144

Balance
Posted on January 27, 2021 by David M Willis

144 thoughts on “Balance”

  1. Ana Chronistic

    Can you imagine

    like

    the ENTIRE CAMPUS getting in on this

    would Sarah’s head a splode from the sheer joy

    1. tim gueguen

      She would achieve godlike powers and make the world into a paradise.

      1. Proxiehunter

        Remember when Webby got godlike powers on Ducktails? That’s,/i> what would happen if Sarah got godlike powers that way.

        1. He Who Abides

          Greek gods, or Gummi Be-I mean Ancients?

          I mean Ancients.

        2. Circeus

          no, that’s what would happen if JOYCE got godlike powers

      2. Dean

        The resulting worldwide surge in happiness would result in Sarah ushering in a millennium of terror and suffering, which would make her happy again.

      3. Khyrin

        To right the countless wrongs of our day, we shine this light of true redemption, that this place may become as paradise. What a wonderful world such would be…

        1. Common sense

          aaarh. Red Pin! Red Pin! Back to shibuya with you.

    2. Nono

      Mary being in a bad mood would fuel the happiness of the entire campus for years.

      But wait, everyone being in a good mood would make Sarah be in a bad mood…

      This is confusing.

      1. He Who Abides

        Mary’s already in a bad mood, though.

        1. Merbrat

          She was insufferably cheerful when she had a boyfriend.

        2. Needfuldoer

          And not long after that, the rest of the cast slipped into misery.

        3. Ana Chronistic

          Mary multiplies misery

          Sarah inverts it

        4. Roborat

          They all went to New Mexico?

    3. Hartar Janabay

      This cannot be Sarah. This must be some kind of clone that killed the real Sarah and will now rule over the campus with her smile and joy.

      1. LuminousLead

        I dunno. I can kind of empathize with Sarah here. Maybe she’s really predisposed to schadenfreude?

  2. BBCC

    I love these two. They’re the second best pair of best friends <3

  3. Sirksome

    I wonder where Dina stands on the Godzilla vs Kong discourse what with her being a huge dinosaur enthusiast?

    1. James

      On the one hand, Godzilla is terribly scientifically inaccurate. On the other, Godzilla never pretends to be an actual dinosaur and is instead some kind of mutation.

      1. He Who Abides

        Actually, OG Godzilla was stated to be a dinosaur. Granted he’s long dead, but still . . .

        1. AGV

          And a “marine” one at that
          Not even Spinosaurus fits there given the latest paper

        2. Giguioto

          That paper only said that Spino wasn’t a pursuit predator, and that he wasn’t an animal with a specialized diet of fish (more generalist, then).

          Spino is still estuarine and aquatic :v

    2. AGV

      While entretaining, kaijus are just imposible, given the square-cube law

      1. anonymousethatscurriesinthedarkness

        Yeah though that is based on classical engineering and physics.
        There could be many more surprises in nature out there to delight and horrify us yet to be discovered.

  4. Doctor_Who

    Sarah has just become a Happiness Vampire in this storyline. I love it.

    1. Slartibeast Button, BIA

      Reminding me of that story where everyone get the empathy power to feel other peoples’ emotions. So anyone feeling bad is driven out of town by force.

    2. ahecht

      I was more thinking of the psychic vampires from What We Do in the Shadows: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUzcO-Jtk70

  5. Makkabee

    Dina’s an amazingly generous person.

    I’m not sure I’d have the strength of character to intentionally think about Jurassic Park just to improve someone else’s mood.

  6. ian livs

    I love them both so much. (Also, relatable Dina is relatable. Hell, I doubt I’d recognize my own brother if he suddenly smiled that big.)

  7. woobie

    Triangle smile in 3… 2…

  8. Johan

    Omg Willis quit making everyone cute

  9. Beau Kirin Maysey

    not all heroines wear capes, sometimes they think about dinosaur stereotypes to make you happy!

  10. Dave Van Domelen

    Her nipples explode with delight?

    1. NickG

      So Joyce’s hovercraft must be full of eels?

  11. cmasta1992

    Sarah is being set up for a fall and boy howdy it looks like it’s gonna be a doozy

    1. Sirksome

      That would be kind of messed up. The one time Sarah’s genuinely happy it’s just to set her up for more misery later. I prefer to think of this as a one time gag story like that time Mary was actually genuinely pleasant to people. I think there will be a funny payoff but I don’t want to see Sarah suffer just for being happy for one day in half a year.

