293

Jettison
Posted on March 5, 2023 by David M Willis

293 thoughts on “Jettison”

  1. Ana Chronistic

    would Raidah really be saying this if she had been at <a href="https://www.dumbingofage.com/2022/comic/book-12/05-this-was-halloween/booing/"Hallowe'en tho

    (probs, it’s Raidah)

    1. Ana Chronistic

      yikes, my link game is weak lately =(

      https://www.dumbingofage.com/2022/comic/book-12/05-this-was-halloween/booing/

      1. Laura

        Raidah probably knows all about it. And Walky is thinking about Mike right now. And Raidah is trying to play him like a fiddle.
        https://www.dumbingofage.com/2022/comic/book-12/05-this-was-halloween/silence/

        1. Regalli

          I suspect Raidah knows his ex-roommate died, but assuming her main vectors of information are Jennifer and maybe Asher, I’d doubt she knows how FRAUGHT that relationship really was.

          Hell, I’m not sure anyone totally understands how fraught that relationship really was. Sarah might suspect (as I recall she’s seen some of Mike’s more fucked up “pranks” on Walky,) but I’m not sure even she’d come to the conclusion we can kind of suspect given Walky’s comments months later to Booster – he wasn’t totally joking about the closed casket funeral. Mike was the kind of roommate who Walky really does think WOULD fake his death to prank Walky, because it’s not THAT much of a step up from some of the efforts he’d gone to already. Walky hasn’t processed Mike’s death even the way Amber’s starting to, because he can’t trust that Mike is actually dead.

          Which makes this a WAAAAY more loaded comment than Raidah’s expecting, or at least not in the WAY Raidah’s thinking of it.

        2. jeffepp

          It’s a good thing he’s more like bongo drums.

  2. newlland(Henryvolt)

    Raidah: Can you even imagine Just turning your back on someone close you like that? You should at least try to stick by someone if you care about them.

    Walky:…..

    Carl: I know right!? What Sarah did was unforgivable, there’s no worse way I can imagine a person selling out someone in their crew like that. Worse betrayed ever.

    Asher:….

    1. newlland(Henryvolt)

      Also yes Walkys didn’t completely turned his back on Sal, it’s just that her parents simingly keeping a low amount of contact with her when she was sent away felt like her being abandoned and it seem like Walky following along with that seems like something he seems to be regretting these days.

    2. Bo

      I love that this sounds like when spambots talk to each other in YouTube comment sections

      Bot 1: “Dr. Michael Dickicus really helped straighten my genitals, and he could for you too!”

      Actual Commenter: “What the fuck are you talking about?”

      Bot 2: “Yes he really did help me out so much, and for such a low price. I recommend everyone see Dr. Dickicus pronto!”

      Actual Other Commenter: “What is HAPPENING?!?”

      Bot 3: “Can you tell me more about this straightening technique I am very interested?”

      And so on. Just having their own convo.

  3. Blume

    So even she knows that saying the whole story would change things.

    1. newlland(Henryvolt)

      There’s not much of a story, outside of that.

      Danahs Mom died and she went into a self destructive depression about it. Raid and the others tried to cheer her up but behind the scene her state wasn’t improving and she was becoming more and more self destructive and was in a way pulling Sarah down with her. So Sarah thought the best thing to do was to call up her family and have them sort it out.

      And honestly If you asked me if the source of her turmoil was losing a family member she was close to then sending her back to be with the family she still has left would have felt like a good move because I don’t think a bunch of none freshmen college kids would be qualified to help someone with severe depression going on a downward spiral.

      1. brute

        she’s leaving out the part where sarah repeatedly tried to warn them that dana wasn’t getting better and suggested she get therapy but raidah and co. told her it was fine

        1. temperaryobsessor

          Also the fact that it was her father Sarah called.
          I know fathers can suck but she was trying to get this fixed in the way which would cause the least damage and be most likely to actually help.

        2. Amelie Wikström

          Also leaving out how much pot was involved. Of course it would be incriminating to tell the full story, but she just leaves so many gaping holes that will make her look like a lying jerk as soon as people get a whiff of other sources.

          Raidah is so obsessed with tearing down Sarah’s reputation she’s biting her own ass. Just realized how much she’s like Jennifer with Walky.

        3. ValdVin

          Yep. And the next time Raiders* acknowledges Sarah needs to maintain her grades so as to afford going to college (let alone grad school) will be the first. I’m old enough to have been an undergrad before all the systems were financially destroyed from the inside out and even then I knew people like Sarah and understood their priorities.

          *Dammit I’ve typed her name often enough that autocorrect should know it by now.

        4. Needfuldoer

          She’s everything Jennifer wants to be.

        5. JRivest

          That’s an important part. Raidah, or another one of Dana’s friends, could have suggested to switch dorms with Sarah or Dana, or they could have taken turns so that the burden wouldn’t fall only on Sarah, who was clearly overwhelmed.

        6. Archieve

          This, they could have offered to take some of the burden from Sarah but that would mean taking a degree of responsibility and why do that and risk dealing with a less than fun version of Dana when they could just make the most vulnerable member of their group (sarah) deal with it?

        7. Stu

          She likely edited that out of her OWN memory, too – she just remembers Sarah saying something about how Dana’s grades were slipping and she needed help, but figured “She just needs time to process it!” without actually learning how bad it was behind closed doors.

      2. Mollyscribbles

        Also Sarah only called her father because she was at risk of losing her scholarship when Dana’s drug use had gotten bad enough to mess with Sarah’s sleep on a nightly basis.

        1. fridge_logic

          It’s also important that Sarah has the right to ask the university to resolve a roommate dispute like this. If Dana wasn’t in a self destructive spiral the outcome would have been to just separate/reassign the two roommates based on their incompatibility.

          My read is that the reason Dana went home and wasn’t just moved to a different room is because when Sarah escalated things it became obvious that Dana was not ok.

        2. pope suburban

          Also, by going to Dana’s father rather than the resident advisor, she may have helped Dana avoid additional consequences for substance use in the dorms. Like…Sarah was not really “an adult” even though she was 18. They were in an environment with rules and a definite adult power structure that can dictate what happens to them. Sarah consulted the best possible authority figure so she wouldn’t be kicked out of school, and so Dana would get the help she needed. If Raidah seriously expects Sarah to wreck her own life and probably still have Dana go home (once IU kicks her out for drugs), then she’s stupid as well as selfish and cruel. There was no easy outcome there and it’s fairly obvious.

        3. Taffy

          The best part of being 18 is being considered a kid when you do well or wanna be taken seriously, and an adult who should know better if you screw up even very slightly.

        4. Needfuldoer

          Yeah! Isn’t that great!

          (So glad that was half a lifetime ago…)

          (Holy shitballs that was already half a lifetime ago…)

        5. Mollyscribbles

          Doing drugs in a dorm room would risk both legal consequences and expulsion. Parent reactions can vary but it was worth taking the risk that his response would involve getting her the help she needed.

        6. Plaaaa

          With the shifting timeline and the way marijuana laws are being relaxed across the country that might not be the case before this comic is through.

        7. KiaStirling

          sure but smoking anything in a dorm room probably won’t ever be a thing considered okay by any school administration in the future.

        8. thejeff

          I suspect that Sarah was more motivated by concern about Dana than about her grades. It’s in Sarah’s nature to frame it otherwise, but we’ve seen enough to know that she does really care about her friends, however much she tries to disguise it.

        9. temperaryobsessor

          I suspect Sarah lost sleep because she cared, but it became a now problem when her own place in school started being threatened.

        10. thejeff

          Both were certainly there, but I think in talking about it she overemphasizes the selfish side because she wants to maintain her misanthropic facade.

  4. Mr. Random

    At what point is that understanding gone?
    Should it be to the detriment of your ability to go to college?

    1. Amelie Wikström

      Yeah that story doesn’t really even hold up if Walky or Jen should happen to think about it critically. What might have happened to make Sarah’s grades slip? Did ignoring her roommate’s distress cause that? Would being more forgiving have let her keep her scholarship? There’s holes big enough to swing a bat through.

      1. Mr. Random

        Thing is, I’m guessing a majority of these characters have their tuition taken care of.
        It might not even be part of their thought process.

  5. Shiro

    Masterful manipulation, Raidah. Slam fuckin’ dunk taking advantage of extremely recent personal grief to cement a new networking resource.

    1. Nevermaker

      Actually, I don’t think she knows that about Walky: I doubt Jennifer would tell her, and while I’m sure Mike’s death made news, I can’t imagine Raidah would know anything about who his roommate is.

      Not that I don’t doubt that she WOULD go for the emotional jugular if she knew, but I think this is just a rare case of serendipity that happens to be AWFUL.

      1. Shiro

        YMMV, but I disagree–that’s the sort of gossip that tends to get around, ime. I could be wrong, of course, but this feels like a laser-focused, aimed shot right to Walky’s weak spot.

