Gunnerkrigg Court

She did get held back a year, yeah? He didn't express it well, but he was trying to get her life back on track. It's always a pileup of partly separate issues between Tony and Annie. And they don't talk, so the misunderstandings just keep compounding with each other.

Tony is incredibly irresponsible - bordering on abusively negligent - but he isn't an evil guy.

I want the guy to get help, but I just can't shake the feeling that his friends keep making excuses for him. Even if Annie suddenly gets to know the real him, that won't justify the years of neglect.

When Tony was just a distant asshole, it was easy to dislike him. Surprisingly, I find myself disliking him more after he has been introduced because his behavior feels so fixable, you know? He's not ireedeemable, just...oblivious. And his friends seem to be encouraging this behaviour.

edited 23rd Nov '17 6:23:55 AM by GutstheBerserker

Pushing him to actually talk to Annie is something that needs to happen if this gulf between them is ever going to get bridged, though. And while it might seem more just to punish Tony for how he's treated Annie, in the long run it probably will do her more good to at least understand him. And then she can decide for herself whether or not she wants him in her life after that.

Tony is a bad parent, but bad in the sense that he's incompetent, not malicious.

I don't think his friends are enabling him at all. Look at all of Donald's interactions with him since his return — he hasn't smiled at him once, and clearly hasn't let up on him for his treatment of Annie. He's either been calling him out or getting him to talk for Annie's benefit. Anja telling Annie of how Tony and Surma got together doesn't seem like excusing him, either, but letting Annie know of how her dad works, as corroborated by Kat. Because of his massive block concerning Annie and his guilt over Surma, Annie just will never get to see any side of Tony other than the cold, aloof robot that he's been to her most of her life, doubly so since returning to the Court. It doesn't excuse him, but it does explain him.

Coyote called him "the broken man" for a reason.

Fair point. They probably aren't enabling him, per se. Donald did indeed tear into Tony during that dinner scene.

But still, I'm also reminded of that earlier chapter when Tony contacted Donald through a coded message sent to Annie. Donald rationalized it away by saying that Tony only went through the trouble of sending the coded message to Annie because he wanted to check up on her, even if his main purpose was to enlist some help with the sattelite.

In general, I just feel that the Donlans too frequently have to explain Tony's behaviour to Annie. I'm sure she is tired of hearing "But he really does care!"

And no, I don't want Tony to suffer. God know's he's already done enough of that. Just questioning how his friends have been dealing with the situation.

edited 23rd Nov '17 7:50:07 AM by GutstheBerserker

Yeah, but at the same time, they're really the only ones who could. And at this point, they're kind of the closest thing Annie has to actual parents.

Most interestingly about the dinner bit. Tony was ready to start explaining, he was going to no problem, then Kat opened her big mouth and tore into him just as Donald had gotten Tony to open up.

Moral of the story, nice going Kat.

That's not how that happened.

Ah. Clearly I misremembered, sorry.

1. "Donald did indeed tear into Tony during that dinner scene.

But still, I'm also reminded of that earlier chapter when Tony contacted Donald through a coded message sent to Annie. Donald rationalized it away by saying that Tony only went through the trouble of sending the coded message to Annie because he wanted to check up on her, even if his main purpose was to enlist some help with the satellite."

Plus there's the fact that: - He resorted to bringing a blinker stone to monitor info and getting Tony drunk to get said info out of him to pass on to Annie, which seems like acknowledgement that his friend screwed up.

- Heck when he leaves to give the blinker stone to Annie, he doesn't even help a drunk, sleeping Tony to a more comfortable chair.

2. As someone who really hated Tony upon his return, I have mellowed out since learning more about him, plus the story taking some breaks from him after, I'd argue that what we've learn ironically also makes it harder to respect him in some ways. To explain myself, lets look at some comparisons.

The first is from Tom commenting on the page where we learn why Tony chewed out Annie for the make up: "Someone who hides the fact they are flipping out? Seems unreasonable to me. (What I'm saying here is that Annie does the same thing)"

And from a post in this forum from the previous page: "They're very similar in certain ways. Like, I think both Annie and Tony ending up blaming themselves for Surma's death, Annie only later understanding why Surma died and assuming that Tony blamed her, Tony blaming himself from the start and believing that he didn't deserve forgiveness and that Annie would be better off without him. That's my take on it, for the moment, at least. I guess we're about to find out."

But there's a vital difference which I think hurts Tony's credibility more. Aside from trying to save Surma from a certain death for fire elementals, he seems content to either accept a status quo or avoid dealing with a problem.

Specifically, despite having more decades of maturity and experience, he's content in believing she hates him and just prefers to let things stay as they are.

On Annie's end, she actually wants to improve things between them whether it's through the misguided notion of cheating to get high marks, or trying to understand his behavior & way of thinking. Yeah I know that adults aren't perfect, but it's not looking good when the kid is actually doing better than the parent.

I mean even if things improve between them, it seems like it will be the result of Annie making use of what she knows rather than Tony growing as a person and making the first move for a change.

So yeah to some degree, knowing what makes him tick makes him more understandable and easy to sympathize with, but unless there's any sign that he's tried to improve his own hangups, what we do know about him to some degree still makes him look worse.

1914

And now some jokes

Damn it, her hopeful smile is so painful to see...

Well said

edited 24th Nov '17 3:22:34 AM by GutstheBerserker

Annie + Tony = stand-up Nightmare Fuel.

edited 24th Nov '17 3:46:19 AM by Euodiachloris

Definitely not meaning to to imply that Tony wasn't the guiltier party, here, but he's obviously got no intention of or idea how to fix this problem on his own. Annie doesn't know how either, which is more than fair on her part, but still, somebody's got to step in or this is only going to get worse for both of them.

Notice how Annie freezes up here, too— and smiles. She has no idea how else to react, so she's settling for the path that seems least likely to result in conflict. But some conflicts are necessary. Healthy, even.

Hmm, I saw the smile more as a "I want to share the joke too! See? We're all having fun! Please laugh with me, Dad! :'-) "

But your interpretation makes sense as well.

edited 24th Nov '17 6:14:10 AM by GutstheBerserker

That's kind of what I'm getting at. I don't mean the smile is healthy— it's just a mask. There's some necessary unpleasantness to get through, here.

I saw it as something a bit lighter, but eh. The simpler artstyle here makes Tony look more like his younger self, which I think might be the intent.

:]

Buckle up, Kat, you're in for an awkward ride. Defrosting Ice King is never an easy task.

So much bottled up emotions on such a closed area... And Annie needs to confront her father on so many things... I don't think Tom will pull another "Breakout" on us. There is going to be a release, but will it be positive or negative one?

edited 24th Nov '17 7:21:42 AM by Millership

1915

Additional work

<thump-thump-thump-thump-thump>

Also, Kat... you should know by now: Tony is sodding awful at picking social hints and small talk cues up.

edited 27th Nov '17 1:34:17 AM by Euodiachloris

Seriously, Tony?

He freezes up in the presence of more than one other person, and he can never be truly alone with Annie. This is going to take some work.

And I thought my foot was magnetically attracted to my mouth.