[0717] Dropping The Bomb
└ posted on Thursday, 10 September 2015, by Novil
I expect at least 300 comments. Don’t disappoint me.
- Larisa: Hi, Landon. Are you enjoying the hiking trip with your dad?
- Larisa: I’m glad you two are having some fun despite the ugly divorce.
- Larisa: Sooo… did you like the pic I sent you?
- Larisa: You’re cute when you stutter. I can’t wait to give you your real birthday present once you’re back!
- Larisa: Haha, you will! See you soon, sweety!
- Sandra: Didn’t you just forget something?
- Larisa: Like, what?
- Sandra: For example, mentioning the national scandal you caused half an hour ago?
- Larisa: Pfff…
- Larisa: I’ll be blind in ten years and dead in twenty. I don’t give a damn if some puritans have a problem with my naked body.
![[0717] Dropping The Bomb](/comics/2015-09-10-0717-dropping-the-bomb.png "[0717] Dropping The Bomb")
“Secrets” was posted on 4 Jan 2010. That means Novil sat on this for over five years, at least, without the comic ever explicitly addressing it. That’s….that’s ridiculous.
@ DanialArin:
Not uncommon behavior of adopted children…
Especially in the area of godparents adopting their godchildren.
@ Jerry:
I’m thinking mother had diabetes like her, and maybe some connected conditions (that was a lot more than insulin Larisa was taking back when they went on the factory adventure)
Father skipped out on her or was never in the picture. OR POSSIBLY that Ivan is her father, but she calls him by his first name because he’s disappointed that he remarried.
Godparents adopted her after her mother kicked the bucket.
OR they are both her biological parents she just got all the family curses in the form of recessive genes.
Larisa lives with an understanding that her life has a fairly specific “best by” date.
OR she’s expecting to go blind because of her pyromania, and possibly die by the same hand.
btw have you noticed how nicely devious LArisa looks when talking about “real” present.
Novil wrote:
I distinctly remember you saying in an email that you’d abandoned your original idea for what disease was the secret one Larisa was suffering from. Did you change your mind?
@ Crystalgate:
Not to mention a religious fanatic who tried to have her son’s girlfriend burned at the stake.
@ Sableagle:
Maybe the lesson is something like this comic?
Sableagle wrote:
The farmer wasn’t taking a year off. He was strongly implied to be retiring and he intended to enjoy himself selfishly while totally ignoring God. The lesson was to get right with God first, then whether you live a long time or die that very night won’t matter, in either case you’ll be okay.
First time writing comments after a year of watching this
Just for the 300…LOL 259 and counting
Everyone’s focusing on Larisa’s illness but if there’s one thing that Sandra and Woo could be criticised for it’s occasionally stilted dialogue and that was unfortunately on evidence in this comic too. Would anyone going through Troubled Times really want being an “ugly divorce” right to their face? Larisa’s saying that line for the reader’s exposition, not the character’s natural conversation.
At first I thought she was joking in the last panel, and that the ugly divorce meant she and landon had been forced to break up or something.
Then I read the comments.
Jeez, this arc went dark quickly.
It is about Gosh Darn time.
I have been reading your strip since before you originally hinted that she had heath issues. Literally years.
My question is, did Sandra know about this before. I do not mean about the medicine, but actually Larisa dying?
I wish it was as easy as a black hole.
It is a little upsetting this comic trivializes underage sexting while trying to lay on the seriousness with the death comment. If only all the problems associated with naked pics getting around the school or town were so easily vanquished.
Passing off what is a very serious issue as the butt of a joke and making it magically disappear is bad form IMO. You want to talk about death, how about in a year and a half instead of 20?
Now, hopefully I am just speaking too soon, and this issue will be dealt with in the next strips. But I think the black hole comment doesn’t make that likely. I do hope though.
Sorry for double post, cant edit and my link didn’t show up…
The Suicide of Rehtaeh Parsons
if this one doesn’t show up, here is the plain text :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_of_Rehtaeh_Parsons
Poor kid. Maybe, if she’s lucky, they’ll have more advanced treatments before it gets that bad.
@ Hunter:
It’s a manageable disease, but the problem is that it’s a genetic one that affects every living cell in her body. Even if science progresses incredibly fast within the next 20 years and we manage to create some sort of fantastic gene replacement therapy, she’s still going to have to deal with the degradation of her body. The more I research this disease, the more I find it akin to some of the worst types of cancers. At cancer has treatment. This thing is slow and insidious, and seemingly impossible to defeat.
