| 1 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 2 | |
| 3 | [[folder: Why Didn't They Just Knock?]] |
| 4 | * When Calvin flies on a "magic carpet" to go see his dad at work, he and Hobbes yell and wave when they see him in his office, and then complain that he doesn't notice them. Why didn't they just fly up to the window and knock on it? I understand that the story could never work without Dad not noticing him, since the world in which Calvin can fly on the hallway carpet is different from the real one. Still bugs me a little. |
| 5 | ** It's quite possible they simply didn't think of it. Calvin isn't exactly the best in the world at thinking things through -- especially when a subject bores or frustrates him. So when waving and hollering doesn't work he's so annoyed that he gives up and flies home instead of trying other ways of getting Dad to notice him. |
| 6 | ** Probably because in the back of his mind, he knows he's just playing make believe and so he can't truly interact with him. |
| 7 | *** This is incorrect, because we see Hobbes as a humanoid. If you look, there are no "imagination" scenes containing Hobbes. The one that did sort of, had a picture of stuffed tiger in a newspaper. So, as Hobbes is clearly depicted as bipedal for the strip, it occurs in REALITY. |
| 8 | *** Except that's not how Hobbes or reality works in Calvin and Hobbes and Bill Watterson has been VERY clear on that. Knocking on the window would once and for all confirm whether or not Calvin's adventures are real or imagined. |
| 9 | [[/folder]] |
| 10 | [[folder: Getting Yourself Tied in Knots]] |
| 11 | * Just about everything in the strip can argue for Hobbes being real or not, both hypotheses work. Except for the time Hobbes tied Calvin to a chair with the knots behind him. How could this kid tie himself to a chair with the knots behind him? Funny bit, but for me it was the final straw. If Calvin is indeed tied to a chair with the knots behind him, there was somebody with opposable thumbs helping him. It obviously wasn't his parents and as far as we know Susie Derkins is his only "friend." By process of elimination we are forced to conclude that ''Hobbes is real''. |
| 12 | ** Not to mention the instances in which Hobbes leaves behind cat tracks in the snow/dirt. Imaginations don't leave footprints. Or the time he was locked out of his own house. |
| 13 | ** You have not seen the type of trouble people just learning to tie knots can get themselves into. This troper has witnessed much worse catastrophes in attempts to teach new Boy Scouts how to knot things. The fact that Calvin managed to do this while seated is more difficult, but Calvin has always been one to take a small problem and make it a major disaster. |
| 14 | *** ^This. At the risk of turning this discussion in a somewhat "family unfriendly" direction, [[spoiler:there is a subculture of UsefulNotes/{{BDSM}} known as "self-bondage" which is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin. Some self-bondage techniques allow you to securely tie yourself up and then escape later, but there's always a danger of getting "stuck" and being unable to untie yourself. If Hobbes is imaginary then this is explains what happened to Calvin]]. |
| 15 | *** Calvin isn't masochistic like his dad is. It's clearly shown that he thinks his dad is barking mad. |
| 16 | ** Those knots looked awfully well done and without extra loops or slack to allow for self-binding. I stand by my original conclusion. |
| 17 | *** That could just be a lack of research on Watterson's part. He confesses to as much in another strip where he drew some dinosaurs all wrong. |
| 18 | ** There's also a comic strip in which Hobbes and Calvin are on the run from a swarm of oncoming hornets. Upon discovering that they were only riled up because Calvin was throwing rocks at their nest, Hobbes strips off Calvin's clothes and leaves him hanging by his underpants on a tree branch far above his head. While it is technically possible for Calvin to have taken off his clothes and climbed the tree itself, this Troper finds it very hard to believe that he could have hung himself in such a fashion just for fun, especially if there really ''was'' a swarm of hornets after him. |
| 19 | *** To be fair, unless there is a third party witness the hanging from a tree might only be happening in Calvin's imagination. |
| 20 | *** As well as the hornets. |
| 21 | ** Don't forget all the times that Hobbes has tackled Calvin, either when he's coming in the front door or simply at random. Calvin's Mom constantly notices her son's scratches and bruises, and often wonders how Calvin could get so dirty at school, whether he stepped on a land mine, or whatever else. You'd think not even Calvin would be crazy enough to constantly maim himself if Hobbes was fake. |
| 22 | *** Ever see ''Film/FightClub''? |
| 23 | *** HE'S NOT MASOCHISTIC, AND Film/FightClub NEVER HAPPENED. |
| 24 | *** Calvin ALWAYS has a crazy and utterly unbelievable explanation for everything that goes wrong, especially if he can plausibly blame it on Hobbes. Could be that Moe roughed him up at school and he doesn't want to tell his mother about it, just for example. |
| 25 | ** There was a strip where Calvin took a photograph as Hobbes tackled him through the door. The picture showed "stuffed" Hobbes in the air, and Calvin's dad concluded that Calvin simply tossed him in the air. |
| 26 | *** That's how ''Calvin's dad'' saw the picture. Calvin sees the picture the same way he sees the real Hobbes, as shown in another strip. |
| 27 | ** Cuts and scrapes like those can be produced simply by jumping into a gravel pit. There are methods other than "ambushed by tiger" to obtain injuries like that. |
| 28 | *** Too true. But again, that means that Calvin is ''deliberately jumping into gravel pits on purpose'' to injure himself while pretending that his tiger is real. Yeah, this troper prefers the Hobbes-is-real argument. |
| 29 | *** I've known sevral imaginative small children that would do things like roll down a graveled slope pretending to fight some imaginary enemies. My little brother for one used to end up scratched, bruised, and with torn clothes, when playing by himself in the back yard. (Despite doing things like trying to sled down a flight of steps in a drawer from his dresser, he is now a healthy and productive adult member of society. With a wife, and a young son that clearly takes after him) |
| 30 | *** He ''is'' a six year old boy. The idea that he would regularly climb or jump into places where he could get dirty and scraped up while pretend-fighting with his stuffed animal isn't that unreasonable. |
| 31 | ** There was also the series of strips where Calvin brought a snow goon to life, and it tried to attack him. He goes running into the house, and his mother immediately looks out the very door that Calvin came running in through, only to find a snow goon on the doorstep. She immediately assumed Calvin built it, overlooking the fact that there was no room for Calvin to have done so. It was literally taking up the entire door step, with no way for Calvin to have gotten around it to get inside. Spooky. See it [[http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/2011/01/04 here]]. |
| 32 | *** And later in that storyline, the snow goons start building hundreds of snow goons themselves. There is seriously no way one kid could build them all. |
| 33 | *** Artists make mistakes too. One of the most famous paintings of the 20th century has a big one: Edward Hopper's [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nighthawks_(painting) "Nighthawks"]] - the door to the kitchen is blocked by the counter, so the server has no way out from behind the counter. I think the snowman here is just an example of that, not a clue that Hobbes is real (which I believe Watterson always said was to remain ambiguous). |
| 34 | ** The answer is simple. Calvin is schizophrenic. |
| 35 | *** You mean he has Dissociative Identity Disorder. That's not what "schizophrenic" means. |
| 36 | *** That's my it-just-bugs-me: psychoanalyzing and diagnosing Calvin. Enough already. Calvin is just a wildly imaginative child. He does not have schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, DDNOS, BPD, ADHD, PDQ, COD, UPS or MSNBC. |
| 37 | *** Sad as it is for a six year old boy, my belief was that the story of Hobbes jumping on him every day was what he told his mom, and that the bruises where actually from Moe beating him up every day. |
| 38 | *** That had never occurred to me. I'm sad now. |
| 39 | *** Since Calvin is able to see, hear, and interact with Hobbes, then he would have Schizophrenia as well as Dissociative Identity Disorder, assuming that there is something wrong with him psychologically, which I don't like to think there is. On the bruises being his way of hiding his being bullied by Moe, it may be that I just plain don't want to believe it, but I don't think it's sound. Calvin's scenes in school never depict him with bruises, and he seems to be submissive to Moe, going at great lengths to avoid being hit. He also seems to be rather open with his mom regarding his problems with Moe, since when Moe is extorting Calvin for money, his mother knows. There's also the strips where he hides behind the door, tries to get Susie to act as bait, and even goes so far as to CUT UP HIS FATHER'S BROOM in order to make a decoy. To go to such great lengths just to preserve a flimsy lie doesn't seem realistic, even for a boy as imaginative as Calvin. Besides, I never thought his encounters with Hobbes left him terribly beat up at all; it always seemed to me he was just dirty ("stepped on a land mine" could be interpreted as being incredibly dirty) from rolling in the mud, with a few scratches, scrapes, or bruises from twigs or rocks he may have bumped into, all this occurring before his mother noticed he was home. I don't find it hard to believe that Calvin's first action upon coming home would be to grab Hobbes and then go play. |
| 40 | ** To me the answer is that if Hobbes is not real then the strip is unreliable, especially when it focuses on just Hobbes and Calvin. Calvin being tied to the chair was all in his imagination. |
| 41 | *** Given the many depictions of Calvin as a spaceman, detective, vengeful God, etc, I think the strip was very clear that it was unreliable at times. |
| 42 | *** But when we saw Calvin drawn as, say, Spaceman Spiff, it was clear to the viewing audience that we were seeing inside his imagination. His mother never saw him as a tiger after he transmogrified himself. But she did see him with his hands tied behind his back. |
| 43 | *** That was his father, actually. And he could not understand, how Calvin could do that to himself. Watterson noted that this is indeed an important moment: he said: "the question remains, really, how did he get that way? His dad assumes that Calvin tied himself up somehow, so well that he couldn't get out. Calvin explains that Hobbes did this to him and he tries to place the blame on Hobbes entirely, and it's never resolved in the strip. Again I don't think that's just a cheap way out of the story. I like the tension that that creates, where you've got two versions of reality that do not mix. Something odd has happened and neither makes complete sense, so you're left to make out of it what you want." |
| 44 | *** And frankly, that kind of thing happens to parents ''all the time.'' Kids do some mind-bogglingly weird stuff--not simply stupid or ridiculous, but stuff that, on the surface of it, does not even seem physically possible. Sometimes you ''never'' find out what really happened. At those moments, "the tiger did it" makes just as much sense as anything else. |
| 45 | *** I've actually done that tied up in a chair thing to myself before. You just tie the knots and then sit down. |
| 46 | ** My explanation is that it's a work of postmodern art, meaning that nothing is concretely "true" or "real." |
| 47 | *** Someone on the WMG page suggested that Hobbes is a Pooka, like Theatre/{{Harvey}}. That... just makes so much sense! |
| 48 | *** And your explanation probably is more in line with Watterson's own intentions, as he's said before that the point of Hobbes and how other people see him isn't whether or not he's real, but that everybody has different perceptions of reality. In short, it's all subjective. So this troper thinks that the people obsessively trying to deduce whether Hobbes is real or a simple figment of Calvin's imagination are missing the point. |
| 49 | ** My point of view is that Calvin tied up himself, if you look at the strip the rope looks a bit of a mess, to me it is perfectly reasonable that a 6-year old could tie up himself like that just by going around himself, when you've got a long, long rope it basically ties up by itself, he just made a big mess and it was enough to tie him up well. |
| 50 | ** The ropes were covering Calvin's arms. No, really, [[https://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/2017/11/27 take a look at the first strip in the series]]. How exactly could Calvin have tied himself up if the ropes were covering his arms? |
| 51 | [[/folder]] |
| 52 | [[folder: How Did We Lose the Episode?]] |
| 53 | * Just coming from the LostEpisode page, and... What's the deal with [[http://ignatz.brinkster.net/cimages/ch28nov1985.jpg the original strip]]? |
| 54 | ** Elaborate. |
| 55 | *** I think the first troper is wondering why Bill Watterson didn't like it and didn't allow it to be reprinted. This troper would also like to know why. |
| 56 | *** 'Xactly. Most of the examples of {{Lost Episode}}s are stuff that had to be taken away due to crossing the line. This alternate strip is just... Unfunny, at most? |
| 57 | *** Two strips published on the same day, the republished one hit more newspapers. |
| 58 | ** The original strip was not reprinted because people were afraid it would encourage kids to climb into washing machines (since Calvin expresses a desire to bath in one like Hobbes did.) |
| 59 | *** And yet they run a strip where Calvin takes a bath in the toilet. Go figure. |
