126

Angels
Posted on February 3, 2021 by David M Willis

126 thoughts on “Angels”

  1. Ana Chronistic

    so wait

    does this improve Sarah’s move or bring it down

    what’s Joyce doing rn

    (Booster doing like this)

    1. Ana Chronistic

      Dumbing of Age Book 11: Because ANGELS Do Not EXIST

      1. Clif

        Word of Alt-text has other ideas. So do I, come to think of it.

        DOA 11: I Thought Your Emotional Shenanigans were Evidence Based!

        1. Thag Simmons

          So this clocks in at three book titles

        2. Ellegos

          DOA 11: How DARE you implicate me in your Wizardry!

          DOA 11: I’m Being Magically Forced Into Being Happy.

        3. Ellegos

          Doh! Just now loomed at the alt text myself…

        4. HeySo

          DOA 11: I should have looked before I leapt

          DOA 11anthology edition: I should have carefully analyzed the situation before opening my mouth but, I didn’t and, now here we are.

        5. HeySo

          Or would it be, “I should have loomed before I wove”? :taps chin:

          :waves at everyone:

        6. a/snow/mous/e

          *waves back*

        7. a/snow/mous/e

          (good thing for the moderation check, i almost accidentally doxxed myself with autocomplete when i changed the capitalization on my email)

        8. Keulen

          This strip has so many good potential book titles.

        9. jflb96

          What if there’s evidence for the magic, because it’s just sufficiently-advanced technology and/or the influence of one or several extra-dimensional beings?

      2. Rabid Rabbit

        Only if there’s a tiny Becky popping up in the corner yelling “But if that’s true, how do YOU exist, Dina???”

        Seriously, Becky not being here is terribly unfair to her. How many perfect opportunities for really over-the-top sappy statements do you get?

      3. Deanatay

        You had ONE JOB, comments section. ONE job – come up with titles for future books. That’s it! And Willis beat you to it. Sad.

        1. HeySo

          I mean, it wouldn’t be the same without those “Damn you, Willis” moments..

    2. Zippotricks McEdgelord

      I just thought they wanted to get Sarah and Dina into the shot, but that reading works, too.

  2. Doctor_Who

    Dina: BURN THE WITCH!

    Booster: Neat! *snap*

    1. Nono

      Well according to Mary’s Halloween pictures, Sarah is a witch.

    2. Needfuldoer

      Booster Boosting Rodriguez

  3. Reed

    and there goes the magic

    1. Doctor_Who

      My Little Dina: Friendship is Evidence Based

  4. Suet

    Check the joy barometer every once in a while, nobody wants a Joy Big Bang.

    Also, yes, wide and either very high or low.

  5. BBCC

    Oh no, the bffs are fighting! D:

  6. Beau Kirin Maysey

    No, Booster, ANGEL, not angle

    hehe–

    *puts a single penny into a jar labeled ‘The Oldest Trick in the Book’*

    1. Spencer

      Booster can be your angle or yuor devil.

    2. Jamie

      Are you calling that angel fat?

      1. a/snow/mous/e

        nah, they said a WIDER angel would be best, so obviously the angel is too skinny.

    3. coma

      Perfect reference!

    4. Arian

      Non angeli sed angli.

      1. a/snow/mous/e

        literally the oldest joke

        1. a/snow/mous/e

          (except i think the original was “Non angli sed angeli”?)

        2. Arian

          Yep. “Not Angles but angels”. But this situation is the other way round.

        3. jflb96

          Isn’t the oldest joke that one about women never not farting in their husband’s lap?

  7. Madock345

    This strip is just literally perfect. Absolutely would not change a thing.

  8. Viktoria

    I feel like Dina is getting more antsy over this sort of thing, not less. Maybe biting her tongue over Becky going to church is getting to her?

    1. Fuzzy

      Ohh, that makes sense. I thought Dina was being a lil more intense than usual.

    2. misanthropope

      her body’s been friendzoned. watch the hell out, folks.

    3. a/snow/mous/e

      *puts on “Take Me to Church”*

  9. plasticwrap

    BURN THE WITCH

    1. Geneseepaws

      What do we also do with witches?

