Cat Drama Enthusiast

||25||BCB Sideblog

[catzpachos]

I needed to make a BCB sideblog because I’ve had so many thoughts for so many years and need to finally get them off my chest!

I don’t know how active I’ll be here, but I need to shout my opinions in the void whenever I can.

[theomaru]

LUCY IS SO FREAKING CUTIEPIE IN THIS CHAPTER IM GOIN CRAZY

[catzpachos]

I have to make this post because I am once again mourning Lucy.

And it came from the fact that I think that Lucy and James would have had a really funny dynamic if they had gotten to meet when Lucy was in her prime.

I feel like they would egg each other on in a healthy rivalry way. Not the same competitiveness she has with Mike of course, but I can see them daring each other and bickering over stupid things. Blunt competitive Lucy who can see through James crocodile tears— it’s all head canon of course but it makes me miss Lucy when her heart was in it!

[eesbegovic]

Abbey's Disaster Dominoes

I'd argue that Abbey's abuse-is-abuse speech in Feline Filibuster played a major, and overlooked, role in setting Mike against Lucy.

Consider the timeline: Immediately before this, in Mischief Night and in Rehearsal, we see that things between Mike and Lucy had settled into a basically manageable place. They are, if nothing else, still talking.

And then Abbey says this:

Abuse is abuse. No matter a bully's excuses.. Violence should never be tolerated.

Abuse, huh? Sounds like something Mike's been hearing from his girlfriend for a year or so.

(In the first of these flashbacks Mike isn't wearing a scarf, which implies that Sandy started saying things like this in Mike's scarfless period between A Difficult Choice and Left Behind, early in their freshman year. I dunno if she'd said anything like this in the weeks immediately before Feline Filibuster.)

So Abbey gives his big speech, and the page ends on a panel focusing on Mike, who seems affected by it. And on the next page he's suddenly glaring at Lucy:

How interesting.

We don't see Mike again until the next chapter, Pillow Talk... when he decides to start giving Lucy the silent treatment, on her birthday, seemingly out of nowhere.

But it wasn't out of nowhere: Abbey's abuse-is-abuse speech accidentally prodded Mike into finally acting on that that "Lucy is abusing you" frame that Sandy, equally by accident, built for him.

And this, the silent treatment that began in Pillow Talk, is what first put the light out of Lucy's eyes and set her on a depressive spiral.

[catzpachos]

I wanted to draw for bcb anniversary but got swamped with finals ;; I’ll probably end up drawing very late fanart instead :’)

[bittersweetcandybowl]

Happy 20th anniversary, BCB!

[bramblepaws]

the parallel turnaround reveals to show that they're both supremely fucked up right now. fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuckkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk

[catzpachos]

Do you guys think vero knows she made the most simple yet peak character design on earth? Augustus is so schmoopy im obsessed with him.

[bittersweetcandybowl]

Veronica: I wonder if part of the reason Augustus looks so good is because he’s stolen Yami Yugi’s design

I swear I did not do this on purpose

[bramblepaws]

[catzpachos]

There is something to be said about this chapter, the track team, and how Lucy has never truly beaten Mike in a race but I can’t string the thought together…

[marscorp]

augustus Eyeshine of Hope™ compilation

[catzpachos]

First off I LOVE the new limited palette for BCB but that aside…. IM SAD. And it’s because I think it finally settled in for me that Paulo and Lucy’s dynamic has changed for good.

I mean just LOOK at these expressions.

Yes he’s worried about Mike, but for once he’s not even trying to humor Lucy. I think historically Paulo has been the type to at least fake it out until he can be vulnerable one on one with someone.

I had to think about it and the two really haven’t gotten along since Double Down. They had a big argument and then Paulo tries to ask Lucy for advice on Daisy in Seeing Stars (which obviously didn’t end well 😭). To Paulo’s credit he does give a small apology in Rain Check, but besides that the two haven’t sorted things out between them at all.

And it’s just kind of hitting me that their dynamic has fundamentally changed. So much has changed between them since Lucy came back and made it clear they weren’t together.

The most important change was Paulo getting to actually know Mike. They got really close and right now we’re seeing how much Paulo does value you that.

There’s so much to dig into here but I’m going to end on this thought:

I can’t help but wonder if Lucy will end up resenting Paulo for seeing the signs in Mike that no one else noticed in her when she was at her lowest.

[catzpachos]

Honored and horrified that my post about Daisy made it to the main bcb page <<;

[catzpachos]

why do you hate Mike?

It's very funny that this is my first anon LOL I don't remember explicitly saying I hate him but I think I did mention wanting him to suffer or something...

BUT I CAN'T IN GOOD FAITH SAY I HATE MIKE

He is simply too complex to outright hate. His actions stress me out, and I stick by my point that I think his actions were more *malicious* than Lucy's, but that's also what makes him so interesting. It's why I want him to keep being messy, and why I want to see how he will react to this new type of isolation inflicted upon him. To go off on a little tangent, I don't want to seem like I discount Lucy's treatment of Mike either. She wasn't a good friend to him all the time. It's hard to take *every* instance of violence from her seriously, but the point is that there were moments of serious injury to Mike in general. She also was constantly insulting him.