| 60 | *** Arguably, it's less dangerous for a kid to try to flush himself down a toilet than for a kid to climb into a running washing machine. |
| 61 | *** But yet there's another strip of Hobbes in the washer with Calvin looking on and grumbling "I wish ''my'' bathtub had an agitator." It's essentially the same joke. If the reason the first was pulled was to prevent kids from climbing in the washer, why not the second? |
| 62 | ** Another theory I found elsewhere online is that Hobbes being in a washing machine spinning in soapy water would be proof that he's imaginary. There's no way a living creature could survive the drowning or vertigo of that situation. Watterson wanted to maintain a delicate balance for the "real or not" question, and this strip upset said balance too much. Hobbes being in a washing machine means he's just a stuffed tiger whose a figment of Calvin's imagination. |
| 63 | *** Watterson himself describes Hobbes' periodic washes as "one of the stranger blurrings of what Hobbes is." |
| 64 | *** Except there are other strips in which he bathes in the washing machine. |
| 65 | [[/folder]] |
| 66 | [[folder: Calvin's Parents' Names]] |
| 67 | * Did anyone else ever try to make up or imagine names for Calvin's parents? I like to imagine them as being named Bill and Melissa, for obvious reasons. And yes, I know that WordOfGod says that they only matter as Calvin's Mom and Calvin's Dad, but let's not forget that Watterson broke his own rule by developing them both considerably as the series went on. |
| 68 | ** Yes! I had always thought of them as looking extremely like a Jonathan and Jane. I also had a last name in mind for the family, but I can never remember for the life of me what it was. |
| 69 | *** ...Doe? |
| 70 | *** [[Series/StarTrekEnterprise Archer?]] |
| 71 | ** Being a kid in TheEighties, I always thought of Calvin's parents looking like a "Bob" and "Cathy", which were common adult names at the time. They were also the names of my parents' friends, who (yes) looked '''''exactly''''' like Calvin's parents. (Their son didn't look like Calvin, but their daughter ''did'' look like Suzie Derkins!) |
| 72 | *** As for a last name? Watterson. So, Bob and Cathy Watterson. |
| 73 | ** [[Film/TheRockyHorrorPictureShow Brad and Janet.]] ...Why does this work!?! |
| 74 | ** Tom and Melanie. |
| 75 | *** As a child, I always imagined Calvin's Dad's name to be Tom, because I had an uncle Tom who looked just like him. |
| 76 | ** Helen and James. |
| 77 | ** They're both named "Dear." |
| 78 | ** Well, if you go with the (at the time of this writing) last entry on the WMG page, his dad's name is [[Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann Joe]]. As for his mom, I have no idea. |
| 79 | ** I always saw Calvin's dad as a "Dan" for some reason, and Calvin's mom as "Lucy." Why? [[http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1988/05/02 Calvin makes a joke]] about how he'll name an [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucy_%28Australopithecus%29 Australopithecus woman]] after Mom someday. And for some reason, I always attach the last name "Brooks" to Calvin's family. Calvin Brooks. I dunno. |
| 80 | ** AliceAndBob. Sorry, I couldn't resist the joke. |
| 81 | ** Clark and Lois. |
| 82 | ** Wait, [[Film/{{Twister}} Bill and Melissa]]? |
| 83 | ** I'm personally fond of [[{{ComicStrip/Peanuts}} Linus and Sally]], myself. |
| 84 | ** How about Hoban and Zoe? ...No, probably not. |
| 85 | *** Wash is dead, remember? Unless there was some AppliedPhlebotinum that brought him back post-Serenity, NO. |
| 86 | ** As aliens, one parent calls the other one Zokbar-2, so maybe one of the parents has a name that starts with a Z? |
| 87 | *** Or perhaps the family's last name begins with a Z. That would explain "Zokbar-''2''" |
| 88 | [[/folder]] |
| 89 | [[folder: Imaginary Enemies]] |
| 90 | * This troper, while enjoying Calvin & Hobbes immensely, has always been bugged by one detail: While normal kids have imaginary friends, Hobbes almost qualify as an imaginary enemy. I mean, half the times, he just bugs Calvin, bullies him, makes fun of him, etc. What's the point of having an imaginary friend if you imagine him to treat you barely better than everybody else does? |
| 91 | ** Armchair (okay, swivel chair) psychology time: I don't think Hobbes is an imaginary friend in the strictest sense. My read is that he's supposed to be the ego/superego to Calvin's id, except that rather than exercise any real restraint on Calvin's destructive (and self-destructive) impulses, he merely comments passively on them. Of course that does nothing to explain why Hobbes is constantly beating the holy bejeezus out of Calvin by pouncing on him... |
| 92 | ** From Calvin's perspective Hobbes isn't an Imaginary Friend, he's a real person with his own unique personality. From that perspective it's completely logical that Hobbes would be at odds with Calvin's views and behavior, and since Hobbes is manifested as a tiger it is also logical that he display these disagreements in a violent/aggressive fashion since Hobbes constantly displays legitimate tiger instincts (as opposed to his made-up ones, such as good math skills that is to say.) |
| 93 | ** In addition to the above tropers' points of view, you have to admit it's funny when Calvin chases Hobbes. |
| 94 | -->'''Calvin''': I am a man of few words.\ |
| 95 | '''Hobbes''': Maybe if you read more, you'd have a larger vocabulary.\ |
| 96 | ''(Calvin, of course, thinks it's a StealthInsult and chases Hobbes)'' |
| 97 | ** Whenever something happens to Calvin, [[NeverMyFault he tends to play victim and/or pass the blame onto someone else when it's clearly his own fault]] (this can also be seen in his fantasies interspersed with his everyday antics). Not even Hobbes is immune to getting treated like a cause of his own misfortune, so it's no surprise that Calvin imagines his "friend" is behind what could really be getting himself hurt or something. |
| 98 | [[/folder]] |
| 99 | [[folder: Snowman Slander?]] |
| 100 | * Does anyone think that Calvin's parents' criticism of his snowman-building is a bit ''too'' critical? If I was Calvin's father, and I saw my son making the enormous snow-monster devouring snowmen (you know the one,) I certainly wouldn't think to myself, "The schools don't assign enough homework." I'd be thinking about the possible moneymaking opportunities involved with having a natural-born snow sculptor for a son. Yes, I know things like that were more or less Watterson's way of criticizing social prejudices of art forms (or something like that,) but this sort of thing needs to be brought up. |
| 101 | ** My younger brother and sister spent most of one winter making odd and rather monstrous snow creatures every time it snowed. (ages six and eight) Our grandmas reaction to finding, in her front yard, a {{tableau}} of snowmen fleeing in terror from a snowblower, was to say we all clearly needed more chores after school. The neighbors didn't appreciate it much either. |
| 102 | ** Why? |
| 103 | ** The real interesting thing is, no one else in the neighborhood sees anything in Calvin's snow art either. Maybe the city is a crossroads for the creatively sterile, and Calvin (and Susie, somewhat) are literally the only people with imagination around. |
| 104 | *** Which would explain why all the kids that aren't Calvin or Susie seem so mean-spirited and the adults don't dismiss Calvin as an over-imaginative kid: None of them have much imagination. The reason Susie is the closest thing to Calvin's friend is because she's the only other person who can imagine things anywhere near like he does. Also, she was worried for her educational future during the strips where she and Calvin got sent to the Principal because her parents have such high expectations of her because they see nothing important about her imaginative games. |
| 105 | *** That's a rather condescending thing to say; the macabre isn't the only form of creative expression. You don't have to be "creatively sterile" or lacking imagination to find the idea of living next to / opposite a house where grotesque massacre scenes start springing up everytime it snows to be rather unappealing, you just have to be someone -- like most people -- who finds seeing that kind of thing to be, well, rather unappealing. |
| 106 | ** Calvin lives in Ohio. There's your explanation. |
| 107 | ** To be fair, Calvin's snow art tends to be rather... Disturbing. Calvin's parents would probably think better of his art if so much of it didn't involve dismembering. |
| 108 | *** This. Calvin's snow art delves into full frontal nudity, murder, suicide, slaughter, and cannibalism. That's quite a bit beyond drawing a superhero killing a villain. |
| 109 | *** Indeed, since one strip reveals that the neighbors have supplemented their fences with large trees just so they don't have to look at Calvin's Little Shops of Horrors. |
| 110 | *** Calvin may be at that stage where he does macabre art. There are children around Calvin's age who have done some odd/disturbing things when it comes to art, though it tends to vary individually. |
| 111 | *** Yes, but most children don't create intricately detailed macabre snowscapes like Calvin does. |
| 112 | ** Putting ''that'' much effort into his snow-creations is arguably part of the reason ''why'' Calvin's parents get critical about it. Yes, most kids go through through a macabre phase, but they don't all create panoramic vistas of multiple snowmen being realistically mangled, devoured and eviscerated in all kinds of gruesome ways. I doubt they'd be so scathing about his obvious talent if he put that talent to less grindhouse-inspired ends. |
| 113 | [[/folder]] |
| 114 | [[folder: Scrabbled Arithmetic]] |
| 115 | * I know it's a small point, but one strip that has always bugged me is the one where Calvin and Hobbes are playing TabletopGame/{{Scrabble}}, where the conversation goes: |
| 116 | -->Calvin: Ha! I've got a great word and it's on a "Double word score" box! |
| 117 | -->Hobbes: "ZQFMGB" isn't a word! It doesn't even have a vowel! |
| 118 | -->Calvin: It is so a word! It's a worm found in New Guinea! Everyone knows that! |
| 119 | -->Hobbes: I'm looking it up. |
| 120 | -->Calvin: You do, and I'll look up that 12-letter word you played with all the Xs and Js! |
| 121 | -->Hobbes: What's your score for ZQFMGB? |
| 122 | -->Calvin: 957. |
| 123 | ** He got an odd number of points for playing a word on a "Double Word Score" box. That doesn't make sense. |
| 124 | ** Calvin is bad at math. |
| 125 | ** That or [[FridgeBrilliance Fridge Brilliance]] -- he cheats by playing an illegal word, and cheats again by telling Hobbes the wrong score. |
| 126 | *** Since that's quite blatantly the joke of the strip, you should be calling out Hobbes for not catching it. Calling Calvin out for 957 being an odd number on a double word score box sounds like something akin to ITakeOffenseToThatLastOne. |
| 127 | ** Or, if we focus solely on the odd/even thing and not the actual score of the "word," he could have made a parallel play (i.e. B over AT for another 5 points), as opposed to solely playing through another tile. |
| 128 | *** This is the same boy who made Calvinball, can't expect him to follow the rules. |
| 129 | ** It's not the only RuleOfFunny invoked in this strip. Calvin complains about Hobbes making a word with all the [=Xs=] and [=Js=]. In a typical Scrabble board, there's only one X and J. That, and I'm pretty sure you can never reach a score as high as 957 unless you used 80% of the pieces all at once. |
| 130 | *** Per Google the highest theoretically possible Scrabble word score is 1778, but the highest-scoring word ever played in a sanctioned tournament is only 365, and the highest game score is only 830. |
| 131 | ** Calvin might have been cheating, but Hobbes did it first. When Hobbes threatened to look up "ZQFMGB", Calvin called his bluff and threatened to look up the word Hobbes played using the Xs and Js. Our heroes were basically playing Scrabble the Calvinball way-score points using anything you think you can get away with. |
| 132 | [[/folder]] |
| 133 | [[folder: Mixed-Up Memories]] |
| 134 | * During the arc where Calvin tried to use time travel to get out of writing a story, did the 7:30 and 8:30 Calvins (and the 8:30 Hobbes) already remember the whole thing from 6:30? 8:30 Calvin claimed to remember "what [he] said two hours ago," but he still seemed surprised at later points. ("Yeah! This is HIS fault!" "HEY!" "Oops." "YOU ''DID''??") Did Calvin have to fake his way through the meetings at 7:30 and 8:30 from memory after returning to 6:30? Did he stay awake for hours wondering why he couldn't have just explained things to his 6:30 self at 8:30? (And if 8:30 Hobbes was the writer, working from his memories of two hours before -- can't tell which is which from [[http://web.mit.edu/manoli/mood/www/mood11.jpg the relevant strip]] -- does that mean the mission to exploit a StableTimeLoop was a partial success?) |
| 135 | ** Keep in mind this is all one big ImagineSpot. What's really happening is that there's one Calvin playing around with his toy tiger in a cardboard box, stopping briefly to write a story about himself, pretending Hobbes did it. He only goes through the supposed time loop once and most importantly, he's not trying to make it all make sense, he's just creating a story in his head. And like any six year old thinking up a story, it's going to be riddled with plot holes. |
| 136 | *** Or if you accept the Hobbes-is-real version of things, Calvin is smart enough to know that if he does something different at 8:30 than what he remembered himself doing when he came from 6:30, it will produce a time paradox and Bad Things will happen. |
| 137 | *** Again, Hobbes is displayed bipedal, so it happened. Calvin knows that doing something different will change the past, so for-want-of-a-nail the future will suck. |
| 138 | ** Messing around with the timeline, especially in a time period as short as two hours, messes with your memories a bit, too. |
| 139 | ** Here's how the time loop ultimately plays out. |
