[02/07/07]Knife...

[MuuMuuMama10]

I think Stan's shocked, because, here's Rich, this handsome, smooth-talking, skateboarding, get's-all-the-girls guy, that Stan thinks is perfect. Then, he gets stabbed, he's vulnerable. He couldn't protect himself from getting hurt, he needed help, and he was weak. And then Stan finds out his perfect hero actually can't always take care of himself.

[Kitsuiko]

Aris, I don't think it works like that for Stan's hero worship. Rich is everything manly-man: he's slick with the ladies without even trying, he's buff, he's good-looking, he's talented, he's a badass... he can take on anyone.

Of course, that last one won't stick when he faints from a stab wound. Anyone else get the feeling he fainted from the shock of seeing the wound rather than from the injury itself?

Okay.

So what you're saying is that Rich can't be a manly man because when he was STABBED IN THE CHEST he passed out? I would like to call your attention to the letters in capitals. People are saying Rich is weak, or that Stan's opinion of him is going to change...

Frankly, I'm willing to make the official life ruling that if I see someone get stabbed in the chest and they live, they have passed any and all criteria of bada$$ery, twice over that they didn't go screaming and crying from it.

[Archon Divinus]

Nowhere has anyone said that Rich isn't manly because he passed out after getting stabbed. Of course he's not. That would be ridiculous. The man thrust has been that Stan is in shock because his hero got stabbed.

[Master of 7s]

What many of the female readers of P&A seem to be missing is 1) the male thought process is NOTHING like the female thought process 2)These are horomone raging teenage boys, not men. These two things preclude rational thought processes by nature. Jack is the exception to this rule.

Stan will likely lose a small amount of respect for Rich for passing out at the sight of blood "like a wuss", but likely regain some of that respect for clocking the guy who stabbed him. His perception of Rich will be inevitably changed regardless.

[Aris Katsaris]

What many of the female readers of P&A seem to be missing is 1) the male thought process is NOTHING like the female thought process

Which gendered thought process are *you*?

Because I was speaking as a guy when I was saying I didn't think that Stan will lose respect for Rich. Of course I'm nothing like Rich and Stan's crowd - and machismo is highly distasteful to me; so take that opinion with as many grains of salt you need.

But please don't think that the responses in this forum have been divided depending on the gender of the commentators.

And frankly I don't see Stan behaving right now in any way that e.g. Aggie wouldn't be likely to behave if she had just seen Marshall getting stabbed.

[Azrael44]

Oy all.

Well first: Ya it's a issue continuing Rich's arc, so no-one shoot the FNG (domo TC and Gisele). As for my take on poor Stan, it is this: for him "The King is Dead". His god has been shown to have feet of clay and does not yet know how to deal. And Jack? Well he seems to be one of those unfortunately rare individuals able to keep his head in a crisis situation act in a decisive manner when all others are froze like a deer in the headlights. Good for Jack, a hero is born? And lucky for Rich, who is most decidedly a jackhole, but one still does not wish to see him dead. May fortune smile.

[Black Mantha]

Do we actually know the name of the school?

Belleville Highschool

[daanton]

Murderder!

Or did he not know the knife was in his hand when he punched Rich??

[Stratburst]

What many of the female readers of P&A seem to be missing is 1) the male thought process is NOTHING like the female thought process 2)These are horomone raging teenage boys, not men. These two things preclude rational thought processes by nature. Jack is the exception to this rule.

Stan will likely lose a small amount of respect for Rich for passing out at the sight of blood "like a wuss", but likely regain some of that respect for clocking the guy who stabbed him. His perception of Rich will be inevitably changed regardless.

All of a sudden I'm glad I was never a "typical" teenage boy. I think my wife is glad as well.

I think you're over-analyzing. Stan's in shock, pure and simple. He's an upper-middle-class boy who has never seen a serious act of violence outside of a Hollywood movie. Now one of his best friends has been stabbed right in front of him, and he doesn't know how to react.

