#Bcb | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

lacktastrophe · 1 month ago

Note

My question about Lucy, Paulo, and Daisy was prompted by Rain Check. We see Paulo say that she’s cruel and assume she brought Daisy there to rub things in before he goes to wash the dishes instead. There’s a panel that shows her upset in the page after this Then when she gets back to the table Daisy assumes she just wants to make fun of her crushes. They kinda just think the worst of Lucy when she’s trying to help. They have their entire talk and end up dating. There’s never a point where they apologize for assuming the worst or acknowledge that she’s been supportive. Paulo’s the worst offender since he went from the interaction in Double Down to asking for her help in Seeing Stars and then to assuming she only brought Daisy to spite him. Then seemingly to friendly again after that. Which is red flags tbh because jumping from being chill with someone to that level of aggression to talking to them like nothing happened is genuinely not good. But it was the page you mentioned that was the reason I asked since it was their interaction after everything. I’d get why it wouldn’t come up at the end of a chapter that already had a lot of discussion and clearing things up between Paulo and Daisy. The page in the current chapter where they’re acting like everything’s all good after both openly just assumed her intention is to hurt them with no ‘hey, I guess you were trying to help’ or ‘sorry for saying you only came here to remind me of how awful I am’

It would just be nice to see that cleared up. I like their interactions but it’s a glaring issue that they’ll be okay with her only to turn on a dime and assume she just wants to make fun or outright put them down

This got sent on the 5th, sorry Anon. I found time to log into Tumblr.

Thanks for clarifying. In that case (or in any case) I went on a huge tangent without really getting to what you wanted to get to.

I think the bulk of the answers come back as the summary of the last post where I detailed the kids rely on a perception of Lucy that goes back to their childhood and how Lucy behaved. Paulo and Daisy's treatment is a defensive reaction because historically, the aloof, snarky, indifferent and abrasive Lucy never previously involved themselves in their friend's issues, more often than not finding them a source of entertainment.

These moments are still valid despite how long ago this happened for the friend group because there's just been a huge absence of Lucy, and few chances to show she's different from back then. We, of course, are aware as readers of a different perspective of Lucy having been able to follow her and knowing better traits that exist in her character, but that is not something the other kids are privy to. Since her return to the school, to them, she's been just as absent as she was just before her disappearance.

We're only seeing some meaningful investment in the people around her now. Lucy doesn't want to be seen this way, so the onus is on her to changing this perspective, and she can do this through investing in others.

The reception she's getting appears meanspirited, but it isn't completely unfair. There is merit to her colleagues suspicion given the lack of evidence she's not the same person as she was back then. There's sufficient evidence to see that Lucy is acutely aware of this being the case too. We know this from her nightmares to start with.

As much as we want to believe in Lucy we have to admit she just hasn't made huge strides in convincing others yet that she isn't like those times or dependable in this way in particular. The way things went down in Seeing Stars sets the tone for where Lucy is right now and what we're set for in future chapters. Quite simply, there's a lot to do, and Lucy really hasn't helped herself here either by telling Paulo to fuck off this time. Granted, she doesn't owe him anything. But friendship is a two way street. Lucy had bemoaned in the past how her friends abandoned her in her time of need, yet here she is abandoning Paulo in his time of need. This isn't conductive to fixing those ties as we see when people start doubting her despite her best intentions.

As much as this comes across as a Paulo Fumble, it's very much a Lucy fumble, which Lucy does acknowledge on her own. Having acted the way she did made her seem like she was indifferent to his plight, not at all trying to convince others that she isn't like back then and undoing the baggage carried from her nightmares. So Paulo's reaction in Raincheck is justified and not too unsurprising when she just shows up out of the blue with Daisy from his perspective.

Seeing Lucy admit that her reaction was absolutely uncalled for is pretty great for her because we get to recognise that this is an area where she is trying to productively work towards changing her image. But this isn't like the time when she returned to the school like in Love-Again where she made deliberate attempts to subvert expectations by not behaving how they thought she'd behave like. This has everything to do with investing in other people, something she just didn't do years ago and hasn't been able to do until now for various reasons. Despite how good this development is, it isn't without becoming very uncharacteristic of her according to the others, which has everyone on the defense considering the timing.

The flashback in Dial Tone is the kind of reception people like Mike would find when they tried venting their spleen to Lucy in the past.

And since they're not Mike, well, anything could happen.

This perception isn't necessarily shared by just Daisy and Paulo either, the aforementioned part of Lucy's childhood is known by a lot of their colleagues, as we see a point in It's all in the mind where Lucy needed to pre-empt a reaction from Amaya to clarify that she's not being intently snarky to them as an example.