| 140 | *** 6:30 Calvin and 6:30 Hobbes travel to 8:30 to pick up the completed story from Calvin's Future Self. |
| 141 | *** 8:30 Calvin doesn't have the story, because two hours ago, he went to the future to get it. |
| 142 | *** After arguing for a while, both Calvin's realize that the reason the 8:30 Calvin doesn't have the story if because somewhere between 6:30 and 8:30, the 7:30 Calvin should have written the story, but didn't. (Most likely because, one hour ago, he went to the future to get it.) |
| 143 | *** 6:30 and 8:30 Calvin travel back to 7:30 to make that Calvin do the homework, while 6:30 and 8:30 Hobbes remain at 8:30. |
| 144 | *** At 7:30, the 6:30 and 8:30 Calvins try to force the 7:30 Calvin to do the homework, but the 7:30 Calvin points out that anything they do to him, they'll end up suffering themselves. |
| 145 | *** Meanwhile, at 8:30, the 6:30 and 8:30 Hobbeses write a story for Calvin, therefore changing history. When the 6:30 and 8:30 Calvins return, the 6:30 Calvin and Hobbes return to 6:30 with the written story. |
| 146 | ** The problem all of the Calvins had is that ''none'' of them, at any point, took the time to actually sit down and write a story. They were all obsessed with trying to get the other ones to do it and the story never got written in the first place. The 8:30 Hobbes wasn't working off his memories when he and the 6:30 Hobbes wrote the story. They changed the timeline by writing an original story based on the Calvins' stupidity that the 6:30 Hobbes took back with him when he and the 6:30 Calvin returned to 6:30. The story became "written" at 6:30, so the 7:30 and 8:30 Calvins no longer needed to worry about writing the story. They probably just spent the rest of the night goofing off until bedtime. |
| 147 | [[/folder]] |
| 148 | [[folder: The Mating Habits of an Endangered Species]] |
| 149 | * How does Hobbes's status as an endangered species prevent him from meeting babes? I heard that [[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons the ladies dig you when you're the last of something]]. |
| 150 | ** I think what Hobbes meant was that there wouldn't be many babes left for him to meet because most of them had been poached. |
| 151 | ** Plus if he went to a captive breeding center to pick up chicks, he'd have all these doctors and caretakers watching him. That's not cool, man. |
| 152 | [[/folder]] |
| 153 | [[folder: A World Without Humour?]] |
| 154 | * In all the years of reading Calvin and Hobbes, I never got over the fact that it seems not a ''single person in the world'' ever reacts to Calvin's antics with anything other than annoyance/anger. It's not just Calvin's parents or teacher, who would feel worn down over time -- not even his classmates, neighbours, or random strangers ever laugh ''once'' at what he does, even the funny harmless things. I even remember one strip where Calvin's mom remarks how they get less traffic on their street thanks to Calvin's snowmen. Now imagine that there was a kid who actually made snowmen like that. Do you really think that everyone would avoid that house or would they constantly drive past to take photos? It's just an extreme ValuesDissonance that while we find Calvin hysterical, everyone in his world is a humorless jackass. |
| 155 | ** I consider that 1-half-the punchline, 1-half-how Watterson views the world. |
| 156 | ** To his classmates at least, Calvin is an antisocial loner who lives entirely in a fantasy world and is prone to random outbursts that come ''this'' close to physical violence. To some extent, they might even be afraid of him. |
| 157 | *** In one strip where he pretended to be an alien during Show and Tell by drooling and growling, one random kid asked Miss Wormwood if Calvin shouldn't be in a "special school." It wouldn't be surprising if they saw him as having some sort of mental condition. |
| 158 | ** When people in-universe find a character hilarious or quirky, it's like a comedian laughing at his own jokes. At least by calling him out all the time, it keeps Calvin's character grounded. |
| 159 | ** I can recall exactly ''once'' that someone reacts without anger. When Calvin the pterodactyl is soaring over the waves and is interrupted (angrily, for the moment) by Miss Wormwood the plesiosaur, she tells him that they are studying geography and asks him what state he lives in. His response? "Denial." She mutters "I don't suppose I can argue with that..." and Calvin the pterodactyl resumes his soaring. She's not laughing at his joke (Was he even trying to make a joke?) she's not amazed at his self-awareness, but she concedes the point to him without rancor. |
| 160 | *** It also seems that Miss Wormwood can sympathize with Calvin in some ways. When he had a conniption due to being in school on a beautiful day with only one life, she simply told him, "Next time, try a drink of water and a few deep breaths." Not so different indeed. |
| 161 | ** And he has made people laugh sometimes. There was one strip where he steals his dad's glasses and pretends to be him (speaking to his dad as if his dad were Calvin.) While his dad doesn't find it funny, his mother is in stitches in the final panel. On another occasion, after an ImagineSpot where his personal gravity is weakened and he goes flying into the air, we see his dad wanting to hear the whole story because he finds it so interesting. |
| 162 | *** Hate to break it to you, but his dad was being sarcastic if I remember correctly. |
| 163 | *** Not exactly. He did seem to find it genuinely interesting, if only in a "Oh boy, what kind of ridiculous excuse will he come up with ''this'' time?" kind of way. |
| 164 | *** Personally I saw it as a genuine interest in the story even if he didn't necessarily believe it--his mother was the one who was irritated because Calvin was using it as a reason why his clothes should have velcro sewn on them. |
| 165 | ** "You have to admit it's slowed down the traffic on our road." It's definitely so that people can look and take pictures of the snowmen. |
| 166 | *** Or because people are avoiding the road so they don't have to look at Calvin's "art." |
| 167 | ** Also, to fully understand this we need to look at this, at least partly, from the perspective of the characters interacting with Calvin rather than just Calvin or as a reader. And let's be totally honest here; from their perspective, Calvin is a ''lot'' to put up with. We interact with Calvin for the length of time it takes to read three to nine panels of a comic a day, which is what? Five minutes, tops? Sure, under those circumstances Calvin is endearing. However, in Calvin's world, Calvin's parents, teachers and classmates have to interact with him on a frequent basis, over which the personality quirks we find endearing can quickly become insufferable. As for his snowmen, he's definitely got talent, but they're also frequently grotesque, macabre, inconveniencing (at least one of them prevents his dad from being able to drive to work) and generally more of an annoyance they would be to the person seeing it in a comic strip who doesn't have to deal with it. Again, we can appreciate the talent and artistic qualities because we don't have to live with it; for Calvin's parents, it's just another headache their let's-face-it-a-bit-of-a-pain-in-the-ass kid has caused them. |
| 168 | *** Exactly. Ask any teacher how much "fun" it is having a pupil like Calvin. They make it a LOT harder to do your job, and for the other kids to learn. |
| 169 | ** "One man's tragedy is another man's comedy": the averse reactions of those around Calvin ''contribute'' to the joke and make it funny to the reader. |
| 170 | [[/folder]] |
| 171 | [[folder: No Appreciation for Knowledge and Imagination?]] |
| 172 | * Why is Calvin so readily dismissed by everybody? He's endlessly imaginative; his vocabulary could top many an adult; his knowledge of culture and politics, though often warped by his own selfishness, is outstanding for a six-year-old; shouldn't his parents and/or Miss Wormwood be alerting the media or something? Calvin may be rambunctious, but he's certainly impressive. This bothered this troper to no end while reading the strips as a kid. Susie Derkins, while an example of a more average kid, could apply as well. |
| 173 | ** I don't know about Calvin's parents, but Miss Wormwood probably assumes Calvin's just repeating every word that comes out of his parent's mouths. |
| 174 | ** It seems to be more along the lines that everyone is frustrated that while Calvin can be genuinely brilliant, he utterly refuses to apply that brilliance to anything productive, choosing to idle away in his imaginary world and fight tooth and nail to avoid doing anything that even ''remotely'' seems like work. Most of them probably realize that if Calvin actually wanted to, he could accomplish just about anything. |
| 175 | ** The brilliance of Calvin and Hobbes is that it's not about what it's like being a kid, it's about what it ''feels'' like to be a kid. You make great snowmen, and come up with neat stories and important observations about society, and still everyone treats you like you don't matter as much as grown-ups. If you want to get really weird with canon, maybe the entire ''strip'' is from Calvin's point of view, even the "real world" parts. Perhaps words like "transmogrifier" are just a "dynamic equivalence" translation. A Calvin in our world might call it a "change-ula box-matic," but ''feel'' like he's using a cool and impressive word. |
| 176 | *** I think this hits the nail on the head. The reason Calvin's imaginative creations look so impressive to us is because we're seeing them ''as written and illustrated by one of the world's greatest cartoonists.'' In the more mundane reality inhabited by Calvin's parents, they're not so awe-inspiring. There are even early strips where Calvin's attempts at creativity (sculpting a bowl, drawing a picture, etc.) produce the sort of clumsy, unremarkable results you'd expect from a six-year-old. As the strip progressed, though, it ended up spending more and more time inside Calvin's head, where Watterson's creative brilliance has full control. |
| 177 | ** I'm not sure where I read it, but Watterson admitted that he regretted making Calvin's vocabulary so large, he felt it made Calvin's dialogue a bit unbelievable. At the same time though, that is what's funny; this is a six year old making amazing and well spoken arguments. |
| 178 | ** It's a statement on the failings of the educational system. Calvin obviously has talent, but he's in a world of adults who don't have any clue how to nurture it, or even care that much. The same could be said of his parents. |
| 179 | ** Imagine being around someone who acts the way Calvin does, every day, ALL DAY LONG. For them, it isn't funny anymore. |
| 180 | ** As Watterson once put it, Calvin has never been a literal six-year-old. |
| 181 | ** Furthermore, I can't possibly see Calvin's parents or teacher "calling the media." None of them seem attention-hungry sorts, and the very last thing that a kid like Calvin needs is more attention and more of the sense that the world revolves around him. |
| 182 | *** Can concur from personal experience. I'm an Aspie (diagnosed as an adult) who started reading early and spontaneously, and my first words beyond baby babbling was a full, short sentence in Vietnamese (my native language). My parents were afraid to make a fuss out of it because they didn't want doctors to declare there was something wrong with me, and that I would be taken away from them. And that's without any of those signs that is so amusing/disturbing about Calvin. |
| 183 | ** Also, it's not exactly unheard of for someone to have the attitude of seeing absolutely no value in imagination in children and refusing to nurture it (personal experience, 'nuff said). That it should apply to '''absolutely everybody''' in Calvin's world is a worry, but the attitude does exist in real life. |
| 184 | ** It's very likely that the adults in Calvin's life are somewhat conservative (especially since the strip made its debut during the mid-80's and it takes place in the United States) and believe that he's just "going through a phase", relying on nothing more than rote but occasionally harsh punishments in a futile effort to correct him (despite him learning practically nothing every single time) rather than try to find out whatever's wrong with him and get him professional help. More to the point, they probably misconstrue his wealth of knowledge and overactive imagination as defiant to social norms somehow and expect he'll grow into a responsible (but ''joyless'') adult much like them. |
| 185 | ** As with the immediately previous Headscratcher this is at least partly explained by remembering the perspective of the characters around Calvin, who have to put up with him for much longer than the reader does, in addition to / rather than just Calvin's personal perspective. The reader finds Calvin charming, his arguments erudite and compelling, his creative endeavours awe-inspiring and inspirational, and so forth, because they only have to put up with them for upwards of a couple of minutes a day at most. Furthermore, they're viewing Calvin's adventures through the distance and remove provided by a sheet of newspaper, the page of a book or the screen of a computer or phone. The other characters, meanwhile, have to deal with Calvin, in person, in their world, on a daily basis. They have to stand there and actually listen to Calvin constantly coming up with long-winded, self-serving and pompous arguments for why he's the centre of the universe and should be able to do whatever he wants without fear of repercussion. They are constantly inconvenienced by his works of "art" which are often impractically large, macabre and mildly-to-moderately destructive. They are forced to put up with him disrupting their jobs and lives because what's going on doesn't happen to interest him personally and therefore can't possibly be of any value to anyone else. They have to suffer the brunt of his insults and snowball / water balloon attacks, however cleverly worded or fiendishly schemed. They have to watch on every time he chucks a wobbly whenever the universe doesn't treat him fairly, or even if it ''is'' treating him fairly but he merely perceives it to be otherwise simply because it isn't showering him with endless rewards merely for existing. In short, they have to routinely put up with him almost constantly being a massive hyperactive self-centred pain-in-the-ass who frequently runs around leaving chaos in his wake, and unlike us they don't have the option of turning the page or closing the book if ever he starts to grate. It's fine for us to condemn them for not appreciating Calvin's genius at a distance; but frankly, if we had to put up with Calvin and his ways for even half the time that the characters who interact with him have to, there is a greater-than-zero chance that we the reader would come to regard him as a rather insufferable little shit as well. |