        1. DailyBrad

          Yeah, I think who Walky’s roommate was would have made its way to her.

        2. Wizard

          Eh, I dunno. On a smaller campus that would almost certainly be the case, but IU is a large state school. Enrollment at the Bloomington campus is over 40,000, about twice the population of the town where I live.

      2. Vanessa

        I’m sure B’Jennifer would tell her new Bestie anything and everything. They ARE terrible gossips and we know darn well they are fully capable of pretending to be nice to get what they want. And Billie is doing everything possible to throw away and disavow her former life.

        1. Archieve

          Defiantly, Jennifer has already told her stuff about dorothy I find it hard to belive she wouldn’t tell Radiah about the guy she’s trying to rope in if asked.

        2. thejeff

          She knew his name was David up front. She also knew the name Jennifer, when she was still using Billie.

      3. k

        I wouldn’t put it past her though to like. Research info about people of interest. Probably thinking along the lines of “a good lawyer always does in-depth research for their cases.” I could totally see her looking into Walky before the breakfast to find out whatever she can in order to hit all the sore spots as smoothly as possibly.

      4. anon

        i’d feel like a student that died would def be gossip among everyone even if they didn’t have all the details, unless the school and local news covered it up as much as possible

        1. Ed Callahan

          A mass kidnapping that left corpses behind? Not only would local media go nuts, it would make national news. Big time. For a long time. I mean DOA is a comic online strip, not a legal thriller. But the legal fallout from last semester would be immense. The twerps who helped Blaine and Ross would face felony kidnapping and conspiracy charges, not to mention maybe legal liability for Ross’ murder. Plus Ross’ attempted kidnapping, at gunpoint, of Becky, and the resulting motorcycle (!) chase. And the attempted rape of Joyce and her disfiguring her attacker, which led to Gashface attacking Amber and Dorothy, which led Amber to retaliate by turning him into sausage (security footage at 11!). And Blaine’s lunancy and his criminality. And Ross’ religious fanaticism and his church’s recklessness in bailing him out, which put two of its own congregation at risk. And one of those two was the daughter of one of the leaders of the bailout. Plus Amazing Girl. Plus an eccentric Congresswoman. The legal and public fallout would go on for years. There would podcasts, documentaries, several series from the streaming services (who would you cast, and in what roles, in such a production?). The strip couldn’t support all that. It would destroy the premise, and it’s not what the strip is about.

      5. Bryy

        Raidah is 100000000% the person who would have the entire dorm floorplan memorized in her head.

    2. Doctor_Who

      Sadly, Walky isn’t hearing a word she’s saying. Raidah will try increasingly unsubtle ways of manipulating Walky all throughout the meal, but Walky is just obsessed with the Mystery of Carl.

      He pokes Carl with a fork to see if he’s really there. Starts asking other patrons if they see Carl too. Goes up to the counter to talk to the manager about checking the security tapes.

      Cut to: evening, Raidah is now on hour three of her theory on how Sarah is definitely the reincarnation of Ivan the Terrible, Walky is ignoring her and being this guy with a big whiteboard that says “Carl”.

      1. Vanessa

        Haha. I hope so. Maybe the “Mike is dead” is so loud his head that only constant jokes about Carl will keep hm from flipping the table. I hope he realizes that he screwed up at Thanksgiving and the consequences for acting out from grief are real. I hope he knows Sarah well enough that he can tell the difference between good-hearted “getting someone help” and this mean-spirited knife-twisting. I bet they don’t even keep in touch with Dana, they are too busy playing victims as if their ruined drug-fueled-party semester is the real tragedy.

        1. Prior Semblance

          Speaking of keeping touch, we’ve a lot from her friends about how terrible what Sarah did is but I don’t think Dana has ever been shown outside of flashbacks from before it happened. It would definitely be interesting to hear her opinion directly from the source.

      2. Clif

        I do like the way that Walky is staying focused on what’s important.

        I don’t think Raidah had any chance at all of influencing Walky once she shot her torpedia at Dorothy right in front of him. She might still sell her bill of goods to Lucy, but I don’t think she has a snowball’s chance with Lucy.

        1. Clif

          * snowball’s chance with Walky.

        2. Bryy

          Lucy’s gonna become the real issue here.

        3. Needfuldoer

          Yeah. If Raidah can’t reel Walky in directly, she’ll tug on Lucy’s heartstrings. And we know how eager to please and desperate to be everyone’s friend she is… That’s just begging the world to walk all over you.

      3. Tawdry Quirks

        That wouldn’t be “Carl of HR”, would it?

        1. Clif

          Kevin og HR.

          Fixed that for you.

        2. Clif

          * Kevin Og of HR.

        3. milu

          oh! of the Boston Ogs?

        4. Clif

          South Bosyon Ogs, not North Boston. You know them?

        5. milu

          oooh the South Bosyon Ogs. no, i was thinking about the South Bpston ones.

    3. Steve C

      I’m not looking to revisit an old argument, but since Raidah’s plan here seems to be to peel Walky away from his current peer group, I’m wondering whether her earlier outburst at Dorothy might have been less spontaneous and more calculated.

      1. Clif

        Well she had already tried peeling Dorothy away. Dorothy was invited to breakfast before.
        https://www.dumbingofage.com/2023/comic/book-13/03-joementum/assembled/
        Apparently, Dorothy didn’t buy what she was selling so she pretended to not know who Dorothy was and then tried to demolished her goals.

        1. thejeff

          I don’t think Dorothy was invited to breakfast before.
          That’s a reference to the lunch with Jacob, Joyce and Raidah.

      2. Archieve

        It was, she put Dorothy down while getting Walky to go with her, creating a scenario where Walky appears to chose Radiah over his friend.

  6. Sirksome

    It’s been like a year and that’s all the story you even know about Dana. If any of you jackasses actually cared about her you’d know more than that.

    1. RassilonTDavros

      They could at least fucking call her!

      1. Vanessa

        Yup, I too get the impression they are too busy dining out on this sad story and trying to get revenge to do anything positive.

        And some boyfriend, huh? Was he the one supplying Dana with drugs? He wasn’t helping.

        1. BBCC

          Dunno. Dana had them on the first day of school and she smoked more after they broke up. So maybe but hard to say.

      2. BarerMender

        There’s a strip wherein Sarah says, “Dana is in a better place,” and Raidah says something like, “Not the last time I talked to her.” So at least some calls are being made.

        1. Mollyscribbles

          I don’t think Raidah is the best judge of which situation is actually better for Dana.

        2. temperaryobsessor

          Real people took that to heart and thought maybe Sarah accidentally made things worse for Dana
          But here instead of adding info they are subtracting it.

    2. Mollyscribbles

      They also don’t care that Sarah was about to lose her scholarship due to the grades dropping.

      1. Illjwamh

        I suspect Dana had better potential connections than Sarah. If the shoe had been on the other foot and Dana had Sarah sent home, would Raidah be acting the same way, or would she be all, “You did what you had to do. It’s for the best.”

        1. Prior Semblance

          Dana’s father runs a law firm so I think it’s fairly safe to say she had the better connections than someone who desperately needs a scholarship.

      2. Axel

        Sarah was never great networking for them. A random girl there “just” because of a scholarship isn’t someone who has job or networking opportunities for you.

        Plus, I don’t think Raidah and her friends (including Billie, but Billie wasn’t there) really care or understand that someone couldn’t afford college. Generally people with enough money not to worry about it seem to think that you should be able to find a way to make it work (like… getting a scholarship. but I doubt raidah thought it through that consciously)

        1. Archieve

          Sarah had so much more to lose then Dana it’s not even funny.

    3. anon

      yeah if she cared about utilizing ‘connections’ so much, unless her father is keeping her captive at home, then she should ‘pull some strings’ to have her readmitted or wahtever

    4. Needfuldoer

      That’s the version of the story that’s convenient at this time, in this setting.

      Assuming she hasn’t mentally buried the details to justify her narrative, that is.

  7. RassilonTDavros

    Going right for the jugular, eh Raidah?

  8. Doc Harleen

    Raidah you disingenuous little shit

    1. Suzi

      It’s always a manipulation with her.

  9. Doopyboop

    The thing, Raidah, is that additional understanding also means “maybe Dana was far too distraught/depressed about her mom to focus on studying and if she’d continued trying to make it work in college, she might have flunked and gone down a bad path”. Sarah literally had her sent HOME. With her LIVING PARENT. Not rehab, not jail, HOME.

    When I was a senior in college, my dad was diagnosed with cancer. This was about 4 years after my mom had also gotten (and at that time, beaten) her own cancer. So, senior year was rough. Not “my dad died” rough, but it was “I went home during christmas break and during the break my dad talked about how whenever he sleeps he dreams about not having cancer” rough. I was able to keep my head above for the most part, but I had one class at 8 am that I kept oversleeping for, and missed a few classes.

