For Their Friends 2015-06-24

[Thor]

LINKLINK

Still not sure if the timing is serendipitous, or if Bud is feeding the bird a hard lesson about assumptions.

[Dave]

Ummm... slight typo in the subject there

I tend to think that Bud's comments are genuine here... she went off and did her Tina-research into the situation, is giving the report of the good news...

... and has triggered one of the more expressive "Oh, f***" reactions I've seen lately. Atsali has just had one hell of a jolt.

Mind you, I don't think that Bud will actually be sorry she turned out to be the bearer of a harsh lesson... but I don't think she set it up that way. She's capable of subtlety but I think she's basically a much more straight-forward person than Jin is.

[Gyrrakavian]

Well, scrap

[Gyrrakavian]

LINKLINK

Still not sure if the timing is serendipitous, or if Bud is feeding the bird a hard lesson about assumptions.

Being that it's Bud, it's likely intentional. And she feather-pitched the point home.

*drops a Louisville Slugger with a pillow wrapped around it in the pun jar*

[Atomic]

And Atsali says:

"I don't know what I'm doing. I don't know how this works. Somebody please give me a clue so I can do better."

[DilyV]

Poor Atsali... that last panel says "I wanna go hide in a corner... of another universe."

[elanora]

Even if she's off screen, I do love that Tina got called in. Writer's all to often forget to use their character's abilities when it could solve a problem easily, and it's worth giving praise when they remember, or don't worry about short-circuiting potential artificial drama.

[AnotherFairportfan]

* ahem *

"Rouge Angles of Satin"

[Opus the Poet]

I think we are close to seeing the "TILT" light shining in Atsali's glasses... And Google image search doesn't seem to recognize that expression. Kids have no idea what pinball is about. BSOD eyes they can find right off

[kingklash]

*MEANWHILE........*
Ensconced in his phased dimensional bubble, a certain observer of parallel earths giggles like someone who just had a big dinner of broiled Joker Fish. Atsali Gilchrist is going to benefit greatly from this lesson, providing she survives the initial embarrassment.

[TazManiac]

"dang gerl, you stoopid..."

I actually feel sorry for the little bird brain.

[Gyrrakavian]

I think we are close to seeing the "TILT" light shining in Atsali's glasses... And Google image search doesn't seem to recognize that expression. Kids have no idea what pinball is about. BSOD eyes they can find right off

Try "K.O.", "pwned", "owned", or even "blonked out". Though the last one will also get you links to comic strip history, The Goon, and Little Orphan Annie strips.

[Jackalkat]

I feel TERRIBLE for Atsali. That last panel just seems to sum it all up - "I'm hurt, I'm confused, I don't understand people, I don't trust people, I'm embarrassed, and I'm so, so, lonely and scared." Atsali freaks out constantly that she's upset someone, and both times she's allowed herself to be angry, she gets smacked down (Nadette, and now Bud for Jessie). This kid needs a supernatural therapist, stat. The hard part is - how could she have known about Jessie? The fish-girl clearly bullied her for a while, and when she began to hang with her Atsali heard her commenting in a way that made it seem like she was using her. With the emotional blindness, how could she realize that it had become genuine?

[Brasten]

I think we are close to seeing the "TILT" light shining in Atsali's glasses...

TILT TILT by Dice.com, on Flickr

Although I'm not sure rocking Atsali back and forth is going to help her in this situation. I think the solution is obvious however. A good firm familial hug is in order, like the kind she'd give to Pickle.

I still think Elcor speak is called for. So much emotional misreading, it is time to state the emotions in words before speaking.

[lake_wrangler]

* ahem *

"Rouge Angles of Satin"

You forgot to give warning that this was a TVTropes link... Beware, it will suck you in!

[zachariah]

Bud does not have a good sense of timing, Paul does. The plot line here is Sali carelessly shoots Jessie down based on her mis-understanding of Jessie, facial expressions, and stress. Then discovers she screwed the pooch big time. Now does she go talk to Jessie or come up with a complicated plot to make things right again. If it is the plot it will FAIL big time.

