Chapter 6-Page-14-Lets Make A Deal
Feb04
Last time on Rival Angels, Sun was telling Sabrina why Cocoa was distrustful and that Cocoa sold out her best friend.
This update:
Talk about unsafe working conditions but Sun lays it out. One might be able to compare Cocoa’s attack with Hell’s Belles attack on Sabrina last season.
Voting Incentive!
Looks like these two are getting some unexpected company. Vote to get a sneak peek of Wednesday’s update!
Cocoa STEELHORSED!!
Although equally cowardly, what Cocoa did is nothing resembling Steelhorse’ing. I guess she did her own thing, we’ll call it Cocoa’ing, haha.
Well doing something bad like that is wrong but if it funny that she got cauhgt while the people that attacke Sabrina never di.d.
Sorry Chris, could no resist the joke. But you’re right is no the same as calling the cop… though she was a rat.
No matter what you call it, it caused some very hard feelings. !!
Its been HOW LONG and Sabrina is still naive about things??
I wonder if it has anything to do with the relatively easy rise to pro status for Sabrina and the hard, work for it, path Sun had?
People do dumb things and can change. I think Sabrina hopes she has changed and is willing to give her a chance. Sun believes once a scum always a scum….what a sad world to live in,
Sabrina is an optimist by nature. She WANTS to see the good in people which has burned her before.
Sabrina wouldn’t know a thing about getting jumped outside an event and being injured, right? Also, the dagger holding up a note is hardest of the hardcore when it comes to warnings.
So very true. Sabrina was never smart enough to go to the police.
Well, it she isn’t going to the police then the next obvious thing to do is to form a tag team with Cocoa and become her evil wrestling partner for a while and rule the ring!
I was channeling the wrestling horror stories from Puerto Rico in the 70’s (or was it the 80’s?). The Brazilian talent don’t play.
Yeah! I bet Sabrina, would do well as an evil Vixen tag team twin with Cocoa. At least for a few matches. ‘Kini bottom, white boots…Smashing!
Oh, Sabrina, Sabrina, Sabrina, I love you, girl, but just when I think you’ve gotten all the naive out of your pretty little head, you go and say something like this and break my heart. Yeah, Cocoa has a perfectly good explanation for injuring an opponent and then pinning the full consequence on her partner in crime: It’s called cowardice, rookie. Cocoa knew what would happen if she accepted the punishment, that she might as well retire right then and there because the wrestling world may have have evolved past her by the time she was able to come and she wouldn’t be as young or good as she once was, so rather than doing the right thing and admitting she shouldn’t wrestle anymore, your new BFF Cocoa decided to save her own skin at the expense of somebody who thought they could trust her.
You have summed up Sun’s incredulity in the last panel. Of course, Sabrina’s looking for the ‘other side’ of the story. Will she find it?
Is it just me or is Sabrina avoiding the obvious here ? 🙁
I mean its déjà vu all over again as Sun explains it to her, but she refuses to listen. Is it a sense of emotional pain that Sabrina will not listen or is there more to it that that ? 🙁
Sabrina’s been hit with some hard information about someone that she is quite fond of. She’s in a hard spot.
Cocoa is from Brazil, right? Then “Sao Palo” may need to be changed to “Sao Paulo”, I think. And, why isn’t Sabrina reacting worse to the information? She was a victim of basically the same tactics…
Thank you. 🙂
Well, I’m hoping Brina has as perfectly reasonable explanation for her current case of the dumbs, or Imma gonna be pulling the same face Sun is in the last panel. O_o
Sun has left plenty of room next to her for you line up. Sabrina doesn’t want to hear awful things about her buddy, especially one that she’s fond of.
Okay, first, to everybody saying ‘Brina is being stupid: if you had a good friend, and then you heard they allegedly did something bad, would you automatically believe the story and say “OMG, I had no idea, I’m going to start shunning this person who was my friend and I will never trust her again!”
OR…
Would you go to your friend and say “Um, hey, I just heard a pretty disturbing story about you, and I want to get your side of it…”
I am trying not to type anything rude here, but I am having a hard time, because stuff like this makes me angry.