    One day my professor got concerned, and she sat me down after to talk. She noticed that whenever I took my tests, I was pulling info out of the textbook from pages she hadn’t even told us to read, and concluded that I was a studious person who wasn’t missing class out of not enjoying the subject. So, I was honest with her. I told her what was going on in my personal life. Her own mother had passed from cancer, so she understood. She gave me an exemption for the absences, just told me to do my best in the future (and I attended all but one class I missed due to food poisoning after that!).

    My point here mainly being, I was very lucky to have a very understanding Professor with personal experience. Dana might not have been so lucky with her classes. In the end, it is better for her to go home and take an academic break.

    1. Dandi Andi

      There are lots of reasons going home to your living parent may not be healthy or even safe. Remember that Ross came to take Becky home to her living parent. That’s not to say that Dana’s dad is as bad as Ross; I’d be very surprised if he was. Rather, I mean that we can’t assume that home is a safe place for Dana to be. Raidah has indicated that it is not and we don’t have any evidence yet that she was lying.

      1. Schpoonman

        Besides all the manipulations and general shittiness we’ve seen from her since her first appearance?

        1. Dandi Andi

          Don’t get me wrong. I’m in no way trying to defend Raidah’s character. We have plenty of evidence that she is a liar, she is definitely that. But even the most unscrupulous liars don’t lie about everything all the time. She’ll tell the truth when it suits her ends to do so. So while I absolutely do not trust her when she says Dana’s home life is dangerous, I also don’t assume that it isn’t. Given DoA’s long standing tradition of shitty, abusive dads, I’m very willing to believe that this might be a case of Raidah strategically telling the truth.

        2. thejeff

          I don’t think Raidah has even said anything close enough to “Dana’s home life is dangerous” for it to be considered lying if it isn’t.

          The only statement we have is that she’s not in a better place.

          If her home is perfectly safe, that’s still not a lie if Dana’s just not happy about being there.

        3. Taffy

          I’m interested in the specific wording of that statement, come to think of it: “Not according to Dana, last I checked”

          So, the last time Raidah heard from Dana about the situation, when was that? Based on Raidah’s general lack of care once she shuts her mind to something, that could be anywhere between “Yesterday on the phone” and “Within a week of going home”. The closer it is to Dana going home, the more likely I think it is that Dana was still in her meltdown and reacting more strongly than she would otherwise. IDK, maybe I’m weird for thinking it, but emotionally compromised teenagers tend to lash out in exaggerated ways and paint things as being much worse than they are, or at least they did back when I was one.

          Now, I’m not saying Dana was definitely an irrational, amped-up teen who screeched and clawed as she was stuffed into her dad’s car by men in white jumpsuits, just that maybe her lowest emotional point is likely when Raidah last contacted her, and maybe her heightened reaction sounded like really juicy ammo to fire at Sarah.

        4. thejeff

          And that statement itself was near the beginning of last semester, so probably sometime over the summer at best.

          It could be as simple as still depressed, but now also angry because her dad keeps her from smoking.

        5. Taffy

          I will piss myself laughing if that turns out to be “all” it was, and Raidah’s making this huge fuss about it still.

      2. Swissaboo

        There are but also i feel like if that was actually the situation there’s no fucking way Raidah would’ve left that on the table.

  10. Cattleprod

    In high school there was a girl who just randomly started sitting at our lunch table and everyone just assumed someone else knew her. One time when she didn’t show up, we talked about her and realized none of us knew her before she showed up the first time.

  11. Cholma

    Skipping a few important details in that story, eh Raidah? Manipulate much? Oh, right. Lawyer. Zero ethics.

    1. milu

      #NotAllLawyers

      (My sister is a lawyer. She has ethics??? She’s a criminal lawyer, i don’t have an opinion on, say, corporate lawyers.)

      1. Keulen

        It definitely depends on the lawyer and who they’re more likely to take cases for. Ones who take cases defending regular people against big corporations almost definitely have ethics. Ones who defend the corporations from regular folks, probably very little ethics.

        1. Clif

          Hey, I hear that milu has a sister that defends criminals. Do you have any idea how hard that makes the lives of law enforcement professionals?

          Also my (tiny) corporation has never done anything wrong, TBH it’s barely done anything at all, but it needs a lawyer on tap because I live in America where anyone can sue anyone for anything.

          Ethics tend to be in the eyes of the ethicist.

        2. milu

          “Ethics tend to be in the eyes of the ethicist”

          fwiw, after devoting multiple walls of text requiring a fair portion of my brain calories for the day to this and related bumblings down there, i ended up at the same conclusion =P

        3. Clif

          I’m not at all sure that the stuff that appears my fingers just type are ever worth a day’s portion of brain calories. But neither would I consider brain calories spent thinking things through to be wasted.

        4. milu

          i mean brains are just constantly burning calories whether we type comments or not, so you know. might as well!

        5. Mark

          Or maybe the ethos of trial lawyers is not the same as yours.

    2. Bysmerian

      Going back and looking at the flashback Sarah told, Raidah seems to have changed significantly from last year to this one; she comes across as at least a little more earnest–or at least expressive–compared to who she’s become. I don’t know how much of that is Willis’s take on the character changing, personal development offscreen–I mean, let’s face it, this is Freshman year of college and everyone is in the process of becoming who they’ll be–and/or deliberately shaping herself into what she believes to be the ideal lawyer: Both here and in the previous conversation with Dorothy, she’s steered the conversation to where she gets to make digs at people. Did she have to bring up Dorothy’s career goals? Was that at all the obvious progression of the conversation? Not at all, but it lets Raidah accuse her of being an aspiring war criminal. Likewise, Walky and Jennifer have their own past and connections, and then Walky seems to have moved on from it just fine, but Raidah absolutely doubles back around with an unnecessary apology both to shame Jennifer AND to open up the topic of Sarah.

  12. tim gueguen

    Something tells me this is going to work on Lucy better than Walky. She’s pretty naive and a bit too trusting. It’s also possible Walky knows a bit more of the Sarah/Dana story than Raidah realises.

    1. newlland(Henryvolt)

      I would have banked on Lucy being understanding enough to with hold her judgment until she had both sides of the story.

      Hopefully I’m not wrong about her.

      1. Carms

        Naw… Lucy is starry eyed. Like, she doesn’t even see Jennifer clearly, and they live together. She doesn’t see Walky clearly either.
        She skews in favour of the person in front of her, and then skews in favour of the model she builds of them based on that initial skew.
        I think it would be a misattribution to see her ‘sees the best in people’ as owing to perspicacity.

        1. newlland(Henryvolt)

          I would have thought all the time she spent with Jennifer would have taught her that people aren’t always the image they pretend to be.

    2. Doopyboop

      Walky’s definitely the more skeptical type, especially since he’s in Sarah’s sphere a lot and lived through a traumatic experience with her. So even if he didn’t know anything about it, I could absolutely see him just walk right up to Sarah and ask for the deets.

      Whereas Lucy… yeah she’s very naive and doesn’t have a relationship at all with Sarah.

      1. Vanessa

        I think Lucy is even more vulnerable to the “cool kids” BS they are pretending at here than anyone. She’s always wanted to be a “mean girl” and all she has to do is force her boyfriend to be miserable for her.

        1. Archieve

          Don’t thinks she’s ever wanted to be a mean girl just a popular one. She won’t want Walky miserable but I can see her arguing if he does not him side with Radiah because she can get so intense when she thinks she’s helping and Radiah would 100% exploit that.

  13. newlland(Henryvolt)

    Also at this point Raidahs petty as grudge over Danah is just the smallest of potatoes after everything we’ve seen gone down.

    Amber once stabbed Sal right after Sal held Ethan and her hostage and then years later got into a fist fight about it, then right after that the two of them joined a roller derby team together and Sal gave Amber her blessing to go back to dating her brother.

    Ruth terrorized Jennifer by Robbing, black mailing, roughing her up for the first couple after they met went on to becoming the greatest love each one of them has ever had.

    Joyce & Joe has had pretty much the worst first college date anyone has ever seen which involved Joyce highering Mike (rest in peice) to punch him in the face repeatedly….and now they’re considering giving it a second try.

    At this point Raidahs 1& 1/2 year grievance over the whole Danah situation is nothing to me, if we’re going to get some closer on this I’d suggest bringing back Danah atleast once for her and Sarah to have a confrontation. But as a far as Raidah is concerned I think more than enough time has past for her to have built a bridge so she can get over it.

  14. JepMZ

    Bruh….. I’m so sick of Raidah’s crap

  15. Sirksome

    No amount of backwards hat wearing is gonna cover up that receding hairline Carl.

    1. huesatlight

      undercover cop style.

  16. BBCC

    In addition to her grades slipping

    A) Sarah was not able to sleep.

    B) Dana was doing drugs IN THE DORM ROOM which could get both her and Sarah expelled (because Sarah can be held responsible for not reporting it).

