The heck of it is, there WAS a “good” way to say most of that: something along the lines of “I got jealous, and I couldn’t stand to see her messing with your head when she just wants you for sex. I was sure it would hurt you, and I don’t want anything to hurt you again, ever.” (Just translate this into Robinspeak a bit.)
I mean, you’ve still got the issue of Robin deciding certain things FOR Leslie, and that’d lead to some arguing, but that version has more of an admission of Robin’s own weaknesses, and it’s free from the implication that Leslie is an idiot for considering Malaya. Plus, if Robin could bring herself to say she NEEDS Leslie, just once, it’d be a huge help.
Buuut Robin’s falling into a classic “get back with your ex” trap: she hasn’t fully addressed the factors that led to their breakup in the first place. Neither she nor Leslie, if asked point-blank, could give a good reason why a second try between them wouldn’t fall apart the next time Robin gets a whim. She’s just campaigned for forgiveness and then gone right back to her old self. Still learning from Daddy, I’m afraid.
I hate that sort of thinking. There’s a difference between “be true to who you are” and “don’t ever ever change any of your behaviour, even if it’s hurting someone.”
People who lack tact often use this as an excuse never to develop any, and it’s a fucking cop-out. Being true to yourself means honestly assessing your own ideals and values and trying to live up to them, rather than letting others pick them for you. It only applies here if self-centred thoughtlessness is something you hold as a virtue.
Good relationships don’t require you to compromise your core values for something you don’t really believe in, but they DO require you to empathise with the other person(s) and try to relate to them in a positive manner. And yes, like other life experiences, relationships can be facitilitators of personal growth, which IS a change of the type of person you are, values and all.
If the change is for the better, by your own standards, and if it’s something you choose, you’re not betraying yourself. You’re growing the fuck up. And learning how to consider others’ needs and feelings and communicate honestly is part of growing up.
So yes, there IS a “good” or “bad” way to talk to Leslie about this, and Robin chose a bad way. She was selfish and thoughtless, and just because those are Robin’s particular flaws, it wouldn’t mean she was comprimising herself if she chose to actually put some effort into working on those flaws.
If that’s a nipple, Leslie has a very weird boob configuration. Based on color and position, I’m thinking that’s supposed to be the shadow of one of her fingers.
You were THIS CLOSE to fixing one of your biggest mistakes, and you remind her, at exactly the most volatile time, of everything that’s wrong with you? Have you been at the milk and Cadbury eggs again?
That just makes it worse. You can always trust a meanspirited person to be meanspirited. People like Robin are just chaos incarnate. You can’t protect yourself against a Robin short of banishing them from your life that they might sow their carnage elsewhere.
Sad but true. Especially sad when the Robin-like person honestly has the best of intentions and just… fucks it (and you) up completely in the execution. Every. Single. Time.
It’s veiled, and it’s indirect, but Leslie finally just did what she’s never done before and said something downright vicious about Robin. She’s stepped off the high road. Unless the next few minutes contain a massive plot twist, they’re gonna be ugly. Like ANTIETAM ugly.
I suspect we may be about to see the breakup that they both think happened months ago – I mean, in a lot of ways, they’ve been acting less like exes than they’ve been acting like a couple who happen to be fighting. When the relationship “ended,” Robin was not herself, and Leslie knew Robin was not herself. Neither of them came out of the breakup with anything resembling closure… but now we have sober Robin just being herself and in doing so demonstrating exactly why this is not a good relationship for Leslie to be in. It’s going to be painful for both of them, but they might come out of this actually capable of moving on with their lives.
maybe I am in the minority here but… I do get it. Leslie had some severe sexual tension going on and malaya was trying to play on that. Robin can’t quite express what she means here but… she was trying to give space to give leslie some time to heal, but she couldn’t afford to let someone else get her on the rebound. leslie means enough to robin that she went against her better judgement and went for the junk before her rival could do so… for robin this is sweet and caring. leslie has a type, its a self absorbed hyper active chicks… if she was gonna nail someone on the rebound it should be robin.
Meanwhile, I’ve started reading through Roomies!, and after one character dies in a car accident and another gets kidnapped, you do Star Wars jokes? DAMN YOU, WILLIS!
Sorry for what exactly? The initial cheating? The shameless use of sexy Leia to get Leslie into bed? For implying that Leslie is easily led around by sexy girls?
Good to know I’m not the only one who needs to balance out happy and sad webcomicintake in the early morning. GWS actually had quite the string of happy comics lately :3
Actually, no. Most lesbians that appeared in webcomics in —say— the 50ies just hadn’t yet come out of the closet, so we just didn’t know they were lesbians. To us, they looked like perfectly usual straight 50ies webcomic women. If there ever was something like that, anyway.
Given the amount of attention I have been (not) getting from them the last 10 years or so I prefer to imagine ALL females as being lesbian unless proved otherwise.
Goooood. Goooood. Finish off what little chance remained of the relationship repairing itself. Robin’s pretty much always been more of a terrible person than a good person. Oh sure, she isn’t some evil, genocidal maniac or anything . . . But you don’t actually have to be one of those to be a bad person. True facts. Plus I actually kind of like Malaya. (Was never very fond of Robin.)
