Alrighty its Very clear that this is something you all want (this isn’t even showing all the requests for an AIB analysis on my main blog and on discord) so here we go!
Alef and Nabla are very interesting in terms of object show relationships, because it’s not often that we see a familial bond between two objects. Especially on with so much conflict.
This conflict changes throughout the show, but it doesn’t seem like this change is actually related to either of them. Let’s talk about it.
Alef and Nabla’s Relationship, and the effect that Glue has on it
When we first see the two of them interact, it seems pretty clear that Alef has been tormenting Nabla for some time. He teases her from the beginning, and Nabla seems to anticipate this behavior. On top of that, Nabla has a sense of shame in the fact that she’s related to Alef. And Alef seems to know that. He teasingly yells the fact that they’re cousins, and when Nabla confirms it, she adds “unfortunately” to the end of her statement.
Alef is rather cruel to Nabla. From the very beginning he threatens her. He calls her names, he shuts her down, and he hurts her chalkboard, which is clearly very important to her. And we know this has been going on for a while, as Nabla confirms in episode 3 that his bullying has been going on for years.
Now the interesting thing is that Nabla doesn’t Do Anything about the way Alef treats her. She sits there and takes it. While she shows she’s upset, she doesn’t do anything in relation. She does this out of fear, due to Alef’s threats
But Alef doesn’t play completely nice despite the fact that Nabla tries to stay on his good side. He throws her chalk board into the ocean simply because he doesn’t like her plan. We know for a fact that this is something that upsets Nabla a lot later, but in the moment she doesn’t do much at all to stop it.
Alef even continues afterwards, telling her to keep her “geeky-ness” to herself. Which makes Nabla feel really bad. Still, she does nothing to retaliate.
And when Nabla continues to make plans in order to help the team, Alef continues to put her down. Calling her a nerd and ridiculing her in front of the whole team. He even mocks her for having to use a smaller chalkboard, even thought he was the one that threw away the first one.
Alef continues to put Nabla down and Nabla can’t do anything to fight against him.
But that’s until Glue steps in.
Glue, as an outside force, changes up the dynamic between Nabla and Alef. Because unlike Nabla, Glue is willing to fight back against Alef.
She stands up for Nabla, telling Alef to cut it out. And while it doesn’t stop Alef from coming up with a different plan, it does get him to stop tormenting Nabla for the time being.
Now, Glue has Also been hurt by Alef. As when he threw Nabla’s chalkboard into the ocean, it landed on Glue. So she has some reason to hate Alef herself. But she seems to really want to support Nabla. As we see she follows Nabla down the mountain and into the ocean to help her get the chalkboard back. Nabla really seems to appreciate this gesture.
When they bring the chalkboard back to land, Nabla is venting to Glue about her experiences with Alef. Clearly she has a lot of pent up anger regarding the situation. When Glue agrees that Alef is a jerk, Nabla is relieved, and says that Glue is the only person who sees how terrible he is to her.
No one else has seen or acknowledged the pain that Alef is putting Nabla through, and Glue admits that she only realized it after Alef hurt her as well. Being bullied by her cousin was an isolating experience for Nabla, and she believes that she’ll never have a say in anything because of it.
And this is where Glue really begins to change the dynamic between these two cousins.
Glue asks Nabla if she knows anything about Alef that they could use for blackmail. Nabla Does know something that would embarrass Alef a lot, but it’s clear she had never considered the use of blackmail before. Continuing the idea that Glue’s interference is what ends up changing the dynamic between Alef and Nabla. Nabla would not have thought to use this information against Alef on her own.
Nabla once again creates a team for the plan, which is what consistently has made Alef bully her in the past. But when he starts to, Glue once again takes Nabla’s side and mocks Alef. He starts to get in Glue’s face, but Nabla is left alone. This is the second time now that Glue has managed to get Alef to stop harassing Nabla. They don’t even need to use the info about Alef’s name yet.
But when they leave the claw machine challenge, Alef continues to get violent and hurt others. Once again, Glue steps in to defend Alef’s victims. Only this time, she calls him “Aleph”
And once again Glue is able to stop Alef from hurting another person, as he does drop Whoopie Cushion and turn his attention to Glue.
When Alef is trying to come up with a plan, Glue calls him “Aleph” again, and Nabla joins in. It’s important to note here that Glue is the one who starts it.
This cues the rest of the team to call him “Aleph” as well. And once again Glue uses the opportunity to take control of the challenge, allowing Nabla to take control with her.
Alef is annoyed by this, but not completely upset. He admits it’s just his ego that’s being bruised, and that he’d be proud of Nabla for taking charge if he wasn’t annoyed with her. It’s only when Frisbee and Ketchup come to his defense that Alef starts to get really upset. Before talking to the two of them, Alef genuinely didn’t think it was a big deal.
(Alef’s ego does seem to be a big part of his character and I am willing to go more in-depth on that in a future analysis if that’s what people want)
And this is where Nabla actually takes the lead for the first time, and torments Alef just as he’s been tormenting her for years.
Alef ignores her, and continues to try to work even when the rest of the team tells him that everything is almost done, but Nabla once again tries to take control and tell him to stop.
Alef claims that Nabla shouldn’t be treating him badly because they’re family. Which of course was wildly hypocritical, considering how terrible Alef has been to Nabla in the past. This shows a complete lack of awareness from Alef about why he’s being treated this way.
Nabla brings this up later once Alef embarrasses himself in front of his whole team, saying “consider this revenge for everything you’ve ever done to me”
Alef almost gets physical with Nabla again. At this point, Nabla clings to Glue, which makes a lot of sense considering that Glue has consistently been the one to protect her from Alef in the past.
But Alef feels like he’s been defeated, and he starts to tear up. He tells Nabla that he hopes she got what she wanted, and he storms away.
Nabla clearly feels guilty, and fears that Alef wouldn’t accept her apology. And it’s been clear from the beginning that Alef has blamed Nabla when she fights back
But really this doesn’t seem to be an issue between Alef and Nabla at all. This is about Alef and Glue. Glue is the one who continuously stands up for Alef’s victims. She’s the one who wanted to use the name “Aleph” against him. She’s the one who pushes Nabla to fight back herself. She’s the one who changes Nabla and Alef’s relationship. The fight is between Alef and Glue. Nabla just happens to be one of Alef’s most prominent victims, and the one who Glue sticks up for the most.
Now that Glue seems to regret pushing Alef this far, it’ll be interesting to see if Nabla keeps the confidence that she’s gained from Glue, or if she’ll revert back to her old ways of letting Alef walk all over her, especially now that Alef seems to have found something incriminating against her at the end of episode 4.