From what we’ve seen as well as a great deal fo what’s been implied. That is pretty much every interaction they have, that Noah plays pranks on her, messes with her and in general is just a nuisance, because he enjoys this. since he moved next door to her, it feels like he only did so to spite her and to do that stuff EVERY DAY
It could also be unintentional inattentional blindness on Tara’s part. Its like when you get together with family for the holidays but you haven’t seen a sibling for that entire year and therefore have no idea what’s been going on with them but you instinctively think they are the same as they were last time you hung out. As the viewer, we have the opportunity to see Noah’s evolution as a character that Tara has not. This could also be a narrative crossroads moment for their relationship where they can decide to continue to view it as it always has been or become more of what they are as people now.
When I was in my teens, I started to hate my older brother for a lot of his behavior towards me. He wasn’t like Noah, but he was the insufferable type to me. I always dreaded seeing him later in life after we moved apart, until my dad spelled it out for me: “Yeah he can be a jerk, but he has a good heart. He loves you and he’d lay down in traffic to save you if it came down to it, and you know it. Like the song goes, he ain’t heavy.”
yeah, basically this, I’m new here, but that means I just archive dived this whole comic in a day, and to be fair, his pranks are basically harmless, but when that’s the only interaction you have with someone, then clearly they don’t have a relationship with you. ~<3
I mean. She says is straight out. Out of all the world he could have gone, he moves in beside his sister whom their relationship is he likes to make her uncomfortable. His first prank is a really over the top, regressive joke about an abusive white picket fence relationship? And that’s the START of them living next to each other?
Ya. I’d be upset too. Occasionally putting up with his antics is one thing. Living next to them, having to worry about it day after day is another.
Like, think about it this way. Before, they were living next to an actual witch who kidnapped and resented them for how her life turned out. That didn’t bother her. That should tell you how far her brother can go with his pranks. As if this “Ho ho! I’ll beat the woman later” joke wasn’t hint enough.
Just imagine that these are the only interactions that you have with a single person for years, the other person never takes it serious and they just expect you to play along. This was genuinely a moment for Noah and Sara to show they can hold a proper conversation about a serious topic and yet here they are going over the top just to get a kick out of you. I’d be sick of it after a while
I imagine it would unless you have had to put up with it all your life to a point that it put a clear strain on the relationship between her and her brother which was pretty obvious here……
Its one of those things that builds and builds. Basically every interaction with him is doing something like this. Being trolly, being a little chaos gremlin, making fun of her, playing pranks on her, just generally making things more difficult than they need to be. In context, she thinks this is just another one of his games hes going to play on her to get his laughs in and now he’s next door so it’ll be “all the time” and on top of that, they move in and the first thing they do is Fashion Theatre. Its screaming ‘we’re here to make your play our silly little games 24/7’
If he’d turned up and been, you know, normal for awhile and THEN done it, she might react differently, maybe she might even think he was turning over a new leaf and growing up, but instead he just goes hard into the games right off the bat.
I can totally sympathise that a person would be fed up with that, and not only fed up expecting it to only get worse from now on.
I get where she’s coming from, Noah and Sarah did lay it on pretty thick (and the Witch house next door becoming available was quite the coincidence. Hope Ms. Witch is okay, btw; shenanigans aside, she doesn’t seem like a bad person, and she’s been going through a LOT lately). But I also can’t help but feel like Tara might have gone too far with her own outburst this time. I highly doubt there was any malice in their actions, certainly nothing that warranted her ripping her brother a new one like that. I hope I’m wrong, but I get the sense that the next story arc might be a bit less on the “fun” side than we’ve seen for awhile.
I think Tara makes it fairly clear, both in her conversation with Noah and her response to Bev outside that this was more a ‘straw that broke the camels back’ scenario rather than about the dinner itself.
Yeah, I wondered if this was really just annoying Tara because, like, Sarah and Noah could just explain their relationship to T&B by sitting down and saying it in words. They will be believed and loved regardless. But they choose to make it over the top like they are willing someone to be sh**ty about it so they can be justified in being goblins. Don’t get me wrong, it’s SO FUN and wonderful to be a goblin .. with the right people in the right circumstance. But this doesn’t have to be one of them, and it’s valid that Tara is annoyed. Although the last speech bubble is also probably true, too
Honestly, I’m not sure they could just sit down and explain it.
I think both Noah and Sarah have shown a tendency to really on comedy as a means to control a situation. This is seen as early as Sarah’s introduction where, unable to deal with her own complex feelings around dating, she instead chooses to make a game out of how insane she can appear.
Noah shows a similar need for control and to appear unpredictable and zany. The two of them together compound this problem, and it seems the more genuine and vulnerable the message, the more they need to control that narrative and this is the inevitable result.
I can see both perspectives. I think this is Noah’s genuine attempt to connect with his sister through the series of barriers of irony and chaos that he has built around himself, while Tara is frustrated that she can’t just have a real relationship with her brother without these filters in place.
Aw. I feel like Noah actually really relies on Tara as a source of support and security which is probably more reason why he moved in next door. I do think maybe he took it too far here and their sibling relationship needs to mature a bit as adults. He can’t just keep annoying her for kicks. Maybe Tara’s a bit overly sensitive to it too.
Yeah it feels like the main issue here is that Noah and Sara have shown that they can have a proper sit down and have a proper conversations when its necessary and this was one of those moments. But instead they decided to be childish and play these stupid games with Tara AGAIN and that’s properly been the only interactions she’s had with them.
I agree, I don’t think Noah moving closer to her was to mess with her. Sure she probably had a good reason to have a problem with them moving closer to them, sure it feels weird and stuff but you really didn’t have to blow up you’re little brother like that. Plus the only reason why sarah and noah are together is because of Tara. I feel like she was just being too sensitive over the fact she’s going to see her little brother everyday.
Tara’s response to the “dinner” was kind of over the top. Noah and Sarah weren’t hurting anyone. They were being kind of ridiculous, but that’s just how the are.
“That’s just how I am” is not a free pass to do anything you want to no consequences. You’re allowed to live your life however you want, but that doesn’t mean everyone else is obligated to indulge you.
What should the consequences be for someone who invites you over, serves you dinner and engages in some silly theatrics? A big part of maturity is learning to let shit slide when it’s the kind of shit that truly doesn’t matter in the end.