So you actively like a bitch who has yet to make a single positive comment, and who has her head so far up her own ass, she thinks nerds are some sort of new, utterly shunned life form, and that can’t identify a pop culture icon such as Princess Leia. So… what is there to like, exactly? Robin is not a terrible person – she just has yet to see that she needs to start LOOKING before she makes her leaps. Malaya has already shown she doesn’t care what’s below her when she leaps, and that her leaps are the most important, the most “correct.” So… you like this person… why?
No, but it does make them horribly, horribly ignorant of the culture around her. Which then points at what I’ve been saying for a bit now, Malaya’s had her head up her own ass for a long time…
“Malaya has had her head stuck up her ass for a long time”
Rebuttal: Malaya hasn’t even been alive for a noteworthy amount of time. She’s like what? In her early twenties? Barely even an adult. A little childishness and ignorance is to be expected. Doesn’t excuse anything, but all I’m saying is that the maximum length of time she could have had her head up her ass is about five to eight years, because honestly how aware is anyone of the world around them before fourteen? Whether that’s a long time or not is a point of debate, but certainly for my two cents it’s pretty meager.
“Robin is not a terrible person – she just has yet to see that she needs to start LOOKING before she makes her leaps.”
Rebuttal: Robin is in her forties. This isn’t a case of “Oh she just still has some lessons she needs to learn” here. She has lived forty years of her life never looking before leaping, has had the consequences of this lain bare for her on at least a weekly basis if I’m being conservative. That’s a minimum of two thousand repetitions of this lesson if I’m lowballing it. Even ruling out the entirety of her youth, let’s take out the first twenty years of her life because of lack of wisdom or whatever. Let’s say she didn’t have parents raising her to help her learn these lessons. That’s still a thousand opportunities to learn this lesson since age twenty.
Put more succinctly, taking out the entire mathematical component, a single moment of introspection at any time during her forty years would have been enough to allow her to see this and learn that lesson. It hasn’t happened, and it never will happen. If you can make it forty years without taking a moment to consider your actions then I have the utmost faith that this is not a lesson waiting to be learned, but a glaring character flaw. Plain and simple. She is mentally incapable of considering the consequences of her actions and that’s not gonna change because she hurt someone precious to her yet again.
Comparing Malaya who is merely unacquainted with certain groups of people and aspects of pop culture with Robin who has led a life of serial inconsideration I got to say it still doesn’t sound like Robin comes out ahead in this.
Either way, the notion that incompetence is preferable to maliciousness is just disagreeable to me to begin with. Perhaps it’s your personal preference, but I can’t say it smells of improvement to me. If my brakes aren’t working it doesn’t matter if the mechanic fucked up or wanted me dead I’m still not using him again. If my romantic partner hurts me out of airheadedness or sadism doesn’t really matter because the relationship’s over either way.
exactly, Malaya is basically robin without the fun zany to balance out the self centered crazy. its like mike and robin went back in time and had a kid then somehow spliced in the charisma and likeablity of Faz.
Keep in mind that, while Leslie is definitely among the most ‘good and decent’ people in the cast (I’d say Ken beats her out by a long shot), considering she’s up against competition like Robin and Mike, that’s not saying a whole lot. She hasn’t actually done much in the way of assholish behavior on the same level as, say, Ethan or Amber, but she CAN be very mean-spirited when she wants.
I dunno if Ken counts. He still kinda lacks a distinctive personality, as I think he’s only had one story line with him in the forefront. And even then, he was just tool to introduce Malaya. He’s sweet, but we don’t know yet what’s hidding beneath that mop of black hair.
Leslie still seems like the sweetest person, since we’ve seen the kind of person she is generally in greater detail.
Robin isn’t really evil though. MIKE is evil yes, and we all love him for it. Robin isn’t totally saintly, but she isn’t evil. She is however, very misguided, thickheaded and obtuse. Also probably socially retarded. But not evil!
Misguided intentions aside (and I know I’m going to catch flack for this), there’s something very Roz like about this gambit. Yes, Roz preyed upon Jacob’s disorder to get the sexing that she wanted, while Robin went into this interaction looking to save Les from Malaya. But, there’s something pathological about her reasoning. “You’re using my trick to prey on the emotions of my ex, and since I can’t stop you, I’m going to make that beachhead first,” can be another way of saying, “I’m not letting you move on, even if it’s just rebound sex with the hot exotic looking chick.”
And yes, we have the benefit of knowing that Malaya is being intentionally manipulative, and know that she has that convo with Roz… but, honestly, sometimes you just need Sexytimes, any Sexytimes to help get over it.
It’s good that she’s being honest about her motivations. This will avoid any reveals later on. And it’s good t see them talking aghain, and better thatleslie can acknowledge Robin having faults, Leslie doesn’t seem mad so I’m interested to see where this goes. And really, if she’s going to be that easily seduced and have that little cntrol it really is her own damned fault, Robin didn’t force her to sleep with her without working anything out first.
Yeah I must have blocked that out for… some reason. Thanks for reminding me. Also that brings up an interesting math question. Are four partially obscured boobs equal to one peen?
Hey, just caught up with the comic. I’m not sure why the hate on Malaya.
She seems the most honest character displayed so far, except maybe Mike. Not everyones cup of tea sure but not the bitch that seems to be the consensus. The only thing thats acurate about her is that she doesnt hide her opinion on geeks. But hey, i cant stand beiber fans… Each to their own.
