She was both. But I think she was only a bit of a bully/bitch who "Treated everyone like crap" (Said by Kent, who had no reason to lie. He was in the confines of a chatroom with his closest friends, all openly normally talking. He said she "deserved it" which is a very intense, mean thing to say. And yeah maybe he wa a douche, but prob the most decent out of the whole group of a-holes and what other reason would he say that for if it weren't true? Oh that he was bitter Laura never slept with him or dated him or flirted with him? Im sure most of the girls in school didnt, because he was rude,lazy, and an overweight stoner-- so when he said those things about her thats the director/writers totally trying to let the audience know Laura WAS a mean person to most people. And Laura's "apology" to Val was ONLY to see if Val would take down the video. If the video went down, she prob wouldnt have apologized. Her apology was short and right when the video was getting too many hits. All she said was "Sorry if ive been mean but can you please take the video down?" Not just "Sorry ive been mean maybe we can work things out" And eveyrone agreed but they didn't turn it into a discussion. It was just known. So they nonchalantly either agreed and Blair said thats mean...because shes fake and also maybe feeling guilty in her part of things but always played the angel. The reason Laura was mean to people was because in the film it implies that she was molested by her Uncle as a child and it really messed her up. And people bullied her on twitter about being "fat" and her eating disorder and maybe about being in special ed. Her youtube vdeo showed she was in a lot of pain. So, her being mean to others as a projection of her pain backlashed on her, and made others bully her.
I feel bad for bullies who have reasoning behind their bullying. Most bullies are in pain, and they inflict that on others (human instinct in certain people) it's no excuse, they need therapy.... but in the film it IS implied she was a good friend with Blair before she was molested/raped by her Uncle and possible other family stuff. I felt bad for Laura, and then I also didn't. Because even though she had reasons behind her being mean, she really did take HER own bullying on others a bit too far. It seems she was just always rubbing people the wrong way. Yet it seemed like after her death a lot of people reached out--and in the video people were trying to stop her. It seems like she bullied the people closest to her in her life than others. Which is also psychologically normal for people like that. They are psychologically torchered and they project that on the people closest to them. So she bullied her good friends the worst which is why they all said they hated her by that point and she "deserved it" which is also super effed up to say. Noone deserves that, unless they are literally psychopath sociopathic serial killers. She wasn't like that until she died, and thats when I no longer felt bad for her, because she was getting revenge which is just pointless.Yes, what they did was effed up---but coming from the dead to kill the bullies is obviously effed up lol. So I was torn about her character. At first I was liking her revenge, but then I realized it was just too far. She could have just scared them, she didn't have to kill them.
Bullies who commit suicide is absolutely a tragic thing. Some people are bullies because they really are just mean. And that sucks. And there's nothing you can do sometimes. And those types of people are normally also people who rape/molest/beat up and kill people. But bullies, at whatever age, who have deep seeded pain from things that happened in their lives, instead of bullying they should have gone to therapy and talked through their pain/anger/bitterness/confusion but instead they take their anger out on others. When they kill themselves, its tragic because they could have been helped. Now if its someone who was a bully that GOT others to kill themselves. Like bullies who just keep pushing or do effed up things that actually make someone kill themselves or want to kill themselves or they continue to eff up someone's life----and they kill themselves--- I wouldn't feel nearly as bad but I also wouldn't call it deserved or a good thing either. There's a lot of grey area to it it's definitely not black and white. If a bully got someone in my life that was a friend of mine to become suicidal or actually kill themselves--- I would DESPISE that person. And if they killed themselves, I would maybe feel justice for awhile----but looking deeply into it, I would be interested in WHY that person so mean, and if they were abused or bullied for years as well, I'd just wish they had gotten help before lashing it all out on my friend before it all too late for both of them.
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VoodooGuru
9 years ago
Good points, but you need to read the article shown at 16:10 in the movie. Where Blaire is trying to prove Laura's Facebook account has been hacked and has to provide proof of death via link. The article lets you know all is not what her "friends" on screen tell you.
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pennilayne
9 years ago
I did... it talked about how she had an eating disorder and people were calling her fat on her twitter.
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VoodooGuru
9 years ago
SPOILERS POSSIBLY ---
But it ALSO said she had been bullied for two years prior to the final incident, she also had attempted suicide already. She was a special education student, the district, the Department of Education and the Fed Office of Civil Rights were all investigating if laws were broken in regards to her status. By law they were to ensure her experience in school was safe and healthy for her, because she had already attempted suicide BEFORE the eating disorder was made fun of. She was already getting bullied.
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pennilayne
9 years ago
dude if you read my whole post you'll see i said she is both a victim and a bully....and my last post about the article was pointing out another reason she was also a victim. i think you're misunderstanding me and arguing me when we feel pretty much the same way?
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VoodooGuru
9 years ago
I did read it. But you talk about Laura being mean to people.
Who was she mean to in the movie? Other students? Faculty? Who do you see her bullying in any of the clips they do show of her? The only person she is seen getting into a fight with is Val, and that's in the YouTube upload.
I'm just saying you're saying she's a victim and a bully, and saying one may support the other, but nowhere in this film do you see her being a bully. She's the one being bullied. Her mother had filed a complaint in October 2012, but received no help. She was made fun of for being fat, when she had a binge & purge issue, where 2 years prior to that she'd already slashed her wrists in an attempted suicide. Does that sound like a bully to you? That sounds like someone who's being tormented. She'd been abused as a child, and the one friend she had was Blaire. THEY were bullying her. There is nothing in this film by way of evidence that Laura is a bully. The outpouring of friendship was already there, or do you not find it suspicious that Blaire, Adam, Val, Mitch, Ken and Jess WEREN'T that popular on Facebook. Maybe people just stayed away from them in general because they were bad news. Maybe people genuinely liked Laura already, and as she was a special case in that school maybe a lot of people were on her side already.
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RachRidingHood
9 years ago
I agree with you, Penni. What many people fail or choose to not see is that in the case of death, there is usually an outpouring of two faced grievances. From people who were never friends with nor cared about the person. From people who were horrible to the deceased person. That immediately caught my eye in the movie...the outpouring of 'kindness' and 'sorrow' on her page was fake. And when you've been through the situation of losing a loved one, more often than not you'll see these insufferable comments or false grievances. Really, I found it a pretty convincing portrayal of the lip service people give when something like this happens. My boyfriend passed away in late 2015 and I can't even express the hurt and outrage of things two faced people would say, knowing it was all to look good or appear better than they were. This is what was shown on Laura's page. Some students felt guilty where they had more of a conscience...others were going along with the trend of it and to get positive attention back for their 'kind words' and remorse. It's sick and shameful but it happens so much.
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pennilayne
9 years ago
And I never once mentioned her "friends" online lying about anything. I said I believed she was also a victim because she seemed to have friends reaching out after her death and in her suicide video people were screaming over at her telling her to stop. I think you need to re-read my post. If not, please stop messaging me back... I already made my opinion really clear that she was both and that bullies/victims can be one in the same.
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VoodooGuru
9 years ago
Watch Laura's uploaded video *beep* everyone, published April 10th, 2013, two days before her suicide. It was viewed 1,304 times. 2 people liked it. 6 people disliked it. Who do you think the 6 are that disliked it. And if she was a bully or mean to people, don't you think more people than just 6 would dislike it?
This movie is great, but Laura. She's no bully.
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