772

Your princess is in another castle
Posted on June 4, 2017 by David M Willis
storyline over

772 thoughts on “Your princess is in another castle”

  1. Pearl

    D:

    1. Pearl

      :O

      1. Pearl

        😀

        1. Pearl

          D:

        2. Pearl

          😀

        3. Emperor Daniel

          D:

        4. pjeseb

          So, is Dorothy the :O face or the D: face? I already know Amber is the 🙂 face.

        5. pjeseb

          😀 ?

          (Damn emojis…)

        6. LordSimian

          What the hell did I just read?

          Not the storyline, mind. Just this thread. 🙂

        7. Reltzik

          @Lord Simian:

          It’s the newest line of Transformers being unveiled for Willis’s viewing pleasure:

          THE EMOTICONS!

          ….

          ((surely no one has EVER made this joke before))

        8. nothri

          I think its like the reaction one has to learning one has been sentenced to death by snu snu.

        9. nothri

          Like so… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBBsBbe7iqk&ab_channel=EliteGaming

        10. Remmington Steele

          ?

        11. The Mad Academic

          I would like to insert a Malazan Book of the Fallen joke here, but so few people would understand it.

        12. Rasputin

          I would get it.

        13. Pearl

          🙁

  2. Ana Chronistic

    uh, you didn’t need that nose, right

    1. K^2

      I think Amber just made the scars look symmetric.

      1. Cattleprod

        Woo, go symmetry.

        1. Delicious Taffy

          I dunno, symmetry doesn’t really factor into the current meta, except in very specific situations.

        2. TimeLoss

          The circle could be complete. In Ryan’s first appearance he lost blood, now in his last? he looses a whole lot more.

        3. TimeLoss

          I have to emphasize I am being partly sarcastic. I doubt Ryan really is going to die. Also loses not looses, typos bother me when there is no edit button.

        4. Fred

          Well we could say Amber is loosing Ryan’s blood…

        5. 3oranges

          Not that “looses blood” is so far off, but it probably applies better to the one making the cuts.

        6. N0083rP00F

          Sad Sad life. Sad sad death. In all things symmetry.

          -B5 Zathras

        7. Big Box

          Yeah, Amberblade is kinda over-performing right now. I don’t think they should tweak the damage tho, maybe just the cooldown.

      2. Ari

        I mean. Hopefully. But that seems mild for the look on Dorothy’s face.

        1. Reltzik

          Dorothy probably doesn’t have much experience with violence.

        2. Durandal_1707

          I dunno, I’d be pretty freaked out at any kind of knife fight going on right in front of me…

        3. David

          This is not a fight. It is a massacre. Amazigirl isn’t here.

        4. HMH

          Yeah, fight implies some amount of reciprocation. Ryan never had a fucking chance.

        5. TachyonCode

          Even if not for plot reasons, having a weapon stolen from you – which is highly likely even if you are its owner – pretty much guarantees severe injury if not death.

          Ryan is a good example of why you don’t bring a weapon to a fight, unless you know everyone is armed and you happen to be working with the elements of surprise, cover, and hopefully distance and backup.

        6. Commander Clash

          That is one thing my father and cousin instilled in me. NEVER bring a weapon to a fight if it can be turned against you. Granted they also taught me that if I had to fight dirty everything is allowed. Personally I would’ve thumbed himin the eye, knee to the jewels and then start with curb stomping.

        7. Ana Chronistic

          She’s upset b/c there’s a red velvet cake Ryan broke out as a truce offering, and when Amber cut it, it fell out onto the floor and she’s distressed at the wasted cake

          yeah, that’s it

        8. HMH

          I mean, it’s Ryan’s stupid fault for storing the cake behind his abdominal wall. He could’ve just brought it in a box, but now Amber has to get through all that muscle and guts to pull it out, and they’re just getting everywhere. Party ruined, Ryan. Party ruined.

        9. Sensei Le Roof

          Party ruined, Ryan
          =
          Try end run, rapy AI

      3. chris2315

        Well, she tried to make it symmetrical, but she messed it up, so she decided it would be easier to just remove the whole face.

        1. The Other Mike

          She’s not Amazi-Girl, she’s Optimus Prime! “Give me your face!”

      4. George_V

        Anyone remember Johnny english?

        “And a scar shaped like a…banana.”
        “Which cheek?”
        “Both cheeks. They sort of met in the middle.”

      5. Needfuldoer

        Reopening some old wounds.

      6. Ashonai

        *Death the Kid relaxes*

      7. Pylgrim

        I am hoping for a cross slash that makes a makeshift X. Then he can start his redemption arc as Rurouni Ryanshin.

        1. Ana Chronistic

          Ryani Kenshin! SHEESH

          (though the angle of that slice indicates level to the ground, if anything)

    2. Lokitsu

      “You wanna know how I got these scars?”

      1. NelC

        Ryan is the Joker!?

        When does he fall into the chemical vat?

    3. Tomas

      Look at the bright side; you don’t look like your viral photo anymore.

    4. brasca1

      Well if she went below the belt in her cut she would definitely fix it so Ryan never rapes again.

      1. boop

        You don . . you don’t actually need genitalia to rape? i mean, it’s about the power over another person’s body, not necessarily about PIV intercourse . .

        1. Indiana Bones

          I seem to remember that there are a number of veins around down there, and while you may not need your genitalia to rape, you do probably need to hold onto at least a majority of your blood

        2. me

          Most universities do have plenty of first-responders on hand. I’d say he would have a significant survival probability.

  3. Schpoonman

    Ooohh boy.

    1. Schpoonman

      I was actually a little worried Willis was gonna let Dorothy do the talking, but then Dorothy getting pukey would kill the tension.

      I was only partially correct about the sequence of events.

    2. TheAnonymousGuy

      First, Dorothy puking would suggest something really bad happened, like she put his knife through his eye, or going negan and spilling his intestines. Second, the last two panels got darkly Omanis.

      1. Guerisso

        Have I just been spoilered by a comment on an internet comic that is absolutely completely unrelated?

        1. Sensei Le Roof

          Ever wish Netflix would hurry their asses up?

      2. AGV

        Well, people can throw up if they’re really stressed or shocked without any gore present, and I’m pretty sure that this would be enough for some people

      3. firestk

        what do the people of Oman have to do with this?

  4. AnvilPro

    I think I prefer Amazigirl to Amber.

    1. Kernanator

      So does Amber. That’s part of the problem.

      1. 3oranges

        Agreed. Amazi-girl is supposed to be the one with self-control. But it’s partly from her taking it over that Amber struggles so much with it.

        1. Clif

          But right at the moment Amber doesn’t want self control or Amazigirl. Dorothy might be wishing for Amazigirl though.

    2. Kris

      I think Amber prefers Amazi-girl.

      1. Ophidiophile

        I had been thinking that Amazigirl was Amber’s dark side; now I’m thinking Amber is Amazigirl’s dark side.

        1. Sock_V

          That’s how it’s always been. It was Amber that stabbed Sal: Amazigirl was created to be what Amber couldn’t…

        2. Clif

          Yep.

        3. desolation0

          It could be the burnt toast scenario. Both sides are dark and the area in between is tough and dry.

        4. Inbar Fink

          The way Amber sees it, Amazi Girl is supposed to be a healthy channeling of her already existing “Dark Side”, where AG can use it to do rightous things, but whenever the Amber part of her uses it ends up, well…like this…
          I like how the whole Amber\Amazi Girl is being written, because it’s not a clear-cut good half\bad half sort of thing, but something a lot more interesting

        5. Clif

          This. Very much this.

        6. vlademir1

          All of the following is based from limited and indirect meatspace experience having known and been friends with a couple people with DID and supplemented with what little I can glean from the case study and research literature on the subject. Hopefully someone can correct me if I’m wrong on any aspect of this. Also, I wish to note that this is specifically a particularly hard area to delve into the literature on, as the associated terminology has shifted quite significantly over time with older terms holding on residually intermixed with newer ones long after their time is officially over.

          Neither is entirely the dark side of the other, I’d say. There are, almost certainly, more than just the two of them. Amber as we’ve seen her in class and hiding away playing video games and not wanting to be like her father is definitely the ANP. Amazi-girl is something of a combination the persecutor and protector alter types. Both the Amber and Amazi-girl personalities seem to act as gate keepers. What we’re seeing now, and have seen previously in the segments indicated through red panels, is likely an unnamed sub-alter of the Amber alter which has neither Amber’s fears of being like her father nor Amazi-girl’s super hero based internal philosophical controls to keep her from going all out on the uncontrolled raging violence neither of the main two is willing to engage in.

        7. Clif

          All of which assumes there is diassociation going on, something we’ve seen no hard evidence of. It may in fact be the case that Amber has actual alters, but at best/worst it’s unproven.

        8. thejeff

          You’re correct. She hasn’t actually be diagnosed as such by a trained psychiatrist.

          Short of that, she has alters.

        9. vlademir1

          It’s been fairly clearly indicated in some of her recent conversations that Amber at the very least percieves them as separate beings in the same body. For purposes of discussing her issues as depicted, treating this as DID seems more than reasonable to me, especially as the timescale used in the comic argues we’ll never actually see her get diagnosed (that’s something realistically months to years in her future).

    3. John

      Pretty sure everyone in this scene would prefer Amazi-Girl right now.

      1. JetstreamGW

        Including the police! And the EMTs!

    4. JessWitt

      Ryan probably feels the same.

      1. Dave

        I doubt it.

        All Ryan is feeling right now is what I will merely call “karma” and leave it at that…

        1. Opus the Poet

          Nope< "karma" gets you in your next life, it's "dharma" that gets you in this life. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhist_philosophy

        2. Michael Lanting

          And Greg?

        3. Sensei Le Roof

          Better hope not. They were cancelled.

        4. vlademir1

          That phrasing of it can create some very messy confusion…
          Dharma is one’s intrensic nature in their current existance. That intrensic nature is itself an outcome of one’s karma as it stood when their current existance began. What Ryan is experiencing is neither, but instead merely suffering as a byproduct of his own actions and the suffering they caused as the wheel of samsara rolls on.
          Now, it is true that his actions were partially the result of his dharma but one is fully capable of overcoming their base desires which are all that dharma dictates in humans.

        5. KingMonster

          And karma will turn into this REALLY MEAN WOMAN when you go and tick her off.

    5. Ari

      Enh, assuming Ryan isn’t literally dead I’m less concerned about him and more concerned about the legal repercussions of Amber beating the shit out of him with no one but Dorothy to attest to the fact that it was in self-defense.

      1. TimeLoss

        It may be even before this whole Ryan stab-stab incident, the police were already not too happy about someone going around punching dudes for graffiti and stolen bikes.

        1. Ari

          Yeah, but that was Amazi-girl, not Amber (seriously, they don’t currently know it’s Amber)

      2. Carms

        It’s probably not self defence anymore. That’s already blood on her fist in panel 2. If she keeps whaling on him, it stops being self defence pretty quick.

        1. Shade

          It’s also pretty hard to justify using the weapon you’ve successfully and rather expertly managed to disarm from your opponent.

        2. K^2

          Eh, depends on the state. And the judge. It can range from, “You aren’t dead, so he obviously wasn’t trying to hurt you, no self-defense,” to, “He looked at you funny, and had what looked like a knife, this was justified.” Indiana is one of the states with Stand Your Ground laws, there is a witness, Ryan has history of assaulting women, and he was armed. Amber is very unlikely to be in any sort of ruin-your-life type legal trouble. Mental is another matter. I’m far more worried about that.

        3. ischemgeek

          Stand your ground laws tend to ve enforced only along privilege lines – so a white passing dude who stalked and then killed a black boy can get off, but a black woman who fired a warning shot to keep her violent ex at bay cannot. Even if Amber should get SYG as-written, that doesn’t mean she will.

        4. Shadlyn Wolfe

          Amber is a small, shy, white woman who fits our cultural idea of “victim.” SHe’s almost certain to be allowed the right to “stand her ground.” Doubly so if you factor in that she’s trying to shield her friend – ALSO a pretty white girl with no history of criminal behavior. Sal, with her history and skin tone, almost certainly would not.

          Cuz you’re right, there’s a lot of privilege (read: Racism) in those laws, but Amber’s on the lucky side of it.

        5. Larkle

          Not necessarily… there also tends to be a lot of sexism wrapped up in those laws. My state has stand your ground laws. I volunteer at a DV shelter. Have seen a lot of cases where women get arrested for defending themselves against their abusers and charged, even in cases where the abuser has a small bleeding cut and the woman probably has a concussion and looks like hell. This isn’t every case, sometimes officers are great, but other times no. It depends on the officer. Factor in victim blaming as well and I wouldn’t say that Amber is 100% safe.

        6. thejeff

          I think domestic violence/abuse tends to hit a lot of the same excuses date rape gets.
          Blatant knife attacks from (near) strangers, the sympathy’s far more likely to fall on the woman.

        7. Tomas

          Get Geraldo Rivera to testify for the defense. Ryan was wearing a HOODIE!

        8. porthos9438

          Well, Ryan DID pull a deadly weapon, and the sad thing is, that Amber would be in less trouble if she DID kill him. She can claim self-defense, and they can find pleanty of evidence that the knife was his. He now has a lot of social media warning of him as a date rapist. Plus Amber has a witness. If he died, there would be no conflicting side of the story. But if he lives, he can try to unmask her as Amazi-Girl, and a good lawyer could make a case for her being a dangerous and mentally unstable vigilante and her actions were clearly vengeful, not self-defense.
          And sadly, in some places, they also look at the skill level of the person involved. Amazi-Girl has shown incredible athletic and fighting prowess. judge could rule that someone of her expertise couldn’t reasonably beat and stab someone to death, because she has the ability to subdue them without being lethal.

          Now, I’m not advocating her killing him, but legally, it could be the easiest course for her…unless there are security cameras. THen it’s a whole other story.

        9. bhtooefr

          Although, in this case, Indiana’s SYG law allows deadly force to neutralize the threat of bodily harm or a forcible felony (which are both in play here).

        10. Positron

          The threat’s already neutralised though, he’s clearly at Amber’s mercy

        11. Coco Pommel

          The moment someone pulls a weapon on you it’s self defence even if you self defense them to death. Ryan chose to play that gamble, if he loses, it’s his own damn fault.

        12. ischemgeek

          Depends on where you live. In many parts of the US, you’re right. In Canada, it is very hard to get the self-defense defense to murder to stick (ie, get you off completely). That’s because the way the law is enforced, the judge has to feel you had no other option but to use lethal force. In practice, that standard means most deadly exercises of self defense don’t fit the self-defense standard in law.

        13. Needfuldoer

          This is Indiana, which has a stand-your-ground law. To me it seems like the argument will hinge on whether or not the dorm building is legally considered Amber’s home.

        14. JasonAW3

          There’s also defense of the Innocents. While she made certain that her friend was relatively safe, it could be reasonably argued, by his own admission, that Ryan not only interested her harm, but was intending to do others harm as well, and glass doors offer little to no actual protection against a determined attacker. Therefore, Amber was left with little to no choice to use whatever force was needed to subdue or eliminate the threat that Ryan represented.

          Even if Ryan survives, very few would believe him about Amber being Amazi-Girl, as there is adequate witnesses and evidence of both his original assault as well as the attempted assault that he was in the midst of commiting, that his testimony would be ignored.

          Besides, I can pretty easily imagine enough women, and probably a few men, pulling a “I am Amazi-Girl!” Move to protect Amber.

          Besides, there is little doubt that campus security has. seen her enough, either with their own eyes, or with campus video surveillance cameras, to know who Amazi-Girl actually is. They have just choose, to more or less, ignore her, as she hasn’t hurt the innocent, and seems to help keep the peace, without being paid to do so.

        15. Clif

          I’m not overly worried about Amber. I’m certainly not worried about Ryan. I’m worried about Dorothy. She is not prepared for this kind of trama.

        16. Woobie

          Small female vs larger male. Often, the only equalizer is a lethal force weapon. If that weapon is not used, there is nothing to stop the stronger person.

        17. OBBWG

          Here is a good brief summary of the Indiana Stand Your Ground law.

        18. OBBWG

          Apparently my link was deleted. Just google Indiana self-defense laws. There are several good links.

          The bottom line is it depends. Was Amber’s use of force reasonable or was it excessive? In this case it is a close call.

          My own experience with this before Stand Your Ground was beating up a guy who was trying to kidnap his daughter from her mother (my then girlfriend). The cops declared it clear self-defense. No charges against me. Attempted kidnapping against him. He plea bargained a six month sentence with several years probation. However, he sued me for injuries. It cost me over $6000 in legal fees to defend myself. (I won, but did not get my fees reimbursed.) One cop’s advice to me was “Next time, don’t beat him until he stops fighting. Beat him until he stops breathing.”

      3. Arianod

        Same for all of us, I guess.

      4. ESM

        Assuming Dorothy DOES attest to it being self-defense. She’s visibly calmer in panel 3 then she is in panels 1 and 2. From her expressions, it looks like Amber beat Ryan up so he was no longer a threat, and THEN knifed him.

        1. Schpoonman

          I think you’re right. The knife slash in panel 4 is when she really starts freaking out.

        2. HeySo

          Panel 2: Amber: “Fear the fist of justice!”
          Panel 4: Amber: “Fear the knife of castration!”
          Panel 5: Dorothy: “OMGWTFBBQ”

    6. miados

      I sort of know how this sort of happened in a sense.

      Many people are said to have short fuses. I was described as a long fuse with potent explosives.

      I know not exactly the same but when someone who runs from agression, avoids it, fear it in themselves, or just tries to always be nice finally explodes the best thing to do is run.

      For this part of my life I am glad i have had therapy.

      1. TheAnonymousGuy

        throw in some trama and a likely triggered ptsd then you just turned this violence cake into a brutality suflay

    7. Aeron

      “Do you wanna know how you got those scars?”