Yes, but you didn’t then get a job at a music store that specializes in Beiber’s work, that is full of Beiber fans, and didn’t bother hiding your utter contempt for Beiber and his fans.
Oh, and then decide to try and seduce on of said Beiber fans for whom you obviously hold nothing but contempt.
–I hope?
There’s a ton of people who have extremely different views on things I hold near and dear and I suppose that’s fine (they’re all WRONG of course but whatevs XD); but I don’t need them and their scorn all up in my face.
She also has spent the last six months REFUSING to get any sort of job, (likely) acting as if every single one of them was “beneath her”. That’s another mark against her.
So honest is good even if it means “I’ll blatently show my disdain for everyone and everything while acting superior because I’ve got an unjustifiably huge ego.”
She’s not being honest though. She’s being mean spirited and ignorantly blunt to the point of abusive. When she’s interacting with everyone except Leslie, she behaves with open contempt, rudeness, an attitude of undeserved arrogance and she demonstrates all this behavior with excessive swearing.
All she does is belittle and insult everyone and everything around her, because she has an unworthy sense of self-worth. She thinks anything that she doesn’t like is “Fucking stupid”. She’s also extremely lazy, as she had to get bullied into taking this job by her roommates, and has done nothing but insult the job, and insult the friend who was nice enough to get her the job.
And, when she’s around Leslie, while she doesn’t show as much rudeness as normal, she’s not being honest about who she is. She wears a flimsy mask of being nice towards Leslie, in the hopes of getting to mess around with her. But because of her negative personality, everything that comes out of her mouth is still belittling and insulting to either the job or other people.
Also, my impression is that Malaya’s approaches on Leslie are fueled as much by spite towards Robin as they are by any kind of genuine interest. If she has any genuine interest at all.
It’s possible, but as of right now, it seems her dislike of Robin, prior to meeting Leslie, was that Malaya felt justified looking down on Robin for doing the sex tape with the other politician.
Except Malaya isn’t being honest to Leslie. She’s acting like she cares about Leslie, but she’s outright stated to Robin that her only motivation in doing so is screwing around with Leslie’s (and, by extension, Robin’s) emotions. Plus, being honest doesn’t necessarily excuse someone from being an a-hole.
Of course, that being said, Robin isn’t in the clear either, as pretty much the only thing that separates her from Malaya at this point are her good intentions towards Leslie and the fact that she’s at least trying to be honest. The Road to Hell indeed.
You know what? This is the best thing that could have happened. No, really. Given how fucked-up the situation has been since Robin overheard Malaya gloating about how much fun it is to mess with Leslie, and given who we’re dealing with, it really couldn’t have turned out better.
Other characters might have realized that it was tactically advantageous to say a few sweet things and let it be. But that would have meant any reconciliation was built on lies, and it would have left them vulnerable to Malaya destroying it all by letting the cat out of the bag.
Instead, by behaving in her usual self-centered, un-self-aware fashion, Robin has stated her true motives (“I was jealous of the new girl in your life and don’t think she was good enough for you”), and done it in such an obnoxious manner that Leslie finally seems to be getting angry.
And yes, it’s a good thing that Leslie’s getting angry, because there needs to be a fight. Robin’s great flaw is her selfishness and lack of self-awareness, both of which are so total that she doesn’t even recognize them when she sees them in someone else. So she needs them thrown in her teeth. She needs to be forced to face them before she can be good in a relationship with anybody.
The fact that this leaves no openings for Malaya to sabotage is just icing on the cake.
Malaya has shown nothing but disdain for most of what Leslie loves (sci-fi, geekdom, etc.). Any relationship between her and Leslie would only end in tragedy, since, unlike Drew, nothing we’ve seen about Malaya shows that she’d be willing to make compromises in her lifestyle to accommodate Leslie’s interests. Leslie would end up being in even more emotional turmoil than she was already. Robin’s justification for snatching Leslie away from Malaya, though, are totally off-base. Robin’s right here, but for the wrong reasons.
Except those are her justifications for no longer giving Leslie space, rather than snatching her away from Malaya, since she wasn’t Malaya’s to beging with
This is the most magnificent relationship overkill ever seen in human history. Robin lives on another planet and one can realise only now how much she is alien to any kind of real kindness and concern.
Not Jabberwocky, but I’d say that sharing at least some interests is important, and showing sneering contempt for the interests you don’t share is really, really unhealthy. The fact that Malaya shows sneering contempt for everything that she isn’t interested makes her a bad choice for a relationship with anybody.
Robin reminds me of Tex in RvB a little: ‘destined to screw things up for herself’. It sounded contrived in the machina, but it seems unluckily true for Robin.
OUTRAGOUS THEORY: Leslie will say something to Robin that will shock her so much, her super-metabolism will stop just long enough for Singularikitty’s (who is still inside her) metabolism to overpower hers and absorb Robin resulting in a huge bloated Singularikitty
Your strip has recently been focused on lezbisex. This actually elevates your strip to god-like epicness for the first time since its existence. Don’t get me wrong, it’s been epic many, many times. But never like this. Keep the pace going.
Wow, didn’t know anybody read anything ‘MS Paint’ related .-. I read MS Paint Masterpieces. Kinda a long one, but graphically pleasing, especially considering it was originally made based off of sprite comics.
I agree, what does it take to get an Ultra Car storyline? He can’t be that hard to write for. Stop relying on gay shenanigans and get back to what made this comic great. The sentient car.
