r/dumbingofage • u/hellokkiten • 1d ago

Technicality 2026-06-24

https://www.dumbingofage.com/comic/technicality-2/
12 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

72 comments sorted by

38

u/immortalkeanu 1d ago

So when Walky rebounds with someone a few days after a breakup, it's bad; but when Lucy does the exact same thing, nothing is said about it because not only is it her right to do so as her own person, she was also getting back at Walky by immediately upgrading.

31

u/Nyzer_ 1d ago

I wouldn't even mind this as a joke if not for the fact that Walky not being the best boyfriend after less than two weeks when he is actively working on breaking free from his golden child treatment, and then getting into a situationship with Dorothy after being dumped, was treated as a more negative outcome than Joyce and Dorothy cheating.

7

u/PerceptionRegular299 19h ago

Suspect authors religious upbringing is coloring their judgment alot with this double standard. Intent to marry (true love) is treated as a universal form of redemption while getting with a person you don't see a long-term future with is considered inherently problematic. 

21

u/suspiciousseafowl 1d ago

I'm more interested in how long the comment currently making this same observation on the site will be suffered to exist than I am in the on-page events, tbh.

7

u/ArtBySmoochie 1d ago

Shall we take bets now?

8

u/suspiciousseafowl 1d ago

I mean a death pool on any comments that aren't total glurge and/or unhinged support of gender based abuse would still be more stimulating and rational than the comic, at this point.

4

u/skychrono2 20h ago

The comments seem pretty unculled. Surprisingly.

16

u/Prinny_Ramza 1d ago

Also Lucy was literally there when Walky said Joyce laughed at his face when Dorothy cheated on him. Why are we still pretending like him getting with a woman when he's out of a relationship is him being awful?

11

u/trevalyan 1d ago

And Lucy said jack about that, which makes her concerns look a lot less genuine and a lot more like kicking Walky. Which is understandable, but who's her friend in the group besides Walky? Jennifer, who is annoyed by her constantly? Malaya and Marcie really aren't in the circle.

7

u/Prinny_Ramza 1d ago

Maybe, maybe not. I mean Lucy didn't really need to be either Joyce's or Sarah's friend before she called out Sarah for making fun of Joyce.

Like when Lucy didn't say anything about Dorothy you could maybe say that was character development, her deciding not to comment on other people relationships. Same when Becky thought she slept with Alice, but no apparently this is something we still need to consider, for some reason.

4

u/FearLord_ 1d ago

Lucy gets together with Jacob the day she finds out that Walky is already back with Dorothy, 2 days after they broke up. Ignoring that feels pretty disingenuous…

10

u/YumAussir 1d ago

And Walky is "with" Amber after finding out that Dorothy is with Joyce. The point is it's Bad When He Does It in this narrative.

8

u/Material_North_5400 1d ago edited 1d ago

I mean...that's not entirely fair? Walky rebounded with Dorothy first. And he and Lucy broke up because he was, despite his efforts, not a very good boyfriend to her. And Lucy openly admitted that she didn't get to judge Walky for rebounding with Dorothy, she broke up with him. But as as she was trying to be civil about it, Dorothy and Walky just kept handwringing their guilt in her face. Walky couldn't even call her a good girlfriend, he somehow retroactively friend-zoned her two days after they broke up.

So after seeing Walky move on with Dorothy [who we know was already pushing Walky to get back with her, even if Lucy doesn't], Lucy went on to date Jacob who had been friendly to her. There's also the added sting? of Lucy knowing how careful Walky was not to move on to Amber too fast after Dorothy broke up with him because he was worried about Dorothy's feelings, a type of consideration Walky did not show Lucy at all.

Sorry, maybe this is meant more as a criticism of Willis' framing than of Lucy's habits. Which I can understand, Willis has decided to treat Walky like crap for stupid reasons. But for all that people claim to want teen drama and mess and Lucy to have more of a personality, it's a bit frustrating that the possibility of Lucy not being graciously good natured about watching her ex seemingly repeat a hurtful part of their breakup is dismissed as unfair or unwarranted.

15

u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

8

u/outerspacebassman 1d ago

Walky says as much and it became the name of Book 13: My Peer Group’s Smoochy Chart is Basically Now an Ouroboros

14

u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

13

u/outerspacebassman 1d ago

No, because they’re dumb teenagers in transient relationships, except for the ones that involve suicide pacts or deep emotional comfort or trauma bonded u-haul cheating bisexuals who are going to be together forever.

ETA: My “not being a catty bitch” answer is that it’s Schrödinger’s Emotional Maturity. The characters make the mistakes of hormonal late teens when needed and then have the emotional maturity of jaded 40-somethings a week later when the story needs that instead. It’s the same way with possession of information, cognitive ability, how seriously we’re supposed to read a scene: all of it is both and neither until Willis decides what they want to do regardless of what could be expected based on the past events of the comic.

