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Dumbing of Age

9 years ago

For those who don't currently read it:

Dumbing of Age is a webcomic about college freshmen in the girls wing within a co-ed dorm at Indiana University, learning everything about life and themselves usually in the most difficult ways.  It stars a Christian homeschooled girl and her atheist best friend, and also a disgraced cheerleader, a misanthrope, a rebel, and a caped vigilante.

Click!

For those that do...

Becky/Dina FTW. XD

Dumbing of Age

9 years ago
I haven't even looked at it and I can tell by the description this'll be one hell of a ride.

1 day later edit: I've binge read up to book 3 or 4. It's alright I guess...

Dumbing of Age

9 years ago

Read a few pages; it's amazing. :)

Dumbing of Age

9 years ago

Might as well take a look...Sounds like an interesting cast of characters...

Dumbing of Age

9 years ago

To your white out, I say eew. Dina's looks like she's twelve, which says terrible things about becky, and I detest dina for other reasons. Becky is gr8 tho

Dumbing of Age

9 years ago

This outlines a big problem I have with the author and the writing. I mentioned something very much like this the last time we discussed the webcomic-- the gay characters are all very... Terribly adjusted? Occasionally mean and horrible? Leslie is willing to be bribed so she can hook up with some congresswoman, Marcie is attracted to an absolutely horrible person just 'cuz she wanna hit dat', Becky's a flagrant 'in your face' lesbo and part-time creep that's lusting for someone who looks like she's 12 years old after being dumped by someone completely different in character, the newspaper chick is just a horndog, and then there's Ethan, who's been closeted up until recently, so who knows where he's gonna end up. And that's all the gay characters. Very weird. 

I'd be okay with it if it was just like, two or three of them that were messed up, because it's a comic about dysfunctional people, but I mean, ALL OF THEM?

I'm willing to just say that Willis isn't a terribly skilled writer so his characters come off as stereotypes, but I think it's something else, even if I can't put my finger on it. At least the straight people in the comic has people like Jacob who are looking for a serious relationship. The homosexuals not so much. And of course, when confronted with this the author gets sarcastic and doesn't answer it.

ANYWAY, I read the webcomic mostly cuz it's some times genuinely funny and it's nice to see somebody with polar opposite views than me project his opinions. Always good to see the other side of things.

Also the Becky/Dina shipping is very squicky for reasons.

Dumbing of Age

9 years ago

I completely get where you're coming from re: Dina, but... well, this, basically. And the first panel of the next strip.

Let's be clear, when I say I ship these two, I don't mean I want to see them on Slipshine. Because, yes, my instinctive reaction to Dina is "she looks like she's twelve." But... she's not. She has every right to be in a relationship. And I think she and Becky could be good for each other.

Tan: How could you make a list of horrible gay characters and forget Ruth and Billie? XD

Anyway, yeah... I dunno. They're people. They've got issues. A comic about well-adjusted people would be boring.

Dumbing of Age

9 years ago

They're both bi, apparently. But don't get me wrong, their relationship is scary too XD

Meh, I hear. I'm obviously not the intended audience (Cis white Orthodox Jewish male of Highschool age) and I sorta feel like the homosexuals aren't treated as well as they probably should be in a webcomic about acceptance, but it's his webcomic and since most people don't share this concern then fine. I'll enjoy the comic for what I see as it's merits, not anything else haha.

Dumbing of Age

9 years ago

I read a little of it. I'm curious, though, have you read El Goonish Shive? If not, you might want to check it out. The art style is ... preeeetty crappy initially, but if you look at the latest comics, they're worlds apart. The artist improved pretty quickly.

Dumbing of Age

9 years ago
Dammit mom! I already have something to binge read ;_; I need to do my physics homework I can't keep spending my days reading web comics ;(

Dumbing of Age

9 years ago

xD I am not your mother! But yeah, it's an odd, entertaining piece of work that lies squarely between both fantasy and sci-fi, glorifies the bizarre and nerdy, runs on 'Rune of Funny,' and still has moments of clarity about the human condition with serious drama ... (along with elves, vampires, alternate dimensions, alien tech based gender swapping, superhero-ing, shape-shifting, lesbian, straight, and gay relationships, exc, exc.)