      “What sca-AAAAAAGH!”

      1. miados

        im picturing more a how i met your mother start

        “ryan I think its about time I tell you how I failed to be a barber. I’ll start with a visual hands on story of how i failed to learn to shave people.”

        1. Roborat

          Did you really want to be a lumberjack?

  5. Kris

    Hmmmmmmmm. Ominous.

  6. Stu

    I have to ask – does Dorothy not have a cell phone with her? Or someone inside the building to rush to requesting help?

    1. C.T Phipps

      Because Dorothy really has lived a sheltered existence thanks to her parents. She doesn’t know how to react to a real crisis.

      1. pjeseb

        …If by “sheltered,” you mean she’s never seen someone get shot and/or stabbed before, then I’m pretty sure a majority of the population is sheltered. I mean, should her parents have pushed her into joining the military or something?

        1. C.T Phipps

          If you’re thinking I’m putting her down, I’m pointing out by the standards of the protagonists–Dorothy is one of the few who hasn’t experienced a pretty terrible background that would give them experience to deal with a dangerous or violent person: Joyce, Ruth, Becky, Dinah, Sal, Sarah, Billie, and Amber have all experience with these situations and how to react. Dorothy until now has been kept out of encounters with this kind of evil.

        2. pjeseb

          Oh, I see what you mean. I felt like you were putting Dorothy’s parents down, not Dorothy herself. But, yeah, I agree that among the main cast, Dorothy is one of the least experienced with this kind of situation.

        3. C.T Phipps

          It was badly phrased on my part, sorry.

        4. Sam

          That’s not really what the use of sheltered means/implies though. Sheltered implies that Dorothy was UNNECESSARILY protected, rather than that she just was never unfortunate enough to encounter a crisis with a violent or dangerous person before and so doesn’t have any experience to rely on here to try to do anything besides fallback on her default freeze fear reaction.

        5. Clif

          I do not believe sheltered implies what you think it does. Though it may when you use it.

      2. Stu

        You’re confusing Dorothy for Joyce there, I think. Joyce is the one from an extremely sheltered home-life – Dorothy’s the one with fairly liberal parents.

        1. porthos9438

          Correct. But Having liberal parents doesn’t mean she grew up exposed to violence and crisis situations enough to not freeze. And even for those who do have that experience…well, this is a pretty unusual situation. And I can also see why Dorothy wouldn’t want to call the police right away. Amber is clearly winning, and with the threat of her being unmasked as AG, its a reasonable hesitation…but then the knifing began.

        2. Clif

          Also sheltered and liberal are not opposets. They clearly sheltered her from the type of religious indoctrination that Joyce received. I feel certain they also sheltered her from this kind of situation.

    2. Shiro

      This is probably happening very quickly and Dorothy’s very shocked.

      1. Doctor_Who

        Yeah, guessing it’s only been a few seconds.

    3. JessWitt

      If I was in her shoes, I’d be a paralyzed onlooker myself. Such distressing situations I can’t handle.

    4. Sam

      Dorothy is probably in complete shock here. Someone pulled a KNIFE on her and she probably thought Amber was possibly about to get stabbed or outright murdered.

      It’s not about resources right now, Dorothy’s cognitive functions are severely inhibited at this moment because it is taking so much just to process that such a severe situation is occurring to start with.

      1. HMH

        Plus, she probably had the same misconception about Amber and Amazi-Girl that has been flooding the comments for the last few strips: Amazi-Girl is the badass, and Amber is too afraid and traumatized to call upon her skills. Dorothy thinks Amber is in serious trouble, here; she’s correct, but the reasons are opposite of what she thinks. Amazi-Girl isn’t the set of skills that most people perceive her to be; Amazi-Girl isn’t there to store the skills of violence, she’s there to store the skills of self-control that are needed when you have the responsibility associated with a capacity for violence this extreme and all-consuming.

        What Dorothy is witnessing, ironically, is more terrifying to her than what she thought she was about to witness. It’s even worse than she was prepared for, and she wasn’t even close to prepared to begin with.

        1. Mav

          I also think it’s a moment where the strip tosses out the sort of romanticized notion of violence, especially in the US. Amber is clearly beating herself up when she does things like this, because even though Amazigirl is in it for justice, Amber is struggling with her anger and her growing desire to satiate that anger with righteous violent justice..

          Like, for Dorothy it’s totally badass for Amazigirl to beat up petty criminals, and save Becky, and the like. But she’s never been there to see it. And Joyce and Becky were extremely traumatized from the Toedad thing even happening in the first place.

          So essentially, she’s realizing there’s a difference between reading a story in the paper about Amazigirl beating the shit out of people, and what beating the shit out of someone actually looks like. She is not only traumatized by Ryan, but watching someone she loves and respects be violent in that manner, even if it is defensive. Violence has never been pretty or clean or straightforward. It affects everyone involved.

        2. Deanatay

          Several people in the comments section have claimed that Amber is written for comic-book style violence, letting her get away with feats that most characters in this comic wouldn’t be capable of. I think that’s only partly true – I’m noticing that _Amazi-Girl_ is allowed ‘comic-book violence’ feats, but that AMBER’s violence is much more real-life.

          Strangely, that makes her style of violence much more terrifying.

        3. porthos9438

          The funny thing is, that this potentially could help Amber to come to grips with her past. She hated herself for freezing and letting Ethan be taken hostage while she did nothing. This time an attacker came at her friend with a knife and she stood up and protected her, and herself too. Probably not, but it’d be a nice silver lining to this event.

        4. StClair

          There was a storyline in the Justice League comics some years back, where some mysterious agency (turns out to be aliens) split most of the League into two halves. Just about everyone, in universe and the audience, naturally expects scary Batman and useless fop Bruce Wayne… but this time, it’s more like “weird, inhuman Batman” and “seething rage-monster Bruce Wayne with nowhere to put all that unexpressed anger.”

    5. miados

      shock can cause you to not think in the ways you normally would.

      like when you see in a movie someones head covered in plastic they try to pull it off instead of ripping a hole over their mouth.

      1. LovelyMonsters

        Is–is this a common event in movies you watch?

        1. miados

          common enough on shows and movies that it strikes me as odd they don’t just try to rip a hole in the plastic.

    6. Nena

      Or totally shocked. When you see something violent and scary, it can stop you in your tracks and make you freeze. =( Unfortunately I know this from first hand experience.

      1. SeanR

        That’s actually a valid evolutionary answer to violence.
        Run from it.
        Fight it.
        Hide from it.
        People just keep forgetting it’s not JUST fight or flight.

        Freezing is hiding from it. It’s not drawing attention to yourself.

        If you’re freezing when the danger is environmental, maybe worry.
        If you’re still frozen when the monster is looking AT you, and walking TOWARD you, worry. Even rabbits know to, ahem, rabbit, when they see the predator has found them.

        1. Fart Captor

          Unfortunately not everyone’s evolutionary responses work as intended.

          Flight can turn into blind panic and running into further danger.

          Fight can turn into flailing ineffectively at someone/something that you stand no chance against.

          Freeze can well, stay frozen, regardless of how defenseless it might make you.

          Sometimes it’s possible to rein in your panic, keep thinking rationally, and put that panic to good use, other times it is not.

        2. Regret

          SeanR, you gave me a mental image of a Predator hunting a rabbit.
          As in the Predator movie Alien.

        3. Tomas

          And you just gave me a mental image of a bunny rabbit carving punji sticks and saying, “If it bleeds we can kill it.”

        4. 3oranges

          If you get to use film characters, I am pretty sure Bugs can handle a predator.

    7. Bluewind

      The problem it that that is logical thought process. Dorothy immediately turned around to get out of the building back to Amber, get Amber to safety, and/or (if Amber bolted and he gave chase or if Amber kicked ass and he ran) witness where to direct help. She’s a kid running high on adrenalin acting on instinct without a moment to reflect and formulate the best plan. Then, over a few seconds, she seen someone she greatly looked up to do something dark and disturbing. This could make her freeze because of her mental image of Amber clashing with the current reality on top of the violence (maybe even make her think she’s dreaming as she tries to process it), fight harder to get out to stop Amber, run away due to flight reflex, or find a way to purposefully seeking help (via phone or person). She might not even have a clear memory of what happened when it’s over because. The brain can be a crazy and fickle thing.

    8. Temperaryobsessor

      Dorothy was sheltered as in wasn’t directly exposed to the worst parts of humanity. People often use the term sheltered to mean parents refuse to let someone skin their knee, hide bad parts of humanity from them, and occasionally built their house on an active volcano to keep out housecats. But this person means that Dorothy up till now has been lucky to have parents who did a good job keeping the worst parts of humanity away from Dorothy, being born white and middle class, and the blind luck to not have run into this type of thing anyways.

  7. tbf

    holy shit

    1. TheAnonymousGuy

      I really hope it’s just a repeat of what she’d done to sal. also, I want sal to show up, she ……might be able to do something to calm the situation.

      1. HMH

        Given Sal’s advice to Joyce and the crew after the initial Ryan incident – “you’ll basically just be volunteering to them that you assaulted a dude” – and her history with the legal system, if Sal were to show up right now, her first advice would probably be to finish the job, and get started trying to clean up the evidence…

        1. Needfuldoer

          I think she’d just nope right out of there, because there’s a good chance she’d get caught up in the aftermath somehow.

        2. porthos9438

          I don’t think so. Sal has a complicated past, but has shown that she does care. And if someone who she is starting to like is in a life altering situation like this, ESPECIALLY when it will put her in conflict with the authorities (Which she hates), I don’t think she would be able to walk away. People already think she’s a criminal, whats one more incident added to the pile.

        3. butting

          When “people” includes LEO, that one more incident could well mean jail. NOPING right out at high speed is her best call, no matter what the situation.

          (after Sal/Joyce caught Amazi-girl, Sal hauling AG down out of attention’s way was good for both of them.)

    2. Lingo

      My reaction exactly, tbf.

  8. Ryan

    Whoa…wasn’t expecting that. Was kind of just expecting a well-deserved massive, bone-breaking beatdown.

    …

    I’ll allow it…

    1. Undrave

      I’ve been expecting it since the red frame…

  9. Rocketboy1313

    I am guessing this scene is not going to be an uncensored slipshine release.

    1. Delicious Taffy

      I dunno, it looks like “Ryan” is getting fucked pretty hard.

      1. Doctor_Who

        Amber Performs a Tracheotomy.

        1. Scar Man!!!

          I laughed out loud at that because I have a very dark sense of humor yep

    2. Corvin Carlton

      I would totally get slipshine if it was….

    3. Reltzik

      Given that slipshine is about sexy times, no. But Amber’s gornfic is going to become more realistic.

      1. HMH

        I mean, this qualifies more as “justice porn” to me than what kind of horrible shit that usually tends to imply…

    4. newllend(henryvolt)

      It be a really weird porno.

  10. dethtoll

    Welp.

  11. Jude Deluca

    What you did you did Amber.

  12. Delicious Taffy

    …OKAY. Somebody pick up the phone labeled “Trauma (Dorothy)”, because it’s ringing itself off the hook.

    1. Delicious Taffy

      Dorothy’s internal monologue: “Holy shit. Holy shit! Holy shit. HOLY SHIT!” *the sound you hear when a grenade has just gone off in a movie*

    2. Tan

      Would you be tremendously offended if “pick up the phone” became our new euphamism for knifing someone? Cuz Amber picked up the phone something fierce here.

      1. zoelogical

        im gonna pick up the phone and put a smile on that face

        1. Tan

          All I’m saying is that Amber could qualify for call center employee of the month.

        2. HMH

          I dunno, call centres tend to place a high value on customer satisfaction. Do you think Ryan feels satisfied right now?

          I mean, I sure do.

      2. Delicious Taffy

        By all means.

  13. jeffepp

    Oh. BIH “Ryan”.

  14. Synnerman

    Dorothy has her slo mo trainwreck face on.

    Poor Amber.

    1. Clif

      I don’t think that there was any slow about it.

  15. Fallingivy

    Shit! Shit! SHIT!

    1. TheAnonymousGuy

      I think we need a cat photo

      http://s2.quickmeme.com/img/72/720157fb8602785b2470e5592dd543d318be9767993f513c352024c2715c1d36.jpg

      1. StClair

        or a NICE BOAT.

  16. Doopyboop

    So at first I thought Amber might get hurt to atone since ‘redemption isn’t real’ but now I see that Amber’s giving up on herself BECAUSE ‘redemption isn’t real’. In a way this is her ‘then let me be evil’ moment only it’s…’let Amber be the awful one’.

    1. C.T Phipps

      Amber has said repeatedly Amazi-Girl was the good one and everyone ignored her because DID doesn’t work like that. However, it wasn’t just DID but Amber trying to give herself someone to look up to.

      And Amber has betrayed that part of herself.

      1. Clif

        Well, it wasn’t DID. Probably. But the rest is real enough.

  17. Claire

    Call the polliiccceeeeee

    1. Tasha

      But no one ever called the police

    2. Tomas

      Can’t a man make a mistake! Does he have to keep paying!

    3. hof1991

      Average police response time. 8-10 minutes. This will be over long before that.

  18. Benjamin Geiger

    Rest in pieces, Ryan.

  19. TheGrimCorsair

    That, uh, that’s gonna leave a mark.

  20. Danni

    is amber gonna need an ice pack for her hand?

    1. Delicious Taffy

      I’m not sure if that’s bruising or Ryan blood.

      1. Danni

        it looks more like bruising.

      2. Toad

        There’s pretty much no way to punch someone with all your force and not fuck up the skin on your knuckles at the very least.

        1. Delicious Taffy

          Really? People are usually softer than concrete walls, and I’ve treated those more roughly without getting my skin scuffed up.

        2. deepblueink

          It all depends on the follow through. I’m sure Amber repeated rather than balancing her stance. Angry punches are like Pringles or beer. There’s never just one.

        3. merbrat

          Amber woke up with bloody knuckles after the fight w/Ryan with Sal and phone. Looked at them, and said Amber-Time.

  21. Michael Steamweed

    On one hand: Ryan deserves some punishment. On the other hand: I’m worried Amber has crossed over a line.

    1. C.T Phipps

      If I’m on a jury, I think we’re well past the point that self-defense is justified even if she’s KILLED Ryan.

      Not that it wouldn’t be traumatizing.

      1. CoffeeBurps

        It could be argued that self-defense isn’t “enough force to make the attack stop now” but instead “enough force to make the attacker never go after you again.” Especially since this is like, what, the third time Ryan has tried to chase them down?

        1. ESM

          >It could be argued that self-defense isn’t “enough force to make the attack stop now” but instead “enough force to make the attacker never go after you again.”

          Not if you want to win the case, it can’t. Amber is legally justified in using whatever force needed to stop the immediate threat of Ryan, but once he’s down, she can’t legally then kill him “just in case”

        2. Arianod

          My guess is, that depends on the laws of the area. Aren’t there places in the US where a homeowner can simply shoot you dead if you step into their front garden and have the law on their side? I’m gonna bet there’s someone in the comments section who knows how self-defence works in Indiana’s law.

        3. Positron

          I believe there are (maybe not front garden because there’s rights to approach your front door and such), but that’s because those areas believe that lethal force is justified to protect against the immediate threat of property damage/loss, not the less immediate threat of personal harm. However you feel about when lethal force is justified it’s still applied to an immediate threat of some sort in those cases.

        4. thejeff

          No, she can’t.

          On the other hand, you’re not normally required to stop after each blow and carefully assess the situation to see if the attacker is really still a threat. Some allowance is made for attacks in the heat of the moment.

          If, for example, you fire 3 shots at an attacker and the first shot would have incapacitated him, it’s still self-defense. OTOH, if the first shot incapacitates him and then you walk up to where he’s lying and finish him off, that’s murder.

        5. bhtooefr

          And as I understand, there’s a general best practice of, when you’re using a firearm for self-defense, that you keep firing until either you’re out of ammo or your target is down. Once the target is down, you stop, make sure the threat is neutralized (that they don’t get back up and continue their attack), and call 911, then your lawyer. So, considering that Amber’s stance was appropriate for Ryan to still be standing, her defensive use of the knife is likely justified as part of neutralizing the threat.

      2. Bleuryder

        I think it’s more like you’re cheering for the villain to get his karmatic punishment and when it comes you’re cheering until all of a sudden you’re all “okay, that’s enough punishment”. And then you realize there’s still more punishment going and you just go “okay it’s not cute anymore, y’all need to stop now.”

        and all of sudden you feel a LITTLE bad for the villain because yeah, he totally deserved 100% of his punishment and instead got 350%

        1. LovelyMonsters

          On the other hand, we know Ryan is a serial rapist: there are others who have suffered because of him. So it could be argued (I am not making this argument) that what he’s getting is 100% of his deserved punishment, just–all at once.

        2. Arianod

          Yup. Ryan’s a total scumbag, and he isn’t even a real scumbag. Personally, I’m not even gonna try and feel sorry for his fictional ass 😛 I’m worried about Dorothy, who’s watching a dude being -presumably- beaten and stabbed to pieces in front of her, and her best friend turning into a rabid animal. I’m worried about Amber, both for the legal repercusions and because this is going to mess her up inside a ton more than she already was.

        3. Emily

          Amber could literally murder Ryan right here and I wouldn’t blame her.

        4. StClair

          I would tend to agree.
          The more relevant question, IMO, is whether she would blame herself?

          (“Redemption is a story. A lie.”)

        5. Riku

          He pulled a knife on her, even as somebody who’s usually against violent punishment I’d say she’s justified

    2. abacuswizard

      Ethically and practically, Amber’s actions may be ambiguous.

      Legally, I think there’s a pretty clear case for self-defense if this known attacker has already followed them home, made threatening comments, and pulled a weapon on them.

      1. C.T Phipps

        As long as Amber keeps the fact she’s mentally ill and could have disabled Ryan harmlessly hidden, she should be fine.

