Dumbing of Age is the most recent webcomic David Willis has made, and it is still going on as of the time I'm writing this. Dumbing of Age(DoA) is a college AU of every character Willis has made before. That's right. Characters from Roomies, It's Walky, Joyce and Walky, and Shortpacked! can be found in this comic to varying degrees. The character's characterization is very similar to how they were before their character development in the main universe. But as DoA progresses they do turn into different people so you may want to distance yourself from any knowledge you have on these other characters. Now their are a lot of characters in DoA. As such I will not be covering every character. I will just be covering some of my favorites. So let's jump right in.
But befor that I just want to be clear. SPOILERS AHEAD!! I didn't really care about telling spoilers before mainly because those were over, but this is something that is still going on. So do NOT read ahead unless you are up to date on DoA.
Joyce Brown
Joyce is the closest thing to a protagonist this comic has because most of the plots have something to do with her. Joyce was home-schooled in a VERY Christen, conservative, and sheltered environment. You would think this would make Joyce think the rest of the world was nothing but horrible sinner, and she does. But that won't stop her form thinking the best about everyone around her. She is very kind, and tries to make friends with everybody. Sadly this positive look on life would not reward her in kind. At her first college party she was drugged and almost raped. This made life very hard for Joyce. Her amazing amount of trust has now been replaced with fear. Before she could walk up to a random person and strike up a conversation. Now Joyce can't be outside unless she is with someone she trusts. While it does still haunt her, she is doing better. But near rape isn't the only thing she has to deal with. As I said she is VERY Christian, and as such she has trouble dealing with, at first, other people not being heterosexual. She even dates a homosexual guy to try and "make him better". Thankfully she has come to terms with it a lot more and has even broken up with Ethan(yes, that was the gay boyfriend).
Dorothy Keener
To help describe Dorothy let me quote from the character page. "She's going to be President some day, even if it means she has to be the first female and/or openly atheist person to accomplish such." Dorothy is just using this college as a stepping stone until she gets into Yale. She is an incredibly hard worker who has only ever been able to really relax when she's around her boyfriend(who I will talk about later). Dorothy also doesn't want to make to many attachments. Like I said she's going to Yale, and when she does she doesn't want to make anyone feel like they need to follow her. Dorothy actually broke up with her high school boyfriend because he followed her to this college. It may sound like Drothy is very cold, but she's really not. She is very warm and supportive. She even became best friends with Joyce, and it is no small feet to has an liberal atheist and a conservative christian be best friends.
David "Walky" Walkerton
Walky doesn't really want to be in college. Ya, he is very smart, but he also has no real ambitions. He's just happy with eating McDonald's and watching cartoons. How he ended up as Dorothy's boyfriend is anyone's guess. Honestly the reason they got together is because Walky is so easy going. He can be sarcastic and will speak without thinking, but he never means harm by it. He just says what's on his mind. Now the bad thing about Walky is that he really doesn't see how his comments can be hurtful. He is also fairly clueless about the world around him. He is very excepting of things as they are, but because his life has been fairly easy he doesn't see how some of the things that go on are bad. A lot of it actually has to do with the fact that he never really released how much his sister Sal had struggled in life.
Amber O'Mally
Amber once again has an abusive father. To help her through those times she hind herself in computers and comic. This was passable for a while with her boyfriend Ethan being able to interact with the world for her. That is until she was in a store when it got robbed. The indecent scared the crap out of her. The robber even held Ethan at knife point, but thankfully the police did show up and the robber was arrested. Less thankful was that when the robber was being taken away, all of the fear Amber had was replaced with hate. It wouldn't be surprising if the hate she had was building up for a while and it was just this that was the tipping point. Anyway the end result was Amber stabbing the robber in the hand and Amber took self defense classes after that. Now she's in collge and with her back ground in comic and martial art she has done the only rational thing. She is now the superhero Amazi-Girl! This may sound funny, but it is also tragic in a way. Amber doesn't see herself as Amazi-Girl. She sees Amber and Amazi-Girl as two individuals. Not to say she has multiple personality disorder, but she doesn't let her identities mix. In her mind Amazi-girl is everything Amber can't be. Amazi-Girl is strong, and powerful. She always does the right thing and deal with criticism. But because of that divided she has made, Amber is now unable to strong and powerful. In her mind Amber just isn't that.
Mike Warner
Mike is an asshole.
Dina Saruyama
Dina is the most popular character is Dumbing of Age, and when you read her it is easy to see why. She doesn't quiet get people, but she loves dinosaurs. She's quiet and doesn't talk much, but when she does it's usually the funniest thing ever. While she has some social anxieties she still really likes being with people. I'm sorry if it seems like I don't have much to talk about with Dina, but really I don't. As I am writing this a story line is going on that is Dina focused so I may be able to talk about her more after that, but for now she is just a really fun and entertaining character.
I wanted to talk about Roz, but the more I thought about it I realized that I didn't have much to say about Roz aside from if she was a real person I'd do everything I could to date her. Now if none of these characters sound enjoyable just remember these are my favorite character. Their are still many more.
Dumbing of Age is fantastic. It uses all of what Willis has learned about humor, characters, and drama to create a truly wonderful experience. And want to know what makes it better? It updates daily. Yep Monday through the next Monday a new Dumbing of Age comic is posted. It is wonderful. When you start reading it don't read the comments. They can contain spoilers. Now just click here. Also I've started a lot of people on this first page and they never went onward because of the poop joke. If you are not a fan of poop joke JUST GET PAST IT. IT WILL BECOME AMAZING!!
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