      1. cmasta1992

        I hope you are right.

      2. thejeff

        I wonder what happened to Mary and Peter Paul. Haven’t seen him since Malaya moved in with Sal.

        1. Sirksome

          I usually go by the rule that until we’re given new information that the status of any character will stay generally the same especially for side characters who don’t have as much development. So they’re probably still dating, although there is an argument to be made that they could’ve broken up since Mary seems to have become even more of a horrible stereotypical, hard conservative, self righteous, fundie and Peter Paul had shown to have a more positive effect or her mood that she hasn’t displayed yet. But that’s just guessing.

    2. Deanatay

      Watch Sarah’s happiness levels be inversely tied to her grades.

      *bluebird with envelope in its beak flies in through the window on a ray of sunshine, alights on Sarah’s shoulder*

      Sarah: Why thank you, Mister Bluebird! What delightful news do you bring? *hums a tune as she opens envelope* Why, it’s my quarterly report card…

      *Sunlight fades, clouds roll in, thunder and rain, bluebird keels over dead*

      Joyce (walking in): Hey Sarah, I suddenly feel a lot b-

      Sarah: Leave me alone, I need to study.

      1. King Daniel

        The bird dies simply through being in Sarah’s presence? What is she, a kade?

        (spoilers in the link for the first page of Stand Still, Stay Silent‘s Adventure II)

        1. Deanatay

          It’s the apocryphal Bluebird Of Happiness, so, essentially, yeah.

  12. NinjaNick

    Stay fierce, Dina!

  13. Bogeywoman

    Dina continues to do no wrong

  14. Nono

    Can we have Ruth on antidepressants and Sarah being happy, becoming the best of friends?

    1. Dracke

      Novel to Movie translation. Besides no one ever called them Mongolian. Just Velociraptor, at the time both the movie and Bock were written, the classification of Velociraptor applied to several animals. They are quite clear what animal they are.
      Calling the size a Utha raptor is an exaggeration, Uthas are way bigger.
      However you need to understand something the animals are all hybid clones, the franchise never said otherwise.
      But the feather thing, that obsession, back in the late 80 the feather thing was the aborent theory few and far between animals showed any evidence and none of the animals used for the novel.
      The novel advanced the understanding of dinos as fast, hotblooded animals more avian than reptilian.

      People need to stop rewriting history

  15. TrueVCU

    Sarah, Dina, Joyce, Becky

    Once, the four moods lived together in harmony

    Then, everything changed when the Sarah nation attacked

  16. Octopus Ink

    There is seriously something wrong with that girl.
    Not to say that it ain’t damned entertaining, but…
    WOW, Sarah. Just… wow.

  17. Stephen Bierce

    *wonders if he needs to play Jimmy Buffett’s “Off To See The Lizard” again on the Muzak*

    1. Illithid

      I was raised on Jimmy Buffett, but I’d never heard that one. Thanks!

  18. Rainhat

    Okay, I genuinely love this. I’m not even much of a Dina fan, but this.is winning me over.

  19. Switchchris

    Dina just keeps on backing up my opinion of her being the best character in this comic lol.

  20. He Who Abides

    Okay, so Sarah’s abductee power is emotional vampirism?

    Checks out.

  21. Dara

    Much of this and birds will fly in and start cleaning her room or making her a cake or something xD

    1. Bagge

      Or shit on her enemies? Sarah would love that.

  22. TemporalShrew

    Turns out Sarah’s been powered by schadenfreude all along. Surprising… but also not.

    1. Drithaan

      I imagine that if she does break into song, it will be Schadenfreude from Avenue Q.

  23. Bagge

    Dina is contributing!

  24. Wagstaff

    Interesting demonstration of schadenfreude; in plain English, a real-life Squidward Tentacles.

    1. Zach

      If not for his massive ego, I would totally hang out with Squidward. Likes music and art, active in his community, and in politics. Has a conscience…

      A real stand up guy, that Mr. Tentacles is.

  25. Newllend(henryvolt)

    Dina does her best to accommodate people and I appreciate that.

    1. Wagstaff

      I appreciate it too, but such contribution does not have to come at the expense of the self. True compassion means to do what is best for all including the self, not instead of.

      It is through play and other activities that humans learn early on how to satisfy their own needs and the needs of others simultaneously. Such a lesson is pivotal to members of any functioning society.

      1. Chris Phoenix

        She’s not doing it for Sarah’s benefit. She said she prefers it when Sarah is in a better mood. Apparently, grumpy-Sarah is so hard to be around that it’s a net win for Dina to make herself feel bad just to be around happy-Sarah.