        1. BigDogLittleCat

          I dunno, insanity might be her best defense.
          Would be interesting to see how the whole AmaziGirl thing plays out in a legal defense: it’s a pattern of potentially criminal behavior, but also the actions of a disturbed mind.

        2. Misteline

          thats not really how the insanity defense works…if its even an option in this state. In most case it boils down to one’s ability to distinguish right from wrong or if one has any level of control over one’s actions (i.e. have you been drugged?, etc.). An insanity defense is one of the hardest defenses to succeed in, and the end result can be just as bad if not worse than just taking a plea or any other defense.

          Self-defense laws tend to be *way* more flexible than anything involving the insanity defense.

        3. Kryss LaBryn

          Also if you somehow succeed in pleading insanity (which is actually really uncommon), you don’t get off scot free; you just get locked up in a hospital instead of a jail.

        4. BBCC

          And you don’t get to leave the hospital until they decide you’re ready to re-enter society and won’t hurt yourself or others. Time wise, it’s far less certain than a prison sentence.

        5. Arianod

          What Misteline said. “Insanity defence” will land you in a mental institution, not to be released after ten or fifteen years, but to be kept there until the doctors decide you’re no longer a danger to others. Eg: Charles Manson and Mark Chapman are still rotting away in mental institutions. The only time when pleading insanity is a good option is if the alternative is the death penalty.

        6. ischemgeek

          Plus, insanity defenses have an extremely low success rate, in part due to social bias against the idea of a “violent criminal getting off” on insanity, and in part due to the high legal standard of what qualifies for not legally responsible.

          In TV-land, anyone who acts a bit funny for a few days gets off on insanity. Here in reality-land it’s used in <1% of cases and has a 26% success rate – but if you're going to succeed, you'd better hope to hell that you were previously diagnosed with something because 90% of successful cases are in the cases of people with pre-existing diagnoses.

          Plus, the legal standard for "NCR by reason of mental illness or defect" (the term for the defense in Canada) is that you have to be so mentally ill you are incapable at the time of the crime of telling right from wrong. Amber is very mentally ill – but she can still tell right from wrong, so the defense wouldn't apply.

        7. Victor

          Um, both of the people you mention were found guilty. They’re in prison, not mental facilities.

          Conversely, John Hinckley Jr. was found not guilty by reason of insanity, spent quite a bit of time in a mental hospital, and has now been released.

        8. Kryss LaBryn

          There was a guy in Canada a few years ago who went off his meds (was schizophrenic), wigged out on a Greyhound bus, and killed a guy and decapitated him (and then, according to a Greyhound employee I knew at the time, also cannibalized him a bit).

          He did manage to plead insanity and went to an institution for a while, but last I heard, he had gone to a halfway house sort of thing, where he had to come back at night and they supervised him taking his meds (because he was fine when he was on them), but he could be out and about during the day.

          Surprisingly little outcry about it when the news broke that he was out of the institution, but as they said, when he’s on his meds, he’s fine. I gather he thought the guy he killed was a demon or something.

        9. JasonAW3

          If he keeps making the same, stupid mistake, or compounds it with even stupider mistakes, YES!!!

        10. OBBWG

          She could legitimately plead insanity in this case. Had Ryan not threatened her with a knife (her trigger), she would not have gone as far as she did. In this strip, she is unable to tell the difference between right and wrong or consider consequences of her actions. That is the legal definition of insanity.

          This is a situational case or “temporary insanity” (not a legal term). Amber might spend a few days in an institution for observation, but, as long as Amazi-girl stays out of the picture, she would probably not be declared a danger to herself or others. She would be ordered into therapy (a very good thing) and that would be it. No charges against her.

          Civil suits are a different matter. See my post in a previous thread.

        11. thejeff

          Unless she’s apprehended (or caught on camera) hunched over Ryan stabbing him repeatedly as he bleeds out, she’s far, far better off claiming self defense.

          If she really does lose it completely and can’t stop stabbing him once he’s down and out, then she needs more than therapy, otherwise she’s got a damn good case, without bringing up any mental issues or anything other than “Guy came at me with a knife. I got it away from him, but he kept fighting.”

        12. HMH

          But, she has such a misplaced sense of justice, and a desire to be punished for how wrong and evil she believes she is, that she might just be the kind of person to volunteer this information after the fact, if she’s depressed enough.

      2. SeanR

        I think otherwise, unfortunately.
        There was a pharmacist in Oklahoma who was convicted of murder for shooting an incapacitated would-be robber.
        That is, the robber invaded his place of business, but was now no longer a(n immediate) threat.

        http://newsok.com/pharmacyshootings

        It ceased to be self-defense when Ryan was no longer able to cause harm then and there. She MAY be able to argue that it all flowed together, that she’d delivered all those blows before she came up for cognition and determined he was incapacitated, but she armed herself with his knife.
        I don’t know of any combinations that involve retrieving a fallen weapon to use on your opponent.

        1. MatthewTheLucky

          Not fallen. She took it yesterday.

        2. SeanR

          The problem with that is,
          when she grabbed his wrist, I don’t see a way she could have smoothly transferred the knife to her own hand.
          Panel 2 shows her punching, again, with a bare, and empty, left fist, while panel 4 shows her slashing with the knife in her left hand. At some point she wasn’t holding the knife in her left hand.

          I maintain that she forced him to drop it, then after whaling on him a few times, picked up the fallen knife to further punish him.

          I’d assume that she was straddling his prone form, but the angles don’t suggest anything but an upright Amber.

        3. Regret

          She could have caught the knife as it fell, her left hand was free when her right was unknifing him.

        4. Regret

          No wait, that doesn’t work.
          Wrong hand in my memory. You are right.

        5. Victor

          She’s obviously standing. If she were stabbing him while he was on the ground, you would have a point. But if he’s standing, he’s still a threat. If, once he lost the knife, he’d turned and run, she wouldn’t be justified in killing him. If he was on the ground, she wouldn’t be justified in killing him.

          But if he’s standing in front of her, a reasonable person would be able to conclude that he was attempting to take the knife back, and therefore she had reason to be in fear for her life. Indiana is a stand your ground state, she has no legal obligation to attempt to flee. If he’s not incapacitated, she’s legally justified in using any force necessary to stop the threat, since he attempted to attack her with a deadly weapon.

        6. NickG

          She could be leaning forward and slashing at his prone body or holding him up with one hand and slashing with the other, all we can see is one hand and forearm after all.

      3. JetstreamGW

        Legally, Amber’s case is 100% dependent on who has the best lawyer.

        That’s almost always true.

        1. Stella

          Okayokayokay, but. But.

          Everyone is saying “legal consequences.” But what if:

          1.) Amber kills Ryan
          2.) Sal shows up
          3.)????
          4.) Amber and Sal bury / hide the body and swear Dorothy to secrecy
          5.) Ryan is declared a missing person after a few days
          6.) Body is never found, or is only found years later
          7.) meanwhile, all three girls take the secret to their graves; the rest of the story is the psychological aftermath and relationship change after doing such an intense thing

          I know, I know, PROBABLY too out-of-genre. But. Kinda cool to think about tho?

        2. David

          No.

        3. LovelyMonsters

          I’d read it!

        4. Cybersnark

          It would basically be Sweet/Vicious.

    3. Michael Steamweed

      So I wasn’t clear. I’m not concerned about what she’s done to HIM. I’m concerned about what she’s done to HERSELF.

      1. miados

        fill yourself up with anger hatred and fear long enough you will burst. at least the one she erupted against did deserve to have lashing out against him. that said this will still mess with her i am not argueing that.

  22. Kernanator

    I almost want tomorrow’s strip to cut away from this and have the comic not address this for days.

    Almost.

    1. tbf

      I think that’s what we’ll get with “storyline over”

    2. Packy

      I come from the FUTURE… OK, not so much, I more came from the Patreon. I won’t spoil tomorrow’s strip, but I will give you Willis’ tag for the strip:

      look it’s not tonal whiplash if it’s the first strip of a new storyline

    3. TimeLoss

      Maybe its never talked about again. Ryan? Ryan who?

      1. Kris

        I’d be a little worried if absolutely nothing came of this.

        1. SeanR

          Well, would YOU want your in$titution to be known for attempted rape and murder? How would that affect enrollment?
          Justice served. Hey, here’s a handy broom, and I see a convenient rug over there…

          Doubt it, but still.

        2. David

          It doesn’t look to me like Amber is actually raping Ryan.

        3. Guerisso

          I think you misunderstood SeanR’s comment. It’s Ryan who attempted to rape Joyce (and probably more since it was unlikely his first attempt), but this is not really public. It’s only mouth to mouth right now, but if there is murder/attempted murder this goes to court and Ryan drugging Joyce is bound to come up, because the girls have to testify on Ryan’s background and because the judge could be interested how much damage is from Amber and where the other scar came from.

          I don’t think there is any way for the college to handle this without making everything public, though.

        4. HMH

          I mean, there’s DEFINITELY some unwanted, forceful penetration going on. I just don’t think it’s sexual to anybody involved.

  23. C.T Phipps

    I foresee him to have received a nasty wound but not actually killed. Amber will also be released for self-defense. However, I see her relationship with everyone to have changed because of it.

    Dorothy has no experience with violence so she’s horrified. Sal might be much more understanding.

    1. tim gueguen

      I half expect Sal to show up next strip to keep Amber from killing Ryan.

      1. David

        I think that would be Sal’s job.

        1. David

          Oh right. I thought you had written “Sarah”. Never mind, nothing to be seen here, everybody move on.

      2. CJ

        Don’t think it’s a good idea to get Sal involved. She’s a black girl with violent history and judges are more likely to take a dim view on any of her acts then on Ambers.

  24. Ellie

    Another scar for Not-Ryan Ryan? Dorothy is freaking out though maybe something more

  25. WikiDreamer

    I just had to double back and make sure whose hand was whose….HOLY SWEET MOTHER OF FUDGE AMBER!!!!

    1. Bluewind

      Me to! I couldn’t take the hover text at face value. I had to check sleeves. O_O

      1. Lingo

        Me three!

  26. NoOneLikesRobin

    To reiterate:
    NOW YOU FUCKED UP
    NOW YOU FUCKED UP
    NOW YOU HAVE FUCKED UP
    YOU HAVE FUCKED UP NOW

  27. White Rice

    Well, Ryan certainly just got some comeuppance. Either he just got a matching scar for his current one, or Amber went full “wanna know how I got these scars?” on him. Either way: damn.

    1. Delicious Taffy

      If she gave him a Glasgow smile, I don’t think he’ll forget it.

      1. Opus the Poet

        Chelsea Grinn. Makes a nasty scar and it’s real hard to eat until it heals.

        1. HMH

          I mean, he’s eating some crow right now. Maybe a whole murder.

        2. Scar Man!!!

          is that different?

        3. White Rice

          Different name, same general “procedure”

  28. ValdVin

    Using a series.of reaction shots? That ups the fright, in the best storytelling way.

    Dorothy, run and get help. Before now.

    1. Packy

      Yes. Best way to frighten!

  29. Socks

    Huh. Alright then. Huh.

    1. Socks

      If this didn’t probably have horrific consequences for the mental states of Dorothy and Amber I’d be pretty hyped right now really.

      1. Socks

        That knife would be bloodier if she straight stabbed him, right?

        1. Delicious Taffy

          Almost certainly. This looks like a slashing motion, to me. A rather violent one, at that.

        2. Rosenthal Ferdinand

          Being a knife guy myself, she’s coming down from a face slash, right to left. She’s also using her left hand for it…so I doubt she’s cutting a similar scar to his left side, but like, slashing his fucking eyes out.

        3. Hera

          Based on her hand motion she’s slashing not stabbing.
          Based on the blood she is either slashing his face or throat. (If it was in the chest area Ryans clothes would have “absorbed” most of the blood.

          Also the “Blood flies everywhere” thing was made up by Hollywood, your heart isn’t a faucet, it’s a beating pump.

        4. general band-aid

          We don’t see Amber’s hand in the last panel, the one where Dorothy is at her most horrified. So to me it looks like Amber slashes him once, then goes in again and does something that’s even worse.

        5. HMH

          On the bright side, she’s slashing with her left hand, so we can be pretty certain that she isn’t slashing his throat. While Hera is mostly right that Hollywood has grandiose ideas about blood spray and spatter, if Dorothy was slashing at his neck this furiously with her left hand, from a left-to-right motion across his neck that results in her whole shoulder pulling back on the follow through…that’d be his carotid artery, IIRC. There would be a LOT more blood…though, perhaps this shot is framed from that side specifically so all of the blood can run/spurt/drain off-panel, for only Dorothy to see.

        6. merbrat

          He could be raising his arms, defensively, and they got the brunt of it.

  30. Sam

    Holy shit!

  31. Kris

    Hey, it’s okay! Ryan’s just really clumsy with that knife. Reeeeeeally clumsy

    1. tbf

      So clumsy he got Amber’s fingerprints all over it D:

      1. Leorale

        “Oops, Leland. You tripped.”

        1. miados

          nope not leland

          http://www.dumbingofage.com/2016/comic/book-7/01-glower-vacuum/landed/

          look for willis posts

        2. Michael Chandra

          Um? 2 comics later?

      2. Mom

        Oh shit. You’re right.

  32. mrj

    This puts Amber barring the door with her book in a darker light: Not (only) to keep Ryan from coming after Dorothy, but to keep her from interfering with Amber’s fury.

    1. mrj

      I wondered if that would be my gravatar still. Rather appropriate.

      1. C.T Phipps

        Honestly, Dorothy might have been a genuine danger to Amber trying to get in her way.

        1. HMH

          Also herself. Also, in this state, Amber might be a genuine danger to Dorothy. Less than Ryan would have been, but she isn’t gonna be careful when she literally throws Dorothy out of the way to continue going 80s Horror Movie on Ryan.

    2. Some1

      If you think about it, keeping out Ryan that way is really stupid, he can easily remove the book. It was never to keep Ryan out…

      1. C.T Phipps

        Well, it was to get Dorothy from the knife danger which she refused to do because Dorothy is really not very good in a crisis. Another slight against her Presidency sadly.

        1. Leorale

          Dorothy is fine in an emotional or policy-based crisis. It’s just she freezes up for a sec when she witnesses somebody getting bloodily beaten half to death.

        2. John

          There’s a huge difference between the kind of crisis you have to deal with as President and Commander-in-Chief and the kind of crisis that’s a guy with a knife in your face right now. The latter kind of crisis, the President has people for.

          I’m now picturing Amber in a dark suit with a earbud in her ear.

        3. HMH

          I would even hazard a guess as to say that most modern presidents in our lifetimes would still have at least a somewhat panicked reaction to a dude being suddenly gutted three feet away from them.

        4. StClair

          not President Harrison Ford!

      2. mrj

        Well, it would’ve delayed him briefly, and that’s not nothing if the intention was just to buy time for Dorothy to escape. But it certainly is more effective at keeping Dorothy in than Ryan out.

    3. John

      The book is on the outside. It does absolutely nothing to keep Ryan out. It only keeps Dorothy in while Amber takes care of business.

      1. C.T Phipps

        Mind you, Dorothy kept trying to STAY and that was dumb.

  33. fillerusername

    Okay…she definitely stabbed him. I’m still hoping she actually won’t go so far as killing him but…fuck if I know.

    1. tbf

      That angle looks more like a slash to me. I don’t think she killed him because (a) that’s a homicide investigation that’ll last until decade’s end and (b) I don’t think Amber is a murderer. She’s taken him down, he hasn’t committed a capital offense known to her, killing him would be too far.

      1. Some1

        The storyline over makes me hopeful we won’t see the fight turn from self defense to cold blooded torture as Amber allows herself to sink into the depth of darkness.

      2. SUGauthor

        Not even Blaine’s as evil as Ryan, plus he was about to murder someone else and possibly murder-rape Joyce. If ever there was a moment when Amber was willing to cross the line, it’s now.

      3. Packy

        Yes, but remember, Amazi-Girl is the good one. She’s the one who would have the internal conversation about how killing “Ryan” would be too far.

        Amber, believing herself to not be the good one, doesn’t believe herself to be restricted in her actions in that way.

      4. Bickendan

        As far as the media would be considered, it’d still be a stabbing, even if it’s more accurately a slashing.

        And if they didn’t say knife, it’d probably be an assault rifle x.x

        1. Jhon

          Or shotgun.
          8-(

    2. audkitten

      She didn’t kill him / won’t kill him. Willis has said earlier that he wouldn’t kill anyone in the strip. I think that still holds true.

      1. Packy

        Ah, but he never thought that he’d ever bring “Ryan” back to the strip. He only came back because Willis needed someone bad enough that Sal and Amazi-Girl would agree to work together to fight him (from a comment on Patreon).

        So if he never thought he was going to bring this guy back, but he did, he might decide that it’s OK to kill him.

    3. Kris

      I still feel like killing is going super dark for this comic. It sets a precedent y’know? From that point on many will be thinking “well when’s the next person gonna die?”. Also imagine what that does to Amber’s character? I’m pretty sure she’s meant to be seen relatively good. Not saying it couldn’t happen or that it’s not what’s happening, but yeah I’m fairly skeptical he’s actually dead. Batman’s actually hurt people worse without killing them. (except for all those times he killed people)

  34. Shiro

    Oh no, Dorothy…oh no, Amber… :CCCCCC

    (is Ryan actually dead or just badly hurt)

    1. Delicious Taffy

      1. These girls are gonna need sympathy via weapons-grade physical contact, after tonight.

      2. (who gives a shit)

      1. Shiro

        (only because it’ll affect how Dorothy sees Amber, and how Amber sees herself, afterwards. If I were in a cape comic dudes like Ryan would be my supervillain origin story)

        1. Fart Captor

          Yeah, even though Ryan totally deserves it, I’m really worried about Amber right now.

