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I didn't quite see this brought up in another post (I may very well have missed it), so I figured I would examine the upcoming School Play, and it's literary possibilities. As we have seen, BCB follows some well established tropes/cliches in some of it's storytelling elements, which in my opinion is by no means a downside. Tropes/cliches are the hammer & nails in storytelling, and using them well and creatively can help move a story along & help with character development (I may be digressing). My chief examples to which are the beach trip to Acalapua (which resulted in a standard nature-hike/near death scenario), as well as the earlier trip to Confrontation City (when you leave your normal setting, you will experience un-normal events).

We now have an ever present school play coming up, obviously starring both of the main characters. Now, typically when the "School Play Scenario" is played out, 1 of the two main characters star, and the school play becomes a jealousy event, or both main characters play with it being a "cutesy romantic moment". The second event obviously will not occur, with Mike with Sandy. I believe, in all honesty, that the school play could end up being a jealousy event for Sandy, leading either towards drama (and with this being BCB, the highest possibility), or simply character development for her.

I believe there is a good chance for this to become a jealousy event for a few reasons, the primary of which is that at the present moment, Sandy has absolutely no negative qualities that have been expanded upon. The vast majority of the cast has a depth to them, which shows why some characters like others(daisy is nice & smart, but ditzy and annoying, Lucy is all over the place, Paulo the jerk w/ a heart, etc.) So far we have had very few first hand scenes starring Sandy to get a feel for her, so most of our understanding of her comes from Lucy & Mike (who both fall under the Unreliable Narrator standard [Mike for loving the memory of her, and Lucy for Jealousy of Sandy]).

The second reason I see this as a possibility is that while Sandy may very well trust maischul to the very depths of her soul, she also last saw him (at this point) about 7 years ago, before puberty and just about half of their lives. Lucy has been there the WHOLE time. And Sandy, for all the sainthood we have seen thus far, is still a hormonal teenage female with half the cast, and full logic in regards to everything does not always prevail at that age (and again, we have not seen the entire range of her emotional response to events). At this point, her family could have really moved out to richter to get her father away from some secretary he was having an affair with, and the mother was pissed. Its highly unlikely, but again, with as little as we have to work with on Sandy, the likely hood of an alligator hiding under the surface increases with time.

Anyways, I figured I'd bounce these thoughts off the sounding board that is Social Studies.

I like your creative spelling of Acapulco.

Sandy isn't a saint; she's just a normal teenage girl who gets pushed by her rich and successful parents to become as successful as they are. There's a hint that she'd rather lead a more normal life, but what can she do? She's kind of a meek girl, and not one to be outspoken or rebellious.

If Sandy were to visit Mike, the most obvious conflict would be Lucy. Lucy definitely doesn't like Sandy, but she wouldn't confront her directly. Instead, she'd want to avoid both her and Mike, and find a corner somewhere to be mopey. This would be problematic if she had to perform in the play right then. The only saving grace might be that the play isn't until January, whereas Sandy would most likely visit Mike at Christmas (because she has school too).

Sandy, on the other hand, wouldn't be jealous of Lucy. She has no real reason to be. She only really remembers Lucy as that girl who hung around a lot in third grade.

There might be other tales to tell too. Daisy was Sandy's friend in third grade, and she feels kind of betrayed that Sandy moved away without telling her. And Sue recognizes Sandy from somewhere, but doesn't remember where.

The interesting thing about Sandy is that she doesn't want her parents to know about her relationship with Mike. They'd just consider Mike to be an unnecessary distraction. So if Sandy were to visit Roseville, she'd need to make up an excuse about seeing her old friends. And she's basically already done that once (except she missed Mike, because he was in Maraschino looking for her).

First of all, it's Acapulco and it's been around six and a third years since Sandy left.

I doubt that the play is going to lead to jealousy; Mike surely told Sandy when he got cast and Sandy hasn't had an issue with it thus far. If he gives her an actual reason to suspect him, then maybe, but knowing Mike he will work hard to suppress any feelings of less than complete loyalty towards Sandy unless he decides to dump her, in which case her being jealous is irrelevant. More likely the play's major effect will be however Mike and Lucy's relationship evolves as a consequence of them being forced to interact regularly, though I'm not sure how that will play out.

On the subject of Acapulco, I remember a number of consonents and vowels assorted in Ap----o. Foreign things are made to be mispelled, and I stand by my hawaiian-esqe spelling of a mexican area.