| 186 | [[/folder]] |
| 187 | [[folder: Who's Spiff?]] |
| 188 | * So, just who ''is'' Spiff? Judging from story clues, his job is to explore the universe and check out undiscovered planets. But was he hired to do it, or is he simply doing it for his own amusement? And how could he possibly eat/sleep/entertain himself in that tiny one-man spaceship? |
| 189 | ** From what I used to think as a kid: Spiff is a hired scout that his employers don't have to care about too much. |
| 190 | ** One: As such a thing is never mentioned, he probably wasn't hired, and two: It's probably something like a [[Series/DoctorWho TARDIS]]. |
| 191 | ** The Spiff strips seem to be a combination parody of ComicStrip/FlashGordon and Franchise/StarTrek. Make of that what you will. |
| 192 | ** Spiff's rocket is more of a [[Main/RecycledInSpace car in space]] than a rocket; it's probably not meant for long journeys, only short missions that last a few hours. |
| 193 | *** Exactly. It doesn't even have an onboard toilet, unless Spiff's pilot seat has some rather ''interesting'' arrangements. |
| 194 | ** Spiff's universe is the perfect place for the MST3KMantra. ''Calvin'' doesn't care who pays Spiff or what arrangements he has in his tiny ship, because all that stuff is boring. He's not yet old enough to find satisfaction in inventing details merely for plausibility: details only exist if they're ''awesome.'' |
| 195 | ** Spiff is Mal. As for the one man starship bit, TARDIS. |
| 196 | *** Off-screen, River beats up everyone. |
| 197 | ** Spiff is a spaceman in a child's fantasyland. Everything about him exists purely for the purpose of having fantastical adventures within that child's imagination, and is derived from any space adventures that child has been exposed to and processed from comics, TV and the like. He's not meant to stand up to rigorous scrutiny of the world-building of his universe anymore than any child's playtime fantasy is, and applying such scrutiny is, well, missing the point. |
| 198 | [[/folder]] |
| 199 | [[folder: Fur Colour Changing?]] |
| 200 | * Why is it that when Hobbes is in plushie form, the fur around his eyes is orange, but when he's sentient, the fur around his eyes is white and makes a sort of mask shape? |
| 201 | ** Same reason he's twice as tall, with completely different facial features? The two forms look nothing like one another to begin with, probably to make it easier for the reader to visually distinguish them from each other. |
| 202 | ** A running gag in the strip is that the "real" world looks fairly cartoony but the bizarre world Calvin sees is more realistically drawn. |
| 203 | [[/folder]] |
| 204 | [[folder: Why DRESS Like a Tiger When You Can BE One?]] |
| 205 | * When Calvin decided that he wanted Hobbes to teach him how to be a Tiger, why didn't he just use his Transmogrifier to become a Tiger again (like when he first used it) instead of building a costume? |
| 206 | ** Because that would be the same story all over again. The humor from the transmogification story came from Calvin suddenly acting like a tiger and nobody else seeming to care. The humor in the dress-up story comes from Calvin failing to act like a tiger. |
| 207 | ** Assuming the story is only happening in Calvin's imagination to begin with, because he ''can't'' actually become one -- the Transmogrifier is not ''real''. Assuming that there is a degree of reality to what is happening, likely because Calvin doesn't want to turn himself into a tiger on this occasion, he wants to learn how to behave as a tiger while 'himself'. And in either case, because Calvin is a six-year-old kid at playtime, and there are limits to how much internal consistency and continuity are likely at play and can be expected; Calvin might not even ''remember'' the Transmogrifier. |
| 208 | * Likewise, why did Calvin wear red rather than orange pajamas, and only draw stripes on his face? |
| 209 | ** Because he's a six-year-old kid making do with what he has around his bedroom to make-believe as a tiger. |
| 210 | [[/folder]] |
| 211 | [[folder: To Like Or Not to Like Jelly (If You're Calvin)--That is the Question]] |
| 212 | * This complaint might pale in comparison to the "big questions" raised above, but for the past few days I've been on an ArchiveBinge and I noticed something strange. In one strip, Calvin's mom buys some jelly donuts and Calvin goes into graphic detail about how he doesn't like them because it's like eating a bug and having the guts squirt out. Whenever he eats a packed lunch though, it's always a jelly sandwich (sometimes with peanut butter, sometimes without). It's small, I know, but this sort of random discontinuity just sort of irked me out. |
| 213 | ** Also see the strip in which Calvin's "great idea in motion" involves drinking half of his milk, then cramming his sandwich and fruit in, and shaking the whole thing up to make a smoothie and choking it down. Calvin doesn't usually have a problem with gross things. |
| 214 | ** Calvin just doesn't like jelly donuts. But, since he's Calvin, he's not just going to say "I don't like jelly donuts," he's going to invent a creative reason why. Also, little incongruities like that are the sign of a 3-dimensional character. Real people aren't perfectly non-contradictory. |
| 215 | *** That, and jelly spread upon a slice of bread is less likely to squirt out like bug guts than jelly used to fill a doughnut. |
| 216 | *** Can be that Calvin went on in a disgusting way to get his mom from eating the jelly donut, so he could have it himself. This troper frequently grossed out his mom as a kid when she brought home something he wanted to eat. |
| 217 | *** She did offer him some. |
| 218 | *** Well, there was one strip in which Calvin politely informed his mother that jelly soaking into bread grosses him out so he requests she pack both his sandwich ingredients separately only to be annoyed that she did it yet again. |
| 219 | ** Expanding on the 2nd response above: Calvin never said he doesn't like jelly, just jelly donuts specifically. To me the bigger contradiction is that he expresses that dislike by describing jelly donuts as something gross (bug guts), but his parents often use this exact tactic to trick him '''into''' eating something he doesn't want to eat. (This isn't the only time this contradiction has come up; another strip has Calvin freak out over seeing a nature show wherein the mama bird regurgitates food for her babies... cut to Calvin giving Mom a hairy eyeball at the dinner table.) |
| 220 | ** He probably has limits on which gross things appeal to him and which ones don't. People's tastes in one area usually don't encompass ''everything'' of that type. |
| 221 | [[/folder]] |
| 222 | [[folder: Evil Bike?]] |
| 223 | * What exactly was supposed to be the deal with Calvin's bike? Several strips indicate that the bike has a mind of its own and it's trying to kill Calvin. One memorable strip even had the bike chase Calvin through the house until he was on the roof, causing his parents to FreakOut when they saw the mess the bike made, with the implication being that if Calvin's bike doesn't kill him, his parents will. Does anyone have any idea what Watterson was trying to go for here? |
| 224 | ** [[RuleOfFunny Probably nothing. It's just funny, like the monsters under Calvin's bed.]] |
| 225 | ** Wheeled vehicles are ''terrifying'' and have a mind of their own. As someone learning to drive a car, I can relate. And it's something that Calvin finds terrifying that no one else understands at all -- unlike the fear of being pounced by Hobbes, Calvin doesn't shrug it off, and his parents aren't deliberately using his fear like when they hire Rosalyn. |
| 226 | ** It's also an exaggeration of learning how to drive a bike, which for a kid is scary and often painful. That fear then gets reflected by the bike being ''directly out to get him''. |
| 227 | ** Maybe he's just imagining that it's chasing him, and he ended up on the roof and with a mess because he got caught up pretending to run away. |
| 228 | [[/folder]] |
| 229 | [[folder: Humongously Hard Homework]] |
| 230 | * This probably falls under RuleOfFunny, but what's with Calvin's class' homework and test assignments? When I was six I couldn't even spell Byzantine Empire much less write an essay on it. No wonder he had trouble in school. |
| 231 | ** Sometimes the tests are as easy as addition, other times he's being asked to describe complex history about the discovery of the Americas, the former capital of Poland, and Newtonian physics. It all varies depending on the strip, and I assume it's just on which suits the story. If Calvin's being depicted as lazy, then the problem is usually pathetically easy. If he's being depicted as confused and overwhelmed, then the problem is often something even those who passed college may have trouble remembering. |
| 232 | ** Its doubtful the questions are actually above grade school level, they're just exaggerated for comic effect to a level of difficulty Calvin imagines due to his perennial unpreparedness and panic-induced idiocy. |
| 233 | [[/folder]] |
| 234 | [[folder: Did It Really Happen?]] |
| 235 | * Did the meetings with Galaxoid and Nebular actually happen or not? |
| 236 | ** [[ShrugOfGod Yes, if Hobbes is real and Calvin really grew to the size of the galaxy and has gone back in time and cloned himself through a cardboard box.]] |
| 237 | ** At the bare minimum, Calvin brings their leaf samples to school after being shown not doing a lick of work to get any by himself. Who says aliens ''have'' to be hyperintelligent, nigh-invincible beings? |
| 238 | *** No, he really cut a bunch of leaves into different shapes to make them look unique. Of course Miss Wormwood knows that's what really happened. |
| 239 | ** This is actually part of a broader - and important - question: if Hobbes is real on some level (as ambiguously suggested by WordOfGod and debated above) and not merely an imaginary friend, then is the same level of reality to be ascribed to the other zany adventures that no one besides Calvin and Hobbes experiences as real? It's difficult to see the "Spaceman Spiff", "Stupendous Man" and "Tracer Bullet" stories or Calvin daydreaming about being a dinosaur as anything other than figments of his imagination, but what about the times they transmogrified each other or travelled through time? Are these events part of the same reality that Hobbes is, or did Calvin (and Hobbes?) just imagine them? |
| 240 | *** I think it's fair to say that there are three levels of reality in the comic: |
| 241 | *** 1: The normal, everyday reality that most people inhabit, where Calvin is just a weird kid and Hobbes a stuffed animal. This is the reality we see when people other than Calvin and Hobbes are present. |
| 242 | *** 2: Calvin and Hobbes' shared reality. In this reality, Calvin's a genius inventor and Hobbes a real, live tiger, and the world is magical and full of possibilities. This is the reality we see when Calvin and Hobbes are alone together -- or, very occasionally, joined by additional MaybeMagicMaybeMundane characters such as Calvin's clones, the murderous bicycle, the monsters under the bed, or Galaxoid and Nebular. This reality occasionally blends in with the first one, like when things Hobbes or the clones do affect the "real" world. |
| 243 | *** 3: Calvin's solo fantasies. This reality level very obviously consists of daydreams and make-believe; nothing that happens in it has any equivalent in the "real" world -- even Calvin ''usually'' realizes that it's just a game or a way to cope with his dreary life, except when he gets carried away and starts treating it as reality. This is where you find most of Calvin's alter-egos such as Spaceman Spiff or Stupendous Man, and it's usually characterized by Calvin playing LemonyNarrator and speaking entirely in third person. |
| 244 | *** Uh, Spaceman Spiff's stuff normally has some equivalent real-world stuff. Same with Stupendous Man and Tracer Bullet. |
| 245 | *** What the other troper presumably means is that, while Calvin ''draws'' on reality in his Spiff / Stupendous Man / Tracer fantasies, they are clearly established as just that: fantasies. The strip will make it clear that Calvin is just playacting as Spiff and Tracer Bullet to make something that he's coping with in "reality" a bit more fun and bearable (for example, the strip where "Spiff" is captured and tied down by aliens who intend to subject him to an unbearable torture, which turns out to actually be his father delivering a boring lecture on his favourite parental cliches in reality). They're not meant to be taken as a potential version of reality in the same way that his adventures with Hobbes are. |
| 246 | [[/folder]] |
| 247 | [[folder: Brain-Bogglingly Bashed-Up Binoculars]] |
| 248 | * The Binocular Arc: Calvin accidentally breaks his dad's binoculars by "dropping them" (by tossing them to himself while running). Yet when he shows Hobbes the damage, '''they're in a powdered state in a box!''' What did he do to those binoculars? |
| 249 | ** Maybe he was on a hill, and after he dropped them they continued to bounce down and keep breaking. |
| 250 | ** RuleOfFunny. |
