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Obverse & Reverse Ch4 Page 9

Obverse & Reverse Ch4 Page 9 published on 19 Comments on Obverse & Reverse Ch4 Page 9

Later, when they’re older, Rupert will talk about how Jim bullied him as a kid and Jim will be all “WHAT?? I was never a bully?????” and Lorne will be all “Yeah you kinda were, bruv” and Jim will have to go sit down for awhile and think about his choices.

19 Comments

is that really bullying if the one person threatened by all the consequences of the actions is oneself ?
I mean jim is saying “i am going off the path and you wont stop me” no “go off the path so that i see what will be happening to you while safe”

the first is childish and unwise, but not really bullying (more of a strong head type of personality)

beside, they are not yet “off the path”. it is when they dont see it anymore behind them that they will be in trouble

It becomes bullying because he’s intentionally doing it to upset Rupert. It isn’t just “I’m going off the path and you can’t stop me,” it’s “Oh, nooooo, look at meeee, not following your stupid ruuuules, am I going to die??? You’ll have to watch if I doooo! The Jabberwock will get meeee!”
It’s kind of like “I’m Not Touching You.” Is it stupid? Yes. Is it harmful? No. Would a more mature kid be able to deal with it without being annoyed? Of course. But you can’t expect a prepubescent to be “more mature.” The offender is intentionally doing something for no other reason than to make the victim upset, and the victim, being nine years old, doesn’t actually have the vocabulary to express why this is upsetting. (An adult would totally understand why a person following them around, or intentionally breaking their boundaries, etc. is a bad thing, even if no harm is done.) (I’m not saying that “I’m not touching you” is bullying, I’m just using it as an example of something that we, being more mature, can recognize as no big deal, but which is SUPER upsetting when you’re a kid.)
I wouldn’t call Jim’s actions bullying if it weren’t for two things:

a) it’s clearly done with a taunting tone while Rupert is clearly distressed – this isn’t carelessness, it’s malice.
b) it is FAR from the first time. Jim has been CONSTANTLY belittling and mocking Rupert.

I think most kids act a bit of a bully to at least one other child. Kids are just like that sometimes; once you grow up, you improve as a person and start to recognize good and bad behaviors. Still sucks in the moment, though.

I mean, no, I wouldn’t call what you describe bullying.

But the relentless mockery in these panels? He’s being a straight up DICK to Rupert, whether or not you want to call him a “bully.” And it’s not about him trying to go off the path, it’s about him making fun of his friend.

Psychological bullying.

Jim probably doesn’t mean it. This isn’t uncommon, either– a lot of bullying is done because the bully is having fun and doesn’t think about the consequences on the other person, rather than just being outright malicious. Jim isn’t being malicious, but he’s having fun messing with Rupert, assumes Rupert is having the same kind of fun, but you see there that Rupert is cowering and hiding his eyes because he’s absolutely *terrified* that his jerk of a cousin is going to get lost and wind up being eaten by a dragon and there’s nothing Rupert can do.

Messing with people like that, especially when you know they’re sensitive? Still hurting them. Still bullying.

Leaving out the bullying, this is Wonderland. I expect the path will disaparate much faster than anyone expects. Or wrap them up like a rope. Or not turn out to be where they left it. It is, after all, Wonderland. So far the rest of Wonderland has been true to the Alice books.

I fully expect him to vanish from sight and we cut to him lying in the shattered and scarred wasteland, strewn with rubble and mangled corpses of things that might have once been living but are now so despoiled that they cannot even rot; all that is left by the “Wonderland Wars” and what actually exists hidden only by the glammour cast upon the walkers of the path.

Does anyone else find baby Jim just ridiculously obnoxious? I’m trying to hold my feelings in check because I know who he grows up to be, but man, this kid is just fecking awful and I really don’t like him.

… sooooo why does Jim suddenly have his claws out in the last panel? Real agony, or is he following up with an Academy-Award-winning death scene? That suddenly turns into a real one with nobody believing it? Dun dun dunnnnn …

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