Look, I’m not saying that if you’re friends with somebody then you should always forgive everything bad they do to other people and look the other way, because that wouldn’t be right. But if you are friends with somebody, the very least you owe them is to not believe every single nasty rumour you hear about them without first asking for their version of the story and trying to figure out if the rumour is fact or fiction.
Now I know what some of you are probably gonna say:
1. “It happened! We know because Albone drew a flashback and everything!”
My answer to that is: “Rashomon.” Everybody’s heard of Rashomon or, if you haven’t, you’ve seen an episode of a tv show based on it. It’s been done to death. It’s where you have something bad happening–usually somebody getting murdered–and several people saw it happen or saw the events leading up to it, but they all tell different stories about those events because they all saw the events from different points of view.
And–HERE IS THE IMPORTANT PART–when a tv show does this? The tv show always, ALWAYS, shows a flashback to accompany each different version of events.
My point is that just because we see a flashback does not mean the flashback actually happened.
I’ve seen this done in non-Rashomon stories as well. Like a character (let’s call her “Alice”) will describe how a different character named Bob committed a crime and we see Bob committing the crime on the screen with Alice doing the voice-over thing describing it. Except it turns out later that Alice was lying and instead she was the one who committed the crime, and we then see a different flashback showing Alice doing the deed.
Is that what’ll happen here? I don’t know. We’ll wait and see.
So, flashback =/= evidence one way or the other.
Moving on…
2. “Hey, Sun wouldn’t lie about something like this! We KNOW Sun, but we don’t know Cocoa!”
Yeah, Sun probably wouldn’t lie to Sabrina about something like this. (I say “probably” because she’s lied to Sabrina before. Remember when Yvonne told Sun to beat the Yorks in a tag match and Sun didn’t have a partner, so she went to Sabrina with a completely made up bullshit story about how the Yorks were picking on her? Yeah.)
Doesn’t mean that Sun’s telling the truth, though. Because Sun has no way of knowing the truth. Sun wasn’t there. At best, Sun got told this story by somebody who was there, who may or may not have had reason to lie or stretch the truth. That’s the best case scenario: second-hand information, with no corroboration.
If not, then it could be something like “I heard this from a wrestler who heard it over drinks with another wrestler who heard it from her brother who heard it from his wife who just started working for that Brazilian promotion Cocoa left where she heard it from some guy who’s part of the ring crew….” and so on.
Now regardless of where Sun heard this story, once she heard it how do you think she’d be most likely to react? Remember that Sun has kind of a temper, and is very protective of Sabrina. Also, remember that she’s jealous of Cocoa.
Would Sun be likely to keep an open mind and try to figure out exactly what the truth was, taking the time to question multiple people and compare their stories to see if there were any contradictions and/or common elements, etc?
OR…
Would Sun be more likely to just assume the worst about Cocoa, assume that Cocoa couldn’t be trusted, and tell Sabrina that Cocoa was a snake because it would be safest for Sabrina not to trust anybody?
Yeah, I’m thinking Sun would just assume the worst.
Moving on one more time…
3. “Dude, you’re being really biased here. You’re a total mark for Cocoa, and you’d probably keep on making excuses for her even if she made a full confession and then went on to hit Sabrina with a sledgehammer for no reason.”
I don’t think so. You know, I admit it, I like Cocoa. But I also like Sun. I do not want either of them to be the bad guy here, although it’s inevitable that they’re gonna throw down if the cover page is any indication.
What I would like to believe is that this whole thing is a stupid misunderstanding, of the same kind that makes superheroes get into fights with one another.
I would like to believe that, because I do not want to see this character to whom I’ve become attached turn out to be a total bitch.
And because I am attached to her, I don’t want to see her tried and convicted in the court of public opinion, a.k.a. these here comments, without proof.
Even if it wasn’t Cocoa, though, if it was some random person, I’d still want to hear her side of the story.
And you should too.