      1. Sunny

        Build bridges out of them?

    2. Keulen

      She turned me into a newt!

      1. He Who Abides

        I got better.

        1. Ryek Hvek

          Just don’t go shutting down the government.

        2. Roborat

          Turning persons into random amphibians is no basis for a system of government.

  10. Spencer

    Dina’s like one step away from going “science is my rifle, intellect is my blade. Care to do battle? I thought not” in this strip and it’s legitimately the funniest thing I’ve ever seen her do.

    I love Dina. She’s always been a really great character and she never really lost that as she rose in prominence in that usual way for long running series where a small scale character gets some popularity and eventually you have an entire modern TV show about a guy who looks like Boba Fett.

  11. Cc

    … Wait, will Diana’s indignant fury serve to further exacerbate Sarah’s excellent mood?

    1. Thag Simmons

      I think Booster is here to prevent that

    2. Jhon

      Let’s make Booster grumpy and see what happens!

  12. Kyrik Michalowski

    Come on Dina, how do you explain love if it isn’t magic? And before anyone tries to scientifically explain love, I will force feed you candy hearts until you understand love or get diabetes, whichever comes first.

    1. Thag Simmons

      How would you be able to explain this thing if not this other thing?

      If you try to explain thing without other thing I shoot you.

      1. a/snow/mous/e

        sounds llike a meme template tbh

    2. Mariah Hardnett

      Some say that love is a chemical compelling animals to breed but i find that argument rather homophobic and depressing. Also candy is bad for you.

      1. CrazyJ

        I don’t see anything homophobic about that explanation, there’s too many other advantages in sex as a method of conflict resolution for it be strongly selected against. Just look at bonobos for example; their entire society is based on sex, both hetero and homo.

      2. jflb96

        How about ‘compelling animals otherwise heavily inclined towards political competition to not tear apart the next generation’s support structure’? That also accounts for non-romantic love and touches on stuff like the gay uncle effect.

    3. John

      Love is the lie we scream to ourselves as float through the uncaring void.

      1. NickG

        Eat at Arby’s.

  13. Stephen Bierce

    *plays Queen’s “A Kind Of Magic” on the P.A. speakers*

  14. Wagstaff

    The explanation to Sarah’s schadenfreude mechanism remains unclear, but that is no reason to assume that it is magic. When something is unexplained, one cannot simply fill the gap with some placeholder fairy tail to explain it. When something is unexplained, it’s just that: unexplained.

    1. Clif

      On the contrary, placeholder fairy tails are fine as long as they’re testable. If you don’t agree, I must suspect you don’t keep up with modern physics.

      1. Some1

        How the hell did you both manage to spell fairy tale wrong? Unless of course your talking about the popular manga/anime series Fairy Tail.

        1. King Daniel

          Are you so sure they don’t mean fairies with tails?

      2. Wagstaff

        Where do you get your info on modern physics? Deepak Chopra?

    2. Khyrin

      it is at minimum some flavor of Spooky Action at a distance, as Sarah’s mood improved while outside the line of sight of Joyce.

  15. Axel

    inb4 Booster making a general comment that applies to most people is called rude/abusive/assumptive

    1. Anon A Mouse

      Nah, Booster is just proving they don’t have to be rude/abusive/assumptive to ruin a perfectly happy moment. They do it just by being around.

    2. SuperZero

      Making a general comment that apples to most people can absolutely be rude.

  16. LiterallyJustSomeGuy

    But Dina, if magic isn’t real, than Sarah’s situation can’t be wizardry! By accusing her of wizardry you acknowledge that wizardry exists!

    1. Clif

      Only evidence-based wizardry.

      1. James

        Magic, sufficiently analyzed, is indistinguishable from science. -Agatha Heterodyne, i forget the year and i’m not looking it up

        1. Khyrin

          Too bad. I looked it up for you, SO THERE!
          2008 December 5.

        2. James

          NO, LEARNING AGAINST MY WILL!

        3. Spencer

          Heterodyne is the name of an evil cyberpunk megacorp but instead of building killer robots or AIs they’re just aggressively straight.

