Dumbing of Age

>>92753500
do we have a compilation of all the times Mary should up where she wasn't being an irredeemable villain? or is there enough to make a compilation?

File: 2017-05-28-redemption.png (326KB, 1000x333px) Image search: [Google]

326KB, 1000x333px

>>92753500
Anyone have a good hot take on the last one?

>>92753500
...What is Mary even talking about here?

>>92753500
Inb4 the interpretation that this is Mary threatening to kill Ruth.

>>92753701

Billie decked her when Ruth went to the hospital, as she didn't have anything left to lose with Ruth gone. Now that Ruth is back, Mary can once again try to blackmail Ruth with the threat of losing her R. A. job...which Ruth doesn't even want anyway and will be forced to keep no matter what thanks to Clint. How is Mary supposed to be threatening again?

>>92753500
>You have something to lose.
So I guess Billie is now Mary's target of revenge? Is that what's supposed to be going on here?

It almost feels like Willis just needed to give Mary something to do.

>>92753789
I think she just wants to bully Billie now. Either that, or Willis is setting up Billie to deck Mary again.

File: ProveWhoIsRightPunchHer.png (1MB, 1000x1332px) Image search: [Google]

1MB, 1000x1332px

>>92753500
Here's their last confrontation for context.

It seems like threatening to fuck up Billie and Ruth's relationship is a bad move. Mary may be able to do manipulate them before she drives one off or gets one expelled (for their own violent outbursts, or alcohol infractions) but if she ever actually followed through, Billie would beat Mary to death. Or maybe crush her between her thighs. But she would definitely resort to murder.

>>92753904
so mary will just have to make sure to get close to fucking them up but never actually do it

at which point billie will call her bluff and punch her anyway

>>92753658
My hot take on that one is that Rachel is essentially correct, and Willis even agrees to an extent.

Being a heroin addict in the past, and diagnosed with a plethora of DSM V garbage, I can speak to the subject of redemption, at least from one perspective. I'm five years clean, I've made some amends, but no matter what I do, I'm still an addict. That is always going to be with me. It pops up in my weaker moments. Not with dope anymore, but in other parts of my life.

You'd be a fool to think you can fight against your genetic brain chemistry and win the war. Take all the pills you want. They can be a great weapon, but never forget that what you're fighting is YOU. You can't win that war. It's just about winning battles.

Enough blogging, back to the comic. Ruth is not redeemed. First stress she had out of the gate, she shat on Billie hardcore, and she's been kicking the shit out of inanimate objects since she got out of the "hospital". She's still the violent misanthrope she always was, even once you remove the alcohol. She always will be. She just needs to learn to cope and find ways to avoid those situations. Dumping Billie would be a great start.

I do believe that Willis doesn't truly believe in redemption, because none of his characters have ever changed. Sure, some had growth in IW! and Shortpacked!, but Willy undid all that with the DoA reboot. Why? Because he realized he never changed, so the characters that were aspects of himself couldn't truly change either. He needs to reset them every once in a while to make sure they stay in the rut that he's in, and that he'll always BE in, unless he just decides to try to make incremental improvements with the brain he was given.

Or maybe that's just the ramblings of a former dope fiend. You decide.

>>92753500
>Panel 5

I don't know how many times Willis can hit people over the head with a wooden sign that says "I'M EVIL" before they have had enough of it or dropped dead from brain damage. Also it is pretty jarring to see us back at this scene when Willis did a cut to Robin last strip, kinda thinking we were going to that or another scene.

I was about to ask if anyone remembered when this was supposed to be a relatively realistic and grounded take on the college experience.

But honestly, I'm not even sure Pepperidge Farms remembers.

>>92753904
>We can multi-task
Oh, if the next strip isn't Rachel noticing what Mary said and telling her to back off, she's also a huge fucking hypocrite. She should at least be noticing how positive Mary is being if she can't hear the exact things she's saying to Billie.

As much as I enjoyed >>92753658 her calling out the shitty relationship (even if the writing is way over the top) Rachel has done pretty much nothing to help anyone the entire time.

>>92753500
>panel 3
Nice. Willis decides to abandon art, and make the background transparent, since that angle would mean he would've had to draw how people would actually be positioned in a hallway, and perspective is haaaaaarrrrddd. Wahhhh.

