Dumbing of Age

I'm honestly surprised that Willis seems to be actually committing to addressing this ship in the comic.

And I'm not a big Joyce fan, but goddamn if she doesn't look cute delivering tonight's reference joke.

mary and joyce interacting more is a good idea but taking the mary/carla idea seriously when its definitely not true is gonna be awful so im not sure which will win out

>Casablanca reference
Have the people who make Casablanca references for seemingly no reason even WATCHED that movie?

Anyways, I'm also surprised Willis is willing (Willising?) to take this story thread any further than just speculation and hijinks. It's either going to be so anticlimactic that it hurts, or he's actually going whole hog into either building up the ship or tearing it down spectacularly. My money's still on the latter.

Too lazy to find the password; also the usual suspects didn't work.

It's "Dumbing of Age". We all lose.

Meh setup, but competently executed punchline

Mary's probably happy because she heard news of the university banning all trannies for being "a distraction." or something. God knows Willis' doesn't have the balls to do something so "anti-progressive."

But, a bigoted person moving past their hatefulness and then falling for a trans person sounds "progressive", doesn't it?

Being trans aside, Carla has been nothing but a dick and a huge asshole this whole fucking comic. Why would anyone have sympathy for her?

Joyce trying to act tough only to completely drop the act and smile with that "how'm I doing at being cool?" look will never stop being cute.

The latter almost certainly. His fanbase seems horrified or disgusted at the thought of Mary being into Carla so they'd probably crucify him if he actually went through with it. Because fuck having multifaceted characters and non-cartoonish personal drama I guess. Everyone has their box and must stay there forever.

From what I gather Ruth/Billie was pretty contentious when it started so he might just be banking on the fact that his format, pacing, and focus means that he can distract and ride out any naysayers.

Speaking of the fanbase, I checked the comments to see if there was anything good. All I saw that was interesting was the idea that Mary may have a crush on Joe, and the revelation of her place on his List may factor into her behavior. Also this choice quote:

>Join the Tsundering herd.

So at least one person in the comments likes the ship, I think.

because Christians are mean and trannies are perfect darlings

The idea that they can't hold their disgust long enough to even interact with Mary, but they still want to hook her up with Carla is pretty weird.

Even with that awkwardness, this honestly feels like the best possible type of storyline for for an ideal DoA. It has some identity exploring and belief clashing but also a lot of goofiness. But it seems incredibly out of place amid all the drama.

Joyce *just* returned to her room after telling Amber that she wishes she killed a man. And now she's just triangle smiling like everything's great.

I don't think anyone has directly asked Mary what she's happy about, even people who have shown to have no problems interacting with her. Fuck, why not ask Roz?

I imagine all sane people limit their interactions with Roz as much as possible.

Probably but it seems like most of them absolutely adore Carla and thus seem like they'd take it as a personal slight if Carla/Mary ever became a thing. I think it's because, while we (and anyone really) see Carla as an annoying, cantankerous asshole the fanbase sees her as the snarky straight shooter type who takes no guff from anyone. I think that's more what Willis is going with (the jerk with a heart of gold type) but he's very, very bad at writing it like that so Carla's abrasiveness is never turned off.

Maybe Mary's happy because over the past three days, Roz has gone missing.

Actually, with how we haven't seen Robin's whereabouts yet, it stands to reason that something could have happened during the timeskip. Hell, we still haven't even gone back to the ever-important storyline regarding the blossoming love triangle between Leslie, Mindie, and Anna.

>ywn be joe
>ywn marry joyce
>ywn impregnate her right after the wedding
Living will never cease to be painful or get better.

Carla is a less personable Mike with a pair of tits; I think that when he realized that Mike wasn't getting the reception he wanted he simply recycled the shtick with Carla.

Considering the plots that are currently ongoing, it's pretty weird that Willis hasn't shown Roz at all. This is the one time where it'd be logical for her to be in the forefront of the story.

Robin is presumably still standing in the parking lot of her deserted campaign headquarters in nothing but a button up and panties.

You've won this round Willis.

With Becky running Robin's twitter account, Robin will be Speaker of the House before you know it.

so I'm almost willing to bank on the idea that mary's not crushing, she's happy because she figured out how to get rid of carla without having to bully her to deaththat still remains one of the dumbest escalations: she can report to the higherups that carla has made her feel uncomfortable, either by making inappropriate comments, or by her gender in general.

Mary has time and again proven that she is not a very effective villain. She exists to be hated and triumphed over.

The problem with that is Clint showing up and making the university bend over backwards for him. If some ostensibly middle-class nobody was able to get IU to ignore several potential lawsuits and criminal actions then what issue would Carla's parents, who run a Google/Apple analogue in-universe, have in getting IU to ignore Mary?

Fans think that she's secretly nice. Like... it's okay to be terrible to people if you're not terrible on the inside. She's just putting on an act. An act that affects people negatively. Yeah, I don't follow the logic either.

>The idea that they can't hold their disgust long enough to even interact with Mary, but they still want to hook her up with Carla is pretty weird.
Yeah:
>This person is so horrible that we refuse to ask her the most basic of questions. You should date her!

I hope so.

Why is it so hard for them to just let someone be happy? They were all angry before and thought she needed to improve her attitude, and now that she has it's a fucking federal issue too all of a sudden?

mary doesn't necessarily know that.

I think that might be a point that Mary is making herself. She's super-happy and polite and nice, but people still hate her the same way they hate her when she's rude and mean and spiteful.

theyre just wondering why shes happy, no ones suggested she should stop

Added bonus, Carla is fucking rich. Literally the least relatable character in the comic. Even to other trans people, because Carla's transition is drawn to be flawless, likely from having access to the best doctors and supportive family.
She goes through none of the issues an actual trans person goes through, yet she's supposed to be the poster child for it.

No, but they are sure bitching a lot about it.

Okay, not gonna lie. Those last two panels are fucking cute as all get out.

How does it make you feel to know Willis makes $5,107 a month off patreon alone from this shit? That comes out to roughly $62,000 gross income alone. When you figure the rest of his takehome from sales and smut, he's gotta be close to 6 figures. Does his wife work too?

Makes you think.

>That comes out to roughly $62,000 gross income alone.

Eh. I get a little more than that at my job, plus bonuses, plus benefits.

There's also the added bonus that you don't make Dumbing of Age. So that's a plus.

>Makes you think.

No it doesn't. I refuse to think about it. My brain might explode out of sheer anger.

Also, make more edits!

Come on, user, at least try.

>When you figure the rest of his takehome from sales and smut, he's gotta be close to 6 figures.
There's no way that he makes 40k in sales and smut. The majority of people who pay for his work are on patreon for sure.

Poster child???!!??!?
I think Willis thinks he hit jackpot on Mike 2.0