          The badass cyberpunk rebel will storm their building and then they’ll complain that everyone’s picking on them and if they were gay then everyone would be fine with the corporate dystopia.

        4. Roborat

          But do they have nize hats?

        5. brionl

          “Any sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology” is a lot older than Girl Genius. ISTR Larry Niven way back in the 80’s but the earliest appears to be 1984.

          https://quotes.yourdictionary.com/author/quote/195789

        6. thejeff

          The Foglio’s variant is a little different – “sufficiently analyzed”, not “advanced”. It also doesn’t necessarily hold, depending on how your magic works.

          The original is of course Clarke’s 3rd law from 1973.

          There are a ton of variants, my favorite of which semantically equivalent to the 3rd law: “Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.”

        7. Arian

          Thank you for knowing what semantics is.

  17. MrSmith

    Take it down a notch Dina, its not like your girlfriend doesn’t believe in a form of magic

    (starts playing Queens Its a kind of magic, just because)

  18. Slartibeast Button, BIA

    Wait, a strip where Booster is the reasonable one?

  19. Bicycle Bill

    Booster appears to be looking into the viewfinder at the top of the camera rather than holding it at arm’s length and staring into a little screen on the back, as one would expect of a DSLR.  Makes me think Booster is old-school and still shooting on film — probably Ilford HP5 or Kodak Tri-X pan black-and-white for the true retro touch — with an ordinary SLR.

    1. TheLurkerAbove

      Uh what? DSLRs all have viewfinders, that’s where the SLR part comes in. Even mirrorless cameras have EVFs, and Booster having an interest in photography will likely use something that will have a viewfinder. It’s very likely it’s a digital camera, there’s a LCD on the back of their camera.

    2. Geneseepaws

      Back in the day we had to use Verichrome Pan.

    3. Needfuldoer

      DSLRs still have optical viewfinders, usually through-the-lens prism ones too.

      But then again, college student. DSLRs are expensive, but 35mm SLRs are cheap and generally use the same glass. They just cost a lot more per shot (if you can still find a place that develops film on-site), but the pretentious might argue that means they have to carefully pick and choose their shots carefully instead of popping off a dozen and keeping the good one.

      1. LiamKav

        Yeah, looking through the viewfinder is no indication as to whether its a film-based SLR or a DSLR. For me the clue that it’s a 35mm one is that whilst lots of people will look through the viewfinder of a DSLR while taking the photo, they’ll normally look at the screen right after to see if the picture has come out okay, and Booster isn’t doing that.

        (exciting camera based revelations)

  20. Black

    I get the feeling that Booster is one of those people who uses the camera as a barrier to the rest of the world.

  21. DailyBrad

    Booster’s role as newcomer and observer works well with the photography hobby. (Or was this for a class?)

    Puts them in a position to where showing up in different places or around other people and for it to be pretty explainable.

    1. TheLurkerAbove

      It’s an interest, I went back to check several strips ago.

  22. Bagge

    Stop having fun wrong!

  23. woobie

    are you a wizard

  24. Kravis

    Oh hey, look!

    It’s party-pooper Booster!

  25. NinjaNick

    Quick, Booster. Before their art disappears.

  26. Rainhat

    Tsk. Imagine being only able to draw things you believe exist.

    (Before anyone jumps on this, remember what site you’re posting to.)

    Also, this plot continues to be delightful even with Booster.

  27. BenRG

    I think that Booster has decided to focus on his art and let the crazy people sort themselves out for once.

    1. He Who Abides

      *Their art.

  28. Lord_Circe

    Dina, please don’t buy into the dogmatic stupidity of “magic vs science” thinking. Acting like someone is unclean because they used the word ‘magic’ or similar phrases to describe something is prejudicial thinking at its most blatant, and is just about as ‘unscientific’ as you can actually get.

    1. Zaxares

      Yeah, I was having similar thoughts. This is basically how the other side of the “War against Christmas” hardcore atheists like to react when somebody wishes them Merry Christmas and it bothers me almost as much as the religious pushers. If somebody does not intend active malice when they talk about something special to them, and are extending genuine goodwill, why not just take the blessing (whether you believe in it or not) in the spirit it was offered? Otherwise, without the ability to compromise, we will all devolve into warring tribes with whom the only ultimate outcome is subjugation or death. And I think that would be a very sad world to live in.