Amethyst
A big part of maturity is also being willing to say “enough is enough.”
That’s kind of the problem, this is how they act every time they interact with Tara and there is a limit to how much you can deal with being treated as a joke.
That’s just how they are? That’s Tara’s whole point. If you pay attention to what she says, then how they interact in the comic, seems to be how they interact off-screen too. He’s her brother. A family member that close to you, and the only interactions you have with them are irony, tomfoolery, sarcasm, and paranoia. That isn’t healthy. The problem Tara’s having, is literally about the fact that that’s just how they are.
I’m sorta stuck in the middle, while yes it’s a harmless joke, there are moments where you need to just take the moment serious and have a proper conversation. Also his sis isn’t wrong that them moving in next door is kinda a threat, that even though she is trying to improve and move on with her life; he’s going to go as far as moving in next to them to keep up these childish ass pranks.
Too be fair sometimes the only way to cope with family drama is to distance yourself, even if its only for a little bit. I love my Mom too bits, but i cannot stand to be around the woman for more than a few hours at a time. Liveing nextdoor to each other would be a nightmare for both of us. Family is this wierd dicotomy were you can love someone with all your heart, but not perticually like them as a person.
Honestly i’d have put hands on him if he was my sibling. Especially since he seems to think that everyone sorta has to accept his childish behavior and chock it up as it’s just how he is.
To be fair to Tara, over the course of the comic Noah and Sara have been getting more and more obnoxious. We can see it in the last Xmas arc, for instance. It is all meant in good fun, we know that, but to Tara it has been building for sure. There comes a point where something breaks the camel’s back, and this was it. And sometimes it takes being harsh and ripping the person a new one to get the point across enough is enough.
Could she have phrased it or been nicer about it? Sure. But sometimes you need to be harsh to be firm.
Yeaaaaa I’m not sure I can take Tara’s side for this arc. Sure Noah can be a goblin, but almost all of his pranks are on the basis that Tara’s can’t help but be curious, or want to investigate. All Tara has to do is just…. not get invested and their jokes fall flat. It’s also not like they’re purposefully being annoying for the sake of getting under Tara’s skin. We’ve seen them act exactly the same even when nobody else is around. Really the only sin here is that they moved next door, which can get annoying if you value your space/privacy.
We have to sit here and realize she’s been dealing with this for a long time and it was probably bad just with Noah himself. Now it’s both him and Sara and they went as far as moving in next to them, practically promising that they will not have any peace from this bs. Especially since these two something stupid and sorta just expect everyone else to just play along.
I’m genuinely not sure if it’s the beginning of a new arc or the author realizing that, but Noah and Sara never had any character growth in the entire comic. They’re just immature to the point they seem incomplete.
But after a lifetime of pranks? Well, maybe not the first 10 years, but something at least every week after that? He is lucky all his fingers are intact :{
I’m a younger sibling, so I understand why Noah is the way he is, and why he’s doing it. This is a set up for classic sibling heart to heart convo and I can’t wait!!
I feel like this has been a long time coming, for both of them. Noah being a little prankster who took the joke a little too far, but also Tara drawing a line about her personal life. I hope these two can come to some sort of understanding, because what I’m seeing here is a lot of messages going past eachother. And I love them as a sibling pair, they seem to have a really genuine love for eachother… even if they do come to a head like this sometimes.
I’ve only started reading this comic three days ago and caught up. Noah and Sarah were out of line. They are obnoxious and think because they were once victimized everyone else needs to deal with their antics as they’re owed. Tara has indulged his behavior for too long in small bursts, but to do it seemingly daily was too much for her. HOW Tara said it was also out of line but in the heat of the moment I don’t think she could help it. TBH how Bev handled her own sister was the perfect balance.
There’s decades of unseen interactions we aren’t privy to. Maybe a montage of Noah Trolling Tara Through The Years might give us perspective (and as a bonus see them all a second time through Noah’s reasonings for each incident)
If you judge Noah based on all the pranks we have seen him pull, they’ve all been relatively harmless, toying with Tara’s paranoia and winding her up. He has never abused, humiliated, insulted or frightened her. I have to assume that his escapades in their youth were much the same, because it would be extreme character derailment for him to have gone out of his way to hurt her emotionally or otherwise. Tara hasn’t seemed to have learned the crucial life lesson that wisdom and maturity come not only from the experiences that happen to us, but also from how we choose to handle those experiences.
You’re right, they are all relatively harmless. In the grand scheme of things, each prank is just a drop in the bucket of Tara’s life. But there’s been an entire lifetime of them. A lifetime of having her paranoia toyed with, being wound up, and it’s just not stopping. Each prank may only be a drop, but they build up. To the point that Noah can’t even invite Tara over for dinner without her immediately assuming it’s another of his antics. It was just all too much
And how much is Tara supposed to put up with? Is she just supposed to be the “bigger man” forever? Relationships work both ways. It’s not Tara’s sole responsibility to say “my brother enjoys this so I should play along.” It’s also Noah’s responsibility to say “my sister hates this so I should tone it down around her.”
To me this situation comes across as Noah not having learned the crucial life lesson that people do not have infinite patience and are not obligated to tolerate any and all behavior forever. Noah knows that Tara hates this sort of thing. At any time he could have said to himself “my sister clearly hates this, maybe I should tone it down before she snaps”, but no. He kept pushing and testing the limits, and this is the inevitable result.
I understand Tara’s feelings, because she feels like Noah is threatening her normalcy, but I’m more on Noah’s side on this because I think (and this is theory) that this was Noah’s way of “coming out”, explaining to Tara the type of relationship he has with Sarah (something we know is very important to him), that it’s a lifelong thing for him and Sarah, and the first person in his family who was going to tell them was Tara…
Only for Tara to interpret it and sum it up as “You love tormenting me, and you’re threatening me” in addition to denying their entire relationship as siblings…
And I really understand Tara’s point because this is a “the straw that broke the camel’s back” and a “crossing the line,” and that Noah didn’t really think about how Tara would feel if his family moved into her “private space,” but I get the feeling that she never really told him how his teasing directly affected her until now that she’s basically exploding…
By Of course, this is all theory and I could be wrong, but I loved the episode, I’m already looking forward to seeing how it continues<3
I mean is she wrong? Instead of inviting them over and having a honest conversation with Tara and Bev (which we have seen both he and Sara can actually do) they play these stupid ass games with hints wanting them to figure it out. They just expect them to play along and to deal with it and that’s selfish asf. If this was handled any other way i’m sure Tara would have been happy for them both.
