Totally not Rakath

Boy Wizard, Negi Springfield

So building a Harem Comedy structure around a ten year old is weird, but it somewhat can’t be removed. Outside of one character, the primary driving factors for Negi getting a harem are a mechanical function of Magic (more later), and his general demeanor of being earnest, courageous, intelligent, kind, and careful. He takes his students seriously, and works hard to build them up because he takes being responsible seriously.

But he’s ten so he has basically no actual interest in girls yet in that way. Which brings us the problem.

If you make Negi older (say fifteen, like the class) then he would be old enough to have feelings about girls, and might respond naturally to the situation, which makes the series more sexual in nature as he deals with first crushes in the way a teenager would, which means who he likes matters more than how liking him spurs on character growth.

If he’s no longer a teacher, and just a student in another class, there’s no reason for him to be so earnest and involved in trying to build them up, so his being a teacher is needed to push some of the interactions.

If everyone is older (high school or college age), then the insecurity of first crushes goes away. Rather than using that as a fuel for character growth, we again are in a place where being romantic matters more than facing that side of yourself. Which pulls us back into traditional harem manga and away from battle shounen.

The thing that makes the book weird is also the thing that makes the book work.

Crushes, Growing Up, and Self-Acceptance

Negi, outside of all the ‘he’s the protagonist’ and ‘backstory impacts the story in every way’ going on, does not matter. Like- his being a reasonably kind and thoughtful supporter of his students matters. But ‘who gets Negi’ doesn’t matter to the narrative the way it matters to the characters, and most of the story that doesn’t matter as much as the girls’ drive to move forward.

Each of the dozen girls that have a central focus on their moving forward move forward differently, so rather than use everyone here, I’ll focus on the two that are the most obvious and integral to their arcs. Nodoka and Chisame, the first girl and the ‘last girl’ to do character arcs off of their feelings for Negi.

Nodoka is a shy soft spoken dark haired bookish girl. Her nickname in the translated manga is ‘Bookstore’ and she’s part of the Library Exploration club (which is 50% nerdy librarian and 50% Lara Croft, Negima is weird). She’s cripplingly shy, and therefore a central part of her arc is self-confidence, to be the sort of person who can stand besides Negi. Her feelings for him only matter in how they push her forward, and the measure of her progress is how much she can stand up and face others.

Her being the first girl to kiss Negi romantically only matters because she chose to do it. That move on her part, her confessing, is a statement of her forward movement. (Negi is ten, he has no idea how to handle it and therefore… doesn’t.)

On the opposite side we have Chisame, Chisame is a shut-in cosplayer and streamer idol. Sidebar: this series started in 2003, youtube won’t exist for two years and Twitch is way outs from now. She hates her classmates, hates the normal world, hates all the weirdos she goes to class with. Negi… supports her hobby fully, learns the internet to support her alter-ego (Chiu-chan), and never once seems to realize she hates this. Until she doesn’t hate it.

Negi earnestly supports her, and having someone believe in her does not suck as much as she wants to think it does. She has every chance to step away from the plot, she’s not important, she doesn’t need to involve herself. She keeps threatening to leave the story and go back to her life. She stays, she stays the entire time. She becomes Negi’s most trusted advisor during the last major arc because she realizes he matters to her.

And she’s happy. And she can’t deal with that. Chisame becomes friends with the others, she lets people in and stops holding everyone at arm’s length… because she developed some sort of feelings for Negi. These are never established as anything, they could be pseudo-romantic (more on that later), or familial, but she cares about him. And in turn cares about the others.

Neither of these care that much about what Negi’s doing with these girls’ feelings.

Psuedo-Romantic

Psuedo-Romantic is a term I use for ‘first’ romances teens have, that romance where you have no idea what you’re doing but you feel a lot while you’re doing it. Romances where the idea of a kiss is terrifying and impossible, and you can’t even face anything past that. That’s basically where everyone in this series is about romance. Everyone who isn’t a two year old Robot or a 500 year old vampire (Negima is weird) is a teenager, a teenager who has never felt like this before (whatever this is, it varies).