Moving on the the subject of Make telling Sandy of the casting, the general feel I have of Mike's conversations with Sandy being primarily fluffy happy happy good times. Unless you think that mike is in the habit of ranting about all the bad time's to Sandy. As it stands, in To The Top it seems the Sandy is slightly glossing over her feelings on the phone to Michael (not an accusation, these are teens), so it would be logical to assume that michael is glossing over the more dramatic elements of his life to "tantrums". I can definitely see him telling sandy he's in the play, but not that A) he will be co-starring with lucy who B)confessed her love for him. If he feels that she's dealing with enough with her own modeling etc., he could very well be hiding the full bizarre drama of his daily life, so she doesn't worry about how he's doing. This strikes me as the kind of thing Mike would pull. In addition, this sort of glossing over details can lead to more drama in later events, depending on how they play out.

Again, a large part upon where I am basing this is how "School Play Scenarios" typically play out in fiction, then comparing that with the set of characters, and the overall set and tone for the comic (in this case, romance/drama).

Also, I am not saying that anyone is saying Sandy is a saint (except michael). However, compared to the majority of the cast, we simply do not know the full extent of her fears, annoyances and dark sides. These facets of her personality are an unknown. The only negative anyone has really seemed to begrudge her is that Daisy is somewhat miffed that Sandy completely ditched her to hang out with michael(and lucy's estrangement). We do not know how particularly difficult Sandy is in juggling with her day-to-day life (outside banging on her locker door) and other things that may cause stress. And these are things which could lead to unexpected negative behavior. Especially in teenagers.

So I heard the main characters in that play have a nice sex scene.

Only if its a Shakespeare play

Toracat, on 23 September 2011 - 11:30 PM, said:

Are you kidding? They talk practically constantly. I'm sure each hears every detail of everything that happens to the other within 24 hours. And if there is anything that Mike is especially likely to have told Sandy, it's about Lucy's confession. For one thing, Mike would probably feel like he was cheating if he didn't immediately tell Sandy after Lucy confessed and assure her he had absolutely no interest; it would be as good a reason as he had here. Furthermore, he has spent a lot of time quite annoyed about Lucy, and have you ever met somebody who can be angry about something and not want to rant about it? I assure you, the only way Sandy could not know all about the Lucy situation is if she had an accident and lost the ability to form long-term memories.

I suppose this is simply a difference in opinion then. We know that Mike and Sandy communicate, we simply don't know how upfront about everything Mike is. You think he'll rant and be completely honest, I think he'll sugar coat things and try to only speak of happier subjects (try and keep sandy happy-ish as best he can). And while they do communicate alot (especially now that he has a phone), I'm sure a good portion of that is the inane text-speak shown on page 2 of call waiting -_- .

Sandy knows about Lucy (also see Taeshi's comments below the comic). However, I don't know if Mike told Sandy about Lucy's confession (which occurred a year later).


EDIT: Taeshi evades the question of how much Mike tells Sandy.

This post has been edited by wacko: 24 September 2011 - 05:15 AM

Toracat, on 23 September 2011 - 09:00 PM, said:

Toracat, on 23 September 2011 - 11:30 PM, said:

I think you might be trying a little too hard to label things as tropes, in the majority of stories tropes are not "used" like you imply, they just happen. Taeshi has stated a few times that when thinking of content she tries not to use the mindset that "this guy will be a white night character" or similar labels.

I like the idea with Sandy and the play though, while it seems a bit of a stretch that Sandy will actually be there to see the play, if she were then this could be possible. Mike shares a fair bit with Sandy doesn't he? Wasn't there even a scene somewhere where Mike confessed to Sandy that he had an intimate moment with Lucy? (I can't find it anywhere, I am sure this happened!)

You know, this could even be part of the reason why Mike has been so hostile to Lucy (apart from all the abuse of course), if Mike has told a bit about Lucy then maybe Sandy is encouraging Mike to stand up for himself and deal with Lucy.

This post has been edited by matty_batty0: 24 September 2011 - 05:53 AM

Sue is clearly trying to get Mike and Lucy together. Considering that she apparently thinks she knows some sort of dark secret about Sandy... yeah, this is probably gonna be the A-bomb ("A" standing for "Angst".)