        1. Wagstaff

          That is paradox. How could she feel happy from Sarah’s happiness if she has to make herself sad to sustain it?

        2. Rowan

          She’s not making herself sad, more annoyed, which can still be enjoyable, especially if it’s about something that not personally threatening. So, some annoyance at an entirely not personal problem, to increase a personal and close-to-home source of enjoyment, seems like it could be a net positive.

      2. Wizard

        Thanks for getting it. Most interactions aren’t zero-sum. If yours are, you’re not doing it right.

  26. Nicole

    I love this so much

  27. Bryy

    Dina. I love you but we need a chat, Aspie to Aspie. Jurassic Park is a national treasure and got people to stop thinking of T-Rex as a dude that dragged their tail on the floor.

    1. King Daniel

      Counterpoint: Deinonychuses the size of Utahraptors and named after the Mongolian Velociraptor, and also none of them have feathers.

      1. Astaphe

        I’m willing to forgive the original for not having feathers as that fact wasn’t widely accepted at that point but by the time Jurassic World came around we goddamn knew better and it is an absolute travesty that the dinosaur designs weren’t updated to reflect that fact.

        1. Astaphe

          Oh god I’m Joe? Barf.

        2. JBento

          The SIZE was, though. In fact, the novel has raptors of the right size.

      2. Bryy

        That’s true, and even in the novel, they do talk about why they made them without feathers.

    2. Keulen

      I like Jurassic Park, but Dina is correct that those movies did distort how people think about dinosaurs a lot.

    3. Wizard

      It’s all a matter of perspective. JP got some things wrong, but it was still far more accurate than most movies before it. And as knowledge continues to advance, even the best attempts at scientific accuracy can be OTBE’d.

  28. BarerMender

    Dina, stop! No self-sacrifice! Price too high!

  29. brionl

    Is she wearing a dress? I guess Dina counts as a spunky animal sidekick, now all Sarah needs is some water to gaze upon.

  30. PB

    She’s becoming too powerful

    SHE MUST BE STOPPED

    1. Keulen

      Sarah in a few strips, smiling like crazy and shooting lighting from her hands: Power! Unlimited Power!

  31. ADLegend21

    I love this so much. Happy Sarah is such a treat.

    1. 0phidiophile

      I’m worried she’s having an aneurysm.

  32. Hinoron

    Dina’s mad-face is causing me to burst into giggles of delight.

    …Holy crap it’s working!

  33. BenRG

    Interesting… So Dina’s brain needs behaviour as well as appearance to process identity?

    I’m pretty sure that people are going to see those two and wonder if they’re in the right universe.

    1. Chris Phoenix

      Facial expression. I’m pretty sure the joke is that Sarah smiling is so unusual that she looks like a different person (at least to Dina).

  34. Lars

    Dumbing of Age Book 11: Do You Feel Like Singing?

    1. Keulen

      Other DoA Book 11 titles: A Balance Must Apparently Be Maintained

      I Shall Think About How Jurassic Park Has Distorted Our Culture’s Views of Dinosaurs For a Generation

  35. Acher4

    Dumbing of age : The musical 😛

    Sarah’s happy mood:
    ? I am in a good mood, a really good mood. Joyce is wearing those glasses and Dina is hating Jurassics.
    IIIIIIII’m in a good mood, a really great mood. ?

  36. Greylurker

    Oh man, this whole finite happiness theory reminds me of an episode of Oh my Goddess, that had a little imp who had the power to reallocate happiness from one person to another. I can almost see him doing his little dance around Sarah’s head

  37. Peter Lewerin

    Someone in the future: “How was life in college?”

    Dina: “I did some experimenting.”

    Apart from that, what is even DoA nowadays? Has it been reset to harmless, cute, and funny? Is there another shoe waiting to drop? Are they all dead, existing in some kind of Purgatory? Are we all dead? Is it a Dark City scenario where everyone will subtly switch roles every few years? Can somebody tell me, I don’t mind if you have to kill me afterwards.

    1. Needfuldoer

      The kidnapping chapter was a season finale, and Book 10 as a whole tied up a lot of plot threads.

      Book 11 has been a soft reboot / Season 2 premiere. The time skip let Willis make substantial changes and shed a decade’s worth of convolution from the ongoing plot, but that also makes things feel a little bare-bones in comparison until the new plotlines pick up steam. It took time for season 1 to build up to what it was; season 2 will find its footing.