[lake_wrangler]

Incidentally, it's nice to see confirmation of the genuineness of Jessie's helpfulness. Too bad Atsali just carpet-bombed the whole area... it may be a little hard to rebuild...

[Catawampus]

I wonder when Tina had a chance to evaluate Jessie. That might have been an interesting event, if the two actually met rather than Tina just scanning Jessie in the distance as she walked by. Does Mucho Mocha serve kelp coffee?

Bud does not have a good sense of timing, Paul does.

But. . .but he's simply drawing and transcribing the real-life actions of a group of paranormals who he met while in Minneapolis, right? Right?!?

Incidentally, it's nice to see confirmation of the genuineness of Jessie's helpfulness.

I'm somewhat less trusting of Jessie. While she is apparently genuinely trying to help Atsali now, that doesn't change the fact that for a good long while she was intentionally being hurtful and bullying towards Atsali and presumably other students as well. At no point have we seen her acknowledge (even just to herself) that what she did was wrong; instead we had Krystle trying to excuse their behaviour by saying that they just did it to make getting through school easier. If Jessie really is as empathic and understanding as she seems to be, then she knew full well how much damage she was causing and yet still went ahead and did so for selfish reasons.

[DilyV]

Tina read Jessie? Does this mean that Tina is here at the pool? Tina can give Jin a run for her money when t comes to outrageous swimsuits

[Dave]

I'm somewhat less trusting of Jessie. While she is apparently genuinely trying to help Atsali now, that doesn't change the fact that for a good long while she was intentionally being hurtful and bullying towards Atsali and presumably other students as well. At no point have we seen her acknowledge (even just to herself) that what she did was wrong; instead we had Krystle trying to excuse their behaviour by saying that they just did it to make getting through school easier. If Jessie really is as empathic and understanding as she seems to be, then she knew full well how much damage she was causing and yet still went ahead and did so for selfish reasons.

My sense is that she, also, is being portrayed as "growing up"... that what we are seeing here is the awakening of an "adult" Jessie, who is more empathetic, and more responsible towards others than the social-clique-oriented adolescent "mermaid stereotype" Jessie she once was.

She's just made a very potent and explicit rejection of her mother's whole value system... and from their dialog it sounds as she might previously have been "going along with the program" and playing the "high social status" role her mother expected her to play. She's not a "static" spear-carrier character, any more than Atsali or Tina or Shelly is.

I'm not excusing the harm that her bullying behavior could well have done, along the way. She almost certainly has some amends and apologies to make, if she truly wants to balance the books, and we havn't seen her make those to anyone other than Atsali.

I do think it's easy for young kids to get sucked into participating in a bullying/hazing social structure... one that can carry onwards for years or decades in a school or church group or band or Boy Scout troop or whatever. Peer pressure and expectation are an enormously powerful force among adolescents... they (we) often learn far more by example from our older peers than we learn from the words of adult teachers. New/young kids (low in the totem pole) adopt and participate in the prevailing social culture for their own emotional and physical safety... they may join the "hassling crowd" in order to not be hassled themselves. Sometimes, eventually, they then become the leaders.

Street gangs are an extreme example of this... but a lot of what goes on in high school cliques is very much the same in its basic structure, albeit less violent (snide words and contemptuous looks and gossip, rather than bullets and knives).

A lot of this group dynamic occurs before we reach "the age of reason", and before our brains develop our full adult capabilities (empathy, impulse control, and the ability to think through the implications of what we're considering doing). Face it... at the age of 15, all of us have a big slice of "heedless loose cannon" in our nature.

So, I could easily see how a character like Jessie could end up where she is... a young girl of a race notorious for being rank-conscious and socially-pretentious, with a mother pushing her to assert her social power, starting high school and joining one of the cliques and "pushing upwards"... maybe enjoying the sensation of power and success at first... and then coming to realize the cost to herself and others, and the shallow nature of her status and rank and "victories" and thinking "You know, this job really sucks... and I really don't like behaving this way towards others. This what-I-have-been-doing is wrong."

She hasn't yet made full amends for her cruelties along the way, but I think she's being shown as making an honest and sincere start... she's turned over a new leaf. She's not a goody-two-shoes innocent, and never will be... but she's made a good start in a better direction, with good motives.