BoM/TWS Message Forum

That’s definitely fair in regards to Marc letting Will impersonate him and the Jessica situation being examples of Marc doing bad stuff. They were both wrong, though I also find them both more understandable cause I get the sense that Marc was kinda bullied into the first, and the second can at least be spun as trying to solve a problem. The Stephanie thing is pretty messed up no matter how you look at it. But I suppose you’re not wrong that I’m sympathetic to Stephanie here because we’ve seen her perspective and know why she is what she is. It’s something I thought about and almost mentioned. I feel bad for Stephanie over the whole Marc situation, but you are right that she’s being petty over it, that she’s not entitled to Marc, and that she doesn’t have the right to take it out on Hannah for acting when she didn’t.

That said, I get the impression that the reason that Anita and Hannah fight so much is at least in part because neither of them are the type to play second fiddle, and I understand why Anita would be upset that a girl from a rival school transferring in and trying to run things. The way that Kelsey’s mind describes her as having the personality of an avalanche in "A New Leaf" , plus the bullying way that she interacts with Evie in that branch among others gives me the impression that Hannah is more of a problem than Anita. I also partially base this off of the fact that in the 8th Question of the Week thread on this forum, Seuzz’s proposal for an Anita/Chelsea swap gives me the impression that Anita Neuevo is a tough but fair leader who doesn’t go looking to start drama where there wasn’t any before. Of course that was 6 years ago and isn’t actually in the story, but I don’t think the story itself contradicts that interpretation.

That being said, I do think it would be quite interesting to see Hannah’s perspective on things, especially considering there’s a lot of questions about what exactly caused her to transfer over to Westside and get embroiled in so much politics.

Also, you mention that Will routinely does worse things. While I definitely agree that Will has done much worse, I don’t feel the same way about that kind of thing because I don’t really expect better from Will. He’s written to be quite flexible morally given his nature as the protagonist on a CYOA story, and I see how fucked up he can get with the right negative influence, so I’m not gonna be surprised by him doing questionable things. Disappointed by them perhaps, but not surprised.

Honestly though, I don’t really see Stephanie as treating Will all that horribly. She’s not nice to him, but I don’t think she treats him any worse than she treats anybody. It’s just how she is. There are multiple points in the story where she tries to help him, like when she tries to set him up with Bailey, tries to, or when she tried teaching him some basketball moves after their talk in "One Guy, Three Girls, Zero Chances" . I like Stephanie a lot personally, and I think she’s a good person, just lost in teenage romantic drama and surly because of it.