Wack'd

Pardon our dust.

[wackd]

we call it THE PROPHECY

[wackd]

i guess this being THE PROPHECY means i gotta root for becky/dina and ruth/jason to eventually get back together

or i start calling it THE PROPHECY BUT ONLY THE PART WHERE EVERYONE'S TRANS AND NOT THE SPECIFIC NARRATIVE CONTEXT

which it kind of already was because i wasn't sincerely prophesying that carla would shoot the whole cast with a magical trans beam

[wackd]

we call it THE PROPHECY

[wackd]

bringing this back for the day that it is

[wackd]

i've seen some confusion on this, so to help, i've made a chart explaining how jennifer billingsworth processes relationships. you're welcome.

[wackd]

we call it THE PROPHECY

[the-cimmerians]

in the tags: you have been granted the ability to bring back three (but only three) cancelled shows for at least one more season. What do you choose?

[penny-anna]

a significant problem with crafting is that once you make something you now have it forever. you can sidestep this by making gifts for people but well now they have the thing forever and there's probably a limit to how many things they want. unless the thing you enjoy crafting is also a thing you want an infinite amount of there's just no good solution here.

[wackd]

[stupidohia]

a minor aside on these two specific strips and the conversation around them. thoughts below.

I am never ever ever gonna argue someone who thinks that Raidah is a caustic, bullheaded, vicious bully, mainly because she is. However I truly think everyone who says that she is incapable of actually having sincere feelings and opinions on the student encampments/protests (especially for an overseas genocide that in-text has personally affected the Muslim and SWANA students of IU) or that she is just being offended for… clout? self-validation? needs to actually understand that there is no clout to obtain from this.

When you are in any kind of minority group you live with the knowledge that by the vary nature of who you are, your worth and value as a person who deserves dignity is always in contention. This is not exclusive to Raidah, Joyce has and continues to experience this herself as she navigates her identity as a autistic bisexual woman. But in the case of being a Muslim women, especially in USAmerica, especially in Indiana, whatever petty “win” Raidah is feeling here is pyrrhic, and she fucking knows it.

Islamophobia is so agreeable and uncontested that even within progressive spaces it is acceptable to not think about it manifests itself in western culture. Let’s be fucking straight here, even outside the fact that so much of what has happened to Joyce has been on some level out of her control, this is the second time Joyce has visibly dismissed that anything she has done in the last 24 hours has caused any emotional distress to her SWANA peers, and that’s because there is 0 social punishment for not caring. And it’s going to absolutely hurt her when the full weight of what she did hits her, because Joyce is a character that has shown to change and care and strive to do better, but it doesn’t change the fact that outside of an undefined duty to not be a bigot, she doesn’t value those perspectives, and quite frankly, she’s never going to unless she make the choice to actively do so.

It’s the same thing with Daisy and how getting a splashy, punny cover image that turns her on and gets clicks matters more than the context of the story itself. Even on a smaller, more agreeable level, Dorothy is also guilty of this, it wasn’t until she was confronted by this she felt any guilt for her ignorance, despite her background and identity as someone who is politically active and actively progressive.

Due to the nature of SWANA culture in the US being so uniquely alien to the majority of USAmericans, combined with the baseline internalized understanding that the negative politicizing of Muslim identity (and by extension, her Muslim identity) are essential to US military, industry and imperial interests, Raidah does not get that privilege. By the very fact of who she is, her culture and her heritage and her ethic background will be permanently misunderstood, discounted and misrepresented in the American eye. Her response to that reality has been misguided and cruel, but her anger is not.

You can think that Raidah is a fucking monster, once again she has done enough genuine harm in this comic that i don’t think any suspicion or distaste is unwarranted/unreasonable (like truly look at that top strip again), but I need you to ask what do YOU get from this strip if everything Raidah says is always wrong and stupid and dismissible. What do you think it means when you choose to make the harm that was done to her, whether it be getting cheated on or having her criticisms about the cover image be dismissed by Daisy, as something she deserved for being unpleasant. What do you gain from this interaction by characterizing these emotions as fake.

If you feel the impulse to characterize Raidah’s reactions to her identity as a Muslim woman as “bad” in comparison to those that have been shown by a character like Asma, make the choice to reject that dichotomy. Even if you come out feeling the same, all I ask is that if you don’t know anything about Islam, or SWANA, or the cultures and conversations held by and for the people who are a part of it (and this is something I have reasonable belief to be true to the majority of readers), you take the time to confront that, and how it would affect how you characterize what is happening in this strip now. Thank you.