Yeah I’m with Tara on that one. Looking at the reaction I don’t know if it’s an older sibling things but finding out your sibling just came next door, without as much of a text to announce it, just so they could put a prank on you that’s rought.
Depending on the relationship between them it can range from strange but funny I guess to that’s the final straw pretty fast. From what we’ve seen, being obnoxious is the entire personality of Noah with his sister. We do know he’s more than that, but to Tara he’s just obnoxious for the sake of it all the time.
Imagine living by yourself with your SO and having your younger sibling comming to get you and annoy you like you’re children again.
Sure it’s an harmless prank but what we don’t see is it’s probably been their entire relationships since the beginning. Even a good prank gets tiring after the thousands iteration in 25 years. One day you grow tired of those shenanigans and you just want and need to speak to an adult. To know you can be serious with your family and have a real relationship.
Having cut toxic family members out of my life, I sympathize with Tara. I know that feeling, that straw that broke the camel’s back, the “I can’t do this anymore” moment. I know exactly what she’s going through after dealing with this for a lifetime.
Seeing a lot of people taking Noah’s side because they feel like he’s just being a little gremlin and isn’t doing anything actually harmful but they are painfully missing Tara’s point.
Tara tells Noah to grow up, not because he pulls pranks but because that’s literally ALL he does. His life is an amorphous gray blob of trolling people without any focus. He has no job (he literally says the house they are in was paid for with his parents money) and only recently has he had any benefit to another person by becoming Sara’s emotional support AroAce partner. You’ll notice Tara wasn’t that upset at Sara despite Sara playing along and enabling him because at least Sara has something going on in her life (she has a stable job for one, she is the “breadwinner” after all). Noah is basically Sara’s pet at this point, he’s a kept man.
Tara is 100% in the right here, Noah needs to grow the fuck up and figure out what he’s doing with his life. Judging by how everyone has been treating Noah it seems he’s NEVER had anyone call him out on his bullshit, he’s coddled to an unhealthy degree and Tara just grumpily put up with it until this was the last straw and she just had to get it off her chest. Judging by Noah’s reaction it seems what she said hit a little close to home so maybe he’ll do some introspection.
Something I haven’t seen brought up is that Tara herself can be a pretty huge chaos goblin from time to time, I might be reading into things but I always got a “I got it from watching you dad!” vibe between Noah and Tara. Maybe a head canon here but I wouldn’t be surprised if the pranks were pretty equal and mutual for a good chunk of their life if not more so from Tara, but Tara is older, and at some point decided to “grow up” from it, but Noah had incorporated in his sense of self that “this is how me and my sister show affection and communicate”, its definitely a big part of why I intentionally “bother” my older brother and why he “bothers” me, thats how we show love. But there is a time and a place.
A bit of Info I gather was that Noah prided himself on being completely unpredictable and his background bio said that he was annoyed that no one was surprised that he was Trans. He then organized his life around the concept that he HAS to surprised everyone about everything, When someone expect him of doing X, he goes out of his way of proving them wrong. “Look! I’m doing Y instead.” Tara probably already knows the kind of relationship he has with Sarah.
I never comment and probably won’t again, but I for one see this as others have said as more of a ‘”straw that broke the camel’s back” type scenario where for everything we have seen of Tara and Noah interacting, there’s more from before he was introduced and between when they are on screen together that this, which literally any other couple or even fellow non-romantic duo who knows him and Sarah might take it as a hilarious prank, is just one thing too many after so many years of the same for his sister. I do not blame Tara. She might need to apologize for how harsh she was in telling him to knock it off, but whether or not she knows the relationship he has with Sarah and their personal growth since linking up, the fact is they chose to move in next door to her and Beverly when they had absolutely no reason to do so. Yes, available house because the Witch was moving, but next door to his sister and her wife and he and his bestie do that to them on the first night they’re able to have company? I’m no sibling relationship expert, my relationship with my sister is a good one but that’s probably just because we’re not together nearly as much as the two of them have been, but maybe Noah should have thought a little bit harder about what he and Sarah would do on their first night having company over. I get that he likes to be quirky and unpredictable, but I’m on Tara’s side on this one, there are some things you just don’t do, and this whole thing is one of them.
A lot of comments are breaking down things about this page, but like
one (compounded) thing that sticks to me personally is that a) Sarah is probably the most important person in Noah’s life, but b) he has explicitly admitted to not being sincere/vulnerable (in such a way that suggests that that lack of openness refers even to Sarah) in almost any of his words or deeds.
So what this REALLY boils down to, in my opinion, is Noah’s lack of consideration (literally saying nothing to his sister about becoming her adjacent neighbor until after he’d already moved), ON TOP OF a lifetime of an arms-length relationship that he seems to have laid the foundations for himself, wherein his only interactions with Tara are conducted in an effort to get a reaction out of her and nothing more.
Tough not to get pissed off when someone who doesn’t seem to care about you and who seems to live to make your life worse essentially makes themself inescapable.
By itself this comes out of nowhere, but literally every time we see Noah and Tara together, Noah is trying to prank her. He shows up for christmas unannounced, and then when he’s allowed to stay despite not checking first if it was alright, the literal first thing he does is try to fuck with her.
Imagine having to deal with constant pranks and tomfoolery on that scale for 30 years, and then you find out that this person that has done nothing but try to cause chaos in your life has moved next door, and the FIRST thing he does once again is more pranks and chaos and tomfoolery. It’s as if to say to her, “This is your life now, I’m going to do this to you every day for the rest of your life”
TBH, if I were Tara, I’d have freaked teh F out too.
This isn’t (just) because of the dinner theater, it is as other comments pointed out just the straw that broke the camel’s back, the latest thing in a long string of events while growing up together.
All the way back with Noah’s introduction during the Christmas special it was shown that Noah enjoys messing with Tara, to the point even that Tara feels it is needed to tell Noah to not try to sleep with Sarah (which feels odd with how we’re shown Noah is asexual but it is my headcanon that before accepting this to himself he overcompensated, and some other friends of Tara might’ve been caught in the cross-fire).
Now without warning they’ve moved next door, something they’ve been planning for weeks or even months without mentioning it, and first thing they do is put on some odd act to mess with them. Yes there is more to it than just being a prank, but Tara is too on edge to notice right now.
