Pig_catapult
Full Member
Keeper of the Devilkitty
Posts: 171
|
Post by Pig_catapult on Mar 17, 2015 1:39:20 GMT
I'm sure there's an explanation for this. I highly doubt there's a justification for this. There's no justification for child abuse. Surprised that no one has taken note of the chapter title and picture - 'the apple doesn't fall far from the tree'. Would imply finding out how Annie and Tony are similar. (Unless it's an ironic invocation of the saying, I guess.) The title would make little sense unless the chapter is intended to make a direct comparison between the two. Hence not about Kat hurting anyone. That's also how I interpreted the chapter title. We are finally, finally meeting the tree the apple fell from, and we're going to see just how far the apple has actually rolled. |
|
|
|
Post by Daedalus on Mar 17, 2015 1:42:19 GMT
a) his fingers on his right hand are just bones, "And these, children, are called the metacarpals . . . " "Now point to yours. Here are some scalpels that I borrowed so you can get a closer look." |
|
|
|
Post by crater on Mar 17, 2015 2:00:38 GMT
he could have atleast tried to be funny about it
"Antimony your makeup is reminding me of your dead mom that I loved dearly and that you murdered, give me a break over here!!!"
also that scar makes zimmy seem alot more menacing
|
|
|
|
Post by edzepp on Mar 17, 2015 2:49:26 GMT
Re: recent discussions: Of course I don't wish death on the guy. He's at least an interesting character and I want to see what happens with him. And I'm sure there are some deep-rooted issues he has to work out in himself. That much is obvious, expected, and from a dramatic perspective, even desirable.
I will say, however, that "But I had good intentions" can only forgive a certain number of sins. And boy he has to account for a lot.
|
|
|
|
Post by November on Mar 17, 2015 2:53:03 GMT
Two more theories, for the Anthony apologists:
- He doesn't want Annie to call him father because he realises he hasn't been much of a father to her until now, and he knows just showing up now isn't going to change anything.
- He sent Annie out of the classroom so he can arrange a surprise birthday party for her, with all of her classmates!
(I don't have much faith in any of those)
|
|
|
|
Post by phrogge on Mar 17, 2015 3:18:56 GMT
I’ve been wondering if Anthony, with the connivance of the Court, is purposely putting pressure on Antimony, to push her to a breaking point. Might she snap, losing control enough to attempt flame the asshole into an ashpile, an action the PTB may well be anticipating (and stopping), thereby demonstrating she can’t be trusted with any sort of responsibility? Might they even be attempting to see if they can actually force the elemental/demon side from her human side, to achieve a literal, physical, split personality?
Anthony might be able to love a merely human Antimony (whatever kind of person would be left), and have a way to eliminate that elemental side which cost him Surma. The Court, or some elements of it at least, would be delighted to have a way to control, perhaps even defeat, the Forest. This could well be the aim of Anthony’s research, supported by those members of the Court. Or he/they could be trying to weaken her spirit and independence sufficiently to control her powers to their own ends, as a weapon against Coyote and the Forest.
It’s certainly difficult to think that Anthony truly loves her, given what Tom has shown of him; he seems to be more of the “spare the rod and spoil the child” persuasion, but would think he knows best for her.
|
|
|
|
Post by GK Sierra on Mar 17, 2015 3:25:45 GMT
Wow, this is... exactly how I pictured he would act.
I remember when there were still two camps, and one of them was giving Tony the benefit of the doubt, but I never did. You can't abandon your daughter after her mother died and not be a bastard.
It's canon that Surma's makeup is significant and has special properties, so perhaps that could be the reason, but as said above, Tony didn't have to by a fuckboi about it.
|
|
|
|
Post by fish on Mar 17, 2015 3:33:01 GMT
I just realized: The lash out against Anthony is so huge, because everyone's parental instincts just kicked in. Imagine Annie was your child and that dude in the lab coat was just a random stranger in a teaching position. Now imagine you would somehow witness this exact scene play out. I would be so royally pissed, just like I was when I read this page.
|
|
|
|
Post by edzepp on Mar 17, 2015 3:39:27 GMT
I will be your father, fictional character!