Because if all it takes to make people think somebody (fictional or otherwise) is a horrible person is one little accusation, then I guess it’s no wonder that there are so many who’ve ended up in prison over the years only to get exonerated by DNA evidence years later. Because people don’t really believe that everybody’s innocent until proven guilty.
And I’m sorry to get off-topic from Rival Angels, but I find that really fucking scary. The idea that the average person, when presented with somebody who may or may not be guilty and no evidence to prove or disprove it, is more often than not gonna believe that guy’s guilty. Not just believe it–be SURE of it.
Now, do I acknowledge the possibility that everything Sun just said happened exactly the way it was described, and that Cocoa is and has always been the scum of the earth who happens to do a real good job of pretending to be an okay person?
Yes, it’s possible.
Is it probable?
I don’t know.
I’m going to wait and see.
But what you guys call naïveté or stupidity, I call being open-minded.
well going by what Brina herself said in the last panel “i’m sure she’s got a reasonable explaination.” to me says brina already believes the story to be true but is hoping (cause brina likes Cocoa) that Cocoa has more background behind the attack (ie- other person jumped her first and this was payback), than what Sun is giving.
also the friend’s suspension and relocation wouldn;t be a rumor as 1) cocoa is here and 2) the suspension status as well as the victim’s hosipitalization could be checked out easily so Sun would just be passing along easily confirmed information and would be stupid to be lying about it as it’s clear Brina likes Cocoa and for Sun to make stuff up would threaten her own friendship with brina when the lies blow up in her face
the only parts of the story that would be up for question to me was if the locker room did really turn on her and make death threats and whatnot to make Cocoa fearful enough of her safety to come to Japan(speculation on sun’s part with possible confirmation by someone in sao palo which wuld not necessarily apply to the entire locker room however) . and the whatever background situation led to the beatdown in the parking lot was (sun just said “this happened” with no further context as to what led to it).
but still if i hear someone hospitalized someone else doing a random beatdown (which can be confirmed as apposed to a beatdown where the other person refuses hospital assistance and just staggers in saying “Cocoa did this”) i’m going to be very leery of that person from that point on- even if we’re friends i’d wonder when i may say or do something to set off that trigger and get a beatdown myself in the future.
so at the moment i’m going with the Brina is being overly optimistic here as far as Cocoa is concerned. BTW- i’m on team Cocoa as well but she’s not looking good here right now.
This is a most excellent discussion! All I can say is that the picture will clear up by then end of this chapter.
Good point; Sun could confirm whether or not the girl was injured and whether or not Cocoa’s friend was suspended.
There’s still a lot that isn’t clear, though. See Adon’s comment below and my response to that.
As for being leery of Cocoa–going by that logic, Sabrina should be leery of Sun, and of Kristyn. Because while neither one of them has hospitalized anybody as far as we know, we’ve seen both of them exhibit real mean streaks.
I mean, it’s just Sabrina’s good luck that she was assigned to the same house with those two and they decided to be friends with her as a result. If that hadn’t happened, then Kristyn might decide to torment Sabrina the way she tormented Sara Valentine, and Sun wouldn’t think twice about beating Sabrina to a pulp if Yvonne Carmichael told her to.
one thing i did forget to add regarding brina being leery about sun and kristin given their mean streaks (course brina has a smidge of a temper too) which ties into the whole story Sun’s telling here.
it all, to me,would depend on just who exactly is trying to pass along the warning. As it’s Sun in this case( aka Brina’s BFF) trying to warn Brina about Cocoa i’d think the idea of a best friend trying to protect another friend from a third party would hold more weight for Brina than if say- Professor Shannon McCourt walked by and told brina the same story.
kinda turning it around. if your best friend is trying to warn you about someone you’re friendly with and haven;t known as long i’d think that would have more weight than a casual friendly acquaintance’s telling the same story. brina doesn’t know the Prof to see if she’s really looking out for her while the BFF is much more likely to.
i think Brina and krystin would probably still get along- krystin pummeled poor Sara because of the “disrepsect to the ring” she was showing with her sexy-girl routine. Brina being all gung-ho about trying to be the best would probably be respected by krystin for her attitude even if she felt brina was too much of a showoff for her liking. Sun i could see turning on her easily if she hadn’t had the chance to know her before as a roomie- unless brooke was around constantly- i beleive mocking brooke was what brought the two together.