Now, I wanna say there is no sexual innuendo, but there is the two year old robot and the 500 year old vampire. Chachamaru (the robot) needs to be ‘wound’ to keep her charged, which is made into a metaphor for sex. Which creates some connotations that are complicated, but Chachamaru’s desire for Negi to wind her comes after they spend months sparring in hand to hand combot where Negi’s determination wins her over. This causes Chachamaru to develop an emotion (she doesn't know what it is, she's a robot), and her existential crisis over emotions starts here.

On the other side Evangeline (the vampire) developed a one sided crush on Negi’s dad fifteen years ago, and uses her proximity to Negi to play with him instead. Which mostly involves drinking his blood, but also generally prodding and tormenting him for her own amusement. Evangeline is somewhat complicated to go to deep on, she’s in the same space as Negi where she’s acting older than she physically is, but how much of her behavior is how she really is, and how much is what society made her could be its own essay.

Suffice it to say, Evangeline styles herself as a sexy seductive vampire but she really wants to be loved and have her head patted like a goddamn child. People are complicated.

So Negima is Weird…

So I’ve mentioned the vampire, the robot, a net idol, and that the school library is basically an Indiana Jones set piece. Haven’t mentioned the time traveler, mad scientist, ninja, demon clown, half demon shrine priestess mercenary sniper, Chinese martial arts master, gourmet chef, ace reporter, yaoi manga artist, nun (not to be confused with shrine priestess), and winged samurai exorcist.

…Oh yeah, and the class also has a ghost. Almost forgot Sayo.

So Negima has a lot going on, but balances all of that ‘a lot going on’ to make a very nuanced combat and power system. This does two things, first is it makes everything easier to accept. Every time the school gets weirder, the answer is ‘yeah, that tracks’ and not ‘where the fuck did that come from.’

The second is it allows the rest of the cast to continue to matter, even as power scaling gets complicated. The main system for character upgrade is the pactio, a bond between mage and his knight, to give them a power up to defend him. Said 'bond' being sealed with a kiss, of course, is to make all parties involved uneasy. The girls without feelings for Negi are kissing their teacher, which even if they don't have feelings is weird. The girls with feelings are kissing that boy they like, even if maybe they aren't ready for that. And haven't fully owned up to their feelings on their own (let alone told him).

But said kiss comes with a neat toy surprise, so there's a reason to do it. The toys reflect the character, and allow for a wide variety of different abilities. The ability that most villains respond to with ‘I should definitely kill her’ is Nodoka’s Id’s Picture Diary.

…it’s a book that reads people’s minds. Nodoka never becomes combat capable, she manages to become better at evading danger but she’s not a heavy hitter. Most dangerous member of Negi’s party because she gives Negi’s team superior knowledge. A lot of plots regularly become escort missions, but it means Nodoka is regularly still useful in the plot, even when other series would have sidelined such a character. And this extends to the others.

Asakura (the ace reporter)? Spy drones. Chiu-chan (net idol)? Magical Girl Staff of Expert Hacking and Technomancy. Natsumi (wallflower actress) gains a mask of invisibility. On the combat side of things, the characters who are combat specialists (or could be combat geared) gain a leg up in fighting. Ku Fei (Chinese Martial Artist) gains a replica of the Monkey King’s staff, which is a classic of cool fighting sticks. Yuna (Sporty Tomboy) gains a pair of magic guns letting her instantly become a combatant late series. Haruna (yaoi manga artist) gains the ability to draw anything into existence (which she uses as weapons puppet character style).

The only character to really get outmoded combat wise is Chachamaru (as a robot, she can’t really become ‘better’ at things)... so her artifact is an orbital space laser. It’s cat themed. Negi’s still the protagonist, he’s still the biggest hitter and the strongest fighter at the end (based on skills he learned from his students, often as not), but the series never lets him win on his own. His students always help.

And one of the final comedy arcs is his students attacking him, and he’s on the backfoot the entire time because if his students work against him they collectively overpower him. He gets out of it because various girls switch sides.

Girls in STEM (Shounen Teamwork Enemy Magics)

The series pivots into full Shounen Action in Volume 2, and if you read a lot of action shounen series you know that the ratio of gender is 100:0 which you might think is a rounding error, but shounen is just that bad at having girl characters. This is a tricky thing to talk through, cause on the one hand how Negima gets away with this is fairly straightfoward.

And it’s fanservice.

