If you're familiar with all the stuff I wrote before, I always saw Bill lashing out at Mandi during the Eltingville Epilogue as partially driven by jealousy. Seeing how Bill reacted it felt like more than just wanting to gatekeep fandom away from her. Bill just used Mandi "invading" fandom or his Club as an excuse to get angry at her in a way he thought was "justified" when it wasn't.
I always saw it that way cause that wasn't the first time Bill lashed out over the thought of a girl being with Jerry. Agnes didn't even date Jerry, but the thought of them dating was enough to get Bill to lash out at her too in the pettiest way possible. With the way Josh worded it in the Epilogue, it sounded like Bill invited Agnes to his house just to pick a fight with her.
Bill's also specifically possessive of Jerry compared to his other friends. He never cared about Pete mentioning being with anyone, but the moment he saw Jerry with Mandi he did everything he could to antagonize Mandi on purpose. Aside from that, I also thought Bill was jealous of Mandi in general since she's practically living the life he wanted. She's successful in her fandom related career as a reporter where people actually listen to what she has to say, meanwhile he just wastes his time being angry about fandom instead of doing anything productive with his hobbies.
I never liked her, wanted to be like her
Hate how you look at her
In the comic, I think Bill hating Mandi wasn't only out of prejudice, but his hatred also extended to jealousy. Part of it was because he didn't have control over Jerry anymore, but I think other factors played in too. Mandi was everything Bill hoped to be when he grew up. She has a successful fandom related career where she makes money as a reporter cause people actually enjoy what she has to say. Bill wanted to have a fandom related career, and he treats all of his opinions as word of god when he's just spouting horseshit. Mandi was the perfect foil/rival for Bill's character and I think she should've been introduced to the story sooner.
Sure, Bill already had a rivalry going on with Josh, but Josh and Bill are both toxic waste plants with shitty views. Josh never really challenged Bill's views socially, he only ever did whenever they argued over fandom related stuff. Mandi on the other hand challenged Bill's views just by existing. She's into nerdy stuff, but she didn't "look" the part according to Bill cause she's pretty and a woman of color. She was exactly what Bill thought nerds couldn't be because of his prejudice views that women and people of color can't participate in nerd culture. Just seeing her exist made him go through cognitive dissonance, and it made him lash out cause she was proving him wrong without even trying.
I think Eltingville does a great job at showing why m/1sog yny is horrible, but I think that it could've done a better job at showing the women's perspective on it. It's part of why I decided to flesh out both Mandi and Jane since they both definitely experienced it from the Club.
Anyways here's some more stuff I wrote about Mandi meeting them as teens:
Starting with Mandi as a character:
•Mandi is discreet about her interest in nerd culture while she's a teen. She's a little judgemental towards nerds, but only cause of bad experiences. She doesn't "look" like a nerd so whenever she expresses having extensive knowledge on some nerdy stuff it surprises people. Being a pretty girl with nerdy interests made her experience things differently since a lot of the spaces she was exposed to mostly consisted of guys. A lot of them didn't treat her like a human being, and either gatekept her from stuff, acted like she was faking her interests, or got really parasocial with her just because she liked the same stuff they did.
•It was hard for her to legally get into nerd media without p1r acy since she didn't like going to stores, and online shopping wasn't as reliable in the 90s-2000s. She hated going to Joe's shop even if it was the nearest store. She had the worst experience there where she just wanted to buy a comic, but Joe practically berated her til she stormed out angrily. Mandi didn't wanna go back in there, but Iron Jaw approached her in school and handed her a the comic she wanted. She befriended him, and he told her to come in on his hours whenever Joe's not around if she ever wants to buy anything. Or he could just give her a five finger discount and hand her free comics outside of the store so she doesn't have to deal with any creepy losers. Iron Jaw's done this for other girls too, Geek Girl being one of them. I HC that's why she was so comfortable walking into Joe's, thinking Iron Jaw was there, but sadly got met with Bill instead.