Just one answer destroyed Sun’s explanation..
come on…
I really like Sabrina goody good girl attitude now..
CAN YOU DIG THAT!!
SUN WONG!!!!
LOLZ XD
OOooooooo…there is gonna be one queen sized grudge match in somebody’s future! Yeah. Sun wouldn’t make this up. But I really like bad girl Cocoa too. I wonder if she rides a Harley too? OOOO! WHOA!
Cocoa would look pretty hot on a Harley. XD
WHOA! What if it’s Cocoa & Sabrina vs Sun and…I don’t know…Brooke? Team Beauty vs Team Beast!
Brooke would be a good choice, but she’d go with Nikki, Kyra or Yvonne before going to Brooke.
I am going to be shockingly reasonible here and point out that there are three sides to every story. Sun may believe she’s telling the truth, it may well be the truth, but it may very well not be either. Hearing about something isn’t proof.
If someone was to tell me that one of my Gal Pals had done something horrible, I wouldn’t immediately believe it to be true. They are my Gal Pal, and my Gal Pals all deserve the chance to defend themselves.
If anything, Sun is the one behaving in a naive fasion, you shouldn’t believe everything you hear because it’s what you want to hear.
That’s a great point about Sun. She figures that Sabrina should just take her word for it, and to forget any other feelings she has. Sun should know better. 😛
She should!
I will explain it to her…
THANK YOU!!!
Like jpiv said above, there are some parts of the story that Sun could check on fairly easily, but there’s also a lot that we don’t know and that Sun doesn’t know.
I think in the world of web-comics pro-wrestling, a flashback is the truth, except in those instances when it isn’t.
It absolutely is, until actually proven otherwise, like another flashback would need to come along and counter or even supplement the first flashback.
Pretty dark story. But Sun’s reaction to Sabrina’s optimism on the last panel just made me burst into laughter. Nicely done!
Could be darker. One local event a couple of years ago, some guys basically beat the promoter’s ass and a couple of his loyal guys over a backstage dispute. Folks in the crowd had no clue it wasn’t a work. Douche bags thought they were tough whipping on a nearly 60 year old man.
What was this? For some reason, I’m sensing it happened in the South. 😛 heh
Reminds me of Davey Richards, Kyle O’Reilly, and Tony Kozina in Iowa. Although in that case, Richards didn’t actually beat the promoter up; by his own account he told the promoter that if this were ten years ago, he would get his ass beat.
Richards went on in the same written statement to say (paraphrasing) “You’re saying I threatened you? How did I threaten you? If you really think that, go ahead, call the cops.”
Yeah, because if you tell somebody “I’d beat the hell out of you for that…if it were ten years ago,” surely the last thing you’re trying to do is intimidate them, or make them worried that you might change your mind and attack them in the present!
This is why I finally joined the rest of the IWC in hating Davey Richards. Asshole.
I’m glad you enjoyed. 🙂
Ouch! Nicely done story and art is right on.
Not sure what the VI is about. But check out the dude’s right hand. It needs some erasing or something?
Thanks, Champ and thanks for pointing out that bit about Ian’s hand. D’oh!
stick with it Sun it is hard to reason with stubburn idoicy
Well, Sabrina’s the Queen of Denial. But we’ve seen the evil side of Cocoa a week or two ago, and I think it probably happened. Bad things are coming.
But did we?
Context can be a terrible mistress!
Did we see what we thought we saw…
“Evil side of Cocoa”? If you’re talking about the comic with her getting a drink from Dragon Fire, she’s just staring daggers at Sun in the last panel.
This by itself =/= evil. Particularly not if she heard about Sun calling her “Brazilian Barbie” and saying god-knows-what-else about her in between the end of the last chapter and the beginning of this one.