    2. Daibhid C

      I mean, I get what you’re saying, but it feels a bit like “Dina, please react to this the way a neurotypical would”.

    3. thumb

      She’s not yelling because belief in magic is unscientific. She still talked and was somewhat friendlyish (yes, a lot of qualifiers) with Joyce when she was very much religious. She’s yelling because she was made part of something she stands very much against. They had a connection founded on a lie. It’s a different argument.

  29. TheLurkerAbove

    Might want to pack the telephoto instead and back away instead, Booster. xD

    1. Needfuldoer

      They’re gonna need the kind of zoom they get on traffic helicopters, or maybe a Keyhole spy satellite.

  30. Nono

    Booster’s not doing anything bad yet, as long as they stick to taking photos of things and not people without permission.

  31. Kaffeeteria

    First time I’ve seen Dina angry. Scarysaurus.

    1. Daibhid C

      Then you missed when Joyce said she thought evolution was a myth.

  32. Keulen

    Now I’m imagining Dina saying “witchcraft” like Frollo in Hunchback of Notre Dame and it’s a very strange image in my head, but kinda funny.

  33. FacelessDeviant

    Don’t, Dina!
    Your anger will only feed her, possibly causing her smile to make the top half of her head come off!

  34. BenRG

    Just because we haven’t worked out a way to measure it doesn’t mean that something doesn’t exist yet. It just means that we don’t have a way to detect or measure it.

    I’m not saying that I believe in magic. I’m saying that you shouldn’t base your idea of reality too closely on what science is and isn’t able to prove. At least not just yet.

    1. thumb

      If we have no means whatsoever to detect it, you have no reason to believe it’s any different from any other fancy that pops into your head. Which makes it exactly as real as unicorns and the GOPs conscience.

    2. Jhon

      We can deduce the existence of ‘dark magic’ by seeing its effects, even if we can’t detect it directly.

      1. SillyGoose

        Exactly! And since our crops have been ruined by the unseasonal weather, clearly this old woman needs to be burned alive!

        1. Uly

          – How do you know she is a witch?

        2. Jess

          She weighs the same as a duck…

  35. Anon A Mouse

    For all those saying Dina is being irrationally angry; what if she’s just trying to be angry for Sarah’s sake like she did back in the dorm?

  36. Kaidah

    Is it just me, or is angry Dina kinda terrifying?

  37. Rabisch

    Oh no. This may end the friends between Sarah and Dina forever!

  38. thumb

    Booster reminds me of Asterix and The Roman Agent (La Zizanie). They just walk in, say a few words, and arguments start.

  39. ValdVin

    “Wizardry!” Love it!

  40. egg egg

    I like how Booster takes a few steps away from Angry Dina.

  41. Deanatay

    To Dina, it is preferable that Sarah observing others being in a bad mood made her happy, rather than believe that Sarah was happy due to some “strange action-at-a-distance” phenomena without basis in science. Better to be an asshole than a magical thinker.

  42. Spencer

    IDW Beast Wars is go.

    Hopefully this one doesn’t end with, like, all the characters and plotlines getting sidelined for MOAR G1.

  43. Ziggy78eog

    Well, if Sarah’s hypotheses is correct, she should be manic, right now.

  44. Plain Marie

    And just like that, the cheerful mood is gone.

  45. William Leonard Reese Jr.

    At this point I would like to see Dina react to a Religious Scientist. There are quite a few out there that see Science as human kind unfolding God’s creation and understanding it as best as they can.

    Partly why Suvi from Mass Effect Andromeda was one of my favorite characters in that game. It’s a unique, but true to life, perspective to see in a Sci-Fi game.

  46. Disastroid

    Get in the robot, DoAverse

  47. TheFlamingonator

    Did Booster just sliiiiide all the way away from the awkwardness

    if so how does one learn to do that?

  48. SuperZero

    Pteronadons don’t exist either, Dina.

  49. Oberon

    I’m way late, but it’s “I think a wider angel would be best.”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

*

*

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.