•Mandi's pretty cool with Iron Jaw cause he gives her merch, even if she kind of hated nerd culture and the shitty people that gravitated to it. She was kind of judgmental towards him at the start, but realized he was cool. She got annoyed when Iron Jaw crushed on her since she just wanted a friend, and this happened to her so many times. It always upset her whenever she feels like guys have ulterior motives to being friends with her. Iron Jaw wasn't like that though, he took the hint and rolled with the rejection well. She actually respected him for it, and they kept being friends.
•Since Mandi keeps her interest in nerdy stuff hidden til she starts being more open about it, she ends up putting her time in other things. She hates living in Staten Island and tends to go out to other parts of New York City. Mainly Brooklyn or Queens. She has a social life outside of the Club, but she isn't too close to anyone. She gets invited to kickback with a bunch of different friend groups groups, and never stuck to just one. A lot of people invited her to a bunch of stuff, and even if people liked her she just struggled to open up since she wasn't truly being herself.
•Mandi's home life isn't great either. It's part of why she always goes out, and makes sure she goes far away and rarely ever goes back to her own place. She's still struggling to find her crowd at this point in her life and she isn't that close to anyone she hangs with frequently (until Jerry came around), but for now she just sticks to keeping her distance and having a good time with people.
•When she first met Jerry, she couldn't remember his name since he wasn't someone she interacted with regularly at first. She just called him "Blondie" for the first few weeks, and he didn't bother to correct her, he just knew who she was talking about when she said it. (Me and my friend didn't have the Club's name's memorized at the start so we just called Jerry that too). Her other friends that she hangs out with just call him that too since he's way too anxious to talk to anyone other than the Club. So it's not like they knew his name or bothered to try and find out.
•Mandi's dated around casually a lot and she never took middle school or high school relationships seriously. It's not that she doesn't care. She just doesn't really open up as easily to people, and she doubted anything in high school would last. She ended up actually crushing on Jerry after spending so much time with him alone. With the way I wrote her, I see her being a lot more assertive than Jerry is and she tends to hold grudges forever. Jerry on the other hand is way too timid and too easily forgiving. They're opposites who balance each other out, and she learns to soften up more around him while he learns to start standing up for himself better. Her friends just know she has a crush on him, and they don't get why. They know she can pull "better" and think she has pulled "better" in the past so they don't get why she got attached to him specifically.
•Mandi's not an official member of The Eltingville Club. Bill hates having her over so he banned her, but Jerry vouches for her and so do Josh and Pete. Josh and Pete only want her there for shallow reasons though. Mandi hates going to Club meetings, but she ends up going a lot more than she should cause she feels the need to protect Jerry. Jerry really can't fight his own battles at this point (and still struggles to in the Epilogue) so she tries to hit back on his behalf. She's thought of just letting him learn the hard way, but it clearly didn't teach him anything since he kept forgiving them. Mandi knows it's not her responsibility to do that or make sure he's okay, but Jerry always ends up with a new set of bruises every time she sees him so she can't help but intervene. She constantly tries to tell Jerry to find better friends, but he's too attached to leave and always gets gaslit by Bill or the others into staying.
•Jane adores her, especially after finding out Mandi beat the shit out of Bill at school. Jane instantly tries to befriend anyone who hates her brother, and her and Mandi hit it off pretty well when they first met. Mandi first met Jane when she went to her first Club meeting that Jane tried to barge into. Jane already knew stories about her since she overheard Bill whining about how Mandi kicked the shit out of him at school so Mandi already made a good impression with her in her eyes. Jane even wanted Mandi in her girl gang, but Mandi denied it. Despite that they still became friends and bonded over cosplay and fashion (and hatred for Bill). Mandi's a cosplayer and Jane's an aspiring fashion designer so Jane helped her out a lot with her costumes. They got closer after Jane got expelled from the private Catholic high school she was enrolled in and had to go to the same high school as Mandi + The Club. Mandi started noticing there was something off about Jane after being around her for longer periods of time. Jane's morbid "jokes" didn't seem like they were jokes sometimes. Jane just kept all that under wraps so she wouldn't lose a friend or have to kill her cause she found out about the sacrifices.