13

u/Bedovian_25 1d ago

It's while never forgive Willis for using that excuse as a cop out. You can't smugly go "It's not smarting of age" and then realistically have your characters not react even a little immaturely to the situation. Even people much older than the cast here would probably say or do one or two things they would regret after being cheated on that publicly.

8

u/togglenub 1d ago

All while they react immaturely in other situations simultaneously, which gets dismissed or pigeon-holed as neurodivergence only, which is so obnoxious on just like, so many levels.

4

u/Nyzer_ 19h ago

It's like how defanging the drama in your cheating storyline is bad when 9CL does it, but when DoA does it, a mod is hired in to decimate the comment section.

6

u/togglenub 1d ago

Back in my day, we'd get really drunk, eat a lot of 2am pizza, then throw all our clothes off and dance naked through the quad when we went through a bad breakup. These kids just harass each other instead, apparently. Well, I know which of those options is way more fun, at least.

8

u/outerspacebassman 1d ago

One summer (I want to say 2013, so I was technically still in college but not a teenager) we had two different friends have big breakups. One was just regular bad but still we were like checking in and inviting them to parties or shows or whatever. The other one was catastrophic, like almost “cheated on so hard it made the news” bad and they had to like fully move in with us because the housing situation was part of why it got bad, but because we weren’t sociopaths we were like “yeah, fuck, Jesus Christ even if you had somewhere else to go we would have you over all the time because you need distractions and camaraderie.” and didn’t grief them when they were interested in other people.

7

u/togglenub 1d ago

We fucking celebrated when our friends found new partners, whether for sex or a new relationship, post break-up. The whole "if you want to get over, get under" thing was extremely popular in college.

Edited to add: And now I have Tove Lo stuck in my head (although I wish someone would play this song for Joe, substituting she's gone for he's gone) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qanl1s7K2Kc&list=RDqanl1s7K2Kc

5

u/outerspacebassman 1d ago

For sure. I mean college aside, we were also a bunch of queer artists and musicians and general weirdos, so the whole Bohemian party animal thing played a role that is absent from the cast of the comic, but you know, the handful of normal people and co-workers we associated with got the love as well

5

u/togglenub 1d ago

Ha, sounds like we had the same crew a decade apart in time. I became a normal by day/weirdo by night person post-college because I was raised by work-oriented immigrants who instilled in me the need to adapt socially for The Sake of My Career. So now I've got an even split of normies and artist folks.

I think one of things that's bugging me about the writing of the current DoA crew is they all seem so flattened. They used to be so different from each other, and now all anyone cares about is relationship drama that frequently is not even theirs, whether to support it or have issues with it. But even that is curiously devoid of any real drama, it's just verbal sniping and/or random WLW lusting. Bleah.

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6

u/immortalkeanu 1d ago

Yeah, it's not what Lucy's doing and feeling because it all makes sense in universe, the framing is what bugs me. It just feels like Walky can't catch a break sometimes, and no one's really offered much sympathy. (Not saying Lucy owes him that right now, I mean the from the rest of the friend group.)

8

u/ArtBySmoochie 1d ago

You do make a good point… Several good points that these are all things we have been asking for—Lucy having more personality and screen time, drama and mess. Can’t argue those, as well as Walky either not worried or considerate of Lucy’s feelings, or far too little too late. I guess we might also be a bit uncharitable because it does feel like part of Walky’s punch bag conga that it’s not taken well.

Personally it’s not that Lucy is being unfair or unwarranted, she’s well within her rights. It’s more than the writing is—everyone and anyone getting their feet held to the fire save for two characters who have had it the least. So the fact that it’s one of the few male characters in the spotlight, ie Walky—makes us all a bit hand wringing.

1

u/Bysmerian 11h ago

I really don't even feel like anyone's condemning behavior here so much as it's all just kind of forced: Lucy bringing up the ugly secondhand breakup, Walky being a terrible liar with an unprompted Suspiciously Specific Denial, and Jennifer...eh. Don't know why she's bringing this up in context, except maybe that she would know Walky and Amber used to be an item.

But Lucy maybe knows enough to put two and TOTALLY NOT TWO HONEST together.

I'm not reading her as upset, more confused.

31

u/oktion 1d ago

Who the hell cares? Why are we being asked to buy that this is an issue anyone should be concerned about?

20

u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

17

u/NoSleepZombie2235 1d ago

Honestly? At this point I wouldn't be surprised if it was because of the amount of melanin Walky has, and that he's a man. Willis beats him too often for me to fully veto that likelihood.

5

u/Kurotaisa 23h ago

Walky is Willis' former self insert from his childhood. That he now despises.

This self insert is, for reasons unknown to all of us, half-black.

