can we stop woobifying pete kowalski
So I’ve been watching the Bully fandom for a while and there’s something I seriously need to get off my chest. The way the fandom sees Pete is incredibly skewed - he’s not some perfect angel; he’s not some innocent, pure soul who’s just too good for Bullworth. He is, in his own right, an asshole - just perhaps not as transparently as every other character in the game.
First off, Pete’s an opportunist. He doesn’t have any friends because he can’t find them, and if you evaluate his behavior, it’s really not hard to see why. He tries to suck up to everyone, and that means being awkwardly nice to them to their face while not being afraid to shittalk them behind their back if need be to earn brownie points with someone else he’s trying to buddy up with - or have we already forgotten the cutscene where it’s outright stated he said Jimmy must have been pretty stupid to get kicked out from so many schools? Sure, Gary might have goaded him into saying it; it doesn’t change the fact that he still said it. He even makes it clear later on that he doesn’t think highly of either Gary or Jimmy. To him, Gary is a snake, and Jimmy is a psychopath, but he doesn’t care if it means having two people around who will somewhat tolerate him.
Hence Pete not having any friends. He has no filter, no true loyalties (at the start), and he’ll latch onto anyone so long as they give him the slightest attention. If you don’t see how that could be off-putting to the student body of Bullworth and keep them from coming close to him, you’ve probably never had to meet someone like Pete before in your life. As Algie puts it, he’s weird - and that’s saying something coming from Algie. The incident with Jimmy undoubtedly isn’t the first time where he’s come off as an opportunistic snake, talking shit about someone he’s outwardly friendly to in front of someone else he wants to impress. No one trusts someone like that. No one respects someone like that. Pete’s own actions - his own behaviors - rendered him an outcast at Bullworth; let’s stop pretending otherwise.
His lines in the game even imply as much, anyway. They’re nasty. They’re, at points, even worse than some of Gary’s worst lines. Let me just list a few examples.
“Why are we playing the special needs class?”
“Do we have to play with the girls’ team?”
“Even if you win, you’ll still be dumb.”
“Keep taking the medication!” (gee, I wonder why Gary bullies him)
“Your mom looks nice since she shaved off her beard.”
“Hey, I heard about your mom. She escaped from the zoo.”
“Do you understand sign language, dumbo?”
“You need plastic surgery.”
“At least I know who my dad is!”
“At least I’ve got opposable thumbs.”
“Whatever. You’re inbred!”
“Your parents are brother and sister!”
“You’ve got a genetic disorder.”
“Everyone says your mom walks the streets.”
“Here’s hoping someone gets badly hurt.”
And guess what? I’m not even a fifth of the way through his voice clips yet. So can we stop acting like Petey is some perfect angel whom everyone just mistreats for no reason already? It’s vastly simplifying his character, it’s turning him into a flat 2D cardboard from an actual well-rounded three-dimensional character, and frankly, it’s just irritating to see. He’s a dick. Practically everyone at Bullworth is. Let’s stop pretending otherwise, or that he wouldn’t have just as easily latched onto someone other than Jimmy if he thought he could worm his way into their good graces.
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