Well, I guess it's more that everyone is a little protective of her. A mark of good writing, I suppose.
|
|
|
|
Post by wynne on Mar 17, 2015 3:58:29 GMT
I can see the "sir" thing being about professionalism in the classroom, but the makeup bit was uncalled for. Especially after a years-long abandonment, never mind the fact that he didn't even bother to tell her that he was coming. He lost parenting rights when his daughter found a more reliable father figure in a possessed teddy wolf (I know all this has been said 5000 times before, but it still bears repeating).
Current Out-There Theory: This Anthony Carver is not actually Anthony Carver, but instead an Anthony Carver-shaped robot. He didn't tell her he was coming because technically he still hasn't (not that it makes this any less of a dick move).
Unrelated, but it really is a testimony to the length and breadth of this comic that even minor characters like Winsbury have real honest-to-god character development. I know boarding schools and dorms have a way of bonding people, but it's really striking when you compare his first appearance (making fun of Antimony in science class) to this one (getting legitimately angry on her behalf in science class). There's a nice symmetry.
|
|
|
|
Post by imaginaryfriend on Mar 17, 2015 5:04:35 GMT
I can see the "sir" thing being about professionalism in the classroom, but the makeup bit was uncalled for. What gets me is the word "ridiculous." He could have shown up unheralded for reasons, he could even be a rules dick and ban makeup without uttering that word if he wished. "Ridiculous" injects his opinion on her makeup and is unprofessional. While as a father he is entitled to hold opinions over his daughter's use/choice of makeup, when expressed in this manner it is a public deconstruction of a female person's appearance in front of her friends/peers from a position of authority that is supposedly to be kept apart from parenting. Intentional or not that's an attack. Also, in this setting she cannot respond to defend herself and neither can her friends, at least not without risking punishment. So not only is it an attack, but it's an attack from behind a shield. Since it was unexpected I think it also qualifies as a sneak attack or ambush if someone cares to label it as such. I should probably mention that I've seen way worse that was done out of ignorance instead of malice but not from a parent directed at a student in his class. Anthony is also painted against an unflattering canvas in that the other instructors we've seen in the comic have been pretty good ones; that makes him look worse in context. If there had been a string of (more realistic?) douche-teachers he'd blend in more. Wow, this is... exactly how I pictured he would act. Really? I thought it might be worse. He didn't (yet) announce that his research had finally progressed to the point where he only needed 38% of her body mass to recreate her mother (and that since that was less than his 50% contribution to her genes he felt entitled to collect). And that there would be more of a barricade between the father and daughter than desks to represent the seperation... Maybe him looking down on her from a height, or through an eye-slit in a cell wall. Congrats on the promotion, By The Way. Interesting stuff always happens when I'm not paying attention to the forum, maybe I should duck out more often! |
|
|
|
Post by OrzBrain on Mar 17, 2015 5:46:04 GMT
It's a shame he doesn't allow makeup in his class. He may need some after certain robots and/or monster girls get through with his face.
|
|
|
|
Post by cu on Mar 17, 2015 8:00:13 GMT
Current Out-There Theory: This Anthony Carver is not actually Anthony Carver, but instead an Anthony Carver-shaped robot. He didn't tell her he was coming because technically he still hasn't (not that it makes this any less of a dick move). I see that theory and raise it to "This is a Carverbot sneaked in by the Prophetbot (hence the lack of warning) to teach Kat advanced biology (more difficult but ultimately more rewarding, at least for robokind). His picking on Annie is designed to develop a sense of injustice in Kat, driving her to construct a robotic parenting device which will provide kids with happy transit through their childhood." |
|
|
|
Post by csj on Mar 17, 2015 8:30:25 GMT
I wonder what Mr. No-Nonsense McScience is going to say once he finds out his daughter is medium to the forest. Let alone that she's mediocre* in science. *at best, that is. 'hi dad, I've been plagiarising my bff's work for the past two years.' |
|
wuwei
New Member
Posts: 8 
|
Post by wuwei on Mar 17, 2015 9:18:10 GMT
I'm not exactly surprised at this. Here's a man who abandons his daughter without explanation, even leaving a note. It's not like he would have given any secret away, since he could hardly hide the fact that he disappeared. OK, you could say that he might have been grieving for Surma and run away in a brief (and highly uncharacteristic) fashion. Or happened to be called away by some emergency that *happened* to occur right then, by a fantastic coincidence.