But are panty shots and nudity worse than no girls at all? Underneith the fanservice and the comedy nudity the characters are well realized and well written. With their various wants and dreams nuanced and complicated in ways I like. But on the other hand is the only way to get boys to read about girl characters to make them naked?

For me, what matters is how much I buy into and care about the cast. Which the series did in spite of the nudity. The writing touches on the character’s souls directly. It isn’t like most shounen where I like the female cast in spite of the writing, which abandoned and left them out of everything because it’s time for the boys to fight.

I love Yu Yu Hakusho and Naruto but both could have literally given their respective female leads (Keiko and Hinata) fucking anything to do, anything and it’ll help make the audience care about what should be the primary romance.

Of the main cast of Negima, the character who has the weakest presence in spite of her importance is probably Konoka (Powerful Magical Bloodline, raised as a normal girl). She doesn’t do the absurd power level growth of the other mage characters, and her support abilities, while important, are too limited to make her useful in the noncombat scenes. There’s probably a version of the manga where she learns defensive barrier magic to be a more useful frontline character. But that’s not the universe we got.

Not counting the six or so girls who are in the class but don’t actually get involved in anything.

So Rak, is the series Good?

Well, it’s well written, interesting, and has well executed characters. But I can’t say the series is good. The comedy, fanservice, and general weird vibes of the ten year old protagonist surrounded by fourteen year olds who love him make it hard to say ‘good.’

And like- it all holds up fifteen years later. The positives are still amazing, and the negatives… haven’t really gotten worse. I get up in my feelings when Yue feels like she’s a bad friend for liking the same boy, and I’m so hype when Kaede (ninja) evades a OHKO attack by having four shadow duplicates of herself stand around her opponent complimenting him on his technique.

The Ending

I need to start at the end and work backwards, this is definitely one where the ending is right there. They just had to take it. And with that ending we can smooth out the rest to serve that ending. I will be limiting my Glassheart shipping just a little (but honestly replacing Luis with Chloe would do a lot).

Anyway, the ending. Red needs to tell everyone (both moms, Pink, and both Hatters) about the time travel of the last film. That has to be the climax. The climax is Red owning her actions and the fallout from them. Because the solution to Maddox is not ‘give him a second chance’ it’s ‘you were never crazy. You were right.’

This breaks into three scenes, the probable breakdown is Chloe and her mom, Bridget and the Hatters, and the Hearts sisters. It’d probably be better if Red were in both the Hatters scene and the one with her sister, but if you have to break it into easier scenes you cut her from Hatter.

Chloe and her Mom: Owning up to the time travel means owning up to having met Ella as she was. And letting Cinderella own up to how she’s been pressing Chloe into the princess she wished was around for her, rather than the daughter she actually has. Framing Ella, essentially, trying to make Chloe the hero that was never there for her (even when Chloe was the hero there for her).

Hatter and Son: Maddox giving up just because someone believes him is the ending for him. Chessy probably tries to goad him into more fighting, but he ignores it to focus on just- being believed. Max naturally tells him there’s a real father in there somewhere, and they can start over.

Hearts Sisters: Pink runs off hearing the full ramifications of what Red did, and Red chases her down. Red owns up to the fact she’s being weird because, well, she’s never had a sister before. And that she’s sorry she isn’t the sister Pink grew up with, but to give her a chance. Pink agrees, hoping someday Red will love her. And Red calls her stupid because she already loves her.

Okay, so we know where we’re going, Chloe’s plot is with her mom, and who Chloe should be. Red’s plot is with her sister, and the overall impacts of changing the timeline. Good, cool. 

What changes do we need to make to get there?

Lose the Schmees, and probably also Luis.

Now, I said I wasn’t going to Glassheart this, and I’m not. Of the three characters I’m cutting the Schmee twins are actually less of a problem than Luis. The problem is Luis distracts us from what’s going on with Red and Pink, and that needs more space to bloom. If we keep Luis he has to fill a similar, but opposite, role to Hazel. There to be an example of what being an AK is.

I don’t think the idiot siblings are cute or funny enough to keep, is the thing there. There’s a nice mini-arc with Facilier and Hood that we can keep, but those two just fill space.

