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...how did this webcomic go from being one of my favorites to becoming a massive festering shitpile over the past half-year or so? Like, almost everything from the moment Joyce and Dorothy chose to actively and very publicly cheat on their then-current boyfriends (at a genocide protest[1] that neither of them personally cared about, in the midst of a police crackdown, during which pink tear gas clouds were framed by the cartoonist as if they were romantic sakura petals, no less [yes, really]) up to now has just been complete dogwater.
Well, pretty much everything directly involving Joyce and/or Dorothy since then has been rancid poo, anyway. Any scenes not featuring Joyce and/or Dorothy (and which also didn't involve other charactersasking "Where's Poochie?"talking about Joyce and/or Dorothy) have been (mostly) fine.
I say "(mostly)" because aside from that, everything to do with the genocide protest itself and pretty much any of the scenes involving follow-ups to the events of the genocide protest (whether Joyce and/or Dorothy were in those scenes or not) haven't been especially super-great, either. Such as the police raid on the dorm most of the female main characters live in, ostensibly to look for Amazi-Girl, who was last seen kneeing cops in the face during the crackdown on the protest and helping people (including Joyce and Dorothy) escape from said crackdown and which is presumably what led to the body Amazi-Girl shares with Amber (it's complicated) getting beaten to shit later that same (in-comic) day. (The raid on the girl's dorm ended on a "comedic" wet fart with basically nothing of any real consequence resulting from it, for what it's worth [aside from the Amazi-Girl suit being "safely" sequestered elsewhere, I guess].) Or like how two of the teachers at the genocide protest who ended up in jail for at least a couple days[2] had to be/could only be bailed out by former students (one of whom was, yes, Dorothy), apparently.
It really sucks, because I've been following David Willis comics since the Roomies!/It's Walky![3] and Shortpacked! days. And, really, at least prior to last June/July or so, Dumbing of Age itself was good, too. Hell, I remember chatting about the crossover between It's Walky! and Fans! back in the old OtakuWars! chatroom on IRC... that's how long I've been following this stuff. Now, though, I'm close to just deleting my Dumbing of Age bookmark and washing my hands of the shit altogether.
[1] - A very thinly veiled "ripped from the headlines" version of an actual genocide protest at Indiana University, by the way.
[2] - In comic time, that is. Real life time was, again, more like half a year or so.
[3] - Never read any of the Joyce and Walky! stuff, though, because most of it was locked behind a paywall at the time, years ago, and I haven't given enough of a shit to look back into it again since then. Apparently it's not behind a paywall anymore? Hell if I know.
Well, pretty much everything directly involving Joyce and/or Dorothy since then has been rancid poo, anyway. Any scenes not featuring Joyce and/or Dorothy (and which also didn't involve other characters
I say "(mostly)" because aside from that, everything to do with the genocide protest itself and pretty much any of the scenes involving follow-ups to the events of the genocide protest (whether Joyce and/or Dorothy were in those scenes or not) haven't been especially super-great, either. Such as the police raid on the dorm most of the female main characters live in, ostensibly to look for Amazi-Girl, who was last seen kneeing cops in the face during the crackdown on the protest and helping people (including Joyce and Dorothy) escape from said crackdown and which is presumably what led to the body Amazi-Girl shares with Amber (it's complicated) getting beaten to shit later that same (in-comic) day. (The raid on the girl's dorm ended on a "comedic" wet fart with basically nothing of any real consequence resulting from it, for what it's worth [aside from the Amazi-Girl suit being "safely" sequestered elsewhere, I guess].) Or like how two of the teachers at the genocide protest who ended up in jail for at least a couple days[2] had to be/could only be bailed out by former students (one of whom was, yes, Dorothy), apparently.
It really sucks, because I've been following David Willis comics since the Roomies!/It's Walky![3] and Shortpacked! days. And, really, at least prior to last June/July or so, Dumbing of Age itself was good, too. Hell, I remember chatting about the crossover between It's Walky! and Fans! back in the old OtakuWars! chatroom on IRC... that's how long I've been following this stuff. Now, though, I'm close to just deleting my Dumbing of Age bookmark and washing my hands of the shit altogether.
[1] - A very thinly veiled "ripped from the headlines" version of an actual genocide protest at Indiana University, by the way.
[2] - In comic time, that is. Real life time was, again, more like half a year or so.
[3] - Never read any of the Joyce and Walky! stuff, though, because most of it was locked behind a paywall at the time, years ago, and I haven't given enough of a shit to look back into it again since then. Apparently it's not behind a paywall anymore? Hell if I know.