The way this should have gone, translated to english from robinese
Leslie: So what did this mean?
Robin: Nothing, we were always good in bed, that was never the issue that drove us apart. I always do manage to rock your world.
Leslie: Yeah, yeah you do.
Robin: This was about trying to ease your sexual tensions around me and others. I was trying to save you…
Leslie: Save me? from what?
Robin: This girl who’s been hanging around you constantly, the one who keeps making you blush…
Leslie: What?
Robin: She doesn’t care about you, she basically said as much to me. I feel she’s wrong for you, and although I am flawed, I am less wrong. I felt like I had to get you into bed so you could stop thinking with your junk.
Ok I want to know what other people translate babies as I mean I’m all for it having its own meaning but it feels to me like it replaces “fucked up” or “stupid” any thoughts.
Robin, you’re not helping your case =(
The heck of it is, there WAS a “good” way to say most of that: something along the lines of “I got jealous, and I couldn’t stand to see her messing with your head when she just wants you for sex. I was sure it would hurt you, and I don’t want anything to hurt you again, ever.” (Just translate this into Robinspeak a bit.)
I mean, you’ve still got the issue of Robin deciding certain things FOR Leslie, and that’d lead to some arguing, but that version has more of an admission of Robin’s own weaknesses, and it’s free from the implication that Leslie is an idiot for considering Malaya. Plus, if Robin could bring herself to say she NEEDS Leslie, just once, it’d be a huge help.
Buuut Robin’s falling into a classic “get back with your ex” trap: she hasn’t fully addressed the factors that led to their breakup in the first place. Neither she nor Leslie, if asked point-blank, could give a good reason why a second try between them wouldn’t fall apart the next time Robin gets a whim. She’s just campaigned for forgiveness and then gone right back to her old self. Still learning from Daddy, I’m afraid.
You make a very convincing argument, but I’m too blinded by fanservice to care.
+1
Maybe she’ll reconsider her words and make a proper apology.
Screw that. It isn’t about “good way” or “bad way”.
No way is “good” if it means you have to go against your own character to do it.
I hate that sort of thinking. There’s a difference between “be true to who you are” and “don’t ever ever change any of your behaviour, even if it’s hurting someone.”
People who lack tact often use this as an excuse never to develop any, and it’s a fucking cop-out. Being true to yourself means honestly assessing your own ideals and values and trying to live up to them, rather than letting others pick them for you. It only applies here if self-centred thoughtlessness is something you hold as a virtue.
Good relationships don’t require you to compromise your core values for something you don’t really believe in, but they DO require you to empathise with the other person(s) and try to relate to them in a positive manner. And yes, like other life experiences, relationships can be facitilitators of personal growth, which IS a change of the type of person you are, values and all.
If the change is for the better, by your own standards, and if it’s something you choose, you’re not betraying yourself. You’re growing the fuck up. And learning how to consider others’ needs and feelings and communicate honestly is part of growing up.
So yes, there IS a “good” or “bad” way to talk to Leslie about this, and Robin chose a bad way. She was selfish and thoughtless, and just because those are Robin’s particular flaws, it wouldn’t mean she was comprimising herself if she chose to actually put some effort into working on those flaws.
Sideboob, also, poor leslie
Not just sideboob. Nipple in the last panel.
If that’s a nipple, Leslie has a very weird boob configuration. Based on color and position, I’m thinking that’s supposed to be the shadow of one of her fingers.
close. it’s shading from her cleavage.
…Robin, you IDIOT.
You were THIS CLOSE to fixing one of your biggest mistakes, and you remind her, at exactly the most volatile time, of everything that’s wrong with you? Have you been at the milk and Cadbury eggs again?
I think it would be out of character for Robin to do anything else.
Yeah, agreed. Robin has to screw up big time, it’s her nature.
Every part of her seducing Leslie was pretty much the furthest opposite of fixing her mistakes.
True, it was a bad idea. But it was a bad idea that was actually working.
Takes one to know one Robin!
I think Malaya is just Robin from an alternate universe.
Quick! Check to see if that universe’s Faz has a goatee!
Nope just a hitler stash
Faz as an Asian Hitler with CHA as a dump stst makes a worrying amount of sense to me.
A stash of Hitlers?
I read that as “Faz has a goatse” and now I’m in a psych ward.
He did have Palin up his butt, so it wouldn’t be that surprising.
Every day with you people is a new set of mindscars. >:-O
You can’t surf the internets without breaking a few minds.
I thought it was Palin who got ‘Fazzed,’ not the other way around. Am I remembering it backwards?
you are remembering correctly
Ah, my error. So it’s more accurate to say that Faz is a goatse, then.
Well, we still have not seen DoA Robin yet … just saying
…But at least she’s away from Malaya, right? >_> Riiiiiight?
One reason I love your comics so much is that you somehow find a way to address fan’s comments before they ever come up.
Eh, I’d rather Robin mess with Leslie than Malaya any day, at least she’s not mean-spirited about it.
That just makes it worse. You can always trust a meanspirited person to be meanspirited. People like Robin are just chaos incarnate. You can’t protect yourself against a Robin short of banishing them from your life that they might sow their carnage elsewhere.
Sad but true. Especially sad when the Robin-like person honestly has the best of intentions and just… fucks it (and you) up completely in the execution. Every. Single. Time.
