If anyone doesn’t get the end, the stuffed animals are all in their inanimate state outside the window. They never became alive; the living version of the rabbit is what he’s doing in her imagination.
Every time she gets a new stuffed animal she imagines it’s disgusted by her father molesting her, and disgusted by her as a result (since she believes the abuse is her fault), and so she throws them out the window. It may also be padding for a fall should she ever decide to jump.
Page one, we see the mother pouring herself a glass of whiskey. She notices her daughter, Clarissa, arriving home from school, and enthusiastically proclaims she bought her a stuffed bunny rabbit. Clarissa looks unimpressed.
Page two, the mother smiles wide and tells Clarissa not to loose this one; so Clarissa has received stuffed animals in the past that she’s lost. She turns and leaves the room, and once she’s gone her mother drops the smile, like she was just putting on airs. Jumpcut to Clarissa in footie pajamas, sitting in her bed, the stuffed animal next to her. She looks angry and disinterested at first, but after mulling it over for a moment she half-heartedly grabs it and bounces it up and down, like it’s jumping. This causes it to come to life, exclaiming “Kabooey!”
Page three, The stuffed rabbit announces that she brought him to life by loving him and playing with him. She looks unimpressed, but he continues undeterred, and asks if he can have a name and if they can play pirates. Someone from offscreen says that it’s time for her bedtime story, and the stuffed rabbit(now going by “Floopsy”) acts like it’s a normal night. He says they can play after her story. But Clarissa doesn’t look like she’s about to be told a bedtime story, she looks scared, sad, and sick. The shadow of her father looms over her menacingly, while Floopsy goes back to being inanimate, blissfully unaware of her fear.
Page four, the first two panels are the outside of the house where we can see the moon. We can tell the moon has moved far across the sky, so we know the “bedtime story” took a very long time. Clarissa looks upset, her onesie has been pulled open, her hair is a mess. Her father has just sexually assaulted her, or even raped her. Floopsy is back to life again, sitting next to her. He says that what happened to her was “a little bit more than [he] signed on for”, apologizes that they never had a chance to play pirates, and abandons little Clarissa to deal the the trauma of being sexually assaulted by her father at an age so young she’s still in onesies to sleep at night. He jumps out the window.
Page five, the final page. We see a pile of inanimate stuffed animals laying under her window. There’s the other toys she’s lost.
SO, WHAT DOES IT MEAN? There are two ways of looking at it… either she’s acquired a lot of magic dolls, or she hasn’t, but either way the story otherwise remains fairly consistent.
Let’s assume, for now, the dolls are magic. Clarissa is a very young little girl who is regularly sexually assaulted by her own father, seemingly nightly or at least very regularly. Her mother is aware of what’s happening to her, but for whatever reason she doesn’t do anything to help, and instead bribes her daughter with toys to try and keep her from seeking help. It’s also possible that, in some small way, she’s trying to offer her child some small comfort, like a soft fluffy friend to be with her… but it doesn’t change the fact that she’s ignoring her daughter’s suffering. Clarissa is numb, jaded, angry… but still desperately wants someone who will stay with her and offer her support. The toys come to life, thinking she is an ordinary girl with ordinary problems, but inevitably, her father comes and assaults her, and the toy gets uncomfortable, unable to deal with the gravity of the situation. The toy leaves, and she goes back to being closed off, further convinced that no one will stay and that it’s better not to open herself up to happiness, because it also opens her up to sadness.
If you don’t think the toys come to life, then everything is the same, but instead of the toys actually being sentient, she pretends they are, and when they “witness” what happens to her, what horrors her father enacts upon her, she imagines them being unable to handle the seriousness of the situation, turning away from her pain… just like her mother, and possibly other adult figures in her life. She projects onto these dolls, because she thinks that once people see just how badly she’s being treated, that they will stop caring, insisting that it’s “too difficult” and that it’s “more than they signed on for”, and other things like that.
Either way, this short comic is about a young girl trying to cope with being repeatedly sexually abused by her father, who is ignored and bribed into silence by her mother, and feels abandoned by everyone around her at every turn. I hope that clears it up, in case anyone was confused.
JY: My money is on the likelihood that her mother keeps buying her magical dolls, possibly from a strange, Chinese-owned curio shop.
So my friend made the wonderful observation of the rabbit. She said that maybe it falls out because Clarissa felt bad that her stuffed animals were forced to watch so she throws them out the window afterwards
Lmfao,what if she keeps them alive by being around them! Or she gets fucked by her dad on a regular basis and has the imagination to cope but even she doesn’t like herself.
Notice that, in the first page, the mother was still wearing her coat and hat and the shopping was still in its bag on the table? She came home and immediately started drinking before she even took her coat off 🙁
I read this as the stuffed animals being alive as part of Clarissa’s imagination, like when she draws, but she can’t imagine someone being willing to stay friends with her after seeing the awful things her father does to her so she throws them out the window and imagines them leaving on their own. Was this intended?
JY: Not a bad interpretation at all.
