The Second Stone

Illustration by Matt Smith

I like this picture on a couple of levels. One is just the simple idea that Smurfette as a Viking shieldmaiden is pretty awesome. If this were the basis for a new Smurfs cartoon, I'd watch it.

But more seriously, Smurfette's statement "I did not begin it," resonates with me, because it's such a common viewpoint. She ignores Papa Smurf's warning, and can be seen as having decided that he doesn't know what he's talking about. She's not starting anything. The first stone is not hers.

Papa Smurf's words make it fairly clear that he wouldn't hold inaction against her. This is not a situation in which Smurfette is being pushed into a fight that she'd rather not engage in. While it's unstated what the other Smurfs think of the situation, if Papa Smurf speaks of the community, then Smurfette is acting on her own need to act; the pride at stake is her own.

And I think that this is common. Here, Smurfette stands in for a person wants to see themselves as simply being responsive to something that has happened to them, rather than making something happen. There is a certain comfort, I think, in being reactive as opposed to proactive. And this is why the events that Smurfette is setting in motion will, as Papa Smurf understands it, will have no end. Smurfette's opponent will also see themselves as not having thrown the first stone, and the cycle of retaliation and payback will roll on, because both sides will find themselves in a position where letting the conflict die will feel like weakness. Which also means that for both sides, taking the responsibility for starting the conflict will feel like weakness. And I suspect that many of the supposedly intractable conflicts of the modern world operate this way.