Wait, was the last panel talking about Robin or Malaya?
DUN DUN DUN
yes.
“Fry, remember what I told you about ending your stories a sentence earlier?”
poor leslie
Wow tthat was rather… sexy. But the last part she said makes me think Leslie might have…
Leslie in the last panel has that “OH GOD WHAT HAVE I DONE?” look to her.
Hoo boy.
It’s veiled, and it’s indirect, but Leslie finally just did what she’s never done before and said something downright vicious about Robin. She’s stepped off the high road. Unless the next few minutes contain a massive plot twist, they’re gonna be ugly. Like ANTIETAM ugly.
I suspect we may be about to see the breakup that they both think happened months ago – I mean, in a lot of ways, they’ve been acting less like exes than they’ve been acting like a couple who happen to be fighting. When the relationship “ended,” Robin was not herself, and Leslie knew Robin was not herself. Neither of them came out of the breakup with anything resembling closure… but now we have sober Robin just being herself and in doing so demonstrating exactly why this is not a good relationship for Leslie to be in. It’s going to be painful for both of them, but they might come out of this actually capable of moving on with their lives.
Wow. Jeez. What a bitch.
open mouth, insert both feet robin, and a bowl of cadbury
No! No more cadbury! Time skips aren’t toys!
Wow this is starting to turn into a Joyce and Walky relationship.
No, no. This relationship is believable and could still have merit.
Phaha. So very true indeed. Kings to you.
And I was right that this was going to end badly, and on a cliffhanger to boot.
… So, two weeks of unrelated one-shots now, right?
maybe I am in the minority here but… I do get it. Leslie had some severe sexual tension going on and malaya was trying to play on that. Robin can’t quite express what she means here but… she was trying to give space to give leslie some time to heal, but she couldn’t afford to let someone else get her on the rebound. leslie means enough to robin that she went against her better judgement and went for the junk before her rival could do so… for robin this is sweet and caring. leslie has a type, its a self absorbed hyper active chicks… if she was gonna nail someone on the rebound it should be robin.
Aside from worrying that Robin is ruining it, I am really happy to see them connecting yet again…also I am so happy to have “babies” brought back
I came here to say just the same thing!
Has anyone managed to infect others with the “It’s totally babies” catchphrase in their daily lives? It’s something I want to do where I live.
“It’s totally harlequin babies!”
Dammit Robin! You were doing so well before that “saving” part XD
that makes me somewhat happy. i liek them together, but robin is a f*ck*p and needs to work on it, as well as get punished if only a little.
Robin actin’ a fool yet again.
Meanwhile, I’ve started reading through Roomies!, and after one character dies in a car accident and another gets kidnapped, you do Star Wars jokes? DAMN YOU, WILLIS!
When Leslie was first introduced she was for me just someone in the way of Robin’s one-sided crush on Ethan. I couldn’t wait for her to go.
…now she’s my favorite character. What manner of sorcery is this?
Dramedymancy — a Willis specialty.
I’d love to oogle the naked ladies, but I just feel so terrible for Leslie right now that it doesn’t feel right.
Damn you, Willis!!
I think this is the first strip posted that’s 100% unclothed. Congrats!
SO! MANY! CONVENIENTLY! PLACED! ARMS!
And KNEES!
Robin… you were so close… then you just stabbed yourself in the throat.
I get she’s an idiot, but this is beyond stupid. APOLOGIZE YOU MORON.
Robin, sweetie? This is where you open your mouth and admit she rocks -your- world, and always will. DO IT.
EPIC FOOT-IN-MOUTH MOMENT
Aww, Robin’s speech was so babies …
man great comic, though I don’t understand why you have all these black and white bubbles in the way.
Oh, Robin.
…Wait, she can still save this! Say you’re sorry!
Sorry for what exactly? The initial cheating? The shameless use of sexy Leia to get Leslie into bed? For implying that Leslie is easily led around by sexy girls?
… Robin… You really need the ability to see yourself for who/what you are sometimes…
No! Please let things work out this time! ….I’m going to cry if this falls apart again. Let Robin apologize and Leslie forgive her! Please!!!!!
Seconded. :-/
Well, at least GwS had a happy moment today, I guess …
Good to know I’m not the only one who needs to balance out happy and sad webcomicintake in the early morning. GWS actually had quite the string of happy comics lately :3
Is it just me, or are there a lot more lesbians in webcomics, these days?
Actually, no. Most lesbians that appeared in webcomics in —say— the 50ies just hadn’t yet come out of the closet, so we just didn’t know they were lesbians. To us, they looked like perfectly usual straight 50ies webcomic women. If there ever was something like that, anyway.
Indeed.
Its probably best to simply imagine ALL females in comics as as being lesbian unless proved otherwise.
Given the amount of attention I have been (not) getting from them the last 10 years or so I prefer to imagine ALL females as being lesbian unless proved otherwise.
Actually not, but it does have an appeal to it.
Goooood. Goooood. Finish off what little chance remained of the relationship repairing itself. Robin’s pretty much always been more of a terrible person than a good person. Oh sure, she isn’t some evil, genocidal maniac or anything . . . But you don’t actually have to be one of those to be a bad person. True facts. Plus I actually kind of like Malaya. (Was never very fond of Robin.)
Agreed.
“Plus I actually kind of like Malaya.”
