The Last Roomies! Story Ever, Promise: Page 4
on December 20, 2021 at 1:01 amBILLIE WILL CRY WHEN SHE’S DONE FUCKING. Wait. Ruth was done fucking and she cried. BILLIE WILL CRY NEVER. FEELINGS ARE DUMB.
Skipping ahead to Joyce, when this sequence of flashbacks feels more and more like one of those Scrubs musical montages that wraps things up super neatly! And I’ve written all these stories already and so I can write things like “I WANT TO ERASE EVERYTHING” and it’s super meaningful because Joyce DID erase things, later! See what I did there? I hope you did! If you didn’t, this whole thing was pointless. must….lampshade…harder…
Anyway, hey, Joyce cuts her hair short later into momhood, apparently. She’s trying to pull a Dorothy. Does it work? You be the judge.
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I know a bunch of short-haired moms, totes believable
Ick. I’ve never seen the appeal.
I mean, sure, there are those moments when a screaming child grabs your hair and pulls on it, and that fucking stings, but those are few enough that I wouldn’t want to wreck my look over it.
**does a Revlon hair flip**
(an ironic one since I use generic Target brand shampoo)
I said believable, not commenting on style
(most of them I only knew w/ the short hair, so I can’t comment anyway)
Honestly all these hairstyle changes are doin’ for me is making it more obvious that even though the Walkyverse moves in realtime, these characters always look like 18-year-olds.
Well at this point they’re only in their early thirties outside the flashback panels, aren’t they?
I’m 27 and I look way different than I did at 18. Folks’re always aging!
Billie’s flashback manages to fix, or at least significantly repair, one of my biggest problems with Roomies!
If you read only the vintage 90s strips, and ignore all the material added later, Billie’s arc and her relationship with Danny is… okay. Mostly. Not amazing, but it works well enough as a story of two
assholespeople who lost a shared friend finding solace in eachother. And then Roomies! Redux happened, and suddenly Billie’d lost a hell of a lot more than just a friend, and she’s ended up with the guy who got her lover killed. And the relationship retroactively goes from “okay” to “horrible.” Then the “One Day” comic story gets added to the mix, and in combination with the above, it comes off way too much like a “Ruth’s boyfriend (Ryan) slept with her once and then dumped her and it turned her into a lesbian” origin story. Which, when combined with the fact that Ruth’s arc in Roomies! is meant to be one of redemption, is… troubling.With this page in mind, though, the picture changes significantly. Because Billie, without realizing it, is triggering all of the traumatic memories Ruth has of that day. Ruth hasn’t been close to anyone since Ryan, until Billie in this memory… and now Billie’s walking away. Throwing Ruth’s romantic feelings back in her face and moving on to someone else. Just like Ryan did. This is not to say that she’s morally equivalent to him in any way, but trauma doesn’t care about intent. Not to mention that Ruth found out her father was cheating with Billie’s mother the very same day. And in hindsight, likely after someone told her what was written in Ruth’s diary… Billie realizes how badly Ruth was hurt.
So now, Billie’s arc is one of how the loss of a relationship that could have been, and the knowledge that she’d never be able to see Ruth again, made her want that kind of closeness. And suddenly Danny and Billie’s arc is better than it was originally. It’s amazing how much you can re-contextualize in only six panels. For me, it’s the best part of this story.
Your comment definitely gave me a much deeper appreciation for what’s happening in this story. This was a great read.
Thanks!
My headcanon is that Joyce cut her hair short around the time Jocelyne came out so that they could be at the same length and grow it out together, but then decided she liked it short and wanted to keep it that way.
I just assumed she has it tied up in this shot. (Note to self, dig out copy of Book 2 later to check…)
Hmm. I can’t believe it’s taken me four pages to ask, but why is everybody suddenly remembering Ruth at this juncture anyway? (I assume this will be answered.)
It will be answered, but to avoid spoiling it for all the people for whom this is their first time, I’ll just leave it at that.
Yeah, I’m wondering that too.
I think RassilonTDavros has spoiled it in his gigacomment above
I still think it’s grasping at straw to try to present Dan’s action as “leading Joyce on”. He couldn’t have made clearer to Joyce he was not interested and from this point on, if Joyce keep frequenting him with a false hope he will turns around, it’s entirely on her. Feel too much like a “nice guy” pretending he is the one who has been wronged by the one who just wanted to be friend.
Well, it’s an old arc anyway.
I also thought this was a little dissonant. But at the same time it’s nice to see Joyce realizing Danny is terrible
Yeah, I think it makes sense for Roomies Particularly Stalkery Joyce to think that way, but I still don’t LIKE Roomies Stalker Joyce.
Like for real this is the same Joyce who lied to her parents that her and Danny were engaged and then guilt tripped him onto keeping up the lie.
I forget: what did Danny do to make Joyce think he’s a jerk (aside from never being into her in the first place)?