- Joined
- Mar 21, 2019
For Vic, according to him in his deposition, he hardly knows what he's supposed to do in order to make things right-- his former friends are shittalking him and stonewalling any attempt for him to even figure out what he could have done wrong (because he didn't do anything wrong), damaged fujos and other adult girls with learned autism who couldn't be bothered to say anything when he hugged them for a photo are speaking out just because they want to be known and cause damage, and even crazier cat ladies (along with his former friend'sfiancéboy toybeard...breadwinner?) are trying to run his income to zero by tortiously interfering with his contracts and business prospects.
But he had to endure a man with 45% lung function interrogate him as to whether he's called anyone a con slut, after having to admit that he hired a prostitute, after having to admit that he failed his fiancée, after having to admit that he's been sleeping around for years. He had to face the fact that he didn't know the people who he called friends, who he palled around with for two decades, who he worked with in all kinds of circumstances. He presently has to deal with some failure of a lawyer and a man turning a character he was honored to voice into a slur as he continues to throw his bar license clout around, and other lawyers of similar levels of failure similarly trying to gain clout. He has to deal with Mr. 45% Lungman try to embarrass him on a national scale by framing his being defamed as a #metoo case-- doubtless by the order of his former friends, who, even now, are trying to ruin his reputation and his life.
And he still doesn't know why.
Dumb lawsuit wishlists aside, I think ISWV is essentially of the very reasonable understanding that the best chance Vic has at sufficiently restoring his reputation and his job prospects inherently involves the stark humiliation of his defendants. There's this trope in this forum that Vic's isn't vindictive enough to completely wreck his former friends in court, that he's too Christian for it, that he's too "New Testament"y.
I wager that all of that is absolutely irrelevant to what Vic will find that he needs to do.
Regardless of how much Vic wants to hold back, there is no verdict, nor is there any settlement, that will accomplish what he wants that will not absolutely ruin his defendants. The support Rial and company have will dry up very quickly between the force of the verdict and the force of the publicized evidence, even among their woke allies, who will more than likely make like vultures and desert them when they realize they don't have an audience anymore because everything's been said and done for most people. If they have to get to judgement, they'll have at bare minimum a million in attorney lien as well as what they owe to their own attorneys. Their job opportunities will dry up because they will have demonstrated themselves an absolute liability to any workplace, and their SEOs will probably be accordingly screwed, so who knows if they won't be considered radioactive outside the VA industry.
There are other dubbing firms with other well-known VAs. Funimation not only has competition, but can be replaced altogether, and the loss of trust should they have to pay out for Vic (and potentially also on behalf of Rial and company) will wreck public trust in them. Perhaps instantly, perhaps merely rapidly, perhaps only eventually, but the weight of their failure will follow them and sap away any good will in their direction until there's nothing left and they become white noise.
Those aren't necessarily things that Vic will want to accomplish, but Vic wants his reputation restored, Vic wants his job security back, and he wants this defamatory nonsense to end-- and that can't happen via verdict or settlement without his defendants facing the music and accepting that they'll be the ones passing out of the industry.
I agree that any favorable result for Vic will humiliate and/or ruin his opponent, because they've backed themselves into a corner where there can be no other result, but it's important to note that's a side effect. Vic's goal isn't to humiliate. That's important when it comes to settlement talk or the direction he'll push lawsuits. If given a choice to prioritize his reputation/career or punishment/humiliation of his opponents, he will choose the former. Which is ultimately for the best, because if he accomplishes the former he also accomplishes the latter, but not vice-versa.