More on her dynamic with Bill:
If Bill and Mandi met as teens, I think Bill would hate her for the same reasons. Mandi doesn't have a fandom related career yet, but her existence goes against every predisposition Bill developed against women in fandom settings. The jealousy he felt towards her gets a lot worse too since he doesn't just interact with her one time, and I think he would eventually fail to mask it.
•Mandi first meeting the Club starts off similar to how it did in the Epilogue. I mentioned in my first post about Mandi that she met Jerry in class where they got paired on a journalism project together. She ended up befriending him, even if she didn't like him at first. They hung out a lot while they were alone, she but didn't get why Jerry would avoid her at school around his friends even if she waved at him and he clearly saw her doing it. Mandi knew his friends had a bad reputation, but she had no clue about the Agnes situation. One time she got fed up with Jerry ignoring her during lunch so she approached their table. Pete, Bill, and Josh were confused on why she was approaching their table, but they kept making objectifying comments about her as she did. They were even more surprised when she passive aggressively greeted Jerrry like they were close.
•Jerry was scared cause he knew how this was gonna go. Jerry vividly remembered Bill lashing out and having a meltdown over Agnes being his friend, and he doesn't want it to happen again. All of them were shocked when they found out Mandi was there to talk to Jerry, but Bill was seething over it. Jerry reluctantly introduced her to The Club, but they were already weirding her out since they didn't know how to be normal around girls. Pete was being a creep, Josh tried to be amicable at least, but Bill ruined it by lashing out at her in the most m1/sog ynistic way possible. It went exactly the way Jerry thought it would, but worse cause Mandi didn't leave crying like Agnes did. She snapped at Bill and kicked the shit out of him. Mandi's a teen so I wrote her being immature too like the rest, and it took her a while to learn how to walk away from people who antagonize her. The fight was really embarrassing for everyone involved, and they all got suspended for it.
•Bill and Mandi hated each other ever since, and they ended up having an intense antagonistic rivalry where Bill would pick fights with her every time he saw her. Mandi figured Bill just hated her for being a "fake fan" and for being a woman of color because he always directed his anger towards that. It seemed like he just wanted to hurt her since she's experienced a lot of prejudice throughout her life. Bill and Mandi constantly fought, and he tried way too hard to discourage her from engaging in her hobbies and fandom settings. Even if it made her angry, she decided not to let it discourage her and she learned to stick with her hobbies and interests regardless of what anyone thinks. People like Bill want her gone, and don't want her to enjoy her hobbies, and if she did abandon her interests she'd just be giving toxic fans exactly what they want. She ended up engaging with her nerdy interests a lot more openly instead of hiding it.
•Bill tried to frame his hatred for her as him just "hating girls who get into nerd culture for attention," but it extended to jealousy. He hated that she was knowledgeable on nerd media too. Not obsessive, but she still knew her shit and it pissed him off that she actually managed to talk to his friends about nerd stuff and they seemed to actually have fun with her sometimes. Seeing her bond with Jerry over it specifically hurt him in a different way. It reminded him of what he and Jerry used to have, and he hated that Jerry was getting close to someone that wasn't him. Bill didn't wanna admit it, but it hurt him that Jerry seemed so comfortable around Mandi but scared of him. It was entirely Bill's fault Jerry was scared of him, but Bill still felt like he deserved to have what he used to have with Jerry.
•Bill made so many efforts to try and sabotage Jerry and Mandi's friendship while trying to hide why he was doing it. He could tell Mandi had feelings for Jerry, everyone in the Club could tell except for Jerry himself. Pete and Josh were mostly hating on Jerry for being able to pull a girl and not do anything about it, wishing they got the same attention from Mandi. Bill on the other hand tried to frame it like he wanted Mandi's attention too, but he was so antagonistic towards her compared to the other two that it was easy to tell he didn't actually feel that way for her. (Referencing how Bill contradicts himself in the comic where he objectifies Mandi with Pete and Josh then proceeds to insult her for the very thing he "praised" her for). Making it obvious that he wanted her out of the picture so Jerry could stick with him made it obvious too.