This explains so much. Larissa is like a great fire, beautiful, wild, dangerous, and doomed to burn out, leaving everything changed in its path.
When did Landon’s parents get a divorce?
@ Crestlinger:
I don’t know. Landon seems to be good at school, but we don’t know if he’s good in biology and medecine. And even if he were a genius, he’s steel a teenager, he don’t have the equipment, or the knoledge to do such a thing. And by the time he finishes his studies, Larisa’s would be in a bad state. At least blind if you follow her own words.
I notice that there’s a bunch of people who seem to be under the impression that the sexting thing has been completely passed over in favor of this other detail. Why can a story arc not deal with both? Right now what we know is that the repercussions have been A. national attention for obvious reasons, B. that her parents are bothered but not that much, C. Larissa doesn’t give a damn about the national attention, she just wants to live life. We haven’t seen the effect on Larisa’s school life yet, nor heard of them either. There are many aspects of Larisa’s life, and we’ve only seen the effects of this in..what? three? With Sandra, her family, and (indirectly) her boyfriend? Stop accusing Novil of passing over a serious issue when there isn’t an indication that the issue has really been closed out. My bet would be that the two issues we have now (Larisa’s syndrome and the Sexting story) will be played off each other as the arc continues.
I had predicted that her ‘silent’ secret was a doomed lifespan. Its sad to be right.
@ KMorisato:
Sometimes, it really is.
@ Jesse:
I think that’s the best comment I’ve seen so far, and it’s very well phrased.
and not to mention it may be telepathically read out of my mind and thoughts?
@ mark w:
I was slightly eager to post when I realized what number was UP, that I forgot to mention for everybody else that it’s 50 comments per page. ( i am sorry if you went through and counted them one by one like I did 🙁 but hopefully you saw something else to reply to for increasing the comments).
Larisa better be careful if she doesn’t want to spend those years in prison.
The charge… sexual exploitation of a minor.
the suspect… Larisa.
the minor exploited… Larisa.
Yep, she could get arrested AND convicted (as an adult) for exploiting HERSELF (a minor)
at least, that’s the news making the rounds lately.
5th panel
Landon: “I don’t think I’ll enjoy another flamethrower…”
Coming up to 300! Keep going, people!
@ Paeris Kiran:
That’s not devious. That’s supposed to clearly be aroused, or at least sly. Because of the boning she’s implying.
This explains everything. hmm blind in ten and dead in twenty… sounds like chronic heavy metal poisoning or long term radiation exposure.
I know everyones focused on the grim news, but what kind of prsent is Larisa hinting about? O.O
And how old are they supposed to be exactly?
Sandra looks noticably older from her first appearance http://www.sandraandwoo.com/comics/2008-10-19-a-sly-raccoon.png
So they seem to be aging. Though Woo is throwing me off because Racoons have a pretty shot lifespan
@ Jasae Bushae:
Knowing Larissa, she probably doesn’t care about “age appropriateness” when it comes to her own actions.
Let’s not forget that she sent a nude selfie, and didn’t bat an eye when she accidentally sent it to every user in North America.
And let’s not forget about this: http://www.sandraandwoo.com/2014/04/17/0573-next-step-ii/
and this: http://www.sandraandwoo.com/2014/08/07/0605-teenage-pregnancy/
So… yeah… something to think about.
@ John S:
Actually, it’s pretty clear she has Wolfram syndrome.
Tucci wrote:
Damn Straight. I was an outgoing kid who made friends easily, but my “Socializing” experiences in school had me walking to the furthest side of the hall from people & avoiding eye contact by the time I graduated high school with a self worth that was stomped into the ground. Like in prison I learned the pecking order. Who you could make fun of & who you couldn’t. What groups you could hang out with, what groups you need to not piss off, & what groups to avoid because they WILL come after you. Like prison guards the Teachers & Counselors are out numbered & can’t be everywhere. Some are just going through the motions, some really do try to help, but again, out numbered & when the semester changes you might not be in their class & they have new students to care for. Also do you want to be seen as the guy ALWAYS running to teachers whenever you have some problem with bullying? Yeah, THAT will make things ease up….. Of course you find some friends, but depending on your place in the “Socializing” school pecking order, they only benefit you might get is safety in numbers. Sometimes you can hang out with cooler people like a lamprey around a shark, but soon, all to soon, you find your self having to go to gym class. Where you are alone. In the locker room with that group of guys, the ones that don’t like you. & the teacher is always out getting the gym room ready. Sucks to be you then.