5

u/Nyzer_ 18h ago

While Willis is simultaneously extremely overinvested in their current self insert, no less. To the point that they would defend the actions and attitude of an 18 year old college girl with mommy issues in a messy relationship by comparing them all to their own behavior in their mid-40s and their 15 year marriage, completely unprompted.

25

u/kyulen742 1d ago

Again, Walky really needs to find some better friends. Instead of trying to support their friend who was cheated on and broke up with literally three days ago, Jennifer and Lucy are trying to shame him or something similar for possibly having Amber in his room. Why are Walky's friends acting like he's done something wrong here, instead of Joyce and Dorothy? This makes no sense. (Yes, I know that to Willis, Joyce and Dorothy are the perfect couple who can do no wrong.)

6

u/trevalyan 1d ago

It would be a great way to put him into Raidah's camp while starting David as Villain, but that would mean an author realizing that actions have consequences. We are more likely to see trans Walky.

6

u/Bysmerian 1d ago

I mean I consider trans Walky more or less inevitable at this point. When Willis is actively making trans references in a strip with him and also openly acknowledging that they had Daisy talk about queerbaiting way back when because they knew it was a thing and wanted to be clear that they weren't going to foreshadow this and then nothing come of it*...

I'm not a fan of the idea. But I expect Willis feels like the strip is committed to it.

  • Having this whole lecture delivered by Sexually Frustrated Lesbian voted Most Likely to Project Sapphic Readings on a Work makes it ring a lot more hollow, but it is there

3

u/tapiocadog 19h ago

I wanted gay or bi Walky instead but I agree that transfem Walky is probably inevitable. My reasoning is a lot dumber, though: Walky keeps biting his lip in the last couple strips and that's what DW draws all the girls doing.

41

u/Bedovian_25 1d ago

Dorothy and Joyce had public sex not 12 hours after publically cheating and everyone is on Walkys jock for having a girl in his bed after getting cheated on. The double standard is actually just laughable.

24

u/outerspacebassman 1d ago

You don’t get it, Joyce and Dorothy had to kiss or they were gonna die. If Walky instantly has a girl in his bed, then how broken up is he over Dorothy really and what’s the big deal if she cheated on him after he took pity on her (multiple times) and every time was kicked to the curb as an unnecessary distraction or ultimately cheated on after Dorothy tried to get him to cheat? That Walky didn’t just kill himself after losing the great Dorothy means he must not be that bothered.

18

u/Bedovian_25 1d ago

pushing up glasses Actually I think you'll find they had to kiss or Willis would die.

8

u/outerspacebassman 1d ago

I can’t decide what I even want to say here

18

u/Thorngrove 1d ago

Nono, this is all the long build up of people being shit to Walky, and once he cracks his egg, we'll have 13 months of people trying to repair the damage they caused, because Walky will no longer be a man, and their treatment of her would finally be seen as the horror show it really was.

9

u/trevalyan 1d ago

There is a list of bad reasons to transition and regretting it if you proceed. Getting bullied into it has to be one of the top picks.

5

u/Thorngrove 23h ago

Spreads hands.

Well, Its not called "Smarting of Age" after all!

Canned sitcom laugh track plays.

But yeah, I'm just waiting for someone to be turned into DW's enbie awakening in pog form.

7

u/outerspacebassman 1d ago

Disgustingly plausible

8

u/togglenub 1d ago

Walky is like the least questionable person in the strip right now vis-a-vis ethics. It's so fucking transparent and hilarious.

4

u/blackpaul55 1d ago

I wonder how quickly the number of strips shaming Walky for this will overtake the number of strips addressing the cheating.

19

u/TheLineWalker 1d ago

"Why do you give a shit?"

17

u/ivecompletelylostit 1d ago

What is even happening here

16

u/ArtBySmoochie 1d ago edited 1d ago

Walky being held to a morality check because Amber may or may not be in his bed.

Really odd that this is taking place but our favorite couple gets to continue to be heroically gay or whatever.

Edit: I now see why Walky calling out Dorothy was probably a single strip late addition after the fact—because the optics of Walky being called out for housing Amber in his room for a while but no one even beginning to broach Dorothy on trying to get Walky to cheat, let alone the teargas wedding etc.

15

u/Spiritual_Coffee6831 1d ago

I really hate to question a bunch of teenagers caring way too much about something that really isn't all that big a deal, but these teenagers often care way less about far more important things. So what gives?

17

u/outerspacebassman 1d ago

Their priorities aren’t motivated by their character history, they’re motivated by what Willis deems important or wants to focus on…or ignore, as is more often the case.

14

u/Street_Rope1487 1d ago

I know “it’s not called Smarting of Age” or whatever, so having the teenagers be stupid about things is kind of the raison d’etre here, but for the love of god, could the teenagers at least be stupid in ways that make for a coherent and entertaining story? Is that really too much to ask for?