Does that really imply that she knows a "dark secret"?
I mean it seems more like she just recalls seeing her somewhere else other than school, possibly a magazine or something

Also, even if she did know something about Sandy, it didnt seem to be hinted at when she was getting them together for the play, so Im not so sure about that theory

This post has been edited by Kaizy: 28 September 2011 - 03:32 AM

Kaizy, on 28 September 2011 - 03:32 AM, said:

I don't think Sue's considering the possibility of Sandy showing up for the play. So, if she does, it's going to be an "oh snap" moment.

True true, that seems like it would set up one of those moments

I think you're overthinking things a tad here, Luigifan. Sue isn't shipping Mike×Lucy, she's just basically trying to get them to be friends again (though angst could certainly result from that). And I doubt Sue knows any dark secrets about Sandy. She probably just recognizes her from a magazine ad or something.

The way her recognition was presented, though, it has to be foreshadowing something. I'm really not sure what, since the only obvious answer is that Sue saw her in a magazine, as you said, but that wouldn't be worth foreshadowing so it can't be that. But it has to be foreshadowing something we don't expect.

And there is great debate about what, precisely, Sue's goal is. I've resigned my self to just wait and see, although that might take a while.

"Impacts" is just another way of saying Lucy's going to get her ass pounded.

Quiet Jerk!
Youre going to give the play's finale away!

Jerk, on 28 September 2011 - 07:49 AM, said:

Kaizy, on 28 September 2011 - 07:52 AM, said:

Pfft. I doubt there will be any beatings. An argument between Mike and Lucy, Mike and Sandy, or Lucy and Sandy seems pretty likely, though.

Also, Taeshi totally evaded the question of whether Mike and Sandy will ever actually see each other again.

This post has been edited by Luigifan: 28 September 2011 - 08:02 PM

Luigifan, on 28 September 2011 - 08:02 PM, said:

Jesus Christ. I'm not going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that was deliberate.

I have to agree that I doubt Sandy will show up to the play, but most likely Taeshi was just trying to avoid giving away to much of the future story by answering it.

And yeah, Sue doesn't wanna hook Mike and Lucy back up, she just wants em talking again. As for recognizing Sandy, she really probably just remembers her from a magazine or something, Mike doesn't really seem to be one to brag about his girlfriend being a model and so everyone else might not even know.

Luigifan I've noticed alot of your theories are kinda really out there for a high school drama about cats. Bring em back into context alittle bit.

Here's something I'd like to see in the play.

There's a kissing scene in it. As that moment in the play approaches, panels show a young white cat exiting a Taxi, and walking toward the school. And just as Mike and Lucy kiss, bam, Sandy walks into the room with a shocked face. She sees that he's enjoying it, and shouts out his name, drawing attention to her, Mike drops from the kiss, and looks at Sandy in shock. Sandy runs out of the room as Mike follows behind her.
Lucy can't tell wether to be happy, or sad that she might have hurt Mikes relationship, and he might never speak to her again.

asdf, on 28 September 2011 - 08:49 PM, said:

Oh god this is exactly what I had envisioned too! Also, what are the chances of Alejandro making an appearance? Just a thought...

Brodello, on 28 September 2011 - 09:50 PM, said:

Okay, how about this:
The big kissing scene is about to happen, Lucy is losing control of herself, Mike is kinda liking it... when Alejandro just leaps out of nowhere in the Phantom of the Opera costume, kills Mike, and takes off with Lucy to make her his ho. Building up the nerve, Paulo chases them into the city, confronts his fear of barking, kills Alejandro, makes out with Lucy and saves the day!
And then it's revealed David was just ranting this story to Paulo before they go into the theatre. They go in and... I don't know, there's ANGST!

Alejandros chances of appearance seem quite small, as there will be many parents and adults attending the play. Unless, there's lots of activity in the hallways where most parents won't be.

asdf, on 28 September 2011 - 10:28 PM, said:

I know, that's why I framed it as a story. Then again, my idea doesn't work, because how would David know about Alejandro?

"So I totally beat up some thugs."

Borg Lord, on 28 September 2011 - 11:35 PM, said:

Ah ha! Thanks!

asdf, on 28 September 2011 - 10:28 PM, said:

I meant that he might be watching as part of the audience as some weird and twisted hunter watching his prey. He doesn't necessarily need to take an active role. What if both Sandy AND Alejandro attend the play, sit right next to each other while watching, both unaware of each other and both with completely different intentions? Sounds pretty funny actually.

The epileptic trees are quite active in this thread.