Even if this was the norm for her and others in regards to Mike, it's not fun or fair to always be the friend at the butt of the joke. Lucy ignored his boundaries because she didn't have a reason to think she couldn't get away with it. Mike gave Lucy a lot of grace.

But this is where my point of malice comes from: Lucy treated Mike that way both because they were friends and she didn't take him 100% seriously (not saying this is a good thing!). All of Mikes actions seem to be directly intended to hurt Lucy. This is such an important difference to me! I kind of want to make a full post about that maybe? One explaining how I am interpreting Mike's actions. Idk if anyone would be interested in that, I'm honestly surprised anyone interacted with my posts to begin with!

TLDR: I don't hate Mike I just like seeing him face the horrors ^^;

[catzpachos]

Do you guys think vero knows she made the most simple yet peak character design on earth? Augustus is so schmoopy im obsessed with him.

[itsaboutcats]

Placing Augustus & Lucy's flashbacks in the BCB timeline

So I recently devolved into insanity and made a comprehensive timeline of everything that happens in BCB. The project originally grew out of my wanting to see where Augustus and Lucy's flashbacks fell because the order is relevant to understanding exactly how their relationship develops, and I was able to pretty definitely pin down when some things occur in relation to other events, which was exciting! Let me walk you through it, starting with placing the "Escape Route" flashback where Lucy follows Augustus home.

Obviously it happens after "On Our Own", but how far after?

Our first clue comes from this conversation in "December". Lucy responds to Augustus's questions with confusion. Sure, they're a non-sequitur, but she responds this way because she takes all the things he asks about for granted. If she had been to his house already, she would immediately understand his meaning.

So, the "Escape Route" flashback has to occur after "December". But does it happen before or after "Ten Seconds to Midnight"? Well, "December" actually gives us the answer to this too. It has to happen afterwards. Here's why.

Base on the dialogue, "December" is on a Thursday. But not just any old Thursday in December.

It's the last Thursday before beak, and Monday is the last school day. Why does this matter?

Because the "Escape Route" flashback must occur on school day that's followed by another school day. Because "December" is on a Thursday and break starts on Tuesday, there aren't two consecutive school days after "December" until school resumes in January. This means it has to occur after "Ten Seconds to Midnight", which of course is on New Year's Eve.

And the play only occurs after school has been back for about a week, so the "Escape Route" flashback occurs roughly within a week of the suicide attempt.

But where does the "Trapped" flashback where Augustus tells Lucy about his past fall in relation to everything else? Obviously it has to occur after "Call Waiting", but how far after?

While I initially was confused about the order of the flashbacks, I've concluded the "Trapped" flashback makes the most sense after Lucy follows Augustus home in "Escape Route" for a couple of reasons:

Lucy's reaction in "December" again. The more Lucy knows about his living conditions, the less sense her reaction makes.

What changed to make Augustus open up? The conversation in "Trapped" is way more direct about himself than he ever was with Daisy, who says he "tried to be secretive" but "stuff slipped out" in "Pillow Talk". Well, "Escape Route" happened. Lucy walked directly into his life and got a good long look around. With that context, the scene in "Trapped" functions as a necessary explanation for the revelation she had about Alejandro in "Escape Route". Once she knows that Augustus is involved with Alejandro, it makes sense that he would provide her with an explanation. It also is why she doesn't really react to Augustus knowing Alejandro in "Trapped"; it's not that she doesn't recognize him from the description, it's because she already knows.

Consider the reverse: Augustus tells Lucy about his home life, gives her enough information about Alejandro to potentially recognize him from Confrontation (via the scar Melanie gave him), and after that she decides to follow Augustus home for funsies, knowing he lives in abject poverty and hangs out with people who are extremely dangerous, let alone extremely dangerous to her personally? Nope. She's suicidal, not stupid.

I'm probably going to make another post about what this means for reading the beats of their relationship, but the short version of this: Lucy and Augustus were frenemies but didn't really get close during the lunchtimes they spent together in November and December. Lucy was vulnerable in "December", and Augustus didn't take it seriously. And then they got close during the week and a half in which Augustus finds her on the roof, she followed him home, decided to stay the night, woke up sobbing, and he told her his life story. And then she tried to kill herself a few days later.

[bittersweetcandybowl]

Veronica: This is such a wonderful thoughtful post! It’s so cool you’ve created this huge project to piece every flashback into their proper moment!

.. I am just feeling really guilty to admit that you are wrong in this department, and it is absolutely not your fault! It is mine! I will explain..

The fact of the matter is that Escape Route was not supposed to exist in the first place. Escape Route was originally a BCI idea - "what if Lucy followed Augustus home in On Our Own?" But god that BCI was so good.. I was really cooking there. I didn’t want to leave that idea as a BCI, I don’t think it deserved it. I also thought it didn’t make any sense for Lucy to try to follow Augustus home once, fail, and then never try again. Lucy doesn’t care what he thinks! Her actions in On Our Own can’t just end there!

