Advanced Criminal Justice, Class #4, Period 1, 01.19.06

[bugofjustice.livejournal.com]

[OOC: Internet at work is good! Yays! Thanks on many levels to psycho_barbie for this class idea. Class Info Post.]

The lights were dimmed in The Tick's classroom today. A television was on. Popcorn had been made by a wee dragon and was readily available at the front of the class. The Tick and Lockheed were currently sitting at the back of the room, ready for a movie.

"Hello, class! Today is our last scheduled day discussing Bugs Bunny and the role of his cog in Justice. This class will be a bit different than the other discussions on Mr. Bunny, though."

"As it turns out, we may have been mistaken about Mr. Bunny's position in the Dartboard of Right. He isn't the Single 1. Nor is he Just off the Board. Nay, chums. He's not even the Bullseye! He is the Triple 20."

"And now, I have a short film for you to watch. It's only seven minutes long, so all will make sense shortly. Rory? If you could start the film?"

Rory hit play and a cartoon started. After the Merrie Melodies card, the title "Duck Amuck" came up on screen. For the next seven minutes, the class was treated to Daffy Duck being tormented by a mysterious animator. Finally, Mr. Bunny is revealed.

Rory stopped the DVD and Tick turned the lights back on as he returned to the front of the room. "Now you see. Daffy Duck - Mr. Bunny's only true rival, the greedy narcissist who has frequently tried to thwart Mr. Bunny for selfish means - is at the Mercy of Justice in the form of a paintbrush and eraser. Controlling these Drawing Tools of Justice? Mr. Bunny himself."

"I was thinking about what Callisto has said this past week about Mr. Bunny being a tool of the gods, going forth and leaving Justice in his wake. This film suggest that Mr. Bunny has great power to wield for Justice indeed."

"Now, I'm not claiming that Mr. Bunny is a Justice God or anything. That's a philosophy issue. This is a Justice class. I try not to mix and match subjects like that. I find it confusing. But his power must be noted. Perhaps he's actually a superhero! Perhaps he's a benevolent cosmic entity, curious about our culture and willing to stand up for our concept of Right while still having some chaotic fun! Or perhaps he's just a psychotic little bunny who has fun tormenting people!"

"So I present to you a question: Taking this film and our previous discussions of him into account, what do you feel Mr. Bunny's role in Justice is? Is he a Servant of Justice? Does he control Justice with a paintbrush? Is he a mere trickster, disrupting Justice except for when it suits him? On the Flipped Coins of Justice, does he come up Heads, Tails, or Standing Up On the Edge? Discuss, class!"

Comments

Talk [Class #4]

[bugofjustice.livejournal.com]

...

Re: Talk [Class #4]

[notstakedyet.livejournal.com]

"Maybe he's just a helpless pawn of the powers that be," Angel said. "Maybe he'd be thrilled to live his own life and be neither good nor evil except nobody's giving him a chance."

Re: Talk [Class #4]

[bugofjustice.livejournal.com]

"So you're going back to the theory that Mr. Bunny is some sort of destined Champion again? Very interesting. And aren't you glad Chuck Jones wasn't your PTB?"

Re: Talk [Class #4]

[oatmanspatient.livejournal.com]

"But we've seen the rabbit before doing things that are illegal. Perhaps the rabbit had a criminal past and is now trying to redeem himself by punishing criminals."

"On a separate note... I seem to remember some footage regarding Mr. Duck saying that he was a superhero... a "thuperduck" as it were. Could it be that he turned to a life of crime?"

Re: Talk [Class #4]

[bugofjustice.livejournal.com]

"He has also thwarted many crimes as well. And many of his illegal acts were done while thwarting evildoers. I suppose we'll have to have a discussion about Vigilante Justice soon to make sure we're all on the same page about it."

"I don't think Mr. Duck has necessarily become a criminal. I do think it's clear, however, that his abilities as a hero are somewhat compromised by his greed and ego. He may not be evil, but he has certainly fallen from his position as a Thuperduck."