Maybe there will be a kissing scene, Sandy will get suspicious, and she'll complain to the random stranger sitting next to her, who is Alejandro. This will then lead to them bonding over their mutual disdain for Lucy and betrayal by Mike (Alejandro will tell her the whole story of Confrontation from his point of view, but in sufficiently ambiguous terms that she'll completely misinterpret what he means). By the time Sandy goes back to Rickter, she'll be dating Alejandro, yet will still be sufficiently uninformed that one day she'll call him and tell him to be careful because her ex-boyfriend was murdered and also ask him why he was too busy to talk to her yesterday. The rest of the comic will then be a stereotypical mistaken-everything sitcom.

And then everybody (except Mike, of course) will get Alzheimer's despite being teenagers, and will forget all about their angst and live out the rest of their lives in a nursing home, having the same arguments every day because they forget them every night.

This post has been edited by Borg Lord: 29 September 2011 - 05:52 PM

Jerk, on 28 September 2011 - 08:38 PM, said:

What?!? No. Just no. "Arguing" is not meant to be a euphemism for anything. Jesus Christ. Should I have used the word "bickering" instead?

paulpopebatman, on 28 September 2011 - 10:08 PM, said:

...Actually, I'd love to see that happen. We need some more David looniness, and another one of his "hypocritical situations" would be a blast to see.

Brodello, on 29 September 2011 - 09:04 AM, said:

More like horrifying. Do you think I want to see Sandy get killed? Because I don't - I just see it as being likely to happen, given BCB's penchant for ultra-angsty storylines and the fact that Alejandro is a cruel, twisted jerkass. Though, on the other hand, having Alejandro in the audience would be kind of entertaining in a twisted sort of way... namely, if Mike, Lucy, Paulo, Sue, and/or Daisy see him and spend the next 20 or so pages as a paranoid wreck. Bonus points if Mike sees Alejandro sitting next to Sandy and begins fearing for her life and/or virginity. Seriously, I can just picture his reaction... Okay, I guess it actually would be funny. Especially since it's combining angst and comedy.

Borg Lord, on 29 September 2011 - 05:50 PM, said:

What. ...Were you on pot when you typed that?!?

Luigifan, on 29 September 2011 - 09:23 PM, said:

Really? You really think I have too little imagination to come up with a preposterous theory without chemical aid, and too little sense to recognize one as such?

Luigifan, on 29 September 2011 - 09:23 PM, said:

What is this? Degrassi?
(to quote a certain someone)

This post has been edited by Junior Boomer: 30 September 2011 - 12:14 AM

I don't think Sandy will be coming over for a while personally, it just seems too early.

The play will probably just open up more awkward doors for Lucy and Mike.

Jerk, on 28 September 2011 - 07:49 AM, said:

Luigifan, on 28 September 2011 - 08:02 PM, said:

Jerk, on 28 September 2011 - 08:38 PM, said:

Luigifan, on 29 September 2011 - 09:23 PM, said:

I used the euphemism and you misunderstood it, you twit, either by trying and failing to make a joke or because you seriously didn't understand another connotation for "ass pounded."

Luigifan, on 29 September 2011 - 09:23 PM, said:

BECAUSE THE HEAD COUNT SO FAR HAS JUST BEEN SO FUCKING HIGH HASN'T IT? I'M BEING SARCASTIC! CAN YOU TELL I'M BEING SARCASTIC? IN CASE YOU COULDN'T, I TYPED IN ALL CAPS TO EMPHASIZE MY SARCASM TO HELP YOU RECOGNIZE IT.

Luigi, no offense but weren't you the one who wrote that ridiculously huge essay in BCB's tvtropes speculation page? Seriously, that thing was practically a fanfiction story in its own right! Going to that much trouble would kind of indicate you want it to come true just a little bit...

...its ok, you can admit it! I'm sure you aren't the only one who'd like to see Sandy die. (Not me, personally, but there are people out there!)

Also on the note of a kissing scene, not sure if some of you were joking or not, but regardless you have to ask yourself that if Sue's goal for the play is to get Mike and Lucy to be friends again why would she write in a kissing scene?

Well, Lucy did tell her that she loves Mike.

And maybe Sue thought "Fuck Mike, this is for you Lucy!"

What kissing scene?

Also.