So because Escape Route wasn’t supposed to exist.. well, you can see how that affects their conversation in December.

But I admit I never really saw it as much of a contradiction anyway. Not to say that this was perfectly woven in and I’m a master genius - BCB was always a comic full of experimentation and there’s always things I coulda done better, but hear me out! Here is why I did what I did and why I still feel it makes a lot of sense narratively-speaking..

So first off - the timeline of events of Lucy and Augustus interacting is..

Call Waiting —> On The Sidelines —> On Our Own —> Escape Route —> Trapped —> December

A LOT of Augustus/Lucy interactions happen in November.. because Call Waiting happens after Lucy’s birthday (November 7th) because of Pillow Talk.. and Fade Away is before December, but takes place in the month of December, because it’s about Tess’ birthday (December 13th).

So what explanation do I have for this??

The genuine answer I have is that Lucy is being extremely self-absorbed right now. She’s completely and utterly stuck in her head. This situation with Mike is really tearing her apart and she doesn’t know what to do, and is actually bordering on suicidal.. so Augustus asking her about her family life blindsights her.. like what the hell are you talking about? What does that have to do with me?

It’s not about her being ignorant.. it’s about Augustus’ reality just not being remotely in her periphery, because she’s stuck on herself. At this point it doesn’t matter if Lucy knows about Augustus’ home life or not, she’s too busy thinking about how Mike is on the precipice of leaving her and she doesn’t want that. Nothing else matters. It’s easily another reason she looks ashamed in the next page. Because she thinks.. yeah, he’s right. I really am being such a baby, given I know people so much worse off than me.

Anyway.. Escape Route and Trapped can’t happen after December.. because of two extremely key and vital things..

Lucy still has the light in her eyes..

.. and there’s no snow.

Those very efficiently and confidently place these flashbacks before December, like there is no way Lucy gets her lights back between December and Curtain Call. At that point she’s skipping school, not even meeting Augustus. In Escape Route/Trapped she’s still full of life.

Souppy argues that Augustus is more guarded in December than he is in Escape Route/Trapped, but I admittedly don’t see that. I think Augustus is still plenty guarded, but Augustus is still also a person, capable of empathy.

Even in the earliest moments of them getting to know each other, Augustus felt he should help.

But Augustus isn’t all that good at helping.. because he still doesn’t care all that much about Lucy. At this point there is no reason for him to really care about Lucy, other than because she’s seen as a charity case to him. As well as him feeling a little guilty Lucy is targeted by the villains in his life.

Augustus still retreats into his misanthropic, edgy persona here. Lucy might know a lot more about him now, but the only reason she found out is because she followed him home. She gave him no other option.

That’s why I feel their dynamic makes sense here. When there’s no need to be serious, Augustus will turn on his edgy persona and bicker with Lucy - it’s what he feels comfortable doing. And I think he thinks she likes that. And she kinda does. Bickering is familiar to Lucy, it’s safe.

.. but once he reads the room, he knows what he has to do. He’s just clumsy about it. Because, again, he doesn’t care all that much at this point.

He’s still bad at this, even here!

I feel there’s been a consistent depiction of Augustus just having really bad bedside manners because he doesn’t care about Lucy all that much yet, which makes his behaviour in December make sense. He cares enough to do the right thing, because he’s not a monster, but he absolutely treats Lucy differently than he would Daisy.

He was still being that way here! So what changed..

I mean.. obviously what changed was that Lucy gave him a place to live, free from his chains. Lucy turned the script on its head.. no longer was Lucy the sole charity case.. Augustus now is. And she’s completely changed his life for the better. That is certainly gonna make someone give a shit!

Even Lucy saw the change.. Augustus gives a shit now. Augustus loves her.

And he’ll do whatever it takes to save her.

[catzpachos]

This panel has been bothering me ever since the page was posted. I realize that Daisy and Lucy have never really been the closest of friends and that Daisy has always favored Mike. But it just rubs me wrong that she says “They’ve both been nasty to each other” like it was equal treatment.

Mikes treatment of Lucy was so much more malicious, and I don’t say that because it cause Lucy’s attempt. I say this because where Lucy roughhoused and had an attitude with Mike, Mike went out of his way to use Lucy’s insecurities against her as well as gaslight her. The things he has said to her and about her are simply so much worse to me. Without going off on a tangent, I specifically despise the fact that Mike knows she hates the fact that she thinks all men want from her is her body, and that his go to accusations of her is that she throws herself at guys and just tries to make him jealous by doing so. And that he of ends up using that to his advantage in a worse way by using her as a rebound for Sandy and then throws her to the side.

Daisy more than most has either been there for some of the worst things he’s said about Lucy, and knows about December annnnd Eternal Flame! I guess I would just expect her to be a little more sympathetic to Lucy, even if she sides more with Mike. My conclusion is that I don’t think Daisy is a girls girl!

As much as I would love for everyone to completely ditch Mike, I don’t actually want that to happen. So it’s good that Mike has Daisy in his corner, but it feels like a stretch to me to say Mike and Lucy’s treatment of each other is comparable.