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Gabrielle to this point isn't the most fleshed out character.
Her big character trait is 'she enjoys torturing people' (going back to MC).
When somebody she is tormenting starts swinging a sword at her out of rage, I'm inclined to take their side because Gaby has shown us nothing that would imply it isn't justified.

Taking a swing at someone with a weapon, simply because they annoy you is hardly justifiable. That's an extreme overreaction.

Gabrielle also annoys Tandy and she's never resorted to assaulting her for it. Instead, she beats Gaby at her own game.

Quote removed. The DAMNed

Alexander Collins wrote:No Gabrielle, its because your so socially inept you can't just tell her what you really think about her. Like a ten year old boy, you think hurting her will get her to like you.

That, or she wants to break her to the point that she submits to her will. :-/

Gotoh wrote:Taking a swing at someone with a weapon, simply because they annoy you is hardly justifiable. That's an extreme overreaction.

Well yeah obviously, although I'm willing to let it slide due to the old cartoon comedic violence principle, like Homer regularly strangling his son over in the Simpsons.


I like your approach of giving Gabrielle the benefit of the doubt, although I would have to agree with others that given what (admitedly little) we know of her, it is not unreasonable to conclude that she is the jackass that is to blame overall.
True, we don't know how this all started, it Naomi could very well have been a jerk whe Gabby arrived, who would have then responded in kind, then feeling justified escalating things to today's apparent breaking point.

The point is : we don't know, but while our picture is limited, it is what we have to work with to characterise their interactions & characters, and so far we have not seen Naomi do anything to Gabrielle that would justify Gabrielle's dicking with her at seemingly every opportunity. Basically, it looks like an asymetrical sibling conflict, otherwise we would probably have been shown Naomi getting her own punches in, either through a montage or Gabby or Naomi themselves simply stating that the agression is not one-sided.

I'm not saying it's the correct conclusion to draw, just that at this point, it is far from being unreasonable.


Also, on a more general note, I feel it very cheap when a writer clumsily tries to justify a character's actions after the fact, without foreshadowing this explaination or have it flow naturally into the story. Compare :
- "Oh look, turns out these guys were alien body-snatcher, looks like I was right to gun them down." --> Good for a body-snatcher black comedy
to
- "I gunned these guys down because I knew they were body snatcher, but I didn't have the opportunity to tell you until now." --> Good for a serious body-snatcher story

well since everyone's throwing in their 2 cents, i also find Gabby to be a terrible person, constantly being cruel and needling someone right where it hurts. Literally i think the only "good" thing she's done this entire strip is rescuing Teddy. One instance of being "good" BUT not altruistic...she quickly made sure she got TWO somethings out of saving Teddy.

Did everyone forget that she was stopping Tandy from helping until the Succcubi pheromones infected her?! How long would Teddy have had to be beaten up...so even THAT'S not that great.

Until we see what's provoking it, she's basically doing this for...no reason.

X3N0-Life-Form wrote:Well yeah obviously, although I'm willing to let it slide due to the old cartoon comedic violence principle, like Homer regularly strangling his son over in the Simpsons.

This. I've said the same thing in several of my earlier posts.

It's the reason why I think others are making a bigger deal of this than it actually is.

X3NO-Life-Form wrote:I like your approach of giving Gabrielle the benefit of the doubt, although I would have to agree with others that given what (admitedly little) we know of her, it is not unreasonable to conclude that she is the jackass that is to blame overall.

On one hand, I agree that it's an easy assumption to make about Gabrielle, as far as her trolling/bullying Naomi. I just feel we should get both sides of the story before people start breaking out the torches and pitchforks.

Gaby's a jerk, but she's a far cry from being a Cartman, if you get my drift.

TwoWayStar wrote:Did everyone forget that she was stopping Tandy until the Succubi pheromones effected her?!

No one's forgotten, 'cuz several people kept bringing it up. And my answer's still the same: she wasn't stopping Tandy from helping Teddi, she waiting for confirmation of Tandy's suspicions about Teddi possibly using sorcery.

It's no different than when Faith decided to test the Hellrunes first, to see whether Cerise was telling the truth about them being witches. The same way she had Tandy confirm whether she was telling the truth about luring them into a trap.

Gabrielle seems to at least understand that much. Had she let Tandy rush in before they had any evidence, they wouldn't have squat.

There was at least some difference. In Abbot's case, the testing itself was not guaranteed to threaten severe physical injury and even mutilation. That only would have come upon confirmation.