  35. Schpoonman

    Storyline over? Are you fucking kidding me? Okay, fine, I’ll repatreon up.

    (also because I’ve had Ad Block on for I think literally years because the ads here are a trainwreck and I’m 99% sure malicious. Willis, can you please look into that?)

    1. Harvey Janus

      The past three days I’ve been unable to view this on my phone due to redirect ads.

    2. Feathers

      Yeah, all/most of the Hiveworks comics use an ad network that allows malicious JS redirects. Really annoying, and it honestly makes me *less* inclined to donate money to comic creators. I recommend Brave, which is a Chromium-based browser with really robust ad-blocking and other security things, available for Android and possibly iOS too.

      Plus it allows you to easily adjust settings per website, so I just have JS off by default. It’s a real pain to deal with exceptions on vanilla Chrome for Android.

  36. Reltzik

    ….

    ….

    …. so Dorothy’s going to be dropping her Amazi-Girl coverage now.

    1. Kris

      This has nothing to do with Amazi-girl anyway. Nothing to cover.

      1. Emily

        That’s at best a stretched technicality.

      2. Reltzik

        How well does Dorothy understand that?

    2. John

      I initially parsed that as Dorothy having an insurance policy covering acts of Amazi-Girl. I think she’d be more interested in that now.

      1. Reltzik

        You’re right. That was ambiguous. I should have said that she’s going to be dropping her Amazi-Girl covfefe now.

        1. Guerisso

          Funny, the internet seems to be obsessed for days by what this word should mean. But in this case I agree that I would understand your sentence unambiguously if you replaced coverage with covfefe.

  37. Kamino Neko

    Congratulations, Rachel. You’ve convinced TWO people you were right. And only one of them is suicidal from it.

    1. Tilty

      It seems to be Ryan’s blood, according to the tagline…

      1. Gizen

        By suicidal, pretty sure Kamino was referring to Ruth, not Amber. Not that Amber isn’t self-destructing in her own non-suicidal manor.

        1. Tilty

          Ah, sorry. The ‘from it,’ made me think Kamino meant that the person in question was suicidal because of Rachel’s rant, while Ruth was suicidal before that.

        2. Kamino Neko

          She had just come out of the suicidal phase, which, despite Sir’s best efforts, probably would’ve lasted a couple days, if she’d been allowed to distract herself…but she showed all the signs of dropping back in, after Rachel’s rant.

        3. Kamino Neko

          Yeah, my phrasing was awkward, but that’s what I meant.

        4. StClair

          FYI, “manor” and “manner” are another pair of those homophones that Walky and Billie were talking about a few strips ago. (Though now you have me contemplating a “suicidal manor”… sounds like something out of Poe.)

    2. Kris

      Kinda makes you wonder what would’ve happened if Amber wasn’t coming fresh off of hearing that huh?

      1. Emily

        The same damn thing because Amber’s anger and violence issues are well-documented and deep-seated. Trying to somehow apportion any amount of blame for this onto Rachel is patently ridiculous.

        1. Mav

          I agree..Ryan pulled a knife on her. We know that being physically threatened (especially with a knife!) is her trigger.

        2. Kris

          Not blaming Rachel. But someone as mentally fragile as Amber hearing that speech definitely contributes to what happened here. Just like Dorothy “breaking up” with her, or Danny being out of the picture, or Amazi-girl basically failing at her first opportunity to apprehend Ryan, and her second opportunity, contributes as well. It’s not their fault. These are just facts. This particular meltdown/beatdown has been foreshadowed for sometime.

    3. Suzi

      Are we seriously blaming Rachel for the long lasting deep seated mental issues of two characters here?

      Sure what she said was cruel but Ruth’s suicidal thoughts aren’t going to be healed in a week and Amber’s anger and violence isn’t going to suddenly be made worse by one speech. And Amber has been building up to this for YEARS. She has always been one bad fight away from killing someone.

      1. Kamino Neko

        Are we seriously pretending that Rachel’s ‘no, you’re evil, no redemption, don’t even try’ bullshit didn’t contribute to this?

        This isn’t losing control. Look at the last panel of the last strip.

        This is actively giving up on trying.

        1. Halpful

          This. thank you. I’m all out of words this week.

  38. Solenoid

    welp she’s carving him up

    Amber’s… she’s going to hate herself even harder over all this. And Dorothy… is just watching… as this (execrable piece of shit) guy gets peeled like a potato.

    Please get all these students in therapy. Please Please.

    1. CoffeeBurps

      On the upside, kickass story for Dorothy’s journalism. I can see the headline now “Attempted rapist gets castrated!”

      1. emusam

        Dorothy is going to have to reprioritize again.

    2. miados

      its to early in the year to make a jack s o lantern.

    3. Regalli

      Seriously.

  39. Irredentist

    Did Amber just totally kill a dude? That can’t be good.

    1. maki0129

      I doubt he is dead. But she done carved him real good.

    2. miados

      you would be surprised what you can live through.

      1. Opus the Poet

        Tell me about it… or rather let me tell you about it.

        1. miados

          i’m listening.

        2. Opus the Poet

          Truck, hit a guy riding a bicycle (me) from behind at 60 MPH. Dead for at least 2 minutes. Multiple broken bones, much skin scraped off, some skin exploded off in the first impact. Landed face-first on road after getting flipped 12-16 feet up and over 100 feet horizontally. Some brain damage and a bunch of plastic surgery to put my face back on. Had to learn how to walk all over again because of all the muscle and nerve damage in the leg.

  40. Briny

    Amber doesn’t buy into that whole “bring a knife to a knifefight” cliche.

    1. Delicious Taffy

      Hell, this isn’t even a knife fight. That dull stone brought a knife to a fistfight without realising it put him at a disadvantage. Without it, all she had was a book and her body which, granted, could already be classified as overkill.

      1. SillyGoose

        Reading the first part of your answer (“Hell, this isn’t even a knife fight”), I thought you were going to add “This is obviously a phone fight”.

  41. Cephalo the Pod

    This is a pretty good ending.

  42. Kindra

    u kno he ded

    1. Tenchan

      Yes, yes he is. }:-)

  43. Mr. Random

    Well this is traumatizing.

  44. Passchendaele

    Dorothy might not be sleeping tonight. Or ever again.

    1. Passchendaele

      I think I can relate.

  45. Tenchan

    Well, looks like Joyce isn’t going to be the only one with PTSD.

  46. Pigeon Pollyx

    Clever to frame this fight with Dorothy, Willis. I’d still be pretty excited without that reminder that this is objectively horrifying and absolutely not going to end without repercussions. And I don’t just mean Dorothy getting some fuckin trauma in seeing her hero brutally slaughter this prick.

    1. carl320

      This POV does have more impact.

  47. C.T Phipps

    Well, I think we can say Dorothy has lost her hero worship of Amazi-Girl.

  48. Reltzik

    Waitwaitwait.

    Storyline over?

    I thought storylines only ended with shots of characters sleeping.

    ….

    … I guess Ryan’s sleeping now.

    1. BBCC

      No no no, I see the problem.

      BOOKS end with characters in bed. STORYLINES can end however the fuck they want.

    2. zoelogical

      sleeping with the FISHES

      1. Emperor Daniel

        Clearly this means Amber will toss Ryan’s body into Showalter Fountain.

  49. bryy

    Is it wrong of me to think that, even though Amber is gonna see jail time, there’s no way this can be spun where the truth about Ryan doesn’t come out?

    1. C.T Phipps

      I’m going to be horrifically cynical here but Amber may survive killing a white cis boy. She is, at least, white and pretty herself.

      1. Delicious Taffy

        Does he still count as cis if she’s back-alley surgerised him into a woman?

        1. fillerusername

          ….Bad joke.

        2. Derek

          that’s not how being trans works…

        3. Delicious Taffy

          Duly noted.

        4. ischemgeek

          I’m not sure whether that joke is more sexist or transphobic. Either way, it’s neither funny nor cool.

        5. Delicious Taffy

          Yeah, I already got that, thanks.

        6. Delicious Taffy

          I’d rather have a reputation for being wrong about a phone than be labeled transphobic or sexist. I get that this wasn’t funny, and I wasn’t trying to be cool by saying it, so let’s just call this dead on arrival and leave it at that. Sorry for any offense.

      2. general band-aid

        Why on earth should Amber see jail time for this? An attempted rapist attacked her in the dark with a knife.

        1. HMH

          Any, after incapacitating him, disarming, and completely neutralizing his threat, while being completely physically capable of restraining him safely until the proper authorities arrived, she sadistically beat him to within an inch of his life and savagely maimed him with a knife. Self-defense tends to cover the first half of that sentence. There’s not much legal protection for the second half.

          I’m not saying I’m morally opposed to what Amber is doing. I’m just saying that in most jurisdictions, she’s committing, like, five felonies right now.

        2. Eldritch Gentleman

          That depends actually… judging by what little we see of Amber’s arm movement it seems that Ryan is still standing. Maybe he is actually fighting back and Amber could claim she got desperate.

        3. thejeff

          It’s pretty rare that self-defense cases hinge on blow by blow analysis of the fight. It doesn’t switch from self-defense to murder between the second and third punch. You would have to prove that the threat was “completely neutralized” and that Amber was (or reasonably should have been) aware of that.
          If Ryan is still struggling, he’s still a threat. She took the knife from him, he could get it back from her.
          As I said above, in a fight for your life, you are not required to stop after each blow to make sure your attacker is still fighting. Now if he broke free and started running, that would be a different story. Or if she did stop and then started deliberately cutting him again.

    2. Hera

      First time offense, mental instability, protecting her self.
      I don’t think shes going to jail.

      1. Michael William Crichton

        Not for THIS, no. But any serious investigation into her is going to uncover the whole “alter-ego” thing.

      2. Callid13

        I’m afraid it’s not first time. Amber has, alas, at least one additional stabbing offence, several years ago >.>

        I do wonder how Sal will react when she finds out Amazi-Girl/Amber is the one who stabbed her back then. I could both see her forgiving her (due to her own crimes and time passed) as well as avoiding AG/A, or possibly something in-between. In any case, these events make it quite likely she’ll find out.

        1. Kryss LaBryn

          “Jeez, yer a lil’ slash-happy, ain’t’cha?”

    3. C.T Phipps

      I suppose it depends on whether Ryan’s family is rich and whether Amber’s family is poor.

      1. SeanR

        Amber is there because her dad is being forced to pay. I’d say her family situation isn’t one that would provide legal counsel.

        That said, she’s in a dorm with law students, some of whom would be sympathetic to her plight and possibly willing to provide what aid they legally could.

    4. Brian K. Pittman

      A guy who is now famous for attacking women comes after two women and potentially dies as result? Nah, that’s called self defense unless the judge is literally the most misogynistic POS in the world. I know we’re living in a very fascistic place in this country right now, but to condemn her would be pretty damn risky politically.

      1. C.T Phipps

        I said upward, Amber will only have a problem if her mental illness comes out. Otherwise, Jury’s will think, “Oh that poor nerdy adorable white girl.” The fact Ryan was disfigured would work against him.

      2. fillerusername

        I’m worried that there’s no record of Amber’s mental health issues thanks to her shitty father but having Dorothy as a witness and the cameras if he dies or not I do think they’d be able to easily make a case for self defense and win. However I’m wondering how much influence his yet to be revealed family has. There is a chance they’ll want this swept under the rug quickly along with the college. I feel like it would be worse pr to prosecute Amber?

        1. C.T Phipps

          Unfortunately, in the American court system, mentally ill people are MORE likely to be treated as dangerous and likely the instigators of violence against them. So, her not having any records would be better for her to get off any legal reprocussions.

        2. fillerusername

          That’s horrible and not at all surprising. I hate this country.

        3. SeanR

          His dad is a preacher. That doesn’t mean his dad is Oral Roberts.
          I don’t know how much preachers usually make, but I suspect it isn’t much.
          Community connections are the greater threat.

        4. MatthewTheLucky

          Hahahahahahaha!

          *sob*

      3. HMH

        “unless the judge is literally the most misogynistic POS in the world.”

        …are you familiar with a concept we call “the American Justice System?”

      4. thejeff

        Of course, he’s only famous for attacking women because these two women accused him of that. He has no prior record we know of or any other actual evidence. Hard to use that against him.

    5. Reltzik

      If she KILLS Ryan, she might see jail time.

      But legally, most of her violence is justifiable. Defending herself and Dorothy against assault with a lethal weapon. There’s a fight for a knife, she comes away with it but he’s still a big threatening guy ready to use fisticuffs so using the knife is legal. The cops MIGHT look at it more carefully if Ryan dies or is permanently injured or if the violence carries on well past where Ryan can put up a fight, but otherwise, with another witness, the assault occurring right on Amber’s literal doorstep, especially if there’s security footage? She’s not going to jail.

      … also, the cops aren’t going to say she’s Amazi-Girl. Knives aren’t her M.O. They are Amber’s M.O.

      But is the truth about Ryan going to come out any more than it’s already out? Well his full identity’s going to come out, but otherwise no. Lots of ways to spin the confrontation and no confessions.

      1. general band-aid

        ^This.

        1. HMH

          I feel the opposite way. If Ryan’s alive, it’s his word against theirs, and his lawyer can establish a pattern of behavior of Dorothy and Amber “having it out” for Ryan, and “slandering” him to “defame his character.” Remember, there is absolutely no evidence of anything he’s ever done that could possibly prove any of the allegations they made, so they’ve libeled him, and he would never be convicted on any counts of rapes, no matter how many rapes he’s made, because he’s a rich white young man from an upstanding community who is politically collected, and there’s no damning physical evidence.

          If Ryan’s dead? The investigation is over in a day. It’s an open-shut case, crazy boy attacks pretty girl, gets disemboweled. Ask any jaded ex-cop: if you ever think you’re going to need to plead self-defense, you’d better fucking kill the guy, because it’ll make your life a lot easier.

  50. Hera

    I want this, to me this is justice.
    You go girl!

  51. CoffeeBurps

    She slices! She dices!

    1. Delicious Taffy

      Also makes julienne Ryans.

      1. CoffeeBurps

        Eeyyy, thats how to make it work!
        Clever

  52. Cheshrin

    He dead.

    1. Brian K. Pittman

      And nothing of value was lost.

      1. Reltzik

        Amber and Dorothy are going to lose a lot of sleep.

        1. Delicious Taffy

          After their righteous victory sex, of course?

      2. SUGauthor

        Amber just murdered someone, shitbag or not, she lost something of value.

      3. Toad

        I dunno, I don’t really see Amber as the “harvest the organs while they’re still in transplantable condition” type

        1. Delicious Taffy

          But… but that’s when they’re at their most delicious.

    2. pjeseb

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYjig6EoCMI

  53. Fallingivy

    I mean, I don’t know why Ryan didn’t see this one coming. He figured she was Amazi-Girl, and Amazi-Girl beat the crap out of him one on one. Is he making the mistake that a weapon gives him more of an edge? This dude is really amazingly ignorant.

    1. C.T Phipps

      The fact his solution to being accused of rape is to go after his accusers to murder them shows…well, he’s a misogynist POS idiot. Not some criminal mastermind.

    2. Stephen Bierce

      It seems to be a prevailing fallacy that just because someone possesses a weapon they automatically can use it competantly. Life proves it wrong again and again everyday yet the fallacy persists.

    3. Danni

      to quote eric matthews: men are big idiots.

    4. Schpoonman

      I think he brought the knife specifically for Dorothy, but only just realized it was Amazi-Girl listening to them before he got closer. And yes, he probably thought he could take Amazi-Girl with the knife.

    5. CoffeeBurps

      Edge? knife? pun? haha?

      1. Fallingivy

        SEE I SPECIFICALLY DIDN’T MAKE THAT JOKE I WAS BEING GOOD

        1. Reltzik

          I’m glad you had the self-restraint to cut that out of your post.

    6. Reltzik

      My theory is that because he treats women like mildly-interactive objects, he underestimates them.

      1. Fart Captor

        That’d be it. Even losing a fight to a woman wouldn’t change that. He’d twist it in his head until it “wasn’t a fair fight” somehow.

        1. SeanR

          I thought the standard narrative was “That B* beat me. That PROVES she’s not a real woman.”
          Witch hunt time?

        2. Danni

          in fairness, ryan’s right, though not for the reasons he thinks. he was gonna start a fight holding a knife, so that’s an unfair advantage over two people who dont have access to weapons. though amber turned that around and used his knife on him.

    7. Arianod

      Ryan looks like the type of dude who’s used to getting what he wants and has never had to deal with the consequences of anything, so I’m not surprised.

  54. Stephen Bierce

    Psycho Killer
    Qu’est-ce que c’est
    Fa-fa-fa-fa-fa-fa-fa-fa-fa-far

    1. Delicious Taffy

      Huh. I was thinking more…
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3o9IuG8Ych8

      1. Lone Wolf

        I went and saw Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 earlier this evening, so this is what’s currently playing in my head for this scene:
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuWkVqum6a8

        1. BBCC

          THANK YOU for reminding me of that scene. I needed that!

  55. a4lbi

    Kick the son of a bongo.

  56. March

    I have a suspicion about what Amber might have done, but I’ll wait, because I’m not sure she’s that crafty in this headspace.

  57. Bluewind

    HOLY SHIT! O_O

    1. miados

      she wasn’t a match for him. she was a forest fire.

  58. newllend(henryvolt)

    …Live by the sword…

  59. Brian K. Pittman

    I know this will likely have negative repercussions but…I’m sorry, the idea of a rapist dying at the hands of an abuse victim does nothing but make me smile ear to ear.

    1. AutobotDen

      Karma is a swift mistress.

      1. Brian K. Pittman

        Ryan is learning that is a very painful way.

        1. SeanR

          Ryan? Learn? I think you mistake him for a redeemable human being.
          He’ll just rationalize it away. It’s not HIS fault. It’s NEVER his fault.