This is Tara making it clear that while she loves Noah and tolerates his stunts on vacations and holiday visits and such, she is not going to let this be the norm for her everyday life.
Tara is the one who needs to grow up. Noah and Sarah were being nothing other than welcoming hosts. Sure they were putting on an elaborate performance, but Tara didn’t even try to understand it for what it was. They didn’t try to humiliate her or prank her in any other way. The mature response would be to get in on the fun and embrace the silliness for what it was. Also, why did Tara reserve the dressing down for Noah and not Sarah too? She must have little to no respect for him if she’s willing to make him feel like crap, but still seems to know it’s wrong to insult Sarah in the same way. Noah is Tara’s brother and Sarah is her close friend, and she has not done right by either of them by throwing a tantrum.
By itself, dinner was not to awful. But in context of a history where every interaction has a 10/90 split between sincere interaction with a loved one, vs prankish goblin shit?
I will allow points against Tara if there have not been attempts to tell Noah his constant pranks are too much. But just as some are saying “this dinner was not so bad”, could have been Noah ignored previous attempts to talk, brushing them off as “it was just a little prank”, without realizing how much pressure was building up. Eventually that pressure was released in terms that could not be ignored :{
Expecting Tara to ‘grow up’ overlooks the context here. Noah and Sarah might have been trying to be welcoming, but their actions were part of a pattern Tara’s experienced before. They weren’t just being silly; they were pushing her boundaries, which is a bigger issue than a harmless prank. It’s not about misunderstanding the situation—it’s about the frustration of dealing with the same behavior repeatedly, especially when Tara’s past attempts at ‘understanding’ haven’t worked. After a while, why would she keep putting herself in that position to be hurt or frustrated again?
As for why Tara dressed down Noah and not Sarah, it’s because of their history. Noah has been the one most involved in crossing her boundaries, and her anger was directed at him for that reason. Her reaction wasn’t about disrespecting him; it was about her frustration with him not respecting her boundaries. It’s easy to overlook the emotional strain of living with that dynamic, but this isn’t just about ‘getting in on the fun.’ The constant stress of knowing she’d likely face this daily for years, especially with him now living next door, makes it even harder to be patient. Expecting her to ‘understand’ while under that mental and emotional pressure—likely feeling trapped in a downward spiral of ‘this is my life now and there’s no escape’—and criticizing her for not going along with it is unreasonable. Tara’s response was about standing up for herself after being repeatedly pushed too far.
Maturity isn’t about going along with things you’re uncomfortable with; it’s about knowing your own boundaries, recognizing others’ boundaries, and standing up for yourself when others disregard them. Tara understands her boundaries and is upset that Noah isn’t respecting them. While her response may not have been the most mature, ignoring her boundaries wouldn’t have been the mature choice either.
Just because you disagree with someone’s boundaries doesn’t mean you can ignore them. You can voice your disagreement at the right time or try to persuade them when the moment is appropriate. But if that doesn’t work, you don’t get to just say, ‘I tried,’ and bulldoze over their limits.
How can she try to see it for what it is, when everything they do is weird shenanigannery with seemingly no meaning to it? This is the first time they were trying to make a point, and they did so in the most over-the-top way possible, after moving next-door without telling them, and after decades of only things like this. We can’t blame for not realizing how much this would irk Tara(Except for moving in without telling them – I would wanna know in advance about a change as drastic as that), but we also can’t blame Tara for literally not being able to think rationally here. She couldn’t have possibly realized there was more to it than just screwing with her, personally. As some mentioned in the previous parts, Beverly is less tortured by so long going along with stuff like this, so she was able to step back and think about it. That isn’t the case for Tara, who is dealing with someone she’s known from the gym for years(after many unfortunate meetings), and her sibling.
I think Noah realized he went a little too far with the prank this time, judging by the look on his face in panel 3. I’d imagine he’d not really thought this through as to how this might affect his sister.
I can understand why Tara isn’t messing around with this. This is her home, she’s happy while feeling comfortable and safe with her wife. Then her goblin brother moves in next door without asking or even telling her, then immediately starts doing stupid shit. She is not going to let him ruin what she has built
… I get her frustration, she’s been conditioned to always be on-guard around both him and Sarah, this is still kinda rough. I really hope they patch things up 🙁
In addition to various points about this being the straw that broke the camel’s back, it’s worth noting that Tara just got married and settled down herself fairly recently. This little performance could easily come across not as a way of saying, “Our relationship is different,” but instead as, “Marriage is dumb and you guys are dumb for getting married.” I’m not saying that is what they meant to convey, merely that to someone who has been primed to look for the joke, this would be a reasonable interpretation.
I find it very interesting how people on the comments are all “Noah and Sarah have grown and Tara hasn’t seen it” when the truth is that it doesn’t matter at all. Neither of them have grown in any way that matters to Tara, aka not being chaos goblins bent on turning everything into a silly game with four overlapping layers of irony.
Remember, these two are fun to watch, but everyone here would hate their guts if they actually had to constantly interact with them.
75 thoughts on “Over for Dinner #5”
Kiloku
I’m having a very hard time understanding Tara’s perspective here. It feels like it was a harmless prank to me. What about it all made her so upset?
Sam Burnett
Same. I’m really not getting it either
Marleonka
From what we’ve seen as well as a great deal fo what’s been implied. That is pretty much every interaction they have, that Noah plays pranks on her, messes with her and in general is just a nuisance, because he enjoys this. since he moved next door to her, it feels like he only did so to spite her and to do that stuff EVERY DAY
A Stranger
It could also be unintentional inattentional blindness on Tara’s part. Its like when you get together with family for the holidays but you haven’t seen a sibling for that entire year and therefore have no idea what’s been going on with them but you instinctively think they are the same as they were last time you hung out. As the viewer, we have the opportunity to see Noah’s evolution as a character that Tara has not. This could also be a narrative crossroads moment for their relationship where they can decide to continue to view it as it always has been or become more of what they are as people now.
Furious Tomato
When I was in my teens, I started to hate my older brother for a lot of his behavior towards me. He wasn’t like Noah, but he was the insufferable type to me. I always dreaded seeing him later in life after we moved apart, until my dad spelled it out for me: “Yeah he can be a jerk, but he has a good heart. He loves you and he’d lay down in traffic to save you if it came down to it, and you know it. Like the song goes, he ain’t heavy.”
semi suiomen
Well put.