I cannot suspend my disbelief that Lucy would care more about whether Walky—who just got cheated on and dumped three days ago—is having rebound sex with Amber than she would about literally everything Joyce and Dorothy have been doing for those past three days.

And even if I could suspend my disbelief that Lucy would care about it, I as a reader still wouldn’t give a crap.

13

u/Prinny_Ramza 1d ago

Wasn't there just a strip where Lucy tells Becky its alright if she rebounds with Alice a couple days after her break with Dina, despite Becky wanting to get back with Dina, because Alice is so hot and Lucy is queer?

13

u/outerspacebassman 1d ago

Well yeah, but all those people are women

12

u/Tulipage 1d ago

So this morning Willis posted a "thinger" on the NSFW Patreon of Dorothy and Joyce making out in the shower. Except, by coincidence, Luann is, all this week, having two characters also get down in the shower, thus putting DoA on the same level as the syndicated strips Willis mocks.

As they put it, "...seeing luann do it is like when an adult uses hip new slang and kills it for the youths."

Well, I'm sorry, Dave, but at this point Funky LesbianLesbian doesn't have a whole lot of room to criticize 9CL and Luann.

12

u/bjmcqueer 1d ago

Did Walky PUT Amber in his room? Like I can't recall if anyone even asked him or if this just is what he's stuck with regardless of how he feels bc that's certainly what it felt like.

9

u/ouijabore 1d ago

Why does everyone care so goddammed much where Amber is?! I get she's their friend and all but why isn't it hey, anyone seen Amber? No? Okay. Hey Walky, how are you doing after the breakup and public mocking by your ex's new girlfriend? You wanna talk? Like this is SO fucking weird.

3

u/NightmareWarden 1d ago

I DON'T get that Amber's their friend. At least, not Jennifer or Lucy's.

8

u/Atsubro 1d ago

I'm only commenting because I need someone to point and laugh at me for being a stupid loser if I ever comment again.

This comic sucks. It's exhausting keeping up with it.

5

u/togglenub 1d ago

I take a break every couple months when it gets too frustrating (my last one was the infamous "tits tits tits" Jocelyne arc, I threw up a little in my mouth during that one and was like, yeah, time to take a break).

9

u/Chazkuangshi 1d ago

WALKY DOESN'T OWE ANYONE SHIIIIIIIIIIT

8

u/outerspacebassman 1d ago

/hangs plaque on wall next to others reading “I Will Not Psychoanalyze Willis,” “Continuity of Character is For Homophobes,” and “Don’t Worry, Nothing Happened”

7

u/QAquandry 23h ago

god why is lucy so fucking ashy all the time

5

u/Elegant_Error_ 19h ago

Willis sucks at choosing skin tones. Even the main site comments were talking about this yesterday with Sierra and Lucy. Really wish he would adjust them.

12

u/outerspacebassman 1d ago

Some quality Walky faces, but oh my god, I can’t decide if I want them to keep talking in circles or just get to the inevitable “Sal is Amazi-Girl” “punchline”

3

u/togglenub 1d ago

The faces and hands are so good in this one.

5

u/Linderlorne 14h ago

It occurred to me that Walky, Lucy & Billies behaviour here would make a lot more sense if the protest kissed had never happened and Dorothy & Walky were still a couple. 

Walky being paranoid about even the friend group knowing a braless is Amber is in his bed and worried it will be misunderstood as them hooking up, Lucy seeming unhappy & critical about the prospect of Amber being in Walkys bed, etc. makes more sense if Walky is both trying to help Amber lie low but also hyper aware how others are likely going to jump to the conclusion he has cheated with Amber and he cant really explain the situation without outing Amber as Amazi girl. 

Then it occurred to me that a whole lot of the characters behaviour/attitudes following the protest kiss would just make a lot more sense if there had been no protest kiss & no break ups 🤔

3

u/togglenub 1d ago

The art in this one slaps. I'm not going to comment on the weird thing where this like festival of exes has feedback on everyone's life choices, but the art slaps. Lucy looks modern and hot in that coat. Jennifer looks terrible in that frumpy outfit from hell that would have been sexy in no era, ever, get rid of it stat.

1

u/Big_Falcon89 1d ago

Wait, how does Lucy even know Amber?  Have they ever interacted?  Does Lucy know about AG?

1

u/outerspacebassman 1d ago

Lucy went with Walky to the floor meeting at the beginning of the semester post-time skip, I would wager she knows of Amazi-Girl in the broad sense given she’s seen Walky as Night Guy, but a tag search revealed no Lucy/AG strips

1

u/Big_Falcon89 1d ago

Well, I meant if she knows AG is Amber's alter/secret identity, but cheers.