    C) Sarah was afraid Dana was going to DIE. Whether that means she thinks Dana did more than weed or she was afraid Dana was going to kill herself, either of which is big concern.

    And what else should she have done, given Dana was getting worse and worse?

    – School therapists can be helpful, but Sarah cannot COMPEL Dana to go.

    – Reporting her state to the school likely could have resulted in them finding out about the drugs and kicking her out.

    – None of YOU believed her that Dana was spiralling and weren’t willing to help.

    – The grace of a professor can only go so far

  17. Bittersweet

    Shit maybe this is a cult after all. So many bad vibes off this one. I really hate that it looks like Walky and Lucy are just going to eat it up, especially after they just insulted his sister for two solid strips.

  18. anon

    interesting he says ‘girlfriend’ rather than ‘ex’. so does he still consider them ‘together’? because i imagine if they stayed in touch or she reached out she’d probably hopefully have an updated perspective unless it just made her angry and bitter

    1. BBCC

      Yeah, that’s interesting. Last time we heard, Dana broke up with him. It’s why she was home every night and keeping Sarah awake.

      1. Vanessa

        Hmmm. Seems likely this whole poisonous group plus her dumb-ass boyfriend were the ones keeping her miserable. Why didn’t the boyfriend get her any help if he loved her so much?

        1. BBCC

          Because “I know her. She’ll bounce back eventually”.

      2. Archieve

        If you pressed him Carl would probably tell you they were going to “bounce back” so they weren’t broken up for real.

    2. Harry Johnston

      I think he just means that Dana was his girlfriend at the time.

      1. Zero

        She wasn’t though. Either Carl’s lying or Sarah is, and it doesn’t seem like Sarah is.

        1. thejeff

          He’s not actually lying. Last year, his girlfriend was Sarah’s roommate. They broke up before Sarah had her sent home, but it’s a shorthand description of how they fit into the grouping.
          Saying ex-girlfriend would be just as confusing, since it implies they were already split up when she was Sarah’s roommate.

  19. Dana

    Good on Walky using his already established snark to keep up a pokerface.

  20. Taffy

    Alright, I’m bored with Raidah now. She’s just making noise at this point. Really hope Lucy doesn’t buy into this extremely weak manipulation attempt. “Ooh, Sarah did the thing and it’s baaaad, for reasons I’ll never elaborate on, ooooooooh” whatever, kid.

    1. Archieve

      I’m hoping lucy might see the similarity between Carla’s situation where she told Lucy about how nobody appreciated how much she helped Ruth but Lucy can get pretty intense when she feels she’s being helpful/needed so it’s also possible she buys into Radiahs story.

  21. temperaryobsessor

    Here I naively thought there was another side to the story.
    Nope just the same story with less details.
    For instance Sarah was a scholarship student and grades slipping could mean sent home for her with more difficulty getting back than Danah.
    Also none of Danah’s friends were willing to help Sarah help Danah.
    Also Sarah called Danah’s father, not the police or RA or something.

    1. anon

      i wonder how they would’ve reacted if sarah only kicked danah out of the dorm room or forced another student to ‘switch’ rooms with her to see for themselves

    2. BBCC

      Frankly, if Sarah was as cold and merciless as Raidah made her out to be, she’d have reported Dana to the school on day one when she told Sarah there was weed in the room. That stash could cost Sarah her place in the school if the admins found out and she didn’t report it.

      1. Vanessa

        Yup. Great point. “Had Dana sent home” lol, like Sarah had that power.

        1. temperaryobsessor

          Thats just it Sarah might have if she reported the weed to a school authority instead of her dad.

  22. Sean Smith

    Oh look, this guy has a motivation and everything! It’s almost like he’s a real character.

    1. Taffy

      What’s his motivation, “Convince this new guy I’m real”?

      1. Mollyscribbles

        “Convince this guy my girlfriend didn’t break up with me over a year ago”.

        It’s like having a girlfriend who lives in Canada except they were technically together for a while.

  23. newlland(Henryvolt)

    OK so is Danah just interested in Walkys possible Dean connection so she can get him to let Danah back into University?

    1. Taffy

      Does a Dean have that power? I never got to enroll in a college.

      1. newlland(Henryvolt)

        Matter of fact it’s not like she was expelled she was just withdrawn by her own family. Never mind none of that is necessary.

        1. anon

          depending on how her dad handled things, other than her being cooped up and ‘limited freedom’ at home, i imagine danah would currently be in some kinda rehab center, assuming they do that for weed, or at least some kinda grieving therapy as well, not sure if you can force someone into rehab for something like weed versus a mentally unstable/drug induced incident where she actually hurt herself/others

      2. BBCC

        Not in this case. Dana wasn’t expelled, she went home with her dad.

        Hell, if we want to be technical her DAD doesn’t have the power to withdraw her involuntarily from school. He can stop paying for it but parents don’t generally have the authority to unilaterally withdraw their adult children from university.

  24. Marvelman

    Sigh. Not this again.

  25. Koms

    It really seems to me that Jeniffer is not at the table right now because according to this https://www.dumbingofage.com/2012/comic/book-2/05-saturdays-all-right-for-slighting/bong/ strip.. Sarah had told Joyce, Dina and Jen about what happened.. I don’t know if Jeniffer also holds the same view that Dana became inconvenient and Sarah got rid of her.. or whether she believes Sarah’s story..

    1. Doopyboop

      https://www.dumbingofage.com/2012/comic/book-2/05-saturdays-all-right-for-slighting/swak/ This strip might answer what Jennifer’s perspective on Sarah’s story likely is.

    2. Heatth

      She does hold that view, yes. She told that to Sarah’s face here: https://www.dumbingofage.com/2012/comic/book-2/05-saturdays-all-right-for-slighting/swak/

    3. Archieve

      She made it clear to Sarah in the past she thought it was wrong of Sarah to report Dana and that she just didn’t like her roommate, dismissing Sarah real concern. I think she and Asher are at the table but keeping quiet.

      1. Heather

        I have to wonder if it’s because Jennifer was an alcoholic in denial at the time (and possibly still is on some level). Honestly I think weed in general really should be treated like alcohol. It should be legal and trying to ban it causes more trouble than it’s worth anyway and hurts people more than it helps but you can absolutely ruin your life with it if you abuse it or even other lives. However it’s possible to drink and use weed in moderation and have no I’ll effects on your life. It may even improve it for some folks to have it in their lives.

        People convinced it’s either the devils lettuce or 100 per cent safe in all instances are both wrong. Like I guess in some instances weed can be used as medicine unlike liquor which also muddied the issue to outsiders, but like Dana I think should be seen as Jennifer when she was in her suicide drinking pact with Ruth. Alarm bells.

  26. Vanessa

    Is this where we find out just how dumb and desperate for the “cool kids” approval Lucy is? I really hope she’s a better person than that but her off-the-rails rant in front of her extremely new boyfriend say otherwise.

    It would be a bit funny if Jennifer gets a big heads-up here and has a very cold realization that Raidah’s been using her all along.

    1. newlland(Henryvolt)

      Wait a fucking minute- Jennifer was there to hear Sarah side of the story she knows the parts Radiah is leaving out.

      1. Doopyboop

        https://www.dumbingofage.com/2012/comic/book-2/05-saturdays-all-right-for-slighting/swak/ Jennifer almost… might not care about the parts Raidah’s leaving out

        1. Doopyboop

          *also not almost

        2. Ophidiophile

          Jennifer believed Sarah was exaggerating about the danger to Dana. Since then, Jennifer has had to do the same thing for Ruth, with the risk of Ruth getting kicked out of college. Whether she has put the two together, I don’t know.

        3. Doopyboop

          https://www.dumbingofage.com/2016/comic/book-7/01-glower-vacuum/smalltalk/ and https://www.dumbingofage.com/2016/comic/book-7/01-glower-vacuum/expectations/ for reference. Whether she’s changed her mind since then remains to be seen.

        4. Ophidiophile

          I found where Jennifer first met Raidah https://www.dumbingofage.com/2012/comic/book-2/05-saturdays-all-right-for-slighting/freshmen/ and it seems that she decided to take Raidah’s side from the very start.

        5. Amelie Wikström

          Well, there’s the bit I found today in my reread where Jennifer cheerfully helps Sarah ruin Raidah’s relationship, followed by teaming up to turn a water hose on Walky and Dorothy in bed. I don’t know if she totally disbelieves Sarah’s version, but I think for sure Raidah is going to have some trouble turning Jen against Sarah.

  27. Jamie

    Yeah, I think Lucy will buy this more than Walky will. The which is why I am hoping there’s a post-breakfast debrief between just Lucy and Walky so we can see what they Really Think about everything.

    I’m sorta fascinated by people who get cult vibes off this. I don’t disagree, but I wouldn’t have jumped there as aggressively as people have. Interestingly, the last time we got overt cult vibes was… Lucy’s dorm.