•Bill obsessively stalks and monitors his friends' behavior, and he did this to Jerry a lot. Ever since he found out Jerry and Mandi were friends, he would try to stalk them aggressively as an attempt to sabotage their friendship. Whenever Jerry didn't pick up his calls or was late to Club meetings, Bill would always assume the worst and try to track Jerry down since Jerry never really traveled far or had anyone else to hang with other than Mandi or the Club. In the drawing I made, he basically saw them leaving the movie theater together. I was cloudier than usual, and Mandi wasn't dressed for the weather so Jerry gave her his hoodie to be polite. Bill was really petty and made a big deal out of it by throwing his own shirt in a puddle and telling Jerry to give him his. Bill constantly threw tantrums in public whenever he saw them together, and Jerry always had to apologize to her on Bill's behalf.
•Jerry and Mandi aren't even together at this point, but Bill tries to prevent anything from happening between them (embarrassing himself in the process) since he knows Mandi likes Jerry. Thing is, Jerry's not even ready for a relationship either. He's too scared of being in any kind of relationship right now, but Bill's too busy failing to deal with his own insecurities to notice that. All he sees is that he's losing his "best friend" to someone else that seems to have so many things he wishes he had. Bill knew that what he felt wasn't just regular jealousy, but it's not like he was gonna admit that to anybody or himself. Bill's too closeted and self hating to actually reflect on himself and handle his feelings healthily. Bill just takes it out on Mandi for "taking Jerry away" even though he's the one sabotaging whatever was going on between him and Jerry.
•I think Bill's also jealous of her appearance, he talks about her like she's some mastermind that could have anyone wrapped around her finger when really that isn't true. She's a person like anyone else, and even if she's deemed as "pretty" by a lot of people, it doesn't automatically bend people to her will. Bill assumes she thrives off of the weird parasocial attention she gets where some people can't interact with her like a regular person. She actually hates it and thinks its dehumanizing cause she ends up losing a lot of people she saw as friends. It's why she holds grudges for so long and doesn't wanna give people second chances. If he bothered to get to know her, he would understand that, but instead he just projects his insecurities onto her. Bill is shallow so I think he'd assume Jerry would like Mandi more than him based on her being "prettier" and the fact that she's a girl. Bill's jumping to conclusions again though. Jerry doesn't care about how he looks, and if Bill didn't constantly spout h0/m0 ph/0b1c garbage around people he'd probably end up learning that Jerry wouldn't care that he isn't a girl either.
•Mandi thought Bill's hatred towards her was shallow until she started picking up on his behavior more. Mandi didn't just interact with him once like she did in the comics, they ended up fighting for months in my AU before the fire. She ended up realizing that his hatred for her wasn't just out of prejudice, but out of jealousy too. It kind of surprised her, but things made a lot more sense to her now. Bill might not talk about his problems directly, but he's easy to read since he lashes out constantly. She'd also pick up on the fact that the majority of their arguments tie back to her getting close to Jerry, and nobody gets that possessive over someone they just see as a friend. She might hate Bill, but she never told anyone about what she found out because she'd never stoop low enough to out him. Mandi thought fighting over boys is dumb, and she's seen stupid high school drama like this so many times before so she tried to offer up a truce. She doesn't forgive him for all the preju/d1c e shit he's said to her, but she figured this could maybe stop the drama. Besides, Jerry sees some good in him, right? Maybe this time Bill could prove her wrong about how she felt towards him. Bill did the opposite and interrupted her before lashing out again and storming off. If Bill just let her finish talking, she would've told him she'd back off and respect Jerry's decision if he chose Bill over her as long as Bill treated him right and decided to change for the better.
•Ironically, with the way I see Mandi, I had her parallel Bill's character too. Their upbringings were similar where Bill has parents who are in the middle of splitting up, but he didn't want his parents to divorce or have his dad to leave them. Mandi on the other hand wishes her parents divorced cause they were so bad for each other and she hated hearing the fighting. She desperately just wanted her dad out of her and her mom's life. Unlike Bill though, she chose to be better instead of wallowing in misery. Everyone in The Eltingville Club had a rough upbringing to some degree so I think it's fitting for Mandi to have one too. She just decided to be better because she knew having a rough upbringing wasn't an excuse to be just as bad or worse than your abu/5 ers.