But then he called in Annie's Year 9. If he could request that package, why couldn't he have contacted her to actually talk *to* her? You can say that he's just socially incapable, but he's not a kid experiencing girl troubles for the first time anymore. He's someone who's been a physician, husband, and father for over 10 years, who should have tried at some point to figure out when other people are emotionally vulnerable. Maybe he's just so hardcore that he didn't want to take the extra chance of being traced, but... balance of probability says that someone who has disappeared so often before could have found a way to talk to his daughter just once.
Still, you could "make excuses" up to that point. But what happened in Divine was blatantly wrong. Here's someone who performs an operation on someone without consent, and without even informing her (she may be a minor, but she's not an infant or mentally incapacitated person who can't understand what's going on). It clearly isn't without risk of side effects, since she collapses, and Zimmy notes psychological changes. And if that wasn't screwed up enough, it's his own daughter.
At that point, he's pretty much a villain in my book, until proven otherwise. He could redeem himself somewhat, as Renard has, but that doesn't make what he did alright. It doesn't really matter if he's doing it out of love or a desire to cure Annie. ("Love makes you act in strange ways.") It's pretty clear at that point that he doesn't care to get to know her, and certainly doesn't respect her feelings. If he loves her, it's in an abusive, controlling way.
The last couple of pages pretty much just confirm this. Annie is apparently shocked, and he is noticing her makeup for the first time, which implies that this is their first meeting in person since Annie arrived at the Court. So he couldn't be bothered to contact her, even once he had a teaching position and was firmly out of hiding. So then his first reaction on seeing her is to try to establish teacher-student boundaries? Or parental discipline? Or to do something that inexplicably furthers his important secret work that conveniently explains away his every wrongdoing? I just don't buy that he is a good, loving parent. He's clearly insensitive to everything about his daughter except for her physical well-being, if that.
About the only thing that can redeem Tony is if this is somehow not really him, or if he is totally out of touch with reality (crazy or radically misinformed), or if he spends a good long time making up for all his misdeeds starting really, really soon.
|
|
|
|
Post by arf on Mar 17, 2015 9:43:54 GMT
You know, viewed dispassionately, the scene so far isn't that outrageous. New teacher arrives. Rising murmur as students realise he's the father of one of them. Annie has some embarrassment at the unaccustomed attention. He enforces discipline by telling daughter to remove ridiculous makeup ('ridiculous' is cutting and out of line, as imaginaryfriend says, but it's relatively minor). And we proceed with the lesson.
Yet Tom is clearly setting this up to provoke outrage. If our own response to having Tony seemingly appear out of the blue after all this time and treating Annie like a doormat isn't enough, the shocked reactions of the other students are meant to be a cue.
At the moment, I am directing my outrage toward the school system that allows this off-stage influence to manifest itself so abruptly. Donald at least, as a senior teacher of the Science Faculty, should have known Tony was coming. We know he is a responsible, caring adult, and that he is well aware of the fragile relationship Annie has with her Father.
What I suspect is going to happen is that we will shortly see a flashback setting this up. Annie may/may not have already met her Father, but she will have had time to prepare.
Otherwise, Llewellyn is shortly going to look out of his Office window, wondering why the Biology Lab is ablaze.*
*Unless Winsbury blows first, I predict Mt Katsuvius will erupt on Friday. We will see the signs gathering on Wednesday.
|
|
|
|
Post by eightyfour on Mar 17, 2015 9:53:06 GMT
I can see the "sir" thing being about professionalism in the classroom, but the makeup bit was uncalled for. What gets me is the word "ridiculous." He could have shown up unheralded for reasons, he could even be a rules dick and ban makeup without uttering that word if he wished. "Ridiculous" injects his opinion on her makeup and is unprofessional. Exactly my point! With how little we know about him, there might quite possibly be a reasonable explanation for everything Anthony did that's he being criticized for and as long as we don't know any better I will give him the benefit of doubt. Innocent until proven guilty. (Although I'm really looking forward for his explanation for abandoning Annie the way he did. That better be good!) But for ridiculing Annie like this I just can't see any possible excuse. |
|
|
|
Post by keef on Mar 17, 2015 10:01:57 GMT
- If diagnosing a character from a webcomic, maybe it is a good idea to use a disorder from a webcomic. .