[sexy-necromancing-bird]

Is the guy in the cuck chair supposed to stay quiet or is he allowed to clap and cheer

[foxgirlmindcrank]

he's supposed to take notes and make an intrigued hum when an interesting plot point occurs

[conspiracydeerist]

[wackd]

[wackd]

something that's been really bothering me about the discourse around dumbing of age is the idea that joe doesn't "deserve this" or that, after building up narrative steam, it's "out of character" that joyce would drop joe.

as much as we love these characters, they're not real people, they don't "deserve" things, they don't have core traits that mean they do and don't do certain things--i mean. i dunno how much i believe this about real people, but that's besides the point.

characters don't exist in a vacuum, they're gears (and pulleys!) in a larger narrative machine, one that is trying to communicate thoughts and ideas. interestingly, as much hay as is made about whether or not this comic is teaching a moral lesson, i believe it is, one that's loud and clear and perhaps unpalatable--

there is nothing you can do that means you "deserve" another person.

it's easy to buy this in big, abstract ways that only indict jerks. "save" a woman? you didn't "earn" her. be a performative "nice guy"? tough luck, buddy! why not try changing and be selfless and genuine and open, and accept this woman is her own person with her own feelings and desires?

well. you still don't "deserve" her. tough luck.

joe has gone above and beyond. he's been self-sacrificing, he's been patient, he's been sweet. he's taken a long hard look at himself and torn up the foundations and started from scratch. and he needed to do this, to become this new guy, because the person he was before was genuinely just an awful piece of shit. and none of it means joyce is interested in building a life with him.

and it's not just joe. or even just walky! sarah bared her soul to jacob and he chose lucy. or, hell, look at billie--she's refused growth and change, again and again, and alice chose her anyway, despite knowing how dangerous billie's affection can be.

because what this comic is showing us is love isn't rational. there's no perfect set of winning moves. there's no moral calculous so great, no sacrifice so tremendous, that it means the people we love will love us. all we can do is try, and fail, again and again, until we find the people who are our kinda irrational.

i think dorothy/joyce/joe could be a fun dynamic. i feel for joe over his heartbreak. but at a certain point you gotta do actual, base-ass textual analysis and figure out why this is happening, what it means, and what you're supposed to take away from it, at least if you want to have meaningful conversations about art.

if you don't wanna have meaningful conversations about art, that's cool too, i guess. you do you

[dorothykeenersleftdoinker]

she rich on my mullins till i go out like elijah

[itswalky]

So has Dorothy ever done the obvious and dress as Dorothy Gale for halloween?

All we know is that for the last three years she's gone as Velma. (well, President Velma, technically, for that middle year)

[joyce-browns-right-hook]

Couples costume, Joyce as Princess Ozma to her blonde Dorothy Gale!

[dorothykeenersleftdoinker]

joyce dressing up as ozma and someone mentioning offhand that she’s transfem and joyce has an anxiety moment like OH NO AM I TAKING REPRESENTATION?? AM I CISWASHING

[wackd]

joyce dressing as prince marvel from island of yew. because of the prophecy

[queenofsodor]

YOINK

[wackd]

YOINK?!

[wackd]

"who do you ship in dumbing of age? joyce/dorothy? joyce/joe? a triad?" well i'm so glad you asked

❤️ = romance 😡 = hate -_- = meh 💦 = sex

[bullfrawgs]

I have some notes:

Sarah x Dina is really ambitious

The line "Our Few Remaining Friends" not "Our Mutual Friends" and I'll see you in court

I appreciate/find humorous that Lucy/Lucy's Boyfriend/Ethan/Asher aren't on this list

There's no way Billy and Dotty get to be in Hate Sex tier but not Joyce. Billy was practically her first sapphic crush and that's never really stopped

[wackd]

look it's not "bullfrawg's ideal dumbing of age polycule"

[wackd]

"who do you ship in dumbing of age? joyce/dorothy? joyce/joe? a triad?" well i'm so glad you asked

❤️ = romance 😡 = hate -_- = meh 💦 = sex

[meghanthedreamcrusher]

I made the realest Dumbing of Age tier list

[dumbingofage]

dang i've been slacking

[itswalky]

don't hold me to this

[wackd]

fixed it for you

(with help from @queenofsodor and @dorothykeenersleftdoinker)

[wackd]

we call it THE PROPHECY

[wackd]

more charts! this one was a quickie. count includes only the main twelve as laid out in previous chart

joe/ruth crackshippers start your engines