I always assumed it was a suicide joke. The plushies are so horrified by this situation they kill themselves rather than deal with it. Like Clarissa wishes she could do.
i’m a first time reader so I’ll do like everyone else & drop my interpretation of this chapter … if we go by the idea that clarissa is the one imagining the bunny coming alive, part of it must be her trying to reconcile her guilt she feels over how her father’s constant sexual abuse against her makes unable to be a normal kid & has made her unable to unabashedly engage in childish fantasies like how other children her age surely must be able too
she knows that at her age she should be able to play pretend with stuffed animals, but she can’t do it because her “childhood innocence” is taken away everytime she even begins to try to participate in her “childishness” again (her trying to bounce the bunny on her bed and it immediately coming Alive, “sorry we /couldn’t/ play pirates” as if she’s apologizing to herself & trying to comfort herself because she knows no one else will). deep down, clarissa wants to be like a normal kid and do normal kid things, but even further inside of her she’s been through this enough times that she’s resigned to know even her joy will be taken away every time she gets raped so why even bother to have hope or even try to hide how miserable she is? that’s why she’s jaded and numb, even at her young age she knows *trying* to actually live is a waste of energy, her mom doesn’t care & never will
all this is a soul crushing realization that clarissa is forced to confront every time her mother buys a new toy for her, yet this chapter alone we see that her mother is willing to do anything (…but stop her husband…) to pretend everything is fine, even if only for a few moments. she knows what her husband does to clarissa is wrong, that’s why she has a sullen look in her face before she calls clarissa over, why she’s smiling as if she’s putting a performance to clarissa (“some people just can’t get with the program”), and why her face falls back when she’s out of clarissa’s eye sight, because she cares more about her comfort than she cares about the safety of her child
notice, too, that for some reason there is a pile of stuffed animals in the backyard that no one has ever taken care of? even if it’s behind a bush, that’s weird. not only is the pile of stuffed animals (on a visual metaphor level) proof of clarissa’s stolen childhood, corpses with their eyes open as if their corpses are clarissa herself ,unable to ignore the reality, but the height of the pile also is how obvious it is that she is being raped by her father and yet everyone in her family ignores it. seemingly it is behind a bush, yes, but surely her siblings know, too. they live under the same roof after all
man, i just started this comic but it sure knows how to knock my breath out of me by the end of every single page
What the hell… These are so disturbing… I LOVE IT! Moar please. Feed my morbid love for these comics.
real powerful.rarely do comics impact me so hard
If anyone doesn’t get the end, the stuffed animals are all in their inanimate state outside the window. They never became alive; the living version of the rabbit is what he’s doing in her imagination.
Every time she gets a new stuffed animal she imagines it’s disgusted by her father molesting her, and disgusted by her as a result (since she believes the abuse is her fault), and so she throws them out the window. It may also be padding for a fall should she ever decide to jump.
Maybe one day once shes old enough she can throw her dad instead
What? i dont get it, seriously, even after i read the other comment
Throw her dad out the window! Or… turn him into pottery. One or the other.
(I may not be a robot, but I am definitely a cog in the Man’s machine!)
creepy shit
JY: That’s what my doctor said about my last stool sample.
haAHAHAHAHAHA HOLY SHIT THIS IS FUCKED I LOVE IT
Okay Bytes, here’s a breakdown of what happens:
Page one, we see the mother pouring herself a glass of whiskey. She notices her daughter, Clarissa, arriving home from school, and enthusiastically proclaims she bought her a stuffed bunny rabbit. Clarissa looks unimpressed.
Page two, the mother smiles wide and tells Clarissa not to loose this one; so Clarissa has received stuffed animals in the past that she’s lost. She turns and leaves the room, and once she’s gone her mother drops the smile, like she was just putting on airs. Jumpcut to Clarissa in footie pajamas, sitting in her bed, the stuffed animal next to her. She looks angry and disinterested at first, but after mulling it over for a moment she half-heartedly grabs it and bounces it up and down, like it’s jumping. This causes it to come to life, exclaiming “Kabooey!”
Page three, The stuffed rabbit announces that she brought him to life by loving him and playing with him. She looks unimpressed, but he continues undeterred, and asks if he can have a name and if they can play pirates. Someone from offscreen says that it’s time for her bedtime story, and the stuffed rabbit(now going by “Floopsy”) acts like it’s a normal night. He says they can play after her story. But Clarissa doesn’t look like she’s about to be told a bedtime story, she looks scared, sad, and sick. The shadow of her father looms over her menacingly, while Floopsy goes back to being inanimate, blissfully unaware of her fear.
Page four, the first two panels are the outside of the house where we can see the moon. We can tell the moon has moved far across the sky, so we know the “bedtime story” took a very long time. Clarissa looks upset, her onesie has been pulled open, her hair is a mess. Her father has just sexually assaulted her, or even raped her. Floopsy is back to life again, sitting next to her. He says that what happened to her was “a little bit more than [he] signed on for”, apologizes that they never had a chance to play pirates, and abandons little Clarissa to deal the the trauma of being sexually assaulted by her father at an age so young she’s still in onesies to sleep at night. He jumps out the window.
Page five, the final page. We see a pile of inanimate stuffed animals laying under her window. There’s the other toys she’s lost.