| 251 | ** I figured he buried it with dirt, so he was dumping it out and warning Hobbes to not sneeze, as it was going to fall out on the dirt pile. |
| 252 | ** It's an exaggeration, this is what CALVIN thinks the damage looks like, most likely he broke the lenses and cracked the casing. |
| 253 | [[/folder]] |
| 254 | [[folder: Hair]] |
| 255 | * Why is Calvin blond when both of his parents are dark haired? |
| 256 | ** Recessive genes from both of them. Or it's proof for their suspicion that Calvin is accidentally not their child... |
| 257 | ** A lot of young children actually have blonde hair when they're born, regardless of what their parents hair color is, it just darkens when they get older. |
| 258 | ** He inherited their genes for blonde hair. Why is this even a question? |
| 259 | ** Calvin's mom dyes her hair. |
| 260 | [[/folder]] |
| 261 | [[folder: Babysitterphobia]] |
| 262 | * Why is Calvin so scared of his babysitter, Rosalyn? He acts like she's a BabysitterFromHell, but as clearly seen in nearly every occasion, it's Calvin who antagonizes her, and the worst she can do is yell at him and send him to bed, and then tell his parents what he did that night. Yet every time, Calvin acts like a monster is coming over. Sure, the first comic had her threatening Calvin (As the quote on BabysitterFromHell shows) but every other occasion the worst she does is send Calvin to bed early. At least until Calvin decides to 'fight back.' |
| 263 | ** She grabbed him by the collar and threatened to beat him up the moment he said exactly what a six-year old would upon first meeting a non-teacher, non-parent authority figure. Sure, he was planning on antagonizing her in worse ways, but compared to what he does day-to-day with his parents, she did that with no provocation. That immediately showed him that she wouldn't even start to mess around like his parents or Ms. Wormwood might, and presumably colored all his future expiriences with her as violent struggles. I can also testify that, as a kid, tutoring once a week or swim lessons, while no worse than certain classes or PE, were rarer, and thus I had more time to dread them. |
| 264 | ** Being selfish and short-sighted is a key part of Calvin's character. As far as he's concerned, whenever he loses a conflict, he's a helpless victim and the winner is a cruel aggressor, whether he was the one to start it or not. And while his fear of Rosalyn is hardly rational when you look at what she actually does, that's the whole point; Calvin lacks the perspective to realize that the authority figures in his life aren't actively malevolent or conspiring to make him miserable. Heck, in some strips he seems to think that ''his own parents'' are trying to kill him. |
| 265 | ** Calvin resents any sort of authority that keeps him from acting the way he wants to, Rosalyn is just more frightening because she is technically a stranger his parents are giving authority to for no reason, in Calvin's view. He has to obey his parents because they're his parents, he has to obey Mrs Wormwood because she's his teacher, Rosalyn is just this random person his parents are paying. |
| 266 | ** "The worst she can do is yell at him and send him to bed." Actually, no. There was the story where Calvin tried to exploit this by already being in bed, so instead she forced him out of bed and downstairs where he had to write a full confession in paper for his parents. |
| 267 | ** Calvin's parents and teachers usually react to his antics with weary indifference, or with a rote standard punishment (go to bed, write lines, etc.) if he crosses the line. Rosalyn is a lot more creative when it comes to fighting back. Put simpler -- she's unpredictable and closer to his level. |
| 268 | ** Rosalyn also made a bad first impression on Calvin in her daily strip appearance. She came over and locked him in the garage for several hours, to the point where he hid in the car to make sure she was properly dropped off and was terrified. We don't even know why, and she proceeds to talk on the phone with her boyfriend about it about how she handled whatever situation "the little monster" instigated. When later on she tries to offer to make popcorn with him, he runs off before he can hear the offer. It's kinda on Rosalyn that she doesn't at least try to understand Calvin's perspective until she bribes him in the last arc about playing his favorite game and letting him stay up half an hour past bedtime. |
| 269 | ** Rosalyn also doesn't play by the same rules his parents and teachers do. There is a limit to what kind of punishments his teachers can set, and his parents love him despite their frustration with his antics, so they will be holding back a little bit. Rosalyn, however, neither has the same limits, nor has the same affection for him; he's just a snot-nosed kid she's hired to watch over for a few hours, so as long as he's in one piece by the end of it she can be a lot tougher in a way that he's less used to. |
| 270 | ** Two reasons: |
| 271 | *** 1. Calvin's tendency towards hypocrisy isn't unheard of. In the case of adults or others denying him what he feels entitled to or doing what he believes to be interfering with peace and happiness for him, he'll generally accuse them of sadistic motives whilst ignoring that he'll pull pranks on his long-suffering parents, disrupt class and throw water balloons/snowballs at Susie [[ItAmusedMe out of a need for amusement]] no matter how many times [[LaserGuidedKarma it comes back to bite him in the rear]]. Even then, however, some of the folks he knows (e.g. his parents, Rosalyn, Susie and even Hobbes etc.) do tend to respond quite harshly ([[DisproportionateRetribution a bit too much so in some cases]]) which would no doubt seem ''very'' intense from a six-year-old's perspective. |
| 272 | *** 2. On top of that, [[MrImagination he's a highly-imaginative six year old]] who is often shown to imagine others as "enemies" for himself to battle (particularly for his Stupendous Man and Spaceman Spiff personas) rather than trying to understand their thoughts and feelings when it comes to a situation. Rosalyn is no exception and given the way she retaliates to his antics, it's only natural that he'll immediately jump the gun on guessing her intentions and assume she's a monstrous villain for him to defeat. |
| 273 | [[/folder]] |
| 274 | [[folder: Don't Say You're Home--No Problem]] |
| 275 | * So we all know the RunningGag: Calvin comes home from school and yells "I'm home". Hobbes hears this, and pounces on Calvin. It's pretty obvious Calvin dislikes this, and he tries to come up with all sorts of plans to stop it. The question is, why doesn't he just stop yelling "I'm home" when he comes to the door? |
| 276 | ** Calvin has a tendency to overthink problems and come up with complicated solutions instead of a simpler, more practical solution. It's entirely likely that in his determination to outwit Hobbes, this simply hasn't occurred to him. |
| 277 | ** It's possible that his mother told him to yell that whenever he comes home, so his mother knows he got home safely, and so she can clean up any mess he makes when he walks in the door. |
| 278 | ** He did twice. Once, [[http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1988/03/26 he yelled before opening the door causing Hobbes to hit his head.]] He also [[http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1988/03/20 snuck around through the back door to scare Hobbes.]] |
| 279 | ** Various lines throughout the series make it seem more like TheGlomp than an attack, as Hobbes is just very happy to see him after he's gone at school all day. |
| 280 | ** It wouldn't make a difference. Once Calvin tried to take advantage of this by having Susie yell "I'm home" so she'd get tackled by Hobbes, but nothing happened. When Calvin went up to his front door, Hobbes immediately tackled him. Hobbes explained that he can always tell when Calvin is the one coming through the door because of his bad smell...[[FridgeBrilliance which also explains why Hobbes has never tackled Calvin's parents when they come home.]] |
| 281 | ** It wouldn't work. Sometimes Calvin walks in the door without saying anything and Hobbes will tackle him anyway. |
| 282 | --->'''Calvin''': What a day. I feel like I've been run over by a train. '''KA-POW!!!''' I mean, ''now'' I feel like that. |
| 283 | --->'''Hobbes''': See? You should always save the metaphor until you really need it. |
| 284 | [[/folder]] |
| 285 | [[folder: What's the Point?]] |
| 286 | * What was the overall point to Calvin and Hobbes? Something to do with childhood? Is growing up not as important? Why did Watterson end the strip so open-ended? |
| 287 | ** The point is whatever you want it to be. Want it to be a deep philosophical comic? Fine. Want it to be a lighthearted comic about being a kid? Cool. Want it to be a good story and nothing more? Awesome. Personally, I'm a combo of all three. |
| 288 | ** As far as the ending, Watterson wanted to stop drawing, but he didn't want the ''characters'' to have an ending. He lets them go. |
| 289 | [[/folder]] |
| 290 | [[folder: Why Did it Need an Edit?]] |
| 291 | * [[http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1989/04/15 This strip]]. The dialogue was clearly edited down; "right" is slightly different, and the balloon is way too big for the text. Any possible idea as to what the original could've been that required an edit? |
| 292 | ** It's possible Watterson had written something and then erased it and didn't want to redraw the strip. |
| 293 | ** Given the subject matter of the strip, it's entirely plausible that Watterson had written something that he decided was TOO disgusting and toned it down. Maybe he got a little more specific about what "make it right" entailed and decided after the fact that it was too much. |
| 294 | [[/folder]] |
| 295 | [[folder: Hobbes and His Wandering Personality]] |
| 296 | * If there's one thing about the strip that kind of bothers me, it's the way Hobbes is characterized. Sometimes he'll be the voice of reason but other times he'll childishly mock Calvin, attack him or mess with him for no good reason at all. Yes, sometimes he does these things in response to something jerkish that Calvin does, but my point is that he does many of these things with little to no provocation whatsoever. For example, when a bee lands on Calvin's back, Hobbes not only refuses to help him ([[DirtyCoward not wanting the bee to go after HIM]]) but also deliberately goes through his comic stash and starts to read aloud from them and even tricks him into thinking it's gone only for him to get stung, all of which despite Calvin having done barely anything wrong. Granted, he ''does'' insult Hobbes but only because he's understandably angry. Speaking of his comics, Calvin once complained to his mother about Hobbes ruining them and even snarling at him when told to get his own. Maybe there's some reason for it that I can't think of, but I find Hobbes' characterization is kind of inconsistent. After all, [[WithFriendsLikeThese what kind of friend would flip-flop from being reasonable to childish bullying and such at the drop of a hat?]] |
| 297 | ** In fairness, Hobbes is not a human being. Ultimately, he's a big cat, and haven't you ever petted a cat only to have it abruptly turn and bite or claw at you? 'Playing' with Calvin like a cat with a mouse could simply be a way he shows affection. On another note, it is possible that the strips where the duo had a tender moment one minute and were insulting each other the next could have been written with a few hours in-between, at least, and simply reflect how the mood changed. After all, it is not uncommon for human friends to disagree with one another- sometimes in a way that can seem quite serious to an independent observer. |
| 298 | ** Hobbes' characterization varies according to the needs of an indivudual strip or story arc, similar to how his schoolwork can be shown as either ridiculously easy or absurdly complex depending on whether the reader is meant to think of Calvin as lazy or overwhelmed. Sometimes Hobbes and Calvin are like-minded buddies who only have minor and inconsequential disagreements, sometimes Hobbes is Calvin's only solace in an unrelentingly hostile world, sometimes Hobbes is ''part'' of the hostile world and just another bully in Calvin's life, and sometimes he's a pretty chill tiger who can nonetheless be provoked into delivering some karmic payback if Calvin's acting bratty. |
| 299 | ** The kind of friend who is possibly the imaginary creation of a human, and who like a human can sometimes display inconsistent and contradictory behavior. Just look at Calvin himself. Sometimes he can thoughtful, introspective and even remorseful when his behavior goes too far, but he can also be bratty, selfish, cruel and materialistic. Or look at his parents, who can be loving and supportive or harshly authoritarian. Like the real person who drew the strip and the real people who read it, the characters in the comic can act differently from time to time. |
| 300 | [[/folder]] |
| 301 | [[folder: What Happened to Shady Acres?]] |
| 302 | * Calvin and Hobbes [[http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1987/03/21 first came across]] the [[http://i.imgur.com/KFrdt.jpg Odd Tree Stump]] in a story arc where some of the woods were bulldozed to make room for a place called "Shady Acres Condominiums". However, they pass by this stump many [[http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/2010/02/14 more]] [[http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/2010/02/25 times]] over the rest of the series. What happened to Shady Acres? |
| 303 | ** Considering that they're on ComicBookTime, Shady Acres likely doesn't exist after that comic. Quite possibly the wood that was cut down that time is the same wood that recurs throughout the run of the strip. |
| 304 | ** It's also entirely possible that the "Shady Acres" comic took place after the "forest" strips published after it. No one said ''any'' of the comics took place ''in order''. |
