“Can We Watch Clone Wars?” by Zoe Regnier.
Transcript
Panel 1: An emotionally broken dancer slouches over their phone while they sit miserably on a bench outside a dance conservatory.
Panel 2: They hold their phone as it shakes in their hands. The screen reads: “ You have not been selected.” There is a black void around them.
Panel 3: they become utterly overwhelmed and flooded with self-critical thoughts: “I can’t believe I didn’t get in. Fuck this school. They didn’t even tell me why. Can I call them? Does it even matter? I probably fucked it up. Maybe my auditions were shit. Maybe I didn’t practice enough. But I worked so hard. Wait, is it because of my body type.” They appear blacked out from the profile view left of them in a white void with text spread out around them.
Panel 4: The thoughts continue to open up into a wide panel. The thoughts stream faster and harsher: “Maybe I was never good enough. I’m rejected because I’m fat. This is all my fault. I feel trapped in my body. I’ll never get to do anything I actually like I fucking hate myself. I’m doing everything wrong. I try so hard but it’s never enough. I don’t want to try anything again.” The text breaks out into the dancer’s face erupting in a cry of complete desolation and frustration, screaming: “FUCK!!”
Panel 5: Coming towards them is a cowgirl on their skateboard. The dancer continues to cry their heart out saying: “I hate this!!!! Why do I even try?”
Panel 6: “Goddamnit!!” Ejects from the dancer’s mouth and knocks the cowgirl skater off the skate board. The grip tape on the skate board reads: “Clone Wars.” The dancer throws their hands up.
Panel 7: The dancer and the cow girl simultaneously ask each other: “ARE YOU OKAY!?” The cowgirl is on the ground. The dancer has stood up from the bench and is extending a hand to help them up.
Panel 8: “Hey, what’s going on? Can I help…” the cowgirl asks their friend. In the middle of the panel the dancer pulls their friend up with their hands. “Uhh sure….” the dancer reluctantly replies .
Panel 9: The cowgirl listens intently to their friend’s vulnerability. “I don’t know why the dance school rejected me, I feel like a failure. I feel empty. What do I do now?”
Panel 10: They look at each other for a bit sitting in their emotions. The dancer says “I kinda wanna distract myself and watch… Clone Wars, can we do that?”
Panel 11: They are now laying together on a couch in a living room with a TV as the only source of light. There are also some plants and a long furby inconspicuously sleeps curled up in the bottom left corner. “You feel like home,” thinks the dancer. The cowgirl notices the TV stand and thinks: “Your fucking TV stand is broken.”
Panel 12: The next day they go to the skate park where the cowgirl does a kickflip. The dancer thinks “Wow they’re so cool.”
Panel 13: The cowgirl appears with a trench coat on and opens it up like a flasher, but offering a skateboard and saying: “Eh, wanna try, kid?” The dancer sheepishly says “PFFF Nooooo not meee.”
Panel 14: They continue processing, saying: “Eeeeh no but really… like I want to but I hardly feel like humiliating myself let alone just existing in my body–but fuck it I’ll try.” Their hand is very large and surreal, it’s floating on the skateboard like a tech deck. The cowgirl now appears very mischievously and sinister, encouraging them by saying: “Yes good choice.”
Panel 15: As the dancer flails their arms and try balancing on the skateboard the cowgirl says: “Oop–easy there cowboy,” and guides them so they don’t fall off. The dancer screams: “HAHA Im gonna die… this is nice.”