In Teddi's case, the 'testing' was already a danger to her health.

I'd be more willing to give Gabrielle the benefit of the doubt if her key character trait wasn't 'a sadist who enjoys torturing people'.

Gabby Seems to be a person obsessed with finding the truth in everything, who likes manipulating things on her favor( she makes her "adoptive parents" think she is the daughter they wanted even when they have Naomi and probably before she came they were happy they had Naomi ) and I think Gabby tends to steal BFs ( and maybe GFs? ) of girls she finds interesting ( Teddi and Amelia's BF? who I guess is bi? )

Gabrielle's love of torturing others and boyfriend-poaching were established as far back as MC. Abbot even had to rein her in on the torture thing.

Error of Logic wrote:Gabrielle's love of torturing others and boyfriend-poaching were established as far back as MC.

She's in love with the idea of torturing others, except she's always denied the opportunity. There was a KAOS agent (from 'Get Smart!') that used the same schtick. Every time he asked his boss if he could torture Max and 99, his boss would tell him "no", then he'd walk offscreen and sulk.

Each time Gabrielle's had the chance, it ends the same way: she gets denied and she sulks.

Gotoh wrote: I'm curious about whether Naomi's accusation is true, or if she's blowing things out of proportion.

It is obvious that she is exaggerating, Gabby has not taken Naomi's clothes yet

Gotoh wrote:Naomi has no claim on Teddy, since they aren't dating, which makes him/her fair game. Notice Teddy didn't object to Gabrielle coming onto him, until after they'd already made out. And he only stopped for Chloe's sake, not Naomi

Jealousy is not always rational

brasca wrote:Gabrielle's continuous torment isn't nice, but so far her behavior is on par with most siblings

Please explain that to users who hate abby

Gotoh wrote:

Error of Logic wrote:Gabrielle's love of torturing others and boyfriend-poaching were established as far back as MC.

She's in love with the idea of torturing others, except she's always denied the opportunity. There was a KAOS agent (from 'Get Smart!') that used the same schtick. Every time he asked his boss if he could torture Max and 99, his boss would tell him "no", then he'd walk offscreen and sulk.

Each time Gabrielle's had the chance, it ends the same way: she gets denied and she sulks.

You can't be certain that her every impulse to torture has been stymied, given the information provided.

brasca wrote:Nimble little minx isn't she? This is definitely someone that belonged on Faith's student council.

The bucket thing didn't make sense. Even if Gabrielle had perfect aim, the arc was so high Naomi would have had to have her feet stuck to the ground.

brasca wrote:

Cortez wrote:Those are the sort of targets usually go for. Bullies don't usually pick on people that would be a challenge.

But Naomi is actually one of the queen bees of her school so I would say she is in fact a challenge for Gabrielle. If she were a social outcast she'd willingly subordinate herself just to be Gabrielle's minion, but Naomi has a strong will and perhaps that is why Tandy suspects she secretly fancies her.

Gabrielle's continuous torment isn't nice, but so far her behavior is on par with most siblings although this might be more difficult for Naomi who seems to be an only child before her foster sister arrived. And let's not forget that at this time Naomi is swinging a weapon used against demons so Gabrielle is well within her right to defend herself.

Naomi may be a cheerleader, but she's not presented as a queen bee like Triana is. She has geeky interests like debate club and UFOs. She can't really be Gabrielle's minion because they go to different schools.

Drugging someone with truth serum to humiliate her and seducing what she thinks is her crush on Naomi's own bed is definitely not par for siblings even in soap operas. It establishes someone as the villain even there.

tau neutrino wrote:Drugging someone with truth serum to humiliate her and seducing what she thinks is her crush on Naomi's own bed is definitely not par for siblings even in soap operas. It establishes someone as the villain even there.

Not without context. That exact same situation in a comedy becomes just that: comical. Whereas in a drama or a thriller, it'd be presented as anything but.

The stunts Gabrielle has pulled are no worse than what's been done by other sitcom sibling duos. One of my favorites was when Ross tricked his sister, Monica, into thinking she had a phone call from her boyfriend. She takes the phone and asks if she left her diaphragm at his apartment, only to realize seconds later, that it was their mom on the other end. It ends with Ross doing a troll dance while Monica chucks fruit at him.

Did that make Ross a villain? No. Ross loved his sister, but he wasn't above trrolling her and the audience cracked up when he did it.