One story trope that I’ve always found unrealistic is the “heel face turn,” especially when it comes to bullies. This is probably the most unrealistic part of Jason Miller’s Bully Beatdown; that moment where the bully who just received the beatdown suddenly sees the light and is no longer a bully.
The more realistic situation is where the bully takes no personal accountability. Instead, after an instance of mugging the monster, he just leaves the current victim alone and then moves on to another victim. In some instances, the people he returns to bullying are his own former henchmen. This is the case with Paul Christoforo following the Penny Arcade incident I wrote about recently.
Based on the Examiner article, he has taken the douchebaggery up a notch. Once he realized just how (simultaneously) screwed over and irrelevant he had become, he has decided to hold his former employer’s domain name and e-mails hostage. Of course, it didn’t last long, but it’s the thought that counts.
Even after his supposed apology, he said the following:
Basically, what Mike did is this: If you were in a bar, drinking and hanging out with a bunch of people, and in that group of people was one guy that you didn’t know was a mixed martial arts champion. He knows he can kick the **** out of anyone in that bar, and you happen to pick a fight with him. He doesn’t tell you what he is, you take a swing at him and the next thing you know you have a broken jaw and you’re on the way to the hospital.
This was the inspiration for today’s image. The begged question of this statement is “how is it his fault that you picked the fight?” If you had never picked the fight, you’d still be talking through a normal jaw.