    2. C.T Phipps

      My Jedi spirit is not pure enough that my concern here is anything but Amber’s mental health.

      1. Reltzik

        I’ll add a few concerns for Dorothy having flashbacks, the law getting involved, Ryan’s friends and family seeking revenge, missed classes due to school closure, and possible disease transfer from blood splatter.

        1. C.T Phipps

          I will say Ryan repeatedly showed himself a man who was getting worse not better. Which is impressive given he started as a horrific piece of [blank]

      2. Emily

        Well there’s also the legal consequences this could have, that’s another concern. Like I know I’m pretty hard on Amber/Amazi-Girl vis-a-vis violent vigilantism but when it comes to a serial rapist I don’t even care if she rips his heart out with her bare hands.

  60. DJTsurugi

    wow, he got wrek’d ~<3

  61. AutobotDen

    Calling it now. She sliced the fuck out of his face and hands. the trajectory of the blood suggests she went Heath Ledger Joker on him and went overboard.(Shush. I am trying to be optimistic about this)

  62. JessWitt

    Storyline over?! Oh geez this is going to be a long wait to some resolution.

    1. fillerusername

      I’m just speculating (obviously) but I’m guessing we’re just going to not know for a long time whether or not she actually killed him?

      1. Reltzik

        I’m guessing we’ll cut to morning and hear a lot of conversations about an attack but all sorts of mismatched rumors rather than actual facts.

        1. fillerusername

          I also think everything will just be very vague and Amber might disappear from the comic for a little while as she’s ‘dealt with’ however that ends up happening. I can also see Dorothy not really wanting to explicitly talk about it.

    2. Nono

      Storylines are over at midnight.

      See when the storyline ended at the rally and then picked up right after a short flashback.

  63. V.

    This is too terrifying

  64. Roger Sterling

    I told you he’d be eating it in two strips two strips ago, didn’t I?

    1. Delicious Taffy

      And I said he was holding… not a knife.

      1. Fart Captor

        You’d think a phone like that would’ve been recalled. It seems dangerous

        1. Emperor Daniel

          Nah, that phone is cutting-edge technology. Ryan was just one of the first to have this new experimental design thrust at him. Some might even say . . . it’s bloody cool.

        2. Roger Sterling

          now that’s what i call a killer app

          guess amber wore him down with her flawless execution

        3. Delicious Taffy

          You’re all going to jail.

        4. Solenoid

          They can jailbreak the phone though, right?

        5. HMH

          Yes, I know from movies that you usually just have to bake it into a cake.

        6. Roger Sterling

          I beg your pardon! I’m a cut above all those reprobates!

        7. Clif

          Does that mean you’re phoning it in?

  65. Keulan

    Damn, looks like Ryan’s gonna have even more scars now.

    1. newllend(henryvolt)

      Reminders of vary poor life choices.

      1. Reltzik

        Nah, you don’t get how Ryan thinks. These are reminders that bongos are psycho and need to be put in their place.

    2. zoelogical

      “wanna know how i got these scars’

      “holy shit dude where do i even start”

  66. bleepbloop

    did amber just kill him? iconic.

    1. newllend(henryvolt)

      I believe it when I heard that Willis said there would be no death’s.

      1. Socks

        No main character deaths, because the in-comic months of mourning would last for, like, years irl. No one would be mourning notryan here, not from the main cast anyway. Maybe like his parents or something.

        1. BBCC

          Mourning, no, but the fallout from a murder would last for months and could conceivably affect everyone on the cast page, albeit to different degrees.

    2. Deanatay

      No, YOU conic.

      Circle, maybe an elipse.

      1. Reltzik

        Now now, no need to be hyperbolic.

    3. Deanatay

      Hooray! Beady little trauma-eyes for EVERYONE!!

      Heh. Traumatize. Trauma-eyes.

  67. Rei

    This reminds me of Kenny vs Carver from the walking dead games
    (I just hope the result is a lot less…gruesome)

    Poor Amber and Dorothy o_o

    1. Delicious Taffy

      Now, do you mean the first time, or the rematch?

      1. Rei

        I think the rematch, where Kenny told Clementine to gtfo so she doesn’t see what he’s gonna do.

        1. Delicious Taffy

          Too bad I always choose to stay and watch.

  68. BBCC

    I feel like now is a good time to remind all of you that seeing tomorrow’s strip is only $5 a month on Patreon

    1. SDGlyph

      It’s a trap! Because then I either have to *keep* reading them on Patreon or wait two days for the next one.

      This is legitimately why I sub to Patreon anyway and carefully *don’t* read the content (except bonus strips).

  69. mister gray

    and so amber’s third personality was born!

  70. Bicycle Bill

    Getting a little dark about now, isn’t it?

    1. Hera

      Because Ruths meltdown was so happy?
      This has been dark for a long time.

      1. Bicycle Bill

        Yeah, Ruth’s story arc was dark too, but that was more ‘sunset’-dark.  This is a ‘moonless night in a coal mine at midnight’-level darkness.

        1. Reltzik

          I’ve said it before. This is a tragic comedy. A tromedy.

  71. CC

    “Amazigirl has something you don’t. You know what that is?” “I can guess. Is it a code against killing?”

    1. Delicious Taffy

      “I was gonna say great hair, but I can see why the code thing would be nice, right about now.”

    2. WingedBeast

      “Amazigirl has the strength to stop even after she’s got going.”

  72. Bosn C Otter

    I hope she killed the bastard.
    He brought the knife to the party, He decided the level this would go to.

  73. Sporky

    awwwwww jeez…

  74. Stairmasternem

    That’s a lot of words for what isn’t usually a one word comic title. Appropriate though!

  75. Deadlinedance

    Huh. I was right about one thing and wrong about the other.

    I guessed this comic would show Dorothy’s reactions in lieu of letting us see most of the violence. Classic framing device; not knocking the use of it in the least, it’s hella dramatic.

    I didn’t think Amber would go for the dropped knife. Yikes. (Understatement.)

    1. Reltzik

      She’s done exactly that before.

  76. Bleuryder

    Holy crap!! Amber straight up cut a bongo!!

    I mean, I’m surprised and not surprised. I expected fractures galore, but she straight up went full gangsta on this dude.

    If Amber goes to jail for this, no one give her any jolly ranchers to make a shiv with. (extra points for the easy reference).

    1. Bleuryder

      oops, autocorrect fail. I meant “cut a bongo”.

      1. Emperor Daniel

        Yes, you surely did mean “cut a bongo”.

    2. miados

      but i dont think i have any orange to wear.

  77. miados

    to quote the parrot in the aladdin movies “you’d be surprised what you can live through.”

  78. Optimal Optimus

    Could someone point me to Little Sal’s fight in the schoolyard. I’d like to compare “Ryan’s” face to the kid who was picking on Marcie.

    1. Delicious Taffy

      If it helps, he’s pictured separately from little Leland in the Orb picture.

    2. Jhon

      Willis has posted separate drawings of Leland and Ryan. So— two different people.
      (but a family resemblance maybe?)

      1. miados

        iirc he said ryan and leland arent the same person.

        1. Leorale

          He did? Aw, but I like my theory. Can you link me to him denying it?
          And, what’s the Orb picture?

        2. Fart Captor

          It was right in the comments, when people were saying just that.

          But here is the Orb

        3. miados

          thanks. i only remembered it happened not where.

        4. Leorale

          This orb picture is everything I could have dreamed it would be.
          But yeah, Willis’s grownup Leland looks really different. : (

        5. Fart Captor

          Well also there’s Ryan standing right next to him

        6. Leorale

          Yes, that was a given

        7. Emperor Daniel

          He drew a parody of the photo from the recent Saudi Arabian visit (you know, where everyone is touching a glowing orb) where the moldy orange and the others were all replaced by the various [i]Dumbing of Age[/i] antagonists.

        8. miados

          http://www.dumbingofage.com/2016/comic/book-7/01-glower-vacuum/landed/

          search for the name ryan on it for faster find, but willis said it here.

        9. Leorale

          A-yep, that’s a Word of God, that is. Ryan isn’t Leland.
          Darn. Bye, theory, I’ll miss you!

        10. BBCC

          Leland’s nose and hairstyles are different. Hair can change, but the nose is a tough one. Also, they go by different names. Leland goes by Leland even with other kids (Sal called him that) and Ryan goes by Ryan.

        11. Optimal Optimus

          Still, his name must be important. Otherwise Willis wouldn’t have made such a big mystery about it. Maybe he is the son of Robin’s opponent?

    3. Leorale

      You mean Leland.
      http://www.dumbingofage.com/tag/leland/

      I really, really think they’re the same guy.

      1. miados

        http://www.dumbingofage.com/2016/comic/book-7/01-glower-vacuum/landed/

        search for the word ryan and you will find it quick

        1. Leorale

          Curses, foiled again!

  79. Derek

    panel 2: Amber keep your wrist straight when punching, otherwise you don’t have as much impact and you could hurt yourself

    1. thejeff

      I think, given the pose, by the time the blow lands, the wrist will be straight.

    2. Optimal Optimus

      Amber, you should always strike with an open hand in a street-fight if you are striking to the head. Elbows are good too.

      1. thejeff

        Or a knife, should someone happen to be kind enough to bring one for you to use.

  80. Runner 5

    He came to kill them both, and Joyce. HE brought the knife. He has size and strength advantage, and deadly intent. LISTEN UP, ALL Y’ALL. If someone is trying to kill you, you kill them right back. Amber does not have mace, or a taser, or a rope. You put him down and make sure he STAYS down. You put him down as hard as it takes for you to be safe, and if you’re not sure you round UP.

    If you are mugged, hand over your money and run away. The safest way to survive a fight is to avoid it. If a man has targeted you personally, stalked you to somewhere dark and lonely, threatened you, and pulled a knife, and you can’t run because he has three targets and he only has to be faster than one of you, or whatever other reason… you DO NOT FIGHT FAIR. Stab him until he’s not a threat anymore.

  81. newllend(henryvolt)

    I got say though this is a very good example of using silence to portray a page.

  82. Kingmabel

    On the plus side, when Dorothy becomes president she can be on the list of presidents who’ve witnessed a murder; at this point most of the list is former military.

    1. Reltzik

      I don’t think it’s called murder when it happens in a battle.

      Also, slaveholders.

      … also, how is that a plus side?

  83. BBCC

    Looks like she slashed him across the chest to me – the motion of the knife and the small amount of blood on the knife makes me think it’s not a stab and the relatively little bit of blood makes me think it wasn’t an artery. So probably not a deep one.

    1. Jhon

      Unless the punch knocked Ryan to his knees…

      1. BBCC

        Nah, if that were his throat, there’d be way more blood.

        1. miados

          what about slicing through an ear? or scalp?

        2. vlademir1

          Both are really full of blood vessels. I suspect that BBCC is right. That said, I can easily see her going all Inglourious Basterds on his ass and marking him…

  84. Leorale

    Yeeeah, I was definitely hoping she’d hold him at knifepoint, make a nice mirror to Sal holding Ethan hostage back in the day, and say some sweet one-liners. Nope. It… it went a lot bigger than that, huh.

  85. Danni

    that punch almost definitely broke ryan’s nose.

  86. Arian

    Interesting that the title of the comic is ‘Your princess is in another castle’, but the reference in the URL is ‘wellyikes’. I think I prefer the latter. Though getting to see both options is good too

    1. Bicycle Bill

      If you look closely at this strip from a few days ago you’ll see that the “Princess in another castle” line was printed on Amber’s T-shirt.

  87. miados

    I love this page. never push someone who you think is good over the line. those who are cruel know what their limits are. those who never even move close to the line….. you never know how far they will run past it when forced to.

    1. Jhon

      “If a man has you entirely at his mercy, then hope like hell that man is an evil man. Because the evil like power, power over people, and they want to see you in fear. They want you to know you’re going to die. So they’ll talk. They’ll gloat. They’ll watch you squirm. They’ll put off the murder like another man will put off a good cigar.
      So hope like hell your captor is an evil man. A good man will kill you with hardly a word.” — Samuel Vimes

      1. miados

        thats what i was thinking of. thank you.

        1. Leorale

          Vimes books are the best!! I wear lavender every year.

  88. Jhon

    I don’t think Dorothy will want to use that text again…

  89. Lex

    The motion plus the fact that the blood is only on one side of the knife indicates to me that this was a slash rather than a stab. Ryan is definitely going to require medical attention, but he’s unlikely to die unless she slashed a major artery. Given that Dorothy is a witness to him approaching them with a knife and making threats, it’s also unlikely Amber will get jail time for this.

    One should also consider the likelihood of Ryan pressing charges in the first place. Not only is he a misogynist who would have to admit to a woman beating the crap out of him, but that would also mean his full name being known and Joyce being able to press rape charges against him. Bear in mind that he was distressed enough about being identified in a fuzzy photo as a rapist with no proof to decide to come after Dorothy and Joyce with a knife. He is concerned about his reputation and his what his father might see.

    1. Strife

      Well, do you seriously assume that this first slash will be the last? Between the punches and slashes, “Ryan” will need a miracle now for his face to be identifiable after this, if he survives.

    2. Bicycle Bill

      “He is concerned about his reputation and his what his father might see.”
      ———————
      Are all the male parental figures in this comic going to be made out to be jerks and/or assholes? Amber has problems with her father; so does Becky. Ruth is concerned about what her domineering grandfather thinks of her to the point that she becomes a mewling little puppy dog in her interactions with him. And Hank (Joyce’s father) has also shown that he has not clearly separated himself from the crowd either; which is probably why Joshua/Jocylene is still hiding her secret from her family.

      1. Trolldrool

        The ones who’ve barely had any screentime seems to be okay. Which I know sounds like a sarcastic jab at the comic, but it is true. From what we’ve seen or heard of them, they seem genuinely supportive and good role models.

      2. emusam

        His father reacting poorly to his son being a rapist is not an indication of a bad parent.

        1. Ansel

          Unless his father would just be mad about the bad publicity, which seems more likely to me.

  90. Cmd1095

    Dayum…. That was more brutal than expected

  91. AgentKeen

    To the alt-text: Well, there’s probably some skin on that knife, too.

    Yikes.

  92. Mike X

    You can’t lock up the darkness, Flash.

  93. Rodimiss

    Aw geez, Amber.

  94. Anywhere

    IMHO Dorothy’s just upset that her TEXTBOOK is on the other side of the door and she needs to STUDY tonight and now it’s got BLOOD ALL OVER IT and it’s gonna be confiscated as DNA EVIDENCE and the bookstore probably won’t have NEW copies so she’ll have to settle for a used copy that’s ALREADY BEEN HIGHLIGHTED. The worst.

    Also, why the hell is Ryan getting in a knife fight? That’s some dumbass kiddy shit. Nobody ever “wins” in a knife fight. Buy a gun, asshole. Geez, it’s like he’s just not good at making life decisions or something.

    1. Dave

      Guns are loud, his whole intent is… *ahem* WAS to use the cover of darkness to kill two people and duck away quickly without drawing attention …at least that was probably his plan.

      I do agree he is being stupid here though…was being stupid.

      1. Clif

        Maybe nobody wins in a knife fight, but actually Amber seems to be doing some not losing rather well.

    2. Cmd1095

      He also wanted to go up and carve Joyce’s face open to give her a scar like his for daring to defy him and not let him rape her, can’t do that with a gun.

    3. Strife

      Well, actually against any untrained person, a knife IS pretty dangerous. Here the problem is that not only Amber is well-versed in self defense but above all, she don’t care for her own safety, and that latter thing greatly diminishes your knife’s efficiency. Unless you’re well-trained yourself in using a blade and can kill swiftly without hesitation, which “Ryan” visibly is not.

  95. Plasma Mongoose

    The Amber Alert has been upgraded to Red Alert.

    1. Strife

      “Time vill tell… Sooner or later. Time vill tell.”

      *cue the Hell March*

  96. Kraken

    I see the universal rule of “run up, get done up” is still in full effect.

  97. Rukduk

    Well…shit. Now I’m really worried about Amber’s mental health, Dorothy’s mental health, and what this will do to the possible budding friendship those two had. Even when I-go-by-my-middle-name is being cathartically punished he’s causing damage.

  98. Teddae

    amber please don’t kill him i don’t wanna see you in jail 🙁

    1. Madock345

      Nah, she’s a girl who was attacked by a known attempted rapist who also has a witness who would verify he attacked first. No way she would see jail time for this.

      1. SeanR

        Don’t count on it.
        I referenced another case upthread about a Pharmacist in Oklahoma who was convicted of murder after he shot a would-be robber, after the robber was down.

        This crossed the line from self-defense/defense of another, to extra-legal punishment, the moment he was clearly unable to follow through on his threats right then and there.

        If she’s LUCKY, (or maybe not,) the cops and/or DA will ignore that, or accept that maybe it was all over before she realized he was disabled.
        If she’s LUCKY, (or probably not, being as she DOES need professional help, and this would leave Ryan on the loose,) the college will do what it can to keep this from going to trial, as there really IS such a thing as bad press, and the college doesn’t need any more of it.

    2. Scar Man!!!

      Willis said no death. Granted that was meant to lure us into a false sense of complacency while he showed us how bad life can get, but he keeps his promises

  99. The Mad Academic

    Oh good! More attempted murder! (I am being sarcastic. I didn’t want to write this, but the internet has become a dangerous place for people like me)

    1. The Mad Academic

      ( bracket? )

  100. Madock345

    Nobody (important) dies

  101. Kris

    I wonder if it will be safe to predict this comic gets to a thousand comments?

  102. general band-aid

    Are there any other Portlanders who feel like this comic is once again inadvertently topical? Not that the world revolves around us and knife violence doesn’t happen all the time, but… it’s just feeling a little visceral in a way it wouldn’t have if it’d run two weeks ago.