Chloe, evil Chloe, and her friendship with Red

Red and Chloe’s conflict feels slapdash, and I don’t think we should add in more work to make it work. Red siding with whoever has the best plan at the time because she’s going through a lot is a good way to set up a fight with Pink, who is meeting a sister she’s never met. But this is basically who Red is, and Chloe should know that.

Instead Evil Chloe should be a result of Good not being Good enough. That trying to fight fair, trying to do things by the rules, doing the logical thing aren’t functional choices in Wonderland. To do this we up how often Hazel wins, because she’s the right choice to just wing it and land on her feet.

So that when Max offers her the bracelet, that ‘playing by the rules isn’t worth it,’ she takes it. It isn’t like she’ll ever be ‘Good enough’ for her mom’s standards anyway (see above for why that’s relevant). The conclusion, the big scene with them underground? We keep that. That worked. Also I would never dream of getting rid of Malia Baker’s best costume, wig, and make-up.

Think Pink

So Pink needs to have a recurring bit when it comes to stuff Red says. “That isn’t like you.” And her opening up to someone (probably still Chloe) that it feels like she doesn’t even know who her sister is anymore. How her sister is so much like the VKs. How she can just trust those fiends.

Naturally this ends in the finale beat I put up at the top of the post, but we need to establish that Red and AK Red are nothing alike, and it’s messing with the AKs who ‘know’ her. If you want to keep Luis in the plot, he could be similarly aware of something wrong, and because he’s not a best friend in a crisis, or a sister she doesn’t know, Red owns up to a little of it with him. This also means he can defend her to Pink and Chloe (otherwise Chloe is defending Red to pink if we cut Luis entirely).

I don’t know if ‘less Luis’ or ‘no Luis’ is the right answer, but I do know that the primary focus should be on the Hearts sisters.

Max, Maddox, and Chessy.

Honestly nothing really needs to change here. Max needs a different avenue to corrupt Chloe (less ‘hurt Red’ and more ‘stop living to others’ rules’), but otherwise their portion in the plot is honestly fine. He’s a very good model for a VK who isn’t even trying to be like his evil parent, there’s not a lot wrong with how Max’s narrative flows and I’m down for all of it.

Leonardo Nam is having way too much fun in his scenes as Maddox to change a word of any of it.

Chessy is what I’d do the most with, having her appear more to sow discontent in people, to put everyone at ill ease, is what I’d go for. With the only people she doesn’t mess with being Red and Pink (rather, she attempts to, and Red glares at her while Pink ignoring her). The problem with Chessy getting into their heads is they both know better. The right choice is for her to try to lure Pink into fighting, and it just does not work.

(Red is more likely to react largely cause Red is already in a mood, but ‘react’ isn’t the same as ‘fall for.’)

The Descendants 4 of it all.

I need some acknowledgement of how much Bridget, Cindy, and Maddox remember about Red and Chloe. One scene before the finale (likely Cindy and Birdget while captured), and the climax where Red owns up. Largely so that we know exactly how time travel is doing things, but also because there was basically no resolution to this in 4 and I really want one.

Overall

…I had fun, like- it’s fairly unremarkable. The biggest problem is most of the film does set-up for ‘Red tells people about the time travel’ and then… doesn’t. Which means that Red doesn’t even put herself on the line for any of it. She doesn’t do anything at the end. I think the finale is still stronger than 4 (but 4’s finale is really bad).

Cai - The Villager

While Cai is very baby boy lord (Think Roy, our boy) in his design… that’s also just what Villagers are if they don’t have a hat by birthright. Starting in Awakening they made a variant of the Est (late game unit with amazing growth rates but vastly underleveled) that you get earlier, and the ‘amazing growth rates’ is enforced by an ability. The proof if this is the case is if Cai starts the game with Aptitude in his kit.

He’s much younger and more innocent than the other three with a blade on a stick weapon. Which is the quitissential Villager kit.

Dietrich - The Navarre

So a Navarre, in this case, is cool badass loner who could definitely kill everyone without much effort… a whole ‘this guy should be a villain’ vibe. Undermined because they love kids, or are genuinely charming as a womanizer, or some other morality pet thing which means they can fit in with your squad of good guys.