Rob Wright
This is more just the final straw. She also has not seen all the personal growth the two have done
DJTsurugi
yeah, basically this, I’m new here, but that means I just archive dived this whole comic in a day, and to be fair, his pranks are basically harmless, but when that’s the only interaction you have with someone, then clearly they don’t have a relationship with you. ~<3
Cyrus
I mean. She says is straight out. Out of all the world he could have gone, he moves in beside his sister whom their relationship is he likes to make her uncomfortable. His first prank is a really over the top, regressive joke about an abusive white picket fence relationship? And that’s the START of them living next to each other?
Ya. I’d be upset too. Occasionally putting up with his antics is one thing. Living next to them, having to worry about it day after day is another.
Like, think about it this way. Before, they were living next to an actual witch who kidnapped and resented them for how her life turned out. That didn’t bother her. That should tell you how far her brother can go with his pranks. As if this “Ho ho! I’ll beat the woman later” joke wasn’t hint enough.
Draicostorm
Just imagine that these are the only interactions that you have with a single person for years, the other person never takes it serious and they just expect you to play along. This was genuinely a moment for Noah and Sara to show they can hold a proper conversation about a serious topic and yet here they are going over the top just to get a kick out of you. I’d be sick of it after a while
Dan
I imagine it would unless you have had to put up with it all your life to a point that it put a clear strain on the relationship between her and her brother which was pretty obvious here……
Neo
Its one of those things that builds and builds. Basically every interaction with him is doing something like this. Being trolly, being a little chaos gremlin, making fun of her, playing pranks on her, just generally making things more difficult than they need to be. In context, she thinks this is just another one of his games hes going to play on her to get his laughs in and now he’s next door so it’ll be “all the time” and on top of that, they move in and the first thing they do is Fashion Theatre. Its screaming ‘we’re here to make your play our silly little games 24/7’
If he’d turned up and been, you know, normal for awhile and THEN done it, she might react differently, maybe she might even think he was turning over a new leaf and growing up, but instead he just goes hard into the games right off the bat.
I can totally sympathise that a person would be fed up with that, and not only fed up expecting it to only get worse from now on.
FLB
As someone who had to cope with people doing slightly annoying stuff for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week in an openspace, I absolutely understand her.
Dog
I can’t say I blame her for getting a tad bit fuckin’ sick of the shenanigans when that’s going to be her day-to-day.
Tsath
Painful but necessary.
Etru
I get where she’s coming from, Noah and Sarah did lay it on pretty thick (and the Witch house next door becoming available was quite the coincidence. Hope Ms. Witch is okay, btw; shenanigans aside, she doesn’t seem like a bad person, and she’s been going through a LOT lately). But I also can’t help but feel like Tara might have gone too far with her own outburst this time. I highly doubt there was any malice in their actions, certainly nothing that warranted her ripping her brother a new one like that. I hope I’m wrong, but I get the sense that the next story arc might be a bit less on the “fun” side than we’ve seen for awhile.
Ryan
I think Tara makes it fairly clear, both in her conversation with Noah and her response to Bev outside that this was more a ‘straw that broke the camels back’ scenario rather than about the dinner itself.
ShortFlamingo
Yeah, I wondered if this was really just annoying Tara because, like, Sarah and Noah could just explain their relationship to T&B by sitting down and saying it in words. They will be believed and loved regardless. But they choose to make it over the top like they are willing someone to be sh**ty about it so they can be justified in being goblins. Don’t get me wrong, it’s SO FUN and wonderful to be a goblin .. with the right people in the right circumstance. But this doesn’t have to be one of them, and it’s valid that Tara is annoyed. Although the last speech bubble is also probably true, too
YeahNo
Honestly, I’m not sure they could just sit down and explain it.
I think both Noah and Sarah have shown a tendency to really on comedy as a means to control a situation. This is seen as early as Sarah’s introduction where, unable to deal with her own complex feelings around dating, she instead chooses to make a game out of how insane she can appear.
Noah shows a similar need for control and to appear unpredictable and zany. The two of them together compound this problem, and it seems the more genuine and vulnerable the message, the more they need to control that narrative and this is the inevitable result.
I can see both perspectives. I think this is Noah’s genuine attempt to connect with his sister through the series of barriers of irony and chaos that he has built around himself, while Tara is frustrated that she can’t just have a real relationship with her brother without these filters in place.
Sirksome
Aw. I feel like Noah actually really relies on Tara as a source of support and security which is probably more reason why he moved in next door. I do think maybe he took it too far here and their sibling relationship needs to mature a bit as adults. He can’t just keep annoying her for kicks. Maybe Tara’s a bit overly sensitive to it too.
Draicostorm
Yeah it feels like the main issue here is that Noah and Sara have shown that they can have a proper sit down and have a proper conversations when its necessary and this was one of those moments. But instead they decided to be childish and play these stupid games with Tara AGAIN and that’s properly been the only interactions she’s had with them.
Diem
IMO, she’s gonna need to apologize. Not for WHAT she said, but for HOW she said it.
TSB01
She’s always been like this with her since a couple of previous comics, even the two Christmas comics as well.
Felicity
I agree, I don’t think Noah moving closer to her was to mess with her. Sure she probably had a good reason to have a problem with them moving closer to them, sure it feels weird and stuff but you really didn’t have to blow up you’re little brother like that. Plus the only reason why sarah and noah are together is because of Tara. I feel like she was just being too sensitive over the fact she’s going to see her little brother everyday.
Flintstone
Tara’s response to the “dinner” was kind of over the top. Noah and Sarah weren’t hurting anyone. They were being kind of ridiculous, but that’s just how the are.
Amethyst
“That’s just how I am” is not a free pass to do anything you want to no consequences. You’re allowed to live your life however you want, but that doesn’t mean everyone else is obligated to indulge you.
Furious Tomato
What should the consequences be for someone who invites you over, serves you dinner and engages in some silly theatrics? A big part of maturity is learning to let shit slide when it’s the kind of shit that truly doesn’t matter in the end.
Amethyst
A big part of maturity is also being willing to say “enough is enough.”
Draicostorm
That’s kind of the problem, this is how they act every time they interact with Tara and there is a limit to how much you can deal with being treated as a joke.