  103. Spencer

    re: alt text

    Well there goes my theory that Amber was pulling the knife out of herself.

  104. avistel

    Run your mouth, with your chest out
    Go get you a wreck check, dealt with real quick
    All that fake tough guy shit, rough guy shit
    All that rah rah shit, go get your neck slit

  105. Spencer

    Anyway I don’t think he’s dead because that irrevocably stains Amber’s character but holy shit.

    I know nothing of the law, but does picking up the weapon and attacking Ryan change the context of the assault? At what point does Amber become the aggressor?

    1. Matthew Traver

      I don’t know about where they are, but here “self-defense” ends once the original attacker gives up the assault and attempts to retreat, or backs down. (Though don’t quote me on that because it’s been a long time since I’ve last looked that up)

    2. BBCC

      After he can’t plausibly be a threat. She might be able to get away with ‘I grabbed the knife and slashed at him because he was still attacking me after I hit him’ under self defence, even if he dies from said slash (though I agree, he’s probably not dead and that could plausibly affect the whole cast). If, say, he fell unconscious after she punched him, she probably couldn’t swing that.

    3. Fart Captor

      That can get murky at times, since people not trained to handle having their lives threatened tend to panic, and if Ryan is actually fighting back, even though she’s clearly winning the fight, he continues to be a threat.

      The fact that he explicitly stated his intent to harm Joyce adds to that. It makes it more reasonable to continue attacking him until he leaves or is incapacitated, though I don’t know to what extent.

    4. thejeff

      Picking up the knife keeps Ryan from getting it back and once you’ve got it, you can’t just stop using that hand to defend yourself.

      It’s a little hard to say what the legal status really is, since we can’t see the fight. Basically, if Ryan’s still fighting or she can reasonably claim she thought he was, she should be in the clear.

      1. Spencer

        I dunno I’m getting the feeling there’s more to Amber’s use to the knife than self defense. She already disarmed him and she’s shown to be one of the physically strongest characters in the series; unless Ryan picked the knife back up it was out of the fight.

        That’s assuming this scene is meant to echo the robbery, anyway. With Amber losing herself to her rage on some punk with a knife again.

        1. thejeff

          Well “unless Ryan picked the knife back up” is a pretty big incentive to take control of it yourself.

          But yes, Amber certainly has issues and she’s definitely going beyond what she really needs to do here because of them. In control of herself (or with Amazi-Girl in control) she could handle this situation without seriously hurting Ryan.
          Legally however, (as I understand it and IANAL), this all falls under self-defense, unless Ryan is clearly no longer fighting.

        2. Spencer

          I think she’s grabbing the knife and cutting Ryan with it because that’s what she did last time and right now she’s running on PTSD and adrenaline. Like a way for Amber to say “this is me, this is the thing I was before and always will be.”

          I also think right now Ryan is still fighting back instead of just getting pummeled by Amber, since they’re still right by the door and you’d expect Ryan to run by now.

          So, yeah, I still think it’s self defense and given the comic I think Amber will avoid doing something too drastic and face the appropriate consequence.

  106. WingedBeast

    Well, not the Joker, but otherwise, I actually kind of called it…. unless Dorothy is actually going to become the Joker?

    1. zoelogical

      she’s gonna become president peach

  107. smashman42

    I think this is a fantastic way of showing this scene.

    Last page we had (not)Ryan’s and Amber’s dramatic expression changes (compared to previous pages), now rather than focus directly on the violence we get Dorothy’s reactions as her initial panic gives way to horror. Frame, by, frame.

    That makes it more disturbing than directly seeing Amber’s twisted face as she hacks the dude up IMO – kinda like Jaws or Alien, less is more let the viewer’s imagination fill in the gaps.

    Danny tried to tell Dorothy there was a problem with Amber/Amazigirl but she didn’t listen, now she gets a front row seat complete with totally needed splatter-guard for her reality check.

    Geez I hope Amber gets help after this

    1. Strife

      Yep. Falling back to reality like an egg on concrete. Amazi-Girl was no hero. Just a patch to keep a pathology in check. And a patch is not enough for as deep a cut :/

      1. thejeff

        That’s not really true either. She was also a hero.

        That gets played straight as well as getting all twisted up.

  108. Crazy Potato

    Game Over YEEEAAAAHHHHHH! /watch?v=09s-c2JVI40

  109. Saaaam

    brought a knife to a girl-with-nothing-to-lose fight

  110. Drakkin the Alien

    “he ran into the knife…. he ran into the knife 10 times!”

    1. Jay

      He fell down an elevator shaft. Onto some bullets.

      1. CianM1301

        He went skiing down a car accident.

        1. Jay

          It was a fishing boat accident. Which is odd, because we don’t remember him ever boating before. Or fishing. Or not being terrified of open water.

    2. Benjamin Geiger

      He had it comin’!

  111. Aprion

    Good, goood, your journey to the Darkside is complete.

  112. Anywhere

    So, I’ve been wondering since this comic went up… Am I a bad person for having zero sympathy for Ryan & that I wouldn’t think bad of Amber is she just carved his face up and/or killed him? It is just SO HARD feeling bad for a person who took a knife with very ill intentions & ended up getting stabbed.

    Far different from the thing that happened before with Sal, who did put people in danger but had very different & less creepy motives, and was already in police custody when she was stabbed with her own knife, and I do feel bad for Sal. Maybe because the situation had been de-escalated already in her case.

    Then again, if Ryan had been cuffed and THEN someone ran up and stabbed him in the face with his own knife, I still wouldn’t feel bad for him. So maybe I just don’t care because he’s a terrible person who wanted to stab Joyce in the face.

    1. Zatar

      If you are a bad person then I am too.

    2. Strife

      As much as it is well-deserved, “Ryan” is still a living being. Justice has a bitter taste when you have to lower yourself to the level of your enemy to achieve it. Plus, that won’t be without consequences for Amber. I feel sorry for both of those characters.

      1. Eldritch Gentleman

        I don’t really. People like Ryan are too often treated with kiddie gloves. He did what he did, now he is reaping the consequences of his actions. Karma is a bongo as they say.

        1. ischemgeek

          I can see your point Strife, but for a different reason, I think? Like, it’s completely true that a Ryan would probably be able to act with impunity indefinitely – fact is date rape is extremely common, and a supermajority of rapists never even get arrested, let alone convicted. So I sympathize with Eldrich Gentleman and the others who are going, “Fucking FINALLY” in seeing him get some comeuppance – there’s a part of me doing that, as well.

          On the other hand, I know damn well that Amber is not going to view what happens here as justice. She’ll view it as letting Blaine’s infection win. Which in turn is going to cause a mental health crisis for her, I think.

        2. Eldritch Gentleman

          Pretty much, the damage to Amber’s psyche is the only negative outcome of this situation (aside from potential legal problems)

        3. Strife

          Well, justice and human laws are often different things. It’s true that a court would have been too lenient with “Ryan”s case, even if with the amount of witnesses against him and his fingerprints on the knife as a proof, cultural biases would have a hard time saving his butt.

          Still, my point was more philosophical: No human should have any right to end another human’s life. If you continue harming your foe after (s)he’s been properly neutralized, then you’re no better, whatever your original intention was. I really hope that Amber mutters the necessary self control to stop before it’s too late. “Ryan”, as much a piece of trash as he is, deserves a good beating and his ass handed to justice, not mutilation and/or death. No one deserves that, ever. It’s the line between human and monster that must not be crossed: Always remember that, as hurtful it may be, monsters are humans too, and as such retribution can also make you a monster if you take it too far.

      2. Vulcanodon

        There’s a difference. I don’t necessarily want gratuitously violent things to happen to him, I just can’t work up much sympathy if it does.

    3. CJ

      It’s a thin line. If someone attacks someone for a low-brow reason like here, and is then killed by the person they attacked, I have zero empathy for the attacker who gets killed. He had ample possibilities to end the situation before this happened.
      And a lot of empathy for the person who is attacked and ends up killing someone. It changes who your are forever, and feeling the life go out of someone because you killed them hurts anyone who has empathy. It might take a moment to register over the rage and fear driving you in that situation, but it does.
      Sometimes, someone who was bullied will attack the person who bullied him or her to end the bullying. And then the story is quite a different one, though Ryan here would protest, that this is just what he’s been doing.

      Still, from a mental health point of view, in real life, if there is an alternative to killing, choose that. (Not to mention the toll all the legal repercussions take).

    4. SeanR

      The Only problem with Ryan getting his comeuppance in this manner, (other than the damage it’s doing to Amber, who doesn’t deserve it, or the damage it’s doing to Dorothy, who also doesn’t deserve to have to witness this,) is it IS an extrajudicial punishment.

      If you accept the authority of the government to pass laws and enforce them, then unilaterally carving out exceptions, such as “except for rapists, those are to be carved up on sight”, you weaken the authority of the government to govern. It is, in fact, an act of rebellion.

      Now, if the government REFUSES to govern, or govern equitably, then perhaps rebellion is the correct course of action, but it’s STILL an act of rebellion.

      You’re not Helping the cops and the courts. You’re undermining them.

  113. BenRG

    Just in case you ever wondered just what Amber is so scared of all the time…

    1. Strife

      Childhood traumas and anger management often lead to this, sadly. I hace a friend who got persecuted by the other kids, one day in middle school he just snapped and killed one in self-defense. Spent most of his teenage years in mental health institutions.
      Had similar problems myself, but I was “wise” enough to vent on inanimate objects instead. Kevin, 12y old, Destroyer of Doors, Chairs, and His Own Bones. Took me years of therapy to let go of that title, still some things (like 3 years working a retail job) can manage to bring the urge to kill back XD

  114. Kitschensyngk

    I’d be surprised if assault charges didn’t come from this.

    1. Opus the Poet

      You mean on what’s left of “Ryan” right?

  115. NinjaNick

    Did Amber give Ryan a nosejob? Let me see.

  116. Jay

    Well. On the one hand, probably not great for Amber’s psychological well being. Or, for that matter, Dorothy’s.

    On the other hand, he did straight-up come at them with a knife, and IDGAF what happens to him after that. So . . . have at him, Amber.

  117. abczyx

    Heres betting Danny comes in and tries to stop it and gets a cut to the gut.

    Legally i have no problems with this atm… but I’m the type who doesn’t mind extreme punishments if its a certain and extreme enough crime.
    Which… every aspect of this really is.

  118. Eldritch Gentleman

    Let’s put a Smile on that face :-3

  119. CianM1301

    I’d like to imagine thwacking sounds being heard between panels 1-3, then a slashing sound in panel 4, then just silence in panel 5, or maybe a thump as Ryan’s body hits the ground.

  120. Derek

    I’m still so surprised by how bloodthirsty people are here.

    Anyway, from a technical legal standpoint we have gone straight through self defense justification into manslaughter territory pretty damn hard.

    1. Derek

      Frankly, if Dorothy is being honest in her eye witness testimony then we might even be looking at 2nd degree murder.

    2. Eldritch Gentleman

      What’s to be surprised about? Ryan is a rapist and wannabe-murderer. Our hearts of justice scream for blood!

      1. Derek

        There’s a world of difference between vengeance and justice. And while I’m going to assume you’re being coy, nonetheless a heart of justice would never scream for blood.

        1. Eldritch Gentleman

          Justice is all about giving people what they deserve and what they worked for. Pat on the head for some, flick on the forehead for others and bloody and brutal murder for yet others. Don’t tell me that… for example the Nazis who exterminated Jews did not deserve to die horrible deaths.
          But yeah I’m mostly joking around.

        2. MatthewTheLucky

          It’s a comic, dude. Ryan exists only as a symbol of violence and evil. Wishing for his destruction is not only permitted for the just, it is required.

        3. Derek

          Just because it’s a comic doesn’t mean it can’t raise scholarly debate.

          And the debate isn’t whether Ryan is human trash, it’s whether it is just to wish for the death of another human being, and it is not.

        4. Vulcanodon

          It’s a comic that has been the platform for countless discussions about gender issues, patriarchy, rape, prejudice, and much more. Can’t just shift gears and say “it’s a comic” and not discuss resulting violence, that bridge already went up in flames.

        5. MatthewTheLucky

          I’m not opposed to discussion. I’m opposed to forgetting that this is fiction, and no one is getting hurt.

        6. Fart Captor

          So, you’re just being obnoxiously pedantic about how people discuss the comic?

        7. MatthewTheLucky

          Insulting people over enjoying a fictional character receive karmic justice is not a debate.

    3. Tan

      Not really, unless Ryan either attempted to surrender or was incapacitated off-panel. Wresting a knife away from someone doesn’t automatically stop them from being dangerous if they’re still attacking you, for the very simple reason that -they could get the knife back-. If Ryan’s still putting up a fight (which, given what we’ve seen of his personality, is not unlikely at all), I’d say this is firmly still in self-defense territory.

      Further evidence in favor of him likely still putting up a fight: based on the angle of that knife slash, he’s still on his feet, and is still within armsreach of Amber’s position just outside the door.

      1. Derek

        The difference is that now Amber is using deadly force, and Ryan isn’t, use of deadly force in self defense is only appropriate when the aggressor is also using deadly force. On top of this we haven’t even addressed the fact that self defense needs the defender to believe the deadly force is necessary under the law, and based on Ichi the killer Amber from the last comic, a good prosecutor can poke holes in that right away. Oh yeah, lets not forget that burden of proof falls on the defendant when using an affirmative defense. Self defense isn’t some magical shield of justice even in stand your ground states.

        And frankly, if Dorothy’s facial expression is any indication there’s nothing defensive about that slash.

        1. Victor

          Under Indiana law, Amber is fully justified in using deadly force unless Ryan is unable to continue the attack or is attempting to flee. Ryan was attempting to commit a “forceable felony” – since he pulled a deadly weapon, that would be at least what Indiana calls “criminal recklessness”: http://codes.findlaw.com/in/title-35-criminal-law-and-procedure/in-code-sect-35-42-2-2.html

          That justifies deadly force under Indiana’s stand your ground law: http://codes.findlaw.com/in/title-35-criminal-law-and-procedure/in-code-sect-35-41-3-2.html

        2. Derek

          But we are talking about a known felon who engages in vigilante activities possibly murdering someone they have been shown to have a vendetta against. There’s a lot of factors at play here, and I don’t see this as being a simple stand your ground issue.

        3. thejeff

          Not a known felon – Amber hasn’t been convicted of anything to our knowledge.
          “Engages in vigilante activities” is not known to any authorities at this time.
          Vendetta has not been shown.

          Are you actually suggesting that for any of those reasons, Amber does not have the right to defend herself (and those with her) against an armed stalker?

        4. Derek

          Alright let me correct that, when the whole story comes out she will be an accused felon.

          And no, I’m not even remotely implying she doesn’t have the right to defend herself. I’m stating she doesn’t have a right to kill Ryan, and it’s extremely questionable whether a prosecutor court or jury would feel she does.

        5. Derek

          On second thought I like suspected felon better.

          That is of course, unless Dorothy is willing to commit perjury.

        6. Fart Captor

          As long as he’s continuing to pose a threat, she has the right to defend herself. If – in the course of attacking her with the express intent causing serious injury to her, and then two of her friends – she ends up killing him, that would still be self-defense, even if she intentionally killed him.

          He may have only threatened to “cut them up”, but even if that weren’t a sufficient reason to use potentially lethal force to defend herself, she has absolutely no reason to trust that he wouldn’t try to kill any of them, or do so accidentally while trying to maim them

          If he dies, it would almost certainly go to a court to determine if her actions were justified, and if they also figure out that she’s Amazi-Girl, that might cause problems for her case, but she’d still be justified.

        7. bhtooefr

          Not in Indiana.

          Indiana’s stand your ground law justifies use of deadly force in response to a threat of bodily harm, or commission of a forcible felony (which this falls under).

        8. C.T Phipps

          Eh, there’s a lot to be said that the parameters of self-defense are unnecessarily harsh when a person doesn’t know if they’re going to be in further danger or not. Ryan planned to kill them and threatened to kill them vocally. If I was on a jury, I’d state the danger hadn’t ended because Ryan could have attempted to wrestle the knife back away from her. He wasn’t disabled and had shown clear intent to keep coming after them.

        9. Tan

          “Amber is using deadly force, and Ryan isn’t”

          The hell he isn’t. There is a knife involved that everyone here knows is not glued to its wielder’s hand. If Ryan is still fighting, he is trying to get that knife. If Ryan were allowed to perform his intended actions unopposed, he would take the knife from Amber’s hand and murder her with it, which means he is -absolutely- acting with deadly force until he is stopped.

        10. Derek

          Ryan no longer has the knife, and as to what i have witnessed it’s pretty damn hard to infer that Ryan is still fighting back. Unless Dorothy’s look of horror is because Ryan has somehow gotten the upper hand in this confrontation.

        11. thejeff

          If Ryan has stopped fighting back, and done so obviously enough that a reasonable person would realize it, then it’s a different story. That is however assuming facts not in evidence.

    4. Bicycle Bill

      “I’m still so surprised by how bloodthirsty people are here.”
      —————————
      Seriously? Then you obviously never saw “The Princess Bride” in a theater. When Inigo delivered his line, “I want my father back, you sunuvab*tch” and shish-kebabed Count Rugen, it brought one of the loudest cheers I ever heard for dialogue in a movie.

    5. Trolldrool

      The bongo formerly known as Ryan is a fictional character. He is not real, even if his actions realistically reflect a lot of students in colleges and universities across the world. How real people respond to things that happen in fiction says very little about how they are as people in the real world. More than once people experience that when something they’re used to enjoy happen to fictional characters, actually happen to real people, they feel nauseaus. Fiction can be cathartic in this way, by allowing people to vent frustrations they’d never be able to in real life because they don’t actually want to see real people bleed to death.

      In other words, unless you can point to someone in the chat who are so extreme they’ve actually watched someone get stabbed and applauded the act, nobody in the chat are actually bloodthirsty. Just indulging themselves in escapist fiction.