Aesthetically they are a long haired badass with a sword, and usually a Myrmidon/Swordmaster. But I’d say that’s not required. I put Jaffar up there as an Assassin, his morality thing being Nino. Xander is straddling a line between Navarre and Camus (his unit type is Camus no question). Soren is real close to meeting these requirements, although being in love with Ike isn’t really the right sort of morality softspot for this. Karel is there in aggregate, as in FE6 he’s too kindly and FE7 he’s too bloodthirsty, but between the two he gets here.

Again, not a lot to say, you look at him, you look at Navarre, you go ‘yup’ and move on.

Leda - The Dancer

So like- they just said she’s a dancer. She’s dressed like a Dancer. She has a guitar. I shouldn’t have a lot to say about this one. Her class isn't dancer, but she has magic song abilities and dances in the trailer.

But people were throwing around ‘gacha waifu design’ like they have never played a single FE other than Houses. And even that doesn’t make any sense because the Dancer sprite is just as showy. So what exactly about the dancer, wearing dancer clothes, that Dancer units normally wear, is like- different now? Is it because she’s a protagonist? What’s up here?

She is specifically more romani coded (sorta the same way Claude and Claude’s evil brother in Hopes was) than some dancers. But that’s likely to do with being Almyran (theory, not yet confirmed, but she does fire bows upsidedown like someone else), and anti-Romani sentiment was kind of a big part of the coding for Claude’s story (especially in Hopes). Overall Almyra is like a middle line between Romani and Mongols which- listen Petra is tropical Irish girl Fire Emblem does weird shit like this.

This doesn’t need a ton of commentary, now for the last one.

Theodora - BAD GUY

So… her skintone is weird, and I can buy ‘IS tried to make her black and is bad at it because Japan is bad at drawing black people.’ But there is another aspect to her appearances thus far that I feel is relevant.

Fire Emblem makes most of their really evil evil characters gray skinned. To add to the inhumanity of them. Edelgard at the end of Lions (in Houses) is a gray skinned monster girl. All the villains in Awakening have this going on, same with ‘whoever is host to the Dragon’ in Fates (King Dadondorf, Taco, and ‘weirdly unromancable Grandpa in Revelation only’). As well as most of the chapter bosses in Fates (that aren’t just recruitable characters from the other route.) Her outfit is the sort of impractical you see on either villains (Averse as pictured above) or the really vampy unnerving sexy allies like Tharja.

And then there are the two punks pictured with her when she doesn’t have her crown yet in the trailer. Those guys are not what you think about when you think ‘recruitable character.’ They’re what you think about when you think of the many Glebs out there who died unceremonious deaths early game. Her riding in a palenquin? Bad guy vibes. I dunno what the endgame is for giving her so many red flags (other than people looking at her and going ‘mommy’), but that’s what they’ve given us so far.

Now, again, making her skin gray kind of sorta has a bad taste to it, in much the same way Aversa did a while back. However there might just be more going on than just 'bad at race.'

Now what..?

Maddie's Scar

So Maddie is apparently a walking exit? As it seems like Handlebars (I'm not remembering his name) just left. I don't think he went to another ghost zone or scar through that door, that door was an exit. Maddie's exit (as it's her front door).

That'll take some unpacking later.

I also need to amend my previous theory, Maddie's scar isn't the boiler room, it's her necklace. She's wearing it which probably explains why she's a goddamn mess.

Mean Girl + Mean Mom

So I think grouping them together was a mistake, they are working different schemes for different reasons. I think the teen is just a bratty teen, but the mom is clearly on some other nonsense. I think it's more involved with the plot... but I don't know how it is.

This feels like 'pays off in Ep 8' stuff.

Church Ghosts

Outside of the Pastor not being dead, this is all pretty much on the ball. Just with added 'handlebars is a dick' to make it all work. There isn't a ton to add here unless we- like, heal the scar in the next episode or something.

New - Hospital Ghosts

This feels the most like S4 set-up of the bunch. Handlebars got from the Church to the Hospital. That's probably a thing that matters if we're expanding ghost zone stuff, and putting this space to more use. It might also matter if we deal with the Foundry under the Hospital.

New - Exits

I think the Exits aren't to heaven anymore. I think they are a 'see you later' not a 'goodbye.' And I think whatever is next is going to involve people going through their doors into whatever is next.

