Killed any conversation
on May 31, 2013 at 12:01 amOriginally this strip would have published the same day as this Dumbing of Age strip, but then DoA strips got shuffled forward ‘cuz of the introduction of weekend updates, and back then I thought it added a little more foreboding and I added a note about it here, but oh wells. Â Stuff happens. Â
This may be the most depressing comic strip to heavily feature Taco Bell. Â At least until Funky Winkerbean gets around to that kinda product placement, anyway.
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It’s hilarious that this is still pertinent after the Saturday updates thing.
Oh THAT’S where DoA Ruth went XD
Step 1: Tip over a bottle of 120 proof liquor.
Step 2: Sneak out while Billie tries to break into room.
Step 3: ???
Step 4: Profit!
I’ve often wondered what the “???” step means in these handy little plans. Now I know: it means “Travel to an alternate universe and steal other-you’s identity.” Makes sense.
So do all RAs have doors in their rooms that take them to Taco Bells in alternate universes?
Step 3:Photograph, and then blackmail Billie for trying to break into an R.A.’s room. … Huh, that was much less dark than I thought it would be.
Don’t try and cheer her up or assure her she has value Danny, let her stay the course, only good things can happen.
Yeah, Danny’s kind of a shitty friend here.
Once Roomies is done I plan to play a game where I try and see how life would have been for the characters if he hadn’t been around to influence them.
Roomies has been done for a while.
I recall Willis said a while back that the answer to that was: “Sal destroys the world with the Power Booster Rod; everyone dies”.
Yes, but I’ve never made it all the way through yet.
I’ve already played what if there was no Sal.
It’s been a while, but didn’t Danny end up getting dragged down into depression with Ruth? Hard to fault him for not cheering her up if he’s at the beginning of a downward spiral himself.
Are there no therapists around IU that she could’ve seen?
Don’t be silly, Totz, everyone knows that there are no such things as therapists in fiction!
There were, but Ruth punched um too much.
Serious answer, unless no one brings it to the attention of a faculty member, she isn’t forced to go to one. Even then, she’s at college, which means she’s 18 or over. That means she can choose how to handle her own medical care. She can choose to never see a therapist, and given her character, probably never would.
That explains why she’s eating Taco Bell, but what’s Danny’s excuse?
Seriously, though, I’ve got bipolar disorder, and clinical depression is fucking hell. If my friends acted like Danny is here, I probably would’ve committed suicide years ago instead of getting psychological help.
There are still times when the depression side kicks into overdrive, but knowing that people care helps me through.
(The manic side pops up less often, but it usually pops up as extreme stress and irritability, not happy fun times like pop culture sometimes implies.)
My best friend and roommate in college has BPD, and our other roommate had clinical depression, which she took meds and saw a therapist for. I never experienced what they were going through but I definitely watched them struggle during some bad periods. I’m not really the kind of person who likes to have deep, emotionally heavy conversations though, so I wasn’t that good at showing them that I cared about them.
I’m usually my friends’ means of escape – their light-hearted person who helps them forget about their problems for a while – rather than their means of deep emotional support. This can be very helpful for them too, sometimes, but when they need someone to really talk to, they usually know not to choose me.
You know, the fact that we now realize how bad Danny is at emotional support, it actually makes Ruth’s fate in Roomies much more logical. Like, if Willis had actually intended for it to be that way – for the reader to see Danny as emotionally unsupportive, and thus Ruth’s condition worsens – it would’ve been a very meaningful story. Let’s all help Young Willis look better by pretending that’s true.
The ‘Roomies Without Danny’ comics would seem particularly apt here.
Had to do it.
I think maybe it’s funnier with Ruth’s last-panel dialogue deleted too.
“I’m worthless. I’m just going to sit here and eat my Taco Bell.”
This is… I want to say “too good,” but that’s totally the wrong phrase. Maybe “way too fitting.”
Maybe just: “just… wow.”
Oh c’mon Ruth, you’re only saying that because Danny showed up.
Danny…man, he really is kind of a jerk. Mainly he’s bland, but there’s also some laziness mixed in, where he doesn’t interfere with other peoples’ problems even if they’re pretty obvious. He doesn’t seem to have the energy to help other people, and just sticks around for as long as they…”entertain him” seems like the wrong choice of words, but as long as they correspond to what he wants.
Good thing he seems to develop out of that behavior later on, albeit after Ruth’s death. Maybe I’m remembering it wrong, but I do remember him being more empathetic and concerned for other’s well being when he starts getting closer to Billie.
… Does this mean that Ruth technically gets fridged?
She goes out under her own agency, and a big deal is made of it for her character, not just Danny and Billie. That’s not a fridging, that’s just a normal harnessing of a heroic sacrifice.
No wonder people like her, she’s just like me.
And at least Danny is developing a friendship with a mentally stable woman.
Originally posted:
December 10, 1998