>>92754248
I wonder if we can pinpoint where it goes from that to "half the cast is now cartonishly evil or wacky."

File: 1493997262209.png (138KB, 375x375px) Image search: [Google]

138KB, 375x375px

Reminder that none of the characters made it into business school at IU.

>>92753500
Amber's cleavage looks really weird. Isn't she standing/sitting parallel to the 4th wall? Why is it drawn as if she's mostly facing to her right? And not even a little bit, but like, most of the way right.

If you compare it to >>92753658 it's even more at an angle than in that strip.

File: Mary08.jpg (23KB, 181x333px) Image search: [Google]

23KB, 181x333px

>>92753789
>How is Mary supposed to be threatening again?
I have no idea since it has been established that violence can be used against Mary with no repercussions. Ruth could mount Mary MMA-style and rain down blows until her face was pulp, but no one on the floor would say a damn word unless it looked like Ruth was damaging her hands.

>>92753500
Has Mary done even ONE thing wrong?

>>92755067
Reminder that Carla is pursuing a degree in engineering, which IU does not offer.

>>92755320
stop "reminding" people of something thats not true

>>92755320
STOP
BEING
TRANS
PHOBIC

>>92755289
She thought she could change people.

>>92755335

What is her major then?

>>92753500
Well, there it is. I was enjoying the last few, because Ruth and Billie were getting called out on their violent abuse, and Mary got an apology and a portrayal in which she wasn't
>LITTERALLY HITLER
but here we go again.

>>92753500
You know what is the worst part?
He makes Mary looks completely retarded. Why show your intentions with "you have something to lose"? that last part has no reason to exist, except to make Mary look unquestionably evil.

>>92753500
Why does this make Mary evil anyway?

It's pretty reasonable to want revenge on a couple of bull dykes with administrative power over you and a penchant for fucking HITTING YOU IN THE FACE REPEATEDLY.

Every single time I feel compelled to peer into this ghetto of an ongoing I find overwrought drama and utter stupidity. It's always horrible, all the time, with every character being absolutely irredeemable. Is the point of reading this to have a hateboner? I just don't understand.

>>92755854
It's more like a sad hateboner for me. I hate what Willis has become, and still lament the potential he had as one of the OGs of webcomics. He's not totally devoid of talent, he just squanders it willingly.

It's just another one of Mr Bones's wild rides in the end.

>>92755320
https://www.engineering.indiana.edu

>>92755998
Did you actually click on the "degrees offered" links? It's all comp sci stuff. Not really what I'd consider "engineering" degrees.

>>92753658

Okay that's real fuckin' neato lady, life isn't a storybook and even though as a comic strip character your life -is- you have no reason to know that.

But you know what? Fuck your shitty nobody can improve attitude. So fucking what if someone will always be themselves no matter what? Getting up in their face for trying to act halfway normal is the best way to keep them from trying to halfway resemble something other than a fuckup for five seconds.

People like you are why prisons don't give a shit about rehabilitatating minor cases and are overclogged shithole rape factories that turn people out bigger drains on society than when they came in.

Honestly I can't even fucking remember what Ruth did lately other than be a grumpy petty tyrant bitch then lock herself in her room shitting the bed until nurses had to drag her out but fuck that I'm severely sleep deprived from a random bout of insomnia and I wanted to tell at the weird up-in-someone's face bitch.

File: 1386242180838.png (345KB, 400x600px) Image search: [Google]

345KB, 400x600px

>>92755998

>thinking all engineering disciplines are the same
>not noticing it's through the School of Informatics and Computing
>Not realizing these degrees were added this year
>Not noticing there is literally no mechanical engineering

Most importantly

>Going to IU over Purdue for engineering

Why would anyone who wasn't insane do this?

>>92753500
>Has been violently assaulted multiple times in her own dorm.
>Has no power or influence in the school; is completely isolated socially
>Ruth is untouchable as evidenced by her keeping the RA job after everything that has happened
>Mary still thinks she has control of the situation

Mary is literally insane. Good job, Willis, your main villain is a pathetic crazy woman with no friends.