Maddie's Scar

Maddie's waking horrors of the dollhouse, her parents, and the red light of an active scar could all be in her head... but I don't think so. Maddie, at the end of Season to had a key (her father's necklace) and a scar (the boiler room).

It's important to note that the boiler room isn't a part of Mr. Martin's map, because it was created when Maddie died. But it does work like any other scar, it's active and it's tied to Maddie. This feels relevant to the Simon in the Ghost World plot, it'd also be a scar they can't readily access (as I don't think Mr. Martin's watch can open it, it can only open the scars he's been to).

Whatever the endgame is for getting Simon back, it probably involves this. An element nobody knows about because Maddie is a walking trainwreck. It also ties (somewhat) to the reveal of how an object becomes 'permanent' in the ghost world, it enters and exits a scar. Yuri's trick with the flower on his subplot.

Mean Girl and her Mean Girl Mom

As easy as it would be to write this pair off as 'just a problem' it's noteworthy that the feeds on the Super Intendant's computer were all scars. She's not watching the school, she's watching the school where ghost shit is happening. One, or both, is/are tied to the spirit world of the school in some way.

Now, I do think both of them are intentionally being problems, but I think the why of their behavior is more nuanced than just 'bitches mean.' I think they are more likely connected to the present day ghosts of the school, and not the forgotten ghosts of the church... but they are connected to the plot more than they appear at first blush.

Speaking of...

The Forgotten Ghosts of the Church

I think there are two things going on. One of them is is what Mr. Martin said about his mother's face in Ep 4. That eventually ghosts forget things in their living life, it takes a long time, but it'll happen eventually if they can't move on. I do think this is a relevant part of what's up, they've been dead so long that they've forgotten who they are.

I think the other part is the lack of the Church itself. The church layer of the ghostworld is buried under the school layer. I think a major factor to what makes these ghosts terrifying and inhuman beyond that of the regular ghosts of the show is being buried under another layer of reality. That when a building 'dies' and the space is lost under a new building it loses access to the living world.

That if the school is torn down, the ghosts of the school will eventually become like the church ghosts. A nice spicy set of stakes to add to things.

Quinn and Rhonda

Let them kiss already!

Endnote

Item One - Genre

So the first thing has come up before with Lower Decks. Academy is not a prestige drama, it's a coming of age drama (also known as a teen drama). The stakes are somewhat lower (generally, not always), and the goal is more character growth than the 'big question' philosophy of half of Trek, or the wild adventures of the other half of Trek.

So when talking about those aspects of the show, it's a little like complaining your Reece's cup has peanut butter in it. The goal in a Coming of Age drama is for the character or characters at the center to grow and become better people over the series run, on deeply personal emotionally volatile axis rather than the big moral changes in a prestige drama.

If this is your main complaint, you're in the wrong show, go rewatch DS9.

Item Two - The Burn and Hopecore Trek

So there's this timeless quality to Star Trek (TOS, TNG, and DS9 to degrees) that makes it feel divorced from the context it was written in. That feeling is a lie, it's bullshit, Star Trek is always going to be anchored in and conversing with the era of its creation.

Do you want a good cheap example? Why don't main characters in TNG wear the miniskirt uniform from TOS? It's a background joke that a few male extras are in miniskirt uniforms, but no main character ever wears it as their standard costume.

See, the miniskirt was an act of women's liberation at the time it came into popularity, it was a level of self-definition that women could do in the workforce when that space wasn't for them. And the few jobs that were for them required ultra conservative outfits only a Nun would be down for.

By the time we get to the late 80s that meaning changed, and women's equality was wearing the same uniform any man would wear at a job. Instead of one to make them a sexy pin-up.

This makes Troi's outfit in the early seasons a complete failure at Trek's intended message.

TOS and the 90s era shows were in conversation with a US moving forward, moving to better more equal standing (in theory, not in reality, the 90s was very fucked up. I know I was there). It felt hopeful, and so we could see a path from now to 'utopic future' without any major bumps in the road. It was easy to see how then to the future would go. (The path from TOS to TNG was equally mostly hopeful, as we were moving more toward equality and scientific advancement at the time.)

Then America elected a Used Car Salesman with an alleged coke habit as president.