It's most likely that Stan will hate himself for (a) not preventing the attack in some way or (b) standing there like a lump on a log while Jack did the right thing.

Or (c) turn and kick the **** out of VB.

[Songbirdsara]

http://www.pennyandaggie.com/index.php?p=148

Noone else has posted it (I don't think) but this guy looks awfully familiar to me... hair style's a bit different, but the shirt and hair color match...

[adamiani]

Stan will likely lose a small amount of respect for Rich for passing out at the sight of blood "like a wuss", but likely regain some of that respect for clocking the guy who stabbed him. His perception of Rich will be inevitably changed regardless.

That said blood happened to be spurting out of a sucking knife wound in his chest may somewhat mitigate the wuss factor?

[JerrBear]

Aris, I don't think it works like that for Stan's hero worship. Rich is everything manly-man: he's slick with the ladies without even trying, he's buff, he's good-looking, he's talented, he's a badass... he can take on anyone.

Of course, that last one won't stick when he faints from a stab wound. Anyone else get the feeling he fainted from the shock of seeing the wound rather than from the injury itself?

Okay.

So what you're saying is that Rich can't be a manly man because when he was STABBED IN THE CHEST he passed out? I would like to call your attention to the letters in capitals. People are saying Rich is weak, or that Stan's opinion of him is going to change...

Frankly, I'm willing to make the official life ruling that if I see someone get stabbed in the chest and they live, they have passed any and all criteria of bada$$ery, twice over that they didn't go screaming and crying from it.

Well, if you go with the stereotypical perception of a "manly man", then a manly man would never pass out from being stabbed in the chest. Of course, this is how Stan sort of implies it when he described his hero Rich. But as I said, if you're going with the stereotypical perception of a manly man, likely one wouldn't pass out from being stabbed in the chest.

[Azrael44]

Oy all.

Soooooo...we're saying that a manly man like Rich here should be saying something like: "A stab to the chest? Pffft, 'tis but a flesh wound."? I do not know how many of use have been stabbed, shot, or otherwise forcibly perforated, but from my personal experience: I was completely unaware that I had ripped myself open until someone else pointed it out to me, then the shock and pain hits one rather like a board to the face ( also an unpleasant experience btw, even when it happens by accident ). Shock and pain are shock and pain and cause involuntary reactions such as passing out no matter how "manly" one might be. My thought for the day.

[Chrysee]

What many of the female readers of P&A seem to be missing is 1) the male thought process is NOTHING like the female thought process

Which gendered thought process are *you*?

Because I was speaking as a guy when I was saying I didn't think that Stan will lose respect for Rich. Of course I'm nothing like Rich and Stan's crowd - and machismo is highly distasteful to me; so take that opinion with as many grains of salt you need.

But please don't think that the responses in this forum have been divided depending on the gender of the commentators.

And frankly I don't see Stan behaving right now in any way that e.g. Aggie wouldn't be likely to behave if she had just seen Marshall getting stabbed.

The difference is Aggie doesn't worship Marshall like Stan worships Rich. Aggie may drool over him and think he's "perfect", but Stan sees Rich as "invulnerable". I don't think he will respect Rich any less for this, but his opinion of him will certainly -change- and he will possibly not look up to him in the same way anymore. That isn't necessarily a negative thing, it just means Stan's view will change. Similar things happen with very young children if something happens to a parent; they don't lose respect for the parent or love them any less, it just shakes up one of their basic beliefs about how the world works and makes the world a slightly scarier place for it.

[Fortune'sFool]

I work as a delivery driver, and most of the time, addresses with a "1/2" are apartments that are above a business or add-ons to a main building. But it is possible that the school gymnasium has its own address with a half, which I find believable based on how the area looks so much like a school.

Or maybe some sort of club add-on? Abandoned warehouse turned party zone for teens?

At any of my school dances, teachers would have been on that stabbing in an instant, I'd like to think, but we did have a kid get beat up right outside the secretary's office and no one noticed.

On another note, Rich's horns-metal symbol necklace makes me smile.