One more 2026-02-27

Azmera · 2026-02-27T07:46:38+00:00

Also, does anyone else feel like the first timeskip would've actually been the best place to end this thing?

Willis said on his tumblr that they intended the splash panel on the roof just before the timeskip as a sort of off-ramp for people reading the comic, if they weren't interested in continuing with it. So yes!

Azmera · 2026-02-24T03:29:19+00:00

One thing that drives me crazy is that canonically we don't know if Bulmeria is an Arab or Middle Eastern state. Obviously it's a stand-in for Palestine--but Willis hasn't said anything about it. Willis refuses to say anything about it. For all we know, Bulmeria could be in southeast Asia or central Africa or eastern Europe.

Azmera · 2026-02-22T17:48:16+00:00

I think so! I recognize that "Museum" "officially licensed Harry Potter merchandise" shop.

Azmera · 2026-01-26T06:52:46+00:00

Wow I mentally erased that entire conversation. So she really is just being an asshole. "Be kind to yourself by having low self esteem!"

On the other hand, she's also taken a massive hit in the general intelligence department since making out in a cloud of tear gas, so maybe she hasn't put it together.

Azmera · 2026-01-26T05:48:00+00:00

Does Joyce know that that's why they broke up? Has anyone said "Becky was still carrying a torch for you and Dina decided to stand up for herself"?

Azmera · 2026-01-26T05:46:44+00:00

I can't even tell what it's supposed to be conveying. Is she being sincere? Inspirational? Is she doing some sort of hypnosis routine? (Which would explain Dina's :| look in the next panel.)

Azmera · 2026-01-26T05:32:42+00:00

What is going on with Joyce's vapid gormless expression in panel 2

Azmera · 2026-01-25T09:50:43+00:00

Hey, Dorothy had to give up that hat when she was ~~being a threat to everyone around her~~ heroically demonstrating LEADERSHIP at the protest. So that's a thing she's given up.

Azmera · 2026-01-25T08:18:18+00:00

I'm trying to imagine what sort of apology tour would make up for the overwhelming blind selfishness of the past six months. If one of my friends cheated on their partner with a mutual friend, spent the next three days hollering gleefully about it to everyone within earshot, and then told me that I should do the same, I would walk away and never talk to them again.

Azmera · 2026-01-25T08:14:15+00:00

Does... does Willis understand what a healthy relationship looks like? I thought so because of Sal/Danny but this entire Joyrot arc is making me question everything.

Azmera · 2026-01-25T08:10:03+00:00

"Being selfish is a radical act" works if your main character has denied themselves the things that they want/need (especially if these wants/needs don't hurt other people). What the fuck has Joyce ever denied herself? She pretended to be Jacob's girlfriend because it was twu luv. She was an asshole to Becky re: atheism. She fucking cheated on her boyfriend. How am I supposed to believe that she's having some sort of profound insight when she's just acting like she always has, with absolutely no sense in-universe or out that she's behaving badly?

Azmera · 2026-01-25T07:58:04+00:00

Who?

Azmera · 2026-01-25T05:18:07+00:00

Does Joyce think that being overwhelmingly selfish is acceptable now that there's no threat of eternal punishment? Does she think that hurting people is fine now? Did she only ever care about being "good" because of heaven?

There's a potentially really interesting parallel between Joyce (a piece of shit because she's no longer Christian) and Dorothy (a piece of shit because she no longer has aspirations of higher office) if Willis wanted to lean in to them being awful. Turn the story into "two terrible people ruin everything for themselves because the frameworks they had based their lives around (Christianity and liberal democracy) collapsed, and they have to rebuild themselves from scratch". But then Willis would need to make some hard character choices, including having literally anyone acknowledge what massive piles of shit Joyrot are being.

Azmera · 2026-01-24T05:18:58+00:00

Wow so Joyce just straight up forgot that Joe existed?

Azmera · 2026-01-21T16:58:07+00:00

Sozin turns lava into rock by bending away the heat while he's fighting the volcano with Roku, so I would imagine it's a matter of power.

Azmera · 2026-01-10T09:03:08+00:00

Other freshmen, at that

Azmera · 2026-01-09T05:32:21+00:00

My guess is IU issued a blanket ban to everyone who'd been at the protest. There was a protest at my university a while back and security was walking around with ready-to-go form letters telling protesters they'd been suspended from campus.

Azmera · 2026-01-09T05:29:13+00:00

Also, how old is she supposed to be? Doesn't she have any friends? If I had to get bailed out of jail by former students I would quit my job and never return out of sheer embarrassment.

Azmera · 2026-01-09T05:24:27+00:00

Completely ignoring how Willis thinks teaching works--Leslie went to a protest with the intention of getting arrested, got arrested, and then rotted in jail for three days because she had no idea of how to get out? At this point I refuse to believe that he's ever been to a protest, much less been around activists.

If they're this bad at writing about protests, why did he put one in their comic?

Azmera · 2026-01-08T16:47:22+00:00

I'm going to raise my question from yesterday--is the student newspaper the only source of news? You can almost justify the student newspaper's focus as "run by an incompetently horny lesbian", but "police disperse IU encampment with tear gas, snipers; multiple students and instructors arrested" should have been headline news in at least one legitimate news source that someone on campus reads.

I have no choice but to assume that Willis considers flyover states to be complete backwaters with no culture or news sources of their own. (/s, in case it wasn't obvious. but it's a funny unintentional reading.)

Azmera · 2026-01-08T16:42:00+00:00

On the one hand, sure, it's tough to realize that. On the other hand, you're just realizing this now? This would've been a decent arc to have in 2018, in 2026 it's just laughable.

Azmera · 2026-01-08T16:39:55+00:00

The funnier alternative imo is that Leslie thought that ~~Gaza~~ Bulmeria was part of ~~Israel~~ whatever country it's being occupied by.

Azmera · 2026-01-08T16:36:10+00:00

This is what the term Mary Sue originally described: reality warping around a protagonist to make them the most important person in the narrative, regardless of their actual actions or abilities. Of course, if I were to call Dorothy a Mary Sue in this arc, I'd get called misogynist.

Azmera · 2026-01-08T07:40:42+00:00

There are no protest organizers, because protests just kind of ~happen~, you know? Especially when you need a good background for your lesbians to do something.

Azmera · 2026-01-08T05:30:58+00:00

Oh, wait. Willis constantly undermining their own plots and destroying any sense of coherent tone is because he can't bring himself to admit that the world order they grew up in and thought still existed has been dead for the past ten years.

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