The whole 'direct path to a utopic future' died that night. It died and we spent four years with a guy breaking every advancement the country has made since the 1920s. The nature of the conversation had to change to match the state of the country as it became.

If you're wondering why Enterprise was weird, a part of it was being in the 2000s over the 90s. Fear and ill ease was a key part of the 2000s.

So the conversation changed, that meant Trek needed to build hope from a different starting point. Enter 'The Burn.' a complete infrastructure collapse to the universe that shattered every culture to its core. The sort of socioeconomic collapse you might, maybe, hypothetically, see if a pandemic were to take the entire world to a grinding halt overnight and have to restart after it.

This turns Discovery era shows from an established power, to a reestablishing power. The sort of 're-establishing' we might need to see if a toddler destroyed every social safety net and ever scientific advancement of the past century because they hurt his fee-fees. For instance. Hypothetically.

Picard's tone pivot is on the same axis, but done in a different way. It's more narrowly focused on the bigotry (antisemitism, racism, homophobia, transphobia, islamaphobia) of the present, but centered on the 'some other culture is doing it to us' replacing Russians with Romulans (again), and any other group with Synths.

Picard seasons 2 and 3 have different problems unrelated to this and not really in the scope of this already too long post.

Academy is doing this through the War College. The 'current status quo' disliking a change of the guard because it weakens their entitlement to the system. It's a hypothetical version of what it'd look like if we actually defunded the police to replace a brute squad with specialized care for specific crises.

In any case, this is again a reflection of the world. If you don't like it, that's fine. I don't like the state of the world right now either.

Item Three - Hollywood kind of Sucks

The current state of TV production is such that they are trying to min-max profits in such a way it hurts everything. This is why shows are in this stupid 8-12 ep structure rather than cheaper production for 20ish episodes. A part of this is a rushed writing room structure for these shows.

This means that ideas that should absolutely get flagged as not okay (cutting Caleb's hair in Ep 1) don't, because nobody is double checking the work. Things have to play with a little more text and a little less subtext, because subtext is a subtle thing and TV doesn't have time for it. We can, and should, ask for better when the show fucks up. But for the most part the show is doing well.

And there are other fuck-ups, but again this is long enough...

Overall, Season 1 of Academy is doing fine. The only active main character I currently dislike is Reymi and... let's be clear, we're suppose to hate him a little bit for now. The more he grows past his worst traits, the more we're suppose to like him.

Caleb has protagonist privilege, we are suppose to get him most of the main cast. Jayden, Genesis, and SAM are all fitting their roles well, and likeable enough. None of the teachers are actively evil (they are various levels of quirky), and the show established from the gate that Nahla is a gremlin who does not give a fuck (affectionate).

Conclusion

And if this isn't your bag, it isn't your bag. That's okay. If the teen drama stuff isn't for you, that's fine. If the more dour tone (while still reaching for a better future) isn't your vibe, that's also your call. If you really hate the fucked up pieces in the writing, those writing calls are not all winners.

But every series has its losers (I am writing this on Threshold Day after all), they all botched some element of hope, or the future, or a plot that aged like milk as the world changed.

And if you don't vibe with the teen drama, or you're not down with the current tone, that's your business. I'm not Section 31. You can just not like things.

Preamble

I'm not telling you not to ship things, nor telling you not to write fic or draw fanart. I want to start there because that matters to what comes next.

When it comes to fictional people in a fictional show fictionally kissing: I don't care what you write, and most people also shouldn't. If you like what they put down, read it. If you don't, move on. This mindset is 100% accurate to Books, Animation, and Comics.

It gets a little dicey with live action and full performance capture Video Games...

Human Element

With actual actors, there's no way to fully separate the actor from the character. There are some stark black and white divides but others are less... clear. Here are two statements.

Larissa Weems wears such amazing and sexy outfits.

Larissa Weems is so amazing and sexy.

The former can be more directly cleaved from actor and character, the latter can't. And this is sort of the space we have to be aware of when we do fanwork and fandom talk about characters. Sometimes the lines are more clear, others they aren't. So a bit of- self-evaluation before one posts is worth while.

Especially when one of the actors in question is underage. Which is what applies here.