- You can be autistic without being a dick
- You can be a dick without being autistic
In the Gunnerverse people are rarely just good or bad. Renard is a murderer, but he is also a great friend for Annie and almost a substitute parent. Ysengrin, Coyote, Robot, Jeanne; not exactly black and white characters. So it is unlikely Tony is just an arsehole. But at the moment he behaves like one. I’ve been wondering if Anthony, with the connivance of the Court, is purposely putting pressure on Antimony, to push her to a breaking point. Yes, that could be an explanation. |
|
|
|
Post by mcbibble on Mar 17, 2015 11:29:38 GMT
You know, viewed dispassionately, the scene so far isn't that outrageous. New teacher arrives. Rising murmur as students realise he's the father of one of them. Annie has some embarrassment at the unaccustomed attention. He enforces discipline by telling daughter to remove ridiculous makeup ('ridiculous' is cutting and out of line, as imaginaryfriend says, but it's relatively minor). And we proceed with the lesson. Yet Tom is clearly setting this up to provoke outrage. If our own response to having Tony seemingly appear out of the blue after all this time and treating Annie like a doormat isn't enough, the shocked reactions of the other students are meant to be a cue. At the moment, I am directing my outrage toward the school system that allows this off-stage influence to manifest itself so abruptly. Donald at least, as a senior teacher of the Science Faculty, should have known Tony was coming. We know he is a responsible, caring adult, and that he is well aware of the fragile relationship Annie has with her Father. What I suspect is going to happen is that we will shortly see a flashback setting this up. Annie may/may not have already met her Father, but she will have had time to prepare. Otherwise, Llewellyn is shortly going to look out of his Office window, wondering why the Biology Lab is ablaze.* *Unless Winsbury blows first, I predict Mt Katsuvius will erupt on Friday. We will see the signs gathering on Wednesday. I don't agree with the argument that we should all just blame the administrators and this somehow absolves Tony. It would be a perfectly reasonable assumption on their part that of COURSE he would tell her himself, why wouldn't he? Why would they assume he'd be such a bastard? |
|
|
|
Post by darlos9d on Mar 17, 2015 14:25:52 GMT
I have the sneaking suspicion that Anthony's appointment as a teacher was some kind of last minute backroom deal involving a small number of faculty, possibly limited to just the headmaster. (and some other people who aren't important to the story) Like, I'm fully expecting the faculty members that we're familiar with to be just as surprised as everyone else. Or if they did know, they haven't had very long to react to it.
I can't help but imagine Eggers storming down a hallway yelling "WHAT THE [expletive] IS HE DOING HERE?!"
|
|
|
|
Post by atteSmythe on Mar 17, 2015 16:07:06 GMT
My personal feeling is that Anthony just showed up that morning and presumed he would be allowed to teach...and he was.
|
|
|
|
Post by wynne on Mar 17, 2015 16:53:47 GMT
If you ever grew up with one of your parents as a teacher in your school you would feel this exact feeling. Feels kinda like this. Kinda sucks.You end up being put on the spot a whole lot more that other students. I feel like my school tried to avoid putting kids in their parents' classrooms for exactly this reason. Though that may be moot if there was only one teacher for that particular class. |
|
fay
New Member
Posts: 1 
|
Post by fay on Mar 17, 2015 17:38:05 GMT
(Long-time reader/lurker coming out of lurkdom to comment!)
I think I'm in the "wait and see" camp. Tony seems to be acting almost too harshly/coldly for something else not to be going on. He's communicated in code of a sort to Annie before; what's to say that's not what he's doing now? I also tend towards thinking that he's returned in person to try to help cure/heal Annie, given that his long-distance efforts were unsuccessful. I'm not saying that he's a great guy; his methods so far seem to be cruel, perhaps (in his mind) out of necessity. And being "healed" may *not* be the best thing for Annie.
Back to the veiled communication thing, I may be reading too much into it, but did anyone else find it odd that he told Annie go to go the "rest room"? "Restroom" or "bathroom" aren't typically used in the UK (it's an American term - I was made fun of for saying both when visiting the UK!), so perhaps it's supposed to be taken as some kind of hint to Annie? Again, I realize that's something of a long shot. But it wouldn't surprise me if Annie is able to read far more into the makeup removal comment in general than we're able to.
|
|
|
|
Post by gunnerwf on Mar 17, 2015 18:00:43 GMT
I suppose this could be revenge in part by the headmaster on Annie, also is her dad Mads Mikkelsen?
