There’s something I don’t get, what I haven’t understood ever since I found the Walkyverse (after finding Dumbing of Age); what’s with Sarah’s massive personality change? It’s not even that she was given more of a role in the plot, she’s just outright different.
Everyone else stayed pretty much the same: Joyce is cheery and naive, Walky is goofy and easy-going, Mike is rude and manipulative, etc etc. But the two Sarah’s feel way different. Walkyverse Sarah was just around to be normal and roll her eyes at whatever Joyce did. Dumbiverse Sarah is shown as a hard-working loner with a strong set of morals.
No one else seems to have changed from the Walkyverse like Sarah has. Dumbiverse Sal is somewhat different, but that’s because much of her character depended on It’s Walky!’s specific plot. Even then, she still feels like Walkyverse Sal. Dina is different, but only in that her introversion was amped up (and even then, we didn’t see Walkyverse Dina until It’s Walky!, which started when everyone was two years into college).
Simple: the most important thing about WV!Sarah is that she’s normal enough to snark at Joyce. Nothing else about her really stands out enough to get carried over, so why not radically change her?
The difference now is that her sarcasm–again, her most prevalent trait–is ramped up. She’s snarky and deadpan and disdainful of everyone. Which is fine, but a lot of Dumbing of Age characters don’t lend themselves to the level of abuse Joyce does. So her character has to be tailored to the sort that’s not “normal”, to justify her being a bitch to everyone. And from there springs a well of other traits to make her more easily mineable for plots.
To be fair, Danny was also “normal”. The difference is that he had plotlines and as such needed reactions beyond the everyman, and those reactions were written as moralistic and whiny, so those became facets of his character. Sarah never got that chance.
Frankly, Roomies!Sarah barely has ANY personality besides “Snarky and grudgingly puts up with Joyce’s crap.” Pretty much any fleshing out of her character in DoA falls under the “changed a lot” category.
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Did your college friends often use “My word!” as an exclamation?
They did if they were upper class British stereotypes. It’s not too late to change Carl’s last name to Pennyworth.
That just makes this whole storyline SO META.
Look on the bright side Sarah, you won’t need to worry about walking in on her doing anything naughty. That’d save all kinds of awkward issues.
Ah, I remember when I used to act like that. It feels like it was only yesterday…
I think I was more worldly at ten then Joyce is in college. At that age I would just burst out laughing.
Viewing you as Joyce during this era just makes all of these so much more… I’m not sure what.
Fascinating to reread, certainly.
ANd to think that Joyce is in essence Willis’ OSC Author Avatar.
In her defense…it’s pretty natural to be flustered when someone just says sex out of fucking nowhere.
I wonder if the timing of this repost and today’s DOA strip was intentional.
Sarah…do you know any normal people?
I may or may not at one time thought like this, but it was a long time ago.
In panel 3, is Joyce just standing there, staring blankly into space?
There’s something I don’t get, what I haven’t understood ever since I found the Walkyverse (after finding Dumbing of Age); what’s with Sarah’s massive personality change? It’s not even that she was given more of a role in the plot, she’s just outright different.
Everyone else stayed pretty much the same: Joyce is cheery and naive, Walky is goofy and easy-going, Mike is rude and manipulative, etc etc. But the two Sarah’s feel way different. Walkyverse Sarah was just around to be normal and roll her eyes at whatever Joyce did. Dumbiverse Sarah is shown as a hard-working loner with a strong set of morals.
No one else seems to have changed from the Walkyverse like Sarah has. Dumbiverse Sal is somewhat different, but that’s because much of her character depended on It’s Walky!’s specific plot. Even then, she still feels like Walkyverse Sal. Dina is different, but only in that her introversion was amped up (and even then, we didn’t see Walkyverse Dina until It’s Walky!, which started when everyone was two years into college).
Simple: the most important thing about WV!Sarah is that she’s normal enough to snark at Joyce. Nothing else about her really stands out enough to get carried over, so why not radically change her?
The difference now is that her sarcasm–again, her most prevalent trait–is ramped up. She’s snarky and deadpan and disdainful of everyone. Which is fine, but a lot of Dumbing of Age characters don’t lend themselves to the level of abuse Joyce does. So her character has to be tailored to the sort that’s not “normal”, to justify her being a bitch to everyone. And from there springs a well of other traits to make her more easily mineable for plots.
To be fair, Danny was also “normal”. The difference is that he had plotlines and as such needed reactions beyond the everyman, and those reactions were written as moralistic and whiny, so those became facets of his character. Sarah never got that chance.
Frankly, Roomies!Sarah barely has ANY personality besides “Snarky and grudgingly puts up with Joyce’s crap.” Pretty much any fleshing out of her character in DoA falls under the “changed a lot” category.
I think I’d be pretty flustered too if some guy walked up behind me and said “SEX” with no context.
My word! Sticky wicket, wotcher, old cock?
Pristine? That’s understating it. She makes #FFFFFF look impure.
Originally posted:
October 29, 1997