    1. Bittersweet

      For me it was the specific laser targeted comment towards something Walky had happen to him, the tearing down of his family and friends, etc.

      Like, I have no cult experience to say “Ah this is definitely cult behavior” but it definitely is checking off warning flags off of some checklists I have read about.

    2. thejeff

      I don’t think actual cult, but it’s fair to see her as using a lot of the same tactics cults use to recruit.

      I also hope for a debriefing. Maybe a couple. Be nice to see a bit of private chat between Raidah and Carl about how they think it went too.

  28. Caro

    I highly doubt Carl knows anything besides the way Raidah has been phrasing it to him.

    1. thejeff

      He was there. He should know more.

      1. Clif

        Carl was there. Kevin is just making it up as he goes along.

        1. milu

          oh, that Kevin! we should call him Pranksty McPrankface.

  29. Some Guy

    I eagerly await the day Dana shows up again and can speak for herself rather than being spoken for. I suspect that’s going to be quite some time, though.

  30. shrub

    I dislike Walky quite a bit, I think he’s a smug, arrogant little shit however he has done quite well in this strip

    He clearly sees the trap Raidah lays out for him in panel 4 and stalls for time in the last panel

    Not a bad job at all in a difficult, social, situation (he’s still a berk though)

    1. Schpoonman

      Okay, Jennifer.

    2. Taffy

      Please explain how Walky is “arrogant”, even one time.

  31. V

    That second-to-last panel is really interesting to me. In the previous panel you see Walky’s eyes shimmering with emotion, thinking, yeah, I *should* have gotten more leeway in how I grieve! And then you see his face shift, more downcast, more thoughtful, as if thinking, but I was a real asshole at the halloween party and I’m not sure I *deserve* that leeway.
    Maybe I’m reading too much into this but I really think this is about to backfire on Raidah.

    1. k

      That’s an interesting read! I just thought he was distracted from his thoughts by the mystery of Carl.

      1. Clif

        Kevin and Carl switching places would confuse anyone.

    2. newlland(Henryvolt)

      Well It was actually the opposite wasn’t it? “Yeah yeah Mike died or maybe he didn’t who knows? Can we just move on so we can stop being sad about it.”

      Admittingly he was selfish in that moment, thinking about how only how he wanted to feel since it was uncomfortable for him to think about it for too long but Amber & Ethan was still hung up on it reasonably so with them having the closes connection, they should of had been given as much time to grieve about it as possible.

  32. Bryy

    Do we know how many more strips of Raidah we need to endure?

    1. Steve C

      I thought this storyline was going to be a lot more fun, but that was back when it seemed like Raidah only wanted Walky for his body. I suspect Willis changed his mind and decided to go in a different direction. (Standard Disclaimer 1: This is, of course, pure speculation on my part and I have no possible way of knowing for sure whether or not this is true. Standard Disclaimer 2: I am well aware that this is David Willis’ comic and David Willis can do whatever he wants with it.)

  33. The Wellerman

    You know something? Maybe one of my DoA games should include Raidah in a certain way… I suspect it should go real nicely with Pin the Tail on the Faz, another idea in the maybe pile.

  34. Steelbright

    I’m wondering if Raidah’s real plan here wasn’t to get an in with the dean, but actually to siphon all of the friend group surrounding Joyce & Sarah away from them…

    1. UrsulaDavina

      Most likely both

      1. milu

        She’s playing 4D chess.

        …Maybe not very competently

        1. thejeff

          It is interesting to wonder if part of the reason she was so blatant and obvious about the dean/social climbing thing is that it really was just cover for her real motives.

    2. Archieve

      I strongly suspect Radiahs desire to take Sarah’s friends away does outweigh her social climbing now. when she first met Joyce she tried to steal her away from Sarah as a friend despite having no connections. The fact that Sarah has a new group of friends that accept her flies in the face of everything Radiah believes about how Dana was so generous to include Sarah and how nobody else would ever befriend her. The fact that Sarah was able to make friends despite radiah efforts to isolate her also highlight just how little the rest of the students actually care about Radiahs opinions which she’s trying to change with Walky and Lucy here.

    3. Segnosaur

      Don’t know how successful she would be “siphoning” their friends away.

      Sarah is a sort of malcontent anyways. She is “friends” with Joyce and Dina but she’s not the outgoing gregarious type. And if you consider the others in their group:

      – dorothy is unlikely to be phased, and even may become closer to Joyce as a result of the earlier attack

      – Becky and Dina will not be interested in aligning with riadah on account of their interactions in the mall

      – I doubt she would have much to offer Sal (and Sal is probably too savy to fall for any tricks)

      – joe is too infatuated with joyce

  35. Cmasta1992

    Raidah isn’t wrong here per se but she definitely calculated this conversation which makes it gross

    1. Zero

      She’s pretty wrong!

      1. CMasta1992

        Sarah did not act out of Dana’s best interest. She 100% was preserving herself. Not saying Sarah didn’t do what she had to do for her own survival but it doesn’t surprise me that Raidah’s group is going to have a negative view of the events.

        1. BBCC

          She was trying to both act out of preserving herself and act out of Dana’s best interests. Given that her first idea (get Dana a therapist) didn’t work, and telling the school or god forbid the police would’ve ended worse for Dana, I think she was going for the best option she had.

      2. CMasta1992

        And more to the point, just taking her statement at face value: people who have just experienced a loss absolutely deserve more understanding. Sarah just didn’t have that luxury.

  36. cmd1095

    Wow that sure is a version of what happened. Raidah is such a petty bongo geez

  37. Sajuuk-Khar

    Emotional understanding is when you retraumatize someone for your petty nonsense crusade to destroy Sarah, and the more you retraumatize them, the more emotionally understanding it is, huh, Raidah?

    (Nah, that’s probably giving her too much credit. Still. She’s just…She’s so petty. It’s ridiculous.)

  38. Dr. T

    A) It’s easy for Raidah, whose parents can afford to continue to send her to school if she needed to retake some classes, to overlook the consequences of Sarah’s grades slipping can be. Essentially, it ends her college career and screws up her life completely.

    B) Dana still has not returned to school after a year. Maybe that should be an indication that she was more screwed up than they thought?

    C) It’s kind of low for Raidah to make this appeal to Walky, who still seems affected by his roommate dying.

    D) I’ll continue to be disappointed in Jennifer if she does not say something in Sarah’s defense here. She knows damned well that Sarah is obscenely protective of Joyce and has not jettisoned her despite the drama of her being SA’d by Ryan (which Jennifer knows about) and Joyce’s connections getting Sarah KIDNAPPED (which everyone knows about, especially Walky as he was also kidnapped alongside Sarah and Company).

    1. Yumi

      On A: I imagine Raidah’s life plans (though likely not her ability to stay in college) depend on a high GPA as well. If Dana’s actions had been affecting Raidah’s school performance, she’d likely have had a different view on how much “understanding” should be allowed.

      1. Karishi

        Exactly this. It’s really easy to say, “Be More Understanding” when you aren’t the one who’s going to have to deal with any lost sleep, police action, bad smells, and so on. You know. Consequences.

    2. Amelie Wikström

      At the very least, Jennifer knows Sarah has a lot of complex feelings about Dana and what she did. She knows it’s definitely not as simple as “jettisoned her as soon as she became inconvenient”. What worries me is Jen might not care. Is she going to go “I’ve talked to Sarah, aren’t you leaving out a whole lot of that story?” when she can just keep sucking up to Raidah instead?

      I’m hoping yes. She does want to be a journalist and all.

      1. BBCC

        Jennifer took Raidah’s side, so sadly I don’t think we’re going to get that.

        1. Archieve

          Jennifer almost definitely will keep quite, she values her so called social status (frankly I don’t think they have made her anymore popular or influential) above Sarah and she sadly subscribes to the belief that Sarah was in the wrong.

    3. Mark

      Jennifer has a lot of mental work to do before she can step up for Sarah. And that takes time. We’re looking at seconds of conversation here.

    4. Masumi

      D) is probably the kind of stuff you think of half a day later and go “Aaah man I shoulda said that”. So, not holding the lack off response against them too much. There’s so much weirdness going on here that it’s hats to figure out where to even start responding in the moment.

  39. Jonah Sanville

    god i am so ready for this scene to be over

  40. DarkoNeko

    WOW you really f*cking went there Raidah, eh ?

  41. IniquitousKing

    Now’s probably the time for Walky to start asking for a box to go. Maybe leave Raidah to deal with the check.

    Kinda worry that Lucy’s buying right into this nonsense though.

  42. Aggrax

    Did anyone else jump back to see if Carl was in fact here the whole time? Cause I did and he was.

    1. Mark

      I think Walky’s reaction to Carl is more about the way Carl tends to stay firmly in the background. Until he hears his cue.