Re: Talk [Class #4]

[can_be_more]

Aeryn is in a bad enough mood to just get confused by the metaphors, so she just asks, "I'm not adverse to getting the bunny to tell us what his role is." Her methods do involve torture. And maybe a Rubik's Cube.

Re: Talk [Class #4]

[psycho-barbie.livejournal.com]

"While he sometimes takes a proactive role in seeking justice, Mr Bunny's just deeds seem just as often to be the accidental by-product of some self-serving act. While it's possible he fufills the role similar to a trickster god, it's just as likely he's a pawn of the same."

Re: Talk [Class #4]

[fates_jaye]

"Maybe Mr. Bunny's just consistently in the wrong place at the wrong time," Jaye suggests. "He's got a bad sense of direction. He never turns the right way at Alberqueque."

Re: Talk [Class #4]

[carter-i-am.livejournal.com]

"I'm not sure he's acting on behalf of the Gods at all," Sam argued. "Chaos Theory posits that it may actually be a sensitivity to the initial conditions of a situation that causes a seemingly random effect to occur. In which case, it could be something very simple (but currently unknowable) that has caused Mr. Bunny, usually viewed as a hero or Agent of Good, to instead be viewed as a trickster in this particular instance."

Re: Talk [Class #4]

[actingltcrumpet.livejournal.com]

"Philosophy makes my head hurt, so I'll not get into the notion of Mister Bunny as a Justice god," says Archie. "But as a, er, Flipped Coin of Justice, I would say that he tends to stand on the edge until a blow sufficient to shake him comes along, and then it is purely a matter of chance. More often than not he is a disruptor of Justice, but I suppose there's some kind of cosmic balance to the Universe that allows everyone the chance to serve as an instrument of Justice at least once. Maybe it was his turn then, and his, er, coin just happened to tip the other way for once?"

Re: Talk [Class #4]

[cameronmitchell.livejournal.com]

Cameron actually spent most of the movie laughing. It's hard not to as it's a great cartoon. He quickly tries to look serious when Tick is back at word and contemplates the question.

"I don't think that because he for once does the right thing, that it suddenly makes up for his past actions. It seems that Bugs doing good is more of an exception to the rule than anything else. I think that he just really likes fooling people and that he isn't so much a servant of Justice as that he is a by coincidence freelancer for Justice because fate or maybe just plain luck brought him there."

Re: Talk [Class #4]

[mparkerceo.livejournal.com]

Parker's getting agitated by all this manipulation, frankly. "He's not a Servant of Justice, he's a show-off with a warped sense of humor. He's doing all of this for his own amusement; it just *happens* that he gets more glee out of dispensing justice-- or maybe revenge?-- at the same time as he has his twisted fun. I'm usually on the side of bunnies, and I'm not saying Daffy doesn't need a keeper. But come on! Standing back and changing the conditions over and over so Daffy is about to have an aneuryism, how is that fair?"

"And let's say he is some kind of Trickster avatar, which seems most likely from the evidence. They're just as likely to turn on the innocent bystanders who wander by as they are the guilty or criminal. If it wasn't funny, he wouldn't do it, regardless of the potential for justice to go unpunished. He's not using his powers for good, if powers they are. He's using them for entertainment."

Parker scowls, possibly more irate about this than the subject warrants.

Re: Talk [Class #4]

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

Rory sat in her usual seat near the back, save the times when she got up to stop or play the DVD, and worked a bit on grading the past week's work.

For what it's worth, she thought the rabbit simply served Justice when he felt like it. Because sometimes people are only nice when it suits their purposes. Sometimes people only call when they feel like it. Sometimes people want to only have a relationship on their terms. Sometimes people abandon other people because that week, they felt like going to freakin' Venice.

But she wisely didn't say any of that. Instead she doodled worked.