So you actively like a bitch who has yet to make a single positive comment, and who has her head so far up her own ass, she thinks nerds are some sort of new, utterly shunned life form, and that can’t identify a pop culture icon such as Princess Leia. So… what is there to like, exactly? Robin is not a terrible person – she just has yet to see that she needs to start LOOKING before she makes her leaps. Malaya has already shown she doesn’t care what’s below her when she leaps, and that her leaps are the most important, the most “correct.” So… you like this person… why?
For a character who so many fans are treating like an Anti-Christ, Malaya’s pointedly done absolutely nothing evil.
Because she’s funny.
Not being able to identify Princess Leia does not affect a person’s good/bad allignment.
No, but it does make them horribly, horribly ignorant of the culture around her. Which then points at what I’ve been saying for a bit now, Malaya’s had her head up her own ass for a long time…
Your definition of what constitutes “horribly ignorant” is pretty messed up.
Okay, I just spotted this. Two things.
“Malaya has had her head stuck up her ass for a long time”
Rebuttal: Malaya hasn’t even been alive for a noteworthy amount of time. She’s like what? In her early twenties? Barely even an adult. A little childishness and ignorance is to be expected. Doesn’t excuse anything, but all I’m saying is that the maximum length of time she could have had her head up her ass is about five to eight years, because honestly how aware is anyone of the world around them before fourteen? Whether that’s a long time or not is a point of debate, but certainly for my two cents it’s pretty meager.
“Robin is not a terrible person – she just has yet to see that she needs to start LOOKING before she makes her leaps.”
Rebuttal: Robin is in her forties. This isn’t a case of “Oh she just still has some lessons she needs to learn” here. She has lived forty years of her life never looking before leaping, has had the consequences of this lain bare for her on at least a weekly basis if I’m being conservative. That’s a minimum of two thousand repetitions of this lesson if I’m lowballing it. Even ruling out the entirety of her youth, let’s take out the first twenty years of her life because of lack of wisdom or whatever. Let’s say she didn’t have parents raising her to help her learn these lessons. That’s still a thousand opportunities to learn this lesson since age twenty.
Put more succinctly, taking out the entire mathematical component, a single moment of introspection at any time during her forty years would have been enough to allow her to see this and learn that lesson. It hasn’t happened, and it never will happen. If you can make it forty years without taking a moment to consider your actions then I have the utmost faith that this is not a lesson waiting to be learned, but a glaring character flaw. Plain and simple. She is mentally incapable of considering the consequences of her actions and that’s not gonna change because she hurt someone precious to her yet again.
Comparing Malaya who is merely unacquainted with certain groups of people and aspects of pop culture with Robin who has led a life of serial inconsideration I got to say it still doesn’t sound like Robin comes out ahead in this.
Either way, the notion that incompetence is preferable to maliciousness is just disagreeable to me to begin with. Perhaps it’s your personal preference, but I can’t say it smells of improvement to me. If my brakes aren’t working it doesn’t matter if the mechanic fucked up or wanted me dead I’m still not using him again. If my romantic partner hurts me out of airheadedness or sadism doesn’t really matter because the relationship’s over either way.
exactly, Malaya is basically robin without the fun zany to balance out the self centered crazy. its like mike and robin went back in time and had a kid then somehow spliced in the charisma and likeablity of Faz.
I just want Leslie to be happy. She’s the most good and decent person in this cast, she deserves some happiness!
I agree!
Keep in mind that, while Leslie is definitely among the most ‘good and decent’ people in the cast (I’d say Ken beats her out by a long shot), considering she’s up against competition like Robin and Mike, that’s not saying a whole lot. She hasn’t actually done much in the way of assholish behavior on the same level as, say, Ethan or Amber, but she CAN be very mean-spirited when she wants.
It’s just rather seldom that she wants, isn’t it?
I dunno if Ken counts. He still kinda lacks a distinctive personality, as I think he’s only had one story line with him in the forefront. And even then, he was just tool to introduce Malaya. He’s sweet, but we don’t know yet what’s hidding beneath that mop of black hair.
Leslie still seems like the sweetest person, since we’ve seen the kind of person she is generally in greater detail.
Robin isn’t really evil though. MIKE is evil yes, and we all love him for it. Robin isn’t totally saintly, but she isn’t evil. She is however, very misguided, thickheaded and obtuse. Also probably socially retarded. But not evil!
Mike is NOT evil! He is just an asshole who Wants to be evil. If he was truly EVIL, he would never be able to be “Drunk Mike”. In Vino Veritas.
right. chaotic neutral I would call her, you can’t say chaotic good because frankly she has little regard for consequences.
I’d say Ken beats her out by a long shot
You mean the clingy, creepy Nice Guy(TM)?
Nah.
Misguided intentions aside (and I know I’m going to catch flack for this), there’s something very Roz like about this gambit. Yes, Roz preyed upon Jacob’s disorder to get the sexing that she wanted, while Robin went into this interaction looking to save Les from Malaya. But, there’s something pathological about her reasoning. “You’re using my trick to prey on the emotions of my ex, and since I can’t stop you, I’m going to make that beachhead first,” can be another way of saying, “I’m not letting you move on, even if it’s just rebound sex with the hot exotic looking chick.”
And yes, we have the benefit of knowing that Malaya is being intentionally manipulative, and know that she has that convo with Roz… but, honestly, sometimes you just need Sexytimes, any Sexytimes to help get over it.