    2. thumb

      It’s a daily comic strip that sometimes gets heavy. Right at this moment, it’s not.

  38. Corneel

    Before long assorted wildlife will gather around Sarah as they burst out in song and execute a complicated dance routine.

    1. Geneseepaws

      I don’t think Oscar would fit into the cast very well, being so much older. Although sometimes Non-Traditional students have a lot to add to the classes. They don’t let them into the freshman dorms do they?

  39. Reltzik

    Okay, we’ve got two data points, but that’s not enough. A lot more would be better, but we need at LEAST one more to declare a trend.

    Someone go make Mary pissy so we see if Sarah gets even happier!

    1. Hopeluminous

      Isn’t pissy Mary the default Mary?

    2. JBento

      Inconclusive. When Mary’s pissy, EVERYBODY ‘s happier.

      1. Reltzik

        Okay, fine, it wouldn’t be enough, but more data is always good.

  40. Keulen

    That is impressive mood-based powers. I wonder what would happen if even more people are pissy around Sarah? How strong can her schadenfreude-based powers get?

  41. Sombrero

    Is zero-sum happiness a cross-universal thing? Is Sarah sudden good mood a reflection of our crappy times? Is Jurassic Park really so bad? Questions, questions,…

    1. BenRG

      Dina’s problem isn’t so much Jurassic Park but, rather, the legions of people who think that they know about Dinosaurs because they have seen Jurassic Park. Dina, being an enthusiast and someone with actual knowledge and who hates dealing with people like that has begun to loathe the franchise by association.

  42. JBento

    This is the most perfectest of strips.

  43. Daibhid C

    Okay, apparently that really is what’s happening.

  44. Zaxares

    I get it now, Sarah’s a mood vampire! You know, the type where they drain people’s happiness so they get progressively happier as everybody around them gets more angry/depressed.

  45. Luno Inverse

    Lucy’s happiness can’t be sucked away so she’ll likely be the only one able to restore the universe.
    By killing Sarah, that is

  46. thumb

    oh no she has become a monster!

  47. ProjectXa3

    Okay it’s been cute for a while, but is Sarah… actually a bad person?

    1. Deanatay

      Not really, it’s more of a Schadenfreude thing. She’s not MAKING others unhappy, she’s simply feeding off their unhappiness.

    2. Sam

      I wouldn’t say so. It kind of speaks to the idea that she is more used to negative environments and that people being grumpy and moody and self-centered in their bad moods is more predictable and comfortable for her due to its predictability than… actually having people be happy, thoughtful and caring, which is suspicious and likely to fall apart in serious ways.

      Or that her personality kind of morphs to accommodate and balance the people in the room which there is basis for if he wanted to make that a plotline but I find it is more likely to be the former or just a joke.

  48. Jhon

    You know, since the 20th I’ve been deliriously giddy with whoopee. When the orange turdbomb landed in Florida and his tiny twitter fingers began aching…
    Joy!

    1. Arianod

      Oh my Glob. The drumpf is on twitter again???

  49. Deanatay

    Sarah’s smile in Panel 6… it approaches the Triangular.

    We’re so close, people! Quickly, more people must surround Sarah and be surly and bitter..

  50. raultsi

    She would become like Galadriel if she took the One Ring, a Great Queen, beautiful and terrible.

  51. Kravis

    If Dorothy gets in a bad mood Sarah just might as well have an orgasm right then and there!

  52. Rabisch

    Sarah has ever feel so alive ♡.

  53. thumb

    At the end of the day, Sarah looks at her joyful self in the mirror. Sunlight and rainbows reflected in her eyes.

    In the back of her mind, a barely audible scream as if coming from the dark depths of forever.
    “I am the crime that will not be forgiven!”

  54. SomeOldGuy

    I ‘Like’ the new Sarah!

  55. Raptorofwar

    Dina continues to demonstrate how she’s a fantastic character.

    1. Raptorofwar

      NO MY GRAVATAR CHANGED.
      GIVE ME BACK RUTH.

      1. Icalasari

        Sarah smiles upon thine misery

  56. Seregiel

    She got better grades despite shenanigans last term and is having trouble processing she can be happy with roommates/social while still not failing? less worry about Dana? Dana vs dina. the difference is clear. vote today

  57. BenRG

    You know… The more I look at it, the more I think that the last panel today is meant to be Sarah and Dina being ironic and mocking the two behavioural extremes in question.

