/DOAG/ Dumbing of Age General

I think Becky had a stroke and just decided to fucking talk about chipmunks

Angry at her situation with her folks and older brother, or angry at Becky's excessive quirkiness?

Spoiler: Yes.

Hey, big girl. Sun's gettin' real low.

That's not even close to the size of the window it supposedly came from come on now.

Chaklam?

What the hell kinda sound is "chaklam"?

Some "artists" just need to stick with "Crack" and "Snap" and "Bang".

MEANWHILE, IN THE WALKERTON COMEDY HOUR...

And trucks can't come at you from the side if you're on a two lane bridge. Willis comics make liberal use of impossible space. That window is smaller in the last panel because it is smaller inside the building than it is outside.

>Spends previous several hours worrying about committing what's not actually a crime.
>Then flips out and causes actual property damage because she was told to get angry.

Consistent character writing there, Willis!

Also: no punchline.

Transparent Hair Girl is referring to that, if they break the window, they won't be able to unbreak it to stop stuff like chipmunks getting in.

Well, one of those was half a day ago, and the other is happening right now, so I'm going to assume it's Becky.

Or rather, I'm going to assume it's the family thing because Willis is writing this.

Reminder

Six weeks ago, Willis was making Joyce's eldest brother out to be the bad guy for suggesting she had an anger problem.

So is blue eye girl a robot or something? Because her eyes always look like they're glowing.

What pisses me off more is that in the next page, IIIRC, the older sibling talks to the younger about how he's worried Becky and college life is having a bad influence on Joyce, and the younger immediately walks back in and volunteers himself and Joyce to go break into a house.

Like seriously what the fuck WIllis.

He's one of those writers who have their characters act a different way when the situation needs it without rhyme or reason.

cuz fuck tone policing. Sometimes, gasp, anger is justified, and we're not robots or vulcans. Emotions are human. Controlling them, sure, that's good and all, but sometimes the cards aren't stacked right. Consider this: Joyce's whole world has been turned upside down, and she's being torn asunder. And her brother comes in and refuses to hear anything he has to say because she's 'angry', which some people might also chalk up to some cultural-christian thing and whatever.

What person WOULD just chalk up and calm down to the demands of someone who cares more about how one presents, than substance? A weak person, IMHO. Sometimes, you're angry, and that's fine.

Younger is trans, hates the christian shit as much as anyone else, and relates more to Becky and Joyce than rich india missionary hypocrite guy.

>Joyce's whole world has been turned upside down
Oh give me a fucking break.

>Sometimes, you're angry, and that's fine.
Being angry is okay when you deal with it appropriately.

Screaming in restaurants, lashing out at your family when they express concern at how angry and unhinged you're acting, destroying private property... these are not appropriate ways of dealing with anger.

A christian girl from the near fringe of the already crazy american religious upbringing gets thrusted into a liberal college full of different people and even comes to befriend some of the people who she was raised to see as literal walking agents of the devil - you're saying that won't flip ones world? Even her best friend, again, turned out to be lesbian, and her mom hates said friend now (who, before she came out, her mom saw as okay and fine). Oh, and nearly raped by a 'pastor's son'.

That's something fitting for 'the world has turned upside down' to be brought back from Yorktown. It's one of Willis' stated aims of the comic, iirc, so.... if you don't like it, why read it?

There's no concern. It's pure tone policing. If my sister told me, holy shit, her best friend was taken from campus by a gun toting dad, my first reaction isn't to tone police her, it's holy shit, are you okay? Talk to me.

But he doesn't care. He sees her as going down a different path, damn her safety or her friends for it. He's a control freak on two legs, fuck 'im.

Oh gimme a fucking break. She's causing a fucking scene in a restaurant, he's saying "Rake a deep breath, count to ten, and let's talk about this", and her response is screaming at the top of her longs AHHH I'M SO ANGRY! GAAHH I JUST WANNA THROW SHIT EVERYWHERE!! etc etc etc


That's not a reasonable reaction, that's throwing a goddamned bitch fit in the middle of breakfast at IHOP. I know Willis seems to forget it on a weekly basis, but Joyce and Becky aren't kids, they are fucking grown ass women, and it is not "tone policing" for the only calm, rational human being in the fucking scene to tell them to act like it.

*Take

He doesn't say 'take a breath', he says 'do you sound how angry you are!?'

Take your break, and actually read the comic.

They ARE kids. They're 18, 19 max. This is freshman year of college. Ruth is around 20, Sarah ditto or 19. How else do you expect teens to act?

>It is perfectly acceptable for an 18 year old woman to literally throw a tantrum in a restaurant, flailing her arms and screaming at the top of her lungs.

Jesus, what kind of insane, abusive, dysfunctional family do you come from where that kind of behavior is considered normal and encouraged?

>He doesn't say 'take a breath', he says 'do you sound how angry you are!?'
In the first page he's calmly and rationally trying to talk Becky and Joyce out of doing something stupid or illegal and comments on how mad Joyce sounds.

Joyce's response is to throw a bitch-fit.

I see your points, but I feel that the writing is still poor because, from the restaurant scene, Joyce is getting mad mostly about things that happened to Becky. Much of this frustration would be better centered as part of Becky's character, but instead she remains a snarky "fun loving" bitch. Anger has its place in Joyce's character, but Becky has gone through the most trauma out of anyone, and Joyce getting mad mainly for her (she does mention almost dying) undercuts Becky, who is unnaturally calm during these scenes, and also makes it almost seem like Joyce would have been better off not meeting Becky.

I think the comic is going for, since Joyce was so sheltered, she never learned how to express anger in a healthy manor so she lashes out. I'm not sure if the comic is saying this is good or should be encouraged, but it does make Joyce righteous indignant.

That's probably the weirdest part of all of this. I think Joyce's hulkout rage is still shitty writing but at least it would seem justified if some legitimate bad shit happened to her, but nothing did.

Everything bad in this scenario happened to Becky. Joyce literally showed up on a motorcycle after everything was over. Walked over to a man who'd just been in a car accident, and punched him in the face.

She has no reason to be this angry and that lack of motivation becomes really really really apparent the more this arc goes on.

Man, I miss Ethan. I liked him. I should draw Sal in a bikini.