    2. Hoboturtle

      Ya he was standing conviently behind someone most of the time.

    3. Clif

      You’re obviously confusing Kevin and Carl.

      1. milu

        on account of their names starting with the exact same letter, i assume. understandable!

        1. Clif

          Yes, exactly! Anyone could be confused given the similarity.

        2. Clif

          According to the poll 38% were confused.

  43. Karishi

    The targets of her manipulations are kind of soft targets, which is lucky for Raidah because so far she seems to have all the subtlety of a mallet.

    1. Zero

      I think even then they might question how Sarah had the ability to send another student home. Or notice how light on details this story is.

      Or ask Sarah about it.

    2. newlland(Henryvolt)

      Walky despite his antic is always sharper than people give him credit for, I think he’d notice how odd it is the only things Raidah has done besides talk about her hang up with Sarah is ask him about his family’s connections and butter him up. Raidah might take him for a fool but any should see past that especially him.

      As for Lucy I just feel like people are underestimating her on her possibly believing this story off the bat without hearing Sarah out. Lucy came off as thoughtful and mature enough to listen to everybody and I hope I’m not wrong.

      1. Seregiel

        Lucy desperately wants to be the problem solver she percieved Jennifer to be.My bet is she tries to reunite the friends.

  44. Ophidiophile

    Raidah’s vendetta against Sarah seems to be aimed at driving Sarah to transfer to another college. Which seems to be over the top, but I think the reason is because Sarah is the only other person who really knows what happened with Dana. Raidah probably knew her best friend was abusing drugs (and when is abusing drugs a good way to deal with grief?), but how would it look if people knew her best friend was a druggy? So she downplayed it to cover it up. Or, perhaps she belatedly did realize that Dana was in danger of dying, hating Sarah for doing what she did not and feeling guilty over her failure to act, so she’s in denial that that was ever the case. Carl was most certainly doing weed with Dana every night, since Dana started doing weed every night in the dorm after breaking up with Carl. Interesting that he seems to have forgotten about the break up.

  45. Dan

    One of the URLs above that go back to a 2012 strip sent me on a trip through time. I’ve been reading the old strips for hours (really need to get to bed) and reached 2014. And I just have to say-

    I think this strip was more light-hearted 10 years ago. I dunno, maybe I’m wrong, but it seems like it to me.

    1. Seregiel

      Which was more enjoyable but I feel like the switch is also something a lot of kids experience and parallels how college can hit you. From excitement, novelty, freedom to… need to try, I didn’t get the blocks under me just right at the beginning, I’m already losing friends oh no, who do I want to be?

  46. Inbar Fink

    Well, I dunno about convincing Walky that Sarah is EEEEVIIIIL (considering everything he knows Joyce has gone through, he should maybe suspect the narrative that Sarah would just get rid of a roommate cause she was ‘taking time to grieve’ but also he’s in kind of an emotionally compromised moment right now). But I don’t think spending the entire breakfast talking about either high-intensity emotional situations or bad-mouthing his sister will do much in getting Walky to be an active part of this peer group lol.

    A lot of people (including me) were wondering if there are other details that we were missing in Sarah’s version of events, espacially if Dana’s father wasn’t a safe person, and THAT’S why Radiah and Co. are so upset. It sure is interesting that even when telling their ‘side of the story’, they don’t bring ANY new info up. Just substracting the details that humanize Sarah.

    The funny thing here is, there is ONE person at the table who knows Sarah’s side of the story and the crucial details Radiah and Carl are leaving out to make her look worse – and that’s **Jennifer**.

    Who was already kinda sympathetic to the Radiah Narrative before she even joined her peer group (relevant stripes: https://www.dumbingofage.com/2012/comic/book-2/05-saturdays-all-right-for-slighting/swak/, https://www.dumbingofage.com/2016/comic/book-7/01-glower-vacuum/expectations/) but…
    Well, all I’m saying is that she is NOT having a good time with her so-called ‘friends’ right now, so this would be a GREAT time for that ol’ self-destructive Billie-ness to come back in (at least for us the audience).

    1. Archieve

      Unfortunately, I think Jennifer is still at the stage where she values her new persona, that’s why she’s obeying radiah and quietly sitting there rather then continue to speak her mind (Even if the things she said sucked). Plus she also sided with radiah being angry at Sarah.

  47. Tan

    The more Raidah “David”s Walky even after being corrected, the more I think about how she “Jennifer”ed Billie/Jennifer even after being corrected in the flashback strips (see https://www.dumbingofage.com/2022/comic/book-12/05-this-was-halloween/realestate/ and two strips before that for getting corrected). And the less seriously I can take Billie/Jennifer’s namechange.

  48. Sean Smith

    Yeah, given Walkies personality, I see him mostly shrugging this new information off with a “What do I know. I don’t judge people.” Where as Lucy is a notorious busybody.

  49. Ray Radlein

    Say, Raidah, how did Sarah have Dana sent home anyway? What amazing power does Sarah possess to have people sent home, anyway?

  50. milu

    Tangent about lawyery ethics inspired by higher comment.

    So my sister is a criminal defense attorney. She does a lot of drug charges, often for low level trafficking, but sometimes too for higher ups, and she will cheerfully defend them as well. She won’t defend someone who asks her to outright lie for them, not so much for ethical reasons as because that is a headache and in her experience rarely likely to go well. Instead she will exploit any procedural mistakes made by the cops or prosecution, reaearch fineries of the law, dig up favorable precedents, and argue on behalf of her clients’ rehabilitation.

    And obviously she does this for cash and while she is not wildly rich, she does quite well for herself. (She is thinking of buying a house at 35-ish, level of rich. In other words comfortably middle class.)

    Now this all sounds kind of bad maybe, or at best as morally neutral as any other hustle. But here’s the thing: criminal defence lawyers are a vital part of a functioning democracy. This sounds a bit abstract, but in the day-to-day, lawyers are kind of the only institutional power who sits on the side of the accused, and this is most definitely not an abstraction. Prosecutors, cops, and the judicial and prison administration treat her with diffidence at best, commonly with annoyment and much dragging of feet, sometimes with outright contempt and spite. All of these people are to some degree in the business of putting people behind bars.

    As for judges, for all their supposed impartiality, they are colleagues of the prosecutors (like, they went to the same schools and work in the same building) and don’t have the first-hand proximity to the defendants’ lives that she has. So she cannot count on their sympathy either and while she has to play nice to them, still tends to view them essentially as antagonists in the penal negotiation (in practice, it depends on the judge. Part of her job when facing a judge for the first time is asking colleagues about them to gauge how sympathetic they are likely to be, and what some of their personal peeves may be. “The system” is humans all the way down.)

    The stakes are higher for her not only because her reputation and therefore career hinges on helping her clients get the best possible deal out of their confrontation with the law, but because she will often be emotionally invested herself. She often talks not only to her clients but to their wives, (the clients are mostly men), mothers, children, sometimes for months, sometimes over years of lengthy proceedings including detention conditions (a huge aspect of penal law not often discussed in media: your client has been convicted but they still need your help getting transferred closer to their family, getting out on probation, etc)

    While she tries to keep it professional these are often incredibly complicated lives and she intersects with them at times of massive distress and has to deal sensitively with the tension, fear, despair, exhaustion and sometimes unrealistic hopes invested in her.

    It’s like… I don’t know that i’ve earned the right to judge her ethical decisions. Basically. is my point here ?‍♀️

    1. ValdVin

      Yup. My wife was an LCSW and had court-ordered clients at one time or another.

      Without defense lawyers our system is just a bunch of people badgering the accused with “C’mon, we know you did it. Make it easy on yourself and admit it.” If that sounds like the shit which bullies do in school…there’s a reason.

    2. Amelie Wikström

      Obviously, we need professional, trained lawyers if we’re going to have a rule of law. We probably should make more of a distinction between the type of lawyers who serve the court system and the type who works to find and exploit legal loopholes to help Donald Trump run 500 shell companies for fraud purposes and that sort of thing.

      1. milu

        For sure.

        And there are evil defence lawyers too, like the kind who use vicious media tactics to slander victims of rape and abuse. Being a lawyer doesn’t absolve you of decency.

        Still, while i didn’t go into this there is a bit of an a-moral streak to lawyers as a community, at least when talking shop, as far as i can tell from my interactions with my sister and her friends. There can be something jarring, as an outsider, about people discussing a judge’s conviction of pretty serious crimes as essentially an obstacle to be circumvented, argued against, or overturned on technicalities. (Now, technicalities do matter, don’t get me wrong. Due process is, again, a democratic cornerstone, and there should be no question that risking perpetrators walking sometimes is better than the alternative).