| 305 | ** Maybe the plans to construct Shady Acres were cancelled partway through for one reason or another. Off-screen protests against deforestation might seem plausible. |
| 306 | ** Who says that's the same tree stump they always pass by? Our heroes might have encountered similar-looking stumps in other parts of the woods. |
| 307 | [[/folder]] |
| 308 | [[folder: No Imagination for the Beanie?]] |
| 309 | * How is it that Calvin can imagine himself piloting his toy planes, but was completely unable to come up with anything to do with his motorized beanie? Even after the initial disappointment that it didn't actually fly wore off, he saw zero potential in it? |
| 310 | ** The entire joke of that story arc is that Calvin spent ''six weeks'' OBSESSING over one stupid toy, only to become ''immediately'' disappointed with it upon receiving it. |
| 311 | ** Also, the point was that Calvin anticipated the beanie with such passion that when he finally had it assembled, it didn't turn out as he expected. |
| 312 | ** Calvin can probably muster imagination for most of his toys because he knows they can't actually fly for real. He thought the beanie really ''could'' fly, and was really angry when he learned it couldn't. He probably could come up with something for the beanie, but he just doesn't want to because he hates it so much. |
| 313 | [[/folder]] |
| 314 | [[folder: The Only One With a Limited Wardrobe]] |
| 315 | * Why do Calvin's parents change their outfits regularly, but Calvin himself wears the same thing every single day? |
| 316 | ** Out of universe: Calvin is the protagonist, so it makes sense for him to be immediately recognizable--spiky blond haircut, striped red shirt, instant recognition. (More cynically, it's great for branding purposes in advertising/merchandising). In universe: maybe he's just really, really attached to that shirt. Kids can be weird that way. He does have other clothes--shown by [[https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/48/30/aa/4830aa220a1cb576f96468fd418e82d7.jpg this strip]] where he gets attacked by his clothes, and any time he has to pick up his room--and he's ''very'' unwillingly put on a suit and tie a few times. |
| 317 | *** Considering Watterson's pretty open distaste for merchandising his characters (one of the reasons he ended the comic was because he felt he couldn't hold on to the strip's artistic integrity), I doubt your cynical interpretation is correct in this case. |
| 318 | *** You don't have to approve of advertising / merchandising to recognise that if you want people to actually read your comic strip -- and thus having it continue to be commissioned and syndicated and published in book form, meaning you continue to get paid and have a strip to be concerned with the artistic integrity thereof in the first place -- then some level of branding is important, even if a necessary evil from your point of view. Watterson might not have approved of advertising and merchandising, but ''Calvin and Hobbes'' wasn't published exclusively in the underground press; he had to play the game to some degree. |
| 319 | [[/folder]] |
| 320 | [[folder: Like Father and Mother, Unlike Son]] |
| 321 | * How is Calvin the way he is? I mean, he's so creative and curious and inventive, but his parents are sticks in the mud (with his Dad having some philosophical thoughts from time to time and his Mom being hinted to have been like Calvin when she was a child), his school doesn't seem geared towards improving creativity, and the only 'real friend' he has who has any imagination uses it to mostly pretend she's a Grown Up. You think he would act more like his Parents to some extent, but he is almost completely different from both of them personality wise. It's as if Calvin was living with a Crazy Relative from birth, but then was given back to his Birth Parents the year the comic is set. |
| 322 | ** Despite what ''Franchise/BackToTheFuture'' may tell you, offspring don't tend to have the same exact personalities as their parents. Also, Calvin is heavily implied to be a Gifted child stuck in an uncaring, unengaging public school system. Maybe if he was dumber, he'd act closer to them. |
| 323 | ** Part of the answer might be right there in your question; his parents do (or did) have their mischievous sides. His dad's brother Uncle Max is implied to live a little fast even as an adult, and has more tolerance for Calvin's imagination than the others. For all we know, Calvin will grow up to be just as boring as them one day. |
| 324 | ** It's also implied on multiple occasions Calvin's Dad had a bit of a wild streak growing up (notably when Calvin gets a hold of his college yearbook). Also after one particularly nightmarish doctor's visit, Calvin's Mom says she hopes he grows up to have a kid like him someday. Calvin replies that his grandmother told him that she used to say the same thing. |
| 325 | ** In fairness, Calvin's a kid and his parents aren't. Calvin can be free and wild and creative because he has no responsibilities in life. Calvin's parents ''have'' responsibilities -- one of which, incidentally, is making sure Calvin gets to adulthood without starving, dying from exposure or killing himself. They ''have'' to be a little bit boring. |
| 326 | ** It could also be Watterson's view of how adults in general tend to squelch individualism and imagination in children. (His own father was reportedly a lot like Calvin's father, especially the stuff about "building character".) Granted, Calvin is a little terror and the grownups are usually in the right to curb his behavior in the examples we actually see. But I think beneath the surface we're supposed to think Calvin does have a point about them. Even I, who was quiet and shy and usually well-behaved, remember having similar thoughts about some of my teachers. It surprises me to this very day how many people go into teaching when they really don't seem to like kids at all. |
| 327 | ** Mom was apparently quite the little troublemaker herself when she was Calvin's age, as implied by Calvin's grandmother. And of course, Dad was a party animal in college. So the main difference between them and Calvin is that Calvin's a lot less mature and doesn't have to think about where the money to feed and shelter him is coming from. And multiple strips imply that Calvin and his parents are more alike than any of them would probably ever admit, such as with their cynicism about the "rat race" and consumer culture. |
| 328 | ** Besides, Calvin ''does'' have a fair bit in common with his dad; just read any strip where Calvin asks his dad a genuine question, and Dad responds with a ridiculous response--Dad is just as imaginative as Calvin is, and seems to have a streak of mischief too. |
| 329 | [[/folder]] |
| 330 | [[folder: Scary Bath?]] |
| 331 | * Why is Calvin afraid of taking a bath? |
| 332 | ** TruthInTelevision: many children in real life absolutely despise the bathtub for various reasons. Calvin's fear of baths is just a representation of that real life fear. |
| 333 | [[/folder]] |
| 334 | [[folder: Mixed-Up Morals and Contradictory Characterizations]] |
| 335 | * Something regarding the nature of the comic strip; it seems as though some of the characters (and setting in general) are prone to contradictions in one way, shape or form. To name a few examples, [[TheBully Moe]] is acknowledged as [[HateSink a character you're expected to despise]] because he bullies Calvin yet we're still supposed to consider Hobbes [[DesignatedHero a likable protagonist]] even after he does the same, who in turn [[DependingOnTheWriter can go from voice of reason to childish bully deliberately getting a rise out of his best friend]] and so much more (see the folder regarding his random personality), Susie doesn't think highly of Calvin for his attitude, misbehaviour and such [[HairTriggerTemper but all it takes is even a failed throw of a snowball or water balloon to send her into a seething rage]] [[DisproportionateRetribution and clobber him to a pulp]] etc. As for the setting, its morality is inconsistent. Calvin, [[UnsympatheticComedyProtagonist the naughty, impulsive and selfish brat we know and love]], is the only character who ever seems to [[LaserGuidedKarma get his just desserts]], namely when he does something wrong just before bad things happen to him. Meanwhile, Hobbes can [[KarmaHoudini get away with bullying]] [[WithFriendsLikeThese his own friend]] without provocation [[MoralMyopia even though he should comedically suffer as a consequence by the logic of how Calvin is treated]]. Similarly, anyone else can get away with inflicting it upon Calvin (even when he did little to nothing wrong). The question is, was there some sort of deeper meaning or complexity to it that Watterson intended for and I could never quite grasp? |
| 336 | ** Hobbes' behaviour is perfectly, completely, 100% consistent with an older sibling, who will hug you and comfort you and play games with you one moment and tease you mercilessly--even pummel you to bits--the next. And Susie's logic is perfectly, completely, 100% consistent with being six years old. It's worth noting, and it's been noted in the Headscratchers page above, that ''we'' find Calvin charming and funny and sympathetic, but his parents and Susie and Mrs. Wormwood, who have to deal with him every single day, are bound to feel worn down and irritable around him--and that's totally understandable. Calvin gets up to a ''lot'' of mischief, and the situations where he's being unfairly treated are pretty rare. That said, when it happens--the school baseball team, for instance--the message seems to be: sometimes you can try your hardest, and you'll still fail and people will still chew you out, and it sucks. But as long as you have friends like Hobbes, and can find joy in your own hobbies (like Calvinball), you'll be alright. |
| 337 | ** OK. Those seem like fine reasons, but allow me to clarify part of my question better: the fact that Hobbes never suffers for the times in which he ''genuinely'' does wrong (ethical code he freely disregards notwithstanding). It's common in certain comedic settings for [[{{Jerkass}} jerkish characters]] to do wrong [[LaserGuidedKarma only to have things comically blow up in their faces afterward]], [[WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry Tom]], [[Manga/RanmaOneHalf Ranma Saotome]] and (pre-movie) [[WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants Squidward Tentacles]] being notable examples. Calvin is no exception, as mentioned, and it's fine to revel in the consequences of his actions but if the strip justifies it for that reason, [[DoubleStandard then why doesn't Hobbes ever face comedic suffering]] from the situations where he had ''no'' valid reason to antagonize Calvin? |
| 338 | ** He actually ''does'' take a few knocks on occasion, Nowhere near as often as Calvin, but there have been moments where Calvin won their fights, or Hobbes suffered a few indignities or AmusingInjuries. So it's not that he ''never'' suffers, he just doesn't suffer ''as much''. |
| 339 | ** I think part of the reason for why Hobbes seems to get off so much easier than Calvin (you know, apart from Hobbes being a stuffed tiger) lies in the attitudes of the two characters. Calvin creates a lot of his own misery because he's hardly ever satisfied with anything: He always wants ''more,'' and he spends a lot of time complaining that things aren't better or cooler or faster. When he suffers a hardship, he reacts with anger, frustration or occasionally depression. Hobbes, by contrast, is a genuinely content and happy person. He appreciates the small pleasures in life and makes no great demands; give him a sandwich to eat, a warm place to sleep, and a good friend to hang out with, and his life is perfect. If ''he'' suffers a hardship he takes it in stride, or he tries to turn the situation into an advantage instead. |
| 340 | ** So overall, it seems like the setting of Calvin and Hobbes constantly makes use of double-standards and hypocrisy (in setting and characters). Also, it hasn't escaped my notice that much of Calvin's [[{{Foil}} foils]] (e.g. Hobbes, Susie and so forth) aren't complete contrasts to his personality and in fact are just as prone to some of his many behaviours [[{{Hypocrite}} despite their disdain for him]]. Is this by any chance intentional on the creator's part? |
| 341 | *** It probably was intentional, there is a HypocriticalHumor page based on this comic. |
| 342 | ** It's important to remember that Calvin is self-centered and utterly lacking in self-awareness (or maybe he knows and doesn't care), and the others have to live with him on an everyday basis. It is true that occasionally Susie hits first, but it's always something Calvin would do to her if he had the chance (and usually something he has tried at least once). He has gotten her in real, serious trouble more than once. If you were in her shoes, would you be able to resist the chance to pelt him with a snowball or two if you had it? |
| 343 | ** The reason Susie has such a HairTriggerTemper about Calvin's snowball and water balloon attacks is that he does it over and over and over again. Even Santa Claus noted some 300 incidents. That's an average of 50 a year for each year she's been alive. She might shrug off one odd snowball or balloon, but by the hundredth she's had more than enough. One strip even showed her putting on a raincoat and taking an umbrella before going out even in sunny weather. It was her being CrazyPrepared because of the big pile of water balloons Calvin had with him. |