Jerk, on 30 September 2011 - 12:28 AM, said:

What other connotations could there be for "ass pounded"? And sure, there haven't been any murders in the series yet (though we could argue that what Mike and the others did to Carson during Mischief Night was manslaughter - not like they could have known that nobody would bother to rescue him), but Alejandro was most definitely willing to kill both Mike and Lucy during the Confrontation arc when they tried to stand up to him - and he probably would have if he hadn't been interrupted. (And keep in mind that he had been hitting on Lucy when she and Paulo were in fifth grade.) If he came to realize just how badly he could break Mike by killing Sandy, I don't think he'd hesitate at all - he'd track her down and butcher her without an inkling of remorse. Of course, I'm positing the theory that there's gonna be a murder eventually on the fact that BCB has been getting angstier and angstier lately. Including a relative lack of comic relief - when was the last time we saw Yashy and the other pets again? Mischief Night Rehearsal?

Kritanakom, on 30 September 2011 - 12:32 AM, said:

Actually, no, I only came up with that theory as a way that Mike and Lucy could still end up together, because Sandy would somehow have to be moved out of the way for that to happen. I'd honestly much prefer for Mike to end up with Sandy, because the way I see it, Lucy totally blew her chance with him. I mean, seriously, that was a bona-fide abusive relationship.

Junior Boomer, on 30 September 2011 - 12:36 AM, said:

Kissing scene? What kissing scene?

wacko, on 30 September 2011 - 01:07 AM, said:

...Seriously.

This post has been edited by Luigifan: 12 October 2011 - 11:28 PM

Well, that was only a small part of the play for auditions. And then Sue said that she might have to "write a play of her own".

Nobody ever said that there "isn't" a kissing scene in the play. Maybe Sue took that part out of the script, and will tell them about it on the day of the play.
Causing Mike and Lucy to go,"WHAAAAT?"

Edit: Just read that link...but there's still a possibility...maybe it's a secret.

This post has been edited by asdf: 30 September 2011 - 01:50 AM

Luigifan, on 30 September 2011 - 01:42 AM, said:

The kissing scene I was saying would never exist.

Junior Boomer, on 30 September 2011 - 02:21 AM, said:

Yeeeeeep.

Luigifan said:

Those two incidents actually happened at the start of sixth grade.

The "blue eyes" comment in your first link does support the conjecture that the creepy unseen guy is Alejandro (considering he called Mike "green eyes" in "Confrontation"). Furthermore, see Taeshi's comment on this page:

Taeshi said:

And Alejandro is definitely associated with the original barking incident, judging from his comments to Paulo on this page. However, if Alejandro is indeed the creepy unseen guy from sixth grade, that still doesn't explain why Paulo didn't recognize him in Confrontation City two years later. As I see it, this is the biggest hole in the theory, which otherwise would stand up OK.

Also, I still disagree with your theory that someone (prior fan characters excluded!) will be murdered in BCB. That's quite a serious outcome for a slice-of-life comic. For sure Alejandro wants revenge on Lucy and Mike, but as Taeshi has said before, he's not a criminal mastermind. I doubt if he'd go so far as to plot a murder.

wacko, on 30 September 2011 - 03:21 AM, said:

Whoops... sixth grade... haha...

Alejandro may not be a criminal mastermind, but he seems to be trying to act the part. Perhaps we can call him a wannabe.

Also, it's perfectly possible that Paulo could have forgotten what Alejandro looks like. If you don't see someone very often, you can end up forgetting their facial features, especially if it's someone you barely interact with.

This post has been edited by Luigifan: 30 September 2011 - 03:32 AM

I don't know why everyone thinks Paulo didn't recognize Alejandro. I have never once looked at this page and not seen a liar.

To me, it looks like Paulo really doesn't recognize Alejandro. Why would he lie to Daisy?

He's ashamed of that chapter of his life. He doesn't want to risk somebody asking him how he knows Alejandro, particularly since Daisy is around. I may disagree with those who say Paulo has had a romantic interest in Daisy any time he wasn't being brainwashed, but he does care about Daisy and doesn't like it when she disapproves of him. He may put up a tough front, but that same insecure boy he was in fifth grade is still in there, and that boy cares what his first friend in Roseville (and apparently the only one who always put up with him after he changed) thinks.

Luigifan, on 30 September 2011 - 01:42 AM, said:

Violent anal sex. I mean, you did click the link after all; you have no excuse not to know now. Don't worry, I'll phrase it differently in the future so you don't make that mistake again. "Sodomized," "shit pushed in" and so on.

As for the rest, it's a pretty huge stretch from mounting angst to murder.