Cam Serif
That’s just how they are? That’s Tara’s whole point. If you pay attention to what she says, then how they interact in the comic, seems to be how they interact off-screen too. He’s her brother. A family member that close to you, and the only interactions you have with them are irony, tomfoolery, sarcasm, and paranoia. That isn’t healthy. The problem Tara’s having, is literally about the fact that that’s just how they are.
Karter
Man I feel so bad for Noah.
Draicostorm
I’m sorta stuck in the middle, while yes it’s a harmless joke, there are moments where you need to just take the moment serious and have a proper conversation. Also his sis isn’t wrong that them moving in next door is kinda a threat, that even though she is trying to improve and move on with her life; he’s going to go as far as moving in next to them to keep up these childish ass pranks.
dysartes
…why? This is something he has brought upon himself.
Actions, y’know, have consequences.
Bnboard
Too be fair sometimes the only way to cope with family drama is to distance yourself, even if its only for a little bit. I love my Mom too bits, but i cannot stand to be around the woman for more than a few hours at a time. Liveing nextdoor to each other would be a nightmare for both of us. Family is this wierd dicotomy were you can love someone with all your heart, but not perticually like them as a person.
Matrix
Very realistic. Everything has been on Noah’s terms and Tara can’t handle it anymore. Very well written
Draicostorm
Honestly i’d have put hands on him if he was my sibling. Especially since he seems to think that everyone sorta has to accept his childish behavior and chock it up as it’s just how he is.
CoopThePanda
What galls me is the offended look on Noah’s face, like he has no idea why she could even be that upset. The guy is legit clueless.
Max
To be fair to Tara, over the course of the comic Noah and Sara have been getting more and more obnoxious. We can see it in the last Xmas arc, for instance. It is all meant in good fun, we know that, but to Tara it has been building for sure. There comes a point where something breaks the camel’s back, and this was it. And sometimes it takes being harsh and ripping the person a new one to get the point across enough is enough.
Could she have phrased it or been nicer about it? Sure. But sometimes you need to be harsh to be firm.
Draicostorm
Not to mention that the first people both noah and sara call to bail them out is Tara. This would drive anyone up the wall.
Satyr
Yeaaaaa I’m not sure I can take Tara’s side for this arc. Sure Noah can be a goblin, but almost all of his pranks are on the basis that Tara’s can’t help but be curious, or want to investigate. All Tara has to do is just…. not get invested and their jokes fall flat. It’s also not like they’re purposefully being annoying for the sake of getting under Tara’s skin. We’ve seen them act exactly the same even when nobody else is around. Really the only sin here is that they moved next door, which can get annoying if you value your space/privacy.
Draicostorm
We have to sit here and realize she’s been dealing with this for a long time and it was probably bad just with Noah himself. Now it’s both him and Sara and they went as far as moving in next to them, practically promising that they will not have any peace from this bs. Especially since these two something stupid and sorta just expect everyone else to just play along.
Witch of many Jobs
It got to take a lot to piss off Tara like this.
FLB
I’m genuinely not sure if it’s the beginning of a new arc or the author realizing that, but Noah and Sara never had any character growth in the entire comic. They’re just immature to the point they seem incomplete.
notStanley
But after a lifetime of pranks? Well, maybe not the first 10 years, but something at least every week after that? He is lucky all his fingers are intact :{
Chill Pill
I’m a younger sibling, so I understand why Noah is the way he is, and why he’s doing it. This is a set up for classic sibling heart to heart convo and I can’t wait!!
TheMineKnight
I feel like this has been a long time coming, for both of them. Noah being a little prankster who took the joke a little too far, but also Tara drawing a line about her personal life. I hope these two can come to some sort of understanding, because what I’m seeing here is a lot of messages going past eachother. And I love them as a sibling pair, they seem to have a really genuine love for eachother… even if they do come to a head like this sometimes.
Bobby
I’ve only started reading this comic three days ago and caught up. Noah and Sarah were out of line. They are obnoxious and think because they were once victimized everyone else needs to deal with their antics as they’re owed. Tara has indulged his behavior for too long in small bursts, but to do it seemingly daily was too much for her. HOW Tara said it was also out of line but in the heat of the moment I don’t think she could help it. TBH how Bev handled her own sister was the perfect balance.
Good For Thought
There’s decades of unseen interactions we aren’t privy to. Maybe a montage of Noah Trolling Tara Through The Years might give us perspective (and as a bonus see them all a second time through Noah’s reasonings for each incident)
Furious Tomato
If you judge Noah based on all the pranks we have seen him pull, they’ve all been relatively harmless, toying with Tara’s paranoia and winding her up. He has never abused, humiliated, insulted or frightened her. I have to assume that his escapades in their youth were much the same, because it would be extreme character derailment for him to have gone out of his way to hurt her emotionally or otherwise. Tara hasn’t seemed to have learned the crucial life lesson that wisdom and maturity come not only from the experiences that happen to us, but also from how we choose to handle those experiences.
[Insert Clever Name Here]
You’re right, they are all relatively harmless. In the grand scheme of things, each prank is just a drop in the bucket of Tara’s life. But there’s been an entire lifetime of them. A lifetime of having her paranoia toyed with, being wound up, and it’s just not stopping. Each prank may only be a drop, but they build up. To the point that Noah can’t even invite Tara over for dinner without her immediately assuming it’s another of his antics. It was just all too much
Amethyst
And how much is Tara supposed to put up with? Is she just supposed to be the “bigger man” forever? Relationships work both ways. It’s not Tara’s sole responsibility to say “my brother enjoys this so I should play along.” It’s also Noah’s responsibility to say “my sister hates this so I should tone it down around her.”
To me this situation comes across as Noah not having learned the crucial life lesson that people do not have infinite patience and are not obligated to tolerate any and all behavior forever. Noah knows that Tara hates this sort of thing. At any time he could have said to himself “my sister clearly hates this, maybe I should tone it down before she snaps”, but no. He kept pushing and testing the limits, and this is the inevitable result.
