Phoebe and Her Unicorn by Dana Simpson for February 01, 2023

Well, not literally everybody. Alejandra is has no inner life.

Ahh the classic “Walk in someone else’s shoes”! Even if not everyone wears them.

oh, the horror, eh, Dakota?

On the bright side Dakota, you have some dynamite material for your podcast. Talk to Lord Splendid Humility about it.

No Dakota, it’s a great day, you just have to mature, grow inside and you’ll see how great it is!

It’s not hard to be nice Dakota, try it! (Panel 3 is great!)

For the first time ever in this series, something to finally pierce Dakota’s shell and how more interesting and inventive it is because of how she never was so capable of knowing what others feel or think or even cared about it.

Even Marigold knows how to see herself as pure and grand but also is capable of caring, understanding and helping others and she doesn’t put Phoebe down.

Dakota doesn’t seem to have that ability.

and now it’s so overwhelming that it could totally destroy her if it doesn’t help her.

It could be almost viewed as a kind of evil doing of Marigold’s if it caused her to feel like life is meaningless as a human and believing she should be a goblin instead.

I could see the next few strips having Dakota tearfully begging Marigold to turn her back into a goblin again.

And that should be Dakota’s new identity for a few strips more.

Probably she would want to be a human again at some point and then she could ask Marigold for that.

Seems like almost everyone has some kind of identity crisis nowadays.

They aren’t satisfied with the bodies they have and the apple always wants to be the orange

Because goblins are as different from humans as apples and oranges

I also wonder if this is in any way a reflection on Dana’s feelings and the agony of her identity crisis when it first struck.

That’s okay, Dakota. You’ll get over it.

Blaart.

Dakota shows that she isn’t a manipulative b!tch but merely unfeeling and is starting to develop feelings for others. A genuinely manipulative person would want to know more about other people’s feelings in order to manipulate them better.

Honestly, I would like to see a nicer and friendlier Dakota

Dakota’s worst fear, character development.

“Socrates believed that no one does wrong voluntarily. Evil is the result of ignorance. If people knew what was the right thing to do they would do it.” (https://www.qcc.cuny.edu/socialsciences/ppecorino/intro_text/Chapter%202%20GREEKS/Socrates_Legacy.htm)

This is why new knowledge can be scary. It can make one aware of the need to make radical changes to one’s behavior.

Socialist: “[Sigh] I guess it IS important to be nice to others and help them succeed, even if I don’t always feel like putting in the effort—”

Capitalist: “Screw other people! I’m getting mine, and everyone else just needs to get good or get gone! FREEDOOOOOM!!!”

But probably also the best day of the lives of everybody else you associate with.

In future, Dakota will consider this the best day of her life, but now she needs support. Let’s hope Phoebe will give that to her.

YES WE HAVE FEELINGS DAKOTA

Poor Dakota. Having an existential crisis.

“It is said that her blart grew three sizes that day. . .”

This arc is a brilliant bit of character development.

It could be the start of a better life.