| 344 | ** There is an element of personality and morals we're overlooking here. While he might wind up Calvin from time to time, there's no real malice to Hobbes; for example, his glomps of Calvin when he returns home are clearly in large part over-enthusiastic affection because he's happy to see Calvin again, as expressed through the cunning and predator instincts of a tiger. Any put-downs he makes of Calvin are usually done in an eye-rolling fashion when Calvin has just said something ludicrously pompous, self-serving or deluded and needs his bubble popped a little. When he does get genuinely annoyed or aggressive, it's usually because he's been provoked by something Calvin has done. In short, Hobbes receives little comeuppance because he rarely does anything which ''requires'' comeuppance, nor is he motivated by any real negative impulses except for maybe a little mischievousness. Calvin, on the other hand, is frequently a bit more malicious to those around him. He loudly takes pleasure in bullying Suzie by throwing snowballs and water balloons at her. He's frequently more brazen and unapologetic in his trouble-making, and conducts himself more arrogantly and pompously with the people around him. He's more calculating and self-serving in what he can get away with (witness all his rule-lawyering around Christmastime when he has to factor in what Santa is likely to approve of). In short, not only does Calvin do more which requires some kind of comeuppance, but he is usually more ill-intentioned in his motivations for what he does where Hobbes is not. It's not just the action being punished, but the underlying motive behind the action. |
| 345 | [[/folder]] |
| 346 | [[folder: No Good Victim Goes Punished... Presumably]] |
| 347 | * [[AsYouKnow As we know]], [[SilkHidingSteel Susie Derkins]] [[BewareTheNiceOnes isn't above knocking the living daylights out of Calvin when slighted]] or at least threatening to do so. Some of these have occurred at school, even stated such as Calvin relaying to Hobbes her (unseen) anger with him over his half of the Mercury assignment. How come Susie hasn't gotten in trouble for it? Granted, Calvin ''is'' naughty and even causes trouble at school, wearing poor Ms. Wormwood thin, but I doubt a school would allow students to threaten (or presumably pummel, in the case of the assignment) others with violence, even if the one getting threatened has a reputation. In fact, as this troper learned at school, it didn't matter if you were being victimized, even ''[[AdultsAreUseless right in front of the teacher]]'', you would almost always get the short end of the stick. On top of that, plenty of North American schools have a "zero tolerance" policy. So my question remains... how does Susie [[KarmaHoudini get away with it at school?]] |
| 348 | ** ValuesDissonance. Beverly Cleary's story ''Mitch and Amy'' featured a girl taking down a bully and no one acknowledging it; ''Bridge to Terabithia'' mentions the same thing with how Jesse can't beat up Janice Avery the school bully because he'd get expelled. The comic was also written before Columbine and zero tolerance became a thing. |
| 349 | ** In the next day's strip, Calvin is recounting to Hobbes how angry Susie was and how she accused him of not doing any research and making everything he said up. It's just as likely Susie was about to deck him, but Miss Wormwood intervened. Susie then went on her angry rant as Calvin described, and Miss Wormwood called his Mom over his "creative liberties". And if you thought Susie was mad... |
| 350 | ** At my elementary school, if a teacher didn't see it happen, it didn't happen. The seasoned bullies knew it, too. Despite their antagonistic relationship, neither Calvin nor Susie is what I'd call a bully. Calvin is a troublemaker who never thinks about the consequences for himself or anyone else, Susie is a good kid who had the bad luck to live on Calvin's block. Given that Calvin got Susie sent to the principal's office at least once, she probably learned what every bully knows: just strike while the teacher isn't looking. |
| 351 | [[/folder]] |
| 352 | [[folder: Star Student Mistaken for Misbehaving]] |
| 353 | * Something doesn't make sense to me about the story arc where Calvin tried to get Susie to help him half-bake the insect collection project. Miss Wormwood catches on Susie ''twice'', mistaking her for misbehaving (trying to shush Calvin when he asks for help and writing a retaliatory note to him) and sends her to the principal's office. True, she manages to get the last laugh and [[LaserGuidedKarma Calvin pays for it]], but how could Miss Wormwood make this mistake and not realize Calvin was up to no good until later on (especially since she's one of the most ''frequent'' victims of Calvin's shenanigans)? Also, since [[ChildProdigy Susie]] [[TeachersPet is shown to do very well in class and is for the most part well-behaved]] (aside from dishing it back to Calvin), shouldn't Miss Wormwood know better than to falsely accuse/punish Susie without question? |
| 354 | ** Susie is a good student but she isn't perfect. One early arc featured Calvin busting her for passing mean notes about him, and them both being sent to the office. It's reasonable for Miss Wormwood to assume that Susie will mess up once in a while. |
| 355 | ** True. But Susie generally isn't disruptive in the classroom like Calvin is and, in the case of her passing notes, he only ended up getting them both sent to the principal's office because he suddenly broadcast it for all the classroom to hear. Sometimes, Calvin doesn't even ''have to'' make a gigantic ruckus in order for Miss Wormwood to catch him stepping out of line (for instance, in one strip when he pulls out a periscope from his desk to copy from Susie's paper). Susie, on the other hand, was clearly trying to shush Calvin before she got sent to the front of the desk and couldn't have been that loud, so why Miss Wormwood couldn't have assumed Calvin's antics had to do with this is anyone's guess. |
| 356 | ** Welcome to the wonderful world of NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished. Sometimes when you try to do what you think is the right thing, an authority figure will catch you, think you are doing (or it actually will be) the wrong thing and punish you for it. It sucks and is unfair, but happens sometimes. |
| 357 | ** Fair enough. It just seems [[OutOfCharacterMoment out of character]] for Miss Wormwood when she always comes to Susie's defense during yet another bout of Calvins' classroom shenanigans. |
| 358 | ** I always saw it as an example of Miss Wormwood being a ReasonableAuthorityFigure. We usually only see her when Calvin's misbehaving, but on the rare occasions when he actually seems like he's doing good in class, or when they're not otherwise in school (e.g. when Mom ran into her at the grocery store and she asked Mom to say hi to Calvin) she can be quite pleasant. While she generally defends Susie during Calvin's antics, in this case it looked to her like a case of SwappedRoles. If Calvin isn't actually doing anything wrong (that she can see, at least) then she'll take his side when it looks like Susie's bothering him. Miss Wormwood also didn't give Susie a chance to explain herself. When Mr. Spittle ''did'' give Susie a chance to explain, he immediately believed her. He probably also wrote Susie a note to take back to Miss Wormwood, which made her realize she'd made a mistake. |
| 359 | ** Miss Wormwood was older ("five years to retirement") in the 1980s. I can tell you from personal experience, teachers of that era - especially older ones - were prone to believing all kids were troublemakers underneath it all. Being well behaved most of the time and being frequently victimized by the class troublemaker didn't count for anything whatsoever. |
| 360 | ** Susie might not be disruptive in the same way or as frequently as Calvin is, but on rare occasions she still -- so far as Miss Wormwood can see -- breaks class rules, and exempting her from punishment would be unfair to other kids. Occasionally a good kid will do something wrong and need to be sent to the principal's office. It happens. |
| 361 | *** [[TeachersPet Favoritism from teachers]] (especially ones who constantly strive to get good grades/look like model students or for some other reason) isn't unheard of in real world schools either, so it just seems odd for Miss Wormwood. As for it being "unfair to other kids"... bear in mind that while never shown nor verbally alluded to, the comic strip overall implies that Susie is friendless because her peers might find a sycophantic little genius unbearable (as discussed down below in another folder). |
| 362 | *** Favoritism isn't unheard of, no, but TeachersPet is a trope, not an unbreakable universal constant. Sometimes even the TeachersPet gets on the teacher's wrong side. And it's not like Susie is constantly sent to the principal's office, it's something that happens, like, once or twice in the entire run of the strip. It's not ''that'' big a mystery, it's just something that happens on rare occasions. Miss Wormwood might like Susie, but she is also fair and willing to punish her if she feels it's merited. Again, that also happens. |
| 363 | *** Also, to be totally fair to Miss Wormwood, she doesn't really seem to play favourites from what we can tell; she's definitely jaded, but all up she seems pretty reasonable and fair if looked at neutrally (let's be bluntly honest here; Calvin usually deserves it when he gets in trouble with her). |
| 364 | [[/folder]] |
| 365 | [[folder: Loves Her, Loves Her Not... But Why?]] |
| 366 | * Hobbes is an active member of [[FunWithAcronyms G.R.O.S.S.]], but he also loves Susie Derkins (who it was primarily made to antagonize in the first place). [[WhatTheHellHero He has chided Calvin for making her cry with insults]], [[WithFriendsLikeThese he'll sell him down the river in favour of her]] (such as the water balloon fight and when she stole him as payback for taking her doll) yet Hobbes willingly joined Calvin's club even after the latter made it clear that the goal was to [[HeManWomanHater exclude girls]], not to mention that some situations have shown him to actively participate in Calvin's attacks on Susie (such as [[EdibleAmmunition throwing mushy apples]] and locking her in a closet) without question. So if Hobbes really loves Susie and will call out Calvin for any wrong he does to her, why does he also have no problem insulting/hurting her along with his friend? |
| 367 | ** Hobbes may on occasion act as the voice of Calvin's conscience, but he's by ''no'' means a saint himself. He'll go along with all kinds of mischief if it seems like it'll be fun -- he's just better at seeing consequences or potential consequences than Calvin is. So, throwing mushy apples and snowballs, making plans and casual insults? That's just playful roughhousing, like he and Calvin do every day. Actually hurting Susie's ''feelings?'' That's taking it too far. |
| 368 | *** Plus, he may have an extra motive for playing "double agent" on occasion: It drives Calvin ''crazy.'' And we know how much Hobbes enjoys winding Calvin up. |
| 369 | *** It should be noted that, for all his rhetoric and pranks, ''Calvin'' doesn't want to really hurt Susie, either. He obviously feels bad when he upsets her enough to make her cry, and it's heavily implied, if not outright stated, that he's attracted to her and doesn't know how to show it. Hobbes' relationship with Susie isn't that much different from Calvin's own. |
| 370 | *** True, but keep in mind that, the few times Susie has been with Hobbes, she generally treats him with kindness or affection (as mentioned, that Calvin doesn't react well to Hobbes liking her is a running gag), meanwhile Calvin is oftentimes very bratty and instigates fights with him. Since Susie does nothing to antagonize him, you'd think he'd be less inclined to play along with Calvin. |
| 371 | ** While he may like Susie, Hobbes is basically Calvin's best friend. He goes along with Calvin because, well, that's what best friends do. |
| 372 | ** Hobbes is a cat. They have no loyalty to anyone whatsoever. |
| 373 | ** We should remember that technically speaking Hobbes does not "insult / hurt her along with his friend"; when Suzie is present and interacting with Calvin, Hobbes is in "stuffed toy" mode, so is merely a passive witness to what is going on at best. |
| 374 | *** For a reminder, the ending page of ''Scientific Progress Goes "Boink"'' has an image depicting Hobbes laughing along ''with'' Calvin at the unflattering drawing of Susie they did on the sidewalk (as she walks by and sees it herself). |
| 375 | *** Susie is not actually "interacting with Calvin" in that example. |
| 376 | [[/folder]] |
| 377 | [[folder: A Good Calvin Not Good Enough for Susie]] |
| 378 | * One detail about the "Good Calvin duplicate" arc kind of confuses me. Susie harshly rejects Good Calvin's attempts to be nice to him, even going so far as to [[DisproportionateRetribution threaten to clobber him after sending her a love note]]. Sure, knowing Calvin, Susie can be justified in distrusting him, but wouldn't she ''want'' Calvin to behave better, seeing that she has to put up with his antics on a regular basis? Especially considering the implication that the two are attracted to each other but don't know how to express it beyond light aggression. (this is, of course, [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane assuming that Calvin actually was trying to be good]]) |
| 379 | ** As far as Susie knows, this "Good Calvin" is just another one of Calvin's antics meant to annoy and/or trick her. Therefore, she treats it as such. |
| 380 | ** And yet on many other occasions, she kindly invites him to play house/tea parties and such (often to his chagrin) despite getting bullied by Calvin time and time again. Also, on rare occasions where he's not actively antagonizing her or bothering her with his habits (see the baseball arc), things don't get too intense between the two. |
| 381 | *** Other comics seem to imply that Susie doesn't have many/any friends besides Mr. Bun. She is never seen with any other kids outside of school. The only time she's even implied to have other people over was a birthday party and we still don't actually see anyone else besides her, Calvin, and Hobbes. Maybe Calvin and Susie both take what they can get, despite the mutual antagonism. |
| 382 | ** Calvin usually only acts "good" around Susie when he has some scheme to annoy her going on. Fairly or not, she does not trust him. And frankly, the fact that Susie is suspicious of Calvin is pretty much entirely his own fault. |