Okay, Leslie, only one thing for it:
Go back to the store and screw Malaya.
That’s how we solve problems here, right? Sex?
ROBIN NOOOO WHYYYYYYYYY???? WHY MUST YOU ALWAYS SCREW EVERYTHING UP???
I might have put an extra Y or two in there, but otherwise, that is precisely the comment I was planning to leave upon reading this comic.
You know, the convenient avatars make this conversation very interesting, psychologically. Perhaps we have stumbled upon Robin’s inner monologue?
Do the right thing, Robin.
There’s your answer.
BATMAAAAAN!
Hey Willis, shouldn’t this strip be tagged with the previously-used tags “nudity” and “homosexuality”?
The double facepalm should say it all, Robin screwed up big time on this one.
It’s good that she’s being honest about her motivations. This will avoid any reveals later on. And it’s good t see them talking aghain, and better thatleslie can acknowledge Robin having faults, Leslie doesn’t seem mad so I’m interested to see where this goes. And really, if she’s going to be that easily seduced and have that little cntrol it really is her own damned fault, Robin didn’t force her to sleep with her without working anything out first.
Robin did in fact consider Leslie’s feelings. She considered how Leslie would feel if Malaya actually managed to seduce her.
unfortunately the way she did it was very wrong and very Robin.
Also I feel like I should point out that this is easily the most nudity I’ve seen in any of the Willis comics. Bravo, good sir!
You forgot Full Frontal Walky.
http://www.itswalky.com/d/20041025.html
Lucky you.
Yeah I must have blocked that out for… some reason. Thanks for reminding me. Also that brings up an interesting math question. Are four partially obscured boobs equal to one peen?
Hey, just caught up with the comic. I’m not sure why the hate on Malaya.
She seems the most honest character displayed so far, except maybe Mike. Not everyones cup of tea sure but not the bitch that seems to be the consensus. The only thing thats acurate about her is that she doesnt hide her opinion on geeks. But hey, i cant stand beiber fans… Each to their own.
Agreed. I actually like Malaya, and I don’t get all the Malaya hate.
Yes, but you didn’t then get a job at a music store that specializes in Beiber’s work, that is full of Beiber fans, and didn’t bother hiding your utter contempt for Beiber and his fans.
Oh, and then decide to try and seduce on of said Beiber fans for whom you obviously hold nothing but contempt.
–I hope?
There’s a ton of people who have extremely different views on things I hold near and dear and I suppose that’s fine (they’re all WRONG of course but whatevs XD); but I don’t need them and their scorn all up in my face.
Remember, she didn’t want this job in the first place. She had to get dragged in kicking and screaming.
She also has spent the last six months REFUSING to get any sort of job, (likely) acting as if every single one of them was “beneath her”. That’s another mark against her.
She rejected the ~nice guy~ who’s fixated on her, nerds hate girls who do that
So honest is good even if it means “I’ll blatently show my disdain for everyone and everything while acting superior because I’ve got an unjustifiably huge ego.”
You’re mistaking honesty for bluntness. Malaya has gone past bluntness, right into the muddy waters of “completely tactless speaking.”
She’s not being honest though. She’s being mean spirited and ignorantly blunt to the point of abusive. When she’s interacting with everyone except Leslie, she behaves with open contempt, rudeness, an attitude of undeserved arrogance and she demonstrates all this behavior with excessive swearing.
All she does is belittle and insult everyone and everything around her, because she has an unworthy sense of self-worth. She thinks anything that she doesn’t like is “Fucking stupid”. She’s also extremely lazy, as she had to get bullied into taking this job by her roommates, and has done nothing but insult the job, and insult the friend who was nice enough to get her the job.
And, when she’s around Leslie, while she doesn’t show as much rudeness as normal, she’s not being honest about who she is. She wears a flimsy mask of being nice towards Leslie, in the hopes of getting to mess around with her. But because of her negative personality, everything that comes out of her mouth is still belittling and insulting to either the job or other people.
Also, my impression is that Malaya’s approaches on Leslie are fueled as much by spite towards Robin as they are by any kind of genuine interest. If she has any genuine interest at all.
DUUUUUUUUUDE, my avatar stole the Tick’s chin….
Wouldn’t that suggest that Malaya had prior dealings with Robin in the past? Even if indirectly?
It’s possible, but as of right now, it seems her dislike of Robin, prior to meeting Leslie, was that Malaya felt justified looking down on Robin for doing the sex tape with the other politician.
That is a possibility, Amber’s dad wasn’t the only womanizer. see panel 2 of http://www.shortpacked.com/2009/comic/book-9/07-hello-roz-goodbye-reagan/oneupmanship/
Seemed more like instant dislike, if anything.
Except Malaya isn’t being honest to Leslie. She’s acting like she cares about Leslie, but she’s outright stated to Robin that her only motivation in doing so is screwing around with Leslie’s (and, by extension, Robin’s) emotions. Plus, being honest doesn’t necessarily excuse someone from being an a-hole.
Of course, that being said, Robin isn’t in the clear either, as pretty much the only thing that separates her from Malaya at this point are her good intentions towards Leslie and the fact that she’s at least trying to be honest. The Road to Hell indeed.
I hate that saying
She’s also actually IN LOVE with Leslie. Her feelings are deep and genuine for Leslie. Malaya, not so much.