I like(I don't) how Mary thinks Rachel's speech doesn't apply to her

>>92756072
>>92756288
I hope you like not getting a response. Because you will not get one.

And yeah it's pretty crazy that Carla wouldn't go to the actual top ranked engineering school as a rich kid with lots of pull from her family name.

>>92756428
If she did that how would she harass the working class kids in her dorm?

>>92756289
Yeah, Mary doesn't think it is strange that Ruth kept her job? Ruth is protected from up on high by the Prince of Darkness.

>>92756288
Who gives a shut. There's also no capeshit and no school shootings over there

>>92756428
>And yeah it's pretty crazy that Carla wouldn't go to the actual top ranked engineering school as a rich kid with lots of pull from her family name.
The same reason that Clint is obsessed with Ruth having "RA" on her resume and has enough cash to bribe his way through Ruth's trouble, but he doesn't have his granddaughter going to a prestigious Ivy League school.

>>92756072
>>92756288
in my defense i haven't slept in three days

>>92755101
It's been that way in nearly all of her appearances since the box-chair debacle. It's like one of her boobs is attempting to overtake the other. I'm not sure why it's so hard to draw cleavage from the front.

>>92755638
He wants to shut down anyone who likes her even a little bit.

>>92755854
>Is the point of reading this to have a hateboner?
It's kind of fun to hate something as a community.

And this:
>>92755943
>I hate what Willis has become, and still lament the potential he had as one of the OGs of webcomics. He's not totally devoid of talent, he just squanders it willingly.

>>92756146
>grumpy petty tyrant bitch
That's her entire character.

>>92756542

IU is internationally acclaimed in a lot of things, just not for any field of study these dumb-asses partake in.

Willis could have even fucking made one of his characters study human sexuality (Kinsey) but he didn't. It's like he just wants his characters to be mediocre and make bad decisions in academia.

Is that why this is called Dumbing of Age, because they're literally retarded when it comes to higher education?

>>92757321
>Is that why this is called Dumbing of Age, because they're literally retarded
Yes.

Please stop appropriating Hoosier culture

File: make the world great again.png (325KB, 800x601px) Image search: [Google]

325KB, 800x601px

>>92753500
I'm really glad Mary is back, even though I'm sure it is just to get smacked around, humiliated, and be a victim of some more awful conflicts and writing.

>>92758205
Maybe she'll at least get some real leverage and do some actual villainy this time. I'd rather see her do something useful if she's going to be a mustache-twirler.

>>92753658
A little bit of >>92754188, a little bit of >>92756146

Rachel's right. Once you get into bad habits, it gets really difficult to get back out of them, and some people end up spending the rest of their lives trying to not be what they used to be. God knows I've learned some shitty coping practices that I'm going to spent the next ten years trying to unlearn. But you can unlearn them, at least to the point where it only pops up in your weaker moments. And the last thing you should *ever* tell someone like Ruth is that they shouldn't even try changing themselves. You tell them that it's perfectly possible to be better than they are, with the right medicine and enough effort, and you be supportive when they try to be better, but also realistic about the damage they've caused and how difficult it'll be to fix it. Ruth may have irrevocably shit the bed with her freshmen, and telling her to go fuck herself is understandable, but actively stomping on her first steps towards being a decent human being, no matter how clumsy, is going to screw over the next people she'll come in contact with.

And the worst thing is that this is Willis bringing in unrelated characters for important moments in character's stories. Like how Amber basically hijacked the car chase plotline and Mary ended up replacing the already compelling internal turmoil of Billie and Ruth's relationship. Who the fuck is Rachel to Ruth, or Billie? How badly did Rachel suffer under Ruth, as opposed to everyone else? The only character with enough set-up to justify this sort of rant is Mary, and even discounting the Snidely Whiplash thing Willis has had going with her for the last two years, she doesn't have the life experience for something like this.

Just...ugh. This one strip just pisses me off so much.

>>92753658
Willis truly believes this is good, powerful writing, doesn't he?

>>92753904
This is the sequence that made me totally uninterested in canon Mary, and start caring about Crusader Mary exclusively. Chunky Cheerleader decks you right in the hallway, neither of you can go to the authorities without consequences, and you don't even TRY to return fire? You just stand there and bleed? Why is Willis so obsessed with gutless, toothless villains?