SO, WHAT DOES IT MEAN? There are two ways of looking at it… either she’s acquired a lot of magic dolls, or she hasn’t, but either way the story otherwise remains fairly consistent.
Let’s assume, for now, the dolls are magic. Clarissa is a very young little girl who is regularly sexually assaulted by her own father, seemingly nightly or at least very regularly. Her mother is aware of what’s happening to her, but for whatever reason she doesn’t do anything to help, and instead bribes her daughter with toys to try and keep her from seeking help. It’s also possible that, in some small way, she’s trying to offer her child some small comfort, like a soft fluffy friend to be with her… but it doesn’t change the fact that she’s ignoring her daughter’s suffering. Clarissa is numb, jaded, angry… but still desperately wants someone who will stay with her and offer her support. The toys come to life, thinking she is an ordinary girl with ordinary problems, but inevitably, her father comes and assaults her, and the toy gets uncomfortable, unable to deal with the gravity of the situation. The toy leaves, and she goes back to being closed off, further convinced that no one will stay and that it’s better not to open herself up to happiness, because it also opens her up to sadness.
If you don’t think the toys come to life, then everything is the same, but instead of the toys actually being sentient, she pretends they are, and when they “witness” what happens to her, what horrors her father enacts upon her, she imagines them being unable to handle the seriousness of the situation, turning away from her pain… just like her mother, and possibly other adult figures in her life. She projects onto these dolls, because she thinks that once people see just how badly she’s being treated, that they will stop caring, insisting that it’s “too difficult” and that it’s “more than they signed on for”, and other things like that.
Either way, this short comic is about a young girl trying to cope with being repeatedly sexually abused by her father, who is ignored and bribed into silence by her mother, and feels abandoned by everyone around her at every turn. I hope that clears it up, in case anyone was confused.
JY: My money is on the likelihood that her mother keeps buying her magical dolls, possibly from a strange, Chinese-owned curio shop.
So my friend made the wonderful observation of the rabbit. She said that maybe it falls out because Clarissa felt bad that her stuffed animals were forced to watch so she throws them out the window afterwards
Lmfao,what if she keeps them alive by being around them! Or she gets fucked by her dad on a regular basis and has the imagination to cope but even she doesn’t like herself.
It doesn’t stop!
Notice that, in the first page, the mother was still wearing her coat and hat and the shopping was still in its bag on the table? She came home and immediately started drinking before she even took her coat off 🙁
I read this as the stuffed animals being alive as part of Clarissa’s imagination, like when she draws, but she can’t imagine someone being willing to stay friends with her after seeing the awful things her father does to her so she throws them out the window and imagines them leaving on their own. Was this intended?
JY: Not a bad interpretation at all.
I always assumed it was a suicide joke. The plushies are so horrified by this situation they kill themselves rather than deal with it. Like Clarissa wishes she could do.
the number of stuffed toys show that the sexual assault has been ongoing for that many times.
i’m a first time reader so I’ll do like everyone else & drop my interpretation of this chapter … if we go by the idea that clarissa is the one imagining the bunny coming alive, part of it must be her trying to reconcile her guilt she feels over how her father’s constant sexual abuse against her makes unable to be a normal kid & has made her unable to unabashedly engage in childish fantasies like how other children her age surely must be able too
she knows that at her age she should be able to play pretend with stuffed animals, but she can’t do it because her “childhood innocence” is taken away everytime she even begins to try to participate in her “childishness” again (her trying to bounce the bunny on her bed and it immediately coming Alive, “sorry we /couldn’t/ play pirates” as if she’s apologizing to herself & trying to comfort herself because she knows no one else will). deep down, clarissa wants to be like a normal kid and do normal kid things, but even further inside of her she’s been through this enough times that she’s resigned to know even her joy will be taken away every time she gets raped so why even bother to have hope or even try to hide how miserable she is? that’s why she’s jaded and numb, even at her young age she knows *trying* to actually live is a waste of energy, her mom doesn’t care & never will
all this is a soul crushing realization that clarissa is forced to confront every time her mother buys a new toy for her, yet this chapter alone we see that her mother is willing to do anything (…but stop her husband…) to pretend everything is fine, even if only for a few moments. she knows what her husband does to clarissa is wrong, that’s why she has a sullen look in her face before she calls clarissa over, why she’s smiling as if she’s putting a performance to clarissa (“some people just can’t get with the program”), and why her face falls back when she’s out of clarissa’s eye sight, because she cares more about her comfort than she cares about the safety of her child
notice, too, that for some reason there is a pile of stuffed animals in the backyard that no one has ever taken care of? even if it’s behind a bush, that’s weird. not only is the pile of stuffed animals (on a visual metaphor level) proof of clarissa’s stolen childhood, corpses with their eyes open as if their corpses are clarissa herself ,unable to ignore the reality, but the height of the pile also is how obvious it is that she is being raped by her father and yet everyone in her family ignores it. seemingly it is behind a bush, yes, but surely her siblings know, too. they live under the same roof after all
man, i just started this comic but it sure knows how to knock my breath out of me by the end of every single page
JY: I’m the MMA world champ of bleak humor!