      1. Derek

        Obviously calling for a fictional character’s death doesn’t make someone actually bloodthirsty.

        That being said, I don’t see the catharsis of an arguably abusive individual with known violent tendencies having a psychotic break and cutting someone to pieces (no matter how repugnant and terrible they might be). But then I’ve always been more of a Batman fan than a Punisher fan.

        1. Fart Captor

          She’s not cutting off Ryan’s escape here. She’s the one with her back against the wall.

          If Ryan wasn’t fighting back, why does Dorothy’s expression only shift to shock and horror in the last two panels? Until that, it looked very similar to yesterday’s strip, where she was clearly afraid of Amber being hurt.

          We even see Amber’s empty hand in panel 2, which would seem to indicate that either Amber had to take the knife back from Ryan, or at least that he was trying to take it back from her.

          So Ryan hasn’t given up the fight, wasn’t (yet) incapacitated, and was still struggling to regain control over a deadly weapon which he had made explicit threats to use on Amber and her friends.

          While I’m this will still take a psychological toll on Amber anyway (which sucks, because that kid has enough trauma to deal with), Ryan is forcing her hand here.

        2. thejeff

          In fairness, Ryan isn’t really forcing her hand. Amber would be quite capable of handling him without using the knife, if she was in full control. We know that, because we know she’s Amazi-Girl and we know what she’s capable of.

          This is because of her losing control and going berserk on him.

          Legally speaking, she should be fine as long as she stops when he stops fighting – or very soon thereafter. But she didn’t have to do this. Even if most people would be forced to it – if they were even lucky enough not to get seriously hurt or killed.

        3. Fart Captor

          It might be, but the fact that he would continue to be a threat to them is kind of a significant factor.

          He’s already gotten slashed in the face and beaten down, but he’s clearly set on getting revenge against them. Beat him down again, and he’ll just come back angrier. Give him another permanent reminder as to why that’s a bad idea, maybe he won’t.

          And as someone else said, he’s the one who brought a knife into this. He’s the one who escalated things to this level. Sure, maybe she could have beaten on him enough to get him to give up or run away. But maybe he manages to get a hold of the knife again and land a lucky swipe in that ends severely injuring or even killing her? If that happened, if she even was merely unable to keep fighting, he might finish the job and/or go on to attack Dorothy.

          Being good at fighting does not obligate one to take those kinds of risks. He’s the one who made himself that kind of a threat.

  121. Justin Time

    So, the full display of this beatdown is going up on Slipshine, right?

    Cuz Ryan’s getting fucked

  122. PureLionHeart

    Yeah, figured this was going to end in brutal fashion. Seeing lots of jokes about nosejobs and the like but without intervention, she WILL murder this man. Assuming that slice wasn’t already across his throat. And that’s not good for anybody.

    1. Derek

      Thank you.

    2. chris73

      Except that Ryan won’t likely be raping any young women any time soon so thats pretty good for some I’d say

    3. BBCC

      She almost certainly didn’t slit his throat. not with that little blood showing up.

    4. C.T Phipps

      In addition to being a rapist, he also threatened to carve up Joyce as well as Amber and Dorothy. Ryan is….evil. Not misunderstood, poorly educated, or just a jerkass. He was a threat to our heroines and future people off-camera and it’s sad the police couldn’t do a damn thing about him.

  123. Lulu

    Dark Amazing-girl was born now.

  124. CJ

    Dorothy needs to work on her crises-response-skills. She is obviously not at all equipped to deal with physical violence -neither physically nor mentally.

    Incredible good writing, letting us guess what is happening by her reactions and the arm and knife moving in front of her.
    She is so appalled I had to page back to yesterday to be sure whose arm we are seeing.
    Still, what makes Dorothy look like this? Amber was hurt by taking the knife away from him? Amber stuck the knife in an twisted? If so, Dorothy wouldn’t really see that because Amber blocks her view on his lower body. But still, could well be Amber is doing an act of violence that shocks Dorothy to the bone.
    So we won’t know how the cookie crumbles before we see the result ourselves.

    1. zoelogical

      i mean like. . . she’s eighteen. not that it wouldn’t be useful for her to work on it, especially as someone who wants to be president and will live in the very real threat of assassinations, military operations and other actions, but. i don’t think she suspected this would come up so soon

      which. you don’t. but also like physical violence just hadn’t really been a part of her life before. and now that innocence is gone and like

      idk i guess i’m a little in a space of grieving for that right now. but also i don’t think there’s a whole lot of things dorothy could have reasonably done to make this better. and there was no way to go through this without it being absolutely miserable. and – dorothy really didn’t get a whole lot of agency here, is what i guess i’m getting at.

      1. CJ

        Yes, given her aim in life, she needs it.
        Given life, she needs it. It’s always better to have trained yourself to options when potentially violent situations occur. And they do. Most of them do not explode into violence, but freezing every time some jerk on the subway starts ranting is a serious impediment to happiness.

        They are few things she could have done, shouting for help being one of them. But because she is not at all prepared she stays frozen and fixated on what’s happening and this will hurt her more than her failing grades.
        And if Amber really loses it so far that she kills Ryan, Dotty will always feel responsible for not being able to stop her.

        BTW: Amber is the one with the back to the door. As Ryan doesn’t run away, even though he has all the space to do so very likely makes it justifiable self-defense, whatever she does. Its not like he couldn’t get away if he wanted to.

        1. Spencer

          That is actually a good point. If Ryan weren’t a threat anymore he’d probably run away, at the least the two of them shouldn’t be so close to the door unless Amber is backed up to it. Maybe he tried fumbling for the knife when Amber grabbed it and cut him?

        2. Fart Captor

          It’s a REALLY good point. Ryan obviously hasn’t run away, and Amber can’t be blocking his escape, so a struggle for control of the knife would basically have to follow. Amber can’t let him have it, and Ryan knows he can’t win the fight without it.

          And if he’s got her backed up against the door like that, he’s putting up enough of a fight that even if Amber is slashing him a second time in panel 5, it would still be self-defense, legally and ethically.

          Although Amber getting hurt in panel 5 would also explain Dorothy’s expression changing from shock to horror.

        3. zoelogical

          i just – it’s been like five seconds. which is a long time, but like – that’s long enough to be in shock, which is something anyone can go through, and seriously immobilizes your cognitive functions. it’s not like this is a regular part of school curriculums!!

          shouting for help might have been useful, but we don’t know that there was anybody around to hear her; and she could easily have left her cellphone someplace. and she would not be at fault for doing this.

          …idk i feel like you’re victimblaming a little here when, like, the only people who control Amber and Ryan’s actions are Amber and Ryan. and they are the primary people responsible for stopping them.

        4. Doopyboop

          Dorothy did shout AMBER which, while not exactly help, WOULD get attention being it’s somebody’s name said in alarm. But I’m with you zoelogical, Dorothy’s just afraid and shocked. She had always considered Joyce’s safety in doing this but never figured he’d track HER down. Like you said, it’s shock! She’s terrified. Even Amber seemed to be in shock before she beat the crap out of Ryan.

          Here, I got a story. One time I almost got hit by a car because the car was driving up on the sidewalk and I froze in fear. Does that mean, had the car hit me, I’d be the one who was responsible? I was twelve, cars are meant to drive on the road. Sure, freezing up didn’t HELP me or help the situation but…that’s fear. That’s how it works. Shock too. TLDR zoelogical’s got the right idea, Dorothy didn’t do anything wrong. She’s an eighteen year old woman who woke up that day not knowing she’d witness a brutal beating with stabbing. She didn’t know she’d get tracked down by a rapist. I think we can give her a bit of slack here.

        5. CJ

          No, I’m not. Just pointing out that right now she is lacking essential skills she needs as a president – and give how crazy life is – as a normal person as well.
          If you look at the statistics, it’s a safe bet she will encounter violence again in her life. Having other options then freezing tends to keep you alive.

          I would prefer a world where these skills aren’t needed but that’s not the world we live in and not the world she lives in.

        6. Li

          She’s like 19.

          She literally cannot even apply to be president for another fifteen years.

          If you look at what most of our presidents — THE GOOD ONES INCLUDED —
          were doing during their freshman year at college, you may be dismayed by what you find.

        7. thejeff

          And presidents are probably less likely to need to be able to handle immediate violence than normal people – they’ve got Secret Service people for that. A President faced with personal violence will have people blocking the attacker’s path, others taking him down and someone pulling her bodily way or to the ground, depending on the situation. She’d have no chance to fight, flee or freeze.

          She would need to be able to recover quickly and function once the immediate danger was past – project calm and control within minutes, if not seconds. Probably not to the level of Teddy Roosevelt who gave his speech after being shot, but not completely going to pieces afterwards either.

        8. Li

          I’d like to chime in that I had a coworker have an unexpected epileptic fit right next to me and I went into complete shock. People were yelling at me to call 911 and I wanted to but I couldn’t really move. (She’s fine, I managed to, awkwardly could not remember our workplace address, stammered with the person on the other end, but she was fine.)

        9. Li

          and I mean, my point with this comment was that people do freeze up sometimes when it’s their first time in a crisis. I’d do better next time — I now have the experience of “calling 911 and talking to an operator and explaining that something is wrong while meanwhile someone I know and care about is in serious jeopardy”. But it is not a non-skill. You do have to, like, acquire it.

  125. Felin

    Sal’s gonna show up and take the blame

  126. Badgermole

    I understand this is satisfying to a lot of people who need catharsis, but I can’t help thinking of the London Bridge attack. There’s something stomach-churning about the violence a knife can inflict.

    1. Bluewind

      I’m sorry that the attack happened hun, especially with all the violence of late. This comic was random bad timing, but I know after everything you must feel so raw. How are you and yours? *hugs offered* 🙁

      1. CJ

        Really bad timing, there was another attack in London today.
        Times like this, I hope there is a special hell for people killing random people for their gods.

        1. Bluewind

          I heard. There is so much pain and anger in the world right now. I know at the moment that I and the people I care about the most are safe (and I hope the same for you and yours), but it feels like this darkness is slowly crawling its way forward on its belly towards us all as a swirling vortex of hate affects all sides. A slow burn horror game with a long and twisted story. I can only hope we are ready for whatever happens next.

      2. Badgermole

        No one I know was directly affected, thanks for the virtual hug.

        1. Bluewind

          Then I am grateful for that. It is bad enough to know such things can happen without the added pain of it affecting your world.

  127. chris73

    This is a nice bit of wish fulfillment plus Dorothy is experiencing a bit of reality so all in all a good comic

  128. Regalli

    Aaaand Amber’s going to come out of this with further psychological scars. Come on people, remember the payoff to the Face punch? We’re all gonna suffer for this one.

    1. Derek

      It’s all become so clear now! Willis feeds on our suffering and pain, and the more he feeds the more powerful he becomes, and the more the endless void of his appetite swells. Tread carefully, for the fruit of your sorrow grows ripe, and it smells ever so sweet to the beast.

      1. Eldritch Gentleman

        You mean he is a Chaos God?

        1. Derek

          I wouldn’t say god so much as an ancient indefinable being whose motivations beyond hunger seem so alien to us that to actually perceive them would shatter you sanity.

          But yeah, chaos god works.

  129. David

    “Now that’s my girl!” — Blaine

    1. Jago

      Ouch. But… yeah. I think that’s the thought that tortures Amber.

  130. Nico

    This being the last storyline strip really lends “The Thing I Was Before” a lot more weight as a title.

  131. DarkoNeko

    ..uuuh.

  132. Furie

    Shit! Poor Amber.

  133. KingMonster

    I’m conflicted here…

    One part of me hopes that Amber is winning. The other part is frightened to death that “OH GOD! AMBER YOU’VE ALREADY WON! QUIT WITH THE STABBING!!!”

    And the other part of me is afraid, because this is a David Willis comic and tomorrows reveil may end up being that Ryan is winning/has won the fight and we have an Amber at death’s door.

    God, I hate this feeling….

    1. David

      Problem is that Amber is winning against Amazi-Girl.

  134. Torra

    Man I’ve seen a lot of “Ryan is dead” comments, seriously if Ryan died from this the rest of the comic would be court cases and Amber and Dorothy being sad and traumatized all the time. I mean shit this is already traumatising for them both, let’s not go overboard.

    Fuck though, that knife slash looks nasty. I think itll be another scar for Ryan to add to his collection. And some more red panels for Amber to add for hers :<

    I think this will haunt Dorothy for a while as well. Her grades are just going to keep on slipping

  135. zaratustra

    oh it’s ok

    it’s not my blood

  136. Callid13

    Be careful, Amber, you might get blood on that book.

  137. HMH

    All this time, I never noticed Amber was a Southpaw.

    But damnit Willis, way to show us the part of this that would make us feel sad instead of the part that would feel cathartic. I get that it’s important to the story and themes, but that’s fuckin’ cold, dude.

    1. ValdVin

      She is not. Joe, Sal, Ruth and Dorothy are.

      Amber has been working on her left hand, it appears. Yesterday’s strip showed her disarming him with the right hand. The closeups of Dorothy today leave things to our imagination. Our fertile, fertile imaginations.

  138. Tabor

    Full scene to be shown in ‘Welcome to the Stab Zone’

  139. GhostWriterL

    Couldn’t have happened to a nicer fella, though here’s hoping it really is HIS blood and not Amber’s. Could very well be that she turned the knife on herself to fend off the “inner Blaine” that she’s been so terrified would come out and, from the looks of yesterday’s comic, kind of did.

    Here’s hoping ‘Ryan’ doesn’t get a golden opportunity to do anything other than get his ass kicked… or cause his own accidental death or crippling by falling backwards down those concrete stairs.

    1. DinaWho

      Tags and hovertext point to it being Ryan’s.

  140. Potatamoto

    Ba-dup ba ba BA! I’m lovin’ it.

  141. JBento

    “Those are self-inflicted.”
    “FIFTY stabs?”
    “He’s a very determined young man. Must come with being a pastor’s son. Kudos to him.”

    1. Bicycle Bill

      “Now, I’m standing in the kitchen
      carvin’ up the chicken for dinner,
      minding my own business,
      in storms my husband Wilbur,
      in a jealous rage.
      ‘You been messin’ the milkman,’ he says.
      He was crazy and he kept screamin’,
      ‘you been messin’ the milkman.’
      And then he ran into my knife.
      He ran into my knife ten times…”

  142. Temperaryobsessor

    My guess about what Dorothy is thinking.
    Panel 1. Amber might get hurt.
    Panel 2. Amber might get hurt.
    Panel 3. But Ryan was down.
    Panel 4. O god she’s stabbing him.
    Panel 5. The blood

    1. Vulcanodon

      Her face in that last panel, reacting to something we can’t see.

      Willis, you are a master storyteller.

  143. TsunamiJane

    WHY IS SHE NOT CALLING THE POLICE

    1. Bicycle Bill

      It’s all gone down so quickly … plus she’s frozen in shock, not quite believing what she is seeing.

  144. strictly speaking

    Oh god no. This comic took a really dark turn really quickly. The police will be around soon to look for anyone who has a history of vigilantism or stabbings, won’t they?

    I don’t know whether Ryan is more dangerous alive or dead at this point. If he is dead, then clearly you have a suspected murder which escalates everything. If he stays alive, he can manipulate people by presenting himself as a victim. He could file an assault claim or inspire the mob of internet vigilantes to do his work for him since his case was already all over social media.

    1. Zaidyer

      If he dies in a knife fight with a bookish woman, that’s the end of it. He’ll be remembered as a violent psycho at minimum, just from what that looks like. His buddies will suddenly remember how he liked to lord it over women more creepily than they do, and they’ll decide the way he died means he was actually nuts instead of “with it” like they are for using more acceptable forms of harassment and intimidation.
      If he lives though, it will be as you said.

  145. Zaidyer

    I want Ryan to be dead now, I really do. I can’t see how it’s a problem to kill a rapist when he shows up where you live, boasts that he knows who you are and what he’s gonna do to your friends with his knife once he’s done with you, and then attacks. Oh, and you know from the last time you fought him that he’s got buddies who help him out whenever he gets into trouble, too. That means Joyce and everyone else in that dorm won’t be safe as long as he’s left alive.

    The only reason not to kill this dangerous stalking psycho is if we’re going for a Star Wars tale, in which Amber would immediately become evil just because she happens to have a history of violent outbursts and the fact that she’d have saved the galaxy dorm from an unrepentant monster would somehow not matter in the face of that. In that scenario, the only thing that would stop Ryan is if his straight white maleness with a dash of being more popular than a sitting Republican in a blue district actually fails to protect him in a post-2016 world.
    It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out.

    1. JBento

      Not that I’d object to Ryan’s demise, but Willis has repeatedly said no character is going to die in the comic, so what we’ll have to settle for is his stay in the ICU.

      1. StClair

        Wasn’t that more like “no main character” and/or “because we’d have to watch them get mourned”?
        Is anyone here, on either side of the fourth wall, likely to mourn this guy?

        1. JBento

          Now I’m not sure. You could be right.

    2. C.T Phipps

      Not to undermine the fact he’s a rapist but he’s also a man who planned to murder and disfigure three other women. His crimes were going to accelerate rather than decrease. I’m hoping Ryan ends up in prison rather than dead just because Amber doesn’t need the extra baggage but, honestly, if he did die I don’t think it’s something that would need to weigh on everyone forever.

  146. Bagge

    No, no, no…

  147. TomHCinMI

    Just to be clear:
    Going by the color of the sleeve;
    that’s Amber’s fist with someone else’s blood on it;
    and that’s Amber’s hand gripping the knife by the handle.
    Right? or wrong?

    Is “Ryan”‘s hand behind Amber’s knife-holding hand in panel 4 (next-to-last panel)? Is he trying to stop her the way she stopped him? Is he failing to stop her?