How am I supposed to view Mary as a threat when PEOPLE CAN DECK HER IN THE FACE WHENEVER THEY WANT.

>>92755289
Yes.


She wanted to study.

File: Mary07.png (200KB, 600x452px) Image search: [Google]

200KB, 600x452px

>>92760166
The thing is, a good chunk of Willis' paying comment section gets off on violent and simple-minded shit like that as wish fulfillment.

>>92760166
Because his readers want power fantasy.

I mean shit, Mary's not even bigger than most of the other girls, she's definitely not stronger, and she doesn't have any actual power over anything that could cause real trouble for people.

It's like Willis introduced her whole "evil" side and planned to add some drama about Billie and Ruth's relationship, but then everybody pointed out that nothing they were doing was against the rules, so he scrambles to come up with something else, all while forgetting that the only thing Mary had on Billie and Ruth to begin with was the possibility of telling on them.

BUT THEN he add Ruth's grandfather, and we find out that not even getting outted as a drunk and getting sent to the hospital will get her to lose her job, so now you have Mary, this person who literally has no power, gets punched and slapped whenever she threatens people, and who is hated by all of the other people on the floor, and Willis wants us to believe there's a threat from her?

She's literally a non-problem, but whenever you bring up that if people in the cast have problems with her they should go to the dean or someone else, it gets shot down because ALL authority figures are corrupt. None of his readers want an end to Mary, because they get off on watching her get shit on constantly.

>>92756289
>>92756456
I'm not sure if anybody is aware of the circumstances of Ruth keeping her job or is questioning them. It's all been "Oh, great, you get to keep your job" so far. "I don't know HOW you've kept your job, but whoop de friggin' doo, you get to keep it."

>>92760072
It could be, but not in this context.

>>92758673
Her only possible leverage would be to publicly squeal on Ruth and bring heat on the university, which, at least in the real world, would take months to sort out.

>>92760232
At the very least Willis' "all authorities are corrupt" concept extends to Ruth, Chloe, Carla, and Billie.

>>92760177
Making that statement for Carla reveals the asinine nature of the conflict.

She just wanted to roller skate in the dorm.

>>92755112
>Ruth could mount Mary

Sorry, anon. I stopped reading there and my mind went to a... place.

>>92761200
That's not a bad place for your mind to go, desu.

>>92761200
>>92761209
Honestly, Ruth could strip down to nothing but a strap-on and go in dry on Mary's virgin asshole and the worst that anybody would do is take pictures to blackmail Mary.

That's how much the odds are stacked against Mary. She's essentially become a victim here, which means that anything that happens to her becomes victim-blaming and thus antithetical.

>>92761359
Man, don't get your critique in my fapbait

>>92761359
>Honestly, Ruth could strip down to nothing but a strap-on and go in dry on Mary's virgin asshole and the worst that anybody would do is take pictures to blackmail Mary.

Now I'm reminded of that HP pic skottichan did of her OC getting railed by Slytherin girls as they have a casual get-together and drink tea. Something similar could work here - you're not allowed to talk at one of these floor meetings unless you're penetrating Mary.

Ruth is taking Mary's asshole while making her apology to the rest of the floor. Rachel isn't buying it and unzips; she's already strapped and throat-fucks Mary as she tears into Ruth. Billie wants to defend Ruth, but she can't get under Mary, so she settles for grabbing of one Mary's hands and wraps it around her dildo. Joyce, watching, is a bright shade of pink, equal parts aghast and aroused. Completely unashamed, Sarah has one hand down her pants.

>>92761359
>>92761434
Now for some actual critique, too. That's exactly what Mary is. She's a "villain" but one that has no power, no chance of succeeding, no actual ability to carry out her threats. She's there to be pathetic and awful and be smacked around for being pathetic and awful, so the audience can go 'yeah, take that people i don't like!' withou ever having to worry that Mary might accomplish something. She won't. She's only there to twirl her moustache, be written badly and be punished for being written badly.

