disembodied-doll replied to your post “Entry 11”
Also this is totally how dealing with kids works, especially in a teaching capacity. Younger ones are tougher sometimes, but I had almost this same conversation on a way less severe level two days ago with a couple of students at the dojo. (Have you worked with kids before? Or are you just REALLY good at extrapolating from characters?)
Although I have no kids of my own and have never “worked with them” in any professional capacity, I remember the things that worked--or didn’t work--with me when I was a kid, as well as my peers. There was a lot of focus on discipline in the school I grew up attending. A lot of it was left up to the instructor’s (we actually did call them that instead of teachers), administrator’s or headmaster’s discretion, so there was no particular rhyme or reason about what sort of things you got a pass on, and what you could get in big trouble for. It was intensely frustrating for me, and I kind of imagine similar frustrations abound in Garden students, particularly Balamb Garden.
Given that sort of fickle rule-enforcement (which I think was obviously present from the very beginning...between Instructor Aki, the Garden Faculty and the Disciplinary Committee, there’s no telling when, how or why you’d get busted, or what for), I think Squall would sympathize with both the victim and perpetrator in this situation, and his reaction would be to do what he thought was both practical and constructive. He’d find it impractical and therefore pointless to threaten the student; what was needed, instead, was a way for Mark to make up for his wrongdoing that could satisfy his remorse and give him important experience he’d need later anyway, without actually rewarding him for his transgression.
I actually think Squall is pretty good with kids, in general. He never mentions being uncomfortable with them, and why would he? He’s been surrounded by them his entire life. I personally think he finds them easier to deal with than people his own age (though perhaps I’m projecting a bit there, as I felt the same when I was 18). Twice, Squall is seen assisting children in crisis situations: once in the 2nd-floor hallway with Mark before the Galbadian paratrooper bursts in, and again during the Lunatic Pandora raid on Esthar, when an unnamed child becomes separated from her mother. He instructs them both, clearly and simply, to head toward safety. It’s clear he knows how to communicate with children--perhaps having had experience being responsible for junior classmen in the absence of adults--so while I don’t think he enjoys having to dole out discipline in situations like this, I don’t think he’d be particularly uncomfortable with it, either, especially when the solution is simple and clear-cut.