Re: Talk [Class #4]

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

"Dude, I think Mr. Bunny is working for no-one but himself. And sometimes, his goals seem to co-incide with the goals of Justice." Bridge says, upside-down, "It's like... if I were to go into the supermarket and steal food to give to the poor. By giving food to people who don't have it, I'm doing something good, right? But by stealing it to do so, I'm doing something bad. Mr. Bunny often does something bad in order to accomplish something "good". And even that comparison doesn't work too well because usually his intentions aren't noble, they just happen to line up with what we percieve as noble."

Re: Talk [Class #4]

[emo-padawan.livejournal.com]

Anakin scowled. "I think I'd go with the psychotic little bunny who has fun tormenting people option, sir. And I'm not sure, especially given this latest demonstration, that he's all that benevolent. Serving Justice is one thing--tormenting another being just because you have the power to do so is an entirely different matter." He sat lower in his seat. "I would say that Mr. Bunny's role in Justice is foolishly reckless, bordering on dangerously out of control and I'm the only one allowed to be like that, dammit, and he could do with some serious training at the Temple before being let out on his own."

Re: Talk [Class #4]

[aka-vala.livejournal.com]

Vala frowned. "I don't get where the bunny's serving justice at all." She's really starting to hate that little varmint! bunny. "The duck didn't do anything, and if he is, as Marty said (http://community.livejournal.com/fandomhigh/531512.html?thread=24895544#t24895544), a superhero himself, then I think this is just one more instance of the bunny thwarting justice by tormenting the good guy!"

She scowls. "If anything, the way he keeps getting away with all of this would seem to mean he's a super-villan, no?"

She's not sure quite where that puts him on the whole coin scale, though...

Re: Talk [Class #4]

[2ls-in-oneill.livejournal.com]

"I personally think Mr. Bunny may be Chaotic Neutral."

Re: Talk [Class #4]

[janet_fraiser]

"I think Bugs is just a psychotic bunny who likes tormenting people," said Janet. "He's a prankster gone out of control who creates random chaos--so I'm going with the flipped coin theory--and also saying that maybe he needs medication."

Turn Stuff In [Class #4]

[bugofjustice.livejournal.com]

If you didn't on Tuesday (http://community.livejournal.com/fandomhigh/519300.html).

Re: Turn Stuff In [Class #4]

[fates_jaye]

Justice is like toothpaste. It may not be the nicest thing to look at and it might not even taste good, but it does its job, ridding the mouth of society of all plaque particles and staving away gingivitis!

Re: Turn Stuff In [Class #4]

[fh_jackass]

Logan hands in his homework.

Re: Turn Stuff In [Class #4]

[aka-vala.livejournal.com]

Vala, having gotten the notes from Cam, turns in:

"Justice scrubs the evil decay from the mouth of... the city... with the toothbrush of superheroes!"

Then she makes a "Thud, Thud" noise and mimes clubbing someone over the head.


O.K., maybe metaphors aren't her strong suit.

Re: Turn Stuff In [Class #4]

[cameronmitchell.livejournal.com]

"Justice is like toothpaste. You can never use too much of it and it gets extra foamy if you use it in large amounts and with an adequate amount of Peace Water. Without the Toothpaste of Justice, the Toothbrush of Law Inforcement would never be able to brush away the sugary left overs of Crime."

Completely clueless, Cameron goes for "cha cha cha". Yes, he knows it's a dance.

Semi-OOC

[game-of-you.livejournal.com]

Lockheed's ears should be burning. (http://community.livejournal.com/fandomhigh/533053.html)

(And yeah, I know I forgot to set this up IG. Let me know if you need me to delete or modify the lesson for some reason, as I was just going by Wikipedia and stuff people have told me for the Lockheed description, and I will.)

Re: Semi-OOC

[bugofjustice.livejournal.com]

As Lockheed ate his popcorn, he had a suspicion that if he had ears, they would feel quite warm indeed.

[OOC: It all looks good to me. And *handwaves* it has been set up in game by mod decree.]