|
|
|
|
Post by linchie on Mar 17, 2015 18:13:01 GMT
As someone pointed out last page, in a flashback we see that Anthony used to be right-handed. And when Annie was in the infirmary, there were five bone pillars coming down from the sky. Now, realise that we were never shown Anthonys right hand in that scene. This time, it's not just convenient, it's deliberate. Anthony is not just writing with his left hand, he's also keeping his right hand in his pocket. Tom is not showing us Anthony's right hand. Why? Because either a) his fingers on his right hand are just bones, or b) they were burnt to a crisp from trying to grab the fire elemental part of Annie. The bone-looking things here gunnerkrigg.com/?p=1165 are shaped like fingers too |
|
|
|
Post by KMar on Mar 17, 2015 18:28:28 GMT
To be more precise, we don't know at all how seriously he is taking the parenting. We know he has intervened with Antimony twice since leaving her to school that he for good reasons thought is the best place for her. [...] Objection! It was Surma's wish that Annie continue her education at Gunnerkrigg Court. For all we know Anthony might have been against it. But I agree, we have not seen any evidence that he is not taking his role as a parent seriously. Wait. We've been wondering why Anthony looks so different. Actually he doesn't, not so much, compared to that stylized flashback.   EDIT. Also, from dialogue from that page: "My father was a surgeon there." I don't remember if anyone already noticed that, but I think it sort of confirms the "he is a surgeon and goes by the traditional honorifics" explanation for "Mr." in the "Mr/Dr" debate. |
|
|
|
Post by TBeholder on Mar 17, 2015 18:43:15 GMT
I don't understand why so many of you feel it's appropriate to respond to a man being kind of a jerk with all these threats of horrific and grotesque violence. Tony is a fictional character and hyperbole is the stuff the internet is made of. Well, hyperbole along with cats and porn, of course. In other words, the usual: maturity. Now let's curse AOL some more. I’ve been wondering if Anthony, with the connivance of the Court, is purposely putting pressure on Antimony, to push her to a breaking point. Might she snap, losing control enough to attempt flame the asshole into an ashpile, an action the PTB may well be anticipating (and stopping), thereby demonstrating she can’t be trusted with any sort of responsibility? Er... "demonstrating she can’t be trusted with any sort of responsibility" to whom? The only one who did trust Annie with a position of responsibility so far was Coyote. Let it sink for a few seconds.  Might they even be attempting The moment you lump Anthony with the Court heads, you run into the question of why did he go to such ridiculous length to keep secrets from them. It's canon that Surma's makeup is significant and has special properties, so perhaps that could be the reason It's canon? Links, please? I just realized: The lash out against Anthony is so huge, because everyone's parental instincts just kicked in. Please, please tell me you're kidding. The moral high ground is jumped upon so often that not even grass grows on it. Claiming also an exclusive narrow golden gate to it is just ridiculous - it stands in an open field. And either way, the instincts in question obviously can't be parental. As to what exactly those are... please excuse my whistling - have re-read Hellstrom's Hive again, and all that. "Ridiculous" injects his opinion on her makeup and is unprofessional. This requires Anthony to have some form of basic human ability to tell what is ridiculous. Let me doubt this until there's some slightest hint he may have any sense of humor, let it be tiny and vestigal.  More likely, he awkwardly tries to hide his own ruffled feathers - which he did before. You know, viewed dispassionately, the scene so far isn't that outrageous. New teacher arrives. Rising murmur as students realise he's the father of one of them. Annie has some embarrassment at the unaccustomed attention. He enforces discipline by telling daughter to remove ridiculous makeup ('ridiculous' is cutting and out of line, as imaginaryfriend says, but it's relatively minor). Well, there's that either he quite obviously either didn't bother to meet her before, or failed to mention makeup back then - and now essentially ridicules her before the audience. Also, no one had a big problem with Annie's or other students' makeup before (as far as we know). Of course, the students who have seen only this little encounter can only conclude "the dude is such a massive jerk he causes red-shift", because notmally it's a far stronger version than e.g. "he's a human-shaped starfish, and as such cannot be expected to act like - or even understand well - human beings", even if we have observed some proof for the latter being closer to truth. Which, by the way, can be a good lesson on inductive logic for them. Yet Tom is clearly setting this up to provoke outrage. If our own response to having Tony seemingly appear out of the blue after all this time and treating Annie like a doormat isn't enough, the shocked reactions of the other students are meant to be a cue. Oh, come on. The internet fancrowd does not need any provocation at all - it jumps at fallen leaves and its own shadow as often as not. And this applies tenfold for the "outrage on behalf of X" crowd. As to the "cues", IMO it's rather obvious that Tom is far from being "Get it? Get it?! laughingtrack.wav" type. If diagnosing a character from a webcomic, maybe it is a good idea to use a disorder from a webcomic. . I don't see much difference. Also, specifically "mad science" in the Court's case is not a disease, it's the desired result of a fine-tuned process. My personal feeling is that Anthony just showed up that morning and presumed he would be allowed to teach...and he was. Now that would be like him. |
|
|
|
Post by tortoise on Mar 17, 2015 19:17:00 GMT
Anthony Carver is not an asshole.
