college – Page 3 – Son of Stuck Funky

Becky Gives It One Thumb Up

Given the fact that this is Rana’s first appearance in this strip in years, and she hasn’t been mentioned at all since, I don’t think her going to “teach in Afghanistan” would make much of a difference at all. If this was Act 2, this would no doubt foreshadow an upcoming Very Serious Storyline. But this is just Batiuk being cheap and thinking just saying a character is going to teach girls in Afghanistan is Edgy and Relevant and Important, because I’d be incredibly shocked if this strip ever shows that. Or ever shows her again at all, honestly. And if she does she’ll probably just be teaching at Westview with no mention of Afghanistan. And then I’d be impressed that Batiuk even remembered she was supposed to be a teacher.

Adeela sure is fitting in well in Westview, sitting quietly and smiling while the male in her life talks about what interests him.

Pinned Up Sleeves-Banned in Afghanistan

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“Yeah, believe it or not, things used to happen in my life, back in the day! Now what passes for excitement in my life is the exciting tale of ‘Sitting a Table Away From A Muslim Woman!’. Also, notice how I emphasized that she’s my adopted daughter, and not my real or ‘bio’ daughter. In case you were wondering how a normal average American like me could have such a foreign looking daughter. But yeah, we adopted her and that was pretty much the end of me taking an interest in her life, obviously.”

Wouldn’t you think this had already come up between Wally and Adeela? Like, at the very least that he’d worked for an NGO in Afghanistan, and not just been there as a soldier? I mean, I think she’d be interested to know that a member of Wally’s family was literally from her country.

You know Wally honestly used to be one of the characters in this strip I halfway liked, if only because he actually grew and developed through dealing with his PTSD and getting back into a normal life. And damn if Batiuk hasn’t made him super unlikeable in a really short time. At this rate I bet the next arc is going to reveal how Buddy (who looks like a totally different dog in this strip) is actually a raging anti-Semite.

It’s Funny Because Two People Are Talking At Once, I Guess

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Wow, this is shocking. I mean, what’s shocking is that Wally actually remembers Rana’s name. This is one of the many, many reasons why Batiuk is a terrible writer. If he’s trying to create relatable characters, having a father and daughter who apparently still live in the same town not have any clue at all what’s going on in each other’s lives to this point is not the way to do it. I kind of think this is the result of Batiuk explaining this plot to the artist, who, halfway through, reminded him “Wait, doesn’t Wally have a Muslim daughter?”. Batiuk probably laughed it off, of course Wally doesn’t, I’m the writer, shut up and draw. Then the artist pulled up a strip showing Rana, and Batiuk decided to just cram her in at the last minute like this, who cares if it makes both characters look like uncaring morons and realistically should render this whole arc pointless. It’s a whole lot weirder for Wally to react to one Muslim woman wearing a hijab when his own daughter is a Muslim woman wearing a hijab.

Plugging Away

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Putting aside how it’s at least a little presumptuous for Wally to just decree what he’s going to do all by himself about the “group” project while Adeela sits there silently, I do think it’s kind of funny how Wally says he’s going to just send her the outline, rather than e-mail or use Google Docs. Which, as backwards technologically as this strip is, it would not shock me if he just photocopied her notes, cut them out, pasted them together with his, and then mailed her the results. Because when I was in grad school ten years ago people were using Google Docs for this exact situation, so all group members can collaborate on one single project, without one having to swipe the notebooks of the rest of the group. Which is going to make it pretty hard for her to do any additional work.

This latest entry in “Batiuk Really Doesn’t Understand the Students Today” still make more sense than Rana creeping up on Wally like she’s stumbled upon Elvis or Jimmy Hoffa. Which Wally is basically the FW equivalent of, I guess.

You Never Know, But They’re Sure to Be Boring and Badly Drawn

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I’m excited to be getting a chance to contribute my bit here. I was honestly dreading that my first strip would be a Les strip, or Dinkle writing a book, and I’d have to come up with something halfway interesting about that.

I do like how this strip somehow managed to shoehorn in bricks. Precious, precious bricks. And “breaking down the barriers between people” translates to two people each saying one sentence and then staring robotically at each other. I mean, look at Adeela in the third panel. She looks like Wally just gave her a diagnosis of Total Body Cancer and she has seconds to live, and her memorial service is going to be at Montoni’s.

I think Wally’s in trouble though. He had enough difficulty with one Muslim in a hijab. When he turns around and sees they have him surrounded, even Buddy might not be enough to keep him on the Montoni’s Manager track.