The same reassurance needed to happen twice in Rain-Check in order for Lucy to further convince Daisy she's absolutely serious about becoming involved in their problems.

This is sadly what Lucy is needing to wear from months of not having worked on changing her perception since her return. The reception Lucy is receiving is mean, but she isn't intentionally letting herself get riled up on things either, so I feel she might realise it's not totally uncalled for considering whom she used to be and what she's trying to do.

Moving on, besides the threat of being made fun of, Daisy's apprehension towards Lucy's offer to help, while rude, is just Lucy having her credentials checked out when it comes to this topic. Having not been too successful with relationships given her childhood to now and lacking experience (and completely flubbing it with Paulo AND Mike), it's fair to say that Lucy wouldn't be Daisy's first pick when it comes to the advice she's after. Particularly when it comes to confessing and not having everything turn to shit. (Unrequited.) It's not supposed to be rude, but it is to show that Lucy is just not the right person for this task sadly.

All of this makes "Rain-Check" a bit of an ironic chapter, because while the Rain-Check is initially seen as the check-in on Paulo and Daisy's relationship, the same is true for parts of Lucy. Whether that's working on her image or working on her relationships, aspects of which have caught up with her, and the changes we've been waiting for.

Still consider that from Daisy's perspective, as much as Lucy might be trying to make a meaningful investment, the one thing the kids probably all recognise is that they all don't know each other too well (a great theme of this chapter too considering Paulo never knew Daisy's affection for him).It's just uncharacteristic of Lucy to be like this, so it wouldn't be unfair to wonder if she's just looking for entertainment. And we're asking a lot of Daisy to lower her own walls at great personal risk of being made fun of when her heart really hurts. It could be said things would have been different had Lucy worked on things earlier, but she didn't. Sadly her nightmares made her run like in Seeing Stars. Not literally run, but we've seen moments where Lucy just doesn't work on the things that end up dogging her.

When it comes to Paulo's treatment of Lucy, I feel like there's a lot more going on enough to worry about him. The guy has been fucked around by her a fair amount! There had been a moment where Paulo was sure as hell that he had a chance with her up until that very moment on the Ferris Wheel when everything fell to pieces, and every other interaction past that he'd manage to fumble up in one way or another. It's not too surprising to see him viewing things with ill-intent when you consider (ignoring his current mental soup) that after so many consecutive flops to bring her over after the carnvial, he might have realised at some point he knows nothing about her, and has to fallback on the same perception of her that everyone else is all but certain of. The only thing he can be sure about is the kind of person she was like when they were younger, as everything post Silvershore might as well have been his imagination, considering the mixed messages and signals he got with Lucy after that point.

Ironically, that means as much shit Paulo gave Mike about his imaginary girlfriend, he'd really done the same, but not without a partial hand by Lucy.

That's harsh to write about. But as much as Paulo had been the main-maestro to his own misfortune, it's inconceivable to think that Lucy didn't have a have a hand in this either. His reaction is not too far-gone considering his mental-headspace at this time.

As much as we want to believe in Lucy's intentions being pure here, Paulo's impressions of her is pretty fucked up thanks to what she's done to him. So he's justified to view things with ill-intent here. What else does he really have?

But this is good to have happened.

Lucy being confronted by this is good for her development, and rather than running away, she resolves then to try and do better.

She sits down opposite Daisy, and listens.

I get you that there's a distinct absence of acknowledgement from Paulo or Daisy at the end of the chapter towards Lucy, and even in the following chapter. That sucks!!!

But in defense to the story and two points to make: Outside of inviting Daisy to the fast food joint so she could be closer towards Paulo, Lucy wasn't the person who "fixed" anything from the perspectives of people who don't have access to her perspective like we do.

It would be purely coincidental that Paulo just happened to have been there to overhear everything. We can't blame her left ear, she didn't even expect him to be right there.

The other is through Lucy not seeking acknowledgement herself. Lucy not making a point of being the reason they're both now together could lead into something bigger and more meaningful down the road rather than claiming credit and undoing what Paulo and Daisy reached as a couple. We know better as readers, knowing that Lucy had pushed them together when both boiling points hit their peak, but I feel even if we retained Lucy's perspective to see her real thoughts on this, this is something that's better given to them both reaching this point rather than making it about her.

This is going to be a long agonising road as readers if you're looking for acknowledgements because I don't think they're going to come in the way people are expecting them to come. There's a lot of groundwork and lost time to cover for Lucy to get to that point where her involvement is recognised. But I feel these are adding up to something bigger in the long-run.

Hang in there, Anon.

#bittersweet candy bowl #bcb

22 notes · View notes