Aural4444
I understand Tara’s feelings, because she feels like Noah is threatening her normalcy, but I’m more on Noah’s side on this because I think (and this is theory) that this was Noah’s way of “coming out”, explaining to Tara the type of relationship he has with Sarah (something we know is very important to him), that it’s a lifelong thing for him and Sarah, and the first person in his family who was going to tell them was Tara…
Only for Tara to interpret it and sum it up as “You love tormenting me, and you’re threatening me” in addition to denying their entire relationship as siblings…
And I really understand Tara’s point because this is a “the straw that broke the camel’s back” and a “crossing the line,” and that Noah didn’t really think about how Tara would feel if his family moved into her “private space,” but I get the feeling that she never really told him how his teasing directly affected her until now that she’s basically exploding…
By Of course, this is all theory and I could be wrong, but I loved the episode, I’m already looking forward to seeing how it continues<3
Draicostorm
I mean is she wrong? Instead of inviting them over and having a honest conversation with Tara and Bev (which we have seen both he and Sara can actually do) they play these stupid ass games with hints wanting them to figure it out. They just expect them to play along and to deal with it and that’s selfish asf. If this was handled any other way i’m sure Tara would have been happy for them both.
Varsco
Yeah I’m with Tara on that one. Looking at the reaction I don’t know if it’s an older sibling things but finding out your sibling just came next door, without as much of a text to announce it, just so they could put a prank on you that’s rought.
Depending on the relationship between them it can range from strange but funny I guess to that’s the final straw pretty fast. From what we’ve seen, being obnoxious is the entire personality of Noah with his sister. We do know he’s more than that, but to Tara he’s just obnoxious for the sake of it all the time.
Imagine living by yourself with your SO and having your younger sibling comming to get you and annoy you like you’re children again.
Sure it’s an harmless prank but what we don’t see is it’s probably been their entire relationships since the beginning. Even a good prank gets tiring after the thousands iteration in 25 years. One day you grow tired of those shenanigans and you just want and need to speak to an adult. To know you can be serious with your family and have a real relationship.
Scumboyman
He pushed it too far for me, it shows clear lack of respect to me – excited to see how it resolves
Assassin's Den
Having cut toxic family members out of my life, I sympathize with Tara. I know that feeling, that straw that broke the camel’s back, the “I can’t do this anymore” moment. I know exactly what she’s going through after dealing with this for a lifetime.
CurlyBruce
Seeing a lot of people taking Noah’s side because they feel like he’s just being a little gremlin and isn’t doing anything actually harmful but they are painfully missing Tara’s point.
Tara tells Noah to grow up, not because he pulls pranks but because that’s literally ALL he does. His life is an amorphous gray blob of trolling people without any focus. He has no job (he literally says the house they are in was paid for with his parents money) and only recently has he had any benefit to another person by becoming Sara’s emotional support AroAce partner. You’ll notice Tara wasn’t that upset at Sara despite Sara playing along and enabling him because at least Sara has something going on in her life (she has a stable job for one, she is the “breadwinner” after all). Noah is basically Sara’s pet at this point, he’s a kept man.
Tara is 100% in the right here, Noah needs to grow the fuck up and figure out what he’s doing with his life. Judging by how everyone has been treating Noah it seems he’s NEVER had anyone call him out on his bullshit, he’s coddled to an unhealthy degree and Tara just grumpily put up with it until this was the last straw and she just had to get it off her chest. Judging by Noah’s reaction it seems what she said hit a little close to home so maybe he’ll do some introspection.
MatoMato
Something I haven’t seen brought up is that Tara herself can be a pretty huge chaos goblin from time to time, I might be reading into things but I always got a “I got it from watching you dad!” vibe between Noah and Tara. Maybe a head canon here but I wouldn’t be surprised if the pranks were pretty equal and mutual for a good chunk of their life if not more so from Tara, but Tara is older, and at some point decided to “grow up” from it, but Noah had incorporated in his sense of self that “this is how me and my sister show affection and communicate”, its definitely a big part of why I intentionally “bother” my older brother and why he “bothers” me, thats how we show love. But there is a time and a place.
Greg
A bit of Info I gather was that Noah prided himself on being completely unpredictable and his background bio said that he was annoyed that no one was surprised that he was Trans. He then organized his life around the concept that he HAS to surprised everyone about everything, When someone expect him of doing X, he goes out of his way of proving them wrong. “Look! I’m doing Y instead.” Tara probably already knows the kind of relationship he has with Sarah.
Necrose
I never comment and probably won’t again, but I for one see this as others have said as more of a ‘”straw that broke the camel’s back” type scenario where for everything we have seen of Tara and Noah interacting, there’s more from before he was introduced and between when they are on screen together that this, which literally any other couple or even fellow non-romantic duo who knows him and Sarah might take it as a hilarious prank, is just one thing too many after so many years of the same for his sister. I do not blame Tara. She might need to apologize for how harsh she was in telling him to knock it off, but whether or not she knows the relationship he has with Sarah and their personal growth since linking up, the fact is they chose to move in next door to her and Beverly when they had absolutely no reason to do so. Yes, available house because the Witch was moving, but next door to his sister and her wife and he and his bestie do that to them on the first night they’re able to have company? I’m no sibling relationship expert, my relationship with my sister is a good one but that’s probably just because we’re not together nearly as much as the two of them have been, but maybe Noah should have thought a little bit harder about what he and Sarah would do on their first night having company over. I get that he likes to be quirky and unpredictable, but I’m on Tara’s side on this one, there are some things you just don’t do, and this whole thing is one of them.
Winter
A lot of comments are breaking down things about this page, but like
one (compounded) thing that sticks to me personally is that a) Sarah is probably the most important person in Noah’s life, but b) he has explicitly admitted to not being sincere/vulnerable (in such a way that suggests that that lack of openness refers even to Sarah) in almost any of his words or deeds.
So what this REALLY boils down to, in my opinion, is Noah’s lack of consideration (literally saying nothing to his sister about becoming her adjacent neighbor until after he’d already moved), ON TOP OF a lifetime of an arms-length relationship that he seems to have laid the foundations for himself, wherein his only interactions with Tara are conducted in an effort to get a reaction out of her and nothing more.
Tough not to get pissed off when someone who doesn’t seem to care about you and who seems to live to make your life worse essentially makes themself inescapable.
Lythie
By itself this comes out of nowhere, but literally every time we see Noah and Tara together, Noah is trying to prank her. He shows up for christmas unannounced, and then when he’s allowed to stay despite not checking first if it was alright, the literal first thing he does is try to fuck with her.