Of course, you can ONLY “Socialize” in school. If only you could find kids your own age outside of school to hang out with. Hey here’s a thought if only there were places outside of school where you could meet people NOT in your age group & learn how to interact with them. I know, I will call this magical place, your community, your neighbors, your church (oops, I said the “C” word), a local child’s sports team, Boy/Girl Scouts or some other youth group. But no, those places apparently don’t exist. If you aren’t Incarcerated in a school building how are you EVER going to “Socialize”. Where else, other than prison, can you learn to cope with the Verbal, Mental & Physical Abuse, that I have not had to experience in the ‘real world’ since I graduated from school?
If I had a terminal childhood disease & I didn’t know what I now know about school, I would want to go, at least initially, because that is where the other kids are. Knowing what I now know, I would home school to learn what I learned in a fraction of the time & spend more time going to museums, parks, libraries & other fun places to learn & experience life in the time I had. I could meet with & play with other kids after they got out of school.
Sorry, but when I hear the, kids need school to “Socialize” argument it PISSES me off. I made plenty of friends OUTSIDE of school & they were what kept me sane.
We of course had anti-bullying campaigns & videos also. They were a joke then also.
And because no one reads very far into the comments,
Larissa was diagnosed as having WOLFRAM SYNDROME by a viewer early in the comments & it was Confirmed by the comic’s writer/creator in a later comment.
It was hinted in past comics as something serious. All I can say is:
…THE FEELS…
Does this fuel her pyromania? Is it possibly the cause of it? Does Landon know about this? Will the media ever find out to whom that picture should’ve been sent? Did that bug cause other people to send messages to over fifty thousand people? What’s going through Larissa’s mailbox right now? Should I do art related to this webcomic? SO MANY QUESTIONS!!!
We Americans tend to have this peculiar ability to disconnect the fact until very recently we had a teen pregnancy rate of almost 1 million a year, with the mere assertion that any of them could *possibly* have had sex. It’s never a problem until a face is attached to it. But a face does get attached to it and, holy hell, does it become media fodder.
Pony-kour wrote:
It’s highly unlikely that Larisa’s condition is the sole cause of her personality. If it was, then she would be defined by her condition. I think that Larisa would have been both interested of fire and very chaotic even without Wolfram Syndrome. Still, knowing she has a short life, she may become even more reckless than otherwise.
Blind in 10 and dead in 20?!? Noooo :C
@ Expendable Crew Member:
Well genetics is a lottery in this case… that condition can be managed if identified properly and is not severe… that beeing sad – there are infants that die because of this… so the “lifespan” is somewhat statistical number. (like with all defects like these, until identified people were said to die from diabetes, reason for it not known… like before the discovery of the HIV virus lot of people died of flu… that their imune system failed was not the case)
People can live with that to 50, people may not live up to 10 with it.
you never know. (Granted when eyesight starts to worsen, you have the ticking clock which gives up… Larisa usually does not wear glasses nor we have seen her having lenses (except when playing a pyromaniac proffesor) so 20 years more is essentialy what she can relly on.
Could be better, but what can you do. Just stupid to pass this on in any way to any other next time when there is already tech to make sure that it does not happen.
Ohhhhhh MYYYYYYYY GOOOOOOOOOOOOD!
WELL that’s a lot of information to just take in… I almost forgot that Larisa was suffering from something at all??
I was not ready for this
It was so sudden
I wanted more Larisa, but I did not see this coming
@ StarWombat33:
Well, given the circumstances, you generally have to get used to it at some point.
@ Paeris Kiran:
The number of carriers of the genes that cause Wolfram syndrome are somewhere around 40 million people. I’m not entirely sure what you’d do to keep them from passing it on.
I think it would be an interesting development if Larisa’s relationship made her afraid of dying.
Actually I wonder if the bomb in question isn’t the sudden talk of a nasty divorce? Why are Landon’s parents getting a divorce, and since when????
@ Tilly the Hun:
Maybe Larisa somehow gave Landon’s father the reason to divorce his wife.
I had expressed some concern that the strip with the black hole had ended the arc on a low point. I am so wonderfully glad to have been so terribly, terribly wrong.