    1. JBento

      Right. That’s Amber first beating Ryan, and then slashing him.

      The only part of Ryan that shows up in the strip is his blood. You’re mistaking it with either one of Dorothy’s hands, or the rest of Amber’s fingers.

    2. Bicycle Bill

      No, that’s the book Amber stuck into the push-bars of the door to jam them shut – partially to prevent Ryan from quickly gaining entry to the building and also to keep Dorothy safely on the other side of them.

    3. Spencer

      I think Amber’s fists are bruised in panel 2.

  148. Vulcanodon

    Hopefully, Dina and Becky are blissfully unaware. Let there be some joy somewhere.

    With all the rapists who walk away clear, it’s hard to waste much sympathy on ‘Ryan’. Dorothy is going to be a mess though, and Amber…

  149. hof1991

    Dead Ryan probably means the end of Amber as a character. She would spend the rest of the semester with lawyers and police officers.

    And knives are surprisingly deadly you can easily bleed out before the ambulance arrives.

  150. hof1991

    Dorothy in panel 1-2: horrified and scared. Panel 3: Amber has the knife – that’s good. Panels4-5 : beyond horror.

  151. Tomas

    I suspected Willis was gonna go this route after the door was jammed; shades of “the best I could do.”

  152. Ryek Hvek

    Amber is only following the good advice from Tracey Dick’s Rape-Stopper tip of the week – Always get some DNA evidence

    1. RandomDude

      What about other forms of ID? She’ll need some fingers for prints, an eye for iris/ retina scans…Facial recognition could be helpful, too…

      1. Sensei Le Roof

        Dental records.

  153. Bicycle Bill

    I’m calling it now. Amber loses control and kills Ryan (I know Willis said no one dies, but I’m going to it take he that meant only a main character, not a dirtbag like Ryan). Once she regains control, she realizes what she has done and flees into the dark.

    (now, cue dramatic music…… )

    Amber O’Malley. A young, troubled one-time college student; her true identity known only to mild-mannered journalist Dorothy Keener, who is sworn to keep Amber’s secret. O’Malley is on the run and being sought by police for a crime she didn’t commit when she comes to accept that when she flies into a rage she has phenomonal powers. Recognizing that with such great power comes great responsibility she dedicates her life to combating evil and injustice.

    Having discovered a long-forgotten cave in one of the abandoned limestone quarries around Bloomington, she forms a shadowy alliance with Carla Rutten, which gives her access to the vast wealth and technology of Ruttech Industries … and also learns of Carla’s heretofore unknown secret. Together, the two transform the cave into a super-secret high-tech base for central Indiana’s greatest crimefighting duo, “AMAZI-GIRL” and “WONDERCARLA”, ready to spring into action whenever the blue-and-yellow “A” of the Amazi-Beacon lights the night skies over Indiana University.

    1. Vulcanodon

      ^^^ Wonderful! ^^^

    2. Heavensrun

      Not bad, but I think Spider-Carla would be more appropriate.

  154. Vulcanodon

    I can’t figure out why cops can panic and put 45 bullets into a dude because they thought he reached for his wallet, but private citizens have to stop and measure out each gram in violent situations for which they have no training.

    1. C.T Phipps

      Mainly because when citizens are allowed to plead self-defense for everything, the answer isn’t “I stopped a burglar or attempted rapist” but “that person looked suspiciously black and poor.” Oh America. *headdesk*

      1. thejeff

        Yeah, but that answer works for cops, so that can’t be the difference.

        Cops definitely get more leeway, but private citizens can also get away with a lot in the right circumstances. It varies from state to state of course, but they’re not generally required to “stop and measure out each gram”.

    2. Chris

      Vulcan, the cops, while they have to pass a very long, tedious psych evaluation in the recruit process, among the physical training tests, IQ testing, and reading comprehension tests (I tried out for the recruit trooper program for the state police once out of college), do have to restrain themselves to the maximum force threatened against them. If a guy is coming at them with a stick, they can only use their baton, and have to try everything from verbal warnings to defensive arm-blocks before resorting to a baton first.

      The problem of police brutality comes from the union mentality drilled into officers over time, and being around the worst of humanity day in and day out. If you lived in constant fear for your life every time you stepped out of your car, and everyone you dealt with was two steps away from murdering someone for their lunch money, absolutely you’d lose the polish and luster of a green academy graduate posted with their first partner.

      When it comes to civilians, there are quite a few states that have “stand your ground” laws, like Florida, but those apply to home burglaries and invasions. If you’re carrying concealed, most civilians, even with a good lawyer, have a much higher probability of going to prison, plus the assailant’s family suing in civil court for millions of dollars in punitive damages (much like the Brown family against OJ Simpson, or Treyvon Martin’s family), regardless of the criminal judgment.

      This is why, while I’m safe around firearms, handloading, and carry in the woods (specifically when bear, elk, rattlesnake, and cougar encounters are high in some regions), I choose not to carry in even the worst parts of town.

      Besides that, there’s a certain attitude that if you project it, people leave you alone. I swear, I was the only person at the Occupy protests walking past in a suit and tie, and stupidly the only one who answered “I’m interviewing for a job, why aren’t you?” who left untouched during that whole fiasco.

  155. Tomas

    ARE YOU PROUD OF ME NOW, DADDY?

  156. RandomDude

    And for the first time ever, a shitty college republican ISN’T lying about getting their face cut open. I hope Amber chose a better design than “B” for “Barack”, though…

    1. C.T Phipps

      I’m assuming a big “R” symbol and then she talks like she’s in Inglorious Basterds.

  157. Tunasammich

    And now the rest of the comic will be a buddy comedy about hiding a body in the desert

    1. shammers

      there was a spongebob episode about this

      1. Danni

        was it the one with the food inspector?

    2. Chris

      No, better yet: Amber as the new RA, in the form of Walter White:

      “I am the one who knocks!”

  158. shammers

    is.. is she killing him?

  159. Apostate

    I’m glad that Amber is able to defend herself here. He came at her with a knife- she acted swiftly to neutralize the imminent threat. In a situation like this, when someone is there to kill you, you do not hold back. You remove the threat to your life.

    Hopefully the therapy Amber gets after this gets it through her head that she did nothing wrong here.

    1. Spencer

      Amber didn’t get therapy when was 13 and attacked Sal. What makes you think they’ll force her into it this time?

      1. fillerusername

        Because she wasn’t the one deciding not to go? Her dad refused to allow it. He doesn’t get to make these decisions for her anymore and we have no idea if she’d deny she needs it. Also depending on the legal fallout Amber might be required to get therapy by a court order.

        1. fillerusername

          I am really curious about what the legal fallout would be and how a responsible court system would handle it. We now have two recorded incidents where an individual was presented with a threat and reacted violently after (we can assume) the threatening individual was no longer the one in power. I’m not saying Amber deserved to be criminally penalized in either situation but this is a dangerous pattern. She should be made to get professional help.

        2. Spencer

          I say this with no real proof, but I think Amber might reject therapy for now partially because she thinks she’s inherently broken, and partially because she thinks Amazi-Girl is an acceptable outlet for her anger. If she were forced into it she might push back.

          Plus I think Amber coming out of this event in therapy and improving might be too easy, and I say that only because Amber’s a fictional character whose struggles we follow. I think what will happen is that Amber will continue to worsen because of this event, but will eventually pull herself out of it with support from her friends.

        3. BBCC

          And after she pulls herself out of it, hopefully she will be okay with accepting therapy.

  160. ESM

    Quite the emotional journey for Dorothy there

    Panel 1: This is bad!
    Panel 2: This is bad!
    Panel 3: Oh, it’s not so bad after all. Maybe something good will happen
    Panel 4: WHY DID I THINK SOMETHING GOOD WILL HAPPEN.
    Panel 5: NOTHING GOOD EVER HAPPENS

    1. Spencer

      Possibly not. CJ brought up the really good point that they’re still backed up to the door. For all we know, Ryan is still trying to hurt Amber when she grabs the knife.

  161. Roger Sterling

    I told you dude, I told you! NO F***ING KIDS!

    Well you stupid f***, look at you now!

    1. Spencer

      wat

  162. Big Box

    *in Halo series announcer voice*

    ASSASSINATION

  163. Woobie

    I am saddened by the poor grasp of the law many comments are showing.

    1. Sai

      I couldn’t agree with you more.

    2. Fart Captor

      Then why not share your great legal wisdom with us instead of just being smug about it?

  164. Riley

    Hopefully she managed to cut his dick off.

  165. Jay Carr

    Here’s an interesting dilemna then: So far this story arc has been staying fairly close to realistic resolutions of conflicts. Will it continue on that way?

    If Amber is stabbing him (as I frankly hope she is), then if we’re staying close to reality, there are going to be some very serious repercussions. Especially when one considers the looks on Dorothy’s face.

    But, and this is where I get curious, are we transitioning into a more “super hero”-eque story arch? You know, the kind where vigilante justice is generally encouraged and, at very least, ignored by the authorities. If Amber just gets to walk from this…then I would suppose that’s where we are going.

    But somehow…I don’t think that’s going to happen. So this…is going to be bad.

    1. thejeff

      How is this “vigilante justice”? I mean, I guess to some extent posting his pictures could be, but otherwise: He attacked them with a knife. If he gets hurt doing that, that’s not “vigilante justice”.

      If Amazi-Girl had tracked him down and attacked him, with or without the knife, that would be vigilante justice. Even when she found him at the rally though, she just wanted pictures and a name, she didn’t get all stabby.

      1. Chris

        We’re talking more Charles Bronson “Death Wish” vigilante justice than the superhero concept. The first two movies are a must-see to understand the reaction to rising crime and violence during the Counterculture movement in the late 60s. Though, unless you want to see a feature-film length advertisement for a semi-auto African big game hunting pistol (the .475 Wildey Mag), or Road Runner and Coyote style action sequences, you can skip Death Wish 3-5.

        There would be precedence to send Amber to jail for this, given her prior history, the fact she’s not a minor anymore, and if the court establishes she has specialized martial arts training to understand the applicable use of force (police and state troopers can only use a maximum of the same force threatened against them). However, I suspect Dorothy might compromise her morality to cover for Amber, which might add to the character conflict and development going forward. Then again, security cameras don’t lie.

  166. Brian

    Eh. He had it coming. If Amber is doing as much damage as I suspect she’s doing, she’s going to be in trouble with the law regardless, but worth it? Probably. Turnabout is fair play.

  167. Lorien Inksong

    While the violent monkey side of myself is content to say ‘well good, Ryan is getting his just desserts’ I’m still really sweating over Amber and Dorothy. They don’t deserve this. Neither this violent experience nor the repercussions that will follow, because I’m guessing the authorities will not look at Amber’s stabbing of Ryan as reasonable self defense. But I know nothing about U.S. law so…

  168. McBogue

    At this rate it looks like Ruth and Amber might have adjoining rooms in the psych ward.

  169. Jhon

    That book… It has a distinctive color and in previous scenes it stands out against the dark background. We are meant to have no doubt that this is the book Dorothy was carrying. So knowing Willis, I’m calling “Chekhov’s textbook”.

  170. Guairdean

    Two people were just educated. Ryan learned that being a misogynistic fratrat doesn’t make you invincible, and Dorothy learned that the world can be a very dark place. Both lessons will leave deep scars. It’ll be interesting to see if Amber remembers this. She could be fully detached and allowing pure anger to guide her actions. If so, we may see an all new Amber when this is over.

  171. Li

    I like DoA art in general, but boy these last few strips. The way night backlit the girls, Amber’s face yesterday, and this sequence… wow.

    Just wanted to share that, because too often in these comments I get lost just endlessly replying to other people’s reactions to the content.

    1. ValdVin

      Heh. Looks like you juuust beat me to it.

      (It bears repeating, however.)

  172. ValdVin

    I can’t say enough about how Willis is creating so much expression with Dorothy’s eyes here. Nothing is missing in the story. It’s all there on her face.

    And that’s on top of the last two panels yesterday, especially using “white for light” for Amber’s eyes in the dark.

    1. David

      There was some opera critic stating that looking at Maria Callas listening to an aria of Jussi Björling conveyed more of its sense than looking at Björling himself.

      While we don’t get to see Amber’s face here, I suspect about the same: namely that her perception of what she is actually doing is less acute than Dorothy’s. She’s gone. Dorothy’s still there.

  173. Tenn

    I was expecting to share in Amber’s rage, getting my lust for fictional blood satisfied. Instead, I am being made to share in Dorothy’s horror, not wanting to see another drop.

    Well played, Willis.

    *slow clap*

    Also, damn you.

  174. Black

    Well, that escalated quickly…

  175. Prof. Xraig

    From what I gather, Indiana state laws says:

    “A person is justified in using reasonable force against any other person to protect the person . . . from what the person reasonably believes to be the imminent use of unlawful force.

    However, a person:
    (1) is justified in using deadly force; and
    (2) does not have a duty to retreat;

    if the person reasonably believes that that force is necessary to prevent serious bodily injury to the person or a third person or the commission of a forcible felony. No person in this state shall be placed in legal jeopardy of any kind whatsoever for protecting the person or a third person by reasonable means necessary.”

    Source (December 2014):
    https://www.in.gov/judiciary/opinions/pdf/12171402nhv.pdf

    Hope this clears things up.

    1. pjeseb

      It doesn’t, actually. At least for me. Some of the questions I (and I think a lot of others) have can’t be answered right now, because we can’t see exactly what Ryan or Amber are doing.

      But, props for trying.

    2. Liliaeth

      Well, both Amber and Dorothy are white, so they have that going for them, the fact that they’re women on the other hand might make the court less likely to side with them…
      (based on reality, the chances to call on ‘stand your ground’ laws seems to increase if you’re white, but are less likely to work for women, then they are for men)

  176. wakeangel2001

    kinda reminds me of the Muzzle scenes from Road Rovers…

    1. BP

      Yay, someone remembers that show besides me!

  177. Omahdon

    Not like this. Not like this. This was meant to be a moment of triumph. Of release of a long-held tension. And in a terrible way, I guess it still is.

    Damn you, Willis. o:

    1. Chris

      But Chekov’s Gun applies in this situation: We’ve established Amber’s reactions to someone wielding a knife in a lethal situation before, and her reaction is more “Why so serious?” than “I’m Batman!” This is perfect, because instead of the clean mask that Amber puts over the PTSD and violent tendencies she received from her father, the mask, literally and figuratively, is torn away, and the one person who serves as the eyes and ears to inform the public, much like Lois Lane, sees her Superman in reality, not the glamorized superhero concept.

      Crossing my fingers Willis takes a “First Blood” twist to this, and has Amber sobbing and wailing “Nothing is over! You don’t just turn it off!”

      1. Omahdon

        Now I’m imagining Dorothy thinking “Oh no! This is not at all cheesily charming Richard Donner Superman and more sullen nihilist Zack Snyder Superman!”

  178. Jhon

    A punch. A slash.
    Then a kick? In the banjo!
    That would explain last panel Dorothy’s look of horror.

    1. Remmington Steele

      A kick up the uke!

  179. C.T Phipps

    I commend Willis for his ridiculously cute Dorothy eyes and their transition to horror. She’s adorable in the first few panels.

  180. Jhon

    Oh, and Amber? Break his knife too.
    Lean it against a step and stomp on it.
    That will hurt him almost as much as a kick in the banjo.

  181. Chronotic

    I’m​ gonna go with slashed across the eyes

  182. C.T Phipps

    Dorothy’s final expression? THIS IS SO INCREDIBLY AWESOME I DON’T KNOW HOW MY BODY IS REACTING!

  183. Kugai

    “Twenty years of crawlin’ were bottled up inside him(her). He(she) didn’t hold nothin’ back, he(she) let ‘im have it all…”
    Paraphrased from Kenny Rogers Coward Of The County

  184. James

    Okay when I made the “is it a code against killing” joke yesterday that wasn’t supposed to be literal prophecy

  185. Kraeniel

    Alright, I’m going to be the weird one and not talk about what is happening in the panels in terms of story here. I love how Willis chose to invade the gutters in the second and fourth panels. It connected the individual panels, and drew the eyes from one to the other more seamlessly

  186. leadsynth

    Went looking for something. Found it.

  187. Acebender

    *stunned expression of surprise*

  188. JepMZ

    Oh my gosh!! I can’t wait to see what happens next in tonight’s strip!! I wonder if Ryan has an X mark now and who comes to the scene inevitably!

    1. svata

      storyline over

  189. Queen Anthai

    “Stop! Stop! He’s already dead!”

  190. Meamoi

    Huh… weapon control….

    So either not a true berserker, or D@#$ has amber got some muscle memory that makes me wonder even more about her past.

  191. Pic of Ice

    “A voice inside my head tells me to stop at his left arm.*
    *CRACK*
    “I don’t listen to it.”

    You don’t get it, Ryan.

    This aint a college girl’s dorm.

    It’s an operating table.

    And she’s the doctor.

  192. Meta

    I legitimately had nightmares after this one 🙁

  193. C. Mage

    “911? I’d like to report a horrible accident. Got a guy here who fell on his own knife 17 times…”

  194. demoncat_4

    guess ryan had to learn the hard way don’t try and mess with amber for she doesn’t need to be amazing girl to take care of creatures like him. though from the look on dorothys face what if ryan got the upper hand and amber is the one losing blood?

  195. John Madden

    Oh he dead.

    Meh.

  196. Remmington Steele

    I was thinkin Ryan was Mack the Knife. Pretty sure that Amber gets the title now.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEllHMWkXEU

  197. Not

    So, remember that time the cute nerdy girl murdered a guy? Good times. Good times.

  198. Orion Fury

    he…he…soo…New Map?

  199. Daniel

    oh dear

  200. Robert

    I have a feeling that I’ll wake up to a future strip and it’s just going to be a chalk outline of Ryan with the biggest blood spatter focused around his privates or throat (or both…)

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