Dumbing of Age

9 years ago

Oh hey, I used to read that! I... don't know why I stopped, actually. Possibly there was a hiatus and I got distracted and forgot to ever check back. I'll have to start over at this point, I don't really remember what was going on. XD

Dumbing of Age

9 years ago

It sounds like it's got more gay sex than the back room of Blockbusters. Sure, I'll bite. 

Dumbing of Age

9 years ago

Oh shit I haven't read WSWFG in months.

Dumbing of Age

9 years ago

Well, whadda ya know, I read the whole damn thing. (Except Walky Performs a Se- well, anyway, that.) Some parts of it I really liked, some parts I kinda pressed the "Next" button repeatedly a few times. 

I did really like the characters, for the most part. Some of them I'd like to see fleshed out a little more, like Joe or Mike. (Although Mike is always pretty darn funny.) 

As far as the relationships go, I'm fine with all of them, but some are a bit... weird. Like the whole SPOILER Ruth/Billie SPOILER thing. It's just odd, because you never really know what to think, so it kind of made me uncomfortable at times, not because they were lesbian or anything like that, but because my mind was already used to the constant bickering between the two.

...and the Dorothy/Walky thing. I like Dorothy. I like Walky. I think it's kind of amusing that they're together. But... I don't really need to see their intimacy across four panels. It's weird at times, because I'm just in the middle of some Amazi-Girl plotline or whatever, and then BOOM next panel is Dorothy and Walky just chilling. Naked. Yeah. Weird...

 

 

 

Dumbing of Age

9 years ago

...sorry. Aaaaand now I feel like a bad influence. To be clear, to any mods who may be considering deleting this thread: The actual NSFW stuff is behind a paywall, where thirteen-year-olds cannot actually access it. >_<

Anyway, yes, Ruth and Billie are... dysfunctional people who might be slightly more able to function when they're together. Maybe. Alternately, that ship may be destined to go down in flames...

Dumbing of Age

9 years ago

Yeah, even if it was legal, I wouldn't want to read a NSFW comic about the two. It would kinda... take away the meaning of it all. And I presume it'd be incredibly awkward as well. Just... no.

Why, I ask? Why? Whyyyyyy...

Dumbing of Age

9 years ago

So I started reading this today. Didn't get through a lot, but I was still pretty entranced by the comic for a bit. I'm a little surprised because in the beginning I didn't even really much care for it, because a comic about gays and diversity and acceptance and stuff... I mean, no homo(phobia), just didn't sound like my type of thing and I'm surely not the intended audience. But I was bored I guess, and I read some.

I can't remember names well since I didn't really pay attention to that, but here's my first impression on it --

-Woah burqa so early in the comic 0_o

-The Christian girl is kind of annoying (the authors were probably trying to come up with something "cute" or "naive" I guess, but I don't see it.) And she looks kind of ugly too.

-That superman supergirl thing is weird.

-That Jew perv is probably my favorite character so far haha. Also he reminds me faintly of Tan's profile avatar (though not so much personality)

-That walkie talkie guy is only there for comic relief, let's all admit it ;P

-His sister is kind of hot.

-That "NSFW" ad on the sidebar is extremely distracting, especially because I have to see the top of it for several seconds every time a new comic loads in. I mean... I have no qualms about two blushing men kissing each other, but I'm not into that type of thing

-On blushing, seriously why is every character blushing?? And right underneath their eyes, too. Especially that black girl with the druggie roomie. Kinda annoying

-I can't tell if the Gender teacher is male or female, but hey its 2015 gender isn't really a thing anymore since you can basically be whatever you want.

Dumbing of Age

9 years ago

I think the Gender Teacher is female... But said teacher even has a unisex name...

Dumbing of Age

9 years ago

I don't have too much to say about this comic,other than the fact that they aren't always my cup of tea, and this one doesn't seem to interest me particularly. However, it might be one of those where you have to read a while to get into it, like 1/0. God, I should get back to reading that one, I wonder how it ends. I remember stopping abruptly at the point when the worm somehow... stopped being a lesbian? It was a really awesome philosophical thing, and I was willing to finish it despite some of its flaws, (Like worms changing their sexual orientation) but I never got around to it.

Dumbing of Age

9 years ago

Christian girl is going to turn out to be some variety of "not straight". 

Also, yes, this is a throwaway. People know my username IRL and I'd rather it not be associated with romantic webcomics. That's an awkward explanation waiting to happen. 

EDIT I: Okay, okay. This is actually pretty funny, and my throwaway was probably unnecessary.