I love me some Sun Wong, but that’s in spite of certain character traits, one of which is that she can be really nasty to people who don’t necessarily deserve it. I’m sure lots of people in Rival Angels hate her guts (Brandy Brandt and Vanessa Holiday sure do), so Cocoa feeling the same way doesn’t tell us anything.
I think they’re talking about Cocoa beating down… that girl Sun replaced who’s name currently escapes me. Just before the Christmas break.
I’m going to agree with Rob B and GoldenGirlDizzy here… While it looks damning, Sabrina feels she needs to give Cocoa the benefit of the doubt and a chance to give her side of things. Is Sun telling the truth? I think so, as far as she knows. But any verbal communication is going to be colored by a person’s own perspective and biases. It’s like the Rashomon example… often times the stories told seem totally different, but the teller is giving the truth as far as they know.
Were there mitigating circumstances? Why did they do the beatdown? Did Cocoa have a good reason to turn on her BFF (like maybe she was the one going too far and didn’t listen when Cocoa tried to stop her)? I’m not saying Cocoa is innocent, and I’m certain her version will cast her in as favorable a light as possible even if she does tell the truth. I’m just saying that Sabrina may indeed be naive, but don’t be so quick to bash her because she doesn’t want to condemn someone on hearsay.
That’s actually one of the questions I had, and one worth asking.
I mean, it is worth finding out who exactly had the idea for the parking lot assault, Cocoa or her friend. If it was premeditated at all, of course.
If it wasn’t premeditated, then it’s worth asking who started the fight. It’s very unlikely that the other girl would’ve swung on both of them because that would’ve been stupid. But here’s a more plausible idea: she swung on Cocoa’s friend while Cocoa wasn’t there, Cocoa walked by and noticed the two fighting, and jumped in.
Could Cocoa have wanted to stop the beatdown after a certain point? We don’t know.
Too much room for doubt. While I’m sure that neither one of them is anywhere near Japan, I’d be real interested in hearing what the other two people involved had to say about the incident, along with Cocoa’s account.
yeah there’s still a lot of background leading up to the beatdown still in the air atm. Cocoa ws pretty quick to point the finger at her friend though when they got in trouble for it. whether it was because the other person did start it or Cocoa was trying to cover her cute behind we can’t say yet. also how did the beatdown end- did cocoa stop it? was the victim beaten unconscious so they decided to leave? did someone else (security?) beak it up? did the FRIEND try and stop Cocoa and got the finger pointed at her as a result? still a few ways this can go a a majority of the options don;t look good for BB (aka Brazilian Barbie not Barbie Blank aka Kelly kelly)
Oh, not trying to paint Cocoa as all sweet and innocent, and I have no doubt that she did or was involved in SOMETHING. The issue here is that a lot of the information out there is based on he said, she said, and some things likely happened behind closed doors, which leads to speculation. The thing is that Sun’s conclusion is reasonable based on what she knows and what she can piece together. But I suspect that there is info there that the public, and therefore Sun, do not have available.
Honestly, I doubt that Sabrina has considered all of this, apart from a general ‘there has to me more to it’. But sometimes the obvious answer (when there’s not a lot of actual hard evidence to work with) is not the correct one.
And all THAT said… I personally am up in the air on what and how much Cocoa did. I do not think she did nothing based on her own behavior (remember, in her first match with Brina she pretty blatantly cheated and I still think that the ref dropped the ball in that regard) and her reaction to Sun is troubling if nothing else.
All I’m saying is that we shouldn’t mix what we suspect with what we *know*.
Oh Sabrina… you’re such a sweet girl, giving people the benefit of the doubt… but sometimes all that does is let the real scum close enough to knife you in the back
Way I see it, it’s either do that, or never trust anybody. And if I believed I couldn’t trust anybody at all and was suspicious all the time, I’d probably go crazy.
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again. She really is a natural blonde isn’t she.
So Cocoa’s like Chloe, but without the “evil cow” dialogue….