| 383 | ** This. It would be one thing if Calvin, in general, just started acting nicer to her. But to go from being a jerk to actively pursuing romance is very suspicious. Remember, OOCIsSeriousBusiness. |
| 384 | [[/folder]] |
| 385 | [[folder: The Good Girl Who Is Ludicrously Lonely]] |
| 386 | * Despite being a better (and certainly far less disruptive) student and [[NiceGirl more pleasant person to be around]] than [[BrattyHalfPint Calvin]] ([[BullyingADragon unless he provokes her, of course]]), Susie has been shown to be very lonely outside of interactions with Calvin and [[IJustWantToHaveFriends she explicitly states she doesn't have any real friends otherwise]]. So why don't any of her classmates befriend her for all those reasons and ''especially'' that [[TheDogBitesBack she has given Calvin what for on occasion]] (which they have presumably witnessed in class a few times, such as the "Mercury assignment" arc) considering their disdain with him for his antics? |
| 387 | ** She also seems [[InsufferableGenius the type to brag about her intelligence and accomplishments]]. There are plenty of reasons other kids might not like her. |
| 388 | ** With her worrying about her Master's Degree when she's only six, it seems likely that she probably has an EducationMama who drives her to succeed at all costs. Not the most fun friend to hang out with at that age. |
| 389 | ** At that age, the smartest kid in the class is almost never very popular, unless it happens to be a boy who is also good at sports. |
| 390 | ** While Calvin cares about random imagination and running around with Hobbes over making friends with other kids, Susie probably cares more about academics and achievements rather than making friends. Besides her schoolwork, she's into everything from piano playing to lacrosse. She doesn't need an EducationMama when she does all this of her own choice. |
| 391 | ** Keep in mind that in one arc, Susie has to go to Calvin's house after school for the day, and we see that the very first thing she does is take out her books and start doing homework, with her comments stating that she'll work even ''more'' later that night to make sure she understands everything. It's a remarkably rigid schedule for a six-year-old, so perhaps either her parents don't allow time for making friends (especially since she has other extracurricular activities on her plate), or Susie herself thinks she's "too busy" for it. |
| 392 | [[/folder]] |
| 393 | [[folder: We Don't Allow Video Games Here]] |
| 394 | * What is up with the lack of video games in the strip? This is noted on the main page but it warrants more discussion and can't simply be written off as Calvin's parents being technophobes. When the strip was started in 1985, video arcades were still plentiful; by 1986-1987, the Nintendo NES was firmly established as a smash mega-hit; and by the strip's end at 1995, the more advanced 16-bit video game consoles were out with computer gaming being big and even more advanced consoles in the works. Calvin never mentioning or playing a video game console, computer game or arcade machine is weird but that [[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot had so much potential for stories]]. We could have had Calvin's parents denouncing video games as an evil influence on Calvin, his teacher yelling at him not to play them as they distract him from schoolwork or even Hobbes criticizing the games' influence on children and society. The strip never shied away from social commentary with topics like the environment, consumer culture, art, etc. |
| 395 | ** If those are the roles that video games could play in the strip (evil influence, distracting from schoolwork, and so on) then television did all of that just fine. Video games would just be redundant. And Calvin isn't the video gaming type. He'd prefer either to be outside running around and engaging his own incredibly hyperactive imagination, or vegging out completely in front of the TV with no brain engagement at all. Nothing in between. Conventional hobbies aren't his jam. Plus, he would've had to be driven to the arcade, and isn't tall enough to reach the buttons on Pac-Man. Lastly, given the size of his parents' TV, their aversion to electronics does seem like a plausible enough explanation by itself. |
| 396 | ** Calvin doesn't like organized sports and finds rigidly authoritative environments in general to be a tremendous inconvenience (see Miss Wormwood's class and his home life), so chances are he wouldn't like video games of the time with their equally inflexible barrage of rules either. Not to mention that the vast majority of video games in the 80's/90's were known for [[NintendoHard high difficulty]] and Calvin ''has'' been shown to be a SoreLoser at more traditional games he plays with Hobbes, so that would also put him off gaming even more. |
| 397 | ** Who says it can't be written off as Calvin's parents being technophobes? A RunningGag throughout the strip was that Calvin's parents didn't have a VCR, a cassette deck in the family car or Internet access, much to their son's dismay. All those things were common or becoming popular when the strip ran, but Calvin's parents don't care about being behind the times. Remember, these are the people whose idea of a wild night Calvin described as "putting a scoop of regular coffee in with the decaf." |
| 398 | ** There's a tendency when looking back to assume that things we associate with a particular decade today were more omnipresent than in fact they were. Take it from one who was there and who knows from first-hand experience: while video game consoles were increasingly common and popular in the 1980s-1990s, they weren't so omnipresent and universal that a child who didn't possess one would be completely alien and unheard of. Certainly, during the era that the strip was in circulation, plenty of children in plenty of households knew what it was to have to find ways of entertaining themselves without the aid of a video game console. |
| 399 | *** Those kids also often went to a friend's house to play their friend's video games. Being much more of a loner, Calvin likely didn't have any friends to hang out with, and wasn't exposed to home console systems in the mid-to-late 1980s enough to notice. |
| 400 | *** Also, Calvin was perpetually six-years-old, and was just shy of the age group (8-14 year olds) to which the NES (1985), Genesis (1989), and SNES (1991) were primarily targeted. It's likely that his parents didn't think him old enough to own a home video game console. |
| 401 | [[/folder]] |
| 402 | [[folder:Cruddy Camping Trip]] |
| 403 | * It's been established that Calvin's mom doesn't like their annual camping trips with Dad either. Why don't they let him go with friends and stay home? |
| 404 | ** Because then she'd be solely responsible for Calvin, and she doesn't have a death wish? At least when Dad's around, whether they're at home or a campsite, he can take up some of the time looking after Calvin. |
| 405 | ** Besides her being solely responsible for Calvin if Dad goes alone, she goes on the camping trips because it makes Dad happy. He works in a stressful job that can consume long hours (a few strips show him working in the evening at home) and being out in the woods with the family helps him unwind. It just wouldn't be the same if he went alone. As for his going with friends, he and Mom are like their son in that they don't seem to have many friends besides each other, so he may not even have many other people he'd want to go with. |
| 406 | ** Being married / in a relationship frequently requires compromises, and doing things you don't necessarily wholeheartedly enjoy for the sake of peace and family unity. Dad likes going camping to unwind, so Mom sucks it up to make Dad happy, no doubt in the expectation that in the next vacation/getaway, Dad will do something Mom would like to do even if it's not necessary his favorite thing in the whole world to do. |
| 407 | *** This argument would be sound except for the fact that Mom loudly and bitterly makes it clear to both her husband and son that she hates camping, which seems to imply that she's there against her will. Dad's overall fanatical attitude (such as forcing them to be up and at 'em at six in the morning for fishing), plus his later preaching that as long as your vacations are difficult, life will ''seem'' like a vacation, suggests that he's not about to let anyone else pitch vacation ideas as long as he's the one making money. |
| 408 | *** True, but remember that we only see the family getaways that offer the most entertainment value. It is possible that Dad, despite his stubbornness, relents on some occasions and does some things that Mom likes to do (if only, again, for the purposes of having a peaceful life); we just don't see them because they turn out much better than his hare-brained camping expeditions, and thus have less entertainment value. As for "life will ''seem'' like a vacation if your vacation is awful", in context that's pretty clearly Dad just making excuses for a miserable family vacation rather than an iron-clad ideological stance adhered to with rigid force. |
| 409 | [[/folder]] |
| 410 | [[folder:Isn't Calvin Too Short To Shovel?]] |
| 411 | * Why does Calvin's Dad make our hero shovel the driveway when he's a six-year old so small that shorts are basically regular pants to him? Calvin looks like he can barely even hold the snow shovel in the first place. |
| 412 | ** Because [[MiseryBuildsCharacter it builds character]]. |
| 413 | [[/folder]] |
| 414 | [[folder:What exactly is going on in this strip?]] |
| 415 | * In one strip where they're camping, we get the following exchange: |
| 416 | -->'''Hobbes:''' Gosh, I could look at the stars all night\ |
| 417 | '''Calvin:''' Without the streetlights or pollution here, it seems like you could see forever into space\ |
| 418 | * SNAP* *CRUNCH*\ |
| 419 | '''Calvin:''' Of course, once you've seen one star, you've seen them all.\ |
| 420 | '''Hobbes:''' True, true, [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere should we mosey on back to the tent?]] |
| 421 | * What scared Calvin and Hobbes so much? Was the "snap crunch" the sound of something in the woods approaching them, or did they imagine that gravity disappeared? |
| 422 | * I think the former. Just little noises that you wouldn't care about...except when it's dark and you're in the wild. |
| 423 | [[/folder]] |
| 424 | [[folder:Why Is It Better To Tackle Than Tattle?]] |
| 425 | * For all of [[PintSizedPowerhouse Susie's ability to knock Calvin into next week]] upon getting hit with water balloons or snowballs, why is it necessary to pummel him when on other occasions, all she has to do is rat him out to Ms. Wormwood or Calvin's mom and they'll immediately punish him? (not to mention the one time Mrs. Derkins caught him dropping a massive snowball onto her head from atop a tree and called his mom) All things considered, it's not like adults are flat out useless in these situations. |
| 426 | ** Because Calvin's snowball and balloon attacks immediately set off her BerserkButton. According to Santa, he's gone after her over 300 times. She might tattle after only one balloon or snowball, but when it gets into double and even triple digits she just sees red. The only reason she needed Mrs. Derkins to tell Calvin's Mom about his dropping the huge snowball on her is because she was probably too dazed to nail him herself. |
| 427 | [[/folder]] |
| 428 | [[folder:How Did Mom Find Our Heroes So Fast?]] |
| 429 | * In the story arc where our heroes push the family car into a ditch, they run away because of what they think Calvin's parents will do to him. Despite that, Mom seems to find them pretty quickly, given that she probably would have needed time to call Dad and have him come home to handle everything with the tow truck and the police while she looked for our heroes. I'd have thought that gave our heroes lots of time to get a head start on Mom, but she seems to find them pretty quickly. Just how far did they even get? |
| 430 | ** Calvin's perspective is shown to be way bigger and more bizarre than anyone else's so (if you presume that's why his backyard wagon rides appear to go through a massive woodlands) chances are he didn't go actually too far outside the house. Alternately, maybe his mom heard Calvin panicking (when he mistook her for a bear going through the brush) and that's how she managed to find him. |
| 431 | ** Little kids in general tend to have different perspectives on time and distance than adults do (remember when a half an hour was an eternity as a kid while as an adult it's barely enough time to do anything?). Calvin ''thinks'' he's travelled a huge distance, but he's probably barely left the street. |
| 432 | [[/folder]] |
| 433 | [[folder:Genuine Good or Subtle Satire?]] |
| 434 | * Somewhat meta. It has not escaped my notice that despite Calvin putting his parents or Hobbes through torment and back (with other concerned parties mentioned either responding in turn ''or'' sometimes just being their harsher selves with far less impetus), they'll just as often be part of [[AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther a sentimental moment with each other]]. Given Watterson used the strip as a means for social commentary and the like (particularly with society and America's flawed education system), is the strip ''genuinely'' showing that others do love (or at most ''tolerate'') him [[HairTriggerTemper despite thoughtlessly flaring tempers when provoked]] (without considering how this might affect him nor trying to make anything better themselves) or is it more tongue-in-cheek, given everything we see in the strip? |
| 435 | ** The former. Social commentary and sentiment aren't mutually exclusive. Part of what makes the strip so beloved is that it manages to effectively combine some pointed commentary on American society in the 1980s with genuine warmth and sentiment in a balanced fashion without becoming either too snide by letting the former dominate or too saccharine by letting the latter take over. |
| 436 | [[/folder]] |
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