        I’ve had a slightly uncomfortable discussion with my sister about rape allegations, around the time of the #metoo movement, where her lawyer’s instinct was that the “believe victims” mantra was ripe for judicial overreach. But well, she’s a thoughtful, empathetic person, not a shark, and besides that was before she became a committed feminist <3

    3. Joy

      I appreciate you so much for bringing this up

      1. milu

        for bringing up what part?
        anyway, thanks =)

    4. thejeff

      Just made me think of a bit of a contrast. We get a lot of “All Cops are Bastards” around here and that’s an interesting pairing with the “defense lawyers are scum who protect criminals” thing we’ve also got going on.

      More seriously, one of the problems you hinted at without really going into is that judges tend to come out of the prosecutorial side, rather than the defense side. Mostly because success at high profile defense cases can be spun against them politically.

      1. milu

        @§1 fair, maybe it’s not the same people saying both things though? i will say i do have know where i stand, i will grant ACAB is kind of provocative and just not very deep, but i feel more strongly about challenging authority than i do about being fair to the good cops. if you are a good cop, then you need to understand where the sentiment is coming from, swallow your pride, and work from wherever your life has led you towards a world where there no longer is cause for such a slogan to be graffitied

        1. milu

          haha, this is good.
          after munching on this for a bit, i realized: “well well! turns out i’m full of shit!” on the one hand i say who am i to judge my sister (and by extension, criminal defense lawyers) because she deals with heavy shit, and on the other hand, just pixels lower and in the same afternoon i’m like “oh but cops though, cops are bastards” =D

          so! what do we do with cognitive dissonance, kids? you know that one. i’m your regular hypocrite. preservation of internal coherence baby.

          i mean, politics is about who you hang out with for many of us? it certainly is for me, and i make no apologies for that. i care about my sister, and i care about people being defended against the powers that be, against being punished in large part for the bad hand they’ve drawn at birth, even to some extent for their own bad choices. i’m just not a fan of discipline and punishment i guess!

          And among the people i care about, are illegal immigrants, sex workers, drug dealers and users, activists, squatters… and boy i fucking hate to have to worry about the safety of these beautiful people, who i 100% believe are doing nothing wrong, certainly not the things they risk being (or have been) punished for; and so far i have had some affection for zero cops, so it also turns out to be comfortable for me to despise them despite having never experienced any of the shit they have to deal with (and they do have to deal with shit, i believe that).

          so, i retract my shrug about lawyers, i now think defense lawyers are a qualified Good Thing, and police is (still) a qualified Bad Thing.

          aaaah that’s a relief =P

          (i joke because this is so textbook, but honestly i think this makes sense and i’m please with how i reasoned here. that’s the thing with opinions: they don’t actually exist until you’ve stated them.)

        2. milu

          i fumbled my joke up there. i should’ve said: “preservation of pre-existing beliefs, baby”. everyone agrees internal coherence is good. it’s what you do with new knowledge (or in my case, typing things out loud i hadn’t thought much about before) and realizing it conflicts with a previously held belief.

        3. thejeff

          But that’s all kind of my point. You were being consistent. You’re arguing for the role of defense lawyers while bashing cops. In both cases, you’re against the parts of the system that screw people over.

        4. milu

          oh, sure. i’m definitely consistent in that way.

          no, this was more of a meta-ethical question? like it got me wondering why i take the sides i take.

          and after careful consideration, i guess i hate cops because i just sympathize with, and enjoy hanging around the sort of people they keep fucking over. what came first, the communities or the values? i don’t really care.

        5. spriteless aunty

          ACAB isn’t literally true, but it’s smart to act like that around police officer for one’s own safety

        6. Serendipity

          ACAB is literally true. You’re either a bad cop or covering for bad cops. If you aren’t doing either, you won’t be a cop for long.

      2. milu

        @§2, i’m speaking from france, where we have civil law not common law, so i’m not sure to what extent this translates. over here judges and prosecutors are magistrates; there is a third main type of magistrate called instruction judge, the one doing the investigation and deciding whether there are grounds to try. So, what americans call “prosecutor” is two different people in france: an investigator (who doesn’t show up in court) and a lawyer standing in for “society” (in practice, “against” the accused). The role of instruction judge has significant autonomy, in fact right-wing president Nicolas Sarkozy tried to legislate them out of existence but they resisted and he backed down. (he’s since been convicted of corruption, yay)

        Anyway, all of these folks come out of the same school (college? higher education thing?) and begin their professional life as magistrates. they do have a period of training where they work at different magistrate positions before being given a position, but they most likely will never have any defense experience. although the instruction job is less aloof and more hands-on, so it’s good that they all do a few months of that at least.

        1. thejeff

          Over here in the US basically all lawyers come out of the same schools, though they may take different sets of classes.
          Judges usually start their career as trial lawyers, overwhelmingly prosecutors and then are elected or appointed by elected officials as judges at some later point. Being “soft on crime” – like a defense attorney who got someone acquitted who later reoffends – will kill your chances of being elected (or make the politician less likely to appoint you).

  51. Suet

    Late to the observation, alt?

    Har dee har har, Willis, making a poll out of Walky’s dilemma

    1. Clif

      Yeah, Kevin and Carl could confuse anybody.

  52. Dot

    Oh they cannot possibly be falling for this

  53. Axel

    I don’t think Walky will necessarily believe them about Sarah, but oh man on him hearing SOMEONE say he could/should have been given some grace for Halloween, I can see why the manipulation may at least part-work

    1. Seregiel

      I think it’s hitting more that he should have been giving others grace instead of telling a roomful of people he knows he’s not dead…

      1. newlland(Henryvolt)

        Yeah in that moment he wasn’t thinking about how everybody needed longer to greive than him, he either only wanted to move past it or not thimk about it at all. I hope that now he thinking about the lack of understanding he was giving them.

        1. Masumi

          I don’t think that was about him being done grieving already – more like, procrastinating on *starting*.

  54. Amelie Wikström

    Somewhere Sarah is talking to herself. “Oh yes, I’ve tried to be more understanding. Maybe you want to ask my professor to be more understanding about my roommate’s drug problem so he’ll give me another extension or three? Damnit I wish I’d told her that.”

  55. Abel Undercity

    So am I reading this wrong, thinking that Raidah’s trying to slowly strip away Sarah’s circle of friends as a power and revenge move? Because that’s what it’s reading like to me.

    1. Seregiel

      Oh, she is definitely doing that. Which is hilarious because most of the people she are targeting are not Sarah’s friends. She disliked Jennifer, Walky is tangential. She has admitted to liking Dorothy, thinks Becky is fine, likes Joyce, has listened to Sal’s perspective who also doesn’t care about Raidah, and adores Dina who HATES Raidah’s group. She’s stripping away Joyce’s group who is on her list due to Jacob and being fundie so it’s a double hurt of hurting her through Joyce maybe? Which would be odd considering the giving people grace thing after the context she knows she has now due to the news

  56. Needfuldoer

    Hook, line, sinker, bobber, and half the rod.

  57. Username Taken

    So is there anyone left in the readership who likes Raidah as a person or thinks she deserves the benefit of the doubt, or has she effectively proven that she’s a terrible person by this point? Just the continued campaign of bullying and abuse against Sarah is enough for me, personally.

    1. Plaaaa

      Well, Raidah is the most realistic character in this comic, that makes her especially stand out in the worst way.

    2. Schpoonman

      Yeah, the pop-up yesterday of “How can people not see Raidah is complex?” made zero sense since we all recognize that Raidah is complex, it’s just that none of the rest of us are falling for her bullshit.

      There’s a huge gap between comprehensible motivations (like Raidah’s), and justified motivations (like Sarah’s when she called Dana’s dad).

      1. milu

        Are you talking about Imogen? If so, please get off their case. They’ve been nothing but civil and thoughtful and you’ve been very aggressive and dismissive, and reached a truly batshit level of bad faith insinuation. I haven’t seen you apologise btw. and if this is about them now you’re doing it again. They have emphatically Not Said anything like what you claim.
        Get a grip.

        1. Jodka

          This guy has a habit of being this way.

    3. spriteless aunty

      I don’t really like her, but I would like to know why. Well, Joyce did force her bf to break up with her. Well, slightly more than Sarah got Dana expelled.

      I wonder if Raidah will show the capacity to want to grow. So far, she hasn’t. Has she the wisdom to realize the thing all her failed relationships have in common is her? Well, that’s dramatic, she only has 2. Well, 2 that we know about. But has she examined her own role in them?

      1. spriteless aunty

        Has she the capacity to want to be better more than she wants to be justified?

  58. Plaaaa

    It’s going to be so satisfying when Dana returns and publicly thanks Sarah while giving Raidah the stink eye.

  59. Yeet

    I don’t know if that’s really the most effective tactic for Raidah to take here.
    Like, sure, it might make Walky mad at some people, but it’s Amber who dumped Walky over jackass grief-stricken comments – not Sarah or Joyce.
    And even Walky is self-aware enough to know (upon reflection) that a room full of shocked silent people is a sign that he has fucked up, even if he was dumb enough to keep it going at the time.
    I’m wondering if he’s going to realise that some of this is a real “Billie” move and consider if Jennifer really wants to still hang out with people like that. Same shit, different coat of paint.