Robin, you need to stop while you are dead even.
Robin? You’re an idiot.
You know what? This is the best thing that could have happened. No, really. Given how fucked-up the situation has been since Robin overheard Malaya gloating about how much fun it is to mess with Leslie, and given who we’re dealing with, it really couldn’t have turned out better.
Other characters might have realized that it was tactically advantageous to say a few sweet things and let it be. But that would have meant any reconciliation was built on lies, and it would have left them vulnerable to Malaya destroying it all by letting the cat out of the bag.
Instead, by behaving in her usual self-centered, un-self-aware fashion, Robin has stated her true motives (“I was jealous of the new girl in your life and don’t think she was good enough for you”), and done it in such an obnoxious manner that Leslie finally seems to be getting angry.
And yes, it’s a good thing that Leslie’s getting angry, because there needs to be a fight. Robin’s great flaw is her selfishness and lack of self-awareness, both of which are so total that she doesn’t even recognize them when she sees them in someone else. So she needs them thrown in her teeth. She needs to be forced to face them before she can be good in a relationship with anybody.
The fact that this leaves no openings for Malaya to sabotage is just icing on the cake.
Forgot to mention: and the one person in this world who has even the slightest chance to make her face herself is Leslie.
Malaya was not, repeat NOT in Leslie’s life yet, and there are many who feel that anything that kept her out of Leslie’s life is a good thing.
Malaya has shown nothing but disdain for most of what Leslie loves (sci-fi, geekdom, etc.). Any relationship between her and Leslie would only end in tragedy, since, unlike Drew, nothing we’ve seen about Malaya shows that she’d be willing to make compromises in her lifestyle to accommodate Leslie’s interests. Leslie would end up being in even more emotional turmoil than she was already. Robin’s justification for snatching Leslie away from Malaya, though, are totally off-base. Robin’s right here, but for the wrong reasons.
Except those are her justifications for no longer giving Leslie space, rather than snatching her away from Malaya, since she wasn’t Malaya’s to beging with
I meant intervening before Leslie and Malaya could get too far. Sorry if I was unclear.
This is the most magnificent relationship overkill ever seen in human history. Robin lives on another planet and one can realise only now how much she is alien to any kind of real kindness and concern.
nope that’s the thing. She is on another planet and this is HOW they show kindness and concern on it.
Jabberwocky> So, people need to share all interests in order to succeed at relationships? Can one be in love with their mirror?
Not Jabberwocky, but I’d say that sharing at least some interests is important, and showing sneering contempt for the interests you don’t share is really, really unhealthy. The fact that Malaya shows sneering contempt for everything that she isn’t interested makes her a bad choice for a relationship with anybody.
Basically what I was saying, really.
Pot, meet Kettle. Good intentions do not a relationship fix.
Quickly, Robin, to the p.o.’d Bean!
Robin reminds me of Tex in RvB a little: ‘destined to screw things up for herself’. It sounded contrived in the machina, but it seems unluckily true for Robin.
And… fail.
Eh, screw Robin.
Also, Leslie hair looks strange to me, like it might be either short or just tucked underneath.
Perhaps time for a change of hairstyle for Leslie? *hint*
OUTRAGOUS THEORY: Leslie will say something to Robin that will shock her so much, her super-metabolism will stop just long enough for Singularikitty’s (who is still inside her) metabolism to overpower hers and absorb Robin resulting in a huge bloated Singularikitty
Your strip has recently been focused on lezbisex. This actually elevates your strip to god-like epicness for the first time since its existence. Don’t get me wrong, it’s been epic many, many times. But never like this. Keep the pace going.
wait… what?? am I… could i possibly be….
caught up??
NNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSS!!!!!!!
*pant pant*
guess I can start catching up on… let’s see, what’s next on my list…. Zebragirl?
I just caught up too!! Its a good feeling!
If you haven’t tried MS Paint Adventures, that takes a while to catch up on.
Wow, didn’t know anybody read anything ‘MS Paint’ related .-. I read MS Paint Masterpieces. Kinda a long one, but graphically pleasing, especially considering it was originally made based off of sprite comics.
Definitely needs more Ultra-Car.
I agree, what does it take to get an Ultra Car storyline? He can’t be that hard to write for. Stop relying on gay shenanigans and get back to what made this comic great. The sentient car.
That might just lead to Ultra Car coming out of the closet and having gay shenanigans with Spider Car.
But everyone knows AMBER is spider-car. And she’s a girl so isn’t that technically het?
Would depend on if Ultra Car was stick or not.
The way this should have gone, translated to english from robinese
Leslie: So what did this mean?
Robin: Nothing, we were always good in bed, that was never the issue that drove us apart. I always do manage to rock your world.
Leslie: Yeah, yeah you do.
Robin: This was about trying to ease your sexual tensions around me and others. I was trying to save you…
Leslie: Save me? from what?
Robin: This girl who’s been hanging around you constantly, the one who keeps making you blush…
Leslie: What?
Robin: She doesn’t care about you, she basically said as much to me. I feel she’s wrong for you, and although I am flawed, I am less wrong. I felt like I had to get you into bed so you could stop thinking with your junk.
…Can we get a version of this without the speech bubbles?
Oh, Robin.
Ok I want to know what other people translate babies as I mean I’m all for it having its own meaning but it feels to me like it replaces “fucked up” or “stupid” any thoughts.