A Sidebar to help Illuminate

So Alyson Stoner was an actress in her teens (and younger, I think her first role she was about ten), and currently does advocacy and emotional wellness projects. While promoting her various projects she did a number of podcasts, talking about the child acting thing (and her new memoir is on this as well).

One of her stories was about when she was in her mid-teens, and rather than bring a headshot she just- found a photo of herself on google. And in searching her own name she, naturally, got hardcore pornography with her face photoshopped in over the performer.

This left a lasting emotional mark on her, she hadn't unpacked her own feelings on her sexuality yet and there she was with a photo of 'her' having sex. When she was about fifteen or sixteen.

Evie and Agnes, and a Hollywood Press with no fucking Scruples

Agnes is a very well acted character, and comparing a photo of her in costume with Evie at a press event or on her social media they are clearly different from each other. However, I'd still suggest pause and careful consideration what you say in public spaces like Instagram, Tiktok, and tumblr.

Especially when reporters from Hollywood think taking fandom talk to the actors is okay. Much like how 'you should not hand Tom Felton hardcore smut fanfic of Draco Malfoy,' pushing fandom ideas into actor's laps is just generally a bad idea. And this becomes extra true if the actor is underage.

Which isn't our fault Hollywood reporting is that bad, but we have to deal with it. So a bit of discretion is more than warranted. Now I'm not saying don't write your ships, or talk about what you like. But maybe frame it and phrase it in ways to be a little kinder, as if Evie might run across it?

That's all I really want people to mind.

And for those that Stuck Around

Her are my general romance thoughts for the three musketeers, as a present for those that didn't run off at my sermon.

Wednesday Ships

Tyler: After Season 2 I do think Wednesday has some lingering (positive) feelings mixed in with all the negative feelings in there too. However Wednesday being so unattached to her emotions can't work through them yet, and would require a bit of effort on the writers to make that work.

Xavier: I don't see Wednesday showing any feelings at all, and we know Jenna can play chemistry with Percy so her being absolutely no sell here is telling.

Enid: So on the one hand I ship it, because of all the people Wednesday shows care and concern for, it's the strongest and most central with Enid. But that's largely because their relationship is very central to the show. Sorta the same way Clark and Lex was in Smallville (for the same reason).

Agnes: Wednesday does like Agnes in Wednesday's own weird way, but nothing here suggests anything stronger than 'a sibling nobody else is allowed to kill' or 'a stray animal she likes having around.'

Bianca: So the thing is, Bianca seems the most in touch with how Wednesday actually is as a person, and has the most raw respect for how Wednesday Wednesday can be. I'd love if this were the ship.

Enid Ships

Ajax: I never really felt it, Ajax is very much a 'starter boyfriend' to make it clear this character is romantically available, but not designed to be interesting enough to care about beyond that.

Bruno: Should be castrated with a bolo knife.

Bruno's Girlfriend, Sofia: Is cute and can do better, like Enid. Enid is better.

Wednesday: Where Wednesday's feelings are more mired in her lack of emotional expression, Enid loves Wednesday. It might not be romantic, but it might be Romantic. You can take it in either direction with the same overall evidence and I like both paths just as much.

Agnes: Enid's care for others and desire to understand and accept others goes a long way here, but she is definitely trying to push Agnes into a path of being healthy and nothing else. If anything romantic were here, it isn't starting on Enid's side.

Agnes Ships (and a note)

Overall: Agnes spent most of the season in her Wednesday sycophant mask. I would like a little more time with the real Agnes before fully committing to any romantic plots with her. Her nature seems to be creepy and boundary pushing just by default, but we need more time.

Wednesday: So Agnes attached to Wednesday for a reason, if they wanted to take it as 'baby gay not seeing she has a crush' I would be fully on board with that read. If all Agnes wanted was to not be alone, choosing the most emotionally dead girl on campus is not really conductive. But she is a semi-neglected child of divorce. But I do only going as far as a crush, and I would hope in Season 3 she is beyond it.

Enid: There's a pivot in the last episode from Wednesday to Enid, where Agnes's people pleasing turn to Enid and her 'needs.' I can also see this as being the set-up of a crush. The advantage here is Enid would be kinder when softly telling Agnes to try someone else. In either 'Enid is straight' or 'Enid is in love with Wednesday' reads of Enid's character.