    1. Yeet

      I accidentally a clause; that should read: “Amber, who was far closer to Mike than Walky ever was, who dumped Walky”

    2. Blue

      I don’t think raidah knows about any of that.

    3. GholaHalleck

      Walky *was* very aware of how shit of a friend Billie was before, he talked about how he was the “Backup” friend before with.. I want to say Lucy?

      How she’d only interact with him once all her “Cool” friends were busy.

  60. Bo

    I feel like Walky’s reaching his critical thinking point analyzing this situation. If we overclock his brain, maybe he’ll realize what Raidah is trying to do here!

    1. Clif

      We know the exact strip that Raidah shot herself in the foot with Walky.

      https://www.dumbingofage.com/2023/comic/book-13/03-joementum/goals-2/

  61. Joy

    Raidah is right, but she doesn’t understand just how much Sarah was struggling.

    1. Needfuldoer

      She doesn’t know how much Dana was truly struggling, either.

  62. Dot

    I’ll say that I think the Dana plot point would work better if she had started getting into harder drugs – let’s say, heroin – behind Raidah and Carl’s backs, with only Sarah aware.

    1. Blue

      I feel like that would make Sarah unambiguous right, and it works better with room for naunce.

      1. Plaaaa

        If we were supposed to have any questions that Raidah and crew’s beef was justified we’d have been told something terrible happened to Dana when she left school. But it’s like they never cared about her as much as they need an excuse to hate Sarah.

    2. Sam

      If she was getting into harder drugs, it would make Raidah seem completely unrealistically unhinged even if in real life, people absolutely have tolerated worse and would make the group seem like completely irredeemable jerks that never cared to any level that ignored Sarah saying ‘Dana is escalating to taking heroin’.

      I think it works better as weed because their brushing off Sarah seems more thoughtless than malicious then and the defensiveness they have makes more sense because they wouldn’t want to think of themselves as bad friends, or a bad partner, or having failed to see through a mask. It is easier to blame Sarah than to self-reflect.

    3. poyo

      from an outside perspective definitely, but i’ve seen a fair amount of people nearly ruin their lives on just weed alone (and i say that as a stoner myself). weed’s unique in that you can still enjoy recreationally without it becoming a problem like heroin or cocaine, but you can definitely still fall into a void with weed given the right circumstances (stress, mental conditions, etc)
      i think the fact that it was JUST weed what makes this plot so interesting. EVERYONE smokes weed so it makes sarah look ridiculous for saying dana had a problem

      1. Heavensrun

        Kinda like EVERYONE drinks beer. So clearly alcoholics are a myth!

        Yeah, I agree. You don’t have to be into the hard stuff to have a problem. You can do the light stuff in excess.

        1. Segnosaur

          Especially if combined with things like skipping classes, not completing assignments, etc.

        2. poyo

          exactly !

  63. Paradox

    I went back to check, Carl has been there the whole time

    But like Walky, I never noticed, he just blends into the background so well

    1. Clif

      Raidah and Carl even discussed ahead of time being ready to laugh at the man-child(Walky)’s jokes.

      Unless of course it was Kevin.

      1. milu

        – but the tags say—
        – do not trust the tags they lie, theY JUST LIE TO YOUR FACE

        …anyway, have a comic about butts

        1. Clif

          That was educational.

        2. milu

          i know right? =D

        3. Paradox

          Too many butts! No creature should have that much power

  64. Lone Duck

    Here’s my thing, somewhere between 6 months to a year since Dana left college. No one’s called Dana, texted, e-mailed her, anything? Visit her on break? Sarah, I can understand, you’d feel like you were intruding after what happened. But Dana’s defenders don’t seem that bothered to actually interact with Dana.

    1. Archieve

      Nope they were much happier harassing Sarah in Dana’s name. Just like they were happy to socialize with Dana while she was putting on the face of getting better but nobody wanted to talk with Dana on a serious level when Sarah told them she was getting impossible to live with.

    2. Dal Niente

      On one hand, it may have happened offscreen – we haven’t seen much of what these characters do when they aren’t interacting with the main cast. But on the other hand, I do think if they HAD contacted her very much, someone would have mentioned it by now.

  65. vulcanodon

    Well that’s not quite the whole story, now, is it Raidah?

  66. Stephen Nedland

    Raidah is conveniently glossing over the substance abuse. And if I remember Sarah’s version, Raidah knew.

  67. elfroyalty

    first, i think it’s actually so evil for raidah to target walky with this specifically. you know she hand-picked this conversation for him, and honestly i am hopeful that it will not work the way she was hoping.

    second, i think it’s so interesting that she and carl talk about dana leaving college as if she had been shipped to an unreachable plane separate from our reality or something. no one ever mentions dana’s fate after leaving, about dana’s opinions about the situation. it’s very clear no one texts or calls or dms her, no one follows her on twitter or is friends with her on facebook, looks at her instagram… nothing. dana’s fate is ambiguous because the person who cared the most did the hard thing and knows she can’t reach out first after what was no doubt seen as a betrayal, and the people who claim to be her friends can’t be bothered to check. that makes it similarly interesting that carl calls dana his girlfriend, present-tense, when dana had dumped him during her downward spiral, and there is no evidence that he’s kept up with her at all.

    but talking to her may shatter their illusion that keeps this stupid grudge going. she might not want to talk to them, even, if they tried to talk to her. they don’t care about dana, the person, they just use her as a cudgel to justify their abuse of sarah. a sad story to pull out to further alienate her.

    it’s a mundane flavour of callousness and evil but i find it compelling nonetheless!!

  68. poyo

    lmao nah i’d ask a million more questions if i were here. like what do you mean “sent home”. you can’t just have someone kicked out of college cause they’re annoying you. raidah would NOT like my ass lol

    1. Taffy

      Ooh, manipulative types haaaaate it when you ask questions. That’s why they keep incurious beta orbiters around them, for shushing anyone who asks too many.

      1. Archieve

        Maybe that’s another reason Radiah doesn’t want Dorothy in her orbit, if she was here she would almost definitely ask logical to get the whole picture, forcing them to admit Dana had other issues or to outright lie.

        1. poyo

          oh my god i never thought about it but youre totally right ????

  69. Mancuso

    We’re not even gonna pretend we don’t hate Raidah’s guts, are we.

    1. Taffy

      Why bother? She sucks.

  70. Sombrero

    Up to this storyline Raidah seemed to be at least smart, but now I’m starting to think it was just by comparison with Carl and the others.

    1. Archieve

      I suspect she gets dumber more mental gymnastics she has to do to tell herself Sarah was 100% the villian and taking away all her friends it totally a productive use of time.

  71. ADLegend21

    It’d be great if all this manipulation failed cuz Walky trauma bonded with Sarah’.

  72. Sev

    I really relate to Walky having a moment here where he Feels Things, then immediately deciding that he doesn’t enjoy that at all and would rather talk about Carl.

  73. Heavensrun

    Seriously, Raidah makes me want to punch something so much.

  74. Archieve

    Plot twist Carl is an undercover cop who Dana broke up with when she realized he was trying to hunt down her weed supplier! That’s why he doesn’t tell anybody they broke up!… maybe a bit of long shot but starting to think Carl’s invisibility is by design.

    1. newlland(Henryvolt)

      That’s a twist 100% want now.

  75. milu

    hey, here’s a prank idea:

    stop random person, look confused, and ask them what year this is

    then just frown, maybe nod slightly, and walk away.

    1. milu

      (it’s just they do it all the time in movies, i wanna know how real people would react)

      (also i’m giggling out loud thinking of doing this)

      (this is unrelated to anything, btw) (i just find myself to be in silly mode)

  76. shoopdawhoop

    We’re onto you Carl, if that’s even your real name

  77. Heavensrun

    I mean, I feel very certain Walky is not falling for ANY of this shit. Sarah literally got kidnapped by the mob because of her connection to Joyce, and she has done nothing but stand by her since.

  78. C.T. Phipps

    Listen, Dana used WEED.

    She was a violent dangerous criminal! She got off easy!

    -Sliding timescale from when Roomies was first out.

  79. Canary

    The benefit of doubt ran screaming from this strip 🙁

  80. DudeMyDadOwnsADealership

    Your mask of personal progress is slippin’, Rai-Rai…

    Also, Carl:

    “Yeah, I just overheard Raidah taking ’bout what Sarah did and invited myself ’cause I’m still mad about it ’cause I miss Dana! No, I’m not gonna go give her a call! That’d be inconvenient!!”

  81. GeekRyuu

    Raidah just really enjoys being a backstabbing bongo, doesn’t she? She will not rest until she has completely destrtoyed Sarah’s life while conveniently ignoring that she herself did NOTHING to help her supposed friend Dana.

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