be, who has proven he knows her by name, and who has done nothing at all suspicious except fail to avoid shade trees is…what? Not her father? Problem is he actually is her father, so I’m not seeing how your train of thought is any more sensible than Danny’s here.

      If your problem is that Danny has failed to leap to the conclusion that somebody is a child abuser due to the mere fact that he’s seen no evidence whatsoever that the person is a child abuser, congratulations. You are presenting as a person who randomly accuses people of child abuse.

      All the people around here accusing Danny of being unperceptive or dim have a remarkably poor ability to perceive the actual events of the comic and make sense of what the various characters know and have experienced, it seems.

  88. Chris_Fleming

    Danny!!!! STOP DANNYING EVERYTHING UP!!!

    1. Keroshino

      No can do. Dannying is all he knows!

  89. CommentSpawn

    Damnit Danny, grow a sense motive modifier!

    1. rachel

      he clearly has a sizeable penalty.

  90. Joe Schmoo

    Sorry Willis, but this latest chapter is just completely unenjoyable if you don’t hate Amber. Try again later.

    1. rachel

      wait are you saying that he’s a bad writer because you feel empathy for the characters? hang on.

  91. Spectre

    I thought the drama tag didn’t exist in this universe.

    This story arc is actually making me cringe. Well played, Willis.

  92. DR_GONZO

    Ah, Poor Danny. He feels too much and thinks too little. Amber too actually.

  93. jonny

    Nooooooooo! Seriously Danny, I’m new to the Walkyverse and I still like you. Don’t fuck this up! This guy is clearly the devil incarnate! I can forgive your stupidity, I can see charm in your awkwardness, but I will never forgive you if you lure Amber into a heinous parental death-trap! See the signs Danny, Beat this guy before he beats on Amber!

  94. Gargamel

    FACT: Strangers always know where the best noodle places are.
    Remember this always kids, it may save your wallet a few bucks one day.

  95. rachel

    you guys I am so nervous

  96. beege

    Danny’s curse is to perpetually find himself in situations where his average character flaws help spectacularly awful situations to play out. This does not make him solely responsible for those situations.

    Danny is responsible for his own failings – which are no worse than any other member of the cast and less than some – but NOT for all the other factors that combine with those failings to create such messes.

  97. Tealjoy

    Danny what the hell is wrong with you? Does your mouth have a mind of it’s own? Can you shut up and comprehend the aspects of what is happening here? Technically you guys are fucking legal adults, so doesn’t it seem strange that her dad showed up out of nowhere? I mean yes they can visit but still, If he wanted to see her right away he could’ve went to the front desk and requested to see her? Why was he standing in the shadows outside? If he needed to wait for her he could’ve waited inside. Why can’t you hear how much emphasis he put in his words when he declined going back to the dorms? And why are you so slow and naive to the fact that the girl your in love with is the same girl you’re pushing away? Why do you always jump to the wrong conclusions when it comes to the situations and feelings of other characters? It’s like the minute you get involved things get worst. Ugh. I like Danny. I like Danny and his flaws there not the best but there’s a chance he may be able to grow. But holy mackerel when those flaws clash with other people’s flaws and situations…

  98. AckAckAck

    Late to the commenting but I just want to say that yesterday some people called out that Danny just bluffing. LOOK AT HIM NOW! LOOK AT HIM AND DESPAIR!

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