    1. Seregiel

      I think it started that way but then dina followed through and is now that upset and Jurassic park.

  58. DarkoNeko

    The potential is limitless

  59. OBBWG

    So their new ship name is what? Dinarah or Sarina?

    Why isn’t anyone shipping these two? It’s required, isn’t it? What? No?

  60. Needfuldoer

    Somebody go get Agatha and Sierra, we need someone to absorb some of the cheer in the room before Sarah goes supernova.

  61. Brighter Side

    So next strip we just find out Sarah’s an energy vampire, right?

  62. Dracke

    Jurassic Park crated a generation of paleontologists.
    Real paleontologist love the franchise and how it has helped them across the years and the franchise actually impulsed into popular culture the idea of dinosaurs as birds…is just the last few years that Assholes want to rewrite the past and say it was somehow bad as the franchise that was accurate in that time didn’t add feathers a thing that wasn’t even close to be agreed upon when the Novels by the defunct writer were published.
    And the recent films have to maintain continuity, also most of the animals are incredibly accurate (there is no prof of feathers for most non-theropod dinosaurs to begin with)

    Dina is also written by someone who really has no F idea how the Jurassic Park fandom works we love curiosity and talk about it a lot, and how now that more genetic companies could clone dinosaurs maybe some feathered animals could be introduced as well as some other ancient reptiles

    Neither Dina nor the Writer know shit about the social impact the franchise had toward dinosaur and paleontology.

    1. Bicycle Bill

      Just sayin’ — if you’d want to REALLY set Dina off, tell her that when Steven Spielberg re-enrolled at Cal State/Long Beach (he went back to get his BA in film-making after dropping out of their film school more than 30 years earlier), the university gave him three course credits in paleontology for making “Jurassic Park”.

      However, when the school waived the requirement that a senior submit a polished 12-minute film, they passed over “Jurassic Park”, ruling that “Schindler’s List” would do.

    2. BBCC

      This is true for a lot of the fandom, but it has also distorted the views of some folks who aren’t in the fandom or aren’t deep in the side that likes talking science. Hell, my brother IS into the science in it but he still gets a little huffy about feathers. And a lot of people get huffy about feathers because it isn’t like Jurassic Park. The movie did a lot of good, but it has distorted the views of a lot of folks outside the fandom and sometimes even outside the corner of the fandom that cares about looking into whether or not things are scientifically accurate.

      Even if that weren’t true in real life, bear in mind Dina regularly interacts with Walky, who refuses to acknowledge scientific evidence that ruins the idea of dinosaurs being ‘sweet historical monsters’. That may be making her cranky, even though Dina herself has stated she enjoys Jurassic Park superficially (as well as other dinosaur based media like Barney).

  63. Dave

    Sarah…that’s not maintaining a balance…that’s schadenfreude

    1. bcb

      Maybe she feels like singing the Avenue Q song?

  64. bcb

    Try speaking only in contractions, Dina.

  65. RedCat

    That’s adorable.

    1. RedCat

      How do I get a new gravatar.

      1. cbwroses

        Make a new comment while changing the capitalization of at least one of the letters in your email address.

  66. Heather

    Honestly I’m sometimes the same way when it comes to a crisis and whether I’d be panicked or not.
    If I’m by myself or there are others and no-one else is panicking while something bad is happening I’m more likely to panic myself.

    If someone ELSE is panicking I guess I’m like eerily calm for some reason.

    I guess maybe I feel like SOMEONE has to panic in such bad situations but if that role’s been covered: alright then. No problem. We’ve got that checked off the list.

  67. ElderlyMarxist

    i love happy sarah so much

  68. takashid

    i love happy sarah, its so nice to see her in a good mood for once.

  69. Diane

    Can we keep happy Sarah and grumpy Joyce? I would like this to be their new dynamic. It would be adorable.

  70. JA

    Jurassic Park pretty much ensured that no one else would ever be able to make a serious dinosaur movie. Nothing will match the feeling of seeing that brachiosaurus for the first time, the T-Rex tearing apart the vehicle, chasing another vehicle, or the flight from and fighting not-velociraptors. It’s a bar set so high and made even higher by our current standards and expectations of a movie like that that I don’t think it’ll ever be surpassed.

    1. TrueVCU

      Are you positing that Spielberg ruined dinosaurs?

      1. Deanatay

        It’s been posited before.

  71. BlueLegion

    Nice Strong Bad reference

  72. Name Name III

    I actually laughed out loud at this one.

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