Imagine having to deal with constant pranks and tomfoolery on that scale for 30 years, and then you find out that this person that has done nothing but try to cause chaos in your life has moved next door, and the FIRST thing he does once again is more pranks and chaos and tomfoolery. It’s as if to say to her, “This is your life now, I’m going to do this to you every day for the rest of your life”
TBH, if I were Tara, I’d have freaked teh F out too.
Danny TB
I’ve a feeling we’re going to see Sarah and Bev working together to help Tara and Noah reconcile. We don’t see S&B together often.
Yo
I’m kinda disappointed, NGL.
LordViking
This isn’t (just) because of the dinner theater, it is as other comments pointed out just the straw that broke the camel’s back, the latest thing in a long string of events while growing up together.
All the way back with Noah’s introduction during the Christmas special it was shown that Noah enjoys messing with Tara, to the point even that Tara feels it is needed to tell Noah to not try to sleep with Sarah (which feels odd with how we’re shown Noah is asexual but it is my headcanon that before accepting this to himself he overcompensated, and some other friends of Tara might’ve been caught in the cross-fire).
Now without warning they’ve moved next door, something they’ve been planning for weeks or even months without mentioning it, and first thing they do is put on some odd act to mess with them. Yes there is more to it than just being a prank, but Tara is too on edge to notice right now.
This is Tara making it clear that while she loves Noah and tolerates his stunts on vacations and holiday visits and such, she is not going to let this be the norm for her everyday life.
Furious Tomato
Tara is the one who needs to grow up. Noah and Sarah were being nothing other than welcoming hosts. Sure they were putting on an elaborate performance, but Tara didn’t even try to understand it for what it was. They didn’t try to humiliate her or prank her in any other way. The mature response would be to get in on the fun and embrace the silliness for what it was. Also, why did Tara reserve the dressing down for Noah and not Sarah too? She must have little to no respect for him if she’s willing to make him feel like crap, but still seems to know it’s wrong to insult Sarah in the same way. Noah is Tara’s brother and Sarah is her close friend, and she has not done right by either of them by throwing a tantrum.
notStanley
By itself, dinner was not to awful. But in context of a history where every interaction has a 10/90 split between sincere interaction with a loved one, vs prankish goblin shit?
I will allow points against Tara if there have not been attempts to tell Noah his constant pranks are too much. But just as some are saying “this dinner was not so bad”, could have been Noah ignored previous attempts to talk, brushing them off as “it was just a little prank”, without realizing how much pressure was building up. Eventually that pressure was released in terms that could not be ignored :{
Descan
Expecting Tara to ‘grow up’ overlooks the context here. Noah and Sarah might have been trying to be welcoming, but their actions were part of a pattern Tara’s experienced before. They weren’t just being silly; they were pushing her boundaries, which is a bigger issue than a harmless prank. It’s not about misunderstanding the situation—it’s about the frustration of dealing with the same behavior repeatedly, especially when Tara’s past attempts at ‘understanding’ haven’t worked. After a while, why would she keep putting herself in that position to be hurt or frustrated again?
As for why Tara dressed down Noah and not Sarah, it’s because of their history. Noah has been the one most involved in crossing her boundaries, and her anger was directed at him for that reason. Her reaction wasn’t about disrespecting him; it was about her frustration with him not respecting her boundaries. It’s easy to overlook the emotional strain of living with that dynamic, but this isn’t just about ‘getting in on the fun.’ The constant stress of knowing she’d likely face this daily for years, especially with him now living next door, makes it even harder to be patient. Expecting her to ‘understand’ while under that mental and emotional pressure—likely feeling trapped in a downward spiral of ‘this is my life now and there’s no escape’—and criticizing her for not going along with it is unreasonable. Tara’s response was about standing up for herself after being repeatedly pushed too far.
Maturity isn’t about going along with things you’re uncomfortable with; it’s about knowing your own boundaries, recognizing others’ boundaries, and standing up for yourself when others disregard them. Tara understands her boundaries and is upset that Noah isn’t respecting them. While her response may not have been the most mature, ignoring her boundaries wouldn’t have been the mature choice either.
Just because you disagree with someone’s boundaries doesn’t mean you can ignore them. You can voice your disagreement at the right time or try to persuade them when the moment is appropriate. But if that doesn’t work, you don’t get to just say, ‘I tried,’ and bulldoze over their limits.
Cam Serif
How can she try to see it for what it is, when everything they do is weird shenanigannery with seemingly no meaning to it? This is the first time they were trying to make a point, and they did so in the most over-the-top way possible, after moving next-door without telling them, and after decades of only things like this. We can’t blame for not realizing how much this would irk Tara(Except for moving in without telling them – I would wanna know in advance about a change as drastic as that), but we also can’t blame Tara for literally not being able to think rationally here. She couldn’t have possibly realized there was more to it than just screwing with her, personally. As some mentioned in the previous parts, Beverly is less tortured by so long going along with stuff like this, so she was able to step back and think about it. That isn’t the case for Tara, who is dealing with someone she’s known from the gym for years(after many unfortunate meetings), and her sibling.
Az
I think Noah realized he went a little too far with the prank this time, judging by the look on his face in panel 3. I’d imagine he’d not really thought this through as to how this might affect his sister.
Nocturne
I can understand why Tara isn’t messing around with this. This is her home, she’s happy while feeling comfortable and safe with her wife. Then her goblin brother moves in next door without asking or even telling her, then immediately starts doing stupid shit. She is not going to let him ruin what she has built
Edranair
… I get her frustration, she’s been conditioned to always be on-guard around both him and Sarah, this is still kinda rough. I really hope they patch things up 🙁
Freemage
In addition to various points about this being the straw that broke the camel’s back, it’s worth noting that Tara just got married and settled down herself fairly recently. This little performance could easily come across not as a way of saying, “Our relationship is different,” but instead as, “Marriage is dumb and you guys are dumb for getting married.” I’m not saying that is what they meant to convey, merely that to someone who has been primed to look for the joke, this would be a reasonable interpretation.
Beo
I find it very interesting how people on the comments are all “Noah and Sarah have grown and Tara hasn’t seen it” when the truth is that it doesn’t matter at all. Neither of them have grown in any way that matters to Tara, aka not being chaos goblins bent on turning everything into a silly game with four overlapping layers of irony.
Remember, these two are fun to watch, but everyone here would hate their guts if they actually had to constantly interact with them.