[2383] I know you and Annie are best friends
Oct 31, 2020 5:06:33 GMT
Dvandaemon, foxurus, and 9 more like this
Post by jocobo on Oct 31, 2020 5:06:33 GMT
1) I think people aren't giving teenagers enough credit. Yes, they are teenagers. Yes, teenagers are prone to emotional uncontrolled spontaneous actions with little thought for the consequences or broader perspectives beyond their own.
But I imagine even most teenagers are aware enough to realize this is not how you handle this situation.
Nothing about anything Paz has done seems like a momentary uncontrolled burst of emotion. It all seems premeditated. She first confronts Annie alone, with veiled threats. She then corners Annie after dark in an ally, with back-up. This isn't the spontaneous knee-jerk kind of reactions one can blame on immaturity.
I'll also point out Paz has never really been shown to be emotionally immature or as someone who looses control easily. Nor has she shown herself to be someone who lacks perspective. One of her first big talks with Kat was about the court and the nature of good and evil and the importance of trying to improve things in an otherwise uncaring system is not the kind of insight you get from your average teen. It shows how good she is when it comes to perspective, understanding others motives and general empathy.
Which is the problem. Because it seems like she's using that excellent grasp of how people work in a really harmful way. First to bully Annie and then to avoid any responsibility for that action.Which leads me to point two.
2) Paz is really really manipulative. Even now. Like in today's page, she says "I hope you don't think I was trying to come in-between you two..."...but that's exactly, explicitly what she was trying to do. When Paz confronts Annie and Annie offers tot alk to her, Paz interupts, tells her not to and says she doesn't deserve to be her friend. She doesn't blame anything Annie actually did, she blames Annie simply existing near Kat as the reason. Her explicit goal was to remove Annie from the equation. She didn't want Annie to behave better, she wanted Annie to go away. This is important. Ad she only stopped going even further becauase a 3rd party showed up and scared her off.
This bullying 101. Corner your victim, emotionally berate them into not defending themselves, hide your actions, and if caught downplay their severity. Its so textbook I almost want to assume it's intentional on Tom's part.
It's also pretty clear from her reaction here Paz never intended for Kat to find out. She is surprised Kat knows. As if she was fully aware of Annie's tendency to bottle up stuff and never thought Annie might tell Kat.
The same way many bullies tend to be confident their victims won't tell.
But maybe I'm reading too much into it or giving Paz too much credit.
3) I really dislike the excuse that because everything worked out for the best, it's ok. Both when Kat says it and hearing it repeated here on the forums. It's an overly consequential take on the matter.
Sure, it worked out but frankly, that's like saying bullying a chubby kid is OK as long as it encouraged them to have a healthier lifestyle and loose weight.
I guess I just hate when people dismiss bad actors because the outcome accidentally worked out well.
Talking about issues, having forgiveness, and moving past problems is good. Dismissing them isn't and this feels a little too much like category 2 for me.
I also really hate the "Try not doing that next time, ok?" bit. Like it's a suggestion. And not, you know, a hard line. Don't bully my friends should be a pretty clear "Do not cross line" in a relationship. Boundaries are important and that's a pretty basic one.
Or that jokey "Hmm". Please show some respect to your girlfriend's friends Paz. Even if you don't actually like them.
I suppose I'm actually less angry at Kat or Paz and more frustrated with this reoccurring trend that other people have already mentioned. The only person who ever seems liable and is punished for bad behavior is Annie. Everyone else is easily forgiven, untouchable or goes uncritiqued.
Annie the doormat is getting really tedious as a subplot.Yes, Annie's temper was a flaw but it was a flaw that needed to be reigned in, not evaporated into the Ether. I miss Ysengrin. He was apparently the only one telling Annie to stand up for her self. Because I swear since the Loup arc started, despite many excuses to be righteously angry, I don't think we've seen a single drop of it from her. Except of course during the early days of the doppelganger arc in which she only expressed anger against a different version of her self.
And if that ain't meta textual i don't know what is.
I guess I'll hold out that the other shoe is going to drop. Kat is kind of steam rolling the conversation so I am expecting a very big "But" to show up soon.But if nothing else comes up from that subplot it will feel very wasted and one sided in my mind.
I'll stop there because I don't want to be overly negative.