Remember Head Martian, who was ruthless, brutal but could make quips and toss out one-liners? Now Willis' villains are over the top who brag about being evil and terrible. Like, he has a picture of DoA villains GRASPING THE PLANET like comic supervillains. We're meant to see them as these terrible forces when they're just abusive douchebags who limit their abuse to one or two individuals. The most evil of the bunch is Ryan or whatever the fuck his name is and even then, the protagonists have done more to help him than not.

>>92762142
Simply put, a good antagonist either has to be an impressive villain or an interesting character. Mary, as we've mentioned before, is about as dangerous as a mosquito in a cowpen, and her personality was flimsy to begin with and hasn't gotten better with time. All she is is a hate sink (and to Willis's credit, Mary's a really good heel for his target audience), but you can't build an antagonist off of them just being shitty people.

>>92760680
How is Billie an authority? Do you mean that as how she decided she was the boss on the floor when Ruth was gone?

>>92762233
Yeah, it's almost impossible to take her seriously as a villain. She hasn't accomplished anything evil. She just gets abused and harassed.

>>92762481
>How is Billie an authority?

Think of Billie as a gangster's moll. She has no actual authority in the organization, but mess with her and she'll sic her partner on you. As a the daughter of a powerful family, she'll might already have this mentality. 'sure, I don't have any real power, but if you don't do what I say or try to fight back, I'll tell Daddy you were mean to me'. Only now, it's 'I'll tell Ruth'.

>>92762233
>>92762481

In amongst his wishy-washy reviews of DoA, Daniel Crane made both of these points. He took Willis to task for Mary being such a shite villain, then 'realized' that she wasn't supposed to be a villain. Just a punching bag that the audience could feel good about seeing abused, belittled and defeated over and over again. Like Meg on Family Guy: the writers admitted that they don't know how to write her and can't be bothered to put effort into trying, so they just made her a punching bag. Willis writes DoA on minimum effort, so Mary gets to sneer, say tepidly offensive things and get smacked around by whatever character wants to at a given time, so Willis and his readers can feel a rush of victory at seeing a small, badly-written women be beaten for having WrongThink.

>>92753658

It's willis trying to re-assert realism in DOA after throwing that out the window to assure becky gets her happy ending and keep up the Amazi-girl nonsense. He wants us to believe that "this isn't a comic, this is REAL LIFE" even though, well, it's not.

Like I said before, he wants to put the genie back in the bottle, and that's not happening.

>>92753658
>"No matter how many lies you tell, you will always be the thing you were before."

Dammit, why isn't the next panel a cut to Carla?

>>92763986
Because it would be transphobic, and Willis would instantly lose his audience?

>>92762142
A good workaround would be to stick a finger in her ear.

>>92753500
>Mary being a super villain again
Why does she hate Billie? Was it because Billie punched her in the face.

>>92758205
>Willis actually drew this
What a hack.

>>92766062
>Was it because Billie punched her in the face.
That's a pretty solid reason to not like someone. It's up there with using your wealth and connections to threaten and intimidate someone because they are sometimes snide and unpleasant.

>>92766780
Physical and verbal violence are fine, as long as the victim doesn't share your views! Or so Willis believes.

I kind of hope a main character is punched for similar reasons so we can watch the hypocrisy in the comments section.

>>92766062
Billie is a bully. I'm not sure anyone actually likes her. She's closest to Ruth, whom Mary hates more. If Billie suffers, so does Ruth.

>>92768626
Joyce is probably the closest thing Billie has to a friend, outside Walky who she actively rejects despite his efforts, and they haven't meaningfully interacted in weeks.

>>92768205
Willis would never have the balls to have that happen to a character the audience is supposed to care about.

Think Willis will ever be charged with fraud for that Kickstarter scam he ran?

>>92770614
also, is he still best friends with that /pol/ fuck Jin? Never could figure out why SJWalky is friends with a neo-Nazi.

>>92770614
Probably not. How many other Kickstarter campaigns have there been that never delivered on their promises? And of those campaigns, how many were actually taken to court over the crime?

File: 15178221_1494479087246132_4773182030310559993_n.jpg (45KB, 450x566px) Image search: [Google]

45KB, 450x566px

>>92770641

>>92766095
The hats were added later.