Assholes are entitled people who act without so much as a thought for the welfare of others. Assholes cut in line. Assholes fill up on the free peanuts at Five Guy's instead of buying something. Assholes don't wash their hands after going to the restroom. Assholes are people who break social conventions we've been socially conditioned to respect and don't care that they're doing it, and why shouldn't they? If someone gets a massive allergic reaction because I didn't wash my hands after eating nothing but peanuts for four hours and never washing my hands, it's their problem, not mine. I'm not having an allergic reaction.
Assholes don't take delight in this rule-breaking, they just do it; it's the advantages of assholery that tempt them. Taking the last sushi roll? More yummy food for me! Going to someone's house and eating all their ice cream? Who doesn't live ice cream?
Anthony Carver has a hard time displaying affection, and emotions in general. We saw it with Brinnie, then we saw it with Elgamore and Donlan, and now we're seeing it with Antimony, and we're surprised and mad? No. This is predictable. This is perfectly expected.
And I know that everyone loves Antimony, but start reading the comic over again and you'll see that Antimony acted pretty much exactly like that. Everyone hated her. She started showing a little of her mother's fire very early on and quickly grew into the impetuous and hotheaded Fire Head Girl we all know NOW, but that really wasn't the case from the beginning. She pushed people away. She stood straight and wore heavy makeup. She talked clumsily, using big words and awkward phrasing. Now imagine that Antimony had NONE of Surma's fiery temperament and you get Anthony Carver.
|
|
|
|
Post by darlos9d on Mar 17, 2015 19:35:26 GMT
I dunno man. The narrative analyst in me is telling me that Tom is trying pretty hard to sell this guy in a negative and even somewhat frightening light. Maybe we'll find out more about him that puts him in a more positive light, or he'll be developed more positively later (I certainly expect him to be a complex character), but right now? Bein' a jerk.
The road to hell and all that. Also, Annie's behavior doesn't really excuse Anthony's.
|
|
|
|
Post by mordekai on Mar 17, 2015 19:37:17 GMT
My thoughts, exactly, he's Gendou Ikari, only in this case, Shinji Ikari and Rei Anayami are the same person (Annie isn't a clone of her mother, but she has her lifeforce, and looks close enough to her that most people mistake her for her mom...). How come antisocial assholes like Gendou and Anthony Carver get the most popular, beautiful and smart girl in the class? It's the flipside of the "sad girl" phenomenon. They want someone they can transform to make them feel useful/powerful/good/meaningful/valuable/whatevers. There is an inherent flaw in that of course but I'll restrain the need to expound. The last time I posted a theory on why someone's bad point(s) can be reasons why some couples work out people seemed to become unsettled. Since the Anthony/Ikari Gendo comparison has come up again I'll mention for the benefit of newcomers to the forum that I explored the idea in a fancomic back in 2012. Oh god...your fancomic made me realize that Anthony Carver could try to really pull a plan to turn Annie into Surma...she's physically almost identical, and has the same lifeforce, all he would have to do is wipe her memories and somehow recover Surna memories from the Ether...  I hope he doesn't try that, because that would be the creepiest thing ever...  |
|
Surprised that no one has taken note of the chapter title and picture - 'the apple doesn't fall far from the tree'. Would imply finding out how Annie and Tony are similar. (Unless it's an ironic invocation of the saying, I guess.) The title would make little sense unless the chapter is intended to make a direct comparison between the two. Hence not about Kat hurting anyone.
More likely, he awkwardly tries to hide his own ruffled feathers - which he did before.
